864 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



NOTES. 



Mr. James W. Milner, Deputy United 

 States Fish Commissioner, died at Wauke- 

 gan, Illinois, January 6tli, aged forty years. 

 He was born at Kingston, Ontario, _ grew 

 from the age of five to manhood in Chicago, 

 was, even as a child, exceedingly studious, 

 and is said to have injured his health in this 

 way in early life. He had a special fondness 

 for natural history, and first won attention 

 as a student of science in early manhood by 

 publishing accounts of researches made in 

 Minnesota and adjoining States. In 1871 

 he received the appointment of Deputy Fish 

 Commissioner, and was afterward, until his 

 death, mainly occupied in the study of fish- 

 culture, on which subject he was considered 

 the best-informed man in the country. Most 

 of his work was done in the West, on the 

 fish of the Great Lakes, his researches on 

 the breeding, mode of life, and food of the 

 white-fish being especially valuable. 



Dr. Pasqual Beacville, of Havana, in 

 a report presented to the Havana Commit- 

 tee of the National Board of Health, de- 

 scribes a disease of dogs and horses occur- 

 ring there which he names acclimation or 

 yellow fever. An ailment with similar 

 symptoms, and called bilious or yellow 

 fever, was described some years ago as at- 

 tacking the horses in Leith, Scotland. Dr. 

 George W. Sternberg, of the United States 

 Army, gives an abstract of Dr. Beauville's 

 report in the "Bulletin of the National 

 Board of Health," and also the symptoms 

 of the disease observed in Leith, from which 

 he concludes that both refer to one and the 

 same affection, but this was not yellow fe- 

 ver as it occurs in man. He says, " While 

 there are doubtless some striking points of 

 resemblance, the pneumonia and enteritis 

 described by the doctor are so prominent in 

 the record of symptoms and pathological 

 lesions as to give a special character to the 

 disease quite different from that of yellow 

 fever in man." 



The committee appointed by the French 

 Minister of Public Instruction has awarded 

 the Volta Prize of 50,000 francs, or $9,500, 

 to Mr. Graham Bell. 



An extraordinary prize of 3,000 francs 

 (about $600) has been awarded, by the 

 French Academy of Sciences, to Professor 

 Crookes, F. R. S., in recognition of his re- 

 cent discoveries in molecular physics und 

 radiant matter. 



The Council of the London Entomologi- 

 cal Society has offered a prize of £50 (or 

 $250) for 'the best and most complete life- 

 history of Sclerostoma syngarmis, supposed 

 to produce the so-called " gapes " in poul- 

 try, game, and other birds; and another 



prize of £50 for the best and most com- 

 plete life-history of Strongil.us pergracilii, 

 supposed to cause the grouse-disease. No 

 life-history will be considered satisfactory 

 unless the different stages of development 

 are considered and recorded. The competi- 

 tion is open to naturalists of all nationali- 

 ties. Essays in English, French, or German 

 may be sent in on or before October 15, 

 1882. 



In a paper read before the French Acad- 

 emy of Sciences on the variations in the force 

 of the action of the heart, M. Marey has ob- 

 served that the force increases as the heart 

 is full. On this principle he accounts for 

 what takes place when an obstacle to the 

 current of the blood raises the arterial pres- 

 sure and creates a greater resistance to the 

 action of the heart. The heart slackens its 

 movements ; in consequence of this relaxa- 

 tion the ventricle has more time to fill up, 

 and really fills up more; it is then, at the 

 beginning of its new beat, endowed with 

 greater force, and is capable of surmount- 

 ing a resistance which it could not have 

 overcome if it had been less full. 



A SINGULAR occurrence is reported to 

 have taken place lately at Leek, in the 

 grand duchy of Nassau. During a severe 

 storm in the night the electric discharge fell 

 into a fish-pond stocked with several species. 

 On th§ next morning the fish were all found 

 at the top of the water, dead. Their ap- 

 pearance was like that of boiled fish, and 

 their meat fell to pieces when it was han- 

 dled just like the meat of cooked fish. No 

 hurt, either internal or external, could be 

 perceived ; the scales were not bruised, and 

 the swimming-bladder was preserved still 

 full of air. The water was disturbed and 

 muddy at the time, as if it had just been 

 stirred up. 



Mr. M. Reynolds, in a paper read before 

 the London Association of Foreman Engi- 

 neers on practical engine-driving, referred 

 to a source of danger on the locomotive 

 which is, perhaps, more important even 

 than that arising from color-blindness. This 

 ia the blinding effect of the glowing white 

 light of the engine-fire, a brief glance into 

 which, he said, renders the person who has 

 looked for a time unable to recognize the 

 colors of the signal-lamps. 



The death is announced of Professor 

 David Thomson, for thirty-five years Pro- 

 fessor of Natural Philosophy in the Univer- 

 sity of Aberdeen. He was the author of 

 papers on " The Velocity of the Waves of 

 the Sea " and " On Double-Cylinder Pump- 

 ing-Engines." 



M. Walferdan, the inventor of the min- 

 imum thermometer, died in Paris near the 

 end of January, at the age of eighty-five. 



