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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



water at low tide, near the Narrows en- 

 trance to New York harbor, had the odor 

 of the newly-grown wood, and a piece not 

 more than twice the size of one's finger 

 perceptibly scented a drawer for more than 

 a year. " It is certain," says Mr. Lewis, 

 " that the coast, where the trees of which 

 these are the stumps grew, has since un- 

 dergone a depression of 18 or 20 feet, an 

 event which may have occupied as many 

 centuries." 



TnE eminent chemist, Berthclet, was 

 lately elected a member of the French 

 Academy of Sciences. The honor has come 

 tardily enough, and was conferred only by 

 the very small majority of three, sixty mem- 

 bers voting. The Revue Scientrfiqtie openly 

 charges the academicians who voted against 

 Rerthelet with bigotry, their objections be- 

 taken 



ing 



against the freethinker rather 



than against the man of science. 



The idea of making each of the several 

 parts of many different machines inter- 

 changeable, says the Bulletin of Wool 

 Manufacture, is unquestionably of Ameri- 

 can origin. Its author, a mechanic named 

 Thomas Warner, employed in the Spring- 

 field Armory, offered the suggestion to the 

 Ordnance Bureau, Washington, but the idea 

 was scouted as impracticable. Mr. Warner 

 persevered, however, and obtained a trial 

 for his system in the Springfield establish- 

 ment. It is now followed in all armories 

 throughout this country, as well as in man- 

 ufactories of sewing-machines, watches, etc. 

 Our contemporary says : " It is this system 

 which enables us to supply all Europe with 

 arms, and to export sewing-machines to all 

 the European nations, notwithstanding the 

 vastly higher cost of our labor." 



The statistics of disease and mortality 

 in the manufacturing establishments of the 

 Russian Empire are absolutely startling. 

 The number of such establishments in Rus- 

 sia is estimated at 90,000, and the num- 

 ber of work-people employed in them at 

 1,000,000. They are subject to numerous 

 diseases of a serious character, among which 

 the factory-typhus holds the first place. 

 The sick-rate is from 60 to 70 per cent., 

 and the mean duration of life is only 20 

 years. Rickets prevail to a deplorable ex- 

 tent among the youth of the working-class, 

 and the effects of a factory-life upon chil- 

 dren are described as disastrous. A gov- 

 ernment commission is to investigate the 

 matter. 



De Fonvielle calls the attention of the 

 French Academy of Science to a remarka- 

 ble passage in a work on Comets, by Heve- 

 lius, written in the year 1G52 ; it is in har- 

 mony with the most recent observations, 

 and is as follows : " Comets are made up 



of various nuclei and bodies, and hence 

 these phenomena do not by any means con- 

 sist of one solid spherical body or nucleus, 

 as do the planets, but are made up of many 

 different opaque nuclei and bodies, connect- 

 ed together, some rarer and more tenuous 

 matter existing between, and allowing a 

 free passage for the sun's rays." 



It is rather amusing to find Mr. Hux- 

 ley mixed up with a matter of ecclesiastical 

 concernment, but his position as rector of 

 a university in so religious a country as 

 Scotland makes it inevitable. A student of 

 divinity was presented to a " bursary " in 

 the university by the regular patron of the 

 fund, but he was rejected by the Profes- 

 sorial " Senate" on the ground that he was 

 not a member of the Established Kirk. 

 Huxley made a speech in favor of the 

 young man, as did also one of the profess- 

 ors, but the majority was opposed. The 

 lord-rector says that he wants to know 

 " whether the divinity classes of the Scotch 

 universities are the exclusive property of 

 one of the ecclesiastical bodies into which 

 Scotland is divided, and whether the pro- 

 fessors are to obey their church or their 

 university ? " 



A new geological museum is to be 

 founded in the University of Cambridge, 

 as a memorial to the late Prof. Sedgwick. 

 It will be known as the Sedgwick Museum, 

 and is to be made in all respects an institu- 

 tion worthy of that eminent man. At the 

 meeting held for the purpose of devising 

 means for erecting this memorial, Prof. 

 Humphry remarked " that for more than 

 54 years Sedgwick had expended 300 a 

 year on the old museum." The committee 

 charged with the work of obtaining sub- 

 scriptions for the memorial are much en- 

 couraged by the receipt of numerous letters 

 from admirers and old pupils of the de- 

 ceased, who give every assurance of sup- 

 port. 



TnE population of the United States 

 (excluding Indians not taxed, and the in- 

 habitants of the Territories) was, in 1870, 

 38,115,641, a gain in ten years of 6,931,897, 

 or 22.22 per cent. The highest gain of 

 population was shown by Kansas, 239.90 

 per cent. ; and Minnesota came next, 155.61 

 per cent. Louisiana shows a gain of 2.67, 

 and South Carolina of 0.22 per cent. The 

 greatest loss is exhibited by New Hamp- 

 shire, 2.38 per cent. ; and Maine comes 

 next, with a loss of 0.22 per cent. The 

 total increase of the white population was 

 24.39, and of the colored, 9.21 per cent. 



Speaking of the Jewish element is the 

 population of Germany, Virchow says that 

 " it has exerted a mighty influence on our 

 progess in civilization." 



