288 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



Mr. L. P. G rat a cap recently read before 

 the Natural Science Association of Staten Isl- 

 and a paper on chlorides in the rainfall of the 

 island for 18S4. The results of his obser- 

 vations on thirty-two rainfalls, or about two 

 thirds of the number that occurred during 

 the year, gave "228 gramme of chlorine, or 

 376 gramme of common salt, as the aver- 

 age amount of those substances that fell 

 with a gallon of water. Taking an average 

 rainfall of 3*5 inches, he was led to the con- 

 clusion that, calculated as common salt, the 

 amount of chlorides brought down with the 

 rain in 1SS4 was 6*10 pounds per acre. Free 

 hydrochloric acid and reactions for sulphates 

 and sulphuric acid were also obtained, prob- 

 ably from neighboring manufactories. 



Vaseline has been recommended by 

 some one for shortening in pastry, but M. 

 A. Riche has warned the health authorities 

 of Paris that its use in foods is injurious to 

 health. 



An English translation is about to ap- 

 pear of M. Paul Bert's "First Year of 

 Scientific Instruction." The work has had 

 an extraordinary sale in France, amounting 

 to ten editions of fifty thousand copies each 

 in three years, and is used in nearly all the 

 schools. 



Platinum has been discovered in New 

 South Wales in connection with gold in the 

 Ophir district ; in small grains in the Hun- 

 ter and Macleay districts ; as a nugget, 

 weighing 208 grains, in Wiseman's Creek ; 

 and in the sand of the sea-coast near Rich- 

 mond River. 



In a recent United States consular re- 

 port, the population of Liberia is estimated 

 at 767,500, of whom 750,000 are aborigines 

 not yet enjoying the rights of citizenship, 

 and the remainder are immigrants and civil- 

 ized aborigines and their descendants. The 

 Ca.valla River, navigable for two hundred 

 miles, has great commercial importance, 

 having an agricultural country with some 

 gold-washings upon it. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



George Helmersen, the eminent Rus- 

 sian geologist, is dead, at the age of eighty- 

 two years. Having studied at Dorpat, he 

 accompanied his teacher, Engclhart, along 

 the course of the lower Volga and the 

 Ural ; then took part in Hofmann's and 

 Humboldt's explorations of the Ural region. 

 Having been appointed to a position in the 

 Mining Institute of St. Petersburg in 1835, 

 he made vacation geological journeys over 

 the Kirghiz Steppe, through Norway and 

 Sweden, the coal districts' of Poland and 

 Silesia, the mining districts of Lakes Onega 

 and Peipus, and the bituminous-coal regions 



of Kherson and Kiev ; and explored the 

 gold - mines of Beresovek. He published 

 numerous memoirs on the results of these 

 investigations. 



Conchology has lost one of its most in- 

 dustrious students by the death of Mr. Geof- 

 frey Nevill, at Davos Platz, February 10th, 

 in the forty-second year of his age. He was 

 a son of Mr. William Nevill, of Ilolloway, 

 England, who was interested in mineralogy 

 and had a famous collection of Meteorites. 

 Inspired with some of his father's tastes, he 

 began making collections of shells at an 

 early age. With these, and other collec- 

 tions of his own, he enriched the Museum of 

 Calcutta, with which the most important la- 

 bors of his life were connected. He con- 

 tributed many papers on his favorite study 

 to the " Journal " of the Asiatic Society of 

 Bengal, and compiled the valuable " Hand 

 List of Mollusca in the Indian Museum," 

 which, however, he was not able to complete, 

 on account of ill health. During the later 

 years of his life, while an invalid, he was 

 engaged in making collections near Mentone 

 and around the Lake of Como. 



The Russian naturalist, Mr. N. Severt- 

 soff, died January 11th, in consequence of 

 the cold following his being plunged into the 

 river Don by his vehicle breaking through 

 the ice. He explored the Thian Shan in 

 1867, and wrote books on the vertical and 

 horizontal distribution of the animals of 

 Turkistan and on the birds of the Pamir, 

 to which is owing what is known of those 

 subjects outside of Russia. 



The death is announced of Mr. Frederick 

 Field, one of the original members of the 

 Chemical Society, who had been vice-con- 

 sul in Caldera, Chili, and Professor of Chem- 

 istry at St. Mary's Hospital and in the Lon- 

 don Institution. He contributed to scien- 

 tific publications numerous papers on vari- 

 ous branches of chemistry, especially on 

 topics relating to the mineralogy and metal- 

 lurgy of South America. 



The death is reported of Professor Dun- 

 ker, mineralogist and paleontologist, of Mar- 

 burg. 



Sir Frederick Palgrave Barlee, who 

 died in Trinidad last summer while serving 

 as governor pro tern, of the island, had done 

 considerable official service to geographical 

 and archaeological exploration. As Colonial 

 Secretary of Western Australia, he gave en- 

 couragement to Mr. John Forrest's explora- 

 tions, and had the great Lake Barlee named 

 after him. As Lieutenant-Governor of Brit- 

 ish Honduras, he extended official support 

 in aid of Mr. II. Fowler's journey across the 

 unexplored part of the colony, and also en- 

 couraged and assisted the explorations of 

 Dr. Le Plon''eon in Yucatan. 



