The Supreme Court of the State has decided that the 28th and 29th days of February must be counted in legal and commercial affairs as one day. The decision is in these words: แ It must be regarded as settled in this State that the 28th and 29th days of February in every bissextile year must be computed and considered in law as one day. It has been held by this Court that the English statute-21 Henry III.-is in force in this State. This statute, speaking of the 29th day of February, in leapyear, provides, Computitur dies ille et dies proxime præcedens pro unico die." (And that day as well as the day next preceding shall be computed as one day.) This English statute is recognized as a part of the law governing this State. The service of the summons was not sufficient in law to justify either the default entered or the judgment rendered. ficial results anticipated from the administration of such an officer, one is that it will have a good effect in setting at rest existing troubles between mine-owners and operatives. The law requires that the officer shall be a resident of the State, a practical miner of not less than twelve years' experience, two of which shall have been spent in digging and mining coal in the State; and he is not to be at the time of his appointment pecuniarily interested in any coal-mine within the State, directly or indirectly. On entering upon his duties he is to execute a bond of $10,000, to be filed with the Secretary of State, and take an oath of office. The Mine Inspector is to have his office in some central part of the mining district, is to In the case of the Chicago, Danville, and be paid a fee of $5 for each semi-annual in- Vincennes Railroad Company, the Supreme spection of a mine, and is to have power to Court of the United States decided "that the enter, examine, and inspect coal-mines, ma- Court may, as condition of appointing receiver, chinery, etc., the owner or agent being re- provide for claims for back pay, materials, etc., quired to furnish facilities for such inspection, and that when money which the Court may failure or refusal to do so being declared a apply for back dues is used for the betterments, misdemeanor punishable by a fine of $100. the Court may, in proper cases, provide for The Mine Inspector is to devote his whole such debts out of proceeds of sale to extent of time and attention to the duties of his office, such diversion. Title to cars remains in conand to collect and make tabulated statements of ditional vendor as between him and mortga certain facts in relation to the yearly produc- gees." tion of coal, methods of operating mines, amount of capital and number of men employed, and such other information as he may deem necessary, together with his opinion in regard to the condition of the mines as to safety and ventilation, all of which is to be set forth in an annual report to the Governor. The INDUCTION-BALANCE, HUGHES'S. By arranging two primary coils of equal size near each other, each with a secondary coil beside it, the induction-current induced in the one secondary coil by the passage of a current of electricity through the adjacent primary coil may be made to exactly neutralize and balance a similar current induced in the other secondary coil. An instrument of the most delicate sensitiveness has been constructed by Professor E. D. Hughes, the English electrician, on this principle. A microphone is placed in the primary circuit, and a telephonic receiver is connected with the secondary coil. To this instrument he gives the name of the induction-balance. One of its modifications is the sonometer, an instrument which promises to be of considerable practical value. sonometer is constructed by placing two primary coils in a horizontal position at a distance of forty centimetres apart. A secondary coil midway between them is so arranged that it can be moved to one side or the other along a graduated bar divided into millimetres. The primary coils have similar poles facing each other, so that a secondary current induced in the movable coil by one of them would take the opposite direction from the induction-current produced by the other, and in a certain position of the secondary coil the two forces would exactly counterbalance each other; no current would pass, and the telephone could not be made to emit the slightest sound. When the two primary currents are equal in intensity, the neutral position for the secondary is exactly half way between them. When the coil is slid the least distance to either side of the neutral point, a sound is produced which increases as the coil is pushed farther to the side. The sonometer is capable, therefore, of measuring the intensity of sound, as the sound increases in the exact ratio of the distance from the neutral point, which distance is indicated on the graduated rod. When the secondary currents are in equilibrium, if a piece of metal is placed in either of the primary coils of an induction-balance, the balance is disturbed, and a sound can be immediately heard on the telephone. Bringing then a sonometer connected with the induction-balance into circuit by means of a circuit-changing key, and moving the sliding coil from the neutral position to such a distance that the same degree of sound is heard as on the telephone of the induction-balance, so that by moving the key up or down and connecting either telephone with the circuit, no difference in the intensity of the sound can be detected; then the exact amount of the disturbance caused by the piece of metal is measured on the gradnated scale of the sonometer. Experiments show that the sounds produced by the same piece of metal remain constant, but that different metals and different masses of the same metal produce different sounds, as also the same piece of metal in different molecular conditions. As every metal has its own soundmeasure, which is always the same for equal weights and coincides with that of no other metal, the sonometer may be employed in detecting the nature of samples of metals of unknown character. Standard gold gives a different degree of sound from any of the alloys used in imitating coin, so that counterfeit pieces can be instantly detected by the aid of the sonometer. When two genuine coins are placed one in each primary coil, the equilibrium is maintained; but with a debased coin in one and a standard coin in the other of the coils, the telephone will give forth a sound. The sensitiveness of the instrument is so keen that when a freshly coined shilling is balanced against one which is the least worn, or even rubbed in the hand, a sound is produced by the microphone. Experiments made upon various alloys with the induction-balance and sonometer in the British Mint, by Chandler Roberts, proved the instrument to be so extremely sensitive that it may be of practical use to the assayer. The slightest alloy of silver in gold or of gold in silver was indicated by the sonometer. The sound-measuring part of the instrument has been employed successfully by Dr. B. W. Richardson in testing the hearing powers. When employed for this purpose, the sonometer is called the audiometer. The graduated bar is divided into two hundred parts. It was found that a person who hears the sound perfectly well when the coil is in a certain position may not be able to detect the slightest trace of sound when it is reduced by moving the coil only two degrees toward the center. Right-handed people hear best with the right ear, and left-handed people with the left ear. When the barometer stood at thirty inches Dr. Richardson was able to detect sounds when the coil was removed the minutest distance from the zero, but could not hear within two degrees of the zero when the mercury was lower. Deaf persons can decide through the audiometer upon the value of different kinds of artificial drums. Dr. Richardson concludes that the best material for artificial drums is fine gold. In one case, where the natural tympanum had been destroyed, the introduction of a gold drum had the effect to improve the hearing by fifty of the two hundred degrees on the measured scale. The audiometer enables the aurist to decide, also, whether a case of partial deafness is caused by a defect in the ear itself, or whether it is throat-deafness caused by a closure of the Eustachian tube. The audiometer can not fail to prove of high value in determining the qualifications of persons for positions on railways, for example, where great acuteness of hearing is required. INTEROCEANIC CANAL, THE. The International Congress for the study of the Interoceanic Canal met at Paris, in the rooms of the Geographical Society, May 15, 1879. The Congress was opened by Baron de la Roncière de Noury. Count Ferdinand de Lesseps was elected President; Commodores Ammen, of the United States Navy, and Likhatscheff, of the Russian Navy, Colonel of Engineers Sir John Stokes, of the British Army, and Cristoforo Negri, Italian Minister Plenipotentiary, were chosen Vice-Presidents; Henri Bionne, General Secretary; and Boissevin, H. Capitaine, J. Jackson, and Charles Wiener, Secretaries. Five committees were appointed: one on statistics, to estimate the probable traffic of the canal and the tonnage which would pass through it, as well as the probable share of each nation in the traffic; the second on economical and commercial questions, which should consider the advantages and saving in the costs of transportation which would accrue to each nation from the use of the canal, and the influence which it would exercise upon the commerce of each country through opening new markets and increasing trade and industry; the third on navigation, to consider the class of vessels which would be likely to frequent the canal and the adaptation of the canal to the requirements of navigation and commerce, the influence which the canal would have on naval architecture, the influence of the prevailing winds and oceancurrents on the frequentation of the canal, the meteorological and climatic conditions of the Isthmus, and the influence of these conditions upon the conservation of the canal; a fourth on technical questions, for the technical examination of the different routes, the estimation of the cost of construction, the annual cost of working, the annual cost of maintenance and repairs, the facility and security of navigation in the canal and harbor approaches; the fifth on ways and means, to estimate from the probable traffic the probable gross revenue, and to study the sum which should reasonably be applied to the construction and maintenance of the canal in view of the possible traffic. and the republics of Central America, and their commerce in the above-cited products, as well as in vegetable ivory, cotton, alpaca-fleeces, sugar, cinchona and other barks, and vegetable essences, metals, and tropical food-products. Central America, particularly, would find for the first time a vent for its rich productions -a region which is not only the natural home of the most valuable vegetable products, such as cotton and other fibrous materials, coffee, cocoa, sugar, indigo, cochineal, rice, maize, caoutchouc, the finest cabinet and dye woods, and a thousand other choice products, but which contains a great variety of undeveloped mineral resources, iron, copper, lead, gold, silver, sulphur, and precious stones, and the other valuable minerals which are known to exist there. The nation, however, which would derive the most immediate benefit from the interoceanic canal would be the United States. As 79 per cent. of the commerce which passes through the Suez Canal is in the hands of the English, so the Americans would monopolize the navigation of the new gateway between the oceans. The Committee on Statistics, in its report, recommended a canal cut down to the level of the sea, and without locks, as the only profitable plan, as no canal with locks would be able to accommodate a traffic sufficiently great to yield a revenue which would return an ordinary rate of dividends to the stockholders. The minimum paying traffic at the toll-tariff proposed of 15 francs per ton was estimated at 6,000,000 tons per annum, or an average traffic of 8 ships of 2,050 tons per diem. This traffic would not be distributed evenly over the year. A traffic of 6,000,000 tons per annum would correspond to one of perhaps 16 ships a day during the commercial season, which during the busiest season, that succeeding the Californian wheat-harvest, would increase probably to an average of 24 ships daily. The only profitable kind of a canal, therefore, would be one which could allow of the passage of at least 50 vessels a day for many days together. The passage of an oceanvessel through a lock would occupy probably The Committee on Navigation recommended two hours at the least calculation one hour- that the canal should have a minimum depth allowing from half an hour to an hour for the of 8.3 metres, and a breadth of 25 metres at filling and emptying of the lock-chamber, and the bottom and of 70 metres at the surface, as much time for the slowing of speed when which could be lessened to 30 metres in the approaching the lock and the time required in rocky parts. If a canal with locks should be getting under way again after leaving it. A decided upon, these should have a width at the single lock would therefore limit the number gates of 22 metres and a length of 150 metres. of ships which could pass through in a day of The locks should be so limited in number and 24 hours to from 12 to 24. The amount of so disposed as to allow of the passage through traffic which would naturally have passed the canal of 50 vessels per diem. If the canal through the canal in 1876, had it been com- at sea-level should be chosen, the same width pleted, was 4,830,000 tons, 3,500,000 tons should be adopted, as it would be necessary to from one side and 1,330,000 tons from the accommodate sailing vessels as well as steamers. other. The increase in the commerce of the The Technical Committee, to which the excountries to whose ports the canal would be amination of the various schemes was conthe avenue has been 6 per cent. per annum fided, reported in favor of the route between for the past fifteen years. Calculating the fu- the Gulf of Limon and the Bay of Panama, ture annual increase at only 5 per cent., the and recommended the construction of a canal probable traffic of the canal in the year 1887, without locks at the tide-level. the date at which the canal might reasonably be expected to be opened, would amount to 7,250,000 tons, 5,250,000 tons from one side and 2,000,000 tons from the other. The Committee on Economical and Commercial Questions dwelt in its report on the shortening of the distance between the ports of the Atlantic and those on the western side of the American Continent, and between the Atlantic seaboard of the United States and the countries of the Orient and islands of the Pacific. The distance from Liverpool, Havre, or New York to San Francisco by sea is now 18,000 miles. Not only would the cocoa, the guano, the copper, the niter, and the wool of South America, and the wheat and other products of California, reach their markets by a much shorter voyage, but the storms of Cape Horn and the calms of the equinox would be avoided. The countries which would most profit by the canal would be the Pacific states of South America The Committee on Ways and Means, calculating on the basis of a prime cost of 600,000,000 francs, to be expended during a period of construction of eight years, and upon a gross revenue of 90,000,000 francs per annum from an average traffic of 6,000,000 tons at the rate of 15 francs per ton, estimated that there would remain an annual surplus of 42,000,000 francs after deducting 37,500,000 francs, interest on the total invested capital of 750,000,000 francs at 5 per cent., 6,000,000 for the annual cost of maintenance and operation, and 4,500,000 for the royalty to be paid to the state granting the right of way, taken at 5 per cent. of the gross revenue. It advised the employment of the negroes of the West Indies and Louisiana in building the canal. It recommended that the rate of toll should not exceed a maximum of 15 francs per ton, which is 50 per cent. greater than the tariff of the Suez Canal, and corre sponds to the greater cost of the present under taking. The sentiment was approved that the canal should be declared absolutely neutral and free to all, notwithstanding any existing state of war. At the closing session, on the 19th of May, the Congress voted in favor of the route recommended by the Technical Committee. The terms of the conclusion adopted were: "The Congress considers that the cutting of an interoceanic canal at the tide-water level, so desirable in the interest of commerce and navigation, is possible; and that this ship-canal, in order to secure the facilities of access and passage which such a channel ought indispensably to afford, should take the course from the Gulf of Limon to the Bay of Panama." The plan recommended by Henri Bionne was adopted with greater unanimity than was expected. In the division, out of 98 voters, 74 voted in favor of it, and 8 against, while 16 members abstained from voting. The routes which were submitted to the consideration of the Congress were five in number: 1. The route across the Isthmus of Te huantepec, 148 miles long, and requiring 120 locks, taking a vessel 12 days to make the passage; 2. The Nicaragua route, 180 miles it length, requiring 17 locks, and taking 4 days for the passage; for which route two projects were submitted, the American plan elaborated by Lull and Menocal, and one by the French engineers Wyse and Reclus; 3. The route across the Isthmus of Panama, length 45 miles, for which the same American engineers proposed a canal with locks, but the French engineers a deep tide-level cutting, with a tunnel 5 miles long, the plan which was adopted by the Congress; 4. The route by the Isthmus of San Blas, another project of a tide-level canal, 33 miles in length, and time of passage 1 day; 5. The Atrato-Napipi route, with a length of 179 miles, requiring 3 locks, and 2 days for the passage. The number of projects from which the Congress had to choose was seven, or with the alternate Panama plan of Wyse-Reclus, eight, of which the following tabular statement gives the main features of character, cost, and construction: 18 1 sea-lock. 8 Million fr. Days. ? ? ? 12 880 180 460 44 770 130 900 1,070 180 1,200 2 San Blas, Kelley's project, à niveau... The Tehuantepec route lies in Mexican territory, running from the Bay of Vera Cruz in the Gulf of Mexico to the Gulf of Tehuantepec on the Pacific side. The isthmus through which this route runs is extremely level and low for the greater part of its breadth. The mountainous mass of the Cordillera occupies only a narrow strip on the Pacific coast. The Atlantic slope is drained by the Coatzacoalcos River, whose course is very sinuous, but which is navigable as far as Minatitlan, having a depth of not less than 6 or 7 metres for that distance, after the bar at its mouth is passed. The Pacific slope is not more than 50 kilometres in breadth, and is drained by numerous small streams, which flow into a series of large lagoons that extend down to the coast. Both slopes are composed of alluvial soil, and are easy to excavate. The mountain mass is composed of schist and calcareous rock. At the mouth of the Coatzacoalcos there is a sandy shore on a substratum of stiff clay. Over the bar of the river there is a depth of water of 4 metres, which does not sensibly vary in the different seasons of the year. The engineer Fuertes and Captain Shufeldt, commissoned by the United States Government, explored this route in 1871. The plan which they worked out was to make the highest level of the canal at the Pass of Tarifa, 223 metres above tidewater, where the canal could be fed from the upper course of the Coatzacoalcos with a cutting 7 metres deep in the pass, descending to the ocean on both sides by means of 130 locks divided between the two slopes. An aqueduct 43 kilometres long would be necessary to conduct the water from the upper Coatzacoalcos, which is here called the Corte, to the canal, for which 5 kilometres of tunneling would be required. The canal on the Atlantic slope follows the valley of the Tarifa, then that of the Chichihua to its junction with the Coatzacoalcos, and, continuing along the right bank of this river in the mountainous region, departs from it afterward to rejoin it again north of the Island of Tacamichapa, 50 kilometres from its mouth, thence utilizing its bed down to the sea. The length of the canal would be 280 kilometres, though the distance to be executed would only be 230 kilometres. The breadth proposed was 49 metres at the surface and 18 metres at the bottom, the depth 6.6 metres. These dimensions, although not adapted to the largest ocean-going craft, were sufficient for the American coasting vessels and for nine tenths of the other ships which would use the canal. M. de Garay, who presented this scheme to the Congress, suggested that it |