288 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



in increased interest in study that was com- 

 municated also to the other classes. Courses 

 of lectures were delivered by Sir Henry Gil- 

 bert, Dr. B. E. Fernow, and Major Henry E. 

 Alvord. The museum has been arranged so 

 as to present a systematic view of the en- 

 tire animal kingdom, with especial regard to 

 the fauna of Massachusetts. Models of the 

 horse, cow, sheep, pig, and dog, and their 

 organs, have been supplied in the veterinary 

 department, and pathological specimens. It 

 is proposed to devote a part of the grounds 

 of the college to the growth of the trees and 

 plants of Massachusetts. 



A SUMMARY of the lectures announced for 

 the last summer semester at the German 

 universities is interpreted by Charles N. 

 Judd, in Science, as indicating that logic and 

 the theory of knowledge are absorbing much 

 more attention than any form of speculative 

 metaphysics. Sixteen courses in the nine- 

 teen universities are devoted to these sub- 

 jects. Work is also being done in many 

 places in laboratories and seminaries. Five 

 courses, besides the seminary work, are given 

 on Kant's system. The historical work 

 covers all periods, beginning with Prof. 

 Deussen's investigations in old Sanskrit and 

 Greek philosophy, and extending to the phi- 

 losophy of to-day. 



NOTES. 



The sudden disappearance of streams in 

 limestone countries, sometimes to reappear at 

 the surface farther on, is not uncommon. In 

 Yorkshire, England, there are many such 

 streams. The points where they disappear 

 are called "pots." One of the largest of 

 these pots, " Gaping Ghyll," was recently ex- 

 plored by M. Martel of Paris. The stream 

 being temporarily diverted, M. Martel de- 

 scended by means of a series of rope ladders. 

 He took with him a telephone and a supply 

 of candles. He reached bottom at three hun- 

 dred and thirty feet, and found a vast chamber 

 about four hundred and fifty feet in length, 

 one hundred and twenty feet in breadth, and 

 ninety to one hundred feet in height. 



A MEETING of the friends and admirers of 

 Mr. Huxley, under the chairmanship of Lord 

 Kelvin, was recently held at the rooms of the 

 Royal Society to consider a national memo- 

 rial. It was decided to call a general public 

 meeting in the fall. Sir John Lubbock (15 

 Lombard Street) will act as treasurer. At a 

 recent meeting held at the Charing Cross 

 Hospital Medical School, from which Mr. 

 Huxley received his M. D., the following reso- 



lution was passed : That there be a memorial 

 in the form of a Huxley scholarship and 

 medal to be awarded annually at the Charing 

 Cross Hospital Medical School, and that, if 

 funds permit, an annual public lecture dealing 

 with recent advances in science and their 

 bearing upon medicine shall be instituted. 



A SHORT time ago, in the theater of King's 

 College Hospital, London, Sir Joseph Lister 

 was presented with a three-quarter length 

 portrait of himself, painted by Mr. Lorimer, 

 A. R. S. A., and also an illuminated and illus- 

 trated album containing the names of the 

 subscribers. Dr. W. S. Playfair, who pre- 

 sided, said that the testimonial was simply an 

 offering from his old friends, colleagues, and 

 pupils, as a token of the affection and esteem 

 which they entertained for him. 



Dr. E. H. Wilson, bacteriologist of the 

 Brooklyn City Board of Health, recently made 

 some investigations relative to the bacterial 

 content of graveyard soils. He states that 

 the soil of cemeteries contains no more bac- 

 teria than the soil of other places ; that he 

 found no pathogenic bacteria in the examined 

 soil ; and that those which he did find were 

 such as engage in the destructive decomposi- 

 tion of the body, and were hence beneficent 

 instead of harmful. 



Mr. Joseph Thomson, the African trav- 

 eler, who died in London early in August, 

 though not yet forty years old, was one of 

 the most successful and most famous of the 

 explorers of the dark continent. He first 

 went out on the Keith Johnson expedition 

 to the Great Lakes, and on the death of its 

 leader took charge and accomplished its ob- 

 jects. He next had charge of an expedition 

 to Masailand in 1883 and 188-1, where he 

 showed admirable tact in dealing with the 

 savage natives and made important discov- 

 eries. He afterward negotiated treaties in 

 Sokoto, explored the Atlas Mountains in Mo- 

 rocco, and in 1891 explored the region be- 

 tween Lake Nyassa and Lake Bangweolo. 

 All these things he accomplished without 

 bloodshed. He was the author of three 

 books describing his explorations, of a Life 

 of Mungo Park, and of Ulu, a romance illus- 

 trative of life in East Africa. 



Dr. Joseph Granville Norwood, who 

 died in Columbia, Mo., May 5th, was engaged 

 in the Geological Survey of Wisconsin, Iowa, 

 and Minnesota, under D. D. Owen, from 1847 

 to 1851, exploring chiefly the region about 

 Lake Superior ; was afterward State Geologist 

 of Illinois, and Assistant Geologist of Mis- 

 souri, and was from 1860 to 1880 a pro- 

 fessor in the University of Missouri. He 

 retired in 1880 as pi-ofessor emeritus, on ac- 

 count of ill health. In 1847 he described 

 and figured the Macropetalichthys rapheido- 

 labit of the Devonian of Indiana the first 

 fossil fish described in the United States. 

 He was author of some geological reports and 

 several monographs. 



