26 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. VII. No. 158, 



French literary journal. This is a matter of some 

 scientific interest, as M. Brunetiere had changed 

 the journal from a liberal to a clerical organ, 

 and while professing to use scientific methods 

 in literary criticism had adopted an attitude 

 somewhat hostile to modern science. 



Professor O. Taschenberg has retired 

 from the editorship of Die Natur and has been 

 succeeded by Professor Willi Ule. The journal, 

 published weekly by the Schwetschke'sche 

 Verlag at Halle, was founded forty-six years 

 ago, under the editorship of Dr. Otto Ule and 

 Dr. Karl Miiller. It maintains an excellent 

 standard of popular science, being neither 

 technical nor trivial. 



The publication department of the ProgrSs 

 Medicate offers the complete works of Charcot, 

 in thirteen vols, for 50 fr. , reduced from 188 fr. 



Messrs. Studer Bros, announce ' Chap- 

 ters on the Natural History of the United 

 States,' by Dr. R. W. Shufeldt. The pictures 

 are reproduced from a series of photographs, 

 made from life by the author. 



A NEW monthly periodical. Archives de Midi- 

 cine des Enfants will hereafter be edited by Dr. 

 J. Comby and published by Masson, Paris. 



Mr. Jonas Stadling, who contributed to 

 the November Century an account of Andree's 

 expedition, sends to the January number a fac- 

 simile of a message from Andr6e, sent by the 

 aeronaut by carrier pigeon. 



In Nature for December 7th an article on the 

 beaver park of Sir Edmund Loder gives inter- 

 esting information regarding the beavers of 

 Sweden. It appears that they are mainly con- 

 fined to the Stifts of Christiania and Christian- 

 sand, although a few remain In Bratsberg Amt 

 and Slavanger Amt. They feed on the bark of 

 deciduous trees, not touching the firs. As they 

 are unable to dam the swift streams of Sweden, 

 they make their burrows at right angles to the 

 bank, running inward and upward for some 

 distance, so that when the rivers rise the 

 beavers go higher up in their burrows. In 

 1880 there were about 60 animals left, but be- 

 ing protected they increased to 100 by 1883. 

 Since 1894 a law has been passed protecting 

 them for a period of ten years. 



A skeleton of the moa, Dinornis or Euryap- 

 terix emeus crassus, the extinct giant bird of New 

 Zealand, was purchased recently at auction in 

 London by Dr. Hutchinson for 48 guineas. It 

 is said that most of the skeletons exhibited in 

 museums are made up from different species. 

 The present specimen was set up by Captain F. 

 W. Hutton, F.R.S. 



The United States Coast and Geodetic Sur- 

 vey will send the steamship ' Mc Arthur ' to the 

 waters of Alaska to make, when spring opens, 

 a thorough survey of the coast, especially about 

 the mouth of the Yukon Eiver. A small steamer 

 will also be taken to aid in the surveying work 

 and to serve for the navigation of rivers too 

 shallow for the ' McArthur. ' 



At the recent international congress of pub- 

 lishers, held at Brussels, a recommendation was 

 made that is of special interest to men of science, 

 and should be insisted upon by them in arrange- 

 ments with their publishers. The resolution 

 was to the effect that a mere new printing of a 

 book should be called a iirage, and not a new 

 edition, unless it has been revised by the author. 



The metric system of linear measurement has 

 now been in use in the English engine building 

 works of Messrs. Williams & Robinson four 

 years. Captain Sankey reports in the London 

 Engineer that the draughtsmen are unanimously 

 pleased with its working, and that the work- 

 men, at first strongly opposed to its introduc- 

 tion, now greatly favor it. The manager finds 

 it easier to teach the new than the old system. 



At an extra meeting of the Chemical Society, 

 London, held at Burlington -house on December 

 15th, Professor Francis R. Japp, F.R.S., de- 

 livered a memorial lecture in honor of the dis- 

 tinguished German chemist, Friedrich August 

 Kekule, whose death occurred last year. After 

 giving a sketch of Kekule's life. Professor Japp 

 said, according to the report in the London 

 Times, that his supreme merit lay in his contri- 

 butions to theoretical chemistry. His greatest 

 achievements in this department were the doc- 

 trine of the linking of atoms in terms of their 

 valency, and, growing out of this, the theory 

 of the structure of organic molecules, both in 

 open-chain and in closed-chain compounds. 

 These were not recondite theories, hidden 



