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making the astronomical projections of the points, a system of rhythmic signals, or of stated alternate flashes and eclipses of the

would be inexplicable, and contrary to every natural law and precedent, if it did not do 80. The force of character, strength of will, clearness of mental vision, and quali-electric light, was employed from the 5th of ties of vigor, patience, and perseverance, which constitute the secrets of success in life, are the several properties of the physical organism, compounded as it is of body and mind." A new cure is suggested, then, the "health-cure," as a remedy for adversity, which would be first personal, then hereditary in its aim, aspects, and bearing. The subject is worthy the attention of medical men and social philosophers.

Carrying a French Meridian into Africa. -Colonel Perrier furnishes a description to "La Nature" of the manner in which the French system of triangulations and the meridian lines have been extended into Algeria under his direction. The idea of establishing a geodesic connection across the Mediterranean had been entertained for more than seventy years, but it was considered doubtful, on account of the great distance from each other of the points that would have to be used in the observations, whether a correct measurement was practicable. Preparations for making the observations were begun in 1873. Four points were chosen (Mulhacen and Tetica in Spain, 11,537 feet and 676 feet above the sea, Filhaoussen and McSahiba in Algeria, 3,760 feet and 1,876 feet above the sea), which formed a quadrilateral the angles of which were all visible from each other. It was necessary, from considerations of climate and locality, to make all the observations in the latter part of the summer and the early fall. Solar reflections were to be used in the day, and the electric light at night, as signals. The solar reflections were never seen at any of the distant points, and proved a complete failure. After about twenty days of effort, the electric light was made visible at all the points, and was used successfully from the 10th of September till the 1st of October, when the first series of observations was satisfactorily completed. The calculations showed that, notwithstanding the extraordinary distances apart of the points of observation (one hundred and seventy miles), the solutions were as exact as in cases involving only a few miles. In

October to the 16th of November. It was found that these signals were susceptible of great precision, but that the personal equation could not be disregarded in observing them. This equation operated in a double sense, as related to the observation of the stars and of the signals, in each observer, and had to be ascertained by a series of special experiments instituted in the case of each person at the observatories at Paris. Practically, it was a matter of indifference to the observers whether they directed their attention to the flashes or to the eclipses of the light, but they considered the observations of the eclipses likely to be more exact. The most convenient rhythm of signals was found to be one of about two seconds, allowing one second for the flash and one second for the eclipse. The constancy of the personal equation as it related to the luminous signals was remarked, and the error

to be allowed for was estimated at less than one hundredth of a second.

Mr. Fleuss's New Diving-Process.-We noticed in the March number of the "Monthly" the invention by Mr. Fleuss of a process for breathing under water, which dispenses for the most part with the cumbrous apparatus that divers have hitherto had to employ. A fuller account of the new method has been published since, in the English papers, and those features of it which were then kept secret have been disclosed. The power of breathing depends on means which are provided within the helmet worn by the diver. These means are designed to furnish a continuous supply of oxygen, and to dispose of the carbonic acid which the breather exhales. No provision is made for the nitrogen which enters into the composition of ordinary air, for this merely serves as a diluent, and is not changed or diminished in quantity by breathing; hence the nitrogen which is naturally present in the diver's lungs and in his dress when he puts it on can be used over and over again, and is amply sufficient for its purpose. The oxygen is stored in the helmet in a compressed state, and the supply is regulated by a valve which is un

der the control of the diver. A solution of

caustic soda, distributed through the pores of a mass of spongy India-rubber and confined in a close case, is provided for the disposition of the carbonic acid. A proper arrangement of tubing causes the whole of the exhaled air to pass through this case and its soda. A single charging with soda answers for a week of daily use of the apparatus. Mr. Fleuss exhibited his confidence in his apparatus by putting it on and going under water for the first time in his life, and remaining there for more than an hour.

NOTES.

PROFESSOR WILLIAM K. KEDZIE, formerly Professor of Chemistry and Physics in the Kansas State Agricultural College, and Professor of Chemistry in Oberlin College, died at Lansing, Michigan, April 14th, in the twenty-ninth year of his age. As Chemist of the Kansas State Board of Agriculture, he performed valuable analyses of the soils, minerals, and vegetable products of Kansas. He planned the laboratory of the Kansas Agricultural College, and was the principal originator of the Natural History Society of the Michigan Agricultural College. His chief published writings are a work on the geology of Kansas and a number of articles contributed to the Kansas Academy of Science.

SOUNDINGS of the Niagara River below the falls have been taken by a party of United States engineers. A line, cast out as near to the falls as they could be approached in a small boat and near to the shore, gave 83 feet. Farther down the stream the line told off 100 feet, and at the inclined railway 192 feet. The average depth of the swift drift, where the river suddenly becomes narrow with a velocity too great to be measured, was 153 feet. Immediately below the bridge, where the whirlpool rapids set in, the depth was computed to be 210 feet.

THE death is announced of Dr. J. G. Mulder, Professor of Chemistry in the University of Utrecht, in his seventy-eighth

year.

PROFESSOR NICHOLAS ZININ, the eminent Russian chemist, died early in the present year, in the sixty-eighth year of his age. He was fifteen years a professor in the University of Kazan, after which, from 1848 to 1874, he was Professor of Chemistry in the Imperial Academy of Medicine at St. Petersburg.

THE Summer School of Zoology of the Johns Hopkins University is established on an island near the mouth of Chesapeake abounds in living organisms in such variety Bay, for a term of six weeks. The place that the student has an opportunity of studying representatives of nearly all the larger groups of animals, and is free from mosquitoes and extreme heat.

is on deposit in the Geological Museum at A SECOND specimen of the archæopteryx Berlin, with the expectation that it will be purchased. It was bought from its former owner for five thousand dollars by Herr Siemens, of Berlin, to prevent its being brought to this country.

M. CHEVREUL, who is now in his ninetyfifth year, has begun his course in chemistry at the Paris Museum of Natural History, with as much apparent zest and energy as he exhibited fifty years ago, when he first entered upon the duties of his chair.

GELOSE is the name of the most valuable constituent of the substance known in commerce as China moss. It has the property of absorbing and solidifying into a colorless and diaphanous jelly five hundred times its weight of water, and is capable of forming ten times as much jelly by weight as the best animal gelatine.

PROFESSOR DAVID THOMAS ANSTED, author of several works on geology and its applications, died May 20th. He was born in London in 1814, was appointed Professor of Geology in King's College, Cambridge, in 1840, and afterward Lecturer on Geology at other institutions, Assistant Secretary to the Geological Society, and editor of its quarterly journal.

PERTINENT to the discussion concerning the fertility of hybrids, it is stated that the fertility of the progeny of the hare and the rabbit has been established for several generations. The hybrids are known in France as léporides, and have been constituted by Haeckel into the species Lepus Huxleyii.

THE death of Professor Wilhelm Schim

per, the distinguished Alsatian botanist, is announced. He was best known through his works on the mosses, in which department he was one of the leading authorities. He was also author of an important treatise on vegetable paleontology, and of several works on Alsatian botany and geology.

THE death of Dr. Rudolph H. C. C. Scheffer, director of the botanical gardens at Buitenzorg, Java, which took place March | 9th, causes a loss which will be felt by a large circle of botanists throughout the world. He had been director of the gardens for twelve years, and was in communication with every home and colonial institution.

[graphic]

OF THE

NEW YORK LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY.

OFFICE, Nos. 346 & 348 BROADWAY.

JANUARY 1, 1880.

Amount of Net Cash Assets, January 1, 1879.....

Less deduction to cover decrease in value of U. S. Bonds and other assets..

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$36,213,457.61 $135,966.93

REVENUE ACCOUNT.

$36,077,490.68

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Less interest accrued January 1, 1879.

306,225.93-$2,033,650.00-$8,036,686.16

DISBURSEMENT ACCOUNT.

$44,114,176.84

Losses by death, including Reversionary additions to same...
Endowments matured and discounted, including Reversionary additions to same. 1,015,256.22

Annuities, dividends, and returned premiums on canceled policies..
Taxes and reinsurances...

$1,569,854-22

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Cash in bank, on hand, and in transit (since received)...
Invested in United States, New York City, and other stocks (market value
$14,356,192.94).

.$1,961,701.48

Real estate.

13.544,671.96
4,974,573.68

Bonds and mortgages, first lien on real estate (buildings thereon insured for $14,287,000.00, and the policies assigned to the company as additional collateral security)..

15,313,278.95

Temporary loans (secured by stocks, market value $1,300,000).
*Loans on existing policies (the reserve held by the company on these policies

850,000.00

amounts to $3,160,000)..

621,403.02

* Quarterly and semi-annual premiums on existing policies, due subsequent to January 1, 1880.

367,989.02

* Premiums on existing policies in course of transmission and collection (estimated reserve on these policies, $330,000, included in liabilities)..

Agents' balances..

Accrued interest on investments January 1, 1880.

A detailed schedule of these items will accompany the usual annual report filed with the Insurance
Department of the State of New York.

Excess of market value of securities over cost..

CASH ASSETS, January 1, 1880...

Appropriated as follows:

Adjusted losses, due subsequent to January 1, 1880.

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Reserved for reinsurance on existing policies participating insurance at 4 per ct.
Carlisle net premium; non-partieipafing at 5 per ct. Carlisle net premium. 34,016,840.82
Reserved for contingent liabilities to Tontine Dividend Fund, over and above a

4 per cent. reserve on existing policies of that class.

Reserved for premiums paid in advance..
Divisible surplus at 4 per cent...

1,371,482.18

16,543.25-$35,876,581.18

3,120,371.48 $38,996,952 66

Surplus, estimated by the New York State Standard at 4 1-2 per cent., over..$7,000,000.00 From the undivided surplus of $3,120,371.48 the Board of Trustees has declared a Reversionary dividend to participating policies in proportion to their contribution to surplus, available on settlement of next annual premium. During the year 5,524 policies have been issued, insuring $17,098,173.

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Amount at risk, 1878, 127,901,887.
Amount at risk, 1879,
Amount at risk, 1880, 127,417,763.
Income from Interest, 1875, $1,870,658.
Income from Interest, 1876,
Income from Interest, 1877,
Income from Interest, 1878,
Income from Interest, 1879, 2,033,650.
Divisible surplus at 4 per cent. Jan. 1, 1878, $2,664,744
Divisible surplus at 4 per cent. Jan. 1, 1879, 2,811,436
Divisible surplus at 4 per cent. Jan. 1, 1880, $3,120,371.
TRUSTEES.

Death-claims paid 1878,
Death-claims paid 1879,

Divisible surplus at 4 per cent. Jan. 1, 1876, $2,499.654 |
Divisible surplus at 4 per cent. Jan. 1, 1877, 2,626,816

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VOL. XVII.-No. V.]

SEPTEMBER, 1880.

[PRICE, 50 CTS.

THE
AUG 21 1880

POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY.

CONDUCTED BY E. L. AND W. J. YOUMANS.

CONTENTS.

I. Comparative Jurisprudence. By WILLIAM M. IVINS..
VII. State Education: a Help or Hindrance? By the Hon. AUBERON
HERBERT

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...

PAGE

577

585

619

625

III. How Animals digest. By HERMAN L. FAIRCHILD. (Illustrated.) 600 IV. The Solar System and its Neighbors. By C. B. WARRING, Ph. D. 612 V. Legal Prosecutions of Animals. By WILLIAM JONES, F. S. A.... VI. Psychogenesis in the Human Infant. By Professor W. PREYER. VII. Climbing Plants. By FRANCIS DARWIN, F. L. S. (Illustrated.). VIII. Esthetic Feeling in Birds. By Professor GRANT ALLEN...... IX. Electricity and Agriculture. By Dr. PAGET HIGGS.... X. Zoological Education. By Professor W. S. BARNARD. XI. The English Precursors of Newton..

650

664

666

669

XII. Night-Schools in New York and Paris. By ALICE H. RHINE. 681 XIII. Sketch of Joseph Leidy. (With Portrait.).

684

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Entered at the Post-Office at New York, and admitted for transmission through the mails at second-class rates.

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