432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Dr. Joseph WiGGLESwoRxn, of Rainhill 

 Asylum, regards morality as of developmental 

 origin and growth. Morally insane persons 

 exhibit a change in their affective nature, 

 having their altruistic feelings greatly im- 

 paired or lost. Moral insanity might exist 

 by itself, but it is more usually a stage in the 

 development of intellectual insanity, show- 

 ing itself generally precedent to intellectual 

 change ; the moral faculties are often the first 

 to be affected when the cerebrum is the sub- 

 ject of slowly progressing disease. There 

 are also moral idiots or imbeciles — children 

 who, with little or no impairment of intellect, 

 show great deficiency or almost total absence 

 of the moral faculties, and are incapable of 

 acquiring them. 



The kava-root {Piper methysticum) of the 

 Society and South Sea Islands is the basis 

 of the intoxicating drink of those regions. 

 Women and girls are employed to chew the 

 root, and, when well masticated and mixed 

 with saliva, it is ejected into bowls, mixed 

 with coca-juice, and left to ferment. Both 

 natives and whites of the lower classes are 

 very fond of it. The natives use it as some 

 among us do wine, under the idea that it will 

 help them along in important undertakings. 



The Franklin Institute calls attention to 

 the fact that it is empowered to award a gold 

 medal, foxmded by the legacy of EUiott Cres- 

 son, of Philadelphia, which is granted either 

 for some discovery in the arts and sciences, 

 or for the invention or improvement of some 

 useful machine, or for some new process, or 

 combination of materials in manufacture, or 

 for ingenuity, skill, or perfection in work- 

 manship. It is also empowered to recom- 

 mend the award of a premium and medal, 

 founded in 1816, by John Scott, of Edinburgh, 

 by a legacy to the city of Philadelphia, for 

 rewarding ingenious men and women who 

 make useful inventions. The premium is not 

 to exceed twenty dollars, and the medal is 

 to be of copper, and inscribed " To the most 

 deserving." Full information respecting the 

 manner of presenting reports upon discover- 

 ies and inventions may be obtained by ad- 

 dressing the Secretary of the Franklin Insti- 

 tute, Philadelphia, Pa. 



A TECHNICAL uuivcrsity is contemplated in 

 the colony of Victoria. A minute has been 

 issued by the Minister of Public Instruction 

 of the colony, on the policy of founding such 

 an institution, in which the evidence taken 

 before the Royal Commission on Technical 

 Instruction is largely drawn upon. The esti- 

 mates of cost embrace between £500,000 

 and £1,000,000 for founding the institution, 

 and a yearly endowment of £30,000. 



The district of OuUiassutai in Mongolia 

 has been suffering for two years from an 

 invasion of rats, which have destroyed all 

 the grass of the pastures. The post-carriers 

 have been obliged to change their routes, 

 not only because of the difficulty of support- 



ing relays of horses in the infested districts, 

 but also because the roads have been made 

 dangerous by innumerable burrows. 



OBITUARIES. 

 It was recently announced that General 

 Nicholas Prjevalsky, the distinguished Rus- 

 sian explorer, had died in Central Asia, on 

 his way to Thibet, of typhus fever. He hart 

 started from St. Petersburg on the 31st of 

 August, in an attempt to reach Lhassa, in 

 Thibet. When last heard from previous to 

 his death he had reached Vernoje, where he 

 intended to equip his party. A portrait and 

 sketch of him will be found in the number 

 of this magazine for January, 1887. 



Prof. Theodoi Kjirulf, who has recent- 

 ly died at Christiania, Norway, besides being 

 distinguished as a contributor to scientific 

 literature, was versed in poetry and music, 

 and a lover of the fine arts. lie was born 

 in Christiania in 1825 ; traveled in early life 

 in Norway collecting folk-lore, and in Iceland, 

 Tyrol, and other parts of Europe for geo- 

 logical study. lie became attached to the 

 geological department of the University of 

 Christiania in 1850, and a professor there, 

 and Director of the Geological Survey in 

 1866. He published works on the Silurian 

 basin of Christiania and the geology of south- 

 ern Norway, and was the author of more 

 popular books on scientific subjects. 



James Stevenson, of the United States 

 Geological Survey, died July 25th. He was 

 born in Maysville, Ky., was business mana- 

 ger in the field of the Haydcn Survey, was 

 especially interested in American ethnology, 

 and was a well-informed zoologist. 



Mr. William Gifford Palgrave, an emi- 

 nent traveler, died at Montevideo, where he 

 was British minister, in his sixty-third year. 

 He was author of a " Narrative of a Year's 

 Journey through Central and Eastern Ara- 

 bia," which was a great fund of informa- 

 tion respecting that little-known country. 



Silas Stearns, an ichthyologist of thor- 

 ough and exact knowledge, died at Ashe- 

 ville, N. C, August 2d. He was made a 

 special agent in 1880 of the United States 

 Fish Commission and Census Bureau, in 

 charge of investigations of the marine indus- 

 tries of the Gulf of Mexico, with the fishes 

 of which and their economical value he was 

 particularly well acciuainted. According to 

 President Jordan, his early ambition to be- 

 come a naturalist "met with discouragement 

 in the absurd statement, made by some one 

 in Washington, that no successful work in 

 science would be possible without a classical 

 education," but evidently was not put down 

 by it. 



Dr. Peter Gries, an English chemist, 

 died September 6th, of apoplexy. He was 

 best known from his discovery of the diazo 

 compounds. 



