432 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



known that can be regarded as a precursor 

 of them. A statuette in the Liverpool Mu- 

 seum of a negro holding a flint gun fixes 

 their date as not earlier than about 1630. 

 In trying to account for them, many think 

 they were due to the influence of some com- 

 paratively advanced tribe that reached Benin 

 from the central Soudan and brought with 

 them a knowledge of brass work derived 

 from early, possibly Egyptian, sources ; and 

 others attribute the work to some prisoner 

 or trader who lived at Benin in the seven- 

 teenth century. 



NOTES. 



The Committee of the British Association 

 on Meteorological Photography reported that 

 the result of their determinations of the 

 heights of clouds showed the existence of 

 greater altitudes in hot weather under 

 thunderstorm conditions, when clouds may 

 occur at five or six different levels, extend- 

 ing as high as ninety thousand feet. A rise 

 of cloud takes place in hot weather, also 

 during the morning and early afternoons, 

 while the lowest altitudes are found during 

 cyclones. 



M. Maige, by varying the condition of 

 exposure of plants to light, and keeping 

 flowering branches in the dark, has suc- 

 ceeded in transforming the latter into sterile 

 creeping or climbing branches. Inversely, 

 he has been able, by means of the localized 

 action of light, to transform creeping or 

 climbing into flowering branches These 

 results were obtained at the vegetable bio- 

 logical laboratory of Fontainebleau. 



F. L. Washburn, of the State University 

 of Oregon, reports that the condition of the 

 Eastern oysters introduced to the Oregon 

 coast waters two years ago leaves nothing to 

 be desired. The specimens have withstood 

 two winters successfully, and have made 

 phenomenal growth, " far exceeding what 

 they would have made in the same time in 

 their native waters. Further, they spawned." 

 The experiments in artificial fertilization were 

 not so successful. The spawn suffer from 

 the serious difficulties of sudden variations in 

 the temperature and salinity of the water re- 

 sulting from the change of tide and strong 

 winds. It is hoped that better conditions 

 may be found at Yaquina Bay. 



The population of Egypt has been gradu- 

 ally increasing during the past hundred 

 years. It is stated to have been about two 

 and a half million in 1800, and is now 

 estimated at nearly ten million. There are 

 about 112,000 foreigners, of whom 38,000 

 are Greeks ; the remainder being chiefly Ital- 

 ians, 24,000; English, 1 ( .»,000; French, 14,- 

 000 ; Austrians, 7,000 ; Russians, 3,000 ; and 



Persians and Germans, about 1,000 each. 

 Only about five per cent of the population 

 can read and write, and nearly two thirds 

 are without any trade or profession. 



Our record of deaths among men known 

 in science includes the names of Dr. Hen- 

 riques de Castro, a Dutch archaeologist of 

 Portuguese descent, member of many learned 

 societies of the Netherlands ; John Eliza de 

 Vry, of the Netherlands, one of the chief 

 authorities on the chemistry and pharmacy 

 of the cinchona alkaloids, at The Hague, 

 July 30th, in the eighty-sixth year of his 

 age; Dr. Eugenio Bettoni, director of the 

 Fisheries Station at Brescia, Italy, August 

 5th, aged fifty-three years ; Professor Arz- 

 runi, mineralogist in the Polytechnic Insti- 

 tute at Aix ; Heinrich Theodor Riehter, di- 

 rector of the School of Mines at Freiburg, 

 Saxony ; Dr. J. Crocq, professor of pathol- 

 ogy in the University of Brussels ; Dr. C. G. 

 Gibelli, professor of botany and director of 

 the Botanical Institute at Turin ; Don Fran- 

 cisco Coello de Portugal, president of the 

 Geographical Society of Madrid, and author 

 of an atlas of Spain and its colonies ; Dr. B. 

 Kotula, author of Researches on the Distri- 

 bution of Plants; Surgeon Major J. E. T. 

 Aitchison, a distinguished botanist, particu- 

 larly in the botany of India, and author of 

 numerous papers on the subject, Septem- 

 ber 30th, in his sixty-fourth year; M. Thom- 

 as Frederic Moreau, a French archaeologist, 

 author of a collection of Gallic, Gallo-Ro- 

 man, and Merovingian antiquities, in his one 

 hundred and first year ; M. Gabriel de Mor- 

 tillet, the eminent French anthropologist, 

 in Paris, November 4th, aged sixty-seven 

 years ; Sir George Smyth Baden Powell, 

 political economist, aged fifty-one years ; Sir 

 John Fowler, engineer in chief of the Forth 

 Bridge, aged eighty-one years; Dr. James I. 

 Peck, assistant professor of biology in Wil- 

 liams College, and assistant director of the 

 Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole ; 

 George Vestal, professor of agriculture and 

 horticulture at the New Mexico Agricultural 

 College, October 24th, aged forty-one years ; 

 Dr. W. Kochs, docent for physiology at 

 Bonn ; M. J. V. Barbier, a distinguished 

 French geographer ; M. N. J. Raffard, an 

 eminent French mechanical engineer, author 

 of many valuable inventions ; Latimer Clark, 

 F. R. S., an eminent English electrician, one 

 of the founders and a past president of the 

 Institution of Electrical Engineers, whose 

 name is associated with the history of elec- 

 tric telegraphy and with many inventions, 

 and author of several books that are stand- 

 ard with the profession, at Kensington, 

 London, October 30th, in his seventy-sixth 

 year ; Count Michele Stefano de Rossi, a 

 distinguished Italian seismologist ; M. de 

 Meritens, a French electrical engineer, in- 

 ventor of one of the first practical dynamos, 

 and of other valuable electrical apparatus, 

 aged sixty-five years. 



