October 26, 1S83.] 



SCIENCE. 



oHl 



Einigiation CaDou tbey bave not been found, and 

 the rational explanation of their absence is that a 

 very long time has elapsed sinee their last renewal, 

 lu this period the earth-strain has been slowly in- 

 creasing. Some day it will overcome the friction, lift 

 the mountains a few feet, and re-enact on a fearful 

 scale the catastrophe of Owen's valley. 



— The president of the International committee 

 Dr. H. Wild, by request of the governments con- 

 cerned, has announced that the observations of the 

 parties at the circumpolar observing stations were to 

 cease, as was originally planned, in September, ISSo, 

 .and the different expeditious will return as shortly 

 thereafter as practicable. 



— Violent solfataric disturbances were experienced 

 in Iceland between the 12th and 21st of last March. 



— The English government lias decided to establish 

 an astronomical and meteorological observatory at 

 Hong Kong, and has appointed Dr. William Doberck 

 director of the institution. Dr. Dol)erck has accepted 

 the position, and removed to Hong Kong. He may 

 be addressed tlirough the Crown agents for the Colo- 

 nies, Downing street, London. 



— In the Journal of chemical industry of June 29, 

 Mr. G. W. Wigner," F.C.S., F.T.C., gives an ac- 

 count of the damage done to delicate substances by 

 the material in whicli they are packed, suitability 

 being too often sacrificed to strength, lightness, or 

 mere ornament. As president of the society of pub- 

 lic analysts, Mr. AViguer has had many opportunities 

 of studying the subject. 



Oysters, he writes, have been imported into Eng- 

 land in barrels made of wood containing a very large 

 proportion of tannin, with results whicli can be bel- 

 ter untlerstood than appreciated. The iron contained 

 in the litjuor has produced a very noticeable propor- 

 tion of ink, and the oysters themselves have become 

 converted into a poor but certainly novel kind of 

 leather. Tinned Bsh and tinned acid fruits have 

 been packed in vessels in which lead predominated 

 over tin to a very marked extent. He alluded to the 

 loss in cargoes of essences and scents by the impos- 

 sibility of making the stoppers of glass bottles abso- 

 lutely air-tight, and the damage done to other parts 

 of the cargo by those essences. Mr. Wigner then 

 proceeds to describe the effects of evaporation in 

 the hold of a ship: bilge-water can never be quite 

 excluded, and change of temperature must produce 

 evaporation; the dew thus produced settles on the 

 top of the packing-cases, and in time corrodes the 

 metal, or is absorbed, as the case may be, and, if 

 the voyage be long enough, damages the goods. 

 Canned goods, he writes, seldom remain good for a 

 second season, even if apparently well p.acked: the 

 tin, some of the iron, and the lead contained in the 

 tin, are dissolved, and the contents of the can become 

 contaminated with these metallic substances. 



The greater part of Mr. Wigner's article is devoted 

 to the effects produced on tea by the wood in which 

 it is packed. The Chinese formerly used 'toon' 

 wood only; but the forests have been so much cut 

 down that the supply is running short, and in Assam, 

 wood for packing-cases is cut at random. In one 



instance, a consignment of Assam tea had a distinc- 

 tive odor of its own, resembling a new and exces- 

 sively rank kid glove; some luuidrcds of chests being 

 thus damaged. The inner lead coating of tea-chests 

 used by the Chinese is much purer, and less liable to 

 damage by acid, tlian the lighter lining used by the 

 dealers in upper India. 



— Professor Angelo Heilprin was elected one of the 

 curators of the Academy <if natural sciences of Phila- 

 delphia on Oct. 2, to supply the vacancy caused by 

 the death of Mr. Charles F. Parker. At a meeting 

 of the coinicil, held Oct. .j. Professor Heilprin was 

 appointed actuary to the curators or curator in charge. 

 He has commenced the arrangement of a department 

 of the museum to be devoted exclusively to the nat- 

 ural history of Pennsylvania and New Jersey. The 

 geology and mineralogy, together with the fauna and 

 flora, of tlie two states, will be represented as com- 

 pletely as possible, and will form a colleetimi whicli 

 cannot fail to be of special interest to local stu- 

 dents. 



— The pjvpers read at the meeting of the Biological 

 society of Washington, Oct. It), were by Dr. Theo- 

 dore Gill, The ichthyological results of the explora- 

 tions of the U. S. fish-commission steamer Albatross 

 in 1883; Dr. C. A. White, Character and function of 

 the epiglottis of the bull-snake (Pityophis) ; Professor 

 Lester F. Ward, Note on an interesting botanical relic 

 of the District of Columbia; Dr. C. V. Riley, Manna 

 in the United States. 



— The Pliilosophical society of Washington, on 

 Oct. 13, held its first session after the summer vaca- 

 tion. Since June it has lost three members by death, 

 — Surgeon-Gen. C. II. Crane, who was one of its 

 vice-presidents; Admiral B. F. Sands, one of the 

 originar lounders of the society; and Dr. Josiali Cur- 

 tis. The papers of the evening were by Mr. William 

 U. Taylor, on the Kings of Saturn; by Dr. Swan M. 

 Burnett, on the Character of the focal lines in astig- 

 matism; and by Mr. H. A. Hazen, on Thermometer- 

 exi)Osure. 



— A scientific session of the National academy of 

 sciences will be held in New Haven, at Yale college, 

 commencing on Tuesday, Nov. Vi. 



— Mr. F. W. Putnam, of the Peabody museum, 

 Cambridge, announces his readiness to give lectures 

 on American archeology, based upon the course de- 

 livered last year before the Lowell institute. His sub- 

 jects cover such matters as the sheli-heaps, caves, 

 mounds and earthworks, stone graves, pueblos, and 

 ancient arts and religious rites of our country, as 

 well as general sketches of the archeology of North 

 .\merica, Mexico and Central America, South Amer- 

 ica, and Peru. 



— At the meeting of the Engineers"club of Phila- 

 delphia, Oct. 6, Mr. Edward Thiange presented .an 

 illustrated description of a method of earthwork com- 

 putation, by means of diagrams constructed from the 

 proposition, 'The areas of similar figures are to each 

 other as the scjuares of their liomologous sides.' An 

 idea may be had of their nature and uses by the fol- 

 lowing directions: to get the average volume in 

 cubic yards of a station (in embankment), to the cen- 



