7 i8 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



of the malformation is provided by itself : 

 " structurally it is handed down to posterity, 

 and mechanically it is increased by the prac- 

 tice which it compels of turning the eyes in- 

 ward to combine upon a very near point." 

 Among the consequences of short-sighted- 

 ness are failure to develop the power of ob- 

 servation ; blindness to the expression of the 

 human face ; an acuteness expending itself 

 upon details with but a restricted power of 

 grasping principles. The remedies proposed 

 for the defect include testing of visual pow- 

 er and limitations of tasks to capabilities, 

 and, in reading matter, large type with the 

 upper part of the letters cut with particu- 

 lar clearness. 



A Tame Gorilla.— An English trader at 

 Ngove, on the southwest coast of Africa, 

 Mr. J. J. Jones, has had for some time a 

 young female gorilla whose docility is most 

 remarkable. Jeannie, as the baby gorilla has 

 been named, sleeps with her master, and 

 follows him wherever he goes, weeping like 

 a child if left behind. She recently accom- 

 panied him on a journey of twenty miles or 

 more, walking all the way. She has ac- 

 quired many civilized tastes and habits, and 

 will drink tea, ale, brandy, etc., out of a 

 cup or glass, displaying the utmost careful- 

 ness not to break the vessel. She will, in 

 fact, do almost anything her master wishes, 

 and is surprisingly intelligent and affection- 

 ate. This is by no means a solitary instance 

 of the facility with which young gorillas 

 can be tamed. The experience of others 

 who have lived in the Fernand Vaz corrobo- 

 rates this statement as to their tractable 

 disposition when treated with kindness, as 

 well as the distress they exhibit if scolded 

 for misconduct. 



Proposed Storage of Nile Floods. — Mr. 



Cope Whitehouse presented before the Brit- 

 ish Association at Bath a plan, which he has 

 been advocating for several years, for storing 

 the surplus waters of the floods of the Nile in 

 the depression called the Raian basin — which 

 he believes to be the site of ancient Lake 

 Moeris — to be drawn off again to irrigate the 

 land of Egypt in the dry season. He computes 

 that a reservoir capable of supplying low 

 Nile with 50,000,000 cubic metres of water 

 a day for 100 days can be made for £500,000. 



The canal of escape for the excess of the 

 Nile flood, to be used as the canal of supply 

 and discharge, can be opened in 300 days, 

 by the excavation and handling of 3,000,000 

 cubic metres of sand, clay, and soft rock. 

 The area and productive wealth of Egypt 

 would be increased by more than one third. 

 No burden would be imposed upon the pres- 

 ent tax-payers. The works would be mainly 

 the utilization and restoration of dikes, 

 canals, and physical characteristics in actual 

 use for the same purpose during 2,000 years, 

 and, in part, in continuous operation from 

 b. c. 1800 to the present time. 



NOTES. 



The National Geographic Society has 

 been organized at Washington " to increase 

 and diffuse geographical knowledge," and will 

 hold fortnightly meetings. It projects a 

 physical atlas of the United States, and has 

 begun the publication of the " National 

 Geographical Magazine." It will give promi- 

 nence to the educational aspect of geographi- 

 cal matters, and will endeavor to stimulate 

 interest in original sources of information. 

 It was organized in January, 1888, has about 

 two hundred active members, and has formed 

 itself into five sections : those of the geog- 

 raphy of the land ; of the sea ; of the air ; 

 of the geographic distribution of life; and 

 of abstract geographic art (map-making, 

 etc.). Mr. Gardner G. Hubbard is president, 

 and Mr. George Kennan Washington, corre- 

 sponding secretary of the society. 



The British Government has yielded to 

 popular clamor so far as to assent to a new 

 and thorough investigation of the merits of 

 vaccination. While assenting to this, it al- 

 lows it to be given out that it sees no neces- 

 sity, in any new facts that have been discov- 

 ered, for such an investigation. It is sug- 

 gested, in connection with a report that has 

 been made to the effect that small-pox hos- 

 pitals for isolation are a positive and deadly 

 nuisance to those around them, that the ques- 

 tion be also asked whether persons or com- 

 munities have a right to concentrate a dis- 

 ease which they may easily avoid by congre- 

 gating patients in such hospitals, to the seri- 

 ous risk of those who live outside. 



Prof. Edward S. Morse has been elected 

 a corresponding member of the Society of 

 Ethnology, Anthropology, and Archaeology, 

 of which Prof. Rudolf Virchow is president. 



The biography, papers, and letters of the 

 late John Ericsson are to be edited by Colo- 

 nel Church, of the " Army and Navy Journal." 

 The Swedes have decided to erect a statue 

 in Stockholm in honor of their distinguished 

 countryman. 



