864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



the results in their general studies are im- 

 proved by the relaxation and change given 

 by manual-training work in and between their 



own studies. 



Phof. W J McGEB adduced a consider- 

 able number of reasons at the Niagara Falls 

 Excursion of the American Association for 

 supposing that the recession of the Falls from 

 Lewiston to their present position has occu- 

 pied about seven thousand years he regard- 

 ing Prof. N. H. Wine-hell's estimate of seven- 

 ty-eight hundred years as probably the best. 

 " On comparing this estimate with the march 

 of the secular seasons," he says, " a remark- 

 able coincidence is observed ; for, since the 

 longitude of perihelion is now 99 30', the 

 middle of the last Platonic winter, which is 

 now just past in the southern hemisphere, 

 occurred seventy-one hundred years ago. 

 This coincidence strengthens the suggestion 

 of interdependence between cosmic and ter- 

 restrial conditions, and affords a basis for 

 comparing the natural time-unity of the as- 

 tronomer with the semi-arbitrary periods of 

 the geologist ; and so the date of the last 

 ice invasion recorded in the moraine-fringed 

 glacial deposit may be provisionally fixed at 

 seventy-one hundred years ago." 



In his address before the Anthropologi- 

 cal Section of the American Association on 

 The Evolution of the Esthetic, Mr. W. H. 

 Holmes maintained that creations of art are 

 growths the same as are the products of 

 Nature, and are subject to the same inexo- 

 rable laws of genesis and evolution. The 

 several branches of testhetic art painting, 

 architecture, sculpture, music, and the drama 

 were reviewed, and their growth and evolu- 

 tion illustrated in support of this thesis. 



The American Association decided to ask 

 Congress for a reduction of the tariff on 

 scientific instruments and periodicals ; also 

 to ask it to take steps for the preservation 

 of the ancient ruins which are situated on 

 Government lands. 



Dr. H. Molisch, after investigation of 

 the subject, denies that iron is present in 

 chlorophyl, having never found a trace of it 

 in that substance. He says that iron occurs 

 in plants in two forms in that of ordinary 

 iron-salts, and in the " masked " condition, 

 in which it is so closely combined with or- 

 ganic substances that the ordinary reagents 

 fail to detect it. In this form iron occurs 

 both in the cell-wall and in the cell-contents, 

 but does not enter into the living proto- 

 plasm. 



The experiments of Mr. A. J. Cook, of 

 the Agricultural College of Michigan, appear 

 to show that bees require eleven pounds of 

 honey to enable them to secrete one pound 

 of wax. 



The statement of Mr. George F. Kunz, 

 that the hardness of diamonds is not percepti- 



bly reduced by cutting and polishing, is con- 

 firmed in .Science by Mr. W. A. Rogers, of 

 Colby University, who has had much expe- 

 rience in ruling with diamonds. 



According to a paper by T. Forster, of 

 Amsterdam, the bacteria which produce the 

 light of phosphorescence are able to multi- 

 ply and develop at the freezing-point of 

 water. They not only live in the sea, but are 

 met with in brackish and fresh water, upon 

 victuals, manures, etc. This agrees with the 

 fact that victuals kept for some days in an 

 ice-chamber gradually assume a disagree- 

 able smell and taste ; and that meat can be 

 preserved from putrefaction for days, but 

 not for weeks. If foods are to be preserved 

 at a low temperature for a long time, be- 

 sides cold, a second element is necessary 

 dryness. 



Dr. H. J. Tylden, of England, has re- 

 cently died of typhoid fever, after having 

 been engaged in investigations of the etiol- 

 ogy of the disease in which, it is supposed, 

 he contracted it. He had recently published 

 an article in Nature on The Bearing of Pathol- 

 ogy upon the Doctrine of the Transmission 

 of Acquired Characters. 



A wild-flower exhibition the fourth of 

 the kind was recently held in Edinburgh, 

 Scotland, and is described by Mr. W. R. 

 Lazenby in Garden and Forest. It com- 

 prised seventeen hundred entries, including 

 hand-bouquets, baskets, bouquets of heather 

 and thistles, of heather and bluebells, of 

 wild grasses, of white heather, of wild ferns 

 in rustic baskets, wreaths of wild roses and 

 honeysuckles, collections of dried wild flow- 

 ers and of dried leaves of native trees taste- 

 fully mounted, crosses of wild flowers, and 

 window flower-boxes. All, with the excep- 

 tion of the last class, was the work of chil- 

 dren. The exhibition is given under the 

 auspices of a juvenile paper of the city. 



A correspondent of the London Spec- 

 tator tells of a horse in India which lately 

 defended its master and saved his life 

 against a murderous attack made upon him. 

 Lieutenant Robertson, of the Engineers, when 

 out riding, was joined by a Ghazi which is 

 Oriental for champion entered into a friend- 

 ly conversation with him, then into a race 

 and beat him. The Ghazi then attacked 

 the English officer with his tulwar and in- 

 flicted a severe gash upon his neck. " When 

 Lieutenant Robertson fell off his horse, and 

 was lying on the ground bleeding profusely, 

 the faithful animal protected his master 

 from further injury by kicking at the Ghazi 

 and attempting to bite him. But for this 

 remarkable behavior on the part of Lieuten- 

 ant Robertson's horse, it is supposed that the 

 Ghazi would have probably hacked Lieuten- 

 ant Robertson to death." The Ghazi was 

 seen by two Indian boys, was caught and 

 identified, and sentenced to be hanged. 



