114 



SCIENCE. 



[N. S. Vol. IV. No. 82. 



value of the metallic products in 1895 was 

 $270,453,979 and of non-metallic products $340,- 

 341,311. No tin was mined in 1895. The 

 quantity of petroleum produced has remained 

 nearly constant since 1892, but it appears that 

 its value (?) has more than doubled. 



The U. S. Geological Survey has just issued 

 a number of important bulletins, of which we 

 hope to give later some account. These bulle- 

 tins are as follows : No. 123, A .dictionary of 

 geographic positions, Henry Gannett, pp. 183. 

 No. 124, Eevision of the American fossil cock- 

 roaches with descriptions of new forms, H. S. 

 Scudder, pp. 176. No. 125, The constitution of 

 the silicates, pp. 109. No. 126, A mineralogical 

 lexicon of Franklin, Hampshire and Hampden 

 Counties, Mass., B. K. Emerson, pp. 180. No. 



128, The Bear Eiver formation and its character- 

 istic fauna, Charles A. White, pp. 108. No. 



129, Earthquakes in California, Charles D. Per- 

 rine, pp. 23. No. 131, Eeport of progress of the 

 division of hydrography for the calendar years 

 1893 and 1894, pp. 126. No. 132, The dissemi- 

 nated lead ores of southeastern Missouri, Ar- 

 thur Winslow, pp. 30. No. 133, Contributions 

 to the Cretaceous paleontology of the Pacific 

 coast; The fauna of the Knoxville beds, T. 

 W. Stanton, pp. 132. No. 134, The Cambrian 

 rocks of Pennsylvania, Charles D. Walcott, 

 pp, 46. 



The Division of the Biological Survey of the 

 Department of Agriculture has sent out a cir- 

 cular signed by Mr. T. S. Palmer, recommend- 

 ing that ' Bird Day ' be observed in the schools. 

 '■ Arbor Day ' has proved successful in arousing 

 interest in the planting and preservation of 

 trees, and it is urged that Bird Day would dif- 

 fuse knowledge concerning our native birds 

 and arouse a more general interest in bird 

 protection. It is suggested that if it is deemed 

 unwise to establish another holiday, or if it 

 seem too much to devote one day in the year 

 to a study of birds, the exercises of Bird Day 

 might be combined with those of Arbor Day. 



The experiments on the visibility of the 

 Eontgen rays by Dr. Gustav Brandes, briefly 

 noticed in this Journal, seem, according to the 

 account in the Sitzungsberichte der Berlin Akad- 

 emie, to have been carried out with much care 



and to demonstrate that the rays call up a 

 definite sensation of light. Dr. Brandes thinks 

 it probable that the rays do not immediately 

 effect the retinal cells, but probably cause 

 fluorescence of the pigment. 



It is further reported from Berlin that Prof. 

 Grunmach has been able to use the X-rays to 

 determine calcifications resulting from pulmon- 

 ary consumption. MM. Lortet and Genovid have 

 reported to the Paris Academy that tuberculosis 

 induced experimentally has been attenuated by 

 exposure to the X-rays. 



After a very complete and painstaking inves- 

 tigation of the morphological characteristics of 

 a series of double sulfates containing potassium, 

 rubidium and cesium, Alfred E. Tutton, of Ox- 

 ford, reaches the conclusion that there is no 

 chemical union between the molecular consti- 

 tuents of double salts, but that there is merely 

 aggregation in accordance with such a parti- 

 cular type of homogeneous structure as ensures 

 that the constituents are always present in the 

 same proportion. 



During the year 1895 there were published 

 in France 10,115 new books, of which 153 were 

 in philosophy ; 473 in political and social sci- 

 ences; 1,141 in medicine; 267 in geography and 

 anthropology ; 76 in mathematics and 251 in 

 natural science. 



Garden and Forest states that the United 

 States Consul at Havre, France, recently sent 

 home some samples of new textile fabrics which 

 were exhibited at the State Department in 

 Washington. They were woven from the fibres 

 of peat, which, as they proved, can be bleached 

 to whiteness and will then take any dye. 

 These fabrics are said to be especially advan- 

 tageous from the fact that they have antiseptic 

 qualities which will prevent them from harbor- 

 ing disease germs. 



The Hawaiian Congress recently passed an 

 act by which every taxpayer in the island was 

 compelled to register himself at the tax ofiice, 

 and, in addition to the usual entries according 

 to the Bertillon system of identification, to leave 

 in the registrar's book the imprint of his right 

 thumb, in accordance with the recommenda- 

 tions of Mr. Francis Galton. The method of 



