482 



SGIBJSCJE. 



[Vol. ]X., No. 224 



NOTES AND NEWS. 

 The New England meteorological society has 

 two special investigations on hand for the coming 

 summer, in addition to its regular work of tem- 

 perature and rainfall observation. The first spe- 

 cial subject is thunder-storms in New Eng- 

 land, now in its third year ; the second is 

 the sea-breeze on the eastern coast of Massa- 

 chusetts, now undertaken for the first time. 

 Volunteer observers are wanted in both in- 

 vestigations. Correspondence concerning thun- 

 der storm observations should be addressed to O. 

 N. Oswell, Cambridge, Mass. ; concerning the sea- 

 breeze, to L. G. Schultz, signal office, Boston, 

 Mass. The considerable labor and expense that 

 these studies involve is made possible to the so- 

 ciety by assistance from the U. S. signal service, 

 the Bache fund of the national academy, and the 

 Harvard college observatory. 



— Carl Gerold's Sohn, Vienna (New Yoik, F. 

 W. Christern), announces the publication of the 

 ' Canon der Finsternisse,' by Th. Ritter von Op- 

 polzer. 



— D. O. Haynes & Co., Detroit, announce the 

 publication of 'The cremation of the dead,' by 

 Hugo Erichsen, M.D., honorary member of the 

 Cremation society of Milan, Italy. It will contain 

 an introduction by Sir T. Spencer Wells, and will 

 treat of the question from an historical, sanitary, 

 medico-legal, religious, aesthetic, and economical 

 stand -point. 



— The cornerstone of the Leland Stanford, jun. , 

 university, perhaps the most magnificently en- 

 dowed institution of learning in the world, was 

 laid at Palo Alto, Cal., May 13. 



— In view of the renewed interest which the 

 Central American states are now attracting, the 

 article on Guatemala by W. T. Brigham, entitled 

 ' An uncommercial republic,' which will appear in 

 the June number of Scrihner's magazine, will be 

 especially timely and valuable. 



— Mr. J. W. Graydon, late lieutenant U. S. 

 navy, has recently been conducting some highly 

 interesting expei'iments in Russia in the manipula- 

 tion of explosives. He has been quite successful 

 in mixing dynamite with ordinary gunpowder, ob- 

 taining greatly increased initial velocities without 

 a corresponding increase in the pressure in the 

 chamber of the gan. A valuable report upon the 

 subject has been received at the navy department, 

 which will soon be published. 



— Mr. John Murray has in press a ' Dictionary 

 of hymnology,' edited by the Rev. John Julian. 

 The aim of the work is to trace the history of the 

 Christian hymns of all ages, and especially of 



those now used in English-speaking countries. 

 Biographical notices will be given of the authors 

 of the hymns, besides historical articles on liturgi- 

 cal music generally. 



— Chapman & Hall will publish the English 

 edition of M. de Lesseps' reminiscences, extend- 

 ing over a period of forty years, in October next, 

 simultaneously with its appearance in Paris. The 

 work will also appear in German, in the first in- 

 stance as a serial in one of the Berlin papers. 



— G. P. Putnam's Sons make the following ad- 

 ditional announcements for the spring season : 

 ' The curability of insanity and the individualized 

 treatment of the insane,' by John S. Butler, M.D., 

 late physician and superintendent of the Connecti- 

 cut retreat for the insane ; and, in the ' Questions 

 of the day ' series, ' The fishery question,' a sum- 

 mary of its history and an analysis of the issues 

 involved, together with a full bibliography of au- 

 thorities to be consulted, and a map of the fishing- 

 grounds, by Charles Isham. 



— The Critic states that a memorial volume of 

 the late Prof. E. L. Youmans will be prepared by 

 his brother and sister, W. J. and Eliza A. You- 

 mans, and that it will contain a number of manu- 

 scripts and important letters, including his corre- 

 spondence with Darwin, Spencer, Mill, Huxley, 

 Tyndall, Lubbock, Agassiz, and other distin- 

 guished persons. 



— An octavo volume of nearly four hundred 

 pages, with facsimiles of the Charter of 1650' of 

 Harvard college and of the first page of the Col- 

 lege Records, with engraved views of the college 

 in 1821, and containing a full report of the cele- 

 bration of the two hundred and fiftieth anni- 

 versary of the founding of the college, is nearly 

 ready for publication by the college. 



— The Ladies' health protective association of 

 New York has six hundred members on its roll. 

 It proposes to devote its energies during the pres- 

 ent year to tenement-house reform, and to im- 

 provement in methods of street-cleaning. 



— A case of fatal cocaine-poisoning is reported 

 in Germany, in which the patient, a girl aged 

 eleven years, died within two minutes after re- 

 ceiving a hypodermic injection under the skin of 

 the arm, consisting of from four to twelve drops 

 (the ex9.ct quantity being unknown) of a four- 

 per-cent solution of the drug. 



— Ernest Ingersoll, in the June number of The 

 American magazine, will describe the • La^it rem- 

 nant of frontier,' — a portion of our country near 

 the north-western boundary, which was an unset- 

 tled and almost unexplored wilderness until pene- 

 trated by the Northern Pacific railroad. 



