June 28, 1889.] 



SCIENCE. 



501 



Hyp7timi ; and in these cases a variety of other plants, such as 

 TypJia, Stratiotes, Btiiomus, Ranunctdtis divaricatus, and Char a 

 fragilis, make their appearance. As to the SpJiagnum, it invades 

 wet meadows as well." 



— Dr. F. Nansen, at a recent meeting of the Geographical So- 

 ciety of Copenhagen, delivered an interesting lecture, in which he 

 sketched the scientific results of his Greenland expedition. The ice 

 on the east coast, he said, is difficult to pass, because it is inter- 

 sected by deep fissures. The opinion that the summits which 

 emerge from the inland ice make travelling difficult, must be aban- 

 doned. On the contrary, they make the ice more level, and retard 

 its motion. Future expeditions will have to take advantage of this 

 fact. On the plateau the ice is similar to a shining sea. Its 

 surface is covered with loose snow, which is kept in motion by a 

 continuous wind. In the interior there is nothing but ice and snow. 

 There is no point on which the eye can rest, and the traveller has 

 to be guided by the compass, as on the open sea. The snow does 

 not melt, and the snow-fall is very heavy, while there is no rain. 

 It is impossible to cross the interior without the use of snow-shoes. 

 JReindeer might be used, but the difficulty of carrying a sufficient 

 amount of provisions would be enormous. Notwithstanding the 

 iow temperature and the heavy snow-falls, the thickness of the ice 

 does not increase, as the glaciers carry enormous quantities into 

 the sea, and as the heat of the interior of the earth is not without 

 influence upon the ice-cap. The temperature of the inland ice in- 

 creases with increasing depth, and at the point where it rests on 

 the rocks it is undoubtedly melting. The cold on the plateau is 

 intense : the breath of the travellers froze as it left their mouths. 

 On the whole. Dr. Nansen said, the scientific results of the expe- 

 dition may not have been as great as many had expected, but his 

 expedition had shown that the ice is not impassable, and future 

 journeys would give better results. 



— Columbia College makes an announcement of the course in 

 ■electrical engineering in the School of Mines department. The 

 officers of instruction and government, besides Henry Drisler, 

 LL.D., acting president of Columbia College, are, William P. 

 Trowbridge, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of engineering ; Francis B. 

 Crocker, E.M., instructor in electrical engineering ; Michael Pupin, 

 A.B., assistant teacher in electrical engineering ; and George F. 

 Fisher, registrar. This course in electrical engineering has been 

 -established in the School of Mines, open to graduates of that school 

 and of other institutions of like grade and standing. The full 

 ■course will occupy two years : there is a partial course which can 

 be completed in one year. The course of instruction will comprise : 

 I. General principles of electricity; 2. Principal phenomena of 

 •electricity ; 3. Simple applications of electricity ; 4. Theory of the 

 dynamo and motor, dynamo and motor regulation, transmission 

 and distribution of power, electric-railway systems and locomotives, 

 telegraph systems (duplex, multiplex, printing, autographic, and 

 submarine), telephone systems, electro-chemistry (including theory 

 of primary and secondary batteries), electro-metallurgy (plating, re- 

 duction, separation of metals), electricity applied to mining, torpe- 

 does (stationary and movable). In addition to the lectures and 

 study of standard electrical text-books, there will be examinations 

 and explanations of practical electrical machines and models ; ex- 

 aminations and reports of visits to electrical stations, factories, and 

 plants ; workshop practice in actual construction of electrical ap- 

 paratus and machines ; designing and drawing of electrical ma- 

 chines and apparatus for construction ; design, drawing, and pre- 

 paring specifications for electrical plants ; practical work in setting 

 up and use of instruments for testing ; a study of the mathematical 

 relations of electricity, light, heat, magnetism, and mechanical en- 

 ergy ; the mathematical determination of electrical laws, units, and 

 constants ; and the mathematical theory of flow and action of in- 

 termittent and alternating currents. Graduates of the School of 

 Mines, and of other institutions of like grade and standing, will be 

 admitted to the course without examination ; but, in cases where 

 there may be any doubt of the proficiency of such graduates, they 

 may be required to pass such examinations as shall be prescribed 

 by the faculty. For particulars as to the course of instruction, etc., 

 in electrical engineering, apply to Professor W. P. Trowbridge, and 

 for general information and circulars, to George F. Fisher, both at 



the School of Mines, Columbia College, 49th Street, corner Fourth 

 Avenue, New York. 



— This year, according to the Botanical Gazette, is the centen- 

 nial of the introduction of the chrysanthemum into Europe, and of 

 the dahlia into England. 



— In a communication to the North London Photographic So- 

 ciety, Mr, J. Jackson stated that he had succeeded in developing 

 gelatino-bromide paper in a dark-room lighted by a gas-jet whose 

 only protection was a globe of ground-glass covered with a thin sheet 

 of yellow paper. Although we should not advise a repetition of 

 this experiment, we desire to call the attention of our reader? to it, 

 because it is instructive in showing how unnecessary it is to try the 

 eyes with deep ruby-colored light in the developing-room. It is in 

 this point — namely, the practicability of safely using yellow rather 

 than red light — that the statement of Mr. Jackson is valuable. 

 He claims that his success was largely due to the amount of actinic 

 light kept back by the ground-glass. This is also quite true; 

 and the estimate has been made that ground-glass absorbs fully 

 one-tenth of the light passing through it. The use of yellow light 

 in the developing-room, when properly managed, is not only safe, 

 but actually better than red light. The sensitive-film need not be 

 exposed to the yellow light for any long time, and, if necessary, 

 the developing-pan may be covered with some opaque substance. 



— The question is sometimes asked, " What forms of vessel are 

 best for washing paper prints, and of what material is it advisable 

 to make them ? " For amateurs who work on a small scale, and 

 who can give constant attention to their prints, an ordinary deep 

 porcelain tray of large size is as good as any thing. The water 

 may be admitted through a rubber tube long enough to curl on the 

 bottom, and thus give a circular impulse to the flow of water and 

 at the same time keep the prints from sinking to the bottom. A 

 stout glass rod (or, better, a slip cut from a long piece of glass) is 

 laid across each corner of the tray, so that when the prints are 

 floated upward they may not escape. Neither iron nor tin should 

 ever be used. Zinc, however, may be made to serve a useful pur- 

 pose for the final washings of silver prints, if a good coating of 

 some waterproof varnish be first applied. Black asphaltum or 

 heavy shellac repeatedly laid on would answer. Wood is a safe 

 material so far as any effect upon the prints is concerned. It 

 should be well dried before being made up, and plenty of pure 

 paraffine melted into its pores by means of a hot flat-iron. The 

 only trouble with these wooden trays is that they generally split 

 apart or open at the seams if laid away out of use for a time. 



— Madison University, Hamilton, N.Y., will be known, as soon 

 as legal preliminaries can be effected, as Colgate University. The 

 change found many advocates, and naturally some opponents ; but 

 at a joint session of the boards of the university and executive so- 

 ciety a free and satisfactory discussion of the reasons for the change 

 showed a vast preponderance of opinion in favor of it. The move 

 for selecting the name " Colgate " is to recognize the eminent ser- 

 vices of the Colgate family of New York of the generations past 

 and present, in behalf of the university and its interests. The rea- 

 sons for dropping " Madison " are the many serious and annoying 

 mistakes made by confounding the New York institution with the 

 University of Wisconsin at Madison, frequently spoken of as 

 " Madison University." 



— Among recent deaths of English scientific men reported in 

 Nature, we note that of Mr. John Frederick La Trobe Bateman, 

 F.R.S., who died at Moor Park, Farnham, at the age of seventy- 

 nine, after a severe illness (Mr. Bateman was well known as the 

 engineer who supplied Glasgow with water from Loch Katrine) ; 

 of Eugen Ferdinand von Homeyer, the eminent ornithologist, who 

 was born at Herdin, near Anklam, in 1809, and died at Stolp, in 

 Prussia, on June i (he had been president of the Ornithological 

 Society at Berlin, was the author of several works, and possessed 

 the largest existing collection of European birds) ; of Dr. Bernhard 

 Weissenborn, the zoologist to the German Kamerun Expedition, 

 from a fever contracted through the hardships of the work and the 

 bad climate ; and of Dr. C. Jessen, the naturalist, formerly profes- 

 sor at Greifswald, and lately at the Berlin University. 



