tion an observation of von Lippmann'a is of interest. On investigating a deposit in a vacuum apparatus for concentrating lemon juice, he found quite a quantity of boric acid, and on further examination discovered that boric acid is present in small quantity in most fruit, as in lemons, apples, etc. As a result it cannot be inferred, because boric acid is found in preserved or dried fruits, that it has been added as a preservative. Altogether it must be said that the whole matter needs further study, and that it must be determined to what limit the use of boric acid and borax is permissible without endangering health.
SCIENTIFIC ITEMS.
We record with great regret the death of John Wesley Powell, director of the Bureau of American Ethnology and formerly director of the U. S. Geological Survey. His death occurred at his summer home in Maine on September 23, he being in his sixty-ninth year. There was published in the Popular Science Monthly for January, 1882, an article reviewing Major Powell's life and work, illustrated by a portrait, and we hope to publish in the next number a further appreciation of his work.—We regret also to record the death of Sir Frederick Abel, known for his important researches on explosives, and of Dr. John Hall Gladstone, known for his researches on chemical combinations.
Dr. Charles S. Minot, professor of histology and embryology in the Harvard Medical School, was given the degree of Doctor of Science at Oxford University, on the occasion of the tercentenary of the Bodleian Library.—Professor W. H. Welch, of the Johns Hopkins University, delivered the Huxley lecture before the Charing Cross Hospital on October first.—Dr. Andrew D. White, Ambassador to Germany, has presented his letters of recall. His successor, Dr. Charlemagne Tower, is also interested in literary and scientific subjects.—An expedition from the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine under Major Ronald Ross has gone to the Suez Canal to institute preventative measures against malaria.
A committee has been formed for the erection of a public memorial of the late Professor Virchow in Berlin, with Professor Waldeyer as chairman.—A monument, consisting of a pedestal and a bust by the sculptor, Marqueste, is to be erected in the Paris Museum of Natural History, in memory of Alphonse Milne-Edwards.—The eightieth birthday of John Fritz, ironmaster and inventor, of Bethlehem, Pa., will be celebrated by a dinner given in his honor on October 31. The dinner will also signalize the founding of the John Fritz gold medal for achievement in the industrial sciences, the medal to bo awarded annually by a committee of members of the American Society of Civil Engineers, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers, the American Institute of Mining Engineers and the American Institute of Electrical Engineers. The organizing committee having the matter in charge on behalf of these societies has already raised $6,000, representing the contributions of some 500 members of the engineering professions in this country and in Europe. The medal has been entrusted to the American sculptor, Victor D. Brenner.
