288 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sects may be killed. The small flowering 

 species seem to be preferred by the bee- 

 tles, and are therefore recommended, as the 

 goat's-beard (Spircea aruncus), sorb-leaved 

 (S. sorbi/olia), and meadow spiraea (S.ulma- 

 ria). They are, moreover, desirable plants 

 for their beauty. 



NOTES. 



Prior to the beginning of the eighteenth 

 century opium was imported into China in 

 comparatively small quantities, and mainly 

 used as a remedy in dysentery. The vice 

 of opium-smoking began in the latter half 

 of the seventeenth century, but the drug 

 was then too dear to permit the habit to 

 spread rapidly; at the end of a hundred 

 years, however, it had extended over the 

 whole empire. The first edict against the 

 practice was issued in 1796, and since then 

 there have been innumerable prohibitory en- 

 actments, but all powerless to arrest the 

 evil, which is now greater than ever before, 

 and increasing in an alarming ratio. 



M. Fautrat has been convinced, by his 

 studies of the influence of forests upon the 

 moist currents that pass over them, that 

 pines and other needle-leaved trees have a 

 strong attraction for the vapor of water. 

 He believes that the resinous trees transpire 

 twice as much as other trees ; and has also 

 observed that when they are exposed to 

 moist air they absorb vastly more water 

 than the latter. 



The deaths have been recently an- 

 nounced of two of the most prominent en- 

 tomologists of Continental Europe. Ernest 

 August Helmuth von Kiesenwetter was a 

 member of the Saxon Privy Council, an 

 accomplished and conscientious worker in 

 the science, a considerable traveler, and a 

 close observer. He was chiefly a coleopter- 

 ist, but attended more or less to all orders 

 of insects, while limiting his studies chiefly 

 to those of Europe. S. C. Snellen van Val- 

 lenhoven, of Holland, was best known by his 

 works on the insects of Holland, and his 

 " Entomological Fauna of the East Indies." 

 He also produced a work, which is still in- 

 complete, on the " Ichneumonidse of North- 

 western Europe." All of his works were 

 illustrated by beautiful and faithful draw- 

 ings from his own pencil. 



Mr. Gramme is building for an estab- 

 lishment at Noisiel, France, a machine for 

 transmitting electrical force to a distance, 

 with which he expects to gain a normal 

 power equivalent to that of ten horses, and 

 under special conditions a power of sixteen 

 horses. 



The death is announced of Dr. Wilibald 

 Artus, Professor of Philosophy at Jena, on 

 February 7th last, aged seventy years. Also 

 of Dr. Franz Xaver von Hlubek, Professor 

 of Agriculture at the Graz Joanneum, on 

 February 10th, aged seventy-eight years. 

 In the third week of February also died 

 Herr Adolf Miiller, one of the directors of 

 the well-known Geographical Institute of 

 Justus Perthes at Gotha. 



Careful investigation into the cause of 

 the fire which broke out on the steamship 

 Moscl revealed the fact that it originated 

 spontaneously in silk goods which consti- 

 tuted a part of her cargo. Chemical exam- 

 ination showed that for every part of silk 

 fiber "0"75 part of oxide of iron and 2 - 50 

 parts of coloring matter consisting of fatty 

 oils, organic and earthy matters had been 

 used to give weight and body to the silk." 



From data obtained by a series of elab- 

 orate experimental researches, Professor F. 

 Rosetti estimates the effective temperature 

 of the sun at 9,965 centigrade, taking into 

 consideration the absorption produced by 

 the terrestrial atmosphere. But, estimating 

 also the absorption of the solar atmosphere, 

 and calculating the thermal effect of the sun 

 if it had no atmosphere, the solar tempera- 

 ture would be 20,3807 centigrade. 



General William Munro, of the British 

 army, and a learned botanist eminent for 

 his thorough and comprehensive knowledge 

 of the grasses, died at his residence near 

 Taunton, England, on the 29th of January, 

 aged sixty-four years. 



The French Government has taken ac- 

 tion with a view to the protection of the 

 domestic birds of the country, prohibiting 

 in the several departments the pursuit of 

 other than birds of passage, and those only 

 under certain limitations. 



Recent official reports show that the 

 adulteration of food and drugs has largely 

 decreased in Great Britain under the opera- 

 tion of the legislation against it. In 1856, 

 when the " Lancet " commission made a re- 

 port of its inquiries on the subject, more 

 than half the samples analyzed were found 

 to be adulterated. The first analysis under 

 the act of 1875 was made in 1877, when it 

 was shown that of the samples subjected to 

 analysis the proportion of adulterated ones 

 had fallen to 19 - 2 per cent. In 1878 the 

 proportion fell to 17 "2 per cent. If spirits 

 be excluded from the calculation, the per- 

 centage of adulteration would be repre- 

 sented by 15 - 5 in 1877, from which it fell 

 to 13-7 in 1878. 



The French papers chronicle the death, 

 at the age of eighty-two, of Dr. Boisdoval, 

 a distinguished horticulturist, and author of 

 a valuable work on the insects which affect 

 garden-plants. 



