522 



SCIENCE. 



To the medical man who would reap the advan- 

 tages held out by Dr. Poore, we confide?itly suggest 

 the value of this journal as a means of accomplishing 

 the ends desired, at the least cost, and most conve- 

 nient form. The impecunious can thus avoid the pur- 

 chase of the mass of scientific literature with which the 

 market is flooded, and the overworked practitioner 

 receiving the journal weekly is not embarrassed by re- 

 dundancy, and yet can safely rely on passing nothing 

 of importance, while articles of special interest to the 

 profession will be constantly brought before his 

 notice. 



In the previous numbers of "Science" may be found 

 valuable articles by Professors Burt G. Wilder and 

 Sage, of Cornell;- Drs. Hammond and Spitzka, of 

 New York; Dr. Clemenger, of Chicago; Dr. J. A. 

 Mason, of Newport, and many other specialists of 

 equal merit. 



Now the value of a knowledge of science, as a 

 means of " getting on" as Huxley terms it, is indubit- 

 able, and while there are few trades in which some 

 knowledge of science may not be profitably applied to 

 the pursuer of his occupation, we think that the 

 words of Dr. Poore must carry conviction, that the 

 student or Physician who would attain the higher 

 stages of development of his art, must be kept " au 

 courant" with such facts and principles, which are 

 weekly published in " Science," for they will probably 

 find their application in every intelligible diagnosis 

 and discussion on medical practice. 

 " Science," November 5th, 1881. 



We learn with regret that Dr. Ed. C. Spitzka, who 

 has been requested to appear in the Guiteau case, by 

 both the Government prosecutor and counsel for the de- 

 fence, has declined to attend. 



The question of mal-practice is not likely to be seri- 

 ously entertained at the trial, and the whole issue will 

 probably rest upon the evidence touching the insanity of 

 the prisoner. 



We should judge from the published papers of Dr. 

 Spitzka that his evidence would be in favor of the 

 prisoner's insanity; it becomes, therefore, the more im- 

 portant that he should attend, as it would avoid the 

 suspicion, in case of conviction, that the assassin had not 

 received a fair trial. 



NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES* 

 October 3, 1881. 

 REGULAR BUSINESS MEETING. 

 Vice-president Dr. B. N. Martin in the Chair. 

 Twenty-five members present. 



After the transaction of business, the members were 

 invited, in accordance with the usual custom at the first 

 meeting of the season, to present notes and observations 

 gathered during the summer, and responses were made 

 by Mrs. E. A. Smith, Prof. C. A. Seeley, and others. 



Mr. W. L. Chamberlain referred to the gold deposits 

 recently opened in Fulton and Saratoga counties, N. Y. 

 The ore consists of auriferous pyrites and is contained in 

 the gneiss of the foothills of the Adirondacks. 



* Official Report. 



Remarks were made, by a member, on a visit to the 

 sandstone quarries at Portland, Conn.: by Mr. Todd, on 

 a peculiar atmospheric phenomenon, a vaporous band 

 stretching across the sky, apparently not auroral, ob- 

 served in the Adirondacks : and by Dr. Martin, on a re- 

 markable atmospheric coloration, luminous brilliance of 

 the clouds, etc. observed last month at Saratoga, in the 

 early morning, attributing it to an abundance of a smoky 

 fog produced by the recent forest fires, and calling atten- 

 tion to the fact that this phenomenon has been noticed 

 only in the territory east of the meridian of Saratoga. 



Mrs. P. Hanaford described the same appearances as 

 seen during the " Yellow Day " Sept. 6, near Boston, 

 and also on Nantucket : another member, as seen in the 

 Genesee valley, explaining that the strong West and 

 Northwest winds prevailing at the time had wafted high 

 in the air vast volumes of smoke derived from the abun- 

 dant forest fires throughout Western N. Y.: Messrs. Todd, 

 Chamberlain, and others, describing the electric brilliance 

 of the gas-lights, the strange modification of the green 

 color of foliage, the absence of smoky odor, etc., as ob- 

 served at Great Barrington, Mass., and in less degree in 

 New York city: Mr. N. L. Britton, on the same facts as 

 observed out at sea, off Fire Island and Montauk Point, 

 Long Island, N. Y.: Prof. D. S. Martin, as observed be- 

 tween Saratoga and Catskill, N. Y., and Prof C. A. 

 Seeley, calling attention to the extremely attenuated 

 character of the carbon particles, produced by their long 

 transportation from distant localities. 



Mr. Geo. F. Kunz mentioned that Mt. Mica, at Paris, 

 Maine, the locality so famous for colored Tourmalines for 

 the last fifty years, had been purchased by a Mining Com- 

 pany and was being worked for Cassitterite, Mica and 

 Tourmaline, principally through the efforts of Dr. A. C. 

 Hamlin of Bangor, Maine. 



Dr. Hamlin has the finest known collection of American 

 Tourmaline, and he recently reported the finding of a 

 crystal three inches long and one-half inch thick, a trans- 

 parent gem, of a beautiful blue-green color. This was 

 taken from the new mine, and many more remarkable 

 specimens may be expected as the work advances. 



Mr. Kunz said that during the last year a German 

 Agate-hunter returned to his native country after 20 years 

 collecting in Brazil, taking with him a large suite of fine 

 colored Tourmalines, some five inches long and not more 

 than one-eighth of an inch thick, transparent, and of a 

 green color; also many fine green crystals with red, yellow, 

 white, and other colored centres, many of these equalling 

 for variety of color anything yet found, most of which will 

 cut as gems. There is also in this lot one exceptionally 

 fine green crystal over one inch square. This collector 

 brought with him also at least ioco kilos of transparent 

 yellow Spodumene, the same as that described by A. 

 Pisani of Paris some eighteen months ago, and is dissimi- 

 lar only in color to the new variety of Spodumene found 

 at Stony Point, North Carolina, described in the February 

 number of the American Journal of Science for 1881, 

 by Dr. J. Lawrence Smith, as Hiddenite. Some of the 

 specimens which he brought will cut as fine yellow gems. 

 All these were found in the Minas Geraes district. 

 Recently a new locality for Chrysoberyl has been found 

 in Ceylon, where they occur of gem value in an unusual 

 variety of color. They vary in color from yellow to 

 brown, and from brown to green. The latter color is the 

 variety known as Alexandrite. This gem has heretofore 

 been found but of very inferior size and color, but here it 

 occurs of remarkable size, having in one case afforded a 

 gem weighing 26 kts. They are a beautiful green color 

 by day and a Columbine red, or brownish red, by night. 

 The Chrysoberyl Cat's Eye is found here of the same 

 color, and possessing the same dichroic property as the 

 Alexandrite, viz., changing color, from green to red, and 

 hence might very properly be called an Alexandrite Cat's 

 Eye. Many of the Chrysoberyls are erroneously called and 

 sold as a variety of sapphire. 



