Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 12.djvu/653

Rh Fisheries. Trenton: Naar, Day & Naar print. Pp. 63.

Report of Trustees of West Pennsylvania Institution for Deaf and Dumb. Pittsburg: Stevenson, Foster & Co. print. Pp. 32.

Is the Human Eye changing its Form? By Dr. E. G. Loring. New York: The Author. Pp. 25.

The Steppes of Southern Russia. By Th. Belt. Pp. 20.

A New Type of Steam-Engine. By R. H. Thurston. From Journal of the Franklin Institute. Philadelphia: Kildare print. Pp. 35.

Medical Education in the United States. By N. S. Davis, M.D. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 60.

Reports of Curators of Wesleyan University Museum. Middletown, Conn.: Pelton & King print. Pp. 30.

Pneumono-Dynamics. By G. M. Garland, M. D. New York: Hurd & Houghton. Pp. 155.

Bulletin of the American Geographical Society, No. 4. New York: The Society. Pp. 105.

Public Health. By G. P. Conn, M. D. Concord, N.H.: Republican Press Association print. Pp. 17.

Convergent Strabismus. By S. Theobald, M.D. Baltimore: Foster print. Pp. 10.

Pseudocyesis and Pregnancy. By J. W. Underhill, M.D. New York: Wood & Co. Pp. 18.

Reports of Examinations of the New York Insurance and Banking Departments. New York: Green print. Pp. 30.

Dietetics of Infants. By T. Moore, M. D. Philadelphia: Sherman & Co. print. Pp. 14.

Report of Director of Harvard College Observatory. By Prof. E. C. Pickering. Cambridge: Wilson & Son print. Pp. 36.

New Double Stars. By S. W. Burnham. From "Notices of Royal Astronomical Society." Pp. 3.

Album Leaves. By G. Houghton. Boston: Estes & Lauriat. Pp. 34. 35 cents.

Notes on Matters of Physical Astronomy. By L. Trouvelot. From "Proceedings of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences."



The Last of the Gases.—The last of the gases that had never been condensed to liquids—oxygen, hydrogen, and nitrogen—have at length yielded to pertinacious experiment, and, under the joint influence of greater degrees of cold and pressure than had ever before been employed, have been reduced to the liquid form. This great experimental exploit has been performed by two chemists independently, and almost simultaneously—Raoul Pictet, of Geneva, and M. L. Cailletet, of Paris, by different processes. Pictet condensed oxygen, which was first announced; but Cailletet had already done it, and he also liquefied nitrogen, hydrogen, and the air. We give a representation of his apparatus, and an account of his processes, and shall give fuller statements of the results as they are more fully announced.

Stanley's Trip down the Congo.—The exploration of the Congo River from Nyangwe to the sea, by Henry M. Stanley, must be esteemed one of the most important achievements in the whole history of African discovery. He set out on November 5, 1876, from Nyangwe (latitude 4° 20' south, longitude 26° 40' east), at the head of a numerous band of native followers, marching northward by land forty miles, till he again came to the river—known here as the Ugarowa, or the Lualaba. Putting his men in canoes, and himself embarking on the portable Lady Alice, he commenced his long journey of alternate boating and portaging which lasted for nine months. The party soon began to experience the hostility of the native tribes, who again and again attacked them from the banks of the stream or in canoes. On December 6th seventy-two of Mr. Stanley's men were down with smallpox, which rendered defense all the more difficult; he seized a town, and there housed his sick and wounded, but for two days and nights he and his party had to repel the fierce attacks of the natives. Soon he was boating down the river again, his force on January 4th numbering 146 men. In latitude 0° 32' 36" south is a series of cataracts, and Stanley's men had to cut a road through the forest and drag their canoes round the falls, the natives constantly harassing them in the mean time. Just below these cataracts the river widens enormously, receiving several considerable affluents; its course, too, becomes westerly, though still tending toward the north till it reaches latitude 1° 40' north, longitude 23° east, when it takes a southwesterly direction to the sea. One of the great tributaries of the Congo below the cataracts is the Aruwini, supposed to be the Welle of Schweinfurth. Here, on Stanley's map, is the legend "The Cannibal Region," and a little to the south "The Region of Dwarfs." At one place the expedition was attacked by the cannibals in fifty-four canoes with paddles eight feet long, spearheaded and pointed with iron blades. Stanley's breech-loaders soon forced the enemy to retreat in confusion. After receiving, in latitude 0° 