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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIV. No. 358 



— The fifth winter meeting of the Indiana Academy of Science 

 will be held at Indianapolis, Dec. 30 and 31. It is desired that the 

 first session convene at 10 a.m., Dec. 30. At the coming meeting a 

 part of the work will be done in sections, of which two are to be 

 organized : A, Zoology, Botany, Geology, and Geography; B, Chem- 

 istry, Physics, and Mathematics, The programme committee is 

 composed of John M. Coulter, chairman, Crawfordsville, Ind.; and 

 W. V. Brown, Greencastle, Ind. 



— The production of essential oil of geranium in the island of 

 Re-union in the Indian Ocean is assuming considerable proportions. 

 The exports in 1887 were 2,786 pounds ; and in 1888, 3,992 pounds; 

 while during the present season they are estimated at 5,720 pounds ; 

 and for 1890, the plantations having been largely extended, at 13,- 

 000 pounds or more. The new flowers are now being distilled. 

 In Africa, on the other hand, this season's yield of geranium-oil is 

 said to have been much below the average. 



— Early last month the newly appointed occupant of the Greek 

 chair at Glasgow University, Professor Murray, delivered his intro- 

 ductory address in the Bute Hall of the college, before a very large 

 attendance of students and the general public. Taking for his 

 subject, as we learn from The Educational Times, " The Place of 

 Greek in Education," Professor Murray said that the old classical sys- 

 tem of education was attacked by two diverse enemies, — one what 

 they might call the cultivated standpoint, and the other the mercan- 

 tile standpoint. Those who led the battle from the cultivated or 

 scientific standpoint would say, " Why should a boy spend all his 

 time on one comparatively small branch of knowledge .'' " while the 

 other enemy which classics had would think as follows : " Greek 

 and Latin are dead languages. No one travelling abroad wants to 

 speak them ; no house of business will engage a clerk because he 

 can write Greek ; no great inventions, no railway or electric light, 

 ever came from a knowledge of Greek ; no great fortune was ever 

 made by a knowledge of Greek." These two criticisms were of 

 exactly opposite kinds. The former — the strength of which 

 seemed to him irresistible, and he would not, if he could, battle 

 with it — sought for a fuller and better education : the latter was 

 the secret enemy of any education at all. He would point out, 

 however, that as all departments of knowledge were equally hon- 

 orable in themselves, and all equally deserved to be studied, so, on 

 the other hand, they could not possibly be all studied by the 

 same people. Some few subjects ought to be studied by every- 

 body. He did not think Greek was one of them. Greek was a 

 language of unusual difficulty, and a man could undoubtedly reach 

 very high points of culture without any knowledge of Greek ; but 

 for the student of history, of political philosophy, of ethics, of logic, 

 of archjeology, and also for the student of most forms of art, the 

 floods of light that ancient Greece could shed upon these subjects 

 were something incalculable and beyond price. Heaven forbid 

 that he should unduly magnify his office or cry up his wares in the 

 spirit of a charlatan, but he believed that there was but one nation, 

 uniquely gifted and uniquely interested, to be found in all the an- 

 nals of mankind ; and if they were to choose some one period of 

 history, some one department of the great world of knowledge, to 

 educate their youth with, he believed, that, for those minds which 

 were naturally attracted to it, the study of Greece was an educa- 

 tion as full and as stimulating as lay within man's resbch at the 

 present time. 



— One of the most interesting and valuable results of recent 

 French horticultural effort is found in the new race of dwarf can- 

 nas, with large and brilliantly colored flowers, produced by M. 

 Crozy of Lyons. A large bed of these plants in the garden of the 

 Trocadero, in Paris, was surrounded all summer by crowds of peo- 

 ple. Too much has not been said of the beauty of these plants, 

 and of their value for decorative purposes, whether planted in the 

 open ground or grown in pots or tubs. The colors of the flowers 

 of some of the varieties, says Garden and Forest, are surprisingly 

 brilliant. There seems no good reason, however, for calling the 

 plants " dwarf," except that they begin to flower when they are not 

 more than twenty inches high ; for they grow, especially in this 

 country, when generously treated, to a height of six or eight feet. 

 Seventeen of the new varieties exhibited at Paris for the first time 

 (which, on the whole, are no better than those sent out by M. 



Crozy during the past two years) are described in a recent issue of 

 the Revue Horticole. No one who has not seen a collection of M. 

 Crozy 's cannas in good condition can form the faintest idea even 

 of the beauty and the brilliancy of the flowers of the plants. 



— From a thousand prune-trees five years old, Capt. Guy E. 

 Grosse of Santa Rosa, Cal., has this season dried five tons of fruit, 

 which he is delivering, according to Garden and Forest, at the 

 Southern Pacific station for eastern shipment at four and a half 

 cents a pound. The rapid maturing of a prune-orchard, after ar- 

 riving at the fourth year, is shown by the increase in the crop of 

 this year over that of last year, when the yield was but twelve hun- 

 dred pounds. Next year it is expected the crop will be trebled. 

 At four and a half cents a pound, the proceeds from the thousand 

 trees this year equals four hundred and fifty dollars. In two years- 

 more it should be nearly three thousand dollars. 



— The registrations of the sunshine recorder at Ben Nevis 

 Observatory, according to a report read at the British Association 

 at Newcastle, showed 970 hours of sunshine during the year ; the 

 smallest number of hours for any month being 8 for November, 

 and the largest 250 in June, being nearly half the possible sunshine. 

 The numbers of hours for the four years now observed, beginning 

 with 1885, were 680, 576, 898, and 970. The contrast of the sun- 

 shine of 1886 with that of 1888 is thus very striking. The amount 

 of the rainfall for the year was 132.46 inches; the month of least 

 rainfall (3.76 inches) being June, and the greatest (20.60 inches) 

 being November. The number of days on which precipitation was 

 nil, or less than the huridredth of an inch, was 118. The numbers 

 of rainless days for the last three years have been 159, 128, and 

 118. From all the observations yet made, it is seen that a fall 

 equalling at least one inch a day has occurred on an average of 

 one day in nine. Atmospheric pressure was this year again above 

 the annual average, the mean level being 29.889, or .055 higher. 

 The lowest mean at the observatory (25.035 inches) occurred in 

 March, and the highest (25.595 inches) in September, the difference 

 being .555 of an inch. At sea-level at Fort William, the extreme 

 monthly means were 29,636 inches in November, and 30.132 ia 

 September, the difference being .496 of an inch. 



— Some investigations have lately been made into the question 

 of the vibration in buildings caused by machinery in motion. 

 These were made in connection with the Westinghouse engine, in 

 cases where it was necessary to place engines of this type on upper 

 floors. The theory based upon these investigations is, that, if the 

 slight motion which every engine has is exactly in time with the 

 natural vibration of the floor-beam, each pulsation of the engine 

 will increase the scope of the vibration of the floor, resulting in a 

 most disastrous shaking ; while, if the pulsations of the engine are 

 in discord with the floor, comparative quiet will exist. As floor- 

 beams are usually long, and their time of vibration correspondingly" 

 long, it is usually found that a fast-running engine will give less of 

 its vibration to the floor-beams than a slow-running one. It is 

 also worthy of note that the vibrations of a fast-running engine are 

 more numerous and less forcible, hence easier resisted by the mass 

 of the floor. An interesting example of preventing vibration by- 

 discord was shown in the case, reported in The Railroad and En- 

 gineering Journal, of a Westinghouse 10 horse-power engine, 

 which, on an upper story of a silverware-manufactory, created such a 

 commotion as to rattle the silverware on the shelves a hundred feet 

 distant. A change of 25 revolutions, increasing the speed, entirely 

 stopped the vibrations. In another case — the factory of Arbuckle 

 Brothers in Brooklyn — two Westinghouse engines of 125 horse- 

 power each, and one of 45 horse-power, are located on the fifth 

 floor. These engines were erected on the heavy floor-timbers, the 

 floor-boards being cut away, and extra timbers being inserted be- 

 tween the joists. Across said timbers were placed oak stringers, 

 which have been seasoning since the war in some unfinished ves- 

 sels in the Brooklyn Navy Yard. On these the engines were mounted 

 with plain fly-wheels, and experiments were conducted to deter- 

 mine the speed at which it would be best to run. It was found 

 that at 204 revolutions the vibration was at the minimum, and was 

 very slight, being as little as that caused by any of the ordinary 

 driven machinery. The speed was therefore fixed at this point,, 

 and the wheels then made to give the proper belt speed. 



