312 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. XI. No. 282 



the following : ' Tyrotoxicon, its Presence in Poisonous Ice-Cream,' 

 by Victor C. Vaughan, M.D., Ph.D.; ' Analysis of Five Hundred 

 Deaths occurring in the Michigan Mutual Life Insurance Com- 

 pany,' by Henry F. Lyster, M.D.; ' Causation of Pneumonia,' by 

 Henry B. Baker, M.D., with illustrations, diagrams, etc. ; and ' Com- 

 municable Diseases in Michigan during the Year ending Dec. 31, 

 1886.' 



— The cod and whale fisheries in the north of Norway, according 

 to Nature, have entirely failed this spring, and it is suggested that 

 ■the non-appearance of the former is due to the low temperature of 

 the sea this season. Thus the Russian naval officers stationed on 

 the Murman coast found in May only a surface temperature of from 

 1° to 2° C, and along the Norwegian coast it has been lower still. 

 As to the whale-fishing, only 40 animals had been captured by the 

 end of April, against 200 last year. It is maintained that the pres- 

 ent wholesale slaughter carried out by Norwegian and Russian 

 steamers equipped with harpoon guns will eventually extirpate 

 these animals, and some measure for their preservation is contem- 

 plated. Advices from the Arctic regions state that there was an 

 enormous mass of drift-ice in those waters during this spring. Two 

 sealers, the ' Hekla ' and the famous 'Vega,' were imprisoned for 

 more than a month in the ice to the north-east of Norway. 



— We learn from Nature that the annual meeting for the elec- 

 tion of fellows of the Royal Society was held at the society's 

 rooms in Burlington House on Juhe 7, when the following gentle- 

 men were elected : Thomas Andrews, F.R.S.E. ; James Thomson 

 Bottomley, M.A. ; Charles Vernon Boys; Arthur Herbert Church, 

 M.A. ; Prof. Alfred George Greenhill, M.A. ; Lieut.-Gen. Sir Wil- 

 liam F. D. Jervois, R.E. ; Prof. Charles Lapworth, LL.D. ; Prof. T. 

 Jeffery Parker ; Prof. John Henry Poynting, M.A. ; Prof. William 

 Ramsay, Ph.D. ; Thomas Pridgin Teale, F.R.C.S. ; William Topley, 

 F.G.S. ; Henry Trimen, M.B. ; Prof. Henry Marshall Ward, M.A. ; 

 William Henry White, M.I.C.E. 



— The laying of the corner-stone of the new building of the 

 Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment Station took place Wednes- 

 day, June 27, at State College, Penn. 



— The New York Mineralogical Club has arranged for excur- 

 sions on the Saturday afternoons of the present season. It is in- 

 tended that these outings shall acquaint the members personally 

 with the most interesting localities of the neighborhood ; enable 

 them to secure specimens suitable for the permanent cabinet of the 

 club, as well as for private possession ; and enlarge the influence of 

 the club by associating with its regular members, in these informal 

 trips, any persons of suitable standing (ladies or gentlemen) who 

 may feel an interest therein. 



— The thirty-seventh meeting of the American Association for 

 the Advancement of Science will be held at Cleveland, Aug. 15-21. 

 The date of Aug. 22 was determined upon; but owing to the na- 

 tional gathering of the Knights Templars in Cleveland during that 

 week, and at the earnest solicitations of the local committee, the 

 council have changed the date to Aug. 15. A large local commit- 

 tee has been organized, the several sub-committees of which are 

 •working earnestly, and, so far as depends upon the cpmmittee, a 

 successful meeting is assured. A special office and reception- 

 rooms for the association have been opened at No. 407 Superior 

 Street, next door to the HoUenden, where will be the hotel head- 

 •quarters. The meetings will be held in the Central High School 

 building on Wilson Avenue, where also will be the offices of the 

 local committee and of the permanent secretary during the week of 

 the meeting. A special circular in relation to railroads, hotels, and 

 other matters, will be issued by the local committee. The members of 

 •Section E will hold an informal meeting at the Central High School 

 building on Tuesday, Aug. 14, at 3 o'clock, to consider plans for 

 "holding sessions between the annual meetings of the association. 

 "The Entomological Club will meet at 9 A.M., on Wednesday, Aug. 



15, at the Central High School building. The Botanical Club will 

 hold a meeting, as usual, on the day preceding the meeting of the 

 association, in the Central High School building. The Society for 

 the Promotion of Agricultural Science will hold its ninth annual 

 ■meeting in Cleveland, beginning on Monday evening, Aug. 13, at 

 the Central High School building, and continuing on Tuesday. 



— During the summer of 1887, the manager of the physical and 

 chemical department of James W. Queen & Co., Mr. Joseph J. 

 Walton, made a three-months' tour in Europe for the purpose of 

 perfecting arrangements for the sale of new forms of apparatus in 

 this country, and also to look up any thing new and interesting 

 which would be of value to those interested in these and other 

 branches of science. One of the first places visited was the labo- 

 ratory of Sir William Thomson, at the University in Glasgow. 

 Mr. Walton also had the pleasure of examining the newly equipped 

 laboratory of Professor Ayrton at the City and London Guilds In- 

 stitute, and the Cambridge Scientific Instrument Company stock of 

 physiological apparatus. Another valuable result of the stay in 

 England was the arrangement which has been made for the fur- 

 nishing of practical and cheap apparatus for the use of students in 

 the study of physics by the new method, — that of allowing the 

 student to experiment for himself. A visit was paid to the works 

 of Siemens Brothers & Co. In Paris special attention was paid to 

 the physiological apparatus of Verdin. Special attention was paid, 

 both in Paris and Berlin, to the subject of apparatus for the study 

 of bacteriology. At the well-known house of Duboscq. in Paris, a 

 number of new optical instruments were examined and purchased. 

 Quite a visit was paid to the ateliers of the Societc Genevoise pour 

 la Construction d'Instruments de Physique at Geneva. The optical 

 establishments in Munich were among the places visited. Stein- 

 heil, Merz, and others have long been known as the best makers of 

 prisms, lenses, etc., in Europe. Some new forms of balances were 

 found by Mr. Walton. One has a very ingenious new arrange- 

 ment for varying the sensibility. We may add there are other in- 

 struments of which we have not spoken, for which the firm soon 

 hope to have price-lists ready and to put on the market. Some of 

 these may prove of even greater value than many of those men- 

 tioned. 



— Engineerhig gives an account of a new material bearing the 

 name of ' woodite,' which is being introduced as a protection to 

 ships of war, and for many other purposes. Woodite is a substance 

 bearing a strong resemblance to native india-rubber, but, unlike 

 that material, it never grows sticky, and resists the action of oils 

 and heat. If it be placed on the outside of a vessel, a shot may be 

 driven through it, and yet it will close up so completely that it is 

 difficult to find the speck which marks the spot where the shot 

 entered. Woodite is coming into use for many commercial pur- 

 poses, such as delivery-valves, air-pump valves, packing, wheel- 

 tires, and it is said to be far more efficient for these purposes than 

 either leather or india-rubber. 



— The French General Translantic Company has furnished its 

 large fleet with complete apparatus for dropping oil on the waves 

 during bad weather. The company states that it has adopted the 

 use of oil after repeated trials. 



— Ginn & Co. will publish in July ' A College Algebra ' pre- 

 pared by Professor Wentworth. William S. Gottsberger pub- 

 lishes a volume of five tales of ancient Greece entitled ' Pictures 

 from Hellas,' by Peder Mariager, translated from the Danish by 

 Mary J. Safford. D. C. Heath & Co. will publish at once Vol- 

 ume II. of Dr. Bernhardt's ' Novelletten Bibliothek.' The 



Worthington Company will publish at once a book entitled ' Wil- 

 liam Shakspeare portrayed by Himself : a Revelation of the Poet in 

 the Career and Character of One of his Dramatic Heroes,' by 

 Robert Waters. — — Waterman & Amee, Cambridge, Mass., have 

 in press a volume of ' Selections illustrating Economic History 

 since the Seven-Years' War,' by Benjamin Rand. Prof. Rich- 

 ard T. Ely's treatise on ' Taxation in American States and Cities," 

 recently published by T. Y. Crowell & Co., is to be used as a text- 

 book in the Buffalo Lav,' School and at Vanderbilt University. 



The Historical Publishing Company, 61 Broadway, New York, will 

 publish at once a volume entitled ' Camp-Fire Stories,' by W. F. 

 Cody ('Buffalo Bill'). It is not altogether about his own frontier 

 experiences that Mr. Cody has written, but of those of Daniel 

 Boone, Kit Carson, and other pathfinders. The manuscript, which 

 makes seven hundred printed pages, was dictated to a stenographer 



during ' Buffalo Bill's ' English trip. ' Methods and Aids in 



teaching Geography,' is the title of a new educational work by 

 Charles F. King, A.M., head master of the Dearborn School in 



