April 26, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



321 



photographs, to say nothing of models, large and small, in gold, 

 brass, bronze, and many other materials, are for sale all over Paris, 

 the royalty would amount to a very substantial sum, and some of 

 the dealers interested have refused to pay ; so that the whole ques- 

 tion of the right of the structure to the protection accorded to pic- 

 tures and poems is now before the tribunals, and the result will be 

 awaited with some curiosity. 



— The American Architect calls attention to an improvement 

 recently introduced into the design of boilers, which promises to 

 effect an important economy in the production of steam. An 

 article in Le Genie Civil, by M. Lisbonne, a retired director of 

 naval constructions, describes some experiments made with a 

 boiler furnished with tubes having ribs, or flanges, on the inside, 

 so as to present a larger surface for absorbing the heat of the fire. 

 The projection of the flanges is about one-quarter of the diameter 

 of the tube, and eight of them are spaced at equal distances around 

 the inner surface. The tubes, which are the invention of M. Jean 

 Serve of Gisors, are now drawn by special machinery out of brass, 

 so that they require no soldering, and are strong and easily cleaned. 

 The first experiments with them were made in a steamboat on the 

 Rhone. A boat with copper tubes of the ordinary kind was care- 

 fully watched, and it was found that the combustion of one pound 

 of coal would evaporate seven pounds of water, while the tempera- 

 ture of the smoke as it issued from the boiler was 680° F. The 

 tubes were then taken out and replaced with M. Serve's tubes, and 

 the evaporation immediately rose to nine and one-third pounds of 

 water for every pound of coal consumed, and the temperature of 

 the escaping gases fell to 460°. These results would seem to indi- 

 cate an economy of about one-third in consumption of coal ; and 

 some other experiments, in which the quantity of coal consumed 

 was observed, showed an actual saving of twenty-four per cent in 

 coal. At the naval arsenal in Brest some further tests were then 

 made by officers of the government, with the result that with 

 natural draught the economy of coal effected by using the flanged 

 tubes in place of smooth ones was, with a given quantity of water 

 evaporated, fourteen per cent, while with forced draught the econ- 

 omy was eighteen per cent. 



— Garden and Forest states that thousands of acres have this 

 year been planted with fruit-trees in those districts of southern 

 California where the " land-boomer " recently set all the world mad 

 with speculation. In the San Joaquin valley large numbers of new 

 settlers have lately established themselves in colonies for the pur- 

 pose of fruit-growing, dividing their land into twenty and forty 

 acre tracts. In San Diego County the acreage devoted to this in- 

 dustry is five times as great as it was a year ago, and in Los An- 

 geles and many other counties it is one-third greater ; and, more- 

 over, the old "placer-mining" counties are rapidly transferring 

 their attention to fruit, and it is now the richest crop of Tuolumne, 

 for example, once a conspicuous centre of gold-production. 



— The next congress and exhibition of the English Sanitary In- 

 stitute will be held in Worcester, England, at the end of Septem- 

 ber. 



— The Watson gold medal and a hundred dollars in gold, 

 founded by Dr. James C. Watson, for the most important discov- 

 eries in astronomy, have been awarded to Dr. Edward Schonfeld of 

 the University of Bonn, Germany. The medal is given to Dr. 

 Schonfeld for his researches concerning the variable stars, and for 

 his work in cataloguing the stars brighter than the tenth magni- 

 tude, from the equator to the southern tropic. 



— The regents of the Michigan State University have appointed 

 Professor John Dewey, now professor of philosophy in the Minne- 

 sota State University, to the chair of philosophy, made vacant by 

 the death of Professor George S. Morris. Professor Dewey was 

 for several years assistant to Professor Morris. The title of assist- 

 ant professor of mechanical engineering was conferred upon Lieut. 

 L. D. Miner, who was recently detailed for service here by the sec- 

 retar)- of the navy. The resignation of Dr. C. H. Stowell, professor 

 of histology, was presented and accepted, to take effect Oct. i, as 

 was that of Professor J. W. Langley from the chair of general 

 chemistry and metallurgy, to take effect June 30, and Louisa Reed- 

 Stowell, assistant in microscopical botany, to take effect Oct. i. It 

 is announced that the widow of the late Professor Elisha Jones has 



established a fellowship with $10,000, to be named after her la- 

 mented husband. 



— At the business session of the National Academy of Sciences 

 at Washington, D.C., held on the morning of April 18, a home 

 secretary and council, consisting of six members, were elected. 

 Professor Asaph Hall, who has served six years as home secre- 

 tary, was re-elected. The members of the council elected were 

 Professor George J. Brush of New Haven, Conn. ; Gen. Francis 

 A. Walker ; Benjamin Apthorp Gould of Cambridge, Mass. ; 

 Professor Ira Remsen of Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore ; 

 Gen. Montgomery C. Meigs ; and Professor Simon Newcomb. 

 The following new members of the academy were elected : Profes- 

 sor Boss of Dudley Observatory, Albany, N.Y.; Professor Sereno 

 Watson of Harvard ; Professor C. S. Hastings, Sheffield Scientific 

 School, Yale University ; Professor C. A. White, United States 

 Geological Survey ; and Professor Michel of Tufts College, Massa- 

 chusetts. This makes the list of membership number exactly one 

 hundred, — the first time in the history of the academy that this 

 number, which the unwritten law of the academy fixes as a maxi- 

 mum limit, has been reached. 



— At a meeting on April 18, of the trustees of Clark University, 

 the Hon. John D. Washburn, recently appointed minister to Swit- 

 zerland, resigned the office of secretary of the corporation. The 

 work of the university will begin October next in mathematics, 

 physics, chemistry, and physiology, besides the study of languages. 

 The departments will be gradually organized, and on the highest 

 plane possible. While not declining to confer the degree of A.B., 

 the university will for the present give attention to qualifying for 

 higher degrees. Ten fellowships of four hundred dollars, ten of 

 two hundred dollars, and ten scholarships with free tuition, have 

 been provided for. 



— From Denver, Col., Mr. J. Wylie Anderson writes to the 

 American Field that on a hunt last fall, in company with F. A. 

 Williams, he secured a very rare specimen of clustered antlers, 

 there being thirty-two well-developed spikes, — eighteen on one 

 horn, and fourteen on the other. Another peculiarity about them 

 was that the four main prongs were present on each horn, and 

 extra spikes developed on the outer surfaces of the horns, and that 

 gave them the enormous spread, which at the widest part was 

 thirty-eight and one-half inches. The deer was a very old one, and 

 the beams were very large. The great spread of antlers was al- 

 most as great as those of an elk he killed on his trip. Mr. Williams 

 has his specimen mounted, and it adorns his office walls. 



— The establishment of the Blue Hill Observatory, and its 

 equipment with means for obtaining meteorological observations 

 of the best class, made it appear probable that the observatory of 

 Harvard College could do more service to science by assisting in 

 the publication of the results obtained at Blue Hill than by en- 

 larging its own field of meteorological work. Accordingly propo- 

 sals were made for co-operation between the two institutions, 

 which, through the courtesy of Mr. Rotch, the proprietor of the 

 Blue Hill Observatory, have resulted in the arrangement in accord- 

 ance with which the " Observations at the Blue Hill Observatory " 

 is published as a part of the " Annals of the Observatory of Har- 

 vard College." Successive volumes of the Blue Hill observations 

 will appear in the same manner, and the ultimate consolidation of 

 the two institutions is contemplated. 



— After having experienced a period of great prosperity, the silk 

 industry in Greece, says the Journal de la Chambre de Comtnerce 

 de Constantinople, is now in a depressed condition. The produc- 

 tion of cocoons, which in 1855 amounted to between 1,200,000 and 

 1,400,000 kilograms, fell, in the period comprised between 1870 and 

 1880, to about 500,000 kilograms. Since the year 1884, this quan- 

 tity has still further decreased ; and the production, which is cen- 

 tred in the south of the Peloponnesus, in Messenia and Laconia, 

 did not exceed 200,000 kilograms of cocoons, that is to say, a yield 

 in silk of about iS,ooo kilograms, of which about 10,000 kilograms 

 are exported. This diminution must be attributed to the disease 

 of the silkworms and to the low price of cocoons. Almost all 

 the cocoons and silks from Greece are shipped to Marseilles, and 

 Calamata is the principal port for shipment. 



