574 



BCIBNGE. 



[Vol. VIII., No. 202 



1839. Certain corals have been observed living in 

 brackish or even nearly fresh water, others in the 

 mud about the mangrove roots, and one species 

 seemed to suffer little from exposure at low tide 

 to the sun and air. The statement of Edwards 

 and Haime, that a species of coral common in the 

 Red Sea is found in the Dead Sea, is another mat- 

 ter which will bear renewed examination. The 

 report supplements in a satisfactory manner the 

 valuable work of Professor Moseley, and will add 

 materially to the reputation of its author. 



This valuable contribution to comparative oste- 

 ology ('Report on the human crania and other 

 bones of the skeleton,' part ii., by Sir William 

 Turner) is largely devoted to the discussion of the 

 pelvis. The characteristics of the black races dif- 

 fer among themselves as well as from those of the 

 European type, which, as by far the best known, 

 is adopted as a standard of comparison. In most 

 of the negroids the conjugate diameter is long 

 compared with the tra^nsverse, and the height in- 

 creases. In the negroes and Tasmanians these 

 characters are less pronounced compared with 

 Europeans. In nearly all the black races the 

 average length of the sacrum is greater than its 

 average breadth, contrary to what occurs with 

 white races, and, in so much, more like a tail. 

 The lumbar curve in the black races, as derived 

 from the vertebrae alone, is concave forward ; 

 the clavicle may be longer in proportion to the 

 humerus than with the whites : the scapular in- 

 dex is apparently higher, except with the Bush- 

 men and Australians, while in the Tasmanian it 

 may have been distinctly lower ; the radius and 

 tibia are longer in relation to the humerus and 

 femur ; the shaft of the upper limb is propor- 

 tionally shorter than that of the lower limb. In 

 general, racial characteristics appear in the skele- 

 ton as well as in the skull. Among existing races 

 osteological characters may be found similar to 

 those of the most ancient known remains ; and 

 the differences which exist between the bones of 

 primitive people are no more, in kind or degree, 

 than are to be seen in corresponding parts of men 

 of the present day. 



AGRICULTURE IN MICHIGAN. 

 The Michigan board of agriculture is likewise 

 the governing body of the Michigan agricultural 

 college, and considerably more than half of its 

 twenty-fourth report relates to the latter institu- 

 tion. The general report of the secretary is fol- 

 lowed by the inaugural address of the new presi- 

 dent, Hon. Edwin Willitts, and the reports of the 



Twenty-fourth annual report of the secretary of the 

 state board of agrictdture of the state of Michigan, 1884-85. 

 Lansing, State, 1886. 8°. 



president and professors upon the work of their 

 several departments. This, in most cases, is of a 

 twofold character, — instructional and experi- 

 mental. Of the instructional work it is hardly 

 necessary to speak, further than to say that it fol- 

 lows the modern methods of teaching the physi- 

 cal sciences, and that, as is well known, ample 

 facilities are provided in the way of laboratories, 

 apparatus, farm, garden, park, etc. 



The experimental work of such an institution is 

 necessarily subordinated to the work of instruc- 

 tion : and, while valuable experiments have been 

 made, the college by no means takes the same 

 high rank as an experiment-station that it does as 

 a college. In this connection we note that Presi- 

 dent Willitts, in his inaugural, speaks of the Hatch 

 bill, now pending in congress, as a bill " to make 

 all the agricultural colleges experiment-stations." 

 If this is the intent of the bill, it were better left 

 to slumber in committee of the whole. We cer- 

 tainly shall not look for great good from its pas- 

 sage, if the theory prevails that the professors of 

 an agricultural college can successfully conduct 

 an experiment-station in their leisure moments 

 with an income of fifteen thousand dollars per 

 annum. 



An ingenious gentleman of Evanston, III., has 

 succeeded in applying the principle of the in- 

 jector to a grain-elevator. The grain is run from 

 the car to a revolving hopper, through an aper- 

 ture in the bottom of which is forced a powerful 

 blast of air, which carries the grain a certain dis- 

 tance up a horizontal tube. At intervals in this 

 tube are bends, or horizontal curves, forming 

 relays. These relays act. as auxiliary hoppers, a 

 fresh blast of air being admitted at each one, 

 which carries the grain to the next higher relay. 

 In this way the grain may be raised to any desired 

 height. A modification of this device is arranged 

 to raise grain from the hold of a ship or boat. 



— A r\Qw method of manufacturing illuminat- 

 ing-gas from crude petroleum consists in conduct- 

 ing a stream of the petroleum to a moderately 

 heated chamber, thereby producing vapor and 

 liquid, and then separately conducting the vapor 

 to decomposing-retorts heated to a certain tem- 

 perature, and at the same time conducting the 

 liquid portions to decomposing-retorts heated to a 

 higher temperature, whereby the respective prod- 

 ucts are decomposed, and converted to permanent 

 gas, without overheating either portion. 



— An Austrian electrician named Marcus is 

 supplying the German navy with a newly invented 

 petroleum-engine' for torpedo-boats. The engine 

 is set in motion by electro-magnetism, and is more 

 powerful than a steam-engine of the same size. 



