May 29, 1885.] 



SCIENCE, 



451 



issued contains reviews of physics of the earth, by 

 Zoppritz; geographic meteorology, by Hann; Euro- 

 pean geodesy, by Oppolzer; geography of plants by 

 Drude, of animals by Schmarda; and ethnological 

 investigation, by Gerland. It is as indispensable as 

 the earlier volumes to those who wish the broader 

 view of these comprehensive subjects. 



— The following temperatures and specific gravities 

 of surface water in the Mississippi River were taken 

 on March 1 and 2, 1885, from the South Pass to the 

 mouth of the river, by the officers of the U. S. fish- 

 commission steamer Albatross. From 7 p.m. of 

 March 1, to 3 a.m. of March 2, the course of the ship 

 was S.E. f E., with a speed of 8.2 knots. 











Specific 









Corrected 



gravity re- 



Hour. 



Locality. 





tempera- 

 ture, F. 



duced to 



temperature 



of 60° F. 



5 P.M 



Bouth Pass . 





41° 



1.00136 



5.30 " . . . . 



Jetties . . 





41° 



1.00136 



6 " . . . . 



Off Jetties . 





54° 



1.01039 



7 " . 



tt (i 





58° 



1.01413 



8 " . . . . 



« ii 





58° 



1.01495 



9 " . . . . 



<< (« 





62° 



1.01514 



10 " . . . . 



(i (« 





57° 



1.01820 



11 '«.... 



(i << 





58° 



1.01989 



12 M 



(« (< 





64° 



1.02564 



1 A.M 



" " 





65° 



1.02714 



2 " . . . . 



<« (< 





66° 



1.02754 



3 " . . . . 



<< <( 





61° 



1.02809 



6.27 "... .j 



Lat. 28°00 / 15 / 

 Long. 87° 42W 





•r m \ 66° 



1.02823 



8 P.M | 



Lat. 28° 05'00 

 Long. 87°56 / 15 / 





r t j 66° 



1.02819 



— Capt. Magee of the schooner Henry Waddington 

 reports that he passed close to a white whale on 

 March 1, in latitude 27° 3' north, longitude 75° 30" 

 west. This position off the Bahamas is unusual, as 

 the white whale is usually found in northern waters. 

 The portion of the whale seen was entirely white, 

 and about thirty feet long. 



— Dr. Klein has been experimenting with chlo- 

 rine as an air-disinfectant, especially in respect to 

 swine- disease, this being easily conveyed by the air. 

 He experimented with two pigs — one healthy, the 

 other diseased — confined in the same stable, and in an 

 atmosphere impregnated with as much chlorine as the 

 animals could endure without evincing discomfort. 

 The healthy pig remained well for as long a time as 

 six hours, for five successive days, provided the air in 

 the compartment was maintained well-fumigated with 

 chlorine gas ; two good fumigations, up to a marked 

 pungency in the six hours, being required. One good 

 fumigation would effectually disinfect a compartment 

 in which a diseased pig had been. 



— A new map of north-western Afghanistan, on 

 the larger and more convenient scale of ten miles to 

 the inch, has been issued by the English war office. 



— The increase in the price of boxwood for loom- 

 shuttles has directed attention to the possibility of 

 producing some cheaper material equally suitable. 

 It has been found that compressed teak will answer 



the purpose; and a powerful hydraulic press has just 

 been completed by Sir Joseph Whitworth of Man- 

 chester, Eng., for Mr. Robert Pickles of Burnby, to 

 be used in compressing this class of timber for the 

 manufacture of loom-shuttles. 



— Baron Miklouho-Maclay writes to Nature from 

 the biological station near Sydney, Australia, that he 

 has found the temperature of the body of Echidna 

 hystrix to be (average of three observations) 28° C, 

 and that of Ornithorhynchus paradoxus (two ob- 

 servations) 24.8° C. These temperatures present a 

 special interest, comparing them with the mean tem- 

 perature of the body of mammalia in general, which 

 is (after Dr. J. Davy's observations of thirty-one dif- 

 ferent species) 38.4° C. 



— The hydrographical researches in Davis Strait, 

 says Scandinavia, further corroborate the evidence 

 that there exists in this place a warm undercurrent; 

 for it was found that the highest temperature, when 

 the depth is more than a couple of hundred fathoms, 

 is nearest the bottom. The results of the haulings 

 and scrapings, extending to a depth of three hundred 

 fathoms, in Davis and Disco Bays, were many varie- 

 ties of lower animals, a few of which were new spe- 

 cies. Davis Strait is a favorite ground for deep-sea 

 dredging; for on the 28th of June, 1845, Henry God- 

 rey, a member of the Sir John Franklin expedition, 

 obtained in Davis Strait, from the depth of three 

 hundred fathoms, a capital haul, — Mollu sea, Crus- 

 tacea, Asterida, etc. 



— Dr. Leonard Weber published in the Elektro- 

 technische zeitschrift a paper on the estimation of the 

 illumination which a light of any given strength 

 would give upon a table, or on a wall, or any other 

 object which it might be desired to illuminate ; his 

 point being to consider not only the intensity of the 

 source of light, but also the position in which the light 

 should be placed to render it available to the highest 

 degree. 



— Woeikof of St. Petersburg contributes to the 

 Geneva Archives des sciences a sample chapter in 

 French from his recent work in Russian on clima- 

 tology, describing the supply and discharge of the 

 rivers and lakes of Russia. The most characteristic 

 examples of river-discharge of the Russian type in- 

 clude such rivers as the Volga, Kama, and Moskva, 

 which rise to high flood regularly once a year in April 

 or May, when the winter snowfall melts and flows 

 away. The Moskva, which has been carefully gauged 

 in recent years, discharged 93,000,000 cubic metres 

 in the twenty-five days from April 16 to May 10: 

 during the rest of the year, the total discharge was 

 only 85,000,000. The Neva, a lacustrine river, is, of 

 course, much more regular in its flow: it carries out 

 about one-eleventh of the volume of Lake Ladoga 

 every year. Evaporation on the Caspian is estimated 

 at a little over a metre a year, but fine exactness is 

 not claimed for this result. 



— The long series of experiments made during last 

 summer and autumn at the South Foreland light, 

 England, to test the respective merits of oil, gas, and 

 electricity, for lighthouse illumination, will shortly be 



