640 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



NOTES. 



In consequence of the growing interest in 

 Industrial drawing and of the few facilities 

 in the State for instruction in this subject, 

 the Faculty of Cornell University have con- 

 sented to receive teachers as special stu- 

 dents, and to afford them all the advantage 

 which the university offers in the various 

 departments of drawing. The departments 

 now established are free-hand drawing, 

 mechanical engineering, civil engineering, 

 and architecture. Special students will 

 enter the same classes as the general stu- 

 dents, and on the same terms. No one but 

 teachers will be received no entrance ex- 

 amination will be required, and no diplomas 

 will be given. 



The remains of a mastodon were lately 

 found near Elkhart, Indiana, which evident- 

 ly belonged to a monster specimen, one of 

 the largest yet discovered. The section of 

 a tusk which was unearthed gave evidence 

 of having been about ten feet long. A mon- 

 ster tooth, six inches over the top, exceed- 

 ingly well preserved, was dug up, and a 

 shoulder-bone, which shows the animal to 

 have been at least twelve feet high. The 

 bones are to be presented to the city Mu- 

 seum Association lately formed at Elkhart. 

 Several large specimens of the remains of 

 mastodons have been found in Elkhart and 

 adjoining counties within the past four or 

 five years. 



The German Association of Naturalists 

 and Physicians will assemble this year at 

 Cassel on September 18th, the sessions con- 

 tinuing for one week. Among the addresses 

 promised are the following : " Relations of 

 Darwinism to Social Democracy," by Oscar 

 Schmidt ; " Symbiosis, Parasitism," etc., by 

 Prof. De Bary ; " The Education of the Phy- 

 sician," by Prof. Fick ; " The Color-Sense 

 and Color-Blindness," by Dr. J. Stilling. 



We regret to announce the death, at 

 Philadelphia, of William M. Gabb, paleontol- 

 ogist, at the early age of thirty-nine years. 

 His life-work commenced in 1862, when he 

 was appointed as paleontologist on the staff 

 of Prof. Whitney in the Geological Survey 

 of California. In 1868 he visited Santo 

 Domingo and made a survey of that island. 

 He went on a similar mission to Costa Rica 

 in 1873. " His various contributions to sci- 

 ence," says the American Journal of Science, 

 " are a great honor to the country, and emi- 

 nently so to the State of California, for 

 which a large share of his work was done." 



Dk. Carl Rokitansky, for thirty years 

 Professor of Pathological Anatomy in the 

 University of Vienna, died in that city on 

 July 23d, aged seventy-four years. His 

 greatest work, a "Manual of Pathological 



Anatomy," was translated into English, 

 and published in London by the Sydenham 

 Society. 



The death of Admiral Sir George Back 

 is announced, aged eighty-one years. Back 

 entered the naval service of Great Brit- 

 ain in 1808, and the following year was 

 taken prisoner by the French, and held in 

 captivity till 1814. In 1819 he did noble 

 service with Franklin in exploring the ex- 

 treme northernmost coast of America. His 

 perseverance and his fertility of resource on 

 that expedition were above all praise. In 

 1825 he again visited the arctic regions un- 

 der the same commander. On both of these 

 expeditions the explorers were rescued from 

 death in the inhospitable north by the heroic 

 exertions of Back. He commanded polar 

 expeditions in 1833-'35 and 1836-'37. 



The Commissioner of Agriculture has 

 recently appointed Prof. J. H. Comstock, of 

 Cornell University, and Prof. A. R. Grote, 

 of Buffalo, New York, director of the Buffalo 

 Society of Natural Sciences, as special ex- 

 aminers, under the direction of Prof. C. V. 

 Riley, entomologist of the department, in 

 an investigation now being initiated of the 

 insects injurious to the cotton-plant. Sev- 

 eral local observers in various parts of the 

 South have also been appointed, and it is 

 the intention of Prof. Riley to make a com- 

 plete report on all insects affecting the South- 

 ern staple and the best means of counteract- 

 ing their injuries, that shall be to the people 

 of the South what the report of the entomo- 

 logical commission on the Rocky Mountain 

 locust is to the people of the West. The 

 department is especially fortunate in se- 

 curing the services of Prof. Grote for this 

 undertaking, as he has already given the 

 subject much attention, and has carefully 

 worked out the life-history of the cotton- 

 worm, one of the worst enemies of the cot- 

 ton-plant. The results of these investiga- 

 tions are contained in a paper read at the 

 Hartford meeting of the American Associa- 

 tion for the Advancement of Science, and 

 published in the " Proceedings" of that year. 



To ascertain the influence of light upon 

 cement, Heinzel divided into three portions 

 a lot of cement, and exposed one of these 

 (A) to the air and full light, another (B) to 

 the air and diffused light, and secluding the 

 third (C) in darkness from the air. After 

 six months it was found that A made a weak 

 mortar by absorbing 38 per cent, of its 

 weight in water, and it had become friable ; 

 B with 33^ per cent, of water made a mortar 

 too adhesive to the trowel, and it yielded 

 up some of its water; C with 33^ per cent, 

 of* water made an excellent mortar, easily 

 stirred and flowing, and it parted with some 

 of its water. After setting for twenty-eight 

 days, the relative strengths were A 3, B 

 37.9, C 44.6. 



