698 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



since " the eternity of the substantial involves the eternity of 

 its effects." Yet, while she attacks Comte's errors in the sphere of 

 sociology, she renders full justice to his Course of Positive Philoso- 

 phy, which was often in advance of its time in respect to the exact 

 sciences. Among other of Madame Royer's publications we may cite 

 Zoroastre, son LJpoque et sa Doctrine (Zoroaster, his Epoch and his 

 Doctrine, two volumes, 1875); Les Ages Prehistoriques (The Prehis- 

 toric Ages, 1876) ; La Terre et ses Anciens Habitants (The Earth and 

 its Ancient Inhabitants, 1891), a sort of summary of recent progress 

 in paleontology, and of facts that may be derived from the study of 

 living beings; and Les Variations seculaires des Saisons (Secular 

 Variation of the Seasons, 1892), a little work in which the author 

 endeavors to confirm by observation a theory that climatic variations 

 are dependent, in the meteorological sense, on planetary movements. 

 She showed, for example, that in the cold winter of 1879-80 the 

 distribution of the planets around the sun was precisely that which 

 should give the greatest degree of cold for our hemisphere. 



"We notice also her occasional contributions to different periodi- 

 cals: to Le Temps, the Revue des Revues, the Journal des Econo- 

 mistes, etc. Her last two treatises were published in 1895: La Ma- 

 ture (or Matter), and Ulnconnaissable (or The Unknowable). 



So great intellectual activity has given Madame Royer a first 

 place among women as students of science. Hence, on March 10, 

 1897, her numerous admirers and friends offered her a jubilee ban- 

 quet, under the chairmanship of M. Levasseur, member of the Insti- 

 tute of France. The toasts spoken to on this occasion retraced the 

 brilliant career of the heroine of the feast; and, as the chairman 

 justly declared, the occasion was " the glorification of woman's knowl- 

 edge." Madame Clemence Royer is at present living a very retired 

 life in the Maison de Retraite founded by the Duchess Galigani at 

 Neuilly, near Paris, where she enjoys the rest earned by a half cen- 

 tury of persevering labor. Her body is feeble, but her ample brow and 

 her yet lively eyes seem still to have preserved the recollections of 

 the struggles of other days. 



Dr. Sheldon Jackson, superintendent of Government schools in Alaska, 

 corrects a report that has been published, that his experiment in naturaliz- 

 ing reindeer in that Territory has failed. Three hundred and twelve of the 

 five hundred and twelve head imported died, it is true, at Seattle and 

 Haines, ' % because of a combination of circumstances and Government red 

 tape," but the two hundred and twenty-eight deer that were allowed to 

 reach the moss, fifty miles from the coast, are doing well, and will be u^ed 

 next winter in carrying the mails. Instead of scarcity of moss, the pastur- 

 age is more abundant than in Lapland or Siberia, and the reindeer thrive 

 better than they did in their native habitat. 



