58 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 338 



— Dr. Henry M. Hurd, now superintendent of the State Hospital 

 for the Insane at Pontiac, Mich., in the neighborhood of Detroit, 

 has been appointed superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. 

 His life has been devoted to hospital service, and he has acquired 

 distinction as an administrator, and also as a writer. He was 

 graduated in arts and in medicine at the University of Michigan, 

 and has twice been called by his alma maler to a professorship of 

 medicine. He has ah-eady visited Baltimore, and will permanently 

 assume his new responsibilities on the first of August next. 



— Messrs. Dubois and Frangois of Seraing, Belgium, have de- 

 vised a system of drilling and breaking down rock and coal, to 

 which they have given the name of " Bosseyage Mecanique." This 

 system consists in first boring a hole, and then in breaking down 

 the rock by a compound wedge formed of two half round outer 

 portions, and a central tongue or arrow. The boring or jumping 

 tool is taken off the drill spindle, and is replaced by a tup. by which 

 the central wedge is driven forward by repeated blows until the 

 rock gives way, and a part of it falls down. 



— It is stated, apparently on good authority, that the money 

 taken at the Eiffel Tower elevators between May 15 and July 2 

 has amounted to 1,298,944 francs, or nearly $260,000. If these 

 figures be correct (and there seems no reason to doubt them), the 

 Eiffel Tower will prove as great a success as every other part of 

 this wonderful centennial celebration. 



— Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull of Baltimore have founded 

 in the Johns Hopkins University a lectureship of poetry in memory 

 of their deceased son, Percy Graeme, who was born May 28, 1878, 

 and died Feb. 12, 1887. The lectureship will bear the name of 

 " The Percy Turnbull Memorial Lectureship." The income of the 

 foundation is one thousand dollars per annum, and the first course 

 of lectures may be expected in the session of 1889-90. 



— Mr. Eugene Levering of Baltimore has offered to the Johns 

 Hopkins University the sum of twenty thousand dollars for the 

 construction of a building for the uses of the Young Men's Chris- 

 tian Association, and for the promotion in other ways of the inter- 

 ests of that society. 



— On the motion of Lord Charles Beresford, a parUamentary 

 return has been prepared, giving particulars of all breech-loading 

 iron and steel guns that have failed after delivery for service. The 

 return states that no guns have burst, or " blown out," or rendered 

 the breech-piece useless, and no gun has been rendered useless by 

 erosion, though between Dec. 31, 1885, and March 19, 1888, nine 

 guns have had to be relined. The number of rounds fired from 

 these nine before relining became necessary varied in the different 

 instances from 114 to 1,480. Si.\ guns were injured from other 

 causes, and required retubing or relining. Only one Elswick gun 

 has failed during the period covered by the report, the rest being 

 all of Woolwich manufacture. 



— Among the recent appointments of graduates of Johns Hop- 

 kins University we have learned of the following : William J. Alex- 

 ander (fellow 1881-83, Ph.D. 1883), professor of English, Univer- 

 sity of Toronto ; John C. Adair (graduate student 1887-89), pro- 

 fessor of chemistry, Tarkio College, Missouri ; Charles M. An- 

 drews (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1S89), associate professor of history, 

 Bryn Mawr College ; Louis Bevier (fellow 1879-81, Ph.D. 1881), 

 adjunct professor of modern languages, Rutgers College ; Frank 

 W. Blackmar (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889), professor of history 

 and sociology. University of Kansas ; Oskar Bolza (reader in 

 mathematics, 1888-89), associate in mathematics, Clark University ; 

 Benjamin L. Bowen (Ph.D. 1888), associate professor of French 

 and German, Ohio University ; William M. Burton (fellow 1888- 

 89, Ph.D. 1889), chemist. Standard Oil Company, Cleveland, O. ; 

 Morgan Callaway, jun. (feliow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889), professor of 

 English, South- Western University, Georgetown, Tex. ; John 

 Daniel (graduate student 1886-88), instructor in physics, Vander- 

 bilt University; Paul J. Dashiell (A.B. 1887), instructor in organic 

 chemistry, Lehigh University; Henry H. Donaldson (fellow 1881- 

 83, Ph.D. 1885, associate and instructor 1885-89), assistant pro- 

 fessor of neurology, Clark University ; Charles G. Dunlap (grad- 

 uate student 1883-86), associate professor of English, University of 

 Kansas ; Alfred Emerson (fellow 1882-84), professor of Greek, 

 Lake Forest University, Illinois ; Joseph A. Fontaine (Ph.D. 1886), 



professor of modern languages, University of Mississippi ; Samuel 

 Garner (Ph.D. 1881), assistant professor of modern languages. 

 United States Naval Academy; Richmond Harding (Ph.D. 1887), 

 professor of Greek, Davidson College, North Carolina; James T. 

 Hatfield (fellow 1888-89), professor of German, North- Western 

 University, lUinois ; Clifton F. Hodge (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889),. 

 fellow in psychology, Clark University ; James G. Hume (graduate 

 student 1887-88), Rogers fellow in ethics, Harvard University; H. 

 C. G. von Jagemann (fellow 1883-84, Ph.D. 1884), assistant pro- 

 fessor of German, Harvard University ; David J. Lingle (graduate 

 student 1887-89), assistant professor of biology, Tulane University ; 

 Warren P. Lombard (graduate student 1886-87), assistant pro- 

 fessor of physiology, Clark University ; James L. Love (graduate 

 student 1884-85), Morgan fellow in mathematics. Harvard Univer- 

 sity ; Thomas McCabe (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1888), professor of 

 modern literatures and director of German department, Indiana 

 University; Archibald MacMechan (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1889),. 

 professor of the English language and literature, Dalhousie College, 

 Nova Scotia ; Franklin P. Mall (fellow 1 886-88, assistant in pa- 

 thology 1888-89), adjunct professor of anatomy, Clark University t 

 Philippe B. Marcou (instructor in French 1880-83), instructor in 

 French, University of Michigan; John E. Matzke (Ph.D. 1888), 

 collegiate professor of French, Bowdoin College ; Colyer Meri- 

 wether (A.B. 1886), instructor in the English language and litera- 

 ture. Second Higher Middle School, Sendai, Japan ; Chase Palmer 

 (A.B. 1879, fellow 1880-82, Ph.D. 1882), professor of chemistry, 

 Wabash College, Indiana ; Mansfield T. Peed (graduate student 

 1883-85 and 1887-89), professor of mathematics, Emory Col- 

 lege, Georgia; Edmund C. Sanford (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1888), 

 instructor in psychology, Clark University ; Charles L. Smith 

 (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1889), instructor in history, Johns Hopkins 

 University; Kirby W. Smith (Ph.D. 1889), instructor in Latin, 

 Johns Hopkins University; Henry N. Stokes (fellow 1881-83, 

 Ph.D. 1884), chemist, United States Geological Survey, Washing- 

 ton, D.C. ; John N. Swan (graduate student 1888-89), professor of 

 chemistry, Westminster College, Pennsylvania ; W. Scott Thomas. 

 (A.B. 1889), professor of Greek and Latin, Chaffee College, Cali- 

 fornia; Frederick J. Turner (graduate student 1888-89), professor 

 of American history. University of Wisconsin ; Amos G. Warner 

 (fellow 1886-87, Ph.D. 1888), professor of political economy, Uni- 

 versity of Nebraska; John R. Wightman (fellow 1886-87, Ph.D.. 

 1888), pri>fessor of French, Iowa College; Lucius E. Williams, 

 (graduate student 1885-89), assistant professor of chemistry, 

 Swarthmore College. 



— The simple and successful method by which a high chimney 

 was recently overthrown is described by an exchange. The stack, 

 was one hundred feet high by ten feet square, and was on the- 

 Griswold Mills property, Ne\* Bedford, Mass. It was undermined 

 by knocking out the bricks on the west and north sides, and 

 shored up by planks placed in the apertures. These planks were 

 liberally covered with tar and kerosene. When the time arrived 

 for felling the chimney, they were fired. As they became suffi- 

 ciently burned to cease to support the chimney, the mass settled 

 out of the perpendicular to the north, and then cracked and fell 

 with a crash to the ground. The bricks at the top were scattered 

 over quite an area, while the iron coping was broken in quite a. 

 number of pieces. Along the length of the chimney to the height 

 of sixty or seventy feet, masses of brick for a length of two feet or 

 more clung together, and did not break up. 



— An interesting series of experiments have been conducted, 

 says Building, by the Dutch state railways, for the purpose of 

 ascertaining exactly the relative resistance of various pigments ta 

 atmospheric changes and to the corrosive action of sea-water. 

 The results have proved that the red-lead paints are less affected 

 by atmospheric influence than those which are composed of the 

 brown oxides of iron, on account of their adhering more closely to 

 the metal, and of their possession of greater elasticity. It was. 

 also discovered that any sort of paint afforded an increased protec- 

 tion if the plates were pickled in hydrochloric acid before its ap- 

 plication. The prevention of corrosion by salt water was found to 

 be possible by the admixture of the oxide of some electro-positive 

 metal, such as caustic lime and soda ; but the efficiency of such a 



