the Society. Still, as we have no general summary of events into which the list should come naturally, we take this opportunity of publishing it. It is one that contains some names which we did not expect to see, and others which we as certainly did, but which have not been yet enrolled. The following is the list:-William Aitken, M.D.; Sir Alexander Armstrong, M.D.; Robert Stawell Ball, LL.D.; John Beddoe, B.A., M.D.; Frederic Joseph Bramwell, C.E.; Staff-Captain Edward Kilwick Calver, R.N.; Robert Lewis John Ellery; Lieut.-Colonel James Augustus Grant, C.B., C.S.I.; Clements Robert Markham, C.B.; George Edward Paget, M.D., D.C.L., LL.D.; George West Royston Pigott, M.A., M.D.; Osbert Salvin: Hon. John William Strutt; Henry Woodward, F.G.S., F.Z.S.; James Young.

Artificial Fibrin as a Dietetic Substance.-The "Chemical News" of May 23 publishes a letter by Dr. John Goodman, on this compound, which he thinks of considerable value as food. It is formed by exposing albuminous material to the operation or influence of cold water for a given period; and, on account of its great plenteousness, he employs the ordinary hen's egg for its production. When the shell is broken and removed, and its contents are immersed in cold water for some twelve hours or so, it is found to undergo a chemico-molecular change, and to become solid and insoluble. This change is indicated by the assumption, by the transparent "white of the egg," of an opaque and snowy-white appearance, which far surpasses that of the ordinary egg. The product and the fluid in which it is immersed must now be submitted to the action of heat to the boiling-point, when the fibrin will be found ready for use.

Experiments on a Guillotined Subject. The French "Gazette Hebdomadaire" (in an early number) contains an account of M. Onimus' experiments, detailed this year to the Paris "Société de Biologie: ' M. Onimus mentioned that he had had an opportunity to verify several physiological facts on the body of a man who had been guillotined. The external intercostals raise the ribs, the internal intercostals lower them, demonstrating the correctness of Bamberger's theory. The peronæus longus brings down the internal edge of the foot, at the same time acting to some extent as an extensor and abductor, as Duchenne has shown. The loss of contractility in the muscles takes place in the following order: The muscles of the tongue, the diaphragm, and those of the face, are the first to fail to react to electric excitement, though the masseter holds out a long time; in the limbs the extensors fail before the flexors; the muscles which preserve their excitability longest are those of the trunk. The form of muscular contraction varies as the contractility lessens. It is interesting to remark that the order in which the muscles become inactive is analogous to that of leadparalysis.

Can the Infant digest Starch?-This very important question is answered in the negative by an Italian Physician. It has been known that the saliva of newly-born animals has not the power of transforming starch into sugar. A recent experimenter has taken the pancreas from kittens and puppies, and has ascertained that the pancreatic juice in these animals when young is, like the saliva, incapable of converting starch into sugar. The bearing of this fact on the practice of giving starchy food to very young infants is obvious.

Analysis of the Air of Public Schools in America.-The "Sanitarian,” a New York Journal, of which the present is the first number, and is most creditably got up in every respect, says that from their public schools Dr. Endemann obtained seventeen samples of air, the examination of which determined the presence of carbonic acid, varying in amounts from 9.7 to 35.7 parts in 10,000; or, in other words, from more than twice to nearly nine times the normal quantity. The ventilation in these buildings is generally faulty, and can be obtained only by opening the windows-a practice detrimental to the health of the children who sit near or directly under them. The following experiment, made in the Roosevelt Street School, shows the inefficiency of ventilating flues in the wall unprovided with means for creating an upward current. An examination of the air in one of the class-rooms provided with a ventilating flue was made while one of the windows was opened, and yielded 17.2 parts of carbonic acid in 10,000. The window was then closed, and after the lapse of ten minutes another examination gave 32.2 parts of carbonic acid, or an increase of 15.6 parts. The experiment now became to the teacher and children so oppressive that it was not continued. Dr. Endemann says: "If the accumulation of carbonic acid had been allowed to continue, we might have reached within one hour the abominable figure of 110."

Measuring the Chest.-Dr. Fröhlich, of Dresden, gives the following simple rules for measuring the chest, with the useful object of securing uniformity of proceeding, whether for recruits, for statistical purposes, or for personal examinations: "Medical Record," March 26th. The person to be examined should stand in an unconstrained position before the physician, breathing with his mouth shut, and should raise both arms, stretching them out horizontally. A tape not broader than 1 cm. (about of an inch) should be placed around the chest directly under the inferior angles of the scapula behind and the nipple in front, and should then be read off, first after the deepest inspiration and then after the deepest expiration, and both data recorded. The author then sums up the results which he has obtained by this method of observation, of which some of the more important are as follows. The average circumference of the chest measured in 725 healthy men, twenty years of age, was, after deepest inspiration, 89 cm. (about 35 inches), and after deepest expiration, 82 cm. (about 324 inches), the average play of the chest being thus 7 cm. A circumference of only 75 cm. (29 inches), indicates what the author calls an unripe chest, and should exclude the person from military service. A circumference of 750-759 mm. should, under, exceptional circumstances, be considered sufficient for military service, but when it reaches 760 mm. (30 inches), if the person is otherwise healthy, then it ought to suffice.

Death of Baron Justus von Liebig.-It is with the deepest and most sincere regret that we have to announce the death of this celebrated chemist, whom our readers will remember by the fact that the articles which introduced the now well-known "Liebig's Food" into this country were written for this journal by the Baron himself. We have, therefore, much sorrow in announcing the death of this well-known and distinguished savant, whom we saw quite well about a year since in a trip to Bavaria. Baron Liebig died on Friday, April 18th, at the age of sixty-nine, in Munich, where,

for the last twenty years, he had been Professor of Chemistry. Having attracted the notice of Alexander von Humboldt by a paper on Fulminic Acid, he was appointed in 1824 extraordinary professor, and in 1826 ordinary professor of chemistry in the University of Giessen. There he established a school for practical chemistry which obtained a world-wide reputation, and was attended by large numbers of pupils, many of whom have since become distinguished. In 1852 he became Professor of Chemistry, with charge of the chemical laboratory, at Munich. His works and papers on subjects connected with chemistry are very numerous. In this country, his "Organic Chemistry in its Application to Physiology and Pathology," "Organic Chemistry in its Applications to Agriculture," "Familiar Letters on Chemistry," and his "Natural Laws of Husbandry," which appeared in 1863, are among the best known. The hereditary dignity of baron was conferred on him by the Grand Duke of Hesse in 1845. In recent years, his name has become familiarly connected with the utilisation, in the form of the well-known "Liebig's extract of meat," of the meat of animals slaughtered in large numbers in South America for the sake of their hides and fat. His funeral was attended by all the civil and military authorities of Munich, including the judges and magistrates, and the professors of the colleges in the city, as well as by a large concourse of the inhabitants.

METALLURGY, MINERALOGY, AND MINING.

Analysis of an Aventurine-Orthoclase.-This orthoclase, which has been found by Professor Leeds and is fully described in a late number of "Silliman's American Journal," is of a delicate flesh-red hue, which is due entirely to the embedded crystalline scales of what has been supposed to be göthite. The stone itself is translucent and quite colourless. The results obtained in two analyses were :—

African Diamond Dust.—At a recent meeting of the California Academy of Sciences Mr. Hanks presented samples of the diamond deposit of South Africa, brought from thence by J. H. Riley-one of the first layer which has to be pierced to get to the diamond deposit, another of the deposit in which the diamonds are found, and another of pebbles found associated with the diamonds. The last, it was remarked, bore great similarity to the pebbles found at the mouth of the Klamath river, where microscopic diamond dust was found; also at the Pescadero, Santa Cruz county.

Finding a Corundum Mine.-In a late number of the "Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Science," Philadelphia, it is stated that Professor Leidy remarked that he had visited a corundum mine, recently opened on the farm of Mr. George Ball, in the vicinity of Unionville, Chester Co., Pa. The accumulation is perhaps the most extraordinary discovered, and its extent yet remains unknown. Detached crystals of corundum have often been found in the ploughed fields and roadsides of the neighbourhood, and also masses or boulders of the same material have been discovered on the surface of the ground or buried in the local drift covering the deeper rocks. In several instances boulders of nearly pure corundum have been found in the locality up to several tons in weight. The corundum, as exposed to view at the bottom of a trench, appears as the crest of a large body or vein lying between a decomposing gneiss and a white talcose schist. The vein appears to extend in a western direction, and towards the east turns at an obtuse angle to the north-east. The exposed portion may probably reach twenty or more feet, and averages about six feet in depth and five feet in thickness at bottom, and is estimated to contain about fifty tons. How much further the vein extends west and north-east, and how far it reaches in depth and thickness, can only be determined by future mining. It looks as if it promised to be the most valuable deposit of corundum ever found.

A Prize for an Improved Mode of Burning Coal.-The Council of the Society of Arts has had placed at its disposal the sum of 5007., by an anonymous person, through Sir W. Bodkin, for encouraging the discovery of improved modes of using coal. The Council, on this account, have offered the following prizes:-1. For a new and improved system of grate, suitable to existing chimneys as generally constructed, which shall, with the least amount of coal, answer best for warming and ventilating a room.—The Society's gold medal and fifty pounds. 2. For a new and improved system of grate, suitable to existing chimneys as generally constructed, which shall, with the least amount of coal, best answer for cooking food, combined with warming and ventilating the room.-The Society's gold medal and fifty pounds. 3. For the best new and improved system of apparatus which shall, by means of gas, most efficiently and economically warm and ventilate a room. The Society's gold medal and fifty pounds. 4. For the best new and improved system of apparatus which shall, by means of gas, be best adapted for cooking, combined with warming and ventilating the room.— The Society's gold medal and fifty pounds. 5. For any new and improved system or arrangement not included in the foregoing, which shall efficiently and economically meet domestic requirements.-The Society's gold medal and fifty pounds.

Tables for the Determination of Minerals.-This excellent work, which is a German one, is by Franz Von Kobell, and is published at Munich (München), by Herr J. Lindauer. It is now in its tenth edition, and is invaluable to the student of mineralogy.

Diamonds in Californian Sands.-The "Chemical News" of May 30, says that Professor Silliman, having received from Mr. Trendwell, of San Francisco, a small parcel of the sand resulting from the hydraulic treatment of ores, found, on examination with the microscope, that they abounded in fine colourless zircons of the form of those of Expailly, along with crystals of

topaz, fragments of quartz, grains of chromic acid (chrome-iron ?) and titanic acid, and globular bodies of a very high refractive power, which he believes to be diamonds. Mr. J. Torry, in a single sample of the sands washed from the gold ores of Nicaragua, found twenty mineral species, some of them very rare.

A Huge Diamond.-We learn from "Silliman's Journal" for April, that a diamond weighing 288 carats, and of the first water, was found Nov. 6, 1872, at Waldeck's Placer, Vaal river, South Africa, by Robert Spaulding's party. It is stated to measure about 1 inch in diamater. If this statement is confirmed, the Waldeck-Spaulding diamond is among the largest rough diamonds of which we have mention. The Regent weighed 410 carats (1361 cut), and the Great Mogul 780 carats (279 cut). A diamond in the possession of the Rajah of Maltan, in Borneo, weighs 367 carats; the Nizam belonging to the King of Golconda weighs 340 carats. The "American Mining and Scientific Press " of Feb. 22, gives a figure of the Waldeck-Spaulding stone, taken from a photograph, which shows its form to be an irregular octahedron.

Herr F. Hessenberg's Mineralogical Researches are of great interest and are not yet completed. In No. 11 (which is in vol. viii. of the "Proceedings of the Senckenberg Nat. Hist. Society of Frankfort "), he continues his crystallographic researches. He describes crystals of perofskite from Pfitschthal, of calc spar from Iceland and Andreasberg, and others of sphene and axinite; indicating for sphene some evidence of hemimorphism.

MICROSCOPY.

4000

Structure of Eupodiscus Argus.-According to Mr. Samuel Wells (U.S.A.), who has a paper on this subject in the "Monthly Microscopical Journal" for March. He says that the valve of Eupodiscus Argus is remarkable for its opacity, its thickness being about "; it presents therefore, a beautiful appearance as an opaque object with a binocular. The structure of the outer or convex surface can be readily made out with a low power. It is dotted with depressions irregular in size, shape, and arrangement; between these depressions the surface rises in ridges, which glisten and sparkle like fresh snow. No arrangement of light (except transmitted) varies this appearance. The depressions are unmistakable, and, as appears by the use of the binocular, and the examinations of the edges of fragments, are pockets extending nearly, but not quite, through the valve. The average diameter of these depressions is about". The inner or concave surface is much more difficult of resolution; its structure is quite different to that of the convex surface. It is nearly smooth, has no ridges, and (probably) no granulation. It is covered with round dots, radiating irregularly from the centre, and leaving irregular blank spaces between the rows. It is probably this surface that is figured by Mr. Slack, who makes no mention of any difference between the two surfaces, but appears to have made the drawing from a specimen on Möller's typen platte. In my typen platte there are the eighteen-corner Eupodisci, and three others, and all were mounted concave side up, which is the easiest mode of making them