43 2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



The National Academy of Sciences con- 

 sists of ninety-five members and four hon- 

 orary members, ninety-nine in all. Thirty- 

 four live in the New England States : seven- 

 teen in Massachusetts, three in Ehode 

 Island, and fourteen in Connecticut. Thir- 

 ty-six live in the Middle States : fifteen in 

 New York, five in New Jersey, fourteen in 

 Pennsylvania, two in Maryland. Sixteen 

 live in the District of Columbia. Nine live 

 West : one in Ohio, one in Kentucky, one 

 in Illinois, two in Missouri, four in Califor- 

 nia. Three live abroad, all being New-Eng- 

 landers. One is unclassified as to residence. 

 None live South. Total, ninety-nine. 



Forty-three represent the mathematical 

 sciences, as pure mathematics, astronomy, 

 geodesy, engineering, physics, etc. Twelve 

 represent chemistry ; sixteen represent the 

 geological sciences; twenty-four represent 

 the biological sciences ; four are unclassi- 

 fied. Total, ninety-nine. 



M. Paul Bert has been elected a mem- 

 ber of the French Academy of Sciences, to 

 fill the vacancy in the department of medi- 

 cine and surgery caused by the death of M. 

 Bouillaud. 



M. Piot has made experiments, under 

 the direction of M. Laborde, to ascertain 

 the order in which the functions of the or- 

 ganized tissues cease in normal asphyxia. 

 He insists that the exact moment of death 

 is very difficult to determine, and that we 

 can not fix the instant when the stoppage 

 of the heart and of respiration is definite. 

 The mechanical movements of inspiration 

 first cease to become apparent ; then the 

 beating of the heart becomes less frequent, 

 but continues ; the pupils of the eyes are di- 

 lated excessively, and the cornea becomes 

 insensible. These, however, are only ap- 

 parent signs of death, for dogs in which 

 such phenomena have appeared may still be 

 brought back to life by means of artificial 

 respiration. 



M. de Khotinsky, a Russian naval offi- 

 cer, has been endeavoring to improve the 

 lime-li^ht so as to render it available for 

 general purposes. He proposes to supply 

 oxygen in a condensed form, and to burn 

 ordinary gas with it in his new lamp, in 

 which he has made a fresh adjustment of 

 the lime or magnesia. 



M. Paul Bert, before the resignation of 

 the Gambetta ministry, had instructed M. 

 Dumas, permanent Secretary of the French 

 Academy of Sciences, to draw up a list of 

 scientific men who had died or received in- 

 juries while making experiments or re- 

 searches for the advancement of science, 

 with the view of awarding pensions to the 

 widows and families of those who had died, 

 and of giving substantial aid to those who 

 survived. 



M. Campardou has made some new ob- 

 servations on the successful treatment of 

 apparently dead infants with baths at about 

 120. In one case, an infant on which fric- 

 tion, inflation of the lungs, and other reme- 

 dies had been tried in vain, and which M. 

 Campardou regarded as lost, was put into 

 water of 113, and revived in less than fif- 

 teen seconds. The same process was ap- 

 plied to an infant fifteen days old, which had 

 apparently died after a gradual decline. 



M. Marey has succeeded in obtaining 

 photographs of birds and insects in the act 

 of flying. He introduces the " photograph- 

 ic revolver" into an apparatus having a 

 shape roughly like that of a gun, and, point- 

 ing it at the flying animal as if he were go- 

 ing to shoot it, he has obtained a series of 

 impressions each of which represents a stage 

 of the flight. The pose, which is naturally 

 only about -5V0" f a second, has been pro- 

 longed to jfo of a second with most satis- 

 factory results. 



The French Academv of Sciences recent- 

 ly departed from its custom of giving memo- 

 rial honors only to members, to pay a trib- 

 ute of respect to M. Poitevin, deceased who 

 was one of the principal contributors to the 

 improvements in processes for multiplying 

 photographs by which the photographic has 

 been raised to be a real industrial art. 



According to Libanius, the term " athe- 

 ists" was used as a common name for Chris- 

 tians by the cultivated Greeks of his period 

 the fourth century. 



Konig's great tonometer, the unique col- 

 lection of standard tuning-forks which was 

 shown at the Philadelphia Exhibition, is 

 still for sale, the project to buy it for the 

 University of Pennsylvania having fallen 

 through. " Nature " suggests that if it can 

 not be acquired for the South Kensington 

 collection, an effort be made to buy it for 

 either the Cavendish or the Clarendon Labo- 

 ratory. 



M. C. Decharme has given an account of 

 hydrodynamic experiments in which he has 

 imitated the phenomena of electro-magnet- 

 ism and induction by means of liquid cur- 

 rents. M. Bjerkness, in his experiments 

 performed with vibrating and pulsating 

 bodies in still water, obtained analogous ef- 

 fects, but inverse, to those of electricity and 

 magnetism. M. Decharme, using running 

 liquids, found the analogies to be direct. 

 He produced sonorous vibrations of greater 

 or less pitch by turning currents of gas 

 upon mercury, and more or less grave vibra- 

 tions by directing currents of water upon a 

 solid body. The vibrations of the former 

 kind were carried beyond the highest, and 

 those of the latter kind below the lowest, 

 limit of perceptible sounds. 



