864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



nephiline were prepared — a mineral which 

 had never before appeared from manipulation 

 with water. Better success was had when 

 soda was substituted for potash ; and in every 

 case a product of simple and fixed composi- 

 tion was obtained. Adding a suitable pro- 

 portion of chloride of sodium, sodalite was 

 formed, and proved to be of definite compo- 

 sition, and not, as some mineralogists be- 

 lieved, a mixture of nephiline and an alkaline 

 chloride. With mica and silicate of potash 

 crystalline orthose feldspar was obtained, 

 and, with a smaller proportion of silicate, 

 amphigene. The intervention of chloride 

 of calcium determined the crystallization of 

 anorthite. 



In view of the greatly augmented demand 

 for camphor for the new uses that have been 

 found for it in the arts, with consequent en- 

 hancement of price, it is proposed to use 

 naphthalin as a substitute for it in anti-moth 

 applications. It is quite as effective as cam- 

 phor, and being also equally volatile, leaves 

 no more permanent smell. 



Mr. E. T. Chaplin tells, in the London 

 Spectator, how, by hypnotizing her, he in- 

 duced a laying hen, which had manifested 

 no disposition in that direction, to sit on a 

 sitting of eggs till seven of their number 

 were hatched into "healthy, happy little 

 chickens." 



Bisulphide of carbon is recommended 

 by Mr. A. J. Cook, of the Michigan State 

 Agricultural Experiment Station, as one of 

 the very best insecticides. It has been used 

 with success to destroy the phylloxera on the 

 grape-vines of France ; is applied to the de- 

 struction of prairie-dogs in the West ; and has 

 been used by Mr. Cook with success to de- 

 stroy ants. A single dose in the habitation 

 of the animal, or in an apartment, is usually 

 sufficient. It is exceedingly volatile, and its 

 vapor reaches everywhere. But it must be 

 used with great care, for the vapor is very 

 inflammable and poisonous ; so that a room 

 in which it is used must be well aired before 

 one enters or carries a light into it. 



A considerable portion of the Second 

 Annual Report of the Maryland Agricultural 

 Experiment Station is devoted to the tomato. 

 The record of the experiments with this fruit 

 is preceded by a valuable paper on the history 

 of the tomato, by Dr. E. Lewis Sturtevant. 



A quick and easy method for determin- 

 ing whether or not a fabric is " all wool " is 

 given in the Lancet. This is to separate 

 the warp from the woof, and to hold each to 

 a flame. Wool burns into a shapeless mass, 

 and no threads can be traced in its ash. If 

 removed from the fire before it is all burned, 

 it ceases to blaze ; cotton, on the contrary, 

 continues to burn steadily, and its ash re- 

 tains the shape of the thread. 



A redwood-tree^ ninety feet in circum- 

 ference and thirty-three feet in diameter, is 



being cut for the Chicago exhibition. The 

 section to be sent to Chicago will be nine 

 feet in height and sixty feet in circumfer- 

 ence, and will weigh sixty-five thousand 

 pounds. The tree is taken from the forests 

 of Tulare County, California. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Prof. C. H. F. Peters, Director of the 

 Litchfield Observatory of Hamilton College, 

 Clinton, N. Y., died July 19th, in his seventy- 

 seventh year. He was a native of Sleswick, 

 and had been in the observatory director- 

 ship more than thirty years. He was the 

 discoverer of forty-seven asteroids, his last 

 discovery in that line being that of Neph- 

 thys, in August, 1889. He was chief of the 

 party which observed the total eclipse of 

 the sun at Des Moines, Iowa, August 7th, 

 1869 ; and also of the party that observed 

 the transit of Yenus in 1874 in New Zea- 

 land. 



Charles Grad, an eminent Alsatian stu- 

 dent of science, died at Logelbach, July 5th, 

 in the forty-eighth year of his age. He was 

 one of the earliest contributors to La Na- 

 ture, and continued his active relations with 

 that journal as long as his health permitted. 

 His first scientific papers were in geology. 

 Many of his contributions related to Alsatian 

 matters of scientific interest. 



William Kitchen Parker, an eminent 

 English biologist, died suddenly in Cardiff, 

 Wales, July 3d. He was drawn to the study 

 of nature and to experimenting on plants 

 and animals at a very early age ; was the 

 author of a number of valuable papers 

 (1856-1873) on foraminifera, and made 

 communications to the Zoological and Royal 

 Societies on birds and animals, his last work, 

 on The Duck and the Auk, having been pub- 

 lished in the present year. He was a mem- 

 ber of several scientific societies, British and 

 foreign ; was for many years a Hunterian 

 Professor at the Royal College of Surgeons ; 

 and was the author of books on the Morphol- 

 ogy of the Skull and on Mammalian Descent. 

 Two of his sons are Professors of Biology, at 

 Cardiff and in Otago, New Zealand. 



The death is announced of Alexander 

 von Bunge, Professor of Botany in the 

 University of Dorpat, at the age of eighty- 

 seven years. He made a scientific voyage to 

 China "in 1830; and was principally inter- 

 ested in the flora of Russia and northern 

 Asia. 



M. Alphonse Favre, formerly Professor 

 of Geology at Geneva, has recently died, sev- 

 enty-seven years old. 



M. Paul Loye, who recently died in 

 France, was the author of a memoir on the 

 physiology of death by decapitation, and had 

 published short notes on physiological ques- 

 tions. 



