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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Mr. G. W. Tinsley, of Columbus, Indiana, 

 has suggested a new theory of the operation 

 of solar and lunar gravities in producing the 

 tides. The tide on the side of the earth near- 

 est to the attracting bodies is induced by the 

 acceleration of the rotation of the waters on 

 that side causing them to rush up toward 

 the point of greatest attraction. The tide 

 on the opposite side is due to the formation 

 of an axis of gravity by the combined at- 

 tractions of the earth and moon, around the 

 pole of which the water accumulates ; in the 

 same manner as if, when we had a fluid sub- 

 stance that a magnet would attract, and were 

 to fill a vessel with it and hold a magnet un- 

 der the vessel, we might expect the substance 

 to accumulate to a greater depth immedi- 

 ately over the magnet than elsewhere. 



The Rev. James Challis, Plumian Pro- 

 fessor of Astronomy, and Fellow of Trinity 

 College, the senior of the professors at the 

 University of Cambridge, died early in De- 

 cember, in the eightieth year of his age. He 

 had actively discharged the duties of his 

 professorship from 1836, when he was ap- 

 pointed to succeed Professor Airy, till with- 

 in two years of his death. He published a 

 considerable number of scientific works, in- 

 cluding twelve volumes of astronomical ob- 

 servations. 



The " Moniteur Industriel" says that 

 electrical force is regularly installed as the 

 propelling power of the trains on the three 

 railroads from Lichterfeld to Spandau, Prus- 

 sia ; from Port Bush to Busa Mills, Ire- 

 land ; and from Zandvoort to Kostverlorcn, 

 Holland. Electrical railway lines are in 

 construction from Wiesbaden to Neroberg, 

 Prussia ; at Zankerode, in Saxony ; a sub- 

 terranean and subfluvial road in London ; 

 and one in South Wales, the motive power 

 for which is derived from a fall of water. 

 Of lines projected are the urban railways 

 of the cities of Milan and Turin ; the Edi- 

 son Company's projected line in the United 

 States ; and the South Austrian Company's 

 line. 



Signor Antonio Fayoro is about to pub- 

 lish a work on the career of Galileo while 

 he filled the chair of Mathematics in the 

 University of Padua, from 1592 to 1610, a 

 period of Galileo's life concerning which 

 little has been hitherto published. It will 

 contain about a hundred and fifty docu- 

 ments, for the most part unedited. 



Sir Woodbine Parish, a venerable Eng- 

 lish diplomatist, a former vice-president of 

 the Geological and Geographical Societies, 

 and author of a work on the " Natural Histo- 

 ry of Buenos Ayres and the Rio de la Plata," 

 died recently, in the eighty-sixth year of his 

 age. He was also known to the scientific 

 world for having taken to England the re- 

 mains of the megatherium, glyptodon, and 

 other great South American fossils. 



The death is announced of Andrea Ara- 

 das, of Catania, Sicily, a laborious student 

 of marine zoology and paleontology, whose 

 numerous publications extended over a pe- 

 riod of forty years. 



The Peabody Museum of Archaeology 

 has acquired a collection of contemporary 

 potteries in various stages of manufacture, 

 and pottery-making tools, of the Caribs of 

 British Guiana, which were bought in per- 

 son several years ago by Professor H. A. 

 Ward from a Carib woman whom he was 

 watching make earthen vessels. Among 

 the articles were several small and rude ves- 

 sels which Professor Ward saw the Indian 

 woman form and give to her children to 

 play with and amuse themselves while she 

 continued her work. These toy-vessels sug- 

 gest that many of the small objects of sim- 

 ilar character found in mounds and graves 

 may have been the playthings of children. 



Dr. Gustave Syanberg, formerly Profess- 

 or of Astronomy and Director of the Observa- 

 tory of the University of Upsala, Sweden, 

 died November 21st, in his eighty-first year. 



One of the largest brains on record is 

 that of an illiterate, not very intelligent 

 mulatto, of Columbus, Ohio, who recently 

 died at the age of forty-five years, and 

 whose case is reported by Dr. Haldeman 

 in the " Cincinnati Lancet." His brain 

 weighed 68f ounces, or nearly five ounces 

 more than the famous brain of Cuvier. The 

 case was mentioned, in our December num- 

 ber, of a bricklayer who could neither read 

 nor write, whose brain weighed 67 ounces. 



The death of the Marquis Orazio Anti- 

 nori, the distinguished zoologist and African 

 traveler, is reported from Aden. He had 

 just started, at seventy-one years of age, on 

 a new expedition to the Upper Nile. 



One of the strongest evidences that prac- 

 tical education is destined hereafter to re- 

 ceive a fairer share of attention at the old 

 universities is afforded by the fact that a 

 course of lectures has been begun at Cam- 

 bridge, under Professor Stuart, " On the 

 Practice of Iron and Brass Founding, with 

 Practical Demonstrations in the Foundry." 



M. Palmieri, Director of the Observatory 

 on Mount Vesuvius, announces that he has 

 discovered, in the lava of that voleano, a 

 spectrum line corresponding to that of heli- 

 um, the element whose spectrum has hith- 

 erto been found only in the sun. 



The French Academy of Sciences pre- 

 sented M. J. B. Dumas, the chemist, on the 

 4th of December, a gold medal, in commem- 

 oration of his having rsached the fiftieth 

 year of his membership of the body. M. 

 Jamin, representing the Academy, expressed 

 wonder that it had only taken fifty years to 

 do as much as M. Dumas had accomplished. 



