Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 33.djvu/300

288 is known to play an important part in the growth of plants by furnishing them and the surface of the soil with moisture. In hot and rainless countries and seasons, in fact, plants would not be able to reach maturity were it not for the dew which supplies the deficiency of rain. According to M. Prillieux, dew plays another and mischievous part in promoting the growth of parasitic fungoids, whose spores, brought by the wind, owe to it their power to germinate on the plants on which they light.

of the English Medical Council has been appointed to consider the best means of increasing the practical element in medical education. Although the strictly scientific parts of medicine are taught as they never have been taught before, it is conceded that there has been a falling off in the practical part, and that the new graduate, although more learned in minute anatomy, chemistry, and physiology than his predecessors, is less apt at recognizing and treating common diseases.

capacity of magnesia to form a cement, long known, has been regarded from a practical point of view since the residues and sub-products of the Stassfurt potash manufacture have risen to commercial importance. Dr. Frank's cement of magnesia and chloride of magnesium was unfortunately liable to the objection of swelling and breaking up, like some of the lime-cements, in consequence of slow hydration. Dr. Grundman, of Hirschberg, has patented a new process, in which, instead of calcining the magnesia and treating it with water, he makes a carbonate of it by exposing it to carbonic acid as produced by the burning of coke in close apartments. It thus forms a substance as hard as magnesite and capable of taking on a fine polish. Mixed with marble-dust, it forms an artificial dolomite; and, with soluble silicates, an artificial stucco.

with an electric locomotive are now being made on one of the underground roads in London, which, if successful, will do away with the chief annoyance of underground travel, the smoke, and the danger incident to carrying a powerful electric current along the line will be very much lessened on the underground system.

has made measurements of the leaps of the Mexican hare (Lepus callotis callotis) and the sage-hare or rabbit (L. Silvaticus Nuttalli) on the snow covered plains of New Mexico, the animals having been stimulated by a scare from the shot of a fowling-piece. The Mexican hares cleared twelve and thirteen foot, while the Mexican rabbits could leap fully six feet, and, in one case, more than seven feet. At their common rate of going, he says, "the hare rarely clears more than four feet at any single leap, while the rabbit is satisfied with rather more than two feet, and, when quietly feeding about the sage-bush, the tracks made by an individual of either species may actually overlap each other."

Municipal Council of Paris intends to found, in connection with one of the prominent public institutions, a chair of Philosophical Zoölogy, with a special view to the propagation of the Darwinian doctrine of evolution. Among those who are named as probable occupants of this chair, the fittest is said to be M. Alfred Giard, late of Lille, but now of Paris, who has taught this doctrine and made researches regarding it, and has gathered around him a school of young zoölogists. in "Chambers's Journal" has suggested that, if school-prizes are to be continued, their character might be improved, and they might be made to contribute to real zeal in the pursuit of knowledge, and to become a stimulus to further effort, by giving a part of their value, at least, in the form of privileges of free tuition in some school where the recipient's favorite branches could be studied for a longer time and to greater proficiency; while a smaller part might still be applied to the provision of a medal, as visible evidence of the merit and distinction.

an eminent geologist, and Director of the Zoological Gardens at Berlin, has recently died, at the age of fifty-four years.

the Danish astronomer, died at the Copenhagen Observatory, November 13th. He was born in 1827, distinguished himself in mathematics at the Polytechnic School in Copenhagen, was appointed observer in the old observatory at Copenhagen in 1851, and succeeded to the new one when it was completed. He determined the orbit of the comet of 1580, made zone observations of the stars between 15° of north and 15° of south declinations, translated Sufis's descriptions of the fixed stars from the originals, contributed to the journal "Copernicus" articles on the astronomy of the ancients, and published a catalogue of the "red stars."

of the British Navy, died March 3d, in the sixty-seventh year of his age. He had during his service held the positions of Principal Naval Lord of the Admiralty and Director of the Royal Naval College, and had done much in behalf of the application of science to the wants of the navy.