326 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVII. No. 436 



According to the Sanitary Inspector, the death-rate obtained from 

 the figures is one third less for males and one-fourth less for fe- 

 males than among the rest of the population. On the other hand, 

 the marriage and birth rates are low. 



— A singlar case of spontaneous combustion is reported, where 

 a painter engaged in a mill removed his overalls at 6 p.m. to go 

 home. At half-past eight the watchman, discovering smoke in 

 the mill, summoned the engineer'^ and together they searched the 

 premises carefully, tracing the smoke to a small room in which 

 the overalls were discovered, and in one pocket was a bunch of 

 greasy waste that had ignited, showing, says Architecture and 

 Building, that spontaneous combustion may ensue in less than 

 three hours if the conditions are favorable. 



— It is proposed to hold in the club-room of the Aj)palachian 

 Mountain Club, Boston, next autumn, an exhibition of botanical 

 specimens, given or loaned for the purpose by members of the 

 club or their friends. All persons__ who are willing to aid in this 

 matter, whether botanists or not, are requested to communicate 

 with the councillor of natural history of the club, or with Mr. 

 Walter E, Davis of the excursion committee. It is hoped that 

 many specimens may be obtained during the summer, especially 

 of plants distinctly Alpine in habit. 



— Professor S. P. Langley of the Smithsonian Institution an- 

 nounces that there has been established, as a department of the 

 institution, a physical laboratory, which has been furnished with 

 specially designed apparatus for the prosecution of investigations 

 in radiant energy and other departments of telluric and astro- 

 physics. The communication of new memoirs bearing in any 

 way on such researches is requested, and for them it is hoped that 

 proper return can be made in due time. All scientific men will 

 rejoice in these improved facilities for the continuance of Pro- 

 fessor Langley's famous investigations. 



— Bulletin No. 17 of the Kansas Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion gives the results of three years' experiments in the artificial 

 crossing of a large number of varieties of corn. The different 

 races — as dent, flint, soft, sweet, and pop corn — were all crossed 

 with difiiculty. The effect of the cross was seldom, visible the 

 first year, but the second generation showed very generally 

 ears more or less completely blended, often exactly intermediate 

 between the two parental types. The product of the third year is 

 generally true to the seed planted; that is, by selecting diverse 

 grains from any ears, ears are obtained with grains usually like 

 those planted. Any desired form of a cross can therefore be per- 

 petuated. 



— A letter lately received from Emin Pasha by one of his, orni- 

 thological correspondents in Europe is dated from one of the larger 

 islands on Lake Victoria Nyanza in November last. According to 

 Nature, it is full of details about birds, in which, as is well known, 

 the Pasha takes the keenest interest, and alludes especially to an 

 apparently new Gralline form, with three toes, met with in that 

 district. Emin was on the point of starting southwards into the 

 territory near the north end of Lake Tanganyika, and is now 

 probably somewhere in that little-known country. He had been 

 joined by Dr. Stuhlman, a young naturalist of Hamburg. Dr. G. 

 Hartlaub of Bremen has just published a memoir on the birds col- 

 lected by Emin during his return to the coast with the Stanley 

 expedition and his subsequent sojourn at Bagamoyo. The speci- 

 mens are referred to 140 species, of which eight are described as 

 new to science. 



— The curve shown by the graphic daily record of the magnetic 

 declination, or variation of the compass, at Washington during 

 the exceptionally severe magnetic storm that occurred about the 

 middle of May, is of special interest. Beginning at 7 a.m. on the 

 13th, the magnetic disturbance attained itfi maximum between 6 

 and 11 P.M. of the following day, and again between 4 and 10 a.m. 

 of the 15th, not finally ending until the 18th. During this storm 

 the direction of tlie magnetic needle changed 48' in 9 J hours. A 

 correspondingly large disturbance was indicated by the instru- 

 ments registering the horizontal-force component of the earth's 

 magnetism. A marked feature of the storm was an oscillating 

 movement of the north end of the magnetic needle to the east- 



ward, attaining a maximum departure from normal of 35' on the 

 14th, between 6 and 11 p.m., accompanied by a large decrease in 

 the horizontal-force and increase in the vertical component. 

 During the afternoon and evening of the 15th the north end of the 

 needle was deflected to the westward, accompanied by a decrease 

 of horizontal force even greater than during the evening of the 

 14th, and a corresponding decrease in vertical force. 



— Serafini and Arata have made some investigations to de- 

 termine the correctness of the belief that the foliage of trees has 

 some influence in flltering out the bacterial- contents of the at- 

 mosphere. Their method of procedure, says the Sanitary Inspec- 

 tor, was to determine the number of bacteria in air under motion 

 before and after it had reached the woods. The barometrical 

 pressure, direction and strength of the wind, temperature at the 

 edge and in the midst ot the woods, humidity and rainfall, 

 were all taken into consideration. As the number of observations 

 was only forty, the investigators give the results -with some re- 

 serve, nevertheless they believe that theyare justified in affirming 

 that forests do exercise the power of straining out the bacteria 

 that are brought to them by the «md. 



— Mr. C. Powell Karr, an architect of New York City, has ex- 

 tended his courses of home study in architecture. The instruction 

 is conducted by mail. When these courses were initiated in 1887 

 they were established to aid young men and women, who, while 

 holding a preference for architecture over its sister arts, have been 

 denied an early opportunity of preparing themselves for their 

 chosen work. At the present time, when so many universities 

 have thoroughly organized and flourishing architectural courses, 

 it would seem almost superfluous to supplement them by such a 

 series of courses, but there is a great advantage in entering the 

 collegiate life well equipped and thoroughly enlightened, and 

 many have availed themselves of this system. It has been found 

 also that there are a limited number of young men and women 

 who are now engaged in pursuits allied to architecture who could 

 and would avail themselves of these courses, and for them espe- 

 cially the revision has been made, the courses expanded and made 

 individually applicable to the advancement of their professional 

 and business interests. Among the students are found carpenters, 

 masons, builders, contractors, professional draughtsmen, archi- 

 tects' superintendents, and even practising architects themselves. 

 Architects have been quick to respond to the advantages offered 

 them by the course in architectural engineering, as they feel the 

 necessity of being in touch with the practice of the profession in 

 the metropolis, and of having a living reference upon questions of 

 difficult construction or technical procedure that may arise at a 

 moment's notice. 



— The evil repute of the cat still clings to him, says the Illus- 

 trated American. A Finisterre cat which has served nine masters 

 in succession is believed to have the right of carrying off the soul 

 of the ninth to hell. In Upper Brittany there are sometimes seen 

 enormous cats engaged in holding a meeting. If any one pre- 

 sumes to intrude upon their presence, they surround and tease 

 him for a time. Then a long needle is driven into his heart and 

 he is dismissed. Hypochondria ensues, and he slowly wastes 

 away. A black tom-cat, says a Russian proverb, at the end of 

 seven years becomes a devil. A Breton farmer, who neglected to 

 take the usual precaution of putting his tom-cat to death before 

 it completed its seventh year, was found dead in bed one morning, 

 with his throat terribly torn. Suspicion fell upon innocent per- 

 sons, who were likely to be hanged on circumstantial evidence. 

 Luckily, a boy observed that the cat of the house was always 

 watching the corpse with eyes that blazed with rage. So he fas- 

 tened to the dead man's arm a string, the end of which he dropped 

 through the window into the yard. Then he told the police to 

 watch the body secretly, while he pulled the string, They did so. 

 When the boy gave the string a pull, the corpse's arm jerked. 

 The cat imagined its master had revived. With one bound it 

 sprang upon the bed, and furiously tore away at the corpse's 

 wounded neck. Whereupon it was condemned to be burned alive, 

 and the suspected persons were set free. It is believed that a 

 cat's viciousness depends to a great degree upon the length of 

 its tail. If the end of its tail be cut off, it is unable to take 



