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POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



folded up like a screen, with a board cover 

 at each end. Both sides of the paper were 

 used. 



NOTES. 



Till about two years ago all the fuller's 

 earth used in this country was imported. 

 About that time deposits were discovered in 

 Florida. After these, a paper by Mr. Hein- 

 rich Ries says the most extensive beds so far 

 found have been in South Dakota. At Fair- 

 burn the earth passes upward into the 

 sandy clay, but in its purer portions is a 

 yellowish, gritty clay, with a somewhat nod- 

 ular structure. The individual nodules are 

 dense, and break with a conchoidal fracture. 

 The earth at Argyle is exactly similar to 

 this, but that at the Minnekahte beds is en- 

 tirely different. The Fairburn and Argyle 

 earths have been tested in the clarification 

 of cotton seed oil, with excellent results. 



Mr. 0. H. Howarth, speaking in the 

 British Association of various strains to 

 which the earth is subjected in its motions 

 around the sun and upon its own axis, as- 

 cribed to them the chief responsibility for 

 cracks in the rocky coating of the earth. 

 He supposed that while gravitation tends 

 to draw all the heavier minerals to the cen- 

 ter of the earth, this process of shaking 

 or breaking and constant readjustment suf- 

 fices to spread them out again in the form 

 of fissure veins. The theory was experi- 

 mentally illustrated by kneading pieces of 

 colored matter in plastic clay, when in a 

 short time little veinlike markings were pro- 

 duced. Possibly such ever-present and ever- 

 shifting strain might account for the dis- 

 turbances to be seen in the sun. 



It has long been recognized that arsen- 

 ical wall papers do serious mischief, but it 

 has been much disputed as to just how the 

 arsenic is liberated. This point has recently 

 been cleared up by the researches of Gosio 

 and Emmerling. Certain molds, including 

 the very common Mucor mucedo, have been 

 found to have the remarkable property of 

 decomposing arsenical compounds, with the 

 evolution of volatile products containing 

 arsenic of a highly poisonous character. 



Some analyses of coal from the pre- car- 

 boniferous rocks of Canada communicated to 

 the British Association by Professor Ellis, of 

 Toronto, showed in a very striking way the 

 gradual transition from petroleum and its 

 immediate product of decomposition, asphalt, 

 to anthracite and pure carbon. 



A committee for the promotion of agri- 

 culture, with Sir John Evans as chairman, 

 was appointed by the British Association to 

 look into the methods and results of the agri- 

 cultural experiment stations in Canada and 

 other countries, with a view to establishing 

 a similar institution in Great Britain. 



The death has been recently reported of 

 Dr. Holmegren, professor of physiology in 

 the University of Upsala, Sweden. He was 

 born in 1831, and was appointed to his pro- 

 fessorship in 1867. He established the first 

 physiological institute in Sweden; but was 

 best known abroad for his researches on 

 color blindness, and his plan of testing the 

 color sense by means of wools of various 

 shades. 



Dr. Edmund Drechsel, professor of 

 physiological -and pathological chemistry 

 and of pharmacology in the University of 

 Bonn, died of heart disease, September 22d, 

 at the Naples Zoological Station, where he 

 was investigating the chemistry of the inver- 

 tebrates. Previous to going to Bonn, he was 

 assistant professor at Leipsic. He published 

 many contributions to physiological chem- 

 istry. 



Dr. George H. Horn, who died in Phila- 

 delphia, November 25th, was one of the most 

 eminent entomologists in America, and was 

 president of the Entomological Society. He 

 was also for many years secretary of the 

 American Philosophical Society, and dis- 

 charged the duties of that office and of 

 librarian till about a year ago, when he was 

 attacked with paralysis. He served, more- 

 over, for some time as corresponding secre- 

 tary of the Academy of Natural Sciences of 

 Philadelphia. 



The obituary list for the month includes 

 the names of the following men known in 

 science : The Rev. P. B. Brodie, of Rowing- 

 ton, England, geologist and student of fossil 

 insects, November 11th, aged eighty-two; 

 Prof. Ernst Schering, director of the mag- 

 netic department of the observatory at Got- 

 tingen, November 2d, aged sixty-four ; Sir 

 Rutherford Alcock, formerly president of the 

 Royal Geographical Society, November 2d, 

 aged eighty-eight ; C. E. Colby, professor of 

 organic chemistry in Columbia University; 

 Dr. Harrison Allen, emeritus professor of 

 comparative anatomy in the University of 

 Pennsylvania, November 14th ; Sir Henry 

 Doulton, founder of the Lambeth Potteries, 

 November 17th, aged seventy-seven ; Dr. G. 

 H. Otto Vogler, author in geology and natu- 

 ral history, October 18th, aged seventy- five; 

 Prof. Henry Calderwood, Edinburgh, writer 

 on philosophy and evolution ; Dr. J. Fren- 

 zel, director of the Biological Station on the 

 Muggelsee, near Berlin ; Dr. L. A. Biichner ; 

 Prof. Karl Muller, of Hildesheim ; Dr. M. 

 Foster Heddle, mineralogist and twenty- two 

 years professor in the University of St. An- 

 drews ; Dr. F. Stohmann, honorary professor 

 of agriculture in the University of Leipsic ; 

 Dr. Leonhard Sohncke, professor of experi- 

 mental physics in the Technical High School, 

 Munich, aged fifty-five ; and the Rev. Samuel 

 Haughton, M. D., former professor of geolo- 

 gy in Trinity College. Dublin, and writer on 

 various subjects in science. 



