366 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 194 



ary needle-valve surrounded by a vertically adjust- 

 able jet-tube with a conical aperture controlled by 

 the valve. Arms extending upward from the jet- 

 tube support a vertically adjustable mixing-tube, 

 constructed so as to close the upper end of the 

 jet-tube when desired. The proportions of gas 

 and air, as well as the size of flame, may be regu- 

 lated by a simple rotation of the jet-tube upon the 

 base. 



— One result of recent experiments with oil for 

 smootliing the surface of the sea during stormy 

 weather is that inventors are turning their atten- 

 tion toward improving the methods of applying 

 the oil. A device recently patented is a floating 

 distributer, consisting of a case containing two 

 compartments, one of which serves as a buoyant 

 chamber, while the other is perforated, and 

 receives and distributes the oil, which is supplied 

 to the distributer through a supply-tube. 



— It is proposed to form an association of the 

 graduates of the Lawrence scientific school con- 

 nected with Harvard university. There are num- 

 bered among these graduates many of the students 

 of Agassiz. 



— Messrs. B. Westermann & Co. announce the 

 continuation of Carus and Engelmann's BibUotheca 

 zoologica. The first part of the continuation is 

 expected immediately, and the whole will be com- 

 pleted in 1888. Carus's Zoologischer anzeiger has 

 since 1878 recorded the publications on zoology. 

 The new volume of the Bibliotheca zoologica is 

 intended to fill the gap between the Anzeiger and 

 Carus and Engelmann's Bibliotlieca zoologica, 

 which covered the literature of 1846-60. 



— Several cases of hydrophobia have recently 

 occurred among camels in Algeria. As the animals 

 had never been bitten, the origin of the disease 

 was unaccountable, until it was ascertained that 

 a mad horse had gained admittance to the pas- 

 ture ; and the explanation given by those who 

 studied the case is, that his saliva had fallen on 

 the grass, and the camels had become infected 

 througli abrasions in the mouth. 



— A healthy boy has just been boi-n to an aged 

 couple of St. Joseph, Mo., the father being 

 seventy-one and the mother sixty-five years of 

 age. 



— Dr. Williams, in the St. Louis medical and 

 surgical journal, relates an interesting case of 

 temporary blindness from the excessive use of 

 tobacco. The patient was a blacksmith, thirty- 

 two years of age. who complained of failure of 

 vision to such an extent that he could no longer 

 see to drive nails in shoeing, and v^as compelled 

 to depend on liis sense of feeling. His health was 



good, he having no other complaint. Vision was 

 found to be only one-sixth of what it should be. 

 Things appeared to him to be covered with a 

 dense mist. For many years he had been an ex- 

 cessive smoker, using the strongest tobacco to be 

 had. Tobacco amaurosis is quite common, but 

 usually in men beyond middle life. The proba- 

 bility of recovery is great if tlae habit is given 

 up, and this should be done gradually. In this 

 case, a very few days' abstinence from tobacco 

 caused an improvement in vision, and the man 

 has now made material progress toward recovery. 

 Dr. Williams does not regard chewing tobacco as 

 so likely to produce this defective vision as the 

 habit of smoking. 



— Pasteur, in a letter to Dr. Davis of Philadel- 

 phia, gives the following resume of his experience 

 in inoculation for the prevention of hydrophobia 

 from the beginning up to Sept. 1 of the present 

 year : — 



Countries sending 

 patients. 



Treated. Died, 



France and Algeria. 



England 



Austro-Hungary 



Germany 



United States 



Brazil 



Belgium 



Spain 



Greece 



Portugal 



Holland 



Italy 



Russia 



Roumauia 



Switzerland 



Turkey 



Bombay 



Total. 



1,324 



68 



43 



9 



18 



2 



50 



75 



10 



24 



14 



138 



186 



20 



2 



2 



1 



1,986 



Remarks. 



Too late for treat- 

 ment. 



Average failure is 1 

 for 150 foreign per- 

 sons treated, and 

 1 for .330 Freucli 

 and Algerians. 



8 by wolves, and 4 

 by dogs. 



6 too late for treat- 

 ment. 



— After a long discussion, according to the 

 Chemical news, the Belgian academy of medicine 

 rejected the two following propositions, which had 

 been submitted by Dr. DuMoulin : viz., " Copper 

 combined with articles of food in the proportions 

 usually met with is not dangerous ; " " Especially 

 the greening of preserved vegetables with copper 

 salts is absolutely inoffensive." The academy, on 

 the contrary, adopted the following proposition, 

 which will be transmitted to the government : 

 " The compounds of copper are not merely useless 

 in foods ; they are injurious. " 



— Kite-flying, from a scientific point of view, 

 has received considerable attention in France. As 

 the result of a series of experiments with a gigan- 

 tic kite, it has been determined that the best results 

 in ascensional power and height of flight are ob- 

 tained when the string is attached to the kite at 

 a point above the centre of pressure, in a line 

 drawn from the centi-e of pressure to the centre 

 of gravity, in such a manner that the distance 



