February 35, 1887.1 



SCI^EJJSrCM 



191 



the city at the time of the earthquake, and has 

 since made a careful investigation of its incidents. 



— Major Powell, director of the geological sur- 

 vey, in a statement which he has furnished for 

 publication, says that there is no present likeli- 

 hood of iron ore being exhausted in this country ; 

 but the remedy for prospective exhaustion is still 

 further exploration for the mines to which the 

 geologist points in various parts of the country. 



— Commissioner Colman of the department of 

 agriculture has issued a circular relating to the so- 

 called ' Australian rabbit.' He says that the name 

 is a misnomer, the animal being the common rab- 

 bit of Europe, which has been introduced in Aus- 

 tralia. He recites its ravages in ttiat country, 

 and says that the introduction of the European 

 species would be an unnecessary and hazardous 

 experiment. He suggests that congress pass a 

 law conferring upon the commissioner of agri- 

 culture the power to prevent the landing of any 

 animal, bird, or other pest, in any port of the 

 United States that in his opinion would be inju- 

 rious to agriculture, in the same way that cattle 

 infected with contagious diseases are now pro- 

 hibited from entering our ports. He cites the 

 case of the English sparrow, to show that it is 

 unwise to transplant species which crowd out the 

 native ones. 



— We learn from the Sidereal messenger for 

 February that Chicago may lose its astronomical 

 observatory. The Dearborn observatory is the 

 property of the Chicago astronomical society, but 

 is upon ground leased to it by the now extinct 

 University of Chicago, and may be required to 

 vacate upon sixty days' notice. The society has 

 received a request to transfer its instruments and 

 library to an institution of learning outside 

 of Chicago, but an effort is being made to obtain 

 another site within the city. 



— Another small comet was discovered by Bar- 

 nard on the evening of Feb. 16. It is visible 

 in a three-inch telescope. The great southern 

 comet seems to have vanished as suddenly as it 

 came. Though careful search has been made for 

 it, we believe it has not been seen in the northern 

 hemisphere. 



— Nine comets passed the sun in review during 

 the year 1886. One was a well-known periodic 

 comet returning at the appointed time ; and two 

 of the new-comers appear to be moving in elliptic 

 orbits, one of them identical, possibly, with De 

 Vico's lost comet of 1844, or at least belonging to 

 the 'same family ' as the latter. Olbers' comet of 

 1815, which was expected at perihelion in Decem- 

 ber, 1886, has not been detected, but, as an uncer- 

 tainty of over three years exists in the time of 



revolution, it may be picked up during the com- 

 ing year. It is the only periodic comet expected 

 in 1887. Two out of the nine comets were dis- 

 covered in 1885, one in 1887, leaving six for 1886. 

 Three were visible to the naked eye. Three be- 

 long to Barnard, three to Brooks. Two were 

 found by Finlay. and one by Fabry. Comet 1886 

 IX. was picked up by three observers indepen- 

 dently on three successive mornings in October, 

 showing what a careful watch is kept for these 

 little wanderers. Mr. Warner has paid eight hun- 

 dred dollars in prize-money for the captures. 



— As a result of the attempts to bring to pass 

 an earlier publication of the Proceedings of the 

 American association, the Proceedings of the Buf- 

 falo meeting held last summer were published 

 during January of this year. Heretofore the Pro- 

 ceedings have not been published much within a 

 year after the date of meeting. This promptness 

 in publication has resulted partly from the re- 

 duced volume of the Proceedings, and partly by 

 obliging the authors of papers to furnish abstracts 

 prior to the time of reading them. Several of the 

 addresses and reports were in type and stereotyped 

 before the meeting, and others were held in type 

 ready to be incorporated in the order of printing. 



— The annual meeting of the Davenport acad- 

 emy of sciences was held in that city Jan. 26. The 

 past year was one of unusual activity in the soci- 

 ety, and large accessions were made to the collec- 

 tions. 



— In the Boston medical and surgical journal 

 we find an extract from the Annales dliygiene et 

 medecine legale which gives the observations of a 

 Fr.nch physician. Dr. Masson, on the footprints 

 which are sometimes found at the scene of a mur- 

 der, and the aid which they furnish in the detec- 

 tion of the perpetrator of the crime. The point 

 which was especially studied was whether the 

 marks discovered were made by one and the 

 same foot, and so by one person only. He found 

 that the same foot would give footprints with very 

 different dimensions, according as it was used in 

 standing or walking, corresponding with the two 

 essential functions of the foot, as an organ of 

 locomotion and of support. It appears to Dr. 

 Masson impossible that two human footprints 

 should closely resemble each other unless the same 

 foot has made them. The impression made by a 

 foot discloses such clear characteristics, the dis- 

 tinctive marks under different conditions are so 

 numerous, the footprints of the same foot are so 

 alike under dissimilar circumstances, that an at- 

 tentive expert, having good footprints to study, 

 ought to arrive at clear and precise conclusions. 

 The toes, the great toe especially, leave marks that 



