288 



POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



stone. Addresses were made by M. 

 Armand Gautier and M. Duclaux, who 

 said that the improved laboratories now 

 enjoyed by scientific institutions in 

 Paris were largely due to Pasteur's 

 efforts. 



THE minor planet recently discov- 

 ered by Witt, remarkable as having an 

 orbit that comes within that of Mars, 

 and provisionally known as DQ, has 

 been named Eros. An examination by 

 Professor Pickering and Mrs. Fleming 

 of the Harvard photographs has re- 

 vealed traces of this body on twelve 

 plates taken in 1893 and 1894, and on 

 four plates of 1896. By the aid of these 

 plates it has been possible to determine 

 its elements with greater accuracy than 

 would otherwise be possible. Its mean 

 distance from the sun is 1.45810, its 

 shortest distance 1.13334, and its great- 

 est distance 1.78286 that of the earth; 

 the eccentricity of its orbit is 0.222729, 

 and its period is 643.10 days. Its 

 synodical period is such that it has 

 three oppositions in seven years. The 

 next opposition will be in the last 

 months of 1900, and will be a moder- 

 ately favorable one for observation. 



THE courses in pure science of the 

 New York University include under- 

 graduate, graduate, and summer courses 

 in mathematics, physics, chemistry, ge- 

 ology, and biology, with laboratory 

 privileges and provision for special stu- 

 dents and independent work in chemis- 

 try. The university last year was at- 

 tended by 1,717 students in its three 

 faculties and six schools, and 720 non- 

 matriculant students and auditors. A 

 new feature this year is the inaugura- 

 tion of the Charles F. Deems lectureship 

 of philosophy, under an endowment of 

 $15,000 by the American Institute of 

 Christian Philosophy, with Prof. James 

 Iverach, D. D., of the Free Church Col- 

 lege, Aberdeen, Scotland, as the first lec- 

 turer. A feature of the university or- 

 ganization is the institution of a wom- 

 an's advisory committee co-operating 

 with the council. A woman's law class 

 is supported by the Woman's Legal 

 Education Society, the purpose of which 

 is to make business women and women 

 in private life acquainted with exist- 

 ing law. 



THE new Science Building of the 

 City Library, Springfield, Mass., recent- 

 ly completed, is being inaugurated by 

 a Geographical and Geological Exhibi- 

 tion. It includes the best and latest 

 maps, models, globes, charts, relief 

 maps, and photographs, special atten- 

 tion being paid to the most effective 

 modes of teaching. One of the most at- 



tractive features of the exhibition is 

 the work from the Springfield public 

 schools. 



AN ingenious method for thawing 

 out frozen water pipes has been used 

 by Prof. R. W. Wood, of the University 

 or Wisconsin. It consists simply of pass- 

 ing a current of electricity through the 

 pipe. In one case it is said that one 

 hundred and fifty feet of frozen pipe was 

 thawed out in eighteen minutes. The 

 ordinary street current was used, the 

 voltage being reduced to about fifty. 



IN a summary of inspectors' reports 

 of the Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection 

 and Insurance Company for 1898 it is 

 stated that of 78,349 boilers, inspected 

 both internally and externally, during 

 the year, there were 11,727 dangerous 

 defects discovered and 603 entire boilers 

 were declared unsafe for further use. 



THE recent death list of men known 

 in science includes the names of Charles 

 Naudin, an eminent French botanist, 

 Dean of the Botanical Section of the 

 Academy of Sciences and author of a 

 book on Hybrids in the Vegetable King- 

 dom, at Antibes, France, March 19th, 

 aged eighty-four years; Dr. G. W. Leit- 

 ner, an eminent Orientalist and lin- 

 guist, Lecturer on Oriental Language at 

 King's College, London, Principal of 

 Lahne College, and Registrar of Pun- 

 jaub University, where he introduced 

 the use of their own language and litera- 

 ture in teaching Indian students, found- 

 er of the Anglo-Indian Institute at 

 Woking, England, and author of works 

 in Education, the Races of Turkey, The 

 Races and Languages of Dardistan, Grse- 

 co-Buddhist Discoveries, and other Ori- 

 ental subjects, at Bonn, March 24th, 

 in his sixty-ninth year; Dr. Angelo 

 Knorr, Docent in the Veterinary School 

 of Munich, February 22d; Elizabeth 

 Brown, astronomical observer and au- 

 thor of papers on solar phenomena, at 

 Cirencester, England, March 6th; Dr. 

 Wilhelm von Miiller, Professor Gen- 

 eral Chemistry in the Institute of Tech- 

 nology, Munich; Dr. Friedreich von 

 Liihmann, mathematician, at Straslund, 

 Prussia; Dr. Charles Fortuun, miner- 

 alogist, in London; Alfred Feuilleau- 

 bois, author of researches on Fungi, at 

 Fontainebleau, France; Dr. Heinrich 

 Kiefert, a geographer and cartographer 

 whose fame was world-wide, whose maps 

 and atlases are everywhere recognized 

 as authorities, at Berlin, April 21st, aged 

 seventy years; and Prof. Sophus Lie, of 

 the University of Christiania, an emi- 

 nent mathematician, February 18th, in 

 his fifty-seventh year. 



