November 9, 1900.] 



SCIENCE. 



733 



a quality. Mingled -with air in the right pro- 

 portion for combustion, the mixture of air and 

 vapor was heated by thermodynamic action of 

 compression, approximately adiabatic up to the 

 temperature of ignition, and the explosion fol- 

 lowed. This action is precisely that relied 

 upon in the Diesel gas-engine, recently attract- 

 ing so much attention, for the ignition of its 

 charge independently of gas-torch or electric 

 spark. The phenomenon has long been known 

 to the engineering profession, although in- 

 stances of this kind of accident are rare. The 

 use of effective methods of cooling the com- 

 pressor-cylinder and the employment of lubri- 

 cating oils of high flashing point constitute the 

 preventives. 



R. H. Thurston. 



SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

 A BUST of the late Francis A. Walker is now 

 being erected in the courtyard of the Boston 

 Public Library, where it is planned to com- 

 memorate other eminent citizens of the city. 

 The bust, which is in bronze, has been made by 

 Mr. Richard E. Brooks, and the cost has been 

 defrayed by an appropriation of $2,500 by the 

 City Council. 



The London Society of Arts has awarded a 

 silver medal to Professor R. "W. Wood, of the 

 University of Wisconsin, in recognition of his 

 work on the diffraction process of color pho- 

 tography. 



Professor Max Petteneofbr, of Munich, 

 has been awarded the Pasteur medal of the 

 Swedish Medical Association. This is the first 

 award of the medal which is to be given every 

 ten years for the most important work in hy- 

 giene and bacteriology. 



Dr. Herman S. Davis, recently expert com- 

 puter of the IT. S. Coast Survey, has been ap- 

 pointed observer at the International Latitude 

 Observatory at Gaithersburg, Maryland, one of 

 the six stations established by the Central- 

 bureau der Internationalen Erdmessung for an 

 investigation of variations of latitude. 



Lieut. C. Lecointe has been appointed di- 

 rector of the astronomical work at the Brussels 

 Observatory. 



A little more than a year ago, says Nature, 



the attention of the Council of the Manchester 

 Literary and Philosophical Society was directed 

 to the fact that Dalton's tomb in Ardwick cem- 

 etery, Manchester, was in a very bad condition, 

 owing to neglect. A committee was appointed 

 to take steps to put the monument in a thor- 

 ough state of repair, and there was no difficulty 

 in obtaining subscriptions for this purpose. A 

 full-page illustration of the tomb in its restored 

 condition appears in the latest number of the 

 Memoirs and Proceedings of the Society. 



The New York Board of Health is building, 

 at a cost of $20,000, a laboratory to be wholly 

 devoted to the study of the bubonic plague. 

 It will be erected on the East River front on 

 the grounds of the Willard Parker Memorial 

 Hospital, and special care will be taken in its 

 construction. The laboratory is to be of two- 

 stories 25 X 50 feet. The ground floor will be 

 occupied chiefly with eight stalls for horses that 

 will supply the anti-plague serum. A staircase 

 from the outside will lead to the upper floor, 

 where experiments will be carried on. The 

 walls and floor are of steel and cement, so as 

 to be rat proof, and the windows are especially 

 screened to keep out flies and mosquitoes. 



During the recent visit of the Albatross to 

 Japan considerable collections were made of 

 the fauna of the coast within the 100-fathom 

 line and on the edge of the Black Stream, the 

 warm current which sweeps close to the eastern 

 shores of the Japanese Islands. A number of 

 rare and interesting species were taken and the 

 collections will be worked up by specialists in 

 the several groups represented. The fishes 

 have already been placed in the hands of Presi- 

 dent Jordan, of Leland Stanford Jr. University, 

 together with specimens collected by the Alba- 

 tross during a previous visit to Japanese waters. 

 In addition to the Fish Commission collections. 

 Dr. Jordan has in his possession the great col- 

 lection made by him during the past summer 

 and all the Japanese fishes of the United States 

 National Museum, the Imperial University of 

 Tokyo, the Imperial Museum of Japan and sev- 

 eral minor collections. 



The great Serpent Mound of Ohio, which has 

 long been a subject of study and research for 

 American archeologists, has been given by the 



