48 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XII. No. 286 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 All intending to be present at the meeting at Cleveland of the 

 American Association should write to the Local Committee, 407 

 Superior St., for a copy of their circular giving full particulars of 

 the course to be pursued in order to benefit by reduced fares. Cer- 

 tain conditions must be fulfilled before reaching the meeting. 



— Jean-Charles Houzeau de Lehaie, honorary director of the 

 Royal Observatory at Brussels, died at Schaerbeek, July 12. He 

 was born at Mons on the 7th of October, 1820. 



— Courtlandt Palmer died, July 23, at the Lake Dunmore House, 

 Lake Dunmore, near Brandon, Vt., of peritonitis. Mr. Palmer will be 

 remembered as the founder of the Nineteenth Century Club, a de- 

 bating society devoted to the discussion of social, literary, artistic, 

 theological, and scientific problems in the spirit of the broadest lib- 

 erality, which has been held together for more than five years by 

 the force of his energy and enthusiasm. Mr. Palmer has always 

 been the president of this organization. Its first meeting was held 

 at his residence, in Gramercy Park, in January, 1S83, and for some 

 time afterward the membership of the club was small enough to 

 enable the president to offer to it the hospitality of his home. But 

 the membership increased, and it became the fashion in polite 

 society to attend the club meetings. The rooms of the American 

 Art Association, on Madison Square, were secured, and half a dozen 

 meetings were held every winter. Last season the club changed 

 its meeting place to the handsome assembly rooms of the Metro- 

 politan Opera House. There is no question that the Nineteenth 

 Century Club has done good work. Mr. Palmer's enthusiastic de- 

 votion to his society never relaxed. By profession he was a lawyer, 

 and he was born in this city forty-five years ago. 



— The July-August number of The Art Review begins Vol. IH. 

 of the magazine and the new series of bi-monthly issues. The lat- 

 ter mode of publication will not only allow more time and care in the 

 preparation of the 54 art supplements given annually by the magazine 

 (6 etchings, 6 wood-engravings, and 42 full-page photogravures re- 

 producing American scenery, paintings, statuary, architecture), but 

 will also be better adapted to the review character of the articles, 

 — descriptive and critical accounts of the more important exhibitions 

 in New York and elsewhere, of our public art museums and private 

 galleries, of picturesque American scenery, of the art status of leading 

 American cities, of American architecture and industrial art, of 

 American prints, coins, etc., as well as articles on general art topics, 

 embracing both foreign and American art. In conformity with the 

 reduction in the number of issues per annum, the subscription price 



is reduced from Siooo to S7-50 a year. Encouraged by the 



cordial reception given to The Art Review, the editor and publisher 

 of the Review (Mr. George Forbes Kelly) will begin in September 

 next a new art periodical, entitled The Art Courier, issued twice a 

 month, or 24 times a year. This publication will aim to give the 

 art news of the fortnight, presented in readable style, with brief 

 editorial comments. Each number will have, as its art supplement, 

 a photogravure, and these 24 plates will be furnished with the let- 

 ter-press for the low price of %\.oo a year. Of the series of 



railway articles in Scribner s Magasifte, the third, entitled ' Amer- 

 ican Locomotives and Cars,' by M. N. Forney, will appear in the 

 August number, and will be entirely different in subject-matter, 

 treatment, and illustration from the two preceding articles, which 

 dealt with the construction of the road-bed. Mr. Forney will de- 

 scribe the evolution of the modern locomotive from Peter Cooper's 

 engine, which weighed less than a ton, and the typical passenger 



car from the old stage-coach. In the August number of the 



Atlantic Monthly two timely and practical contributions, which 

 will be given close attention just now, are Horace E. Scudder's ar- 

 ticle on ' Literature in the Public Schools,' and a review of the new 

 book of ' Political Essays,' by James Russell Lowell. Another 

 practical contribution is furnished by President Eliot of Harvard 

 under the caption ' Can School Programmes be Shortened and En- 

 riched ? The new number of Ticknor's admirable Paper Se- 

 ries of original copyright novels is ' The Rise of Silas Lapham,' by 

 W. D. Howells. The Popular ScieJtce Monthly is doing splen- 

 did service m showing the aspect of the great questions of the day 

 from the scientific standpoint. The August number opens with an 

 article entitled ' The Octroi at Issoire : a City made Rich by Taxa- 



tion,' by President Jordan of the University of Indiana, which gives 

 the imaginary history of a French town that sought prosperity 



through a high tariff. The article, ' A Rare Fish,' in Outing 



for August deals with the salmon fishing of the Saguenay River. 



In the August Magazine of American History ' The Conquest 



of the Mayas ' is the fourth and concluding paper in Mrs. Alice D. 

 Le Plongeon's historical sketches of Yucatan. 



— The first report of this season's work has been received at 

 the Hydrographic Office from the United States steamship ' Ran- 

 ger.' The preliminary triangulation of Sebastiano Viscaino Bay, 

 Lower California, has been completed. In order to make this tri- 

 angulation. a party was left at Lagoon Head, in camp, with a heli- 

 ostat constructed on board the ' Ranger ' by using a state-room 

 mirror. The flash was seen and cut in from Cerros, sixty miles 

 distant, on a remarkably clear day, so that the triangulation was 

 easily connected with a system of well-conditioned triangles to the 

 base line measured at San Bartolome Bay. The heliostat furnished 

 to the ship is effective for a distance of forty miles, but could not 

 be seen from Cerros. The aggregate length of the sides of the 

 various triangles constructed was about a thousand miles, and the 

 length of coast line surveyed, one hundred and nineteen miles. Ten 

 places were occupied on the coast for the determination of the 

 magnetic declination. The observations at Rosalia Bay show that 

 the point of maximum easterly deviation has passed, and that now 

 the declination is decreasing at that place. The hydrography is 

 completed to Point San Eugenio. The great bay of San Sebastian 

 Viscaino is well sounded out, and the east coast of Cerros Island is 

 finished to within three miles of the north end. 



LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. 

 A Pseudometeorite. 



On June 26 the Minneapolis, Minn., Tribune printed a special 

 despatch from Rochester, Minn., stating that a meteorite weighing 

 203 pounds had fallen on the premises of Mr. A. Sias of that place ; 

 that the stone measured 20 inches in length and 12 inches in thick- 

 ness, and was covered with a black varnish-like coating. 



A small piece was kindly sent me by the owner, who also in- 

 formed me that it was found in a gully which had about eighteen 

 months ago been washed out by a freshet and since then had filled 

 in with limestone. On this pile he found what he believed to be a 

 meteorite. 



The fragment sent is red hematite, probably from the Lake Su- 

 perior region, and not of meteoric origin. 



The finders still believe it to be a meteorite, because they cannot 

 see how a mass of hematite could reach there. It is probable that 

 this mass was left in an ore car and thrown out at the limestone 

 quarry where limestone was obtained for flux, and subsequently 

 carted from there with the limestone used in filling up the gully. 



George F. Kunz. 



New York, July 23. 



Professor Loizette's Memory. 



I AM glad that in your issue of July 20 you properly characterized 

 ' Professor ' Loisette's memory system and methods. I am one 

 who started to become a pupil by ' correspondence,' and ended by 

 becoming a victim. Having received, after the proper payment, the 

 'secret ' lessons, I proceeded according to directions and trans- 

 mitted a copy of my work for correction as per contract. Did I 

 receive any attention } Not the least. Another letter, enclosing 

 the proper stamps and explaining the first, drew no further re- 

 sponse than a duplicate copy of the printed lessons and a pamphlet 

 of useless advertisements. The ' Professor,' who had been so ready 

 to receive my fee, did not deign, in person or by clerk, write a 

 word, and I became conscious that I had been swindled. It is 

 time, as you suggest, that I ought to have known better ; but the 

 most cautious are sometimes ' taken in,' and become an illustration 

 of the adage that ' a fool and his money are soon parted.' How- 

 ever, although at considerable cost, I admit that the ' Professor ' 

 has improved my memory to that extent, and if I may serve as a 

 warning to others, my experience may not be without its benefits. 



Charles Fluhrer. 



Grand Rapids, Mich., July 23. 



