396 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XIII. No. 329 



of flour is the proper proportion, according to tlie tenderness of tlie 

 plants ; mixed with land-plaster or plaster-of- Paris, one pound »f 

 the poison to a hundred and fifty pounds of the adulterant ; with 

 dry road-dust, one pound of the poison to a bushel and a half of 

 the dust. In making liquid solutions, mix one pound of London 

 purple with two hundred gallons of water, but first wet the powder 

 and form a thin paste to prevent it from forming lumps. It should 

 be put in the water twelve hours at least before use, for the best 

 results. Paris green can be mixed in the same proportions, and 

 in the same manner, as above. 



WHITE'S STREET-RAILWAY RAIL AND CHAIR. 



The accompanying illustrations show an improved form of rail 

 for street-railways, designed and manufactured by R. T. White of 

 Boston. Fig. i shows the rail in section. Two pendant sides or 

 girders are rolled integral with the top or tread of the rail, thus 

 giving greater strength than the ordinaiy girder-iails having a 

 central vertical rib. This rail has many advantages over the com- 

 mon form of tram or girder rails, being easier to lay and pave to ; 



ROYAL SOCIETY OF CANADA. 



The seventh annual meeting of the Royal Society .of Canada 

 took place in Ottawa on Tuesday, May 7. From the secretary's 

 report, it seems that the delay in the appearance of the "Trans- 

 actions of the Society " was caused by the incomplete nature of 

 many of the papers. Four vacancies were filled during the year,. 

 — three in the English section, and one in the mathematical. In 

 18S7 a committee was appointed to consider the proposition of 

 taking steps in the direction of an imperial union of the services 

 of similar societies, in connection with the Imperial Institute,. 

 to co-operate in developing and illustrating the resources of the 

 empire. A favorable report having been returned, the committee 

 was further instructed to communicate on the subject with the 

 authorities of the Imperial Institute. 



Delegates from affiliated societies were introduced, representing 

 the Society of Canadian Literature, the Natural History Society,, 

 the Numismatical and Antiquarian Society, the Society for Histori- 

 cal Study, the Literature and History Society, the Geographical 

 Society, the Quebec Institut Canadien, the Ottawa Institut Cana- 

 dien, the Field Naturalist Club, the Entomological Society, the 



and the paving, on settling, cannot drop under the head and flange 

 of the rail, — a very serious defect with the common form of girder- 

 rails. The top or wearing part of this rail may be made as shown 

 by the full or dotted lines ; but, by making it as shown by the full 

 lines, more wearing surface can be obtained on the head of the rail 

 before the flange of the wheel touches the bottom of the groove. 

 Carriage-wheels can easily pass over or out of this rail, and the 

 groove cannot become clogged, as the flange of the car-wheel acts 

 as a wedge as it passes along, forcing stones or dirt out of the 

 way. 



Fig. 2 shows the method of laying the new rail. It is secured 

 on a chair by a bolt passing through the pendant sides of the rail and 

 through the upper end of the chair. These chairs are placed at 

 suitable intervals along the rails, and a similar chair of sufficient 

 length is used at the ends, for connecting the rails together, thus 

 making a substantial and practical joint. The chairs are set on 

 and secured to wooden sleepers by lag screws, as shown ; but the 

 wooden sleepers may be dispensed with by enlarging the base of 

 the chairs sufficiently to give them a solid bearing when tamped in 

 the ground, or they may be set in concrete. In this case, tie-rods 

 would be used to hold the rails to gauge. 



From 1877 to 1888, forty-nine cases of leprosy have been 

 treated at the St. Petersburg hospitals. About one-half of these 

 are reported to be of subjects born in the city proper. Of the oth- 

 ers, some come from the Baltic provinces, but there are also a few 

 from districts where hitherto leprosy has been unknown. 



Toronto Canadian Institute, and the Nova Scotia Historical So- 

 ciety. 



Mr. Sandford Fleming, in his presidential address, touched on? 

 the fact, that, of the eighty original members, seven had passed 

 away, and that the society had reason to congratulate itself upon 

 the justification of all its elections. The address consisted mainly 

 of an examination and inquiry into the origin of the two great races 

 which form the Dominion. L'Abbe Casgrain followed with an 

 address on the objects of the several sections. The scope of the 

 papers may be gathered from the following partial list : " The 

 Study of Political Science in Canada ; " " Trade and Commerce in 

 the Stone Ages ; " " The Cartography of the Gulf of St. Law- 

 rence ; " " Nematophytin ; " " De Marseilles a Oran, Souvenirs 

 d'Afrique ; " " L'Empereur Maximilian du Mexique ; " " The His- 

 torical Influence of Physical Geography ; " "Canadian Pre-Railway 

 Transcontinental Journeys ; " " Trilinear Co-ordinates on the 

 Sphere, and Oblique Co-ordinates in Geometry of Three Dimen- 

 sions ; " "A Problem of Political Science ; " " Papers on Higher 

 Mathematics ; " " The Ore Deposit of the Treadmill Mine, Alaska ;"" 

 " The Microscopical Character of the said Ore ; " " Fossil Sponges 

 from Beds of the Quebec Group of Sir William Logan at Little 

 Metis ; " " Copper Deposits of the Sudbury District ; " " Geogra- 

 phy and Geology of the Big Bend of the Columbia." 



On Wednesday evening a public meeting of the French section 

 was held. Principal Grant addressed the audience on " Who are 

 Canadians .' " and L'Abbe Casgrain gave an oration on " The Death 

 of Montcalm." 



