Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 8.djvu/268

256 find at the Maryland Academy of Sciences, says that each of the skulls was pierced at its vertex with a hole about an inch in diameter; this was apparently done some time after death.

recently deceased, was born at Boulogne-sur-Mer, in 1806; graduated M. D., at Paris, in 1831. He practised medicine for a while in his native town, and in 1842 came to reside in Paris. He was one of the founders of electrotherapy. He studied with eminent success the play of the facial muscles in the expression of the passions, and his observations and experiments were of great service to Mr. Darwin in the composition of his work on the "Expression of the Emotions." Not to mention his numerous contributions to medical journals, he was the author of several published works, among them a "Treatise on Localized Electrization;" "Researches on the Muscles of the Feet;" "Mechanism of Human Physiology;" "Anatomy of the Nervous System;" "Physiology of Movement," etc.

comparing the statistics of the German universities for the summer semester of 1874 with those of the same semester of 1875, the Allgemeine Zeitung finds a decrease in the number of medical students; it has fallen from 6,190 to 6,039. One of the causes of this is the fact that now Jewish students devote themselves, in great numbers, to the study of jurisprudence. Until lately, the legal career could hardly be said to be open to Jews in Germany, and hence a great number of them studied medicine.

California Peat Company are manufacturing peat-fuel at Roberts's Landing, San Joaquin County, at the rate of from fifty to one hundred tons per day. A recent trial of the product in the furnace of a steam-boiler is said, by the Scientific and Mining Press, to have been thoroughly satisfactory in its results.

authorities of Tufts College have lengthened their philosophical course to four years, at the same time giving the student greater freedom in the choice of studies.

to the American Railway Times, the first suspension-bridge was constructed by James Finley over Jacob's Creek, on the turnpike between Uniontown and Greensburg, Pennsylvania, in 1796.

first shipments of tin from Tasmania have arrived in England. This tin is pronounced by the Mining Journal to be of excellent quality, soft and of very good color. It is free from even a trace of wolfram, so often found in combination with tin.

two-hundredth anniversary of Antony van Leeuwenhoek's discovery of infusoria was celebrated on September 8th at Delft, his birthplace. All the natural history associations of Holland were represented on the occasion, and a fund was established for a Leeuwenhoek gold-medal, worth six hundred marks, to be awarded to distinguished microscopists. The first recipient of this medal was Prof. Ehrenberg, of Berlin, the oldest microscopist of Europe, and Leeuwenhoek's legitimate successor.

was recently made on a Scotch railway with a Scott-Moncrieff tramway-car, worked by compressed air. The vehicle resembles a common railway-car, but is a little higher, the reservoir of air being on the roof The initial pressure was two hundred pounds, and the speed attained ten miles per hour. The car was fully under control; the speed could be increased or reduced at pleasure, and the operations of starting, stopping, and reversing, were readily performed. The estimated cost of the power is three half-pence per mile, as against seven pence per mile for horse-power.

cells in a large mushroom, weighing four and a half pounds, were found by Worthington G. Smith to number 106,596,000,000,000. Each of these is furnished with a coat or cell-wall, and contains within itself protoplasm, water, and other materials. These cells are so extremely light that in one species of fungus it takes 1,624,320,000,000 to weigh an ounce troy.

British Association this year makes grants of money amounting to nearly £1,500 in aid of scientific research. For the prosecution of researches on "British Rainfall," the Association voted £100, and a like sum respectively for the exploration of Settle Cave and Kent's Cavern, for a record of the progress of zoölogy, and an examination of the physical characters of the inhabitants of the British Isles. The sum of £75 was voted in support of Dr. Dohrn's zoölogical station at Naples, and £200 for competing and setting up in London Sir W. Thomson's tide-calculating machine. The number of beneficiaries is in all twenty-seven.

is proposed to hold, in 1877, at the Palais de l'Industrie, Paris, an exposition of all the applications of electricity to art, science, and household use. The enterprise is zealously patronized by men of high distinction in the world of science and of industry. The necessary funds have been guaranteed. The committee in charge have their temporary headquarters at No. 86 Rue de la Victoire, Paris.