128 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



there died 596 within the year, and of the 

 Mohammedans no less than 735. Thus, a 

 native child born in Calcutta has a chance 

 of life considerably less than that of a per- 

 son attacked by cholera. 



Dr. a. McL. Hamilton recommends the 

 use of nitro-glycerine as a medicinal agent 

 in epilepsy. One-teuth of a drop on the 

 tongue at once produces cerebral hyperae- 

 mia? The face is flushed, the eyes become 

 bright, and the temporal vessels throb, and 

 there are marked sensations of fullness. 

 Diluted in alcohol in the proportion of 1 to 

 100, nitro-glycerine can be kept safely. 



Some years ago a large tract of peat-bog 

 was drained at Grangemouth, Scotland, the 

 loose mud and moss being carried down 

 the drains to the estuary. The consequence 

 was, that the oyster-beds in the estuary 

 were covered over with mud, and the bi- 

 valves entirely destroyed. " Nothing," 

 writes Frank Buckland, " is so fatal to oys- 

 ters as a mud-storm, except it be a sand- 

 storm. The mud and sand accumulate in 

 the oyster's delic.ite breathing-organs and 

 suffocate it." 



The telephone appears to be well adapt- 

 ed for transmitting signals in mines ; in- 

 deed, according to the Alining Review^ tele- 

 phones are already employed with great ad- 

 vantage in many of the deep workings of 

 this country. 



From soundings made by the U. S. sloop 

 Gettysburg, the Challenger, and the Ger- 

 man frigate Gazelle, a writer in Nature in- 

 fers the probable existence of a submarine 

 ridge or plateau connecting the island of 

 Madeira with the coast of Portugal, and the 

 possible subaerial connection, in prehistoric 

 times, of that island with the southwestern 

 extremity of Europe. A similar plateau 

 connects the Canary Islands with the Afri- 

 can Continent. 



The electric light has been under trial 

 in English lighthouses nearly eighteen years. 

 It was first tried at the South Foreland 

 Lighthouse in 1858. An electric revolving 

 light has been exhibited at the Souter Point 

 Lighthouse, on the coast of Durham, for 

 the last five years. The flash of this light 

 has an intensity of about 392,000 candles. 

 With the improved electric machines of 

 Gramme or Siemens this enormous inten- 

 sity of light could probably be increased 

 five or six times. 



SiDERAPHTHiTE is the name of a new 

 iron-alloy, compose! of 65 parts iron, 23 

 nickel, 4 tungsten, 5 aluminum, and 5 cop- 

 per. It is said to resist sulphnreted hy- 

 drogen, is not attacked by vegetable acids, 

 and only slightly by mineral acids. It is 

 really more useful than standard silver, 

 while it can be produced at a cost not ex- 



ceeding that of german-silver. For alloys 

 that have to be silver-plated to prevent oxi- 

 dation, this material is a perfectly success- 

 ful substitute. 



The two islands of New Britain and 

 New Ireland, lying east of New Guinea, 

 have been visited by a Wesleyan mission- 

 ary. Rev. George Brown, who has explored 

 150 miles of the coast of the former, and 

 100 miles of the latter. Mr. Brown also 

 crossed the latter island and made large 

 natural-history collections. No white man 

 had ever been seen inland before, but no 

 opposition was ottered to the explorers. 

 Abundant evidences of cannibalism were 

 found, but the natives live chiefly on bana- 

 nas, cocoanuts, and pork, and have large 

 plantations. 



Intelligence has been received of the 

 death of two eminent German travelers in 

 Africa: Dr. Edward Mohr, author of "The 

 Victoria Falls of the Zambesi," and the 

 Baron Dr. Hermann von Barth-Harman- 

 ting. The latter died by his own hand at 

 Sao Paolo de Loanda, while sufl^ering from 

 an attack of fever, in the thirty-first year 

 of his age ; the former died at Malange, in 

 the same Portuguese colony of Angola. 

 Barth was, at the time of his death, en- 

 gaged in making a botanical and geologi- 

 cal survey of the Portuguese African pos- 

 sessions, under government auspices ; llohr 

 had but recently returned to Africa, sent 

 out by the German African Society to ex- 

 plore the country west of the great lakes. 



Profs. C. V. Riley, Cyrus Thomas, and 

 A. S. Packard, have been appointed United 

 States Entomological Commissioners, with 

 headquarters at Washington. It is un- 

 derstood that the main olyect of this com- 

 mission is to thoroughly investigate the 

 haunts and habits of the Rocky Mountain 

 locust, and to devise means of exterminat- 

 ing that plague, or limiting its ravages. 

 Prof. Riley will occupy himself especially 

 with the whole country east of the moun- 

 tains and south of latitude 48, together 

 with the west half of Iowa and the whole 

 of the British possessions. Minnesota, Ne- 

 braska, Southern Dakota, and Eastern Wyo- 

 ming, have been assigned to Prof. Thomiis ; 

 and Montana, Idaho, Western Wyoming, 

 and the Pacific slope, to Prof. Packard. 



A REMARKABLE appcarancc on the plan- 

 et Saturn was observed by Prof. Hall, of the 

 Naval Observatory, Washington, on Decem- 

 ber 7th. A bright spot suddenly appeared 

 near the equator of the planet, spreading 

 gradually till it resembled a band extend- 

 ing over 90. The phenomenon continued 

 to be visible for a month, but then the ap- 

 proach of the planet to the sun made fur- 

 ther accurate observation impossible. 



