432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the lungs, do not sleep well on the back. 

 Nearly all who are inclined to snore do so 

 in that position. For these and other rea- 

 sons, it is therefore better to lie on the 

 side, and in lung-disease to lie on the weak 

 side, so as to leave the healthy lung free to 

 expand. It is well to choose the right side, 

 because, when the body is thus placed, the 

 food gravitates more easily out of the stom- 

 ach into the intestines. Sleeping with the 

 arm thrown over the head is to be depre- 

 cated ; but this position is often assumed 

 during sleep, because circulation is then 

 free in the extremities and the head and 

 neck, and the muscles in the chest are 

 drawn up and fixed by the shoulders, and 

 thus expansion of the thorax is easy. The 

 chief objections to this position are that 

 it creates a tendency to cramp and cold in 

 the arms, and sometimes seems to cause 

 headaches and dreams. The best sleep is 

 obtained when the shutters are closed so as 

 to make the room dark, and the windows 

 are adjusted so as to admit plenty of fresh 

 air. Early rising is not a virtue, unless the 

 riser has secured sleep enough ; and the 

 best rising is obtained when the sleeper 

 wakes naturally. 



NOTES. 



Thb works of Darwin, Spencer, Agassiz, 

 Huxley, Adam Smith, and Lewes, are said 

 to be forbidden to be issued from the circu- 

 lating libraries of Russia. The writings of 

 Moleschott, Biichner, Vogt, and Reclus, are 

 also prohibited. 



Doin, of Paris, has begun the publication 

 of a weekly " Journal des Societes Scienti- 

 fiques," which will contain brief reports of 

 the principal scientific societies, in whatever 

 field, of the great cities of Europe. It costs 

 fifteen francs, or three dollars, postage paid, 

 a year. 



M. All card has frequently noticed, in 

 passing from his observatory on the Puy 

 de Dome, to the city of Clermont-Ferrand, 

 that, while the air was clear and transparent 

 to the west of the chain of the Puys, it was 

 obscured on the east. On investigation, 

 he found that the obscurity was caused by 

 the dust which the wind, generally blowing 

 from the west, swept up from the rocks 

 over which it passed. This explanation 

 was confirmed by the fact that the fog- 

 like appearance disappeared after a rain. 



Tiie use of artificial teeth turns out to 

 be of ancient origin. Two curious speci- 



mens of artificial teeth from the Etruscan 

 tombs, dating from four or five centuries 

 before the Christian era, may be seen in 

 the Museum of Corneto, on the coast of 

 Italy. In the bodies of two young girls, on 

 the jaw of one are still to be seen two inci- 

 sors fixed to their neighbors by small gold 

 rings, while in the other the rings remain, 

 but the artificial teeth have fallen out. 

 The teeth, carefully cut, had evidently been 

 taken from the mouth of some large animal. 



IIerr Rudolph Jall, of Saarbrucken, 

 Prussia, who has made a special study of 

 volcanic eruptions, states that colliery ex- 

 plosions coincide with or follow closely 

 upon earthquakes. He specifies a number 

 of days during the present season as days 

 which will be dangerous all over Europe. 



Mr. JosEr-H Thomson, in the relation of 

 his journey through the Masai country in 

 Africa to the Victoria Nyanza, speaks of 

 his troop in one of its marches having 

 "done" little short of seventy miles within 

 twenty-four hours, without a drop of water 

 or a bit of food ! 



A committee has been formed for organ- 

 izing the celebration of the centenary of the 

 birth of Arago, which will occur on the 17th 

 of March next. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Among the deaths of the last few months 

 in the scientific world is that of John Bir- 

 mingham, astronomer, of Millbrook, Ire- 

 land, at the age of seventy-eight years. 



In A. S. Uwarrow, who died a few 

 months ago, Russia has lost one of its 

 foremost archaeologists and the founder of 

 the Archaeological Society of Moscow. He 

 published works on the archaeology of 

 Southern Russia, the tumuli on the Oka 

 (Vladimir), and the Finnish people of the 

 Mesia, who inhabited the country before its 

 colonization by the Russians. 



Major F. J. Sidney Parry, one of the 

 oldest members of the Entomological So- 

 ciety of London, died on the 1st day of Feb- 

 ruary. 



Titian Ramsay Peale, the last surviv- 

 ing son of Charles Wilson Peale, the por- 

 trait painter of Revolutionary times, died 

 in Philadelphia, March 13th, in the eight v- 

 sixth year of his age. He was a naturalist, 

 and had fine collections of moths and but- 

 terflies; was one of the founders of the 

 Philosophical Society of Washington ; was 

 a member of the United States Exploring 

 Expedition of Commodore Wilkes ; and was 

 the only survivor of Colonel Long's Expedi- 

 tion to the Rocky Mountains. 



