Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 57.djvu/121

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FRAGMENTS OF SCIENCE.
111

by Ellen H. Richards; Examination of Water (Chemical and Biological), by William P. Mason; and the fifth edition of H. Van F. Furman's Manual of Practical Assaying.

In a method of sterilization of water by means of ozone, described by Dr. Weyl, of Berlin, at the German Scientific Conference, 1899, water is pumped to the top of a tower and allowed to flow freely over stones, meeting as it falls a current of air charged with ozone. The process appears to be likewise effectual in purifying peat and bog water, the solution of the iron salts of humic acid being decomposed and oxidized, and the brown color disappearing in consequence. The method, it is said, can be advantageously used in connection with filter beds.

Our death list this month of men known in science is large. It includes the names of M. Philippe Salmon, archaeologist, subdirector of l'École d'Anthropologie of Paris, President of the Ministry of Public-Instruction's Commission on Megalithic Monuments and author of numerous monographs on subjects of his studies, in Paris, aged seventy-six years; Dr. C. T. R. Luther, director of the Observatory at Bilk, near Dusseldorf, aged seventy-eight years. He discovered twenty-one of the minor planets and calculated the orbits of them all, as well as those of several other bodies; Dr. C. Piazzi Smith, formerly Astronomer Royal of Scotland, author of studies of the amount of heat given by the moon to the earth, and of some famous speculations upon the construction and purposes of the Great Pyramid as an exponent of the standard of measurement, February 21st, aged eighty-one years; M. Émile Blanchard, dean of the section of Anatomy and Physiology of the French Academy of Sciences; Captain Bernadières, member of the French Bureau des Longitudes and Director of the Observatory School of Montsouri for Officers of the Marine, who had fulfilled several astronomical and geodesic commissions; Dr. Hermann Schaeffer, honorary professor of Mathematics and Physics at Jena, aged seventy-six years; Leander J. McCormick, founder of the McCormick Observatory at the University of Virginia; President James H. Smart, of Purdue University, Lafayette, Ind.; General A. A. Tillo, Vice-President of the Russian Geographical Society, founder of an exact physical geography of Russia, based on scientific data, and of many contributions on the science, at St. Petersburg, January 11th, aged sixty years; Prof. E. Beltrami, of the University of Rome (Mathematical Physics), President of the Accademia dei Lincei, and correspondent of the Paris Academy of Sciences; M. Emmanuel Liais, Mayor of Cherbourg, France, also distinguished for useful and very meritorious work in Astronomy and Physics, aged seventy-four years; Dr. Hans Bruno, Professor of Mineralogy and Geology in the University of Dresden, Saxony, distinguished for his investigations of the Paleozoic, Cretaceous, and Permian rocks of Saxony, at Dresden, January 28th, aged eighty-five years; and William Thorpe, one of the Vice-Presidents of the Society of Chemical Industry.


PUBLICATIONS RECEIVED.

Agricultural Experiment Stations. Bulletins and Reports. Indiana (Purdue University). Twelfth Annual Report. Pp. 150.—Michigan. Monthly Bulletin of Vital Statistics, January, 1900. Pp. 18.—New Jersey: Bulletin No. 141. Forcing Tomatoes. By Alva T. Jordan. Pp. 18; No. 142. Pea-Growing in New Jersey. By Alva T. Jordan. Pp. 14.—New York: No. 162 (popular edition). Injury by Sun Scorching of Foliage. By F. H. Hale and F. C. Stewart. Pp. 6; No. 163 (popular edition). Canker, an Enemy of the Apple. By F. H. Hall and Wendell Paddock. Pp. 6; No. 164 (popular edition). Divers Diseases discussed. By F. H. Hall. Pp. 5; No. 165. Report of Analyses of Paris Green and other Insecticides. By L. L. Van Slyke. Pp. 10.—Ohio: No. 10. The Maintenance of Fertility. By C. E. Thorne. Pp. 91—United States Department of Agriculture Comparative Range Grass and Forage Plant Experiments at Highmore, South Dakota. By F. Lampson Scribner. Pp. 10.—List of Publications for Sale by the Superintendent of Docu-