140 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



museum, attesting the anxiety with which 

 they are looking for the completion of this, 

 one of the most important and meritorious 

 works of the kind ever attempted. 



The Solar Eclipse of May, 1883 M. 

 Janssen announced in the French Academy 

 of Sciences, on the 26th of February, that the 

 French Scientific Expedition to observe the 

 total eclipse of the sun in May would start 

 on the 6th of March, to meet at Panama a 

 French naval vessel which would take it to 

 Caroline Island, a hundred leagues north of 

 Tahiti. After the observation is completed, 

 the expedition will proceed to Tahiti and 

 San Francisco, whence M. Janssen proposes 

 to visit the observatories and scientific estab- 

 lishments of the United States. Search for 

 intra-Mercurial planets will be made for 

 the first time by the aid of photography. A 

 grand photographic apparatus has been pre- 

 pared to take in the whole field surrounding 

 the sun for about thirty degrees, which will 

 furnish images, if the sky is clear, of all the 

 stars to the eighth magnitude. Gelatine 

 plates of extreme sensibility will be em- 

 ployed. Other instruments are provided for 

 photographing the corona and its spectrum, 

 for examining the spectrum of the corona, 

 and for the exploration of the solar regions. 

 Several foreign astronomers will be attached 

 to the expedition at their own request, and 

 the American and English expeditions will 

 co-operate with it at the same place; so 

 that the ordinarily uninhabited Island of 

 Caroline will become, for the hour, the sci- 

 entific center of the world. It will enjoy 

 this distinction chiefly because it and Flint 

 Island, not very far off, are the spots most 

 favorable for the observation of the eclipse. 

 This eclipse is expected to offer unusual 

 facilities for observation, on account of the 

 long duration of totality (5 m - 33'- at Flint 

 Island, 5 m - 13 3 - at Caroline Island). 



What shall we do with onr Drunkards ? 



Dr. Orpheus Everts, Superintendent of 

 the Cincinnati Sanitarium, in an inquiry on 

 "What shall we do with the drunkard?" 

 regards drunkenness as a disease. The 

 only ways of dealing with it effectually are 

 by prohibition of the sale of intoxicating 

 liquors and inhibition or restriction of the 

 drunkard. The former measure he dismisses 



as essentially impracticable, on account of 

 the antagonism it must always excite ; and 

 he is left only the latter one, which he would 

 have surrounded with the sanctions of the 

 law. He proposes a scheme of a law for 

 the establishment of Public Hospitals for the 

 Cure of Drunkenness and Conservatories for 

 the Protection of the Infirm, to which per- 

 sons defined by it as coming under its im- 

 port may be formally and legally committed 

 for cure or care. When thus committed, 

 they should be allowed every liberty or nat- 

 ural right which can be conserved without 

 lessening the efficiency of the law, and 

 should be protected, under the sanction of 

 stringent penalties, against assaults upon 

 their weakness, or temptations from any 

 source. 



Niagara Falls as a State Park. The 



movement for the rescue and preservation 

 of Niagara Falls is gathering strength, and 

 is now seeking legislative action, authorizing 

 the appointment of a commission to examine 

 the question and estimate the cost of carry- 

 ing out the project as an enterprise of the 

 State of New York. It is a real disgrace to 

 our people that this, the most wonderful ob- 

 ject of the kind on the earth, the first feature 

 of our natural scenery which strangers from 

 all climes hasten to see, and which ought of 

 right to belong to mankind, should have 

 been left in the hands of speculators till it 

 has been shorn of many of its natural beau- 

 ties, and it can not be seen at all from our 

 territory except on the payment of a show- 

 man's fee. By reason of these facts, and 

 the endless extortions characteristic of the 

 place, what used to be one of the favorite 

 pleasure-grounds of the continent is now 

 visited for a few hours only, as a kind of 

 side-show, and that largely by excursions in 

 the lump. The plan for the State's acqui- 

 sition of the territory, as approved by the 

 State Survey, contemplates the purchase of 

 really only a small area, generally of about 

 a hundred feet in width, extending from the 

 head of the rapids to the upper suspension- 

 bridge, and of the islands. Then by suitable 

 plantations and the provision of water-breaks 

 the ground is to be restored as nearly as 

 possible to its natural condition and kept so. 

 With these improvements, and the relief 

 from extortion that will accompany State 



