288 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Dew is known to play an important 

 part in the growth of plants by furnishing 

 them and the surface of the soil with moist- 

 ure. In hot and rainless countries and sea- 

 sons, in fact, plants would not be able to 

 reach maturity were it not for the dew 

 which supplies the deficiency of rain. Ac- 

 cording to M. Prillieux, dew plays another 

 and mischievous part in promoting the 

 growth of parasitic fungoids, whose spores, 

 brought by the wind, owe to it their power to 

 germinate on the plants on which they light. 



A COMMITTEE of the English Medical 

 Council has been appointed to consider the 

 best means of increasing the practical ele- 

 ment in medical education. Although the 

 strictly scientific parts of medicine are 

 taught as they never have been taught be- 

 fore, it is conceded that there has been a 

 falling off in the practical part, and that 

 the new graduate, although more learned in 

 minute anatomy, chemistry, and physiology 

 than his predecessors, is less apt at recog- 

 nizing and treating common diseases. 



The capacity of magnesia to form a ce- 

 ment, long known, has been regarded from 

 a practical point of view since the residues 

 and sub-products of the Stassfurt potash 

 manufacture have risen to commercial im- 

 portance. Dr. Frank's cement of magnesia 

 and chloride of magnesium was unfortu- 

 nately liable to the objection of swelling and 

 breaking up, like some of the lime-cements, 

 in consequence of slow hydration. Dr. 

 Grundman, of Hirschberg, has patented a 

 new process, in which, instead of calcining 

 the magnesia and treating it with water, he 

 makes a carbonate of it by exposing it to 

 carbonic acid as produced by the burning of 

 coke in close apartments. It thus forms a 

 substance as hard as magnesite and capable 

 of taking on a fine polish. Mixed with 

 marble-dust, it forms an artificial dolomite ; 

 and, with soluble silicates, an artificial 

 stucco. 



Experiments with an electric locomo- 

 tive are now being made on one of the un- 

 derground roads in London, which, if suc- 

 cessful, will do away with the chief annoy- 

 ance of underground travel, the smoke, and 

 the danger incident to carrying a powerful 

 electric current along the line will be very 

 much lessened on the underground system. 



Dr. R. W. SncFELDT has made meas- 

 urements of the leaps of the Mexican hare 

 {Lepus callotis cnllotifi) and the sage-hare or 

 rabbit (L. Si/lvalicus NnttaUi) on the snow- 

 covered plains of New Mexico, the animals 

 having been stimulated by a scare from the 

 shot of a fowling-piece. The Jlexican hares 

 cleared twelve and thirteen foct, while the 

 Mexican rabbits could leap fully six feet, 

 and, in one case, more than seven feet. At 

 their common rate of going, he says, " the 



hare rarely clears more than four feet at 

 any single leap, while the rabbit is satisfied 

 with rather more than two feet, and, when 

 quietly feeding about the sage-bush, the 

 tracks made by an individual of either spe- 

 cies may actually overlap each other." 



The Municipal Council of Paris intends 

 to found, in connection with one of the 

 prominent public institutions, a chair of 

 Philosophical Zoology, with a special view 

 to the propagation of the Darwinian doc- 

 trine of evolution. Among those who are 

 named as probable occupants of this chair, 

 the fittest is said to be M. Alfred Giard, late 

 of Lille, but now of Paris, who has taught 

 this doctrine and made researches regarding 

 it, and has gathered around him a school of 

 young zoologists. 



A writer in " Chambers's Journal " has 

 suggested that, if school-prizes are to be con- 

 tinued, their character might be improved, 

 and they might be made to contribute to 

 real zeal in the pursuit of knowledge, and 

 to become a stimulus 1o further eftort, by 

 giving a part of their value, at least, in 

 the form of privileges of free tuition in 

 some school where the recipient's favorite 

 branches could be studied for a longer time 

 and to greater proficiency ; while a smaller 

 part might still be applied to the provis- 

 ion of a medal, as visible evidence of the 

 merit and distinction. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Dr. Maximilian Schmidt, an eminent 

 geologist, and Director of the Zoological 

 Gardens at Berlin, has recently died, at the 

 age of fifty-four years. 



Prof. Hans Carl Frederick Chris- 

 tian ScHJELLEMP, the Danish astronomer, 

 died at the Copenhagen Observatory, No- 

 vember 13th. He was born in 1827, dis- 

 tinguished himself in mathematics at the 

 Polytechnic School in Copenhagen, was ap- 

 pointed observer in the old observatory at 

 Copenhagen in 1851, and succeeded to the 

 new one when it was completed. He de- 

 termined the orbit of the comet of 1580, 

 made zone observations of the stars between 

 15° of north and 15° of south declinations, 

 translated Sufis's descriptions of the fixed 

 stars from the originals, contributed to the 

 journal "Copernicus" articles on the as- 

 tronomy of the ancients, and pubhshed a 

 catalogue of the " red stars." 



Admiral Sir Astley Cooper Key, of 

 the British Navy, died March 3d, in the six- 

 ty-seventh year of his age. He had during 

 his service held the positions of Principal 

 Naval Lord of the Admiralty and Director 

 of the Royal Naval College, and had done 

 much in behalf of the application of science 

 to the wants of the navy. 



