288 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the African cowry, for, while the latter was 

 simply a shell with a hole in it, wampum 

 was a manufactured article, made with a 

 degree of patient labor which was included 

 in estimating the value given to it. That 

 to which the most value was attached was 

 made from the dark part of clam-shells. 

 An inferior " coinage " was made from the 

 white parts of the shells, and from peri- 

 winkle-shells. The value of wampum was 

 almost as well defined as that of our own 

 money, and regular tests were in use for 

 judging of it. Shell-money was also used 

 by the Indians of the Pacific slope; and 

 Mr. IngersoU describes three kinds of it, all 

 somewhat different from genuine wampum. 



Mr. Ernest Hart, Chairman of the Lon- 

 don Smoke Abatement Institute, remarks 

 that at the recent exhibition by that society 

 improvements in the construction of open 

 fire-places were shown by which common 

 bituminous coal can be consumed in a prac- 

 tically smokeless manner. Simple methods 

 of underfeeding were exhibited which proved 

 to be productive of admirable results both 

 in respect to economy of fuel and reduction 

 of smoke from ordinary coal. Mr. Hart 

 recommends as an elementary measure of 

 economy the use of equal quantities of coke 

 and coal mixed. He has great expectations 

 of the realization of Dr. Siemens's projects 

 for using gas as a heating agent. 



The French Academy of Sciences has 

 had a discussion about busts. It was in- 

 vited to witness the progress of the bust 

 of Leverrier, and express an opinion as to 

 the quality of the resemblance and the 

 work. M. Bertrand took the opportunity 

 to speak of the scandalous badness of some 

 of the busts in the hall of the Academy, 

 particularly of those of Delaunay and Claude 

 Bernard, which, he said, were mere carica- 

 tures, and to advi?e that they be turned out 

 at once ; and M. Dumas remarked that sev- 

 eral of the busts were in reality only fit to 

 be used for making carbonic acid. 



Mr. Cromwell Fleetwood Varlet, F. 

 R. S., an English engineer distinguished for 

 his work in connection with electric tele- 

 graphs, died September 2d. He devised a 

 method of locating distant faults in land 

 telegraphic wires, and was associated with 

 other engineers in devising the first really 

 successful Atlantic cable. 



Thk curious question has been raised in 

 England whether the recent decline in the 

 death-rate has actually added to the average 

 length of useful life, or whether its bene- 

 fits have not chiefly been spent in relatively 

 unimportant prolongations of the lives of 

 children and of the aged. It has been an- 

 swered by Mr. Noel A. Humphreys, after a 

 new examination of the returns of mor- 

 tality, and the compilation of new life-tables. 



He finds that the average expectation of 

 life of males at birth has been raised from 

 3991 years, as it was fixed in Dr. Farr's 

 tables, to 41'92 years by the new tables, or 

 has been increased by two years, or five per 

 cent ; and that the expectation of females 

 has been raised from 40'86 years to 43"66 

 years, or by 2'70 years, or nearly 1 per cent. 



Charles F. Parkes, Curator of the Acad- 

 emy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, 

 died September 7th, after a long illness. He 

 had considerable distinction as one of the 

 leading botanists of America, and had paid 

 special attention to the botany of New Jer- 

 sey. 



Professor C. V. Riley, in a paper read 

 at the American Association recommends 

 emulsions of petroleum to be applied to 

 plants as insecticides. A soap emulsion of 

 twenty parts of scraped bar- soap, ten parts 

 of water, thirty parts of kerosene, and one 

 part of fir-balsam, is stable enough for all 

 practical purposes, but milk emulsions are 

 better. One or two parts of refined kero- 

 sene to one part of sour milk is quite satis- 

 factory. It must be churned till a butter 

 is formed, which is thoroughly stable, and 

 will keep indefinitely in closed vessels, and 

 may be diluted at pleasure with water when 

 needed for use. An emulsion of gum from 

 the root of Zamia integrifoUa^ of Florida, 

 has proved useful. The diluted emulsion, 

 of strength varying according to the plants 

 and insects to which it is applied, should 

 be finely sprayed upon the insects to be 

 killed. 



Science has furnished another victim to 

 African sickness in the person of Mr. Will- 

 iam Alexander Forbes, Prosector to the 

 Zoological Society of London, whose death 

 on the Niger River has been reported. He 

 made an excursion to the forests of Pernam- 

 buco, Brazil, in 1880, afterward passed some 

 time in the United States, and started from 

 England for Africa and the eastern tropics, 

 in July, 1882. His published works consist 

 chiefly of about sixty papers in the " Pro- 

 ceedings of the Zoological Society " and the 

 "Ibis." 



M. Engelman has been studying the man- 

 ner in which the movements of the lower 

 organisms are influenced by light. He finds 

 that light may act in three ways : 1. Direct- 

 ly, by a modification of the exchanges of 

 gases ; 2. By modifications of the sensation 

 of respiratory necessities, and, 3. By means 

 of a specific special process corresponding 

 probably in some sort to our luminous per- 

 ception. 



Mr. Thomas Plant, a life long student 

 of meteorology, died in Birmingham, Eng- 

 land, about the 1st of September, His regu- 

 lar records of the weather and associated 

 phenomena are complete for forty-six years. 



