156 THE AMEEICAN MONTHLY [August, 



the study of modern pharmacognosy, and they will find it not only a source of much 

 enjoyment, but also of pecuniary advantage in after life, as has been demonstrated by 

 graduates of the college. 



An advanced course is given for the benefit of those who desire special instruction 

 and practice in vegetable histology, microscopical detection of adulterations, micro- 

 scopy of the pharmacopoeia, etc. 



The fee for each course, ten dollars, includes pay for all mounting materials, etc., 

 except slides and cover glasses, which each student must provide for himself, a supply 

 costing about seventy-five cents. Persons not students of the college who desire to join 

 any of these classes may do so by paying the matriculation fee, in addition to the 

 tuition fee for the course. 



No text-books are necessary, but any of the standard works are useful for reference. 

 The advanced-course students will be given access to a large library of works on 

 microscopy and its application to the sciences. 



The St. Louis Club of Microscopists is composed of persons who have taken the 

 microscopical laboratory instructions, and the students of each class are invited to at- 

 tend the monthly meetings of this organization. 



The Royal Society of England has elected to be foreign members Prof. E. F. W. 

 Pfluger, of Bonn, and Prof. Julius Sachs, of Wiirzburg. 



MacMillan & Co. announce in June that they have in press a Text-Book of Pathology, 

 with illustrations by D. J. Hamilton, to be issued in September; also. The Bacteria in 

 Asiatic Cholera, by E. Klein. 



Dr. W. K. Brooks, of Johns Hopkins University, has been appointed a naturalist of 

 the U. S. Fish Commission by Col. McDonald, and he has been given the use of one 

 of the vessels belonging to the Commission for investigations upon the animals of the 

 Gulf Stream. 



Prof. Roland D. Irving, of the U. S. Geological Survey, died on Juiie 2. Though 

 only 41 years of age he was a master of his science. He has done a great deal of 

 work upon the copper-bearing rocks of the Northwest. 



Christian Science, so-called, has received a rebuff in Massachusetts, where the death 

 of a daughter of a woman practitioner resulted from the culpable neglect to use the 

 ordinary medical reagents. Such infatuation reflects no credit on the cause of progress, 

 and certainly none upon Christianity. It has broken up a happy home, and made its 

 chief ornament a hurt to society. 



National Museum. — A bill is at present before Congress appropriating 1:500,000 

 for the erection of an additional building for the National Museum. The proposed 

 building is to cover an area 300 feet square, to be two stories high, and to stand 

 flanking the Smithsonian building on the west as the present building does upon the 

 east. 



The Discoverer of Chloroform. — Dr. Samuel Guthrie is alleged by Mr. O. Guthrie 

 to have been the first discoverer of chloroform, and the Historical Society of Sackett's 

 Harbor, N. Y., is about to erect a monument to his memory. The claim to priority is 

 based upon a paper published in Si/Zimnii' s Jounia/ '\n October, 1831, but written prior 

 to May of the same year. Soubeiran, a Frenchman, and Liebig published similar but 

 independent papers, the former in January, 1832, the latter in November, 1831. 



Metrology. — Prof. Marshall D. Ewell, of Northwestern University, Evanston, 111., 

 writes us that he has secured Prof. W. A. Rogers' very perfect dividing engine, with 

 which he has hitherto made his micrometers, and that he shall have it set up ready for 

 use by August 15, making stage or eye-piece micrometers. 



Counterfeit Milk. — An Iowa milk company has been detected in furnishing a milk 

 which is artificial, but a very successful imitation of the true bovine emulsion. The report 

 of a St. Louis chemist says : — ' It is a perfect imitation in every respect, and nothing 

 but a chemical analysis would discover its true character. It is apparently rich and 

 wholesome, and pleasant to the taste.' A table shows the chemical composition of the 

 milk and of the Iowa company's article. In the latter the proportion of water is larger 

 than in cow's milk, although this is a variable quantity. The chemistry of the prod- 

 uct is not well worked out yet. 



