432 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 197 



— The council of the University of the city of 

 New York has chosen Mr. Charles Butler to fill 

 the oflBce of president, made vacant by the resig- 

 nation of Mr. John Taylor Johnston on account of 

 ill health. The university has this year a total of 

 800 students, — 70 in the law school, 600 in the 

 medical school, and 130 in the college proper. 



— According to Prof. F. H. Snow of the Uni- 

 versity of Kansas, from observations taken at 

 Lawrence, last month, with one exception (1879), 

 was the warmest October in nineteen years. The 

 rainfall was but little more than half the average, 

 this being the fifth successive month with deficient 

 rainfall. The total rainfall from Jan. 1 to Nov. 1 

 was more than two inches less than for the same 

 period in any previous year of our record. 



— Messrs. Cupples, Upham & Co., Boston, an- 

 nounce ' Harvard : the first American university,' 

 by George Gary Bush, Ph.D. 



— Mr. Percy Fitzgerald has just published, 

 through Messrs. Scribner & Welford, New York, 

 "The book fancier ;' or, The romance of book col- 

 lecting." 



— Messrs. Ticknor & Company announce for 

 publication, on Nov. 6, ' A muramasa blade,' a 

 story of feudalism in old Japan, by Louis Werth- 

 eimber ; also monographs of American architec- 

 ture. No. 4, ' The memorial hall at Harvard uni- 

 versity,' Ware & Van Brunt, architects, 13 gela- 

 tine plates (from nature) 13x16 inches, also one 

 photo-lithogi-aph, m portfolio. 



— Nature states that Messrs. Taylor and Francis 

 of London will shortly pubhsh a work by Mr. T. 

 Mellard Reade, F.G.S., entitled 'The origin of 

 mountain-ranges.' In addition to containing a 

 systematic theory of mountain-building, with de- 

 tailed experimental illustrations, the structure and 

 geological history of the great mountain-masses 

 of the globe will be discussed. The work will also 

 contain many maps and sections of mountain- 

 ranges, and a contoured map of the North Atlantic 

 Ocean, together with numerous sketches of moun- 

 tain-structure and scenery, from nature, by the 

 author. 



— At the close of the present year Van Nos- 

 trand's engineering magazine will pass into the 

 hands of Mr. M. N. Forney, and be consolidated 

 with the Railroad journal, which has also become 

 the property of Mr. Forney. In January the 

 magazine wi'l appear in its new form, under the 

 somewhat formidable title of the American engi- 

 neering magazine and railroad journal. An 

 editorial and news department will be added. 



more illustrations will be given, the pages will be 

 enlarged, and the price reduced to three dollars per 

 year. 



— An opportunity for the publication of geo- 

 graphic studies and monographs is offered in a 

 series of volumes, to be entitled ' Geographische 

 abhandlungen,' edited by Prof. Albrecht Penck, 

 and published by Holzel of Vienna, — two naijies 

 that insure good material and good work. The 

 Abhandlungen are designed to contain essays that 

 are too long for acceptance in Petermann's mit- 

 theilungen or in the Berlin Zeitschrift fur erdkunde, 

 unless in disjointed form, and to continue such 

 studies as were encouraged in Kettler's Zeitschrift 

 fUr wissenschaftliche geographic. The papers 

 promised for this year are by Briickner, on ' The 

 glaciation of the Salzach district ; ' Neumann, on 

 ' Orometry of the Black Forest ; ' and Bohm, on 

 ' The division of the eastern Alps.' 



— A gold medal and money amounting to 

 have been offered by a scientific society of Hol- 

 land for the best treatise on the work of Pasteur. 



— Twenty-five thousand dollars have already 

 been expended in digging an artesian well at 

 Northampton, Mass., and although a depth of 

 3,024 feet has been attained water has not been 

 found in quantity sufficient to be of use. 



— It may be cited as an evidence of the preva- 

 lence of morbid curiosity, that the first edition of 

 Inspector Byrne's forthcoming book on the ' Pro- 

 fessional criminals of America ' has been exhausted 

 by advance orders, and a second edition of five 

 thousand copies is on the press. 



— The death is announced of Prof. H. A. Bayne, 

 Ph.D., of the Royal military college, Kings- 

 ton, Ontario. Professor Bayne was a native of 

 Nova Scotia, and after graduating at Dalhousie 

 college, Halifax, studied under Liebig, Bunsen, 

 and Dumas. 



— The population of Queensland, Australia, was 

 on the 31st of December, 1885, 326,916, of whom 

 191,450 were males, and 135,466 females. This is 

 an increase of about 17,000 over the population in 

 December, 1884. 



— Dr. H. G. Beyer, U.S.N., has recently been 

 repeating Hueppe's experiments as to the causation 

 of lactic acid fermentation, or the process of the 

 souring of milk. Lister believed that this was 

 caused by a microbe, and proved it satisfactorily. 

 Dr. Hueppe has demonstrated that there is a par- 

 ticular organism, described by him as bacillus 

 lactic, which is constantly associated with lactic 

 acid fermentation, and he has separated this organ- 



