THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



estimate of the mean height of Europe, 

 viz., 300 metres, and estimating the mean 

 heights of Asia and Africa, of America and 

 Australia, to be 500, 830, 250 metres re- 

 spectively, Dr. Kriimmel obtains the mean 

 of 420 metres or 0'0566 geographical mile. 

 The surface ratio of land to water being 

 considered as 1 to 2'75, the volume of all dry- 

 land above sea-level is inferred to be 140,- 

 086 cubic miles, and the volume of the sea 

 3,138,000 cubic miles. Thus the ratio of 

 the volumes of land and water is as 1 to 

 22-4. That is, the continents, so far as they 

 are above sea-level, might be contained 22-4 

 times in the sea-basin. But reckoning the 

 mass of solid land from the level of the sea- 

 bottom, the former would be contained only 

 2"443 times in the sea-basin. 



The circulation of scientific works in 

 Russia is so small, that native men of sci- 

 ence find it nearly impossible to get their 

 labors published. Kovalevsky, according 

 to the London "Examiner," left at his death 

 no less than thirty works in MS. ; he could 

 find no publisher for them. Professor Yasi- 

 lief, the eminent Orientalist, has several vol- 

 umes on " Buddhism and Philolog)^" which 

 he is compelled to keep in his portfolio for 

 want of means to publish them. 



The "Gazette des Hopitaux " records 

 an extraordinary case of loss of hair from 

 fright. A girl seventeen years of age one 

 day nan-owly escaped death by crushing, 

 and was much frightened. For three days 

 she suffered headache, chills, and itching of 

 the scalp. The symptoms were then allayed, 

 with the exception of the itching, which con- 

 tinued. On combing her hair, it came out 

 in great quantities, and soon she was quite 

 bald. This baldness was permanent. 



Of the views adopted by modern chem- 

 ists concerning the structure of the carbon 

 compounds. Professor Ira Remsen holds 

 that they are correctly based and fairly de- 

 monstrated, but that they are steps in a 

 path where greater progress is yet to be at- 

 tained. Some of them will no doubt be 

 disproved, yet, like the search for the phi- 

 losopher's stone, they will serve to advance 

 chemical science. 



The usual average of rainfall in Eng- 

 land, as reckoned for the first six months 

 of the year, is a fraction less than twelve 

 inches. This year the fall from January to 

 June — five months — was eighteen and a 

 half inches. Again, in the first six months 

 of 1878, according to observations made at 

 Greenwich Observatory, there were six hun- 

 dred and forty-three hours of sunshine. 

 This year there were only four hundred and 

 seventy-one hours of sunshine in the same 

 time. June, 1878, was regarded as a gloomy 

 month ; but it had one hundred and eighty- 



one hours of sunshine, whereas June, 1879, 

 had not quite one hundred and nineteen 

 hours. 



From experiments made by Arloing, it 

 appears that chloral does not act as an an- 

 esthetic on the sensitive-plant, while ether 

 and chloroform have an effect upon it simi- 

 lar to that which they exert on animals. 

 M. Arloing in his experiments caused the 

 anaesthetics to be absorbed by the roots of 

 the plant. 



Near Stramberg, in Moravia, have been 

 discovered certam caves which, in prehis- 

 toric times, were inhabited by man. The 

 contents of these caves clearly prove the 

 existence of man in very remote times — the 

 age of the mammoth and the cave-bear. 

 Thousands of bones have been found at the 

 depth of two or three metres, representing 

 mammoths, rhinoceroses, bears, horses, deer, 

 reindeer, and with them well-preserved im- 

 plements of stone and bone, objects in 

 bronze, rings, needles, pottery, arrow-heads, 

 and knives. 



An exhibition was lately given in Paris 

 of a method of employing electro-magnet- 

 ism as a means of subduing vicious horses. 

 With bits, bridles, nose-bands, and curbs 

 specially constructed so as to apply a gen- 

 tie current from a portable electro-magnet" 

 to the requn-ed place, seven particularly 

 violent horses were reduced to obedience, 

 and suffered themselves to be shod. 



In the " Journal of the Asiatic Society 

 of Bengal " is published an account of a 

 very remarkable snowfall in Cashmere, which 

 began in October, 1817, and continued al- 

 most uninterruptedly up to May, 1878, the 

 general depth of the snow being then esti- 

 mated at from thirty to forty feet. Houses 

 and villages were crushed under the enor- 

 mous weight, avalanches were frequent on 

 the hillsides, and wild animals perished in 

 great numbers. 



Messrs. Martin and Tessier propose a 

 mixture composed as follows for making 

 uninflammable textile fabrics, paper, etc., 

 viz. : Pure sulphate of ammonia eight parts 

 by weight, carbonate of anmionia two and 

 a half parts, boracic acid three parts, pure 

 borax 1*7 part, starch two parts, water 

 one hundred parts. The articles are to be 

 steeped in the mixture (boiling) till they 

 are thoroughly saturated ; then they are 

 dried and pressed. 



The French Association for the Ad- 

 vancement of Science takes a surprising 

 " new departure " next year by selecting 

 Algiers as the place of its meeting in 1880. 

 To avoid the inconveniences of the great 

 heat of August, the meeting will be held in 

 April. 



