432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



M. Olszewski has, by the aid of exces- 

 sively low temperatures, liquefied the more 

 permanent gases at pressures averaging only 

 740 millimetres, and has also determined 

 the boiling-points, melting-points, and dcn- 

 Bities at atmospheric pressure. The boil- 

 ing-points have thus been determined : Of 

 methane, —104° centigrade; oxygon, —181- 

 •4° ; —nitrogen, —104 4° ; carbon monox- 

 ide, — 190° ; and nitric oxide, — 153"G°. The 

 melting-point of carbon monoxide was also 

 determined to be —207°, and that of nitrogen 

 — 214°, M. Olszewski's nearest approach 

 to absolute zero was —225° C, or — 373° 

 i'ahr., for solid nitrogen. The density of 

 methane at 736 mm. and— 164° C, was 

 found to beO'415; that of oxygen at 743 

 mm., and — 181'4° was ri24; and that of 

 nitrogen at 741 mm. and — 194'4° was 0"885. 



P.-.OFESSOR ScHNETZLER has described a 

 curious moss which grows at the depth of 

 two hundred feet in the sub-lacustrine mo- 

 raine of Yvoire. It contains grains of chlo- 

 rophyl perfectly formed. 



OBITUARY XOTES. 



Count August ton JIarschall, Director 

 of the Archives of the Geologische Reichan- 

 Btalt of Vienna, died recently near that city, 

 at the age of eighty-two years. lie was the 

 author of several scientific works. 



Oscar IIarger, Assistant Professor of 

 Paleontology in Yale College, died in New 

 Haven, November 6. lie was born in 1843, 

 was graduated from Yale in 1878, and, hav- 

 ing devoted himself to the study of Natural 

 History, became a co-worker with Professor 

 Marsh. Ue was on the staff of the dredging 

 expedition of the coast-survey steamer Bach 

 to St. George's Banks in 1871, and accom- 

 panied Professor Marsh on his geological 

 expeditions in 1871 and 1873. Among his 

 contributions to scientific literature were the 

 catalogue of isopods in Verril and Smith's 

 " Invertebrata of Southern New England," 

 and " A llcport on the Marine Isopoda of 

 New England and Adjacent Waters." 



M. n. Bayaud, who recently died in 

 Paris at the age of eighty-one years, dis- 

 covered a photographic process, in 1839, 

 almost simultaneously with Dagucrre and 

 Talbot. lie delayed to perfect and publish 

 his discovery and thereby lost the priority 

 which it is asserted he might easily have 

 claimed. 



The death is reported of Dr. E. Luther, 

 Professor of Astronomy and Director of 

 the Observatory at Kiinigsberg, Germany, 

 in the eighty-first year of his age. 



Dr. Robert Caspart, Professor of Bot- 

 any in the University of Konigsberg, died 

 recently from the effects of a fall down- 

 stairs, lie was bom in 1818, and, while 



not a prolific writer, was well known to 

 botanists as a critical authority on Nym- 

 phyeacea?. 



The Rev. William S. Stmonds, F. G. S., 

 rector of Pcndock, who died September 15, 

 was an earnest student of British geology, 

 and contributed papers to the scientific pe- 

 riodicals on the rocks and fossils of the 

 west of England. He paid, however, more 

 attention to physical geology than to pale- 

 ontology ; and was greatly interested in the 

 phenomena of the glacial drifts, and in ques- 

 tions relating to the antiquity of prehistoric 

 man. He was the author of " Records of 

 the Rocks," " Old Stones," and " Old Bones," 

 of more than forty papers in scientific jour- 

 nals, and of the romances "Malvern Chase" 

 and " Hornby Castle." 



Joseph Maxendell, a British meteorolo- 

 gist and astronomer of eminent local repu- 

 tation, died in Southport, October 7, in the 

 seventy-second year of his age. He is de- 

 clared by Balfour Stewart to have been the 

 pioneer in the suggestion of the eleven-year 

 sun-spot theory of meteorological cycles, and 

 to have been the first to propose the use of 

 storm-signals as they arc now adopted by all 

 maritime nations. He was a member of 

 many learned societies at home and abroad. 



Robert Hunt, F. R. S., keeper of the 

 British Mining Records, died October 17, 

 in the eighty-first year of his age. He had 

 been writing on scientific subjects for nearly 

 fifty years. AVhilc a medical student, he be- 

 came acquainted with pharmaceutical chem- 

 istry. During a walking tour, he collected 

 the materials for a book on west of Eng- 

 land folk-lore. He studied and wrote upon 

 photography, crystallization, the chemical 

 action of light (in relation to which he in- 

 troduced the term actinism), the influence 

 of colored media on plant-germination and 

 growth, and other kindred subjects. He was 

 the originator of the publication of statisti- 

 cal returns of the mineral produce of the 

 United Kingdom ; and in 1866 was one of 

 the commissioners to inquire into the stock 

 of unworked coal in the mines. He pub- 

 lished, in 1884, a comprehensive book on 

 British mining. He was author of works on 

 the " Poetry of Science," " Panthea, or the 

 Spirit of Nature," and "Handbooks" of 

 the great Exhibitions of 1851 and 1852; 

 and he edited, after Dr. lire's death, the 

 successive editions of that author's "Dic- 

 tionary of Arts." 



Mr. Thomas Boi.ton, of the Mierosco- 

 pists' and Naturalists' Studio, Birmingham, 

 England, died November 7th. Ills services 

 as a naturalist and microscopist were recog- 

 nized several months ago by the award of a 

 civil-service medal, in connection with which 

 a memorial, signed by many eminent men 

 of science, was presented, setting forth his 

 claims and discoveries. 



