NOTES. 



287 



ville was an excellent lecturer, a most genial 

 companion, and an excellent host," and 

 was fond of amusements of all kinds. 



NOTES. 



The Boston Society of Natural History 

 announces that a sea-side laboratory, under 

 the direction of its curator, will be opened 

 at Annisquam, Massachusetts, July 1, to 

 continue until September 1, 1882. A limited 

 number of students can be accommodated, 

 and the work will consist mainly of study 

 and observation of the common types of 

 marine animals, under the immediate care 

 of Mr. B. H. Van Vleck, assistant in the 

 museum and laboratory of the society. Full 

 particulars may be obtained by addressing 

 the curator of the society, Professor Alpheus 

 Hyatt, of Boston. 



The French Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science will meet at La 

 Rochelle, August 24th to 31st. The organi- 

 zation of the congress is already in active 

 preparation. M. Jousset de Bellesme has 

 published a note calling attention, as the 

 topics most likely to attract the interest 

 of zoologists, to ostreiculture, which is car- 

 ried on along the neighboring coasts ; to 

 termites, whose nests are found in the vicin- 

 ity ; and to several valuable collections of 

 the local fauna. Among the excursions will 

 be dredging expeditions at sea, and geolog- 

 ical excursions under the guidance of local 

 experts. 



The account of the late Professor Clerk 

 Maxwell, to be published by Messrs. Mac- 

 millan & Co., will include a biographical 

 outline, with selections from correspond- 

 ence, by Professor Lewis Campbell, who 

 was very intimate with Mr. Maxwell in early 

 life ; an account of his chief contributions 

 to science, by Mr. William Garnett, who was 

 associated with him as demonstrator at the 

 Cavendish Laboratory for the last six years 

 of his life ; and a collection of his poems, 

 some of which are already known to the 

 public, while the greater number will be 

 published for the first time. 



John Charles Frederick Zoellxer, 

 Professor of Physical Astronomy in the 

 University of Leipsic, died April 29th. He 

 was born,in Berlin in 1834. After receiv- 

 ing the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at 

 Basle, he devoted himself to the study of 

 photometry as applied to astronomy and 

 physiology. He was the author of several 

 works on subjects related to astronomy and 

 photometry, the best known of which is that 

 11 On the Nature of Comets." He invented 

 the spectroscope which is generally used by 

 astronomers for the observation of the solar 



protuberances and the lines of their spec- 

 trum. He was specially prominent in the 

 later years of his life through his efforts to 

 explain the alleged phenomena of spiritual- 

 ism by means of a fourth dimension of space. 



An extraordinarily high death-rate which 

 was recorded in London for the week ending 

 February 11, 1882, was ascribed to the dense 

 fogs which had been prevailing. This view 

 is strongly confirmed by the fact that the 

 only weeks in which similarly high death- 

 rates have been recorded during recent years 

 were those ending December 20, 1873, and 

 February 7, 1880, each of which immediately 

 followed a period of dense fog and intense 

 cold. It is also sustained by the fact that 

 the death-rate for the week ending February 

 11, 1882, in the twenty-seven large pro- 

 vincial towns, was more than ten per cent 

 below that of London ; which goes to show 

 that the increase of deaths was caused by 

 the fog rather than by the cold. 



The Popular Observatory, which was 

 opened by M. Jaubcrt on the Trocadero, 

 Paris, in* July, 1880, has been visited by 

 p..veral thousand persons desiring to observe 

 the stars, more than two thousand of whom 

 have enrolled themselves as regular astro- 

 nomical or microscopic observers, or attend- 

 ants on the lectures. The pupils of the 

 Popular School of Astronomy have made 

 a considerable number of observations, of 

 which they have given accounts in a jour- 

 nal, and several of them have associated 

 themselves to put up a laboratory at their 

 own expense. M. Jaubcrt has established 

 a popular scientific class, meeting twice a 

 week, which is largely attended by teachers. 



The value of porcelain depends on the 

 purity of its color, and this is dependent on 

 the absence of dark spots in the clay, which 

 are produced chiefly by particles of iron. 

 These particles are now extracted at some 

 of the French factories by means of large 

 electro-magnets, which are kept in opera- 

 tion by the steam-power used in other de- 

 partments of the manufacture. At Mehun 

 three machines purify about 6C0 kilo- 

 grammes (or 1,500 pounds) of porcelain 

 paste every day, the proportion of impuri- 

 ties found averaging about 8 kilogrammes 

 of impurities to 100,000 kilogrammes of 

 paste. 



Dr. Josef Chavanne, the Austrian geog- 

 rapher, estimates the mean altitude of the 

 Continent of Africa to be 2,169-93 feet, or 

 double the mean altitude of the Continent 

 of Europe, which M. G. Leipoldt has esti- 

 mated at 97T41 feet. According to M. 

 Chavanne, if the Atlas range were spread 

 over the entire Continent of Africa, it would 

 give a height of 85'S6 feet only, while the 

 Abyssinian mountain-mass would similarly 

 give a height of 7972 feet. 



