2l6 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 347 



being in Bavaria and in certain portions of Prussia where the alco- 

 hol habit has shown the greatest increase. 



— Dr. Brown-Sequard is an American. His father, Capt. Ed- 

 ward Brown, of the American navy, was a Philadelphian, and mar- 

 ried a French woman on the Island of Mauritius, named Sequard. 

 He and his descendants took the name of Brown-Sequard. The 

 distinguished scientist was the eldest child. He was educated in 

 France, but was afterwards a professor in Harvard, and practised 

 medicine in New York for some years after 1873. He married 

 twice, his first wife being Miss Fletcher of Boston, a relative of 

 Daniel Webster. 



— Col. Thuillier's report on the progress of the surveys of India 

 for the past year shows that the party employed on the trigono- 

 metrical surveys has completed the 370 miles remaining of the 

 secondary triangulation along the east coast of India, as given in a 

 recent number of Engineering. The secondary triangulation was 

 also carried out for an aggregate length of 270 miles by parties 

 employed in Beloochistan, as a basis for topographical surveys in 

 that region. The work of the geodetic party comprised the meas- 

 urement of seven arcs of longitude in southern India ; and the 

 tidal survey party continued its observations with self-registering 

 tide-gauges at several stations along the coast, where tidal obser- 

 vatories are established, and connected with the operations of 

 spirit-levelling. Geographical surveys have been carried out vigo- 

 rously in upper Burmah, nearly 21,000 square miles having been 

 surveyed and mapped on a half-inch scale. Reconnaissance along 

 the Nepal boundary has supplied a rough basis for a more accurate 

 and detailed survey of the northern frontier when an opportunity 

 offers. Interesting additional information regarding Bhootan and 

 Tibet has been obtained from the adventurous travels of native ex- 

 plorers, trained and sent thither by the department. Of the new 

 maps, 4,062 were published during the year, and heavy demands 

 continue to be made for transfrontier maps, and maps of upper 

 Burmah. The photographic and lithographic offices show the 

 large output of 1,203,861 copies during the year, including high- 

 class illustrations for archaological and other reports. 



— M. Venukoff, writing to the Scottish Geographical Magazine, 

 says, " M. Grum-Grjimailo has commenced his journey in Central 

 Asia, starting from Vernoi. His first letter, dated from Jarkent, on 

 the Russo-Chinese frontier in Dzungaria, appeared in the Russian 

 journal Novosti iox July 6, 1889. It informs us that the season of 

 spring was this year late in Dzungaria, and that the lower limit of 

 snows on the Ala Tau Mountains reached in the month of May to 

 an elevation above the sea-level of 7,874 feet, which was very low 

 for that season of the year in the latitude of 43° north, and under 

 the brilliant sky of Central Asia. The Hi and all other rivers of 

 the region were greatly increased by the melting of the snows in 

 June. M. Grum-Grjimailo will continue his journey in the Chinese 

 provinces adjoining the Thian Shan ; but it is expected that the 

 Chinese authorities will place obstacles in his way, from the fact of 

 his being unprovided with a passport from the Tsung-li-yamen of 

 Peking. But if he succeeds, he will establish a precedent for all 

 future explorers. I should add, that quite recently Jarkent has 

 suffered greatly from a violent earthquake, but it appears that this 

 occurred after M. Grjimailo's departure. Col. Pevtzov reached 

 Yarkhand towards the end of May. At about the same time, Capt. 

 Grombtchevsky was on the Pamir, in the neighborhood of Daraout- 

 Kourgan, whence he was to have made his way to Chougnan ; 

 but, the latter country having been again occupied by the Afghans, 

 I do not know whether the explorer will venture to enter it." The 

 ethnographical map prepared by M. Venukoff in 1883, he has now 

 brought up to date, showing the distribution of the populations in 

 the interesting and important district of Vladivostok. The region 

 represented is, roughly, bounded on the west by Manchuria, on the 

 north by latitude 45° north, and a little beyond, on the east, by 

 longitude 135° east, and on the south by the sea. Within this 

 territory there was, in 1888, a population numbering 55,600, of 

 whom 35,000 were Russians, io,ooo Coreans, 9,500 Chinese, 500 

 Japanese, 500 Goldis and Orotchis, and 100 Europeans. Among 

 the Chinese there were nearly 1,000 nomads ; the Goldis and 

 Orotchis are also nearly all nomads (hunters and fishers). The 

 Europeans and the Japanese inhabit Vladivostok. The Coreans 



are all sedentary, and they inhabit the large villages ; while the 

 Chinese are dispersed about the country, noticeably in communities 

 (farms) settled along the eastern river-courses. The principal 

 centre of population is of course Vladivostok (13,000 inhabitants) ; 

 then come Nicolskoe, Novo- Kief, and Kamen-Rybolov. There are 

 in the Russian villages 9 stanitzas occupied' by 2,877 Cossacks, 

 whose duty it is to guard the frontier between Lake Hankai and 

 the mouth of the Toumen-oula. 



— A French military writer writes in the Ripubliqiie Fran^aise 

 as follows on the subject of melinite. His remarks are interesting, 

 but should be accepted with a considerable amount of reserve. 

 " Our shells for field artillery, as well as those for our forts and 

 siege-guns, are charged with melinite. What melinite is, we do 

 not know, and if we knew we should be very careful not to tell. 

 Both the Italians and the Germans have sent spies to discover the 

 secret, and to offer money for even the smallest fragment, but they 

 have all been captured. Alj that can be said is, that, according to 

 a treatise published in 1882, melinite is composed of melted picric 

 acid. But in the interval our artillerists have perfected the dis- 

 covery of M. Turpin. They have made melinite a tractable product. 

 The effects of this explosive were fully demonstrated at some ex- 

 periments at the Fort of Malmaison in 1886. Melinite is so safe^ 

 that in three years only one accident has occurred, that at the 

 arsenal of Belfort. On the other hand, a hundred accidents have 

 occurred from gelatine alone in thirty years. There has never been 

 an accident in drawing the charges, nor one from bursting in the 

 gun. As much cannot be said for roburite, hellofite, or the other 

 substances employed by foreign States. What will become of a 

 fortification in face of this redoubtable agent .' Some think and 

 say they are doomed ; others, like Gen. Brialmont, recommend the 

 use of armored circular forts. It is said that the shell will glance 

 off these without doing any damage ; but experiments at Chalons 

 have shown that turrets enjoy no immunity against a close and 

 continuous fire." 



— Those living in a locality in which the mosquitoes are trouble- 

 some, says the Annals of Hygiene, may make a trial of the follow- 

 ing recipe for expelling these pests from the house : take a piece of 

 gum-camphor, in size about the third of a hen's egg, and slowly 

 evaporate it by holding it in a shovel or tin vessel over a lamp, 

 taking care that it does not ignite. The smoke will soon fill the 

 room and expel the mosquitoes, and it is said they will not return, 

 even though the windows should be left open all night. 



— The following resolutions were adopted by the international 

 congress on hypnotism held in Paris last month : i. Public exhibi- 

 tions of hypnotism or magnetism should be forbidden by govern- 

 ment ; 2. The use of hypnotism as a therapeutic agent should be 

 restricted to practising physicians ; 3. It is to be hoped that the 

 method and practice of hypnotism will be included in the medical 

 education of students. 



— Recognizing the difficulty that is experienced in keeping fire- 

 pails constantly full, an American inventor has proposed to cover 

 the pail with an air-tight sheet of tinfoil, which, while preventing 

 the contents from evaporating, can, when wanted, be easily broken 

 through by the hand. In order to anticipate the almost equal dif- 

 ficulties that may arise from the freezing of the contents, brine, or 

 some similar liquid, may be used for filling the pails, in place of 

 water. 



— Sibley College is to have a tremendous class this year. The 

 college will be crowded by 350 or 400 students where they were 

 only really desirous of handling 200, the limit set four years ago as 

 the maximum number that they were likely to find satisfactory 

 room for. Cornell University will have a class somewhere between 

 425 and 450, and a total in all branches and classes of about 1,300, 

 perhaps 1,400. They can again boast the largest freshman class 

 entering any American university. 



— It is reported from Japan {Nature, St'pX. 12), that Viscount 

 Ennomoto, the new minister of education, is devoting special atten- 

 tion to the introduction of technical education into the primary 

 schools of the empire, and that he has turned to Italy as a model. 

 His scheme is to include technical education in the curriculum of 

 the preparatory schools, and to give children technical training 

 from the outset. > 



