254 



SCIENCi:. 



[Vol. II., No. 29. 



rado in 1875 by A. S. Packard, jun. ; on the distribu- 

 tion of Tineina in Colorado ; new Entomostraca from 

 Colorado; descriptions of new Tineina from Texas, 

 etc.; Tineina and their food-plants; and an index to 

 the described Tineina of the United Stales and Can- 

 ada. He also contributed a number of papers to the 

 Journal of the Cincinnati society of natural history, 

 of which be was a member, and at one time presi- 

 dent. The most important of these papers were: 

 on the tongue {lingua) of some Hyraenoptera; on 

 Pronuba ynccasella Riley, and the habits of some 

 Tineina; his annual address as president of the soci- 

 ety on the metamorphoses of insects, as illustrated in 

 the tineid geniis LithocoUelis of Zeller; descriptions 

 of some new Tineina, with notes on a few old species ; 

 illustrations of the neuration of the wings of Ameri- 

 can Tineina; and on the antennae and trophi of 

 lepidopterous larvae. Many of these papers are illus- 

 trated by his own drawings. A lawyer by profession, 

 he found time to do much excellent work in science, 

 and formed a large collection, which has been for 

 some years in the Museum of comparative zoology at 

 Cambridge. He was also proficient as a microscopist 

 and a botanist. He leaves a wife and three sons, 

 and his loss will also be felt by all the entomologists 

 of the country. 



— Dr. John A. Warder, for many years one of the 

 most prominent horticulturists and foresters in the 

 west, died at his home at North Bend, O., on July 14, 

 in the seventy-second year of his age. He has been 

 identified with the west, and especially with Cincin- 

 nati, for nearly fifty years. He was president for 

 many years of the Horticultural society, and has 

 written many papers on botanical and kindred sub- 

 jects. He was one of the founders of the American 

 forestry association, always took an active interest in 

 its proceedings, and contributed many papers to its 

 meetings. 



— Professor Simon Newcomb has taken passage for 

 home in the Bothnia, which sails to-morrow from 

 Liverpool to New York. He was to attend the meet- 

 ing of the French association for the advancement of 

 science at Rouen, just closed. Prof. E. C. Pickering, 

 who has been spending the summer in Europe, will 

 return in October. 



— "At the end of May," says Dr. G. Hinrichs in 

 his July Iowa weather bulletin, " this year's growing 

 season, counted from April 1, was sixty degrees in 

 the aggregate ahead of last year's. We had gained 

 nothing more at the end of June ; for last year's June 

 was moderate, the same as this season's June. But 

 during July we gained in the aggregate one hundred 

 degrees over last years July; so that, on the 1st of 

 August of this year, we have received in the aggre- 

 gate one hundred and sixty degrees of beat more than 

 last year at this period. This fact, together with the 

 fair sky and generally favorable distribution of rain- 

 fall, accounts for the greatly superior condition of 

 our crops this year. 



"The storm-record," he adds, "has been given in 

 sufficient detail to help to dispel the exaggerated 

 notions of danger from whirlwinds in Iowa. It will 

 readily be seen, that if squalls extending simulta- 



neously over a largo storm-front, and progressing for 

 hours like a huge wave, are heralded as ' tornadoes' at 

 every place they reach, people at a distance will soon 

 wonder that towns exist at all in the north-west, and 

 our own people will be scared into expensive tornado 

 insurance. lu time our buildings will be substantial 

 enough to withstand our summer squalls and winter 

 blizzards successfully. As to genuine tornadoes, 

 they are rare, and very limited in extent." 



— For some months the electricians of Paris have 

 held a monthly dinner. These dinners owed their 

 origin to Count Hallez-d'Arros, ami were attended by 

 no organized society, but were re-unions of those 

 interested in electrical science. Lately it has been 

 thought better to give the gatherings more stability 

 by some manner of permanent organization; and at 

 the June meeting a Societe des ekclriciena was 

 formed. 



— During the past year, original investigations in 

 the following subjects, among others, have been car- 

 ried on in the physical laboratory of Johns Hopkins 

 university under the direction of Professor Rowland 

 and Dr. Hastings: on the photography of the spec- 

 trum by means of the concave gr.ating (the photo- 

 graphs of the spectrum, so far made, extend down to 

 Ji, the original negatives being about j the scale of 

 Angstrom's map from B to b, equal to Angstrom's 

 from 6 to G, and 1^ Angstrom's from G to the ex- 

 treme ultra-violet; they show 150 lines between the 

 n lines, and give the 1474 and 63 and 64 widely dou- 

 ble and the E line indistinclly.double); on the deter- 

 mination of the B. A. unit of electrical resistance in 

 absolute measure; the determination of the specific 

 resistance of mercury; the variation of the specific 

 heat of water with the temperature; the relative 

 wave-lengths of the lines of the spectrum by means 

 of the concave grating; the effect of difference of 

 phase in the harmonics on the timbre of sound; 

 and on the variation of the-magnetic permeability of 

 nickel by change of temperature. 



— Professor Palmieri announces the existence in 

 the lava of Vesuvius of a substance giving the spec- 

 trum line of 'helium,' — an element, hitherto recog- 

 nized only in the sun. He considers the late disaster 

 at Ischia to be due to subsidence of land consequent 

 on the unusual activity of Mount Vesuvius. 



— There will shortly be published by Allen & Co. 

 of London a book by A. H. Swinton, entitled 'The 

 influence of the sun on natural phenomena.' One 

 may judge of the book's value by the following quo- 

 tation from the prospectus : " The multitude who 

 read the morning's newspaper may find in it some 

 reason for their successes and losses, further than 

 blind fatality." 



RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 



Cogniaux, A. Petite flore de Belgique Ji I'usngc des ecolcs. 

 Hona, Manceaux, 1883. 232 p. 12°. 



Cock, A. de. Flora der Dendervallei. Analytische sleiitel 

 dev f:»railien en geslachten (zaadplanteu af phaueroganien}. 

 (iand, Mei/tr- Van. Lno, 1883. 108 p. 8°. 



Dandois de Mellet. r>u role des organiemes inferieiira 

 dans lus complications des plalCfi. Bruxelles, 1883. 332 p. S". 



