384 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



graduates?) of the Johns Hopkins Univer- 

 sity are permitted to be issued in the name 

 of, or dated from, the university, without 

 the consent of the professor to whose de- 

 partment the subject-matter belongs, or, in 

 defect of such professor, ot the head of the 

 university. 



The Engineering and Mining Journal 

 proposes to its readers the following prob- 

 lem in proportion : If the German Conti- 

 nental Gas-Light Company is able to declare 

 13 percent, dividends on its capital of nearly 

 $3,000,000, when paying 5.75 per ton for 

 its coal, and charging $1.01 and $1.35 per 

 thousand feet for its 15.9 candle-gas, what 

 are the profits of the New York gas com- 

 panies, which pay $6 per ton for their coal, 

 and charge $2.50 per thousand feet for a 

 poorer gas ? 



In the School of Anthropology lately 

 opened under the auspices of the Paris Fac- 

 ulty of Medicine, Prof. Paul Broca lectures 

 ou anatomical anthropology, M. F. Topinard 

 on biological anthropology, M. Dally on 

 ethnology, M. de Mortillet on prehistoric 

 anthropology, and M. Hovelacque on lin- 

 guistic anthropology. The course is open 

 to the public. 



Several members of the Paris Anthro- 

 pological Society have promised each to 

 write a will directing that his brain be sent 

 to the society, for inspection and dissection. 

 It is thought that, by procuring the thinking 

 organ of persons whose habits and works 

 are perfectly known, some light might be 

 thrown on the laws of physico-mental organ- 

 ization. The scheme is anathematized by 

 the leading religious newspaper of France, 

 the Univers. 



On and about pistons and journals which 

 have been lubricated with animal and vege- 

 table oils, lumps of dirty matter are found, 

 consisting of iron oxide and fatty acids. 

 Dr. Schondorff has found that the oil is de- 

 composed by steam into glycerine and fatty 

 acid, and that the latter attacks the iron, 

 causing enlargement of the cylinder. He 

 therefore recommends the use of heavy min- 

 eral oils as lubricators. 



An association has been formed and an 

 estate purchased on the Sussex (Fngland) 

 coast, for building houses of a superior char- 

 acter, and on the most approved principles, 

 so as to secure all the advantages depicted 

 by Dr. Richardson as belonging to his "Hy- 

 geia," or City of Health. 



The great maritime canal connecting 

 Amsterdam with the German Ocean was 

 opened November 1st, with imposing cere- 

 mony. The canal is sixteen miles in length, 

 and has at the sea-end a harbor covering 

 250 acres, which, however, is not quite com- 

 pleted. 



It is stated in Land and Water, as a fact 

 bevond contradiction, that the choice Ensr- 

 lish breeds of cattle have for some years 

 not only tended to djminish in size, but also 

 'in robustness of constitution. The milk- 

 yielding qualities of English cattle, too, are 

 declining, so that the importation of cheese 

 and butter is increasing enormously. This 

 is strikingly the case with the Durhams, in 

 which everything is sacrificed to form. In 

 the finest strains of Durham cattle fecundity 

 has been seriously affected, and the uiilk- 

 secretion has become next to nothing. 



The loss, in 18*75, to Russia, from the 

 ravages of wolves, amounted to about 15,- 

 000,000 rubles. The number of cattle 

 killed was 179,000; of sheep, etc., 562,900. 

 In the government of Kalouga alone the 

 wolves killed 8,200 geese and 2,000 dogs. 

 The human lives destroyed by the wolves 

 are estimated at 200 per year. 



At the fifth meeting of Russian natural- 

 ists, held at Warsaw, September 12th, propo- 

 sals were favorably received to establish a 

 zoological station on the Solovetzky Islands, 

 and to request the aid of the Naval Depart- 

 ment for dredgings in the Black Sea. Messrs. 

 Grimm and Bogdanoff informed the meeting 

 that they had undertaken two publications, a 

 popular periodical, Herald of Natural Sci- 

 ence, and a periodical in French or German, 

 which would give to foreign readers brief 

 notices of scientific work in Russia. 



A miner at Nitshill, in Scotland, lately 

 committed suicide by blowing himself up 

 with dynamite. He procured a parcel of 

 the explosive, went into the middle of the 

 street, lighted the fuse, and leaned over the 

 dynamite. The man was blown to atoms, 

 and, on the spot where the dynamite had 

 been laid, a hole was made about three feet 

 deep by two and a half wide. 



A commission appointed by the Govern- 

 ment of Prussia to ascertain sundry anthro- 

 pological data, has reported that of 4,127,776 

 pupils in schools, 42.97 per cent, had blue 

 eyes, and 24.31 per cent, brown; 72 per 

 cent, had blond hair, 26 per cent, brown, 

 and 1.21 per cent, black. With regard to 

 the color of the skin, only 6.53 had brunette 

 complexion. 



In a letter addressed to M. Dumas, of the 

 Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Gachez as- 

 serts that vines may be protected from the 

 ravages of the Phylloxera by planting "red 

 maize " between the rows. The insect quits 

 the vine and attacks the roots of the maize. 



In 1849, out of every sixteen men, wom- 

 en, and children, in England ar,d Wales, 

 one was a pauper maintained by the charity 

 of the remaining fifteen. In 1852 one in 

 twenty was a pauper, and in 1875 only one 

 in thirty. 



