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118 the Peabody Museum of American Archæology and Ethnology. Cambridge: Printed by order of the Trustees. Vol. II., Ko. 2. Pp. 280, with Illustrations.

Observations and Orbits of the Satellites of Mars, with Data for Ephemerides in 1879. By A. Hall. Washington: Government Printing-Office. Pp. 46.

Origin of Comets. By H. A. Newton. From American Journal of Science. Pp. 15.

Selenide of Bismuth. By J. W. Mallet. From American Journal of Science. Pp. 3. Production of Magnesian Nitride by Smothered Combustion of Magnesium in Air. Same author. Pp. 2.

Palæolithic Implements from the Glacial Drift in the Valley of the Delaware, near Trenton, New Jersey. By Dr. C. C. Abbott. From the "Report of the Peabody Museum." Salem: Printed at the Salem Press. Pp. 32.

Fermented Liquors. By Dr. A. J. Howe. Pp. 8.

Manual Education. By Prof. C. M. Woodward. St. Louis: G. I. Jones & Co. Pp. 31.

Report on Cold-rolled Iron and Steel. By R. H. Thurston. Pittsburg: Printed by Stevenson, Foster & Co. Pp. 109, with Plates.

Rate of Earthquake-Wave Transit. By E. Mallet. From Philosophical Magazine. Pp. 4.

A Mass of Meteoric Iron from Augusta County, Virginia. By J. W. Mallet. From American Journal of Science. Pp. 2.

Contributions to Natural History. By R. E. C. Stearnes. San Francisco. Pp. 6.

Electric Constitution of our Solar System. By J. Ennis. From "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia." Pp. 17.

Some Seleniocyanates; Electric Estimation of Mercury; Some Specific Gravity Determinations. By P. W. Clarke. From American Journal of Science. Pp. 6.

Illinois State Laboratory. Circular of Information. Springfield: State Register print. Pp. 14.



Effects of Oxygen inhaled at Different Temperatures.—Dr. B. W. Richardson finds great diversity in the action of oxygen on the animal economy according to the temperature of the gas when inhaled. Carefully-purified oxygen may be inhaled at 55° Fahr. without a consciousness of the difference between it and common air. But before long, even though the products of the combustion of the animal be all removed, there is a gradual decline of the animal's temperature, followed by a tendency to sleep. At last death occurs in deep sleep. At a temperature lower than 55°, the narcotism produced by the oxygen is very much quickened. At 32°, in a chamber of oxygen, Dr. Richardson has seen deep coma induced in mice, pigeons, and Guinea-pigs, within thirty-five minutes of the commencement of the inhalation, death from coma supervening within an hour. In a raised temperature (75°), the inhalation of oxygen may be sustained without coma, indeed without injury, for a considerable time. To determine this point, Dr. Richardson constructed a small room that could be steadily ventilated with pure oxygen gas. In this room he kept adult warm-blooded animals on one occasion for three weeks without being able to observe any variation from the natural life that could be considered detrimental. In this instance the blood was always of the same color in the veins as in the arteries, viz., of a rich bright arterial crimson. Another experiment showed that, like heat, electricity modifies oxygen as a supporter of animal life. Dr. Richardson placed three full-grown mice in jars, each containing a hundred cubic inches of pure oxygen gas. One of these animals was placed now in a temperature of 45° Fah.; another in a temperature of 75°; the third was placed in the same temperature as the first, but with this difference, that into the jar containing the animal there was introduced a pointed copper wire connected with the positive conductor of a frictional electric machine. When the machine was set in motion, a brush was produced at the point of the copper wire. Every five minutes this electric brush was excited within the jar. The animal in the first jar would sleep to death in two or three hours; those in the second lived for many hours; in the third the animal fell into a narcotized condition, but nevertheless continued to live in sleep so long as the electrical excitation continued. Under these conditions it lived for seventeen hours in gentle sleep, and on being then set free showed no sign of injury, and lived on as before the experiment.

A Torpedo Transport.—A war-vessel of an entirely novel character, the Hecla, lately arrived at Portsmouth, England, from Belfast, where she was constructed for the British naval authorities. The Hecla is designed to carry fast torpedo launches and to follow in the wake of a fleet as a depot, ready to dispatch her flotilla of small craft for its protection when needed. She is an iron vessel, 390 feet in length, and is fitted to carry six sixty-four-pounder rifled guns.