172 The West American Scieiitist. 



BRIEF AR TICLES. 



Origin of the Danube. — A French geographer, Mons. De 

 Wogan, has made the surprising intimation that the true source 

 of the Danube is not yet generally known. He has found by 

 means of a canoe voyage, that the great river is formed by the 

 junction at Donouschingen of two small streams, the Brig or Brig- 

 ach and the Breg or Bregach. The former rises about a mile 

 from the source of the Nechar, whose waters flow into the Rhine. 



Effect of Hot Drinks. — By direct experiment on human 

 subjects, and the use of a tube for examining the contents of the 

 stomach at intervals, Dr. V. E. Nyeshel, of St. Petersburg, has 

 ascertained that a healthy person may drink three tumblerfuls of 

 hot tea after a meal without perceptibly affecting digestion, but 

 that a greater quantity of hot drink retards the digestive process. 

 No difference could be detected between the rate of digestion of 

 hot and cold food. 



NECROLOGY. 



Henry Whitall, professor Astromomy at Belvidere Seminary, 

 N. J., died June 4, in London, England, aged 75. 



Rev. Roswell Dwight Hitchcock, D. D., LL. D., president of 

 the Union Theological Seminary, died June 16, aged 7c, 



Rev. Mark Hopkins, D. D., LL. D., born at at Stockbridge, 

 Mass., February 4, 1802, died at Williamstown, Mass., June 17. 



Allen Y. Moore, a prominent American microscopist, is dead. 



John Sang, a British entomologist, died March 2, at the age of 

 59 years. He was especially interested in moths, and was an 

 excellent artist 



Dr. J. S. Polyakow, a Siberian explorer, of the Zoological 

 Museum of St. Petersburg University, died April 17. 



EDITORIAL. 



Great Britain. — W. P. Collins, 157 Great Pordand Street, 

 London, England, becomes the general agent in Great Britain for 

 this magazine. Our subscription price to any foreign country in 

 the postal union is $1.25, equivalent to 5 shillings in English 

 money. 



The Hoosier Naturalist.-— This excellent low-priced maga- 

 zine was established some two years ago, and has been largely 

 devoted to birds and taxidermy. The publishers, R. B. Trouslot 

 & Co., of Valparaiso, Indiana, have sold their interests to the 

 editor of the West American Scientist, with which it will be 

 consolidated. The transfer was made at the close of the second 

 volume of the Hoosier Naturalist, ending with the July issue. 



