September 10, 1886.J 



SCIENCE. 



229 



and report on the matter. The advocates of the 

 permanency of water as a medium for color-paint- 

 ing cite in support of their views the fact that the 

 ancient Egyptians, whose pictures in some cases 

 are apparently as fresh and bright to-day as when 

 first executed two or three thousand years ago, 

 used water-colors. Old manusci-ipts, ilhiminated 

 in water-colors several centuries ago, do not ap- 

 pear to have diminished in brilliancy. On the 

 other hand, there are undoubted cases of fading 

 of pictures by Turner and others, owing to pro- 

 longed exposure to sunlight. A comparison of 

 collections of oil and water color pictures of 

 equal age, however, seems to show that the former 

 are at least as liable to fade as the latter. Such 

 colors as ochres and siennas are permanent in 

 both mediums, while lakes are fugitive in both, 

 and the madder colors are generally considered 

 lasting. A few years ago, Mr. Holman Hunt 

 took much trouble to investigate the purity of 

 artists' colors, which, he found, were frequently 

 adulterated. The results he communicated at the 

 time to the Society of arts. It is now suggested 

 that a more extended official investigation should 

 be made of the whole subject, on the lines which 

 he then indicated, including in the research the 

 action of the electric light, as well as that of sun- 

 light, upon pure and adulterated pigments, and 

 mixtures thereof. W. 



London, Aug. 15. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The two hundred and fiftieth anniversary of 

 the foundation of Harvard university will be cele- 

 brated on the sixth, seventh, and eighth days of 

 November next. On Saturday, the 6th, under- 

 graduates day, the students of the university will 

 celebrate the event by literary exercises in the 

 morning, athletic sports in the afternoon, and a 

 torchlight procession in the evening. On Sunday, 

 the 7th, foundation day, the anniversary of the 

 passage by the general court of the colony of Mas- 

 sachusetts Bay, of the memoi'able vote, "The 

 court agree to give four hundred pounds towards 

 a school or college, Avhereof two hundred pounds 

 shall be paid the next year, and two hundred 

 pounds when the work is finished, and the next 

 court to appoint where and what building," there 

 will be coKimemorative exercises, under the direc- 

 tion of the college authorities, in Appleton chapel, 

 conducted in the morning by Rev. Francis G. Pea- 

 body, and in the evening by the Rev. Phillips 

 Brooks. On this day clerical graduates of the uni- 

 versity are requested to refer in their pulpits, if 

 the circumstances permit, to this act of the infant 

 colony, and the benefits which have followed from 



it. On Monday, Nov. 8, alumni day, the gradu- 

 ates of all departments of the university, and 

 guests, will meet in Massachusetts hall, at 10 a.m., 

 and proceed thence to Sanders' theatre, under 

 escort of the undergraduates, where an address 

 will be made by James Russell Lowell, and a 

 poem delivered by Oliver Wendell Holmes, and 

 honorary degrees will be conferred by the univer- 

 sity. In the afternoon the association of the 

 alumni, composed of all graduates of the college, 

 with their invited guests, will have a collation in 

 Memorial hall. It is suggested that the members 

 of Harvard clubs in the various cities of the United 

 States who are unable to attend the celebration at 

 Cambridge should commemorate the day. 



— The American public health association will 

 convene at Toronto, Canada, Tuesday, Oct. 5, and 

 continue four days. The executive committee 

 have selected the following topics for considera- 

 tion at said meeting : the disposal of the refuse 

 matters of cities and towns ; the condition of 

 stored water-supplies, and their relation to the 

 public health ; the best methods and the apparatus 

 necessary for the teaching of hygiene in the public 

 schools, as well as the means for securing uni- 

 formity in such instruction ; recent sanitary ex- 

 periences in connection with the exclusion and 

 suppression of epidemic disease ; the sanitary con- 

 ditions and necessities of school-houses and school- 

 life ; the preventable causes of disease, injury, 

 and death in American manufactories and work- 

 shops, and the best means and appliances for 

 preventing and avoiding them ; plans for dwelling- 

 houses. At the last annual meeting of the asso- 

 ciation, a resolution creating a section of state 

 boards of health was adopted. A meeting of the 

 representatives of the state boards of health has 

 been called by the secretary of the Conference of 

 state boards of health, on Monday, Oct. 4, and it 

 is expected that the said representatives will on 

 that day organize the section. 



— The hydrographic ofiice has received the fol- 

 lowing note : Aug. 31, at 9.45 p.m., the steamer 

 City of Palatka, Captain Voegel, when a mile and 

 a half north of Martin's industry light ship (off the 

 coast, south of Charleston), in eight and a half 

 fathoms of water, experienced a terrible rum- 

 bling sensation, lasting a minute and a half. There 

 was quite a heavy sea from the south-east after 

 leaving Charleston bar at 5.30 p.m. When this 

 rumbling sensation took place, the wave-motion 

 ceased. It was a perfect calm during the rum- 

 bling : after that, the usual motion of the south- 

 east swell took place. The wind at the time was 

 south-west, light, weather cloudy, barometer 30° 

 01', thermometer 80°. The sensation resembled a 



