NOTES. 



57: 



are not in Bight during the recitation. In 

 learning the lesson, books are not used, for, 

 if they are used, no books will contain a 

 quarter of what the pupil may see for him- 

 self." And the professor goes on to de- 

 scribe the particular features of his method 

 in a manuer that makes most interesting 

 reading. 



Tiie International Committee of the Red 

 Cross (Geneva Convention) has offered prizes 

 for three essays, designed to constitute a 

 series, on " The Art of improvising Means 

 for assisting the Wounded and Sick of 

 Armies." The three essays will relate, re- 

 spectively, to methods of treatment, means 

 of transportation, and the improvisation of 

 an ambulance or a field-hospital. The con- 

 sideration of the subjects must be limited 

 to improvisation, and have no reference to 

 fore-prepared means of assistance. The 

 processes suggested should be illustrated 

 by designs when practicable ; and the essays 

 should be full, scientific works, not manuals, 

 and should describe expedients that have 

 been tried and tested for practicability. The 

 papers, which may be in English, German, 

 or French, should be sent in before the first 

 day of April, 1883. The awards will be 

 made by an international jury, and will in- 

 clude a prize of five hundred dollars for the 

 best essay on each of the three topics, if 

 worthy, and one hundred dollars to the un- 

 successful competitors. 



Two views are held regarding the rel- 

 ative age of the copper-bearing traps of 

 Keweenaw Point, Lake Superior, and the 

 Eastern sandstone : one, that the traps and 

 sandstone are of the same age; the other, 

 that the traps are an earlier formation (pre- 

 Palaeozoic), and the Eastern sandstone a 

 later one (Palaeozoic). Mr. M. E. Wads- 

 worth, having carefully examined the rela- 

 tive position of the two rocks, finds that 

 the Eastern sandstone underlies the trap 

 conformably, "that is, as conformably as 

 a bed can underlie a lava which has flowed 

 over it," and that, therefore, it must be 

 older in order of time, but of the same 

 geological age with the copper-bearing 

 rocks. Hence, the " Keweenawan series," 

 which has been projected upon the theory 

 that the copper-bearing rocks are the older 

 ones, has no foundation. The balance of 

 evidence in regard to the absolute age of 

 the rocks appears to be with the views of 

 Messrs. Whitney and Foster, that they are 

 of the Potsdam age. 



Seubert having observed that, in the 

 periodic systems of classification of the 

 metals of Meyer and Mendelejeff, platinum 

 comes before gold, while the received atom- 

 ic weight, 196 : 7 to 197*8, puts it after that 

 metal, recently undertook the revision of 

 its atomic weight. Having obtained the 



pure metal, by Schneider's method, he then, 

 with pure potassium chloride and pure am- 

 monium chloride, prepared the double salts 

 by four methods. The mean value of eight 

 experiments, corrected and reduced to a vac- 

 uum, gave 194*84050 as the atomic weight 

 of platinum. 



TnE Peabody Museum of American Ar- 

 chaeology and Ethnology has been forced 

 for lack of means to suspend the explora- 

 tions it had undertaken. Its last report, 

 however, shows that it has done much good 

 work and made many valuable acquisitions. 

 The largest gift received during the year 

 was a collection of Peruvian relics of all 

 kinds, particularly rich in fabrics and gar- 

 ments, received from Dr. W. Sturgis Bige- 

 low, which, added to the other Peruvian col- 

 lections, makes this department an impos- 

 ing one. Dr. Flint has brought from Nica- 

 ragua many copies of inscriptions on rocks 

 and caves. Mr. Edwin Curtis has procured 

 many thousand specimens, which are re- 

 corded in 1,431 entries, from the mounds of 

 Eastern Arkansas. Numerous other hard- 

 ly less important acquisitions arc noticed. 

 The museum has in press a work by Dr. 

 Abbott, of Trenton, New Jersey, on " Prim- 

 itive Industry, or Illustrations of the Handi- 

 work in Stone, Bone, and Clay, of the Na- 

 tive Races of the Northern Atlantic Sea- 

 board of America." 



Professor Dufotjr has reported to the 

 Helvetic Society of Natural Sciences an in- 

 teresting observation of what he considers 

 a new proof of the roundness of the earth, 

 in the deformation of images produced on 

 large surfaces of calm water. It may often 

 be witnessed on the Lake of Geneva, and in 

 the case of ships some miles distant at sea. 



Professor M. E. Wadsworth, of Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, recently expressed 

 the opinion, founded on his observations in 

 the region, that the amygdaloid cavities and 

 veins in the Keweenaw Point district of 

 Lake Superior had been filled, by the action 

 of water percolating through the rocks, with 

 mineral matter derived from the adjacent 

 rock. Professor J. D. Dana traversed his 

 view, holding that all changes in the rocks 

 took place before the rocks lost their origi- 

 nal heat, and were brought about by means 

 of the moisture inclosed at the time of the 

 eruption, acting generally in the vaporized 

 state. Professor Wadsworth has reiterated 

 his views, with a statement of his reasons 

 for adherina; to them, before the Boston 

 Society of Natural History. He claims re- 

 spect for them because they are derived 

 from personal knowledge of the facts, while 

 Professor Dana's views depend on the ob- 

 servations of 'others. The discussion in- 

 volves the question of the extent to which 

 water can permeate rocks. 



