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THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



and seasons of low barometer. In some 

 the escaping gas makes noises that can be 

 heard from sixty feet away. The ground 

 presents no peculiar appearance, except that 

 nothing will grow immediately around the 

 outlets. Some of these places are under 

 houses, or near them, and cause considerable 

 inconvenience. Dr. Parkin believes that the 

 phenomena are connected with the volcanic 

 region of the Eifel. Prof. Lancaster, of 

 Brussels, thinks that the source of the gas 

 is deeply seated in the earth. 



An experiment has been tried at Guild- 

 ford, England, to test Mr. Conder's system 

 for treating and purifying sewage with a list 

 of ingredients, a principal one of which is 

 sulphate of iron. An open wire-work cage 

 containing the purifying material was let 

 down into the sewer and immersed for about 

 an inch and a half in depth into the flowing 

 sediment. The result is reported to have 

 been a vast improvement in the character of 

 the liquid flowing from the drains into the 

 river, and an abatement of nuisance at points 

 where heretofore nuisances and offensive 

 smells had been complained of. 



"Omitting articles in which its occur- 

 rence has been purely accidental," says Mr. 

 A. W. Stokes, in "The Chemical News," 

 " arsenic has been found of late years to be 

 present in some samples of muslins, cre- 

 tonnes, wall-papers, playing-cards, the glaze 

 of some enameled stew-pans, the paper of 

 fancy boxes, and in some furs. These last 

 are usually the furs prepared by amateurs. . . . 

 One has no wish to be an alarmist, or in any 

 way to harass trade, and it must freely be 

 acknowledged that cases of any ill results 

 whatever being traced to the use of these 

 articles are very rare. None the less, seeing 

 how unnecessary they are, and how each 

 year arsenic seems to be finding its way into 

 new quarters, it seems advisable to stop its 

 further progress." 



To furnish the French railroads with 

 cross-ties — 10,000 a day and 3,650,000 a 

 year — more than a thousand fine trees have 

 to be cut down every day. In the United 

 States more than 15,000,000 cross-ties are 

 used yearly, to furnish which requires the 

 destruction of 19*7,600 acres of forests. The 

 "Bulletin du Musee Commercial" estimates 

 the number of logs required for the railways 

 of the world at more than 40,000,000. 



OBITUARY NOTES. 



The Rev. John George Wood, one of the 

 most popular and instructive of natural his- 

 tory writers, died March 3d, while on a visit 

 to Coventry, England. He was born in Lon- 

 don, the son of a surgeon, in 1827, and was 

 graduated from Merton College, Oxford, in 

 1848. He served for two years in the Ana- 

 tomical Museum at Christ Church, Oxford ; 

 held two chaplaincies, and was Precentor of 



the Canterbury Diocesan Choral Union. His 

 best efforts were given to his books, most of 

 which were on natural history. The chief 

 of them was his large " Natural History," in 

 three volumes ; the best known, the " Com- 

 mon Objects of the Seashore." Among the 

 others, besides those of the " Common Ob- 

 jects " series, were his " Popular Natural His- 

 tory," " Sketches and Anecdotes of Animal 

 Life," "The Boys' Own Natural History 

 Book," " My Feathered Friends," " Homes 

 without Hands," "Insects at Home," "Our 

 Garden Friends and Foes," several educa- 

 tional works, and a series of " Natural His- 

 tory Readers " for schools. He edited for 

 some time " The Boys' Own Magazine," and 

 was a popular lecturer. 



Sir William O'SHAUGHNESsy Brooke, 

 F. R. S., who was distinguished by his con- 

 nection with electric telegraphs, died in Eng- 

 land in January. He was Director-General 

 of Telegraphs in India for ten years, and re- 

 ceived a knighthood for his services in es- 

 tablishing telegraphs in that empire. 



Alexander Pagenstecher, Director of 

 the Museum of Natural History at Hamburg, 

 died January 5th, of heart-disease, in his 

 sixty-fourth year. He was for many years 

 Professor of Zoology at Heidelberg, and was 

 the author of a -well-known work on " Uni- 

 versal Zoology" (" Allgemeine Zoologie ")in 

 four volumes'(18'7 5-1881). 



Dr. Johannes Brock, appointed Professor 

 of Natural Science at Gottingen, has recently 

 died there. He was formerly Professor of 

 Zoology at Dorpat, and was well known by 

 reason of a scientific journey to the Indian 

 Archipelago which he undertook under the 

 auspices of the Berlin Academy. 



Dr. J. Sotka, Professor of the German 

 University of Prague, and formerly of the 

 University of Munich, and author of books 

 on bacteria, died by suicide, February 23d. 



Captain John Ericsson, the inventor of 

 the caloric engine, the Monitor, and other 

 useful or warlike agents, died in this city, 

 March 8th, in the eighty-sixth year of his 

 age. He was a native of Sweden and came 

 of a family of engineers. He showed his 

 inventive capacity at an early age. He 

 came to this country in 1839, and two years 

 afterward began the Princeton, the first 

 naval vessel to carry her machinery under 

 the water-line and out of the reach of the 

 enemy's shot. His name is also identified 

 with the invention of the submarine boat 

 Destroyer, sun motor, and submarine motor ; 

 and some of his unpatented inventions are 

 in the hands of the Delamater Iron Company. 



The Rev. Dr. Churchill Babington, an 

 English botanist, died January 12th, at 

 Cockfield Rectory. He was a contributor to 

 Sir J. Hooker's " Journal of Botany and Kew 

 Miscellany." 



