294 



SCIEJ^CJE. 



[Vol. IX., No. 216 



ierre for Jan. 1. It is on the relation of the state 

 •of the weather to the distance at which church- 

 bells may be heard, by P. J. DeRidder of Lebbeke 

 in Belgium, who kept a record of the church-bells 

 and the weather from 1870 to 1882. He finds that 

 the sounds are heard farthest when the movement 

 of the air is cyclonic, or, if calm, when the air is 

 very moist: sometimes contrary winds make no ob- 

 stacle to sound-transmission. Sounds are heard at 

 the greatest distance between one and two o'clock 

 in the morning. Certain clocks, situated six and 

 eight kilometres south-west of Lebbeke, are called 

 waterJcloJcJcen by the country-folk, because a rainy 

 period always sets in soon after they are heard. 



— Dr. Bowditch reports a case of lead-poison- 

 ing in which the only discoverable source of the 

 lead was the solder used in the kettle in which 

 "water was boiled. 



— Messrs. Nicholls and Bailey recently contrib- 

 uted to Nature the results of a series of observa- 

 tions made by them to test the acuteness of smell 

 in the different sexes and in different individuals. 

 The sense of smell in the male was found to be 

 more acute, on the average, than in the female 

 :sex. In some individuals it was so keen as to de- 

 tect one part of prussic acid in two million parts 

 of water. Several substances were experimented 

 with, and the following is a summary of the re- 

 sults, the figures indicating the average limit of 

 -delicacy of perception : — Cloves : males, 1 in 88,- 

 128 ; females, 1 in 50,667. Nitrite of amyl : 

 males, 1 in 783,370 ; females, 1 in 311,330. Ex- 

 tract of garlic : males, 1 in 57,927 ; females, 1 in 

 43,900. Bromine : males, 1 in 49,254 ; females, 

 1 in 16,244. Prussic acid : males, 1 in 112,000 ; 

 females, 1 in 18,000. 



— At a recent meeting of the Paris biological 

 society, M. Gr^haut read a paper on ' The preven- 

 tion of accidents from suffocation while descend- 

 ing into wells.' After referring to the cause of 

 the suffocation, namely, carbonic-acid gas, and 

 the well-known expedient of first lowering an 

 animal into the well, he gives the following direc- 

 tions for ventilation : a stove-pipe ten or twelve 

 feet longer than the well is deep is to be secured 

 by wires in the axis of the well ; a grate on which 

 a fire can be built is then to be placed around this 

 pipe at the level o" the ground ; and a second pipe, 

 larger than the first, is then to be placed upon the 

 grate, with the first pipe inside ; and on the grate, 

 and between the two pipes, a fire is to be built. 

 The inner pipe being heated, a current is created, 

 resulting in the ascent of the impure air of the 

 "well, and its replacement by fresh air from with- 

 out. 



— The following course of lectures is now^ in 

 progress at De Pauw university : March 8, ' The 

 earth,' Pres. T. C. Mendenhall, Rose polytechnic in- 

 stitute ; March 14, ' The germ-theory of disease,' 

 Prof. J. M. Coulter, Wabash college ; April 4, ' Gla- 

 ciers, past and present,' Prof. O.P.Jenkins, DePauw 

 university ; April 11, ' Charles Darwin,' Pres. D. 

 S. Jordan, Indiana university ; April 18, ' A beam 

 of light,' Prof. J. B. DeMotte, DePauw univer- 

 sity ; April 25, ' Spectrum analysis," Prof. P. S. 

 Baker, DePauw university ; May 2, ' The sun,' 

 Prof. J. P. D. John, DePauw university, 



— Summer courses are offered by Harvard col- 

 lege in chemistry, f hysics, botany, and geology. 



— A very interesting philosophical work, by 

 Prof. George T. Ladd of Yale, will shortly be 

 published. It is entitled ' Physiological psy- 

 chology,' and will be especially important just at 

 this time, because, if our understanding of its 

 scope and method is correct, it will maintain a 

 philosophical and psychological stand-point, while 

 admitting to their proper place the conclusions 

 reached by physiology respecting the nature and 

 functions of the nervous system. President Mc- 

 Cosh's book on the ' Motive powers ' is also nearly 

 ready. 



— The Turkish government has under public ex- 

 amination and supervision a large school for liv- 

 ing languages. The British government is con- 

 sidering the expediency of imitating the example 

 of the Turk, and a plan for the establishment of 

 such an institution is shortly to be brought before 

 parliament. 



— The council of the Geological society awarded 

 the medals at the anniversary meeting of the so- 

 ciety on the 18th of February as follows : the 

 Wollaston goldmedal to Mr. J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. ; 

 the Murchison medal to the Rev. P. B. Brodie ; 

 the Lyell medal to Mr. S. AUport ; and the Bigsby 

 gold medal to Prof. C. Lapworth. The balances 

 of the funds at the disposal of the society are 

 awarded as follows : the Wollaston fund to Mr. B. 

 N. Peach ; the Murchison fund to Mr. R. Kidston ; 

 and the Lyell fund to the Rev. Osmond Fisher. 



— In noticing the tenth report of the Historical 

 manuscripts commission, the Athenaeum reviewer 

 says, "The latest publication of the manuscripts 

 commission is an excellent example of the method 

 of modern historical research. The national 

 school of history which flourishes under the 

 direction of the master of the rolls is notoriously 

 engaged in the collection of every well-authen- 

 ticated scrap of manuscript material that is 

 capable of illustrating some epoch or incident of 

 English history. In this respect it has, perhaps, 



