620 
It is to be remembered that the nearer the 
fluid to the state of saturation, the more readily 
does it surrender heat. 
In the indicator-diagram it is often observed 
that there existsa point of inflexion at the sum- 
mit of the compression-curye. This has been, 
by earlier authorities, generally ascribed to 
leakage past the piston on attaining a certain 
limiting pressure at which the piston-rings 
yield. Later observers have suspected and the 
writer has long believed that this peculiar in- 
flexion may mark a point at which the sur- 
render of heat of compression to the metal of 
the cylinder-wall occurs so rapidly, as a conse- 
quence of the increasing temperature-head, as 
to cause more rapid condensation than can be 
counteracted in its effect upon pressure by the 
constantly diminishing rate of compression. 
This phenomenon, in such case, is an indication, 
if not a measure, of the heat-exchange thus 
taking place. M. Duchesne finds confirmation 
in his own experiments of this later idea, and of 
the propositions which he has advanced, as well 
as of the accuracy of the work of M. Dwel- 
shauvers-Dery. 
R. H. THURSTON. 
CoRNELL UNIVERSITY. 
SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
THE National Academy of Sciences will hold 
its annual fall meeting at Columbia University, 
New York, from November 14th to 17th. 
PROFESSOR DEAN C. WORCESTER, of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, has returned to the United 
States, to report to the President as one of the 
members of the Philippine Commission. 
PROFESSOR GEORGE T. LADD, of Yale Univer- 
sity, who is at present in Japan, has received 
from the Japanese Emperor, the third-class 
decoration of the Order of the Rising Sun. 
Dr. EUGENE A. DARLING has been appointed 
bacteriologist of the Cambridge Board of 
Health, to succeed Dr. George B. Henshaw. 
Mr. W. H. TWELVETREES, F.G.S., has re- 
cently been appointed to the position of geol- 
ogist to the Government of Tasmania. 
Dr. ALFRED JENTZSCH, docent at Konigs- 
berg, has been appointed geologist of the Goy- 
ernment Survey in Berlin. 
SCIENCE. 
[N. S. Von. X. No. 252. 
Dr. Otto LuBARSCH, associate professor 
at Rostock, has been made director of the 
pathological and anatomical division of the 
newly established State Institute of Hygiene at 
Posen. 
Mr. J. E. DUERDIN, curator of the Kingston 
Museum, Jamaica, is this year studying at the 
Johns Hopkins University. 
Mr. W. H. M. Cuarisriz, C.B., the Astrono- 
mer Royal has been elected one of the Wardens 
of the Clockmakers’ Company. 
Dr. Louis L. SEAMAN offers, through the 
Military Service Institution of the United 
States, a prize of $100 for the best essay on ‘The 
Ideal Ration for an Army in the Tropics.’ 
Papers should be received before March 1, 1900. 
Mr. HAMILTON Y. CASTNER, died at Saranac 
Lake, N. Y., on October 10th, aged 41 years. 
Mr. Castner made important advances in in- 
dustrial chemistry, especially in the manufac- 
ture of aluminium and in the electrolytic pro- 
cesses of manufacturing caustic soda and 
chlorine from cloride of sodium. 
THE death is announced at Obersdorf of Dr. 
Ernst Rosenberger, known for his writings on 
the history of physics. 
Dr. Karu Russ, the ornithologist, died at 
Berlin on September 29th, aged 66 years. 
Ir has been proposed to place a bust and an 
enlarged photograph of the late Dr. Friedel in 
the hall of the Sorbonne. The estimated cost 
of the bust, which will be the work of M. 
Uitain, is 3,000 franes. An appeal for subscrip- 
tions has beenissued. These should be sent to 
M. Chason, at the Laboratory of Organic Chem- 
istry, Faculty of Science, the Sorbonne. 
AT the ceremonies attending the unveiling of 
the monument of Johannes Miller at his birth- 
place, Coblentz, on October 2d, Professor Vir- 
chow was the principal speaker. The British 
Medical Journal states that in the course of his 
address Professor Virchow referred to the diffi- 
culty that had been found in choosing an 
appropriate inscription. The simple one chosen 
by the sculptor: ‘To the great anatomist 
and physiologist,’ would perhaps hardly satisfy 
all concerned. Strictly speaking, Johannes 
Miller was a biologist, a naturalist whose aim 
