43 2 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



An International Conference on Celestial 

 Photography held its meetings in Paris from 

 April 16th to the 25th. A large number of 

 countries were represented by eminent as- 

 tronomers. Of the nearly sixty persons of 

 whom the congress was composed, three 

 were accredited to America. The confer- 

 ence was opened by M. Flourens, who said 

 that a new era was opening for physical 

 astronomy as well as for mathematical as- 

 tronomy, and that the photographers were 

 writing the first authentic page of the trans- 

 formations and modifications of cosmic mat- 

 ter, or of the history of the universe. Ad- 

 miral Mouchez was elected honorary presi- 

 dent, and Mr. Struve, of Pulkowa, effective 

 president of the body. The secretaries were 

 M. Tisserand, of the College de France, and 

 Mynheer Vande Sande Bakhuyzen, of Ley- 

 den. 



The latest census of horses gives the 

 whole number in Europe and the two Amer- 

 icas as 54,850,000. Of these the United 

 States has 9,500,000, and Canada 2,624,000. 



The one hundredth anniversary of the 

 death of Pere Boscovitch, a celebrated 

 physicist of the last century, was celebrated 

 at Ragusa, his native city, on the 13th of 

 February. He was the author of seventy- 

 six volumes, one for each year of his life. 

 He is said to have been the originator of the 

 doctrine of the centers of forces ; he wrote 

 a Latin poem on eclipses ; he superintended 

 the repairs of St. Peter's Church under Pope 

 Benedict XIV, by which that cathedral was 

 saved from ruin. He was appointed naval 

 optician by King Louis XVI of France, and 

 was intrusted by Napoleon with the meas- 

 urement of the degree in Lombardy. 



Dr. J. Uffelmann asserts, in the " Ar- 

 chiv. fur Hygiene," that the proportion of 

 nutritive material in the edible mushrooms 

 has been overestimated, and that those 

 plants are comparatively difficult of diges- 

 tion. 



An international cremation conference 

 is to be held in Milan in September of this 

 year. Among the questions to which its 

 attention will be brought will be those of 

 legislation concerning the transportation of 

 bodies from one country to another; cre- 

 mation and the preservation of ashes, with 

 especial reference to hygiene and legal med- 

 icine ; the technical, moral, hygienic, and 

 economical aspects of different systems of 

 cremation ; and projects for international 

 legislation with reference to liberty at fu- 

 nerals. 



Dr. P.. V". Siitfeldt has recorded an in- 

 teresting study of a case of the repair of the 

 bill of a raven after it had been shot off. 

 The ball had carried away the upper bill 

 just forward of the nostrils. The bone had 

 grown again so as to cover the injury, and 



the horny covering, following suit, had in- 

 cased the stump formed by the bone. The 

 result of Nature's surgery in the case was, 

 that the injured part was left in such a con- 

 dition that the danger of subsequent inflam- 

 mation was avoided, while the form of the 

 resulting stump was as useful a one as could 

 possibly be expected to follow after a wound 

 of such a character. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



M. Bernard Stcder, formerly professor 

 in the University of Berne, Switzerland, 

 died in that city May 2d, aged ninety-three 

 years. He was called the dean of the 

 geologists of Europe. 



M. Gosselin, President of the French 

 Academy of Sciences, died April 80th. He 

 was born on the eve of the battle of Water- 

 loo, and was consequently in his seventy- 

 second year. He was distinguished as a 

 surgeon. 



Dr. E. Felix A. Vulpiax, a famous 

 French physician and Dean of the Faculty 

 of the Academy of Medicine, died May 1 8th, 

 in the sixty-first year of his age. He be- 

 came Professor of Pathological Anatomy 

 in 1867, and was the author of important 

 works on the nervous system and its dis- 

 eases. 



Mr. "William Cameron, explorer and 

 geologist to the Government of the Straits 

 Settlements (Malacca), died in the latter 

 part of last year, aged fifty-three years. 

 He had been engaged lately in mapping 

 and exploring the unknown parts of the 

 native states. He was well known through- 

 out those states, especially among the Ma- 

 lays and Sakies, of whose language and cus- 

 toms he had an accurate knowledge, and 

 over whom he had great influence. 



On the 13th of April occurred the death 

 of Herr J. B. Obernetter, who was well 

 known for his researches in photographic 

 chemistry, at the age of forty-seven years ; 

 and on the 14th was announced the death 

 of Dr. Nathaniel Lieberkuhn, Professor of 

 Anatomy at the University of Marburg, in 

 the sixty-sixth year of his age. 



M. J. B. J. D. Boussingault, chemist 

 and investigator in scientific agriculture, 

 died in Paris, May 12th, aged eighty-five 

 years. He spent several years of the ear- 

 lier part of his adult life in scientific investi- 

 gations in South America. Having returned 

 to France, he was appointed Professor of 

 Chemistry at Lyons, and afterward to the 

 chair of Agriculture at the Conservatoire 

 des Arts et M6tiers. He was the author of 

 a book and of numerous papers on agricult- 

 ural chemistry and physiology. 



