THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In the Geological Section of the British 

 Association, Mr. H. Johnston Lavis pre- 

 sented the report of the committee for the 

 investigation of the volcanic phenomena of 

 Vesuvius. Its work had been interfered 

 with by various circumstances growing out 

 of the prevalence of cholera in Naples, but 

 a careful record had been kept of daily ob- 

 servations of the variations in the activity 

 of the volcano, and photographs hud been 

 taken of all important changes of the cra- 

 ter-plane and in the cone of eruption. 



Aftkr a very interesting vice-presiden- 

 tial address on the phosphorescence of ma- 

 rine animals, Dr. W. B. Carpenter remarked, 

 in the Biological Section of the British As- 

 sociation, that disciples of evolution were 

 straining points to make it appear that the 

 luminosity was of particular use and was 

 propagated and increased by natural selec- 

 tion. He thought it was a great pity to strain 

 that argument too far. it would be much 

 better to abstain from more than mere specu- 

 lation in regard to the use of this remarkable 

 endowment. 



Pkofessor J. G. JIcKendrick described 

 at Aberdeen some ex[)eriments he had made 

 in the exposure of microphytes contained in 

 meat to extremely low temperatures. The 

 results showed that wc might take organic 

 fluids and expose them to the temperature 

 of 120' below zero Fahrenheit for at least a 

 hundred hours, and that then, after they 

 had been placed in a higher temperature, 

 fermentation and putrefaction would go on 

 in the ordinary way. These facts destroyed 

 any hope of a practical result being ob- 

 tained from sterilization by cold. 



Dr. B. Crocmbie Brown reported in the 

 Geographical Section of the British Associa- 

 tion concerning his visit to the Forest School 

 of Spain, one of the objects of which school 

 was to insure that not a drop of water found 

 its way to the sea without doing its best for 

 the country. Spain was now convinced of 

 the importance of scientific forestry, and of 

 the function of forests in affecting the dis- 

 tribution and quantity of the rainfall, and 

 was doing its best to conserve and replenish 

 them. 



The Emperor of Russia has conferred 

 the golden honorary medal of the Empire 

 upon llessrs. Alvan Clark & Sons, of Cam- 

 bridge, Massachusetts, in acknowledgment 

 of the excellent performances of the great 

 object-glass furnished by them for the ob- 

 servatory at Pulkowa. This is the second 

 award of the medal that has been made by 

 the present emperor. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



The death is announced of M. Breton 

 des Champs, a French mathematician and 

 scicntilic writer, who was best known from 



the part he took, a few years ago, in ex- 

 posing the forgery of the letter alleged to 

 be by Sir Isaac Newton which was sold to 

 M. Chaslcs. 



The death is announced of M. Edmond 

 Boissier, an eminent French botanist. His 

 career in science began in 1837, when he 

 traveled in Spain, in preparation for his 

 work on the botany of that country, which 

 was published from 1839 to 1845. He aft- 

 erward botanically explored various parts 

 of Southeastern Europe and Asia Minor. 

 His great work was the " Flora Orientalis," 

 which was published from 1867 to 1881. 

 He was engaged upon the supplements to 

 this book at the time of his death. He was 

 also author of a number of smaller works 

 and monographs, among which was a series 

 on the Euphorbue. 



Walter Weldon, a distinguished Eng- 

 lish chemist, died September 21st, in the 

 fifty-third year of his age. He was the in- 

 ventor of the " Weldon process " for the re- 

 generation of the manganese peroxide used 

 in the generation of chlorine, by the aid of 

 which the production of bleaching-powders 

 has been vastly facilitated, with a great 

 saving of expense in manufacturing pro- 

 cesses. For this he received the grand 

 medal of the French Soci6t6 d'Encourage- 

 ment, in presenting which Professor Dumas 

 congratulated him on "having cheapened 

 every sheet cf paper and every yard of calico 

 made in the world." He was engaged at 

 the time of his illness in studying processes 

 for producing hydrochloric acid from cal- 

 cium chloride. 



Mr. John Muirheai), the inventor of the 

 Muirhead galvanic battery, which has served 

 as a model for most of the existing batteries, 

 has recently died, at the age of seventy-eight 

 years. 



Dr. H. W. Reicrardt, Professor of Bota- 

 ny in the University of Vienna, died by sui- 

 cide in August last, in the fiftieth year of 

 his age. He contributed many articles on 

 botany to the scientific journals of his coun- 

 try, chiefly to the " Journal of the Vienna 

 Academy of Sciences." His last undertak- 

 ing, a catalogue of the Imperial Botanical 

 Cabinet, of which he was keeper, remains 

 unfinished. 



Dr. Albert Fitz, who has piiblished 

 some noteworthy researches in fermenta- 

 tion, died at Strasburg on the 11th of May. 



Dr. Karl JrLius Andrae, Professor of 

 Mineralogy and Paleontology in the Univer- 

 sity of Bonn, died May 8th, in his sixty- 

 ninth year. 



UiiDwiG Freiherr von HonENnihiL, or 

 ITeufler von Rosen, an Aush-ian botanist, 

 whose specialty was the cryptogams, died 

 on the 9th of June, sixty-sveen years old. 



