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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of M. Sidot, who has been carrying on suc- 

 cessful experiments with it since IS??, and 

 has made most excellent tubes, bottles, and 

 retorts, of " phosphoric glass." Vessels of 

 this substance are particularly useful in ma- 

 nipulating the fluorides, for phosphate of 

 lime is not acted upon by fluorine. M. Henri 

 de Parville foresees an interesting use to be 

 made of phosphoric glass in connection with 

 cremation. The ordinary part of that pro- 

 cess having been completed, our ashes, in- 

 stead of being deposited in a vase, will be 

 reduced to phosphate of lime; this substance 

 then converted into phosphoric glass ; and 

 the glass molded into a vase, a medallion, 

 or a memorial statuette of the person from 

 whom it has been derived. 



Advantages of Woolen Underclothing. — 



The advantages of woolen underclothing, 

 besides its warmth, and the closeness of its 

 application, depend upon its better adap- 

 tation in respect of temperature to the re- 

 quirements of climates and to changes of 

 season than any other material for dress. It 

 also has a special faculty for absorbing and 

 distributing moisture that makes it particu- 

 larly salutary next to a perspiring skin. A 

 linen garment will absorb the products of 

 transudation till it is wet and becomes sticky 

 upon a moist and clammy skin, while flannel 

 will rest upon a skin which it has nearly 

 dried, and be only damp itself. Hence, the 

 body wearing flannel is in the best condition 

 to resist the after-chills that follow great 

 perspiration. The irritation caused by flan- 

 nel, which is brought up as an objection 

 a^-ainst it, is an accompaniment only of new 

 flannels and coarse ones, and is generally a 

 merely transient condition. 



Patagonian Geology, and a Former 

 Sonthern Continent. — Senor F. P. Moreno 

 has communicated to the Argentine Scientific 

 Society the results of geological explorations 

 which he has made in Patagonia, beginning 

 in 1876. In the ascent of the Santa Cruz, 

 at five degrees above where Darwin had 

 given up a further exploration of that river, 

 he came upon a country roughly cut up by 

 canons, and presenting most of the peculiar 

 features of our " Bad Lands." About half- 

 way between the mouth of this river and 

 the Andes, he discovered a region " form- 



ing the base of a high terrace, surmounted 

 by high peaks that gave it the aspect of 

 a half-ruined Gothic cathedral, exceedingly 

 rich in tertiary mammalia. In the upper 

 part of this formation, which was about two 

 hundred and fifty metres high and one him- 

 dred and fifty metres broad, were discover- 

 ed, beneath the superficial layers of glacial 

 deti'itus, several alternating lacustrine and 

 marine beds indicating successive immer- 

 sions and emersions. In them the three 

 divisions of the Tertiary period were repre- 

 sented by very distinct mammalian fossils 

 corresponding with ancient forms of marsu- 

 pials, pachyderms, edentates, rodents, and 

 carnivores. Perhaps one of the most cu- 

 rious features of these fossils was the num- 

 ber of transitional forms among them ; an 

 animal combining features of the marsupi- 

 als, the land carnivores, and the pinnipeds, 

 in such a way " that, if the remains did not 

 exist and we should describe an animal pos- 

 sessing all their characteristics, we should 

 be thought to be imagining some fabulous 

 monster " ; animals of an order intermediate 

 between the ungulates and the rodents ; and 

 a molar, " which can be attributed only to a 

 gigantic cabiai, or a dwarf elephant." This 

 fauna is more ancient than the Argentine 

 mammalian fauna, and is probably quite 

 as comprehensive. The discoveries have 

 thrown a new light on the geological his- 

 tory of South America ; for Patagonia was 

 formerly regarded as of marine origin, but 

 they prove much of it to have been terres- 

 trial and lacustrine. They also lend some 

 weight to the opinion expressed by Scnor 

 Moreno that, at the beginning of the Tertiary 

 period, a vast continent, of which Patagonia 

 was a part, extended east and west. The 

 rich fauna and the luxuriant vegetation, evi- 

 dences of which are also found, could not have 

 come down from regions nearer the equator, 

 as has been supposed, that is, from more 

 favorable to less favorable conditions, but 

 must have originated in this region, and 

 pushed up toward the tropic under the influ- 

 ence of the growing cold that came upon the 

 country. The southern part of the conti- 

 nent still shows signs of oscillation. An 

 elevation of one hundred and fifty metres 

 would consolidate the land with Tierra del 

 Fuego and the Falkland Islands into a con- 

 tinent as wide as Africa at the Orange River 



