352 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 62. 



Society on February 13th it was mentioned 

 that as bearing on the suggestion that the Ront- 

 gen rays might resemble ultra-violet rays in 

 possessing germicidal effects, that a cultivation 

 of diphtheria microbes had been subjected to 

 their influence for 12 hours without any steriliz- 

 ing results. 



The Senate committee on appropriations has 

 concluded its consideration of the agricultural 

 appropriation bill increasing it in the aggregate 

 to the extent of $47,260, and making a total 

 appropriation of $3,262,652. The principal in- 

 crease is $40,000 for the publication of the 

 special report on the diseases and the feeding of 

 cattle, and the principal reduction is $9,000 on 

 the appropriation of $15,000 made by the House 

 for an investigation of irrigation. 



The Odessa correspondent of the London 

 Times writes that the Russian government will 

 send a special scientific mission to observe the 

 total eclipse of the sun which occurs on August 

 9th. It is remarkable that this total eclipse 

 will be almost exclusively visible throughout 

 the northern part of the Russian Empire, as the 

 line of totality passes from the extreme north 

 of Norway, over Novaya Zemlya, Siberia and 

 Manchuria, to Jesso, in Japan. The mission 

 will be in charge of three astronomers from the 

 Nikolas Observatory at PulkoflF, and leaves 

 Odessa in May by one of the cruisers belonging 

 to the Russian Volunteer Fleet Committee for 

 Vladivostok, whence it will go near the mouth 

 of the river Amoor for observations. The 

 committee has agreed with the government to 

 convey the mission from Odessa to Vladivostok 

 and back again to Odessa free of charge. 



Db. Laughton McFaelane, professor of 

 surgery at the University of Toronto, died on 

 February 29th, from blood poisoning, contracted 

 while amputating the toes of a patient at the 

 General Hospital a week ago. He was 54 years 

 old. 



The London correspondent of the New York 

 /Sim states that an Antarctic expedition has been 

 arranged for next winter. It will be partly a 

 trading and a scientific enterprise, and will be 

 under the command of Capt. Svend Foyn, of 

 Christiania. Mr. W. S. Bruce, of the Ben 

 Nevis Observatory, will have charge of the sci- 



entific party, composed of himself and four 

 other men. The scientific party will be. landed 

 on the Antarctic continent in Victoria Land in 

 January next, and the vessel will then engage 

 in whale and seal fishing, returning to Austra- 

 lia. The following season, in January, 1898, 

 she will return and take off the scientific party, 

 who hope by then to have obtained knowledge 

 of the fauna, flora, geology and topography of 

 the Antarctic region. If found practicable, an 

 attempt will be made to reach the south mag- 

 netic pole. 



The Secretary of the Treasury has sent to the 

 Senate the report of Mr. Joseph Murraj', a spe- 

 cial agent, who has spent seven seasons on the 

 seal islands of Alaska. He states that in 1894, 

 the first year the Paris regulations were in force, 

 142,000 seals were killed, of which number 60 

 per cent, were female, all of which left pups to 

 die on the island of starvation. He claims that 

 there were at the close of that season, by the 

 most liberal estimate, not more than 300,000 

 seals on the islands, whereas when he first went 

 there, in 1888, there were fully 3,000,000. 



Db. Selle and Dr. Neuhauss have exhibited 

 in Berlin colored photographs which have at- 

 tracted much attention. They are said to be 

 taken by the method used by Mr. Joly of Dub- 

 lin, three specially prepared plates appropriate 

 for green, red and blue lights respectively being 

 used. The process has been simplified and the 

 time of exposure shortened. Mr. Frederick 

 Ives exhibited before the Royal Photographic 

 Society of London, on February 25th, his stere- 

 opticon showing colored pictures. 



Pbof. Robebts-Austen was announced to 

 deliver the Bakerian Lecture before the Royal 

 Society, on February 20th, his subject being 

 the 'Diffusion of Metals.' Nature states that 

 Prof. Roberts- Austen has obtained some singu- 

 lar experimental results connected with the 

 mobility of solid metals. Many experimenters 

 in England, especially Prof Graham and Lord 

 Kelvin, have studied the diffusion of gases 

 and saline solutions, and Prof. Roberts-Austen 

 measured the rate at which certain metals will 

 penetrate each other. He finds that solid gold, 

 for instance, will diffuse into and move about 

 slowly in lead, even at the ordinary tempera- 



