432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



NOTES. 



" Nature " records the death of Mr. 

 Henry Negretti at the age of sixty-two 

 years. He was the well-known optician, 

 and the inventor of the deep-sea thermome- 

 ter which bears his name. 



Os the authority of a fish-dealer at Sack- 

 ctt's Harbor, Mr. Seth Green states that shad 

 in considerable numbers, and from two to 

 four pounds' weight, were caught in the 

 nets set for whitefish near Sackett's Harbor, 

 in Lake Ontario, last summer. He thinks 

 the fish have never visited salt-water, but 

 are landlocked, and may form a permanent 

 addition to the fauna of the lake. If this 

 is confirmed, we have in it an interestmg ex- 

 ample of the adaptation of an organism to 

 new conditions, the shad being a salt-water 

 fish, frequenting fresh-water only at the 

 spawning-season. It will also be interest- 

 ing to observe the extent of the modifi- 

 cations likely to follow such a change of 

 habit. 



Languishing scientific organizations and 

 lukewarm members of the same have, in the 

 career of the Portland (Maine) Natural His- 

 tory Society, an example that should awaken 

 their interest and arouse their activity. This 

 society was incorporated in 1850, has been 

 burned out several times, losing almost ev- 

 erything ; but has nevertheless maintained 

 its organization, and, largely through the in- 

 terest and personal effort of Mr. C. B. Ful- 

 ler, present curator of its museum, a very 

 creditable collection of natural history ob- 

 jects has been got together again. Last 

 winter the society purchased a site and have 

 since erected a twelve-thousand-dollar build- 

 ing on it, which will, when all completed, 

 furnish ample accommodations. 



The public -will be interested to know 

 that there are signs of renewed activity on 

 the part of the trustees of the Lick Obser- 

 vatory fund. Mr. S. W. Burnham, the ob- 

 server of double stars, spent the month of 

 August on Mount Hamilton with his tele- 

 scope, in order to test this site for the pro- 

 posed observatory. He reports the atmos- 

 pheric conditions excellent, and it is hoped 

 that this favorable result will lead to a new 

 interest in the project. 



The death of Dr. Eduard Fcnzl, of Vi- 

 enna, at the age of seventy-two years, is an- 

 nounced. He was Professor of Botany and 

 Director of the Imperial Botanical Cabinet, 

 a member of the Vienna Academy of Sci- 

 ences, and Vice-President of the Vienna Hor- 

 ticultural Society. 



In a recent pamphlet on the history of 

 language. Dr. Samuel Wilks aims to prove 

 that, in its larger sense, language has its 

 basis in the lower animals. As to the par- 



rot's faculty of acquiring the power of 

 speech, his observations show that "it has 

 a vocal apparatus of a most perfect kind, 

 that it can gather through its ear the most 

 delicate intonations of the human voice, that 

 it can imitate these perfectly by continued 

 labor, and finally hold them in the memory ; 

 also, that it associates these words with cer- 

 tain persons who have uttered them ; also, 

 that it can invent sounds corresponding to 

 those which have emanated from certain ob- 

 jects." 



Professor Nordenskjold has announced 

 his intention of starting soon on another jour- 

 ney of exploration to the Siberian Polar 

 Sea. He will make the New Siberian Isl- 

 lands, visited in 1809-10 by Hedenstroem, 

 his base of operations. 



The Eussian monthly review, " Svet," an- 

 nounces a translation of Spencer's " Data 

 of Ethics," to be published in its successive 

 issues. As Spencer is a great favorite in 

 Russia, the translation is being widely ad- 

 vertised, and a large demand for the num- 

 bers containing it is anticipated. 



In is*?*? twenty-two hundred persons 

 were injured by passing vehicles in the 

 streets of London, most of the accidents 

 occurring at crossings in crowded thorough- 

 fares. In 1878 the number of such acci- 

 dents rose to thirty-three hundred, or an in- 

 crease of one third. On account of this large 

 increase, measures for the further protection 

 of pedestrians at dangerous crossings were 

 proposed in the House of Lords, but were 

 objected to on constitutional grounds, and 

 subsequently withdrawn. The recent nar- 

 row escape from being run over, of a prom- 

 nent official and former Lord Mayor of Lon- 

 don, has again called attention to the danger, 

 and now the city authorities are about to 

 take the matter in hand. 



A STRIKING example of the effect of bad 

 conditions in increasing the fatality of epi- 

 demics is afforded by the recent outbreak of 

 measles on the Island of Cape Clear, at the 

 southern extremity of Ireland. This island 

 is some three or four miles from the main- 

 laud, and contains between five and six hun- 

 dred inhabitants, who live in small, low, 

 dark, poorly-ventilated cabins, and pick up 

 a scanty subsistence by farming and fishing. 

 The contagion was introduced by a young 

 girl, returning to her home from the main- 

 land, where measles were prevalent. Of the 

 first forty cases reported sixteen died, a mor- 

 tality of forty per cent. This enormous 

 death-rate arrested the attention of their 

 neighbors on the mainland, and measures 

 were at once taken for their relief. A 

 temporary hospital with adequate sanitary 

 provisions was established, and with this, 

 aided by a corps of good nurses, they ex- 

 pected soon to arrest the epidemic. 



