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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



eral editions. But his greatest work was 

 undoubtedly his "Geologie der Gegenwart" 

 (The Present State of Geology). This work 

 has passed through five editions. A few of 

 his works have been translated into English 

 and other languages of Europe. 



The metal scandium, obtained by its dis- 

 coverer Nilsson from ytterbine, has lately 

 been found by P. Cleve in yttrotitanite from 

 Norway. The only oxide of scandium, scan- 

 dine, appears to possess the formula SC2O3. 

 The atomic weight of the new metal is 45. 

 Scandine is a pure white powder, light, in- 

 fusible, and resembling magnesia. The hy- 

 drate of scandium is a white and bulky pre- 

 cipitate like hydrate of alumina. The scan- 

 dium salts are colorless or white ; they have 

 an astringent and very sour taste, very dif- 

 ferent from the sugary taste of the other 

 yttria earths. Scandium is one of the met- 

 als predicted by Mendelejef ; he gave it the 

 name of ekabor, and fixed its atomic weight 

 at 44. The characters of ekabor correspond 

 pretty closely with those of scandium. 



By means of his new spectroscope, with 

 compound sulphide of carbon prisms, M. 

 Thollon has produced a remarkable map of 

 the solar spectrum. This map is no less 

 than ten metres in length, and is composed 

 of about 4,000 lines. M. Thollon has de- 

 voted great care to reproducing the physiog- 

 nomy of each line; and there are many new 

 features revealed which will doubtless be 

 utilized for theory. 



The German Empress, Augusta, soon 

 after the death of the young Prince Walde- 

 mar, son of the German Crown-Prince, of- 

 fered a considerable sum of money as a prize 

 for the best essay on " Diphtheria, its Nature 

 and Treatment." A commission of eminent 

 physicians has been appointed, with Dr. 

 von Lansenbeck, of Berlin, as chairman, to 

 award the prize. The lists will remain open 

 until December 16, 1880. The competing 

 essays may be written either in German, 

 French, or English. 



During the first six months of the pres- 

 ent year, regular tides have been observed 

 in the subterranean waters of the Fort- 

 schritt mine in Bohemia. This strange phe- 

 nomenon has attracted the attention of the 

 Academies of Science of Berlin and Vienna, 

 but as yet no adequate explanation of it 

 has been proposed. 



A Chinaman was fined ten pounds for 

 " sweeping the streets " in an Australian 

 town. In explanation, it may be mentioned 

 that the streets are metaled with quartz, 

 which is crushed to powder by vehicles, and 

 that the sweepings often give a very lucra- 

 tive return in gold-washing. Here the gold 

 return is largest when the streets are left 

 unswept ! 



The Rev. Dr. Barnard, President of Co- 

 lumbia College, New York City, in his last 

 annual report, warmly advocates the co-edu- 

 cation of young men and young women in 

 colleges. It is, he says, mainly the spirit of 

 conservatism which opposes the opening of 

 colleges to women, rather than anything 

 inherently objectionable in the proposition 

 itself. That this is so, is made evident by 

 the fact that no such opposition manifests 

 itself to the association of students of both 

 sexes in academies and high-schools, many 

 of which profess to teach the same subjects 

 as the colleges, to the same extent, and to 

 pupils of similar ages. 



The historian of civilization in some dis- 

 tant future period will probably quote the 

 following passage from a letter written by 

 a British officer in Zululand, as an illustra- 

 tion of the state of civilization existing iu 

 the last quarter of the nineteenth century. 

 This officer writes : " I flatter myself that I 

 put an end to six promising young Zulus. 

 We expected no quarter and gave none. 

 When the fighting was over, some of our 

 native troops were sent out on the errand 

 of dispatching the wounded, many of whom 

 had crawled away into the long grass, and 

 even into the ant-bear holes, but our allies 

 were even with them all round." 



At Baku, on the Caspian Sea, the resi- 

 due {astalki) left after the final distillation 

 of petroleum is produced in such enormous 

 quantity that its price is only nominal, and 

 much of it is poured into the sea for lack 

 of stowing space or demand. For years 

 it has been the only fuel used on board the 

 war-ships and mercantile steamers of the 

 Caspian. It is employed in cooking also, 

 and for the production of illuminating gas. 

 In the latter case it is allowed to trickle 

 slowly into retorts raised to a dull-red heat, 

 pure gas with a little graphite being the 

 result. Weight for weight, astalki gives 

 four times as great a volume of gas as ordi- 

 nary coal. 



According to Gerard von Schmitt, phy- 

 sician and traveler, the plant Alikania guaco 

 possesses medicinal properties very effica- 

 cious in the treatment of cancer and allied 

 diseases. 



The following is Hersch's test for sew- 

 age contamination, or the presence of pu- 

 trescible organic matter in water: Fill a 

 clean pint bottle three quarters full with the 

 water to be tested, and in it dissolve half a 

 teaspoonful of the finest sugar ; then cork 

 the bottle and set it in a warm place for 

 forty-eight hours. If, meanwhile, the water 

 becomes cloudy or milky, it is unfit for do- 

 mestic use. If it remains perfectly limpid, 

 it is probably safe to use. 



