Part 13

Prof. A. E. Dolbear, of Tufts College, Massachusetts, patented an invention for telegraphing without wires in 1886, which he claims covers all that Marconi is doing. He has sent messages with it for as long distances as five miles. According to his account he invented the system and made successful experiments with it as far back as 1882. He made an application for a patent, which was rejected by the Patent Office with the statement that it was contrary to science and would not work. “But as it did work, the claim was maintained in the office, and four years later, in 1886, a patent for it was issued.” Professor Dolbear does not wish it to be understood that his patent is on the “art of wireless telegraphy,” but that it covers everything that has been so far done in the art.

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On the occasion of the visit of the French Association to the British Association, Prof. J. J. Thomson gave an exposition of the lines of research by which it has been concluded that the atom is not the smallest existing quantity of matter. Electro-chemical phenomena teach us to associate a definite amount of electricity with each atom of matter; but these recent researches indicate that under certain circumstances a much larger quantity of negative electricity may be conveyed by the atom, or else that the negative electrical charge resides on a small detachable portion of the “atom,” which alone is concerned in the experiments. The positive charge seems to be distributed over the whole mass of the atom.

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The merits of two methods of clarifying sewage--by dilution and by bacterial action--are discussed by Mr. Rudolph Hering in articles in the Engineering Magazine. Disposal by dilution in large streams of water is regarded as satisfactory in many places--where the water of the stream is not to be used for drinking or cooking--provided the flow of the stream is always copious enough to dilute and disperse the sewage so widely as to prevent putrefaction and substitute oxidation. For purification by bacterial action no single method is found adapted to all conditions. The method by filtration and aëration is declared practicable only in localities where a sufficient area of porous land is available, upon which the crude sewage can be spread in sufficient quantity, into which it can filter with the proper velocity, and from which it can emerge as a thoroughly purified water. Where these conditions are absent, other methods must be adopted, of which the experiments in artificial filtration by tanks, as practiced at Exeter and Sutton, England, are described. These experiments promise to improve the present method, but perhaps not as greatly as is anticipated by the promoters. The author regards a prior separation of the suspended or dissolved organic matter as essential to permanent success when the amount of land is limited.

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By using the tuberculin test the faculty of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station have learned that in cattle the tubercle bacillus usually first obtains its foothold in some of the minor glands, that it may exist there for months and years before any other organs are affected, and that it is only in advanced cases that the lungs become diseased. While the growth of the organism is limited to these minor glands the health of the animal usually shows no sign of impairment. During this period there is no evidence that any unwholesome effect is being produced upon the flesh, and so long as the infection is localized in this way in one or two organs the Government inspectors pass the meat as sound. Tuberculosis, therefore, is a very different complaint from such diseases as pleuropneumonia or Texas fever, in which the whole system is saturated from the first instant with the febrile symptoms.

NOTES.

Mr. James Weir tells of a spider which stretched its web in the division between two parts of a sawmill, where the lower fastenings of the structure were frequently broken by the repeated passing of lumber through. Discovering the situation, the insect gave up the use of guy threads, and, finding a nail, wove it into the lower edge of its web, so that it should operate as a sinker to keep the web stretched.

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N. G. Johnson, of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station, telling the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science the story of his fight with the pea louse, represented that the pea raisers in his State had lost this year more than three million dollars by the ravages of this insect. A parasite had been discovered which practically annihilated the pest, but the discovery was not made in time to save the crops in some parts of the State from destruction.

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The American Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science, after hearing the account of the work of the Gypsy Moth Commission of Massachusetts, which has spent more than a million and a half of dollars in trying to exterminate the mischievous insect, approved the action of the Massachusetts Legislature in maintaining the commission, and requested that the work be kept up for a short time longer. This was because it was represented that the moth was now confined to a limited area, and could be easily exterminated by the expenditure of a small amount more of money.

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The history of science has sustained a great loss by the burning of most of the relics which had been collected for the Volta Centenary Exhibition at Como, Italy. Only a few things were saved, comprising a sword presented by Napoleon Bonaparte to Volta, a cast of the skull of the great electrician, his watch, and a few personal relics. On the other hand, his books and manuscripts, his collection of batteries, the only authentic portrait of him, and his will, were destroyed. Nevertheless, the celebration was not stopped. The fire was attributed to the fusing of some electric wires.

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An example of patient industry is the sorting of hogs’ bristles as it is carried on at Tientsin, China. Each one of the hairs of the six hundred thousand kilogrammes exported from that place in 1897 had to be picked out, measured, and placed in the bundle of hairs of corresponding length; and the different lengths by which the hairs are sorted are very numerous.

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It is stated by M. Léon Vaillant that the late M. A. d’Abbadie had and used an effective remedy against the bites of insects and the infections they bring by fumigating the entire body with sulphur. For this purpose he covered the unclothed body with a suitable envelope, under which the sulphur was burned. The remedy was communicated to M. d’Abbadie by a hippopotamus hunter who had, by using it, escaped all the diseases incident to the swamps to which he had to resort.

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The Gregorian Calendar is to be adopted by the Russian Government on January 1, 1901, or at the beginning of the new century.

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The following figures, from the Engineering and Mining Journal, are of interest as showing the enormous quantity of iron and steel which was manufactured in 1898, and the leading position which the United States has already assumed in the industry:

IRON AND STEEL PRODUCTION, IN METRIC TONS.[C]

+-------------------------+------------------------- | PIG IRON. | STEEL. COUNTRIES. +------------+------------+------------+------------ | 1897. | 1898. | 1897. | 1898. ----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------ United States | 9,807,123 | 11,962,817 | 7,289,300 | 9,045,815 United Kingdom | 8,980,088 | 8,769,249 | 4,559,736 | 4,639,042 Germany | 6,889,087 | 7,402,717 | 5,091,294 | 5,784,807 +------------+------------+------------+------------ Total | 25,626,296 | 28,134,383 | 16,940,330 | 19,418,664 | | | | Austria-Hungary | 1,205,000 | 1,250,000 | 553,000 | 605,500 Belgium | 1,024,666 | 982,748 | 616,604 | 658,130 Canada | 41,500 | 46,880 | -- | -- France | 2,472,143 | 2,584,427 | 1,281,595 | 1,441,638 Italy | 12,500 | 12,850 | 57,250 | 58,750 Russia | 1,857,000 | 2,228,850 | 831,000 | 1,095,000 Spain | 282,171 | 261,799 | 121,800 | 112,605 Sweden | 533,800 | 570,550 | 268,300 | 289,750 All other | 450,000 | 545,000 | 310,000 | 355,000 +------------+------------+------------+------------ Grand total | 33,506,076 | 36,507,487 | 20,979,179 | 24,030,032 ----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------

[C] A metric ton is about 2,200 pounds.

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Although fewer casual members or members for the year than usual were present at the recent meeting of the British Association at Dover, the attendance of distinguished men of science and of active scientific workers, according to the London Times, seemed to be greater. And so far as the proper work of the association is concerned, the meeting should take a high rank. Excellent and serious work was done in all the sections.

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A paper has been published by Pliny T. Sexton, of Palmyra, N. Y., setting forth reasons for favoring the unification of the whole educational system of the State of New York under the jurisdiction of a single board--that of the Regents of the University. The reasons are presented in the form of various newspaper articles which were published last year against a proposition of an opposite character--to abolish the present Department of Public Instruction and create a State Commission of Education, the affiliations of which would be political. Mr. Sexton has further offered two prizes of one hundred dollars each for articles or essays by women and similar productions by men in support of the proposed unification.

* * * * *

M. Hildebert Richard, of Avignon, France, relates that he experimented upon two adult geranium plants, both healthy and of vigorous growth, under like conditions of exposure, watering one (A) with well water and the other (B) with water containing a measured proportion of butylic alcohol daily. A kept on with its healthy growth. B, after four days of alcoholization, showed an enfeebled growth, with symptoms of jaundice, drowsiness, and intoxication; a special odor perceptible in all parts of the plant, partially burned spots, and melanosis and geotropism in the leaves.

* * * * *

In his papers on The Art and Customs of Benin, Mr. Ling Roth concludes that the art of that savage land consists of mixed elements, partly European forms which the native mind was prone to copy, partly introduced from other parts of Africa. It is characterized by boldness, freedom, clearness in execution, originality, and variety. Among the customs he mentions are the practice of human sacrifice and the sprinkling of the blood of the animals killed at the periodical sacrifices on the ivories and on the cast-iron or bronze figure-heads placed on the altars. When there was too much rain, a woman had a message saluting the rain god put into her mouth. She was then killed and set up in the execution tree, so that the rain might see.

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Our scientific obituary list of the month includes the names of Sir William Dawson, the distinguished Canadian geologist, of whom a fuller notice is given in another place; Dr. Luther Dana Woodbridge, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology in Williams College, at Williamstown, Mass., of heart disease, November 3d, aged forty-nine years; Dr. Oscar Baumann, African explorer, geographer to the Austrian Congo Expedition of 1885, who made studies for the projected railroad from Tanga to Karog; Dr. F. Kuhla, botanical explorer, at Manáos, Brazil; Percy B. Pilcher, inventor of flying machines, from an accident while experimenting, September 2d; Professor Hayduck, Privat Docent in Chemistry in Berlin; M. A. Snow, Instructor in Entomology in Leland Stanford Junior University, drowned October 10th in San Francisco Harbor; he had also been Instructor in Entomology in the Universities of Kansas and of Illinois, and was the author of several systematic papers on _Diptera_; Prof. J. B. Carnoy, of the Catholic University of Louvain, author of _Biologie Cellulaire_ and of papers on the development of sexual elements, and founder of the journal _La Cellule_, at Schuls, Switzerland, September 6th; Dr. A Ernst, Director of the National Museum, Caracas, Venezuela; Dr. Edward Petri, Professor of Geography and Anthropology in the University of St. Petersburg, aged forty-five years; Dr. Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype type machine, in Baltimore, Md., October 28th; and Dr. Henry Hicks, an English geologist and Lyell medalist, at Hendon, England, November 18th, aged sixty-two years.

PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Delaware College: No. 45. The Pruning of Young Fruit Trees. By G. Harold Powell. Pp. 16.--New Jersey: No. 137. Dairy Experiments, etc. Pp. 24; No. 138. Crude Petroleum as an Insecticide. Pp. 22; No. 139. Fertilizer Analyses. Pp. 60.--Ohio: Press Bulletin No. 199. Plums (Comparison of Varieties). Pp. 2; No. 200. Fall Treatment of Insect Pests. Pp. 2.--United States Department of Agriculture: Results of a Biological Survey of Mount Shasta, California. By C. Hart Merriam. Wilt Disease of Cotton, Watermelon, and Cowpea. By Erwin F. Smith. Pp. 54, with plates.

Association Review, The. Frank W. Booth, editor. Bimonthly. Vol. I, No. 1. An Educational Magazine. Published by the American Association to promote the Teaching of Speech to the Deaf. Mount Airy, Philadelphia. Pp. 128. $2.50 a year.

Bullard, Frank D. The Aristophilon. A Nemesis of Faith (Poem). Chicago: R. R. Donnelly & Sons Company. Pp. 109.

Bulletins, Reports, and Proceedings. Alabama Geological Survey: Map of the Warrior Coal Basin. By Henry McCalley, Assistant State Geologist.--Boston Society of Natural History: The Blood-Vessels of the Heart in Carcharis, Baja, and Amia. By G. H. Parker and Frederick K. Davis. Pp. 16, with plates; Marine Mollusca of Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. By F. N. Balch. Pp. 30, with plates; The Development of Persilia Schmackeri, Richard. By M. T. Sudler. Pp. 20.--Colorado College Studies. Three Papers. Pp. 48.--Buitenzorg Botanical Institute: Bulletin, No. 1. Pp. 40; United States Department of Labor; No. 24. Statistics of Cities. Pp. 140.--Iowa, State University of: Report on the Ophiuroidea collected by the Bahama Expedition in 1893. By Prof. A. E. Varrill. Pp. 86, with plates.--Linnæan Society of New York: The Turtles and Lizards of the Vicinity of New York City. Pp. 36--Wagner Free Institute of Science, Philadelphia: The Salenodont Artiodactyles of the Uinta Eocene. By W. B. Scott. Pp. 121, with plates.

Constantin, J. La Nature Tropicale. (Tropical Nature.) Paris: Félix Alcan. (Bibliothèque Scientifique Internationale.) Pp. 315.

Demoor, Jean, Massart, Jean, and Vandervelde, Emile. Evolution by Atrophy. New York: D. Appleton and Company. (International Scientific Series.) Pp. 322. $1.50.

Fiske, John. A Century of Science, and other Essays. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 477. $2.

Germania. A Monthly Magazine for the Study of the German Language and Literature. A. W. Spanhoofd and P. E. Kunzer, editors. Boston: New England College of Languages. Pp. 27. 15 cents. $1 a year.

Gilman, Nicholas Paine. A Dividend to Labor. A Study of Employers’ Welfare Institutions. Boston and New York: Houghton, Mifflin & Co. Pp. 400. $1.50.

Hill, Robert T. The Geology and Physical Geography of Jamaica. A Study of a Type of Antillean Development. With an Appendix on Corals by T. W. Vaughan. Cambridge, Mass.: Museum of Comparative Zoölogy of Harvard College. Pp. 250, with plates.

Holden, Edward S. The Family of the Sun. Conversations with a Child. (Appletons’ Home-Reading Books.) New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 252. 50 cents.

Interstate Commerce Commission. Eleventh Annual Report on the Statistics of Railways in the United States for the Year ending June 30, 1898. Washington. Pp. 692.

Jordan, David Starr. The Story of Knight and Barbara. Being a Series of Stories Told to Children. New York: D. Appleton and Company. Pp. 265. $1.50.

Jordan, David Starr, Stejneger, Leonhard, Lucas, F. A., and other official associates. The Fur Seals and Fur-Seal Islands of the North Pacific Ocean. Washington: Government Printing Office. Pp. 629.

MacCorkle, W. A. Some Phases of the Race Question. Cincinnati: The Robert Clarke Company. Pp. 49.

MacGregor, Prof. J. G. On the Utility of Knowledge-making as a Means of Liberal Training. Halifax, N. S. Pp. 24.

MacMillan, Conway. Minnesota Plant Life. St. Paul: State Botanical Survey. Pp. 568.

Newman, George. Bacteria, especially as they are related to the Economy of Nature, to Industrial Processes, and to the Public Health. New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. Pp. 348.

Reprints. Chesmit, V. K. Preliminary Catalogue of Plants Poisonous to Stock. Pp. 36.--Fernow, B. G. Forest Policies and Forest Management in Germany and British India. Pp. 64; Forestry in the United States Department of Agriculture. Pp. 44; Brief History of the Forestry Movement in the United States. Pp. 44.--Gerhard, William Paul. The Safety of Theatre Audiences and of the Stage Personnel against Danger from Fire and Panic. Pp. 30.--Girsdansky, Max. Dust in the Etiology of Tuberculosis. Pp. 10.--Hay, O. P. On Some Changes in the Names, Generic and Specific, of Certain Fossil Fishes. Pp. 10; Two new Species of Tortoises from the Tertiary of the United States. Pp. 24, with plates.--Howard, W. L. Physiologic Rhythms. The Practical Value of their Recognition in the Treatment of Functional Neuroses. Pp. 7.--Langmuir, A. C., and Baskerville, Charles. Index to the Literature of Zirconium. (Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections.) Pp. 32.--Prosser, Charles S. Correlation of Carboniferous Rocks of Nebraska with those of Kansas.--Roth, Filibert. Résumé of Investigations carried on in the United States Division of Forestry, 1889 to 1898. Pp. 64.

Schimmell & Co. (Fritzsche Brothers.) Leipsic and New York. Semi-annual Report, October, 1899. (Essential Oils, etc.) Pp. 75.

Steel Portland Cement. Chicago: Illinois Steel Company. Pp. 96.

Stewart, Sara Elizabeth, and Day, R. E. Two Prize Essays on Educational Unification in the State of New York. Palmyra, N. Y.: The Unification Prize Committee. Pp. 19.

Swift, Morrison I. Imperialism and Liberty. Los Angeles, Cal.: The Ronbroke Press. Pp. 491.

United States Commission of Fish and Fisheries. Bulletin No. 409. List of Fishes known to inhabit the Waters of the District of Columbia and Vicinity. By H. M. Smith and B. A. Bean Pp. 80; No. 410. Notes on a Collection of Tide-Pool Fishes from Kadiak Island, Alaska. By C. M. Rutter. Pp. 4; No. 411. The Southern Spring Mackerel Fishery of the United States. By Hugh M. Smith. Pp. 80; No. 412. Notice of Filefish New to the Fauna of the United States. By H. M. Smith. Pp. 8; No. 413. The Pearly Fresh-Water Mussels of the United States. By Charles T. Simpson. Pp. 10; No. 414. The Mussel Fishery and Pearl-Button Industry of the Mississippi River. By H. M. Smith. Pp. 24; No. 415. The Peripheral Nervous System of the Bony Fishes. By C. J. Herrick. Pp. 6; No. 416. The Reappearance of the Tilefish. By H. C. Bumpus. Pp. 12; No. 423. A Review of the Fisheries in the Contiguous Waters of the State of Washington and British Columbia. By Richard Rathbun. Pp. 96, with plates.

United States Geological Survey. Nineteenth Annual Report. Part II. Papers, chiefly of a Theoretic Nature. Pp. 958; Principles and Conditions of the Movements of Ground Water. By F. H. King. With a Theoretical Investigation of the Motion of Ground Waters. By C. S. Richter. Pp. 384.

Wiechmann, F. G. Chemistry, its Evolution and Achievements. New York: W. R. Jenkins. Pp. 176.

Transcribers’ Notes

Punctuation, hyphenation, and spelling were made consistent when a predominant preference was found in this book; otherwise they were not changed.

Simple typographical errors were corrected; occasional unbalanced quotation marks retained.

Ambiguous hyphens at the ends of lines were retained.

Page 315: The illustration’s caption, describing line thickness, was printed as actual lines, but has been changed to words by the Transcriber.

Page 329: “_cito tuto_” may be two separate terms that should be separated with a comma.

Page 339: “_cortége_” was printed with an acute accent.

Page 352: Unmatched right-parenthesis removed after “p. 429.”