858 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



zona, probably none of the mountains reach 

 the timber-line except the San Francisco 

 group and the Sierra Blanca, where the line 

 is at 11,000 and 12,000 feet. In New Mex- 

 ico, the line averages about 12,000 feet 

 above sea-level, and the higher annual tem- 

 perature of the southern part of the Terri- 

 tory is fully compensated for by the greater 

 altitude of the plateau in the northern part. 

 In Colorado, the line rises from 11,000 feet 

 in the northern to 12,000 feet in the south- 

 ern part of the State; in Wyoming, from 

 10,000 to 11,000 feet in the Wind River 

 and Teton Ranges, to about 11,000 feet in 

 the Park Range ; in Montana and Idaho, it 

 ranges at from 9,000 to 10,000 feet, and in 

 the Uintah and Wahsatch Ranges of Utah 

 it is at about 11,000 feet. It is evident, 

 if these considerations hold good, that the 

 upper limit of timber must have approxi- 

 mately the same mean annual temperature 

 everywhere. This temperature can not be 

 measured directly for different places, but 

 may be estimated by calculation by taking 

 the mean temperature at some base in the 

 neighborhood, and allowing a degree of fall 

 for every three hundred feet of additional 

 elevation. A calculation made on this basis 

 for thirteen mountains, including Mounts 

 Washington and Marcy, and several West- 

 ern peaks, gives a mean of 30.4, the ex- 

 tremes being 2S and 33. 



The Ssil and Scarlatina. Dr. Eklund, 

 of Stockholm, Sweden, has for several years 

 devoted much time to the pathology and 

 etiology of scarlatina, and has reached con- 

 clusions of high practical importance in the 

 light they throw upon the connection be- 

 tween bad drainage and other insanitary 

 conditions and outbreaks of that disease 

 without actual infection. lie has constantly 

 found a prodigious number of discoid bod- 

 ies in the urine- of persons suffering from 

 scarlatina, and most positively asserts that 

 he has also noticed those identical or- 

 ganisms in vast numbers in the soil and 

 ground-water of the Isle of Skcppsholm ; in 

 mud from the trenches, dug for the water- 

 mains ; and among the greenish molds of 

 the walls of the old barracks, where scarla- 

 tina was most rife. He furthermore alleges 

 cases of scarlatina occurring in children 

 after drinking milk mixed with the ground- 



water of the island, and one case which fol- 

 lowed an immersion in one of these trench- 

 es, and the drying of the child's clothes in 

 a small room. In still another case scar- 

 latina broke out in a block immediately on 

 the exposure of the ground-water by ex- 

 cavations around. These observations, how- 

 ever, and those of other persons who have 

 found micrococci in the animal fluids in 

 scarlatina, even if the organisms are observed 

 to be invariably present, can not be held to 

 prove that they are the cause of the disease 

 till the fact has been directly verified by 

 inoculation into a healthy body carefully iso- 

 lated from all other sources of infection. . 



Lip-Teaching for the Deaf and Dumb. 

 Earl Granville, as President of the Asso- 

 ciation for the Oral Instruction of the Deaf 

 and Dumb, had occasion recently, at a meet- 

 ing in behalf of the system, to remark upon 

 the satisfactory progress that had been made 

 in lip-teaching, by which the deaf were 

 placed in a position to converse with their 

 fellow-creatures without the aid of signs. 

 The number of pupils in the association's 

 school had increased, and favorable reports 

 had been received from the class of the 

 School Eoard of London. Except where 

 idiocy or mental incapacity existed, this 

 method of teaching was applicable to all 

 cases. Its advantages had been acknowl- 

 edged in a remarkable degree at a confer- 

 ence lately held, where a consensus of opin- 

 ion was expressed in its favor. In evidence 

 of the great benefits the system conferred 

 upon persons trained under it, Earl Gran- 

 ville mentioned that several former pupils 

 of the school were present who were now 

 earning their living in positions which they 

 would hardly have obtained had they been 

 educated by the system of signs. An ex- 

 amination was afterward had of pupils of 

 the training college and school, in which 

 they showed that they understood, by watch- 

 ing a speaker's lips, what was said to them, 

 and could make intelligible replies to it. 



Chaldean Astronomy. The invention of 

 astronomy is ascribed to the Chaldeans by 

 some ancient writers. It is said that a cer- 

 tain Zoroaster, King of Bactriana, was the 

 first who observed the stars, about 1700 

 b. c. ; although, according to Porphyry, Cal- 



