----------------+-------------------------+-------------------------
| PIG IRON. | STEEL.
COUNTRIES. +------------+------------+------------+------------
| 1897. | 1898. | 1897. | 1898.
----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
United States | 9,807,123 | 11,962,817 | 7,289,300 | 9,045,815
United Kingdom | 8,980,088 | 8,769,249 | 4,559,736 | 4,639,042
Germany | 6,889,087 | 7,402,717 | 5,091,294 | 5,784,807
+------------+------------+------------+------------
Total | 25,626,296 | 28,134,383 | 16,940,330 | 19,418,664
| | | |
Austria-Hungary | 1,205,000 | 1,250,000 | 553,000 | 605,500
Belgium | 1,024,666 | 982,748 | 616,604 | 658,130
Canada | 41,500 | 46,880 | -- | --
France | 2,472,143 | 2,584,427 | 1,281,595 | 1,441,638
Italy | 12,500 | 12,850 | 57,250 | 58,750
Russia | 1,857,000 | 2,228,850 | 831,000 | 1,095,000
Spain | 282,171 | 261,799 | 121,800 | 112,605
Sweden | 533,800 | 570,550 | 268,300 | 289,750
All other | 450,000 | 545,000 | 310,000 | 355,000
+------------+------------+------------+------------
Grand total | 33,506,076 | 36,507,487 | 20,979,179 | 24,030,032
----------------+------------+------------+------------+------------
[C] A metric ton is about 2,200 pounds.
* * * * *
Although fewer casual members or members for the year than usual were
present at the recent meeting of the British Association at Dover, the
attendance of distinguished men of science and of active scientific
workers, according to the London Times, seemed to be greater. And so
far as the proper work of the association is concerned, the meeting
should take a high rank. Excellent and serious work was done in all the
sections.
* * * * *
A paper has been published by Pliny T. Sexton, of Palmyra, N. Y.,
setting forth reasons for favoring the unification of the whole
educational system of the State of New York under the jurisdiction of
a single board--that of the Regents of the University. The reasons
are presented in the form of various newspaper articles which were
published last year against a proposition of an opposite character--to
abolish the present Department of Public Instruction and create a State
Commission of Education, the affiliations of which would be political.
Mr. Sexton has further offered two prizes of one hundred dollars each
for articles or essays by women and similar productions by men in
support of the proposed unification.
* * * * *
M. Hildebert Richard, of Avignon, France, relates that he experimented
upon two adult geranium plants, both healthy and of vigorous growth,
under like conditions of exposure, watering one (A) with well water and
the other (B) with water containing a measured proportion of butylic
alcohol daily. A kept on with its healthy growth. B, after four days of
alcoholization, showed an enfeebled growth, with symptoms of jaundice,
drowsiness, and intoxication; a special odor perceptible in all parts
of the plant, partially burned spots, and melanosis and geotropism in
the leaves.
* * * * *
In his papers on The Art and Customs of Benin, Mr. Ling Roth concludes
that the art of that savage land consists of mixed elements, partly
European forms which the native mind was prone to copy, partly
introduced from other parts of Africa. It is characterized by boldness,
freedom, clearness in execution, originality, and variety. Among
the customs he mentions are the practice of human sacrifice and the
sprinkling of the blood of the animals killed at the periodical
sacrifices on the ivories and on the cast-iron or bronze figure-heads
placed on the altars. When there was too much rain, a woman had a
message saluting the rain god put into her mouth. She was then killed
and set up in the execution tree, so that the rain might see.
* * * * *
Our scientific obituary list of the month includes the names of Sir
William Dawson, the distinguished Canadian geologist, of whom a fuller
notice is given in another place; Dr. Luther Dana Woodbridge, Professor
of Anatomy and Physiology in Williams College, at Williamstown,
Mass., of heart disease, November 3d, aged forty-nine years; Dr.
Oscar Baumann, African explorer, geographer to the Austrian Congo
Expedition of 1885, who made studies for the projected railroad from
Tanga to Karog; Dr. F. Kuhla, botanical explorer, at Manáos, Brazil;
Percy B. Pilcher, inventor of flying machines, from an accident while
experimenting, September 2d; Professor Hayduck, Privat Docent in
Chemistry in Berlin; M. A. Snow, Instructor in Entomology in Leland
Stanford Junior University, drowned October 10th in San Francisco
Harbor; he had also been Instructor in Entomology in the Universities
of Kansas and of Illinois, and was the author of several systematic
papers on _Diptera_; Prof. J. B. Carnoy, of the Catholic University
of Louvain, author of _Biologie Cellulaire_ and of papers on the
development of sexual elements, and founder of the journal _La
Cellule_, at Schuls, Switzerland, September 6th; Dr. A Ernst, Director
of the National Museum, Caracas, Venezuela; Dr. Edward Petri, Professor
of Geography and Anthropology in the University of St. Petersburg, aged
forty-five years; Dr. Ottmar Mergenthaler, inventor of the linotype
type machine, in Baltimore, Md., October 28th; and Dr. Henry Hicks,
an English geologist and Lyell medalist, at Hendon, England, November
18th, aged sixty-two years.