Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 37.djvu/299

Rh communications, the establishment of a library, and the dissemination of knowledge through publications and by other means.

Messrs. Merriam, publishers of Webster's Dictionary, issue a circular calling attention to the misleading way in which a cheap reprint of an old edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary is being advertised. It is the edition of 1847, the copyright of which has expired by the lapse of forty-two Tears. It lacks all the words that have been added to the language since 184*7, and these, especially in the department of science, have been many; it contains numerous etymologies that have been proved erroneous by the results of later research; it lacks the tables of biographical, geographical, and other information, which are appended to recent editions of Webster, and it has no illustrations in the body of the volume. The reprint is produced by some method of photogravure, giving blurred letters, very trying to the eyes, and the paper and binding are so flimsy that the book must fall to pieces with very little use. It is not the current edition of Webster's Unabridged Dictionary, as its publishers wish the public to believe—it is not even the "original" edition, as it explicitly claims to be, for that was published in 1828.

most interesting feature of Dr. R. W. Shufeldt's report to the American Ornithologists' Union on Progress in Avian Anatomy for the Years 1888-1889, is the announcement that a Handbook to the Muscles of Birds has been prepared by the author, and is in the press of Macmillan & Co. It is based on studies of the raven. Several monographs, mostly technical, by Dr. Shufeldt and other authors, American and foreign, are mentioned in the report. Among them is one by Mr. F. A. Lucas, on the Skeleton of the Extinct Great Auk.

and forcible article on The Suppression of Consumption, by G. W. Hambleton, is published in Science for April 25th. Dr. Hambleton deems the most important step in suppressing this disease to be to reduce its production. The means which he recommends for this end are almost entirely hygienic, and are based on the theory that consumption is produced by conditions that impede the respiratory functions. The chief of these are compression of the chest, and the presence of dust in the air inhaled. His statements are well fortified by cases which he has treated successfully, including his own.

first fossil found in the "Cheyenne sandstone" of Kansas—which is considered referable to the Trinity division of Arkansas and Texas—is described by Mr. F. W. Cragin as a part of a cycad, similar to those from the Purbeck Dirt-beds of England, but differing from them in form and in the size of the petioles. A leaf of Platanus, found in a stratum of very fine, soft chalk of supposed Niobrara Cretaceous age, is described by the same author as of interest, both on account of its preservation in a kind of rock in which land vegetation is rare, and because it contributes evidence that chalk is sometimes formed very near land, and if so, then presumably in water of but moderate depth.

increase of leprosy in British Guiana is attracting attention. It was introduced by negroes from Africa, and added to by immigrants from India in 1842 and 1858, and from China in 1861 and 1862. One Indian tribe was infected with it fifty years ago from the negro colony, but no other tribe has had it. Mr. J. D. Hilles, of Demerara, who has investigated the subject, is convinced that the disease is communicable by marriage or cohabitation, and by inoculation or contact. He has seen cases that undoubtedly arose by contagion.

investigations of Dr. Th. Kocher, of Berne, on goitre, while they do not clear up the question of the origin of the disease, cast a dim light upon it. Comparing the water of the parts of his canton in which goitre is common with those parts that are free from it, the author found considerable quantities of organic or organized material in it. In certain goitrous parts, particular families having access to special water-supplies free, or relatively so, from this organic material are free from goitre, although breathing the same air, living on the same soil, engaging in the same occupations, and eating the same food with their goitrous neighbors. Hence, he concludes, the organic factor is the one that determines the prevalence of goitre.

commends the semi-civilized region forming the central area of the Niger basin as one of the most promising fields for commerce in all tropical Africa. It is densely populated, and is divided into powerful and, for Africa, well-governed empires, in which life and property are fairly secure. The people have made some advance in civilization, and are famed for the excellence of their manufactures. Inland trade is organized, an efficient transport service exists, labor is abundant, the Niger presents an uninterrupted water-way to the very heart of the region, and the country is healthy, for Africa.

stump of Syringodendron alternans, discovered some time ago standing in the coal mines of St. Etienne, France, is about ten feet high, three feet in diameter at the starting-point of the roots, and twenty inches in diameter at the top. The roots resemble the fossil Stigmaria. The trunk has the cicatrices and flutings of the Sigillaria, and the leaves seem to have been linear. In a prostrate tree (upper part) of the same species a few feet from this one, the leafscars were more clearly marked, but smaller.