518 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. II. No. 42. 



ently simple molecular constitution. The 

 similar fact now recorded for helium may 

 therefore be regarded as evidence of its 

 simple molecular constitution. 



The directors of New York Botanic Gar- 

 den, to be laid out at Bronx Park, have 

 formally accepted the allotment of 250 acres 

 in Bronx Park, with the restrictions relat- 

 ing to the cutting down of trees in Hem- 

 lock Grove, and voted to request the Park 

 Department to secure from the city the 

 $500,000 appropriated in the act of incor- 

 poration in case $250,000 was raised by pri- 

 vate subscription. The entire $250,000 has 

 been subscribed in amounts of $25,000, and 

 a large part of the sum has already been 

 paid in. The gardens are to be left so far 

 as possible in their natural condition. 



According to the returns issued on the 

 present state of cholera in Russia, there 

 occurred during the last fortnight of Sep- 

 tember in the province of Podolia 51 cases 

 and 19 deaths from the disease, and in 

 the province of Volhj^nia 7,827 cases and 

 3,085 deaths. 



The Committee on Terrestrial Magnetism 

 of the British Association presented at the 

 Ipswich meeting an elaborate analj^sis of a 

 series of observations made with the mag- 

 netographs at Kew Observatory by the 

 recently appointed Director, Dr. Chree. 



Macmillan & Co. have issued the first 

 number of a quarterly journal. The American 

 Historical Review. Six of the leading Ameri- 

 can historical scholars constitute a board of 

 editors, and Professor J. Franklin Jameson, 

 of Brown University, is managing editor. 

 The number contains 208 large octavo 

 pages, and maintains throughout a high 

 standard of scientific scholarship. 



Mr. J. Gray read a paper before Section 

 H, of the British Association, upon anthro- 

 pometric observations in East Aberdeen- 

 shire, which pointed to the existence in 

 Aberdeenshire (1) of a Germanic or Can- 



stadt type, fair-haired, with light eyes, con- 

 cave nose, and an average height of 5 ft., 

 7 in.; (2) of an Iberian or Cro-Magnon type, 

 dark-haired, dark-eyed, aquiline-nosed, and 

 of an average height of 5 ft., 11^ in.; and 

 (3) of a broad-headed type, dark-haired, 

 dark-eyed, probably straight- nosed, with an 

 average height of 5 ft., 4 in. 



The issue of the British Medical Journal 

 for October 5th states that the lines inscribed 

 on Huxley's tombstone, and quoted in the 

 last number of Science, are part of a poem 

 by Mrs. Huxlej^, and were used as Huxley's 

 epitaph at his own request. 



Mr. W. J. L. Warton states in Nature 

 that a deeper spot in the ocean than any 

 yet known has been recently found by H. 

 M. surveying ship Penguin. Unfortunately 

 the observation was not complete, as a 

 fault in the wire caused it to break when 

 4,900 fathoms had run out without bottom 

 having been reached. This occurred in 

 lat. 23° 40' S., long. 175° 10' W., about 60 

 miles north of a sounding of 4,428 fathoms 

 obtained by Captain Aldrich in 1888. As 

 the deepest cast hitherto obtained is one of 

 4,655 fathoms near Japan, it is at any rate 

 certain that the depths at the position 

 named is at least 245 fathoms greater. 



It is stated that Professor Joly has sold 

 the right to his process of color photography 

 for the United States and Canada to Mr. 

 Schuyler, of New York, for $30,000. He is 

 negotiating for the sale of the right to the 

 process for other countries, and the inven- 

 tion is patented for England. 



The third annual convention of the Na- 

 tional Society of Electro-therapeutists met 

 at Boston on Wednesday, the 17th and IStli 

 of September, under the presidencj' of Dr. 

 Wm. L. Jackson. In speaking of recent 

 advances in the applications of electricity to 

 therapeutics, the president said : " Already 

 electricity has a wide sphere of usefulness. 

 Even its physical properties, as heat and 



