54 



SCIEN'CE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 207 



— The healing-springs of Bosnia and Herzego- 

 vina seem destined to occupy a prominent place 

 among the health-resorts of the world. Professor 

 Ludwig of Vienna, in the course of an official 

 Journey recently, discovered over fifty medicinal 

 springs. The best are those at Banjaluka, 

 Serajewo, and Dolnja-Tuzla, 



— According to the newest and best maps of 

 New Guinea, that region, including the small 

 island lying near its coast, has an area of not less 

 than 795,223 square kilometres. Of this territory, 

 390,560 square kilometres are under Dutch protec- 

 tion, 225,463 under English, and 179,300 under 

 German. 



— During the holidays a meeting was held at 

 University college, Toronto, to organize a modern- 

 language association for the Province of Ontario. 



— Modern-language notes announces that Pro- 

 fessor Crane of Cornell university is preparing an 

 extensive work on the great mediaeval collections 

 of Latin stories, their sources and imitations in 

 the modern languages. A large part of the 

 material has been taken from unedited manu- 

 scripts in the British museum and National library 

 at Paris, or from early printed books. Among 

 the former class are the exempla or illustrative 

 stories contained in the sermons of Jacques de 

 Vitry, bishop of Acre and the historian of the 

 Crusades. Although these stories are of the 

 greatest value for the question of the diffusion of 

 popular tales, they have never before been edited. 

 Professor Crane's work, which is entitled ' Mediae- 

 val story-books and stories,' will cover the entire 

 range of mediaeval Latin fiction, including contes 

 devots, fables, apologues, historical anecdotes, 

 jests, etc., and will be valuable not only to the 

 student of comparative literature and folk-lore, 

 but also to those interested in mediaeval culture 

 and history. 



— In order to aid the law-students in the study 

 of the year-books and other legal documents in 

 Norman French, the trustees of Columbia college 

 have provided a lecturer on Norman French for 

 the law-school. 



— The December issue of the Johns Hopkins 

 university circulars contains the report of Prof. 

 W. K. Brooks on the Zoological work of the 

 university since 1878, and also a series of papers 

 on the work of the marine laboratory during the 

 past summer. 



— From time to time the English papers pub- 

 lish reports as to the health of Mr. Herbert Spencer. 

 It is now said to be improving. 



— The Athenaeum announces that the second 

 volume of Professor Pfleiderer's 'Philosophy of 



religion,' now in the press, will include not only 

 many corrections and additions by the author, but 

 also some new matter on the English philosophers 

 of the present day. 



— The present series of free public lectures at 

 Columbia college, which it is hoped will become 

 a permanent institution, was opened on Saturday, 

 Jan. 8, by William Henry Bishop, who spoke on 

 'Characters and dialect in fiction.' Last Satur- 

 day Mr. E. A. Nadal lectured on ' Recollections 

 of the south.' Tickets for these lectures are 

 issued because of the limited capacity of the lec- 

 ture-hall, but they may be obtained free of charge 

 by addressing the registrar, Columbia college. 



— Those who have followed the Irish question 

 in British politics, and who have read Mr. Glad- 

 stone's ' History of an idea,' will be interested in 

 the presentation of the opposite view by Lord 

 Brabourne. This was first printed in Blackwood's 

 magazine, but is now issued separately. 



— In the January number of the Andover re- 

 view, Prof. George H. Palmer of Harvard defends 

 his view of the elective system against its critics, 

 and closes the discussion on that subject which 

 has been going on in the columns of the review 

 for a year past. 



— 1,800,000 francs have been subscribed to 

 establish the Pasteur institute in Paris. Some 

 of the largest contributions have been received 

 from English brewers, as a token of their ap- 

 preciation of Pasteur's work in connection with 

 fermentation. 



— The New York cremation society, which 

 has its crematorium at Fresh Pond, Long Island, 

 has incinerated eighty-four bodies during the 

 past year. 



— M. Peyraud considers one of the best means 

 of determining the death of an individual to be 

 cauterization by Vienna paste. If the eschar 

 forms slowly, and is of a yellow color or transpar- 

 ent, death may be positively delared, while, if it 

 is red, brown, or black, life still exists. 



— The following officers were elected at the an- 

 nual meeting of the Appalachian mountain club 

 in Boston, Jan. 12 : president, Prof. Alpheus Hy- 

 att of Cambridge ; vice-president, Robert C. Pit- 

 man of Newton ; recording secretary, Rosewell B. 

 Lawrence ; treasurer, Gardner M. Jones. Com- 

 mittees : on natural history, George Dimmock of 

 Cambridge ; on topography. Prof. E, E. Burton ; 

 on art, Charles W. Sanderson ; on explorations, 

 Frank O. Carpenter ; on improvements, Isaac Y. 

 Chubbuck. Trustees, Professor William H. Niles 

 of Cambridge, Augustus E. Scott of Lexington, 



