JZO 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



Some are poisonous wlien eaten ; others are 

 merely venomous. Among the first arc many 

 spheroids, a telrodo'n, and many Vlupca, 

 which are abundant near the Cape of Good 

 IJopc. In the Japan Sea is found a very 

 peculiar tetrodon, which is sometimes used 

 as a means of suicide. It brings on sensa- 

 tions like those produced by morphia, and 

 then death. 



The nervous irritation produced by tin- 

 nitus, or noises in the ear, from which many 

 persons suffer much, has been mentioned as 

 a possible cause of mental disorder. The 

 coarser diseases of the' ear are subject to 

 surgical treatment from without ; but nerv- 

 ous affections provoked by obscure dis- 

 orders are not so amenable, because their 

 causes are more subtle, although none the 

 less real. Sometimes an obstruction of the 

 eustachian tube may be the chief cause of 

 tinnitus. 



OBITUARY X0TE3. 



Du. Asa Gray, the eminent botanist, died 

 at his home in Cambridge, Massachusetts, 

 January 30th, in the seventy-eighth year of 

 his age, after an illness of about a month. lie 

 was born in Paris, Oneida County, New York, 

 in 1810 ; studied medicine, and received the 

 degree of M. D. in 1831, but never engaged 

 in practice; became an assistant in the 

 chemical laboratory of Dr. John Torrey in 

 1833 ; and a little later was appointed cura- 

 tor in the Lyceum of Natural IJistory. His 

 first botanical writings were descriptions of 

 sedges and of certain plants of northern 

 and western New York. In the " Elements 

 of Botany," published in 1 836, he showed 

 that he had already views of his own, which 

 he was not afraid to utter, even though they 

 might be different from those of the then 

 recognized authorities in science. From 

 that time till the end of his life he worked 

 with unceasing activity and grow'ing fame, 

 and for many years he has been recognizeil 

 as one of the leading botanists of the worid. 

 His numerous works are well known to all 

 readers and students, and can not be cata- 

 logued in a note. It is enough to say of 

 them that whichever class of them we re- 

 gard, they have never been excelled. 



Professor T. S. UrMrinoE, chemist of 

 the University College of Wales at Aberyst- 

 with, died November 30th, aged thirty-four 

 years. He prosecuted hi:s earlier scientific 

 studies while serving as a clerk in a corn- 

 merchant's office, at the evening classes of 

 the Science and Art Department, and after- 

 ward studied under Professors Frankland 

 and Bunsen. His first publication was on 

 "The Coal-Gas of the Metropolis." He in- 

 vestigated the atomic weight of beryllium, 

 made redeterminations of the specific heats 



of various metals, and translated and edit- 

 ed Kobbc's " Inorganic Chemistry." 



Professor Boxamy Price, Professor of 

 Political Economy in the University of Ox- 

 ford, died in London, January 8th. He was 

 born in Guernsey in 1807; was one of the 

 masters in Dr. Arnold's school at Rugby 

 from 1830 to 1850; and was one of the 

 recognized authorities in his special branch 

 of research. His lectures, in their pub- 

 lished form, have had an important eco- 

 nomic influence. They include "The Prin- 

 ciples of Currency" (1809), and ''Chapters 

 on Political Economy" (1878). In 1876 

 Professor Price published another work, 

 " On Currency and Banking." 



Dr. Carl Passavakt, the African trav- 

 eler, died recently at Honolulu, in the thirty- 

 fourth year of his age. 



Dr. Ferdinand Vandeveer Hatden, a 

 geologist whose name is inseparably associ- 

 ated with the Government explorations of 

 the Rocky Mountain region, died in Phila- 

 delphia, December '22d, after an illness of 

 many months. He was born in Westfield, 

 Massachusetts, in 18129, and was graduated 

 from Oberlin College in 1850, and from the 

 Albany Medical College in 1853. He was con- 

 nected for more than twenty years, a great 

 part of the time as chief, with the explora- 

 tions of the Western Territories, including 

 Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, New Mexico, 

 Dakota, Montana, Idaho, and Utah. Be- 

 sides the official reports of his exploring 

 work, he was the author of the books, " The 

 Great West; its Attractions and Resources" 

 (1880), and " North America " (1883). He 

 was a member of most of the American 

 scientific societies, and an honorary and 

 corresponding member of many foreign so- 

 cieties. 



M. F. J. Raynaud, an eminent Freneh 

 electrician and director of the Higher School 

 of Telegraphy, died early in January, from 

 the results of a murderous attack. lie was 

 associated with the laying of several tele- 

 graphic cables, one of which, crossing the 

 Seine, having been broken, he repaired in 

 1870, in the face of the enemy's fire. He 

 was the first person to call the attention of 

 French men of science to the labors of Eng- 

 lishmen in electric unities ; and he trans- 

 lated Gordon's '' Treatise on Physics " into 

 French. 



The recent death is announced of Pro- 

 fessor Arthur Christian!, of the Physiologi- 

 cal Institute of Berlin, who was a great au- 

 thority on the physiological action of elec- 

 tricity, and on the physiology of the nervous 

 system and of the sense of hearing. 



Dr. Max Schuster, an eminent pctrolo- 

 gist, of the University of Vienna, died last 

 November. 



