SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XVIII. No. 439 



point to a large attendance. Amateurs as well as professionals 

 are admitted both as exhibitors in the various competitions and as 

 members, with all the privileges of the association. Application 

 for full particulars should be made to Mr. W. A. Davis, secretary, 

 872 Broadvpay, New York." 



— It seems extraordinary, says the Illustrated American, to 

 observe a number of bats in the evening flying back and forth 

 through the trees with remarkable rapidity, but without ever com- 

 ing in contact with the branches or hurting themselves. Spallan- 

 zani, the Italian naturalist, placed a bat in a dark inclosure, 

 across which were stretched a number of threads, crossing and 

 recrossing each otlier. The bat flew rapidly back and forth, try- 

 ing to eflfect its escape, but avoided the threads with as much ease 

 as if they had not been in its way in the least. Whether this cu- 

 rious power was the result of a sixth and unknown sense was 

 long a puzzle to naturalists. To'decide this knotty point, Spal- 

 lanzani resorted to the cruel expedient of blinding a bat, and found 

 that it still flew among the threads without being, to all appear- 

 ances, any more inconvenienced than it it still had its eyesight. 



— Dr. Mueller, of Yackandandah, Victoria, has written a letter 

 to the Pharmaceutical Journal in which he states that in cases of 

 snake bite he is using a solution of nitrate of strychnine in 240 

 parts of water mixed with a little glycerine. Twenty minims of 

 this solution are injected in the usual manner of a hypodermic 

 injection, and the frequency of repetition depends upon the symp- 

 toms being more or less threatening, say from ten to twenty min- 

 utes. When all symptoms have disappeared, the first independent 

 action of the strychnine is shown by slight muscular spasms, and 

 then the injections must be discontinued unless after a time the 

 snake poison re-asserts itself. The quantity of strychnine re- 

 quired in some cases has amounted to a grain or more within a 

 few hours. Both poisons are thoroughly antagonistic, and no 

 hesitation need be felt in pushing the use of the drug to quantities 

 that would be fatal in the absence of snake poison. Out of about 

 one hundred cases treated by this method, some of them at the 

 point of death, there has been but one failure, and that arose from 

 the injections being discontinued after a grain and a quarter of 

 strychnine had been injected. Any part of the body will do for 

 the injections, but Dr. Mueller is in the habit of making them in 

 the neighborhood of the bitten part or directly upon it. 



— At a recent meeting of the Royal Statistical Society, London, 

 a paper was read by Mr. Noel A. Humphreys, secretary of the 

 census office, on the results of the recent census and estimates of 

 population ia the largest English towns. The first part of the 

 paper — of which a summary is given in Nature oi June 18 — was 

 devoted to the consideration of the recently issued results of the 

 census in April last in the twenty-eight large English towns dealt 

 with in the Registrar General's weekly returns. It was pointed 

 out that, although the increase of population within the boundaries 

 of these towns showed an increase of nearly a million in the last 

 ten years, the increase was less, by considerably more than half a 

 million (60.5,318), than would have been the case if the rate of in- 

 crease had been the same as in the preceding ten years, 1871-81 ; 

 and that the rate of movement of population showed striking 

 variations in the different towns. The rate of increase in these 

 twenty-eight towns, it was stated, has pretty constantly declined 

 in recent years, and has fallen with scarcely a break during the 

 last five intercensal periods from 24.3 per cent in 1841-51 to 11 per 

 cent in 1881-91. The percentage of increase within the boundaries 

 of registration in London (practically those of the county of Lon- 

 don) declined in the same period from 21.2 to 10.4. The rate of 

 actual decline of population in central London continues to in- 

 crease, and the rate of increase of the other parts of the metropolis, 

 including even the aggregate outer ring of suburban districts, con- 

 tinues to decline. Examined in detail, the provincial towns show, 

 with few exceptions, the operation of similar laws, — -actual de- 

 crease in the central portions, and marked decline in the rate of 

 increase in the other portions, the latter being specially noticeable 

 in those towns with comparatively restricted areas. This exami- 

 nation, while showing the marked general decline in the rates of 

 increase in these towns, discloses striking variations in the rates 

 of increase in successive census periods. Mr. Humphreys called 



attention to the fact that these striking changes in the rates of 

 movement of population in the large towns interpose the greatest 

 difficulty in estimating, even approximately, their population in 

 intercensal periods. The estimate of population in Liverpool, 

 based upon the rate of increase between 1871 and 1881, exceeded 

 the recently enumerated number by more than 100,000, or by 20 

 per cent; while in Salford the percentage of overestimate, by the 

 same method, was 26 per cent. Thus the recent birth-rates and 

 death-rates in these two towns have been underestimated by no 

 less than a fifth and a fourth, respectively. The various methods 

 that have been at different times suggested for estimating the 

 population of towns in intercensal years, in substitution of Dr. 

 Farr's method, still used by the Registrar ■ General's department, 

 were severally considered, and it was shown that no hypothetical 

 method yet devised affords reasonable promise of satisfactory re- 

 sults. It was therefore urged that a quinquennial census could 

 alone supply a remedy for the present difficulty, which threatens 

 to impair the public faith in death-rates, the failure of which 

 would most seriously hinder and imperil the health progress of the 

 country. 



— Mail advices from Austi-alia state that an exploi'ing expedi- 

 tion, under the auspices of the Geographical Society of Australia, 

 and equipped through the liberality of Sir Thomas Elder, was 

 ready to start from Adelaide in April. The intention is to explore 

 some of the still unknown portions of Australia. The leader of 

 the expedition is Mr. David Lindsay, the Australian traveller, 

 who is well qualified for the post. The second in command is 

 Mr. F. W. Leech of Adelaide. The other members are Mr. L. A. 

 Wells, surveyor; Dr. F. J. Elliott, medical officer and photogra- 

 pher ; Mr. V. Streich, geologist ; and Mr. R. Helms, natural history 

 collector; besides four other gentlemen as assistants. Forty-four 

 camels with four Afghan drivers, and a native guide, form part of 

 the expedition. 



— At a meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, London, 

 on June 17, Mr. A. J Hands gave an account of a curious case of 

 damage by lightning to a church at Needwood, Staffordshire, on 

 April 5, 1891. The church was provided with a lightning conduc- 

 tor, but Mr. Hands thinks that when the lightning struck the 

 conductor a spark passed from it to some metal which was close 

 to it, and so caused damage to the building. Mr. W. Ellis read a 

 paper on the mean temperature of the air at the Royal Observa- 

 tory, Greenwich, as deduced from the photographic records for 

 the forty years from 1849 to 1888, and also gave some account of 

 the way in which, at different times. Greenwich mean tempera- 

 tures have been formed. Mr. Ellis also read a paper on the com- 

 parison of thermometrical observations made in a Stevenson 

 screen with corresponding observations made on the revolving 

 stand at the Royal Observatory, Greenwich. From this it appears 

 that the maximum temperature in the Stevenson screen is lower 

 than that of the revolving stand, especially in summer, and the 

 minimum temperature higher; while the readings of the dry and 

 wet bulb thermometers on both the screen and the stand, as taken 

 at stated hours, agree very closely. Mr. W. F. Stanley exhibited 

 and described his " phonometer," which is really a new form of 

 chronograph designed for the purpose of ascertaining the distance 

 of a gun from observations of the flash and report of its discharge, 

 by the difference of time that light and sound take in reaching 

 the observer. The instrument can also be used for measuring the 

 distance of lightning by timing the interval between the flash and 

 the report of the thunder. A paper was also read by Mr. A. B. 

 MacDowell, on some suggestions bearing on weather prediction. 



— The agricultural experiment station at Cornell University has 

 made a series of investigations on the loss in stable manures by 

 exposure in open barnyards, the results of which are summarized 

 in Bulletin No. 27 of that station. Horse manure was saved from 

 day to day until a pile of two tons had been accumulated. Cut 

 wheat straw was used plentifully as bedding, the relative amount 

 of straw and manure being 3,319 poirads of excrement and 681 

 pounds of straw. Chemical analysis showed that one ton of this, 

 fresh manure contained nearly ten pounds of nitrogen, seven and 

 one-half pounds of phosphoric acid, and eighteen pounds of pot- 

 ash, making its value $3.80, if these constituents be valued at the 



