432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In the Biological Section of the Ameri- 

 can Association, Dr. G. M. Sternberg de- 

 scribed his experimental research relating 

 to the etiology of tuberculosis. He had re- 

 peated the inoculation experiments of Koch, 

 with similar results. The experiments of 

 Formad to induce tuberculosis in rabbits, by 

 introducing into the abdomen finely pow- 

 dered inorganic material, had been repeated, 

 with entirely negative results. Dr. Stern- 

 berg held that Koch's bacillus was an es- 

 sential factor in the etiology of tuberculosis. 



Sunlight or starlight in passing through 

 our atmosphere loses by absorption an 

 amount which is commonly rated at twenty 

 per cent of the whole. By experiments 

 made both near the sealevel and at alti- 

 tudes of nearly 15,000 feet, Professor S. 

 P. Langley has been brought to the conclu- 

 sion that the previous determinations are 

 largely in error. He believes it probable 

 that the mean absorption of hght (and of 

 heat also) by the atmosphere is at least 

 double that which is customarily estimated, 

 and that fine dust-particles play a more im- 

 portant part in this absorption than has 

 been heretofore supposed. 



Professor Landolt recently exhibited 

 before the Academy of Berlin a cyUnder of 

 solidified carbonic acid which had been kept 

 for (more than an hour in that condition. 

 He had prepared it by passing liquid car- 

 bonic acid from a compressor into a conical 

 sack of canvas, in which it assumed the 

 form of melting snow, and then ramming 

 the whole into a cylindrical vessel. 



SiGNOR MiCHELA, of Italy, has devised a 

 kind of telegraphic short-hand which he calls 

 steno-telegraphy. It consists of a machine 

 by which signs corresponding to various 

 sounds can be telegraphed, and by means of 

 which, it is claimed, 10,000 words can be 

 sent in an hour. It has been used for some 

 time in telegraphing the debates of the Ital- 

 ian Senate. 



M. E. P. N. FouRNiER, a French botanist 

 whose death was recently announced, edited 

 in connection with M. Egger the work of 

 Theophrastus on plants, and was preparing 

 a flora of Mexico for the French Govern- 

 ment and a flora of Brazil for the Emperor 

 Dom Pedro. 



Senhor Ladislao Netto, of Rio Janeiro, 

 in a lecture on evolution at Buenos Ayres, 

 gave some remarkable illustrations, from his 

 own observations, of the power of plants to 

 adapt themselves to diverse conditions. The 

 same plants which became enormous vines 

 in the dense Brazilian forests may be found 

 growing as ordinary shrubs in the open. 

 He and M. Lacerda have found the Strych- 

 nos triplinervia in isolated situations as a 

 bush a little over six feet high, with no signs 



of a climbing tendency except a few atro- 

 phied tendrils ; while in a wood only a few 

 steps away another individual of the same 

 species had a slender stem, with inter- 

 nodes, sixty feet in length ; and the plant 

 frequently grows to be seventy-five feet 

 long. Other plants are mentioned by Sen- 

 hor Netto, particularly the Ihorinia scan- 

 dens, which after having become quite re- 

 spectable vines, began to increase irregularly 

 in thickness immediately on having the sun- 

 light let in upon them. 



Odservations made by Dr. L. Glaser, of 

 Mannheim, in the river-valleys of Germany 

 during the wet seasons of 1882-'83 and 

 1861-'62 have led him to the conclusion that 

 heavy winter rains and floods are very de- 

 structive to insect-life, and have a marked 

 eifect in diminishing the " bug-crop " of the 

 following season. 



Recent observations of the British Me- 

 teorological Office on the temperature of the 

 Gulf Stream between the latitudes of the 

 north of Ireland and Bordeaux, and extend- 

 ing half-way across the Atlantic, go to show 

 that the temperature of the water was ab- 

 normally high (1° to S° above the mean) 

 during June, July, and August. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Among the deaths of last summer was 

 that of Count Constantin Branicki, an ear- 

 nest promoter of natural science, who had 

 made valuable contributions to the Museum 

 of Warsaw, Poland. 



Professor Bros Emil ITildebrand, one 

 of the most distinguished of European anti- 

 quaries, died at Stockholm, on the 30th of 

 August last. lie was Royal Antiquary of 

 Sweden, and under his care the Swedish ar- 

 chffiological collections became among the 

 richest and most curious in Europe. 



Julius Cohnheim, a German pathologist, 

 is dead, in his forty-fifth year. lie was a 

 pupil of Virchow's, and filled professor- 

 ships at Kiel, Breslau, and Leipsic. 



Among the aelive students of botany 

 who died last year are E. P. M. Fournicr, 

 at Paris, and Ludovico Caldesi, at Faenza, 

 Italy, 



G. B. Delponte, formerly Professor of 

 Botany in the University of Turin, died some 

 months ago at Mombarrizzo, Piedmont. He 

 was well known for his researches on the 

 Desmidue. 



Chemistry has lost by death, during the 

 past year, Dr. Carstanjen, of Leipsic, who 

 was fifty-nine years old, and Dr. Hans Hiib- 

 ner, director of the chemical laboratory at 

 Gottingen, who was in his forty-seventh year. 



