Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/448

432 of the lungs, do not sleep well on the back. Nearly all who are inclined to snore do so in that position. For these and other reasons, it is therefore better to lie on the side, and in lung-disease to lie on the weak side, so as to leave the healthy lung free to expand. It is well to choose the right side, because, when the body is thus placed, the food gravitates more easily out of the stomach into the intestines. Sleeping with the arm thrown over the head is to be deprecated; but this position is often assumed during sleep, because circulation is then free in the extremities and the head and neck, and the muscles in the chest are drawn up and fixed by the shoulders, and thus expansion of the thorax is easy. The chief objections to this position are that it creates a tendency to cramp and cold in the arms, and sometimes seems to cause headaches and dreams. The best sleep is obtained when the shutters are closed so as to make the room dark, and the windows are adjusted so as to admit plenty of fresh air. Early rising is not a virtue, unless the riser has secured sleep enough; and the best rising is obtained when the sleeper wakes naturally.



works of Darwin, Spencer, Agassiz, Huxley, Adam Smith, and Lewes, are said to be forbidden to be issued from the circulating libraries of Russia. The writings of Moleschott, Büchner, Vogt, and Reclus, are also prohibited.

of Paris, has begun the publication of a weekly "Journal des Sociétés Scientifiques," which will contain brief reports of the principal scientific societies, in whatever field, of the great cities of Europe. It costs fifteen francs, or three dollars, postage paid, a year.

has frequently noticed, in passing from his observatory on the Puy de Dôme, to the city of Clermont-Ferrand, that, while the air was clear and transparent to the west of the chain of the Puys, it was obscured on the east. On investigation, he found that the obscurity was caused by the dust which the wind, generally blowing from the west, swept up from the rocks over which it passed. This explanation was confirmed by the fact that the fog-like appearance disappeared after a rain.

use of artificial teeth turns out to be of ancient origin. Two curious specimens of artificial teeth from the Etruscan tombs, dating from four or five centuries before the Christian era, may be seen in the Museum of Corneto, on the coast of Italy. In the bodies of two young girls, on the jaw of one are still to be seen two incisors fixed to their neighbors by small gold rings, while in the other the rings remain, but the artificial teeth have fallen out. The teeth, carefully cut, had evidently been taken from the mouth of some large animal.

of Saarbrücken, Prussia, who has made a special study of volcanic eruptions, states that colliery explosions coincide with or follow closely upon earthquakes. He specifies a number of days during the present season as days which will be dangerous all over Europe.

, in the relation of his journey through the Masai country in Africa to the Victoria Nyanza, speaks of his troop in one of its marches having "done" little short of seventy miles within twenty-four hours, without a drop of water or a bit of food!

has been formed for organizing the celebration of the centenary of the birth of Arago, which will occur on the 17th of March next.

the deaths of the last few months in the scientific world is that of John Birmingham, astronomer, of Millbrook, Ireland, at the age of seventy-eight years.

A. S. Uwarrow, who died a few months ago, Russia has lost one of its foremost archæologists and the founder of the Archæological Society of Moscow. He published works on the archæology of Southern Russia, the tumuli on the Oka (Vladimir), and the Finnish people of the Mesia, who inhabited the country before its colonization by the Russians.

, one of the oldest members of the Entomological Society of London, died on the 1st day of February.

, the last surviving son of Charles Wilson Peale, the portrait painter of Revolutionary times, died in Philadelphia, March 13th, in the eighty-sixth year of his age. He was a naturalist, and had fine collections of moths and butterflies; was one of the founders of the Philosophical Society of Washington; was a member of the United States Exploring Expedition of Commodore Wilkes; and was the only survivor of Colonel Long's Expedition to the Rocky Mountains. 