Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 3.djvu/133

Rh most evident precepts of sanitary prudence. This journal will, no doubt, do a good work in helping to diffuse abroad something like rational views as to the conditions of health. This periodical has nothing directly to do with medicine, nor will it attempt to make doctors of its readers. Hygiene is handsomely printed and carefully edited.



Meteor-Showers on the Night of November 27, 1872.—In all quarters of the heavens, says an astronomical periodical, the Leipziger Sternwarte, the meteors were very numerous, especially in the Southwest and the Northeast. An observer looking toward the South counted within 54 minutes, soon after seven, 700 meteors; another observer 807 meteors in 40 minutes. Between eight and nine o'clock 899 meteors were counted in 42 minutes, 304 in 19 minutes between nine and ten o'clock, 291 in 30 minutes between ten and eleven o'clock. Now, as the observer could view about one fourth of the heavens, and as over 20 meteors per minute were observed at about eight o'clock, we must set down the number falling between seven and eight, and between eight and nine, at 5,000 per hour. The phenomenon began to fail at ten o'clock, and, between that hour and eleven, only 2,000 meteors fell. About one-sixth of these meteors were brighter than stars of the first magnitude, and many of them left a train which was luminous for several seconds. The majority of them were, however, between the second and fourth magnitudes. In color most of them were yellow, though some were green, some blue, some red; those of feebler lustre were white. Prof. Galle, of Breslau, and Prof. Klinkerfues, of Göttingen, agree in attributing this meteor shower to the meeting of the earth with Biela's comet. "Without doubt," writes the former, "these meteors consist of scattered particles of Biela's comet, meeting the earth, as that comet in its septennial period passed that point in its career in the beginning of September, and was at its perihelion at the beginning of October. Schiaparelli's discovery of the connection between comets and meteoric showers thus obtains fresh confirmation."

Professor Agassiz's School of Natural History.—This establishment, which was at first designed for Nantucket, but is now intended for Penikese Island, had the following programme of subjects and instructions:

"1. Zoology in general, and embryology of the vertebrates, by L. Agassiz, Director of Museum. 2. The extinct animals of past ages compared with those now living, and the methods of identifying them, by N. S. Shaler, Professor of Paleontology at the Lawrence Scientific School. 3. Comparative anatomy and physiology of the vertebrates, by Dr. B. G. Wilder, Professor of Anatomy and Physiology at Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 4. The animals and plants living in deep waters, and the peculiar conditions of their existence, by L. P. de Pourtales, of the United States Coast Survey. 6. Embryology of the radiates, by A. Agassiz, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 6. Natural history of embryology of the mollusks, by Prof. E. S. Morse, of Salem. 7. How to make biological collections illustrative of the history of insects injurious to vegetation, by Dr. H. A. Hagen, Professor of Entomology at Harvard University. 8. Natural history and embryology of the articulates, by Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., Curator of Articulates at Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, and Lecturer on Entomology at Bowdoin College. 9. Natural history of the fishes and reptiles, by F. W. Putnam, Director of Museum of Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, and Permanent Secretary of the American Association for the Advancement of Science 10. Natural history of birds and mammals. by J. A. Allen, of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. 11. On breeding, and nests and eggs of birds, by Dr. Thomas W. Brewer, chairman of Committee on Birds, Nests. and Eggs, of the Boston Society of Natural History. 12. Practical exercises in the use of the microscope, by Mr. Bicknell. 13. Instruction in drawing and painting of animals, by Paulus Roetter, Artist at Museum of Comparative Zoology. 14. On the preservation of our sea-fisheries, by Prof. Spencer F. Baird, United States Commissioner of Fisheries, and Assistant Secretary of Smithsonian Institute. 15. On fish-breeding, by Theo. Lyman, of the Museum of