576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Dr. Lke, of England, asserts that car- 

 bolic acid is the best substance for disinfect- 

 ing the air, because, when combined with 

 water and boiled, it evaporates with the 

 steam in a constant ratio, so that the steam 

 contains the same relative quantity of the 

 acid as the water from which it is evapo- 

 rated. Consequently, the acid can be evenly 

 distributed to the air in a constant and ex- 

 actly regulated proportion, a property which 

 no other equally efficient disinfectant pos- 

 sesses in so perfect a degree. 



Mr. Charles Watkins Merrifield, F. R. 

 S., whose especial field was in mathematics 

 and the exact sciences, died at Hove, Eng- 

 land, January 1st, aged fifty-six years. lie 

 was for many years Honorary Secretary of 

 the Royal Institute of Naval Architects. He 

 became Vice-Principal of the South Ken- 

 sington School of Naval Architecture and 

 Marine Eng-ineering in 186Y, and was after- 

 ward made principal of that institution ; and 

 was Vice-President of the Mechanical Section 

 of the British Association in 1875, and Presi- 

 dent of the same in the following year. He 

 made the report of the Association on the 

 stability and propulsion of sea-going ships 

 in 1869 ; was President and Treasurer of 

 the London Mathematical Society ; and was 

 an author and editor of mathematical text- 

 books. 



According to the estimates of botanists, 

 trees are capable of very long life. De Can- 

 dolle gave the age of an elm at 335 years. 

 The age of some palms has been set down 

 at from 600 to 700 years ; that of an olive- 

 tree, at 700 years ; of a plane-tree, at 720 ; of 

 a cedar, at 800 ; of an oak, at 1,500 ; of a 

 yew, at 2,880 ; of a taxodium, at 4,000 ; and 

 of a baobab-tree, at 5,000 years. 



An electric light has been put in the 

 lighthouse on Razza Island, at the entrance 

 to the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. It has an 

 intensity of 120,000 carcels, or sixty times 

 that of the best oil-lamp. It is visible by 

 its reflection in the sky, so visible as to at- 

 tract the attention of those who were not 

 aware of its existence, for a distance of thir- 

 ty-five miles, or three miles and a half be- 

 yond the farthest point at which it can be 

 seen by direct vision, and for a mile farther 

 out to those who know where to look for it. 



Travelers have sometimes told of swarms 

 of lepidopterous insects appearing on vessels 

 at sea at certain distances from the coast of 

 South America, and have supposed that they 

 were brought from the pampas by the south- 

 west wind, called thej^ampero. Dr. Fromont, 

 of Brussels, has given an account of a swarm 

 consisting of several vaiieties of insects that 

 made their appearance when the wind was 

 blowing against the coast, and had to be ac- 

 counted for in some other way. On looking 



into the hold, there were found, among the 

 bananas and other fruits with which the ves- 

 sel was loaded, many remains of chrysalises 

 and chrysalises ready to burst ; and it was 

 obvious that the insects had been developed 

 in the cargo. Larvae of coleopterous insects 

 are also believed to be packed with the dried 

 meat that is shipped from Buenos Ayres, and 

 to give rise, in due time, to other unpleasant 

 appearances. 



M. Nefedot has received a gold medal 

 from the Natui-al Science Society of Moscow, 

 for his account of a fiint-implcment factory 

 found by him in the Vetlouga district, gov- 

 ernment of Kostroma, the first establishment 

 of the kind of which remains have been dis- 

 covered in Russia. He has collected six 

 thousand specimens of cut flints and otlier 

 objects of the stone age, including articles 

 in bone and clay. They are all remarkably 

 primitive in character and form, and none 

 polished. 



Specimens of paper and pasteboard made 

 from the old moss of the Scandinavian bogs 

 have been offered in the markets. The 

 pasteboard is as hard as wood, and is easily 

 painted and polished ; and it is believed to 

 have, for certain purposes, advantages over 

 wood, of which it has the best qualities 

 without the faults. It does not spUt or 

 warp. Lender the hydraulic press it acquires 

 a consistency and a resisting power much 

 superior to what can be given to pasteboard 

 of straw. 



Sir Joseph Fatrer, President of the Brit- 

 ish Medical Society, is authority for the sto- 

 ry that in nearly every Himalayan village 

 the native baby is placed in a trough into 

 which a stream of water is constantly trick- 

 ling. This falling upon the vertex of the 

 cranium induces sleep, in which children will 

 lie in their troughs for hours, while their 

 mothers are at their work. 



An Assyrian record of a transit of Venus 

 in the sixteenth century b. c. has been de- 

 ciphered by Professor A. H. Sayce. 



The Harvard students have now had the 

 direction of Dr. D. H. Sargent in their phys- 

 ical training, and the use of the Hemenway 

 Gymnasium, over four years. The averages 

 of the relative development and strength of 

 the ten strongest students using the gymna- 

 sium each year, computed from Dr. Sargent's 

 elaborate tests and measurements, show a 

 rapid advance during this period : 



