FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE. 



143 



interest aroused in the explorations of 

 Florida by the Wagner Institute and its 

 friends and by the United States Geo- 

 logical Survey has resulted in bringing 

 in a constantly increasing mass of ma- 

 terial. The existence of Upper Oligo- 

 cene beds in western Florida containing 

 hundreds of species, many of which were 

 new, added two populous faunas to the 

 Tertiary series. It having been found 

 that a number of the species belonging 

 to these beds had been described from 

 the Antillean tertiaries, it became neces- 

 sary, in order to put the work on a 

 sound foundation, besides the review of 

 the species known to occur in the United 

 States, to extend the revision to the ter- 

 tiaries of the West Indies. It is believed 

 that the results will be beneficial in 

 clearing the way for subsequent students 

 and putting the nomenclature on a more 

 permanent and reliable basis. 



The numerical system of the natives 

 of Murray Island, Torres Strait, is de- 

 scribed by the Eev. A. E. Hunt, in the 

 Journal of the Anthropological Society, 

 as based on two numbers — netat, one, 

 and neis, two. The numbers above two 

 are expressed by composition — neis-ne- 

 tat, three; neis i neis, or two and two, 

 four. Numbers above four are associ- 

 ated with parts of the body, beginning 

 with the little and other fingers of the 

 left hand, and going on to the wrist, 

 elbow, armpit, shoulder, etc., on the left 

 side and going down on the right side, 

 to 21 ; and the toes give ten numbers 

 more, to 31. Larger numbers are simply 

 " many." 



President William Ortox, of the 

 American Association, in his address at 

 the welcoming meeting, showed, in the 

 light of the facts recorded in Alfred R. 

 Wallace's book on The Wonderful Cen- 

 tury, that the scientific achievements of 

 the present century exceed all those of 

 the past combined. He then turned to 

 the purpose of the American Associa- 

 tion to labor for the discovery of new 

 truth, and said: "It is possible that we 

 could make ourselves more interesting to 

 the general public if we occasionally 

 foreswore our loyalty to our name and 

 spent a portion of our time in restating 

 established truths. Our contributions 

 to the advancement of science are often 

 fragmentary and devoid of special inter- 

 est to the outside world. But every 



one of them has a place in the great 

 temple of knowledge, and the wise mas- 

 ter builders, some of whom appear in 

 every generation, will find them all and 

 use them all at last, and then only will 

 their true value come to light." 



NOTES. 



The number of broods of seventeen- 

 year and thirteen-year locusts has be- 

 come embarrassing to those who seek to 

 distinguish tliem, and the trouble is com- 

 plicated by the various designations dif- 

 ferent authors have given them. The 

 usual method is to give the brood a num- 

 ber in a series, written with a Roman 

 numeral. Mr. C. L. Marlatt proposes a 

 regular and uniform nomenclature, giv- 

 ing the first seventeen numbers to the 

 seventeen-year broods, beginning with 

 that of 1893 as number I, and the next 

 thirteen numbers (XVIII to XXX) to 

 the thirteen-year broods, beginning with 

 the brood of 1842 and 1855 as number 

 XVIII. 



Experimenting on the adaptability 

 of carbonic acid to the inflation of pneu- 

 matic tires, M. d'Arsonval, of Paris, has 

 found that the gas acts upon India rub- 

 ber, and, swelling its volume out enor- 

 mously, reduces it to a condition like 

 that following maceration in petroleum. 

 On exposure to the air the carbonic acid 

 passes away and the India rubber re- 

 turns to its normal condition. Carbonic 

 acid, therefore, does not seem well adapt- 

 ed to use in infiation. Oxygen is like- 

 wise not adapted, because it permeates 

 the India rubber and oxidizes it, but 

 nitrogen is quite inert and answers the 

 purpose admirably. 



Mr. Gifford Pinciiot, Forester of 

 the Department of Agriculture, has an- 

 nounced that a few well-qualified per- 

 sons ■will be received in the Division of 

 Forestry as student-assistants. They 

 will be assigned to practical field work, 

 and will be allowed their expenses and 

 three hundred dollars a year. They are 

 expected to possess, when they come, a 

 certain degree of knowledge, which is 

 defined in Mr. Pinchot's announcement, 

 of botany, geology, and other sciences, 

 with good general attainments. 



In a communication made to the gen- 

 eral meeting of the French Automobile 

 Club, in ]\Iay, the Baron de Zeylen enu- 

 merates 600 manufacturers in France 

 who have produced 5,250 motor-carriages 

 and about 10,000 motoi'-cycles ; 110 mak- 

 ers in England, 80 in Germany, 60 in 

 'the United States, 55 in Belgium, 25 in 

 Switzerland, and about 30 in the other 



