8 The West American Scientist. 



NOTES AND NEWS. 



The meteoiite which fell in Okhausk in the province of Perin^ 

 Russia, in August last, is, according to M. A. PavlofT, one of the 

 largest yet known. Its weight before it was broken was about 

 1,100 pounds. This meteorite contains particles oi unoxidized 

 nickel iron, consequently we must classify it with the sporado- 

 siderites and its spherical mineral aggregates bring it under the 

 heading of chondrodites. 



It is probably not generally known that the quicksand is com- 

 posed chiefly of small particles of mica mixed with water. The 

 mica is very smooth and the fragments slip upon each other, so 

 that any heavy body which displaces them will sink until a solid 

 bottom is reached. 



According to the recent investigation of Geiger, Cuno, Penka, 

 and Schraeder, the primitive seat of the Aryans is not to be sought 

 in Central Asia, but in northern and northeastern Europe, and 

 especially in Finnland and in some of the territories belonging 

 before to the ancient Republic of Poland. T e only argument 

 for deriving the proto — Aryans from Central Asia was the belief 

 that Sanskrit comes the nearest to the primitive Aryan speech. 

 But the Lithnanian, a language of the inhabitants of the northern 

 part of ancient Poland, represents a more primitive form of Aryan 

 speech than Sanskrit, hence the arguments of Max Muller, Pott, 

 Lassen and others in favor of Central Asia must be overthrown 

 in favor ol Northern Europe. 



Dr. C. C. Parry and wife expect to return to their home in 

 Davenport, Iowa, for the winter. 



PUBLISHER'S NOTES. 



The Old Curiosity Shop again changes hands, E. M. Haight, of Riverside, Cal., paying the 

 price asked by C. R. Orcutt. 



The Youth's Companion has just finished publishing a serial by J. T. Trowbridge, " Bidinar 

 his Time." During the current year this favorite weekly for young people has given twelve 

 pages nearly everj' week. 



Horticulture by Irrigation is the title of an' excellent little book of 140 pages, Svo., 

 illustrated, by A. E. Gipson, Greeley, Colorado, President of the Colcrado State Horticultural 

 and Forestry Association (price, paper, 50c, cloth, 75c). The information and practical 

 hints it contains will save those intxpvrienced in western ways from making mi-takes and 

 failures, and it is a valuable handbook fur those experienced as well. It will prove of especial 

 value to those who have taken up timber claims. 



Pictorial Guide to the Mammoth Cave of Kentucky, by A. D. Binkerd, M. V., Coc'uan, 

 Ind., 8vo., 112 pages, illustrated, price, 25c, has just been received from the author, who 

 writes that he inttnds to visit San Diego, and perhaps make its his home. 



Tne Westkrn Naturalist of Madison, Wisconsin, has been sold by Frank A. Carr, to the 

 editor of The West American Scientist. Mr. Carr expects to travel in Central America, and 

 has engaged to contribute to the successor of h\s magazine. 



The California Cackler is an excellent monthly for the poultryman, well illustrated and 

 carefully edited, entertaining and instructive. 



A timely article in the July Century is ' Disease Germs and How to Combat Them.' It i s 

 accompanied by a frontispiece portrait of Pasteur, who has made disinfection and fermentation 

 a longer study than hydrophobia, although it is with the latter that his name is more in- 

 timately associated in the public mind. 



