30 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. IV., No. 74. 



merits have been made to ascertain whether the level 

 of the quicksilver in this basin remains unchanged 

 after any slight motion. To test this, alternate ob- 

 servations were made with the amalgamated and 

 with the ordinary basin. The results show conclu- 

 sively that the amalgamated basin preserves its level 

 perfectly. Moreover, the disturbance produced by 

 the passage of carriages in the neighboring street is 

 scarcely perceptible, so that it is now possible to 

 observe the nadir at any hour of the day with per- 

 fect ease. The result is, that one of the great objec- 

 tions to building an observatory in the neighborhood 

 of a railway is done away with. 



— A new observatory has been recently established 

 on a mountain in the south of France, known as Pic 

 de Midi. Here Mr. Thollon has erected his most 

 powerful spectroscope, and reports that he can see 

 daily forty rays of the chromosphere in a region 

 where ordinarily only eight are visible. He also 

 makes the new and interesting observation that the 

 granulations of the photosphere are visible in his spec- 

 troscope as fine striae extending through the whole 

 length of the spectrum. What is yet more curious, 

 similar granulations seem to show themselves in the 

 chromosphere, being indicated by the character of 

 the hydrogen lines, which are broken up into small 

 pieces instead of being continuous. It may be re- 

 marked, in this connection, that this observatory is 

 not a purely governmental one, but has been con- 

 structed with the funds donated by various private 

 individuals and scientific bodies of France. 



— The University of the state of Missouri has 

 commenced the issue of a Bulletin of its museum by 

 the publication of a paper on Niagara fossils by Prof. 

 J. W. Spencer, its director. It is mostly devoted to 

 graptolites and Stromatoporidae of this formation, 

 and is illustrated by eight plates, rather rudely exe- 

 cuted, but apparently tolerably well drawn. 



— The Academy announces that Professor Mayor 

 of St. John's college, Cambridge, will be obliged by 

 the communication of any reminiscences of the late 

 Dr. Isaac Todhunter, or of any letters written by him. 



— Engineers, manufacturers, and others interested 

 in the progress of mechanical science, and wishing 

 to attend the meetings of the mechanical section of 

 the American association at Philadelphia next Sep- 

 tember, should send to the secretary (J. B. Webb), 

 at Ithaca, N.Y., for membership blanks, or abstract 

 blanks in case it is their intention to prepare a paper 

 for the meeting. 



— It is reported that Prof. C. E. Bessey, of the 

 State agricultural college of Iowa, has been offered 

 a professorship of botany and horticulture at the 

 University of Nebraska. 



— We learn from Engineering, that Hirn, the French 

 astronomer and physicist, has devised an apparatus 

 for determining the actual calorific power of the solar 

 rays. An alembic of copper containing sulphuric 

 ether is exposed to the sunshine. The heat absorbed 

 volatilizes the liquid, which is condensed in the 



alembic. Eegnault's formula is employed to calculate 

 the solar heat absorbed from the quantity of liquid 

 condensed. 



— According to the tables recently published by 

 the Direction generale des contributions indirectes, 

 the total production of alcohols in 1883 amounted to 

 2,011,016 hectolitres. This is an increase of 244,450 

 hectolitres over the year 1882, and 508,439 hectolitres 

 more than the mean of the last ten years. This in- 

 crease is due in great part to the advance made in the 

 manufacture of spirituous liquors by the distillation 

 of farinaceous substances. 



— The fifth annual report of the museum of the 

 Ohio Wesleyan university states that the additions 

 during the year amounted to seventeen hundred and 

 ninety. The need of more shelf-room is much felt. 



— Dr. H. Ploss, whose well-known work, ' Das kind 

 in brauch und sitte der volker,' appeared last year in 

 its second edition, announces for immediate publi- 

 cation, in parts, ' Das weib in der na ur- und volker- 

 kunde.' The prospectus states that it will treat of 

 the natural history of woman, principally from an 

 anthropological stand-point, and as it appears to the 

 naturalist and sociologist. The work is to be pub- 

 lished at Leipzig, by Grieben, in eight lief erungen : 

 price two marks each. When complete, they will 

 form two volumes, 8vo. 



— There are now twenty-three countries with a 

 total population of 241,973,011, in which the metric 

 system of weights and measures is the legal standard ; 

 four (Canada, Great Britain, United States, and 

 Persia) with a population of 97,639,825, in which the 

 system may be used ; and six, including Russia and 

 British India, with a population of 333,266,386, in 

 which the system has no legal standing. 



— The report of the North Carolina agricultural 

 experiment-station for 1883 is almost wholly devoted 

 to commercial fertilizers; although a few analyses of 

 fodders are reported, and more or less work is men- 

 tioned as having been done for the state geologist 

 and the state board of health which is not reported 

 here. The most generally interesting portion of the 

 report is that concerning the recently explored 

 deposits of phosphatic nodules and rock in the state, 

 some account of which has already been given by 

 Dr. Dabney in Science, iii. 31. 



— A convention of agricultural chemists, which 

 met in Atlanta, Ga., May 15 and 16, appointed Prof. 

 S. W. Johnson of Connecticut, Prof. H. C. White of 

 Georgia, and Prof. W. C. Stubbs of Alabama, a com- 

 mittee to propose a method for the determination of 

 phosphoric acid in fertilizers. Their report, which 

 is too long for reproduction here, recommends a. 

 method for general use for the twelve months follow- 

 ing its date, and promises further investigation and 

 a report at a future time. It was resolved by the 

 convention, " that this method be not considered as 

 binding upon any one, but that the convention rec- 

 ommends it to the profession, and hopes that all not. 

 bound by conflicting obligations will follow it." 



