SCIENCE.

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 3103, 8 June 1881, Page 4

SCIENCE.

It is obviovsly important that all possible information in regard to manners, customs, and characteristics of the various existing tribes of North American Indians should be collected at once, as tho spread of civilisation tends rapidly to assimilate their methods of living to those of the white man and with each generation perishes tho memory of many facts which would be of interest to tho anthropologist. Mr Edwards .B. Tylor, F.R.S., in an address which he delivered on retiring from the presidency of the Anthropological Institute, praised the methods adopted in the United States for collecting sush information as we have mentioned, and expressed his regretthat Canada, which was so wise in the practical management of Indian affairs, was so far behind this country in acquiring scientific knowledge concerning the natives.

Some notes on the Japanese lap-dog are furnished to tho latest number of the American Naturalist by Professor E.D. Cope, of Philadelphia. This species of the canine genius invariably lacks the inferior premolar tooth. It is inferior to other species in the senses of sight and smell. "It cannot follow its master through a crowded street, and is readily lost, even on oj)en ground, where opportunities for sight arc good. As house dogs they are cleanly, and in certain directions intelligent. They do not learn tricks easily, but seem to understand the disposition and wishes of their master very readily." The fact that they aro rather disposed to bite persons is an objection to keeping them in the households where there are children.

We learn from the American Journal of Science and Arts that the obssrvations made tinder the direction of the United States Coast and Geodetic Survey, to establish the relation between British and American standards of weights and measure, have resulted in the following conclusions : (1.) The standards of weights in Great Britain and tbe United States do not differ. (2.) Neither do the standards of length. (3.) The United States standard of volume are the same as those which wero established by law in Great Britain prior to 1826. (4.) The relation of British and American standards to the French metric standard is defined by law with sufficient accuracy for ordinary purposes, but not with that extreme precision required in careful scientific measurements.

Professor Bobert S. Ball, Astronomer Royal for Ireland, has lately been lecturing on the distances of tho stars. According to Sir John Hcrschel, " the greatest and most glorious triumph which practical astronomy has ever witnessed " was Bessel's measurement, fifty years ago, of the distance of the 6tar known as 61 Oygni. He made it sixty billions of miles, but this was reduced to forty billions by Struvo, a result which has been confirmed by Professor Ball's own observations. The lecturer referred to the motions of the stars, and said that many of those now seen were probably too far off in ancient geological times to have been visible then. Spectrum analysis, in the hands of Dr William Huggins, lias added much to our knowledge of stellar movements. A large majority of writers who have recently been discussing the various methods which might be adopted to prevent fogs in London, agree in attributing the frequency and persistency of these fogs chiefly to the influence exerted by the smoky particles in the atmosphere. Mr W. H. Stone, waiting in the Popular Science Keview (quarterly, London), dissents from this conclusion, lie thinks the fogs are properly to be ascribed. to climatic conditions, although the presence of carbon in the air may intensify and darken the mist. He recommends the burning of a rather richer form of coke than is at present in use, which will make cheerful fires and still give off less smoke than coal. The consumption of coal in London is stated to be five millions of tons a year. Sir George Airy, the Astronomer Eoyal for England, has written a letter in reference to the endowment of scientific research in which he says that successful researches have in nearly every instance originated with private persons or with persons whose position were so nearly private that the investigators acted under private influence, without intfurfhlg the dangers attending connection with the government. He predicts that attempts to sustain investigations of undefined character and doubtful utility at the public expense will result in consequences injurious to science.

According to Mr Luther Holden, -who delivered the Hunterian oration this year, John Hunter, the great English physician, led a life of almost complete idleness before he went to London, and gave absolutely no promise of his subsequent distinction. One of the most noteworthy achievements of the late Mr Frank Buckland was his discovery of the remains of John Hunter in the parish church where they had been buried, and whence, through his efforts, they were transferred to Westminster Abbey.

The report of the State Geological Survey of Pennsylvania upon the celebrated Bradford oil district, near the New York line, Bhows that the depth of the petroleum wells there is in nearly all cases at least eleven hundred feet. The yield of oil has ranged from seventy-five barrels a day in the entire district in 1874, to fifty-eight thousand barrels a day for- the year ending with last June.

Astronomers in Great Britain have been requested by the Royal Society (London) to loan their telescopes to be used in observing the transit of the planet Venus next year. The instruments wanted are four inch' five-inch and six-inch refractors, and ten-inch and twelve-inch reflectors.

_ Two cases of poisoning by eating mouldy bis2uits have occurred in French cavalry horses in Algeria. This fact is of some importance to those who feed animals with spoiled provisions, as there aro several vegetable moulds that are very poisonous. Even pigs have been killed by mouldy bread.

Dr B. A. Gould, of Boston, director of the government observatory at Cordova in the Argentine Republic, lias been chosen a member of the astronomical section of *' French Academy of Sciences. - 111