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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



500 feet above sea-level. On referring to 

 the Times of Saturday, with to-day's pro- 

 gramme, I find that the time (2.15) may 

 coincide with one of the general salutes at 

 Spithead, though at this distance it seems 

 almost impossible that the vibration should 

 be felt. We are familiar with the sound 

 of salutes, from frequent summer visits to 

 Stoke's Bay. I send the facts for what they 

 may turn out to be worth." 



In connection with the shortest railway 

 route to India, via the Persian Gulf, an Eng- 

 lishman, resident in Damascus, suggests as 

 worthy of consideration the ancient Roman 

 causeway, which, it is said, exists, in an al- 

 most perfect state, from Bozrah in the Hau- 

 ran, to Bassorah on the Persian Gulf. The 

 roadstead of Acre might easily be formed 

 into a good port, to serve as the Mediterra- 

 nean terminus of the road. 



Prop. Ferrier has obtained a grant 

 from the Royal Society of London, which 

 will enable him to pursue his studies on 

 monkeys. He has already made some prog- 

 ress in these researches, as may be seen 

 from the following passage taken from a 

 letter written by Dr. Lauder-Brunton to the 

 editor of the Philadelphia Medical Times. 

 "Already his experiments on his Simian 

 cousins have commenced," writes Dr. Brun- 

 ton, " and the results are most satisfactory. 

 He can make an animal follow his command 

 by simply touching different parts of the 

 brain, by the electrode, and 'eyes right,' 

 ' eyes left,' ' eyes open,' ' eyes shut,' ' mouth 

 open,' ' mouth shut,' ' tongue out,' ' tongue 

 in,' etc., follow as certainly as the machinery 

 of a London penny steamer follows the 

 commands, ' ease her,' ' stop her,' ' back 

 her.' " Whereupon the Medical Times ob- 

 serves that " it certainly looks squally for 

 Prof. Brown-Sequard's theory of the origin 

 of brain-symptoms." 



According to the Scientific American, a 

 Canadian inventor has originated a method 

 of producing from the milk-weed, or other 

 plants of the genus Asclepias, as also from 

 flax and other seeds, a gum designed to 

 serve as a substitute for India-rubber. The 

 substances are macerated and fermented, 

 and the liquid is then reduced, by evapora- 

 tion, to a thick, gummy mass, possessed of 

 many of the valuable qualities of rubber. 



An "Acclimatization Society," for the 

 introduction of singing-birds, as also of 

 birds serviceable to the gardener and farmer, 

 has been founded in Cincinnati. During 

 the past spring the expenditure of the society 

 amounted to $5,000, and fifteen European 

 species of birds were introduced. The sky- 

 lark is already acclimated at Cincinnati, 

 and in the country around the summer air 

 is vocal with his cheerful song. 



From a microscopical examination of the 

 blood of 143 lunatics, by Dr. H. Sutherland, 

 of London, it appears that the blood in the 

 insane generally contains an excess of the 

 white corpuscles, and that its red corpuscles 

 frequently show no tendency to arrange 

 themselves in rouleaux. The coexistence 

 of these two abnormal characters in the 

 blood indicates, according to Dr. Sutherland, 

 a very low degree of vitality. In ten men, 

 suffering from general paralysis, whose 

 blood was found to exhibit one or other or 

 both of these conditions, five died within 

 three months after their blood was exam- 

 ined. 



Notwithstanding that during the past 

 few years great efforts have been made both 

 here and in England to put a stop to com- 

 mercial frauds and adulterations, the evil 

 still continues almost undiminished. For 

 instance, it is estimated that the milk 

 vended in English towns is impoverished 

 to the extent of at least 25 per cent, on the 

 average ; in some cases the impoverish- 

 ment amounts to as much as 50 per cent. 

 But the most glaring fraud of this kind on 

 record was recently perpetrated in Ireland. 

 Two milk-dealers were arrested in Dublin 

 and convicted of selling milk containing, in 

 the one case, 60, and in the other 75 per 

 cent, of water. 



Herr Eimer has recently found on a pre- 

 cipitous rock near the island of Capri a new 

 species of lizard. It is blue all over, with 

 dark spots on the back, while all the lizards 

 in Capri are of a bright green, with only a 

 little blue at the extremities. The rock is 

 destitute of vegetation, and of a blue color. 

 When at rest the lizard is hardly visible, 

 its color being so like that of the rock. The 

 rock, which is frequented by birds of prey, 

 was at one time connected with Capri, and 

 the blue lizards are supposed by Herr Eimer 

 to be descended from the green, but trans- 

 formed by natural selection to blue. 



" A Constant Reader " wishes to know 

 how to pronounce the name of the author 

 of " Physics and Politics," Mr. Walter Bage- 

 hot. We gave the pronunciation of the 

 name in a notice of the book in the Febru- 

 ary number. It is not Bag-hot, or Bag-shot, 

 but Baj-ote, the a being sounded as in 

 badge. 



M. Merget, of the Paris Academy of 

 Sciences, has solved the problem of pro- 

 ducing indelible photographic proofs. He 

 employs for this purpose salts of platinum, 

 palladium, and iridium, reducing them with 

 vapors of mercury, iodine, and hydrogen. 

 The proof so obtained is absolutely unalter- 

 able, no matter how long it may be kept, as 

 it contains no substance which can be af- 

 fected by light. 



