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NA TURE 



[April 14, 1892 



extends into a winding causeway or breastwork. The height of 

 the mound is 17 feet ; its circumterence, 478 feet. Its base is 

 composed of shells, apparently brought from the neighbouring 

 shell fields to serve as a foundation in the marshy soil. Across 

 the centre of this layer of shells from north to south runs a 

 ridge of pure white sand, above which is a stratum of dark 

 sandy loam mingled with shells, while the sides of the ridge are 

 rounded out with sandy loam in which shells are wanting, thus 

 forming a symmetrical mound. During the excavations over a 

 hundred skeletons were exhumed, and Mr. Moore does not 

 doubt that many hundreds still remain. Although careful 

 searchers examined every spadeful of sand, not a bead of glass 

 nor a particle of metal was discovered, so that the mound had 

 probably ceased to be used for burial purpo-es when Florida 

 began to be occupied by white men. Many fragments of 

 pottery were found, and various ornaments and stone weapons. 



The Pittsburgh Electric Club, according to an account of it 

 given by the American journal Electricity, seems likely to be a 

 successful institution. It was organized nearly a year ago, 

 and is a corporation of the State of Pennsylvania. Its aim is 

 primarily to aid in the progress of electrical and mechanical 

 science, and incidentally to promote social intercourse among 

 those interested in this main object. By the time it completes 

 its fir>t year of existence it will have 200 members. Every 

 electric company in the United States is represented in its 

 membership. The Club has already provided itself with "a 

 large and luxurious home," several of the rooms of which are 

 effectively represented among our contemporary's illustrations. 



An interesting paper on the manufacture and use of 

 aluminium, from an engineering stand-point, by Mr. Alfred E. 

 Hunt, President of the Pittsburgh Reduction Company, is 

 printed in the current number of the Journal of the Franklin 

 Institute. Mr. Hunt is strongly of opinion that financially the 

 most successful solution of the aluminium problems of the 

 future will be in the way of utilizing the metal in the arts rather 

 than in devising more economical methods of manufacture. He 

 gives a very good account of the uses to which aluminium has 

 already been applied. We may note that it has been success- 

 fully used instead of lithographic stone. Powdered aluminium 

 mixed with chlorate of potash is used to give a photographic 

 flash-ligh% which produces much less smoke than the mag- 

 nesium compounds used. An aluminium has been produced 

 for the coating of iron, and Mr. Hunt thinks that this will un- 

 doubtedly be considerably used in the future. 



According to the National Druggist, the sunflower is found 

 to be of great service in Southern Russia, where it has for some 

 time been extensively cultivated. It is grown principally for the 

 bright yellow, colourless, and tasteless oil yielded by its seeds. 

 That oil is said to be superseding olive oils throughout Southern 

 Russia for domestic purposes. The pressed seeds and the boiled 

 leaves (the latter mixed with clay) serve as cattle food, the stalks 

 as fuel. Like the eucalyptus, the sunflower possesses the pro- 

 perty of drying marshy soil, and counteracts the development of 

 malaria germs. 



A VALUABLE paper on photography applied to the detection 

 of crime, by Dr. Paul Jeserich, was read at a recent meeting of 

 the Photographic Society of Great Britain, and has now been 

 printed in the Society's Journal and Transactions. Among the 

 subjects with which the author deals is the application of photo- 

 graphy to the detection of the falsification of handwriting. In 

 such cases photography can be of great service, as in an enlarged 

 photographic picture erasures and alterations can be more clearly 

 seen than in the original. But, above all, photography can be 

 used to demonstrate in the resulting picture differences in inks 

 which cannot be perceived by the eye. Dr. Jeserich claims that 

 by his method, the outcome of many years' experience, it is 

 possible to demonstrate differences in the colours of the inks 

 NO. II 72, VOL. 45] 



which cannot be seen, the one ink appearing light and the other 

 dark. This process depends on the following considerations :— 

 As is well known, the tints of the inks that are called black are 

 either brown, red, green, or blue in shade. Such tones have 

 but little effect on the eye, as it is chiefly sensitive to the yellow 

 and red rays, but the chief sensitiveness of photographic plates, 

 on the other hand, lies in the blue, violet, and ultra-violet. As, 

 with ordinary sensitive plates, yellow and green subjects are 

 rendered dark, and blue ones light, the same will follow in 

 photographing inks of various tones. This difference can be 

 considerably intensified by the use of suitably coloured light, 

 and colour-sensitive plates. In this manner marked differences 

 in the various inks can be clearly and distinctly demonstrated. 

 After the reading of the paper, Captain Abney, the Chairman, 

 said he once examined an engraving which was reputed to be of 

 value, and by means of photography he was able to bring out the 

 original signature under a spurious one, which had been added. 

 The picture turned out to be worthless. 



Some correspondence has been going on in the New York 

 Nation about the present position of the study of psychology as 

 a science in the United States. Mr. E. W. Scripture is very 

 far from being satisfied with it. One or two pioneers in the use 

 of scientific methods have, indeed, achieved some success ; 

 but this, says Mr. Scripture, "ought not to blind us to the fact 

 that by far the large majority of our so-called Universities teach a 

 psychology which would call a blush of shame to the face of old 

 Aristotle, the father of the science, for the degeneration of his 

 offspring in the last two thousand years. To attempt to con- 

 sole ourselves by pointing out the entire lack of psychological 

 facilities in England (except in the Cavendish Physiological 

 Laboratory), is like trying to persuade the New Yorkers of the 

 charms of bossism because the Czar of Russia is worse than 

 Hill." 



Perhaps the most noticeable contribution to the new number 

 of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society of England is a 

 paper by Mr. Carruthers,explanatory of a series of eight diagrams, 

 illustrating "The Life of the Wheat Plant from Seed to Seed," 

 which the Society has recently published. Thsse notes will be 

 very useful, and, judging from the woodcuts in the Journal, the 

 diagrams themselves are likely to prove of considerable value to 

 agricultural lecturers and teachers. Amongst the reports, that 

 from the Royal Veterinary College is interesting ; it deals mainly 

 with the subject of foot-rot in sheep, and furnishes very strong 

 evidence of the contagious nature of the disease ; further in- 

 vestigations are in progress with the bacteria found in pus from 

 the diseased surfaces. Mr. R. E. Prothero contributes an 

 interesting historical sketch of farming in England, under the 

 title of " Landmarks in British Farming." 



Himmel und Erde for April contains some interesting notes 

 on the nature of Jupiter's surface ; the observations which 

 Christopher Scheiner made with his instrument about the year 

 1625, with two illustrations, one showing a perspective view of 

 the instrument itself, the other being a representation of the 

 solar surface, on which are situated several spots that were visible 

 on the sun from April 18 to May i, 1625 ; an article by Dr. 

 A. Fock on a " Problem of Chemical Mechanics " ; and a paper 

 by Dr. Leize on the ' ' End of the Age of Alchemy, and the 

 beginning of the latrochemical Period." 



Part 13 of the " Universal Atlas " that is being published 

 by Messrs. Cassell and Company contains maps of the British 

 Empire, The Caucasus, and Greece. In the first of these all the 

 well-known currents are charted, and in addition, the com- 

 mercial routes of the world, which form such a network of 

 lines, especially in the Atlantic Ocean, are inserted. Three 

 smaller maps on a larger scale show in greater detail these steam- 

 ship lines in the neighbourhood of Western Europe, the West 

 Indies, and the Mediterranean. 



