POPULAR MISCELLANY. 



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voted exclusively to mental disorders. The 

 subject is sometimes introduced under the 

 head of theory and practice of medicine, 

 but is more often remanded to the lectures 

 on medical jurisprudence ; and hardly ever 

 is a book on this subject included among 

 the standard works of study and reference 

 proposed for students. 



The Albert Medal. The Albert Medal 

 of the British Society of Arts has been 

 awarded, beginning in 1864, to Sir Rowland 

 Hill, for postal reforms ; to Napoleon III, 

 for his promotion of art ; to Professor Fara- 

 day, for discoveries in electricity, magnet- 

 ism, and chemistry ; to Mr. W. Fothergill 

 Cook and Professor Wheatstone, for estab- 

 lishing the first electric telegraph ; to Mr. 

 Joseph Whitworth, for his instruments of 

 measurement and uniform standards; to 

 Baron von Liebig, for chemical and other 

 researches ; to Ferdinand de Lesseps, on 

 account of the Suez Canal ; to Mr. Henry 

 Cole, C. B., for activity in international ex- 

 hibitions and the South Kensington Mu- 

 seum ; to Mr. Bessemer, for developing the 

 manufacture of steel; to M. Chevreul, for 

 chemical researches ; to C. W. Siemens, for 

 a variety of researches ; to Michael Cheva- 

 lier, for general economical activity ; to Sir 

 George B. Airy, for researches in nautical 

 astronomy and magnetism, etc. ; to M. Du- 

 mas, for chemical researches ; to Sir Will- 

 iam Armstrong, for distinguished engineer- 

 ing work and development of mechanical 

 power; to Sir William Thomson, for electri- 

 cal researches and the development of ocean- 

 cables ; to J. P. Joule, for establishing the 

 relations between heat, light, and electrici- 

 ty ; and to A. W. Hoffmann, of Berlin, for 

 investigations in organic chemistry and 

 his promotion of chemical education and 

 research in England. The award of the 

 medal for 1881 was to be made in May. 



Tree Meteorology. Mr. Robert E. C. 

 Stearns, Ph. D., at the close of a paper on 

 the estimation of the annual growths of 

 certain trees in California, suggests the pos- 

 sibility of making valuable investigations 

 into the periodicity of climates and the di- 

 rection and effects of prevailing winds by 

 the systematic study x of the year-rings of 

 trees. " We might," he says, " find so 



close a parallelism between rings of maxi- 

 mum thickness and seasons of maximum 

 rain-fall, that we should be justified in re- 

 garding this parallelism as something more 

 than a series of coincidences merely, by 

 finding these coincidences so persistent as 

 to prove a correlation ; and we could, per- 

 haps, base our weather prognostications on 

 something more than a guess, and learn 

 whether or not there is a periodicity or cy- 

 clical term of wet and dry years, having the 

 data before us according to the trees se- 

 lected and examined reaching back with 

 the pines from seventy-five to one hundred 

 and fifty years, with the redwoods from five 

 hundred to seven hundred years, and with 

 the sequoias of the Sierra from twelve to 

 fourteen centuries, to say nothing of the 

 testimony of other trees, the madronas and 

 oaks especially. Differences in the diame- 

 ters of trees," Dr. Stearns adds, " may be 

 traced, perhaps, to a difference in the 

 amount of heat and light which one side of 

 a tree receives as compared with the other ; 

 to the influence of prevailing winds accord- 

 ing to the station, position, or exposure, or 

 to local or general magnetic influences lo- 

 cal as peculiar to small areas, or general as 

 pertaining to larger or extensive regions. 

 An accumulation of data might show a 

 marked and constant character in the rela- 

 tion of diameters to such factors of the en- 

 vironment ; and also a marked character in 

 the diameters of one region, as a whole, 

 when compared with another region, where 

 modified or different climatic conditions 

 exist." 



Habits of Wood-Ducks. The experi- 

 ments of Mr. George Irvin, of Mayville, 

 New York, upon the capacity for domesti- 

 cation of different species of wild ducks, 

 gave him the means of gaining much knowl- 

 edge of the habits of the wood-ducks, 

 which, although they would not be domes- 

 ticated, bred freely within the inclosure in 

 which he confined them. They generally 

 begin to nest about the middle of April, 

 and always choose trees with suitable holes 

 and hollows in which to build, preferring 

 for this purpose rather high elevations, and 

 lay from nine to fourteen eggs, of a yellow- 

 ish-white color, the period of incubation of 

 which is four weeks. When the young 



