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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



kilns. The gas furthermore supplies fuel 

 for three engines, ten furnaces in the dry- 

 ing-house, and several dwellings the latter 

 obtaining in this way both light and heat. 

 There remains withal a large surplus of 

 gas, which is unused, except from the top 

 of an escape-pip-, for illuminating the coun- 

 try around. 



The Nation is authority for the state- 

 ment that the office of Director of the In- 

 ternational Bureau of Weights and Measures 

 in Paris has been offered to Prof. J. E. Hil- 

 gard, of the United States Coast Survey. 



Died, at Bonn, on September 13th, at the 

 age of eighty-nine years, Jakob Noggerath, 

 for about fifty years Professor of Mineralo- 

 gy in the university of that town. The de- 

 ceased was a most assiduous student of 

 mineralogy and geology, and his contribu- 

 tions to scientific literature were very vo- 

 luminous. 



Mr. Henry Xewtox, geologist, attached 

 to Jenney's Black Hills Exploring Expedi- 

 tion, died at Deadwood City, August 5th, at 

 the early age of thirty-two years. Mr. New- 

 ton was a graduate of the Columbia College 

 School of Mines ; later, Assistant Professor 

 of Geology in the same institution ; then he 

 joined the Ohio Survey under Prof. New- 

 berry ; finally, two years ago, he became 

 geologist of Prof. Jenney's Expedition to 

 the Black Hills. 



Mr. R. A. Proctor, in excusing himself 

 for not answering all the letters of inquiry 

 he receives, gives the following account 

 of his multifarious occupations : Seeing 

 through the press three new works and four 

 new editions, preparing two pamphlets, writ- 

 ing one translation of an 800-page book, 

 and preparing four new works ; writing ar % 

 tides for English and American magazines ; 

 lecturing occasionally ; business correspond- 

 ence with ten publishers ; personal con- 

 cerns ; original research. 



At a meeting of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, a note by L. Laliman was read, in 

 which the author stated that he had dis- 

 covered an insect which preys on the Phyl- 

 loxera. This insect, or rather its larva 

 for M. Laliman had not seen the perfect 

 insect devours phylloxeras with great avid- 

 ity, and the author saw as many as ninety- 

 five disappearing in the space of ten min- 

 ims. The larva was found in the interstices 

 of the leaf-galls, ami sometimes in the sub- 

 stance of the galls. M. Laliman thinks he 

 has seen the egg of this insect; it occurs 

 on the underside of the leaf; but he has 

 not seen it hatched. A member of the 

 Academy, M. Balbiani, remarked that the 

 fact observed by Laliman is not altogether 

 new. The larva seen by him belongs to 

 the genus Syrphus, or to some allied genus. 

 Th Larvae of Syrphus all prey on Aphides. 



An expedition, with aims similar to those 

 of the " Woodruff Expedition," will sail 

 from Havre, France, on the 15th of June, 

 1878. This expedition will be absent from 

 France for eleven months. Of this time it 

 is proposed to spend about six months aid 

 a half in excursions inland in America, 

 North and South, the Pacific Archipelagos, 

 Australia, Japan, China, British India, etc. 

 The cost of passage is 17,000 francs per 

 head. 



Mr. Richard S. Floyd, one of the trus- 

 tees of the " Lick Trust," on his return to 

 California, after an extended tour of foreign 

 travel, during which he collected all the 

 information he could with regard to the 

 construction of great telescopes, expressed 

 his belief that the best telescope for the 

 Lick Observatory would be a refractor of 

 the largest size. The cost of a suitable in- 

 strument, with object-glass of forty inches, 

 would not, he thinks, exceed $150,000. 

 But, in addition to the great refi actor, Mr. 

 Floyd would have in the observatory a re- 

 flector about four feet in diameter, with 

 both silvered glass and speculum-uietal mir- 

 rors. This would cost about $20,000. 



A service of plate was recently pre- 

 sented in London to Senor Manuel Garcia 

 " in recognition of the great services he has 

 rendered alike to science and humanity by 

 his important discovery of the laryngo- 

 scope." 



Advices from Australia announce the 

 total and sudden disappearance of a group 

 of guano-islands the Barker Islands situ- 

 ate in latitude 14 south, and longitude 125 

 east, just off the northwest coast of Austra- 

 lia. In April last Mr. Fisher, a capitalist of 

 Tasmania, who had obtained from the gov- 

 ernment the right of working the guano-de- 

 posits, visited their site with three steam- 

 ships, but found there only a " waste of 

 waters," and had to return empty. The Bar- 

 ker Islands are not mentioned in the ,l Im- 

 perial Gazetteer," nor are they indicated in 

 the atlases. 



There was exported from China to 

 Europe, in the year 1875, the enormous 

 amount of about sixty tons of human hair. 

 This hair is ostensibly the product of the 

 sweeping of barber-shops, but there is little 

 doubt that much of it represents " pig-tails " 

 feloniously snipped from their wearers' 

 heads. 



The addition of cheese to the army and 

 navy ration, in part substitution for salt 

 meat, is advocated by a writer in the Poly- 

 technic Review. The suggestion is a good 

 one, the advantages of cheese being mani- 

 fold : it is wholesome, highly _ nutritious, 

 aids digestion, needs no cooking, and is 

 easily handled and transported. 



