Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 15.djvu/874

 and stands ready to assist them in any legitimate way. Whether it be a State geological or topographical survey, an academy of science, or association or individual seeking to unravel nature's secrets, the Association desires to strengthen their bonds and to uphold them in the communities where they are located. Its province is to awaken an interest in pure science; or, where such interest already exists, to develop it to the full. It invites all interested in science to its membership, and opens its sessions to all comers. That its periodical and migratory meetings, in the words of the constitution, have actually done what they were intended to do, have promoted intercourse between those who are cultivating science in different parts of America, have given a stronger and more general impulse and a more systematic direction to scientific research, and have procured for the labors of scientific men increased facilities and a wider usefulness, no one who has watched its history can doubt."

The following abstracts of the more interesting papers read at the meeting are condensed from the reports published in the "Times" and the "Tribune":

The Orang-outang at Home.—Mr. William T. Hornaday read a paper on the orangoutangs of Borneo. The author spent several months last year in that island, studying its simian fauna and collecting specimens. Each individual of the Bornean orangs, he said, differs from its fellows, and has as many facial peculiarities belonging to itself alone as can be found in the individuals of any unmixed race of human beings, as the Chinese or the Japanese. The faces of the more intelligent orangs are capable of a great variety of expression, and in some the exhibition of the various passions is truly remarkable. The author had in his possession in Borneo four young living orangs. Three were dull and impracticable, but the fourth was singularly intelligent and docile; the development of its forehead and entire cranium "would have been quite alarming to an enemy of the theory of evolution." This specimen was a male infant seven or eight months old, twenty-two and a quarter inches in height, thirty-seven inches in expanse of arms, and fifteen and a half pounds in weight. He exhibited fully as much intelligence as any child under two years of age, with all the emotions of affection, dislike, anger, fear, etc. When teased beyond endurance he would first whine fitfully, but, if the teasing were continued, he would throw himself upon the floor, kicking and screaming and catching his breath like a child. Touching the habits of adult animals, Mr. Hornaday said that the male orangs are much given to fighting, their huge canine teeth being their principal weapons of offense. One of the specimens exhibited by the author bore the scars of many a fierce contest. Large pieces had been bitten out of both lips, and his middle fingers had been bitten off. He. had also lost two of his toes in this way. The orang's nest consists of a quantity of leafy branches broken off and piled loosely in the fork of a tree. The orang usually selects a sapling, and builds his nest in its top. Sometimes the nest is fully three feet in diameter, but usually not more than two, and quite flat on the top. There is no weaving together of branches. On this bed the orang lies, reposing on his back, his long arms and short thick legs thrust upward, and firmly grasping the branches within his reach.

Edison's Electro-Chemical Telephonic Receiver.—An exhibition of Edison's electro-chemical telephonic receiver was given before the Association in the Town Hall, and was prefaced by a very clear and succinct explanation of the principles involved in different kinds of telephones, by Professor Barker. Mr. Edison was present, and offered an explanation of his new instrument. Apparently, it is simply a small box provided with a crank, and looking like a coffee-mill. Its working is based on the fact that, when a piece of metal is pressed upon a chalk cylinder saturated with phosphate of soda, and a current of electricity is passed through the metal, there is no friction between the chalk and the metal, no matter how great the pressure. But, the instant the current is checked, the pressure applies and causes friction. In the new receiver there is a chalk cylinder which is made to turn by means of a crank. Upon the cylinder rests a metallic arm or bar that is attached at the opposite end to the