288 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY, 



A CORRESPONDENT of " Nature " reports 

 an illustration of the power of organization 

 in the mouse. He was waked up one iiight 

 by a distinct, continuous grinding under the 

 floor of his room, which lasted till after 

 daylight, when it suddenly ceased, and the 

 room seemed in an instant filled with mice. 

 One of the mice caught on a bell-pull, and 

 climbed upon it to near the ceiling. Then 

 he "turned himself round, and for a few 

 minutes quietly surveyed the room; then 

 deliberately descended, and in two or three 

 minutes not a mouse was left in the room." 

 The correspondent supposes that this scout- 

 mouse was the chief-engineer of the com- 

 pany, and had directed the siege-operations ; 

 that he rose to an eminent point to survey 

 the conquest, and that, finding it contained 

 nothing of interest to mice, gave the word 

 to his followers, after which they all re- 

 tired. 



According to an essay by Dr. D. J. 

 Macgowan, China has no copyright law, but 

 authors' rights are protected with cer- 

 tainty, upon the theory that their writings 

 are as really property as their material 

 goods, and are so obviously so that no 

 particular designation is required. These 

 rights are hereditary, and not limited. Au- 

 thors do not make arrangements with pub- 

 lishers; that would be undignified. They 

 have their books cut and printed on their 

 own premises, and then sell them to the 

 trade. Ephemeral books are, however, sold 

 to publishers, and are then liable to be 

 pirated. The book-trade has only the most 

 limited facilities for advertising and cir- 

 culating its issues ; yet, the knowledge of 

 new publications is very quickly spread 

 through the country, and the books get to 

 all interested in them in a remarkably short 

 time. 



M. Joseph Lecorntj has suggested sev- 

 eral ways in which balloons might be used 

 in astronomical research. The appearance 

 of heavenly bodies near the horizon is dis- 

 torted by refraction. We can not make ex- 

 act allowances for the distortion, because 

 we have no rule by which to measure the 

 rate of atmospheric refraction, and learn 

 the laws under which it varies. "With 

 balloons we might sound the air in all 

 weathers, and in time get a rule. Balloons 

 also could take us above the clouds and at- 

 mospheric hazes, and enable us to get direct 

 views of eclipses, transits, comets, and me- 

 teoric showers when they might be obscured 

 at the surface, and of such phenomena as 

 the aurora borealis and the zodiacal light 

 that are always observed at the surface under 

 difficulties. M. de Fonvielle has already 

 made satisfactory observations and measure- 

 ments of a comet and observations of shoot- 

 ing-stars, from a balloon. 



As Italian ship has been sheathed with 

 glass instead of copper. The plates are 

 cast like iron plates to fit the hull of the 

 vessel, and are made water-tight by means 

 of a silicate mastic. They are claimed to 

 be exempt from the vices of oxidation and 

 incrustation. 



M. Wroblesky has succeeded in liquefy- 

 ing oxygen in considerable quantities, and 

 then, by removing the pressure, allowing it 

 to boil. By this means he has produced a 

 cold of — 186°C., or — 302'8° Fahr., at which 

 nitrogen has become solidified into a snow 

 composed of crystals " of a remarkable di- 

 mension." M. Wroblesky announces that 

 he has obtained the liquefaction of hydro- 

 gen, by exposing it to the cooling influence 

 of liquid oxygen at the instant of evapora- 

 tion. 



A CONFLICT of opinion having broken out 

 between the Municipal Council of Paris and 

 the gas company, as to what the price of 

 gas should be, a scientific commission has 

 been appointed to decide whether the gas 

 industry has bo advanced as to justify a 

 diminution in the price. 



M. F. Terby states, in the " Bulletin " of 

 the Belgian Academy of Sciences, that he 

 believes he has found a monthly period for 

 the aurora borealis, corresponding with the 

 returning presentation, every twenty-seven 

 days, of the same sun-spots to the earth. 



M. CoRNU lately described to the French 

 Academy of Sciences a white rainbow which 

 he saw on the morning of the 28th of 

 November. There had been a heavy hoar- 

 frost, followed by a thick, low fog. This 

 rainbow was wholly white, without even as 

 much iridization as is noticeable in halos, 

 and had a fleecy appearance like that of the 

 fumes of phosphureted hydrogen, or the 

 smoke from the mouth of a cannon. 



The detonations of the recent earthquake 

 in the Straits of Sunda were distinctly heard 

 through all the Philippine Islands — so dis- 

 tinctly that some persons thought a battle 

 was going on, or that some vessel was fir- 

 ing signals of distress. 



The savages of the Maclay coast of New 

 Guinea, according to Dr. Miclucho-Maclay, 

 seldom bury their dead. As soon as a man 

 dies, his body is placed in a sitting posture 

 and covered with palm-leaves. It is then 

 exposed to the fire for two or three weeks, 

 till it becomes wasted away or dried up. 

 The bodies of children are simply hung up 

 to decay in a basket under the roof. Burial 

 is rarely given, except when an old man has 

 survived all his wives and children, and it 

 is then accompanied by numerous ceremo- 

 nies. 



