864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



liquid. Carbonic oxide behaved in an analo- 

 gous manner. Oxygen gave no sign of con- 

 gelation when boiled at — 211° C. (about 

 — 348° Fahr.). 



M. Sacc announces that he has discov- 

 ered a new alimentary substance in the seed 

 of the cotton-tree, which is richer than any 

 other known grain in nitrogenous matters. 

 He believes that the flour of this seed is 

 destined to take an important part in ali- 

 mentation, and in the preparation of all 

 kinds of paste, in which it acts as a substi- 

 tute for milk. 



M. DccLATJX declares, in the French 

 Academy of Sciences, that the vegetation of 

 seeds is impossible in a soil wholly deprived 

 of microbes. 



An International Ornithological Congress 

 was recently held at Vienna, at which a per- 

 manent committee was appointed to organ- 

 ize a system of regular observations of the 

 movements, migrations, and habits of birds. 

 It is intended to form a network of stations 

 all over Europe, in which persons having 

 a taste for such work and qualified to per- 

 form it are expected to lend their aid in for- 

 warding the objects of the observations. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Mr. E. C. Rye, for fifteen years Librarian 

 of the Royal Geographical Society, died Feb- 

 ruary 7th, at about fifty-three years of age. 

 He was distinguished in science as a student 

 of Coleoptera and author of a book on " Brit- 

 ish Beetles " ; he was also for eleven years 

 editor of the " Zoological Record." 



Professor Henry Lawrence Eustis, 

 Dean of the Harvard Scientific School, died 

 in Cambridge, Mass., January 11th, aged 

 sixty-six years. He became Professor of 

 Engineering in the Scientific School in 1849. 

 He was the author of technical books on 

 engineering science. 



Dr. Gwyn Jeffries, one of the most 

 eminent of European conchologists, died, 

 January 24th, of apoplexy. He was born 

 in Swansea in 1809, began his conchologi- 

 cal studies by collecting shells on the beach 

 when he was ten years old, and produced 

 his first scientific paper in 1828. He was a 

 pioneer in deep-sea research, having begun 

 dredgings on his own account ; he afterward 

 participated in expeditions with Dr. Car- 

 penter and Professor Wyville Thomson ; 

 subsequently pursuing similar researches in 

 Davis Strait; and was a promoter of the 

 Challenger Expedition. At the Montreal 

 meeting of the British Association, he read 

 a paper on the relations of species inhabit- 

 ing the opposite coasts of the Atlantic. He 

 was an active member of the British Asso- 

 ciation, and a member of numerous other 

 learned societies. 



Mr. Richard Atkinson Peacock, an 

 English engineer and geologist, whose spe- 

 cial study was the investigation of the 

 causes of volcanoes and of subsidences of 

 the earth, died in London, February 2d, in 

 the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was 

 the author of books on " What is and What 

 is not the Cause of Activity in Earthquakes 

 and Volcanoes," "On Steam as the Motive 

 Power in Earthquakes and Volcanoes," and 

 on "Physical and Historical Evidences of 

 Vast Sinkings of Land on the North and 

 West Coasts of France and Southwestern 

 Coasts of England." 



The death is announced of Professor 

 Luca, the Frankfort anatomist and anthro- 

 pologist. 



Mr. J. TuRNBULL Thomson, Surveyor- 

 General of New Zealand, died on the 14th 

 of October, aged sixty-three years. He was 

 born in Northumberland, and went to New 

 Zealand in 1856, after having spent seven- 

 teen years in the East India Company's serv- 

 ice. He organized the New Zealand sys- 

 tem of land-survey, which is very exact, and 

 under which land-holders are secure as to 

 their boundaries. He had been a Fellow of 

 the Royal Geographical Society since 1848, 

 to whose " Proceedings " he contributed a 

 paper on the "Survey of the Province of 

 Otago." He was author of several books 

 on social and economical subjects, and pa- 

 pers on scientific and practical topics, 

 many of which were published in the 

 " Transactions " of the New Zealand Insti- 

 tute. 



Dr. E. H. von Baumhacer, Perpetual 

 Secretary of the Scientific Society of Hol- 

 land, and formerly Professor of Chemistry 

 in Amsterdam, died in Haarlem, January 

 18th, at the age of sixty-four years. He 

 was most interested on the practical side of 

 science, in which he introduced many useful 

 applications, and was also known for his 

 researches on meteorites, and for his uni- 

 versal meteorograph. He was active in 

 measures for facilitating international ex- 

 changes of books, on a plan like that which 

 is pursued at the Smithsonian Institution. 

 He was a member of the Netherlands Com- 

 mission at our Centennial Exhibition in 

 1876. 



M. C. H. L. DupuY DE Lome, an eminent 

 French naval engineer, died in Paris, Febru- 

 ary 1st, aged sixty-eight years. His name 

 has been identified with works of naval con- 

 struction in his native country since 1850. 

 During the siege of Paris by the Germans, 

 he directed the experiments by which it was 

 sought to make balloons useful in the de- 

 fense of the city, and since that time he has 

 been interested and engaged in seeking solu- 

 tions of the question of the propulsion of 

 balloons. 



