JUNE 138, 1884.] 
— The physical control of the character of sedi- 
ments described by Rutot (see Science, 1888, ii. 560) 
is now considered by another Belgian geologist, Van 
den Broek, as the basis for a new style of classifica- 
tion of certain geological deposits; namely, for those 
fragmental strata, accumulated around the margin of 
oceanic areas, in which the alternation from coarse 
to fine sediments shows a variation in the depth of 
the water in which the accumulations were made. 
The work is an extension of the idea so well pre- 
sented in Professor Newberry’s ‘Circles of deposi- 
tion’ some years ago. 
— A meeting was held in Boston recently, at the 
rooms of the American academy of arts and sciences, 
to consider the advisability of forming a New-Eng- 
land society for observation and study of meteor- 
ology. Prof. W. H. Niles of the Massachusetts 
institute of technology was elected chairman, and 
Mr. W. M. Davis of Harvard college, secretary. 
After an informal discussion of the method and aims 
of such a society, a committee, consisting of Profes- 
sor Winslow Upton of Brown university, Professor 
Arthur Searle of the Harvard college observatory, 
and Mr. Davis, was appointed to consider further 
plans for organization and work, and to report at a 
meeting to be called at an early date. 
— Cosmos les mondes gives the following descrip- 
tion of the Skrivanow pocket-battery. The element 
is constructed of sheet zinc and silver chloride 
wrapped in parchment paper, immersed in a solution 
of seventy-five parts of caustic potash, and a hun- 
dred of water. The whole is placed in a small trough 
of gutta-percha, which can be closed hermetically. 
The conductors and external contacts are of silver. 
Such an element, when complete, weighs about a 
hundred grams. Its electromotive force is 1.45 to 
1.50 volt, and it yields for an hour a current of one 
ampere. 
— Mr. Richard Jones, who has for many years de- 
yoted his attention to the preservation of meat, has 
now adopted anew process. The principle consists 
in the injection of a fluid preparation of boracic acid 
into the blood of the animal immediately after it has 
been stunned, and before its heart has ceased to beat; 
the whole operation, including the removal of the 
blood and chemical fluid from the body of the ani- 
mal, only taking a few minutes. The quantity of 
boracic acid used is very small, and that little is al- 
most immediately drawn out again with the blood. 
The preservation of the flesh is said to be thoroughly 
effected: the quantity of the chemical left in the flesh 
must therefore be very small, and can scarcely be in- 
jurious to the human system; for, as Professor Barf 
has proved by experiment, living animals, either of 
the human or other species, do not seem to be injured 
in any way by the consumption of it. A demonstra- 
tion of the effects of the process was given in April 
at the Adelphi Hotel, when the joints cut from a 
sheep that had been hanging for more than seven 
weeks at the house of the Society of arts were cooked 
in various ways; and those present agreed that the 
meat was equal to ordinary butcher’s meat. 
SCIENCE. 
743 
— Mr. G. F. Kunz exhibited, at arecent meeting of 
the New-York academy of sciences, two ancient im- 
ages of the llama and vicuna from the interior of 
Peru. They weighed six ounces each, and were both 
of solid silver, with the exception of the bodies, which 
were filled with some earthy material. The llama 
had evidently been acted upon by substances in the 
soil, which left the silver in a remarkably pure state; 
and the workmanship on this figure, especially the 
hair reproduction, was very fine. The vicuna is not 
of so pure silver, and is in a very good state of 
preservation. Mr. Kunz explained that a famine in 
the interior of the country had caused the graves to 
be despoiled of many thousand ounces of ornaments, 
which were carried to the seacoast, and there sold 
for their weight in silver and gold. 
—Itis said that a wild-flowers protection act has 
been introduced in the British house of commons, by 
the provisions of which any one, for twenty years to 
come, found grubbing up a fern, primrose, violet, or 
in fact any of the indigenous blossoms, shall be subject 
to fine and imprisonment. ‘The inhabitants of Corn- 
wall and Devonshire, those lands of fern, have been: 
advertising largely their willingness to denude their 
own counties to supply the cities, —a process made 
easy by the parcel-post. 
— The success of the late international exposition 
at Amsterdam has tempted the Colonial society of the 
Netherlands to propose the establishment of a peri- 
odical in French and Dutch, under the name of the 
Revue coloniale et internationale, in which those inter- 
ested, of whatever nationality, can discuss with free- 
dom any questions relating to colonial affairs. It is 
proposed to divide the contents into three sections, 
relating respectively to commerce and industry, goy- 
ernment, and geography and ethnology. The sup- 
port of geographers, in general, is requested toward 
the carrying-out of this programme. 
- —Some English tourists, including Mr. Graham of 
the Alpine club, have engaged two guides from the 
Bernese Oberland, and proceeded to India with the 
intention of scaling some of the high peaks of 
the Himalayas, especially Kabru (238,000 feet) and 
Zubanu (21,000 feet). For the present they will not 
attempt Mount Everest. 
— We learn from Nature, May 29, that the French 
minister of education and the fine arts has proposed. 
to place at the disposal of Pasteur, for the prosecu- 
tion of his scientific experiments, a large domain situ- 
ated at Villeneuve-Etang, which belongs to the state. 
— Bove, after a short excursion on the Upper 
Parana, was to embark for the Falkland Islands 
and Tierra del Fuego. He expects to visit Italy this 
summer, and make preparations for an antarctic 
expedition projected for the year 1885. 
— Widdeman, a French chemist, has observed 
that an insulating-skin can be produced on metal 
wires by decomposing plumbates and alkaline fer- 
rates with the electric current. The method is as 
follows: prepare a bath of plumbate of potash by 
dissolving ten grams of litharge in a litre of water, to 
which two hundred grams of caustic soda has been 
