700 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



mation, among naturalists as well as ama- 

 teurs, regarding the proper means of pre- 

 serving them. He has, accordingly, given 

 a clear and concise account of the art, the 

 implements used, and the principles upon 

 which the work should be done. The sub- 

 jects considered are, the skinning, preparing, 

 and mounting of quadrupeds, birds, reptiles, 

 fishes, molluscous animals, etc. ; the preser- 

 vation of spiders, and preparation of skele- 

 tons. The choice and manner of collecting 

 animals, recipes for various articles used in 

 the art, and some instructions to travelers, 

 complete the work. A half-dozen well-en- 

 graved plates exhibit the manner of mount- 

 ing, and preparing the animals and tools 

 used. 



Spectres Fugitifs observes pres du Limb 

 Solaire (Fugitive Spectra observed near 

 the Solar Limb). By M. L. Trouvelot. 



The author in this pamphlet describes 

 some remarkable phenomena which he has 

 noticed several times in his observations of 

 the solar spectrum. His attention was first 

 called to them on the 30th of August, 1877, 

 when, all at once, the spectrum was crossed, 

 with the quickness of lightning, by extreme- 

 ly brilliant spectra, which succeeded each 

 other rapidly and ran the full length of the 

 spectrum. The phenomenon was observed 

 on the following days to the 3d of Septem- 

 ber, the fugitive spectra varying in shape 

 and intensity, and appearing at unequal in- 

 tervals. Some moved across the solar spec- 

 trum or parallel to it, others were station- 

 ary. The fugitive spectra were next noticed 

 at Creston, Wyoming, during the observa- 

 tions of the eclipse of the sun in July, 1878, 

 and again at different intervals till the 2d 

 of February, 1880, when the last observa- 

 tion described in the memoir took place. 

 They generally came in numbers, not alone, 

 and in spells of several days at a time, sep- 

 arated by intervals sometimes of months. 

 M. Trouvelot does not derive from this any 

 theory as to the frequency with which they 

 may really have manifested themselves ; 

 for, though he saw them only fifteen times 

 in thirty months, he was actually observing 

 the sun for only one hundredth of the time 

 during that period, and they may have 

 been active during the other ninety-nine 

 hundredths of the time without his noticing 



them. He satisfied himself by every possi- 

 ble experiment and form of reasoning that 

 they were not of terrestrial but of cosmical 

 origin. Two theories are proposed to ac- 

 count for them : 1. That they arise from 

 the meteoric bodies that are supposed to be 

 constantly falling into the sun ; 2. That they 

 come from the incandescent matter which 

 the sun throws up in the eruptions which 

 have been observed to take place from its 

 surface. M. Trouvelot prefers the latter 

 theory. 



Proceedings of the Davenport Academy 

 of Natural Sciences, Vol. ii., Part II. 

 July, 1877, to December, 1878. Dav- 

 enport, Iowa : published by J. D. Put- 

 nam, March, 1880. 



Perhaps one may be pardoned for slight- 

 ly altering the hackneyed citation, by as- 

 serting that " westward the star of science 

 takes its way." In this contribution of the 

 Davenport Academy is that of which the 

 elder academy in the East need not be 

 ashamed. We notice, too, this Western 

 academy is appointing its professors after 

 the methods of the Eastern one. In these 

 proceedings we find original work in archas- 

 ology, botany, entomology, conchology, pa- 

 leontology, and embryology, and all these 

 illustrated by plates. The most labored 

 and lengthy article is one by J. Duncan 

 Putnam, on the maple-bark scale-insect 

 (Pulvinaria innumerabilis). This article is 

 very exhaustive, and of great biological 

 merit. There is a short but interesting 

 paper by Dr. R. J. Farquharson, on the 

 formation of ground-ice in the rapids of the 

 Mississippi. This is a revival of the long- 

 mooted question, How is anchor-ice made ? 

 Dr. Farquharson gives the bibliography of 

 the subject. The Doctor's theory in a nut- 

 shell is this : that rapidly-flowing water will 

 get so mixed that its temperature becomes 

 uniform throughout, and when at its freez- 

 ing-point an arrest of motion will favor 

 congelation, so that there is needed "but 

 the slack-water afforded by the eddy of a 

 bowlder, or a pot-hole, to freeze instantly 

 into a spongy mass." We wish this West- 

 ern academy the prosperity it so well mer- 

 its. For two things is this Iowa institution 

 notable : that it is indebted for its building- 

 site to a noble-hearted woman, Mrs. P. V. 

 Newcomb ; and its president is Mrs. Mary 



