576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



line 



line. Zincocarbocauline, which is an ultra- 

 marine blue, is obtained by introducing 

 forty grammes chloride zinc and twenty- 

 five grammes carbonate soda to five hun- 

 dred grammes cauline. 



NOTES. 



Extensive excavations near Waldorf, in 

 the neighborhood of Bonn, Germany, have 

 brought to light the site of an old town be- 

 lieved to be of Roman origin, but the extent 

 of which is yet quite unknown. The re- 

 mains of a large Roman villa were discov- 

 ered in the vicinity, situated a little below 

 the site of an extinct volcano — a circum- 

 stance going to show that at the time of 

 the Roman occupation the volcanoes of the 

 Rhine had ceased to be dangerous. 



James Clerk Maxwell, the distinguished 

 Professor of Experimental Physics at the 

 University of Cambridge, and the author of 

 numerous works on physics, died at Cam- 

 bridge, November 5, 1879, at the early age 

 of forty-eight years. 



A CASE of serious injury to the eyes, by 

 the use of chloral, is given in a late mmiber 

 of the " Medical Record," on the authority 

 of Dr. G. H. Felton, of Uaverhill, Massa- 

 chusetts. The Doctor writes that the drug 

 was administered for a few days only, and 

 apparently in the usual small doses. It 

 caused severe pain in the eyes, obliged re- 

 tirement to a darkened room for several 

 days, and left a condition of weakness that 

 has persisted for two years, and that still 

 necessitates the occasional use of colored 

 glasses. 



By the death of Dr. Karl Friedrich Mohr, 

 of Bonn, the science of chemistry has lost 

 a worker whose valuable labors have ex- 

 tended over half a century. He was born 

 in Coblenz, in November, 1806, and will be 

 best remembered by the " Lchrbuch der 

 chemisch-analytische Tetrirmethode," which 

 appeared in 1855 and 1856. His published 

 papers are mainly those devoted to meteor- 

 ology and those bearing on volumetric analy- 

 sis. Among the various subjects treated by 

 him are ground-ice, ozone, St. Elmo's fire, 

 lightning-conductors, hail, and rain. His va- 

 rious papers on chemical analysis extend 

 over a period of fifty years. 



The Brussels International Congress for 

 Commercial Geography passed, among oth- 

 ers, the following resolutions : " 1. The 

 Congress is of opinion that, in the interest 

 of all nations, it is desirable that one or 

 more lines of railway should connect the 

 coasts of Africa with its interior. 2. Com- 

 plete freedom of trade should reign, there. 



3. In the expectation of a complete aboli- 

 tion of custom-houses, it is desirable that as 

 many commercial treaties as possible should 

 be concluded. It is particularly necessary 

 that a treaty of this kind should be prelimi- 

 narily entered into between Belgium and Hol- 

 land. 4. The Congress expresses the wish 

 that everywhere instruction in history should 

 be separate from that in geography." 



Died September 13, 1819, William W- 

 Saunders, F. R. S., F. L. S., etc., of London- 

 He was chiefly interested in natural history 

 pursuits, giving special attention to botany 

 and entomology, and was three times elect- 

 ed President of the Entomological Society 

 of London. His natural history collections 

 were extensive, and especially his cabinet 

 of insects, which at one time was considered 

 the most complete in England, 



Stellar's manatee, which is supposed to 

 have become extinct in 1786, has until re- 

 cently been represented in Europe by only 

 a few bones preserved in the museum at 

 St. Petersburg. During his recent voyage 

 Professor Nordenskiold obtained numerous 

 remains of the animal in the neighborhood 

 of Bchring Strait. 



The death is announced of Lady Lub- 

 bock, the wife of Sir John Lubbock, on 

 October 30, 1879. Besides a warm interest 

 in her husband's scientific pursuits, Lady 

 Lubbock was herself an occasional contrib- 

 utor to scientific journals, and among others 

 published several years ago a paper of much 

 interest on the "Shell-Mounds of Denmark," 

 which attracted wide attention. 



The Council for the Royal Society has 

 awarded, this year, the following medals: 

 " The Copley medal to Professor Rudolph 

 J. E. Clausius, of Bonn, for his well-known 

 researches upon heat ; the Davy medal to 

 Mr. P. E. Lecoy de Boisbaudran, for his 

 discovery of gallium ; a Royal medal to Mr. 

 William Henry Perkin, F. R. S., for his 

 synthetical and other researches in organic 

 chemistry ; and a Royal medal to Professor 

 Andrew Crombie Ramsay, F. R. S., for his 

 long-continued and successful labors in ge- 

 ology and pliysical geography. 



The Apennine Railway reaches its high- 

 est point at an elevation of 2,000 feet above 

 sea-level ; the Black Forest Railway ascends 

 to 2,762 feet, the Semmering line to 2,892 

 feet, the Caucastis line to 3,168 feet. The 

 St. Gothard Tunnel is 3,750 feet above sea- 

 level ; the railway across the Brenner 

 reaches 4,443 feet ; the Mont Cenis Rail- 

 way ascends to 4,348 feet, the North Pacific 

 line to 5,369 feet, the Central Pacific to / 

 6,121 feet, and the Union Pacific to 8,167 

 feet. The highest is the line across the 

 Andes, which reaches an elevation of 15,- 

 500 feet. 



