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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



ters. ITe is still, it is stated, busily em- 

 ployed in prosecuting his researches, and it 

 is strongly suspected that a number of other 

 unknowu villages will be dragged to light. 



Died, June 14th, Prof. Henry d'Arrest, 

 of the University of Copenhagen, aged fifty- 

 three years. The Royal Astronomical So- 

 ciety of England last February awarded to 

 Prof. d'Arrest a gold medal for his " Cata- 

 logue of the NebuliB." At the time of his 

 death he had just completed and published 

 his spectroscopic survey of the northern 

 heavens. 



We published a note in the July Popular 

 Science Monthly, on the authority of the 

 Sanitarian, giving the annual death-rates of 

 several American cities, as deduced from 

 the mortality of the month of March last. 

 That of the city of Nashville was represented 

 as the highest of the places mentioned, its 

 death-rate being set down at 3Y.69 per 

 thousand per annum. This was a grave 

 mistake, which it is both a duty and a 

 pleasure to correct. It appears from official 

 documents sent us by the authorities of 

 that city, and based on carefully-collected 

 data, that the mortality in March gives a 

 death-rate of only 26. 27 per thousand, a 

 figure considerably below that of several of 

 the other cities named. 



At the meeting of the American Asso- 

 ciation a report was submitted by Prof. 

 Newton on weights and measures. It is 

 there stated that the leading powers of the 

 world have called for a convention during 

 the present year, to provide for the creation 

 and maintenance, in the city of Paris, of an 

 organization to be known as the Interna- 

 tional Bureau of Verification. This bureau 

 will be charged with the distribution, to the 

 governments of the powers represented, of 

 accurate standards of measurement. The 

 report also contains resolutions providing 

 for a memorial to Congress requesting an 

 appropriation to provide for the expense 

 of commissioners from the United States. 

 These resolutions were unanimously adopted 

 by the Association. 



M. Berenger-Feraud, surgeon in the 

 French naval service, notes a singular cus- 

 tom which he found existing among the Ba- 

 lances, a tribe dwelling on the banks of the 

 Casamanca, in intertropical Africa. They 

 make the duration of marriage responsibil- 

 ities dependent on the conservation of the 

 pagua, or festive garment given to the 

 wife by the husband on the occasion of their 

 wedding. The woman who wishes to be di- 

 vorced from her lord has merely to wear 

 out her pagua as fast as possible, and then 

 present it in a tattered condition to her 

 family, whereupon she obtama release from 

 the power of her husband. 



The Sniithsonian Institution and the In- 

 dian Bureau are forming a large collection 

 of crania, ornaments, utensils, weapons, 

 pottery, and the like, illustrative of the eth- 

 nology and archceology of North America, 

 which will form a department of the Cen- 

 tennial Exposition at Philadelphia. At the 

 late meeting of the American Association 

 a resolution was adopted inviting the Inter- 

 national Congress of Prehistoric Archaeol- 

 ogists to hold their meeting of next year in 

 the United States. The delegates to the 

 Congress would find, in the collection men- 

 tioned above, an abundance of material 

 which could not fail to throw light upon 

 many of tiie obscure problems of the early 

 history of mankind. 



In examining the surface-mud of a shal- 

 low rain-water pool, Prof. Leidy observed 

 the movements of a multitude of micro- 

 scopic algae, which he referred to the species 

 Navicula radiosa. These diatoms were very 

 active, gliding hither and thither, and knock- 

 ing the quartz-sand grains about. Compar- 

 ative measurements showed that the navic- 

 ulse could move grains of sand as much as 

 twenty-five times their own superficial area, 

 and probably fifty times their own bulk and 

 weight, or perhaps more. 



Prof. Ramsay is of the opinion that 

 in pre-Miocene times the Alps were prob- 

 ably higher than they are now, notwith- 

 standing the fact that their present eleva- 

 tion is due to subsequent upheaval. That 

 the Alps suffered very extensive denudation 

 during the Miocene period he finds amply 

 demonstrated by the enormous thickness of 

 fresh-water and marine deposits of Miocene 

 age, now spread over Switzerland, these de- 

 posits having been formed by the degrada- 

 tion of the pre-Miocene Alps. An elevation 

 of upward of 5,000 feet took place after the 

 deposition of these strata, but the Alps con 

 tinued to suffer denudation during the Plio- 

 cene and post-Pliocene ages, although it is 

 difficult to estimate the extent of this loss. 



A FUNGUS, belonging to one genus with 

 the Peronospora infestans of the potato, is 

 at present ravaging the opium-poppy in 

 India. This fungus {Peronospora arbores- 

 cens) is invariably found in the blighted 

 leaves of the poppy. After the parasite 

 has done its work, the leaves of the plant 

 become infested with several other fungi, 

 chiefly saprophytes. 



The leaves of Eucalyptus ghbnlus con- 

 tain an ethereal oil, of which even half-dried 

 leaves contain 6 per cent., and, according to 

 Gimbert, this oil is a very powerful antisep- 

 tic. It will preserve blood and pus as long 

 as carbolic acid, and far longer than oil of 

 turpentine. It prevents also the appear- 

 ance of fungi and vibrios. 



