Popular Science Monthly/Volume 53/June 1898/Notes
A two-weeks' Summer School of Sociology, Economics, and Politics will be held at Syracuse University, Syracuse, N. Y., June 27th to July 9th, when seven hours of classroom work each day—five lectures and a conference of two hours—for eleven days, will be given; with a sermon by an eminent minister on the Sunday, both dealing with the religious bearings of present-day social movements. The lecture courses will be given by John R. Commons, professor of sociology, on Social Philosophy; Charities, Inebriety, Crime, and Child Serving, and City Government; and by Dr. J. H. Hamilton, professor of political economy, on Industrial Problems and Money and Banking. A Cooperative Boarding Club will be organized, by the aid of which and other means of reducing expenses the whole cost of sojourn at the school, including tuition charges will not be more than $14. Inquiries may be addressed to J. H. Hamilton, 306 Waverly Place, Syracuse, N. Y.
At the summer quarter of the West Virginia University, Morgantown, beginning July 1st and continuing twelve weeks, the teaching of sociology and allied subjects will be a prominent feature. The quarter will be divided into two terms of six weeks each, of which students may enter either or for any part of the quarter. Dr. Lester F. Ward will give two courses of class lectures on Pure and on Applied Sociology, and four public lectures. Prof. J. H. Hamilton, of Syracuse University, will deliver two courses on Money and Banking, and on Industrial Problems (July 11th to August 13th). Prof. J. H. Raymond will deliver two full courses through the quarter on the Principles of Economics and A Historical Survey of Sociological Thought, and also a series of public lectures on A Group of Social Philosophers. The summer quarter is not a "summer school," but an integral part of the university year, with all the departments in operation.
In a bulletin of the New Hampshire College Agricultural Experiment Station on dehorning cattle, the horns of cattle are described as consisting of two parts of different origin; the outer horny shell, derived from the skin, and the bony inner part or pith, derived from the skull. These parts are undeveloped in the infant calf, but begin at once to grow. If removed after some development, they must be cut away, the cut being made deep enough to remove the matrix. In calves the as yet soft and growing points of the horns are of small extent and can be destroyed with little trouble by the simple application of caustic potash or caustic soda. When properly applied, either substance destroys the matrix or growing point of the horny tissue and the underlying periosteum. In calves a few days old a surface half an inch or a little more in diameter will destroy these parts.
The announcement for the third year's work of the "Marienfeld summer camp for boys" is just received. The camp opens on the last day of June and closes on the 1st of September. It is meant to offer a thoroughly wholesome outdoor life for boys during the summer months, and to provi(!e enough of the intellectual element to keep a sound balance of character. Professor Hendersen's ability as an instructor and the care with which the moral and social training of the members of the camp is carried on should make a summer's residence at Marienfeld an extremely valuable experience for the growing "youngster."
A rather unique cold pack is described by an English practitioner of Constanta, Roumania. He was called in to visit a Roumanian boy suffering from typhoid fever. He found the child's head wrapped in a white sheet, which he shortly observed to be moving; presently a small frog crept out on the pillow, and further examination revealed two or three dozen more, which the mother said she had been told to apply by some other doctor.
Some interesting revelations are made by correspondents of Nature concerning the refractoriness of insects to poisons. The caterpillar of the spurge hawk moth feeds on sea spurge, a plant that secretes an acid juice "so painfully poisonous that it is difficult to imagine a digestive apparatus competent to deal with it"; a druggist of Sydney, New South Wales, found weevils feeding and thriving on wheat soaked in strychnine; a certain caterpillar feeds on the virulent poison contained in the kernel of the seed of Physostigma vonenosum. and is not affected by it, while it is killed by hydrocyanic acid; and a weevil feeds with impunity the in lastnamed poison. The subject is an interesting one for investigation.
Two oceanic meteorological observatories have recently been established on the Azores, one on the island of San Miguel and the other on the island of Flores. The San Miguel observatory has regular cable connection with some of the European observatories, and that of Flores, although not yet in cable connection, promises to be very important. By the aid of these stations the European meteorologists hope to be warned of the approach of storms fifty hours in advance.
The French Journal Le Veto has counted 852 pieces in a bicycle, and adds that by closer searching we might find more.
An effort is making in Utrecht, Holland, to erect a monument by international subscription of Buys Ballot, the famous Dutch meteorologist, whose name has been given to one of the fundamental laws of the modern science.
The list of recent deaths among men of science includes the names of Bradney B. Griffin, author of papers on the fauna of the northwest coast of America, and of important papers on subjects of cellular biology, March 26th; M. Aimé Girard, professor of industrial chemistry in the Conservatoire des Arts et Metiers in Paris, who was distinguished for his researches in the chemistry of vegetable fibers, wheat, meal, sugars, and drinks; T. Kirk, a New Zealand botanist, chief conservator of state forests, and author of Forest Flora of New Zealand; Dr. George Dragendorff, professor of astronomy at Rostock; Dr. F Sandberger, professor of mineralogy at Würzburg, aged seventy-two years; Jules Marcou, a distinguished French and American geologist, at one time professor of geology at Zurich, author of geological maps of the United States and of the world, and of numerous scientific papers, at Cambridge, Mass., April 18th, aged seventy-four years; Alfred U. Allen, originator and secretary of the Postal Microscopical Society and formerly editor of the Journal of Microscopy and Natural Science and of the Scientific Enquirer, at Bath, England, March 24th; Colonel Sir Vivian D, Majendie, inspector of explosives, London, April 24th; Dr. J. S. Hyland, a young mineralogist and petrologist of much promise, who wad author of papers on petrological subjects, and at one time connected with the office of mineral resources of the United States, on the west coast of Africa, April 19th, aged thirty-two years; and Melville Atwood, geologist and metallurgist, who devised improvements in the working of zinc ore and introduced the blanket system of amalgamation, at Berkeley, Cal., April 25th, aged eighty-six years.