86 4 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



too, with cyclone?, as at Calcutta in 1864, 

 when sixty thousand people were drowned 

 in the storm-wave, and Backerganj in 1876, 

 when one hundred thousand were drowned. 



The experiment has been tried in Mos- 

 cow, Russia, with success, of using carrier- 

 pigeons to convey negatives of photographs 

 taken in a balloon. The plates were packed 

 in light-proof papers and tied to the feet of 

 pigeons, who speedily took them in good or- 

 der to the station on the ground. 



Medical geology and climatology are 

 mentioned by the " Lancet " as departments 

 of the science to which more attention might 

 be paid than is. Their usefulness is illus- 

 trated by tbe recently published studies of 

 Mr. Alfred Haviland on the distribution of 

 cancer in the British Islands. 



The undue increase in all the learned 

 professions in Germany is the subject of a 

 pamphlet by Prof. W. Lexis, of Berlin. All 

 the theological faculties, except the Roman 

 Catholic, are increasing "to an alarming 

 extent." The average number of medical 

 students for the whole empire 2,675 was 

 increased in 1888-1889 by 2,344. If a pro- 

 portionate increase takes place in the num- 

 ber of licenses, the year's new doctors will 

 rise from the average of 456 to more than 

 800. A prize offered by one of the Teach- 

 ers' Associations for the best essay on the 

 overcrowding of the learned professions and 

 the means of remedying it, was given to two 

 papers out of seventy-six sent in, which are 

 to be published in a book. 



An apparatus for providing a steady plat- 

 form at sea for guns, search-lights, telescopes, 

 etc., was described by Mr. Beauchamp Tower 

 in the British Association. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Ex-President Martin B. Anderson, who 

 died at Lake Helen, Fla., February 26th, was 

 a scholar who had made himself eminent 

 in many fields of thought and activity. He 

 was born in Brunswick, Maine, in 1815 ; was 

 graduated from Waterville College, now 

 Colby University, in 1840; studied theology; 

 preached, taught, and served as editor of 

 the "New York Recorder," a Baptist pa- 

 per, till 1853, when he was chosen Presi- 

 dent of the University of Rochester, where 

 his after-life was spent. He instituted a 

 course of lectures in intellectual philosophy, 

 which were continued till he retired, in con- 

 sequence of ill health, a year or two ago ; also 

 a course of historical lectures ; and under the 

 head of political economy he treated various 

 questions affecting money, taxation, etc., 

 and free trade and protection. His studies 

 extended to questions of constitutional law, 

 and covered the arts. He was prominent in 

 all Baptist denominational enterprises, and 

 served the State on several civil commissions. 

 In fact, as the " Evening Post " well says, " he 



was one of those men who take all knowl- 

 edge for their province, and never wearied 

 of enriching his mind with stores of all de- 

 scriptions, which he distributed with lavish 

 impartiality among the students under his 

 charge." 



Among the recent deaths of scientific 

 men abroad are those of M. L. Taczanowski, 

 of Warsaw, a distinguished ornithologist, 

 author of a book on the birds of Peru ; M. 

 Neumayr, of Vienna, geologist, who was 

 not yet forty years of age; and M. Otto 

 Rosenberger, astronomer, who had been con- 

 nected with the observatory at Halle since 

 1831. 



"La Nature," of February 15th, men- 

 tions the death of M. Buys Ballot, of Utrecht, 

 one of the most eminent meteorologists of 

 the time, at the age of seventy-three years. 

 He gave much attention to the study of data 

 for facilitating weather predictions the 

 movement of cyclones, the direct observa- 

 tion of clouds, and all the " natural symp- 

 toms of the weather." He propounded sev- 

 eral meteorological laws or maxims which 

 bear his name, and probably had an equal 

 part with any other student in giving shape 

 to the present system of observation and 

 investigation in that science. 



Major Peter Egerton Warburton, 

 whose name is associated with the hazardous 

 but successful expedition which he made 

 across Australia in 1873, died recently in 

 Adelaide, in his seventy - sixth year. His 

 exploring party Buffered terrible privations 

 during their march, and were not heard of for 

 twelve months. Major Warburton received 

 the gold medal of the Royal Geographical 

 Society and various honors in recognition 

 of his contributions to our knowledge of 

 Australia. 



Sir Henry Yule, an Englishman, emi- 

 nent in geographical research, died Decem- 

 ber 31st, in his seventieth year. In his an- 

 notated edition of Marco Polo's travels he 

 made contributions of the most valuable 

 character to geographical and antiquarian 

 lore. 



M. Eugene Deslongchamps, a French 

 paleontologist, who died last December, was 

 the son of another paleontologist, Prof. Eli- 

 des Deslongchamps, was Professor of Zool- 

 ogy and Paleontology at Caen, and was the 

 author of several memoirs on the paleonto- 

 logical fauna of Normandy. 



Dr. Karl Eduard Venus, an eminent 

 German entomologist, died at Dresden, De- 

 cember 13th. He was the founder of the 

 Entomological Society "Iris" at Dresden. 



M. Gustave Hirn, an eminent French 

 physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, 

 died January 14th, in the seventy-fifth year 

 of his age. He was the author of a work of 

 considerable repute on the " Constitution of 

 Celestial Space." 



