114
SCIENTIFIC.
desire to play with the other. Nevertheless they seemed afraid of each other and we shall probably not have the pleasure of following any games between these two champions at present.
Lukertort has been playing for sometime in the Manhattan rooms where he has had everything his own way. On October 21 he visited the stock exchange where he played with Moritz Meyer, the champion among the Bulls and Bears. Lukertort announced that he would compel his adversary to mate him with a certain pawn, and in spite of the most able efforts of Mr. Meyer he succeeded in half an hour
The growth of the Department of Natural History is most gratifying to the students and friends of the University, and is gaining for itself a national reputation.
We already have one of the finest entomological collections in the United States, if not the finest, and within the last few months Prof. Snow has discovered quite a number of new species of bugs.
Recently our University has received a fine collection of plants from Florida, and within the month we have obtained the finest collection of minerals west of the Mississippi, namely: the Cooper collection, 9500 specimens in all, also the best collection of Loup Fork fossils in this part of the west, collected by Mr. Sternberg. We have also received a large collection of plants from Illinois.
The Department of Physics has lately received a Becker & Son balance. These balances are the finest made and will weigh to one twentieth of a millogramme. A heliostat and a cathometer are on the road. The first is an instrument to keep a sunbeam on a certain spot which is arranged by means of a mirror and clock work. The cathometer is an instrument for the exact measurement of vertical hights, especially the measurement of the standard barometer.
It is a mounted telescope that slides up and down on a graduated scale and reads one twentieth millometers. An inclination compass or dipping needle has also been ordered.
Prof. Nichols is a tireless and energetic worker. In his lecture room he is always affable and courteous. His lectures are delivered without notes and are clear and forcible. He is just beginning his series of lectures on light and sound, which will be followed by his lectures on electricity.
The Department of Chemistry is unusually full this year, and much advanced work is being done. Already we have enough students in this department to fill our new building, which will be completed in about a month or so. But the policy is not so much to increase in number as to raise the standard, and increase the quality. We would say with the New York Sun, "The Preps. must go."
We are sorry to learn that Professor Sylvester of Johns Hopkins University has accepted the chair of Mathematics in one of the Oxford colleges. Professor Sylvester is the editor of the Journal of Mathematics which is the standard journal of that science in this country. He is the finest mathematician we have, if not the most brilliant in the world. His leaving this country is to be greatly regretted.
-A system of telegraphy called "trechontelegraphy" is reported to have been invented, by which trains in motion on the same rail can be put in connection with each other and with the approaching stations, or those passed. The advantages of this invention, if it proves a success, will be manifold.
Within three years the number of saw mills in Arkansas has increased from 319 to 1200. These are facts for the Forest Protectorate to consider.