182 
POPULAE SCIENCE NEWS. 
[December, 1S90. 
Tlje Out-Door morld. 
Edited by HARLAN H. BALLARD, 
President of the Agassiz Association. 
[P. O. Address, Pittsfield, Mass.] 
A RETROSPECT AND A PROSPECT. 
The year 1S90 has been a prosperous one 
for the Agassiz Association. The work 
of the Chapters and individual members has 
been carried on with enthusiasm and success, 
as our monthly reports have abundantly 
shown. Many strong Chapters have been 
organized and admitted to honorable places 
in our ranks. 
Three courses of study have been main- 
tained with a full measure of success — one in 
botany, under Mr. Wight, of Framingham, 
Mass. ; one in chemistry, under Professor 
Cassidy, of Norfolk, "Va., and one in miner- 
alogy, under Professor G. Guttenberg, of 
Pittsburgh, Pa. 
The only serious misfortune of the j-ear has 
been the failure of Satita Claus, in which 
we had a department devoted to the interests 
of our younger members. This loss, how- 
ever, is largely counterbalanced by the invita- 
tion of the publishers of Popular Science 
News to use this journal as our official organ. 
There will be advantages in a concentration 
of all our interests in one paper. The pub- 
lishers have generously offered us three j^ages 
a month instead of two, and have given us 
permission to use one column for the benefit 
of our younger members. 
This arrangement is made for 1891 only, 
and its continuance after that date will depend 
upon the manner in which all our Chapters 
and members rally to the support of our new- 
journal — for, unless objection is made, we 
will hereafter cpiisider Popular Science 
News as the official organ of the Agassiz 
Association. 
No friend of the Association can do it 
better service 'than by helping extend the 
circidation of this paper. 
to members of the Agassiz Association to 
avail themselves under easy conditions of the 
unsurpassed advantages for astronomical study 
afforded by the two great observatories of the 
West : 
The Astronomical Society of the Pacific was 
founded February 7, 1SS9, as a result of tlie cordial 
co-operation of amateur and professional astrono- 
mers in successfully observing the total solar eclipse 
of the preceding New Year's Day. It seeks to con- 
tinue that association, both as a scientific and as a 
social force. The new society is designed to be 
popular in the best sense of the term. Boys and 
girls of the Agassiz Association are welcome. Any 
person who takes a genuine interest in astronomy is 
invited to join its membership, whether he has 
made special studies in this direction or not. It is 
believed that every such person will get, and will 
feel that he gets, a full return from the society, 
through its meetings, or through its publications. 
Three meetings a year (March, November, January) 
are held in San Francisco, at the rooms of the 
society, 408 California street; and three meetings 
(May, July, September) are held at Mount Hamil- 
ton, -where an opportunity is afforded to the mem- 
bers to see and use the instruments of the Lick 
Observatory. The Publicaiions are printed in 
octavo form at irregular intervals ; two hundred or 
more pages a year may be expected. The Publica- 
tions contain papers read before the society (either 
in fuH or in abstract), plates, etc., the minutes 
of the meetings; and also Notices from the Lick 
Observatory, which are brief and popular accounts 
of the current work of that establishment, prepared 
by members of the observatory staff. Such notices 
have previously been printed in various astronomical 
journals; but, in future, they can be found in full 
only in the Publications. The Publications of the 
society are sent (in exchange) to about one hundred 
observatories and academies of science. They can 
be obtained also by joining the society (dues $5 for 
each calendar year, no initiation fee). A diploma 
is issued to members. Correspondence should be 
addressed to either of the Secretaries as below : 
Charles Burckhalter, 
Chabot Observatory, Oakland. 
J. M. Schaeberle, 
Lick Observatory, San Jose. 
The membership is now about three hundred. 
A BRAVE DEED. 
Master Ralph Ballard, of Niles, Mich., 
a corresponding member of the A. A., has 
recently passed through a great trial in the 
sudden and very unusual death of his elder 
brother. This calamity was due to gas accu- 
mulated in a silo, and supposed to come 
partly from the heated corn and partly from 
the tar with which the inside was painted. 
Ralph's heroism in saving one brother and 
attempting to rescue the other at the risk 
of his own life is thus recounted by the JVi/es 
Daily Star of September 5 : 
Edward M. Ballard met with a sudden and un- 
timely death about 8 o'clock last evening. He was 
engaged with his two brothers and others in filling 
a silo with cut corn feed. The silo was twenty-five 
feet from top to bottom. There were two apartments 
to it. The one they were filling was about two- 
thirds full, and the division, not being sulliciently 
braced, began to spring out in the center. Edward, 
being in the loft, went down with a brace to stay it. 
He had got down within about six feet of the bottom 
of the pit when he was overcome by the gas which 
had accumulated at the bottom from the heated corn 
in the adjoining apartment, and from the gas which 
arose from the newly-tarred inside. He called for a 
rope and fell. Harry, his brother, let down a ladder 
and rushed down to rescue him, but he, too, was 
overcome and fell. A hole was then broken open 
from the outside. Ralph, another brother, went 
down another ladder through the hole thus made, 
with a rope attached to him, and with a rope to 
attach to one of the boys in there. He succeeded 
in getting it around Harry, when he himself was 
suffocated and had to be pulled out. Harry was 
hauled out next in an unconscious condition, but 
was breathing and soon recovered. Ralph again 
went down for Edward, but was so soon overcome 
that the hitch was not perfect, when he had to be 
pulled out again. Again he descended and suc- 
ceeded in making a firm hitch, and they were both 
pulled out; but it was too late with poor Edward. 
He was past all recovery. He was thirty-one years 
of age, in the prime of manhood. 
We publish this month extracts from the 
note-book of Mr. J. S. Walter, of Peru, Ind., 
whose careful observations and beautiful draw- 
ings won the microscope offered last spring. 
Mr. Walter writes under date of October 21 : 
"I have received the microscope awarded me 
by Dr. Nichols. The instrument is a beauty 
and in every respect all that was promised. 
Besides the microscope I received a pretty 
and convenient case in which to keep it, and 
also a valuable book or manual of instruction 
in the use of the microscope. I could not 
have received a prize that would have pleased 
me more." 
ASTRONOMICAL SOCIETY OF THE 
PACIFIC. 
We reprint with pleasure the following 
circular, which contains a special invitation 
A CARD OF INTRODUCTION. 
The Y. M. C. A. and other extended soci- 
eties issue to their, members cards of intro- 
duction, which are in effect little Certificates 
of good standing in the society. These are 
very convenient in travelling, as they secure 
at once confidence and a friendly reception. 
At the suggestion and under the direction 
of Mr. II. E. Deats, of Flemington, N. J., 
for years one of our most faithful members, a 
similar card has been designed and engraved 
for our Agassiz Association. It is finely 
engraved on lieavy bristol-board, and is not 
devoid of aitistic merit. Mr. Deats has most 
generously met the expense of the plate for 
this beautiful card, and owing to his kindness 
they can be furnished at the bare cost of the 
cardboard and printing. They will be sent 
to Chapters for twenty-five cents a dozen, 
single cards three cents each. Address all 
orders to the President of the A. A. 
REPORTS FROM CHAPTERS. 
604, Fredonia, N. Y., [AJ.— Our meetings have 
been full of interest, each of our seven members 
reporting original work. We have been studying 
birds, plants, and boulders. We heartily endorse 
your remark that "the work of the Association 
will not be completed until a society for the study 
of natural science by personal observation is estab- 
lished in every town." Monotony of life, mischief, 
cruelty,— many a young person is being saved from 
these by the influence of the A. A.— Miss Jennie N. 
Curtis, Sec. 
611, Scranton, Pa , [B].— We watch the birds and 
learn all we can of their habits, and add to our stock 
of "bird books" as often as possible. We have 
most of John Burroughs' books, two of Olive Thome 
Miller's, one of Maurice Thompson's, White's " Sel- 
bourne," and Wilson Flagg's "A Year With the 
Birds." We find Mr. Burroughs' "Wake-Robin" 
invaluable. When we see a bird new to us, and one 
that we cannot at once place by descriptions that we 
have by heart, we go right to "Wake-Robin" or 
"Birds and Poets," and read it all over again; and 
very often we can name our bird. Not always; but 
you see we have no Audobon, or Wilson, or Coues, 
so must do the best we can. We study geology a 
