November 17, 1905.] 



SCIENCE. 



647 



transport all the material necessary for the 

 establishment of a far advanced station in the 

 interior, whence further explorations could be 

 made. Scientifically this station near the 

 south pole would add very miich, by its obser- 

 vations, to the data collected by the several 

 expeditions which woiild be sent out in accord- 

 ance with the plan of the Association of Polar 

 Explorers. 



The London Times says that in view of the 

 suggested transmission of disease by telephone 

 mouthpieces, the General Electric Company 

 has brought out an instrument in which any 

 danger of the sort is avoided by the simple 

 expedient of abolishing the mouthpiece alto- 

 gether. The receiving and transmitting ap- 

 paratus is combined in a small metal case, 

 shaped like a watch, which is held continu- 

 ously to the ear both in speaking and in listen- 

 ing, the transmitting microphone being made 

 so sensitive that it becomes unnecessary to 

 concentrate the sound waves on it by the aid 

 of any mouthpiece such as is ordinarily used. 

 Mounted on a handle, with a speaking key, 

 the new arrangement is exactly similar to the 

 common combined receiver and transmitter, 

 except that there is no mouthpiece, and the 

 speaker, as it were, addresses himself to the 

 world at large, instead of talking into a 

 trumpet-shaped orifice. 



A REPORT on the production of natural gas 

 in this country during 1904 will soon be pub- 

 lished by the United States Geological Sur- 

 vey. This paper, of which Mr. F. H. Oliphant 

 is the author, contains much information 

 about the composition, production, consump- 

 tion and uses of this ideal household fuel. 

 The United States is fortunate in its posses- 

 sion, as it produced 98 per cent, of the entire 

 known world's production of natural gas in 

 1904. This production amounted approxi- 

 mately to 256,645,000,000 cubic feet, or 6,159,- 

 480 tons of 2,000 pounds. The value of this 

 production was $38,496,760, which was an in- 

 crease of $2,688,900 over the value of the 1903 

 production. There was much active work in 

 1904 in the new fields of central Ohio and 

 southeastern Kansas. In Kansas a number 

 of remarkably large wells were developed. A 



large amount was expended in drilling wells, 

 extending many pipe lines, and piping cities 

 and villages in these states. In West Vir- 

 ginia a considerable number of new wells of 

 large capacity were drilled and connected to 

 the main lines. Eour states, Pennsylvania, 

 West Virginia, Indiana and Ohio produced 

 93.3 per cent, of the entire value of natural 

 gas produded in the United States in 1904. 

 The output of Pennsylvania alone represented 

 4Y per cent, of the entire value. This is inter- 

 esting when it is remembered that Pennsyl- 

 vania is the oldest state producing natural gas 

 in large quantity. 



Professor Silvanus P. Thompson writes, 

 according to the London Times, " No one 

 seems to have recalled, in connection with the 

 commemoration of Sir Thomas Browne, at 

 Norwich, that he was the first person to use 

 the word 'electricity ' as a noun. Gilbert and 

 others who followed him had adopted the term 

 ' electrics ' to denote substance which, like 

 amber, became attractive when rubbed; but 

 they had used no name for the unseen itself. 

 The first occurrence of the substantive in 

 English (or, for that matter, in any language) 

 occurs on page 79 of the ' Pseudodoxia Epi- 

 demica ' (1646) in the following passage: 

 ' Glasse attracts but weakely though cleere, 

 som slick stones and thick glasses indiffer- 

 ently; Arsenic not at all; Saltes generally 

 but weakely, as Sal Gemma, Alum, and also 

 Talke; nor very discoverably by any friction: 

 but if gently warmed at the fire, and wiped 

 with a dry cloth, they will better discover 

 their Electricities.' Sir Thomas Browne also 

 claims the gratitude of posterity for the nar- 

 ration on page 76 of his own experiments to 

 expose the fable of the wireless telegraphing 

 by sympathy between two magnets." 



UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 



Mr. James Speyer has given to Columbia 

 University $50,000 to endow the Theodore 

 Roosevelt professorship of American history 

 and institutions at the University of Berlin. 

 Dr. J. W. Burgess, professor of political sci- 

 ence and constitutional law and dean of the 

 faculty of political science at Columbia Uni- 



