286 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. Nc. 2S0 



position of all places indicated on the maps may be readily found. 

 For American towns the population is given with the index. For 

 the eastern hemisphere a separate population table is given. 

 Throughout the work it has been a fixed aim to render the. maps 

 easily legible, and not tiresome to the eye in consultation. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The committee appointed by the New Jersey Assembly of the 

 Agassiz Association at its semi-annual meeting, held in the chapel 

 of Rutgers College, May 12, to arrange for a seaside assembly 

 during the coming summer, organized itself by the election of Rev. 

 L. H. Lighthipe, Woodbridge. N.J., as chairman, and Prof. P. T. 

 Austen of Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N.J., as secretary. 

 The plan as sketched out by the committee is somewhat as fol- 

 lows. The assembly is to be known as the ' Agassiz Seaside As- 

 sembly.' Its membership is to consist of such persons as shall send 

 their names to the secretary before the opening of the assembly, or 

 such as shall be elected members according to by-laws adopted 

 afterward. It is proposed to make it a permanent organization ; 

 the membership fee to be one dollar per year, payable at the open- 

 ing of each annual assembly. Membership badges and tickets will 

 be provided for all who send in their names to the secretary. It is 

 proposed to hold a six-days' session this year, at Asbury Park, 

 N. J., provided suitable accommodations can be secured at that 

 place in the month of August. The subjects to be discussed this 

 year will be principally botany and entomology, under the direction 

 of such practical specialists as can be secured. The work is to 

 include several field-day excursions with experienced guides. Cir- 

 culars setting forth these facts will be sent to all chapters within a 

 radius of one hundred miles, and to any other chapters which may 

 desire them. Chapters failing to receive them, or any persons de- 

 siring copies, can obtain them by addressing the secretary. Prof. 

 P. T. Austen, Rutgers College, New Brunswick, N.J. Members 

 will be entitled to free admission to all lectures and excursions, 

 and will receive circulars before the opening of the assembly, giving 

 full particulars as to time, place, railroad-trains, boarding accom- 

 modations, programme of exercises, etc. Membership is not 

 limited to members of the Agassiz Association. It is extremely 

 desirable that names be sent in as soon as possible, that the com- 

 mittee may know how far they may venture in the matter of ex- 

 penses. All members of the Agassiz Association are cordially in- 

 vited to co-operate with the committee in making the Seaside 

 Assembly a success. 



— According to the Publishers' Weekly, a gypsy-lore society 

 has just been formed. The president is Mr. C. G. Leland ; the 

 vice-president, Mr. H. T. Crofton ; and the members already in- 

 clude the Archduke Joseph of Hungary, Sir Richard Burton, M. 

 Paul Bataillard, Dr. Alexander Paspati, and several more English 

 and continental students of Romany. The society will publish a 

 quarterly journal, the first part of which will appear on July i, and 

 copies of which will be strictly confined to members. The honor- 

 ary secretary is Mr. David MacRitchie, 4 Archibald Place, Edin- 

 burgh. 



— At a late meeting of the mineralogical branch of the New 

 York Academy of Sciences, Mr. George F. Kunz described some re- 

 markably complicated twin diamonds which have proved to be un- 

 usually hard. Some of these will be sent to Professor Rowland of 

 Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, for use in ruling the diffusion 

 gratings he is making, and using in mapping the spectrum of the 

 sun. 



— A new slang dictionary is announced by the Publishers' 

 Weekly, which will aim at exceptional completeness by enlisting 

 the co-operation of specialists in different departments. The 

 editors-in-chief are Prof. Albert Barrere of Woolwich, author of 

 ' Argot and Slang,' and Mr. Charles G. Leland (Hans Breitmann) ; 

 and among the contributors are the Earl of Suffolk, Sir Patrick 

 Colquhoun, Major Arthur Griffiths, Dr. Charles Mackay, Mr. John 

 Hollingshead, Rev. J. W. Horsley, and Prof. Douglas B. W. Saden. 

 The character of the work may be judged from its sub-title : ' A 

 Dictionary of Unconventional Phraseology, embracing English, 

 American, and Colonial Slang ; Tinker's, Yiddish, Pidgin, and 



Anglo-Indian Slang; Quaint Expressions, Vulgarisms — their 

 Origin, Meaning, and Application.' It will be issued in two vol- 

 umes, to subscribers only. Applications for the work should be 

 addressed to G. May, care of Messrs. Whittaker & Co., 2 White 

 Hart Street, Paternoster Square, London. 



— Professor Langley, secretary of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 has asked for an appropriation of $27,050 for the e.xpenses of the 

 system of international exchanges between the United -States and 

 foreign countries under the direction of the Smithsonian Institution, 

 instead of the $1 5,000 previously estimated for. In his letter of ex- 

 planation he says that there is now an amount of matter (virtually 

 presents to the United States) which could be secured if the insti- 

 tution had the larger sum at its disposal. 



— The British Parliamentary Currency Commission will report in 

 favor of the remonitization of silver. It proposes a convention of 

 the leading commercial nations of the world to agree upon a system 

 of weights and coinage under which gold and silver shall be ex- 

 changed in international transactions. If such an agreement could 

 be reached, it would probably be a blessing to the world. No one 

 nation can remonitize silver without the co operation of others, but 

 the whole commercial world can do it. 



— The feature of the meeting of the British Royal Society last 

 week was an exhibition by Mr. Henry Burns of a class of nests of 

 live ants. These were so arranged that all the elaborate internal 

 economy of the insects could be fully observed. A cable despatch 

 says that " in one cell was the queen, with servants attending upon 

 her. In another were the aphides, or cows, watchfully herded by 

 their keepers; and a party of workers were engaged in walling up 

 an intruding queen which had been placed in the nest that morning. 

 The state of ant civilization was so remarkably high, that nobody 

 would have been much surprised at a party of scientific ants in 

 spectacles taking notes on the Royal Society." 



— The Nicaragua Canal surveying party, under Civil Engineer 

 Menocal, have discovered that a new route, which they call ' the 

 upper one,' is much more favorable for the line of the canal than 

 the one recommended in 1885. By this ne\v route it is said that 

 the total length of the excavation from Ochoa to Greytown will 

 not exceed nineteen miles, and will consist of several short embank- 

 ments instead .of one long one. The cost, it is said, will be greatly 

 reduced, and the engineering difficulties much less. 



— A new chemical process of producing aluminium, invented by 

 Professor Curt Netto of Dresden, is thus described : " The ore used 

 is cryolite, a double fluoride of alummium anti sodium, ground to a 

 fine powder, and fluxed with common salt. The ore is then melted 

 in a reverberatory furnace, and when quite liquid is run into a ladle. 

 When in this condition, ingots of solid sodium are forced to the 

 bottom of the ladle, and there held until they become volatilized. 

 The gaseous sodium rising through the molten cryolite displaces a 

 part of the aluminium, which collects in a metallic form at the bot- 

 tom of the ladle. The greater part of the slag is then skimmed off, 

 and the remainder poured into an iron crucible to cool. When the 

 mass is turned out, a solid ingot of aluminium is found at the bot- 

 tom." 



— An item of interest in connection with the proposed introduc- 

 tion of ' World-English ' is going the rounds of the press, crediting 

 President Eliot of Harvard College with having said, " I sat down 

 to dinner one stormy night, in a Swiss inn, with sixteen people. 

 Six different nationalities were represented by these sixteen people, 

 and the only language that they could all speak was English. One 

 may travel now, as I have just travelled, through southern Spain, 

 through northern Africa, through Greece and Constantinople, and 

 back by Vienna, and the more usual routes, with nothing but 

 English. I do not mean to say that you may not occasionally 

 feel the need of some French words, but you can travel comfort- 

 ably through all these countries with no language but English. 

 That, I am sure, could not have been said twenty-five years ago. 

 The spread of the language w'ithm that time for purposes of com- 

 merce is most noticeable, as is also the increased knowledge of the 

 language and literature among educated people on the continent of 

 Europe." 



