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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



discussed by Arthur Keith ; and the same 

 type of mountain-folding was described by 

 C. D. Walcott in the White Mountain range 

 of Inyo County, Cal. Other papers on the 

 Paleozoic rock series, and on their fossils, 

 were by N. S. Shaler, H. P. Gushing, C. R. 

 Keyes, H. S. Williams, David White, and Dr. 

 Robert Bell. Mesozoic formations in Arkan- 

 sas were described by G. K. Gilbert and F. 

 P. Gulliver; in Montana, by W. H. Weed 

 and L. V. Pirsson ; and in Maryland and 

 New Jersey, by W. B. Clark and N. H. Dar- 

 ton. Coming down to the present time in 

 the geologic record, the Tertiary and Quater- 

 nary formations of New Jersey were reviewed 

 by R. D. Salisbury ; and the history of the 

 island of Cuba during these eras was traced 

 by J. W. Spencer. About a dozen other 

 papers were on observations in petrography 

 and mineralogy. The officers elect for the 

 year 1895 are Prof. N. S. Shaler, Cambridge, 

 Mass., president; Prof. Joseph Le Conte, 

 Berkeley, Cal, first vice-president; Prof. C. 

 H. Hitchcock, Hanover, N. H., second vice- 

 president ; Prof. H. L. Fairchild, Rochester, 

 N. Y., secretary ; Prof. I. C. White, Morgan- 

 town, W. Va., treasurer; Mr. J. Stanley- 

 Brown, Washington, D. C, editor; and Mr. 

 R. W. Ells, Ottawa, Canada, and Prof. C. R. 

 Van Hise, Madison, Wis., new members of 

 the council. 



Prof. Snlly's Inqniries. Prof. James 

 Sully, being about to issue a new and re- 

 vised edition of his Teacher's Handbook of 

 Psychology, and desiring to make it as use- 

 ful as possible to teachers, invites sugges- 

 tions as to the directions in which the book 

 might be improved. He would also be glad 

 to receive striking observations of children's 

 mental characteristics as they reveal them- 

 selves under the processes of education, and 

 fresh illustrations of the effects on the young 

 mind of methods of teaching which accord 

 with the principles laid down, and still more 

 of those which conflict with them. These 

 observations may relate to the ignorances of 

 children, their preconceptions and prejudices, 

 the special directions of their observation 

 and interest, their customary lines of mental 

 association (sequence of ideas), their ways 

 of interpreting language, their modes of 

 judging and reasoning about things, their 

 sensibility and insensibility, and their atti- 



tude toward moral discipline. Illustrations 

 are also desired of the practical bearing of 

 principles, and more especially of the evils 

 resulting from the neglect of them. Mr. 

 Sully's address is East Heath Road, Hamp- 

 stead, London, N. W. Communications 

 should be sent before the end of April, 1895. 



Disinfection of Scarlet-Fever Patients. 



Experiments by Dr. William Gibson, of Camp- 

 beltown, Scotland, in disinfecting scarlet- fever 

 patients so as to free them from contagion 

 before the process of desquamation is com- 

 pleted, have resulted successfully. His methoc 

 was to give a succession of three or four 

 comfortably warm baths, sometimes daily, at 

 other times on alternate days, using freelr 

 carbolic-acid soap, and washing the patient 

 thoroughly from top to toe. After each bath, 

 except the last, the patient was put back to 

 the bed on which he had lain with the dis- 

 ease. After the last bath he was taken 

 into a clean room, dressed with clothes free 

 from infection, and then allowed to mingle 

 with the rest of the family. In most cases 

 the body was anointed daily with olive oil 

 mixed with some disinfectant. Patients 

 with such complications as otitis or ulcerated 

 or suppurating throat were not subjected to 

 the process. No complications followed the 

 cleansing process in any case ; but convales- 

 cence seemed to be rather hastened than 

 retarded. 



Tlie Elements of Speecli in the Kinder- 

 garten, Drill in the sounds that make up 

 words is suggested by Mrs. E. B. Burnz as a 

 proper and profitable exercise for the kinder- 

 garten. Her idea is set forth in three arti- 

 cles that appeared in the Kindergarten 

 News in the course of 1894. Few pupils or 

 teachers in the ordinary schools realize that 

 every word is composed of sounds into which 

 it may be divided. Practice in making the 

 separate sounds, combining them to form 

 words, and separating words into their pho- 

 netic elements would greatly facilitate cor- 

 rect and ready enunciation both in speaking 

 and reading. Many parents are much dis- 

 tressed because their children, when of 

 kindergarten age and older, can not speak 

 plainly. Such phonetic drill would be of 

 great benefit to these children. The idea by 

 no means involves the introduction of read- 



