100 



SCIENCE, 



[Vol. VI., No. 130. 



merable and incalculable. For ventilation, aerating 

 water without carbonic acid, for increasing the heat 

 of blast-furnaces and the light of lamps, its uses are 

 self-evident. The nitrogen, which was at first looked 

 upon as wasted, has, by a process due to the same 

 inventors, been turned into ammoniacal salts for 

 manure. Most of the uses of these products were 

 known. What is claimed is the almost fabulous re- 

 duction in the cost of production. The chemical text- 

 books, according to Messrs. Brin, are at fault as to the 

 possibilities of baryta. They all teach that it is de- 

 structible; and the Brins maintain, that, as they know 

 how to treat it, it is indestructible. Oxygen in large 

 quantities means a revolution in half the processes 

 of chemical industries. 



— Before the Amherst-college science association 

 (see Science, v. iii. p. 340), the following addresses 

 have been given, and papers read, during the past 

 year: German university life, by G. G. Pond, M.A. ; 

 Origin of the vertebrate type, by Prof. J. M. Tyler; 

 The chemistry of photography, by H. B. Ames ; Arti- 

 ficial diamonds, by E. H. Smith; Chemistry and its 

 relations, by Prof. E. P. Harris; Post-routes during 

 the siege of Paris, by W. I. Fletcher, M.A. ; Atomic 

 weights, by W. H. Hallock; Relation of literature to 

 science, by President J. H. Seelye; Torpedoes, by J. W. 

 Morris ; Relation of the mind to the body, by I. H. 

 Upton; Storms, by A. F. Stone; Geology of regions 

 about the Rhine, by Prof. B. K. Emerson; Mar- 

 riage, by Dr. E. Hitchcock; Labrador, by W. A. 

 Stearns ; Astronomical photography, by Prof. David 

 P. Todd; Nebular hypothesis, by Prof. B. K. Emer- 

 son; Migration of birds, by F. T. Jencks; Relations 

 of animal to human psychology, by Prof. J. M. Tyler; 

 Geology of South Africa, by B. N. Bridgman ; How 

 to choose a physician, by Dr. H. H. Seelye. 



— The geological survey of Pennsylvania has now 

 collected the various maps of the Panther-Qreek and 

 other coal-basins of that state, to form part i. of its 

 ' grand atlas ' of the anthracite coal-fields. It con- 

 tains twenty-six sheets relating to the eastern end 

 of the western, middle, and southern fields in four 

 counties of the eastern part of the state. They have 

 been published before by instalments, and noticed 

 by us at different times; but their collection into a 

 single atlas marks a welcome stage of that part of 

 the work, under the superintendence of Mr. Ash- 

 burner. 



— Rear-admiral English, who was recently in the 

 Kongo country, has made a report to the Navy de- 

 partment in regard to the advisability of establishing 

 a commercial station at the mouth of the Kongo 

 River, or of securing a limited district for a depot 

 and * factorial establishment ' for American citizens 

 in that region. He says that the investigations made 

 by Commander Bridgman and U. S. commercial 

 agent Tisdell show that all the available land has 

 been acquired for the nation by the trading-house 

 employees, and is held at extravagant prices. Under 

 these circumstances. Admiral English deemed it 

 unnecessary to take any further action, and was of 

 opinion that to establish a proposed coaling-depot at 



the Kongo would be unwise and unnecessary. Ad- 

 miral English quotes from a letter from Tisdell, in 

 which he says, ''The reputed wealth of the Kongo 

 valley has been greatly exaggerated, and it will be 

 an undesirable and unprofitable country for an 

 xlmerican to make his home or to embark in any 

 business enterprise. Between Vivi and Stanley Pool 

 I saw on all sides misery, want, sickness, and death, 

 particularly among the employees of the Interna- 

 tional association. The country does not and can 

 not produce food for the white man to live upon, 

 and barely produces enough for the natives." This 

 opinion is confirmed by Commander Bridgman of the 

 Kearsarge, who says that it would be unwise for the 

 government to do any thing to encourage Americans 

 to go to that region. Commander Bridgman has no 

 faith in the future of the Kongo predicted for it by 

 interested parties. 



— At the meeting of the Gas institute held in 

 Manchester, Eng., in June, Mr. William Gadd read a 

 paper on the effects of heating air upon combustion. 

 For a considerable period, on purely theoretical 

 grounds, Mr. Gadd had strongly doubted the value of 

 heated air at ordinary pressure as a means of inten- 

 sifying or causing more perfect combustion. Recent 

 investigations strengthened his doubts to an enor- 

 mous extent. An observation made by Professor 

 Dixon, in connection with some experiments on a 

 certain regenerator-burner, in which he found that 

 a small quantity of air let in at the bottom or lower 

 part of the lamp much increased the intensity, pro- 

 duced a strong impression on his mind, and confirmed 

 the views he liad formed. He therefore resolved to 

 devise some simple experiment which would deter- 

 mine the point. He employed many methods which 

 showed, all of them, in some degree the expected 

 result, and strengthened the belief in the discovery 

 which theory pointed out. He was at last enabled 

 to formulate a method to make the conclusions un- 

 mistakable and plain. He found a peculiar phenom- 

 enon of flame, which he termed ' a balanced flame 

 of imperfect combustion.' In this he recognized the 

 means for what he conceived to be complete demon- 

 stration of that which he had long suspected; namely, 

 that, so far from the heating of air in passages at 

 constant or ordinary pressure increasing combustion, 

 it actually retarded or rendered combustion more 

 imperfect. Mr. Gadd described his experiment, and 

 produced before the meeting the ' balanced flame ' 

 he spoke of. His conclusions were strongly contested . 

 by several speakers. 



— The slight epidemic of small-pox in Berne last 

 winter has hastened the passing of the new vaccina- 

 tion act there, which differs slightly from the previous 

 one. Vaccination is not to be invariably compulsory, 

 a physician's recommendation being sufiicient if 

 dispensed with. As a rule, animal lymph, not hu- 

 man, must be used, and the consent of the parents is 

 requisite. The state will provide the doctors with 

 lymph, the doctors undertaking to vaccinate gratis. 

 Any doctor can be prosecuted for injury caused by 

 careless vaccination. 



