118 
POPULAR SCIEN"CE ^EWS. 
[August, 1S90. 
nates the sk^ in the neighborhood, and the more 
intense the flash the more brilliant and extensive 
the illumination. At times, sheet lightning has 
been proved to emanate from an ordinary storm 
distant more than a hundred miles from the point 
of observation. It is, however, maintained, and 
apparently with good reason that occasionally light- 
ning of the "sheet" type, such as what is called 
"summer lightning," takes place without any 
thunder; so that, in such cases, no actual thunder- 
storm is in progress. 
3. "Globular Lightning." — This is a rare phe- 
nomenon and one which no one has, as yet, been 
able to produce in the laboratory, whereas the 
phenomena of the two previous types are easily- 
produced. The general description of the occur 
rence is that a luminous ball is seen moving very 
slowly, not touching any object and eventually 
breaking up with a violent explosion and the 
appearance of several flashes of ordinary lightning. 
It is reported that persons have gone out from a 
house into a street to follow such a ball and watch 
its movements, so that the occurrence must have 
lasted at least a couple of seconds. Ordinary light- 
ning, as is well known, is practically quite instanta- 
neous. The size of the baU on different occasions 
has varied from that of an orange to that of a large 
glass lamp globe, or even larger. Many physicists 
refuse to believe any accounts of this manifestation 
of the electrical discharge, but the reports of it are 
too numerous and circumstantial for us to con- 
sider them to be entirely baseless. — Longman's 
Magazine. 
Tlje Qut-Door morld. 
Edited by HARLAN H. BALLARD, 
President of the Agassiz Association. 
[P. O. Address, Pittsfield, Mass.] 
INDUSTRIAL MEMORANDA. 
Walled up in the cellars of a brewery at Burton- 
on-Trent, there was discovered not long ago some 
beer which had been brewed in the year 1798. It 
r.;semblcd sherry more than it did a malt liquor, and 
was in good condition. 
A Magnet for Extracting Particles of 
Metal erom the Body. — In machine shops it is a 
frequent occurrence that particles of metal penetrate 
into the skin and eyes. Messrs. Krister and Rossman 
have, according to Revue Indastrielle, constructed a 
magnet for the special purpose of extracting such 
particles. It is horseshoe shaped, polished and 
nickel-plated; the two branches are rouuded off" and 
end in a point only a few millimetres thick. Its 
attraction for iron extends for several milli- 
metres. 
Hydraulic Tlbe-Press. — A powerful hydraulic 
tube-press for forming metal and steel tubes from 
circular plates, by pressing or forcing them by the 
aid of mandrels through dies or angular rings, has 
been designed and built by Henry Bessemer & Co., 
Sheflield. The press will be used for the manufac- 
ture of tubes of large size, and more particularly for 
making shrapnel, segment, and other hollow- steel 
projectiles which the government is now anxious 
to obtain. Hitherto the.se projectiles used by the 
English artillery have been made either of cast iron 
or steel, but the wrought material has proved so 
much superior that forged hollow projectiles are 
bound to supersede the present cast materials. The 
press is built entirely of Bessemer steel of sufficient 
strength to impart a downward pressure ofabout 
fifteen hundred tons, with a stroke of twelve feet. 
It is also furnished with two cylinders with an 
upward pressure of five hundred tons, for the pur- 
pose of stripping tubes from mandrels. This pro- 
cess of producing hollow tubes and projectiles will, 
it is said, dispense with the old method of boring 
them from the solid bar, which was not only very 
expensive, but prevented rapidity and extent of out- 
put. 
BETTER THAN WAS PROMISED. 
We announced in our May number that the 
proprietors of the Popular Science News, 
desiring to encourage members of the Agassiz 
Association in their work, had offered a fine 
microscope, vakied at twenty-five dollars, to 
the member or Cliapter sending the best 
record of personal observations to the Presi- 
dent of the Association before September i , 
1S90. In looking about for the best instru- 
ment for the money, Dr. Nichols found that 
for thirty-seven dollars he could secure the 
excellent " Student's Microscope" manufac- 
tured by the Bausch & Lomb Company, 
of Rochester, N. Y., and he has secured it. 
It has both coarse and fine adjustment, two 
objectives, etc., and is a really good and prac- 
tical instrunaent. Papers sent in competition 
for this beautiful prize should be distinctly 
marked with the full name and address of the 
sender, and it should be distinctly stated that 
they are entered in competition. Thus lar, 
no papers have been received, and the field is 
open to all members of the A. A. Doubtless 
many are holding their papers, desiring to 
embody the results of their summer's work. 
Do not hesitate to try for this prize becau,se 
your observation may seem to you of slight 
importance. It is not e.xpected that great 
discoveries will be made. If the notes are 
original and carefully made, they will be 
of interest and value. It often happens in 
cases like this that the prize goes to the one 
who least expects it. In any event, whoever 
does conscientious work, though he should 
fail of gaining the microscope, will gain 
something of more value in the experience 
and training of the trial. Let eveiy one try, 
young and old. 
THE AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION 
ATTACKED BY A LEADING OnNTTHOLOGIST OF 
BUEF-ALO, N. Y. 
Under this heading an extratt from a book 
recently issued by E. E. Fish, a writer whose 
name does not appear in the "Scientists' 
Directory" fo^ 1888, has been printed in 
Our Dumb Animals. Only the first para- 
graph of the extract, which is more than a 
column long, refers to our Association, and 
we exempt Mr. Fish from the responsibility 
of including it all under this heading. 
But the first paragraph, if correctly quoted, 
indicates that the balance in which the author 
weighs his words lacks delicate adjustment. 
He says; "The Agassiz Association soon 
had thousands in its ranks who degenerated 
into mere specimen-gatherer!). The egg- 
collecting craze aflected boys alike in cities, 
villages, and rural districts. Within the last 
few years millions of eggs have been thus 
destroyed." After denouncing the wanton 
cruelty of the boys, who do not spare "even 
our cemeteries," Mr. Fish concludes his 
attack by saying that it is e\ident these eggs 
are not taken from any desire to learn about 
the birds, because he has discovered that tlie 
young collectors are very ignorant. Thou- 
sands of eggs have been brought to him for 
identification, and in many cases tlie bovs 
actually did not know the species of the bird 
that laid them. Moreover, he adds, "not 
one egg in a thousand was preserved two 
months," and only a very few were kept for 
forty-eight hours. 
If this article had been printed in a scien- 
tific journal it would have needed no replv. 
It would then have been read with the intelli- 
gence with which it was not written. It 
would have been seen that the statements are 
untrue. The Agassiz Association hasalwa\s 
stood as strongly for humanity as for science. 
In our zeal for mercy we ha\e so steadfastly 
opposed such conduct as Mr. Fish deplores, 
that we have rather wronged our students 
than injured oiu- birds. Many young orni- 
thologists have left us, asserting that bird- 
students do not have a fair show in the 
Agassiz Association. 
Not one boy has ever been encouraged by 
us to take eggs for his subject of study, under 
ftny circumstances whatever. We have re- 
fused to print exchanges either of eggs or 
birds. We have always favored the opera- 
glass, and not the shot-gun. The Agassiz 
Association is not responsible for the slaughter 
of a single bird or for the destruction of a 
single egg. What Mr. Fish charges upon us 
is not only what we have not done, but what 
we have always most vigorously prevented. 
If any of our members are guilty of sucii 
wantonness, they have acted contrary to our 
teachings, and have rendered themselves 
liable to expulsion from our .society. If tiiou- 
sands of our members are "mere specimen- 
gatherers," destroying "millions of eggs," 
they have not "degenerated" to this low 
estate either becau.se of, or after, their con- 
nection with the Agassiz Association. 
But the premises fiom which our wanton- 
ness has been inferred are not true. We 
have not in our total membership so many as 
five hundred egg-collectors, good or bad, and 
when Mr. Fish speaks of "millions of eggs," 
he is using numbers which he has not counted. 
Again, of the comparatively few eggs that 
our young men have gathered, nearly all have 
been taken conscientiously. 
The fact that " thousands " ( .' ) of eggs have 
been carried' to Mr. Fish for identification 
does not necessarily prove that they were col- 
lected with no desire to learn. The boys 
supposed that Mr. Fish could give them 
information. 
Nor does their ignorance of species demon- 
