164 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 159 



that of a fish to that of a human being. The sec- 

 tions are then mounted, one set displaying the 

 structure of the internal part of the cranium, the 

 other representing the bones as they appear from 

 the outside. 



— The 'Geological railway guide ' that was in 

 course of revision for an enlarged second edition 

 by the late James Macfarlane at the time of his 

 death, is now in the hands of his son, James 

 R. Macfarlane, 100 Diamond Street, Pittsburgh. 

 Penn., who will edit and publish the work at an 

 early date. Judging by the sample sheet, from 

 which extracts were given in Science some months 

 ago, the new edition will give a large amount of 

 information directly useful to the travelling geolo- 

 gist, and will be a fitting memorial of its pro- 

 jector. 



— In a discussion of the temperature of Munich 

 by Erk, in the annual volume containing the ob- 

 servations of the Bavarian meteorological stations, 

 the corrections are computed to reduce the mean 

 of certain ordinary hours of observation to the 

 true mean of the day. For the mean of 7.2 and 

 twice 9, the reduction is — 0°.02 C, varying from 

 + 0°.14 in October, to — 0°.16 in May and July; for 

 8.2 and twice 10, it is — C .06, varying from +0°.04 

 in October, to — 0°.17 in April and May ; for the 

 mean of maximum and minimum it is — 0°. 08, vary- 

 ing from 0°.00 in December, to — 0°.30 in October. 

 Similar corrections have been made for a few 

 places in this country. Additional ones are needed 

 for many more stations, on account of the consid- 

 erable diversity of hours of observation still pre- 

 vailing among amateur meteorologists, on whom 

 much of the knowledge of our climatology de- 

 pends. 



— Mr. Alfred Russel Wallace, the eminent nat- 

 uralist, says the Boston Beacon, is quietly plan- 

 ning an early visit to this country. He intends 

 to pass some time in California, but may possibly 

 accept a few invitations to lecture. 



— The Geographisches jahrbuch has just pub- 

 lished interesting statistics in regard to the societies 

 and publications devoted to geographical research. 

 Those who have not been especially interested in 

 these studies will be surprised to learn that there 

 now exist, throughout the world, ninety-four active 

 geographical societies, with a membership of nearly 

 fifty thousand. This does not include fifty-eight 

 societies in which geographical researches are 

 subordinated to others. The entire income of 

 these societies amounts to more than a quarter of 

 million dollars annually, most of which is spent 

 in the publication of transactions or in the further- 

 ance of explorations. Of these ninety-four soci- 

 eties, France has twenty-six, with a membership 



of eighteen thousand ; Germany, twenty - four, 

 with nine thousand members ; Italy and Switzer- 

 land, six each, with three thousand members ; 

 Great Britain and her colonies, five, with five 

 thousand members and an income of nearly sev- 

 enty-five thousand dollars ; the United States, 

 two, with fifteen hundred members. A hundred 

 and twenty-six periodicals are devoted to geogra- 

 phy, of which forty-two are published in French : 

 thirty-eight in German ; eight in Russian ; seven 

 in Italian ; six each in English, Spanish, and Por- 

 tuguese ; and one each in Danish, Hungarian, 

 Swedish, Roumanian, and Japanese. 



— The French academy, says the Revue bota- 

 nique, has recently announced the discovery of 

 the entire efficacy of sulphate of copper in the de- 

 struction of Peronospora viticola, the American 

 fungus or mildew of vines, the great scourge of 

 vineyards over large areas of the United States. 



— The Manchester philosophical and literary 

 society possesses, says the Chemical news, a mi- 

 croscopic slide containing the Lord's prayer, writ- 

 ten within the space of the four-hundred-and- 

 five-thousandth part of an inch. To find this 

 minute speck requires the exercise of much pa- 

 tience, as it is not only necessary to have just the 

 right kind of illumination, but the focus of the 

 lens must be on the true surface of the glass on 

 which the object is written. When once seen 

 with a low power, it is not difficult to find with 

 the same power ; but with the half -inch and 

 higher powers it is always a trial of patience, 

 even when the position of the object has been 

 carefully registered with a lower power, and you 

 are sure that the object is central in the field. 

 Perhaps with the achromatic condenser some of 

 the difficulty may be removed. This wonderfully 

 minute object was written, or rather engraved, by 

 Mr. Webb, years ago, by the aid of an instru- 

 ment now in the possession of the society. Webb 

 was accustomed to write the Lord's prayer in 

 spaces of the five-hundredth to the ten-thousandth 

 of an inch, and, as has been seen, to the four- 

 hundred-and-five-thousandth. 



— A writer in a late number of del et terre 

 states, that under the most favorable conditions, 

 from the summit of the Dole (altitude, 1,678 

 metres), all the summits of the Alps are easily 

 visible, from that of Pelvoux (4,000 metres ). Bev- 

 enty-eight miles to the south, to the peak of 

 S;'intis (2,504 metres), clearly outlined in white 

 against the deep blue of the horizon, one hundred 

 and three miles distant. The view thus embraces 

 all the peaks of the chain of the Alps for an ex- 

 tent of more than one hundred and fifty miles. 

 Contrary to that which has been observed in 



