January 25, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



6r 



ment of the president, Mrs. T. E. Stevenson, who is well known 

 for her personal work among the Zufii, the society enters upon the 

 fifth year of its existence with undiminished enthusiasm and vigor ; 

 Mrs. Sybil A. Carter (wife of the Hawaiian minister) and Miss 

 Florence Spofford acting respectively as president and secretary. 

 Two meetings were held during January. On the 5th the subject 

 ■of discussion was " The Evolution of a Community (Amana)," as 

 presented by Mrs. Anita Newcomb McGee. The author of the 

 communication has been for several months engaged in investi- 

 :gating the communistic societies of the United States, nearly all of 

 which she has visited. The more general results of her studies 

 were laid before the American Association at Cleveland in August 

 last. Some of the elements of success or failure in communistic 

 organizations are obscure, and have seldom been ^perceived by 

 writers on the subject ; and these Mrs. McGee sought to develop 

 and set forth by a study of the origin, growth, and relations to 

 •environment at every stage, of the most successful American com- 

 munity. The conclusions were in line with those stated at Cleve- 

 land, and summarized in the Antericati Naturalist for September 

 last. The meeting on the 19th was occupied in the presentation 

 -of a communication on " Russia and the Russians " by Mrs. Hunt, 

 widow of the late minister to the Muscovite dominion. The habits, 

 •customs, and beliefs of the various classes of Russia were vividly 

 portrayed ; and the skill of artificers in certain Russian villages in 

 the production of enamelled silver and other wares, etc., — arts 

 handed down from generation to generation in Oriental fashion, 

 and unknown elsewhere, — was illustrated by the exhibition of a 

 ■collection of silver and fictile ware and unique textile fabrics. 



The Survey for Irrigation. 



Professor Thompson announces to the correspondent of Science 

 that topographic parties of the United States Geological Survey en- 

 gaged on the irrigation survey in New Mexico have completed their 

 field-work for this season, and disbanded at Santa Fe. 



An area of 3,500 square miles in the drainage basins of the Jemez 

 ■and Rio Grande has been surveyed with sufficient detail to con- 

 struct a map on the scale of two miles to an inch and contour in- 

 terval of fifty feet. 



This work has been under the immediate charge of Mr. Arthur 

 P. Davis, who returns with most of his force to Washington to pre- 

 pare final maps. One party, however, under charge of Mr. R. H. 

 Phillips, will continue vv-ork in the lower Rio Grande valley, near El 

 Paso, Tex., during the entire winter. A number of eligible sites for 

 reservoirs and diverting dams have been located. It is estimated 

 •that sufficient water can be stored in the mountains about the head 

 waters of the Jemez River to irrigate 1 50,000 acres of land where 

 rnow the waters only serve about 4,000 acres. 



Indian Relics from Florida. 



Dr. Thomas Featherstonhaugh, a grandson of the famous pioneer 

 geologist, has just returned from a visit to Florida, and has brought 

 back an interesting collection of aboriginal remains. He thoroughly 

 examined a mound of damp sand on the shore of Lake Apopka, 

 about the geographical centre of the State, and farther south than 

 any previous researches of the kind. The mound was fifty feet in 

 diameter and fourteen feet high, and was covered with a dense 

 growth of palmetto and other trees. It was found to be full of 

 fragmentary bones and pottery, so numerous that Dr. Featherston- 

 haugh estimates that there could have been no less than four hun- 

 dred bodies deposited there. A few Venetian beads near the top 

 indicated intrusive burials, but below four feet there were no evi- 

 dences of any intercourse with whites. Four shapely hatchets were 

 recovered, also a charm-stone, and numerous specimens of deco- 

 rated pottery. The whole find was presented to Major Powell, and 

 by him turned over to the Museum. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



Stanley's letter to Tippo-Tip, which was recently published in 

 ■the daily papers, contains no new information besides that which 

 was conveyed in the recent telegrams. Stanley had succeeded in 

 reaching Emin, and had returned to the Kongo in order to look after 

 ihis rear guard. He was anxious to see Tippo-Tip, and invited 



him to meet him at some distance from the Kongo, where he en- 

 camped. He intended to return to Emin. It was stated before, 

 that Stanley's letters were detained for some unexplained reason at 

 Stanley Falls Station, while the latest telegram said that there were 

 no other letters besides the one mentioned, addressed to Tippo- 

 Tip. The full information sent from Zanzibar has again proved 

 incorrect, as was expected. The report of the arrival of a letter 

 from Stanley had evidently been telegraphed to Zanzibar by way of 

 London, where it was amplified and falsified, and came back 

 through Renter's agency. No reports on events in the Equatorial 

 Province or on the upper Kongo coming from this source can claim 

 any serious attention. 



— The original portrait of Washington (right side of the face) by 

 Gilbert Stuart, long thought to have been destroyed by the artist, 

 seems to have been recognized in the hands of Dr. W. F. Chan- 

 ning of California, who inherited it from his distinguished father, 

 Rev. William Ellery Channing, who obtained it from his uncle, 

 Col. Gibbs. It is understood that both New York City and Chi- 

 cago have made offers for it, to hang in their art galleries, and its 

 ultimate destination is doubtful. 



— Surgeon-Gen. Hamilton has had one of his expert assistants, 

 Surgeon Kinyoun, carrv on a series of experiments as to the effec- 

 tiveness of new disinfectants. Phosphorus was the one taken for 

 the chemical tests, with litmus-paper and micro organisms: and the 

 conclusions arrived at were, " 1st, that phosphoric pentoxide is a 

 disinfectant to surfaces only; 2d, it has no penetrating power, and 

 is altogether unfit for fumigation of any thing where penetration 

 of the agent is desirable." So perishes the hope that the fumes of 

 phosphoric pentoxide would be useful in extirpating the bacteria of 

 disease. 



— On the evening of Jan. 23 the Mathematical Section of the 

 Philosophical Society held its forty-ninth meeting, elected officers, 

 and heard and considered these papers: "A Brief Control for Gen- 

 eral Solutions of Normal Equations," by A. S. Flint ; " On Napier's 

 Logarithms," by Artemas Martin ; " General Perturbations of the 

 Minor Planets," by W. F. McK. Ritter. 



— A bill has been introduced in the Legislature of Nebraska to 

 provide for a geological survey of the State with special reference 

 to economic purposes. It proposes co-operation with the United 

 States Geological Survey. The professor of geology in the State 

 University at Lincoln is made ex-ojficio State geologist, and the 

 sum of five thousand dollars for each of two years is to be appropri- 

 ated for the work. 



— The War Department has granted to the Smithsonian Insti- 

 tution the privilege of erecting an astro-physical observatory on the 

 heights of Arlington ; its puropse being, as its name implies, the in- 

 vestigation of the physical constituents of the heavenly bodies. 



— The bill for the establishment of a zoological park and museum 

 stands much better in Congress than it did at the last session, and 

 it looks at this moment as if the appropriation for the purchase of 

 the land on Rock Creek would be granted. Professor Hornaday 

 has made a strong impression on the committees which he has 

 addressed, and has excited national emulation by contrasting this 

 country with other lands in its neglect of opportunities to study its 

 own natural history. 



— The scientific bureaus of Washington are seeking more elbow- 

 room. The ambition of the Geological Survey to have a new build- 

 ing ($600,000) is matched by that of the Smithsonian, which seeks 

 an appropriation of $500,000 for the erection of a building in the 

 other corner of the grounds. The plan contemplates a structure 

 somewhat like the present, but without an interior court, and with 

 two stories and a basement instead of one story. 



— The National Museum has secured Col. James Stevenson's 

 private collection of Indian relics, entirely Pueblo. It contains sev- 

 eral hundred pieces, among them an example of pottery for which 

 Tiffany recently offered $250. 



— E,\periments are being made at Wheeling, W.Va., with a 

 view to the utilization of natural gas as a fuel in the smelting of 

 iron ore. 



