43 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the phylloxera and its eggs. From them 

 he has found that the application of the acid, 

 in the proportion of fifty cubic centimetres 

 of the liquid acid to one cubic metre of air, 

 is sufficient to kill all the phylloxera and 

 eggs in a closed box in two hours ; that 

 the same effects may be obtained imme- 

 diately in the open air by sprinkling the 

 box with fifty cubic centimetres of the 

 acid to one square metre of surface ; that 

 confinement for a few minutes with the 

 former proportion of acid is sufficient to 

 kill the phylloxera and soft insects of an 

 analogous nature and their eggs, and purely 

 herbaceous plants, while dry seeds exposed 

 to it retain their germinative powers ; and 

 that its application is equally efficacious 

 against the parasites in museums, while it 

 does not harm the specimens which they in- 

 fest. Plants and insects of a moist texture 

 are the more readily affected by the acid. 

 A high temperature is favorable to the 

 operation by promoting the diffusion of the 

 acid gas ; a moist atmosphere is against it, 

 by its tendency to hold the gas in solution. 

 The application of the anhydrous acid has 

 advantages over that of burning sulphur in 

 that it can be made where sulphur can not 

 be burned, is safer, and more convenient. 



NOTES. 



The President of the Entomological Sec- 

 tion of the American Association stated, in 

 his address at the meeting of the section, 

 that while there were not known to be more 

 than ten or twelve working entomologists 

 in the country forty years ago, four hundred 

 and thirty-six names were reported in last 

 year's " Naturalists' Directory " of persons 

 designated as entomologists. No other dis- 

 tinct branch of natural history except geol- 

 ogy and botany has so many representatives 

 in that book. The various journals of the 

 last year contained three hundred and thirty- 

 six contributions to entomology exclusively 

 by Americans, the work of eighty writers. 



The appointment of M. Wurtz, President 

 of the Academy of Science, to be life-Sena- 

 tor, raises the number of members of the 

 Academy belonging to the Upper House of 

 the French Legislature to three, the two 

 other members being M. Robin and M. 

 Dupuy de Lome. The election of M. Ber- 

 thelot, which is considered certain, will give 

 the Academy a fourth representative in this 

 body. 



Mr. F. W. Putnam has exhibited to the 

 Boston Society of Natural History specimens 

 of a collection of several hundred rude 

 stone implements which Mr. David Dodge 

 has obtained from plowed gravelly fields 

 at Wakefield, Massachusetts. The imple- 

 ments had not yet been found in place in 

 the gravel, so that it was not possible to 

 decide that they were true palaeolithic im- 

 plements ; for rude forms of the same char- 

 acter are often associated in this country 

 with finely polished implements of the Neo- 

 lithic period. Some of the specimens were 

 obtained from a very old pile of stone-chips 

 nearly buried in the side of a hill, where 

 similar implements to those found in the 

 fields near by had evidently been made. It 

 was worthy of remark that none of the 

 arrow-heads and similar forms, common 

 near places where palaeolithic objects have 

 been discovered, had been found in connec- 

 tion with these implements. 



In a pamphlet on " The Discipline of the 

 School," published by the Bureau of Educa- 

 tion, Dr. Hiram Orcutt gives as the ele- 

 ments of school discipline, each of which 

 he discusses under its special head : thor- 

 ough organization and classification ; the 

 establishment of the authority of the 

 teacher; work; a sound public opinion in 

 the school ; mental and physical recreation 

 (gymnastics and exercise) ; kindness ; pow- 

 er to punish, with wise discrimination, and 

 courage to inflict punishment when it is re- 

 quired ; regular systematic study and reci- 

 tation ; and good manners, which are in- 

 separable from good morals. 



Professor Cyrus Thomas has made a 

 study of the Mexican manuscript called the 

 "Manuscript Troano," which was discovered 

 by the Abbe Brasseur de Bourbourg in 1S65, 

 and has concluded that it is a genuine Maya 

 document ; that it is a religious calendar of 

 some kind, in which the day-characters are 

 used for the purpose of designating the days 

 and not for the signification of the words ; 

 and that it confirms the substantial correct- 

 ness of Landa's characters for the day. He 

 has begun the attempt to decipher the hie- 

 roglyphics of the text. 



The yucca seldom perfects its seed in 

 the United States. The failure is believed 

 by Professor Riley to be in consequence of 

 the flower depending for its pollination upon 

 the office of an insect which has not yet 

 been introduced to an extent corresponding 

 with the diffusion of the plant. In his pa- 

 per on " The Pollination of Yucca," before 

 the American Association, Professor Riley 

 describes some insects which he has found 

 in or about the plant, by the agency of one 

 or more of which he thinks the pollination 

 may be accomplished in the rare cases where 

 it is observed to occur. 



