FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE 



109 



1836. He remained there, with an in- 

 terval, from 1866 till 1871, in which he 

 devoted himself to lecturing, till 1S83, 

 when he became professor emeritus. 

 He was made in 1871 overseer of the 

 Thayer School of Engineering at Dart- 

 mouth, and he was a member of the 

 New Hampshire Legislature in 1863 and 

 1864. Only four of the founders of the 

 American Association are now living — 

 namely, Dr. Martin H. Boye, of Coopers- 

 town, Pa.; Prof. Walcott Gibbs, of 

 Harvard; Dr. Samuel L. Abbot; and 

 Epes Dixwell. 



The firm of Burroughs, Wellcome & 

 Co., says the Lancet, are to be con- 

 gratulated on the generous care which 

 they have taken to promote the mate- 

 rial and intellectual welfare of their em- 

 ployees. Their principal works are at 

 Dartford, where they employ more than 

 eight hundred persons of both sexes, 

 including some two hundred scientific 

 workers. For the purpose of establish- 

 ing a sort of club for these employees, 

 Mr. Wellcome succeeded in purchasing 

 the Manor House known as Acacia Hall, 

 and the extensive and beautiful grounds 

 in which it is situated. The Manor 

 House he has fitted up as a club for the 

 members of his staff. An old mill which 

 stands close by has been converted into 

 what is called the library building. The 

 upper floor is fitted out as a lecture- 

 room, and there is a library which al- 

 ready contains some thousands of vol- 

 umes. A third building, called the 

 Tower House, contains club accommoda- 

 tions for men. Then there are elaborate 

 bathrooms, and finally a large gymna- 

 sium. The grounds are most extensive, 

 being half a mile in length and very 

 tastefully laid out. There is a lake, a 

 river, and many pleasure boats for row- 

 ing, a large field for sports of all sorts, 

 a grand stand to witness the same, a 

 rich orchard and a beautiful pleasure 

 garden, several luxurious lawns, and 

 many superb trees. 



A peculiar kind of glassy bodies, 

 known as moldavite or bouteillenstein, 

 is attracting the attention of Austrian 

 and Bohemian geologists. These glasses 

 are ovals from an inch to an inch and a 

 half long, and are characterized by vari- 

 ous markings, some of which suggest 

 finger impressions, while others form a 

 network of furrows, which may have in 



part a rough radial arrangement. They 

 have been regarded by some authors as 

 relies of prehistoric glass manufacture, 

 but this view does not appear to have 

 been sustained. Dr. F. E. Suess, the fa- 

 mous Austrian geologist, finds resem- 

 blances between them and meteorites, 

 and the most general disposition of stu- 

 dents of the subject is now to consider 

 them of extra-terrestrial origin. Resem- 

 blances have further been pointed out 

 between them and some peculiar obsid- 

 ian bombs found in Australia. The mol- 

 davites in Bohemia occur in sandy de- 

 posits which are assigned to the late 

 Tertiary or early Diluvial period. 



At the Massachusetts Institute of 

 Technology, besides studies bearing di- 

 rectly on science and the arts, courses 

 are given in modern languages, as an 

 important means of access to foreign 

 works in the student's professional de- 

 partment: English, for the purpose of 

 training pupils to express themselves 

 readily, accurately, and adequately, and 

 of aiding them in the understanding 

 and appreciation of good literature; his- 

 tory and political and social science, the 

 instruction in which is arranged to con- 

 nect with that in biology, so that the 

 two departments shall present " an un- 

 broken sequence of related studies ex- 

 tending through three successive years, 

 and resting upon the fundamental 

 knowledge of living forms and of pre- 

 historic man that is presented in gen- 

 eral biology, zoology, and anthropol- 

 ogy," followed by comparative politics 

 and international law; and economics. 



A witness recently admitted to the 

 British Government's Committee now 

 making inquiry into the use of color- 

 ing matters and preservatives in food, 

 that yellow coloring substances were 

 largely purchased without any discrim- 

 ination for the purpose of giving a rich 

 appearance to milk and milk products. 

 As a rule, no question was asked as to 

 the injurious or non-injurious charac- 

 ter of the dye so used. One of the best 

 coloring matters was known as Mar- 

 tius's yellow, naphthol yellow, naph- 

 thalene yellow, Manchester yellow, saf- 

 fron yellow, or golden yellow, and is 

 chemically the same as the dinitro- 

 alpha-naphthol prepared from the naph- 

 thalene that crystallizes in gas mains, 

 which is an important constituent in 



