Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 26.djvu/884

864 liquid. Carbonic oxide behaved in an analogous manner. Oxygen gave no sign of congelation when boiled at -211° C. (about-348° Fahr.).

M. Sacc announces that he has discovered a new alimentary substance in the seed of the cotton-tree, which is richer than any other known grain in nitrogenous matters. He believes that the flour of this seed is destined to take an important part in alimentation, and in the preparation of all kinds of paste, in which it acts as a substitute for milk.

declares, in the French Academy of Sciences, that the vegetation of seeds is impossible in a soil wholly deprived of microbes.

International Ornithological Congress was recently held at Vienna, at which a permanent committee was appointed to organize a system of regular observations of the movements, migrations, and habits of birds. It is intended to form a network of stations all over Europe, in which persons having a taste for such work and qualified to perform it are expected to lend their aid in forwarding the objects of the observations.

for fifteen years Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, died February 7th, at about fifty-three years of age. He was distinguished in science as a student of Coleoptera and author of a book on "British Beetles"; he was also for eleven years editor of the "Zoölogical Record."

Dean of the Harvard Scientific School, died in Cambridge, Mass., January 11th, aged sixty-six years. He became Professor of Engineering in the Scientific School in 1849. He was the author of technical books on engineering science.

one of the most eminent of European conchologists, died, January 24th, of apoplexy. He was born in Swansea in 1809, began his conchological studies by collecting shells on the beach when he was ten years old, and produced his first scientific paper in 1828. He was a pioneer in deep-sea research, having begun dredgings on his own account; he afterward participated in expeditions with Dr. Carpenter and Professor Wyville Thomson; subsequently pursuing similar researches in Davis Strait; and was a promoter of the Challenger Expedition. At the Montreal meeting of the British Association, he read a paper on the relations of species inhabiting the opposite coasts of the Atlantic. He was an active member of the British Association, and a member of numerous other learned societies.

an English engineer and geologist, whose special study was the investigation of the causes of volcanoes and of subsidences of the earth, died in London, February 2d, in the seventy-fourth year of his age. He was the author of books on "What is and What is not the Cause of Activity in Earthquakes and Volcanoes," "On Steam as the Motive Power in Earthquakes and Volcanoes," and on "Physical and Historical Evidences of Vast Sinkings of Land on the North and West Coasts of France and Southwestern Coasts of England."

death is announced of Professor Lucä, the Frankfort anatomist and anthropologist.

Surveyor-General of New Zealand, died on the 14th of October, aged sixty-three years. He was born in Northumberland, and went to New Zealand in 1856, after having spent seventeen years in the East India Company's service. He organized the New Zealand system of land-survey, which is very exact, and under which land-holders are secure as to their boundaries. He had been a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society since 1848, to whose "Proceedings" he contributed a paper on the "Survey of the Province of Otago." He was author of several books on social and economical subjects, and papers on scientific and practical topics, many of which were published in the "Transactions" of the New Zealand Institute.

Perpetual Secretary of the Scientific Society of Holland, and formerly Professor of Chemistry in Amsterdam, died in Haarlem, January 18th, at the age of sixty-four years. He was most interested on the practical side of science, in which he introduced many useful applications, and was also known for his researches on meteorites, and for his universal meteorograph. He was active in measures for facilitating international exchanges of books, on a plan like that which is pursued at the Smithsonian Institution. He was a member of the Netherlands Commission at our Centennial Exhibition in 1876.

an eminent French naval engineer, died in Paris, February 1st, aged sixty-eight years. Bis name has been identified with works of naval construction in his native country since 1850. During the siege of Paris by the Germans, he directed the experiments by which it was sought to make balloons useful in the defense of the city, and since that time he has been interested and engaged in seeking solutions of the question of the propulsion of balloons.