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768 the principles of mining, and navigation, which are already included in the list of scientific arts toward instruction in which aid is given, and in which examinations are carried out by the department.

use of aniline colors for tinting candies, syrups, and the like, is condemned by the Laboratory on account of their liability to contain arsenic. In twenty-five samples of aniline red or fuchsine, lately analyzed by Dr. Springmühl, only one was found wholly free from this poison, some of the samples containing as much as 6½ per cent, of arsenic. Cases of poisoning by these colors, as thus used, are numerous and well authenticated, and should warn consumers against brightly-colored syrups and confectionery.

to the Mining and Scientific Press, several vessels laden with coal for California were destroyed by fire last year. The cause was undoubtedly spontaneous combustion, heat being generated by the pressure and friction in the hold of the vessel. The "fire-damp" which escapes from coal-mines arises from slow decomposition of the coal at a temperature but little above that of the atmosphere.

Berlin Academy of Sciences has voted money for the purpose of maintaining in that city a certain number of scientific men, whose only occupation will be the investigation of science, and who will have no other duties to attend to, such as teaching, lecturing, and the like. Prof. Kirchhoff has received and accepted a "call" from the Academy.

the 18th of January of the present year, there died at Tring, Herts, England, a woman who had attained the extraordinary age of one hundred and eleven years and nine months. She was of pure gipsy descent, and was born in 1763 at Chinnor, Oxfordshire. Her name was Hearne, by marriage Leatherlund. The parish register of Chinnor shows that she was baptized on the 24th of April, 1763.

July 25, 1775, when Benjamin Franklin was appointed Postmaster-General, until 1799, only letters and newspapers were conveyed by the United States mails. In the latter year it was provided that pamphlets and magazines also might be transported when convenient; and not till 1845 was mailable matter strictly defined as including letters, newspapers, and periodicals. The regulations for 1852 admitted bound books not weighing over thirty-two ounces. The act of 1861 admitted maps, engravings, seeds, and cuttings, not weighing over eight ounces, and books not over four pounds. In 1863 a number of miscellaneous articles were declared mailable, and in 1872 it was enacted that this miscellaneous matter should embrace all articles within the prescribed weight (four pounds) which were not liable to injure the mail-bag or the person of any post-office employé. Down to 1852 the post-office was self-sustaining; since that time there has always been an annual deficit, with the exception of the year 1865.

, who has studied the topography of the Adirondack plateau, with a view to determine the probable cost of storing up the surplus waters of that region for the use of the Hudson and other streams, reports that—1. Immense quantities of water can be safely stored at a comparatively low cost on the Upper Hudson, much of which is now worse than lost, as it runs to waste in spring freshets, which in various ways are the cause of much damage; 2. That this excess alone is sufficient to maintain a good depth of water in the main river for one hundred days in the summer. The lakes of the Racquette basin alone are stated to have a capacity more than six times that of the Black River reservoirs, which supply the eastern division of the Erie Canal.

"Central Ohio Scientific Association" was organized last November, at Urbana, with the following officers: President, Rev. Theodore N. Glover; Vice-President, P. R. Bennett, Jr.; Corresponding Secretary and Curator, Thomas F. Moses, M. D.,typo [sic]; Recording Secretary, William F. Leahy; Treasurer, J. F. Meyer. The Association holds its meetings once a month at Urbana, the county-seat of Champaign County.

chief of the Manchester Fire Department gives, in a late number of Science Gossip, several instances where leaden water-pipes were gnawed through by rats. Two cases are also cited where the rats evidently mistook a gas for a water-pipe, and gnawed through it; on both these occasions damage was done by fire, by the accidental ignition of the escaping gas. Fires have occurred through rats and mice conveying under the flooring oily and fatty rags which have afterward ignited spontaneously. This is supposed to be a common cause of fire in cotton-mills.

the Vienna Exposition there were exhibited specimens of paper from the bark of the mulberry, from the stinging-nettle, and from potato-stalks. The mulberry-bark used for paper is the bark stripped from twigs after the leaves have been fed to silkworms. In Hungary the nettle is used with rags for making fine sketching and copying paper, and in Bohemia wrapping-paper is made from potato-stalks.

the beginning of the present year the amount contributed toward the Agassiz monument was $9,000.