132 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 31. 



curves may be taken, a registering ther- 

 mometer will be attached near the top of 

 line. A surveyor's transit will be used to 

 calculate the height to which the kites as- 

 cend, the differences being worked out by 

 triangulation. 



The Third International Congress of Ag- 

 riculture will be held at Brussels from Sep- 

 tember 8th to 16th. 



An International Exhibition of Hygiene, 

 organized under the direction of M. Brou- 

 ardel, was opened at Paris on Thursday 

 last. The exhibits are divided into five 

 groups, referring respectively to (1) the 

 hygiene of private houses ; (2) city hygi- 

 ene ; (3) the prophylactics of zj'motic dis- 

 eases, demographj', sanitary statistics, etc.; 

 (4) the hygiene of childhood, including ali- 

 mentary hj-giene, questions of clothing and 

 physical exercises ; (5) industrial and pro- 

 fessional hygiene. — Nature. 



A BETTJEN has been issued showing the 

 number of experiments performed on living 

 animals in 1894 under licenses, as required 

 in Great Britain. The total number of 

 persons holding licenses during the year 

 was 185, and of these 56 performed no ex- 

 periments. 3104 experiments were per- 

 formed in all. 



The second Italian Geogi-aphical Con- 

 gress will be held in Eome during the latter 

 part of September, 1895, the days not yet 

 having been designated. Information con- 

 cerning the Congress, which is held under 

 the patronage of the King of Italy and 

 promises to be one of great importance, can 

 be obtained fi-om the President of the com- 

 mittee. Via del Plebiscite 102, Eome. 



The Academy of Sciences of Prague has 

 begun the publication of a Bulletin Inter- 

 nationale. 



There remains in the treasury of the 

 city of Baltimore about S280,000 left from 

 the fund of $1,000,000 obtained by the issue 

 of city bonds for the j)urpose of completing 



the purchase of Clifton Park from the 

 Johns Hopkins estate. It is proposed to 

 use this money in the construction of a 

 Boulevard from Druid Hill Park to Clifton 

 Park. 



Peofessob Sikoeski, of the University of 

 Kief, writing in the Kievlianin upon the 

 psychology of the Eussian people, brings 

 forward some interesting statistics concern- 

 ing the frequency of suicide in the different 

 nations of Europe. According to these figures 

 the death-rate from suicide per million living 

 is in Saxon J' 311, in France 210, in Prussia 

 133, in Austria 130, in Bavaria 90, in Eng- 

 land 66, while in Eussia it is as low as 30. 

 Further, it is found that during the last 

 thirty years the suicide-rate has in Eussia 

 remained stationary, whUe in all other 

 European countries it has increased by 30 

 or 40 per cent. The exact significance of 

 figures such as these, relating to so complex 

 a phenomenon . as suicide, is not easily 

 brought out. Few, however, will be dis- 

 posed to question the assei'tion that much 

 of the explanation of the low rate in Eussia 

 is to be found in the patience and long suf- 

 fering of the Eussian peasant under even 

 the worst misfortunes. Among other char- 

 acteristics Professor Sikorski also finds a 

 certain indecision of character which fears 

 to say a word or do an action which shall 

 not admit of retreat or withdrawal . Crime 

 is comparatively rare in Eussia ; thus, the 

 number of persons tried for murder per 

 million living in the year 1887 was in Italy 

 96, in Spain 55, in Austria 22, in France 

 14, in Eussia 10, in Germany 9, and in Eng- 

 land only 6. — The Lancet. 



At the annual meeting of the American 

 Institute of Electrical Engineers Professor 

 F. B. Crocker presented a preliminarj^ re- 

 port from the committee on indexing elec- 

 trical literature. The committee reported 

 that it was very desirable for the Institute 

 to undertake a complete index of electrical 

 literature, and that the past, rather than 



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