November i, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



297 



— Mr. C. L. Heisler of Cornell is building a new form of calorim- 

 eter of his own design. 



— Ernest G. Merrit of Cornell has been appointed instructor in 

 physics at that university. 



— Harris J. Ryan, M.E., instructor in physics at Cornell, has 

 been appointed assistant professor of mechanical engineering. 



— E. P. Roberts, M.E., last year assistant professor of electrical 

 engineering at Cornell, is now with the Brush Electric Light Com- 

 pany, Cleveland, O. 



— A new Yale movement, proposed by prominent graduates and 

 patrons of the university, is for the establishment of a department 

 of music, to be liberally endowed. 



— Professor W. O. Atwater has been appointed director of the 

 New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers College. 

 If he accepts, he will also retain his place at the head of the Wash- 

 dngton Station. 



— Francis John Henry Jenkinson, M.A., fellow of Trinity Col- 

 lege, has been elected without opposition to the office of librarian 

 of Cambridge University, England, vacant by the resignation of 

 Professor Robertson Smith. 



— During the summer. Professor Ryan and Mr. Merrit of Cor- 

 nell were at work on alternating-current curves and converters. 

 The results are very satisfactory, and will be published in a short 

 time, says The Crank. 



— The cap and gown movement at Johns Hopkins has received 

 a setback. The class of '90 has voted against it, and the junior 

 class has followed the example. The freshmen are not strong 

 enough to make the movement a success. 



— Dr. Albert Shaw is delivering at Cornell a series of lectures 

 •on the results of his fifteen months of study of European cities. It 

 is rumored that he is likely to be called to the chair of political 

 economy, left vacant by President Andrews of Brown. 



— At a meeting of the New York Electrical Society in Clinton 

 Hall on Oct. 24, Mr. A. A. Knudson read a paper descriptive of 

 the recent electrical exposition at St. John, N.B., of which he had 

 •charge ; and Mr. Joseph Wetzler, who had just returned from the 

 Paris Exposition, described some of the electric plants and instal- 

 lations he had visited in Europe. 



— Gen. M. C. Meigs of Washington has published a chart giving 

 a graphic and tabular representation of the progress of population 

 in the United States from 1750 to 1990, showing clearly the results 

 of his study of the subject. To this he has added some notes of 

 Great Britain, of Europe, of Spain, and of France, showing the law 

 of population. While England doubled in forty years. Great Brit- 

 ain and Ireland required sixty-six years to double, owing to the 

 decrease of the Irish population in their original seat. 



— The Student of Amherst is advocating the formation of State 

 clubs in the college similar to the organizations in other colleges. 

 It says, " We have thirteen men from Connecticut. Why can't 

 they defy fate and organize a thirteen club } Illinois sends eleven 

 students who could influence others in that State to ' come East ' 

 to college ; New York State sends sixty-one, whose influence could 

 certainly be brought to bear upon the preparatory schools in the 

 large cities, showing the advantages to be derived at Amherst. 

 Other States send from seven to fifteen men each." 



— From a series of experiments in preventing the injuries of the 

 plum curculio, Mr. Clarence M. Weed, of the Ohio Agricultural 

 Experiment Station, has arrived at the following conclusions : (i) 

 that about three- fourths of the cherries liable to injury by the plum 

 curculio can be saved by two or three applications of London- 

 purple in a water spray, in the proportion of one ounce to ten 

 gallons water ; (2) that a sufficiently large proportion of the plum- 

 crop can be saved by the same treatment to insure a good yield 

 when a fair amount of fruit is set ; (3) that, if an interval of a 

 month or more occurs between the last application and the ripen- 

 ing of the fruit, no danger to health need be apprehended from its 

 use ; and (4) that spraying with the arsenites is cheaper and more 

 practical than any other known method of preventing the injuries 

 of this insect. The experiments were carried on through two sea- 



sons, upon two varieties of cherry-trees and four varieties of plum- 

 trees, during which a grand total of 65,500 cherries were individ- 

 ually examined. They are described in full in Bulletin No. 6, Vol. 

 II., of the Ohio Station. 



— Some Italian observers have been recently testing the senses 

 of criminals, and they find these duller than in the average of peo- 

 ple. Signor Ottolenghi, in Turin, found last year a less acute 

 sense of smell in criminals ; and he now affirms the same for taste, 

 which he tested, according to Nature, by applying bitter and sweet 

 substances (strychnine and saccharine) in dilute solution to the 

 tongue. He finds also the taste of the habitual criminal less acute 

 than that of the casual offender, and a slightly more acute taste in 

 male than in female criminals. Experiments with regard to hear- 

 ing were made by Signor Gradenigo (also in Turin); and, of 82 

 criminals, he found 55 (or 67.3 per cent) to have less than the nor- 

 mal acuteness, the greatest inferiority being in the oldest. In fe- 

 male criminals the relations were somewhat better: 15 out of 28 

 had hearing under the average. The limits of variations in acute- 

 ness also appeared to be much wider in criminals than in normal 

 persons. Ear-disease was common. Signor Gradenigo attributes 

 these things to bad hygienic conditions of life, and vicious habits. 



— The projected course in military science and tactics at the 

 Sheffield Scientific School has not yet been completed. Lieut. 

 Totten is reported in the Times to say, " The course as it is crystal- 

 lizing tends toward a discussion of military economy in reference to 

 this country. In handling the American military problem, I shall 

 attempt to discuss re-organization rather than the organization as 

 it now stands. The topics which are so ably treated of in the 

 magazines will be avoided, as the magazines are at the disposal of 

 all. In discussion of tactics I shall avoid the American definition, 

 which is mere ' drill,' preferring the European idea of ' use,' illus- 

 trating the tactical use of infantry by reference to the Turko-Rus- 

 sian war, and the tactical use of artillery by reference to the 

 Franco-Prussian war. The United States is behind the times in 

 the military line. This course of instruction is an important one, 

 and I shall do all in my power to awaken the students to the mili- 

 tary needs and possibilities of this country. We have not yet made 

 any arrangements for the organization of a military company at 

 Yale, but I should like nothing better than a splendid battalion, 

 worthy of the institution." It is expected that the course will con- 

 sist of twelve lectures, to be delivered weekly, beginning early in 

 January. 



— In a recent bulletin of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment 

 Station, a number of experiments to determine the preventive or 

 remedial value of various methods recommended to prevent the 

 injuries of the striped cucumber beetle are described. They were 

 carried on under the direction of Mr. Clarence M. Weed, ento- 

 mologist and botanist of the station. These methods were, for the 

 sake of convenience, divided into four classes : i. The use of of- 

 fensive odors ; 2. Mechanical coatings of the leaves ; 3. Poisonous 

 coatings of the leaves ; 4. Enclosing plants under tents or gauze- 

 covered frames. The experiments were made on a large scale 

 under ordinary field conditions, during the summer of 1889, when 

 the striped beetles were exceedingly abundant. Five substances 

 of the first class were tested ; viz., hen-manure, cow-manure, 

 kerosene, carbolic acid, and bisulphide of carbon. None of these 

 proved practically successful. Three substances of the second 

 class were tested ; viz., coal-soot, gypsum, and saltpetre. Of these, 

 coal-soot and saltpet-e proved worthless, while gypsum showed 

 some beneficial effect, not sufficient, however, wholly to save the 

 plants. Three substances of the third class were applied ; viz., 

 pyrethrum, slug-shot, and peroxide of silicates. Pyrethrum killed 

 those beetles with which it came in contact when first applied, but 

 soon lost its efficacy. Slug-shot injured the plants to which it was 

 applied. Peroxide of silicates had a decided effect in preventing 

 injury, and, where the plants had been well started before being at- 

 tacked, saved them from destruction ; but it did not save them where 

 the beetles were so numerous that they burrowed down to meet the 

 sprouting plants. The results obtained from the fourth method, that 

 of fencing out the insects by covering the plants with some form of 

 tent or gauze-covered frame, were by far the most satisfactory. 

 The cheapest and most successful method employed is that of 



