ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY FOR 1874. EDITED BY SPENCER F. BAIKD, WITH THE ASSISTANCE OF EMINENT MEN OF SCIENCE. -> * ;V ~ J 1 I / | NEW YORK: HARPER & BROTHERS, PUBLISHERS, FRANKLIN SQUARE. 1875. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1875, by Harper & Brothers, In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. PREFACE. In presenting to the public the fourth volume of the series of the " Annual Record of Science and Industry," / 7 some remarks may be fitly introduced in explanation of the aim and scope of the work. In each of the successive numbers already published new features have been introduced, suggested by experi- ence as well as by the advice of the scientific collaborators and friends of the editor. These are exemplified in part by the increasing number of communications and criti- cisms on progress in the various branches of science, and by the greater extent of the historical resumes given under the caption of " General Summary of Progress." These have increased in the successive years from 16 pages for 1871, to 50 pages for 1872, and 114 pages for 1873. At the same time, the volumes have successively increased in the number of pages from 634 in 1871, to 651 in 1872, and 714 in 1873. The editor has been pleased to notice that his endeavors thus to increase the value of the work have been on the whole cordially appreciated by the public at large. With much of praise, however, sundry friendly suggestions for modifications and improvements have been made which merit attention. It lias been urged, on the one hand, that some discoveries and memoirs deserving of attention have not been referred to ; on the other, that the preliminary Summaries of Progress would be sufficient alone, without any paragraphs recording individual discoveries. It would of course be impossible to satisfy such discrepant opinions, and in this dilemma the only resource left to the editor has been to follow a mean which he hopes will be regarded by most as a tolerably happy one. It must be remembered (ii) PREFACE. that far more than ten times the space contained in the present volume would be necessary to give even an ap- proximately complete abstract of the progress of science in each of the departments embraced within the scope of this work ; much more than that amount will in fact be employed in the annual reports that are hereafter to be made and published on the progress of the several depart- ments of science for the past year. These reports, how ever unlike the present volume will not appear till at least one and in some cases two or three years have elapsed from the year in question. These too are, to a certain ex- tent, addressed rather to experts and special students in the various branches of science than to the general reader, for whom the " Annual Record " is more especially designed. In them the several branches embraced herein are respect- ively reported upon in volumes varying from little less than live hundred pages to nearly two thousand each year. Each special department of science has now its own organ for the record of discoveries within its domain. All these are extremely useful to the investigator, and enable him to economize precious time that would otherwise be spent in frequent references to numerous volumes, some of which are almost or quite inaccessible to all save a favored few. Several are also very elaborate, and the special subdivisions within a single branch are reported upon by experts in the respective subdivisions. Excellent examples of such re- ports are found in the Jahresbericlite and Jahrbilcher, published in Germany, on the mathematical, 1 physical, 2 and chemical 3 sciences, the titles of some of which are 1 Jahrbuch iiber die Fortschritte der Mathematik im Verein mit anderen Mathematikern herausgegeben von Carl Ohrtmann, Eelix Miiller, und Albert Wangerin. Berlin: Druck und Verlag von Georg Reimer. . . . [8vo]. 2 Die Fortschritte der Physik im Jahre . . . Dargestellt von der Phy- sikalischen Gesellschaft zu Berlin. . . . Jahrgang. Redigirt von Dr. B. Schwalbe. Berlin : Druck und Verlag von Georg Reimer. . . . [8vo]. 3 Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der reinen, pharmaceutischen und technischen Chemie, Physik, Mineralogie und Geologic Bericht iiber die Fortschritte der Cliemie und venvandter Theile anderer Wissenschaften. Fur . . . Giessen. J. Rickers'che Buchhandlung. . . . [8vo]. With a second title-page, viz. : Jahresbericht iiber die Fortschritte der PREFACE. .(iji) given in the foot-notes. Some branches have even two or more annual works devoted to the record of progress in their several spheres ; such are especially Zoology, 4 on which one report is published in Germany and another in England ; Botany, 5 which has one in Holland and another in Germany ; while for Anatomy 6 there are two in Germany alone. To reports like these must the student refer who desires to obtain information respecting the more technical or special facts or generalizations that have been announced. The present volume can administer to their needs only to a slight extent. The editor simply hopes and believes that by the relations which he has established with a number of the most eminent cultivators of the different departments of science in this country, and through their co-operation, he has been enabled to present as complete and reliable a resume of discovery as can reasonably be expected within Chemie und verwandter Theile anderer Wissenschaften. Unter Mitwirkung von A. Laubenheimer, Al. Kallmann, F. Nies, F. Eose herausgegeben von Adolph Strecker. Fur . . . Giessen. J. Rickers'che Buchbandlung. . . . Jahresbericht iiber die Leistungen der chemischen Teclmologie fur das Jahr 1873. Herausgegeben von Rudolf Wagner. Leipzig, O.Wigand. 1874 [8vo]. 4 Archiv fur Naturgeschichte. Gegriindet von A. F. A.Wiegmann, fortge- setzt von W. F. Erichson. In Verbindung mit Prof. Dr. Leuckart in Leip- zig berausgegeben von Dr. F. H. Troscbel, Professor an der Friedrich-Wil- helms-Universitat zu Bonn. . . . Jabrgang. Zweiter Band. Berlin, Nicolaische Verlags Buchbandlung. . . . [8vo]. Zoological (The) Record for 1872, being volume ninth of the Record of Zoological Literature. Edited by Alfred Newton, M. A., F.R.S. London : John Van Voorst. 1874 [8vo]. 5 Repertorium annuum literaturae botanieaj periodica? curavit J. A. van Bemmelen. Tom. I. 1872. Harlemi. Botanischer Jahresbericht. Systematise^ geordnetes Repertorium der botanischer Literatur aller Lander. Herausgegeben von Dr. Leopold Just, Professor am Polytechnikum in Carlsruhe. Erster Jahrgang. Band I. Berlin. 1874 [8vo]. 6 Bericht iiber die Fortschritte der Anatomie und Physiologie im Jahre . . . Herausgegeben von J. Henle, G. Meissner, und H. Grenadier. Leip- zig, C. F. Winter. . . . [8vo]. Jahresbericht iiber die Leistungen und Fortschritte in der Anatomie und Physiologie. Unter Mitwirkung zahlreicher Gelehrten herausgegeben von Rudolf Virchow und Aug. Hirsch. Unter Special-Redaktion von Professors D. D. E. Gurlt und A. Hirsch. Berlin : Hirschwald. [8vo]. (iv) PREFACE. the limited space to which an annual like the present must be restricted.* As now presented, the " Record ' : has two distinctive parts : (1) the historical summaries of progress during the past year; and (2) the paragraphs communicating in brief the results of investigations by special scientists or respect- ing certain subjects. The advantages of the paragraph method, so generally in vogue in analogous publications in the English and other languages, are combined with the more consecutive and eliminating characteristics of the historical ; the latter is a much more prominent feature in the present volume than in any of its predecessors, and special attention will be devoted to it in future. A list of some of the more prominent publications on scientific subjects which have appeared during the past year is added in this volume for the first time: the deter- mination to introduce it was, however, carried into execu- tion too late to render it as complete or critical as could be desired. The labor attendant on the preparation of such a list is very inadequately represented by its length, and the co-operation of the book fraternity is necessary for its thoroughness. It is proposed to make the Bibliography of succeeding volumes an instructive guide for the selection of works, and the views of the collaborators of the editor will be accordingly invoked for the appreciation of their merits. Spencer F. Baird. Smithsonian Institution, Washington, February 10, 1875. * Among those who have taken part in the preparation of the historical Summaries, or of abstracts of articles belonging to their respective specialties, or who have supplied early reports of their own original researches, may be mentioned : Professors Simon Newcomb, Cleveland Abbe, Edward S. Hol- den, Theodore Gill, and O. T. Mason, of Washington ; Professors G. F. Bar- ker, E. IX Cope, and Dr. William Wahl, of Philadelphia ; Professor C. P. Himes, of Carlisle, Pa. ; Dr. Charles Rau, of New York; Professor A. M. Mayer, of Hoboken ; Professor A. E. Verrill and Dr. E. S. Dana, of New Haven; Professor W.O. Atwater, of Middleto\vn,Conn. ; Dr. T. Sterry Hunt, of Boston ; Dr. A. S. Packard, Jr., of Salem ; Dr. W. G. Farlow and Mr. Sereno Watson, of Cambridge; Professor Hamilton L. Smith, of Geneva, N.Y. ; Professor F.W. Clarke, of Cincinnati; Mr. A.W. Bennett, of London, and other gentlemen who prefer to remain unnamed for the present. TABLE OF CONTENTS. 5fr PREFACE Page (i) GENERAL SUMMARY OF PROGRESS xix A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY (xix) 1 (a.) MATHEMATICS. Pure Mathematics : Problem of Three Bodies, 1 ; Computation of Abso- lute Perturbations, 2 ; the Spirals of the Nautilus, 1. Applied Mathe- matics : Morphology in Architecture, 5 ; the Integrometer, 6. Weights and Measures : Length of Egyptian Cubit, 2 ; Metrological Relations of the Great Pyramid, 4 ; Testing Weights in England, 5. (b.) ASTRONOMY. The Nebulae : Movements of, 8 ; Changes in Nebula around Eta Argus, 41. The Stars: Stellar Parallaxes, 6 ; Gilliss' Southern Zone of Stars, 8; The Double Star Procyon, 9 ; Spectrum of the Milky Way, 9 ; Scintilla- tion of the Stars, 10. The Sun : Apparent Diameter, 18, 22 ; Constitution of, 17,44; Temperature of, 19; the Photosphere, Langley on, 11; Metallic Elements in Sun's Atmosphere, 45 ; Young's Theory of the Sun's Crust, 38; Sim Spots, 14, 16, 43; Changes in, 15; Sun Spots and Solar Refraction, 15; Sun Spots and Faculae, 44 ; Sun Spots and Terrestrial Meteorology, 79, 80 ; Sun Spots and Rain, 79 ; Solar Radiation, 19 ; Solar Spectrum : Draper's Photographs, 13 ; Observation of, from Balloon, 41 : Effect of Temperature on Apparatus for Observing, 14; Solar Parallax, 16 ; Influence of Sun on Atmospheric Pressure, 118; Eclipse of 1870 in Italy, 20; of 1874, 40. The Planets: Rotation of, 26; Uranus: Satellites of, 43 ; Jupiter: Satellites of, 24 ; Atmosphere of, 39 ; Venus : Visibility of Dark Half of, 39 ; liars : Flattening of, 42. The Moon: Defects "in the Lunar Tables, 27; New- comb's Tables, 26 ; Considered as a World, 25 ; Apparent Diameter of, 27 ; Influence on the Weather, 69. Meteoroids : Explosion of a Meteor, 28; Orbit of a Bright Meteor, 42. Comets: Constitution of, 28; Determining Parabolic Orbits of, 29. The Aurora : Origin of, 29 ; Observation of, 30 ; Nature of, 31. The Zodiacal Light : Polarization of, 32. Observatories * In the arrangement of articles in the body of the Record, it was found impracti- cable to place them in proper systematic sequence, especially as many belonged as much to one division as to another, sometimes even to three or four equally. The present systematic Table is intended to remedy the difficulty, by bringing together in proper order all the titles of articles, and, by a system of cross references and dupli- cations, to point out all matter relating to any one subject, whatever be its situation in the volume. The references in Roman letters preceding the page references of the headings relate to the pages of the introductory "Summary." i v TABLE OF CONTENTS. and Instruments : New or Proposed Observatories : in Minnesota, 33 ; in California, 34 ; at Quito, 35 ; at Cordoba, 36, 37 ; at Oxford, 35. Miscella- neous : Telegraphic Standard of Time, 33, 147 ; Ancient Sun-dials, 40 ; a Striking Sun-dial, 45. B. TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS AND METEOROLOGY (xxxi, xxxiv) 47 (a.) TERRESTRIAL PHYSICS (including Dynamical Geology). The Land in general: Physical Geography of Chile, 113. Subsidence and Shrinkage : Contraction of the Earth's Diameter, 52 ; Shrinkage of the Earth and Terrestrial Magnetism, 52. Earthquakes : in North Caro- lina, 47 ; in New England, 48 ; in Central Germany in 1872, 48 ; in the Caucasus, 50. Volcanoes : Mallet's Theory of, 122. Terrestrial Mag- netism : Shrinkage of the Earth and, 52 ; Daily Variation in, 53 ; Secular Changes in, 153 Variation in Magnetic Declination, 158 ; Earth Currents, 150 ; New Magnetic Chart, 158. The Interior Waters : Tides in Lake Geneva, 53 ; Fluctuations in Level of American Lakes, 54 ; Low Water in the River Seine, 107. The Ocean: General: Physical Condition of the Arctic Seas, 56; Formation of Icebergs, 107. Tides: in Arctic Ocean, 55; of Tahiti, 109 ; Action on Sea-bottom, 55. Currents : Ocean Circulation, 57 ; Influence of, on Temperature, 108 ; Theory of Under-currents, 122. Temperatures : in South Atlantic, 56 ; at Surface of Atlautic, 62. Ex- plorations : of Adriatic, 113. See also Geography. The Atmosphere or the Air. See Meteorology. (b.) METEOROLOGY. The Atmosphere in general : Acoustic Transparency of the Air, 78 ; Carbonic Acid in, 110 ; Protecting Influence of, 120. General Climatol- ogy : Influence of the Moon on the Weather, 69 ; Meteorology and Sun Spots, 79, 80 ; Law of Storms in North America, 111 ; Sunset Tints and Arcs, 68 ; Colliery Explosions and the Weather, 72 ; Temperature and Pressure during Monsoon Months, 117 ; Weather of December, 1873, 73 ; New Text-book, 77. Meteorological Observations : in the United States Report of Chief Signal Officer for 1873, 60, 81 ; in Alaska, 82 ; St. Paul's Island, 83; in the Argentine Confederation, 68; in Japan, 115, 116 ; in Ca- rinthia, 123; in Russia, 85; in Bengal, 74; Maritime Meteorology, 70, 87, 115; Admiralty Wind and Current Charts, 114 ; Hoffmeyer's Charts, 76. Weath- er Signals and Predictions : Use of High Stations in Weather Predictions, 63 ; Signals of London Board of Trade, 71 ; of Canada, 88 ; of the United States, 60; in the Mauritius, 86 ; Deville's Predictions, 11 2. Climate : Periodicity of, 65 ; Climate of Tiflis, 63 ; of Bombay, 77. Atmospheric Electricity. See Electricity ; Physics. Atmospheric Pressure and the Winds : Re- duction of Barometric Observations to the Sea-level, 88 ; Barometric Va- riations, 119; Remarkable Barometric Depression in England, 89 ; Mathe- matical Theory of the Winds, 123 ; Inclination of Wind to the Earth's Sur- face, 124; Influence of the Sun on the Winds, 118; Hail-storms in Europe, 124 ; Movement of Storm-centres, 76 ; Winds of Northern India, 92, 93 ; of West Indies, 118 ; Tornado of May 22, 1873, 94 ; Cyclone in Nova Scotia, 90 ; in Calcutta, 90; in the Mauritius, 120. See also General Climatology. Temperature : of Ocean, 56, 62 ; of Rain-water, 121 ; of Clouds, 98 ; of St. Petersburg, 99 ; of Helsingfors, 100 ; Change of, with Altitude, 97 ; In- TABLE OF CONTENTS. V fluence of Ocean Currents on, 108. Moisture : Influence of Earth on Pre- cipitation of Moisture, 64 ; Connection of Sun Spots and Rain, 79 ; Tem- perature of Rain-water, 121; Hail-storms in Europe, 124; Rain-fall in Panama, 101. Instruments. Rain-gauge: Self-recording, 101; Barometer: Joules', 102 ; Self-recording, 117 ; Sensitive Variation, 119 ; Thermometer : Negretti's New Deep-sea, 103 ; Symons' Experiments, 124 ; Anemometer, 104 ; Universal Meteorograph, 105. C. PHYSICS (xxxvii) 125 General : Resistance of Glass Tubes to Rupture, 125 ; Molecular Changes in Iron with Temperature, 166 ; Disaggregation of Tin by Concussion, 169; Crystalline Structure Produced by Concussion, 170 ; Connection between Cleavage and Heat in Crystals and Rocks, 197 ; Mathematical Laws of Elasticity, 130 ; New Mode of Determining, 131 ; Effect of Galvanic Cur- rent on Elasticity of a Wire, 167 ; Electro-torsion, 168 ; Elastic Reaction by Torsion, 168 ; Phenomena of Liquid Films, 129 ; Plateau's Glycerine Liquid, 137 ; Vibration of Liquid Surfaces, 159 ; Evaporation of Liquids, 169 ; Molecules of Ether, 169 ; Diffusion of Gases, 142 ; Relationship of Heat, Electricity, and Molecular Forces, 125 ; Report of British Association on Dynamical and Electrical Units, 125; the Horizontal Pendulum, 167; the Flight of Birds, 176. Sound : Terquem's Tonometer, 130 ; Electric Diapason, 135 ; Organ-pipes, 132 ; Mode of Hearing in Man and Mammals, 192 ; Duration of Sonorous Sensations, 196; Sonorous Vibrations, 179; Observations on Sound, by Gal- ileo, 134 ; Mechanical Equivalent of Sound, 189 ; Optical Method of Study- ing the Vibrations of Solid Bodies, 191 ; Air-pressure Required to Sound Various Wind Instruments, 195 ; Reflection of Sound from Flame and Heat- ed Gases, 179; Vibrations of Liquid Surfaces, 194; the Atmosphere as a Vehicle of Sound, 181 ; Acoustic Transparency of Air, 78, 159; Refraction of Sound by the Atmosphere, 132, 187 ; Impermeability of a Non-homo- geneous Atmosphere to Sonorous Vibrations, 179 ; Effect of Fog on Sound, 158 ; Effect of Wind on Sound-waves, 185. Light (see also Astronomy for Spectroscopy) : Laws of Reflection of Light, 141 ; Effect of Temperature on Apparatus for Observing Solar Spec- trum, 14; Width of Spectrum Lines, 160; Absorption of Spectra at Low Temperatures, 145 ; Variability of Spectra, 172 ; Diffraction Gratings, 140 ; Solar Spots and Solar Refraction, 15 ; Sunset Tints and Arcs, 68 ; Optical Properties of Thin Metallic Films, 175 ; Elliptic Polarization of Light, 137 ; Polarization by Diffusion, 138; Polarization of Flames, 138; Galvanic Po- larization in Liquids Free from Gas, 139; Normal Flame for Photometric Purposes, 142 ; Luminous and Non-luminous Flames, 144 ; Improved Elec- tric Light, 160 ; Light from Grinding Hard Stones, 162 ; Fluorescence of Amber, 143 ; the Black Drop, 145. Heat : Effect of Temperature on Apparatus for Observing Solar Spots, 14 ; Specific Heat of Gases, 145 ; Atomic Heat, 171 ; Mechanical Equivalent of Heat, 146 ; Expansion of Ebonite by Heat, 163 ; Molecular Changes of Iron with Temperature, 166; Connection between Direction of Cleavage and Conductivity of Heat, in Crystals and Larnellated Rocks, 197; True Zero of Centigrade Thermometer, 164. 1* v i TABLE OF CONTENTS. Electricity, Atmospheric (see Meteorology) : Effect of Lightning on Trees, 164; Discharge of Electrified Conductors, 179; Dielectric Ab- sorption, 174; Conductivity of Metallic Vapors, 165; Synthesis by Electric Action, 147 ; Electric Resistance of Selenium, 148 ; New Contact Theory of the Galvanic Cell, 146; Improved Electric Light, 160; Measurement of Galvanic Currents, 165 ; Effect of Current on Length of Conducting Wire, 167 ; General Effect of, on Magnetized Wire, 171 ; Distribution of Time by Astronomical Observations, 147. Magnetism, Terrestrial Magnetism (see also Terrestrial Physics and Meteorology) : Relation to Shrinkage of Earth, 52 ; Daily Variations in, 53; Magnetic Chart of the Northern Hemisphere, 154; Variation in Mag- netic Declination, 158; Secular Changes in, 153; Earth Currents, 150, 172; Solar Heat and Terrestrial Magnetism, 172 ; Calorific Effects of Opposing Magnetisms, 148 ; Magnetization of Glass, 1 52 ; Molecular Theory of Mag- netism, 153 ; the Armature in Magnets, 173 ; Discoveries of Archibald Smith Relative to Ships' Compasses, 149 ; Compass Deviations, 149 ; New Compass, 156 ; New Instruments, 126. D. CHEMISTRY AND METALLURGY (xliv) 199 General: Metamerism in Inorganic Chemistry, 204; Mixture of Liquids with Exclusion of Air, 202 ; Jacobsen's Apparatus for Extracting Gases from Sea-water, 207 ; Hot Filtering, 214 ; Spectroscopic Chemistry, 214 ; Assaying with the Spectroscope, 215; Explosion and Ignition by Perman- ganate of Potash and Sulphuric Acid, 201. The Elements and their Simpler Combinations : The Gaseous, Liquid, and Solid States of Water, 209 : Is Hydrogen a Metal? 200; Hydrogenous Palladium, 199; the Occlusion of Hydrogen by Iron, 199; Safe Hydrogen Generators, 213 ; Manufacture of Oxygen Gas, 200 ; the Action of Water upon Ozone, 202 ; New Method of Forming Ozone, 203 ; Ozone and Ant- ozone, 203 ; Action of Ozone on Benzole, 204 ; a New Experiment in Ozone, 204; Carbonic Acid in Air, 110; Solidification of Nitrous Oxide, 201 ; Quick- silver Product of California in 1873, 208 ; Electrical Deposition of Iron, 208 ; Phosphorus Steel, 210; the Density of Molten Iron, 210; Volatilization of Iron, 211; Temperature in Pneumatic Steel-making, 217; Reducing Rich Iron Ores, 217 ; Preparation of Aluminium, 211 ; Aluminium in Plants, 217 ; Melting an Extraordinary Mass of Platinum, 211 ; Non-metaUic Elements in the Solar Spectrum, 45. Organic Compounds : Artificial Vanilla, 204 ; Changes in Alcoholic Liq- uors by Cold, 206 ; New Process for Estimation of Alcohol, 213 ; Detection of Starch in Milk, 212; Quantitative Determination of Tannic Acid, 212; Composition of Suint, 213; Detecting Fuchsine in Wine, 214; Action of Elodea Canademis (Water-pest) on Cane Sugar, 206 ; Cause of Acetous Fermentation, 208 ; Alcoholic Fermentation by Mould, 280. E. MINERALOGY AND GEOLOGY (lxv, lxvii) 219 (a.) MINERALOGY. New Species : Tschermakite, 225 ; Horbachite, 226 ; Schrbckingerite, 226 ; New Minerals, 235. Old Species: Native Tellurium in Colorado, 219; a Bismuth Mine in France, 220 ; Beds of Sulphur in Iceland, 227 ; Dr. Genth TABLE OF CONTENTS. vii on Corundum, 232 ; the Vermiculite Group of Minerals, 226 ; Discovery of Coal in Spitzbergen, 236; Mineral Butter, 227; the Molecular Structure of Meteoric Iron, 219 ; Atmospheric Dust, 228 ; Composition of Fulgurites, 228 ; Optical Structure of Crystals, 235. (b.) GEOLOGY. General : Relation of Man's Existence to the Glacial Period, 224 ; Struct- ure of the Earth, 219; Mallet's Observations on the Properties of Rocks, 221 ; the Lines of Elevation in the Earth's Crust, 223 ; the Formation of the Earth's Crust, 223 ; Distribution of Volcanoes, 229 ; Age of Central American Gold Deposits, 230 ; New Guano Deposits in Peru, 230 ; Geology of the Siberian Steppes, 235 ; Geological Collection at the Centennial Ex- position, 228; Volcanoes (see also Terrestrial Physics), Distribution of, 229 ; Progress of the Geological Survey of California, 225 ; of Wisconsin, 231 ; of Pennsylvania, 230 ; Report for 1873 of the State Geologist of New Jersey, 232 ; Geological Survey of Louisiana, 232 ; Final Report upon the Geology of Ohio, 234; Fifth Annual Report of the Geological Survey of Indiana, 236 ; Dr. Hayden's Bulletin, 233. F. GEOGRAPHY (lxxvi) 237 (a.) GEODESY, NAVIGATION, AND HYDROGRAPHY. An Improved Large Theodolite, 261 ; the Theory of the Uses of the Sur- veyor's Level, 243 ; Errors in Trigonometrical Levelings, 251 ; Hypsometry in the Rocky Mountains, 238 ; Measurement of Altitudes by the Barometer, 241 ; Dr. Toner's Dictionary of Elevations, 242 ; Coast-survey Measurements of Meridional Lines, 237; Rohlfs' Exploration of the Libyan Desert, 259; Geodesy in the Far West, 240; the Topographical Charts of Switzerland, 237 ; Geodesy in the Island of Corsica, 250 ; Longitude of Washington and Greenwich, 244; Longitude at Sea, 244. (b.) PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY. Fluctuations in the Level of Lake Superior, 245 ; Saltness of the Water of the Suez Canal, 257. See also Terrestrial Physics. (C.) EXPLORATIONS AND RESEARCHES. The Ocean and its Depths : Explorations of Norwegian Seas, 253 ; Notes of the Challenger's Movements, 255. The Arctic Regions: the Arctic Continent and Polar Sea, 252; Ger- man Society for Polar Exploration, 253 ; Arctic Explorations in England, 253. North America. Alaska: Explorations of W. H. Dall, 329 ; of H.W. Elliott (see also Summan r , p. lxxxvii) ; of Pinart, 246 ; Hudson's Bay T< r- ritory : Horetzky on the Hudson's Bay Territory, 256 ; Rocky Mountains : Professor Stoddart's Expedition to Colorado, 257 ; Explorations of Professor Powell in 1874, 262; Explorations in 1874 of Lieutenant G. M. Wheeler, United States Engineers, 267, 353 ; Explorations of Dr. Hayden in 1874, 275 ; Florida : Exploration of Lake Okeechobee, 245. Middle America : Explorations of W. M. Gabb in Costa Rica, 246. South America : Pro- fessor Orton's Explorations, 248; Exploration of Terra del Fuego, 257. Europe : Russian Explorations in Lapland, 260. Asia : Explorations by the Russian Government, 259 ; the Sources of the Irrawaddv. 261 : Explora- viii TABLE OF CONTENTS. tions in British India, 332 ; Discoveries of Abbe David in Maupin, China, 250 ; the Chinese River Hang-ki-ang, 261. Africa : Rohlfs' Exploration of the Libyan Desert, 259 ; Physical Con- dition of the Libyan Desert, 260. Australia, New Zealand, and the Indian Ocean : Recent Explorations in New Guinea, 249 ; Explorations in Rodriguez, 258. The Geographical Details will be found more complete in the Summary. G. GENERAL NATURAL HISTORY AND ZOOLOGY (cxxxii) 277 (a.) NATURAL HISTORY IN GENERAL. Microscopy : Microscopical Examination of Air, 277 ; Limits in the Avail- able Power of Microscope Lenses, 278; the Sand-blast for Making Micro- scopic Slides, 279 ; Determination of Blood Stains, 279. Darwinism : The Gastrasa Theory of Haeckel, 281. Miscellaneous : Life in Death, 279 ; Al- coholic Fermentation by Mould (Mucor mucedo), 280; Anderson School of Natural History, 576, 578, 579. (b.) ZOOLOGY IN GENERAL. Taxidermy : Bleaching Skeletons, 281 ; Chloral as a Preservative, 282 ; Dr. Coues' Manual of Field Ornithology, 343. Museums : The Godeffroy Museum at Hamburg, 282 ; the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massachu- setts, 575; Museum of Comparative Zoology, 580, 581, 582; Torrey Me- morial Cabinet, 584; Philadelphia National Museum, 587; National Her- barium, 593; Dr. Troost's Cabinet of Minerals, etc., 594; French Museum of Physical and Mechanical Science, 600 ; British Museum, 596. Menag- eries : Zoological Garden of Hamburg, 318 ; Zoological Society of Phila- delphia, 587, 588 ; of London, 595. Aquaria : Cement for Aquaria, 283 ; Manchester Aquarium, 600. Zoological Stations : Success of the Naples Zoological Station, 317 ; Zoological Stations on the Coast of France, 319. Zoological Explorations : Challenger, 255 ; Professor Gabb in Costa Rica, 246 ; David in China, 250. (c.) FAUNAS. Natural History of the Bermudas, 283 ; Absence of Animal Life in the Mediterranean. 284: the Fauna of New Zealand, 320; Deep-water Fauna of Lake Geneva, 320 ; the Cave Fauna of the United States, 322 ; Catalogue of American Birds, 343 ; Dall on the Birds of Alaska, 340 ; Geographical Distribution of Asiatic Birds, 341 ; Dall's Catalogue of the Shells of Behr- ing's Strait, 345. (d.) ANATOMY AND PHYSIOLOGY IN GENERAL. The Skeleton : Development of Teeth in the Armadillo, 289 ; Composition of Bone, 290 ; Differing Structure of the Tarsus in Cervidse, 290 ; New Terms in Craniological Description, 347. The Nervous System : Dnpuy on the Functions of the Cerebrum, 290; Influence of p]lectric Stimulation on the Brain and Spinal Cord, 293 ; Rapidity of the Action of the Nerves, 295 ; the Velocity of Nervous Transmission, 295. The Circulation : The Mechanical Perfection of the Human Heart, 285; Haemoglobin in the Blood of Different Animals, 286; the Circulation of the Blood, 286; Co- agulability of Serum and Albumen Dependent on the Presence of Carbonic Acid, 292. Development : Structure of the Embryonic Cellule in the Eggs TABLE OF CONTENTS. i x of Bony Fishes, 314 ; the Embryology of Terebratulina, 314 ; of the Lemurs, 301 ; Development of the Eye in the Cuttle-fish, 349 ; Kowalevsky on the Brachiopods, 353. General : New Experiments on the Venom of East India Serpents, 287 ; Action of the Poison of Egyptian Serpents, 323 ; Composition of the Cartilage of the Shark, 289 ; Composition of the Body Fluids of Fish and Invertebrates, 291 , Malformation of Fish Em- bryos, 294 ; Hereditary Transmission of Physical Peculiarities, 295 ; Ef- fect of Parasitism in the Animal Series, 348 ; Respiration in the Amphibia, 350. (e.) VERTEBRATES IN GENERAL. Rapidity of the Action of the Nerves, 295 ; Fossil Vertebrates in Ohio, 322 ; Action of the Poison of Egyptian Serpents, 323. (f.) MAMMALS. General Anthropology : Ethnological Inquiries to be made by the Ger- man Transit Expedition, 328 ; Alleged Foot-prints in Solid Rock, 328 ; New- Terms in Craniological Description, 347 ; Height of Human Species, 324 ; the Theory of Errors of Observation, 324; Drowning of a Chinaman by a Haliotis, 345. Man in the Old World: A New Bone -cave in Switzer- land, 296 ; Mammoth Cave in Poland, 297 ; Discovery of a Human Bone in a Cave in Yorkshire, 328 ; the Fossil Man of Mentone, 298 ; Kjoeckken- modding in Norway, 297 ; the Early Races of Mankind in Ireland, 325 ; Further Explorations in Cyprus by Di Cesnola, 332 ; Archaeological Survey of British India, 332 ; Ethnology of Ancient Egypt, 331 ; Tree-villages of the Solomon Islands, 298. Man in the New World : Ancient Stone Fort in Indiana, 329 ; Dall's Ethnological Explorations in Alaska, 329 ; Discov- ery of Aleut Mummies, 345 ; Trade among the Aborigines, 331 ; Prepared Heads of Macas Indians, 297. Other Mammals. General : Paucity of Mammals in Cuba, 300 ; His- tory of the Pacific Coast Marine Mammals, 338. Special : Habits of a Young Gorilla, 300; Embryology of the Lemurs, 301; Discovery of Pu- torius nigripes, 339 ; the Characters and Relations of the Hyopotamidae, 336 ; the Fossil Hog of America, 340 ; Genesis of the Horse, 301 ; Taming the Zebra. 352 ; Extermination of Buffaloes, 303 ; Decrease in the European Bison, 339 ; Relationship of American Deer to their British Analogues, 335 ; New Fossil Zeuglodon in France, 302 , Antarctic Whaling, 303 ; the Species of American Squirrels, 332 ; New Skeleton of the Megatherium in the Jardin des Plantes, 302. (g.) BIRDS. General : New Classification of Birds, 307; Relation between the Color of Birds and their Geographical Distribution, 306 ; Close Time for Birds in Great Britain, 352 ; Dr. Cones' Manual of Field Ornithology, 343 ; Catalogue of American Birds, 343 ; Dall on the Birds of Alaska, 340 ; Lawrence's Birds of Northwestern Mexico, 341 ; Geographical Distribution of Asiatic Birds, 341. Special : Discovery of a New Deposit of Moa Bones in New Zealand, 305 ; a New Species of Cassowary, 352 ; Suggested Introduction of the Rook into the United States, 342; Collection of Birds-of- Paradise, 341 ; the New Fossil Bird of the Sheppey Clay, 305; Fossil Egg from the Cher- sonesus, 306 ; an Egg Six Centuries Old, 340. X TABLE OF CONTENTS. (ll.) REPTILES AND AMPHIBIANS. Poison of the Water Lizard, 300 ; Respiration in the Amphibia, 350 ; Af- finities of the Heloderma horridum, 308 ; Occurrence of a Cuban Crocodile in Florida, 308 ; the Crocodile as a Poacher, 309. (i.) FISHES. General : Change of Volume of Fishes in Swimming, 348 ; the Develop- ment of Sharks and Rays, 349 ; Longevity of Fishes, 312 ; Eggs of the Silu- ridse, 313 ; Sensibility of Fish to Poisons, 313 ; Structure of the Embryonic Cellule in the Eggs of Bony Fishes, 314; Fish Living in Dried Mud, 311. Special : Food of the Shad, 310; Shad in the Gulf of Mexico, 338; the "Nerfling" Fish, 311; Spawning of Whiting-pout, 312; the Basking Shark, 351 ; the Structure of the Lancelet, 310 ; Fossil Ceratodus in Queensland, 308. (k.) ARTICULATES. Insects: An Army Worm, 344; New Fossil Spider, 317. Crustaceans: Explanation of the Alleged Occurrence of the King-crab in Holland, 316. Annelids : Vomiting a Liver-worm, 315. (1.) MOLLUSKS. Development of the Eye in the Cuttle-fish, 349 ; Kowalevsky on the Brachiopods, 353 ; the Embryology of Terebratulina, 314; Variation in the Banded Shells of California, 314; the Food of the Oyster, and a New Para- site, 315; Drowning of a Chinaman by a Haliotis, 345; Dall's Catalogue of the Shells of Behring's Strait, 345. (m.) RADIATES. Allman on a New Order of Hvdrozoa, 354. (n.) PROTOZOA. Greel's New Amoeboid, 31G. H. BOTANY (clviii) 355 General : New Yearly Report of the Progress of Botany, 361 ; Recent Pub- lications in Systematic Botanv, 363 ; Phvsiological Classification of Plants, 366. Floras and Distribution : Botany of the Bermudas, 355 ; Sea-weeds of the Bay of Fundy, 356 ; Vegetation in the Sheep-raising Portions of South Africa, 374 ; Geographical Distribution of the Cupuliferae, 367. Publications : Reports on the Plants of the Wilkes Exploring Expedi- tion, 374. Vegetable Physiology : Diffusion of Pollen in the Atmosphere, 35G ; Cause of Phosphorescence of Decaying Wood, 358 ; the Ascent of Sap in Plants, 358 ; Periodical Flow of Sap in Trees, 364 ; Promotion of Germina- tion by Camphor-water, 358 ; Germination and Growth at Low Tempera- tures, 359 ; Effect of Temperature upon the Germinating Power of Wheat, 360 ; Effect of Carbonic Acid and of Oxygen on the Growth of Plants, 370 ; Sarracenia variolaris as an Animal-eater, 365; Dr. Hooker on Carnivorous Plants, 371. Constituents and Uses of Plants : Manganese in Seeds, 359; Recent Uses of Sea- weed, 362. Particular Species : The Snow-flower, 360 ; the Eucalyptus globulus. 361 ; Chinese Oil-beans, 362 ; Origin of the Domestic Vine, 362 ; Orna- TABLE OF CONTENTS. xi mental Begonias, 363 ; Fungus Inside of Fresh Eggs, 357 ; New Species of Plant forming a Carbonate of Lime Incrustation, 363. I. AGRICULTURE AND RURAL ECONOMY (clxv) 375 General : A Covering of Snow as a Protection against Frost, 375 ; Vien- na Congress of Land and Forest Culturists, 375 ; Agricultural Period- icals Abroad, 377 ; Removal of Smell from Hog-yards, 389 ; the Hooibreuk System of Fruit - culture, 408; Hooibreuk Method of Fertilizing Plants, 409. The Air : Does the Free Nitrogen of the Air Contribute to the Forma- tion of Nitrates in the Soil? 381. The Soil: Lithia in the Soil of Au- vergne, 378 ; Does the Free Nitrogen of the Air Contribute to the Forma- tion of Nitrates in the Soil? 381 ; Continued Growth of Barley on the same Land, 410. Food for Animals : Hay-Cakes for Horses, 387 ; Effect of the Addition of Fat to Raw Feed for Sheep, 387 ; Influence of Food on the Milk Produc- tion of Goats, 388 ; Effect of Addition of Phosphate of Lime to Food of Lambs, 390 ; Feeding Animals with Flesh Food, 390 ; Experiments of Di- gestibility of Hay by Sheep, 413; Pure and Mixed Linseed Cakes, 415; Meat-flour as Food for Pigs, 417. Manures and Fertilizers : New Guano Deposits of Peru, 383 ; Fossil Phosphates of Bellegarde, 384 ; Agricultural Value of Anthracite Ashes, 384 ; Coignet's Process for the Preparation of Animal Matter for the Man- ufacture of Fertilizers, 386 ; Poisonous Superphosphates, 412. Useful Animals : Introduction of Prairie Chickens into the Eastern States, 391; Rearing the American Wild Turkey in France, 392; Protec- tion of Rabbits in England, 396 ; Effect of Feeding on the Color of Cocoons, 400; Artificial Hatching of Silkworms' Eggs, 400; Introduction of the Rook, 342. Animal Products of the Farm : Effect of Temperature on the Cream- ing of Milk, 399 ; Preparation of Condensed Milk, 399 ; Removal of Burs from Wool, 401 ; Economical Use of Feathers, 403. See also Domestic Economy. Noxious Animals: The Best Insecticides, 392 ; Dalmatian Insect-powder, 393 ; Effective Insect-powder, 393 ; New Form of Blight on Forest Trees, 394 ; Extermination of Tree - beetles, etc., 394 ; Destroying May-bugs, 394; Sulphide of Carbon for Phylloxera, 395; the Phylloxera and its Parasites, 395 ; Phylloxera the Result, not the Cause, of the Vine Disease, 396; Destructiveness of Rodents in California, 397; Rat Poison, 398; Destruction of Night-flying Insects, 412; Cockroach and Cricket Exterminator, 449 ; Preventing Flies from Annoying Horses, 449. Vegetable Products : Experiments upon the Nutritive Value of Clover Hay Harvested at Different Periods of Growth, 378 ; Propagation of Pota- toes by Cuttings, 412; New Potato Disease, 403; Infection of Sound Pota- toes by Diseased Ones, 404 ; Improved Method of Growing Potatoes, 404 ; Prize for an Essay on the Potato Disease, 406 ; One Cause of the Potato Disease, 408; Keeping Grapes Fresh, 413, 436; Manufacture of Mat-work from the Bark of the Linden, 410; a New Forage Plant in Guatemala, 411. Forestry : Rain-fall and Forests in the West Indies, 402 ; Barking Trees, for Tan, with Steam. 409 ; Preservation of Wood Lands. 411. xii TABLE OF CONTENTS. J. PISCICULTURE AND THE FISHERIES (clxix) 419 (a.) THE FISHERIES. General : Fisheries and Sea Temperatures, 419. Legislation, Protection, and Destruction : Act in Regard to Killing Seals in Alaska, 421 ; Destruc- tion of Fish on the Oregon Coast by Nitro-glycerine, 428. General Statistics : Marine Fisheries of Maine in 1873, 420 ; Consump- tion of Marine Products in Washington, 421 ; the French Fisheries, 422. Special Fisheries : Oil from Sharks' Livers, 419 ; Alaska Cod-fisheries in 1873,424 ; the Seal and Herring Fisheries of the Coast of Newfoundland, 424. (b.) FISH-CULTURE. In General : Introduction of British Fish into India, 426 ; Restocking Ot- sego Lake with Fish, 426. Establishments : Fish-culture in the Castalia Springs, 425. Species : Caution in Planting Young Salmon, 427 ; Trans- porting Living Trout, 427 ; Stocking a Pond in Utah with Eels, 428 ; Sterlet from St. Petersburg at the Brighton Aquarium, 428. K. DOMESTIC AND HOUSEHOLD ECONOMY (clxxxvi) 429 (a.) LIGHTING, HEATING, AND VENTILATION. Lighting: Modification of Klinkerfues' Galvanic Gas -lighter, 429; Im- proved Electric Illumination, 429 ; Gas-burner with Platinum Attachment, 430 ; Automatic Gas-lighter and Extinguisher, 455 ; Brilliancy of Gas from Distillation of the Pine, 431 ; Safe and Cheap Red-fire, 431. Heating : Extinction of Petroleum Flames, 431 ; Maintenance of a Uniform Tem- perature, 432 ; Infusorial Earth as a Non - conductor of Heat, 451 ; Im- proved Gas-furnace, 455 ; Wetting Coal a Mistake, 456. (b.) CLOTHING AND ADORNMENT. The Laundry: Washing Cotton Goods without Injuring the Color, 433; Removal of Rust from Fabrics, 433; Preventing Benzina Stains on Cloth- ing , 433 ; Dry Cleaning with Turpentine and its Purification, 433 ; Dry or Chemical Cleaning with Benzine, 434 ; Removing Grease-spots with Ben- zine, 435 ; Cleansing Sponges, 450 ; Cleaning Moss - covered Statuary in Gardens, etc., 454; Cleaning Gilt Articles, 454. (C.) THE TABLE. New Italian Method for Preserving Grapes, 436 ; Keeping Grapes Fresh, 413 ; Mutton Wine of the Chinese, 437 ; Wine made with Yeast, 437 ; Brandy from Sawdust, 438 ; Pasteur Process for making Unalterable Beer, 438; Improved Mode of Condensing Milk, 444; Testing Milk, 457 ; Prepa- ration of Caviare in Russia, 445; Spinal Column of the Sturgeon as an Article of Food, 447 ; Use of Horse-flesh in France, 447 ; Meat Biscuit, 448 ; Freshness of Eggs, 448 ; Fig Coffee, 453 ; New Method for Preserving Meat, 436 ; Japanese Mode of Preserving Meat in Summer, 455 ; Detection of Chicory in a Decoction of Coffee, 437 ; Detection of Picric Acid in Beer, 440 ; Detection of Foreign Bitter Principles in Beer, 440 ; Mode of Testing Butter for Adulteration, 443 ; Effect of Salting Butter, 440. (d.) THE STABLE. Preventing Flies from Annoying Horses, 449; Glycerine for Preserving Leather from Ammoniacal Vapors, 451 ; New Method of Slaughtering Ani- mals, 450 ; Wheel with India-rubber Tire, 458. TABLE OF CONTENTS. xiii (e.) MISCELLANEOUS. Cement for Rendering Corks Tight, 435 ; Bleaching Shellac by Bone-black and Sunlight, 436; Windhausen Refrigerating Machine, 436; Use of Sul- phite of Soda in Distilleries, 443 ; Cockroach and Cricket Exterminator, 449 ; Asphyxiating Burglars, 449 ; Plastic Carbon for Filters, 450 ; Process for Bending Glass Tubes, 452 ; Powdered Gum Arabic, 452 ; Keeping Flow- ers Fresh, 452 ; Regeneration of Oil-paintings, 453 ; Danger of Cleaning Bottles with Shot, 455 ; New Safety Lock, 456 ; Apparatus for Moistening Labels, Stamps, the Fingers, etc., 456 ; Gummed Adhesive Paper, 457 ; Pro- tection of Maps, Pictures, etc., by an Insoluble Coating, 457 ; Production of Ice in Mild Winters, 458. L. MECHANICS AND ENGINEERING (cxcii) 459 (a.) MATERIALS. Metals : Gerhard Process for Obtaining Puddled Iron Direct from the Ore, 459 ; Bessemer Steel Establishments in the United States, 459 ; Iron Columns Filled with Concrete, 459; Strength of Perforated Iron Plates, 476. Wood: New Method of Preserving Wood, 461; Preservation of Wood, 476. (b.) CONSTRUCTIONS. Vessels : A New Steamboat Propeller, 470 ; a New Method of Raising and Lowering the Screw of a Propeller, 484. Canals : Canal through the Isthmus of Corinth, 478 ; Filling the Depression in the Desert of Sahara, 481 ; Proposed Canal through the Desert of Sardar Abad, 484. Railroads : Checking Uncoupled Cars on a Down-grade, 470. Wagons : Fire-proof Joists, 460 ; Process for Diminishing the Diameter of Iron or Steel Car- wheel Tires, 465. Telegraphs : Attacks on Ocean Cables by Marine Ani- mals, 465 ; System of Optical Telegraphy, 475 ; the Automatic System of Telegraphy, 475. Mines and Mining : Beach-mining for Gold in Cali- fornia, 462 ; Resources of Peru, 463 ; Trial of the American Coal-cutting Machine, 473; Explosions of Fire-damp in Coal Mines, 477. Harbors: Arrangement of the New Harbor of Trieste, 465. Wells : Artesian Wells, 466. Rivers : Hydraulics of Great Rivers, 477. (C.) MOTORS. Fuel : Sawdust as Fuel, 468 ; Heating Power of Weathered Cinders, 470 ; Fuel Burning without Smoke (Pyrolith), 471 ; Petrolate, a New Fuel, 474 ; Russian vejsus Welsh Coals, 480; Hock's Petroleum Motor, 473. Elec- tricity: Lippmann's Small Electro - capillary Motor, 479. Steam: Pre- vention of Boiler Incrustation, 469 ; Heating Power of Weathered Cinders, 470 ; Purification of Hard Water for Steam-boilers, 471 ; Condensation of Steam by Cold Surfaces, 472 ; Simplest Steam-motor, 472 ; Steam-pressure Indicators, 482. Explosives : Explosion of Gun-cotton, 468 ; the Sczaroch, 478; Cellulose - dynamite, 478. Aeronautics: Scientific Ballooning, 41 ; .Scientific Balloon Ascension, 480. (d.) MISCELLANEA. The Thirty-fivc-ton Steam-hammer, 483 ; the Use of Amsler's Planimeter, 483 ; Fog-signals, 467 ; Danger Notice to Locomotive Engineers, 469 ; Prize for Railway Lamps, 476 ; System of Optical Telegraphy, 475. xiv TABLE OF CONTENTS. M. TECHNOLOGY (clxxiii) 485 (a.) THE LIBERAL ARTS. Printing : Fixing Designs on Glass, 485; Conversion of Lithographic into Letter-press Plates, 531 ; Mechanical Photographic Printing without a Press, 492 ; Photo-stereotyping, 485. Engraving : Photo-engraving, 487 ; New Process of Engraving on Copper, 528 ; Cleaning and Bleaching Old Cop- per-plate Engravings, 486. Lithographing : Paul's New Method of Lith- ographic Transfers, 486 ; Conversion of Lithographic into Letter - press Plates, 531. Photographing: Photo - stereotyping, 485; Photographic Multiplication of Drawings, etc., 488 ; Preparation of Photographic Tracing- paper, 489 ; Direct Photography of the Solar Protuberances, 529 ; the Helio- pictor, 490 ; Preparation of Photographic Dry Plates by Daylight, 529 ; Object-glass for Photography, 530 ; Submarine Photography, 531 ; Increas- ing the Sensitiveness to Light of Bromide of Silver, 491 ; Photographic Irradiation, 543 ; Photo-engraving, 487 ; Mechanical Photographic Printing without a Press, 492. Writing: Black Ink for Marking Boxes, etc., 487 ; a New and Durable Ink, 488; Improved Copying-ink, 488; Vanadate of Ammonia for the Manufacture of Ink, 491 ; Indestructible Ink, 533 ; very Simple and Cheap Fountain-pen, 544; New Method of Making Paper Pulp, 518. Drawing : A very Simple Pantograph, 489; Autographic Reproduc- tion of Drawings of Machinery, etc., 532. Modeling and Casting : Im- provement in the Preparation of Plaster Casts, 493 ; a New Material for Modeling (Plastiline), 494 ; Mixture of Plaster of Paris with Marsh-mallow Koot, 535. (b.) MECHANICAL ARTS. Spinning, Weaving, and Felting : Textile Industry at the Vienna Ex- position, 494; New Manner of Producing Shaded Yarns, 533. Sizing, Dressing, and Water-proofing : Bichromate of Potash in Dressing for Fabrics, 495 ; Stiffening Gauze, 496 ; Starch for Rendering Clothing In- combustible, 496; Weather-proof Wash for Wood, 497; Water -proofing Linen, 497; Rendering Hose for Fire-engines Water-tight, 498; Weather- proof Coating for Zinc, 534; Water-proof Composition for Coating Fabrics, 534 ; Preparation of Starch Paste, 534 ; a Paste Superior to Gum Arabic, 541; Water-proof Tissue-paper, 489. See also Cements and Adhesives. Cleaning and Bleaching : Bisulphite of Soda for Counteracting the Ef- fects of Chlorine in Bleaching, 498 ; Bleaching of Shellac, 436. Drying : Bastaert's Process for Drying all Kinds of Fabrics, 501. Painting, Stain- ing, and Varnishing : Galenite, a New Material in Painting, 507 ; Var- nish for Alcohol Casks, 508 ; Varnish affording a Dead Surface on Drying, 508. Dyeing: Naphthylamine Colors for Printing on Fabrics, 504; Method of Coloring Veneers, 507 ; Effect of Alkalies on Cotton and Linen Goods, 527; Soluble Sesquioxide of Iron in Dyeing Silk, 536; Weighting Silk with Sulphate of Baryta, 537 ; Extract of Sumac, 499 ; Ccerulignon, from Wood - tar, for Printing Fabrics, 506 ; New Material for Dye-stuffs, 538 ; Methyl Violet on Wool, 499 ; Violet Oil-pigment for Printing on Fabrics, 505 ; Baryta Green, or Manganate of Baryta, 499 ; Aniline Green on Wool, 503; Dark Green on Half- Wool Garments. 504; Economical Indigo Cold- TABLE OF CONTENTS. XV vat, 503 ; Cochineal Red on Wool, 502 ; Rose-colored Stain for Wood, 509 ; Chocolate Culor on Woolen Garments, 504 ; Scarlet on Half- Wool Garments, 506 ; Beautiful White for Wool, 502 ; Aniline Blue on Wool, 504; Egyptian Blue, 536; Dyeing Ornamental Feathers Black, 503; a Fast and Easily Prepared Black, 505 ; Dyeing with Aniline Black, 536 ; Yellow on Silk Garments, 505. Plating, Tinning, Polishing, Bronzing, and Enameling : English Enamel for' Cast Iron, 535 ; Preparation of Tripoli for Polishing Varnished Articles, 525 ; Polishing Powder for Gold Articles, 526 ; Green Bronze for Iron, 545 ; Gold and Violet Bronze Powder, 538 ; Artificial Coloration of Metals, 537 ; Bronzing Wood, 539 ; Tinning Linen and Cotton Fabrics, 539; Electro-stannus, 509 ; Tinning Iron Wire, 511 ; Developing the Crys- talline Structure of Tin-foil, 526 ; New Process for Nickel Plating, 512. Casting, Hammering, etc.: Malleable Brass, 510; Casting Cylinders, Calenders, Tubes, Pistons, etc., of Glass, 540. Tempering: Restoring Burned Steel, 513 ; Tempering Steel, 513. Ceramics : Glaze for Earthen- ware, 512. Alloys: Electro-stannus, 509; Alloy Resembling Steel, 511; Alloy Re- sembling Silver, 512. Lubricants : Treatment of Lubricating Oils, 525 ; Fine Machine Oil, 526. Cements, and Adhesives generally : Paste for Labels on Bottles, etc., 496 ; very Adhesive Mucilage or Vegetable Glue, 513; Preparation of Russian Isinglass, 519; Preparation of Starch Paste, 534 ; a Paste Superior to Gum Arabic, 541. See also Sizing, Dressing, Water-]) roofing. Antiseptics and Preservatives : Use of Carbolic Acid in the Trans- portation of Hides and Bones, 514 ; New Method of Treating Hair, Fur, etc., 514. Adulterations : Detection of Fuchsine, 514. Sundry Processes of Chemical Technology : Improved Process of Making Alkali, 517 ; Prep- aration of Coralline, 540; Improvement in the Manufacture of Stearic Acid, 517 ; Diffusion Process in Making Sugar, 520. Utilizing Waste Products : Utilization of Certain Offal, 521 ; Sulphate of Ammonia from Nitrogenous Organic Refuse, 522 ; Extraction of Silk from Half- Silk Rags, etc., 523; Ammonia Chloride from Boiling Estab- lishments, 523 ; Utilizing Waste Organic Material, 523 ; Utilization of the Refuse from Scouring Wool, 524; Carbonization of Half- Wool Stuff, 542. Raw or Simple Materials Used in the Arts: Japanese Bronze, 511; Improved Form of Rubber, 515 ; a Substitute for Ivory, 543 ; Value of Jute for Fabrics, 546 ; New Method of Making Paper Pulp, 518 ; Paper Industry of the United States, 521 ; Water-proof Tissue-paper, 489 ; Paper Imitation of Leather, 545; Production of Starch, Paper, and Soap from Corn, 522; Pure Collodion from Celloidine, 519. Miscellaneous : Starch for Rendering Clothing Incombustible, 496 ; Pro- tection of Lead Water-pipes by a Film of Sulphide, 497; Friction within Rifled Guns, 525; Substitution of Charcoal for Lime in Removing Hair from Hides, 528 ; Separation of Honey from the Comb by Centrifugal Ac- tion, 541 ; Removal of Burs, etc., from Wool by Chemical Agents, 541 ; Preparation of Russian Isinglass, 519. xvi TABLE OF CONTENTS. N. MATERIA MEDICA, THERAPEUTICS, AND HYGIENE 547 (a.) MATERIA MEDICA. Remedies : Antagonism between Belladonna and the Calabar Bean, 547 ; Effect of Senna on the Urine, 547 ; Therapeutic Virtues of Phenate of Am- monia, 557 ; Remedial Action of the Ailantus, 560 ; Bromide of Potassium as a Remedy, 559; Hypodermic Injection of Chloral. 560; Croton-Chloral, 567 ; the Physiological Action of Ozone, 563 ; Action of Different Wires of Induction Coil on the S3 T stem, 552 ; Proper Application of the Cautery, 559 ; Magnesite for Surgical Bandages, 548. Anaesthetics : Anaesthesia in Op- erations on the Eye, 555. Food : Starch Unfit Food for Infants, 566 ; Mi- croscopic Examination of Adulterated Milk, 569. General : Action of Salt and Potash Salts on the System, 553. (b.) DISEASES AND THEIR CURE. Special Diseases: Australian Cure for Diphtheria, 547; Cure for Diph- theria, 566 ; Curing Croup with Bromine, 566 ; Cure for a Cold, 548 ; Rapid Cure for Catarrh, 551 ; Pathology of Mumps, 549 ; Hay Fever, 549 ; Re- searches on Diabetes, 550 ; Carbolate of Ammonia for Malignant Pustule, 558 ; Carbolic Acid in Cholera, 567 ; Agency of Milk in Spreading Typhoid Fever, 560 ; Relation of Typhoid Diseases to Cryptogamic Vegetation, 571 ; Report of United States Medical Department on Yellow Fever in 1873, 572 ; Physiology of Dyspepsia, 568 ; Microscopic Examination of Adulter- ated Milk, 569 ; Cause and Prevention of Damp Feet, 561 ; the Vapor-bath in Hydrophobia, 558; Alcohol as a Remedy for Burns, 552. Poisons and their Antidotes : Poisonous Nature of Cobalt Compounds, 552 ; Contam- ination of Crushed Sugar by Lead, 562 ; Non-poisonous Character of Pure Coralline, 562 ; Poisoning with Aniline Red, 570 ; Antidote to Carbolic Acid, 568 ; Cure for the Bite of Poisonous Serpents. 570. General : Cause of Putrefaction in Eggs, 550; Auscultation of the Chest for Brain Disease, 564. (C.) THE PUBLIC WELFARE. Air and Climate : Removal of Carbonic Acid from Wells and Cellars, 558 ; Action of Compressed Air on Meat, 572. Water : Relation of Earth Strata to the Composition of Waters, 553 ; Pollution of Rivers by Manufactories and City Sewage, 555; Filter for Removing Organic Impurities from Water, 562; Effect of Water on Lead Pipes, 564; Method of Purifying Water, 565. Antiseptics : Calcium Iodate a Valuable Antiseptic, 571. General : Hypodermic Injection of Chloral, 560 ; Starch Unfit Food for In- fants, 566; Relation of Typhoid Diseases to Cryptogamic Vegetation, 571 ; Life-saving Stations on the Coast of the United States, 606 ; an Experi- ment in Sociology, 608 ; Quetelet's Tables of Mortality, 609. O. MISCELLANEOUS 573 (a.) PUBLIC INSTITUTIONS. America in general : Twenty-third Annual Meeting of the American As- sociation for the Advancement of Science, 574. Massachusetts: New Survey of the State of Massachusetts, 573 ; Cambridge Entomological Club, 574 ; Seventh Annual Report of the Peabody Museum, Cambridge, Massa- TABLE OF CONTENTS. xvii chusetts, 575 ; Report for 1873 of the Peabody Academy of Science, Salem, 579 ; Report of the Bussey Institute, 582 ; Report of the Museum of Com- parative Zoology for 1873, 580 ; Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 581 ; Catalogues of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 581 ; Annual Meeting of the Trustees of the Museum of Comparative Zoology, 582 ; Anderson School of Natural History, 576, 578, 579. New York : The " Torrey Memorial Cabinet," 584 ; " Directory " of the Torrey Botanical Club, 584; Issue of "Proceedings" by the New York Lyceum of Natural History, 585 ; the Bulletin of the Science Department of Cornell Univer- sity, 585. Pennsylvania : Publishing Fund of the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, 586 ; Report of the Philadelphia Academy of Natural Sci- ences, 586 ; Philadelphia National Museum, 587 ; Report of the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 587 ; the Zoological Society of Philadelphia, 588. Maryland : Reorganization of the Maryland Academy of Sciences, 589 ; Botanical Conservatory of the Maryland Academy of Sciences, 590 ; South- ern Historical Society, 590. Washington : Annual Report of the Library of Congress, 591 ; Recent Publications of the Smithsonian Institution, 591 ; Ordnance Bureau Report on Small Arms, etc., 592 ; United States Depart- mental Centennial Board, 593 ; Additions to the National Herbarium in 1874, 593. Kentucky : Sale of Dr. Troost's Cabinet of Minerals and An- tiquities, 594. Chile : International Exposition in Chile, 604. The Old World. England : Report of the Zoological Society of London, 595 ; Annual Return of the British Museum, 596 ; New Physical Laboratory at Oxford, 598 ; Temporary Museum at the Last Meeting of the British Association, 599 ; Forty-fourth Meeting of the British Association for the Advancement of Science, 600 ; Psychological Society of Great Britain, 600 ; the Manchester Aquarium, 600 ; Aid to Investigation in Agricultural Sci- ence, 604. France: The French Museum of Physical and Mechanical Science, 600 ; Prize for an Essay on the Hardness and Friability of Steel, 601; Meeting of the French Association for the Advancement of Science, 601; the American Society of Paris, 602. Germany: A New Observatory, 603 ; Maritime Meteorology in Germany, 603. Denmark : Prize Essay for the Copenhagen Academy of Sciences, 603. Japan : German Society of Natural History and Anthropology in Japan, 604. (b.) GENERAL. European Savans in American Institutions, 594; Proposed Catalogue of all Scientific Institutions, 595 ; the Use of the Divining-rod, 605 ; Life-saving Stations on the Coast of the United States, 606; an Experiment in Sociol- ogy, 608 ; Quetelet's Tables of Mortality, 609 ; Wreck of the Whaler Arctic of Dundee, 610; Lady Mathematicians, 605. P. NECROLOGY 611 Q. BIBLIOGRAPHY 617 R. INDEX TO THE REFERENCES 633 ALPHABETICAL INDEX 639 GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND INDUSTRIAL PEOGEESS DUEING THE YEAE 1874. MATHEMATICS. In pure Mathematics we note the completion of the com- putations of the tables of elliptic functions compiled at the expense of the British Association, and the presentation to the Royal Astronomical Society of an original computation by John Thompson of the logarithms, to twelve places of decimals, of all numbers up to 120,000. Mr. G. W. Hill offers a valuable suggestion in reference to the use of the true anomaly in the computation of absolute perturbations. The publication of Todhunter's "History of Mathematical Theories of Attraction" is an event eminently worthy of being noticed in this place. A well-considered article in the North American Review, from the pen of Pro- fessor Newcomb, lays bare the difficulties against which the cultivators of pure mathematics and exact science have to contend in this country, and will, it is to be hoped, stimulate our national progress in that field. An interesting application of pure mathematics to the problems of organic life is that of Dr. Grabau on the spirals of the shells of the Ammonite ; he shows that, if we allow for very slight errors of measurement, it will be seen to be impossible to decide whether these ani- mals build their shells according to the concho-spiral or the logarithmic-spiral theories. A new mathematical society has been formed at Prague. A mathematical journal, The Analyst, has been publish- ed during the year by Professor Hendricks, of Des Moines, Iowa, which has contained interesting articles by Professor A. Hall, G. W. Hill, and other mathematicians. This is the only journal in the United States devoted to exact science. The invention bv Peaucellier of what he called his com- xx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND pound compasses has afforded Sylvester occasion to show that the problem of perfect parallel motion has at length been solved, and the ingenious device of the French engineer has s ZD O enabled him to resolve several curious problems in geometry. ASTRONOMY. , The Transit of Venus. The Astronomical forces of the world have continued to a great extent to be engaged in the preparations for the observation of the transit of Venus oiij the 8th of December, 1874, some details of which were given in our last Annual Record, in so far as they had been a year ago decided upon. In accordance with the general plan proposed, the members of all the American parties met at the Washington Observatory in the months of May and June last for practice. Every instrument was set up precise- ly as it is to be used in the actual observation, and the par- ties were drilled in all the operations necessary at the sta- tions. Photographs of the sun were taken with the appa- ratus prepared by the commission, in the same way that they would be taken during the critical hours of the transit. An artificial representation of two sections of the solar disk was set up about a thousand yards from the observatory, and over this an artificial black planet was made to move by clock-work. The apparent magnitude of this planet was the same as that of Venus on the day of the transit, and, by watching it with their telescopes, the observers familiarized themselves with the aspect which Venus would present as she entered upon the sun. The instruments for the five Southern stations left Wash- ington for New York on May 30, and at the latter port were shipped on board the United States ship Swatara, Captain Ralph Chandler, which had been detailed to carry the par- ties to their several stations. Captain Chandler sailed on June 7, and, after a very fine passage, reached the Cape of Good Hope on August 5. Stopping here ten days for sup- plies, he sailed for the first station, which was Crozet Island. Here, however, it was found impossible to effect a landing, owing to the absence of a harbor, and the constant stormy weather which prevailed during the time the ship could re- main there. So far as known, all the other parties were suc- cessfully landed, the stations being in Kerguelen Land, Tas- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xxi mania, New Zealand, and Chatham Island. The Crozet par- ty stationed themselves in Campbelltown, Tasmania. At the moment of writing this, only a few weeks prior to this interesting astronomical event, the various parties sent out by other nations are already in the field, perfecting those final arrangements on the completeness of which will, to a great extent, depend the success of the observations, unless cloudy weather intervenes. It will, therefore, be proper in this place to give a condensed summary of the observing parties now at the respective stations, as introductory to that account which we hope next year to be able to give of the results of the actual observations: Nationality. United States England India Cape of Good Hope. Australia France Germany Russia Italy Holland Non-official. Lord Lindsay Colonel Campbell.. Number of Stations. 8 10 4 I 2 6 5 25 3 1 Mauritius Thebes Methods of Observation. 1 and 3* 1 and 3 1 and 3 1 or 2 or 3 1 or 2 or 3 1 1, 2, and 3 Number of Persons. 30 45 50 150 (?) 4 * 1, Contacts or Time Durations ; 2, Heliometer Measures; 3, Photographic Measures. The total expenses of all these parties will be not far from one million of dollars, exclusive of the sums necessary for the publication of the results of their labors in zoology, meteor- ology, etc. The whole constitutes, in fact, a series of great expeditions, having in view the increase of our knowledge of the sections of the world visited by them expeditions that will continue to bear fruit for many years to come, and certainly long after the approaching transit of 1882. In con- nection with the preparations for this transit it is important to note that the American, English, and Russian observers have taken especial pains to investigate the errors peculiar to each individual's habit of observation, by practicing upon a mock transit produced by means of suitable machinery. The solar parallax, as is well known, can be quite accu- 2 xxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND rately determined by observations of an asteroid on each side of the meridian, and Lord Lindsay announces that he will de- vote his spare time at the island of Mauritius to such obser- vations on the planet Juno. Among: the numerous investigations that have been insti- tuted in connection with the preparations for the transit, is one by Bakhuysen, of Leyden, who maintains that the phe- nomenon of the black drop is mostly due to diffraction, and lias its origin within the telescope. The papers prepared by or for members of the French Commission have been collect- ed in a single and very convenient volume. Dr. Vogel urges upon the observers of the approaching transit of Venus special attention to the question of the ex- istence of a satellite to that planet, as it may perchance ap- pear on the disk of the sun. There will be a total eclipse of the sun shortly after the transit of Venus, to observe which Janssen proposes to leave his transit station at Yokohama and proceed to Siam. Observatories. The first in importance in America, and we hope eventually in the world, will probably be that en- dowed by Mr. James Lick, of San Francisco, in a fund amount- ing to eight hundred thousand dollars in gold, set aside by this gentleman for constructing an observatory in the most suitable spot within the State of California. The adminis- tration of this fund is in the hands of trustees chosen by himself, and it is understood that they contemplate the erec- tion of a refracting telescope of the largest attainable size, though possibly the risks of such an experiment may justify them in provisionally mounting a smaller glass at some ele- vated station. The 26-inch refractor ordered some years ago by Mr. M'Cor- mick, of Chicago, from Messrs. Alvan Clark & Sons, is an- nounced to be nearly completed, and awaiting the orders of its purchaser. The 28-inch mirror of Dr. Henry Draper, at Hastings, is, we understand, being devoted to celestial photography, and that with such success that "admirable photographs of the spectra of stars" are obtained. The use of the Dudley Observatory, at Albany, has been temporarily transferred to the Army Signal Office, until the appointment of its new director, in which step the trustees INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. xxiii of Union College, Schenectady, now have a controlling voice. We believe that there is now in this country no observatory of any importance, except that at Washington, which is not more or less directly connected with a college or university. Turning to Foreign Observatories, American astronomers have regretted to learn of the resignation of Dr. Francis Brtinnow, Astronomer Royal of Ireland, and director of the observatory at Dunsink, near Dublin. His successor, Pro- fessor R. Ball, was formerly assistant to Lord Rosse, and sub- sequently Professor of Applied Mathematics at Dublin. It will be remembered that Dr. Briinnow was at one time di- rector of the Observatory of Ann Arbor, Mich. The erection of a monument to the memory of Jeremiah Horrocks has been suggested by Professor Adams, and an appropriate tablet will be placed in Westminster Abbey. The publication of the Annals of the Paris Observato- ry, comprising the volumes of memoirs, observations, and charts, has been vigorously entered upon, and Volume X., containing Le Verrier's theory of the mutual actions of Jupi- ter and Saturn, has already appeared. The very instructive works of Andre and Rayet, on the Observatories and Prac- tical Astronomy of England, America, etc., are well worthy of notice in this place. The Paris Observatory is being equipped with a four-foot reflector, and a very large refract- or (probably 29 inches) ; a magnetic observatory has also been established at a short distance. The German government, in the development of its new university at Strasburg, has not forgotten to endow it with physical and chemical laboratories and an observatory, which latter, under the directorship of Professor Winnecke, will undoubtedly take a high rank. A refractor of 20-inch aper- ture has been built for it by Merz & Mahler. The same government has further shown its determination to keep the lead which it has long maintained in astronomical matters by the erection of an observatory at Potsdam devoted espe- cially to the study of the sun. The English government has been repeatedly urged to take a similar step in the inter- ests of meteorology and magnetism as well as of astronomy, and it is not impossible but that it will erect such an estab- lishment at some favorable point in India. The inconveniences of the site of the Vienna Observatory xxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND have justified the Austrian government in the construction of a new one, which is said to be on the most magnificent scale. A refractor of 30-inch aperture is reported as having been ordered for it ; one of 12-inch aperture has already been furnished by Alvan Clark & Sons. The famous private observatory of Mr. Warren de la Rue, at Cranford, near London, has been given up, and the instru- ments have been presented to the University of Oxford. A building proper for the reception and use of this apparatus, and constituting a new astronomical observatory devoted to physical astronomy, so called, is being built by the university. Pogson, at Madras, announces that with increased means at his command, he expects to clear away the large arrears of work that have accumulated at that observatory. At Quito, the erection of an observatory is announced in connection with the university. Its director, Father Men- ten, has secured some excellent instruments from Germany. Astronomical Instruments. We note under this head that the experience of Professor Newcomb as to the efficiency of the 26-inch Clark refractor at Washington has been exceed- ingly gratifying, and shows that such mammoth instruments can be used with great success. The new photographic lens of 13 inches' aperture, for the observatory at Cordoba, in the Argentine Confederacy, has been safely received. Among the instruments auxiliary to the work of an ob- servatory may be noticed the calculating machine, devised by Mr. Grant, of Cambridge, and applicable to the computa- tion of the reduction of star places. The magnificent private observatory of Lord Lindsay, at Dunecht, furnishes occasionally, through the ingenuity of its possessor, some important improvements in the delicate ap- paratus of observational astronomy; the machinery for driv- ing his equatorial is said to be so perfect that no deviation whatever from its required movement can be perceived. It is probable that among the apparatus of every well-fur- nished observatory there will hereafter be included some in- strument for the regulation or the exact measurement of personal errors in time observations ; the independent re- searches of several European astronomers, combined with those of the United States Coast Survey and Naval Observ- atory, show, in fact, that on the one hand the errors can be INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. X xv measured, and that on the other hand, by continual regular daily practice in observing artificial transits, astronomers may easily maintain remarkably regular habits of observation, such as it has hitherto been extremely rare to find. The dissemination of standard time throughout the country by means of the telegraph has continued to attract more and more attention, and it is to be hoped that the day is not far distant when a uniform (Washington ?) time may be adopted by all classes of the community, as has for some years been the case in Great Britain. The great advantages that will flow from such uniformity are already beginning to be felt in the various boards of trade and merchants' exchanges, as they have long been felt by all who make frequent use of the telegraph and railroad ; it is probable that the rest of the country will speedily follow in the lead of any state or city that would declare itself in favor of a legal uniform standard time throughout the whole country. At the present moment the railroads from New York to Chicago are supplied with Philadelphia time from the Pittsburgh Observatory, the State of New York is supplied with New York time by the Albany Observatory, New England uses Boston time as given by the Cambridge Observatory, the states south of Pennsylvania and many buildings in Washington receive the time from the observatory in that city. At all these places the clocks con- structed by Mr. Hamblett, of Boston, are used with perfect satisfaction, and it would be an easy matter to make them all beat to Washington time, without introducing any compe- tition between governmental and individual enterprise, and without altering the present arrangements in accordance with which the clocks are regulated from the centres of their respective districts. The Sun. In reference to the sun, Langley, of Pittsburgh, announces that the solar spots are colder than the adjacent photosphere; he has also published remarkably fine drawings of the solar spots, and concludes that we must greatly in- crease our received estimates of the intensity of the action that takes place on the sun's surface. Professor Holden has confirmed the results obtained by Yv'agner as to the existence of an apparent variation in the diameter of the sun depending on the condition of the earth's atmosphere, and subsequently, in connection with Professor X x vi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Newcomb, has shown, with a very high degree of probability, that the Greenwich and Washington observations combine to demonstrate the non-existence of any short period in the sun's diameter. The solar parallax has been determined anew by Galle, from observations of Flora. His preliminary result is 8.86", or identical with the values that within the past few years have been adopted as the best. In reference to spectroscopic observations of the sun, Stone, at the Cape of Good Hope, has observed during the recent solar eclipse the reversion of all the principal Fraunhofer lines at the immediate edge of the sun, and on the other hand he saw them distinctly in the spectrum of the corona. Mr. Ranyard calls attention to the fact that the photo- graphs of the total eclipse of 1871, although taken at differ- ent stations, present appearances showing that there was then between the earth and the sun a semi-transparent body, possibly the nucleus of a comet hitherto undiscovered. Concerning the nature of the solar spots, Messrs. Wilson and Seabroke advance the theory that the sun is a series of strata of liquids, whose densities, boiling-points, and press- ures are so adjusted as to be in very unstable equilibrium. Langley finds right and left handed whirls and even vertical currents within the penumbra of a spot. Faye continues to maintain his theory of the depression of solar spots due to downward currents; while Sporer adduces what must be considered as equally good evidence of the existence of cur- rents of rising gases above the spots, which are, he thinks, the hottest portions of the sun's surface. Lohse, carrying out the same theory, concludes that there must exist a very appreciable amount of refraction in the solar atmosphere. Secchi has attempted a new determination of the solar tem- perature. Professor Airy announces that at Greenwich Ob- servatory photographs of the sun will be made daily, at least until some other institution offers to take up the work. The Moon. In connection with the doubt expressed a year ago by the Astronomer Royal as to the accuracy of the lu- nar tables, we record the announcement by Mr. Lewis, of Mount Vernon, Ohio, that he has undertaken to compute in detail the eclipses recorded in the ancient Chinese annals. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xxv ii Mr. Neison has shown that the existence of a lunar atmos- phere having . L^ part of the density of our own will proba- bly explain the discordances that have hitherto been ob- served between the results of occultations. Mr. Birt, on behalf of the British amateur astronomers, has published a valuable collection of notes referring to sele- nography, being extracts from letters received during many years past by the committee of the British Association. Sev- eral photographs of special lunar districts enrich the volume. The great map of the moon on which Professor Schmidt has labored for thirty-seven years is announced as completed, but awaiting the means of publication. The literature re- lating to the moon has been enriched by the beautiful work of Nasmyth and Carpenter. The Planets. In reference to the various members of the planetary system, we note an interesting paper by Lord Kosse on the spots of Jupiter as observed with his six-foot reflector; and on the same subject, although presenting some- what different conclusions, is the study by Schmidt upon the rotation of Jupiter about its axis as shown by the movements of its spots. The following list comprises the asteroids discovered up to the first of December, 1874: No. Name. Discoverer. Date 1S74. 135 Hertha C. H. F. Peters, at Clinton February 18. 136 ? Palisa. at Pola March 18. 137 ? Palisa. at Pola April 20. 138 ? Perrotin, at Toulouse May 19. The fact that but one of these was discovered by an Amer- ican is explained by the consideration that our own asteroid hunters, Peters and Watson, hav.e both been engaged in mat- ters relating to the transit of Venus, and have, in fact, been absent from their observatories since last May. Five new comets have been discovered up to December 1st, as given in the following list : No. Discoverer. Date 1S74. I "Winnecke, at Strasburg February 20. IT Winnecke, at Strasburg April 11. Ill Coggia, at Marseilles April 1 7. IV Borelli, at Marseilles July 28. V Coggia, at Marseilles August 19. xxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Of these, No. III. was the only bright one, and was, indeed, the brightest of all that have visited the solar system since 1861; further details concerning it will be given below in a subsequent section. Notwithstanding the unfavorable weather of the early spring, Professor Newcomb has been able to secure with the Washington refractor a very complete series of observations of the four satellites of Uranus, the total number of deter- minations of position exceeding that of all previous astrono- mers combined. The satellites of Neptune have also been carefully observed with this instrument. The reflecting pow- er of Mercury has been investigated by Zollner, by means of his elegant photometer. Messrs. Vogel, Lohse, and Klein adduce arguments supporting the view that there may exist a satellite to the planet Venus. As the accuracy of all astronomical deductions depends more or less upon the perfect regularity of the diurnal rota- tion of the earth, special importance attaches to the conclu- sion of Professor Newcomb that certain irregularities may exist in that motion, affording us the most probable explana- tion of phenomena observed in connection with the motions of both our own and Jupiter's moons. The Zodiacal Light. The zodiacal light has been the sub- ject of very careful observation by Wright, of Yale College, who concludes from the polarization of its light that it must be a ring of small bodies attending the sun : a view that is also compatible with the theories of Jones, Alexander, and others, while Groneman goes still further, and argues very plausibly that the aurora, the zodiacal light, and the meteoric bodies have this in common, namely, that they are one and all portions of that cosmical dust that pervades all the solar system, and is rendered visible by either the reflected light of the sun, the heat produced by friction, or by electric dis- charges. Comets. Among the numerous investigations called out by the appearance of Coggia's comet, we note briefly the careful observations of the extent of its tail by Heis and Abbe, the elaborate theory of the structure, nature, and origin of the tail by Faye, who seems, however, merely to have elab- orated the views relative to a repulsive force presented by Professor Peirce, and by G. W. Bond in his incomparable INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. X xix work on Donati's comet ; the spectroscopic observations by Rayet, Lockyer, Secchi, Huggins, and others, and the polari- scopic observations of Wright, Zenker, and Secchi ; from all of which it may be concluded that the nucleus was a glowing solid or liquid, unless, as some think, it may have been rather a condensed group of clashing meteorites. The tail was evi- dently illuminated to a considerable extent by the solar rays ; concerning its chemical constitution, nothing definite can be concluded, since the evidence is quite conflicting as to the existence therein of any true gas. The appearance of en- velopes was recorded by Huggins and Lockyer, the latter of whom observed, with the great telescope of Mr. Newall, four faint envelopes successively rising from the nucleus. Weber searched for, but found no satisfactory proof of the rotation of either tail or nucleus about an axis. In 1861 the spectroscope was in its infancy, and had not been generally applied to celestial objects. It does not seem that any one thought of examining the great comet of that year with such an instrument. The comet of 1874 is therefore of great interest as the first brig-ht one to be observed with the spectroscope. Unfortunately its position during the period when it was brightest was quite unfavorable, being so near the sun that it could be seen only when very near the hori- zon. For this reason perhaps the result was disappointing, nothing remarkable being discovered in the spectrum. The latter was found to comprise, first, a faint continuous spec- trum, probably produced by reflected sunlight, and, second, three brio-ht bands. The latter have been seen in all com- ets hitherto examined with the spectroscope, and therefore form no new feature. They have always been found to coin- cide with the spectrum of carbon, and, from this circumstance, the theory that comets consist of some sort of carbonic va- por may be considered as strengthened by the observations in question. Meteoroids. Shooting-stars form the subject of a valuable report to the British Association by Mr. Glaisher and Mr. Gregg, the latter of whom has computed a number of cases in which there is an agreement between the orbits of meteors and comets. At the Toulouse Observatory an extraordinary passage of corpuscles across the sun's disk was observed on the 5th, 6th, and 7th of September. 2* xxx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Galle has investigated very thoroughly the path of an in- teresting meteor, of which numerous valuable observations were available ; his development of the formulae for the com- putations is especially thorough. The Fixed Stars. In reference to the fixed stars we note the series of determination of stellar parallaxes by Dr. Briinnow, and the investigation by Nyren into the nutation of the earth's axis, from which, as a side issue, it results that great doubt must still attach to all absolute determinations of the distances of the stars. Mr. W. A. Rogers calculates that the movements of the star Eta Draconis are so irregular as to indicate the probable ex- istence of a disturbing companion. Otto Struve announces that continued observations of the companion of Procyon, discovered by him a year ago (but as yet seen by no one else, and whose existence is even doubted by some), show that it is the disturbing body predicted by Bessel and Auwers. Professor Main, of Oxford, has nearly brought to comple- tion the great posthumous work of Sir John Herschel, namely, the catalogue of double stars. A similar, but far greater work, including ten thousand double stars, has been com- pleted by Mr. Burnbam, of Chicago, who has during the year discovered over one hundred new double stars. In regard to the scintillation of the stars, Montigny con- cludes that the frequency of variations in colors depends on the constitution of their lio-ht : he also confirms the statement of Dufour that the red stars scintillate less than the white. Baxendell announces the detection of a new variable red star; while D'Arrest contributes still further to our knowl- edge of this subject by investigating the peculiarities of the spectra of the variable stars in general. As regards the question of the arrangement and general constitution of the universe, several important papers have been published. D'Arrest announces that he is at work ex- amining the spectra of all the stars belonging to the Milky Way, and that he has come upon some stars whose light is of a very remarkable character. Dr. B. A. Gould, as one of the results of his survey of the Southern heavens, shows that, besides the Milky Way or belt of faint stars, there also exists a zone of bright stars, inclined about 25 to the former; this INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. X xxi fact seems to have been alluded to by Sir John Herschel, but it was reserved for Dr. Gould to trace the bright zone vvitli tolerable distinctness through the entire heavens. After al- lowing for the influence of this zone, Dr. Gould finds that the distribution of all stars down to the ninth magnitude is quite closely represented by the assumption that the stars are very uniformly distributed through space, and are on the average of the same order of intrinsic brilliancy. The Nebulae. Huggins has attempted to apply to the neb- ulae that class of spectroscopic observations by means of which he was able a few years ago to measure the velocity with which the stars approach to or recede from the earth. Not- withstanding the extreme difficulty of the work, he con- cludes that none of the nebulae show a motion relative to the earth of more than twenty-five miles per second, and that, as a class, the proper motions of the gaseous nebulae are not so great as those of the fixed stars. Mr. Abbe states that if we consider the nebulae which are recorded as " very much ex- tended," or as " mere rays of light," to be very flat spheroids or rings or planes, then their axes of rotation lie in or near a common plane inclined to that of the Milky Way by about twenty-five degrees. PHYSICS OF THE GLOBE. Terrestrial Magnetism. Sir William Thomson, in urging upon telegraphers the importance of observing the existence of spontaneous currents upon lines of telegraph, states that if the line be worked with a condenser at each end such ob- servations can be made without disturbing its use for busi- ness purposes. The same savant concludes that, on account of the disturbances produced by the rolling of the vessel, it may be necessary at sea to use very long compass-needles. The first annual report has been received from the new magnetic observatory of the Jesuit College at Zi-ka-wci, near Shanghae. Forssman has published a very thorough memoir on the connection between the aurora borealis and magnetic phe- nomena, and the winds and barometer. An important publication has been that of Miihry " On the Geographical Distribution of Atmospheric Electricity," from which it is seen that the latter has its origin in the heated xxxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND surfaces of the earth, the atmosphere being electrified by in- duction ; the consequence deduced by him that no electrical development should be perceptible in the polar regions is a fact attested by all arctic explorers. Among the more noteworthy auroras of America we re- cord those of February 4th, April 7th, and October 3d and 4th; and Mr. Abbe calls attention to the fact that in a vast majority of cases the region over which an aurora is visible is bounded on the east, south, and west by a region within which lightning is simultaneously occurring. To the general catalogues of auroras another has been add- ed by Fritz, who has also contributed a remarkably accurate chart of auroral frequency, with which he has coupled some suggestions; while Groneman has developed very fully his own theory as to the cosmical origin of the aurora. Seismology. The year has been signalized by the occur- rence of several important earthquakes, of which we may mention the folio win o- ; In North Carolina, sixty slight shocks from February to April. Violent shocks at Antigua on September 3d ; and in Sicily, September 27. Strong shocks in Constantinople, June 26 ; Utah, June 18 ; Malta, October 18; Ceylon, September 19; Vera Cruz, Nov. 13. Notable volcanic eruptions occurred August 10-20 in Ja- pan; September 1, etc., Mount Etna; April 30, Society Islands. Mallet has published a continuation of his seismic investi- gations, and deduces an approximate determination of the rate of contraction of the earth's radius, namely, 3.5 inches in 5000 years; and has, in an interesting note on the volcano of Stromboli, "given a detailed explanation of its mechanism, and a refutation of the idea that its eruptions depend upon at- mospheric changes. La Faulx and Kortum have given a somewhat minute ex- amination of the phenomena of the German earthquake of October 22, 1873. Schmick has investigated the changes in the level of the Cas- pian and Aral basin in the light of the theory of the secular variations in the sea-level and the tropic zones; a more general note on this subject is published by Mr. Hind, of Nova Scotia. Mr. Clingman has given, in the New York 7 7 hnes, July INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xxxiii 10 (?) an interesting review of the earthquake phenomena that have been noticed in Western North Carolina during the past hundred years. Strictures upon Mallet's theories have been published by Hilgard, Dutton, and others in America, as well as by several English physicists. The changes of level in the neighborhood of the Great Salt Lake have interested Professor Joseph Henry, at whose re- quest Dr. Parke, of the Deseret University, has erected a monument for the purpose of making standard measure- ments. Angus Ross, of Halifax, offers the following generalization: "That the mountain chains of the earth are arranged in par- allel lines along certain belts or zones, which girdle the earth in great circles, each having for its medial axis a line of vol- canoes." The earthquakes of the Caucasus form the subject of a communication from Moritz. Temperature of the Earth. The subject of earth tempera- tures has been considered by Schenzl, who finds, from eight years' observations at Ofen, that twenty-one days are re- quired by the temperature to penetrate to a depth of three feet. Everett's report to the British Association contains some statistics on this subject. Ocean Currents. Attention has been called by Dr. Carpen- ter to the fact that many of the most important laws with reference to the ocean currents that have during the past ten years been developed by English physicists were anticipated over forty years ago by Lenz, the Russian physicist, who ac- companied Kotzebue in his voyage around the world. Ac* cording to Lenz's theory and observations, the coldest waters are at the bottom of the ocean where the current is always flowing from either pole to the equator, the surface currents being in the opposite directions, except in so far as they are modified by the winds. In this connection, we again men- tion the very valuable wind and current charts published by the British Admiralty, as well as the charts of ocean temper- ature compiled by Cornelissen, and published by the Dutch Meteorological Office. The researches carried on by the Challenger expedition, so far as published, are an earnest of the invaluable results to xxxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND be expected when the whole of that great work becomes known. The equally interesting and thorough work done by the United States steamer Tuscarora throws a flood of light upon the condition, hitherto unknown, of the currents, tem- perature, and depth of the northern half of the Pacific Ocean. The return of the North Polar exploring expeditions has also contributed in the hands of Petermann to important cor- rections and confirmations of our views of those regions, so that it would seem that the general circulation of the ocean is now fairly understood ; the theoretical views, however, as advanced by Carpenter, Colding, Croll, Ferrel, and others, are still somewhat at variance ; those of Schilling seem to us wholly inadmissible. Of the systems of observation at fixed stations of ocean temperatures, those of the Army Signal-office and the Scot- tish Meteorological Society are apparently the most exten- sive. The results of the latter are presented in very inter- esting annual reports in connection with sea-fisheries. Some of the results of the United States system are published in the monthly weather review of the Army Signal-office, and in the annual report of the United States Fish Commissioner. METEOROLOGY. In our review of the progress of meteorology, attention must first be given to the steady growth of official or na- tional weather bureaus throughout the world, as shown by the completion of the organization of the Chinese office under the Revenue Department, the reorganization of the French meteorological establishments under the Ministry of Public Instruction, the publication of the Bulletin du Nord at Co- penhagen, the exhibition of storm-signals in Great Britain, and the very general extension in the activities of all the previously established offices, especially those of the United States, France, Russia, Denmark, the Argentine Confederacy, and India. The proposed publication by HofFmeyer of a daily atlas of the weather over the North Atlantic, including Greenland and Europe, and the promise by Le Verrier of the early pub- lication of the delayed volumes of his atlas of the Atlantic, will be welcome to all, and will afford a very important ex- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. X xxv tension eastward. That ocean meteorology will hereafter receive much more attention than it has during the past ten years is assured by the fact that the German government has taken the important step of elevating the private See- warte of Von Freeden to the rank of a national institution, while Holland, Germany, and Russia have united in the or- ganization of work relating to maritime meteorology ; and the meeting held in September at London of the Maritime Conference, called together by the permanent committee of the Vienna Congress, passed such resolutions and recom- mendations as will contribute decidedly to a unity of action on the part of both naval and merchant services in Europe, and we hope also in America. In the United States, an important change has been that by which the reports of the voluntary meteorological observ- ers of the Smithsonian Institution, the Patent Office, the Agricultural Department, and official reports of the Surgeon- General's office of the Army, and to a considerable extent those of the Navy, have all been concentrated at the Weather Bureau of the Army Signal-office; as a consequence of which its monthly weather reviews have acquired a greatly in- creased value, being now based upon nearly five hundred stations. From these weather reviews we gather that, on the average, about twelve storm-centres pass monthly over some portions of the United States. Of special investigations in this department of science, we notice the great work of Koppen on the remarkable connec- tion between increase or decrease of solar spots and the changes of temperature throughout the earth; the investiga- tion by Mohn into the anomalies in the diminution of tem- perature with increasing altitude; and the valuable studies of Miihry into the distribution of moisture in the upper strata, showing that a stratum of saturated air exists at a certain altitude over the greater part of the earth. Weilemann has shown that the protection against radiation of heat from the earth afforded by the average cloudiness of the sky is three times that afforded by the moisture present in clear weather. Fines shows that the radiation during clear nights is less in the city than in the country. The laws of the movement of storms have been elucidated by Maydell, who has shown their tendency to follow areas xxxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND of abnormal warmth. Loomis has shown, among numerous other important details, that they move toward the regions of greatest rainfall; while Ferrel, in a memoir replete with interest, has deduced, from a purely theoretical point of view, the relation between the winds and gradients of cyclones, and has shown the agreement of his laws with actual ob- servations. The connection between sun-spots and cyclones has been more minutely examined by Meldrum, according to whom it is beyond all question that the number and violence of the cyclones of the Indian Ocean are far greater in years of maximum than of minimum sun-spots. Very important maps have been compiled by Cornelissen, showing the frequency of the occurrence of storm-winds for each square degree in the neighborhood of the Cape of Good. Hope. Professor Harkness has given the first results of a memoir prepared for the Smithsonian Institution on the distribution of temperature over the earth. One of the most important contributions to meteorology consists in the isobares and winds published in the Admiralty Charts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Indian oceans. Dove has shown that areas of extreme cold weather re- quire about two days' time to complete their movement westward over the whole of Europe, showing that their mo- tions are similar to the cold areas of America, and that they proceed from the interior of Asia, as do ours from our north- west territories. The meteorology of the arctic zone has been developed in a series of interesting studies by Mohn, Chavanne, and oth- ers, which have appeared as successive chapters of Peter- mann's contributions to the geography of the polar regions. Among the notable storms of 1874 we should record the typhoon of March 27-28, at the Mauritius; that of Septem- ber 23, over Macao, Hong-Kong, and the China seas; that of October 17, in Bengal; that of August 9, at Nagasaki and in the Japan seas; and that of Oct. 30-Nov. 1, in the West Indies. These two latter were of unprecedented violence, and caused great destruction of life and property; fortunate- ly, their paths appear to have been short and narrow. Among meteorological instruments is especially worthy INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xxxvii of mention the self-registering upsetting thermometer of Ne- gretti & Zambra. Wild, of St. Petersburg, demonstrates that his self-registering balance barometer gives results as accu- rate as the eye observations of any but the most expert ob- servers. Of general works on meteorology, that of Lorenz and Roth is worthy of mention, since it pays special atten- tion to the connection of agriculture and forestry with me- teorology. The investigations of Baranetzky into the pe- riodical flow of sap in trees, as dependent upon atmospheric changes, should be mentioned in this connection. Of numerous scientific balloon voyages, we can here enu- merate only those of King and Holden in the United States, of Tissandier in France, and of Brunelle in Russia. The French Association has, by an especial appropriation of mon- ey, stimulated similar voyages. Helmholtz gives a calculation which does not promise well for aerial voyages to Europe. He shows that in order to give a balloon a velocity of l&J miles per hour, it would require live per cent, of the power necessary to propel a large ocean steamer 13 miles an hour; but the volume of the balloon would have to be forty-two times the displacement of the steamer. Symons has begun the publication in The Colonies of a monthly weather review for the English dominions. The publication of the "Atlas meteorologique" for France, and of the "Atlas generaux," has been resumed. PHYSICS. In Molecular Science, Professor F. W. Clarke shows that the specific heats of chemical compounds apparently vary with their boiling-points and temperatures. The researches of Plateau on the phenomena of thin films, and those of Van der Walls on the continuity of gases and liquids, have open- ed the way for a satisfactory explanation of many molecu- lar phenomena ; and Maxwell, commenting on the latter work, takes occasion to demonstrate the highly interesting theo- rem " that the molecules of gases attract each other at a certain small distance, but repel each other when they are brought still nearer together, as, for instance, when compress- ed into the liquid state." Thurston, of Hoboken, announces that the strength of iron xxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND and steel may be increased by alternately straining them up to the limit of elasticity, and then removing the pressure. Similar observations have been made by Commander L. A. Beardslee, United States Navy. Neissen has shown that the elastic reaction of torsion increases with the duration of the experiment. At the meeting of the National Academy of Sciences, in Phil- adelphia, Professor Rood described the modifications he had made in the arrangement of Zollner's horizontal pendulum, which have rendered the instrument fit for use in such phys- ical investigations as require the measurement of very minute changes in dimension. He has thus succeeded in measuring, with the modified apparatus, so small a quantity as twenty billionths of an inch. Marey continues his beautiful researches in Animal Me- chanics ; and during this year has solved what has heretofore been the most abstruse point in the mechanical theory of flight. He has, in fact, experimentally shown that the re- sistance opposed to the bird's wings during flight is far greater than the resistance opposed when the bird first rises on the wing to began its flight: for in the former case the bird's wing always beats a new portion of air which it tends to depress; but, on account of the short duration of the pressure which it receives, any one of these portions of air has not the time to acquire the velocity of the wing ; these portions of air are therefore successively compressed, and offer the maximum or initial resistance to the wing. Marey has also made an interesting research on human locomotion, in which he shows that the leg in walking does not, as Weber maintains, swing with pendulous motions, but is animated with nearly uniform motion while the foot is off the ground. In Acoustics, Professor Tyndall has made observations off the coast of England on the transmission of the sounds of fog-horns and cannon through the atmosphere when in dif- ferent conditions. He is of the opinion that he has estab- lished the very interesting and important fact that in clear weather, when the sun causes a rapid evaporation of the water of the ocean, the air is rendered less permeable to sound, by reason of the reflection of the sonorous waves from the surfaces of portions of air differing considerably in their temperatures and in their degrees of hydration. On the INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xxxix other hand, he maintains that sound is transmitted with great facility through the atmosphere when charged with fog, by reason of the more uniform distribution of heat and moisture in the atmosphere when in this condition. But the explanation of these phenomena by Professor Tyndall has not generally been accepted by men of science. Thus Professor Henry, the chairman of our own Light-house Board, and Professor Reynolds, of England, are of the opin- ion that the cause of the feeble intensity of sounds often ob- served, even when they are transmitted through a clear atmosphere, is owing to the different velocities with which air moves at the ground and at an elevation above it. Hence when the wind moves with the sound it will tilt the sonorous wave-front downward, and the observer on the ground, or near the surface of the sea, will hear the sound more dis- tinctly even than when the air is still ; but if the wind move against the sound, then the sound passes over the head of the listener. Professors Henry and Reynolds have inde- pendently brought their views to the test of a rigorous course of experiments, and they find that the facts conform to their hypothesis. The reader is referred to accounts of these important researches, contained in the body of this volume. Professor A.M.Mayer continues his researches in acoustics, and has this year published papers Nos. 5, 6, and 7 of his investigations on this subject. He has brought forward a new theory of the mode of audition in man and mammals, which he arrived at after a minute study of the anatomy of the ear. He is of the opinion that the fibrils of the auditory nerve must vibrate one half as frequently as the membrane of the drum of the ear, or as the basilar membrane which forms the floor on which rests the organ of Corti. His hv- pothesis is supported by experiment, for he finds, when vi- brations of a tuning-fork are sent directly into the inner ear through the bones of the head and therefore when the nerve fibrils must of necessity vibrate as often as the fork that the note of the fork rises an octave above what is perceived when the fork vibrates the air outside the ear. This pre- diction from his hypothesis has been confirmed by some of the best-educated ears. In another research, Professor Mayer shows by very simplo xl GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND experiments the reflection of sound from flames and from heated and even cold gases, and he has obtained approximate measures of these reflecting powers. In the same paper he also gives the first determination ever made of the mechan- ical equivalent of sound. He finds that the aerial vibrations produced during ten seconds by a Ut 3 fork placed in front of its resonator equal in mechanical effect about 100 1 000 of a Joule's unit; that is, these aerial vibrations can be expressed in the equivalent work done in lifting fifty-four grains one foot high. The most important research of Professor Mayer is his discovery of a physiological law susceptible of a mathemat- ical expression ; this law expresses the connection existing between the pitch of a sound and the time during which its sensation remains in the ear, after the vibrations causing this sound have ceased outside the ear. He finds that the sound of the lowest audible note of forty vibrations per second lasts on the ear -^ of a second, while the highest sound, of forty thousand vibrations per second, remains in the ear only the 5^ of a second. The treble C gives a residual sensation of -3TJ- of a second. This law has shed much light on many obscure facts of physiological acoustics, and in its applica- tions has served to render quantitative much of the qualita- tive work in Helmholtz's "Physiological Theory of Music." Professor Rood has devised a simple and exceedingly beautiful method of determining the numbers of vibrations of solid bodies, by observing in a telescope the figures pro- duced by vibrations of two fine wires attached to the bodies. These wires cross each other, and by superposition of their motions produce figures of a similar general character to those given in Lissajous' experiments with reflecting forks. In Thermotics we have an important research by Jannattaz, in which he shows that heat is conducted in crystals and in lamellar rocks better in the direction of the planes of cleav- age than in directions across these planes. He has also de- termined the laws for the conduction of heat in crystals, with two or more planes of cleavage. Professor Crookes, of London, has brought out a most re- markable paper on the action of heat in producing attraction and repulsion between bodies placed in vacuo and in air. He is bold enough to venture the suggestion that in these dis- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. x \\ coveries may at last be found that " agent acting constantly- according to certain laws" which Newton holds to be the cause of gravitation. The observations of Crookes have, on the one hand, called forth a criticism by Reynolds, showing that the evaporation of minute portions of vapor will par- tially explain them, and, on the other hand, have elicited from Professor Crookes a reply, in which he adduces still further and crucial experiments, maintaining his original proposi- tions. Professor Tresca has observed, during the forging of the great ingot of platino-iridium, that one could see upon its sides luminous streaks accompanying each blow of the ham- mer, and he shows that the zone which becomes momentarily luminous in consequence of the blows of the hammer is that along which the molecules flow when the change of form takes place consequent upon the blow. Fatigati has made a new determination of the mechanical equivalent of heat through the medium of electricity, and his result (464.87 units of work) agrees well with that ordina- rily received. The laws of the explosion of gases within fire-arms have been deduced by Sarran from well-known laws of chemistry and thermo-dynamics. He considers that his results are re- markably confirmed by observations made by the French Naval Artillery Commission. Messrs. Abel and Nobel have published the accurate results of their observations on the explosion of gunpowder. They find the temperature at the moment of explosion to be about 2200 C, and the tension of the confined gases 41.7 tons to the square inch. In Optics, Professor Pickering has made an excellent and very elaborate research on the polarization of the light re- flected from the sky and from one or more plates of glass. The fact that the zodiacal light is polarized in a plane passing through the sun has been first established this year by Professor A. W. Wright. This fact seems to show that the zodiacal light is the sun's light reflected from innumera- ble small meteoric bodies. Professor Wright found that fif- teen per cent, of this light is polarized. He has also made careful examinations of the spectrum of the zodiacal light, and his results conform to the hypothesis above advanced as to the origin of this light. xlii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Observations suggested by Janssen have resulted in show- ing that the two dark bands in the solar spectrum, on either side of the D line, disappear at the altitude of from 6000 to 7000 meters, reached in a balloon. This shows that these lines are due to the absorptive action of our atmosphere, and not to the action of moisture in the sun's atmosphere, as maintained by Secchi. Villari has investigated the time required by magnetic cur- rents to rotate the plane of polarization of a ray of light passing through glass. Becquerel has succeeded, by using chlorophyl after the manner of Dr.Vogel, in obtaining a photograph of the spec- trum much longer than that given by plain collodion, and confirming Vogel's statement that plates sensitized with io- dide or bromide of silver may, by a proper varnish, be made sensitive to other than the extremely refrangible rays. In the department of Spectroscopy, Professor Eaton, of Philadelphia, proposes a simple modification of the spectro- scope, by means of which the dispersion is increased fourfold. The origin of the curvature of the transverse lines of the spectrum has been investigated by Christie, of Greenwich Observatory, and a method of reflection suggested by means of which it may be counteracted. The equally simple meth- od of a curved slit has been practiced by some English mak- ers. Lockyer has continued his spectroscopic studies bear- ing on the chemical constitution of bodies including the so- called simple elements; and somewhat more attention has been given than hitherto to the very important modifications of the spectrum depending on the temperature of the radiat- ing and absorbing bodies. Croullebois describes an ingenious arrangement by means of which he is able to determine exactly the ellipticity of the vibrations of homogeneous elliptically polarized light. As a simple camera, for convenience in drawing, Govi pro- poses to use a plate of glass covered with a thin film of gold or silver, a device that has been already in use in this coun- try and France. It is announced that a method has been devised, we pre- sume at the works of Messrs. Chance & Co., by means of which perfectly achromatic objectives can be constructed of a lens of the terborate of lead, combined with others formed INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xliii of a phosphatic glass containing a suitable percentage of titanic acid. Cornu explains a mode of constructing for as- tronomical photography a lens whose focal length shall be the same for both chemical and visual rays. His method differs but little from that originally used by Rutherford, but subsequently improved upon by him. Hirn and others, from observations on the reflection of sunlight from a sheet of flame, show that probably the glow- ing solid particles that give the flame its brightness are themselves at the same time nearly transparent. The inter- esting researches of Wiedemann into the superficial colors of bodies have shown that the problem depends on the con- nection between absorption and elliptic polarization. The introduction of diffraction gratings, instead of prisms, in spectroscopic research continually extends; and, according to the experiments of Rayleigh, these fine-ruled plates may be reproduced by the photographic process of contact print- ing. He has also published a well-timed essay on the the- ory of the action of gratings, which leaves nothing to be de- sired. Mr. J. M. Blake has applied a very ingenious method of testing the accuracy of diffraction gratings by superposing the lines of the gratings, and observing the appearances produced by the crossing of these lines. In these positions the lines produce effects similar to those observed when we view one picket-fence through another. In Electricity, Professor Mayer has quite recently succeed- ed in analyzing the composite phenomenon of the electric dis- charge, by passing the flashes of various electric discharges through rapidly revolving disks of thin paper coated with the smoke of burning camphor. By these simple means he has arrived at the most remarkable results, especially in the case of a large induction coil, whose discharge, when a small Leyden jar is in its circuit, he finds to consist of between 90 and 100 distinct flashes, gradually closing up on each other in the middle of the discharge, where they succeed each other at each 10< 1 000 of a second, and again separating to- ward the end of the discharge. The formation of the American Electrical Society (of which Anson Stager is president) will, we hope, stimulate original research as well as "practical" work in this field. Messrs. xliv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Schrauf and Dana have investigated the curious electrical properties exhibited by some crystallized minerals when they are gently heated. Edlund's theory of the physical nature of electricity is supported by Emsmann and others, according to whom electricity, galvanism, and magnetism are but mani- festations of the workings of that same aether that suffices to explain the phenomena of light and heat. Mr. Thayer has studied the action of condensers made with solid dielectrics. The chemical influences of the galvanic current have been studied by Brodie and the Messrs. Thenaud, who have ob- served interesting cases of synthesis. Bolzmann, with refer- ence to dielectric absorption, shows that the molecules of elec- trized bodies are themselves polarized, thus confirming in a striking manner the opinions of Faraday. Similarly, Streintz shows that a current of electricity passing through a wire expands it lengthwise more than is due to its heat, as though the molecules were polarized ; and Gore adopts a similar view with reference to magnetism, which is, he thinks, an at- tribute of every substance whose molecules admit of a certain special arrangement. On the other hand, Cazin has shown that if opposing galvanic currents surround a bar so that an attempt is made to give opposite magnetisms to the same portion thereof, there is only an evolution of heat. The com- mittee of the British Association recommend, on the score of simplicity, the general adoption of the centimeter, the gramme, and the second, as the three fundamental units in electricity and magnetism. Of the applications of electricity, the most valuable in a practical way is the perfection being attained in the Stearns duplex system of telegraphy. A quadruple system has even been shown to be possible. The remarkable performances of Mr. Little's automatic system, which is now in daily operation between New York and Washington and other cities, gives us a glimpse of the wonderful future of electric telegraphy. CHEMISTRY. The progress in General Chemistry has been very marked, the opinion that inorganic molecules have a much more com- plex constitution than organic having constantly gained ground. Of course this greater complexity must be of the INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. x lv nature of polymerism ; and it can not be definitely settled until some method is devised for determining the molecular weight of non-volatile compounds. An important step in this direction has been taken by F.W.Clarke, who has shown that the molecular volume of chemically combined water is variable, while that of crystal-water, or molecularly united wa- ter, is invariable. The researches of Berthelot upon Thermo- chemistry ', actively continued during 1874, will no doubt con- duct finally to the same desirable end. In Inorganic Chemistry, Troost and Hautefeuille have shown that palladium forms a definite compound with COO volumes of hydrogen, Pd 2 H, and that then this may itself dissolve ad- ditional hydrogen. They have also prepared the compounds Na 2 H and K 2 H, and have observed that both lithium and thallium have a feeble occluding power for hydrogen. They calculate the density of hydrogenium in the solid form as 0.63. Bottger, following in the same line, describes some interesting experiments with the palladium alloy, and shows that hydrogen is absorbed likewise by nickel, cobalt, and tin. F. Wohler states, too, that palladious oxide, produced from the nitrate by ignition, is reduced by hydrogen even in the cold, with incandescence. Tribe calls attention to the curious property of agglomerating finely divided metals possessed by hydrogen. Mermet proposes the action of hydrochloric acid upon chlo- ride of lime in the cold as a ready means of obtaining chlo- rine. The chloride is placed in a self-regulating apparatus, like that used for hydrogen or carbonic acid. A. Kaumann has discovered the important fact that in metameric organic bodies containing oxygen, of the same chemical character and similar in structure, the boiling-point is lower the near- er this oxygen approaches the middle of the atomic chain. Schrotter has analyzed a cosmetic for turning the hair to a golden color, and finds it to be a dilute solution of hydrogen peroxide, containing about six times its volume of oxygen. Kingzett has thoroughly investigated the alleged produc- tion of ozone by the oxidation of essential oils in sunlight, and lias shown that neither ozone nor peroxide of hydrogen is formed, but that the activity of the oil is due to a peculiar compound, probably hydrate of terpene oxide. Schone shows (1) that a loss of one-quarter part of ozone takes place when 3 xlvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND this gas is collected over water ; (2) that this loss which is the greater the longer the two are in contact is not due either to an absorption of the ozone by the water, or to an oxidation of the latter to hydrogen peroxide ; (3) that contact with water converts ozone into ordinary oxygen ; and (4) that this conversion is accompanied by an expansion of volume, the increase being the same with that calculated from the ab- sorption of ozone by potassium iodide. He also asserts that ozone is capable, in presence of water, of oxidizing nitrogen. Carius, in a later research, while confirming essentially Schone's results, denies that nitrogen is directly oxidized by ozone, although he found nitric acid in water into which ozonized air had been passed. He was not able to determine accurately the absorption co-efficient of ozone in water, though he states that approximately water dissolves its own volume of ozone. Gernez has made the curious observation that from a supersaturated solution of sulphur in benzol either prismat- ic or octahedral crystals may be caused to separate, even at the same temperature, simply by introducing a crystal of the form desired. Indeed, if excess of the octahedral form be left in the tube, that form on cooling will crystallize in contact with the solid mass, while the other form may be obtained out of the same solution at the same time by the introduction of a prismatic crystal. Michaelis and Wagner have thrown some light on the constitution of sulphurous acid and sulphites and therefore indirectly upon the equiv- alence of sulphur in this form of combination by showing that this acid has not the constitution ascribed to it by Strecker, viz., H.S0 2 .OH, but that it is HO.SO.OH. In the former formula the hydrogen atoms have unlike positions, and two isomers are possible, except where both are replaced by the same radical. Only two bodies of the composition (C 2 H 5 ) 2 S0 3 are known : one, produced by acting on ethyl sul- phon-chloride with sodium ethylate, must have the composi- tion C 2 H 5 .S0 2 .OC 2 H 5 ; the other, the ordinary ethyl-sulphite, must necessarily have the formula C 2 H 5 O.SO.OC 2 H 5 . Hence sulphur is a tetrad in the sulphites. Boussingault, in an elaborate paper on the acid waters of the Cordilleras, gives analyses of the water of the Rio Vinagre, which contains 0.057 gramme of free sulphuric acid in one litre, and of that INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. xlvii of the Ruiz thermal spring, which contains 3.664 grammes of pure sulphuric acid in one litre. As the former river delivers 34,785 cubic meters of water daily, it follows that it carries to the sea every day 46,8*73 kilogrammes of sulphuric and 42,150 kilogrammes of hydrochloric acid; and every year seventeen millions of kilogrammes of the former and fifteen millions of kilogrammes of the latter. He believes that the simultaneous presence of chlorides and sulphates in the rock explains the production of hydrochloric, of sulphurous, and, under certain conditions of temperature, of sulphuric acid in the emana- tions from the volcanic craters and fumerolles; and accounts consequently for the occurrence of these acids free in the thermal springs of the equatorial Cordilleras. Rammelsberg has succeeded in establishing the isomorphism of selenium and sulphur. He finds that a mixture of one atom of selenium to four atoms of sulphur takes the form of the latter. The noteworthy fact, in regard to selenium, that its electrical re- sistance is enormously diminished by the action of light, the least resistance being observed in the extreme red rays a phenomenon first observed by Lieutenant Sale, R. E. has been confirmed by the Earl of Rosse, who obtained in some cases a diminution of 38 per cent. This decrease is approxi- mately as the square root of the luminous intensity. Carius, as the result of his investigations, concludes that, in nature, nitrification takes place, (A) from free nitrogen by (l) electrical discharges in the air, and (2) by oxidation in the air of other bodies; and (B) from the oxidation of ammonia (l) by electrical discharges, (2) by the presence of the so-called alkaline substances, and (3) by ozone. Berthelot suggests the preparation of nitric oxide (the anhydrous nitric acid of some chemists) by the action of phosphoric oxide upon the strong nitric acid. The process goes on quietly, the nitric oxide crystallizing in large crystals on the walls of the receiver. The same industrious chemist has investigated the heat of formation of the oxides of nitrogen ; with reference to nitro- gen dioxide, he says : " Such an aptitude for slow and mul- tiple decompositions characterizes compounds which are but imperfectly stable, and which are formed with absorption of heat. Nitrogen dioxide, in this respect, is comparable to cyanogen and acetylene ; all these compounds possess an aptitude for entering into chemical combination, a sort of xlviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND chemical plasticity, much superior to that of their elements, and comparable to that of the most active radicals; a curious fact, to be explained by the excess of energy imprisoned in the act of their synthesis. In the act of combination in gen- eral the enenjv of the elements diminishes : but in the for- mation of acetylene, of cyanogen, and of nitrogen dioxide, on the contrary, this energy increases." Berthelot has also suc- ceeded in preparing ammonium nitrite in the solid form. It is a white crystalline mass, tenacious and deliquescent. Heated or percussed, it detonates with violence. Troost and Haute- feuille, in studying the conversion of ordinary into red phosphorus, have shown that two different tensions of phos- phorus vapor exist, one of which corresponds to the ordinary phenomenon of vaporization, the other to that of its trans- formation into the allotropic condition. This latter, which the authors call the tension of transformation, has always a constant value at the same temperature. Ritter has shown that the black variety of phosphorus discovered by Thenard is not a third allotropic modification, but is the result of the presence of some impurity, especially arsenic, as he thinks. Blondlot, on the other hand, could not produce black phos- phorus witli the aid of arsenic, though a trace of mercury gave it very readily. As, however, Thenard's variety, when oxidized, gave no precipitate with hydrogen sulphide, Blond- lot suggests that its color may be due to a mixture of red phosphorus. Laspeyres describes some large, well-defined crystals of metallic antimony some of which were eight millime- ters on a face obtained from a cavity in the slag of a met- allurgical establishment using antimonious lead ores. The terminal interfacial angles of the rhombohedrons were 87 H' to 87 13', the lateral 92 52'. These were mixed with some very curious twin crystals. Apjohn has discovered the presence of vanadium in a meteoric stone which fell at Adare, Ireland, in 1810, and which is now in the Mineralogical Mu- seum of Trinity College, Dublin. Gernez obtains octahedral borax from strongly sursaturated solutions, whether these be obtained by ebullition or by spontaneous evaporation in the cold. But if the solution be touched with a crystal of prismatic borax, the excess of borax crystallizes in prisms. Both forms then can be obtained at the same temperature; INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. x lix the point of 56, ordinarily given as the inferior limit for the production of the octahedral form, is really only a tempera- ture near the superior limit at which the prismatic form ap- pears, the latter losing a part of its water at this temperature. Basarow has investigated the compound of fluorine, oxygen, boron, and hydrogen discovered by Gay Lussac and Thenard in 1809, and called by them fluoxyboric acid, and has shown that it has no separate existence, being only a solution of boric acid in hydrofluoboric acid. Subsequently the same con- clusion was reached for the salts. Melsens has succeeded in utilizing the absorptive power of charcoal for gases for the purpose of liquefying them. Frag- ments of recently calcined wood-charcoal are introduced into the long leg of a Faraday tube; this is surrounded with ice, and saturated with the gas to be liquefied. It is then hermet- ically sealed, the longer leg is heated in a water-bath, the short- er being in a freezing mixture. In this way sulphurous oxide, chlorine, ethyl chloride, cyanogen, hydrogen sulphide, ammo- nia, and hydrocyanic acid are liquefied with ease. Moreover, he has observed that this charcoal, thus saturated with a gas, exhibits marked active properties. Saturated with chlorine, it burns hydrogen to hydrochloric acid even in the dark, produc- ing a lowering of the temperature. Water in vapor is decom- posed when passed over this chlorine-saturated charcoal, cold and in the dark, producing hydrochloric and carbonic gases. Liquids when used to moisten charcoal cause a considerable rise of temperature ; in the case of bromine, using 11 grammes of carbon and 97 of bromine, the elevation of temperature is 30 C. From this heat the calculated force of attraction of the liquid for the solid surface is 893 atmospheres for water, 3080 for alcohol, 4620 for ether, 13,090 for carbon disulphide, and 23,190 for bromine. Blochmann has made an exhaustive research on the products of the incomplete combustion of coal gas, and on the effects of heat upon coal gas. Godeffroy proposes antimonous chloride as a test for caesium. In not too dilute solutions of caesium, acidified with hydrochloric acid, it throws down a white crystalline precipitate. This, dis- solved in dilute hydrochloric acid, and evaporated, yields well- formed hexagonal crystals permanent in the air. Crookes, the discoverer of thallium, has published an extended paper on this metal, giving its modes of occurrence, the methods of 1 GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND its preparation, its properties, and those of many of its com- pounds. Heumann proposes, for the preparation of pure cuprous chloride, the action of hydrochloric acid upon an intimate mixture of copper oxide and zinc-dust ; the acid to be poured when saturated into previously boiled water. The cuprous chloride separates as a snow-white crystalline pow- der. Henri Morin has analyzed a series of Chinese and Jap- anese bronzes sent to the Paris Exposition, and noted for the beauty of their patina. He finds them remarkable chiefly for containing lead, the first group having as high as twenty per cent, even ; the second group contained zinc in addition. The beauty of the patina hence results from the composition of these alloys, and the author has been able to obtain the same patina on imitation alloys made synthetically. Chandler Roberts has given an account of the processes employed by him to obtain accurate standard trial plates for verifying the coinage at the British Mint, both gold and silver. Wolcott Gibbs has published a most elaborate memoir upon the hexa- tomic compounds of cobalt, in which he describes a new octa- mine base, which he calls Croceocobalt, together with a num- ber of new salts of this and the other cobalt bases. But the point of greatest interest in the research is the discovery of a series of metameric bodies among these cobaltamines the first observation of true metamerism in inorganic chemistry. This summary would be incomplete without a mention of the re- markable casting of a 250-kilogramme ingot of platinum- iridium for the new standards of the International Metric Commission ; of the extended research of Abel, of the En- glish War Department, on explosives ; and of Berthelot on refrigerating mixtures and their action. The department of Organic Chemistry not only has more workers, but is at present a more extended field. Blochmann has proposed to determine acetylene from the copper con- tained in the acetylide, produced by passing the gaseous mixture through ammoniacal cuprous chloride. In ten litres of coal gas, for example, he found from 0.063 to 0.064 per cent, of acetylene. In the gases from a Bunsen burner, burning at the base of the tube, he found twelve times this quantity. P. and A. Thenard have exhibited to the French Academy a tube containing acetylene solidified by the silent electric dis- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. \{ charge. According to Berthelot, the solid body is polymerized acetylene. C. R. A.Wright has continued his researches upon the isomeric hydrocarbons of the terpene series, and has made considerable progress toward determining the nature of their isomerism. Riban has also been working industri- ously in this direction, and with success. Groves has sug- gested a ready method of preparing ethyl chloride, by dis- solvino- zinc chloride in twice its weight of alcohol, and passing a current of hydrochloric acid into the solution at a boiling temperature. The chlorides of the other alcohol radicals may be prepared similarly. Hofmann has continued his researches into the constitution of essential oils. He has proved that the oil of Cochlearia officinalis, the so-called scurvy-grass, is the iso-sulphocyanate of secondary butyl al- cohol ; the oil of Tropceolum majus, the common nasturtium, the nitrile of a-toluic (phenyl-acetic) acid; the oil of Nastur- tium officinale, the ordinary water-cress, is the nitrile of phenyl-propionic acid, and a homologue of the former; the oil of Lepidium sativum, the cultivated pepper -grass, the nitrile of phenyl-acetic acid, and identical with that of Tro- pceolum majus. Gladstone and Tribe have studied the action of their copper-zinc couple being granulated or laminated zinc upon which copper has been deposited by immersion in a dilute solution of copper sulphate upon the bromides and iodides of some of the alcohol radicals and the olefines, both alone and in presence of water and alcohol. An exhaustive paper has appeared, by Victor Meyer, upon the nitro-compounds of the fatty series. These bodies are iso- meric with the corresponding nitrous ethers nitro-ethane C 2 H 5 N0 2 being isomeric with ethyl nitrite C 2 H 5 O NO but are distinguished from them by the fact that, like the nitro-derivatives of the aromatic series, they are capable of reduction to amines nitro-ethane, for example, becoming ethylamine C 2 H 5 NH 2 . Ladenburg has added many more substances to the list of those interesting organic compounds in which silicon replaces carbon. He has described the methyl ether of silico-propionic acid, prepared by the action of zinc ethyl upon methyl orthosilicate, silico-acetic acid, pre- pared analogously, the chloride of silico-phenyl, ethyl-ortho- silico-benzoate, and meta-silico-benzoate, meta-silico-benzoic oxide, silico-phenyl-triethyl, the chloride of silico-tolyl and sil- Hi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND ico-toluic acid. Demole has given a ready and rapid method for the preparation of glycol, by distilling together a mole- cule of dry potassium acetate, a molecule of ethylene bromide, and an equal weight of eighty per cent, alcohol, on the wa- ter-bath, with an upward condenser, for sixteen to eighteen hours. The yield is twelve per cent, of the bromide employed. Schulze has confirmed O'Sullivan's observations upon malt- ose, the form of sugar produced when malt acts upon starch. It is a compound sugar, possesses two thirds the reducing power of dextrose, rotates the polarized ray three times as much, and on boiling with dilute acids takes up a molecule of water and splits into two molecules of dextrose. Nageli has called attention to a fact which he claims to have proved, that the various kinds of starch differ in the proportions of two different modifications of this substance which they contain. One of these modifications is turned blue, the other yellow, by iodine. By boiling with water, starch gives a solution which on concentration deposits crystalline masses, turned yellow by iodine, and which the author calls amylo- dextrin, whose rotatory power is to the right, and interme- diate between starch and dextrin. Vignon has published an elaborate paper upon mannite, in which he shows: (l) that mannite possesses in solution the power of affecting the molecules of certain inactive bodies, such as boric acid and its salts, forming with them dissymmetrical molecular group- ings, but retaining for itself the power of acting on polar- ized light ; (2) that in this way, and in such solutions, the rotatory power of mannite can be determined when asso- ciated with water in certain proportions ; (3) that sulphuric acid, heated with mannite to 120, transforms it into mannitan by simple dehydration ; (4) that by the action of water in sealed tubes upon mannite, two new bodies, mannityl oxide, or ether, and mannitone, an isomer of mannitan, are pro- duced. In the same paper the author describes nitro-man- nitan, a new nitro-derivative. Bondonneau has investigated the character of dextrin, the best mode of preparing it, and its reactions. He finds that commercial dextrin contains dextrose, to which is due its power of reducing the copper test. To prepare pure dextrin, he destroys this dextrose by the copper test, and then precipitates the dextrin by alcohol. Thus prepared, dextrin is colored dark red by iodine, is not INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. liii reduced by the copper test, or colored by caustic alkalies, but is abundantly precipitated by barium hydrate. In a subsequent paper he shows that dextrin is changed into dextrose at a high temperature in presence of an inert but moist gas, and that the transformation is increased by the presence of minute quantities of acid. Gautier has succeeded in effecting a remarkable synthesis likely to lead to impor- tant practical results. By withdrawing a molecule of water from two molecules of a glucose or simple sugar, one mole- cule of a compound sugar is produced by the union of the residues. The production of the valuable cane sugar from the cheap and abundant starch sugar, or from this and some other variety of simple sugar, is to be looked for in this direction ; could it be accomplished, the industry of sugar would be revolutionized. The step which Gautier has taken is to solder together two molecules of dextrose by the action of hydrochloric-acid gas upon it dissolved in alcohol, and thus to produce a compound isomeric, but not identical with saccharose. It is not a sugar, is deliquescent, not precipita- ble by ammoniacal lead acetate, reduces difficultly the cop- per test, and is dextrogyrate. Schorlemmer and Dale have shown that suberone, pro- duced by the dry distillation of suberic acid, is the acet- one of this acid, and yields an acid isomeric with pimelic acid, on oxidation, called a-pimelic acid. Kekule has pub- lished a paper on the constitution of camphor, giving it a rational formula analogous to an acetone, and taking well into account the numerous reactions of which it is capa- ble. This chemist, undoubtedly the most eminent in Eu- rope, having been called to Munich as the successor of Lie- big, is remarkable for the power of prediction which he pos- sesses, and which he has introduced into the science the oxycymene, described in the paper in question, having been foreseen by theory before it was realized as fact. Neison has studied the products of decomposition of castor-oil, and has shown that sodium ricinoleate yields by dry distillation methyl-hexyl-ketone, unless an excess of alkali is present, in which case heptyl aldehyde is produced. Hell and Lauber have effected an easy synthesis of crotonic acid by acting upon mono-bromobutyric acid with alcoholic potash. Steiner has succeeded in forming succinic acid artificially by the ac- 3* liv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND tion of silver-dust upon bromacetic acid, a molecular con- densation taking place. Erlenmeyer and Sigel have formed a true nitrile of leucic acid by the union of hydrocyanic acid and amyl-aldehyde; and from the nitrile they have obtained the acid by simple oxidation. The mode of this synthesis determines the true constitution of leucic acid. Pinner has announced the discovery of a lactic acid belonging to the allyl series, formed by boiling ethyl mono-chloracrylate with barium hydrate. Kolbe has made the synthesis of salicylic acid a commercial success. His method is to heat sodium- phenol prepared by evaporating to dryness a saturated so- lution of phenol in caustic soda first to 100, then to 180, and finally to 220-250, a stream of dry carbonic gas being passed continuously through the apparatus. A curious fact observed at this time was that, while calcium and barium hydrates also readily yield the salicylic acid, potassium hy- drate thus treated yields an isomer of it para-oxybenzoic acid. Some experiments, made for the purpose, proved the remarkable antiseptic power of salicylic acid. Hofmann has examined the noticeable body discovered by Liebermann in the crude wood-vinegar from beech-wood, and termed by him coerulignon. The crude substance was the last product of the distillation of beech-wood tar, and when treat- ed with caustic soda solidified to a brown crystalline mass. After purification, a colorless oil was obtained, which gave on oxidation with chromic acid violet crystals agreeing in all respects with coerulignon. Tiemann and Haarmann have succeeded in producing the active principle of the vanilla bean vanillin from a substance of entirely different origin, viz., coniferin. The coniferin is extracted from the cambium sap of several varieties of the pine-tree, and forms groups of white needles in crystallizing. By the action of a ferment emulsin, coniferin is split into dextrose, and a second prod- uct which on oxidation with potassium dichromate and sul- phuric acid yields vanillin. Steps have been taken to utilize this discovery commercially. Fischer has investigated further the remarkable body discovered by Baeyer, and called flu- orescein. It is prepared by heating together two molecules of resorcin and one of phthalic oxide to 200 ; and is ob- tained as a crystalline red powder, non -volatile and quite insoluble. It is especially characterized by the magnificent INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. l v green fluorescence of its solution in ammonia. Several of its compounds are described. Perkin, to whom many of the coal-tar colors owe their discovery, has added a modifica- tion of alizarin to the list. Bromalizarin, produced by re- placing an atom of hydrogen in alizarin by bromine, crys- tallizes in orange or brownish-orange crystals, which are ca- pable of dyeing with mordants like alizarin; but the shades of color are not exactly the same, the reds being less purple, and the purple less blue than those produced with alizarin. Lange has described a polymer of hydrocyanic acid, having the composition H 3 C 3 N 3 . It is formed by the action in sealed tubes of hydrocyanic acid (anhydrous) upon epichlorhydrin, and crystallizes in garnet-red prisms. Hofmann has observed the important fact that by the action of heat the position of certain definite groupings within the molecule may be changed, thus producing isomers. In the secondary base, ethyl-aniline (ethyl-phenylamine), C 6 H 5 .C 2 H 5 .H.N, for exam- ple, on heating to 300 or 330 for twelve to eighteen hours, the ethyl group shifts its position, and now replaces a hydro- gen atom in the phenyl group instead of a typical hydrogen atom ; thus producing phenethylamine (C 6 H 4 .C 2 H 5 )H.H.N. isomeric with the former, but a primary instead of a second- ary base. It is believed that this action is quite general. Hugo Schiff obtained last year, by dehydrating the base butyraldine, a liquid alkaloid having the composition of conicine, the active principle of conium macidatum. He has subsequently more fully investigated the relation of the arti- ficial to the natural alkaloid, and has shown that they are true isomers; and that while natural conicine is a secondary base containing an atom of typical hydrogen, the artificial base, which he terms para-conicine, is tertiary. He has ob- tained a new and condensed base also, which he names para- di-conicine. C. R. A.Wright has continued his valuable re- searches on the opium alkaloids, particularly to codeine with its derivatives apocodeine, tricodeine, and tetracodeine and narceine. Important practical results therapeutically may be expected to flow from these investigations. Delitsch and Volhard have simultaneously discovered a new method for the synthesis of guanidine, by heating ammonium sul- phocyanate to a temperature of 180-185 for twenty hours. Grimaux lias effected the synthesis of the uric-acid deriva- lvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND tive oxalyl-urea (parabanic acid). Considering this body as acid oxalate of urea minus two molecules of water, and oxa- luric acid as the same salt less one such molecule, it seemed easy to produce the former from the latter. Oxaluric acid heated to 200 with phosphoryl chloride yielded a substance in crystals having when purified all the properties of oxalyl- urea. The author proposes to drop the term parabanic acid. In Physiological Chemistry the progress of the past year has been notable. Terreil has analyzed the bones of the fos- sil human skeleton found by M. Riviere at Mentone. The phalanx of the foot yielded : phosphate of calcium, 56.76 ; car- bonate of calcium, 25.00 ; water, 11.68; nitrogenous organic matter, 4.07 ; phosphate of magnesium, 1.71 ; ferric oxide, 0.06; silica traces; total, 99.28. The spongy, internal mass of the calcaneum yielded : calcium carbonate, 64.33 ; calcium phosphate, 17.12 ; silica and ferruginous clay, 8.31 ; water, 6.37 ; organic nitrogenous matter, 2.40 ; magnesium phos- phate, 0.60; total, 99.22. Wibel has criticised Aeby's conclusions as to the existence in bones of a polybasic phosphate. He shows that when bone phosphate is ignited, the carbonic acid which it loses is not resupplied to it on subsequent treatment with ammo- nium carbonate. These results he explains by the supposi- tion that under these conditions a slightly basic phosphate is formed. He is therefore of opinion that the mineral con- stituents of bones are tricalcic phosphate and calcium car- bonate. Weiske and Wildt have experimented upon the ef- fect produced on the bones of young animals by feeding them on food deficient either in phosphoric acid or lime. Lambs under these circumstances decreased in weight and became diseased. Their bones weighed less than normal bones, but they contained the normal quantity of phosphoric acid and lime. Weiske himself has studied the effect of madder when mixed with the food in coloring the bones. Rabbits from six weeks to six months old, being fed with bran mixed with five per cent, of powdered madder, showed the reddening first at the point of ossification of the intermediate cartilage of the femur, after three days. After 28 days' cessation of the mad- der the color had but slightly diminished. The cartilage left on treating the colored bones with hydrochloric acid was colored, but the calcium phosphate precipitated from the so- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. hii lution was not, showing that the color is fixed by the or- ganic matter of the bones. Miiller has examined the respiration of frogs, and finds (l) that the direction of a series of observations is constant; (2) that the brown frog consumes more oxygen than the green frog; (3) that they both consume less when hungry ; (4) that they consume the same amount in the winter time when un- der water ; (5) that on being released, after being frozen in ice eight hours, they breathed at the normal rate. He also ob- served that, weight for weight, a mouse consumed twenty- four times as much oxygen as a frog. Forster has made a series of experiments on the impor- tance of the inorganic constituents of food. He divides the salts of the food into two classes: those which are firmly combined with combustible substances, and are indispensa- ble ingredients of the juices and blood; and those which are simply dissolved in the juices. The latter greatly preponder- ate, being either introduced from without or produced with- in the body. The former class can not leave the organism when in combination, nor even when dissolved in the juices. Experiment shows that although the salts are to a great ex- tent retained and used over, a certain amount is excreted. Hence, when salts are withheld, the whole body, but especially those parts actively changing, like blood and muscle, become gradually poorer in salts and richer in albumin; but, though the total quantity in the body is lessened, the mixture of salts in the tissues and juices is unchanged. The diminution of salts in the muscles causes muscular exhaustion ; and in the nerves, first excitability, and then paralysis of the nerve- centres. The quantity of salts necessary in food is less than has hitherto been supposed. Heitzmann has shown that the administration of lactic acid to cats and dogs, either by the stomach or hypodermic- ally, causes, within two weeks, swelling of the epiphyses of the long bones, catarrh, and other symptoms of rachitis ; a result confirmed by microscopical examination of the bones. Continued for four months, the bones soften, and appear like those affected with the disease called mollities osseum. Ro- dents do not seem to be affected by lactic acid, even after eleven months. Since lactic acid is to be found in the urine of rachitic patients, and Schmidt has found it in a long bone lviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND affected with softening, the significance of Heitzmann's ob- servation is obvious. Rossbach has undertaken to determine the influence exert- ed by alkaloids on the oxidation processes of the organism. He concludes (1) that the various albuminates found in the body are affected and altered by the alkaloids ; (2) that these changes are common to the alkaloids generally, though spe- cific differences are to be observed ; (3) that the alkaloids, while they leave the properties of hemoglobin as a genera- tor of ozone unchanged, bind the ozone more firmly to the hemoglobin, so that it is less readily yielded up to other bodies ; and (4) that hence the alkaloids do retard tissue- metamorphosis, both by the change which they produce in the albuminates and by the firmer fixation of the ozone. Maly, in an elaborate paper on the origin of the free acid of the gastric juice, comes to these conclusions: (1) that the acidity is due to hydrochloric acid present ; (2) that no lac- tic acid exists free in the gastric juice ; and (3) that the source of the free hydrochloric acid is to be found in the de- composition of the chlorides present, a decomposition not ef- fected by the action of any other acid. Radziejewski and Salkowski have succeeded in detecting asparaginic acid in the intestines after pancreatic digestion. Since this acid has been proved to be one of the decomposi- tion products of the albuminates, it occurred to the authors to ascertain whether the natural ferments of the animal body such, for example, as that of the pancreatic juice produced asparaginic acid as a product of its splitting action upon the albuminates. Well-washed fresh blood-fibrin was digested with the finely divided pancreas for several hours at 40; asparaginic acid was detected in the resulting solution. Hoppe-Seyler draws from his investigations the important conclusion that the consumption of albuminous matters in the organism takes place in the living cells of the tissues, and not in the lymph in which they are bathed, or in the blood itself, as has been hitherto maintained. G. S. Johnson has published results which appear to prove (1) the existence of definite compounds of albumin with the acids in simple molecular ratios; (2) the applicability of di- alysis to the ready and accurate preparation of these com- pounds ; and (3) the probable correctness of the formula for INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. H x albumin of Lieberkuhn, C 72 H 112 N 16 S0 22 ; of Loew, C 72 H 108 N 16 S0 22 ; or of Liebig, C 216 Il33 8 N 54 S 3 68 . Its molecular weight appears to be near 1720. Matthieu and Urbain have examined the gaseous constitu- ents of the blood, and the influences exerted by various in- ternal and external conditions upon them. They show that repeated blood-lettings diminish the oxygen in arterial blood, because they diminish the intravascular pressure ; that the chief seat of oxidation is not in the vessels themselves ; that elevation of external temperature, by decreasing the osmotic interchange of gases through the pulmonary mucus, dimin- ishes the oxygen dissolved in arterial blood, even in spite of the increased number of respirations thus caused ; that the arterial oxygen varies directly as the atmospheric pressure; that the arterial oxygen is directly, and carbonic acid inverse- ly, dependent upon the internal temperature; that muscular work increased to a limited extent arterial oxygen, a great- er quantity of oxygen being consumed during work than during rest ; that narcosis by morphine, and anaesthesia from chloroform, by diminishing the number of respirations, dimin- ished proportionately the arterial oxygen ; and that the per- centage of arterial oxygen reaches its minimum about four hours after a full meal, though the total quantity is in- creased, but masked by the dilution. The smaller the ani- mal, the less rich in oxygen is its arterial blood. Thickly furred animals have less arterial oxygen than others. At the extremes of life oxidation is less active, young adult blood being the poorest in oxygen. Gobley has reinvestigated the character of Liebreich's pro- tagon, obtained from brain matter, and concludes that it is simply a mixture of lecithin and cerebrin, two substances discovered by him long previous. The decomposition of pro- tagon into glycero-phosphoric acid and neurine, observed by Liebreich, the author maintains is really a change in the lecithin present. ISTeurine is identical with choline discov- ered in the bile by Strecker. Bourgoin describes a simple method of obtaining cerebrin free from phosphorus, which is founded upon its solubility in hot alcohol. Vogel has examined the reaction of fresh milk, and finds that it is in general transiently acid ; though, since litmus- solution, reddened by milk, becomes blue when exposed to lx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND the air, or placed in an exhausted receiver, he believes that it is due to carbonic acid. Miescher has discovered in the spermatozoids of the Rhine salmon a new base, having the composition C 9 H 20 N 5 O 2 (OH), which he calls protamine. It exists in the sperm in combi- nation with nuclein. Schenk has made a series of experiments on the effect of muscular activity upon the decomposition of albumin. He comes to the same conclusion which was reached Ions' a^o by Parkes and by Noyes, that there is no regular and close connection between muscular activity and the excretion of urea. Hoppe-Seyler has given the following simple method for preparing uraematin, the normal coloring-matter of the mine, from haematin, the coloring-matter of the blood : an alcohol- ic solution of haematin is treated with tin and hydrochloric acid; on evaporation a substance is left, brownish-red by trans- mitted, and a beautiful gold-yellow green by reflected light, corresponding in its deportment with urobilin. This sub- stance is also produced by the reduction of urohaematin. The author, therefore, believes that bilirubin and biliverdin, the biliary coloring -matters, as well as urohsematin and urobi- lin, are only stages in the reduction of haematin. Baumstark has described two new pathological coloring-matters obtain- ed from the urine of a patient suffering from lepra. The one is blue-black in color, soluble in alkalies with a garnet-red color, and has the composition C 68 H 94 N 8 Fe 2 26 , or haematin in which H 8 is replaced by C 4 . It is called uro-rubro-haema- tin. The other is black, soluble in alkalies with a brown col- or, and contains C 68 H 106 N 8 O 26 , or haematin in which the iron is replaced by hydrogen. He calls it uro-fusco- haematin. Hilger has sought to determine the cause of the peculiar odor communicated to the urine after eating asparagus. No asparagin could be detected ; nor could any volatile organic body be isolated from the distillate, which possessed the char- acteristic odor. Comparatively large quantities of ammo- nium succinate were found, the hippuric acid was increased, and benzoic acid was detected. Donath has made some ex- periments to determine the cause of the acid reaction of urine. He shows that either hippuric, uric, or benzoic acid, on being added to disodium phosphate, withdraws sodium, and forms INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. hri mono-sodium phosphate, which is acid. The new equilibrium, however, is a very unstable one. Traube and Gschleiden have investigated experimentally the two theories of putrefaction put forward respectively by Liebig and by Schwann the chemical and the vital theo- ries. They conclude strongly in favor of the second of these theories, and assert that even the most decomposable ani- mal matters suffer no decomposition if care be taken to pre- vent the admission of organic germs from without ; a proof that albuminous bodies in themselves have no power of self- destruction. They also experimented on the power of resist- ance to putrefaction possessed by living animals, and showed that putrefactive bacteria might be injected with impunity into the blood of living animals, and that they are at once killed by the gastric juice. Contagious bacteria, on the oth- er hand Bacillus anthracis are capable of multiplying in- definitely in the organism, and hence cause pyaemia. But the authors have also proved the other curious fact that putre- factive bacteria are capable of destroying contagious bacteria. Gorup-Besanez has shown that leucin and ty rosin, which stand in the animal organism in such intimate relation to the albuminates, have certain relations with the vegetable king- dom also. He found leucin in considerable quantity in the etiolated sprouts of the common vetch ; and he believes it is an intermediate product in the formation of legumin. In Applied Chemistry the advance has been so great that only a few of the discoveries made can here be mentioned. E. Kopp's admirable report to the Swiss government upon the chemical products of the Vienna Exhibition has de- scribed many new and valuable processes. Among the most remarkable of these is the ammonia process for manufactur- ing soda from salt, which is destined to entirely replace the old process of Leblanc. Though patented in England as long ago as 1838, and though some commercial samples of soda thus made were exhibited at the Paris Exposition of 1867, it was not until the Vienna Exhibition that the process was shown to be a oreat commercial success. M. Ernest Sol- vay, ofCouillet, exhibited there soda products made in this way, the capacity of their works being from 250 to 500 hundred-weights a day, or 80,000 a year. The process de- pends on the fact that sodium bicarbonate is less soluble in lxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND water than sodium chloride ; hence when a concentrated so- lution of salt is saturated simultaneously by ammonia and carbonic-acid gases, sodium bicarbonate separates from it. The success, commercially, of the process, arises from the skill and ingenuity with which the by-products are worked over. To decompose sufficient salt to produce 5000 kilo- grammes of sodium carbonate would require, for example, in one operation, 5000 kilogrammes of the ammonia salt; while by a skillful rotation the production of 5000 kilogrammes of sodium carbonate a day only requires 250 kilogrammes per day of the ammonia salt. The French Academy have devoted considerable time to a discussion of the use of lead in household economy. M. Fordos presented a paper showing that while potable waters containing carbonic acid do convert the lead into an insoluble carbonate deposited on the inside of the tube, yet that danger in the case arises (l) from the fact that this coating, being mechanically detached, may be introduced into the system; and (2) from a subsequent reaction between this carbonate and the chlorides and sulphates contained in the water, pro- ducing soluble sulphato or chloro carbonates. He also warns the public against the use of lead shot for cleansing bottles, having been told by a maker of wine-casks that the discovery of bottles in which such shot had been carelessly left was of daily occurrence. The danger is, of course, in- creased when the wine is put into such bottles, the shot not be- ing removed. He recommends that the lead shot be replaced by clippings of iron wire, four or five millimeters long, Nos. 16-18 for large, and Nos. 20-22 for small bottles. Salvetat has reported favorably to the Societe d'Encou- ragement upon M. Constantin^s nevv pottery glaze, consisting essentially of sodium silicate, though containing also some lead. The frequent poisoning caused by the lead glazing or- dinarily employed causes M. Salvetat to regret that M. Con- stantin had not gone a little further, and produced a glaze entirely free from this deleterious metal. The Terre Noire Iron Company has patented a process for manufacturing cheaply an iron rich in manganese (ferro- manganese), to replace the Spiegeleisen now so necessary in the manufacture of Bessemer or Siemens -Martin steel. It consists in treating in the high furnace blocks made up of INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. lxiii iron scrap, sponge, etc., with the manganese mineral. The ferro-manganese thus made contains 65 per cent, of manga- nese, and costs 2^ to 3 francs the kilogramme. But as only 2 per cent, of it is necessary in the bath, it can not be con- sidered costly. Fremy has published an elaborate report on cannon metal, in which he has given in extenso his own views upon cop- per-bronze alloys. A considerable discussion has taken place on the question of the true constitution of bleaching powder, Goepner assert- ing the old view of Bertholet, that it is a compound of lime and chlorine directly, and Schorlemmer and others that it contains hypochlorite of calcium. Richters and Juncker, from their experiments, assign to the bleaching compound existing in commercial chloride of lime the formula CaOCl 2 , but suppose that it is decomposed by water into CaCl 2 and CaCl 2 2 . Some of this latter product is always present in the commercial article, produced by the presence of moisture in the manufacture. Bischof, of Glasgow, has introduced iron -sponge, in the state in which it is obtained by reduction from the ore with- out fusion, for chemically purifying water. The results thus far seem very satisfactory, the iron not only removing or- ganic impurities, but also every trace of lead. Melsens has succeeded in producing an excellent artificial bone-black for decolorizing purposes, by incorporating with wood-charcoal a solution of bone-ash in hydrochloric acid and subsequent ignition. Hell and Medinger have been successful in isolating an acid of the composition C n H 20 O 2 from crude Wallachian petro- leum. Helbing has detected in the most volatile portions of coal- tar distillates three members of the olefine series of hydro- carbons. Amylene exists there in largest quantity, crotony- lene next, and hexylene least. Fontenay has analyzed a blue pigment used by the Egyp- tians fifteen centuries before the Christian era, and called bv them lapis imite, and by Theophrastus Egyptian blue. It is essentially a copper silicate, containing some lime, alumi- na, and soda. It was successfully imitated by heating slow- ly to a high temperature a mixture of 70 parts of white lxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND sand, 15 of copper oxide, 25 of chalk, and 6 of dry sodium carbonate. Musculus has obtained what he calls soluble starch by heating ordinary starch with water and very dilute sulphuric acid to complete solution, the liquid still being colored violet with iodine. After neutralizing the acid, and evaporating the liquid to the consistence of a sirup, it deposits, after pro- longed standing, minute grains of from 0.01 to 0.02 millimeter in diameter. After decantation, washing, and drying, it ap- pears as a brilliant white powder, like starch, insoluble in cold water, but entirelv soluble in water at 50 C. When dilute the solution is colored red by iodine; concentrated, it is turned violet. Gal has submitted to examination the rare essential oil of the Anona odoratissima, ordinarily known in perfumery as ylang-ylang. He finds it to be a benzoic ether of one or several unknown alcohols. M. Lamy has made a report to the Societe d'Encourage- ment upon the Asnieres establishment for the commercial manufacture of ammonium phosphate, for use in refining beet-sugar, as originally proposed by M. Kuhlmann twenty- four years ago. M. Peligot has also made a valuable report to the same society on the alloys in use for coinage. Hatzfeld has proposed the injection of tannin or sodium tannate into wood, as a means of preserving it from decom- position. Dr. W. W. Keen has given the results of some striking experiments on the antiseptic powers of chloral hy- drate, and on its use in preserving animal tissues for ana- tomical purposes. Pasteur has himself given us, in a pretty full paper, the details of his new process for rendering beer unalterable in the air. From his investigations he had concluded : (l) That all alterations in beer, whether finished or in progress, or in the wort, are produced simultaneously with the development and increase of microscopic organisms ; (2) that the germs of these organisms are carried in the air, or are left from pre- vious operations either in the beer or attached to the vessels employed ; (3) that a beer which does not contain these liv- ing germs is unalterable, whatever be the temperature of its production or preservation ; and (4) that in actual practice all the worts, yeasts, and beers contain these germs. He INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. lxv was therefore led to contrive an apparatus by which the still boiling wort could be cooled away from the air, and could be fermented by the addition of similarly treated yeast while it still remained in the tight vat. When now, after it is finished, it is drawn from this vat, it no longer furnishes the nutritive medium necessary to the development of the germs which produce the changes. Beer thus made may be pre- served indefinitely, and appears not only to undergo no de- terioration with time, but undergoes, like wine, an actual amelioration. Jacquemin has been studying the influence of nitrogen in a textile fibre on the fixation, directly, of aniline colors* Since silk and wool readily take these colors directly, while cotton has to be annualized, or treated with albumin, etc., before it will receive the color, the impression is general that it is only to a nitrogenous substance that the color will unite. But that this is not so the author proves in the case of gun- cotton, which takes fuchsine or aniline blue as readily as silk ; and, on the other hand, in the case of oxamide, which, though containing nitrogen, could not be colored by fuchsine though heated to 80 in a bath of it. The true reason for the difference observed between silk and cotton, in this re- gard, is yet to be determined. MINERALOGY. The department of Mineralogy has received its share of attention from the scientific world, but the special researches in crystallography and chemistry, all-important as they are for the full development of the science, can hardly be consid- ered of general interest, and need not be referred to here. The pages of the Jahrbuch fur Mineralogie, Tschermak's Miner alogische Mittheilungen, Poggendorff's Annalen, etc., must be referred to by those specially interested in this sub- ject. The occurrence of native tellurium and various tellu- rium minerals in Colorado and Montana has been made the subject of further investigations, and important papers de- scriptive of them have been published by Professor Silliman, Dr. Endlich, and Dr. Genth, and Schirmerite and Henryite have been added to the list of new tellurium minerals. Pro- fessor Cooke has made a valuable contribution to physical mineralogy in his paper on the Vermiculites. After a de- lxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND scription of several species, including two new minerals, Ster- lingite and Hallite, he discusses their optical properties, and explains the well-known diversity in the angle of the optic axes by a system of molecular twinning ; exceedingly inter- esting and ingenious, if not very probable. He suggests the application of the same principle to the micas, and to other hexagonal minerals. Professor Dana has recently published in the American Journal of Science an important paper on mineral pseudo- morphism, descriptive of the changes which have taken place at the Tilly-Foster iron-mine at Brewster, N. Y. No less than eleven minerals are enumerated which have undergone a complete change to serpentine, together with a variety of other pseudomorphs of equally interesting nature. An elaborate paper by A. Schrauf, of Vienna, and Edward S. Dana, treats of the thermo-electrical properties of various minerals, and sustains the conclusion that these properties are not dependent on hemihedrism, or peculiarities in crys- tallization, but are connected, in some cases at least, with dif- ferences in chemical composition, and always with differences in density. The subject of micro-lithology continues to excite much interest ; indeed, it is a question whether any kindred sub- ject has at present more devotees. The elaborate works of Boricky on the "Basalts and Phonolytes of Bohemia," and Doelter on the "Trachytes of Hungary," of Allport and Hull on the English igneous rocks, will show what is being done to develop the subject of lithology. The large collections of igneous rocks made by the Clarence King party have been in the hands of Professor Zirkel, of Leipsic, and interesting results may be looked for in the report when published. The trap-rocks of the Atlantic border are now under investiga- tion microscopically by E. S. Dana, and chemically by G. W. Hawes ; and some of the results thus far obtained were brought before the meeting of the American Association at Hartford. The following is an enumeration of the most important new species of minerals (see also above) which have been described during the year: Dawsonite. An interesting mineral, from a trachytic dike, near Montreal, and described by Mr. B. J. Harrington, of the INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. Ixvii Geological Survey of Canada. It appears to be a hydrous carbonate of alumina, lime, and soda; and if this view be sustained, it is interesting as being a compound hitherto un- known, as well in the laboratory as in nature, if we except the doubtful Hovite of Gladstone. Famatinite. This name has been given by Stelzner to an antimonial Enargite, occurring in the Famatina Mountains in the Argentine Republic. Luzonite is another new mineral, nearly related, from the Philippines ; described by Weis- bach. Foresite. A new zeolite, from Elba ; described by Vom Rath. In composition it is nearly related to Stilbite. Fjeruljine. A new phosphate of magnesia, resembling Wagnerite. It is found at Bamle, Norway, and has been de- scribed by Von Kobell. Livingstonite. Signor Barcena has described this sulphide of antimony and mercury. It closely resembles Stibnite, and occurs at Huitzuco, State of Guerrero, Mexico. Ludwigite. A borate of magnesia and iron, from Mora- witza, in the Banat; described by Tschermak. Rhagite. A hydrous basic arsenate of bismuth, occurring with Walpurgite, at Schueeberg ; described by Professor Winkler. Schrockeringite. Professor Schrauf has thus named a new uranoxy-carbonate from Joachimsthal. Vaalite. A new mineral of the vermiculite group, from the diamantiferous rock of South Africa; investigated by Professor Maskelyne and Dr. Flight. Veszelgite. A new phosphate of copper, occurring on gar- nets, from Morawitza, in the Banat; described by Professor Schrauf. Wheelerite. A new fossil resin, discovered and described by Mr. O. Loew (and having the formula C 5 H 6 0). It was found in the cretaceous lignite beds of Northern New Mex- ico, filling fissures in the lignite, or interstratified in thin layers. GEOLOGY. Investigations in Western Texas by Jenney have revealed some facts of much interest with regard to the paleozoic rocks, and enable us to compare the strata of that distant lxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND region with those along the northern and eastern borders of our great paleozoic basin. Near El Paso, the various mem- bers of the New York system, which make up the Cambrian, or so-called Lower Silurian series, are all met with, resting on crystalline granitoid rocks, and dipping westward at a gentle angle. At the base are 250 feet of sandstone, with Scolithus, regarded as Potsdam, followed by about the same thickness of gray limestone, holding forms like Archeceyathus, and supposed to represent the Calciferous. To this succeed 450 feet of gray magnesian limestone, with much hornstone, having apparently the fauna of the Chazy, and overlaid by 300 feet of limestones abounding in the characteristic forms of the Trenton and Hudson River formations the Cin- cinnati group. Upon these rests a conglomerate, irregularly distributed, and sometimes 60 feet thick, made up from the ruins of the two last-named formations, which may represent the Oneida or Shawangunk conglomerate. It is instruct- ive to find such a conglomerate, indicating a period of dis- turbance, alike in Eastern New York, in Ohio, and on the Rio Grande, coinciding with the conglomerate of the May-Hill sandstone in England, and marking in all of these regions a great paleontological break. Resting unconformably alike on this conglomerate and on the underlying formations are about 400 feet of gray crystalline limestone, with obscure fossils, which may be Niagara, but are considered more prob- ably of Carboniferous age. It will be remembered that far- ther northward Shumard found Trenton and Hudson River rocks overlaid by the Carboniferous. Limestones of this pe- riod are widely spread over this region, and in some parts rest directly on old crystalline rocks, while elsewhere the Car- boniferous limestone is found, with a thickness of 600 feet, resting upon 800 feet of sandstone, probably of the same pe- riod. No evidence is found in this region of the great series of strata containing the Medina, Niagara, Helderberg, and Devonian faunas. Further information has also been obtained with regard to the geology of the great desert known as the Llano Estaca- do, the strata of which were supposed by Marcou to be Tri- assic and Jurassic, but are now known to be cretaceous. As seen at Castle Canon, there is at the base 50 feet of a red sandstone without fossils, which is probably Triassic, fol- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. l x i x lowed by about the same amount of a brown sandstone with cretaceous fossils, and by 500 feet of yellow limestone, with a well-marked cretaceous fauna. Beneath the red sandstone, in one locality, is seen a sandstone described as metamorphic, resting directly on micaceous gneiss. Hitchcock, continuing his geological survey in New Hamp- shire, has proposed several subdivisions in the crystalline rocks of that region. Of these, he compares the older gneiss- es to the Laurentian, while the strata which he at one time called the altered Quebec group, after Logan, which were re- ferred by Hunt to the Huronian, Hitchcock now considers to be of that age, but makes of them two subdivisions. We look for further details as to these older rocks. Meanwhile he has found in three localities limestones containing corals, crinoidal stems, and a Pentamerus, which belong to the sum- mit of the Silurian or the base of the Devonian, and are therefore, in the nomenclature of the New York Survey, either Lower or Upper Helderberg. They are, according to him, associated with several thousand feet of sandstones, shales, and limestones, in part crystalline, which are believed to be of the same asre. The difficulties in the studv of these rocks are increased by the fact that, according to Hitchcock, the strata are so disturbed "that inversion is the rule rather than the exception." The fossiliferous limestones are of the same period as those found farther northward in the prov- ince of Quebec, and southward at Bernardston, in Massachu- setts, from the study of which latter Dana concludes that the associated mica-slate series is also of Helderber arre. The question with regard to the age of the lignites and plant-beds of the West, considered as cretaceous or tertiary, is much debated. It is evident that we had a great Mediter- ranean sea in the cretaceous time, extending from the Gulf of Mexico perhaps to the Arctic Ocean, in some parts depos- iting limestones with organic remains like those of the En- glish chalk. With the drying up of this sea, dependent upon continental elevation, there were deposited great beds of est- uary and fresh-water deposits, with lignites. But the strata which, on the evidence of the fossil flora, are regarded as ter- tiary contain the remains of a fauna which is looked upon as cretaceous. Dawson, from a survey of the facts in the case, believes 4 lxx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND that we have in the West the evidences of a gradual passage from the cretaceous to the tertiary beds, and that even in these latter it is not easy to distinguish definitely between eocene and miocene, so that what is regarded as one of the greatest breaks in the geological succession is here filled up. With the elevation came a contraction of the oceanic areas in which the animals of the cretaceous lived, while the tertiary life appeared on the higher levels, and slowly found its way down to the plains. So it happened that in Vancouver's Isl- and plants which Heer regarded as miocene were washed into a sea holding cretaceous shell-fishes, and in the Fort Union lignite-bearing group cretaceous reptiles occur with remains of plants which appear to be unquestionably tertiary. These apparent anachronisms are, however, as remarked by Daw- son, perfectly natural, and are to be expected whenever we meet with a true o;eolo serving Specimens; 97. Anthropological Collections ; 98. Casts, etc. ; 99. Photography; 100. Statistics. - In pursuance of the same general object, the French An- thropological Society has issued a volume of "Instructions sur l'Anthropologie de l'Algerie," by General Faidherbe and cxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Dr. Topinard. Special attention is to be directed to the origin, anthropological characters, language, and geograph- ical distribution of the races, and to any particular customs or beliefs. There appears to be a general movement among ethnol- ogists toward a better arrangement of the great mass and variety of material which has been gathered at different times from so many fields. Discarding the thought that a museum should consist merely of bizarre specimens, so ar- ranged as to astonish the laity, they have decided to dispose the objects with regard to education and convenience of re- search. Looking upon humanity as a unit, and assuming that its movement has been, on the whole, onward and up- ward from a state of primal inexperience, they regard an ethnological museum to be a collection of such material as will illustrate all parts of the subject, so arranged as to ex- hibit the various stages in that progress. Wachsmuth and Klemm, of Germany, laid the foundation of this classification ; and the system of arrangement was followed out in the splendid collection of the latter, which has now passed into the possession of the "Leipsic Central Museum of Ethnol- ogy. " Discarding the disposition of material adopted by Sir R. Wilde in the Royal Irish Museum, and the arrangement ac- cording to tribes in the Moscow and other museums, they have divided the objects, embracing original matter, casts, drawings, models, photographs, and a library, into anthropo- logical and culture-historical, and these again into prehistoric and historic. The historic objects of culture are embraced in sixteen classes; viz., food, fire, weapons, tools, clothing, or- nament, vessels, dwellings, games, traveling equipments, mu- sic, sacra, fine arts, writing, weighing and valuing, public life and sociological phenomena. NOTES ON CLASSIFICATION. Dr. Forbes Watson lately read a paper before the " Inter- national Congress of Orientalists," in which the following plan of arranging the "Indian Museum" and "Library of London" was reported: INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxiii A. The Country and its Re- sources. I. Physical Geography. a. Boundaries and Administra- tive Divisions. b. Orography. c. Hydrography. d. Meteorology. II. Natural History. a. Geology and Mineralogy. b. Soil. c. Flora. d. Fauna. III. Agriculture, Manufact- ures, and Commerce. a. Raw Material, Mining, Agri- culture, Forestry, etc. b. Trade and Manufactures. c. Tools, Machinery, and Proc- esses. d. Locomotion bv Land and Wa- fer. e. Harbors, Light-houses, Docks, Warehouses, Fairs, Markets, Telegraph, and Postal Com- munications. f. Currency, Banks, etc. g. Coins, Weights, Measures. B. The People and their Moral and Material Condition. IV. Ethnography. a. Races. 6. Castes and Religious Sects, c. Population and Vital Statistics. V. History and Administra- tion. a. Philology. b. Archaeology. c. Mythology. d. Historical Geography. e. Political Administration. f. Legislation. g. Current Administration. VI. Domestic and Social Econ- omy. a. Food and Cooking. b. Houses and Buildings. c. Clothing and Personal Deco- ration. d. Manners and Customs. e. Health and Sanitation. f. Education. g. Religion. h. Fine and Decorative Art. i. Science and Literature. But by far the most elaborate effort at classification is by Colonel Lane Fox, of London, an account of which is to be found in the journal of the United Service Institution. At a special meeting of the Anthropological Institute, in the East London Museum, Bethnal Green, July I, 1874, Colonel Lane Fox read a paper on the principles of classification adopted in the arrangement of his anthropological collection there on exhibition. The paper contains three divisions Psychological, Ethnological, and Prehistoric. The author's primary arrangement has been guided by form, i. e., spears, bows, clubs, etc., have been placed in distinct classes ; with- in each class there are sub-classes for special localities, and in each of the sub- classes the specimens are arranged ac- cording to affinities. It was shown how far the arts of exist- ing savages might be employed to illustrate the relics of cxiv GENERAL SUIVLMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND primeval man. In studying the evidences of progress, the phenomena which might be observed were (1) a continuous succession of ideas, (2) the complexity of the ideas in an in- creasing ratio to time, (3) the tendency to automatic action upon any given set of ideas in proportion to the length of time during; which the ancestors of the individuals have ex- ercised their minds in these particular ideas. Colonel Fox pointed out that the forms of implements used by savage tribes, instead of affording evidence of their having been de- rived from higher and more complex forms, showed evidence of derivation from natural forms, such as might have been employed by man before he had learned the art of modifying them to his own use ; and that the persistence of the forms is in proportion to the low state of culture. The third and concluding part of the paper is devoted to the correlation of modern implements in use among existing savages with those of prehistoric times. Dr. Charles Ran, of New York, says: "Anthropology is now the favorite and fashionable study in Europe. Not only savans, but also liberally educated people of all classes join in these interesting pursuits." In almost every Association for the Advancement of Science there is an anthropological section, whose reports are made in the general volumes. An- thropological societies, general and local, publish journals and proceedings. First-class literary papers keep us posted on the meetings of these bodies, and on the latest discov- eries. Popular magazines have a corner for notes on the sub- ject, and even sensational journals are working up the story of prehistoric times. We can do no more in this number of the Record than to draw attention to the principal sources of information. The seventh session of the International Congress of An- thropology and Prehistoric Archaeology was held at Stock- holm on the 7th of August. Count Hennino; Hamilton was chosen president. Among the questions discussed were : "What are the earliest traces of the existence of man in Swe- den ?" " Can the precise way in which the trade in amber was carried on in early times be pointed out?" "What characterizes the age of polished stone implements in Swe- den : and can the remains of this a^e be referred to a single race, or are we to suppose that several peoples were inhabit- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxv ing Sweden at the same time?" "The origin and history of t]ie Bronze Age in Sweden?" "The Iron Age in Sweden?" "Bjorko, and other old prehistoric towns of Sweden and oth- er parts of Europe ?" " What are the anatomical and eth- nical features peculiar to the prehistoric man in Sweden ?" The association numbers 1550 members, of which nearly half were present. The next meeting will be held at Buda-Pesth. H. H. Ho worth, Esq., read a report on this Congress before the Anthropological Institute, November 10,1874. The International Congress of Orientalists met in London from the 4th to the 19th of September. Dr. Birch was chosen president. The most noticeable features of the meeting were the opening addresses of Sir Walter Elliot before the Turan- ian Section, of Professor Max Miiller, before the Aryan Sec- tion, of Mr. Grant Duff, before the Archaeological Section, and of Professor Owen, before the Ethnological Section; and the papers of Herr Brugsch Bey, before the Hamitic Section, on the Exodus of the Israelites; and those of Professors Oppert and Schrader, before the Semitic Section, on the Sumerian or Accad, the language of ancient Chaldaea. Mr. Hyde Clarke read a report on the ethnological papers of this Congress be- fore the Anthropological Institute, November 10,1874. The British Association meeting at Belfast, commencing: August 9th, was not unmindful of the subject of ethnology, although the meeting at Stockholm drew away a great many of the members of that section. F. W. Rudler, Esq., made a report of the ethnology of this meeting, November 10, 1874, to the Anthropological Institute. The following are a few of the prominent local associations which contribute to knowledge on the subject of ethnology : America : The Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology. The American Ethnological Society. The American Oriental Society. The Smithsonian Institution. The Palestine Exploration Society. Europe : The Imperial Society of Friends of Natural Sci- ence, Anthropology, and Ethnography. The Anthropological Society of Sweden at Stock- holm. .Ethnological Museums at Stockholm and Lund. CX VI GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Europe Asia: Africa : The Society of Northern Antiquaries of Copen- hagen. Museums at Copenhagen, Flensburg, and Aar- huus. The Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. The London Society of Antiquaries. The Royal Asiatic Society, London. The Royal Geographical Society, London. The Society of Biblical Archaeology, London. The British Museum. The Blackmore Museum, Salisbury. The South Kensington Museum. The Edinburgh Museum. The Royal Irish Museum, Dublin. The Societe d'Anthropologie de Paris. The Societe Orientale de France. The Societe de Geographie de Paris. Museums at Abbeville, Paris, Lyons, etc. Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Anthropologic, Ethnol- ogie, und Urgeschichte, with branches at Berlin, Munich, Gottingen, Stuttgard, Danzig, Frei- berg, Hamburg, Mainz, Heidelberg; publishes Archlv fiir Anthropologic and Corresponded- JBlatt. Deutsche Morgenlandische Gesellschaft, Leipsic. Museums at Berlin, Leipsic, Hamburg, etc. f Gesellschaft fiir vaterlandische Alterthumer, Basle. Museums at Lausanne, Basle, Berne, Zurich, etc. JRevlsta de Antropologia, organ of the Anthro- pological Society of Spain. Direzlone delV Archivlo per V Antropologia e la JEtnologia, Florence. Asiatic Society of Bengal. Deutsche Gesellschaft fiir Natur- und Volkerhimde Ost-Asiens, Yeddo. Asiatic Society of Japan, Yokohama. Musee de Boulay. Attention is directed to the American Journal of Science INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxvii and Art, the American Naturalist, the Popular Science 3Ionth- ly, and the New York Tribune extras ; to the London Acad- emy, Athenceum, and Nature ; to the Geographical Maga- zine / to Comptes Mendus, Ausland, and Gaea / as helping to keep the world posted upon general knowledge of the subject. PROGRESS OF PREHISTORIC ETHNOLOGY. America. Mr. William H. Dall has collected among the Aleutian Islands, and especially in Southwestern Alaska, from the graves and burial-caves, a large and interesting series of prehistoric objects. Mr. Henry Gilrnan will publish in the forthcoming Smith- sonian Report a paper on the Mound -builders and Platy- cnemism in Michigan. Mr. Paul Schumacher has sent to the National Museum at Washington, from the shell-heaps of the Santa Barbara Isl- ands, some of the most beautiful specimens of soapstone pots and stone mortars which have been collected in this countrv. Other objects of exquisite workmanship show a high degree of civilization to have existed on these islands. No. 259 of the Smithsonian publications will be a paper on the "Antiq- uities of Tennessee," by Mr. Joseph Jones. It will appear in the "Contributions to Knowledge." Great enthusiasm exists among the different states upon the subject of preserving the relics of their early history. At the last Industrial Exhibition in Cincinnati, Ohio, there was a fine display of prehistoric objects. In the Indiana State Fair, Mr. Daniel Hough received a prize for a fine collection of Mound-builders' material. Professor E. T. Cox, state geolo- gist of Indiana, is locating every mound and prehistoric fortified place in the state, and will give in his reports a "complete history of all the relics, so far as they can be had, making a special volume on the subject." Professor Joseph Leidy figures and describes in Professor Hayden's last report (1872), "Some Remains of Primitive Art in the Bridger Basin of Southern Wyoming ;" and in the same volume Dr. C. Thomas gives an illustrated account of some ancient mounds in Dakota. Professor William M. Gabb continues his researches in Costa Rica, and has brought to light from the graves, etc., of the Talamanca District a large quantit} 7 of potter}'-, stone 6 cxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND implements, etc. Dr. Berendt also publishes in Nature and the Academy accounts of his researches in Nicaragua. Mr. Thomas Hutchinson publishes his " Two Years in Peru, with Explorations of its Antiquities." London, 2 vols., 8vo. Dr. Conto Magalhaes has published at Rio Janeiro a work in Portuguese upon the Anthropology of Brazil. He con- cludes that man has existed in Brazil 100,000 years; that some of the native languages (the Quichua, for instance) have borrowed about 2000 roots from the Sanskrit. He makes the tall, dark tribes, like the Guaicuru of Matto Grosso, to be the primitive stock, and derives the other shorter and lighter races from a mixture of these with white races in prehistoric times. The Seventh Annual Report of the Trustees of the Peabody Museum of American Archaeology and Ethnology gives an account of the valuable series of objects connected with the South American Pacific Archaeology which Professor Ajj-as- siz acquired during his voyage in the Sassier in 1871-72. The Revue oV "Anthropologies ol. III., No. 1, 1874, has an ac- count of the discovery of some prehistoric burying-grounds and ancient Indian habitations in Patagonia,by M. G. deRialle. Colonel Lane Fox read before the Anthropological Institute, November 10, a paper upon a series of flint and chert imple- ments from Patagonia. Europe. Professor Worsaae is the author of a treatise in which he derives the earliest culture in the North of Europe from Asia and North Africa, and maintains that the " move- ment of civilization, since the bejjinninar of the Stone A^e, has taken the same northeasterly direction. Grewingk publishes in Archil fur Anthropologie an arti- cle " Zur Archaeologie des Balticum und Russlands." To Mr. J. Sawisza belongs the merit of having explored two caves situated in the valley of Wierszchow, near Cracow, Austrian Poland. One of them, called "Mammoth Cave," yielded remains of the mammoth, cave bear, brown bear, elk, stag, reindeer, roe, horse, bison, wild boar, wolf, fox, etc. Nu- clei and primitive implements of flint and pierced teeth of animals abounded, but there was no trace of pottery. An- other cave in the neighborhood seems to have been the abode of man at a later period, as indicated by the later ani- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxix mal remains, and by the presence of pottery and polished implements. Lieutenant Ziesrler has discovered near the shore of the Trondhjem Fiord a kjokkenmodding, which has since been examined by Mr. Rygh. It yielded shells of species of Os- trea^ Cardium, Mytilus, ZtiUorina, Patella, Tritonium, JMocli- ola, Ct/prina, and Purpura all of which still exist on the coast of Norway. The bones discovered were so much de- caved that most of them baffled examination. There were recognized a human frontal bone, a beaver's tooth, and bones of the dog, the elk, and the reindeer. All marrow -bones were broken. The implements discovered w r ere an axe, of reindeer or elk bone, and a lance, several arrow-heads, a cut- ting tool, and a wedge, all of slate a material not used by the people who left the shell-heaps on the Danish coast. An account of researches in Brixham Cave will be found in the journal of the Victoria Institute, February 16, 1874. The committee for the exploration of the Victoria Cave, Settle, Yorkshire, have discovered among the bones of ex- tinct mammals, under conditions which argue their existence before the Glacial Age, one concerning which Mr. Busk says: "The bone is, I have no doubt, human ; a portion of an un- usually clumsy fibula, in that respect not unlike the same bone in the Mentone skeleton." See a paper read before Section C of the British Association at Belfast. Mr. Pengelly read before the same section the tenth report of the committee for exploring Kent Cavern, Torquay. All anthropologists hear with profound regret of the defeat in the British Parliament of Sir J. Lubbock's bill for the pro- tection of ancient monuments. An abstract of this bill will be found in the last number of the Annual Record. The German Society of Anthropology, etc., is industriously collecting material for a prehistoric map of Germany, which it has resolved to publish. Among the points to be noted on this map will be the position of the most notable prehis- toric settlements, fortifications, lake -dwellings, cave struct- ures, burial-mounds, and other places of sepulture. By a judicious use of colors, the various periods stone, bronze, iron, etc. will be indicated, and altogether the map will be one of sjreat value to the student of ethnology. MM. Louis Lartet and Chaplain Duprac explored in Jan- cxx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND uary, 1874, a remarkable grotto at the foot of the Pyrenees, near Lorde, on the River Oloron, a tributary of the Adour. This cave seems to have contained deposits belonging to at least two different periods. At or near the bottom lay a crushed human skull, and bones of the skeleton associated with barbed arrow-heads and utensils of bone, and about fifty perforated teeth of the bear and lion, many of them bearing engraved or ornamental lines, representations of barbed ar- rows, fishes, and other delineations. One of the feline teeth measures four and a quarter inches in length. These perfo- rated teeth represent the ornaments or trophies of the individ- ual whose remains were found at this place. The ancient bear-hunter may have perished accidentally by fragments falling from the roof of the grotto, the crushed skull lying beneath large pieces of limestone. The ground below which these remains were found bore unmistakable evidence of the presence of rude hunters who used to resort to this grotto, leaving there chipped flints and broken bones of the ox, stag, horse, and reindeer. Ultimately, the half-filled grotto served as a burial-place ; for in the yellowish-brown earth constitut- ing the upper deposit MM. Lartet and Duprac found thirty- two human skulls resembling the so-called Cro-Magnon type, and many other bones, together with products of primitive art, among them some beautifully chipped implements of flint. The account of the exploration fills two numbers of the well-known " Materiaux pour l'Histoire Primitive et Na- turelle de l'Homme." Allusion was made last year to two human skeletons dis- covered, together with animal remains and articles of flint and bone, by M. Riviere, in the caves of Mentone, near Nice, France. In the mean time the same explorer has succeeded in finding in caves of the neighborhood three additional skeletons, two of them belonging to children, the other to an adult individual. The head of the latter was surrounded with pierced shells and teeth of the stag, originally forming, doubtless, an ornamental head-dress. There were also dis- covered remains of a necklace, and of bracelets made of shells and teeth. Curiously enough, this skeleton was stained with oxide of iron, like those previously discovered by M. Reviere, who thinks that the covering of the corpse with micaceous specular iron formed one of the funeral customs observed by INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxi the people who deposited their dead in the caves. With the skeleton were found a tooth of the cave bear ( Ursus spelcens), bones of ruminants, pachyderms, and rodents, and a number of shells of edible marine mollusks; also implements of bone and stone, the latter merely chipped, and mostly consisting of sandstone, limestone, and other materials, but rarely of flint, as in the case of the other discoveries. No implements or ornaments were found with the children. Parts XIV. and XV. of the " Reliquise Aquitanicse " have appeared during the year, and also Part III. of the first volume of the "Archives du Museum d'Histoire Naturelle de Lyon." The first part (Livraison) contained "Etudes sur i;i Station Prehistorique de Solutre, Saone-et-Loire, par M. PAbbe Ducrost et M. le docteur L. Lortet." The second part contains, I. " Note sur les Breches osseuses des Environs de Bastia (Corse), par M. Arnould Locard ;" II. " Etude sur le I^agomys Corsicanns, parM. le docteur Lortet ; III. "Etudes Paleontologiques dans le Bassin du Rhone, periode Quarter- naire, par M. le docteur Lortet and M. E. Chautre." The third part contains a continuation of the last article of the second part. In the early part of the year two caves in the neighbor- hood of SchafThausen, Switzerland, which had long been known and often visited by the curious, though never with a view to investigate their contents, were explored by two gentlemen, MM. Merk and Joos, with results far surpassing their expectations. In digging into the floors of the caves, they found in abundance the broken bones and the teeth of animals characteristic of a former fauna, such as the aurochs (bison), reindeer, elk, bear, wild horse, Alpine hare, arctic fox, and other species of fox no longer existing in Switz- erland. The mammoth and rhinoceros were represented by plates of teeth. Bones of birds occurred in great numbers, among them those of the wild duck and white grouse. Traces of domestic animals were, on the other hand, entirely wanting. One of the caves, situated near Thayngen, proved particularly rich in articles of reindeer-horn needles, pierc- ers, and arrow-heads, which are said to be worked with great precision. Flint flakes used in making them abounded. But the most interesting object found at this place is a delinea- tion traced on a broad piece of reindeer-horn, representing a cxxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND reindeer in the act of browsing, and reproduced in the accompanying fi< r - ure. This sketch is so well executed that it may be considered as the most perfect specimen of art transmitted to us from those remote times. It is certainly superior to the best productions of this kind from the caves of Southern France. A subject of growing archaeological interest is the origin and relation- ship of the Etruscans, and the attempts to decipher their language are multi- plying. The effort of Mr. Isaac Taylor to assign to them a Turanian origin has awakened a great deal of controversy. Dr. Cors- sen, the first volume of whose great work, con- taining 1016 pages; has just been published, as- signs to them an Aryan origin, in which opinion, of course, Professor Max Muller agrees. The most scholarly and recent work on prehistoric re- mains in Europe is "Cave Hunting: Researches on the Ev- idence of Caves respecting the Early Inhabitants of Europe, London, 18*74," by Mr. W. Boyd Dawkins. The author, after narrating briefly the historic interest which has always hung around caves, describes in detail the researches which have been made in all of the principal caves of Europe, and the results which have accrued. Up to its publication, the re- mains of the Paleolithic man have been discovered in the fol- lowing caves: (4 4. '4 44 44 INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxiii Victoria Cave Settle, Yorkshire England. King Arthur's Cave Monmouthshire. Wookey Hole Somersetshire. . . Brixham Cave Devonshire Kent's Hole " Plass-Newydd Wales. Long Hole Hyle's Cave " Gailenreuth near Muggendorf Franeonia. Moustier Pe'rigdrd France. La Madelaine Laugerie Haute ,augene nasse Gorge d'Enfer " " ("1 ~\T 4 4 4 4 -ro-Magnon T TJ 4 4 4 4 Les Eyzies LaMentone " " Belgian caves of EngliLi, Chauvaux, Engihoul, Neanderthal (?), Trou de Trontu. Asia. Reference was made last year to Dr. Schliemaiin's interesting discoveries in the plain of Troy. He found there implements of stone in layers covering* those that contained articles of copper, bronze, and gold, together with pottery of good workmanship. These facts, so totally at variance with the general results of archaeological investigations, have elic- ited much comment. A comparatively civilized tribe mav have been supplanted by a rude tribe unacquainted with metals. He has published "Trojan Antiquities; Report on the Excavations in Troy, with an Atlas containing 218 Pho- tographic Plates explaining the Text. Leipsic, Brockhans." In the Atlienmun, May 9, 1874, is an account of Mr. J. P. Wood's excavations of the Temple of Ephesus. It is well known that General Di Cesnola, whose wonderful discoveries in Cyprus excited so much attention, and whose collections are now the property of the Metropolitan Muse- um of Art in New York, signified his intention, after deposit- ing his earlier gatherings, of returning to his field of labor, and of continuing his investigations on a larger scale with the funds thus acquired. This promise he has carried out, and the discoveries now making bid fair to nearly, if not en- tirely, equal in interest those of his former explorations. He has already found some localities where the works of man in his earliest and most primitive condition have been detected, cxxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND forming a very great contrast with those of the later Phoeni- cian, Greek, and Roman occupants of the island. "The lan- guage of the Cyprians may be considered as solved." Twen- ty years ago the Due de Luynes published his work on Cy- priote inscriptions ; many scholars went to work on them with varying success. Ten years ago, Mr. Lang, English Consul at Cyprus, found a bilingual dedicatory inscription in Cypri- ote and Phoenician. Dr. Birch discovered that the language was Greek. Mr. Langj and Mr. George Smith endeavored to decipher them, the latter discovering thirty-three out of the fifty- two characters. Drawn away by his great Assyrian discoveries, his work was taken up by Dr. Brandis, who suc- ceeded in completely unraveling the mystery. The dialect is unique, but resembles in many respects the Arcadian and the Cretan. The alphabet, originally intended to distinguish every primitive syllable by a letter, came in time to repre- sent only the consonants in the syllables. The origin of this alphabet and system of writing remain a mystery, awaiting further research. Recently another bilingual tablet has been discovered. The Palestine Exploration Fund continues its thorough in- vestigations into the archaeology of Palestine and Syria, and though languishing somewhat through want of money, it will no doubt complete the work so nobly begun. The Ameri- can Palestine Exploration Society, which, by agreement with the English Society, has been operating on the east side of the Jordan, has consummated its arrangements for sending out a large party under the command of Colonel C.Lane in December. Professor Selah B. Merrill is added to the archae- ological department. Professor Payne, who has been in the field for two years, is preparing the " Third Statement," which will contain, among other matter, an account of his discovery of the sites of Pisgah and Nebo. Much warm discussion has arisen over the Shapira collec- tion of Moabite pottery, etc., but, through the strenuous ef- forts of Mr. Clermont Ganneau, it seems to be proved that the objects are forgeries. Messrs. C. Tyrwhitt Drake and A.W.Franks have published a work on the skulls and im- plements of Palestine. Mr. George Smith, whose interesting and brilliant career as a cuneiform decipherer has so long interested students of INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. C xxv antiquity, has returned from his second expedition to Meso- potamia. He read before the Society of Biblical Archaeology on the 7th of July an account of his last researches in the mounds of Kouyunjik. Mr. Francois Lenormant has published " Les Premieres Civilizations," based on his own and other researches amonGf the monuments as deciphered by the latest investigators. The Society of Biblical Archaeology has published three volumes of ancient texts. During the year Mr. Schlagintweit Sakulunski has made investigations bearing on prehistoric commerce. It has long been known that jade and some other minerals of which the axes, chisels, scrapers, etc., of the lake and cave periods were made do not exist in sufficient quantity and purity in Eu- rope to justify the opinion that these implements were manu- factured by the men who used them, and with whose bones they lie buried. M. Schlagintweit has discovered in the ' Caucasus and in Northern Armenia, near the great highways of trade from the earliest times, abundant deposits of jade, etc., a fact which goes to confirm the opinion that in pre- historic time caravan or other commerce existed between Western Europe and Asia. The archaeological survey of India, under General Cun- ningham and his corps of able assistants, progresses rapidly. Mr. Grant Duff, alluding to the work, quotes the general's division of the Remains as follows: Hindoo Style. 1. Archaic, from B.C. 1000-250. 2. Indo-Grecian, from B.C. 250-57. 3. Indo-Scythian,from B.C. 57-A.D. 319. 4. Indo-Sassanian, from A.D. 319-700. 5. Mediaeval Brahmanic, from A.D. 700-1200. 6. Modern Brahmanic, from A.D. 1200-1750. Mohammedan Style. 1. Ghori-Pathan, with overlapping arches, A.D. 1191-1289 2. Khilji-Pathan, with horseshoe arches, A.D. 1289-1321. 3. Tughlak-Pathan, with sloping walls, A.D. 1321-1450. 4. Afghan, with perpendicular walls, A.D. 1450-1555. 5. Bengali-Pathan, A.D. 1200-1500. 6* cxxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND 6. Jaunpori-Pathan, A.D. 1400-1500. 7. Early Mughal, A.D. 1556-1628. 8. Late Mughal, A.D. 1628-1750. Some very interesting polished stone implements from Japan testify to the existence of a stone age at some period in the history of that country. Africa. The establishment by the Khedive of a Museum at Boular], near Cairo, in Egypt, and the successful labors of M. Marriette Bey in collecting new and in arranging old materials, have been the means of awakening a new interest, and of facilitating greatly the labors in the study of Egypt- ology. The works following up his collections are legion. Among them we notice a "Memoir on the Comparative Grammar of Egyptian, Coptic, and Tide," by Hyde Clarke, Trubner & Co., 1874; a paper "On the Discovery of Stone Implements in Egypt," by Sir John Lubbock, Bart., in the journal of the Anthropological Institute, June 9,1874; and another in the same number, bv Professor Richard Owen, "On the Ethnology of Egypt." F. Chabas, the late distin- guished Egyptologist, in his " Etudes sur l'antiquite histo- rique d'apris les sources Egyptiennes et les monuments re- putes prehistoriques," proposes to bring the light of modern researches in Egypt to bear upon the problem of the antiquity of man. Though there is no doubt that the papyri will clear up many difficulties surrounding the origin of the present European nations, the antiquity of the human race in Europe rests rather on geological and paleontological grounds than upon archeology. Polynesia. In Nature of September 17, 1874, is a notice of a hieroglyphic sculpture and tablet from the Easter Islands, and Mr. Thomas Croft, of Pa pieti, Tahiti, exhibited before the California Academy of Sciences, November, 1873, photographs of these exceedingly interesting- obi'ects. Professor Owen, in his Inaugural Address before the Eth- nological Section of the Congress of Orientalists, says: "Zoo- logical and geological evidence concur to point to a prehis- toric race of mankind, existing generation after generation, on a continent which, in course of gradual, non-cataclysmal, geological change, has been broken up into insular patches of land, and there such race is open to ethnological research and INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxvii study. The cardinal defect of the speculators on the origin of the human species seems to be the assumption that the pres- ent geographical condition of the earth's surface preceded or co-existed with the origin of species." He further advised Orientalists to cast away " prepossessions as to time, place, affinity, race, etc., for which there may not be rightly ob- served, well-determined data, and to bring to bear on the dark vistas of the past in human history the pure, dry light of science." He also hoped to see the day " when truer terms will be applied in ethnology to groups of peoples and of tongues now called respectively Hammonic, Semitic, and Japetic." PREHISTORIC NOTES OF GENERAL IMPORT. The question whether man already existed in tertiary times is a topic now much discussed by French anthropolo- gists. There have been found in tertiary strata Hints sup- posed to bear the marks of human workmanship. Among the principal supporters of this view are MM. G. de Mortillet, Havelacque, and Bourgeois, the latter a Catholic clergyman. Another interesting subject of discussion is the supposed gap or hiatus between the paleolithic and neolithic phases of the stone age, the neolithic period being distinguished from the earlier phase, not only by chipped flint implements of superior workmanship, but also by the process of grinding and polishing in the manufacture of weapons ami tools of stone. Some maintain that the later stone implements owe their origin to a new people differing from the savage tribes who were coeval with the extinct animals, and who employed exclusivelv unoround flint tools of rude character; while others question the reality of an interval between the two phases, and ascribe the superiority of the more recent manu- factures of stone to the gradually developed mechanical skill of the primitive inhabitants of Europe. Mr. James Geikie lias published this year a work entitled "The Great Ice Age, and its Relation to the Antiquity of Man," in which he advances views differing from those held by many other geologists. He is of opinion that certain animals, whose remains occur commingled in river-s:rarels and in caves, can not have existed in the same period, and he therefore believes in alternate chancres or oscillations cxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND of climate, which permitted tropical and northern species of animals to inhabit certain localities of Europe at different periods, when the temperature was congenial to their re- spective habits. Tropical quadrupeds, like the hippopotamus, tiger, and hyena, he thinks, can not have lived side by side with the reindeer, musk-ox, mammoth, and woolly rhinoceros, and he rejects the views of those geologists who try to get over this difficulty by assuming that the animals of the first- named class migrated annually at the beginning of the severe season to warmer regions, and returned as soon as milder weather set in. It remains to be seen whether Mr. Geikie's conclusions concerning the glacial epoch will be adopted. RESEARCHES AMONG LIVING TRIBES. The progress of historical study must be in two directions, toward a better knowledge of the past, and toward a better knowledge of the present. The latter rests on testimony, the former is comparative and deductive. As in the study of geology we find the forms of living beings in any age to be a compendium of all preceding ages, and as the present epitomizes all the past, so in ethnology we find now living on the earth tribes who are using the weapons, tools, and vessels of the extinct races, so that by the possession of a single arrow-head, knife, or piece of pottery, we may predicate with almost certainty the social condition of the men who used them. Persons collecting material among living tribes can not be too careful in excluding objects, inasmuch as specimens which may seem* wholly insignificant of them- selves may be valuable beyond price in making up a series. North America. Our knowledge of the tribes of South- western Alaska and of the Aleutian Isles has been greatly increased during the past year by the researches of Mr. William H. Dall, of the United States Coast Survey, and of Mr. Henry W. Elliott, United States agent for Alaska, and by the interesting and valuable material which they have sent home. Mr. T. G. B. Floyd, in the journal of the Anthropological Institute (read February 24, 1874), has an interesting paper upon the Bcethucs, a term applied to the so-called Red In- dians formerly of Newfoundland. Mr. A. P. Reed, in the same journal (read March 10, 1874), describes the half-breed races of Northwest Canada. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxix No. 267 of the Smithsonian Publications contains a pa- per by Mr. James G. Swan on the Haidah Indians of Queen Charlotte's Island. The memoir is exceedingly interesting, both for the facts contained and for the relations which it traces between these tribes and those living all along the coast farther north. Accompanying the article are seven well-executed lithographic plates, some of them colored, rep- resenting: the carvings and designs of the Haidah Indians. These designs stand for the family totems, and are tattooed on their bodies. They erect, in front of the nouses of their chiefs or principal men, carved posts or pillars fifty or sixty feet high, so elaborately executed as to cost often several thousand dollars, and looking like great obelisks. The en- trance to the lodge is through a hole in the post near the ground. The chief, or head man, owns the house, and the occupants are his family and relatives, each of whom will have on some part of the body a representation in tattoo of the particular figure on the post which constitutes his or her family name or connection. The chief will have all the figures of the post tattooed on his body, to show his connec- tion with the whole. Among the additions to our knowledge of the western Indians made by the United States surveying parties are reports by Lieutenant Colonel Wheeler, on the culture and languages of the Apaches, Navajos, Tehuans, Tontos, Wal- toans, Isolettes, and Moquis, and by Major J. W. Powell, on further researches among the Utah Indians in the neighbor- hood of the Uintah River. The major on a former trip gath- ered, among a vast amount of precious material, thirty-six chipped stone knives, set in handles. The blades are of chert, chalcedony, jasper, obsidian, etc., oblong triangular, or ob- long tongue-shaped, acute, and they so much resemble many of the so-called lance and arrow heads in our collections that we shall have to modify our views as to the use of many of the latter. The handles are about three inches long, some being merely round sticks three quarters of an inch in di- ameter, and others flat. A notch half an inch deep receives the blade, which is held in place by plenty of pitch melted into the slit and around the joint. The Northern Boundary Survey and Professor Hayden's party have also sent in some valuable objects. cxxx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Central America. Mr. Belt, in his work "The Naturalist in Nicaragua," divides the American aborigines into maize- eatino; and manioc-eating. The first class embraces Yiu-as, ~ O 7 Aztecs, Toltecs of Central America, Indians of Florida, Cuba, and Havti. The second class embraces Caribs, Indians of Guiana and Brazil. Professor Gabb, in addition to his researches into the nat- ural history and archaeology of Costa Rica, has found time to gather a fine collection of objects among the Blanco or Talamanca Indians. South America. The knowledge of South American tribes is increased by the publications of H. W. Bates, " The Nat- uralist on the Amazon," by the researches of Professors Hartt and Orton, and by the French expedition to Terra del Fuego (Nature, April 9, 1874). Europe. The Anthropological Society of Paris has decided on offering a gold medal of the value of 500 francs to the author of the best manuscript on the ethnology of the popu- lation of any part of France. The prize will be awarded in 1876, as Well as prizes of less value to the manuscripts next in importance. Special attention is to be directed to the ori- gin, anthropological characters, language, and geographical distribution of the races, and to any particular. customs. Asia. All eves are now directed to the advance of Russian power into Western Central Asia. In addition to the polit- ical importance attaching to this movement, our knowledge of the tribes of men inhabiting a country so long locked up against the explorer will be greatly increased. Numerous accounts from different divisions of the advancing army fill our best journals. The works of M. G. de Rialle and of Mr. McGahan embody the best information on the subject. The best accounts of researches among the inhabitants of India, China, Japan, etc., will be foun 1 in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic Society, London ; the Journal Asiatique, Paris ; and the Zeitschrift der morgenldndischen GesdUchoft, Leipsic Africa. We have in Bulletin de la Societe (V Anthropologic de Paris (Vol. VIII.) the report of General Faidherbe, under the direction of the commissioners from Algeria, upon the anthropology of the province. M. Topinard divides the his- tory of the country into five periods: that of 1, the brown- skinned Kabvles ; 2, liodit-skinned Kabvles ; 3, the Numid- / * C7 % 7 7 INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxxi ians ; 4, the Romans, Arabs, and Turks ; 5, Aryans. In the same journal General Faidherbe gives an, account of the eth- nology of the Canaries. We have elaborate accounts of the Ashantee War and of the tribes in the route of the British Army from Messrs. G. A. Hentz, Frederick Boyle, Winwood Reade, Henry M. Stan- ley, Henry Brackenbridge, Captain of the Royal Artillery, J. A. Shertchley, and Dr.Rowe, chief of staff to Sir John Glover. Dr. A. Bastian is about to publish a map an(J illustrations giving the results of the German expedition to the coast of Loango. The travels of Dr. Georg Schweinfurth in the "Heart of Africa," and over the routes of Petherick and Miss Tinne although he penetrated much farther than they introduce us into the country of the Bongo, Dyoors, Dinka, Niam-Niam, and of the Monbuttoo and other tribes. The most interest- ing of his discoveries were the Akka, a tribe of pigmies or dwarfs, to whom Herodotus alludes, and who have been in- cidentally mentioned by many old writers, as well as by Krapf and Du Chaillu. He succeeded in bringing one part of the way home with him to Berber, where poor Tikkitikki succumbed to change of air and diet. A translation of Dr. Schweinfurth's admirable work is published by Harper & Brothers. In Revue cT Anthropologic (Vol. III., No. 3), Dr. Revenger Feraud describes the tribes who occupy the shores of the Casamanca River in intertropical Africa. A paper was read before the Geographical Section of the British Association at Belfast, on the explorations of Dr. Nachth>-all in Baghirmi and other adjoining regions of Africa, from 1869 to 1874. The Geographical Society of Italy, Florence, has received from Alexandria two living individuals of the tribe of Akka, or Pigmies, of Tikku-Tikku, whom Miani had bought of King Munza. These individuals, of whom one is eighteen years old and forty inches high, and the other sixteen and thirty- one inches high, are pot-bellied, thin-limbed, and knock-kneed. The crania are spherical and prognathous; the limbs are very long, and their skins are copper-colored. Very interesting accounts have reached us from time to time of the expedition of Lieutenant Cameron, in search, cxxxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND among other things, for the missing journal and papers of Dr. Livingstone. Madagascar and its people are described by James Sidbree in an octavo volume, published in London. A review of "Die Eingjebornen Siid-Afrika's, ethnosra- phisch und anatomisch beschrieben," occurs in Nature, April 23,1874. Dr. Bleek has made to the House of Assembly of Cape Colony his report on "Researches into the Bushman Lan- guage." He has had the advantage for two years and a half of the constant presence of two Bushmen, from whom he has taken down more than four thousand columns of text, besides genealogical tables, animal and stellar myths, etc. Australia. The Mixed Races of Australia are the subject of an interesting paper by the Rev. George Taplin, before the Anthropological Institute, March 10, 1874. In Nature, October 29, 1874, is an account of a letter from William Ridley, of Paddington, Sydney, Australia, to Sir John Lubbock, in which are some wonderful confirmations of statements made in the "Origin of Civilization," drawn from the aboriginal Murri race. New Guinea. The travels of Dr. A. B. Meyer, and of Luigi Maria d'Albertis, in New Guinea, are noticed in Nature, De- cember 4, 1873, and those of Dr. Von Miklucho Maclay in Nature, February 26, 1874. The announcement is made in Academy, October 24, 1874, that the latter has made prep- arations for undertaking another expedition to New Guinea, in order to devote himself to the ethnological and linguistic peculiarities of the various tribes. He will also carry on a systematic series of geological and meteorological observa- tions. In Aus der Natur, November 21, 1874, will be found an ac- count entitled "Die Samoagruppe, ihre Bewohner und Er- zeugnisse." ZOOLOGY. On comparative physiology, from the side of zoology, a series of lectures, by M. Claude Bernard, have appeared in La Revue Scientifique. One of the numbers contains a review of what is known on the impregnation of the egg, and the law of production of the sexes. He thinks that the problem INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. exxxiii of the production of sexes at will is one the solution of which will "remain for a long time in a condition of illusory hope." Professor E. van Beneden, of Liege, considers that the proc- ess of fecundation in animals consists in the union of an ego- with a certain number of spermatozoids, this act having no other end than bringing together chemical elements of op- posite polarity, which, after having united for a moment in the egg, separate again ; for in most animals, as soon as the division of the yolk into two portions appears, the elements out of which the outer layer is formed are already separated from those which constitute the internal layer of the embryo. The new individual is formed at the moment when the union between the elements of opposed polarity is effected, as ab- solutely as the molecule of water is formed by the union of atoms of hydrogen and oxygen. Van Beneden maintains, from the facts afforded by other embryologists,that the same sexual differences occur in the two embryonal layers of the vertebrates as in the polyps, and he thinks it probable they will be found to exist in all animals. This bears out the prevalent idea that the sex of animals is determined at the time of impregnation. M. Da rest e gives in the Archives of Experimental Zoolor/y a memoir on the origin and mode of formation of double monsters. An interesting paper on the sound produced by European fishes, by M. Dufosse, appears in the Annates des Seie?ices J\ r a- turelles, while M. Baudelot prints in the Archives de Zoologie Experbnentale a paper on the scales of the bony fishes. Some interesting remarks on hybridism among ducks have been made by Dr. Brewer. For a large proportion of re- markable cases, where the evidences of the parentage on both sides are well marked, the common mallard duck fis:- ures as one of the parents. The specimens described by Au- dubon as Anas Breiceri, the like of which has never since been obtained, is presumed to have been a cross between the wild mallard and the gad wall or gray duck. A cross be- tween a male canvas-back and a female tame mallard exist- ed for several generations, preserving with a remarkable de- gree of uniformity the markings of their origin. The so- called Cayuga Lake duck had the characteristic peculiarities of the male mallard and the female Muscovy. The race of cxxxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND hybrids between the canvas-back and the mallard was nearly twice the size of either parent; and this is equally true of the Cayuga hybrid. It is often claimed that if the care of man be withdrawn, an improved breed will retrace the steps of its ancestry and revert to its original characteristics. For some years Pro- fessor Brewer has been investigating this subject, and seeking for proof of the alleged tendency to reversion. To carefully worded inquiries in writing, following upon every report of such " reversion," Professor Brewer lias received very numer- ous replies, and they are unanimous in the negative. This is certainly remarkable, following upon the confident asser- tions that animals so frequently exhibited the alleged tend- ency. The inquiries were pushed in the specific localities where the reversion was said to have occurred ; the ques- tions have been put to a large number of stock-breeders, and finally have been made by means of a printed circular. But the result was always the same, except that a smile of incredulity extended over the faces of some stock-breeders when such inquiries were put to them, and they feared they were to be made the victims of a "sell." No instances of the alleged "reversion" having been authenticated in Pro- fessor Brewer's experience, he asked the association to aid in exposing and refuting the pernicious notion. Besides the ordinary normal mode of reproduction, sev- eral genera of the phyllopod Crustacea are known to repro- duce by what is termed by Professor Owen parthenogenesis, or virgin reproduction ; i. e., the eggs arise from the ovary by a budding process, like the budding of leaves on a tree, through the simple multiplication of cells, without fertiliza- tion by the male spermatic cell. This occurs in several in- sects, as in the Ajyhis, the honey-bee, the silk-moth, etc., and in Daphnia, the water-flea, and in other Entomostr 'a xa. A Russian naturalist, Schmankiewitsch, in 1872 discov- ered a variety of " Branchipiis" (Artemia) arietinus near Odessa. In the summer and autumn of the vear before lie noticed that this Artemia changed its form, corresponding to the o-reater or less saltness of the water. In summer, when the water was most salt, there was a retardation in growth ; and this retardation was the more evident the hio;her the temperature and the more concentrated the solution of salt. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxxxv Toward the end of the summer, when heavy rains set in, and the temperature decreases, the Artemia becomes larger, loses its red and gray color, and becomes clear and transparent, so that the July generation has important differences from that which appears in November. In order to observe this phenomenon carefully, he undertook the artificial breeding of the Artemia in two different ways. In one vessel he in- creased the saltness of the water up to 18 Baume, in anoth- er he reduced the solution to 3, and thus reared several gen- erations. In both cases, he remarked that each new genera- tion easily lived in such a concentrated solution as the pre- vious generation could scarcely live in. By raising them in so different solutions (1 8 and 3 Baume), very different forms of Artemia were obtained, which were not to be found in their original pond. " While carrying on these observations, he at the same time proved that a parthenogenetic reproduction exists in Ar- temia. Each time, both in the great increase of the weak solution as well as in the greatly increased saltness of the water, the females produced new generations, despite the ab- sence of the males. Under these relations of the solutions, in warm weather only females were produced. These fe- males produced in similar breeding -jars only female off- spring. Only in water of medium strength were produced males." As a further illustration of the influence of physico-chem- ical surroundings on the organization of these animals, I will again quote from the abstract of the remarks of our author: "In the salt-pools in the neighborhood of Limans (near Odes- sa), he found in the spring, together with Branchipus (Arte- mia) ferox, Gr., a very peculiar Artemia, which he thought was undescribed. He thought from certain characters that this species belonged to the higher group of Branchipus. In this form he observed some strange differences in the struct- ure of the sexual organs, changes which could scarcely be re- garded as pathological. Usually, the horns (lower anten- nas) of the females are small, but in the old females they are clearly elongated, and are very much like the claspers of the males. Still earlier appears a striking change in the struct- ure of the genital organs, wherein some characteristics of the male organs appear. In like manner, the sexual organs are cxxxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND clearly changed in the old males ; and in the sacs in which the outer sexual organs lie we find a space which is very similar to the ovisac of the Branchipus ferox Gr. In such old males the spermatic particles are very clearly enlarged. How far these changes could go on he could not say, since this Branchipus is short-lived. These changes in the sexual organs are especially marked in old individuals; and he fur- ther remarks that such misshapen forms often occurred in the salt-pools after heavy rains" (Siebold & Kolliker's Zeit- schrift, 1872, p. 293). Such facts as these show how desirable collections in very large numbers, at different seasons of the year and from dif- ferent localities, are for the proper study of these animals. Moreover, they are among the most important facts showing how new generic and specific forms, as well as a sexual re- production, arise in consequence of changes in the physical surroundings of animals. One of the most important contributions of the year to the theory of evolution are the results of Professor Hyatt's stud- ies on the Ammonites. He finds every where throughout the group two methods of development one by a slow accumu- lation of differences, according to the Darwinian theory ; the other by their quick or sudden production, according to the law of acceleration, as explained by Cope and himself. Pouchet has shown that in fishes which are known to change their color bv living on different bottoms, liQ,- longing to the genera Idyia and Plersobrachia, has been elaborated with great care and beauty of illustration by Mr. A. Agassiz. He gives a connected account of their history, cxlii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND from the earliest stages in the esrsc until all the features of the adult appear. While the mode of segmentation of the yolk is extraordinary, the embryo attains the adult form without any metamorphosis, the changes being very gradual. Mr. Agassiz's observations, with the preceding ones of Miil- ler, Gegenbaur, Kowalevsky, and Pol, give us a tolerably complete view of the mode of development of this order of jelly-fishes. Those Ctenoplwrce on our coast spawn late in the summer and fall. The young brood developed in the autumn comes to the surface again the following spring, near- ly full-grown, to lay their eggs late in the summer. The au- tumn brood most probably passes the whole winter in deep water, and it must take from six to eight months for the young to attain their maturity. The memoir closes with a vigorous and trenchant criticism of Haeckel's "Gastrula" the- ory, exposing its weak points. He regards the assumptions of Haeckel forming the basis of his Gastra?a theory as " whol- ly unsupported." It must " take its place by the side of other physio-philosophical systems;" and he denies that we have been " able to trace a mechanical cause for the genet- ic connection of the various branches of the animal kinsr- dom." Professor P. Martin Duncan, in a series of papers on the nervous system of the sea-anemone, substantiates the discov- ery made by Schneider and Rotteken of isolated nerve cells near the pigment cells at the base of the tentacles of the Actinia, supposed to be eyes. In connection with these nerves are certain round refractive cells (Haimean bodies), and other long cells, called the Rotteken bodies. The for- mer, he thinks, carry light more deeply into the tissues than the ordinary epithelial cells. This is also the case with the elongated Rotteken cells, and others similar to them, called bacilli. All these, he believes, with Schneider and Rotteken, when in combination, concentrate light. "When they are brought together in this primitive form of eye they concen- trate and convey light with greater power, so as to enable it to act more generally on the nervous system, probably not to enable the distinction of objects, but to cause the light to stimulate a rudimentary nervous system to act in a reflex manner on the muscular system, which is highly developed. A new order of Hydrozoa, called Thecomedusce, has been INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxliii discovered by Professor Allman, who has recently published a brief account of them. The animal, which was discovered in the south of France, is attached to a sponge, and perme- ates the spongy tissue. Although a hydrozoan, it is not a hydroul, and can not be referred to any of the existing orders of the hydrozoa. The chitinous tubes which permeate the sponge-tissue are united toward the base of the sponge, and constitute a composite colony of zooids. In many respects this new hydrozoan resembles the Campanularian zoophytes. The name of Stephanocy-phus mirabilis has been given by the Professor to this beautiful object. In no instance was this zoophyte unaccompanied by the sponge. Professor Allman has been studying the development of a hydroid, Myriothrela; while Kleinenberg, in an elaborate discussion of the anatomy and development of the common Hydra of fresh waters, makes it evident that this animal passes through no proper larval stage ; but passes from the condition in which it first becomes free to its adult state by continuous growth without any true metamorphosis. It seems that this animal, viz., Hydra viridis, contains grains of chlorophyl. Professor Allman, in commenting on the work of Kleinenberg, remarks that the germ -layers of the Hydroids are " similar in their origin from the primitive em- bryo layers to the equivalent tissues of the higher; for the nervo-muscular tissue of the Hydroida has its foundation in the ectoderm, which is equivalent to the united outer and middle germ-lamella, while the digestive surface is plainly formed by the cndoderm, or inner germ-lamella. Here, as in the higher animals, the origin of the generative system is still an open question ; and it is probable that it is not in ev- ery case derived from one and the same lamella, for while Kleinenberg is very certain of having traced it to the ecto- derm in Hydra, my own researches are in favor of its endo- dermal origin in other Hydroida." It will be seen from such studies as these that our leading naturalists are not concern- ing themselves with mere descriptions of new species and systematic works. Enough of this preliminary work has been accomplished to warrant more difficult and careful researches on the histology, anatomy, and embryology, as well as mor- phology of animals matters witli which, unfortunately, few naturalists are found in this country able to busv themselves. cxliv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND The Ophiurans have been further discussed by Mr. Lyman in the Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology. In the department of Mollusca, we have several papers on their embryology by German observers. In the Nieder- Icmdlsches Archiv fiir Zoologie, Vol. L, Part L, is a paper by Dr. Emil Selenka, the editor, on the " First Formation of the Embryo in Tergipes claviger" illustrated by a plate. In Part II., the same author has a paper on " The Primitive Layers of the Embryo in Purpura lapillus" also well illustrated. Both these papers belong to the newer embryology; that is to say, the author occupies himself with the exact following out of the origin and disposition of the cellular elements of the em- bryo. In his paper on Purpura, Dr. Selenka proposes to dis- tinguish two modes of formation of the blastoderm "epi- boly" and "emboly." The former is accompanied by the presence of a large food-yelk, and the egg is consequently meroblastic, or partially so. The first formative cells grow over the partially segmented or wholly nnsegmented colored yelk. In emboly, the egg is holoblastic, and a pushing in of the cells of the primitive blastosphere takes place. Dr. Salensky, of Kasan, has a paper, with several plates, on "The Development of the Prosobranchiata," in Siebold & Kolliker's ZeitscJirift, Part IV., for 1872, which has much in- teresting matter on the " Veliger" larval form of various genera, but does not deal with the histogenesis. "The Development of Gastropoda qpisthobranchiata" is the title of a paper by Dr. PaulLangerhaus in the same jour- nal, Part II., for 1873, in which some points in the early devel- opment of Acer a bullata, Doris, and JEolis peregrina, are short- ly treated from the point of view of the germ-layer theory. Mr. Lankester read a paper before the British Association " On the Genealogical Importance of the External Shell of Mollusca," in which he attempts to show the typical form of the immense variety of shells, and especially to homologize the pen of the cuttle-fishes with the shells of the lower Mol- lusca. In descriptive malacology, Mr. Dall presents a paper on the shells of Beh ring's Strait, and numerous exotic species are described in foreign journals. Mr. Conrad describes two new fossil shells from the Upper Amazon, at Iquitos, one hundred miles west of Pebas. They were collected by Pro- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. cxlv fessor Orton in his second journey across the Ancles and down the Amazon. They belong to fresh-water genera, and help to define the nature of the habitat of the group. They confirm the opinion of Mr. Conrad, previously expressed, that the deposit was a basin of fresh water, to which brackish water had access at times. The Hemisinus is a melania-like shell, which occurred crowded in the clay in such perfection that the species must have lived and died on the spot, and as the living shells of the genus inhabit the fresh-water rivers of South America, very far from salt water, they are as much fresh -water as are those of Melania. The Pebas clay is crowded with other fresh-water shells of the family of Me- laniidce. Professor Verrill skives an account of the oio- a ntic cuttle- fishes of Newfoundland, illustrating his remarks by some facts heretofore unknown regarding the smaller New En- gland forms. Meanwhile a gigantic cuttle-fish, measuring about fourteen feet long, has been captured in Japan. Dr. Stieda has published a memoir on the nervous system of the Cephalopods. The Ammonites have been studied by Professor Hyatt in an original way. He finds that the gaps between forms or species may be largely explained by the later mode of devel- opment if the necessary care is taken to study the earlier stages, which should show the close genetic connection of the distinct adult forms, and explain thereby the absence of the intermediate varieties. For example, by carefully ob- serving these principles it is possible to trace the entire fam- ily of Arietidce to one original variety of one species the smooth variety of Psiloceras 2)lcmorbis. He finds that a se- ries of species has, like an individual, a certain store of vital power, which enables it for certain periods, more or less pro- longed, to evolve new forms and new characteristics, but which in the end fails ; and in place of further progress in that direction we find an evolution of degraded forms, which compare exactly with the retrograde metamorphoses of the individual. M. Perez has published some researches on the mode of fe- cundation of the eggs in gasteropod mollusks, particularly the land-snails, while M. Dubrueil has finally completed his physiological studies on the genital apparatus of Helix. cxlvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND The embryology of the Ascidians has been studied by Pro- fessor Giard. He finds a curious assemblage of parasites on the compound Ascidians of the coast of France, and some interesting cases of mimicry. A shell-fish (Lamellaria) and a naked mollusk ( Go?iiodoris), a flat worm (Planaria), as well as a sponge, imitate these Ascidians so completely that the il- lusion is, he says, perfect. He also finds that certain com- pound Ascidians mimic simple ones. Drs. Metschnikoff and Nitsche have been publishing on the development of the Polyzoa; while Dr. Smitt, of Stockholm, has completed his account of the deep-sea forms dredged by Count Pou rt ales in the Floridan Channel. He finds that some species are cosmopolitan in range, while others have survived from the cretaceous period. The development of the Brachiopoda has been studied by Kowalevsky, and, independently of Professor Morse, he has arrived at quite similar results, both in matters of detail and general conclusions. He thinks, with Morse, that these ani- mals, heretofore classified with the Mollusca, are really allied to the Chsetopod worms. The singular fact is brought out in Claparede's remark- able posthumous work on worms that in several families (JSerpulidce, Ammocharidce, Aricidce, and Chmtopteridaz) the intestine is inclosed in a vascular sac, which acts as a dorsal vessel, there being no true heart. This reminds one of the Mollusca in which the intestine normally passes through the heart. The higher worms of the coast of New England have been enumerated, and many new and interesting forms described and figured by Professor Verrill, in his report on the in- vertebrates, published as an appendix to Professor Baird's United States Fish Commission Report. A singular fact in the structure of some of the higher worms (annelids) has been observed by Professor Moebius, who figures a species (Leipoceras uviferum) with external ovaries. Another worm has been said by Sars to carry its eggs in pouches resembling a swallow's nest along the hinder segments of the body. Other anomalous modes of carrying the eggs are noticed in the same paper. Dr. Willemoes - Suhm states his belief that the asexual Guinea-worm (Filaria medinensis) has possibly males of mi- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxlvil 11 ute size, as in an allied worm (Ichthgonema) studied by him; though he adds that, like Asearis nigronenosa, the Guinea- worm may be asexual, and related to another free- liviner, sexual generation of worms. The dog is sometimes infested in China and Japan by a long, slender worm allied to the Guinea-worm, and described by Dr. Leidy under the name of Fllaria immitis. In two eases lately reported in English journals the dogs died "after three days of great suffering," and it was found on examina- tion that the ventricles and auricles of the heart were com- pletely blocked up by the presence of a large number of these worms. Little has been known of those singular creatures called "hair-worms" beyond the fact that in their early tadpole- like stage they somehow get into the bodies of various kinds of insects, notably grasshoppers, within whose bodies they are found coiled up. M. Villot has published the first part of a monograph on the hair-worms. They are oviparous, laying numerous minute eggs agglutinated by an albumi- nous substance, and forming long white strings. The young are parasitic, and pass through a number of metamorphoses, and at different stages live in different animals, as, for example, in one stage encysted in the aquatic larvae of flies, and after- ward again in the mucous layer of the intestines of fishes. For twenty years a singular parasite of the oyster has been known in Europe under the name of Bucephalus ILd- meanus. A similar species has been found in the oyster at Charleston, South Carolina, by Professor Macrody. The spo- rocysts and cercaria-like young of the European worm have long been known, but M. Giard has found that these young are encysted in the Bclone vulgaris, a fish found on the French coast. He supposes that the encysted worm finally passes into another fish (Gasterostomum), which serves as food for the former larger fish. A very interesting and popular article on parasitic worms, by Professor P. J. van Beneden, appears in La Revue Scie?i- tifique. A paper of value on the Turbellaria is published by Dr. Graff. A singular worm-like being (Peripatus), referred by most observers to a separate order of worms, has been studied alive, and in its early stages, by Mr. Moseley, of the Challenger cxlviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND expedition, while stopping in Australia. It seems that the young possess tracheae, which open out by a large number of pores in the side of the body, so that it belongs among the Tracheata, or insects. It differs radically again from them by having the two main nervous cords widely separated, so that, though it has been proved not to be a worm, it remains almost as much of a puzzle as ever. Moseley shows that it has affinities to the true six-footed insects and myriopods, or thousand legs. He also enters into. some speculations as to their ancestry. An addition of much value to our knowledge of the mode of growth of Crustacea is afforded by a Russian embryologist, Dr. Bobretzky. He figures the early stages of the pill-bug, or Oniscus murarius, of Europe. The mode of moulting of the lobster is for the first time described in the American Naturalist. It is thought after attaining its full size only to moult once a year, at some pe- riod between May and November. On November 8th one was observed to cast its skin. It drew its body out of a rent in the carapace, or shell covering the front division of the body. The shell splits from its hind edge as far as the base of the rostrum or beak, where it is too solid to separate. The body is drawn out of the anterior part of the carapace. It has been a question how the creature could draw its big claw out through the small basal joints. The claw soft, fleshy, and very watery is drawn out through the basal joint with- out any split in the old crust. In moulting, the stomach, with the cartilaginous masses and bands, is cast off with the old integument. The length of the animal observed before moulting was six and a half inches ; immediately after, seven and a quarter an increase of three quarters of an inch. Mr. S. J. Smith finds in the tube-building Amphipods cer- tain glands, not before known to exist, which secrete the ce- ment by means of which the tubes or homes of these animals are built. An extended and beautifully illustrated memoir, by Weis- mann, on the structure of Leptoclora hyalina, a little Euro- pean Entomostracan, or water-flea, has just appeared. A translation of a summary of his previously published essay on the metamorphosis of the flies has been published in the A merican Naturalist. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxlix Interesting new Crustacea have been dredged by the Chal- lenger party, including a blind, deep-sea Astacus-like form, and a Tanais, also blind, together with a new Nebalia from the Bermudas. Mr. Harder describes a new crustacean from Lake Superior under the name of Asellopsis, differing in some important characters from the common fresh-water " sow- bug," Asellus. A number of new Phyllopod Crustacea have been described by Dr. Packard in the Sixth Report of the Peabody Academy of Science ; and he gives a synopsis of the American forms in the Annual Report of Hayden on the Geology of the Territories, with remarks on their singular habits and distribution. The fossil Crustacea of Bohemia have been further discussed by Barrande in a new volume of his Paleontology. A number of remarkable trilobites, and other ancient Crustacea allied to the modern Nebalia, are de- scribed and figured. The mass of published matter on the Insects, or Tracheatn, is enormous, especially the systematic works and shorter papers. Perhaps the most important paper relating to the physiology of insects is one by Plateau on the phenomena of digestion, the result of a great number of dissections and experiments. He finds that when the salivary glands are not diverted from their primitive function to become silk or poison glands they secrete a neutral or alkaline liquid, pos- sessing, at least as regards one pair, the property character- istic of the saliva of vertebrate animals of rapidly transform- ing starch matters into soluble and assimilable glycose. The change is effected in a posterior dilatation of the oesophagus. At this place results, in the carnivorous insects, a transfor- mation of albuminoid matters into soluble substances like peptone ; and in vegetable-feeding species an abundant pro- duction of sugar out of the starchy matters eaten. When digestion has taken place in the oesophagus, it is submitted to an energetic pressure in the gizzard, or proventriculus, which is armed with teeth. It thus seems that this is not an apparatus for crushing the food, but for expressing the liquid from the food triturated by the jaws. In the stomach, or middle intestine, as Plateau calls it, the food is again sub- mitted to the action of an alkaline or neutral liquid, secreted by local glands, present in the Orthoptera, or by a great number of small glandular ccecua, as in many beetles, or by 7* cl GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND a simple lining of epithelial cells. This fluid has no anal- ogy with the gastric fluid of vertebrate animals. Its func- tion differs according to the group to which the insect be- longs. In the carnivorous beetles it makes an emulsion of the greasy matters ; in the Hydrophilid beetles it continues the conversion of starch into glycose, begun in the oesopha- gus. In the caterpillars of the butterflies and moths it de- termines a production of glycose, and makes an emulsion of greasy matters ; and in the grasshoppers no sugar is formed in the intestine, as this material is produced and absorbed in the (Esophagus (jabot). The intestine proper is only a fcecal reservoir. The urinary or Malpighian tubes sometimes se- crete calculi. No bile has been found in the secretions of these tubes. A point of great importance is touched upon by the author, namely, the passage of the chyle from the stomach to the blood. It is well known that there are in Articulates no lacteals as in Vertebrates to effect this process. Plateau states that the products of digestion pass through the walls of the digestive canal by an osmotic action, and di- rectly mingle with the blood. At the last meeting of the American National Academy of Sciences, Professor A.M. Mayer exhibited an experimental confirmation of the theorem of Fourier, as applied by him in his propositions relating to the nature of a simple sound, and to the analysis by the ear of a composite sound into its elementary pendulum-vibrations; and showed experiments elucidating the hypothesis of audition of Helmholtz. Plac- ing a male mosquito under the microscope, and sounding various notes of tuning-forks in the rano;e of a sound given by a female mosquito, the various fibres of the antennae of the male mosquito vibrated sympathetically to these sounds. The longest fibres vibrated sympathetically to the grave notes, and the short fibres vibrated sympathetically to the higher notes. The fact that the nocturnal insects have high- ly organized antenna?, while the diurnal ones have not, and also the fact that the anatomy of these parts of insects shows a well developed nervous organization, lead to the highly probable inference that Professor Mayer has here given facts which form the first sure basis of reasoning in reference to the nature of the auditory apparatus of insects. The external breathing apparatus of aquatic insects, called INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. c li tracheal gills, have hitherto been known to exist in the adult, winged state of but one genus of insects (Pteronarcys). Dr. Gerstaecker now finds that an European Nemoura and a Siberian and Chilian genus of stone-flies also possess them. For about a month during the last part of April and early in May last Dr. Packard was engaged in exploring the caves of Kentucky under the auspices of the Geological Survey of that state, Professor Slialer director. He first examined the Mammoth Cave, and doubled the number of animals known to exist therein, and in others adjoining. An exploration with Professor Slialer of the Carter Caves in Gravson Conn- mi ty, Kentucky, also revealed a rich fauna composed of twen- ty species. Dr. Packard also examined Wyandotte Cave alone, and found a wingless Psocus and two species of Thy- sanura, new to the cave. Several caves within sixteen miles of New Albany, Indiana, at Bradford, were examined in company witli Dr. Sloan. Finally, a careful examination of Weyer's Cave, in Virginia, and the adjoining Cave of the Fountains, revealed a fauna containing some twenty species, no life having been previously reported from those caves. The most important discoveries were the larvae of the blind beetles, Adelops and Anopthalmus, and a new species of Jtirpyx, a genus not before detected in the United States. The results show a great uniformity in the distribution of life, more than would at first be expected, though these caves lie in a faunal region nearly identical as regards the external world ; and the temperature of the caves is very constant. Still some notable differences occurred. The phosphorescent organs of Elcder noctilucus have been investigated recently by MM. Robin and Laboulbene, who state (Comjrtes Renclus, Vol. LXXVII.,No. 8) that the light first appears in the centre, then spreads throughout. A yel- low linear zone of adipose tissue at the exterior, at length becoming luminous, is yet not photogenic ; it only reflects the light produced by the central part. But it does so not only from its internal face, but throughout its thickness, the action being favored by the transparency and high refringent power of the fatty globules. The phenomena of dispersion and interference thus produced are the cause of the remark- able brilliancy appearing when the light from the centre reaches as far as this zone. As to the changes of molecular clii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND state in the tissue proper of the organ, the authors think the phosphorescent tissue produces a substance which slowly ac- cumulates in the cells independently of all nervous influence, and of the same order with other secretions ; and that only the act by which it is discharged is voluntary. The prin- ciple rendering the cells luminous behaved like the noctilu- cine extracted by Phipson. The abundance of urates in the cells makes it probable that uric acid results from the photo- spheric decomposition of the preceding coagulable compound. The large number of trachese in the apparatus is doubtless connected with the consumption of oxygen accompanying the phenomena. The relation of insects to plants lias been fully discussed by Hermann Mailer, Professor Gray, Dr. Hooker, Sir John Lub- bock, Dr. Mellichamp, Mr. Riley, and others, in various jour- nals and newspapers, showing the great popular interest taken in the subject. The application of entomology to agriculture is in the United States a matter of so much practical importance that several of the states (New York, Missouri, and Illinois) have salaried entomologists, whose reports are of great value. Particularly that of Mr. Riley, which is replete with new facts regarding the habits of injurious insects. It contains a long and condensed article on the Phylloxera of the vine, which will be of especial value to grape-raisers. Meanwhile every pains is being taken in France to find out means of preventing the attacks of this formidable pest, which has hitherto baffled every attempt to reduce its numbers. Dr. Lebaron's report on the insects of Illinois is taken up with an account of the beetles, and will be the means of creating much interest in the study of insects. The grasshopper of the West has done incalculable damage in Minnesota and parts of Kansas and Nebraska ; and it is to be hoped that our en- tomologists will, from a study of its habits, be able to devise some way of meeting its attacks with fair success. The army worm of the South has been studied in Alabama by Mr. Grote. He attempts to show that the insect hybernates as a moth, and that it dies out in the central and northern portions of the cotton belt every year, being replaced the succeeding year by immigration from more southern local- ities, and where the cotton plant is perennial. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cliii The habits of the white ants have been studied by Fritz Miiller in Brazil. Besides the winged males and females, which are produced in vast numbers, there are wingless males and females which never leave the nest, and which re- place the winged males or females whenever a community does not find in due time a true king or queen. Besides this, in some species there are two sets of workers, i. e., la- borers and soldiers, as stated by Smeathman, so that we have six kinds of individuals in a species. A fossil Cicada has been found in the Miocene tertiary for- mation of Europe by M. Saporta. It is the first fossil species found, and belongs to a ^enus now confined to Southern Africa. Sir John Lubbock questions the truth of the theory that insects have a language, and concludes that they do not communicate their discoveries to each other. He states that, as far as his experience goes, bees which have stung and lost their stings always die. They are much affected by light. "One evening," he remarks, "I lighted a small covered lamp to go down to the cellar. A bee which was out came to it, and, flying round and round like a moth, followed me the whole of the way there." It is clear, he states, that bees can distinguish colors. He found that bees would never take any notice of the many different noises he made to attract their attention. The temper of bees is very variable, gener- ally not irritable ; at other times they stung him several times a day, and " seemed the more prone to do so the hotter the weather." Wasps are as busy as bees. They are as insen- sible to sounds as bees. The most important embryological paper of the year on insects is one, beautifully illustrated, by Metsclmikoff, on the development of the thousand-leg Myriopods. He finds a close resemblance in their development to that of the Podura. The egg undergoes total segmentation. We had previously no observations of any value on the growth in the egg of this sub-class of insects. The Myriopods of Mexico have been described by De Saussure and Humbert. The first volume of an elaborate and very useful work on the spiders of France, by M.Simon, with some excellent plates, will interest American students of these neglected animals. Some interesting notes on the habits of web-building spiders have been given out by Professor Wilder. cliv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Among insects, the most important systematic work per- haps that has appeared during the year is an essay on the classification of the weevils (lihyncliophorci) by Dr. Leconte, published in the American Naturalist. He regards this ex- tensive group of Coleoptera, usually mentioned as a sin- gle family, as susceptible of division into three series, each divisible again into a number of families. A good many new moths, Neuroptera, and other insects, have been described in this country, and European journals and transactions teem with diagnoses of new forms of all orders. Coming now to the Vertebrates, we have a paper, of which an abstract has been published by Mr. Balfour, on the em- bryology of sharks. He makes the statement that the nerv- ous system is developed from the inner germ-layer, instead of the outer, as in all other vertebrates so far as known. This discovery will throw further doubt on the value of Haeckel's " Gastrcea" theory. According to Professor Semper, the embryos of the rays and sharks have segmentary organs like those of the anne- lides. Vo2;t regards this fact as a further indication of a re- lationship between the vertebrates and invertebrates. The genus Ceratodus, which was formerly supposed to have become extinct at the close of the Triassic period, but which was a few years ago, to the astonishment of all naturalists, found to be represented by living allies in Australia, lias lately had a new addition (C. JPalmeri) made to it from the alluvial deposits of Queensland. The species is larger than its living relations. This discovery goes a short (and very short) way toward filling up the great chronological gap which intervenes between the extinct European species and the living Australian ones. Dr. Giinther has recently examined a considerable collec- tion of the remains of tortoises found in the islands of Mau- ritius and Rodriguez, associated with the bones of the dodo and solitaire, and has arrived at the following conclusions : 1. These remains clearly indicate the former existence of several species of gigantic land-tortoises, the Rodriguez spe- cies differing more markedly from those of the Mauritius than these latter among themselves. All these species ap- pear to have become extinct in modern times. 2. These extinct tortoises of the Mascarenes are distin- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. civ guished by a flat cranium, truncated beak, and a broad bridge between the foramina obturatoria. 3. All the other examples of gigantic tortoises preserved in our museums, and said to have been brought from the Mascarenes, and likewise the single species which is known still to survive, in a wild state, in the small island of Alda- bra, have a convex cranium, truncated beak, and a narrow bridge between the obturator foramina; and therefore are specifically, if not generically, distinct from the extinct ones. 4. On the other hand, there exists the greatest affinity be- tween these contemporaries of the dodo and solitaire and the tortoise still inhabiting the Galapagos archipelago. These unexpected results induced the author to subject to a detailed examination all the available material of the gi- gantic tortoises from the Mascarenes and Galapagos which are still living, or were believed to be living, and are com- monly called Testudo indiea and Testudo elephantopus, and to collect all the historical evidence referring to them. Thus in the first (introductory) part of the paper a selection from the accounts of travelers is given, by which it is clearly shown that the presence of these tortoises at two so distant stations as the Galapagos and Mascarenes can not be ac- counted for by the agency of man, at least not in historical times, and therefore that these animals must be regarded as indigenous. A finely illustrated work on the Cetaceans and Pinnipeds of the Pacific Ocean has been published by Captain Scammon, which gives many interesting and original statements re- garding their habits. Professor Marsh lias presented an interesting contribution to natural history in a paper upon the genesis of the horse, as based upon his own observations in the Rocky Mountains. He finds the sequence unbroken through six or eight forms, and in succeeding geological ages from the Eocene Orohippus down to the JZquus of the modern epoch. The birds have continued to enGrao'e the attention of natu- ralists. A good many specimens have been collected by our Western expeditions. Dr. Yarrow has published a list of those obtained by himself and Mr. Henshaw on Wheeler's expedi- tion in Utah and Nevada. The most notable ornithological publication of the year is Messrs. Baird, Brewer, & Kidgway's clvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND "History of North American Birds," as no such comprehen- sive work has appeared since the publication of Audubon's "Birds of America." A number of short papers on the dis- tribution and habits of North American birds, by Dr. Coues, Messrs. Ridgway, Brewer, Henshaw, Allen, and Lawrence, have appeared in various journals, etc. The English Ibis and Cabanis's German journal of ornithology are filled with new matter relating to this department, and shows that the very general interest taken in birds is unabated. Professor Peters finds new coincidences between the de- velopment of the Coecilice and other Batrachians. He states that these creatures possess neither amnion nor allantois, that they are, at least in part, viviparous, and that at a cer- tain period of the year they are aquatic. That the common striped snake (Eutamia) and allied genera are viviparous had been well known, but Professor Cope has discovered that the snakes of the genus Storeria also bring forth their young alive. He also describes a fossil lizard from the Miocene formation of Colorado. He calls it Pelto- saurus, and says that it is a member of a family of lizards still existing in Mexico and California. He also describes a number of Batrachians and Nematognatld brought from the Upper Amazon by Professor Orton. The Cuban crocodile, already known as an inhabitant of Eastern Florida, has now been found in Western Florida by Mr. Maynard. A recent list by Dr. Gundlach of the Mammals of Cuba invites renewed attention to the remarkable paucity of spe- cies in that island. Of twenty-four kinds enumerated, nine- teen are bats, the remainder being made up of one Solenodon (an insectivorous mammal), three species of Gapvomys (por- cupine-like rodents), and one manatee. Mr. E. R. Lankester, in referring to what has been called the recapitulation hypothesis, and applying this to the hu- man race, remarks that the earliest commencement of a human being was a small speck of protoplasm of mucus-like consistency, such as existed in ponds. A later stage exhib- ited him as a small sac, composed of two layers of living corpuscles, which he inherited from polyp -like ancestors, and was to-day seen in polyps. Still later he was an elon- gated creature, with slits in the side of the neck, which, like the gill-slits of a shark, he inherited from a shark-like ances- INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clvii tor. Six months after birth the child continued to inherit qualities from its ancestors, viz., from those which crawled on four legs ; and at a later period certain irrepressible tend- encies made it clear that qualities were inherited from climb- ing and shrieking animals. Perhaps the most interesting form of mammals discovered recently is a peculiar rodent of the Hystricoid type, most re- sembling in external characters the common paca (Ccelogenys paca), but differing so much in osteological characters from all other forms that it has been isolated by its describer (Professor W.Peters) as a distinct family : it has been named Deinomys branchii. The squirrels of North America have been undergoing re- vision by Mr. J. A. Allen. Professor Baird, in a monograph of the group published in 1857, reduced the number of species of the genus Sciurus alone from twenty-four the number recognized by Audubon and Bachman in 1854 to ten well- established species and two doubtful ones. Now Mr. Allen finds so much variation in the group as to be obliged to re- duce the specific forms to five, "recognizing, however, seven geographical varieties in addition, making the whole number of recognized forms twelve." Mr. Tomes's studies of the development of the teeth in the armadilloes have verified the inference, based on other evi- dences, that they, in common with the other edentates, have descended from a diphyodent type of mammals, in which the teeth were invested in enamel, inasmuch as in the earliest stages of their dentition differentiation is manifested by the formation of an "enamel organ" as in typical mammals, and behind these primitive teeth rudimentary sacs are found, which are evidently homologous with the germs of the sec- ond or permanent series of teeth. Professor Gill has elucidated some interesting features af- fecting the relations of North American mammals in regard to each other, as well as to foreign forms. In studying the various species of deer, he has found that the common small American species exhibit many differences in contrast with the characters developed in the American elk and the En- glish red-deer; these are furnished not only by the antlers, but also in details of the skull, as well as the development of the feet ; the differences seen in the last are so curious as civ in GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND to deserve notice here. As somewhat previously indicated by Sir Victor Brooke, in the common Virginian and black- tailed deers and their allies, the lateral metacarpal bones are atrophied at their proximal extremities and are well devel- oped at their distal ; on the other hand, in the so-called elk and the red-deer of Europe, the corresponding parts are de- veloped at their proximal extremities and atrophied at their distal. In these characters the smaller deer agree with the reindeer and the moose. The large deer are now alone re- tained in the genus Cervus; for the small ones, Cariacus of Gray is used. It is doubtless known to most of our readers that two kinds of foxes are found in North America the red foxes (including the varieties and sports from that form) and the gray foxes. All of these have hitherto generally been com- bined under a single genus, Vulpes, but Professor Baird long ago distinguished in this genus two groups for the recep- tion of these several forms, retaining the name Vtdpes for the red foxes, and proposing the name Urocyon for the gray ones. Professor Gill has lately found that these forms are, however, but distantly related, and considers that the gray foxes are allied to Nyctereutes. and some other forms, and more remotely to the singular African genus Jlegcdotis, while the red foxes are very nearly related to the dogs and wolves. He therefore combines the red foxes and wolf-like forms in one group, contrasted with the gray foxes. Among other publications on the mammals may be enu- merated the Milne-Edwards' "Recherches sur les Marami- feres," now completed ; and various articles by Sir Victor Brooke, W. Busk, J. E. Gray, Sinhoe, etc. BOTANY. Botanical progress in America shows the completion of no work of very marked importance. Dr. Asa Gray has con- tinued his "Contributions" in the Proceedings of the Amer- ican Academy, consisting of notes upon various genera of Composites, including especially a revision of the genus Cni- cus and followed by a review of the orders Borraginacem and Solanacece. The American Chenopodiacece .have also been revised by Sereno Watson in the same Proceedings. Dr. John Torrey's report, prepared long before his death, INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clix upon the collections made on the western coast by the Wilkes Exploring Expedition has at length been published by the United States Government, under the editorship of Dr. Gray. It forms a large quarto volume, and is illustrated by a number of finely engraved folio plates. A Flora of Colorado has been published in connection with Professor Hayden's reports, prepared by Professor T. C. Por- ter and Dr. J. M. Coulter. Notes by Dr. C. C. Parry upon the botany of Western Wyoming, with descriptions of new species, the result of his collections the previous year in that region, and by Dr. J. G. Cooper upon the botany of the Cuy- amaca mountains in Southern California, have appeared in the "American Naturalist," with articles by Dr. F. Brent- nel on the distribution of oaks and the origin of the vegeta- tion of Florida. Catalogues of Lieutenant Wheeler's collec- tions, made in 1871-73 in Southern Nevada and eastward to Colorado, add somewhat to the knowledge of the plants ~ that section. A catalogue of the plants of New Jersey has also been published by O. R. Willis, with notes upon many of the species. In Europe, among the English botanists, Dr. J. D. Hooker has finished the second part of the Flora of British India, in which he was assisted by Edgeworth, Masters, Dyer, and oth- ers, and which continues the polypetalous orders through the Geraniacece. J. G. Baker has made revisions of the Tidipew, including the numerous American species of Calochortus, Fritittaria.) Liliwn, etc., and of the Asiatic species of the genus Allium, while the fungi of Ceylon have been elab- orated by Berkeley and Broome. The collections made on the Challenger expedition by Mr. Moseley at various islands in the Atlantic Ocean, from the Bermudas to Kerguelen Land, have been carefully worked up, and the results have ap- peared in the Journal of the Linncean Society. In France, M. Baillon has continued his "Monographies" by one upon the genera of the Saxifrar/acece, in which he includes the Platanece / Franchet and Savatier have begun an enumera- tion of the plants of Japan, assisted by Maximowicz of St. Petersburg; and M. Planchon has made a study of the vine and its enemy, the Phylloxera, visiting the United States for the purpose. An interesting essay by Alphonse de Candolle proposes the division of the vegetable kingdom into certain clx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND physiological groups, which he supposes to have been de- termined by secular changes of temperature in the earth's climate. A Flora of Norway has appeared from the hands of Axel Blytt, of Stockholm ; and that of Spain, commenced some years ago, has been continued by Willkom and Lange. In Germany, the few systematic botanists have shown their usual diligence. The elaboration of the Eapliorbiacem of Brazil has been completed for Martius's "Flora" by J. Miil- ler, to which also the Polygalacece have been contributed by A. AY. Bennett. The Pomarece have been revised by Dr. Wenzig in the "Linnsea," and the Gyperacem of the Berlin Herbarium by BOckeler; while in the "Flora" Wawra has continued his Flora of the Hawaiian Islands. Of the Russian botanists, Maximowicz has published additional contributions to the flora of Japan and Eastern Asia, making frequent ref- erence to the allied American species ; the Oriental Labiatm have been worked up by Bunge ; and the genus Vitis has been again the subject of a monograph by Dr. Regel. Much attention has been given during the year to the in- vestigation of those plants which are known as insectivorous, and much light has been thrown upon the whole subject. Mr. Darwin and Dr. Hooker, in England, have paid especial attention to the sundews and Asiatic pitcher-plants (species of Drosera and Nepenthes) ; and in this country the Sarra- cenias have been studied by Dr. Mellichamp, the Diona3a by Mrs. Mary Treat, and the Darlingtonia and Droseras by Mr. TV. M. Canby. It seems clearly established that these va- rious plants are in their different ways constructed expressly for the entrapping of insects, and that the prey passes through a process of digestion and absorption, apparently for the sole purpose of the nourishment of the plant. Work in anatomical and physiological botany has been confined chiefly to the botanists of Germany and France, though two important papers have been published in Amer- ica. One of these is by Dr. W. G.Farlow upon the occurrence in some ferns of an asexual growth from the prothallus, the plant being reproduced from the spore without the forma- tion of the ordinary sexual organs. Dr. Gray notes that this should probably be considered a case of parthenogenesis, going to prove, if the facts hold good, in connection with a INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. clxi few analogous cases in phaBnogamous plants, that sexual fertilization, however necessary, is not absolutely necessary in every generation of plants. The second article is upon the circulation of sap in trees, by W. S. Clark, President of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, showing the results of numerous and Ions-continued observations made at that institution upon the bleeding of trees, the character of the sap, and the amount of pressure exerted at different heights in the trunk and at different seasons, and also in the roots. Most notable among foreign publications is the French trans- lation, by Van Tieghem, of Sach's great work upon " Vegeta- ble Physiology and Anatomy," made from the third and latest edition, and largely annotated, thus embracing all recent dis- coveries, as well as expressing directly the views of the two highest authorities in this department. Chatin has contrib- uted to the "Annales des Sciences" an important article upon the development of the ovule and seed in several of the monopetalous orders, while the structure of the seeds in the Rafflesiacem and Hydnoracece has been investigated by Count Solms-Laubach (in the "Botanische Zeitung"), confirming the conclusions of Robert Brown respecting the affinities of the first order, but leaving those of the latter still uncertain. The comparative anatomy of the Gnetacece and Coniferoe has been treated by Bertrand in the " Annales," and the struct- ure of the cell-wall in Pinus sylvestris by Dr. Karl Sanio in an extended paper in Pringsheim's " Jahrbiicher," whose con- clusions are criticised and to some extent controverted by Dippel in the " Flora." Fleischer, in the same journal, in a comparison of the embryo of monocotyledonous and of dico- tyledonous plants, shows that the distinct character of the two forms exists from almost the earliest cell-formation. The relations and properties of chlorophyl have been the subject of papers by Chautard and Prillieux in " Comptes Rendus," and by Wiesner, Krause, and others. The circula- tion of gases and respiration in plants has been studied witli interesting results by Barthelemy, and by Deherain and Mois- sau, while Haeckel has investigated the phenomena of plant- irritability in certain cases, and by the aid of antesthetics has been enabled to demonstrate in what way motion is produced. Collections in the field in our Western Territories have clxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND been continued tinder the several government expeditions by Dr. Roth rock, in Arizona ; by Coues, on the northern boundary; by Dall, in the Aleutian Islands; and by others. The only collection as yet critically examined is a private one made by Dr. C. C. Parry in Southern Utah, containing much of interest, as well as several new species. A list of all the new North American species published during the year, a hundred in number, is here added. List of newly discovered species of North American plants described in 1874, excepting the lower cryptogams: Clematis Scottii. Porter, Flora of Colorado, p. 1. Aquilegia Jonesii. Parry, Amer. Naturalist, p. 211. Ranunculus oxynotas. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 68. Ranunculus Lemmoni. Gray, same, p. 68. Dendromccon Ilarfordii. Kellogg, Proc. Califor. Acad., vol. v., p. 104. Corydalis Caseana. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 69. Draba ventosa. Gray, Amer. Naturalist, p. 212. Stanley a tomentosa. Parry, same, p. 112. Stapliylea Rolanderi. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 69. Astragalus Pulsiferi. Gray, same, p. 69. Astragalus Grayi. Parry, Amer. Naturalist, p. 212. Astragalus ventorum. Gray, same, p. 212. Astragalus Parryi. Gray, same, p. 212. Astragalus Brandegei. Porter, Flora of Colorado, p. 24. Astragalus scopulorum. Porter, same, p. 24. Ivesia Webber L Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 71. Rosa Arkansana. Porter, Flora of Colorado, p. 38. Rlbes Wolfii. Rothrock, Amer. Naturalist, p. 358. Mentzelia Torreyi. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 72. Petalonyx Parryi. Gray, same, p. 72. Tovmsendia Parryi. Eaton", Amer. Naturalist, p. 212. Townsendia condensata. Eatox, same, p. 213. Erigeron glandulosum. Porter, Flora of Colorado, p. 60. Erigeron Goulteri. Porter, same, p. 61. Antennaria microcephala. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 74. Thelesperma subnudum. Gray, same, p. 72. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. c l x m Chcenactis attenuata. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 73. Schkuhria integrifolia. Gray, Amer. Naturalist, p. 213. Disoclia Cooperi. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. ix., p. 201. Helenium amphibolum. Gray, same, p. 202. Helenium ooclinium. Gray, same, p. 202. Helenium laciniatum. Gray, same, p. 203. Helenium Curtisii. Gray, same, p. 20-1. Gaillardia acaulis. Gray, same, vol. x., p. 73. Senecio Greenei. Gray, same, p. 75. Cnicus quercetorum. Gray, same, p. 40. Cnicus Breweri. Gray, same, p. 43. Cnicus Arizonicus. Gray, same, p. 44. Cnicus Andersonii. Gray, same, p. 44. Cnicus Andreiosii. Gray, same, p. 45. Cnicus Parryi. Gray, same, p. 47. Microseris troximoides. GRxiY, same, vol. ix., p. 211. Gbjptopleura setulosa. Gray, same, p. 211. 3Ialacothrix Torreyi. Gray, same, p. 213. Malacothrix Xanti. Gray, same, p. 213. Malacothrix platyphylla. Gray, same, p. 214. Lygodesmia rostrata. Gray, same, p. 217. Senecio renifolius. Porter, Flora of Colorado, p. 83. Arnica Parryi. Gray, Amer. Naturalist, p. 213. Phelipcea lutea. Parry, same, p. 214. Orthocarpus Parryi. Gray, same, p. 214. Collinsia Greenei. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 75. Audibertia Clevelandii. Gray, same, p. 76. Saracha nana. Gray, same, p. 62. Physalis Wrightii. Gray, same, p. 63. Physalis hedercefolia. Gray, same, p. 65. Physalis Fendleri. Gray, same, p. 66. Cynoglossum occidentale. Gray, same, p. 58. Lithospermum Calif ornicum. Gray, same, p. 51. Amsinclcia echinata. Gray, same, p. 54. Amsinckia tessellata. Gray, same, p. 54. Eritrichium Torreyi. Gray, same, p. 58. Eritrichium oxycaryum. Gray, same, p. 58. Eritrichium fulvocanescens. Gray, same, p. 61. Giliafiliformis. Gray, same, p. 75. Gomphocarpus purpurascens. Gray, same, p. 76. clxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Suceda diffusa. Watson, same, vol. ix., p. 88. Suceda Torreyana. Watson, Proc. Amer. Acad., p. 88. Suwda suffrutescens. Watson, same, p. 88. /Suceda Calif ornica. Watson, same, p. 89. Kochia Americana. Watson, same, p. 93. Chenopodium olidum. Watson, same, p. 95. Plitum Calif omicum. Watson, same, p. 101. Atriplex spicata. Watson, same, p. 108. Atriplex AlasJcensis. Watson, same, p. 108. Atriplex monilifera. Watson, same, p. 111. Atriplex saccaria. Watson, same, p. 112. Atriplex Wolfii. Watson, same, p. 112. Atriplex Wrightii. Watson, same, p. 1 1 3. Atriplex Texana. Watson, same, p. 113. Atriplex coronata. Watson, same, p. 114. Atriplex Powellii. Watson, same, p. 114. Atriplex expansa. Watson, same, p. 116. Atriplex Greggii. Watson, same, p. 118. Atriplex oppositifolia. Watson, same, p. 1 1 8. Atriplex Breweri. Watson, same, p. 119. Eriogonum spathulatiim. Gray, same, vol. x., p. 76. Eriogonum Parry i. Gray, same, p. 77. Salix laevigata. Bebb, Amer. Naturalist, p. 202. Calochortus JBenthamii. Baker, Jour. Linn. Soc., vol. xiv., p. 304. Calochortus apiculatus. Baker, same, p. 305. Calochortus Lyallii. Baker, same, p. 305. Scirpus 'Wolfii. Gray, Proc. Amer. Acad., vol. x., p. 77. Schpus ap>us. Gray, same, p. 78. Carex tenuirostris. Olney, Amer. Naturalist, p. 214. Vilfa minima. Vase y, Wheeler's Catalogue, p. 54. Poa Wheeleri. Vasey, same, p. 55. Festuca Thurbcri. Vasey, same, p. 56. Trisetum Wolfii. Vasey, same, p. 57. Isoetes Bolanderi. Engelmann, same, p. 214. Isoetes pygmaia. Engelmann, same, p. 214. Isoetes Nuttallii. A. Braun, same, p. 215. Campylopus Hallii. Lesquereux, same, p. 155. Campylopus frigidus. Lesquereux, same, p. 155. Miccia Frostii. Austin, Wheeler's Catalogue, p. 62. Hiccia Watsonii. Austin, same, p. 62. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxv AGRICULTURE. In agricultural science we have to report an encouraging amount of progress. As usual, the majority of the more important investigations come from the European, and par- ticularly from the German experiment stations, which are continually increasing in numbers, activity, and usefulness. In our own country, likewise, the past year has been marked by a number of very gratifying evidences of interest in this department of research. Among these may be mentioned the appearance of the Bulletin of the Bussey Institution, and a movement for the establishment of an experiment station in Connecticut. The Bussey Institution, intended by the will ot its founder for the advancement of agricultural science, and forming a branch of Harvard University, having at present no students, is devoting a considerable portion of its own resources, aided by donations from the Massachusetts Society for Promoting Agriculture, to experiments in agricultural chemistry. Un- der the direction of Professor Storer, a number of very ex- tended and useful investigations have been made, and are still in progress, on the composition of feeding materials and fertilizers, the effects of different fertilizers upon crops, and kindred topics. The institution thus amounts practically to an experiment station. At the meeting of the Connecticut Board of Agriculture in December, 1873, a movement toward the establishment of an experiment station in that state was initiated. After the matter had been canvassed in a number of farmers' meet- ings, held for the purpose in various parts of the state, a motion was brought before the Legislature providing funds for the establishment of a station. The bill was, unfortu- nately, deferred until the next Legislature. As the project has found hearty support among the intelligent farmers of the state, it is hoped that it may meet with success. At the Massachusetts Agricultural College, investigations have been made by President Clark upon the flow of sap in trees. In the laboratorv of the Scientific School at New m Haven, Professor Johnson and assistants are ens;ao;ed in some very interesting studies upon the nitrogen of soil. The chief workers in agricultural science in England are 8 clxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert, of Rothamstead, and Dr.Voelcker, chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society. At the estab- lishment of Messrs. Lawes & Gilbert, consisting of a labora- tory and experimental fields, some eight or ten persons are directly or indirectly engaged in experimental researches, the total expense of which, amounting to two thousand pounds (2000) per annum, is borne by Mr. Lawes. Some of the most elaborate investigations known in agricultural science have been performed here. Among these are experiments upon the nutritive value of different foods for cattle, and upon the effects of different manures upon different crops grown year after year upon the same land. A late report of a series of experiments upon the growth of barley for twenty years in succession upon the same land fills 197 pages of the Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society. In the laboratory of Dr.Voelcker, which occupies four stories of a bouse in Salisbury Square, London, some five or six as- sistants are employed, and as many as two hundred analyses of fodder materials, and nearly two thousand analyses of fertilizers, are made per annum. In the experiment station founded by Grandeau at Nancy, in France, considerable good work is being done. Of the labors of the other experiment stations reported as having been founded in France we hear but little. Accounts from Switzerland show that there are in that country, 1st, the so-called "Alpine Experiment Stations," four in number, commenced in 1863, for the purpose of making experiments with fertilizers ; 2d, a station for dairy economy, established in 1872, at Thun ; 3d, a station in process of es- tablishment in connection with the agricultural department of the Polytechnic School at Zurich ; 4th, the establishment for investigations in agricultural science, maintained by Mr. Risler on his estate of Calevres, near Nyon. The progressive spirit which prevails in Italy under the regime of Victor Emmanuel has effected, among other im- provements, the establishment of some twelve experiment stations. Of these, one is devoted to investigations on silk- culture ; another to wine-culture ; another to dairy economy; while the labors of others, instead of being specialized, are devoted to various branches of investigation? In January, 1873, a meeting of the directors of the stations INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxvii was held at Rome, in which reports were made and discus- sions held upon experiments on sugar-beet culture, and upon the growth of maize and wheat; the management of silk- worms; grape-culture and wine-making; and similar sub- jects. We have reports of the continued and successful ac- tivity of these stations, and of the establishment of others by private enterprise. The Austrian government, through its ministry of agricult- ure, has likewise caused the establishment of a number of experiment stations, and provided funds for their successful maintenance. It is in Germany, however, that by far the greatest amount of research in agricultural science is made. The first experi- ment station was established in Saxony about twenty-one years ago. There are now in the German Empire some forty, of which several have been established during the past year. In each one of these stations from one to six persons are en- gaged in the work of investigation. With these should be reckoned a number of laboratories, connected with agricult- ural schools, and devoted to work in agricultural chemis- try. An idea of the character of the later researches in ani- mal and vegetable chemistry and physiology may be gained from the transactions of the Section for Agricultural Chemis- try of the meeting of the German N~aturforscher unci Aerzte held at Wiesbaden last September, at which nearly forty per- sons, including the directors and chemists of a number of the stations, were present, and some of the more important labors of the stations were reported. Dr. Von Wolff described a number of series of experiments on the digestive capacity of swine for various fodder mate- rials, as barley, maize, beans, pease, cocoa-nut cakes, and even cock-chafers (Mdikaefer), which latter were found to be quite nutritious. The high digestive power of swine for carbo- hydrates was strikingly demonstrated. Experiments on the digestive capacity of sheep for hay and turnips were also reported. Dr. Fleischer gave accounts of new respiration experi- ments with sheep, performed at Weende, in continuation of a series which has been going on for some years at that sta- tion. Weiske and Weldt reported experiments showing that more hippuric acid was excreted by rabbits when led on clover than when fed on pure grass. clxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Dr. Mayer, of the University of Heidelberg, described ex- periments on the absorptive power of leaves from ammonia, from which it appeared that, contrary to the usual belief, leguminous plants have no special facility for absorbing com- bined atmospheric nitrogen. Dr. Von Wolff reported experiments on the effects of dif- ferent amounts of phosphoric acid on the development of oat plants grown in aqueous solutions. Besides the experiments here referred to, a large number of investigations upon the nutrition of animals and plants, and alliedsubjects, have been in progress in the German sta- tions during the past year. Among the most important of these researches are those upon the functions of the differ- ent ingredients of food in animal nutrition, which are carried on by means of the respiration apparatus. The sources of supply and the means of regulating the sale of commercial fertilizers are subjects of ever-increasing in- terest. Examinations of the deposits of Peruvian guano are calculated to relieve the fears of those who were antici- pating a speedy exhaustion of this article. The analyses of fertilizers, for the purpose of control of the trade in these articles, are becoming year by year more common, and their necessity better understood. In the ex- periment station at Halle, in Germany, the number of these analyses made annually has been increasing, until now it is over one thousand. In the laboratory of Professor Voelcker, of London, chemist of the Royal Agricultural Society of England, where analyses of fertilizers are made for members of the society and others, the amount of this work has grown to such a decree that five or six assistant chemists are em- ployed, who analyze about two thousand samples per year. Professor Goessman, of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege, has been appointed inspector of fertilizers for that state. His first report has appeared, and is a very valuable pam- phlet upon the sources of supply and quality of the more important fertilizing materials used in Massachusetts. The Report for the Connecticut Board of Agriculture for 1873 contains the report of Professor Johnson on the analyses of thirty-one fertilizers in common use in the state. A report by Professor White on the analyses of fertilizers sold in the State of Georgia is also worthy of mention. While the INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. c lxix analyses above referred to show an improvement in the qual- ity of the fertilizers over that of former years, they still con- firm the results of experience, as decisive as it is costly, in Europe and in the United States, that the only means for regulating the trade in commercial fertilizers, and prevent- ing immense frauds, is that the buyers know the quality of the goods they purchase, and that this cau be determined only by chemical analysis. FISHERIES. Under the head of Pisciculture and the Fisheries we have to record continued and satisfactory progress in the efforts made to increase the food supply for the United States and elsewhere, the combined action of several of the states and of the general government having produced most gratifying results. Owing to the late period at which the Congressional appropriation for the purpose was made, the hatching and dis- tribution of shad on the part of the United States could not be begun until the end of June, when, of course, the South- ern stations were unavailable for the purpose. Arrangements were made, however, with the Fish Commissioners of New York and Connecticut to furnish a supply of young shad from the Hudson and the Connecticut rivers, and the labor of transfer was continued until the middle of August. Sev- eral millions of young fish were successfully transferred to re- mote points, in one instance as far as Texas, while Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Ohio, Kentucky, Vermont, and Maine shared in the results. The fish are usually placed in the head- waters of the streams, where they remain for a certain period, and then pass down to the sea. On their return, the states bordering on the rivers along the entire line of their route have an equal chance to participate in the benefits of their introduction. As a return for the courtesy extended by the German government two years ago in presenting 250,000 salmon-eggs to the United States, the attempt was made to send a num- ber of young shad to that country. Messrs. Mather & An- derson, experienced fish-cultnrists, were placed in charge of 3 00,000 fish, and free passage and freight furnished by the North German Lloyds, on the steamer Rhine. Unfortunate- ly, the fish did not survive the eleventh day out, having clxx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND died, apparently for want of proper food, shortly before reach- ing Southampton, much to the disappointment of the people of Germany, who had hoped for better results. It is proba- ble, however, that the experiment will be renewed another season, and it is to be hoped with full success. The collecting of salmon at the United States establish- ments has also been very successful. In California, Mr. Liv- ingston Stone renewed his operations on the McCloud River, and obtained six millions of eggs, of which number one mill- ion were hatched and placed in the Sacramento River, and the rest were shipped to the East, where they were given in charge of the Fish Commissioners of many of the states for hatching out and distribution. This has been already done to a large extent, and will doubtless produce important re- sults. The distribution in this case was very much the same as in that of the shad. At the other establishment at Bucksport, on the Penobscot River, in charge of Mr. Charles G. Atkins, more than three millions of eggs were taken, which are now being developed to the proper stage for distribution. An experiment was made by the United States Fish Com- missioner, in connection with those of Massachusetts and Connecticut, to secure a supply of Land-locked Salmon, a superior species for certain localities. Owing to untoward circumstances, a less number than had been hoped for was obtained, although enough to allow a limited distribution. The American Grayling (Thymalhis tricolor} has been a subject of attention on the part of several specialists, by whom both fish and eggs have been brought from the Au- Sable River, in Michigan, where they are very abundant. Although this fish is of little economical value, it is one of great beauty, and has excellent game qualities, so that it is considered desirable to multiply it. Black Bass and other interior fish have also been distrib- uted by various State Commissioners, so as to greatly widen their present range. It is almost too early to judge of the results of the intro- duction of shad into new waters, although there is reason to believe that the experiment in California will be a success, full-grown fish having been taken during the last season. o o o The species is protected from capture for several years to INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxi come by legislative enactment. Similar indications of the occurrence of nearly full-grown shad in Lake Ontario have also been recorded. The experiment of transferring salmon to New Zealand and Tasmania has not been satisfactory heretofore, and it is proposed to renew it by means of spawn sent from England, as also from California. The success in introducing the Eu- ropean Trout and Yellow Perch has, however, been perfect, both these species being now taken by the ton in the waters of the countries first mentioned. The increasing interest in the general subject of fish- culture is shown by the number of states now provided with Fish Commissioners to look after this interest within their respective limits; and it is probable that during the present winter many of the remaining states will be pro- vided with such officers. When this is done, a mutual un- derstanding between the Commissioners of the states and the Commissioner of the United States will doubtless re- sult in the enactment of uniform laws that shall protect the interest of the community without being onerous upon those who engage in the business of capturing fish for the market. The sea fisheries of the country have been prosecuted on a very large scale, not the least important among which is that w T hich relates to the capture and utilization of the Men- haden or Mossbunker. An immense capital is now invested in this business, employing several hundred sailing-vessels and quite a number of steamers, and having manufactories all alonoj the coast for the conversion of the fish into oil and scrap. Many millions of gallons of oil were made in 1873, and the yield for 1874 will probably be much greater. A recent method of utilizing this fish consists in converting it into an article of food, which is sold in hermetically sealed cans, either. as put up in oil or in pickle. A single establish- ment at Port Monmouth, New Jersey, consumes two hun- dred bushels daily in the summer, in the manufacture of what is technically known as " Ocean Trout." Much apprehension has lately been aroused on the New England coast in view of the rapid decrease of the lobsters, both in number and size, resulting especially from the recent practice of canning ; and the combined action of the Do- clxxii GENERAL SUMMARY OE SCIENTIFIC AND minion and of Maine, New Hampshire, and Massachusetts has been invoked to regulate the traffic. The methods to be adopted will probably consist in the establishment of a period during which no lobsters shall be captured, and pro- hibiting the taking of female lobsters, or any males less than eleven inches in length, or weighing less than a pound or a pound and a half. Some idea may be gained of the magni- tude of this interest by the statement, if correct, that 20,000 tons of lobsters were canned in 1873 in the British Provinces alone. An elaborate article in the journal of the Scottish Mete- orological Society gives the result of inquiries into the re- lationship between meteorological conditions and the sea fisheries, especially those of the herring ; and enough is shown therein to indicate that this connection is closer than lias been appreciated, and that in all probability a careful observation of ocean temperatures will enable those interest- ed to understand and anticipate the now apparently capri- cious movements of the herring in their course to and from the shores. In connection with the fisheries of the country, we may perhaps not inappropriately include the interests connected with the capture of the fur-seals of the Pribylov Islands in Alaska. As is well known, these islands have been leased to the Alaska Commercial Company, under certain condi- tions; at first with the restriction of the number of captures to 75,000 in the Island of St. Paul, and 25,000 in the Island of St. George. Quite lately this has been changed so as to allow the taking of 90,000 from the former and 10,000 from the latter. The fur-seals continue to furnish a highly fash- ionable article of clothing, and consequently are still in great demand. A considerable business is also done in the manu- facture of oil, although the great quantity obtained from other sources has affected the price so greatly as to induce the Alaska Company to bestow comparatively little atten- tion to that branch of its business. The hair -seal fisheries of the Newfoundland seas were much less productive than in 1873 ; indeed, the Newfoundland government has become seriously alarmed at the sudden de- crease, and proposes to institute an inquiry into the cause. Several of the European nations interested in the subject are, INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxiii it is said, contemplating the formation of a treaty to regu- late the season, period, and amount of the hunt for these ani- mals. TECHNOLOGY. In connection with the technology of the preceding di- vision, we record the fact that an organized effort is about beinsr made to utilize the waste or slack coal for fuel, upon the process devised by Mr. Loiseau, whose invention was re- ferred to in our last yearly Record. The " Loiseau Pressed Fuel Company" has lately been formally organized, with a number of prominent coal operators in the management. The erection of the works is at present progressing at Port Richmond. The annual meeting of the British Iron and Steel Institute afforded, among other matters of value to the metallurgist, an admirable opportunity for a full discussion of the expe- rience gained in and the prospects of mechanical puddling. The gist of this discussion indicated that thus far, upon the scale on which it has been introduced, machine-puddling has met with but questionable success ; and American ex- perience will probably coincide with this opinion. In the most influential quarters, however, the sentiment is strongly expressed that the ultimate triumph of the system in some form is certain. The difficulties of the process are various, and reside in the cost of the plant, which is considerable; and in the fact that rolls of exceptionally large size and great power are required to manipulate the large blooms produced in the rotary furnace, any accident to which would be a serious matter. But the most obstinate difficulty that is encountered is the rapid destruction of the lining of the furnace by the large masses of metal thrown into it. To offset these disadvantages, its advocates advance the following points: It is possible to operate with much larger masses of metal, and to produce iron of far more uniform quality, than by the old method of puddling by hand, while the substitution of machinery relieves the laborer of the most exhausting manual work; involving the incidental ad- vantage that the manufacturer is placed in a position of in- dependence as regards skilled labor. The machine-puddling, again, it is claimed, can be performed more economically 8* clxxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND than hand-puddling a fact demonstrated by actual expe- rience here and abroad; and the quality of the product is such as to command a higher jnlce than that produced by hand from the same pig. On the whole, it would appear that every where the me- chanical system is gaining advocates, and it is fair to pre- sume that most of the difficulties that now surround the problem will be obviated with a few years more of practice. The plan lately invented by Mr. Crampton appears, incident- ally remarked, to be a decided improvement, and is now being largely introduced in England. Mr. Crampton employs coal-dust fuel in his rotary furnace, and has introduced other novel features, chief among which is his method of constructing the water-casing, the chamber beinsr lined with oxide of iron. The o-eneral results of Mr. Crampton's invention clearly demonstrate that, in the first place, slack or small coal can be utilized, and that coal-dust and air can be fed automatically a matter that has sorely tried many who have endeavored to eifect that object. We may be able in our next Annual Record to announce material progress in this field. The most interesting item connected with the metallurgy of Iron, originating on this side of the Atlantic, is the bring- ing out, at the spring meeting of the American Institute of Mining Engineers, of a new process for iron and steel making, by Thomas S. Blair, of Pittsburgh. The process in question produces malleable iron directly from the ore. Its essential feature consists in the production of an " iron sponge," which, according to the quality of product required, may be sub- sequently melted down in a bath of cast iron, the propor- tions being so chosen as to produce ingots of any desired degree of carburization. In the production of the metal from the ore, the temperature to which it is subjected is not raised so high as to melt the iron, and consequently the deoxidized iron retains the form of the ore introduced, but possesses a spongy texture, whence the name applied to it. This sponge presents so large a surface to the air, that if permitted to come in contact with it while hot, it readily oxidizes and returns to its original condition of sesquioxide. It is necessary therefore that it should cool before coining into contact with the air. The construction of a furnace in INDUSTKIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxv which these conditions shall be realized is an important feat- ure of Mr. Blair's invention. He obviates the difficulty, be- fore named, by increasing the height of the furnace, and placing the zone of reduction so high up that, by the time the iron sponge has reached the bottom in its natural descent by gravity, it is already sufficiently cold to prevent oxida- tion. To impart and maintain the necessary temperature, it was found necessary to heat the ore in thin strata. This was accomplished by constructing the furnace in the form of a cylinder three feet in diameter, in the top of which was suspended an inner cylinder, twenty-eight inches in diameter, and about six feet long. The material is charged only in the annulus, heat being applied both inside and outside. The word " puddling," of course, finds no place in this process. The experiments thus far made with it seem to have been confined to rich ores from Iron Mountain and Lake Superior, and the product requires no subsequent purification. The assertion is made, likewise, that "titanium gives no trouble in the direct process," which, if sustained by experience, will greatly add to the value of the invention, since many rich beds of titaniferous ore must remain unworked in ordinary blast-furnace practice that can thus be utilized. Where the ores used are impure, the product will require purifica- tion, and this the inventor claims to be able to accomplish in a gas-furnace of peculiar construction. The economy of the process, which is after all the test of its value, is claimed to be considerable. The process is being operated on a large scale at Pittsburgh, though with what result we are unable to state. The last year has witnessed also the invention and ex- perimental trial of another direct process, which, although details are meagre, seems to have excited an unusual amount of attention. In reference to this novelty, Iron uses the fol- lowing suggestive words : " It may have been thought by some that with the Bessemer-steel process we had seen the last startling innovation in the commercial manufacture of steel; but, according to the latest news from Vienne, we are, perhaps, on the threshold of another startling revolution." The invention which has called forth the foregoing com- ments is a process which claims to effect nothing less than the "direct" production of steel from the ore a problem clxxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND that has baffled the best metallurgical skill. The system is termed that of Ponsard (from the inventor), and resides in the direct treatment of the ores in a reverberatory gas-fur- nace of peculiar construction. Its essential features are a jxazo2;ene, which transforms the combustible into the gaseous state ; a large chamber of many compartments, in which the operations are conducted ; and an apparatus in brick called the "Recuperator," which absorbs the waste heat of the fur- nace, and gives it back in the form of hot air. The compart- ments of the working chamber serve successively for the re- duction of the ore, for the reactions that are to be effected, and finally for the fusion of all the materials, so that a sepa- ration by virtue of difference of densities is made possible. These several operations require for their performance very different temperatures, and the Ponsard furnace, by its pe- culiar construction, meets the requirements of the case. The first experimental run of steel upon the process here described was made on the 27th of September last, at the iron works of Les Verrieres (Vienne), and is declared to have been quite successful ; so much so as to warrant the an- nouncement that steel may be produced direct from the ore, without passing through the roundabout and complex proc- esses hitherto employed. The fluorine process of purifying iron, invented by Mr. James Henderson, was introduced into this country during the past year at the works of the New Jersey Steel and Iron Com- pany, Trenton ; and the firm of Tuckerman, Mulligan, & Co., of the Ulster Iron Works, Saugerties, New York, are about to introduce it into their works. We have no space to enter into details, that are probably already well known to most of our technical readers through the journals, but may add that in the preliminary trials of the process at Trenton the most in- ferior cinder pig-iron that could be procured was used to test its value, and the result was a bar-iron of very superior quality. Again, ordinary anthracite pig-iron was made into the finest quality of wrought iron, which was equal to that from the best brands of Swedish iron. These trials remove any doubts that may have existed hitherto in the minds of the practi- cal men who witnessed them, of the economical application of the process for the production of the higher grades of wrought iron. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxvii Much importance attaches to the results obtained abroad by M. Euverte, in the direction of solving the problem of the manufacture of steel from cast irons containing phos- phorus. At the last meeting of the Soclete cles Ingenieurs Civiis, the following points, in relation to the experimental work conducted under the direction of this gentleman at the Terre-Noire Works, w T ere made public, and are of great interest to all concerned with the metallurgy of iron and steel. After inviting attention to the recent improvements in Bessemer practice, M. Euverte remarked upon the superior results obtained by the substitution of ferro-manganese for spiegel-eisen, in the production of steel from ores containing a high percentage of phosphorus. [The ferro-manganese re- ferred to is an alloy of iron and manganese, manufactured by a patented process at the Terre-Noire Works, and con- tains as much, at times, as 69 per cent, of the latter met- al.] The experimental pig-iron, in these trials, was first puddled with great care, and melted down in a Siemens- Martin furnace, and the ingots were rolled into rails. Al- though not entirely successful, these experiments indicated that, although it was not possible to eliminate the phos- phorus by any rapid process like the Bessemer, it was quite possible, under certain well-defined conditions, to allow the phosphorus to remain in the steel without exercising any practically injurious effect upon its qualities; and it was proved that even with tolerably large amounts of phos- phorus introduced into the steel in a Siemens -Martin fur- nace, the operation, when completed by the addition of ferro- manganese (containing 42 per cent, of metallic manganese), yielded a malleable steel of good merchantable qualities ; and a repetition of similar experiments warranted the conclusion that "phosphorus may be introduced into cast steel, pro- vided the carbon is eliminated, and the less carbon there remains, the more phosphorus may be left." If these ex- periments are substantiated in practice elsewhere, and are not found to be dependent upon locally favorable circum- stances, we may soon have to record the extending familiar- ity on the part of iron manufacturers with the art of work- ing irons and steels containing phosphorus, and the ultimate realization in the near future of the problem that has so long perplexed the metallurgist, clxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Of much interest in the same field is the statement made before the late meeting of the British Iron and Steel Insti- tute, that the process of Jacobi for dephosphorizing iron ores previous to their being smelted in the furnace is in success- ful operation at the Adalbert Iron Works, at Kladno, in Bo- hemia. The process, incidentally remarked, consists in the treatment of the ores, in suitable apparatus (after roasting to drive oif sulphur), with a solution of sulphurous acid, gene- rated from the roasting of iron pyrites in contact with air. The residual liquid contains sufficient phosphate of lime, etc., dissolved from the ore, to pay for the cost of the process ; and the sulphurous acid contained therein is driven out by boil- ing, and is led again into the towers and utilized repeatedly. The precipitated phosphate is sold for manure. The new alloy, phosphor-bronze, referred to in our last yearly Record, has since then become domesticated in the United States. Smelting works have for some months been in operation in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, producing large quantities of the alloy, and supplying the Pittsburgh mills and some of our leading railroad companies. The increasing demand for the phosphor-bronze is soon to be met, it is stated, by the establishment of additional works in Philadelphia or New York. If we may rely upon the an- nouncement of Dr. Kiinzel, one of the discoverers of the al- loy, he has lately developed certain new features in connec- tion with it that possess much mechanical interest. Dr. Kiinzel states the discovery that when phosphor-bronze is combined with a fixed proportion of lead, the phosphorized triple alloy, when cast into a bar or bearing, segregates into two distinct alloys one of which is a hard and tough phos- phor-bronze, containing but little lead; and the other a much softer alloy, consisting chiefly of lead, with a small proportion of tin and traces of copper. The latter alloy is almost white, and when the casting is fractured will be found to be nearly equally diffused through it ; the phosphor-bronze alloy forming, as it were, a species of metallic sponge, all of whose cavities are occupied by the soft metallic alloy segre- gated from it. The phenomenon of the segregation of com- binations of copper with tin or zinc into two or more alloys lias long been known, and from the fact that such separation is generally massive, and not equable throughout the mass, INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. clxxix is a source of great annoyance to the founder. Dr. Kiinzel claims, however, to have succeeded in causing this segrega- tion to take place in uniform distribution throughout the casting, and has taken advantage of the properties of the product he obtains to construct therefrom bearings of rail- way and other machinery. In heavy bearings, such as those for marine engines, the valuable properties of Babbitt metal, and other anti-friction alloys, are well recognized ; but these, being generally soft, soon become distorted under consider- able pressure accompanied by continual vibration, and fail to sustain the journals in proper place. The machinist there- fore resorts to the device of casting a hollow cage of hard metal of proper form for the intended bearing, the cavities of which he then fills up by casting into them the soft metal alloy, which thus forms the actual rubbing- surface of the bearing. The hard-metal cage thus supports the soft metal within, and prevents its distortion or escape, save by surface abrasion. The new phosphorized alloy of Dr. Kiinzel effects, it is claimed, the same result. It forms its own supporting cage for the soft bearing metal, which, as alluded to in the outset, separates from it in the process of cooling. He claims that these bearings combine the very small friction and non- abrasion of the journals with the firm resistance to pressure and stability of form of bearings of hard metals. We can not omit to record likewise certain important and highly interesting discoveries concerning the behavior of metals under stress, which have attracted much attention during the past year, during which time they were fully de- veloped. Professor Robert H. Thurston, in the course of some experiments with an apparatus for determining the tortional resistance of materials, which was provided with an automatic registry, permitted a test piece of wrought iron to remain in the machine strained far beyond its limit of elas- ticity, with the view of determining, if possible, the existence or non-existence of " viscosity " in the metals. The metal was left under strain twenty-four hours, and had not then yielded in the slightest degree: a fact that has an important bearing upon the availability of iron and of steel (which behaves similarly) for use in constructions exposed to severe strain. After twenty-four hours, there appearing no evidence of further yielding, it was attempted to still further distort the clxxx GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND test piece, when the unexpected discovery was made that the resisting power of the specimen had actually become greater during the period of rest under strain, and the pencil of the register, instead of descending, rose until it indicated an in- crease of about twenty per cent, in the strength of the sample, when it traced a path parallel with, but above, that of the previous day. This remarkable observation was con- firmed by repeated experiments. The phenomenon here dis- covered is the elevation of the limit of elasticity by a con- tinued strain. Professor Thurston at once communicated his discovery to the American Society of Civil Engineers, in whose Transactions and the Journal of the Franklin Insti- tute it appeared simultaneously shortly afterward. By one of those coincidences that are of such frequent occurrence in the annals of scientific discovery, where many independent observers are experimenting in the same field of investigation, Commander Beardslee, IT. S. N., in experimenting upon the tensile strength of iron left under stress, made precisely the same discovery, without the knowledge that it had but a short time previously been published by Professor Thurston. The interesting feature of this independent observation, how- ever, resides in the fact that it was made by a perfectly dis- tinct method and apparatus. Professor Thurston's experi- ments were made with his "Autographic Testing Machine," and those of Commander Beardslee upon the ordinary form of Tensile Lever Machine. In the memorandum of Com- mander Beardslee containing his first publication on the sub- ject, the test piece (bloom iron turned approximately to one- half square-inch section) exhibited a gain of resistance at a position of earliest set, i. e., an elevation of the elastic limit, from 23,075 to 26,100 pounds per square inch, or 13.1 per cent, in seventeen hours. Continuing these experiments by direction of the Navy Department, Commander Beardslee made the further discovery that metal (iron) which had been submitted to strain until it had taken a set, and then removed entirely from the machine and laid aside for intervals of va- rious lengths, when again replaced under strain increased in power of resistance as in the first instance. The important fact therefore is established by these inves- tigations that metal strained so far as to take on a permanent set gains in power of resistance within certain limits of time INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxxi and increase. In an elaborate discussion of the Mechanical Properties of Materials of Construction, Professor Thurston explains the elevation of the limit of elasticity by a continued strain, which the foregoing experiments demonstrate, in the following manner: "The cause is probably a gradual release of internal strain. . . . The manner in which this reduction of internal strain occurs, by continued stress at the limit of elas- ticity, as here observed, may be readily conceived. When the metal is thus strained, many sets of molecules are placed in positions in which they exert a maximum effect tending to produce molecular changes which may equalize the origi- nally irregular distribution of inter-molecular stresses. After a time the change actually takes place by " flow," and the resisting power of the piece becomes increased, and its limit of elasticity raised, simply because its forces are now no longer divided, and may act together in resisting external forces." This explanation is eminently rational, and derives additional interest from Commander Beardslee's experiment- al confirmation of the fact, deducible therefrom, that this re- lease of internal strain occurs to a nearly equal extent if the strained piece is simply laid aside for a similar interval after it has been given a set. The interest and importance attaching to the discovery of the principles above enunciated to the engineering pro- fession, and to science in general, can not be overestimated. It is of incidental interest to note also that, at the sug- gestion of Professor Thurston, the trustees of the Stevens Institute of Technology have authorized the establishment in connection with that institution, of a laboratory devoted to technical research, designed especially to meet the neces- sities of the industrial interests of the country. The labor- atory, it is decided, will be devoted exclusively to the con- duct of researches of a practical bearing upon the arts and manufactures such, for example, as the determination of the strength and other physical characteristics of materials of construction, the value of fuels, of lubricants, etc. Especially worthy of record in our summary of technical progress for the year are the highly interesting experiments that have recently been made in the Assay Department of the United States Mint at Philadelphia, by Mr. Alexander E. Out- erbridge, to ascertain the practicability of assaying metals clxxxii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND used in coinage by means of the spectroscope. These ex- periments were made with the object of estimating the practical value of a recent discovery of Mr. Lockyer, and upon which he founded a theory of possible quantitative spectrum analysis. Briefly stated, Mr. Lockyer's discovery consists in the observation that when a powerful induction- coil is employed, and the distance between the metallic elec- trodes is gradually separated, certain of the lines in the spectrum of the metal (or metals) under observation break in the middle ; and that upon increasing the distance of the electrodes, the hiatuses in the spectral lines increase propor- tionately, but unequally, with different alloys. The experi- ments of Mr. Outerbridge, which were quite thorough, seem to establish, at least in the present state of spectroscopic knowledge, the apparent paradox that the spectroscopic method is in one respect far too sensitive and minute, and in another far from being minute enough, to serve the uses of assay. The problem simply stated is this to discern differences in the lines of the spectra of different alloys of gold and silver ; in other words, to utilize the spectroscope as a means of quantitative as well as qualitative analysis. We can not detail the construction of the apparatus nor the conduct of the tests made therewith, but will simply state the difficulties encountered and the conclusions drawn. The author found, in the first place, that the method was not sufficiently delicate to afford visible differences in two alloys which could readily be estimated by the usual method. Va- riations in the length and brightness of the lines, and the confusion of the eye resulting from long-continued compar- ison of minute differences, were likewise found to be inci- dental to the process. Again, the quantity of metal vapor- ized by a spark and giving the spectrum was found to-be too infinitesimal (not more than the 1>ou ^ uuu of a grain) to give safe results for a large melt, since the appearance of the lines would be affected by the least want of homogeneity in the metal. Another difficulty was found to reside in the fact that, while the spectroscope is very sensitive to pure metals, a comparatively large quantity of gold may be pres- ent in an alloy, and the spectroscope not indicate its pres- ence, and the same difficulty holds good for alloys of other metals. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxxiii From the foregoing, the author draws the following con- clusions: "It is not impossible that future discovery may- succeed in explaining this anomaly, in harmonizing apparent inconsistencies, in eliminating the sources of error, and in reducing the operation to practical certainty; but in the state of spectroscopic science as it now exists, so far as I have been able to perceive, l^have arrived at the opinion, not without regret, that assaying by means of the spectrum analysis is impracticable for the purpose of Mint operations. In connection with the important subject of the artificial preservation of timber, the process of M. Hatzfeld, lately de- scribed in a paper before the French Academy, is worthy of comment. The author in question proposes to inject into the wood, by the Boucherie process (the hydrostatic pressure of a heavy liquid column), or some similar plan, a solution of the acid tannate of iron. The principle upon which the merit of the plan is based is stated by the author to be that the action of tannin upon vegetable tissues is analogous to that which it exercises upon the animal tissues, effecting in the former a kind of tanning, which will have for result the formation of hard and imputrescible tannates, quite analo- gous to the gelatinous tannates produced in the tanning of skins. By this application, therefore, he proposes to fix the putrescible matters in the wood, to the presence of which its rotting is very properly attributed, in unalterable combina- tions, thus preventing their decomposition. The French gov- ernment and several of the French railroad companies are testing the merits of the process. In the field of illumination and heating nothing of special importance has transpired during the year to warrant men- tion, save perhaps some successful experiments in London with the electric light of MM. Ladyguin and Kosloff. The features of this plan consist in having the carbons placed in a closed glass vessel filled with a gas not containing oxvgen, the sticks being held in place by metal connections of pe- culiar construction. The lamps experimented upon were nine in number; six having two carbon-rods each, and the other three one each. The glowing of the carbons takes place throughout their entire mass. The experiments dem- onstrated satisfactorily the fact that the electric current could be subdivided to operate a number of lights simulta- clxxxiv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND neously. The apparatus used for producing the current was the Gramme machine. It may also be remarked in this branch of our Summary that the use of natural gas for fuel in various quarters has been considerably extended, the last year having witnessed its introduction for industrial uses in a number of places. While no novel or revolutionizing inventions have ap- peared during the past year in the field of illumination, our technical record would be incomplete without mentioning the substantial progress achieved by the advocates of the water gas and petroleum gas. The late meeting of the "American Gas-light Association" a body representing a large share of the talent employed in this country in gas manufacture was occupied almost exclusively with the discussion of the proc- esses just named. The chief interest, however, was centred upon the performance of the most recent of these innova- tions the so-called Gwynne -Harris process. Briefly de- scribed, the essential features of these patents is the employ- ment of clay retorts (instead of iron) in which the decompo- sition of superheated steam is effected. The superheating is done by the employment of superheaters of clay set in the hottest portions of the bench the object of which disposi- tion is to secure the perfect conversion of every particle of watery vapor into superheated steam before it enters the decomposing retort. The decomposition is effected by pass- ing the superheated steam into a heated retort supplied with anthracite coal ; the introduction taking place through a cellular bottom formed of perforated tiles. The steam is thus made to flow in a regulated manner from below up- ward, by numerous small openings, through the highly heat- ed anthracite; and the decomposition of the same into hy- drogen and carbonic oxide, effected with such regularity as to afford practically uniform results. The mixed gases re- sulting from this decomposition are then passed through re- torts charged as usual with bituminous coal, so as to secure the uniform admixture of the water-gas with the products of the bituminous-coal distillation, and producing an illumi- nating gas of uniform composition and permanent character. The difficulty of perfectly decomposing the water into the two gases above named, which appears to have been an in- superable obstacle to the success of previous inventions of INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxxv this nature, appears, according to the analytical results ob- tained by Professors Sill i man and Wurtz, to have been prac- tically overcome by the Gwynne-Harris mechanism. The latest and most interesting development of this proc- ess is that of employing its water-gas features with oil or naphtha gas. As carried out at one of the Brooklyn works, a coal gas of low illuminating power is made, the retorts being run so as to secure the highest possible yield. The gas thus obtained, or a portion thereof, is then mixed with the water gas (obtained as above), carried to the naphtha works, and forced through the stills. Having loaded itself with the enriching vapors of the naphtha, it is passed through other heated retorts, when, it is claimed, an illuminating gas is formed possessing a permanency superior even to that possessed by coal gas. Its subsequent treatment is simply that now used in the condensation, etc., of ordinary coal gas. In quality the petroleum water-gas is said to be decidedly better than the average of that from coal, and the cost of its manufacture is placed at one third less than the latter. There are said to be some twenty or more works in this country now making oil gas. The utilization of the light petroleum oils in this manner must be looked upon with favor in every quarter; and it is to be desired that the demand for them in this opening field will grow to such an extent as to effect their complete with- drawal from those illegitimate and reprehensible uses in which their dangerous qualities are so prominently involved, to the constant peril of life and property. A vulcanized-rubber iron tube, we may remark, is a novel- ty recently introduced as an article of commerce by Messrs. Morris, Tasker, & Co., which is claimed to possess superiority over all other materials as a conduit for water, hot or cold. It is said to withstand a high temperature without injury, and to resist the corrosive action of sulphuric and muriatic acids and of caustic alkalies. The gradually extending introduction into the larger towns and cities of our country of the pneumatic system of excavating vaults, cesspools, etc., to replace the barbar- ous and unwholesome method of removing such accumula- tions of refuse piecemeal with buckets, may be looked upon as indicating a growing appreciation of a most valuable clxxxvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND sanitary regulation. During the past year the system al- luded to was adopted either exclusively or in part in quite a number of localities. Many matters of importance in this department have doubtless been overlooked, or perforce omitted, because of the limited space at our command. We may hope, however, notwithstanding the comprehensiveness of the field, to have selected at least the salient points of interest out of the host of items and novelties which make up the progress of the year in the application of science to the useful arts. COMMERCE. TRADE.- INDUSTRIAL STATISTICS. The preparation of the Annual Record in advance of the actual close of the year involves the loss of certain in- teresting statistical figures concerning the condition of home and foreign trade, internal improvements, and manufacturing industries ; or the substitution of estimated for ascertained values. The effects of the great financial crisis, which are manifested on all sides in the almost universal depression of business, and the suspension of work upon our great public improvements, will make the year 1874 a memorable one in the annals of the country. The following statistics of our foreign trade, from the report of the Bureau of Statistics for the fiscal year ending June 30th, 18 74, reaching back as they do into a period of comparative business activity, display certain gratifying features in the item of domestic exports, which will quite certainly be unfavorably modified during the current year. The appended table shows the gold value of imports, exports, and re-exports for a series of years : TOTAL IMPORTS, ETC. Imports. Exports. Re-Exports. 1868-69 $437,314,255 462,356,163 541,493,708 640,348,766 663,617,147 595,861,248 $318,038,624 420,518,951 513,044,273 501,285,371 578,938,985 629,252,156 $25,173,414 30,427,124 28,459,899 22,769,749 28,149,511 23,780,338 1869-70 1870-71 1871-72 1872 73 1873-74 The eifect of the panic in diminishing the demand for for- eign goods will be manifest from an inspection of the above. The following table gives the value of the importations for INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxxvii three years of the five leading classes of manufactured goods that compete with American manufacturers: 1S71-72. 1872-73. 1873-74. Silk Goods $55,510,188 33,307,447 52,408,471 36,448,618 21,220,496 $59,308,388 35,201,317 51,075,462 29,989,869 20,428,315 $33,713,455 28,183,878 46,882,901 23,997,301 17,473,765 Linen Goods Total $198,925,220 $196,003,351 $150,251,300 During the fiscal year 1S73-74 the increase in our exports has amounted to $54,500,000 (currency), our specie export has decreased by $14,200,000, a gain of $62,600,000 to our credit in our account with foreign nations. The Iron producing and manufacturing industries are in a condition of even greater prostration than represented in our last year's review. This condition of things is in keep- ing with the general depression of manufacturing interests throughout the country, and its causes are too patent to re- quire consideration here. The impossibility of securing ac- curate returns of yearly production until some time after the close of the year applies of course to every department of industry; the difficulty of getting reliable information, how- ever, appears to be intensified in this particular department. Our estimated returns for 1 873, as given in our last year's Rec- ord, will now need a slight modification in the light of facts collected during the current year. From the complete returns from all the states, as given in the Bulletin of the American Iron and Steel Association, the home production of pig-iron for 1873 is placed at 2,868,278 net tons (of 2000 lbs.) ; the es- timated figures given on the same authority in our last year's Record were 2,695,434 net tons, a very close approximation to the truth. The following is a summary of the leading facts bearing upon the present state of this important indus- try, issued by the Association, July 23d of the current year. All tons are net tons of 2000 lbs. : Whole number of stacks, December 31st, 1871 Whole number of stacks built in 1872 Whole number of stacks, December 31st, 1872 Whole number of stacks built in 1 873 Whole number of stacks, December 31st, 1873 Whole number of stacks in blast, January 1st, 1874. o . 1 41 612 50 662 410 clxxxviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Whole number of stacks out of blast, January 1st, 1 874 252 Whole number of stacks completed in the first 6 months of 1874. . 1 1 Whole number of finished stacks, July 1 st, 1874 673 Whole number of stacks building, July 1st, 1874 53 Whole number of stacks projected, July 1st, 1874 6L Total production in 1872, in tons 2,854,558 Total production in 1873, in tons 2,868,278 Estimated annual capacity of all finished stacks tons. . . 4,500,000 Number of states having furnaces 25 Number of states making pig-iron in 1 872 21 Number of states making pig-iron in 1 873 22 The Secretary of the Association estimates the pig-iron production for 1874 at 1,912,185 tons; showing a falling oft' from the ascertained production for 1873 of 956,093 tons, or about 33 per cent. The decrease in the American make of rails in 1873, owing to the sudden restriction of railroad extension during the last quarter, is given in our last Record at nearly 100,000 tons. During the present year this enforced economy on the part of the roads has amounted to a very general suspension of building operations a fact which has reacted with telling effect upon the rail-maker, involving a decrease of produc- tion as compared with the figures of 1873 of nearly 450,000 tons, or about 50 per cent., as the following data, appended for comparison, will indicate: Tons. Eails, 1872, including Bessemer, ascertained 941 ,992 Rails, 1873, " " ascertained ._ 884,667 Rails, 1874, " " estimated 442,337 Bessemer rails for 1 872, ascertained 94,070 Bessemer rails for 1873, ascertained 129,015 Bessemer rails for 1 874, estimated 75,000 Other rolled iron, 1872, bar, sheet, plate, etc., estimated 1 ,000,000 Other rolled iron, 1873, " " estimated 980,000 Other rolled iron, 1874, " " estimated 490,000 Cast steel for 1872, ascertained 40,000 Cast steel for 1873, ascertained 44,000 Cast steel for 1 874, estimated 45,000 [For the estimated values in the above we are indebted to the courtesy of the Secretary of the American Iron and Steel Association, Mr. James M. Swank.] The record of railroad construction for the year 1874 gives the key-note of the continued depression of the iron indus- tries. As far as ascertained, there have been 1923 miles of INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. clxxxix new railroad completed in the United States in 1874 ; against 3883 reported for the year 1873, and 7340 in 1872. It is prob- able, however, that when all the returns are in the figures for 1874 will slightly exceed 2000 miles; showing a decrease of about 50 per cent, on the figures of 1873, and nearly 75 per cent, on those of 1872. The total aggregate of the railways in Europe and the United States, according to the latest reliable statistics, is herewith appended as a point of incidental interest: Ger- many, 12,207 miles; Austria, 5865 ; France, 10,333 ; Russia, 7044; Great Britain, 15,814; Belgium, 1301; Netherlands, 886 ; Switzerland, 820 ; Italy, 3667 ; Spain, 3401 ; Denmark, 420 ; Portugal, 453 ; Sweden and Norway, 1049 ; Greece, 100. Miles. Population. Railroads in Europe 63,3G0 282,456,742 Railroads in the United States 70,G50 40,232,000 The railway rolling stock, as given in Poor's Manual for 1874-75, on the roads of the United States and Canada, foots up as follows : Passenger cars of all classes 2,990 Baggage, mail, and express cars 4,157 Box, merchandise, and house cars 87,009 Platform, gondola, and flat cars 52,198 Stock cars 14,222 Coal cars (number of wheels not stated) G6,887 Pour-wheel cars (mostly coal) 37,892 Caboose cars 1 ,549 Oil cars " 3,154 Ore cars 2,102 Lumber cars 193 Preight cars (not classified) 94,694 Total 307,047 Locomotive engines 41,939 Deducting from these aggregates 774 engines and 13,980 cars of all classes, as returned by the Canadian roads, leaves for the roads in the United States a total of 14,165 engines and 359,979 cars. The most noteworthy undertaking in railroad construc- tion carried on during the past year is the pushing forward of the great South American railroad connecting the Pacific Ocean with the Valley of the Amazon ; and which when completed will prove to be another of the marvels of en- 9 cxc GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND gineering skill of which this century has been so fruitful. At the last accounts a force of from 8000 to 12,000 laborers was employed upon it day and night. During the past year two new transatlantic cables have been projected and partly laid. It has likewise witnessed the completion and opening for business of the great ocean cable between Lisbon, via the Azores, and Rio Janeiro. The preparations for the Centennial during the year have assumed a very forward state. The erection of the buildings is rapidly progressing, and despite much adverse criticism which the project at first originated, there appears to be now no doubt of its complete success. Nearly all of the leading nations of Europe and Asia have signified through their representatives their intention to participate, and of the interest of American manufacturers there is indubitable evidence. The applications of intending American exhibitors already call for appropriations of space somewhat in excess of that set aside by the Commissioners for American exhib- its in the main Exhibition building. The following is the official statement of the space to be allotted to the thirty-four nations and their colonies that will take part in the Exhibition, together with the order of their arrangement. The total area of the building will be twenty-five acres : Nation. Sq. Feet. Siam 3,946 Persia 7,776 Egypt 7,776 Turkey 7,776 Russia 10,044 Sweden and Norway 10,044 Austria 23,328 German Empire 27,264 Netherlands and Denmark. 7,776 Switzerland 6,156 Italy 11,664 Spain and Colonies 15,552 France, Algeria, and oth- 1_ 2 9 ~, er Colonies j Great Britain, Canada, 1 India, Australia, and > 46,748 other Colonies ) United States 123, 160 Total Nation. Reserved space Mexico Honduras Guatemala San Salvador Nicaragua Venezuela Ecuador United States of Colombia. Peru Chili Brazil Argentine Republic Hayti Sandwich Islands Liberia Japan China Sq. Feet. 21,408 11,664 3,888 5,508 4,536 4,536 5,508 3,888 7,776 11,664 9,744 17,520 15,552 3,888 3,888 2,268 7,290 7,290 484,090 The space above allotted is something over eleven acres. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxci The several conventions of the American branch of the In- ternational Patent Congress during the past year are worthy of notice, as having an important bearing upon a much-need- ed reform namely, the unification of the now discordant patent systems of the world. An International Patent Con- gress, to be held in Philadelphia during the time of the Cen- tennial Exhibition, is in contemplation. The annual report of the late Commissioner of Patents General M.D. Leggett was recently submitted to the Secre- tary of the Interior. We append herewith an abstract of so much thereof as we deem of interest: The total receipts of the Office from all sources during the year from October, 1873, to September 30th, 1871, were $721,110 Total payments 694,072 Excess of receipts over expenditures $27,038 The following is a tabulated and classified statement of the business of the Office during the same neriod : Number of applications for patents from October 1st, 1873, to Sep- tember 30th, 1 874 21,077 Number of patents issued, including reissues and designs 13,545 Applications for extension of patents 229 Patents extended 308 Caveats filed 3,129 Patents expired 5,287 Patents allowed, but not issued for want of final fee 2,G80 Applications for registration of trade-marks 589 Trade-marks registered 524 Applications for registration of labels 107 Labels registered (since 1874) 50 It will appear from comparison that the number of ap- plications and of patents granted is a slight increase upon those of the preceding twelve months. Commenting further upon the report, the Commissioner remarks that the prompt publication of abstracts of patents issued has materially im- proved the character of such applications, the consequence being the rejection of a much smaller proportion of applica- tions. Before the publication of the weekly Patent-Office Gazette^ it was from two and a half to three years after the issue of a patent before the public were made officially aware of its existence. In consequence thereof there were con- stantly in existence some twenty or thirty thousand patent- ed inventions unknown to the public at large, and the Office cxcii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND was constantly receiving applications for devices already secured by letters patent. The great importance of a thorough digest, published in convenient form, of each one of the one hundred and fortv- five classes of inventions for the convenience of examiners, inventors, and attorneys is strongly urged. The need of additional room is also dwelt upon. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS. In this department there are many items of interest to record concerning the progress of the year just passed. The great steel bridge across the Mississippi River at St. Louis, together with the tunnel forming part of its western ap- proaches, is finished, and was formally opened for railway traffic with much ceremony on July 4th. The strength of the structure was shortly thereafter tested by moving out abreast and simultaneously over each one of the three spans two trains of seven locomotives each. Tiie results of the test agreed very closely with the theoretical computation, and the trial proved highly satisfactory. The work upon the great suspension bridge to span the East River between New York and Brooklyn has progressed but slowly, owing to complications of a legal and financial character. The Brook- lyn tower was completed on the 16th of December, 1874. The anchorage on the Brooklyn side is also in a forward state. When completed, this will be the largest suspension bridge in the world, the clear span between the towers being 1600 feet. The railway tunnel through the Musconetcong Mountain in Northern New Jersey, an engineering work of considera- ble magnitude, was practically finished by the union of the two headings on the 16th of December. The tunnel proper is over a mile in length, with long open cuts at each end. The road of which the tunnel is part is an extension of the Lehigh Valley Railroad, and the tunneling has been progressing for more than two years. The system of underground railways, so long in successful operation in a number of European capitals, and affording the only rational solution of the problem of railway transit through populous cities, is about to receive an important ex- tension in this country. In our last yearly Record we com- mented upon the completion of the Baltimore underground INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxciii railways, as the first successful realization of the features of this system that had been effected here. During the year 1874 the system has been extended to St. Louis, and is about to be fully inaugurated in New York. The objective point of the underground railway system of the last-named city is the Grand Central Depot, located at the junction of Forty-second Street and Fourth Avenue, the rail- way centre of the city. When completed, it will run from the Harlem River, on the north, through the heart of the city, un- der Fourth Avenue and Broadway, to the Battery, a distance of 8f miles. The existing northerly section of underground railway extends northward from the depot, under the surface of Fourth Avenue, to the Harlem River, where the track rises and crosses a bridge. This portion is now in course of com- pletion, and was expected to be ready for traffic in January, 1875. The southerly section of the work, the so-called Broad- way Underground Railway, to extend from the Grand Cen- tral Depot to the Battery, was authorized by the Legislature of the state in May, 1874, and will be completed as soon as financial preliminaries can be arranged. Of other works in progress or projected during the year, it may be of interest to note a proposition to bridge the Mississippi at Quincy, Illinois ; and another, to bridge the same river at Carondelet, which seems, however, to have awakened considerable opposition. Another international bridge across the Niagara River, at Grand Island, is likewise projected, and charters from the proper authorities were ob- tained. The Hoosac Tunnel, which it was generally expected would be opened for traffic about July or August, will in all probability not be ready for use until the spring of 1875. A new tunnel through Bergen Hill, commenced during the early part of the last year by the Delaware, Lackawanna, and Western Railroad, is progressing gradually toward com- pletion. A new railroad tunnel under the Hudson River, to connect New York and Jersey City, has likewise been com- menced. The tunnel is projected from the foot of Fifteenth Street, Jersey City, and will extend beneath the river to near the foot of Canal Street, New York, from which point con- nection will be made with the underground railway system at present in course of completion in the latter city. cxciv GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND The Fort Philip Canal, an enterprise projected during the last year, is a scheme providing for a canal two hundred feet wide at bottom, and twenty-five feet deep, to form a perma- nent highway from the Mississippi to the Gulf of Mexico. The work, it is proposed, shall be constructed by the United States, and when completed shall be free to all nations. The proposed canal is to extend a distance of six and a half miles from the left bank of the river below Fort St. Philip, to a point four miles south of Breton Island. Its advocates claim that the construction of such a canal w r ould effect the desid- eratum of keeping the channel of the great river constantly open. A plan for the same purpose, originated by Captain Eads, was rejected by the last Congress. It proposed the building of jetties upon each side of the stream, and thus, by narrowing the channel, create a swifter current, which would deepen itself by scouring, and effect the removal of its sedi- ment farther out to sea. Another project of like character was lately brought be- fore the Legislature of New York, namely, the construction of a navigable water-way between Troy and Lake Champlain. The plan includes the deepening of the Hudson River from Troy to Fort Edward, and the excavation of a canal from the latter point to Whitehall, on the lake. Its object is to increase the facilities of New York to command the com- merce of the West. A project of similar intent, the James River and Kanawha Canal, to connect the James and Ohio Rivers, claiming to possess extraordinary advantages as a measure of relief to the West, in producing a great highway for the cheap trans- portation of its bulky productions to market, and for fos- tering commerce in general, has been made, during the past year, the subject of a favorable report by General A. A. Humphreys, United States Army. Since the aban- donment of the Cheeseborough Tunnel beneath the Detroit River in 1873, a number of tunnel and bridge projects have been mooted, but thus far to no purpose. In this connec- tion, w T e may add that during the past year a commission, appointed by the Secretary of War to inquire into the prac- ticability of bridging the river, reported in favor of a tunnel as the only unobjectionable mode of meeting the necessities of the case. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxcv Abroad, the interest of the engineering world is centred upon a number of important projects ; the most interesting of which perhaps is the Channel Tunnel, to connect England and France. During the past year this stupendous under- taking: was the theme of extended discussions before the several engineering societies, and the preliminary steps to- Avard its execution are being steadily advanced. The geo- logical and mechanical questions appear to have been an- swered favorably to the undertaking, but it is questionable whether the enormous expense which it involves will not prove an insurmountable obstacle in the way of its execu- tion. A new tunnel under the Thames, to facilitate commu- nication between certain quarters of the English metropolis, is projected, and likewise a scheme for tunneling the Mersey (an old project revived), so as to connect all the docks, rail- ways, and canals on both sides of the river. The so-called Severn Tunnel project, an undertaking which is to connect South Wales with the West of England by a continuous line of railway, assumed a somewhat practical form during the past year. The directors of the Great Western Railroad, having satisfied themselves of the practicability of the work by preliminary borings, have advertised for tenders for the completion of the first seven hundred and fifty yards. Upon the St. Gothard Tunnel, which is to be the German rival of the Mont Cenis, work has been vigorously prosecut- ed during the past year. At the close of the year about 2500 meters (or somewhat over 2700 yards) had been com- pleted. Another important project advanced during the year contemplates the passage of Mont St. Bernard. A se- ries of seven tunnels is proposed, the longest of which is to be 5800 meters in length. A proposition made to the French Assembly to effect a loan of forty-eight millions of francs for the construction of a tunnel under the Simplon Pass was by it referred to a commission of engineers, which, upon full consideration of the scheme, reported adversely. The pro- posed route would possess important advantages in shorten- ing the distance between Paris and Plaisance (Italy), and also with respect to altitude, but involves the necessity of trav- ersing the Jura Mountains, where heavy grades would bo necessary ; while, in addition, it was believed that the pro- posed line could not compete favorably in the important mat- cxcvi GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND ter of cheap transportation with that of St. Gothard, now in course of construction. The past year has likewise given origin to several projects of vast possible importance to the far East. One of these the Indo-European Railway as its name implies, contem- plates the union of the South and West of Europe with the richest portions of Central Asia, and further on in the future with the far eastern parts of that continent. Several plans with this object in view are, it is stated, receiving the con- sideration of the governments most interested. A second enterprise of much interest to the engineer is the proposition to create a great inland sea, or chain of lakes, on the plains of Northern Africa, in the Desert of Sahara. The topo- graphical features of the country are said to be favorable to the project; and the information comes to us that General Chanzy, the Governor of Algeria, has ordered preliminary surveys to be made to determine the question. Many specu- lations are indulged in upon the possible influence of such a work on the climate, productions, and commerce of the neighboring countries. In the operation and management of railroads, no feature of special novelty presents itself in our yearly retrospect. The disposition on the part of companies to look with favor upon plans for adding to the security and control of trains is manifest in the extending introduction of the several standard power -brakes and safety -switches. During the past year the hydraulic system of train -brakes, for which many advantages in point of simplicity are claimed by its advocates, lias attracted considerable attention, and its ef- fectiveness has been satisfactorily demonstrated in several interesting trials of the Henderson hydraulic brake, the best representative of its class in this country so far introduced. The various signaling systems employed by the roads throughout the country have received a searching criticism in several quarters. Impressed with the importance of the unification of the diverse and arbitrary plans in use, and of the necessity of doing away with the many dangers and in- conveniences attendant upon the present condition of things, the American Society of Civil Engineers has attempted the task of collecting information on the subject, with the view of securing a much-needed reform in this particular. The INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxcvii result of this inquiry will doubtless be a recommendation for the universal adoption by the roads in this country of some form of the electrical block signal system, now largely adopt- ed in Europe, and upon some American roads, with the most satisfactory results. The Pullman parlor and palace cars, so popular in this country, have met with a very favorable reception abroad, and during the past year have been introduced as an ad- junct to many of the European roads. The commercial depression has exerted its influence upon the ship-building interests of the country as upon others. In spite of the unfortunate business outlook, however, the iron ship builders upon the Delaware have had a busy season. Some of the iron steamers launched during the year, the Pa- cific Mail Steamship Company's vessels the City of Peking and City of ToMo, were of the largest size (second only to the Great Eastern), and of most approved construction. Both of these vessels are provided with engines of great power, and will be, if we may judge from their performances upon their trial trips, unequaled for speed by any ocean steamship afloat. Three additional vessels of similar size and pattern are now in course of building at Chester for the same company. The steel torpedo-boat Aerolite, built for the government by Neaftie & Levy, of Philadelphia, is a novelty worthy of rec- ord, and made on her trial trip a few months ago the re- markable speed of twenty-one knots an hour. The aggre- gate tonnage of the thirty or more iron steamships that have been built upon the Delaware within the past two years will exceed sixty-eight thousand tons. It is of interest to record here the conditional sale of the famous Stevens Bat- tery to the United States government, which was effected in the month of November. Of incidental interest likewise is the completion at Hull, during the past year, of the swinging saloon steamer design- ed by Bessemer for the Channel passenger traffic, and in- tended to avert the discomforts of sea-sickness by maintain- ing the constant horizontality of the saloon with the aid of hydraulic machinery. The Castalia a double vessel in- tended for the same traffic was launched about the same time. Thus far, however, the efficiency of neither vessel has received a test. 9* cxcviii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND The past year has likewise witnessed the invention of a considerable improvement in telegraphy. The remarkable duplex apparatus of Stearns, with the aid of which messages are sent both ways on one wire and at the same time, has been vastly improved upon by Messrs. Thomas A. Edinson and George B. Prescott, who have discovered processes and invented apparatus by means of which two messages can be sent in the same direction, and two others in the opposite direction, simultaneously upon the same wire. This inven- tion has been named the Quadruplex, and is in successful operation between the New York and Boston offices of the Western Union Telegraph Company, and is stated in its annual report, just issued, to be satisfactorily performing an amount of work upon one wire quite equal to the capacity of four wires worked with the ordinary Morse apparatus. One of the greatest recommendations of the invention resides in the fact that it calls for no changes in existing apparatus; the old Morse Key is used without the need of specially edu- cated operators, and with no duplication, save as to parts of machinery. The first named of these gentlemen has, however, quite lately announced another discovery of unusual interest and importance in connection with what is known as the auto- matic or chemical telegraph, in which the signals are made and recorded by causing the current to pass through paper, the latter being saturated with a chemical substance, which changes in color when the current acts. Mr. Edinson calls his discovery the Electro-motograph, and has founded upon it a practically new system of telegraphy. In the chemical telegraph the markings are made on the chemically prepared paper by passing currents of electricity through a stylus resting on the paper, which passes over a metal drum. Mr. Edinson noticed that with certain compositions motion was produced in the lever holding the stylus, which was caused apparently by the sudden diminution of the friction of the paper. It was found that paper prepared with caustic potash and a stylus tipped with tin gave the best results. The following account of an experimental trial will best serve to indicate the nature of the phenomenon. The stylus of the Electro-motograph in question was of tin, but held in INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1874. cxcix a peculiar form of clip, which brought a great amount of friction on the paper, so much so that when the instrument was started the great friction carried the stylus forward. So soon, however, as a current was passed through it, de- composing the paper, all friction appeared to cease, the clip was drawn back, and the pencil slid upon the paper with the utmost ease, and this occurred each time the current passed. Immediately, however, the current ceased, the fric- tion of the paper was restored, and the stylus was drawn for- ward. It appears to be a matter of indifference as to the charac- ter of the metal used for the drum, which acts as one of the decomposing electrodes. Of all the solutions tested, potas- sic hydrate was found to give the best results. Lead, thal- lium, and tin, in the order named, are recommended for the stylus. The following comments upon the applicability of this discovery of Mr. Edinson, condensed from one of our best scientific journals, will best serve to illustrate its impor- tance : The salient feature in Mr. Edinson's present discovery is the production of motion and of sound by the stylus, without the intervention of a magnet and armature. By the motion thus produced he operates any of the ordinary forms of tele- graphic printing or sounding instruments or relays, and is enabled to send messages by direct transmission over thou- sands of miles of wire at the highest speed, without rewrit- ing or delay of any kind. More than this, his apparatus operates in a highly effective manner under the weakest electric currents, and he is enabled to receive and transmit messages by currents so weak that the ordinary magnetic instruments fail to operate, or even give an indication of the passage of a current. Thus, when the common instruments stand still, owing to the weakness of the current, the Edin- son telegraph will work up to its fullest capacity. The discovery upon which this new system of telegraphy is based has attracted much attention both here and abroad ; and involving, as it does, a new discovery in science, may undoubtedly be called the most interesting and valuable contribution to telegraphic progress that has lately been made. cc GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND During the last year, also, the employment of steam on our canals became an accomplished fact. From last ac- counts some six boats of the Baxter pattern were plying on the Erie Canal, and a number of others are shortly to be added, capable of making the trip from New York to Buflalo in five days. In this connection, we may mention the novel proposition of Mr. Robert Cheesebrough to keep the canals open in winter by warming the water with the aid of steam ice-melters and breakers. Although the proposition was fa- vorably commented upon in many quarters, it has not yet been practically put in operation. Of mechanical interest are the remarkable results attained by Messrs. Iloopes & Townsend, of Philadelphia, during the past year, in punching cold iron. A number of samples ex- hibited at a meeting of a noted scientific body attracted much comment from the fact that one of them had a hole one quarter of an inch in diameter and one inch deep, and others were perforated with a hole half an inch in diameter and one and a half inches deep. The remarkable nature of the results here exhibited (and which it is understood are reg- ularly obtained on the practical scale) will appear when com- pared with the generally received rule of the workshop that " the maximum thickness of iron that can be punched cold is about the diameter of the punch." The depth of the small- er nut referred to is four diameters of the punch, and that of the larger ones three diameters. We have no figures at hand whereby to ascertain the pro- duction of coal for the past year ; but from the very general depression of manufacturing industries that has prevailed, it is highly probable that it will fall considerably below that of 1873 and several preceding years. In connection with our annual review of this subject, sev- eral items of interest call for mention. In the Wyoming coal region, near Wilkesbarre, Pennsyl- vania, extensive and destructive mine fires by some means broke out, and for many months defied every effort to subdue them. Within a short time, however, the persist- ent use of steam is said to have brought the fires under con- trol. An apparatus termed the "Aerophore," and which is said to be so much of an improvement upon former attempts in INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. cci constructing life-saving apparatus that it enables a workman to enter a mine filled with fire-clamp, and to labor there for hours at a time with practical immunity from danger, at- tracted within the year a large share of attention in the Continental and especially in the English mining districts, where occasion for employing such devices is of frequent re- currence. The chief merit of the "Aerophore" appears to reside in the fact that its operation is continuous. We have only space to state concerning it that it consists of an air- pump of novel construction, a regulator, a strainer, an air- tube wound on a self-regulating coil, and a lamp. The following table shows the production of all kinds of coal in the United States since 1864 : Year. Tons. 1864 22,500,000 1865 24,400,000 1866 28,855,918 1867 28,861,817 1868 31,470,114 Year. Tons. 1869 33,761,010 1870 36,622,131 1871 37,861,417 1872 42,749,246 1873 44,843,962 The production of 1873 is composed of anthracite, 22,828,178 tons; bituminous, 22,015,784 tons; being very nearly equally divided. In this country, the last year witnessed no extension of the introduction of coal -cutting machinery. In England, however, the interest in this important subject is unabated, and the adoption of the machine for hand-labor is making decided advances, as might be anticipated from the fact that the comparative thinness of the coal-seams of that country afford the best conditions for their economical em- ployment. The so-called Gartsherrie machine appears to be the fa- vorite, and we record below some considerations concerning it expressed by the advocates of the system, who claim with much justice for machine work: 1, a diminished cost of production ; 2, an improved ventilation ; 3, a reduction of waste ; and, 4, a relief to the miner from the severest portion of his toil. The following tabulation, based on the result of a year's working, gives the cost and the number of men re- quired to remove one hundred and twenty yards of coal (equal to one hundred and thirty tons) holed by the Gart- sherrie coal-cutter : ccii GENERAL SUMMARY OF SCIENTIFIC AND Cost. No. of Men. g ^ 24 Hewers (per ton) 1 5 8 Deputies " 5 6 Putters " 2\ 6 Men at cutters 3 3 Brake and foremen If 2 Men repairing cutter-chain H 49 2 7i To get the same quantity of coal by hand-labor from the same colliery would require : No. of Men. ^ C7 Hewers (per ton) 3 3 6 Putters " 2* _0 Deputies " 3f 79 3 9 Showing a difference in favor of the coal-cutter of Is. Id. per ton. Taking the best performance of the coal-cutter as the basis of calculation, and extending its economical show- ing over the total production of the United Kingdom, the fact may be considered as demonstrated that if machine work were universally adopted, there would be a saving of at least 6,000,000 effected in raising the 120,000,000 tons of coal now annually produced in that country. So favor- able a showing can, however, hardly be anticipated in this country, save perhaps in the future development of our West- ern coal-fields. INDUSTRIAL PROGRESS DURING THE YEAR 1871. cciii NOTE TO ASTRONOMY. (Added January 20, 1875.) Since the preceding pages were electrotyped, the two fol- lowing discoveries have been announced as having occurred prior to the end of the year 1874 : ASTEKOID. No. 139. Discovered October 10, by Professor J. C.Wat- son, at Pekin, China. COMET. 1874. VI. Dircovered December 6, by Borelly, at Mar- seilles. OBSERVATIONS OF THE TRANSIT OF VENUS. From the telegraphic and other reports that have reached us concerning the success of the observations on the event- ful 9th of December (the evening of the 8th at Washington), we gather that although the weather was in general not all that could be desired in fact, rather unfavorable yet there have been secured observations abundantly sufficient to ma- terially advance our knowledge of the solar parallax. It may be fairly inferred from the meagre telegrams that have reached us that the phenomena of the black drop or ligament, that so sorely annoyed the observers of the last century, has in the present case caused comparatively no annoyance that, in fact, it has only rarely been observed, and its disap- pearance is undoubtedly in great part due to the more per- fect defining power of our modern telescopes. If we, for brevity, classify the stations into two orders, the successful and the unsuccessful, we shall have the following record. We consider as a successful station one that obtained observa- tions that could be of any value in deducing the final result. United States : Successful at Hobart Town, Nagasaki, Campbell Town, Pekin, Vladivostock, Bluff Harbor. England : Successful, Cairo, Suez, Thebes, Alexandria, Hono- lulu, Atooi, Malta, Roorkee, Rodriguez. Unsuccessful, New Zealand, Owhyhee. cciv GENERAL SUMMARY, ETC. France : Successful, Pekin, Nagasaki, Hiogo, Robe. Russia : Successful, Teheran, Thebes, Vladivostc-ck, Port-Pos- seet,Tschuita, Nertschinsk,Chabarovka, Orlanda, Kiach- ta, Ispahan, Yokohama. Unsuccessful, Omsk, Astrachan, Saratov, Tiflis, Blago- vetschnsk, Orenburg, Kasan, Uralsk, Kertsch, Eiivan, Nakitschevan. Germany : Successful, Ispahan, Thebes, Cheefoo, Mauritius, Auckland Islands. Australia : Successful, Melbourne, Adelaide, Sydney. India : Successful, Calcutta, Kurrachee, Indore. Unsuccessful, Madras. Austria : Successful, Jassy, Klausenburg. Holland: Successful, Isle of Reunion. Colonel Campbell (private station) : Successful, Thebes. Lord Lindsay (private station) : Successful, Mauritius. ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. 1874. A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. PROBLEM OF THREE BODIES. The problem of the motion of a point attracted by two fixed points, which was first solved by Euler in 1760, has sub- sequently formed the theme of numerous studies by the most eminent mathematicians, and has recently been made the sub- ject of investigation by Perlewitz, who has paid especial at- tention to the case where the moving point moves in a plane and describes either an ellipse or a hyperbola, whose foci are represented by the two fixed points. The formula? arrived at by Perlewitz seem quite rigorous, and have been deduced by the use of the so-called Theta function in the theory of elliptic integrals. Among other curious results, Perlewitz finds that, in the case of elliptic motion, the eccentricity of the ellipse is the square root of the sum of the masses of the two attracting points divided by the sum of the major axis. Inaugural Dissertation, Leipsic, 1872. the nature of the spirals of the nautilus. One of the most interesting applications of mathematics to problems in natural history consists in the investigation of the nature of the spiral curve, which we obtain when we make a fine section of the winding: shells of the various shell fishes, especially the shells of the nautilus, and other allied A 2 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. forms. The literature of this subject has, in fact, grown to be quite voluminous, since the first papers that were publish- ed by Moseley and Naumann, thirty years ago. The conch shells, according to both these authors, are based upon a spiral curve that is sensibly identical with the so-called log- arithmic spiral ; but, subsequently, Naumann adopted the theory that the spiral was one peculiar to the animal build- ing the shell, .and ho therefore proposed the name of the concho-spiral. The subject has lately been investigated by Grabau, and apparently with very great ability. He states that he has sought to determine whether it were possible, if not in theory, at least in practice, to confound the concho spiral and the logarithmic spiral ; and then again, to deter- mine whether, allowing the possibility, some of the observers had not actually erred in this very direction. His very thorough mathematical investigation, and equally laborious mathematical computations, lead to the conclusion that, from the totality of Naumann's calculations, an unprejudiced critic must conclude in favor of the reality of the concho spiral, so far, at least, as this is possible from the diameters and meas- ures given by him ; and one can but suspect that, if not all conchs, at least some, and decidedly the most, have actually built upon the concho spiral, and that only the fact that the asymptotic circle of this curve is frequently too small has favored the assumption that, in these cases, the shell has fol- lowed the logarithmic spiral. Inaugural Dissertation, JLcip- sic, 1872. THE LENGTH OF THE EGYPTIAN CUBIT. The earnest labors and writings of Professor Smythe, As- tronomer Royal for Scotland, have succeeded in drawing at- tention to the importance of the accurate determination of the value of the units of length, weight, and volume that were formerly in use in Egypt. There can at last be no doubt but that the measures in use by us in modern times, except- ing of course the French metric system, are a direct inherit- ance from the days of the early Egyptians ; that, in fact, the measures used by the Hebrews were identical with those of Egypt, and that there is a remarkable similarity even between the ancient measures of China, Assyria, and Egypt. Although much has been written to controvert the positions taken by A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 3 Smythe in his remarkable work, Our Inheritance in the Great Pyramids, yet there seems to be a gradual conversion to his views, or to views not materially different from his, if we may judge from the remarks of Sir Henry James on the Greek and Egyptian measures of length, recently published by the Royal Society as prefatory to some elaborate measures made by Colonel Clark, of the Ordnance Survey. Although we believe the conclusions of Sir Henry James with reference to Egyptian metrology are open to some criticism, it will nevertheless be interesting to reproduce them in this place. According to him, not only are our own measures derived from those of ancient Egypt, but all the accurate results given in the most ancient works on astronomy and geodesy are ex- pressed in units of measures that dej)end more or less directly upon those of Egypt. The ancient Egyptians employed two measures of length ; namely, the common and the royal cubit. Of the latter, ten specimens have been found preserved in the ancient buildings of Egypt, the most perfect of which is that now in Florence, which is a slab of slate or schist. The other nine examples are of wood, and are generally divided into seven palms, apparently with a fine saw, with as much or even greater accuracy than the generality of the measures with which the workmen of the present day are supplied. Of the common cubit there seems to be no simple specimen now ex- tant; but, on the other hand, the dimensions of some Egyp- tian monuments are known in terms of the ancient common cubit, so that its value can be restored. Sir Henrv James concludes that the length of the royal cubit is 20.727 English inches; the length of the common cubit appears to have been 18.240 inches. Sir Henry James suggests that it is not un- likely that the common and royal cubits had some definite relation to each other, like that between the link and foot of surveyors' measures in our own country, and he infers that probably eighty-eight royal cubits of Egypt were equal to a hundred common cubits of that country. The length of the English foot is exactly the average of the ancient Egyptian common and royal foot, although it is probably so by acci- dent only. Phil. Trans. Hoy. 80c. , London, 1S74, CLXIIL, 445. ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY RESEARCHES IN THE GREAT PYRAMID. The investigations that have of late years been made into the mysteries of the Great Pyramid of Ghizeb, have received a great impetus from the accurate measurements and studious labors of Professor Piazzi Smythe, director of the observatory at Edinburgh. Professor H. L. Smith has also taken up the subject, and communicates to the Journal of Science many interesting comparisons and coincidences that have occurred to him, his reports being based mostly upon the measure- ments of his predecessors. Professor Smith has opened a new path of investigation in giving special attention to the "Queen's Chamber," as distinguished from the so-called " King's Chamber," and the passages leading thereto, on which Piazzi Smythe and others bestowed most of their study. It may be known to some of our readers that on en- tering the Pyramid at the opening most easily accessible to visitors, one passes down nearly to the level of the base of the monument, and then rises at an equal angle to the level of the King's Chamber. Half-way up the ascent to this chamber we proceed along a horizontal passage-way to the Queen's Chamber, which is situated more nearly in the very heart of the structure. While Professor Smith is very cau- tious in expressing any opinion as to the original design of the Pyramid, we may safely conclude that he is almost per- suaded to believe that the Great Pyramid was designed for the preservation of certain important metrological standards, and for the purpose of perpetuating in stone to all time some remarkable astronomical truths and hio;h mathematical cal- dilations. As to the source whence the builders of the Pyr- amid derived their knowledge we can only speculate; yet it seems necessary to admit the fact that they actually were in possession of it, whether as the result of their own unaid- ed investigations, or actually given to them by inspiration. The unit of measure adopted by the Pyramid builders seems to have differed but very little from the British inch 926 British inches being equal to 925 Pyramid inches. The an- cient builders appear to have endeavored to establish the Pyramid exactly in latitude 30 ; and in their endeavor to do so have found it necessary to extend to the northward the boundary of the hill on which it was established, having A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 5 used the clippings of the stones for this purpose. From the dimensions and position of the Queen's Chamber, Professor Smith concludes that the builders employed the star Alpha Draeonis, and Eta Tauri, the brightest star of the Pleiades, as the starting-point in their astronomical measurements, and that the time of building must have been about the year 2100 B.C. This latter date, however, depends entirely upon modern astronomical measurements, which, it must be remem- bered, do not afford so secure a basis for a retrospective cal- culation of this nature as is necessary to an accurate deter- mination of the very century in which the Pyramid was built. In certain relations between the dimensions of portions of the Queen's Chamber, Professor Smith finds evidence that the builders were acquainted with what is known as the ratio of the circumference to the diameter of a circle to within the one-millionth part of its value. 4 Z>, 1873, II., 330. TESTING WEIGHTS IX ENGLAND. According to The Academy, a balance has been placed at the entrance gate of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, which shows, by means of an index on a large divided arc, how many grains too light or heavy any ordinary pound weight may be. Any one, therefore, has it in his power to test his weights, and to determine whether they are accurate or not. 13 A, February 7, 1874, 151. MORPHOLOGY IN ARCHITECTURE. At one of the recent sittings of the Academy of Fine Arts in Paris, M. Hugo, member of the Mathematical Society founded at Paris since the war, presented to the Section of Architecture a morphological theory, which he considers as fundamental. This theory undertakes, according to him, to show mathematically the connection between the polygonal figures which are so frequently employed in monumental constructions. These figures are derived from the pyramid, and, according as the solids in question are more or less mass- ive than the pyramid, they are divided into domoids and tremoids. If we increase the number of faces, we arrive at the solid of revolution just as w r e pass from the prism to the cylinder. The new and very remarkable figure which gen- erates the sphere has received the name of equi-domoid. 6 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. The cupola of Brunelleschi, which crowns the Duorao of Florence, is an equi-clomoid. M. Hugo thinks that the the- ory of the sphere has no independent existence, and that it is the simple geometric corollary of the equi-domoid. The passage from the pyramids of Euclid's geometry and of the Egyptian architecture to the spheres of modern geometry and the domes of modern architecture, M. Hugo calls the mor- phology of architecture. Introd. to Descriptive Geometry. THE INTEGROMETER. The integrometer is the name of an instrument designed by Deprez, a civil engineer of France, for the purpose of finding the area, the curvature, the centre of gravity, and the moment of inertia of any plane figure whatever, almost with- out calculation ; it is an extension of the instrument known as Amsler's planimeter, now extensively used by engineers and draughtsmen. The instrument consists essentially of a fixed ruler along which a slider can move freely: secondly, of a straight rod, which is freely pivoted on the slider, and which carries at one end a pointer, that is made to trace the contour of the given figure ; at the other end it carries a stirrup, between the prongs of which a horizontal axis ex- tends with which a wheel is connected. This wheel is di- vided into one hundred parts. As the pointer traces the con- tour of the given figure, the wheel rolls over the plane surface in a peculiar manner, such that the length of the arc through which the wheel turns, multiplied by the length of the arm of the rod, gives the area of the figure whose contour has been traced. By a special arrangement of the instrument, the centre of gravity of this contour and its moment of iner- tia are also given. In short, the instrument serves to econo- mize time and labor in dealing with the numerous problems that occur in engineering, in relation to irregular, closed con- tours. Professional Papers on Indian Engineering ',111., n.,8. STELLAR PARALLAXES. Professor Briinnow, director of the Observatory of Trinity College, Dublin, has, as is well known, devoted his energies of late years to the determination of the relative parallaxes of the fixed stars. Many suitably placed stars have been ob- served by him, and the recent Annals of the Observatory A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 7 at Dunsink show that the distinguished astronomer is attain- in^ results of the highest accuracy, which must be classed among the most trustworthy of all the data possessed in this, the most difficult field of astronomical investigation. One of the most interesting stars in the heavens is that generally known as No. 1830 of Groombridge's Catalogue, whose large proper motion was discovered by Argelander in the year 1842. This star has since that time been the object of sev- eral series of observations made for the purpose of determin- ing its parallax. The results obtained by Peters, Wichman, and Otto Struve have all established beyond reasonable doubt that the parallax of this star is much smaller than might be expected from its large proper motion ; and the new series of observations made by Dr. Briinnow, while con- firming: this general conclusion, has conduced to fix the exact value of the parallax within very narrow limits. As is well known, the determination of relative parallax is obtained either by measuring the angular distance between the star under investigation and other very faint stars in its immedi- ate neighborhood, or else by observing the position angles of the lines joining such stars. Dr. Briinnow has adopted the former of these methods of observation, having selected his comparison stars in such positions, with reference to the cen- tral star, that the systematic errors committed in making ob- servations should have opposite influences upon the resulting parallax. He concludes that the observations indicate a parallax of nine hundredths of a second for the star in ques- tion. A similar series of measurements was made upon the star Sigma Draconis, for which body a parallax of about one fourth of a second seems to be well established. For the double star No. 85 Pegasi he deduces the interesting result that there is possibly a difference in the value of the constant of aberration for the two components of the star, with which assumption there follows a parallax of five hundredths of a second, a result, however, which demands further investiga- tion. For the double star No. 3077, of Bradley, he deduces a parallax of seven hundredths of a second. An investiga- tion of the parallax of Alpha J^/rce, or Vega, leads to a value not materially different from those found before by other ob- servers, but which has intrinsically less weight than the other determinations attained by him, inasmuch as the observations 8 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. seemed to demand the assumption of a very large and quite improbable difference in the value of the constant of aberra- tion for the two stars that come under the observation. In general, it will be noticed that none of the stars as yet ex- amined by Dr. Briinnow have revealed any large parallaxes, and the problem of determining the distances of the fixed stars by means of angular measurements promises still to re- main the most difficult and vexatious of those whose solution is attempted by the astronomical observer. GILLISS'S SOUTHERN ZONE OF STARS. Admiral Sands, in his annual report with reference to the work of the Naval Observatory, states that observations to be of any value to the world must be published. If they are not, the time and labor spent upon them are simply wasted ; and yet they are so much more easily made than reduced, that nothing is more common than to see them lie hidden for years before the computations necessary to fit them for publication are completed. The Naval Observatory has been enabled to resuscitate from its store-rooms the zones of stars observed by Captain Gilliss, in Chili, in 1850-52, and their reductions are now in such a state of forwardness that the resulting star catalogue will appear in 1875, in the volume of Washington observations for 1873. Thus it will be seen that all the valu- able records which were at one time locked up in the archives of the observatory will soon have been given to the world. Report of the Sec. of the JVavy, 1873, 97. THE MOVEMENTS OF THE NEBULAE. Mr. Huggins, of London, whose observations on the motions of some stars toward and from the earth have Ion 2: been quoted as the first contribution ever made to our knowledge of this subject, states that for the last two years he has been giving considerable attention to a similar inquiry in connec- tion with the nebulae. His method of observation, as is well known, consists in comparing the lines in the spectra of the heavenly bodies with the corresponding lines in the spectra of terrestrial substances. In his observations on the nebula?, he has compared a certain line in a spectrum of lead with that line in the nebula which is supposed to belong to the spectrum of hydrogen ; each nebula being observed on sev- A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 9 eral nights, so that the whole observing time of the past year was devoted to this inquiry. In no instance was any change of relative position detected in the positions of the lines of the nebulas and the lead. It follows that none of the nebulae observed show a motion of translation toward or from the earth so great as twenty-five miles per second, including the earth's motion at the time. The observations seem to show that the gaseous nebulae, as a class of bodies, have not " proper motions" so great as many of the bright stars. Since the existence of real nebulae has been established by the use of the spectroscope, Messrs. Abbe, Proctor, and D'Arrest have called attention to the relation of position which the gaseous nebulae hold to the Milky Way and the sidereal system. It was with the hope of adding to our information on this point that these observations of the motions of the nebulae were undertaken. Mr. HusCffins gives the results of observations on seven different nebulae only; and it is to be hoped that, notwithstanding the discouragement which he experiences on account of the unfavorable atmosphere of England, he will continue his researches in this difficult branch of ob- servation. 12 A, 1873, IX., 454. THE DOUBLE STAR PROCYON. Concerning the minute companion star to Procyon, whose existence has lately been discovered by Otto Struve, the emi- nent Russian astronomer, he states that there can now be no longer any doubt that this companion is, in fact, the per- turbing body which for many years past has been known to be deranging the movements of the brighter star. It is nee- essary to assume, for Procyon, a mass eighty times as great as that of our sun, and for the companion a mass at least five times as great as that of the sun. The observations of the past few months by Otto Struve have shown that the com- panion star is now within a degree of being in the position predicted by Auwers a year ago. 12 A, 1874, X., 37. REMARKABLE STELLAR SPECTRUM IX THE MILKY WAY. D'Arrest, the director of the observatory at Copenhagen, in some remarks on the nature of the spectra of certain stars and nebulae, calls attention to the spectroscopic revision of the Milky Way, a work with which he has been for some time A 2 10 ANNUAL EECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. occupied, and states that in the course of this examination he has fallen upon a very remarkable star of the eighth magni- tude, known as No. 4203 of Argelander's Durchmusterimg, in north declination 22. Concerning this star, lie remarks that its spectra is the most remarkable of all the thousands that he has hitherto studied, and he suggests that, possibly, it will be found hereafter that this is a variable star. The work on which D'Arrest appears to be engaged is evidently of such a nature as will eventually greatly further our knowl- edge of the constitution of the universe. AstroJi. Nach., LXXXIII.,1G. THE SCINTILLATION OF THE STARS. In a memoir by Montigny, it is endeavored to show that the frequency of variations of the colors of stars in scintilla- tion has generally a relation to the constitution of their light according to spectrum analysis. The author's observations embrace sixty-six nights, in the years 1871 and 1873, and he snves a table of the stars observed, arrano-in^ them according to the types of their spectra as given by Secchi. The num- ber of scintillations observed in one second, at the zenith dis- tance of sixty degrees, is also given, as well as the magnitude of the star. Montigny finds that the stars scintillating most belong to the first type of spectra, or those having four spec- tral lines; while the stars showing weak scintillation gener- ally belong to the third group, or type of nebulous bands and dark lines. The average number of scintillations in the first type is eighty-six; considerably exceeding that of the third, which is fifty-six. The average of the second group is sixty- nine. These are the stars whose spectra resemble that of the sun. . No marked connection appears between the frequency of the scintillation and the briohtness of the stars. The red stars scintillate less than the white ones, as first pointed out by Dufour. This he explains as due to the fact that, with equal distances from the zenith, the total separation of the colored bundles of rays dispersed by the atmosphere, and which have emanated from a white star, is greater than in the case of a red star; the original rays of the white star being more numerous and more exposed, so as to undergo more frequent interception by the passage of aerial waves. 12 ^4,1873, IX., 493. A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. n THE COMPUTATION OF ABSOLUTE PERTURBATIONS. Mr. G. "VV. Hill, of the American Nautical Almanac office, calls the attention of astronomers to the notable abbreviations which are produced in some parts of the formulae for pertur- bations, by the introduction of the true anomaly as the vari- able according to which integrations are to be executed. Professor Hansen, in his later disquisitions, has substituted the eccentric anomaly as the independent variable in place of the mean anomaly (or, what is the same thing, the time), and he regards this step as constituting a remarkable amelioration of the method. The method proposed by Mr. Hill, on the other hand, employs the same co-ordinates as did Laplace, but makes use of the true anomaly in the elliptic orbit as the independent variable. Astron. JYach., LXXXIIL, 211. RECENT OBSERVATIONS ON THE SOLAR PHOTOSPHERE. ProfessorLangley, of the Alleghany Observatory, near Pitts- burgh, has devoted some years to the special study of the minute structure of the solar photosphere, especially to the nature of the appearances which Mr. Nasmyth likened to willow leaves, and which Messrs. Stone and Donkin compared to rice grains. The difficulties of observation are, in fact, ex- treme; but Mr. Langley determined to rely only upon the direct telescopic study of the minute components of the photo- sphere, thus forming a distinct point of view from that taken by the spectroscopists. Most of the minute phenomena de- scribed by him are unrecognizable, except with telescopes of large apertures. The equatorial used by him has an object- glass of thirteen inches' diameter, and its full aperture has been available only through the use of a most valuable ac- cessory for such study namely, the polarizing eye-piece, which presents a solar image free from unnatural color, and of any brightness desired. The most formidable difficulty in the way of satisfactory observations arises from the disturb- ances of our own atmosphere, and for this there is no remedy but assiduity and patience. The drawing prepared by Professor Langley, a photograph of which accompanies his memoir, is by far the most minutely accurate of any that has ever yet been published, and most of the minutiae given in it can be seen, he states, only in exceptionally favorable conditions of 12 ANNUAL RECORD OF SCIENCE AND INDUSTRY. the atmosphere. In general, when we look at the solar disk, we perceive that it has' a nearly uniform brightness, except- ing, of course, the trains of spots that are scattered across it in zones parallel to the solar equator, and the irregular white patches called facula?. A more attentive examination shows that the surface of the sun, even near the centre where neither faculae nor spots are visible, is not absolutely uniform, but is made up of fleecy clouds, whose outlines are all but indis- tinguishable. Under more painstaking scrutiny, numerous faint dots on the white ground were observed, producing the impression of a moss-like structure in the clouds. With high magnifying powers, used in favorable moments, the surface of any one of the fleecy patches is resolved into a congeries of small, intensely bright bodies, irregularly distributed, which seem to be suspended in a comparatively dark medium, and whose definiteness of size or outline, although not abso- lute, is yet striking by contrast with the vagueness of the cloud forms seen before, which vagueness we now perceive to be due to their aggregation. The dots referred to are con- kD CD CD siderable openings, caused by the absence of the white nod- ules at certain points, and the consequent exposure of the gray medium which forms a general background. These dots or openings have been called pores. The diameter of the more conspicuous varies from two to four seconds. The bright nodules are neither uniform in shape nor in brightness. The outline is irregular, but, on the whole, affects an elongated or oval contour. Mr. Stone has called them rice grains, a term CD 7 appropriate only when we view them with a telescope of three or four inches' aperture. In moments of rarest definition, Professor Langley has been able to resolve these rice grains into minuter components, which he calls granules, whose diameter can hardly equal 0.3". From these granules comes by far the largest portion of the sun's light. Their number varies widely ; there being commonly from three to ten in each rice grain, and their area is such that the properly luminous area of the sun is less than one fifth of the whole solar surface. We must, then, greatly increase our received estimates of the intensity of the action to which solar light, heat, and actinism are due. With reference to the study of the solar spots, properly so- called, Professor Langley shows that in the penumbra there are A. MATHEMATICS AND ASTRONOMY. 13 not only numerous small cyclones, and even right and left handed whirls in the same spot, but probably currents ascend- ing nearly vertically, while the action of superposed approxi- mately horizontal currents is so general that they must be considered a permanent feature in our study of solar meteor- ology. The outer penumbra is, he, concludes, formed by a rupture. The penumbra is all but wholly made up, as it ap- pears in a first examination, of cloud-like forms, whose struct- ure makes them seem like fagots or sheaves, which Mr. Dawes has compared to bundles of thatch ; while Mr. Lang- ley resolves these sheaves into filaments of extreme tenuity, which he thinks have a tendency to lie in sheets or folds, causing this decrease of brightness. The normal darkness of the outer penumbra is nothing else than the darkness of the gray medium in which the granules float all over the sun, though much deeper tints are here and there found, which sometimes make the penumbra itself resolvable into a ring of little spots. There seems to him no room to doubt that filaments and granules are names for different aspects of the same thing ; that filaments in reality are floating vertically all over the sun, their upper extremities appearing at the sun's surface as granules ; and that in the spots we only see the general structure of the photosphere as if in sections, owing to the filaments beins; here inclined. The average distance from centre to centre of the filaments is less than one second. 4 Z>, 1874, VII., 87. PHOTOGRAPHS OF THE SOLAR SPECTRUM. Dr. Henry Draper, of the Xew York University, communi- cates the highly valuable results obtained by himself in at- tempting to photograph the diffraction spectrum of the solar light. The photographs published by him are of remarkable clearness, and must be considered as an important advance over the spectra that have hitherto been drawn by the hand alone. In the finest maps drawn by hand, such as those of Angstrom, the relative intensity and shading of the lines is but partially represented, and a most laborious and painstak- ing series of observations and calculations is necessary, in order to secure approximately correct positions of the multi- tude of Fraunhofer lines. Thus, for ins