October 17, 1890.] 



SCIENCE. 



217 



-last ten years. Writers who are included in either of these classes 

 are requested to send at once to the editor of The Writer, P. O. 

 Box 1905, Boston, Mass., the following items of information: (1) 

 name of writer; (2) present residence; (B) permanent business ad- 

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 printed, and dates of publication. This information should be 

 sent promptly, for the directory has been for some time in prepa- 

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 of the directory will be obliged, if, m addition, writers will send 

 on a separate sheet, not for publication in the directory, autobio- 

 graphical particulars, including date of birth, place of birth, 

 parents' names, date of marriage, name of husband or wife, suc- 

 cessive places of residence, title and date of first work printed, 

 list of later works, and other such matters as would be suitable 

 for publication in a '• Biographical Dictionary ot American 

 Authors," now in course of preparation. By the prompt co-opera- 

 tion of those who are interested in the matter, the early publica- 

 tion of the directory may be secured. 



— Mr. John E. Nowers of Burton-on Trent writes as follows on 

 the tenacity of life in a cat, in Hardwicke's tcience Gossip for 

 October: " A very severe accident to a cat came under my notice 

 about two years ago. The cat was in the habit of catching mice 

 under a machine for lowering casks into a brewery cellar. One 

 evening it was working, and the first hogshead of ale was rolled 

 on and lowered. When it reached the bottom, the screams of an 

 animal attracted the attention of the man. He looked, and found 

 the cat was trapped between the edge of the cage and the floor. 

 She was caught across the loins, and had to remain in that posi- 

 tion until he called another man to help him upend the hogshead. 

 If he had rolled it off, it would have smashed the cat to atoms, as 

 its weight was about six hundredweight. When the cat was 

 released, she crawled away, and they could not find her again 

 that night. Next morning she was found in the cellar alive, and 

 brought up to me. I examined her, and could not find any bones 

 broken, but she could hardly move. I decided not to kill her, but 

 try and bring her round, so made a bed in a warm corner of the 

 engine-room. She lay there for three or four days in a very weak 

 and bad state. In about a week she had three dtad kittens, and 

 then began to recover rapidly. For a few weeks she could only 

 limp a short distance from her bed. She is stiU alive, and no one 

 would notice by her appearance that she had ever been so badly 

 hurt. Since that time she has had about eight kittens. She is 

 very quick in all her movements, and a very keenmouser. When 

 I read the note on the same subject in Science Gossip for July, I 

 thought the above might interest some of your readers." 



— The monthly report of Arthur Winslow, State geologist of 

 Missouri, shows that during the month of September de- 

 tailed mapping has progressed uninterruptedly in the coal- 

 fields in Randolph, Chariton, Howard, and Johnson Coun- 

 ties, and in the south-east in St. Frangois and Iron Counties. 

 About a bundled and fifty square miles have been covered. 

 The examination of the clays and structural materials of Kan 

 sas City and of the tributary country was begun about the 

 middle of the month, and work has been done in both Jackson 

 and Henry Counties. There are in and about Kansas City some 

 thirty-two works engaged in the manufacture of clay products, 

 and from fifteen to twenty quarries. The country about this city, 

 including Henry and other counties, has valuable deposits of clays 

 and other structural materials which are supplied to Kansas City 

 and other points: hence, from Kansas City as a centre, will prop- 

 erly be made an examination of a large portion of western central 

 Missouri. In connection with this line of work, inspections have 

 further been made of clay deposits and works in Callaway and 

 Audrain Counties. The examination of the mineral waters of the 

 State has been actively pushed in the field during the past month. 

 About thirty localities have been visited, and some twenty sam- 

 ples for analysis have been collected from the following sixteen 

 counties: Monroe, Audrain, Callaway, Boone, Howard, Ranoolph, 

 Livingston, Worth, Gentry, Nodaway, Buchanan, Platte, Clinton, 

 Clay, Adair, and Jackson. As this work progresses, the impor- 

 tance of the subject is constantly developing: A very large 

 amount of capital has been invested in improvements at numerous 



of these springs in the State, and many of them have a large pat- 

 ronage. There is evidence that the waters at many places are of 

 decided therapeutic value, though a determination of their com- 

 positions is necessary to fully substantiate this. Paleontologic 

 work has been in progress in Henry, St. Clair, Polk, and Greene 

 Counties, and large additions have been made to the collections of 

 the survey, besides what has been gathered for study through the 

 CO operation of the United States Geological Survey. During the 

 latter half of the month, work has been done in classifying, label- 

 ling, and arranging specimens for exhibition in the cabinet of the 

 survey. Besides this systematic work, inspections for special 

 purposes have been made in Camden, Laclede, St. Clair, Ran- 

 dolph, and Callaway Counties. The work in the coal-fields has 

 already progressed far enough for it to be apparent that the coal- 

 lands at present under development represent only a small portion 

 of the whole, and that many farms and other lands contain beds 

 which should prove valuable possessions to their owners. These 

 lands offer a promising field for investment; and that tbis fact is 

 appreciated by those who have knowledge of the ground, is evi- 

 denced by the extent to which such lands in some sections are 

 passing into the control of investors and companies. 



— The Slanchester (England) Steam Users' Association has iisued 

 a report on a series of experiments made with a view of ascer- 

 taining the result of injecting feed- water into a boiler when the 

 boiler is short of water, and the furnace is red-hot. It has for 

 long been a common belief among engineers that many boiler 

 explosions are due to this cause; and to the same cause have been 

 attributed accidents to domestic circulating boilers which have been 

 allowed to run dry, and have then had cold feed-water admitted. 

 The correctness of this belief has, bcMvever, for some time been 

 doubted, and the elaborate series of experiments recorded in this re- 

 port go to prove that it is altogether erroneous. As described in the 

 Journal of the Society of Arts, London, a Lancashire boiler 27 

 feet long was fitted up for the purpose of the experiments, so that 

 the condition which it was desired to investigate could be repro- 

 duced, while observations could be taken of what was going on 

 within the boiler. These expeiiments were by no means free 

 from danger, and an observatory had to be constructed near the 

 boiler. As a result, it was found that the sudden injection of the 

 cold feed did not cause a rapid generation of steam, and a sudden 

 violent pressure which the boiler in its weakened condition could 

 not stand. In some cases, indeed, the pressure was slightly raised ; 

 but it always fell immediately afterwards, and in some cases the 

 cold feed at once lowered the pressure. The writers of the report 

 even think that it might be advantageous in cases where the water 

 has been allowed to get very low, and the furnace-crowns to be- 

 come heated, to turn on the feed, though they hesitate, in the 

 present stale of knowledge on the subject, to recommend such a 

 proceeding. 



— The London Times prints statistics, compiled by the Lyons 

 syndicate of silk merchants, respecting the production of silk in 

 the world last year. The figures are, of course, merely approxi- 

 mate, for the results of the harvest in the interior of China, Japan, 

 India, Persia, and the Caucasus, cannot be absolutely estimated. 

 If it were possible to get the exact figures of the production in 

 these comparatively unknown regions, it is not an exaggeration 

 to say that the general silk-production of the world would be 

 found to be double what the figures show it to be now. The 

 syndicate has no interest in securing definite information con- 

 cerning these remote districts. It is sufficient for commercial 

 jjurposes to obtahi the returns of the European harvests, and those 

 districts of the Far East which supply European and American 

 manufacturers. The syndicate estimates the general production 

 of silk in 1889 at 11,700,000 kilos. For the previous four years 

 the figures were as follows: 1888, 11,548,000 kilos; 1887, 11,883,000 

 kilos; 1886. 10,554,000 kilos; and 1885, 9,002,000 kilos. The aver- 

 age of the four years 1885 to 1888 being 10,748,000 kilos, it will be 

 seen that the production of 1889 considerably exceeds the average. 

 This result has been obtained notwithstanding the deficiency in 

 the European harvests, owing to the improvement in the Levant 

 district, notably Syria, and especially in the larger Asiatic ar- 

 rivals. 



