Polytechnic Association Proceedings. 695 



copper externally. It was asserted by some medical authorities that 

 French the plan was not successful, but a late communication to the 

 Academy by Dr. Lisle of the lunatic asylum at Marseilles, contains 

 the statement that he had cured twenty out of twenty-four patients 

 by administering sulphate of copper, even in smaller doses than 

 those prescribed by Dr. Burq. 



THALLIUM OXIDES AND OZONE. 



Schonbein states that ordinar}-- oxygen is without action on pro- 

 toxide of thallium, while ozonized oxygen combines rapidly with 

 this oxide, and forms the peroxide of thallium, which is brown. 

 Paper steeped in a solution of protoxide of thallium and exposed 

 to the free air, would be an excellent test for the presence of ozone, 

 if the carbonic acid of the air did not transform the oxide into car- 

 bonate, which passes more slowly to the state of peroxide and 

 blackens with difficulty, under conditions where strips of paper 

 iodized and starched, become colored at the end of a few minutes 

 in an atmosphere containing only one two-hundreth-thousandth part 

 of ozone. However, it will be found advantageous to use both the 

 oxide of thallium and the iodized paper as ozone tests. 



EXPEDmON FOR THE NORTH POLE. 



Mr. Gustavo Lambert, of Paris, proposes to reach the open Polar 

 Sea and the Pole itself by a route never before tried. The enter- 

 prise has been sanctioned by fifty distinguished Frenchmen, and the 

 Emperor has already given it his approval. 



The British Association for the Advancement of Science, held 

 its annual meeting during the first week of September, at Dundee, 

 Scotland. The attendance was very large; about 2,500 members 

 being present. The Duke of Buccleugh presided over the general 

 meeting. The presiding officers of the several sections were as 

 follows: Chemical Science, Prof. Thomas Anderson; Geology, 

 Mr. Archibald Greikie; Mathematical and Physical Science, Prof. 

 S. W. Thompson; Mechanical Science, Professor Rankin; Biology, 

 Prof. Sharply; Economic Science, Mr. Grant Duff", M.P; Ethnology, 

 Sir Samuel Baker. We have neither space nor time to notice in 

 detail the able addresses of these officers; a single eloquent passage, 

 however, from that of Sir Samuel Baker, the distinguished traveler, 

 relating to America, deseiTes to be recorded in our volume: 



"Columbus achieved the feat that has completely altered the 

 geography of his age, by the discovery of America. How little 



