432 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



finished gun flints. Most of the gun flints 

 are sent to Zanzibar and African ports, and 

 the tinder-box flints to Spain and Italy. 



A THEORY has been put forth by M. Ra- 

 teau in the French Academy of Sciences that 

 the crust of the earth beneath the continents 

 does not touch the fluid globe, but is sepa- 

 rated from it by a space filled with gaseous 

 matter under pressure. The continents would 

 therefore constitute a sort of blister, much 

 flattened, inflated and sustained by gases, 

 while the bottom of the oceans is supposed 

 to rest directly on the fiery mass. By this 

 hypothesis the author believes that many 

 phenomena of the terrestrial crust may be 

 explained which are not clearly accounted 

 for under the present theory. 



A RAPID deterioration is described by Mr. 

 C. H. Morse as being produced in the water 

 pipes of Cambridge, Mass., by the electro- 

 lytic action of the current from the electric 

 cars. It is observed in pipes composed of 

 lead, iron, galvanized iron, brass, and rust- 

 less iron. In one instance the current was 

 so strong as to set on fire oakum which was 

 applied in making a joint. A partial check 

 to the deterioration has been found in con- 

 necting the water and gas pipes and the nega- 

 tive pole of the dynamo. 



THE Bank of France has put in circula- 

 tion notes printed on ramie paper. The 

 notes are of the same form as the old-fash- 

 ioned ones, but the new paper is lighter and 

 at the same time firmer than the old, and per- 

 mits a clearer impression, rendering counter- 

 feiting more difficult. 



UNDER the Thibetan system of polyandry, 

 as observed by Mrs. Bishop (Isabella Bird), 

 the eldest son alone of the family marries, 

 and the wife accepts the brothers of her 

 husband as secondary spouses. The whole 

 family is thus held to the home. The chil- 

 dren belong to the elder brother, while the 

 other brothers are "lesser fathers." The 

 natives are strongly attached to this custom. 

 The women, in particular, despise the mo- 

 notony of European monogamy, and the 

 word " widow " is a term of reproach among 

 them. Children are very obedient to their 

 fathers and their mother, and the family 

 feeling is strongly developed. 



STRONG additional evidence of the pres- 

 ence of cretaceous strata beneath the most 

 of Long Island is adduced by Mr. Arthur 

 Hollick, in a paper on that subject. They 

 have been found in the shape of fossil re- 

 mains of plants at Williamsburgh, Lloyd's 

 Neck, and Glencove. Clays containing the 

 fossils have been found in place in the neigh- 

 borhood of Glencove; while at other sites 

 the rocks appear to have been glacially 

 transported. " Only a beginning," says Mr. 

 Hollick, " has yet been made in the search 

 for plant remains ; but now that attention 

 has been called to the matter they are being 



reported from a number of localities, and 

 specimens are constantly coming to the light, 

 and there seems to be no doubt that the en- 

 tire north shore of the island will present the 

 same story to the searchers when it has been 

 carefully explored." 



TREES in London, as in other cities, have 

 two adverse influences to resist coal smoke 

 and the heat reflected from miles of brick 

 and stone work. The past unusually hot 

 summer has afforded a fine opportunity for 

 observing what species can most successfully 

 contend against these influences. Among 

 them Mr. Herbert Maxwell names the Ori- 

 ental plane tree, which has stood the trial 

 fairly well, coming out with half its leaves 

 gone and the other half fresh and green ; 

 aspens and poplars, which " have suffered 

 not at all " ; the ailantus, " which is (Sep- 

 tember 7th) in splendid foliage " ; and our 

 common locust (Robinia pseudacacia), which 

 " for beauty of form or freshness of verdure 

 can not be e.xcelled for planting in towns." 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



TRAUGOTT FRIEDRICH KUTZING, a pioneer 

 in the scientific study of the Algae, died at 

 Nordhausen, September 9, 1893, in the eighty- 

 seventh year of his age. His latest work is 

 more than twenty years old, and all his most 

 important works appeared before 1851. Yet, 

 although much that he did and taught has 

 been superseded or supplemented by more 

 recent investigations, his Phycologia gene- 

 ralis, published in 1843; his Tabulce phycolo- 

 gice, published in twenty volumes, 1845 to 

 1870 ; and his Species Algarum, 1849, are 

 still standard works. His extensive collec- 

 tion of dried Algae has long been in the pos- 

 session of the University of Leyden. 



DR. ALEXANDER STRAUCH, Director of the 

 Zoological Museum of St. Petersburg, who 

 died in September, 1893, at the age of sixty- 

 one years, was an authority on reptiles and 

 the author of several zoological works. " 



PROF. HERMAN AUGUST HAGEN, of Har- 

 vard College, a distinguished entomologist, 

 died in Boston, Mass., November 9, 1893. He 

 was born in Konigsberg, Prussia, where his 

 ancestors had been connected with the uni- 

 versity for two hundred years, and, having 

 pursued his studies there and at other places, 

 settled there in the general practice of medi- 

 cine. He was assistant in' the surgical hos- 

 pital there and incumbent of local civil of- 

 fices when he was invited by Prof. Agassiz to 

 come to Cambridge as assistant in entomol- 

 ogy at the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 

 In 1870 he was made Professor of Entomol- 

 ogy at Harvard. His first scientific paper 

 was published in 1834. His publications in- 

 clude more than four hundred articles, of 

 which the most important is the Bibliotheca 

 Entomologica. 



