238 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 32? 



Va., would be caused to fluoresce by the heat of the hand, and 

 that a similar variety had been described as occurring- from Pen- 

 andrsea, Cornwall, England. He had cut a small stone of this 

 substance, and had passed it around the rooms of the Academy of 

 Sciences, the stone emitting a phosphorescence during the entire 

 time. Mr. Kunz exhibited a copy of Sir Francis Reed's "Experi- 

 menfala Naturaea " (Amsterdam, 1685), which contained a plate 

 showing eight of these so-called cobra-de-capello stones, to which 

 were attributed the power of curing the bites of serpents and other 

 venomous bites. Mr. Kunz also exhibited specimens of tabasheer, 

 the variety of opal found in the joints of the bamboo, which strik- 

 ingly resembled in its appearance, and also in its power of absorb- 

 ing an equal weight of water, the variety of hydrophane described 

 by him from a Colorado cavity, stating at the same time that the 

 ocvlus immdi of the gem-writers of the sixteenth to the eighteenth 

 century was evidently this tabasheer, which is powdered by the 

 natives, and used as a medicine. 



— C. O. Boutelle, H. L. Whiting, and B. A. Colonna, a com- 

 mittee of the assistants of the United States Coast and Geodetic 

 Survey, announce, on behalf of themselves and their associates, 

 that they intend to ask the President of the United States to ap- 

 point Dr. Benjamin Apthorp Gould of Cambridge, Mass., as super- 

 intendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Dr. Gould is no 

 stranger to the Coast Survey. From 185 1 to 1868 he was attached 

 to the work, and for nearly fourteen years was in general charge of 

 all its telegraphic longitude parties. Between 1853 and 1867 eleven 

 printed reports bear his name. The first telegraphic determination 

 of the difference of longitude between Greenwich, England, and 

 Cambridge, in New England, was under his general charge, and 

 he personally superintended the observations at the eastern end of 

 the cable, near FoilhoUerum, in Ireland. Soon after this last great 

 work of 1866-67, he left the country to found an astronomical ob- 

 servatory, and educate native astronomers at Cordova, in the 

 Argentine Republic. What he has done for astronomy in the 

 southern hemisphere during the thirteen years of his stay there, 

 has been well set forth in the " Proceedings of the National Acad- 

 emy of Sciences," at its session in April, 1888, in Washington, 

 when the Watson gold medal was awarded to him for his distin- 

 guished and successful labors. 



— At the Academy of Sciences, Paris, March 4, remarks accom- 

 panying the presentation of a work entitled " Introduction a I'etude 

 de la Chimie des anciens et du moyen age," were made by M. 

 Berthelot. This work forms a sequel to the author's " Origines de 

 I'Alchimie" and " Collection des anciens Alchimistes grecs," thus 

 completing a series of historical researches which fully establish 

 the true character of the old philosophic doctrines, methods, and 

 practices, which were hitherto supposed to be mainly absurd and 

 fanciful, but which must henceforth enter into the scheme of his- 

 torical evolution of the positive sciences. Here M. Berthelot gives 

 a full description and translation of the Leyden papyrus of Egyp- 

 tian origin, the oldest extant treatise on chemistry. The signs, 

 notations, and appliances of the ancient alchemists are also de- 

 scribed and reproduced by the photogravure process. 



— Capt. Moore, of H.M.S. " Rambler," has lately described in a 

 paper read before the China Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, 

 and summarized in Nahire, the appearance and effects of the re- 

 markable " bore " which often occurs in Hangchow Bay. This 

 dangerous visitor is the result of the struggle between the advan- 

 cing tide in the great estuary and the current of the river. Capt. 

 Moore and his officers on several occasions observed the progress 

 of the wave, and their investigations may be summarized as fol- 

 lows : The rate at which the bore travels varies from ten to about 

 thirteen miles per hour. The height of the bore rarely exceeds 12 

 or 14 feet; and broken water, in which no small boat could live, 

 follows it for some distance. With the passing of the wave the 

 tide rises many feet in a few seconds ; in one instance, observed by 

 Capt. Moore, it rose from 9 feet 4 inches below, to 4 feet 7 inches 

 above, mean level. The rush of the bore was so strong that the 

 force of the waves breaking against the broadside of the " Ram- 

 bler " sent the water into the mizzen chains, and the spray on to 



the poop. The junks in that region are protected by platforms 

 with narrow steps cut in the sides. To the north of the estuary is 

 a great sea-wall, built to protect the surrounding country from 

 being flooded by these great tidal waves. It is thirty-five miles, 

 long, and it is strengthened, where the bore strikes most strongly,, 

 by an elliptical stone buttress, 253 feet long by 63 feet wide. Be- 

 hind this the junks are drawri up for shelter. 



— A test-piece of Mullens siHcated iron, has stood a compression 

 of 120,000 pounds per square inch. It finally broke in the same- 

 manner as specimens of stone do. It contained a very large pro- 

 portion of silica. 



— The latest news from the Sudan encourages the hope that 

 Emin Pacha has successfully resisted the Mahdi, and makes it 

 probable that Osman Digma's report of his surrender was solely 

 a trick to prevent the English from action at Suakim. A despatch 

 dated from Cairo, March 23, says that Mahommed Beraivi, who has. 

 arrived here from Omdurman, reports that Sheik Senoussi's forces 

 occupied Darfur and Kordofan, and expelled the dervishes. In 

 July last, Mahommed Beraivi accompanied an expedition of six 

 thousand Mahdists which proceeded in steamers and barges 

 against Emin Pacha. He states that Emin defeated the dervishes 

 near Bor, killing most of them, and capturing their steamers and 

 much ammunition. A despatch of the following day adds that 

 Emin was reported to be in good health, and that all his people 

 and some European travellers were with him in Bahr-el-Gazal. 



BOOK-REVIEWS. 



Profit Sharing between Employer and Employee. By NICHOLAS 

 P. GiLMAN. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & 

 Co. 12°. $1.75. 



This is an elaborate history of profit-sharing, beginning with the 

 initiation of the system in France by Leclaire, and tracing its de- 

 velopment in Europe and America to the present time. The author 

 shows a deep interest in his subject, and gives evidence of pains- 

 taking industry in the study of the facts. His work is well written 

 and well arranged, and presents as exhaustive an account of the 

 isubject as any reader will be likely to want. Though Mr. Gilman 

 s a firm and even enthusiastic believer in profit-sharing as a cure 

 for the industrial evils of the age, he does not fail to recount those 

 experiments with the system that have failed, as well as those that 

 have succeeded. He does not confine himself however, to the mere 

 history of the system, but discusses its value and its relations to the 

 present wages system on the one hand, and to that of co-operation 

 on the other. Co-operation, he thinks, is not destined to succeed, ex- 

 cept under specially favorable circumstances, because the laborers are 

 not willing to pay a sufficient salary to their manager to secure the best 

 talent. Profit-sharing, on the other hand, leaves the management 

 where it is now, while it furnishes the means, as Mr. Gilman thinks, 

 to reconcile the laborers to their position. How far these views are 

 correct, time alone can tell ; but we would point out that the Mai- 

 son Leclaire, which the author chiefly relies on as an example of 

 profit-sharing and its benefits, is really a co-operative society, some- 

 what different from the ordinary type, but none the less really co- 

 operative. The workmen, or a certain portion of them, own one- 

 half the capital, the two managing partners owning the remainder; 

 and when one of the managing partners dies, or retires from the 

 ' firm, the workmen who are shareholders choose his successor. 

 Part of the profits are divided among all the workmen, whether 

 they own capital or not ; but this is only one of the distinguishing 

 features of the Maison, that of co-operation being quite as promi- 

 nent. We shall be glad to hear that Mr. Gilman's work meets 

 with a ready sale. 



Deductive Logic. By St. George Stock. London and New 

 York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 16°. $1.25. 



This is an ordinary treatise on formal logic, with no considerable 

 deviations from the usual type. The author says that before pub- 

 lishing the work he submitted it to the criticism of a friend, who- 

 advised him to strike out some new matter which the manuscript 

 contained, and that he did so, retaining only a few novelties. Those 



