to a level with the kindred fine arts of painting and sculpture. The first general meeting and exhibition of the Society will be held in Rochester about December 20th, when displays are invited of stuffed animals in groups, single specimens, etc.
Brigadier-General Albert J. Meyer died at Buffalo, the 24th of August, in the fifty-third year of his age. He early turned his attention to the devising of practicable methods of signaling, and rendered efficient service by this means during the war. He was chiefly known to the public by his work in connection with the establishment and development of the present extensive and complete Weather Service, of which he was the chief officer.
A French chemist, M. Alland, has found a way to give a solid and soluble form to sulphuret of carbon, by which it is made much less volatile, more convenient to handle, and more efficacious as an insecticide. He dissolves the sulphuret in a heavy oil which is formed in the manufacture of anthracene and saponifies with lime, and adds quicklime to the solution. The paste thus obtained is soaked in water and dried into a cement which forms an isolating crust. A very effective insecticide, which, however, acts slowly, is thus obtained.
Professor C. W. Borchardt, of the University of Berlin, died at Rüdersdorf, near Berlin, June 27th. He was formerly Professor of Mathematics in the Prussian Military Academy, and had been since 1856 editor of the "Journal for Pure and Applied Mathematics," the oldest of the existing mathematical periodicals.
The President of the Anthropological Institute of London has attempted an explanation of the long-standing and puzzling question of the manner in which the huge and heavy stones which stand as monoliths or in groups as tombs or temples were lifted into their places. Some of the hill tribes of India still erect big stones as memorials, and it is reported of one of them that they recently carried a stone weighing twenty tons up a high hill in the course of a few hours. The ponderous block was inclosed in a wooden framework so arranged that a large number of men could lift all at once, and in this simple way it was borne to the hill-top, a height of four thousand feet.
The London "Times" has tried with success the experiment of having reports of the debates of the House of Commons transmitted by telephone directly to its compositors while they are at work. The notes made by the reporter are read directly into the telephone-receiver in the room adjoining the gallery of the House, and are received by the compositor who sits with his ears near the office terminus of the instrument. The compositor is provided with a system of signals by means of which he can control the rate at which the reports are transmitted to him, and have all the corrections and explanations he may need made on the spot.
M. Charpentier has measured the variation in the intensity of light to which the eye is sensitive, and has found it to be equivalent to about seven or eight hundredths; that is, a given light, whether strong or weak, must be diminished or increased in that degree to give a new sensation distinct from the former one. The difference is essentially the same in direct and indirect vision and with light of every color.
The death is announced of M. Lissajous, Professor of Physics at Toulouse, and author of several valuable scientific memoirs.
According to a recent report of the Boston Board of Health, appreciation of the necessity of good sanitary conditions is steadily increasing in that city. Requests for the inspection of premises are now frequent, while a few years ago obstacles were thrown in the way of inspectors by the landlords. This regard for proper sanitary construction is not confined to any class, but is exhibited alike by the owners of elegant mansions and of the most ordinary dwellings.
Mr. A. A. Breneman has obtained some very satisfactory results in the color decoration of common gray stone-ware. The process was described in a communication to, and samples of the ware exhibited before, the Chemical Section of the American Association at the recent Boston meeting. This sort of ware has hitherto been decorated only in blue, but these samples showed that a wide range of coloring was possible. The process is simple and comparatively inexpensive.
Louis Francois de Pourtales died at Beverly Farms, Massachusetts, on the 17th of July, in his fifty-seventh year. Since the death of Professor Louis Agassiz, he has been the keeper of the Museum of Comparative Zoölogy at Harvard, and was well known among scientific men for his work in connection with deep-sea dredging.
A statement by Professor Mivart in a recent paper on tails, respecting the nonexistence of monkeys in the West Indies, has been shown by correspondents of "Nature" to be an error. Monkeys are found in the islands of St. Christopher and Nevis, and in Grenada, where they exist in large numbers in the wild state, and are very destructive to the growing crops. Apes are also said to be found wild in Montserrat.
