200 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 58. 



in the United States, 1,703 in Germany, 1,523 in 

 France, and 1,469 in Great Britain and Ireland. 

 This is a satisfactory indication of the interest 

 taken in zoology in America, even though it 

 may have happened that a larger, percentage 

 of collectors and amateurs are included in the 

 case of the United States than in the cases of 

 the other countries. 



Me. C. E. Boechgeevink arrived in New 

 York on February 2d, and will lecture in 

 America. 



Alfeed L. Kennedy, metallurgist and geol- 

 ogist, was burned to death through a fire in his 

 room on January 30th. He was about 80 years 

 of age. 



The Montreal Branch of the British Medical 

 Association have invited the Association to meet 

 in Montreal this year. This invitation cannot 

 be accepted as arrangements have already been 

 made to meet in Carlisle, but it is probable that 

 the Medical Association will before long follow 

 the example of the British Association for the 

 Advancement of Science and hold a meeting in 

 Canada. 



Acetylene gas seems hitherto to have been 

 promoted chiefly with a view to selling stocks 

 and franchises, though we understand the pro- 

 cess is not covered by patents. It seems, how- 

 ever, probable that the gas will have important 

 practical applications, which shows once more 

 the practical importance often following chemi- 

 oal research. Acetylene gas is a hydrocarbon 

 compound resulting when water is added to 

 •calcic carbon, which is made by fusing lime and 

 carbon in an electric furnace. The only com- 

 mercial acetylene is now made at Spray, N. 

 C, but it is reported that a furnace is being 

 erected at Niagara Falls, and that large quanti- 

 ties of the gas will soon be manufactured. The 

 advantages of the gas are its brilliant white light, 

 ten to twenty times as great as coal gas, its por- 

 tability and (it is claimed) its cheapness. It 

 should be remembered, however, that it is 

 poisonous, and, especially in certain compounds, 

 explosive. 



An editorial article in the February number 

 of Appletoii's Popular Science Monthly on ' The 

 Hundredth Anniversary of the French Insti- 

 tute' states that "As yet, the name of no 



citizen of the United States has been inscribed 

 on the roll of the foreign associates of the In-, 

 stitute, although it is understood that in a re- 

 cent election to fill, the vacancy occasioned by 

 the death of a member .the name of Prof. Simon 

 Newcomb, of Washington, lacked but a few 

 votes of receiving this honor." Prof. New- 

 comb was elected an associate member on the 

 17th of June of last year, succeeding von 

 Helmholtz, as announced at the .time in this 

 journal. The name of Prof. H. A. Eowland 

 should.be added to the list of American corre- 

 spondents given in Appleton's Popular .Science 

 Monthly. The six American correspondents 

 are: Asaph Hall, B. A. Gould, S. P.Lang- 

 ley, H. A. Rowland, James Hall and A. Agas- 

 siz. ' 



John Wiley & Sons announce for July next 

 a volume on Higher Mathematics for Engineering 

 Colleges, edited by Prof. Mansfield Merriman 

 and Prof. R. S. Woodward. The work is in- 

 tended primarily for the use of Junior and 

 Senior Classes in schools of engineering, and 

 contains a concise treatment of subjects not 

 commonly found in text-books, but upon which 

 lectures are now given in the best classical and 

 technical institutions. In addition to chapters 

 by the editors on the Solution of Equations, and 

 Probabilities and Theory of Errors, the work 

 will contain the following chapters : Prof. W. 

 E. Byerly, of Harvard University, Harmonic 

 Functions; Prof. T. S. Fiske, of Columbia Col- 

 lege, General Theory of Functions ; Prof. G. 

 B. Halsted, of University of Texas, Projective 

 Geometry ; Prof. E. W. Hyde, of University of 

 Cincinnati, Point Analysis and Ausdehnungs- 

 lehre ; Prof. W. W. Johnson, of U. S. Naval 

 Academy, Differential Equations ; Prof. A. 

 Macfarlane, of Lehigh University, Vector 

 Analysis and Quaternions ; Prof. J. McMahon, 

 of Cornell University, Hyperbolic Trigonome- 

 try ; Prof. F. Morley, of Haverford College, 

 Elliptic Integrals and Functions ; Prof. D. E. 

 Smith, of Michigan Normal School, History of 

 Modern Mathematics ; Prof L. G. Weld, of 

 University of Iowa, Determinants. 



Macmillan & Co. announce a work on ' So- 

 cial Interpretations of the Principles of Mental: 

 Development,' by Prof J. Mark Baldwin, of 



