FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



425 



was given, and a full stop made when a 

 somersault was completed. A shutter was 

 then a necessary part of the apparatus to 

 cut off the Ught rays during the time the 

 pictures were changing places. This was 

 accomplished by a vibrating shutter placed 

 back of the picture wheel, that was operated 

 by the same draw-bar that moved the wheel, 

 only the shutter movement was so timed 

 that it moved first and covered the picture 

 before the latter moved, and completed the 

 movement after the next picture was in 

 place. This movement reduced to a great 

 extent the flickering, and gave very natu- 

 ral and lifelike representation of the moving 

 figures." 



The imerican Professor.— Prof. Joseph 

 Jastrow looks upon the American college 

 professor as constituting a type of which it 

 would be hard to find a counterpart any- 

 where else. His situation has recently been 

 fully discussed in one of the magazines, and 

 Professor Jastrow, commenting on the views 

 there expressed, asks if the environment of 

 our professor gives to his services a maxi- 

 mum of intellectual and moral value, and if 

 it tends to develop most easily and success- 

 fully his own resources, and to urge him to 

 the fulfillment of that function in the com- 

 munity for which his talents and training 

 qualify him. The author can not answer 

 these questions in the affirmative. There are 

 undesirable factors in the professor's envi- 

 ronment " which obstruct his public useful- 

 ness equally with his private happiness." 

 He is " the type of the great underpaid, and 

 this lack of income is, for many reasons, to 

 be regarded as a calamity. ... It is quite 

 true that it were a pity that in the colleges 

 of all places high thinking and plain living 

 should be quite divorced ; but it is a greater 

 pity that the living should perforce be so ar- 

 duous as severely to tax the energies that 

 make for high thinking." From an investi- 

 gation of the financial status of the professor, 

 Professor Harper has found that he is on a 

 par as to that with conductors, foremen of 

 works, etc., with an average income of about 

 sixteen hundred dollars, and that as a mere 

 matter of justice his salary should be raised 

 by one half — a conservative estimate. The 

 average American professor suffers as much 

 from the want of proper leisure as from the 



lack of a proper income, and the evil effects 

 of the two are similar in kind ; for the neces- 

 sity of supplementing his inadequate salary 

 will often direct his efforts into channels that 

 promise some prompt remunerative rewards, 

 rather than in the direction of the develop- 

 ment of his maximum efficiency as a member 

 of the university and as a personal influence. 

 " Investigation and research, originality and 

 scholarship come only as the slowly ripened 

 fruits of leisure." 



Montana Sapphires. — The existence of 

 sapphires in Montana has been known for 

 several years, but first attracted serious at- 

 tention about 1891, when companies were 

 formed and claims were taken up and exam- 

 ined with a view to mining fur them. The 

 sapphire region, according to Mr. George F. 

 Kunz, extends for about six miles along the 

 Missouri River, the central point being Spo- 

 kane Bar, twelve miles east of Helena. An- 

 other region is between seventy-five and a 

 hundred miles east of this, centering at Yogo 

 Gulch. Mr. Kunz describes marked differ- 

 ences as existing between the sapphires from 

 these two regions. All are of the same size, 

 but they differ in crystallization, the Missouri 

 River gems being prismatic, and those of 

 Yogo Gulch largely rhombohedral. The 

 value of these sapphires in jewelry can hard- 

 ly yet be estimated. " Much beautiful ma- 

 terial has already been obtained, but little of 

 high value. Those from the Missouri bars 

 had a wide range of color — light blue, blue- 

 green, green, and pink — of great delicacy and 

 brilliancy, but not the deep shades of blue 

 and red that are in demand for jewelry. As 

 semi-precious or ' fancy ' stones they have 

 value, however. The Yogo Gulch Judith 

 River region is more promising, the colors 

 varying from light blue to quite dark blue, 

 including some of the ' cornflower ' tint so 

 much prized m the sapphires of Ceylon. 

 Others incline to amethystine and ruby 

 shades. Some of them are 'peacock-blue' 

 and some dichroic, showing a deeper tint in 

 one direction than in another ; and some of 

 the ' cornflower ' gems are equal to any of the 

 Ceylonese, which they strongly resemble." 



The Filtration of Milk.— The wide area 

 over which milk is collected for supplying a 

 large city renders it practically impossible 



