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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



A TRIAL race was recently had at Tours, 

 France, to determine the relative speed of 

 different kinds of couriers. Four horsemen 

 of the dragoons and hussars, four cyclists on 

 cycles of different kinds, two trained dogs, 

 and some carrier-pigeons, competed. The 

 course was from Tours to Montbazon, 4,300 

 metres. The pigeons accomplished it in 5' 

 35" ; the hussars'in 7' 57" ; the dragoons in 

 8' ; the dog Brisefer in 8' 8", Turco in 8' 38" ; 

 the bieyclettist (riding a velocipede with two 

 small and equal wheels) in T 5"; the bi- 

 cyclist in 9' 15 ; and two tricyclists in 10' 

 30" and 10' 40" respectively. 



Mrs. Emma W. IIatden has given to the 

 Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia 

 in trust the sum of $25,000, to be known as 

 the Ilayden Memorial Fund, in memory of 

 her husband, the late Prof. F. V. Hayden. 

 The interest of the fund is to be applied to 

 the purchase of a bronze medal and a fur- 

 ther money reward to be given for the best 

 publication, exploration, discovery, or re- 

 search in geology or paleontology. The 

 determination of the award will rest with a 

 committee suitably appointed by the Acad- 

 emy. The competition will be open to 

 Americans and others. 



According to the calculations of Prof. 

 Kirchhoff, of Ilalle, the Chinese language is 

 spoken by 400,000,000 persons ; Hindustani 

 and English by 100,000,000 each ; Russian 

 by 70,000,000 ; German by more than 67,- 

 000,000 ; and Spanish by 47,000,000. French 

 is seventh in order. 



Rabies prevailed among the deer of 

 Richmond Park, London, and made necessary 

 the destruction of many of the animals. The 

 character of the disease was determined by 

 inoculating rabbits with it, and these ani- 

 mals died exhibiting the characteristic symp- 

 toms of rabies. The infected animals are 

 transformed to fierce and savage beasts, 

 almost rivaling the rabid horse in their at- 

 tempts to do mischief. The disease begins 

 with signs of mental hallucination, and de- 

 velops, through aggressive rage, into pa- 

 ralysis, ending with death by failure of the 

 heart. The macroscopic and microscopic 

 appearances of the affected tissues reveal 

 the usual lesions which are symptomatic of 

 rabies, and thus determine the exact char- 

 acter of the disease. 



The "rabbit-pest" in Australia is march- 

 ing steadily onward to the north — not in 

 search of new pastures, but, according to 

 Mr. 0. G. N. Lockhart, in answer to one of 

 the animal's instincts. The buck-rabbit is 

 disposed to kill all the young ones if he can 

 get at them, and the does are aware of this 

 propensity. Hence the does, when they find 

 themselves pregnant, slip away from the 

 males, and go on in the direction in which 

 they have been advancing, which topographi- 

 cal incidents have determined shall be north- 

 wardly. 



The firemen of London arc to be dressed 

 in fire-proof clothing of asbestus, after a 

 fashion that has already been applied in 

 Paris. 



Why is it, as a succession of rain-gauges 

 set up at the same place will show, that the 

 quantity of rain falling on a given surface 

 diminishes with the height ? The explana- 

 tion is suggested by W. Mattieu Williams 

 that the temperature of the upper strata of 

 the air being below that of the lower strata, 

 the rain-drops gather moisture as they de- 

 scend, and become much larger when they 

 reach the surface than they were at any 

 previous height above it. 



Seal-skins, when worn by the seals them- 

 selves, are very different in appearance from 

 those which have been fabricated into ladies' 

 cloaks. The fur is not visible, but is con- 

 cealed by a coat of stiff overhair, dull, gray- 

 brown, and grizzled. This overhair has to 

 be removed by a long, laborious process, and 

 this work, according to the thoroughness 

 with which it is done, largely determines the 

 value of the skin. Skins from two to four 

 years old weigh from five and a half pounds 

 to twelve pounds. It takes three skins to 

 make a lady's sack. 



Whence, asks an English professor, came 

 the men who inhabited the British Islands in 

 preglacial times V Not from the east or 

 south, for the remains of southern species of 

 deer and other food-animals would have been 

 found with theirs ; whereas all such remains 

 are of northern origin. Then, if men came 

 down from the north, they must have gone 

 up there in some previous age ; and we have 

 themes for curious speculations concerning 

 the preglacial antiquity of man and polar 

 climates. 



The National Academy of Sciences has 

 awarded the gold medal for an original in- 

 vestigation of meteoric bodies, provided for 

 by the widow of Dr. Lawrence Smith, to 

 Prof. H. A. Newton, of Yale University. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Colonel James Stevenson, of the Unit- 

 ed States Geological Survey, and for many 

 years connected with the Ethnological De- 

 partment of the Smithsonian Institution at 

 Washington, died in New York, July 26th, 

 of heart disease. He was born in Maysville, 

 Ky., in 1840. 



Henrt Carvill Lewis, Professor of 

 Geology at the Academy of Natural Sciences 

 of Philadelphia, and in Haverford College, 

 died in Manchester, England, July 22d. He 

 had gone to Europe to remain three or four 

 years in the prosecution of geological studies. 

 it was among his immediate purposes^ to 

 read a paper before the British Association, 

 and afterward to visit Norway on a tour of 

 geological observation. 



