Produced by Olaf Voss, Don Kretz, Juliet Sutherland, Charles Franks and the Distributed Proofreaders Team [Illustration] SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN SUPPLEMENT NO. 344 NEW YORK, August 5, 1882 Scientific American Supplement. Vol. XIV, No. 344. Scientific American established 1845 Scientific American Supplement, $5 a year. Scientific American and Supplement, $7 a year. * * * * * TABLE OF CONTENTS. I. ENGINEERING AND MECHANICS.--The Panama Canal. By MANUEL EISSLER. I.--Historical notes.--Spanish Discoveries in Central America.--Early explorations.--Nicaragua projects.--Panama railway, etc. Improved Averaging Machine. Compound Beam Engine. 4 figures.--Borsig's improved compound beam engine. Power Hammers with Movable Fulcrum.--By DANIEL LONGWORTH. 5 figures. The Bicheroux System of Furnaces Applied to the Puddling of Iron. 2 figures. Gessner's Continuous Cloth Pressing Machine. 3 figures. Novelties in Ring Spindles. 4 figures. Improvements in Woolen Carding Engines. II. NATURAL HISTORY.--Metamorphosis of the Deer's Antlers.--Annual changes. 9 figures. Monkeys. By A.R. WALLACE.--Comparison of skeletons of man, orang outang, and chimpanzee.--Other anatomical resemblances and diversities.--The different kinds of monkeys and the countries they inhabit.--American monkeys.--Lemurs. --Distribution, affinities, and zoological rank of monkeys. Silk Producing Bombyces and other Lepidoptera reared in 1881. By ALFRED WAILLY, Member Lauriat de la Societe d'Acclimatation de France.--An extended and important European, Asiatic, and American silk worms, and other silk producers. III. MINERALOGY, METALLURGY, ETC.--The Mineralogical Localities In and Around New York City and the Minerals Occurring Therein.--By NELSON H. DARTON.--Chances for collecting within one hour's ride of New York.--Methods of collecting and testing.--Localities on Bergen Hill.--The Weehawken Tunnel.--Minerals and modes of occurrence.--Calcite.--Natrolite.--Pectolite.--Datholite. --Apopholite.--Phrenite.--Iron and copper pyrites. --Stilbite.--Laumonite.--Heulandite. Antiseptics. Crystallization and its Effects Upon Iron. By N.B. WOOD.-- Beauty of Crystals.--Nature of cohesion.--Cleavage.--Growth of crystals.--Some large crystals.--Cast iron.--Influence of phosphorus and sulphur.--Nature of steel.--Burnt steel.--Effect of annealing. IV. ARCHITECTURE, ART, ETC.--The Cathedral of Burgos, Spain. --Full page illustration from photograph. Description of Burgos Cathedral. Photo-Engraving on Zinc and Copper. By LEON VIDAL. Meridian Line.--A surveyor's method of finding the true meridian.--By R.W. MCFARLAND.