Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 57.djvu/119

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
MINOR PARAGRAPHS.
109

1836. He remained there, with an interval, from 1866 till 1871, in which he devoted himself to lecturing, till 1883, when he became professor emeritus. He was made in 1871 overseer of the Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth, and he was a member of the New Hampshire Legislature in 1863 and 1864. Only four of the founders of the American Association are now living—namely, Dr. Martin H. Boye, of Cooperstown, Pa.; Prof. Walcott Gibbs, of Harvard; Dr. Samuel L. Abbot; and Epes Dixwell.

The firm of Burroughs, Wellcome & Co., says the Lancet, are to be congratulated on the generous care which they have taken to promote the material and intellectual welfare of their employees. Their principal works are at Dartford, where they employ more than eight hundred persons of both sexes, including some two hundred scientific workers. For the purpose of establishing a sort of club for these employees, Mr. Wellcome succeeded in purchasing the Manor House known as Acacia Hall, and the extensive and beautiful grounds in which it is situated. The Manor House he has fitted up as a club for the members of his staff. An old mill which stands close by has been converted into what is called the library building. The upper floor is fitted out as a lecture room, and there is a library which already contains some thousands of volumes. A third building, called the Tower House, contains club accommodations for men. Then there are elaborate bathrooms, and finally a large gymnasium. The grounds are most extensive, being half a mile in length and very tastefully laid out. There is a lake, a river, and many pleasure boats for rowing, a large field for sports of all sorts, a grand stand to witness the same, a rich orchard and a beautiful pleasure garden, several luxurious lawns, and many superb trees.

A peculiar kind of glassy bodies, known as moldavite or bouteillenstein, is attracting the attention of Austrian and Bohemian geologists. These glasses are ovals from an inch to an inch and a half long, and are characterized by various markings, some of which suggest finger impressions, while others form a network of furrows, which may have in part a rough radial arrangement. They have been regarded by some authors as relics of prehistoric glass manufacture, but this view does not appear to have been sustained. Dr. F. E. Suess, the famous Austrian geologist, finds resemblances between them and meteorites, and the most general disposition of students of the subject is now to consider them of extra-terrestrial origin. Resemblances have further been pointed out between them and some peculiar obsidian bombs found in Australia. The moldavites in Bohemia occur in sandy deposits which are assigned to the late Tertiary or early Diluvial period.

At the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, besides studies bearing directly on science and the arts, courses are given in modern languages, as an important means of access to foreign works in the student's professional department: English, for the purpose of training pupils to express themselves readily, accurately, and adequately, and of aiding them in the understanding and appreciation of good literature; history and political and social science, the instruction in which is arranged to connect with that in biology, so that the two departments shall present "an unbroken sequence of related studies extending through three successive years, and resting upon the fundamental knowledge of living forms and of prehistoric man that is presented in general biology, zoölogy, and anthropology," followed by comparative politics and international law; and economics.

A witness recently admitted to the British Government's Committee now making inquiry into the use of coloring matters and preservatives in food, that yellow coloring substances were largely purchased without any discrimination for the purpose of giving a rich appearance to milk and milk products. As a rule, no question was asked as to the injurious or non-injurious character of the dye so used. One of the best coloring matters was known as Martius's yellow, naphthol yellow, naphthalene yellow, Manchester yellow, saffron yellow, or golden yellow, and is chemically the same as the dinitroalpha-naphthol prepared from the naphthalene that crystallizes in gas mains, which is an important constituent in