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SCIENCE. 



[Vol. VII. , No. 166 



practically conducted his operations as he saw fit. 

 His work has been done under detailed instruc- 

 tions issued by the superintendent of the survey, 

 and these instructions have been based upon pro- 

 jects which Mr. Peirce was required to submit 

 each season. We will only add that this finding 

 is what every one acquainted with Mr. Peirce 

 must have expected as the result of a calm and 

 unprejudiced examination." 



— Telegrams received from Professor Pickering 

 announce the discovery of three new asteroids by 

 Dr. Palisa of Vienna. The first was discovered 

 on March 31, and was of the thirteenth magnitude ; 

 the other two, on April 2 and 3, of the thirteenth 

 an 1 twelfth magnitudes. These three will receive 

 the numbers 254, 255, and 256 respectively, and 

 will raise the whole number discovered by Dr. 

 Palisa to fifty-three. 



— The programme for the second half of the 

 course of lectures under the auspices of the An- 

 thropological and biological societies of Wash- 

 ington is as follows : Saturday, April 10, Dr. 

 Washington Matthews, U.S.A., The gods of the 

 Navajos ; Friday, April 16, Dr. D. B. Simmons, 

 Social status of the women of Japan ; Saturday, 

 April 24, Prof. W. K. Brooks, Life; Saturday, 

 May 1, Mr. Lester F. Ward, Heredity and oppor- 

 tunity ; Saturday, May 8, Dr. J. S. Billings, U.S.A., 

 Animal heat. 



— The series of summer schools of the Mont- 

 eagle (Tenn.) assembly is announced to open on 

 June 30, and continue to Aug. 25. The scientific 

 instruction in chemistry, geology, and botany, 

 will be under the charge of Prof. J. I. D. Hinds. 



— We cut the following from the Atlantic 

 'Pilot chart' for April: "Mr. J. H. Barker, an 

 oil-merchant of New York, informs the branch 

 hydrographic office that he has the contract with, 

 and since Jan. 1 of this year has furnished, the 

 National line of steamships with oil to be used to 

 Lessen the dangerous effects of heavy seas. Ten 

 vessels, including all the cattle -steamers, have 

 been provided with the necessary appliances to 

 use oil when occasion requires. The company's 

 requisition called for fish-oil, but the recent ex- 

 periments proved it thickened too rapidly when 

 in contact with water at the general low winter 

 temperatures. To obviate this tendency, Mr. 

 Barker has mixed a mineral oil having a low, 

 cold test, with fish-oil which has a comparatively 

 high test : the result is an oil which coagulates 

 at a much lower temperature than ordinary fish- 

 oil, but which it is claimed will be as efficacious. 

 The mineral oil has stood the test as a lubricant 

 for railroads in cold weather, and it is claimed 



will be very useful for sea purposes when mixed 

 with a proper proportion of fish-oil, during the 

 mild and w r arm months fish alone is to be sup- 

 plied. The method adopted of using oil is by 

 means of punctured canvas bags filled with 

 oakum." 



— From numerous experiments on flies, beetles, 

 hymenoptera, neuroptera, and lepidoptera, M. Pla- 

 teau concludes that insects with compound eyes, 

 with or without simple eyes, pay no heed to dif- 

 ferences of form in the light openings of a half- 

 darkened room, but fly with equal readiness to the 

 apparently easy and apparently difficult way of 

 escape ; that they are attracted to the more in- 

 tensely lightened opening or to one with apparently 

 greater surface ; and that, in short, they cannot 

 by vision distinguish form, or only to a very slight 

 extent. 



— Chief engineer Melville of the ill-fated Jean- 

 nette has recently stated that he is still endeavor- 

 ing to organize another polar expedition, and, 

 although his schemes have met with little success, 

 he will yet continue to work upon them. 



— The question of the movements of the ulna 

 and radius of the human arm during the act of 

 pronation and supination has of late provoked 

 considerable discussion among students of anat- 

 omy. The view most commonly held and 

 taught, that the elbow-joint is a perfect hinge, 

 and that the ulna remains fixed during pronation 

 and supination, has been disputed by some recent 

 investigators. At the last meeting of the Bio- 

 logical society of Washington, Dr. Frank Baker 

 read a paper upon this subject, in which he con- 

 cludes that the ulna is capable of considerable 

 lateral movement, and that in pronation and 

 supination both the ulna and radius rotate. Dr. 

 Harrison Allen of Philadelphia has also been 

 studying this question with the aid of instanta- 

 neous photographic apparatus, and is said to have 

 reached similar conclusions. 



— Harrison & Sons, London, announce 

 ' Physico-chemical constants, melting and boil- 

 ing point tables,' by Thomas Carnelley, professor 

 of chemistry in University college, Dundee. 

 These tables will contain about fift} r thousand 

 melting and boiling point data. The object of 

 the tables is as follows: 1. To present as com- 

 plete a list as possible of all known melting and 

 boiling point data, and at the same time to indi- 

 cate which of them is probably the most exact, 

 when there are several determinations referring to 

 the same substance ; 2. To state as fully as pos- 

 sible the constitution of each substance to which 

 the data refer ; 3. To adopt such a system of ar- 



