144 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Btrong ijift of Immming, is satisfied that 

 the wind is not the aj;eiu, for ho found the 

 Bound luoic likely to be heard on a dry, 

 clear, cool, and calm evening than at any 

 other time, lie is also convinced that the 

 sound is not produced by electricity ; for he 

 could detect no signs of that agent when 

 the humming was going on, while at times 

 when the wire was evidently charged there 

 wa:* no sound. The humming was accom- 

 panied by a rapid vibration of the wire. 

 Mr. McIJride considers the question a sub- 

 ject of investigation which may lead to im- 

 portant discoveries. 



Dr. Carl II. ton Klein, of Dayton, 

 Ohio, claims to have discovered a i)rocess 

 for converting garbage and sewage matter 

 into an odorless and clean fuel. He treats 

 refuse, to disinfect and deodorize it, with 

 salt, slacked lime, and a little nitric acid to 

 start the fumes ; then, after eight days, with 

 sal-soJa. The composition will solidify in 

 a few days, when it is pressed into bricks 

 and dried till it is in fit condition to be used. 

 It produces a better flame, the inventor says, 

 and retains more heat, than Alleghany coal, 

 and costs but little more than half as much 

 as the cheapest other fuel in the market. 



Lieutenant-Colonel Platfair observed, 

 in the Geographical Section of the IJritish 

 Association, that his experience in Tunis had 

 proved in the most forcible manner the im- 

 [lortance of preserving forests. In Roman 

 times the province of Africa and the terri- 

 tory of Carthage were the granary of Eu- 

 rope. In what was now practically a desert, 

 the remains of magnificent Roman farms 

 were everywhere found. The small hill-sides 

 were now nothing but sands. This was en- 

 tirely due to the destruction of the forests 

 with which they used to be covered ; for the 

 vegetable soil had been washed away into 

 the valleys, and there it was now to be found 

 buried beneath some feet of sand and water- 

 worn pebbles. 



A SCHEME is on foot to establish a botan- 

 ic garden in Montreal. A tract of seventy- 

 five acres of land near the base of the 

 mountain is promised by the city, and sub- 

 scriptions are solicited for means to fit it 

 up and supply collections. 



The French Association at Grenoble was 

 well attended, and excited much interest 

 among the people of the city. The subject 

 of the inaugural address of President Ver- 

 ncuil was surgery in 1885, and the address 

 is said to have been much more interesting 

 than the subject promised. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Professor J. J. A. Worsaae, thp emi- 

 nent Danish archaeologist, died suddenly Au- 

 gust ISth. He was born in 1821. He was 



made inspector over antiqtiarian monuments 

 in Denmark when twenty-eight years old. 

 Having labored for many years with Pro- 

 fessor Thomsen, who first established the 

 division of the stone, iron, and bronze ages, 

 in arranging the Museum of Northern An- 

 tiiiuities, he continued the work after his 

 death in 1865, and brought the museum to 

 its present state of perfection and richness 

 in treasure. He was Minister of Worship 

 and Public Instruction in 187'l-'75. He 

 was the author of several works on the an- 

 tiquities and early history of Denmark, and 

 on the conquests achieved by the North- 

 men. 



Mr. William John Thoms, formerly 

 editor of "Notes and Queries," died August 

 15th, in his eighty-second year. His work 

 was partly literary, but mainly in the line of 

 antiquarian research. As editor of "Notes 

 and Queries " he had often to deal with sci- 

 entific matters ; and he was a vigorous con- 

 testant of the claims of all persons wlio 

 assumed to be centenarians, insisting that 

 no one had ever lived to be more than a 

 hundred years old. 



Commandant Leon BnArLT, of the 

 French marine, who died at Argenteuil on 

 the 2'7th of August, was a meteorologist, and 

 author of a scries of meteorological charts, 

 for which he received gold medals at the 

 Exposition of 1878 and from the Geographi- 

 cal Congress of Rome. He contributed val- 

 uable papers on his favorite science to the 

 first ten years' volumes of the journal " La 

 Nature " and to the " Revue Scientifique," 

 and was author of a number of monograplis 

 on subjects of meteorology. 



Philip Leopold Martin, taxidermist 

 and muncoloffue, died in Stuttgart, March 

 7th, aged seventy years. He was the author 

 of an illustrated "Natural History of Ani- 

 mals," which was published in Leipsic in 

 1882-'84 ; and of a work on the praxis of 

 natural history, relating to taxidermy, der- 

 moplastics, and muscology, in three vol- 

 umes. 



Dr. Johannes Augiist Christian Roper, 

 Professor of Botany at Rostock, died 

 March 17th, aged eighty-four years. He 

 was author of papers and works on the 

 spurges of Germany and Pannonia, the or- 

 gans of plants, the fiowers and allinities of 

 the Balsimanc(P, the grasses, and the flora 

 of Mecklenburg, and the Darwinian theory, 

 and translated De Candolle's " Plant-Physi- 

 ology." 



Dr. Karl Jacob Zoppritz, Professor of 

 Geography in the University of Konigs- 

 bcrg, died a few months ago. He was born 

 in 1838. His principal work in geography 

 was the reduction of the barometric alti- 

 tude-measurements of travelers. 



