Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/448

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432
THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

the West Indies, China, and the Cape of Good Hope. Our beautiful little Calopogon pulchellus was introduced accidentally in some bog earth which had been taken over to England with some plants of Dionea for the botanist Curtis. His gardener noticed some small, toothlike, knobby roots in the soil and took care of them so that they flowered in the following summer. The first orchid was figured in 1790 from the strongest of these plants.

Philibert Commerson, the eminent naturalist and botanist of Bougainville's scientific and exploring expedition, 1766-'69, wrote of Réaumur, the entomologist and author of the Réaumur thermometer scale: "Reaumur, the illustrious Réaumur, has just died from the effects of a fall which caused a suppuration of all the internal parts of his head. Thus the poor insects have become orphans for a long time, for we other Linnæists are nothing but cruel impalers; but Réaumur was their father, their accoucheur, their nurse, their interpreter, their all."

The results of examinations of European statistics by M. Lagneau go to show that as among occupations consumption is most prevalent among persons whose callings expose them to dusts; and next among those whose work is sedentary; while persons living in the open air enjoy an almost complete immunity. From another point of view, consumption appears to increase in towns rapidly with the density of the population.

Remarking upon a proposal to establish a psychological laboratory in England, similar to the institutions of the kind that exist "all over the Continent," the Revue Scientifique observes that there is only one such laboratory in France deserving the name, and that to find really important installations it is necessary to go to Germany or to the United States; and that the English in arranging their experimental establishment will have to draw their inspiration from these two countries.

The Geographical Club of Philadelphia was formed in 1891, and its first stated meeting was held February 24, 1892, when the president, Prof. Angelo Heilprin, read an opening address on the Present Aspects of Geographical Study. Since then, till January, 1894, twelve stated meetings have been held at which important and interesting papers have been read. The club was incorporated in May, 1892. Its purpose is defined to be the advancement of the science of geography and of geographical studies and exploration, the recording of discoveries, the presentation of researches, and the accumulation of works on geography. Among the features of its history to this time are its association, through a contribution of funds, with the Peary Arctic Expedition of 1893, and the issue of the first number of its Bulletin, containing an address, by Mr. E. S. Balch, on Mountain Exploration.

The English Society for the Protection of Birds aims at preventing the destruction of beautiful and useful birds by influencing public opinion, and, if possible, by promoting legislation. Mr. E. H. Bayley, M. P., the president, referred, in his address at the annual meeting of the society, to the wholesale catching and killing of birds for purposes of sale, or for so-called sport. As an example of abuse in sport, he instanced a case which had been brought under his notice of a man who went down to Devonshire from London, and in a short time destroyed all the kingfishers on a certain stream. The number of members of the society has increased in one year from 5,200 to 9,159.



OBITUARY NOTES.

Prof. George John Romanes, author of the work on Animal Intelligence in the International Scientific Series, of the books. Mental Evolution in Animals and in Man, and Jellyfish, Starfish, and Sea Urchins, and of other scientific essays and treatises, died suddenly at Oxford, England, May 23d. He was born in Kingston, Canada, in 1848, spent his boyhood in Europe, and was graduated in Natural Science at Cambridge in 1870. His first scientific writings of mark are a series of papers on the Nervous System of Medusæ. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1879. He held the appointment of Fullerian Professor of Natural History in the Royal Institution, London, and Rosebery Lecturer on Natural History in the University of Edinburgh. He was a personal friend of Charles Darwin; and most of his writings were in development of Mr. Darwin's theories and the doctrine of evolution, or in criticism of them.

Prof. Robert Peter died at his home near Lexington, Ky., on the 27th of April, at the age of eighty-nine. He is well known among the older generation of scientific men for his chemical work in soil analyses in connection with the various geological surveys of Kentucky and Arkansas. He was a contemporary of many of the older men of science, and was for many years personally and officially associated with David Dale Owen in his geological work. He was the oldest medical professor in America; and occupied the chair of Chemistry in the Transylvania University in its earliest days. When that school was removed to Louisville and became the Kentucky School of Medicine, he went with it. At the time of his death he occupied, nominally, the chair of Chemistry in the Agricultural and Mechanical College at Lexington. He was a native of Cornwall, England, and was born in 1805.