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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



thrown off. They were formerly of great 

 repute as alexipharmics (medicines supposed 

 to neutralize infectious or other poisons). 

 Two curious specimens of this formation — 

 which is, when of vegetable origin, known 

 as a phyto-bezoar — are described in a recent 

 number of the Pharmaceutical Review. They 

 were taken, along with fourteen others, from 

 the stomach of a bull at the Hacienda de 

 Cruzes in Mexico, were of a brown color, 

 somewhat resembled felt or rubbed sole 

 leather in appearance, and consisted of the 

 barbed hairs of the piihiini of the plato- 

 puntias. To the barbs with which the hairs 

 are covered is due their power of felting 

 together. Concretions akin to bezoars are 

 sometimes found in the human stomach. 



NOTES. 



The exploring yacht of Prince Albert I of 

 Monaco, the Princess Alice, made its fourth 

 cruise of scientific research in the summer 

 of 1897 in the waters west of Morocco, 

 around Madeira, and the regions of the 

 Azores and the sea off Portugal. Weirs 

 sent down to depths of nearly sixteen thou- 

 sand feet brought up animals wholly un- 

 known. Another net kept for twenty-four 

 hours at a deptli of about thirty-seven hun- 

 dred feet, near the Azores, brought up twelve 

 hundred animals, of which eleven hundred 

 and ninety-eight were fish. Large cetaceans 

 were often chased by the whale boats ; and 

 in some instances unknown animals, from 

 forty-five to sixty-six feet long, yielded rem- 

 nants of food which they had swallowed — 

 fragments of gigantic devil fishes, which 

 were carefully preserved. 



The spore dust that is often seen on 

 cereals promises to be available as a pig- 

 ment. David Pearson reports, in Nature, 

 that a rich amber color, sometimes approach- 

 ing sepia in tone, is obtained from smutty 

 oats, and that when applied as a water color 

 it remains fast and unaltered in ordinary 

 diffused daylight, and changes but little in 

 direct sunlight after months of exposure. 



Experiments have been made by M. Per- 

 chor, of the French Academy of Sciences, 

 from which he is satisfied that the zenith 

 point can be determined directly with as- 

 tronomical instruments as accurately as the 

 nadir is found by means of the mercurial 

 bath. 



The investigations respecting the culture 

 of the sugar beet made, by the Ohio experi- 

 ment station, indicate that some parts of the 

 State offer considerable encouragement to 

 the industry. In three respects of tempera- 

 ture, soil, and rainfall they seem to offer all 



that is necessary for the best production. 

 There still remains, however, much to be 

 done before it can be positively asserted that 

 beet sugar may be profitably produced in 

 Ohio. 



Toward the end of the year 1896 Mr. 

 Spencer consented, at the I'equest of a large 

 number of distinguished men, to have his 

 portrait painted by Mr. Hcrkomer. The por- 

 trait is now finished, and will be sent to the 

 next exhibition of the Royal Academy. It 

 is said to be the intention to finally offer the 

 picture to the trustees of the National Por- 

 trait Gallery. 



At a meeting of the New York Academy 

 of Medicine, on February 17th, the following 

 resolution was unanimously adopted : " He- 

 solved, That the fellows of the New York 

 Academy of Medicine do earnestly recom- 

 mend the establishment of a bureau of health, 

 with the power to administer, within constitu- 

 tional limits, the sanitary needs of the United 

 States." 



The net earnings of the railsvays of the 

 United States for the year ending June 30, 

 1897 (that is, the amount of gross earnings 

 remaining after the deduction of the operat- 

 ing expenses of the railways), representing 

 an operated mileage of 180,027.66 miles, were 

 $369,050,856. 



In the later death lists we find the names, 

 among men associated with science and the 

 arts, of Dr. Hermann Kiimmerer, professor 

 of chemistry at Nuremberg, April 12th, 

 aged fifty-eight years ; Dr. Samuel Gordon, 

 president of the Royal Zoological Society of 

 Duljlin ; M. Demontzey, correspondent of 

 the French Academy of Sciences in the Sec 

 tiou of Rural Economy ; Dr. Hermann Scha- 

 pira, professor of mathematics at the Uni- 

 versity of Heidelberg, May 9th, aged fifty- 

 seven years ; Maurice Hovelacque, secretary 

 of the Geological Society of Paris ; W. C. 

 Lucy, an English naturalist of great activity 

 and local fame, contributor of numerous 

 papers to the proceedings of the Cotteswold 

 Naturalists' Field Club, an observer whose 

 name' is familiar to readers of Nature ; Dr, 

 C. Herbert Hurst, formerly of the zoological 

 department of Owens College, and later of 

 the Royal College of Science, Dublin, author 

 of many papers criticising modern biological 

 theory; M. C. J. Souillart, professor of as- 

 tronomy in the University of Lille, and 

 author of several important papers on math- 

 ematical astronomy ; D. S. Kellicott, pro- 

 fessor of zoology at Ohio State University ; 

 Paul Henri Schneider, chief proprietor and 

 director of the great iron works at Creusot, 

 France, aged fifty-eight years ; and Lord Lyon 

 Playfair, at one time professor of chemistry 

 in the University of Edinburgh, but who 

 spent most of his active life in jjublic or 

 official positions in which the scientific func- 

 tion was highest in importance. 



