304 



SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII., No. 165 



large portraits in oil, — of his two sons, Alvan 

 and George, and of a grandson. Portrait-paint- 

 ing was Mr. Clark's profession till he was forty 

 years of age, when, by trying to assist one of his 

 sons, then a student, in the grinding of a reflect- 

 or for a telescope he was making for his own 

 use, his attention was first directed to the grinding 

 of optical surfaces as a business. 



— Captain Eden of the British schooner Storm 

 king, bound from Utilla to New Orleans, reports 

 on Thursday, March 11, passing over a submarine 

 mineral-oil spring, bubbling and rippling all 

 around the vessel, and extending out over one 

 hundred and fifty to two hundred yards. This 

 was in latitude 25° 48' north, longitude 86° 20' 

 west, about two hundred and fifty miles south- 

 east of the passes. At 11 a.m. they were over the 

 spring proper, and at 11.30 A.M. outside the cir- 

 cumference of the oil-circle. It is supposed that 

 this spring is the oil-cargo of a foundered vessel, 

 which, breaking through the casks, caused this 

 peculiar marine freak, or that it may be a natural 

 phenomenon. 



— The Railroad gazette cites one of the longest 

 times in which fire has been kept in a furnace 

 without the addition of fuel. A furnace belong- 

 ing to the Kemble iron and coal company at Rid- 

 dlesburg, Penn., was banked up and hermetically 

 sealed in November, 1884, fire being left in. On 

 March 5, 1886, the furnace was opened, after be- 

 ing closed for nearly sixteen months. The fire 

 was found to be still burning, the coke glowing 

 brightly, and, on the admission of air, soon be- 

 came hot enough to melt cinder. It was started 

 as easily as if it had been standing but a week. 



— A railroad company in southern Kansas has 

 established a large artificial plantation of forest- 

 trees to supply their future needs. Over a square 

 mile of land near Farlington has been planted 

 with young saplings of the catalpa and ailantus. 

 The prospective success of their experiment has 

 brought about the similar planting of another 

 equal area. These trees are of rapid growth, and 

 are valuable for ties and fencing-material. 



— The first international congress of hydrology 

 and climatology will convene the 1st of October 

 next at Biarritz, and will last eight days. Com- 

 munications and inquiries may be addressed to 

 the Viscount de Chasteigner, at Biarritz. 



— The March number of the Johns Hopkins 

 university circulars contains abstracts of several 

 scientific papers of value, read before the scientific 

 and philological association of the university, as 

 follows : ' Instantaneous photographs of the heart 

 and intestines in motion,' by Dr. Thompson ; ' On 



the antiseptic action of acids,' by Mr. Duggan ; 

 and on ' Speech mixture in French Canada,' by 

 Mr. Elliott. 



— The next volume of the ' Encyclopaedia 

 Britannica ' will be issued about the middle of this 

 month. Among the principal articles will be 

 ' Psychology,' by Mr. J. Ward ; ' Railways,' by 

 Messrs. D. K. Clark, A. T. Hadley, A. M. Welling- 

 ton, and S. W. Dunning : ' Animal reproduction,' 

 by Mr. P. Geddes ; ' Vegetable reproduction,' by 

 S. H. Vines ; 1 Reptiles,' by Dr. A. Gtinther and 

 St. G. Mivart ; ' Respiration,' by Prof. A. Gamgee : 

 ' River-engineering,' by L. F. Vernon-Harcourt ; 

 and ' Roman topography and archeology,' by J. 

 H. Middleton. 



— The k. Jc. naturhistorischen hofmuseum at 

 Vienna has begun the publication of annalen, 

 under the editorship of Dr. Franz v. Hauer, the 

 superintendent. The first number, lately issued, 

 contains a report for the year 1885, which will be 

 of interest to those concerned in the management 

 of museums. The personnel of this important 

 museum includes many names, such as Pelzeln, 

 Rogenhofer, Fuchs, Brezina, Brauer, Marenzeller, 

 Heger, Szombathy, and others, more or less widely 

 known as eminent scientific men. Altogether the 

 staff of curators, assistants, and servants, numbers 

 forty-four. The next number will appear in May, 

 and will contain zoological, botanical, and min- 

 eralogical papers by Steindachner, Kohl, Beck, 

 Brezina, and others. 



— A new enterprise of considerable importance 

 is announced in Germany. It is the issuance of a 

 Handbuch der klassischen alterthumswissenschaft 

 in systematischer darstellung, which will deal 

 with the entire field of classical philology and 

 archeology, with especial reference to the history, 

 method, and bibliography of the respective de- 

 partments. The work will be complete in seven 

 volumes, — of which three parts, comprising a 

 volume and a half, have already appeared, — 

 and is edited b} r Professor Miiller of Erlangen, as- 

 sisted by Professors Blass of Kiel, Brugmann of 

 Freiburg, Busset of Kiel, von Christ of Munich, 

 Hiibner of Berlin, Jordan of Konigsberg, Lolling 

 of Athens, Niese of Breslau, Nissen of Bomi, 

 Reifferschied of Breslau, Schiller of Giessen, 

 Schanz of Wurzburg, von Urlichs of Wurzburg, 

 and Windelband of Strasburg. This array of dis- 

 tinguished names ought to insure a work of great 

 interest and value. 



— We have received a translation into the 

 German, of Auchincloss's well-known work on 

 valve-gearing of steam-engines. The original 

 was published by Van Nostrand in 1869, and a 

 second edition in 1883. It has been a standard 



