Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 36.djvu/884

 too, with cyclone?, as at Calcutta in 1864, when sixty thousand people were drowned in the storm-wave, and Backerganj in 1876, when one hundred thousand were drowned.

experiment has been tried in Moscow, Russia, with success, of using carrier-pigeons to convey negatives of photographs taken in a balloon. The plates were packed in light-proof papers and tied to the feet of pigeons, who speedily took them in good order to the station on the ground.

geology and climatology are mentioned by the "Lancet" as departments of the science to which more attention might be paid than is. Their usefulness is illustrated by the recently published studies of Mr. Alfred Haviland on the distribution of cancer in the British Islands.

undue increase in all the learned professions in Germany is the subject of a pamphlet by Prof. W. Lexis, of Berlin. All the theological faculties, except the Roman Catholic, are increasing "to an alarming extent." The average number of medical students for the whole empire—2,675—was increased in 1888-1889 by 2,344. If a proportionate increase takes place in the number of licenses, the year's new doctors will rise from the average of 456 to more than 800. A prize offered by one of the Teachers' Associations for the best essay on the overcrowding of the learned professions and the means of remedying it, was given to two papers out of seventy-six sent in, which are to be published in a book.

apparatus for providing a steady platform at sea for guns, search-lights, telescopes, etc., was described by Mr. Beauchamp Tower in the British Association.



who died at Lake Helen, Fla., February 26th, was a scholar who had made himself eminent in many fields of thought and activity. He was born in Brunswick, Maine, in 1815; was graduated from Waterville College, now Colby University, in 1840; studied theology; preached, taught, and served as editor of the "New York Recorder," a Baptist paper, till 1853, when he was chosen President of the University of Rochester, where his after-life was spent. He instituted a course of lectures in intellectual philosophy, which were continued till he retired, in consequence of ill health, a year or two ago; also a course of historical lectures; and under the head of political economy he treated various questions affecting money, taxation, etc., and free trade and protection. His studies extended to questions of constitutional law, and covered the arts. He was prominent in all Baptist denominational enterprises, and served the State on several civil commissions. In fact, as the "Evening Post" well says, "he was one of those men who take all knowledge for their province, and never wearied of enriching his mind with stores of all descriptions, which he distributed with lavish impartiality among the students under his charge."

the recent deaths of scientific men abroad are those of M. LW [sic]. Taczanowski, of Warsaw, a distinguished ornithologist, author of a book on the birds of Peru; M. Neumayr, of Vienna, geologist, who was not yet forty years of age; and M. Otto Rosenberger, astronomer, who had been connected with the observatory at Halle since 1831.

of February 15th, mentions the death of M. Buys Ballot, of Utrecht, one of the most eminent meteorologists of the time, at the age of seventy-three years. He gave much attention to the study of data for facilitating weather predictions—the movement of cyclones, the direct observation of clouds, and all the "natural symptoms of the weather." He propounded several meteorological laws or maxims which bear his name, and probably had an equal part with any other student in giving shape to the present system of observation and investigation in that science.

whose name is associated with the hazardous but successful expedition which he made across Australia in 1873, died recently in Adelaide, in his seventy-sixth year. His exploring party Buffered terrible privations during their march, and were not heard of for twelve months. Major Warburton received the gold medal of the Royal Geographical Society and various honors in recognition of his contributions to our knowledge of Australia.

an Englishman, eminent in geographical research, died December 31st, in his seventieth year. In his annotated edition of Marco Polo's travels he made contributions of the most valuable character to geographical and antiquarian lore.

a French paleontologist, who died last December, was the son of another paleontologist, Prof. Elides Deslongchamps, was Professor of Zoölogy and Paleontology at Caen, and was the author of several memoirs on the paleontological fauna of Normandy.

an eminent German entomologist, died at Dresden, December 13th. He was the founder of the Entomological Society "Iris" at Dresden.

an eminent French physicist, mathematician, and astronomer, died January 14th, in the seventy-fifth year of his age. He was the author of a work of considerable repute on the "Constitution of Celestial Space."