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SCIENCE. 



LVoL. IX., No. 305 



which will extirpate the plague, and prevent both 

 the direct and indirect losses, that, wherever an 

 infected herd is discovered, all exposed animals 

 should be slaughtered, the premises thoroughly- 

 disinfected, and the owner compensated for the 

 loss to which he is subjected for the protection of 

 the public. He urges upon congress the necessity 

 of legislation giving to the departments power to 

 carry out the measures required for extirpating 

 pleuro-pneumonia untrammelled by state laws or 

 state authorities, and it is expected to promptly 

 suppress this disease. 



— W. Stainton Moses, lately a vice-president and 

 a member of the council of the English society 

 for psychical research, has withdrawn from the 

 society. In his letter of resignation, Mr. Moses 

 says, " I have concluded, that, as a representative 

 spiritualist, I could not do otherwise, considering, 

 as I do, that the evidence for phenomena of the 

 genuine character of which I and many others 

 have satisfied ourselves beyond doubt, is not being 

 properly entertained or fairly treated by the So- 

 ciety for psychical research." 



— Professor Robe of Baltimore, in a paper read 

 at the last meeting of the American medical asso- 

 ciation, recommended that instruction in cook- 

 ery be made a part of the curriculum of the 

 public schools, and that mental philosophy or 

 trigonometry should be dropped in order to make 

 a place for it. In a number of schools and semi- 

 naries throughout the country the art of cooking is 

 taught. In Lasell seminary at Auburndale, Mass., 

 it has been taught since 1877. The Boston cook- 

 ing-school was started in the same year. Similar 

 schools are in operation in Raleigh, N.C. ; Staun- 

 ton, Va., and Washington, D.C. In London prac- 

 tical lessons in cookery are given in the girls' com; 

 mon schools. In Boston, Mr. Hemmenway of 

 that city has succeeded in persuading the members 

 of the school board to make instruction in cook- 

 ery a part of the regular system of instruction. 



— Mr. J. W. Walker has discovered on the 

 south side of Pine Mountain, Georgia, nearly two 

 hundred feet above the famous corundum-mine, 

 a site where the ancient inhabitants of that region 

 manufactured their talc vessels for cooking. Evi- 

 dences of the use of stone implements in the work 

 are indubitable. The vessels were blocked out 

 and hollowed before being broken from the ledge. 

 Many of the remaining fragments are honey- 

 combed by exposure for a long time. Archeolo- 

 gists are familiar with similar phenomena else- 

 where. Dr. Rau of the Smithsonian institution 

 mentions several sites in the District of Columbia, 

 and Paul Schumacher gives an elaborate account 

 of the working of such quarries in southern Cali- 



fornia (Wheeler's Report on U. S. geog. surv. 

 west of 100th merid., vii. 117-131). Dr. Abbott's 

 paper in the same volume (pp. 93-116) should also 

 be consulted. 



— On Nov. 10, 1886, a meeting of intercolonial 

 delegates was held at the Royal society's rooms, 

 Sydney, for the purpose of forming an Australa- 

 sian association for the advancement of science. 

 The following delegates were present : — Victoria : 

 Field naturalists' club of Victoria, the Rev. Dr. 

 Woolls ; Geological society of Australasia, and 

 Historical society of Australasia, Mr. R. T. Litton ; 

 Royal society of Victoria, Mr. K. L. Murray ; 

 Victorian institute of surveyors, Messrs. W. J, 

 Conder and W. H. Nash ; Victorian engineering 

 association. Professor Kernot and Mr. K. L. Mur- 

 ray. Queensland : Geographical society of Aus- 

 tralasia, Queensland branch, Mr. J. P. Thompson ; 

 Royal society of Queensland, Mr. Henry Try on. 

 Tasmania : Mr. James Barnard. New Zealand : 

 Philosophical institute of Canterbury, Mr. S. Her- 

 bert Cox. New South Wales : Linnean so- 

 ciety of New South Wales, Professor Stephen ; 

 Royal society of New South Wales, Mr. H. C. 

 Russell, Professor Liversidge, Mr. C. S. Wilkinson ; 

 New South Wales zoological society, Dr. A. T. 

 Holroyd ; Sydney branch of the Geographical so- 

 ciety of Australasia, Sir Edward Strickland. In 

 the absence of Mr. C. Rolleston, president of the 

 Royal society, Mr. Russell was voted to the chair. 

 The first election of officers will be held in Sydney 

 in March, 1888, and the first meeting of the asso- 

 ciation in the first week in September, 1888. Pro- 

 fessor Liversidge was appointed convener for the 

 next meeting, and a hearty vote of thanks was 

 accorded to that gentleman for the part he had 

 taken towards the formation of the new associa- 

 tion, general satisfaction being manifested at the 

 successful result of the meeting. 



■;— Mrs. Thomas Say, the widow of the well- 

 known naturalist who has been dead over fifty 

 years, died at Lexington, Mass., on Nov. 15 last. 



— Our Vienna con espondent writes us, " I was 

 recently present at the trials made with a new 

 pistol invented by Mr. Marcus, a distinguished 

 mechanical engineer. In this invention the use 

 of a cartridge is dispensed with, the bullet itself 

 being prepared with an explosive. But, in spite 

 of this explosive nature of the bullet, its shape is 

 not altered by the explosion. The explosion is 

 initiated by a simple mechanism provided in the 

 interior of the pistol. The experiments were 

 made with a single-barrel pistolet (the barrel be- 

 ing four centimetres long, and its caliber six mil- 

 limetres). At a range of thirty paces a three- 

 quarter-inch thick wooden board was pierced by 



