340 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 354 



— Estes and Lauriat have published the " Salon of 1889," con- 

 taining 100 photogravures of prize paintings, prepared by Goupil & 

 Co. of Paris. 



— Harper & Brothers publish " The Political Problem," by Al- 

 bert Stickney, brought out by the discontent that can be observed 

 in Europe and in this country with the practical working of exist- 

 ing forms of democratic government ; " Winter in Algeria," writ- 

 ten and illustrated by Frederick A. Bridgman ; " A Little Journey 

 in the World," a satire upon modern social life in America, by 

 Charles Dudley Warner ; " Cradle and Nursery," by Christine 

 Terhune Herrick, advocating the treatment of " the baby " as a 

 reasonable being. 



— The publishing committee of the Appalachian Mountain Club 

 announces the appearance, from the press of John Wilson & Son, 

 of a volume with the title " Mountaineering in Colorado : the Peaks 

 about Estes Park," by Frederick H. Chapin, one of the club's most 

 widely known members. The ^ook contains one hundred and 

 sixty-eight pages. The work will be embellished with eleven full- 

 page heliotype plates, besides other illustrations; all from photo- 

 graphs taken by the author upon expeditions described in the text. 

 The work will have an interest for lovers of mountain scenery. 



— P. Blakiston, Son, & Co., Philadelphia, make the important an- 

 ■nouncement of a "Chemical Technology ; or, Chemistry in its Ap- 

 plication to Arts and Manufactures," to be edited by Charles 

 Edward Groves and William Thorp. Vol. L is now ready, entitled 

 " Fuel and its Applications," by E. J. Mills and F. J. Rowan, as- 

 sisted by others, including Mr. F. P. Dewey of the Smithsonian 

 Institute, Washington, D.C. This new edition of " Chemical 

 Technology " is founded on that written by Richardson and Ronalds, 

 and subsequently enlarged and rewritten by Richardson and 

 Watts. As the German technology of Dr. Knapp was taken as 

 the basis of the original, Richardson and Watts's work has long 

 been familiarly known as " Knapp's Technology." The historical 

 portions of the original have been retained, but supplemented by a 

 iuW account of the methods and appliances introduced of late years 

 in the application of chemistry to the arts. This work will be 



•divided into sections, of which the most important are, " Fuel and 

 its Applications ; " " Lighting ; " " Acids and Alkalies ; " " Glass 

 and Pottery ; " " Metallurgy ; " " Textile Fabrics ; " " Leather, 

 Paper, etc. ; " " Coloring Matters and Dyes ; " " Oils and Var- 

 nishes ; " " Brewing and Distilling ; " " Sugar, Starch, Flour, etc." 

 The first volume treats of fuel and its applications generally ; its 

 -special employment in various branches of chemical manufacture 

 'being reserved for detailed consideration in the volumes devoted to 

 the special subjects enumerated above. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 A Precocious Botanist. 



According to the "English Annals of Botany," vol. ii. p. 418, 

 Jean Baptiste Lieurry appears to have been unusually precocious, 

 having published a paper in 1874 on Polyporus. He was born, it 

 is affirmed, on Dec. 14, 1888: so his researches were perpetrated 

 •fourteen years before his birth, which was subsequent to his death, 

 that having occurred on Sept. 3, 1888. For these unusual bio- 

 graphical data, the editors state, they are indebted to M. Eugene 

 Niel of Rouen. Such cases of posthumous rejuvenation are fortu- 

 •nately very rare in this country. C. S. M. 



The Champlain Period in the Susquehanna Valley. 



I HAVE lately made some observations on the drift along the 

 ■river at this point, — Harrisburg, — which I wish to report, This 

 ■district, being only eighty-five miles from the Terminal Moraine, 

 was consequently much influenced by the post-glacial floods. 



The stream is very shallow ; and its bed, composed for five or 

 six miles of Hudson slates, is laid bare almost every summer, offer- 

 ing exceptional advantages . for observing the overlying drifts. 

 The deposit consists, for the most part, of clay variously inter- 

 mixed with gravel. At one point I noted a bottom layer of gravel 

 one foot thick, overlaid by twenty feet of fine clay. Scattered 

 through the deposit are bowlders of various sizes' — the largest be- 



ing from six to ten tons in weight — composed of conglomerate and 

 sandstone from the mountains beyond. 



The height of the drift varies, of course, with the local topog- 

 raphy. From one hundred feet in the mountain-gorges, to thirty feet 

 in the lowlands oppositq Harrisburg, is a fair general average. 



The width of the deposit is not very great, owing to the narrow- 

 ness of the valley ; still it has furnished ground for most of the 

 towns in the neighborhood, Harrisburg itself being built to a great 

 extent on a level flood-plain thirty feet above the present water- 

 level. 



At no place in this locality has the terrace formation been noted. 

 One level flood-plain, of equal height on both sides of the stream, 

 is all that marks the limit of the great post-glacial river. 



Harvey B. Bashore. 



West Fairview, Penn., Nov. 7. 



INDUSTRIAL NOTES. 



Microscopes and Photographic Supplies. 



Mr. Morris Earle, of the late firm of Morris Earle & Co., 

 1016 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, informs his friends and former 

 customers that he is now a member of the firm of Williams, 

 Brown, & Earle, 33, 35, and 39 South Tenth Street, corner of 

 Chestnut. The new firm has been appointed sole agents in the 

 United States for Messrs. R. & J. Beck of London, the well-known 

 manufacturers of microscopes and " Autograph " photographic 

 lenses. In addition to the manufactures of the latter firm, there 

 will be a complete stock of goods of foreign or domestic manufac- 

 ture pertaining to the business. Mr. Earle will give his personal 

 attention to the photographic supplies, photographic printing, and 

 microscopical branches of the business. 



Sanitary Ventilation. 



One of the most important sanitary problems of the day ij\hat 

 of the adequate ventilation of our schoolrooms, factories, churches, 

 theatres, and other buildings in which many people are gathered 

 together for any considerable time. Even in the best of modern 

 dwelling-houses the atmosphere is none too good, while in crowded 

 places, such as those mentioned, the air is positively poisonous un- 

 less proper means of ventilation are employed. The air exhaled in 

 breathing contains, besides the vapor given off by the lungs, from 

 four to five per cent of carbonic-acid gas, at least a hundred times 

 the normal proportion found in pure air. This gas, though not 

 poisonous in itself, is to some extent a measure of other impurities 

 in the air which are poisonous, and, taking the place of the oxygen, 

 obstructs respiration by preventing that necessary gas from being 

 absorbed by the lungs. 



Careful observations and experiments show that the air of a 

 room designed to be occupied for any length of time should not be 

 allowed to become vitiated to an extent indicated by the presence 

 of six or eight parts of carbonic-acid gas in ten thousand. Yet 

 careful analyses made some years ago showed that the average 

 atmosphere in sixty schools in this city and Boston contained, in 

 ten thousand parts, fifteen parts, the air in one of the schools con- 

 taining thirty-one parts. The mean of the air in the New York 

 theatres had twenty-six parts of carbonic-acid gas in ten thousand, 

 one of them being vitiated to the extent of seventy-six parts. 



For heplthful ventilation it has been found that different quanti- 

 ties of air are required under different circumstances. One author- 

 ity gives as the proper quantity of fresh air per hour for each per- 

 son, in ordinary hospitals, 2,400 cubic feet ; epidemic hospitals, 

 5,000 ; workshops for ordinary trades, 2,100, for unhealthy trades, 

 3,600; halls for long meetings, 2,000 ; schools for youths, 1,000. 



The problem of introducing this large quantity of fresh air into 

 a building has been attacked from various directions, and with 

 varying degrees of success. One method, much in use in this city, 

 is that of positive ventilation, by means of a ventilator-wheel or air- 

 propeller. One of these devices, the Blackman power ventilator- 

 wheel, is now on exhibition at the American Institute Fair in this 

 city, where it attracts much attention from persons interested in 

 sanitary matters as well as from architects and builders. This 

 wheel, and one of the means for actuating it, a high speed steam- 

 engine, are shown in the accompanying illustrations. 



