H4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



NOTES. 



The first attempt to manufacture incan- 

 descent electric lamps in vacuo has been 

 ascribed to M. de Chagny, whose effort was 

 made about twenty years ago. Mr. W. Mat- 

 tieu Williams claims the credit of the inven- 

 tion and its successful practical application 

 for a young American, Mr. Starr, whose pat- 

 ent was taken out in 1845. Mr. Williams 

 had a share in the venture, assisted in mak- 

 ing the apparatus and some of the experi- 

 ments, came into possession of the invention 

 by assignment on the death of Mr. Starr, 

 and exhibited the light in the original lamp, 

 at Birmingham, several times, more than 

 twenty years ago. An account of the lamp 

 is given in the " Journal of Science " of 

 November 5, 1879, and is reprinted in Mr. 

 Williams's " Science in Short Chapters." 



The Smithsonian Institution has received 

 from Dr. Stejneger, from Behring Island, 

 eleven fairly perfect crania of the extinct 

 Rhytina Stelleri, a mammal allied to the 

 dugong and manatee, with sets of nearly all 

 the other bones of the skeleton. 



The additions to the herbarium of the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences, of Philadel- 

 phia, during the past year, exceed those of 

 any year since the organization of the Bo- 

 tanical Section. They are estimated at 3,346 

 species, of which more than one third were 

 new to the collection, and include more than 

 one hundred genera not before represented 

 in it. 



The composition of elephant's milk, ac- 

 cording to the analysis of Dr. QuesneTille, 

 in the " Moniteur Scientifique," is similar to 

 that of cream, but its consistency is differ- 

 ent. Its odor and taste are very agreeable, 

 and the taste is superior to that of most 

 other kinds of milk. It is about equal to 

 cow's milk in quality. In view of these 

 facts, " La Nature," of Paris, does not de- 

 spair of seeing the day when an adven- 

 turous speculator shall bring a troop of 

 elephants to be driven through the streets 

 of the city as goats arc now driven, to fur- 

 nish each customer with his cup of milk 

 direct from the teat. 



M. de Merejkowski has been investigat- 

 ing the color-sense of the Crustacea, taking 

 for his experiments the larvae of cirripeds 

 and a ccpepod. In the dark these animals 

 scatter everywhere in the vessel containing 

 them ; if a ray of light is admitted, they col- 

 lect around it, whatever its color ; if two 

 rays, one white and the other colored, are 

 let in, the majority congregate around the 

 white ray, but a few go to a colored one ; if 

 two colored rays are admitted, the major- 

 ity seek the brightest, but, if both rays are 

 of equal intensity, no difference in choice is 

 perceived. 



An International Electric Exhibition will 

 be held at Vienna, in the Rotunda and 

 buildings of the Universal Exhibition of 

 1873, from the 1st of August to the 31st 

 of October next. Goods will be received 

 from the 1st of June, and all exhibits must 

 be unpacked and set up by the 15th of July. 

 The Society of Telegraph Engineers and 

 Electricians, which numbers Sir William 

 Thomson, and Messrs. Siemens, Preece, and 

 other distinguished experts among its mem- 

 bers, will manage the English departments 

 of the exhibition. The proceeds of the en- 

 terprise are to be devoted either to such sci- 

 entific institutions as may further carry out 

 its aims, or to the pursuit of important in- 

 ventions in the field of electrical science. 



The French Societe d 1 Encouragement has 

 conferred the grand medal of the Economic 

 Arts on M. Gaston Plantc, for his experi- 

 ments and discoveries with storage-batteries. 



The Royal Swedish Geographical Society 

 has decided to appoint a committee, consist- 

 ing of Professors Nordenskjold and Gylden, 

 and Consul Elfning, to consider the proposal 

 for an international meridian and a com- 

 mon time. 



The experiments in acclimating the tea- 

 plant in Southern France are making encour- 

 aging progress. Grafts upon camellias have 

 withstood temperatures below the freezing- 

 point in the open air. A hundred and twen- 

 ty trees near Messina, Sicily, planted three 

 years ago, are vigorous and in full leaf and 

 flower. The question now to be decided is, 

 whether the flavor is maintained undamaged. 



The Veterinary and Agricultural Society, 

 at Chartrcs, France, has just published the 

 results of a year's experiments in vaccination 

 for anthrax according to M. Pasteur's sys- 

 tem. The number of sheep vaccinated was 

 79,392, in flocks among which the total aver- 

 age loss per year for ten years had been 

 7,237, or 901 per cent. The deaths from 

 anthrax after vaccination were only 518, 

 or - 65 per cent. The disease did not rage, 

 however, as fatally among the unvaccinated 

 flocks as usual, and the rate of loss among 

 them was reduced to 3 per cent. The total 

 loss, if there had been no vaccination, might 

 not have been more than 2,382. Vaccina- 

 tion reduced this by nearly four fifths. In 

 mixed flocks, the losses among vaccinated 

 animals were 04 percent; among unvacci- 

 nated ones, 3"9 per cent. 



M. Vignier believes that animals are in- 

 debted for the powers of direction which 

 they sometimes manifest so strikingly to the 

 possession of a magnetic sense relating to 

 the forces that govern both the direction 

 and the inclination of the needle, the seat of 

 which he locates in the semicircular canals 

 of the internal ear. 



