November 2, 1883. 



SCIENCE. 



607 



is built from the plans of Mr. M. P. Iliggins of 

 Worcester, and a class of twenty-five boys is making 

 good progress. The farm comprises eight hundred 

 and fifty acres, of which a hundred and twenty are 

 fine, rich bottom-lands iu the valley of Medium's 

 River. The farm last year yielded an income of four 

 thousand dollars. Boys are received at from nine to 

 fourteen years of age, and are kept until eighteen. 



— The White Mountain club of Portland held their 

 autumn meeting, Oct. 17. The president (Rev. Dr. 

 Thomas Hill) narrated his labors in identifying a 

 mountain seen from Portland, and hitherto taken for 

 the Imp. He finds it is a part of Carter range : the 

 true Imp is scarcely visible. Still another 'Imp' is 

 seen from Copp's house, near the Glen and Gorham 

 road, where it is pointed out by stage-drivers, etc., as 

 the south-west side of the true Imp. Cline's map 

 correctly locates this as another peak. 



— The collections of plants made by the late Presi- 

 dent Chadbourne, comprising thirty-four distinct lots, 

 and containing among them some of interest and 

 value, are offered for sale by his executor, A. Schenck, 

 30 Union Square, New York. 



— Herr Hugo Ziiller, who visited the Isthmus of 

 Panama and the South-American states as corre- 

 spondent of the Coloijne ijazelle, has published his 

 experiences in two books, the first called 'Der Pana- 

 makanal,' in which he contradicts the too favorable 

 reports spread in the European papers as to Mr. Les- 

 seps' work on the canal, and says his company has 

 too little capital to accomplish the undertaking. He 

 gives a map of the district, and fully e.\pects to see 

 the water-way a fact, and not an idea, within ten 

 years, but not through Mr. Lesseps' means. The sec- 

 ond book concerns Brazil, and is called ' Die deutsch- 

 en ira bra/.ilianischen urwald.' 



— T. W. Blakiston contributes to the Japan 

 gazette of Sept. 8 an account of a voyage across the 

 North Pacific, iu the ship Undaunted, from Yedo to 

 Victoria, V.I., between May 20 and June 21, 1883. 

 Temperatures, winds, etc., were carefully noted, and 

 the author came to the conclusion that the Kuro siwo 

 at that season disappears between latitudes 37° and 

 39°, and west from east longitude 154°. Eastward from 

 this point nothing was seen of warm water referable 

 to that current. 



— In a paper recently read before the Geographical 

 society of the Pacific, some remarkable statements 

 were made in regard to the Mahlemuts of Norton 

 Sound, Alaska. Among other things, if correctly re- 

 ported, the author stated that ' their customs and 

 part of their language resemble the Chinese greatly.' 

 The Mahlemuts are an ordinary small tribe of west- 

 ern Eskimo, who have been studied by a number of 

 ethnologists, and in no respect differ'from the other 

 Eskimo tribes of the region. Such wild statements, 

 especially when made before a scientific society, are 

 almost invariably reproduced in European journals, 

 and for that reason should be noticed and corrected. 



— J. G. Swan, who has been investigating the 

 Queen Charlotte Islands, returned to Victoria, Sept. 

 27. He discovered a fine deep-water fish, which is 

 new to the food-supply of the coast, and is said to 



occur iu large numbers. He also reports finding a 

 good harbor hitherto unknown. 



— The volume of Washington astronomical and 

 meteorological observations for 1879 has just been 

 received at the n.ival observatory from the govern- 

 ment printing-office, and will be distributed to cor- 

 respondents immediately. 



— A third edition, enlarged and improved, of Pae- 

 tel's useful catalogue of mollusks, is announced. 

 Though by no means available for text-book pur- 

 poses, and with the usual allowance of errors, this 

 publication cannot fail to be useful to all who have a 

 large collection of shells to arrange, if it were only 

 to furnish a workable foundation. 



— The Iowa academy of sciences met at Ames on 

 Sept. 27. Prof. C. E. Bessey of Ames read papers on 

 the hybridization of Spirogyra majuscula and S. pro- 

 tecta; the effect of frost on leaf -cells, and on certain 

 insect-catching glands on a grass. The glands re- 

 ferred to in the last paper are located on the blossom 

 stems of Sporobolis, and secrete a viscous fluid, in 

 which insects are entrapped. Their utility in these 

 plants seems difficult to understand. In reply to a 

 question by Professor Stalker, whether they could 

 protect the blossoms from injurious insects, Professor 

 Osborn said he thought they might possibly give pro- 

 tection from Cecidomyiae. Professor Henick of 

 Grinnell described a water-still for obtaining a con- 

 stant supply of distilled water in laboratories, and 

 offered some observations on the Grinnell tornado, 

 tending to show that at that point the tornado 

 formed a loop in its course. Prof. H. Osborn of 

 Ames offered some additions to the list of Iowa in- 

 sects, in Lepidoptera, Coleoptera, Hemiptera, and 

 Neuroptera; notes on Mallophaga, taken in Iowa; and 

 a paper on an epidemic disease attacking C'aloptenus 

 differentialis. This last is a disease similar in nature 

 to that caused by Entomophthora muscae in the com- 

 mon house-fly, and very fatal to these locusts. It is 

 caused by a species apparently new, and shortly to be 

 described by Professor Bessey in the American nalu- 

 rnlint. 



— The third and fourth parts of volume xiv. of the 

 Archivfiir anlhropolor/ie contain three original papers, 

 A.S follows: on Hypertrichosis, by Dr. Ranke; on the 

 eyes of the Fuegians, by Dr. Seggel ; and on copper in 

 ancient times, by Dr. Reyer. Reviews of the anthro- 

 pological literature in Russia are prepared by Dr. 

 .Stieda; in Scandinavian literature, by Miss Julia Mcs- 

 torf; in American literature, by Dr. Emil Schmidt. 

 The last named covers twenty-three closely printed 

 quarto pages, and embraces about every paper of im- 

 portance published in oir country during the last 

 year, relating to anthropology. The bibliography 

 occupies 161 pages, and many of the title's are accom- 

 [lanied by a brief note stating the purpose of the pub- 

 lication. It is a thorough piece of work, and is 

 distributed as follows: archeology and priscan history 

 {urgeschichle}, by J. H. Miiller, 41 pages; anatomy, 

 by Dr. Pauseh, 6 pages; ethnology and travels, by 

 Dr. Albrecht Peiick, iX) p.iges ; zoiilogy in rel.ition to 

 anthropology, by Dr. George Boehm, 23 pages. 



Students in all branches of science know how diffi- 



