576 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of spider's threads under a counter in his 

 grocery-store, 511 West Broad Street. It 

 had been hoisted three inches from the 

 floor, and the spider, which was no bigger 

 than the end of a lead-pencil, was by dint 

 of hard worlf very slowly hauling it up fur- 

 ther, the captive being alive and struggling. 

 After about an hour the cord was broken 

 and the mouse was carried away and killed. 



M. Maxim, the inventor of the Maxim 

 gun, is studying the construction of direct- 

 able flying-machines, and believes that he 

 has obtained a motor of sufficient force. M. 

 Fontes Pereira de Mello believes that he is 

 on the right road to the invention of a prac- 

 tical submarine boat. 



The primitive monuments of the Bale- 

 aric Islands are described by M. Cartailhac 

 as of a Cyclopean or Pelasgic character, 

 similar to those which are found throughout 

 the Mediterranean region. Remains of real 

 fortified towns, hke a Greek acropolis, exist 

 in Majorca and Minorca, usually at some 

 distance from the most exposed coasts, 

 sometimes on a plain and sometimes on an 

 elevated spot. In the inside of each town 

 there was a special monument of large 

 hewn stones, so arranged as to form a semi- 

 circle. There were also galleries constructed 

 by placing stones on pillars, under which 

 one could hardly stand upright ; and towers 

 called iaiar/ois, the huge walls of which 

 concealed small crypts or cellars. Human 

 bones were found interred in artificial grot- 

 toes or crypts, to each of which entrance 

 was gained by a small antechamber leading 

 by a narrower portal. 



The Illinois Experiment Station reports 

 the results of comparative experiments at 

 four stations— three of them in light-colcred 

 soils and the other in a darker soil— in 

 raising wheat : on unmanured ground, on 

 ground heavily treated with barn-yard ma- 

 nure, five wagon-loads to the quarter-acre, 

 and on ground treated with one hundred 

 pounds of superphosphate to the quarter- 

 acre. The results showed decisively _the 

 superioritv of the barn-yard manuring, 

 while the" beneficial effects of superphos- 

 phates on the amount of yield were rela- 

 tively small. 



One of the remarkable results of the 

 spectroscopic observation of the great nebula 

 of Orion by Mr. Keeler at Lick Observatory 

 is the representation in them of the direction 

 of the earth's orbital motion, so that the ob- 

 server "would with some confidence under- 

 take to determine the month of the year by 

 measuring the distance of the principal line 

 from the lead line used in the spectrum." 



To estimate the relative merits of differ- 

 ent kinds of points for lightning-conductors, 

 Dr. Hess recently collected and examined 

 nineteen heads of" conductors that had been 

 struck by hghtning. His conclusions are 



that the fusion of points of lightning-con- 

 ductors by lightning causes no danger of 

 fire through scattering of fused drops, for 

 this does not occur; that fine and smooth 

 points receive the hghtning-stroke in con- 

 centrated form, while sharply angled and 

 ribbed and blunt points divide it into 

 threads ; that platinum needles and tips 

 have no advantage over copper points ; and 

 that .there are lightning-strokes which are 

 capable of making incandescent brass wire 

 7-2 millimetres (say 0-29 inch) thick. Un- 

 branched copper conductors should there- 

 fore never be thinner than 7 millimetres. 



AccoEDiNG to the observations of M. A. 

 Muntz, the rain-water and the herbage of 

 elevated regions are much poorer in sodium 

 chloride than those of the lowlands, and the 

 milk and the blood of animals feeding on 

 the mountains contain a decidedly less pro- 

 portion of the salt than are found in similar 

 animals from the plains. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Mr. Charles Smith Wilson, Govern- 

 ment Geologist of New South Wales, died 

 August 26th, in his forty-eighth year. He 

 was an original member of the Linna^an So- 

 ciety of New South Wales, and its president 

 in 1883 and 1884. 



Mr. William B. Watson, who died at 

 Bolton, England, October 6th, in his eightieth 

 year, was one of Dalton's last surviving pu- 

 pils, and assisted him in his researches on 

 the composition of the atmosphere, and was 

 one of his nurses in his illness. 



The Rev. Percy W. Mtles, an English 

 botanist and editor of Nature Notes, the 

 journal of the Selborne Society, died October 

 7th, in his fortv-third year. He was author 

 of the Pronouncing Dictionary of Botanical 

 Names appended to Mieholson's Dictionary 

 of Gardening, which is recognized as a stand- 

 ard. As his circumstances were narrow, a 

 Myles memorial fund is proposed to be 

 raised for the benefit of his widow, for 

 which Prof. George Henslow will receive con- 

 tributions. 



The death of Mr. Thomas Wharton Jones, 

 F. R. S., one of Prof. Huxley's teachers for- 

 ty years ago, is announced. He was nearly 

 eighty years of age. 



Dr. Philip Heriiert Carpenter, fourth 

 son of the late Dr. W. B. Carpenter, died at 

 Eton College, England, October 21st, in his 

 fortieth year, from the administration of chlo- 

 roform during temporary insanity. He had 

 been connected, in a scientific capacity, with 

 expeditions of the Lightning and Porcupine, 

 and with the Valorous of Sir G. Nares's Arc- 

 tic Expedition. He made a specialty of the 

 study of echinoderms, in which he became 

 distinguished as an authority, and on which 

 he pubhshed several papers and reports. 



