November 



22, I( 



•] 



SCIENCE. 



35' 



sides and bottom are ornamented with fine incised lines, and tlie 

 material of which it is composed is pulverized granite mixed with 

 clay. There is a clay- bed near the village of Blakeley, from which 

 clay is taken for the manufacture of brick. The top of the terrace 

 in which it is situated is about ninety feet above the Minnesota 

 River. At the top there are thirty feet of fine sand, with only a 

 slight covering of loam. Beneath the sand there is a stratum of 

 bowlders, gravel, etc., which is from two to five feet in thickness, 

 below which the clay is found. It was above the bowlders and at 

 the bottom of the sand-bed that the cup, together with some frag- 

 ments of pottery composed of shell and clay, was found. The 

 distance from the relics to the slope of the terrace in a horizontal 

 line was over one hundred feet, so that their location cannot be at- 

 tributed to a land-slide, for the strata were unbroken. 



— Among recent appointments in the Johns Hopkins University, 

 we note those of Dr. Henry M. Hurd (superintendent of the Johns 

 Hopkins Hospital), professor of psychiatry; Dr. William S. Hal- 

 sted (surgeon to the Johns Hopkins Hospital), associate professor of 

 surgery ; Dr. Howard A. ICelly (gynecologist to the Johns Hopkins 

 Hospital), associate professor of gynecology and obstetrics ; Ethan 

 A. Andrews (Ph.D. 18S7, late instructor), associate in biology; Dr. 

 Alexander C. Abbott (graduate student 1885-87), assistant in 

 bacteriology and hygiene ; William S. Aldrich (U.S.N.), instructor 

 in drawiing ; Charles A. Borst (fellow 1888-89), assistant in astron- 

 omy ; Charles H. Chapman (A.B. 1S8S, fellow 1888-89), instructor 

 in mathematics ; George W. Edmond (A.B. 1884), assistant in 

 chemistry; Arthur C. Wightman (Ph.D. 18S9), senior demonstrator 

 of physiology; Arthur G. Blachstein (A.B. Cornell 1882, M.D. 

 Leipzig 1887), fellow in pathology. 



— The following is a complete list of the papers presented to the 

 National Academy of Sciences during its meetings, Nov. 12-14: 

 " On the Results of the Systematic Study of the Action of Defi- 

 nitely Related Chemical Compounds upon Animals," by W. Gibbs 

 and H. A. Hare ; " On the New Prototypes of the Kilogram and 

 the Metre," by B. A. Gould ; " Remarks upon the Present State of 

 our Knowledge in Reference to a Revision of the Genera of Brach- 

 iopoda for the Paleontology of New York " (Vol. VIII.), by James 

 Hall ; " On Zinc Storage- Batteries," by George F. Barker ; " On 

 Saturn and its Ring," by A. Hall; "On the Economy of Energy in 

 the Glow- Worm," by S. P. Langley ; " On Photometry of Colored 

 Light," by O. N. Rood ; " On Certain Pyrophosphates," by W. 

 Gibbs ; " On the Vertebrata of the Miocene of the Cypress Hills of 

 Canada," by E. D. Cope ; " On the Early Stages of Echinoderms," 

 by W. K. Brooks; "On Relative Wave-Lengths," by A. A. Mi- 

 chelson ; " On the Spectrum of Zeta UrsjE Majoris," by E. C. Pick- 

 ering ; " On the Persistence and Meaning of the Bi-concave Cen- 

 trum of the Vertebra of Vertebrates," by J. A. Ryder; "On a Pe- 

 culiar Ordinal Modification as exemplified by Fishes of the Family 

 Halisauridse," by Theodore Gill ; " On the Heredity of Acquired 

 Characters," by W. H. Brewer ; " On the ' Positive-Negative ' Hy- 

 pothesis in its Application to Organic Chemistry," by Arthur 

 Michael ; " On the Results of the Transits of Venus observed in 

 1761 and 1769" and "On the Theory of Cosmical Temperature," 

 by S. Newcomb ; " The Desert Ranges," by J. W. Powell ; " On 

 Hypnotic Cases without Suggestion," by H. C. Wood ; " On the 

 Laramie Group," by J. S. Newberry ; and "On the Skull of the 

 Gigantic Ceratopsids " and " American Mesozoic Mammals," by 

 O. C. Marsh. 



— Sponges are found both on the northern and the southern 

 coast of Cuba, but the chief ports to which they are brought for 

 sale are Batabano on the south coast, and Caibarien on the north. 

 British Consul Little of Havana says, according to \\\e. Journal of 

 ike Society of Ar/s, that the classes included are sheep wool, velvet, 

 hard-head, yellow, grass, and glova. Very little reef, if any, is 

 found in Cuba. On the south coast sheep wool and velvet are more 

 abundant than on the north coast. Cuban sponges find a market 

 chiefly in England, France, and the United States. The island 

 itself consumes about one-tenth of all the sponges brought in, and 

 these are used especially for the damping of tobacco, and for clean- 

 ing centrifugal machines on sugar estates. The sponge fisheries 

 employ about a thousand hands, chosen exclusively from among the 

 matriculados, or seamen who have served on Spanish men-of-war. 



and are still bound to serve when called upon. On the south coast 

 are employed vessels ranging from about five to twenty tons, 

 carrying from four to eight men, and each vessel is provided with 

 from three to six small boats. On the north coast open boats with 

 one or two men each are used. The annual value of the sponges 

 brought in by these vessels is between $800,000 and $900,000. 



— It is interesting to read of a part of the world where the 

 buffalo is not dying out, but increasing in numbers. A journal of 

 Perth, in western Australia, says that few Australians are aware 

 that certain parts of northern Australia have vast herds of the wild 

 buffalo {Bos biibahts) careering over its plains, and wallowing in its 

 shady pools. Nature states that the animals are massive and 

 heavy, with splendid horns, and afford sport of a sufficiently dan- 

 gerous nature to possess charms for the most daring hunter, a 

 wounded buffalo being one of the most dangerous animals known, 

 his great weight, prominent horns, and splendid courage making 

 him as well respected as sought after. The first buffaloes were 

 landed at Port Essington, North Australia, about the year 1829. 



— Hitherto Japanese subjects have not been permitted to charter 

 foreign vessels to sail from any but the five treaty ports. An im- 

 perial decree has, according to The London Times, now beer> 

 issued, allowing Japanese subjects to despatch foreign vessels to- 

 any one of nine other ports, and thereto load them with rice, wheat, 

 barley, flour, coal, or sulphur. These vessels may not be used in 

 the coast trade, and permits must be obtained from the Finance 

 Ministry. The new ports are Yokaitchi, in the province of Ise ; 

 Shimonoseki, in Nagato ; Hakata, in Tshikuzen ; Moji, in Buzen ; 

 Kuchinotsu and Karatsu, in Hisen ; Misumi, in Higo ; Fushigi, in 

 Etchiu ; and Otaru, in Yezo. Of course, all the ports of the em- 

 pire will be opened unrestrictedly when the treaties with foreigrs 

 powers permitting free trade, etc., come into operation. 



— The course of lectures at Sibley College by non-resident lec- 

 turers in mechanical engineering begins late this year in conse- 

 quence of the absence of Professor Thurston in Europe until the 

 close of the summer vacation, at the time when it has been cHstora- 

 ary to arrange the programme, and also in consequence still more 

 of the fact that the lecturers who were expected to open and ta 

 appear in the early part of the course have all, for one reason or 

 another, been compelled to ask that their dates be deferred. The 

 course opens on Nov. 23 with a lecture by Professor W. LeConte 

 Stevens on " The History of Aeronautics." This will probably be 

 the introduction to several discussions of this subject, to be given 

 later in the season. The later lectures will probably include one 

 by Professor S. P. Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institu- 

 tion, on the results of researches about concluded by him at 

 the Allegheny Observatory, on the laws of aerial flotation and of 

 flight in the atmosphere ; and by Mr. O. Chanute, who has been 

 investigating this subject from a theoretical point of view, and who 

 has developed the mathematical side of the theory to a practically 

 applicable degree. Mr. C. E. Emery, the great authority on the 

 subject in this country, will discuss methods of laying-out a steam- 

 boiler plant. Mr. Benjamin F. Isherwood, the engineer-in- chief of 

 the United States Navy during the war, is expected at Cornell in 

 December, when he will give an account of some of those re- 

 searches which have become famous in the history of the heat- 

 motors. Mr. Alexander Graham Bell will agaifi discuSs the curi- 

 ous phenomena discovered by him, which have been given practical 

 interest by his ingenious methods of telephony and telegraphy 

 along a beam of light. At some time during the winter, also, 

 various phases of the engineer's problem of power-development 

 will be discussed by Mr. J. M. Allen, and by Mr. George H. Bab- 

 cock, the well-known inventor, and ex-president of the American 

 Society of Mechanical Engineers. It is hoped that Mr. Leavit, the 

 great designer of pumping-engines, the consulting engineer of the 

 Calumet & Hecla Mining Company and of numerous other com- 

 panies, the ex-president also of the Mechanical Engineers, may de- 

 scribe some of his interesting constructions. Mr. Holoway, an- 

 other past-president of the same society, virill talk later of some 

 branch of his work. Professor Anthony, Mr. Weston the electri- 

 cian. Dr. Dudley the consulting man of science of the Pennsylvania 

 Railway, and Major Michaelis of the Army, are likely to follow 

 later in the season. 



