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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



prosecuted during six years, and to include 

 both the Asiatic and the American coasts. 

 Its primary object is to search for light con- 

 cerning the origin of the American race and 

 its relations to the races of the Old World, 

 concerning which, in the absence of all defi- 

 nite knowledge at present, a confusion of 

 opinions exists. The characteristics of the 

 American races have been studied to a con- 

 siderable extent by the Russian missionary 

 Vemiaminoff, Dall, and others, in Alaska 

 and the Aleutian Islands; Murdoch among 

 the Eskimos of Point Barrow, and Boas 

 under the auspices of the British Associa- 

 tion in British Columbia ; but, as Dr. Boas 

 observes, very much remains to be done 

 in those districts ; while of the correspond- 

 ing region in Asia, notwithstanding the few 

 investigations that have been published, the 

 types of man, languages, customs, and my- 

 thology are practically unknown. 



AMONG the interesting jubilees celebrated 

 during 1896 was that of the York Retreat in 

 England. In 1792 William Tuke, a member 

 of the Society of Friends, became convinced 

 that the methods of treatment of the insane 

 which prevailed at that time were unneces- 

 sarily harsh ; they were treated more like 

 wild beasts than as human beings. William 

 Tuke therefore conceived the idea of found- 

 ing an institution where sufferers from men- 

 tal disease could be treated in a manner 

 more in accordance with humanity and with 

 sound therapeutic principles. The necessary 

 support was after a time obtained, and the 

 "Retreat" was opened in 1796. It was the 

 first institution in England where the in- 

 sane were treated in a humane and rational 

 manner. 



MR. B. N. BROTJGH affirms, in a lecture on 

 deep mining, that the greatest depth yet 

 reached hi mines is 4,900 feet at the Red 

 Jacket shaft of the Calumet and Hecla 

 mine, in the Lake Superior district. The 

 Tamarack mine, in the same district, 4,450 

 feet, is the only other mine going below 

 4,000 feet in depth. Four mines in Ger- 

 many, two in Belgium, and one in Austria- 

 Hungary are between 3,500 and 4,000 feet 

 deep. The deepest British mine is the Pen- 

 dleton, near Manchester, 3,474 feet deep ; 

 and the deepest in Scotland is the Niddrie, 

 at Porto Bello, 2,010 feet The products of 



the mines are now lifted with ropes of cru- 

 cible steel wire, of which a flat rope is men- 

 tioned weighing only 8 '2 pounds per foot, 

 which had a tensile strength of eighty- nine 

 tons per square foot, and lasted twelve 

 months while used for raising loads of eleven 

 tons from a depth of 3,117 feet. At the 

 deep mines of Calumet the cage, carrying 

 six tons, was lifted at the rate of a mile in a 

 minute and a half. In England the speed 

 has been as great as fifty-seven miles an 

 hour. The increased cost of sinking these 

 deep mines is believed not to be very appre- 

 ciable where the output is considerable. At 

 Tamarack the cost of increasing depth was 

 more than compensated by the increased 

 output and improved machinery. 



THE most important events in last year's 

 history of the astronomical observatory of 

 Harvard College were the erection of the 

 Bruce photographic telescope in Peru, and 

 the establishment of a series of circulars, 

 which furnish a prompt means of announc- 

 ing discoveries. Twenty-five hundred and 

 eight photographs were taken with the eight- 

 inch Draper telescope, and twenty-seven hun- 

 dred and seventy in Peru with the eight- 

 inch Bache telescope ; and " there is probably 

 no star brighter than the thirteenth magni- 

 tude in any part of the sky from the north 

 to the south pole that does not appear on 

 one or more of these plates." The attempt is 

 made to photograph all the regions in which 

 variables are discovered at least once a 

 month. In Mrs. Fleming's examinations of 

 the spectra photographed, a large number of 

 objects having peculiar spectra have been 

 discovered. Two new stars have been found 

 in the constellations Carina and Centaurus. 

 The photographs of one of the new variable 

 stars show a very peculiar spectrum and 

 changes of light unlike those of any star 

 hitherto discovered. Meteorological obser- 

 vations were continued at La Joya, 4,150 

 feet above the sea; Arequipa, 8,060 feet; 

 Alto de los Huesos, 13,300 feet ; Mont Blanc 

 station on El Misti, 15,600 feet; El Misti, 

 19,200 feet ; and Cuzco, 11,000 feet. 



A WORK by M. Meguin on the Bacteria of 

 Dead Bodies is reviewed in a recent issue of 

 the British Medical Journal: "As a result 

 of this work it is now possible to determine 

 in a most accurate manner the time of death 



