FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



H3 



School has always stood for the idea of a 

 liberal education in which scientific studies 

 should predominate, but in which a moder- 

 ate amount of Latin and of modem languages 

 is required ; history and economics are also 

 taught. It is memorable that for a long pe- 

 riod the greatest of American philologists 

 was the daily instructor in French and Ger- 

 man, that the most learned study ever made 

 of ' Dan Chaucer and his well of English 

 undefyled ' proceeded from a Sheffield chair, 

 and that no American professorship of eco- 

 nomics or statistics has been more prolific 

 or stimulating than that which was held for 

 many years by one but lately brought to the 

 end of his career." 



The custom of trepanning, or taking small 

 pieces of bone from the living head, was 

 much practiced in prehistoric times, as the 

 skulls prove to us, and is still in vogue among 

 some peoples. Among these are the people 

 of the Berber stock in the Djebel Aures and 

 the Djebel Chechar of the edges of the Al- 

 gerian plateau. The method of performing 

 the operation is carefully described by Drs. 

 H. Malbot and R. Verneau, of whom Dr. 

 Malbot was shown by a native doctor a skull 

 V. ith more than a dozen circular holes, two 

 slits, and a large irregular orifice, all of which 

 had been pierced when the man was alive. 

 The skull was kept hidden, and was evi- 

 dently used as an example by the local doc- 

 tors. The natives have recourse to trepan- 

 ning for blows or wounds on the head ; and 

 it does not matter how long before the blow 

 may have been given, if only the sick person 

 can remember that he has had one. The 

 operation is not severe. A woman, tired of 

 her husband, is said to have called in the 

 service of a trepanner in order to get a 

 divorce from him by producing a piece of 

 her skull and affirming that he had Ijroken 

 it in some of his cruel acts. 



The chief fire warden of Minnesota, C. 

 C. Andrews, says in his report for 1896 that 

 the main work under the fire-warden law of 

 the State is to make people more careful 

 about causing fires and more thoughtful of 

 the benefit to the public and to individuals 

 of forest resources. There are several million 

 acres in the State, in detached areas, fit only 

 for growing timl)er. It is computed that 

 trees take from the soil only one twelfth part 



of the mineral substances required for field 

 crops ; and it is therefore profitable for the 

 non-agricultural lands to be retained in tim- 

 ber or planted with it. Properly taken care 

 of and protected the forests might afford a 

 sustained, permanent, and growing industry 

 for many thousand more laborers than are 

 now employed. A bill passed one house of 

 the Minnesota Legislature in 1896 providing 

 a way by which the State could receive and 

 administer, on forestry principles, donations 

 from individuals of cut-over and waste lands 

 unsuited for agriculture. The measure has 

 been discussed and approved by the Forestry 

 Association and the State Horticultural So- 

 ciety; and as it seems to be all meritorious, 

 it is to be hoped that it may become a law. 



NOTES. 



Ebeonite, a new material invented by M. 

 Panchon, a French paper maker, is named 

 from the resemblance of many of its proper- 

 ties to the hardest woods. It is made by 

 treating fine chips of resinous woods with 

 lyes of sulphates or sulpliites, as if to obtain 

 wood cellulose. The softetied chips are then 

 pounded to a pulp, which is treated during 

 refining with such chemical or coloring sub- 

 stances as will impart desired special quali- 

 ties. The pulp is then transformed into 

 boards of leaves of paper, is piled up to 

 whatever thickness may be wanted, pressed 

 in a hydraulic press, and dried slowly. The 

 resulting crude ebeonite can be worked into 

 any shape ; or the pulp can be molded, be- 

 fore drying, into articles which will be proof 

 against atmospheric changes, heat, and mois- 

 ture, and can be rendered incombustible. 



A CURIOUS instance of instinctive fear is 

 related by R. L. Pocock, in Nature, of a baby 

 orang, with which the writer and his wife 

 were playing. When the lady gently extended 

 her muii", made of the skin of the Indian 

 flying squirrel and ornamented with the un- 

 stuffed head and tail, toward the animal, it 

 showed signs of terror. "Upon repeating 

 the experiment, the ape promptly rolled oyer 

 backward as the quickest way of removing 

 himself from the immediate vicinity of the 

 object ; then, getting himself together, climbed 

 up the branches of his tree and retired to the 

 back of the cage, keeping all the while a 

 wary and frightened eye upon the muff, as 

 if in fear of an attack from behind. During 

 all this, the orang made no sound. 



A PROposAi- was made some time ago in a 

 Belgian journal for the celebration of the 

 seven hundredth anniversary of the discovery 

 of stone coal, which was made in 1197 by a 

 l)lacksniith of Liege. He found a kind of 

 black earth, aud, wood and charcoal being 



