September 28, 1883.] 



SCIENCE. 



453 



and second best systems of electric lighting, both 

 incandescent and arc. 



— We learn from Si/mons' metenmlngical mayazine 

 for August, tliat the government has granted Professor 

 Lemstrom a sum of 37,000 marks for the continua- 

 tion of his auroral experiments in Finnish Lapland. 

 These investigations will include the electrical cur- 

 rent which produces the aurora, terrestrial currents, 

 and magnetic perturbations. 



— Professor Henry F. Osborn of Princeton has 

 published in the July number of the Quarterly jour- 

 nal of microscopical science, in a more extended form 

 and with the .iccompaniment of a lithographic plate, 

 the results of his researches on the foetal envelopes 

 of marsupials. The interest and importance of these 

 investigations are already known, at least to the eni- 

 bryologists among our readers, for Professor Osborn"s 

 conclusions were first published in Scienci:. 



— The thirty-eighth volume of the Memoires du 

 ilepol de la guerre, recently printed by the Russian 

 general stafiE under the editorship of Kylke. and of 

 wliich only one hundred and fifty copies are issued, 

 contains, among other things, an account of the 

 astronomical and trigonometrical work in e.^sterll 

 Siberia, by Bolsheff, Polianoffski, and Kramereff; 

 a memoir of Kulberg on the Russian geodetic opera- 

 tions in Armenia; a report by Lebedeff on triangula- 

 tion, topographic and astronomical work in Bulgaria; 

 a list of astronomical stations in the Khirgiz steppes 

 by Bondorf ; and Stebnitzki's report on the results of 

 his experiments with a reversible pendulum. Of this 

 important work, absolutely necessary for those seri- 

 ously interested in the study of the geography of 

 Russia and adjacent countries, there is probably not 

 a copy in America. 



— Mr. Miles Rock, assistant astronomer at the 

 U.S. nav.al observatory, has accepted the appointment 

 of chief astronomer and engineer commissioner on 

 the international boundary commission of Guatemala, 

 to locate the boundary between that country and 

 >[e.\ico. He will sail from New York Oct. 1, and 

 expects to be absent about a year. 



— Professor H. M. Paul, late of the Imperial uni- 

 versity of Tokio. has returned to this country, and 

 accepted a position in Washington under the Transit 

 of Venus commission. 



— The Comptes rendus of Aug. 13 gives some ex- 

 tracts from a letter of M. A. Richard to M. de Lesseps, 

 on the cultivation of date-palms. M. Richard states 

 that these palms grow best on a soil saturated with 

 salt, as has been proved at Alicant and elsewhere. 

 The land around Elche, in Valencia, is irrigated from 

 the Vinalopo, which is extremely salt, rising, as it 

 does, in Mount Pinoso, the rocks of which contain 

 much salt and sulphate of lime. This water, having 

 been used for centuries for watering the palm-plan- 

 tations, has at last formed a crust, which has to be 

 broken with a pick-axe to admit the water below. 

 The town of Alicant has planted its beautiful boule- 

 vard along the shore with date-palms, and, as fresh 

 water is very precious there, the trees are regularly 

 watered with sea-water. All the plantations recently 

 made along the shore from Huertas to Rio Mouegro 



have their roots literally in the sea-water, being 

 planted at but a few feet from the sea. 



RECENT BOOKS AND PAMPHLETS. 



BaiUon, II. Traile de buUiuiquc luedlcak- pbnnerogaroiqtie 

 fiinc. i. Paris, IlachetU. (To be eoiupleted in two fusciculcH.) 

 U.301 na. s". 



Belfleld, \V. T. Oil the reltktions of nlicro-organi^mB to din- 

 i-u«e. Chicago, 1S83. IS*. 



Ber^stedt, N. II. HuriiUolni« tlora. del i. rhaDcrogamae. 

 Neioc, 1S83. 8". 



Berlin. Kiinigliclie museuin. Aiuerlkn's nord-wcst-kilste : 

 iH-ue8te ergebuisse ethliologiBchen reise. (Ed. by Bostian.) Ber- 

 lin, .-(sAer, 1883. 4+13( + I3) p., 13pl. f. 



Bert I*. Hii«toii'e naturt-lle. Anatomic ct ]>hv8iologie ani- 

 males. I'aria, JAlsson, 188:1. 8- 382 p., 270 life'. IS'*. 



Black, William George. Kolk-medicinc; a clijipler in the 

 liistorv of culture. London, Ulaek, 1883. (I'ubl. Folklore Boc. 

 12.) (10)-r228p. 8°. 



Borzl, A. Stud! algologici. Saggio di ricercbc nulla blolo- 

 !;ia delle alifbe. fuse. i. Chlorophyceae. Messina, 1883. 119 

 p., illustr. 4'. 



Buffalo microscopical club. Eighth annual meeting. 8ec- 

 reliiry's annual report; president's annual address; list of ofll- 

 CITS and members. Uuftalo, Baker, Jonen, <6 Co., pr., 1883. 2+ 

 17 p. 8°. 



Chabaud, N. Des accidents observes dans les appareils k 

 air coraprimi employes anx travaux sous-marins et particuli6rc- 

 ment de ceux dus a une decompression trop brusque. Paris, 

 impr., Dmi/, 1883. 65 p. 8°. 



Chalon, J. Resume de cosmographie. Verviers, impr. 

 i/ilon, 1883. 128 p., illustr. 12°. 



Cocconi, G. Flora della provincia di Bologna. Bologna, 

 1SS3. 602 p. 16°. 



Coleopterorum novitates, recuell sp^eialement eonsacre a 

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Crie, !.<. Nouveaux dl^raents de botaniqne, contenant I'organo- 

 graphle, I'anatomie, la morphologic, la physiologic, la botaniqne 

 rurale et des notions de geographic botaniqne ct de botanique fos. 

 ► iic. raris, 1883. 1160 p., 1,332 fig. 12°. 



Dejernon, R. Les vignes et les vins de rAlgiric. tome i. 

 Toulouse, 1SS3. 319 p. 8°. 



Derosne, C. La photographic ])Our tons, traits ^lementalre" 

 des nouveaux proced6s. Paris, Gauthiem- Villarx, 1883. 108 

 p. 8°. 



Devos, -V- Pe quelques moyens pratiques pour rcconnaitre 

 U-s plantes pendant Ics herborisations. X)inant, lielpiace-Lt- 

 miune. 1S83. 38 p. 8°. 



D'Ovidlo, C. Le propriety foudamentali delle superficie di 2. 

 ordine, stndiate snila cquazione generale di 2. grado, in co-ordl- 

 nale cartesiane. Torino, 1883. 182 p. 8°. 



Dti Bois, A. .J. The strains in framed structures. New 

 York, 188,1. illustr. 4°. 



Duincke, O. Keitrage zur kenntnisa des bernstcinols. 

 Inaug. diss. Kijnigsberg, Ord/e d- Vmer, 18S3. 31 p. 8°. 



Sdinburgh, Duke of. Notes on Ibc sea fisheries anil fish- 

 ing population of the United Kingdom, arising from infor- 

 mation gained during three years' command of the naval reserves. 

 London, 1883. 64 p. 8°. 



Sng'el, T. Geognostiscber wegweiscr durch Wiirttem- 

 berg. Anleitu'ng zum erkennen der scbichten und zum sammeln 

 der petrefaktcn. Htutlgart, 1S83. 16-326 p., illustr. 8°. 



FliliTire, C- Fermente und raikroparasiten. Leipzig, 1883. 

 :10S p., 65 Hi;. 8°. 



Flynn, P. J. Hydraulic tables fur the calculation of the 

 discharge 'through sewers, pipes, and conduits; based on Kut- 

 Icr's formula. Xcw York, Van M>Htrand,KS3. (V'an Nostrand's 

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Forsyth, ."V. K. Memoir on the Ihetafunctions, particu- 

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Forwergr. M. Fruchtformen. Systcmallsche nnd verglel, 

 ohende darslellung innatUrliehen grijsscn. IJresden, 1883. {'. 



Geerenbaur, C Lehrbueb der anatomie des menscben. 

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Goode, G. Brown. The lisbery Industries of the United 

 .states, ((ircat intern, fish, exhib. — Papers of the conferences.) 

 London, Ooires, 1883. 84 p., 2 lab. 8°. 



GottSChe, C. Die sedimenliir-geschl^-be dc« provinz 

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Gradle, H. Bacteria and the germ-theory of disease : eight 

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