864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



tive sea, to which a few Mediterranean 

 forms have since been added. The fauna 

 of the Caspian is analogous to that of the 

 Black Sea, but without the Mediterranean 

 species. Since this sea is composed of brack- 

 ish water, and is fresh in the northern part, 

 it can contain only those species which live 

 in brackish water or are indifferent or migra- 

 tory, with no real sea-fishes. The ichthy- 

 ology of the Sea of Aral has only recently 

 been determined. It is entirely of a fresh- 

 water character. 



NOTES. 



Mr. M. L. "Wadsworth has published at 

 Cambridge, Massachusetts, the results of 

 a microscopical study of the iron-ore, or 

 peridotite, of Iron-Mine Hill, Cumberland, 

 Rhode Island, a valuable ore similar to the 

 ore of Tagberg, Sweden, of which an im- 

 mense quantity occurs in mass. He also, 

 in the same pamphlet, describes a gold-mine, 

 which is worked for its gold, in the quartz 

 veins of the diabase of Sullivan, Hancock 

 County, Maine. 



Mr. Axfred Neighbour, apiarian, of 

 London, has made a successful shipment of 

 queen humble-bees to New Zealand. Of 

 eighteen bees which were sent on the 7th of 

 December last, two were alive and strong 

 when the lot reached the consignee on the 

 3d of February, and flew at once against the 

 wind into the clover-fields. These are the 

 first humble-bees that have ever lived in 

 New Zealand, all former attempts to ship 

 and acclimatize the insects having failed. 



A MOVEMENT is on foot in England, and 

 is receiving the countenance and support of 

 members of Parliament, to reduce the time 

 of labor of railway employees to nine hours 

 a day. In behalf of the change it is urged 

 that the duties of the men, and especially 

 those performed by the engineers and sig- 

 nal-men, are of a nature to require the keen- 

 est and most unflagging attention, and that 

 this can not be given for many hours contin- 

 uously without great fatigue, and a conse- 

 quent diminution of the alertness and care 

 necessary to the safety of life and property. 



While other nations of Europe, and the 

 United States, have established stations 

 around the north polo for the study of ter- 

 restrial magnetism, France is about to es- 

 tablish one among the islands of Cape Horn. 

 Credits for this purpose are to be asked of 

 the Chambers, and it is anticipated that the 

 expedition will go out in the same vessel 

 that carries the astronomers deputed to ob- 

 serve the transit of Venus. 



Professor Trowbridge, who was ap- 

 pointed a committee of the New York Acad- 

 emy of Sciences on the subject of procur- 

 ing the adoption of a uniform system of 

 mathematicaj notation, or symbolization, 

 has reported that uniformity would be very 

 desirable, but hard to gain. It prevails 

 essentially in pure mathematics, where the 

 algebraic signs and the symbols of calculus 

 are everywhere the same, but not in applied 

 mathematics, where even the most common 

 symbols are employed without discrimina- 

 tion, and according to each writer's whim 

 and convenience. The realization of uni- 

 formity would be almost equivalent to the 

 reconstruction of a language, and would re- 

 quire continued efforts and discussions. The 

 most that the Academy can accomplish 

 toward it at present is to take a position in 

 favor of it. 



The fifty-fourth meeting of the German 

 Association of Naturalists and Physicians 

 will be held in Salzburg, September 18th to 

 24th. Addresses will be delivered at the 

 general meetings by Dr. von Pettenkofer, 

 on the soil and its connection with the 

 health of man; by Dr. von Oppolzer, of 

 Vienna, on the sufficiency of Newton's 

 law of gravitation to explain the motion 

 of the heavenly bodies ; and by Herr Mach, 

 of Prague, on natural-history teaching. 



The death of the eminent German bot- 

 anist. Professor M. J. Schleiden, is an- 

 nounced. Professor Schleiden was born at 

 Hamburg in 1804, and turned his attention 

 to botany after having studied law. He 

 was Professor of Botany at Jena from 1839 

 to 1862, and of Vegetable Chemistry and 

 Anthropology at Dorpat in 1863 and 1864. 

 His principal work is " Die Grimdziige der 

 wissenschaftlichen Botanik " (" The Prin- 

 ciples of Scientific Botany "). 



M. Pasteur has reported the complete 

 success of the experiments which he has 

 been carrying on on a large scale at a farm 

 near Melun, France, in vaccination against 

 carbonaceous diseases ; and he believes that 

 he has obtained a process by means of which 

 sheep and cattle can be made wholly secure 

 against this most dangerous and destructive 

 class of maladies. 



The report of Professor Abel on col- 

 liery explosions confirms the theory that 

 coal-dust is an important factor in them. 

 A mixture of coal-dust and air is not explo- 

 sive, but if a quantity of fire-damp, which, 

 mixed merely with air, would be harmless, 

 is also present, a highly explosive atmos- 

 phere is produced. Professor Abel's ex- 

 periments show that any kind of dust mixed 

 with air, containing a small quantity of fire- 

 damp, converts the mixture into an explo- 

 sive compound. 



