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THJE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



M. ITiLT, director of the coal-mines of 

 La Wurm, near Aix-la-Chapelle, has devised 

 a way for keeping the galleries clear from 

 fire-damp by establishing a system of piping, 

 through which the gas is sucked away into 

 a reservoir. It can then be prepared and 

 applied to any use for which carbureted 

 hydrogen is suitable. 



The amount expended by the British 

 people on alcohol appears to be diminishing 

 with considerable regularity. The total for 

 1SS6 was £122,905,785, against £123,258,- 

 906 in 1885, and £14G,2'8S,769, the high- 

 est expenditure, in 1876. The diminished 

 amount drunk is, however, still enormous, 

 and it is worthy of remark that it is drunk 

 by a diminishing number of persons, for 

 the number who abstain totally, or drink ex- 

 ceedingly little, is steadily increasing. 



The efficiency of oil, when dropped on 

 the water, to calm boisterous waves may 

 now be regarded as established. It is aston- 

 ishing how small a quantity of oil will an- 

 swer the purpose. Admiral Clone gives the 

 amount as from two to three quarts an 

 hour dropped from perforated bags hanging 

 over the sides of the ship in positions va- 

 rying with the wind. The oil, then, by its 

 own outspreading, extending over the waves, 

 forms a film of less than a two and a half 

 millionth part of an inch in thickness ; and 

 this is enough to reduce breaking waves 

 and dangerous " rollers " to unbroken un- 

 dulations that are practically harmless. The 

 oils that have been found most effective are 

 seal, porpoise, and fish oils. Mineral oils, 

 such as are used for illumination, are too 

 light ; but the lubricating oils are denser, 

 and may be found sufficient. 



Mr. J. Norman Lockyer, in his " Chemis- 

 try of the Sun," states his theory of disso- 

 ciation by saying that "chemists regard 

 matter as composed of atoms and mole- 

 cules. The view now brought forward sim- 

 ply expands this scries into a larger number 

 of terms, and suggests that the molecular 

 grouping of a chemical substance may be 

 simplified almost without limit if the tem- 

 perature be increased." 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



Sir Julius von Haast, whose name is 

 closely associated with the record of geo- 

 graphical and geological investigation in 

 New Zealand, died August 16th, in the 

 sixty-eighth year of his age. He was a na- 

 tive of Bonn, Germany, and a student at its 

 university. lie was commissioned by an 

 English company to go to New Zealand for 

 the purpose of showing its suitability for 

 German elements ; and having arrived there 

 in 1858, devoted the larger part of the rest 

 of his life to scientific exploration.- The re- 



sults of this work are given in his " Geology 

 of the Provinces of Canterbury and "West- 

 land," and in many papers in English sci- 

 entific societies on the geology and physical 

 geography of the islands. He discovered 

 the Grey and Buller coal-fields, and several 

 gold-bearing districts ; instituted the Can- 

 terbury Museum, the first museum in the 

 southern hemisphere, which has more than 

 one hundred and fifty thousand labeled 

 specimens, and founded the Philosophical 

 Institute of Canterbury. 



GcsTAT Theodor Fechxer, Professor of 

 Experimental Physics at the University of 

 Leipsic, has recently died, in the eighty- 

 seventh year of his age. He was best 

 known by his work on psycho-physics, or 

 the law of relation between the intensity 

 of the stimulus and that of the resulting 

 sensation, which he begun when he was 

 nearly sixty years old, and which has be- 

 come the center of a considerable literature. 

 He was also active for many years in other 

 branches of science, and was the author of 

 a book of poems and a book of riddles. 



Professor Balfour Stewart, Professor 

 of Physics and Director of the Physical 

 Laboratory in Owen's College, Manchester, 

 England, died a few days before Christmas, 

 in the fifty-eighth year of his age. He made 

 his first start in commercial life, but soon 

 turned his attention to science. His first sci- 

 entific papers were published in the " Trans- 

 actions " of the Royal Society of Victoria. 

 He studied, experimentally, the radiation 

 and absorption of heat, and for his labors 

 received the Rumford medal in 1868. As 

 director, for about ten years, of the Kew 

 Observatory, he established the instruments 

 for the self -registration of the direction and 

 intensity of magnetic force. He was much 

 interested in psychical research. Besides 

 his "Elementary Practical Physics," and 

 other properly scientific publications, he 

 was the author of the curious books, "The 

 Unseen Universe," and " Paradoxical Phi- 

 losophy." 



Hkrr Augvpt Kappler, from whose 

 sketches of Dutch Guiana we have ex- 

 tracted an account of the monkeys of the 

 country, recently died at Stuttgart, aged 

 seventy-one years. 



Professor Charles L. Bloxam, Pro- 

 fessor of Chemistry in King's College, Lon- 

 don, died November 28th, in the fifty-sixth 

 year of his age. He was distinguished in 

 technical and analytical chemistry, and as 

 the author of several hand-books of chemis- 

 try and metallurgy, and of an excellent text- 

 book of chemistry. 



Dr. E. Baltzer, Professor of Mathe- 

 matics in the University of Gicssen, died 

 November 7th, in the seventieth year of 

 his age. 



