268 
and decomposed, and in a comparatively few years 
entirely disappear. Carbonic acid of the rain-water 
must be a potent agent in their ultimate solution, as 
it percolates through the sand. While the beach re- 
ceives its constant supplies of shells, no trace of these 
is to be found in the sand immediately back of the 
shore, which in former times received the same in- 
cessant contributions. For similar reasons, no doubt, 
ealeareous fossils are comparatively rare in sand- 
stones, though in many cases their impressions are 
well preserved. 
NOTES AND NEWS. 
Lupwic LIEBRECHT of Lippstadt, in Westphalia, is 
endeavoring to obtain subscriptions from all countries 
to establish a memorial in honor of the late Dr. Her- 
mann Muller, whose biography was briefly given in 
No. 36 of Science. The income is to be applied to the 
support of his family during the life of his widow, 
and thereafter to aid students of the natural sciences 
educated at the public school of Lippstadt. 
— Professor John LeConte has contributed a series 
of physical studies of Lake Tahoe to the recent num- 
bers of the Overland monthly (San Francisco), in 
which he sums up what is known of the lake, and 
suggests lines of work for studious observers to fol- 
low. The greatest depth sounded was sixteen hun- 
dred and forty-five feet, and the lowest temperature 
found was at the bottom, 39°.2 F. Like most deep 
lakes, this one does not freeze, because the winters 
are not long or strong enough to reduce its entire vol- 
ume to a cold below this temperature of maximum 
density. The transparency and color of the water 
are discussed at length, and an abstract of the recent 
Swiss studies of lake-oscillations, or seiches, is given; 
as there is every reason to suppose they must occur 
in our lakes, although not yet recognized here. Ac- 
cording to the most reasonable estimates of mean 
depth, the duration of the longitudinal seiche of 
Lake Tahoe, calculated by Forel’s formula, would be 
eighteen or nineteen minutes; and of the transverse, 
about thirteen minutes. The lake-basin is regarded 
as a ‘plication hollow’ or trough produced between 
two adjacent and parallel mountain ranges. 
— K. and F. N. Spon announce as in preparation ‘A 
history of electricity and of the electric telegraph,’ 
by J.J. Fahie. 
— Messrs. Barry, an old wine and coffee firm of 
London, have since the middle of the last century 
kept a scale for the amusement of their customers. 
The results of the weighings have been regularly 
entered in books kept for the purpose, together with 
the ages and any remarks called for by the clothing 
or other condition of the person weighed. Francis 
Galton, in his search for statistical information of the 
progress of man, has examined these records, and 
published a notice of the results in Nature for Jan. 17. 
The weights of the nobility he especially studied, and 
they show that the variation in weight of this class 
during the year has steadily declined in the past hun- 
dred years from seven to five pounds. Not onlyis there 
a 7 Baa 
SCIENCE. 
Vou. IIl., No. 56. 
this evidence of a more regular and healthy life, but 
the age of greatest weight, which, with the genera- 
tion from 1740 to 1769, was reached at forty-five, be- 
ing at that age about sixteen pounds more than the 
weight of the 1800-1829 generation at the same age. 
While from that age the entire generation declined 
in weight, the tables show that the English nobility 
born in the early part of this century continued to 
increase in weight till at least their seventieth year; 
at their sixty-second year reaching that of their grand- 
parents of the same age, who had been growing lighter 
for nearly twenty vears, the later generation rising in 
weight at almost the same rate at which the earlier 
declined. The men of the last century seemed to 
grow stout in early manhood, then to fall off, while 
those of the present increase steadily with their age. 
— Prof. G. Seguenza continues his studies of the 
quaternary formation of Rizzolo. His last contri- 
bution is devoted to the Ostracoda, and comprises 
about thirty-two pages quarto, with an excellent plate. 
About thirty-five species are mentioned, and more 
are to follow. Ten species are well figured. These 
often elegantly ornamented little creatures have an 
enormous range; some of these Sicilian fossils being 
common to Norway, New Zealand, and Sicily, either 
living or fossil. A number of new species are de- 
scribed. 
— Late signatures of the Proceedings of the U.S. 
national museum contain a catalogue of mollusca 
and echinodermata dredged on the coast of Labrador 
by the expedition under the direction of Mr. W. A. 
Stearns in 1882. This list, which is carefully anno- 
tated, covers eleven pages, is illustrated by a plate, 
and is more complete than any thing hitherto pub- 
lished. It is due to Miss Katherine J. Bush of New 
Haven. This, and another paper by Rosa Smith in 
the same issue, would seem to indicate, that at last, if 
somewhat tardily, women are about to claim their 
share of work and honors by serious zoological in- 
vestigations. 
— Herr R. J. Runeberg, who has been examining 
the Angara River between Yeniseisk. and Irkutsk at 
the request of Sibiriakoff, has returned to St. Peters- 
burg. He reports that the rapids which obstruct 
navigation on the upper part of the Angara may be 
easily removed so as to admit of regular traffic on 
this important Siberian waterway. 
—In a lecture by the Russian academician, Fr. 
Schmidt, on the Vega voyage, the author sees strong 
reasons for doubting the sanguine view of Norden- 
skiold, that commerce may generally or even fre- 
quently find a waterway along the coasts of the 
Siberian Sea. He recalls, among other evidence, the 
experience of Rakhmanin, who wintered twice at 
Spitzbergen, and not less than twenty-six times in 
Novaia Zemlaia, and who found the way to the 
Yenisei open on only five occasions. 
— A society of natural history has been organized 
at Sedalia, Mo.; and an address by F. A. Sampson, 
indicating the objects specially in view, was printed 
in the Sedalia Daily democrat of Feb. 13. 
