556 



SGIENGE. 



[N. S. Vol. III. No. 67. 



The fourth fascicle of Messrs. CoUius, Holden 

 and Setchell's Phycotheca Boreali-Americana, 

 has recently been issued, containing Nos. 151 

 to 200 of this valuable distribution of North 

 American algte. It is rich in species of the 

 genus Batrachospermum. 



Nature states that a number of admirers of 

 Prof. Mittag-Leffler, the founder of the Acta 

 Mathematica, will shortly present him with a 

 congratulatory address, written in four lan- 

 guages — German, French, Italian and English 

 — and expressing the appreciation of mathema- 

 ticians of the services he has rendered to their 

 science. It is proposed to present him at the 

 same time with his portrait in oils, and a sub- 

 scription list has heed opened to obtain funds 

 for that purpose. Prof. Appell, 6 rue Le Ver- 

 rier, Paris, will be glad to receive subscriptions. 



Peof. Putman states in the Harvard Ch-adu- 

 atcs^ Magazine the Peabody Museum has received 

 from the American Antiquarian Society many 

 important archaeological and ethnological speci- 

 mens, among which may be mentioned the bow 

 of a Massachusetts Indian. This bow was 

 taken fi-om an Indian in Sudbury in 1665, and 

 is, so far as can be ascertained, the only authen- 

 tic Massachusetts Indian bow now extant. 



Some interesting instances of human longev- 

 ity have been brought to notice of late. Alex- 

 ander Freeman, now at the Sailor's Snug Har- 

 bor, on Staten Island, was born December 22, 

 1786, and is now 110 years of age. In the So- 

 ciety of the War of 1812 are enrolled 33 vet- 

 erans of that war, whose average age is ninety- 

 nine years. Fourteen are more than one hun- 

 dred. William Haines, who fought with the 

 Tennessee militia at the battle of New Orleans, 

 at the age of twenty-six, is still living at the 

 St. Louis Memorial Home, aged 107. Davis 

 Parks, aged 106 years, two months, is at Fow- 

 ler, Mich. Percy Dyer, 104 years, 3 months, 

 at Belvidere, 111. Andrew F. McKee, 104 years, 

 at Burlington, Kansas. Four years ago there 

 were 65 names on the veteran list. 



In ' Little Afi-iea,' a suburb of Mobile, Ala., 

 still live a number of native Dahomiaus, brought 

 over in April, 1859, in the last cargo of slaves 

 imported from Africa. They retain many of 

 the traditions and customs of their native land. 



In the Sunday edition of the New York Sun 

 for March 29th Mr. Jeremiah Curtin, formerly 

 of the Bureau of Ethnology, began a series of 

 articles on primitive folk lore collected ft-om the 

 Indians in California, Mexico and Guatemala. 

 He writes first on the traditions of the Uintas, a 

 nation formerly resident on the right bank of 

 the Sacramento from San Francisco Bay to the 

 foot of Mt. Shasta. 



The Revue Scientifique, commenting on the 

 proposal for the appointment of a permanent 

 director of scientific work in the United States 

 Department of Agriculture, remarks: "Nous 

 comprenons le desir des personnes 6clair6es et 

 bien intentionnees qui mettent en avant ce pro- 

 jet, et nous I'approuvons sans reserves; mais 

 nous avons des doutes sur Tissue finale des 

 6venements, et ne croyons guere a la prochaine 

 realisation du pays d'Utopie reve par Morus." 



Another chapter is added to our knowledge 

 of quadrivalent lead, by Hutchinson and Pol- 

 lard, in the March Journal of the Chemical 

 Society. They have re-examined the crystals 

 which form when red lead is dissolved in acetic 

 acid and find their composition to be Pb (C2H3O2), 

 lead tetracetate. The molecular weight ob- 

 tained by freezing point and boiling point 

 methods agreed with this formula as closely as 

 is usual with the acetates. Water at once de- 

 composes the saltquantitatively into lead dioxid 

 and acetic acid, with hydrochloric acid the un- 

 stable lead tetrachlorid is formed, which in the 

 presence of sal ammoniac is precipitated as am- 

 monium plumbi-chlorid, (NH^)„ PbCl,.. Lead 

 tetrapropionate is also described. The authors 

 point out the close resemblance of the quadriva- 

 lent lead salts to the stannic compounds, and 

 urge the use of the name plumbic oxid in prefer- 

 ence to lead peroxid. (It may be questioned if, 

 after all, the widely used name lead dioxid is 

 not preferable to either.) H. 



As already announced in this journal, two 

 expeditions will be sent from the United States 

 to Japan to observe the total solar eclipse. The 

 expedition from the liick Observatory will be 

 under the charge of Prof. Schaeberle, who will 

 be accompanied by Dr. Charles Burckhalter, 

 director of the Shabot Observatory, in Oak- 

 land, and Messrs. G. E. Shuez and Louis C. 



