144 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the usual quantity of calcium sulphate in so- 

 lution passes through the vegetable tissues 

 of the plant and sets up a series of chemical 

 changes resulting in the formation of car- 

 bonate of lime and iron pyrites. 



INDOLENCE is declared a disease, and its 

 pathology is studied, in the Medical Record. 

 It is found an almost constant indication in 

 albuminuria and diabetes. Malarial fevers 

 induce it, and it is a frequent effect of dys- 

 pepsias and indigestions. It is a character- 

 istic in neurasthenia so generally that it is 

 usually safe to say that an indolent person is 

 neurasthenic to a certain extent. Hence, in 

 cases of chronic indolence, the counsels of a 

 physician are often more in place than those 

 of a moralist. 



IT has been observed that some of the 

 batrachians have a preference for one or the 

 other of the mediums in which they are 

 capable of existing the triton, for instance, 

 and the salamander for air, while the frog 

 chooses either, according to the atmospheric 

 conditions, although their morphology points 

 to a descent from a common stock. The sub- 

 ject has been studied by M. Dissart, who, 

 finding that aquatic species transpire more 

 and respire less than land species, concludes 

 that an antagonism exists between the two 

 functions by the operation of which the habi- 

 tat is determined. If an aquatic species is 

 placed in air, its transpiration is augmented, 

 and it returns to the water to counteract the 

 increase ; while if an air species is kept in 

 water, its respiration diminishes and it is 

 obliged to return to the air in order to pre- 

 vent asphyxia. 



THE telepho'.os is the name of a new 

 method of electric signaling by night and 

 day, invented by C. V. Boughton, of Buffalo, 

 N. Y. The theory of it is the production by 

 electricity upon a shaft of incandescent lamps 

 of the symbols of the Morse alphabet and 

 numerals, in dashes five feet long, made with 

 ten lighted lamps, and dots three inches 

 long each, made with one lighted lamp, with 

 unlighted intervals of five feet between each, 

 which would bring under the eye the com- 

 plete symbol at once. It is intended for use 

 at any points within vision between which the 

 laying of telegraph wires is impossible or 

 impracticable. 



THE United States Commission of Fish 

 and Fisheries is engaged in an inquiry, under 

 the direction of George F. Kunz, concerning 

 the locations, yield, and proper protection of 

 fresh-water pearl fisheries in the United 

 States, and in connection with it has sent out 

 a list of questions embracing the subjects of 

 the nature of the stream in which the pearl- 

 bearing mussels are found, kind of bottom, 

 character of water ; geological character of 

 the district as to rock, soil, etc. ; general 

 abundance of mussels ; size, shape, and posi- 

 tion of the mussel beds ; local names of 



mussels ; habits of mussels ; enemies and 

 fatalities to which mussels are exposed ; na- 

 ture and extent of destruction by muskrats, 

 hogs, freshets, etc. ; size, shape, and color of 

 mussels ; species of mussels in which pearls 

 are most common ; proportion of mussels in 

 which pearls occur ; sizes or other peculiari- 

 ties of shells in which pearls are found ; na- 

 ture and origin of pearls ; position in mus- 

 sels ; size, shape, and color of pearls ; and 

 relative value of pearls of different sizes, 

 shapes, and colors. Other questions relate 

 to the markets and prices for pearls, the 

 method, history, and statistics of the fisher- 

 ies, the uses made of the mussels after the 

 pearls are taken out, and the exhaustion and 

 replenishment of mussel beds. 



AN exceedingly full and rich herbarium 

 and botanical library has been given by Cap- 

 tain John Donnell Smith, of Baltimore, to 

 Johns Hopkins University, on condition that a 

 suitable building be provided for it. The 

 flowering and lower plants of the whole world 

 are represented in the herbarium, which in- 

 cludes Kerner's collection of Austro-Hunga- 

 rian plants, about thirty individual collec- 

 tions of North American plants, more than a 

 dozen of Central American and Mexican, 

 Lebmann's and nine other collections of 

 South American plants, and representatives 

 from Egypt, Abyssinia, and other parts of 

 the world. 



THE palms are said to be the plants pos- 

 sessing the largest leaves. The Quaja palm 

 of the Amazons has leaves approaching fifty 

 feet in length by sixteen feet in breadth. 

 The leaves of some palms in Ceylon are 

 more than eighteen feet long and nearly as 

 wide, and are used by the natives for making 

 tents. The cocoa palm has leaves nearly 

 thirty feet long. In other families than the 

 palms, the parasol magnolia of Ceylon forms 

 leaves large enough to shelter fifteen or 

 twenty persons. One of these leaves, car- 

 ried to England as a specimen, measured 

 nearly thirty.five feet. The largest leaves 

 grown in temperate climates are those of the 

 exotic Victoria reffia, which sometimes 

 reach about seven feet in diameter. 



ITALIAN grape culturists are now making 

 a very nice illuminating oil from grape seeds, 

 from which they get a product of from ten to 

 fifteen per cent. It is clear, colorless, and 

 inodorous, and burns without smoke. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



DR. D. SCOTT MONCRIEFF, of Harvard 

 University, died in Eastern Siberia in August, 

 1893, while on a journey of exploration and 

 ethnological research. He left a Gilyuk vil- 

 lage, near the mouth of the Amur River, for 

 a sail in an open boat on the llth, and his 

 body was found two weeks afterward on the 

 coast of Sakhalin. 



