Or eighty-eight species of weeds described by Mr. L. H. Pammel, of St. Louis, as growing in southwestern Wisconsin and southeastern Missouri, forty-six are of European and thirty of American origin. One third of the latter class, and nearly one fourth of the entire list, are composites. PATHOLOGISTS have believed for many years that the material cause for intermittent fever is generated in the soil, and acts through the air. The discovery by TommasiCrudelli and Klebs, in malarial soil, of a bacillus capable of producing febrile symptoms was competent to illustrate the agency of the soil in the matter, but did not pursue the malarious influence into the atmosphere. The last has now been done by Professor Schiavuzzi, of Pola, who has obtained a bacillus from the atmosphere, indistinguishable in structure from that of Tommasi-Crudelli, which also produces in animals the characteristic symptoms and pathological changes belonging to ague. THERE is an orange-tree in the gardens of the Palace of Versailles that is more than four hundred and fifty years old. It is called the Grand Constable, and was planted at Pampeluna, about 1416, by Eleanor of Castile, Queen of Charles III of Navarre. It was transplanted to Chantilly and Fontainebleau, and finally to Versailles in 1684. A NEW system of sewage works has been put into operation at IIenley-on-Thames, England. Its object is to avoid the discharge of the sewage into the river-which can no longer be allowed-and lift it to a level which will permit it to be used for irrigation. Ejectors are placed in different parts of the town to receive the sewage, and from there it is forced by compressed air into tanks about a mile distant, and 180 feet higher in elevation. The method is not costly, it is proved practicable, and it may offer a successful solution of the question of the disposal of the sewage of low-lying towns. THE English Home Secretary, recognizing corporal punishment as a fact, is giving attention to means of regulating it according to the physical condition of the child, so that it shall not bear too hard upon the weak. It is proposed to make the weight of the rod bear some proportion to the age of the child, and to permit the interposition of a medical veto in case of evident weak ness. A CONSIDERABLE extension of long-distance telephoning was effected during 1887. At the close of the year twenty-five circuits were at work between New York and Philadelphia, the chief points in Connecticut had been connected, and lines were projected to Worcester, Boston, Albany, and Washington. AN argument against allowing children to drink milk in the summer-time is drawn by Dr. V. C. Vaughn, of the University of Michigan, from the liability of the fluid to develop the poison-tyrotoxicon-which is supposed to be the immediate cause of summer diarrhoea. PROFESSORS LACHINOF and Jerofeief have found in a meteoric stone which fell at Krasnoslobodsk, Russia, in September, 1886, corpuscles possessing the principal characteristics of the diamond, in such quantity as to compose one per cent of the stone. Taken with the facts that amorphous graphitic carbon is a known constituent of meteoric irons and stones, and that crystals of graphitic carbon have been found in the meteoric iron from Western Australia, this observation may throw some light on the manner in which diamonds are formed. THE much despised agricultural laborer, says the Earl of Derby, who has learned to watch and understand the signs of the weather, to be knowing about stock, and who can use his hands skillfully, though he might be backward in book-learning, is quite as well instructed in any worthy sense as the prize prig stuffed with scraps of miscellaneous information, but knowing little at first hand, unaccustomed to observe, ignorant of animals, trees, flowers, or country life, and unskilled in any craft or in the handling of any tool. DR. A. RICHARDSON has found that at 500° C. nitrogen peroxide is decomposed into nitric oxide and oxygen, the gas becoming nearly colorless. THE theory that the increased brittleness of human bones with advancing years is organic salts, is contradicted by the experithe result of an increased percentage of in of the ash in bones of fifty subjects of different ages, he has found that after reaching manhood no variation in the quantity of ash takes place with increasing age. ments of Mr. Mason. From determinations OBITUARY NOTE. PROF. WILLIAM D. GUNNING, lecturer and writer on scientific subjects, died eighth year of his age. at Greeley, Col., March 8th, in the fiftyIle was born in Bloomingburg, Ohio, in 1830, was graduated from Oberlin College, studied in comparative anatomy in New York and in biology with Prof Agassiz, held lectureships in geology at Hillsdale College, Mich., and in Pittsburg, and was the author of a "Life History of Our Planet." He was also a contributor to "The Index" and to "The Open Court," and at the time of his death had been engaged as the pastor of the Unitarian Society in Greeley. S THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. JUNE, 1888. THE SURPLUS REVENUE. BY EDWARD ATKINSON. Is the United States now in receipt of a revenue derived from taxation in excess of a reasonable expenditure for conducting the functions of the Government and meeting the current annual expenses of the nation, the pensions and other like obligations already incurred? To this question a positive answer may be given. Yes. The surplus revenue of the United States, above the necessary expenses of the Government economically administered, is now at least $100,000,000 a year; and unless Congress at its present session takes some action for the reduction of the revenue, it may exceed ere long $150,000,000 each year. On the other hand, it may be asked, Would a private corporation consider itself in possession of a surplus revenue from its business, which it would be at liberty to deal with at its own pleasure, if it owed a large sum of money on demand and a still larger sum of money subject to be paid on demand within a short period of time? No sound business man could be found who would affirm that under such conditions a private corporation could make any more suitable use of the revenue received in excess of its necessary expenditure than to apply it to the payment of its debt due on demand, and to prepare the way for making payment of the debt soon to become due at a date fixed. If this reasoning be applied to the present condition of the United States, it will appear that the Government is not at the present time in the possession of a surplus revenue in any true sense. It owes on demand that sum of money which is represented by the evidences of debt, known as legal-tender notes, and commonly called greenbacks. VOL. XXXIII.-10 In order to be able to pay these notes on demand when demand is made, the treasury of the United States holds a special reserve of $100,000,000 in gold coin; but the amount of notes due is in round figures $350,000,000. The United States, therefore, owes substantially $250,000,000 on demand, for which it has as yet made no specific provision either in gold coin or to any considerable extent, even in silver coin which can be made available for such payments. The remainder of its gold held in the treasury above the special reserve of $100,000,000 is either subject to payment on demand in liquidation of gold certificates of deposits, or else it constitutes a part of the necessary daily balance of money necessary to the ordinary conduct of business. The larger part, if not the whole, of the silver dollars held by the treasury are held to meet the payment of the silver certificates which have been issued against them. There are, therefore, substantially $250,000,000 of United States notes due on demand, for which no specific provision has yet been made and to the payment of which the so-called surplus revenue could now be applied. Yet the public mind has become so accustomed to the common use of a debt currency, which under a fiction of law has been declared to be lawful money by the Supreme Court of the United States, as to have lost sight of the fact that the greenback or legal-tender note is not true money, but that it is an evidence of debt to be paid. Therefore, no consideration is given to the possible application of surplus revenue, so called, to such payment of these notes now due on demand. In order that this subject may be made clear, it becomes necessary to recur once more to the original purpose of the Government in issuing United States notes and compelling their acceptance as lawful money by means of the legal-tender act. These notes were issued in time of war for the purpose of collecting a forced loan and for no other purpose. The necessity for a forced loan has ceased; the revenue of the Government is in excess of its necessary expenditures. When the revenue derived from taxation is paid to the Government in its own notes, that forced loan, to the amount of such notes paid in, has been liquidated by way of taxation. Each note returned to the treasury in settlement of a tax becomes like a common bank-note when redeemed by the bank; it is a note paid. It is functus officio. Its reissue by the treasury of the United States is in fact the collection of a new forced loan without authority of law under any act authorizing such a new loan, without necessity, without benefit to any one, and with positive danger to the whole community. If the executive officers of the United States were to take the ground that these notes should not be reissued when they had once been paid into the treasury of the United States in settle |