aS iy all ane atts Se | re saan UT Ua ae nn SAS OT Fa SCIENCE es ILEVUST RATED JOURNAL DO) DIET SpE Wh eK Ly. WOE UW Sov JUIENG= DECENEBER 13530 NEW YORK NED C- HODGES 1889 he A iad PRN ii pe i ————— ese OND Xe HOW NAO EAC OMS OGLE Aborigines of China, 438; of Tasmania, 367. Absinthe, 2&0. Academy of Sciences, National, 351. Accumulators, 325. Adams’s The Continuous Creation, 356 _ Adhesion, peculiar case of, 427. Adulteration legislation, 308. _ Aeronauts, minute, 138. _ Africa, Cameroons district of, 211. Agricultural experiment station, Indiana, work of, 181; experiment stations, 96,132; research on the Pacific coast, 415. Air in Edinburgh theatres, 178. Air-compressor, 431. Aka Expedition, 403. Alcohol, effect of, upon longevity, 254; for scientific purposes, 192. Allen’s Force and Energy, 63. Alloy, new soft, 298. Allsop’s Practical Electric Bell Fitting, 318. Aluminum manufacture, 366, 488; price of, 266. Ammeter, a new, 294. Anatomy, ancient treatise on, 148. Andrews’s Institutes of Economics, 222. Angola, 405. Anti-friction bearing, 361. Antipyrine habit, 435. Ants, 60; intelligence of, 394. Arab scholars, 438. Arabia, ancient, 406. Arehzological Society of Wisconsin, 350. Arsenites, spraying with, 211. Artesian wells in Africa, 148. Aryans, home of the, 38. Asia, Grum-Grjimailo’s journeys in, 216; improve- ments in central, 75. Asphalt pavements near gas, 250. Asphalts, 74. Association for the Advancement of Science, 76. Astronomy at Johns Hopkins, 57. Atlantic Pilot Chart, 8. Aurora, hejght of, 333. Bacilli, baking, 47. Bacteria in milk, 114; influence of, 368 Bagehot, Works of, 357 Baker’s Monopolies and the People, 186. Bald head, bacilli on a, 233. Baldwin's Handbook of Psychology, 222. Ballou’s New Eldorado, 270. Balls of vegetable origin, 130. Banana, the true, 8. Banana-disease, 350. Banana-holes, 57. Barnacles, 374. Barometer jump, Jan. 31, 59. Barometrical measurements, 265. Batteries, primary, 233. Beech, ethnological significance of the, 330. Beer statistics, 42. Belting, leather, 343. Berkeley, Rev. J. M., death of, 112. Bird instinct, 57. Birds, destruction of, in France, 195. Bird's-eye maple markings, 195. Bjornstrom’s Hypnotism, 318. Blanford’s Guide to the Climates and Weather of India, Ceylon and Burmah, 101. Blavatsky’s Key to Theosophy, 238. Blindness, 295; causes of, 268. Blood, parasites of the, 254. Bodily efficiency, Galton on, 266, 394. Boiler inspections, 8. Boone’s Education in the United States, 31. Bore-holes, the deepest, 250, 282. Botanical congress, 57; garden in the Alps, 265. Botanist, a precocious, 340. Breathing, 86. Breech-loading guns, 58. Bricks, efflorescence on, 314. Bridging English Channel, 282. Bristow, H. W., death of, 9. Brooklyn Academy of Science, 8. - Brown-Sequard, 83, 216. _ Buffalo increasing, 351. Buhach, 127. Bull-dogs as watchmen, 8, Burial methods, 207; Navajo tree, 50. Burying-grounds, Hallstattian, 74. Butter, 388. Butterfly pigment, 112. Cables, lead-covered, 263; length of submarine, 199. Cacciatore, G., death of, 27. Cambridge, England, summer courses, 180. Cancer, 129. Carbolic acid, dangers from, 214. Carvier- pigeon. 251, 368. Cattle-foods, 367. Cements and mortars, 76. Census-taking, 44; of Switzerland, 251. Chambers’s Astronomy, I., 301. Chambers’s Encyclopedia, Vol. IV., 302 Champlain period in the Susquehanna, 340. Chapin’s Mountaineering in Colorado, 424. Charity and knowledge, 11. Chemical nomenclature, 350. Cherries in England, 8. _ Chimney overthrown, 58. —. Chimpanzee, mental powers of, 215. | Ching communication with southern, 350; progress | of, 285. | Chinese prize essays, 235. Chloroform, 295. Cholera, 214. Clark University, appointments at, 215. Cleansing iron, 59. Climate of India, 43. Coal resources of England, 331. Coast Survey superintendent, 28. Cobra, avenging habits of, 181. Colic of horses, 60. College, International, 113. College Presidents’ Association, 332. Cologne tippling, 147. Color of eyes in Norway, 74. Colorado, climate of, 384. Color-blindness, 267. Columbia, a new president of, 252. Combustion, spontaneous, of the human body, 94 Confectioners’ disease, 347. Consumption at high altitudes, 401; contagion, 30; hot air inhalations in, 232; in armies, 111; open-air travel as a cure for, 230; Paris commission on, 176. Cook, G. H., death of, 217. Cooling by spray, 384. Coppering iron, 178. Copyright, 75. Cornea, transplanting of a, 264. Cotton in Texas, 196. Cousins’s Strength of Beams and Girders, 31. Cows in winter, 330. Craig’s Linear Differential Equations, 391. Cremation, 95, 401; in France, 111. Crematories, 385. Criminality statistics, 215. = Criminals, ingenuity of, 232; senses of, 297. Croll’s Stellar Evolution, 155. Crows in England, 131. Cuckoo eggs, hatching of, 25. Cucumber-beetle, 297. Cuttlefish trade, 386. Dabney’s The Public Regulation of Railways, 356. Dandelion, a belated, 412. Darwinism, Mr. Wallace on, 150. Deaf, enumeration of, 44. Death by electricity, 129, 221, 254, 384; dread of, 264. Depth, greatest, in the Mediterranean, 402. Derelicts, 4. Disease, immunity from, 346; infection bill in Eng- land, 385. Diseased meat, 280. Diseases of plants, 361; Russian study of infectious, | 214, | Distance and size, 348; judged by sound, 386. Docent, the functions of a, 250. Doriot’s Beginners’ Book in German, 31. Drawbridge, the largest, 251. Drunkards in Norway, 281. Durability of engineering works, 250. Dust inhalation, 213. Dwarf cannas, 404. Dynamo, new Brush alternating-current, 51; and projector, 397; the Wenstrom, 159. Education in China, 130; in South Carolina, 77; tech- nical, 265; technical, in Japan, 216. Educational lectures, 403 Egyptian funeral wreaths, 27; surgical subjects, 280. Eiffel Tower, 43,58; effect of cannon-firing on, 281; lightning and, 222. 2 Electric balance, 295; battery, novel, 174; cell, Clark improved, 159; convention, 73; devices of the Mu- tual Electric Company, 87; eccentricities, 305; ef- fects on a mirror, 178; executions, 60, 194; exhibi- tion at St. John, 9; five-lead system, 348; hoist, 175; injuries, 316; lamp, 147; lamp filaments, 55; light on vessels, 439; light plant, a remarkable, 275; lighting, 194; lighting by the Knowles system, 67; lighting in Berlin, 383; lighting in France, 196; lo- comotive, 195; meter, Aron’s, 123; production, Mr. Edison on, 178; radiation meter, 349; railway in Cincinnati, 209; railway-lamps, 56; railways, Cin- cinnatl, 141; rapid transit, 222; screens, <95; sig- nalling from ships, 194; sunstroke, 383; system, Julien, 157; tanning, 194; traction, 414; transfer- | table, 173; wiring of ships, 84. Electric Light Association, 110. Electrical Society, New York, 385. Electricity, atmospheric, 147. | Blecte cation from contact of gases and liquids, 349, | 383. Elephant, a possible, 103; death of an old, 265. Elephants, wild, 73. Energy, transmission of, by compressed air, 29. Engine, high-speed, 413; improved air, 107; Jonson compound, 191. Engineer, a lawyer as a marine, 422. Engineering progress, 4. Engineers, American, in France, 8. Entomological Club, 75. Entomologists, working, 85. | Ericsson and rulton monuments, 282, Etruscans, the ancient, 310. Exhibition, electrical, 233; of agriculture, 129. Explorations, French, 217; in French Indo-China, 1380. Explosive experiments in Sweden, 283. Extralite, 299. | Fibre of banana, 199. Fire-palls, 216. Fish bait, 112. Fisheries of France, 26. Fish-hatcheries, 405. Flamingoes, affinities of, 224. Floating gardens, 283. Flora of Japan, 149. Fluorine, preparation of, 419. Fogs, London, 421. Fog-signals, 113. Food for infants, 384. Foods of different peoples, 264. | Foote’s Economic Value of Electric Light and Power, 15. Forestry Congress, 235. Forests, destruction of, in Servia, 197. France, great chart of, 195. Freezing in mining operations, 142. Froebel, Friedrich, Autobiography of, 84. Fruit-candying in Leghorn, 62. Fruits and vegetables condensed, 276. Game-forest, Corbin’s, 402. Garbage cremation, 432; utilization, 111. Gas battery, new form of, 31; engine, 379; inflam- mable, near plants, 77: supply of natural, 282. Geography-teaching, 408. Geological Society, 75. Geological Survey of Arkansas, 366. Geranium, oil of, 404. Germs in alr, 214; of cholera, etc., in milk, 317. Gnomium, 27. Goitre, etiology of, 265. Gold extraction, 158. Greek in education. 404. Greene’s Coal and the Coal Mines, 302. Greenhouse heatirg, 299. Griffin, Edward H., appointment of, 57. Grinnell’s Pawnee Hero Stories and Folk-Tales, 356. Gulf Stream investigations, §. Gypsies, health of, 111. Habitations, history of, 2. Hallucinations, 287: cocaine, 332. Harvard of to-day, 185. Health Association, 196, 217, 236, 284, 292; congress, 147; of French Army, 203; of London, 178; of New York and London, 317; officer, pay of, ~32; regula- tions in Berlin, 95; studies at University of Pennsyl- yania, 405. | Hearing of school-children, 347. Heights, measuring of, 224. Heilprin’s The Bermnda Islands, 376. Heliometer work at Y»le, 130. | Heredity of acquired characteristics, 365; pathologi- cal bearings of, 263. Hessian-fiy in England, 197. Highway improvements, 418, 421. Hindoo houses, 315. Hints to Travellers, Scientific and General, 302. Hiorns’s Iron and Steel Manufacture, 238. Hippopotamus, birth of, 421. Historical Association, 439. Hoagland Laboratory, 131. Hog-cholera, 314, 416. Horn-fiy, 335. Horses with toes, fossils of, 266. Horseshoe, a nailless, 166. Houston’s Dictionary of Electrical Words, Terms and Phrases, 287. Hurricanes, report on, 236. Hydrographer, annual rep’ rt of, 300. Hydrc graphic Office change, 300. Hydrophobia, 30, 47. Hygiene and Sunday, 436: professors of, 30. Hypnotism exhibitions, 235; resolutions on, 216. Icebergs in the Atlantic, 10. Iceland, ventilation in, 214. Ice-mining, 198. Ideas, association of, 214. Inca, The Lost, 440. Incandescent lamp slide rule, 131. Indla, early history of, 217. Indiana Academy of Science, 436. Indians, American, 21. Indicator, Arnold’s retardation, 55. Inductive capacity, 382. Industrial college in Philadelphia, 148. Inheritance of injuries, 93. | Inherited qualities, 195. Ineanity following surgical operations, 332. | Insect pests, 234, 381. Insomnia, treatment for. 2H. | Insulating compound, 414; material, 263. Insurance, life. 37. | Iron industry of New York, 25; or steel, Bookwalter pr.icess for making, 113; permeability of, 56; pro- tecting, against corrosion, 432; rust, 74. | Irrigation in Egypt, 179. Jacobs and Brower’s Graphic System of Object Drawing, 424. | Jade in Burmah, 285. Jewish observances, 437. Johns Hopkins Hospital, 298. Vou. XIV.] Johns Hopkins University, 200; appointments, 58, 251, 351, 487 ; condition of, 249; prosperity, 334. Johnson’s Ordinary and Partial Differential Equa- tions, 271. , Jobhnson’s Trigonometry, 15. Johnstown flood, 112. Joule, J. P., death of, 298. Jumpers, African, 365. Kangaroo, decrease of, 267. Kansas Academy of Science, 337. Kapp’s Alternate-Current Machinery, 301. Klemm’s European Schools, 238. Kola-nut, 147. Lacquer, Japanese, 200. \ Lady bird, Australian, 131. Lake Mistassini, 321, 359. Lake-dwelling, 387. Lake-dwellings at Lochavullin, 26. Lambs, fattening, 144. Leaves, fossil, 198. Left-legged man, 365, 412, 442. Leibnitz, correspondence of, 197. Lemon essence, 108. Leper colony, 264. Leprosy, 128; in Hawaii, 214. Lesquereux, Leo, death of, 314. Light, penetration cf, in ponds, 350; the Wells, 307. Lighthouse, electric, 383. Lightning and beech-trees, 7, 50, 86, 103; discharge in Quebec, 305; flash, duration of, 287; globular, 266; on Hiffel Tower, 199, 222; on war-vessels, 263 ; strokes, 257. ‘ Lime, neat produced in slacking, 43. Limestone, quarrying, 405. Literature versus books, 403. Loewy’s Graduated Course of Natural Science, 271. Loomis, Elias, death of, 131. Lotus, the sacred, 8. Lucerne, 82 Lungs of caitle, inoculation to protect, 347. McCray’s Life-Work of the Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, 318. MacDonald's Oceania: Linguistic and Anthropologi- eal, 375. Machinery, naval, in England, 131. Magnolia glauca, 438; metal, 327. Malaria in Massachusetts, 264. Malay peoples, 386. Mall’s Der Hypnotismus, 48. Mammoth deposit at Predmost, 43, Map of Massachusetts, 422. Maple-tree, 257. Maps, relief, 436. Marenholtz-Buelow’s Child and Child-Nature, 205. Marine conference, 133. Master and workmen, 28. Mathematical theories of the earth, 167. Meadoweroft’s A B C of Electricity, 31. Mechanical engineers, 370. Medals of Royal Society, 367. . Medical club at Johns Hopkins, 402; congress, 27. Medicine, history of, 196; in Japan, 213; preventive, 71. Melinite, 216. Memory diseases, 420. Mental activity in rejation to pulse, 347; processes, time-relations of, 252, 285. Mesozoic, the North American, 160. Metals, volatilization of, 233. Meteoric showers In Atacama, 433; stone in Scania, 57. Microbes and salt, 383; and tumors, 199. Microscop!sts, American Society of, 130. Military science at Sheffield Scientific School, 297. Milk, bicarbonate of sodium in, 401; boiled, 384; com- position of, 281; sterilized, 317. Mill’s Class-Book of General Geography, 223. Mills’s Animal Physiology, 440. mineral production of New South Wales, 437; waters, 4 Minerals at Paris Exposition, 178. Mining, electricity in, 243. Missouri Geological Survey, 298. Mitchell, Maria, death of, 9. Mithridatism, 199. Monopolies and people, 207. Morale of the lower animals, 181. Morgan’s Studies in Pedagogy, 337. Morse’s Benjamin Franklin, 204. Mortality in New York, 30. Mosquitoes and science, 103; protection from, 216. Moths, 59. Motors, Perret, 69. Mounds of the Mississippi valley, 26. Movemea s, energy and rapidity of, 390, 391. Murdock’s Reconstruction of Europe, 254. Music at Yale, 297; evoluiion of, 244; theory of, 217. Myopia, heredity of, 84. Napbtha as fuel, 130; habit, 56. Nature, twenty years of, 398. Near- sightedness, 147. Niagara Falls map, 273. Nineteenth Century Ciub, 369. Nitrogen as plant-food, 328. Nyassa-Land, 344. Oak, strength of, 112. Ocean-currents, 387, 421. Oil in Burmah, 267; and iron in New Zealand, 228; on troubled waters, 1, 234,313; supply in Baku, 283. Olive cultivation, 176. Oriental Congress, 251. Ornithologists’ meeting, 355. Oxygen inhalation, 296. Oyster in tweden, 56. | Rails, durability of, 196. INDEX. Oysters, pearl, 145. | Ozone for phthisis, 400. Paints and the weather, 58, 180. Palestine exploration, 350. Palladium, alloys of, 95. Paris as a seaport, 197; exposition, 9; exposition awards, 237. Parkes’s Hygiene and Public Health, 301. Pasteur institutes, 111. Feahodyis Thermodynamics of the Steam Engine, 34. Pea-soup versus beef- tea, 264. Pedagogics at the University of Pennsylvania, 26. Persimmon, 438. Petroleum in Netherlands-India, 405; of Burmah, 368; origin of, 228. Phelps’s Struggle for Immortality, 287. Phi Beta Kappa memorial, 282. Phosphorescence, 179. Photographic chart of the heavens, 57; congress, 42. Photographs of lightning, 55. s Photography, celestial, 299; in the summer of 1889, 94; modern, 218. | Phyfe’s Seven Thousand Words often Mispro- nounced, 337. Physical flelds, 442. Physiological psychology congress, 148. Plant-life of Arabia Felix, 213. Plant-louse, 10, 42; enemies of, 100. Platinum on porcelain, 283. Pium curculio, 235, 297. Pneumonia, 83. Poison in cured fish, 9. Poisons, elimination of, 95. Population of Australia, 56; of Switzerland, 198; of the United States, 114, 241, 297, 315; in the United States, law of, 188. Potato potsoning, 281; rot, 299. Powders, smokeless,. 149. Power, transmission of, 210. Praying of Chinamen, 315. Pressure-gauge, 363. Printing-offices, electric motors in, 19. Prints, black and blue, 298. Prison congress, 199. Prize manual, the thousand-dollar, 367. Prizes, Loubat, 131: of New South Wales Royal Soci- ety, 129; of Foyal Danish Academy, 149. Proctor fund, 419. Proctor’s Strength, 254. Proportior, the, 227. Protoplasm, 352. Prunes, 404. Psychical Research, Proceedings of the Society for, | Part XIV., 318. ‘ Ptomaines, 322: in infectious diseases, 260. Quail, experience with, 148. Quartz fibres, 61. Quicksand, 366. Railway, Boynton Bicycle, 259, 278; electric, in Ban- gor, 1: Kongo, 279; motor, Sprague electric, 35; slid- ing, 179; Weems Electric, 20, 112. Railways in China, 333; in Europe, 57; in the United States, 124. Rainfall in Australia, 112; Missouri, 265. Raisin trade, 387. Recorder, th- Moscrop, 105. Refrigerator, 349. Remedies in the Transvaal, 281. Richards’s Manual of Machine Construction, 186. Riley, C. V., decoration of, 197. Rivers of Russia, 196. Roaches. extermination of, 403. Rock-drilling, 58. Rook, trial of, 195. Rumination in the human subject, 418. Russian literature, 262. Russification of the Baltic provinces, 25. Russium, a new metal, 131. Rust parasites, 266. St. Paul scientific society, 439. Salmon, young, 386. Sands, restricting, by grasses, 298. Sanitary Association, New Jersey, 400. Sarcophagi found at Sidon, 25. Sausages, Italian, 436. Sawdust for wounds, 281. Scarlet-fever transmission, 347. School of science in Boston, 234. School-gardensg, 197. Schools, atteudance at German technical, 265; in New Jersey, 59; technical, in Russia, 181. School-wagon, 112. Science, history of English, 403. Seasickness, 232. Seeds, sprouting of, 88. Seeing by electricity, 349, 401. Sense, an unknown organ of, 183. Sensenig’s Numbers Universalized, 102. Sewage disinfection, 281; precipitation, 203; purifi- cation, 128. Shaler’s Aspects of the Earth, 423. Shaw, Henry, death of, 148. Sibley College, 351; attendance, 216. Sillca-graphite paint, 74. Silk, artificial, 109; danger in, 281; exhibition, 215; in China, 385. Sliks, treatment cf wild, 198. Silo, the, 77. Silvering iron, 148. Sinners, the breeding of, 232, Skin transplanting, 332. Skulls of Germans, 333. Small-pox, 365. a [Juty—Dec., 1889 Smoke formation, 283. Snake venom, 281. Snow on Canadian Pacific Railway, 9. Song-birds, 76. Sorbonne, new buildings of, 133. Sorghum-sugar, 387. Sparrows, feeding of, 113. Specific gravity of air, 266. Spectre, Brocken, 2.4. Speed of trains, 409. Spelling reform, 241. Spencer, Herbert, Autobiography of, 234. Sponges, 351. Stalactite cave, 421. Stanley, 370, 371. : Staten Island Science Association, ° 35. Steamers on the Pacific, 333. Steam-pipe covering, 250. Steel, tempering, 180. Sting of jelly- fish, 214, 390. Stomach acids, 401; brush, 365. | Stone-sawing, 127. Storms, convectional currents in, 428. Storm-signals, 421. Strawberry crop, 299. Students in Germany, 368. Sugar in Persia, 62; manufacture of, 199; produc- tion, 143, 202; of Java, 235. Suggestion, 138. Suicides in France, 199; increase of, 181. Sulphuric-acid transportation, 166. Sunset glows, 187. Sunshine recorder, 404. Surgeon, a centenarian, 233. Surveys of India, 216. _Tea, Paraguay, 180. Teeth, care of, 384. Telegraph, flash, 179. Telegraphone, 194. Telephone on railways, 287; the pulsion, 434, Telephones and electric circuits, 181. Telescope, Bruce photographic, 10. Tellurium, 75. Temperature at great heights, 386. Temperatures at a distance, 295, Therapeutics, suggestive, 296. Thermometric bureau of Yale, 113. Thompson’s “‘ Evolution of Sound ” Evolved, 424. Thunder, 131. Thunder-storm propagation, 76. Thunder-storms, telephonic prediction of, 273. Thurston’s Development of the Philosophy of the Steam-Engine, 375. Tillman’s Elementary Lessons in Heat, 270. Pouacce and insavity, 264; French and German, Tomatoes, 364. Tone-interval sensibility, 348. Toronto meeting of the American Association, 166. Torpedo-boat, the Halpine, 291. Trade of Constantinople, 282. Tree rings, 112; roots and branches, 403. Trees, dwarf, in Japan, 149; for smcky cities, 7; largest, in Great Britain, 25. Tuberculosis, congress for, 213. Tuberculous meat, 177. Tuning-forks, 349. Tunnel under the Hudson, 166. Typhoid-fever, 232; weight of the body in, 203. Typhus bacilli, 129. Universities of Australia, 112; of Germany, 196. University extension, 180 ; of Jena, 195; of Tokio, 112. Uranium, 217. Vaccination in Japan, 204; ou the leg, 365. Vegetable nomenclature, 283. Ventilation from caves, 335, 395. Vibration in buildings, 404. Vignoles’s Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles, 63. Vines, diseases of, in France, 198. Viper swallows its young, 267. Vision, experiments in crystal, 313 ; indlrect, 149. Voice figures, 366; human, growing or decaying, 33. Volcanic eruption on Oshima, 9. ‘ Walkers Electricity in our Homes and Workshops, 356. Wallace’s Darwinism, 204. Warren’s Mechanics, Part I., 119. Water analysis, 282; spout off the Bahamas, 315; spraying, 111; supply of Paris, 56, 436. Waters of the GreatSalt Lake, 444; softening of hard, 73. Waves, height of, 178. Weather prediction by photography, 43; reports from Havana, 9; review. Pennsylvania, 241. Weeds, destruction of, 150. Weir’s Our Cats and all about Them, £70. Weismann’s Essays upon Heredity, 237. Welding rails, 166. Whales as dangers to navigation, 166; under water, 86. Wheat rust, 148, 405; smut, 369. White-lead process, 299. Whitham’s Steam Engine Design, 119. Wilson's The State, 338. Wind. velocity of, on Eiffel Tower, 402. Windbreaks, 234. Wines, California, 42; in France, 59. Woolsey, T. D., death of, 9. World’s fair, 28, 78, 96, 114, 132, 146, 150, 182, 218, 252, 268, 300, 370. ; Wright’s Ice Age in North America, 118. Yellow-fever inoculation, 435; Dr. Sternberg on, 235. Zodlogists’ Congress, 316. S fete es thi teers pC (Entered at the Posi-Offive of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.) ea WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 335 _ THE THOMSON-HOUSTON ROAD IN BANGOR, ME. _ THE accompanying cuts illustrate the new electric railway which _ has been put in at Bangor, Me. One of the cuts shows the car on Main Street Hill, opposite the Opera House, a grade of 7 per cent ; and the other, the car in West Market Square, the very heart of _ the city. The road at Bangor is three miles in length, single track, th three turnouts, and contains many sharp curves and grades, _ the most severe of which is a curve of 35 feet radius, which occurs on a grade of 7 per cent. There is one stretch of the road, about _ average gradient of 5 per cent. No difficulty, however, is experi- _ enced here, and the cars climb these grades with a scarcely per- ceptible diminution of speed. The nature of the overhead work necessitated by these can readily be seen from the accompanying map, on which the situation of the road is indicated by a heavy line. There are four 16-foot cars, made by the Newburyport Car Manufacturing Company, which are handsomely finished, and equipped with two 15-horse-power Thomson Houston motors. _ Three cars are in operation from 6 A.M. till 11.30 P.M., the fourth _ being held in reserve for special occasions. three-fourths of a mile in length, which has five curves and an . . NEW YORK, Juty 5, 1889. THOMSON-HOUSTON ELECTRIC ROAD SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCF. The power-plant consists of one 80-horse-power Thomson- Houston generator, with the necessary station-fittings, which is driven by a 14 by 13 Armington & Sims engine, running at a speed of 250 revolutions per minute. This is the only tramway which has ever been constructed in Bangor, and it has, from the very start, given the utmost satisfaction, but one schedule trip being missed since the day of starting, May 21. The travel has been very heavy, averaging 1,600 passengers per day, and on one day 3,000 were carried by three cars. The success of the road has been such, that extensions have been asked for in many parts of IN BANGOR, ME. the city, and it is probable that before long the equipment will be greatly increased. THE USE OF OIL ABOARD UNITED STATES NAVAL VESSELS: Many hundreds of reports have been published on the “ Atlan- tic Pilot Chart,” and elsewhere, relative to the great benefits de rived by means of the use of oil to prevent heavy seas from break- ing on board vessels. By far the greater number of these reports have been received from merchant vessels, very many of have undoubtedly been saved, with all on board, by the =se ; SCIENCE: few gallons of oil in the manner recommended by the United States Hydrographic Office. The following reports from United States naval vessels show that even aboard men-of-war, with their com- plete equipment and large crews, the use of oil is regarded as of the greatest value : — Commander W. C. Wise, U.S.N., commanding the “Juniata,” on passage from Hong-Kong to Singapore, used oil on three oc- casions during a typhoon in the China Sea, Sept. 28 and 29, 1888. “Oil was used, and marked effect shown in lessening amount of water coming on board. . . . A bag containing oil was towed from the weather bow, and decreased the violence of the seas to a marked degree.” On April 4 and 5, 1889, the “ Swatara,” Commander John Mc- Gowan, U.S.N., was in a hurricane in latitude 41° south, longitude 9° west. On the previous day the wind had veered from west- south-west to north-west, and then to north-north-east. From 9 P.M. to 4 A.M. it blew with a force of 11, and the wind shifted to [Vor. XIV. No. 335 from coming on board. Oil was used a part of two days, while hove to. Finally, the “ Yantic,’ Commander C. H. Rockwell, U.S.N., en- countered a terrific hurricane, May 21, in latitude 38° 35’ north, longitude 68° 30’ west. While on her beam ends, with heavy sea sweeping over her, “ oil in large quantities was thrown overboard from the weather bow, and even in that terrible scene its effect was immediately apparent.” A HISTORY OF HABITATIONS. THE French have always exhibited a fondness for the study of comparative architecture, and have made themselves-masters of a peculiarly interesting portion of art history in which other peoples have scarcely made more than beginnings. For some years the story of the evolution of the dwelling has been known chiefly through “ The Story of a House,” by M. Viollet-le-Duc, which has A 7-PER-CENT GRADE ON west, kicking up an ugly confused sea. The ship had been hove to on the port tack early in the morning, with oil-bags over at the fore and mizzen chains. Their effect was such that not a drop of water came on board. April 5, scudding with the wind about two points on the starboard quarter and an oil-bag towing at the star- board fore-chains, “the angry-looking crests simply disappeared, leaving one to wonder what had become of them.” Again, on the 8th, “ Blowing a living gale of wind, force 11, having backed from north-west to north-north-west. Hove to, and put oil-bags over from fore and mizzen chains, with excellent results. The sea was exceedingly heavy, and the ship rolled deeply ; and although con- iderable water came on board, yet not once did a sea break over rail. The angry, towering crests of the huge waves disappeared y Magic.” . C. F. Norton, U.S.N., of the “ Kearsarge,” reports that in of the 6th, 7th, and 8th of April, off Hatteras, they used d effect, pouring it through the forward water-closet. oil was used, which did fairly well; but later they d that gave perfect satisfaction, keeping the water THE THOMSON-HOUSTON ROAD IN BANGOR, ME. been the most accessible, if not the only, work of its kind extant- In the Paris Exhibition of 1878, one of the most interesting fea- tures was the “Street of Nations,” which was lined with typical specimens of architecture of all lands, and was unquestionably the most complete exhibition of comparative architecture that had been made up to that time. The present exhibition, however, has, thanks to the rare skill and energy of M. Charles Garnier and a body of enthusiastic assistants, an exhibition of comparative archi- tecture that is by far the most elaborate yet attempted. A series of thirty-two edifices have been erected on the Quai d’Orsay, represent- ing the evolution of the dwelling, from the earliest form of a rude breakwind and cave, to the completed residence of the Renaissance. It is an unfortunate fact that much of the material for such a display exists only in a fragmentary or much-scattered form. The dwell- ings of antiquity are known to us chiefly by meagre descriptions, rough, sketchy carvings in the sculptures, and other data that are quite as apt to mislead as to indicate the right direction. Yet M. Garnier has not been content to accept mere hearsay, nor even to adopt the results of the imagination, but, on the contrary, has ah 7 i : Jury 5, 1889. ] availed himself of all possible authorities, and as the result has prepared a series of dwellings, which, if not authentic in all their details, are still sufficiently correct to be accepted as the best ob- tainable, and which are certainly nearer the originals than has been reached by any previous attempts. In designing these edifices, the idea has been to exhibit the actual dwellings of the masses of the people rather than to represent the palaces of the rich and the powerful; and the rule has also been laid down, to represent the most ancient form, where there has been any great deviation in styles, because the more modern variations are more familiar, and have been more frequently reproduced. Both these limitations, admirable in themselves, have added to the difficulty of the task M. Garnier laid out for himself; for the houses of the rich are more frequently described by ancient writers than those of the poor, and ward € 130 rane . the descriptions of the more ancient forms are necessarily less readily interpreted than those near at hand. M. Garnier has divided habitations into two great classes, — those of prehistoric time, and those of historic. The former period begins with the appearance of man upon the earth, and comes down to the time when nations, properly so called, were formed, and history begins. The historic period includes two subdivis- ions: the first relating to those peoples who have contributed to the advancement of civilization; and the second including those who, while leaving characteristic monuments, have stood, as it were, on one side, and not influenced the general growth of cul- ture. The models at Paris are arranged in three great groups un- _der these general heads; but, apart from this classification, there is another, which, while not especially observable in the arrange- ments of the edifices themselves, is of the highest historical im- portance. The historic period includes, first, early or primitive civilizations, including the Egyptian, Assyrian, Phoenician, Hebrew, Pelagic, and Etruscan; and, second, the civilizations arising from the Aryan invasions, including the Indians, Persians, Germans, SCIENCE. gf Map o f B ane ia showin localtan o f 3 Gauls, Greeks, and Romans. In 395 A.D. the Roman Empire was divided, and the two parts exhibit distinct features of architectural types. In the West the Roman civilization was overthrown by several invasions, all resulting in distinct architectural types. These were the Huns, the Germans and Franks, and, last in point of date, the Scandinavians. After Europe had passed through the convulsions caused by these inroads, we have the civilizations of the Romanesque period, the middle ages, and the Renaissance. In the East other events were shaping the destinies of humanity. The Roman civilization lasted here some ten centuries; but it soon lost its earlier characteristics, and developed into the Byzantine. This was further developed in the Byzantine architecture of the Slavs and the Russians, while the Mohammedan invasions of the Arabs and the Turks soon destroyed its distinctive character. All / ic 2 a z Elec it rig FRailway these developments have been admirably summarized by M. Gar- nier in the “ Guide Historique” of M. Ammann, to the exhibition of dwellings. The structures begin with a simple breakwind. Thenman found that the shelter of the caves was more durable, and finally a rude hut was attempted. Then begins the long series of artificial houses. There is a rude hut supposed to be contemporary with the dolmens. A lake-village, modelled after those of Switzerland, is the most elaborate portion of this group, and corresponds to the age of bronze. The age of iron is represented by a hut modelled after a terra-cotta model found at Lake Albino, near Rome. Then come the dwellings of historical times, beginning with an Egyptian house. This is designed in the style the monuments have familiar- ized us with. A corridor opens into apartments on either side; and the building, which is two stories high, is surmounted by an open balcony. ° The dwellings of the Assyrians were built on too great a scale to permit them to be reproduced as a whole, so M. Garnier has contented himself with a portion of one only. Two types are represented, rone a tent taken from a bas-relief pre- 4 - SCIENCE: served in the British Museum, and the other a part of a palace. It was not possible to secure an authentic representation of a Phoe- nician house, although the suggestions and opinions of the most competent critics have been followed. The result is therefore not much more than a high probability, but as such it possesses great interest. The dwelling has astone base, with the upper part of wood, ornamented with long slender columns, and with a balcony above. Like the Assyrians, the Hebrews have two kinds of dwellings, — one a tent, modelled after a carving in an Egyptian tomb dating from before the time of Moses; and the other a stone house, with a flat terraced roof. Here, also, there is want of authentic mate- rial, and the result cannot be regarded as more than approximate. The Pelagic hut is a simple one of large stones, while the Etruscan residence consists of a stone basement taken from an ancient terra- cotta model, and an upper portion of wood, with an open-roofed balcony, which is confessedly the personal fancy of the architect. The result, however, may be regarded as near the actual truth as our present knowledge permits. This completes the first series, and we come to those peoples whose civilization has been affected by the Aryan invasions. First is the Hindoo house, —a tall, narrow affair, built after a bas-relief from the top of Sanchi, though the architect has availed himself of the criticisms of Mr. Fergusson. The Persian house comes next. It is in two parts, — one closed, intended for the women; the other, with a dome of enamelled brick, is the public part, and in- tended for the master himself and his friends. It is designed after information furnished by M. Dieulafoy. Then comes a German village, — rude wooden cabins, with an elevated structure on poles, which serves as a sort of observatory. Close to this is the Gaul house, — a circular hut of wood, stone, and beaten earth. The for- mer is taken from the bas-reliefs of the column of Trajan, while the latter is taken from a host of authorities that render it probably exact. A Greek house of simple construction comes next. A pro- jection at one side serves to accommodate strangers. The walls have, among other inscriptions, the name of the proprietor, “era- cles habite cz; que rzen de mauvazs n'y entre.’ The Roman house, which comes next, is an exact reproduction of a Pom- peiian villa. The plan and details of this edifice have been pre- pared with the greatest care. A new element in civilization is now introduced by the invasions of the barbarians. The first represented are the Huns, who lived in a wagon, and had no regular dwelling. A Gallic-Roman house of the filth century follows, and is built of fragments of other buildings, which gives it a very peculiar appearance. The Scandi- navian house dates from the fourteenth century, and is of wood, with a granite foundation. It has been designed after the sugges- tions of the Swedish architect Boberg, who has made a special study of early Scandinavian dwellings. Three other buildings bring us almost to our own times. These are, first, a Romanesque house of the time of the successors of Charlemagne (tenth century); second, one of the middle ages (twelfth century), and contemporary with St. Louis; and the third, a specimen of the civil architecture of the Renaissance, a reproduction of a sixteenth-century house at Orleans, Four other examples complete the list of the civilizations con- tributing to the general culture of humanity. These are a Syrian (Byzantine) house of the time of Justinian (sixth century), which is an exact copy of one restored and drawn by the Marquis de Vogie. It is of stone, as wood was scarce in that part of Syria. A Slavic house, almost a primitive affair, comes next, and is close to the Russian house of the fifteenth century. This latter is in two parts, — one for men, and one for women, — with an external staircase. No material for an authentic dwelling of this period was to be had, but the edifice possesses characteristic features. An Arab house of the eleventh century carries us into an entirely different civilization. The building is not a representation of any standing edifice, but is a combination of authentic elements. Lastly comes a Soudanese dwelling, which, though comparatively modern, is, by reason of its very strangeness, one of the most interesting of the entire collection. This brings us to the third section of the series, those illustrating isolated civilizations. and Japan, huts of the Eskimo and Laplanders, a negro village point of interest. There are houses of China from Africa, and an Indian hut from North America. tion is closed by houses from ancient Mexico and Peru. BARR FERREE. The collec- NOTABLE DERELICTS IN THE NORTH ATLANTIC. OF the many wrecks afloat in the North Atlantic Ocean, none has as interesting a history as the Italian bark “ Vincenzo Per- rotta.’ Abandoned Sept. 18, 1887, this vessel has been repre- sented graphically on every edition of the “ Atlantic Pilot Chart” published since that time. Her wonderful drift began in about latitude 36° north, longitude 54° west ; and on April 4, 1889, when last reported, she was about 60 miles north of Watling’s Island, in the Bahamas. She had thus made good a distance of about 1,400 miles in a general south-west by west direction in one year six months and sixteen days. She has been reported twenty-seven times in all, and when last seen had mizzenmast and about ten feet of mainmast standing, foremast gone, end of jibboom broken off, and port anchor on bow. On Noy. 26, 1888, the schooner “Ethel M. Davis” was capsized in a hurricane, in latitude 35° 4’ north, longitude 70° 52’ west. Her crew was rescued after having been adrift four days. The schooner eventually righted, and began a long voyage, unguided, in the general direction of the Gulf Stream. She was last seen June 8, 1889, in latitude 42° 36’ north, longitude 57° 38’ west, and at that time had about three feet freeboard in waist, forecastle and poop well above water. Her poop-house is painted white, and shows out well; mainmast gone, bowsprit and ten feet of foremast standing ; general drift, about g00 miles north-east by east; time, six months eighteen days; number of times reported, fifteen. The same hurricane that wrecked the “ Ethel M. Davis” also brought disaster to the schooner “ David W. Hunt.” This vessel was abandoned Nov. 25, 1888, in latitude 34° 30’ north, longitude 72° 30! west. She was last reported May 26, 1889, in latitude 45° 30’ north, longitude 41° 30’ west, at which time she had her bow- sprit and jibboom complete, stumps of two masts broken off about fifteen feet from deck; general drift, east-north-east about 2,000 miles; time, six months ; number of times reported, twenty-two. The schooner “ Palatka” bids fair to rival the above vessels in She was abandoned April to, 1889, off Hatteras, and was last reported June 4, 1889, in latitude 43° 20’ north, longi- tude 56° 34’ west. She was then water-logged and on fire, stern high out of water, no masts standing. Like the “Ethel M. Davis 7 and “ David W. Hunt,” she is right in the highway of the great bulk of transatlantic commerce, and a serious menace to naviga- tion. {fn one month and twenty-five days she has made good a distance of about 1,200 miles, on a general north-east by east course ; number of times reported, twenty-one. The above four derelicts were all timber-laden, and this accounts largely for their great tenacity and buoyancy, at the same time rendering their destruction no easy matter. Commander C. H. Rockwell, U.S.N., of the United States steamship “ Yantic,” re- cently engaged in blowing up wrecks, says, “ From the experience thus far gained in the work, I am convinced that lumber-laden derelicts are very tenacious, and can only be overcome by repeated blows from explosives of great power. These continued will un- doubtedly do the work.” i PROGRESS OF ENGINEERING.! THE provision of the By-Laws of this society which requires that its president shall deliver, at the annual convention, an ad- dress upon the progress of engineering during the preceding year, has been observed by my predecessors in various ways. While some of the former presidents have confined themselves strictly to the constitutional provision, by general reviews of the professional progress and scientific advancement of the period, others have dwelt more in detail upon some specific subjects of particular in- terest at the time. I trust I may be permitted, in this instance, to give you first a cursory glance of the field at large, and then con- fine myself more particularly to a review of the progress in that 1 Address of Max J. Becker, president of the American Society of Civil Engineers, delivered at the annual convention of the society at Seabright, N.J., June 20. [Vor XTVa: Now 3358 Bi yuny 5, 1885] : special part of the profession with which the long-continued per- formance of my official duties has afforded me opportunities to be- come more familiar. Electrical Engineering.— Of all the forces of nature, the one which has remained a hidden mystery longer than all the rest, but which of late has distanced all in the rapidity of its development, and which is certainly destined to excel them all in the extended range of its useful application, — electricity, — stands pre-eminent. In the prosecution of subterranean or subaqueous operations, such as tunnelling, mining, sinking of caissons, the use of electric light is found to be of special benefit. In its incandescent form it is absolutely safe against the dangers from explosive gases, and in ‘caisson work it removes the risks and inconveniences incident to the ready and rapid combustion of inflammable substances under the influence of high atmospheric pressure. Street-Railways and Rapid Transzt.—The rapid growth of our cities gradually forces the inhabitants to seek their homes in the suburbs and surrounding country, more or less distant from the business and manufacturing centres where their employment lies. The desire for economy of time, and the necessity for punc- tuality and prompt attendance, have led to the introduction of vari- ous modes of conveyance, beginning with the street-car tramways propelled by horses, followed more recently by elevated railroads and cable-car lines, and still more lately by the electric railroad ; which latter system has, within a few years, developed much more tapidly than any of the preceding methods. At the close of the past year there were completed and in course of construction, in this country, eighty-five electric railways, com- prising about 450 miles of track, and the reports show that during the last year over eighteen millions of passengers have been carried over these lines. The cheapness of original construction and subsequent main- tenance and operation commends their adoption in smaller cities, where the older systems would be out of the question ; and the practicability of their application in situations which would exclude cable-lines and horse-traction has led to their introduction in places like my own home, Allegheny City, where an electric rail- way is now in successful operation, which, in a distance of one mile out of a total length of four miles, ascends, with a speed of fully four miles per hour, a hill over 400 feet high, upon gradients of 124 per cent, with numerous curves of 40 feet radius, the cars being often loaded with 75 people. Upon the lower portion of this line the electric current is supplied by means of an underground current, and on the upper portion of the line by the ordinary overhead con- ductors. But while undoubtedly the electric railway will be generally pre- ferred in the immediate future, it is by no means to be inferred that the cable-lines are to be considered as the motors of the past. On the contrary, their use will not only be continued, but greatly ex- tended, wherever the conditions and circumstances favor their adoption. Among the advantages which they possess, are uni- formity of motion, generally satisfactory speed, and the ease with which, in times of heavy travel, the vehicles. can be multiplied and combined into convoys ; and the facilities which they afford to con- verging horse-car lines, whose carriages they can attach to their own at the points of junction, saving thereby transfer of the pas- sengers. The machinery used at the power-houses of some of the principal cable-lines is of very superior character, and some of the details employed are models of skill and ingenuity. Noteworthy among these are the engines of the Brooklyn Bridge cable-line, which many of us admired during the excursion at the time of the last annual meeting, and which are very interestingly described n a recent contribution to our “ Transactions” by Mr. Gabriel Lever- ich, one of our members, and at one time secretary of this society. Elevated railways propelled by steam must necessarily remain confined to larger cities, where the volume of traffic promises a re- turn for the capital invested in their expensive construction, and where the distances to be reached are sufficiently great to make the saving of time, by means of their superior speed, an inducement for patronage. Water- Works.— The introduction of water-works is now so extensive in this country that there are but very few cities or towns of more than five thousand inhabitants which are not supplied with SCIENCE, | : one system or another. The beneficial results upon the health of the populations are universally recognized, and the sanitary bless- ings and the advantages in point of comfort are beyond all calcula- tion. Wherever additions and changes become necessary in the older cities, wise precautions are generally taken, under the advice and direction of professionally skilled experts, to profit by former lessons, and to avoid the errors of the past. The most extensive enterprises now in progress in connection with water-works extensions are the improvements embracing the new lake tunnels at Chicago and Cleveland, the new Croton Aque- duct in the city of New York, and the aqueduct extension in Wash- ington, D.C. In all these cases the question of greater purity has been carefully considered in connection with the increased supply. The collection and storing of water-supplies for large cities and manufacturing purposes require, in many cases, the construction of extensive reservoirs, with massive dams for the retaining of the re- serve supply. The importance of constructing these dams of proper shape and size, and of suitable material and good workman- ship, so as to insure their absolute strength, and give them suffi- cient resisting capacity against every possible contingency, has been taught by a recent lesson of frightful experience; and while the responsibility for this calamity may not be placed upon the shoul- ders of the profession, yet it will be well for its members to look upon it and remember it as a warning and an example. An investigation of the cause of the failure of the South Fork dam is now being made by a committee appointed under a recent resolution of this society, who have just returned from a visit to the scene of the disaster. Examinations and measurements of the structure and its sur- roundings, and extensive information obtained from various sources, will enable the committee to submit to the society in due time a comprehensive statement of the conditions and circumstances which have induced and contributed to this most disastrous fail- ure. Sanitary Engineering. — The extensions and improvements of the water-supplies of our cities naturally lead to the adoption of measures for the disposal of sewage. The respective merits of the different methods employed for this purpose have been very ably presented to the profession from time to time, in occasional con- tributions to our ‘‘ Transactions,” by several members of this so- ciety, who stand pre-eminent in their special calling; so that all that would now seem necessary in an emergency is the exercise of sound and impartial judgment in the adoption of the proper method for each special case. The system most generally used in this country now, and which will no doubt be preferred for a long time to come, is that of com- mon water-carriage by means of the so-called “ combined” plan of discharging all sewage and storm-water together through com- mon outlets into adjacent rivers, lakes, or tidal waters. The ob- jectionable features of this method consist in the pollution of the streams and lakes, from which, in turn, the water-supply may have to be drawn; and the injurious effects caused by the deposit and periodical exposure of offensive matter upon the shores of tidal waters. In order to overcome, at least partially, these objectionable fea- tures, modifications of this method have been tried, consisting in a filtration and chemical purification of the sewage so as to reduce the offensive portions, and to render their final deposit into the streams of the district comparatively harmless. The methods em- ployed for some time at Pullman, Ill., and more recently at Orange, N.J., are samples of this system. Under the provisions of a law passed by the Legislature of Massachusetts in 1886, the State Board of Health is authorized to investigate, through a commission of experts, the effect of sewage discharge upon the streams and inland waters of the Common- wealth, and to recommend to the courts annually plans in remedy of existing evils. Acting upon the reports of this board, several cities are now making preparations for the disposal of their sewage by various methods of purification and dilution. In connection with some of these systems, the fluid portion of the sewage is util- ized as a fertilizer of farm-land. By the general introduction of natural gas as a domestic fuel in Pittsburgh and other Western cities, a large amount of kitchen- 6 SCIENCE. garbage and house-sweepings, which heretofore were regularly burned with the solid fuel then in use, can no longer be disposed of in that way; and after various unsuccessful attempts to bury them, deposit them in the rivers, and burn them in open air, a num- ber of specially designed furnaces were built for the destruction of these accumulations, to which are now added the offal from slaughter-houses, the leached-out bark from tanneries, and all garbage from the public markets. The heat created by the com- bustion of these waste substances is successfully utilized for gen- erating steam in boilers attached to the furnaces, which, without the addition of any other fuel, except what is required for ignition, supply the motive power for operating the machinery in adjoining factories; so that these establishments not only improve the sani- tary condition of the community by the prompt and radical destrac- tion of vegetable and animal refuse, otherwise liable to decay on our hands, but also furnish a cheap fuel-supply for industrial pur- poses. Streets and Highways. — Nearly all the larger cities of this country have now passed the experimental stages of their street- paving experiences, and have by this time entered upon a period of more permanent and substantial improvements in that department of municipal engineering. The days of wooden roadways, the Nicholson, the cedar, and locust blocks, will soon be remembered only as things of the past, like plank roads of earlier date. The various compounds with which, at one time or another, nearly all our city streets have been plastered over and poulticed, have cracked and split, shrunk, melted, and evaporated, and been carried off piecemeal, in course of time, by the persistent adhesion of their ill-flavored mixtures to the boot-heels of the weary pedestrians in hot weather. The abominable cobble-stones, which have jarred our nerves and dislocated our spinal columns in years gone by, are finally relegated to the by-streets and back alleys. Such make- shifts may answer the purpose for a while in new towns of rapid growth, where better materials are not readily attainable, and where first cost is a paramount consideration; but they should never be renewed to the extent that has been the case so often, in spite of the most convincing experience, and contrary to the best counsel of professional advisers. The sums of money wasted in repeating these mistakes would in many instances have gone far towards carrying out much more permanent and substantial im- provements. For streets in the vicinity of freight-stations, or of manufacturing establishments employing heavy teaming, and for streets with steep gradients, pavements should be made of stone blocks of basalt, trap-rock, granite, or hard limestone, laid upon a bed of broken stone ballast, topped off with sand or fine gravel, well rammed, and joints filled with cement grouting or coal-tar; for streets used by lighter traffic or carriages only, a well-laid pave- ment of pure asphalt upon a bed of stone ballast answers the pur- pose very well, if prompt attention is given to the maintenance and necessary repairs ; for parks and suburban pleasure-drives, a good macadamized road, well drained, and constantly kept in condition, affords a very superior and comfortable highway. Of late years, pavements of hard burnt fire-clay brick have been extensively laid in many cities and towns of the Middle States, where the supply of this material is very abundant and remarkably cheap. In some towns of West Virginia and eastern Ohio such pavements have been laid for less than a dollar per square yard. They make smooth roadways, are easily kept clean, and last very well under moderately heavy traffic. This pavement is especially well adapted for cities of medium size, which cannot well afford more expensive kinds, and yet require something more substantial and durable than either asphalt or macadam. But if there is one thing which needs reformation more than any other, it is the condition of our common country roads. If it is true that the highways of a people are a measure of their civiliza- tion, then we cannot complain if we are classed as an inferior type of low barbarians. The good nature with which we submit to the imposition of the annual road-tax is only equalled by the sublime resignation with which we accept the result of the effort which swallowed up our money. Our Western members all know what is meant by “ working the roads.” It means to plough a furrow on each side, and scrape the mud into a ridge in the middle, simply [VOL XING Noten to be washed down again into the ditches by the first shower of rain. provisions of our statutes, and by the consent of a law-abiding but much-suffering people. During the spring and fall, we struggle through the mud manfully as best we can; and when winter comes, and the bottom-literally drops out of the roads, we quietly compose ourselves, and contentedly stay at home. Some years ago, while out on an exploring expedition for a rail- road in southern Ohio, I was compelled to hibernate, so to speak, with my entire party, for nearly a month, in a lonely village among the hills of Wills Creek in Noble County; and, when I made an effort to advise my employers of our situation, I was cheered by the comforting assurance of the postmaster that my letter would certainly go out just as soon as the roads dried up. A faint ray of hope, however, is just beginning to dawn in some parts of the country, most conspicuously in Ohio, where, under the provisions of a recent law, a number of free turnpikes are being built, of quite a superior character, by special tax levied upon the adjacent property. The beneficial results of this wise system of improvements are very great, and highly appreciated by the people, and it is sincerely to be hoped that other States will profit by the example.’ ' Canals and Hydraulic Engineertng.—The days of ordinary canal navigation in the interior parts of this country may well be considered as numbered with the past. With the exception of the Erie Canal, which still maintains to some extent its character as a waterway of commerce, and excepting some parts of the canals in eastern Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Maryland, Ohio, and Illinois, these primitive transportation lines have either been abandoned en- tirely, after outliving their short period of usefulness, or they are now merely utilized for carrying bulky products between local points, or for the supply of hydraulic power to manufacturing establishments. Still more discouraging are the immediate prospects for the vari- ous maritime canal projects. The Panama Canal, upon which very large sums of money have been expended, has finally been aban- doned, after many unsuccessful efforts of its projectors to raise the funds still required for its completion, and after, as a last resort, modifying the original plans of a sea-level canal to one with locks. But notwithstanding this momentary failure, I most sincerely hope And this performance is repeated year after year, under the ote ie ae —and I honestly believe —that it is yet reserved for American engineering skill and American enterprise to resurrect and success- fully carry forward this great and important project to its ultimate completion. The Tehuantepec Ship Railway, which, for the purpose on hand, may properly be classed with the maritime canals, has not met thus far with the encouragement which its importance and the un- qualified indorsements of eminent professional talent would seem to justify. Probably the sad fate of its Panama rival, which places it for the present out of the range of active competition, may assist in reviving the ship-railway project to which our lamented fellow- member, the late Capt. Eads, devoted his energies during the last years of his useful life. New interest is being manifested in the old ship-canal project across the Isthmus of Nicaragua, which, in the matter of demon- strable feasibility, undoubtedly has many points in its favor. Among other ship-canal projects in active progress may be mentioned the Cape Cod Canal, which was commenced in 18680, and which will, when completed, connect the Bay of Cape Cod, by way of Herring River, with the head of Buzzard Bay in Massa- chusetts. The magnificent success of the ship-canal at Sault Ste. Marie, not only as an engineering project but also as a commercial enterprise, has surpassed all expectations ; and since its completion the traffic upon the northern lakes has been multiplied to such an extent that it has been found necessary to build an additional canal and a new lock of larger dimensions even than the one now in use. The direct impulse given by the completion of this canal to the lake navigation, and the indirect effect upon the general business of that region of country, have stimulated the work on the hydraulic canal at Sault Ste. Marie, from which great results are expected ; and they have also hastened the operations in progress for deepening and widening the channels through the shallow parts of Hay Lake, i whereby the route from Lake Huron to Lake Superior will be con- , : siderably shortened and generally improved. A project is now being agitated, contemplating a direct connec- tion between Lake Superior and Lake Michigan across the narrow portion of the peninsula between Marquette and Escanaba, where- by the passage through the Sault Ste. Marie would be entirely avoided, and much distance saved for the traffic between Lakes Superior and Michigan. In the extension of the river-walls in New York harbor, under the Department of Docks, large concrete blocks are being used, weighing from 60 to 75 tons, and requiring hoisting-machinery of extraordinary size and power to place them in position. Similar blocks are being placed in the walls along the lake-front in Chicago, where they have been found to resist effectually the action of the waves in places where all former methods of protection have failed. Razlroads. — Sixty years ago railroads were unknown in this ‘country. At that time the population of the United States con- sisted of 12,000,000 people. To-day we operate 160,000 miles of railroad, and our population has increased to 60,000,000 people. In 1830 the aggregate wealth of the United States was less than $1,000,000,000 : at present it is estimated at $56,000,000,000. Just _ how much of this phenomenal prosperity may be due to the rail- roads, it is, of course, impossible to conjecture ; butit may be safely assumed that they have very largely contributed to the result. While the population has increased during the last fifty years about 350 per cent, the ratio of increase of the railroad mileage for the Same period has been nearly four times that of the population, which would seem to indicate that they have not only supplied a want of the past, but have kept well up with the contemporaneous growth of the country, if they have not, indeed, advanced beyond its actual necessities. The railroad mileage of the United States is now fully one-half that of the total railroad mileage upon this globe, while our population is only about one-twenty fourth part. and our area of territory only about one-twentieth part, of that of the inhabited world. You have all heard the familiar illustration about girdling the equator a dozen times, more or less, with our railroad-tracks; but ‘it will no doubt please you to know, that, since you heard the state- ‘ment last, enough additional rail has been taid to give the equator another twist ; and I might further supplement the illustration by the assurance that we have now a sufficient supply of materials in the tracks of this country to build a railroad to the moon. Over these 160,000 miles of railroad we carried last year 475,000,000 people, and transported 600,000,000 tons of freight. Upon these lines are engaged 1,000,000 employees. Their equipment con- sists of 30,000 locomotives, 21,000 passenger-cars, 7,000 baggage- cars, and 1,000,000 freight-cars. The capital invested in their con- struction and equipment amounts to $8,000,000,000, and the yearly disbursements for labor and supplies exceed $600,000,000. The creation of these vast properties has been accomplished by aggregation rather than by preconcerted systematic development. The trunk lines of the present day-are to a great extent composed of pieces of road originally built by local enterprises, and absorbed from time to time by lease or purchase, to constitute with other acquisitions, in connection with some specially constructed con- necting links, the various systems under the management and * control of the leading railroad companies of the country. The recent revival of the temporarily abandoned Hudson River Tunnel project, and the proposed tunnel under the river at Detroit, are enterprises demanded by the necessity of continuous transpor- tation lines for the through traffic of our railroads. The numerous accidents which happen at points where public highways cross the railroads at grade, in spite of alarm-bells, watchmen, and safety-gates, have led to the enactment of laws in some of the Eastern States looking towards a gradual abandon- ment of existing crossings and the absolute prohibition of new ones in the future. During the years 1887 and 1888 there were abolished in Connecticut 93 grade-crossings, at a cost of $625,000. In Massachusetts a special committee of the Legislature has recently reported upon this subject, recommending that all dividend-paying roads eliminate annually 5 per cent, and all non-dividend-paying roads 24 per cent, of their grade-crossings at the joint expense of the railroads and communities, and that in future no grade-cross- SCIENGE | E i ings shall be permitted. It is to be hoped that the beneficial re- sults of these wise measures will induce other States to take this subject under serious consideration. The most noteworthy engineering feature in connection with the general progress of railroad construction in this country is the building of bridge structures upon a constantly increasing scale. In 1862 I triangulated the positions and laid the foundations for the piers of the channel span of the Ohio River bridge at Steuben- ville. This was the first iron railroad-bridge over any of the navigable tributaries of the Mississippi River. The length of its channel span was 320 feet, and it was the longest iron truss ever attempted up to that time. It was designed by Mr. J. H. Linville, still a member of this society ; and it has carried in safety, and without accident, the traffic of one of the principal Western con- necting lines of the Pennsylvania Railroad for twenty-five years, and is now being replaced by Mr. Henry G. Morse, also a member of this society, giving way to a double-track structure. To- day twelve railroad-bridges span the Ohio River between Pitts- burgh and Cairo, and two more are in progress of construction. There are fourteen railroad-bridges over the Mississippi, and fifteen over the Missouri. Many of these structures have spans of 500 feet, and one of the projected bridges over the lower Mississippi was designed with a span of 730 feet ; but this plan, I understand, has been abandoned, and a cantilever structure adopted in its place. The erection of these large bridges has become a special business in this country, and the leading contractors engaged in that pur- suit have acquired wonderful skill in the performance of this dan- gerous and difficult work. Few people appreciate the risks and hardships encountered, and the courage and judgment required, in dismantling an old railroad-bridge and erecting a new one in its place, with a deep and rapid river running underneath, a strong wind blowing, and a hundred trains passing daily over the frail, temporary supports, which must carry the traffic during the re- placement. The mere erection of entirely new structures, free from the encumbrance of moving traffic, is considered an easy job. In October last, the contractors engaged in the erection of the bridge at Cairo swung free and clear a 520-foot span in six days, and in November last the same parties erected the trusses of an- other span of 520 feet length in 44 hours, and more recently they erected a 400-foot span in 31 hours, the wind blowing a gale nearly all the time. The successful completion during the past year of the Hudson River cantilever bridge at Poughkeepsie reflects great credit upon the builders and engineers in charge; and the equally successful completion and skilfully conducted erection of the Hawkesbury Bridge in New South Wales adds new fame to the same firm of contractors, whose leading partners are all prominent members of this society. Whether the limit of possibilities in bridge construction will be reached in the execution of Mr. Gustav Lindenthal’s design of a railroad suspension-bridge over the Hudson River, with a span of 2,800 feet, resting upon towers 500 feet high, and carrying, in addi- tion to wagon-ways and foot-walks, six railroad-tracks, at a height of 150 feet above water; or whether the projected crossing of the British Channel will require still larger dimensions, — are problems which may perhaps interest at some future day the younger mem- bers of this society. NOTES AND NEWS. ACCORDING to an ancient superstition, says Garden and Forest, the beech is never struck by lightning ; and so general has been this belief, that a gentleman recently thought it worth while to write to an English journal that he had been told of a lightning- shattered beech in Ireland. Beliefs of this sort are rarely without some degree of justification in fact, and it would be interesting to know whether in this country the beech has been observed to pos- sess any greater immunity from electrical dangers than trees of other sorts. — The Gardeners’ Chronicle says that the gingko is proving it- self one of the best trees for street-planting in smoky cities, thriving in the most impure atmospheres, and having as yet been attacked Spa SCIENCE. by no insect or fungus disease. In this country, according to Gar- den and Forest, no extensive use has been made of the gingko as a street tree except in Washington, where of course it is not sub- jected to the test of an atmosphere impregnated with smoke. If it is, indeed, able ta withstand the most unfavorable conditions, it might be more generally adopted ; for it grows rapidly, its shape well adapts it for association with architectural forms, and the peculiar character of its foliage always makes it interesting to the popular eye. — The true eating banana, or “ madura,” is said to be unknown in northern countries, the varieties we import being simply those which are used in the land of their growth for cooking-purposes. Garden and Forest states that many varieties of the madura are recognized, each of which is distinct in flavor. The smaller are the more delicious; and the smallest of all,the so-called “ lady- finger banana,” with a skin hardly thicker than paper, is the most highly prized. Green cooking-bananas are peeled, and roasted in the ashes, and eaten with butter ; partially ripe ones are boiled for a few minutes with the skin on, and eaten with sirup or honey ; and ripe ones are sliced lengthwise, and fried in olive-oil or butter. —It will be new to some Americans, even though they know that peaches are commonly cultivated under glass in England, to be told that cherries are also grownin this manner. A correspond- ent of the Gardeners’ Chronicle recently described the cherry- house at Gunnersbury Park, where many different varieties afford fruit at different times during the season. ‘ When the trees are started into growth,” he says, “a temperature of 45° by day, and 40° by night, is maintained. When they are in flower, plenty of air is given, and the bees are encouraged to work among the blos- soms as much as possible. Scarcely any fire-heat is employed : in- deed, it had been employed only once or twice in order to keep out frost. At the time of flowering, plenty of ventilation is given, top and bottom. As soon as the fruit has set, the house is closed up somewhat, and the temperature kept quite cool until the stoning process is over; then it is kept a little closer, as when the fruit has stoned it ripens quickly. It is a little difficult to thin out the fruit previous to the stoning stage, as it is uncertain which fruit will mature, and which fail. A good watering is given to the trees be- fore they get into flower, and then water is applied with modera- tion until the fruit has set. Cherries appear to do best, and set their fruit more freely, when somewhat dry at the roots, whether the trees are planted out or in pots, and it appears to be quite cer- tain that all flower more freely when worked on the mahaleb than when on the cherry stock.”’ — The following interesting report to the United States Hydro- graphic Office from the American steamer “ Indiana,” Capt. W. I. Boggs, seems to indicate a normal condition of the Gulf Stream in the regions and during the times stated: ‘‘ From noon of May 22 (latitude 40° 20’ north, longitude 60° 8’ west) to noon, May 23 (latitude 40° 46’ north, longitude 54° 29’ west), experienced a cur- rent setting N. 68° E., drift 16.4 knots. The temperature of sea was noted every two hours: maximum temperature, 72°; mini- mum temperature, 60°; mean temperature, 66°. From noon of May 24 (latitude 41° 15’ north, longitude 49° 3’ west) to noon, May 25 (latitude 43° 49’ north, longitude 43° 47 west), current set N. 51° E., drift 23 knots. The temperature of sea was noted every two hours (and during hours of darkness every half-hour) : maxi- mum, 64°; minimum, 54°; mean, 62° ; twenty-four observations be- ing taken.” It is interesting to note, in this connection, that during the above period, and for fully a week previous, no general storms occurred in the regions referred to. On the contrary, the winds were variable in force and direction, seldom reaching a force of 6 (Beaufort’s scale). — Attention is called to certain changes that have been adopted on the “ Atlantic Pilot Chart” for July, which,"it is thought, will commend themselves to all who have occasion to useit. The most important of these is the enlargement of the area represented, the eastern limit being now 10° east longitude (instead of 4°, as here- tofore), This allows the whole of the North Sea to be shown, more of the Mediterranean than before, and the entire Gulf of Guinea. The system by means of which the prevailing winds are (Vor. XIV. Nor 335 indicated in each ocean square hasalso been changed slightly. In- stead of representing a north-east wind, for instance, by an arrow pointing away from the centre of the square at the south-west point of the compass, it is now represented by an arrow pointing Zoward the centre at the zorth-east point of the compass. This is re- garded as more graphic than the old method, the point of each arrow giving, at a glance, the true direction of the wind (the point from which it blows). —The Brooklyn Academy of Science, a society incorporated Aug. 22, 1888, has opened a free reading-room in their rooms in Warner Institute, Willoughby Avenue and Broadway, in that city. The various scientific journals will be upon the tables, and there is no charge to the public. Donations of papers will be greatly ap- preciated. —A boiler may be inspected to-day and found to be safe anes a working pressure of one hundred, and be weakened to-night by low water so as to be dangerous to-morrow with fifty pounds press- ure. Yet, as the Age of Steel says, it may explode a month hence with sixty pounds pressure and plenty of water, but the cause is as certainly low water as if it had exploded when the water was low. There is but one sure remedy, and it is a simple one. Put on a _real safeguard, something simple, which has been tried, and proven to be trustworthy. — According to the Brztzsk Medical Fournal, the programme of the Leeds meeting of the British Medical Association in August next “is developing in such manner as to afford the ample promise of a meeting of great scientific as well as social interest, and one which will be worthy of the traditions of this great medical centre.” — The sacred lotus (Velumbzum speczosum) has become estab- lished in a pond in New Jersey, and proves hardy, although the surface of the water is frozen over during the winter. The history of its planting, by E. D. Sturtevant, is given in Garden and Forest — for April 10, with a fine photo-engraving of the spot, me hun- dreds of open flowers. — There seems to be every prospect, according to Engzneerzng, that the efforts made by the French engineers to entertain the American party of engineers will be very successful. that an hour and a half or two hours should be spent in Calais to examine the new harbor-works there; and the special train which the Northern Railway of France has so liberally placed at their disposal will make a détour and stop near St. Omer, to give the engineers an opportunity of inspecting the great hydraulic canal- lifts. On the day after their arrival in Paris nothing official will be done, but on the following morning a formal reception will be held at the offices of the French Society of Civil Engineers. The party will then breakfast with M. Eiffel on the first story of the tower, and will afterwards ascend to the top in detachments. A part of this day ‘will also be spent in an organized visit to the exhibition. The Ville de Paris has made arrangements for an excursion through the Paris sewers, and further visits to the exhibition and elsewhere will be paid. One of the most interesting of the latter will be the compressed-air installations of the Popp Company. Altogether, though the Paris programme is not yet complete, it is certain to be a very full, hospitable, and attractive one. — The Engineering and Mining Fournal says, “It will be re- membered that some enterprising associated press agent startled the country a few weeks ago by announcing that the Standard Oil Company had wired from the Media works to Philadelphia for two hundred bull-dogs, which news item the telegraph editors and “home correspondents ’ of some of the metropolitan dailies ingen- iously enlarged into a small-sized sensation, lasting a day or two, until it was discovered that the ‘ bull-dogs’ wanted were merely harmless lifting-jacks of a particular style. As an example of how so much remarkable literature is floated, observe the following ju- dicial and editorial comment of one of our technical exchanges in its issue of June 2 22, at which late date it does not seem to have yet ‘caught on:’ ‘The Standard Oil Company has, however, intro- duced a new style of watchman, which we think will be efficient. The company has suffered a good deal by tramps and loafers get- ting too near its tanks and smoking, and thus setting fire to the gas It is intended ~ _ Jury 5, 1889.] generated by the oil, which ignites easily; and it has now given an order to a dog-fancier’s association for two hundred bull-dogs, to range in age from six months to a year, the price to be fifteen dollars each. The dogs are to be placed where the company has distributing-stations, and used in the field to guard the large iron tanks that are full of oil. The bull-dog watchman certainly has this merit over the average biped private watchman, that he neither smokes, drinks, nor goes to sleep on watch.’ ” — We learn from WVature that the Russian Academy of Sciences offers a prize of $2,500 for the best inquiry into the nature and effects of the poison which develops in cured fish. The objects of competitors must be: “ (r) To determine, by means of exact ex- periments, the physical and chemical nature of the poison which develops in fish ; (2) to study, by experiments on animals, its action upon the heart, the circulation of the blood, the organs of diges- /tion, and the nervous system ; (3) to determine the rapidity of its ‘ absorption by the digestive organs; and (4) to study and describe the characteristics which may serve to distinguish contaminated fish from such as are not contaminated.” The fifth and sixth ‘questions, with which it may be impossible for any one to deal satisfactorily, relate to the means of preserving fish from the de- velopment of the poison, and to the question of counter-poisons and the medical treatment of poisoned persons. The competition is open to all. The memoirs must be sent in, either in manuscript or printed, before Jan. 1, 1893, and may be written in any one of the following languages: Russian, Latin, French, English, Ger- man. If none of the papers is deemed worthy of the full prize, the accumulated interest upon the above-named sum may be handed ‘over to the author who presents the best solution of some part of the problem. — Arrangements have been made for a daily exchange of tele- graphic weather reports between Washington and Havana during the present hurricane season. Early and reliable information can be obtained at any branch hydrographic office. ~ — The forecast of weather on the Atlantic for July by the United States Hydrographic Office is that generally fair weather will pre- vail. Occasional moderate gales, frequently accompanied by elec- tric phenomena, will be felt north of the goth parallel; and West Indian hurricanes are apt to occur, especially during the latter part of the month. Frequent fogs may be expected over the Grand Banks, along the northern coast of the United States, and in the neighborhood of the British Isles. Icebergs are liable to be en- countered in the vicinity of the Grand Banks, between the 46th and 53d meridians, as far south as latitude 42° 30’ north. Field-ice ‘should be looked out for to the eastward and southward of New- foundland and off the coast of Cape Breton Island. —On July 22 an electric exhibition will open at St. John, N.B., ‘to last ten days. This is in honor of the opening of the Cana- dian Pacific Railway to St. John. — The Canadian Pacific Railway, in spite of its northerly latitude, seems to have overcome the snow difficulty. The total detentions during the past winter from this cause were only seven hours, the snowsheds and split and glance fences protecting the line in a very perfect manner, though some very heavy avalanches fell in the Selkirks. — People may walk until they are fatigued through the almost vendless buildings on the Champ de Mars, and yet fail to find any ‘great and striking object by which they would especially remem- ber the exhibition of 1889. The place is filled with evidences of untiring industry and skill on every side, but there is a strange _absence of great novelties. We believe, however, that the exhibi- -tion will be famous for four distinctive features, — in the first place, for its buildings, especially the Eiffel Tower and the Machinery Hall; in the second place, for its Colonial Exhibition, which for the first time brings vividly to the appreciation of Frenchmen that they are masters of lands beyond the sea; third, it will be remem- bered for its great collection of war material, the most absorbing subject nowadays, unfortunately, to governments, if not to indiyid- uals; and, fourth, it will be remembered, and with good cause by many, for the extraordinary manner in. which South American SCIENCE. 9 countries are represented. Several of those nationalities are be- ginning to put themselves forward as appreciable factors in the politics of the world, and, what is of more interest to the manufac- turer, they constitute the richest and largest customers in European and North American markets. Especially this is the case with re- gard to agricultural machinery of all kinds, and those exhibiters are fortunate who are well represented in this respect. —Mr. Henry William Bristow, F.R.S., died on Friday, June 14, at the age of seventy-two. In 1842, according to Nature, he was appointed a member of the staff of the Geological Survey of the United Kingdom. Mr. Bristow published various works on mineralogy and geology, and was the author of the mineralogi- cal articles in Brande’s “ Dictionary of Science, Literature, and Art,” and of articles on minerals and rocks in Ure’s “ Dic- tionary of Arts, Manufactures, and Mines.” He became a fellow of the Geological Society in 1843, and of the Royal Society in 1862, and an honorary fellow of King’s College, London, in 1863. He received the diploma of the Imperial Geological Institute of Vienna, and from the King of Italy the diploma and insignia of an officer of the Order of SS. Maurice and Lazarus. —In reference to the destructive volcanic eruption on the Island of Oshima (better known to the Western world as Vries Island), it seems that the first news of it was brought to Yokohama by the master of a passing steamer, who described the mountain Miharai- zan as being in fiercely active eruption on the morning of April 13, The eruption was of such a nature that it attracted attention on board the steamer at a great distance. Afterwards it was ascer- tained that the outbreak was at the western base of the mountain. From this it would appear that a new crater has been formed, as the old crater is at the top of the mountain, though there is a place to the south-west whence smoke is always issuing from the sands. The Fapan Weekly Mazi, from which this information is taken, gives the following historical account of this remarkable volcanic island. Miharaizan, according to the oldest Japanese historical records, was an active volcano so far back as 684 A.D., but the earliest authentic notice of its activity appears to have been taken in 1421, when the sea boiled, and the fish died in shoals. In 1684 an eruption commenced which lasted seven years; and in 1703 there was a great earthquake and tidal wave, and part of the island broke down, and formed the present harbor. In 1777 the moun- tain was in active eruption, and the island was covered several inches deep with ashes, such phenomena being almost constantly repeated from that date till 1792. It was then quiet till 1837, and more or less in action for the following twenty years. Another lull then took place, when, in 1868, it again broke out, and con- tinued in action four days. The next eruption occurred in 1876, and lasted nearly two months. The most destructive eruptions of Miharaizan were probably those of 1781 and 1789, as during the latter the village of Shimotaka was entirely destroyed, and the people and their houses were completely buried in ashes. There are at present six villages on the island, containing a population of five thousand persons, mostly fishermen. — Maria Mitchell, the well-known astronomer, until recently professor of astronomy at Vassar, died June 28 at Lynn, Mass. Miss Mitchell was born in Nantucket in 1818, and inherited her love of astronomy from her father, a bank cashier who made a hobby of astronomical investigations. It was one of Miss Mitchell’s ambitions to discover a telescopic comet, — an ambition that was satisfied in 1847. For this discovery a medal was presented to her by the King of Denmark, although, doubting the reality of her discovery for a time, Miss Mitchell had delayed publishing it, —a delay which came near losing her the honor, as European astronomers had found the same comet, and made earlier pub- lication. It was through the earnest presentation of her case by Edward Everett that the medal reached this famous woman as- tronomer. — Theodore Dwight Woolsey, president of Yale College from 1846 to 1871, died July 1. He was born in New York, Oct. 31, 1801. Besides his Greek text-books, published early in his career, his sermons and essays, President Woolsey wrote the well-known “ Treatise on International Law,” 10 SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY ING IDE (Co 1s Onis, S, 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, New YORK. Susscriptions.—United States and Canada....-.....+-++++..-- $3.50 a yea. Great Britain and Europe..............--...-- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): Z subscription I year ereeuese cesses eee ee se eee ee $ 3.50 2 st I YCAL ewes ce ccee ss ce even ce enee cabaats 6.09 3 Gy I year... 6 8.00 4 na I YEAT. eee e ee eee eens, cee eesencees 10.00 Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Vou. XIV. NEW YORK, Juty 5, 1889. No. 335. CONTENTS: THE THomMson-Houston ROAD IN IDEM) AWN 45 05 CB aoadesnassOsNbon sa: Bancor, Me......... .-+.--.--> I Icebergs in the Atlantic. Ture Use of Orr apoarD UNITED Tue Grain PLant-LousE 1N OHIO. 10 THE Bruce PuHoroGcrapHic TELE- H Srates NavaL VESSELS..--...-- SCOPE 6 oie ele cinieiele win wa sens e peeve Bde} A History oF HasiratTions ARIT ND KNOWLEDGE......-... Bee reso oe CHARITY AND KNOWLEDGE II Boox-REVIEWws. Notrasie DERELICTS IN THE NorRTH Economic Value of Electric Light JNGTUARINS aonb ocebes Besdodscbenog . andyPowerse tee aenie asec eee I5 PROGRESS OF ENGINEERING.... ..... 4 NotTEs AND NEWS........-.-+....... 7 | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS.........-.- I5 THE SOUTHWARD MOVEMENT OF ICE on the Grand Banks during June was far more decided than for the same month last year and 1886, though scarcely exceeding that of 1887. The prob- able limit, as forecast on the “ Atlantic Pilot Chart’’ for June, has been well reached in the area lying east of the 50th meridian. Since June 4 there were 16 reports of icebergs south of latitude 45°, and between longitudes 50° and 474°. Of these, 11 reports fell south of latitude 44°. The southernmost one, a good-sized berg 40 feet high, in latitude 42° 54’ north, longitude 49° 54’ west, came near proving very serious to one big liner, who slightly struck one of its submerged spurs on a foggy evening, June 11. A few bergs are still coming down across the parallel of 50°, but the sea- son on the southern half of the Grand Banks is drawing to a close, and the probable limit for July has accordingly been moved north- ward. The fact that the fog belt is so apt to overlap the iceberg region at this season makes it doubly desirable that transatlantic lines, both east and west bound, adopt a set of routes that will skirt rather than cross this dangerous field. Such routes are ad- vocated on the “ Pilot Chart,” and the slight loss of time incurred by. following them gives a factor of safety that must in time be recognized by underwriters. It is to be hoped that the coming in- ternational marine conference will give this question their wise consideration. “SCIENCE. [Vot. XeVe NO eas THE GRAIN PLANT-LOUSE IN OHIO. ONE of the most notable insect-outbreaks that has occurred in Ohio for many years is now taking place in the grain-fields of that State, The insect is one which has long been known as the grain plant-louse (Szphonophora granaréa), having originally occurred in Europe, whence it was probably introduced into this country early in its history. It has only occasionally ravaged grain-fields here, and, so far as our present information goes, has seldom been inju- rious in Ohio. The insect is now present, however, in destructive numbers over a large portion of Ohio, having already seriously injured the wheat, and is now threatening an equally serious injury to oats and other grains. Last year it was present in many of the northern counties, not becoming sufficiently abundant to attract notice until the oats were nearly ripe. This insect is closely related to the “ green fly ’ of house-plants, rose-bushes, etc. It is a small, greenish, or in some cases brown- ish, insect, with or without wings, infesting the leaves and heads of plants of the grass family. It obtains its food by inserting a pointed beak into the leaf or stem, and sucking out the sap. As the wheat gets ripe, it migrates to the more succulent oats, and, when these ripen, will go to various grasses. It brings forth living young; and its rate of multiplication is very great, it being esti- mated that a single louse in spring may become the ancestor of many millions before autumn. Fortunately this insect has a great many enemies which prey upon it, and are now doing immense good in decimating its ranks- These are of various kinds, and in some places are being mistaken for foes instead of friends of the farmer. The one which is causing the most apprehension is a peculiar dark-colored, six-footed insect, generally with spots of a brighter color on its back, looking, as one person expressed it, “half worm and half bug,’ which is very abundant in the infested wheat-fields, crawling about over the heads. These are the young or larve of various species of lady- bugs, or lady-beetles, and instead of attacking the wheat, as many farmers believe, is really feeding upon the lice themselves, and de- stroying them by thousands. Another insect that is doing im- mense good is a very small four-winged fly that deposits an egg within the louse. the expense of the louse, destroying it, and emerging again as a four-winged fly. The dead lice “struck” by these parasites be- come dull brown in color, and adhere to’ the leaf or stem upon which they were feeding. Besides these, various other enemies are attacking the lice; and the indications now are that the outbreak will be so checked by the end of the season, that there will be little danger of a repetition of the attack next year. The presence of English sparrows in the wheat-fields led some to believe that they were feeding upon the lice; but an examination of stomach contents of a number shot while on wheat, showed that the grain itself was what they were after, no more lice being eaten than.was necessary to get the grain. As yet no practical artificial remedy for the grain plant-louse is known, At the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station at Colum- bus they have found that kerosene emulsion will destroy them ; but the difficulty of reaching them with this substance, when they occur on the under surface of the leaf, or embedded in the chaff of the head, makes the remedy hardly practical. The injury to the wheat will be manifested by the shrivelling of the grain, due to the ex- traction of the sap necessary for its perfect development. THE BRUCE PHOTOGRAPHIC TELESCOPE. THE Astronomical Observatory of Harvard College has received from Miss C. W. Bruce of New York a gift of fifty thousand dol- lars, to be applied “ to the construction of a photographic telescope- having an objective of about twenty-four inches aperture, with a focal length of about’eleven feet, and of the character described by the director of the observatory in his circular of November last ;. also to secure its use under favorable climatic conditions in such a. way as in his judgment will best advance astronomical science.” This egg hatches into a grub that develops at JuLy 5, 1880. ] This instrument will differ from other large telescopes in the construction of its object-glass, which will be a compound lens of the form used by photographers, and known as the “ portrait Vi = t lens.” The focal length of such a lens is very small compared with its diameter, and much fainter stars can be photographed in consequence. The advantage is even greater in photographing nebulee or other faint surfaces. Moreover, this form of lens will enable each photographic plate to cover an area several times as _ great as that which is covered by an instrument of the usual form. The time required to photograph the entire sky is reduced in the same proportion. A telescope of the proposed form, having an aperture of eight inches, has been in constant use in Cambridge for the last four years, and is now in Peru photographing the southern stars. It has proved useful for a great variety of re- searches. Stars have been photographed with it too faint to be - visible in the fifteen-inch refractor of the observatory. Its short ‘focal length enables it to photograph as faint stars as any which can be taken with an excellent photographic telescope having an aperture of thirteen inches. The eight-inch telescope will photo- graph stars about two magnitudes fainter than can be taken with a similar instrument haying an aperture of four inches. ture to twenty-four inches. : q , i A corre- sponding advantage is anticipated from the increase of the aper- Each photograph will be thirteen in- ches on a side, and will cover a portion of the sky five degrees square, on a scale of one minute to a millimetre. The dimensions E will be the same as those of the standard charts of Chacornac and Peters. The entire sky would be depicted upon about two thou- - sand such charts. 1 ‘It is very important that the best possible location should be found for such an instrument. In Europe and in the eastern por- tions of the United States, where nine-tenths of the principal ob- _ servatories of the world are situated, it is cloudy for a large portion _ seldom occurs. of the year. Great advantages are expected from a location, as on some California mountain, where clouds and haze are seldom seen. This generous gift offers an opportunity for useful work such as It is expected that the Bruce photographic tele- scope will exert an important influence upon astronomical science by the large amount of material that it will furnish. CHARITY AND KNOWLEDGE.1 THIRTEEN years ago, during the centennial celebrations of In- dependence Day, the university founded by Johns Hopkins began its work; and now, as we commemorate a completed century of con- " stitutional life, the hospital, gift of the same donor, throws open its } doors. These buildings, on which thought, time, and wealth have been freely spent, are now consecrated to the ministry of mercy and the prolongation of life. Science and charity, knowledge and pity, skill and sympathy, are here installed in the service of man- kind. That large-minded citizen of Maryland, “ who, by noble gifts for the advancement of learning and the relief of suffering, has won the gratitude of his city and his country,” found two words ade- quate to his great ideas. ‘‘ University” and ‘“hospital’”’ were his chosen terms, and he linked them together by this significant phrase: “ Bear constantly in mind that it is my wish and purpose that the hospital shall ultimately form a part of the medical school of that university for which I have made ample provision by my will.’ How brief the phrase, how large the purpose! — “apples of gold in pictures of silver.” Like James Henry Roosevelt of New York, “a man upright in his aims, simple in his life, and sublime in his benefaction,” * whose hospital and dispensary give clinical instruction to the College of Physicians and Surgeons; like James Lenox of New York, whose munificence established a public library and gave birth to a hos- pital, — Johns Hopkins, already honored as a patron of learning, will be henceforward remembered in the annals of charity and 2 An address by Daniel C. Gilman, delivered at the opening of the Johns Hop- kins Hospital, Baltimore, Md., May 7, 1889. 2 This phrase (like that above, referring to Johns Hopkins) is taken from a me- morial tablet. SCIENCE: II medicine. May we not almost say of him, as Pindar said of The- ron (Olympic II., Cary’s version), — ‘“ And I will swear That city none — though she unroll, A century past, her radiant scroll — Hath brought a mortal man to light Whose hand with larger bounty flows. The blessings to that man we owe, Say, who shall hope to count ?” We may form an idea of what this hospital may become by the study of a like institution in London. About a century and a half before Johns Hopkins died, the days of Thomas Guy were ended. Like our benefactor, he had lived unmarried to the age of eighty years, and from humble beginnings had acquired a fortune, with which he provided for the establishment of a hospital. The amount of his gift was more than a million dollars (£238,292). The beneficent influences of Guy's Hospital are now known in every part of the globe. It is doubtless safe to say that every one of us has shared, indirectly, in its benefits. The name of the great surgeon, Sir Astley Cooper, would alone give renown to the hos- pital to which he was attached, — Sir Astley Cooper, of whom it was said that from the period of his appointment to Guy’s, until the moment of his latest breath, he was every thing and all to the suffering and afflicted; his name was a host; but his presence brought confidence and comfort.1. Addison and Hodgkins, whose names are familiar to the historians of medicine, were physicians in that hospital: so was Richard Bright, whose discoveries have been pronounced the most important contribution to medical sci- ence made in the first half of the nineteenth century. The obser- vations and studies made in Guy’s Hospital since 1836 fill fifty volumes. Thousands of medical students have been trained within its walls. ‘“ Their presence,” says a competent observer, “has made the hospital.’” Hundreds of thousands of patients have re- ceived relief from the treatment there afforded. In a single year, five thousand in-door patients have been cared for, and more than thirty thousand out-door patients have sought advice. But we are planning for a future much longer than a century and a half; for a history as long as that of St. Bartholomew's or St. Thomas’s, which now, after many centuries, are more useful than ever. By a curious coincidence, as I had reached this point in the prep- aration of my address, I received a volume from Dr. Norman Moore, the warden of St. Bartholomew’s Hospital in London, bear- ing an inscription so welcome and so apposite, that I will read it: “To the library of the newest of hospitals, this account of the progress of medicine in one of the most ancient is given by Norman Moore — with the earnest hope that the Johns Hopkins Hospital may flourish at least as long as the Royal Hospital of St. Barthol- omew in Smithfield, and prove no less useful to mankind — on the opening day of the Johns Hopkins Hospital, 1889.” This little book is full of suggestions for us. First, as to the longevity of a hospital. “ For more than seven hundred and fifty years the hospital has flourished upon its present site; and its Smithfield gateway, through which passed men of the generation whose fathers saw William the Conqueror enter London, has ever since been open to the sick poor.” Then as to the progress of medical science. Here you may see “ how the physician grew from a schoolman into a scientific ob- server, and how the surgeon, who appeared on the scene in livery and without learning, grew from a handicraftsman to be a man of science.” Next as to the training of illustrious men. Here you will find a record of the names and services of Caius, Bernard, Pott, Aber- nethy, Lawrence, and Paget; you may learn that Dr. Thomas Young, the originator of the undulatory theory of light, was here a student; and you will come upon the story of one more famous than any person I have named, — the discoverer of the circulation of the blood, the illustrious Harvey.* 1 Letter of Dr. Roots in the Memoir of Sir A. Cooper. 2 Dr. Moore calls attention to the fact that it was a fund given by Dr. Caius to encourage the study of anatomy, which was the immediate means of leading Harvey to his discovery and also to aremark in one of Harvey’s lectures that it was a pas— sage of Aristotle which first suggested to him the idea. 12 | SCIENCE. Time may efface the personality of our founder, as it has effaced ‘the personality of Rahere, the founder of St. Bartholomew’s ; but the beneficence of Johns Hopkins will last for centuries, and grati- tude will cherish the memory of his broad views, his great liberal- ity, his wise and beneficent purposes. The previous speakers have told us of the circumstances which led to the construction of these buildings, and have described their purposes. Let me, from a dwsferent point of view, point out some of the benefits which are likely to proceed from this foundation. As I enter upon this theme, I am reminded that in 1789, John Howard, faczle princeps among modern philanthropists, published dn a quarto volume, just before his death, the observations he had made upon the lazarettos of Europe. That was the beginning of reforms in prisons, asylums, refuges, and hospitals. To this work he prefixed these words of Cicero (De Oratore, I. 8), a motto so appropriate that I might take it for a text: “ Qu¢d tam porro re- gium, tam liberale, tam munificum, quam opem ferre supplicibus, excitare adflictos, dare salutem, liberare periculzs.” First, last, and always, this hospital is to furnish relief to the sick and wounded. Make the best of it, introduce fresh air and sunshine, and provide the utmost comfort ; secure wise physicians, engage the best trained nurses; decorate the walls with pictures ; bring fruit and flowers, and books and friends, and even the com- forting influences of religion, — yet you cannot conceal the direful ‘consciousness that this is the home of suffering. “« From any other ill (Except it be remorse) can men escape By work, — the healing of divinest balm To whomso hath the courage to begin, — | But sickness holds the sick man in a chain No will can break, or bend to earthly use.” , The names that have been given to these abodes of the sick are suggestive. ‘ Hospitality’ and “hospital” alike suggest the be- stowal of kindness to guests. The word “ lazaretto,” ultimately degraded, pointed at first to the restoration of life.‘ Misericordia,” “La Charité,” “La Pitié,” ‘The Home of the Good Samaritan,” “The House of Mercy,” bring to mind the kindly influences of love and care. St. John, St. Thomas, St. Bartholomew, and St. Luke, above all other apostles, are favorite patronymics. Paracel- sus died in the Hospital of St. Sebastian. Bethlehem, Bethany, Bethesda, and Jerusalem recall the scenes where the great Physi- ‘cian was present. The name of Christ has been given to many a foundation. In other places the hospital shares with the temple the name of “ Hotel-Dieu,” or ‘‘ House of God.” By whatever name it may be called, this is a convent where sickness is the abbess. The rule of sympathy for the suffering must govern everybody with a strictness of discipline as rigid as the rule of the Benedictines or the Carthusians. Those who daily walk these cloisters will be the warders of life and health, however high their station, or however humble their service ; and casual visitors will not cross the threshold of the wards without pity for those who are disabled, or without admiration and gratitude for those whose lives are spent in alleviating distress. This hospital will not only meet the daily calls of humanity, it will stand ready to render extraordinary services in those emer- gencies which not even the progress of municipal reform and pre- ventive medicine can entirely ward off. A fire, an explosion, an accident on the rails or on the seashore, the fall of a platform or of a building poorly constructed, may at any moment tax the utmost resources of a great establishment. True, we have no fear of leprosy and the plague; we have almost ceased to dread the com- ing of the cholera ; yellow-fever we are hoping to thwart in its ap- proaches to our Northern seaports (vaccination, which was spoken of by Sir James Simpson “as the greatest thought ever broached in practical medicine,” is a great prophylactic): but we are not certain that diphtheria and infectious fevers will not continue to be epidemic; nor can we always be sure that the boards of health in the city and State will succeed in protecting us, as well as they can, from the inroads of pestilence. Indeed, it is well to inquire whether Baltimore is now fortified as it should be against the hos- tile incursions of epidemic disease. In addition to its other func- 1 Ugo Bassi’s Sermon in the Hospital, p. 13. Ree ay IWors uv. Now325) tions, this hospital will stand as a reserved force, — a sort of store- house of energy, ready to serve the city if apprehension and disease spread their pall upon it. Here let me say, in anticipation of the future and in memory of the past, that, in all the records of bravery on land and sea, none are more noble than those of the medical profession. Free from all excitement, free from the hope of reward, free from any commands but those which are divine, they have in times of pestilence gone from bed to bed, firm, fearless, faithful, carrying the offerings of cheer, comfort, and relief, and often of restoration to health and vigor. For them there is no repose in time of danger. The black wings of death hovering over a city do not deter them from duty ; and often it may be said of them, as Milton said of Abdiel, “ faith- ful found among the faithless,’ faithful only they. Read the an- nals of modern pestilence, of cholera in New York, of fever and famine in Ireland, of yellow-fever in the South. Everywhere it is the same story. The more direful the record, the more unflinch- ing, the more self-forgetful, the more humane, are the efforts of physicians. While the offices of a hospital are bestowed without money and without price on those who are destitute, those who are able to pay for suitable attendance, and for the domestic comforts to which they are accustomed, may discover that they can here be better treated than in many private houses. The conditions of quiet are more easily secured ; suitable diet at unusual hours can be com- manded ; medical attendance is within call at every moment of the day and night ; manifold appliances for relief are more readily ob- tained. More and more frequently travellers, students, all whose homes are in hotels and boarding-houses, and even many who have good private homes, turn toward good hospitals when they see the need approaching for prolonged and special care. For the wants of such persons, provision has been made in the wards here set apart for paying patients, male and female. This hospital would be a very narrow institution if it kept to itself its experience. It is the essence of quackery to deal in mys- teries and nostrums: itis the glory of medicine that it owns no patents, and conceals no discoveries. On the contrary, the best hospitals of the world consider it one of their first duties, second only to the care of their patients, to record the cases they have treated, the methods they have pursued, the results, whether favor- able or unfavorable, which have followed. Scientific studies in pathology and practical medicine must be printed. Special papers, often requiring costly illustrations, must be published upon extraor- dinary cases, and upon new operations and modes of relief. It is thus that the science of medicine is advanced. Where secrecy reigns, carelessness and ignorance delight to hide: skill loves the light. It is impossible to have ashospital without its becoming a place for medical education. It is interesting to note that in the physi- cian’s oath, attributed to Hippocrates, the duty of imparting knowl- edge is explicitly enforced. Even the country doctor, as he rides from village to village, takes in his gig an observing pupil, like the squire to a knight-errant. Every great surgeon is watched with the closest attention by the younger physicians who assist him. Every mother is the pupil of the physician whom she calls upon to attend her suffering child. So, of course, a hospital, having upon its staff men of rare qualifications who are in daily consultation with their most skilful brethren, is, from the necessities of the case, a place for instruction. How systematic that instruction will be, depends on circumstances that at the moment need not be pre- sented. All that need now be said is, that hospitals the wide world over are the schools of medicine and surgery. The training of nurses is another form of hospital activity, re- cently developed, never hence to be abandoned. To the sister- hoods of the Roman Catholic Church, to the Protestant Deacon- esses of Kaiserswerth and the Bethanien at Berlin, and to many guilds in many lands, much credit is due for lessons they have taught the world as to the importance of training nurses, Eliza- beth Fry was one of the first Englishwomen to propose such in- - struction. Florence Nightingale, by her services in the Crimean war and by her subsequent writings, has borne a noble part in this work. So, too, have our own countrywomen. The civil war, full of sad recollections, has some bright stories, and among them none AU Se 1880. | ei more inspiring than the labors of brave, self-sacrificing, and intel- ligent women in the hospitals. Who that has read ‘‘ What we did at Gettysburg,” or ‘‘ Hospital Days,” has forgotten their lessons ? As a direct result of the war, nurses’ schools have grown up in every part of this land. Our hospital has such a department soon to be opened, where nurses will be trained, not only for their merciful offices within these walls, but for household engagements, and for visiting among the poor. A good hospital may readily become the rallying-place of the medical profession who are resident in the city. ‘‘ Through mutual intercourse and mutual aid Great deeds are done, and great discoveries made ; The wise new wisdom on the wise bestow, Whilst the lone thinker’s thoughts come slight and slow.’”’ One purpose of this central building is to afford opportunities for professional intercourse. Here are rooms set apart for the ‘library that will presently be collected ; here the medical journals will be taken in; here are the best appliances and instruments for the treatment of patients ; here are rooms for private consultations and for public conferences ; here are laboratories for physiological and pathological determinations; and it will not surprise me to hear that within a very short time medical associations are here brought together “for mutual intercourse and mutual aid” at the invitation of Dr. Osler, the physician-in-chief, who this day assumes his great responsibility with the hearty welcome of Baltimoreans, and with the well-earned confidence of the profession throughout the entire land. Reference must also be made to.the lessons that this hospital has already given to the world, before a single patient has been re- ceived. The vast amount of thought bestowed upon these build- ings, not only in their general arrangements, but in thousands of details which promote their efficiency, has not failed to attract the attention of observers from every part of the globe. The letters which have been received during the last few days from the most distinguished surgeons and physicians abroad, and the presence of this large body of medical men from the distant cities of the United States, are indications of this interest. Finally, if this hospital becomes the seat of knowledge in all that pertains to the nature of disease, its treatment, its prevention, and its cure, it will of necessity be a constant guide to the people of the city and the State in which it is placed ; it will promote the general health of the inhabitants. There is an altar in one of the churches of Messina which bears an inscription to Aesculapius and Hygeia,” the god of medicine and the goddess of health; and their statues are found together on the fagade of Guy’s Hospital. May they al- ways be associated in Baltimore! Is all this outlay wise? I might answer an inquirer in the words which Wordsworth employed in speaking of King’s Chapel, one of _ the most costly structures in the University of Cambridge : — “High Heaven rejects the lore Of nicely calculated less or more, Tax not the royal saint with vain expense ; With ill-matched aims, the Architect who planned This glorious work of fine intelligence.” For in this hospital, as in that church, are “Thoughts whose very sweetness yieldeth proof That they were born for immortality.” But I prefer to give a more specific and appropriate reply to those (if any such there be) who say, “I believe in every thing that is practical, in whatever leads to the relief of suffering ; but 1 am afraid of this talk about science. I would rather see a thousand beds for patients than any provision for medical education.’’ Such reflections are to be heard with respect, for they are natural to minds unacquainted with the intimate relations which subsist be- tween the progress of medical knowledge and the progress of medi- eal art. Nevertheless it is true that those who have most carefully studied the conditions by which human life is perpetuated, human sufferings lessened, and human vigor increased, are well aware that every step forward in science leads to many forward steps in prac- tice. May I endeavor to be a mediator between these two diver- gent views, and bring a few illustrations from the doctor’s shop to the attention of those who are practically interested in hospitals, SCIENCE. ! 13 but who have paid no attention to the steps, so slow, so difficult, so uncertain at first but so sure at last, by which the healing art makes progress. The late Dr. Austin Flint of New York, in an address prepared near the close of his life, has pointed out with the wisdom of ex- perience the probable future of medicine. It would be presumptu- ous for me to attempt to do again what he has done so recently and so well. But on this day of promise, in view of all this ex- penditure, it is fitting that we should bring to mind some inspirin thoughts. , Let us first consider the benefits which have come to mankind from the opportunities which hospitals have afforded for the ob- servation of disease. There is no one among us more competent to speak upon this subject than the pathologist of this hospital, Dr. William H. Welch, who, years in advance of its opening, has been engaged as a professor of the university, in the study of the nature and origin of disease. He has called my attention to these note- worthy points : — “ Those who have contributed the most to the advancement of practical medicine and surgery have accumulated their experience largely in hospital service. By the constant attendance of skilful physicians and of well-trained nurses in hospitals, precise observa- tions can be made, and the phenomena of disease and the influence of treatment determined, under the most favorable conditions. “Our present knowledge of the natural history of disease, of its diagnosis, prognosis, and treatment, are based to a very large ex- tent upon experience derived from hospitals. Text-books, mono- graphs, and medical journals incorporate this experience, and bring it to the knowledge of the medical profession, This is why intelligent physicians are always eager to secure the advantages of a hospital service.” Z The benefits which medicine has received from purely scientific investigations may be shown by so many examples, that it is diffi- cult to make a selection among them. Dr. Welch mentions these : — ? “ Upon the foundation laid by Helmholtz’s researches in physio- logical optics, and his discovery of the ophthalmoscope, the art and science of ophthalmology have developed into the most accurate department of clinical medicine. “ The investigations which received their impulse from Du-Bois Reymond in the difficult subject of animal electricity have ren- dered electricity available for diagnosis and treatment, and have advanced thereby our knowledge of nervous diseases. “ Of the many ways in which the work of the chemist has aided medicine, may be cited, as one of its most recent contributions, the introduction into modern therapeutics of many useful remedies which are the products of synthetic chemistry. Doubtless this is a field which will be cultivated still further, and it would be rash to attempt to foretell what agents for the cure of disease and relief of suffering are still hidden in the chemist’s laboratory. “By the discovery of the specific germs causing various infec- tious diseases, surgical practice has been revolutionized. It has be- come possible to prevent the infection of wounds from the ex- terior, and thus to guard against a host of traumatic infections which rendered dangerous and futile so many surgical operations. Preventive medicine has taken its place among the exact sciences. “ Accurate knowledge of the causes ‘of disease now forms a sure basis for intelligent therapeutics, and there is every reason to ex- pect that the future will bring to light means to overcome the in- jurious agents which are now, for the first time, known.” But there is another illustration so marvellous that it may almost be called miraculous. The relations of advancing knowledge to advancing charity are brilliantly displayed by the history of methods for the relief of pain. To put a stop to suffering is an instinct of human nature, distin- guishing man from animals. The most scientific men, and the most practical, are agreed upon this, and have been so agreed for centuries. But Anzesthesia, most welcome of all the angels of mercy, came down from heaven. When the older surgeons in this assembly were students, opium and alcohol were the imperfect anaesthetics most usually employed. Their use was restricted and unsatisfactory, if not dangerous. No one can tell what was suf- fered in places where gentle sleep now quiets apprehension, and 14 makes the patient unconscious of his state. To this alleviation we are so wonted, that we accept it as the air we breathe. But if you would learn how man secured this boon, how many efforts of scientific and of practical men were combined before the results were reached, recur to the history of four modern agencies, — ni- trous oxide, ether, chloroform, and cocaine, — which are like “ the gentle dew from heaven, which blesseth him that gives and him that takes.” It is a chapter more wonderful than any romance of the Arabian Nights. Let any one present who is sceptical in respect to the usefulness of science to the healing art keep this record in his mind. Let him reflect on the apprehensions that have been removed not only from the patient, but from his attendant friends; let him see how much easier, and therefore how much more certain, the task of the sur- geon has been made; and, above all, let him think of the hours of pain that have been absolutely annulled: and then let him divide the honors, if he can, which belong to science, from those which belong to philanthropy. Let him balance half a century of scien- tific relief with the previous practice of many thousand years: then let him tell us which is better. From the past let us turn to the future. All the signs of the times point to a new erain thehistory of mankind. All the sciences are leading up to a better understanding of the laws of life, to a true anthropology, and the consequent improvement of the physical, mental, and moral powers of man. There are four or five directions toward which we may turn an expectant gaze, as in days gone by the merchants watched upon the house-tops for the return of the ships they had sent out to dis- tant ports. Preventive medicine promises to do more and more for man- kind. As the germs of many specific disorders have been discov- ered, so the means of their destruction have been found out. If legislation and civil administration keep up with science, if knowl- edge is controlled by virtue and followed by temperance, the com- munity will be freed from many of the foes which in former gener- ations have slain their tens of thousands. From the chemicak laboratory new remedies, as well as simpler forms of old remedies, are to be constantly looked for. The syn- thetical processes which now receive so much attention have lately made important contributions to the pharmacopceia. It would sur- prise any one whose attention has not been directed to this point to know how many claimants are awaiting judgment. Scores of sub- stances, till lately unknown, as I have heard my colleague Pro- fessor Remsen say, are awaiting the study of competent_therapeu- tists. Nobody can foretell what will come from their new contri- butions to materia medica; but one who watches the processes of discovery must feel certain that secrets hid from the beginning are ere long to be revealed, and that many of the substances already discovered have properties of the most serviceable character. No one can say what will result from the attention that has been recently given to the study of psychical phenomena by the exact methods of science, but the outlook is hopeful. If we are as far as ever from elucidating the mysterious inter-relationship of the mind and the body, progress has certainly been made in a knowledge of the laws by which they act upon each other. The knowledge that has been required in respect to the functions of the brain and nervous system has already led to the treatment of many disorders, and the relief of many diseases, which a short time ago were be- yond the reach of remedy. We are not without hope that in the physiological and psycho-physical laboratories already established here, important contributions will be made to science which will ultimately prove to be of value to medicine, and to the conduct of the body in health and disease. Medical appliances and surgical instruments are greatly to be improved. A surgeon who has just returned from Europe, after visiting in the interest of this hospital the most celebrated instru- ment-makers, has informed me that the processes of manufacture eyen now are behind the devices and requirements of surgical science. The hands of the artisan have not kept up with the brains of the chirurgeon. It is not possible to buy ready made the instruments required by this hospital. In the near future we are to look for progress in the applications of electricity and magnetism to the treatment of disease as well as SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 335 to its diagnosis. Chemistry, by its synthetic methods, is producing new remedies, which experimental therapeutics proceeds to test, and pharmacy then appropriates. The laws of light, heat, elec- tricity, and magnetism, are found in close relationship to the prob- lems of relief and cure. The laws of temperature and climate have their services to render. Even the influence of barometrical pressure upon surgical operations begins to be noticed. The study of the nervous system is sure at no distant day to make important contributions to the welfare of man. Psychology is waiting for the results. Experimental physiology is doing its part. Pathol- ogy, a term as old as Hippocrates, has become a new science within the last few years. The laws of descent have but just be- gun to assume a scientific form. Preventive medicine is almost a new conception. The morality of personal hygiene is a new de- partment of ethics. Biology, after having met with the same critical reception with which anatomy, astronomy, geology, and chronology were greeted, may yet be honored as leading to the highest and noblest conceptions of humanity. Anthropology, and the knowledge of man in his relations to the universe in which he is placed, may sum up finite knowledge. So all along the line, in the laboratories of the university and in the wards of the hospital, knowledge is contributing to the welfare of man. The days of the coming man may not always reach the full allotment to which Chevreul has just attained ; but perhaps to die at seventy will be to die in youth, and to reach the age of eighty or ninety in health and vigor will be the rule, and not the excep- tion. Nor is length of days our only hope. The disappearance of epidemics ; fewer days of confinement in sickness; fewer “‘ minor ailments ;’’ a decrease of infantile mortality; greater powers of resistance to the evils of certain occupations, and comparative im- munity from many infirmities which are now common; artificial re-enforcements and replacements of bodily defects ; simpler and surer means of diagnosis; the detection of the nature, origin, and history of specific affections ; and finally the assurance of eutha- nasia, — these, as it seems to a layman, are reasonable expectations which the nineteenth century holds out to the twentieth. Can any outlay be too great if humanity is thus benefited ? To the attainment of these noble aims — ‘ the relief of suffering and the advancement of knowledge” —the foundations of Johns Hopkins are forever set apart. On the one hand stands the university, where education in the liberal arts and sciences is pro- vided, and where research is liberally encouraged; on the other “hand stands the hospital, where all that art and science can con- tribute to the relief of sickness and pain is bountifully provided. Is there any thing wanting? Yes, there is still a great want tobe supplied, an arch to rest upon these pillars. An institute of medi- cine and surgery, a college of physicians and surgeons, a medical school the office of which shall be to promote the training of young physicians and the encouragement of medical science, is impera- tively needed. portunity on the face of the globe for another Peabody or another Hopkins to benefit his fellowmen ? The university needs all it has, and more, to carry on the non- professional courses to which its funds are appropriated. The hospital, with all its readiness to co-operate in the advancement of knowledge, will, after all, remain —as I have said before, and can- not say with too much emphasis—the home of the sick, the feeble, the injured, and the dying.- It is the house of mercy, not the hall of philosophy. But in close alliance with both these foun- dations there is a place for a school of medicine, which may bear its founder’s name, and may render services as significant and memorable as those of Salerno and Bologna, at the beginning of the modern era; as those of Leyden and Edinburgh, where the earliest American physicians received their education; or as those of Berlin and Vienna, to which so many students of this decade resort. This grateful city should no longer delay placing upon one of the squares near the monument of Washington the figure of Johns Hopkins, with such designs as an artist, and an artist only, could devise, to typify the great ideas which underlie his gifts, — “the advancement of knowledge and the relief of suffering.” Then might some friend of this hospital place beneath this dome a copy of Thorwaldsen’s “Christus Consolator,’ with the outstretched Is it too much to say that there is not such an op-’ j _ JuLy 5, 1889.] hands of mercy, to remind each passer-by — the physician and the nurse, as they pursue their ministry of relief; the student, as he begins his daily task; and the sufferer from injury or disease — that over all this institution rests the perpetual benediction of Chris- tian charity, the constant spirit of “good will to man.” Upon one hill of Baltimore rises a temple “whose guardian crest, the silent cross,” is an emblem of the Christian faith ; upon another a lofty column reminds us of the patriots’ hope; upon a third the Hotel- Dieu is placed,—the house of charity. Significant triad! Here “abideth faith, hope, charity, ... but the greatest of these is charity.” BOOK-REVIEWS. Economic Value of Electric Light and Power. By A.R. FOOTE. Cincinnati, Robert Clarke & Co. 16°. $1. | THE author of this little book claims that the spirit moved him, ‘as it were, to write it fro bono publico. The book is essentially a collection of papers read before scientific societies, and extracts from magazine articles on the applications of electricity for pro- ducing light and in the transmission of power. Mr. Foote is a strong believer in the future of electricity as an agent in furthering human comfort, and we doubt not that many who may be ponder- ing on the question of introducing electricity in their homes or factories will find valuable suggestions within the covers of this book. In an appendix is given a glossary of electrical terms for the benefit of unprofessional readers. Treatise on Trigonometry. London and New York, Macmillan. By W. E. JOHNSON. M2 a 2-2 15. THIS work is intended for both those who are beginning the subject and hope to continue their mathematical studies, and those SCIENCE: 15 who wish to revive their knowledge of trigonometry and to extend it beyond the limits of the ordinary text-book. The treatise is so written as to make a good introduction to much of the higher mathematics; Chapter IX., on the geometry of the triangle, being sure to help those desirous of entering upon modern geometrical developments, and the final chapter presenting a fair view of the transition from the earlier interpretations of ,/ — 1 to the quaternions of Hamilton. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. HARPER BROTHERS published last week H. Rider Haggard’s story of “old and mysterious Egypt,” entitled “ Cleopatra: being an Account of the Fall and Vengeance of Harmachis, the Royal Egyptian, as set forth by his own Hand.” The book is profusely illustrated from drawings by Mr. Greiffenhagen and R. Caton Woodville. — D. Lothrop Company have issued recently, among many other books, “One Voyage,” a story of life at sea from the passenger's point of view, by Capt. Julius A. Palmer ; also a pictorial ‘* History of England in Rhyme,” and a similar one of the United States. Later they will publish new editions of “ Art for Young People” and ‘“‘ Adventures of the Early Discoverers,’ by Mrs. F. A. Hum- phrey. — The J. B. Lippincott Company have in preparation “ Elemen- tary Lessons in Heat,” by Professor S. E. Tillman, of the United States Military Academy; and a new subscription-book entitled «‘ A Manual of Machine Construction,” a practical reference-book for the design, proportions, and method of constructing all kinds of machinery in common use, with all required references for the use of engineers, draughtsmen, and mechanics, by John Richards. Publications received at Editor’s Office, NOW READY! June 17-29. ALpEN’s Manifold Cyclopedia of Knowledge and Lan- guage. Vol. XIII. Electricity to Exclaim. New York, J. B. Alden. 12° 50 cents. BranrorD, H. F. A Practical Guide to the Climates and Weather of India, Ceylon and Burmah and the A NEW WORK!! AB G. ELECTRICITY. By WM. H. MEADOWCROFT. te Endorsed by THOS. A. EDISON. DO APPLETON Ga. Ce HAVE UST PUBLISHED = OP — 1 yolume, limp Storms of Indian Seas. “London and New York, Macmillan. 369 p. 8°. $3-50. Dorrot, Sopuiz. The Beginners’ Book in German. Boston and London. Ginn. 273p. 12°. go cents. Gepp, C. G., and Haicu, A. E. A Latin-English Dic- tionary. Boston, Ginn. 563 p. 12°. $1.40. ‘Licut on the Path, with Notes and Comments by the Author. Written down by M. C. Boston, Theo- sophical Book Co. 68p. 16°. 30 cents. Loewy, B. A Graduated Course of Natural Science. Part I. London and New York, Macmillan. 151 v. 16°. 60 cents. Meavowcrort, W.H. The A B C of Electricity. New York, Lovell. ro8p. 12°. socents. PENNSYLVANIA Geological Survey. Catalogue of _the Geological Museum. Part III. Harrisburg, Geol. Sury. 260p. 12°. — Atlas Northern Anthracite Field. Part III. Har- risburg, Geol. Surv. 8 maps. f°. Atlas to Reports HH and HHH. Harrisburg, Geol. Sury. 56p. 5 maps. 8°. Prato’s Protagoras ; with the Commentary of Hermann Sauppe. Tr. by James A. Towle. Boston and Lon- don, Ginn. 3179p. 12°. $1.50. Smirusontan Institution, Annual Report of the Board of Regents of the, for the Year ending June 30, 1886. Part I. Washington, Government. 878p. 8°. Two Great Retreats of History. I. The Retreat of the Ten Thousand. II. Napolean’s Retreat from Mos- cow. With Introduction and Notes by D. H. M. Boston, Ginn, 318 p. 16°. 60 cents. U.S. War DeparTMENT. Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer of the Army to the Secretary of War for the Year1888. Washington, Government. 418 p. 8°. Weismann, A. Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Bio- logical Problems. Oxford, Clarendon Pr. 455 p- 8°. (New York, Macmillan.) Old and Rare Books. One Million Magazines. Back numbers, vols. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. A. S. CLARK, 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. cloth, fully illustrated ; price, 50 cents. WHAT THE PRESS SAYS: ‘* A clear and comprehensive little treatise.”—lV. Y. Sun. “ Mlectrical science is makiog magnificent strides, and this book fills a useful office, in setting forth the features and characters of these advances.”—Brook- lyn Times. * The need of such a book has undoubtedly been felt by many .. . we predict for it a spendid sale.”—The Age of Steel. ** 4 book like this should be largely read.”—WN. Y. Herald. ‘The book is well illustrated, and no pains have been spared to make it accurate and reliable throughout.”—Electrical Review. “In simple language the author lays bare the se- erets of electrical science and application.”—Elec- trical World. “A vast amount of useful importance.”—Wash- ington Post. Sent post-paid to any address on receipt of price by FRANK F. LOVELL & COMNIPANY, 142 & 144 Worth St., New York. NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW. JULY, 1889. CONTENTS: DISCIPLINE IN AMERICAN COLLE:ES. 8. C. Bartlett, President Dartmouth; Jas. B. Angell, President University of Michigan; Prof. N. S. Shaler of Harvard; Charles K. Adams, President Cornell; William D. W. Hyde, President Bowdoin; Sir J. W. Dawson, Principal McGill University; Horace Davis, President University of California. An English View of the Civil War—II..Lord Wolseley The Telegraph Monopoly.......Prof. Richard T. Bly Our Future Navy...Rear Admiral S. B. Luce, U.S.N. The Throne in England....... Justin McCarthy, M.P. Our Jgnorance of Alaska.... Kate Field The Negro Intellect.. ...... William Mathews, LL.D. A Plague of Office Seeking. Gen. Charles H. T. Collin TRIBUTES TO ALLEN THORNDIKE RICE. Wil- liam Waldorf Astor, Edwards Pierrepont, Gen. William ‘I’. Sherman, Lloyd Bryce (by cable.) NOTES AND COMMENTs., Foreign Influence on American Fiction.. Maurice Thompson Beacenonubetccc ae Felix L. Oswald American Auguries The Future of the Newspaper........ Julian Proctor Abolishing Poverty—on Paper.The Rey. J. B. Wasson “Thought-Transferrence”.. ........... W. A. Croffut Protection for Our Language......-. N. A. Campbell French Proper Names in Eugliso....M. B. Thrasher Fifty cents. All Newsdealers. Education in the United States. ITS HISTORY FROM THE EARLIEST SETTLEMENTS. By RicHarpD G. BOONE, A.M., Professor of Pedagogy in Indiana Uni- versity. Volume XI of ‘‘ The International Education Series,” edited by W. T. HARRIS, LL.D. 12mo, cloth. Price, $1.50. This work, which is the first noteworthy attempt at a general history of education in the United States, forms a tolerably complete inventory of what exists, as well as an account of its origin and development. It includes: I, The Colonial Period ; II, The Revolutionary Period ; III, The Period of Reorganization; IV, Current Edu- cational Interests. Il. Stellar Evolution and its Relation to Geological Time. By JAmMEs CROLL, F.R.S., author of mate and Time,” ‘‘ I2mo, cloth. Price, $1.00. *Cli- Climate and Cosmology.” A treatise upon the probable origin of meteoritess comets, and nebulz, upon the age of the sun’s heat, and upon the pre-nebular condition of the universe. 1, 3, & 5 BOND STREET, New York, HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. 16 —The opening article in the Polétzcal Science Quarterly for June is by Albert Shaw, on “Municipal Government in Great Britain.” It is not a history, but an account of the existing system of municipal government, which differs in important respects from that prevailing in the United States. The governing authority in Brit- ish cities is the Common Council, the members of which are chosen by districts, and which has the appointment of the mayor and other administrative officers. The mayor is always a member of the council, and holds office for only a short time, while the other ap- pointive offices are held for life. Mr. Shaw thinks this system greatly superior to the American, because it centres both power and responsibility in what is really a committee of the citizens, while in America responsibility is practically destroyed by the divis- ion of power and the complicated system of checks and balances. He also disapproves giving the mayor of a city such great power as the mayor of New York now wields, and remarks that “ the one- man power is on the decline everywhere in this age.” The article ought to be read by every American who is interested in municipal affairs. The next paper in the Quarterly is by J. H. Dougherty, on the “ Constitutions of New York,” the first part of which was published in September of last year. It is purely historical, and contains nothing specially new or striking. Another historical paper is that of J. W. Jenks on “ The Whiskey Trust.” The writer does not inquire into the legality of the trust nor into its economic effects, but merely relates the circumstances of its for- mation and development; and those wishing for information on these points will find it in this article. Mr. E. P. Cheyney discusses the recent decisions of the courts in “Conspiracy and Boycott Cases,” and thinks that they have been too harsh against the labor- unions. He believes the judges have been too much influenced by legal precedent, and have not given sufficient attention to the changed condition of industry and society. Mr. F. W. Whitridge Writes on “ Rotation in Office,’”’ strongly condemning the United States law which provides that all officers appointed by the Presi- dent and Senate shall hold office for only four years, which he justly holds to be one of the main supports of the spoils system. Besides these essays and a number of book reviews, the Quarterly contains a “Record of Political Events’’ from October to May, which is evidently the continuation of those formerly published in the Vew Princeton Review, which has now been merged with the Quarterly. — Professor W. G. Sumner is to contribute to the Popular Sczence Monthly, as the opening article of the July number, a discussion of the question, “ What is civil liberty ?’’ in which he reviews the ideas of liberty that have prevailed, and the relations that rights and duties have borne to each other, in the past, and points out the tendencies that threaten civil liberty in the present. ‘ Christianity and Agnosticism”’ is the title of a further reply to Professor Hux- ley, by Rev. Dr. Henry Wace, which will be printed in the July issue. In this paper Dr. Wace undertakes to show that his oppo- nent’s latest arguments are evasive and involve numerous fallacies ; he also courteously criticises Mrs. Humphry Ward, whom. Profes- sor Huxley had cited with approval. What man has done and may do to lessen or increase the abundance of those food-fishes that have the wide ocean for their home, is told in an article on “The Artificial Propagation of Sea-Fishes,” which Professor W. K. Brooks will contribute; and the railway problem now before the country will be treated by Mr. Benjamin Reece, under the title “Railway Maladjustments.” Mr. Reece maintains that our laws favoring railroad-building have produced an excess of roads, which must be either a loss to the investors or a burden to the public, and that the Interstate Commerce Law is aclumsy expedient which takes little note of the working of economic forces. —D. C. Heath & Co. will publish, July 20, “ An Introduction to the Study of Shakspeare,” by Hiram Corson, professor of English literature, Cornell University. It will be an attempt to indicate to the student some lines of Shakspearian study which may serve to introduce him to the study of the plays as plays. The commen- taries presented on “ Romeo and Juliet,” “King John,” ‘ Much Ado about Nothing,” ‘ Hamlet,” ‘‘Macbeth,” and “ Antony and Cleopatra,” aim chiefly to present the points of view which are de- manded for a proper appreciation of Shakspeare’s general attitude SCLENCE: ~ tee , toward things, and his resultant dramatic art. Anattempt is made to show the moral spirit with which he worked, as distinguished from a moralizing spirit, which it seems all-important to appreciate. Herein-consists the transcendent educating value of the plays. To come into the fullest possible sympathy with this moral proportion, with this harmony and truthfulness, should be the highest aim of Shakspearian culture. — P. Blakiston, Son, & Co., medical and scientific publishers, booksellers and importers, tor2 Walnut Street, Philadelphia, have just ready “ The Cerebral Palsies of Children,” a clinical study from the Infirmary for Nervous Diseases, Philadelphia, by William Osler, M.D., F.R.C.P., London ; physician-in-chief Johns Hopkins Hospi- tal, Baltimore; late professor of clinical medicine, University of Pennsylvania. — Messrs. Ginn & Co. of Boston have for some time been pub- lishing a series of classics for children, with the object of intro- ducing the young to a better class of literature than most of them now read. The different volumes of the series comprise stories of various kinds, biographical and historical works, and any others that seem suitable for young readers. The series has proved suc- cessful in a mercantile sense, and already comprises more tham thirty volumes. The latest issue is entitled ‘The Two Great Re- treats of History,” and contains Grote’s account of the retreat of the ten thousand Greeks, and an abridgment of Ségur’s account of Napoleon’s retreat from Moscow. Count Ségur was an officer in the French army and an eye-witness of the scenes he relates, and his story of the great disaster in Russia has long been celebrated. The two works together make an interesting volume, and can hardly fail to hold the attention of all young people that can appre- ciate historical events. — The Magazine of American Hestory opens its July number — the beginning of its twenty-second volume — with a “Story of the Washington Centennial,” illustrated from photographs by amateurs [VoL. XIV. No. 335 and other artists, executed during the progress of the celebration. © It is safe to say that no great public event was ever before seized in all its interesting particulars, and placed before the popular eye, with such felicitous results. The truthful pictures of the scenes are rendered doubly attractive and valuable through the portraits of the distinguished characters in our national life of to-day ap- pearing in them. The view of the assemblage on the steps of the Sub-treasury Building in Wall Street is good, and every reader will be able to recognize in the picture the distinguished men present whose faces are best known. ‘“ The Discovery of the Mississippi’’ is the second paper, an instructive study by Henry Lee Reynolds. “Washington and William the Silent—a Parallel,” is an article by M. M. Baldwin. Judge Dykman contributes the second part of his account of “The Last hase G. A. McBride wrote 129 words in a single minute, Blindfolded, thus in each case proving the falsity of many of the state- ments of our competitors. For full and correct account of above test, address THE AMERICAN WRITING MACHINE CO., HARTFORD, CONN. BRANCH OFFICES:—237 Broadway, 14 W. 4th Street, Cincinnati, 0.5 10 Street, Philadelphia. EW) spRONGESp Dei Hi O AWARDED 9 LONDON Weems Used by thousands of Rist alace mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., & Hamlin Organ and Piano , &c., &e. Repairs Everything. Itssuccess has brought a | of Imitators co) ying N. Y.; Sige TINE LePage ?s Liquid is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c, and dealers? card who KIMBALL’S CIGARETTES Unsurpassed in quality. Highest award at Brussels, 1888. our manufacture. Fifteen First Prize Medals. WM.S. KIMBALL & CO., Sar iW Gish ay Cw a Used by people of refined taste. The finest smoking mixtures are of Rochester. N.Y. ute and placing the STANDARD TYPEWRITER WON Gold and Silver Medals CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD, At Toronto, in open contest, Aug. 18, 1888. {51 Words per Minute, Without an Error. The above is an authentic record made by Mr. Frank E. McGurrin, at Detroit, on Jan. 21, 1889, on a memorized sentence, thus beating all previous records of correct work, by 30 words per min- ee Remington” still further beyond reach of competition. of certified work furnished on application. WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 327 Broadway, N.Y. Photographic copies J, GRUNGW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MASER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, ¥ of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- apparatus. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electiic Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored views. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. No E.& H.T. ANTHONY &CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, ; Apparatus and Supplies of every escription. Sole proprietors of e Patent Detective, Fairy Noy- el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the \ Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits in great variety, from $9.00 upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. [28 More than 4o years established in this line of business. MORRIS EARLE & CO. SUCCESSORS 10 R. & J. BECK, 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and all Accessories and Ap- paratus. Photograph- ic and Photo-Micro- graphic Apparatus and utfits Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed fvee to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE in corresponding with us. AL POCKET WRENCH AND SCREW DRIVER COMBINED. Turns Nuts, Gas Burners or Pipe without adjustment, Made of Best Polished Steel. Sent by mail for 25 cts, POCKET WRENCH Co., P. O, Box 672, New York City. GremAvenca ee c R Dl ES, . sreatest Inducements ever of- fered. Now’s your time to get ee up orders for our celebrated es r Teas and Coffees, and secure _ GoMPANY a beautiful Gold Band or Moss Rose China Tea Set, Dinner Set, Gold Band Moss wee Toilet Set, Watch, ‘Brass Lamp, or eee s Dictio: Bae, For full I particulars address EAT A MERIC P. O. Box a 81 and 388 Vesey St., New York. FOOD AD UL ERAT TOM And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues E. & F. N. SPON, 12 Cortlandt St., on application. New York. hn oe (Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., a8 Second-Class Matter.] a VE ey NEWSPAPER OF ALIAGHE ARTS AND SCIENE€ES, SEVENTH YEAR. Vou. XIV. No. 336. NEW YORK, Juty 12, 1889. SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. ELECTRIC MOTORS IN PRINTING-OFFICES. _ ONE of the many uses found for the electric motor is to furnish power for running printing-presses. There are quite a number of them used for that purpose in this city ; and so well and economi- cally do they work, that a rapid development of the electric-motor trade in that direction is now going on, not only in New York, but in all parts of the country. A recent installation of electric motors in the press-room of a newspaper of wide circulation is worthy of notice. Some weeks sult, the Washington Stay of June 29, as well as the subsequent issues, were printed upon electrically driven presses. The machinery of the press-room shown in the picture on this page, that of a firm of printers in this city, is driven by the little 5- horse-power C. & C. motor shown in the lower right-hand corner, which displaced the large hot-air engine shown in the view above it. The machinery in the office consists of five large and three “small printing-presses, a 28-inch paper-cutter, and a pump 2.5 by 8 inches, lifting water forty feet. Where there are many small industries in a limited area, as is the case in all large cities, the Cc. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR OPERATING THE MACHINERY OF A PRINTING-OFFICE. ago the walls of the Washington Szar’s press-room gave way, ruin- ing the steam-engine, throwing the shafting out of place, and com- pletely disabling the office. The only means of quickly resuming work that could be thought of was to put in an electric motor of sufficient power, thus rendering the presses independent of engine and shafting. The Washington agent of the C. & C. Electric Motor Company of this city, being appealed to, telegraphed at once for a 15-horse-power motor, which was shipped immediately, installed, connected with an electric-light circuit, and started up. Asa re- electric motor is peculiarly economical. Instead of a number of steam-plants scattered about in different buildings, one large engine with dynamos can supply electric current to a great number of motors, each using only the power required, and none wasting power when idle. Besides supplanting small steam, gas, and hot- air engines, the electric motor is in many places opening out a new field for itself as a substitute for foot and hand power in several branches of industry, its compactness and cleanliness being strong- ly in its favor. 20 THREE MILES A MINUTE. THE following account is sent us by the company interested, of what is claimed to be a great railway invention for the transporta- tion of mails and light freight. The Weems railway system, incor- porated under the name of the Electro-Automatic Transit Com- pany of Baltimore, has patented its multiplicity of electrical and mechanical appliances in the United States and all over the world as a preliminary to putting the system regularly to work wherever required. By this electro-automatic arrangement the morning SCIENCE (Wout 2a. Nox rn in the surface of the ground over which the road passes. The mail and express cars are telescoped in forming a train, the former into the end of the motor-car, and the latter into that of the one preceding it, forming a flexible train of cars, offering an unbroken surface to the air. The rear end of the rear car is pointed in a similar manner to the front of the motor-car, thus preventing any suction as the train rushes on its way. The motor may pull one car or a train of cars. All trains will be controlled from a generating station, where will be placed an electrical generating plant. Electrical brakes are END VIEW OF THE WEEMS papers may be delivered for the breakfast-table, and the evening papers before supper-time, at distant points. It will deliver letters almost with the promptitude of the telegraph sending a message. The mails between New York and Omaha will be carried in a night. It will handle perishable light freight from long distances, will deliver with celerity the mails and parcels in cities and subur- ban towns, and will multiply many times the business of the post- office and express companies. Its advantages are not alone in its speed, but in the economy and frequency with which trains can be despatched. In addition to all these things, it will save interest on remittances at long distances, will bring the people closer together, 7 - 0 Mi ELECTRO-AUTOMATIC RAILWAY. © to be used, and trains are started, stopped, speed lessened, and backed at will from the station. Special appliances will inform the operator in charge of the generating station of the exact loca- tion of the train from the time it leaves or passes any given point until it reaches its destination. It has not yet been determined how far apart the generating stations shall be placed. Possibly 100 miles may not be out of range, as the current can be run for 50 miles each way from the station as a centre without much loss of electricity. & The patents of the company number 143 in the United States and the principal countries of the world, covering the vital details Ts Li) = pee ee cian ae aaa Tia THE WEEMS ELECTRO-AUTOMATIC RAILWAY. and will create new enterprises. Doubtless, as in the case of the telegraph, its important uses cannot be anticipated in advance of its going into active operation. Its development will create new fields of usefulness not now thought of. Such, in brief, are what the persons interested in this invention claim for it. The motor-car is 18 féet long and 24 feet square at each end. It is pointed in front, the wedge or point being below the longitu- dinal centre, adjusting it to the air pressure, thus keeping the car down to the track. To reduce atmospheric friction to a minimum, all wheels and electrical appliances are placed within the walls of the cars. The road is to be built on the surface of the ground, with track of 24 inches gauge, and will cost about $5,000 per mile. In thickly settled districts the road can be elevated, the varied length of the uprights being a cheap mode of covering irregularities of this novel system. The principles patented involve special form of rail, making it impossible for trains to jump the track at any rate of speed; form of electrical safety rail, carrying the outgoing current and returning the same on the same rail (this rail can be crossed by pedestrians or vehicles with perfect safety); form of conductors and rails combined, with insulation of the same for carrying currents over long distances ; means of starting, stopping, backing, and controlling trains from the generating stations ; method of regulating the electrical current automatically on trains while in motion, increasing the power in ascending and de- creasing the same in descending grades; means whereby trains automatically register themselves at every station as they pass _every mile of track; form of journals and boxes for fast speed to avoid heating ; reducing the air pressure at high speed to a mini- ee ae ee ee, me : 7 JuLy 12, 1880.] ’ mum by pointed cars splitting the air in front, and preventing suction in the rear, while in transit ; reducing the cross-section of cars to a minimum, and enclosing the wheels and electrical equipment within the walls of the same to offer as little resistance to the air as possible; telescoping the cars of a train to present to the air an unbroken surface; special switch for rails ; keeping the centre of gravity of the whole train below the axles. Patents have also been secured for a passenger system which applies to the conversion of existing steam railroads into electric railroads, which cover the only safe mode of rapid transit for passengers. A series of experiments have been made at Laurel, Md., to show what the Weems railway system will do. This experimental line is a circuit of exactly two miles. Over this route there are 29 changes of grade, some of them very heavy, even to the extent of 108 feet to the mile. The generating plant there contains all the electrical appliances necessary to the attainment of high speed by /arailroad-train. There is also special machinery for experimenta- tion, and the perfecting of all mechanical and electrical inventions tending to advance and improve the system. All tests of speed have been made upon heavy grades and curves combined, too great ever to be required in the construction of a commercial line: therefore the experiments demonstrate the high rate of speed which will be obtained upon lines built for business puposes. At this experiment station 2 miles per minute are made around a heavy curve, or the equivalent of 180 miles an hour, or 3 miles a minute, on a level track. Prior to the inauguration of this system, 20 miles per hour was the fastest time ever made by any kind of electrical railroad travel. At the experiment station there are no extensive works ; and the motor-car, when it comes out from under its shed in obedience to the will of the engineer in the distant plant building where the electric dynamo generates the current, moves deliberately, slowly, and with absence of all sound. This cigar-shaped car, painted a bright red and moving sharp end foremost, at first sight does not seem a wonderful thing as it goes quietly along the track; but later, when the engineer at the dynamo puts on more power, or, as a steam-car,man would say, more steam, and the creeping thing on the ground hastens its movement until it fairly flies, and becomes a moving speck of red, spectators feel the progress being made in applied science, and talk of the wonders of electricity, and the great things it will accomplish in the active affairs of life in the near future. All who have witnessed the successful trials at Laurel are impressed with the great stride made in the matter of rapid transit by electricity. Arrangements are now being made for the building of an ex- tended road between distant cities, and Baltimore will be one of the stopping-points on the line. The officers of the Electro-Automatic Transit Company of Bal- timore City are Dr. Julian J. Chisolm, president; O. J. Smith of New York, vice-president; Alex. Brown, treasurer; William M. Pegram, secretary; David G. Weems, general manager; J. J. Chisolm, Edward B. Bruce, B. F. Gambrill, O. J. Smith, Robertson Taylor, Franklin J. Morton, Alex. Brown, S. E. George, William M. Pegram, Edwin k, Abell, David G. Weems, directors. Mr. David G. Weems of Baltimore is the inventor of the system. Mr. O. J. Smith, the vice-president, is president of the American Press Association of New York. The officers of the company have made frequent visits to witness the various trials, and with each successful increase of speed made have enlarged their expectations of future results. q WHO ARE THE AMERICAN INDIANS?? WHEN Columbus discovered America, he discovered not only a new continent, but a new people, —the American Indians. From one end to the other of its broad expanse the continent was occu- pied by Indian tribes that had held the land from time immemorial, —so far, at least, as their own traditions aver, — knowing nothing of any country but their own. The commonly presented picture of the Indians as they appeared at the time of the discovery is that of a horde of wandering savages, half or wholly naked, living on roots and herbs, or existing by the capture of wild animals scarcely 1 Abstract of a lecture delivered in the National Museum, Washington, D.C., March 30, 1889, by H. W. Henshaw. SGIEINCGH: 21 more savage than themselves, and the chief object of whose exist- ence was to enslave, to torture, and to kill each other. Those who hold such opinions have ever taken a hopeless view of the Indian’s present, and a still more hopeless view of his future. Such a pic- ture conveys a totally false impression of the Indian, and of the state of culture to which he had attained at the era of the dis- covery. Though still living in savagery, he was in the upper con- fines of that estate, and was fast pressing upon the second stage of progress, — that of barbarism; that is to say, he had progressed far beyond and above the lowest states in which man is known to live, to say nothing of the still lower conditions from which he must have emerged, and had travelled many steps along the long and difficult road to civilization. Already he had become skilful in the practice of many arts. Though the skins of beasts furnished a large part of his clothing, he had possessed himself of the weaver’s art; and from the hair of many animals, from the down of birds, and from the fibres of many plants, he knew how to spin, to weave, and to dye fabrics. Basket- making he had carried to so high a degree of perfection that little further improvement was possible. The potter’s art also was his; and, though his methods were crude and laborious, the results achieved, both as regards grace of form and ornamentation, may well excite admiration at the present day. . Copper had been discovered, and was mined and roughly beaten into shape to serve for ornament, and, to some slight extent, for mechanical use. In Mexico and Peru, gold, silver, and copper were worked ; and many authors contend that the method of making bronze, an invention fraught with tremendous possibilities, had there been discovered. _ In much of South and Central America, Mexico, and the eastern parts of the United States, so important an advance had been made in agriculture that it furnished a very large part of the food-supply, and it should not be forgotten that the chief product of the Indian’s tillage, maize or Indian-corn, which to-day furnishes a large part of the world’s food, was the gift of the Indian to civilization. A scarcely less important contribution to mankind is the potato, the cultivation of which also originated with the Indians. A third im- portant agricultural product, though less beneficial, is tobacco, the use and cultivation of which had been discovered centuries before the advent of the European. “ Architecture” may seem like a large word to apply to the dwellings of the Indians ; nevertheless many of their houses were more substantial and comfortable than is generally supposed, while in the North-west many tribes reared dwellings of hewn planks, sometimes as large as 210 feet long by 30 feet wide, which were capable of accommodating several hundred individuals. More pre- tentious and durable were the communal houses of mud and stone reared by the pueblo people of Arizona, New Mexico, and Mexico ; while farther south, in Central and South America, were edifices of hewn stone, which from their dimensions, the size of some of the blocks contained in them, and the extent and ornate character of the ornamentation, justly excite the wonder and admiration of the traveller and archeologist. The advantages of a beast of burden had been perceived, and, though the human back furnished by far the greater part of the transportation, yet in North America the dog had been trained into an affective ally, and in the Andes the llama performed a similar office. Insignificant as was the use of the dog as a carrier, its em- ployment cannot well be overestimated as a step in progress, when it is remembered that the plain’s tribes that most employed it lived in the midst of the buffalo,— an animal which must have become of prime domestic importance in the never-to-be-enacted future of the Indian. The need of some method of recording events and communi- cating ideas had been felt, and had given rise, even among the ruder tribes, to picture-writing, which in Mexico and Central America had been so far developed into ideographs, popularly called hieroglyphics, as to hint strongly at the next stage, the inven- tion of a true phonetic alphabet. Nay, more: the Mexicans and Mayas are believed to have reached a state of true phonetic writ- ing, where characters were made to represent not things, as true ideographic writing, but the names of things and even of abstract ideas; and this is a stage which may be said to be on the very 22 threshold of one of the proudest achievements of civilization, that of a phonetic alphabet. Instead of living in an unorganized state, where each man was a law unto himself in all things, the Indians lived under organized forms of government, rude enough indeed when compared with the highly organized system of civilized nations, but marking an essen- tial advance on the conditions attained by savage peoples in other parts of the world. The chieftaincy was transmitted by well- understood laws, or, as in some tribes, was more purely elective. Their social system was very ingenious and complex, and, being based largely upon kinship ties, was singularly well fitted for the state to which they had attained, of which indeed it was simply an expression and outgrowth. In many sections a considerable advance had been made in political confederation, and neighboring tribes combined for defence and to wage war against a common enemy. They had invented many and singularly efficient laws to repress and punish lawlessness against the individual and the social body, and as a consequence they enjoyed almost entire immunity from theft and many other crimes. The development of religious ideas among our Indians is a curi- ous and instructive study. Though the Great Spirit and the Happy Hunting Ground which missionaries and theologians thought they had discovered among them are now known to have had no exist- ence, the Indians had by no means reached the state of culture in which they were found without developing religions. Their gods or fetiches were innumerable, their priests endowed with immense influence, and their ceremonies of devotion and propitiation were as devout as they were elaborate. The precision of the beliefs of many tribes and the elaborateness of their rituals are simply as- tonishing. Thus their advance in the domain of religious thought equalled, if it did not surpass, their progress in some other direc- tions. If by medicine we mean the rational treatment of disease, the Indian can be said to have learned only the rudiments of the heal- ing art. Medicine, in so far as it was a distinct profession, was almost wholly in the hands of the medicine-man or shaman, who filled the twofold office of priest and doctor. Neither the theory nor the practice of the shaman had in it any thing that was rational and very little that was efficacious, except through the influence exercised over the mind of the patient; in other words, except so far as the shaman was a faith-curer. Whatever that is marvellous in the modern cases of faith-cure can be more than matched out of the practice and experience of the shaman, who learned his trade long before the European came to these shores. He who would see the Indian shaman need not seek the wilds of the Far West. He may find his counterpart on Pennsylvania Avenue. The whole medical practice of the Indian shaman was based upon the idea that all disease was the effect of evil disease-spirits that had ob- tained lodgement in the body, or that it was caused by witchcraft ; and, so long as practice was directed to the dislodgement of these spirits, no rational treatment was possible. I am aware that the above idea of Indian medicine is contrary to popular belief, which, to some extent at least, is in harmony with the claims of alleged Indian doctors of white extraction, who claim to have derived their skill and their herbs directly from the hands of Indian experts. Recent and carefully conducted investigations on this subject, how- ever, fully substantiate the above statements. Though roots and herbs were employed in the treatment of nearly all diseases, they were chiefly used as adjuncts to the charms and sorceries of the medicine-man. Often they were not given to the patient at all, but were taken by the medicine-man to heighten his power over the disease-spirits. Often they were applied by being rubbed on the body of the patient, or by being blown in the shape of smoke on the afflicted part. Among the Indians was found flourishing to a remarkable de- gree the so-called doctrine of seals or signatures. A few examples of the doctrine derived from the eastern Cherokee by Mr. James Mooney may prove of interest. Doubtless you are all familiar with the cone-flower. Thhe Cherokee call it deer-eye, and from its fancied resemblance to the strong-sighted eye of the deer, and its connection by name (for the Indian believes that there is a potent connection between the name of a thing and the thing itself), itis used as a wash for ailing eyes. SCIENCE: The common purslane (Portulaca oleracea) is used as a vermi- fuge, because the red stalk looks like a worm. An infusion of the roots of the hoary pea (Tephrosza virginz- ana), called devil’s shoe-strings in the South because of their toughness, is used by the Cherokee ball-players as a wash to strengthen their bodies, and by the women as a hair-wash to strengthen it and keep it from falling. ; Who of you has ever walked in our woods without getting on his clothing the common beggar’s lice (Desmodium)? How tena- ciously they stick, you all know: so do the Cherokee; and because the burrs stick fast, they use a tea made of them to strengthen the memory. The Cherokee at least can dispense with the service of a Loisette. You whose ambition it is to be good singers have only to drink a ’ tea of crickets, according to the Cherokee, for does not the cricket possess a fine voice, and doth he not sing merrily ? The tendency of the human mind to speculate and to draw infer- ences —a tendency common alike to the savage and the civilized man — cannot be held in check forever, however strong the bonds ; and just as knowledge and science escaped from priestly thrall within the history of civilized times, so a certain small amount of knowl- edge of the therapeutical use of drugs was gaining ground among the common folk of the Indians. It was fairly to be called old woman’s practice, as it was largely in their hands. It grew out of observation. Infusions of certain herbs produced certain results, acted as emetics or purgatives, and hence these herbs came to be employed with something like an intelligent purpose. Many of the herbs used were absolutely inert; many were harmful, of course, since where there is practically no true diagnosis and no correct knowledge of the effect of drugs there can be no really intelligent selection of remedies; but in the case of certain simple diseases, herbs, the actual cautery, and, above all, the sweating process, were beginning to be recognized by the common folk as serviceable, and to be employed to some extent without recourse to the shaman. As the child must creep ere it can walk, in such theories and treatment, childish though they may seem, may be discerned the beginnings of the noble science of medicine, which, having largely cast aside the superstitions that hampered its infant steps, now walks erect ; and, although of late she seems to have revived the beliefs of her childhood, her handmaiden, science, bids her call the demon disease-spirits ignorance and vicious habits ;. the diseases themselves, bacilli or germs. The Indian believed that the white man carried the spirit of small-pox in bottles, and let it loose among them. Modern science actually does bottle the small-pox germs, and germinate them at will. So the Indian theory of disease re— appears in a new form. Such in briefest outline are some of the achievements of the In- dian as he was found by civilized man. Whatever value may be placed upon them, whatever rank may be assigned them in the scale of human efforts, they were at least his own; and some of them compare favorably with the record of our Aryan ancestors before they split up into the numerous nations which have done so much to civilize the world. Many, I am aware, hold that the In- dian had progressed as far towards civilizatiow as his capacities admitted. Others have held, and possibly some now hold, that he was already on the decline: they see in his crude ideas and rude inventions only the degradation of a higher estate; in other words, instead of a savage preparing to enter civilization through the ne- cessary halfway state of barbarism, he is held a half-civilized man lapsing into savagery. Such views, it is needless to say, find no favor in the mind of the evolutionist. To him the achievements of the Indian are only the mile-stones which have marked the progress of every civilized nation, in its march from what it was to what it is; to him the chief value and significance of his studies of the men- tal state of the Indian, as expressed in his mythology, his medicine, his social and political organization, or in his more concrete arts, is the fact that in them he reads the records of his own past. If there be any truth whatever in the theory of evolution as applied to human progress, only one inference can be drawn from the history~ of the Indian race as it appears in historical pages, and in the no less eloquent records interpreted by archzeologists. This inference is, that, starting in its career later than some other races, or being: less favored by circumstances or conditions. of environment, or pos- Ee [Vor. XIV. No. 336 | tions. Or JuLY 12, 1889. ] sibly being less endowed, the Indian, despite all, had progressed an immense distance towards civilization; that the race contained all the capabilities for a further advance and for achieving a civiliza- tion of its own, differing, it may be, markedly from our own, as other civilizations differ, but still containing within itself all the es- sentials of that wonderfully complex thing called civilization. Such, at least, is the lesson evolution teaches. Hardly had the new land been discovered when the question arose, Who are the Indians, and where did they come from? Naturally enough, the Indian had his own answers to these ques- It may almost be said, as many tribes, so many origins. A large number of tribes claim to have originated in the localities where they were first found by Europeans, where they emerged from the ground or came from the recesses of some neighboring mountain. Somewhat more poetical is the idea of the Aht of ‘Vancouver Island, who allege that animals were first created at ‘Cape Flattery, and from the union of these with a star that fell from the skies resulted the first men, their ancestors. Puerile these answers certainly are, yet who will maintain that they are more so than the theories of origin held by the Greeks and other classical peoples ? Who, then, are the American aborigines? For Columbus and his followers there was but one answer to the question. As he had reached the eastern shores of India, the people must be Indians, and his error is perpetuated to-day in the name. Later, when the ‘newly discovered country was found to be not an old, but a new continent, the question of the origin and consanguinity of the In- dians was renewed. So strongly tinged with religious thought was the philosophy of the day, that biblical sources were naturally first appealed to, to solve the knotty problem. As mankind was supposed to have originated in Asia, and as all but the ten lost tribes were accounted for, they were rationally appealed to for the origin of the Indian. Perhaps the best exponent of the belief in the Jewish origin of the Indians was Adair, who published his celebrated essay in 1775. There is a theory of origin to suit the tastes of all, If you have a special bias or predilection, you have only to choose for yourself. If there be any among you who decline to find the ancestors of our Indians among the Jews, Pheenicians, Scandinavians, Irish, Welsh, Carthaginians, Egyptians, or Tatars, then you still have a choice among the Hindu, Malay, Polynesians, Chinese, or Japanese, or, indeed, among almost any other of the children of men. Preposterous as may seem many of the theories above alluded to, nearly all of them rest upon a certain basis of fact and comparison. Many, at least, of the similarities of thought, custom, methods, arts, religions, and myths from which the theories are deduced indeed exist, though false analogies permeate them all. The thread of fact which sustains the theories is, moreover, far too slender to bear the weight put upon it. Erroneous hypotheses like the above have, however, been productive of great good in pointing out and emphasizing some of the most useful lessons which the student of anthropology of the present day must learn and ever keep in mind. Of these, perhaps the most important is that the human mind is everywhere practically the same; that in a similar state of culture, man, in groping his way along, will ever seek the same or similar means to a desired end; that, granting the same conditions of en- vironment, man acts upon them, and is acted upon by them, in the same way the world over: hence in large part arise those similarities of customs, beliefs, religions, and arts, which have been appealed to as evidences of genetic connection or of common origin, when in fact they are evidences of nothing but of a common hu- manity. Likewise up to the present time the attempts to classify mankind by his physical characters have produced discordant results, and _ little dependence is to be placed upon the results themselves or upon the theories arising therefrom whichjrelate to the more pro- found question of the origin of races. In turning tothe test of lan- guage, if doubt and uncertainty were left behind, and harmony and agreement took the place of discordant views, we might count our- selves fortunate indeed. Yet, though still in its infancy as regards future possibilities, and while it needs and welcomes the aid of all the other sciences to solve the complex questions which come prop- erly within its domain, it is unquestionably our best guide in prob- SCIENCE. 2) lems relating to the origin and relationship of the races of man- kind. The evolution theory sees evidences of growth and development in every language spoken by man. Comparing the languages of highly civilized peoples with those of lower culture, it finds in the latter evidences of the successive stages through which all lan- guages have necessarily passed in their upward growth. It notes the fact that among lower peoples languages are less and less highly organized, and that among them signs are much more freely used than among the higher; that the sign-language is capable of a development among savage peoples and mutes so wonderful as to be the medium of all classes of ideas; and, noting these, it is prepared to believe, though it has not yet proved, that there was a time in the dawn of the human race when organized vocal speech was unknown, and when the fingers, the facial expression, and the postures of the body, were the chief if not the sole means possessed by man to communicate to his fellows his simple wants and ideas. Before proceeding further, let us glance briefly at some of the methods employed by linguistic students in their efforts to unlock the mysteries of linguistic relationship. How the comparative study of language is to be carried on, linguistic students are well agreed. Since language is made up of words, each word being the sign of a thought, the science of linguistics is largely the study of words: in other words, it is the tracing word genealogies by means of their etymology. By stripping words of the accretions they have received in the process of time, they may be resolved into roots; and by the comparison of these roots the philologist obtains proof of relationship, and classifies languages into linguistic families. It may be well at this point to define clearly what linguists mean by a linguistic family. A linguistic family is a group of languages which have sprung from a common parent language. The first requisite of a linguistic family, therefore, is that the languages com- posing it shall be related genetically ; the second, that they shall not be related to the languages of any other family. Each family thus consists of a group of languages wholly disconnected from all other families. The chief danger to the student in dealing with such material is to mistake apparent for real resemblances, and to be led to present false word analogies as evidences of true genetic relationship. That linguistic science is competent to deal with problems of great magnitude and intricacy, and that there are students who are capable of applying its varied resources, best appears in the grand achievements which concern the group of languages known as the Aryan or Indo-European family, in which our own English tongue takes a prominent if not the first place. It is almost wholly as the result of linguistic studies that the component members of the large and important Aryan family are now recognized, and the history of its earlier members reconstructed to a remarkable de- gree. The family contains eight groups of distinct languages. Among many others, the family includes as offspring from one source Sanscrit, Hindu, Romany or Gypsy, Persian, Armenian, Welsh, Cornish, Irish, Scotch, Latin, Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Albanian, Greek, Bulgarian, Russian, Servian, Polish, German, English, Dutch, Swedish, Danish, Norwegian, and many others. Though one of the largest, and, by reason of its history and the prominent part it has played in the civilization of the world, the most important, the Aryan family is only one of many linguistic families, each one of which is made up in the same way of a greater or less number of related languages. Such are the Bushman and Hottentot of Africa, the Semitic of Asia and Africa, the Chinese, Australian, and many others. The related languages which make up linguistic families vary indefinitely in the amount of likeness they bear to each other. They are often so much un- like, that those who speak them cannot understand each other; as, for instance, English, German, and French. Though these lan- guages are mutually unintelligible, yet they contain many words of nearly identical form, while other members of the Aryan family have in process of time become so unlike affiliated tongues that it requires the most critical study to detect their relationship. As languages are the principal divisions of a linguistic family, so dia- lects are the subordinate divisions of a language. Family, lan- 24. SCIENGE: guages, and dialects are to linguistic science what family, genera, and species are to biology. There is an important question which may be considered at this point : To what extent is linguistic relationship to be interpreted as blood relationship; in other words, how far does linguistic classification answer for race classification? In cosmopolitan America, where nearly all speak English, and yet a very large pro- portion are of foreign parentage, it is obvious that a pure linguistic classification of individuals would largely misinterpret the facts of parentage and race. Nevertheless, taken in connection with readily ascertained facts, it will not mislead even in such an ex- treme case, and usually a language classification of a tribe or people actually does express race relationship. To return to the Aryan family. Not only are we able by means of language to class together as related members of one great family the above-mentioned languages, which apparently are so diverse in the sound and form of their words, but by means of word analysis we can reconstruct the past history of the peoples who spoke them, and can get a glimpse even of the mode of life, customs, arts, and religious beliefs of our remote Aryan ancestry. The process by which this is done is sufficiently simple, although, like many other simple processes, its application is not so easy. When we find in the greater number of the languages of a linguistic family the same fully formed word with the same meaning, we are justified in believing that it existed before the separation of the family, and that the thing it signifies was already known to the parent body. Applying the rule to the case of the Aryan family, we learn, that, contrary to earlier theories, our forefathers came from a cold region, since eastern and western Aryan tongues con- tain names for the birch and pine, and these are the only two tree names common to both branches. The same process continued shows us that the family relations were defined much as they are with us to-day, and that marriages were monogamous. The old Aryans held the land in common, and redistributed it from time to time among the members of the clan. The houses were built of wood, and were entered by means of a door. The communities were settled in villages with a recognized chief or head, and the villages were connected by roads over which travelled pedlers car- rying their wares for sale. All were free men. They worshipped natural objects and natural phenomena, more particularly the sun. They believed in the evil spirits of night and darkness. They were a pastoral people, and cattle and sheep formed their chief wealth. They also had goats, pigs, dogs, geese, and bees. They had domesticated the horse, though they did not ride, but employed him, like the ox, for drawing carts. They still used stone imple- ments, though gold and silver and bronze were known. Charms were chiefly relied upon to cure disease. Future events were divined from the flight of birds. These are a few of the facts among many which linguistic science has revealed to us pertaining to the life and achievements of our Aryan ancestry before the historic period. Surely no contemptible record this for a new science. Let us now turn our attention to the Indian languages of this country, and see what progress has been made in the attempt to classify them. It may be premised that no part of the known world affords a better opportunity for the study of the nature of language and its processes of growth than America. The Indian languages are by no means the most primitive at present spoken by man; and it may surprise some of my hearers to be told that in respect of some of their characteristics they compare favorably with Greek and other classic tongues, though the classic languages as a whole belong to a much higher stage of development. In- stead of being mere jargons of words, disconnected with each other and capable of expressing only the simplest ideas, as I find many intelligent people believe, they are in some directions singu- larly highly developed ; and not only are they capable of serving as the vehicle of every thought possible to their possessors, but their vocabularies are extensive, possess many synonymes, and furnish the means of discriminating the nicest shades of meaning. As a body they are still in that stage of development in which the various processes of language-making may be studied with comparative ease. Just as the various natural processes by which mountains are levelled and the earth’s surface carved out and re- (Vor. XIV. No. 336 . modelled are more apparent, and more readily studied by the geol- ogist, in the still primitive West, so Indian languages offer to the scrutiny of the linguistic student a similar unfinished condition highly favorable for analysis and study. For the past fifteen years Major Powell and his assistants of the Bureau of Ethnology, with the aid of many collaborators in various parts of the country, have been accumulating vocabularies by means of which to classify Indian languages. The present provisional re- sults of the study of the large amount of material accumulated show that in the territory north of Mexico there were at the time of the discovery fifty-eight distinct Indian linguistic families, con- taining some 300 or more languages and dialects. So far as Language is a competent witness, she has exhausted all the evidence thus far accumulated when she has grouped the Indians in fifty-eight families. Back of this point she may not now go, except as a theorist and in pure speculation. So far as she is entitled to speak authoritatively, these fifty-eight families are separate entities, which never had any connection with each other. But she recognizes her own limitations too well to dare to state positively that this is the interpretation that must be placed upon the results she has attained. When facts from which to draw de- ductions fail, men may and do resort to theories. Let us glance ~ at the two broad hypotheses which have been based upon the de- velopment theory of language. The first is in effect that all the present languages of the earth are not so unlike that they may not have been developed from a single original parent language. By this view the original language is supposed to have changed and developed into all the various forms of speech that are now spoken or that have ever beenspoken. According to this view, the families of languages as at present classified have no other significance than as groups of related tongues, the once existing connection of which with other tongues cannot now be proved, because through the process of change the connecting links have been lost. The second hypothesis assumes that there must have been at least as many original languages as there are now existing families : it assumes, in other words, that the families of speech are funda- mentally distinct, and therefore cannot have had a common origin. The first theory postulates that from original unity of language has come infinite diversity; the second, that the tendency has ever been from original diversity towards unity. Widely different as are these two theories of the origin of lin- guistic families, they agree in one essential particular: they both remove the origin so far back in time as to make it practically impossible to prove the truth or falsity of either theory. Both of these hypotheses have able advocates ; but for a variety of reasons, which time will not permit me to give, the second is deemed the more plausible. At all events, it best explains many difficulties. There is abundance of archzologic evidence showing that man has resided on this continent for a very long period ; and the char- acter of the remains prove that the farther back in time we go, the ruder being he was. Linguistic testimony is to the same effect ; and there is no a frzor7¢ reason why man may not have lived upon this continent ages before he learned to talk, — no reason, for that matter, why America may not have peopled the earth, if the earth was peopled from a single centre, or why, if there have been several centres of origin for mankind, the Indians, as they them- selves believe, may not have originated here where they were found. Obviously the fifty-eight families are as likely to have originated here as anywhere else; for remember that every country has lin- guistic families of its own to account for. Is there, then, any pos- sible theory which will meet the case? There is certainly one that is possible, if not probable. It is the theory, that, whether ; born from the soil or an emigrant from other lands, our Indians spread over the entire continent before they acquired organized language, and that from not one but from fifty-eight centres sprung up the germs of speech which have resulted in the different families of language. This theory accords with the idea that there may have been but one origin of man, and that in any event all the In- dians from the Arctic to Patagonia are of one race. It does not forbid the supposition that the Indian was an emigrant from other shores, though it permits the thought that the American In- dian may have originated on American soil. Juv 12, 1889. | Though this theory seems more probable than the other, which assumes that the languages of our Indians were brought here from foreign shores, it must be frankly admitted that Linguistic Science is not now, and possibly never will be, competent to decide be- tween them. If she is unable to decide fully as to the origin of the Indian’s language, how can she be expected to solve the infinitely more complex problem which concerns the ultimate origin of the peoples who spoke them? She certainly has no solution for this problem now. When she considers the number of linguistic fam- ilies, and the vast length of time it must have taken to develop their languages and dialects, she finds herself confronted by a problem beyond her present powers. And yet the case is not hopeless. Linguistic Science is still in her infancy, and her future may con- tain possibilities far exceeding the dream of the most sanguine. When interrogated as to the origin of the Indian, all that she can now say is, that whether the Indian originated on this conti- nent, where he was found, or elsewhere, it was in bygone ages, — ages so far removed from our own time that the interval is to be reckoned, not by the years of chronology, but by the epochs of geologic time. With such problems she affirms that at present she cannot deal. I have presented the subject to you to-day, not to answer it, but to aid you in comprehending the tremendous difficulties that en- shroud the problem. Much time and ingenuity have been ex- pended in the past in attempting to force an answer to a question which cannot even yet be answered. The question, however, that really concerns the ethnologist of to-day is not wo are the Ameri- can Indians, but waz are they, and what have they accomplished in working out the problems of life, which, ever since his birth, man has grappled with. In reading the history of mankind, we are too apt to be blinded by the achievements of our own Aryan race. As the old Greeks classed as barbarians all who did not speak their own tongue, so we are prone to think that most of the good that has come to humanity has come through and by means of our race. In truth, there are valuable lessons to be learned from races less high in civilization than our own. Though many and diverse are the roads that lead man to the higher life, they all pursue about the same course, and time only is required to unite them into one broad stream of progress. Many are the lessons taught by anthropology; but the grandest of them all is the lesson of the unity of mankind, — the unity of a common nature and a common destiny, if not of a common origin. NOTES AND NEWS. WE hear that the Russification of the German educational establishments in the Baltic provinces goes on apace. The Uni- versity of Dorpat, in particular, is suffering in this respect. Re- cently the Czar specially sanctioned the Russianizing of the faculty of law within the next few years, and now it is intended to trans- fer the theological faculty from that seat of learning and enlighten- ment to Moscow or St. Petersburg, in order to deprive it entirely of its German-Protestant character. German culture evidently seems a dangerous element in the eyes of the Russian Government. — WVature states that Herr Victor Apfelbeck, the entomologist, will shortly start, in behalf of the Bosnian Government, on a jour- ney of research in Herzegovina. Last year he discovered in south- ern Bosnia five new species of eyeless cave beetles, and his investi- gations excited much interest among entomologists. — The largest tree in Great Britain, and one of the most famous, is the Cowthorpe oak in Yorkshire, which is believed to be some fifteen hundred years old. When Evelyn wrote his “ Sylva,” in the seventeenth century, its circumference at the ground was seventy- eight feet ; but later, earth was banked up around it, which covered some considerable projections, and reduced its girth. As told in Garden and Forest, at the beginning of the last century its branches overshadowed an area of half an acre of ground. The top or leading branch fell at some unrecorded date, curiously slip- ping down into the hollow trunk, where it remained. In the last century one of the main branches which was blown down proved to be ninety feet in length, and yielded five tons of timber. When SCIENCE: 25 carefully measured by Dr. Jessop in 1829, the girth of the tree at the ground was sixty feet, and at a yard above, forty-five feet ; the chief remaining limb was fifty feet long and its circumference eight feet, and the height of the tree was forty-five feet. It was then hollow to the top. For many years saplings raised from this tree were sold in pots by the villagers for as much as a guinea apiece, It is now a venerable ruin, but most picturesque in its decay. It stands in a green paddock, carefully protected from injury, with its ancient limbs supported by props. An idea of its size may be gathered from the statement that at least forty persons can stand within its cavity, and that its circumference is greater than that of the Eddystone Lighthouse, which was confessedly designed on the model of an oak, — Does the cuckoo ever hatch its own eggs? Herr Adolf Miil- ler answers this question in the affirmative, and has given in the Gartenlaube a full account of a case which he himself claims to have observed. A translation of this account has appeared in the Ids, and is reproduced in the new number of the Zod/ogzst. The latter periodical prints also a translation of an article in which Herr Adolf Walter disputes the statements of Dr. Miiller, who, he thinks, must have made a mistake. The same subject is dealt with in the June number of the Se/borne Magazine by Mr. C. Rob- erts, who quotes from ‘“ Zoonomia” an interesting passage, in which Dr. Erasmus Darwin expresses his belief that the cuckoo sometimes makes a nest and hatches its own young. In this passage Dr. Darwin gives an extract from a letter of the Rev. Mr. Wilmot of Morley, near Derby, describing an instance brought to Mr. Wil- mot’s notice in July, 1792, by one of his laborers, and afterwards closely watched by Mr. Wilmot himself. Mr. Wilmot was confi- dent that the bird was a cuckoo. — There is a note by Dr. Charles Waldstein in the London Atheneum of June 8 which will no doubt attract much attention. Dr. Waldstein states that recently, while in Constantinople, he was shown photographs by Hamdy Bey of the sarcophagi discovered some time since at Sidon; and he is of opinion that the discovery is one of the most important made in this century, and, moreover, that excepting the Elgin marbles, and the Hermes of Praxiteles at Olympia, “no works of ancient Greek art have been found of greater artistic interest and merit.” One of the sarcophagi con- tains a portrait of Alexander. Hamdy Bey does not positively assert that this is the tomb of Alexander, but Dr. Waldstein thinks he will be justified in pointing to the possibility of such being the case. — At the New York meeting of the American Institute of Min- ing Engineers, February, 1889, Mr. John C. Smock of Albany, N.Y., read a paper on “ The Iron-Mining Industry of New York for the Past Decade,” from which it appears that the total product of the iron-mines of the State in 1888 was 1,207,000 tons. This sum includes all the returns received from the mining companies and carefully made estimates for three mines unreported. Ac- cording to the “ Ninth Census,’ New York produced 14 per cent of the iron ore mined in the country. Ten years later, the State produced 1,262,127 tons, or 15.4 per cent, and ranked third in the list of States. In 1886 the production of all the iron-mines in the country, as estimated by James M. Swank, general manager of the American Iron and Steel Association, was 10,000,000 tons. In 1887, according to the same authority, it amounted to I1,300,000 tons. New York mines produced in the former year about 900,- ooo tons, and 1,100,000 nearly in the latter year, or Io per cent of the whole. In 1888 the same average proportion was main- tained, but the rank changed to fourth, falling behind Michigan, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin. According to the last report of the American Iron and Steel Association, the total for the United States in 1888 was 12,050,000 gross tons. The fluctuation in the totals for the State during the decade have not been so great as might be inferred from the sharp fluctuations in the prices for pig- iron; and the steadiness in the figures for 1886, 1887, and 1888 is remarkable proof of the enduring capacity of the mines of the State. The variation from year to year is not as great as it is in the magnetic iron-ore districts of New Jersey. The production of the iron-mines in New Jersey in 1880 was 745,000 tons. In 1885 it had fallen to 330,000 tons, and in 1887 had risen to 547,000. 26 Another notable fact brought out in this comparison is the dimin- ished number of mines producing these totals. At the commence- ment of the decade there were about 100 mines at work: last year, only 50 were producing ore. — A recent issue of the French Journal Officzel contains the re- port of the consultative committee for sea-fisheries in France, on the subject of poisoning through the eating of mussels. The com- mittee, in the first place, recognize that the oysters which cause poisoning are those which have become stale, or have been kept in water rendered foul by decomposed organic matter, and question whether the same may not be the case with regard to mussels. Various explanations of mussel-poisoning were made to the com- mittee. By some it was attributed to a parasite crab (Pzunotheres pisum). This explanation, however, was unsatisfactory, for in the United States this Pzzotheres is sought after as food. By others the presence of the poison was attributed to the spawn of star-fish, and also to copper absorbed from wrecks. Both these suggestions were, however, disproved. The theory of Orfila, also, that the poisonous action of the mussels in the stomach is the result of imagination, does not find acceptance at the hands of the com- mittee. An authority on the subject has found that the mussels lose their poisonous property if cooked for a period of ten minutes with carbonate of soda. The committee conclude that the poison- ous nature of the mussels is due to the presence in them, espe- cially in the liver, of a volatile organic alkaloid (sytclotoxzne de Brieger), developed under the influence of a particular microbe which is only found in mussels living in stagnant and polluted waters. Finally, they advocate the removal of all restrictions on mussels in artificial beds, and recommend the sale at all times, at fish-markets, of mussels coming from such beds, which are usually situated in favorable localities, —a sale which is at present pro- hibited in France during May and June. — There is being exerted at this time an effort for the establish- ment in the University of Pennsylvania of a department of peda- gogics. The university being without the necessary funds for this work, two of this year’s graduating class, as we learn from The Philadelphia Telegraph, have undertaken the raising of ten thou- sand dollars, which will provide for a three-years’ salary for a peda- gogic professor, and found a library ; and at the expiration of three years it is believed that the department will be self-sustaining. A short time ago Superintendent MacAlister of the Board of Educa- tion addressed a letter to Dr. William Pepper, provost of the uni- versity, in which he set forth the manifest urgency and value of such a department. He said, ‘‘ Until within a few years American students were compelled to go abroad for the purpose of pursuing their studies in this branch, and large numbers still find it advan- tageous to avail themselves of opportunities which are but scantily provided in this country. The, German universities have long maintained chairs of pedagogy. In the year 1876 a chair of edu- cation was organized in the University of Edinburgh, and has since been occupied by a distinguished scholar, Professor Laurie, who has exerted great influence over the education of Scotland. Some years ago, lectures on education were given for the first time in the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge, and in both of these schools lectures are now read regularly by men eminent as teachers. The first chair of pedagogy in the United States was organized in 1879, in the University of Michigan, and this was followed by the establishment of professorships in the Universities of Wisconsin, Towa, Cornell, and other less important schools. The only serious attempt thus far made to furnish opportunity for the study of peda- gogy in the older States was the work done by Professor G. Stan- ley Hall before his retirement from Johns Hopkins; and it is un- derstood that this department will be recognized in the new Clarke University in Massachusetts, of which Dr. Hall has been appointed president. It is only a question of time when all the great schools in the Eastern and Middle States will be moving in this direction.” Professor MacAlister remarks, that, if the great function of a uni- versity is to teach and supply the world with teachers, it cannot be said to fully perform its office if it does not provide adequate pro- fessional preparations for the teacher’s work beyond the studies of the academic curriculum. He holds that in a department of peda- gogy the instruction should consist of the following courses: his- SCIENCE. tory of education, psychology and its relation to education, the science and art of teaching, organization and administration of school systems, school hygiene. He adds, “‘ With the provisions already existing in the university, the organization of such a de- partment could be easily secured, and the financial responsibility incurred would be very slight. A chair of the history and science of education would be sufficient to begin with. The chair of psy- chology, recently organized, the chair of philosophy, the chair of political economy, the chair of hygiene, could be made available in furnishing the additional courses required. The general course in pedagogy would probably not extend beyond one year, but special courses could be formed for those desirous of more extended study. To give the department academic dignity, and make it really valu- able, a degree should be granted. The degree of Ph.D. is sug- gested, which might be given on examination in the courses in. pedagogy, with such additional electives — say, three or four — in language, literature, science, or history as might be prescribed. In this way the department of pedagogy would become affiliated with the general instruction of the university, and would also fall into place among the university courses created during the present aca- demic year.” — No other ancient works of the United States have become so widely known, or have excited so much interest, as those of Ohio. This is due in part to their remarkable character, but in a much greater degree to the “‘ Ancient Monuments of the Mississippi Valley,” by Messrs. Squier and Davis, in which these monuments are described and figured. The constantly recurring question, “Who constructed these works?” has brought before the public a number of widely different theories, though the one which has been most generally accepted is that they originated with a people long since extinct or driven from the country, who had attained a cul- ture status much in advance of that reached by the aborigines in- habiting the country at the time of its discovery by Europeans. The opinion advanced in a paper by Cyrus Thomas, on “ The Problem of the Ohio Mounds,” published by the Bureau of Eth- nology, in support of which evidence is presented, is that the an- cient works of the State are due to Indians of several different tribes, and that some, at least, of the typical works, were built by the ancestors of the modern Cherokees. The discussion is limited chiefly to the latter proposition, as the limits of the paper do not permit a full presentation of all the data which might be brought forward in support of the theory, and the line of argument is sub- stantially as follows: First, A brief statement of the reasons for believing that the Indians were the authors of all the ancient monu- ments of the Mississippi valley and Gulf States : consequently the Ohio mounds must have been built by Indians. Second, Evidence that the Cherokees were mound-builders_ after reaching their his- toric seats in East Tennessee and western North Carolina. This and the preceding positions are strengthened by the introduction of evidence showing that the Shawnees were the authors of a certain type of stone graves, and of mounds and other works connected therewith. Third, A tracing of the Cherokees, by the mound testi- mony and by tradition, back to Ohio. Fourth, Reasons for be- lieving that the Cherokees were the Tallegwi of tradition, and the authors of some of the typical works of Ohio. — The Glasgow Herald states that last year, while some work- men were engaged in drainage operations at Lochavullin for the purpose of forming a public park, they discovered what was be- lieved to be an old “ crannog,” or lake-dwelling; and several ex- perts who visited it were of opinion that it was a very good speci- men of an ancient lake-dwelling. Arrangements were made by the town council for its being properly investigated and preserved as far as possible, but the weather has rendered operations im- practicable till within the last few days. Workmen are now en- gaged in excavating round the place; and recently it was visited by Mr. Cochran-Patrick, under-secretary for Scotland, and other gentlemen interested. Among the articles turned up by the work- men during the examination were a stone bullet, such as would have been used in the slings of the period to which the dwelling is supposed to have belonged, and portions of the wattle used in the construction of the dwelling. Professor Hedley of St. Andrews took some photographs of the place. [Vor. XIV. No. 336 , : JuLy 12, 1889. | — The last international medical congress, which met in Wash- ington in 1887, unanimously selected Berlin as the next place of meeting in 1890. Professors Virchow, Von Bergmann, and Wal- deyer, to whom was confided the preliminary direction of the next congress, have already taken active steps to make it a success. All the medical faculties and other medical bodies in Germany have been invited to nominate delegates to confer together on the subject this year, at the time of the Heidelberg meeting of the German Scientific Association in September. It is proposed that the congress of 1890 should commence its proceedings on Aug. 6, 1890. — Dr. Oliver P. Jenkins, professor of biology in DePauw Univer- sity, accompanied by Oscar Vaught and G. C. Price, two of his students, sailed June 29 from San Francisco for the Hawaiian Islands, on a scientific fishing expedition. They go under the au- ‘thority and with an appropriation of the university for that purpose. ' They will return the middle of September. They hope to find a valuable field. — Kriiss and Schmidt’s statement that both nickel and cobalt contain a small percentage of a hitherto unknown element, gnomium, amounting in the case of one specimen of nickel to as much as 2 per cent (Ber. der deut. chem. Gesellsch., xxii. 11; Nature, XXXiX. Pp. 325), has not been permitted to pass unchallenged, and ‘quite recently two papers have appeared which tend to show that the supposed new element is non-existent. At the time when they were led to recognize the presence of this common impurity, says ‘Nature, Kriiss and Schmidt were engaged in repeating Winkler’s old determination of the atomic weights of nickel and cobalt, in which the ratio Au : Nior Au: Co was arrived at from the amount -of gold precipitated by these metals from neutral solutions of gold chloride. Winkler, in the mean time, has repeated this work with carefully purified materials (Ber. der deut. chem. Gesellsch., xxii. 890), and has not only failed to obtain any evidence of the existence of gnomium, but, moreover, calls in question the purity of the me- tallic specimens employed by Kriiss and Schmidt. A communica- tion from Dr. Fleitmann to the Chemzker Zectung (xiii. 757) lends -considerable support to this view. Adopting the method patented by Kriiss and Schmidt for separating this common impurity from nickel and cobalt by extracting the hydroxides of these metals with sodium hydroxide, Fleitmann has examined a number of specimens of commercially pure nickel and cobalt, and, so far from obtaining 2 per cent of gnomium oxide, has failed to isolate from 50 grams of material a weighable amount of any impurity which would serve to justify the view that a hitherto unknown element was associated with these metals. Fleitmann points out that when the hydrox- ides of commercially pure nickel and cobalt are treated with large quantities of sodium hydroxide, impurities go into solution which vary in composition and amount with the source and degree of purity of the metals. These impurities consist of small quantities of the oxides of lead, zinc, arsenic, manganese, molybdenum, silicium, aluminium, cerium, chromium, etc., together with an amount of nickel or cobalt oxide not exceeding #; of one per cent of the hydroxide extracted, and, when separated from the alkaline solu- tion by the addition of an acid and subsequent precipitation with ammonium carbonate, give rise to a highly complex mixture of ‘oxides and acids which can only be separated and identified with considerable difficulty. It is not improbable, therefore, that Kriss and Schmidt have been dealing with some of the constituents of this mixture, and that, on further examination, gnomium oxide -will prove to be a mixture of the oxides of elements already Anown. — At the ladies’ conversazione of the London Royal Society, June 19, there were cxhibited by Mr. Percy E. Newberry, by kind permission of the director of the Royal Gardens, Kew, a series of ancient funeral wreaths and plant-remains, discovered last year by ‘Mr. W. M. Flinders Petrie, in the cemetery of Hawara, Egypt. As described in JWVazure, these consisted of wreaths of Egyptian and Greek manufacture, which were all made in the first cen- tury B.C., and were found in wooden coffins, either resting on the heads or surrounding the bodies of the mummies. Among them the following are of special interest :— (1) A very perfect wreath SCIENCE. 27 composed of the flower-heads of a species of immortelle (Guapha- lium luteoalbum, L.), called by the ancients “helichrysos,” and much used by them in making garlands. Helichrysos wreaths are mentioned by Pliny (72st. (Vat., xxi. 96) as having been used in Egypt in Ptolemaic times, also by Theophrastus, Athenzus, Cra- tinus, etc. (2) Portion of a curious garland made of cones of papyrus pith, lychnis and rose flowers, rose petals, and scarlet ber- ries of the woody nightshade. These latter are mentioned by Pliny as having been employed in garland-making by the Egyp- tians. (3) Portion of a wreath of Greek manufacture made of flowers of the Polyanthus narczssus (IV. Tazetta, L.). Wreaths made of this flower, the “clustered narcissus”’ of the ancients, are often mentioned by early Greek poets. (4) Portion of a wreath made of the flowers of a species of rose (Rosa sancta, Richards). (5) A perfect wreath composed of rose-petals threaded by a needle on to strips of twine. “ Recently,” writes Pliny in his history of garlands, “the rose chaplet has been adopted, and luxury has now arisen to such a pitch that rose garlands are held in no esteem at all if they do not consist entirely of petals sewn together with the needle” (H7st¢. Nat., xxi. 8). There are also exhibited (6) a portion of a wreath composed of twigs of sweet marjoram (Orzganum majorana, L.), lychnis flowers, coils of papyrus pith, and pieces of copper tinsel ; (7) a portion of a wreath composed of chrysanthemum flowers and leaves, purple cornflowers, and petals of the flower of a species of Hzbzscus ; (8) a portion of a wreath made of flowers of Matthtola librator, L., flowers of the polyanthus, narcissus, and Hibiscus petals; (9) portions of two necklaces made of flowers of the date palm threaded on strips of twine ; and (ro) a fragment of a necklace made of fruits of the date palm. Among the plant- remains are peach-stones, dates, and date-stones, walnut-shells, currants, pomegranates, plums, figs, chick peas, common garden beans and peas, lentils, wheat, barley, and oats. These are prob- ably the remains of the ancient funeral feasts which were held in the Hawara cemetery by the relatives of the deceased people who were buried there. The whole collection (of which the series ex- hibited is only the third part) is fully described by Mr. Percy E. Newberry in Mr. Flinders Petrie’s “ Hawara, Biahmu, and Ar- sinoe. — Nature announces the death of Signor G. Cacciatore, direc- tor of the Palermo Observatory. He died on June 16, in his seventy- sixth year. — In response to demand, a new edition of Professor A. Gray’s small work on “ Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Mag- netism ” will be issued immediately by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. The whole work has been very carefully revised, and several alter- ations and additions made, which it is hoped will bring it into ac- cordance with the present state of practical electricity, and render it still more useful to students and electrical engineers. The preparation of the second volume of the same author's larger treatise on the same subject is being pushed on at the same time as quickly as possible. — Years ago, when Mr. Charles Wickes was engaged in the preparation of his work on “ Spires and Towers of Medizval Eng- lish Churches,” he had the good fortune and good sense fo consult certain members of the architectural profession, who earnestly be- sought him to print, before the completion and issue of the more elaborate colored drawings, an uncolored edition of his work for the special use of architects. This work Messrs. Ticknor & Co. have reprinted, and are about to issue, not in its original form of three volumes, but the entire workin asingle volume. A certain portion of these plates have already been republished in the imperial edition of the Amerzcan Architect ; but even subscribers to that edition will probably be glad to find a place for the work in its enlarged and completed form, as the plates which have been printed in the imperial edition of the Amerzcan Architect are scattered through the issues of that journal during a period of nearly two years, and therefore are not readily accessible. Moreover, the present edition contains in full the valuable notes and criticisms of the original, making forty pages of text and notes, not less valuable than the plates. The work is now in press, and will be ready for sale in the course of a few weeks. 28 SCIENCE, SCIENCE: 4 WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY ING) Dg) (Gio) Jel @yD) (G87 5) 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEw YORK. SuBscRIPTIONS.—United States and Canada...............0.... $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe..................-.- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): I SUDSCrIPtlON I YEAT.e..sceesesc...+.s.eerccencsees S 3-50 2 en TARY ALietcloleveleteletatereleitialelciomicietsteetasisiets Tons 6.00 3 fs 8.00 4 o I year - 10.00 Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, JuLy 12, 1889. No. 336. CONTENTS: Exvscrric Morors 1n Printinc-Or- Preventing Tuberculosi$ by Mili- » BMGISSo5do Bae poo sodnosooooOmadobo 19 tarys@rders.pcwelsii tester cre 30 THREE Mires A MINUTE.... ....... 20 Pasteur:s\Methods.))) .cc-s-ceic see 30 WHO ARE THE AMERICAN INDIANS?.. 21 Professorships of Hygiene......... 30 NorEs AND NEWS.....\...++0+....00- 25 rata eea News. IDpoNeXaN Nod ow coded dudcobedooeddeaiace 28 7 erie OF CEES EBS ayo cust once oe A World’s Exhibition in New York. Book-Reviews. — Professor Mendenhall the New Education in the United St: 586 Superintendent of the Coast Sur- Hog in Une Whatieel: SES 3t A Theoretical and Practical Trea- vey. 3 MAsTeR AND WORKMEN..........-0. 28 tise on the Strength of Beams and THE TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY BY Girders soaps ops ochobs Je RRO BAEDEO OG 31 COMPRESSED AIR............. 005 2g| the Beginners’ Book in German. . 3r The A B C of Electricity......... HEALTH Matters. Sorte 3t The Mortality in the City of New AMONG THE PUBLISHERS............ 32 AViorkstonmSS ie /ticitlclelialscterstaislas 30 | LETTERS TO THe EpiTor. Contagious Consumption...... ... 30 Quertessacjacore iit eeeceie rine 33 A MOVEMENT IS ON FOOT to celebrate the four-hundredth an- niversary of the discovery of America by a world’s exhibition to be held in this city. The time before 1892 is considered short for the satisfactory organization of such a vast undertaking; but, as the suggestion meets with general approval, it is likely to be carried forward to success. As to the location to be chosen, considerable discussion has begun, many opposing a proposal that the buildings should be,erected in Central Park. This opposition argues, and as it appears justly, that the use of the park for such a purpose would interfere with its legitimate use as a pleasure-ground for at least a year, and that the injuries inflicted on the grounds could not be effaced in ten years. Some spot farther up on the island is more likely to be chosen, —a spot which, with the means of rapid transit which already exist, and which could be added to without much outlay, would be of easy access. We look forward to a rapid and satisfactory development of the plans for the ex- hibition ; although, of course, as Americans do not seek any but a home market for their goods, the main stimulus of such a fair is not so strong as with Europeans. ON JULY 9 the President appointed Professor T. C. Menden- hall superintendent of the Coast and Geodetic Survey. Professor Mendenhall was born in Ohio in 1841. From 1873 to 1878 he was professor of physics at the Ohio State University at Columbus. In . [Vio Xe No 226) a 1878 he went to Japan, where he organized a physical department in the University at Tokio, as well as a weather bureau for the country. On his return to this country, in 1881, he again assumed. the chair at Columbus, and in 1882 started the Ohio Weather Bu- reau. In 1884, Professor Mendenhall was called to Washington to take charge of an electrical branch of the Signal Office, and during his stay in the government employ also busied himself in develop- ing a system of earthquake observations in the United States. Since 1886 he has been president of the Rose Polytechnic School at Terre Haute, Ind. In the new work Professor Mendenhall has. undertaken, his many friends will wish him all success. The last Congress legislated Mr. F. M. Thorn, the late superin- tendent of the Coast Survey, out of office at the close of the fiscal year. It provided, in an appropriation bill, that he should be ap- pointed by the President, ‘“ by and with the advice and consent of the Senate.” The proposed change of the law was submitted to Mr. Thorn by the Senate sub-committee on appropriations, and his opinion was requested as to the advisability of its enactment. He replied that he regarded as entirely unobjectionab!e the require- ment that the superintendent should be appointed “ by and with the advice and consent of the Senate,” and that he had no personal in- terest in it whatever. His resignation was written on March 6, but was withheld at the suggestion of Senator Allison until April, when it was sent to the President. On June 22 Mr. Thorn di- rected the attention of the President and Secretary Windom to the law requiring the appointment of a superintendent to be made at the beginning of the fiscal year. He has not since discharged any of the duties of the office. Although Mr. Thorn was not a scientific man, like all of his predecessors, yet it is believed, that, as a result of his excellent executive ability, the forces of the office have been so employed during the past four years as to greatly increase their efficiency. : MASTER AND WORKMEN. THE greatest interest attaching to the Petit-Bourg Works, for the manufacture of light railway material, twenty miles from Paris, is to be found in the relations that exist between the master and workmen. As described in Eugzneerzng, a system of almost military discipline prevails everywhere. With the exception of a small number of hands, all-work is paid for by the piece, and every thing that fails to pass a rigid inspection is condemned at the ex- pense of the men. The hours of the work are long, — fourteen hours a day, — and Sunday is only observed as a holiday after two o'clock. Yet the men are contented and prosperous, and are the first to stifle and exclude the spirit of discord which too often pre- vails in the factories of adjoining communes. Workmen are al- ways eager to obtain service at Petit-Bourg, and, once there, are loth to quit it. The secret lies in the fact that the men like to be governed, and that their material welfare is always carefully studied. Comfortably fitted up dwellings are provided for the un- married men, in which they can rent a well-furnished bedroom for 14 pence a day, or for 24 pence if two live together. Then a clean and attractive restaurant is close at hand, where well-cooked meals. are furnished at prices just sufficient to pay expenses. Married men are not allowed to use this restaurant, but they can purchase and take home with them their meals at a somewhat lower price, so that all the expense and trouble of cooking is saved them. In this restaurant a separate room is provided for the use of the fore- men, the scale of charges being the same; and a general shop is attached, where every thing can be purchased at the lowest possible rate. For those men who wish to save the expense and trouble of going to the restaurant at meal-times, a range of ovens is provided within the works, and placed under the charge of a superannuated: employee, whose duty it is to receive the food brought by the men, and have it comfortably prepared when the breakfast or dinner hour comes. The men are paid monthly, and are allowed to open credits to fixed amounts with the restaurant and shop, the balance due to them being paid at each settlement. Pay-day is celebrated Jury 12, 1889.) by the works being closed for three days, during which time the _ men have absolute license to get drunk if they feel so disposed, the fact being that about one per cent avail themselves of this privilege. Drunkenness at another time is followed by dismissal. The mar- ried workmen are provided with comfortable cottages surrounded by gardens, and with rents varying from six to twelve francs a month, according to their size and location, A bonus is secured to them on each addition to their family, in the shape of a monthly reduction in their rent ; and long service also secures a further re- duction. By this arrangement the cottages gradually fall into the absolute ownership of the workmen, and a most powerful induce- _ ment for steadiness and content is thus secured. The single men are also allowed to have a plot of garden if they desire it, and this _ is found to be a great attraction in taking and keeping service un- der M. Decauville. The result of this wise administration is seen in the fact that the Petit-Bourg colony possess savings to the ex- tent of 200,000 francs, which are not invested in savings banks, but ‘in the works themselves, where it receives a guaranteed interest at six per cent. Workmen are insured against all accidents by M. Decauville, who encourages and assists the several benefit socie- _ ties, which are mainly supported by the workmen themselves, But the glory of Petit-Bourg is its theatre, —a substantial and really elegant building, 100 feet long and 39 feet wide, capable of seating about 500 persons. This theatre is nicely fitted up, and has a capacious stage, with appointments that would do credit to Many a provincial town. Here about four performances are given -ayear, not by third-rate actors representing sensational drama, _ but, when it is determined that a performance shall take place, subscriptions are raised among the employers, the foremen, and _ the men, a committee is formed to negotiate with some good Paris company, and every thing is arranged admirably. It may be men- tioned, in passing, that the “‘ Maitre des Forges” is a never-failing favorite. But, besides theatrical performances, the theatre at Petit- Bourg serves other purposes : it is the gathering-place on all politi- cal occasions, at which, needless to say, M. Decauville presides in his capacity as Monsieur le Maire; it is the scene of numerous concerts given by the Petit-Bourg band, formed exclusively of Decauville workmen; the corps of Sapeurs-Pompiers, also from the works, hold their meetings and celebrations here; and in the theatre M. le Maire distributes prizes gained in the schools which he controls. Altogether the Petit-Bourg colony leads a happy and prosperous, though a laborious life; and if M. Decauville can succeed in the future, as he has done in the past, in saving the district where he and his family have ruled for so many generations from the con- _ tagion of discontent and communism, Petit-Bourg will continue in its prosperity, and its hard-working population will remain con- _ tented. } : i THE TRANSMISSION OF ENERGY BY COMPRESSED AIR. WE have not before us any data to show the actual development of the Compagnie Parisienne de |’Air Comprimé, but a statement of the number of installations in active work towards the close of _last year will serve to give an idea of the number and variety of industries which have availed themselves of this means of obtain- ing motive power. Since then, the number of subscribers has largely increased, and one section of the great public lighting scheme of Paris has been carried out by the company. At that date there were, says Eugzneerzng, seven central stations fed from the installation at St. Fargeau for the distribution of electric light. They represented a total force of 750 horse-power given off by the air-motors ; and of these, six were of 100 horse-power each. Four theatres, fourteen cafés and restaurants, two hotels, the same num- ber of newspaper-offices and of clubs, and sixteen private houses were electrically lighted by the same means. Sewing-machines were driven in thirteen different establishments, ice was produced in four, and the air formed the motive power for driving machine- tools in thirty-four different shops. Sixteen printing- offices availed themselves of the same means, and in thirty-five other establish- ments it was also employed. Among the various applications there were a number of sanitary establishments that were on the SCIENCE. 29 list of subscribers; in six instances it was employed for raising wines and spirits ; it was also used for working lifts, shearing met- als, and cutting stuffs, for ventilation and for driving mills, and to a large extent for wood-working machinery. At the end of last year, over 1,200 horse-power was distributed daily through the mains. Of this, 478 horse-power found employment among 276 subscribers for various industrial purposes, and 803 horse-power was absorbed in supplying 6,220 incandescent lamps and 145 arc lamps. Since that date, the demands of subscribers have gone on increasing until the reserve of engine-power at St. Fargeau was of necessity absorbed to supply the existing demands, and it became necessary to extend the main station. At the end of last year the situation of the company appears to have been as follows: the subscribers who had made themselves liable for periods of from five to ten years brought in a revenue from various industries of $12,000; for lighting, of $92,000; and for the pneumatic clocks, of $19,400. Besides these, there were a number of subscribers who paid by the records of their counters. Of these, $14,600 was paid for miscellaneous industries, and $32,000 for electric lighting. At that time, also, several important installations were in progress which have since been finished. Among others was the Bourse de Commerce, who spent $20,000 on an installation; refrigerating companies paying $20,000 a year, and the Eden Theatre $24,000 a year; there were also a number of miscellaneous applications, amounting to $16,000 a year. These sums together brought the total revenues of the company to about $170,000 a year, the ex- penses being $152,000 for that part of the installation which was in full operation. This sum included interest on loans at 6 per cent, and interest on capital at 5 per cent. At the beginning of the year the works were not running at any thing like their full ca- pacity, so that a large amount of capital on which interest was be- ing paid was earning nothing. The financial condition became more favorable a short time later, when a large number of other installations were completed. It is said that this year the company will be in a position to pay regular dividends of 10 per cent upon its share capital; and, if all that is claimed for the system be sub- stantiated, there appears to be no reason why such a rate of inter- est cannot be maintained or even exceeded. Engineeréng does not hold itself in any way responsible for the figures given. They were furnished by the company, whose good faith is evident, because they court investigation, and are even now making arrangements for a series of trials to be conducted by wholly independent experts. Naturally the most interesting fea- ture of the system is that by which the efficiency of the compressed air is claimed to be doubled by the application of heat and of a certain proportion of water. Apart from the inconvenience result- ing on the extreme cold produced at the exhaust, for large motors. at least, the permanent success or failure of the system depends upon the high degree of efficiency that can be obtained. For small motors this question is comparatively of little importance, because, even with an efficiency of 30 per cent, the balance of advantages would rest with the compressed air as compared with power pro- duced by other mechanical means or by manual labor. The great electric-lighting installation which the company has just completed between the Rue Royale and the Opera will afford, after a few months, absolute data as to the relative economy of the system, and a means of comparison between it and the other installations of the other electric companies. Under every aspect, this great in- dustry for the transmission of power, of which the station at St. Fargeau is the centre, is a most interesting one; and it may be predicted with certainty, that, if the reports of independent engi- neers confirm the statements by the company, applications on an equally large scale will soon be at work in other cities besides Paris. In a great many instances the advantage of being able to promote ventilation and to obtain a supply of pure air in the workshop is an advantage of great importance, and is one that is shared by no other medium of energy after it has done its work. Unlike the waste products from the gas-engine, or exhaust steam, or the dis- charged water from a hydraulic motor, the expanded air, after having done its work in the cylinder, can be turned directly into the apartment where the engine is at work. There are so many other purposes to which the system may find an application, that its field of usefulness appears to be a very wide one indeed, For 30 refrigerating purposes it is already in successful use in Paris, and to a modified degree it may well serve to reduce the tempera- ture of houses in hot climates. The production of intense heat for metallurgical purposes, and the aérification of water, are also two other practical uses of which the ultimate list will probably be a Jong one. HEALTH MATTERS. The Mortality in the City of New York for 1888. A PRELIMINARY report in relation to the mortality of the city for the year 1888 has just been presented to the board of health by Dr. Roger S. Tracy, the assistant sanitary superintendent ; and the deductions made in it, as we find them summed up in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, are somewhat remarkable. The sanitary police took a census of the tenement-house population during the year, which includes all the houses that are more or less constantly under the supervision of the board of health, but not the better class of apartment-houses. The entire population included in this census was 1,093,701 persons, among whom there were 24,842 deaths, while the total number of deaths in the city was 40,175. The highest death-rate, 26.60 per thousand of the population, is in the district south of 14th Street and west of Broadway; the next highest, 23.52, is in the district west of Fifth Avenue and between 14th and 59th Streets, in which are situated a large proportion of the residences of the wealthiest citizens ; and the third highest in the district east of Broadway and south of 14th Street, the most densely populated part of the city, and containing almost exclusively a tenement-house population. The general tenement death-rate was 22.71, while the general death-rate of the city in 1888 was 26.33; and this fact would seem to indicate that the population of the city has been underestimated, and the quoted death-rate too high, or that all the deaths belong- ing in tenement-houses had not been credited to them, or else that the death-rate is actually lower for the tenement-house population than for the rest of the city, which would certainly seem most ex- traordinary. It might be that deaths that should have been credited to the tenement-houses have not been so credited ; but of the total number of deaths in institutions, 7,774, the former place of resi- dence of the individuals was ascertained in 3,444, and these deaths have all been credited to the houses.in which they had lived. In all the districts the death-rate of persons five years of age and ‘over, as a rule, decreases as the number of tenants increases ; while the death-rate of children under five years of age increases up to a certain point, diminishing when there are more than eighty ten- ants toa house. The general death-rate is highest in houses con- taining from sixty to eighty tenants; and this is caused by the higher death-rate among the children, which reaches in these houses 114.04 per 1,000 living. The results of the investigations are summed up by Dr. Tracy as follows : ‘‘ The death-rate in tenement-houses is less than the gen- eral death-rate of the city. The death-rate in the large tenement- houses is less than in the smaller ones. While diarrhoeal diseases and diphtheria show a greater death-rate in the larger houses, phthisis and pneumonia show comparatively little difference ; that difference, however, being in favor of the larger houses. The greatest general death-rate among persons over five years of age, the next to the- highest death-rate from diarrhceal diseases and pneumonia, and markedly the highest from phthisis, are in the dis- trict south of 14th Street and west of Broadway. The excessive mortality in this part of the city is probably connected with the great number of old houses and the dampness of the soil. These results are much at variance with what was expected. It seems to be sufficiently established that people do not live under such ex- tremely bad sanitary conditions in the tenements as they have been supposed to.” Contagious Consumption. The following report on consumption as a contagious disease was approved July 9 by the Health Department of New York City :— “ Pulmonary tuberculosis (consumption) is directly communicated from one person to another. The germ of the disease exists in the expectoration of persons afflicted with it. The following extract SCIENCE: [Vor. XIV. No. 336 from the report of the pathologists of the Health Department ex- plains the means by which the disease may be transmitted : — “¢ Tuberculosis is commonly produced in the lungs (which are the organs most frequently affected) by breathing air in which living germs are suspended as dust. The material which is coughed up, sometimes in large quantities, by persons suffering from consumption, contains these germs often in enormous num- bers. . . . This material when expectorated frequently lodges in places where it dries, as on the street, floors, carpets, handker- chiefs, etc. After drying in one way or another, it is very apt to become pulverized, and float in the air as dust.’ “By observing the following rules, the danger of catching the disease will be reduced to a minimum : — “tT, Do not permit persons suspected to have consumption to spit on the floor or on cloths, unless the latter be immediately burned. The spittle of persons suspected to have consumption should be caught in earthen or glass dishes containing the follow- ing solution: corrosive sublimate, one part; water, one thousand parts. “2, Do not sleep in a room occupied by a person suspected of having consumption. The living rooms of a consumptive patient should have as little furniture as practicable. Hangings should be especially avoided. The use of carpets, rugs, etc., ought always to be avoided. “3. Do not fail to wash thoroughly the eating utensils of a per- son suspected of having consumption as soon after eating as possi- ble, using boiling water for the purpose. “4. Do not mingle the unwashed clothing of consumptive pa- tients with similar clothing of other persons. “5. Do not fail to catch the bowel discharges of consumptive patients with diarrhcea in a vessel containing, corrosive sublimate, one part; water, one thousand parts. “6, Do not fail to consult the family physician regarding the social relations of persons suffering from suspected consumption. “7, Do not permit mothers suspected of having consumption to nurse their offspring. “8. Household pets (animals or birds) are quite susceptible to tuberculosis: therefore do not expose them to persons afflicted with consumption ; also do not keep, but destroy at once, all house- hold pets suspected of having consumption, otherwise they may give it to human beings. “9. Do not fail to thoroughly cleanse the floors, walls, and ceil- ings of the living and sleeping rooms of persons suffering from consumption at least once in two weeks.” Ten thousand copies of the report were ordered to be printed for distribution. PREVENTING TUBERCULOSIS BY MILITARY ORDERS. — The German war minister has decided, says The Medical Record, that the chest of every soldier shall be examined once a month. If the chest does not reach a certain breadth, and does not develop with drill and athletic exercises, the soldier will be disqualified, and regarded as being predisposed to phthisis, and, moreover, likely to infect his comrades. PASTEUR’S METHOD. — In his brief report for the year ending May 1, 1889, the director of the Pasteur Institute, Paris, announces the treatment of 1,673 subjects, of whom 6 were seized with rabies during, and 4 within a fortnight after, the process. But 3 only succumbed after the treatment had been completely carried out, making 1 death in 554, or, including all the cases, I in 128. PROFESSORSHIPS OF HYGIENE.— The University of Kiel, as we learn from The Medzcal News, has inaugurated a professorship of hygiene, and Dr. Bernard Fischer has been appointed to the chair. There now remain only two Prussian universities — those of Bonn and Kénigsburg — without such chairs. Dr. Fischer was one of Professor Robert Koch’s pupils, and accompanied him on that memorable journey into Egypt and India which resulted in the discovery by Koch of the bacillus of Asiatic cholera. Another companion on that voyage was Dr. Gaffky, now professor of hygiene at Giessen. Other pupils of Koch occupy the same de- partment of instruction in other universities, as Dr. Gartner in Jena, Dr. Loffler in Greifswald, Dr. Hiippe in Wiesbaden, Dr. Juty 12, 1889. ] Becker in Leipzig, Dr. Frankel in. Berlin, and Dr. Frank in Naples. _ These are all members of the younger generation of instructors, and are adepts in the laboratory methods of Koch. Dr. Fischer’s original work has been exerted in two directions chiefly, — one in the application of bromine to disinfection, another in the study of the phosphorescence of the sea. ELECTRICAL NEWS. NEw Form oF Gas-BATTERY.— This battery, invented by Mr. Ludwig Mond and Dr. Carl Langer, is an improvement on the gas-battery invented by Grove fifty years ago, which produces electricity from hydrogen and oxygen gas by the intervention of platinum. The distinguishing feature of the new battery, which has been designed to obtain large currents of electricity by means of these gases, is, according to ature, that the electrolyte is not ‘employed as a mobile liquid, but in a quasi-solid form, and it is therefore named “dry gas battery.” Each element of the battery consists of a porous diaphragm of a non-conducting material,— for instance, plaster-of-Paris, — which is impregnated with dilute sul- phuric acid. Both sides of this diaphragm are covered with very fine platinum-leaf, perforated with very numerous small holes, and over this with a thin film of platinum black. Both these coatings are in contact with frameworks of lead and antimony, insulated one from the other, which conduct the electricity to the poles of each element. A number of these elements are placed side by side, or one above the other, with non-conducting frames inter- vening, so as to form chambers through which hydrogen-gas is passed along one side of the element, and air along the other. One element, with a total effective surface of 774 square centimetres (120 square inches), which is covered by 1 gram of platinum black and .35 of a gram of platinum-leaf, shows an electro-motive force of very nearly 1 volt when open, and produces a current of 2 am- péres and .7 of a volt, or 1.4 watts, when the outer resistance is properly adjusted. This current is equal to nearly 50 per cent of _the total energy obtainable from the hydrogen absorbed in the bat- tery. The electro-motive force decreases, however, slowly, in con- sequence of the transport of the sulphuric acid from one side of the diaphragm to the other. In order to counteract this disturbing influence, the gases are from time to time interchanged. The battery works equally well with gases containing 30 to 4o per cent of hydrogen, such as can be obtained by the action of steam, or steam and air, on coal or coke, if the gases have been sufficiently purified from carbonic oxide and hydrocarbons. The water pro- duced in the battery by the combination of hydrogen and oxygen is carried off by the unconsumed nitrogen, and an excess of air carried through it for this purpose. BOOK-REVIEWS. Education in the United States: tts History from the Earliest Settlements. (International Education Series.) By RICHARD G. BOONE. New York, Appleton. 12°. $1.50. THIS book belongs to a class that are becoming rather common in this country, books presenting a large amount of useful informa- tion in an unattractive style. The time has been when a good lit- erary style was considered indispensable in an historical work ; but in our time, and especially in this country, we are treated to vol- ume after volume on historical themes in which style is utterly lacking. That this should be so is somewhat surprising; for a work that has no charm of style is certain to have a much smaller circle of readers than one that has that attraction, and writers usually desire as many readers as possible. In Mr. Boone’s book we are sorry to find this literary defect; for the work has a good deal of merit of other kinds, conveying as it does a large amount of information for the most part well arranged. It has evidently been prepared by careful and conscientious study of the original authorities, and will be useful at least to all educators and as a work of reference to all intelligent readers. It opens with an ac- count of the steps taken by the early colonists to establish schools and colleges, and shows how, at the very outset of our national history, the sentiments of North and South differed on this subject SCIENCE. a of education, Massachusetts and Connecticut led the way in founding schools for the whole people, and it was not until com- paratively recent times that their ideas and practice became gen- erally prevalent. How the public-school system grew up and over- spread the country, Mr. Boone relates at considerable length ; and he does not fail to show how much the schools have been improved by the increase of State control. Then follows a chapter on recent progress in the colleges, showing the changes in the curriculum, the introduction of the elective system, and other matters of inter- est. Professional and technological schools are also treated of, and there is a chapter on the education of the deaf and dumb and other unfortunates, and of criminals. The author does not con- fine himself, however, to the schools alone, but gives the history of other educational agencies, such as libraries, museums, and learned societies. The founding of the Smithsonian Institution, the grants of land for educational purposes, and other acts of the general government bearing on education, are related ; and the book closes with an interesting chapter on the advance that has been made in the education of women. Thus it contains a valuable mass of in- formation, which, so far as we know, was not accessible before in a convenient form. A Theoretical and Practical Treatise on the Strength of Beams and Girders. By ROBERT H. Cousins. New York, Spon. 12°. $5. SINCE the time of Galileo, the subject of which this volume treats has received much attention at the hands of the ablest mathematicians of all countries. Many attempts have been made during the present century to solve experimentally the problems in- volved, only to result in the adoption, by many experimenters, of empirical rules for the strength of beams and girders, rather than scientifically deduced formulas; the reason for this, as given by one authority, being that ‘no theory of the rupture of a simple beam has yet been proposed which fully satisfies the critical experi- menter.” The theory advanced in this treatise, and the formulas resulting from that theory, deduce the strength of beams and girders from the direct crushing and tensile strength of the ma- terial composing them, leaving out of the problem altogether the co-efficient known as the modulus of rupture. The theory and the formulas deduced from it are in accord with correct mechanical and mathematical principles, and the author believes that they will fully satisfy the results obtained by the experimenter. Works of this character derive special importance from the constantly in- creasing use of iron and steel for building and engineering pur- poses. The Beginners’ Book tn German. Boston, Ginn. 12°. go cents. Tuis little book is the result of the need felt by the author and others, in teaching German, of suitable books to put into the hands of beginners. It consists of two parts. Part I.is a series of les- sons, each of which is introduced with a picture, followed by cor- responding verses from the child-literature of Germany. These pictures, which illustrate the text following, were all drawn ex- pressly for the purpose, and are brimming with the spirit of fun and humor which they have so faithfully caught from the child-lore. A conversation upon the subject, with the study of words and phrases, completes each lesson. In this way advantage is taken of the children’s tastes and inclinations, and even of the mischief- loving element which enters so largely into the child-nature. The second part contains graded selections for reading. The typography and make-up are in every way excellent. The book, as a whole, forms a very attractive volume, and we have no doubt that it will prove, as the author has intended, a great relief to teachers and a source of pleasuye to pupils. By SOPHIE DORIOT. The A B C of Electricity. New York, F. W. Lovell. CONDENSATION of matter and simplicity of language are the points most noticeable in this little volume. A brief general out- line of the rudiments of electrical science, or at least of those de- partments of it which have now become almost a part of every-day life, is given in language devoid of those technicalities which are By WILLIAM H. MEADOWCROFT. 12°. 50 cents. 32 SCIENCE: so puzzling and discouraging to the general public, though neces- sary to the student and the electrician. The author does not put it forward as a scientific work, of which there is no lack, intending it only as a sort of guide-book on the road to electrical science, which will probably give to many the information they may desire, without requiring too great a research into works which treat more extensively and deeply of the subject. The book bears the indorse- ment of Thomas A. Edison. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. AMONG the timely articles in the July number of Zhe New Review, which Longmans, Green, & Co. expect to have ready about the 12th, are “The Eiffel Tower,’ by M. Eiffel himself ; “The Shah of Persia,’ by Lord Castletown; and “The Eight Hours Bill,” by Mr. Charles Bradlaugh. There will also be an anonymous article on “The Talkers of London.” Matthew’ Ar- nold’s literary executor, Lord Coleridge, has written a paper on the lamented poet and critic, which will appear in the July number of The New Review. — The July number of Blackwood's will contain a story by Mr. Oscar Wilde on the subject of Shakspeare’s sonnets. Mr. Wilde will put forward an entirely new theory as to the identity of the mysterious ‘“‘ Mr. W. H.” of the famous preface. — John Wiley & Sons have just ready a work on “Steam-Engine Design,” for the use of mechanical engineers, students, and draughtsmen, by Professor J. M. Witham. —Ticknor & Co. announce “The Moral Idea: a Historic Study,” by Julia Wedgwood, —a work which is said to be the outcome of twenty years of study, and which is described as “a history of human aspiration after a moral ideal that changes con- tinually in the evolution of time and thought, the highest truth dis- covered by one age being often found by a revolt against the errors circling round the belief that was the life of a former age.” —D. Appleton & Co. have ready “ Days Out of Doors,” by Charles C. Abbott, a companion volume to his “ A Naturalist’s Rambles about Home;” “The Garden’s Story,’ by George H. Ellwanger, relating the pleasures and trials of an amateur gar- dener, illustrated with head and tail pieces by Rhead; and “The History of a Slave,” by H. M. Johnston, author of the “ Kilimanjaro Expedition.” — In the July issues of the leading English reviews, Mr. Glad- stone contributes to the Wzmeteenth Century an article entitled “Plain Speaking on the Irish Union.” Mr. Gosse writes on “ Ed- ward FitzGerald,” the translator of Omar Khayyum, in the Fort- nightly ; and Walter Besant describes the first society of British authors (1843) in the Contemporary Review. This last-named periodical will contain, in addition to other notable articles, a paper on ‘‘ Jewels and Dress,” by Mrs. Haweis; and one on “ Thomas Hardy,” by J. M. Barrie. — Messrs. Belford, Clarke, & Co. send us two of their lately published novels, — ‘The Prophet’s Mantle,’ by Fabian Bland ; and “ Trean, or The Mormon’s Daughter,” by Alva M. Kerr. The former is much better than many recent novels, being not only un- exceptionable in both a moral and a literary sense, but really an en- tertaining story. The leading character is a Russian nihilist, but the scene is mostly laid in London. The incidents are mostly of an ordinary kind, only a few being unusually exciting ; yet the in- terest is unflagging from beginning to end. A good deal is said by the various characters on the subjects of socialism, capitalism, tyranny, and the urgent need of social re-organization, and the author seems to be more or less in sympathy with socialistic.views, but with some doubts about their practicability. The other novel is inferior to ‘‘ The Prophet’s Mantle,” but has nevertheless an in- terest ofits own. The hero of the tale is an eastern man, who goes on business to Utah, and there falls in love with a Mormon’s daughter. A Mormon bishop, however, who already had several wives, was bent on adding that same girl to the list; and hence arose a host of trouble for the young lovers, out of which, of course, they at last emerged triumphant. The book contains a great deal about the Mormon doctrines and practices —most readers will ‘book will form a volume of about two hundred pages of reading- [Von. XIV. No. 336 think too much for the interest of the story; and the author is evidently a determined hater of the whole Mormon system. A\l- most every novel nowadays endeavors, as these do, to deal with some moral or social question, either by showing in a vivid light some evil that requires a remedy or by rousing a public sentiment in favor of reform. This tendency, if properly directed, is certainly _ to be welcomed; for it makes the story not only more useful and improving, but also to men of intelligence more interesting. . — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for early publication “ Pages . Choisies des Mémoires du Duc de Saint-Simon,” edited for use in colleges and advanced classes, and for private readers, by Alphonse N. Van Daell, Ph.C., LL.D., recently director of modern languages in the Boston High and Latin Schools, and now professor of French in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The ‘‘ Mémoires of Saint-Simon,” which are of great importance for both the literary and the historical study of the seventeenth century in France, are accessible to but few students, partly on account of their bulk. The editor does not know of any American edition, although it is 3 very desirable to have Saint-Simon’s prose studied in an advanced course. The notes will be in French; and the introduction will consist of two selections, — one from Taine, the other from Ram- baud. The same firm also announce for publication in August, Dumas’ ‘‘Les Trois Mousquetaires,’ edited by Professor F. C. Sumichrast of Harvard University, for use in schools and colleges and for private readers. Alexandre Dumas was one of the bright- est and most entertaining of writers ; but his works, with the excep- | tion of ‘La Tulipe Noire,” have not been available for college or school work on account of their length and the frequent occur- rence of objectionable passages. These two objections are re- \ moved in this edition of Dumas’ masterpiece, ‘‘ Les Trois Mous- quetaires.” The story itself is kept intact, and the brilliant de- scription of court, camp, and city life preserved ; but the “ padding ” has been omitted, and its place supplied by brief summaries. Every objectionable page has been carefully excised, and this with the | greater readiness that the actual story is not thereby affected. The matter, and, being fully annotated, will prove an edition serviceable to student and teacher alike. — The Forum for July contains eleven articles on a great variety of subjects and of varying excellence. The most important is the opening one, by Bishop Henry C. Potter, on “The Scholar in American Life.” The writer justly thinks that the American peo- ple are greatly in need of a much higher grade of scholarship than now prevails among them; and in this essay he endeavors to show this need, and also to point out the conditions on which alone it can be supplied. By scholarship Bishop Potter does not mean the mere possession of knowledge: on the contrary, he speaks slight- ingly of those who merely retail other men’s ideas. It is the origi- nal thinker, the teacher of new truths, whom he designates as the scholar, and whose work he regards as so important. At present such men are rare in this country, and those of the highest class . are not found here at all; and Bishop Potter doubts if we shalk have them in any considerable numbers until our universities pro- vide, either by fellowships or by lectureships, for their support. The whole paper is well considered, and ought to be read and pondered by all who have the interests of American civilization at heart. Mr. W. S. Lilly continues his series of papers on what he deems the moral looseness of the present age, treating this time of “‘ The Ethics of Journalism.” He contrasts the ideal of the journalist’s profession with the reality, and it cannot be denied that the charges he brings against the common run of journalists have a solid basis of fact. Professor G. J. Romanes replies briefly to Mr. Mivart’s criticism of the Darwinian theory, but without saying any thing that is new. Dr. Austin Flint has a paper on “Late Theo- ~ ries concerning Fever,” in which he considers especially the mode of treating that disease. He remarks that the increase of tempera- ture is the really dangerous element in the case, and, while he speaks somewhat hesitatingly about the use of drugs for reducing the temperature, recommends. in strong terms the application of cool baths. M. Honoré Beaugrand writes of “ The Attitude of the French Canadians” on the questions of commercial union and an- nexation to the United States. He replies to Professor Goldwin a 12, 1889,] Smith’s strictures on the French people of Canada; and while he admits that they are less successful in accumulating wealth than men of the Anglo-Saxon race, and that they are too much under the influence of the priests, he maintains that they are, on the whole, as good citizens asany others. On the question of annexa- tion, he thinks the French are tending toward a decision in its fa- vor, largely because so many of them have already settled in New England, and so have become familiar with life in the States. Mrs. J. C. Croly writes on “ Domestic Service,” expressing the opinion that mistresses usually expect too much of their servants, — as much as could be expected of trained experts; and, furthermore, that the servant-girl is too often not treated, as she should be, like any hired laborer, but rather as a dependent. To these causes Mrs. Croly attributes many of the troubles that ladies have with their servants. The other papers in the forz deal with familiar subjects, and call for no’special remark. — It cannot be said that in these days there is any lack of high- class reviews, but their cost is prohibitive to the great mass of the people. A high standard of excellence, and a cultivated literary taste, are no longer confined to the few; while a keen anxiety to become acquainted with the ideas of the foremost men of the day on the many vital problems now before the world is developing among a class unable to purchase the periodicals in which alone these subjects are handled. The object of The New Review (Longmans, Green, & Co., London and New York) is to place a critical periodical of the first order within the reach of all; and the preliminary list of writers is a sufficient proof that it will not yield to any in the eminence of its contributors. The public will be - brought into direct contact with the most representative men of the age. Politics, science, and art will be treated by writers of ac- knowledged repute ; and literature, both critical and creative, sober and fanciful, will be associated with names which have long car- ried their own commendation. Brevity as well as cheapness will be one of the distinguishing features of the new enterprise. The second number, to be published early in July, will contain, “‘ The Shah,” by the Right Hon. Lord Castletown; “ Matthew Arnold,” by the lord chief justice of England; “The Eiffel Tower,” by M. Eiffel; ‘The Eight Hours Bill,” by Charles Bradlaugh, M.P.; “The Higher Policy for Africa,” by Sir G. Baden-Powell, M.P. ; «‘The Talkers of London ;” “ Greyfriars,” by St. George Mivart, ( SCIENCE, 33 F.R.S.; “ The Dying Drama,” by William Archer ; “Three Types of Womanhood,” by the Countess of Cork. —A natural-history serial, “Among the Florida Keys,” by Charles Frederick Holder, describing the strange adventures and observations of a party of boys during a vacation trip in Florida, begins in the July number of S¢. Vzcho/as, and will continue for four months, LETTERS TO THE EDITOR: * "Correspondents are requested to be as brief as bossible. in all cases required as proof of good faith. The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. The writer's name is Queries. 45. IS THE HUMAN VOICE GROWING, OR DECAYING ? — In his article on speech and song, in the Contemporary Review, Sir Morell Mackenzie writes, ‘‘ Before leaving the subject of the speaking voice, a word or two may be said on what is more a matter of curious speculation than of practical interest. Is the human voice growing in power and beauty, or is it tending to decay? Certain physi- ologists assure us that the retina has acquired the power of dis- tinguishing colors by degrees, and that the process will probably continue, so that our descendants will by and by evolve the power of seeing colors now quite unknown to us. On the other hand, it is undeniable that civilization, so far from increasing the keenness of our sight, threatens to make spectacles universally necessary. There can be no doubt that the voice has developed greatly since our ‘half-human ancestors’ wooed each other in the primeval forests, and it is conceivable that it may in time to come acquire the power of producing musical effects at present undreamt of. It is also probable enough, that, as the voice gains in sweetness, it may lose in power, the latter quality being more required in bar- barous than in highly civilized conditions. On the other hand, we are taller and of larger chest-girth than our predecessors even of a not very remote date: it is reasonable, therefore, to suppose that the average lungs and larynx are bigger nowadays, and the air- blast from the lungs stronger. This would appear to justify us in believing that the voice is stronger than it was even two or three centuries ago. There are, however, no facts that I know of to prove it.” Cannot some of the readers of Sczence throw light on this ? X. NOW READY! A B. (|. ELECTRICITY. By WM. H. MEADOWCROFT. A NEW WORK!! HARPER S MACAZINE FOR JULY. Endorsed by THOS. A. EDISON. 1 yolume, limp cloth, fully illustrated ; price, 50 cents. WHAT THE PRESS SAYS: ‘* A clear and comprehensive little treatise.”—N. . Sun. ** Blectrical sclence is making magnificent strides, and this book fills a useful office, in setting forth the features and characters of these adyances.”—Brook- lyn Times. ** The need of such a book has undoubtedly been felt by many .. . we predict for it a spendid sale.”—The Age of Steel. ** A pook like this should be largely read.”—WN. Y. Herald. “ The book is well illustrated, and no pains have been spared to make it accurate and reliable throughout.”—Electrical Review. *‘Tn simple language the author lays bare the se- crets of electrical science and application.’’—EHlec- trical World. “A vast amount of useful importance.”—Wash- ington Post. Sent post-paid to any address on receipt of price by FRANK FEF. LOVELL & COMPANY, 142 & 144 Worth St., New York. HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. THE STATE OF TOWA. By Mr. Justice Minter. Accompanied by a Frontispiece Portrait of Mr. Justice Minuer, and 13 other Portraits. SHORT STORIES. By FLioreNcE E. WELD, and by F. DovVERIDGE. GREAT AMERICAN INDUSTRIES, VIII. A PIECE OF GLASS. Twenty Explanatory Illus- ; trations. JUPITER LIGHTS. Novel. Part VII. PALATIAL PETERSBURG. By THEODORE CuiLp. Fifteen Illustrations. IS ANIEREICAN SEFAMINA DECLINING? By WILLIAM BLAIKIE. TO MASTER ANTHONY SEFAFFORD. A Poem of 1632. Seven Illustrations by ABBEY and PARSONS. A LITTLE JOURNEY IN THE WORLD. A Novel. By CHARLES DUDLEY WARNER. Part IV. THE SOUTH AND THE SCHOOL PROB- LEW. By Rey. Articus G. Haycoop, D.D., LL.D. LES PORTEUSES. lustrated. ADRIAAN VAN DE VELDE. Illustrated. THE BANKS OF THE BRANDYWINE. By H. M. Jenxins. Illustrated. POESIS. By Rey. WALTER MITCHELL (Illustrated), and by CHARLES WASHINGTON COLEMAN. By Larcapio Hearn. I[l- By E. Mason. By C. F. Wootson. A! | EDITORS EASY CHATR. A SONNET. By Wittisam Worpsworts. Ilus- trated by ALFRED Parsons. SOCIAL PERSEVERANCE, By GEORGE DU Maurier. Full-page IMlustration. By GEORGE WiL- LIAM CURTIS. EDITOR'S STUDY. ELLS, WON THL Y RECORD OF CURRENT EVENTS EDITORS DRAWER. Conducted by CHaAs. DUDLEY WARNER. LITERARY NOTES. By WittiAm DEAN How- By LavrENcE Hutton. HARPER’S PERIODICALS. Per Year: HARPER’S MAGAZINE... . Postage Free, $4 00 HARPER’S WEEELY............ ce 400 HARPER’S BAZAR........ apes we 400 HARPER’S YOUNG PEOPLE.... oo 2 00 Booksellers and Postmasters usually receive Sub- scriptions. Subscriptions sent direct to the Publish- ers should be accompanied by Post-office Money Order or Draft. When no time is specified, Subscriptions will begin with the current number. Published eye HARPER & BROTHERS, New York. 34 SCIENCE: INDUSTRIAL NOTES. The Popularity of Electric Cars. IT is extremely interesting to note that a few evenings ago a mass meeting of citizens was held in Cleveland, O., to urge the extension of the electric-railway system in that city. When the East Cleveland Street Railway Company, about a year since, pro- posed to install an electric line of cars on Euclid Avenue and several other principal streets in that city, there was a general protest by the residents along the proposed route who had never seen any lines in electrical operation, and others, against the erec- tion of poles and overhead lines. Objections to railway pole lines in cities where there have been no electric cars are natural, in view of the kinds of pole lines which are often installed by telegraph and telephone companies ; but, as the intention of the East Cleve- land Street Railway Company was to install iron poles, the objec- tions were finally overruled, and the line was equipped with the overhead system, using iron poles, and operating sixteen Sprague electric cars. The route extended over some of the handsomest residential streets and principal business thoroughfares, and used the regular Sprague overhead system, with the small No. 6 silicon bronze trolley wire as a working conductor, carrying the main por- tion of the current on an insulated main wire at the side of the street. The success of the road has been marked from its very start. The residents have been given a method of transit more convenient and more rapid than they had ever before enjoyed, without any disfigurement of the streets by hideous elevated-rail- road structures. The system rose rapidly in popularity with resi- dents and property-owners as its advantages became recognized, and real estate along the route of the electric railway increased greatly in value, in a number of cases bringing double or triple its former price. With this change there was a very noticeable change in the tone of the Cleveland press, which rapidly changed from a spirit of opposition to the electrical method of rapid transit to a spirit of friendliness and approbation. The railway company have already increased their equipment, adding eight more to their original order of sixteen cars from the Sprague Company. The meeting held the other evening was largely attended, and was for the purpose of urging the railway company to still further extension of their line, and to simplify their facilities of rapid transit. The meeting in Doan’s Armory on Euclid Avenue, Cleve- land, was presided over by Mr. W. E. Sherwood. After the an- nouncement of the purposes of the meeting, which was received with great enthusiasm, a committee, consisting of Judge E. M. Heisly, Gen. Edward S. Meyer, and Mr. George _H. Foster, were appointed to draw up a resolution. The resolution which was presented by these gentlemen, and which was unanimously adopted, read as follows: “ Resolved, That it is the sense of this meeting that the public convenience of the city of Cleveland requires and demands that the electric-motor system shall be extended to the Public Square, and, if necessary to that end for the East Cleveland Railroad, that it lay its tracks on Euclid Avenue from Case Avenue to the Public Square, if consent can be obtained ; and the gentlemen present pledge themselves to do all in their power to obtain that consent for the company.” This action of the citizens of Cleveland is simply another ex- ample of the popularity of the electric system of street-car propul- sion in every city where it has been adopted. Electric Rapid Transit in Cleveland. Among the cities which are rapidly coming to the front as lead- ing in rapid-transit facilities by the application of electricity, there is none, perhaps, where the advantages of electric power for street- cars are more thoroughly recognized than in the city of Cleveland, O. Though it is only about nine months since the first electric cars were put into operation upon the streets of that city, the Cleveland public have become enthusiastic over this method of transit, and the number of electric cars in that city is rapidly ex- tending. Last week a new extension to the East Cleveland Electric Rail- way was opened in Cleveland on Prospect Street and Euclid Avenue, and the first car ran over the line with the president and [Vot. XIV. No. 336 secretary of the road, and electricians in charge, as freight. It is the intention of the East Cleveland Company to operate sixty motor-cars on this line with two minutes and a half headway, and all horses will be removed from the line as soon as the motor-cars are equipped with the Sprague motors which have been ordered. It is said that the experiment will be tried of running these cars at the rate of about eleven miles an hour through the city ; and itis not thought that the city council will object to this, since it is a well-known fact that electric cars operated at this speed are much safer to the general public than horse-cars run at only six miles an hour, as the electric cars can be stopped very much more quickly than cars propelled by animal power. It is an interesting fact, in connection with this road, to note the popularity of the electric cars with the passengers and property- owners along the line. In Cleveland, at a public meeting recently, which was presided over by some of the most prominent citizens, resolutions were passed commenting on the successful operation of the Sprague electric road; and the East Cleveland Company was requested to extend the motor-line in several directions, in order to improve the transit facilities. These resolutions were adopted unanimously by the large number of citizens who were present. The equipment of the East Cleveland Company includes, besides a number of the old type of Sprague motors, a number of cars equipped with the new style of motors, and the additions to the equipment will be all of this class of motor. Cleveland deserves a prominent place among the leading “ electrical cities” on this con- tinent. A Pioneer Electric Line Re-organized. One of the first electric street-railways in this country, the Washington Street, Asylum, and Park Railway of Binghamton, N.Y., has recently had its entire equipment changed, in order to meet the latest and most approved ideas of electric-railway science. The first equipment was installed about two years ago, and the changes which are being made illustrate the advances which have been accomplished in electric-railway science, and they show the difference between the ideas which were prevalent two years ago and those illustrated in the motor appliances of to-day. The motor cab, which occupied the front of the car under the old style of electric railway, will be entirely dispensed with, and the motors will be placed underneath the cars, as in all the modern electric railways. The overhead overrunning trolley, and the method of carrying all the current over the track on a single con- ductor, have been abandoned for the latest Sprague methods in. this case. The motive power also will be under the more com- plete control of the driver, and all degrees of speed in both direc- tions are obtainable by movéments of a single switch, so that the car can be propelled either backwards or forwards with equal ease and rapidity. The cable-lines, which formerly it was found necessary to operate. at either end of the road on account of the heavy grades at these points, will be things‘of the past, as the Sprague motors will be of sufficient power to propel the cars up these grades; and the trip. from one end of the line to the other will be made without change. It is interesting to note the increase of efficiency of the motors, — as indicated by the statement which is made, that the management of the railway company has completed a contract for power at nearly one-half less than the amount called for by the previous contract. : The cars will each be equipped with Sprague improved motors of 15 horse-power each, with all the latest improvements and de- vices in use by the Sprague Company upon any of the roads equipped with their machines. These cars will each be able to tow one ordinary car. The re-organization and re-equipment of this road are applauded by the citizens and papers of Binghamton, who anticipate improved rapid-transit facilities on the new road. How to take Money to Europe. Messrs. E. J. Matthews & Co., 2 Wall Street, New York, the American agents of the Cheque Bank, Limited, of London, have issued a little pamphlet containing a list of tradespeople who will accept checks of the Cheque Bank as cash in payment of bills. _ Hose Supporters, Tape- . | Materials Jury 12, 1880. | aM THM BT Pit yy): SCIENCE: i GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres't. 1 Guaranteed Farm Mortgages ]"h The Company calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : i I. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers’ & Traders’ National Bank, New York. } II. Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the general development of the section where the farm is located. III. An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM _ MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. IV. Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. V. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm Products. the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the HJ/GHEST AWARD of superiority. VI. The Exhibition at. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report for 1888, HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. . BEST eee " For - 5 Baraat Health, Comfort. PRCCOULILL WAISTS 3 sow Imes) in FERRIS’ Patent United States, Ring Buckle at Hip for Buea eae fastened Buttons—coné pull off, Cord-edge But- ton Holes—ion’t wear out, Best are very successful with these Waists. Send for cir- cular and \ Lady Cunvassers throughout. FIT ALL aS ~ AS 1 WW Ny WY POT» unox NES SY\ il as betmtgny Ssh MPOT ic * fwe armor’d knights in mortal combat meet And after many a parry, guard and lunge Aah er Armed cap-a-pie—that is, from head to feet. He thought it wisest to throw up the sponge. rie g The helmet, breastplate, shield and spear of one «See here,” he cried, ‘‘this isn’t fair, you know, 150 ee Shone like the dazzling brightness of the sun. Your armor’s polished with SAPorio, 175 ( ap The other suit of mail begrimed with rust T cannot see to fight—I'm sure to fail— 200 l é Ko Was scarcely proof against his foeman’s thrust, Sapoxto protects you from Brack-Mar |” Mailed Free on Sa eg peReis eros, sae a = Sey _ = 341 Broadway New York. = a5 BEWARE OF IMITATIONS. nts. MABSHALL FIELD & CO., CHICAGO, Wholesale Western Age: A NEW MICROSCOPE. Having invented an improved form of micro- scope, I will assign an interest in the patent for financial assistance in manufacturing. It is be- lieved that a powerful instrument may be made on the new principle at low cost. FRANK ANTON BECKER, 530 E. 16th St, N.Y. Grocers often substitute cheaper goods for Sapolio to make a better profit. Send back such articles, and insist upon having just what you ordered. ENOCH MORGAN’S SONS CO., NEW YORK. SCIENCE! DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to EVOL. XaIVe; No. 336. Power Stations. Stationary Motors 1, to 100 H.P. 250.H.Pi a Executive Office, 1 15 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. J. Please Mention “Science.” PAGES. T H R E E PAGES. ar: and new subscribers for Bani gonN a ae nay eae Gorhpani ion Ww. and instructiv. hier ever receive during thé coming tw (MONTHS mple ar works o 8 Hee in- roduced ir sby famous writers in fee rans yy qe busiest people. We have enga: sie fhis work 9 widely known and tal Anon ( r Bons corn on. Ehdats from eae ne qihe diner cte 0: an Aneyers Bistoe wi 6 each mon ‘ati Ds owing the particular ad- vantere pee costeot attendance, eto, Invaluable paren ving sone or daughters whom they de. ine 8) rechive the advantages of a higher edu- rT writer. Com- patton Phen 1 Ordinary school affords. Articles on Painting an an abrevine ving home instruction bya well-kn al subscription of this fort paper be eae any address, threa mon TEN CENTS. Liberal apy. yy for PETE | work adapted to our col- ums, an new and original drawings, designs at Ideas on ve NY hemo whieh we can se, ost complete in the world, We offer ucemen © club raisers and agents ap- Propohed! by no 0 ee ab ishing house. ie cele- peated aber Cut Waist Linings, which we send id to any one sending us two yearly sub- be As a o cents esor is alone Re 2 75 cents, 59 ent to ai address, post p one year, tas six mon alee 25 cents, and a three mont. faa subsoription for only 10 cents, TRY IT! TRY IT! TRY IT! ‘aad you will become a permanent reader. Address: John L. Douglass, Publisher, 322 Broadway, N. Y, ESTABLISHED 1859. Bea DIE, Commercial Printer, 37 Clinton Place, near Broadway, New York, Wedding Orders, Souvenirs, Invitations, Or- ders of Dance, etc., etc., done in the latest and most elaborate styles, at reasonable prices. All Favors promptly attended to. One Million Magazines. Back numbers, vols. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American, CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. A. S. CLARK, 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. THE Anenean Bell Telephon COMPANY. 95 MILK ST., BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters Patent granted to Alexander Gra- ham Bell, March 7th, 1876, No. 174,465, and January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. The Transmission of Speech by all known forms of HLECTRIC SPEAKING TELEPHONES in- fringes the right secured to this Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished by it or its licensees, responsible for such un- lawful use, and all the conse- quences thereof and liable to suit therefor. STERBROOK’S STEEL PENS. OF SUPERIOR AND STANDARD QUALITY. Leading Nos.: 048, 14, 130, 135, 239, 333 For Sale by all Stationers. THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN 6G0., Works: Oamden, N.J. 26 John St., New York. KIMBALL’S Si RALGH A (OCU a CIGARETTES. Unsurpassed in quality. Used by people of refined taste. Highest award at Brussels, 1888. The finest smoking mixtures are of our manufacture. Fifteen First Prize Medals. WM.S. KIMBALL & CO., Rochester. N.Y. GOOD NEWS To LADIES. createst inducements ever of- fered. Now’s your time to get up orders for our celebrated Teas and Coffees, and secure a beautiful Gold Band or Moss Rose China Tea Set, Dinner Set, Go Rose Toilet Set, Watch, Brass Lamp, or Webster’s Dictionary. For full particulars address eh RSENS Pe ee C P.O. 1 and 33 Vesey st, New York. CAN, : J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored views. Jj. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. MORRIS EARLE & CO. SUCCESSORS 10 R. & J. BECK, 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and all Accessories and Ap- paratus. Photograph- ic and Photo-Micro- gtaphic Apparatus and Outfits. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed fvee to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE in corresponding with us. E.&H.T. ANTHONY & CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, $ Apparatus and Supplies of every escription. Sole proprietors of he Patent Detective, Fairy Noy- 1, and Bicycle Cameras, and the WH Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits i in great variety, from $9.00 upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. [28 More than 40 years established in this line of business, Jury 13, 1889 | Tie: SCIENCE. iii ¢. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York rk City. \ New England Office, I 19 Pearl St,, Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St, Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. { Chicago. Motors Designed for all Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, Power Purposes. New Orleans, The Mutual LifeInsuranceCompany SOS OF NEW YORK. — RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. THE ASSETS =- = - $126,082,153 56 EQUITABLE The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. : The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 May? Assurance Exceeded $103,000,000. Society Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including assues anew policy JN. Gaia, Thay ASSSUS: CEs pete we 08 ate e oe caeamee Oxo HeSIes Occ $ 7,275,301 68 A SAD I WACOMMS Ofaecacooroonsvenscccdcee wants 3,096,010 06 : AL Sain fin WERT {HRSMIMOVINS Ol ga ancss0 oo0cc00 eS 0Kn0 2,333,406 00 which, AL Gait tin GUIDING Oo ooo sece2eesunacc000 aba Gene 1,645,622 11 A Gain Tis WET, WUSWINSTS OF, ves ococeccnoac0csg 5000 335750,792 85 yy AN Galli Ot TIS WN AMES ..c og Wobde cod00bs ab eb moe co Eaooiesn 85 like a bank di afl, The Mutual Life Insurance Company as a simple Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. PROMISE ILO PA V * QURG or CRN COLORED) SK | {28 We have had unusual success PATENTS. with this line of Gros Grains. Until October rst, my fees, as attorney, due only on OF allowance if desired. Write . . W. H. BABCOCK, They are 19 1-2 inches wide, have 513 Seventh St., Washington, D. C., P. O. Box 220. 5 : Formerly E> Patent Offi e RA \ / | Y a fine cord weave, and are in 40 Fe es i ‘ s. Under different, excellent shades. DROP ordinary circumstances they would Schools. ~ sell for $1 per yard. | Connecticut, New Haven k ‘Ors . > wills = RS. CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. AN N U N (: IA @ S Send for samples 2 they willsurely M Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to e =, please you. yee Dy Certificate. Circulars. Early application DON'T FORGED THE =| TAMES McCREERY & CO,| pose roevtecunic insrirre —4 sctos DUST-PROOF BELLS. mentor Mechaaeal ana Chal Baneee BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, Expenses low. For catalogue aides Pac. Mend Pres. HAZAZER & STANLEY, NEW YORK. Mone HoveuTon. ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues 32 Frankfort Street, N. Y. address M. E, Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. ae sh iv SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 336 Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Lightest Weight Consistent with Highest Efficiency, SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION. Not Liable to get out of Order. 16 and 18 BROAD STREET, MEAL FELT V00tn POLISHER HE SHRIEKS! | SHE SPEAKS. Go it, Old Fellow,| ‘ Ireally don’t see scratch, scrape,tear,|how Ilived without swear. Grope a-j|the Ideal Felt Tooth round after that}|Polisher. It is de- loose bristle stick-|lightfully pleasant ingin yourgum,and |touse and howclean wonder why in the|andsmoothmyteeth world your teeth|feel and how they look so black when|shine. How ruddy you brush themjand healthy my|£ regularly. Listen to}gums look, and only your fair neighbor|think, at first it felt and learn a thing]}so strange I did not Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION. Commutator Wear Reduced to a Minimum, NEW YORK. Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- Rj urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piane Co., &c., &e. Repairs Everything. Itssuccess has bronght a lot of cari. : imitators copynEus in every wa: or two. like it.’ cei amet Gig Fig DEAL srt oT see OOO Gise cance same be by the SAO) ee RUSSIA CEMENT CO. = GLOUCESTER, MASS. No LOOSE BRISTLES. - SEZs NO BLEEDING GUMS, Send 10c. and dealers’ card who ADULTERARION And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50: Circulars and Catalogues on application. E. & F. N. SPON, The Verdict F ALL who haye used Ayer’s Pills ~ for Biliousness and Liver Com- plaint is that they are the best ever made. Being free from any mineral ingredients, and sugar-coated, Ayer’s Pills are adapted to all ages, constitu- tions, and climates. “Having used Ayer’s Pills for many years in my practice and family, I feel justified in recommending them as an excellent cathartic and liver medicine. They sustain all the claims made for them.”—W. A. Westfall, M:. D., Vv. PR. Austin & N. W. RB. BR. Co., Burnet, Texas. “Ayer’s Pills keep my stomach and liver in perfect condition. Five -years ago I was afflicted with enlargement of atent Pocket Can. Its Economy: Holder Bone, Horn, or Celluloid, attractive and indestructible, 3& cents. Felt Polishers only need be renewed (18 boxed), 25 cents. At all Druggists, or mailed by HORSEY MEG. CO., Utica, N. ¥- YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- AGASSIZ ASSOCIATION ing to his work accomplished in travelling for} COURSE OF MINE RALOGY. Se1ENcE. A personal interview invited. Expense for Pamphlet, Collection, Correspond- ’ N.D. C. HODGES, erce (1st Grade), One Dollar; Postage, 25 cents. 47 Lafayette Place, New York. G. GUTTENBERG, Erie, Pa. w= No Chemicals, = | W. Baxer & C0.’s M4 Ost peRrect maoé To increase the solubility of the powdered cocoa, vari- ous expedients are employed, most of them being based upon the action of some alkali, potash, soda or even am- monia. Cocoa which has been prepared by one of these chemical processes, can usually be recognized at once by the distinct alkaline reaction of the infusion in water. W. Baker & Co.’s Breakfast Cocoa js manufactured from the first stage to the last by per- fect mechanical processes, no chemical being the liver and with a severe form of dys- pepsia, most of the time being unable to retain any solid food on my stomach. I finally began to take Ayer’s Pills, and after using only three boxes of these magical pellets, was a well man.’’— Lucius Alexander, Marblehead, Mass. If you have Sick Headache, Constipa- tion, Indigestion, or Piles, try Its superior excellence proven in millions of homes for more than a quarter of acentury. Itis used by the United States Gov.rnment. Endorsed by the heads of the Great Universities as the Strongest, Purest, and most Healthful. Dr. Price’s Cream Baking Powder does not contain Ammonia, Lime, or Alum. Sold only in Cans. PRICE BAKING POWDER CO. NEW YORE. CHICAGO. ST.LOUIS. SAN FRANCISCO. Ayer’s Pills, PREPARED BY Dr. J. C. Ayer & Co., Lowell, Mass. Sold by all Druggists and Dealers in Medicine used in its preparation. By one of the most ingenious of these mechanical processes the greatest de- gree of fineness is secured without the sacrifice of the attractive and beautiful red color which is characteristic of an absolutely pure and naturdl cocoa. W. Baker & Go., Dorchester, Mass, (Entered at the Pos!-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.) WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SClEN@EST SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 337. NEW YORK, Juty 19, 1889. SINGLE CopiEes, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. THE SPRAGUE ELECTRIC-RAILWAY MOTOR. _| WE publish in this issue views of the Sprague improved electric motor for street-railway work. This motor represents the experi- ence of several years in the electric street-railway business, and it is intended to meet all the exigencies in this kind of work. In its manufacture, every detail of mechanical and electrical construction is carefully attended to, and the most recent improvements which experience could suggest have been adopted to meet the necessities of street-car service. Only one intermediate shaft is used between the armature pinion and the main. gear, and the entire reduction is about 12 to 1. All (\\\ a t | | FIG. the gears and every part of the motor are made extremely strong and durable, as can be seen in the case of the gears in the engray- ing, where the general appearance of durability and strength is everywhere marked. The main gears are of the split-gear pattern, so that in case of necessity they can be easily removed from the shaft without dis- mounting the machine. The pinion and all the bearings are also constructed so that they can be easily removed if necessary. Great attention has been paid in this motor to obtain a machine which will require a minimum amount of care, under the unfavor- able conditions which motors for street-railway work very often meet in actual practice. For this reason, all the bearings are made completely dust-proof and very durable. The armatures are of the type which has been proved to be water-proof, and incapable of injury by moisture. In a recent test upon one of these armatures, made at the Sprague factory at Schenectady, and described in this paper a short time ago, one of these armatures was placed successively in a tub of fresh water and allowed to remain there for twenty-four hours, and in a tub of salt water and allowed to remain there for the same time. After each of,these baths, the armature was placed in position in the motor, and the machine was worked to one-third above its normal load, as measured by. a dynamometer, for. several hours without developing any trouble whatever. These tests proved most con- clusively that these machines can be relied upon under all condi 1.—NEW SPRAGUE ELECTRIC-RAILWAY MOTOR. tions of weather, and that they cannot be harmed by moisture or by water splashing upon them from the road-bed. Another important improvement which has been adopted in this machine is that the field-magnet coils are completely incased in covers, as shown in the engravings, which fully protect the wire from all outside damage. These casings are hermetically closed, so that it is impossible for moisture to affect the coils in any way. The style of brushes used upon these motors is of a new type, which has been shown to give excellent results in this kind of work. The Sprague method of flexibly suspending the motors, and of controlling the speed of the motor without the use of any wasteful resistances, is also in use with these motors upon all the roads in- stalled by the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. 36 SCI PINGE: [Vor. XIV. No. 337. A great deal of attention has been paid in the design of this GIRDLING TREES TO IMPROVE FRUITFULNESS. motor, while great care has been taken in regard to durability and IN many sections where the soil is moist and rich, fruit-trees’ strength, to reducing the weight to a minimum. For this pur- grow largely to wood and foliage, and fail to produce fruit until pose, and with this object in view, cast iron has been dispensed they reach considerable age and size. To discover som2 means of FIG. 2,.—NEW SPRAGUE ELECTRIC-RAILWAY MOTOR. with in the cores and yoke of the field-magnets, and wrought iron hastening the fruiting of such trees, the following experiments were substituted. made at the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agri- These motors are already in operation at Wichita {Kan.), Marl- cultural College. A row of crabapple-trees of about the same size borough (Mass.), Cleveland (O.), Cincinnati (O.), Erie (Penn.), At- and condition of growth were selected, and treated as follows: Ist, (lk i Fi! “LE = Var TOUTE aT = 2 : iy : | j aM OMe! FIG. 3,—NEW “SPRAGUE ELECTRIC-RAILWAY MOTOR. lantic City (N.J.), and at one or two other places where they have Three trees were girdled by cutting out a ring of bark 1, 3, and 4 . been installed. They:have been shown to give very good results, inch wide at the ground, July 12, 21, and 29; 2d, Three trees were ~ and in the future this’type of motor will be used in all of the girdled just below the main branches with the three widths of — Sprague electric-railway installations. girdle as in 1st, July 12, 21, and 29; 3d, The same as above was JuLy 19, 1880. | made on one or more main branches with the three widths of gir- dle, July 12, 21, and 29. The results were as follows: 1st, All the girdles made near the ground healed over readily and completely ; 2d, Those on the main trunk healed less completely, but sufficiently to insure a good growth of tree and the covering of the injured part in another year ; 3d, The girdles made in the branches healed less completely than the last, and in two instances the new growth failed to meet, and consequently the branch died soon after starting growth in the spring; 4th, All showed a marked increase in fruitfulness over _ those not girdled; 5th, Little difference was observed in the effect of the girdling made at different times or in the various widths of the ring of bark taken out. No definite conclusion can be made at this time as to the effect of this treatment upon the permanent health of the tree. Observa- tions for many years alone can determine the point. Reasoning from analogy and from the known laws of plant- growth, this treatment can be advised only upon trees that are planted too closely, and a part of which must be removed after a time, to allow the full development of others, or those in very rich, moist soil which are long coming into bearing. Cutting rings of bark from the canes of the grape-vine to hasten the time of ripening has been practised more or less for many years to prepare large specimens for exhibition, but only for the few years past has it been practised to hasten the crop for market. In a series of experiments made in the college vineyard in 1877 and 1878, and recorded in the “‘ Report of the Board of Agriculture of Massachusetts ”’ for 1878 and 1879, it was found that removing a ring of bark early in July, a quarter of an inch wide, resulted in hastening the time of ripening from one to two weeks. It was also concluded, from very careful tests made at the time, that the increased size and early maturity were not at the expense of the quality, and that as far as could be determined at that time, and which further observations have confirmed, the vines are not materially injured by the girdling. Girdling has been practised in the college vineyard more or less every year since, with favorable results. The canes that are to be cut away at the fall pruning only have been girdled, to avoid any possibility of injury to vine or root from stopping the downward flow of sap by the girdle. Some seasons the results of this practice have been more marked than in others, but generally the increased price obtained for the early fruit has much more than paid expenses of the work; and in seasons of early frost, to which many sections of New England are liable, it has made the difference between total failure and fair profit. To save expense in the work, for the past two years the girdling has been done by twisting a wire very firmly about the canes the last of June, above the point where the cane is to be cut away at the fall pruning. About No. 20 wire has been found best, and results obtained have been more satisfactory when the wires were put on the last of June or early in July, and twisted very firmly about the cane. While there is no proof that the vines are in any way injured (notwithstanding that very careful observations have been made _ for many years), it is not advisable to girdle the entire vine, but to treat only those canes to be cut away at the fall pruning, and leave about one-half of the vine to grow to a natural condition. LIFE INSURANCE.* I HAVE sometimes been a guest at public dinners when I have felt much more at home and at ease thanI do now. The last time I was in this room, a few days ago, it was at a meeting of civil engineers, and I had a reasonable confidence that I had as much practice in public speaking, at any rate, as they had. But now, gentlemen, my experience with gentlemen connected with life-insurance companies is that they can talk a great deal more persuasively than I can. My business and your business, gentlemen, are connected in a great variety of ways. 1 A speech at the dinner of the Boston Life Underwriters’ Union, April 9, by President C. W. Eliot of Harvard. SCIENG@E: 37 In the. first place, I do not suppose there is any class of men who are more suitable persons to insure their lives than college teachers. They are almost universally poor, and they universally desire to educate their children and bring up their families well. . They have a small, fixed income, and it is an income likely to last as long as their working power lasts. And then, again, they know that they generally live pretty long, to a time when their earning power is impaired; and against that time they make provision by endowment insurance. So I have happened to know a good deal about life insurance as seen from the point of view of a college man. For such reasons as I have given you, I am insured myself in three strong companies. Again: a good many young men are absolutely without re- sources, but desperately bent on winning an education. Such a young man induces some friend to lend him a thousand or two thousand dollars, and take security in an insurance upon his life. That young man is presumably ambitious, and has a worthy am- bition, and, if he has the necessary physique, he is likely to suc- ceed; and to enable a few such young men to succeed in each decade is a great object. I will mention still another service which I wish life-insurance companies could render. There may be —there are obviously — serious difficulties in the way; but perhaps here is an opening for new business. As your president has stated, it is the develop- ment, comfort, and protection of families that insurance chiefly provides for. Now, I have observed that the permanence of fami- lies in good station—the continued usefulness of families from generation to generation — can only be preserved in this country by education. Nothing else will answer: no inheritance of money will answer. You can read in the triennial and quinquennial cata- logues how families live and die: some families continue to hold leading places in. the community, and other families, which once held such places, disappear. The cause, almost uniformly, for their disappearance, is the ceasing of the higher education at some stage in the history of that family. Men who know these things, therefore (and college men are very apt to have their attention drawn to them), desire some means of securing education to their children. If nothing more, many of them would be greatly re- lieved to be sure that every one of their sons could get four or five hundred dollars a year for the years between eighteen and twenty- four, for instance. And it seems to me that this provision is not beyond the reach of life insurance; namely, that a father, when his boys are three or four years old, could be enabled to be sure that his boys, as they grow up, should have successively the three hun- dred or four hundred or five hundred dollars a year necessary to make sure of their education. It is a limited kind of endowment which is sought for,—an endowment which, in my judgment, would go very far to secure the stability and effectiveness in the community of families that have once reached a high state of edu- cation and cultivation. I congratulate you, gentlemen, upon the sphere of your activity. I do not know of any business which has to do more exclusively with the best side of human life; and that is a very great pleasure and satisfaction in any man’s life, that he has to do with human nature at its best. It seems to me, from what I have heard of the nature of life insurance and the kind of men with whom the agents of life-insurance companies are brought into contact, that my friend President Capen will be likely to tell you later that all life-insurance agents are Universalists. They must feel, I think, that at least all the men that they know who insure their lives are going to be saved. It is a great privilege also, gentlemen, that your business in life is, after all, the promotion, as the president has said, of the security and happiness of family. I believe that the normal domestic joys are the chief sources of human happiness ; and that, as the presi- dent has said, on the family rest all the larger human organizations. Therefore, when you work for the security and cultivation and safety of the family, you work for all that is most precious in human society. . THE sixth annual convention of the Association of Official Agri- cultural Chemists will be held at the Department of Agriculture, Washington, commencing Sept. Io, 1889, at Io A.M. THE PRIMITIVE HOME OF THE ARYANS.1 In my address to the anthropological section of the British Association in 1887, I stated, that, in common with many other anthropologists and comparative philologists I had come to the conclusion that the primitive home of the Aryans was to be sought in north-eastern Europe. The announcement excited a flutter in the newspapers, many of whose readers had probably never heard of the Aryans before, while others of them had the vaguest possible idea of what was meant by the name. Unfortunately it is a name which, unless carefully defined, is likely to mislead or confuse. It was first introduced by Professor Max Miiller, and applied by him in a purely linguistic sense. The “ discovery’’ of Sanscrit and the researches of the pioneers of comparative philology had shown that a great family of speech existed, comprising Sanscrit and Persian, Greek and Latin, Teu- tonic and Slav, all of them sister-languages descended from a common parent, of which, however, no literary monuments sur- vived. In place of the defective or cumbersome titles of ‘“ Indo- German,” “ Indo-European,” and the like, which had been sug- gested for it, Professor Max Miller proposed to call it “ Aryan,” —a title derived from the Sanscrit Arya, interpreted “noble” in later Sanscrit, but used as a national name in the hymns of the Rig-Veda. : It is much to be regretted that the name has not been generally adopted. Such is the case, however, and it is to-day like a soul seeking a body in which to find a habitation. But the name is an excellent one, though the philologists of Germany, who govern us in such matters, have refused to accept it in the sense proposed by its author; and we are therefore at liberty to discover for it a new abode, and to give it a new scientific meaning. In the enthusiasm kindled by the sight of the fresh world that was opening out before them, the first disciples of the science of. comparative philology believed that they had found the key to all the secrets of man’s origin and earlier history. The parent-speech of the Indo-European languages was entitled the Ursprache, or “Primeval Language;’’ and its analysis, it was imagined, would disclose the elements of articulate speech, and the process whereby they had developed into the manifold languages of the present world. But this was not enough. The students of language went even further. They claimed not only the domain of philology as their own, but the domain of ethnology as well. Language was confounded with race; and the relationship of tribe with tribe, of nation with nation, was determined by the languages they spoke. If the origin of a people was required, the question was summarily decided by tracing the origin of its language. English is, on the whole, a Teutonic language, and therefore the whole English peo- ple must have a Teutonic ancestry. The dark-skinned Bengali speaks languages akin to our own: therefore the blood which runs in his veins must be derived from the same source as that which runs in ours. The dreams of universal conquest indulged in by a young science soon pass away as facts accumulate and the limit of its powers is more and more strictly determined. The Urvsfrache has become a language of comparatively late date in the history of linguistic development, which differed from Sanscrit or Greek only in its fuller inflexional character. The light its analysis was believed to cast on the origin of speech has proved to be the light of a will-o’- the-wisp, leading astray and perverting the energies of those who might have done more profitable work. The mechanism of primi- tive language often lies more clearly revealed in a modern Bush- man’s dialect or the grammar of Eskimo than in that much- vaunted Ursfrache from which such great things were once ex- pected by the philosophy of human speech. Ethnology has avenged the invasion of its territory by linguistic science, and has in turn claimed a province which is not its own. It is no longer the comparative philologist, but the ethnologist, who now and again uses philological terms in an ethnological sense, or settles racial affinities by an appeal to language. The philologist first talked about an ‘Indo-European race.” Such an expression could now be heard only from the lips of a youthful ethnologist. 1 From The Contemporary Review. SCIENCE; [Vor. XIV. No. 337 As soon as the discovery was made that the Indo-European lan- guages were derived from a common mother, scholars began to ask where that common mother-tongue was spoken. agreed on all hands that this must have been somewhere in Asia. Theology and history alike had taught that mankind came from the East, and from the East accordingly the Ursprache must have come too. Hitherto Hebrew had been generally regarded as the original language of humanity. Now that the Indo-European Ursprache had deprived Hebrew of its place of honor, it was natu- ral, if not inevitable, that, like Hebrew, it should be accounted of Asiatic origin. Moreover, it was the discovery of Sanscrit that had led to the discovery of the Ursprache. Had it not been for San- scrit, with its copious grammar, its early literature, and the light which it threw on the forms of Greek and Latin speech, compara- tive philology might never have been born. Sanscrit was the ma- gician’s wand which had called the new science into existence, and without the help of Sanscrit the philologist would not have advanced beyond the speculations and guesses of classical schol- ars. What wonder, then, if the language which had thus been a key to the mysteries of Greek and Latin, and which seemed to embody older forms of speech than they, should have been assumed to stand nearer to the Ursprache than the cognate languages of Europe? The assumption was aided by the extravagant age as- signed to the monuments of Sanscrit literature. The poems of Homer might be old; but the hymns of the Veda, it was alleged, mounted back to a primeval antiquity, while the Institutes of Manu represented the oldest code of laws existing in the world. There was yet another reason which contributed to the belief that-Sanscrit was the first-born of the Indo-European family. The founders of comparative philology had been preceded in their ana- lytic work by the ancient grammarians of India. It was from Panini and his predecessors that the followers of Bopp inherited their doctrine of roots and suffixes and their analysis of Indo-European . words. The language of the Veda had been analyzed two thou- sand years ago as no other single language had ever been analyzed before or since. Its very sounds had been carefully probed and distinguished, and an alphabet of extraordinary completeness had been devised to represent them. It appeared as if the elements out of which the Sanscrit vocabulary and grammar had grown had been laid bare in a way that was possible in no other language; and in studying Sanscrit, accordingly, the scholars of Europe seemed to feel themselves near to the very beginnings of speech. But it was soon perceived that if the primitive home of the Indo- European languages were Asia, they themselves ought to exhibit evidences of the fact. There are certain objects and certain phe- nomena which are peculiar to Asia, or, at all events, are not to be found in Europe; and words expressive of these ought to be met with in the scattered branches of the Indo-European family. If the _parent-language had been spoken in India, the climate in which they were born must have left its mark upon the face of its off- spring. But here a grave difficulty presented itself. Men have short memories, and the name of an object which ceases to come before the senses is either forgotten or transferred to something else. The tiger may have been known to the speakers of the parent- language, but the words that denoted it would have dropped out of the vocabulary of the derived languages which were spoken in Europe. The same word which signifies an oak in Greek, signifies a beech in Latin. We cannot expect to find the European lan- guages employing words with meanings which recall objects met with only in Asia. How, then, are we to force the closed lips of our Indo-European languages, and compel them to reveal the secret of their birth- place? Attempts have been made to answer this question in two different ways. On the one hand, it has been assumed that the absence in a par- ticular language, or group of languages, of a term which seems to have been possessed by the parent-speech, is evidence that the ob- ject denoted by it was unknown to the speakers. But the assump- tion is contradicted by experience. Because the Latin egwws has been replaced by caéad/us in the modern Romanic languages, we cannot conclude that the horse was unknown in western Europe after the fall of the Roman Empire. The native Basque word for But it was” \ 4 _ the Indo-European words which denote a sheet of water. “Juty 109, 1880.] a “knife” (Zazstoa)-has been found by Prince L.-L. Bonaparte in a single obscure village; elsewhere it has been replaced by terms borrowed from French or Spanish: yet we cannot suppose that the Basques were unacquainted with instruments for cutting until they had been furnished with them by their French and Spanish neigh- bors. Greek and Latin have different words for “ fire :”’ we cannot argue from this that the knowledge of fire was ever lost among any of the speakers of the Indo-European tongues. In short, we can- not infer from the absence of a word in any particular language that the word never existed in it : on the contrary, when a language is known to us only in its literary form, it is safe to say that it must have employed many words besides those contained in its dictionary. ; A good illustration of the impossibility of arriving at any certain results as long as we confine our attention to words which appear in one but not in another of two cognate languages, is afforded by There is no word of which it can be positively said that it is found alike im the Asiatic and the European branches of the family. Lake, Ocean, even river and stream, go by different names. A doubt hangs over the word for ““sea:” it is possible, but only possible, that the Sanscrit Aé@¢has is the same word as the Greek révroc, the etymology of which is not yet settled. Nevertheless, we know that tha speakers of the parent-language must have been acquainted, if not with the sea, at all events with large rivers. /Vaws (‘‘a ship’) is the common heritage of Sanscrit and Greek, and must thus go back to the days when the speakers of the dialects which after- wards developed into Sanscrit and Greek still lived side by side. It survives, like a fossil in the rocks, to assure us that they were a water-faring people, and that the want of a common Indo-Euro- pean word for “lake” or “river” isno proof that such a word may not have once existed. A The example I have just given illustrates the second way in which the attempt has been made to solye the riddle of the Indo- European birthplace. It is the only way in which the attempt can succeed. Where precisely the same word, with the same meaning, -exists in both the Asiatic and the European members of the Indo-. European family, — always supposing, of course, that it has not been borrowed by either of them, — we may conclude that it also existed in the parent-speech. When we find the Sanscrit as’was and the Latin egzws, the exact phonetic equivalents of one another, both alike signifying “‘ horse,” we are justified in believing that the horse was known in the country from which both languages de- rived their ancestry. Though the argument from a negative proves little or nothing, the argument from agreement proves a -great deal. The comparative philologist has by means of it succeeded in sketching in outline the state of culture possessed ‘by the speakers of the parent-language, and the objects which were known to them. They inhabited a cold country. Their seasons were three in number, perhaps four, and not two, as would have been the case had they lived south of the temperate zone. They were nomad herdsmen, dwelling in hovels, similar, it may be, to the low, round huts -of sticks and straw built by the Kabyles on the mountain-slopes of Algeria. Such hovels could be erected in a few hours, and left __ again as the cattle moved into higher ground with the approach of ‘ ; spring, or descended into the valleys when the winter advanced. The art of grinding corn seems to have been unknown, and crushed ‘spelt was eaten instead of bread. A tude sort of agriculture was, however, already practised; and the skins worn by the community, with which to protect themselves against the rigors of the climate, were sewn together by means of needles of bone. It is even possi- ble that the art of spinning had already been invented, though the art of weaving does not appear to have advanced beyond that of plaiting reeds and withies. The community still lived in the stone age. Their tools and weapons were made of stone or bone; and, if they made use of gold or meteoric iron, it was of the unwrought pieces picked up from the ground, and employed as ornaments. Of the working of metals, they were entirely ignorant. As among savage tribes generally, the various degrees of relationship were minutely distinguished and named, even the wife of a husband’s brother receiving a special title; but they could count at least as far as a hundred. They believed in a multitude of ghosts and SCIENCE: 39 goblins, making offerings to the dead, and seeing in the bright sky a potent deity. The birch, the pine, and the withy were known to them; so also were the bear and wolf, the hare, the mouse, and the snake, as well as the goose and raven, the quail and the owl. Cattle, sheep, goats, and swine were all kept. The dog had been domesticated, and in all probability also the horse, Last, but not least, boats were navigated by means of oars, the boats themselves being possibly the hollowed trunks of trees. This account of the primitive community is necessarily imper- fect. There must have been many words, like that for “ river,” which were once possessed by the parent-speech, but afterwards lost in either the eastern or western branches of the family. Such words the comparative philologist has now no means of discover- ing: he must accordingly pass them over along with the objects or ideas which they represent. The picture he can give us of the speakers of the primeval Indo-European language can only be ap- proximately complete. Moreover, it is always open to correction. Some of the words we now believe to have been part of the origi- nal stock carried away by the derived dialects of Asia and Europe may hereafter turn out to have been borrowed by one of these dia- lects from another, and not to have been a heritage common to both. It is often very difficult to decide whether we are dealing with borrowed words or not. If a word has been borrowed by a language before the phonetic changes had set in which have given the language its peculiar complexion, or while they were in the course of progress, it will undergo the same alteration as native words containing the same sounds. The phonetic changes which have marked off the High German dialects from their sister- tongues do not seem to go back beyond the fall of the Roman Empire, and words borrowed from Latin before that date will ac- cordingly have submitted to the same phonetic changes as words of native origin. Indeed, when once a word is borrowed by one language from another, and has passed into common use, it soon becomes naturalized, and is assimilated in form and pronunciation to the words among which it has come to dwell. A curious exam- ple of this is to be found in certain Latin words which made their way into the Gaelic dialects in the fourth or fifth century. We often find a Gaelic c corresponding to a Welsh Z, both being de- rived from a labialized guttural or gw, and the habit was accord- ingly formed of regarding ac as the natural and necessary repre- sentative of a foreign ~. When, therefore, words like the Latin pascha and purpura were introduced by Christianity into the Gaelic branch of the Celtic family, they assumed the form of cazsg and corcur. It is clear that such borrowings can only take place where the speakers of two different languages have been brought into con- tact with one another. Before the age of commercial intercourse between Europe and India we cannot suppose that European words could have been borrowed by Sanscrit or Persian, or Sanscrit and Persian words by the European languages. But the case is quite otherwise, if, instead of comparing together the vocabularies of the eastern and western members of the Indo-European stock, we wish to compare only western with western, or eastern with east- ern. There our difficulties begin, and we must look to history, or botany, or zodlogy for aid. From a purely philological point of view, the English Zevz, the Old High German Aaz/, the Old Norse hanpr, and the Latin cannadzs, might all be derived from a com- mon source, and point to the fact that hemp was known to the first speakers of the Indo-European languages in north-western Europe. But the botanists tell us that this could not have been the case. Hemp is a product of the East, which did not originally grow in Germany, and consequently both the plant itself and the name by which it was called must have come from abroad. So, again, the lion bears a similar name in Greek and Latin, in German, in Sla- vonic, and in Celtic. But the only part of Europe in which the lion existed at a time when the speakers of an Indo-European lan- guage could have become acquainted with it were the mountains of Thrace, and it must accordingly have been from Greek that its name spread to the other cognate languages of the West. It has been needful to enter into these details before we can ap- proach the question, ‘‘ What was the original home of the parent Indo-European language?” They have been too often ignored or forgotten by those who have set themselves to answer the question, 40 and to this cause must be ascribed the larger part of the misunder- standings and false conclusions to which the inquiry has given birth. Until a few years ago I shared the old belief that the parent- speech had its home in Asia, probably on the slopes of the Hindu Kush. The fact that the languages of Europe and Asia alike pos- sessed the same words for ‘“‘ winter ” and “ice” and “ snow,” and that the only two trees whose names were preserved by both — the “ birch’ and the “ pine” — were inhabitants of a cold region, proved that this home did not lie in the tropics. But the uplands of the Hindu Kush, or the barren steppes in the neighborhood of the Caspian Sea, or even the valleys of Siberia, would answer to the requirements presented by such words. Taken by themselves, they were fully compatible with the view that the first speakers of the Indo-European tongues were an Asiatic people. But when I came to ask myself what were the grounds for hold- ing this view, I could find none that seemed to me satisfactory. There is much justice in Dr. Latham’s remark that it is unreasona- ble to derive the majority of the Indo-European languages from a continent to which only two members of the group are known to belong, unless there is an imperative necessity for doing so. These languages have grown out of dialects once existing within the parent-speech itself, and it certainly appears more probable that two of such dialects or languages should have made their way into a new world, across the bleak plains of Tartary, than that seven or eight should have done so. The argument, it is true, is not a strong one, but it raises at the outset a presumption in favor of Europe. Before the dialects had developed into languages, their speakers could not have lived far apart. There is, in fact, evidence of this in the case of Sanscrit and Persian; and a more widely spread primitive community is implied by the numerous languages of Europe than by the two languages of Asia. A widely spread community, however, is less likely to wander far from its original seat than a community of less extent, more especially when it is a community of herdsmen, and the tract to be traversed is long and barren. Apart from the general prejudice in favor of an Asiatic origin, due to old theological teaching and the effect of the discovery of Sanscrit, I can find only two arguments which have been supposed to be of sufficient weight to determine the choice of Asia rather than of Europe as the cradle of Indo-European speech. The first of these arguments is linguistic; the second is historical, or rather quasi-historical. On the one hand, it has been laid down by emi- nent philologists that the less one of the derived languages has deflected from the parent-speech, the more likely it is to be geo- graphically nearer to its earliest home. The faithfulness of the record is a test of geographical proximity. As Sanscrit was held to be the most primitive of the Indo-European languages, to reflect most clearly the features of the parent-speech, the conclusion was drawn that that parent-speech had been spoken at no great distance from the country in which the hymns of the Rig-Veda were first composed. The conclusion was supported by the second argument drawn from the sacred books of Parsaism. In the Ven- didad the migrations of the Iranians were traced back through the successive creations of Ormazd to Airyanem Vaéjé, “the Aryan Power,” which Lassen localized near the sources of the Oxus and Jaxartes. But Bréal and De Harlez have shown that the legends of the Vendidad, in their present form, are late and untrustworthy, — later, in fact, than the Christian era;1 and, even if we could attach any historical value to them, they would tell us only from whence the Iranians believed their own ancestors to have come, and would throw no light on the cradle of the Indo-European lan- guages asa whole. The first argument is one which I think no student of language would any longer employ. As Professor Max Miiller has said, it would suffice to prove that the Scandinavians emigrated from Iceland. But to those who would still urge it, I must repeat what I have said elsewhere. Although in many re- spects Sanscrit has preserved more faithfully than the European languages the forms of primitive Indo-European grammar, in many other respects the converse is the case. In the latest researches 1 Bréal, Mélanges de Mythologie et de Linguistique (1878), pp. 187-215; De Harlez, Introduction a l’Etude de |’Avesta, pp. cxcii., sgg. Compare Darmesteter’s Introduction to the Zend-Avesta, part 1, in The Sacred Books of the East. SCIENCE” % into the history of Indo-European grammar, Greek holds the place once occupied by Sanscrit. The belief that Sanscrit was the. elder sister of the family led to the assumption that the three short vowels @, é, and 0 have all originated from an earlier a. believe, the first to protest against this assumption in 1874, and to give reasons for thinking that the single monotonous @ of Sanscrit resulted from the coalescence of three distinct vowels. The anal- ogy of other languages goes to show that the tendency of time is to reduce the number of vocalic sounds possessed by a language, not the contrary. In place of the numerous vowels possessed by ancient Greek, modern Greek can now show only five, and culti- vated English is rapidly merging its vowel sounds into the so-called “neutral’’ a. Since my protest the matter has been worked out by Italian, German, and French scholars; and we now know that it is the vocalic system of the European languages rather than of Sanscrit which most faithfully represents the oldest form of Indo-European speech. The result of the discovery, for discovery it must be called, has been a complete revolution in the study of Indo-Euro- pean etymology, and still more of Indo-European grammar; and whereas ten years ago it was Sanscrit which was invoked to ex- plain Greek, it is to Greek that the ‘“‘new school” now turns to explain Sanscrit. The comparative philologist necessarily cannot do without the help of both. The greater the number of lan- guages he has to compare, the sounder will be his inductions; but the primacy which was once supposed to reside in Asia has been taken from her. It is Greek, and not Sanscrit, which has taught us what was the primitive vowel of the reduplicated syllable of the perfect and the augment of the aorist, and has thus narrowed the discussion into the origin of both. Until quite recently, however, the advocates of the Asiatic home of the Indo-European languages found a support in the position of the Armenian language. Armenian stands midway, as it were, between Persia and Europe, and it was imagined to have very close relations with the old language of Persia. But we now know that. its Persian affinities are illusory, and that it must really be grouped with the languages of Europe. What is more, the decipherment of the cuneiform inscriptions of Van has cast a strong light on the date of its introduction into Armenia. These inscriptions are the records of kings whose capital was-at Van, and who marched their armies in all directions during the ninth, eighth, and seventh cen- turies before our era. The latest date that can as yet be assigned to any of them is B.C. 640. At this time there were still no speakers of an Indo-European language in Armenia. The lan- guage of the inscriptions has no connection with those of the Indo- European family, and the personal and local names occurring in the countries immediately surrounding the dominions of the Vannie kings, and so abundantly mentioned in their texts, are of the same linguistic character as the Vannic names themselves. The evidence of classical writers fully bears out the conclusions to be derived from the decipherment of the Vannic inscriptions. Herodotos (vii. 73) tells us that the Armenians were colonists from Phrygia, the Phrygians themselves having been a Thracian tribe which had migrated into Asia. The same testimony was borne by Eudoxos,’ who further averred that the Armenian and Phrygian languages resembled one another. The tradition must have been recent in the time of Herodotos, and we shall probably not go far wrong if we assign the occupation of Armenia by the Phrygian tribes to the age of upheaval in western Asia which was ushered in by the fall of the Assyrian Empire. Professor Fick has shown that the scanty fragments of the Phrygian language that have sur- vived to us belong to the European branch of the Indo-European family, and thus find their place by the side of Armenian. Instead, therefore, of forming a bridge between Orient and Occi- dent, Armenian represents the furthermost flow of Indo-European speech from West to East. And this flow belongs to a relatively late period. Apart from Armenian, we can discover no traces of Indo-European occupation between Media and the Halys until the days when Iranian Ossetes settled in the Caucasus, and the moun- taineers of Kurdistan adopted Iranian dialects. I must reiterate here what I have said many years ago: if there is one fact which the Assyrian monuments make: clear and indubitable, it is that up to the closing days of the Assyrian monarchy no Indo-European 1 According to Eustathios (77% Dzoz. v. 694). [Vor. XIV. No. 337 I was, I” 4 P juny 19, 1880. | languages were spoken in the vast tract of civilized country which lay between Kurdistan and western Asia Minor. South of the Caucasus they were unknown until the irruption of the Phrygians into Armenia. Among the multitudinous names of persons and localities belonging to this region which are recorded in the As- syrian inscriptions during a space of several centuries, there is only one which bears upon it the Indo-European stamp. This is the name of the leader of the Cimmerians, —a' nomad tribe from the north-east which descended upon the frontiers of Assyria in the reign of Esar-haddon, and was driven by him into Asia Minor. The fact is made the more striking by the further fact, that, as soon as we clear the Kurdish ranges and enter Median territory, names of Indo-European origin meet us thick and fast. We can draw but one conclusion from these facts. Whether the Indo- European languages of Europe migrated from Asia, or whether the __ converse were the case, the line of march must have been north- _ ward of the Caspian, through the inhospitable steppes of Tartary and over the snow-covered heights of the Ural Mountains. An ingenious argument has lately been put forward, which at first sight seems to tell in favor of the Asiatic origin of Indo-European speech. Dr. Penka has drawn attention to the fact that several of the European languages agree in possessing the same word for *eel;”’ and that, whereas the eel abounds in the rivers and lakes of Scandinavia, it is unknown in those cold regions of western Asia where, as we have seen, it has been proposed to place the cradle of the Indo-European family. But it is a curious fact that M fe in Greek and Latin, and apparently also in Lithuanian, the word: for “eel” is a diminutive derived from a word which denotes a snake or snake-like creature. This, it has been urged, may be in- terpreted to mean that the primeval habitat of the Indo-European languages was one where the snake was known but the eel was not. The argument, however, cannot be pressed. We all agree that the first speakers of the Indo-European languages lived on the land, not on the water, and that they were herdsmen rather than fishermen. Naturally, therefore, they would become acquainted with the snake before they became acquainted with the eel, how- ever much it might abound in the rivers near them, and its resem- _ plance to the snake would lend to it its name. In Celtic the eel is called “a water-snake,” and to this day a prejudice against eating it on the ground that it is a snake existsin Celtic districts. All we can infer from the diminutives auguzlla, iyyedvs, is that the Italians and Greeks in the first instance gave the name to the fresh-water eel, and not to the huge conger. I cannot now enter fully into the reasons which have led me gradually to give up my old belief in the Asiatic origin of the Indo- European tongues, and to subscribe to the views of those who would refer them to a northern European birthplace. The argu- ment is a complicated one, and is necessarily of a cumulative char- acter. The individual links in the chain may not be strong, but collectively they afford that amount of probability which is all we can hope to attain in historical research. Those who wish to study them may do so in Dr. Penka’s work on the “ Herkunft der Arier,” published in 1886. His hypothesis that southern Scandinavia was the primitive ‘Aryan home” seems to me to have more in its favor than any other hypothesis on the subject which has as yet been put forward. It needs verification, it is true; but if itis sound, the ' verification will not be long in coming. A more profound examina- tion of Teutonic and Celtic mythology, a more exact knowledge of _ the words in the several Indo-European languages which are not __ of Indo-European origin, and the progress of archzological dis- ’ covery, will furnish the verification we need. # Meanwhile.it must be allowed that the hypothesis has the coun- - tenance of history. Scandinavia, even before the sixth century, was characterized as “the manufactory of nations;” + and the voyages and settlements of the Norse vikings offer an historical il- lustration of what the prehistoric migrations and settlements of the speakers of the Indo-European languages must have been. They differed from the latter only in being conducted by sea, whereas the prehistoric migrations followed the valleys of the great rivers. It was not until the age of the Roman Empire that the northern nations became acquainted with the sailing-boat; our English a a ' 1 “ Quasi officina gentium aut certe velut vagina nationum.’’—Jordanes, De Gefa- rum sive Gothorum origine, ed. Closs, C. 4. SCIENCE. i “sail” isthe Latin sagzdum (“the little cloak of the soldier’) bor- rowed by the Teutons along with its name, and used to propel their boats in imitation of the sails of the Roman vessels. The intro- duction of the sail allowed the inhabitants of the Scandinavian “hive” to push boldly out to sea, and ushered in the era of Saxon pirates and Danish invasions. Dr. Penka’s arguments are partly anthropological, partly arche- ological. He shows that the Celts and Teutons of Roman an- tiquity were the tall, blue-eyed, fair-haired, dolichocephalic race which is now being fast absorbed in Celtic lands by the older inhabitants of them. The typical Frenchman of to-day has but little in common with the typical Gaul of the age of Czsar. The typical Gaul was, in fact, as much a conqueror in Gallia as he was in Galatia, or, as modern researches have shown, as the typical Celt was in Ireland. It seems to have been the same in Greece, Here, too, the golden-haired hero of art and song was a representa- tive of the ruling class, of that military aristocracy which over- ‘threw the early culture of the Peloponnese, and of whom tradition averred that it had come from the bleak North. Little trace of it now remains: it is rarely that the traveller can discover any longer the modern kinsfolk of the golden-haired Apollo or the blue-eyed Athéné. If we would still find the ancient blonde race of northern Europe in its purity, we must go to Scandinavia. Here the prevailing type of the population is still that of the broad-shouldered, long-headed blondes who served as models for the Dying Gladiator. And itis in southern Scandinavia alone that the prehistoric tumuli and burying-grounds yield hardly any other skeletons than those of the same tall dolichocephalic race which still inhabits the country. Elsewhere such skeletons are either wanting or else mixed with the remains of other races. It is therefore reasonable to conclude that it was from southern Scandinavia that those bands of hardy warriors originally emerged who made their way southward and westward, and even eastward; the Celts of Galatia penetrating, like the Phrygians before them, into the heart of Asia Minor. The Norse migrations in later times were even more extensive, and what the Norse vikings were able to achieve could have been achieved by their ancestors centuries before. Now, the Celts and Teutons of the Roman age spoke Indo- European languages. It is more probable that the subject popula- tions should have been compelled to learn the language of their conquerors than that the conquerors should have taken the trouble to learn the language of their serfs. We know, at any rate, that it was so in Ireland. Here the old “Ivernian” population adopted the language of the small band of Celtic invaders that settled in its midst. Itis only where the conquered possess a higher civilization than the conquerors, above all, where they have a literature and an organized form of religion, that Franks will adapt their tongues to Latin speech, or Manchus learn to speak Chinese. Moreover, in southern Scandinavia, where we have archeological evidence that the tall blonde race was scarcely at any time in close contact with other races, it is hardly possible for it to have borrowed its lan- guage from some other people. The Indo-European languages still spoken in the country must, it would seem, be descended from languages spoken there from the earliest period to which the evi- dence of human occupation reaches back. The conclusion is ob- vious : southern Scandinavia and the adjacent districts must be the first home and starting-point of the western branch of the Indo- European family. If we turn to the eastern branch, we find that the farther east we go, the fainter become the traces of the tall blonde race, and the greater is the resemblance between the speakers of Indo-European languages and the native tribes. In the highlands of Persia, tall, long-headed blondes with blue eyes can still be met with; but, as we approach the hot plains of India, the type grows rarer and rarer until it ceases altogether. An Indo-European dialect must be spoken in India by a dark-skinned people before it can endure to the third and fourth generation. As we leave the frontiers of Europe behind us, we lose sight of the race with which Dr. Penka’s arguments would tend to connect the parent-speech of the Indo- European family. I cannot now follow him in the interesting comparison he draws between the social condition of the southern Scandinavians as dis- 42 closed by the contents of the prehistoric “ kitchen-middens,” and the social condition of the speakers of the Indo-European parent- speech according to the sobered estimate of recent linguistic re- search. The resemblance is certainly very striking; though, on the other hand, it cannot be denied that archzeological science is still in its infancy, and that Dr. Penka too often assumes that a word common to the European languages belonged to the parent- speech,— an assumption which will not, of course, be admitted by his opponents. What more nearly concerns us here, however, is the name we should give to the race or people who spoke the parent-language. We cannot call them “ Indo-Europeans: ” that would lead to end- less ambiguities, while the term itself has already been appropriated in a linguistic sense. Dr. Penka has called them “ Aryans,” and I can see no better title with which to endow them. The name is short ; it has already been used in an ethnological as well as in a linguistic sense; and, since our German friends have rejected it in its linguistic application, it is open to every one to confine it to a purely ethnological meaning. I know that the author has protested against such an application of the term; but it is not the first time that a father has been robbed of his offspring, and he cannot ob- ject to the robbery when it is committed in the cause of science. For some time: past the name of “Aryan” has been without a definition, while the first speakers of the Indo-European parent- speech have been vainly demanding a name; and the priests of anthropology cannot do better than lead them to the font of science, and there baptize them with the name of “ Aryan.” A. H. SAYCE. THE GRAIN PLANT-LOUSE. THE present season is characterized by one of those widespread and very damaging insect-invasions that are so discouraging to the farmer, this time an onslaught on the wheat-crop by the grain Aphis or plant-louse, dAphzs avenge. This louse attacks wheat, barley, oats, and rye, and is to be found in small numbers on these grains every year. This year occurs one of those terrible attacks that seem to threaten very serious loss, extending from Ohio west to Indiana, and north to Grand Rapids, Mich. So abundant are these lice, that they have attracted wide attention and awakened serious alarm. For the last two weeks in June Mr. A. J. Cook, of the Agricultural College of Michigan, received daily numerous specimens of these lice with the inquiry, “ What is to be the outcome of this attack ?” This is not the first season that this Adhzs avene has come like a destroying flood upon the grain-fields, In 1861 the lice swarmed upon the cereal crops of New England and New York, at which time Dr. Asa Fitch fully described it in his sixth report. In 1866, and again ten years later, it did great damage in various sections of the West. We see, then, that this louse does not come yearly, but only at long intervals. Why is this? It is doubtless owing in some measure to the weather, but more to its insect enemies. Its enormous prolificness would make it as the sands of the seashore every year, except that some natural agent held it in check. Fitch describes three such enemies. Even now, as we visit the oat and wheat fields, we find many forms different from any previously de- scribed. These have short, rounded bodies, which are of a dirty- white color. The cause of this is that these are attacked by parasites, which are eating them up. ‘These little benefactors are now busily engaged in the fields, laying the eggs that will destroy the lice. These minute parasitic insects lay a great many eggs, one in each louse, and their presence and prosperity mark the doom of the lice. Thus through the agency of these minute parasitic forms, aided by climatic influences, we are to be saved from a raid by this grain Affzs next year, and will be greatly benefited this year. Indeed, in some cases, these little friends will very likely save us from serious damage. Why the parasites are not able to come successfully to the rescue each year is still un- known. Dry weather is a great promoter of insect productive- ness. It is more than probable that the exceeding drought of 1887, 1888, and of the April and May just past, together with the mild winter of 1888-1889, have had much to do with the present invasion. We might expect much aid from the frequent SCLENGE, ' railway-tickets and Pullman seat-checks by return mail. [Vor XIV. No: 2379 June rains, but they were perhaps too late. Observation shows that the lice are more than holding their own: so we may conclude’ that the warm rains are not greatly depleting their ranks. Where the lice are very numerous, as they seem to be over a widespread area of our country, they must do great injury. Where ten or twelve lice are collected about a single kernel of wheat, there is little hope for that kernel. Mr. Cook has counted one hundred and sixty lice on a single head of wheat. It is hoping too much of the little parasitic flies to expect them to save the present crop. We can but expect much injury, especially where the lice are in such countless numbers as are now seen in any of the wheat-fields of Indiana, Ohio, and Michigan. The excellent specific against plant-louse ravages, the fectiowans and soap mixture, cannot be used without much injury to the crop. To apply it might be like the jump from frying-pan to fire. Again: the lice are so protected by the close cluster of the kernels, that very likely the remedy would not be fully effective. The name “green midge,’ which is going the rounds of the papers, is very incorrect, and should not be used. The Hessian- fly and wheat-midge are very different insects. These midges are two-winged flies, whose larvee are footless maggots, They belong to the great two-winged fly order, Dzp/era, while these are plant- lice or Afhzdes, and belong to the order of bugs, or Hemdptera. Let all speak of this as the grain Aphzs, or pian -louse, and not as the green midge, which is entirely wrong, as they are not always. even green in color. NOTES AND NEWS. A SPECIAL limited Pullman train with dining and composite ® cars will leave the foot of Chambers Street, New York, via the Erie Railroad, on Monday, Aug. 5, at 9 o'clock a.M., for the ac- commodation of the members of the National Electric Light Asso- ciation and their friends, who will attend the convention at Niagara Falls, Aug. 6, 7, and 8. One car will be reserved for gentlemen accompanied by ladies. Tickets on this train, including Pullman service, will cost ten dollars each. Return tickets (to be obtained at Niagara Falls), including Pullman service, will cost four dollars. and sixty cents each. As the cost of this train must be guaranteed the road, all members are urged to remit ten dollars to the secre- tary at the earliest possible moment, for which they will receive their _ Tickets may also be obtained at the offices of the A/ectrzcal Revzew, 13 Park Row, and the Electrzcal World, Times Building. — The Boston Herald says that ‘‘ some figures presented at the meeting of the United States Brewers’ Association show a won- derful growth of the business during the last twenty-five years. For instance, receipts of the government from the internal revenue tax on fermented liquors amounted to about $1,500,000 in 1863, when the tax was first imposed. In 1866 the figures rose to $5,000,000; in 1879, to $10,000,000; in 1882, to $15,000,000; and last year the tax amounted to $23,000,000. The quantity increased in the same ratio from 2,000,000 barrels in 1863 to over 24,000,000 in 1888. At this rate of growth, it is small wonder that English- men think they see a chance of making money by buying up American breweries.” ‘ — The San Francisco Chronzcle says that “some of the New York dealers in California wines assert that the reason why the price of our wines in the East is so low is that growers dump: quantities of sick wine on the market, and spoil the tone of the California product. They say that the grower sends on several hundred barrels of wine, which arrives in New York sick with the voyage, if not altogether sour, necessitating rest and new barrels. before it is salable at all. These dealers go on to say, ‘Perhaps the grower has no warehouse, no time to wait, no change of cooperage, no other wine to mix with: therefore he puts his wine on the market at a ridiculous price below what cooperage, freight, and insurance cost. He makes no money, and the buyer is dis- gusted with California wine.’ ”’ —The French minister of commerce has appointed a committee for the purpose of organizing an international photographic con- gress to be held during the Paris Exhibition. The committee, headed by the well-known astronomer, Professor Janssen, have JuLy 19, 1880. | » already commenced work. The congress will meet from Aug. 6 to Aug. 17, and discuss the following subjects: (1) introduction of a uniform photometric unit; (2) uniform measurements of focal lengths of objectives ; (3) a uniform scale for the determination of the photometric effect of objective diaphragms ; (4) uniform periods of exposure in instantaneous work; (5) the adoption of a uniform and easily applicable method for fitting different objectives on to cameras ; (6) a universal form of plate ; (7) a uniform terminology for photographic operations;-(8) universal agreement of photo- _ graphic formule; (9) uniform adjustment of customs procedure with regard to substances sensitive to light ; and (10) protection of artistic copyright in photographic works. A conference, in which the work of the congress will be publicly discussed, is to take place on Aug. 20. fs _ — The extreme summit of the Eiffel Tower consists of a small ' circular gallery less than six feet in diameter, and surrounded by a hand-rail. The floor is three hundred metres above the ground, and from the centre rises the rod that serves as a lightning con- ductor and flagstaff. In this small gallery M. Mascart presides over the Bureau Central Météorologique established there. The instruments comprise a registering thermometer and hygrometer, a psychrometer, and several maximum and minimum thermometers. There are, in addition, a set of Richards’s thermometers and hygrometers that constantly transmit their readings electrically to the Arts Libéraux building, where they are recorded. Outside the gallery are placed a recording actinometer and rain-gauge, and sixty feet below is a large registering barometer. An admirably installed anemometer forms a part of the apparatus. Itis mounted on a rod about ten feet high. The vanes, which are of aluminium, - are mounted so as to move under the lightest wind-current. Elec- trical contacts are so arranged as to record each displacement of air of one metre, each displacement of fifty metres, and each of five kilometres. These contacts transmit the effects to the ground sta- tion, where they are recorded in speeds per second. A number of other apparatus are included in this very complete laboratory, which has been in regular working for some time. It was asserted, as one of the many objections raised against the Eiffel Tower, that the oscillations at the summit would, under certain unfavorable conditions, be dangerous: it is therefore satisfactory to record, that, with the highest wind-velocities yet observed, the movement at the summit of the tower is hardly appreciable. ; — The high temperature produced during the slaking of lime has been but rarely utilized except as an agent in matters of ac- cident in setting fire to vessels and to buildings. Lzgzneering adds to these the ordinary method of the helpers to masons, who warm up the coffee for their dinner in cold weather by placing the pail of coffee on a lump of lime, sprinkling on a little water, and watching it carefully to see that it does not boil too hard. Many years ago, before the invention of the diving-bell, a large wager was made between two gentlemen in regard to the possibility of one cooking a pudding at the bottom of the Thames. The winner had his pudding placed in the middle of a large sack of lime, lowered to the bottom of the river, and in due time pulled up, with the result of finding that the conditions of the wager, in regard to the cooking of the pudding, had’ been fully carried out. But of late lime has been frequently used to remove the frost from the ground in winter, and also to melt out water-pipes ; as it has been found that a heap of lime laid on the earth, wet slightly, and covered over with blankets and other non-conducting materials, will draw the frost out of the ground. This is the complement of the pro- cess of facilitating engineering work in quicksand by means of the freezing processes frequently used for such purposes. — With regard to the accident which has occurred to the Ger- man Navy at Apia, H. E. Gunther, in the Photographic News, says, it might be advisable to refer once more to the theory of Dr. Zenger of Prague, who suggested, as it will be remembered, to make use of photography for the prediction of the weather. Ac- cording to the doctor, photographs of the sun taken on orthochro- matic plates offer a most infallible means to indicate with almost absolute certainty the approaching atmospheric and subterranean disturbances at least twenty-four hours before their setting in. In SCIENCE, 43 these photographs zones are often to be seen around the sun’s disk, —i.e., rings of circular or elliptical form, of white or grayish color, — and if these zones appear of very large diameter, and of unusual heaviness, this indicates that violent storms, thunderstorms, or magnetical disturbances will soon set in at the place of observa- tion. At every ship’s station should therefore be established a small photographic laboratory, in which photographs of the sun could be taken as often as possible. A much more reliable pre- diction of the weather would be afforded by this means than by the aid of the barometer now generally in use for this purpose, and precautions could therefore be taken in good time. — The “Fourth Annual Report of the Maine State Board of Health ” is now in press, and will be distributed as soon as possible. Among the papers which it will contain are, “Small-Pox at Cum- berland Mills ;”’ ‘‘ Diphtheria at the Insane-Hospital;” ‘“ Typhoid- Fever at Washburn ;” “ Circulars ;” “ Water-Analysis ;’’ “ Pub- lic Water-Supplies; ” “ Pneumonia as an Infectious or Epidemic Disease ;”’ ‘Epidemic Jaundice;” ‘ Cerebro-Spinal Meningitis ;” “As to the Infectiousness of Diphtheria;” “On the Identity of Croup and Diphtheria;”’ “On the Filtering Capacity of the Soil;” “Public Health Work in Portland;” ‘Light Gymnastics for Schools ;’’ ‘‘ Pollution of Water-Supplies;” ‘As to the Spon- taneity of Infectious Diseases.” — In 1886 the Prince of Monaco, wishing to study the course of the Gulf Stream, threw into it some copper flasks from the “ Hi- rondelle.”” Three of these flasks have come ashore on the south coast of Iceland, — two near the O Mountains, in the Rangarvall district ; and the third at Fl6j, in the Arnaes district. — Ata recent meeting of the Scientific Society of Copenhagen: says Vature, Professor Steenstrup gave an account of the results of his examination, last year, of the great mammoth deposit at Predmost, in Moravia. Dr. Wankel and Professor Maschka, who have devoted much attention to the subject, are of opinion that the mammoths whose remains are found in this district were killed by man, and that their bodies were dragged thither to be eaten. Professor Steenstrup, on the contrary, holds that the mammoths themselves sought the locality, and that they must have died from want of water, or from some other cause with which man had noth- ing todo. The splits in the remains are due, he thinks, to the ac- tion of water and sand, and afford no support to the notion that the knuckles were cleft for the sake of the marrow. It is certain that some of the bones have been exposed to the action of fire; but Professor Steenstrup maintains that the traces of fire may be due to the fact that fires were at one time lighted upon them. On some of them, decorative lines have been scratched, but these may have been made long after the mammoth was extinct in Moravia. The lines, according to Professor Steenstrup, are identical with the ornamentation of pottery of the neolithic age. —In his last “ Meteorological Report for India,” Mr. Elliot, re- ferring to sun-spots and weather in India, —a subject which has been frequently mentioned in these reports, says, “So far as India is concerned, it would appear that it is the period of minimum sun- spots which is associated with the largest and most abnormal variations of meteorological conditions and actions. Thus excep- tionally heavy snow fell in the North-West Himalayas in the winter of 1866, and again in 1876 and 1877. The latter is to some extent described in the annual reports on the meteorology of India for these two years. Again: the most striking and disastrous famines of recent years in India have occurred near the period of minimum sun-spots ; as, for example, the Orissa famine of 1866, the Behar famine of 1874, and the Madras famine in 1876-77. Similarly, there is a clearly marked tendency for the largest and most intense cyclones to occur shortly before the period of minimum sun-spots ; as, for example, the great Calcutta cyclone of 1864, in which 60,000 people were drowned by the storm-wave, and the still larger Back- erganj cyclone of 1876, in which 100,000 lives were lost by drown- ing. As we are now approaching or passing through the same phase of the sun-spot period, it is interesting to inquire whether there are any large abnormal variations common to the present pe- riod of minimum sun-spots, and the previous corresponding periods of 1865-66 and 1876-77.” 44 SCIENCE: A WEERLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY ING IDs Co sl O13, 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YoRK. SuBscripTions.— United States and Canada....-.......-..+..-- $3.50 a year. , Great Britain and Europe..........-...-.+---- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): MES UDSCLIPLION Ly CAL sielolelelesieleis|s/aleiele eicleisinieinlelslom=ini=) e350 2 cf SAY Calecietselisbrimiencioneceeilerticsstciee 6.00 3 ce LT YOAre eee. sec c eee ccc en secceeccens 8.00 4 CH I year SHO | eHel) Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Vou. XIV. NEW YORK, Juty 19, 1889. No. 337. CONTENTS: THe SpraGuE ELecrric-RaiLway HEALTH Matters. MOTOR..-.-. sees ee eee eee e eens 35)|))) Baking’Bacillis....5 22.20. seecces 47 GiIRDLING TREES TO IMPROVE FRuIT- Professor Huxley and M. Pasteur UDNESS were oie isi ctelsterefesee es fal se 36 onuiydrophobiay senses 47 LIFE INSURANCE....+.0¢0.....---00+ 37 | Boox-REvIEws. Tue Primitive Home of THE AR- Der Hypnotismus................. 48 WANS) A.H. Sayce 38) AmMonc THE PUBLISHERS......... .- 48 THE Grain Piant-Louse..... TASER pera Ne eT eas NoTEs AND NEWS.........:0+..+0.05 42 MreWBecchiDrecsieverkstrucla ii, PD IBORVAT ee eer tetietteslslelte)iielets 44 Lightning? H.D. Post 50 Suggestions for Census-Taking. A Navajo Tree-Burial THE ENUMERATION OF THE DEAF... 44 R.W. Shufeldt 50 WE PUBLISH IN THIS NUMBER certain suggestions that have been made, by those best able to’ judge, as to improvements in the taking of the census of the deaf. At the same time we would call attention to certain suggestions by Dr. A. Graham Bell on the census-taking of the deaf which may lead to important results in the study of the heredity of this affection, and to its introduction into certain families through unfortunate marriages. One of the sections in the article to which we refer has reference to the off- spring of first-cousin marriages. This is a point of grave impor- tance, and one upon which, up to this time, no special data have been obtained in this country. The committee of the deaf, as it will be seen, recommends the introduction into the census sched- ules of a question bearing on this point, and it is certainly to be hoped that such a question will be inserted. In examining the ancestry of deaf-mutes, Dr. Bell has had occasion to consult the original population schedules of former censuses, which are pre- served in the Department of the Interior, and he has found little difficulty in tracing the families backward from census to census in the male line of ascent. If the name of the father had been given in former censuses, it might now be possible for genealogical experts to trace from these records the American ancestry of every person now living in the United States in every branch, for the name of the father would give the maiden name of females. Dr. Bell therefore suggests that in the census of 1890 the father’s SCIENCE. name should be noted in that part of the schedule that relates to — the nativity of the parents, so that the people of the United States may leave to their descendants genealogical records from which their full ancestry may at any time be ascertained. This sugges- tion is full of interest to the genealogists of the country, and, if carried into effect, would undoubtedly prove of great value to them. The committee of the New England Historical and Genea- logical Society, to whom this matter was referred, has strongly indorsed it, and it is hoped that a question on this point, as shown in the proposed schedule, will be inserted. THE ENUMERATION OF THE DEAF. A MEETING of the executive committee of the conference of American instructors of the deaf was held in Washington, May 9 of this year, to consider the best method of enumerating the deaf of the next census, and confer with the superintendent of the cen- sus, Hon. Robert D. Porter, on the subject. Dr. Alexander Gra- ham Bell and Mr. Frederick Howard Wines were invited to act with the committee. All the members of the committee, including Dr. Bell, were present; but Mr. Wines was unable to attend. After a discussion of several hours and a pleasant interview with Mr. Porter and Dr. J. S. Billings, who has charge of the mortality and vital statistics of the ‘“‘ Eleventh Census,’’ Mr. Porter acceded to the request of the committee, that in the next census the deaf should be separated from the pauper and criminal classes, and promised to give careful consideration to any suggestions the com- mittee might make. In accordance with this, the committee, — consisting of Edward M. Gallaudet, president of the National Col- lege for Deaf-Mutes ; Isaac Lewis Peet, principal of the New York Institution for the Deaf and Dumb; Philip G. Gillett, superintendent of the Illinois Institution for the Deaf and Dumb; J. L. Noyes, superintendent of the Minnesota School for the Deaf; Caroline A. Yale, principal of the Clarke Institution for the Deaf at Northamp- fWVoL, XIV. No. 537 ton, Mass.; Alexander Graham Bell; and Edward Allen Fay, editor of the Amerccan Annals of the Deaf, — on June 21, addressed a let- ter to Mr. Porter, in which they made the following statements and suggestions: — e “ At the sixth conference of principals and superintendents of American schools for the deaf, held at Jackson, Miss., April 14-17, 1888, — a body representing all the schools for the deaf in the United States, numbering last year 8,372 pupils, — we were ap- pointed a committee to endeavor to effect a reform in the method of enumerating the deaf in the United States census, in the hope of securing fuller and more accurate statistics in 1890 than have heretofore been obtained. In accordance with your request at our interview on the gth of May last, that we should make such sug- gestions as might seem desirable in this direction, we respectfully submit the following recommendations :— “1, Section 17 of the act of Congress, entitled ‘An Act to pro- vide for taking the tenth and subsequent censuses’ [approved March 3, 1879], provides that ‘Schedule No. 1 (here reproduced) shall contain inquiries . . . as to the physical and mental health of each person enumerated, whether active or disabled, maimed, crippled, bedridden, deaf, dumb, blind, insane, or idiotic, and whether employed or unemployed, and, if unemployed, during what portion of the year.’ In accordance with this provision, inquiries were made in the ‘ Tenth Census’ concerning the disabled; and full returns were sought of all the classes named in the act, except- ing the deaf and the dumb. Only those dumb were enumerated who were also deaf, and only those deaf who had lost hearing be- — fore the age of sixteen years. We urge that in the ‘Eleventh Cen- sus’ all the classes named in the act be fully enumerated ; and we specially urge that the returns of the deaf be not limited to that sub-class of the deaf formerly denominated the ‘deaf and dumb.’ If the requirements of the law are fully complied with, the returns will be much more useful to us, as teachers of the deaf, than if the plan pursued in former censuses of inquiring only for the ‘ deaf and dumb’ is continued. Pupils are admitted to the schools we repre- sent, not on account of their dumbness, but on account of their deafness. Persons who are merely dumb are not received: per- sons who are merely deaf are received. Our schools are open to. paoemtton gemesogees Rogan Ba & SEH a32o6o0 Baio tee 24 ie) pA a fas rar Se®l cea ee Se aTOSSH mS a et Sat a4 Sas er EoSo8a.n'” a SS EREe EEG E || Sma = Sin ~o5g°8 8s > || WT 45agts Z || | cS) f F og e| ew | | e Good Not good / Cannot see well enough = a Sight toread X. 3 \| A Good N a / to} h loud iS g = ood — Not goo ‘annot hear lou ~ | Hearing. 4 conversation X. a som) | Q 8 = Good — Not good / Cannot speak so as to be A a ic} | speech { understood X. is) ce Len 7 5 -_ . Mental condition good — Not good Mentally | ke =) | Ming { disabled X. z SI | re) Body. Physical condition good — Not good/ Physi- WWioctee —) cally disabled X. (o) | zw | Attended school within the census year? Yes — ED) No x. E\S q | 8 & | Can this person read? Yes— No x, > || 3 a || 3 S| a 3 | Can this person write? Yes— No x. = | ie ee eee iS} Lae] Banos = thos 8 o Q BeaZs | o mEAES is tes] ye) eb & 7 ~ GrkouS is) a dae Se a § La BEB S =| =o 29 same e S) Becee : PEERS. A 7 eer EUs, -) qoo0a Y a e elects sire He Bopko y ae BHe BO Peeerk Bias. 5/5 o 8 Sate 2 is © Bee aae ea ot i Seq os fe Seo a alee a |) GQrezs < S OOS 8 = aq ic} BEESTS || Bg 2 || 5 gecngee 5 Be EGP ES = | FPSSHuHo & || & Feskbas =) Fe Sate 2 & wm x ReOk. og wm |) 4 C- Se Bl eat 4g || @ af] SIS eis S eg OE Q r= SoRers, & es eats) : ws BEESEE © Boorroe = zw | Were the parents of this person first cousins? = Wes, —.) No, x a BE +O Eo Q Fe & ae £ Kc) Sis as } iz! iss] 5 [igs 5 é “i ~ tending ordinary schools for hearing persons. We wish the aid of the census in obtaining the names and post-office addresses of such children, in order to bring them into the special schools suited to their condition. “2, The age or period of life at which deafness occurred is a SCIENCE: all children of school age who are debarred by deafness from at- 45 which the deafness occurred. They should be instructed that this point is of such vital importance to the correct classification of the deaf that an answer must be obtained in every case, or a reason assigned for non-reply. This reason may in some cases itself re- veal the point desired. «3, We recommend that in Schedule No. 1 the physical and — —— pe ocenmecon peer bees NDOones bh = ae Be ag®og oa aso lm Hen o8 4 : egaae a Pet ena wee = STOOGES w Sait 45.42 Feprestorey (zlib a |S EPSZEERES Go RRegoeg Son cf2ers wakes oe O58 FS 8 | ESBS Fe | ' 71 oO kee} | °o eae E | Blind, /. & B =| | 4 Bg 5 | Deaf and Dumb, /. za | Idioti EI & iotic, /. iI : 2 is) & | Insane, /. x S | Maimed, Crippled, Bedridden, or otherwise disabled, /. iS ~) ee 9 eke 4 S Attended school within the census year, /. rel Z is} gi 2 § | Cannot read, /. & a = ES Sil s 8 % | Cannot write, /. a B we | ee, RES Z mao © ° CETEE ES i oo 5 2 e hae oo eP es HO BY ° F<} PROB s | = @ Ba Be Poone s ome a=) is) BoqeR e & Se pian = Poses ixi i. ace = i S mye se = of 5S 2) =| 4 Q pene Sane ~ EMS aye lich a a aH Se oat a g oe ar 8 is Bedoag BS Ee a ee as eZ) < To 2 an 9 Sissies Boones Bags 26 Ssig tie REESeES™ 2» Peo sp is o Picayune Reee Se Son ho aso ar wed oy SookSe ! TRaRete “aN | FORM OF QUESTIONS ON DEFECTIVE CLASSES FOR TENTH CENSUS AND PROPOSED FORM FOR ELEVENTH CENSUS COMPARED. more reliable element in determining the sub-class of the deaf to which a person belongs than the presence or absence of the power of speech, or the exact amount of muteness involved. We there- fore recommend, that, in taking a census of the deaf, the enumer- ators be specially required to ascertain the age or period of iife at mental condition of each person be noted. The form of questions as to physical and mental condition, as shown in Fig. 2, is sug- gested for incorporation in that schedule. To ascertain the condi- tion of the hearing, the enumerator should be instructed to ask first whether the person can hear well. If the answer is ‘Yes,’ the 45 enumerator should indicate the reply by a horizontal mark (—) placed in the ‘Hearing’ column; if the hearing is not good, by a mark sloping from right to left (/); and if the question is not an- swered, the column should be left blank. If the hearing is re- ported as ‘not good’ (‘/), the enumerator should then ascertain the extent of the disability. If the person is too deaf to be taught in ordinary schools for hearing persons, or cannot hear conversa- tion in a loud tone of voice, the enumerator should convert the sloping mark (/) into a cross (x), and proceed to put “the inter- rogatories contained in the supplementary schedule or card relating to the deaf (see Paragraph 4, below). If, on the other hand, the person is merely ‘ hard of hearing,’ or if there is doubt whether the deafness is sufficient to constitute the disability above specified, the cross should not be made, and the person should not be entered on the supplementary schedule or card relating to the deaf. “ The condition of the speech should be ascertained and recorded in a similar manner. If the person speaks well, the enumerator should make a horizontal mark (—) in the ‘Speech’ column; if not, a sloping mark (/); and if the person cannot speak so as to be understood, or cannot speak at all, the sloping mark should be converted into a cross (x). “The deaf and the dumb would then be indicated as follows, in Schedule No. 1:— CoNDITION OF THE — = a 2) Hie ae | a 3 a eel ere |e Bi qc | na =e | } | ‘IDINS GANS SodbagdeerdoBcdesbansaod ouodobouDodAbadollosdene x | GabaGH|lbosaoulldsdoog The dumb (because of deafness).........-....0--- dobnool| ap | x The dumb (because of idiocy)..--.+-2+.--..s0.eserleseees| ooo eee x | X fee. ee The dumb (because of defective vocal] orgams).....|......].-++++ SCS Psst ote) “ The fact that there are three classes of dumb persons shows the liability to error when the enumerator is instructed, as hereto- fore, to inquire for the ‘deaf and dumb.’ Out of 29,776 idiots, whose powers of speech were ascertained from physicians in the last census, 7,396, or about one-fourth of the whole number, could not articulate at all, or had no use of spoken language; 14,707, or about one-half, could articulate but imperfectly, or their use of language was very defective; the number who spoke intelligibly was only 7,673. It thus appears that a large proportion of the idiotic are no less ‘dumb’ than deaf-mutes; and it is almost in- . evitable, that, when dumbness is made prominent (as in the term ‘deaf and dumb’), the one class should be confused with the other, resulting in the return of intelligent deaf-mutes as ‘idiotic,’ and of idiotic hearing persons as ‘deaf and dumb.’ In the last census, moreover, 2,339 persons were returned as both ‘ deaf-mute and idiotic.’ It is extremely probable that among these were some deaf-mutes of good mind, and some idiots who could hear. If a census of the deaf is taken, this source of error will be removed. Other advantages of the form of questions above proposed over the former plan of asking for the ‘blind, deaf and dumb, idiotic, insane, maimed, crippled, bedridden, or otherwise disabled,’ are explained in Dr. Alexander Graham Bell’s communication to Senator Hale (Paragraphs 20-39), which was published in Sczence of Jan. 18. “4. Mr. F. H. Wines of Springfield, Ill., special agent of the “ Tenth Census,” in charge of the statistics relating to the deaf and other special classes of the population, who was invited to act with this committee, but was unable to be present at our meeting, sug- gested to us by letter, that, instead of supplementary schedules, the enumerators should be provided with special cards, on which the questions to be asked in the case of each deaf person should be printed, with spaces for the answers; and that the enumerators be required to fill out these cards in duplicate, — one copy for use, and the other for preservation. We approve of the suggestion of special cards, and recommend the following form, in addition to such references as may be necessary for identification with Sched- ule No. 1. SCIENGE [Face of Card.] a [This space may be used for the necessary references for identige cation with Schedule No. 1.] THE DEAF. Instructions to the Enumerator. Note A. — The questions on this card should be asked in the case of every person who is too deaf to bé taught in ordinary schools for hearing persons, or who cannot hear conversation in a loud tone of voice. ae Vote B.— Question No. 5 is very important, and every possible effort must be made to obtain a correct answer. If the person was born deaf, write B; if not, state the age at which the hearing was lost. If it is difficult to find out the exact age at which the person be- came deaf, ask at what perzod of life deafness occurred; as, for instance, whether it was in infancy (under 4 years of age), in child- hood (under 10), in youth (under 20), in adult life (from 20 to 50), or in old age. If you cannot get an answer to Question No. 5, state here the reason why you cannot. Note C.—In answering Question No. 8, use the same check- marks as in Schedule No. t. 1. Name of the deaf person ? 2. Residence when at home: Town ? County ? State ? Post-office address P 3. Name of this person’s father ? [Reverse of Card. | 4. Race or color of this person ? Sex ? Age? 5. At what age or period of life did this person become deaf P [See Vote B.| 6. Cause of deafness ? 7. Did the deafness result from military service ? 8. Physical and mental condition [see /Vote al, ing? Speech ? Mind ? Body ? g. Can this person hear sufficiently to perceive a Weng shout in case of danger ? 10. Is this person educated ? Where taught ? 11. What is this person’s occupation ? Monthly earnings? $ Value of property ? $ 12. Is this person a pauper? 13. Were the parents of this person first-cousins ? 14. Has this person had any deaf brothers or sisters ? 15. Is this person single (s); married (m); widowed: (wid); or divorced (d) ? If married, name of the wife (or husband) ? 16. Name of the wife’s (or husband’s) father ? 17. Has the wife (or husband) had any deaf brothers or sisters 18. How many children have been born of this marriage? How many of the children were deaf ? How many died young ? 19. Is the wife (or husband) deaf ? at what age or period of life? [See Mote B.] Sight? Hear- If so, became deaf “s. In addition to the statistics gathered by the enumerators, much valuable information relating to the deaf can be obtained by means of inquiries addressed to principals of schools for the deaf, teachers of common schools, physicians, and intelligent deaf per— sons. We recommend that special cards with suitable questions be addressed to each of these classes of persons. “6, We recommend that some one thoroughly qualified by fa- miliarity with the deaf be placed in charge of the entire work of the census relating to this class. “7, We recommend that in the publication of the results of the census the deaf be separated from the pauper and criminal classes. “8. In the last census, 4,597 persons were returned as doubly or trebly afflicted with deaf-mutism, idiocy, insanity, and blindness. Those who were returned as ‘ deaf and dumb and idiotic’ were re- ported among ‘ the deaf and dumb’ and again among ‘ the idiotic,’ etc.; each of the doubly afflicted persons being thus counted twice, and each of the trebly afflicted persons thrice. In this way the 4,597 doubly and trebly afflicted persons counted in the summing- up of the insane, idiots, blind, and deaf-mutes (‘ Tenth Census,” vol. xxi. p. vii.), aS 9,441 persons, more than double their actual num- ber, making the total of these classes appear greater by 4,844 in- dividuals than it really was. In order to insure accuracy with [Vor. XIV. No. 337 Jury 19, 1889. ] doubly and trebly afflicted be not classed with the deaf, the idiotic, etc., respectively, but be grouped in classes by themselves, and placed in charge of some specially qualified person for the careful examination and verification of the returns, and for an investigation into the causes of these terrible afflictions. “g. An impression is prevalent that deafness, blindness, idiocy, and insanity are often due to consanguinity in the parents; and statistics have been collected which show that a considerable per- ; centage of the deaf, blind, idiotic, and insane are the children of first-cousins. These statistics, however, can be of little value in determining the questions involved until we know what percentage of the general population are the offspring of such unions, We therefore recommend that in Schedule No. 1 the question be asked, _ ‘Were the parents of this person first-cousins ? ’ _ phthisis. “We trust that these suggestions will commend themselves to ‘your judgment, and believe that, if adopted, they will result in a more accurate and satisfactory census of the class in whose wel- fare we are especially interested than has yet been obtained.” HEALTH MATTERS. Baking Bacilli. AT a meeting of the New York Academy of Medicine, June 20, Dr. A. Jacobi read some notes on the baking of bacilli, being a denunciation of Weigert’s advertising scheme, and a review of his own experience with the inhalation of hot air in the treatment of Weigert, supposed to be an American physician, now of Germany, claimed to have discovered a method of curing phthisis by the inhalation of hot air, and he had made free use of Dr. Jacobi’s name in advertising his apparatus for carrying out this treatment. The treatment was not original with Weigert; nor had Dr. Jacobi, as had been asserted, bought, indorsed, or recom- mended the apparatus in question. Moreover, as appeared further along, he had little confidence inthe method. To Halter belonged the honor of suggesting the treatment of phthisis by the inhalation of hot air with the view of killing the bacilli in the lungs. The idea arose from observing the immunity from phthisis of workmen in a lime-kiln where they were exposed to a high degree of heat (122° to 158° F.),—so high that it would destroy the tubercle bacilli, provided it continued at that degree until it had reached the lungs. The air inhaled by workmen in a lime-kiln was dry and rarefied. A moist atmosphere of a like temperature would be more destructive of the bacilli, but was less endurable by the phthisical patient. Dr. Jacobi said, that, having been requested to admit Weigert’s apparatus into his wards at Bellevue Hospital, he did experiment with it some time ago, and for a while the results made a favorable impression on the physicians in attendance, for the patients, or a part of them, seemed to improve under the treat- ment. More careful observation, however, showed that the im- provement was doubtless due to rest in the hospital, in an atmos- phere much purer than that in which the patients had lived in their tenement homes. The instrument itself was not as good as that which one of ordinary ingenuity could improvise. The atmosphere on its way to the lungs from the flame was found to have fallen from above 300° F. to about the temperature of the body when it had reached the mouth. Of course, if it were above the tempera- ture of the blood, it would become further cooled on its passage toward the lungs. Some of the hot air might get into the alveoli, but very little. In order to obtain benefit from such treatment, it would be necessary not only that the air inhaled be of a high tem- perature, but that the patient be in a room in which the thermome- ter registered at least 105.5° F.: in other words, it would be neces- sary to produce a sort of artificial fever, and it was evident that such treatment must prove injurious to any other than patients in the very first stage of phthisis. Professor Huxley and M. Pasteur on Hydrophobia. On Monday, July 1, a meeting called by the lord mayor of London to hear statements from men of science with regard to the recent increase of rabies in England, and the efficiency of the treatment discovered by M. Pasteur for the prevention of hydrophobia, was held at the Mansion House. Several letters were read from those who were unable to attend. Among these letters was one from SCIENCE, _ respect to these classes, we recommend that the returns of persons 47 Professor Huxley, in which he says, “I greatly regret my inability to be present at the meeting which is to be held, under your lordship’s auspices, in reference to M. Pasteur and his institute. The unre- mitting labors of that eminent Frenchman during the last half- century have yielded rich harvests of new truths, and are models. of exact and refined research. As such they deserve, and have received, all the honors which those who are the best judges of their purely scientific merits are able to bestow. But it so happens. that these subtle and patient searchings-out of the ways of the infinitely little — of that swarming life where the creature that measures one-thousandth part of an inch is a giant—have also. yielded results of supreme practical importance. The path of M. Pasteur’s investigations is strewed with gifts of vast monetary value to the silk-trader, the brewer, and the wine merchant; and, this being so, it might well be a proper and’a graceful act, on the part of the representatives of trade and commerce in its greatest centre, to make some public recognition of M. Pasteur’s services, even if there were nothing further to be said about them. But there is much more to be said. M. Pasteur’s direct and indirect contributions to our knowledge of the causes of diseased states, and of the means of preventing their occurrence, are not measur- able by money values, but by those of healthy life and diminished suffering tomen. Medicine, surgery, and hygiene have all been powerfully affected by M. Pasteur’s work, which has culminated in his method of treating hydrophobia. I cannot conceive that any competently instructed person can consider M. Pasteur’s labors in this direction without arriving at the conclusion, that, if any man has earned the praise and honor of his fellows, he has. I find it no less difficult to imagine that our wealthy country should be other than ashamed to continue to allow its citizens to profit by the treatment freely given at the institute without contributing to its support. . Opposition to the proposals which your lordship sanc- tions would be equally inconceivable if it arose out of nothing but the facts of the case thus presented. But the opposition which, as. I see from the English papers, is threatened, has really, for the most part, nothing on earth to do either with M. Pasteur’s merits or with the efficacy of his method of treating hydrophobia. It proceeds partly from the fanatics of /azssez fazre, who think it better to rot and die than to be kept whole and lively by State in- terference, partly from the blind opponents of properly conducted physiological experimentation, who prefer that men should suffer rather than rabbits or dogs, and partly from those who for other but not less powerful motives hate every thing which contributes. to prove the value of strictly scientific methods of inquiry in all those questions which affect the welfare of society. I sincerely trust that the good sense of the meeting over which your lordship. will preside will preserve it from being influenced by these un- worthy antagonisms, and that the just and benevolent enterprise you have undertaken may have a happy issue.” M. Pasteur, in a letter dated Paris, the 27th ult., and read by Sir H. Roscoe, writes, “I am obliged by your sending me a copy of the letter of invitation issued by the lord mayor for the meeting on July 1. Its perusal has given me great pleasure. The questions relat- ing to the prophylactic treatment for hydrophobia in persons who have been bitten, and the steps which ought to be taken to stamp out the disease, are discussed in a manner both exact and judi- cious. Seeing that hydrophobia has existed in England for a long time, and that medical science has failed to ward off the occurrence even of the premonitory symptoms, it is clear that the prophylactic method of treating this malady which I have discovered ought to be adopted in the case of every person bitten by a rabid animal. The treatment required by this method is painless during the whole of its course, and not disagreeable. In the early days of the ap- plication of this method, contradictions such as invariably take place with every new discovery were found to occur, and especially for the reason that it is not every bite by a rabid animal which gives rise to a fatal outburst of hydrophobia : hence prejudiced people may pretend that all the successful cases of treatment were cases in which the natural contagion of the disease had not taken effect. This specious reasoning has gradually lost its force with the con- tinually increasing number of persons treated. To-day, and speak- ing solely for the one anti-rabic laboratory of Paris, this total number exceeds 7,000; or exactly, up to the 31st of May, 1889, 6,950. Of 48 these, the total number of deaths was only 71. It is only by palpa- ble and wilful misrepresentation that a number differing from the above, and differing by more than double, has been published by those who are systematic enemies of the method. In short, the general mortality applicable to the whole of the operations is I per cent; and, if we subtract from the total number of deaths those of persons in whom the symptoms of hydrophobia appeared a few days after the treatment, — that is to say, cases in which hydro- phobia had burst out (often owing to delay in arrival) before the curative process was completed, — the general mortality is reduced to .68 per cent. But let us for the present only consider the facts relating to the English subjects whom we have treated in Paris. Up to May 31, 1889, their total number was 214. Of these, there have been five unsuccessful cases after completion of the treatment, and two more during treatment, or a total mortality of 3.2 per cent, or, More properly, 2.3 per cent. But the method of treatment has been continually undergoing improvement; so that in 1888 and ‘1889, on a total of sixty-four English persons bitten by mad dogs and treated in Paris, not a single case has succumbed, although among these sixty-four there were ten individuals bit- ten on the head, and fifty-four bitten on the limbs, often to a very serious extent. I have already said that the lord mayor, in his invitation, has treated the subject in a judicious man- ner, from the double point of view of prophylaxis after the bite and of the extinction of the disease by administrative measures. It is also my own profound conviction that a rigorous observance of simple police regulations would altogether stamp out hydrophobia in a country like the British Isles. Why am I so confident of this ? Because, in spite of an old-fashioned and widespread prejudice, to which even science has sometimes given a mistaken countenance, rabies is never spontaneous. It is caused, without a single excep- tion, by the bite of an animal affected with the malady. It is need- less to say that in the beginning there must have been a first case of hydrophobia. This is certain; but to try to solve this problem is to raise uselessly the question of the origin of life itself. It is sufficient for me here, in order to prove the truth of my assertion, to remind you that neither in Norway, nor in Sweden, nor in Aus- tralia, does rabies exist; and yet nothing would be easier than to introduce this terrible disease into those countries by importing a few mad dogs. Let England, which has exterminated its wolves, make a vigorous effort, and it will easily succeed in extirpating rabies. If firmly resolved to do so, your country may secure this great benefit in a few years; but, until that has been accomplished, and in the present state of science, it is absolutely necessary that all persons bitten by mad dogs should be compelled to undergo the anti-rabic treatment. Such, it seems, is a summary of the state- ment of the case by the lord mayor. The Pasteur Institute is pro- foundly touched by the movement in support of the meeting. The interest which his royal Highness the Prince of Wales has evinced in the proposed manifestation is of itself enough to secure it suc- cess. Allow me, my dear colleague, to express my feelings of af- fectionate devotion.” BOOK-REVIEWS. Der Hypnotismus. Von Dr. Med. ALBERT MALL. Berlin. 8°. THE modern study of hypnotism may now be said to have out- grown the limits of its birthplace, France, and to have acquired that universal recognition that belongs to a scientifically established body of doctrines. The attitude of Germany towards these ex- tremely fascinating experiments and results was at first suspicious, then rather adversely critical. Now, while retaining a judicious scepticism regarding the more surprising results, German scholars have come to recognize the intrinsic value of hypnotism as a psy- chologic method, as well as the importance of the place it occupies in modern psychology. The German literature consists in the main of single contribu- tions, partly critical and partly original, dealing with single phases of the various hypnotic conditions. There have been but few gen- eral treatises aiming at a convenient vészé of what has been es- tablished, and the present work by Dr. Mall is a rather successful -attempt to supply this lack. The work is methodically arranged, intelligibly written, but is SCIENCE; defective in laying too much stress upon individual minor points of _ special interest to the author, and in a lack of clear distinctions: between the important and the subsidiary, perhaps uncertain points. After a brief historical introduction, in which some hitherto neg- lected points in the history of hypnotism in Germany are noted, the general symptoms of the hypnotic conditions are described. The various stages are distinguished as to their intensity merely, no other criterion as yet offered being found satisfactory. The more detailed description consists of a physiological and a psychological portion. In the former the changes in the movements and sensa- tions, in the latter effects brought about in the region of memory association and more complicated processes, are described. This is naturally the most important part of the work, and is a useful résumé of the position taken by the Nancy school. The processes are described throughout as explicable on the ground of sugges- tion, conscious or unconscious. The 7é/e of the latter is particu- larly important, and finds here due recognition. A further point of view pervading the entire exposition is the assimilation of psychic and physiological conditions observed in hypnotism with analogous — occurrences in sleep and waking life. This analogy with the phe- nomena of normal sleep is both real and important ; and, while it does not warrant our regarding hypnotism as something entirely normal, it ought to remove the usual view that places it entirely in the region of pathology. The latter half of the work deals with various aspects of hypnotic study, its theoretical bearings, its practical bearings as a therapeutic agent, its forensic aspect as a means of concealing crime, the allied conditions found in the lower animals, and so on. While some of the opinions there set forth will doubtless have to be modified, the work none the less, reflects the present state of knowledge very well. The work is not original, except in its arrangement and the various degrees of importance it attaches to different results of experimen- tation. The chief objection to its use by the laity is the rather un- critical collation of good and indifferent works, of important and trivial points. As a contribution to the German literature on hyp- notism, it is welcome, and will find use. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. A HOST of boys and girls under eighteen years of age have been profiting themselves, and at the same time entertaining their teachers, parents, and friends, by telling prize-stories in 7veasure Trove Magazine of New York. They have won cash prizes to the extent of two hundred dollars, besides seventy dollars’ worth of books. Story-telling asa means of education is taking a first place in the regular exercises of our public schools, where the usually — irksome task of composition-writing, upon which so many other studies depend, has been turned by these prize-story competitions into a genuine pastime. — Babyhood for July contains much seasonable advice for moth- ers of young children, the question of where to go and where not to go during the summer months being thoroughly discussed. “Botany for the Little Ones” is continued, and there are enter- taining and instructive contributions concerning the many perplex- ing questions that are apt to arise at the present time in the city nursery as well as in the temporary country home. — Messrs. E. & F.N.Spon announce as in preparation “ Chemi- cal Technology: the Application of Chemistry to the Arts and Manufactures,” by C. E. Groves and William Thorp (about 8 vol- umes); and “Egyptian Irrigation,” by W. Willcocks, M.I.C.E., with introduction by Lieut.-Col. J. C. Ross, R.E., C.M.G., being a physical description of Egypt, with particulars of various methods of irrigation and drainage, and full details of engineering construc- tion, and illustrated by numerous plates. They also announce as nearly ready, “The Engineer’s Sketch-Book of Mechanical Move- ments, Devices, Appliances, and Contrivances,” by Thomas Walter Barber, containing details employed in the design and construction of machinery for every purpose; collected from numerous sources and from actual work; classified and arranged for reference for the use of engineers, mechanical draughtsmen, managers, mechan- ics, inventors, patent agents, and all engaged in the mechanical JULY 19, 1880. ] arts; with nearly two thousand illustrations, descriptive notes, and memoranda: and as ready July 1, ‘Practical Gold Mining: a Comprehensive Treatise on the Origin and Occurrence of Gold- Bearing Gravels, Rocks, and Ores, and the Methods by which the Gold is Extracted,” by C. G. Warnford Lock, illustrated by nu- merous plates and engravings. — The frontispiece of the August issue of Scrzbmer’s Magazine will be a striking portrait of Lord Tennyson, engraved by Kruell from a recent photograph. Recognition is thus made of Tenny- son’s eightieth birthday, which occurs in August. The same num- ber will contain a short essay by Dr. Henry van Dyke on Tenny- son’s earliest poems published with his brother ; and the end paper, by Professor T. R. Lounsbury of Yale, will discuss Tennyson’s attitude toward life in youth and old age, under the title of ‘‘ The Two Locksley Halls.” The time has arrived when every one wants to know what is being done to advance and extend the art of electric lighting, and President Henry Morton of Stevens Insti- - tute, in his article in the same number of Scrzbmer’s, will explain some of the most recent achievements. He will describe such matters as lighting the Hoosac Tunnel with glow-lamps, the light- ing of Hell Gate, of the great public squares, and other interesting undertakings, all very fully illustrated. James Dwight, M.D.,a leading authority in this country and England, on the game of lawn tennis, will contribute a careful study of “Form in Lawn Tennis,’ based on a series of instantaneous photographs of the best players at work, showing the exact position taken in making all the principal strokes. Models for these photographs were Mr. R. D. Sears, the late champion, assisted by his brother, Mr. P. S. ‘Sears, and Mr. Thomas Pettitt, the professional tennis champion. These have been excellently engraved, and are very picturesque as well as of great value to tennis players. Benjamin Norton, the nephew of Austin Corbin, and second vice-president of the Long Island Railway, will contribute.a short paper entitled “ How to Feed a Railway,” which will describe the purchasing and supply de- partment. The closing article in the railway series will appear in the September number under the title of ‘Safety Appliances in Railroad Working,” by H. G. Prout, editor of the Razlroad Ga- zette. — “The Spirit of Manual Training ” will be set forth by Profes- sor C. H. Henderson of Philadelphia, in an article which is to open the August Popular Sczence Monthly. Professor Henderson says _ that the ideal school will aim to develop men, not to produce fine _ tic criticism in this paper. irregular verbs of Attic prose in alphabetical order. articles of wood or iron, or to cram heads with information, and that the name “ manual-training school” does not rightly describe an institution designed to train the “ whole boy.’”” Professor Hux- ley will review the main points of the controversy in which he has been engaged, in an article entitled “‘ Agnosticism and Christianity.” Some of Cardinal Newman’s writings will receive a share of caus- A suggestive article on ‘The Wastes of Modern Civilization,” by Felix L. Oswald, M.D., will appear, in which Dr. Oswald will point out a number of ways in which the resources of the modern world are used up, with no care for their replenishment, or in producing useless or harmful results; and “Mr. Mallock on Optimism ” is the title of a critical article which - Mr. W.D. Le Sueur will contribute to the August Popular Scz- ence. It repels the assertions of Mr. Mallock, that there is not sufficient reason for being gratified with the prospects of the hu- man race, and that no meaning in life can be seen without the light of theological faith. — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication in August “ The Irregular Verbs of Attic Prose, their Forms, Prominent Meanings, and Important Compounds, together with Lists of Related Words and English Derivatives,’ by Addison Hogue, professor of Greek in the University of Mississippi. The material treated in this book is here much fuller than in the lists of irregular verbs in the gram- mars, and much more accessible than in the lexicons. The book contains, after the regular verbs, — pure, mute, and liquid, — the Prominent meanings and special uses of frequent occurrence are given, often illustrated by translated examples. The most important com- pounds are added, and also many related words, forming a very practical sort of introduction to word-formation. The first declen- SCIENCE. 49 sion alone is represented by about 400 substantives, and this in- dicates the range of vocabulary. The English derivatives, of which there are over 450, will prove, it is hoped, an attractive fea- ture to teachers and students alike. To the latter they will be an additional support in learning some five or six hundred Greek words, and will broaden their knowledge of their own tongue. — At this time, when the centennial anniversaries of the various. events connected with the beginning of the French Revolution are coming so thick and fast, many who desire to make new studies of that great period of history will get help from the Old South leaf- let on the French Revolution, issued by the directors of the Old South Studies in History, and published by D.C. Heath & Co. This little sixteen-page leaflet, which is sold for five cents, contains one of the powerful chapters from Carlyle’s history, on the condi- tion of France on the eve of the Revolution, brief extracts from John Morley and others, and several pages of historical and biblio- graphical notes by Mr. Edwin D. Mead. All the important books. upon the Revolution are noticed, with brief estimates of their sev- eral merits ; the French Revolution is compared with the English Revolution of 1688 and with the American Revolution; and a spe- cial section is devoted to the various significant events taking place in the world in the eighteenth century, which will prove useful for fixing in the minds of students some important dates worth remem- bering in relation to each other. —The Quarterly Journal of Economzcs (Boston, George H.. Ellis) closes its third year with the July number. Edward Cum- mings contributes a study of the present condition of the English trades-unions, made with great advantages on the spot ; Professor Dunbar reviews the history of the direct taxes of the United States, from the tax of 1798 to the last, in 1861; Stuart Wood develops his new theory of wages ; and several notes on a variety of topics follow, including one by the new president of Brown University, Professor Andrews, on the late copper syndicate. The usual full bibliography and copious indexes for the volume fill the remaining pages. — The Educatzonal Tzmes (London) says, “ We cannot be too- lavish in our praise of the series of Greek authors now being pub- lished by Messrs. Ginn & Co. The book before us [‘* Homer’s. Odyssey,” Books I. —IV., by B. Perrin] forms one of this series, and is in no way inferior in binding, paper, printing, and general style, to the other productions of this firm, which we have previ- ously noticed with real pleasure. The notes and appendices fur-- nish considerable material for the higher criticism of the poem, but at the same time sufficient assistance of an elementary character has been provided to make the volume useful as an introduction to. the study of Homer. Text and notes appear on the same page, which does not seem to us a good plan; but, to make the work. thoroughly complete, with each edition of text and notes the pur-. chaser receives a separate copy containing the text only, and, since: this text edition can only be obtained separately at a very small’ cost, we heartily recommend it to our readers.” — We have received from the Theosophical Book Company of Boston a pamphlet entitled “‘ Light on the Path,” whichis intended as an initiation into the mysteries of occultism. It is said to have been “written down by M. C.;” the real author, we suppose, being some supermundane intelligence. The actual contents of the pamphlet are in part taken from Buddhism and other Eastern sys- tems, and’in part concocted by the author himself. The Buddhist doctrine of Karma is taught, and the reader is also told that he must kill out every kind of earthly desire. Besides these two tenets of Buddhism, various precepts are set forth, of which the following are specimens: “Hold fast to that which is neither substance nor existence. Listen only to the voice which is soundless. Look only on that which is invisible alike to the inner and the outer sense” (p. 17). The whole work, we are told, “is written in an astral cipher, and can therefore only be deciphered by one who reads astraily;” and we should think so. At the end of the pam- phlet is a catalogue of the books issued by the publishers, to which they prefix this request: ‘“‘Send us the addresses of those among your acquaintances who might be-interested in the class of litera- ture of which we make a specialty.” So if any of our readers. 50 SCIENCE. (Vor, XIV. No. i337 { ’ 4 choose to make a list of the fools they know, they can send it to to their work, but Hines did not appear. They went in search, ; the Theosophical Book Company. —John Wiley & Sons announceas ready, “ A Treatise on the Or- ‘dinary and Partial Differential Equations,” by William Woolsey Johnson, professor of mathematics in the United States Naval Academy, Annapolis, Md.; ‘Submarine Mines and Torpedoes as applied to Harbor Defence,” by John Townsend Bucknill, lieuten- ant-colonel Royal Engineers; “ Elements of the Art of War,” pre- pared for the use of the cadets of the United States Military Academy, West Point, N.Y., by James Mercur, professor of civil and military engineering; “A Laboratory Guide in Chemical Analysis,” by David O’Brine, professor of chemistry in Colorado State Agricul- tural College; and “ A History of the Planing-Mill,” with practical suggestions for the construction, care, and management of wood- working machinery, by C. R. Tompkins, M.E. — Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. announce that they have made arrangements to supplement their series, Epochs of Modern History, by a short series of books treating of the history of America, which will be published under the general title “‘ Epochs of American History.” The series will be under the editorship of Dr. Albert Bushnell Hart, assistant professor of history in Harvard College. Each volume will contain about two hundred and fifty pages, similar in size and style to the page of the volumes in the Epochs of History Series, with full marginal analysis, working bibliographies, maps, introductions, and index. The volumes will be issued separately, and each will be complete in itself. Those already arranged for will, it is hoped, provide a continuous history of the United States from the foundation of the Colonies to the present time, which shall be suited to class use as well as for gen- eral reading and reference. The volumes in preparation are as follows: “The Colonies (1492-1763), by Reuben Gold Thwaites, secretary of the State Historical Society of Wisconsin, author of “Historic Waterways,” etc.; “Formation of the Union (1763- 1829), by Albert Bushnell Hart, A.B., Ph.D., the editor of the series; and “Division and Re-union (1829-1889),” by Woodrow Wilson, Ph.D., LL.D., professor of history and political economy in Wesleyan University, Middletown, Conn., autnor of ‘“ Con- gressional Government,” etc. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Are Beech-Trees ever struck by Lightning ? THIS is the question implied in your note on p. 7 of Sczence for July 5, 1889. In August, 1885, at Mason, Ingham County, Mich., a number of men were at work harvesting wheat in a large field west of the village. A heavy thunder-storm came up, and all but one of them, Aura Hines, fled for shelter to a saw-mill about a quarter of a mile dis- tant. He said that his shoes hurt his feet, and he did not like to run so far; he would go to the woods, which bounded the field south, not far distant. After the storm (accompanied with heavy thunder and lightning) had passed, the men returned from the mill and found him-sitting under and against a large beech-tree, dead. Without disturbing his position, they sent to the village for help, and I went and saw him. The tree was a large and tall one, about two feet in diameter, and leaned a little eastward. A pile of brushwood had been burned on the east side, which had killed the tree on that side from the roots to the height of seven feet from the ground. The storm came from westward, and Hines sat on the east side crouched against the tree, which sheltered him from the rain. Two or three holes of half an inch diameter, near his right foot, showed where the current passed from the earth to his body, partly tearing the sole from his shoe, and passing through the crown of the coarse straw hat on his head, making a half-inch hole, as if a bullet had been fired through it; the broken straws pointing upward and out- ward. There was a plain furrowed trace on the burned and dead bark of the tree above his head, to the green and living wood, but no farther. , The wood of the beech is very close grained, and in the living tree full of sap, and the green bark is also filled with sap, while the outer or ross bark is thin and quite smooth. Has not such a tree the elements of a good conductor, over which the electric fluid passes, without shattering it or leaving a trace ? > If this is true, beech-trees are probably struck by lightning as” often as any others, but it leaves no trace of its passage over them, Jails 10), IPOS Holland, Mich., July 14. A Navajo Tree-Burial. FOR a number of years I enjoyed the opportunity of studying the customs and traditions of three or four tribes of Indians in the vicinity of Fort Wingate, N. Mex., and during that period became very familiar with the method of disposing of their dead resorted to by the Navajos, one of the tribes to whichI refer. They are, as we know, “ cliff-buriers,”’ as I have elsewhere described ; and per- sonally I never met with a case where they do not bury their de- ceased — men, women, and children —in the more capacious rents in the rocky cafions of the mountain-sides, where this tribe now inhabits. Recently, however, a well-authenticated case has been sent me where the Navajos had buried one of their dead children in atree. This was done not long ago, only about a mile from Fort Wingate, and was discovered by Mr. Benjamin Wittick, who has taken an admirable photograph of the tree and the locality. The body of the child had been deposited, after having been wrapped in cloth and blankets, longitudinally on the limb of alarge pifion-tree, about fifteen feet above the ground. A rude platform of dead and broken limbs was constructed to hold the body in position. Indeed, in all particulars the burial is characterized as a typical tree-burial, and is interesting from the fact that it consti- tutes such a remarkable departure from the general mortuary cus- tom of that tribe of our Indians. R. W. SHUFELDT. ‘ Takoma, D.C., July 16. SS INDUSTRIAL NOTES. New Outfit of Electrical Engineering Apparatus for Prince- ton College. MEssrs. JAMES W. QUEEN & Co. of Philadelphia, the well- known manufacturers and importers of electrical test instruments, report the sale of a bill of goods amounting to four thousand dol- lars to Princeton College for the equipment of their course in elec- trical engineering to be inaugurated in September next. The list embraces several of Queen’s large Wheatstone bridge sets as de- vised by Professor William A. Anthony, and pronounced by Pro- fessor B. F. Thomas of Ohio State University “to be superior to Elliott’s Dial Form.” These sets, as well as several of the next size smaller, also ordered by Princeton College, are all guaranteed by Professor Anthony to be accurate within 4, of one per cent. There is also a large $375 reflecting galvanometer made for the special purpose of measuring high insulation resistance, the galva- nometer itself having a resistance of 500,090 ohms. This will be the only instrument of this character in the United States. measuring induction co-efficients, etc., there is provided one of Ayrton & Perry’s Secohmmeters. For the determination of mag- netic constants there is a large Weber earth inductor which will be used, in addition to the Kew magnetometer already possessed by the physical department. There is also a Kohlrausch unifilar electro dynamometer for the measurement of very weak currents, such as those used in telephone work, etc. This suspension has the minimum amount of torsion as‘the current is conveyed out of the instrument by means of a platinum strip attached to the movable coil, and dipping into a dilute solution of sulphuric acid. A pair of Wiedemann’s large dead beat reflecting galvanometers, For Sir William Thomson’s astatic reflecting galvanometer, one of” Elliott’s differential galvanometers as well as his ballistic instru- ment, a Wheatstone Kirchoff cylinder bridge, Kohlrausch’s mirror differential galvanometer, condensers, telescopes, etc., go to make up the remainder of as fine an outfit of electrical test apparatus as has ever been sold at any one time in this country. a. - me SCIENCE. NOW READY! A NEW WORK!! A.B ( ELECTRICITY. By WM. H. MEADOWCROFT. Endorsed by THOS. A. EDISON. 1 volume, limp cloth, fully illustrated ; price, 50 cents. WHAT THE PRESS SAYS: = ae, clear and comprehensive little treatise.”—N. un. ‘“* Electrical science is making magnificent strides, and this book fills a useful office, in setting forth the features and characters of these adyances,”—Brook- lyn Times, 5 ‘The need of such a book has undoubtedly been x |felt by many .. . we predict for it a spendid sale. .”’—The Age of Steel. A book like this sh io Prepared according to the direction of Prof. E. N. Horsrorp. Herald. Fhe thisiehould' pe largely teat laa “The book is well lllustrated, and no pains have : : been spared to make it accurate and reliable ___A teaspoonful of the Acid Phosphate in a tumbler of water, and sweetened | jrougtour”—Dlechrieal Revver. to the taste makes a delicious, healthful and invigorating drink. To it may be} ‘'Insimple language the author lays bare the se- 6 : : : rets of electrical scl d tion,”—E added such stimulants as the person is from necessity or habit accustomed to|$rrent Wend ee ANG aPPlication.”—Hlec- take, and its action will harmonize therewith. fe pase amount of useful importance.”—Wash- It is an agreeable and healthy substitute for Lemons and Lime Juice in the |, Sent post paid to any address on receipt of price preparation of all acidulated drinks. Allays the thirst, aids digestion, and relieves Yn cape F, LOVELL & COMPANY, the lassitude so common in midsummer. 142 & 144 Worth St., New York. Dr. J. S. Nixes, Pownal, Vt., says: HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- pe J RMR 5 UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper “Excellent as a tonic, and refreshing as a substitute for lemonade. cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- Dr. T. C. Smit, Charlotte, N. C., says : ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York ‘* An invaluable nerve tonic, a delightful beverage, and one of the best restorers when the City. energies flag, and the spirits droop. Descriptive pamphlet free on application to J 0 H N § H 0 PKI N ) U N | V ERS | TY, f hemical Works, Providence, R. I. Rumford Chemic ' 7 SASHES. BEWARE OF SUBSTITUTES AND IMITATIONS. Announcements for the “next academic y fe year are now ready and will be sent on CAUTION:—Be sure the word ** Horsford’s® is printed on the label. Ali others are spurious. Never sold in bulk. application. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Offices: Atchison, Kan. [9! Broadway, New York, 222 Walnut St. Phila. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres’t. 7, Guaranteed Farm Mortgages ]"| The Guarantee Investment Company makes loans upon fertile farms in the choicest portions of Kansas and Nebraska and has adopted the policy of sending a Committee of tts Investors eachyear to examine its loans and methods of business. i The Committee this year ousted of PROF. A. H. BERLIN, Principal of the Hish School Montrose, Pa., ana MAJ. THEODORE L. POOLE, Ex-U. S. Pension Agent, Syracuse, N. VY. Both of these gentlemen are persons of the highest character and have the confidence of the Communities in which they reside. The Committee has recently returned and has made a very interesting Report upon the general development of Kansas ana Nebraska as well as the business of the Company. The Company will be glad to send this Report to any address. The following names are taken from the long list of Lnvestors in our Mortgages: (See if Some Friend of Yours is not in the List. ‘ William A. Cauldwell, 59 Liberty St., aaa R. C. Coleman, Goshen, N.Y. | Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, Montrose, Pa. RC fie colin, DD. se Livingston Place, NY. i Mrs. Samuel Carlisle, Newburg, N.Y. | Rev. William Baldwin, Great Bend, Pa. Rev. Brady E, Backus, D D. a West 28th St. NLY. | Dr. C. Bartholomew, Ogdensburg, N.Y. Gen. W illiam Lilly, Mauch Chunk, Pa. 20 SN GG renee a yethiSe NY. Rey. Nelson Millard, D.D., Rochester, N.Y. | Second Nat. Bank, Mauch Chunk, Pa. eDERobert A’ Murray. nes West ord St.. N.Y. | Rev. Horace G. Hinsdale, D D., Princeton, NJ: Enos E. Thatcher, West Chester, Pa. foo James P Tuttle 126 West EeceSts N Y | Dr. Charles M. Howe, Passa J Mrs. Townsend Poore, Scranton, Pa. H. use momibeal 18 RiltomSt N.Y. r George A. Skinner, 5 Ra . Newark, N.J. Rey. Burdett Hart, D.D., New Haven, Conn. Irving H. Tifft, Esq. 2 os Broadway, ASyate | Dr. Edwin M. Howe, 85 , Newark, N.J. | Dr. Frank H. Wheeler, New Haven, Conn. Prof. D. G. Eaton 55 Pineapple St , Brooklyn, N.Y. Dr. H. G. Buckingham Cla Ly ton, N. J. Charles R. Christy, Stamford, Conn. Dr. FE. P. Thwing. 756 St. Marks ees ., Brooklyn, N.Y. | Dr. Martin Cole, Jr., Hainesville, N. Mrs. Catharine P. Fuller, Woodmont, Conn. | . 7 | Mortgage Trust Co. of Pas Philadelphia, pas Jessie Henderson, Lenox, M TORR VN, Boren bere jolinreen N.Y. | Miss Mary, Miller, 1230 Spruce See, hiladelphia, Pa. . J. Halloran, Worcester, Mass. > W. Stilwell, aS INAS oo) | | Henry D. Biddle, 3117¢ Walnut St. , Philadelphia, Pa. | Albert Walker, Bennington, Vt. Address for Report and Monthly Bulletin HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. i SCIENCE. [Vor Xa. No: 337 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Electric Railways. Power Stations. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Stationary Motors 1, to 100 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. J. Please Mention ‘‘Science,” OMETHING NEW ; IN BOTH Life and Accident Insurance. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS: TEN-PAYMENT ACCIDENT POLICIES,—Insuring against Accident up to 70 yeas | 4 Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, andl of age, and if desired, returning amount of premiums to insured. mechanical, plain, and fine colored vews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. ANNUITY LIFE POLICIES.—The only form issued which furnishes a regular income, and the lowest in premium rate. Both Forms Copyrighted, and used exclusively by THE TRAVELERS, 3. crunow, > OF HARTE ORD CONN. 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF What the public think of them is shown by the : ‘ Microscope Stands, ny DANG Ey, G “Bi 1B AOE S A INT a olh S S Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial ACCIDENT PREMIUMS, over $1,000,000. LIFE INSURANCE WRITTEN, | and Histological work, ¢ largely in excess of corresponding period of 1888. of Objectives, Camera Assets, $10,992,000. 2 a Surplus, 82,948,000. Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus, PAID POLICY-HOLDERS OVER $16,500,000. OF THE PAST SIX MONTHS. Readers of Science JAMES G. BATTERSON, President, RODNEY DENNIS, Secretary. Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers, JOHN E. MORRIS, Assistant Secretary. willconfer a great favor by mentioning this paper, Old and Rare Books. One Million Magazines. Back numbers, vols. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. PO nS CLARE, \ : = >] ‘ = : | aS NGRAVING £8 34 Park Row, New York City. AYE) if : Ake [LLU STR “ATIVE : AND ADVERTISING DURP@SES “JOHN HASTINGS= = Fi WR Yor, a besutitul Gold Gand or Noss ze ee oy D > MMMM ose Chan Fen Set Planer See BRANCH AT 728-CHESTNUT STs O7-7LPARK ACE - old Band Moss Ros q , Watch, Brass Lamp, i : \ 1. Webster’ e full parti r Oe) ¥e Ai THE GREAT AMPRICAN TEA Con @ SS PHIEADEL PHA PA NEW ‘YORIG P. O. Box 289. 1 and 33 Vesey St., New York. PEN 19,) 1889 | SCIENCE. ili ¢. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. | Regulation Perfect. §. ‘Motors Designed for all ; Power Purposes. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York rk City. \\ New England Office, 19 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St, . Western Office, 139-1 141 Adams Street Chicago, “Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, The Mutual Life Insurance Fam | OF NEW YORK RICHARD A. AUIS BS, PRS SDE ASSETS $126,082,153 Be The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 Exceeded $103,000,000. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including A\ alin tli @SSSWS Oi oo0l6oscco eno o00boon0s DoOUm $ 7,275,301 68 Ay GENT WM TMACOME Olio oacce vveoveaccoocccodsaunce 3,096,010 06 AN SAIN TIN MEY JORMSMMOVINS Olio oeo0c00 Sceacocucoogd 2,333,400 00 A Baim Ti SUEPINS Ofocccsoceccvcrcquescosuse nove 1,645,622 11 A. gain in new businéss of..................+---. 33>750,792 85 AN GAT Off TISES WO HORE. ccoceoancoecbcoceco 9000 . 54,496,251 85 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. | a One tee AS iN SS Electric Current Counter Gold Medal Awarded at Melbourne Exhibition, 1888-89. | The most reliable Electric Meter ever invented. Guaranteed | correct for small and large currents. Built for direct two- wire, three-wire and alternating system, in sizes from 15 up to any | number of amperes. | Adopted by Siemens & Halske, Berlin, Germany; Edi- son Company, Berlin, Germany; Municipal Electric Lighting Works, Berlin, Germany. In use by European Central Stations measuring 60 million watts. Unquestioned superiority. Indispensable for Central Station work. Amount of current consumed may be ascertained at a glance, the dials being constructed on the same principle as the gas meter dials. FOR PRICES AND PARTICULARS, ADDRESS : HACKENTHAL, Ww. | SCIENCE. Gina Ii DROP ANNUNCIATORS, DON’ET FORGET THE DUST-PROOF BELLS. HAZAZER & STANLEY, ; 32 Frankfort Street, N Y. Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. Wants. /N YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for = personal interview inyited. . D.C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. REMOVAL. After Monday, July 1, 1889. my dental office will be at 6 Somerset Street (1st left from Beacon), until further notice. My Flesh-brushes will be for sale there. All in- formation in regard to the Flesh-brushes, also instruc- tions for using the same, can be obtained at the new office, from g 30 to 10.30 AM., and from 4 to 5 P.M. Communications by mail promptly replied to Boston, Mass. GEO. F WATERS. Schools. Connecticut, NEw Haven, SOLE MANUFACTURER AND IMPORTER, 21 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. ME:: CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. Early application necessary. MicuiGAn, HovueuTon. ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. iV SCIENCE. [Vor SUVA Non 22%; Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Lightest Weight Consistent with Highest Efficiency. SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION, Not Liable to get out of Order. Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION, Commutator Wear Reduced to a Minimum, roand 18 BROAD STREET, NEW YORK \h) TEXTURE, Cot ) ) eae NEW _YO It is better th : finer, more effective, for the money, and in the powder for your convenience. and lays them apart—comparatively of the work, so it saves the worst of the wear. i he it were, the fabric in one hand, the aking, washing with little work. As it saves the worst It isn’t the use of clothes that makes them old before their time ; it is rubbing and straining, getting the dirt out by main strength. For scrub- bing, house-cleaning, washing dishes, windows and glassware, Pearline has no equal. Beware of imitations, prize packages and peddlers. Pearline is sold by all grocers. 138 James Pyle, New York. MORRIS EARLE & C0. = SUCCESSORS 10 s1Ro GES) GLUEss EDALS) QUR 75 CENT COLORED SILK. We have had unusual success with this line of Gros Grains. R. & J. BECK, IN THE WORLD. 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and all Lea OLD MEDA e Accessories and Ap- BNSDIA Ga paratus. Photograph- gy Feouseitor Ma,” ic and Photo-Micro- Sap raphic Apparatus and utfits. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed fvee to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE in corresponding with us. E.& H.T. ANTHONY & CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Co., &e., &e. Repairs Everything. Its success has brought a lot of imitators copying us in every wa: ossible. Rene wbee that TH inLy GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue is manufactured aatelsy by the ‘They are 19 1-2 inches wide, have a fine cord weave, and are in 40 different, excellent shades. Under ordinary circumstances they would sell for $1 per yard. Send forsamples; they willsurely please you. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, + Apparatus and Supplies of every description. Sole proprietors of the Patent Detective, Fairy Nov- \ el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the \ MB Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits in great variety, from $9.00 upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. 28 More than 40 years established in this line of business. JAMES McCREERY & CO. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK. Ee FOOD ADU Vii keno And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues on application. E. & F. N. SPON, 12 Cortlandt St., New York. ¥ aad JU JDO 0 L 29 ies ¥ (Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. SINGLE CoplgEs, TEN CENTS. SEVENTH YEAR. aay NEW YORK, Juty 26, 1889. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. VoL, XIV. No. 338. |, THE BRUSH ELECTRIC COMPANY’S NEW ALTER- NATING-CURRENT SYSTEM. THE end attained in the system of long-distance transmission of electrical energy illustrated herewith has been reached by an aban- donment of the long-traversed routes already familiar to the public. A glance at the dynamo (Fig. 1) shows that it is compact, sim- ple, and symmetrical. An examination shows that it is of the alternating type ; that its field-magnets dre many, and carried by the shaft ; that the armature is fixed, and absolutely free from any magnetic material ; that its parts are easily accessible; and that FIG. 1.—NEW BRUSH ALTERNATING-CURRENT DYNAMO. The underlying principle of the “coreless’’ dynamo here illus- trated was discovered and applied by Mr. Brush more than ten years ago, and new demands have now called for its extended ap- plication on a regular scale. r : an armature-coil may be cut out, removed, or replaced without stopping the machine. The machine illustrated has an output of 60,000 watts, and supplies current for a thousand 16-candle-power lamps. : 52 SCLENG@IE The shaft bearings, bearing standards, base plate, and armature- slides are cast in one piece. The shaft carries two heavy cast-iron yoke-pieces 27 inches in diameter. To each of these are screwed, at equal radial and circumferential distances, the wrought-iron cores of 12 magnets of alternating polarity. Thus the whole ro- tating mass acts as a fly-wheel, tending to neutralize any variation in the speed of the prime generator. As the nominal speed of the machine is less than 1,100 revolutions per minute, the structural strength is more than sufficient to meet all demands made by cen- trifugal force. Further than this, the mechanical stress is less when the magnets are excited than when the alternator is running without load, as the lines of magnetic force between the faces of opposing poles tend to counteract centrifugal force. In machines | HIG. 2: of larger size, as usual, the speed is less, that of the 150,000-watt dynamo being not more than 700 revolutions per minute. The most interesting part of the alternator is the fixed armature, shown in Fig. 2. coils made of insulated copper ribbon wound on porcelain cores. The copper ribbon of each coil is re-enforced on either side with strong insulating material of the same thickness as the porcelain. One of these re-enforcements is grooved, and the other tongued. The coil, consisting thus of core, ribbon, and re-enforcements, has an angular width of 60 degrees. The upper part of each face of -each coil is covered with an insulating plate five-sixteenths of an inch thick. The coil thus built up and insulated is set in German- silver holders, cut from turned rings, and held together by sunk- headed screws. Each terminal of the copper ribbon connects with a binding-post, as shown. The six armature-coils thus mounted are carried in a German- FIGS. 2, 6, AND 8.— BRUSH ALTERNATING SYSTEM. The vertical disk is occupied by flat armature- _ [Vou OVE Nor Zee silver frame consisting of two semicircles bolted together on the line of the vertical diameter. Into the slots of the frame slip the six _ mounted armature-coils, the tongue on the edge of the one en- gaging with the groove on the edge of the next. The coils thus thrust into the intense magnetic field constitute a disk nine-six- teenths of an inch in thickness, and with an opening in the centre through which passes the revolving shaft. As there is no magnetic metal in the armature, there are no local currents to waste the en- ergy. The several coils are insulated carefully; and the stationary armature, as a whole, is insulated from the bed-plate on which it rests. The coils are joined in series, the binding-posts adjacent to any radial line of division betwen the two coils constituting fixed t FIG. 6. (A / (C uy a 4 x | | FIG, 8. terminals for the main line. There is no commutator, and there are no collecting brushes to take the alternating current from the rotating parts. The low resistance of the armature-coils is evident. It would seem impossible for one of them to burn out. None ever has burned out; but if one should, it may be removed, and a new one readily put in its place, in three minutes, or the injured coil may be shunted out of the circuit and the dynamo kept running with the other five until the time for shutting down. The coil section com- plete weighs only about 20 pounds. The whole armature may be removed by loosening the coupling-bolts, and sliding each half of the frame from between the field-magnets (Fig. 3). In action, the 24 field-magnets of the alternator are excited by ; the direct current from a Brush dynamo of the well-known form. This exciting current is carried to the brushes that rest upon the two uncut insulating rings (shown at the left of Fig. 1), and thence. Jury 26, 1889.] through the hollow shaft to the magnets. A rheostat (Fig. 4), _ worked by hand or automatically, is placed in the shunt circuit around the field-magnets"of the exciter; so that perfect regulation is secured without re-adjustment of the brushes, or any.necessity of handling the high-tension alternating current. SCrEINCE: 53 is less than ten per cent, as is shown in the curve, Fig. 5, which represents a diagram taken from one of the first machines. All this is accomplished without compound winding or artificial regu- - lation of any kind, —a result which, it is claimed, has not been ap- proached by any alternator with an iron core in its armature. All. FIG, The Brush ‘ coreless” alternator is built at present for an elec- _ tro-motive force of 2,000 volts, although it would be easy to develop a much greater difference of potential. It is confidently expected that the necessity of long-distance transmission with a line of 5 a 1s 8.— BRUSH ALTERNATING SYSTEM. the regulation needed is applied at the exciter, as already described. This results in a more even distribution of potential in the feeders and at the converter terminals, and a more even pressure at the terminals of the lamps beyond. FIG. 5.—BRUSH ALTERNATING SYSTEM. _ moderate cost will soon call for currents of higher tension, as _ economy of power as well as economy of copper point in this di- _ rection. _ The fall of the potential in the machine from no load to full load Though the high-tension current of the alternator is well adapted for economical carriage to distant points, it is not of the kind most desirable for introduction to the household, or for use in the lamp. Having brought electric energy from the place where it is devel- 54 oped to the place where it is to be used, the form given to it for economy of transportation may be changed so as to adapt it fully to the uses for which it is intended. High tension may be ex- changed for greater current, volts for ampéres. This transforma- tion is accomplished by the converter shown in Fig. 6. In this converter, the core consists of a polygonal ring made of insulated iron wire, so wound as to leave several concentric air-spaces in the core. In the converters of the smaller sizes, the core is built up of FIG. 4.— BRUSH ALTERNATING SYSTEM. perforated thin iron plates (Fig. 7). In either case, the iron is so divided that the efficiency of the converter is little less with half than with full load. Upon each side of this core or iron ring is wound a single layer of heavy copper wire. The four or five sin- -gle-layer coils carried by each half of the core are joined in series ; and the two groups, borne by the two halves of the core, are joined in multiple, the whole constituting the secondary coil. The termi- mals of this secondary coil connect with the secondary main line running into houses and supplying current for the lamps. Most of the converters are wound so as to give a secondary current of I ty 2 Ti iii ; | = [Eee [eZ ly Ht ul [ icc flo I 1 Ct FIG. 7. — BRUSH ALTERNATING SYSTEM. about 100 volts, but may instantly be connected to give 50 volts and twice as many ampéres as before. They are made in sizes that supply each from 5 to 250 16-candle-power lamps, or more. Between the fine iron wire of the core and the heavy copper wire of the superposed secondary coil, insulating pads one-eighth of an inch thick are placed at the corners of the core. Between these insulating corner-pieces are insulating air-spaces. Thus the cop- per and the iron are separated from each other at the corners of the core by their respective coverings and the insulating pads, and at all other points by their respective coverings and open air- spaces, the latter affording ample ventilation and facility of exami- nation. SCIENCE. Vou. XIVs No: 328 Over each of these single-layer parts of the secondary coil are bound a few layers of smaller copper wire to form a corresponding © part of the primary coil. These corresponding parts of the sec- ondary and primary coils are separated from each other by insu- lating pads at the corners and intervening air-spaces in the same manner and with the same advantages as previously described. The ventilation of these converters is specially provided for, and the insulation resistance is exceedingly high. It is impossible to so overload the wire of the primary circuit as to force its current into the secondary circuit: in other words, the high-tension current cannot pass the converter. The converters are tested at the fac- tory with double load, and, though no one has ever given out, over- - loading is made impossible by the use of safety-fuzes fom the pri- mary coils. These are extra long, and so mounted on slate or porcelain strips that they may be removed or replaced with the fingers merely, and without touching any metallic part of the con- verter. The converter-coils, with safety-fuzes, etc., are placed in wind and weather proof cast-iron boxes of pleasing design (Fig. 8), and may be placed wherever most convenient; the governing FIG. 9. — BRUSH ALTERNATING SYSTEM. principle being to do as much work as possible with the less ex- pensive primary wire, and to shorten the more costly secondary main. These converters are now made in sizes ranging from 2-lamp to 250-lamp capacity. With converters, as with dynamos, the larger sizes are the most economical. With a 1oo-volt con- verter fed by a 2,000-volt primary current, it is more easy and profitable to run a short secondary main to supply several con- sumers than to provide a converter for each consumer. Fig. 9 represents the ammeter, which is placed in the main or feed circuit, wherever it is desirable to measure the strength of the current. It is a compensated expansion device, acting on the prin- ciple of one type of Brush arc lamp. It is free from any magnetic action, the simple compensating arrangement insuring the normal working of the apparatus at all temperatures. It is equally effi- cient with direct and with alternating currents. The alternating-current apparatus of the Brush Electric Com- pany here described is based on the patents of Charles F. Brush and Gustav Pfannkuche, the latter having the supervision of this branch of the Brush Electric Company’s business. THE heat in Russia and other parts of northern Europe has been intense of late. The Central Observatory at St. Petersburg has not recorded such a high temperature at the same time of the year since 1774. _Juty 26, 1889.] , ARNOLD'S RETARDATION INDICATOR. _ THE retardation indicator shown in the accompanying engraving _ is an apparatus intended to be placed in the cab of a locomotive, for indicating the relative measure of resistance exerted by the air- brakes when arresting the momentum of the train. By its use the _ person operating the brakes may be enabled to so regulate the _ steam or air pressure applied to the brakes as to prevent a too rapid stoppage of the train, and the consequent discomfort to the passen- ae nr a a, i a eee ig adapted to the construction of lamp-filaments. __ made up of wood-cells of varying lengths and shapes in combina- gers. The indicator consists of a tube, with upturned ends, arranged _ horizontally in the cab or car, the axis of the tube being parallel with the direction in which the train is to move. This tube con- tains mercury, which, as the train starts or stops, shows a differ- ence of level in the upturned ends of the tube, governed by the rapidity of the starting or stopping, the change of momentum be- ing proportional to the impulse producing it. Each end of the tube is provided with a freely moving piston, which rests upon the sur- face of the mercury. These pistons are attached to an arm which is pivoted in the centre, the pistons exactly balancing each other. Attached to an extension of this arm is a bevel-geared sector, which meshes into a pinion connected with the pointer on the dial-plate. When the train is at rest, or moving at uniform speed, the pointer remains at zero on the dial; but, when starting up or slowing SCIENCE. 55 of these vessels and ducts combined with the wood-cells in any stem to render the structure exceedingly heterogeneous. Most of these cells and vessels have their longer diameter parallel with the general direction of the stem. Groups of thin-walled, prismatic cells pass radially from the central portion of the stem to the cir- cumference. These groups of cells are called medullary rays. It is impossible to cut a filament from any of these woods so that the medullary rays will not cross it many times at right angles to the ducts and long cells. The character of the cells forming these rays is so very different from the others in the filament, as to shape, direction, and thickness of the walls, that at the crossing points resistance is greatly increased, thus causing rapid burning and de- struction at such points. Such woods as hickory and rock-elm furnish the very best of our timbers. They are the toughest and most durable of our woods, but they do not make good filaments. The medullary rays are very numerous, and the walls of the cells composing them are greatly thickened. The long, pointed, thick-walled wood-cells do not follow a parallel course, but interlace with each other. This interlacing of the cells gives to these woods their toughness. It is the main characteristic, also, which renders them worthless when made into electric filaments. Upon carbonization of such filaments, the tension of the interlacing cells is relieved, and the tissues com- posing it become friable, and easily fall apart. ARNOLD’S RETARDATION INDICATOR. down, the pointer moves around the dial, to the right or the left, a distance proportional to the rapidity of the starting or the stop- ping. F Among the advantages claimed for it are the following: it shows the engineer at any instant the effect of the brakes upon the wheels, and enables him to retard the train uniformly, regardless of the condition of the track or of the air-pressure ; it economizes the air, and prevents an undue shock or strain on the brake-rigging or the car-body ; and it enables the engineer to apply the brakes gradu- ally, and with increasing effect, until the train is brought to rest. The indicator is manufactured by J. H. Reynolds of Troy, N.Y. ELECTRICAL NEWS. Incandescent Electric Lamp Filaments. IN a recent communication to the Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadelphia, on the use of bamboo in incandescent electric lighting, Professor William P. Wilson states, that, for want of a homogeneous structure, the ordinary exogenous woods are not Such woods are tion with a variety of ducts and vessels. The walls of the wood-cells may be more or less thickened, the vessels and ducts may be larger or smaller, numerous or infrequent, according to the kind of wood examined. There are always enough In the adult stem of the bamboo a combination of anatomical characters has brought about a result which makes it the most fitting material, so far as now known, for the electric lament. The nearly parallel fibro-vascular bundles grow more numerous as they approach the circumference of the stem, and, as is usual in similar stems, lose most, or sometimes all, of the woody elements, thus becoming pure bast. The parenchymatic tissue, which toward the centre of the stem may be composed of a layer of five or six cells between the bundles, decreases in amount near the circumference until but one layer of cells remains. The walls of the cells in this single layer often become so thickened, and at the same time compressed by the growth of the bast, that these bundles appear to make a solid zone of bast around the circumference of the stem. The bast-cells also continue to thicken their walls until they become, in the best specimens for the filament, completely filled and solid. It is from this zone of bast at the circumference of the stem that the filament is always taken. It is perhaps the nearest approach, in its continuity of structure and uniform char- acter, to a metallic conductor, of any tissue which can be found in the vegetable kingdom. Photographs of Lightning. At a meeting of the Physical Society of London held June 22, and reported in Mature, Mr. A. W. Clayden presented a note on some photographs of lightning, and of “black” electric sparks. The lightning photographs, three in number, were obtained dur- 56 SCIENCE. ing the storm on June 6. Two flashes, seen on one plate, show complicated and beautiful structure: one of them is a multiple flash, and flame-like appendages point upwards from every angle; the other is a broad ribbon, and, although the plate shows signs of movement, the displacement is not in a direction such as would produce a ribbon-like effect’ from a linear flash. The second plate shows four flashes, none of which are ribbon-like, though the camera had moved considerably. The third plate was exposed to six flashes, one of which was believed to pass down the middle of the plate; but, on development, only a triple flash in one corner of the plate was seen. Careful search, however, revealed the central flash as a dark one with a white core, and other dark flashes were subsequently found. The plate was very much over-exposed, and this suggested that black flashes might be due to a sort of cumu- lative action caused by the superposition of the glare from a white cloud upon the normal image of the flash. To test this, sparks from a Wimshurst machine were photographed, and, before de- velopment, the plates were exposed to diffused gaslight for a short time. The bright sparks yielded normal images with reversed margins, and the faint ones were completely reversed. Other ex- periments showed the reversal to spread inwards as the time of exposure to gaslight increased. Finally, reversal was effected by placing a white screen behind the spark, to represent a white cloud, the only illumination being that of the spark itself. In the discussion which followed, Mr. W. N. Shaw exhibited a photograph taken during the same storm, which is particularly rich in dark flashes branching outwards from an intensely bright one. In some places the bright line has dark edges, and in one part a thin bright line runs along the middle of an otherwise dark portion of the flash. In answer to Mr. Inwards, Mr. Shaw said the plate was exposed about half a minute ; and the former thought, that, under those conditions, the appearance of the plate did not contra- dict Mr. Clayden’s hypothesis. Speaking of the same photograph, Professor Perry considered that Mr. Clayden’s observations would explain the result, for a bright flash required more exposure to diffused light to reverse it than a faint one did. Professor Ramsay reminded the meeting that Professor Stokes’s ‘“‘ oxides of nitrogen” explanation was still a possible one; and Mr. C. V. Burton asked whether they may be due to faint sparks cutting off light from brightly illuminated clouds, just as a gas-flame absorbs light from a brighter source. In reply, Mr. Clayden thought the “oxides of nitrogen ” hypothesis improbable, and said his experiments did not enable him to answer Mr. Burton’s question. As regards Mr. Shaw’s plate, he believed the diffused light from the clouds would be sufficient to reverse the fainter tributary flashes, although it was insufficient to reverse the primary one. From data obtained when the ribbon-flash was taken, he had made some calculations which gave the height of the clouds about 1,000 yards, and the ribbon- flash 1,300 yards long and 100 yards wide. PERMEABILITY OF IRON.— From experiments conducted dur- ing the last two years, J. T. Bottomley, F.R.S., finds that the per- meability of iron can be enormously reduced by repeated heatings and coolings while undergoing magnetic cycles of small range. AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC RAILWAY-LAMPS. — Mr. H. J. Dows- ing, in a letter to the Electrical Review of July 12 (London), claims to have invented a lamp for train use. A penny is dropped into the apparatus, a handle half turned, and the light immediately shines forth; and without any arrangement of clockwork trains, springs, etc., the time is controlled and the light goes out at the end of half an hour. An advantage which perhaps could not be so easily managed by clockwork is, that one can arrange the appara- tus to burn any time, from two minutes to say ten hours, by one half-turn of the handle. HEALTH MATTERS. Water-Supply of Paris. THE Paris correspondent of the Zazcet, writing in the issue for June 22, says that a great danger to visitors to Paris is due to the insufficiency of the water-supply. Paris is in a most unfortunate position. It cannot be said that the water-supply is bad. On the contrary, at immense cost, Paris has secured one of the best water- [Vot. XIV. No. 338 supplies enjoyed in any town of Europe. According to the last report, Paris was receiving 121,000 cubic metres of the Vannes ~ water, 21,000 cubic metres derived from the Dhuis, and 5,000 cubic metres from the St. Maur springs, — in all, 147,000 cubic metres of pure and excellent spring-water. This, however, is not enough. The daily consumption is estimated at 158,000 cubic metres. The deficiency is not very great: still it is enough to compromise the— whole town; for, when the store of good water is exhausted, the Seine water is provided, and this through the same channels and without warning. Thus, though a person may, as a rule, drink wholesome water, he will receive for a week or so, during the course of the year, water taken from the Seine, which is very likely to be contaminated. Again: a person may drink a glass of water in one quarter of Paris which is perfectly pure, while in another district he may, on the same day, get water that is certainly not free from the occasional presence of injurious organic matter. At the present moment, the supply of spring-water having reached a low ebb, the Seine water is turned onin four arrondissements. For twenty days these unfortunate districts are to receive only the Seine water; then three other arrondissements are to be served in the same way. In the pavilion of the prefecture of the Seine, situated in the central court or garden of the exhibition, will be seen three glass tanks of water side by side. One receives the water of the Ourcg Canal, another of the Seine, and the third of the Vannes. The first two are more or less opaque, are of a green-yellowish tint, and vary more or less in aspect from day to day; but that which contains the water of the Vannes is always perfectly transparent, and never changes. Members of the Municipal Council have urged, so far in vain, that the water-supply should be increased. There are nu- merous projects, and recently a resolution was passed by the coun- cil, calling upon the legislative chambers to discuss at once the scheme for bringing the waters of the Avre to Paris. That the Seine water may be dangerous will be obvious to all who are acquainted with the neighborhood of Paris. The intake for the supply is, of course, outside the town, and some little dis- tance up the stream, but it is unpleasantly near the large manufac- tories of foudrette, or human guano. Also there are boats con- taining tanks which are filled with the contents of cesspools, and the manure is thus conveyed up the river to the works. A few years ago some scavengers, in their impatience to finish their day’s toil, instead of conveying all the soil the barges contained to the works, simply threw a considerable portion over into the river. Fortunately this was discovered ; and now there is a service of in- spection organized both day and night, and careful watch is kept that these tank-barges should not again contaminate the water. But there are other causes of pollution, and it is an undeniable fact that many outbreaks of typhoid-fever in Paris have occurred about a fortnight after the substitution of Seine water for the usual and pure supply of water from the Vannes or the Dhuis. The question of water-supply is a very serious problem, which the French au- thorities should lose no time in settling. THE NAPHTHA Hapsit.— The Medical Standard calls atten- tion to the growth of the “ naphtha habit ” among the female em- ployees of rubber-factories. The inhalation of naphtha-fumes produces a peculiarly agreeable inebriation. Naphtha is used to clean rubbers, and is kept in large boilers, to the valve of which the female employees obtain access, and breathe the fumes. The habit was introduced from Germany, and is chiefly found in the | New England States. NOTES AND NEWS. THROUGH the efforts of Dr. Filip Trybom, the Swedish Oyster- Culture Society is attempting to acclimatize the American oyster, imported from Connecticut, in several places along the coast of the province of Bohus. The young oysters seem to thrive well. — The Victorian Government statist has published a return of the estimated population of the Australian colonies for 1888. In Victoria the estimated population on Dec. 31 last was 1,090,869 ; New South Wales, 1,085,356; Queensland, 387,463; South Aus- tralia, 313,065; western Australia, 42,137; Tasmania, 146,149; New Zealand, 607,380; making a total of 3,672,419 for the whole Jury 26, 1880. | eM eS | of the colonies. During the year the population of the Australian colonies increased 120,668: the increase in Victoria being 54,750; _ New South Wales, 42,437 ; Queensland, 20,523; South Australia, 4,381 ; western Australia, 351; Tasmania, 3,671; New Zealand, 4,019. — The 7é/e played by vegetation in determining the character of land surface is well shown in the so-called “ banana-holes,” so abundant in New Providence and other of the Bahama Islands, — holes varying in size from that of a pint cup to that of a large cis- tern. They are suggestive of pot-holes, but can have no such ori- gin, and are evidently not cut out by the waves at any previous period of subsidence. Professor Charles S. Dolley, who recently examined these holes, could account for their formation in but one way, and that is through the action of decaying vegetable matter. Each of these holes contains large quantities of leaves and other vegetable substances, which, being kept wet by the heavy rains and by the fresh water elevated by each rising tide (almost all wells have a regular ebb and flow in these porous islands), undergo fer- mentative changes, by the products of which the soft calcareous tock is dissolved, and leaches away. — L'Economiste Francaise says that on the 31st of December, 1887, the total length of railways worked in Europe amounted to 207,939 kilometres (the kilometre being equivalent to .621 of a mile), as compared with 201,468 kilometres in the preceding year. The increase in 1887 was therefore 6,471 kilometres, or at the rate of 3.21 per cent. The openings to traffic of the new lines which took place in 1887 increased by 2.67 per cent the length of the French system, while the percentage increase was 3.18 in Germany, 5-59 in Austria-Hungary, 3.71 in Belgium, 1.03 only in the United Kingdom, 3.92 in Italy, 2.96in Russia. Roumanian lines increased 21.25 per cent in 1887. The extent of French railway lines opened in the course of 1887 represents 13.77 per cent of the total length of line opened in the whole of Europe during the same period. The participation of Germany in the increase of the European rail- way system is 18.87 per cent; Austria, 20.21 per cent; Belgium, 2.60 per cent; Great Britain and Ireland, 5 per cent; Italy, 6.76 per cent ; and Russia, 12.67 per cent. — Professor Edward H. Griffin of Williams College has accepted in Johns Hopkins University the office of dean, and professor of the history of philosophy, and he will enter upon his new duties at the beginning of the next session. He was graduated at Williams College in 1862, and subsequently pursued the study of theology in Princeton and in New York. Since 1872 he has been a professor in Williams College, having recently occupied the chair of intellec- tual and moral philosophy which bears the name of Mark Hopkins. Professor Griffin received the honorary degree of D.D. from Am- herst in 1880, and of LL.D. from Princeton in 1888. — It appears, according to Vature, that the meteoric stone found in Scania, and acquired by Baron Nordenskidld for the National Museum at Stockholm, fell on April 6, and that its fall was accom- panied by a red flash like lightning and a thunder-like detonation. It weighs eleven kilograms, and had made a hole thirty centi- metres in depth; but, having recoiled, it lay on the level ground at the edge of the hole. The color is grayish black, and the fracture grayish white. From a hasty analysis made by Herr A. Win- gardh of Helsingborg, the chief mass appears to consist of manga- nese, in which are yellow and gray particles of metal. The mete- orite seems to have been in a red-hot state, being covered with a glazed coating of fused metal half a millimetre in thickness. — The international congress which met in Paris in 1887 tomake arrangements for the preparation of a photographic chart of the heavens expressed a wish that a similar congress might meet for the discussion of questions relating to celestial photography in gen- eral. M. Janssen and Mr. Common were asked to take such steps as might be necessary for the attainment of this object ; and after- wards, by a ministerial decision at Paris, an organizing committee, with M. Janssen as president, was appointed. The arrangements have now been completed, and the congress will be held in Paris from Aug. 22 to Sept. 3. The aim of the congress will be to de- termine the methods which are most suitable for each branch of celestial photography, and the means by which the results obtained by these methods can be most effectually published and preserved. ; SCIENCE. 57 —W. F. C. Hasson, a graduate of the United States Naval Academy, and now an assistant engineer of the United States Navy, has been detailed by the United States Navy Department to give instruction for the next three years in mechanics and engineering at Johns Hopkins University, and has already entered upon the duties of his new post. —W. J. Stillman writes to azure, June 27, from Canea, Crete, that he has just witnessed a curious case of bird instinct which seems worth recording. A gardener living at Zukaleria, three miles from Canea, caught in his garden a young but fully fledged spar- row, which he brought to the house of a friend with whom the writer was staying in Canea, leaving home early in the morning. He presented the bird to one of the children in the house, and it was put in a cage and hung at the window, where it seemed likely to be contented, losing its fright after a few hours. Late in the afternoon an old bird was noticed fluttering about the cage, ap- parently trying to get at the little one ; and the young bird, on its appearance, became frantic to get out to the old one. It was evi- dently the mother of the young one, as the recognition was too cordial to have been owing to the interest of a strange bird; and when Mr. Stillman’s daughter opened the cage, as she did after a little, they both flew off rapidly in the direction of Zukaleria. It is impossible that the old bird should have followed the gardener, as it would have been seen by them earlier in the day. — The Botanical Society of France announces the following programme of the forthcoming botanical congress to be held in Paris: Tuesday, Aug. 20, opening sitting of the congress at 2 P.M., at the hotel of the Horticultural Society, 84 Rue de Grenelle; re- ception of foreign members at 8.30 P.M. Wednesday, Aug. 21, " sitting at 9 A.M., devoted to the consideration of the first question, on the utility of an agreement between the different botanical so- cieties and museums, for the purpose of drawing up charts of the distribution of species and genera of plants on the globe; and other communications, if time allows. Thursday, Aug. 22, excur- sion in the neighborhood of Paris. Friday, Aug. 23, sitting at 9 A.M., devoted to the consideration of the second question, on the characters furnished by anatomy for classification, and other com- munications if time allows; in the afternoon a visit to the botanical collections and laboratories of the Museum of Natural History, and of the other large scientific establishments in Paris. Saturday, Aug. 24, sitting at 9 A.M., miscellaneous contributions; in the afternoon a visit to the exhibition. Sunday, Aug. 25, banquet to the foreign botanists. During the following week several botanical excursions will also be arranged. Special arrangements with re- gard to railway-fares will be made in favor of botanists announcing their intention to be present to M. P. Maury, the secretary to the committee of organization, 84 Rue de Grenelle, before July 25. — The sixty-second meeting of German naturalists and physi- cians will be held at Heidelberg from Sept. 17 to Sept. 23. One whole day will be devoted to excursions in the neighborhood, and on the evening of Sept. 23 the Castle of Heidelberg will be bril- liantly illuminated. — Satisfactory progress is being made with the preliminary ar- rangements in connection with the Electrical Engineering and Mechanical Inventions Exhibition, which is to be held in Edin- burgh next year to commemorate the opening of the Forth Bridge. Support has been promised from this country, and some of the exhibits in the Paris Exhibition are to be transferred to Edinburgh. — In 1887-88 the courses in astronomy at Johns Hopkins were so extended as to justify its being chosen as a principal subject by candidates for the degree of doctor of philosophy. A small obser- vatory has been erected, and is fitted up with a meridian circle by Fauth & Co., a portable transit instrument by Troughton, a clock, a chronograph, and other subsidiary apparatus. In the dome of the physical laboratory is mounted an equatorial of 93 inches aper- ture, so fitted that the student can learn to make the usual deter- minations with the largest instruments of that class. The work in astronomy consists in a study of the history and practice of the subject, supplemented by instruction in the use of the instruments, and exercises in astronomical computation. During the year 1889— go the courses are intended to cover a wider range of individual subjects than usual. 58 — Dr. Henry M. Hurd, now superintendent of the State Hospital for the Insane at Pontiac, Mich., in the neighborhood of Detroit, has been appointed superintendent of the Johns Hopkins Hospital. His life has been devoted to hospital service, and he has acquired distinction as an administrator, and also as a writer. He was graduated in arts and in medicine at the University of Michigan, and has twice been called by his a/wza mater to a professorship of medicine. He has already visited Baltimore, and will permanently assume his new responsibilities on the first of August next. — Messrs. Dubois and Francois of Seraing, Belgium, have de- vised a system of drilling and breaking down rock and coal, to which they have given the name of ‘‘ Bosseyage Mécanique.” This system consists in first boring a hole, and then in breaking down the rock by a compound wedge formed of two half round outer portions, and a central tongue or arrow. The boring or jumping tool is taken off the drill spindle, and is replaced by a tup, by which the central wedge is driven forward by repeated blows until the rock gives way, and a part of it falls down. —It is stated, apparently on good authority, that the money taken at the Eiffel Tower elevators between May 15 and July 2 has amounted to 1,298,944 francs, or nearly $260,000. If these figures be correct (and there seems no reason to doubt them), the Eiffel Tower will prove as great a success as every other part of this wonderful centennial celebration. — Mr. and Mrs. Lawrence Turnbull of Baltimore have founded in the Johns Hopkins University a lectureship of poetry in memory of their deceased son, Percy Graeme, who was born May 28, 1878, and died Feb. 12, 1887. The lectureship will bear the name of “ The Percy Turnbull Memorial Lectureship.” The income of the foundation is one thousand dollars per annum, and the first course of lectures may be expected in the session of 1889-90. —Mr. Eugene Levering of Baltimore has offered to the Johns Hopkins University the sum of twenty thousand dollars for the construction of a building for the uses of the Young Men's Chris- tian Association, and for the promotion in other ways of the inter- ests of that society. —On the motion of Lord Charles Beresford, a parliamentary return has been prepared, giving particulars of all breech-loading iron and steel guns that have failed after delivery for service. The return states that no guns have burst, or “ blown out,” or rendered the breech-piece useless, and no gun has been rendered useless by erosion, though between Dec. 31, 1885, and March 19, 1888, nine guns have had to be relined. The number of rounds fired from these nine before relining became necessary varied in the different instances from 114 to 1,480. Six guns were injured from other causes, and required retubing or relining. Only one Elswick gun has failed during the period covered by the report, the rest being all of Woolwich manufacture. — Among the recent appointments of graduates of Johns Hop- kins University we have learned of the following : William J. Alex- ander (fellow 1881-83, Ph.D. 1883), professor of English, Univer- sity of Toronto; John C. Adair (graduate student 1887—89), pro- fessor of chemistry, Tarkio College, Missouri ; Charles M. An- drews (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889), associate professor of history, Bryn Mawr College; Louis Bevier (fellow 1879-81, Ph.D. 1881), adjunct professor of modern languages, Rutgers College; Frank W. Blackmar (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889), professor of history and sociology, University of Kansas; Oskar Bolza (reader in mathematics, 1888-89), associate in mathematics, Clark University ; Benjamin L. Bowen (Ph.D. 1888), associate professor of French and German, Ohio University ; William M. Burton (fellow 1888— 89, Ph.D. 1889), chemist, Standard Oil Company, Cleveland, O.; Morgan Callaway, jun. (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889), professor of English, South-Western University, Georgetown, Tex.; John Daniel (graduate student 1886-88), instructor in physics, Vander- bilt University ; Paul J. Dashiell (A.B. 1887), instructor in organic chemistry, Lehigh University ; Henry H. Donaldson (fellow 1881— 83, Ph.D. 1885, associate and instructor 1885-89), assistant pro- fessor of neurology, Clark University ; Charles G. Dunlap (grad- uate student 1883-86), associate professor of English, University of Kansas; Alfred Emerson (fellow 1882-84), professor of Greek, Lake Forest University, Illinois; Joseph A. Fontaine (Ph.D. 1886), SCIENCE [VoL XI Ves No: 238 professor of modern languages, University of Mississippi; Samuel Garner (Ph.D. 1881), assistant professor of modern languages, United States Naval Academy; Richmond Harding (Ph.D. 1887), ~ professor of Greek, Davidson College, North Carolina; James T. Hatfield (fellow 1888-89), professor of German, North-Western University, Illinois ; Clifton F. Hodge (fellow 1888-89, Ph.D. 1889), fellow in psychology, Clark University ; James G. Hume (graduate student 1887-88), Rogers fellow in ethics, Harvard University ; H. C. G. von Jagemann (fellow 1883-84, Ph.D. 1884), assistant pro- fessor of German, Harvard University ; David J. Lingle (graduate student 1887-89), assistant professor of biology, Tulane University ; Warren P. Lombard (graduate student 1886-87), assistant pro- fessor of physiology, Clark University; James L. Love (graduate student 1884-85), Morgan fellow in mathematics, Harvard Univer- sity ; Thomas McCabe (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1888), professor of modern literatures and director of German department, Indiana University ; Archibald MacMechan (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1889), professor of the English language and literature, Dalhousie College, Nova Scotia; Franklin P. Mall (fellow 1886-88, assistant in pa- thology 1888-89), adjunct professor of anatomy, Clark University ; Philippe B. Marcou (instructor in French 1880-83), instructor in French, University of Michigan; John E. Matzke (Ph.D. 1888), collegiate professor of French, Bowdoin College; Colyer Meri- wether (A.B. 1886), instructor in the English language and litera- ture, Second Higher Middle School, Sendai, Japan ; Chase Palmer (A.B. 1879, fellow 1880-82, Ph.D. 1882), professor of chemistry, Wabash College, Indiana; Mansfield T. Peed (graduate student 1883-85 and 1887-89), professor of mathematics, Emory Col- lege, Georgia; Edmund C. Sanford (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1888), instructor in psychology, Clark University; Charles L. Smith (fellow 1887-88, Ph.D. 1889), instructor in history, Johns Hopkins University ; Kirby W. Smith (Ph.D. 1889), instructor in Latin, Johns Hopkins University; Henry N. Stokes (fellow 1881-83, Ph.D. 1884), chemist, United States Geological Survey, Washing- ton, D.C.; John N. Swan (graduate student 1888-89), professor of chemistry, Westminster College, Pennsylvania; W. Scott Thomas. (A.B. 1889), professor of Greek and Latin, Chaffee College, Cali- fornia; Frederick J. Turner (graduate student 1888-89), professor of American history, University of Wisconsin; Amos G, Warner (fellow 1886-87, Ph.D. 1888), professor of political economy, Uni- versity of Nebraska; John R. Wightman (fellow 1886-87, Ph.D. 1888), professor of French, Iowa College; Lucius E. Williams. (graduate student 1885-89), Swarthmore College. — The simple and successful method by which a high chimney was recently overthrown is described by an exchange. The stack was one hundred feet high by ten feet square, and was on the Griswold Mills property, New Bedford, Mass. It was undermined by knocking out the bricks on the west and north sides, and shored up by planks placed in the apertures. These planks were liberally covered with tar and kerosene. When the time arrived for felling the chimney, they were fired. As they became sufh- ciently burned to cease to support the chimney, the mass settled! out of the perpendicular to the north, and then cracked and felk witha crash to the ground. The bricks at the top were scattered over quite an area, while the iron coping was broken in quite a number of pieces. Along the length of the chimney to the height of sixty or seventy feet, masses of brick for a length of two feet or more clung together, and did not break up. — An interesting series of experiments have been conducted, says Buzlding, by the Dutch state railways, for the purpose of ascertaining exactly the relative resistance of various pigments to atmospheric changes and to the corrosive action of sea-water. The results have proved that the red-lead paints are less affected by atmospheric influence than those which are composed of the brown oxides of iron, on account of their adhering more closely to the metal, and of their possession of greater elasticity. It was. also discovered that any sort of paint afforded an increased protec- tion if the plates were pickled in hydrochloric acid before its ap- plication. The prevention of corrosion by salt water was found to. be possible by the admixture of the oxide of some electro-positive metal, such as caustic lime and soda; but the efficiency of such a assistant professor of chemistry, “ies Paes Oe OO ee ne ‘ é 4 ¥ ‘ { , Jury 26, 1880. | @ of copper. neutralized by the absorption of carbonic acid. Magnesia, how- ever, was proved to be most serviceable, seeing that it does not absorb carbonic acid; and not only does it protect the iron from ' galvanic action, but it also does not affect the anti-fouling qualities of the paint. — We have received the “ Annual Report of the Board of Edu- cation and the Superintendent of Public Instruction of New Jersey ” for the year ending Aug. 31, 1888. The report of the board oc- cupies but a single page, and is of no general interest, while that of the State superintendent is mainly statistical. The State has increased its expenditure for schools of late, the increase for the year reported over the previous year being $450,000; and all the documents before us show that the authorities are alive to the need of educational improvement. It is not many years since the schools of the State were first graded, and the results of the change are reported as gratifying. Manual training has been introduced in a few places, but sufficient time has not yet elapsed to determine its real value. The reports of the county and city superintendents form the largest and most interesting part of the volume before us, but we have not space to particularize any of them. They detail the various methods employed in the different localities, with sug- gestions on various points. The report contains a large amount of statistical matter conveniently classified and arranged. — The official returns of the last vintage of France show a sensible improvement over that of the previous year. It produced, says the Yournal of the Soctety of Arts, 30,102,151 hectolitres of wine, being an increase of 5,768,867 hectolitres over 1887, and a diminution of 1,601,000 hectolitres only on comparison with the average production of the previous ten years. There were in 1888 1,843,580 hectares under vines. There is an augmentation of pro- duction in 37 departments, and a decrease in 40 departments. It is in the southern districts that the improvement is the most marked, while the regions of the east and west are most unfavorable. The departments of the south, which were the first attacked by the phylloxera, have been also the first to reconstitute their vineyards by the introduction of American stocks. These efforts have been in general successful, and in a short time it is hoped this region may regain its former importance. The mildew has in most of these departments been combated by the employment of sulphate The abundant rains during a portion of the summer, and the fine weather which followed in September, contributed to the development of the grapes, and the gathering was effected in excellent conditions. On the contrary, in the colder regions, the persistent rains of summer checked the ripening of the grapes, and retarded the vintage until the approach of frost. The wine-growers had recourse, as in preceding years, to the employment of sugar to improve the quality and increase the produce of their wines. No less than 36,633 tons of sugar were used for this purpose in 1888. Larger quantities of foreign wines were also imported to meet the demand for mixing. The imports were, from Spain, 7,008,000 hectolitres; Italy, 1,082,305 hectolitres; and Algeria, 1,089,000 hectolitres. The deficiency in the production was also made up by the manufacture of wines from the marc with sugar added, and from dry imported raisins. Of the former, 2,388,000 hectolitres were made; and of the latter, 2,220,000 hectolitres. The produc- tion of wine in Algeria is largely on the increase. The quantity made in 1888 was 2,728,373 hectolitres, against 1,902,457 in 1887. There are over 88,326 hectares under culture with vines in Algeria. — On the evening of Jan. 31 last, about 9 o’clock, says Va/wre, the self-recording barometer at the Deutsche Seewarte showed a sudden dip of about .o4 of an inch, with a corresponding jump upwards a few minutes afterwards; and in the course of a day or two it was found that the barographs at other stations exhibited a similar phenomenon. Although the disturbance cannot be compared in any way to the air-wave caused by the Krakatoa eruption, yet the rapidity of its translation proved it to be a noteworthy meteorolo- gical phenomenon, and its behavior over central Europe is dis- cussed in an article contributed to the Anmalen der Hydrographie und maritimen Meteorologze for June, by Dr. E. Herrmann of the Deutsche Seewarte. The disturbance is traced from Keitum (lati- tude 54° 54’), where it occurred at 7h. 50 m. P.M., Berlin time, on Jan. 31, to Pola (latitude 49° 42’), which it reached at 4h. 38m. A.M. SCIENCE (7 ' covering was destroyed when its alkaline properties had been 5g on Feb. 1, having travelled at the rate of about 71 miles per hour. In an easterly and westerly direction the disturbance seems to have been confined to narrow limits, The barometer was high over southern Europe (30.5 inches), with minima (28.7 inches) over northern Finland, and between Iceland and Norway. There was. no earthquake in Europe at the time, and the cause of the phe- nomenon remains at present unexplained. — During the year 1886 the masonry and iron-work of the Madrid and Baudin bridges at Paris, says Engzueerzng, were thoroughly cleansed by the process of M. de Liebhaber. These processes, chemical in their nature, were at first applied to the cleaning of limestones, but in these bridges materials of a different na- ture were dealt with. The surfaces to be cleansed are submitted to the action of a jet of mixed (dilute) hydrochloric and sulphuric acids, and left for two or three hours, when they are brushed, and finally washed with a water-jet. In the case of limestone, the hydrochloric acid unites with the calcium, forming chloride of lime, which is then decomposed by the sulphuric acid, forming a calcium sulphate; this being precipitated on the face of the stone, and containing all the impurities, which are then removed by the action of the brush and water-jet. In many cases this treatment will not succeed unless the stone is previously prepared, as the masonry becomes coated with a deposit of impurities con- tained in the atmosphere, which prevents the acids reaching the stones. In this case, before applying the acids, the stone is cov- ered with a paste, consisting of a mixture of carbonate of soda and calcium hydrate, which is called “tolugene.” It is spread over the masonry to a thickness of from one-half of a millimetre to one millimetre, and left there for from three-quarters of an hour to an -hour, when the excess is washed down and brushed off, and the acids applied as described. In cleaning iron-work, the “ tolugene ” alone is used. It is spread over the work either with a trowel or brush, and in the course of an hour or so will have united with all the oil of the paint, leaving the red lead on the work in the form of a powder, which can be easily washed off with a jet of water. In cleansing brick, the work is first paintéd with a solution of am- monium fluoride, and this immediately afterward is treated with a: jet of concentrated sulphuric acid, which liberates hydrofluoric: acid; and this attacks the silicates, depriving them of their silica- The whole surface is afterward thoroughly washed with water. — Reaumur, more than one hundred and fifty years ago, made quite extensive researches on clothes-moths; and, observing that they never attacked the wool and hair on living animals, he inferred that the natural odor of the wool, or of the oily matter in it, was distasteful to them. He therefore rubbed various garments with the wool of fresh pelts, and also wet other garments with the water in which wool had been washed, and found that they were never attacked by moths. He also experimented with tobacco- smoke and the odors of spirits of turpentine, and found that both of these were destructive to the moths; but it was necessary to close the rooms very tightly, and keep the fumes very dense in them for twenty-four hours, to obtain satisfactory results. Mr. C- H. Fernald (Bulletin No. 5 of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural College) has always found that any material subject to the attacks of moths may be preserved from them if packed away with sprigs of cedar between the folds. The odor of cedar is so disagreeable to them that they will not deposit their eggs where this odor is at all strong. Chests of cedar, or closets finished in the same wood, will protect clothing from moths. as long as the odor is strong ; but this is lost with age, and then they are no protection. It must be remembered that the odor of cedar, camphor, etc., only prevents the moth from laying her eggs on the fabrics ; but if the eggs are laid before the garments are packed away with cedar, etc., the odor will not prevent the hatch- ing of the eggs nor the destructive work of the larve afterwards. Clothing may also be protected from moths by packing it in bags made of either stout paper or cotton cloth, if made perfectly tight, but this must be done before the moths appear on the wing in the spring. — Professor Edward S. Morse of Salem, Mass., has received no- tice of his election as corresponding member of the Berlin Society of Ethnology, Anthropology, and Archzology, accompanied by the society’s diploma. ©0 SCIENGE : 4 WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY NDE Ge LOND iGsEVSr 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, New YorRK. SuBscriIPTIONS.—United States and Canada...... ....--.-+-. - $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe.............2-.0..-+ 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): I SUDSCrIPtion I YEATs.oceeceenee. sees se eeee ee seeees $ 3.50 2 ee 5 SyGAPocesponne0eg cdodasaeSocoede6050 6.09 3 oe 8.00 4 Gs 10.co Communications will be welcomed from any quarter, Rejected manuscripts will be eturned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the ‘manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name ‘and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. NEW YORK, Juty 26, r88o. Vou. XIV. No. 338. CONTENTS: Tue Brush Exrectric ComMpPany’s | Norges AnD NEWS....:...-.00..--00. 56 New ALTERNATING - CURRENT a EEDIMORIAT Yt iecnicesjar caesar 60 STEM fev ttitee ney eee nekicicle nodes é 2 oe: Topics of the Times. AARNOLD’S RETARDATION INDICATOR. 55 ; . RTS bob b HAGERT DOOATES ABER Gis cacsoe 60 Evecrrica, News. COrrcloRMHORSES) casa enceeeenet nes 60 Incandescent Electric Lamp Fila- Quartz FIBRES.. .. . .... 000. 6r MENS ocbs, 9 (asaneceaougcens pdoe 55 | CutTIvaTION oF SUGAR IN PErsta.. 62 Photographs of Lighting. .......... 55 | Frurt-CanpyinG Inpustry oF LEG- Permeability of Iron........... ... 56 HORN Ate 6s Automatic Electric Railway-Lamps 56 ¥ we 8 Book-REvIEws. HEATH Matters. Force and Energy. .......-....... 63 Water-Supply of Paris............. 56| Life of Charles Blacker Vignoles.... 63 The Naphtha Habit............... 56) AMONG THE PUBLISHERS......... .. 64 THE TWO EVENTS of scientific interest in New York at this time are the judicial investigation into the possibility of killing a human being by electricity without inflicting torture, the death to -be instantaneous, and the progress of the arrangements for the «world’s fair to be held here in 1892. At the electrical hearing, all «shades of opinion have been expressed by those called upon to vtestify. By some it is maintained that death is by no means sure sto follow the application of currents of high potential, that the ac- ition of the electricity is liable to be erratic, and that the attempt to ‘put to death by electricity the criminal now under sentence may ‘lead to unlawful torture. By others, including Mr. Edison, it is testified that death will be sure and painless on applying the strong electric currents proposed. The exhibition plans have progressed to the stage of a meeting of prominent citizens at the mayor’s office, for a discussion of preliminaries. The daily papers of this city, as well as many of the more prominent ones of other cities, have taken ap the subject energetically, and appear to be unanimously in favor of the project. One or two of the larger Western cities seem to think that the proper place for such an exhibition would be at one of the great cities of the West, somewhere nearer the centre of the continent than New York; but the general consensus of opinion seems to be that the metropolis of the continent is the place at which to fitly celebrate the four hundredth anniversary of that continent’s discovery. SCIEN CE [ Vor. XIV. No. * ANTS. IN the second bulletin issued by the Hatch Experiment Station — of the Massachusetts Agricultural College, an account was given of experiments made for the destruction of ants in lawns and walks, but no methods were given for those that find their way into houses, and become an intolerable nuisance because of their desire for sugar and other sweets. These are more frequently the small species, but what they lack in size they usually make up for in numbers.. Mr. C. H. Fernald is inclined to the opinion that they enter the houses and discover the coveted articles by chance; that their scouts, in exploring, find these articles, not by keen sight or smell, but by mere accident. When one has found some choice dainty, she (these wingless workers are undeveloped females, not neuters as some have supposed) sips her fill, and at once starts for home, where by some means she communicates the information of the locality of untold treasures to others, which return with her; and they, in turn, appear to spread the information on their return home ; and soon the throngs that come and go are sufficient to disturb the most amiable of housekeepers. Various remedies have been suggested, one of which is to draw a chalk-mark on the floor around the sugar-barrels or other articles to be protected from them. It is undoubtedly true that ants travel in a regular beaten track, as it were, by the sense of smell; and, if this be removed from the ground over which they travel, they are at a loss, and often wander around for some time before they find the trail again. They may be thrown off the trail by drawing a chalk-mark or even” the finger across it. This is only a temporary protection, however ; for sooner or later they will find their way across, and then travel goes on as uninterruptedly as before. {t has been recommended to sprinkle sugar into a sponge and place it in their path, and, as it fills up with ants several times a day, immerse it in hot water to kill those adhering to it. This will undoubtedly prove successful if carefully followed up for some time; but, when we remember that the females are constantly laying eggs to produce workers which will take the places of those already destroyed, the task seems almost hopeless. There can be no doubt that a better method would be to follow the ants carefully, and discover, if possible, where their nest is, and then destroy the entire community by making one or more holes down through the nest, and then pouring in a teaspoonful of bisul- phide of carbon, carefully stamping down the ground afterwards to close the holes. The fumes of this substance will penetrate the nest in all directions, and destroy the entire community. COLIC OF HORSES. BULLETIN No. 2, Vol. II., of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, is a comprehensive treatise on colic of horses, by Dr. H. J. Detmers, the veterinarian of the station. It begins with a brief introduction, and a definition of what is understood by the term “colic,” showing that the same is applied, not to a single disease, but to quite a number of morbid processes which have their seat in the digestive canal, and produce violent manifestations of pain. It then dwells at length on the various causes, and not only explains their action, or their effect upon the animal organism, but also draws attention to formerly overlooked facts, which throw light upon the origin of many cases of colic and the morbid processes of the same, which cannot be accounted for in any other way. It fully and comprehensively describes the symptoms, gives all the data necessary for the diagnosis and prog- nosis, and finally, in plain language, maps out a rational treatment, which is simple enough to be understood by everybody, and easy enough of application to be executed by any intelligent person. One plate illustrating the cause of certain morbid changes peculiar to horses and mules, and predisposing the same to the most frequent of these diseases, usually called colic, accompanies the treatise. In the ‘“ Fifth Annual Report of the Ohio Agricultura) Experi- ment Station” for 1886 (pp. 296-303), Dr. Detmers published a brief article on the causes of colic of horses. He then stated that his observations had confirmed Professor Bollinger’s assertion that: nearly every aged horse has an aneurism (a soft, pulsating tumor in an artery) in the anterior mesenteric artery, that such an aneu- rism is produced by the presence of a small worm (Sclerostomum ns : a Jury 26, 1 880. | equinum) belonging to the family of Strongy/¢de@, and that in many, perhaps in a majority of cases, the existence of such an aneurism must be considered, if not the sole, at any rate the principal, cause of colic. Although not much that is really new can be added to what was said in the annual report of 1886, and although no important dis- coveries have since been made, the simple fact that since that report was published such an aneurism has been found in every one of the sixteen horses that have been killed for anatomical purposes in the Veterinary College, or Veterinary Department of the Ohio State University, and that said aneurism was found not only in old horses, but also in young horses and in mules, will more than corroborate what was said two years ago, and be of intérest to science, and of practical value to the farmer and horse-owner. As to the occur- rence of the aneurism in young horses, Dr. Detmers states, that, among the sixteen horses and mules killed for anatomical purposes since the publication of the fifth annual report, were two young horses (one last year, and one this winter) which were each less than two years old, consequently mere colts, and that both had big aneurisms containing quite a large number of worms. As colic is one of the most frequent diseases of horses, which, notwithstanding its frequent occurrence, is but little understood even by the majority of veterinarians, and consequently a disease which is seldom rationally treated, and perhaps oftener than any ‘other a subject of quackery of the grossest kind; further, as it ‘causes every year great losses, partially due to its often dangerous ‘character, and partially to irrational treatment, — this brief treatise on colic, showing the causal connection between the aneurism and the morbid process, explaining its true causes, describing the symp- toms, etc., giving a rational treatment, and pointing out the means _ of prevention, will be appreciated by farmers and horse-owners. As to colic, it will, on the whole, be easier to ward off or to pre- vent the exciting than the predisposing causes. A prevention of the principal and most frequent exciting causes will be effected if the horse is always regularly fed; if the food is sound, wholesome, and digestible; if feeding a heavy meal immediately before and immediately after severe exercise is avoided; if no food that has a tendency to ferment, or that is rich in alkalies, is given; if the feed- ing of new grain and of new hay that has not yet passed through the so-called “‘ sweating process ” is avoided, or, where that cannot be done, if such new hay and new grain are fed only in small quan- tities, and then with a small pinch of salt added to each meal; if no icy food, or food covered with hoar-frost, is allowed to be eaten ; if no ice-cold water is given to drink, or, when it cannot be avoided, only in small quantities, and never when the horse is perspiring or has an empty stomach; and, finally, if meal or bran that may be used as food is never given until it has been thoroughly moistened. The principal predisposing cause, according to Dr. Detmers,— the aneurism in the anterior mesenteric artery, —can be warded off by preventing the worm-brood of Sclerostomum eqguinum from entering the digestive canal of the horse; but this, it seems, can ‘only be accomplished if the horse is never allowed to drink any water but what is positively free from the worm-brood. That this will be difficult, will not need any explanation. This bulletin will be sent free to any resident of Ohio on applica- tion to the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, Columbus, O. QUARTZ FIBRES. IN almost all investigations which the physicist carries out in the laboratory, he has to deal with, and to measure with accuracy, those subtle and to our senses inappreciable forces to which the so-called laws of nature give rise. Whether he is observing by an electrom- eter the behavior of electricity at rest, or by a galvanometer the action of electricity in motion ; whether in the tube of Crookes he is investigating the power of radiant matter, or with the famous experiment of Cavendish he is finding the mass of the earth, — in these and in a host of other cases he is bound to measure with certainty and accuracy forces so small that in no ordinary way could their existence be detected; while disturbing causes which might seem to be of no particular consequence must be eliminated, if his experiments are to have any value. It is not too much to say that the very existence of the physicist depends upon the © glass remembers what was done to it previously. SCIENCE. 61 power which he possesses of producing at will and by artificial means forces against which he balances those that he wishes to measure. The weight of a single grain is not to our senses appreciable, while the weight of a ton is sufficient to crush the life out of any one ina moment. A ton is about 15,000,000 grains. It is quite possible to measure with unfailing accuracy forces which bear the same relation to the weight of a grain that a grain bears to a ton. To show how the torsion of wires or threads is made use of in measuring forces, simply hang a straw horizontally by a piece of wire. Rest on the straw a fragment of sheet-iron. A magnet so weak that it cannot lift the iron is able to pull the straw round through an angle so great that the existence of the feeble attraction is plainly evident. Ordinary spun glass, a most beautiful material, is about one- thousandth of an inch in diameter, and this would appear to be an ideal torsion-thread. Owing to its fineness, its torsion would be extremely small, and the more so because glass is more easily de- formed than metals. Owing to its very great strength, it can carry heavier loads than would be expected of it. It has every good quality but one, and that is its imperfect elasticity. For instance: if a mirror is hung by a piece of spun glass, and if you turn the mir- ror twice to the right, and then turn it back again, a ray of light reflected from the mirror does not come back to its old point of rest, but oscillates about a point on one side, which, however, is slowly changing, so that it is impossible to say what the point of rest really is. Further, if the glass is twisted one way first, and then the other way, the point of rest moves in a manner which shows that it is not influenced by the last deflection alone: the For this reason spun glass is quite unsuitable as a torsion-thread. It is impossible to say what the twist is at any time, and therefore what is the force developed. So great has the difficulty been in finding a fine torsion-thread, that the attempt has been given up, and in all the most exact in- struments silk has been used. The natural cocoon fibres consist of two irregular lines gummed together, each about one two- thousandth of an inch in diameter. These fibres must be sepa- rated from one another and washed. Then each component will, according to the experiment of Gray, carry nearly 60 grains before breaking, and can be safely loaded with 15 grains. Silk is there- fore very strong, carrying at the rate of from 10 to 20 tons to the square inch. It is further valuable in that its torsion is far less than that of a fibre of the same size of metal, or even of glass, if such could be produced. The torsion of silk, though exceedingly small, is quite sufficient to upset the working of any delicate in- strument, because it is never constant. At one time the fibre twists one way, and another time in another, and the evil effect can only be mitigated by using large apparatus in which strong forces are developed. Any attempt that may be made to increase the delicacy of apparatus by reducing their dimensions is at once pre- vented by the relatively great importance of the vagaries of the silk suspension. The result, then, is this: the smallness, the length of period, and therefore delicacy, of the instruments at the physicist’s disposal, have until lately been simply limited by the behavior of silk. A more perfect suspension means still more perfect instruments, and therefore advance in knowledge. As nothing that Mr. C. V. Boys, F.R.S., knew of could be obtained that would be of use to him, he was driven to the necessity of try- ing by experiment to find some new material. The result of these experiments was the development of a process of almost ridiculous simplicity. The apparatus consists of a small cross-bow, and an arrow made of straw with a needle-point. To the tail of the arrow is attached a fine rod of quartz which has been melted and drawn out in the oxyhydrogen jet. The operator holds a piece of the same material in his hand, and, after melting their ends and joining them to- gether, — an operation which produces a beautiful and dazzling light, —all he has to do is to liberate the string of the bow by pulling the trigger with one foot; and then, if all is well, a fibre will be drawn by the arrow, the existence of which can be made evident by fastening to it a piece of stamp-paper. 2 In this way threads can be produced of great length, of almost any degree of fineness, of extraordinary uniformity, and of enor- mous strength. A quartz fibre one five-thousandth of an inch in diameter Mr. Boys had in constant use in an instrument loaded with about 30 grains. It has a section only one-sixth. of that of a single line of silk, and it is just as strong. Not being organic, it is in no way affected by changes of moisture and temperature, and so it is free from the vagaries of silk which give so much trouble. The piece used in the instrument was about 16 inches long. Had it been necessary to employ spun glass, which hitherto was the finest torsion material, then, instead of 16 inches, he would have required a piece 1,000 feet long, and an instrument as high as the Eiffel Tower to put it in. There is no difficulty in obtaining pieces as fine as this, yards long if required, or in spinning it very much finer. Dr. Royston Piggott has estimated some of them at less than one-millionth of an inch; but, whatever they are, they supply for the first time ob- jects of extreme smallness the form of which is certainly known, and therefore one cannot help looking upon them as more satisfac- tory tests for the microscope than diatoms and other things of the real shape of which we know nothing whatever. Since figures as large as a million cannot be realized properly, it may be worth while to give an illustration of what is meant by a fibre one-millionth of an inch in diameter. A piece of quartz an inch long and an inch in diameter would, if drawn out to this de- gree of fineness, be sufficient to go all the way round the world 658 times; or a grain of sand just visible — that is, one-hundredth of an inch long and one-hundredth of an inch in diameter — would make 1,000 miles of such thread. Mr. Boys has made use of fibres one ten-thousandth of an inch in diameter, and in these the torsion is 10,000 times less than that of spun glass. As these fibres are made finer, their strength increases in pro- portion to their size, and surpasses that of ordinary bar steel, reach- ing, to use the language of engineers, as high a figure as 80 tons to the inch. While these fibres give us the means of producing an exceedingly small torsion, and one that is not affected by weather, it is also true that they do not show the same fatigue that makes spun glass useless. A peculiar property of melted quartz makes threads such as these a possibility. A liquid cylinder, as Plateau has so beautifully shown, is an unstable form. It can no more ex- ist than can a pencil stand on its point. It immediately breaks up into a series of spheres. This is well illustrated in that very an- cient experiment of shooting threads of resin electrically. When the resin is hot, the liquid cylinders which are projected in all directions break up into spheres. As the resin cools, they begin to develop tails; and when it is cool enough, ie., sufficiently vis- cous, the tails thicken and the beads become less, and at last uni- form threads are the result. Now, in the case of the melted quartz, it is evident, that, if it ever became perfectly liquid, it could not exist as a fibre for an in- stant. It is the extreme viscosity of quartz, at the heat even of an electric arc, that makes these fibres possible. The only difference between quartz in the oxyhydrogen jet, and quartz in the arc, is that in the first you make threads, and in the second are blown bubbles. CULTIVATION OF SUGAR IN PERSIA. THE sugar-cane was introduced into Persia from its original home in Bengal at a very remote period. The first indisputable mention, says the United States consul at Teheran, of sugar by a Western writer, is that by Moses Chorencrisis, in the fifth century, who describes the sugar-cane as he saw it growing on the banks of the Karun River, which joins the Shott-et-Arab at the head of the Persian Gulf. In the olden times, and as late as the four- teenth century, the sugar-cane was much cultivated in Susiana, the country intersected by the Karun River, and principally near Ahwaz and Jundi Shapur. Susiana was then one of the principal intermediate commercial stations between the present towns of Dizful and Shushter, and had its water from the Karun River by means of canals cut from the right bank some distance above Shushter, ana from the Diz River by canals cut from the left bank, near the town of Dizful. With the decline of Jundi Shapur, in the SCIENCE. thirteenth century, the canals were neglected, and the cultivation of sugar-cane necessarily ceased. The present Ahwaz is a smalk- village of about fifty houses, on a mound which covers the ruins of a part of the former town. Hundreds of millstones or wheels, formerly used for squeezing the juice out of the cane, are lying about in all directions. Persian historians do not ascribe the ruin of Ahwaz to the failure of the water-supply, but to scorpions. They say that an Indian merchant, with the view of raising the price, bought up all the sugar he could, and stored it for a year or two. When he opened his stores, all the sugar had turned into scorpions. Millions of scorpions came out of the sugar-store, all the inhabitants of Ahwaz fled, and the city has remained a desert from that day. There is still current in Persia a proverb which says, ““ At Ahwaz sugar-cane produces scorpions;’’ and one of the Persian poets, referring to the ringlets of his mistress, says, “They are as deadly as the scorpions of Ahwaz.’’ The only dis- trict in Persia where sugar-cane is now cultivated is Mazanderan, which is the principal rice-producing district, and it was probably introduced during the last century. The sugar-cane in Mazan- deran requires twelve months to ripen; but the canes are small and poor, few being ever found thicker than a man’s finger, and the produce is of very inferior quality, being dark and moist. Both of these defects in all probability arose from want of skill in the culti- vation and preparation of this valuable plant. The sugar is mostly consumed in the province; a considerable portion, however, is ex- ported to Gilan, and some to Russia. The canes are planted im slips with two or three joints, in February or March, and ripen about eight or nine months after, having then a height of about five feet. and about 60 to 70 pounds of sugar. The juice, therefore, yields 30 to 35 per cent of sugar. Only raw sugar is manufactured in Mazanderan. There are no sugar-refineries. The raw sugar is sold at the place of manufacture in the villages at from three farthings to a penny a pound, and in the markets of Sari and Bar- funish at from a penny to twopence a pound, according to quality. In some towns of Persia, principally Yezd and Ispahan, Jaru raw sugar was, up to a few years ago, refined, and made into loaf-sugar. The loaf-sugar made in Persia was seldom perfectly crystallized, and was on that account very soft; it was also more or less im- pure and dirty, the loaves not having been properly washed, and the green sirup not having been completely removed. The im- ported loaf-sugar becoming very cheap, sugar-refining in Persia ceased to be profitable. The general Persian word for “ sugar” is shakar, “ the sugar-cane”’ is udt-t-shakar, while “ refined sugar’ is hand, ‘a loaf of sugar” is £elleh-2-kand, “‘ sugar-candy ” is nabat. Persia is famous for its sugar-candy. This is made in the ordi- nary way, but is left to crystallize on strings in a bowl of earthen- ware or china. The strings are kept at the bottom of the bowl by a piece of lead, and at the top by strips of wood. When taken out of the bowl, it retains its shape, and is called £asch-z-nabat ; i.e., a bowl of candy. Consul Schindler is of opinion that sugar-cane would thrive well in some districts of Persia and southern Persia, at altitudes of from 1,000 to 3,000 feet above the level of the sea. The plain of Bugh-i-Mailik, east of Shushter, at an elevation of 2,600 feet; that of Shapur, west of Shiraz, elevation 2,500 feet ; those of Fihift and Rudbar, south of Kerman, elevation 2,500 feet, — appear to him to be eminently suited to the cultivation of the sugar-cane. ' FRUIT-CANDYING INDUSTRY OF LEGHORN. THE English consul at Leghorn says that that city occupies the first place in Italy, and perhaps throughout the Mediterranean, for the preparation of the candied citron and orange peel so largely used in all branches of confectionery — citron being brought for this purpose from Corsica, from Sicily, from Calabria and other southern provinces of Italy, from Tunis and Tripoli, and even from Morocco; while the candied peel of the fruit is exported to North America, to the United Kingdom, and to Hamburg for distribution throughout Germany. Sugar also is imported for the purpose of the manufacture from Egypt. The wood of the boxes in which the candied peel is packed comes from Trieste, and the immense earthenware vessels necessary for the saturation of the fruit in [Vor. XIV. No. 338 One mill turns out per day about 200,000 pounds of juice, — ay eas 2S ane amv { b> L | 4 : . “sugar-sirup are made in the neighborhood of Florence. The oranges imported into Leghorn, whether for consumption or for _candying, are nearly all brought from the islands of Sicily, Sardinia, and Corsica. In all the countries contributing the raw fruit for this industry, it is treated in the same manner for the over-sea passage. The fruit is simply halved and placed in hogsheads or large casks filled with a fairly strong solution of brine, the fruit _ being halved merely to insure thorough preservation of the rind by an equal saturation of the interior as well as-the exterior surface. _ Inthese casks it arrives at the doors of the manufactory. The _ first process to which it is then subjected is the separation of the _ fruit from the rind. large vessel, take out the fruit, skilfully gouge out the inside with This is done by women, who, seated round a a few rapid motions of the forefinger and thumb, and, throwing this aside, place the rind unbroken in a vessel alongside them. The rind is next carried to large casks filled with fresh cold water, in which it is immersed for between two and three days to rid it of the salt it has absorbed. When taken out of these casks, the rinds are boiled, with the double object of making them tender and of completely driving out any trace of salt that may still be left in them. For this purpose they are boiled in a large copper caldron _ for a time varying from one to two hours, according to the quality _of the fruit and the number of days it has been immersed in brine. When removed from this caldron, the peel should be quite free from any flavor of salt, and at the same time be sufficiently soft to absorb the sugar readily from the sirup in which it is now ready to be immersed. The next process to which the rind is subjected is that of a slow absorption of sugar, and this occupies no less than eight days. The absorption of sugar by fresh fruit, in order to be thorough, must be slow, and not only slow but also gradual; that is to say, the fruit should be at first treated with a weak solution of sugar, which may then be gradually strengthened, for the power of absorption is one that grows by feeding. The fruit has now passed into the saturating-room, where on every side are to be seen long rows of immense earthenware vessels, about four feet high and two feet and a half in extreme diameter, in outline roughly resembling the famed Etruscan jar, but with a girth altogether out of proportion to their height, and with very short necks and large open mouths. All the vessels are filled to the brim with citron and orange peel in every stage of absorption ; that is to say, steeped in sugar-sirup of about eight different degrees of strength. This pro- cess almost always occupies eight days, the sirup in each jar being changed every day ; and with vessels of such great size and weight, holding at least half a ton of fruit and sirup, it is clearly easier to deal with the sirup than with the fruit. To take the fruit out of one solution and to place it into the next stronger, and so on throughout the series, would be a very tedious process, and one, moreover, injurious to the fruit. In each of these jars, therefore, there is fixed a wooden well, into which, a simple hand suction- pump being introduced, the sirup is pumped from each jar daily into the adjoining one. A slight fermentation next takes place in most of the jars; but this, so far from being harmful, is regarded as necessary, but is not allowed to go toofar. There is yet another stage, and that perhaps the most important, through which the _ peel has to pass before it can be pronounced sufficiently saturated with sugar. It is now boiled in a still stronger sirup of a density of forty degrees by the testing-tube ; and this is done in large cop- per vessels over a slow coke fire, care being taken to prevent the peel adhering to the side of the vessel by gently stirring with a long paddle-shaped ladle. This second boiling occupies about an hour. Taken off the fire, the vessels are carried to a large wooden trough, over which is a coarse open wire netting. The contents are poured over this, and the peel distributed over the surface of the netting, so that the sirup, now thickened to the consistency of treacle, may drain off the surface of the peel into the trough below. The peel has now taken up as much sugar as is necessary. Next comes the final process, — the true candying, or covering the surface of the peel with the layer of sugar-crystals which is seen on all candied fruits. To effect this, a quantity of crystallized sugar (at Leghorn the same quality of sugar is used as is employed in the preparation of the sirup) is dissolved in a little water; and in this the now dried peel, taken off the wire netting, is immersed. The same copper vessels are used, and a mixture is again boiled over a slow fire. SCIENCE. 63 A short boiling will suffice for this the last process; for the little water will quickly be driven off, and the sugar, upon cooling, will form its natural crystals over the surface of the fruit. Poured off from these vesseis, it is again dried upon the surface of the wire netting, as before described. The candying is now complete, and the candied peel is ready for the packing-room, to which it is car- ried in shallow baskets. In the packing-room may be seen hun- dreds of boxes of oval shape and of different sizes, for each country prefers its boxes to be of a particular weight ; Hamburg taking the largest (of 15 and 30 kilograms), the United States preferring smaller (of 10 and 12 kilograms), while England takes the smallest (of 5 kilograms), and one containing about 7 English pounds. BOOK-REVIEWS. Force and Energy. A Theory of Dynamics. LEN. New York, Longmans. 8%. $2.25. In this work the author presents a new view of some of the con- cepts of physical science. The current views he holds to be erro- neous, and, though he says that he puts forth his work with pro- found diffidence, it is evident that he feels great confidence in its correctness, The essential point in his theory is the distinction he draws between force and energy, both of which he includes under the term ‘‘ power.” Power he defines as “that which initiates or terminates, accelerates or retards, motion.” He then goes on to divide power into two varieties, — force, or aggregative power; and energy, or separative power. Among forces he reckons gravitation, cohesion, and chemical affinity ; and among energies, heat, muscu- lar power in many cases, and, in short, whatever separates bodies or particles from one another. This theory he first states in an abstract form, and afterwards proceeds to an account of the various actual concrete forces and energies in the universe, mechanical, chemical, and vital, endeavoring to show that his views are not only consistent with the known facts and laws of physical science, but are essential to a correct understanding of them. As to the merits of Mr. Allen’s views, we shall not now enter on any elaborate criticism; but certainly his use of terms is not accord- ant with the common practice either of scientists or of writers generally. The term “ power” has always been used in philosophy to denote causality viewed hypothetically; as when we say that fire has power to melt wax, meaning that it will melt wax if the two are brought into contact. Force, on the other hand, is com- monly used to mean what Mr. Allen calls power; namely, any cause that in any way affects motion. The distinction Mr. Allen draws between separative and aggregative powers is of course a real distinction ; and yet he himself finds it impossible to maintain it with perfect consistency. Thus, he calls the motion of a falling body and the contraction of a cooling body, energies, although they are obviously aggregative; and his attempt to remove the in- consistency does not seem successful. We commend the work, however, to the attention of our readers, as it is well written and with earnestness of purpose, and will doubtless be provocative of thought. Life of Charles Blacker Vzgnoles. J. VIGNOLES. New York, Longmans. By GRANT AL- By his son, Rev. OLINTHUS. Sona abe THE subject of this memoir was one of the pioneers in railroad engineering, a work which in its early development required far more inventiveness and fertility of resource than is the case now ;- and his son has done well in laying an account of his life before the public. The book is well written, and with as much impar- tiality as could be expected in so neararelative of the hero. Vign- oles was born in the last decade of the eighteenth century, and lived to the ripe age of eighty-two. He lost his parents in early life, and went to live with his maternal grandfather, with whom he afterwards had an irreconcilable quarrel. On reaching manhood, he entered the army, and by the aid of influential friends and his own merits rose in a few years to the position of lieutenant; but the conclusion of peace after Waterloo deprived him of the hope of further advancement, and he came over to America, and went to work as a civil engineer. He was employed in South Carolina and other Southern States, and by his experience there prepared himself for the more difficult work of railroad engineering, in which 64 he was soon to engage. Returning to England, he was in a few years employed to assist in laying out and building the Liverpool and Manchester Railway, on which Stephenson’s locomotive engine attained its memorable success. After a while he quarrelled with Stephenson, and parted from him; but he speedily found employ- ment elsewhere, and for many years was occupied on various rail- roads in Great Britain and Ireland, and afterwards in Germany, Spain, and Brazil. He also built the suspension-bridge over the Dnieper River at Kief, —a structure half a mile long, the construction of which occupied seven years. Such were the works performed by Vignoles; and they entitle him, as his biographer justly says, to a high position among the pioneers of modern engineering. The man had also some excel- lent personal qualities, such as honesty, energy, and conscientious- ness in work; he had considerable literary skill, as the extracts from his diary and letters show ; and he was considered a pleasant companion in society. On the other hand, as his biographer ad- mits, his temper was not the best; and besides his quarrel with his grandfather, which is left unexplained, he had others with Stephen- son and Brunnel, which are passed over lightly in this book, but which were evidently not to his credit. He was also unskilful financially, and at one time lost eighty thousand pounds through his own imprudence, with the result that he had to begin all anew. In spite of his faults, however, he was a useful man; and the rec- ord of his life is an interesting story, particularly for members of the engineering profession and for all persons interested in railway history. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. THE Catholic Publication Society Company will publish im- mediately “An Explanation of the Constitution of the United States of America,” prepared for the use of Catholic schools and academies, by Francis T. Furey. — Professor Max Miiller’s new book on “ Natural Religion,” being the Gifford lectures which he delivered at Glasgow last year, will be issued here in a few days by Longmans, Green, & Co. — Lee & Shepard will publish shortly “Pens and Types, or’ Hints and Helps to Those who Write, Print, Speak, Teach, or Read,” a volume full of new and original matter, by Benjamin Drew. ; — The Forest and Stream Publishing Company have published a book on “ Log Cabins and How to Build and Furnish Them,” by William S. Wicks, illustrated with many plans and other illustra- tions, — Messrs. Ginn & Co. have issued a catalogue and announce- ments for 1889. Although this catalogue is complete, yet, as it is primarily designed for high-school and college instructors, it gives but very little space to their common-school publications. — The delegates of the Clarendon Press will shortly issue Mr. Oliver Aplin’s “ Birds of Oxfordshire ;” the second volume (treat- ing of electro-dynamics) of Messrs. Watson and Burbury’s “ Mathe- matical Theory of Electricity and Magnetism ;” and a new edition of the fourth volume (on the dynamics of material systems) of Professor Bartholomew Price’s “Treatise on Infinitesimal Cal- culus.” —Messrs. Triibner & Co. will publish, probably in October, “An Account of the Aborigines of Tasmania, their Manners, Customs, Wars, Hunting, Food, Morals, Language, Origin, and General Characteristics,” by Henry Ling Roth, assisted by E. Marion Butler. The work will contain a chapter on the osteology, by Dr. J. G. Garson, and a preface will be contributed by Dr. E. B. Tylor. Numerous autotype plates, from original drawings made by Edith May Roth, will illustrate the text. The edition will be strictly limited to subscribers. — Funk & Wagnalls have in preparation an “ Encyclopedia of Missions.” The encyclopzdia proposes to give the history, geog- raphy, ethnology, biography, and statistics of missions, from the apostolic times to the present. There will be full maps, diagrams, and a copious index. The best authorities on missions in this country and in England have been consulted, and the materials are SCIENCE. being furnished from all parts of the mission-field, by those best qualified to give the most accurate and complete information. — Rand, McNally, & Co. have just issued the “‘ Globe Series of — School Maps,” an entirely new series, newly engraved on a large — scale, and corrected by the latest official and private data. The — series comprises seven maps, — the United States, North America, — South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, and the world on Mer- cator’s projection. All excepting the map of the world (which — is 58 by 41 inches) are 66 by 44 inches, —a size which permits of — their use in the largest schoolrooms, where the details can be seen — by the entire class. — The annual report of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion will hereafter be issued in the form of a monthly bulletin, the — issues of each calendar year constituting a volume. These bulle- — tins will be consecutively paged, and the December number will — contain an index to the entire series of the year, thus putting them in convenient shape for preservation for reference. By thischange the results of the station’s work for each season will be placed be- fore the farmers of the State nearly or quite a year earlier than was possible when the annual report was issued in a single volume — at the close of the year. The bulletins will be sent to any resident of Ohio free of charge, on application to the Experiment Station, — Columbus, O. — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication Sept. 1 the “Common School Song-Reader: A Music-Reader for Schools of — Mixed Grades,’ by W. S. Tilden, teacher of music in the State. Normal School, Framingham, Mass. This book is designed to adapt and apply the principles of the national system of musical instruction to those schools where the special conditions and grad- ing are such that the full and regularly graded series cannot be so — conveniently and effectively used. While containing an interest- ing repertory of school-songs, new and old, which fits it for use where systematic instruction in music is not attempted, it is espe- cially intended for those schools in which the principles of elemen- tary instruction and singing by note are to be taken up according ~ to the most approved methods. Very full instructions for teachers are given at each step. Besides the work in the reading course, a collection of easy pleasing songs in one, two, and three parts (with bass clef), will be found. — Robert Grant, the author of “ The Confessions of a Frivolous Girl,” has written the third article in Scrzbzer’s Fishing Series for the August issue, entitled “ Tarpon Fishing in Florida.” Mr. Grant, during the past winter, made a special trip to St. James City, Fla., to gather material for this article, and had the good fortune during the second day’s fishing to capture an enormous tarpon, six feet long, and weighing 132 pounds. His description of his three-hours’ fight with this tremendous fish is one of the most graphic pieces of sportman’s literature of recent years. The article is fully illus- trated from photographs made at the time, which have been care- fully redrawn by Burns, Woodward, and others. President Henry Morton, in his article on “ Electricity in Lighting,” will describe — the actual processes of manufacturing dynamos and incandescent lights as carried on in some of the largest factories in this country. The illustrations add very much to these descriptions, as they are made from instantaneous photographs taken while the men and women are at work. — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication in the College Series of Greek authors, “ Euripides, Iphigenia among the Tau-— rians,” edited by Professor Isaac Flagg. Professor Flagg’s “ Iphi- genia”’ is not based upon any other commentary, but is an inde- pendent work, adapted to the needs of American colleges, and de- signed to facilitate the sympathetic study of this most charming and justly celebrated drama of Euripides. Since the play is well suited to be taken up as a first tragedy in a course of Greek reading, both the introduction and the notes have been written with especial regard to the enlightenment of beginners in the dra- matic literature. Atthe same time, the finer insight and higher cravings of the advanced reader are constantly remembered. The ~ introduction sets forth the celebrity of the play, with quotation in — full of the most memorable classical passages that bear upon it; — sketches the legend in its literary and popular development; ex- plains the vazzona/e of the plot with reference to the Aristotelian method of analysis ; discusses the artistic structure of the tragedy _ as to prologue, narratives, dénouement, etc.; and gives a complete : exposition of the metres and technique. In the notes, the gram- _ matical material is presented with sufficient fulness, but mostly in ‘ Bepeascnsed form, with references to Goodwin and to Hadley & _ Allen; while the higher and more edifying matters of exegesis re- ceive explicit treatment. _ —A sketch of the colleges of Wisconsin by William F. Allen and David E. Spencer, recently published by the United States Bureau of Education, does not aim to give more than a very gen- eral outline of the career of each. In the sketch of the State Uui- By only such matters are dwelt upon as have had a direct _ bearing upon the fortunes of the institution, and those which con- cern its relations to the educational movements that have taken place during its history, to the school system of the State, and to _the practical progress of the people. While the graduates of the “university are filling positions in many cases of greatest trust and usefulness, it is yet too early to estimate the precise drift and measure of the influence of the school upon the educational, politi- cal, and social life of the community. The older graduates are but now in the prime of life, in the midst of the years of greatest activ- ity andinfluence. The university has not a sufficiently distant past to make its inner life of special interest as matter of history; nor ‘does it fall within the scope of this sketch to trace, in any special "manner, the influence of the graduates of the institution beyond its walls. There is considerable variety in the character of the chap- r ters devoted to the five private colleges, since the sketches for the _ greater part are adapted from articles previously published ; but 4 the leading features in the character of each college, and the scope and tendency of its work, are indicated. Many other colleges have ‘ from time to time, especially in the first twenty-five or thirty years of our history, been established in Wisconsin. Of two of these which still exist, brief notices are given at the end of the work. — With the June number commences the second volume of /z- sect Life. The last number was somewhat delayed by the prep- "aration of the extensive indexes, which, however, will greatly in- - crease the value of Volume I. Largely through the kindness of the authorities of the Government Printing-Office, the numbers during the past year appeared more regularly and promptly than _ anticipated, and it is hoped to continue this regularity through the coming volume. As stated in the salutatory to the first volume, _ however, the force of the Division of Entomology is so actively en- gaged during the larger part of the year with field-work and ex- _ perimentation, that some lack of promptness in publication cannot “but ensue. The publication of the bulletin met with even more favor than was hoped at the start, and almost no adverse com- The only criticism noticed ; which ae exception was taken to the idea of the publication of a magazine by the government, which, by its free distribution, would compete on unfairly advantageous terms with private en- " terprises. — A monograph on “ Education in Georgia” has been prepared by EC. E. Jones of Augusta, Ga.,a son of the historian of that State, and late graduate student of Johns Hopkins University. This work ‘was undertaken under the supervision of Dr. Herbert B. Adams, _ editor of the present series of Contributions to American Educa- tional History, published by the United States Bureau of Educa- _ tion. Mr. Jones discusses the history of education in the State of Georgia. The paper opens with a sketch of the educational ad- vantages afforded by the few schools which existed during the colonial epoch. The formation and conduct of academies after the revolutionary war are next considered. The author then addresses himself to a review of the elementary education afforded in the rural schools, the teachers of which were supported by the tuition _ derived from the attending scholars. Carefully, and with an ex- haustive analysis of the laws and constitutional provisions bearing _ upon the subject, are the rise, development, and decadence of the “poor school system,” noted. Prior to the late civil war, steps had SCIENCE. 65 been taken to establish a system of common schools accessible to all white children between the ages of six and eighteen. They were, however, interrupted by the war, and it was not until some five or six years after the cessation of hostilities that the present system of public schools was inaugurated. Having discussed these preliminary topics, Mr. Jones turns his attention to the history and present status of higher education in Georgia, as represented in the university of the State and its branches, in various denominational colleges, and in special institutions designed to facilitate studies in law, medicine, theology, science, and art. All charitable and liter- ary institutions ministering to intellectual, social, and moral im- provement receive due consideration. — The August $7. Vzcholas contains a full and interesting arti- cle by Dr. Jastrow, concerning the late Miss Laura Bridgman, with a portrait, — an exceedingly good likeness; Dr. Charles S. Robinson offers to mathematicians some curious speculations as to the pres- ent value of “An Egyptian Girl’s Gold Necklace,” if its value is regarded as having increased at compound interest for over three thousand years; and “ Among the Florida Keys ” is continued. —In the August Magazine of American History, Dr. Everett's “Earliest American People” touches upon a theme dear to every antiquarian reader. ‘‘ England's Struggle with the American Colo- nies,’ by Dr. William M. Taylor, is one of the prominent features of the number. The author traces the events in England, the needless misunderstandings and the crude mistakes which led to the war of the Revolution, and bestowed upon the Colonies their independence, and he does it so that fresh life is infused into the narrative ; and one of the best condensed accounts of this part of our history extant is the result. Hon. J. O. Dykman concludes his series of papers of ‘‘ The Last Twelve Days of Major André” in this number. J. P. Dunn, jun., contributes “ The Founding of Post Vincennes,” and Mr. William S. Pelletreau writes of ‘‘ The Philipse Patent in the Highlands,” furnishing portraits of Col. and Mrs, Roger Morris, and an interesting map. Mrs. Lamb’s opening arti- cle is a vigorous pen-picture of the “‘ Career of a Beneficent Enter- prise,” — now one hundred and four years old,—‘“ The General Society of Mechanics and Tradesmen,” and this paper is profusely illustrated. A portion of the address of President Merrill E. Gates of Rutgers College, to the class of 1889, appears in these pages, entitled “ Life and its Activities — the bearing of the Past on the Present and Future;” and there is a ‘‘ Tribute to Mrs. Rutherford B. Hayes,” from the editor. The frontispiece of the number is a portrait of Alexander Hamilton. ‘The Wit and Wisdom of Keo- kuk, Chief of the Sacs and Foxes,” is one of the short articles; and an unpublished Washington letter is given to the reader in Origina Documents. — The subject of a monograph, just published by the United States Bureau of Education, is the history of education in North Carolina. In this monograph Mr. Charles Lee Smith, who was trained in historical methods at the Johns Hopkins University, gives the results of a thorough and careful study of the educational history of his native State. For North Carolina this is pioneer work. The writer has traced the genesis and development of edu- cation in North Carolina from the first settlement of that State to the present time. For this purpose he is the first to exploit the colonial records, the publication of which was begun last year, and the early laws of the State. He has also utilized early newspaper files, and all the published biographical and historical works relat- ing to his State to be found in the public libraries of Raleigh, Washington, and Baltimore, besides certain private collections and personal correspondence. The government is perhaps to be cen- sured that schools were not earlier provided. It is an error, how- ever, to suppose, as has been stated by some writers, that there were no good schools in the State previous to the Revolution, for it is shown that there were many creditable institutions, several having a wide reputation. The higher education has been princi- pally treated in this sketch, although the history of primary and secondary instruction has not been neglected.. The influence of certain classes of immigration and of institutions outside the State, especially of Princeton, which previous to the establishment of the 66 University of North Carolina was largely patronized by the young men of that State, is clearly shown. The sketch which is given of the University of North Carolina is the first full account of that institution which has ever been written. The writer thinks no in- stitution of this country has a more honorable record ; and it is claimed, that, in proportion to the number of its alumni, it stands second to none in the number of the distinguished public men it has given to the State and nation. — Judge Benjamin F. Burnham has published through Messrs, Macdonald & Co. of Boston a little pamphlet bearing the title «Elsmere Elsewhere.” What meaning there is in this title we are unable to see; but the book has considerable interest as marking the rapid change now in progress in this country in men’s views of Christianity. The author’s standpoint is essentially that of Mrs. Humphry Ward and other liberal English thinkers, and will proba- bly seem pretty radical to many people in this country. He re- views the leading points of the Christian creed, and shows what changes are taking place or have already taken place in the inter- pretation of them; and all these changes he holds to be wise and beneficial. The style of the work is generally clear, and always concise, so that it presents a large amount of matter in a small compass. The appendix contains extracts from Mrs. Ward, Pro- fessor Huxley, and others, and also some curious notes about “ de- moniacal possession’”’ and other ‘occult ” phenomena. — Of his purpose in building the Eiffel Tower, Mr. Eiffel says in the July number of the Vew Revzew (Longmans, Green, & Co.), « The beginning was difficult, and criticism as passionate as it was premature was addressed to me. I faced the storm as best I could, thanks to the constant support of M. Lockroy, then minister of commerce and industry ; and I strove by the steady progress of the work to conciliate, if not the opinion of artists, at least that of engineers and scientific men. I desired to show, in spite of my personal insignificance, that France continued to hold a foremost place in the art of iron construction, in which from the earliest days her engineers have been more particularly distinguished, and by means of which they have covered Europe with the creations of their talent. Doubtless you are not ignorant that almost all the great engineering works of this nature, in Austria, Russia, Italy, Spain, and Portugal, are due to French engineers ; and thetraveller discovers with pride, as he passes through foreign countries, the traces of their activity and their science. The tower, 1,000 feet high, is, before every thing, a striking manifestation of our national genius in one of its most modern developments; and this is one of the principal reasons for its existence. If I may judge by the in- terest which it inspires, abroad as well as at home, I have reason to believe that my efforts have not been unavailing, and that we may make known to the world that France continues to lead the world, that she is the first of the nations to realize an enterprise SCIENCE. often attempted or dreamed of: for man has always sought to build high towers to manifest his power, but he soon recognized that the laws of gravity hampered him seriously, and that his means were very limited. It is owing to the progress of science, of the engineer’s art, and of the iron industry, that we are en- abled to surpass in this line the generations which have gone be- fore us by the construction of this tower, which will be one of the characteristic feats of modern industry.” — The Quarterly Journal of Economzcs for July opens with a paper by Edward Cummings on ‘‘ The English Trades-Unions,” the special object of which is to show the present character and tendency of these associations. The writer points out that the policy of strikes is much less favored by the unions than it was a few years ago, and more care and intelligence shown in ordering strikes. On the other hand, the unions are assuming more and more the character of benefit societies, much to the gratification of the best friends of workingmen, and much to the dissatisfaction of the socialists, who charge the members of the unions with “apos- tasy to the cause of labor.’’ Mr. Cummings also calls attention to the fact that the English unions really comprise but a small por- tion even of the skilled workmen of the country, but thinks these are “the flower of their respective trades.” To students of the labor problem this article will be useful; and the same may be said of another in this number of the journal, that on “ The International Protection of Workmen.” It is a summary by A.C. Miller of a work by Dr. Georg Adler of Freiburg, with some account of the discussion the work has raised. Dr. Adler is anxious for legisla- tion restricting the hours of labor, prohibiting the employment of children, and otherwise protecting workmen and their families against some of the evils they now suffer ; but he thinks this can- not be enacted by any one nation independently, since the effect would be to raise the price of labor, and thus impede the nation in its competition with foreigners: hence he wants an international agreement on the subject, and believes that the end in view can be attained in no other way. Still another article on the labor ques- tion is ‘‘ A New View of the Theory of Wages,” by Stuart Wood, being a continuation of one published by him in the journal last October. We noticed the former article briefly at the time, and this one merely develops somewhat further the theory there laid down. The remaining article in this number is by Professor Dun- bar, on “‘ The Direct Tax of 1861.” It gives a full and clear ac- count of the levying and collection of the tax, so far as it was col- lected, and advises against refunding it to the States. The writer thinks it will be refunded, however, and he is probably right; for Congress appears to be searching for every available means of spending the money in the national treasury. Besides these longer articles, the journal has some interesting “‘ Notes and Memoranda,” including an account of the rise and fall of the French Copper Syn- dicate, which forms a curious chapter in industrial history. INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Natural Memory Method. WE take the following extract from an editorial in the Journal of Educatzon, Boston: ‘‘ We have taken no part in the Loisette- Fellows-Pick memory controversy, because we have not thought the advantage to be had from all systems of mnemonics sufficient to make it of interest to the world. Systems of the past have often required more effort to remember senseless things than would be required to remember the desired things. Any system based upon sounds, upon having letters stand for special figures, is impracticable for every-day affairs or educational uses. So long as mnemonics meant any thing of this kind, we merely examined them as curiosities ; but within the past year John A. Shedd of New York City has dis- covered a purely original system, which is high above any unnatu- ral system. It is simple (it may be understood in fifteen minutes), natural (all its principles may be learned in an hour by the dullest student), suggestive (two hours’ practice makes it easy to use it every day, and almost literally every hour of life), comprehensive (it adapts itself to various subjects and branches of knowledge). There is not a moment’s drudgery in learning it, not a feather- weight’s burden in remembering it, and no perplexity in applying it. It is educational and helpful, entirely apart from the memory phase of the subject.” Electrical Accumulators. Judge Coxe, in the United States Circuit Court for the southern district of New York, rendered a decision on July 22, re-affirming his former judgment in favor of The Electrical Accumulator Com- pany, in its suit against The Julien Electric Company to establish the validity of the Faure secondary battery patent, and denying The Julien Company’s motion for a rehearing. The Julien Company, in its argument, claimed, among other things, that it could manufacture batteries by the “ dry-powder ” process as good as or better than it was possible to manufacture under the Faure process by the use of a “paste ;’’ and in this con- nection Judge Coxe very aptly says, “If it be true that Faure’s batteries are inferior to or no better than others, the question naturally suggests itself, ‘ Why are not defendants content to use other batteries?’ A rehearing is denied.” According to the views of The Electrical Accumulator Com- pany, this gives the complete control of the manufacture and use of secondary batteries to that company, which owns the Faure- Sellon-Volckmar patents. [VoL. XIV. No. 338 a Sa me Jury 26, 1889. | Publications received at Editor’s Office, ; July 1-6. ApeEn’s Manifold Cyclopedia of Knowledge and Lan- : guage. Vol. XIV. Exclude to Floyd. New York, J. B. Alden. 12°. socents. Boone, R.G. Education in the United States: its His- tory from the Earliest Settlements. New York, Ap- pleton. 4o2p. 12°. $1.50 Croit, J. Stellar Evolution and its Relations to Geolog- ical Time. New York, Appleton. 3118p. 12°. $1. Dauvet, A. La Belle-Nivernaise. Ed. by James Boielle. Boston, Heath. 1otp. 16°. Jounson, W.W. A Treatise on Ordinary and Partial Differential Equations. New York, Wiley. 368 p. 12°. $3.50. Pennsytvania Geotocicar Survey. Atlas Northern An- thracite Field. Part IV. Harrisburg, Geol. Surv. 8maps. f°. Seymour, T. D. The First Three Books of Homer’s Iliad. Boston, Ginn t1o5p. 12°. $1.35. - Sizer, N. Right Selection in Wedlock: Marriage not a ys Failure. (The Human-Nature Library, No. 8.) New York, Fowler & WellsCo. 31 p. 16°. 10 cents. U.S. War Department. Appendices Nos. 24, 27, 28, 29, 30, and 31 of Annual Report of the Chief Signal Officer. 1888. Washington, Government. 57p. 8°. Van Daztt, A. N. Pages Choisies des Mémoires du duc de Saint-Simon Boston, Ginn. 236p. 12°. 75 cents. Wi ants. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- - ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for Science. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. M ECHANICIAN.— An optician and maker . of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J., care of _ SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. CRON AAR ote es son SCIENCE. me HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. “ The Week, one of the ablest papers on the con- tinent.” —Descriptive America. ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. EE Woe: A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. 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London, Paris, Washington and Montreal letters from accomplished correspondents will appear at regular intervals. Special Ottawa Letters will appear during the ses- sions of Parliament. THE WEEK in its enlarged form will be the same size as ‘‘ Harpers’ Weekly,’ and the largest paper of its clsss on the continent. SEND FOR FREE SAMPLE COPY. C. BLACKETT ROBINSON, Publisher, 5 Jordan St., Toronto. A TEMPORARY BINDER for Science is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind- ing. Filed in this binder, Sczence is y always convenient for reference. > N. D.C, HODGES BINDER 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. 75 cents. Mineral Lands. MANGANESE DEPOSITS. —A rich de- post of Manganese is for sale. Apply to H. N., care of Sczence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. GOLD-BEARING QUARTZ VEINS. — Any one wishing to engage in gold mining will learn of a newly discovered vein by applying to H N., care of Science, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. RED SLATE. —A valuable deposit of red slate for sale. Apply to H. N., care of Science, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. A NEW MICROSCOPE. Having invented an improved form of micro- scope, I will assign an interest in the patent for financial assistance in manufacturing. It is be- lieved that a powerful instrument may be made on the new principle at low cost. FRANK ANTON BECKER, 530 E. 16th St., N.Y, a“ GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres’t. 7, Guaranteed Farm Mortgages 7 The Company calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : ile York. Il. section where the farm is-located. III. MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. IV. Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. V. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm Products. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers’ & Traders’ National Bank, New Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the general development of the An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM- The Exhibition at the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the H/GHEST AWARD of superiority. VI. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report for 1888, HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. il SCIENCE. [ VoL. XIV. No. 338 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™, to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, i is Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY: N. J. Please Mention ‘‘Science,” PAGES. T H R E E PAGES. yarn Thousand new subscribers for au nee Seerarn racelve di MONT H s. itten by, Am: mica pu EuOrE mple' a ear en by a estore et as cae 0. eone and que feature ever intro: aan publication, AvAng: the substance of bsbace Btandal 8 by famous writers in as read oy the busiest people. We have engaged: FOR phils work 3 widely known and popular write; enon Gurren oe Bos ae New andi Oriel: halt eas and esigne for Ladies’ Fancy Work and Bomehe ecoration pusst ‘s from Correspon dent peas eir Answers, The colleges and pera eee: 6 United States pe sreated 4 ns con mon articl ie particular yantagelg each, arate Seen eto, Invaluable aylne Eon or daughters whom they aes the advantages of a higher edu- gation than fie ordins ordinary school affords. 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Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. _ Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all Power Purposes. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City, =\ New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Chicago. Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans. The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. NSSETS - : - $126,082,153 56 The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 | ' Exceeded $103,000,000. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including A gain in assets of........ Biot ib A\ Gali TN UNCON Olicaccoecoccce A gain in new premiums of A gain in surplus of............ A gain in new business of...... A gain of risks in force......... 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All in- formation in regard to the Flesh-brushes, also instruc- tions for using the same, can be obtained at the new office, from 9 30 to 10.30 AM., and from 4 to 5 P.M. Communications by mail promptly replied to. Boston, Mass. GEO. F. WATERS. ments of Mechanical and Civil Engineering. Electricity, Chemistry, Drawing. Extensive Shops & Laboratories. Expenses low. For catalogue address T, C. Mendenhall, Pres. MICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. | lawful Tre Aneriean Bell Telephon COM PANY. 95 MILK ST., BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters Patent granted to Alexander Gra- ham Beil, March 7th, 1876, No. 174,465, and January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. The Transmission of Speech by all known forms of ELECTRIC SPEAKING TELEPHONES in- fringes the right secured to this Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished. by it or its licensees, responsible for such un- use, and all the conse- quences thereof and liable to suit therefor. STERSBROOK’S STEEL PENS. OF SUPERIOR AND STANDARD QUALITY. Leading Nos.: 048, 14, 130, 135, 239, 333 For Sale by all Stationers. THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN 6O., Works: Camden, N.J. 26 John St., New York. METHING tng | A NeW STRONEES) <8 | Qo0LD MEDALS) Se eneaRS GS ° Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piane Co., &e., Ke. Repairs Everything. IN THE WORLD. RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10¢. and dealers’ card me le. & il Tee RT oon Stor PUT. 4GHOLBORN, VIADUCT: Loni {Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. ] A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. SEVENTH YEAR. SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS. VoL. XIV. No. 339. NEW YORK, Aucusr 2, 1889. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. ELECTRIC LIGHTING BY THE KNOWLES SYSTEM. lamp-use is obtained. It is maintained that this system is more economical, and that it allows of longer circuits, than that of direct ' THIS system consists of a central station containing the dyna- distribution. ‘mos for the generation of the current, which is then conducted to The system has been in operation for some time in Brooklyn, nnn ca ee es, ao i in | rr ay = —+ SS Sa SS SSS = SSre5 S => = =S SSS > SS = => = = SS == SS SS SS aS —: = ee = SS SS SS = SS S= SSS = ui { = SSS SS FIG. 1.—STORAGE-BATTERY OF MUTUAL ELECTRIC MANUFACTURING COMPANY, KNOWLES PATENT. the several points at which it is to be used. At these points, in- stead of passing the current through the lamps, it is. employed in storage-batteries ; and from these storage-batteries the current for the necessary boilers, engines, dynamos, and regulators. one of the battery-plants being located at 187 Montague Street, the generating-station being on Graham Street, where will be found 68 SCIENCE. [Vou X1V.* No. 339 | b IE iy <= i ans o (Mmm he Se a ie EL, ou "ha Ge FIG. 2.—KNOWLES DYNAMO. FIG. 3.—REGULATOR AND SAFETY CUT-OUT FIG. 5-—STORAGE-BATTERY AND RACK. AucusT 2, 1880. | In charging a secondary battery from a dynamo, there is need of maintaining the charging current at a constant and suitable strength. For this purpose it will be seen in Fig. 2 that the dy- namo is supplied with a clock-work arrangement, to one of the shafts of which the dynamo brushes are attached. Now, so long as the current strength is maintained, this clock-work remains FIG. 4.—AUTOMATIC RHEOSTAT AND REGULATOR. still; but upon any slight variation the contact-bar in the regula- tor (seen in the upper part of Fig. 3), consisting of a solenoid carrying a core with the contact-bar at its low end, closes a circuit passing through one or the other of the magnets of the dynamo clock-work, and causes this to move the brushes so as to increase or decrease the current, as need may be. Again, to avoid the reversal of the polarity of the dynamo through an excessive fall in its current while charging the battery, which would allow of a reverse current passing through it from the storage-battery, the apparatus shown on the lower part of Fig. 3 is provided. On the occurrence of any sudden change, the lever shown near the bottom of the board would fall, breaking the main circuit, and causing the alarm-bell at the top to ring. The practice of Mr. Knowles in charging is to start the dynamo on the resistances contained in the rheostat (Fig. 4), connecting the batteries when the due strength of current is reached, when, at the same time, the automatic contrivance shown on the top cuts out resistance in proportion. The battery station in this Brooklyn plant is about half a mile from the dynamo station, but could be much farther away, it is maintained. Here the cells (Fig. 1) are arranged in batteries, as shown in Fig. 5. These racks are of wood, covered with insulat- ing paint. Each cell rests on porcelain knobs, and the whole is again insulated from the floor. In his secondary battery Mr. Knowles has several new features, SCIENCE. 59 and has avoided the application of the active material as a paste. Fig. 1 shows the cell complete. The perforated plates of non- oxidizable alloy are made in two sheets, between which is held a layer of the active material, which is moulded to the right shape before being placed between the two halves of the retaining plates. When ready, the whole is assembled as shown in the illustration, flexible insulating-rods being passed through the hooks cast on the plates top and bottom. In a later number we hope to give further details of this system, which is being introduced by the Mutual Electric Company of Brooklyn. DESCRIPTION OF PERRET MOTORS AND DYNAMOS, THE chief distinctive feature of these machines, manufactured by The Elektron Manufacturing Company, Brooklyn, N.Y., is the method of constructing the field-magnet, whereby the well-known advantages due to lamination and to the best quality of iron are secured, while the cost, which has heretofore been a bar to the commercial use of such magnets, is reduced nearly to that of for- gings. This method of construction is peculiarly adapted to machines of small size; and by its use their efficiency is greatly increased, as a test will show. It may also be used to advantage in machines up to 10 horse-power, and even higher ; as, by the in- genious shape and arrangement of the plates, a magnet of large size may be built up of comparatively small plates, which are stamped from sheet iron, no other machine-work being necessary. Eight sizes are now on the market, and others will be soon brought out. In the 74, 4, and 4 horse-power sizes, a magnet of the ordinary U-shape is used, in which the plates are so formed and put to- gether that the limbs may be swung apart and clamped to the face plate of a lathe for winding, after which they are swung back and bolted fast. Fig. 1 shows one of these motors complete. Fig. 2 shows the magnet before winding. In machines of } horse-power and upwards, the double horse- shoe shape, with consequent poles, is used. These are shown in Fig. 3. Upon removing the two bolts which pass through the yoke, the top half of the magnet may be separated from the lower Fic. 1 half. Each half is then attached to a lathe or other suitable ma- chine, and wound by revolving it, after which they are put together and the bolts replaced, all these operations being very simple and very rapidly done. ; One of the plates of which these magnets are built is shown in Fig. 4. Four of these are necessary to form the complete enclos- ure (see Fig. 5). It will be noticed that the plates interleave at the yoke, at which point their cross-section is enlarged, and they are 70 SCLEN CIE: clamped firmly together by bolts. Little or no magnetic polarity is found at the yoke, which shows that the joint is good. An important feature is the extremely low resistance of the mag- netic circuit, which is due partly to superior quality of iron, the use of which is allowed by this construction, and partly to the smallness of the air-gap between the pole-pieces and the iron of the armature, which is of the drum type, with teeth. In the longi- Fic. 2. tudinal recesses formed by these teeth the armature-coils are wound. This construction increases the efficiency, allows a large reduc- tion in armature speed, and improves the regulation. As showing this, reference is made to the 3-horse-power machine (Fig. 3), which weighs complete, with pulley, seventy pounds, and has a commercial efficiency of from 80 to 85 per cent. As a shunt- wound dynamo, it will generate a current of 4 ampéres at I10 volts when run at a speed of 1,800 revolutions per minute. The arma- ture is wound with 7,000 inches of conductor, which is at the rate of about 64 inches per volt, at the remarkably low peripheral speed of 1,500 feet per minute. This showing is believed to be rarely equalled in machines of the largest size. It may further be stated of the 4-horse-power machine that the drop in electro-motive force when run as a dynamo, and the varia- Fig, 3. “tion in speed as a motor, are less than 5 per cent between full load and no load (see details of Prony brake test). The motors are usually shunt-wound, and, on constant potential circuits, run at practically a constant speed, regardless of changes in load. In several instances parties requiring regulation so close that they be- lieved compound winding absolutely necessary, have been induced to try the Perret shunt-wound machines, and have found them to fully meet the requirements. This superior regulation is due to the fact, not always given its full weight, that the regulation of a shunt-wound machine depends [VoLt. XIV. No. 339 not only on the internal resistance of the armature-coils, but also to an equal if not larger degree on the intensity of the field: in other words, the lower the internal resistance of the armature-coils and the lower the resistance of the magnetic circuit, the closer the regulation. This is clearly demonstrated by recent experiments with a }- horse-power motor on a r1o-volt circuit, which, with an armature without teeth (the air-gap being 3%; of an inch, and the internal re- sistance 11 ohms), showed a variation in speed of 15 per cent be- Fic. 4. tween no load and full load ; while with an armature having teeth, by which the air-gap was reduced to ,8 of an inch, but with the internal resistance of armature increased to 20 ohms, it showed a speed variation of only 11 per cent. The same thing is shown by the performance of the 4-horse-power dynamo cited above, and also by details of the Prony brake test herewith, Prony Brake Test 4-Horse-Power Perret Motor. * Brake H.P. Speed. Commercial Efficiency. -146 2050 -73 185 2048 “74 «219 . 2046 +745 +250 2044 -76 -290 2042 -77 +320 2040 -78 +365 2035 +79 -400 2030 -80 432 2024 81 -467 2018 815 =50L 2010 82 +535 2000 80 +569 1995 -78 -600 19990 76 It is of course not claimed that the use of toothed drum arma- tures is new; but Mr. Perret finds that they possess some decided advantages over plain armatures, in addition to those already stated, as, for instance, positive driving of the coils, secured by winding them in the recesses. He also finds, that, when used with finely laminated field-magnets, they are free from some disadvan- tages experienced in other constructions. It is quite certain that such armatures, running in close proximity to solid pole-pieces, would produce heating effects therein which would be wasteful and very troublesome, to say the least. With laminated field-magnets, - all trouble of this sort is avoided. A strong point in favor of these machines is freedom from spark- ing at the commutator, provided this is kept in reasonably good condition ; and the brushes, having been once set at the non- sparking point, require no changing under extreme changes in load. A rocker arm for the brush-holders is therefore unnecessary, and the machine is by so much the simpler. The reason for this will be readily seen by electricians in the foregoing description, and lies in the fact that the magnetism of the field is so powerful relatively to that of the armature, that no distortion of the lines of force is produced, and consequently the line of commutation remains un- changed regardless of changes in load. A prominent electrician connected with another motor company was heard to remark, after testing some of these machines, that they were “harder to knock a spark out of than any he had ever seen.” It may be said, further, that these machines have been AUvuGUST 2, 1880. | worked out very perfectly in every detail, and a high degree of mechanical skill is shown in their construction. The armature-shafts are of high-grade steel. The bearings are all accurately fitted, and are very long in proportion to their diame- ter, being, in the smaller sizes, of hard composition, and in the larger, of babbitt-metal. The commutators, which ordinarily are liable to great wear and damage, have received particular attention, being made of a special hard bronze. All the motors are provided with ae, ol Fic. 5. switches for starting and stopping, and in the larger sizes the switches are provided with resistance-coils,— an arrangement which is much handier than a separate rheostat. In respect to simplicity, all parts needing attention, being in plain sight, are easily accessible. The armatures may be removed for inspection or any other purpose, and replaced in running order, in less than one minute. All parts are made to standard gauges, and are interchangeable. CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING SOME EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFECTION IN THEIR BEARING ON PREVENTIVE MEDICINE.) No department of medicine has been cultivated in recent years with such zeal and with such fruitful results as that relating to the causes of infectious diseases. The most important of these results for preventive medicine and for the welfare of mankind is the knowledge that a large proportion of the causes of sickness and death are removable. It is evident that efforts to preserve health will be most intelli- gently and effectually applied when they are based upon an accu- rate and full knowledge of the agencies which cause disease. Public and private hygiene, however, cannot wait, and fortunately has not waited, for the full light of that day, whose dawn has only begun to appear, when we shall have a clear insight into the causa- tion of preventable diseases. Cleanliness and comfort demand that means shall be taken to render pure the ground on which we live, the air which we breathe, and the water and food with which we are supplied; and we must meet these needs without waiting to learn just what relation infectious agents bear to the earth, air, water, and food. It is a fortunate circumstance that modern sanitation has been controlled so largely by the belief in the dependence of endemic and epidemic diseases upon organic impurities in the soil and in the water. Incomplete and even erroneous in many respects as are the views which have prevailed concerning the origin. and spread of epidemic diseases by the decomposition of organic sub- stances, the sanitary measures which have been directed toward the removal of filth have achieved great conquests in limiting the development and extension of many infectious diseases. The benefits which one commonwealth of this country has derived from the intelligent employment of public sanitary measures were clearly and forcibly presented before this association last year by Dr. Walcott, in his admirable address on State medicine. While nothing should be said, or need be said, to lessen the importance of cleanliness for public health, it is important to bear in mind that hygienic cleanliness and esthetic cleanliness are not identical. In water which meets the most severe chemical tests of purity, typhoid bacilli have been found. On the other hand, the air in the Berlin sewers, which certainly does not meet the most 1 Address in State medicine, delivered before the American Medical Association, in Newport, on Friday, June 28, by William H. Welch, M.D., professor of pathology in Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. SCIENCE. 71 modest demands of esthetic cleanliness, has been found to be nearly or quite free from bacteria. It needs only to be stated to be generally admitted that the sci- entific basis of preventive medicine must be the accurate knowledge of the causative agents of preventable diseases, —a knowledge which can be derived only from a careful study of all of the prop- erties of these agents, the modes of their reception and of their elimination by the body, the circumstances which favor and those which retard or prevent their development and spread, their behav- ior in the various substances which surround us or which we take into our bodies, and the sources of infection, not only those which laboratory experiments show to be possible, but those which are actually operative. So long as we were unacquainted with the living organisms causing infection, the means at our disposal for studying the etiol- ogy of infectious diseases were limited to the observation of all of the circumstances which we could determine regarding the origin and spread of these diseases. We could only infer what might be the properties of the infectious agents from the study of phenomena often obscure and difficult of interpretation. Chiefly by this method of investigation the science of epidemiology has been built up. It has established facts and laws no less of practical than of scientific importance; but it has left unsolved many problems, and has filled gaps with speculations. Admitted epidemiological facts are often open to various interpretations. We are evidently at a great advantage when we can study the epidemiological facts with a knowledge of the substances which actually cause infection, and this we are now enabled to do for a limited number of the infectious diseases. This new method of re- search, which thus far has been mainly bacteriological, has aided us not so much by simplifying the problems of etiology, which still remain complicated enough, as by affording greater accuracy to the results. It is my aim in this address to consider some results of the mod- ern studies of pathogenic micro-organisms in their bearing upon preventive medicine, more particularly upon the sources of infec- tion. It is, of course, impossible within the limits of the address to attempt a complete survey of this important field. Time will permit the presentation of only some of the salient points. Infectious diseases are those which are caused by.the multipli- cation within the body of pathogenic micro-organisms, It has always been recognized that some infectious diseases, such as the exanthematous fevers, are conveyed directly from the sick to the healthy. It is not disputed that in these evidently con- tagious diseases the infectious germ is discharged from the body in a state capable at once of giving rise to infection. In a second group of infectious diseases, of which malaria is the type, the infected individual neither transmits the disease to another person, nor, so far as we know, is capable of infecting a locality. Here there is reason to believe that the infectious germ is not thrown off in a living state from the body, but is destroyed within the body. In this group the origin of infection under natu- ral conditions is always outside of the body. In a third group there is still dispute whether the disease can be transmitted directly from person to person, but all are agreed that the infected individual can infect a locality. It is especially fortu- nate that the bacteria which cause cholera and typhoid-fever, the two most important representatives of this group of so-called miasmatic contagious diseases, have been discovered and isolated in pure culture. These are the diseases about whose origin and epidemic extension there has been the greatest controversy. They, above all other diseases, have given the impulse to public sanita- tion during the last half-century. The degree of success with which their extension in a community is prevented is an important gauge of the excellence of the local sanitary arrangements. A clear comprehension of the origin and spread of these diseases sig- nifies a solution of many of the most vexed and important prob- lems of epidemiology and of State hygiene. It is difficult to understand how those who accept the discovery that the bacteria causing typhoid-fever and cholera have been found and cultivated from the stools of patients affected with these diseases can doubt that these patients are possible sources of con- tagion, or can entertain the view, once so widely prevalent, that the 72. SCIENCE: infectious germs of these diseases are discharged from the body in a condition incapable of producing immediate infection. In an address delivered on another occasion, I have endeavored to present the considerations which reconcile the comparative infrequency of direct contagion for these diseases with the belief in the elimination of the causative germs in an active state from the body, and have there pointed out several well-known factors which determine the frequency of conveyance of an infectious disease by contagion. There are reasons, some of them very obvious, why diseases in which the infectious substances are operative only when received into the digestive tract, and are discharged usually only with the faeces, are less likely to be transmitted by immediate contagion than those diseases in which the virus is thrown off from the skin on epidermal scales. But the field of operation of direct contagion for those SO- Called miasmatic contagious diseases is at most a restricted one, and the chief sources of infection are outside of the body from which pri- marily the infectious germs may have been derived. It is to these external sources of infection, which are of such importance in pub- lic hygiene, that I wish especially to direct attention. A full comprehension of the sources of infection is, of course, to be obtained only by a detailed study of the etiology of the indi- vidual infectious diseases ; but this is, of course, impossible within the limits of an address. It may, however, be useful to present some of the facts which have a general bearing upon the subject. Let us consider, then, from the point of view of modern bacterio- logical studies, what 7é/e in harboring or transporting infectious agents may be played by those substances or media with which we necessarily come into intimate contact, such as the air, the ground, the water, and our food. It is universally admitted that many infectious agents may be transported by the air, but the extent of danger from this source has often been exaggerated. It is a popular error to suppose that most of the minute particles of dust in the air either are or contain living organisms. The methods for determining the number and kind of bacteria and fungi in the air are now fairly satisfactory, although by no means perfect. These have shown that while the number of living bacteria and fungi in the atmosphere in and around human habitations cannot be considered small, still it is greatly inferior to that in the ground or in most waters. Unlike fungus spores, bacteria do not seem to occur to any extent in the air as single detached particles, which would then necessarily be extremely minute, but rather in clumps or attached to particles of dust of relatively large size. Asaresult, in a perfectly quiet at- mosphere these comparatively heavy particles which contain bac- teria rapidly settle to the ground or upon underlying objects, and are easily filtered out by passing the air through porous substances, such as cotton-wool or sand. Rain washes down a large number of the bacteria from the air. That the air bacteria are derived from the ground, or objects upon it, is shown by their total absence, as a rule, from sea-air at a distance from land, this distance naturally varying with the direction and strength of the wind. A fact of capital importance in understanding the relations of bacteria to the air, and one of great significance for preventive medicine, is the impossibility of currents of air detaching bacteria from moist surfaces. Substances containing pathogenic bacteria, as, for instance, sputum containing tubercle bacilli, or excreta hold- ing typhoid bacilli, cannot, therefore, infect the air unless these substances first become dry and converted into afine powder. We are able to understand why the expired breath is free from bacteria and cannot convey infection, except as little particles may be me- chanically detached by acts of coughing, sneezing, or hawking. Those bacteria the vitality of which is rapidly destroyed by com- plete desiccation, such as those of Asiatic cholera, evidently are not likely to be transported as infectious agents by the air, if we except such occasional occurrences as their conveyance for a short dis- tance in spray. The only pathogenic bacteria which hitherto have been found in the air are the pus-organisms, including the streptococcus found by Prudden in a series of cases of diphtheria and tubercle bacilli; but no far-reaching conclusions can be drawn from the failure to find other infectious organisms, when we consider the imperfection \ [VoL. XIV. No. 339 of our methods, and the small number of observations directed to this point. The evidence in other ways is conclusive that many infectious agents — and here the malarial germ should be promi- nently mentioned — can be, and often are, conveyed by the air. While we are inclined to restrict within narrower limits than has been customary the danger of infection through the air, we must recognize that this still remains an important source of infection for many diseases. All those, however, who have worked practi- cally with the cultivation of micro-organisms, have come to regard contact with infected substances as more dangerous than exposure to the air; and the same lesson may be learned from the methods which modern surgeons have found best adapted to prevent the infection of wounds with the cosmopolitan bacteria which cause suppuration. We are not, of course, to suppose that infectious germs floating in the form of dust in the atmosphere are dangerous only from the possibility of our drawing them in with the breath. Such germs may be deposited on substances with which we readily come into contact, or they may fall on articles of food where they may find conditions suitable for their reproduction, which cannot occur when they are suspended in the air, in consequence of the lack of moisture. From the facts which have been mentioned concerning the rela- tions of bacteria to the air, what points of view present themselves to guide us in preventing infection through this channel? Surely something more than that this purpose is accomplished simply by abolishing foul odors. Certain indications are so plain as to need only to be mentioned in this connection, such as the disinfection and removal, as far as possible, of all infected substances, — an indication which applies equally to all channels of infection, and which is much easier to mention than it is to describe how it shall be realized. But there are two indications which apply especially to the prevention.of the transportation of disease-germs by the air. One is the neces- sity of guarding, so far as practicable, against the desiccation, when exposed to the air, of substances which contain infectious germs not destroyed by drying ; and another is free ventilation. For no disease is the importance of the first of these indications so evident and so well established as for tuberculosis, the most devastating of all infectious diseases. Against this disease, formi- dable as it may seem to cope with it, the courageous crusade of preventive medicine has begun, and is destined to continue. It is now generally recognized that the principal, although not the sole, sources of tuberculous infection are the sputum of indi- viduals affected with pulmonary tuberculosis, and the milk of tu- berculous cows. Cornet, who has made a laborious and most in- structive experimental study of.the modes and dangers of infection from tuberculous sputum, has also elaborated the practical meas- ures which should be adopted to diminish or annihilate those dan- gers. These measures have been so recently and so widely pub- lished in medical journals, and so clearly presented before a section of this association, that I mention them only to call the attention of practitioners of medicine to their importance, and to emphasize the fact that they are based chiefly upon the principle that infectious substances of such nature as tuberculous sputum should not be allowed to become dry and converted into dust when exposed to the air. By means of free ventilation, disease-producing micro-organisms which may be present in the air of rooms are carried away, and distributed so far apart that the chance of infection from this source is removed, or reduced toa minimum. It is a well-estab- lished clinical observation that the distance through which the specific microbes of such diseases as small-pox or scarlatina are likely to be carried from the patient by the air in such concentra- tion as to cause infection, is small, usually not more than a few feet, but increases by crowding of patients and absence of free ven-. tilation. The well-known experiences in the prophylaxis and treatment of typhus-fever are a forcible illustration of the value of free ventilation. It is, of course, not to be understood that by ventilation we ac- complish the disinfection of a house or apartment. Ventilation is only an adjunct of such disinfection, which, as already mentioned, is of first importance. Time will not permit, nor is it in the plan AucusT 2, 1889. | of this address, to discuss the details of such questions as house disinfection ; but I may be permitted to say that the methods for disinfecting apartments have been worked out on a satisfactory ex- perimental basis, and should be known, at least, by all public- health officers. Whether it be pertinent to this occasion or not, I cannot forbear to add my protest to that of others against placing reliance upon any method hitherto employed of disinfecting houses or apartments by fumigation; and I would furthermore call atten- tion to the lack, in most cities of this country, of public disinfecting establishments, such as are in use with excellent results in most cities of Europe, and which are indispensable for the thorough and convenient disinfection of clothing, bedding, carpets, curtains, etc. After this short digression, let us pass from the consideration of the air as a carrier of infection to another important external source _ of infection ; namely, the ground. That the prevalence of many infectious diseases depends upon conditions pertaining to the soil cannot be questioned ; but the nature and the extent of this in- fluence have been and are the subjects of lively discussion. The epidemiological school led by Pettenkofer assigns, as is well known, to the ground the chief, and even a specific and indispensable, in- fluence in the spread of many epidemic diseases, particularly cholera and typhoid-fever. The statistics, studies, and specula- tions of epidemiologists relating to this subject probably surpass in number and extent those concerning any other epidemiological factor. The exclusive ground-hypothesis has become an ingenious and carefully elaborated doctrine with those who believe that such diseases as cholera and typhoid-fever can never be transmitted by contagion. These authorities cling to this doctrine with a tenacity which indicates that on it depends the survival of the exclusively localistic dogma for these diseases. To all who have not held aloof from modern bacteriological in- vestigations it must be clear that views which have widely pre- vailed concerning the relations of many infectious germs to the soil require revision. The question is still a difficult and ‘perplex- ing one; but on some hitherto obscure or misunderstood points these investigations have shed light, and from the same source we May expect further important contributions to a comprehension of the relations of the ground to the development of infectious dis- eases. The ground, unlike the air, is the resting or the breeding place of a vast number of species of micro-organisms, including some which are pathogenic. Instead of a few bacteria or fungi in a litre, as with the air, we find in most specimens of earth thousands, and often hundreds of thousands, of micro-organisms in a cubic centimetre. Fraenkel found the virgin soil almost as rich in bac- teria and fungi as that around human habitations. This vast rich- ness in micro-organisms belongs, however, only to the superficial layers of the earth. Where the ground has not been greatly dis- turbed by human hands, there is, as a rule, about three to five feet below the surface an abrupt diminution in the number of living organisms ; and at the depth where the subsoil water usually lies, bacteria and fungi have nearly or entirely disappeared. Fraenkel, who first observed this sudden diminution in the number of micro- organisms at a certain level beneath the surface, explains this singular fact by the formation at this level of that sticky accumu- lation of fine particles, consisting largely of bacteria, which forms the efficient layer in large sand-filters for water. Of course, the number of bacteria, and the depth to which they penetrate, will vary somewhat with the character, especially the porosity, of the soil, and its treatment; but the important fact that all, or nearly all, of the bacteria and fungi are retained in the ground above the level of the subsoil water, will doubtless hold true for most situa- tions. The conditions are not favorable for the multiplication of bac- - teria in the depth of the ground, as is shown by the fact that in ‘specimens of earth brought to the surface from a depth of a few feet the bacteria which are at first present rapidly multiply. What all of the conditions are which prevent the reproduction of bacteria in the deep soil has not been ascertained, but the fact necessitates similar precautions in the bacteriological examination of the soil as in that of water. We have but meagre information as to the kinds of bacteria present in the ground in comparison with their vast number. SCIENCE: 73 Many of those which have been.isolated and studied in pure cul- ture possess but little interest for us, so far as we know. Tosome of the micro-organisms in the soil appears to be assigned the vé/e of reducing or of oxidizing highly organized substances to the simple forms required for the nutrition of plants. We are in the habit of considering so much the injurious bacteria, that it is pleas- ant to contemplate this beneficent function so essential to the preservation of life on this globe. Among the pathogenic bacteria which have their natural home in the soil, the most widely distributed are the bacilli of malignant cedema and those of tetanus. I have found some garden-earth in Baltimore extremely rich in tetanus bacilli, so that the inoculation of animals in the laboratory with small bits of this earth rarely fails to produce tetanus. In infected localities the anthrax bacillus, and in two instances the typhoid bacillus, so far as it was possible to identify it, have been discovered in the earth. There is reason to believe that other germs infectious to human beings may have their abiding-place in the ground; certainly no one doubts that the malarial germ lives there. As the malarial germ has been shown to be an organism entirely different from the bacteria and the fungi, we cannot apply directly to its behavior in the soil, and its trans- portation by the air, facts which have been ascertained only for the latter species of micro-organisms; and the same precautions must be observed for other diseases with whose agents of infection we are not acquainted, as, for instance, yellow-fever, In view of the facility with which infectious germs derived from human beings or animals may gain access to the soil, it becomes a matter of great importance to determine how far such germs find -in the soil conditions favorable for their preservation or their growth. We have, as is well known, a number of epidemiological observations bearing upon this subject ; but, with few exceptions, these can be variously interpreted, and it is not my purpose to dis- cuss them. The more exact bacteriological methods can, of course, be applied only to the comparatively small number of infectious diseases, the causative germs of which have been isolated and cultivated; and these methods hitherto have been applied to this question only imperfectly. We cannot regard the soil as a definite and unvarying substance in its chemical, physical, and biological properties. What has been found true of one kind of soil may not be so of another. Moreover, we cannot in our experiments bring together all of the conditions in nature which may have a bearing on the behavior of specific micro-organisms in the soil. We must therefore be cautious in coming to positive conclusions on this point on the basis of experiments, especially those with negative result. With these cautions kept constantly in mind, the question, however, is one eminently open to experimental study. The experiments which have thus far been made to determine the behavior of infectious micro-organisms in the ground have re- lated especially to the bacilli of anthrax, of typhoid-fever, and of cholera; and, fortunately, these are the diseases about whose re- lations to the ground there has been the most discussion, and con- cerning which we are most eager to acquire definite information, (Continued on p. 78.) NOTES AND NEWS. ACCORDING to the Calcutta correspondent of the London 77zmes, a herd of roo wild elephants has been captured in Mysore by Superintendent Sanderson. The same correspondent states that there were 6,000 deaths by snake-bites in the North-West Provinces last year. In Madras, 10,096 cattle were killed by wild animals, and the loss of human life by snakes and wild animals was 1,642. — The United States Bureau of Education has issued as circular of information No. 7, 1888, in the series of contributions to Ameri- can educational history, edited by Herbert B. Adams, ‘‘ A History of Education in Florida,” by George Gary Bush, Ph.D. — The preparations for the Niagara Falls electrical convention, Aug.6,7,and 8, have beencompleted. The convention will be wel- comed to Niagara Falls by the Hon. W. C. Ely, who, in his saluta- tory address, will touch upon the utilization of water-power for electric-light purposes. President E. R. Weeks will open the con- vention with an address, including among other things a statistical 74 account of the present state of the electric light and power indus- tries. The executive committee will report’ through its chairman, Mr. Benjamin Rhodes, who will record the general work of the association for the last six months, and more particularly that por- tion of it not fully covered in the other committee and official re- ports. This will be followed by the usual report of the secretary and treasurer. The committee on harmonizing the electric-light and insurance interests will report through its chairman, Mr. P. H. Alexander, who will present elaborate statistics on the fire losses collected and the insurance premiums paid by electric-light com- panies ; the committee will also recommend measures by which insurance rates on electric-light stations may be lowered. The national committee on State and municipal legislation will report through its chairman, Mr. Allan R. Foote of Cincinnati. This committee, which is now composed of twenty-six gentlemen from as many different States, and whose object was set forth in Bulle- tin No. 1 of the National Electric Light Association of New York, is now fully organized and ready for work. The committee on the revision of the constitution will report through its chairman, Dr. Otto A. Moses, who will submit a carefully considered revision of the present constitution. Dr. Moses will also address the conven- tion on the recent movement in New York State to introduce kill- ing by electricity as a substitute for hanging in legal execution. He will supplement his remarks with well-digested statistics. The following papers will be read: ‘‘The Value of Economic Data to the Electric Industry,’ by Mr. Allan R. Foote of Cincinnati ; “ Electric Street-Railways,’ by Mr. George W. Mansfield of Bos- ton; “An Ideal Station,’ a paper in two parts, — from an elec- trical standpoint, by Mr. Marsden J. Perry of Providence; from a mechanical standpoint, by Mr. John T. Henthorn of the same city ; “The Economic Size of Line-Wire,” by Benjamin Rhodes of Niagara Falls ; “Station Accessories in the Shape of Measuring- Instruments,” by C. C. Haskins of Chicago; ‘‘ The Development and Progress of the Storage: Battery,” by Mr. William Bracken of New York ;. “ The Theoretically Perfect Arc-Light Station,” by M. M. D. Law of Philadelphia; and “ The Electrical Transmission of Power,” by Professor E. P. Roberts of Cleveland. Mr. A. J. De Camp will address the convention on “ The Methods of Arriving at the Cost of the Products of a Station.” Gentlemen who pro- pose attending the Niagara Falls convention are reminded, that, to get the two-thirds rebate on their return railroad-ticket, it will be necessary for them to procure a Trunk Line or Central Traffic As- sociation certificate from the ticket-agent when they buy their ticket to Niagara Falls. The secretary and treasurer, Allan V. Garratt, will be at the Electric Club Saturday and Sunday even- ings, Aug. 3 and 4, and at the Erie Railroad Depot, at the foot of Chambers Street, New York, at 8.45 o’clock A.M., Monday, Aug. 5, to supply tickets and certificates for the special train at 9 o’clock A.M. on the same day. f —Mr. D. W. Langdon, jun., who has been for a number of years connected with the Alabama Geological Survey, has entered upon the duties of geologist and consulting mining engineer of the Chesapeake and Ohio Railway, probably with headquarters at Richmond, Va. — Professor G. E. Morrow of the University of Illinois is now in Europe, in behalf of the United States Department of Agriculture, to make a report on the live-stock exhibited at the Royal Agricul- tural Society show at Windsor. He will also visit the Continent, and especially France and Germany. — On July 15 a deep-sea exploration party started from Kiel, on board the steamer “ National,” for the Greenland coast, where they propose to carry on a series of submarine soundings and investiga- tions. The expedition is dirécted by Professor Hensen. — The next international archeological congress is to be held in Christiania in 1891. It was originally intended that it should be held in London. Dr. Ingvald Undseth of Christiania is the general secretary. — According to a correspondent of the Av/zsaz, a simple plan of preventing sheet-iron stacks from rusting is as follows: if be- fore raising the new chimney, each section, as it comes from the shop, be coated with common coal-tar, then filled with light shav- SCIENCE: [Vot. XIV. No. 339 ings and fired, it will resist rust for an indefinite period, rendering future painting unnecessary. In proof of this, he cites a chimney which was erected in 1866, treated as above described, and is to- day as bright as it was the day it was raised, without having a particle of paint applied since. The theory by which he accounts for this result is that the coal-tar is literally burned into the iron, closing the pores, and rendering it rust-proof. —In the Engzneertng and Mining Journal for July 27, Henry Wurtz maintains that asphalts and asphaltoids are mainly pro- duced from rock-oils by polymerization of certain constituents of such oils under the influence of the air, or of the sun’s rays, or of both, together with the influence of acid, saline, or other polymeriz- ing agents incidentally present ; and the author defines polymeriza- tion as due to and dependent on the coalescence of two or more molecules of an element or compound into one; being inclusive and explanatory, as thus regarded, of the allotropism of Berzelius. — From some notes on the color of the eyes and hair in Norway, by Drs. Abbo and Faye, with tables and annotations by M. Topi- nard, in the Revue d' Anthropologze, it appears that the population of Norway exhibits a higher percentage (97.25) of light eyes than any other country in Europe. Flaxen hair occurs in 57.5 per cent of the people of the northern provinces; and, while absolutely black hair is found only in the ratio of 2 per cent, red hair does not rise higher than 1.5 per cent in the scale of hair-coloration. — Nature gives the following summary of a paper on “ Hallstatt in Austria, its Places of Burial, and its Civilization,” by Dr. Hornes: “This is an extremely interesting summary of the important dis- coveries made within the last few years in the Hallstattian burying- grounds of Slavonian Austria, more especially at Watsch in Car- niola, where the beauty and finish of the carved baldrics and belts have led contemporary paleontologists to regard them as an evidence of the existence in central Europe of an early civilization, which had already attained to considerable artistic culture before its extinction under the weight of advancing hordes of barbarian invaders. The necropolis of Hallstatt, for our acquaintance with which we are indebted to Baron Sacken, still remains unrivalled for the splendor and variety of its antiquities, notwithstanding the marvellous results of the recent Carniolian and Croatian finds. Between 1846 and 1863, Sacken and Ramsauer published reports of their explorations of nearly 1,000 tombs, while since that périod the number of graves explored has risen to nearly 1,900. Both at Hallstatt and Watsch the rites of interment and incineration had been followed with nearly equal frequency ; but, although in the case of the latter the graves appear to have been most richly sup- plied with gold ornaments and carved bronze arms, the abundance of yellow amber and of decorative objects of the toilet, which are _ found buried with the unburnt skeletons, renders it difficult to de- cide which of the two methods of disposing of the dead was re- garded as the more distinguished. The cranial type is generally dolichocephalous, with a retreating forehead and long, slightly prognathic face, resembling what is known in Germany as the “Reihengrabertypus.’ According to Sacken, the necropolis of Hallstatt dates from the third or fourth century B.C., revealing the presence in those regions of the eastern Alps of the so-called Galli Faurisci, who, prior to the Roman domination, must have been familiar with an advanced stage of civilization and decorative art, in which the influence of Greek art is undeniable. This is indeed strongly manifested both in the workmanship and the forms of multitudinous objects revealed by the exploration not merely of the Hallstattian tombs, but of the prehistoric station of Salzberg, whose discovery last year has added new interest to the still con- tested problem of the origin of the early culture of the Alpine races of central Europe.” —A successful experiment:is reported to have been made re- cently at the laboratory of the Joseph Dixon Crucible Company, in Jersey City, N.J. A piece of iron ten inches long, two inches wide, and a sixteenth of an inch thick, was used, and one-half of its sur- face painted with silica-graphite paint, while the other half was left unpainted. It was suspended for several days in a bath of dilute sulphuric acid. This bath was much stronger than any sulphur- water met with in mining. On taking the iron from the bath, the unpainted part was found eaten off to about one-half its original AucusT 2, 1889. | bulk. The painted part did not sustain even the slightest blemish, thus apparently proving the ability of this paint to withstand sul- phuric acid, and demonstrating its usefulness where iron piping is laid in acid water, such as is sometimes met with in mines con- taining pyrite or other sulphides, which, under certain conditions, produce acid waters in the form of sulphate solutions, resulting from the decomposition of the sulphide minerals. — We learn from /Vature that some interesting facts concerning the element tellurium have been brought to light by Dr. Brauner of Prague during the course of a series of atomic weight determina- tions, an account of which is given in the July number of the Jozr- nal of the Chemzcal Socvety. A determination of the atomic weight of tellurium made by Berzelius in 1832 yielded the number 128.3 ; and a later one in 1857, by Von Hauer, gave the value of 127.9: hence 128 has usually been accepted as the true atomic weight. The properties of tellurium, however, indicate that it belongs to the sulphur group of elements, and that its position in the periodic system lies between that of antimony (of atomic weight 120) and iodine (of atomic weight 127); but, according to the above deter- minations, the atomic weight of tellurium is higher than that of iodine. Hence we are obliged to admit one of two things, — either that the atomic weight of pure elementary tellurium has been in- correctly determined, or that the periodic law of the elements, that grand natural generalization whose distinguished elaborator Eng- lish chemists have recently been delighting to honor, breaks down in this particular case. In view of the overwhelming mass of ex- perimental evidence which has now accumulated in support of this generalization, the latter assumption cannot for a moment be toler- ated. The redetermination of Dr. Brauner becomes therefore of primary importance, and his results partake of the highest interest, The mode of procedure which afforded the most satisfactory re- sults consisted in the analysis of tellurium tetrabromide (TeBry,), purified in the most complete manner by means of silver nitrate prepared from pure silver. The mean atomic weight from these experiments was found to be 127.61 ; the maximum being 127.63, and the minimum 127.59: hence there can no longer be any doubt that the substance we term “ tellurium” does possess a combining weight larger than that of iodine. Now comes the question, “ Is this substance pure elementary tellurium?” If it is, then, as Dr. Brauner says, it is “the first element the properties of which are not a function of its atomic weight.” Dr. Brauner, however, finds as the result of a process of fractionation that it is not pure tellurium, and that it consists of probably three elements, — pure tellurium mixed with smaller quantities of two other elements of higher atomic weights; and he is at present engaged in studying the nature of these foreign substances, and in the endeavor to iso- late pure tellurium itself. A few of the as yet unpublished results obtained in these latter researches were communicated personally by Dr. Brauner at the meeting of the Chemical Society on June 6, and among them the interesting fact was stated that one of the new elements is probably identical with Professor Mendeleeff’s recently predicted dwitellurium (of atomic weight 214), the other new constituent being an element closely allied to arsenic and an- timony. — “The principal business transacted at the Literary Congress at Paris, over which M. Jules Simon presided,” says the London Athenzum of June 29, “ has been the passing of the following resolutions, which it is to be hoped may be imported into the Con- vention of Berne, to which nearly every civilized nation, the United States of America excepted, adhered, and has legislated accord- ingly: 1. As an author's title to his work includes the sole right to translate it, or to authorize its translation, the author, his succes- sors, and assigns enjoy the right of translation during the term of copyright, even though they may not have the sole right to repro- duce the work in its original form; 2. There is no reason for an author notifying in any way that he reserves the right of transla- tion; 3. There is no ground for limiting the period during which the author of a book or his representatives may translate it.”’ — Arrangements are being made by the local committee of the American Association at Toronto for an excursion, starting Sept. 3 or 4, to the Huronian district. Particulars will be given in a circular to be issued by the American Geological Society, Ar- SCIENCE. 75 rangements are also being made for an excursion to the Pacific coast. During the week, two popular lectures, complimentary to the citizens of Toronto, will be given by prominent members of the association. The Canadian Railway companies have made the following concessions to members from the United States who may wish to make local excursions during or after the meeting : Return tickets at single fare from Toronto to any station in Cana- da. Montreal and return, going and returning all rail, $8; going boat, returning rail, or vzce versa, $10; or rail to Ottawa, river to Montreal, returning rail, $10, Quebec, going and returning all rail, $10; going steamer, returning rail, or wzce versa, $12; rail to Ottawa, river to Quebec, returning rail, $12. Niagara Falls, going and returning all rail, $2.50; going rail and returning lake, or wzce versa, $2; going lake and returning lake, $1.50. — The Entomological Club of the American Association will meet at 9 A.M. on Wednesday, Aug. 28, in the room of Section F, University Buildings, Toronto, where members of the club will register and obtain the club badge. Members of the club intend- ing to contribute papers will send titles to the president, Mr. James Fletcher, Government Experimental Farms, Ottawa, Can. The Botanical Club will hold a meeting as usual on Tuesday, Aug. 27, in the room of Section F, University Buildings. Communications should be sent to the president, Professor T. J. Burrill, Champaign, Ill., or to the secretary, Douglas H. Campbell, 91 Alfred Street, Detroit, Mich. During the week, members will be conducted by local botanists on excursions to points of interest in the neighbor- hood of Toronto. The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science will hold its tenth annual meeting in Toronto, beginning on Monday evening, Aug. 26, in the room assigned to Section 1 in the University Buildings, and continuing on Tuesday. For further information address Professor W. R. Lazenby, secretary, Ohio State University, Columbus, O. The American Geological Society will hold its meeting apart from Section E, in one of the halls of the university, on Aug. 28 and 29; Professor James Hall, Albany, N.Y., president, and Professor J. J. Stevenson, University of City of New York, secretary. For all matters pertaining to member- ship, papers, and business of the association, address the perma- nent secretary, at Salem, Mass., up to Aug. 20. From Aug. 20 until Sept. 9 his address will be A.A.A.S., Toronto, Ont. — One of the most interesting features in the rapid approach of Cossack and Sepoy towards each other is the extensive planting of trees that is being carried on by the engineering branches of both countries, as reported in Ezgzneerzng. Wherever stations are established in the Quetta district, trees, flowers, and vegetables are planted; and the same is the case with the new Russian settle- ments along the course of the Transcaspian Railway and the Oxus River. Of the two, the Russians have been more systematic than the English, and have spent considerably more money. This is due to the interest taken in the matter by Gen. Annenkoff, who is a born founder of colonies, and takes as much interest in all that’ appertains to the Transcaspian settlements as Robinson Crusoe did in his “desert island.” At a recent meeting at St. Petersburg, Gen. Annenkoff gave an account of some of his operations in this direction. He admitted very frankly that the tree-planting of the last three years had not been altogether a success, many imported trees and shrubs having perished ; but experience had shown what would and would not thrive, and seeds were being obtained from various parts of the world that would thrive in the sandy soil of the Kara Kum, exposed to the widest possible variations of heat and cold, or in the irrigated clayey expanses of the Merv, Tejend, and Atak oases. Meanwhile the Russian authorities are looking well after the local flora. Orders have been given that no bushes are to be cut down within ten miles of the line, and that the existing forests of saxaul are to be preserved. Saxaul is a kind of heavy, extremely knotted brier-wood, attaining a forest growth in places, and provides most of the fuel hitherto used in the country. It grows readily in sand, which it moreover serves to bind together by its long, trailing, clumsy roots. Plantations of this are to be made along the line, with camel thorn and other native bushes that thrive well, and it is expected that in time there will be a sufficient growth of vegetation not only to protect the line, but also to provide shelter for weaker trees and bushes of foreign origin. In themean 76 SGIENCE. while oil-refuse from Baku is being used as household fuel by the Russians, and, as soon as cheap suitable stoves are introduced, the population will probably become more and more accustomed to rely upon oil for fuel purposes. Every step in this direction is a boon, because it tends to save more and more the timber in Cen- tral Asia, and thereby contributes to a reforesting of a country once densely covered with trees, and at that period famous through- out Asia for its fertility. This fertility the Russian engineer is now attempting to gradually restore. — The question of permeability of cements and mortars has been treated of by the board of experts appointed to report on the Washington Aqueduct Tunnel. In their report it is stated, that, even if the brick lining of the tunnel were carefully made and backed, still leakage could not be prevented, as bricks are them- selves pervious under somewhat moderate heads. In some experi- ments made by Mr. Francis last year, about 13.8 gallons of water per square foot of surface passed through a thickness of nearly 16 inches cement in twenty-four hours, under a pressure of 77 pounds per square inch. Mr. Stauffer, another engineer, constructed a bulkhead of brick-work in cement in the Dorchester Bay Tunnel, which measures 10 feet by 10 feet. Under a pressure of 72 pounds per square inch, water percolated through at the rate of 96,000 gallons per day. Experience on the Boston main drainage work showed that it was not practicable to build a brick bulkhead which should be tight for pressures exceeding 64 pounds per square inch, and at the Croton Reservoir water under 36 feet head was found to percolate through 26 inches of brick-work and 4 feet of concrete. In some experiments made by the board of experts themselves, a good fair specimen brick was exposed to a pressure of 80 pounds per square inch on one of its faces ; and, under these conditions, 23.4 cubic inches of water passed through the brick in the first hour, and 21.3 in the second hour. The mean of these figures is equivalent to 1.4 gallons per square foot of surface per hour. In the case of another brick under the same pressure, 46.8 cubic inches passed through in one hour. Blocks of cement mor- tar allowed to set for twenty-four hours in air, and afterwards hardened for five weeks in water, were also tested. Under 80 pounds pressure, water passed through these at the rate of 36.4 gallons of water per hour. The above figures have been reduced to English gallons of 10 pounds of water. — The circular of the local committee for the meeting at To- ronto, Ontario, Aug. 27 to Sept. 7, of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, states that arrangements have been made on the certificate plan for a very general reduction of rail- way-fares over the principal railways embraced in the territory of each of the different passenger agents’ associations. Full fare for limited or unlimited tickets, as the case may be, will be paid going to Toronto, the purchaser receiving from the ticket-agent at the starting-point, or at the one nearest thereto in the association, a certificate giving the initials of the railways in the route to be traversed, and the amount of fare paid. A certificate must be taken covering the route in each passenger agent’s association, if more than one is traversed. Conductors of trains and ticket- agents will be able to give full information as to the limits of each association’s territory. Upon the presentation of such certificate, properly filled in and signed by the agent at the starting-point, and indorsed by the local secretary at Toronto, a return ticket will be sold, within three days after the meeting, for one-third the regular first-class fare. Return tickets will be sold at this price only over the route traversed in going to Toronto. Persons must obtain their blank certificates from the local secretary, Professor Loudon, at Toronto. These certificates will be mailed, with full instruc- tions for their use, upon application to the local secretary. A separate certificate will be needed for each person coming to the meeting. Members and others making application for certificates will confer a favor upon the committee by enclosing an addressed envelope for the reply. The railway companies will adhere to the following rule: ‘“‘No refund of fare will be made on any account whatever because of failure of the parties to obtain certificates.” It will therefore be noticed that any person failing. to obtain from the agent selling the ticket to Toronto, such a certificate as has been above described, will be obliged to pay full fare both ways. [Vot. XIV. No. 339 Those who desire to secure rooms in advance should communicate either directly with the hotels or with William McCulloch, secretary of the Young Men’s Christian Association. The morning and afternoon meetings of the association and of its sections will be held in the University Buildings, Queen’s Park, where will also be the offices of the permanent and local secretaries during the meeting. Hotel headquarters will be at ‘“‘ The Queen’s,” and the local committee’s. office in the vicinity at 42 York Street, where application may be made for information. In order to enable members to attend the morning and afternoon sessions without being obliged to go to the hotels in the interval, a luncheon will be served daily in the dining- hall, University College. Through the courtesy of the post-office authorities, there will be a branch post-office at the university dur- ing the meeting. All ‘mail matter should be addressed “‘ Care of A.A.A.S.” The Great North-Western Telegraph Company has. liberally offered to transmit free the social messages of members. when approved by the secretary. No concessions could be ob- tained over the United States lines. The Canadian Express Company has generously offered to carry free packages containing scientific articles intended for use at the meeting. Members will receive whatever additional favors the local committee or the asso- ciation may be able to secure or give, if they will send such pack- ages in care of the local secretary. By the courtesy of the minister of customs, all articles intended for use at the meeting will be ad- mitted free ; subject, however, to inspection by the customs officers. In case any difficulty arises at the frontier, members are recom- mended to’ship the articles by express in bond to the local secre- tary. Full reports of the proceedings will be published in the Toronto daily papers. Authors will oblige by sending, in advance, abstracts of their papers (other than those sent to the permanent secretary) to James Hedley, Monetary Tzmes, Toronto, who wilk withhold them from publication until the papers have been read in the sections. The council will meet at the Queen’s Hotel at noon on Tuesday, Aug. 27. The association will be called to order in general session at 10 A.M., on Wednesday, Aug. 28, in the Uni- versity Convocation Hall, by the president, Major J. W. Powell of Washington, who will resign the chair to the president-elect, Pro- fessor T. C. Mendenhall of Terre Haute, Ind. After the adjourn- ment of the general session, the sections will organize in their re- spective halls. In the afternoon the sections will meet and the ~ vice-presidents deliver their addresses. In the evening Major Powell will deliver the presidential address in the Pavilion, Horti- cultural Gardens. The meetings of the sections will be held on the following days (except Saturday and Sunday) until Tuesday night, when the concluding general session will take place. Sat- urday will be devoted to excursions complimentary to the associa- tion, including one to Niagara Falls and one to Muskoka. — Thomas G. Farrell writes from Portland, Ore., to the Asmerz- can Field, that, the varieties of native song-birds in this country being rather limited, several German citizens. some time since conceived the idea of importing a number of German song- birds. Ina few days quite a respectable sum was raised for this purpose, and forwarded to Germany. Not long since, the birds ar- rived in charge of a competent keeper, and, after being placed on exhibition for a few days, were all turned loose to multiply and prosper. There were some three hundred birds in all, consisting mainly of chaffinches, goldfinches, greenfinches, bullfinches, star- lings, nightingales, skylarks, German robins, linnets, thrushes, grossbeaks, and, last but not least, several specimens of the sing- ing-quail. It is understood that many of them have been observed nesting, and it is very likely that they will form a valuable addition , to our feathered family. — Ata recent meeting of the German Meteorological Society in Berlin, according to Vature, Dr. Lang of Munich read a paper on “ The Velocity of Propagation of Thunder-Storms in South Ger- many in the Ten Years 1879-88.” This is, on an average, 38.4 kilometres per hour; but it has varied considerably from year to year, increasing in the years to 1884, and thereafter decreasing. To this corresponds a curious variation of Van Bebber’s fourth and fifth depression-paths, which lay in the north at the beginning of the period, then moved south to South Germany till 1884, after which they retired northwards. Hail frequency has varied in an AUGUST 2, 1880. ] opposite sense to the velocity ; but the rapidly moving winter thun- der-storms have most hail. The velocity is maximum in winter: it falls rapidly till May, slowly rising thereafter (with a second de- pression in September) till winter. The velocity is greatest in storms coming from the west. Dividing the region into four zones from north to south, there is a decrease in the velocity, at first slight, but getting very rapid on reaching the Alpine region. The velocity is greatest about midnight, least about midday. At the same meeting, thunder-storms and hail in Bavaria in 1880-88 were the subject of a paper by Dr. Horn. These phenomena in general correspond. Both have a maximum early in July; but the hail has a second maximum, nearly as great,in May. Both phenomena show a pronounced day maximum about 3 to 4 (in winter about 2 to 3), and a minimum in the morning from 7 to 8. Dr. Horn said ' hail never fell in Bavaria without electric discharge, but Dr. Ass- mann maintained it did sometimes in Prussia. — The Transvaal Volksraad is reported to have placed $100,000 on the estimates for the current year, for the purpose of endowing the first university of the Republic. — The monograph prepared by Mr. C. Meriwether, A.B., Johns Hopkins University, and recently published by the United States Bureau of Education, is designed to trace the history of higher education in South Carolina, his native State, and to give a sketch of the development of the free or public school system. The earli- est educational efforts are described, and instances are given illus- trating the interest of South Carolina when yet a colony in pro- viding the means for the intellectual improvement of her sons. Not only were schools founded and maintained in the province by the government and through private and charitable aid, but many youths were sent to England for their education. The influence of such men on their return was so great and lasting, that, even to the middle of the present century, schools in Charleston, modelled on the English plan, were very popular. The birth of colleges was late, and their growth slow: there was, therefore, chance for a good system of academies to develop. These were planted in all parts of the State, so that a good training-school was within the reach of all. The number continued to increase until the out- break of the war. The most famous academy was that presided over by Dr. Moses Waddel, the Thomas Arnold of South Carolina. Although there is mention, in the House Journal of 1723, of a pro- posal to establish a college, and a bill was introduced into the colonial Legislature in 1769 for this purpose, yet no action was taken until the present century. An act was passed in 1785, es- tablishing three colleges in the State, yet only one of them ever gave collegiate instruction. The College of Charleston, while its foundation can be traced to the legislative act of 1785, has given collegiate instruction only since the first quarter of the present century. It is supported very largely by income from vested funds, the result of endowment by public-spirited citizens in and near Charleston. Over half the three hundred thousand dollars endow- ment was given by Mr. Baynard, during the war, in 1864. The attendance has not been large, but the training in mathematics and ancient languages has always been thorough. Every denomi- nation of any strength in the State has founded a college. In the main, they follow the average college course, but, owing to want of funds, they cannot offer very many electives. It is gratifying to state that the funds and attendance of nearly all of them are gradu- ally increasing. The war was most disastrous to all these institu- tions in sweeping away their endowments. The first attempt made to establish a general system of free schools was in 1811. The act was passed after bitter opposition on the part of some of the up-country members, and provided free instruction for all children, but gave the preference to poor children; but although the annual appropriations were doubled in 1852, being made seventy-four thousand dollars, the universal testimony was that the schools were a failure. On the adoption of a new State constitution in 1868, the present public-school system was introduced. Its usefulness has been greatly increased by the efficient management since 1876. The attention paid by the State to the education of the colored citi- zens is well illustrated in Claflin University, supported largely by the State. It has seventeen teachers and six courses of instruction, and its students at the last session numbered nine hundred and SCIENCE. ee forty-six. The most important phases of advanced instruction in South Carolina are those connected with the State institutions. The Military Academy at Charleston was designed to furnish trained soldiers for South Carolina. Its course is modelled after that of West Point. The College of South Carolina is the best of all the institutions in the State. It was opened for students in 1804, and has ever since exercised a strong influence on the politics of South Carolina, except during the reconstruction period. Every politician of any note in the State, except John C. Calhoun, has been for a time connected with the institution. — Since the perfection of the silo, maize or corn has come to have an increased importance.in successful agriculture, especially in dairying and stock-growing. The value of corn for the silo and as a forage crop is a sufficient incentive for making a thorough and systematic study of the development of, and chemical changes in, maize during its period of growth. This work was begun last year in a preliminary way at the New York Agricultural Experiment Station, and is being continued in more detail the present season. When this season’s work is completed, it is hoped the results may answer the question, “ What is the proper stage of maturity for cutting corn for the silo?’ To every farmer who is interested in the silo, three important questions present themselves for consid- eration: 1. What is the best variety of corn to grow for the silo? 2. What is the best method of planting? 3. What is the proper stage of maturity for cutting corn for the silo? As the result of experiment, the following conclusions are probable: 1. That the greatest weight of green fodder seems to have been at about the ‘period of full silking of the ears; 2. That the total weight dimin- ished after this date, but the total dry matter increased; 3. That the total nitrogen does not appear to increase after the ears silk; 4. That as the corn approaches maturity the per cent of amide nitrogen diminishes, while the albuminoid nitrogen increases, thus seemingly increasing the feeding-value of the crop; 5. That the sugars and starch increase rapidly during the latter period of growth and maturing of the corn-plant, and that these are the most valuable portion of the nitrogen-free extract; 6. That for the greatest amount of nutriment, considered from a chemical stand- point, corn should not be cut before it has reached the milk stage of the}kernel; 7. That it remains for future investigation to deter- mine whether it is better to be cut at the milky stage or at a later period for the greatest amount of digestible and available nutri- ment; 8. That the Burrell & Whitman corn cannot, in ordinary culture, be matured in this latitude. — It is well known that plants of Dzctamnus fraxznella, at the close of a dry, sunny day, are surrounded by a gas which is in- flammable, and will ignite with a sudden flash of flame when a lighted match is applied to it. M.H. Correvon gives in The Gar- den the results of some investigations lately made with regard to this phenomenon. Certain plants, and very notably the Rutacee and Ladzate, secrete various products, such as essential oils, res- ins, gums, balsams, etc. Secretory organs which are buried in the substance of the parenchyma elaborate these products, while hairs of various forms and textures conduct them to the surface, and there excrete them. The secretory organs are termed “internal glands,” and the excretory hairs are known as “ external glands.” These latter glands are surrounded at the base by a part of the epidermis, which the hair has pushed up in issuing forth to make its appearance on the surface of the stem, and in the /fraxznella this raised part of the epidermis covers a gland which is very richly provided with resin and essential oil. When this gland was ex- amined with a microscope on a hot day, it was empty, its contents having been drawn out by the heat through the cells of the epi- dermis or through the hair that terminates the gland. It must be understood that the surrounding air has to be pretty strongly im- pregnated with the gas of the volatilized resin in order to take fire when a lighted match is applied to it. This experiment has also been carried out in France by placing a pot-plant of /raxznella in bloom under a bell-glass, and leaving it there for some time, when the air in the bell-glass was found to be so highly charged with the resinous gas that it ignited the moment a lighted match was applied to it, and, it may be added, without doing the slightest injury to the plant. 78 SCIENCE, SCIENGE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY NED. 3G. Et OPDiG Es; 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YorRK. SupscripTions.—United States and Canada..............6..-. $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe...................-- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): 2 3 4 T Y@ar. cece eee cece ee cee ee eee es Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in-the communications of our correspondents. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, AucusT 2, 1889. No. 3309. CONTENTS: Evectric LIGHTING BY THE KNOWLES HEALTH Matters. SV ST EMANATE RER Sees Pnenmonialag ee eee era crsetet 83 » Dr. Brown-Séquard’s Hypodermic DescripTion OF PERRET Motors AND F Fluid.. 83 IDKARYN OS4Gap005 \odoqgosaebuoded 69 The Heredity of Myopia 84 EvectricaL News. CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING SOME ies P Wairineiofishipsitetsieiertceeereeine 84 EXTERNAL SouRCES OF INFECTION q Boox-REVIEws. IN THEIR BEARING ON PREVEN- | Autobiography of Friedrich Froe- TIVE MEDICINE.......--.-- joa | 9p Waloooecd: Sagdedosa0nes nooo. e¥y AMONG THE PUBLISHERS............ 84 Nores anD NEWS........-+2+....... 73 LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. A Circular Note to Working Ento- mologists Robert H. Lamborn 85 Are Beech-Trees eyer struck by Lightning? D.L. Phares 86 Breathing Thos. ¥. Mays 86 ES DITORTAUAMME EE eer erriciecicls|e ere 78 The World’s-Fair Project. — Mos- quitoes and Science, LUCERNE OR ALFALFA.......--2+0005 82 THE WORLD’S-FAIR PROJECT is moving on favorably. A meet- ing of prominent representatives of American industries was held at the office of the mayor of New York, where it appeared that the proposition was well received by this class, upon whose efforts suc- cess will depend. At this season many of New York’s prominent men are out of town, but there is no evidence that this will inter- fere with the preliminaries of organization. Among the sugges- tions floating in the air is that there should be minor exhibitions in some of the other large cities of the United States, but it does not appear that this side-show business will meet with acceptance. At the mayor’s meeting the appointment of four preliminary com- mittees was decided on; and the mayor is using due effort to secure the right material for these, having invited the various com- mercial and industrial organizations for suggestions. The finance committee will be called on to secure a guaranty of something like $15,000,000. The committee on the site will have necessarily a delicate task, in view of the enormous interests which will be affected; but, with the many points in New York which can be reached by land and water, there will be ample opportunity for a good choice. The matter of legislation will call for due attention, and, the more rapidly some results of the organization are to be shown, the better will be the prospect of recognition at the hands of Congress and the Legislature. What can be said now is that the scheme takes with those who will carry it through. [Vot. XIV. No. 339 WE WOULD CALL ATTENTION to the letter by Dr. Lamborn in this issue. We think all will agree that scientific methods should be sought to lessen the number of mosquitoes, and that, where even a glimmer of light is seen promising that consummation, it should be followed by scientific men with the utmost vigor. New Jersey alone could afford to spend a million dollars a year on any plan that would largely lessen her mosquito-product. The life- history of any dragon-fly is yet but little known, and the character- istics as destroyers of small insects of many of the scores of species of dragon-flies is even less known. This attempt to get at facts to reason upon we hope will meet with the aid of scientific persons throughout the country, and that, with the results of this season’s work before us, we may be able to conclude how far the dragon- fly may be used for the ends mentioned in Dr. Lamborn’s letter. CONSIDERATIONS CONCERNING SOME EXTERNAL SOURCES OF INFECTION IN THEIR BEARING ON PREVENTIVE MEDICINE. (Continued from p. 73-) As regards anthrax bacilli, it has been determined that in ordi- nary garden or field earth they do not multiply, but in earth con- taminated by blood, urine, or feces, their reproduction can occur, They can grow on various vegetable’substrata. There is noreason to doubt, therefore, that the anthrax bacilli can find in or on the ground suitable conditions for their multiplication, although such conditions are not everywhere present. For durable infection of the soil with anthrax bacilli, it is, however, more important that these bacilli should find there suitable conditions for the formation of spores than that they should be able simply to multiply. The vegetative forms of anthrax bacilli would not, as a rule, be able to survive for a great length of time the hostile influences which they are likely to encounter in the ground; such as insufficient or exhausted nutriment, absence of sufficient moisture, and the attacks of saprophytic organisms. On the other hand, against these injurious influences the anthrax spores have great resist- ance. In the superficial layers of the ground the anthrax bacilli may often find those conditions of moisture, of temperature, of oxygen-supply, and of insufficient food, which we know are most favorable for the development of their spores: indeed, Soyka has shown that the ground presents often these conditions better than our culture media. A circumstance discovered by Feltz, which, however, needs confirmation, is, if true, of not little significance. He finds that anthrax bacilli may undergo a progressive diminution in virulence in the soil. If this should be true likewise of other in- fectious micro-organisms, we should be able to account in some instances for the variable degree of virulence which clinical obser- vation indicates that certain agents of infection acquire. So far as anthrax bacilli are concerned, we may conclude, therefore, that the ground occasionally offers suitable conditions for their reproduc- tion ; but, what is of greater importance, it offers especially favor- able conditions for their long-continued preservation in the form of spores. I must forego here the further consideration of the special circumstances inherent in the soil which control the origin and spread of epidemics of anthrax in cattle, although many interest- ing investigations have been directed to this subject. Of greater interest to physicians is the behavior of typhoid and of cholera bacteria in the ground. As has already been intimated, the ground is regarded by Pettenkofer and his school as the prin- cipal breeding-place of these micro-organisms outside of the body. This view, however, is not supported by bacteriological investiga- tions. Inasmuch as the cholera and typhoid bacilli may multiply on various vegetable substrata and substances derived from animals at temperatures often present in the ground, it is evident that here and there conditions may be present for their growth in the ground ; but this growth is likely to be soon interrupted by the invasion of ordinary saprophytic organisms and other harmful influences. The typhoid bacilli are more hardy in resisting these invaders than are the cholera bacteria, which easily succumb ; but even for the for- AucusT 2, 1880. | mer, so far as our present knowledge extends, the ground can rarely serve as a favorable breeding-place. It is not, however, necessary that these organisms should multiply in order to infect for a considerable time the ground : it is sufficient if their vitality is preserved. As to this latter point, the reports of different investigators are not altogether concordant. Such excel- lent observers as Koch, Kitasato, and Uffelmann found that the cholera bacteria, when added to faeces, or a mixture of faeces and urine, rapidly diminished in number, and at the end of three or four days, at the most, had wholly disappeared. In a mixture of the intestinal contents from a cholera corpse with earth and water, Koch found numerous cholera bacteria at the end of three days, but none at the end of five days. On the other hand, Gruber re- ports the detection of cholera bacteria in cholera dejecta fifteen days old. The weight of bacteriological evidence, therefore, is op- posed to the supposition that the bacteria of Asiatic cholera pre- serve their vitality for any considerable time in the ground or in the excreta. ; With respect to the bacilli which cause typhoid-fever, it has been shown by Uffelmann that these may live in faces, a mixture of feeces and urine, and a mixture of garden earth, feces, and urine, for at least four and five months, and doubtless longer, although they may die at the end of a shorter period. He also finds that under these apparently unfavorable conditions some multiplication of the bacilli may occur, although not to any considerable extent. Grancher and Deschamps found that typhoid bacilli may live in the soil for at least five months and a half. Unlike the cholera bac- teria, therefore, the typhoid bacilli may exist for months at least in the ground and in fecal matter, holding their own against the growth of multitudes of saprophytes. This difference in the be- havior of cholera and of typhoid germs is in harmony with clinical experience. As regards other infectious bacteria than those which have been considered, I shall only mention that tubercle bacilli, although in- capable of multiplication under the ordinary conditions of nature outside of the body, may preserve their vitality for a long period in the ground, on account of their resistant character, and, further- more, that the pyogenic cocci, on account of their considerably re- sistant nature and their modest demands in the way of nutriment, can be preserved and sometimes probably grow in the ground. Indeed, the Staphylococcus pyogenes aureus has been found in the earth by Liibbert. The conclusion which we may draw from the observations men- tioned, is that in general the soil is not a good breeding-place for most of the infectious bacteria with which we are acquainted, but that it can retain for a long time with unimpaired vitality those which produce spores or which offer considerable resistance to in- jurious agencies, such as anthrax bacilli, typhoid bacilli, tubercle ‘bacilli, and the pyogenic cocci. In order to become infected with bacteria in or on the ground, these bacteria must in some way be introduced into the body ; and we must therefore now attempt to determine how bacteria may be transported to us from the ground. So various and intricate are the possibilities for this transportation, that it is hopeless to attempt to specify them all. There occurs to us first the possibility of the conveyance of in- fectious micro-organisms from the soil by means of currents of air, —a mode of carrying infection which has already been considered. Here I shall only repeat that the wind can remove bacteria from the ground only when the surface is dry and presents particles of dust, and that the sole, perhaps the chief, danger is not that we may inhale the infected dust. Manifold are the ways in which we may be brought into contact with infectious bacteria in the ground, either directly or by means of vegetables to which particles of earth are attached, by the inter- vention of domestic animals, by the medium of flies or other in- sects, and in a variety of other ways more or less apparent. * An important, doubtless for some diseases the most important, medium of transportation of bacteria from an infected soil is the water which we drink or use for domestic purposes. From what has been said, it is evidently not the subsoil-water whichis danger- ous, for infectious, like other bacteria, cannot generally reach this in a living state; but the danger is from the surface-water, and SCIENCE. os from that which trickles through the upper layers of the ground, as well as from that which escapes from defective drains, gutters, cesspools, privy-vaults, and wrongly constructed sewers or improper disposal of sewage. I shall have something to say presently of water as a source of infection, and shall not further elaborate here the dangers of infection of drinking-water through contaminated soil,— dangers which, especially as regards typhoid-fever, are widely appreciated in this country, even if often imperfectly coun- teracted. A point which has been much discussed, and one of interest, is whether bacteria which are in the depth of the ground can come to the surface. Two agencies, especially, have been considered by some as capable of transporting bacteria from the depth to the surface. One is ascending currents of air in the ground, and the other is the capillarity of fluids in the minute pores of the ground. The first of these suspected agencies must be unquestionably re- jected, in view of the fact that even a few inches of sand is suffi- cient to filter all of the bacteria out of the air, even when it is in much more rapid motion than can occur within the ground. Moreover, that degree of dryness which is essential for the detach- ment of bacteria by air-currents is not likely to be present much below the surface of the ground. The experiments which have been made to determine to what extent bacteria may be carried upward by the capillarity of fluids in the ground have not yielded harmonious results, but the weight of evidence is opposed to the belief that this is a factor*of any considerable importance for this purpose. From what has been said concerning the growth of pathogenic bacteria in the soil, we shall not be inclined to attribute to the multiplication and the motility of these organisms much influence in changing their place in the ground. The somewhat sensational vé/e assigned by Pasteur to earth- worms, of bringing bacteria to the surface, cannot be wholly ignored, and has received support from observations of Bollinger regarding anthrax; but it is questionable whether much impor- tance is to be attached to this agency. Regarding the depth to which typhoid bacilli may penetrate in the soil, the experiments of Grancher and Deschamps show that at the end of five weeks they may reach a depth of sixteen to twenty inches below the surface. As Hoffmann has demonstrated the extraordinary slowness with which fluids and fine particles pene-. trate the soil, it is probable that in the course of time a greater depth than this may be reached. Indeed, Macé claims to have found, in the neighborhood of a well suspected of infection, typhoid bacilli, together with ordinary intestinal bacteria, at a depth of at least six and a half feet below the surface. There are a number of instances recorded in which there is good reason to believe that turning up the soil, and cleaning out privies or dung-heaps in which typhoid stools have been thrown, have given rise to typhoid- fever, even after the infectious excreta have remained there a year and more. : It cannot be said that bacteriological investigations have as yet shed much light upon a factor which plays a great 7d/e in epidemi- ology, namely, predisposition to infection from the ground, accord- ing to locality and time; and this deficiency receives constant and vehement emphasis from the localistic school of epidemiologists. We can, however, readily understand that varying conditions, such as temperature, moisture, porosity, quality of soil, may exert a con- trolling influence in determining the behavior of infectious germs in the soil, and the facility of their transportation to human beings or animals. As regards that much-discussed question, the signifi- cance of variations in the height of the subsoil-water in relation to the prevalence of certain epidemic diseases, particularly cholera and typhoid-fever, we now know that this cannot depend upon the presence of bacteria in the subsoil-water itself, or in the capillary layers immediately above it. It has been plausibly suggested, that, with the sinking of the subsoil-water, fluids from infected cess- pools, privy-vaults, and other localities, may more readily be drawn into wells or other sources of water-supply, and that by the same cause the surface of the ground becomes dry, so that dust-par- ticles may be lifted by the wind. Other more or less plausible ex- planations have also been offered, but it must be confessed that our positive information on this point is meagre. There can, how- 80 ever, be little doubt that this significance of the variations in sub- soil-water is apparent only for certain localities, and has been considerably exaggerated and often misunderstood. It is not, however, pertinent to my theme to discuss this or other purely epidemiological observations concerning the relations of the ground to the spread of epidemic diseases, interesting and important as are many of these observations. Before leaving the subject of the ground as a source of infection, permit me to indicate briefly some conclusions which may be drawn from what has been said, as to the principles which should guide us in preventing infection, directly or indirectly, from the ground. First in importance is to keep infectious substances as far as possible from the ground. This implies the early disinfection or destruction of such substances as typhoid and cholera excreta and tuberculous sputum. Second, the ground should be rendered, so far as practicable, unsuitable for the continued existence of infectious germs. This, at least for some diseases, is accomplished by a proper system of drainage ; which, moreover, for other reasons, possesses hygienic importance. Third, means should be provided to prevent waste products from getting into the ground around human habitations, or from gaining access to water used for drinking or domestic purposes. In cities this can be accomplished only by a properly constructed system of sewers. The system of storing wasté products in cesspools, whence they are to be occasionally removed, cannot be approved on hygienic grounds. There are conditions in which the disposal of waste products in deep wells only used for this purpose, and whence these products can filter into the deep layers of the ground, may be permissible; but this can never be considered an ideal method of getting rid of excrementitious substances, and is wholly wrong in regions where wells are used for drinking-water. But I am trespassing with these remarks upon a province which does not belong to me, but rather to practical sanitarians and engineers. I shall only add that the advantage gained by preventing organic waste from soaking into the ground is not so much that the ground is thereby rendered better adapted for the existence of infectious micro-organisms, but is due rather to the fact that this waste is likely to contain infectious germs. Finally, in cities, good pavements, absence of unnecessary dis- turbance of the soil, cleanliness of the streets, and laying of dust by sprinkling, are not only conducive to comfort, but are some- times hygienically important in preventing infection from the ground and dust. In passing from the consideration of the ground to that of water, one feels that he now has to do with a possible source of infection against which, in this country and in England, he is at liberty to make any accusation he chooses without fear of contradiction. There is reason to believe that such accusation has been repeatedly made, without any proof of misdemeanor on the part of the water. It is not, therefore, with any desire to awaken further the medical or the public conscience that I wish to say a few words concerning the behavior of bacteria in water, and the dangers of infection from this source. That such dangers are very real must be apparent when we consider the universal employment of water, and its ex- posure to contamination from all kinds of sources. Ordinary water, as is well known, contains bacteria in large number. Not a few species of bacteria can multiply rapidly, and to a large amount, even in distilled water. These are the so- called water bacteria, and, like most of the micro-organisms found in ordinary drinking-water, are perfectly harmless saprophytes. What we wish to know is, how pathogenic micro-organisms con- duct themselves in water. Can they grow, or be preserved for any length of time in a living condition, in water? As regards the multiplication of pathogenic bacteria in water, the results of differ- ent experimenters do not altogether agree. Whereas Bolton failed to find any growth, but rather a progressive diminution, in number of pathogenic bacteria planted in sterilized water, Wolffhiigel and Riedel observed a limited reproduction of such bacteria, including those of typhoid-fever and of cholera. This difference is due probably to the methods of experimentation employed. According to Kraus, these latter bacteria diminish rapidly in number in SCIENCE. | [Vot. XIV. No. 339 unsterilized spring or well water kept at a low temperature. These experiments indicate that water, even when contaminated with more organic impurities than are likely ever to be present in drink- ing-water, is not a favorable breeding-place for pathogenic bacteria. Still it is to be remembered that these laboratory experiments do not reproduce exactly all of the conditions in nature; and it may happen that in some nook or cranny, or vegetable deposit at the side of a well or stream, some pathogenic bacteria may find suit- able conditions for their multiplication. But, as has been repeatedly emphasized in this address, it is not necessary that pathogenic bacteria should actually multiply in a medium in order to render it infectious. It is sufficient if their life and virulence are not destroyed in a very short time. As to this important point, Bolton found that in sterilized water typhoid bacilli may preserve their vitality for over three months, and cholera bacteria for eight to fourteen days, while Wolffhiigel and Riedel preserved the latter in water for about eighty days. Under natural conditions, however, these organisms are exposed to the over- growth of the water bacteria; so that Kraus found in unsterilized water kept ata temperature of 10.5° C. the typhoid bacilli no longer demonstrable after seven days, and the cholera bacteria after two days. The conditions in Kraus’s experiments were as unfavorable as possible for the continued existence of these pathogenic bacteria, more unfavorable than those often present at the season of prev- alence of cholera and typhoid-fever; nevertheless I do not see that they justify the conclusions of Kraus as to the slight proba- bility of drinking-water ever conveying infection with the germs of typhoid-fever and of cholera. To render such a conclusion proba- ble, it would be necessary to demonstrate a much shorter pres- ervation than even Kraus himself found. In judging this question, it should not be overlooked that infection of drinking-water with the typhoid or the cholera germs is not so often the result of throw- ing typhoid or cholera stools directly into the source of water-supply as it is the consequence of leaky drains, cesspools, privy-vaults, or infected soil; so that there may be continued or repeated acces- sions of infected material to the water. In’ view of the facts presented, there is no sufficient reason, there- fore, from a bacteriological point of view, for rejecting the trans- missibility of typhoid-fever and cholera by the medium of the drinking-water. This conclusion seems irresistible when we call to mind that Koch once found the cholera bacteria in large num- bers in the water of a tank of India, and that the typhoid bacilli had been repeatedly found in drinking-water of localities where typhoid-fever existed. Nor do I see how it is possible to interpret certain epidemiological facts in any other way than by assuming that these diseases can be contracted from infected drinking-water, although I know that there are still high authorities who obsti- nately refuse to accept this interpretation of the facts. In this connection it may be mentioned that pathogenic bacteria may preserve their vitality longer in ice than in unsterilized drink- ing-water. Thus Prudden found typhoid bacilli still alive which had been contained in ice for one hundred and three days. When we come to consider the ways in which water may be- come infected with pathogenic micro-organisms, we recognize at once a distinction in this respect between surface-water and sub- soil-water. Whereas the subsoil-water may be regarded under ordinary circumstances and in most places as germ-free, the sur- face-water, such as that in rivers and streams, is exposed to all manner of infection from the ground, the air, and the direct admis- sion of waste substances. Unfortunately, in the ordinary way of obtaining subsoil-water for drinking purposes by means of dug wells, this distinction is obliterated ; for the water which enters these wells free from bacteria is converted into a surface-water often exposed, by the situation of the well, to more dangerous contamination than other surface-waters used for drinking pur- poses. Now let us turn our attention, as we have done with other sources of infection, to a brief outline of certain general prin- ciples which may help us in avoiding infection from the water. We shall, in the first place, avoid, so far as possible, the use of water suspected of infection, especially with the germs of such diseases as typhoid-fever and cholera. When it is necessary to use this suspected water, it should be boiled. AvuGuST 2, 1880. | As regards the vital question of water-supply, it may be stated as a general principle that no hygienic guaranty can be given for the purity of surface-water which has not been subjected to a proper system of filtration, or for the purity of spring or well water fed from the subsoil, unless such water is protected from the pos- sibility of infection through the upper layers of the soil or from the air, This is not saying that water which meets certain chemical and biological tests, and which is so situated that the opportunities for its contamination appear to be absent or reduced to a mini- mum, is not admissible for the supply of drinking-water ; but the possibility of infection can be removed only by the fulfilment of the conditions just named, and upon these conditions the hygienic purist will always insist. Unfortunately we have at present no domestic filters which are satisfactory; and most of those in common use are worse than none, as they soon furnish a filtrate richer in bacteria than the original water. The only effective method of water-filtration for the general supply is by means of large sand-filters, such as are in use, with excellent results, in Berlin and some other cities. These require skilled attention. I cannot on this occasion discuss the construction or working of these filters, but would refer those who are interested to the full and careful investigations of the Berlin filters by Wolffhiigel and by Plagge and Proskauer. What is accomplished by these artificial sand-filters is accom- plished under natural conditions also by the ground, which fur- nishes a subsoil-water free from micro-organisms ; and to obtain pure water we have only to devise means by which this subsoil- water may be secured without the chance of contamination. Just as the water which has passed through the sand-filters is collected in suitable reservoirs, and is distributed in pipes which do not admit contamination from without, so, by méans of properly con- structed artesian or driven wells, we may secure the naturally filtered subsoil-water with the same freedom from the chances of infection. It is well to bear in mind that no biological or chemical tests of water can replace those measures which have been mentioned as necessary to secure purity of water-supply. These tests are of value only when applied with proper precautions, and with due consideration of the special circumstances of each case for which they are employed. There has been much profitless discussion as to whether greater significance is to be attached to the chemical or to the bacteriological examination of water. Each has its own special field of application, and in this the one cannot replace the other method. The bacteriological examination has for hygienic purposes the advantage that it may enable us to detect the specific agents of infection in the form of micro-organisms, as has already been done for cholera bacteria and typhoid bacilli; but this is a comparatively rare result, and does not at present afford a wide field of application for this method. The significance of the bac- teriological test is to be based more frequently upon the fact that it concerns itself with the same class of micro-organisms to which some of the recognized, and doubtless many of the undiscovered, infectious agents belong, and from the behavior of which, in some respects, concluslons can be drawn as to the behavior of the patho- genic organisms. Thus the bacteriological test is the only one which enables us to judge correctly of the efficacy of those methods of filtration of surface-water and of construction of wells which in- sure purity of water-supply. The points of view from which we can estimate correctly, according to our present knowledge, the relative merits and fields of application of the chemical and of the bacteriological methods of water-examination, have been clearly indicated by Plagge and Proskauer, and by Wolffhiigel. The theme is one beyond the limits or the scope of this discourse ; and I have referred to it chiefly to emphasize the fact that we cannot rely upon chemical or bacteriological tests of water to the exclu- sion of those protective measures which have been mentioned although I do not intend to imply that each of these tests, when properly employed, does not afford important information and is not of great value in many cases. I have already taxed so largely your time and patience, that I must pass over with brief mention the food as a source of infection. Unlike those external sources of infection which we have hitherto considered, many articles of food afford an excellent nutritive SCLENGE. 81 medium for the growth of a number of species of pathogenic micro-organisms, and in many instances this growth may be abundant without appreciable change in the appearance or taste of the food. When we consider in how large a degree the certainty and the severity of infection with many kinds of pathogenic micro-organ- isms depend upon the number of such organisms received into the body, we can appreciate that the danger of infection from food which contains a mass of growing pathogenic bacteria may be much greater than that resulting from the reception of infected water or air,— media in which infectious organisms are rarely present in other than a very dilute condition. The entrance into the body of a single infectious bacterium with the inspired air is, at least in the case of many diseases, not likely to cause infection ; but let this bacterium fall upon some article of food, as, for in- stance, milk, where it can multiply in a short time at a favorable temperature many thousand-fold, and evidently the chances of in- fection become vastly increased. Among the various agencies by which infectious organisms may gain access to the food may be mentioned the deposition of dust conveyed by the air; earth adhering to vegetables ; water used in mixing with or in the preparation of food, in cleansing dishes, cloths, etc.; and contact in manifold other ways with infected substances. _ , Fortunately a very large part of our food is sterilized in the pro- cess of cooking shortly before it is partaken, so that the danger of infection from this source is greatly diminished, and comes into: consideration only for uncooked or partly cooked food, and for food which, although it may have been thoroughly sterilized by heat, is allowed to stand for some time before it is used. Milk, in consequence of its extensive use in an unsterilized state, and of the excellent nutritive conditions which it presents to many pathogenic bacteria, should be emphasized as especially liable to convey certain kinds of infection, —a fact supported not less by bacteriological than by clinical observations. Hesse found that also a large num- ber of ordinary articles of food, prepared in the kitchen in the usual way for the table, and then sterilized, afford a good medium for the growth and preservation of typhoid and cholera bacteria, fre- quently without appreciable change in the appearance of the food. Upon solid articles of food, bacteria may multiply in separate colonies, so that it may readily happen that only one or two of those who partake of the food eat the infected part ; whereas with infected liquids, such as milk, the infection is more likely to be transmitted to a larger number of those who are exposed. In another important particular thé food differs from the other sources of infection which we have considered. Not only the growth of infectious bacteria, but also that of bacteria incapable of multiplication within the body, may give rise in milk and other kinds of food to various ptomaines, products of fermentation, and other injurious substances, which, when ingested, are likely to cause more or less severe intoxication, or to render the alimentary tract more susceptible to the invasion and multiplication of genu- inely infectious organisms. It is plain that the liability to infection from food will vary ac- cording to locality and season. In some places and among some races the proportion of uncooked food used is much greater than in other places and among other races. In general, in summer and in autumn the quantity of fruit and food ingested in the raw state is greater than at other seasons ; and during the summer and autumn there is also greater danger from the transportation of disease-germs from the ground in the form of dust, and the amount of liquids imbibed is greater. The elements of predisposition, ac- cording to place and time, upon which epidemiologists are so fond of laying stress, are not, therefore, absent from the source of infec- tion now under consideration. I have thus far spoken only of the secondary infection of food by pathogenic micro-organisms; but, as is well known, the sub- stances used for food may be primarily infected. Chief in impor- tance in the latter category are the various entozoa and other para- sites which infest animals slaughtered for food. The dangers to mankind resulting from the diseases of animals form a separate theme, which would require more time and space than this address affords for their proper consideration. I shall content myself on 82 this occasion with only a brief reference to infection from the milk and flesh of tuberculous cattle. It has been abundantly demonstrated by numerous experiments that the milk from tuberculous cows is capable, when ingested, of causing tuberculosis. How serious is this danger may be seen from the statistics of Bollinger, who found, with cows affected with ‘extensive tuberculosis, the milk infectious in eighty per cent of the cases ; in cows with moderate tuberculosis, the milk infectious in sixty-six per cent of the cases ; and in cows with slight tuberculosis, ‘the milk infectious in thirty-three per cent of the cases. Dilution ‘of the infected milk with other milk or with water diminished, or in sufficient degree removed, the danger of infection. Bollinger estimates that at least five per cent of the cows are tuberculous. From statistics furnished me by Mr. A. W. Clement, V.S., it ap- pears that the number of tuberculous cows in Baltimore which are slaughtered is not less than three to four per cent. Among some breeds of cattle, tuberculosis is known to be much more prevalent than this. There is no evidence that the meat of tuberculous cattle con- tains tubercle bacilli in sufficient number to convey infection, unless it be very exceptionally. Nevertheless one will not willingly con- sume meat from an animal known to be tuberculous. This in- stinctive repugnance, as well as the possibility of post-mortem infec- tion of the meat in dressing the animal, seems to be good ground for discarding such meat. The question, however, as to the rejec- tion of meat of tuberculous animals, has important economic bear- ings, and has not been entirely settled. As to the rejection of the milk from such animals, however, there can be no difference of ‘opinion, although this is a point not easily controlled. The practical measures to adopt in order to avoid infection from the food, are, for the most part, sufficiently obvious; still it is not to be expected that every possibility of infection from this source will be avoided. It is difficult to discuss the matters considered in this address without seeming to pose as an alarmist; but it is the superficial and half knowledge of these subjects which is most likely to exaggerate the dangers. While one will not, under ordi- nary circumstances, refrain from eating raw fruit or food which hhas not been thoroughly sterilized, or from using unboiled or natu- ral waters in the fear that he may swallow typhoid or cholera bac- teria, still, in a locality infected with cholera or typhoid-fever, he will, if wise, not allow himself the same freedom in these respects. ‘Cow’s milk, unless its source can be carefully controlled, should, when used as an habitual article of diet, as with infants, be boiled, or the mixed milk of a number of cows should be selected; but this latter precaution offers less protection than the former. In most places in this country we are sadly lacking in good sani- tary inspection of the food, especially of the animal food, offered for sale. One cannot visit the slaughter-house in Berlin or in Munich (and doubtless similar ones are to be found elsewhere), and watch the intelligent and skilled inspection of the slaughtered animals, without being impressed with our deficiency in this re- spect. In large cities an essential condition for the efficient sani- tary inspection of animal food is that there should be only a few places, and preferaBly only one place, where animals are permitted _ to be slaughtered. Skilled veterinarians should be selected for much of the work of inspection. It may reasonably be asked that the national government, which has already spent so much money for the extermination of such diseases as pleuro-pneumonia of cattle and hog-cholera, which are not known to endanger the health of mankind, should turn its energies also to means for eradicating tuberculosis from cattle, which is a scourge not only to the economic interests of farmers and dairymen, but also to the health of human beings. Without any pretension to having done more in this address than to sketch here and there a few principles derived from bacte- riological researches concerning only some of the most widely dis- tributed external sources of infection, I trust that enough has been said to show the folly of any exclusive dogma as to modes of infec- tion. The ways of infection even in one and the same disease are manifold and various, and can never be resolved into exclusive hypotheses, such as the drinking-water hypothesis, the ground hy- pothesis, etc. SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 339 It follows, therefore, that it is not by sanitary improvements in one direction only that we can control the spread of preventable epidemic diseases. In one situation improvements in the supply of drinking-water check the prevalence of typhoid-fever, in another place similar measures show no such influence; or, again, in one city the introduction of a good system of sewerage diminishes epi- demic diseases, and in another no similar result follows. We should therefore aim to secure, as far as possible, good sanitary ar- rangements in all directions and in all respects. . It has also been rendered evident, in what has been said, that infectious agents differ markedly from each other in their behavior ; so that, while public sanitation aims at those measures which are found to be most widely beneficial, it should not forget that each infectious disease is as much a separate problem in its prophylaxis as in its symptomatology, etiology, and treatment. It will not aim to combat cholera with the means found best adapted to scarlet- fever, but it will adapt preventive measures as directly to the spe- cific end in view as possible. In presenting to you the results of researches chiefly bacteriological concerning the scientific basis of preventive medicine, I hope to escape the accusation of one-sided- ness and narrowness by the statement that I do not for a moment intend to imply that the bacteriological method is our only source of accurate knowledge on the subjects which have been considered. My aim is accomplished if I have succeeded in making clear that this method has established facts which aid in a clearer conception of the causes of some important infectious diseases, in a better un- derstanding of the sources and dangers of infection, and in a more efficient selection and application of sanitary measures. If this science of only a few years’ growth has furnished already acquisitions to knowledge so important, so far reaching, may we not look forward with assurance to the solution of many dark problems in the domain of infectious diseases, — problems the so- lution of which may yield to preventive medicine a future of use- fulness and success which we cannot now foresee? LUCERNE OR ALFALFA. DURING the past two years considerable has been written con- cerning the value of alfalfa as a forage-plant and for hay. Experi- ments in a limited way have been made at the Agricultural Station at Geneva, N.Y., of which Mr. Peter Collier is the director, since 1882. Alfalfa or lucerne is botanically the same plant ((Zedzcago satzva, Lin.), and one of the clover or leguminous family. Alfalfa has been grown in Greece for nearly three thousand years as a forage-plant. The Romans esteemed it very highly, and Columella writes that it yielded four to six crops a year. In France the plant is known as lucerne, and in Spain as alfalfa. It is grown quite ex- tensively in southern Europe. From Spain alfalfa was introduced into South America, and thence by way of Mexico to California, where it still retains the Spanish name, alfalfa. While in Cali- fornia and many of the Western and Southern States it is grown quite extensively, it has never been much cultivated in the North- ern States. In the Eastern States it was introduced from Europe, and is generally known as lucerne. The alfalfa from California is said to withstand drought far better than the lucerne of Europe, while the lucerne withstands cold winters better than the alfalfa. It seems to be the prevalent opinion that lucerne does not flourish well so far north as New York State, but seven years’ experience with it at the Geneva station proves that it can and will thrive well in this latitude. Chancellor Livingstone experimented with it with good results on his estate in Columbia County nearly ninety years ago. It has been generally conceded, that, in order to succeed, lucerne must have a deep, sandy, or light loam soil. The experi- ence of the station has been upon heavy clay loam, some of it of a cold retentive nature. This indicates that alfalfa will thrive well upon other than sandy or light loamy soils. Two acres and a half of lucerne now growing at the station, on three parts of the farm, show well the capabilities of the plant to withstand the drought and northern winters. In 1882 two plats were put down to lucerne and alfalfa. These plats have yielded several crops each season since. In 1888 they were cut three times, and yielded an average AvucusT 2, 1889. ] of about fifteen tons per acre of green fodder, after having been down to grass from the original seeding six years, From the analysis of alfalfa for different years as grown at the station, at the period of full bloom it was found to contain 67.46 per cent of water. With the figures of the analysis as the basis, it is found, that if the fifteen tons of green fodder, having a composi- tion like the above, were converted into hay, they would be equal to 5.6 tons of hay per acre. The chemical composition of this hay is shown by analysis to be much like red-clover hay, and to contain nearly as much albuminoids as does wheat-bran. The total amount of fertilizing matter removed from one acre by the crop for the. year was very large. Especially is this true of the nitrogen, potash, and lime. Alfalfa is pre-eminently a lime-loving plant, and it is generally recommended to apply a good dressing of lime to the soil before putting down to alfalfa. In a feeding trial made at the station during the past winter, the digestibility of alfalfa hay was determined. The subject for ex- perimentation was a four-year-old Jersey cow, in milk about two months when the trial was made. Feb. 23 the feeding of alfalfa hay was begun. Twenty-five pounds per day were offered, and, during the five days on which the dung was saved, an average of 24.31 pounds, or 389 ounces, per day were eaten. The amount of dry matter consumed per day was 322.7 ounces. By comparison of the results with those for the digestibility of clover hay as found by Armsby, it is found that alfalfa is consider- ably more digestible than red clover. Especially is this true for the albuminoids and nitrogen-free extract. Some notes from station experience, on the method of preparing the soil for planting out lucerne-seed and for curing the hay, may be of interest to those who contemplate making a trial of this crop. Perhaps the best time to sow alfalfa is in the spring. The earli- ness will depend on the condition of the soil, moisture, and warmth, A crop that is to hold the ground, so long as we expect alfalfa to produce profitably, should have a faultless seed-bed prepared for it to start on. This is especially desirable where the first year’s growth may be expected to be small, and may be overcome by weeds if any exist with it, and care is not taken to reduce them to aminimum. It would be well to specially prepare a suitable piece of land with a late summer fallow, or some crop which can be kept hoed free from weeds. Then, when the land is in good con- dition to work in spring, make a nice bed, and, if there is likelihood of many weeds starting on it, wait a week for them to germinate, harrow up well, and at once sow the alfalfa-seed if it is to be broad- casted. If itis to be drilled and cultivated the first season, the harrowing before seeding may be omitted. Roll the soil with a moderately heavy roller after sowing the seed. This will compact the soil about the seed, and hasten germination. Having the crop started, one has only to watch the growth, and, if vigorous enough, it may be cut the first season. If allowed to stand too long, alfalfa becomes hard and woody in the stalk : hence a part will be wasted. It will also draw too largely from the roots for the good of the succeeding crops: so it seems best to cut it during the first period of good weather after the blossoms begin to appear. If designed for soiling, it should be wilted before feeding, to be sure that animals will not eat enough to cause hoven. This can be done by cutting feed.one day ahead in fair weather, or longer if there is an appearance of storm. If designed for hay, it must be very carefully handled, for like all the clovers, and to a greater extent perhaps, its leaves will drop off during the curing and housing, and leave only a mass of bare stalks instead of the bright green leaves and blue blossoms which ought to stay on for the best hay. A good time to mow is in the afternoon, so it will wilt but not dry much before night. The next forenoon or toward evening, after the leaves become tough, pitch together into small cocks from the machine-swath. Two active men can pitch from three to five swaths together quite fast, and, if wide barley-straw forks are used, there will be little use for a rake. After the cocks are made, they should stand two or three days before pitching over; then put two or three into one, if making well, and observe to turn every forkful bottom up, and spread out the thick green bunches so they will be brought SCIENCE, 83 into contact with the dry portions. All the work of pitching, from the first to the final mowing away, must be done when the alfalfa is tough, but not wet from dew in the morning or evening. Never handle clover when it rattles, for the leaves will be broken and; wasted. A second or third handling will be needed before the hay will be fit to store. The drawing should be done early in the fore- noon; and, if the bottom layers of hay are wet, the cocks can be overturned from the sun, and, after a few minutes’ exposure, will be dry enough to load. Alfalfa or other clover hay made in this way comes out fresh and bright, and retains its leaves and flowers: to an extent beyond the belief of those who are accustomed to: rake clover with a horse, open out the hay to the sun, and pitch it in the heat of the day. The value saved will be worth all the extra time, if any is required. The result of the station experience with lucerne or alfalfa may be summarized as follows: 1. That lucerne or alfalfa may be suc- cessfully grown in New York State; 2. That when once estab- lished, it thrives well upon clay land, but will probably do better upon good light loam ; 3. That seed two years old loses its vitality, and fails to germinate (undoubtedly many of the failures to secure a stand of plants may be traced to poor seed); 4. That the seed- bed must be weil prepared, and in this latitude it seems best to plant out the seed in the spring, and with no other crop (the seed should be but lightly covered by rolling the ground); 5. That for seven successive years at the station three and four cuttings per year have been taken from the plats; 6. That last year, the sixth in succession, the plats yielded more than fifteen tons per acre of green forage, equal to 5.6 tons of alfalfa hay; 7. That alfalfa should be cut in early bloom, before the plants become woody ; 8. That it should be cured largely in the cock to produce the best quality of hay; 9. That by chemical analysis the hay was found to be more nitrogenous than good red clover; to.- That cattle, sheep, and horses all relished the hay, and seemed to do well; rr. That it was found to be more digestible than red-clover hay; 12. That if farmers would try this crop, it is advisable to begin with a small piece of well-prepared land, in order to see whether- alfalfa does as well with them as it has at the station; 13. That probably success with alfalfa will depend largely upon having fresh seed, a good, carefully prepared seed-bed, and in covering the seed, lightly with soil. HEALTH MATTERS. PNEUMONIA. — Drs. C. W. Townsend and A. Coolidge, jun., of Boston, from a study, published in Zhe Medical News, of all the cases of lobar pneumonia treated at the Massachusetts General Hospital, from the first case, in 1822, up to the present day, find that (1) in the thousand cases of this disease treated between those. dates there was a mortality of 25 per cent; (2) the mortality has gradually increased from Io per cent in the first decade, to 28 per cent in the present decade ; (3) this increase is deceptive for the following reasons, all of which were shown to be a causeof a large mortality, — (@) the average age of the patients has been increasing from the first to the last decade, (4) the relative number of com- plicated and delicate cases has increased, (c) the relative number of intemperate cases has increased, (@) the relative number of foreign- ers has increased ; (4) these causes are sufficient to explain the entire rise in the mortality ; (5) treatment which was heroic before 1850, transitional between 1850 and 1860, and expectant and sus- taining since 1860, has not, therefore, influenced the mortality rate ; (6) treatment has not influenced the duration of the disease or of its convalescence. It must, however, be admitted that the present treatment of expectancy — a treatment which makes the patient as comfortable as possible, preserves his strength, and avoids every thing harsh —is certainly far more agreeable to the patient than the former heroic method. After these studies, we cannot but admire the regular and uniform manner in which pneumonia — that type of self-limited diseases — has run its course in all these years, uninfluenced by the varying treatment it has received. DR. BROWN-SEQUARD’S HYPODERMIC FLUID. — The extraor- dinary statements made by Professor Brown-Séauard as to the efficiency of hypodermic injections of fluid expressed from certain tissues of young animals in senile debility have been to a certain_ _ 84 extent confirmed by M. Variot, who made a communication to the Société de Biologie on June 29. The patients chosen were debili- tated men, aged fifty-four, fifty-six, and sixty-eight years respec- tively, and they were not informed of the nature of the treatment adopted. In all three cases the injections were followed by gen- eral nervous excitement, increased muscular power, and stimulation and regulation of digestion. M. Brown-Séquard said that M. Variot’s observations disposed of the objection that the results he thhad observed in himself were due to “suggestion.” THE HEREDITY OF Myopia. —If the opinions of various oph- thalmologists. concerning the heredity of myopia were recorded here, the result would be an accumulation of vastly conflicting statements. This, however, would be largely due to lack of pre- cision in investigating the subject. Lately Dr. Motais has care- fully studied both the history and course of disease in 330 cases of myopia occurring in young people, and has arrived at the follow- ing conclusions, which are given in The Medical News: 1. The hereditary influence of myopia is manifest; 2. Out of 330 cases, the families of 219 were afflicted with the same disease (this shows a percentage of 65 per cent); 3. Hereditary myopia is distinguished from acquired myopia by (@) its more early appearance, (4) its more rapid development, (c) its greater severity, (¢) its being more frequently followed by other complications (in short, hereditary myopia is far more serious than the acquired form of the disease) ; 4. Myopia is usually transmitted from the father to the daughter (86 per cent), and from the mother to the son (79 per cent); 5. The principal conditions which favor the transmission of hereditary myopia are, (a) use of the eyesight under bad hygienic surround- ings (whether in school or at home), (4) Astigmatism (14 per cent), (¢) Microseemia (diminution of the orbital arch), 16 per ‘cent; 6. The increase of the disease in hereditary cases was, in 6 per cent of the cases, found to be mainly the fault of those who thad charge of the child’s education. If care is not taken, acquired myopia will not restrict itself to the individual, but may also be transmitted unto their children. ELECTRICAL NEWS. WIRING OF SHIPS. — In order to avoid any disturbance of the magnetism of the compass of a vessel by the powerful currents used in electric lighting, Sir William Thomson recommends the exclusive employment of a two-wire system, the positive and nega- tive mains being not far apart save in:those cases, of rare occur- rence at present, in which alternating currents are employed. A galvanometer of simple construction should also be made use of, for the purpose of ascertaining that the outgoing and return cur- rents are of the same strength, or, in other words, that no leakage is occurring. Further, the magnetic leakage from the dynamo should not be sufficient to cause any appreciable disturbance of the -compass-needle, which may be tested by observing this needle at the moments of starting and stopping the dynamo. In opposition to Sir William, says Exgzneerzng, Mr. Alexander Siemens, whose firm have fitted up a large number of vessels with the electric light, has not found any special precautions necessary, the single-wire system being employed in every case. As for the dynamo, he has mever found any disturbance from this cause, provided that there “was a distance of fifty feet between the dynamo and the binnacle. BOOK-REVIEWS. Autobiography of Friedrich Froebel. Tr. by EMILIE MICHAELIS and H. KEATLEY Moore. Syracuse, C. W. Bardeen. 12°, $1.50. THE bulk of this volume consists of a letter from Froebel to the Duke of Meiningen, to which is added an extract from another of this letters, and several notes by the translators. The letter to the duke relates to the early part of the author’s life, from his birth to the establishment of his school at Keilhau, where his system of education, since known as the kindergarten system, was first .defi- nitely carried into practice. The letter to the duke of Meiningen is unfinished, and whether it was ever delivered to the duke at all is uncertain. But, however that may be, the letter gives a full ac- SCIENCE. [VoL. XIV. No. 339 count, not only of the writer’s early life and education, but also of his theory of education in general. His practical method, unfor- tunately, receives but scant mention; and, if we had no other sources of information than this book contains, we should be at a loss to know what his improvements in education really were. His theories however, and the pantheistic philosophy on which they are based, are expounded superabundantly, page after page being filled with what is. little better than vapor. He is forever talking about the “unity and inner connection” of things, “the inner law and order embracing all things.” Whenever he studied any subject, he always sought for this “inner connection,” and he complains of Pestalozzi’s school, which he visited, as: lacking in inner harmony and unity. Precisely what he meant by these phrases it is sometimes difficult to ascertain; but they are repeated till the reader is weary of them. He had, as even his translators admit, an absurdly exaggerated sense of the importance of his educational methods. He seems to have thought that the wisdom of\ages and the accumulated experience of mankind were worth- less, and declared that he wanted “ the exact opposite of what now serves as educational method and as teaching-system in gen- eral.” Indeed, he seems to have thought that he was going to revolutionize the culture and life of humanity, whereas all he has accomplished is some slight improvements in the education of children. Of his ardent devotion and spirit of sacrifice for the good of others, this book bears abundant evidence. He was often in pecuniary difficulties, yet, amid them all, he steadfastly pursued his course after he had once learned his true vocation as an educa- tor. Itis to be regretted that the translators have not given a fuller account of Froebel’s more elaborate experiments in teaching, to which he really owes his influence and fame, and which are scarcely touched upon in his autobiographical letter. As it is, we get from this book an interesting account of his early life, and of his theories and aspirations, but very little information as to the inception and introduction of those practical methods in which his real life-work consisted. However, we must be thankful to the translators for giving us the autobiography in English, and, as they themselves remark, wait till some adequate biography appears for the fuller information we desire. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. “THE Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe,” by her son, Rev. Charles E. Stowe, is now passing through the Riverside Press, and will be given to the public early in the autumn. It will be a book of pe- culiar personal and literary interest, and will appeal to a host of readers on both sides of the Atlantic. It is to be a handsome volume, embellished with fine portraits and other illustrations, and will be sold by Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. by subscriptions. — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication in August “Myers’s General History,” by P. V. N. Myers, president of Bel- mont College. This book is based: upon the author’s “ Ancient History” and “ Medizeval and Modern History,” and is character- ized by the same qualities as mark the earlier works. It is be- lieved that the difficult task which the author set for himself, of compressing the fourteen hundred or more pages comprising the two text-books mentioned into a single volume of about seven hundred pages, has been accomplished without impairment either of the interest or of the easy flow of the narration. The greatest care has been taken to verify every statement, and to give the latest results of discovery and criticism. The book is provided with between twenty and thirty colored maps, besides nearly two hundred sketch-maps, woodcuts, and photogravures. The illus- trations have been drawn from the most authentic sources, and nothing has been admitted save what is illustrative and truthful. —Sampson Low & Co. have published a work entitled “‘ Eng-. lishmen in the French Revolution,” by Mr. J. G. Alger, which is based upon much personal research among unpublished docu- ments both at the Record Office and in Paris. Besides incorporat- ing two articles that originally appeared in the Edzndurgh Revzew, dealing with the early days of the Revolution and the Terror, chapters are added about the prisoners of war, the opening of Paris by the peace of Amiens, and the subsequent imprisonment AucusT 2, 1889.] of visitors in France by Napoleon. Attention has been given not only to spectators, deputations, and victims, but also to those writers who sympathized with the downfall of the anczen réezme. — Dr. Nansen, the Arctic explorer, has made arrangements with Longmans, Green, & Co. for the publication of an account of his recent Greenland expedition. The book will be ready early next spring, and will be illustrated with maps and plates. — Kegan Paul, Trench,.& Co. will shortly publish the first num- ber of a new serial devoted to the reproduction of selected works of the foremost photographers of the day. It is proposed to issue quarterly a portfolio of four photogravure pictures from the nega- tives of ‘Sun Artists,” such as will tend to advance photography in the estimation of the art-loving public, and obtain for it the posi- tion which it now claims. The first number of ‘Sun Artists ”’ will consist of four studies by Mr. J. Gale, on imperial quarto paper, with letterpress. — Funk & Wagnalls have just issued a practical little book, en- titled “Emergency Notes,” in which Dr. Glentworth R. Butler tells in a clear, easily understood way what to do in the emergencies that are ever arising in this world of multiplied diseases and acci- dents. — A.C. Armstrong & Son have, by arrangements with Rev. C. H. Spurgeon and his English publisher, issued the first volume of his new work entitled “The Salt Cellars,” being proverbs and quaint sayings, together with homely notes thereon. It is alpha- betical in arrangement, and brings the proverbs down to the let- ter M. “—D. Appleton & Co. will publish immediately “Christianity and Agnosticism,’ a controversy consisting of the papers by Henry Wace, Professor Huxley, W. H. Mallock, the Bishop of Peterborough, and Mrs. Humphry Ward, which have been appearing in different periodicals, and which many persons desiring to get at the complete discussion will be glad to have in one volume.” « —George O. Seilhamer, 112 North 12th Street, Philadelphia, ihas nearly ready the second volume of his “‘ History of the Ameri- can Theatre,” treating of the period during the Revolution and after. The last volume, which is in preparation, will treat the subject in the “‘ Last Years of the Eighteenth Century.” — Little, Brown, & Co. have in preparation ‘Myth and Folk- Lore of Ireland,” by Jeremiah Curtin, an original and fresh contri- bution to the already rich store of the folk-lore of the ‘Emerald Isle,” extracted by the author from Gaelic sources. ' — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication about Oct. 1, “History of the Roman People,” by Professor W. F. Allen of the University of Wisconsin. This will replace the second part of Myers’s “‘ Outlines of Ancient History.’ This sketch of Roman hhistory will place especial emphasis upon two series of events, — first, the policy and process by which the Roman Dominion was Secured and organized during the republic, its re-organization un- der the empire, and final disruption at the time of the German migrations; second, the social and economical causes of the failure of self-government among the Romans, and the working of the same forces under the empire (in this point of view, the history of religion among the Romans will be carefully traced). — Hereafter the Amerzcan Journal of Psychology will be pub- lished from Clark University, Worcester, instead of from Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore. Remittances and business com- munications should be addressed to the clerk of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., and scientific and editorial communications to G, Stanley Hall, editor, Clark University, Worcester, Mass. —G. P. Putnam’s Sons announce among their first autumn pub- lications, “‘ The Industrial Progress of the Nation, Consumption Limited, Production Unlimited,’ by Edward Atkinson, author of “«The Distribution of Products,” etc.; ‘“ A Race with the Sun,” a sixteen-months’ trip around the world, by Hon. Carter H. Harrison of Chicago, illustrated by many full-page plates; “The Modern Chess Instructor,” by W. Steinitz; “Christian Theism, its Claims -and Sanctions,” by D. B. Purinton, LL.D., vice-president of West SCIENCE. 85 Virginia University, and professor of metaphysics ; “ To the Lions,” by Alfred Church; “A Woman’s War Record, 1861-1865,” by Mrs. Gen. Charles H. T. Collis; ‘“ Lectures on Russian Litera- ture,” by Ivan Panin; “ The Practical Pocket Dictionary in Four Languages, — English, French, German, and Italian ;” and “ Tales from the Korea,” collected and translated by Henry N. Allen, sec- retary of the Korean Legation. In the Story of the Nations Series they will publish “The Story of the Hansa Towns,” by Helen Zimmern; and in the Knickerbocker Nuggets, “Sesame and Lilies,” by John Ruskin; “The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin;” “Tales by Heinrich Zschokke;” and “Great Words from Great Americans,” the last comprising the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, Washington’s Inaugural Addresses, Lincoln’s Inaugural Addresses, Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. *, “Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. in all cases required as proof of good faith. The writer’s name is The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. Twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished Sree to any correspondent on request. A Circular Note to Working Entomologists. MOSQUITOES and house-flies are perhaps the most numerous, widely distributed, and persistent of the creatures that attack the health and comfort of human beings. Of their attacks upon our comfort every one is aware. Scientific investigation favors the be- lief that tuberculosis and ophthalmia are carried from diseased persons to healthy ones by the house-fly, and German experimen- ters have shown that serious blood maladies may be transmitted by the mosquito. - Certainly, therefore, any suggestion, however remote, of a means of decreasing the numbers of or exterminating these pests, should be followed with all possible skill and patience. I have observed dragon-flies gathering in scores around my camp in Minnesota to feed on the mosquitoes. I recently saw a dragon- fly that had devoured over thirty house-flies still voracious for more. Entomologists have observed the larvae of the dragon-fly swallow= ing undeveloped mosquitoes in large numbers. Now, may we not have in the active, voracious, harmless ‘“ mos- quito-hawk,” an agency for greatly diminishing the numbers of the smaller insects ? Professor Baird’s success in producing millions of healthy fish in a few laboratory boxes and jars, the propagation of silkworms by scores of millions from eggs carried half around the world to Italy, the success of the plan for breeding foreign humble-bees in Aus- tralasia to fertilize the red clover, — these and many other similar facts seem to show that scientific methods have reached a stage where it is reasonable to hope that a plan may be devised whereby whole tribes of noxious insects may be exterminated by the artificial multiplication of their innoxious enemies. Not being an entomologist, I have consulted with several dis- tinguished students of that science as to the best means of reach- ing some practical result in. the direction above indicated, and they agree with me that the following preliminary step may be usefully taken :— For the purpose of drawing the attention of entomologists to the subject mentioned, I have placed in the hands of Morris K. Jesup, Esq., president of the American Museum of Natural History, New York City, $200, to be paid by him in three prizes of $150, $30, and $20, for the three best essays, based on original observations and experiments, on the destruction of mosquitoes and flies by other insects. The following suggestions are made as to the direction in which the investigation should be carried and the essay formulated: I. Observations and experiments upon various insects that destroy mosquitoes and house-flies, stating the method of and capacity of destruction; 2. Observations and experiments to determine the best dragon-flies to be artificially multiplied for the two above- named objects, — probably species of £schna, Libellula, or Dé- 86 plax,; 3. Give detailed statements of the habits and life-history of the species chosen, based on original and careful experiments and observations; 4. Suggest a plan for breeding the insects in large numbers, with a sketch of apparatus, and estimated cost of pro- ducing them per thousand; 5. Formulate a plan for using the in- sects in the larva, pupa, or perfect state for the destruction of mosquitoes and flies, (a) in houses, (4) in cities, (c) in neighbor- hoods. The prizes will be awarded after careful consideration by Dr. Henry C. McCook, vice-president of the Academy of Natural Sci- ence of Philadelphia, and vice-president of the American Society of Entomologists, and Dr. J. S. Newberry, president of the New York Academy of Sciences, professor of geology of Columbia College, and late chief of the Geological Survey of Ohio. In awarding the prizes, clearness of statement obtained by ac- companying sketches, and new and purely scientific facts in the life-history of the Lzbe//udéde, of which so little is known, will be duly considered. , All the essays received may be published wholly or in part, at the discretion of the judges, and full credit will in all cases be given to each observer. The essays should be forwarded by Dec. 1, 1889, to Mr. J. H. Winser, at the American Museum of Natural History, 77th Street and 8th Avenue, New York, to whom all communications should be addressed. ROBERT H. LAMBORN. 32 Nassau Street, New York, July 15. Are Beech-Trees ever struck by Lightning ? REFERRING to note on p. 7 of Sczence for July 5, and letter on p- 50, July 19, I here record some observations on the same sub- ject. During a prolonged summer drought, about one o’clock P.M., the sun was shining brightly, but a small cloud came from the south-east ; and while two other gentlemen and I were seated in my parlor, conversing, a flash was seen, and a sharp explosion heard. In afew moments a man came in, announcing that he had been thrown from the wagon, the driver knocked down, also five of the six oxen, “ three of which were killed by lightning.” Hasten- ing to the spot, about two hundred feet from the parlor, we found the wagon under the branches of a large beech-tree a few feet from the trunk, the wheels in contact with roots, the fore-wheels having passed the trunk; the oxen all recovered and standing, save the farthest one from the tree. He was dead, and never moved a muscle. The messenger was seated on the hinder part of the wagon when struck and knocked down. The driver walk- ing on the opposite side of the tree, perhaps ten feet from the trunk, but some of the spreading branches almost touching his head, was knocked down, somewhat stunned, and, although stand- ing on our arrival, had not fully regained his wits, nor his hat. The tree was tall, and thickly branched to the top. and minute examination, we found no mark of electricity on trunk, root, or branch; but later we discovered, perhaps twelve or more feet from the top, a space about three inches wide and six or eight feet long, as we guessed, from which the bark was torn and the wood grooved. Some days later we discovered that a strip of bark extending from the rent above mentioned to the earth was dead and peeling off, and the wood grooved. Our conclusion was that the electricity mostly passed between the bark and the wood, there being most moisture at plane of contact. Nota drop of rain fell during the day, nor during many weeks before and after the above incidents. SCIENCE. On careful. [Vot. XIV. No. 330 This is by no means the only instance in which I have known the beech-tree struck by lightning, nor the only one in which the electricity seemed, at least, to pass between bark and wood of beech, oak, tulip-tree, black gum, Magnolia grandiflora, etc. Why was neither man killed in this instance, and only the ox farthest from the stricken tree? The explanation is simple enough. Here was a ridge gently sloping to the east, west, and south. The stricken tree was perhaps twenty feet from the lowest western level. One ox had placed one foot on the lowest spot of ground which it is presumed was near moisture beneath (the rest of the land being dried, and on the crest of the ridge to such a depth as. to cause the death of several trees): the circle from moist earth through the ox, the chains, and iron of the wagon, was completed to the tree. One of the two oxen nearest the tree did not fall. All the phenomena caused me to think that the discharge was from the earth. Having had many extraordinary, very undesirable, and extremely dangerous opportunities of witnessing phenomena of natural elec- tricity, other facts may possibly be given later. D. L. PHARES. Madison Station, Miss., July 24. = Breathing. My attention has recently been called to your editorial comments. on my observations made on the chest-movements of some eighty Indian females about two years ago, from which I felt justified in concluding that the abdominal was the original type of respiration in woman, and that the costal type has been acquired through the influence of abdominal constriction. Now, although this observa- tion and conclusion was confirmed more recently by the experi- ments of Dr. Kellogg, who measured the chest-movements of a number of Chinese women in the Far West whose abdomens were never constricted by artificial appliances, you incline to the belief that “the question of what is the natural type of respiration may still be regarded as sub judice, unless (which perhaps may be the truth) both types ‘are natural under varying conditions independent of dress,” because “‘ other observers, notably Hutchinson in his ex- amination of twenty-four girls whose waists had never been con- stricted by corsets or other appliances, found the costal type pres- ent.” With the highest regard for your opinion, I beg to say that such a deduction is scarcely allowable from the premises of my re- searches. These show, in all probability, that Dr. Hutchinson’s girls were not entirely free from the influence of abdominal constric- tion, even though they never wore corsets: for in the Indian the abdominal type obtains the highest form of development in the full- blooded girl, whose body, as well as the bodies of her ancestors, has never been subjected to the influence of abdominal constric- tion ; and this type seems to disappear from the Indian girl in the proportion of the admixture of white blood in her veins. It is very probable, therefore, that heredity is an important factor in the maintenance of women’s breathing ; and any experiment or deduc- tion which fails to give this due consideration will naturally lead to final disappointment. So far as I know, Dr. Kellogg’s and my own experiments are the only efforts which have been made to solve this problem by studying the respiratory movements in theirmost primitive con- dition in woman, and, until they are disproved by experiments based on identical conditions, I think they must be taken as con- clusive. THOos. J. MAys. Philadelphia, July 29 .’ Exchanges. [Exchanges are inserted for subscribers free of charge. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] Lead, zinc, mundic, and calcite. — Lulu Hay, secre- tary Chapter 350, Carthage, Mo. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘‘ Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. : One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for | making 4 X 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “new model’’ double dry-plate holder (4" X 5”), for fine f geological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- fied. —Charles E. Fnck, to1g West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature —animals, birds, insects, and plants — to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc. —Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lepidoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named | and in good condition, — Charles S$. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California onyx, for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East rarst Street, New York, N.Y. Will such members of the Agassiz Association as bot- anize this summer, and can afford time, please observe for me any case of doubling in any flower and in any locality, stating name of flower (Gray), the abnormal change, the time and place found, and whether monstros- ity is abundant or otherwise? Please address communi- cations to Will G. Cole, 3643 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Ti. Any onewho has a botanical box in good condition will please write. I will offer about 30 specimens in ex= change. —C. B. Haskell, Box 826, Kennebunk, Me. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds” eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. AUGUST 2, 1880. ] SCIENCE. ACiOUS! HORSFORD’S ACID PHOSPHATE. Prepared according to the direction of Prof. E. N. Horsrorp. A teaspoonful of the Acid Phosphate in a tumbler of water, and sweetened to the taste makes a delicious, healthful and invigorating drink. To it may be added such stimulants as the person is from necessity or habit accustomed to take, and its action will harmonize therewith. It is an agreeable and healthy substitute for Lemons and Lime Juice in the preparation of all acidulated drinks. Allays the thirst, aids digestion, and relieves the lassitude so common in midsummer. e Dr. J. S. Nites, Pownal, Vt., says: “Excellent as a tonic, and refreshing as a substitute for lemonade.” Dr. T. C. SmrrH, Charlotte, N. C., ‘An invaluable nerve tonic, a delightful beverage, and one of the best restorers when the energies flag, and the spirits droop. says : Descriptive pamphlet free on application to Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. BEWARE OF SUBSTITUTES AND IMITATIONS. CAUTION:—Be sure the word ** Horsford’s” is printed on the label. All others are spurious. Never sold in bulk. “ The Week, one of the ablest papers on the con- tinent.” —Descriptive America. ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. SRE OW) ar: Te A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY. $3.00 per Year. $1.00 for Four Months, SEND FOR FREE SAMPLE COPY. C. BLACKETT ROBINSON, Publisher, 5 Jordan St., HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. A NEW MICROSCOPE. Having invented an improved form of micro- scope, I will assign an interest in the patent for financial assistance in manufacturing. It is be- lieved that a powerful instrument may be made on the new principle at low cost. FRANK ANTON BECKER, 530 E. 16th St., N.Y. Old and Rare Books. One Million Magazines. Back numbers, vols. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. AVS GRARK. 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates ow. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. Toronto. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Offices: Atchison, Kan. [91 Broadway, New York, 222 Walnut St., Phila. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres’t. T) Guaranteed Farm Mortgages 7" The Guarantee Investment Company makes loans upon fertile farms tn the choicest portions of Kansas and Nebraska and has adopted the policy of sending a Committee of tts Investors eachyear to examine tts loans and methods of bustness. The Committee this year consisted of PROF. A. H. BERLIN, Principal of the High School Montrose, Pa., MAJ. THEODORE L. POOLE, Ex-U. S. Pension Agent, Syracuse, N. Y. the highest character and have the confidence of the Communities in which they reside. ana Both of these gentlemen are persons of The Committee has recently returned and has made a very interesting Report upon the general development of Kansas ana Nebraska as well as the business of the Company. (See if Some Friend of Yours is not in the List.) William A. Cauldwell, 59 Liberty St., N.Y. Palmer Cox, 658 Broadway, N.Y. Rev. Jos. H. Rylance, D.D., 11 Livingston Place, N.Y. Rey. Brady E. Backus, D.D., 360 West 28th St., N.Y. Rey. R. M. Sommervile, 126 West 45th St., N.Y. Dr. Robert A. Murray, 235 West 23d St., N.Y. Dr. James P. Tuttle, 136 West 41st St., N.Y. H. Edwards Rowland, 218 Fulton St., N.Y. Irving H. Tifft, Esq., 271 Broadway, N.Y Prof. D. G. Eaton, 55 Pineapple St., Brooklyn, N.Y Dr. E. P. Thwing, 156 St. Marks Ave. bo Brooklyn, N.Y. Dr. C. C. Miles, Greenport, N.Y. ee N. Bergen, Port Jefferson, N.Y. enj. W. Stilwell, Yonkers N.Y. | Address for Report and Monthly Bulletin R. C. Coleman, Goshen, N.Y. Mrs. Samuel Carlisle, Newburg, N.Y. Dr. C. C. Bartholomew, Ogdensburg, N.Y. Rey. Nelson Millard, D.D., Rochester, N.Y. Rev. Horace G. Hinsdale, D.D., Princeton, N.J. Dr. Charles M. Howe, Passaic, N. Vs George A. Skinner, 5 Railroad Place, Newark, N.J. Dr. Edwin M. Howe, 85 Halsey St., Newark, N.J. Dr. H. G. Buckingham. Clayton, N. Ve Dr. Martin Cole, Jr., Hainesville, N.J. Mortgage Trust Co. of Pa., Philadelphia, Pa. Miss Mary Miller, 1230 Spruce St., Philadelphia, Pa. Henry D. Biddle, 3113¢ Walnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. The Company will be glad to send this Report to any address. The following names are taken from the long list of Investors tn our Mortgages: Dr. Calvin C. Halsey, Montrose, Pa. Rey. William Baldwin, Great Bend, Pa. Gen. William Lilly, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Second Nat. Bank, Mauch Chunk, Pa. Enos E. Thatcher, West Chester, Pa. Mrs. Townsend Poore, Scranton, Pa. Rev. Burdett Hart, D.D., New Haven, Conn. Dr. Frank H. Wheeler, New Haven, Conn, Charles R. Christy, Stamford, Conn. Mrs. Catharine P. Fuller, Woodmont, Conn. Miss Jessie Henderson, Lenox, Mass, | Dr. M. J. Halloran, Worcester, Mass. | Albert Walker, Bennington, Vt. HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. SCIENCE. LWot, ITY, No. 339 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™, to 100 H.P. 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. J. The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. ASSETS . - - $126,082,153 56 The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 Exceeded $103,000,900. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including AUgainelnyassets.Of semen ist md ae ee een $ 7,275,301 68 AX (SEVUA I NNGHINS Of oo c00 Goon ed bade saodacosccoe 3,096,010 06 NEY hel IN? OIONUNING CESS wabS2 Gp oscgsccns 2,333,406 oo LN. feeb Thay SWPP OF oockogonseegdsocecocccs aose 1,645,622 11 A gain in new business Of 5 eee Brereton ee. 332756,792 85 EX (HENTOY Oli TASES TO WOKE s osagodocncocooducnsocoum 54,496,251 85 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. PROF H. ARON’S Electric Current Counter PATHNTED. Gold Medal Awarded at Melbourne Exhibition, 1888-89, The most reliable Electric Meter ever invented. Guaranteed correct for small and large currents. Built for direct two-wire, three-wire, five-wire, etc., and alternating systems, in sizes from 15 up to any number of amperes. Adopted by Siemens & Halske, Berlin, Germany; Edi- son Company, Berlin, Germany; Municipal Electric Lighting Works, Berlin, Germany. In use by European Central Stations measuring 60 million watts. Unquestioned superiority. Indispensable for Central Station work. Amount of current consumed may be ascertained ata glance, the dials being constructed on the same principle as the gas meter dials. i ) cal FOR PRICES AND PARTICULARS, ADDRESS : IW. HACKEHNTHAL, SOLE MANUFACTURER AND IMPORTER, 21 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. Please Mention “‘Science.” A TEMPORARY BINDER for Scéence is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind- ing. Filed in this binder, Sc7ezce is always convenient for réference. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. 75 cents. Mineral Lands. MANGANESE DEPOSITS. —A rich de- post of Manganese is for sale. Apply to H. N., care of Sczence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. GOLD-BEARING QUARTZ VEINS. — Any one wishing to engage in gold mining will learn of a newly discovered vein by applying to H N., care of Science, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. RED SLATE. —A valuable deposit of red slate for sale. Apply to H. N., care of Scéence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. Wants. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SCIENCE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. M ECHANICIAN.— An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J., care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. A HARVARD GRADUATE (’89) desires during the summer either to teach boys natural history by ex- cursions into the country, or to secure employment in some geological field work. Refers to Professors Shaler and Davis. Address Box 110, Newton, Mass. Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. Auvcust 2, 1889 ] SCIENCE: ili ¢. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all Power Purposes. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City, \ New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. . Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Chicago. = Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, ‘| densers for Bacterial || and Histological work, || of Objectives, Camera ‘| Lucida and other ac- 27 \ | cessory apparatus, fwe armor’d knights in mortal combat meet Armed cap-a-pie—that is, from head to feet. The helmet, breastplate, shield and spear of one Shone like the dazzling brightness of the sun. The other suit of mail begrimed with rust Was scarcely proof against his foeman’s thrust, And after many a parry, guard and lunge He thought it wisest to throw up the sponge. «See here,” he cried, ‘‘this isn’t fair, you know, Your armor’s polished with Saporio. I cannot see to fight—I’m sure to fail— SapPoLio protects 7 you from BLAcK-MAatt !” BEWARE OF IMITATIONS. Grocers often substitute cheaper goods for Sapolio to make a better profit. Send back such articles, and insist upon having just what you ordered. ENOCH MORGAN’S SONS CO., NEW YORK. “JOHN HASTINGS= 750,792 85 fringes the right secured to this A gain of risks in force. @eegapmme 6... 0. see 54,496,251 85 Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished by it or its Company licensees, responsible for such un- |\lawful use, and all the conse- ion $272,481,839 82. | quences thereof and liable to suit therefor. TAPAUEL A SUANLLY |'-sottesteac immo Street PENG. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. OF SUPERIOR AWD STANDARD QUALITY. The Mutual Li Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organi A. S. CLARK, Leading Nos.: 048, 14, 130, 135, 239, 333 Ele ctri { C al 34 Park Row, New York City. For Sale by atl Bio tiomers. SSS THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN GO., ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading wee azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. Works: Oamden, N. J. 26 Joha St.. New York. SSS | Wat tring JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, ae NewS H 0 U SE BALTIMORE. Apusthale De Z RUSH: TES GOLD MEDALS QAWARDED © ENS SIAR ) Qo Ricca” Used by thousands of first-class | Announcements for the next academic a a Furnishings, |year are now ready and will be sent on Ge. application. aye FOOD | ADULTERATION So a 34 Fran kfort St, And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 } Mason & Beale n Organ and Piano | Co., &c. Repairs Everything. Ttssuccess has brought a lot of imitators copying us in every way ossible. pers ber that ie lees GENUINE LePage’s Liquid i Glue is manufactured solely by the UNiseeeq|RUSSIA CEMENT CO. or Lanse GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c, and dealers? card rig Patent Pocket Can. Nowaste.{doesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues on application. E. & F. N. SPON, N CW NG Oo rk x 12 Cortlandt St., New York. “— On SIENCE (Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] PWEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 341. NEW YORK, Aucust 16, 1889, SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS, $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. THE MOSCROP CONTINUOUS RECORDER. THIs instrument was invented by J. B. Moscrop of Manchester, England, who designed it especially for the use of manufacturers of textile fabrics. Its services proved so valuable that its use rap- idly extended, not only in Europe, but aiso in this country. It has found a place in many woollen and cotton mills, electric-light sta- tions, and other places where it is desired to keep an accurate record of the time of starting and stopping an engine, as well as of all variations from a standard speed, with the exact time and ex- tent of such variation. The instrument consists of an iron case with glass sides, con- i uta ie (itr ST m4 FIGS. 1 AND 2,—THE taining an eight-day pendulum clock, which moves a continuous paper band. Upon this band the record is traced by an inked marker, which is actuated by the motion of the governor-balls as they rise and fall under varying speed. Fig. 1 shows the general appearance of the instrument, and Fig. 2 gives a side view with part of the frame removed, showing the clock-movement and the interior construction. The governor-shaft is actuated by the belt A, which transmits motion from the shaft whose speed it is de- sired to record to a pulley on the lower end of the upright shaft which rises through the middle of the instrument. To this shaft is attached a governor, the balls of which rise by centrifugal force when the shaft is revolved. By means of connecting devices, the motion of the balls is transmitted to a horizontal arm at the top of the case. This arm carries a marker, which is movable across the paper band upon which the record is to be made. When the engine is running steadily at the standard speed, the marker rests at a central longitudinal line on the paper. Sections of this paper are shown at Figs. 3 and 4. Should the speed of the engine be increased or decreased five per cent, the marker would pass to the next line to the right or left, each space passed over in- dicating a variation of five per cent in the speed. When the engine is stopped, the marker passes entirely off the paper, and makes no record until it is brought back to the paper by the starting of the MOSCROP RECORDER. engine. As each transverse space on the paper indicates one hour, and as the paper is moved ahead at unvarying speed by the clock,. the length of the interval between the starting and stopping of the engine is recorded, also the moment and extent of all vari- ations of speed. One paper band is sufficient for a three-months’ run. Figs. 3 and 4 are copies of actual records taken from different engines, and taken together, show the workings of the instru- ment under different circumstances. The section marked 1 is almost perfection. The record begins at one minute past seven, and con- tinues till 7.15; the narrow line showing plenty of fiy-wheel mo- mentum, and the straight line good governing. Section 2, 7.15 to 106 7.30, illustrates small fly-wheel combined with good governing. The fly-wheel unsteadiness is five per cent. Section 3, 7.30 to 7.45, illustrates great fly-wheel momentum, governing rather im- perfect. Here the speed decreased one per cent by 7.45. As the decrease was gradual, the probability is that it was caused by the steam being down, and the governing not equal to the occasion. Section 4, 7.45 to 8, illustrates small fly-wheel momentum and im- perfect governing. Here the speed suddenly increased two and v 3 15 Per Cent OverspeePES SOS 10 pe DO etd hk ae cieet Tae ageae 6 pe ue NGRMAL SPEED _ 5 Per Cent Underspeed SCIENCE. Ge ee “meal cs {VoL OXI y Nowa tions 13 and 14 are another instance of improved running. This engine has been speeded two and a half per cent, and yet never attained the speed it formerly attained during its oscillations. It is now always at its highest speed, combining steady turning with maximum turnout. If an engine is making 60 revolutions, and it proves to be oscillating in steadiness from 59 to 61, it is obvious that it is either running too quickly for good work at 61, or it is losing output when at 59. Sections 15, 16, and 17 are from the Se Se ee a a FIG. 3.— MOSCROP one-half per cent at 7.50. This would appear to be, by its sudden- ness, a change in the load and governing not equal to the occasion. Section 5, 8 to 8.14, looks like mule-spinning and throttle-valve. Section 6, 8.15 to 8.30, is frequently met. Without doubt, the governing-gear began to stick at 8.18, the speed oscillating twelve per cent till 8.25. The oscillations have their ebb and flow in pe- riods of a few seconds, and are the unsuspected cause of bad work. This is a good instance of an engine running its natural speed, yet & [59 --- 1 { a ey erie Soon (eed RECORDER RECORD. same engine, and are placed here to show vividly the advantage in steadiness of turning of having an engine lightly loaded. Section 15 is the record of full load, that is, 450 horse-power; section 16, the record with a partial load, that is, 250 horse-power; 17, with a small load, that is, 150 horse-power. This engine was fitted with a supplementary governor, recently patented, and it is worthy of note that it preserved its speed (automatic cut-off) under a change of load from 450 horse-power to 150 horse-power. It was~sub- —_ ifn © o = = = 1 Pe i t t ' 1 i] i | 1 t a= 1 i { : | i 1 I i i H t i 1 | 7 1 1 1 1 1 qo-4nt 1 1 1 1 { i 1 6! vi < | 15: 1 1 | 1 1 i. 4 1 1 1 I ‘ t FIG. 4.—MOSCROP RECORDER RECORD, being all the while dangerously unsteady, subjecting the weak part of the engine and gearing to a severe test. Sections 7 and 8, 8.30 to 9, illustrates respectable mediocrity. It is introduced to show that at 8.46 the record stopped through the belt being off. As one of the objects in these illustrations is to make the reading of the records intelligible, we will now assume that the engine stopped from 9 to 9.30 for repairs. Sections 9, 10, 11, and 12 are diagrams from the same engine; 9 is the diagram when the re- corder was first applied ; 10, 11, and 12 are stages in the improve- ment in the engine’s workings as the faults are remedied. Sec- jected to a similar test with a varied pressure, giving equally good results. The Ashcroft Manufacturing Company of this city have exclu- sive control of the Moscrop recorder for the United States. A NUMBER of Spanish country teachers have gone to Madrid to make known the wretched condition of most of those to whom the education of the rising generation is intrusted, and to urge upon the government the necessity of including the teachers in the civil servants in the pay of the state. Aucust 16, 1880. | AN IMPROVED AIR=ENGINE. DURING the past ten or twelve years the firm of Woodbury, Merrill, Patten, & Woodbury, of Boston, Mass., have been steadily at work developing and perfecting an air-engine ; and, as a result of their labors, they are now about to place on the market engines S[CHUBIN (Cla. 107 superior in durability and economy to any heretofore constructed. In a test made in South Boston in March last, the quantity of coke consumed was 1.54 pounds per indicated horse-power per hour. A representative of Sczence, on seeing the engine, was surprised at its general excellence and smoothness of movement. AN of their construction in sizes ranging from five to a hundred horse- power. A few experimental engines were built from time to time, as the inventors approached their ideals, and some of those engines are said to have done satisfactory work during a run of five years. But the engines as made at present are claimed to be much IMPROVED AIR-ENGINE. The essential features of this engine are a heater, a regenerator, and a cooler, which three in combination are called a reverser. The engine illustrated is'composed of two reversers and two double- acting cylinders, the cut being a section through one reverser and one cylinder. Each reverser is provided with a reverser heater, within a 108 furnace ; a regenerator, composed of wire cloth of great superficial area, extending from the cooler to the bottom of the reverser heater ; a cooler, composed of a large number of thin copper tubes, which are surrounded by water; and a displacer piston, having metallic packing rings, and adapted to reciprocate within‘the cooler. Each working cylinder is provided with a working piston having metallic packing rings. Each reverser is connected by means of pipes with the working cylinders, as follows: the hot chamber below the displacer piston is connected with the bottom of the working cylinder directly opposite, and the cold chamber above the displacer piston is connected with the top of the working cylinder diagonally opposite. A small single-acting air-pump, having a leather-packed piston, is operated by an eccentric fastened to the main shaft. This pump is used, first, to compress the air to the initial pressure required ; second, to maintain the initial pressure so attained, which is sub- jected to loss by leakage around the piston-rods. The regulation of the speed of the engine is obtained by a balanced equalizing valve of simple construction, placed in an equalizing pipe which connects the top of the working cylinders together, the valve being operated by a common centrifugal governor. The power produced is due to the energy exerted upon the . working pistons by the alternate raising and lowering of the tem- perature of the same mass of air within the reversers. The cooling medium used is any kind of water, or a blast of air circulated through the coolers. A very small quantity of water is required, and the same body of water may be used over and over’again. In operation, the alternate raising and lowering of the tempera- ture of the same mass of air is accomplished as follows: in the upward stroke of the displacer piston, the mass of air in the cold chamber above the piston is forced through the cooling tubes, in its downward passage through which its temperature is not ma- terially changed. The air then enters the regenerator, in its pas- sage through which it absorbs heat which has been imparted to the regenerator. It next passes over the heated surface of the reverser heater, thereby becoming further heated, and enters the hot chamber below the displacer piston. The temperature of the air in the cold chamber is about 120° F., and the temperature of the air in the hot chamber is about 600° F. In the downward stroke of the displacer piston, the mass of air is forced into the regenerator, in its passage through which it deposits therein the greater portion of its heat. It then passes through the cooligg tubes, where its temperature is reduced to about 120° F., and then into the cold chamber above the displacer piston. There- fore, at each upward and downward stroke of the displacer piston, the temperature of the same mass of air is alternately raised and lowered. The reversers being in duplicate, it is obvious that the same alternate raising and lowering of the temperature of the dis- placed air would take place in one reverser as in the other, but at Opposite times ; that is to say, both displacer pistons being oper- ated by the reverser beam, whenever 6ne displacer piston is making its upward stroke, the other displacer piston is making its down- ward stroke. It is therefore evident, that, when the displaced air in one reverser is being heated, the displacer air in the other re- verser is being cooled. The alternate raising and lowering of the temperature of the dis- placed air (in both reversers) generates a power in accordance with the well-known laws of the expansion of gases, which power is developed by the working cylinders, as follows: while one dis- placer piston is making its upward stroke, and is heating and ex- panding the displaced air, thereby producing a pressure which is exerted against the bottom of the piston of the working cylinder directly opposite the reverser, and against the top of the piston of the working cylinder diagonally opposite, the other displacer piston is making its downward stroke, and is cooling and contracting the displaced air, thereby reducing the pressure against the bottom of the piston of the working cylinder directly opposite the reverser, and the top of the piston of the working cylinder diagonally oppo- site. Thus each working piston is subjected to differential press- ures, which are alternately reversed as the displaced air is alter- nately heated and cooled. Thus a power is exerted to cause the working pistons to have a reciprocating motion, which is changed to a rotary motion by means of the working-cylinder beam and its x v SClENCE: [Vor XIV Noseani connected parts to the main shaft and the fly-wheel, from which the power may be taken off by a belt. A portion of the power de- veloped is absorbed in the friction of the engine, and a portion is used to operate the displacer pistons. The engine is designed to run on an initial pressure of air of about forty-five pounds, at a speed of 115 revolutions per minute. PRODUCTION OF ESSENCE OF LEMON IN SICILY. LEMONS in Sicily are divided into two classes, — the true lemon and the bastard lemon, The United States consul at Messina says that the true lemon is produced by the April and May blooms ; the bastard, by the irregular blooms of February, March, June, and July, which depend upon the rainfall or regular irrigation, and the intensity of the heat during the summer and winter seasons. There are but three harvests of the true lemon. The first is the Novem- ber, cut when the lemon is green in appearance, and not fully ripe. Lemons of this cut are the most highly prized: they possess re- markable qualities for keeping, and are admirably preserved in boxes or warehouses from November until March, and sometimes as late as May, and then shipped. The second cut occurs in December and January, and the third in March and April. Bastard lemons present well-defined peculiarities in shape and appearance : their inner skin is fine, and adheres tenaciously to the fruit; they are hard, rich in acid, and seedless. The bastard lemon produced from the bloom of June is still green the following April, and ripens only towards the end of July. It remains on the- tree over a year. The true lemon can be left on the tree until the end of May or the first week in June; buteit interferes with the new crop, drops off from over-maturity, and is liable to be attacked by insects. The bastards, on the contrary, withstand bad weather and parasites, and they mature from June to October. In obtaining the essence from the lemon, the following opera- tions are performed by the Sicilian workman. He peels the fruit lengthwise with three strokes of a sharp knife, and lets the peel fall into a tub under the chopping-block. He then cuts the lemon in two, and throws it from his knife into a bucket. He works with wonderful rapidity, and fills from ten to twelve tubs with peel a day, and is paid about five cents a tub, weighing 77 pounds. His left hand and right index are protected with bands of osnaburgs or leather. Decayed fruit is not peeled. Fresh peel is soaked in water fifteen minutes before the essence is extracted. Peel that has stood a day or two should remain in soak from thirty to forty minutes, so that it may swell and offer a greater resistance to the sponge. The operative holds a small sponge in his left hand, against which he presses each piece of peel two or three times, — simple pressure followed by rotary pressure. The women employed in this work run a piece of cane through their sponges to enable them to hold them more firmly. The outside of the peel is pressed against the sponge, as the oil-glands are in the epicarp. The crushing of the oil-cells liberates the essence therein contained. The sponge, when saturated with the essence, is squeezed into an earthenware vessel which the operative holds in his lap. He is expected to press the peel so thoroughly as not to overlook a single cell. This is ascertained by holding the pressed peel to the flame of a candle. Should it neither crackle nor diminish the brilliancy of the flame, the cells are empty. This process yields, besides the essence, a small quantity of juice and dregs. The separation of the essence, juice, and dregs soon takes place if the vessels are not disturbed: the oil floats on the juice, and the dregs fall to the bot- tom. These three products derived from the peel have no affinity with each other. As the essence rises to the surface, it is skimmed off, bottled, and left to settle for a few days. Itis then drawn off with a glass siphon into copper cans, which are hermetically sealed. After the essence has been expressed, a small quantity of juice is pressed from the peels, which are then either given as food to oxen and goats or thrown away. The yield of essence is very variable, and the industry is carried on five months in the year. Immature fruit contains the most oil. From November to April, in the province of Messina, 1,000 lemons yield about 14 ounces of essence and 17 gallons of juice. An operative expresses three baskets of lemon-peel (weighing 190 pounds) a day, and is paid at the rate of about twenty cents a Aucust 16, 1889. | basket. The essence is so valuable, that the operatives are closely watched. Six men can work up 8,000 lemons a day: two cut off the peel, while four extract the essence, and obtain 136 gallons of lemon-juice and 7 pounds of essence. In the extraction of essence, defective fruit — thorn-picked fruit, blown down by the wind or attacked by rust —is used. This fruit is sold by the “thousand,” equivalent to 119 kilograms, and thus classified: (1) mixed lemons as they come from the groves during December and January, of good quality but not always marketable, often from top branches ; (2) lemons from March blooms ; (3) lemons refused at the pack- ing-houses; (4) dropped fruit; and (5) shrivelled or deformed fruit. Lemons grown on clay soil yield more essence and juice than those grown on sandy or rocky soil. Dealers sometimes adulterate their essences with fixed oils, alcohol, or turpentine. Adulteration by fixed oils is detected by pouring a few drops of essence on a Sheet of paper, and heating it : upon the evaporation of the essence, a greasy Spot will remain. Alcohol is detected by pouring a few drops of the essence into a glass tube in which a small quantity of chloride of lime has been dissolved. The tube is then heated and well shaken, and, its contents being allowed to settle, the essence will float on the denser liquid. For the production of raw and concentrated lemon-juice, the following is the system employed. When the lemons have been peeled and cut in two, as described above, they are carried to the press and thrown into large wicker bags, circular in form, and then well pressed. If the juice is to be exported raw, only perfectly sound lemons can be used ; but if the juice is to be boiled down, one-fifth of the lemons may be of an inferior quality. The juice from sound lemons is yellowish in color, and has a pleasant aroma: its density decreases with age. With all classes of lemons the yield of juice and its acidity vary considerably from month to month. The amount of juice increases from October to April, its acidity and density decrease; and the same is the case with the density of the essence, owing to winter rains. An addition of five per cent of alcohol will prevent raw lemon-juice from spoiling. Lemon-juice is adulterated with salt or tartaric acid. Raw and concentrated lemon-juice is exported in casks of 130 gallons capacity. It requires about 1,500 lemons to yield 26 gallons of juice, while it takes 2,500 to yield the same quantity of concentrated juice, and 2,000,000, more or less, accord- ing to their acidity, to give a cask. Experience has shown that the lemons of the province of Messina, especially from the eastern shore, contain more acidity than the lemons grown elsewhere in Sicily. The value of lemon-juice is governed by its acidity. The tule is that concentrated lemon-juice shall show 60 degrees of acidity (the juice extracted from the bergamot or the sour orange must show 48 degrees, or one-fifth less than that derived from the lemon ; it also sells for one-fifth less than lemon-juice). Formerly a citrometer, known as Rouchetti’s gauge, was used to ascertain the percentage of acidity ; now, however, resort is had to chemical analysis, which is said to be more satisfactory to both buyer and sell- er. Of late years a new article, known as vacuum pan concentrated natural juice of the lemon, has been manufactured at Messina. The juice concentrated by this method contains 600 grains of crystallizable citric acid for every quart. It is exported in casks containing 112 gallons, and in half and quarter casks. It is also shipped in bottles of 500, 300, and 150 grains each. Consul Jones Says, in conclusion, that there is an establishment at Messina, prob- ably the only one of its kind in Italy, in which crystallized citric acid is prepared. It takes from 340 to 380 lemons to make a pound of citric acid, which sells at about forty-four cents. The quantity of essence of lemon exported from Messina during the year 1887 amounted to 440,000 pounds avoirdupois, valued at $625,000; while of lemon-juice, 4,438 pipes were exported during the twelve months ended Nov. 30, 1887. ARTIFICIAL SILK. SCIENCE and industry are ever combining to copy Nature, and even dare to attempt improvements on her processes, The Champ de Mars contains many illustrations of this ; but perhaps the bold- est and most curious attempt of this kind is to be seen in the manu- facture of artificial silk, described in a recent number of Exgzneer- SKGMEI Els, 109 img. Near the end of the Machinery Hall, that end by the Avenue du Suffren, and quite close to the elevator which raises passengers to the travelling bridges, there is an exhibit showing the manufac- ture of silk without any aid from silkworms, and on a system which appears to be entirely novel, and is certainly of wonderful sim- plicity. The silk industry has seen great vicissitudes, and has had to suffer many cruel troubles from disease both of the worms and of the trees they feed upon; but up to the present we believe that it has been spared the struggles of competition. If this new pro- cess should prove to be what it promises, a new and dangerous rival to the silk-trade will have to be reckoned with. The composition of silk may be briefly described as follows: it is a relatively strong, brilliant material, the produce of the digestive juices of the worm acting on the leaves of the mulberry that con- stitute its food. The cellulose of the leaf is triturated by the worm, and transformed by its special organism into a peculiar substance, transparent, and somewhat resembling horn. This is called kerotine, and it fills two glands, from which it exudes in the form of two threads, which unite as soon as they leave the body of the worm. But this material no longer possesses the chemical composition of cellulose: it is largely combined with a new ele- ment characteristic of animal tissues, — nitrogen. The silk-fibre thus discharged forms a continuous thread, which often reaches the great length of 350 metres, the diameter of the fibre being only eighteen thousandths of a millimetre. It was reserved for the present generation of inventors to devise a means of imitating by science the mechanical and chemical func- tions of the silkworm. An old student of the Ecole Polytechnique, M. le Comte de Chardonnet, set himself some time ago to try and solve the prob- lem. He took as his material pure cellulose, —a material, as we have seen, entirely different to that of which natural silk is com- posed. Cellulose is, as is well known, the basis of vegetable tis- sues, and particularly of wood. Thus all soft woods appeared to be well adapted for the purpose: in fact, any material suitable for the production of a good quality of paper — white wood, cotton waste, etc. — appeared fitted for the production of artificial silk. Paper pulp is, in fact, the starting-point of the industry. The first operation to which the pulp is subjected is that of nitration, which transforms it into pyroxile. This is done by steeping the pulp in a perfectly defined mixture of sulphuric acid and nitric acid. After thorough washing and drying, the nitrated cellulose is formed into collodion by dissolving it in a mixture of 38 parts of ether and 42 parts of alcohol. The collodion thus made is drawn into fibre by the mechanical means which will be described presently, but the thread requires further and very important preparation. The fibre, as it issues from the apparatus that imitates the glands of the silk- worm, is one of the most inflammable of substances, and in that state would be absolutely useless: an absolute process of denitra- tion is therefore a necessity. Of this operation nothing can be said, because it is kept a secret by the inventor. Its object is of course to extract from the filament the greater part of the nitric acid that it contains, and it would be curious to know if the nitrogen that does remain after the process is in the same proportion as that contained in natural silk. : However this may be, the thread after treatment ceases to be inflammable to any marked extent; but it may, if desired, be ren- dered still less liable to burn. After the denitration process, the filament becomes gelatinous, and other substances can be incor- porated with it. Thus, when in this state, it can be impregnated with incombustible material, such as ammonia‘ phosphate; and it is at this stage that the filament can be dyed to any desired color. This latter operation cannot precede the denitration process, as all the color would be taken out during that operation. The mode of manufacture is very simple, and in the exhibition three apparatus are shown in operation to the public. The first of these is only a model to illustrate the principle. The chief feature consists of a glass tube reduced at the upper end to a capillary passage. It is through this passage that the filament of collodion is forced out under pressure. As it issues, the fibre is in a pasty state, and would have no consistency if it did not consolidate im- mediately. This solidification is secured by means of a second glass tube, which surrounds the first one, and extends beyond it. IIo Connected to it is a small pipe which supplies a current of water that bathes the collodion filament, and sets it so that it can be. secured by pincers and drawn out without breaking. It is after- wards led to.a spool, on which it is wound. The second apparatus, which is more complete, contains a num- ber of such glass tubes, and illustrates the method by which two or more filaments can be drawn out and twisted so as to form one. thread. The third machine is arranged for practical work. The dissolved collodion is contained in a copper receiver having a capacity of about 15 litres. In this receiver it is subjected to a pressure of from 8 to 10 atmospheres that forces the liquid through a horizontal tube, to which are connected 72 capillary tubes, each with their surrounding water-casings. In this manner 72 filaments of artificial silk are produced simultaneously, and these can be spun into threads of various thickness; three such filaments being twisted as a minimum, and ten as a maximum. To effect this, there is placed parallel to the horizontal tube a rack carrying a series of bronze blades that serve to guide the filaments. The twisted threads are wound upon bobbins running on spindles mounted parallel to the horizontal tube. A frame carrying as many pincers as there are capillary tubes can be put in movement by means of a cord, and, if any of the threads are broken, these pincers take hold of the filament and join up the broken parts. This apparatus is enclosed in an hermetically sealed glass case, through which a current of air is continually forced by means of a fan. This air is warmed to assist in drying the filaments; but it becomes cool at the exit, and deposits the vapors of ether and alcohol. The circulating water, which is employed to harden the filaments, is discharged into a receiver. It contains a large per- centage of the volatile products, which can be recovered by distilla- tion, and in this way only about 20 per cent of the ether and 10 per cent of the alcohol are lost. One tube can produce from 3 to 5 pennyweight of filaments per hour, or a length of nearly 1} miles. The apparatus works continuously, and with but little attention ; and, if by any chance one of the capillary openings becomes sealed, it can be cleared by applying heat. Under the conditions in which the machine is exhibited at work, the artificial silk can be sold at from 15 francs to 20 francs the kilogram, while real silk costs from 45 francs to 120 francs the kilogram. The manufactured product resembles very closely the natural one. It is smooth and brilliant, and the filament has a strength about two-thirds that of silk. Woven into a tissue, it ap- pears stronger and less liable to cut, this property being due to the fact that it is not charged with destructive materials, which appear to be always used in dying silk, such as zinc orlead. These foreign matters are probably introduced solely for the purpose of weight- ing the silk; but there is no object for similar adulteration of the artificial product, because the metallic preparations employed cost as much as the collodion thread. According to M. de Chardonnet, the density of his product lies between that of raw and finished silk. Its resistance to a tensile strain varies from 15 tons to 22 tons per square inch (copper breaks under a load of about 18 tons, and iron under 23 tons). The elasticity is about the same as that of natural silk, and the inventor claims that it has a superior brillian- cy. M. de Chardonnet exhibits a number of stuffs woven wholly with the artificial silk, as well as others mixed with natural silk and other textile materials. The results are really very remark- able. Among other objects, he shows a chasuble of artificial silk which will bear very close examination. Artificial silk is not yet manufactured on an. industrial scale, but it appears that this will very shortly be done; and, while it is impossible to foretell with certainty what will be the commercial results of this curious invention, it is impossible to resist the con- clusion that it is highly practicable, and that it even contains the elements of great future success. TENTH CONVENTION OF THE NATIONAL ECECTRIC-— LIGHT ASSOCIATION. THE tenth convention of the National Electric-Light Association was held at Niagara Falls, N.Y., on Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, Aug. 6, 7, and 8, the sessions being held in the Casino. The convention was called to order on Tuesday morning by Mr. SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 341 E. R. Weeks of Kansas City, president of the association, who, in his opening address, briefly outlined the objects of the meeting, and gave a synopsis of the progress made in the electric-light industry since the preceding convention. The address concluded with the statement that statistics of the association show that the number of arc lamps in service in the United States alone during the last six months has increased from 219,924 to 237,017 ; that of incandes- cent lamps, from 2,504,490 to 2,704,768 ; and that the number of street-railroads operated by electricity is now 109, comprising 575 miles of track and 936 motor-cars. The capital invested in these industries at present amounts to $275,000,000. At the conclusion of his address the president introduced the Hon. W. C. Ely of Niagara Falls, who delivered the address of welcome., In his address Mr. Ely touched upon the much-talked- of project of utilizing Niagara Falls as a motive power for the generation of electricity on a grand scale, quoting Sir William Thomson’s statement that Niagara Falls possesses more power than all the coal-nfines in the world, and Edison’s remark that Niagara is the greatest storage-battery in the world. ‘This latter,” Mr. Ely added, “is absolutely truthful, and, with the power of the waterfall developed by means of an hydraulic tunnel, a system of powerful dynamos to transform the water-power into electricity, and this transmitted to Buffalo, that city might be supplied with light and power far more cheaply than at present, and a demonstration of the capabilities of electrical power and transmission afforded that would give us something more sure than the world has as yet had.” After Mr. Ely’s address, the secretary read a letter from the mayor of this city to the president of the association, Mr. Weeks, requesting his presence at a “ conference of representative citizens to consider the advisability of holding an international exposition at New York in 1892, and to arrange for the preliminary work if it is deemed advisable.” This letter was responded to by the appointment of a committee of five, whose chairman is to represent the association in any manner desired by the mayor. The members of the com- mittee are, Dr. Otto A. Moses of New York, chairman; E. T. Lynch, jun., of New York; C. J. Field of Brooklyn ; Fred A. Gilbert of Boston ; and J. P. Morrison of Baltimore. The report of the committee on the revision of the constitution and by-laws was then received, printed copies of the proposed con- stitution ordered distributed among the members, and its discus- sion made a special business for the Thursday morning session. The committee on underground conduits and conductors, being called upon for its report, asked for an extension of time until the — next annual convention, which was granted. Mr. E. A. Foote then read a paper on “‘ The Value of Economic Data to the Electric Industry,” which was discussed by Messrs. Morrison, Morris, De Camp, Coggeshall, and Whipple; and a resolution based upon the paper was adopted, to the effect that a committee of five be appointed by the president to report at the next convention of the association forms and a system of records and accounts to be kept by central station companies, a system for reporting the same to the association, and for comparing and publishing the data so secured, for the use and benefit of the members of the association. Mr. M. D. Law then read a paper entitled “The Perfect Are Central Station,” treating of boiler-rooms and boilers, engines, shafting, dynamos, switch-board, lines, store-room, and shop. This paper was discussed by Messrs. Morrison, Law, Smith, Leon- ard, and De Camp. At the close of the session the president an- nounced the following committee on electrical statistics: A. R. Foote, chairman; A. J. De Camp, S. A. Duncan, E. F. Peck, and S. S. Leonard, assistants. At the Wednesday forenoon session the secretary and treasurer presented their report, showing a present membership of 251, an increase of 55 per cent over last year. The annual income of the association is at present $5,050, and the expenses for the past.six months were $2,241.80. The report of the committee on har- monizing electrical and insurance interests was then received and adopted, and the committee continued, with instructions to take under advisement the feasibility of establishing a mutual insurance company. A committee was also appointed to prepare a petition for the abolition of import duties on copper. At the afternoon session a paper was read by Mr. F. A. Wyman, on “ The Constitu- / Aucust 16, 1889. | tionality of Execution by Electricity,” and was discussed by several of the members, after which it was resolved that the association petition the General Assembly of the State of New York to repeal the electrical execution law at its next session. A paper by Mr. William Bracken, on ‘Electric Traction by Storage-Batteries,”’ was then read by Mr. S. M. Young, after which J. F. Morrison, E. T. Lynch, jun., C. C, Martin, E. F. Peck, and A. J. De Camp were appointed a committee to nominate the executive committee, and to choose a place for the next convention. At the Thursday morning session, after the report of the com- mittee on legislation, Mr. C. C. Haskins read a paper on “ Dynamo Room Accessories for Intensity, Potential, and Resistance Meas- urements.’ Dr. Moses then read the proposed new constitution, which was accepted, after which Mr. G. W. Mansfield read a paper on “ Electric Railways,” and Professor E. P. Roberts read one on “ The Electrical Transmission of Power.” The report of the com- mittee on executive committee and place of next convention was then received and adopted, Kansas City being the place selected, and the executive committee being as follows: G. W. Hart, chair- man; L. A. Beebe; J. A. Corby; B. E. Sunny; S. S. Leonard ; C, R. Faben; P. H. Alexander; Frank Ridlon; and J. F. Morri- son. The convention then adjourned. HEALTH MATTERS. Disinfection of Springs, and Number of Germs in Ground- Water. Dr. CARL FRANKEL, in the Zeztschrift f. Hygzene, reports a series of experiments made by him to determine some points of practical importance ; namely, what are the relative values of tube- wells and pot-wells, and can they be disinfected by the measure usually recommended ? With regard to tube-wells, from their mode of construction they are not liable to contamination from surface impurities, as the pot- wells are, and it becomes of the greatest consequence to know whether they receive infective micro-organisms from more distant sources. The result of these experiments is, that as a rule the water entering tube-wells is absolutely free from micro-organisms. But it still appears that a growth of micro-organisms takes place in the tube-wells, and a consideration of all the circumstances points to the growth of a pellicle of micro-organisms clinging to the sides of the tube. Hence one way of disinfecting the tube- wells is to brush them clear, and then completely pump off the turbid liquid. In cases where this proceeding proves inadequate, a concentrated solution of carbolic acid and sulphuric acid ,dropped into the tube, and left for a day or two, will complete the disinfec- tion. Disinfection of these.wells by lime is quite unsuitable, as it forms a mortar, and seriously interferes with the entrance of water. The ordinary pot-well, on the other hand, is incapable of disin- fection, and Dr. Frankel agrees with Plagge that it is a hygienic monstrosity. Considering how common pot-wells are in our country districts, these are results which require careful attention. The tube-wells, which Dr. Frankel found to furnish water freer from germs, were sunk in.a part of Berlin which, at first sight, would seem to expose them to great risk of infection. In reality, however, after a time a thick pellicle forms in old soils, which ef- fectually precludes the passage of germs beyond a certain depth. Two sources of error have here to be guarded against. In the first place, the pellicle or its equivalent, which prevents the passage of germs downward, may be broken through at some point, or the corresponding ground may be constituted in parts of pebbles or gravel, which allows of the transmission of micro-organisms ; and, in the second place, the chemical constitution of the water passing away from these old soils will very likely be such as to lead to a free growth of micro-organisms, as was the case in these experi- ments. It is practically impossible to exclude all access of micro- organisms to the well. The chief conclusions to be drawn from Dr. Frankel’s experi- ments are, that Abyssinian or tube-wells are infinitely preferable to the ordinary pot-well, and that a disinfection of the tube in the SCLEINGCE: Maids manner indicated above is, as a rule, all that is necessary to make the water quite free from micro-organisms. PHTHISIS IN ARMIES. — According to Dr. R. Schmidt of Munich, who has collected a mass of material connected with the statistics of phthisis, the number of soldiers who suffer from phthisis in the German army (excluding Saxony and Bavaria) is, says the London Lancet, 3 per 1,000; and the number of deaths from this cause, 0.9 per 1,000, In the Austrian army the numbers per 1,000 are 6.4 and 2.2 respectively; in the Italian army, 4.3 and 2.9. In the Russian and French armies, only the number of fatal cases is given, which is 12.5 per 1,000 in the former, and 2.2 per 1,000 in the latter case. In the English army, which on account of long service and foreign service is not to be compared with continental armies, the number of cases per 1,000 is 11.8, and the number of deaths 6.2. At first sight, one would expect, that, as only men who are found on examination to be healthy are taken as recruits, the number of cases of phthisis ought to be very low. As a mat- ter of fact, however, it is, im Bavaria at least, higher than among civilians of similar age and sex. The reason of this remarkable circumstance is discussed in an article in the Koenzgsberger Zet- zung. Wow important a factor direct contagion is, the experiments of Cornet show, as well as the fact that hospital attendants fall easy victims to the disease; but Dr. Schmidt believes that the most frequent explanation is that recruits come into the army with a latent tendency to phthisis, and that the conditions under which they are then suddenly placed cause a more or less rapid develop - ment of the disease. The knapsack, for instance, appears to have a decidedly prejudicial effect, as is shown by the fact that those regiments which do not wear it present a lower phthisis mortality than those in which it is worn. Again, the diet and the whole regimen of the soldier are, according to Dr. Schmidt, calculated to lessen the power of resistance to the development of phthisis : consequently it is not to be wondered at that a larger proportion of soldiers than of civilians develop it. A GooD WORD FOR THE GYPSIES. — There is so great a preju- dice against this race, that it is with pleasure that we record testi- mony in favor of what is claimed to be one of their good points. Every one is familiar with the dusty and dishevelled condition of the modern tramp; but it is claimed by Mr. E. L. Wakeman, in an article in the Anxmals of Hygzene for May, 1889, that the gypsies cannot be accused of uncleanliness. He has made a close study of the race in many lands for more than a quarter of a century, and says that he has never known a physically unclean gypsy, the only ex- ceptions being a few individuals in the towns of southern Hungary and in Havana. The gypsy-camps are always pitched near a brook or stream, and the morning bath is as certain as the morn- ing itself. The cleansing is not of the skin alone; but the gar- ments are constantly washed, and the straw bedding is likewise daily spread out for a sunning and airing. THE UTILIZATION OF GARBAGE. — According to the Bzz/letz of the Rhode Island State Board of Health for May, the city of Milwaukee will soon abandon the cremation of garbage, which it was among the first of the Western cities to adopt and advocate. It is proposed to substitute a dry process in the place of combus- tion. A company is at work with a new method which converts cities’ refuse into articles more or less salable. The garbage is made to pass through a series of mechanical driers, and in the course of ten hours becomes a brown powder. The oil is pressed out or drawn off, and the residue can be sold as a fertilizer. CREMATION IN FRANCE.— The Municipal Council of Paris has appropriated 383,299 francs for the erection of a crematory in that city, and has levied a “ cremation tax” to defray the expenses of the incineration of the bodies of those whose friends cannot afford to pay for it. PASTEUR INSTITUTES. — According to the Rome correspondent of the London Dazly News, the Municipal Council of Rome has decided to devote a sum of money to the formation of a Pasteur institute. Confidence in M. Pasteur’s treatment of hydrophobia is increasing in Italy, as is shown by the fact that little by little all the principal towns are providing buildings for the treatment of the disease by inoculation. 112 NOTES AND NEWS. THE eighth congress of Russian naturalists will be opened at St. Petersburg on Jan. 7, 1890, and will last a week. — We regret to have to announce the death of the Rev. J. M. Berkeley, the eminent cryptogamic botanist. — Mr. Henry Shaw, the founder of the celebrated botanical gardens in St. Louis, has just celebrated his eighty-ninth birth- day. —We learn from azure that the professorship of civil engi- neering and mechanics in the University of Glasgow is likely to be vacant by the resignation of Professor James Thomson, on account of weak health. — Actual elevations taken since the recent disaster at Johns- town, Penn., show that during the flood the water in the neighbor- hood of Conemaugh and the South Fork bridge reached an aver- age height of forty feet above low-water mark, At the big viaduct on the up-stream side the water was seventy-nine feet deep. — The Russians have recently improved on the sleeping-coaches of the railway and the perambulating schoolmaster of the rural re- gions. They have provided a school-wagon which is furnished with a room for the teacher, a classroom or study, and a library, all suitably supplied with the necessary material. This wagon will be on the line of the Transcaspian Railway all round the year, re- maining as long as may be deemed necessary at districts which are not provided with a school. — The Imperial University of Tokio, in Japan, is making rapid progress. The number of professors and teachers amounts this year to 138, of whom only 16 are foreigners, the rest being Japan- ese. The attendance of students has risen to 788. New buildings for technical education, and a new chemical laboratory, have been erected at the cost of nearly $300,000, and more money is promised by the government for further extensions. —TIt is stated that the Electro-Automatic Transit Company, whose railway system was described in Sczence of July 12, has succeeded in running its experimental car at the rate of 120 miles an hour for a distance of ten miles. The experiment was performed at the company’s two-mile circular track at Laurel, Md. The company intends to construct a five-mile experimental road in the neighborhood of this city, upon which to test the applicability of their system to passenger service, only light packages and mail matter having been experimented with heretofore. — The eleventh congress of the Sanitary Institute, which is to meet at Worcester, Eng., from Sept. 24 to 28, will be divided into three sections : viz., Section I. Sanitary Science and Preventive Medi- \ Sines Section II. Engineering and Architecture; Section III. Chemistry, Meteorology, and Geology. Each section will begin its work on a separate day. A conference of medical officers of health will be held during the congress; and there will be a health exhibi- tion in the skating-rink and special additional buildings from Sept. 24 to Oct.19. This exhibition will include sanitary apparatus and appliances, and articles for domestic use and economy. — ‘Now, children,” said a teacher, after reading the old story of Washington’s exploit with his hatchet, “write me all you can re- member of that pretty story I have just read to you.” The follow- ing was the result: Slate I. (Teddy, 8 years old). ‘George Wash- ington is our father did he tell a lie no he never did he did with a hatchit;” Slate II. (Ethel, 7). “ george washington was the father of is countre hes father sed did you do it he sedi wud not lie i did it with my Hathit and then he busted in tears;” Slate III. (Georgie, 9). ‘‘ George Washington is the father of our country and he did it with his hatchit and he sed father I did it did the boy deny it o no did he try to put it on some other feller No He did not tell no lie he burst into tears.” — It is generally supposed that oak is much stronger than fir, but a series of tests made recently at the car-shops of the Northern Pacific Railroad, in Tacoma, show that the reverse is actually the case. The tests were made by actual breaking strain, on) sticks two by four inches, and four feet long, the weight being applied in SCUPNGE: [Vor XIV. Nov 34% the middle of a span of three feet nine inches. The results of five tests were as follows: first, an old piece of yellow fir, six years ex- posed to the weather, broke at 3,062 pounds; second, a new soft piece of fine-grain yellow fir broke at 3,062 pounds; third, old piece of yellow fir, coarse grain and hard, broke short at 4,320: pounds; fourth, a new piece of fir from the but of a tree, coarse grain, broke with a stringy fracture at 3,635 pounds; fifth, a new piece of Michigan oak broke nearly short off at a weight of 2,428 pounds. The deflections before breaking were as follows: the ~ first and second pieces, half an inch; third, three-eighths of an inch ; fourth, five-eighths of an inch; fifth, the oak piece, one-inch and an eighth. — The three teaching universities of Australia — Melbourne, Sydney, and Adelaide — all admit women to their lectures and degrees. It appears that there are now thirty-nine women study- ing in Melbourne University, twenty-three in Sydney, and thirty- four in Adelaide, the latter figures not including a number of stu- dents who are not qualifying for degrees. Adelaide first admitted women students in 1876; Melbourne and Sydney, in 1881 and 1882. Ten ladies have graduated in Melbourne, nine in Sydney, and only two in Adelaide. In all three universities, all prizes, scholarships, and university privileges generally are open to women, who are also eligible as lecturers and professors. In Melbourne they are debarred from membership of the senate, but this seems. to be the only barrier of any kind placed in their way. —In connection with the recent heavy rainfall in the neighbor- hood of New York, it is interesting to note that at a meeting of the Royal Society of New South Wales, June 5, in the course of some remarks respecting the recent heavy rainfall, Mr. Russell (the gov- ernment astronomer) stated that he had no hesitation in saying that if rain equal to that which fell in and around Sydney (ie., 20 to 26 inches) had fallen generally over the catchment areas of Windsor, Richmond, the upper parts of the Hawkesbury, and in the valley of the Hunter, most if not all of the towns on their banks would have been swept away. —JIn a recent work by Professor Hartig it is stated, says Garde and Forest, that a count of the annual rings of a tree when cut three or four feet from the ground may not give the accurate age of the tree. Where trees are crowded in a forest, and have de- veloped feeble crowns, the greatest annual increment is just below the crown, and it diminishes regularly downwards. When the leaf-area is not sufficient to afford food-material to provide for a sheet of cambium all over the tree, the growth stops before reach- ing the bottom, and the ring which is found twenty feet up the trunk may fail altogether before it reaches the ground. In such trees there may be rings lacking at three feet high for certain years, and the total number of rings would be less than the number of years in the tree’s life. — The Newfoundland bait act, prohibiting the export of fish- bait from that island, instead of having a prejudicial effect upon the French bank fisheries, as was expected, may have the opposite effect. According to the Montreal Wz¢mess, the French fishermen have discovered, through necessity, the fact that on the fishing- banks they can catch unlimited quantities of large periwinkles, which, when removed from the shell, and used as bait on their trawls, are a bait which codfish take most ravenously. It thus be- comes possible for the fishing-smacks to remain on the banks till their take is complete, hauling up bait on one side of the vessel, and cod on the other, instead of running in to port at intervals, and paying an exorbitant price for bait. — Ata meeting of the London Chemical Society, June 20, as re- ported in Madure, a note on a yellow pigment in butterflies was read by Mr. F. G. Hopkins. The color effects on the wings of lepidopterous insects are for the most part probably due to purely physical causes, but in some cases pigments are undoubtedly pres- ent. .A yellow pigment, which is found in its purest form in the common English brimstone butterfly, and may also be detected in the wings of a very large number of day-flying Lefzdoptera, can be obtained from the wings by simple treatment with hot water, in which it is freely soluble, and may be identified by its yielding a Aveusr 16, 1889. | marked murexide re-action, when evaporated with nitric acid, and afterwards treated with ammonia or potash. The common brim- stone butterfly yields somewhat less than a milligram of pigment from each insect : larger foreign species, such as those belonging to the species Ca//¢dryas, may yield as much as four or five milli- grams. Examination of the pigment reveals its near relationship to mycomelic acid, a yellow derivative of uric acid ; and the author suggests that it may possibly be a condensation product of uric and mycomelic acids. — The international College, Spring Grove, not far from Lon- don, England, which twenty-five years ago was much talked about and seemed to be full of promise, ceases to exist at the end of this month. The college was brought into existence through a sugges- / tion ofethe late Richard Cobden, made soon after the French treaty of commerce was concluded in 1860. The intention of the pro- moters, as given in The Educatzonal Tzmes, was to found three proprietary colleges, — one in England, one in France, and a third in Germany, — which should follow the same curriculum, so that students could spend part of their time in each of the colleges, the change of residence being effected without any break of continuity in their studies. There was probably involved in the notion a dream that the international intimacies which such a system would necessarily bring about would tend to put an end to wars and ru- mors of wars. Indeed, we find it suggested in one of the earlier prospectuses of the college, that, “if the boys of these nations were taught each other’s languages in these colleges, when they became men the connection would be made still closer; and it was hoped, that, if this principle were extended to other nations, it might in time have the effect of lessening the number of wars.” The Conti- nental members of the triangle were never fairly started, but Mr. Cobden and his friends succeeded in establishing the English col- lege. ‘ — It is claimed’ that in the new Bookwalter process for convert- ing crude metal into malleable iron or steel, the air-blasts are brought into contact with every portion of the metal, thereby secur- ing a uniformity of structure throughout the entire mass, which has not always been secured with other processes. The main por- tion of the process is thus outlined by its inventor, Mr. J. W. Book- walter of Springfield, O.: “ Having ascertained that the tendency - to form local currents or vortices is much greater when the air- blasts enter the metal near the surface than when they enter at a greater depth below the surface, I devised means whereby to secure a continuously uniform action of the air upon limited uni- form quantities of the metal at one time, feeding the metal gradu- ally to the air within a fixed or limited space. By this means small portions of the metal as they are fed to the air are driven thereby out of the zone of violent agitation of the air and metal, and thereafter are thrown back toward the greater body of metal while a new portion of the latter is being brought under the in- fluence of the air, that portion of the metal which is submitted to the action of the air being the purest portion of the body, — that is, having combined with it less scoria than any other portion, — and the greater body of the metal which is not under the direct in- fluence of the air being comparatively stationary, and free from currents or vortices.” —In a letter to Vazwre under date of Cambridge, Mass., July 15, Dr. H. A. Hagen writes, “ Having studied Sir J. Lubbock’s inter- esting book, I remembered a fact observed by me, which, though it is not conclusive, seems worth mentioning. Iwas amused some years ago to observe the feeding of the young in a sparrow-house near an upper window of my house. The old sparrow alighted upon the small veranda of the sparrow-house with four living can- ker-worms in his beak. Then the four young ones put out their heads with the customary noise, and were fed each with a cater- pillar. The sparrow went off, and returned after a while again with four living canker-worms in his beak, which were disposed of in the same manner. I was so interested and pleased with the process that I watched it for some time and during the following days. A fact which Ihave not seen noticed here in the extensive sparrow literature, is that fora number of years sparrows begin to build nests of dry grass and hay at the top of high trees. The first I saw were large irreuglar balls placed on the tripod of twigs. The SCIENCE: Ti entrance was on the inner side near the lower end of the balls, Last year I observed another form of the nests. A strong rope formed of dry grass, as thick as a man’s wrist and as long as the fore-arm, is fastened only with the upper end to strong branches at the top of hightrees. The rope’s end hasa rather large ovoid shape, with the entrance to the inside near the end. Of such nests I saw last winter about a dozen on the elms here in Main Street, near the college grounds, and similar ones in Putnam Avenue and other streets. A long pole near my house strongly covered by a vine (Celastrus scandens) had such a nest for three years, used every year. In the sparrow-houses around my lodging the sparrows stay. throughout the winter, commonly one male and three females in every house, till in spring the superfluous females are turned out.” — At the thermometric bureau of the Yale College Observatory during the last year the comparison of thermometers has continued to be made by Mr. C. B. Peck. The number received for verifica- tion during the year ending June 1, 1889, was 7,475, being 249 in excess of the preceding, the maximum year. It is perhaps well to call public attention to the fact, not new, but continually overlooked, that the most accurate thermometers may be made to give false testimony by misinterpretation of their language. Although every certificate issued from this observatory, for other than clinical thermometers, contains a statement of the only conditions under which the correction therein given can be truthfuliy applied, they are continually called upon to explain, especially in the case of high-temperature thermometers, that, when only the bulb is im- mersed in a liquid of high temperature, the indicated temperaturé is too low by an amount depending upon the number of degrees of the mercury in the cooler stem and the difference between the temperatures of the bulb and stem. They have been called upon to show frequently that this error, which is independent of any correction due to the thermometer, may be as much as eight or nine degrees in the case of high-temperature oils, as their tempera- tures are generally measured. A simple remedy for this indefinite- ness of measurement would seem to be a special form of thermom- eter in which nearly all the mercury should be immersed. Of the same nature is the correction of possibly o°.1 to be applied to clinical thermometers of the ‘Indestructible Index” form, when the detached column of mercury constituting the index is quite long (expressed in degrees), and is read after removal to a much cooler atmosphere; but the probable error on this account does not exceed the probable error of reading. —Recent reports to the United States Hydrographic Office regarding the seeming failure of certain fog-signals render it desir- able to give the conclusions of an expert in this subject. We extract the following from a paper read before the Philosophical Society of Washington, October, 1881, by Mr. Arnold B. Johnson, chief clerk of the Lighthouse Board: ‘‘ When approaching from windward, the fog-signal is picked up earliest aloft; from leeward, on deck. Do not assume that you are out of hearing distance be- cause you fail to hear the signal, nor that you are at a great dis- tance because the sound is faint, nor that you are near because you hear it plainly. Do not assume that you have or have not reached a given point in your course because you do or do not hear the sig- nal with the same intensity as on some former occasion. Do not assume that the signal has ceased sounding because you fail to hear it even when within easy earshot. Do not assume that the aberrations of audibility are the same in different fog-signals. Do not expect to hear the signals as well as usual when the upper and lower air-currents run in different directions, or when wind and tide do so, or during a time of electric disturbance, or when the sound must reach you from over an island or point of land. When there is a bluff behind the signal, be prepared for irregular intervals in audition, as would follow were the sound to ricochet like a cannon-ball. Thus you might hear it at 2, 4, 6, 8, etc., miles, and lose it at 1, 3, 5, 7, etc., miles, or at any other combination of distances, regular or irregular. Until the laws governing these aberrations are evolved and a method is discovered by which the irregularities can be corrected, you will do well, when you do not get the expected sound of a signal, to assume that you may not hear the warning that is nevertheless faithfully sounded, heave your lead, and use other means to make sure of your position.” 114 SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY We IDs > lel QlD'Gis Ss, 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEw YORK. SupscripTions.—United States and Canada...........-----.-.- $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe...-..........--+... 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): x subscription xr year.. 2 TE YCAaTsers nce cee + cceereee nese ese s ere 3) a i AKERS OD Ab! Bac cdooaHsS SzanobsogEaoG 4 st TY Calrelsiolelelelsles(eleleleresiehelaieineisisieisisis-i=1s(~) 8 LOO) Communications will petwelcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold.ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, Auvcust 16, 1889. No. 341. CONTENTS: Tue Moscrop Continuous ReE- NoTEs AND NEWS......-.+-+++----+- . 112 CORDER..- 22. 22202 steer eee eee UGE | TORO on pbolsobosagocsoAecoosods 114 I -ENGINE.....----+ P Aw Improvep Ar1r-ENGINE 107 | The World’s Fair. PropucTIon oF EssENCE OF LEMON ANEGTCITAV Mee ae Lattalel cnt bet Vn OLN 108 THE UNITED STATES, THEIR GROWTH ARTIFICIAL SILK.... ...--005 Aedeens 109 1n Poputation 1n Two HunpRep | Years. M. C. Meigs x14 | Bacrerta In MILK anp ITs PropuctTs 116 TENTH CONVENTION OF THE Na- TIONAL ELEcTRIC-LIGHT AssociIaA- 110 | Boox-REVIEws. HEALTH Matters. ae é Disinfection of Springs, and Number lke Nee Ayo tm Nigniln Sumarsten of Germs in Ground-Water....... II | W. M.D, 1x8 iPhthisisynvAlrmiese eerie reer zzr} An Elementary Treatise on Me- A Good Word for the Gypsies ..... rar | see yne gf so Tt ON a 119 The Utilization of Garbage ....... TIE Se ReeinenDesi fa Cremation in France ...........--. riz | SRS retest ea nene eta Be) Paste neUnstitutemerctdisllaseliseisiercis III AMONG THE PUBLISHERS.......-.... 120 THE APPOINTMENTS BY THE MAYOR to the committee of one hundred on the world’s fair of 1892 in New York give very general satisfaction. Fifty-seven industries are represented, and in addi- tion the mayor has named forty-three substantial citizens to fill out the number. Among those specially representing industries, we note, for artists and art collectors, Henry G. Marquand ; architects, Richard M. Hunt; banks and bankers, Levi P. Morton; clocks and watches, Daniel F. Appleton; mechanical engineers, Henry R. Towne; civil engineers, John Bogart; periodicals and publishers, John Foord; printing, J. J. Little; railroads, Chauncey M. Depew ; scientific and educational interests, Charles F. Chandler. The members of the committee of one hundred have been duly ap- portioned among the four committees on permanent organization, finance, legislation, and site and buildings. As many of the mem- bers of these committees are out of town, no meeting will be held this week. On Tuesday of next week, however, at 3.30 P.M., the committee on finance will meet in the governor’s room in the City Hall; and on the following Thursday, at the same hour and place, the committee on site and buildings. The other two committees will not be called upon to act until these two have met. After a site has been selected, the committee on legislation will prepare a bill to be presented to the Legislature. SCIENCE: [Vor XaIViS Nowa 7a There is naturally some desire on the part of the smaller cities, more especially Chicago, that the exhibition, or some part of it, should be held within their limits; Boston, for instance, asking only a branch show specially devoted to New England. There is no likelihood of any splitting of the show into local exhibitions, and the site for the whole will depend, except in so far as political in- fluences may warp things, on the commercial interests at stake. As the time has come when world’s fairs pay their expenses if skilfully managed, there is no longer need:of a call for any sacrifice on the part of those who will pledge themselves for the expenses. This needed guaranty of funds can be secured in this city just as soon as it shall appear wise to ask it; the question now agitating those having the financial matters in charge being as to how far the money shall be raised by popular subscription to bonds of small denomination, the better to enlist popular interest. If any city except Washington should ask for government aid, it is to be supposed that this of itself would rule that city out of the race, the winner in which will be decided by Congress. Washington not being a commercial city, it seems undesirable that the exhibition should be held there, especially as there are lacking the facilities for handling the large shipments of goods and the number of visitors. At the same time, the hotels of Wash- ington are of low grade, and entirely unequal to the demands of a world’s fair. Then, again, the weather in Washington is likely to be much more oppressive in summer than in New York. The great objection to New York that has been brought forward so far is the lack of local pride. This lack, as is well pointed out in The Evening Post, is due, to the fact that New York is faczle princeps among American cities: it is only the little man and the little town that have to boast continually of such good as they may possess, in order that they may not be ignored, and that have to strive constantly to make their good points the better. New York certainly lacks this spur; but she is made up of shrewd business-men, who are amply able to carry through a world’s fair just as soon as they have decided that their interests demand it. THE UNITED STATES, THEIR GROWTH IN POPULA-— TION IN TWO HUNDRED YEARS. IN 1708, eight years after the first census of the United States was taken, Malthus, in England, published his “ Treatise on the Law of Population,” which excited great interest, and brought the author much hostile criticism. In June, 1890, we shall take the eleventh census of the United States, and will know with certainty what has been our increase in a hundred years. We expect to find a population of 67,240,000. Malthus held that population in ‘a wide country, affording plenty of space and producing abundant food, doubled every twenty-five years. Trying his estimate by the re- corded figures of ten decennial census enumerations, we find that he was very nearly correct. With the aid of this information, we attempt to discuss the re- sults to. date, and to infer something of the progress of the next hundred years. We do not think it rash to infer the work of a century from the known advance during one just expiring. Tak- ing the figures of the past from “‘ Johnson’s Cyclopedia,” we find the population of the North American Colonies estimated by Ban- croft as follows : — Year. Population. 1750 1,260,000 1754 1,425,000 j 1760 2,195,000 1770 2,312,000 1780 25945,C00 Avcust 16, 1889.]| The following table shows the rate of increase since 1790, as shown by the census returns : — Year. Population. Increase in 10 Years. 1799 31920,214 1800 acer 35.1% 1810 7,239,881 36.3 1820 9,633,822 33-1 : 1830 _ 12,866,020 33-5 1840 17,060,453 32.6 1850 23,191,876 35-8 1860 31,443.32 35.6 1870 38,558,371 | 22.6 1880 f 50,175,000 36.0 1890 67,240,000 34.0 The mean of the rates is 33.46 per cent. If we substitute for 22.6 (the exceptional rate of the increase between 1860 and 1870) 34.8 per cent (a mean between the rates immediately preceding and following the decennial epoch), we find as probable rates of increase and aggregates of population, had peace continued, the following : — Year. : Population. 1870 42,380,000 1880 | 57,130,000 1890 | 77,100,000 This is 9,860,000 more than the population actually to be expected in the next census, — loss to be attributed to a great war. Other variations in the decennial rate of increase are due to the war of 1812, the Mexican war, the cholera epidemics, etc., and to emigration, In estimating the progress of population during another century, it is not perhaps rash to assume a rate of 33.3 per cent, which is a little less than the mean rate, including war and pestilence, which has ruled our growth in the last century. Adding one-third to each decennial estimate, we find the probable population to be as follows :— Year, Population. 3 1890 | 67,240,000 1900 89,653,333 I9r0 | 119,737,777 1920 159,650,377 1930 | 212,867,177 1940 283,822,877 1950 | 381,763,837 1960 509,018,449 1970 678,691,265 1980 904,927,686 1990 1,206,562,248 This completes the century. Then, as the area of the territory of the United States is 3,026,494 square miles, the density of its population in 1990 will be 399 to the square mile. The density of population in certain countries is given in the same cyclopeedia (printed in 1878) as follows : United States, 12.7 per square mile; Atlantic States, 46.6 ; basin of the Ohio, 37.7; Massachusetts, 201 ; Ohio, 66; Belgium, 434; China, 420; England, 389; Europe, 71; Asia, 46; Africa, 16; America, 6; Australia, 4. Such a nation will havea power and a commerce and industry not heretofore known to the world. Our ships and those of our allies will bring the spare products of every land to our shores. Systems of interior land and SClEN CE: -within our boundaries. pis water transport, perhaps mostly operated by electric power, will rapidly and cheaply distribute them. For a century we may hope to live comfortably and abundantly But other people must grow also. The now empty and waste places of the earth will be occupied by civilized and industrious nations. We have in this generation made wonderful and rapid progress in the discoveries and inventions of science. We use the electric force, as did our fathers that of steam. In all probability, electricity will heat as well as light our houses, and will cook our food, It will drive other as well as our city passenger railroads. And it is not probable that man has yet discovered all the resources laid up by the Creator to be discovered and utilized by his creatures when needed for their happiness and comfort. The Anglo-Saxon race will occupy the continent from the Isth- mus to the Arctic, and, when crowded therein, must spread over South America, or perish. That they are not likely to submit to As the prairie wolf disappears when man drives off or subjugates the animals on which he lives, and for whose regulation he appears to have been created, so will the weaker races give way to the stronger. It has been thus in all history, and the law still holds. There are in the United States a majority of whites over blacks of 51,000,000. They will be able to settle without bloodshed most of the apparently troublesome questions as to races, as may to them seem best ; and when they agree upon the methods, and necessity enforces the duty, they will settle them for the best good of the greatest number. Soon after the civil war it was often said that they who believed in the success of the United States, and conducted their affairs on the theory of such success, grew rich and prospered. They who took the opposite belief were unsuccessful, and lost their fortunes. Those who believe in the prospects here set forth will rule their undertakings and investments in the expectation that property in real estate must advance in the next half-century; that commerce and transportation and production must increase enormously. As the discoveries and inventions of science and industry make towns more and more healthful, convenient, interesting, and agreeable places of residence, our people will tend more and more toward them. Museums, libraries, public halls for the education and in- struction and amusement of the people, will be more and more numerous and cheap. The streets and parks will be embellished and made gay with public and private buildings. Electric engines will do the heavy work of the day. More time will be at the disposal of men for enjoyment, as these improvements relieve men and women from slavish toil for the means of living. It may be assumed that the cities will grow at least as fast as the country. In 1790 the urban population was estimated at one- thirtieth the whole; in 1840, at one-twelfth ; and in 1870, at one- fifth. In r990the urban population will be 240,000,000 ; and of these, New York will probably contain over 30,000,000, What will be the value of lands in that city then, may be inferred from the auc- tion-sales of London, which has 4,000,000 people. © But there is here an inexhaustible field for investigation and speculation. We leave it to others to explore, having fulfilled the task we set our- selves, of calling the attention of those who inaugurate or direct great enterprises to the need of looking, in arrangements for the future, to a longer period than the decennial census, which is the limit of all speculations on the subject of population and growth which I remember to have seen in print. Twelve hundred millions of intelligent, educated, industrious people, of one race and blood, under one free government, armed with all that science teaches and man has invented — who will wish to interfere with their hap- piness? Who will attack them ? . The probable increase in the ten years from 1930 to 1940 will be about 68,000,000. This is equivalent to 13,600,000 families. Con- sidering only the building trades, this will require the construction in ten years of 14,000,000 new domiciles or family residences. Each will need as much floor and window area as now. Doesany one yet foresee the volume of business and its activity, in construct- ing within a single decade as many buildings as at this time exist within the limits of the United States ? What work for architects, contractors, builders, carpenters, masons, brick-layers, plasterers, brick-makers, quarriers, saw-mills, 116 lime-kilns, sand-gatherers, rolling-mills for structural and roofing iron in sheets and beams, for tinners and roofers, and the thousand other trades engaged in construction, not only of the 14,000,000 new homes, but of the markets, stores, warehouses, post-offices, court-houses, city-halls, jails, penitentiaries, etc., necessary in the administration of an additional population equal to all that exists now on the northern continent! What will be the work of provid- ing, and delivering at every house, three meals a day, and every day, for each inhabitant thereof ? M. C. MEIGs, BACTERIA IN MILK AND ITS PRODUCTS. DURING the past year, investigations on the bacteria of milk have been carried on in the laboratory of the Agricultural Experi- ment Station, Mansfield, Conn., under the direction of H: W. Conn, professor of biology in Wesleyan University. The following is a brief summary of some of the more interesting results of this work. ; The term “bacteria” is used to comprise a class of organisms found abundantly in the air, water, and soil, and in plants and animals. As commonly employed, the term includes a large variety of organisms, which naturalists divide into the three classes, bacteria, yeasts, and moulds. The term “microbe” has been recently introduced to cover this same ground, and is for many reasons preferable. The plants included under this head are ex- ceedingly numerous, and the part they play in nature is of great importance. They multiply with the greatest rapidity, a single in- dividual in the course of a few days being able to give rise to mil- lions. While they are thus growing and multiplying, they produce great changes in the medium in which they grow. All fermenta- tion (such as raising of bread, fermenting of beer, cider, etc.), putrefaction and decay (such as rotting of potatoes, decay of wood, etc.), are produced by the organisms here included. They are of immense value as well as injury. Through their agency, dead animal and vegetable matter is decomposed, and prepared to be incorporated with the soil and to be used as food by plants. It is doubtful if vegetable life could be long continued without their aid. On the other hand, they cause disease in plants, and disease in animals; many of the most dangerous diseases, as cholera, typhoid-fever, consumption, hog cholera, bovine tuberculosis, chicken cholera, etc., being produced by these disease germs. These organisms are extremely minute and simple. They are commonly not more than one two-thousandth of an inch in length. In shape they show three chief varieties, which may be compared to a lead-pencil, a ball, and a corkscrew. To-day they are uni- versally regarded as plants, in spite of the fact that many of them are endowed with motion. Methods of Experiment. The method of experiment has been that common in modern bacteriological research. For culture solutions the ordinary beef peptone solution, stiffened by gelatine, or more commonly by agar- agar, has been used. For most of the experiments with cream, “ripened cream” has served as a starting-point. In some cases sweet cream has been ripened in the laboratory, and examined each day, but more commonly specimens of ripened cream have been obtained from the dairy of a butter-maker and directly studied. Plate cultures have been made from the cream, usually with agar- agar, since the organisms found grow in this medium most readily. From the various colonies found in the agar plates, needle cultures have been made in gelatine. Subsequent purification of the or- ganisms has been made in the ordinary way, by transferring from tube to plate, and plate to tube, until the bacteria were separated from each other in pure cultures. For further experiment, milk has been sterilized in test-tubes. This can be done at a temperature of about 70° C., but it has been found more convenient to put the tubes for a few minutes ina steam sterilizer. Sterilization upon three successive days is com- monly sufficient, but in a few cases milk was found to change even after such treatment. The sterilization of cream has been accomplished in the same way. There is more difficulty in this, however, for the cream is apt to form a thick layer on the surface, with a thin watery layer below; and this occurs even in cream that SChENGE [Vor SVE Now aan is thoroughly sterilized. In the experiments upon the action of the different bacteria upon milk, the inoculations have been made, and the tubes allowed to remain at the temperature of the laboratory for a day or two. Ifno change occurs, they are then placed ina thermostat at a temperature between 30° and 35° C., and allowed to stay there till they have produced their effect upon the milk. Accompanying all of the experiments upon milk and cream, a series of experiments have been carried on with the same organ- isms upon three different solutions. One was the ordinary beef peptone solution without gelatine; the second, the same solution, to which a small amount of milk-sugar had been added; and the third, the beef peptone solution, with the addition of glucose in- stead of milk-sugar. Inasmuch as the object has been to determine the general effect upon milk and its products of the various bacteria present in the air, it has been necessary to work with all the numerous species that have been found in ripened cream. This has necessitated . a very large number of experiments, continuing through eight months. The account of these experiments, which, to be in any way useful, will require a large number of pages of detailed de- scription of individual species of bacteria, as well as their action and effects, is reserved for the next annual report of the station. At present it is designed to give only a brief summary of the most important facts concerning the relation of bacteria to milk and its products. For this reason the following remarks include results of the work done at the station, and of other investigators as well, and some conclusions derived from them. Bacteria in Milk, Cream, and Butter. Milk is a medium in which bacteria grow with the greatest readi- ness. Experiments have thus far given indication of some thirty or forty species of bacteria that are floating in the air in this vicin- ity, every one of which is found in cream, and grows with the greatest facility in milk. Probably none of those which were studied produce disease, and hence are called non-pathogenic. The researches of others have shown that many of the disease (pathogenic) germs also find in milk a favorable medium for growth. According to experiment, cream seems to be even a better medium for the growth of bacteria than milk; for it will keep longer with- out putrefying, and thus allow some of the slower-growing species to develop. Butter is not a good mediuin for the growth of bac- teria, apparently because they require for their development a certain amount of albuminous material, of which good butter, being mostly fat, contains only a minute amount. Bacteria have, how- ever, always been found present even in the sweetest of butter, but usually in small numbers. When for any reason they become very numerous, the butter becomes tainted. If milk, cream, or butter is kept free from bacteria, the ordinary changes do not take place in them. For example: the bacteria in milk can be readily killed by heating the milk to a boiling or even lower temperature for a few moments upon three successive days ; and then, bacteria being excluded, the milk is found to keep sweet in- definitely. Killing the bacteria by heat is known as sterilizing. If a lot of milk is thus sterilized, and then a few of any particular species of bacteria are put into it, the effect which this species pro- duces upon the milk can very easily be determined. It is in this way that the experiments have been made. Milk and cream under ordinary conditions cannot be kept free from bacteria. Milk drawn from a healthy cow is free from them, but they may get into it when the milk is in contact with the air during milking. - A single experiment will indicate the difficulty of keeping them out of milk. Eight test-tubes were washed per- fectly clean, and plugged with a mass of cotton. They were then heated very hot until all living matter_in them was killed. These were taken into a milking-yard, and, after the teats of the cow and the hands of the milker had been carefully washed, the cotton plug was taken out and milk drawn directly from the cow into the tubes, andthe cotton plug replaced. Of these eight tubes, seven soured in a few days, and many bacteria were found in them. The other remained sweet for a long time, but eventually it also changed. From this experiment it is seen that in the few seconds in which it was exposed to the air the milk was cohtaminated with bacteria. A very common source of contamination of milk is from Avcust 16, 1889. | vessels in which the milk is placed. These, unless recently washed in boiling water, contain bacteria clinging to their walls. These bacteria begin to grow as soon as the milk gets into the vessels, and in a few hours will multiply so as to be extremely abundant. Number of Bacteria in Milk.— Different Species. The number of bacteria in milk will depend chiefly on three things: 1. The cleanliness of the vessels; 2. The temperature of the milk, warmth being favorable to their growth ; 3. The length of time that the milk has been standing. Ordinarily the number of bacteria in the air is of comparatively little importance, unclean vessels being the great source of contamination. If, however, the vessels are perfectly clean, the number of organisms in the air be- comes the important factor. In cream which has been allowed to “ripen” for a few days, the number is extremely great. In the specimens of ripened cream which we have examined, from 10,000 to 100,000 individuals have been found in a single drop, the latter number being usually nearer the truth than the former. Even under conditions most unfavorable for their growth, in a cool cellar during the winter, 12,000 have been found in a single drop. _ These are capable of multiplying with the greatest rapidity, pro- ducing hundreds of thousands in a few days. Not only is the number of individuals very great, but the number of different species is considerable. Some thirty or more different species of bacteria have been found during the winter in speci- mens examined in the laboratory. No single specimen of cream contained them all, but each contained several species. The number of bacteria present has, however, no significance until we know something of their effect. Some are harmless, some are hurtful; some affect cream, milk, and butter injuriously, and others do not. The effect produced by most of these organisms upon milk is striking. Of the large number of organisms found in milk, two or three seem to be characteristic. The first is the one that produces the ordinary souring of milk (Baczllus aczd¢ lactzc?). This organism, upen being introduced into sterilized milk, grows rapidly, and soon breaks up the milk-sugar that is present into either lactic or acetic acid and carbonic acid. The acid thus formed causes the milk both to curdle, by hardening or coagulating its albuminous matter, and to acquire its well-known sour taste and odor. This organism is very abundant in the air in warm weather, but in the winter seems to be much less abundant : indeed, it can at times almost be said to be absent. Milk has been kept in an open dish in the laboratory, during cold weather, for two weeks without its going through the characteristic changes of souring. It finally curdled, but with a peculiar odor of decay, and did not sour in the typical manner at all. The vessel in this case was absolutely clean, so that the air was the only source of contamination. The changes which did take place were produced by bacteria other than the common sour-milk bacterium, this one not seeming to be present at all. The fact that the typical souring was thus prevented shows that the common sour-milk bacterium was not present in the air at the time, at least in any great quantity. Such an experiment would not succeed in the summer. p A second species almost always found in milk is Ozd@zume lactzs. ‘This produces no important change in milk. It grows rapidly, but does not cause the milk to sour or curdle. Besides the two men- tioned, a large number of other species have marked effects upon milk. Action of Different Kinds of Bacteria in Milk. As concerns their action, we may divide them into four classes : I. Some, like the bacteria of sour milk, cause the milk to sour by breaking up the milk-sugar into lactic or acetic acid and carbonic acid: curdling of the milk results. 2. Many produce the same result, but only at somewhat higher temperatures. At ordinary temperatures, they grow, but do not curdle the milk; in a warm oven, however, the milk will soon curdle. Accordingly, these would sour and curdle the milk in summer, but would not do so, or would do so less readily, in winter. The temperature and time required to produce the curdling differ with different species of bacteria. 3. Some do not have the power of breaking up milk- sugar, do not produce any acid, and do not coagulate the milk. The milk remains liquid, and sometimes becomes decidedly alka- SCIENCE. _ others. 17, line. 4. A few species curdle the milk, but produce no acid, the milk becoming alkaline instead. The majoyity of bacteria of milk and cream which have been experimented upon produce a souring and curdling of milk at some temperature. Experiments have also indicated that the action in all these species is somewhat similar ; i.e., the breaking-up of the milk-sugar into an acid and some other product. But, although the action is thus fundamentally the same, the details of the action vary with each different species of bacteria. The curdling is very different in character with different species. In some cases a hard curd and a clear liquid are formed; in others a curd is formed, but no liquid is separated from it; in still other cases the whole milkis turned into a semi-gelatinous mass, Some- times the curd is easily broken or cracked, like the curd of common milk ; in other cases it is very tenacious, sticky, and slimy. Some- times the curd is dissolved in a few days, and the milk is left as a clear and almost transparent liquid. Here the caseine seems to undergo a change similar to digestion; i.e., conversion into pep- tones. In connection with the curdling, there also arises in all cases a characteristic odor, which differs with different species of bacteria, There is a sour smell, a smell like sour bread, a smell like soft-soap, like salt mackerel, like a pig-pen, like the barnyard, and in many cases a smell of putrefaction. Besides these, there are others that cannot be described because of the lack of words in our language to distin- guish odors. As far as the studies have gone, the effect of each species of bacteria upon the milk seems to be different from all The dairyman or the housewife would in most cases say that the milk had soured, but careful study shows that in reality the different bacteria do produce effects differing to a greater or less extent. The results of the experiments seem to indicate that what is commonly known as the souring of milk is not always. caused by the common sour-milk bacterium, as has been usually. supposed, but is frequently produced by others, and that the prod- ucts formed are different. Particularly is this true in winter. Bacteria in Cream. Experiments were undertaken in the expectation that the so~ called ‘‘ripening’”’ of cream would prove to be a definite change due to the growth of bacteria. Having found that the souring of milk is less simple than had been supposed, one is prepared to find that the “ripening” of cream is also a complex process. It is not easy to say just what is meant by “ripened” cream. In ordinary farm practice, cream is usually allowed to stand for a few days be- fore churning, when it becomes somewhat thickened, and acquires a pleasantly sour odor. In the creameries the cream is also ripened, though for a shorter time, and it does not become so thick orso sour. That the ripening is due to the growth of bacteria there can be no doubt. Ripened cream always contains these or- ganisms in almost inconceivable abundance. In some places the ripening is hastened by adding a little sour cream as a “starter.” This simply means the addition of a large number of bacteria, which of course hastens the process. Sometimes an artificial starter in the form of an acid is added. This practice proceeds upon the supposition that the ripening is due to the formation of an acid, which is probably a secondary matter. It is doubtful if this kind of a starter has any definite value. By successive heatings, specimens of cream have been deprived of all bacteria, and it is then found that the cream remains un- changed indefinitely. In these specimens of sterilized cream have been planted the various species of bacteria that have been experi- mented upon. All of them grow well in the cream,‘and each has its characteristic effect; but no one of them has yet been found to produce exactly what would be called ripened cream. Some curdle it; some cause it to putrefy. From all of the experiments it may be concluded that the ripening of cream is a complex matter. The souring is apparently due to a process similar to the souring of milk; the thickening, in part to the curdling of the small amount of | Be cE KS y Used by thousands of Ashe 4 Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano 0, &e,, &e. imits A eoey ing us in every way possible. emersber that THE Kone THING TAGE G. GUTTENBERG, Erie, Pa, ° LD ME DAL, nu mechanics and by such manufact- | Repairs Everything. Onty GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. ones, NOON ee Send 10c, and dealers’ card who Patent Pocket Can. No waste.{doesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. eee ae 4 d ‘4 4 . ; ¢ a “y Sy erat et oN Sip {Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. ] A WIPE IMEY NEWSPAPER OF ALL TMWE ARTS AND SCLENECBS: SEVENTH YEAR. Vout. XIV. No. 342. NEW YORK, Avcusr 23, 1889 SINGLE CopigEs, TEN CENTS, $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. ARON’S ELECTRIC METER, AN electric current meter which is attracting much attention in this country, where it has been introduced but recently, is shown in the accompanying illustrations. It is the invention of Professor H. Aron of Berlin, who claims for it that it surpasses all similar devices in point of reliability. It received a gold medal at the Melbourne Exhibition, and has been adopted, in preference to other _ meters, by the Siemens & Halske and Edison electric lighting com- _ panies of Berlin, and by the Berlin municipal electric lighting works. - It is also used in Paris, Vienna, Constantinople, and other cities, - left-hand pendulum is of the usual construction. _ according to the current to be measured. where it has proved itself valuable for central station work. The Aron electric meter is made to measure both direct and al- ternating currents, and from three-wire to nine-wire systems, from fifteen to twelve hundred ampéres, and from a hundred up to any FIG. : AND 2.—ARON ELECTRIC METER. desired number of volts. The action of the meter is based upon magnetic attraction. The mechanism consists of two sets of clock- work of ordinary construction, the pendulums of which swing synchronously while no current is passing through the meter. The The other varies, The measuring pendu- jum shown in Fig. 1, which is an alternating-current meter, carries a fork-shaped piece of brass fitted with a coil of fine wire, which - swings freely through the interior of a fixed coil of large wire. The - in a shunt-circuit. main current passes through the outer coil, the interior coil being The mutual action of the two coils upon each _ other effects a variation in the time of oscillation of the right-hand pendulum proportional to the product of the electric tension and _ copper wire, through which the current passes. the quantity of the current ; hence the measuring pendulum swings faster the greater the tension and quantity of current passing through the meter. While the pendulums swing in unison, the dial train is idle, but when the current is passing, ine dial-train registers the difference in the pendulum oscillations, the latter being greater or less according to the tension and quantity of the current. In the direct-current meter, the right-hand pendulum carries as a weight a permanent steel magnet, which swings over a coil of As in the other meter, the pendulums swing in unison until the current begins to pass through the coil, when the measuring pendulum swings faster, its rate of swing being governed by the amount of current. The measuring-pendulum of the meter for the three-wire system carries two permanent magnets attached to a cross-piece of brass, iii m ret i 7 : FIG. 3.— ARON ELECTRIC METER. (For three-wire system. each magnet swinging immediately above a coil of wire through which the current passes, the main wires being connected to the coils as shown in the diagram at the bottom of Fig. 3. The meters for five, seven, and nine-wire systems differ only in the fact that they are provided with a greater number of permanent magnets on the pendulum and a corresponding number of coils. 5 ¢ 124 RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES IN 1889. THE year 1888 is notable for the reason that it marks the begin- ning of the second century of our existence as a nation. When Washington was inaugurated one hundred years ago, our popula- tion was less than 4,000,000 : to-day it is estimated at 65,000,000. Enormous as has been this increase in the population of the coun- try within the short period of one hundred years, the increase in wealth and material prosperity resulting from the rapid develop- ment of the country’s wonderful resources has been in even greater ratio ; has, in fact, no parallel in the history of the world. That these wonderful results are due chiefly to the rapid expan- sion of our railroad system, none will gainsay. What our condition would be without railroads, it is impossible to conceive: what it is, having them, is universally known. Of the total railroad mileage of the world, the United States now possess nearly one-half. At the end of 1888 the aggregate length of all lines in the country, according to “ Poor’s Manual for 1889,” to advance sheets of which we are indebted for our facts, was 156,082 mites, all built in sixty years, the average mileage con- structed per year being nearly 2,600 miles; but this record of sixty years, wonderful as it is, fades into insignificance when compared with the achievements of the past twenty-three years, — since the close of the civil war. The total mileage of our railroads at the close of 1865 was 35,085 miles. In the twenty-three years since then, there have been constructed 121,000 miles of new road, — an average of 5,260 miles per annum, twice the annual average of the whole period of sixty years, and 5.3 times the annual average of the first period of thirty-five years. During these twenty-three years the country has experienced three great waves of railroad construction, which were checked only by extraordinary financial revulsions. The first of these great construction waves occurred within the eight years intervening between the close of the war and the panic of 1873. In that time the mileage increased more than 100 per cent, or from 35,085 miles in 1865, to 70,268 miles in 1873. Within this period was completed the first Pacihc Railroad line, and con- struction on a second line to the Pacific was well under way. The cash cost of the 35,000 miles of road constructed in these eight years must have exceeded $1,400,000,000; and the panic, which began in the fall of 1873, was largely the result of the transformation — fol- lowing so close in the wake of a great civil war — of this vast sum from floating into hxed capital. In New England, during this period, railroad mileage increased nearly 2,500 miles; in the Middle States the increase was 6,070 miles, about 75 per cent; in the South it increased 4,000 miles, 44 per cent; and in the Pacific States the increase was from 166 miles to 2,193 miles. But the great increase of this period was in the Western and South-western States. At the close of 1873 the total capital investment in all the rail- roads of the United States was $3.784,543,034, represented by share capital to the amount of $1,947,638,584, and bonded debts to the amount of $1,836,904,450. This vast aggregate represented also the cost of 70,651 miles of railroad then in operation, the average cost per mile for the whole country at that time equalling $60,057. In New England the average cost was $47,850 per mile; in the Middle States, $67,737 per mile; in the Western States, $52,125 per mile; in the Southern States, $36,994 per mile; and in the Pacific States, $95,590 per mile. The maximum cost per mile was in New Jersey, where it averaged $115,829; the minimum was in Florida, where the average was only $18,445 per mile. The increase of mileage from 1871 to 1873 had been 21,623 miles, and the increase of the cost of the roads $1,119.915,389, nominally. One cause for the excessive mileage built within a few years was the extraordinary effort to complete roads, in order to save from lapsing the vast grants of land made by Congress, on condition that the roads should be built within a certain time. But the increase was far beyond the possibility of speedy returns for the capital invested. That much land could be found unoccu- pied near the line of a railroad implied a sparse population; and, although prairie soil could quickly be brought into cultivation, it would be long before there could be sufficient traffic to pay the in- terest on the cost of the roads. Excessive competition and specu- SCIENCE: [Vor. XIV. No. 342 tion in railroad building and railroad bonds and stocks ensued, until, in September, 1873, the great financial storm which has since passed into history as the ‘‘ panic of 1873” burst upon the country. The depression which followed extended through the years 1874-78. During 1879 matters began to improve throughout the country, and this feeling soon became reflected through the rail- roads. In that year construction increased nearly 100 per cent over the preceding year. During these fifteen years there were built 85,814 miles of new railroad, an increase of over 122 per cent; that is, in the last fifteen years we built 15,546 miles of railroad more than we built in the preceding forty-five years. The first five of these fifteen comprised a period of depression; the next four years were years of unexam- pled activity ; while the three years of 1883, 1884, and 1885 were years of hesitancy, in which no new railroad enterprise of great magnitude was begun, as was natural, after the completion in a single year (1882) of 11,600 miles of road. In 1886 there were built 8,128 miles, and in 1887, 12,984 miles, the latter surpassing the record of any previous year; and in 1888, 7,028 miles. In the three years the new construction aggregated 28,140 miles, or within 58 miles of the extraordinary record of the three years 1881-83. The increase in mileage during the ten years from 1840 to 1850 was 6,202 miles, or 220 per cent. Theaverage mileage constructed per year in this decade equalled 620.3 miles. In the succeeding decade, 1850 to 1860, 21,605 miles were added, an average of 2,160.5 miles per year, the increase equalling nearly 240 per cent. The next ten years, 1860 to 1870, showed an increase of only 73 per cent, or 22,296 miles, the falling-off from previous records be- ing due to the outbreak of the war. Between 1870 and 1880, 45,- 375 miles were added, an increase of nearly 86 per cent. Since 1880, 57,786 miles have been built. Since the revival of railroad construction in 1879 there have been completed three additional through transcontinental railroads, — the Northern Pacific, the Atlantic and Pacific, and the Southern Pacific ; while the Union Pacific by the construction of its Oregon Short Line north-west to a connection with a branch of the Ore- gon Railway and Navigation Company’s system, the Atchison by the construction of its line to a connection with the Southern Pa- cific, and the Chicago, Burlington, and Quincy by the construction of its Denver extension, have added three other important routes to the Pacific. At least three of the great Western railroad sys- tems are now stretching westward, with the evident intention of speedily reaching the same ocean. A striking feature of the-last decade of railroad building is the large number of speculative and parallel lines which were put under way, and many of them completed, notably the West Shore Rail- road, which parallels the New York Central line for its whole length from New York to Buffalo; the “ Nickel-Plate”’ line, which parallels the Lake Shore in like manner from Buffalo to Chicago; and the South Pennsylvania, paralleling the Pennsylvania Railroad between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, upon which a vast sum was. expended, but which has not been completed. In some instances such lines were perhaps undertaken with a view to forcing their subsequent purchase by the older companies whose lines they sought to parallel; and in the case of the two roads first mentioned these plans met with eminent success. But their fulfilment was in the main the cause of the depression which existed during the years 1885, 1886, and 1887. The chief feature of railroad construction of the ‘‘ wave” of 1886-88 has been the extraordinary activity displayed by the older and more powerful corporations of the North-west and South-west. in the extension of their lines, with the apparent purpose of se- curing a firm foothold upon every available foot of territory con- tiguous to their several systems, or within reach thereof. The re- sult of this policy has proved in many instances unwise, if not disastrous, as an examination of the facts herein set forth will! show. The most important lines which have been constructed during that period are here briefly summarized : North and north-west of Chicago there have been completed the Duluth, South Shore, and Atlantic Railway, forming a new short route between Duluth and AvuGuST 23, 1889.] Sault Ste. Marie, where connection, is made with the Canadian Pa- cific Railroad, under whose control the Duluth line has passed. The Minneapolis, St. Paul, and Sault Ste. Marie has completed an equally important line between Minneapolis and St. Paul and the “Soo,” and has also constructed an extension north-west of Min- neapolis to within a short distance of Bismarck, Dak. Between Chicago and St. Paul two important new routes have been opened, —the Chicago, Burlington, and Northern, and the Chicago, St. Paul, and Kansas City. The latter company also extended its line south-west to Kansas City, to which point the most important ex- tension of the Chicago, Milwaukee, and St. Paul Railroad within the three years was built. Running far west to Helena and Butte, Mont., the St. Paul, Minneapolis, and Manitoba Railway Company completed a line which is the most northerly east-and-west line of importance in the United States. The total number of miles of railroad in the United States at the close of 1888 was 156,082, of which 7,028 miles were con- structed during the year, the rate of increase being 4.7 per cent. The mileage of lines making returns of their share capital and funded and floating debts equalled 154,276, against 147,999 for 1887, the increase being 6,277, the rate of increase being 4.24 per cent. The share capital of the mileage completed at the end of 1888 equalled $4,438,411,342, against $4,191,562,029 in 1887, the in- crease equalling $246,849,313, the rate of increase being about 5.9 per cent. The funded debts of all the lines at the close of the year aggre- gated $4,624,035,023, a sum $437,091,907 in excess of the total of 1887 ($4,186,943,116), an increase of nearly 9.5 per cent. The other forms of indebtedness of the several companies at the close of the year equalled $306,952,589, against $294,682,071 for 1887, the increase being $12,270,518. The total share capital and in- debtedness of all kinds of all the roads making returns equalled at the close of the vear $9,369,398.954, an increase in the year of $696,211,738 over the total of 1887 ($8,673,187,216) the rate of in- crease for the year being about 8 per cent. The cost per mile of all the roads making return as measured by the amount of their stocks and indebtedness equalled very nearly $60,732, against $58,603 for 1887. The gross earnings or receipts of all the lines (including elevated railroad) from which returns were received for the year equalled $960,256,270, of which $251,356,167 were received from transpor- _ tation of passengers ; $639,200,723 from transportation of freight ; and $69,699,380 from the transportation of mails and express mat- ter, profits of leased lines, and other miscellaneous sources of revenue. In the latter sum are included the gross earnings of elevated rail- roads. The gross earnings of all the lines for the year ending Dec. 31, 1887, equalled $940,150,702; the increase for the year 1888 equal- ling $20,105,568, or 2.14 per cent. The earnings in 1887 from transportation of passengers equalled $240,542,876; from freight, $636,666,223 ; from transportation of mails and express matter, etc., $62,941,603, against $69,699,380 for 1888. The earnings per mile from which full returns were received in 1888 equalled $6.540, against $6,861 for 1887, the decrease equalling $321 per mile. The net earnings of all the lines for 1888 equalled $301,631,051, against $334,989,119 for 1887, the falling-off equalling $33,358,068, the rate ' of decrease being about Io per cent. The amount of interest paid in 1888 equailed $207,124,288, against $203,790,352 in 1887, the increase being $3,333,936, the rate of increase equalling more than 1.63 per cent. The amount paid in dividends in 1888 equalled $80,243,041, against $91,573,458 in 1887, the faliing-off equalling $11,330,417, the rate of decrease be- ing about 12.4 per cent. The number of persons transported in 1888 by all the lines was 451,353,055, against 428,225,513 for 1887, the increase for the year being 23,128,142, the rate of increase equalling 5.4 per cent. The number of passengers carried one mile in 1888 equalled 11,190,- 613,679, against 10,570,306,710 for 1887, the increase equalling 620,306,969 persons carried one mile, the rate of increase equalling very nearly 6 per cent. The distance travelled by each passenger in 1888 equalled 24.78 miles; in 1887, 24.68 miles. The amount received per passenger per mile equalled 2.246 cents in 1888, against 2.276 cents in 1887. Had the passenger rates for 1887 SCIENCE: 125 been maintained for 1888, the earnings from this source would have equalled $255,034,086, a sum $14,491,210 greater than that received. . The number of tons of freight transported on our railroads in 1888 equalled 589,398,317, against 552,074,752 tons in 1887, the increase equalling 37,323,565 tons, the rate of increase being about 6% per cent. The value of the tonnage moved in 1888, estimating its value at $25 the ton, equalled $14,633.957,925. The number of tons transported one mile in 1888 equalled 70,423,005,988, against 61,561,069,996 tons moved one mile in 1887, the increase of service performed for the year equalling 8,861,635,992 tons moved one mile, the rate of increase being about 14.4 per cent. When “ Poor’s Manual for 1888” was published, it recorded the greatest amounts, in the aggregate, ever earned, either gross or net, by the railroads of the country. In the midsummer of 1888 the situation presented many hopeful aspects, and it was widely be- lieved that the period or depression had passed. The volume of business throughout the country was larger than ever in its history, and an improvement in earnings was therefore confidently looked for. But unfortunately, while the traffic was large and of increas- ing proportions, the rates received for its transportation, owing to the fierce and unbridled competition in the West, drooped continu- ally. It appears that in the seven years 1882-88 the tonnage increased 228,907,942 tons, or 63 per cent. In the same period the mileage of lines in operation increased 49,588.91 miles, or 51 per cent. Computed on the basis of tonnage per mile of road, the traffic of 1882 was 3,650.5 tons per mile ; of 1883, 3,744.7 tons per mile; of 1884, 3,526.2 tons per mile; of 1885, 3,578.6 tons per mile; of 1886, 3,853.4 tons per mile; of 1887, 4,030.1 tons per mile; and of 1888, 4,055.2 tons per mile. It thus becomes apparent that the traffic of the past two years was the largest ever carried by the railroads of the country. During 1888 the volume of freight traffic was ex-. ceptionally large; and, with an increase of eight miles in the aver- age length of haul per ton, the earnings from this source should have been, had fairly remunerative rates prevailed, sufficient to insure a continuance of dividends by the great trunk lines rather than their suspension, as has been the case in so many instances. The tonnage-mileage of 1887 was 61,561,069,996, for transport- ing which the railroads received an average rate of 1.034 cents per ton per mile. producing a revenue of $636,666,223. In 1888 the tonnage-mileage was 70,423,005,988, which produced an average revenue per ton per mile of .g07 of a cent, or, in the aggregate, $639,200,723. Had the rates received in 1887 prevailed in 1888, the difference of about 14 mills per ton per mile would have given the railroads an increased revenue of $89,189,819, sufficient to pay more than 2 per cent upon the total amount of capital stock out- standing at the end of 1888, upon all of the roads contributing to- ward this grand aggregate. The causes which led to this unlooked-for result are now thor- oughly understood. The sentiment is unanimously expressed that the chief elements of disturbance in the railroad situation in the West have been, first, the unprecedented activity with which the railroad systems of that section have been extended, as a result of the desire to secure entrance to the newly developed lands in the West and South-west ; second, the partial failure of the crops, and the consequent loss of a large proportion of the traffic which had been calculated upon ; third, the complications resulting from the application of a new and radical law, —the Interstate Commerce Act ; and, fourth, the spirit of hostility and repression evinced by the legislatures of some of the Western States. To these several causes, which were in themselves sufficient to demoralize the business of even so powerful a system as that of the railroads, might be added a fifth and perhaps most potent cause of all; that is, the very mightiness of the contestants and the magni- tude of the interests involved. In no period of the world’s history has there been such vast aggregations of capital engaged in com- mercial enterprises as are now to be found in this country. Noris there any country in which competition in business is freer and sharper than in ours. In this general competition the railroads of the country have taken active part. The construction of new lines has been encouraged in every part of this country, in no section more strongly than in those which are now displaying the most 126 violent antagonism toward them. Nowhere were greater induce- ments held out to capital to supply railroad facilities than west of the Mississippi, between the close of the war and the early seven- ties ; yet in those very States, which owe their present’ prosperity and development to no cause more than to railroads, we see the most rampant hostility displayed toward the creators of their wealth. In the early days of railroads in this country, their profits reached very respectable proportions. In some instances, where the lines were especially favored in respect to location and physical surround- ings, these returns were so large as to excite the cupidity of capital to such an extent that, at several periods of the country’s history: the eagerness displayed by railroad constructors in pushing their lines beyond the requirements of the territory resulted in plunging the country into financial crises having far-reaching effects. But the days of large profits appear to have passed. A railroad which in the future can pay regular dividends of 5 per cent per annum, will be regarded in much the same light as those which formerly paid 8 and Io per cent for years without intermission. In the Manual are three tables, showing the decline in freight rates upon various railroads of the United States. Table No. 1 includes seven leading Eastern trunk lines, running between Chicago and the seaboard, and covers the twenty-four years, 1865 to 1888 inclusive. Upon these roads the rates received for trans- portation of freight declined from 2.9 cents per ton per mile in 1865, to .609 of accent per ton per mile, —a reduction of 79 per cent within the period covered by the statement: in other words, the railroads comprised in that statement received, in 1888, $21 for the performance of a service for which in 1865 they received $100. \Vhat other business can show a corresponding decrease in re- turns ? Table No. 2 gives like statistics for six leading Western trunk lines running west, north-west, and south-west of Chicago, and embracing the same period, 1865 to 1888. Upon these lines the reduction equalled 73 per cent in the twenty-four years, or from 3.642 cents per ton per mile in 1865 to .934 cent in 1888. The thirteen roads embraced in these two tables are typical of the entire railroad system. Upon the basis of the deductions here shown, it may be assumed that the average reduction throughout the whole country since the close of the civil war has been at least 7o per cent. To earn an amount equal, on the average, to that earned twenty-four years ago, the railroads are now required to perform a service nearly three times as great. Yet, notwithstand- ing this, the cost cf operating the lines has not been decreased to any appreciable extent. Of the total cost of operating a railroad, fully 80 per cent is paid to labor in one way or another. Expenses of this nature cannot be materially reduced: in point-of fact, the tendency is constantly toward an increase. The average rate of wages paid by railroads is to-day as large as in 1865, if not larger. It becomes plain, therefore, that the immense sums that have been annually lost to the railroads of the country by their voluntary re- ductions in rates have been a corresponding saving to the public at large. A calculation of the sums saved to the public by these reductions in rates during the past quarter-century would reach far up into the thousands of millions. During all these years the railroads have met with most active competition from the waterways of the country, upon which freight can always be transported at about one-third of the cost of railroad transportation. It early became apparent to the railroad companies that to make their lines pay required an immense volume of traffic, which could only be secured by the development of their routes to a point where competition from waterways need not be feared. With this view, tracks have been doubled, trebled, and even in some cases quadrupled ; roads have been almost entirely rebualt with heavy steel rails; locomotives and cars of double or treble their former capacity have been constructed ; and trains have been run with a frequency and at a rate of speed which were once con- sidered to be among the impossibilities. The effect of all this is seen in the wonderful development of all sections of the country, but particularly in the Western States, in which the progress recorded in a short quarter of a century is justly regarded as one of the marvels of the present age. In proportion to population, the earnings of the railroads in the SCIENCE. [Von. XIV. No. 342 States of Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas were considerably higher in 1888 than in 1870, being $18 per capita in the former year as against $12 in the latter, the increase being 50 per cent. But this increase of averages is a very deceptive one, as, calculated upon the basis of mileage, — the only true test, —the earnings in 1888 were but $5,728 per mile, as against $6,753 per mile in 1870. The falling-off of revenues in these States equalled more than $1,000 per mile, which for 1888 alone amounted to an aggregate of $7 3.000,000. With these facts before us, it is difficult to understand the ex- traordinary antipathy to railroad corporations now prevalent in the West. The railroad mileage of the West has advanced in far greater ratio than the population, and the wealth and commerce of that section have kept pace with the railroad mileage. Were the railroads to be advanced only in ratio to the increase in population, the situation in the West and throughout the country would present an entirely different aspect, and public sentiment would experience a corresponding change. The acreage of wheat and corn in Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, IIli- nois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Dakota, Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri, and Kansas in 1888 was 66,435,304 acres. No figures of acreage in 1870 are obtainable, but it was undoubtedly less than 30,000,000 acres in that year. Without railroads, the products of this im- mense territory would be to a large extent valueless; but such trifling matters as these are always dismissed from the considera- tion of demagogues when they strive to excite the public mind upon the rapacity and greed of railroad corporations. In point of importance, the railroad interest now takes preced- ence of all other industries or enterprises. Its magnitude is greater than any other interest in the world, and it has become so thor- oughly a part of the economic system of the Republic as to be second only to the government itself. In order to show how closely interwoven are the interests of railroad stockholders and the working-classes of the country, a few calculations are herewith submitted. If we estimate that in the operation of our railways there are employed in prosperous times an average of six persons per mile of road, it would show a total, on the basis of our present mileage, of more than 936,000 persons regularly employed in connection with that single interest; and if to this number we add 780,000 —a number representing an average of five to the mile — as the num- ber of persons employed in connection with all those industries which are directly affiliated with and dependent on our railway system, such as locomotive and car building establishments, rail- mills, etc., we have a total of nearly 1,716,000, or an average of JI to the mile of railroad. Assuming that each of these would rep- resent a family averaging five persons, we have an aggregate population of 8,580,000, — nearly one-seventh of the total for the country at large, — of which go per cent are actually dependent on the railway system for the sustenance of life. If we allow, as the average rate of wages of those employed in operating, say $450 per annum, and for those employed in locomotive building, etc., say $500 per annum, we have a total pay-roll of $911,200,000 per annum, of which at least $500,000,000 is directly chargeable to operating account, while the remainder is for account of better- ments, improvements, and new construction. Add to this the amount paid to laborers engaged in construction in such a year as 1887. In that year there were built new roads whose aggregate length was 12,984 miles. If we take, as the average cost of labor in grading, track-laying, etc., for each mile of this total, say $10,- ooo, and allow the average daily wages of laborers to be $1.50, with, say, 100 laborers of all classes to each mile, this would show the average time for the completion of a mile of railroad to be 67 days. On this basis, the construction of 12,984 miles of railroad would give steady employment for 300 days in the year to an army of 289,976 laborers, whose total earnings would be $129,840,000. This gives a total of 2,006,000 persons, to which we will add 44,000 as the number whose labors are stimulated by the employ- ment of the 289,976 last mentioned, making a total of 2,050,000, representing families numbering in the aggregate 12,250,000 per- sons. To maintain this number, there would be expended by rail- roads and others under the above calculations at least $1,040,000,000 AUGUST 23, 1880. | per annum, or very nearly $3,000,000 for each day in the year. The regular expenditure of more than go per cent of this vast sum stimulates other industries, and in this manner the volume of gen- eral business is increased in progressive ratio. In these calculations no account has been taken of the large number of people forming the proprietary interest of this vast ag- gregation of capital, which comprises people in all classes and in all occupations, and scattered throughout all parts of the country. The New York Central Railroad Company has 10,000 stock- holders, whose average holding is about $9,000. If we take that ‘sum as representing the average holding of all stock and bond- holders in the country, the total number of such would be over 1,000,000, representing ‘more than 5,000,000 persons with important interests in the success of the railroad system. From these deductions a general idea can be gathered of the magnitude of the railroad interest, and how vast and widespread is the interest of our people in that system. From the tables in the Manual it appears that during the past ten years the following percentages of profit have been distributed to holders of the share capital of our railroads. In 1879 the divi- dends paid averaged 2.5 per cent of the total amount of capital stock outstanding; in 1880, 2.8 per cent was paid; in 1881, 2.9 per cent; in 1882, 2.91 per cent; in 1883, 2.75 per cent; in 1884, 2.48 per cent; in 1885, 2.02 per cent; in 1886, 2.04 per cent; in 1887, 2.18 per cent ; and in 1888, 1.77 per cent. BUHACH. IN an article on the California insecticide known as buhach, which was mentioned in Sczence of May 24, the Journal of the So- czety of Arts, London, says this product is a fine powder made from the flowers of the Pyrethrum cinerartefolium, largely used for the destruction of insects. This plant was originally a native of Persia, from whence it was introduced to Dalmatia and adjoining States of Herzegovina and Montenegro, where it has been almost exclusively cultivated until a few years ago. The importance of this industry was considered so great in these countries that spe- cial efforts were made to prevent the export of seeds and plants by the governments. The plant was first introduced into California about twelve years ago by a Mr. Mileo, a native of Dalmatia, who succeeded, after some trouble, in obtaining seed from his country. After experimenting for some time, in order to find a suitable soil and climate, this gentleman finally succeeded in growing the plant on an extensive scale, and in 1880, associating himself with other capitalists, established the Buhach Producing and Manufacturing Company. At the present time the company have about 300 acres of this plant under cultivation at their farm near Atwater, Cal., and ‘own mills for grinding the dried flowers to powder at Stockton. The cultivation of pyrethrum requires careful and intelligent su- pervision, and it cannot be grown successfully without irrigation. It requires three years from the time of sowing to grow plants ca- pable of producing a paying crop of flowers, and then they will bear from four to five years longer. It is at its prime, however, in its fourth or fifth year. The plant grows about thirty inches high, and is set out in rows four feet apart, and from fifteen to twenty- four inches apart in the rows. The flowers are harvested towards the latter part of May. The stalks are cut just above the roots, and the flowers stripped from them by passing the plants through a kind of comb. The detached flowers fall into a box below, and are carried to the drying ground, where they are spread on sheets and exposed to the rays of the sun during the day, being repeatedly turned over in the meantime. They are covered during the night to prevent their absorbing moisture, as the perfect drying of the flowers is most important in order to retain the volatile oil which gives the powder its insecticide properties. It is also very necessary that this operation should be done quickly, and that the flowers during the drying process should be protected from moisture. A slight dew fall- ing upon the flowers at this time will injure their color, and reduce their strength as an insect destroyer. In this respect the Califor- nia-grown flowers are better cured, and, consequently, more valua- ble than those produced in Dalmatia, it being acknowledged by experts that the particular conditions of soil and climate in Califor- nia are extremely favorable to the growth and curing of plants rich SCIENCE: 127 in the essential oil which renders them so destructive to insect life. Like many other products, insect powders are liable to adultera- tion, and last year a large quantity made from the flowers of the Hungarian daisy, mixed with a small proportion of pyrethrum, was placed upon the market by unscrupulous dealers. Inferior pow- ders are also manufactured from the stems and leaves of the plant, which possess, to a certain extent, the properties of buhach. SAWING STONE BY HELICOIDAL WIRE CORD. A NEw plan of cutting stone by means of wire cord has been adopted in many European quarries. While retaining sand as the cutting agent, M. Panlin Gay, of Marseilles, has succeeded in ap- plying it by mechanical means, and as continuously as the sand blast and band-saw, with both of which appliances his system — that of the “ helicoidal wire cord ” — has considerable analogy. An engine puts in motion a continuous wire cord (varying from five to seven thirty-seconds of an inch in diameter, according to the work), composed of three mild steel wires twisted at a certain pitch, that found to give the best results in practice, at a speed of from fifteen to seventeen feet per second, the higher speed being adopted for the.smaller diameter. Instead of the stone being brought to the saw, the wire cord, which may be of indefinite length, is led to the stone, being guided by grooved pulleys, mounted on bearings with universal joint, which permits of their adapting themselves to any change of direc- tion. The same cord, which is kept at uniform tension by a weighted truck on an inclined plane, may act upon any number of ' blocks, provided sufficient space be given between them to allow for cooling. The pulleys are mounted in standards, and are fed down by end- less screws rotated automatically if the stone be uniform, but preferably by hand if there is reason to suspect irregularities in its texture. Sand and water is allowed to flow freely into the cuts, the sand carried along by the cord in the spiral interstices between the wires causing a uniform attrition of the stone. The twist of the cord causes it, while travelling, to turn upon itself, and thus be- come worn evenly. A cord of 150 yards in length will cut about seventy feet deep in blocks fifteen feet long, or produce four hun- dred and ninety square feet of sawn surface before being worn out. The sand must be sharp, and not used more than three times. The nature of the sand is determined by the hardness of the stone; thus, quartz sand will cut granite and porphyry, which it has hith- erto been found impossible to saw, or indeed cut in any other way than by pick or chisel. An hourly advance of one inch in gran- ite or porphyry and four inches in marble, is regularly obtained in blocks of fifteen or sixteen feet long. At the Brussels Exhibition of last year, where the system was awarded a prize, the same cord which cut marble also cut a block of concrete composed of quartz pebbles. Not merely does the helicoidal cord saw blocks of stone, but it even cuts them out of the solid rock in the quarry. To do this, it is necessary to sink shafts of two or two and a half feet in diame- ter, in order to introduce the pulley-carriers. If there is a free side to start from one shaft is sufficient for a triangular block; but for a quadrangular one, which is preferable, two shafts are necessary. They are bored by a mechanical perforator, consisting of a hollow plate-iron cylinder, having at its lower end a slightly thicker collar which acts with sand and water in its latest development. The cylinder is made to revolve, at a speed of one hundred and forty revolutions a minute, by means of a tele-dynamic cable, advancing about an inch per hour in marble. An annular space is cut in the rock, leaving a core, which may be utilized asa column. The di- ameter of the shaftway depends upon the diameter of columns most in demand, provided a sufficient number be sunk, and the in- tervening angles broken down, so as to afford sufficient room for the pulley carrier. In the case of stratified rocks, the shaft-cuts are carried down to a natural parting ; but in unstratified rocks a nearly horizontal cut may be made with the cord, sufficient inclination being given to insure the flow of sand and water to the bottom of the cut. Such is the method of working practised at the Traigneaux 128 Quarry, near Philippeville, in Belgium, where fifteen thousand cu- bic feet of marble are extracted yearly with a thirty horse-power éngine, and only thirty hands in summer and twenty in winter, be- sides the lads who tend the wire-cords. The system is also em- ployed at granite and marble quarries in France, Germany, Spain, Italy, Algeria, Tunis, and other countries, where it is said to be giving satisfactory and economical results. i SEWAGE PURIFICATION. A NEw process for the purification of sewage, under patents granted to the firm of Jagger, Son, & Turley, of Halifax, England, was recently experimented with at the corporation sewage works of that city. The apparatus employed is described as follows. A carbon filtering medium is obtained by reducing to a carbonized state dry ashpit refuse which contains a large proportion of animal and vegetable matter. The refuse is placed in a carbonizer, where it is allowed to remain until the whole mass is charred by a pro- cess of slow combustion. After the carbonized material is with- drawn from the carbonizer, it is sifted by means of a circular rid- dle; and the cinders and a small percentage of clinkers are laid on one side for use in forming the bottom layers of the filters. The finer grades given out by the riddle, composed principally of char- coal and a small percentage of ashes, are placed as an upper layer of a shallow filter bed, about four inches in thickness. A small carbonizer has been erected at Halifax, and a filter of 102 superficial yards laid down. The filter is two and a half feet deep, it has a six-inch concrete bottom, and brickwork sides joined in cement. The filter is divided by a fourteen-inch wall, underneath which is laid a channel for conveying away the effluent. The bot- tom course of brickwork of the central wall is open jointed to al- low the effluent to pass from the layers of cinders to the channel. The filter bed is formed as follows. At the bottom is placed a six- inch layer of rough material, which may be clinker or broken bricks or stone. Above this layer is placed another composed of one-inch cinders laid three inches thick; then follows a layer three inches thick of quarter-inch cinders, and finally a layer of carbon four inches thick, giving a total thickness of sixteen inches. The filter is worked with a six-inch head of sewage. The sewage is con- ducted to the filter by a six-inch pipe, having branches, the pipe being laid on the top of the central wall. Under each branch is placed a floating splash-board, which prevents the sewage washing a hole through the filtering material. The sewage flows over and through the carbon. The effluent is clear, inodorous, and color- less, and has been proved by analysis to be very pure. The or- ganic matter in suspension was 417.2 grains per gallon in sewage, and 1.12 grains per gallon in effluent. The albumenoid ammonia in solution was also reduced from 0.280 grains per gallon in sew- age to 0.007 grains per gallon effluent. The manner of dealing with the sewage is as follows. Across the, outfall sewer are placed a series of wire-work baskets filled with cinders of different grades, to arrest the grosser floating solids. The sewage then flows to the filter-bed, where the purification of the sewage is accomplished. No chemicals whatever are used. The filter-beds will work at a rate of from 240 to 300 gallons per - superficial yard per day, according to the density of sewage treated. An acre of filtering surface will be ample for dealing with the sew- age from 30,000 persons, or say, 1,000,000 gallons per day. The land required for this process is only one two-hundredth part of that required for broad irrigation, or one-fortieth that required for combined precipitation and filtration. The capital cost for this process will be about $340 per thousand inhabitants up to a popu- lation of fifty thousand, and the annual working expenses for col- lecting and disposing of refuse and purifying sewage, inclusive of interest on capital and royalty fees, about sixteen cents per head of population. This process solves the sludge difficulty. No chemicals being used, no weight is added to the solids in the sewage; the grosser solids are arrested in the cinder baskets, and the finer solids are deposited on the top of the filters in the form of a thin skin After a filter has worked for twenty-four hours, the flow.into that particular filter is stopped, the moisture allowed to drain off, and the deposit removed by a scum plow, a little fresh carbon is laid, SCIENCE. [ Vor, XSI VES Nionia/¢2 and the filter is then again ready for work. By a simple mechani- cal contrivance, a filter of one hundred yards can be cleansed and re-charged in ten minutes. The average weight of sludge made per million gallons of sewage treated by chemicals is twenty tons. In place of a semi-fluid, offensive sludge, by this carbonized refuse process, there remains a manure uninjured by chemicals, which can be carted away as it is removed from the filters, and which will equal in bulk seven and a half tons per million gallons treated. HEALTH MATTERS. - Leprosy. AT a recent meeting of the Epidemiological Society of London a paper was read by Dr. P. S. Abraham, on leprosy, of which the Lancet gives the following abstract. With the exception of the case recently brought forward in Dublin, no British society has lately had the subject under consideration. Its importance in British medicine is, nevertheless, well indicated by the fact that the Royal College of Physicians of London has its “leprosy com- mittee,” which, in view of the fact that there is increasing evidence respecting the communicability of leprosy, has just recommended a full and searching scientific investigation into the whole matter. Dr. Abraham demonstrated on a map the wide prevalence of the disease, especially in the British Empire, and remarked that it is no wonder that the subject is coming to the front. He hoped that the inquiry urged by the College of Physicians would be sanctioned by the government, not only to set at rest, if possible, doubtful points regarding the causation of the disease and the desirability of preventive measures, but also to allay a possible emotional scare on the part of the British public. From the insufficiency of data it is difficult to say accurately whether leprosy be really increasing or decreasing in many of the British colonies. In many cases we have to rely chiefly upon general impressions. Even the death re- turns cannot be depended upon always, for they are frequently, as in Jamaica, uncertified by qualified practitioners; and we must remember the natural and universal tendency on the part of the sufferers and their friends to conceal their affliction. The belief in the increasing spread of leprosy at the Cape of Good Hope was so strong that a leprosy repression act was passed in 1884. From the numerous medical reports which Dr. Abraham quoted there cag be little doubt that the disease is really on the increase in South Africa. It probably is spreading, but in a less marked manner, in the West Indies ; and on the whole, in India, especially in certain districts. The articles which are now appearing in the Anglo-Indian press indicate that the public mind is. becoming somewhat inflamed over the matter ; and that there is some cause may be inferred from the large amount of official attention which has been for some time past directed in India to the matter. Dr. Abraham quoted the late resolution (September, 1888) of the Indian government, stating that a measure of rigorous segregation would be repugnant to public opinion, and recommending for the present the grant of medicine and charitable relief in voluntary hospitals and asylums. A short history of leprosy in Hawaii was then given, the latest information having only just come to hand. He pointed out that, in spite of the efforts at isolation, the disease had enormously increased since 1865. The author gave an account of his visit last year to the Norwegian leper asylums, and gave particulars relating to the treatment of the patients, and the views with which he was favored by Drs. Danielssen, Nickoll, Kaurin, and Daud, who were in charge of the asylums at Bergen, Molde, and Trondhjem. He showed curves indicating the relations between the gradual decrease of the disease throughout the country and the number of patients in the hospitals. With regard to leprosy in Great Britain and Ireland, he referred to cases he had recently seen in London. Through the kindness. of Mr. Larder he was able to exhibit to the Society two fairly typical examples of the chief varieties of the disease, one the “nodular dermal form,” and the other the so-called ‘“ anzsthetic ” form. The latter case was that of a man sixty-four years old, a meat salesman, of English parentage, and born in London. When young he had been a sailor in the Mediterranean and in the Baltic, but had not been out of London for upwards of forty years. Until - Aucust 23, 1889. | six years ago he had always enjoyed the best possible health. The author did not admit that this was a case of de zovo development, though the period of incubation was extraordinarily long. The germ must have been dormant, like the “mummy” wheat, for neaily forty years. After referring to the present unsatisfactory nomenclature of varieties, and to the army and navy records of the disease, he, in conclusion, summed up, and, had time allowed, would have ad- duced arguments in support of the theories that leprosy is caused by the bacillus, that the disease is communicable from person to person, and that segregation is justifiable. Microscopic specimens, prepared by the author, were exhibited, showing the dacz//us lepre scraped from the tongue and mouth of a patient, and sections of dermal nodules, anesthetic skin, nerves, etc. Many of the refer- ences were from hitherto unpublished sources, both private and official. ; Death from Electricity. A DEATH recently occurred at Brighton, England, from the ac- cidental contact of the conducting wire of the electric lighting ap- paratus with the neck of one of the employees at a brewery. The deceased was “found dead” in the neighborhood of the fatal elec- trical conductor, and a report in a local newspaper states that a post-mortem examination revealed perfectly healthy organs, the only abnormality in this case being ‘“‘a mark half-way round the neck as if grazed by the wire.’ With the extension of electric lighting, says the Zazce?, occasional fatalities of this kind are to be expected, and the number of deaths from this cause has already been considerable. In the case recently reported there was, it is to be observed, a slight mark upon the body, and in a case which occurred in 1884 a blister was found upon one of the fingers of the deceased with which contact had been accidentally made by the machine. In other cases there has been no mark whatever, so that we may conclude that the pathological evidence of the cause of death in such cases is almost 7z7. It seems to us of the greatest importance that these accidents should be carefully studied, and it would almost seem to be the duty of the local government board to send a trained pathologist to attend the post-mortem examina- tion of every case which occurs, in order that a careful comparison might be established between the cases, and any points which they might present in common be duly noted. This could only be done by one having considerable accumulated experience, and such ex- perience could only come to one having such opportunities as an official position would give. The matter is of very great importance, because a cause of death which is, so to say, gradually becoming omnipresent, and which leaves no mark, is tolerably sure to be made use of for criminal purposes, and if there be any certain means of establishing how death took place, a knowledge of this would be the only means of checking the misdeeds of persons with criminal intentions. It generally has happened hitherto that the surrounding circumstances have left no doubt as to the cause of death, but it is not reasonable to suppose that such would always be the case, and if it suited the crafty schemes of a criminal it might very easily be contrived otherwise. In short, there is no doubt that we ought to use every endeavor to increase our exact knowledge of this cause of death, and we can only hope that post-mortem examinations will be care- fully made in all cases which occur, and that practitioners will re- gard it as a duty which they owe to the profession and the public to place upon record the results of such examinations. CANCER. — A small commune in Normandy, Saint Sylvestre-de- Courcelles, with a present population of only 379, as compared with 500, twenty years ago, has in the eight years 1880 to 1887 lost no fewer than eleven of its inhabitants, between the ages of sixty-two and eighty-three, from cancer, —a proportion of 15 per cent of the total mortality. All but one of the cases were males, and in as many as eight the cancer was seated in the stomach. Such facts have led Dr. Arnaudet, according to LZ’ Unzon Medicale, to con- clude that cancer is contagious, and is propagated through the medium of water. It is true, he remarks, that not one of the eleven persons mentioned were water drinkers, but then they drank cider, which is made with the pond water of the district. Dr. Ar- naudet thinks this sufficient ground to advocate the use of antisep- “SCIENCE: 129 tics and of boiled water as prophylactics against cancer, as well as against typhoid fever or phthisis. TYPHUS BACILLI IN WATER. — Several cases of typhoid have recently occurred in a town in the province of Baden, Germany, and it came to light that three of the patients first affected procured their drinking water from the same well. The water was then examined, the strictest precautions being used to prevent infection from other sources. In three days the cultures were found to have developed on an average one hundred and forty thousand colonies to the cubic centimetre. Ten tests had been made, but only in one of these was there found a single colony of typhoid bacilli. NOTES AND NEWS. IT is officially announced that a general national exhibition of agriculture and sylviculture will be held at Vienna, next year, from the 15th of May to the 15th of October. The exhibition is to in- clude the following international sections : (1) machinery and im- plements used in agriculture, sylviculture, and the industries cog- nate to them, such as horticulture, viticulture, hop-growing, bees, silk, fishing, and hunting ; (2) artificial and auxiliary branches of agriculture, such as artificial manures, remedies for sick animals, etc.; (3) models, plans, designs, and statistical information respect- ing agriculture and forestry ; (4) inventions dealing with the utili- zation of waste material; (5) information and suggestions respect- ing the food supply of large cities. — The fifty-ninth annual meeting of the British Association will be held at Newcastle-on-Tyne, beginning on Sept. 11 and 12; and ‘the Durham, Northumberland, and Newcastle Botanical and Hor- ticultural Society has arranged to hold its autumn meeting and exhibition at the same time and place. The local committee have spared no efforts to make the arrangements for the meeting as complete as possible, and their labors have been greatly lightened by the fact that many fine buildings suitable for the purposes of the association have been erected since it held its last meeting at that place in 1863. The reception-rooms, occupying a central po- sition with respect to the various section rooms, will be located in the new buildings of the University of Durham College of Medi- cine, in which building a writing-room and ladies’ drawing-room will be provided, and special rooms for the use of the officers of the association. The Cambridge Drill Hall, near the reception-room, is to be fitted up for a luncheon-room. Sections A and B will meet in the new buildings of the College of Science, opened in November last; and in the chemical laboratory of this college it is intended to bring together a series of exhibits illustrating the chemical and allied manufa@fures of the district. The general meetings of the Association will beheld in St. George’s Drill Hall. The Natural History Museum, opened in 1884, in which building is Mr. Hancock's unique collection of British birds, will be used for the two sozrées, the first to be given by the mayor and corporation, and the second by the local committee. A guide-book, arranged in three sections, has been prepared for the occasion, dealing re- spectively with the history and topography, the geology and natural history, and the industries of the district. — The Royal Society of New South Wales offers its medal and a prize of £25 for the best communication (provided it be of suffi- cient merit) containing the results of original research or observa- tion upon each of the following subjects, to be sent in not later than May 1, 1889: “Chemistry of the Australian Gums and Resins;” “Aborigines of Australia; ‘“ Iron Ore Deposits of New South Wales;”’ “ List of the Marine Fauna of Port Jackson, with Descriptive Notes as to Habits, Distribution, etc.” The same offer is made for the best communications on the following subjects, to be sent in not later than May 1, 1899, “ Influence of the Austra- lian Climate (general and local) in the Development and Modifica- tion of Disease ;” “ Silver Ore Deposits of New South Wales;” “ Occurrence of Precious Stones in New South Wales, with a De- scription of the Deposits in which they are found;’’ also on the following, to be sent in not later than May 1, 1891, “‘ Meteorology of Australia, New Zealand, and Tasmania;” ‘‘ Anatomy and Life History of the Echidna and Platypus ;” ‘‘ Microscopic Structure of Australian Rocks.’ The competition is in no way confined to 139 members of the society, nor to residents in Australia, but is open to all without any restriction whatever, excepting that a prize will not be awarded toa member of the council for the time being; neither will an award be made for a mere compilation, however meritorious in its way. The communication, to be successful, must be either wholly or in part the result of original observation or research on the part of the contributor. The society is fully sensible that the money value of the prize will not repay an investi- gator for the expenditure of his time and labor, but it is hoped that the honor will be regarded as a sufficient inducement and reward. The successful papers will be published in the society’s annual volume, and fifty reprint copies will be furnished to the author free of expense. Competitors are requested to write upon foolscap paper — on one side only. A motto must be used instead of the writer's name, and each paper must be accompanied by a sealed envelope bearing the motto outside and containing the writer’s name and address inside. All communications are to be addressed to the honorary secretaries, A. Liversidge, and F. B. Kyngdon. — The English Consul at St. Petersburg says that naphtha re- siduum is being more and more employed as fuel in Russia. All the steamers of the Caspian Sea, and many of those plying on the Volga, have for some time past used it as fuel. At, the present time manufactories and railways are adopting it in the place of wood and coal. It is also being utilized for domestic purposes in stoves of special construction, ingenious specimens of which were exhibited last year at the St. Petersburg Naphtha Products Exhibi- tion. By the employment of this new combustible a considerable saving is effected under the head of fuel. Some large manufactories in Moscow and its immediate neighborhood employ naphtha resi- due in their furnaces, because, in addition to its great cheapness, it possesses the advantage of occupying less space than wood or coal for storage. It is kept underground in large cisterns communi- cating by pipes with the furnaces, and owing to this method of storage it is also less exposed to danger from fire. It is established that the cost of naphtha dregs as fuel is about 35 per cent less than that of wood and coal, and this, too, at Moscow, which is 1,500 miles distant from the source of supply at Baku, whence naphtha dregs are conveyed by water to Nijni Novgorod, and be- yond by rail to Moscow. Several manufacturers of the province of Vladimir have also adopted the new combustible, and the railway lines existing in the Tambovand Riazan provinces are on the point of doing the same. During 1888, 867,857 tons of naphtha residue were transported from Baku up the Volga, for use in the interior provinces and in those bordering the Volga. It is expected that in 1889 the supply will exceed 1,125,000 tons. In the northern zone of the empire, wood will, it is statedhold its own as fuel for some time to come. It is specially in the central, south-eastern, and eastern provinces of Russia that the employment of naphtha re- siduum as a substitute for both wood and coal promises to attain great proportions. — At the Yale Observatory, during the summer months of 1888, Dr. Elkin completed the measures with the heliometer for the triangulation of the region near the north pole. The reductions of these measures are well advanced. In October they commenced the series of observations on the minor planet Iris in conjunction with the observatories at the Cape and at Leipzig. The autumn months were unfortunately by no means as favorable as usual, and they only secured measures on thirty-four of the sixty-five planned nights. They undertook at the same time a further series for the diurnal parallax of the planet. They are now commencing a similar series on the planet Victoria, to continue through until September; and a third series on Sappho is to occupy them in September and October. As, in addition to the heliometers used for Iris, those at Bamberg and Géottingen will probably co-operate this year, the three series together will doubtless furnish a very ac- curate value of the solar parallax. The heliometer has also been employed in some supplementary series on the parallaxes of the northern brighter stars, Mr. Hall having taken up Procyon and @ Aquilz, and Dr. Elkin, Vega and @ Leonis. During the winter, Mr. Hall completed the reductions of his work on the orbit of Titan, the results of which are in very satisfactory agreement with those of Bessel and Hermann Struve. The value found for the SCAN GE: (VoL. XIV. No. 342 mass of Saturn is 1 : 3500.5 of the solar mass, Bessel’s revised value being 1: 3502.5, and Struve’s 1:3498. Dr. Elkin spent the winter months in the West, observing the total solar eclipse of Jan. 1, 1889, at Winnemucca, Nev., under very favorable circumstances. He used the finder of the heliometer for a general view of the coro- na, and, with the low power and large field of about 4°, could trace the equatorial streamers to a distance of about 100’ on either side from the limb. He devoted a part of the time near the begin- ning and end of totality to a careful scrutiny of a small portion of the outer rays of the corona with a view of detecting any possible rapid changes in the same; but during the 90 seconds of observa- tion, and in the portion he looked at, nothing of this nature oc- curred. — In his annual report on education in Hong Kong, Dr. Eitel, the government inspector of schools, says, according to ature, that the total number of educational institutions of all descriptions known to have been at work in the colony of Hong Kong during the year 1888 amounts to 206 schools, with a grand total of 8,717 scholars. More than three-fourths of the whole number of scholars — that is to say, 6,728 — attended schools (99 in number) which are subject to government supervision, and either established or aided by government in some form or other. The remainder — viz., 107 schools, with 1,989 scholars —are private institutions en- tirely independent of government supervision, and receiving no aid from public funds, except that they are exempt from payment of rates and taxes. —M. Taupin, who was recently despatched by the Governor- General of French Indo-China to the Laos States on an explora- tion, thus sums up the results of his labors :—“ I have studied the language and system of writing of the Laos —that is, of the only population in the world possessing a graphic-alphabetical system. Of this there has been up to the present no positive knowledge. It was only known that the Laotian language and writing were some- what similar to those of Siam. The language is spoken by about four millions of people. I have collected interesting information relating to the natural history ‘of these regions, and much com- mercial information. .. . I have made numerous meteorological observations, and taken a large number of anthropometrical meas- urements according to the Broca system.” — Ata recent meeting of the Genevan Society of Physics and Natural History, says Vature, M. Mallet exhibited two balls of almost perfect sphericity, about four inches in diameter, one black, and of vegetable origin, the other white, and of mineral origin, but both produced by a mechanical movement. The black ball had been found with another in a piece of oak which had long served as the shaft of a mill-wheel. A cavity having formed in the wood, through disease or the work of some insect, the dust of the wood, with acquired moisture, had been rolled into this spherical form, growing in size, like a snowball (a slow process of many years probably, as the wheel was very old). The white ball, a calcareous pebble, was found with many others in a grotto trav- ersed by a torrent which flowed into the Rhone. — The twelfth annual meeting of the American Society of Microscopists met at Buffalo, N.Y., on Aug 20, in the Library building. On the opening day, Hon. Davis F. Day, President of the Buffalo Society of Natural Sciences, delivered the opening ad- dress, which was followed by a brief address by President Lewis of the Microscopists. The morning session concluded with a paper on “A Microscope Stand,” by Professor P. J. Burrill. The afternoon’s session consisted of routine business and the reading of papers by Professor W. A. Rogers, “On a New Method of De- termining Temperature from the Readings of Mercurial Ther- mometers;” by Professor S. A. and Mrs. Susannah Gage on “Staining and Permanent Preservation of Histological Elements. Isolated by Means of Nitric Acid or Caustic Potash;” by Dr. Lucien Howe, on “ Microscopic Growths on the Normal and Dis- eased Eye;” by Professor D. S. Kellicott, on *‘ A New Rotiferion ;” and by Professor W. A. Rogers, on “A Practical Method of Se- curing Copies of the Standard Centimeter Designated Scale A.” The society’s annual exhibition was held on Thursday evening. A AvuGusT 23, 1880. | — Count Joseph Florimond Loubat of New York has given to the Academy of Sciences of Berlin $5,500, as a fund the income of which is to be given in prizes every five years. Count Loubat has given the academy also money to be expended on a first set of prizes in. 1891. The special object of this gift is to encourage an- thropological studies of matters pertaining to North America. For the prize of $750, to be awarded in July, 1891, articles published between July 1, 1884, and July 1, 1889, will be accepted for com- petition, provided they are sent to the Academy before July 1, 1890. The subject for this first prize will be the colonization of America by Europeans up to the present day. — Elias Loomis, Professor of Natural Philosophy and Astron- omy at Yale, died at New Haven, Aug. 15, 1889, of Bright’s dis- ease. He was born at Wilmington, Conn., Aug. 7, 1811. His education began at a tender age, and at the age of nineteen he graduated from Yale. Three years later he was appointed a tutor at that college, a post he retained for three years. A year was then spent in Paris, after which Loomis was elected to a profes- sorship of mathematics and physics in Western Reserve College in . Ohio. In 1844 he accepted a similar position in the University of the City of New York; and it was during his incumbency of this chair that Professor Loomis wrote the many text-books on’ mathe- matics, astronomy, natural philosophy, and meteorology that have made his name so well known, An extraordinary success attended this series, the total circulation coming to more than 500,000 copies. Some of these books were used abroad, and translations were made into even Chinese and Arabic. In 1860 Professor Loomis returned to Yale, where he remained till his death, devoting much time to his contributions to meteorology aside from his work as a teacher. — The Delegates of the Clarendon Press have the following works ready for early publication: an edition, with notes for stu- dents, of Tertullian’s ““ Apology,” by Mr. T. H. Bindley of Merton College; “Selections from Burns,” by Mr. J. Logie Robertson (uniform with “ Selections from Clarendon,” just published) ; Mr. Oliver Aplin’s “ Birds of Oxfordshire.” In mathematics they will issue shortly the second volume treating of Electro-Dynamics of Messrs. Watson and Burbury’s “ Mathematical Theory of Electri- city and Magnetism,” and a new edition of the fourth volume on the dynamics of material systems (which has long been out of print) of Professor Bartholomew Price’s ‘‘ Treatise on Infinitesimal Cal- culus.” — The Washington Life Insurance Company reports a decided tendency to increase of suicides in recent years. Shooting is the means selected in about one-half the cases. It is more frequent among the young than among the old, and on this account the company’s @ ~rzorz expectation had been in the direction of a de- crease in this cause. This expectation has been balked, and the writer of the report goes so far as to say that the increase in recent years has not been purely a matter of accident, and that the deci- sions of the courts have not been such as to discourage suicide among the insured. — According to the London Electrical Review Dr. J. A. Fleming has designed an incandescent lamp slide-rule, by which any of the ° calculations with regard to lamps may be performed with readi- ness. Thus if we have given the current, the terminal volts, and the candle-power, the scale shows the watts per candle; or given the watts per candle-power, and the candle-power, we can find the current corresponding to any voltage ; or from the volts and cur- rent we can read off the hot resistance ; and finally, when we know the volts and current when the lamp is burning at normal brilliancy, the rule shows the approximate candle-power. We imagine that electric light engineers and their assistants will find this little de- vice, which is issued by the Edison-Swan Company, very handy. — The agents of the California State Board of Horticulture, says Garden and Forest, are now raising the Australian ladybird in such numbers that colonies are furnished to all applicants whose trees are infested with the cottony cushion scale. These imported insects have proved effective destroyers of the scale, and there seems to be a reasonable ground for hope that this most serious enemy of the orange, the lemon, and other trees of that family can now be held in check. SCIENCE. 131 — Birds of the crow-tribe, especially the raven, the carrion-crow, the hoodie, and the magpie, are in ill-repute in England for stealing eggs, and, when opportunity serves, for murdering chickens, duck- lings, etc., but in the north of Norway these depredators are much bolder. They will even attempt to carry away the eggs and the young brood of the eider-duck, and too often succeed in their foray ; but if the drake is near at hand, they are frequently defeated. He siezes the crow by the wing or neck and plunges down with him into the sea.. Being a good diver he feels no inconvenience, whilst the carrion-crow, however brave and strong in the air, is helpless in the water, and the end of the struggle is soon shown by his life- less body floating on the surface. Sometimes even the raven is disposed of in the same manner. It is a curious fact that young sea-fowl, when swimming or diving in waters which literally swarm with cod, halibut, and other greedy and hungry fishes, are not often snapped up and swallowed. Yet veteran lobster fishermen, no small part of whose life has been spent in disembowelling such fishes, declare that they never find a young bird in the stomach of their prey. — In commenting on the behavior of the machinery of the Brit- sh war-ships during the recent naval display at Spithead, Exgz- neering says that such a complication of machinery crowded into so small a space can only be run with success at the high duty demanded in war-ships by means of the most skilled attention. Want of room adds immensely to the difficulty of attending to machinery, and it is only by men being thoroughly conversant with all the ways of a ship that they can hope to keep things in good going order. We have nothing but admiration for the officers and men of the engineering branch of the navy, nevertheless there was perhaps not a single ship in all the vast fleet collected last week at Spithead which had a fairly competent engine-room staff. The reason is that the complements in many cases were not filled up, and even if they were filled up, the men are too new to the ships to know their way about. We can quite understand the fervour with which the chief engineer of one our leading armour-clads ex- claimed, ‘‘ Thank God they are feace manceuvres and not war ma- noeuvres!”” This war vessel was one-third short of her proper com- plement of artificers, and only the chief amongst the officers knew his way properly about the engine-room, and that was quite an ac- cident. — The trustees of the Hoagland Laboratory make the following announcement. Dr. George M. Sternberg, U.S.A., will continue as general director of the laboratory ; George T. Kemp, Ph.D., Johns Hopkins University, will be associate director of the depart- ments of physiology and experimental therapeutics; and Dr. B. Meade Bolton has been appointed director of the department of bacteriology, assuming charge of that department in September. — At a meeting of the Russian Mineralogical Society, K. D. Chrustschoff, it is said, demonstrated the existence of a new metal which he has just discovered and named “russium.” The metal approximates closely in its properties to thorium, and its existence was predicted by Mendeléeff. —Ina letter to Sczence Gossip, Mr. T. A. Dukes writes: “I -have always understood that a thunder-clap was a necessary result of the electrical discharge which caused a lightning flash, but last night, while watching those splendid natural fireworks —a thunder- storm — I thought there seemed to be many more flashes than thunder-claps. So, at the height of the storm, as indicated by the loudness of the thunder, and the position of the lightning nearly overhead, I began to count them, and while there were thirty-nine flashes there were only fourteen claps. Still unconvinced, I, with a pencil and paper, recorded each as it occurred — fifty-five flashes to nineteen claps; and again, during five minutes, there were fifty- six flashes to twenty-three claps, and yet I tried to favor the thunder. It was not the distant ‘summer’ lightning, but ‘forked ’ lightning, some flashes consisting of as many as 4,075 simultaneous zigzag cracks in heaven; indeed it seemed to be steadily lightning all the while, yet the thunderings, though loud, were not prolonged. I would be obliged if some one would explain this, or show#me my error. Many of the flashes were behind some clouds, for they lighted up their background and left them in relief; could it be that these clouds reflected the sound so that it did not reach me?” 132 SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY ING IDS. Co Isl © IDE Is Se 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, New YorK. SupscripTions.—United States and Canada............--.+-.-- $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe..........-.....0.--- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): r subscription 1 year,.......- FAQoUsnSeconousasa0000 $ 3.50 2 te 6.00 3 GO 8.00 4 * 10.00 Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the nam& and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, AvucusT 23, 1889. No. 342. CONTENTS: Aron’s Evectric METER..........- 123 | ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTU- RAL EXPERIMENT STATIONS..... RAILROADS IN THE UNITED STATES 124 132 | BubAeH rp Tue New BuiLpiIncs OF THE Sor- BONNE WEARISHescieisfos aneeicenicciee 133 SawinG STONE By Wire CorpD...... 127 | |THE Marine CONFERENCE AT SEWaGE PURIFICATION... . ....-- 128 WASHINGTON ..2 Jeunes asen fees 133 HEALTH Matters. | Boox-Reviews. } LAF SRI Voong sonndooo psc aeadaoun oes 128 Thernfodynamics of the Steam En- ’ , Death from Electricity............ 129 BiNEe905 0590 3505 banmoHo[900 SH a0b HE (CE aoe a ead te SITTISRIAES Scio OEE AR 129 | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS......... .. 134 Typhus Bacillus in Water......... rag | LETTERS TO THE Eprror. INS UN acne pce 26 Sunset Glows Sereno E. Bishop 137 Weer i a he | ““ Suggestion ” W, 138 EDITORIAL. . 0... 0e 0s ec eeeee ee eee eee *32 | Minute Aeronauts 2. ¥. Bromley 138 ‘The World’s Fair. I) KOMI Gosndosdopodook doen coenudbs 138 OF THE PROGRESS toward the World’s Fair of 1892, we have to report this week the first meeting of the finance committee. Of the twenty-five appointed on the committee by Mayor Grant, sev- enteen responded to their names on the call of the roll. These were William L, Bull, Calvin S. Brice, August Belmont, Samuel D. Babcock, Robert Dunlap, Henry B. Hyde, John H. Inman, Freder- ick A. Kursheedt, Jay Gould, Eugene Kelly, John McKesson, Her- mann Oelrichs, William Rockefeller, Charles Stewart Smith, Wil-° liam Steinway, J. Edward Simmons, Jesse Seligman, Oswald Ottendorfer, the absentees being C. P. Huntington, H. O. Have- meyer, Morris K. Jesup, Ogden Mills, Joseph J. O’Donohue, Elliott F. Shepard, and Cornelius Vanderbilt. The last named sent a telegram expressing regret at his inability to attend the meeting, pledging his endorsement in any action taken, and promising to take a hand in the enterprise as early as possible. A motion by Mr. Bull to add the name of Mr. J. Pierpont Morgan was promptly carried. Mr. Babcock was elected chairman by a unanimous vote. He expressed the hope that the committee would be harmonious in its action, as had been,.the Plan and Scope Committee of the Cen- ‘tennial. He had been connected with that committee for eighteen months and they never had had a divided vote. The chairman ‘suggested that the first business should be the election of a treas- urer. His suggestion was promptly adopted, and J. Edward Sim- mons was chosen. The subject of permanent secretary was next SCIENCE, \ [Vote VimiNion cae discussed. Secretary Wilson of the Chamber of Commerce was named by Mr. Smith and endorsed by Mr. Simmons. Mr. Belmont thought it was not well to act hastily, and believed it was of far more importance to get an executive committee of five or seven members. This committee, he said, could name a secretary, con- sider all the plans submitted to the Mayor, and be accountable to the general finance committee. Mr. Belmont finally made a mo- tion for the immediate appointment of an executive committee of five by the chairman, and it was seconded by Mr. Bull. Mr. Smith withdrew his motion, and after some discussion the motion of Mr. Belmont was carried.. Mr. Babcock named this executive commit- tee: Messrs. Belmont, Morgan, Vanderbilt, Smith, Inman. On motion of Mr. Smith, Chairman Babcock and Treasurer Simmons were added to the committee. At the suggestion of Mr. Belmont, the chairmanship of the executive committee was transferred to Mr. Morgan. Mr. Belmont declared that his health would not permit him to do justice to the place. Mr. Smith offered the use of the Chamber of Commerce to the committee, and the place be- ing convenient, it was accepted with thanks. jo urned until rr A.M. Wednesday at the Chamber of Commerce. At the last meeting of the American Institute of Electrical En- gineers it was decided to appoint a committee of fifteen to form a plan of organization for an international electrical convention to be held in this city coincident with the World’s Fair of 1892. Secre- tary R. W. Pope was instructed to inform President Mascart of the electrical conference at Paris of this action, and to suggest that the unfinished work of the,present conference be taken up at the pro- posed conference of 1892. The following were elected delegates to represent the institute at the Paris conference now in session : Thomas A. Edison, E. Wilbur Rice, jr., Carl Hering, Joseph Wetzler, and Nikola Tesla. All of them are now in France or on the way there. President Elihu Thompson will in a few days announce his appointments on the committee of fifteen and the work of organization will then be taken up. An invitation will be extended to all the electrical organizations of the country to par- ticipate in the proposed international conference. ~ ORGANIZATION OF THE AGRICULTURAL EXPERI- MENT STATIONS. THE Office of Experiment Stations in the Departmant of Agri- culture was established Oct. 1, 1888. The Department can aid the stations in their relations to each other, in their use of the results of research, and in their connection with the agricultural public. To be first among the stations, the department should be the servant of them all. It should exercise not dictatorship, but leadership. Its influence should be powerful in bringing the sta- tions together and in co-ordinating their work; in making the fruits of other research and experience, past and prestnt, at home and abroad, available to them; in prosecuting lines of pioneer research which will in a measure relieve the stations of a difficult but neces- sary task, and enable them to apply their energies more fully and successfully to the study of the questions which bear directly upon the practice of agriculture, and will at the same time prepare the way for the abstract inquiry which earnest station workers aspire to, but which the public have not sufficiently learned to appreciate ; in collating, condensing, and distributing their results, and in help- ing to carry the practical outcome to the farmer in a form in which he will appreciate and use it. It is vitally important that the highest scientific ideal be main- tained, and every effort be made toward its realization. The future usefulness of the stations will depend upon what they discover of permanent value, and this must come largely from the most ab- stract and profound research. To forget this will be fatal. The stations must also remember that it is their office not only to ex- periment, but to teach ; that it is their duty to gather information as well from accumulated stores as from the fields in which they are working, and to bring it not ‘down to the farmer,” but home to him. By thus using their most honest and earnest effort to The committee ad- - \ AUGUST 23, 1889. ] help the farmer, they will secure from him and from the public at large the support they need for their highest work. Unquestionably the stations ought to make practical experiments in the study of the problems before them. But in the long-run, those stations will do best that plan their work most philosophi- cally, and the prosperity of the enterprise as a whole will be pro- portioned to its success in the discovering of the laws that underlie the right practice of agriculture. In brief, the ultimate success of the stations will depend upon the discovery of principles. This is accomplished only by patient, profound, costly research, no small part of which has to do with the finding-out of the best methods of investigation of special prob- lems. But while this work is essential, the stations are confronted with the necessity of doing what will directly and immediately help the farmer. The need and value of abstract research are not un- derstood. To show its usefulness and help, prepare the way for the stations to prosecute it, and at the same time do some of the things that are most immediately and pressingly needed in these directions, is one of the important ways in which the department may aid the experiment station enterprise. THE NEW BUILDINGS OF THE SORBONNE, PARIS. THE people of France have never doubted the utility and necessity of the Sorbonne. During the long and splendid history of the Sor- bonne, to quote from (Vature, they have had ample experience of the value of a great teaching body in the capital; and the result is that this is one of the institutions in which men of all parties take a common pride. a So long ago.as 1855 it was decided that new buildings for the Sorbonne should be erected, but the scheme was not really com- plete until 1881. It was then estimated that the expense would be 22,000,000 francs—a formidable enough sum, but one which caused no serious difficulty, as the city readily undertook to con- tribute half of it. The foundation was laid in 1885, and now a considerable part of the work is finished. This was opened on Aug. 5, in the presence of President Carnot, and the ceremonies on the occasion may be regarded as affording fresh evidence of the enthusiasm felt by educated Frenchmen for all that represents and tends to develop the highest intellectual life of the nation. Every university had been asked to send delegates elected by the students to the celebration ; and the State, and the city of Paris, agreed to look upon them as their guests during the ten days of festivity in honor of science. This part of the programme was well car- ried out, arrangements having been made with different hotels to board and lodge the foreign visitors at the expense of the Hotel de Ville and the Ministry of Public Instruction. Russia and Gersnany did not accept invitations, but the universities of Great Britain, of the Scandinavian countries, of Belgium, Holland, Greece, Switzer- land, Italy, Spain, and the United States were represented. There were about 7oo delegates from these countries, besides a large number who went at their own expense. The exercises began on Sunday evening with a gala performance of “Faust” at the Opera House, which the President attended. On Monday the 5th, 3,000 persons assembled in the new amphi- theatre, an immense hall adorned with frescoes. Each delegation had a standard-bearer carrying the flag of his nation, and the members of the various groups were warmly greeted by the public as they advanced to the places appointed for them. At 3 o'clock President Carnot arrived, and took his seat on the platform, sur- rounded by ambassadors, statesmen, and academicians. M. Ferry, as the minister who made the arrangements for the enlargement, was much cheered. M. Gréard, rector of the Academy, made the first speech. He sketched the history of the Paris University, extolled the events ot 1789, and described study as a common fatherland, which had brought together delegates from nearly all the European and American universities. M. Hermite next reviewed the mathemati- eal teaching of the Sorbonne since 1808. M, Chautemps, President of the Municipality, vindicated democracy from the imputation of indifference to culture, and claimed credit for the body represented by him for having founded a chair of French revolution history and a chair of evolution. M. Fallieres, Minister of Education, dwelt on SCIENCE 133 the efforts and sacrifices of the republic for the diffusion of culture. He referred to the moribund condition of the universities on the eve of the Revolution, and the want of cohesion between the col- leges afterwards established, and eulogized the individuality now developed by the provincia! universities. THE MARINE CONFERENCE AT WASHINGTON. THE following is the programme of subjects to be considered at the International Marine Conference which will meet at Washing- ton on Oct. 16 of this year. In General Division 1 will be considered marine signals or other means of plainly indicating the direction in which vessels are mov- ing in fog, mist, falling snow, and thick weather, and at night ; also rules for the prevention of collisions and rules of the road : — 1. Visibility, number, and position of lights to be carried by ves- sels, — (a) steamers under way; (4) steamers towing; (c) vessels under way, but not under command, including steamers laying ca- ble; (¢) sailing vessels under way ; (e) sailing vessels towing; (/) vessels at anchor; () pilot vessels ; (Z) fishing vessels. 2. Sound signals, their character, number, range, and position of instruments, —(@) for use in fog, mist, falling snow, and thick weather as position signals; for steamers under way ; for steamers towing; for sailing vessels under way; for sailing vessels towing (these signals to show the approximate course steered, if possible); for vessels at anchor; for vessels under way, but not under com- mand, including steamers laying cable; (4) for use in all weathers as helm signals only ; for steamers meeting or crossing ; for steam- ers overtaking; for steamers backing; (¢) whether helm signals shall be made compulsory or remain optional. 3. Steering and sailing rules, — (a) sailing vessels meeting, cross- ing, overtaking, or being overtaken by each other; (4) steamers meeting, crossing, overtaking, or being overtake by each other; (c) sailing vessels meeting, crossing, overtaking, or being overtaken by steamers ; (@) steamers meeting, crossing, overtaking, or being overtaken by sailing vessels; (e) special rules for channels and tideways where no local rules exist; (/) conflict of international rules; (gv) uniform systems of commands to the helm; (%) speed of vessels in thick weather. In General Division 2 consideration will be given to regulations to determine the seaworthiness of vessels, — (2) construction of vessels, (4) equipment of vessels, (¢) discipline of crew, (Z) suffi- ciency of crew, (e) inspection of vessels, (/) uniform certificates of inspection; in General Division 3 attention will be paid to the * draught to which vessels should be restricted when loaded, and uniform maximum load mark; and in General Division 4 will be discussed uniform regulations regarding the designating and mark- ing of vessels, —(a@) position of name on vessels, (4) position of name of port of registry on vessels, (c) size of lettering, and (@) uniform system of draught marks. In General Division 5 saving life and property from shipwreck will be considered : — 1- Saving of life and property from shipwreck at sea, — (a) du- ties of vessels after collision; (4) apparatus for life-saving to be carried on board ship (life-boats, life-preservers, life-rafts, pumps, and fire-extinguishing apparatus); (c) the use of oil and the neces- sary apparatus for its use; (¢@) uniform inspection as to (4) and (¢). 2. Saving of life and property from shipwreck by operations from shore, —(@) organization of and methods employed by life-saving institutions ; (4) the employment of drilled and disciplined crews of life-saving institutions; (¢) the maintenance of a patrol upon dan- gerous coasts by night and during thick weather by day, for warn- ing off vessels standing in danger, and for the early discovery of wrecks ; (#7) uniform means of transmitting information between stranded vessels and the shore; (e) life-boats, life-saving apparatus, and appliances. 3. Official inquiries into causes and circumstances of shipwrecks aud other casualties. In General Division 6 will come, necessary qualifications for officers and seamen, including tests for sight and color blindness, — (qa) a uniform system of examination for the different grades; (6) uniform tests for visual power and color blindness ; (¢) general knowledge of methods employed at life-saving stations; (¢) uni- 134 form certificates of qualification ; in General Division 7, lanes for steamers on frequented routes, — (2) with regard to the avoidance of steamer collision ; (4) with regard to the safety of fishermen; in General Division 8, night signals for communicating information at sea, — (a) a code to be used in connection with the International Code Signal Book ; (4) or a supplementary code of limited scope to convey information of special importance to passing vessels; (c) distress signals ; and in General Division 9, warnings of approach- ing storms, — (a) the transmission of warnings ; (4) the uniformity of signals employed. General Division 10 will cover reporting, marking, and removing dangerous wrecks or obstructions to navigation, — (a) a uniform method of reporting and marking dangerous wrecks and derelicts ; (4) the division of the labor, cost, and responsibility among the several maritime nations, either by geographical apportionment or otherwise; of the removal of dangerous derelicts, and of searching for doubtful dangers with a view of removing them from the charts. General Division 11 will take in notices of dangers to navigation, and notices of changes in lights, buoys and other day and night marks, — (a) a uniform method of taking bearings, of designating them (whether true or magnetic), and of reporting them; (4) a uniform method of reporting, indicating, and exchanging informa- tion by the several maritime nations, to include the form of notices to mariners; (c) a uniform method of distributing this information. General Division 12 will be devoted to a uniform system of buoys and beacons, -—(a) uniformity in color of buoys; (6) uniformity in numbering of buoys; and General Division 13 to the establishment of a permanent international maritime commission, — (a) the com- position of the commission ; (4) its powers and authority. The programme, as above drawn up, is submitted over the sig- natures of Rear Admiral S. R. Franklin, U.S.N.; Commander W. P. Sampson, U.S.N.; S. T. Kimball, General Superintendent of the Life Saving Serviée ; J. W. Franklin, master marine; J. W. Shack- ford, master, merchant marine; and W. W. Goodrich, counsellor- at-law. The Hydrographic Office desires to obtain the opinions and sug- gestions of interested parties on the various subjects to be con- sidered, with a view to assisting members of the conference in formulating satisfactory rules. It is hoped, therefore, that those whose opinions are likely to have weight on any of the subjects mentioned, may give the benefit of their knowledge or experience. BOOK-REVIEWS. Thermodynamics of the Steam Engine and other Heat Engines. By CeciL H. PEABODY. New York, Wiley. 8°. $5. THE author-of this book is associate professor of steam engi- neering in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and the book is intended mainly for the use of students in that and similar technical institutions. He presents in a clear manner, and with a minimum of mathematical expression, the general theory of ther- modynamics ; and his treatment of the properties of gases and va- pors, and of the injector, presents several novel and interesting features, especially in the comparisons with experiments. More novel still, and more valuable to the student who intends to adopt steam-engineering as a profession, is the author’s treatment of the steam engine. He has considered it advisable to leave untouched all approximate theories based upon the assumption of adiabatic changes of steam in the cylinder of the engine, making instead a systematic study of actual tests of engines in use, for which pur- pose a large number of test records have been collected, arranged, and compared. This will enable the student to learn what is ac- tually known on the subject, and will point out to him the direction in which future investigations will give the best results, as well as show him how and where improvements may be made. It will be gathered from the foregoing that this book differs, in some parts, either in substance or in manner of presentation, from other text-books on the subject; but in general, commonly accepted methods have been followed. The formal presentation of*thermo- dynamics is the same as that employed by most authorities, and presents clearly the many difficulties of the subject, besides making plain the processes employed. The author gives special attention to the investigations of the SCIENCE: [Vor exe © Nowene action of steam in the cylinder of an engine, considerable space being given to the researches made by Hirn, as well as to the ex- periments which provided the basis for them. Directions and in- structions are given for the designing and construction of simple and compound engines, and also for making accurate tests of their efficiency. Chapters are given on air-compressors and refrigerating machines, which important subjects may profitably be studied in connection with the theory of thermodynamics. Though this volume; like all similar text-books, is largely an adaptation for a special educational purpose of the work of other authors and experimenters, more than a general acknowledgment of indebtedness to them would not under the circumstances be deemed necessary ; still Professor Peabody has given references in foot-notes wherever direct quotations have been made, which will aid students materially in making more extended investigations AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. D. APPLETON & CoO. call attention to the fact that “ Christianity and Agnosticism ” has gone into a second edition. — Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. announce for early publica- tion, ‘‘ Literary Landmarks: A Guide to Good Reading for Young People, and Teachers’ Assistant.” By Mary E. Burt, Teacher of Literature, Cook County Normal School, Englewood, Ill. 152 pages. Cloth, 75 cents. — The Modern Sczence Essayzst for July contains an essay on the “Evolution of Society,” by James A. Skelton. In the August number, J. Sidney Sampson discusses the *‘ Evolution of The- ology.” “ Useful Hints on Steam” is the title of a very attractive little volume of nearly a hundred pages, written and published by E. E. Roberts of 107 Liberty Street, New York. It is written in a popu- lar vein, and is intended for beginners. — Charles H. Kilborn, Boston, have just ready “ Round the World with the Poets,” selected and arranged by Mary Cate Smith and Sarah C. Winn, intended to afford a series of review exercises in the study of geography. The quotations are arranged beginning with physical features and then giving longer poems relating to particular countries, mountains, rivers, cities, etc. These are fol- lowed by an illustrative tour, giving in selections from well-known authors an interesting journey around the world. — The September number of Harfer’s Magazzne will contain two articles by Theodore Child, one describing the American fine art exhibition at the Paris Exposition, which Mr. Child does not ~ hesitate to say is one of the strongest and most interesting of all the foreign departments, and the other giving features of Moscow life that escape the eye of ordinary travellers. In the same number Edmond de Pressensé gives an outline of the religious mhovement of the present day in France; “London Mock Parliaments,” by John Lillie, illustrated by Harry Furness; the distinguished cari- caturist, Caran d’Ache, will have a series of sketches of dogs in the “ Editors Drawer ;”’ and Lynde Palmer contributes a story about electricity called “The Pendragon Trial.” — The next volume in the Badminton Library to be published in the autumn, is “Féncing, Boxing, and Wrestling,” written by Messrs. Walter H. Pollock, F. C. Grove, Walter Armstrong, E. B. Mitchell, and M. Prévost. This will be followed later by “ Golf,” to which Mr. Horace Hutchinson, Mr. A. J. Balfour, and Sir Wil- liam Simpson (among others) will contribute. —In the September Scrzbmer’s Lieut. W. W. Kimball, U.S.N., United States Inspector of Ordnance, will describe the various types of magazine rifles which have been adopted by the leading European armies, including the Mannlicher, Hotchkiss, Lee, Mau- ser, and Vetterli. A number of illustrations will show the con- trivances by which the cartridges are fed to the rifle. Andrew Lang will write of Alexandre Dumas. Harold Frederic will begin a new serial romance of the Mohawk Valley in the days of the French and Indian wars and the Revolution. H. G..Prout’s article on “Safety in Railway Travel,” is the twelfth and last in the very successful railroad series: It is announced that these articles, with AUGUST 23, 18809. | many additions to the text and illustrations, will be collected in a very handsome volume, to be published by Charles Scribner’s Sons early in the fall. — George H. Ellis, Boston, will publish shortly a book of social essays entitled “ Problems in American Society,” by Joseph Henry Crooker, the author of “Jesus Brought Back.” The book will deal with the problems of charity, temperance, political conscience, moral and religious instruction in public schools, and also the prob- lem of solving the question at issue between the Catholic Church and the secular schools. i —G. P. Putnam’s Sons have published “Great Words from Great Americans,” a neatly gotton up little book giving the Dec- laration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, Washington’s and Lincoln's inaugural and farewell addresses, etc.; and ‘Seven Thousand Words Often Mispronounced,” by William Epp Phyfe, — W. W. Pasko, 19 Park Place, New York, has issued the first number of O/d New York, a journal relating to the history and antiquities of New York City. Mr. Pasko is also the editor. The periodical is intended to cover the entire range of events ‘from the discovery of the river and bay down to a period within the recollec- tion of middle-aged persons.” It will be published in monthly numbers containing sixty-four pages each. The editor invites the co-operation of all those interested and will be glad to be furnished with material. ‘‘ Nothing will be inserted for sensation ; truth, and truth alone, will be his purpose.” —A remarkable chapter of Napoleonic history will appear in the September Cenz/ury, consisting of letters and journals of British officers describing Napoleon’s voyage to Elba, also to St. Helena. The first part of the article is a letter written by Captain Ussher, who commanded the ‘‘ Undaunted,” which took the exile to Elba; the last part is by Lieutenant Miles, of the “ Northumberland,” and consists partly of a diary which the young lieutenant kept while on SCIENCE. 135 the way to St. Helena in the same ship with the ex-emperor. Na- poleon talked quite freely about some of his plans — especially with regard to the French navy —told a number of stories, and ex- plained various points in his own career. — D. Appleton & Co, announce for early publication “ European Schools,” by L. R. Klemm, which will be fully illustrated and in- cluded in the International Education Series; ‘A First Book in American History,” by Edward Eggleston, which will be beauti- fully illustrated by eminent American artists; and Youmans’ “Class-Book of Chemistry,” thoroughly revised by Dr. W. J. You- mans, a brother of the author, and made quite up to date by in- cluding the latest developments of the science. — Sir Charles Dilke is engaged upon a new work, entitled, “Problems of Greater Britain.” ‘Though covering in some re- spects the same ground as ‘ Greater Britain,’ says the Atheneum, “it will not be, like that book, a record of travel, but a study of comparative politics and a complete survey of the empire. Special attention will be paid to the question of Indian frontier defence, to the situation in Canada and South Africa, and above all to the many important problems whith concern the present and future of Australia.” The book will be published by Messrs. Macmillan & Co. in January. —A “floral campaign,” for the choice of a national flower, to correspond with the rose of England and the lily of France, is now in progress in many parts of the country, and is arousing consider- able interest and discussion among flower loving patriots. Prang & Co. of Boston, who started the campaign, have just issued a little volume containing pictures of the two favorite candidates, the mayflower and the golden-rod, two poems reciting the claims of each, a history of the campaign, and a postal ballot for the use of those who wish to vote on the subject. The polls will close on Dec. 31, this year, when the results will be published. The result of the voting so far is as follows. For the golden-rod, 67 per cent; Exchanges. [Exchanges are inserted for subscribers free of charge. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, Book of Principles, Models for Common-school Teachers. Swett, Principal of the San Francisco Girls’ High BOOKS THAT EVERY TEACHER SHOULD POSSESS. METHODS OF TEACHING. Directions, and Working A Hand-| CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE SCIENCE OF EDUCATION. By William H. Payne, A.M., Professor of the Sctence and the Art of Teaching, University of Michigan. 12mo, Cloth, $1.25. By John P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. too botanical specimens and analyses for exchange” Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. Bocuse, Orwell, Ashta. “County, O I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘‘ Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4 X 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “new model ’’ double dry-plate holder (4" X 5 », for fine Beclogical or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- ed.— Charles E. Fnck, 1019 West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and plants— to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc.— Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lefzdoftera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California onyx, for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East r4ist Street, New York, N.Y. Any one who has a botanical box in good condition will please write. I will offer about 30 specimens in ex- change. —C. B. Haskell, Box 826, Kennebunk, Me. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. HEAVEN AND HELL, by: EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. School and Normal Class. 12mo, Half Leather, $1.00. ‘Every teacher may derive immediate practical | benefit from its persual.”—F. Louis Soldan, Princi- pal St. Louis Normal School. BROWNING’S EDUCATIONAL THE- ORIES. An Introduction to the History of Edu- cational Theories. By Oscar Browning, M.A., King’s College, Cambridge, England. 16mo, Cloth, 50 cents. Itis a concise and popular account of the main lines of thought that have been followed on educa- tional subjects from ancient times to our own day. Mr. Browning gives a chapter on education among the Greeks ; one to Roman education, to Humanistic education, the Realist, the Naturalist, English Hu- manists and Realists, Locke, the Jesuits and Jan- senists, Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Kant, Fichte and Herbart, and finally, the English public school. He writes clearly and pleasantly. GENTLE MEASURES IN TRAINING THE YOUNG. By Jacob Abbott. Illustrated. 12mo, Cloth, $1.00. ‘’nere are few questions connected with the early education of children that are not discussed in the course of the volume, with reference to the leading | principle of which it treats, each topic Is illustrated by a variety of examples derived from practical life, and the whole treatment of the subject evinces the parental wisdom of the author, his deep insight into the juvenile nature, and his large experience in the work of education. DEWEY’S PSYCHOLOGY. By John Dewey, Ph.D., 12mo, Cloth, $1.25. of the University of Michigan. | This new and live presentation of the subject de- | velops the principles of psychology in such an orderly way, aud with such fulness of illustration, that the reader obtains clear, accurate, and con nected ideas. It gives definite statements of funda- mental facts, progressive development of principles, accurate definitions, and clear and precise discus- sion, omitting Irrelevant detail. /STUDIES A timely book, bearing on active controversies of to-day, and casting new light upon them. It is the frult of long study and broad observation. The au- thor is a clear, strong, practical thinker, bold in his championship of his own ideas, yet reverent towards all conservatism that can claim respect. The book should be in the hands of all who are interested in education. MANUAL OF OBJECT TEACHING. With Illustrative Lessons in Methois and the Sci- ence of Education. By N. A. Calkins, Supt. of Primary Schools of New York City. 12mo, Cloth, $1.25. PRIMARY OBJECT LESSONS. By N. A. Calkins. Subjects Treated: Elementary Arithmetic. — Reading. — Phonetics. — Drawing.— Object Lessons.— Form, Color, and Size. — Simple Lessons on the Human Body. 12mo, Cloth, $1.00. IN ENGLISH LITERA- TURE. By William Swinton, author of * Har- per’s Language Series,” and Gold Medalist Paris Exp sition, 1878. Embellished with portraits and Autographs. 8yo, Cloth, $1.20. It is a series of studies in the masters of English, from Shakespeare to the presenttime. The authors chosen are not only of the first rank, but they also represent epochs of literature, marked phases of style, distinctive contributions to literary method. A SHORT HISTORY OF THE ENG- LISH PEOPLE, By J. R. Green, M.A., Exami- ner in the School of Modern History, Oxford, Eng- land. Svo, Cloth, $1.20. This book is not a mere record of kiags, battles, and wars, but is a history of the development of the people in literature, religion, and civil iastitutions. It contains eight hundred and twenty-four pages, with Colored Maps, Chronological Tables, Genealog- ical Tables of Sovereigns, Marginal Notations, ete. The above named books are selected from HARPER & BROTHERS’ List of Publications, and offered on the following terms: must accompany the order. or Express. Address, 1. Single copies will be mailed to any address on receipt of the are ordered for the use of Institute Classes or Reading Circles, or in clubs of sixor mo same by express at a discount of 20 per cent. from the Money may be sent to us by P.O. Money Order or Dr aft pric 2. When Books will send the rices given. On ace ount of th special rates, cash Registered Letter, HARPER & BROTHERS, Publishers, Peach isqne N. ie 136 for the mayflower, 21 per cent; the laurel, 34; dandelion, 3; sun- flower, 1 ; and daisy, 1. — The fortnightly Review for August opens with a paper on “Mr. Gladstone and the Civilized World,” by Karl Blind, in‘which the writer reviews Mr. Gladstone’s criticisms on home rule in other countries and applies the lessons to Ireland. Dr., Joseph Thom- son, the noted explorer, writes on ‘“‘ Downing Street vs. Chartered Companies in Africa,” giving the record of British official rule, by one who has had ample opportunities of personal observation. Mdlle. de Bovet contributes a series of conversations with the composer Gounod, embodying his views on art and artists, which have been transcribed by one of his companions, and include much interesting matter never before published. A paper on the “ For- tress of Paris,” illustrated with a map, explains the great political and strategical importance of the city, which it is claimed is un- surpassed in these respects by any capital in Europe. J. D. Bour- chier describes the ‘“‘ Great Servian Festival,” the anniversary of the fall of Servia’s greatness on the battlefield of Kassovo, in 1389. Walter Pater writes on Giordano Bruno, whose works have re- ceived new attention from scholars since the unveiling of his monu- ment in Rome. W. D. Hogarth contributes an article on the “Present Discontent in Cyprus,” condensing the history of the island since 1878, when it was taken under the protection of Eng- land. W. L. Courtney tells the story of the life of Roger Bacon, with special reference to his life at Oxford, and presents an inter- esting study of a much neglected figure in English history. Os- wald Crauford draws a picture of Spanish and Portuguese bull- fighting ; and Professor Tyrell contributes a brief note on Mr. Browning’s late attack on Edward FitzGerald. The number con- cludes with “Some Truths about Russia,” by a former resident. — Messrs. E. & F. N. Spon announce as nearly ready “ Practi- cal Electric Bell Fitting: a Treatise on the Fitting-up and Main- tenance of Electric Bells and All the Necessary Apparatus,” by F. C. Allsop; “A Dictionary of Electric Words, Terms, and Phrases,” by E. J. Houston; ‘Practical Gold Mining, a Comprehensive Treatise on the Origin and Occurrence of Gold-Bearing Gravels, Rocks, and Ores, and the Methods by which the Gold is extracted,” by C. G. Warnford Lock; ‘Egyptian Irrigation,’ by W. Willcocks, M.1.C.E., with introduction by Lieut.-Col. J.C. Ross, R.E., C.M.G.; and ‘The Engineer’s Sketch-Book of Mechanical Movements, De- vices, Appliances, and Contrivances,’” by Thomas Walter Barber, containing details employed if the design and construction of ma- chinery for every purpose, collected from numerous sources and from actual work, classified and arranged for reference for the use of engineers, mechanical draughtsmen, managers, mechanics, in- ventors, patent agents, and all engaged in the mechanical arts, with nearly two thousand illustrations, descriptive notes, and mem- oranda. — The Contemporary Review for August opens with an article on the papacy, which has attracted much attention abroad. The writer says that to re-establish the temporal power, the church must be Anglicized or Americanized. This is illustrated by the startling statement that the papal rescript against the plan of cam- paign was launched by the pope under the pressure of the Eng- lish government, against the advice of Persico, who has hitherto been held responsible for that blunder. Sir Morell Mackenzie contributes a valuable paper on the voice, treating of song. The address by Frederick Harrison before the Positivist Society on the centenary of the Bastile is reproduced entire, and presents a graphic picture of some of the more exciting episodes of the French revo- lution. Sir W. W. Hunter presents a plea for a female medical profession for India, which is, he says, the only hope of reaching Indian women. Canon Cheyne argues for reform in the teaching of the Old Testament, and looks for an idealized church in the future. Incidentally he touches on the agnostic controversy, and the more important of recent theological writings. Frederic Mac- karness reviews some of the recent experiments in governing South Africa by the English authorities ; and George J. Romanes writes a scholarly and interesting paper on “ Mr. Wallace and Darwin- ism.’ Mr. Romanes is a Darwinian, and does not follow Mr. Wallace in some of his recent theories. Managers of picture ex- * hibitions will find much of interest in the paper by M. H. Spielmann SCIEN GE, [Vou X1Ve ) NowAe on the “ Proposed Royal Academy Reform,” in which the writer tells what the proposed reforms are, and what they should be. Philip H. Wickstead presents a study of Ibsen’s “ Peer Gynt,” and affords an instructive insight into the methods of a master who is the literary sensation of the day in England, and who is looked upon by many critics as the greatest dramatist of the age. The number closes with an article on the “ Civil List and the Grants to the Royal Family,” by Dr. Henry Dunckley, who goes into the subject historically, and gathers many curious and little known facts-in a subject which is just now agitating England, and which has attracted no little attention in this country. — Professor Henry C. McCook of the Academy of Natural Sci- ences, Philadelphia, is now prepared to issue his natural history of the habits and industry of our orb-weaving spider fauna, under the general title “American Spiders and their Spinning Work.” It embraces studies extended over more than fifteen years, and will be printed in three volumes, quarto. Volumes I. and II. will con- tain the author’s personal observations, studies, and illustrations of the habits and industry of spiders. The studies are particularly directed to the spinning habits of the great group of spiders known as orb-weavers ; but these are expressed in their relations to all the other tribes in both hemispheres. Volume III. will contain the systematic part of the work, and embrace descriptions of the orb- weavers of the United States, illustrated by a number of fine litho- graphic plates painted by hand in the colors of nature. The vol- umes will be profusely illustrated, wholly from nature, the number of engravings in the first volume alone exceeding two hundred. The language is as free as -possible from technical terms, and, as the matter principally concerns the life-history of the animals, the chief contents of the work can be readily followed by any intelligent and sympathetic reader. This is especially true of Volume II. The publication of such a considerable work has involved a large ex- pense, and as the circulation is necessarily limited to important scientific societies, leading public libraries, and a small circle of private individuals, the author has been compelled to undertake the entire work and charges of publication. The number of prints will be absolutely limited to five hundred, but an edition of two hun- dred and fifty copies, which will be known as the ‘“ Author’s Edi- tion,’* will now be issued ; and the price of the volumes has been fixed, as nearly as could be estimated, at the simple cost of publi- cation. The price for the entire set of three volumes will be $30 for colored plates, or $25 for uncolored plates. No volume will be sold separately. All persons subscribing within three months from Aug. I, 1889, will receive the entire set with colored plates for $25, delivered, postage paid, in any part of America. The price post- paid for Europe and all foreign countries is £5 4s., English money. After the limited time, no books will be sold for less than the full _ price, with postage added. Payment will be expected as follows: $10 on the delivery of Volume I., $10 on delivery of Volume II., and $5 on delivery of Volume III. Full payment may be made, if preferred by subscribers, on delivery of Volume I. The first vol- ume will be delivered in the autumn of this year; the second vol- © ume, shortly thereafter; and the third volume, which is already in a good state of progress, in the early part of 1890. The several volumes will be mailed with uncut edges in suitable form for li- brary binding. Societies, libraries, and individuals who may pur- pose to subscribe will materially forward the author’s plans by act- ing promptly. — The Weneteenth Century for August contains papers by an imposing list of writers. Frederic Harrison opens the number with “A Breakfast in Paris,” giving the views of a number of representative Parisians on the Exhibition and the political state of France. L. Atherly Jones writes on “The New Liberalism,” which, with home rule, he believes to be destined to succeed, though possibly not for some time to come. Dr. Burney Yeo pre- sents some valuable suggestions on “ Change of Air,” which he regards as almost imperative for city people. He also gives an analysis of the ocean cure, with-suggestions as to places of resort for invalids. Sir Joseph Fayrer begins a description of the deadly wild beasts of British India. a subject of great importance when it is remembered that 2,618 persons and 61,021 head of cattle per- ished in 1887 by animals alone, not counting snakes, which caused AUGUST 23, 1880. ] the death of 19,740 persons in addition. The Rev. Father Barry argues for a ‘‘Gospel for the Century,” claiming that the church, like the age, must be progressive. Walter Frewen Lord describes the life and writes of Henrik Ibsen, the Norwegian dramatist whose works are exciting so much attention in England. Lord Brabourne replies to Mr. Gladstone’s article on the Irish union in the July number, in a paper in which he takes the great statesman to task for not accounting for the actual condition under which the cruelties he censured so severely were practised. Lord Ribbles- dale has a light though interesting study on the “‘ Art of Conversa- tion,” relating his own experience in acquiring that difficult accom- plishment. Mr. Gladstone neglects politics this month, and returns to his classical studies in a paper on the “ Phoenician Affinities of Ithaca,” a much argued question among Greek scholars, which he endeavors to answer. Professor Geffcken contributes a paper on “ The French in Germany,” reviewing the history of French treat- ment of Germany and Germans in the last few centuries. Ger- many, he claims, has suffered more in that time from France than she did from the war of 1871, and he therefore argues that the treaty of Frankfort should be regarded as final. Frederick Green- wood presents an interesting essay on love and men and women, entitled ‘‘ Wool Gatherings;”’ and John Morley, W.S. Lilly, R. E. Prothero, Sir Frederick Bramwell, H. G. Hewlitt, Frederic Myers, and the Hon. Hallam Tennyson review some noticeable books. The number closes with a rejoinder on female suffrage, by Mrs. Creighton, and a long list of signatures to the protest against suf- frage printed in the June number. — The Clark Electric Company, 192 Broadway, New York, have issued a new catalogue of their arc light apparatus. In this is given, with illustrations, some account of their arc dynamo, with a ‘view showing the interior field and others of the armature, auto- matic regulator, etc. The single and double arc-lamps are de- scribed. The pamphlet closes with a description of their new automatic regulator. — The current number of the Amerzcan Journal of Psychology is strong in four original papers. The first, by Dr. William Noyes, contains a further account of an interesting paranoiac described by him in an earlier number of the journal (May, 1888). The pa- tient, an artist of talent and originality, has continued his paint- ing, and latterly busied himself with the composition and illustra- tion of a manuscript book of two hundred pages. The six plates accompanying this article reproduce nearly fifty pictures, of which three are taken for comparison from his pre-asylum work, and two- thirds of the rest are pen-and-ink drawings from the book. Con- siderable extracts, both of prose and verse, are given, the latter especially showing the same mixture of facility and imperfect finish that characterizes his pictures. It is rare that an alienist has the opportunity of observing a case where the disordered mind has such varied and delicate means of expressing itself. The next article is an experimental study, by Dr. C. F. Hodge, of the effect of electrical stimulation upon ganglion cells. The outcome of these careful experiments is a method “by which changes due to functional activity can be as easily and certainly demonstrated ‘in a ganglion as in a gland.” Electrical stimulation noticeably decreases the size of the nucleus, makes it jagged in outline, obscures its reticulation, and makes its stain darker. In the cell protoplasm it causes vacuolation and slight shrinkage, and makes its stain less readily. The nuclei of the cell capsule are also shrunken. These changes are figured in an accompanying plate. In the third article, Dr. E. C. Sanford concludes his series on per- sonal equation, taking up especially the amount and cause of personal differences under the simplest conditions of observation. He brings together the contributions of the astronomers and physiological psychologists, and considers the theories of Bessel, Wolf, and others. A bibliography of a hundred titles or more is appended. Dr. W. H. Burnham furnishes a very interesting paper on the illusions and hallucinations of memory, or, as the phenomena have been termed, paramnesia. An example ofa single class is the not uncommon feeling of strange familiarity in totally unfamiliar circumstances. Other kinds are rdrer, but by no means unknown. Important contributions have come from the alienists, notably from Kraepelin, whose classification Dr. Burnham follows. The author SCLENGE: 37 has been fortunate in collecting a number of illustrative cases (such tricks of memory seem frequent in dreams, with some people at least), which parallel in normial life the grosser cases of the in- sane. The subject has also a practical bearing ; for Hughlings- Jackson, while admitting that the feeling of reminiscence above mentioned does occur in normal people, would regard its frequent occurrence as a confirmatory symptom of a certain form of epilepsy. In persons of somewhat defective memory and judgment, as chil- dren and old people, a skilful lawyer can, by proper manipulation, create, entirely without the consciousness of the witness, a memory of events that never happened ; and, like Professor Royce, the author would account for many cases of presentiments, telepathy, etc., reported by trustworthy people, as cases of pseudo-memory. The number contains, as usual, reviews and abstracts of literature on the nervous system and experimental and abnormal psychology, besides miscellaneous notes. In the abnormal section is included also a paper of practical suggestions to physicians in asylums, hospitals, etc., for the observation of patients suffering from mental and nervous diseases, by Dr. H. H. Donaldson. The suggestions are accompanied throughout by references to the literature. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. * “Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is tn all cases required as proof of good faith. The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. Twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished Sree to any correspondent on request. Sunset Glows. WE have just been enjoying a re-appearance of sunset glows like those following the Krakatoa eruption of 1883, though much less bright. The phenomenon was first noticed here after sun- down of July 13. On the 14th and 15th it seemed to increase in intensity. After this it declined, and I think could not be clearly distinguished after the 2oth. I noted a whitish glow around the sun, occupying a space of about fifteen degrees’ radius, as in “ Bishop’s ring.” The outer colored ring characteristic of that corona seemed to be entirely lacking. I have remarked the following peculiarities in which these differ from the Krakatoa glows: they are very much less bright, perhaps like those after a lapse of several months. A notable difference is in a beautiful tertiary glow. This con- sisted of a rich and delicate rosy flush occupying a tract of sky in the west, say of sixty degrees horizontally, and from five down to ten degrees of altitude. At the edges this melted into purple upon the clear blue of our North Pacific sky. A faint purple tint extended along the horizon quite to the south: no color in the north. There-are islands a little north of west, intercepting re- flections. This third glow failed to gather down and deepen upon the horizon like those preceding it. I think its tint the most beau- tiful I have ever seen in the heavens, like that of some rare and perfect jewel. . A very marked peculiarity is the early time at which the primary and secondary glows take place. The primary glow gathers soon after the sun is down, and is at its height while daylight is yet strong. Hence it is less conspicuous, although its broad streaming radiations of glowing surface are very remarkable. The secondary glow promptly follows, and makes the grand dis- play. It is nearly finished before any stars are visible. The Krakatoa secondary began in a somewhat darkened sky, — as dark as when the late tertiary appeared, — and lingered until after full darkness, slowly settling down into a low, dense, blood-red stratum, which simulated the reflection of a remote conflagration. That strange dull-red glow was entirely absent from the late appearances. Thesecondary gathered and settled away in a bright orange glow. Both at its close and throughout its course, this secondary substantially resembled the Krakatau primary as seen several months after the eruption. Like that, it presented at its close a well-defined and serrated upper edge, bordered by dark sky. The serrations of the latter, however, were small and numer- 138 ous, apparently the.inverted shadows of cumuli upon a very remote horizon. In this, on the contrary, the serrations are large, as if caused by the intervention of cloud-masses upon a near horizon. It seems evident that the reflecting stratum of haze in these late glows was very low down as compared with the Krakatoa haze. The shadow of the horizon was projected upon a haze-canopy quite close at hand. Hence also the early production of the pri- mary glow, and the rapid following of the secondary. For the same reason, the extent of lower atmosphere traversed by the sun’s rays during the repeated reflections was greatly reduced; less of red was consequently shown, the other colors being only partially intercepted. Again, the twice reflected rays still retained force for a slight but definite third reflection, in which a pure though faint red appears. We have as yet no cable, though in strong hope of one soon. No foreign mail has reached us since the 6th instant. One is due to-morrow, and we hope to hear of some adequate cause to which this remarkable. phenomenon may be owing. SERENO E. BISHOP. Honolulu, July 25. “Suggestion.” A FEW evenings ago I went to a friend’s house to hear the phonograph. It was reproducing with fidelity the music of a band. To promote the illusion, I closed my eyes. Presently an air was played that sounded familiar, though I failed to recognize it. Neither did I strive to, for my attention was concentrated on the quality of the sound. As I listened, however, I became conscious of a set of surroundings: a pair of eucalyptus trees opposite, a large domed building to my left, a street of white flat-roofed houses on which I looked down, even a familiar sign=board caught my eye (the inscription ought to have been “ Biblioteca Publica”), the strains of the military band in the plaza coming through the star-lit night. Involuntarily my eyes opened, and I caught my breath at sight of the lamps and assembled company of a drawing- room; for I had been listening, from the azotea, or roof, of my former residence in the little Mexican city, to a favorite danza air played by the regimental band in the neighboring plaza. The ‘change was so very startling that it made my heart pump. I closed my eyes, and though I did not again lose consciousness of where I was, the Tepic picture materialized again as vividly, and with all the detail that could have been present to the eye of sense. I re- ‘quested that the air (the damza) might be again put through the instrument, and while it played, I still held the picture, and had wandered off into a brown study, a thousand Mexican images and incidents rising of their own accord and passing before the imag- ination. While this was going on, and without my becoming con- scious of any change in the source of suggestion, the picture be- came blurred, faded, and indistinct, and the train or procession of incidents broken and desultory. This led to my consciousness that a different air — a German one —that I had never heard from a Mexican band, was now proceeding from the apparatus. W. San Francisco, Cal., Aug. 10. Minute Aeronauts. DURING the year 1875, while engaged in some scientific investi- ‘gations in Contra Costa County, Cal., my attention was attracted to the numerous webs floating in the air. Some were wound to- SCIENCE. [Vor X1V.-” Nor 345m gether so as to resemble small pledgets of cotton, others were long streamers. After having made several inquiries as to their cause but gaining no satisfaction, I sat about an investigation. I started up a high hill from which all these webs seemed to have their origin. During my ascent I noticed that my hat and clothing be- gan to be covered with webs, and finally I discovered a small spider spinning a web from my hat brim to the ground. When it reached ¢erva firma I sat down to watch it and to study its move- ments. It immediately searched out a slender stalk of a weed and made its way to the top. It remained there for a few moments perfectly still, as if it was taking observations. Then it began spinning web, and by a peculiar motion of its legs it would roll or gather the web in a mass, and when enough had been accumulated in this manner to carry the little creature, it would let the flaky mass flow out to the winds. When it had thus formed a little parachute, or balloon, it would swing itself out in the air and sail in obedience to the winds. Continuing my journey up the hill I noticed scores of these spiders rigging their aerial ships prepara- tory to visiting some distant place. When near the top of the hill I was surprised to see webs sailing hundreds of feet above the summit. 1 turned my field glass in a direction toward the sun, where I could best discern them, and as far as my aided eye could reach I could still see them. They probably came from a great distance, as they were five or six hundred feet above the crest of the hill. When these little aeronauts came near the ground in their travels, they would descend on a web and abandon their balloon. I watched these spiders for hours, and none of them ever made a mistake as to the quantity of the web that would carry them. They could in this way travel hundreds of miles in a day. R. I. BROMLEY, M.D. Queries. 47. WHAT BIRDS ARE THESE ?—(1) Head and back, black; breast and belly, rich reddish brown; length, seven inches; from tip to tip of extended wings, ten inches; sides of bill, slate; legs, black; Insessorial; bird seen in orchard. (2) Breast, yellow; back, yellowish olive-green; throat of male, black; male larger than female ; bill, conical ; length, medium or rather long; size of bird described above or smaller; song similar to bird described above. Nests in orchard, top of tree; nest composed of grass, not placed in fork of branches, but suspended, —in which it deposits three cream-colored eggs, black-blotched at the larger end; food, worms. (3) Breast of male, yellowish with black spot ; back, dark brown and white; striped or mottled; bill rather large, short, conical. Of two nests seen, one was in a meadow, about eight inches from the ground, supported by the grass, and the other three feet high, in a roadside hedge: both contained four blue green eggs. Size of wood-pewee; song, short; seen in fields; female rather smaller and duller colored, and lacking the black spot on breast. There is a yellowish stripe above the eye. L. W.N. O Answers. 47. THE first and second birds described are orchard orioles (Icterus spurcus), the brown and black one being an old male; the yellow olive one with black throat the male in its first year. The last bird is the black-throated bunting or dichcissel (Spzza amerz- cana. SS INDUSTRIAL NOTES. The Union Electric Car Company. CARS operated on the system controlled by the Union Electric ‘Car Company of Boston, Mass., will soon be running between the towns of Beverly and Danvers, Mass. One of this company’s cars was run on the West End Railroad in Boston for eighteen months, never failing to do what was expected of it. This company uses dynamos and motors of the United States Electric Light Com- pany’s make, and intend to use either the storage, overhead, or conduit system, or a combination of all three, as may be found ex- pedient. One of the peculiar features of the Union company’s system, for which they hold a patent, is the charging back, while using a series motor, into the battery or line, while stopping the car or holding it back in going down grade, the motor being con- verted into a dynamo for the time, deriving its power from the mo- mentum of the car. Another feature of this system, also patented, is the use of a pe- culiarly formed cut gearing for transmitting motion from the motor to the wheel-axle. The gearing is inclosed in a dust-proof case, partly filled with oil, so that the gearing runs in an oil-bath, insur- ing thorough lubrication and decreasing the friction and wear, of the gear-teeth. The company claims that this one feature saves a large percentage of power besides greatly increasing the life of the gearing. : AucGusT 23, 1880. ] The Barrett Mil-Ammeter. The mil-ammeter shown in the accompanying sketch has been designed especially to meet the wants of the medical practitioner, and, with this end in view, has been made as compact and un- complicated as is consistent with accuracy. The question of accuracy has to be carefully considered in in- THE BARTLETT MIL-AMMETER. struments of this kind, for the present tendency in the application of electricity to medicine and surgery is to obtain results based upon such systems of measurement as shall be comparable at any locality. The John A. Barrett Battery Company’s mil-ammeter is be- lieved to be an important improvement over most instruments of its class, and it embodies in its construction several features which are entirely novel. SCIP INGE: 139 Of these, the most important is the minner of rendering the metre capable of measuring currents of very great differences in value. This is secured by a system of shunts which are automati- cally thrown into circuit simultaneously with a corresponding change of the scale. The instrument is provided with three inde- pendent scales, whose ranges are respectively 0-5, 0-25, and 0-250 milli-ampéres. By turning a screw at the side of the case, these scales are made visible one after the other, and at the same time the corresponding shunt is put in action, so that correct read- ings may be taken at once. The metre is also provided with a screw-clamp, which removes the pivoted needle (the needle having a jewel pivot) from its bear- ing; and when this is adjusted, the instrument can be carried around with little care and with almost perfect safety. Recently the range of these metres has been extended, so that they now read up to 1,000 milli-ampéres. Electrical Train Heating. The Burton Electric Company, of Richmond, Va., have recently been making some experiments with their electric heaters for rail- way cars, a Sprague electric car being used for the purpose. An 80 volt current was used. Each heater had a resistence of 35 ohms, and required 2} ampéres of current to raise the temperature 209 degrees Fahrenheit. The heater is composed of a resistance coil, inclosed in a cast iron case provided with projections for in- creasing the radiating surface. The wires of the resistance coil are covered with powdered clay, to absorb the heat and prevent the wires from being burnt out. In the experiments mentioned fourteen heaters were used, absorbing three and a half electrical horse-power. The heaters were connected in multiple arc. In practice it is proposed to generate currents on trains under way by means of dynamos driven from the car-axles, the cars to be heated before starting out by currents from stationary dynamos at the stations. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY é CAPITAL $250,000. T Guaranteed Farm Mortgages ]"| The Company sends each year to Kansas and Nebraska for the pur- ‘pose of examining its loans and methods of business a COMMA TE Or EN Wess OS: The Committee for 1889 visited Fifty counties in the two States, ex- amined over 100 farms on which loans nad been made and reported every one to be SA PE: The Company will be glad to send to any address the Report of the Committee which presents a very interesting statement of the general development of Kansas and Nebraska. A large number of loans equally as good as any examined by the Committee are always on hand for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. 140 SCIENCE. [Vor XIV. = Nowgae DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. ue Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™, to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway. N: Ya FACTORY, JERSEY CIT y.. N. J. Please Mention “Science,” SCIENCE CLUBBING RATES. ¢ DISCOUNT. Eula as | 28 We will allow the above discount to any BB | RE subscriber to Sczence who will send us an| 55 | B:o order for periodicals exceeding $10, count- ae wy ing each at its full price. ca Agricultural) SclenGelt ciate \clctelslaieleisiels) io oie $2.50/$5-30 American Agriculturist _................ I.50| 4-30 American Architect and Building News Imperial edition 10.00] 12.80 Gelatine ‘‘ 7.00| 9.80 Regular ‘‘ 6.00] 8.80 American Garden....-.............. 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I.00| 4.25 Microscope, The. I.00| 4.25 INEVREC5 000. pocsbocdod | 6.00] 8.80 Onune American Review.....-. ... -| 5.00] 7.80 OlMNiNon60 ab 0abe Gone bocesbo bono -| 3.00] 5.80 Overland Monthly The work of removing the earth which had been thrown in and the clearing up of the bottom continued for two weeks, when the water from the ledge increased at such a rate that it was decided to lay short auxiliary freezing pipes against the leaks and freeze the ledge itself. This was done, the shaft was flooded again, and the brine circulated thirty days. When the water was pumped out, the leakage was found to be small, and excavation was pro- ceeded with. The soft, shaly rock was removed till a hard bear- a - Aucust 30, 1880. | y 7 : ‘ AN ae CA TT ROT LC ELLs TSENG iil WU ni TUTTE PCETSCH FREEZING PROCESSYIN SHAFT SINKING, AS APPLIED AT THE CHAPIN MINE, SGIENCE i 143 ing was obtained for the timbers, and the timbering was com- pleted from the surface of the ground to the excavated depth. The obvious remedy for inflow from the rock will be in the future to put the pipes far enough into the ledge to freeze off the surface seams. Pipes are now being put down for a coal mining shaft at Wyoming, Pa., and they will be put several feet into the rock, which will no doubt intercept all troublesome percolation. This operation of this process was the first application on any considerable scale in the United States. Water is the engineer's most troublesome enemy, and its conversion into a barrier of de- fence is a triumph of engineering as effective as itis novel. This process can be applied to excavations for bridge piers, to tunnels, and to other general work of a difficult and expensive character as well as to shafts. But in shaft work alone it should be invaluable, as by it numerous valuable deposits of coal and other minerals, now inaccessible on account of overlying strata of water-bearing materials, can be reached, as in the case of the Chapin mines, and in those Belgian coal mines which first led Mr. Poetsch to devise his process. THE PRODUCTION OF SUGAR. YESTERDAY the formation of sugar by plants, says Ward Cold- ridge, in Knowledge, was one of the mysteries of nature. Chemists and botanists, while they knew that ordinary chemical attractions must be the cause, were yet completely in the dark as to how these forces worked. They realized that plants started with carbonic acid and water, and from these waste products of animal existence built up in some unknown way the complex compound, sugar. From the deadly choke-damp to the luxury sugar was a great trans- formation. The plants could thus build, but men of science could not comprehend the process. To-day, as the result of some brilliant researches, the explanation has been found. A simple compound, the formation of which by the plant can be readily accounted for, has been transformed into a sugar. To understand the process, it must be realized that abundant evidence proves that plants promote processes which are the opposites of combustion or oxidation. Plants liberate oxygen from its compounds, and absorb that with which it was previously combined. They can liberate oxygen from so stable a compound as carbonic acid, and in water find a source for the hydrogen which is essential to their development. The products which could thus be formed are, respectively, from carbonic acid, the lower oxide of carbon and oxygen ; from water, the gases hydrogen and oxygen. Experiments have shown that under the influence of the silent elec- tric discharge, and even without it, carbon monoxide and hydrogen combine to form a simple compound, formic aldehyde, which is immediately connected with the formic acid of the ant and of the stinging-nettle. So the changes which occur in the plant under the combined influence of sunlight and chlorophyl may be repre- sented in symbols as follows : — On =]. GO, +. © 5 10) = H,+0 Carbonic Carbonic+Oxygen ; Water = Hydrogen+ Oxygen. acid. oxide. CO+H, = CH,O Formic aldehyde. This formic aldehyde was the substance experimented on. When it was suitably treated in the presence of the hydrate of lime, Ca (HO)., it was induced to combine with itself and to form another compound. The latter is composed of the same ultimate indivisible particles (atoms) and in the same proportions; but they are now differently arranged side by side, and with a larger number in the unit aggregation which chemists call molecules. This compound has now been finally proved to contain not one, but at least two or three members of the family of substances, carbohydrates, to which sugar belongs. Thus in our laboratories can now be imitated the process of which plants previously held the secret. While, however, the fact is marvellous that a sugar has been obtained artificially, it must be remembered that the process is absolutely uneconomical, for the yield is very small. This remark, too, applies to another process of artificial production. The sweet viscid liquid, glycerin, and its stinking, irritating offspring, acrolein, which gives the nasty smell of burning fat, have both been trans- formed into sugar; but the quantity obtained is very small in pro- 144 portion to the glycerin or acrolein used. The importance of these researches lies in the fact that they show how the chemical changes which characterize the vital action of the plant can be imitated with dead matter, and that, further, they shed a bright gleam of light on the hitherto obscure question of the arrangement of the in- divisible particles, atoms, within the compound particles, the mole- cules of these substances. Our supply of sugar will always be drawn from the vegetable kingdom, the synthetic laboratory of nature. Many plants work hard and economically at the production of sugar, and form it in quantity. It occurs in all parts of plants, — root, stem, leaves flower, fruit, and seed. In some grasses it is very abundant, in the sugar- cane, in the sorgho grass, and in the young shoots of the maize. In the common carrot and parsnip, and especially in the fleshy beet, large quantities are contained. But for its commercial extraction two sources are chiefly used —the sugar-cane and the beet-root, and a third is of growing importance, the sorgho grass. The sugar-cane has far greater natural advantages than the beet-root. At one time the former held the field without a rival. But during the Napoleonic wars, France was deprived of her supply of sugar, and she was driven to produce her sugar at home. This resulted in the commencement of the beet-sugar industry, and thus amongst the secondary results of war must be reckoned bounty-fed sugar. To judge of the economic aspects of the two industries, many factors have to be taken into account. When that has been done, this balance will be found distinctly in favor of the cane. Sugar-canes contain sufficient sugar to yield seventy to eighty per cent of their weight of juice, in which there is some twenty per cent of sugar. Beet-roots, as an extended series of in- vestigations have shown, possess a percentage of sugar varying from seven to a maximum of under fourteen, and on the average about eleven. Now an acre of land which can be used for beet- growing will be rented for, say, £4 per annum, while in the colonies an equal area of cane-producing land will be rented for about one- tenth of that amount. Further, a great divergence is found in the quantity of beet and cane which two equal areas can grow. For instance, in the en- virons of Magdeburg, an acre will yield about ten hundred-weight of sugar; whereas, in the home of the sugar-cane, some forty to fifty hundred-weight can be obtained. Then other items in the cost of production have to be considered ; the difference in wages in the two regions, the difference in the cost of fuel,—-in Europe where coal is necessary, in the colonies where the waste matter of the cane supplies the whole, or nearly the whole, of the fuel re- quired. One can thus realize the grounds on which the Brazilian commission on the sugar industry reported, that, in their opinion, “the cost of production may be reduced in Brazil to such a degree as to defy competition, and the struggle between cane and beet- root must become ominous to the latter, which thrives only by the artificial advantages which European countries have devised.” Hitherto the artificial advantages have been on the side of the European countries; but now the greatly improved means of transit, and the diffusion of knowledge, are raising the colonists to a position nearer equality in these respects, of course excluding bounties. And by this time the colonial sugar planter has learned a severe lesson. He understands that, while nature has showered her gifts on him with a lavish hand, she mercilessly punishes him for carelessness and lack of promptitude. For if he cuts his canes, they must within a few hours be crushed and extracted; if he is negligent, and leaves them for only two days, fermentation rapidly ensues under the conditions of tropical temperature, and the canes turn sour and must be thrown aside for fuel. In this way nature has fined men whole fortunes. FATTENING LAMBS. AT the Cornell Agricultural Experiment Station some experi- ments have been carried out recently on the effect of different rations on fattening lambs, under the direction of Professors J. P, Roberts and Henry H. Wing. These experiments were, in the main, a continuation of those carried on at this station one year ago, and very nearly the same foods were used, none of them being out of the reach of the general mass of farmers, SCIENCE. [VorloxdW? Nos The period of feeding lasted five full months, from November 25, 1888, to April 25, 1889. The lambs, twelve in number, were selected from a lot that had been picked up in the surrounding country for shipment. They were coarse wool grades, Shropshire or Southdown, dropped late the previous spring, and had evidently — been scantily fed during the summer. They were not such ani- — mals as would have been selected to give the best financial results, but being thin in flesh and fairly uniform, were well adapted to the purposes of the experiment. then divided into four lots of three each, in such a manner as to have as nearly as possible an equal weight in each lot. lambs were used in each lot, so that if for any reason there should be an accident to one there might be two left at the end, from which to gather data in regard to the effects of the rations. The lots were numbered respectively III, IV, V, and VI, and each lamb was labelled with a separate numbered ear-tag, so that data in regard to increase in weight, etc., could be collected indi- vidually and by lots. from beginning to end, with but two exceptions. Lot III was fed what may be called a carbonaceous ration. The lambs were given all the timothy hay and whole corn they would readily eat, and in addition about a half pound of roots each per day. Turnips were fed as long as the supply lasted, after that mangels were used. Lot IV was fed a nitrogenous ration, although it was not so ex- cessively rich in nitrogen as that used by some experimenters in trials of this kind. The grain ration was made up of two parts wheat bran and one part cotton-seed meal. A pound per day per. lamb of this mixture was fed at first; afterward it was somewhat increased or diminished, as the needs of the case required, the ob- ject being to feed about all that would be readily eaten. This lot received clover hay instead of timothy, and roots, as lot III. Lot V was fed an intermediate ration. The grain part was com- posed of three parts corn and one part each of wheat bran and cot- ton seed meal. It was eaten in about the same quantity as lot IV. Timothy hay was used for this lot, and roots were fed as in each of the others. Lot VI was fed the same as lot V, except that they received no roots at all. The lambs had access to water the whole time. In the winter it was warmed to about 80° before being offered them. The weight was obtained in the following manner. A pail of water was weighed and placed in the pen, where it remained till the next morning, the sheep drinking whenever they wished. Each morn- ing the pail, with whatever water remained in it, was weighed back, the difference in weight being the amount consumed. A fresh pailful was then weighed out, and the process repeated. This was kept up during the whole course of the experiment. The water was warmed when it was first put in, and during the cold weather the lambs soon learned to take nearly all their water as soon as fresh water was given them. From the first a marked difference was seen in the amount of water consumed by the different lots, and this difference continued through the whole course of the experiment. The total amount of water drank was as follows: Lot III drank 308 pounds, or 1.03 pounds per lamb per day; lot IV drank 1,185 pounds, or 3.95 pounds per lamb per day; lot V, 735 pounds, or 2.45 per lamb per day ; lot VI, 847 pounds, or 2.82 per lamb per day. The very much larger quantity of water consumed by the lambs fed a highly nitrogenous ration is at once apparent. It will be seen that lot IV drank nearly four times as much as lot III (fed carbon- aceous food), and about 60 per cent more than lot V. These three lots were all fed roots in equal kind and quantity, so that it would seem thatthe different amounts of water consumed must be due to the nitrogen in the ration. Lots V and VI were fed on the same ration, except that lot VI had no roots. Probably for this reason they drank about 15 per cent more water, The lambs fed on nitrogenous food, or lot IV, made much the largest average gain, and those fed on carbonaceous food, lot III, made the smallest gain, though not very much smaller than lot VI. Animal individuality, a very perplexing con- sideration in all work of this kind, showed its influence very strongly. Notwithstanding the gain in live weight was very} markedly in The twelve were closely shorn, and — The experiment progressed satisfactorily Three _ favor of the lambs fed on nitrogenous food, it is when we come to compare the amount of gain in relation to the amount and cost of _ the food consumed that the most striking figures are brought out. Both in the amount of food consumed for one pound of gain, and the cost of gain per one hundred pounds, the advantage is very markedly in favor of lot IV, the lot fed on nitrogenous food. It costs a little more than a cent and a half per pound, or twenty-six per cent more to put a pound of gain upon the lambs that were fed on corn, timothy hay, and roots than it did to put a pound of _ gain on those that were fed wheat bran, cotton-seed meal, clover hay, and roots. The lambs were shorn Nov. 15, or ten days before the beginning of the experiment. They were shorn again the day before they were slaughtered, so that the wool obtained was the growth of _ 160 days. The weight of the wool from both lambs in each lot _ was, lot III, 4.25 pounds; lot IV, 7.31 pounds; lot V, 6.63 pounds ; lot VI, 6.19 pounds ;— the last three lots showing an increase over q lot IIT of 72, 56, and 46 per cent respectively. This coincides with _ the results of the experiments last year, in that nitrogenous food seems to largely affect the growth of wool. It seems to show fur- _ ther that even a small increase in the nitrogenous matter of aration has a decided influence on the growth of the wool, for lots V and VI, whose ration was intermediate in character, gave very nearly as much wool as lot IV. In the experiments of 1888, already re- ferred to, the percentage was not so great in favor of the lambs fed on nitrogenous food. ___ The lambs were slaughtered on April 25. The blood was care- fully caught in a clean pail, and it and all the important internal organs were weighed. The carcasses were hung up inacool place to stiffen for two days, and were then cut up, and the parts care- ‘ fully examined. Before they were taken down, however, they were * * * weighed and most carefully inspected by the different members of the staff. The most striking difference that was apparent, as the carcasses hung upon the hooks, and after they were cut up, was . the evident leanness of the two belonging to lot 1V, which had been _ fed nitrogenous food. The kidneys were not covered, and there was very little loose fat next the skin, while in all the other car- __ casses the kidneys were more or less completely covered, and there was a layer of tallow of greater or lesser thickness between the skin and body. The carcasses of lot III had the most of this tal- _ low. The same thing is shown in the amount of caul fat and kid- ney fat. While an expert butcher would have undoubtedly selected _ the carcasses of lots V and VI as furnishing the most saleable mutton, the carcasses of lot IV had little or no unpalatable adipose matter, and those of lot III showed much the largest percentage of waste fatty matter about the root of the tail and in the flanks. The weight of evidence of all of the experiments at Cornell, to- gether with results obtained by other experimenters in the same field, seems to show: that corn, as an exclusive grain ration, does not give the best results, either in amount, quality or economy of production, when fed to growing or fattening animals; that the amount of water drank, especially in the case of these lambs, is a pretty certain indication of the rate of gain ; and that the production of wool is very greatly dependent upon the nitrogen in the ration. The value of the manure made from the animals fed is a matter of prime importance, to all eastern farmers at least. And often the manure left on the farm represents a large part, if not the whole, of the profit made from feeding a lot of animals. For this reason there were calculated the manurial value of the rations fed the dif- ferent lots. From this it appeared that while the first cost of the ration of the nitrogenous fed sheep was larger than that of the car- bonaceous, yet when the value of the manure jis subtracted, the cost of the former is less than half of the latter. PEARL OYSTERS. _ THE presence of nodules or tubercles on the interior surface of the shells or valves of lamellibranch (bivalve) mollusks is of fre- quent occurrence. These excrescences are nacreous or otherwise, pr. according to the character in this respect of the shell in which or _ upon which they occur. They are found alike in fresh-water and Marine species. In the pond and river mussels they are chiefly due to interior causes; in marine forms, like the cockles, mussels, the SCI ENG@E. 145 scallops, etc., these formations are generally traceable to exterior causes. It is often the case that specimens of the large scallop of the New England coast are so burrowed into by a species of sponge that nearly the entire inside surface of the valves will be roughened with sharp, thickly-set pustulz. In all the marine species in which those nodules occur it will usually be found that the substance of the shell has been bored into from the outside by either a species of pholad or lithodomus. Neither of these forms are, properly speaking, either parasites or commensals. They are, more definitely, “domiciliares,” as stated by Mr. Robert E. C. Stearns of the Smithsonian Institution, and excavate their burrows, not for the purpose of getting at the softer parts of the mollusk upon whose shell they have “squatted” in order to use said softer parts as food, but solely for the purpose of a residence or domicile. The burrows of these shell-boring pholads and lithodomi are at first quite small, increasing in size in the same ratio as the bur- rower increases in age or in growth. After a while the depth of the boring is equal to the thickness of the shell in which it has been made, and the occupant of the latter, in order to keep his own shell intact and maintain the integrity of his own domicile, com- mences depositing layer upon layer of nacreous or porcellaneous matter, as the case may be. In keeping pace with the continued encroachments of the domiciliary squatter upon the outside, this deposit finally becomes a more or less conspicuous protuber- ance, Sometimes these nodules or tubercles are due to some foreign inorganic matter, a particle getting in between the mantle of the mollusk and the inner surface of its shell. In such cases it is, we may say, at once plastered over, and thus fixed upon the surface of the valve. Free concretions, i.e., unattached or non-adherent nod- ules, are, as is well understood, caused by some particle, organic or inorganic, becoming in some way lodged exclusively in the soft parts of the body of the mollusk, and so far away from the surface of the shell as not to admit of its being cemented to it. No doubt many of the mollusca, both gastropod and lamelli- branch, contain or are inhabited by true parasites. In certain spe- cies of fresh-water mussels a species of water mite has been de- tected, and sometimes thread worms and other forms occur. A small species of crab, an epicurean no doubt, finds a salubrious habitation in the common oyster, but parasites of any considerable size appear to be rather rare. Besides the species above referred to, another small crab is sometimes found in the common mussel and the large scallop before mentioned. It is doubtful, however, whether these crabs are really parasites or only commensals, though probably the former. There is, however, evidence of the occurrence of fishes of two species as parasites in the true pearl oyster, or mother-of-pearl shell, not by the presence of the living fish, or even by dead speci- mens of ‘fish in the flesh,” if we may use so convenient a paradox, but by their entombed remains in the form of nacreous nodule or tubercles on the shells or valves of the said mollusk. At a meeting of the Zoological Society of London June 1, 1886, Dr. Giinther exhibited a specimen of a small fish of the genus /ev- asfer embedded in a pearl oyster, and said: ‘‘ This specimen is an old shell, in which there is imbedded, behind the impression of the attractor muscle, a perfect individual of a fish belonging to the genus fierasfer. The fish is covered by a thin layer of pearl sub- stance, through which not only the general outlines of the body but even the eye and the mouth can be seen. The parasitic habits of fierasfer are well known. The fish, instead of introducing itself into the cavity between the two halves of the mantle, penetrated between the mantle and the shell, causing irritation to the mollusk. which the latter resented by immediately secreting the substance with which the intruder is now covered. It is remarkable to note that the secretion must have taken place in a very short time, at any rate before the fish could be destroyed by decomposition.” After entering the shell, which of course must be at such time as the valves are partially open or gaping, these fishes find no obstruc- tion to their course as they push their way towards the interior be- tween the mantle and the smooth inner surface of the valves until they approach the adductor muscle, and here they find a barrier which most likely causes them to expend somewhat greater ac- 146 tivity or energy, and consequently in a correspondingly increased degree disturb the serenity if not the structural economy of the oyster. Having reached thus far, the invader is in the immediate vicinity of, if not the seat of intellect, the centre of sensitiveness. The deposit of nacre in such instances must be very rapid; and it is quite pos- sible that the unwelcome explorer is not only enshrouded and en- tombed in pearl, but previously drowned in a pearlaceous flood, for it may be reasonably presumed that the annoyance caused by its presence must be exceedingly great, and likely to induce a copious flow of nacreous lymph at the point and in the region of greatest irritation. It is evident that the deposition and induration are suffi- ciently rapid to inclose the parasite before decomposition has taken place. THE WORLD'S FAIR OF 1892. AMONG those who have volunteered suggestions as to the scope of the exhibition to be held in 1892, is Mr. Edward Atkinson, Al- though it may be said that Mr. Atkinson overlooks the main cause for the holding of such an exhibition, which is that it serves mer- chants and manufacturers with a good means of advertising, yet as his letter contains so many good suggestions likely to improve the tone of the exhibition we quote literally from it. Mr. Atkinson writes : — I have watched with some interest the course of the discussion on the exhibition proposed for 1892. I have had alittle experience in such matters, and have given some thought to the subject... . It seems to me that the day has gone by for a great world’s fair or bazaar, in which all kinds of goods and wares may be displayed, largely for purposes of advertising them, without much system or method and without any distinctive purpose in the general scope or plan of the exhibition, except to make a great show. Any one who desires to study or observe such goods and wares can find a better exhibition in the shop windows than has ever yet been put to- gether in a world’s fair or bazaar. Such fairs are cumbrous, costly, tiresome, and unsatisfactory.. The time was when they were novel, interesting, instructive, and useful. The diplomas are, as a rule, of little or no value. I exhausted the dictionary at the Centennial of 1876 in trying to vary the diplomas which we gave substantially to every one who made an exhibit in our group, and the few who were refused afterwards appealed to the higher powers, and ob- tained their diploma or certificate of excellence. . . . There was, however, one conspicuous exception in the Centennial to the gen- erally commonplace character or want of distinct purpose in the method of exhibiting. The Kansas and Colorado exhibit of natural products and resources laid the foundation of the progress of agri- culture and mining in that section. When I was called upon to advise how the exhibition at Atlanta should be laid out and directed, my first conception was to bring together every thing that could be exhibited or made known in re- gard to cotton, not only in respect to the fibre but in respect to the seed and the plant. Presently it became apparent to me that such an exhibition would tend more and more to the concentration of Southern efforts upon cotton only and would stand in the way of the diversity of industry which that special section especially needed ; I therefore conceived the plan of imitating the Kansas and Colorado exhibit, and advised the directors to interest the Southern railroads, the owners of land, and the owners of mining property in bringing together that wonderful collection of timber, minerals, and the products of the soil which really formed the most impor- tant part of the so-called Cotton Exposition. . . . When such men as the Inmans and others assure me that the effect of that exhibi- tion and the carrying out of that specific suggestion made the real starting-point in the progress of the South in all the arts which are now gaining so rapidly, and made known to the Southerners them- selves, as a body, the magnitude of their own resources, which had hardly been conceived even by the few, I can no longer resist the conclusion that mine was a happy thought, and that I did con- tribute in considerable measure to the progress and prosperity of the Southern States, Of course, in the nature of the case, the prog- ress would ultimately have been made, but the great and early start is dated from the Atlanta Exposition. The motive of the exhibition in 1892 is that the year recalls the SCIENCE. date of the discovery of America by Europeans four hundred years ago. Ought not the motive of such an exhibition to be the prog- ress in human welfare in four hundred years, through the applica- tion of science and invention to the pursuits of peace? Ought not such an exhibition to illustrate the interdependence of nations, the growth of commerce, and of modern industry, — prophetic of the time when war shall be forbidden at the command of commerce ? Four hundred years ago the invention of gunpowder had only begun to promote equality in the conditions of men; it had only begun to make the power of the serf equal to that of the seignior; it had only begun to do away with the dominion of privilege, and to estab- lish the dominion of human rights; it had only begun to alter the relations of men in the exchange of services from distribution ac- cording to status to distribution according to contract. The invention of printing had only begun to diffuse intelligence ; it had only be- gun to make possible and to establish a system of common law ; it had only begun to make known to the poor and feeble that He who created the world ruled all things well and recognized no difference among men because of race, birth, condition, or color. The long struggle for equal rights, first taking the form of resistance to superstition, and-of wars waged nominally on religious grounds, was soon converted into a system of war waged by nations in order that the so-called civilized nations of Europe might each on its own behalf dominate sections of the new world, and control by force and by colonization the commerce of the continents or of parts of continents secured by war for the sole benefit of the Euro- pean countries, each for itself, by whom this dominion had been gained. It is only within the last century of the four, or only since the physiocrats of France first entered upon the study of the relation of men to each other, and since the publication of the ‘ Wealth of Nations,” by Adam Smith in 1776, that the true function of trade and commerce has begun to be conceived among civilized men. Even at the present time the continent of Europe, which, if we separate the, uninhabited portions of Norway, Sweden, and Russia, is about equal in area to the area of the United States, omitting Alaska, is divided up into substantially nineteen separate empires or States, each cut off from the other by barriers to mutual service and restrictions upon their traffic, at which barriers taxes are levied upon commerce; the avails of such taxes being more than expended in the support of armies and navies which, except for these bar- riers to mutual service, would not be required. Witness on the other hand, the growth and progress of this nation. The freedom from obstruction to mutual service among its citizens which was established in our organic law, in that provision of the Constitu- tion which forbids any interference with commerce between the States, is without question the rule to which we owe more than to anything else, the preservation of the Union and the freedom from the blood tax, as well as the money tax of a standing army. My ideas run away with me in trying to give my conception of what the exhibition of 1892 might be. My conception is yet some- what vague. My general idea is that either by way of examples, of pictures, of graphic illustrations, and of figures, one and all combined. so far as may be, the exhibition should show the prog- ress of modern art and industry from the pre-historic type, or from the type of 1492, down to the present day. For instance, the art of weaving is older than history. The pre- historic loom was the same as the loom on which nine-tenths of the material for clothing the people of China is now woven— the same as the hand-loom which even to-day is in operation in the southern mountain valleys of “the land of the sky,” in Kentucky, in Tennessee, and in the Carolinas— the same as the hand-loom on which the French Zaéztans of Lower Canada still choose to make the fabrics with which they are clothed. It would be easily possible to give the examples in action of the whole art of weaving within the limits of a small section of a great exhibition building, the Chinese, African, South American, homespun American, and the modern, all in contrast ; the Arab weaving shawls, the Daghestan carpets, the Navajo Indian blankets, etc., on the walls of which section could be pictured geographically the relative demand and supply of the different sections of the globe for the products of the loom. The art of spinning could be illustrated in the same way;.. - [Vor. XIV. No. 343 _ 3 i x a ‘ } -, . : a ea, he ga i Ba ha LE ; oe ee ss # Mo ‘Of < _ AucustT 30, 1880. | and the same conception might be adopted with respect to the art of milling, preparing grain, and making bread. It is sometimes affirmed that there is no science of political economy. Such an exhibition as I have sketched in this somewhat visionary way would show in a concrete forin the very object-les- sons with which the political economy must deal; and I think one would soon predicate on the record of the past four centuries the possibilities of the next, yet it has only been within the last century that covers the existence of this nation that the chief part of this progress has been made. This has been the century in which an abundance of metals, which lie at the foundation of all arts, have been placed at the disposal of the science of metallurgy. It has been the century in which heat has been converted into power by methods which are even yet crude and imperfect; it has been the century in which time and distance have ceased in a great measure to obstruct the mutual services on which human welfare depends. We stand at the beginning of the century in which known agencies or new directions of energy—new inventions of which we can only dimly perceive and forecast in the future—— will alter, change, and ameliorate the conditions of men in even greater measure than the inventions of the past, the only conditions precedent and neces- sary to such progress in welfare being that there shall be commen- _ surate progress in the general intelligence of the people, especially of those who are chosen to legislate for them, equal in its measure to the progress in the arts. Therefore the final objective point of this proposed exhibition of 1892 might well be to make it an object-lesson illustrating the in- terdependence of men and of nations, and their power to serve each other, in all the arts of peace which make for plenty... . It goes without saying that if any such comprehensive plan should be undertaken, a specific call would ‘be made upon each State to make an exhibit of its power of serving others, by bringing to- gether its minerals, its timbers, and the products of its soil and its forests, in a thoroughly systematic way, — after the manner of the exhibits of Kansas and Colorado in the Centennial, and after the manner of the exhibits of the Southern minerals and timber at Atlanta. ELECTRICAL NEWS. ATMOSPHERIC ELECTRICITY. — A study of the electric phe- nomena produced by solar radiations was presented at a meeting of the French Academy on Aug. 5 by M. Albert Nodon. Numer- ous observations made at the laboratories of the Sorbonne and the Collége de France show that on meeting an insulated metallic or carbon conductor the solar rays communicate to it a positive elec- tric charge; that the amplitude of this charge increases with the intensity of the rays and decreases with the hygrometric state of the air, the phenomenon attaining-its maximum value in Paris about I P.M. in summer, when the atmosphere is pure and dry; lastly, that the effects cease during the transit of clouds across the face of the sun. If these results can be extended to non-metallic bodies, then solar radiation may be regarded as one of the causes of the electrization of the clouds. A New Lamp.—M. Henri Pieper, of Liége, has just invented a new incandescent lamp of very simple construction. It consists of two horizontal rods of copper placed about four millimetres apart. A thin pointed rod of carbon, placed vertically, rests on the copper rods and forms a bridge between them. The current passes between the copper rods through the carbon, which it renders in- candescent. The copper rods are mounted on springs, which cause them to rise slightly when the carbon is totally consumed, and bring them against two contact pieces, thus preventing the rupture of the circuit. HEALTH MATTERS. Tue KOLA-NUT. — The value of the kola-nut (seeds of S¢er- culia acuminata) as a dietetic and therapeutic agent has been re- cently tested by surgeon R. H. Firth, according to the Lancet. These nuts are allied in composition to cocoa, coffee, and tea, but contain a relatively large amount of caffeine. The properties or- dinarily assigned to kola are those of a strong tonic and stimulant to the nervous system, counteracting and removing the sense of SCIENCE. 147 exhaustion after fasting and fatigue; it has also been credited with having an antagonistic action to alcohol, and it has been said to purify water. From his observations surgeon Firth concludes that kola is in no sense a food ; that it increases the total urinary water with a slight reduction of its total solids, and a marked reduction of the extractive; that it has a peculiar stimulant action on the nervous system, temporarily strengthens the heart-beat, and in- creases the arterial tension. In times of exertion and fasting it wards off the sense of mental and physical depression and exhaus- tion, Asa therapeutic agent in convalescence, and as an antag- onist to alcoholic sequel, kola has not yielded any positive results in surgeon Firth’s hands. For the purification of water it does not appear to be superior to other mucilaginous seeds, its action being purely mechanical. In this report due prominence is given to the importance of separating seeds which contain no caffeine, such as Garcina kola and Sterculéa cordzfolza, as these would speedily discredit the employment of kola by the troops under con- ditions when it might possibly be of service. It appears that an infusion, from its astringent action, might be used for those suffer- ing from diarrhcea. NEAR-SIGHTEDNESS, — Dr. Duclaux has communicated to the Academy of Sciences, in the name of Dr. Boucheron, says the Paris correspondent of The Medzcal Record, a note relative to hereditary myopia and its treatment in adolescence. The children of myopes are not born myopes; they become so, but at an age more and more young, according as generations succeed. Thus, a grandfather who became myopic at twenty years, having a son myopic at fifteen years, they would both have a slight myopia, and would be able to read without spectacles in their old age; but their grandchildren will become myopic at twelve years, and will already have been so to a great degree. The great-grandson will be a myope at eight years, will arrive at six dioptrics of myopia at fifteen years, at eight dioptrics at thirty years, will lose an eye at thirty-five years, and will have great difficulty in preserving his second eye to the end of his days. It is therefore necessary that this state of things should be more rigorously attended to. Dr, Boucheron re- marked that in children somewhat the same thing happens with the muscles of the eye as what occurs in writer’s cramp. The child strains in writing, contracts himself, and there is produced cramp of the accommodation of the eye, and this abnormal accom- modation tends to become permanent in myopic pupils. Dr, Boucheron examined one hundred lycéens, and took the measure of their myopia. He instilled atropine into their eyes, and their myopia was modified. Hence, beyond the principles of hygiene, so easy to institute, he recommends the employment, in feeble doses, of atropine, duboisine, or simply cocaine. EAU DE COLOGNE TIPPLING, — It is said that the practice of drinking cologne is becoming very common both in Europe and in this country, and, as an indication of this, that the sale of the per- fume has increased greatly of late years. Women are more ad- dicted to the habit than men, and a writer in the Quarterly Jour- nal of Inebriety says that the presence of obscure and complex nervous disorders in a woman who uses cologne externally should always suggest the possibility of its internal use. HYGIENE CONGRESS, — The Hygiene Congress at Paris brought its labors to a close on Aug. 10. Among the subjects discussed during the week was that of the pollution of rivers. The congress decided, says ature, that the pollution of underground water- courses and of rivers by the residue of factories should in principle be forbidden, and that water from factories should not flow into a stream till it had been proved to be absolutely free from all injurious substances. The congress was strongly of opinion that the most perfect method of purification was by irrigation. This, of course, must, in certain cases, be preceded by such mechanical and chemi- cal processes as would render the water fit for agricultural purposes. It was related that many manufacturers had benefited by the appli- cation of the law, as in their efforts to prevent the pollution of watercourses they had made discoveries enabling them to utilize waste products. The difficulty was with the smaller manufacturers, who were not rich enough to take the necessary measures. The congress decided that where persistent resistance was displayed 148 the authorities should themselves execute the works prescribed for the purification of the water, and compel the persons interested to pay the cost. NOTES AND NEWS. THE United States Hay Fever Association held its sixteenth annual meeting on the 27th of August, at Bethlehem, N.H. — The Congress of Physiological Psychology held in Paris re- cently is considered to have been very successful. It was decided that a second meeting should be held in 1892, either in London or in Cambridge, during the month of August. — A company has been organized in Brussels for the purpose of constructing a railway from Matadi to Stanley Falls on the Kongo. The road, as projected, will have a length of about 270 miles, and is intended to surmount the difficulties of traffic on the cataract region of the lower Kongo. — Captain Phythian, the Superintendent of the Naval Observatory, Washington, states that the preparations for the expedition to Africa to observe the total eclipse of the sun, which occurs in De- cember next, are being actively pushed forward. The smallness of the appropriation by Congress for this work, $5,000, necessitates careful expenditures, and it will be impossible to send the expedi- tion to St. Paul de Loando, where the observations will take place, except on a Government vessel. The expedition will sail about Oct. I. — An ancient treatise on anatomy has been unearthed at the Royal Library at Berlin. It was written in Latin in 1304, by Henry de Mondeville, professor of surgery at Paris and Montpelier, and body-surgeon to Philip le Bel. Surgeon de Mondeville was at one time on English soil as an army surgeon, and his death took place in 1318. The book has never been printed. It is valuable as throwing light upon a period concerning whose medical history there is but little known. — A.J. Drexel, banker, of Philadelphia, proposes to purchase land, construct the necessary buildings, and provide for the main- tenance of instructors and all things necessary for the establish- ment of an industrial institute for young men and women that will be capable of accommodating a thousand of each sex. This plan is a substitute for one proposed some time since, to establish an industrial college for girls in the country, near Phiiadelphia. It was found that there were several serious obstacles to such a pro- ject, and in its stead Mr. Drexel undertakes to establish and main- tain this larger and more general institute. The institute will probably be modeled somewhat after the Cooper Institute of New York, and it is expected that the cost will be about a million and a half of dollars. — A new Austrian patented process for silvering articles of iron is thus described: The article is first plunged in a pickle of hot dilute hydrochloric acid, whence it is removed to a solution of mer- cury nitrate, and connected with thezinc pole of a Bunsen element, gas carbon of platinum serving as the other pole. It is rapidly covered with a layer of quicksilver, when it is removed, washed, and transferred to a silver bath and silvered. By heating to 572 degrees F. the mercury is driven off, and the silver firmly fixed on the iron. To save silver the wire can be first covered with a layer of tin; 1 part of cream of tartar is dissolved in 8 parts of boiling water, and one or more tin anodes are joined with the carbon pole of a Bunsen element. The zinc pole communicates with a well- cleaned piece of copper, and the battery is made to act till enough tin has deposited on the copper, when this is taken out and the ironware put inits place. The wire thus covered with tin chemi- cally pure and silvered is much cheaper than any other silvered metals. —Mr.M. E. Allison of Hutchinson, Kan., in a letter to The Amerzcan Field, says, ‘“‘ An experience I had lately with a quail (Bob White) was so interesting to me, I thought it might interest some of my brother sportsmen who are better acquainted with the habits of the quail than I am, In the corner of our coursing park there was a quail’s nest, and it was so near to the road that when SCIENCE. [Vou. XIV. No. 34 we would be passing by it, to and from the park, the old quail — would fly away, and it was always the male bird. My never seeing the female around there is what attracted my attention; and I noticed that the male was crippled in one leg, and only used onein hopping about, and appeared to be crippled otherwise. There were twelve eggs in the nest, and after ten or twelve days from the time I first noticed it the young brood all hatched, and the old male bird took them and left the nest. The female bird was never seen anywhere in that neighborhood by myself or any of the men at work there, and some of us were there every day; but we never failed to find him on the nest. I came to the conclusion that some- one had killed the female while she was laying the eggs, and at the same time wounded the male; and he, knowing his companion was — gone, took charge of the nest and set on the eggs, hatched them, and is now raising the little orphans on his own hook. If these are the facts, and it seems to be so, is it not a very remarkable case?” — Ata recent meeting of the Paris Geographical Society, M. G. Rolland contributed some valuable data to the discussion, recently carried on between him and M. E. Blanc, on the subject of the yield of artesian wells in north Africa. After expressing his agree- ment with M. Blanc regarding the fundamental principles which regulate artesian basins generally, he proceeded to controvert the latter’s assertion that in the case of the Ued Rir the admitted gain ~ in the yield of water was not in proportion to the number of new wells sunk. M. Rolland adduced a table, recently compiled by him and M. Jus, showing the number of French wells in the Ued Rir, their total output’per minute, and the average output of each well for the nine years ending in June, 1889. In 1880 there were 64 wells, with a total yield of 22,865 gallons a minute, or an aver- age of 357; in 1889 there were 127 wells, with a total yield of 44,908 gallons a minute, or an average of 354, showing that while | ie the number of wells had doubled, the yield had very nearly doubled also. He admitted that in certain parts of the Ued Rir, notably the central part, the limit of yield had been reached. He con- cluded by suggesting that there should be some authority to regu-, late the number and position of all new wells to be sunk. — Henry L. Bolley, assistant botanist at the Indiana Agricultu- ral Experiment Station, Purdue University, thus sums up the re- sults of some investigations on wheat rust recently made by him. The rusting of wheat is due to the attacks of several species of minute fungi. The disease is propagated by means of various spores, one form of which is developed upon various determined and undetermined plants, mostly weeds. ‘This side form is not, as yet, proved to be essential to the continued life of the parasites, but its destruction decreases*the danger from serious attacks of the disease. One species (P. rubzgo-vera) in its uredo stage is able to pass the winter in the tissues of the young wheat plant. In warm weather, any conditions of the soil or atmosphere which tend to keep the wheat leaves constantly wet are conducive to the rapid spread of the disease. Low-lying, rich soils are most subject to the disease. No variety of wheat is known to be rust proof, yet — some possess greater powers of resistance than others. Thoughnot proved, an excess of nitrogen in the soil is to be considered, proba- bly, as liable to produce wheat easily affected by rust. If fertilizers are to be applied to such lands, those containing only inorganic elements are most advantageous so far as immunity against rust is concerned. In districts liable to severe visitations of the disease, early-ripening wheats are to be preferred. — Henry Shaw, a well-known philanthropist of St. Louis, died on Aug. 25 in that city. He was an Englishman, and at the age of nineteen years he came to this country, settling in St. Louis in 1819, where he embarked in the hardware business. After twenty years of commercial life he amassed a sufficient fortune to enable him to retire from business. He made a tour of the world, occupying about ten years in travel. On his return to St. Louis he began the study and cultivation of plants and flowers, and it was in the prose- cution of these studies that the botanical gardens containing fifty acres, near Tower Grove Park, had their origin. He made the park and gardens free to the public, and now, with his death, the gardens become the property of the State of Missouri. Tower Grove Park, comprising 350 acres, becomes the property of the / AuGUST 30, 1889. | city. The Shaw estate is estimated to be worth $2,500,000, and it is thought the greater part will be left to St. Louis’ in various be- quests. 5 y ir i tion of Mikawa in Honsha. — The Royal Danish Academy of Sciences invites research on the following among other subjects : Compounds of alcohol radicals with copper, silver, or gold, and compounds of polyvalent alcohol radicals with metals (all unknown at present): prize, a gold medal. The fatty acids in the fat of butter; to be isolated and determined, and relations indicated especially between the quantities of oleic acid and those of palmitic acid and their higher homologues : prize about $160. The AZycorhzze of the beech; are they different in different kinds of humus? does the structure of the mycelium give a basis for classification ? is there a reciprocal symbiosis, the fungus preparing food for the plant, etc.: prize, about $160. Memoirs to be sent to Professor Zeuthen of Copenhagen before Oct. 31, 1890, ex- cept in the last case, for which the. date is Oct. 31, 1891. — The drawf trees which the Japanese horticulturists are show- ing at the Paris Exhibition are attracting much attention. Pines, thujas, and cedars, said to be one hundred or one hundred and fifty years old, are only eighteen inches high, and with such speci- mens, as Garden and Forest says, it would be easy to have a coniferous forest on a balcony. These arboreal deformities are produced by great labor, and, if the truth is told about their ages, this work of arresting the tree’s development and forcing it into contorted forms must be persisted in by several generations of for- esters. All this painstaking is hardly paid for by the beauty of the resulting abortions, but, as has been suggested, a look at these trees will explain where the fantastic forms come from which serve as models for the plants we see on the jacquered trays, bronzes, and embroideries which come from Japan. — Until recently very little was known of the fossil flora of Ja- pan. The first systematic treatment of it is found in the work of Dr. H. T. Geyler who, in 1877, described and figured twelve spe- cies of jurassic plants collected by Dr. J. Rein in the valley of the Tetorigawa in Kaga. Three years later the same author referred to the occurrence of Carfinus grandis Unger in the tertiary forma- This was the only literature relating to the fossil flora of Japan down to the year 1881, when for the first time, Professor A. G. Nathorst of Stockholm published a prelimi- nary communication on more than seventy species of tertiary plants collected by Professor Nordenskiold on his visit to Japan during the famous Vega expedition around the Asiatic continent. This ~ work was soon followed by a more complete one, in which leaves collected by Hilgendorf are also described. The work principally treats of the young pliocene, or, perhaps, the oldest quaternary flora of Mogi, a very important group, from which the author was able to draw interesting conclusions as to the origin and climatic relations of the recent flora. In this work he also mentions twelve species of the older tertiary plants from Ezo (Hokkaido) and Hon- shu determined by Leo Lesquereux, but which were up to that time yet unpublished. During the last two years the Geological Survey has sent to Professor Nathorst a large collection of tertiary plants for investigation, on a part of which he has already drawn up a brief preliminary report. These were exclusively from northern and central Japan. For the most part they belonged to the older tertiary, corresponding in age to the floras of Sachalin and Alaska. Professor Nathorst mentions in this paper plants collected by Mr. Petersen at Nagasaki. About these, and the plants last sent, chiefly including those of Shikoku and Kyushu, he will write other memoirs. By the study of these fossils quite a comprehensive idea may be formed regarding the tertiary flora of Japan; but as to the mesozoic flora nothing further has been done since the publication of the work by Dr. Geyler. Since Dr. Rein’s discovery of jurassic plants, the valley of the Tetorigawa has been twice visited by ge- ologists. The first visit, a very short one, was made in 1880 by Dr. B. Koto. On his return he made a brief report, accompanied - by asketch-map of the river valley and four geological sections. The second and more extensive visit was undertaken by Mr. Ta- datsugu Kochibe. In 1883 the Imperial Geological Survey under- took the reconnoisance of various parts of central Japan, one of which was a region including the provinces of Kaga, Hida, Echi- zen, and Etchu, between the parallels of 35° and 37° north lati- SCLENCE 149 tude. The survey was conducted by Mr. T. Kochibe as geologist and Mr. K. Kodari as topographer. This survey, which lasted three months, brought back many interesting fossils, some of which, together with those formerly collected by Dr. Koto, form the sub- ject of a paper, by Matajiro Yokoyama, recently published in the Journal of the College of Science of the Imperial University of Ja- pan. Asa detailed account of this survey will appear in future reports of the Geological Survey, the gentleman mentioned merely indicates briefly the general outline of the geographical and geo- logical features of this part of Japan. —In February of this year, the Deutsche Heeres-Zettung gave some interesting particulars of the new, almost smokeless powders which are being made by the united Rhine and Westphalian fac- tories. With a o,5-centimetre Krupp gun, 35 calibres long, an initial velocity of 527 metres was given to a projectile of 18 kilo- grams, with 3.9 kilograms of the powder, under a pressure of 1,955 atmospheres. It is now reported that, at a subsequent trial with the same gun, a projectile of 18.15 kilograms received an initial velocity of 542 metres, with a pressure of only 1,942 atmos- pheres, 4 kilograms of the powder being used, while, when the charge was increased to 4.5 kilograms the velocity was 586 metres, and the average pressure 2,300 atmospheres. The follow- ing are the results with another variety of the same large-grain powder. With a 12-centimetre gun and projectile or 26.2 kilo- grams: Charge, 5 kilograms; velocity, 472 metres; pressure, 1,240 atmospheres. Charge, 7.5 kilograms ; velocity, 621 metres; pressure, 2,270 atmospheres. Gun of 13 centimetres, and projectile of between 30.01 and 30.27 kilograms: Charge, 5.5 kilograms ; velocity, 512 metres ; pressure, 1,340 atmospheres : Charge, 6.5 kilo- grams; velocity, 625 metres; pressure, 2,010 atmospheres. Gun of 15 centimetres, and projectile of 51.5 kilograms: Charge, 10 kilograms; velocity, 501 metres; pressure, 1,630 atmospheres. Charge, 14 kilograms; velocity, 617 metres; pressure, 2,550 at- mospheres. i —In summing up the Maybrick case, Justice Stephen’s remarks were rather severe upon expert testimony, medical and other. He warned the jury about the uncertainty of medical science, or rather art, and reminded them of the old saying which described a doctor as “a man who passed his time in putting drugs of which he knew little into a body of which he knew less.” He also had a fling at the experts in other fields who appear before parliamentary com- mittees and the like. He said a man going on the stand, and “calling himself this, that, or the other, by no means qualified him to receive unhesitating belief.’ “ A great deal of what he might call scum had to be taken off the testimony of skilled witnesses, for — of course, probably insensibly to themselves — they were apt to become advocates rather than witnesses.” — Some new light on the subject of indirect vision, i.e., vision with the lateral parts of the retina, is thrown by recent experiments made by Kirschmann, and reported in ature. The common idea that the sensitiveness of the retina diminishes outwards to the periphery appears to be incorrect. There is an objective diminu- tion of light-cction when a source of light is moved away laterally from the middle of the field of vision, for the mass of penetrating light gets less. Hence, were the diminishing sensitiveness a fact, a luminous surface should seem to lose brightness when moved to the side; but it does not, though it appears less distinct in outline and modified in color. Kirschmann placed two rotatory disks made up of moveable black and white sectors, giving any degree of brightness, before the observer; who shut one eye, and looked at the middle of one disk, about a metre and a half from him, while he gave his attention to comparing the brightness of the second disk, seen at different angels, by indirect vision. The figures from numerous experiments prove that in the horizontal meridian the sensibility to brightness has a maximum at 22° to 25° from the centre, while in the vertical direction the maximum is at 12° to 15°. The growth of sensibility is much greater in the horizontal than in the vertical direction, and the upper part of the retina is superior in this respect to the lower. . This corresponds to the needs of vision. Indirect vision with lateral parts of the retina is more im- portant than that with the upper and lower regions, and the upper half is more important than the lower. 150 SCIENCE: 4 WEERLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY Ne eDia Ce En OnDI GEES): 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YorK. SuBSCRIPTIONS.— United States and Canada...............+.- -$3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe...............-0...- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): x subscription r year,.......- podcdesosscacssagdsada $ 3.50 2 a TGSY,EAL clan's elelelel=\a)-[=! \ele'm =[-inie|=\nclaleis!=t=ialnl= 6.00 3 i TAYCAN. «1n\01= so bicicine =\*/=\=\eis'*/=1*\-eie\n\0[s/n\e1 145 The World’s Fair. — Laws on the THe Wor.p’s FAIR OF 1802., ....--. 146 Destruction of Weeds. Evectricat News. Mr. WaLLAcE ON DarwWINISM...... . 150 Atmospheric Electricity......-..... 147 | Boox-REVIEWS. A New Lamp...........-- +. +--- 147 Stellar Evolution and its Relation to HEALTH Marrters. Geological Time...........-..-. 155 The Kola-Nut........ ........+.-- 147 | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS....-..-. .- 155 ON MONDAY OF THIS WEEK the executive branch of the com- mittee on site and buildings for the World’s Fair held its first meet- ing in the committee rooms in the Zzmes building. The members present were Charles A. Dana, chairman; John Foord, secretary ; ex-Mayor Grace, Henry R. Towne, Isidor Straus, Samuel Gompers, C. F. Chandler, and John H. Starin. On motion of Mr. Towne it was resolved that Central Park, as a site for the fair, be excluded from immediate consideration. It was also decided to lay aside, for the present at least, all suggestions in regard to sites not on or near Manhattan Island, and to divide the water front and inland site propositions into two groups for separate consideration. Ac- cordingly the secretary was requested to organize two excursions for a personal inspection by the committee of all the sites deemed worthy of examination. The first trip was on the water, starting from the foot of; East Thirty-second Street at 12 o’clock Wednes- day, Mr. Starin supplying the steamer. As Randall’s, Blackwell’s, and Ward's Islans have been suggested for consideration, the com- mittee decided to invite the presidents of the board of charities and correction and the board of emigration to join the excursion party. The trip was continued up to Pelham Bay Park and other available water-front plots. The second excursion was fixed for Thursday, but the hour and place were left open. The New-York Central Railroad Company has offered a special car for the use of the com- mittee on its inland trip, which will probably be largely devoted to SCIENCE. Pacts [VoL XIV. “Nos 3488 the annexed district. Whatever conclusions the committee reach will be reported to the main committee for approval or rejection. While the committee was in session Mr. Erastus Wiman called to recommend certain sites on Staten Island. The committee spent considerable time in looking over the scores of suggestions as to sites. The work of sorting was not an easy task, but the sifting process resulted in a list of a dozen or twenty. IT Is ONE of the self-evident truths that the grounds of neat and painstaking farmers and gardeners should not be permitted to be- come annually seeded with weeds from the lands of their more slovenly neighbors. It seems that in Wisconsin there is on the - statute books a law intended to prevent this injustice, and which needs only to be enforced to accomplish much good. This law does not, as is pointed out in a recent bulletin of the agricultural station of the University of Wisconsin, demand the destruction of all pernicious weeds, but it is aimed at the principal offenders, and if these can be kept under subjection by its means, the damages from these pests on the farm will be materially reduced. It is a matter of interest that all the weeds condemned in the law were introduced into this country from Europe. There are, it is true, native species of the cocklebur, but Dr. Gray believes that the one that has become a troublesome weed, and has very justly been in- cluded in the weed law, is not native, but has been naturalized here. The fact that these troublesome weeds have invaded our country from other continents, and, despite the efforts that have been put forth for their destruction, have spread themselves over so many of our farms, illustrates how great is their power to cope with conditions, and emphasizes the importance of vigorous con- certed action to keep them under subjection. ee re See oe aes oe ep MR. WALLACE ON DARWINISM.? TO ALL who have read the life and letters of the late Mr. Dar- win it must appear that, over and above the personal and scientific interest which attaches in so high a degree to that admirable biog- raphy, there is what may be termed a dramatic interest. The an- tecedents of Charles Darwin, the Sir Isaac Newton of biology, in Charles Darwin, the undergraduate at Cambridge — hitherto un- conscious of his own powers, and waking up to a love of science under the guiding influence of a beautiful friendship; the delight and the diffidence which attended his nomination by Professor Henslow as a suitable naturalist for the “‘ Beagle’’ expedition; the uncertainty which afterwards marked the course of negotiations between his family on the one hand, and the Admiralty on the other, wherein issues of incalculable importance were turning and re-turning in the balance of chance, determined this way and that by the merest featherweights of circumstance; the eventual sud- denness of a decision which was destined to end not only, as his father anticipated, in an “unsettling” of his own views, but also, and to a never paralleled degree, in the unsettling of the views of all mankind; the subsequent dawning upon his mind of the truth of evolution in the light of his theory of natural selection, and the working out of that theory during twenty years of patient devotion in the quiet retirement of an English country life; the bursting of the storm in 1859, and all the history of the great transformations © which have followed ; — these in their broadest outlines are some of what I have ventured to call the dramatic elements in the records : of Mr. Darwin's life. f : Now, not least among these dramatic elements is the relation in } which Mr. Darwin’s work stood to that of Mr. Wallace. For as- ; suredly it was in the highest degree dramatic, that the great idea” r Ce ee ey tee) area ee ee ee ee oe eT 2. a er of natural selection should have occurred independently and in precisely the same form to two working naturalists; that these 4 naturalists should have been countrymen; that they should have agreed to publish their theory on the same day; and last, but not least, that, through the many years of strife and turmoil which fol- lowed, these two English naturalists consistently maintained to- wards each other such feelings of magnanimous recognition, that 1 From the Contemporary Review. it is hard to say whether we should most admire the intellectual or the moral qualities which, in relation to their common labors, they have displayed. } Now, I have sought to lay emphasis on this the dramatic side of “ Darwinism,” because in the work which under this title I am about to review, it appears to me that Mr. Wallace has added yet another scene, or episode, which, in the respects we are consider- ing, is quite worthy of all that has gone before. I do not allude merely to the fact that in this work we have the matured conclu- sions of the joint-originator of Darwinian doctrine, published most opportunely at a time when biological science is especially anxious to learn his views upon certain questions of the highest importance which have been raised since the death of Darwin; nor do I allude merely to the-further fact that in now speaking out, after nearly a decade of virtual silence on scientific topics, the veteran naturalist has displayed an energy of investigation as well as a force of thought which is everywhere equal to, and in many places sur- passes, anything that is to be met with in all the solid array of his previous works. That these facts present what I call the dramatic side I fully allow; but the point which in this connection I desire to bring into special prominence is the following. It is notorious that, from the time when they published their joint theory of evolution by natural selection, Darwin and Wallace ' tailed to agree upon certain points of doctrine, which, although of comparatively small importance in relation to any question of evo- lution considered as a fact, were, and still continue to be, of the highest possible importance in relation to the question of evolution ’ considered as a method; i.e., in relation to the causes or factors which have been concerned in the process. It was the opinion of Mr. Darwin that natural selection has been the chief, but not the only, cause of organic evolution ; while, in the opinion of Mr. Wal- ‘Jace, natural selection has been the all and in all of such evolution, — virtually the sole and only principle which has been concerned in the development both of life and of mind from the amceba to the ape, — although he further and curiously differs from Darwin in an opposite direction, by holding that natural selection can have had absolutely no part at all in the development of faculties dis- tinctively human. Disregarding the latter and subordinate point of difference, — a re-presentation of which in the concluding chapters of his present work, 1 may however remark, appears to me sadly like the feet of clay in a figure of iron, marring by its manifest weakness what would otherwise have been a completed and self- consistent monument of strength, —let us first clearly understand to what it is that the major point of difference amounts. This may best be done by quoting from each of the authors in question par- allel passages, which occur in the concluding paragraphs of their latest works. Mr. Darwin writes: ‘‘I have now recapitulated the facts and considerations which have thoroughly convinced me that species - have been modified during a long course of descent. This has been effected chiefly through the natural selection of numerous successive, slight, favorable variations, aided in an important man- ner by the inherited effects of the use and disuse of paits; and in an unimportant manner, that is in relation to adaptive structures, whether past or present, by the direct action of external conditions, and by variations which seem to us in our ignorance to arise spon- taneously. It appears that I formerly underrated the frequency and value of these latter forms of variation, as leading to perma- nent modifications of structure independently of natural selection. But as my conclusions have lately been much misrepresented, and it has been stated that I attribute the modification of species ex- clusively to natural selection, I may be permitted to remark that in the first edition of this work, and subsequently, I placed in a most conspicuous position — namely, at the close of the introduction — the following words: ‘I am convinced that natural selection has been the main, but not the exclusive, means of modification.’ This has been of no avail. Great is the power of steady misrepresenta- tion; but the history of science shows that fortunately this power does not long endure.” Mr. Wallace writes: “ While admitting, as Darwin always ad- mitted, the co-operation of the fundamental laws of growth and variation, of correlation and heredity, in determining the direction of lines of variation or in the initiation of peculiar organs, we find SCIENCE. 151 that variation and natural selection are ever-present agencies, which take possession, as it were, of every minute change origi- nated by these fundamental causes, check or favor their further development, or modify them in countless varied ways according to the varying needs of the organism. Whatever other causes have been at work, natural selection is supreme, to an extent which even Darwin himself hesitated to claim for it. The more we study it, the more we are convinced of its overpowering importance, and the more confidently we claim, in Darwin’s own words, that it ‘has been the most important, but not the exclusive, means of modifica- tion.’ ” , Now, in the latter quotation it is manifest that the “co-opera- tion’ which is spoken of takes cognizance only of factors which are themselves either necessary conditions to, or integral parts of, the process of natural selection ; and, therefore, the approval which Mr. Wallace bestows upon Mr. Darwin’s emphatic reservation — “but not exclusive means of modification” —can only be understood to have reference to the development of those distinctively human faculties which he immediately proceeds to consider, and touching which, as already indicated, Mr. Darwin’s reservation was certainly not intended to apply. Thus, in brief, at the time of Mr. Darwin’s death the state of matters was this: while Mr. Wallace held per- sistently to his original belief in natural selection as virtually the sole and only cause of organic evolution, the whole body of scien- tific opinion, both in this country and abroad, had followed Mr. Darwin in holding that, while natural selection was “the main” factor of such evolution, nevertheless it was largely supplemented in its work by certain other subordinate factors, of which the most important were taken to be the inherited effects of use and disuse, together with the influence of the environment in directly producing alterations both of structure and of instinct. Shortly after Mr. Darwin’s death, however, this state of matters underwent avery serious change. For it was shortly after Mr. Darwin’s death that Professor Weismann began to publish a re- markable series of papers, the effect of which has been to create a new literature of such large and rapidly increasing proportions that, with the single exception of Mr. Darwin’s own works, it does not appear that any publications in modern times have given so great a stimulus to speculative science, or succeeded in gaining so in- fluential a following. The primary object of these papers is to establish a new theory of heredity, which has for one of its conse- quences a denial of the inherited effects of use and disuse, or, in- deed, of any other characters which are acquired during the life- time of individuals. According to this theory, the only kind of variations that can be transmitted to progeny are those which are called congenital. For instance, there is no doubt that in his individual lifetime the arms of a blacksmith have their muscular power increased by con- stant exercise or use of the muscles in hammering ; and therefore, if there were a thousand generations of blacksmiths, it seems rea- sonable to suppose that the children of the last of them would in- herit somewhat stronger arms than those of average children, — or, a fortzorz, than those of children born of a similarly long line, say, of watchmakers. This was the supposition that constituted the basis of Lamarck’s theory of evolution, and, as we have seen, it was sanctioned by Darwin; although, of course, he differed from Lamarck in not regarding this supposed transmission of the effects of.use and disuse as the sole factor of evolution, but merely as a factor greatly subordinate to that which he had himself discovered in survival of the fittest. Nevertheless, he unquestionably did re- gard this subordinate factor as one of high importance in co-opera- tion with survival of the fittest, and, as Mr. Herbert Spencer has shown in detail, he apparently attributed more and more impor- tance to it the longer that he considered its relation to the greater principle. But, as we have just seen, according to the school of Weismann it is only variations of a congenital kind that can be inherited. No matter what adaptive changes may be induced in the individual by suitable use and disuse of its several parts, and no matter what adaptive changes may be directly caused by environing agencies, these all count for nothing in the process of evolution. The only adaptive changes that can count for anything in this process are those which can be transmitted to progeny ; i.e., according to this 152 school, those which arise fortuitously as congenital variations, for the accidental occurrence of which natural selection is always, so to speak, waiting and watching. The human hand, for example, considered as a mechanism, owes nothing to its continued use through numberless generations as an instrument for the perform- ance of functions which it is now so admirably adapted to dis- charge; on the contrary, its evolution has throughout been ex- clusively dependent on the occurrence of fortuitous variations, which, whenever they happen to occur in a profitable direction, were preserved by natural selection, and passed on to the next generation. Now, it is evident that, according to this theory, nat- ural selection is constituted the one and only cause of organic evolution ; and for this reason the followers of Weismann are in the habit of calling his doctrine “ pure Darwinism,” inasmuch as without invoking any aid from the Lamarckian principles above de- scribed, it constitutes the Darwinian principle of natural selection the sole, and not merely as he said the “‘ main, means of modification.” Obviously, without going further than this quotation, which I have already made from the last edition of the “ Origin of Species,” it is a misnomer to designate the doctrine in question “pure Dar- winism.” That quotation presents the only note of bitterness which is to be met with in the whole range of Mr. Darwin's writ- ings, and it is a note which has express reference to this very point. Notwithstanding the multifarious directions in which his doctrines were abused, the only protest against “steady misrepresentation ” that he has ever allowed himself to lodge, he lodged against those who imputed to him this so-called doctrine of “pure Darwinism.” On the other hand, it is no less manifest that this doctrine, although not pure Darwinism, assuredly is, and always has been, pure “Wallaceism.” In point of fact, it is with reference to this very doctrine of natural selection as the sole cause of organic evolution that the opinion of these two renovators of biology has been from the first divided. It is upon this point, and upon this point alone, that there has ever been any serious difference between them, — for, as we shall presently find, every other point in which they failed to agree, save with respect to the origin of man, has a direct logical reference to this one, or grows out of this one by way of logical consequence. And here we arrive at what seems to me the dramatic interest attaching to Mr. Wallace’s latest work. On the present occasion I am not going to consider the pros and the cons of the momentous question which has’always divided his teaching from that of his great compatriot. But, whether he is right or whether he is wrong he has lived to see a most extraordinary revolution of biologica} thought in the direction of opinions which have always been dis- tinctively his own, and which for a large part of a lifetime he has been virtually alone in maintaining. Yet, notwithstanding the gratification with which Mr. Wallace must have watched this remarkable change within the last few years, there is in his recently published book no sound of exultation, On the contrary, his aim eyerywhere appears to be that of conceal- ing his personal interest in this matter; and so well does he suc- ceed that, after having finished his book, not one in a hundred of his readers will be in a position to surmise that for more than a quarter of a century their author has steadily maintained the opin- ions which are now being adopted by an influential and rapidly increasing body of evolutionists. Therefore, it is partly for the sake of drawing attention to a claim which Mr. Wallace character- istically abstains from making on his own behalf that I ventured to write this review of his latest work. If ever there was an occasion when a man of science might have felt himself justified in express- ing a personal gratification at the turning of a tide of scientific opinion, assuredly such an occasion is the present; and in which- ever direction the truth may eventually be found to lie, historians of science should not omit to notice that in the very hour when his. lifelong belief is gaining so large a measure of support Mr. Wal- lace quietly accepts the fact without one word of triumph. To me individually it does not appear that the recent movement: of scientific opinion in the direction of ‘“‘ Wallaceism”’ is scientific-- ally justifiable; and therefore I remain an adherent of ‘“ Darwin~ ism,” as this was left by the matured judgment of Darwin. For,. on the one hand, I cannot find that the school of Weismann has. SCIENCE: added anything of importance to the body of facts previously — known; while, on the other hand, I do find that Professor — Weismann himself is put to the sorest straits while trying to main- tain his theory in the presence of some of these facts. So that, while fully recognizing the extraordinary ability with which he has marshalled his evidence, — and also, it may be added, the great service which he has rendered to biological science in raising cer- tain questions of the highest possible importance in the acutest possible form, —I must still confess that to my mind there does not seem to have been hitherto shown any adequate reason to pass from the theory of evolution as this was always held by Darwin, to the theory of evolution as it has always been held by Wallace. — Therefore I am free to conclude this article by briefly considering the points upon which Wallace, in his matured publication on “ Darwinism,” expressly differs from the teachings of Darwin. As already stated, all these points of difference, with the one ex- ception as to the origin of man, arise by way of logical necessity from the great or radical difference which we have hitherto been considering; viz., as to whether natural selection is only the “main” or actually “ the exclusive means of modification.” Never- theless, it is desirable to consider what Mr. Wallace has to say upon these secondary or sequent points of difference, because, by examining them in the light of the diverse facts which they severally involve, we may obtain valuable material for guiding our judgment upon the larger issue. ; Sexual Selection. Against Mr. Darwin's theory of sexual selection, —i.e., selection which depends on the superior power which males may be sup- posed to present in the way of charming their females, — Mr. Wallace urges the following objections, which, in his opinion, are sufficient to dispose of the theory z7 ¢ofo. In the first place, he argues that the principal cause of the greater brilliancy of male animals in general, and of male birds in particu- lar, is that they do not so much stand in need of protection arising from concealment as is the case with their respective females. ‘Consequently natural selection is not so active in repressing brill- iancy of color in the males, or, which amounts to the same thing, is more active in “repressing in the female those bright colors which are normally produced in both sexes by general laws.” Next, he argues that not only does natural selection thus exer- cise a negative influence in passively permitting more heightened color to appear in the males, but even exercises a positive influence — in actively promoting its development in the males, while, at the — same time, actively repressing its appearance in the females. For. heightened color, he says, is correlated with health and vigor; and as there can be no doubt that healthy and vigorous birds best pro-_ vide for their young, natural selection, by always placing its pre- mium on health and vigor in the males, thus also incidentally pro- motes, through correlated growth, their superior coloration. Again, with regard to the display which is practised by male birds, and which constitutes the strongest of all Mr. Darwin’s arguments in favor of sexual selection, Mr. Wallace points out that there is no evidence at all of the females being in any way affected thereby. On the other hand, he argues that this display may be due merely to general excitement; and he lays stress upon the more special fact that movable feathers are habitually erected un- der the influence of anger and rivalry, in order to make the bird look more formidable in the eyes of his antagonists. Furthermore, he adduces the consideration that, even if the females are in any way affected by color and its display on the part of the males, and if, therefore, sexual selection be conceded a true principle in theory, still we must remember that, as a matter of fact, it can only operate in so far as it is allowed to operate by nat- ural selection. Now, according to Mr. Wallace, natural selection must wholly neutralize any such supposed influence of sexual selec- tion. For, unless the survivors in the general struggle for existence happen to be those which are also the most highly ornamented, natural selection must neutralize and destroy any influence that may be exerted by female selection. But obviously the chances against the otherwise best fitted males happening to be likewise the most highly ornamented must be many fo one, unless, as Wal- lace supposes, there is some correlation between embellishment and general perfection, in which case, as he points out, the theory of sexual selection lapses altogether, and becomes but a special case of natural selection. _ Once more, Mr. Wallace argues that the evidence collected by Mr. Darwin himself proves that each bird finds a mate under any circumstances, — a general fact which in itself must quite neutral- ize any effect of sexual selection of color or ornament, since the less highly colored birds would be at no disadvantage as regards the leaving of healthy progeny, Lastly, he urges the high improbability that through thousands of generations all the females of any particular species — possibly Spread over an enormous area — should uniformly and always have _ displayed exactly the same taste with respect to every detail of color to be presented by the males. Now, without any question, we have here a most powerful array / of objections against the theory of sexual selection. Each of them is ably developed by Mr. Wallace himself in his work on tropical nature; and although J have here space only to state them in the most abbreviated of possible forms, I think it will be apparent how formidable these objections appear. Unfortunately the work in which they are mainly presented was published several years after the second edition of the ‘‘ Descent of Man,” so that Mr. Darwin never had a suitable opportunity of replying. But, if he had had such an opportunity, as far as I can judge, it seems that his reply would have been more or less as follows : — In the first place, Mr. Wallace fails to distinguish between brill- iancy and ornamentation —or between color as merely “ height- ened,” and as distinctively decorative. Yet there is obviously the greatest possible difference between these two things. We may readily enough admit that a mere heightening of already existing coloration is likely enough — at all events in many cases—to ac- company a general increase of vigor, and therefore that natural selection, by promoting the latter, may also incidentally promote the former, in cases where brilliancy is not a source of danger. But clearly this is a widely different thing from showing that not only a general brilliancy of color, but also the particular disposition of colors in the form of ornamental patterns, can thus be accounted for by natural selection. Indeed, it is expressly in order to account for the occurrence of such ornamental patterns that Mr. Darwin constructed his theory of sexual selection; and therefore, by thus virtually ignoring the only facts which that theory endeavors to ex- plain, Mr. Wallace is not really criticizing the theory at all. By representing that the theory has to do only with brilliancy of color, as distinguished from disposition of colors, he is going off upon a false issue which has never really been raised. Look, for example, at a peacock’s tail. No doubt it is sufficiently brilliant; but far more remarkable than its brilliancy is its elaborate pattern, on the one hand, and its enormous size, on the other. There is no con- ceivable reason why mere brilliancy of color, as an accidental con- comitant of general vigor, should have run into so extraordinary, so elaborate, and so beautiful a pattern of colors. Moreover, this pattern is only unfolded when the tail is erected, and the tail is not erected in battle, as Mr. Wallace’s theory of the erectile function in feathers would require, but in courtship. Obviously, therefore, the design of the pattern, so to speak, is correlated with the act of courtship, — it being only then, in fact, that the general design of the whole structure, as well as the more special design of the pat- tern, becomes revealed. Lastly, the fact of this whole structure being so large, entailing not only a great amount of physiological material in its production, bit also of physiological energy in carry- ing about such a weight, as well as of increased danger from im- peding locomotion and inviting capture, —all this is obviously in- compatible with the supposition of the peacock’s tail having been produced by natural selection. And such a case does not stand alone. There are multitudes of other instances of ornamental structures imposing a drain upon the vital energies of their possessors, without conferring any compen- sating benefit from a utilitarian point of view. Now, in all these cases, without any exception, such structures are ornamental struc- tures which present a plain and obvious reference to the relation- ship of the sexes. Therefore it becomes almost impossible to doubt, first, that they exist for the sake of ornament, and next, that the ornament exists on account of that relationship. If such structures were due merely to a supérabundance of energy, as Mr. Wallace SCIENCE, supposes, not only ought they to have been kept down by the economizing influence of natural selection, but we can see no rea- son, either why they should be so highly ornamental, on the one hand, or so exclusively connected with the sexual relationship, on the other. For these reasons I think that Mr. Wallace’s main objection falls to the ground. Passing on to his subsidiary objections, I do not see much weight in his merely negative difficulty as to there being an absence of evidence upon hen birds being charmed by the plumage or the voice of their consorts. For, on the one hand, it is not very safe to infer what sentiments may be in the mind of a hen; and, on the other hand, it is impossible to conceive what motive can be in the mind of a cock, other than that of making himself attractive, when he performs his various antics, displays his ornamental plumes, or sings his melodious songs. Considera- tions somewhat analogous apply to the difficulty of supposing so much similarity and constancy of taste on the part of female ani- mals as Mr. Darwin’s theory undoubtedly requires. Although we know very little about the psychology of the lower animals, we do observe in many cases that small details of mental organization are often wonderfully constant and uniform throughout all mem- bers of a species, even where it is impossible to suggest any utility as a Cause. Again, as regards the objection that each bird finds a mate un- der any circumstances, we have here an obvious begging of the whole question. That every feathered Jack should find a feathered Jill is perhaps what we might have antecedently expected ; but when we meet with innumerable instances of ornamental plumes, melodious songs, and the rest, as so many witnesses to a process of sexual selection having always been in operation, it becomes irrational to exclude such evidence on account of. our antecedent prepossessions. There remains the objection that the principles of natural selec- tion must necessarily swallow up those of sexual selection, as the fat kine swallowed up the lean in the dream of Pharaoh. And this consideration, I doubt not, lies at the root of all Mr. Wallace’s op- position to the supplementary theory of sexual selection. He is self-consistent in refusing to entertain the evidence of sexual selec- tion, on the ground of his antecedent persuasion that in the great drama of evolution there is no possible standing-ground for any other actor than that which appears in the person of natural selec- tion. But here, again, we must refuse to allow any merely ante- cedent presumption to blind our eyes to the actual evidence of other agencies having co-operated with natural selection in produc- ing the observed results. And, as regards the particular case now béfore us, I think I have shown, as far as space will permit, that in the phenomena of decorative coloring, as distinguished from merely briJliant coloring, of melodious song, as distinguished from merely tuneless cries, of enormous arborescent antlers, as distinguished from merely offensive weapons, and so forth,—I say that in all these phenomena we have phenomena which cannot possibly be explained by the theory of natural selection; and, further, that if they are to be explained at all, this can only be done, so far as we can at present see, by Mr. Darwin’s supplementary theory of sexual selection. I have now briefly answered all Mr. Wallace’s objections to this supplementary theory, and, as previously remarked, I feel pretty confident that, at all events in the main, the answer is such as Mr. Darwin would himself have supplied, had there beena third edition of his work upon the subject. At all events, be this as it may, we are happily in possession of unquestionable evidence that he be- lieved all Mr. Wallace’s objections to admit of fully satisfactory answers. For his very last words to science —read only a few hours before his death at a meeting of the Zoological Society — were, “I may perhaps be here permitted to say, that, after having carefully weighed, to the best of my ability, the various arguments which have been advanced against the principle of sexual selection, I remain firmly convinced of its truth.” Inherited Effects of Use, Disuse, and Direct Action of Environment. We have just seen that one of Mr. Wallace's strongest argu- ments against sexual selection consists in representing @ przorz 154 that there can be no room for the operation of such a principle in the presence of natural selection: the greater principle must swal- low up the less. This @ frzorz argument he extends to all the other supplementary principles which have ever been suggested, and appears to regard it as “a short and easy method ” with the Darwinists. He urges it with special vehemence against the so- called Lamarckian principles, and therefore it is suitable that under this head we should consider more carefully the value of such an argument. In the present connection this argument is that, even admitting the abstract possibility of Lamarckian principles, in the presence of natural selection they could never have an opportunity of acting, inasmuch as the needful changes would be effected by a natural selection of fortuitous variations more rapidly than they could be by an inheritance of the effects of use and disuse. Now this argu- ment admits of two rejoinders. First, it is surely conceivable that in many cases where slight (because initial and afterwards finely graduated) improvements are concerned, such improvements need not have been, in every stage of their progress, matters of life and death to the organisms presenting them. Yet, unless at every stage of their progress they were matters of life and death, they could not have been produced by the unaided influence of natural selection. Now it is just in such cases that the supplementary or Lamarckian principles are supposed by Darwinists to come in; for to the operation of these principles it is not necessary that at each stage of the process every slight improvement should be a matter of life and death to the organisms presenting it. To me it appears that we have here a consideration of the highest importance. Nowadays no one disputes the supremacy of natural selection over all other principles of organic change hitherto suggested, or even, it may be predicted, suggestable. But this acceptance of natural selection as supreme by no means necessitates (as Mr. Wallace appears to imagine) acceptance of natural selection as unique. Nor is there any incompatibility between our acceptance of natural se- lection as supreme and a further acceptance of any other principles as subordinate or co-operative. What we all agree upon is, that no such other principles can act, save in so far as they are allowed to act by natural selection; but to maintain that there can be no room for the action of any other principle hitherto suggested, or in the future suggestable, appears to me extravagant. At all events, the burden of proof must lie with any one who affirms that no adaptive improvement — or, indeed, change of any kind — can ever take place unless every stage in the gradual process has been a matter of life and death to the organisms presenting it, a burden of proof which it is obviously impossible that any one can ever be in a position to discharge. In view of this consideration it seems to me that Mr. Wallace’s @ prior? objection to the abstract possibility of Lamarckian princi- ples falls to the ground, although of course the question remains whether there is any sufficient evidence @ fosterzorz of their opera- tion in actual fact. And a virtual answer to this question appears to me to be involved in the second consideration, which, as above stated, remains to be adduced. Long ago Mr. Herbert Spencer pointed to the facts of co-adap- tation within the limits of the same organism as presenting the strongest possible evidence of Lamarckian principles working in association with Darwinian. Thus, taking one of Lamarck’s own illustrations, Mr. Spencer showed that there must be thousands and thousands of changes — extending to all the organs and even to all the tissues of the animal — which in the course of numberless generations have conspired to turn an antelope into a giraffe. Now the point is that, throughout the entire history of these changes, their utility must have always been dependent on their association. It would be useless that an incipient giraffe should present a tapering down of the hind-quarters, unless at the same time it presented a tapering up of the fore-quarters; and as each of these modifications entails innumerable subordinate modifica- tions throughout both halves of the creature concerned, the chances must be infinity to one against the required association of so many changes happening to arise by way of merely fortuitous variation. Yet, if we exclude the Lamarckian interpretation as adopted by Darwin, which gives us an intelligible cause of co-adaptation, we are required to suppose that such a happy concurrence of innu- SCIENCE: merable co-adaptations must have occurred by mere accident, and this thousands and thousands of times in the bodies of as many successive ancestors of the existing species; for, at each successive stage of the improvement, natural selection (if working alone) must have needed all, or at any rate most, of the co-adaptations to occur in the same individual organisms. Against this formidable consideration Mr. Wallace adduces the following rejoinder : ‘‘ The best answer to this objection may, per- haps, be found in the fact that the very thing said to be impossible by variation and natural selection has been again and again ef- fected by variation and artificial selection.’ This analogy he then enforces by special illustrations, etc., but does not appear to per- ceive that it really misses the whole point of the difficulty against which it is brought. The point of the difficulty is, not that the needful variations do not occur, but that they occur associated in the same individual, and that unless they do thus occur associated in the same individual they must be useless; i.e, cannot fall under the sway of natural selection. Therefore the analogy of artificial selection is here ir- relevant, seeing that it fails in respect of the very point which it is adduced to meet. The difference between natural selection and artificial selection is, that, while the former acts with exclusive reference to the utility (or life preserving character) of variations, the latter acts without such reference. Hence, there is obviously no difficulty in understanding how artificial selection is able to choose this, that, and the other congenital variation as each hap- pens to occur in so many different individuals, and, by suitable pairing, to blend them together in any required proportions. But artificial selection is able to do this simply because the selected individuals do not depend for their lives upon presenting the blended characters which it is the object of such selection to produce. Natural selection, on the other hand, if working alone must wait until the blended characters happen to arise fortuitously in the same individuals ; in all cases, that is, where utility depends on the co-adaptation of characters, which are the only cases now under consideration. Thus the two forms of selection present absolutely no point of analogy in the very respects where it is necessary that they should, if Mr. Wallace’s appeal from one to the other is to be logically justified.- In the one case the association of char- acters is purposely produced dy the selection ; in the other case it must arise by chance before its resulting utility can be offered 70 the selection. Natural Selection as a Cause of Sterility Between Species. | After matured deliberation Mr. Darwin came to the conclusion that natural selection could not be a cause of sterility between spe- cies. Mr. Wallace now furnishes an argument to show that in this respect also Mr. Darwin “ underrated ” the powers of natural se- lection. The argument, however, is too abstruse to admit of re- production here. On the present occasion, therefore, I will merely remark that it does not seem so much as to try to meet the con- siderations which determined Mr. Darwin’s judgment in the oppo- site direction. Nevertheless the theory is profound as well as in- genious, and, although it fails to convince me, I am glad to note that in the course of its exposition Mr. Wallace appears to sanc- tion the essential principle of my own hypothesis of ‘“ physio- logical selection ;’’ viz., to quote his own words, “it is by no means necessary that all varieties should exhibit incipient infertility, but only some varieties ; for we know that of the innumerable. varieties that occur but few become developed into distinct species, azd z¢ may be that the absence of tnfertility, to obviate the effects of zn- tercrossing, 7s one of the usual causes of their faclure.’ The words which I have italicized very tersely convey the whole gist of “ physiological selection.” Later on, however, he criticises adversely what I have written upon this subject, and also represents me as having misunderstood Mr. Darwin’s views with respect to the utility and inutility of spe- cific characters. On both these points I shall have an answer to make on some future and more suitable occasion. In this article I have confined attention to points wherein Mr. Wallace differs from Mr. Darwin ; and although in so doing it has been necessary for me to express uniform disagreement with the author of “ Darwin- ism,” this has been due only to the limitations of my project, and [Vou. XIV. No. 343. ; r — _ Aucust 30, 1889.] _ in no way prevents my cordial appreciation of his work as a whole. Indeed, with the exception of those differences from Mr. Darwin, which it has been my object on the present occasion to consider, it appears to me that Mr. Wallace’s latest work is one of the most interesting aud suggestive in the whole range of Darwinian litera- ture. * And even these points of difference, it will be remembered, all arise out of the single difference before stated, namely,whether natural selection is to be regarded as the main, or as the exclusive, means of modification. Therefore, notwithstanding all that I have said on the Darwinian side of this momentous question, the fact that it still remains an open question compels us to recognize that Mr. Wallace's views with regard to it may eventually prove to be right ; while, in any case, he is certainly to be congratulated on having lived to see the great movement which has recently taken place in the direction of those views. But to many of us it still appears ' that Mr. Darwin’s judgment on this matter is the sounder one to follow. When a great generalization has been fairly established, there is always a tendency to exaggerate its scope; and, perhaps, in no respect was the wonderful balance of Mr. Darwin’s mind so well displayed as it was in the caution with which he abstained from assigning to his vast principle of natural selection a sole pre- rogative. Moreover, as previously stated, the longer that he pon- dered the question, the more he became persuaded that the prob- lem of organic evolution as a whole was too complex and many- sided to admit of being resolved by the application of a single principle. This conclusion, I believe, will eventually be justified by the advance of biological science ; and, therefore, until some better reason is shown than has yet been shown for departing from it, I cannot help feeling that naturalists will do well to suspend their judgments, even if they are not so sure as they used to be touching the doctrines of ‘ Darwinism,” as these were left by Darwin. 6 GEORGE J. ROMANES. BOOK-REVIEWS. Stellar Evolution and zts Relation to Geological Time. By JAMES CROLL. New York, Appleton. 12°. $1. THE basis of the theory advanced by Mr. Croll is that it is just as possible for the universe to have been created with a given amount of energy due to the motion of the created masses of mat- ter, as with a given amount of matter; i.e., Mr. Croll would have the initial state that of a great number of cold bodies moving with high velocities. No one can deny the possibility of the truth of such a hypothesis, and many will find in Mr. Croll’s deductions much that is suggestive. As it is not so probable that such initially moving bodies would collide as it is that bodies would if possessed only of motion of translation due to gravity, Mr. Croll thinks he sees in this universe created in motion a universe the better pro- vided against the dissipation of its energy. If we are to criticise the book, we would call attention to the un- satisfactory nature of all discussions of problems in mechanics, — and many of those in stellar physics are such, — by one who makes no pretence of being a mathematician. Yet as the mathematicians have not given the geologists all the time they call for that the solar system may have reached its present state with at least one planet built up of well ordered crystalline and fossiliferous rocks, it is to be expected that some flaw may be found in the calculations of the one or the theories of development of the other; and such suggestions as Mr. Croll has to offer will help in bringing the two parties to an agreement. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. A. S. BARNES & Co. announce that the long-promised “ The Three Germanys,” by Theodore S. Fay, has now been issued. —Callaghan & Co. will publish, on Oct. 1, Vvol. 6 of Von Holst’s “ Constitutional History of the United States.” — “King’s Annotated Vest-Pocket Map of Massachusetts ” is the most perfect small map of the State that has ever appeared. —John C. Yorston & Co., Cincinnati, have just ready Henry A. Shepherd’s “ The Antiquities of Ohio,” reprinted from the “ Popu- lar History of the State of Ohio.” SCIENCE: os) — The Pacific Press Publishing Company have just issued “The Federal Government of Switzerland,’ by Bernard Moses, professor of history and political economy, University of Califor- nia. — John Ireland, 1197 Broadway, has the market for a new cook- book, “ What One Can Do with a Chafing-Dish,” just published by the author, H. L. Sawtelle. Experimenters in “ light-house- keeping ” will find the book just the one they have been in search of for so many years. — Fords, Howard, & Hulbert have ready a new contribution, by a new writer, to the present all-absorbing discussion of the future of the negro in America, entitled ‘An Appeal to Pharaoh.” The author confidently indorses it as “a radical solution of the negro problem.” — ‘Recollections of the Court of the Tuilleries,’ by Madame Carette, is a recent book of reminiscences of the court of the last Napoleon, which is being widely read in France. It contains many memoirs of the Empress Eugénie. A translation is in hand, and will be published immediately by D. Appleton & Co. — P. Blakiston, Son & Co., Philadelphia, have just ready a re- vised and enlarged edition of “ Obstetric Nursing,” by Theophilus Parvin, M.D., Professor of Obstetrics and Diseases of Women and Children in the Jefferson Medical College, and Obstetrician to the Philadelphia Hospital. — The Journal of Pedagogy enters upon its third volume with the September issue. Dr. A. D. Mayo of Boston, the well known educational lecturer, stated in the annual address at the Ohio Uni- versity, June 20, 1889, that “the Journal of Pedagogy is one of the two or three real educational papers in this country.” It is published at Athens, Ohio. — The author of the “‘ Rise and Fall of the Confederate Govern- ment,” Mr. Jefferson Davis, is not satisfied with the limited sale his work has had. He has complained so loudly of its failure as compared with the works of Grant and Sherman, that D. Appleton & Co., his publishers, have gained his consent to the appointment of arbitrators to decide the points at issue between them. The Messrs. Appletons attribute the slow demand made in the North for the book to the intense sectional spirit in which it is written. — The Lounger writes in The Crztzc: “I heard the other day from an authority which I cannot dispute that ‘ The Century Dic- tionary ’ has cost the Century Co. over $500,000, and my informant added parenthetically that when the undertaking was begun, the company had no idea that it would swallow up a sum approxi- mating this. But like Topsey it ‘grow’d.’ It has taken nearly seven years of the time of some of the best experts and specialists in the country, at an annual expense of not very much less than $100,000, This, I believe, is the first time the cost of making this great dictionary has been stated with any degree of accuracy.” —Mr. Paul Leicester Ford, whose address is No. 97 Clark Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., will have ready in September ‘“‘ American Bibliography : A Check-List of Bibliographies, Catalogues, Refer- ence Lists, and Lists ef Authorities of American Books and Sub- jects,” a quarto volume printed on alternate pages, and containing 1,070 titles, arranged by subject under 19 divisions and 150 subdi- visions, with a classification of contents and an author’s index. At the same time Mr. Ford will bring out his “‘ Franklin Bibliography : a List of Books written by or relating to Benjamin Franklin,” an edition of 500 copies uniform in size with Bigelow’s octavo edition of Franklin’s Works. No fewer than 1,500 titles and references are promised, the list of works wholly or in part written by Frank- lin numbering 600, and his pseudonyms amounting to 60. There will be chronological, classical, and general indices, and mention of the libraries where the works may be consulted. —‘‘ The Dominion of Canada is a device to keep the peace be- tween those to whom Nature has allotted an irrepressible conflict.” So says the writer of an article called “La Nouvelle France” in the September A7z/antzc, which will be the subject of discussion in the United States, and of something more than discussion in Canada. It shows how the French Canadian party is steadily gaining Canada to itself, and how by its consummate organization, 156 it is reconquering it from its nominal English rulers. The paper is an interesting pendant to that on French-Canadian literature in the August number ; and it will, as has been said, no doubt call out some rejoinders. ‘‘The Isthmus Canal and American Con- trol,” by Stuart F. Weld, is a consideration of the policy promul- gated by the United States government in its desire to control the inter-oceanic canal, with (as eighteenth century writers would put it) “ some animadversions thereon.” In fact, the magazine runs toward political questions, since Mr. Frank Gaylord Cook has an article on “James Wilson,” a Scotchman who settled in Pennsyl- vania, and whose services in behalf of the Constitution of the United States are too little known. Still another sketch, of the « Americans at the First Bastille Celebration’”’ (by J. G. Alger), completes the more important articles. — Ginn & Company have just published “The Irregular Verbs of Attic Prose; their Forms, Prominent Meanings, and Important Compounds, together with Lists of Related Words and English Derivatives,” by Addison Hogue, Professor of Greek in the Univer- sity of Mississippi. The material treated in this book is much fuller than in the lists of irregular verbs in the grammars, and more accessible than in the lexicons. The book contains after the regu- lar verbs, — pure, mute, and liquid, — the irregular verbs of Attic prose in alphabetical order. Prominent meanings and special uses of frequent occurrence are given, often illustrated by translated ex- amples. The most important compounds are added, and also many related words, — forming a very practical sort of introduc- tion to word-formation. The first declension alone is represented by about four hundred substantives, and this indicates the range of vocabulary. The English derivatives, of which there are over 450, should prove an attractive feature to teachers and studenis alike. To the latter they will be an additional support in learning some five or six hundred Greek words, and will broaden their knowledge of their own tongue. — Inthe September Magazzne of American History Mr. Robert Stiles, of Richmond, tells of ‘‘ Lincoln’s Restoration Policy for Vir- ginia,” which Admiral Porter, with whom Lincoln went to Rich- mond on its evacuation, represented differently in his “ Incidents of the Civil War.” The evidence here given for the first time to the public corrects even Grant’s account of the matter in his “‘ Memoirs,” which is believed to have been written from hearsay. The illus- trated feature of the magazine this month is the third chapter in Mrs. Lamb’s “ Historic Homes and Landmarks,” the scene being the site of the Damen farm, between Wall Street and Maiden Lane, which for nearly half a century was outside the walled city of New York. Many new facts and figures have been exhumed by the accom- SCIENCE. plished historian, the most consequential landmarks are described, events are vividly portrayed which made the ground historic, and never before were the wonderful contrasts between the past and the present so sharply defined. A second illustrated paper, by T. H. Lewis, of St. Paul, is “The Old French Post at Trempeleau, Wis.,” a recent discovery. Gen. J. W. De Peyster pays a tribute to the late “ John W. Hammersley,” whose portrait in steel forms the © frontispiece to the issue. Milton T. Adkins writes the “ Growth of a Great National Library,” giving the history in brief of the library of Congress. William Seton contributes an article of interest on “St. John de Crévecceur, the First French Consul in New York after the Revolution.” There is a sketch of “‘ New York’s Great Landholder, George Clarke,’ and a tribute to the late Mrs. Amasa J. Parker. — A number of years ago Mr. J. C. Pilling undertook the com- pilation of a bibliography of North American languages. In the course of his work he visited the principal public and private libra- ries of the United States, Canada, and northern Mexico, carried on an extensive correspondence with librarians, missionaries, and others interested in the subject, and examined such printed author- ities as were at hand. The results of these researches were em- bodied in a single volume. Since its issue he has had an oppor- tunity to visit the national libraries of England and France, as well as a number of private ones in both these countries, and to revisit a considerable number in this country and Canada. A sufficient amount of new material has thus been collected to lead to the be- | lief that a series of catalogues may well be prepared, each referring to one of the more prominent groups of our native languages. Of this series three have been published, relating respectively to the Eskimauan, the Siouan, and the Iroquoian families. The fourth has just been issued by the Bureau of Ethnology, and relates to the Muskhogean languages; the fifth, now in preparation, will relate to the Algonquian. There are in the present catalogue 521 titular entries, of which 467 relate to printed books and articles and 54 to manuscripts. scribed by the compiler,— 429 of the prints and 40 of the manu- scripts,— leaving as derived from outside sources 38 printed works and 14 manuscripts. Of those unseen by the writer, titles and descriptions of more than one-half have been received from per- sons who have actually seen the works and described them for him. In addition to these, there are given a number of full titles Of these, 469 have been seen and de- — of printed covers, second and third volumes, etc., all of which have been seen and described by the compiler; while in the notes men- tion is made of 69 printed and manuscript works, 43 of which have been seen and 26 derived from other (mostly printed) sources. S INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Guaranty Investment Company. THE Guaranty Investment Company has adopted the policy of sending each year a committee of its investors to visit Kansas and Nebraska and report upon its loans and methods of business. The first report was made in 1888 and the second in 1889. The com- mittee of 1888 consisted of Professor A. H. Berlin, principal of the high school, Montrose, Penn. (recently removed to Wilmington, Del.), and Major Theodore L. Poole, ex-United States pension agent, Syracuse, N.Y. They commenced their labors on Monday, June 18, 1888, by an examination of the books and statements sub- mitted to them by the Western general manager, F. H. Wilson. Later, accompanied by the inspector of the company, they began an examination of some of the loans made by the company. This examination was commenced in Atchison County, Kan., on Tues- day, June 19, ending with Franklin County, Kan., Saturday, June 30. During this time they drove about four hundred miles and travelled by railroad seven hundred miles, and examined over forty loans made by the company. While they examined in detail over forty loans they also looked at many others in different counties that they did not have time to compare with the records. From their investigation and observations they recommended the loans made by the Guaranty Investment Company of Atchison, Kan., as a safe investment. The committee for 1889 consisted of Dr. Francis W. Boyer, a physician of Pottsville, Penn., M. H. Olin, president of the Citizens’ Bank, Perry, N.Y., and Irving H. Tifft, Esq.,a lawyer of New York City. From the report, dated Atchison, Kan., June 29, 1889, it appears that their work began on Thursday, June 6, and ended on Friday, June 28. During this period they travelled over 2,150 miles, 665 of which were by carriage, and visited a large portion of Kansas and Nebraska. The trip took them through twenty-eight counties in Kansas and twenty-six in Nebraska, besides a large number of cities and towns in both States. Before commencing the journey they made an examination of the books and records of the company, submitted for inspection by the Western general manager, Mr. Frank H. Wilson. In conclusion they say that it is their opinion that Kansas and Nebraska are on the high road to prosperity, and do not see how it is possible for .carefully placed farm mortgages in these States to be otherwise than safe, and they regard those of the Guaranty Investment Company to be of this character. Any persons desiring further information upon points in the re- ports are requested to correspond with any member of either com- mittee, and copies-of testimonials received from persons who have made investments in these mortgages will be sent to any address. The company keeps on hand at its New York office at all times a large number of seven per cent guaranteed mortgages equal in se~ curity to any examined by the committees, and full information will be gladly given to any one, by Henry A. Riley, general Eastern manager, 191 Broadway, New York. _ Aucust 30, 1880. | ' Publications received at Editor’s Office, rl Aug. 5-24. Brown, K. L. The Interstate Second Reader. Chicago and Boston, Interstate Publ. Co. 198 p. 169. Fraae, I. (Ed.). Euripides’ Iphigenia (College Series of Greek Authors), Boston and London, Ginn. 1097 p. 8°. Fr.50. Hocur, A. The Irregular Verbs of Attic Prose. Boston? Ginn. 268p. 16°. $1 60. Kent, C. W.(Ed.). Elene, an Old English Poem (Libra- ry of Anglo-Saxon Poetry, Vol. III.). Boston and London, Ginn. 3149p. 12°. 65 cents. Mitt, H. R. An Etementary Class-book of General Geography. London and New York, Macmillan. 381 p. 12°. go cents. Puyre, W. H. P. Seven Thousand Words Often Mis- pronounced. New York and London, Putnam’s. 491 p- i6°. 75 cents. -RicuHarps, John. A Manual of Machine Construction ! for Engineers, Draughtsmen and Mechanics. Phila- delphia, Lippincott. 153 p. 4°. $5. Symonps, B. A Manual of Chemistry for the use of Medical Students. Philadelphia, Blakiston. 154 p. 8°. $2. Tirttman, S. E. Elementary Lessons in Heat. Phila- delphia, Lippincott. Warp, H. M. Series). 12°. 160 p. °8°. $1.80. Timber and some of its Diseases (Nature London and New York, Macmillan. 295 p. $1.75. Warren, I. An Elementary Treatise on Mechanics. London and New York, Longmans. Green & Co. 144 D. $1. Weismann, A. Essays upon Heredity, and kindred Bio- logical Problems. Authorized Translation (Ed. by Poulton, Schonland and Shipley). Oxford, Claren- don Pr. 455p. 8°. $4. 12°, Exchanges. [Exchanges are inserted for subscribers free of charge. Address N. D. C. Hodges,’ 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Dayenport, Iowa. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. i too botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet ! SCIENCE. tod T faa wl _e specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- shondence solicited. —E. E. Bocue, Orwell, Ashta. County, O. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “snew model”’ double dry-plate holder (4” * 5”), for fine geological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- fied. —Charles E. Frick, 1019 West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and plants — to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc. —Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lepidoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East 14rst Street, New York, N.Y. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. Any one who has a botanical box in good condition will please write. I will offer about 30 specimens in ex- change. —C. B Haskell, Box $26, Kennebunk, Me. Will such members of the Agassiz Association as bot- anize this summer, and can afford time, please observe for me any case of doubling in any flower and in any locality, stating name of flower (Gray), the abnormal change, the time and place found, and whether monstros- ity is abundant or otherwise? Please address communi- cations to Will G. Cole, 3643 Prairie Avenue, Chicago, Til. Lead, zinc, mundic, and calcite. — Lulu Hay, secre- tary Chapter 350, Carthage, Mo. HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper cover. Mailed pre paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish. ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. “The Week, one of the ablest papers on the con- tinent.” —Descriptive America. ENLARGED AND IMPROVED. THE Weekes A Canadian Journal of Politics, Literature, Science and Arts. ‘a PUBLISHED EVERY FRIDAY. $3.00 per Year. $1.00 for Four Months, THE WEEK has entered onits SIXTH year of pub- lication, greatly enlarged and improved in every re- spect, rendering it still more worthy the cordial support of every one interested in the maintenance of a first-class literary journal. “The independence in politics and criticism which has characterized THE WEEK ever since its first issue will be rigidly maintained ; and unceasing ef- forts will be made to improve its literary character and increase its value and attractiveness as a jour- nal for the cultured home. Many new and able writers are now, or have promised to become, con- tributors to its columns, and the constantaim of the Publisher will be to make THE WEEK fully equal to the best literary journals in Britain and the Uni- ted States. As heretofore, PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH will, from time to time, contribute articles. London, Paris, Washington and Montreal letters from accomplished correspondents will appear at regular intervals. Special Ottawa Letters will appear during the ses- sions of Parliament. THE WEEK in its enlarged form will be the same size as ‘‘ Harpers’ Weekly,” and the largest paper of its clsss on the continent, SEND FOR FREE SAMPLE COPY. C. BLACKETT ROBINSGN, Publisher, 5 Jordan St., Toronto. ! GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres’t. T'; Guaranteed Farm Mortgages 7% The Company. calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : Te York. iL, section where the farm is located. If. MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. IV. Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. V. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm Products. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers’ & Traders’ National Bank, New Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the’ general development of the An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM- The Exhibition at the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the A/GHEST AWARD of superiority. Vi. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report for 1888, HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. SOMUN CE: DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™,to 100 H.P. 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. N. J. Please Mention are" SCIENCE CLUBBING RATES. % DISCOUNT. Carpentry and B Century Magazine..... el 7 o ne ao We will allow the above discount to any] %.2 | = § subscriber to Sczence who will send us an| 0 5 Et order for periodicals exceeding $10, count- tar @ ing each at its full price. R Agricultural Science $2.50/$ 5-30 American Agriculturist.... 1.50| 4-30 American Architect and Bu Imperial edition....... 10.00| 12.80 Gelatine ‘‘ 7.00 80 ING eANIEL IG be -| 6.00 80 ‘American! Gardenwassiscndeeee nee ecient 1.00 25 American Journal of Philology. . mall) Bele) 25 (American) Machinist).)cccscse-cesss 56 val 2.50 30 PAmenicanwNaturalistescnicescietciseisierinecins 4.00 50 Andover) Review... 0.20... 22.2. sec. ele ee 4.00 80 PAtlan ticsesuerreic nes crccicecinaed eee 4.00 80 Babyhood 1.50 30 Bradstreet’s 5.00 80 Braineee eee tees 3.50 30 Building (weekly 6.00 80 38, fg ae Chautauquan, The...... Christian Union, fibers Cosmopolitan, The Critic. . ~ Eclectic Magazine... Edinburgh Review... HaeoaoocODDACdeedcol| iElectricalgwWorldteemscescceeni cee | Electrician and Electrical Engineer..... 5 Electrical Review..........--.- Engineering and Mining Journa English Illustrated Magazine * Forest and Stream Forum, The Harper’s Bazar.. Harper’s Magazine... Briar Harper’ 5 MVGrMKyS ooan boo oso0dgensaONsen06 Harper’s Young People......-..--+-.....+ Illustrated London ews (Amer. reprint). . Independent, Thesis oo... cn weenie euncie Iron Age (weekly)........- Journal of Philology (E Littell’s Thine are London Quarterly seduone Macmillan’s Magazine......... Magazine of American History Medical and Surgical Journals Mechanical Engineer... : Metal Worker Microscope, The.. ature epee aciee onthe American R Outin Oeraca Monthly... Political Science Quarterly. Popular Science Monthly.. Popular Science News....... ortfoliowmihebeencisacciicseceiec Practitioner....... Eup Opinion ... Quarterly Reviev Queries... St. Nicholas. Scientific Am Supplement. . so ‘Architect and Builders’ ‘edition Bodaboss Scribner’s Magazine Texas Siftings........ x AVWWIHUWEWUDHHNUUNWE OUNHAKHEWA HAAN HRWWHAUYW NW ote us = EW YORK: @ 7S PHISADELPHIAs PA “ong ea i fVot. XIV. No. 343 AUGUST 30, 1880 | SCMINCE: ill C. & GC. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all Power Purposes. os 16) + Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City, New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St, Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Chicago. New Orleans, Wants. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SciENCE. A personal interview invited. N. D.C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. ECHANICIAN.—An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educat'onal institution. Address G. J., care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. Mineral Lands. is MANGANESE DEPOSITS. —A rich de- post of Manganese is for sale. Apply to H. N., care of Sctence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. GOLD-BEARING QUARTZ VEINS. — Any one wishing to engage in gold mining will learn of a newly discovered vein by applying to H N., care of Science, 47 Lafayette Plac:, New York. RED SLATE. —A valuable deposit of red slate for sale. Apply to H. N , care of Sczence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. A TEMPORARY BINDER for Sctence is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - 75 cents. This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title. and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for sub-equent permanent bind- ing. Filed in this binder, Sc7ezce is always convenient for reference. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N, Y, ONE LANGUAGE FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. WORLD-ENGLISH : THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. 25 CENTS. Every one has heard of the butcher who, after a long search for his knife, at last found it in his mouth: so speakers of English have been seeking for a universal language, when, lo! it is intheir mouths. The intelligi- bility of English words has been obscured by a dense mist of letters. This is now dispersed by A. Melville Bell, who has already won a world-wide reputation through his invention of ‘‘ Visible Speech,’’ the great boon to deaf-mutes. Professor Bell calls this new discoy- ery of his ‘‘ World-English,”’ and the result isa language which cannot fail to meet with acceptance, and at once supersede the supposed necessity for ‘* Volapiik,’’ or any other artificial language. No language could be invented for international use that would surpass English in gram- matical simplicity, and in general fitness to become the tongue of the world. It is already the mother-tongue of increasing millions in both hemispheres, and some knowl- edge of the language is demanded by all educated popula- tions on the globe. Social and commercial necessities require that the acquisition of this knowledge shall be facilitated, andit is believed that Professor Bell’s inven- tion has removed the last impediment to Englisk becom- ing the universal language, for which vague desires have long been entertained, although hitherto only futile ef- forts have been made, Ex-President Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, says: “I believe that the highest interests of Christian civilization and of humanity would be served by its adoption. China and Japan would be made English- speaking peoples within fifty years, and so brought with- in the range of Christianizing and civilizing ideas, in the largest sense. All existing missionary work is trivial as compared with this. Foryour system would throw wide open those vast countries, as, indeed,/all the countries of the world, to the whole current of English and American | thought.”’ “Werld-English” and “Hand-Book of World-English” { For Difusion of English throughout the World Malls UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE This “‘ Hand-Book of World-English’” is the Complete, Simple, and Efficient Medium. FOREIGNERS Will Acquire, by Means of this Hand-Book, a PERFECT PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH. For Primary School Pupils and [literate Adults World-English is a Royal Road to Reading, 70 Teachers of English and Modern Languages This Hana-Book will be of Primary Importance as a Phonetic Directory. DEBE Crs OFS E BCH Will be Readily Corrected by Means of the Articula- tive Directi ms in this Hand-Book. can be had of all booksellers, or will be HAND-BOOK OF WORLD-ENGLISH, 25 CENTS. The plan of this little book is altogether new. Letters and sounds are so associated, in all the exercises, that from the mere knowledge of letters a learner cannot fail to pronounce words with certainty. English reading will thus be easily acquired, whether by natives or foreigners, children or adults. The general resemblance of World-English to Literary English is such that any reader of the latter deciphers the former at sight, or, at most, after a few minutes’ study of the new letters. A like result may be antici- pated for those who shall learn to read from World-Eng- lish, They will transfer their power of reading to the literary form of the language, almost without effort. The crthographic aspect of words will, besides, be so fixed in the eye, by contrast, that spelling will be remembered as — what it really is—a pictorial association with words. No special training is required to qualify teachers for using this book. Thesubject can even be successfully in- troduced in the kindergarten and the nursery. This phonetic mode of initiation in reading cannot be too strongly urged on the attention of School Boards on both sides of the Atlantic. The ordinary orthography of each word is interlined with the World-English version throughout the Exer- cises and Readings. So set down, our tongue is the best for the world to unite upon. —Brooklyn . Lagle. The idea of Mr. Bell has much to recommend it, and the presentation is charmingly clear. Azerican, Phila. The result is a language which cannot fail to meet with acceptance —Soston Traveller. Has the merit of great ingenuity.—Railway Age. His treatise, as a study of English orthoepy, condenses the result of much thought and experience in small com. pass.— The Critic. World-English deserves the careful consideration of all serious scholars.— Modern Language Notes. World-English is the English language unburdened of its chaotic spelling.—Popudar Science Monthly. We commend it to the attention of teachers.—O¢tawa | Globe. sent for 50 cents, post free, by the publisher, IN. D.C.§HODG EHS, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. iv SCE N GE: [VoL 2x Ve> VINomaae The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. ASSETS 4-7 - $126,082,153 56. The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 Exceeded $103,000,000. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including A gain in assets of.............. A\ FANN ih, TACOUNS Of so0900 c00000 A gain in new premiums of ..... A gain in surplus of.........-+: A gain in new business of......- A gain of risks in force........- 330759,792 85 54,496,251 85 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-hold2rs since Organization $272,481,839 82. E.& H. T. ANTHONY &CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, 8 Apparatus and Supplies of every 4) description. Sole proprietors of the Patent Detective, Fairy Nov- WW SeesRY el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the \ eer Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur \ utfits in great variety, from $9. oo upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. {28 More than 40 years established in this line of business. Schools. Connecticut, NEw Haven, ME: CADY’S SCHOOL FOR )YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and and admits to Circu application Vassar by Certificate. necessary. MicHiGAN. HouGutTon. ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Dr 1CGOOD NEWS To L-ADIES. createSt Inducements ever of- fered. -Now’s your time to get up orders for our celebrated eas and Coffees, and secure a beautiful Gold Band or Moss Rose China Tea Set, Dinner Set, Gold Band Moss Rose Toilet Set, Watch, ‘Brass Lamp, or Webster's Dictionary. For full particulars address pay AEN AMERICA C POs 81 and 83 Vesey St., New Y ork. FOOD ADULTERATION And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues on application. E. & F. N. SPON, 12 Cortlandt St., Old and Rare Books. Back numbers, vols. THES. = GREATAMERIGAN ao ls ComPany. New York. One Million Magazines. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. A. S. CLARK, 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates low. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus. * * IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored wews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. MORRIS EARLE & CO. SUCCESSORS 10 R. & J. BECK, 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and all Accessories and Ap- paratus. Photograph- ic and Photo-Micro- graphic Apparatus and Outfits. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed free to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE & ‘in corresponding with us. HAIAER & SEAMEN, Electrical House Furnishings. 382 & 34 Frankfort St., New York. QUR 75 CENT COLORED SILK. We have had unusual success with this line of Gros Grains. They are 19 1-2 inches wide, have a fine cord weave, and are in 40 different, excellent shades. Under ordinary circumstances they would sell for $1 per yard. Send forsamples ; they will surely please you. JAMES McCREERY & CO. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK. Sel CABLE Ney SRT ESD su Dy LS AWARDED wee SIA Se gx eolhee, K Used by thousands of first-class espa ws mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Co., &e., ke. Repairs Everything. Its success has brought a lot of i ors copying us in every way possible. Remer=ber that THE Onry GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue is manufactured solely by the bog | RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c. and dealers’ card who No waste./doesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. Patent Pocket Can, ¢ SCIENCE (Entered at the Posi-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. ] A WEEKLY. NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 344. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 6, SINGLE CopPliEs, TEN CENTS. 1889. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. THE JULIEN ELECTRIC TRACTION SYSTEM. THE Julien electric cars have now been in regular passenger service for a little over two years in Brussels; and a report has just been prepared of the cost of motive power during that time, including the renewal of batteries, the wear and tear on motors and machinery, the generating and storing of the energy, and re- pairs and replacements generally, — in fact, every element that can be understood by an engineer to be motive power. It is found that the cost of motive power has been a trifle less than three cents per kilometer, or about five cents per car-mile; in this, the cost of three and five-tenths cents per car-mile net, including depreciation on battery, cost of generating current, and handling of batteries. The car shown in the accompanying illustration, Fig. 3, has been in constant use in this city for several months, and is of the’ type selected by the Julien Company as the standard for their service. It has a sixteen-foot body mounted on a rigid truck with a six-foot wheel base, which carries two ten horse-power electric motors, — the truck being entirely independent of the car body, and may be re- moved if necessary. The weight of the car, with motors, gearing and battery in position, is between six and seven tons. The mo- tors are geared direct, one to each axle, and are accessible from FIG. 1 AND 2.—STORAGE BATTERY CHARGING RACK, JULIEN ELECTRIC CAR STATION. maintaining the batteries has amounted to a cent and six-tenths per car-mile. It may be of interest to know that the estimate of the cost of motive power as based on the experiences of the Julien Electric Traction Company on the Fourth and Madison avenues, and pre- pared prior to the report at Brussels, and without any knowledge of the cost there, is within a fraction of being the same. The Julien Company find the cost of motive power on Madison Avenue to be five and three-tenths cents per car-mile. In the cost of mo- tive power as estimated in New York, however, was included in- terest on investment, amounting to one and eight-tenths cents, or the car floor by trap-doors. The battery consists of 108 cells, which are placed in six trays of nine each on each side of the car under the seats; these trays are placed in the car by dropping the side panels. The chief difficulty encountered in the operation of the Fourth Avenue line was the handling of the batteries, but recent improve- ments have entirely overcome this difficulty, First, a flexible con- nector was devised, by which it is possible to couple up cells with great rapidity. Next a battery rack was constructed large enough to store batteries for ten or twelve cars. This rack is shown in Figs. 1 and 2. This rack makes it possible to remove the batteries from j y, 158 a car and replace them by another set in from two to three minutes. When the car enters this rack, its panels are dropped down on either side and thus form bridges over which the batteries are withdrawn from and replaced in the car. While this change is being made, a competent person inspects the regulators of the car. The motors, gearings, and connections are only inspected once a day, and that at the end of the day’s work. GOLD EXTRACTION BY A NEW PROCESS. IN many places where gold-bearing quartz is found containing a sufficient percentage of the metal to pay for working it, there is either an entire absence of the water necessary to work the process at present employed for its extraction, or it can only be obtained at great expense and trouble, in many cases only part of the year. SCrE NGE i“ z [Vot. XIV. No. 344 which he could quickly determine whether any specimens of quartz contained gold, by simply crushing it with a hammer and running it through the machine. sists of an inclined ladder with fine wire cloth upon one side and silk upon the other. A blast of air is passed up and down through the two meshes, blowing off the light particles of dirt and quartz and allowing the free gold to be retained simply by gravity. An- other machine is adapted for concentrating various metals from rock, such as sulphates of copper, lead, zinc, and antimony, making the future separation of the valuable metals from the metallic mass, by roasting or chemical processes, an easy matter. During the exhibit an interesting experiment was made to show the value of the machines, and the thoroughness with which they performed their work. The machine used in the experiment weighed about five hundred-weight, and was so compact that it could be readily FIG. 3.—STANDARD ELECTRIC CAR, JULIEN STORAGE BATTERY SYSTEM. Hitherto the processes used for extracting the gold from the allu- vial deposit or from crushed quartz have required large quantities of water to flush the fine, pulverized material containing the gold, and even with the best methods large quantities of gold were car- ried off with the earth and quartz and lost before it reached the mercury. The need of some ready method for the dry extraction of the gold has long been felt, but until recently the various machines proposed have not been found equal to the old processes. The various difficulties in the way of dry extraction have apparently been overcome in a new machine which was exhibited in London a few weeks ago. By this process, as described in 7rov, the use of mercury is dispensed with, and the gold is extracted readily from alluvial deposits or quartz. The process is also applicable to the extraction of any combination of metals from refractory ore. One of the machines exhibited weighed but six pounds, and was in- tended to form part of the outfit of the prospector, by the use of transported from one place to another. A quantity of gold in minute particles, weighing six drams, and two small nuggets, were put into a large pan with two hundred-weight of gravel and grit, and the whole mass put into the machine, which was operated with about a quarter-horse power, or, as an equivalent, two-man power. i The principle of the machine is similar to the small separator used for prospecting purposes, with the blast of air driving off the fine particles of extraneous material, while “ oscillating riddles contain- ing shot shake off the heavier grit and stones, allowing free gold to sink by gravity into the shot, where it is retained, and in turn falls to the bottom of the shot.” In about a minute after the mix- ture was placed in the machine the whole treatment was com- pleted, and of the amount of gold originally put into the machine 96.3 per cent was recovered. With more time devoted to the separation, a considerably smaller percentage of loss would doubt- less have ensued. The mechanism of this apparatus con- SEPTEMBER 6, 1889. | “AN IMPROVED STANDARD CLARK CELL WITH LOW TEMPERATURE COEFFICIENT.! LorD RAYLEIGH'’S form of Clark cell, described in the Philo- sophical Transactions for 1885, is the best one hitherto made. The objections to it are, first, that it has a high and variable tem- perature coefficient; second, it is not constructed in such a way as to keep the mercury away from the zinc when shaken in trans- portation ; and third, an important chemical defect is the local ac- tion taking place by which zinc replaces mercury in the mercury _ salt and the zinc becomes amalgamated, the amalgam often creep- ing up so as to reach the solder at the copper wire. These diffi- culties I have, I think, perfectly overcome. I have made cells which have been tested for several months with the low coeffi- * cient, at 15° C., of 0.000386 per degree C. At higher temperatures , no yellowing when washed free from acid. a peculiarity is that this coefficient decreases slightly, while that of Lord Rayleigh’s increases very appreciably. The cell is so made that the mercury is confined to the bottom of the cell, or at least, if it does move at all it cannot reach the zinc. These cells have been found to stand transportation exceedingly well. The same arrangement or device removes the zinc from the mercury salt and perfectly prevents local action. The sealing of _ the cell is also effected with a more perfect compound. Further, l yal IMPROVED STANDARD CLARK CELL. in the preparation of the mercury salt I have succeeded in making mercurous sulphate so free from the mercuric form that it shows It also remains white _ upon admixtion with zinc sulphate, and indefinitely, after the cell is set up, provided it be kept out of the light. The light dark- ~ ens it. iS One of these cells has been heated up to 53° C., and the follow- ing day it returned to its precise former value of electromotive force at the same temperature. The temperature coefficient given holds at the above high temperature. As indicating the uniformity attained, the last two cells made never differ in electromotive force _ by more than one part in ten thousand, and usually by only half _ this, at the same temperature. THE WENSTROM DYNAMO. THE Wenstrom dynamo, of which Fig. 1 is a perspective view . _ and Fig. 2 a cross section, is well known in Europe, especially in _ Sweden. It was invented by Jonas Wenstrom, an eminent Swed- _ ish engineer, and differs in some respects from other dynamos in ~ the market. _ remarkable degree. It is of simple and substantial construction, as may be seen by the illustrations, and utilizes the magnetic forces to a It is of the iron-clad type, the armature and field coils being protected by a cast iron shell, parts of which per- 1 Abstract of a paper read before the American Association for the Advancement _ of Science, at Toronto, by Professor H. S, Carhart. SCIENCE: 159 form the function of pole-pieces. There are four poles, opposite ones being of the same sign, all four being energized by one pair of field-coils, which surround the cores of the inner or horizontal pole- pieces, and are surrounded by the shell which serves as annular cores for the top and bottom field-pieces. Ventilation is provided FIG. 1.—WENSTROM DYNAMO. for by the circular apertures in the shell through which the arma- ture is put into place. The armature is of the drum pattern, built up in the usual way of thin disks of iron, well insulated, so as to prevent heating from eddy currents. These disks are perforated near the periphery, the - perforations being round, ovoid, or hexagonal in shape, and con- nected with the periphery by a slit, narrowest at the outer part, and only wide enough to admit the winding, one wire at a time. In the grooves formed by these perforations the wire is wound. This peculiar construction admits of the armature revolving in very close proximity to the pole-pieces, materially reducing the resist- ance of the magnetic circuit, and affording a protection to the armature winding from the effects of centrifugal force, no binding wires being required. A new method of winding is employed, and diametrically opposite sections are connected together, making nec- essary only two brushes, which are set 90 degrees apart. The one hundred light machine absorbs eight horse-power, run- ih) FIG. 2.-WENSTROM DYNAMO. ning at a speed of nine hundred revolutions per minute. The total weight of the dynamo is eleven hundred pounds, mainly cast- iron, the weight of copper wire on the armature being only thirteen pounds, and on the field magnet cores ninety-four pounds, or one hundred and seven pounds of copper in all. The two hundred and thirty light machine runs at a speed of seven hundred revolu- tions per minute, its total weight being twenty-five hundred pounds, of which thirty-six pounds are of copper on the armature, and three hundred and eight on the field magnets. The eight hundred light machine runs at a speed of five hundred revolutions per minute. The advantages claimed for this construction are that there is no waste field, all the magnetic lines of force being utilized in the armature in producing work; neither is there any field outside of 160 the machine which would be liable to affect watches, etc., all the field being contained within the outer iron shell forming the yoke. Low speed in running is obtainable without increasing the size and weight of the machine, and the whole is cheap to construct, and combines features of mechanical strength and solidity with high electrical efficiency. Finally, the machine is remarkably free from any heating when running constantly and under full load. These machines are manufactured by the Wenstrom Northern Electric Company, of this city, of which Dr. J. B. De Lery is president ; B. Blum, general manager, and B. J. Sturges, secretary and treas- urer. This company intend to introduce their system for light and power in the Eastern, Middle, and Western States. The Wen- strom people have already installed during the past year several thousand lights in Baltimore and Annapolis. THE NORTH AMERICAN MESOZOIC.? IT has become customary upon such occasions as this for the speaker to select a theme from subjects which he is supposed to have specially studied ; and I have therefore chosen for mine the mesozoic division of the geological record as it is exhibited on this continent. This theme is so comprehensive that I propose only to select from it certain topics which pertain to the distinguishing characteristics of the principal subdivisions of the mesozoic that have been recognized in different portions of North America; to their interdelimitation and to the delimitation of the division as a whole from the carboniferous system beneath, and the cenozoic above. I shall also make the discussion of these topics the oppor- tunity of expressing certain views which I hold concerning them. To bring these discussions within the time allotted me they must be confined to three general sections of the mesozoic formations, one of which occurs within each of three regions of the continent, namely, the Atlantic coast, the Pacific coast, and the interior re- gions. Proceeding upon this plan, let us first consider the general section which is to be observed in the Atlantic coast region. The rocks which in this region are now generally regarded as of triassic age are found occupying limited isolated districts from Prince Edward Island on the north to the State of South Carolina on the south. If they extend further to the south, or south-west- ward, they are covered from view by later formations. They are found to rest unconformably upon various formations from the archzan to the carboniferous inclusive; except perhaps in Prince Edward Island, where they are reported as resting conformably, or nearly so, upon reputed Permian strata. Still, no intimate strati- graphical or paleontological connection between the Permian and the trias has been shown to exist there; and the hiatus between them is doubtless as great as it is farther southward, where the un- conformity is so conspicuous. In this latter portion of the region it is evident that the great uplift which involved the paleozoic rocks, including the reputed Permian, took place long before the deposition of the earliest of those triassic beds. These stratigraphical conditions indicate that the hiatus in the geological record between the latest of the carbon- iferous, and the earliest of the triassic deposits is equal to at least the earlier half of the triassic. as that period is represented in Europe. The only known paleontological evidence which appears to bear upon this subject agrees with the stratigraphical indications just mentioned. That is, the results of investigations by Professor Newberry upon the fishes and plants of the strata in question, and of Professor Fontaine upon the plants of the same, indicate that they represent the later trias of Europe. But if triassic fishes had not survived to the present day; and if we knew more concerning the developmental stages in the vegetable kingdom from the later paleozoic to the later mesozoic inclusive, a good degree of uncer- tainty which is naturally felt upon this point would doubtless dis- appear. Our knowledge of the land vertebrate fauna which existed at the time these deposits were formed is derived mainly from footprints ; and it is therefore more than usually imperfect. The character of 1 Address before the Section of Geology and Geography of the American Associa- tion for the Advancement of Science, at Toronto, Ont., Aug. 29, 1889, by Charles A. White, vice-president of the section. i SCIENCE. this evidence as indicating triassic, rather than earlier Jurassic age, seems to be far from unquestionable. Von. XEV. Na: 344 Very few invertebrate fossils have been found in the trias of the Atlantic coast region ; and the few that have been discovered are of little or no value as indicating the age of the strata containing them. As to the relation of these deposits with the carboniferous sys- tem, only stratigraphical evidence has thus far been obtained, and this shows only the bare fact that the former are of considerably later age than the latter. That is, no direct, or even approximately close, biological relationship between them has yet been discovered, the biological hiatus being apparently quite as great as the strati- graphical one. It may be mentioned here also that we have no evidence that the trias of the Atlantic coast was ever continuous, or that it was exactly contemporaneous, with the reputed trias of the interior region, which will be presently referred to. Intermediate between the triassic beds and the undisputed cre- taceous deposits of the Atlantic coast region there is a series of strata, evidently of littoral and estuary origin, but, at least in part, of doubtful age, to which the name of Potomac formation has been applied. These deposits reach at most only a few hundred feet in thickness, and although frequently covered from sight by later for- mations, they seem to have been originally continuous from New Jersey to the State of Mississippi. tative west of the Mississippi River, unless it shall be shown that they are represented by some sandy beds at the base of the Texas cre- taceous section. These Potomac beds are usually found resting upon the archzan, and at only a few points are they found to rest directly upon the triassic rocks, when they are plainly uncomform- able. They seem to be constantly present beneath the marine cre- taceous strata just mentioned, and no representative of another _ formation has yet been observed between them. Invertebrate fossils are exceedingly rare in the Potomac forma- tion, and the few that have been found give no direct indication of its geological age. Professor Whitfield, however, has suggested that the Raritan clays, together with the Amboy clays, which by some geologists are included in the Potomac formation, but which are probably of later date, are of Jurassic age because of the simi- larity of his new lamellibranchiate genus Ambonicardéa with cer- tain European Jurassic shells. Large collections of fossil plants have been obtained from the deposits here provisionally grouped together under the name of Potomac formation, at numerous and widely separated localities. These collections differ so greatly in character from one another that it seems necessary to infer that more than one flora is rep- resented by them. Many years ago Dr. Tyson found some fossil — plants in Maryland which he regarded as of Jurassic age, and which closely resemble certain forms that are found in the European Jura. Professor Ward, in reviewing the large flora which Professor Fon- taine has published from the Potomac formation in Virginia, and having in mind also the Maryland plants just referred to, recog- nizes the Jurassic character of several of the species, according to the European standard, but he takes the rational ground that all obtainable evidence ought to be considered before reaching a final decision as to the true age of the deposits containing them. Professor Newberry, who has made extensive studies of the plant remains of the Raritan and Amboy clays, finds among them none that give any indication of their Jurassic age. On the contrary, he finds that the flora of those clays as a whole indicates that they ought to be referred to an epoch not later than the middle cre- taceous of Europe, nor probably earlier than the upper neocomian. Professor Marsh has published some dinosaurian remains from apparently the same horizon in the Potomac formation that furnished the plants to Dr. Tyson and Professor Fontaine, which he has re- ferred to the Jurassic. ‘ Paleontological testimony being thus conflicting in its character, — one naturally infers that more than one epoch is represented by the deposits that now bear the common name of Potomac formation ; but I shall presently call your attention to some cases of commin- gling of earlier and later molluscan types in one and the same formation which are quite as remarkable as this apparent com- mingling of diverse plant and vertebrate types in the Potomac formation, They have no known represen-. — a oe Se ee SEPTEMBER 6, 1889. ] The marine upper cretaceous deposits of the Atlantic coast re- gion which immediately overlie the Potomac formation are best _ developed in New Jersey; but there is good reason to believe that they were originally continuous with contemporaneous deposits through the whole length of the region from Long Island to the Gulf States and thence westward to, and far northward within, the jinterior region. This opinion is based upon specific identity of marine fossils discovered in the different regions. The upper cretaceous of this region is overlain by eocene de- posits, also marine, with little if any observable unconformity where they have been found in contact. I shall, however, presently men- tion facts which indicate that there is in the Atlantic and Gulf coast region a considerable hiatus between the cretaceous and eocene. | Briefly, then, the mesozoic of the Atlantic coast region consists _ of a probable representation of the upper trias of Europe, a pos- sible one of the upper Jura, a probable slight one of the middle cretaceous, and a practically certain representation of a large part of the upper cretaceous, but with an hiatus between the latter and the eocene. Although the cretaceous rocks are, or were originally, continuous between the Atlantic coast and interior regions by way of the Gulf States, the earlier mesozoic rocks of those regions respectively are so widely separated from each other that, as we go westward, we do not find any that can be confidently referred to either the trias ‘or the Jura until we have passed the r1ooth or perhaps the 103d meridian. As the latter meridian coincides with the western boundary of Texas, the foregoing statement implies that no triassic rocks exist within at least the greater part of the fully thirty thousand square miles in that State and in the Indian Territory, which some geolo- gists have represented as being occupied only by rocks of that age. A personal examination of a large part of that region and, of the fossils collected there has satisfied me that the sum of all the known evidence is in favor of the Permian age of the strata in. question and against their triassic age. But these strata have an important paleontological relation with the mesozoic, to which I wish to call your attention for a few moments. Upwards of fifty species of vertebrates, embracing reptiles, ba- trachians, and fishes, have been described from these rocks by Pro- fessor Cope, upon the evidence of which he referred them to the Permian of Europe, although, as he states, not one of the genera is common to both continents. I have collected upward of thirty species of invertebrates from the same beds which furnished the vertebrates, representative ex- amples of all the more important of which were obtained from one and the same stratum. Of these, fully one-half are common, char- acteristic coal-measure species. A part of the cephalopod species, however, possess such decided mesozoic characteristics that prob- ably no special student of that class of fossil mollusca would hesi- tate to refer them to a formation not older than the trias, if they had been submitted to him without any information as to their true stratigraphical position. It is a significant fact that if three special selections were made from the fossils of all kinds that have been obtained from this for- mation in Texas, one could be made, by the usual method of chron- ological classification practised by paleontologists, to prove its coal- measure age, another its Permian age, and still another its triassic age. It is admitted that the sagacity of an experienced paleontol- ogist will often enable him upon limited evidence to become satis- fied in his own mind as to the approximate’age of a given forma- tion; but it is only after all the obtainable paleontological and stratigraphical facts are carefully considered together that one is justified in expressing a definite opinion upon a subject of this kind. Such a summing up of all the evidence at present available seems to fully justify the reference of this Texan formation to the Permian of Europe. My special object in presenting the foregoing facts is to call your attention to the important paleontological relation of the Tex- . an Permian with the mesozoic, which is shown by the presence of ammonitic and ceratitic cephalopods among paleozoic types of mollusks. The discovery of such forms in such association in the Texan Permian, as well as in the Productus limestone of India, SCIENCE: 161 shows conclusively that certain mesozoic types began: their exist- ence long before the close of paleozoic time. Such forms in such association may be properly regarded as harbingers of an approach- ing, but not yet established, mesozoic era, because, in this case at least, the balance of paleontological evidence favors their reference to the paleozoic. Such facts as those which have been mentioned, as well as others presently to be referred to, indicate that upon the confines of epochs, periods, and ages of geological time there was always a commingling of types of then living forms which in their culmination were characteristic of each of those chronological divisions respectively. Furthermore, I shall call your attention to evidence that some of the types which especially characterized cer- tain geological periods survived in full vigor through later periods. But let us return to a consideration of the mesozoic rocks. Those rocks of the great interior region which have by common consent, but upon comparatively slight evidence, been referred to the trias, are found upturned against the flanks of the Rocky Moun- tain, and other ranges, and exposed to view in the valleys and carions of the plateau province. They reach several thousand feet in thickness, and are so nearly uniform in color and lithological character over the whole of the great area within which they occur that they are often designated as the “ red beds.” They are found resting upon rocks of different age in different places, but in some districts they rest with apparent conformity upon a series of sand- stone strata which are probably of Permian age. This formation is apparently of non-marine origin, and, as a rule, it is quite barren of fossils. The few molluscan remains that have been obtained from it give no indication as to its age, and, in the light of present knowledge, the few plant and vertebrate remains obtained from it are far from satisfactory in this respect. Still, it is not my object to deny the triassic age of this formation, but only to call your attention to the fact that paleontological evidence upon this point is very meagre. Because of the paucity of fossils both in this formation and in the reputed Permian upon which it rests in different districts, little is known of any paleontological relationship between them. There are, however, some indications of such relationship that deserve mention. The case of the commingling of mesozoic and paleozoic types in the Permian of Texas has already been stated. Another case in South Park, Colorado, may be mentioned, and the possible occurrence of still another in south-eastern Idaho may be sug- gested, Important collections of plants and insect remains have been ob- tained from certain strata in South Park which are reported as im- mediately overlying rocks of unquestionable carboniferous age. The plants are regarded by Professor Ward as constituting the most characteristic Permian flora that has been found on this con- tinent. The stratigraphical relation of these rocks is also suggest- ive of their Permian age; and yet Mr. Scudder referred the insects to the trias without qualification. Some years ago Dr. Peale discovered in south-eastern Idaho an unique assemblage of fossils in strata which rest conformably upon the carboniferous, and evidently occupy a position beneath the triassic red beds, which occur in the same neighborhood. A part of the species belong to the Ammonztzde and a part to the Ceratz- tzd@ ; and upon the evidence of these cephalopods Professor Hyatt referred the strata bearing them to the middle trias of Europe. When one remembers that cephalopod forms similar to those just referred to occur in India associated with a characteristic carbon- iferous fauna, he naturally inquires whether it is not possible that the Idaho strata ought to be referred to a period not later than the Permian. Those Idaho strata and the South Park and Texan Permian all possess great interest as indicating an intimate relationship be- tween the mesozoic and the carboniferous of the interior region ; and if the record between the paleozoic and the mesozoic had not been so generally and so badly broken on this continent, we should doubtless now find many similar and more complete cases of the commingling of earlier and later types. Some American field geologists have privately, if not publicly, expressed the opinion that the Permian ought to be assigned to the mesozoic, rather than to the paleozoic; but notwithstanding the paleontological relationship that has just been mentioned, such 162 a view is untenable when all the known facts are considered. It is at present sufficient to say that the great break between the mesozoic and paleozoic of North America occurred while yet pale- ozoic forms of life were far in excess of mesozoic forms; and that almost all the North American strata that have been recognized as of Permian age appear to have been the result of continuous sedi- mentation from the carboniferous. In short, all the hitherto rec- ognized or reputed Permian of North America is far more inti- mately related, both paleontologically and stratigraphically, with the paleozoic than with the mesozoic. Therefore the lower delimi- tation of the North American mesozoic must coincide with the base of the lowermost discovereditriassic strata. A few hundred feet in thickness of strata, which have by com- mon consent long been referred to the Jurassic, are found within a large part of the middle portion of the interior region, resting conformably upon the triassic strata which have already been no- ticed. Where these Jurassic strata have been fully studied, espe- cially in Colorado and Wyoming, they are separable into an upper and a lower portion, the lower portion being of marine, and the upper of fresh-water origin. The invertebrate fossils of the upper portion are mostly of types that are now living, and are, therefore, of no value as indicating their geological age. Those of the lower portion are few, and the cephalopods only, or mainly, present such characters as to suggest their Jurassic age; and it was upon this slight evidence, together with the relative position of the strata, that their reference to the Jurassic was first made. Professor Marsh’s well-known publications of the remarkable dinosaurian faunas from both the upper and lower portions of the strata in question have left no reasonable doubt that they are really of Jurassic age. Professor Marsh refers all these strata to the upper Jurassic of Europe; and in connection with this state- ment I wish to call your attention to the fact that wherever they have been found in contact with the triassic strata already dis- cussed, they are not only strictly conformable, but they seem to have been the result of continuous sedimentation. In fact, it is paleontology alone that suggests an hiatus between them. The field geologist finds no evidence of it. The Jurassic rocks of the interior region disappear both to the northward and southward, their geographical range being appar- ently a little less than that of the underlying triassic beds. No equivalent of the former has been found in Canada, although the cretaceous Dakota group, which immediately overlies the Jurassic further southward, has been recognized there. It may be re- marked also that where the Jurassic is not present beneath the cretaceous, the latter, especially in the eastern part of the region, is often found resting directly upon the older rocks, sometimes even upon the archean. In Texas the Jurassic is also absent from beneath the marine formation, which is regarded as the rep- resentative of the Dakota group there, the latter resting directly but uncomformably upon the Comanche beds, to be presently no- ticed. Omitting present consideration of the isolated masses of reputed Jurassic rocks in western Nevada and eastern California, this sub- division of the mesozoic seems to be represented in North America mainly by the slight accumulation of strata in the interior region which has just been noticed. We know little or nothing of the flora which existed when these strata were deposited ; their inver- tebrate fossils are of little value in determining their geological age, and if it were not for their dinosaurian faunas their Jurassic age might well be questioned. ~ - The section of the cretaceous formations which prevail in the central portion of the interior region, and to which I shall more particularly refer in following remarks, differs materially from a similar section in the southern portion, usually known as the Texas section. Meek and Hayden divided the cretaceous of the central portion of the region into the Dakota, Benton, Niobrara, Pierre, and Fox Hills groups, the first mentioned being the earliest, and the last one mentioned the latest. In Texas the cretaceous sec- tion is continued much beneath the equivalent of the Dakota group there. These lower Texan strata constitute the important marine formation now known as the Comanche beds, the molluscan fauna of which gives peculiar paleontological character to the Texas sec- tion. Above the Comanche beds there is a series’ of formations SCIENCE: [Vou. XIV. No. 34 that are understood to respectively represent all the more northern formations which have just been mentioned. : After due consideration of all the known facts, some of which are of recent acquisition, there seems to be no room for reasonable doubt that the marine cretaceous deposits of the interior region which are later than the Dakota group are, as a whole, not only equivalent with the marine cretaceous deposits of the Atlantic and Gulf coast region, but that they were all originally continuous through the whole of that great geographical extent. These for- — mations are too well known to need present characterization ; and they are now known to constitute the most extensive and definite taxonomic horizon that has been recognized among the mesozoic formations of this continent. Furthermore, the marine molluscan fauna of these strata is of such a character as to leave little room for doubt that they represent homotaxially the Senonian, and per- — haps a part of the Danian, of Europe. The difficulty, however, of accurately correlating the cretaceous formations of this continent with those of Europe is very great, as has, for example, lately been indicated by Professor Roemer’s reference of certain fossils of the — Comanche beds to the upper Turonian. These beds lie wholly and unconformably beneath the horizon of the Dakota group, which is itself not probably newer than the Cenomanian. Before proceeding to a consideration of the Laramie group, it is proper to say that the presence in British America of the Kootanie formation beneath the Dakota group, and that of the Comanche beds beneath the equivalent of the latter in Texas, shows that there is really an hiatus between the Dakota and the Jurassic in the interior region, although their conformity is so complete that it has never been detected by field observation. If a similar hiatus — exists between the Jurassic and triassic in the same region, we ~ have also no stratigraphical evidence of it. The Laramie is in many respects one of the most remarkable of the North American formations. It is found occupying large por- — tions of the interior region from the State of Nuevo Leon in Mex- ~ ico to beyond 52° north latitude. It reaches a maximum thickness of nearly four thousand feet in Colorado, and more than that in British America. It is not only everywhere conformable upon the Fox Hills group, but wherever the junction between them has. been seen, sedimentation from the older to the later formation appears to have been continuous. In all its great geographical extent the Laramie group has never been found to contain any animal remains similar to those which inhabit the open sea only. A considerable proportion of its inver- tebrates are like those which are now denizens of brackish waters, and a still greater proportion are fresh-water forms. It is mainly upon this abrupt change from a marine to a brackish and fresh water character of the molluscan fossils, and not upon strati- graphical difference, that we rely to determine the lower limit of the Laramie formation. ° The labors of Dr. G. M. Dawson and Mr. Whiteaves, and their associates in the Canadian Survey, have shown that conditions similar to those which gave character to the Laramie formation ex- isted in a large part of the northern interior region long before the close of the Fox Hills epoch, and that they were probably continued into the Laramie epoch. But time will not permit me now to dis- cuss this interesting question. Besides the invertebrate fauna which has just been referred to, a few insect remains, a rich flora and a somewhat extensive and va- ried vertebrate fauna have been obtained from the Laramie forma= tion. None of the molluscan remains, so far as I can judge, pos- sess characters which any similar forms might not have possessed at any time from the middle cretaceous to the eocene inclusive; and a large part of them differ from living forms only as species. Similar remarks may be properly made concerning the plant re- — mains of the Laramie formation. Professor Ward has shown that — of the one hundred and twelve genera of plants which have been discovered in the Laramie, thirty-eight of the genera and five of the species are common to the Dakota Group; eighty-five of the gen— era are living and twenty-seven are extinct. These extinct genera are all so nearly allied to living genera respectively that it is diffi-. cult to separate them. Furthermore, not less than three species from the upper strata of the Laramie have been identified with liv- ing species. ; SEPTEMBER 6, 1880. | Mr. Scudder has referred the insect remains to the tertiary, but _ the vertebrate remains, especially those of mammals and land rep- _ tiles, are of more ancient types than those of the plants and inver- tebrates. Among the few Laramie mammals that have been discovered there is no indication as to the ancestry of that great mammalian fauna which characterized the immediately following Wasatch period. The reptiles are mainly dinosaurs of cretaceous types, but some of them seem to possess characters that suggest their Jurassic age. Some paleontologists eve long hesitated to give an opinion as to the true taxonomic position of the Laramie formation; but those _ who have studied the vertebrates only have usually referred it un- qualifiedly to the cretaceous, apparently assuming that, containing _ dinosaurian remains, it could not be of later age. Field geologists, especially those who practically ignore paleontological evidence, also refer the Laramie to the cretaceous, because of its intimate stratigraphical relation to the marine cretaceous beneath it, and be- Cause in all the principal displacements, which the latter has suf- fered in the interior region, the Laramie was equally involved. _ The formations which overlie the Laramie were, by common "consent, long regarded as of tertiary age; but concerning the age of some of them, difference of opinion have since arisen. Between the Laramie and any overlying formation there is often, but not al- ways, unconformity. In Utah, and apparently in the valley of the lower Yellowstone also, I have found the Laramie passing gradu- ally up into purely fresh-water deposits without any stratigraphical break. In the former case I am sure, and in the latter case I be- _ lieve with Professor Newberry, that the upper strata represent the _ lower part of the Wasatch group. In Utah several of the fresh-water molluscan species, which are widely distributed in the Laramie, are found to have passed up into the Wasatch, thus confirming the stratigraphical evidence of the immediate succession of the Wasatch upon the Laramie. In southern Wyoming dinosaurian remains are found in some of the uppermost strata of the Laramie; and the lowermost Wasatch strata in the same region bear coryphodont and other placental Mammalian remains; but remains of these two orders have never ‘been found commingled. Still, in view of the facts just stated, it is not possible to doubt that those placental mammals lived con- temporaneously with at least the last of the Laramie dinosaurs. In north-western New Mexico and south-western Colorado, Pro- fessor Cope has found certain strata at the base of the Wasatch, and overlying the Laramie, to contain the remains of a peculiar vertebrate fauna whose distinguishing members are placental mam- mals which are quite different from those of the Wasatch. These strata he designates as the Puerco group, and he now refers them, ‘together with the Laramie, to the cretaceous, because of certain characteristics which the Puerco mammalian and reptilian remains present; but he formerly regarded that group of strata as of Ceno- _zoic age. These Puerco strata have the appearance of having been deposited simultaneously with those which elsewhere constitute the _ lower portion of the Wasatch group; and before their vertebrates were studied by Professor Cope their identity with the Wasatch _ was not questioned. _ But we are not yet done with dinosaurs. Mr. George H. Eld- ridge has lately shown that in the vicinity of Denver, Col., there is ¥ a distinct formation, from 600 to 1200 feet in thickness resting un- conformably upon the Laramie, which he has called the Arapahoe formation. Mr. Whitman Cross has also lately shown that still _ another formation in the same district, having a maximum thick- ness of fourteen hundred feet, rests unconformably upon both the Arapahoe and Laramie formations. To these strata he has given the name of Denver formation. The great aggregate thickness of these formations, together with their respective displacement with ‘relation to the Laramie and, to each other, shows that much time must have elapsed between the deposition of the uppermost Lara- _ Mie strata in that district and the uppermost Denver strata. _ Mr. Cross shows that a large part of the plant remains, which have been reported as coming from the Laramie in this district, ; really came from the Denver formation. Some of the fresh-water ~ mollusca of the Denver strata I am not able to distinguish from : Laramie species. But the most unexpected fact of all which these _ gentlemen have brought out is that both these formations above SCIENCE 163 the Laramie contain dinosaurian remains in comparative abun- dance. The skull in some species is found to bear a pair of horns similar in posture and shape to those of the hollow-horned rumi- nants. Some of the bones also present characters which are sug- gestive of earlier mesozoic age; but in a general way, at least, these dinosaurs are similar to those of the Laramie. The Laramie group does not reach its maximum thickness in the Denver district, and it is not known whether the latest Laramie strata are represented there. Both the Denver and Arapahoe for- mations are of limited extent, and it is quite probable that the lat- ter, and perhaps the former, together represent the later portion of the Laramie period. But it is reasonable to infer that at least the later portion of the Denver formation was contemporaneous with the earlier fresh-water eocene strata of the Green River basin, not- withstanding the fact that the former bears dinosaurian remains. The present state of our knowledge seems to justify us in regard- ing the marine cretaceous formations immediately beneath the Lar- amie as representing the Senonian of Europe, perhaps including even a part of the Danian. Now if we add to the American creta- ceous the Laramie, Arapahoe, and Denver formations, we evi- dently extend the cretaceous in America much beyond its recognized latest limit in Europe. But. why, we may ask, should not those dinosaurs have survived from mezozoic, into tertiary time? Why should they not have con- tinued their existence as long as physical conditions were favora- ble, and as long as they could compete in the struggle for existence with such mammalian faunas as that whose earliest known history is recorded in the earlier strata of the Wasatch formation ? Before summarizing the conditions of the mesozoic of the inte- rior region and proceeding to a consideration of the Pacific coast section, I wish to refer to the relation of the Lamarie group with the marine tertiary of the Gulf and the Atlantic coasts. For reasons presently to be mentioned, no direct stratigraphical proof of contemporaneity of our great fresh-water inland deposits with marine coast deposits is possible, and direct paleontological proof is not to be expected, I had long hoped, however, that be- cause the Laramie group was in part of brackish water origin its continuity or contact with some marine coast deposit might be dis- covered. Such a discovery was first announced by Professor Cope, which I afterward confirmed, and showed that in the vicinity of Laredo, Texas, the Laramie group as a whole underlies with appar- ent conformity marine strata which contain an abundance of Car- dita planzcosta and other characteristic eocene fossils; but I was not able to detect the continuity of the Laramie with any sea-coast formation. It was this discovered relation of the Laramie to the Gulf coast eocene that was referred to by the suggestion in a previous para- graph that there is really an important hiatus, although apparent conformity, between the cretaceous and the tertiary deposits of the Atlantic coast. The Gulf coast eocene just mentioned being re- garded as equivalent with that of the Atlantic coast, and the up- permost marine cretaceous immediately beneath the Laramie, as equivalent with the uppermost marine cretaceous of the Atlantic coast, it follows that the hiatus referred to equals the whole of the Laramie. It may also be mentioned in passing, that, both upon stratigraphical and paleontological evidence, I regard both the northern lignitic of Hilgard in Mississippi and its equivalent in eastern Texas as equivalent with the upper, lignite-bearing, por- tion of the Laramie as it occurs in the valley of the Rio Grande. Very briefly summarizing the mesozoic of the interior region, we find that its lower delimitation is greatly lacking in uniformity, the lowest member being sometimes the triassic, sometimes, but rarely, the Jurassic, and sometimes the cretaceous. The triassic apparently represents the upper trias of Europe, the Jurassic, the upper Jura, and most of the cretaceous, the upper part of that sub- division of the mesozoic. Above the marine cretaceous strata, in- land sea and lacustrine deposits were continued into tertiary time, apparently without a break, either paleontological or stratigraphi- cal. Having to deal with extensive inland deposits alone when inves- tigating the immediate relation of the mesozoic to the cenozoic in the interior region, we find that the most direct means of deter- mining such relationship is wanting, because the continuity of the 164 marine paleontological record is broken at the base of the Laramie formation. Still, the opinion that we have a continuous record there from cretaceous into tertiary time is strongly supported by paleontological and stratigraphical evidence. But we come now to consider the mesozoic of the Pacific coast region, where we shall find proof of unbroken continuity of marine deposits from the up- per cretaceous to the tertiary. Time will not permit me now to discuss the mesozoic of western British America, which Dr. G. M. Dawson, Mr. Whiteaves, and other Canadian geologists have done such excellent work upon, and I must therefore confine myself mainly to the California section. The rocks of this portion of the Pacific coast region have been so greatly displaced since their deposition that their study is more difficult than that of the rocks of the interior region. Still, our knowledge of the upper part of the Pacific coast mesozoic is quite satisfactory. The oldest mesozoic strata of the California section which I shall specially refer to on this occasion were, by the Cali- fornia geologists, assigned to the lower cretaceous, under the name of the Shasta group. But these strata do not probably represent the very earliest part of the cretaceous period. : The exact relation of the Shasta group to the cretaceous forma- tions above it has not yet been made clear; but Mr. Diller’s inves- tigations in northern California seem to indicate that the hiatus between them is not so marked as has been supposed. The geolo- gists of the California Survey did not recognize any formation as belonging between the Shasta and Chico groups, but Dr. G. F. Becker has reported upon a series of strata in Mendocino county which he believes to be later than the Shasta, and earlier than the Chico. Upon examining the fossils which he collected from those strata, some of the species of which have also been found at Todos Santos Bay in Lower California, I concurred in his opinion, and suggested for those strata and their equivalents the name of Wal- lala group. Still, actual contact of this group with any other cre- taceous strata has not yet been discovered, and its actual taxonomic position is not known. From the base of the Chico’group upward, the series of Califor- nia strata which has been referred to the cretaceous is so well known that little if any difference of opinion exists as to essential facts concerning it, although a wide difference of opinion has arisen as to their significance and importance. This series, aggregating more than ten thousand feet in thickness, was divided into two ‘groups by the California geologists; namely, the Chico below and the Téjon above, although they recognized the fact that there is no distinct break, either paleontological or stratigraphical, between them. A considerable number of fossil invertebrates, among which are a species of baculites and several ammonitic forms, constitute such a decided mesozoic feature of the fauna of the lower portion of this Chico-Téjon series that the California geologists naturally and prop- erly referred it to the cretaceous, The upper, or Téjon, portion contains a fauna that is so obviously cenozoic in character that several geologists, especially Heilprin and Conrad, have strenuously contended that it is of eocene age. A large proportion of these Téjon species are found to be so common in the Chico portion that if they were not there commingled with the cretaceous forms just referred to, the tertiary age of those lower strata would hardly be questioned. In short, there is in this stratigraphically unbroken Chico-Téjon series of California, a gradual transition of faunal char- acteristics from the cretaceous to the tertiary. This transition was recognized by Mr. Gabb, and yet he referred the whole series to the cretaceous. His view was that, a portion of the series being assigned to the cretaceous, the remainder of it must follow, because the series can only be arbitrarily divided ; and other geologists still entertain a similar opinion. By whatever name or names this great series of strata may be known, it is plain that it represents a continuous portion of geological time, extending from the later mesozoic to the earlier cenozoic age inclusive. There- fore the mesozoic series of strata in this portion of the Pacific coast region has really no definable upper limit. It is true that by our present methods it is inconvenient to classify a series of strata like this, but the recognition of its true character is of far more importance than mere convenience of classi- fication. Indeed this case constitutes one of the most instructive SCIENCE. discoveries that has been tnade in the whole range of historical geology; and it should be understood as demonstrating that abrupt transitions from one epoch, period, or age to another have always been due to local or regional changes in physical conditions; or, in other words, to accidental circumstances. Concerning the relation of the other members of the California section of the mesozoic to the Chico-Téjon series, or to each other, and the relation of the lowest of those formations to the Jurassic, our knowledge, as before mentioned, is imperfect. _ The satisfactory correlation of a part of the cretaceous forma- tions of the interior region with those of the Atlantic coast region has already been mentioned ; but we have never been able to satis- factorily correlate any of the cretaceous formations of the Pacific coast region which have been mentioned, with any of those of the interior and Atlantic coast regions, even in cases of presumable contemporaneity. If such correlations are ever made, we must ex- pect them through the labors of the Canadian geologists in the North-west. The whole fauna of each of the Pacific coast forma- tions referred to seems to be different from that of any of the more eastern formations, the few cases in which specific identity has — This inability to cor- been recognized being of doubtful character. relate formations in different and not far distant parts of our own continent, which were presumably contemporaneous in their origin, may well cause us to doubt the correlation of at least a part of the American formations with those of other parts of the world which various authors have confidently assumed. It has already been shown that the lower limit of the North American mesozoic must coincide with the lowermost triassic strata in any given section, whether those strata are regarded as representing the earlier or the later trias; and that no strata hith- erto recognized as Permian can be reasonably referred to the mes- ozoic. That is, the lower limit is defined by a great break in the geological record of this continent, constituting an hiatus, which began before the full completion of paleozoic time and continued until after the beginning of mesozoic time. But we are quite unable to designate clearly the upper limit of the mesozoic in at least a large portion of this continent. It is true that in the Atlantic coast region the upper limit of the mes- ozoic is clearly marked where the marine eocene rests upon the uppermost of the cretaceous strata there, but that delimitation is produced by an hiatus. In portions of both the interior and Pacific coast regions, however, it is quite impossible to clearly designate the delimitating boundary between the mesozoic and cenozoic, because in at least a part of both regions no break in either the stratigraphical or paleontological record occurred until after cen- ozoic time was fully established. In connection with the foregoing brief summary of the charac- teristics of the North American mesozoic, certain views have been expressed which I entertain in common with some, but not all, other geologists concerning the correlation of formations and the inter-relation of presumably contemporaneous fossil faunas and floras. The following propositions are offered as the basis of those views. by any geologist, but these are given with the others for the sake of relevancy. (1) In accordance with the principles of modern biology, we must conclude that, although it has not been demonstrated by actual discovery, there has been a continuous genetic succession of living organisms upon the earth ever since life began; that is, while numerous breaks in that succession have occurred, they have never been of universal, but only of local or regional extent, and they have been due to similarly restricted physical changes. (2) The record of that succession of living organisms has been accomplished and preserved by the natural entombment of their fossilizable remains in aqueous sedimentary deposits. Subsequent physical changes have destroyed or rendered inaccessible a large part of the record, and all we know of that succession is derived from such of those remains as we have been fortunate enough to discover. 5 (3) The record of the succession of terrestrial life has been far less complete, and has suffered greater interruptions, than that of aqueous life, because the record of the former has been made un- der conditions which were irrelevant or inimical to that life, and [Von. XIV. Now $44. A part of them, however, will not be questioned © SWAP Sh ee ot! Vite Seprewer 6, 1889.] the entombment of its remains has always occurted under acci- dental conditions. ; (4) The record of marine life is necessarily more complete than that of any other, because the seas have furnished continuous and more uniform conditions than either the land or fresh waters, and because the preservation of its remains was a natural consequence of the conditions under which that life existed. Therefore the _ record of marine life was less modified by other than evolutional changes of a cosmical character than that of the land and fresh waters, and it is consequently more trustworthy as an index of the progress of geological time. (5) Breaks or interruptions in the succession of marine forms of life have been coincident with breaks of continuity, or with changes in the characters of the sediments by which their remains were en- tombed. These breaks in sedimentation, and in the succession of living organisms, are used by all geologists as indicating the de- limiting boundaries of geological epochs, periods, and ages respec- tively, as well as of formations and systems. Their causes were independent of the existence of life, and their occurrence was ac- cidental with reference to it. It therefore follows that the recognizable time record in one part of the world is necessarily different in its divisions from that of any other part. For example, a period the close of which was marked by such interruptions as have been mentioned in one part of the world would be continued in other parts as long afterward as the occurrence of similar breaks there should be postponed. While such interruptions were occurring in one or more parts of the world, life and sedimentation were continuous and unaffected by them in others. This is plainly shown in the case of the Chico- Téjon series in California, because no inter-delimiting boundary Occurs between its cretaceous and the tertiary portions, as has already been explained; while an evident hiatus exists between the uppermost known cretaceous and the lowermost known tertiary both in Europe and a large part of North America. (6) While there has been progressive development in the order of succession of living organisms from lower forms in earlier, to higher forms in later geological time, the rate of progress of that development has not been uniform in all parts of the world for the same kinds of life. For example, the plant life of North America is now understood to have reached, in later mesozoic time, a higher stage of development with relation to animal life than it had in Europe; and the difference in grade among the now living indige- nous faunas of the different continents respectively, indicates that a similar difference in the rate of development has also prevailed in different divisions of the animal kingdom. (7) The various stages of progressive development of living or- ganisms have been marked by the successive introduction and ex- tinction of class, ordinal, family, and generic types; and yet certain of those types survived in some parts of the world during long epochs after they had become extinct in other parts. This propo- sition is supported by such facts as that of the survival into the Laramie, Arapahoe, and Denver epochs, of dinosaurian faunas which apparently show little if any indication of decadence or of ap- proaching extinction; and also by the survival of highly organized representatives of mesozoic families and genera to the present time. Therefore it is not to be expected that we should find exactly the same association of faunal and floral types, or evidence of more than approximately the same grade of development of life in con- temporaneous but widely separated formations. Therefore, also, the custom which has been adopted by some paleontologists of making the assumed absence of certain of those types a distin- guishing element in the chronological diagnosis of formations is by no means to be commended, even if it were possible for us to dis- cover remains of all the forms of life which then and there existed. (8) Correlation of lake and inland sea deposits with those of Open-sea origin, even within the same continental area, is necessa- rily a matter of uncertainty. This uncertainty is due to the great difference in the character of the faunas of those waters respect- ively, to the fact that constituent members of faunas of inland wa- ters were not so diversely differentiated in the course of geological time as were those of marine waters; and also the inevitable want _ of geographical continuity of the two classes of deposits with each other, even in cases of actual contemporaneity. The only really SCIENCE: 165 trustworthy paleontological mieans of determining the equivalency or contemporaneity of deposits in such cases as these is the specific identification of such remains of land animals and plants as may have found entombment in then existing contiguous inland waters, on the one hand, and marine waters on the other. For reasons mentioned in proposition 6, the mere similarity of types, even of the more highly organized animals and plants, which may be dis- covered in different districts cannot be relied upon as indicating contemporaneity. Geographical continuity of strata being always wanting in such cases, the only aid to be expected from stratig- raphy in determining equivalency of the formations must come through the discovery of the overlying or underlying position of the inland deposits with reference to marine deposits of known geolog- ical age. It will be seen that these propositions involve serious question- ings of the validity of certain methods and practices common among many of those geologists who devote themselves mainly or exclu- sively to paleontology. Such questionings afford scope for elabo- rate and varied discussions, but I shall close my present remarks with only a brief reference to the general subject of a proper rec- ognition of a universal scheme of geological classification, which must of course have a biological basis. The greater part of my own geological studies having been prosecuted from a biological standpoint, I am naturally not disposed to underestimate the value of paleontology as a branch of geolog- ical investigation, nor to encourage, even by incidental utterance, those who do. But I am sure no greater harm can be done to pa- leontological science than either to encourage, or to fail to oppose, the erroneous views which some of its votaries are shown by their own publications to entertain. For example, it is apparent to every one who is at all familiar with paleontological literature that many authors assume to designate with precision the geological age of any and all fossils submitted to them, as well as the taxono- mic position of the strata from which they were obtained, without reference to stratigraphy, or to any related geological fact. Those paleontologists who make this unwarranted application of their science to systematic geology, all use the scheme of classi- fication that has been established for Europe, and use it as if it were of infallible application to all other parts of the world, and also as if it were already absolutely perfected for that continent. While I have no inclination to question the general accuracy of the European scheme of classification for that continent, I do not hesi- tate to express the opinion that it is not of infallible application to other parts of the world, except as to its larger divisions, and that even in this respect it will need modification. That is, I hold that investigations of the formations which are found upon any given continent or great division of the earth’s surface ought to be prose- cuted, first, with relation to one another, and second, with reference to their ultimate, not immediate, correlation with those of other continents or divisions. It is true that the general consensus of geological thought and opinion has long been in favor of adopting the European scheme of classification in all, or nearly all, its details as applicable to all other parts of the world, and every considerate naturalist will treat such opinion with deference. But prevalence of opinion is by no means proof of its accuracy. None of the older naturalists present need be reminded of the great revolution in opinion that took place a little more than twenty years ago; and the older geologists will remember that the degree of displacement, the amount of consoli- dation, the crystallization and the lithological composition, of strata, were once accepted by all geologists as indices of the geo- logical age of the formations which they composed. Remember- ing these incidents in the history of natural science, it does not seem unreasonable that present opinions should be frequently ques- tioned, even those which are generally accepted. I do not wish to be understood as condemning the scheme of classification now in use, nor even as recommending the present substitution of it by any other; but I insist that for universal appli- cation, it is plainly imperfect. A scheme of classification, as a working rule, is not only a convenience but a constant necessity ; so constant, indeed, that I have not been able to present these re- marks without its aid. But while the one which has been estab- lished for Europe ought by no means to be discarded, it ought to 166 be used tentatively in each of the great divisions of the earth, and with reference to the ultimate establishment of a universal scheme after all those divisions have been thoroughly investigated. The time has come when North American geologists can, and ought to, hold a commanding position in this respect ; and when we have elaborated a scheme of classification for the formations of our own continent, it will have equal claim to the favorable consid- eration of the geological world with any other. NOTES AND NEWS. AFTER a stoppage of two years, caused by a lack of funds, work was recently resumed on the double tunnel under the Hudson River between this city and the New Jersey side. Operations are restricted as yet to the Jersey City end of the north or up-river tunnel, which has been excavated to a distance of nearly two thous- and feet from the shaft. The total length of the tunnel from shaft to shaft, when completed, will be 5,600 feet, to which must be ad- _ ded the length of the inclines or approaches leading to the surface, work upon which has not been begun. Work is carried on under an air-pressure of about thirty-four pounds to the square inch, and the heading progresses at the rate of twenty-five feet a week. — Professor Elihu Thompson has perfected an invention by which the rails of street or steam railways may be welded together by elec- tricity after being placed in position. A dynamo propels over the tracks an electric welding machine, which welds the rails into one continuous line after it passes over them. It is proposed to have at every one hundred feet a break, to allow for expansion. Any kind of rails can thus be welded. — There has been patented in Germany a process by means of which sulphuric acid for manufacturing purposes can be safely transported. The inventor takes advantage of a property of cer- tain salts—of which alkaline sulphates are representatives — by which they give up their water of crystallization when heated and take it up again when cool; and he does so by mixing the salts in an anhydrous condition with a calculated quantity of sulphuric acid. ‘he whole mass becomes granular, or may be formed into cakes, and when heated the whole liquefies, and may be used as if it were sulphuric acid, for the presence of bisulphate of soda does no harm. — Several reports received at the Hydrographic Office in Wash- ington during the past month serve to illustrate the source of many doubtful or imaginary dangers to navigation that encumber the charts so long before their existence can be disproved. On July 14, in 43° 17’ north latitude, 57° 32’ west longitude, the captain of a Norwegian vessel sighted an immense dead whale which at a distance had the appearance of a rock. A number of sea-birds were about it. On July 22 the German steamship “ National,” while on a scientific exploring expedition, passed a dead whale under similar circumstances. On Aug. 2 the captain of a British steamship sighted a dead whale, about a hundred feet long, showing six feet out of water. It will readily be seen how easily such an obstruction might be mistaken for a shoal, and, if reported ina region where the depths are not too well known to admit of the possibility of such a thing, it might add one more doubtful danger to the many that have been reported. — A nailless horseshoe which has been undergoing severe tests in England during the past two years, with satisfactory results, is described as follows: The shoe is attached by a steel band which passes below the coronet from one extremity of the heel to the other. This band is kept in position by a steel pillar which runs from the centre of the shoe up to the centre of the hoof. In addi- tion there are three short studs, one in the centre of the shoe, and the others near the heel and on each side of it. It can be put on by any one who has once seen the process, which takes about half ” the time required with the cold-shoe system, which latter is an im- provement as regards time on the ordinary process with nails. The nailless shoe diminishes or puts an end to cutting, and is particu- larly suited to brittle hoofs or hoofs with sand cracks. It costs as little, weighs as little, and lasts as long as the ordinary shoe; and, moreover, is not sucked off on heavy ground. SCIENCE. SCIP NGE: 4 WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY Ws Ds) Co 71s! OID (EAs Be 47 LAFAYETTE PLAcE, NEw YORK. SuBscRIPTIONS.—United States and Canada..............-+..-- $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): aeooo fax) 6.00 1 subscription 1 year,....o-ssre-..- “ Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 6, 1889. No. 344. CONTENTS: Tue Juvrien Exectric TRACTION Tue NortuH American Mesozoic SVSTE Mitseelalelseieeheleiswisiemicicteieis arate 157 Charles A. White 160 The Toronto Meeting of the Amer- D < A wae An ImprRoveD STANDARD CLARK Gen UAC eaeia tion CeLL with Low TEMPERATURE MatTHEMATICAL THEORIES OF THE CoEFFICIENT HS. Carhart 159 EartH R. S. Woodward 167 Tue WENSTROM Dynamo........... 159 | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS...........- 172 ONE OF THE FEATURES of the meeting of The American Asso- ciation at Toronto just closed was the growth of the societies de- — voted to special branches of science which meet each year at the same time and place as the association. The Botanical Club has been in successful operation for some years, as has also the Agri- cultural Society. This year there was held a meeting of the Geo- logic Society, and the formation of a chemical society was vigor- ously discussed. The Entomological Club is another of the groups into which congenial spirits unite, possibly to free themselves of the more cumbersome meetings of the sections of the association. Of the vice-presidents’ addresses, we print this week those of vice-presi- dents R.S. Woodward and C. A. White. That by Professor H. S. Carhart, in the Physics Section, was a review of theories of electrical action. In the Chemical Section, Professor W. L. Dudley spoke of “The Nature of Amalgams.” He gave a résumé of the most impor- tant work done in this interesting field, and a few results of his own. Appended to the address is a complete index to the literature, em- bracing over three hundred titles. In the Section of Mechanics and Engineering no address was delivered, and the work of the section was quickly over, few papers being presented. Vice-presi- — dent G, L. Goodale’s address before the Biologic Section was on protoplasm. The address of Vice-president Garrick Mallery, be- fore the Anthropologists, treated of the “Israelite and Indian, a Parallel in Planes of Culture.” This we hope to print in an early number. The remarks of Vice-president C. S. Hill before the Eco- “nomic Section on the “Economic and Sociologic Relations of the Canadian States and the United States, prospectively considered,” _ roused considerable criticism. The meeting adjourned to meet next year on the third Wednesday in August at Indianapolis. The officers of the meeting will be as follows: president, Professor George L. Goodale, Harvard University ; vice-presidents, A, Math- ematics and Astronomy, S. C. Chandler, Cambridge, Mass.; B, Physics, Cleveland Abbe, Washington; C, Chemistry, R. B. Warder, Washington; D, Mechanical Science and Engineering, _ James E. Denton, Hoboken, N. J.; E, Geology and Geography, John C. Branner, Little Rock, Ark.; F, Biology, C. S. Minot, Bos- ton, Mass.; H, Anthropology, Frank Baker, Washington ; I, Eco- nomic Science and Statistics, J. Richards Dodge, Washington ; _ permanent secretary, F. W. Putnam, Cambridge, Mass., office, Salem, Mass.; general secretary, H. Carrington Bolton, of New York; secretary of the council, James Loudon, Toronto; secreta- ries of the sections, A, Wooster A. Beman, Ann Arbor, Mich.; B, _ W. Le Conte Stevens, Brooklyn, N. Y.; C, W. A. Noyes, Terre Haute, Ind.; D, M. E. Cooley, Ann Arbor, Mich.; E, Samuel Cal- vin, lowa City, lowa; E, John M. Coulter, Crawfordsville, Ind.; H, Joseph Jastrow, Madison, Wis.; I, S. Dana Horton, Pomeroy, Ohio; treasurer, William Lilly, of Mauch Chunk, Penn.; auditors, Henry Wheatland, Salem, Mass.; Thomas Meehan, Philadelphia. THE MATHEMATICAL THEORIES OF THE EARTH.’ THE name of this section, which, by your courtesy, it is my duty to address to-day, implies a cominunity of interest among astronomers and mathematicians. This community of interest is not difficult to explain. We can of course imagine a considerable body of astronomical facts quite independent of mathematics. We can also imagine a much larger body of mathematical facts quite independent of and isolated trom astronomy. But we never think of astronomy in the large sense without recognizing its de- pendence on mathematics, and we never think of mathematics as a whole without considering its capital applications in astronomy. Of all the subjects and objects of common interest to us the earth will easily rank first. The earth furnishes us with a stable foundation for instrumental work and a fixed line of reference, whereby it is possible to make out the orderly arrangement and procession of our solar system and to gain some inkling of other systems which lie within telescopic range. The earth furnishes us with a most attractive store of real problems: its shape, its size, its mass, its precession and nutation, its internal heat, its earth- quakes and volcanoes, and its origin and destiny, are to be classed with the leading questions for astronomical and mathematical re- search. We must of course recognize the claims of our friends the geologists to that indefinable something called the earth’s crust, but, considered in its entirety and in its relations to similar bodies of the universe, the earth has long been the special province of as- tronomers and mathematicians. Since the times of Galileo and Kepler and Copernicus it has supplied a perennial stimulus to ob- servation and investigation, and it promises to tax the resources of the ablest observers and analysts for some centuries to come. The mere mention of the names of Newton, Bradley, d’Alembert, Laplace, Fourier, Gauss, and Bessel calls to mind not only a long list of inventions and discoveries, but the most important parts of mathematical literature. In itsdynamical and physical aspects the earth was to them the principal object of research, and the thor- oughness and completeness of their contributions toward an expla- nation of the ‘‘ system of the world” are still a source of wonder and admiration to all who take the trouble to examine their works. A detailed discussion of the known properties of the earth and of the hypotheses concerning the unknown properties, is no fit task for a summer afternoon : the intricacies and delicacies of the sub- ject are suitable only for another season and a special audience. But it has seemed that a somewhat popular review of the state of our mathematical knowledge of the earth might not be without in- 1 Address before the Section of Mathematics and Astronomy of the American As- sociation for the Advancement of Science, at Toronto, Ont., Aug. 28-Sept. 3, by R. S. Woodward, vice-president of the section. SCIENCE: 167 terest to those already familiar with the complex details, and might also help to increase that general interest in science, the promo- tion of which is one of the most important functions of this asso- ciation. As we look back through the light of modern analysis, it seems strange that the successors of Newton, who took up the problem of the shape of the earth, should have divided into hostile camps over the question whether our planet is elongated or flattened at the poles. They agreed in the opinion that the earth is a spheroid, but they debated, investigated, and observed for nearly half a cen- tury before deciding that the spheroid is oblate rather than oblong. This was a critical question, and its decision marks perhaps the Most important epoch in the history of the figure of the earth. The Newtonian view of the oblate form found its ablest supporters in Huyghens, Maupertuis, and Clairaut, while the erroneous view was maintained with great vigor by the justly distinguished Cas- sinian school of astronomers. Unfortunately for the Cassinians, defective measures of a meridional arc in France gave color to the false theory and furnished one of the most conspicuous instances of the deterring effect of an incorrect observation. As you well know, the point was definitely settled by Maupertuis’s measure- ment of the Lapland arc. For this achievement his name has be- come famous in literature as well as in science, for his friend Vol- taire congratulated him on having “flattened the poles and the Cassinis,” and Carlyle has honored him with the title of “ Earth- flattener.” Since the settlement of the question of the form, progress to- wards a knowledge of the size of the earth has been consistent and steady, until now it may be said that there are few objects with which we have to deal whose dimensions are so well known as the dimensions of the earth. But this is a popular statement, and like most such, needs to be explained in order not to be misunderstood. Both the size and shape of the earth are defined by the lengths of its equatorial and polar axes; and, knowing the fact of the oblate spheroidal form, the lengths of the axes may be found within nar- row limits from simple measurements conducted on the surface, quite independently of any knowledge of the interior constitution of the earth. It is evident in fact, without recourse to mathemati- cal details, that the length of any arc, as a degree of latitude or longitude, on the earth’s surface, must depend on the lengths of those axes. Conversely, it is plain that the measurement of such an arc on the surface and the determination of its geographical position, constitute an indirect measurement of the axes. Hence it has happened that scientific as distinguished from practical geodesy has been concerned chiefly with such linear and astro- nomical measurements, and the zeal with which this work has been pursued is attested by triangulations on every continent. Passing over the earlier determinations as of historical interest only, all of the really trustworthy approximations to the lengths of the axes have been made within the half century just passed. The first to appear of these approximations were the well-founded values of Airy, published in 1830. These, however, were almost wholly overshadowed and supplanted eleven years later by the:values of Bessel, whose spheroid came to occupy a most conspicuous place in geodesy for more than a quarter of a century. Knowing as we now do that Bessel’s values were considerably in error, it seems not a little remarkable that they should have been so long ac- cepted without serious question. One obvious reason is found in the fact that a considerable lapse of time was essential for the ac- cumulation of new data, but two other possible reasons of a differ- ent character are wortuy of notice, because they are interesting and instructive whether specially applied to this particular case or not. It seems not improbable that the close agreement of the values of Airy and Bessel, computed independently and by different methods, — the greatest discrepancy being about one hundred and hifty feet, —may have been incautiously interpreted as a confirmation of Bessel’s dimensions, and hence led to their too ready adoption. It seems also not improbable that the weight of Bessel’s great name may have been too closely associated in the minds of his followers with the weight of his observations and results. The sanction of eminent authority, especially if there is added to it the stamp of an official seal, is sometimes a serious obstacle to real progress. We cannot do less than accord to Bessel the first place among the 168 astronomers and geodesists of his day, but this is no adequate justification for the exaggerated estimate long entertained of the precision of the elements of his spheroid. The next step in the approximation was the important one of Clarke in 1866. His new values showed an increase over Bessel’s of about half a mile in the equatorial semi-axis and about three- tenths of a mile in the polar semi-axis. Since 1886, General Clarke has kept pace with the accumulating data, and given us so many different elements for our spheroid that it is necessary to affix a date to any of his values we may use. The later values, however, differ but slightly from the earlier ones, so that the spheroid of 1866, which has come to be pretty generally adopted, seems likely to enjoy a justly greater celebrity than that of its immediate pre- decessor. The probable error of the axes of this spheroid is not much greater than the hundred thousandth part, and it is not likely that new data will change their lengths by more than a few hun- dred feet. - In the present state of science, therefore, it may be said that the first order of approximation to the form and dimensions of the earth has been successfully attained. The question which follows naturally and immediately is, how much further can the approxi- mation be carried? The answer to this question is not yet writ- ten, and the indications are not favorable for its speedy announce- ment. ‘The first approximation, as we have seen, requires no knowledge of the interior density and arrangement of the earth’s mass ; it proceeds on the simple assumption that the sea surface is closely spheroidal. The second approximation, if it be more than a mere interpolation formula, requires a knowledge of both the density and arrangement of the constituents of the earth’s mass, and especially of that part called the crust, ‘ All astron- omy,” says Laplace, “rests on the stability of the earth’s axis of rotation.” Ina similar sense we may say all geodesy rests on the direction of the plumb-line. The simple hypothesis of a spheroidal form assumes that the plumb-line is everywhere coincident with the normal to the spheroid, or that the surface of the spheroid coincides with the level of the sea. But this is not quite correct. The plumb-line is not in general coincident with the normal, and the actual sea level or geoid must be imagined to be an irregular surface lying partly above and partly below the ideal spheroidal surface. The deviations, it is true, are relatively small, but they are in general much greater than the unavoidable errors of ob- servation, and they are the exact numerical expression of our ignorance in this branch of geodesy. It is well known, of course, that deflections of the plumb-line can sometimes be accounted for by visible masses, but on the whole it must be admitted that we possess only the vaguest notions of their cause and a most inade- quate knowledge of distribution and extent. What is true of plumb-line deflections is about equally true of the deviations of the intensity of gravity from what may be called the spheroidal type. Given a closely spheroidal form of the sea level and it follows from the law of gravitation, as a first approxi- mation, without any knowledge of the distribution of the earth’s mass, that the increase of gravity varies as the square of the sine of the latitude in passing from the equator to the poles. This is the remarkable theorem of Stokes, and it enables us to determine the form or ellipticity of the earth, by means of pendulum observa- tions alone. It must be admitted, however, that the values for the ellipticity recently obtained in this way by the highest authorities, Clarke and Helmert, are far from satisfactory, whether we regard them in the light of their discrepancy or in the light .of the dif- | ferent methods of computing them. In general terms we may say that the difficulty in the way of the use of pendulum observations still hinges on the treatment of local anomalies and on the ques- tion of reduction to sea level. At present, the case is one concern- ing which the doctors agree neither in their diagnosis nor in their remedies. Turning attention now from the surface, towards the interior, what can be said of the earth’s mass as a whole, of its laws of dis- tribution, and of the pressures that exist at great depth? Two facts, namely, the mean density and the surface density, are roughly known; and a third fact, namely, the precession constant, or the ratio of the difference of the two principal moments of inertia to the greater of them, is known with something like pre- SCIENCE. a cision, These facts lie within the domain of observation, and re- quire only the law of gravitation for their verification. Certain in- ferences also from these facts and others have long been and still are held to be hardly less cogent and trustworthy, but before stat- - ing them, it will be well to recall briefly the progress of opinion’ concerning this general subject during the past century and a half. The conception of the earth as having been primitively fluid was the prevailing one among mathematicians before Clairaut published his ““ Théorie de la Figure de la Terre” in 1743. By the aid of this conception Clairaut proved the celebrated theorem which bears his name, and probably no idea in the mechanics of the earth has been more suggestive and fruitful. It was the central idea in the elaborate investigations of Laplace, and received at his hands a de- velopment which his successors have found it about equally difficult to displace or to improve. From the idea of fluidity spring naturally the hydrostatical notions of pressure and level surfaces, or the ar- rangement of fluid masses in strata of uniform density. Hence follows, also, the notion of continuity of increase in density from the surface towards the centre of the earth. All of the principal mechanical properties and effects of the earth’s mass, viz., the ellipticity, the surface density, the mean density, the precession constant, and the lunar inequalities, were correlated by Laplace in. a single hypothesis, involving only one assumption in addition to that of original fluidity and the law of gravitation. This assump- tion relates to the compressibility of matter, and asserts that the ratio of the increment of pressure to the increment of density is proportional to the density. Many interesting and striking con- clusions follow readily from this hypothesis, but the most interest- ing and important are those relative to density and pressure, espe- cially the latter, whose dominance as a factor in the mechanics of celestial masses seems destined to survive whether the hypothesis stands or falls. The hypothesis requires that-while the density in- creases slowly from something less than 3 at the surface to about 11 at the centre of the earth, the pressure within the mass increases: rapidly below the surface, reaching a value surpassing the crushing strength of steel at the depth of a few miles, and amounting at-the centre to no less than three million atmospheres. The inferences, then, as distinguished from the facts, are that the mass of the earth is very nearly symmetrically disposed about its centre of gravity, that pressure and density except near the surface are mutually dependent, and that the earth in reaching this stage has passed through the fluid or quasi-fluid state. Later writers have suggested other hypotheses for a continuous distribution of the earth’s mass, but none of them can be said to. rival the hypothesis of Laplace. Their defects lie either in’ not postulating a direct connection between density and pressure or in postulating a connection which implies extreme-or impossible values for these and other mechanical properties of the mass. It is clear from the positiveness of his language in frequent allusions to this conception of the earth, that Laplace was deeply impressed with its essential correctness. ‘‘ Observations,” he says, “ prove incontestably that the densities of the strata [couches] of the terrestrial spheroid increase from the surface to the centre ; and “the regularity with which the observed variation in length of a seconds pendulum follows the law of the squaresof the sines of the latitudes, proves that the strata are arranged symmetrically about the centre of gravity of the earth.” The more recent inves- tigations of Stokes, to which allusion has already been made, for- bid our entertaining anything like so confident an opinion of the earth’s primitive fluidity or of a symmetrical and continuous ar- rangement of its strata. But, though it must be said that the sufficiency of Laplace’s arguments has been seriously impugned, we can hardly think the probability of the correctness of his con- clusions has been proportionately diminished. Suppose, however, that we reject the idea: of original fluidity. Would not a rotating mass of the size of the earth assume finally the same aspects and properties presented by our planet? Would not pressure and centrifugal force suffice to bring about a central condensation and a symmetrical arrrangement of strata similar at least to that required by the Laplacian hypothesis? Categorical answers to these questions cannot be given. But whatever may have been the antecedent condition of the earth’s mass, the conclu- sion seems unavoidable that at no great depth the pressure is. suffi- [Vor. XIV. No. 344 aka 5 wi SEPTEMBER 6, 1880, | substances, and hence to produce viscous flow whenever and wherever the stress difference exceeds a certain limit, which can- not be large in comparison with the pressure. Purely observa- tional evidence also of a highly affirmative kind in support of this conclusion, is afforded by the remarkable results of Tresca’s exper- iments on the flow of solids and by the abundant proofs in geology of the plastic movements and viscous flow of rocks. With such views and facts in mind, the fluid stage, considered indispensable by Laplace, does not appear necessary to the evolution of a planet, even if it reach the extreme refinement of a close fulfilment of some such mathematical law as that of his hypotheses. If, as is here assumed, pressure be the dominant factor in such large masses, the attainment of a stable distribution would be simply a question of time. The fluid mass might take on its normal form in a few days or a few months, whereas the viscous mass might require a few thousand or a few million years. Some physicists and mathematicians, on the other hand, reject both the idea of the existence of great pressures within the earth’s mass, and the-notion of an approach to continuity in the distribu- tion of density. As representing this side of the question, the views ot the late M. Roche, who wrote much on the constitution of the earth, are worthy of consideration. He tells us that the very magnitude of the central pressure computed on the hypothesis of fluidity is itself a peremptory objection to that hypothesis. Ac- cording to his conception, the strata of the earth from the centre outwards are substantially self-supporting and unyielding. It does “not appear, however, that he had submitted this conception to the test of numbers, for a simple calculation will show that no materi- als of which we have any knowledge would sustain the stress in such shells or domes. If the crust of the earth were self-support- ing, its crushing strength would have to be about thirty times that of the best cast steel or five to one thousand times that of granite. The views of Roche on the distribution of terrestrial densities ap- pear equally extreme. He prefers to consider the mass as made up of two distinct parts, an outer shell or crust whose thickness is about one-sixth of the earth’s radius, and a solid nucleus having little or no central condensation. The nucleus is conceived to be purely metallic, and to have about the same density as iron. To account for geological phenomena, he postulates a zone of fusion separating the crust from the nucleus. The whole hypothesis is consistently worked out in conformity with the requirements of ellipticity, the superficial density, the mean density, and precession ; so that to one who can divest his mind of the notion that pressure and continuity are important factors in the mechanics of such masses, the picture which Roche draws of the constitution of our planet will present nothing incongruous. In a field so little explored and so inaccessible, though hedged about as we have seen by certain sharply limiting conditions, there is room for a wide range of opinion and for great freedom in the play of hypothesis ; and although the preponderance of evidence appears to be in favor of a terrestrial mass in which the reign of pressure is well-nigh absolute, we should not be surprised a few decades or centuries hence to find many of our notions on this sub- ject radically defective. If the problem of the constitution and distribution of the earth’s mass is yet an obscure and difficult one after two centuries of ob- servation and investigation, can we report any greater degree of success in the treatment of that still older problem of the earth’s internal heat, of its origin and effects? Concerning phenomena always so impressive and often so terribly destructive as those in- timately connected with the terrestrial store of heat, it is natural that there should be a considerable variety of Opinion. The con- sensus of such opinion, however, has long been in favor of the hypothesis that heat is the active cause of many and a potent fac- tor in most of the grander phenomena which geologists assign to the earth’s crust; and the prevailing interpretation of these phe- nomena is based on the assumption that our planet is a cooling sphere whose outer shell or crust is constantly cracked and crumpled in adjusting itself to the shrinking nucleus. The conception that the earth was originally an intensely heated and molten mass appears to have first taken something like defi- nite form in the minds of Leibnitz and Descartes. But neither of SCIENCE. cient to break down the structural characteristics of all known 164 these philosophets was drtned with the necessary mathematical equipment to subject this conception to the test of numerical cal- culation. Indeed it was not fashionable in their day, any more than it is with some philosophers in ours, to undertake the drudgery of applying the machinery of analysis to the details of an hypothesis. Nearly a century elapsed before an order of intellects capable of dealing with this class of questions appeared. It was reserved for Joseph Fourier to lay the foundation and build a great part of the superstructure of our modern theory of heat diffusion, his avowed desire ‘being to solve the great problem of terrestrial heat. ‘The question of terrestrial temperatures,” he says, “ has always appeared to us one of the grandest objects of cosmological studies, and we have had it constantly in view in establishing the mathematical theory of heat.” This ambition, however, was only partly realized. Probably Fourier underestimated the difficulties of his problem, for his most ingenious and industrious successors in the same field have made little progress beyond the limits he at- tained. But the work he left is a perennial index to his genius. Though quite inadequately appreciated by his contemporaries, the “ Analytical Theory of Heat,” which appeared in 1820, is now con- ceded to be one of the epoch-making books. Indeed, to one who has caught the spirit of the extraordinary analysis which Fourier developed and illustrated by numerous applications in this treatise, it is evident that he opened a field whose resources are still far from being exhausted. A little later Poisson took up the same class of questions and published another great work on the mathe- matical theory of heat. Poisson narrowly missed being the fore- most mathematician of his day. In originality, in wealth of math- ematical resources, and in breadth of grasp of physical principles, he was the peer of the ablest of his contemporaries. In lucidity of exposition it would be enough to say that he was a Frenchman, but he seems to have excelled in this peculiarly national trait. His contributions to the theory of heat have been somewhat overshad- owed in recent times by the earlier and perhaps more brilliant re- searches of Fourier, but no student can afford to take up that en- ticing though difficult theory without the aid of Poisson as well as Fourier. It is natural, therefore, that we should inquire what opinions these great masters in the mathematics of heat diffusion held con- cerning the earth’s store of heat. I say “ opinions,” for, unhappily, this whole subject is still so largely a matter of opinion that in dis- cussing it one may not inappropriately adopt the famous caution of Marcus Aurelius, — ‘‘ Remember that all is opinion.” It does not appear that Fourier reached any definite conclusion on this question, though he seems to have favored the view that the earth in cooling from an earlier state of incandescence reached finally, through convection, a condition in which there was a uniform dis- tribution of heat throughout its mass. This is the cozszstentzor status of Leibnitz, and it begins with the formation of the earth’s crust if not with the consolidation of the entire mass. It thus af- fords an initial distribution of heat and an epoch from which analy- sis may start, and the problem for the mathematician is to assign the subsequent distribution of heat.and the resulting mechanical effects. But no great amount of reflection is necessary to convince one that the analysis cannot proceed without making a few more assumptions. The assumptions which involve the least difficulty, and which for this reason partly have met with most favor, are that the conductivity and thermal capacity of the entire mass remain constant, and that the heat conducted to the surface of the earth passes off by the combined process of radiation, convection, and conduction, without producing any sensible effect on surrounding space. These or similar assumptions must be made before the ap- plication of theory can begin. In addition, two data are essential to numerical calculations, namely, the diffusivity, or the ratio of the conductivity of the mass to its thermal capacity, and the initial uniform temperature. The first of these can be observed, approx- imately at least; the second can only be estimated at present. With respect to these important points which must be considered after the adoption of the comszstentzor status, the writings of Four- ier afford little light. He was content, perhaps, to invent and de- velop the exquisite analysis requisite to the treatment of such problems. Poisson wrote much on the whole subject of terrestrial temper- I7O atures, and carefully considered most of the troublesome details which lay between his theory and its application. While he ad- mitted the nebular hypothesis and an initial fluid state of the earth, he rejected the notion that the observed increase of underground temperature is due to a primitive store of heat. If the earth was originally fluid by reason of its heat, a supposition which Poisson regarded quite gratuitous, he conceived that it must cool and con- solidate from the centre outwards; so that according to this view the crust of our planet arrived at a condition of stability only after the supply of heat had been exhausted. But Poisson was not at a loss to account for the observed temperature gradient in the earth’s crust. Always fertile in hypotheses, he advanced the idea that there exist, by reason of interstellar radiations, great variations in the temperature of space, some vast regions being comparatively cool and others intensely hot, and that the present store of terres- trial heat was acquired by a journey of the solar system through one of the hotter regions. ‘‘Such is,” he says, “in my opinion, the true cause of the augmentation of temperature which occurs as we descend below the surface of the globe.” This hypothesis was the result of Poisson’s mature reflection, and as such is well worthy of attention. The notion that there exist hot foci in space was ad- vanced also in another form in 1852 by Rankine, in his interesting speculation on the re-concentration of energy. But whatever we may think of the hypothesis as a whole, it does not appear to be adequate to the case of the earth unless we suppose the epoch of transit through the hot region exceedingly remote and the temper- ature of that region exceedingly high. The continuity of geolog- ical and paleontological phenomena is much better satisfied by the Leibnitzian view of an earth long subject to comparatively constant surface conditions but still active with the energy of its primitive heat. Notwithstanding the indefatigable and admirable labors of Fou- rier and Poisson in this field, it must be admitted that they accom- plished little more than the preparation of the machinery with which their successors have sought and are still seeking to reap the harvest. The difficulties which lay in their way were not mathematical but physical. Had they been able to make out the true conditions of the earth’s store of heat, they would undoubtedly have reached a high grade of perfection in the treatment of the problem. The theory as they left it was much in advance of obser- vation, and the labors of their successors have therefore neces- sarily been directed largely towards the determination of the thermal properties of the earth’s crust and mass. Of those who in the present generation have contributed to our knowledge and stimulated the investigation of this subject, it is hardly necessary to say that we owe most to Sir William Thomson. He has made the question of terrestrial temperatures highly at- tractive and instructive to astronomers and mathematicians, and not less warmly interesting to geologists and paleontologists. Whether we are prepared to accept his conclusions or not, we must all acknowledge our indebtedness to the contributions of his master hand in this field as well as in most other fields of terres- trial physics. The contribution of special interest to us in this connection is his remarkable memoir on the secular cooling of the earth. In this memoir he adopts the simple hypothesis of a solid sphere whose thermal properties remain invariable while it cools by conduction from an initial state of uniform temperature, and draws therefrom certain striking limitations on geologic time. Many geologists were startled by these limitations, and geologic thought and opinion have since been widely influenced by them. It will be of interest, therefore, to state a little more fully and clearly the grounds from which his arguments proceed. Conceive a sphere having a uniform temperature initially, to cool in a medium which instantly dissipates all heat brought by conduction to its surface, thus keeping the surface at a constant temperature. Sup- pose we have given the initial excess of the sphere’s temperature over that of the medium. Suppose also that the capacity of the mass of the sphere for diffusion of heat is known, and known to remain invariable during the process of cooling. This capacity is called diffusivity, and is a constant which can be observed. Then from these data the distribution of temperature at any future time can be assigned, and hence also the rate of temperature increase, or the temperature gradient, from the surface towards the centre of the sphere can be computed. It is tolerably certain that the SCIENCE. [VoL. XIV. No. 344 heat conducted from the interior to the surface of the earth does not set up any reaction which in any sensible degree retards the process of cooling. It escapes so freely that, for practical pur- poses, we may Say it is instantly dissipated. Hence if we can as- sume that the earth had a specified uniform temperature at the initial epoch, and can assume its diffusivity to remain constant, the whole history of cooling is known as soon as we determine the diffusivity and the temperature gradient at any point. Now Sir William Thomson determined a value for the diffusivity from measurements of the seasonal variations of underground tempera- tures, and numerous observations of the increase of temperature with depth below the earth’s surface gave an average value for the temperature gradient. From these elements and from an assumed initial temperature of 7,000°, he infers that geologic time is limited to something between twenty million and four hundred million years, He says: “ We must allow very wide limits in such an estimate as Ihave attempted to make ; but I think we may with much proba- bility say that the consolidation cannot have taken place less than twenty million years ago, or we should have more underground heat than we actually have, nor more than four hundred million years ago, or we should not have so much as the least observed” underground increment of temperature. That is to say, I conclude that Leibnitz’s epoch of emergence of the comszstentzor status was probably between those dates.” These conclusions were an- nounced twenty-seven years ago, and were republished without modification in 1883. Recently, also, Professor Tait, reasoning from the same basis, has insisted with equal confidence on cutting down the upper limit — of geologic time to some such figures as ten million or fifteen mil- lion years. As mathematicians and astronomers, we must all confess to a deep interest in these conclusions and the hypothesis from which they flow. They are very important if true. But what are the probabilities? Having been at some pains to look into this matter, I feel bound to state that, although the hypothesis appears to be the best which can be formulated at present, the odds are against its correctness. Its weak links are the unverified assumptions of an initial uniform temperature and a constant diffusivity. Vety likely these are approximations, but of what order we cannot decide. ~ Furthermore, if we accept the hypothesis the odds appear to be against the present attainment of trustworthy numerical results, since the data for calculation obtained mostly from observations on continental areas are far too meagre to give satisfactory average values for the entire mass of the earth. In short, this phase of the case seems to stand about where it did twenty years ago, when Huxley warned us that the perfection of our mathematical mill is no guaranty of the quality of the grist, adding that, “as the grand- est mill will not extract wheat-flour from peas-cods, so pages of formulz will not get a definite result out of loose data.” When we pass from the restricted domain of quantitative results concerning geologic time to the freer domain of qualitative results of a general character, the contractional theory of the earth may be said to still lead all others, though it seems destined to require more or less modification, if not to be relegated to a place of sec- ondary importance. Old as is the notion that the great surface irregularities of the earth are but the outward evidence of a crump- ling crust, it is only recently that this notion has been subjected to mathematical analysis on any thing like a rational basis. About three years ago Mr. T. Mellard Reade announced the doctrine that the earth's crust, from the joint effect of its heat and gravitation, should behave in a way somewhat analagous to a bent beam, and should possess at a certain depth a “level of no strain,” corre- sponding to the neutral surface ina beam. Above the level of no strain, according to this doctrine, the strata will be subjected to compression, and will undergo crumpling, while below that level the tendency of the strata to crack and part is overcome by pres- sure which produces what Reade calls “compressive extension,” thus keeping the nucleus compact and continuous. A little later the same idea was worked out independently by Mr. Charles Dav- ison, and it has since received elaborate mathematical treatment at the hands of Darwin, Fisher, and others. The doctrine requires for its application a competent theory of cooling, and hence cannot be depended on at present to give anything better than a general idea of the mechanics of crumpling and a rough estimate of the ie Pa Oe oe Oe Pe Sie er te Pe ee ee ‘: ee IO a pe poe Pi Pe Ne Tee eet “ye Ne ee PTEMBER 6, 1889.] - magnitudes of the resulting effects. Using Thomson’s hypothesis, it appears that the stratum of no strain moves downward from the surface of the earth at a nearly constant rate during the earlier stages of cooling, but more slowly during later stages. Its depth is independent of the initial temperature of the earth ; and if we adopt Thomson’s value of the diffusivity, it will be about two and a third miles below the surface in a hundred million years from the beginning of cooling, and a little more than fourteen miles below the surface in seven hundred million years. The most important inference from this theory is that the geological effects of secular cooling will be confined for a very long time to a comparatively thin crust. Thus, if the earth is a hundred million years old, crump- ling should not extend much deeper than two miles. A test to which the theory has been subjected, and one which some consider crucial against it, is the volumetric amount of crumpling shown by the earth at the present time. This is a difficult quantity to esti- mate, but it appears to be much greater than the theory alone can account for. The opponents of the contractional theory of the earth, believ- ing it quantitatively insufficient, have recently revived and elabo- rated an idea first suggested by Babbage and Herschel in explana- tion of the greater folds and movements of the crust. This idea figures the crust as being in a state bordering on hydrostatic equi- librium, which cannot be greatly disturbed without a readjustment and consequent movement of the masses involved. According to this view, the transfer of any considerable load from one area to another is followed sooner or later by a depression over the loaded area and a corresponding elevation over the unloaded one; and in a general way it is inferred that the elevation of continental areas tends to keep pace with erosion. The process by which this bal- ance is maintained has been called ‘“‘isostacy,” and the crust is said to be in an isostatic state. The dynamics of the superficial strata with the attendant phenomena of folding and faulting, are thus re- ferred to gravitation alone, or to gravitation and whatever oppos- ing force the rigidity of the strata may offer. In a mathematical sense, however, the theory of isostacy is in a less satisfactory state than the theory of contraction. As yet we can see only that isos- tacy is an efficient cause if once set in action; but how it is started and to what extent it is adequate remains to be determined. Moreover, isostacy alone does not seem to meet the requirements of geological continuity, for it tends rapidly towards stable equilib- rium, and the crust ought therefore to reach a state of repose early in geologic time. But there is no evidence that such a state has been attained, and but little if any evidence of diminished activity in crustal movements during recent geologic time. Hence we in- fer that isostacy is competent only on the supposition that it is kept in action by some other cause tending constantly to disturb the equilibrium which would otherwise result. Such a cause is found in secular contraction, and it is not improbable that these two seemingly divergent theories are really supplementary. Closely related to the questions of secular contraction and the mechanics of crust movements are those vexed questions of earth- quakes, volcanism, the liquidity or solidity of the interior, and the rigidity of the earth’s mass as a whole,— all questions of the great- est interest but still lingering on the battle-fields of scientific opin- ion. Many of the “thrice slain” combatants in these contests would fain risk being slain again; and whether our foundation be liquid or solid, or to speak more precisely, whether the earth may not be at once highly plastic under the action of long continued forces and highly rigid under the action of periodic forces of short period, it is pretty certain that some years must elapse before the arguments will be convincing to all concerned. The difficulties appear to be due principally to our profound ignorance of the prop- erties of matter subject to the joint action of great pressure and " great heat. The conditions which exist a few miles beneath the surface of the earth are quite beyond the reach of laboratory tests as hitherto developed, but it is not clear how our knowledge is to be improved without resort to experiments of a scale in some de- gree comparable with the facts to be explained. In the mean time, therefore, we may expect to go on theorizing, adding to the long list of dead theories which mark the progress of scientific thought, with the hope of attaining the truth not so much by direct discov- ery as by the laborious process of eliminating error. SCIENCE 171 When we take a more comprehensive view of the problems pre- sented by the earth, and look for light on their solution in theories of cosmogony, the difficulties which beset us are no less numerous and formidable than those encountered along special lines of at- tack. Much progress has recently been made, however, in the elaboration of such theories. Roche, Darwin, and others have done much to remove the nebulosity of Laplace’s nebular hypothe- sis. Poincaré and Darwin have gone far towards bridging the gaps which have long rendered the theory of rotating fluid masses incomplete. Pioncaré has in fact shown us how a homogeneous rotating mass might, through loss of heat and consequent contrac- tion, pass from the spheroidal form to the Jacobian ellipsoidal form, and thence, by reason of its increasing speed of rotation, separate into two unequal masses. Darwin, starting with a swarm of me- teorites and gravitation as a basis, has reached many interesting and instructive results in the endeavor to trace out the laws of evolution of a planetary system. But notwithstanding the splendid researches of these and other investigators in this field, it must be said that the real case of the solar system, of the earth and moon, still defies analysis ; and that the mechanics of the segregation of a planet from the sun or of a satellite from a planet, if such an event has ever happened, or of the mechanics of the evolution of a solar system from a swarm of meteorites, are still far from being clearly made out. Time does not permit me to make anything but the briefest al- lusion to the comparatively new science of mathematical meteor- ology, with its already considerable list of well-defined theories pressing for acceptance or rejection. Nor need I say more with reference to those older mathematical questions of the tides and terrestrial magnetism than that they are still unsettled. These and many other questions, old and new, might serve equally well to illustrate the principal fact this address has been designed to emphasize, namely, that the mathematical theories of the earth al- ready advanced and elaborated are by no means complete, and that no mathematical Alexander need yet pine for other worlds to conquer. Speculations concerning the course and progress of science are usually untrustworthy if not altogether fallacious. But, being dele- gated for the hour to speak to and for mathematicians and astron- omers, it may be permissible to offer, in closing, a single sugges- tion, which will perhaps help us to orient ourselves aright in our various fields of research. If the curve of scientific progress in any domain of thought could be drawn, there is every reason to believe that it would exhibit considerable irregularities. There would be marked maxima and minima in its general tendency towards the limit of perfect knowledge; and it seems not improb- able that the curve would show throughout some portions of its length a more or less definitely periodic succession of maxima and minima. Races and communities as well as individuals, the armies in pursuit of truth as well as those in pursuit of plunder, have their periods of culminating activity and their periods of placid repose. It is a curious fact that the history of the mathematical theories of the earth presents some such periodicity. We have the marked maximum of the epoch of Newton near the end of the seventeenth century, with the equally marked maximum of the epoch of Laplace near the end of the eighteenth century; and, judging from the re- cent revival of geodesy and astronomy in Europe, and from the well-nigh general activity in mathematical and geological research. we may hope if not expect that the end of the present century will signalize a similar epoch of productive activity. The minima periods which followed the epochs of Newton and Laplace are less definitely marked but not less noteworthy and instructive. They were not periods of placid repose ; to find such one must go back into the night of the middle ages; but they were periods of greatly diminished energy, periods during which those who kept alive the spirit of investigation were almost as conspicuous for their isolation as for their distinguished abilities. Many causes, of course, contributed to produce these minima periods, and it would be an interesting study in philosophic history to trace out the ten- dency and effect of each cause. It is desired here, however, to call attention to only one cause which contributed to the somewhat general apathy of the periods mentioned, and which always threatens to dampen the ardor of research immediately after the attainment of any marked success or advance. [| refer to the im- 172 pression of contentment with and acquiescence in the results of science, which seems to find easy access to trained as well as untrained minds before an investigation is half completed or even fairly begun. That some such tacit persuasion of the com- pleteness of the knowledge of the earth has at times pervaded sci- entific thought, there can be no doubt. This was notably the case during the period which followed the remarkable epoch of Laplace. The profound impression of the sufficiency of the brilliant dis- coveries and advances of that epoch is aptly described by Carlyle in the half humerous, half sarcastic language of Sartor Resartus. “Our Theory of Gravitation,” he says, ‘is as good as perfect : Lagrange, it is well known, has proved that the Planetary System, on this scheme, will endure forever ; Laplace, still more cunningly, even guesses that it could not have been made on any other scheme. Whereby, at least, our nautical Logbooks can be better kept; and water transport of all kinds has grown more commo- dious. Of Geology and Geognosy we know enough: what with the labors of our Werners and Huttons, what with the ardent genius of their disciples, it has come about that now, to many a Royal Society, the creation of. a World is little more mysterious than the cooking of a dumpling; concerning which last, indeed, there have been minds to whom the question How the apples were got cn, presented difficulties.” This was written nearly sixty years ago, about the time that the sage of Ecclefechan abandoned his mathematics and astronomy for literature to become the seer of Chelsea, but the force of its irony is still applicable, for we have yet to learn, essentially, ‘how the apples were got in,” and what kind they are. As to the future, we can only guess, less or more vaguely, from our experience in the past and from our knowledge of present needs. Though the dawn of that future is certainly not heralded by rosy tints of over-confidence amongst those acquainted with the difficulties to be overcome, the prospect, on the whole, has never been more promising. The converging lights of many lines of in- vestigation are now brought to bear on the problems presented by our planet. There is ample reason to suppose that our day will witness a fair average of those happy accidents in science which lead to the discovery of new principles and new methods. We have much to expect from the elaborate machinery and perfected methods of the older and more exact sciences of measuring and weighing — astronomy, geodesy, physics, and chemistry. We have more to expect, perhaps, from geology and meteorology, with their vast accumulations of facts not yet fully correlated. Much, also, SCIENCE. may be anticipated from that new astronomy which looks for the — secrets of the earth’s origin and history in nebulous masses or in swarms of meteorites. We have the encouraging stimulus of a very general and rapidly growing popular concern in the objects of our inquiries, and the freest avenues for the dissemination of new information; so that we may easily gain the advantage of a con- centration of energy without centralization of personal interests. To those, therefore, who can bring the prerequisites of endless pa- tience and unflagging industry, who can bear alike the remorseless discipline of repeated failure and the prosperity of partial success, the field is as wide and as inviting as it ever was to a Newton, or a Laplace. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. “ TERMINAL facilities of New York” is the title of the supple- ment feature in Harper's Weekly for Aug, 31. The article is from the pen of Mr. G. T. Ferris, and the illustrations, of which there are thirteen, were drawn by Messrs. Schell and Hogan. — Following the article on the late Miss Laura Bridgman, in the August S?. Vzcholas, the number for September contains an ac- count of ‘ Helen Keller,” thesyoung girl also deaf, dumb and blind, whose rapid advance in her studies was described in Sczence a year ago. The sketch is by Florence Howe Hall, a daughter of Dr. Howe, and contains portraits of the child, of her teacher, a fac- simile letter from the little girl herself to Mrs. Hall, and other illustrations. In the same number Lieutenant Hamilton gives a sketch of the modern method of defending coasts or harbors, and shows how necessary such defences have become as a consequence of the development of the world’s navies. — The September number of the Polztzcal Sczence Quarterly contains a critical estimate of the work of Thorold Rogers, by Professor W. J. Ashley of Toronto University ; a demonstration of the “ radical unfairness ” of representation in Connecticut under the town-rule system, by Clarence Deming of New Haven; a dis- cussion of farm mortgages, by an Illinois farmer, W. F. Mappin; a strong attack upon the policy of the general land office as regards the ‘indemnity lands” granted to the railroads, by Fred. Perry Powers of Washington, D.C. ; a statistical paper upon Italian im- migration, by Hon. Eugene Schuyler; the first of two papers upon the materials for English legal history, by Professor F. W. Mait- land, Downing professor of law at Cambridge University, Eng- land; and the usual number of book reviews. ee SS INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Electrical Apparatus Abroad. INFORMATION has reached us that the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company has recently closed quite a large contract for electric street railway apparatus with the principal street rail- way company of Florence, Italy, for the equipment of their line. This apparatus includes overhead system of the regular Sprague type, ten complete car equipments using two thirteen horse-power motors on each car, and station equipment complete. This will be the first installation of American street railway apparatus abroad, where the progress in electric railway science has been very slow. The present method of running street cars in Florence is partly by animal power and partly by small steam dum- mies; and it is thought that the electric cars which combine the safety of the horse-car with the speed of the steam-car, and are much cheaper to operate than either, will have a large field to fill. It is said that this equipment is only a small portion of a very large equipment which will be ordered by this company, and if the result proves successful, it is thought that very many other Italian cities will adopt electricity for their street cars. Electricity at Cleveland. Cleveland can now be called properly the electric city of the West. Ina short time there will be over a hundred electric street- cars running over the principal streets of Cleveland, besides a large number of stationary electric motors in use in a great many varied industries throughout the city. The history of the East Cleveland Street Railway Company, which was the first in Cleveland to adopt electricity on its line, is an instance of the success and satisfaction which electric street railway cars are giving in every city where they have been installed. The first equipment of this cgmpany was installed by the Sprague Company about nine months ago, and included overhead line, station equipment, and sixteen electric motor cars. The proposition to install this line met with a great deal of opposition in Cleveland. The electric line was to cover some of the most important and principal business. and residential streets in Cleveland, but the equipment was finally installed ; and after it had been put in opera- tion, the citizens of Cleveland discovered that the neat iron poles and overhead erection were hardly noticeable, while the rapid transit afforded by the street cars was something vastly superior to the former slow service given, when the cars were drawn by animal power. There have altogether been five separate orders given by the East Cleveland Company for electric car apparatus. The second order was for four additional cars, the third for eight additional cars, the fourth for eighteen additional cars, and a recent order placed with the Sprague Company by its agent, Mr. C. W. Foote, for thirty additional motors, making seventy-six motor cars to be operated on this one line. Besides this road, there are two others in Cleveland ; the Broad- way and Newburgh, and the Brooklyn Avenue roads also operated by. electricity. There is nothing which speaks more highly for any kind of apparatus than the indorsement by its users, and there is no indorsement more convincing than the continued addition to an original equipment. The results, therefore, at Cleveland prove conclusively the good results and satisfaction given by electric ap- paratus when applied to street railways, and cannot be too com- mendatory of the style of motors used, i sot a ; [Vor. XIV. No. 344 ae ae SEPTEMBER 6, 1889.] x SCIENCE. me Exchanges. [exchanges are inserted for subscribers free of charge. vont . D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New ork. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida, —Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. too botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. Bocue, Orwell, Ashta. County, O I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘Young Fossil-Hunters”’), 1033 Kentucky ' Street, Lawrence, Kan. One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4 X 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “*new model’ double dry-plate holder (4” 5”), for fine geological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- - fied. — Charles E. Frick, torg West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and plants —to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc.—Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lefzdoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California‘onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — C. Thompson, 612 East r41st Street, New York, N.Y. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. Any one who has a botanical box in good condition will please write. I will offer about 30 specimens in ex- change. —C. B. Haskell, Box 826, Kennebunk, Me. Lead, zinc, mundic, and calcite.— Lulu Hay, secre- tary Chapter 350, Carthage, Mo. bliciouslrink HORSFORD’S ACID PHOSPHATE. Prepared according to the direction of Prof. E. N. Horsrorp. A teaspoonful of the Acid Phosphate in a tumbler of water, and sweetened to the taste makes a delicious, healthful and invigorating drink. To it may be added such stimulants as the person is from necessity or habit accustomed to take, and its action will harmonize therewith. It is an agreeable and healthy substitute for Lemons and Lime Juice in the preparation of all acidulated drinks. Allays the thirst, aids digestion, and relieves the lassitude so common in midsummer. Dr. J. S. Nites, Pownal, Vt., says : “Excellent as a tonic, and refreshing as a substitute for lemonade.” Dr. T. C. Smrru, Charlotte, N. C., says : ‘An invaluable nerve tonic, a delightful beverage, and one of the best restorers when the energies flag, and the spirits droop. Descriptive pamphlet free on application to Rumford Chemical Works, Providence, R. I. BEWARE OF SUBSTITUTES AND IMITATIONS. CAUTION:—Be sure the word ** Horsford’s” is printed on the label. All others are spurious. Never sold in bulk. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. 7, Guaranteed Farm Mortgages 7" The Company sends each year to Kansas and Nebraska for the pur- pose of examining its loans and methods of business a COMMITDI EE, OF: INVESTORS: The Committee for 1889 visited Fifty counties in the two States, ex- amined over 100 farms on which loans had been made and reported Evegy one to be SABRE. The Company will be glad to send to any address the Report of the Committee which presents a very interesting statement of the general development of Kansas and Nebraska. _ A large number of loans equally as good as any examined by the Committee are always on hand for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. il SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. . No. 344 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Electric Railways. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™, to 100 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. J. Please Mention “Science,” JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY, BALTIMORE. Announcements for the next academic year are now ready and will be sent on application. HEAVEN AND HELL, by EMAN- UEL SWEDENBORG, 416 pages, paper .cover. Mailed pre-paid for 14 Cents by the American Swedenborg Printing and Publish- ing Society, 20 Cooper Union, New York City. Old and Rare Books. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New a Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, ¥ of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus, One Million Magazines. Back numbers, vols. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. A. S. CLARK, 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. Schools. Connecticut, New Haven, RS. CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. Early application necessary. Micuican, Hoventon. WVIICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. New York, Orance Co., FLoripa. ‘THE LEONARD INSTITUTE, for both sexes, Florida, Orange Co., N. Y., reopens Sept. 11. Bight young ladies, or misses will be received in the family of the principal, Mrs. M.S. Parks. Wants. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ‘ing to his work accomplished in travelling for ScrENcE. A personal interview invited. N. D.C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. ANTED. — By a large manufacturing house, an intelligent, energetic young man about twenty years of age, to make working drawings of electrical instruments from free-hand sketches and verbal assistance. Must be able to execute tinted drawings and tracings as well, and have a fair knowledge of general physics and prin- ciples of electrical measuring instruments. One who has had some practice in brass and machine work preferred, as also one who will remain and learn the business. Specimens of work required. Address, stating salary expected, experience and references, E, G. W., SCIENCE Office, N.Y. City. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored wews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YorK. MORRIS EARLE & CO. SUCCESSORS 10 R. & J. BECK, 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and all Accessories and Ap- paratus. Photograph- tc and Photo-Micro- graphic Apparatus and Outfits. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and. Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed free to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE in corresponding with us. E.&H.T. ANTHONY & CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, 3; Apparatus and Supplies of every description. Sole proprietors of the Patent Detective, Fairy Noy- el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits i in great variety, from $9.00 upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. (@S More than 4o years established in this line of business. “paar, THREE pales, ae Fenndey cma eae ey aun ed ety tea eee al ©) N a HS eat 7 a esto Eeare Banda Fa pe ee work a widely known ond ons, Now a om: adies! Fancy Work ent rs from Corr e colleges and se: nine the United Bates 1b inestan § pesca mont ae vantacs , CORT ©: attent ths 08, ott ~ invaluable Sous wor d a een ve orn Rey, pation a can 9 advan nage of a higher ee han perc nary ACBOC Articles fforda, es 0) ee and me instruction by 8 Enon arti Ati alent Eee of this ae sent to any address, threa mon’ “TEN CENTS. y for literary work adapted to our co}l- ean or new and oO alka wan ge, designs and ideas o: euniec ch wi Pro) ee he mhost eae ye world, Ne offer cements to club rad bsp, ihe te ‘oached by no o ner D pub: rae @ cele rated Gilbert Cut Wais wil ie. 86) pos Bai any one ise ning un aye Borioraat at 50 cents each is alone pares Seo RC rea ae 8, ents. a iD fae ad stbacripton for only 10 conte, TRY IT! TRY IT! TRY IT! aad you will become a permanent reader. Addrossi John L. Douglass, Publisher, _ 322 Broadway, N. Y¥. _ ESTABLISHED 1859. H. A. DREW, | Commercial Printer, 37 Clinton Place, near Broadway, New York, Wedding Orders, Souvenirs, Invitations, Or- ders of Dance, etc., etc., done in the latest and most elaborate styles, at reasonable prices, All Favors promptly attended 1 to. fevele)..) NEWS jro LADIES. “Greatest inducements ever of- fered. Now’s your time to get D, orders for our celebrated eas and Coffees, and secure a beautiful Gold Band or Moss Seine Rose China Tea Set, Dinner Set, Go oss Rose Toilet Set, Watch, ‘Brass Lamp, or Webster’ 's Dictionary. Forfull ull particulars address THE GREAT AMERIC EA CO., P. O. Box 289. $1 and 88 Vesey St., New York. t ! ‘ f . te a : ae SEPTEMBER 6, 1889 | SCIENCE. ill CG. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all Power Purposes. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City. =\ New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. ~. Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Chicago, Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. ASSETS =. : - $126,082,153 56 The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 Exceeded $103,000,000. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including A gain IMAUSS ELSE Oy terete are re ner mrorsieys aes cheBiera eyerer hiss $ 7,275,301 68 AL Seulial 1H TMMCOMNS Ol o.664000 00 be doe R eH oboe code 3,096,010 06 JA. Gavin Til WER? jDRECMMUIANS Ol 50655500 doocads snove 2,333,400 oo A Gain in surplus of.........-. Gssisisunieusve) shape east eats 1,645,622 11 J\ SEMA Til MEK? DUSMIESS Olsaascesoceascaaoec ance SRT SO{7O2 BS A gain Oli ISIS IN WOES a cas ocoseoe sooUbS CU UoES 54,496,251 85 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. HMIALER & STAMEY Electrical A TEMPORARY BINDER for Sczence is now ready, and will be mailed y, postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening “of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind- ing. Filed in this binder, Sczezce is always convenient for reference. p_N. D.C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N, Y. 75 cents. House Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. Advertisers STERBROOK’S STEEL PENS. OF SUPERIOR AND STANDARD QUALITY. Leading Nos.: 048, 14, 130, 135, 239, 333 For Sale by all Stationers, THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN CO., Works: Oamden, N.J. 26 Johu St., Nexw York. Furnishings. 32 & 34 Lobe a St., New York. THE Amerean Dell Teleyhane COMPEAININ? 95 MILK ST., BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters Patent granted to Alexander Gra- ham Bell, March 7th, 1876, No. 174,465, and January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. The Transmission of Speech by all known forms of ELECTRIC SPEAKING TELEPHONES in- fringes the right secured to this Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished by it or its licensees, responsible for such un- lawful use, and all the conse- quences thereof and liable to suit therefor. QUR 75 CENT COLORED SILK. We have had unusual success with this line of Gros Grains. They are 19 1-2 inches wide, have a fine cord weave, and are in 40 different, excellent shades, Under ordinary circumstances they would sell for $1 per yard. Send forsamples ; they willsurely please you. JAMES McCREERY & CO. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK. iv SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 344 Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Lightest Weight Consistent with Highest Efficiency. SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION, Not Liable to get out of Order. Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION, Commutator Wear Reduced to a: Minimum. RE M | N Ch () N Bee eae hy PEWRITER WON Gold and Silver Medals CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD. {61 Words per Minute, Without an Error, ~ The above is an authentic record made by Mr. Frank E. McGurrin, at Detroit, on Jan. 21, 1889, ‘on a memorized sentence, thus beating all previous recurds of correct work, by 30 words per min- ute and placing the ‘‘Remington”’ still further beyond reach of competition. Photographic copies of certified work furnished on application. WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 327 Broadway, N.Y, CALIGRAPH GREATEST SPEED ON RECORD !! ™. W. Osborne wrote 179 words in one single minute on the CALIGRAPH, the Champion Machine of the World. 100,000 STROM EES) N THE WORLD. mip 0 © AWARDED © EA{SSIA Aa gy Dhoucester Maser Used by thousands of firstcleas mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Co., &c., &e. Repairs Everything. Its success has brought a lot of imifsforg ci oRy ing us in every wa: ossible. emer=ber that TH | | OnLy GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. _. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c, and dealers’ card He G. A. MeBride wrote 129 words in a single ‘ minute, Blindfolded, thus in each Case proving the falsity of many of the state- fwo armor’d knights in mortal combat meet And after man yaparry, guard and lunge ments of our competitors. Armed cap-a-pie—that is, from head to feet. He thought it wisest to throw up the apouees The helmet, breastplate, shield and spear of one «See here,” he cried, ‘‘this isn’t fair, you know, For full and correct account of above test, address Shone like the dazzling brightness of the sun. Your armor’s polished with Sarorio, The other suit of mail begrimed with rust I cannot see to fight—I’m sure to fail— THE AMERICAN WRITI NG MACHIN E CO., Was scarcely proof against his foeman’s thrust, SAPOLIO protects you from Brack-Matz !” HARTFORD, CONN. BRANCH OFFICES :—237 Broadway, N. Y.; 14 W. 4th Street, Cincinnati, 0.5 1003 Arch Street, Philadelphia. BEWARE OF IMITATIONS. F O O D Grocers often substitute cheaper goods for Sapolio to make a better profit. Send A D U IL, T E R A dy I O N back such articles, and insist upon having just what you ordered. And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 yah ee pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues Sayer ae a eC ccciy Seamer: ENOCH MORGAN’S SONS CO., NEW YORK. fEEFH0§ qo oe ( S p ' ~ \ ‘ SEP 16 lot p, ) O75 Ku Sg, a \ (Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. ] A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, SEVENTH YEAR. Vou. XIV. No. 345. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 13, 1889. SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. AN ELECTRIC TRANSFER-TABLE. THE accompanying cut represents the new transfer-table at the Fitchburg car repair shops at Fitchburg, Mass., just built by the Fitchburg Railroad Company. The table or car is moved by the Union Electric Car Company’s system. The motor, gears, clutches, etc., are all on the front axle of the car. The motor is geared to the axle, and the gears run in an enclosed bath of oil. They are brass cut gears, and work with the least possible amount of fric- tion and consequent loss of power. The switch which governs the motor and controls the car is just above the motor, on a plat- form built out from the front of the car, as are also the reversing being at the dynamo, now run the table and draw on and off the cars, which work formerly required twelve men and a shifting loco- motive and its men, and some four times the amount of work can be done by these three men. The Union Electric Car Company will use this same system on the Beverly and Danvers Railroad, which is being equipped by the company, and will be running this month. These cars will use storage batteries in place of the overhead wires for the propelling power. The storage batteries are placed under the seats, with two sets to each car. They are charged by a steam and electrical plant in the car-house. Each set runs the car forty miles. It takes eight hours to charge. The batteries are changed by the con- ‘ lll ELECTRIC TRANSFER-TABLE AT FITCHBURG, MASS. bar and the handle throwing in and out the clutch by which the motor is used either to propel the car in the desired direction or to ~ draw off and on the cars to be changed from one track to an- other. The two shops are each five hundred feet long, and face each other. Each shop is divided into three divisions, separated by brick walls running through the roof. In each division there are eight tracks, making twenty-four in each shop. Between these shops, which are seventy-five feet apart, is the pit in which the ta- ble or car moves. The car is ten feet long and seventy feet wide, and runs on four rails laid in the pit. The track on the car, run- ning from side to side, matches the tracks in the shops. The con- trol of the table is so perfect, by the use of the switch, that it can be put and matched to any track desired without the least trouble or hitch; the same power that moved the car forward, stops or slows it. The table is run by the dynamo which lights the shops at night, and is connected by two overhead wires, on which run two trolleys, the trolley-poles being on the top of the house built over the front platform at the front of the table. Three men, one ductor and driver in from three to ten minutes, and each car makes a run of eighty miles per day. THE SOFTENING OF HARD WATERS FOR DOMES- TIC USE. SINCE waters possessing an inconvenient degree of hardness are very common in many localities, owing to the almost universal prevalence of calcareous soils and geological deposits, it is of no little interest to have some simple means of doing away with this property, so as to render such waters more convenient for domes- tic uses. This is the more important, as in some cases the pres- ence of a large proportion of magnesia tends to cause serious, even though usually only temporary, gastric disturbance with per- sons unused to such waters, whereby quite frequently an unfounded prejudice against the general health-conditions of perfectly health- ful localities is created. This subject has been heretofore dis- cussed in many places, especially in California, but its continued importance and the frequent demand for information in the prem- 174 ises justify the more elaborate consideration recently given it by Professor Hilgard of the University of California. When, as is most commonly the case, this hardness is due to the presence of large proportions of the carbonates of lime and magnesia, it can be recognized by the extent to which the water becomes turbid, or forms whitish scum or incrustations, when boiled. Boiling, then, is one of the means for softening waters that are hard and ‘‘curdle the soap” from this cause; and this fact is well known to housekeepers, but owing to the inconvenience of the application of this remedy, it is rarely resorted to except for drinking-water. For this purpose boiling has the special and ad- ditional advantage of insuring the destruction of any minute germs of disease that might contaminate the water. To soften water for washing, a common and very good remedy is the use of carbonate of soda (sal soda) in sufficient quantity to bring down the lime and magnesia, and thus insure the proper so- lution of the soap to form suds. Only there is too often a mistake made in not allowing time for the soda to bring down the lime and magnesia in a powdery form, which requires from half an hour to an hour when the water is cold, but occurs very quickly when the water is hot. When, as is commonly done, the soap is put into the water while the lime is still in the gelatinous form and diffused in the water, a certain amount of “curdling” will still happen, and the washed clothes (especially flannels) will have that soggy and unpleasant touch which is caused by the accumulation of the lime and magnesia soaps in them. That it is undesirable to use soda for softening water to be used for drinking hardly needs more than mention. The natural hard waters usually contain quite as much of saline matters as is desir- able in drinking water. Soda, however, does not in any manner correct the sanitary condition of a water; on the contrary, it aids in keeping vegetable and animal matters in solution, and unless added in very large excess does not interfere with the vitality of fungous or other germs. By far the most convenient and effective mode of purifying larger quantities of hard water for domestic use, is the introduction of a definite amount of quicklime, proportioned to the requirements of each particular water; a point that can be readily ascertained by any one having an ordinary capacity for observation. The principle upon which this apparently paradoxical process is based is this: The lime and magnesia in most hard waters are con- tained in the form of carbonates, dissolved in the water by the aid of free carbonic acid. Whatever drives off or takes possession of this free acid will bring down the earthy substances in an insolu- ble form, and thereon depends the efficacy of boiling as well as of the addition of washing soda; cooking soda or bicarbonate will not produce the effect. Now, lime in the caustic condition, as lime-water, or milk-of-lime, freshly prepared, will most effectually take possession of any free carbonic acid, and will form with it the same insoluble compound that, when hard water is boiled, settles to the bottom or incrusts the boiler. Hence, when an amount of clear lime-water, just sufficient to absorb all the carbonic acid in a water, is added to it, both the lime added and the lime and mag- nesia originally contained, are brought down in the insoluble form, and the mineral contents of the water are diminished very materi- ally, sometimes to less than one-half of the original amount. With the sediments thus brought down there also usually comes a large proportion of the vegetable or animal matters contained in the water; so that instead of perhaps becoming putrid in a tank serv- ing for domestic supply, water so treated will remain clear and odorless for a long time if protected from recontamination by in- sects, falling leaves, dust, etc. The only practical difficulty in carrying out this purification is the ascertainment of the proper proportion of lime or lime-water to be used, so that the water shall neither retain too much of its orig- inal hardness nor acquire an unpleasant taste and astringent action from an excess of lime. This can, however, be done quite readily by a few tests with different proportions of lime-water, and the very simple trial as to which will produce the least “curdling”’ of soap when ready-made soapsuds are added in small proportion. Whatever proportion of lime-water or lime satisfies this easily as- certained condition, is the best for all purposes. Numerous experiments prove that for the waters of the wells, SClEN GE: (Mor? 2a Nom27s springs, and smaller streams, as well as the catchment reservoirs of the middle coast ranges and their valleys, the best effect is usu- ally produced by the addition of from one-tenth to one-twentieth of clear lime-water. As one part by weight of pure, unslaked lime requires seven hun- dred parts of water for its solution, a simple calculation shows that the above proportion corresponds to from five to eight grains of lime per gallon, or about three-quarters to one pound per thousand gallons. In the practical working of this process it is best to have, for small tanks up to one or two hundred gallons, a supply barrel in which clear lime-water of full strength can always be kept on hand ready for use. A few pounds of lime, slaked into a creamy mass, may be put in the barrel, the sediment being stirred up from time to time as the clear water standing over it is replaced. Of course, in order to preserve the proper proportion, once determined, only clear water must be used, otherwise more lime than is called for, will be introduced into the water. The lime-water barrel should be kept closely covered. For larger tanks it will be more convenient either to take a weighed amount of unslaked lime for each one thousand gallons, slack it into milk-of-lime and stir it in, or else to prepare a large quantity of milk-of-lime which, when thoroughly stirred, will for each measure (bucketful) contain a known amount of lime. This would be the best way to handle cases in which the feeding water of boilers requires to be corrected. It should, in this connection, be understood that the lime treatment is very efficacious against the frothing produced in boilers by waters containing a large amount of vegetable matter, as is commonly the case in that from ponds or other catchment reservoirs. The sediment that accumulates in tanks used for this treatment is usually of a sandy nature, and not readily stirred up; it therefore causes little inconvenience, and can be removed at leisure, from time to time, as it becomes too large. It is true that, like some other household measures conducive to sanitation and comfort, the maintenance of this system requires some regular personal interest and attendance on the part of some member of the family. If carelessly handled, there may be unac- countable variations in the gastric conditions of the family, from one extreme to the other, and the soap may curdle from the water's natural hardness one week, and from excess of lime the next. But there is no excuse for such occurrences, except as the result of carelessness or negligence, and the advantage gained, whether as to health or comfort, amply repays the trouble when these hard waters require to be used. x A NOVEL ELECTRIC BATTERY. A NOVEL and simple form of electric battery has recently been invented in Italy. As described in the Azvesta Technica, it con- sists of conical vessels of cast iron and porous earthenware, with nitric and sulphuric acid. An iron coneis placed point downwards in a stand, and is partly filled with strong nitric acid. Into this there is placed a cone of porous earthenware containing dilute sul- phuric acid. Then follows an iron cone surmounted by an earth- enware one, and so on in a series, each vessel containing its respec- tive acid. It follows that the inner surface of each iron vessel is bathed in nitric acid, and becomes passive, acting the part of the platinum or carbon in’ an ordinary cell. The outer surface is at- tacked by the dilute sulphuric acid, and takes the place of the zinc. There are no connections to make, the simple building of the pile putting all the parts into union. The earthenware cones are eight inches in diameter and four inches in height, and contain five hun- dred and fifty cubic centimetres of ten per cent sulphuric acid so- lution. The iron vessel contains one hundred and ten cubic centi- metres of nitric and sulphuric acids, the latter being three times the volume of the former. Sixty elements, arranged in two piles, have a resistance of ten and one-half ohms, an electromotive force on open circuit of eighty-one volts, and on closed circuit of forty- five volts, with a current of four and four-tenths ampéres. After five hours the difference of potential falls to twenty-eight volts and the current to two and seven-tenths amperes. / SEPTEMBER 13, 1889. | THE BRUSH ELECTRIC HOIST. A COMPACT combination of an electric motor with a winding- drum, for hoisting purposes, is shown in the engraving on this page. The motor, which is of the well-known Brush make, is of MANNA FH 1 rt ea si | i] i i I j= fi Th SSS Ny SCIENCE. 9 S534 ERPE oi onivT, 175 cess of the Brush Company’s electric plant in the Chollar mine, which was illustrated and described in Sczezce some months ago, has resulted in attracting the attention of the company to the vast field for the use of electric power in mining operations; and this electric hoist is an attempt to supply the demand that is already = = YX sasoOdund YWHLO GANV ONININ AOA LSIOH DIALOATA HSnNaAd Ai) ( \" << NY _ fifteen horse-power, and is mounted on the same base as the hoist- ing-drum, which is of the Walker pattern. A gear pinion on the armature shaft meshes with the large gear-wheel, which in turn actuates the winding-drum by means of friction pulleys. The suc- being made in that direction. This company have contracted to equip the copper mines of the Calumet & Hecla Company at Calu- met, Mich., with five eighty horse-power electric motors and five one hundred and thirty horse-power dynamos. 176 OLIVE CULTIVATION. OF the various food products, or vegetable liquids, perhaps those most extensively shown at the Paris Exhibition are wine and oil. These two seem to follow the progress of civilization and settle- ment, whenever the climate is suitable. Olive oil is shown in a very large number of the foreign sections, and the wide and ex- tensive progress it has made over the world is exemplified now by one French exhibitor, who exhibits samples from the following widely-separated districts : the Gold Coast of Africa, Melbourne and Adelaide, Chili, Guatemala, Guayaquil, Mexico, Venezuela, La Plata, New Orleans, Philadelphia and New York, Canada, India, Cochin China, Reunion, Mauritius, Japan, Polynesia, Havana, Guadaloupe, Martinique, Trinidad, Hayti, the Black Sea coast, the Levant, Spain, Portugal, and France. : But these are not all the seats of production, and are merely cited to show how widespread is the culture of the olive at the present day. - Taking the French official catalogue, and turning to the alimen- tary products, “class 69, oils and fatty substances,” there will be found over six hundred exhibitors of olive oil specially named, be- sides numerous collective exhibits, and many others also are in- cluded under the general term “ comestible” or edible oils. There is much substitution, however, carried on in this respect at the present day by the sale to the public of refined cotton-seed oil, sesame, and other oils, in place of olive oil. The number of ex- hibitors of olive oil under each country as given by Mr. P. L. Sim- mons in the Yournal of the Society of Arts, are as follows: Por- tugal, 448; Algeria, 128; Italy, 8; France, 12; Spain, 5 ; Califor- nia, 4; Japan, 1; total, 606. There are two or three exhibitors also from Tunis, and in the French section there is a. collective exhibit of edible oils made by sixty-seven producers and dealers from Salon, Bouches du Rhone. The various uses of the olive for its fruit and its oil are well known. In ancient Greece the tree received all the honors, and had almost a sacred character. This was in consequence of its being the chief production of the country, and its produce the main source of public food. From olden times the people of the Mediterranean coasts have made the olive their principal culture, and itis there the oil industry chiefly centres, — in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, and France, on the northern coast; and Morocco, Algeria, and Tunis, on the southern shores. The olive has been cultivated in those regions from time im- memorial, as the bounteous gift of heaven and the emblem of peace and plenty. Olive oil takes there the place of butter. Spain has about 3,000,000 acres under olives, Italy 2,250,000, and France about 330,000, of which 15,000 acres are in the district of Nice. Olive oil in the country of Nice forms now four-fifths of the agri- cultural produce. The varieties of the olive are very numerous. The naturalist Risso, in 1826, described forty distinct varieties, and these have since been increased to forty-five. In the countries where it is indigenous, the olive tree attains gigantic proportions. It reaches, occasionally, sixty feet high, with a circumference of trunk of twelve feet, and these trees are sup- posed to have attained the age of one thousand years. Certain varieties grow more rapidly than others, and some differ from each other in the nature of the wood, the foliage, and the quality of the fruit. There are large olives and small olives, pointed, oval, round, and curved fruit, and of all colors, ranging from white to black, and from green to red. The flavor of the fruit is mild, sharp, or bitter. Hence, according to the variety, there is obtained sweet oil, light colored, and of exquisite flavor, up to dark green, thick, and of a bitter taste, strong and very unpleasant to the palate. Hence it follows that olive oil can be obtained pure, and also quite unfit for food purposes, only suitable for greasing machines and making soap. The green unripe olives, after remaining in a solu- tion of salt for some time, to remove the bitter taste, are preserved in vinegar, with spices, in bottles or small barrels. Those of Tus- cany and Lucca are considered the best, on account of their light- green color and strong flesh. In all parts of southern Europe they are in this form a daily food. SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 345 The ripe olives are gathered in the fall, when they are as large as common plums; their color is dark green, and the soft kernel has changed into a hard stone, which contains a savory almond. The flesh is spongy, and its little cells are filled with the mild oil, which pours out at the least pressure. There is a fine collection of preserved olives shown by Hernanos & Company, of Barcelona. The finest oil is the so-called virgin oil, to obtain which the freshly gathered olives are put into little heaps, and by their own weight the oil is pressed out, and is caught in some vessel. It is clear like water, has a delicate nut-like taste, with little or no odor. When the fruits cease to give the oil by themselves, they are pressed with small milkstones. The oil gained by this process is also clear, and of a pleasant taste. After this treatment the olives are still rich in oil, and the fruits are put in sacks; boiling water is poured over them, and they are pressed once more. The oil gained by this process is yellowish green, and has a sharp taste and an unpleasant smell, because it contains some mucilaginous matters. At Marseilles, the great seat of the vegetable oil trade, the olive oils are classed into manufacturing oils for burning, for greasing machinery in factories, and for soap-making ; refined oil ; oil from the pulp or husks ; and table or edible oil. The latter is divided into superfine, fine, half-fine, and ordinary. The table oil is refined by allowing it to run through layers of thin sheets of wadding into tin perforated boxes; the wadding absorbs all the thick particles, and leaves the oil perfectly clear and tasteless. In the Spanish section, Signor José Gonzalo Priete, who has steam works at Lora del Rio, Seville, makes a display of an imita- tion olive tree silvered, from the branches of which are suspended six glass globes, filled with the different qualities of pure olive oil. The Tuscans were the first who exported olive oil largely, and thus it has obtained the name of Florence oil. It would be a curious fact to ascertain the number of olive trees which exist in the different countries bordering on the Mediterranean, — Tunis has over four millions, Algeria three millions, Nice one million, Syria several millions, while the number in Spain, Portugal, Italy, Greece, Morocco, and Turkey is unknown. The Union of Proprietors of Nice is a limited society, with a capital of about a hundred thousand dollars, which, by its statistics, binds itself to deal only in pure olive oil. It has about twenty-six plantations and presses in different parts of the district. Thecom- . pany makes a fine display of olive oil. It may be stated, in conclusion, that the olive crop is a very variable and uncertain one; one that yields a profit does not per- haps occur for six or eight years. HEALTH MATTERS. Report of the Paris Commission on Consumption. THE permanent commission, appointed last year by the Congress for the Study of Tuberculosis, has just presented its report, through M. Villemin, chairman. This report embodies certain instructions to the public, which the commission deems of sufficient importance for general adoption. The Boston Medical and Surgical Journal summarizes this report, a comparison of which with that issued in New York, and previously referred to, is of interest. Tuberculosis is, of all diseases, that which has the most victims, especially in the cities. More than one-fourth of the mortality of Paris during the year 1884 was from tuberculosis in some of its forms. Tuberculosis is a parasitic, virulent, contagious, trans- missible disease, caused by Koch’s bacillus. The microbe pene- trates the organism by food, by air of respiration, and through the skin and mucous membranes by abrasions, excoriations, and divers ulcerations. Certain diseases, as measles, chronic bronchitis, pneu- monia; certain constitutional states due to diabetes, alcoholism, syphilis, predispose to tuberculosis. The cause of tuberculosis being known, there is but little diffi- culty in preventing its dissemination and propagation, if proper prophylactic means are taken. The parasite of tuberculosis may infect the milk, muscles, and blood of animals which serve for the food of man. Raw meat, underdone meat, blood, may contain the living germ of tuberculosis, and should be interdicted. For the same reasons, milk should be boiled before being ingested. By SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.] reason of the dangers which attend the use of raw milk, the pro- tection of young children, who are so susceptible to tuberculosis, should earnestly engage the attention of mothers and nurses, By reason of the dangers which attend the use of butchers’ meat, which may come from animals that were tuberculous, though hav- ing every appearance of health, the public should insist that the in- spection of all meats, as required by the law, should be rigorously enforced. The only sure way of avoiding the dangers arising from meat derived from tuberculous animals, is to subject such meat to a thorough cooking, which shall include the entire substance in ‘depth, as well as the surface. Meats completely roasted, boiled, or broiled are alone safe. ' As the germ of tuberculosis may be transmitted from the tuber- culous to the healthy man, by sputa, pus, dried mucosities, cloth- ing, or other objects impregnated with fine tuberculous particles, it is necessary for the public, in order to be protected against the ‘contagion : — (1) To know that, the sputa of phthisical patients being the most formidable agents of the transmission of tuberculosis, there is danger in allowing these expectorated matters to be deposited on the ground, on carpets, on drapery, screens, towels, handkerchiefs, clothing, and bed linen. (2) To be pursuaded that the use of spittoons is obligatory on all phthisical patients everywhere. Spittoons should always be emptied into the fire and cleansed with boiling water. They should never be emptied on dung heaps, on garden soil (where they may tubercularize fowl), nor into privies. (3) To refrain from sleeping in the bed of a tuberculous patient ; to remain as little as possible in a room occupied by such person. This caution is especially applicable to young children. (4) To sequestrate from all places occupied by phthisical patients, individuals considered as predisposed to tuberculosis, children iborn of tuberculous parents, or that have lately had measles, small- pox, pneumonia, etc., and all diabetic patients. (5) To avoid using objects which a phthisical patient may have ‘contaminated — garments, bed-clothing, toilet-implements, play- things, etc., — till after previous disinfection, in the hot-air stove, by boiling water, sulphur fumigations, etc. (6) To insist that the rooms of hotels, furnished houses, cottages occupied by phthisical patients at watering-places or winter sta- tions, shall be equipped and tapestried in such a way that disinfec- _ tion may be easily and completely effected after the departure of each patient. It would be better that these apartments should have no hangings or tapestry, and that they should be whitewashed, ‘The floors should be bare, either oiled or painted. Hotels and fur- mished cottages in which such hygienic precautions and measures of disinfection are taken should alone be patronized by the public. At the meeting of the Academy of Medicine, Aug. 6, 1889, this report was discussed. Dujardin-Beaumetz was in favor of sup- pressing entirely the sections pertaining to raw meat and raw milk. There is nothing that proves the possibility, in man at least, of the transmission of tuberculosis by butchers’ meat. As for milk, if it ‘be true that it may on certain occasions contain bacilli, we must not forget that in order that milk may be thus contaminated the ‘cow must not only be tuberculous, but must also have tuberculous mammitis. Germain Sée did not believe in the communication of tuberculosis iby the air of respiration. The bacillus cannot live in the air. It mever develops and multiplies outside of the organism of man or the animal. In the open air it dies rapidly, as, in order to live, it needs a temperature of 30° C. The matter of atmospheric con- ttagion is a bugaboo, which has already wrought trouble in families by causing the poor consumptive to be treated like a leper, — shun- ned and abandoned by his nearest relatives. It has been demon- strated experimentally that air taken three or four yards from the bed of a consumptive patient does not contain a single bacillus ; but if the air exhaled by a phthisical person is inoffensive, the sputa are not so, and too much pains cannot be taken to disinfect and destroy all expectorated matters. With regard to the prohibition of meat and blood, it is a fact, said Professor Sée, that the blood is never virulent, and animal flesh, according to recent experiments (Nocard, of Alfort), far from -containing bacilli, destroys them by the muscular juice which the SCIENCE. 177 flesh contains. Hence, there is no necessity, in order to destroy the bacillus, to boil meat to a pap, to forbid roast meat, or under- done meat, or even raw meat. If we were to hearken to the com- mission, he thought we should be deprived of some of our best alimentary products, and nothing would be served on our tables that was not spoiled to the taste by over-cooking, as well as ren- dered more indigestible thereby. With regard to the care that should be taken of those that were hereditarily predisposed to tuberculosis, he thought that excessive precaution was an evil; the best prophylactic is gymnastic exer- cises and hydrotherapy.. Professor Sée did not think persons especially liable to tuberculo- sis, who had been subject to colds, bronchitis, or who had had pneumonia, measles, whooping-cough, or small pox. On the con- trary, he had found such persons remarkably exempt from tuber- cular diseases. Tuberculous Meat. Simultaneously with the report of the permanent commission of the French congress on tuberculosis, says the journal before quoted, we have before us a voluminous report from Glasgow, giving the proceedings at trial, under petitions of the Glasgow local authority, against two butchers who exposed for sale, for human food, the carcasses of two tuberculous animals. Among those giving testimony at the trial we find the well-known names of Dr. J. B. Russell, medical officer of health for Glasgow since 1872; Joseph Coats, pathologist to the Royal Infirmary of Glasgow, and Professor J. McCall, Principal of the Glasgow Veterinary College. In addition, there were the medical officers for Edinburgh and Greenock, and for Leeds, Birmingham, and Hull; three other vet- erinary pathologists besides McCall; and Mr. Mayland, as a bac- teriologist and pathologist in addition to Dr. Coats: There were, in all, fifteen witnesses for the prosecution and nineteen for the defence. The conclusions of the French congress, as well as of the Brussels veterinary congress of 1883, and of a departmental committee of the privy council, were frequently referred to in the course of the testimony. The cases were test cases, brought to enable the medical officers of Glasgow to apply the same stringent standards as were already enforced in Edinburgh and Greenock. The evidence showed that, in regard to one of the animals, “there were tubercles in the substance of the lungs themselves, in both the costal and pulmonary pleura, in the pleura connected with the diaphragm, and further in the cavity of the body inclosing the respiratory organs;’’ there was tubercular deposit in the lymphat- ics, and tubercular bacilli were found in the inguinal gland. In regard to the other, it was shown that there was active tuberculo- sis in the lungs and pleura, and bacilli were found in the prepecto- ral gland. The question before the court was, whether the meat of these animals after the carcasses had been “stripped” was “unfit for the food of man.” The prosecution laid down five propositions, and asked for con- viction upon their acceptance by the court. (1) The disease called tuberculosis, whatever form it may assume, whether phthisis, or scrofula, or struma, is a widespread disease amongst animals and man, and to it may be attributed a large percentage of the deaths in the community, and a very large proportion of the ill health. (2) That the disease known as tuberculosis now, is identical in man and in the lower animals. (3) The disease is communicable from the lower animals to man, by, amongst other means, inhala- tion and ingestion. (4) The disease tuberculosis is due to the ac- tive presence of a specific organism known as the bacillus tubercu- losis. (5) Given the signs of tuberculosis upon certain specific organs of an animal, you may and ought reasonably to infer that the virus of the disease is in other portions of the carcass of the animal, where there may be no outward and visible signs to indi- cate its presence. The defence held that no one has ever yet heard of a case of tu- berculosis contracted from the ingestion of tuberculous meat; but in the case of milk, the disease has been traced, and if in the latter, why not in the former; that cooking was a sufficient safeguard, and if people preferred to eat partially cooked meat, they should be allowed to take whatever infinitesimal risks might exist ; that, even 178 when the bacillus enters the alimentary canal, there must be a degen- erated condition of the tissues before it can find lodgment and fruc- tify ; that to a healthy person, therefore, the danger is perfectly vis- ionary ; that the alimentary canal is the least favorable channel for entrance into the system; that the disease in these cases was so localized as not to affect the flesh in general ; that, in any case, the danger to health and life must be extremely small, too small to justify the exclusion from the market or destruction of large amounts of good, wholesome food. The prosecution pointed out the inherent difficulty of proving, as a matter of fact, and not merely as a matter of opinion, the actual communication of tuberculosis to human beings by the ingestion of the flesh of tuberculous animals; and adduced evidence that the flesh of animals affected with tuberculosis, more or less, and of- fered for sale for food in Glasgow, is one half per cent in the year. In summing up the evidence and the arguments, the court held that whether ingestion be or be not the commonest way in which tuber- culosis is communicated, it must certainly be regarded as one mode of its communication ; except on the footing that the meat was the medium of the transmission of tle disease, it would be unnecessary and wasteful to exclude from the food-supply the carcasses of ani- mals suffering from tuberculosis, however generalized and exten- sive; but the previously existent practice in Glasgow and else- where of condemning extensively diseased animals, clearly showed that the transmissibility of the disease by ingestion had long been recognized, and the evidence leads to the conclusion that it would not be proper to trust to cooking as a sufficient protection; that every animal suffering from tuberculosis, however limited in degree or apparently in locality, probably ought to be condemned, and that such condemnation would not cause a loss of food of more than one-quarter of one per cent ; but, in the present instances, the dis- ease, having extended to the lympathic glands, was undoubtedly generalized. The number and character of the witnesses, the clearness of statement of the counsel, the respectability of the court, and the Scotch reputation for shrewd, practical common sense, give the report and result of this trial a considerable interest, as bearing upon the present position of science and practice in regard to the questions involved. Should it ultimately appear, as we see by the published abstract of a paper, to be read at the approaching meet- ing of the Association of American Physicians, Dr. H. C. Ernst thinks he is in a position to prove, that the milk from a cow suffer- ing from tuberculosis is dangerous as an article of food, no matter where the pathological change may be situated, and that Koch’s limitation of the danger to tuberculosis of the lacteal tract was too restricted, then the position of those who condemn the meat, even of locally infected animals, would be greatly strengthened. THE AIR IN EDINBURGH THEATRES. — An interesting account has been given by Mr. Cosmo J. Burton of the amount of carbonic acid and organic matter in Theatre Royal and Royal Lyceum Thea- tre in Edinburgh. At the time of the experiments the theatres were by no means full; nevertheless, the temperature was from ten to fifteen degrees above that recorded immediately before the houses were opened, while carbonic acid was multiplied from three to five times. Mr. Burton remarks, as quoted by the Lancet, that the vitiation of the air proceeds with extraordinary rapidity at first, but the rate of change soon decreases, till towards the end of the performance the air becomes little or no worse, and, indeed, in a few instances it appeared to slightly improve. The atmosphere of all parts of the theatre was not equally vitiated. The air of the gallery was considerably worse than that of any other part of the house ; the amphitheatre, dress circle, and pit did not come in the same order as to degree of impurity in the experiments, but the pit was always worse than the dresscircle. The late Dr. Parkes stated that headache and vertigo are produced when the amount of car- bonic acid in the air of respiration is not more than from fifteen to thirty volumes per ten thousand, and the experience of some thea- tres leads to the suspicion that Mr. Burton’s results are not special to Edinburgh. The facts as to all theatres ought to be known; for the public had much better lose an evening’s enjoyment than submit to the enforced inhalation of a polluted atmosphere for a number of hours. SCIENCE. (Vor XIV eNosaa5 NOTES AND NEWS. IT is stated by the Sczentzjic Amertcan that carefully repeated experiments made by an English navigator at. Santander, on the north coast of Spain, showed the crest of the sea waves in a pro- longed and heavy gale of wind to be forty-two feet high; and al- lowing the same for the depth between the waves, would make the height eighty-four feet from crest to base. The length from crest to crest wes found to be three hundred and eighty-six feet. Other estimates of the waves in the South Atlantic during great storms give a height of fifty feet for the crests and four hundred feet for length. In the North Sea the height of crest seldom exceeds ten feet and the length one hundred and fifty feet. -— At a recent meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences, M. Benger described the curious effects of an electric discharge which struck a silvered mirror during a terrific thunderstorm near Prague, on June 9, 1889. The mirror shows over ten points at which the electric fluid penetrated through its gilded frame, vola- tilizing and transferring the gold to the anterior face of the glass, while on the opposite side the volatilization of the silver coating produced the most beautiful electric figures. These figures show that there occurred repeated and successive discharges, as also in- dicated by recent photographs of flashes taken with the oscillating camera obscura. —In a recent letter from Paris to the Exgzneertng and Mining Journal, Mr. George F. Kunz says it may be interesting to know that the following minerals are exhibited in and are for sale in quantity in the Norwegian section of the Paris Exposition at the following rates per pound: Molybdenite, 32 cents; Gadolinite, $2.54; Zircon, $1.27; Cerite, 32 cents; Orthite, 13 cents; Rutile, 20 cents; Thorite, $10.54; Yttrotitanite, 20 cents ; Columbite, 94 cents. In reference to the occurrence and the use of vanadic and molybdic acids, both of these acids have until recently been con- sidered rare. Since they, however, replace phosphoric acid in the lead ores of New Mexico and Arizona in the minerals wulfenite, vanadinite, etc., which exist there in quantities, they can be ob- tained at much less cost than they could before. — “The great development in electricity will be, I am firmly con- vinced,”’ said Mr. Edison to an interviewer in Paris, “in discovering a more economical process of producing it. At present we only get from coal consumed about four or five per cent of its latent electricity. The rest is wasted in heating water, expanding steam, pushing pistons, turning wheels, and finally causing a dynamo-ma- chine to operate. A process will ultimately be found for extracting ninety to ninety-five per cent of the latent electricity directly from the coal. Then steam engines will be abolished, and that day is not far off now. Already we can get electricity direct from coal to the amount of ninety per cent, but only for experimental purposes. When I was on shipboard coming over I used to sit on deck by the hour and watch the waves. It made me positively savage to think of all that power going to waste. But we'll chain it up one of these days, along with Niagara Falls and the winds. That will be the electric millennium.” —Itis stated in the (/etal/arbezter that iron can be coppered by dipping it into melted copper, the surface of which is protected by a melted layer of cryolite and phosphoric acid, the articles to be thus treated being heated at the same temperature as the melted copper. Another process consists in dipping the articles into a melted mixture of one part of chloride or fluorine of copper, five or six parts of cryolite, and a little chloride of barium. If the article, when immersed, is connected with the negative pole of a battery, the process is hastened. A third method consists in dipping the articles in a solution of oxalate of copper and bicarbonate of soda, dissolved in ten or fifteen parts of water, acidified with organic gas. — If London is the metropolis of the land of fogs, there is much consolation to be found in the fact that in spite of its smoke and its fogs it is not only one of the healthiest cities in the world, but is growing healthier every year. According to the official statistics for the quarter ending June last, as stated by a leading London newspaper, the annual deaths are only at the rate of sixteen per thousand. If some overcrowded and notoriously unhealthy dis- SEPTEMBER 13, 1880. | } tricts could be eliminated from the calculation, the figure would, of course, drop considerably. Still more remarkable would the sani- tary condition appear if the area were confined to the high and airy suburbs in which so large a proportion are fortunate enough to dwell. Londoners have only to contrast this condition of things with the statistics of other capitals, to see how great is the advan- tage they enjoy. In Paris, which shows a comparatively good record, the mean annual death-rate is 32.1; in Berlin it is 27.5; in Vienna, 26.7; in Munich, 32.9, and in St. Petersburg, 43.7. In Brussels, which appears to be the healthiest of continental cities, it is 18.9. Tosum up the case, the death-rate during the quarter in twenty-nine colonial and foreign cities, having an aggregate popu- lation exceeding 16,000,000 persons, was 26.6 per 1,000, or more than Io} persons per 1,000 in excess of the London death-rate. — The Iowa Academy of Science held its third annual meeting at West Des Moines on Sept. 5. Among the papers presented were the following: “Life History of Lelandrza zgnota,” by Mr. F. W. Malley; “The Blue Quail in Iowa,” “The Mission of Sci- ence,” and “Notes on the Geology of North-western Iowa,” by Professor J. E. Todd; “ Fossils of the Keokuk Beds,” by Professor €. H. Gordon; “ Pearl Rearing Unios” and “‘ Rearing Vanessa antzopa,’ by Professor F. M. Witter; ‘Native Forest Trees of Eastern Arkansaw’”’ and “ Geology of Eastern Arkansaw,” by R. Ellsworth Call; “Geology of North-eastern Iowa,” by Dr. P. J. Farnsworth; ‘“‘ Notes on Beggiatoa,” by Professor L. H. Parmmel ; “Distribution of Hemiptera,” by Professor Herbert Osborn; “Is the Plum Curculio double-brooded ?” by Professor C. P. Gillette ; «The Food-fishes of Iowa,” by Professor Seth E. Meek ; and “‘ The Crystalline Rocks of Missouri,” by Professor Erasmus Haworth. Professor Todd also exhibited some volcanic dust from a stratum near Omaha. 2 — Schemes for irrigation in Upper Egypt have been considered by Colonel Ross, inspector-general of irrigation, with the governors of the provinces and the provincial councils. According to Exgz- neering, the area affected by these proposals includes 736,000 acres, of which no less than 250,000 acres were not irrigated or were insufficiently irrigated in1888. The projects are all based on the idea of going up the river to such a distance that a canal start- ing at that point shall, when the Nile is at fourteen cubits, take enough water and deliver on the surface a free flow. The present system of canals is being utilized by deepening, widening, and pro- longing them, and in many cases only by a change of site of the offtake from the river. The masonry works required will, it is esti- mated, cost about $900,000, of which $500,000 is required immedi- ately. The junctions and prolongations of canals are estimated to cost about a million dollars. The length of the valley to be thus protected from the effects of a low Nile is 255 miles. — Mr. William Crookes, in the course of a presidential address to the Chemical Society, said: ‘‘ The phosphoroscope affords an- other method of verifying the simple or compound character of a substance. It is well known that the continuance of phosphores- ence after the cessation of the exciting cause varies widely, from some hours, as in the case of the phosphorescent sulphides, to the fraction of a second in the case of uranium glass and quinine sul- phate. On examining phosphorescent earths glowing in a vacuum tube under the action of the induction discharge, I found remark- able differences in the duration of this residual glow. Some of the earths, after the cessation of the current, remain luminous for an hour or more, whilst others cease to phosphoresce immediately on the stoppage of the current. Take the case of yttrium. As al- ready stated, I succeeded in resolving this earth into several sim- pler bodies not equal in basicity. While seeking for further proof of the distinct character of these bodies, I observed that the after- glow differed somewhat in color from that which the earth exhib- ited whilst the current was still passing. Further, the spectrum of the after-glow seemed to show, so far as I could judge by the faint light, that some of the lines were missing. As this phenomenon indicated another difference among the components of yttrium, I €xamined them in an instrument similar to Becquerel’s phosphoro- scope, but acting electrically instead of by means of direct light. Under ordinary circumstances it is scarcely possible to perceive any phosphorescence in an earth until the vacuum is so high that * SCIENCE: 179 the line spectrum of the residual gas begins to grow faint. Up to this point, the stronger light of the glowing gas overpowers the fee- ble glow of the phosphorescerice. But in the phosphoroscope the light of the glowing gas lasts only for an inappreciable time, while that of the phosphorescent earth persists long enough to be dis- tinctly observed. The different bands of the new constituents of yttria do not all appear at the same speed of rotation. At the low- est speed the double greenish blue band of Gf is first seen, fol- lowed next by the dark blue band of Ga. As the velocity in- creases, there follows the bright citron-yellow band of Gd, and as the utmost speed approaches the red band of Gf is seen, but with difficulty. If lanthanum sulphate along with a little lime is exam- ined in the phosphoroscope, the line of Ge is visible at the lowest speed ; Gd follows at an interval of 0.0035 second, and the Ga line immediately afterwards.” — Professor Frank D. Adams, having been appointed lecturer on geology in McGill University, Montreal, is about to sever his connection with the Geological Survey of Canada. — A most interesting exhibit at the Paris Exposition, according to Engineering, is a recording flash telegraph for military or other purposes. This apparatus, which is exhibited by MM. Ducretet, is in fact a combination of a flashing telegraph and a Morse printer, consisting of a projector fitted with a powerful lamp in the focus of the usual optical apparatus. In front of the lamp and below it and the lenses is a screen, which may be suddenly removed from the front of the lamp by the depression of a key similar to that in use under the Morse system, and this screen may be as suddenly replaced by the release of the key; the flashes, long or short, are therefore transmitted to the distant station by the action of the key exactly in the same way as in transmitting a Morse message. The movement of the key has, moreover, a second action, for it sets into motion or stops the Morse recorder, doing mechanically ex- actly what the electric current does in the ordinary form of that in- strument. As long as the key is depressed a beam of light is con- tinuously projected to the distant station, and a continuous line is drawn on the paper band, and the moment that the key is released the light is obscured, and at the same time the recorder ceases to draw aline on the paper. Thus every flash, whether short or long, as well as the periods of rest, are accurately recorded on the band of paper, and a permanent record is produced of every message flashed through the instrument. — The “ chemin de fer glissant,” or sliding railway, at the Paris Exposition, says the Exgzneering and Mining Journal, is the ap- plication in practice of an old theory that, by adopting a sled upon rails with water interposed as the.carrying medium, the least pos- sible friction would be encountered and greater speed could be at- tained than by means of wheels. The promoters of the enterprise give the credit of the invention to a French engineer named Girard, who was killed in the Franco-German war, and name as the date of it 1868; but, if we are not mistaken, the idea was advanced some years before this date in England, where it was looked upon as chimerical and impracticable. However that may be, it has now for the first time been tried on a working scale, and in combi- nation with a system of propulsion which, we believe, is novel. The wheels are replaced by four hollow slides, about eight by four inches, one at each corner of the car, fitting upon a flat and wide rail, grooved on the inner surface. To set the car in motion, water is forced by compressed air into the slide, which it raises slightly from the rail, and the propelling force is supplied by a stream of water at high pressure directed from short iron pillars upon pad- dles fixed underneath the car. The stream of water is supplied automatically by the movement of the car, being shut off in the same manner by the paddle passing out of range. By the time the last car has passed the jet the foremost one has reached the next pillar. The force developed is represented as very great. The train is stopped by shutting off the stream of water that feeds the slides. The experimental line on the Esplanade des Invalides has four carriages, with seating capacity for about a hundred passengers, and to traverse its length, some two hundred and fifty yards, only a few seconds are required. Great speed is claimed for the invention, not less than about ninety miles an hour, and the ability to stop in thirty yards when running at this speed. Gradi- 180 ents are represented to be no obstacle, sixteen inches in the yard being practicable, and the descent at such an inclination is said to be safe. No doubt the lowness of the centre of gravity, which is little more than two feet above the rails, will reduce the risk of run- ning off the track, but the enthusiastic recommendation of the sys- tem by its promoters as peculiarly adapted for elevated railways in cities would not be echoed, we think, by the dwellers and foot pas- sengers in streets traversed by sucha line. We do not see how a continual shower bath is to be avoided, except by such an exten- sive, expensive, and above all, opaque dripping pan as would both require an immense expenditure and create an intolerable nuisance. — According to the Journal of Chemzcal Industry, the specific gravity of glycerine when used for tempering steel or cast iron may be varied between 1.08 and 1.26 at 15° C. by adding water, accord- ing to the composition of the metal. The quantity of glycerine should be from one to six times greater than the weight of the pieces to be plunged into it, and its temperature may be varied from 15° to 200° C., according to the hardness of the metal. The harder the steel to be tempered, the higher should be the tempera- ture of the glycerine. To increase the quenching power of the bath various salts may be added. Thus, when a harder temper is required, protosulphate of magnesia may be added in quan- tity from one to thirty-four per cent of the liquid, or from one- fourth to four per cent of sulphate of potassium. For a softer temper one to ten per cent of chloride of manganese and one to four per cent of chloride of potassium may be added. The princi- pal advantages to be derived from these methods are: that the temperature of the aqueous solution of glycerine may be varied within wide limits, the boiling point of pure glycerine being 290° C.; and that, owing to the fact that solutions of glycerine dissolve most salts that are soluble in water, the quenching properties may be varied by readily dissolving in the bath such salts as suit the kind of metal to be tempered and the degree of temper required. — The Gardeners’ Chronicle reports that at the Paris Exposi- tion many of the South American republics show specimens of the product known locally as yerba de mate, or Paraguay tea, the dried and broken leaves and stalks of different species of ilex. It is exhibited in packets and in original bales of green hide. This is the dietetic beverage of about 20,000,000 of people in South Amer- ica, and its popularity is shown by the exhibits in the various pavil- ions of the Argentine Republic, Paraguay, Uruguay, Brazil, Chili, Bolivia, etc. It is difficult to get at any reliable returns as to the entire traffic in this commodity, the production of which is carried on in such a desultory and wide manner, and extends over so vast an area of wild country where the holly-trees flourish. In the Ar- gentine Republic the consumption is over thirty-five million pounds, against five million pounds of coffee. In Paraguay the production of mate is about five million pounds; from Brazil there is an ex- port of sixty-five million pounds to neighboring States, while the local consumption is about half as much. This is singular in the great coffee-producing centre of the world, which sends into com- merce annually more than half the entire production of coffee. Strong efforts are being made to open a trade with it in Europe, especially in France, where shops advertise and recommend it. Whether this will succeed remains to be seen, looking at the increased production of tea, and the enormous increase in its sale in Europe. Approaching in its chemical composition to coffee and tea, it is asserted that it does not cause wakefulness or prevent sleep. In the rural districts, as well as in the smaller towns, this beverage is considered a regular form of diet, and not, like tea, a mere accompaniment of the breakfast-table. It is sweetened with sugar until it almost becomes a syrup. It is sold at from four to eight cents per pound, and one pound will produce about twenty quarts of infusion. It is sometimes flavored with cinnamon, orange-peel, or lemon-juice. — At Cambridge, England, during the month of August, about twenty elementary teachers were in residence fora brief visit at Newnham College, and short courses of lectures were started in history, literature, and physiology, which might serve as a useful kind of university extension on a small scale. Full advantage was taken of the interesting lectures in history, literature, physiology, logic, and other subjects. The lecturers and students vied with SClLEN@GE: [Vor XIV.) Noi eas each other in making their visitors’ holiday as happy as possible, arranging walking and boating excursions, impromptu concerts, tea-parties, and other forms of entertainment for them. The so- called old hall, the oldest of the three halls which now form the college, was given up to the visitors, who were under the care of two lady lecturers. The pretty rooms and tasteful decorations, the quiet and beauty which form the charms of an academic life, will doubtless be pleasant memories to those whose ordinary work lies in less beautiful places. It has come to be understood that the university extension gathering will in all probability take place an- nually at Oxford. It appears that the facilities offered by the place, such as the new schools, the general emptiness of the col- leges, etc., are much greater than at Cambridge, and that the num- ber of ladies attending these gatherings is likely to increase in future years. As a means of drawing women together, and giving an impetus to education, these meetings have already proved of great value. They supply an enthusiasm and a desire for knowl- edge and culture which can only be obtained by the gathering to- gether of teachers and students. The ,actual instruction given can, of course, hardly be of consequence; but for this purpose the second part of the meeting, extending to the end of the month, ‘during which lecturers continued in greater detail the subjects introduced during Part I., was probably found by the fraction of students who remained for it to have considerable educational value. Mr. Moulton, Mr. Mackinder, Professor Green, Mr. Chur- ton Collins, Mr. Shaw, and Mr. Hewins were the lecturers, who worked out in greater fulness the subjects which they had already dealt with in a more summary fashion. This summer meeting at Oxford was marked by an incident which may in time become quite famous. The debating hall at the Union was for the first time invaded by lady speakers. This is, indeed, a sign of the times, which he who runs may read. In an audience of six hun- dred a resolution in favour of women suffrage was carried by a majority of three to one. The proceedings took place without of- ficial sanction, and were tainted with the grassest illegality; but yet the roof did not fall, as doubtless it should have done had it re- tained a scrap of reverence for the monastic traditions*of old Ox- ford. : — An interesting series of experiments has recently been car- ried out by the Dutch State railways, says Eugzneercng, for the pur- pose of ascertaining exactly the relative resistance of various pig- ments to atmospheric changes and to the corrosive action of sea water. The results have proved that the red-lead paints are less affected by atmospheric influence than those which are composed of the brown oxides of iron, on account of their adhering more closely to the metal, and of their possession of greater elasticity. It was also discovered that any sort of paint afforded an increased protection if the plates were pickled in hydrochloric acid before its application. The prevention of corrosion by salt water was found to be possible by the admixture of the oxide of some electro- positive metal, such as caustic lime and soda; but the efficiency of such a covering diminished when its alkaline properties had been neutralized by the absorption of carbonic acid. _Magnesiay however, was proved to be the most serviceable, seeing that it does not absorb carbonic acid; and not only does it protect the iron from galvanic action, but it also does not affect the anti- fouling qualities of the paint. — In the report just issued by the Oxford University Extension delegates some interesting particulars are given, says the Pal/ Mall Gazette, of the devotion to learning under difficulties which. some of the students display. Thus, at Camborne one of the stu- dents was a miner, who, after the evening lecture, had to go in the night shift underground. At Burnley, a weaver in acotton-mill, in order to have more time for study, sacrificed her dinner-hour, and remained at the loom reading between her hours of work. To supplement the regular courses of lectures, and to carry on the work therein begun, an increasing number of reading circles and students’.associations have, we see, been formed. Of the latter, one of the most successful is at Exeter. It consists of ladies only, and during the year it has held about twenty meetings for the dis- cussion of literary subjects and the readings of essays, besides ar- ranging for the delivery of ten special scientific lectures. The SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.]_ movement has received an additional impetus from the generosity of the Marquis of Ripon, Mr. J. G. Talboi, M.P., Mr. F. D. Mo- catta, the Rector of Exeter, and other donors, whv offered scholar- ships, lately awarded, to enable poorer students to attend the sum- mer meeting at Oxford. : —Some curious facts bearing on the morale of the lower ani- mals are given by a correspondent of the Revue Scéentifique. One source of animal sociability is a permanent sexual friendliness, making individuals mutually agreeable. Thus in stables without stalls, it is desirable to put animals of opposite sex next each other, to avoid injuries. A mare may be safely put into a field containing a horse unknown to it, but if two unacquainted horses be thus put together they will fight. A stallion, indeed, will sometimes get in- jury from an unknown mare put into a field with it. Again, the authority of the oldest and strongest in a group of males often favors sociability. In the Spanish gavaderzas, a horseman will lead about a numerous troop of bulls, by means of five or six bulls who obey him and maintain order. In the Madrid circus the wri- ter saw three of these animals bring to its stall a vicious bull which had ripped up five or six horses and mortally wounded an espada. They made a slight movement of the horns, and the creature, after a little hesitation, turned and followed them. Once more, when flocks of wild ducks and geese have to go long distances, they form a triangle to cleave the air more easily, and the most coura- geous bird takes the position at the forward angle. As this is a very fatiguing post, another bird, ere long, takes the place of the exhausted leader. Thus they place their available strength at the service of the society. — A recent number of the Cizza Review contains a paper by Dr. Macgowan on the alleged avenging habits of the cobra in In- dian and Chinese folk-lore. The belief in India is that a wounded cobra which escapes will sooner or later revenge itself on the man who has caused the injury, wherever he may go or whatever he may do. Dr. Macgowan says that this belief is prevalent in Indo- China and China as well as in India. But in China there is also a strong prejudice against killing the cobra, lest its spirit should haunt the slayer ever after. Cobras, therefore, are shunned rather than pursued and attacked. Popular stories of the dire conse- quences of slaying them keep up the superstition. A high official who had killed one died soon afterwards of some mysterious dis- ease, and the death is attributed to the slain snake; again, the spirit of the snake enters into possession of its slayer, and employs the vocal organs of the latter in uttering imprecations on himself until death mercifully removes him. Dr. Macgowan gives a large number of stories of this character. A number of others refer to the retribution on snake-killers after their own deaths. Gratitude, as well as vindictiveness, is ascribed to snakes, of which some characteristic stories are given. In conclusion, Dr. Macgowan ob- serves that the recently established vernacular press in China fur- nishes inexhaustible stores of folk-lore. ‘“ Paragraphs describing popular superstitions, impossible occurrences, monstrosities, and so forth, constitute a great portion of their matter.’’ In regard to snakes, the marvel is that any are killed at all in China, so many dreadful punishments are supposed to overtake their destroyers ; and, indeed, it is considered a work meriting favor here and here- after to purchase captured snakes and liberate them. Neverthe- less, poisonous snakes are not numerous in China, probably because their presence is inconvenient to Chinese farmers, and they’ are therefore destroyed,. folk-lore notwithstanding. — The following practical suggestions, based on results of ex- periments at the Indiana Agricultural Experiment Station, are offered by Professor W. C. Latta, in the hope that their applica- tion would result advantageously on. a very large proportion of the wheat farms of Indiana. (1)-Sow less wheat; grow more grass, and better live stock. (2) Select a hardy, prolific wheat, adapted to your soil, and stick to it. Give it good treatment and it will not “run out.” Sow not less than six pecks of sound seed to the acre. (3) Plough wheat ground early, and harrow immediately after ploughing. Youcan thus more easily and more thoroughly pulverize the soil. (4) If ground breaks up cloddy, use heavy roll alternating with some form of harrow or cultivator that will bring clods to sur- SCIENCE 181 face. (5) If manure or fertilizers are used, mix thoroughly with soil in every case. Use only rotted manure, if any, and apply after plowing. Reserve the fresh manure for the corncrop. (6) Before trying a fertilizer, get the experience and advice of farmers whose soils are similar to your own. (7) Test the untried brands care- fully, in a small way, before deciding upon their extensive use. This is the best course, for the reason that even the highest grades often act very differently on different soils. (8) Adopt a rotation of crops suited to your soil and needs. It will increase the yield and improve the quality of your crops, enable you to take better care of your live stock, prevent serious insect depredations and fungous diseases, improve your soil and make it more lasting, and put money in’your pocket. (9) Bear in mind that soils and climate vary greatly in different localities, and that these potent factors in crop production will very materially affect the results of your work. Therefore, study your local conditions, and intelligently apply the lessons of this bulletin only so far as they may be suited to your needs and surroundings. —Information has reached us that Mr. Julien of Brussels, the inventor of the Julien electric traction system in operation on the Fourth Avenue street railway in this city, has been awarded a gold medal at the Paris Exposition, for his storage batteries, over com- petitors from all parts of the world. This is of importance, being confirmatory of the awards obtained by him for his batteries and system of storage battery traction at Antwerp in 1885, by the inter- national congress appointed by the government to report as to the best manner of propulsion of tram cars; and also at Paris in 1886, and at Brussels in 1888, when the Leopold cross was presented him for his invention. — Russia is organizing a system of technical schools of a very complete form. The schools are of three classes, lower and middle technical schools, and upper, or, as they are so called, trade schools. The first consist of three divisions, for mechanics, chemists, and builders respectively, and the instruction is strictly technical and manual. The second class is intended for as- sistant engineers and architects, foremen builders, ‘and agricul- tural bailiffs. The courses of study cover four years, and the stu- dents must have completed their primary education before entering the schools. The subjects of study are drawing, mechanics, ap- plied mathematics, and practical exercises bearing on the industry to be followed. These middle schools are divided into five kinds, technical schools of a general character, schools of chemistry, schools of agriculture, schools of architecture, and schools of mines. Some schools combine two or more of these functions, that of Nijni-Novgorod, for instance, two; that of Moscow, three; that of Krasnovodsk also two, agriculture and mining. None of the courses are simply fanciful, all are practical. For instance, in the school of architecture the time will not be spent in sketching Pantheons or designing triumphal arches, but in planning dwellings of a moderate cost, which shall be sound and durable, well warmed and ventilated, well drained, comfortable, and pleasant to live in. The superior trade schools are intended to produce skilled and intelligent workmen in wood and metal. The minister of instruction calculates that the cost of maintenance of a lower school will be about ten thousand dollars per annum, that of a middle school fourteen thousand five hundred dollars, and that of a trade school about six thousand seven hundred dollars. — An interesting correspondence has been published between the Magdeburgh Fire Insurance Company and Dr. Stephan, head of the German postal and telegraphic service, respecting the rela- tion between the telephone and the electric fluid, from which it ap- pears that, contrary to the general belief, experience in Germany goes to show that a telephone network rather acts as a protection against lightning than otherwise. For instance, in Hamburg, dur- ing the period from 1885 to 1888, there was only one case of light- ning in the heart of the city, where the net is very dense, but many others in the suburbs where there is no telephone. In Berlin and other German towns, as well as in Copenhagen, similar experiences are reported. Dr. Stephan, however, points out that the imperial telephone network is being laid with every care, and that the num- ber of lightning conductors is very large. 182 SGIENGE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS §AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY INS 1D)5 Co 1st ©) 1D GE 1s Ss, 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEw YorRK. SupscrIpTIONS.—United,States and Canada...... SopdosaOnocecs $3.50 a yeare Great Britain and Europe..........-...-.0.--- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): I SUDSCrIption XT YEALecwccccccsee esses seereeeeceees S 3450 2 SS TRY € ALiole'n ofalelals/olo\ als) = =[/nlelelel=={stsaiel=ii=T=lels1= 6.00 3 ct I year. 8.00 4 sf I year = 10.00 Communications willjbe welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever,is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, SEPTEMBER 13, 1889. No. 345. CONTENTS: An ELectric TRANSFER-TABLE..... 173 | Epwarp ATkINSON’s PLANS FOR 5 Tue Sorreninc or {Harp WaTER THE WorLp’s Fair oF 1892..... 182 FOR Domestic USE.....-...-..- 173 | AN UNKNowN ORGAN OR SENSE A Nover Evecrric BATTery..... - 174 Christine Ladd Franklin 183 Tue Brusu Evecrric Hoist....... 175 | Harvarp or To-Day......-..-..-.. 185 OLivE CULTIVATION..........--..-0+ 176 | Boox-ReEviEws. HEATH MaTrTers. A Manual of Machine Construction 186 Report of the Paris Commission on | Monopolies and the People........ + 186 Consumpfioneer meister cnerys 176 | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS............ 187 Tuberculous Meat................. 177 | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. The Air in Edinburgh Theatres.... 178 The Law of Population in the M. C. Meigs 188 NOTES AND NEWS........+e00-..0-05 178 United States EDWARD ATKINSON’S PLANS FOR THE WORLD'S FAIR OF 1892. THE suggestions made by Mr. Edward Atkinson, and printed in Sczence, af Aug. 30, bearing upon the scope of the exhibition to be held in this city in 1892, have attracted much attention from many business men. Voicing the sentiments of those business men and others interested in the success of the exhibition, the president of the Chamber of Commerce of this city requested Mr. Atkinson to present his views more in detail. To this request Mr. Atkinson responded with the following detailed plans for the de- velopment of an historic and economic exhibit on certain lines of industry which might be made a part of the proposed exhibition of 1892 :— We may begin with the art of spinning and weaving. The origin of these arts is prehistoric. From the earliest dawn of history woven fabrics have been in use. The linen in which the mummies of Egypt are wrapped is equal in the fineness of the thread and in the texture of the web to many of the examples of the finest work of the modern loom. The distaff is classic, but unless the railway has completed its revolution, some of the natives of northern Italy could be brought to the exhibition who would spin linen thread with the distaff after the manner of Penelope. The loom and the weaver are pictured, as I have been informed, on the walls of Babylon and on the pyramids. The hand-loom worked by the native Egyptians in the same way, and of identical type, could be SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 345 brought to the exhibition. Neither the inventor nor the date of the invention of the spinning-wheel is known. The spinning-wheel of the prehistoric type is worked to-day for clothing nine-tenths of the population of China; the wheel and the spinner, the loom and the weaver, could be brought together from there. The wheel and the loom of the same identical type are to-day in operation in the heart of the Southern mountains, working on cotton and wool, and in the © western counties of Ireland, working on Irish homespun. The representatives of these prehistoric arts could be brought from there and from many other points in Asia, Africa, South America, Australia, and Polynesia, with examples of all their fabrics, ancient and modern. Such an exhibition as the one proposed in this paragraph would undoubtedly lead to the establishment of a great and “permanent textile museum and weaving school, equal or superior to that at Crefeld in Rhenish Prussia, which was formerly open to Americans, but from which they are now excluded. Such schools have only lately been established even in England, although they have existed for a long time in Germany and France. We have made a small beginning in Philadelphia and in Boston, but nothing in any meas- ure adequate to the necessities of the case. A complete museum of textile fabrics and of looms of various kinds would be among the primary elements required for such a school. The co-opera- tion of the Arkwright Club of Boston, of the Wool and Woollen Association, of the Silk Association, of the Manufacturers’ Club of Philadelphia, and of other similar organizations, might be called for in determinating the conditions both for the proposed exhibition and for the ultimate destination of the examples of machinery and. fabrics which might be brought together at that time. Within the same rail on the floor of the Atlanta Exposition were two hand carders, two spinners with their wheels, and one weaver, — five persons who could make in a day of ten hours eight yards of narrow coarse cotton osnaburg. Within the same rail was the carding and spinning machinery of the Willimantic Thread Com- pany and the looms which were sent there from Massachusetts, on which the cotton which was growing in the field in the morning, after it had been picked, ginned, and prepared, was spun, woven, dyed, and made into a dress suit which I wore at a reception the same evening. The difference in the capacity of the operatives who worked these modern machines as compared to the homespun art on the same fabric was one hundred to one, by actual computa- tion. The first step in the progress from the spinning-wheel of a single spindle to the spinning-mule of twelve hundred spindles was the spinning-jenny of eight or ten spindles. Some of these spinning- jennies are still made use of, I believe, in Africa, to prepare the yarn for a hand-loom which is Carried about in the hands of the natives, on which they weave the narrow strips of which their gar- ments are made when they have been stitched together. The African spinners and weavers, with their machines, can be brought to the exhibition. In South America, in Mexico, among the Indians of the far North-west, and in every part of the world, are people of various tribes and races who clothe themselves in homespun and hand- woven fabrics, as our grandfathers and grandmothers did in New England only a century since. It is easy to conceive of a department in the exhibition of 1892 in which shali be built the cabin of the African, the cobble-stone dwelling of the Irish cotter, the model of the cottage of the English peasant, the dwelling of the Chinaman, the wigwam of the Indian, the log cabin of the Southern mountaineers, where each type of each race may conduct the art of spinning and weaving in their own way; while in the next compartment may be exhibited the finest examples of the most modern textile machinery: in this one section would be given the history of clothing from the fig-leaf to the type of the present day. Even the preparation of the different fibres may be brought into view. The seed of the cotton is cleaned from the fibre in China at the present time by the snapping of a bowstring, precisely as it was done in Georgia, giving the name of “bowed cotton” to the Georgia staple before Eli Whitney invented the cotton gin. Again, while the art of weaving begins with the hand-loom in- making the fabrics of the coarsest kind, the art also ends with the SEPTEMBER 13, 1889. ] hand-loom on which the finest silks of Lyons and the finest velvets of Rhenish Prussia are to-day woven; and from these points the typical weavers could be assembled with their simple looms on which they make those finest goods, which are in themselves a work of art. In the matter of printing textile fabrics, the art began by stamp- ing figures of a coarse and rude kind by hand upon the cloth ; and that same art is still carried on in the same way in China and in Japan, and could be brought before the eye in the exhibition ; while the progress in the art of printing textile fabrics could be witnessed in the next section as it is now carried on by the use of machines of the finest and highest types. But this art would end again in the bringing from France the block printers, who still print by hand the finest examples of the French cretonnes. This conception of the method of the proposed exhibition is wholly consistent with making the exhibition itself a medium for bringing into notice the finest examples of modern machinery and the finest types of modern fabrics. The only difficulty which might be experienced in carrying out this conception might be that too many makers of machinery and venders of the fabrics of the finest types would apply for place. The personal factor and the element of individual profit may therefore be brought to bear in connection with this plan, as well _as in any other way. The plan only gives a definite point or pur- pose to the undertaking, and would make the whole exhibition an example of progress and a means of comparing the mechanism by which the people of different countries and races have clothed themselves or otherwise provided for material wants in the past and do now clothe and serve themselves in the present. If it were too great an undertaking to bring together typical ex- amples of the garments of the past as well as of the present, never- theless, pictures may be gathered to hang upon the walls of this exhibition, artistic in their conception, typical of the art in the dif- ferent countries in their execution, and yet object lessons in the history of the textile arts. I have in my possession six pictures painted in China on silk, giving the whole story of cotton, from the field to the fabric, which were sent to me by Messrs. Russell and Co. to exhibit at Atlanta, accompanied by a complete set of garments worn by the common people of China. They were sent to me without cost, but were evidently expensive. I have already mentioned the little artistic clay figures which can be purchased in India, showing every type of costume, at a mere trifling cost. i If we pass on from the textile out to the treatment of metal, taking iron as an example, we find that iron is still treated in Spain as it was when the Toledo blade became famous. It is treated in Africa in the crudest manner. In the heart of the southern moun- tains, iron and steel are still made directly from the ore in wayside furnaces heated with charcoal on what I believe are called “ Cata- lan forges.” How various or how widespread over the world are the different methods of treating the ore of iron, I am not informed, but all these primary methods could be brought, with those who practise them, into one section of the exhibition; and since the in- troduction of the most modern type of furnace worked by gas has been adopted, it has also become possible to set up small ex- amples of the most modern form of producing iron and steel and working these metals into manifold shades. The whole history of metallurgy as applied to iron can be brought before the eye; and here again the element of personal interest may be brought to bear on the part of those who desire to exhibit the most modern types of stoves, smelting furnaces, and the like. Perhaps the most interesting and the most varied of the many arts which can be*brought together into view would be the types of the tools and machines used by various races and nations in the conduct of agriculture. Herein again, the plough, as pictured upon the walls of the Pyramids, could be brought from the fields of Egypt, with the fellahin, who still make use of that prehistoric im- plement ; and alongside could be placed the modern polished steel plough, of which I have a record among my insurance papers that when accidentally placed outside a barn it concentrated the rays of the sun, and reflected them in such a way as to set the barn on fire. Herein, again, there would be arush of competitors to exhibit the best types of the most modern agricultural tools and machines. SCIENCE. 183 Again, the one art which is of all others prehistoric is that of the potter. Would it not be possible to bring the potters from many lands into a single section with their primitive implements, placed alongside the most modern type of apparatus with their artists as well as their ovens ? Lastly, there is nothing like leather. How easy it would be to bring into the same section the worker in leather from different parts of the world; the cobbler from that part of this country which has not yet been penetrated by the railway, alongside the modern machines by which each visitor, having been measured on entering the section, may have a last prepared to fit his or her foot, and a pair of finished boots made to measure ready to put on, within the time that would be necessary to get even a superficial idea of the mechanism by which the work had been accomplished. When all these and many other arts had thus been brought to- gether, to be conducted under one great roof by representatives of many races and many nations, each according to his kind dwelling in his accustomed way and conducting all the household arts as they are conducted at home, the Arab in his tent, the African in his hut, the Mexican Indian in his adobe house, the mountaineer of the South in his log cabin, the native of Japan in his dwelling of wood and paper, the Chinaman, the Aleut, the Alaskan, and all the rest — what could be more attractive or instructive? And lastly, what would pay better in a mere commercial sense ? I therefore submit that my conception of an exhibition which shall give the history of industrial progress, by means of object lessons drawn from the past, but yet existing in the present, is wholly consistent with the necessary element of personal interest ‘and personal profit on the part of those who contribute the modern examples of existing machinery. In addition to these object lessons, the art of the painter, and even of the sculptor, may be invoked to decorate the walls; the art ef the engineer and of the mill constructor may be called in to build the structures; while the services of the statistician, the economist and the ready writer, and the engraver would be re- quired to prepare the catalogue and to write the descriptions, so as to tell the whole story of what the eye could see in part. This would be the main conception to be carried out, either in the main building or in the main series of buildings. Auxiliary buildings may be added by States, in the manner previously in- dicated, in which examples of every crude material, together with maps and descriptions showing the resources of any section of the country, might be brought together. If, in addition to this, it was thought expedient to make preparation for a great fair or bazaar where goods could be exhibited and sold according to the will of the contributor, that purpose might also be provided for in the exact measure of the demand which would ensue for space or place. The conditions precedent to carry out this conception con- sist, first, in finding the money which will be required to make the preparation, and, second, the men (especially the man) capable of laying out, executing, guiding, and directing the whole work. AN UNKNOWN ORGAN OF SENSE. IN the frequent dwelling upon questions of development, which one cannot avoid in these days, one sometimes wonders whether the future is destined to endow man with any senses which he is not now in possession of. However that may be, it is probably unknown to a great many of the laity that within a few years past a new organ of sense has been discovered, the existence of which had not before been so much as suspected. It was always known that the internal ear was a curiously complicated structure, and there was little hope of being able to make out the separate func- tions, in hearing, played by all its different parts. But it was not suspected, even when Flourens had made his celebrated experi- ments in 1824, that one part of it —the three narrow semicircular tubes which spread out in three planes at right-angles to each other — might be the organ of a totally different sense. It is only now that the question has been definitely set at rest by the admirable experiments of Brener. There can no longer be any doubt that the semicircular canals are the organ for sensations, whether conscious or not, which enable us to determine both the direction and the amount of all rotations performed either by the 184 head alone or by the head and body together. The argument by which this has been established is interesting, if only as furnishing another instance of the ins and outs of that great scientific method by which truth is being constantly tracked to its lair. It was first noticed that the semicircular canals could be destroyed’ without any injury to the sense of hearing, but that their destruc- tion was followed, in various animals, by convulsive motions of the eyes, the head, and the body, and that these motions were in dif- ferent directions as different ones of the three canals were destroyed. It was next pointed out that certain diseases in human beings which were accompanied by feelings of dizziness and loss of equi- librium were connected with injury to those organs. Finally, dis- tinct sensations were said to be felt upon the performance of cer- tain motions, not to be confounded with either a muscle-sense or a sense of touch, and not to be explained except by the hypothesis of some peripheral organ. But at this stage of the discussion, physiologists went too fast and too far; many of them held that the semicircular canals are spatial sense-organs upon whose ac- tivity depends every perception of the position, or of the direction of motion, of the body. The limitation of their functions to the perception of rotations only has been performed by Delage, and in the following way. He pointed out the aid to be got, in such cases, from the study of illusions. The mind is able to interpret the data of the several senses in accordance with external fact only when the sense-organ in ques- tion is working under normal conditions. Unusual conditions are a frequent cause of illusions, and the source of a given illusory sensation can easily be made out, when it is certain that one organ and only one is subjected to circumstances which it is not accus- tomed to, Even when this simple situation cannot be arrived at, the same thing can sometimes be accomplished more indirectly. . Thus when the head is turned far to either side, the eyes being shut, objects which can be correctly pointed at with the head in a normal attitude seem to have shifted their position about fifteen degrees in the opposite direction. This indicates that the organ which gives us the sense of direction when we are at rest is in the head. But it is in the eye and not in the ear, for the illusion per- sists when we turn the eyes without the head, and it vanishes when, on moving the head, we force the eyes to remain at rest relatively to it. When we have occasion to look far around, we usually accomplish it by moving the head part of the way and the eyes in the head the rest of the way. We have thus acquired the habit, when we move the head to the right, of moving the eyes still farther to the right, and it is this wrong position of the eyes in the sockets which gives rise to the above illusion. It is the muscles of the eye, therefore, which gives us our static sensations of direction. Ina similar way it is shown that our knowledge of the position of the body at any instant is derived, when the eyes are shut, from muscular and cutaneous sensations and from a gen- eral sensitiveness to the direction of gravitation of the fluids and internal organs of the body. : The feelings which inform us that we are undergoing a pro- gressive motion in any direction, have a similar general origin, but the case is very different with rotations. In the first place, we have a far more delicate sense of rotation than of progressive mo- tion, —a velocity only one third as great can be detected. The illusions that are produced by turning the head to one side while the body is being rotated about any axis are opposite in direction from those produced by the eye, and much greater in amount; they are, in fact, partly counteracted by the eye-illusions. To produce rotation about a vertical axis, the person is seated in a dark rotating box. He feels himself to be rotating about a vertical axis, as he is, but he has only to turn his head over towards his right shoulder to make himself think that the axis of rotation of the box is inclined towards the left, or that the space about him had been shifted to his right. In other words, he cannot help feeling as he would if his whole body were in a continuous line with his head. A sudden change in the position of the head dur- ing a swift rotation is enough to cause dizziness, nausea, and a general feeling of: extreme unpleasantness,—so much so that Delage says that it requires a very considerable amount of courage to perform the same operation again. There is no other unoc- cupied organ in the head which might be taken to be the source of SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 345 this illusory sensation, except the semicircular canals, and hence we are under the necessity of attributing it‘to them. A few years ago Prof. William James made the interesting dis- covery that deaf people were in very many instances not subject to: dizziness nor to sea-sickness, and that they had, for the most part, given up diving, because they found it impossible to tell one direc- tion from another when under water. A disease of the organ of hearing would be very likely to attack the closely adjacent semi- circular canals, and hence these curious observations add great weight to the theory that they are the seat of sensation for certain motions of the body and the head. It may be mentioned that Professor James suggests trying blisters behind the ears, or even a gentle rubbing, as a cure for sea-sickness. The argument at this point is not absolutely conclusive, though it is exceedingly strong, but it is put beyond any shadow of doubt by the recent experiments of Brener upon doves, already referred to. He cuts down to the bony semicircular canals, and, without having injured them in the least, he succeeds in sending an electric cur- rent through them. The head moves in absolute obedience to the current in either one of the three planes according to the canal which is stimulated, and in each plane it moves in one direction: or the other, according to the direction of the electric current. With the interrupted current, no motion at all is produced. But how is. it certain that it is only the canals that are stimulated, and that the ~ motion is not due to direct stimulation of the brain? This objec- tion, which has long been considered a very weighty one, has been absolutely set at rest by Brener. He inserts the needle, which con- veys the current, into the matter of the brain, and motions of the head are, indeed, produced. But he next diminishes the intensity of the current until it is no longer strong enough to produce any effect in that place, and then transfers the needle to the semi- circular canals. The motions are immediately set up again. It is, of course, perfectly natural that the effect of the current upon either the brain-centres or the fibres communicating with them should be the same as upon the nerve-ends, but the fortunate circumstance that the nerve-ends are stimulated by a current too weak to affect the adjacent parts of the brain proves con- clusively — and by a very pretty piece of logic —that the specific function of those nerve-ends is, in fact, the regulation of the con- vulsive motions of the head. That they regulate the motions through reflex responses to sensations,— in other words, that the motions are by way of compensation for a subjective feeling of fall- ing in the opposite direction,— is proved by the experience of those individuals who execute the same movements under the influence of disease. The chain of evidence is, therefore, now absolutely complete that the nerves which are distributed upon the enlarged ends of the semicircular canals are sensory nerves whose function (or, at least, one of whose functions) is to give us knowledge of the character and extent of all rotations executed by the head. Mach, in his ‘“ Bewegungsempfindungen,” published in 1875, de- scribed many very ingenious experiments which went to show that we are conscious of a specific sensation when the activity of the semicircular canals is excited. These have not been considered conclusive by other writers, and in a later work of his (Avtalyse der Empfindungen, 1886) he lays less stress upon the excitation of specific sensations, and is content to assume that they set free purely reflectory innervations (p. 73). The semicircular canals may still be called a sense-organ, even though we are not immedi- ately conscious of the sensations which they give rise to. The use of the phrase “ unconscious sensation” implies that in the opinion of physiologists there is something which may be properly termed a sensation, but which is not fe/¢ by us in the ordinary meaning of that word. Any message which is sent in to the brain by an affer- ent nerve, and which gives rise to actions suitable to the circum- stances, is called a sensation, even though our conscious self knows. nothing about what is going on until after the action is accom- plished, if even then. Thus in the eye-illusion first mentioned, the full explanation of what takes place is this: — the angle through which the head has moved is measured by the semicircular canals, and this information is transmitted to the centres of the eye-mus- cles, whereupon the eyes make the amount of motion appropriate to that position of the head; their unusual position in their sockets is then telegraphed in by other nerves of sensation, and this infor- SEPTEMBER 13, 1880.]_ mation has its proper effect upon our intelligent judgments of the position of things about us, and these judgments are the only thing, in the whole process, which we know ourselves to be think- ing about. : What is the nature of the mechanical stimulation which excites the nerves of the semicircular canals under ordinary circum- stances? . Brener produces the motions by making a small incision in the canals, and drawing out the liquid contained in them by a piece of blotting paper. If, when the head is moved, the endo- lymph remained behind for a short time by inertia, and then rubbed against the hairs of the ampulle as it moved forward, that might be a means for producing a sensation in the nerve. This retarded movement can actually be seen to take place in artificial glass tubes, made of the same shape as the semicircular canals, but of a ‘larger size. But when the tubes are made of the same small size as the actual canals, no effect of inertia can be detected. It is not by any means sure that in the real tubes the retardation would not take place, for they differ in many respects from tubes of glass; an actual retardation, moreover, would very naturally explain the illu- sion of an after-motion in the opposite direction which is, under some circumstances, very persistent after a rotation has ceased. Mach, however, considers that changes of pressure are quite suffi- cient to produce the required effect; on calculating their amount he found it to be not so inconsiderable, compared with the energy necessary to affect other organs of sense, as might have been ex- pected. But whether due to changes of pressure, or to rubbing, it is no longer possible to doubt that it is to sensations in the semi- circular canals, for the most part unconscious, that we owe that exact knowledge of how far and in what direction we have turned the head at any moment which is necessary to our safe progress every time we attempt to move about in space. CHRISTINE LADD FRANKLIN. HARVARD OF TO-DAY.1 I THANK you with all my heart for this kind reception; but as I look round me and remember how few there are in this large as- semblage who have not borne the infliction of my lectures, I am abashed to think how widely my weaknesses and shortcomings must be known. It is fortunate for us old teachers that time so far alters the perspective under which the incidents of college life are seen that our mistakes become less prominent, and our devo- tion to truth and duty more evident, as we advance in years. Be- fore another generation has passed, I trust that old Father Time will have dealt as graciously with the college work of to-day as he has with our own weak endeavors in the past; but it has seemed to me that many of her friends have of late been criticising Alma Mater very much in the same spirit which her students showed to their teachers in former times, exaggerating her failures and mini- mizing her successes. In a community of nearly two thousand young men it must be that offences come; and he can have known little of human nature in opening manhood who thinks that by any system of restrictions he can build a wall around the college high enough to keep evil out; and, however much he may dread the conflict, who does not know that no force of character can be at- tained and no manly virtue won except by meeting the enemy and slaying him ? The discreditable stories which have been so widely circulated about our college have brought upon us the scrutiny of a whole army of reporters; and, whatever of truth or of falsehood there may have been in the sensational paragraphs they have published, of this I am sure, that few societies of men, however sacred their object, could have borne the scrutiny as well. When I have indig- nantly repelled the scandals, I have been told that I knew nothing about that phase of college life. Thank God I do know nothing about it; and I am in constant association with hundreds on hun- dreds of young men who know as little about it as Ido. We do not expect to solve the problem of evil at Harvard in this genera- tion ; but there is this very marked difference between the evil influ- ences of to-day and those of only a few years back. Then the evil was everywhere pervasive. The classes were so small that all the members were brought into more or less intimate association, and 1 Address by Josiah Parsons Cooke, LL.D. at the commencement dinner at Har- vard University. on June 26, 1889. SCIP NGE. ; ‘victories won against heavy odds. 185 one could not avoid meeting the hateful forms of vice, however greatly he might be repelled by the sight. Now associations are determined to a far greater extent by mutual tastes and affinities ; the bad influences are confined to a limited class, and the great majority of our students in passing through college see as little of degrading vice as they would at their homes. Several years ago an anxious mother consulted me about send- ing her son to this college. The son was anxious to study in our laboratory, but the mother feared the evil influences of the place. Nevertheless the boy came, as I afterward learned, in consequence of my representations, graduated with highest honors, and is now one of the most promising of the younger members of his profes- sion. The mother followed her son to Cambridge. After she had lived among us for some time, she said to me one day: “I am so much delighted with this place. Things are so different from what I expected. I was told such horrid stories, and not one word of them is‘true.” We have at least one sincere advocate, who has been convinced by experience ; and there are numbers of young men who graduate from Harvard every year as guileless as this earnest woman’s son. My friends, I can assure you that the great danger of our dear college at the present time is not over dissipation, but over work. Sixty thousand dollars cannot be distributed in prizes every year without producing an enormous strain; and those of us who are directing the workers know how intense the activity is. We may know little of the evil around us, but we do know a great deal of the good. We know of lofty purposes and of earnest endeavor. We know of perseverence under great discouragements, and of We know of self-control and of self-devotion. We know of Christian duties habitually practised, and of truth and right manfully upheld; and we maintain that the character of a community of scholars is to be judged by such traits as these, and not by the occasional lapses of its weaker mem- bers. i Moreover, I am not one of those who think that a-man is neces- - sarily condemned because he is born with a gold spoon in his mouth, or that educated leisure is an unmitigated evil. The col- lege has done a good work in educating rich men, and it owes a great part of its present influence to the noble use which many of its alumni have made of inherited wealth. Such men are educated more by association than by direct instruction; and, as a former president of the college once said, they gain something if they merely rub their backs against the college walls; and if this was true in the past, how much more is it true in the present, when the intellectual life of the college is so much more active, the standard of scholarship so much higher, and the opportunities of cultivating special tastes so greatly enlarged. You cannot expect of such men the asceticism of an anchorite, or the plodding diligence of a scholar; but the university owes them an education, and the duties and obligations are not wholly on one side. During the last twenty-five years the life at the university has been rendered safer and more healthy, in every respect, by a greatly increased enthusiasm for learning, which extends to almost every department of this large institution. In no one respect has the improvement in the college been more striking than in this; and probably no officer of the college has had better opportunities of observing the change than myself. For forty years I have lectured to the successive freshman classes, beginning with the class which entered in 1849; and many of the older men around me will re- member the boyish pranks which in their college days not infre- quently amused the class, and greatly tried the temper of the teacher. The lecture was always an up-hill work, —a duty to be enforced on the one side, a task to be endured on the other. The lecturer was always waiting on disturbance, the class always wait- ing on deliverance. Not only was there no general enthusiasm, but the first suspicion of such a thing in a college lecture-room would have been regarded as a dangerous precedent, alike com- promising the dignity of the teacher and violating the traditions of the place. Now, although the classes have so outgrown the ac- commodations that not only all the seats, but all the approaches to my lecture-room, are crowded almost to suffocation, a more orderly, a more attentive, or a more enthusiastic audience cannot be found. This change is due not simply to our elective system, but far more 186 4 to the putting away of those petty restrictions which were formerly a constant menace, and erected an impassable barrier between the teacher and the taught. We no longer, like the Irishman, stand aloof with a chip on the shoulder, and dare any of the boys to knock it off; but we invite confidence, and receive it, and our re- lations with the students is not that of taskmaster and toiler, but that of guide and friend. Had our worthy president done no more than break down that old middle wall of partition, he would for this great feature of his administration alone deserve the everlast- ing gratitude of this community. And let me entreat you, my brethren, not to allow any one to reinstate this wall, or even to lay the first brick in its reconstruction. Most of our sister institutions are struggling with hobbledehoydom still. Only a few day ago, one of our distinguished graduates, and a highly valued professor in another New England college, said to me: “ Cambridge men do not appreciate the advantages they have gained by setting their students free from petty restraints. Treat men as boys and they will act as boys. With us the boyishness first breaks out in the chapel, and then extends to all the class- rooms. It belittles all our work, and dampens all our enthusiasm.” My friends, in an institution of learning like this, you cannot prize too highly the ennobling virtue of enthusiasm. To awaken it is to make the boy aman. To fail to arouse it, at least in something, is to miss the great end of education. But such virtue cannot be had without cost. Enthusiasm implies of necessity freedom ; and who in this New England, after a century’s experience, is not will- ing to incur the risk and pay the cost which freedom entails ? Finally, brethren, while noble character is the crowning grace of education, scholarship is the brightest jewel in this crown; and you may well ask, Has learning kept pace with privilege? But in attempting to answer this question I find myself in the dilemma of the learned commentator who had devoted a chapter to the snakes of Iceland. He could find no snakes, and I can findno comparison. The scholarship of to-day rests on a level so much higher than that of twenty-five years ago, that theré is no common measure. I will confine myself to my own department, of which I have ac- curate knowledge, and of which I may speak unreservedly, because it has so broadened out that only a small part of the instruction now devolves on the director. Besides the very large class, before referred to, which attended the elementary lectures, there were actually working in the chemical laboratory last year more students than were comprised in the whole college of my day, and the contributions to chemical science which will soon be published, as the result of the year’s work of students as well as of teachers, will fill more than one half of the annual volume of our American academy. A recent writer in the Adlantéc Monthly, discussing “ Why our Students go to Europe,” pays us what he evidently regards as a high compliment in saying, “Now the chemical course at Harvard equals that in most German universities.” Our own students who have gone from the labora- tory to study abroad will tell you, as they have told me repeatedly, that, whatever advantages may be gained by association with men of special attainments, there is no University in Germany, or else- where, at which the instruction is at once so broad, so full, and so thorough as at home. How does this compare with recitations from “ Stéckhardt’s Chemistry,” illustrated by popular lectures? Fellow alumni, our attention has been so often and so loudly called of late to the shady side of college life, that, whatever opin- ions you may have formed, I am sure you will not blame me for inviting you on Commencement day to bask for a few minutes in its sunshine. At such a time we can only meet assertion with as- sertion; but I have spoken solely of what I do know, and if any one is not convinced I invite him, following the example of- the anxious mother, to come and dwell among us and partake of our life. Obviously I am no pessimist, but also I am no optimist. The members of this great family are all frail human souls. Evil is ever present with us, as it was with our fathers and will be with our children. We cannot escape the curse. But we have faith in truth and right, and will fight the good fight to the end. ““O yet we trust that somehow good Will be the final goal of ill, To pangs of nature, sins of will, Defects of doubt, and taints of blood.” SCLENGE: - labor unions in the general class of monopolies. [Vor. XIV. No. 345 We all boast the same intellectual parentage. You for the most part have gone out into the world and found a career elsewhere. I am one of the few who have always stayed by the homestead since I was first received into the brotherhood with the Class of 1848. For nearly half a century I have known the dear old Mother as well as a devoted son possibly could; and let me assure my broth- ers who have come home to keep this feast, that during her long life our Alma Mater was never so worthy of our admiration and veneration, of our love and devotion, as she is this day. BOOK-REVIEWS. A Manual of Machine Construction, for Engineers, Draughts- men, and Mechanics. By JOHN RICHARDS. Philadelphia, Lippincott. $5. AN experience in constructive engineering extending over a pe- riod of thirty-five years, in both Europe and America, has admi- rably qualified Mr. Richards for the task of preparing this volume. That the task is well done, will not be doubted by those acquainted with his previous work in the same line, which includes a number of treatises on various mechanical subjects. The book is unique in more than one respect. It is intended to meet the every-day wants of the practical man, in draughting-room or work-shop, and is consequently more a work of direct applica- tion than of theoretical instruction. While concise, as such a book must necessarily be, it nevertheless touches with sufficient detail on many minute points concerning which very little has heretofore been accessible in print. The author states that the preparation of the work was suggested many years ago by the inconvenience of common references such as are required in usual machine prac- tice, and by a belief that some more simple form, adapted directly to use, and confined to those things most commonly dealt with, would be of value. Being made up mainly from the personal ex- perience of the author, reproducing and classifying work already constructed, the book presents in a convenient form material gath- ered in the course of a long and diversified experience, the exact rules formulated in accordance with theoretical considerations be- ing modified to suit the limitations and exigencies of actual prac- tice. A peculiar feature of the book is its make-up, being bound so that it opens at the end of the page instead of at the side, after the manner of a reporter’s note-book, or legal-cap paper; and each alternate page is left blank, for convenience in reference and also to receive notes and original matter. The page titles and numbers are placed at the bottom of the page to facilitate convenience in reference. : The volume is divided into sections on machine design, the transmission of power, steam machinery, hydraulics, and processes and properties, followed by a section devoted to tables and memo- randa of weights and measures; standards for screws, bolts, and nuts; sizes of wood and machine screws ; circumferences and areas of circles; square and cube roots, etc. To engineers and draughts- men engaged in machine design or construction, this book will prove of special value. Monopolies and the People. New York. Putnam. 12°. By CHARLES WHITING BAKER. $1.25. THIS work is an attempt to solve the problems presented by the new form and organization of industry. The author is impressed, as most persons are, by the rapid growth of “trusts” and other combinations of a monopolistic character, and by the evils they sometimes produce; and he here undertakes to furnish a remedy for those evils. He writes in a judicial tone and with an evident de- sire to be fair to all parties. He gives an account of the origin and growth of the combinations known as “trusts,” with other chap- ters on monopolies in minerals and transportation, placing also the He regards them all as natural outgrowths of existing industrial conditions, and while he acknowledges that they are in some respects beneficial, he is especially impressed with the abuses that attend them. So far his readers will probably agree.with him; but when he comes to state the remedies for the evils he speaks of, we, at least, are obliged to dissent. He holds that the true remedy for monopoly is SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.] . not abolition but control, and the control he advocates involves what we should call a violent interference by the state with all the operations of industry. For instance, he proposes that the United States shall buy up all the railroads in the country, paying for them with three per cent bonds, and then lease them to private companies. All fares and freight tariffs are to be fixed by gov- ernment commissioners, and the government is also to have a share in the directorship of the companies. Mining and gas com- panies are to be treated in a similar way, but on the subject of “manufacturing monopolies Mr. Baker speaks with more hesitation, the principal measure he proposes being a requirement that all such associations as the “trusts” shall sell to all persons at the same price. Such are his remedies for the evils of monopoly; but to our mind they involve altogether too great an interference with the natural course of industry, and we believe the American people will agree with us in this opinion. New laws will doubtless be needed to remedy. the abuses that Mr. Baker has here set forth; but such a widespread interference with industry as he advocates would, we feel sure, result disastrously. 4 AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. BERGER’S “French Conversations, Idiomatic Expressions, and Proverbs” (New York, F. Berger) has reached a fiftth edition. — Macmillan & Co. will publish early in the fall a revised edi- tion of Mr. Alfred Austin’s poem, “The Human Tragedy,” which will contain likewise a prefatory essay on “The Present Position and Prospects of Poetry.” $ —J. Maisonnenve, publisher and bookseller, of 25 Quai Voltaire, Paris, has issued a catalogue of rare and valuable works relating to America, in which attention is specially called to the “ Letter of Christopher Columbus announcing the discovery of the New World,” in the original Spanish text, first edition. SCIENCE. 187 — Cassell & Company have just ready Max O’Rell’s new book, “Jacques Bonhomme,” a lively description of French manners and’ customs, to which is added “ John Bull on the Continent” and “From my Letter-Box.” —lLee & Shepard have ready “ Observation Lessons in the Primary Schools,” by Louisa P. Hopkins, a manual for teachers, presenting practical methods for teaching elementary science to the young. —A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, will publish shortly, “ Fact,. Fancy, and Fable,” by H. F. Reddall, a work of comprehensive and cyclopedic character, presenting concise information on a great variety of subjects. —The publishers of S¢. Wzcholas announce that that popular children’s magazine is to be enlarged, beginning with the new vol- ume, which opens with November, 1889, and that a new and: clearer type will be adopted. — During the coming volume 7he Century is to have an illus-- trated series of articles on the French salons of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, including pen portraits of many of the leaders and a detailed account of the organization and composition of several historical salons. A great number of interesting por- traits will be given with the series. — Houghton, Mifflln & Co. have published in the series of American Statesmen “ Benjamin Franklin,” by John T. Morse, Jun., the editor of the series and author of the volumes on John Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and John Quincy Adams; “ Recollec- tions of Mississippi,’ by Hon. Reuben Davis, a graphic description. of life in the South for the half century before the civil war; ‘ Lit- erary Landmarks,” a guide to good reading for young people, by Mary E. Burt, Teacher of Literature in the Cook County Normal School at Englewood, Ill., with charts; and Part iv. of the Child’s. “ English and Scottish Popular Ballads.” IBONGMANS, GREEN v& CO; NEW SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. Physical Realism : being an Analytical Philosophy from the Physical Ob- * jects of Science to the Physital Data of Sense. By THomas Cass, M.A., Fellow and Senior Tutor C.C.C, Oxford. 8vo, $5.00. ‘Mr. Case has here placed before the public a theory which is in many respects strikingly new, and in all conscientiously worked out. . . . We desire to say that this book is one that ought to be read, and the theory, as here presented, must be con- sidered by all serious students of these matters.’’—Saturday Review. Force and Energy : a Theory of Dynamics. By Grant ALLEN. 8vo, $2.25. ‘““ Written with extreme lucidity. . . . We can safely assure our readers that, what- ever view they may take, they will find*Mr. Allen’s book pleasant and profitable read- ing.” —Engineer. A Text-Book of Elementary Biology. By R. J. Harvey Grpson, M.A..F.R.S.E., Lecturer on Botany in University College, Liverpool. Crown 8vo, $1.75. “¢ As a text-book of elementary biology it is one of the best that has ever been pub- lished. The typography and general execution of the book leave nothing to be de- sired.”’—Science. The Fundamental Principles of Chemistry Practically Taught by a New Method. By Roserr Gattoway, M.R.I.A., F.C.S., Hon. Member of the Chemical Society of Lehigh University, etc. With 71 Wood- cuts and 729 Exercises and Answers. Crown 8vo, $1.75. A Hand-Book of Cryptogamic Botany. By Atrrep W. BENNETT, M.A., B.Sc., F L.S., Lecturer on Botany at St. Thomas’s Hospital ; and GEorGE Murray, F.L S., Senior Assistant Department of Botany, British Museum. With 378 Illustrations. 8vo, $5.00. No general hand-book of Cryptogamic Botany has appeared in the English Lan guage since Berkeley’s, published in 1857._ The present volume gives descriptions of all classes and more important orders of Cryptogams, including all the most recent discoveries and observations. Electricity for Public Schools and Colleges. By W. Larpen, M.A., author of ‘‘ A School Course in Heat,’’ in use at Rugby, Clifton, Cheltenham, Bedford, Birmingham, King’s College, London, and in other Schools and Col leges. With ars Illustrations and a Series of Examination Papers with Answers. r12mo, $1.75. Astronomy for Amateurs: a Practical Manual of Telescopic Research adapted to Moderate Instruments. Edited by J. A. Westwoop OLIVER, with the assistance of Messrs. MAauNpDeR, Gruss, Gore, DENNING, FRANKS, ELGER, BurNuHAM, Capron. BACKHOUSE, and others. With Illustrations. 12mo, $2.25. ‘“ The book supplies a real need.”,—Stdereal Messenger. Modern Theories of Chemistry. By Prof. LorHar Meyer. Translated from the fifth edition of the German by P. Puitiies Bepson, D.Sc., Lond., B.Sc., Vict., F.C.S., Professor of Chemistry, Durham College of Science, Newcastle-on- Tyne, and W. CarLeton WILLIAMS, B.Sc., Vict., F.C.S., Professor of Chemistry, Firth College, Sheffield. 8vo, $5.50. NEW MEeDICAT, BOOKS. e The Diseases of Children. Medical and Surgical. By Henry Asusy, M.D., Lond., M.R.C.P., Physician to the General Hospital for Sick Children, Manchester ; and G. A. Wricut, B.A.. M.B., Oxon., F.R.C.S., Eng., Assistant Surgeon to the Manchester Royal Infirmary, and Surgeon to the Child- ren’s Hospital. With 138 Illustrations. 8vo, pp. xx-681. Cloth, $6.00. Lectures on Pathological Amatomy. By Samuet Witxs, M.D., F.R.S., Consulting Physician to Guy’s Hospital, and the late WatreR Moxon, M.D., F.R.C.P., Lecturer on Pathology at Guy’s Hospital. Third edition, thoroughly revised. By Samuet Wirxs, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. 8vo. $6.00. The Diagnosis and Treatment of Diseases of Women, includ- ing the Diagnosis of Pregnancy. By Gramy Hewitt, M.D. Fourth edition, in great part rewritten and much enlarged, with 211 Engravings on Wood, of which 79 are new in this edition. 8vo, $6.00. A Short Manual of Surgical Operations: Having Special Reference to many of the Newer Procedures. By ARTHUR E. J. BARKER, F.R.C.S., Pro- fessor of Surgery and Pathology at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. With 61 Woodcuts in the Text. Crown 8vo, $3.25. Notes on Physiology, for the Use of Students preparing for Examination. New (fifth) edition. With 137 Woodcuts. By Henry Asusy, M.D., Lond. Fcp., 8vo, $1.50. Wand-Book on Diseases of the Skin. By Ropert Liverne, M.A., and M.D., Cantab., F.R.C.P., Lond., etc., Physician to the Department for Dis- eases of the Skin at Middlesex Hospital. With Especial Reference to Diagnosis and Treatment. Fifth edition (1888), revised and enlarged. Fcp., 8vo, $1.50. NEW MEDICAL AND SCIENCE CATALOGUES SENT UPON APPLICATION. For sale by all Booksellers. Sent on receipt of price by the Publishers. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO., t5 E. 16th Street, New York. 188 — Harper & Brothers have just ready “‘ A History of the Kansas Crusade: its Friends and its Foes,” by Eli Thayer, who planned and organized the movement by which Kansas was made a free State, with an introduction by Edward Everett Hale, a fellow- worker with Mr. Thayer in the emigration cause; and “Man and His Maladies,’ a popular handbook of physiology and domestic medicine, by A. E. Bridger. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. * *Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. Twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished Sree to any correspondent on request. The Law of Population in the United States. PURSUING the investigation of the law of population, we come to a question of importance in an economical and ethnographic view. What is to be the relative progress in numbers of the Cau- casian and the African races here ? The late revolution in Hayti has led to the publication in the ' daily press of America of so many concise abstracts from the his- tory of that African republic as to make it familiar to all who in- terest themselves in these matters. It is to be regretted that the progress of regulated liberty in that island has not, in a century, been greater. It is a prevailing belief that with us the African in- creases faster than the Caucasian. The figures of the census during a hundred years do not confirm this opinion. We find that while the whites since 1790 have increased on the average in each decade by 33.46 per cent, the blacks have gained in the same time only 26.81 per cent. SCIENCE: [VoL. XIV. No. 345 Applying these rates to the present numbers we may forecast the Zosszble, if not the probable, population, during the next cen- tury as follows :— Year. Total population. African descent. Proportions. 1890 67,240,000............. 85000; 000 kceiefelel leletelsiers 8 tor 1900 89,738,000.... . 10,144,000 Igt0 . 119,650,000... « . 12,862,000 1920 - 159,890,000... SoCMLE OS HAI coc bosacoone 10 ‘fy 1930 - 213,320,000... « --20,681,000 1940 - 284,697,000.... [ae 205223000 rele eisiers ciate sie mm Os 1950 379,960,000........ + «33,252,000 IQ60\-eteicisiee « 507,090,000....... Blate4 2500350 OO ete eteietele tale toteta ney UN re 1970 676,760,000... 53,463,000 1980 .. 903,200,000... -.67,790,000 LQQOH se eet .1206,400,000..........--- SEA EPOOOscodans00D000 wy On The reader can draw his own inferences from these significant figures. We only say that in 1940 and thereafter this country will not be able to offer free space and citizenship and suffrage for the surplus overflowing of China, to a race which does not assimilate with us, and which is pagan; and that it is time to discontinue the complaint that the Chinese exclusion act was mere demagogism. In the light of these figures, it was the highest statesmanship. The importation of native Africans ceased by the Constitution in 1808, though it is alleged that a few fanatics imported cargoes later. But practically the forced importation ceased then. There never has been any voluntary immigration from Africa. Both Malthus, in 1794, and Alison, in 1840, held that the popu- lation of the United States after 1640 doubled every twenty-three and a half years. This rate has continued to 1890, for two hun- dred and fifty years. M. C. MEIGS. Washington, D.C., Sept. 2. INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Comparison of different Street Car Systems. BEING continually requested by street railroad men to furnish them with a statement of the cost of equipment and operation of a road by means of storage battery traction, and also how the cost of this method of traction ‘will compare with other systems, the Julien Electric Traction Company of this city have made a com- parison of the four methods available to-day for street-car propul- sion in large cities,— horses, storage batteries, electric conduit, and cable. The estimates and comparisons, it is claimed, have been carefully prepared, and special attention has been given to obtain good authority for statements, mostly from roads having the differ- ent systems in actual operation. The estimates are based on a medium-sized road running on the headway generally employed in cities, trying, as far as possible, to cover roads operating under ‘such different circumstances as are found in different localities. The company mainly aim to treat the subject as applied to cities. They have not included figures on the overhead system as they consider them barred from operating in that field, owing to the necessity of the presence of overhead electric conductors, and the growing sentiment in all communities against the erection of poles. As regards the Julien system, the figures show the results .of two years’ experience on the Fourth and Madison Avenue line in this city. The estimates are based on a road six miles long, double track, operating sixty cars, running eight miles an hour by mechanical, .and six miles an hour by animal traction, running on one and one- half minutes headway, and eighty-four miles a day in the former, and on two minutes headway, sixty miles a day, in the latter case, allowing nine horses toa car. The item of building and land is not included, as they differ so widely in different cities and localities. According to the figures given, the cost of constructing and equipping such a road, on the Julien storage battery system, would be $491,500, or, if the current were taken from a central lighting station, $419,000; the same road constructed and equipped for a \horse railroad, $229,620; as a cable road, $1,076,000; as a conduit .electric road, $762,000. The annual running expenses under the different systems would be as follows. Julien system, eighty-four miles a day per car, with electric plant, $99,206, being $4.52 per .car-day, or .053 of a cent per car-mile; same system, using current from a lighting station, $113,330, being $5.17 per car-day, or .o61 of a cent per car-mile; horse traction, sixty miles a day per car, $129,562.20, being $5.91 per car-day, or .o98 of a cent per car- mile; cable road, eighty-four miles a day per car, $163,712.50, be- ing $7.47 per car-day, or .o89 of a cent per car-mile ; electric con- duit system, eighty-four miles a day per car, $111,157.50, being $5.07 per car-day, or .o6 of a cent per car-mile. . Carhart-Clark Standard Cells. In last week’s Sczence appeared an abstract of a paper on an improved form of Clark standard cell read before the American Association for the Advancement of Science by Professor H. S. Carhart of the University of Michigan, vice-president of the Phys- ical Section of the association. We add a few points relating to the special features of this cell and its mounting for commercial and scientific purposes, as sold by James W. Queen & Co., Phila- delphia, who have the exclusive handling and sale of it. This cell embodies several new and important features, chief among which are its low temperature coefficient and safety in transportation. These features are secured by the methods of Professor Carhart, devised after a series of investigations extend- ing over nearly three years. The change of electromotive force produced by a temperature change of a few degrees is practically negligible except in scientific work of the greatest accuracy. The coefficient is only 0.038 per cent per degree C. This is somewhat less than one-half the coefficient of Lord Rayleigh’s form, for which he found a value ranging from 0.077 per cent to 0.082 per cent per degree. Almost absolute safety in transportation is se- cured by confining the mercury to the bottom of the cell, thus pre- cluding the possibility of its reaching the zinc and short-circuiting the cell, no matter how violently it may be shaken. This process presents the additional advantage of increasing the electromotive force about 0.35 per cent above the old form, and of preventing lo- cal action, by which very serious changes took place in the old form of the cell on open circuit. Greater uniformity and constancy, it is believed, result from this method of making a cell. Another well-marked characteristic of these new cells is their remarkable uniformity. This is due to great care in the prepara- tion of the salts and standard solutions, and to the absolute clean- liness observed in every part of the cell. In the Clark cell, as made by Lord Rayleigh, the mercury salt always turned from its normal white to a canary yellow on mixing with the zinc sulphate, a change probably due to the presence of mercuric salt. In this SEPTEMBER 13, 1889.]. new form the salts remain white if they are kept out of the light, mo change whatever in color appearing on mixing the mercurous sulphate with the zinc sulphate. This result is secured by the greatest care in making the mercury salt. It is found that a mer- curous sulphate can be made so free from the mercuric form that it does not turn yellow when all the acid is washed out. Professor Carhart says, in a letter to Queen & Co. of July 8, 1889, ‘Sent you six new standard Clark cells, numbers 106, 107, 108, 109, I10, 111. The extreme difference between these cells when only four days old was only 0.0006 of the electromotive force of the cell, and they were still approaching one another. There was a difference of only 0.0003 between five of these, and only ©,0001 between four of them.” Again, referring to six cells, not made in the latest secure form for transportation, which were sent by express from Ann Arbor, Mich., to Queen & Co.’s laboratory in Philadelphia, and returned to Ann Arbor, a journey of over fourteen hundred miles, he writes, ‘‘ After letting the cells rest thirty-six hours I am much gratified to find that their extreme differ- ence from one another is only 0.08 per cent, and the average of the six cells is only 0.08 per cent lower than my standards kept here.” These are remarkable results from such a severe test as this, but the latest form will make a still better record. A new process of sealing the cell is also employed. Marine glue, which was recommended by Lord Rayleigh as a sealing mate- rial, always gave trouble to secure a firm hold on glass and to prevent air bubbles from being inclosed to such an extent as to greatly weaken the seal. Its viscosity was also such that any small internal pressure, due to heat or the generation of a little gas, was liable to force the cell open. With the new compound employed the closure remains perfectly firm, and forms an entirely satisfac- tory hermetic sealing. . These cells are all set up by Professor Carhart in the physical laboratory of the University of Michigan, and are furnished with his personal certificate, giving the electromotive force of the cell, its temperature coefficient, and guaranteeing each cell “ provided mo current greater than 0.00002 ampére be passed through it, and provided it be subjected to no violent mechanical strain or jar.” With even a larger current than the above, these cells show no polarization whatever in five minutes, and with ten thousand ohms external resistance a polarization of only 0.01 per cent is observed in this time. The cell recovers from this small polarization, which is less than the usual accidental differences between different cells, in five minutes or less. The errors arising from ignorance of the exact temperature of the cell are greater than any liable to occur from polarization. To guard against accidental short-cir- cuiting, Queen & Co. are mounting a graphite resistance of about twenty thousand ohms in circuit with the cell and inside the case which incloses it. These cells are mounted in handsomely finished brass cases, 32 inches high and 2% inches in diameter, with an en- graved hard rubber top, giving the number of the cell correspond- ing with the certificate, indicating the positive and negative poles, and having a hole for the insertion of a thermometer to ascertain the temperature in the inside of the cell. Batteries of these cells, in any number desired can be mounted if required. Boissier Dynamos for Plating and Lighting. THE dynamos shown in the accompanying illustrations possess some features of novelty, invented and patented by Mr. Herman Boissier, electrician of the Arnoux & Hochhausen Electric Com- pany of this city. The aim of the inventor was to produce a dy- namo of low first cost, not liable to get out of order, and so simple in construction that it would require no more attention than could be given it by any workman of average intelligence in plating or electrotyping establishments. The favor with which the machines have been received and the flattering testimonials of those who use them would seem to indicate that the dynamos approximate very closely to the inventor’s ideal. The machine shown in Fig. 1 occupies a floor space of only six- teen by twenty-six inches, and weighs about a hundred and thirty- five pounds, of which only about thirty-five pounds are copper. It furnishes current for twenty-five sixteen-candle-power lamps, or a proportionate current of lower voltage when wound for plating purposes. Owing to the peculiar method of winding the armature, SCIENCE: ve 189 there are only four sections to the commutator. Fig. 2 shows a form of dynamo made specially for use in electrotyping establish- ments, and furnishing a current of very low voltage. The field FIG, 1.—BOISSIER DYNAMO. coils are composed of copper ribbons alternating with ribbons of insulating material. The armature, shown in Fig. 3, is composed of heavy copper bars passing round a cylinder of insulated soft FIG. 2.— BOISSIER DYNAMO. iron wire. All insulating material on the armature is fire-proof, so that it is impossible that the armature should ever burn out. Two of these dynamos are in use in the government printing office at FIG. 3.— ARMATURE OF PLATING DYNAMO. Washington, in the electrotyping department, where they have a record of three hundred ounces of copper deposited in two hours, using one machine only. They are manufactured by the Arnoux & Hochhausen Electric Company. 190 Exchanges. [Exchanges are inserted for subscribers free of charge. yon N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York “T wish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’’—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Davenport, Lowa. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida. —Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 1oo botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. specimens and curiosities for the same. spoudence solicited. —E. E. BoGue, Orwell, County, O Scientific corre- Ashta. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg Also cabinet j SCIENCE, (Vor. XIV. No. 345 (author ‘‘ Young Fossil—Hunters”’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4X5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one *new model ”’ double dry-plate holder (4" X 5 *), for fine geological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- fied. — Charles E. Frick, ro1g West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and plants—to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils,” etc.—Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lepidoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East r4rst Street, New | York, N.Y. A few first-class mounted birds for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets. —J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. Wants. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for ScIENCE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. IGHTNING. — Concise descriptions of the effects of lightning discharges are de- sired. State whether the object struck was pro- vided with a lightning rod, the character of the rod, and the way in which it was set up. Be- ginning at the top, describe briefly the effects. State whether there was any smoke or dust raised, and whether there was any odor. Any reports of recent and of especially interesting discharges will be published in Scéence.—Sci- ence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™,to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CIry: N. J. Please Mention ‘‘Science,’” GUARANTY INVESTMENTCOMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres't. 7, Guaranteed Farm Mortgages J} ! gag The Company calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : I. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers’ & Traders’ National Zone New York. ae section where the farm is located. Ill. MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. IV. Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. V. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm Products. Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the general development of the An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM™ The Exhibition at the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the HJ/GHEST AWARD of superiority. Vi. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report for 1888, HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. SEPTEMBER 13, 1889. | SeMINCE: & C, ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. 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You may add to my regular order five copies of SCIENCE A TEMPORARY BINDER for Science is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - 75 cents. This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others. and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind- ing. Filed in this binder, Sczence is always conv enient for reference. £= N.D.C. HODGES, BINDER 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y PATENTS. WM. H. BABCOCK, Solicitor of U.S patents, 513 Seventh St., W ashington, D GS 220. Formerly assistant examiner U.S. Patent Office years’ practice. Attorney’s fees may be made pay on allowance for U.S. applications received before Ja ary 1st, 1880. Write for further information. Readers of Science Corresponding 7% with or visiting Advertisers will confer a great favor by m entioning the paper. il SCRENGE: [VoLt. X1V. No. 345 The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. ASSETS - - - §$126,082,153 56 The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 Exceeded $103,000,900. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including JN epi 1 ASSES Ologde sodcgoxecadsunccre os oocKr $ 7,275,301 68 A gain im income Of... 2.222222 2222-2. een: 3,096,010 06 A gain in new premiums of .....--. ......--+++5 2,333,406 00 A gain in surplus of........-----.-+.-------. +++: 1,645,622 11 A gain in new business of.....-.--...+..--+ 0-00: 335750,792 85 A gain of risks in force......---.+-++++---+07-: 54,496,251 85 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF E,&H.T.ANTHONY &CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus, Schools. Connecticut, New Haven, ME: CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to application Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. arl necessary. MicuHiGan, HoueutTon. WI ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., New York, OranGe Co., FLoripa. HE LEONARD INSTITUTE, for both sexes, Florida, Orange Co., N. Y., reopens Sept. 11. Eight young ladies, or misses Sugar > and Carbonic acid But alcohol takes the place of water. In the face of the wide dif- ference between the actions of water and alcohol on humanity, it may seem absurd to say that the final products bear any resem- blance to the original. Yet, in spite of the physiological difference, the chemical relation of alcohol to water may be summed up in the statement that alcohol is water in which one of the two hydrogen atoms are replaced by a group of carbon and hydrogen atoms, HG aletao” yo, NEN to soca oadoRsoboDEeuauaS lah Oval Picohol........-- 2... eee. C,H,. OH Nature does not, however, desire to flood the world with alcohol, for she very quickly transforms it, by aid of a countless army of SCIENCE. [Vou. XIV. No. 346 minute living organisms, into vinegar; and thence, in turn, she passes back to what she started from,—to water and carbonic acid. So the cycle of changes runs on; in all stages it is always proceeding. ; The conversion of common sugar is not so direct. Cane sugar must drink water before it can form alcohol. But the draught of water acts on it chemically, and converts this form of sugar into two others, one of which is uncrystallizable. When the sugar be- comes thirsty at the temperature of the West Indies, it absorbs water with greater eagerness, and as a result a quantity of mo- Jasses or treacle is formed. f The older method of extracting the sugar — and in future in this paper the word will be used in its commercial sense only — was to take the canes which had been cut off as near the roots as possible and stripped of their leaves, and to crush them. From the crushed canes the juice exuded. This juice held in solution, besides the sugar, various substances of an albuminoid nature containing nitro- gen, and of mineral bodies chiefly that phosphate of lime (Ca,2PO,) which is obtained from bones. The object of the process is to remoye these foreign substances, so as to have command of a comparatively pure solution of sugar in water. The albuminoids must be removed as quickly as possible, for they soon begin to as- sert their presence by causing fermentation in a manner analogous. somewhat to yeast. The plan adopted is to collect the juice in large tanks, and then to add a small quantity of lime. The liquor is next heated to a suitable temperature; a thick scum forms on the surface. When it is considered that this coagulation of the albuminous substances has proceeded far enough, the clear liquor is drawn off from below. From this solution the manufacturer desires to obtain as much sugar as possible by crystallization. He therefore boils off the water quickly in open copper vessels, and in- cidentally improves the purity of his product by removing such scum as may form. The thick sirup which remains is run into coolers and allowed to stand until no more sugar-crystals separate. Finally he places the magma of crystals, and the mother-liquor from which the sugar has separated, into casks with perforated bottoms. The uncrystallizable thick brown viscid mother-liquor | which draws away is the common molasses or treacle which is chiefly used in the manufacture of rum. ; The process which has been thus outlined is far from being economically perfect. In fact, it is extravagant and wasteful. To begin with, the mechanical contrivances generally used by the colonial sugar-planter for crushing his canes are not perfect: he might obtain more juice from a given weight of cane. A some- what recent invention seems to have a future before it in this direc- tion. The principle is very simple and well known. It utilizes the fact that a body, when rapidly whirled around, will fly off tangen- tially unless restrained. The machinery is here so arranged that the juice may escape, but the solid pulp is restrained, and at the end of the operation is left in a dry condition. However, the most serious defect of the above process arises in the actual manner of working up the comparatively pure sugar solution. Above it was said that the manufacturer rapidly boiled off the water ; of course economy of time is an element. to be con- sidered. Allowing, then, that the water is removed quickly, it may seem at first sight that the process is excellent. But as a factat is very wasteful. Why it should be so will be understood by realiz- ing the fact that at the temperature used the water is not merely evaporated, but that some enters into combination with the cane sugar and converts it into grape sugar, as given above, and in the final result a large proportion of molasses is formed. So the ques- tion has been considered whether it is possible to remove this water under such conditions as will prevent, or at least diminish, the chemical change. The answer has been an affirmative one. The liquor, instead of being concentrated by boiling down under at- mospheric pressure, is now heated in vessels from which the air can be exhausted. Consequently, according to the well-known connection between the temperature at which water boils and the pressure on its surface, the temperature of ebullition in a vacuum will be much lower than in air; the sugar solution will thus be kept while concentrating at temperatures below that at which it readily drinks water, and becomes in part uncrystallizable. At the present time the colonial sugar manufacturer is proving SEPTEMBER 20, 18809. |’ himself to bea man of strong conservative habits, and very slow to recognize the great practical improvements which have taken place. But the day must come, and that quickly, when the exigencies of competition will lead him to adopt artificial advantages which have proved of service to the continental producer of sugar from beet- root. Then, perchance, the prediction of the Brazilian commission, quoted in the former article, will be verified. The methods employed for the extraction of the raw sugar from the beet are practically the same as for raw cane sugar; but the impulses towards change and improvement, and the necessity for the rapid evolution of more economic manipulation of details, have led to the foregoing inventions. One new process, however, has been invented which so strikes at the root of the old process that it merits a description by itself. Instead of crushing the beet-root to a pulp, and then extracting the sugar juice together with albuminoid and gummy matters, it aims at removing the sugar without these foreign substances, and so avoids the subsequent labor for their removal. The beet is cut into slices, and these are washed with water. It is claimed that the sugar diffuses out through the walls of the unbroken cells, whereas the albuminoids and the gummy matters of far greater molecular complexity cannot so escape. When the washing is carried out systematically, the process works exceedingly well. Again, the principle of this improvement, like those which underlie the others, is quite old. The walls of the unbroken cells are per- forated with fine pores. The particles of sugar can pass through, but the bulky albuminoid aggregates cannot pass. It is like a sieve at work on a minute scale: sugar for the fine gravel, albu- minoids for the stones, gummy matters for the lumps of clay, and the minute pores for the holes of the sieve. The originality con- sists in the application. The same plan has been used over and over again to detect arsenic in a viscous mixture of substances ; _ the mixture is merely boiled with dilute hydrochloric acid, and then floated on a parchment membrane on a vessel of water, the arsenic passes through into the water, and the filth with which it was mixed remains behind. This diffusion-process, which thus owes its birth to the experiments of the Englishman Graham, is much “used on the continent, and its applicability to the production of sugar from the sorgho grass is a source of confidence to those who are trying to develop this new American industry. The sugar trade at this moment watches with interest the practical experiments which are now being made, with, as far as can be judged at present, satisfactory results on its application to the extraction from the sugar-cane. Even in Japan an effort has been made to utilize it, and the government have aided the industry by a bounty, and have, it is said, a considerable share in a large manufactory which is now being floated; here, too, the Japanese evince their keenness in adopting Western inventions, and even in extending European ideas. i But the manufacture of sugar does not end with the production of raw sugar; in England it commenced with the raw sugar. The refining of sugar chiefly consists in the removal of the color- ing matter which adheres to the small crystals of the raw sugar, and the casting of the purified crystals into moulds. The same processes are applied both to the raw material from the cane sugar, which is pleasant to the taste, and to that from the beet, which smells unpleasantly and is uneatable. The method is the same as a chemist would adopt, who, in the course of an investigation, pre- pared a substance which he wanted in a state of perfect purity. The sugar is dissolved, and the solution filtered to remove me- chanical impurities. The solution by its tint shows the presence of coloring matter, which is removed by filtering through animal charcoal, when it will filter from the charcoal in a colorless condi- tion. It is a curious experiment to shake a wine-glass of port wine with some finely divided animal charcoal; after filtering, the wine is obtained as colorless as water, but it completely preserves all its characteristic properties of taste unaltered. The colorless solution of sugar is then concentrated in a vacuum pan until of the right strength for rapid crystallization. To ascertain this point, the workman places a drop between his finger and thumb, and tests into what length of thread it can be drawn. If the right strength has been reached, some cold unboiled solution is added. Crystals at once appear. Ifthe sugar is finally to be cast in loaves, the SCIENCE. ably for each individual. 203 conditions are so adjusted as only to produce small crystals. The mixture of crystals and sirup is then heated to within thirty or forty degrees of the boiling point of water, and poured into the iron moulds of the familiar shape. At the apex of the mould there: is an aperture which when unplugged allows the sirup to drain away. Finally, the remaining traces of sirup are removed by al- lowing a quantity of fine colorless sirup to percolate through the loaf. After the loaf has been subsequently dried and turned in a lathe, it is ready for the market. Thus, then, the production of sugar is completed. The plants. utilize the waste products of animal existence, and work their wonderful chemical transformations. Man gathers wealth from these storehouses of nature, and exercises his ingenuity in obtain- ing as much as possible. So the history of a lump of sugar con- tains the story of how plants work, and how mankind inherits their . store by aid of labor both of mind and body. HEALTH MATTERS. Weight of the Body in Typhoid-Fever. Dr. L. H. CoHIN has published a thesis in which he sets forth the daily variations in the weight of patients in typhoid-fever. This publication is the result of studies pursued in Cochin Hospital, where, by a skilful contrivance, successive series of patients were carefully weighed every day, and the weight recorded on their charts, from the beginning to the end of the fever. The observations of Dr. Cohin, as given in the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, show that the loss of weight varies consider- With some it was two hundred grams. a day: this was the minimum. With others it was five hundred grams: this was the maximum. The mean of nine observations. gives four hundred grams of Joss per day; but on taking mild cases, free from complication, the mean fell to three hundred and twenty grams, which represents the daily loss in typhoid-fever of average intensity. The mean of the daily gain, when convales- cence was established, was two hundred and eighty grams. The maximum of loss of weight corresponded to the end of the second week, or the beginning of the third. In reviewing the researches on the causes of the loss of weight in typhoid patients, the writer establishes the fact that the febricitant lives at the expense of his own substance. The conclusions of these studies are as follows: (1) Typhoid- fever presents two distinct periods, one of loss and one of gain; certain accidental causes may modify them, but cannot affect their general character. (2) The daily loss is due to febrile combustion chiefly, and but little to abstinence. (g) The daily loss varies with individuals. (4) The losses in nitrogen and in weight are almost parallel with the march of the temperature, without always following it exactly. (5) The study of the weight-chart may aid in prognosis, a continual rise in the weight being a sign of convales- cence. (6) The complications of the disease augment the loss of weight. (7) The study of the loss of weight enables the physi- ~ cian to determine with precision the action of nutritive substances. in fevers. (8) The loss of weight in a typhoid patient takes place: each day in a uniform manner. HEALTH IN THE.FRENCH ARMY. — According to the official report of the French minister of war, the mortality among the French troops has fallen from twelve to eight per thousand dur- ing the last year. From 1875 to 1887 there have occurred 141,648 cases of typhoid-fever, and 21,116 deaths. The percentage of this disease has materially decreased of late, owing tothe attention that is being paid to pure water-supply in the barracks. The value of vaccination is proved by the fact that the number of small-pox cases has fallen from 1,042 to 242, and these were mostly among recruits. NEW METHOD OF PRECIPITATING SEWAGE.—The problem of the disposal of the sewage of large towns has long defied the efforts of sanitary engineers to cope with it in a satisfactory manner. A new method of sterilizing and precipitating sewage has just been brought out, which, it is claimed, accomplishes all that can be required of it at as little cost as any such system can be worked. The method has been put in practice experimentally at 204 the Wimbledon Sewage Works, England. The principle underly- ing this plan of dealing with sewage is the employment of “amine” salts in combination with milk of lime. At Wimbledon, herring brine is used, and on mixing with the lime a very soluble gaseous re-agent is evolved, to which the inventor has given the name of “amerinol.” This re-agent possesses a peculiar briny odor, and when introduced into sewage is said rapidly to extirpate all micro- ‘organisms capable of causing putrefaction or disease. The effect is almost instantaneous. By the action of the lime, violent floccu- lation is caused, and subsidence takes place in about half an hour, the putrid smell of the sewage being replaced by the peculiar briny ‘odor. According to Dr. Klein, the destruction of micro-organisms is absolute. The total cost per annum of treating London sewage by this method is put at $625,000. Should the residue prove to possess any value for agricultural purposes, its sale would tend still further to reduce the expense. VACCINATION IN JAPAN. — Vaccination, according to Medzcac Vews, has been obligatory for some years in Japan, and every in- fant is required by the police to be vaccinated. The value of the procedure is, however, well recognized by the people themselves, and the government hospitals in every town are always thronged with applicants on the weekly ‘vaccination day.” In 1886 there were 1,531 vaccinations to each 10,000 inhabitants. BOOK-REVIEWS. Benjamin Franklin. By JOHN T. MORSE, Jun. ton, Mifflin, & Co. 12°. $1.25. THIs is the latest issue in the American Statesmen Series, and is well worthy of its place. It treats Franklin exclusively as a statesman, his scientific discoveries being only incidentally alluded to, and his business life very slightly sketched. His early years, too, are passed quickly over, the author thinking that Franklin himself has recounted his early life so admirably that no one else can successfully deal with it. Accordingly, with the third chapter we find our hero despatched on his first mission to England, and all the rest of the book is devoted exclusively to his public ser- vices. Mr. Morse shows perfect mastery of his subject, and his style is clear, refined, and dignified; and these qualities make the book interesting throughout. His account of Franklin’s labors in England is sufficiently full, and shows why in the main they failed. The dispute between the people of Pennsylvania and the proprie- taries of the province was one that could not be settled, and in fact was not settled, until the people had the entire government in their hands. But Franklin’s efforts on behalf of Pennsylvania first, and afterwards of all the Colonies, form a very interesting chapter of American history, which is well set forth in this book. The most important of Franklin’s public services, however, were rendered in the capacity of minister to France, and it is-this part of his work that Mr. Morse has most elaborately treated. Frank- lin’s labors were by no means confined to securing the alliance of France, but included also the difficult task of borrowing, or beg- ging, money in France and everywhere else where it could be got, together with a great variety of services besides. He had fora time two colleagues, but neither was of much use, while one was a mischief-maker of the first order, so that the whole burden virtu- ally fell upon Franklin; and Mr. Morse probably does not exag- gerate when he affirms that Franklin’s services to the national cause were only less arduous and important than those of Wash- ington. With regard to the character of his hero, our author expresses himself with some enthusiasm. “ Intellectually,” he maintains, “there are few men who are Franklin’s peers in all the ages and nations. . . . He illustrates humanity in an astonishing multiplicity of ways at an infinite number of points. He, more than any other, seems to show us how many-sided our human nature is.” This may be somewhat exaggerated, but it is substantially true ; for few men in history have been great at once in such widely separated departments as politics, science, and literature. With regard to his moral character, Mr. Morse, while not extenuating his faults, prefers to dwell on his excellences, which were undeniably of a high order. “Asa patriot, none surpassed him,” and “the chief Boston, Hough- SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 346 motive of his life was to promote the welfare of mankind.” “It is not worth while to deify him, or to speak with extravagant rever- ence, as if he had neither faults nor limitations. Yet it seems un- gracious to recall those concerning one who did for his fellow-men so much as Franklin did. Moral, intellectual, and material boons he conferred in such abundance that few such benefactors of the race can be named, though one should survey all the ages.” This is high praise, but it is in the main well deserved; and now, when disinterested patriotism is rare among us, Franklin’s example ought to be kept before our eyes, and we hope that this book will be widely read. Darwinism: An Exposition of the Theory of Natural Selection, with Some of zts|\Applications. By ALFRED RUSSEL WAL- LACE, LL.D. London and New York, Macmillan. 12°. $1.75. DARWIN, in the greatness of his unselfish candor, receded some- what from the claims of his theory of natural selection, yielding to certain adverse criticisms; and now Dr. Wallace, who had inde- pendently originated the same theory, shows anew his own mag- nanimity in coming to the rescue in a volume entitled “ Darwin- ism.” The book is opportune, and worthy of its distinguished author, who is a recognized authority. Addressing all intelligent readers, it surveys the whole subject, confining this for the most part, however, to Darwinism pure and simple, which, as given in the title of Darwin’s first enunciation, is the “origin of species; ” namely, from pre-existing species by natural selection. Dr. Wal- lace has the advantage of reviewing the subject “after nearly thirty years of discussion, with an abundance of new facts and the advocacy of many new and old theories,” especially from the pens of noted investigators and leading evolutionists. This limitation to evolution of species, in twelve of the fifteen chapters, avoids many perplexing questions, and gives simplicity and unity to the argument. The author regards the main proposi- tion, in its application to existing or comparatively recent species, as all that can be proven, every thing beyond that lying in the re- gion of probable conjecture. The difficulties, popular or scientific, relate chiefly to the origin of the larger divisions of the organic kingdom, the first development of complex organs, and the like. All this is too remote and too imperfectly recorded to be entirely solved; yet he believes that the generic and ordinal differences among plants and animals are of the same nature as those found in many groups of species, only greater in amount. As we rise to classes and sub-kingdoms, the difficulty is much increased, and we may reasonably doubt whether a radically distinct plan of structure is due to the action of the same laws that have developed species. In the second chapter, on the struggle for existence, old and new facts are presented, ending with an ethical vindication of na- ture. In the third the variability of species is illustrated by statis- tical diagrams and otherwise, showing that it superabounds and offers always and everywhere material that is plentiful for natural selection, rather than slight and rare, thus obviating one of the common objections to transmutation of species. After discuss- ing in further chapters the subjects of artificial and natural selec- tion, and after meeting certain objections (the utility of all specific characters being especially asserted, with some qualification, and the swamping effects of intercrossing denied), the author treats of infertility of crosses, and sterility of hybrids, and opposes the “physiological selection” of Romanes. Going a step further than Darwin, he regards infertility as beneficial under certain circum- stances, and increased by selection. Four chapters are given to color, exhibiting the author's well-known views as to its origin and its uses, re-enforced by Alfred Tylor’s observations on structural decoration. Darwin’s theory of sexual selection of the ornamental is rejected, there being, for example, no evidence, except to the contrary, “that slight variations in the color or plumes, in the way of increased intensity or complexity, are what determines the choice.” The concluding chapters consider geographical distribution; the geological evidences of evolution ; certain fundamental problems of variation and heredity, with criticism of the recent speculations of Spencer, Cope, Karl Semper, and Geddes, referring particularly to the improved Lamarckian doctrine, lately revived, that acquired characters are inherited ; and, finally, Darwinism applied to man. SEPTEMBER 20, 1880. | The descent of man from some ancestor common to him and the anthropoids is advocated, but it is argued that the law of continuity does not require that the human mind has been developed by the same causes that account for man’s physical structure. As the glacial age introduced into the earth’s history a new cause, with new effects, so a new agency is needed to explain the appearance of the higher faculties, which are not necessities of our earthly ex- isfence, and ‘appear almost suddenly and in perfect development in the higher civilized races.” A new cause manifested itself first in organic life, next in sensation and consciousness, and last in a rational and moral being; and these manifestations of life “‘ prob- ably depend on different degrees of spiritual influx.” The Dar- _winian theory, carried to logical conclusion, does not, in the judg- ment of Dr. Wallace, oppose, but lends decided support to, the spiritual nature of man. Such are the principal topics of interest. Others, as, for exam- ple, an offered solution of complex modes of cross-fertilization of plants, might be mentioned. A regret may be expressed, that, in treating of variability, the author has confined himself too much to variation in mere proportions of form and color; also, that, on the subject of habits and instincts, he has not taken into consideration the quickness and permanence of sense-association and of asso- ciated impulses in animals, remarkably illustrated, for instance, in the dog-and-goose incident from the Revue Sczentzfique lately given in our pages. But the work is as comprehensive as might be expected in view of its special purpose. The Child and Child-Nature. By the BARONESS MARENHOLTZ- BUELOW. Tr. by ALICE M. CHRISTIE. Syracuse, N.Y., C. W. Bardeen. 8°. $1.50. THE object of this work is to explain and defend the system of education devised by Froebel, and especially the series of exercises and songs that he invented for mothers to use in training their children. The authoress is deeply impressed with the failings of humanity in the present age, and especially with its moral defects, and thinks that the only way to counteract them is by the reform of education. Froebel’s system she believes to be the right one, _ and she has devoted many years to the work of propagating it. A considerable part of this book is taken up with an exposition of Froebel’s peculiar philosophy, which we have always found repul- sive, but which seems to have a strange attraction for some minds. Froebel’s theory is that education must proceed according to the universal law of development, which is “the reconciliation of op- posites,” or ‘the law of balance.” What this so-called law really is, itis hard to find out, though in one place we are told that “Newton calls the law in question the law of gravitation.” Then we are treated to remarks about ‘“ the continuity and inter-connec- tion of all things in the universe,” and so forth; but what all this flummery has to do with the education of children we are unable to see. Being at last out of this quagmire, the authoress proceeds to explain the practical methods of teaching devised by Froebel, beginning with the kindergarten, but devoting most attention to the exercises designed for the use of mothers at home. In most of these exercises the child makes a kind of figure with his hands which is supposed to represent some natural or artificial object, and the mother then sings a song. The resemblance, however, between the figure made with the hands and the object it is said to represent is not apparent to us, while the songs as they appear in English are little better than nonsense. Besides these exercises, which are to be systematically practised, Froebel wished to place the young child under a mass of other regulations, and even to regulate and systematize the mother’s caresses. What merit there may be in his devices, only actual trial can determine ; but we should think that such artificial treatment at the very beginning of life must seriously hamper the natural and spontaneous develop- ment of the child. We are not surprised, therefore, to find the authoress remarking of the book in which this system is set forth —the “Mutter und Koserlieder” — that she has learned by re- peated experience “that in no way is so much opposition to Froe- bel’s system excited as by any endeavor to propagate this book.” She, however, is enthusiastic in its favor, and those who wish to understand the system it advocates will find it elaborately set forth in her book. SCIENCE: 205, AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. AMONG the popular scientific articles to be published in The Century during the coming year will be reports of the latest studies and discoveries made at the Lick Observatory in California, fur- nished by Professor Holden. Professor Putnam of Harvard has written a series of papers for the same magazine on prehistoric America, in which he will give the result of his own explorations of caves, burial-places, village sites, etc. A detailed account of the strange earth-work known as the Serpent Mound of Adams County, O., will be printed, and the illustrations of some of the papers will include a number of terra-cotta figures of men and women in astyle of modelling heretofore unknown in American pre- historic art. — The Appletons have published “A First Book in American History,” by Edward Eggleston, intended for beginners in histor- ical study. It is really a series of biographies of men more or less prominent in American annals, beginning with Columbus and end- ing with Lincoln, the author believing that children cannot follow the political development of a nation understandingly, and that bi- ography is for them the natural door into history. There is much truth in this view, and Mr. Eggleston has been pretty successful in carrying it into practice, the men whose lives he relates being not only leading actors in American history, but also representatives of American character. The style in which the stories are told is likely to interest children, and the numerous illustrations in the book add to its interest and instructiveness. There is, however, no attempt to connect the various lives recounted so as to make a continuous narrative, and the reader gets no idea of the course of American history as an organic whole. In short, the book is not history, but only an introduction to history, and as such it has con- siderable merit. —“ Pensions for All” is the title under which Gen. M. M. Trum- bull will give a severe lashing to the treasury raiders, in the Octo- ber Popular Science Monthly. The writer was a general in the- civil war, and is anxious for the honor, as well as the due rewards, of the former soldiers, and he expresses the fervent wish that the “pension temptation ” may not “ change the character or diminish the fame of the Grand Army.” Dr. M. Allen Starr will have an article on ‘‘ The Old and the New Phrenology,” showing, with the- aid of illustrations, what has been definitely learned about the loca-- tion of the various mental faculties in the brain, and how the errors of Gall and Spurzheim have been exposed. A lively picture of “Evolution as taught in a Theological Seminary” will be given by Rollo Ogden. The writer finds his material for criticism in the lectures on dogmatic theology given in the Union Theological Seminary. Professor J. Howard Gore will contribute an article on “ Anthropology at Washington,” describing the investigations of the customs and history of the Indians and Mound-Builders which, are being made by the government scientific bureaus. —It is not generally known that there was an American gov-. ernor of Emin Bey’s province in Africa, which has recently at- tracted so much attention, owing to Stanley’s relief expedition. Colonel H. G. Prout, who is now editor of the Razlroad Gazette, was the immediate successor of General Gordon as governor of the Equatorial Province, and was one of his most trusted friends. It is announced that in the November Scrzdzer Colonel Prout will fully describe Emin Bey’s province, and will give many interesting recollections of General Gordon, with extracts from some unique private correspondence. and with a number of facsimiles of Gor- don’s letters and maps. — The Rey. A. K. Glover will shortly publish a small volume: entitled “‘ The Jews of the Far East, or the Jews of the Extreme Eastern Diaspora,” with the original Chinese texts of the inscrip- tions discovered at Kaifung-tu. — D. C. Heath & Co. will publish in September a translation of “ Lindner’s Empirical Psychology,” by Charles DeGarmo, Ph.D., of the Illinois State Normal University. As the name implies, it is based on common experience rather than on metaphysical theories. It is written from the Herbartian standpoint, and is of interest from the light it throws on the science of teaching. The common complaint is that our ordinary abstract and verbal systems of psy~ 206 chology appear to have only a remote bearing upon the business of. teaching. The same firm publishes Sept. 20, “Sept Grand Au-, teurs du XIXe Siécle: Lamartine, Hugo, de Vigny, de Musset, Theophile Gautier, Merimee, Coppee, An Introduction to Nine- teenth Century French Literature,” by Alcée Fortier, professor of French, Tulane University of Louisiana. This book consists of a ‘series of lectures, written for students, and forms a superior French reader, giving an account of the lives and writings of seven great, French authors. = — The New England Magazine, an illustrated monthly, will be published at once in Boston, under the control of Dr. E. E. Hale and Edwin D. Mead. While largely devoted to the past of New England, the articles will not be confined to local topics. Short biographies of Parnell and Gladstone, papers on the French settle- ments in America, remarkable cities in New England, and fiction in prose and verse, are among the attractions promised during the first year. — Joseph Thomson, who made the remarkable journey across Masai-land, in Africa, says in Scrzbmer’s for October: “It is my belief that if Stanley had taken this route [across Masai-land] those disastrous losses in men and goods which befell him would have been avoided, work would have been done in half the time, and a practicable route would have been opened,— an all-impor- tant work still to be done, and which must yet be done if the great work commenced by Sir Samuel Baker, carried on by Gen. Gordon, and solidified and extended by Emin Pacha, is not to be sacrificed, and the people once more given up to all the horrors of the slave trade.” In the same number Professor N.S. Shaler of Harvard, after a careful consideration of the much neglected condition of the ‘common roads in this country, makes the following suggestions: «T would in the first place suggest that in the Federal Department -of Agriculture there should be a commissioner of roads, having at his command sufficient means to prepare and print as public docu- ments accounts of the condition of roadways in this country, with essays on the method of their construction. Each State should likewise have a commissioner of public ways, whose duty should be to advance education in this class of questions in every possible manner. To him the town and county road commissioners should be required to report. He should cause to be constructed a map -showing the location and condition of all the roadways in the State. These ways he should classify as regards their condition. Our -country folk wallow in the mire of their ways, pay excessive tolls, -endure, in a word, a grinding taxation, generation after generation, without appreciating the burden which rests upon them.” Pro- fessor Charles Sprague Smith of Columbia College will give, in the same number of the magazine, the result of his observations -on the present condition of the Icelanders. He made an interest- ing journey to Iceland in the summer of 1888, during which time che resided with the dean of a diocese near Reykjavik, and made with him an interesting journey into the interior of the island. — The Polttzcal Science Quarterly for September has an article -on “Italian Immigration,” which is of some importance at the present time. The author, Eugene Schuyler, has resided in Italy for three years past, and speaks from some personal acquaintance with the Italian people. The emigrants from Italy in 1888 num- bered nearly two hundred thousand, of whom a large proportion -came to the United States. Mr. Schuyler discusses the causes of the emigration, the chief of which is the difficulty of getting a liv- ing, and as to the character of the emigrants themselves expresses himself favorably. He admits that they are very illiterate, but thinks that they will prove a thrifty class and of good morals too. Another paper of some importance is by W. T. Moppin on “ Farm Mortgages and the Small Farmer.” Some writers, noticing the increase in farm mortgages in this country, have expressed the fear that the land was passing out of the hands of the small pro- prietors, who would eventually become an extinct class. Mr. Mop- pin combats this view, maintaining that the debts are incurred in order to make improvements on the farms or to stock new farms, and that they are in the end beneficial to the farmers. Mr. Clar- -ence Deming treats of ‘“ Town Rule in Connecticut,” showing the inequalities of representation in the legislature, the little town of ‘Union, for instance, with only 118 voters, having as many repre- SCIENCE. [VoLt. XIV. No. 346 sentatives as New Haven with nearly 18,000 voters. Besides these articles the Quarterly has the first instalment of an essay on “ Eng- lish Legal History,” treating of the methods and materials of such history, and articles on “James E, Thorold Rogers,” by W. J. Ashley, and on “Railroad Indemnity Lands,” by Fred. Perry Powers. — Ginn & Co. announce for publication “The Method of Least Squares,” by G. C. Comstock, professor of astronomy in the Unj- versity of Wisconsin, and director of the Washburn Observatory. This work contains a presentation of the methods of treating ob- served numerical data which aré in use among astronomers, physi- cists, and engineers. It has been written for the student, and pre- supposes only such mathematical attainments as are usually pos- sessed by those who have completed the first two years of the curriculum of any of our better schools of science or engineering. The principle of least squares is derived from the observed distri- bution of residuals in certain typical series of observations, and not from an assumed law of the causes of error, thus diminishing the mathematical difficulties usually encountered at the threshold of the subject. Especial care has been taken to apply all of the leading principles of the method to numerical data selected from published observations, and to give the computations in full, so that they may serve the inexperienced computer as models. It has been the author’s purpose to so present the subject that a working knowledge of the method based upon an appreciation of its principles may be acquired with a moderate expenditure of time and labor. — A book that is sure of a sympathetic audience is “ Dante Ga- briel Rossetti as Designer and Writer,” by his brother William M. Rossetti, including a prose paraphrase of ‘The House of Life,” which Cassell & Co. announce. The present is the only volume that William M. Rossetti has issued regarding his famous brother, though he has kept his memory green by several contributions to the magazines, one of them on the “Portraits of Rossetti,” pub- lished in the Magazzne of Art. Inthis volume the author has not attempted to write a biographical or critical account of Dante Ros- setti. ‘‘ Mine is a book of memoranda and of details,” he says. A portrait of the poet at the age of thirty-five accompanies the book. —On Saturday, Aug. 17, President Carnot received at a private audience in the Palais de l’Elysée, Paris, Dr. R. H. Thurston, director of Sibly College, Cornell University. Dr. Thurston has made a translation into English of the celebrated work of Sadi- Carnot, the great-uncle of the president, “ Réflexions sur la Puis- sance Motrice du Feu,’ —a work which had never before been translated into English, but which has become famous throughout the world as the basis of the whole structure of the modern sci- ence of thermodynamics. Published in 1824, it was comparatively unknown, until Sir William Thomson, the distinguished British savant, called attention to its enormous importance; and its author has thus become famous as the greatest genius which has appeared in that department of science during the nineteenth century. The president of the republic kindly consented that Dr. Thurston should dedicate to him his translation of this great work. The following is the very elegant phraseology which Dr, Thurston pro- poses to give to this dedication: ‘Dedicated to Sadi-Carnot, president of the French Republic, that distinguished member of the engineering profession whose whole life has been an honor to the profession:and to his country, and who, elevated to the highest office within the gift of the French nation, has proven, by the quiet dignity and the efficiency with which he has performed his august duties, that he is a worthy member of his own noble family, already | rendered famous by an earlier Sadi-Carnot, now immortal in the annals of science, and has shown himself deserving of enrolment in the list of great men, which includes that other distinguished engineer, our own first President, George Washington.” — Retail grocers, and other retail dealers doing a credit busi- ness, are adopting a plan that is'at once novel and decidedly use- ful. They issue to their customers coupon books similar to mile- age books for railways, but instead of the coupons being for one mile, they are for one cent each; the value of the books varying from two to twenty dollars. These coupons are good for their face value in groceries or other merchandise at the store of the firm issuing them. When the books are issued, the dealer charges SEPTEMBER 20, 1880,.] ’ his customer with the value of the book. When pay-day comes the customer pays this amount, and meantime uses the coupons for the purchase of supplies, the same as paying cash, thus avoid- ing all disputed accounts and saving valuable time to both the dealer and his customer. They are manufactured by the Histor- ical Publishing Company, of Dayton, Ohio. — The October issue of The Chautauguan is the initial number of Vol. X., and appears in a new form and with a cover of new de- sign. It presents the following in the table of contents: “The Politics Which Made and Unmade Rome,” by President C. K. Adams, of Cornell University; ‘“‘The Life of the Romans,” by ’ Principal James Donaldson, of the University of St. Andrews, Scotland; Macaulay’s ‘Lays of Ancient Rome,” paraphrased by Arlo Bates; “‘ Map Quiz” on Zhe Chautauguan Map Series; ‘The Study of the Seasons,” by Professor N. S. Shaler, of Harvard Uni- versity ; “ Child Labor and Some of its Results,’ by Helen Camp- bell; “Mental Philosophy,” by John Habberton; “The Uses of Mathematics,’ by Professor A. S. Hardy, Ph.D., of Dartmouth College ; ‘The Burial of Rome,” by Rodolfo Lanciani, of the Uni- versity of Rome. Professor La Roy F. Griffin explains the general principles of “ Explosions and Exposives”’; ‘‘ Canada and Ireland: A Political Parallel,’ is discussed by Professor J. P. Mahaffy of Dublin University ; “ The Future Indian School System ” is an ar- ticle full of practical suggestions for improving Indian schools, by Elaine Goodale; Hon. S. G. W. Benjamin, ex-minister to Persia, writes entertainingly of “The Women of Persia’; Bishop J. F, Hurst tells much that is interesting about ‘“‘ The Current Literature of India”; “Impressions Made by the Paris Exposition” is a timely article, translated from the Revue des Deux Mondes. The list of contributed articles ends with the Rev. J. G. Wood’s obser- vations of ‘Some Odd Fishes.” LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. * “Correspondents are requested to be as brief as bosstble. tn allcases required as proof of good faith. The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. Twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished Tree to any correspondent on reguest. \ Methods of Burial. THERE is one method of preserving the body that is well worthy of notice, and that has not received the attention that its impor- tance demands. It is the desiccation of the remains, considered in a report on the disposal of the dead, by John M. Peacocke, M.D., presented to the Medical Society of the county of Kings, Brooklyn. Long before the Spanish conquest, the Peruvians were adepts in this mode of preserving the dead. The bodies of the Incas, and their queens and countless numbers of their subjects, testify to this. The interesting question is often asked whether the ancient Peruvians embalmed their corpses, or whether the bodies owe their good preservation to the influence of the climate, which is so con- ducive to mummification. Sefior Rivero, the director of the National Museum at Lima, having examined hundreds of mummies, was unable to find any preservative substance in them. It is true that in the skulls a brown or blackish mass, in dust or small pieces, has been found; but a chemical and microscopical analysis has proved that the dust and the pieces were composed of cerebral fat and globules of dried blood. All the mummies contain the brain and intestines, and in none of them could Rivero discover any in- cision which would have been necessary for evisceration had the bodies been subject to embalmment. In the mummy of a child found by Dr. Von Schudi, and which is now in the Imperial Acad- emy of St. Petersburg, the ribs of the left side were detached from the sternum, exposing the thoracic and part of the abdominal cavities, plainly showing the heart, with the pericardium, the shrivelled lungs, the diaphragm, the transverse colon, and portion of the small intestines. These facts prove that the Peruvians did not have recourse in the preservation of the dead to any elaborate process of embalming as customary among the Egyptians. The bodies were simply desiccated by exposure to the air. The heated soil and calcined sand on the coast dried the corpse, and the pure cold air and dry winds of the interior did the same thing. The writer's name is SCIENCE. 207 In Peru the animals that drop by the wayside will be found at the end of months entire, not corrupted, but dried. On the high- way from Arequipa to Lima a number of the mummified animals are to be seen, which serve as landmarks to indicate the road when the wind covers it with sand. The climatic conditions of the im- perial city of Cuzco are very favorable to the desiccating process. Here, in the great temple of the Sun, the remains of the Incas have been discovered in a marvellous and lifelike condition. Cuzco, the most ancient city of Peru, has an elevation of 11,380 feet above the sea. Surrounded by lofty and snowclad mountains, it might be supposed to possess a cold, not to say frigid, climate; but its temperature, though cool, is seldom freezing. In what is called the winter season, from May to November, the pastures and fields are dry and withered, more from drought than from frost. La Casas describes the Peruvian burial rites as follows: “The dead are wrapped in the skin of the llama, then clothed and de- posited in a sitting posture. The doors of the tombs, which are all toward the east, are then closed with stone or clay. At the end of a year, when the body becomes dry, the doors are again opened. There is no bad odor, because the skins in which the bodies are placed are sewn up very closely, and from the cold they soon be- come mummies.” Travellers in Africa have found bodies of camels, which had evidently died of fatigue in the desert, to be so dried and preserved by the heat of the sun that no evidences of post-mortem decay were discovered. The atmosphere of our North-west Territories is, in some places, so dry that the snows of winter pass off from the ground without leaving it wet, and mummified buffalo have been found on the plains of Colorado. When freshly killed meat is subjected to a dry summer heat, it is rapidly converted into the well-known jerked beef of the plains. Dried apples, peaches, and other fruits are familiar examples to every housekeeper of desic- cated vegetable matter. This method of preservation is as widely known as it is primitive, and clearly indicates that absence of moisture prevents decomposition of organic material, or, in other words, desiccation takes the place of putrefaction. X. New York, Sept. 16. Monopolies and the People. . IN the criticism which you make (Sczezce, xiv. p. 186) of the plan which I proposed for settling the railroad question, in my book “Monopolies and the People,” I think you slightly misappre- hend my views, as you say, ‘All fares and freight tariffs are to be fixed by the government commissioners.” At the present time, in a number of the States of the Union, fares and freight tariffs are fixed by a State commission; and the provisions of the Interstate Commerce Law subject rates on all interstate traffic to the ap- proval of the United States Government Commission. My contention is that these rates should be fixed, not by a com- pany, which holds a monopoly, or by a government commission, holding autocratic power. The one plan is unjust to the people; the other, to the railway-owners. The principle which seems to me the true one is, fix rates in proportion to the expense of carry- ing the traffic. CHARLES WHITNEY BAKER. New York, Sept. 14. Queries. 48. ORIGIN OF THE COMMON NAME OF CROTALUS CE- RASTES. — Recently a naturalist friend residing in Santa Fé, N. Mex., begged to know of me the origin of the name “ side-winder ” for the horned rattlesnake (C. cerastes), and, although I have often heard that term applied to the crotaline species alluded to, I have never been able to ascertain how such a name came into use. The few persons versed in such lore to whom I have referred the mat- ter could give no account of it, or state whether they knew of any particular habit of the horned rattler that would justify its being so called. Yarrow quotes the name in his “ Check List of North American Reptilia and Batrachia” for the species in question, but, so far as I know, nowhere explains its origin; and I would be glad of any light upon this point. i R. W. SHUFELDT. Takoma, D.C., Sept. 11. 208 Exchanges. [Exchanges are inserted for subscribers free of charge. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] ‘‘T wish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’-—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida, —Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. z00 botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. BoGue, Orwell, Ashta. County, O I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg SCIENCE. (author ‘‘ Young _ Fossil-Hunters”’), Street, Lawrence, Kan. One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4 X 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “-new model”’ double dry-plate holder (4” X 5), for fine geological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- fied. — Charles E. Frick, 1019 West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and plants — to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc. — Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lefzdoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — C. Thompson, 612 East rqrst Street, New York, N.Y. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets. —J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. 1033 Kentucky [VoLt. XIV. No. 346 Wants. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SciENcE. A personal interview invited. N. D.C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. IGHTNING. — Concise descriptions of the effects of lightning discharges are de- sired. State whether the object struck was pro- vided with a lightning rod, the character of the rod, and the way in which it was set up. Be- ginuing at the top, describe briefly the effects. State whether there was any smoke or dust raised, and whether there was any odor. Any reports of recent and of especially interesting discharges will be published in Scéence.—Sci- J ence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPAN Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™, to 100 H.P. Executive Office, | 1 _——— AAU Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. 5 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CIry: N. J. Please Mention “Science,” GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. T Guaranteed Farm Mortgages ] The Company sends each year to Kansas and Nebraska for the pur- pose of examining its loans and methods of business a COMMITTEE, OF -NVeS PORS: The Committee for 1889 visited Fifty counties in the two States, ex- amined over 100 farms on which loans had been made and reported every one to be SATE: The Company will be giad to send to any address the Report of the Committee which presents a very interesting statement of the general development of Kansas and Nebraska. . A large number of loans equally as good as any examined by the Committee are always on hand for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. SEPTEMBER 20, 1880. | . SCIENCE. i C. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City, New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Chicago. “Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, paces. THREE paves. J, GRUNOW, Hundred Thousand new subscribers for The F; Journal and Ladies’ Companion al It ee ly maat interesting and instructive paper ever seen S2upSixthy Awe nme: es evouk. e! Su 4 bers will receive during the coming twelve eW d ress 00 S. Established 1852. MONTHS ek novels written by American Authors, complete in Microscope Stands, each t! numbers. The story of popuar works of er, ction will be retold by a novel reader, the most in- . ao ASM pence st se-| Oil Immersion Object- resting and unique feature ever introdu in an We are now exhibiting most se y Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. 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Box 289. 31 and 33 Vesey St., New York. Schoharie, N.Y. [| Vor. XIV. No. 346 ii SCIENCE. Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Lightest Weight Consistent with Highest Efficiency. SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION. Not Liable to get out of Order. to and 18 BROAD STREET The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. ASSETS ..- - - $126,082,153 56 The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 95 MILK Ee Exceeded $103,000,000. Its. Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION, Commutator Wear Reduced to a Minimum. NEW YORK. @ THE Anerican Bell Telephone COMPANY. BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters Patent granted to Alexander Gra- ham Bell, March 7th, 1876, No. 174,465, and January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. The Transmission of Speech by all known forms of ELECTRIC SPEAKING TELEPHONES in- fringes the right secured to this Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished by it or its licensees, responsible for such un- lawful use, and all the conse- quemees thereof and liable to suit therefor. i STERBROOK’S INS EIIO sl ASISHS Choc co 55 200005509059050970 0900000: $ 7,275,301 68 IAC PBMEN WA WACOMNS Clin co000 peed onsa0b0o0G00 500098 3,096,010 06 A gain in new premiums of 2,333,406 oo AN eno hy SWOAPNWS Cs ooccccesoedscouuogscaac s506 1,645,622 11 AN, Genial hho HER? LOWSMNEIS CO. 60ceccoccssacca Shoe BMT VOL Os IN EHO TASES Wal WOES 55 obo o 0s cco scHdndes - .. 54,496,251 85 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. Schools. | Electrical House Furnishings, : 82 & 34 Frankfort St., New York. Connecticut, NEw Haven, MES: CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. arly application necessary. Micuican. HouGuTon. MICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. New-York, OranGe Co., FLoripa. “THE LEONARD INSTITUTE, for both sexes, Florida, Orange Co., N. Y., reopens Sept. 11. Eight young ladies, or misses Stoucestor Masa, Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Co., &e., &e. Repairs Everything. Iissuccess has brought a lot of “| | imitators copying us in every way possible. Remenzber. that TH wLty GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. = GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c, and dealers’ card who Patent Pocket Can. No waste.|doesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. {Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. ] PEWEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 348. NEW YORK, OcrToser 4, 1889. SINGLE Copiges, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. THE PROPORTIOR. A NOVEL and exceedingly simple form of calculating-machine, called by its inventor a “ proportior,” is being brought to the at- tention of accountants, statisticians, and others, in this city. The general appearance of the device is shown by the accompanying engravings. Fig. 1 shows the instrument on its revolving stand, Fig. 2 indicates the first position in solving problems, and Fig. 3 the second position. The magnifier, by which the operator is able to read the divisions of the disk with accuracy, is clearly shown in Referring to Fig. 1, it will be seen that the outer circle rotates around the inner disk. The relation of the parts is perhaps better shown in Figs. 2 and 3, which are on a larger scale. Stops are provided by which the disk may be fastened to the outer circle at any desired point. The frame that supports the disk and circle is of metal, the disk and ring being of wood, constructed to overcome expansion and contraction, and on which is affixed the scales. The other parts consist of an outer ring, a runner or guide, a cap, two set-screws, and two brakes. The metal frame supports and holds all the other parts. The movements are adjusted to a true centre. The inner disk and the outer ring contain the figures and lines by which computations are made. The runner or guide, which carries the magnifying-glass, is of assistance in locating numbers and lines, and in bringing those on the one scale in line with those on the other, so that results may be quickly obtained and read. The cap acts as a set-screw to the arm, holding it firmly whenever it is required to be so held. The two set-screws on the outside actuate two brakes, which form part of and are located under the outer ring. By them the outer circle 1s locked or unlocked from the inner disk. When locked, the disk and ring are converted into a table of calculations. The magnifier covers the FIGS. 1 the two latter figures, the reader being supposed to be looking toward the operator. This calculating-machine, the scale part of which is but fifteen inches in diameter, may be described as a slide rule of greatly extended length, reduced to a small circle. In the language of the inventor, it is a mechanical device which performs with ease, rapidity, and correctness, operations in commercial and mechanical arithmetic. It is further asserted to be an arithmetical library in itself, in which, for the purpose of computation, the unit can be divided into 1,000,000 parts, while the whole numbers range from I to 1,000,000, AND 2.—THE PROPORTIOR. entire width of both scales, and is an important assistant to the sight in reading the finer divisions. It is mounted upon the runner, and is adjustable. The operation is as follows. The instrument being set on a suitable surface, and at a convenient height so that the eyes can be directly over it, the caps and set-screws are loosened, so that the runner is free to move and the circle to revolve around the disk. The operator then assumes the position shown in Fig. 2, and exercises just force enough to hold the entire apparatus steady. His right ‘hand grasps the edge of the outer ring, moving it either to or from 228 him, as may be necessary to bring the recorded figures in line. To assist in this, the runner is used. It is impossible to give here a full description of the process, but it seems to be little more than finding and aligning certain figures in the two concentric tables. It is claimed by its inventor, Mr. Walter Hart of this city, that with it the simplest as well as the most complicated problems in multiplication, division, proportion, compound proportion, common divisor, common multiple, interest, involution, evolution, compound percentages, averaging of accounts, etc., can be readily solved. He has prepared for distribution a pamphlet giving a full description of the device, and of the method of using it. OIL AND IRON IN NEW ZEALAND. THE New Zealand Government have recently published a report upon the petroleum-deposits of the Taranaki district, which appar- ently have a great future before them. The oil comes to the sur- face in many places near New Plymouth, besides impregnating the surrounding country to such an extent that farmers have had to abandon many wells, on account of the petroleum gushing into them with the water. To ascertain whether there was a proba- bility of these oil-deposits proving a mercantile success, the govern- SCIENCE: [Vot. XIV. No. 348 that the beach at New Plymouth is pitted with petroleum oozings. ’ What is now wanted is some trial drills to test the quantity and character of the oil-supply. A few drills in the vicinity of New Plymouth ought to bring to the surface not only enough oil to pro- vide the locality with smelting fuel, but also sufficient for several refineries. It is curious, that, while millions are invested by the public of this country in purely speculative gold-mines, hardly any funds are devoted to sinking wells for petroleum in Burmah, Canada, and New Zealand. In America, hundreds of times over, a single well has proved as remunerative as a gold-mine; yet, although petrole- um can be easily enough turned into gold, such is the demand for it, English investors have hitherto ignored petroleum undertakings. Presently they will rush into it, just as shippers have rushed into the oil-steamer business, building sixty tank-vessels in less than five years, after a prolonged period of similar indifference. THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM. THE enormous consumption of petroleum and natural gas fre- quently raises the question as to the probability of the proximate exhaustion of the supply ; and, without doubt, many fear to adopt the use of oil, from a feeling that if such use once becomes general, ment of New Zealand deputed Mr. Gordon, inspecting engineer of the Mines Department, to visit the locality. Mr. Gordon made a careful survey of the country, and in his lengthy report he affirms that “ petroleum exists over a large area, and that it is only a ques- tion of boring to the requisite depth to get at the source.” Accord- ing to Engzneerzng, these deposits have a twofold advantage: if successfully developed, they not only have at their disposal the Australasian market, now dependent on America for oil, but they would further provide with fuel the local iron industry, at present resting upon limited supplies of coal and charcoal. Along the shores of the Taranaki district stretch the famous iron-sand beaches of New Zealand, —beaches composed almost entirely of pulverized iron ore. Countless millions of tons of this material lie along the western coasts of the North Island of New Zealand. The ore produces splendid iron, but is somewhat refrac- tory. This would be a trifle, however, if an abundant supply of cheap fuel were available for smelting purposes, This seems to be now forthcoming in the shape of petroleum. For some time past oil has been largely used for smelting in America, and there is no reason why it should not be successfully adopted in New Zealand ; the Taranaki oil having plenty of body, and being admirably adapted for fuel purposes. It may be noted, that, while the oil- deposits of America and Russia are several hundred miles inland, those of New Zealand are actually on the coast; so close, indeed, TTT FIG. 3.—THE PROPORTIOR. the demand will exceed the production, the price will rise indefi- nitely, and old methods of illumination and old forms of fuel will have to be reverted to. From this point of view, it is most inter- esting to inquire what are the probabilities of a continuous supply ; and such an investigation leads at once to the question, ‘‘ What is the origin of petroleum?” In the year 1877, Professor Mendeleeff undertook to answer this question; and as his theory appears to be very little known, and has never been fully set forth in the Eng- lish language, I trust you will forgive me for laying a matter so interesting before you. Dr. Mendeleeff commences his essay by the statement that most persons assume, without any special reason, — excepting, perhaps, its chemical composition, — that naphtha, like coal, has a vegetable origin. He combats this hypoth- esis, and points out, in the first place, that naphtha must have been formed in the depths of the earth. It could not have been produced on the surface, because it would have evaporated ; nor over a sea-bottom, because it would have floated up and been dissi- pated by the same means. In the next place, he shows that naph- tha must have been formed beneath the very site on which it is found ; that it could not have come from a distance, like so many other geological deposits, and for the reasons given above, namely, that it could not be water-borne, and could not have flowed along 1 Extracted from Mr. Anderson’s presidential address to Section G (Mechanical Science) of the British Association. OcToBER 4, 1880. | the surface ; while in the superficial sands in which it is generally found no one has ever discovered the presence of organized matter in sufficiently large masses to have served as a source for the enormous quantity of oil and gas yielded in some districts ; and hence it is most probable that it has risen from much greater depths under the influence of its own gaseous pressure, or floated up upon the surface of water, with which it is so frequently associated. The oil-bearing strata in Europe belong chiefly to the tertiary or later geological epochs; so that it is conceivable that in these strata, or in those immediately below them, carboniferous deposits may exist, and may be the sources of the oil. But in America and in Canada the oil-bearing sands are found in the Devonian and Silurian formations, which are either destitute of organic remains or contain them in insignificant quantities. Yet, if the immense masses of hydrocarbons have been produced by chemical changes ‘in carboniferous beds, equally large masses of solid carboniferous remains must still exist ; but of this there is absolutely no evidence while cases occur in Pennsylvania where oil is obtained from the Devonian rocks underlying compact clay-beds, on which rest coal- bearing strata. Had the oil been derived from the coal, it certainly would not have made its way downwards; much less would it have penetrated an impermeable stratum of clay. The conclusion arrived at is, that it is impossible to ascribe the formation of naph- tha to chemical changes produced by heat and pressure in ancient organized remains. One of the first indices to the solution of the question lies in the situation of the oil-bearing regions. They always occur in the neighborhood of, and run parallel to, mountain ranges: as, for example, in Pennsylvania, along the Alleghanies ; in Russia, along the Caucasus. The crests of the ranges, formed orjginally of horizontal strata which had been forced up by internal pressure, must have been cracked and dislocated, the fissures widening out- wards, while similar cracks must have been formed at the bases of the ranges; but the fissures would widen downwards, and would form channels and cavities, into which naphtha, formed in the depths to which the fissures descended, would rise and manifest itself, especially in localities where the surface had been sufficiently lowered by denudation or otherwise. It is in the lowest depths of these fissures that we must seek the laboratories in which the oil is formed; and, once produced, it must inevitably rise to the surface, whether forced up by its own pent-up gases or vapors, or floated up by associated water. In some instances the oil penetrating or soaking through the surface layers loses its more volatile constituents by evaporation, and in consequence deposits of pitch, of carboniferous shales, and asphalt, take place ; in other cases, the oil, impregnating sands at a lower level, is often found under great pressure, and associated with forms of itself in a permanently gaseous state. This oil may be distributed widely, according to the nature of the formations or the disturbances to which they have been subjected; but the presence of petroleum is not in any way connected with the geological age of the oil-bearing strata, it is simply the result of physical condition and of surface structure. According to the views of Laplace, the planetary system has been formed from incandescent matter torn from the solar equatorial regions, In the first instance, this matter formed a ring analogous to those which we now see surrounding Saturn, and consisted of all kinds of substances at a high temperature ; and from this mass a sphere of vapors, of larger diameter than the earth now has, was gradually separated. The various vapors and gases which, diffused through each other, formed at first an atmosphere round an imagi- nary centre, gradually assumed the form of a liquid globe, and exerted pressures incomparably higher than those which we ex- perience now at the base of our present atmosphere. According to Dalton’s laws, gases, when diffused through each other, behave as if they were separate: hence the lighter gases would prepon- derate in the outer regions of the vaporous globe, while the heavier ones would accumulate to a larger extent at the central portion; and at the same time the gases circulating from the centre to the circumference would expand, perform work, would cool in conse- quence, and at some period would assume the liquid or even the solid state, just as we find the vapor of water diffused through our present atmosphere does now. That which is true of changes of SCIENCE. 229 physical condition, Henri St. Claire Deville, in his brilliant theory of dissociation, has shown to be equally true with respect to chemi- cal changes ; and the cooling of the vapors forming the earth while in its gaseous condition was necessarily accompanied by chemical combinations, which took place chiefly on the outer surface, where oxides of the metals were formed; and, as these are generally less volatile than the metals themselves, they were precipitated on to what there then was of liquid or solid of the earth, in the form of metallic rain or snow, and were again probably decomposed, in part at least, to their vaporous condition. The necessary consequence of this action is that the inner regions of the earth must consist of substances the vapors of which have high specific densities and high molecular weights, —that is to say, composed of elements having high atomic weights, — and that the heavier elementary sub- stances would collect near the centre, while the lighter ones would be found nearer the surface. Our knowledge of the earth’s crust extends but to an insignificant distance ; yet, as far as we do know it, we find that the arrangement above indicated prevails. Hydrogen, carbon, nitrogen, oxygen, sodium, magnesium, aluminium, silicon, phosphorus, sulphur, chlorine, potassium, calcium, — substances whose atomic weights range from 1 to 40, — became condensed, entered into every conceivable combination with each other, and produced substances the specific gravity of which averages about 24, never exceeds 4, and are found near the immediate surface of the globe. But the mean specific gravity of the earth as determined by Maskelyne, Cavendish, and others, certainly exceeds 5, and conse- quently the inner portion of our globe must be composed of sub- stances heavier than those existing on the surface; and such sub- stances are only to be found among the elements with high atomic weights. The question arises, ‘‘ What elements of this character are we likely to find in the depths of the earth?” In the first place, since gases diffuse through each other, a certain proportion of the elements of high atomic weight will also be found on the surface of the earth. Second, the elements forming the bulk of the earth must be found in the atmosphere of the sun —if, indeed, the earth once formed part of its atmosphere. Of all the elements, iron, with a specific gravity exceeding 7, and with an atomic weight of 56, corresponds best with these requirements, for it is found in abundance on the surface of the earth; and the spectroscope has revealed the very marked presence of iron in the sun, where it must be partly in the fluid and partly in the gaseous state, and conse- quently iron in large masses must exist in the earth: so that the mean specific gravity of our planet may well be 5, the value of which has been determined by independent means. It is not easy, however, to define in what condition the mass of iron which exists in the heart of the earth is likely to be. Iron is capable of forming a vast number of combinations, depending on the relative proportion of the various elements present. Thus, in the blast-furnace, oxygen, carbon, nitrogen, calcium, silicon, and iron are associated, and produce under the action of heat, besides various gases, a carburet of iron and slag, the latter containing chiefly silicon, calcium, and oxygen; that is to say, substances similar to those which form the bulk of the surface of the earth. But these same elements, if there be an excess of oxygen, will not yield any carburet of iron; andthe same result will follow if there be a deficiency of silicon and calcium, because of the large proportion of oxygen which they appropriate. In the same way, during the cooling of the earth, if oxygen, carbon, and iron were associated, and if the carbon were in excess of the oxygen, the greater part of the carbon would escape in the gaseous state, while the remaining part would unite with the iron. It is certain that in the heart of the earth there must have been a deficiency of oxygen, because of its low specific gravity ; and the argument is supported by the fact that free oxygen and its compounds, with the lighter elements, abound on the surface. Further, it must be presumed that much of the iron existing at great depths must be covered over and pro- tected from oxygen by a coating of slag; so that, taking all these considerations into account, it is reasonable to conclude that deep down in the earth there exist large masses of iron, in part at least in the metallic state, or combined with carbon. The above views receive considerable confirmation from the com- position of meteoric matter ; for it also forms a portion of the solar 230 system, and originated, like the earth, from out of the solar atmos- phere. Meteorites are most probably fragments of planets, and a large proportion of them include iron in their composition, often as carbides, in the same form as ordinary cast iron; that is to say, a part of the carbon is free, and a part is in chemical union with the iron. It has been shown, besides, that all basalts contain iron, and basalts are nothing more than lavas forced by volcanic eruptions from the heart of the earth to its surface. The same causes may haveled to the existence of combinations of carbon with other metals, The process of the formation of petroleum seems to be the fol- lowing: It is generally admitted that the crust of the earth is very thin in comparison with the diameter of the latter, and that this crust encloses soft or fluid substances, among which the carbides of iron and of other metals find a place. When, in consequence of cooling or some other cause, a fissure takes place through which a mountain-range is protruded, the crust of the earth is bent, and at the foot of the hills fissures are formed ; or, at any rate, the con- tinuity of the rocky layers is disturbed, and they are rendered more or less porous, so that surface waters are able to make their way deep into the bowels of the earth, and to reach occasionally the heated deposits of metallic carbides, which may exist either in a separated condition or blended with other matter. Under such circumstances, it is easy to see what must take place. Iron, or whatever other metal may be present, forms an oxide with the oxygen of the water. Hydrogen is either set free or combined with the carbon which was associated with the metal, and becomes a volatile substance; that is, naphtha. The water which had pene- trated down to the incandescent mass was changed into steam, a portion of which found its way through the porous substances with which the fissures were filled, and carried with it the vapors of the newly formed hydrocarbons ; and this mixture of vapors was con- densed wholly or in part as soon as it reached the cooler strata. The chemical composition of the hydrocarbons produced will de- pend upon the conditions of temperature and pressure under which they are formed. It is obvious that these may vary between very wide limits ; and henceit is that mineral oils, mineral pitch, ozokerite, and similar products differ so greatly from each other in the rela- tive proportions of hydrogen and carbon. I may mention that artificial petroleum has been frequently prepared by a process analogous to that described above. Such is the theory of the distinguished philosopher, who has framed it not alone upon his wide chemical knowledge, but also upon the practical experience derived from visiting officially the principal oil-producing districts of Europe and America, from dis- cussing the subject with able men deeply interested in the oil in- dustry, and from collecting all the available literature on the sub- ject. It is needless to remark that Dr. Mendeleeff’s views are not shared by every competent authority ; nevertheless the remarkable permanence of oil-wells, the apparently inexhaustible evolution of hydrocarbon gases in certain regions, almost forces one to believe that the hydrocarbon products must be forming as fast as they are consumed, that there is little danger of the demand ever exceeding the supply, and that there is every prospect of oil being found in almost every portion of the surface of the earth, especially in the vicinity of great geological disturbances. Improved methods of boring wells will enable greater depths to be reached ; and it should be remembered, that, apart from the cost of sinking a deep well, there is no extra expense in working at great depths, because the oil generally rises to the surface or near it. The extraordinary pressures, amounting to three hundred pounds per square inch, which have been measured in some wells, seem to me to yield con- clusive evidence of the impermeability of the strata from under which the oil has been forced up, and tend to confirm the view that it must have been formed in regions far below any which could have contained organic remains. AT Reykjavik a society has just been established, under the presidentship of Professor B. Grondal, called the Icelandic Natural- ists’ Society, the chief aim of which is to found a museum of natural history for Iceland, to be the property of the country. For this purpose it is not only intended to collect specimens of the fauna, flora, and mineral deposits of Iceland, but also to obtain by ex- change, or in any other convenient manner, specimens from abroad. SCMEINGE: [VoL. XIV. No. 348 OPEN-AIR TRAVEL AS A CURER AND PREVENTER OF CONSUMPTION, AS SEEN IN THE HISTORY OF A NEW ENGLAND FAMILY. ‘* For my own part, I intend to hunt twice a week during my stay with Sir Roger ; and I shall prescribe the moderate use of this exercise to all my country friends as the best kind of physic for mending a bad and preserving a good one.’’ —Sir Roger de Coverdey, chapter xiii. p. ror, Goldschmidt, Edinburgh, 1889. IT is a curious coincidence, that, at the same meeting of the Cli- matological Association, the president should give you some infor- mation gleaned from my recorded cases as to the connection of pleurisy with phthisis, and I should present the history of my father,” cured, as I believe, of severe phthisical symptoms by a journey in an open chaise, and by persistent daily walking of from five to six miles during the rest of his life. In connection with this, I shall endeavor to show, that, by the same persistent open-air treatment of his children during their periods of growth, he was able to prevent the occurrence of the same disease in a large num- ber of his descendants, who, in consequence of himself and his wife being tuberculous, and also first-cousins, must have been very strongly predisposed to it.® I have a record of this journey as kept by my father in 1808, when he was thirty-five years of age. I found it recently, tied up in a bundle of old papers which had been resting quietly hidden for over half a century. It is a very compact, precisely written statement of that journey, showing, indirectly at least, its benign effects upon him. It is eminently suggestive to me of the proper treatment of cer- tain cases of phthisis ; and, in the hope that it will be suggestive to others also, I now lay it before this society. To some sensitive minds it may seem to be of too private and personal a character to be placed thus freely before any public assembly. I have no such feeling when questions of human health and happiness are in- volved. In 1808 my father was undoubtedly threatened with consump- tion. He had cough, hemoptysis, anorexia, diarrhoea, and general malaise, with fever and great debility. On Aug. 29 of that year, when thus ill, he started, with a friend as his companion and driv- er, in an open, one-horse chaise for a tour through New Eng- land. At that time it will be recollected that there were no cars, and travel was had in one’s own carriage or in public coaches holding nine persons. These were driven over turn- pikes or private roads. There were hotels, more or less com- fortable, at which travellers could sleep and get food, in every town. This record lets us more or less distinctly into the feelings, physi- cal and mental, of every day of the month during which the jour- ney lasted. A glance at the map* will show that the travellers went from Salem, Mass., down into Rhode Island, thence by way of Connecticut up through the hills of western Massachusetts to Albany and Troy, and back through Massachusetts to New Hamp- shire, Vermont, and Maine, and then to the home from which he started. During the trip he travelled 748 miles, passed through 113 towns and cities, and the time spent in this daily open-air ex- ercise was thirty days. During that time he went through all stages of feeling of mental discouragement and of physical weak- ness up to a real enjoyment of life. Allow me to refer briefly to these changes. Starting from Sa- 1 Read before the American Climatological Association, June, 1889, by Henry L. Bowditch, M.D., of Boston, Mass. 2 Capt. Nathaniel Bowditch, the father of American mathematics. 3 | am well aware, that, since the brilliant discovery by Koch of the bacillus tu- berculosis, some writers deny that phthisis can be inherited. But surely this opinion I cannot think true. All my medical experience is directly against it. Moreover, we all admit that a certain deterioration of the vital power of the whole, or an abrasion of a part, of the body, is necessary for the life and propagation of the bacillus and consequent production of tubercular phthisis. Hence, as far as active out-of-door life tends to the production of perfect health in a person or a family, it would seem, a priori, that the course pursued by my father, which undoubtedly was of such infi- nite service in his own case toward the cure of phthisis, must have been of great use to his children as a preventive, by making them all robust from their earliest years. By so doing he opposed any tendency to poor constitutions, impressed on them from their births ; which tendencies, if they had not been counteracted from early life, would, I believe, have made his descendants easy recipients of phthisis. 4 A large map was shown at the meeting, marked by circles on the towns where the nights were passed. These circles were entirely black at first, indicating great de- pression of mind and body, and they became gradually lighter as the patient got bet- ter. Those over the last half of the journey were not only free from any shade, but were surrounded by a red border, indicating the comfortable feeling of returning health. OcrozeR 4, 1880. | lem (black) with the prominent signs of phthisis, he was so much exhausted, and had hemoptysis after a drive of twenty-five miles to Milton, that the landlord of the hotel advised his friend totake him home to die, as he could not possibly drive to Taunton the next day, as proposed. I derive this last statement, not from the jour- nal, but from family tradition. The travellers were both of them plucky, and not only made that next day’s journey, but the sick man felt somewhat better at evening, and notes in the latter part of his record the condition of the country before arriving at Taun- ton. His fifty miles since leaving Salem had evidently done no harm, but rather good. Anorexia had gone, as he “ dined ” (with relish, apparently, because he could get nothing else) “on bacon and eggs.” Arrived at New Bedford next day, he feels able to visit a friend. He examines a factory. He makes remarks on the inhabitants he met and their employments. Though still having some fever, he feels so much better that much darkness is removed fromthe circle. Still more refreshed after a night’s sleep, and hav- ing still less fever, he visits a coal-mine recently discovered in the vicinity. From this time there is almost steady improvement. He visits Newport (109 miles from Salem), admires the harbor, but notices its lack of shipping (to which in Salem, with its fleets of ships and their long, wealth-bringing East India voyages, he had been long accustomed). At Providence (141 miles from Salem) he finds friends, and has pleasant meeting with them. Nothing is said of illness. On the contrary, he has his “ Rosinante harnessed ’”’ the next day, with the intention of driving out of his intended route, in order to visit the cotton-factories at Pawtucket Falls. Arriving at Hartford (195 miles from Salem), he is altogether better, finds good fare and a fine hotel. He meets there the judges in their circuit, and has pleasant and profitable conversation with them at the hotel at which they were stopping for the night. At New Haven (256 miles from Salem, and twelve days of open- air travel) he calls on President Dwight of Yale College, and re- grets that the eminent Professor Silliman is absent, He visits the library, and finds it wanting in most of the modern English, French, and German scientific works he had been so long ac- quainted with, and had studied in Salem. At New Haven he makes, for the last time, any allusion to his health, in the following words: “I have a little pain in my breast, but my appetite and general health are good.” After this date, till he arrived home, his record seems like that of a common traveller. He makes no complaints, but describes brightly the places, friends, and others met, exactly as if he were well, and travelling for pleasure only. At Albany he makes an especial and extra journey to Troy with a party of transiently met friends, leaving his chaise for nearly two days in the former city. He found the trip ‘very pleasant.” On return to Albany from Troy, he had driven 432 miles in nineteen days. Starting for home, he appears delighted while travelling through a “picturesque ”’ country, and meeting at the various hotels intelli- gent company whose society he was able generally to enjoy.1_ He visits the village of Canaan, and describes in detail what he saw of the Shakers, and heard an extraordinary sermon delivered a¢ him, among others, as one of the “outside mankind.” I forbear quot- ing from it. His appetite was becoming ravenous: They would not give him at one tavern, as he says, “ half as much as I wanted for my dinner.” Finally he arrived home at Salem, so the record _ States, “in much better health than he had when starting.” His subsequent course in regard to himself and to his children induces me to believe that the journey, though benefiting him im- mensely, had not wholly cured him; but it had proved to him the absolute need he had of regular, daily, physical, open-air exercise. Afterward, under walks of one and a half to two miles, taken three times daily during thirty years of life, all pulmonary troubles disap- peared. He died in 1838, from carcinoma of the stomach, one lung presenting evidences of an ancient cicatrix at its apex, both being otherwise normal. He was sixty-five years old; i.e., thirty years after the journey. 1 This was not always the case, however, for at one town he met one gentleman, ‘““a member of Congress,” who was apparently stupid enough. “‘ He scarcely spoke a syllable during the evening.”’ SCIENCE. 231 Having thus experienced in his own case the vast benefits re- sulting from constant, regular exercise out of doors, he apparently determined that his children should be early instructed in the same course. As soon as we were old enough, he required of us daily morning walks down to a certain well-known divine’s meeting- house, about three-quarters of a mile or a mile from our home, I remember them very well for the tricks played with my brothers on our way down, and for sundry twinges of conscience, felt even at this moment, at the thought that we sometimes decided that the sight of the “‘ weathercock on Dr. Bentley’s steeple,’ though seen more than a quarter of a mile from our proper destination, was near enough to our father’s directions. If any of us, while attending school, were observed to be droop- ing, or made the least pretence even to being not “ exactly well,” he took us from school, and very often sent us to the country to have farm-life and out-of-door ‘ play to our hearts’ content.” Once he told me to go and play, and to “‘ stay away from study as long as you choose.” In fact, he believed heartily in the old Roman maxim of “a healthy mind in a healthy body.” In consequence of this early instruction, all of his descendants have become thor- oughly impressed with the advantages of daily walking, of summer vacations in the country, and of camping out, etc., among the mountains. These habits have been transmitted, I think, to his grandchildren in a stronger form, if possible, than he himself had them. You will readily agree with me that such habits are among the surest guaranties against the prevalence of phthisis in a family. Before detailing the actual result of these habits upon our family, I must state the prospective chances of our escape from the mal- ady. My father married his cousin, who, after long invalidism, died of chronic phthisis in 1834. Certainly a consanguineous union of two consumptives foreboded nothing but evil. They had eight children (born respectively in the years 1805, 1806, 1808, 1809, 1813, 1816, 1819, 1823). Two (born 1809 and 1813; i.e., one and five years after the journey) died, one at eleven, and the other at birth. All the others either are now alive, or they arrived at adult life and married, and have had children and grandchildren, but not a trace of phthisis has appeared in any of these ninety-three * per- sons. Now, I ask the consideration of this question: To what cause can we attribute this extraordinary immunity from the disease which is generally regarded as showing the influence of heredity and of consanguineous unions more, perhaps, than most other com- plaints ? f If any one can see any other explanation than the influence of this original journey upon the health of one of the great-great-grand- parents, conjoined with his wise management of his own health subsequently, and his fastening upon his descendants, even to the present day, the virtues of open-air life, I hope he will frankly say so. Truth should be forever our motto; and the man who will convince me of the error of any scientific, or apparently scientific, statement I may utter, and which, if not corrected, may lead others astray, I regard not as an opponent, but as my foremost friend. I submit these facts and thoughts for candid, mature, and prac- tical consideration and use in the treatment all are called to make of this terrible scourge of all parts of this Union. For my own part, I fully believe that many patients now die from want of this open-air treatment. For years I have directed every phthisical pa- tient to walk daily from three to six miles ; never to stay all day at home unless a violent storm be raging. When they are in doubt about going out, owing to “ bad weather,” I direct them to “solve the doubt, not by staying in the house, but by going out.” A cloudy day, or a mild rain, or the coldest weather, should not deter them. If the weather be very cold, let them put on respira- tors before leaving the house, and be thoroughly wrapped in proper clothing for the season. I direct them never to stand still and gossip with friends in the open street, as by so doing they are much more liable to get a chill than while walking. Hence, summer and winter alike, my patients usually get plenty of fresh air, uncontami- 1 The number of their descendants amounts now (1889) to 8 children, 31 grand- children, 50 great-grandchildren, 4 great-great-grandchildren: total 93. It may be noted, that, of the two who were born in 1809 and 1813, one died when eleven years old (1820), and the other at birth (1813); while the writer and reader of this paper was born twenty days before the journey began. 232 nated, in a great part at least, by the previous breathing of it by themselves or by other occupants of the house. This course, I be- lieve, might be pursued in any part of our common country. I am certain that I know of patients who have become well, and able to attend to the business of life, under this course. May we not also at times send our patients over short distances in open vehicles, in- stead of thousands of miles off in ill-ventilated cars to an entirely different climate? Have any of us ever sufficiently tried this open- air journeying at home, so to speak; that is, in the region of the country where the patient lives, wherever that may be ? Certainly this proposed course has at least two sound physio- logical principles in its favor: viz., a gentle exercise, for many hours in each day, of the whole frame; and an almost perpetual change of air drawn in with each respiratory act, as occurs while driving in a carriage open at the front, and in walking. I have no objection to drugs, properly chosen, and I almost always adminis- ter them; but if the choice were given me to stay in the house and use medicines, or to live constantly in the open air without them, I should infinitely prefer the latter course in case of my being threa- tened with pulmonary consumption. HEALTH MATTERS. Typhoid-Fever should be reported to the Health-Officer. TYPHOID-FEVER is a disease which the State Board of Health of Michigan has declared to be “‘ dangerous to the public health,” and as such it comes under the law requiring physicians to report to the health-officials. Any physician who shall neglect to immedi- ately give such notice “ shall forfeit for each such offence a sum not less than fifty nor more than one hundred dollars.” After Oct. 1, any householder who shall refuse or wilfully neglect immediately to give such notice shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and is liable to a fine of one hundred dollars, or, in default of payment thereof, may be punished by imprisonment in the county jail not exceeding ninety days. It seems important that the people generally shall understand this new law, which applies to scarlet-fever, diphtheria, small-pox, and all such dangerous diseases, as well as to typhoid-fever ; but at this time of the year typhoid-fever is usually most prevalent, and it is especially dangerous in times of drought: therefore the safety of the people may now be greatly promoted by having every case of typhoid-fever reported to the health-officer, who is by law (Section 1, Act 137, Laws of 1883) required to promptly attend to the re- striction of every such disease. A new law, which takes effect Oct. 1, makes it a misdemeanor, punishable by fine or imprisonment, for the health-officer knowingly to violate that section of the law, or for any person knowingly to violate the orders of the health-officer made in accordance with that section. But the actual penalties which are incurred by the violation of these laws are the death penalties to many of the people, about one thousand being lost in Michigan in each year from typhoid-fever. The saving of a large proportion of these lives is the real reason for the effort, in which it is hoped all the people will join, for the restriction of typhoid- fever and other dangerous diseases. > HOW MUCH SHOULD A CITY PAY ITS HEALTH-OFFICER ? — The Michigan State Board of Health has recently published a paper by its secretary, Dr. H. B. Baker, in which he asks the ques- tion how much the average city or village can afford to pay its health-officer. He answers this question in this way: “‘ Statistics which cannot be questioned prove, that, in those localities in Mich- igan where the recommendations of the State Board of Health are carried out, about eighty per cent of the deaths from diphtheria and scarlet-fever are prevented by the thorough isolation of all infected persons, and the thorough disinfection of all infected persons, things, and places. Statisticians usually value a person in the prime of life as worth to the community about one thousand dollars.” Dr, Baker thinks that in a village of fifteen hundred inhabitants a health officer can easily save the lives of two children and one grown per- son in each year, and he concludes that such a village can well afford to pay its health-officer two thousand dollars for the pre- vention and restriction of scarlet-fever, diphtheria, and typhoid- fever — and make money by the transaction. SCIENCE INGENUITY OF CRIMINALS. — The Medzcal Press and Circular finds in an Indian contemporary some curious instances of mis- applied ingenuity on the part of certain habitual criminals in that country. The discovery ona prisoner of a heavy leaden bullet about three-quarters of an inch in diameter led to an inquiry into the object to which it was applied. It was ascertained that it served to bring about the formation of a pouch-like recess at the base of the epiglottis. The ball is allowed to slide down to the desired position, and it is retained there for about half an hour at a time. This operation is repeated many times daily until a pouch the de- sired size results, in which criminals contrive to secrete jewels, money, etc., in such a way as to defy the most careful search, and without interfering in any way with speech or respiration. Upwards of twenty prisoners at Calcutta were found to be provided with this pouch formation. The resources of the professional malingerer are exceedingly varied, and testify to no small amount of cunning. The taking of internal irritants is very common, but would-be in- patients very frequently overshoot the mark, and render recovery impossible. Castor-oil seeds, croton beans, and sundry other agents are employed with this object in view, and the medical officers of Indian prisons have to be continually on the lookout for artificially induced diseases, which baffle diagnosis and resist treat- ment. Army surgeons are not altogether unfamiliar with these tricks, but the British soldier is a mere child in such matters com- pared with the artful Hindoos. REGULATION OF BREATHING IN SEASICKNESS. — Dr. Ivan A. Mitropolsky of Moscow recommends, on the ground of his own ex- perience, the following simple method for preventing or aborting all symptoms of seasickness. According to The Medical Record, as soon as giddiness, nausea, etc., appear, the author shuts his eyes, and begins to make deep and slow inspirations and expirations. In a few moments (sometimes after three or four respiratory cycles) the symptoms disappear to yield to a comfortable subjective sen- sation. On their re-appearance, the same procedure is repeated again and again. If the recurrence be rather frequent, it is bet- ter to perform the procedure in a recumbent posture (with closed eyes). Since the time the author has begun to practise the method, he never yet suffered from vomiting when on board. In referring to this case in the London Medzcal Recorder, Dr. Idelson says that Dr. Mitropolsky seems to think that the means proposed by him is novel. Meanwhile, in the Brztzsh Medical Journal, March 24, 1888, p. 676, he will find a very interesting note by Dr. J. J. Leiser, in which the writer says (1) that seasickness is caused by irregular and imperfect respiration, leading necessarily to an inadequate aération of the patient’s blood, which consequently becomes poisonous to his brain, and gives rise to sympathetic sickness; (2) that a system of regular, free breathing prevents sickness, or rapidly relieves it; and (3) that his experiments were successfully repeated by Drs. G. C. Stockman and C. W. C. Prentice, who, hav- ing selected ten suffering passengers, each seated himself with five of them, and “timed the breathing in the following manner: they (the doctors) raised the hand from the knee, indicating an inspira- tion, and down again for an expiration, thus timing the respirations to exactly twenty per minute. At the expiration of one hour the active symptoms in each case had entirely subsided.” By this time the doctors had thoroughly educated their patients in the modus operandi of the cure. The cases continued to be permanent “cures” during the remainder of the voyage from Queenstown to the United States. The writers conclude by asserting that “the cure is infallible in all cases that persist in carrying it out.” Hot-A1iR INHALATIONS IN CONSUMPTION. — From experi- ments in a number of cases, Dr. E. L. Trudeau of Saranac Lake, N.Y., concludes that (1) the therapeutic value of hot-air inhalations in phthisis is doubtful; and (2) the evidence obtained by the bac- teriological study of the cases presented does not confirm the as- sumption that inhalations of heated air can either prevent the zrowth of the tubercle bacillus in the lungs of living individuals or diminish the virulence of this microbe when it has gained access to them. THE BREEDING OF SINNERS.— The French Government hopes, apparently, by promoting marriages between male and female con- victs, to bring back these stray sheep into the fold of morality and [Vot. XIV. No. 348 OcTOBER 4, 1880. | good conduct. Arrangements have accordingly been made, says the Hospztal Gazette, to facilitate these unions ; but physiologists and pathologists must feel sundry qualms as to the expediency of such a course. The physical and moral degradation of many of these social waifs is distinctly hereditary ; and a careful moral train- ing (which is not provided for) would, at the most, only modify the tendencies which have brought them within the clutches of the criminal law. The son of a poet is not of necessity a poet, but the offspring of a bawd or an assassin is extremely likely to develop the same proclivities. If even one of the parties to the transaction were worthy of respect, some regeneration might be hoped for ; but the association of two hopelessly abandoned bodies and souls is not calculated to improve matters in any respect whatever. A CENTENARIAN SURGEON. —The Padrza of Buenos Ayres affirms that there is now in Bolivia a surgeon, Luca Silva by name, whose age is not less than one hundred and twenty-nine years, He was born in Cochabamba in 1760, and devoted himself, after graduating in medicine, to the practice of surgery. He rendered important service to his country, when, after the famous manifesto of June 16, 1809, she entered on her struggle for independence. His treatment of the wounded, particularly his operations on the field of battle, won him high distinction. He also earned signal honor in the combatant ranks. This parallels the case of Dr. Holyoke of Salem, Mass., who practised his profession for upward of eighty years, his visit-books being still extant showing the rec- ord from beginning to end. BACILLI ON A BALD HEAD.— Dr. Saymonne claims to have isolated a bacillus, called by him “bacillus crinivorax,” which is the cause of alopecia. It is, he says, found only on the scalp of man, other hirsute parts of the body and also the fur of animals being free from it. The bacilli invade the hair-follicles, and make the hair very brittle, so that they break off to the skin. Then the roots themselves are attacked. If the microbes can be destroyed early in the disease, the vitality of the hairs may be preserved; but after the follicles are invaded, and all their structures injured, the baldness is incurable. The following is Dr. Saymonne’s remedy to prevent baldness: Ten parts crude cod-liver oil, ten parts of the expressed juice of onions, and five parts of mucilage or the yolk of an egg, are thoroughly shaken together, and the mixture applied to the scalp, and well rubbed in, once a week. This, he asserts, will certainly bring back the hair if the roots are not al- ready destroyed ; but the application of the remedy, as Te Medzcal Record well observes, must be very distressing to the patient’s friends and neighbors. ELECTRICAL NEWS. ELECTRIC LIGHTING FROM PRIMARY BATTERIES. — The chromic chloride primary batteries of Commandant Renard seem to be enjoying some success abroad. Thirty-six cells of this bat- tery are deemed sufficient to run a 300-candle-power arc-lamp, and it is claimed that a g00-candle-power arc-lamp can be run from 42 of these cells. The cost per candle-power hour is estimated to be about one-fifth of a penny. A number of primary batteries have been introduced in this country for the purpose of electric lighting, and much money has been spent in patenting and placing them upon the market. As far as we know, they have never realized an approach to commercial success. Sr. Louis ELECTRICAL EXPOSITION.— This exposition is being held at St. Louis, and is certainly a very attractive feature in that city just now. A number of prominent exhibiters are repre- sented. Among the miscellaneous exhibits are those of the Writ- ing Telegraph Company of New York, the Electric Date and Time Stamp Company of St. Louis, the Graphophone-Phonograph Com- pany of New York, and the American Waltham Watch Company of Boston, Mass., to say nothing of other companies manufacturing miscellaneous devices. The parent electric manufacturing compa- nies are well represented, both as to fersonme? and machinery. Besides apparatus of a strictly electrical character, one finds leather belting, steam-engines, feed-water heaters, water-wheels, wire, etc., which all are day by day assuming a closer relation to the electric- lighting industry. One of the most interesting exhibits is the elec- SCIENCE. 233 tric welding apparatus shown by the Thomson Electric Welding Company of Boston. It is not generally known just how complete and satisfactory this process is, and the company are taking advan- tage of the splendid opportunity now offered them in St. Louis to show and do all varieties of welding-work in the exposition build- ing. Another device that seems to be appreciated by ladies and practical-minded husbands is the electric heater of the Burton Electric Heater Company of Richmond, Va. This heater is in actual use, cooking beefsteak, eggs, etc.; the inventor taking this opportunity of showing just what electricity is destined to do in the way of culinary and general heating attainment. Almost every thing and every body electrical are represented, notwithstanding which fact the exposition cannot be said to equal that in Chicago on the occasion of the annual meeting of the National Electric Light Association last February. VOLATILIZATION OF METALS. — A correspondent of the Revue Internationale de l Electrictté writes, ‘‘We have received from M. Gaston Seguy, who is not only a clever glass-blower, but also an intelligent observer, two samples of tubes in which the volatiliza- tion of metals in a vacuum by the passing of the electric current has given rise to some curious phenomena, which we are unable to explain satisfactorily. We therefore confine ourselves to submit- ting to our readers the result of these experiments, hoping that perhaps one of them will be able to indicate on what theory we can base our facts. A glass tube three centimetres in diameter is closed at the two extremities, and to each end is soldered an elec- trode of platinum or copper of the form shown in the adjoining figure. Through a nipple on the side of the tube a vacuum equal to that of the Geissler tubes is produced by means of a mercury-pump ; then the current of a powerful induction-coil (three-tenths of a metre spark at least) is passed through. The metal is then vola- tilized at the negative pole, and is deposited on the sides of the glass, producing a black discoloration for platinum, and yellow for copper. The metallization of the sides of the tube is more rapid in proportion as the diameter is smaller; but in any case it pro- duces this curious phenomenon, to which we wish to call attention : it does not take place at all on either side on that part of the tube placed directly opposite the plane of the electrode, as we can easily see by placing the tube before a sheet of white paper. The reserva- tion thus obtained exactly reproduces the external form of the electrode; but what is still more curious is, that the angles of this outline do not correspond to the angles of the electrode, but come opposite the straight lines, as shown in the accompanying figure. These are phenomena similar to those observed by Crookes, Jamin, and Goltein; and we think, that, in order to facilitate an explana- tion of them, it is better not to pass them by in silence, but, on the contrary, to note them with all their peculiarities every time we observe them.” NOTES AND NEWS. On Friday evening, Sept. 6, the Nevada Academy of Sciences held its first working meeting, upon which occasion Gen. C. W. Irish read a very interesting paper on “ The Air-Currents of West- ern Nevada.” The officers of this new scientific society are, presi- dent, Gen. C. W. Irish, surveyor-general of Nevada; vice-president, C. W. Friend, director Nevada State Weather Service; secretary, Professor R. D. Jackson, State University; treasurer, J. Rankin; executive committee, the president, secretary, and the follow- ing, — Dr. LeRoy D. Brown, State University ; Professor W. McN. Miller, State University ; and E. M. Van Harlengen. 234 — Dr. S. Weir Mitchell of Philadelphia has been elected presi- dent of the Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, which meets in Washington in September, 1891. — Herbert Spencer, according to a London correspondent of the New York Suz, has returned to London with his autobiography completed up to the present time. It is not to be published until after his death, but he is making preparations for it to be produced then on both sides of the Atlantic simultaneously. The manu- script has been put into type, and three proofs only are taken, all of which are sent to him. Before the type is distributed, two moulds are taken for stereotyping, one of which is to be sent to America, where Spencer is more widely read than in England, to be used immediately upon his death. — Professor L. H. Bailey, of the Agricultural Experiment Sta- tion of Cornell University, sent a large number of circulars to lead- ing fruit-growers in New York and Michigan, asking for definite information in regard to windbreaks, and, as a general summary of the result, makes the following statements : — 1. A windbreak may exert great influence upon a fruit plantation. 2. The benefits de- rived from windbreaks are the following: protection from cold, lessening of evaporation from soil and plants, lessening of wind- falls, lessening of liability to mechanical injury of trees, retention of snow and leaves, facilitating of labor, protection of blossoms from severe winds, enabling trees to grow more erect, lessening of injury from the drying-up of small-fruits, retention of sand in certain lo- calities, hastening of maturity of fruits in some cases, encourage- ment of birds, ornamentation. 3. The injuries sustained from windbreaks are as follows: preventing the free circulation of warm winds and consequent exposure to cold, injuries from insects and fungous diseases, injuries from the encroachment of the windbreak itself, increased liability to late spring frosts in rare cases: (a) The injury from cold, still air is usually confined to those localities which are directly influenced by large bodies of water, and which are protected by forest belts (it can be avoided by planting thin belts); (4) The injury from insects can be averted by spraying with arsenical poisons; (¢) The injury from the encroachment of the windbreak may be averted, in part at least, by good cultivation and by planting the fruit simultaneously with the belt. 4. Windbreaks are advantageous wherever fruit plantations are exposed to strong winds. 5. In interior places, dense or broad belts, of two or more rows of trees, are desirable; while, within the influence of large bodies of water, thin or narrow belts, comprising but a row or two, are usually preferable. 6. The best trees for windbreaks in the North-eastern States are Norway spruce, and Austrian and Scotch pines, among the evergreens. Among deciduous trees, most of the rapidly growing native species are useful. A mixed plantation, with the hardiest and most vigorous deciduous trees on the wind- ward, is probably the ideal artificial shelter belt. — By permission of the trustees of the Lowell Institute, Boston, the curator, Professor Alpheus Hyatt, is enabled to distribute a limited number of tickets to teachers of private schools and mem- bers of the Boston Society of Natural History who desire to attend the course of lectures described below. Applications for tickets should be made immediately at the library in the society’s building, Professor W. O. Crosby will give a course of ten lessons during the winter of 1889-90, upon the physical history of the Boston Basin. The course of lessons on the geology of Boston and vicinity given last winter was devoted to a general and systematic study of the geological phenomena of the Boston Basin, in which the various principles of dynamical and structural geology were taken up in the order of the text-book, and studied in connection with those localities in which they could be most satisfactorily illustrated, each class of phenomena being referred only to that part of the basin in which it had its finest development. This comprehensive course in geology may therefore be regarded as having formed a suitable preparation for the lessons to be given during the coming winter. The principal object of this second series of lessons will be to apply the principles of the first series to a thorough and detailed study of the physical history of the Boston Basin. Each important locality or natural division of the Boston Basin will form the subject of a separate lesson, in which its structural features, and, so far as they can be made out, the more important events of its history, will be SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 348 presented as fully as the time will permit. Special attention will be given to tracing the relations of the existing surface feature of each district to its geological structure, and thus connecting the physical geography and geology of the region. The concluding lessons will summarize the results of these detailed studies; and an attempt will be made to present a picture of the Boston Basin at each principal epoch of its history. The course will be freely illustrated by specimens, maps, and diagrams, and also by a relief map or model of the Boston Basin, which will be colored to repre- sent geological features. The lessons will be given, as usual, in Huntington Hall, in the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, beginning Oct. 12. Doors will be closed at 3 P.M. — A tramcar line is being constructed in the Argentine Repub- lic which will connect Buenos Ayres with the outlying towns, and will, when finished, extend over two hundred miles. The cars will be drawn: by horses, which are cheap and plentiful in South America; while fuel, both wood and coal, is scarce and expensive. The rolling-stock consists of five sleeping-cars eighteen feet long, each with six beds, which in the day-time are rolled back to form seats; four two-storied carriages; twenty platform-carriages ; six ice-wagons ; four cattle-trucks ; and two hundred goods vans. — Professor J. B. Smith, entomologist of the New Jersey Experi- ment Station, in a recent bulletin, tells the farmers and gardeners of the State how they can help him in his investigation of insect- pests. His first counsel is to be prompt, instead of waiting till the damage is done and the pests have disappeared; and he adds, “Do not waste time in describing insects. Send specimens, and send plenty of them. If an insect is really injurious, it is as easy to get a dozen as it is to get one, and it makes it a great deal easier for the entomologist. He wants two or three to put in alcohol, so that he will know them next time; the others he wants to bring to maturity, or to describe or figure so as to complete his knowledge of them. Such specimens, if dead, should be packed in some soft material, as cotton or wool, and put into a stout tin or wooden box. They go by mail for one cent per ounce. Never send insects loose in a letter. The postal-clerk always smashes them flat, so that they are never of any use as specimens, and frequently not recog- nizable. With the specimen send also, so far as possible, a sam- ple of the kind of injury caused by it, —a bored twig or root, or gnawed stem, fruit, or leaf, — any thing to show how the insect works. If at all possible, send the insects alive, along with a sup- ply of their ordinary food sufficient to last during the journey. Pack them in a tight box, and do not punch air-holes in it. In- sects need very little air, and the tight box keeps the food moist. Send with the insect an account of what you know of it, — how it works, whether on leaves, twigs, or fruit, whether above ground or under ground ; how long you have known it ; how much damage it has done; what experiments looking to its destruction have been made, and what the result has been. Such facts are often not only of the highest scientific interest, but also of the greatest prac- tical importance.” — Among other reports received by the United States Hydro- graphic Office, we would call attention to two, — one from Capt. James P. White, of the American schooner “ Ada Bailey,” who re- ports that he used oil with wonderful effect in the late storm, and did not ship any water after he got his oil-bag over the side of the vessel. He always uses a cone-shaped bag stuffed half full of oakum, and prefers kerosene to any other oil. He says that he has been using it for five or six years, and believes that it is better than a thicker oil, although he has mixed fish-oil with kerosene, obtain- ing good results. It is his custom to keep a supply of oil always on hand for this purpose, and he uses from one to three barrels of oil every long cruise. The other was from Capt. McCrae, of the British schooner “ Atwood,” dated Sept. 9, in which he stated that when about 45 miles south of Sandy Hook, wind north-east, and a tremendous sea running, the jibs were washed away from off the bowsprit and jibboom, and bowsprit and mainmast sprung. Tre- mendous seas coming aboard smashed down the after-companion- way, bent the stern boat-davits, carried away the boat, and broke the rails. He used paint-oil mixed with kerosene and grease in canvas bags, hung from forward aft on the weather side, keeping them replenished every six hours. The oil proved a great benefit, OcToOBER 4, 1880. | as the seas broke over no more; and the captain is of the opinion that the vessel was saved from further damage. During the 9th the vessel was hove to to a drag. — The Natural Science Association of Staten Island was organ- ized Nov. 12, 1881, with a membership of fourteen, and during the first two years of its existence no records were published. It was thought better to first ascertain, by actual experience, whether the association was reasonably sure of becoming a permanent institu- tion. At the end of this period the steady growth which it showed both in membership and contributions, and the encouraging recog- nition which was received from all directions, seemed to justify the experiment. Accordingly the publication of the “ Proceedings” was begun. These have since been issued, without interruption up to the present time, partly in the form of records of the regular meetings of the association, and partly as “extras” or “ specials,” which latter were published at such times as were found to be most convenient. It was decided at the beginning to print only such material as was of strictly local interest, in the firm conviction that the chief value of the “ Proceedings’ would be to serve as authentic records of facts in regard to the natural history and antiquities of the island. If such records had been kept during the past fifty years, many items of value and interest would have been preserved, which are now either lost entirely or else amount to mere uncertain tradition. Even within the past five years the rapid growth of the community has obliterated many of the most interesting natural objects, and these “ Proceedings” are now the only definite records that they ever existed, and contain the only published authentic facts in connection with them. — A congress composed of planters, exporters, and persons in- terested in the sugar-production of Java, has been held at Sama- rang. The object of this congress was mainly to discuss the cause and cure of the nematode attacks on the cane-roots, there called the “sereh” disease, which is now spreading most rapidly and disastrously through the cane-fields of western and central Java, having: been first discovered on the island only three years ago in plantations near Cheribon, a seaport town on the north coast 125 miles to the eastward from Batavia. The congress subscribed a fund of $90,000 for the purpose of engaging a bacteriologist from Europe to visit the island, investigate the disease, and propose its remedy. The nematodes reduce not only the quantity of the sugar-crop, but its quality as well, and the subject is therefore of the utmost importance in cane-growing regions. — The second report of the Chinese prize-essay scheme, in con- nection with the Chinese Polytechnic Institution and Reading- Rooms, Shanghai, has been printed, and the following particulars are extracted from it: Since the last report, which was published in 1887, the scheme has been steadily worked, and has now ex- panded into far more extensive proportions. By its means the existence of the Polytechnic Institution has become known far and wide, the co-operation of some of the highest officials in the empire secured, and an interest in Western ideas has been created in some of the most influential quarters. By the annual expenditure of only a hundred taels or thereabouts, and by working in harmony with the Chinese methods of thought, and time-honored systems of literary competition, a result has been obtained which the use of large sums of money in other ways would have failed to produce. The various other officials who have taken part in this undertaking have generally shown a wonderful insight into the needs of China at the present time; and although their questions relate, perhaps, more to political economy and commerce than to the severer branches of science, it is still gratifying to see how patriotic they are, and how they regard knowledge from the practical, utilitarian point of view rather than from the theoretical alone. The follow- ing questions are taken from the list of subjects given by the vari- ous high officials: Write a discourse on the naval defences of China. What ought China at the present time to regard as of the foremost importance in her endeavors to improve in wealth and power? What advantages and disadvantages would China realize by the establishment of railways? Compare the sciences of China and the West, showing their points of difference and similarity. How can the evils attending the introduction of telegraphs and steamboats in China be removed, and the benefits be rendered per- SGLENCE 235 manent? What is the cause of the present unprofitable state of the trade in tea and silk, and how can the difficulties be remedied ? The calamities of inundations and droughts, how can they be pro- vided against in ordinary times ; and when they happen, how can they be remedied or ameliorated ? — The annual meeting of the American Forestry Congress will begin in Philadelphia Oct. 15, and continue four days. The ses- sions are to be held in Horticultural Hall, Broad Street, and Gov. James A. Beaver will preside. A number of interesting papers upon forestry and kindred subjects have been prepared, while, through the liberality of citizens and organizations, courtesies have been promised to those attending the congress which will make the meeting most enjoyable. — Recent advices from one of the California agents of the United States Entomological Bureau, Mr. D. W. Coquillett, show that the published statements in the California newspapers of late date, to the effect that the plum curculio has made its appearance in Los Angeles County, are entirely unfounded. Fuller’s rose-beetle (Aramigus fullerz) has been mistaken for Conotrachelus nenuphar. The rose-beetle has been found to be very destructive in that vicin- ity to the leaves of evergreen oaks, camellias, palms ( Washingtonza Jillifera), Canna indica, and several other plants. — At Marseilles, Bordeaux, and Poitiers public exhibitions of hypnotism have been forbidden. The Paris correspondent of the Lritish Medzcal Journal writes, “The Departmental Council of Public Health advised the rector of the Academy to take this step in the districts under his authority, and he wisely followed the good advice. In Belgium, Geneva, and Mecklenburg-Schwerin they are likewise forbidden. In Paris, unfortunately, unwise doctors can show off their patients, and quacks follow in their steps with un- wholesome imitations.” — Dr. George M. Sternberg, surgeon in the United States Army, has just returned from a six-months’ stay in Cuba, where he has been continuing his researches with reference to yellow-fever. He has brought with him specimens of microbes, with which he will continue his investigations during the winter at the Johns Hopkins University. At the end of this time he hopes to present a general report of his investigations to President Harrison. “ My researches,” says Dr. Sternberg, “have not led to a positive demonstration of the specific cause of the disease ; but I have isolated a considerable number of pathogenic bacilli, disease-producing germs, from the intestines of yellow-fever cases, and have strong hopes that one or more of these may prove to be the specific germ. I have con- firmed my previous conclusions as to the absence of a specific micro-organism in the blood and tissues of the patients, and have failed to find in any of my cases the germ which Dr. Frere of Brazil has claimed to be the cause of the disease. For this reason I have given my attention entirely to the bacilli of the alimentary canal.” —‘“ The American Electrical Directory ” for 1889, published by the Star Iron Tower Company of Fort Wayne, Ind., possesses many features of interest and value to electricians and to all persons in- terested in electrical matters. In its thousand pages it gives a report of the proceedings of the National Electric-Light Associa- tion meetings in New York and Chicago, 1888 and 1889; lists of the isolated arc and incandescent plants in the United States and Canada ; the Philadelphia schedule for public lighting ; a carefully compiled list of the prices charged for gas in cities and towns having a population of over ten thousand ; and reports of the vari- ous electric light and power companies in the United States, Canada, and Mexico. There are also lists of electric-light and railroad companies and their officers, of electric manufacturing, construction, and supply companies; rules of the New England Insurance Company, and of the New York Board of Fire Under- writers and Board of Electrical Control; and many tables and for- mulas of use to electricians. — Harold Roorbach will issue shortly a handy volume for the aspiring dramatist in “The Art of Play-Writing.” Written by a well-known playwright, it treats on every class of dramatic com- position, and gives withal some hardheaded advice. 236 SOUS IN CIE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY No) IDs 5 Jel © 10) Giz S, 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK. SuBSCRIPTIONS.— United States and Canada....................$3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe.................--.- 4.50 a year. Science Club-rates for the United States and Canada (in one remittance): r subscription I yEar..eeeeeeeeee. sees twee ee ecee es BS 3450 2 MY TY Cal Wareinleletetels clare tttelsteleisianiatala stsietlotetetet= 6.00 3 St I YEAre eee. ce eee ee eee eee eee eee 8.00 4 st Be WEE Roac0 on nado bb odsa CUDdeSnDODdDe00S 10.00 Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is intended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but as a guaranty of good faith. We do not hold ourselves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. SCIENCE: Vou. XIV. NEW YORK, Ocroser 4, 1889. No. 348. CONTENTS: THE PROPORTIOR...--.++++++ 2-02-00 227] SE DITORIAT = Mean Eee reese eee Eee: 236 Oi anp Iron 1n NEW ZEALAND... 228 THE ORIGIN OF PETROLEUM.....-.. 228 Open—Air TRAVEL AS A CURER AND PREVENTER OF CONSUMPTION, AS SEEN IN THE HISTORY OF A New ENGLAND Famity......... 230 Hearty Matters. Typhoid-Fever should be reported to the Health-Officer....... . 232 How much should a City pay its Bealth-Officer... ....../. ...... 232 Ingenuity of Criminals............ 1232 Regulation of Breathing in Seasick- MES sooassaosoouqdsdsornchena + 232 Hot-Air inbeletions in Consump: tion. -- eee eee e 232 The Beans ae Siinese basds90060 232 A Centenarian Surgeon. . Bacilli on a Bald Tsar, See 33 Evecrricat News. Electric Lighting from Ermey Batteries The Report by the Hydrographic Office on the Recent Hurricanes. AMERICAN PusBLic HEALTH Associa- DION atepisasie lets} psinctociee ebiciee 236 EXHIBITERS TO WHOM AWARDS HAVE BEEN MADE AT PaRIs ...... .-+ 237 Booxk-REVIEws. Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Biological Problems.........---.- European Schools ............-... The Key to Theosophy Iron and Steel Manufacture........ AMONG THE PUBLISHERS............ LETTERS TO THE EpiTorR. The United States, their Growth in Population in Two Hundred Years W. E. Gladstone 241 The Pennsylvania Weather Review 241 Reformed Spelling 241 INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Electric Apparatus for South Africa 241 puigeisis Cie 0 233) New Electric Street-Railways...... 242 St. Louis Electrical Exposition..... 233 The Elliott Non-Electric Tele- Volatilization of Metals. . WN NSGSo5 Gebses Goce hopeaacedn 242 NOTES AND NEWS........-0-.0.....-. American Apparatus in Italy ..... 242 THE “ PILOT CHART” of the North Atlantic Ocean for October, issued Sept. 27 by the Hydrographic Office, Navy Department, is of especial interest as showing the tracks of the hurricanes that have been experienced on the Atlantic during the past month, and the positions of the many derelicts and wrecks reported off the coast, — the results, most of them, of the great storm that raged be- tween Hatteras and Block Island from the 9th to the 12th of Sep- tember. So great is the interest that attaches to this storm, that a special supplement to the chart has been issued, entitled ‘‘ The St. Thomas-Hatteras Hurricane of Sept. 3-12, 1889.” This gives, by means of ten synoptic charts and descriptive text, the entire history of the hurricane from the time it passed St. Thomas till it had spent its fury off the coasts of New Jersey and Long Island. In spite of the brief interval of time that has elapsed, an astonishingly large number of reports have been collected from masters of ves- sels ; and each chart contains data as far east as the 50th meridian, and as far south as the roth parallel. A new and very important factor in the history of the hurricane is brought out very clearly. It seems that a second hurricane originated in the tropics almost simultaneously with the first, but about a thousand miles farther east. Both moved off along a track toward west-north-west, but the second recurved to the north-east below Bermuda. To this second hurricane was due the building-up and persistency to the southward of Newfoundland of a ridge of high pressure that held the great storm off our coast, instead of allowing it to follow its [VoL. XIV. No. 348 normal track toward the north-east. Special credit is given to the many navigators whose cordial assistance has made it possible to publish this report so promptly. AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION. THE following is a partial list of papers to be presented at the annual meeting of the American Public Health Association, to be held in Brooklyn beginning Oct. 22 (a full list will appear in the daily programmes) : pin, mayor, on behalf of the city; address of welcome, by Alexan- der Hutchins, M.D., on behalf of the medical profession; presi- dent’s address, by Professor Hosmer A. Johnson, M.D., Chicago, Ill. ; ‘“‘ The United States Census in its Relation to Sanitation,” by Dr. John S. Billings, LL.D., Washington, D.C.; “ Recent Re- searches relating to the Etiology of Yellow-Fever ” (illustrated with the stereopticon), by George M. Sternberg, M.D., Baltimore, Md. ; “More Yellow-Fever Problems,” by Jerome Cochran, M.D., State health-officer, Montgomery, Ala.; “Forms of Statistics,” by Henry B. Baker, M.D., secretary State Board of Health, Lansing, Mich. ; “A Suggestion for the Limitation and Detection of Adulterations in Food and Drink,” by Henry Leffmann, M.D., Philadelphia, Penn. ; “The Prevention of Consumption,” by J. N. McCormack, M.D., secretary State Board of Health, Bowling Green, Ky.; ‘‘ The Necessity for a More Rigorous Inspection of Meat-Producing Ani- mals at the Time of Slaughter,” by D. E. Salmon, D.V.M., chief of Bureau of Animal Industry, Washington, D.C. ; “The Causes of Infant Mortality,” by Dr. R. O. Beard, assistant commissioner of health, Minneapolis, Minn., and professor of physiology in the medical department of the Minnesota State University ; “Causes and Prevention of Infant Mortality,’ by Jerome Walker, M.D., Brooklyn, N.Y.; ‘The Utilization and Purification of Sewage,” by John H. Rauch, M.D., secretary State Board of Health, Chicago, Ill.; “The Art of Cooking,” by Edward Atkinson, LL.D., Boston’ Mass. (this paper will be practically illustrated by cooking appara- tus devised by Mr. Atkinson, and various foods will be cooked in the presence of the association ; the system which will be illustrated is the result of several years’ labor, and has been in practical opera- tion for many months under his supervision; as Mr. Atkinson is one of the world’s most noted economists and statisticians, the paper will undoubtedly be of great value); “ New Method of Deal- ing with the Dead” (illustrated with the stereopticon), by Rev. Charles R. Treat, New York City ; “ Report of the Committee on the Disposal of Garbage and Refuse Matter,” by S. S. Kilvington, M.D., commissioner of health, Milwaukee, Wis. ; “ A Suggested Minimum Basis of Compensation to Local Health-Officers,” by George Homan, M.D., secretary State Board of Health, St. Louis, Mo. ; “Do the Sanitary Interests of the United States demand the Annexation of Cuba?” by Benjamin Lee, M.D., secretary Pennsyl- vania State Board of Health, Philadelphia ; “‘ Railway Sanitation,” by Samuel W. Latta, M.D., medical examiner Pennsylvania Rail- road Voluntary Relief Department, Trenton, N.J. Papers and re- ports of an interesting and valuable character are expected from several of the committees. ; A daily programme will be issued each morning, giving the title of papers, reports, etc., that will be presented, with such other in- formation as may be of interest in connection with the work of the day. The headquarters of the executive committee will be at the Pierrepont House. A meeting of the committee will be held at this house, at the room of the secretary, on Monday, Oct. 21, at 4.30 P.M. The local committee of arrangements have provided for an ex- hibition of every thing available adapted to the promotion of health. The exhibit will be divided into nine sections, as follows: 1. The Dwelling ; 2. Schools and Education ; 3. Factories and Workshops; 4. Clothing and Dress; 5. Food; 6. Sanitary Engineering; 7. Public Health Administration in Cities and Towns; 8. The Labo- ratory; 9. Red Cross Section. The exhibition of any article does not carry with it the indorsement of the American Public Health Association. At the close of the exhibition the association will award testimonials to exhibiters of especially meritorious articles, based upon the judgment of experts. The exhibition will be held in the hall at the north-west corner of Fulton and Pineapple Streets, address of welcome, by Hon. Alfred C. Cha-_ OcToBER 4, 1889.] one block from the Brooklyn Institute, where the sessions of the association will be held, and but three blocks from the Bridge. It will be open to the public on Oct. 22, at 1 P.M., and will continue open until Dec. 1. Admission free. For particulars relative to the exhibit, address the chairman of the committee, Dr. A. N. Bell, 113A Second Place, Brooklyn, N.Y. By invitation of Dr. William M. Smith, health-officer of the port of New York, the association will visit the New York Quarantine Station. For this purpose Dr. Smith has placed at the service of the association a commodious steamboat. The trip will probably be made Wednesday afternoon, Oct. 23. The local committee of arrangements will issue a circular giving full information regarding reduced hotel rates, railroad fares, etc., a copy of which will be sent to every member of the association. Others desiring a copy should make application to the chairman of the committee, Dr. J. H. Raymond, 173 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn, N.Y., to whom all communications relative to local matters in con- nection with the meeting should be addressed. The usual rate of one and one-third fare for the round trip has already been secured over the Trunk Line, Central, and Southern Traffic Associations, and it is expected that the same rates will be obtained from the other traffic associations. To secure the reduced rates, a certificate must be obtained from the ticket-agent at the starting-point, certi- fying that the holder has paid full fare going to the meeting, over what lines he has travelled, etc., which certificate must be counter- signed at the meeting by the secretary in order to secure the one- third return fare. EXHIBITERS TO WHOM AWARDS HAVE BEEN MADE AT PARIS. THE principal awards to American exhibiters at the Paris Ex- position are as follows : — GRAND PRIZES. — Boston public schools; Washington Bureau of Education; Washington Bureau of Ethnography ; United States Service of Meteorology ; United States Commission of Geology ; United States Ministry of War; New York University; Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Troy ; Smithsonian Institution, Washington ; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore; the Century Company, New York ; Fairchild, New York, gold pens; United States Geological Survey ; United States Signal Service, A. W. Greely, chief officer; United States Naval Observatory ; Mr. Howland; United States Coast and Geodetic Survey; United States Army, Corps of Engi- neers; IT. G. Hawkes, New York, crystal; Tiffany & Co., New York, silverware; J. B, Stetson, Philadelphia, fine fur hats; Win- chester repeating arms; J. A. Fay & Co., Cincinnati, timber ma- chines; Healey & Co., New York, carriages; Pennsylvania Rail- road Company; Bell Telephone Company; Thomas A. Edison ; Elisha Gray, Illinois, telegraphy; Elihu Thomson, Lynn, Mass., electrical appliances; Government Bureau of Engineers; United States Exhibit of Cereals; Bergher & Engel Brewing Company, Philadelphia; C. A. Wetmore, California, wines; United States Department of Agricultural Statistics ; United States Farms; C. V. Riley, specimens of phylloxera work ; United States Agricultural Department of Viticulture; Labor Departments of the United States reports. _ GOLD MeEpats.—E., Barnes & Co.; Ivison, Blakeman, & Co.; Board of Education, Wisconsin; Buffalo public schools; Depart- ment of Public Instruction, California; Department of Public In- struction, lowa; Elizabeth (N.J.) public schools; Moline (IIl.) public schools ; Bureau of Education, Washington; National Deaf- Mute College, Washington; Ohio, commissioner of schools ; Per- kins Institute for the Blind, Massachusetts; Pittsburgh public schools; Suckanossett School for Boys ; State Public School, Cold- water, Mich.; Indiana Industrial School ; Galveston public schools ; Boston public schools; State of Massachusetts, Department of *Public Instruction; public schools, California; public schools, Wisconsin; public schools, Michigan; American Museum of Natural History, New York; Chicago Public Library; Eastman College, Poughkeepsie; Manual Training School, Philadelphia; Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Boston; Houghton, Mifflin, & Co., Cambridge, Mass.; Lippincott & Co., Philadelphia; Mer- riam, Springfield, Mass.; New York Bank Note Company ; Warren SCIENCE. 237 & Co., papers, Boston; Tiffany & Co., jewelry; Prang & Co.; Barker, photographs, New York; H. A. Rowland; Eastman Dry Plate Company; Manual Training School, St. Louis ; University of California; Darlin, Brown, & Sharpe, Providence; Herman Hollerith, Washington; Mr. Gardner; J. P. Lesley, State geologist of Pennsylvania; Heywood Brothers, New York, furni- ture; C. E, Henry, Indianapolis, glass; John Lafarge, New York, stained glass; Rookwood Pottery Company, Cincinnati; Gorham Silverware Company ; Meriden Britannia Company ; Colgate & Co., New York, perfumery; Ladd & Coffin, New York, perfumery: William Demuth, New York, pipes ; Tiffany, leather goods; Marks’s folding-chair, New York; Boston Rubber Shoe Company ; Mayer, Strouse, & Co., New York, corsets; Beneke Brothers, New York, boots; Dunlap, New York, hats; War Department, uniforms; N. J. Schloss & Co., New York, clothing; Colt’s fire-arms; Smith & Wesson; Union Metallic Cartridge Company; White Sewing- Machine Company, Cleveland; Mackellar, Smith, & Co., New York, printing type; American Writing Machine Company, Hartford ; Remington typewriter; Hammond typewriter, New York; Cobb Vulcanite Wire Company; Heisler Electric Light Company, St. Louis ; Okonite Company, New York; Western Electric Company, Chicago ; Sprague Tramway Company ; Volta Graphophone Com- pany ; Herring & Co., New York, safes; Yale Manufacturing Com- pany; Inman Steamship Company; Chicago and Minneapolis Boards; Glen Cove Manufacturing Company; C. A. Pillsbury of Minneapolis; Green Mountain Stock Farm; J. H. Michener & Co., Philadelphia, lard; Armour & Co., Chicago, canned meats ; Curtice Brothers, canned meats; Cassard & Co., Baltimore, dried meats; Michener & Co., dried meats; Morris & Co., Chicago, canned meats; Swift & Co., dried meats; Maillard, New York, bonbons; Beadleston & Co., lager beer; California State Viticul-* tural Commission; Chauche & Co., California, wines; J. Kunz, New York, beer; Montgomery Brewery Company ; Megliavalla, California, wines; J. Osborn & Sons, New York, whiskey ; United States agricultural maps and charts; Enterprise : Manufacturing Company ; Richmond Cedar Works ; Clayton & Co., gratings ; H.- O. Nelson; N. P. Gilman; C. D. Wright; Publication Agency for Johns Hopkins University ; Universal Peace Union, Philadelphia ; New York and Massachusetts Labor Departments; Woman's Christian Temperance Union. BOOK-REVIEWS. Essays upon Heredity and Kindred Bzological Problems. By AUGUST WEISMANN. Authorized translation by Edward B. Poulton, Selmar Schonland, and Arthur E. Shipley. Ox- ford. 8°. PROFESSOR WEISMANN’S essays on various general problems of biology have never been collected, but have remained more or less inaccessible in sundry journals or as separate pamphlet publica- tions. Being now brought together in a single handsomely printed volume, they will doubtless attract a wider attention not only from naturalists, but also from thoughtful general readers. The au- thor’s presentation of his subject is, except in two or three minor essays. such that his arguments may be followed without the de- tailed knowledge of a specialist. The translations are very well done, for the English, while idio- matic, renders accurately the meaning of the original German; so that the volume is a thoroughly trustworthy reproduction of Pro- fessor Weismann’s theories. These theories are full of suggestive- ness, and contain many original conceptions. It must be recog- nized that their influence will be far felt, especially as opposing some of the ideas concerning heredity, sexuality, death, etc., which tradition has rendered current, one might almost say orthodox, in the biological world. There is in biology, around the finished area, — the woven tissue of science, — a fringe of dogma ; and play- ing with this fringe is to certain minds a favorite occupation. We see sober investigators, who are conscientious within the region of the provable, become intoxicated when they attempt to pass out- side this region. They then madly maintain dogmas, asserting positive views as to the nature of life, which is entirely beyond their power to justify. This special tendency is so infectious that the majority of biologists are affected by it, and defend their par- 238 ticular idea as to vitality with an acrimony which makes it unbe- coming for any biologist to speak slurringly of the odzum the- ologicum. Now, Professor Weismann leads attention back to sci- entific sobriety as regards these wide-reaching problems about fundamentals, and thereby renders a most welcome service; for, after all, it is pleasant to leave the fewx follets for the sake of gen- uine light and real safety. One is obliged to dissent from many of Professor Weismann’s views, which are marked by that vagueness that is so characteristic of German philosophic generalizations. Some of his conclusions we already know to be deficient and even erroneous. This is notably the case with his conception of death, to which he recurs fre- quently, for he fails to make the obvious distinction between the death of a unicellular and that of a multicellular organism. A colony is not homologous with its units, and the breaking-up of a colony is not homologous with the destruction of an individual ; yet Professor Weismann makes it so. But the value of a book lies not in its faults or deficiencies; and, though these need to be noted as making its limitations, a book is to be judged by its merits. The book before us is one of many and signal merits. The first essay, on the duration of life, was originally presented to the world in the form of an address to the German Naturforscherversamm- lung at Salzburg in September, 1881, and was shortly after pub- lished in pamphlet form at Jena. It deals with the duration of life, and constitutes the basis of the subsequent essays of the series. The second essay, on heredity, followed two years later, and com- pletes in outline the author’s theories. The remaining six essays serve essentially to elaborate and supplement the first two. The most important contribution to thought is the defence of the theory _ of germinal continuity against Darwin’s theory of pangenesis as an explanation of heredity. The hypothesis of germinal continuity was originated by Moritz Nussbaum, to whom the first credit be- longs: but Weismann has so identified himself with its defence and amplification, that we may say that the gradual acceptance of the hypothesis in place of that of pangenesis is due principally to his teaching. He has adduced numerous facts, and numerous inter- pretations in favor of his position; and it is, we believe, not too much to say that within a short time the. new theory of heredity must find general acceptance. Those, therefore, who wish to keep abreast with the tendencies of biological advance must read Weis- mann, and mzs¢ not only on account of the theory we have specially referred to, but also on account of other fresh thoughts and ideas which vivify his interesting pages. European Schools. By L, R. KLEMM. New York, Appleton. 12°. $2. THIS book is the latest issue in the International Education Series, in which it well deserves its place. The author spent a year or so in visiting the schools of Germany and France, with short trips to Switzerland and Vienna. Most of his attention was given to the German schools, and his account of these is full and inter- esting. He is evidently a keen observer, and studied the schools he visited with great care and diligence. The matters of which he treats are generally of great interest, though manual training and drawing are accorded altogether too much space in proportion to their importance. These subjects and some others are largely illustrated from drawings by the author himself. Mr. Klemm re- ports nothing of special interest from France or Vienna, while in Switzerland he seems to have been almost disgusted with what he saw. He condemns the Swiss schools in unmeasured terms as ill furnished and worse taught, and it is only in Germany that he finds much that he regards as an improvement on what we have in America. The difference of method between the German schools and ours is indeed great; but whether we should do well to abandon our methods for theirs is questionable. The distinctive characteristic of German teaching as described in this book is the absence of text-books, the instruction being conveyed orally by the teacher. This is the case, for instance, in geography, physics, and natural history ; and it is obvious that the introduction of such teaching into American schools would amount to a revolution. But the method of question and answer employed by the German teachers, of which Mr. Klemm gives many interesting examples, is unques- SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 348 tionably of great value, being fitted not only to test the pupil’s knowledge, but also to make him think. Object-lessons, it appears, have gone out of favor in Germany; but, on the other hand, draw- ing is employed to illustrate every subject that requires such illus- tration. A particular account is given of a “school for dullards ” at Elberfeld, which has proved a very useful institution. Mr. Klemm attributes the excellence of the German schools largely to the careful training of the teachers, and accordingly de- votes some space to a description of the normal schools. He re- ports, however, that there is at present a scarcity of teachers in the kingdom of Prussia, —a fact which he attributes to the low salaries paid, it being easy for intelligent men to get higher pay in other employments. The teachers, nevertheless, are enthusiastic in their work, and, though subject to strict rules, show a good deal of in- dividuality in their teaching. Women teachers are comparatively rare in Germany, and there is a strong prejudice against them; but this will doubtless disappear in the course of time. We cordially commend Mr. Klemm’s book to the attention of American teachers. The Key to Theosophy. By H. P. BLAvaTSKY. London, Theo- soph. Publ. Co.; New York, W. Q. Judge. 12°. THIs work is intended as an introduction to theosophy, and is written in the form of a catechism. It gives some account of the character and objects of the Theosophical Society, and then goes on to expound the leading doctrines that theosophists believe in — or pretend to believe in. The doctrines chiefly dwelt on in this book are pantheism and metempsychosis ; but we think the reader will understand them less after perusing Mrs. Blavatsky’s account of them than he did before. The practical aims of theosophists, it seems, are virtually identical with Christian charity, and it is only on speculative questions that the new sect antagonizes the world. It is very unfortunate that the real esoteric doctrines of the sect are so profound, that, as we are told, only a very few persons can com- prehend them; and we are sorry to say that we are not among the favored few. Indeed, we should incline to characterize much of this book as rank nonsense, if we were not solemnly assured by the authoress that “ theosophy is synonymous with everlasting truth.” She refers feelingly to the fact that the Society for Psychical Re- search had employed a man to investigate some of her statements, and had characterized her as “the most accomplished impostor of the age,” and says that she regards them with contempt, and that she will not abandon her principles because they have been at- tacked by “a flock of stupid old British wethers, who had been led to butt at them by an over-frolicksome lambkin from Australia.” Evidently theosophy and modern ideas don’t agree well together, and we fear that Mrs. Blavatsky and her co-religionists will have a hard task to convert the world to their views. Iron and Steel Manufacture. London and New York, Macmillan. By ARTHUR H. HIORNS. 16°. $1. BEGINNERS in the study of metallurgy will find this an excellent little work from which to gain a knowledge of the fundamental principles of the various processes employed in the manufacture of iron and steel. They will also find it a compendium of the various properties of those metals, so far as those properties can be treated in an elementary manner. The book, of course, will not supersede any of the larger and more exhaustive manuals on the subject, nor is it intended by the author that it should do so. It is designed merely as an elemen- tary treatise to prepare the student for a more advanced course of study, though manufacturers and workmen connected with trades in which iron and steel are used will find much of its contents of value to them. For the convenience of those having but a limited knowledge of chemistry, a chapter is devoted specially to a discus- sion of chemical principles and changes, so far as they have a bear- ing upon the subject of which the volume treats. The book is fully illustrated, and furnished with a very complete index. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. Tue Elder Publishing Company, Chicago, have nearly ready “Birds and Butterflies,” a book for boys and girls, by M. G. Mus- grave. Octoser 4, 1880. | — Admiral David D. Porter’s forthcoming book is to be entitled “ Arthur Merton.” —One of the important announcements of fall publications is that of a volume of “Orations and After-Dinner Speeches,” by Chauncey M. Depew, which Cassell & Co. (Limited) have in prepa- ration. Very few of these have ever been printed in their entirety, and many of them have only been dealt out in fragments by the daily papers, and yet he has won a world-wide reputation by them. It may be said, by the way, that it took no little diplomacy to induce Mr. Depew to consent to the publication of his orations and after-dinner speeches; but he was finally convinced that the public wanted them, and, as he is a great believer in the public, he consented. ‘The book is now on the press, and will be published jwith a steel portrait of Mr. Depew. — School is the title of a new educational journal which will be published weekly from No. 10 East 14th Street, New York City. It will be edited by H. S. Fuller, an experienced journalist, and one who is entirely familiar with every thing that pertains to the public schools. Scoo/ intends to cover in some degree every department of its chosen field, and to offer something that will be acceptable to every worker in that field. —Mr. Andrew Lang has edited a collection of some forty of the best of the good old fairy-stories, to be published shortly by Long- mans, Green, & Co. as “ The Blue Fairy Book.” He has sought to set down in strict accord with accepted tradition the most fa- miliar of the popular tales of Greece, Germany, France, and Eng- land. “The Blue Fairy Book” will have numerous illustrations by Mr. Jacomb-Hood and Mr. H. J. Ford. — The series of articles upon “ Nursery Cookery,” which has been running in Badyhood, has proved valuable, and has helped to popularize the fact, that, however skilfully and judiciously food for children may be selected, such labor is frequently lost by being supplemented by poor cooking. Parents who wonder that their little ones do not thrive, although the best of food is provided, may find here an important hint. The chapter in the October number deals with rice, potatoes, and bread. adyhood is published in New York, at $1.50 a year. SCIENCE. 239 — Lea Brothers & Co., will shortly publish a “ Text-Book of Chemical Diagnosis,” by Dr. Rudolph von Jacksch, translated by James Cagney, M.D., and William Sterling, M.D., in one handsome octavo volume, with numerous illustrations. —J. W. Bouton is taking subscriptions for a limited edition of “ The Soft Porcelain of Sevres,” with an historical introduction by Edward Garnier, translated by H. F. Andresen, There will be ten parts, each having five plates. — A. Lovell & Co., New York, have published the two conclud- ing parts (Nos. 1 and 6) of the “Graphic System of Object-Draw- ing,” by Hobart B. Jacobs and Augusta L. Brower. This system, which is based on the methods of the best Paris art teachers, is designed to give the pupil a clear idea of form, to help him to ex- press that idea on paper, and to give him command of his pencil, so that he can draw the objects about him. The plan is quite simple, and a manual for teachers makes the system plain even to teachers unskilled in the art. The price per dozen is $1.20. A sample set, with manual, will be sent for examination for sixty cents. —Cassell & Co. have in press an important work on New Zealand by Edward Wakefield, who has held many high official positions under the New Zealand Government, now being one of the commissioners for that region at the Paris Exposition. It is to be entitled ‘“‘ New Zealand after Fifty Years.” — Alongside of the Volapiik enthusiasts there are a few men in this country, as well as in Europe, who are working to reinstate Latin as the language of science, if not of general communication be- tween the nations of the werld. These may be encouraged to learn that a periodical, written in chaste and elegant Latin, has re- cently appeared in Aquila degli Abruzzi, in Italy. It is edited by Carlo A. Ulrichs, a young Latin scholar of considerable reputation, and is published semi-monthly. Six numbers have already ap- peared, and the editor announces that the subscription-list is in- creasing in a very satisfactory manner, and contains the names of many scholars in Europe and America. The name of the periodi- cal is Alaude@ (Larks). It is a purely secular journal, being filled with poems, stories, anecdotes, jokes, and news. Ne aie] Publications received at Editor’s Office, Aug. 26-Sept. 21. American Electrical Directory for 1889. Fort Wayne, Ind., Star Iron Tower Co. 998 p. . Anprews, E. B. Institutes of Economics. Boston, Sil- ver, Burdett, & Co. 227 p. 12°. ASTRONOMICAL OpseRvaToRY of Harvard College, An- nals of the. Vol. XIX. Part I. Cambridge, Uni- versity Pr. 157p. 4° een: Vol. XX. Part II. Cambridge, University re 267 Pe 4° Baxer, C. W. Monopolies and the People. New York and London, Putnam’s Sons. 263 p. 12°. $:.25- Batpwin, J. M. Handbook of Psychology. New York, Holt. 343 p. 8°. Dumas, A. es Trois Mousquetaires. Ed. by F. C. Sumichrast. Boston, Ginn. 133 p. 12°. 80 cents. Ecotesron, E. A First Book in American History. New York, Appleton. 203 p. 12°. 7o cents. Grorce, A. J. Selections from Wordsworth. Boston, Heath. 434p. 12° $1.35. Gore, J. H. A Bibliography of Geodesy. (Appendix No. 16 — Report tor 1887.) Washington, Govern- ment. 198p. 4° -Heitprin, A. The Bermuda Islands. Philadelphia, The Author. 231 p. 8° Hicugsorn, P. Report on European Dock-Yards. Washington, Government. gop. 4°. Hiorns, A. H. Iron and Steel Manufacture. London and New York, Macmillan. 180p. 16°. $1. Lirtvenaces, G. W. The Development of Great Circle Sailing. Washington, Government. 52p. 8°. Maine, Fourth Annual Report of the Board of Health of the State of, for 1888. Augusta, State. 336p. 8°. Mark&NHOLTz-Buetow, Baroness. The Child and Chil Nature. Syracuse, Bardeen. 207p. 8°. $1.50. Morsg, J. T., Jr. Benjamin Franklin. (American States- men Series.) Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 428 p. 12°. $1.25. Myers, P. V.N. A General History for Colleges and High Schools. Boston, Ginn, 759p. 12°. $1.65. Nava. Mobilization and Improvement in Matériel. (Gen- eral Information Series, No. VIII.) Washington, Government. 485 p. Onto Agricultural Experiment Station, Seventh Annual Report of, for 1888. Columbus, State. 216p. 8°. PENNSYLVANIA GEOLOGICAL SuRVwy, Annual Report o the, for 1887. Harrisburg, Geol. Surv. 115 p., plates. 12°. Proctor, R. A. Strength: How to get Strong and keep Strong. London and New York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 3178p. 12°. 75 cents. Smirusonian InstiruTion, Sixth Annual Report of the Bureau of Ethnology to the Secietary of the, 1884— 85. By J. W. Powell, director. Washington, Gov- ernment. 675 p. 4°. Weir,H. Our Cats and All about Them. Boston and New York, Houghton, Mifflin,& Co. 248p. 12°. 2. Wentworth, G. A.,and Reep, E. M. Wentworth’s Primary Arithmetic. Boston, Ginn. 220 p. 12°. 35 cents. : ZuBIaAuR, J. B. Quelques Mots sur |’Instruction Pub- lique et Privée dans la République Argentine. Paris, P. Mouillot. x12 p. 8°. THE CREAM OF THE WORLD'S LITERATURE AT TEN CENTS PER VOLUME. CASSELL’S NATIONAL LIBRARY, Edited by Prof. HENRY MORLEY, LL.D. In neat 32mo volumes, each containing about 200 pages of clear, readable print, on good paper, at the low price of TEN CENTS PER VOLUME. “The Man, Woman or Child who takes this Library as a course of reading is provided with a liberal education.” §- SPECIAL RATES made to Teachers to Intro- duce this Library for supplementary reading in schools. Send for Complete Catalogue to date. CASSELL & COMPANY, Limited, 104 AND 106 FOURTH AVENUE, NEW YORK. NOW READY In three Volumes, half Levant, gilt top, $75. The Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada, with special reference to New England. By Samuel H. Scudder. Imp. 8vo, 2,002 pages, 96 plates, of which 41 are colored. Address SAMUEL H. SCUDDER, Cam- bridge, Mass. EB™— Table of Contents sent on application. JUST PUBLISHED. A Text Book of Organic Chemistry, By A. BERNTHSEN, Ph.D., formerly Professor of Chemistry in the University of Heidelberg. Translated by George McGowan, Ph.D. The original text specially brought up to date by the author for this edition. 12mo, cloth, 560 pages. Price $2.50. Alternate Current Machinery, By GISBERT KAPP, Assoc. M. Inst. C. E. London. 18mo, boards. Price 50 cents. Forming No. 96 of the Van Nostrand Science Series. NEW EDITION OF Transmission of Power by Wire Ropes, By ALBERT W. STAHL, M.E., U.S. Navy. Second edition. Revised. 18mo, boards. 50 cents. D, VAN NOSTRAND COMPANY, Publishers, 23 Murray and 27 Warren Sts., N. Y. Old and Rare Books. One Million Magazines. Back numbers, vols. and sets—old and new, Foreign and American. CATALOGUE UPON APPLICATION. A. S. CLARK, 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag= azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. 240 — The following incidents are from an interesting illustrated paper by Dr. J. Emmet O’Brien of this city, in The Century for September, on “ Telegraphing in Battle:’’ ‘In Butler's advance on the Petersburg and Richmond Railroad, May 7, a line was car- ried along with the column to within sight of that road, and worked until Beauregard struck us at Drewry’s Bluff, on the 16th, when Gen. Butler ordered his chief operator to ‘bring the line within the intrenchments.’ In these trenches one night Maynard- Huyck was awakened from sleep, not by the familiar voice of his instrument, but by the shriek of a Whitworth bolt, a six-pound steel shell, which passed through the few clothes he had doffed, then ricochetted, and exploded beyond. Congratulating himself that he was not in his ‘duds’ at the moment, the boy turned over and slept through the infernal turmoil of an awakening cannonade until aroused by the gentle tick of the telegraph relay. We used no ‘sounders’ in those days at the front. In illustration of the sensibility of hearing acquired by the military operators for this one sound, the writer may be pardoned another personal incident. At Norfolk, in April, 1863, he happened to be alone in charge of the telegraph when Longstreet with a large force laid siege to Suffolk. In the emergency he remained on duty, without sleep, for three days and nights, repeating orders between Fort Monroe and the front. Toward morning on the third night he fell asleep, but was aroused by the strenuous calls of the fort, and asked why he had not given ‘O. K.’ for the messages just sent. He replied that none had been received. ‘We called you,’ said the opera- tor at the fort; ‘ you answered, and we sent you two messages, but you failed to acknowledge them.’ The despatches were repeated and forwarded, when, on taking up a volume of Scott’s novels, with which he had previously endeavored to keep awake, the writer was astonished to find the missing telegrams scrawled across the printed page in his own writing, some sentences omit- ted, and some repeated. It was a curious instance of somnam- bulism.” — Funk & Wagnalls will publish this month a work entitled “The Life-Work of the Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin.” The writer, Florine Thayer McCray, who is a personal friend of Mrs. Stowe, received permission two years ago to write this work from both Mrs. Stowe, and her son, Rev. C. E. Stowe, and received valu- able assistance from them and other members of the family. It is to be finely illustrated, and contains about 450 pages. Zhe Pub- lishers’ Weekly is informed, that, while this work dwells at some length on the history of “ Uncle Tom’s Cabin,” — that masterpiece which thrilled the world and contributed so largely toward the overthrow of American slavery,—it also gives an interesting account of Mrs. Stowe’s habits, travels, methods of work, and re- views and commentaries upon the numerous other books that fell from her facile pen. The forthcoming work is likely to have a wide circulation. — Macmillan & Co. publish early in October ‘‘ Pen Drawing and Pen Draughtsmanship,” by Joseph Pennell. The work will contain numerous photogravures and other illustrations, including examples after Sir Frederick Leighton (president Royal Academy), E. J. Poynter, Frederick Walker, Randolph Caldecott, George Du Mau- rier, Linley Sambourne, Harry Furniss, William Small, W. L. Wyllie, Charles Keene, Ford Madox Brown, Frederick Sandys, E. A. Abbey, Alfred Parsons, Walter Crane, Hugh Thomson, Arthur B. Frost, Blum, Madame Le Maire, Rico, Cazenova, Lhermitte, Menzel, and numerous other well-known artists. The same firm also announce the following for publication: a new volume of poems by Lord Tennyson; a new volume of essays by Professor Huxley ; “The Elements of Politics,’ by Professor Henry Sidg- wick ; “ Problems of Greater Britain,” by Sir Charles Dilke ; “Wild Beasts, and their Ways in Asia, Africa, America, from 1845 to 1888,” by Sir Samuel W. Baker, with illustrations; “On Style: with Other Studies in Literature,” by Walter Pater ; ‘“‘ Royal Edin- burgh: her Saints, Kings, and Scholars,” by Mrs. Oliphant, with illustrations by George Reid ; “The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood,” by W. Holman Hunt, with illustrations; ‘Cults and Monuments of Ancient Athens,” by Miss Jane Harrison and Mrs. A. W. Ver- rall, with numerous illustrations ; ‘A History of the Later Roman Empire from Arcadius to Irene, A.D. 395-800,” by John B. Bury ; SCIENCE: [VoL. XIV. No 348 “The Development and Character of Gothic Architecture,” by Professor Charles H. Moore, with illustrations; “Eminent Women of Our Times,” by Mrs. Fawcett; ‘“‘ Letters of Keats,’ edited by Sidney Colvin ; “The Cradle of the Aryans,” by G. H. Rendall; “The Makers of Modern Italy: Mazzini, Cavour, Garibaldi,” by J. A. R. Marriott; “A Reputed Changeling; or, Three Seventh Years Two Centuries Ago,” by Charlotte M. Yonge; “ The Rec- tory Children,” by Mrs. Molesworth, with illustrations by Walter Crane ; “ Text-Book of Physiology,” by Professor Michael Foster, with illustrations, fifth edition, largely revised, in three parts; « Absolute Measurements in Electricity and Magnetism for Begin- ners,” by Professor Andrew Gray, abridged edition ; “ Thermody- namics of the Steam Engine and other Heat Engines,” by Cecil H. Peabody of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology ; a new part (Vol. II., Part II.) of «A New Dictionary, founded mainly on the Materials collected by the Philological Society,” edited by Dr. J. A- H. Murray; also Vol. III., Part I. (beginning with the letter E), edited by Henry Bradley, of the same work. A new edition of Chaucer’s “ Canterbury Tales,” by Mr. John Saunders, assisted by Dr. Furnivall, is promised shortly. The Chaucer Society has per- mitted its Ellesmere manuscript cuts of the Tale-tellers to be used in the book. It was originally published in three of Charles Knight’s ‘‘ Weekly Volumes,” and carries on the story of every tale by prose bits between the extracts, making it as easy to read as a modern novel. — After writing about fairy-stories for years, Mr. Andrew Lang has now taken to writing them himself. Messrs. Longmans, Green, & Co. will shortly publish his “ Prince Prigio,” with illustrations by Gordon Browne. The prince is a great-grandson of the Giglio of Thackeray's “ Rose and the Ring;’’ and many of the old fairy- tricks serve a new purpose in Mr. Lang’s story. — There are ten articles in the October Magazzne of American History. The frontispiece is a portrait of the late Samuel L. M. Barlow, accompanied with a poetical tribute from George Ticknor Curtis; also a sketch of the great lawyer by the editor. The open- ing article of the number, “ The Romantic Beginnings of Milwau- kee,” by Roy Singleton, is one of those contributions which help to make American history grow more real and inviting to all classes: it is illustrated with portraits of some of the founders of Milwaukee. Following it is a study entitled ‘‘ Georgia, the only Free Colony — How the Negro Came,” by Professor H. A. Scomp of Emory Col- lege. Then comes “ Kings, Presidents, and Governors of Georgia, 1732-1889,” by Col. Charles C. Jones, jun., LL.D., of Georgia, which places material of curious significance on record. Opportune at this moment is a paper by Dr. George H. Moore of Lenox Library, on “ The Discovery of America by Columbus,” describing the celebrations in Boston and New York a hundred years ago, and showing the part taken in them by the Tammany Society. “ The Antiquity of the Tupper Family,” by Professor Tupper, is readable. “The Financial Condition of New York in 1832,” contributed by Susan Fenimore Cooper, includes a letter written by J. Fenimore Cooper; “ Ai Trip to Niagara in 1835 — Miss Caroline Spencer's Journal,” gives views of the methods of travel and the sights to be seen in western New York fifty-four years ago; and among the shorter articles is a tribute to Oliver Wendell Holmes on his eigh- tieth birthday. 5 — Bulletin No. 3 of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station, “Silos and Ensilage,” is an account of some preliminary work done in 1888 in the study of the silo question. It includes an illustrated description of the silo of the station, hints respecting the culture and harvesting of corn for silage, and the report of a feeding ex-. periment in which corn-silage was contrasted with sugar-beets. Bulletin No. 4, “Small-Fruits at the Ohio Experiment Station,”’ gives the results of this season’s experiments with strawberries, raspberries, and blackberries, also of an experiment showing the effect upon the keeping-quality of early and late picking of apples. Bulletin No. 5, “ Wheat at the Ohio Experiment Station,” gives the results of this season’s experiments with wheat, including thick and thin seeding, early and late sowing, methods of sowing, and a com- parison of sixty-five differently named sorts of wheat. Any of: these bulletins will be sent free to any Ohio farmer on application to the experiment station, Columbus, O. OcToBER 4, 18809. | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. The United States, their Growth in Population in Two Hundred Years. [The following letter was received from the Hon. W. E. Gladstone, in response to a copy of Sczence mailed him, containing Gen. M. C. Meigs’s article on the above subject.] nT mb, aa ie me fone ge, ol es cies Whe Le, Aiuceo~ tucuuly o emote eects tony “Yur 3B The Pennsylvania Weather Review. THE monthly weather review of the Pennsylvania State Weather Service for August last contains an isothermal map of the State for the normals of the month, whose atrocious absurdity is paralleled only by the isothermal maps of New Hampshire in the report on the geology of that State several years ago. The isotherm of 67° performs the extraordinary feat of branching three times in its traverse of Pennsylvania. Three other isotherms end abruptly within the limits of the State, apparently not knowing how to get out. The lobate isotherm of 71°, that enters the State from the south and includes Gettysburg, fails to surround the adjacent iso- therm of 74°, which reaches Harrisburg. It is remarkable that a travesty like this should appear under the direction of the commit- tee on meteorology of the Franklin Institute of Philadelphia. Ww. Reformed Spelling. So far, all attempts to introduce a reformation in spelling seem to have failed. The changes that are recommended by the Bees logical societies and approved by scholars are disregarded, M Ellis’s “ Glossic ” has been before the public nearly twenty HENS: Dr. Hill’s efforts for six years at Waltham produced no permanent effect, it is doubtful if Mr. Bell’s ““ World English” will fare better, and Hosea Bigelow spelling is dropped by every one after they have wearied themselves over a few lines. While so much study has been given to the changes that are desirable, the best way to introduce them has perhaps been less SCIEN GE: 241 considered. The eye is educated to catch syllables and words at a glance, and soon tires of picking out letters, although their com- bination may represent the sounds of words correctly. It is true that children can be easily taught to read phonetics; but, as one who has learned a foreign language lays it aside in his native land, so does the phonetic expert for the printed matter he finds in daily use, and the language floats on, unchanged and stationary. How much, then, is it wise to attempt? Can any changes be proposed acceptable to readers, and such that printers will use them? Instead of attempting to introduce a phonetic system that is perfect, it may be well to employ one that is practical, and better than that at present in use, but not differing from it enough to em- barrass the reader, and to keep words of uniform spelling if the correct sound of the letters in them is misused. No new letters should be used ; nor does the eye tolerate new symbols, nor the use of accents, to determine sounds. This narrows the field in which changes can be made, yet leaves it large enough to furnish a spelling that will recommend itself to printers, foreigners, and illiterates; while children instinctively adopt it, when they can escape from the tyranny of the spelling-book, because it is uniform, and regulated by analogy. First as regards the vowel-sounds. reason to change the short sound of a. fixed by ¢ mute in all words except four. fixed by the double consonant. “Glossic” doubles @ in father, and adds w in water. Short e need not be changed. It is length- ened when it is in a final syllable or followed by e mute, which Professor Marsh tells us requires four per cent of all printed mat- ter. ‘‘Glossic” uses ez for long z, which does not displease the eye. Of the four sounds of o, that as in ¢ove is controlled by e mute or by accent in pronunciation. The sound as in move occurs in twelve words, which may be memorized. Words with the sound as in dove might perhaps drop e mute. The dé¢e nozre ou, with its seven sounds, has already caused a rebellion, as in A/ow for the time-honored flough, and may gradually drop most of them. Of the consonants, ¢ is hard before a, 0, w, which can easily be remembered, as it will be difficult to displace it by £, ¢ has both hard and soft sounds before e and z, where 7 could be substituted, as enuzne. There would be few mourners at its burial should the printers condescend to drop w afterg. The change to ¢zoz for shun is displeasing, and its pronunciation is uniform. The print- ing dthzs for ¢hzs is a stumbling-block in the way of any change. The changes noted above are the principal ones that would go far to conform the spelling of the language to its pronunciation. Perhaps the best way to have any changes adopted would be to have the most desirable printed on cards, to be kept in plain sight at every case of type, and have some editor who has the improve- ment of the language at heart print one article in his daily paper, with the approved spelling. If it is favorably received, increase it gradually as the readers approve it. The end can be gained by keep- ing the changes before the eye until they are accepted by habit. W. C. Bryant used to say, ‘“‘ When you reformers agree among yourselves as to what you want, it will be time enough for us of the press to give the matter our attention.” It cannot now be said that there is uncertainty as to the proposed reform. The action of the phonological societies, the efforts of linguists, the whole literature of phonetics, furnish a magazine to supply all that is needed to move upon the conservative forces that delay reform But the press should take the initiative; for with little effort they can make it familiar to every reader, and give it success. The re- sults on the brotherhcod of mankind will be such that every one who is in a position to forward the reform should take an active share in its introduction. M. There seems to be no good Its sound as in ¢rade is Its sound as in marry is INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Electric Apparatus for South Africa. Our readers are well acquainted with the many electric-railway installations which have been made during the past two years, and with the fact that the manufacture of electric apparatus for this work has grown rapidly. It is now estimated that there are from 150 to 200 electric street-railways in this country, either in opera- tion or in course of construction. Electricity promises to be the coming medium for transmission of power not only for street-railways, but also for mining indus- tries ; and it is hard to imagine an agent for transmitting power which is more easily handled, and the apparatus for which is, on the whole, more economical and inexpensive. Among the electric mining plants which are now being installed by American manufacturers of electric apparatus, who lead the rest of the world, are a number not only Sin this country, but 242 abroad ; and it is no unusual thing to hear of another mining com- pany which has decided to adopt electric power in its mines. Among recent contracts which have been awarded the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company of New York for electric- mining apparatus is one which comes from Transvaal, South Africa; and it is interesting to note that the fame for American electric-mining apparatus for durability, economy, and convenience, is recognized in these fields as well as in this country. The com- pany which is now installing Sprague apparatus in Transvaal is the Forbes-Reef Gold-Mining Company, who have ordered through Chester & Gibb, mining engineers of London, Eng., a complete electrical equipment for transmitting power, including four Sprague long-distance motors, and dynamos for transmitting 140 horse- power over a distance of three miles. The primal source of power is a waterfall situated about three miles distant from the mines as the crow flies. These points are connected by insulated wires, which are carried on poles. At the power-station will be placed three Pelton wheels fur- nished by Frazer & Chalmers of Chicago. To each of two of these wheels will be belted one long-distance transmission constant po- tential Edison dynamo of 50,000 watts, or 67 horse-power, capacity each. To the other wheel will be belted a dynamo of the same type and voltage as the others, but of only 40,000 watts, or 55 horse-power, capacity. These dynamos are similar in appearance to the standard Edison dynamo which is used in incandescent lighting ; but their winding is modified according to the regular Sprague system, adapting them for the long-distance transmission of power. These machines have an efficiency of over 95 per cent. At the mines are located the four Sprague motors, which are belted direct to the mining-machinery. These motors are divided into two groups; two 20 horse-power Sprague motors and one 80 horse-power motor forming one group, and a single 20 horse-power Sprague motor forming the other group. Each group is supplied with current by a separate set of wires, thus practically insuring a constant flow of electricity under all circumstances. The method of regulating the motors and keeping up a constant speed in spite of the varying loads thrown on the mining-machinery is accomplished by winding the motors in a special way, so that there is no mechanical governor to get out of order. The governor being in the winding, and consequently acting without making any movement, the motors are more durable, and the use of any com- plicated mechanical governor is avoided. The motors are to run on a constant potential circuit, and all the motors of each group are connected together from positive to negative wires, thus equal- izing the strain on the dynamos when the loads are thrown on the motors. This method of connecting dynamos and motors is in use in all Sprague stations for the transmission of power ; and it is much superior in reliability and economy to the series method of putting each motor on a separate connection. In principle it is the same as supplying a city with water by running city mains instead of using a separate conductor for each consumer. The question of efficiency, or the amount of the primal power which is delivered at the farther end after the transmission, is one which is very important. Upon this point electric transmission compares very favorably with all other methods of transmitting power. In this case the efficiency of the entire system, from the turbine pulley to the mining-machines at the farther end, is about 70 per cent; that is, 70 per cent of the energy which is delivered from the turbine pulleys at the power-station is given off the motor pulleys for work. New Electric Street-Railways. DURING the last week there have been a number of street-rail- way companies which have contracted for electric-railway appa- ratus in spite of the lateness of the season. The latest contracts closed by the Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company of New York are for street-railways in Piqua, O., and South Nash- ville, Tenn. The road at Piqua is an entirely new road, never having been operated by any power before. The number of cars which will be equipped will be four, and the line will extend for a few miles on the main streets of Piqua. The South Nashville Street Railway Company will equip eight SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 348 cars at present, but it is expected that the entire road will be run by electric power before long. The Elliott Non-Electric Telephone. A PATENT was recently issued to Larkin V. Elliott of Moores- town, Ind., for an improved form of mechanical or non-electric telephone, which seems to possess several advantages over other instruments of its class. The general appearance of this telephone is shown in the accompanying illustration. The mouth-piece is bell-shaped, and about four inches in diameter at its larger part, the bore narrowing to about an inch and a quarter where it joins the base. The aperture in the latter is cone-shaped, narrowing from about four inches in diameter where it joins the mouth-piece to half that size at the rear. Between the mouth-piece and the base the diaphragm is securely fastened. The diaphragm consists of two sheets of stretched rawhide, with an interposed layer of soft fibrous material and a covering of some soft fabric. It is made in the following manner. A sheet of thick rawhide is first stretched tightly across the aperture in the base, preferably while wet, so that when it dries it will be still more tightly drawn. Over this is laid a layer of cotton batting or other soft fibrous material. Over this a sheet of thin rawhide is stretched, but not as tightly as the first sheet. Lastly comes a sheet of velveteen. The whole is se- cured firmly between the base and mouth-piece. The line-wire passes through an opening in the centre of the diaphragm, being provided on its end with a button, which bears against the velveteen surface of the diaphragm. The inventor claims that this peculiar construction of the diaphragm, together with the shapes of the apertures in the base and mouth-piece, not only prevent the usual roaring sound in the receiver, but improve the sound by rendering it more distinct, reproducing a clear, natu- ral tone of voice, similar to that which acts upon the diaphragm at the other end of the line-wire. The claims of the inventor in regard to the good qualities of these telephones are borne out by the testimonials of many busi- ness-men who have had them in use for several months. They are intended only for short lines, from a few rods up to a couple of miles. Proper suspension devices are provided, so that the line- wire may be carried around angles without impairing the efficiency of the instruments. An electric call-bell may be used in connection with this telephone if desired. American Apparatus in Italy. Work on the electric-railway apparatus for the Florence and Fiesole Road has been commenced upon at Schenectady, N.Y.,which will be ready for shipment before long. This road will be operated entirely by electric power, and Sprague electric cars will be used throughout the entire line. The road connects the city of Florence with the city of Fiesole, a distance of about five miles. The grades upon this line will be very severe, sufficiently so to have precluded the use of horses upon it. The regular Sprague system of overhead wires, using main conductor with feeders, will be used. The fact that American railway apparatus have been adopted on this line is extremely flattering to the company to whom the order is given, and gratifying to the patriotism of every American. The fact that the Sprague system was brought into direct competition, in the matter of equipment of this road, with all the systems of electric street-railways in Europe, shows in an additional way the favorable reputation of American apparatus. — OcTOBER 4, 1880. ] SCIENCE. Exchanges. Free of charge to all, if of satisfactory character. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] I have forty varieties of birds’ eggs, side blown, first class, in sets, with full data, which I will exchange for books, scientific journals, shells, and curios. Write me, stating what you have to offer.—Dr. W.S. Srrove, Bernadotte, Fulton County, Ill. “T wish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. zoo botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- | nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. BocGue, Orwell, Ashta. County, O I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘‘ Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4 Xx 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “new model ’’ double dry-plate holder (4” < 5”), for fine eological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- ed. — Charles E. Frick, 1019 West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, ard plants— to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc.— Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lefzdoftera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. California onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East rq1st Street, New York, N.Y. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. _ SCOTT'S ae Of Pure Cod Liver Oil and HYPOPHOSPHITES of Lime and Soda is endorsed and prescribed by leading physicians because both the Cod Liver Oil and Hypophosphites are the recognized agents in the cure of Consumption. It is as palatable as milk. is a perfect Scoti’s Emulsion tmuszon t is a wonderful Flesh Producer. It is the Best Remedy tor CONSUMPTION, Scrofula, Bronchitis, Wasting Dis- eases, Chronic Coughs and Colds. Ask for Scott’s Emulsion and take no other.) STERBROOK’S STEEL PENS. OF SUPERIOR AND STANDARD QUALITY. Leading Nos.: 048, 14, 130, 135, 239, 333 For Sale by all Stationers. THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN 6O., Works: Oamden, N.J. 26 John St., New York. THE Amertean bell Telepha COMPANY. 95 MILK ST., BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters Patent granted to Alexander Gra- ham Bell, March 7th, 1876, No. 174,465, and January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. The Transmission of Speech by all known forms of ELECTRIC SPEAKING TELEPHONES in- fringes the right secured to this Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished by it or its licensees, responsible for such un- lawful use, and all the conse- quences thereof and liable to suit therefor. 3 4161n. Long. rns Nuts, Gas Burners or mane without adjustment. Made of Best Polished Steel. Sent by_mail for 25 cts. CHARLES U, ELy, P. O. Box 1945, New York City. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. T Guaranteed Farm Mortgages 7" The Company sends each year to Kansas and Nebraska for the pur- pose of examining its loans and methods of business a CONV hi OF ONY 2 SONS: The Committee for 1889 visited Fifty counties in the two States, ex- amined over 100 farms on which loans had been made and reported every one to be SAFE. The Company will be glad to send to any address the Report of the Committee which presents a very interesting statement of the general development of Kansas and Nebraska. A large number of loans equally as good as any examined by the Committee are always on hand for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. SCIENCE: [VoL. XIV. No. 348 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors 2to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, 1 Ls Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. ae Please Mention “Science.” Table Cloths & Napkins These are lower prices than ever before quoted by us for the same reliable goods. Cloths, in new choice patterns, 2 5 yards, $1.65 each. 2 x23 2.00 2EXS) amen 290), sore 2 SH) BOO ™ wa BBO PSB O89 EGY) 24x3h iT} 4,00 i 5 & and 2 Napkins, to match Table Cloths, at $1.65 and $2.50 per dozen, respectively. Orders by mail carefully executed. JAMES McCREERY & C0. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus. For Chemical Manufacturers. Sold at Wimerals. ~ For Blowpipe Analysis. Lowest Prices For Technical Purposes, By Weight. Most varied and complete stock of fine cabinet speci- mens in the U. S. Recent additions include superbly crystallized Vana- dinite, Descloizite, Phenacite, Bertrandite, Azwrite, Malachite, Blue Barite, Modified Pyrite, and many other equally rare and fine minerals. Complete Catalogue Free. GEO, L. ENGLISH & CO,, - ~- Dealers in Minerals; 1512 Chestnut St, - - «+ Philadelphia, Pa, CA RR PaaS FALL STYLES. FINEST ASSORTMENT EVER_ EXHIBITED. ENTIRELY NEW DESIGNS OF ALL THE LEADING MAKES, CONSISTING OF WILTONS, AXMINSTERS, MOQUETTES, VEL- VETS, BODY AND TAPESTRY BRUSSELS, THREE-PLYS AND INGRAINS. SPECIAL SALE. 500 pieces (entirely new) elegant Royal Wiltons. (The best wearing carpets made.) AT PRICES LOWER THAN EVER. Upholstery Goods ALL THE NEWEST FABRICS, BOTH FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC, FOR FURNITURE COVERINGS AND DRAPERIES. PARTIES PURCHASING THEIR COVER- INGS FROM US CAN HAVE THEIR FURNITURE REUPHOLSTERED AT MODERATE CHARGES LACE CURTAINS. ALL THE DIFFERENT MAKES AT LESS THAN IMPORTATION PRICES. Sun-Fast Holland Window Shades (A SPECIALTY). ALSO A LINE OF FINE PARLOR FURNITURE OUR OWN poe AND CEE OL SE ERING, T LOWEST PRIC SHEPPARD KNAPP & Co. : Slxth Ave., 13th & 14th Sts., N.Y. MORRIS EARLE & CO. SUCCESSORS 10 R. & J. BECK, 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and _ all Accessories and Ap- paratus. Photograph- ic and Photo-Micro- graphic Apparatus and Outfits. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed free to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE & in corresponding with us. E.& H. T. ANTHONY & CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, § Apparatus and Supplies of every description. Sole proprietors of he Patent Detective, Fairy Nov- el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits i in great variety, from $9.00 upward, Send for Catalogue or call and examine. (28 More than 40 years established in this line of business. eileen Coal. As Cz AUTUMN STYLES (Cae Scotch Axminsters and Royal Wiltons in Louis XIV. and XVI. styles, in novel and delicate effects, suitable for white and gold drawing rooms; also old gold, blue and terra cotta for dining rooms and libraries. Be vesees CARPETS in English and the best American manufacture, in delicate and neutral effects. These goods range in price from one dollar a yard up. (ewes CARPETS and Rugs, one of the largest and most select stocks in the country, among which are very fine examples of antiques. Deoadovay AK 9th ot. . NEW YORK. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored wzews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YorRK. HOUSEHOLD MICROSCOPE Sent to any address for $5.00 This instrument is simply for use by a beginner in Microscopy. The finer Microscopes vary in value from $25. to $250. Send for catalogue to G. S$. WOOLMAN, 116 FULTON ST., New York, OctoBER 4, 1889. | SCIENCE: C. & C ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all | Power Purposes. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City, New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. Chicago, Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, The Mutual Life Insurance Company OF NEW YORK. RICHARD A. McCURDY, PRESIDENT. ASSETS =. : - $126,082,153 50 The Largest and best Life Insurance Company in the World. The New Business of the Mutual Life Insurance Company in 1888 Exceeded $103,000,000. Its Business shows the Greatest Comparative Gain made by any Company during the past year including A\ Evin I AGISWS Oilo ooo cacboucc A gain in income of............ A gain in new premiums of..... JX Sea thn FE AONUIS Oirso6o 50004586 A gain in new business of.... A gain of risks in force......... SURG ners onUeuevetes $3 7,275,301 3,096,010 339759,792 54,496,251 The Mutual Life Insurance Company Has Paid to Policy-holders since Organization $272,481,839 82. Wants. Any person seeking a position for which he ts quali- Jied by his scientific attainments, or any person seeking some oneto fill a position of this character, be it that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what not, may have the ‘ Want’ inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, 2/ he satisfies the publisher of the suit- able character of his application. Any person seeking information on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or who car in any way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. YOUNG MAN can haye lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SCIENCE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. IGHTNING. — Concise descriptions of the effects of lightning discharges are de- sired. State whether the object struck was pro- vided with a lightning rod, the character of the rod, and the way in which it was set up. Be- ginning at the top, describe briefly the effects. State whether there was any smoke or dust raised, and whether there was any odor. Any reports of recent and of especially interesting discharges will be published in Sczence.—Sci- ence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. ECHANICIAN.—An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J., care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. \ X J] ANTED a young man with some knowl- edge of mineralogy to assist in our Min- FOOTE, A. E. Pa, eral Department. mont Av., Philada., 1223 Bel- Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers, willconfer a great favor by mentioning this paper. Schools. Connecticut, New Haven, RS. CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. Early application necessary. MicHiGan, Hoveuton. ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. New York, ORANGE Co., FLoripa. HE LEONARD INSTITUTE, for both sexes, Florida, Orange Co., N. Y., reopens Sept. rr. Eight young ladies, or misses pa be received in the family of the principal, Mrs. M. S. Parks. paces. THREE eee fous area Thousand new subscribers Cre au 01 and Ladies’ Companion w interesting and inst: ctivg paper ever Bul bers will receive d coming twelve MONTHS PY, American Arter . The story of retold by a novel rea a works ot ot bac! ceo aan aren resting and in any standard books aCe casily B aa the Dusiest people. We have engaged FOR this work s widely RnOWAe fashions Ne wri ments en Cura! mt Events, f New an nal I gon and Desi 8 for ba Cry ancy Weis Heuer Hel ecoration put rs from Correspo: e colleges and semina aia the a faz Anew tes Sit beh mented one eac mont an ara ‘ater s) showing the particular vantage of scl (cos 0 attendance, eto, Invaluab @ tomparen 5 ha g sone or daughters whom they de- nirojeh rective the advantages of a menor edus gat on than f uclord inary, school affords. Paint ting an aad wing, piving home De eatin n by 8 well-kn Paes WEE al subscription of this pant aan @ sent to any address, three mon TEN CENTS. mera PY. for literary work adapted to our co}- or new and original drawings: designs Bed and ideas on aD; sub} ect which we can um List the pee complete in the orld. We ducemen club raisers and agents ap ap- ‘oached by aig othe ae shing mous rt Cut Waist Linings, w ch we 8 a are at to anv one sending us ayo) SA su each is alone wo: Fe aes moti frial subecr! tion {ora To cents. TRY IT! TRY IT! TRY IT! aad you will become a permanent reader. Address: John L. Douglass, Publisher, 322 Broadway, N. Y. ESTABLISHED 1859. Heaven Wile Nhe Commercial Printer, 37 Clinton Place, near Broadway, New York, Wedding Orders, Souvenirs, Invitations, Or- ders of Dance, etc., etc., done in the latest and most elaborate styles, at reasonable prices, All Favors promptly attended to. CHANCE FOR ALL ; THE © - GREATAMERICAN. To Enjoy a Cup of Perfect T Tea. A TRIAL ORDER of lg pounds of Fine Tea, either Oolong, Ja- pan, ee G so der, Young Hy- son, Mixed, Englis Breakfast or Sun Sun Cho yp, sent by mail on receipt of $2.00. Be particular and state what kind of Tea you want. Greatest inducement eyer offered to get orders for our cele- brated Teas, Coffees and Baking Powder. For full particu- larsaddress THE GRE. ae ee TEA CO. P. O. Box 289. 3 Vesey St., New York. Gompany 1 and 3. iv SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 348 Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION, Commutator Wear Reduced to a Minimum. Lightest Weight Consistent with Highest Efficiency. SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION. Not Liable to get out of Order. SUES IN THE WORLD. Q GOLD MEDALS, QO AWARDED O ueslAce: WON Gold and Silver Medals CHAMPIONSHIP OF THE WORLD. 151 Words per Minute, Without an Error. The above is an authentic record made by Mr. Frank E. McGurrin, at Detroit, on Jan. 21, 1880, op a memorized sentence, thus beating all previous recurds of correct work, by 30 words per min- ute and placing the ‘‘Remington”’ still further beyond reach of competition. Photographic copies of certified work furnished on application. WYCKOFF, SEAMANS & BENEDICT, 327 Broadway, N.Y. CALIGRAPH RE M I N Cae O N Bee tYPEWRITER JLoucestor Masa, Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- }\ | urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano 0., &c., Ke. Repairs Everything. Iissuccess has brought a lot of [imitators copying us in every way ossible. Remersber that THE NLY GENUINE LePage’s Liquid H Glue is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c. and dealers’ card who Patent Pocket Can. No waste.fdoesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. TT. W. Osborme wrote 179 v single minute on the CALIG®> Champion Machine of the Wor G. A. McBride wrote 129 words in a single minute, Blindfolded, thus in each Case proving the falsity of many of the state- Two armor’d knights in mortal combat meet And after many a - t be he r y a parry, guard and lunge ments of our competitors. Armed cap-a-pie—that is, from head to feet. He thought it wisest to throw up the sponge, The helmet, breastplate, shield and spear of one «See here,” he cried, ‘‘this isn’t fair, you know, For full and correct account of above test, address Shone like the dazzling brightness of the sun. Your armor’s polished with SaPorio. The other suit of mail begrimed with rust T cannot see to fight—I’m sure to fail— THE AMERICAN WRITING MACHINE Co., Was scarcely proof against his foeman’s thrust, Sapouto protects you from Brack-Matrn !” HARTFORD, CONN. f ny at BEWARE OF IMITATIONS. BRANCH OFFICES:—237 Broadway, N- Ye}; 14 W. 4th Street, Cincinnati, 0.5 1003 Arch Street, Philadelphia. F O O D Grocers often substitute cheaper goods for Sapolio to make a better profit. Send A D U ily T ER A a ] @) N back such articles, and insist upon having just what you ordered. And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and | a bibliographical appendix. By J P. Battershall, 323 | pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues | eS ee ENOCH MORGAN’S SONS CO., NEW YORK. 12 Cortlandt St., New York. —— a ee a ee cl ae ee ——— Se ee iil i amir sat Ge oe ie IENCE (Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.] A WEEDS Koy, NEWSPAPER Oh Ate iri yARTS AND S@lMEN GES: SEVENTH YEAR. Vou. XIV. No. 349. NEW YORK, OcrToser 11, 1889. SINGLE CoplIEs, TEN CENTS, $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. ELECTRICITY IN MINING. THAT the electric current can be easily adapted to mining and engineering operations is a fact which is abundantly attested by mines in which it has already come into general use for both light- ing and transmission of power. The contrast between the wire- rope, compressed-air, and other methods, with electrical trans- mission of power, cannot fail to be in favor of the latter system. Existing water-powers miles away from the mines may be used, and electric motors employed for hoisting, haulage, pumping, ventilat- ing, and many other purposes, with greater ease and economy THOMSON-HOUSTON ELECTRIC than could possibly be accomplished by any other method. In fact, it is safe to say that in the near future electricity will displace all other forms of motive power in mining operations where the conditions are at all favorable. In this connection, it may be mentioned that the Thomson- Houston Electric Company has just completed a mining loco- motive for the Hillside Coal Company, Scranton, Penn., which is shown in the accompanying illustration. The machine embodies new features in motor-construction and in generaldesign, and un- der practical test has shown that it is particularly adapted to the nature of the work required of it. The locomotive is made for operation on a three-foot gauge, is 9 feet 7 inches in length over all, width 5 feet 3 inches, and height 5 feet 6 inches. Although the weight is 10,500 pounds, there is not a pound of it which is not utilized in the construction of the machine; and the tests for trac- tion which have been made have given the most excellent results. The speed is six miles an hour under full load. The motor used is the type “ G’”’ railway motor, 40 horse-power, embodying designs and inventions of Mr. Charles J. Van Depoele. Its motion is transmitted to the wheels by gears and connecting rods. On the top of the machine is placed a rheostat controlled by the wheel shown at each end, and on the side is placed a revers- LOCOMOTIVE FOR COAL-MINES. ing-switch, which can be operated in the same way from either end. One of the distinctive features is the trolley-arm, which will operate with equal facility in either direction; and its method of construction permits a great variation in the height of the conduct- or. This is a very important and valuable feature, as in mining- work the conductor is rarely maintained for any length at a con- stant height. The Thomson-Houston Electric Company has al- ready madein mining operations many applications of its electrical apparatus, which has been found to possess the same character- istics of excellence shown in its well-known lighting systems. 244 EVOLUTION OF MUSIC FROM DANCE TO SYMPHONY.! A BLUE egg may become arobin. The latent’ life sequestered by marble walls may be warmed into activity, and gather to itself the crumbs from a cottage table, and weave therefrom the tissues of life, — feet to perch among the blossoms, wings.toifly among the trees, eyes to revel in the scenes disclosed by sunlight, and vocal organs to sing the song of love to mate. A tiny seed may become a “big tree; ” for, warmed into life, it sends its rootlets into the nourishing earth and its branches into the vivifying air, and gathers materials with which to build a Se- guoza, that stands for centuries as a glory in the forest of the sierra. The rill born of a summer shower carries the sand from the hill- side and gives it to the brook, and the brook bears it on to the river, and the river transports it to the sea, and the impregnated tide finds a nest beneath the waves and in it lays the egg of an island. Then this boss on the floor of the ocean has the power to gather about it more sands as they come from the distant hills, and still more sands. Every summer shower gives it more, and every storm adds to the sands that are thus buried beneath the sea, until at last an island is hatched, as it lifts its head above the waves. Robins grow to be robins by minute increments; trees grow to be trees by minute increments; islands grow to be-islands by mi- nute increments. There is an aphorism current in the world that like begets its like: it is but half the truth. Whatever is, changes, and no repetition comes through all the years of time: some mi- nute change must ever intervene. Among living things one gener- ation follows another, always with some change; and change on change in sequent reproduction, as the stream of life flows on, re- sults at last in transformation. This slow but sure metamorphosis is called evolution, and the scientific world is engaged in the for- mulation of its laws. The laws of animal and vegetal progress, otherwise called biotic evolution, do not apply to mankind in civilization. Biotic evolution is progress in bodily function: human evolution is progress in cul- ture. The one is dependent on the laws of vitality; the other, de- pendent on the laws of psychology. The first great law of biotic evolution is denominated ‘‘the survival of the fittest in the struggle for existence.”’ This law does not directly apply to man in his progress in culture. The bad are not killed off by any natural pro- cess in order that the good may survive and propagate their kind. Human progress is by human endeavor, by conscious and designed effort for improvement in condition. The second great law in biotic evolution is denominated “ adap- tation to environment.” But man is not adapted to environment : he adapts the environment to himself by creating that which he desires. For example: no natural protection to his body is de- veloped by which he is adapted to a boreal climate; but he adapts that climate to himself, modifies it in its effect upon himself by building a house and creating a home climate at the fireside, and when outside of his home he protects himself with clothing, and creates a personal climate, and laughs at the winds that drift the snow. Man is not adapted to environment; but jhe adapts his arts to environment, and creates new conditions’to please him- self. : The third great law of biotic evolution is denominated. “ progress in heterogeneity.” With time, animals become more and more di- verse in structure and function. Kinds or species multiply. But this law is reversed with men in civilization, for they.become more and more homogeneous. The tendency is not to differentiate into species, some with horns and hoofs, some with tusks and claws, and some with arms, and some with wings. The tendency is not towards specific differentiation, but towards specihc homo- geneity. There is, however, another kind of differentiation that: devel ops by culture, which may be denominated “ qualitative differentiation.” Human beings do not develop along divergent lines, but along par- allel lines, and they differ mainly in the degree in which they have made progress. Human evolution develops not different kinds of 1 Address by Major J.W. Powell, the retiring president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, delivered at the meeting in Toronto in August. SCIENCE: [Vot. XIV. No. 349 men, but different qualities of men.” The apple-tree under human. culture does not develop in one line to bear peaches, another to bear plums, and another to bear pine-apples: but the fruit of one tree is sour, and that of another is sweet ; one is dwarfed, gnarled, and bitter, another is large, roseate, and luscious. Human prog- ress is such culture. It develops different qualities and degrees of the same thing. There are apple-trees that bear nothing but sorry fruits. There are tribes of the world that are all savages.. The trees of higher culture bear fruits of diverse qualities. The well-developed pippin, the diseased pippin, and the shrivelled knot of bitterness grow on the same tree. So in lands of highest culture: men are good and bad, wise and unwise, but they do not thus be- come specifically different. The fourth great law of biotic evolution is denominated “ prog- ress in integration.” The differentiating parts also become more and more interdependent. The organ which can best subserve its. purpose is less efficient in performing an unwonted function: it therefore becomes dependent upon other organs, and the interde- pendence of all the parts of the same organism increases with evolu- tion. Society is an organism. The people organized as a body politic, and constituting a nation, become interdependent, and each one is interested in the common welfare. In the growth of society through the organization of kindred into clans, and of clans into tribes, and ultimately of tribes into nations, great progress in in- tegration is made, and it receives its highest development when despotism is organized. If we study the progress of society through these stages only, we are led to conclude that biotic evolu- tion and human culture follow the same laws, for the integration of mankind in despotic nations is measured by the perfection of despotic governments. The highest integration is secured with hereditary rulers, privileged classes, and enslaved common people. The progress of mankind from despotism to liberty has been one vast system of warfare against integration, until in perfect liberty under free institutions this. integration is destroyed, and the biotic law is repealed in its application to mankind. The develop- ment of liberty is the overthrow of the fourth law of animal evolu- tion. Liberty means freedom to the individual, and is secured by es- tablishing interdependence of industries: thus man transfers des- potism from himself to his inventions. No cruel law of destruction belongs to mankind. No brutal adaptation to environments occurs in the course of human culture. No differentiation into antagonistic species is found. And liberty destroys despotic integration. The laws of biotic evolution do not apply to mankind. There are men in the world so overwhelmed with the grandeur and truth of biotic evolution that they actually believe that man is but a two- legged beast, whose progress in the world is governed by the same laws as the progress of the serpent or the wolf; and so science is put to shame. Since the doctrines of evolution have been established, the basis of systematic classification has been changed. Artificial catego- ries have given place to natural categories in such a manner that the classes are believed to represent genetic relations. The search for natural categories began anterior to the establishment of the laws of biotic evolution, and the new philosophy would be unrec- ognized but for the work which systematic biology has already done. Natural classifications and the laws of hereditary descent develop together, and are interdependently established. Still it re- mains that genetic biology, or the science of the laws of the prog- ress of life, imposes conditions upon systematic biology ; for a nat- ural classification must reveal the fundamental epochs and phases of evolution. As human progress is not upon divergent lines, but upon the same line to the goal of a higher life, men must be classified, not by biotic kinds, but by degrees of culture; and the three great culture stages, not three great kinds of men, be it understood, have been called savagery, barbarism, and civilization, to which a fourth may well be added, that of modern civilization, — the stage of en- lightenment. That which makes man more than the beast is culture. Cul- ture is human evolution ; not the development of man as an ani- mal, but the evolution of the human attributes of man. Culture OcToBER 11, 1889. | is the product of human endeavor. This is the burden of my argument. In man’s progress from savagery to enlightenment, he has trans- ferred the laws of beast evolution from himself to his inventions, and, relieved of the load, he has soared away to the goal of his destiny on the wings of higher laws. The evolution of music has been presented as an illustration of this fact. Man as a poet has not developed by the survival of the fittest. There has been no natural system of laws by which the bad musician has been killed, and the good musician permitted to live and propagate his kind. There has been no system of natu- ral selection to kill poor singers and cheap fiddlers. There is no adaptation of musicians to environment. There are no aquatic musicians; there are no aérial musicians ; there are no tropical musicians ; there are no boreal musicians — as those terms are used in biology. The prima donna: that sings in Rome may sing in St. Petersburg. The artist on the violin may enrapture the people in Toronto, in Washington, or in Mexico, and an orchestra may play on the land and on the sea. Again, there has been no progress in the differentiation of musi- There is no distinct race of cians. There is no musical species. _prima donnas. There is no endogenous clan of organists. Mu- sical folk spring up among the people everywhere. Of two chil- dren of the same parents, the one will be musical, and the other will not be. A sister will play the violin with beauty, and a brother may love nothing better than an accordion. Every nation and tribe on the face of the earth has developed its own musicians; and when a great artist springs up in any land, he travels the world, and delights all the people of civilization. Ole Bull, like Orpheus, would make the stony hearts of all men dance ; and Jenny Lind could sing a song of sorrow to weeping multitudes in any city of Christendom, and, if the angels loved not her music, small be the meed of praise for angels. And, lastly, there is no integration of musicians. They are not organized into one body politic. They do not inhabit one little nook of the world. They are not gathered by themselves on one isle of the sea, The king of players is metaphoric king, the queen of singers is metaphoric queen. But though these laws of evolution do not apply to musicians, they do apply to fhusic itself. Man has transferred them from himself to his musical inventions. Ever there has been a survival of the fittest. The music of savagery is lost in barbarism. The songs of barbarism are lost in civilization, and modern music is replacing the music of our fathers. So the old grows into the new by the survival of the fittest; not by natural selection, but by human selection, for men choose to keep the music they love the best. There has been progress by differentiation in music. music has developed into distinct parts; and with the invention of musical instruments, musical compositions have been produced adapted to each. There is the music of the organ, the piano, the flute, the violin, and instruments too many to tell, and thus the world is filled with varied music. ' music for all peoples, in all climes, in all conditions. Music has been adapted to environment. There is music for the dance and for the battle; music for the wedding and the funeral; Music for the theatre and the temple; and there is music about every thing, — the land, the sea, and the air, the valley and the mountain, the flower and the forest, the fountain and the river, the worm and the serpent, the zephyr and the tempest. There is The varieties of music parallel every human thought. There is integration of music. When a band plays organized Music for the military parade, many instruments combine to play their parts in harmony. There is organized music for the temple, where the choir and the instruments combine to make music for prayer and praise. But the highest development of musical inte- gration is found in the orchestra, where the parts of the symphony are played in sweet unison, in grand harmony and sublime sequence, guided by the magic dafon of the leader. : Music is the invention of mankind; not of one man, but of all men, — of composers, performers, and hearers. Music has come down the stream of time; and as the rivers grow from source to Sea, SO music grows from primal time to vast eternity. SCIENCE. Gradually - 245 In the same manner we may take up any one of the elements of human culture, and develop the laws of its evolution, and find that all culture comes by human endeavor. All arts, all institutions, all languages, all opinions, have grown in obedience to the laws of evolution as set forth; and in the exercise of all these human ac- tivities man himself has been developed: so the laws of biotic evolution apply not to mankind. Beast is beast, man is man, I have affirmed that the laws of biotic evolution do not apply to human culture. To make this clear, concrete demonstration is necessary. On this occasion one of the zsthetic arts will be used for this purpose. The evolution of music will be portrayed and its laws developed, and it will be followed briefly through the four stages of culture, — savagery, barbarism, civilization, and enlighten- ment. The classific categories of biology should represent genesis by differentiation, but it has been shown that man cannot thus be classified. Man by his genius has transferred the application of the four great laws of biotic evolution from himself to his inven- tions. Human inventions evolve by human selection ; and thereis a survival of the fittest, an adaptation to environment, a progress in differentiation, and a progress in integration. Human inven- tions, therefore, should be classified in such a manner as to exhibit their genesis by differentiation. If we classify the fine arts on these principles, we must place them in four groups, as we find them arising from four germs. It is true that their development has been more or less interdepend- ent, yet they have four origins, and have developed along four lines, both in form and motive. Fetich carving was the germ of sculpture. Stone, bone, shell, wood, and various other materials, were used by the sculptor in which to carve the forms of his beast gods. Carving begun in this rude way developed at last along two lines, one leading to idolatry, and the other to sculpture. Picture-writing was the germ of painting. Early man daubed rude pictures on bark and other materials, and etched them on stone. The alphabetic arts also sprang from this source, as writ- ing, printing, and telegraphing. Mythology was the germ of drama. Early man believed the animals to be the creators and movers of his universe, and the stories of the doings of beasts constituted the first drama, Later romance sprang from the same source ; and from romance, biog- raphy and history. Along another line from the same germ sprang science. The dance was the germ of music and poetry. Poetry derived its form from the dance, and its earliest motive from mythology. The evolution of music will be set forth more fully. Sculpture represents material forms in solid matter, as wood, clay, stone, ivory, and metal. Painting represents forms and scenes of nature and human life in color, as light, shade, and hue, through the aid of form perspec- tive, distance perspective, and aérial perspective. Drama represents scenes in the life of human and mythic heroes by personation or mimicry combined with literary presentation. Romance represents biography and history in fictitious tales. Music represents ideas in sound by rhythm, melody, harmony, and symphony. Poetry represents psychic pictures by metaphor, through the aid of rhythmic literature, sometimes using rhyme and alliteration. The arts have thus been described by defining their forms; but each has something more as a reason for its being an esthetic art, —a purpose to fulfil, The motive of all the esthetic arts is to reach the intellect through symbols, and thus kindle the emotions. All art is therefore symbolic and emotional. Let us turn to the evolution of music. This is the burthen of my song, this is the theme that runs through my melody: that music, in harmony with all of the processes of becoming in nature and art, becomes by minute increments, — by growth. How, then, did music grow? It has been assumed by writers that music has its origin and development in the innate appreciation of the human mind for the rhythms, melodies, harmonies, and symphonies of nature; that it 246 is the spontaneous outburst of the human soul in response to the music of the physical and animal world. The sighing of the winds, the murmur of the rills, the roaring of the cataracts, the dash of the waves on the shore, the singing of the forests, the melodies of birds, —all these and many more have been considered as the teachers of music to man. The objective study of music among the lower tribes of mankind and among the various peoples of the world in different stages of culture, and of the history of music itself as developed by our own race, leads to a different con- clusion, Kids gambol among the rocks as if filled with joy; colts run about the pastures as if mad with ecstasy; cooing babes pommel vacuity and kick at void with hands and feet as pink and soft as petals of the rose, and seem delighted with the gift of new-born life; lads and lasses play in the park with shouts and laughter, as if existence was forever a May-day of sport. There is pleasure in activity. The laboratory of life evolves a surplus of motion the expenditure of which gives rise to joyous emotions expressed in rollicking, boisterous play. In youth and health and vigor there is in the exercise of the muscles and the motions of the limbs a joy which may be heigh- tened as many become associated in the same activities,— brothers, sisters, cousins, sweethearts, wives, husbands, and parents. Let them unite in sportive activities, and the very ecstasy of motion is produced. When such physical activities are systemized, the dance is organized. When a group of pleasure-seekers organize their activities in such a manner that the motion of every one is in harmony with the motion of every other one, the merry dance is an art and a social institution, and every one’s joy is multiplied by every other one’s joy. Then rhythm of motion becomes rhythm of emotion. Man early learned that it was easier to control movements of dance by sound than by sight, and so he marked the rhythm of the dance by sounds of the voice or by sounds of the drum. Blue-eyed children play with the brown-eyed, and brown-eyed children play with the black-eyed, and they all join hands and play “ring-around-a-rosy ;’ and out of this childish sport, by minute increments, musical rhythm becomes. The first dancers were the men who lived in the forests, around the sheltered bays of the sea, on shores where quiet lakes mirrored the wild bird’s flight, or on banks where the fishes sported in the wavelets of the brook. The Eden of these sylvan men was large. It was walled with ice, so that men could not wander away to the north pole or to the south pole; but between these frozen regions the temperate and torrid lands were open. Before they learned to fashion stone knives, before they learned to use stone tomahawks, before they learned to use bone awls, before they learned to wear shell beads, before they learned to build shelters of boughs and bark and stone, — while yet naked animals, — men were found in every quarter of the globe. There were men on every shore, and there were men on the banks of every river. Sylvan men and women, boys and girls of the forest, dusky babes of the wood, were scattered through- out the whole habitable earth before the rudest human arts were invented, probably before organized languages were formed, and probably before institutions were organized. How do we know this is true? Is it the story of a romancer who finds the origin of the glacial drift in the lashing of a comet’s tail? No, this conclu- sion is reached through the labors of an army of patient, earnest, keen-visioned investigators. They have found the birthplace of art not alone in one land, but in all lands. The vestiges of the crudest arts are found everywhere, and men began the career of artisans everywhere. It is found that men were already distributed throughout the world when they first began to use the simplest tools. Something more of interest is found. It is discovered that the time when the first art-culture began was long ago, — very long ago; not long when compared with the geologic history of the earth, but very long when compared with the book-recorded his- tory of man. Archzologists have found vestiges of the beginnings of human art in geologic formations, and they have found them in alllands. So the ‘Garden of Eden” was all the world, and the sons of Adam were a host. As time passed on from that ancient epoch when men had SCIENCE [Vot. XIV. No. 349 landed on every shore, they slowly, very slowly, improved in their arts: for later and still later geologic formations contain vestiges- of higher and still higher arts, until at last men could make pottery and weave garments-and cultivate the soil; and from that time on, we have human industry recorded in books. Early human history is recorded in the rock-leaved bible of geology; late human history is recorded in paper-leaved books of libraries. Let us take up the story of music as a human art at the time when the late history commences, for that will serve our purposes. All the sylvan people of the world rejoice in dancing. So far as we know, it was the earliest of the esthetic arts, for we find it highly developed at the very birth of all other fine arts. This is because its foundation is laid in the physical constitution of man> it is the expression of the joy of animal life. These sylvan men danced by firelight, and forever they varied the rhythm of their dances with short steps and long steps, with steps to the right and steps to the left, with steps forward and steps backward : so dances came to be composed of a succession of varied steps, so rounded as to make a complete number in a figure of motion. A figure of motion, a complement of steps, is repeated over and over again, and the voices of the dancers are trained to chant the rhythm to guide their feet in the dance. To mark the varied steps to each complement or theme of motion, the voice is varied: long notes and short notes are used, and then loud notes and soft notes; and yet there is nothing but rhythm. Then they begin to vary their voices as a guide to the moving feet by changing the vocal pitch, and the simple chant becomes. First, the voice varies only in time; then it varies in time and stress; then it varies in time and stress and pitch, and the chant is almost a melody. So the music of the lowliest men known to modern investigators is but rhythm. It isthe universal music. All music in all times is based on rhythm, but some music has more than rhythm. The music of the savage has been improved. The sylvan man developed the first element of music to a high degree. At this stage the chant of unmeaning syllables undergoes change, for the emotions that are kindled by the dance are expressed in words, — first a few simple expressions of emotion, mere interjec- tions, then exclamatory phrases, then exclamatory sentences, and the egg of poetry is laid. > : This embryonic poetry is devoid of rhythm; for the rhythm yet belongs to the voice, not to the literature. The rhythm does not grow out of the words of the chant, but the rhythm of the chant is imposed on the words. The stage of culture of this sylvan man is called “ savagery ;” and it is very long; and during all these centuries, and centuries of centuries, tribes of kindred mén dance and chant. At the foot of the glaciers they have their homes, and walls of ice echo their chants; by mountain crags they have their homes, and the rocks echo their chants; in the valleys they have their homes, and the savannas are filled with their chants ; in tropical forests they have their homes, and “the sounding aisles of the dim woods” ring with their chants. When sentences are used to express the emotions kindled by the dance, the leader repeats the words and the people chant the re- frain; and more and more he gains a freedom in composition, and - he varies his chant with new sentences, iterating and reiterating the emotional theme. In this way poetry becomes, and we have dancing-master poets and dance songs. As the dancing-master poet varies his theme of poetry, so he varies his theme of music, and melody becomes. Poetry and melody are twins born of the dancing chant. Thus it is that “ ring-around-a-rosy ’ becomes a song. At first musical rhythm is an auxiliary of the dance: the rhythm of music and the rhythm of motion are partners. When unmean- ing syllables are replaced by emotional words and sentences, music and poetry live together. Sometimes it is dancing and music only ; sometimes it is dancing, music, and poetry altogether ; sometimes it 1s music and poetry only. So the grandchild of the dance and the child of the chant grows, and is emancipated from the control of dancing, and becomes an art associated with poetry. Priests sing as they perform religious rites, women sing as they grind at the mill, children sing at their OctoBerR 11, 1889. ] sports; and song, as rhythm and melody, exists during all the period denominated “ barbarism.” When freedom comes to song, it starts on a new career. No Jonger chained to Terpsichorean feet, it soars into the realm of ideal emotion. The dance expresses the joy of exuberant life: the song expresses the joy of exuberant emotion. The dance carries the body through the merry maze: the song carries the soul on its way through the universe of thought. If I would share my measure of joy with another, behold, my measure is still full, and more than full: it overflows. When song comes, men find, that, though the solo is beautiful, the chorus is more beautiful, and rapidly choral music is developed. At the time to which we refer there is no harmony, but only rhythm and melody. Yet the egg of harmony is laid, for n melody sounds follow one another rapidly, and ere one note leaves the ear another joins it. The waning sound mingles with the waxing sound as the embryo of harmony. Thus melody trains the ear to the apprecia- tion of harmony. There is still another element of harmony in choral melody. The voices of a varied concourse of people are diverse in pitch. The notes of man are low and resonant, like the voices of waves and winds; the notes of women are high and clear, like the voices of birds; while children pipe like bees. In folk-singing, groups of such voices unite, and the elements of harmony are developed. The village life of barbarism when the people form a body of kin and kith promotes this rudimentary harmony ; for they meet as one great family, and join in many a festival that must ever lead to music ~ and dancing. And here another art assists in the development of music. The ‘drama begins in savagery. The savage deifies the beast. To him the animals of the world are wonderful. The eagle lives a life with which he cannot vie. It plays among the clouds, rests on the mountain-tops, and soars down to circle over the waves of the sea. The humming-bird poises over its blossom-cup of nectar like a winged spirit of the rainbow. The deer bounds away through the forest, and leaves the hunter lost in amazement. The squirrel climbs the tree, and plays about among its branches, and springs from limb to limb and tree to tree, and laughs at the sport. The rattlesnake glides without feet over the rocks, and in his mouth the spirit of deathis concealed. The trout lives in the water, and flies up the brook as the hawk flies up the mountain. Dolphins play on the waves as children play on the grass. The spider spins a gossamer web ; the grub is transformed into a winged beauty ; the bee lays away stores of honey ; the but- terfly sports in the sunshine like a flower unchained from its-‘stem. The air, the earth, and the waters are peopled with marvellous beings. The folk-lore of the savage is a vast body of oral literature, in which these wonderful animals are the principal actors, and his book of creation is the history of the animal gods. The stories of these animal gods are dramatized ; and the priest-doctors of sav- agery are the actors who play before the people, assuming the parts of beast gods. For this purpose they dress themselves in the skins of beasts, or wear masks that represent the forms and attributes of their deities. In recitations and dialogues, with much acting and mimicry, they represent the scenes of their mythology to the people. When poetry is born, they recast their stories in poetic form, and chant and sing their verses. Drama plays a great part in savage and barbaric life. In the tales of the drama the philosophy of the people is embodied. It contains their history of creation. The human mind is ever inter- ested in the origin of things. The desire to know is the funda- mental impulse of the intellect. The wisest and best of all peo- ples, even among the tribes of sylvan men, devote their highest in- tellectual powers to the enigmas of creation; and as opinions are formed, they seek to teach them to others. Thus it is in savagery and barbarism that philosophy is embodied in drama, and taught to the peuple. In primitive society the drama is the school of religion; for there its precepts are taught, and its lessons are re- flected in the theatrical mirror of life. The drama is deeply em- bedded in early culture, and is intimately associated with the intel- lectual growth of the race. When the drama borrows aid from music, music itself is greatly SCLENGE- 247 invigorated. With the new impulse it rapidly develops, and this is the manner of its growth : — When the chorus is sung by skilled performers, the unskilled join in parts, adding a kind of refrain to the music, not by follow- ing the undulations of the melody in unison with the principal singers of the chorus, but by chanting on a note in harmony there- with ; and thus harmony becomes. To suit the conditions of the actors in the drama, harmonious parts are developed until one, two, or more accessory chants are produced ; then these harmonious parts are developed from acces- sory chants to accessory melodies, more simple than the principal melody, which still retains the name. In the music thus developed by our race there are usually four parts, — soprano, contralto, tenore, and basso, — and these are ad- justed to four classes of voices. Rhythm grows into melody, and melody grows into harmony: yet music is young, and music must grow, for it blossoms with the promise of becoming divine. Music is to become symphony. Harmony is a combination of co-existent melodies ; but symphony in its broadest sense is a combination of sequent harmonies. At the song stage of music, men begin to recite stories, simple dramas, and intersperse their narratives with stanzas of song; then the narratives are chanted, and songs and chants are combined, chants and songs alternating. At this stage a body of sacred music is developed. From hymns grow anthems, and Bible passages are rendered in the solemnity of the chant and the majesty of the hymn, for chants and hymns alternate; and anthems by minute increments become oratorios, where Bible history is taught in a succession of chants and hymns, changing along the course of the oratorio to express the varied emotions kindled by the sacred story. The mythic drama of the Pagan world is represented by the oratorio of the Christian world. The profane dramas that are recited and sung come to be chanted and sung with instrumental accompaniments. And then are produced the cantatas, or poetic stories set to music; and fugues, or musical dialogues, are composed ; and nocturnes, sere- nade music laden with tender love. Then the cantata is developed into the opera as the drama is wholly set to music and the parts presented by dramatzs persone. Men must laugh sometimes, for tragedy must be set in comedy, as precious stones are ofttimes set in filigree; and so the madrigal is developed, which is an elaborate musical composition of many parts, designed for the expression of tender and hilarious joy in alternating movements: it is the comedy of music. And then comes the sonata, designed for solo instruments, — a musical com- position usually of three or more successive parts, each of which has a unity of its own, yet all so related as to form one varied and consistent whole. From the sonata, music passes to the symphony, which is a musical composition of successive parts having slightly varied but intimately related movements, treated in such a man- ner, by varying the time and stress and pitch, as to produce the greatest contrasts. With the anthem and oratorio, the cantata and the opera, the fugue and the madrigal, the sonata and the symphony, music has reached its highest stage in civilization. The theme is the evolution of music, not the evolution of - musi- cal instruments; but something must be said of instruments, for they play an -important part in the evolution of music itself. Were I to enter upon this theme fully, the task would be great. Then I should have to tell of thumpers of many kinds, by which the rhythm of the dance is controlled ; I should have to tell of rat- tles, by which the dance is enlivened; and I should have to tell of whistles, by which the dance is made merry withscreams. ThenI should have to tell how thumpers became drums, and _ how rattles became tambourines, and whistles became flutes; and I should have to tell how twanged flexible strings became violins, and how twanged rigid strings became pianos, and how bark whistles be- came horns, and how pipes became organs. The invention of musical instruments begins with the sylvan man, who uses them to mark the rhythm of thesdance. Through- out savagery and barbarism only time-marking instruments are invented. Not till civilization came to the people of the shores of the Mediterranean were instruments of melody produced; but 248 when they appeared, a new world of music burst upon the delighted ears of civilized man. Beaten instruments, reed instruments, wind instruments, and stringed instruments give power and variety, and the capacity for musical production is marvellously increased. Men can sing solos, sing in chorus, and sing in parts within the compass of the human voice; but with instruments they can play in unison with like instruments, and in harmony with unlike instruments, and with a compass far exceeding that of the voice. Then music is enriched by increasing the compass, it is enriched by increasing the volume, but more than all it is enriched by increasing the va- riety of its kinds. At this stage music is sweet, music is grand — but music must become sublime. Instruments of music are but instruments of melody until science comes, when it is learned that sound is a mode of motion, and that low sounds are slow vibrations, and high sounds quick vibra- tions. Then the knowledge comes by which man invents instru- ments of harmony, —co-existent harmony and sequent harmony. Thus science is the last great agency in the evolution of music, for it produces instruments by which symphonies become possible, and music has reached the sublime. As the blue egg becomes a robin, as the seed becomes a Se- guoza, as the sands of the rill become an island, so “ring-around- a-rosy ” becomes a symphony. Primarily feelings arise from biotic pains and pleasures. It is one of the wonderful transformations of nature that the pain of a blow should slowly, through the years of human culture, develop into the sorrow for sin: that the pleasure of a feast should evolve by the metamorphosis of minute changes into the love of justice. How feelings develop into emotions, and emotions into sentiments, and sentiments into esthetics, is a long and beautiful story which cannot here be told. But the world is full of transformations. The metamorphoses of evolution have been the mysteries of time. In the solution of these mysteries, men have been engaged through untold years, — peering through their purblind primitive ignorance for more light, reasoning with guesses, philosophizing with myths, and believing in errors, but gaining a little truth here and a little there, until by minute increments science has been developed. The evolution of science is itself the mystery of mysteries, the meta- morphosis of metamorphoses, for the germ of science is mythol- ogy. : With the development of intellect, the emotional nature of man by which he loves and hates has been evolved, and the esthetic pleasures have arisen under the law of mental association. By association with the joys of life, music has been endowed with its power of producing emotion. This association must be explained. I have now spoken of the growth of music as a combination of sounds in succession and in harmony,-as it is made by the human voice, and have alluded to the origin of the instruments by which parlor, orchestral, and temple music is produced ; but nothing has been said of the means by which music is endowed with its power to produce emotion. I have told of the body of music, but have said nothing of its soul. Music is freighted with joy and sadness, with hope and fear, with courage and cowardice, with glory and shame: it is freighted with all emotion; and how does the form of sound become informed with feeling ? When primitive man — poor, naked, houseless, savage man — lived in the Eden walled by ice, and was scattered throughout the garden of the world, his capacities for pleasure were yet little de- veloped. Still he joyed much in his rude way. When the wind blew cold, he warmed himself by the camp-fire; and when the night was dark, he illumined his home with fire-light ; and about the fire he danced, and in the dance he had resource of joy. When the fisherman came home laden with a bounteous catch, he made merry by the fire-light dance; when the hunter brought in many pheasants or many antelopes, then, with kith and kin, he made merry by the fire-light dance; when the rich nuts fell from the trees in bounty, he made merry by the fire-light dance ; when the wind blew chill, he drove the cold away by the camp-fire dance, and when the night was about him he rejoiced in dancing. So the nights of that region where the stars of the Great Bear are over- head, and the nights of that region where the stars of Orion are overhead, and the nights of that region where the Southern Cross SCIENCE. [Vou XIV. Nos 345 is overhead, in all the habitable lands of the round earth —the nights were spent in dancing, and the rhythm of the dance and chant became the language of these rude savage emotions. But disease and wounds and pain and death were the heritage of — this early man. Whence these evils came he knew not; why they came he could not tell. How they were to be driven away was the enigma of all savage thought. Through an illogical philosophy, the origin of which is a long and strange story, he came to believe that diseases were living beings ; that toothache is the pain wrought by the gnawing mythic worms; that the cough is caused by mythic insects ; that headache is caused by invisible mythic ants; and that all diseases and all pains are produced by these mythic agencies. And he tried to drive them away by shrill shrieks, by mad howling, and by horrid imprecation. Then he sought to gain the aid of the friendly spirits of the world, —the good mythic be- ings. To him the rhythm of the dance and the chant was the language of joy. So he sought to woo these friendly spirits by using this language of joy; and, when wearied with his own efforts - at driving away the maleficent spirits, he turned to the dance and the chant, and with them called for the beneficent spirits. In this ~ manner the sylvan man came gradually to believe in the direct efficacy of dance and music as a medicinal agency. Dance and music are the quinine and calomel of the savage, — the “ water- cure,” the “ faith-cure,” the “blue-glass cure,” the “ mind-cure,” the “ Christian-science cure,” the ‘“youth-restoring elixir,” the panacea for all human ills. When the poor diseased people recovered, the joy of recovery became associated with music. The welcome to health and com- panionship which the poor invalid received was given in dance and music. Sometimes storms came and destroyed their rude houses ; some- times drought came and destroyed their harvests ; sometimes fierce winds came and congealed their life-fluids ; sometimes mad light- ning came, and, shivering the trees, ended their lives. And so by flood and wind and lightning, and many other agencies, they be- lieved themselves to be persecuted by the spirits of the animal gods who must be appeased ; and what would please the god so much as music and dancing? And so they danced to their gods, and beat their drums to their gods, and played their whistles to their. gods, and blew their horns to their gods, until the winds stilled, and the storms abated, and the lightnings went out, and the thun- ders hushed, and the floods ran away to the sea; and then they re- joiced with feasting and dancing and music. Before the sylvan man had learned to plant fields, and build storehouses, and provide for future days, he believed that every thing was the gift of his animal gods. The earliest provision that mankind made for the future was to lay up a store of their good will. And how could he gain their good will but by dancing and music? So at new moons and at new seasons he held festivals in honor of his gods, and gave them dancing and music. When, in a later culture, man gathered the fruits of the forest and mead as a store for the winter day, and planted fields and gathered grains, he made thanksgiving to his gods in dancing and music. : The rallying cry to war was dancing and music. There is an instrument used by savages in many lands that consists of a simple tablet of wood, a hand’s breadth in length and a finger’s breadth in width, to which a short string is attached by one end, while the other is ‘fixed to a stick like a cane. The performer, holding the stick in his hand, whips the tablet of wood through the air in such a manner that it makes a sound, sometimes quick but low, like the whiz of a bullet on the battle-field ; sometimes shrill and loud, like the shriek of a cannon-ball thrown into a bombarded city. With these instruments a group of naked savage warriors, intent on plunder, rapine, and the midnight murder of men, women, and chil- dren, gather about the camp-fire in the weird dance, and leap and howl and whip their bull-roarers, until they work themselves into a state of fury. It was in this manner that the music was freighted with emotion by the sylvan man when it was only rhythm, and when it was chained to the dance. Some music expressed in rhythm and melody has had a long life among all the barbaric and civilized peoples of the world. Min- OcrToBeER 11, 1889. | strels have carried it about ; men have sung their songsin field and forest ; women have sung their songs at the oven and the loom; boys have sung their songs while driving the herds to pasture, and girls while milking cows; and there are songs for all times and all conditions and all peoples. Song has ever remained as folk-music, the delight of the people. There are songs celebrating all passions, —all joys and all sor- rows, all hopes and all fears, all loves and all hates. All the emo- tions of the human soul are coined into song. Song is the reservoir into which all human feelings are poured, and it is the fountain from which all human feelings may be drawn. And this is true not only in our language, but in all languages. When harmony was given to music through its association with the drama, musical compositions were no longer confined to simple songs for the field, the fireside, and the chapel, but great pieces ‘were composed for the temple and theatre, and music was made to express the emotions of religion and romance, as in the oratorio, cantata, and opera. This music bore on its wings the hope of heaven and the fear of hell. It told of the joy of the angels before the throne of God, and of the torments of demons in the presence of the Devil. The profane music of this period related biographies and histories filled with love and revenge, virtue and crime, courage and cowardice, repose and tragedy. Music in this -stage is freighted with the feelings that are kindled and expressed by laughter and crying, by prattie and wrangling, by caresses and blows, by kisses and frowns, by praise and reproof, by plenty and poverty, by strength and weakness, by health and disease, by birth and death, by festivals and funerals, by carnivals and battles, by peace and war, by victory and defeat, by justice and injus- tice. And now we must speak of the symphonic stage of music, when science has given it a multitude of sweet instruments. The art of music was not born of the music of Nature: it was born of the pains and pleasures, the joys and sorrows, of man- kind. The appreciation of the beauties of nature is of slow growth ; and it is only in civilization, and with the most cultured people of civilization, that these beauties are sources of joy; and it is only in the latest music that the highest intellectual pleasures are expressed. The beauties of the earth, the sea, and the air and the sublime spectacle of the heavens, are gradually being wrought into the emotional nature of mankind; and the new music is in- formed with the strains that are played by Old Ocean against the shores of every land.- It is filled with the anthem-music of the forest, and the songs of the Durds that chorus the round earth with the rising sun. In its late history new attributes have been added from the con- templation of nature. These are feelings kindled by the higher intellectual activities. The human reason has acquired a knowl- edge of the universe, and derived exalted emotions therefrom. The boundless sea now tells its story. From arctic and antarctic lands navies of icebergs forever sail, to be defeated and overwhelmed by the hot winds of the tropics. The lands with happy valleys and majestic mountains rise from the sea, built by the waves and fash- ioned by fire and storm. Over all rests the ambient air, moving gently in breezes, rushing madly in winds, and hurling its storms ‘against the hills and mountains of the sea and the hills and moun- tains of the land. _ The land, the sea, and the air are the home of a world of life, which man studies with ever-increasing interest and pleasure. The solid earth is composed of crystalline forms, and exhibits chemical activities which ever challenge admiration. Sound and heat, and light and electricity, and vitality and mentality, present modes of Motion the contemplation of which fills the mind with delight. Looking above the earth, the worlds of the universe are presented to view, and their wonders fill the soul. So music has come to be the language of the emotions kindled by the glories of the uni- "verse. Thus is seen the growth of music in four stages, — music as thythm, music as melody, music as harmony, and music as sym- phony. Rhythm was born of the dance, melody was born of poet- SCLEN CE: 249 ry, harmony was born of drama, symphony was born of science. The motive of rhythmic music was biotic exaltation, the motive of melody was social exaltation, the motive of harmony was religious exaltation, the motive of symphony is esthetic exaltation. Itis thus seen that music develops from the emotional nature of man, as philosophy has its spring in the intellectual nature. The earliest emotions arose from the biotic constitution, — simple pleasure or pain, as felt in the body and expressed in rhythm: they were mere feelings. Then feelings were idealized, and became emotions, and were expressed in melody ; then the emotions were idealized, and became sentiments, and were expressed in harmony; then the senti- ments were idealized, and became intellectual conceptions of the beautiful, the true, and the good, and these were expressed in sym- phony. Is there a new music for the future? The science of music an- swers, “ Yes.” We know that music has been chained to “ form,” "and imprisoned in the Bastile of musical intervals, and guarded by the henchmen of mathematical dogmas. But a few great musical composers, like Wagner, have broken the chains, and burst the bars, and killed the jailers, and they sing their liberty in strains of transcendent music. When it is desired to cultivate skill in musical performance, it is necessary to cultivate the art in the individual in the same order in which it is cultivated in the race; and he must first master rhythm, then melody, then harmony, then symphony. Then the love for music must be acquired in the same order. No one can love a symphony or an opera who does not first love song. If you would love the higher music, you must love the songs of the people ; and to affirm that you love a symphony, or an opera, or a cantata, but that you do not love a song, is like averring that you love a garden but do not love a rose, that you love a bouquet but care not for a lily: for a symphony is indeed but a bouquet of melodies, and an opera is a garden of many flowers. Happy is the home that is filled with song, alive boys and girls sing the melodies of the people, and where they make these melo- dies more musical with the violin, the piano, or the flute; for to music is consigned the purest joy. NOTES AND NEWS. IN addition to the election of Dr. Weir Mitchell as president of the next Congress of American Physicians and Surgeons, to be held in September, 1891, which we have already noticed, Dr. W. H. Carmalt of New Haven was elected secretary; Dr. J. S. Bil- lings of Washington, treasurer; Dr. William Pepper of Philadel- phia, chairman of the executive committee ; and Dr. S. C. Busey of Washington, chairman of the local committee of arrangements. Dr. C. H. Mastin of Mobile is reported to have declined the presi- dency, on the ground that no member of the executive committee ought to be elected to the presidency. — The fifty-eighth annual industrial exhibition of the American Institute of this city is now in progress at the Institute building, on Third Avenue, between Sixty-third and Sixty-fourth Streets. The building is well filled with tastefully arranged exhibits, covering a wide range of industries, several in which manufacturing processes are shown being especially attractive and interesting. The elec- trical exhibits are not as numerous as might be expected, there being only three electric-light companies and a few manufacturers of electrical instruments represented. — In view of the reports which have recently been published re- specting the Johns Hopkins University, President Gilman author- izes the statement that the university will begin its next year on the 1st of October with unimpaired efficiency. Neither the salary of the president nor those of the professors have been cut down, and several new appointments have been made. The indications during the summer have pointed to the usual number of students, and the courses of instruction will be given as announced in the programme. As to the finances of the university, it is no secret that the income derived from the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad was cut off some time ago; but the accumulated income of former years, the income from investments outside of the railroad, the in- come from tuition (which amounted last year to nearly $40,000), are available. Besides all this, a number of generous persons have 250 _ subscribed the sum of $108,000, to be expended as an emergency fund during the next three years. In addition, a new building, given by Mr. Eugene Levering of Baltimore, is now going up. A lectureship in literature has been endowed by a gift of $20,000. By the death of John W. McCoy the university inherits at once his choice library of 8,000 volumes, and is the residuary legatee of his estate. The exact amount to be received from this source cannot yet be ascertained, but the most prudent estimates place it above $100,000, exclusive of thelibrary. This gift is free from conditions. It is safe to say that within six months the Johns Hopkins Univer- sity has received from these various sources nearly $300,000, and other gifts are expected. The national character of the institution is a strong reason why its work should receive important aid from a distance. It will thus be seen that no consideration need be given to alarming rumors, as the present efficiency of the univer- sity is assured for the next three years. — By the will of Mr. John W. McCoy, who died in Baltimore Aug. 20, 1889, the Johns Hopkins University is made the residuary legatee of his estate. His large and valuable library is also left to the university. His art collection is bequeathed to the Peabody Institute. A fuller statement as to this valuable gift will be subse- quently made. — President Hall of Clark University, Worcester, Mass., in an official statement, thus defines the functions of docent in the uni- versity: ‘The highest annual appointment is that of docent. This rank and title is primarily intended as an honor to be award- ed to those worthy of more permanent and lucrative positions, as professors or assistant professors in colleges. It may be bestowed without examination upon a few men who have advanced beyond the requirements of a doctorate, and who satisfy the authorities of the university by a thesis, a public address, or in any other way, of both their scientific attainments and their teaching ability, and, if necessary, may be accompanied by a salary. Docents may be provided with individual rooms; and special apparatus may be pur- chased for their research if desired and approved. They may also be equipped and sent on scientific expeditions. While they will be expected during some part of the year to deliver a limited number of lectures on some special chapter of their department, their time will usually be reserved for study and research in a way best adapted to qualify them still more fully for academic advancement. It is believed that by the existence of such a select body of men of guaranteed scientific training, ability, and approved power to teach, the difficulties under which college trustees sometimes succumb in selecting suitable men for the professors may be diminished, and that otherwise this new academic grade will aid in raising stand- ards of scholarship in colleges, and encouraging scientific research.” The work of the university has begun. The professors and in- structors in the departments of mathematics, physics, chemistry, biology, and psychology met their students ‘Monday, Oct. 7. The following lectures were delivered: by Dr. Bolza, in mathematics, Oct. 8; by Dr. Cook, in psychology, Oct. 7; by Dr. Sanford, in psychology, Oct. 8. Dr. Donaldson gave an introductory lecture on Oct. 9 in the neurological laboratory. —In the Wichigan Engineers’ Annual, which is the report of the proceedings of the Michigan Engineering Society, of January, 1889, Professor M. E. Cooley, M.E., of Ann Arbor, gives the fol- lowing experience on the value of covering steam-pipes: ‘“‘ The benefits of covering steam-pipes to prevent radiation are strikingly illustrated by the following example: The Thomson-Houston electric-light plant in Ann Arbor has about 60 feet of 7-inch pipe, connecting the boiler with the engines, and two large steam-drums above the boilers. In March, 1887, the steam at the far end of this pipe was tested to determine the amount of entrained water, the pipes and drums at the time being uncovered. An average of nine experiments gave 31.01 per cent of moisture. In June of the same year, after the pipes were covered with magnesia sectional cover- ings, the quality of the steam was again tested, the average of five experiments giving 3.61 percent moisture. The tests were made by the same men, from the same connections, and in the same manner. The pipes and steam-drums in March were subjected to a draught, which, of course, aided the condensation. Enough water passed into the cylinders to retard the engines, producing a disagreeable SCIENCE: [Vor. XIV. No. 349 - noise. In June the weather was warmer, and the pipes and steam- drums were well protected. The quality of steam at the boilers. was tested in June, and showed about 3 per cent of moisture. Assuming that 100 indicated horse-power were being developed at the time, and that each horse-power required 30 pounds of steam per hour, we would need 3,000 pounds of steam. If the steam is as- sumed to have 25 per cent entrained water, due to condensation in the pipes and connections, then 4,000 pounds steam will need to be produced in the boilers, or 1,000 pounds more than necessary. To produce this steam will require about 125 pounds of good coal per hour, or 1,000 pounds per day of eight hours. One-half ton per day, at $3 per ton, for 300 days, equals $450, which, at 6 per cent- pays the interest on $7,500. The actual cost of the covering, put on complete, probably did not exceed $150. — The deepest bore-hole in the world, claimed at different times for a number of places, is, according to latest accounts, at Schlade- bach, a small German village near Leipzig. It measures 1,748.4. metres, or about 5,735 feet. The time expended in boring to this. depth amounted to six years, at a cost of $52,500. A peculiar ex- perience encountered in connection with this and other deep holes. in different parts of Germany is, according to Uh/and’s Wochen- schrzft, that the observed temperatures, while steadily increasing with the depths, show a smaller ratio of increase in the lower strata. : —In a recent issue of the Centralblatt der Bauverwallung, at- tention is directed to the fact, observed in some of the streets of Frankfort-on-the!Main, Germany, that the asphalt pavement in the immediate neighborhood of large gas-mains is rapidly destroyed by escaping gas, deep cracks being formed. This has been found to be particularly marked at places where the underlying layer of beton was imperfect, due to interruption of the work over night while laying. If this is true, it furnishes an additional reason for preventing that escape of gas from the mains in New York City which has already given so much trouble by explosions in subways. and sewers. — How many of the engineering works of the nineteenth century will there be in existence in the year 6000? Very few, it is feared, and still less those that will continue in the far-off age to serve a useful purpose. Yet there is at least one great undertaking con- ceived and executed by an engineer, which, during the space of four thousand years, has never ceased its office, on which the life of a fertile province absolutely depends to-day. We refer to the Bahr Joussuf, — the canal of Joseph, — built, according to tradi- tion, by the son of Jacob, and which constitutes not the least of the many blessings he conferred on Egypt during the years of his pros- perous rule. This canal took its rise, as given in Engzneerzng, from the Nile at Asiut, and ran nearly parallel with it for nearly two hundred and fifty miles, creeping along under the western cliffs of the Nile valley, with many a bend and winding, until at ‘length it gained an eminence, -as compared with the river-bed, which enabled it to turn westward through a narrow pass, and enter a district which was otherwise shut off from the fertilizing floods on which all vegetation in Egypt depends. The northern end stood seventeen feet higher than low Nile, while at the southern end it was at an equal elevation with the river. Through this cut ran a perennial stream, which watered a province named the Fayoum, endowing it with fertility and supporting a large popula- tion. In the time of the annual flood a great part of the canal was under water, and then the river’s current would rush in a more direct course into the pass, carrying with it the rich silt which takes the place of manure, and keeps the soil in a state of constant pro- ductiveness. And this, with the exception of the tradition that Joseph built it, can be verified to-day, and it is not mere supposi- tion or rumor. Until eight years ago, it was firmly believed that the design has always been limited to an irrigation scheme larger, no doubt, than that now in operation, as shown by the traces of abandoned canals and by the slow aggregation of waste-water which had accumulated in the Birket el Querun, but still essentially the same in character. Many accounts have been written by Greek and Roman historians, such as Herodotus, Strabo, Mutianus, and Pliny, and repeated in monkish legends or portrayed on the maps of the middle ages, which agreed with the folk-lore of the district. Ocroner 11, 1889. |} These tales explained that the canal dug by the ancient Israelite served to carry the surplus water of the Nile into an extensive lake lying south of the Fayoum, and so large that it not only modified the climate, tempering the arid winds of the desert, and converting them into the balmy airs which nourished the vines and the olives into a fulness and fragrance unknown in any part of the country, but also added to the food-supply of the land such immense quan- tities of fish that the royal prerogative of the right of piscary at the great weir was valued at$250,o00 annually. This lake was said to be four hundred and fifty miles round, and to be navigated by a fleet of vessels, while the whole circumference was the scene of industry and prosperity. — A company is now putting down a shaft into Grand Avenue Cave, four miles from Mammoth Cave, for the purpose of bring- ing up the air and putting it into the rooms of a large hotel which they propose to build, both as a pleasure-resort and sanitarium. They have been able to get no information on the subject, and ask for such in the “ Want” column in this number. — The Shore Line Railway bridge at New London, the largest swing-span drawbridge in the world, is now in position. It was built parallel to the shore along the fender pier, so as not to ob- ‘struct navigation, and was swung into place half an hour before sunset Saturday, Sept. 28. It is of solid steel, weighs nearly 2,500,000 pounds, and its connecting parts, when the bridge was swung into position, shot into the mortises of the bridge proper with absolute precision. This was a great relief for the anxious engineers. Some of the highest engineering skill ever employed in bridge-building has been used in the construction of this bridge, the situation involving peculiar difficulties. In some places, says The Tron Age, 56 feet of water and 80 feet of mud were found where the piers must be set. There great timber curbs were con- structed, and sunk to the total depth of 137 feet. After scooping out the interior mud, the curbs were driven full of piles. These, cut off at a level midway in the curbs, were bound solidly together by filling the spaces with concrete. On this rock-like basis the masonry of the pier was built up. The centre pier is an immense structure 71 feet square. It is flanked on either side by spans of 310 feet, and there are two other spans at either side of the river of 150 feet each. The unusual length of draw was required by the United States Government, that there should be no obstruction to the passage of the naval fleet to the Thames naval station farther up the river. This great bridge, 1,422 feet long, crosses the Pe- quot River (imitatively named by the first settlers the Thames, while they quite as foolishly named Pequot New London) from a point at the terminus of the Yale-Harvard regatta course at Win- throp’s Point, at the upper part of the town. — According to /Vature, the International Oriental Congress, which was held this year during the first and second weeks of last month in Stockholm and Christiania, was well attended, and was especially noticeable for the enlightened and warm interest taken in the proceedings by the King. Representatives of Oriental learning from the chief countries were his Majesty's personal guests, the members of the congress present were on several oc- casions specially entertained by him, and in other marked ways the King showed his desire to honor science and learning in the persons of the assembled Oriental scholars. The Zzmes is the only one of the English daily papers in which the proceedings have been followed regularly ; and in the last letter on the subject, its correspondent, who has been far from a prophet of smooth things in reference to all the proceedings, says that “this eighth Interna- tional Oriental Congress was favored above all its predecessors by the right royal splendor with which the ruler of the two countries entertained his guests, by the warm interest which the citizens took in the foreign savand¢s, by the care and kindly forethought with which all the arrangements for our comfort had been planned and were carried out, and last (not least) by the grand and lovely natural features of the places which the members visited. Per- haps at future congresses care will be taken that there -be less of empty Oriental parade, by which no palpable literary object can be gained, and that greater facilities be given for placing without delay within the reach of members an abstract of the proceedings : SCIENCE: lation is 2,934 055, against 2,846,102 in 1880. 251 in each section. However, in the face of such boundless hospi- tality and such personal sacrifices on the part of our hosts, it would be ungracious were we to take exception to what are, after all, but small matters of detail.” A large number of papers of great philo- logical and general interest were read, as will be readily gathered from the following list of the sections, with their respective presi- dents and vice-presidents : — Section I. Modern Semitic: presi- dents, Baron Kremer of Vienna, M. Schefer of Paris, M. de Goeje of Leyden. Section II. Ancient Semitic: president, M. Fehr of Stockholm ; vice-presidents, M. Chivolson of St. Petersburg, M. Oppert of Paris. Section III.: presidents, M. Max Miiller of Ox- ford, M. Weber of Berlin, M. Spiegel of Erlangen. Section IV.: president, Brugsch Pacha; vice presidents, M. Lieblein, M. Rei- nisch. Section V.: president, M. Schlegel of Leyden ; vice-presi- dent, M. Cordier of Paris. Section VI.: president, M. Kern of Leyden ; vice-president, Mr. R. N. Cust of London. — The carrier-pigeon has just been turned to a curious use in Russia, according to the Vovoe Vremya. Itis to convey negatives of photographs taken ina balloon. The first experiment was made from the cupola of the Cathedral of Isaac, and the subject photo- graphed was the Winter Palace. The plates were packed in en- velopes impenetrable to the light, and then tied to the feet of the pigeons, who safely and quickly carried them to the station at Vol- kovo. _— From the general results of the Swiss census of Dec. 1, 1888, which have already been worked out, it seems that the total popu- The German-speak- ing element increased from 2,030,792 in 1880 to 2,092,562, which, taking into account the normal growth of the population, was no relative increase, the proportion in both cases being precisely 71.3 per cent of the whole. The French, on the other hand, increased from 608,007 to 637,940, which was also a relative increase of 21.4 to 21.7 per cent; while the Italian declined actually as well as rela- tively, the numbers being 161,923 in 1880, and 156,602 in 1888, or 5.7 and 5.3 per cent respectively. The decline of the Italians in the cantons of Uri and Schwyz is explained by the return home of a large number of Italian workmen engaged in the St. Gothard Railway; but it is not so easy to explain why there is a large de- crease in the Germans in the cantons of Berne and Neuchatel, while the French have increased. In general the French increase in Switzerland seems to be at the expense of the Germans, while the German element recovers its place at the expense of the Italian. — Among recent appointments of Johns Hopkins men, we note the following: Edward A. Bechtel (A.B., 1888), professor of Greek in Mount Morris College, Illinois; Edward W. Bemis (Ph.D., 1885), adjunct professor of history and economics in Vanderbilt Univer- sity ; B. Meade Bolton (assistant, 1887-88), director of the Depart- ment of Bacteriology in the Hoagland Laboratory, Brooklyn, N.Y.; David T. Day (Ph.D., 1884), expert and special agent in charge of the subject of mines and mining for the eleventh census; John C, Fields (Ph.D., 1887), professor of mathematics, Allegheny College, Pennsylvania ; Andrew Fossum (Ph.D., 1887), classical instructor, Hill School, Pottstown, Penn.; J. Edward Harry (Ph.D., 1889), professor of Greek and German in Georgetown College, Kentucky ; George L. Hendrickson (A.B., 1887), professor of Latin in Colorado College; George N. C. Henschen (A.B., 1889), instructor in natu- ral sciences in the Reading (Penn.) High School; William H. How- ell (Ph.D., 1884, and associate professor), lecturer on physiology in the University of Michigan; Frank G. Hubbard (Ph.D., 1887), in- structor in English in the University of California; Cary T. Hutch- inson (Ph.D., 1889), docent in physics in Clark University ; James T. Lees (Ph.D., 1889), principal of the Latin School, and instructor in Latin and Greek in the University of Nebraska; Henry Sewall (Ph.D., 1879, and recently professor in the University of Michigan), professor of physiology in the College of Physicians and Surgeons, Baltimore; Moses S. Slaughter (fellow, 1885-86), professor of Latin in Iowa College; Professor Albion W. Small (Ph.D., 1889), president of Colby University, Maine; William E. Story (associate and associate professor, 1876-89), professor of mathematics in Clark University ; James S. Trueman (fellow, 1888-89), professor of Greek and Latin in Allegheny College, Pennsylvania. 252 SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY ING Dn Ge El ORDIGSETSS 47 LAFAYETTE PLacE, NEw YORK. SupscRIpTIONS.— United States and Canada............--++---- $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe..........-..--++---- 4.50 a year. Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author on request in advance. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- tended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but asa guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. All are invited to use it in soliciting Attention is called to the ‘* Wants’’ column. information or seeking new positions. The ‘‘ Exchange’’ column is likewise open. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, Ocroser 11, 1889. No. 349. CONTENTS: : ELectRiciTy In MINING.......------ 243 Parasites of the Blood.............. 254 Evortution oF Music From DaNcE Execution by Electricity........-- 254 To SYMPHONY ¥. W. Powell 244 | Boox-Revigews. Nores AND NEWS......-.+0s0---+--+ 249 | Strength: How to get Strong and 2 keepis tron geyeeieiatalsi-eslercleieietl= 254 EDITORIAL... .... ++ 2-002 seer tere reese 2B The Reconstruction of Europe..... 254 The New President of Columbia. — AMONG THE PUBLISHERS.......-- -. 255 The Prospect of having a World’s Fair in New York. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Lightning-Strokes H, A. Hazen 257 A Queer Maple-Tree M. G. Manting 257 MENTAL SCIENCE. New Experiments upon the Time- Relations of Mental Processes.... 252 Hearty Matters. InDuSTRIAL NOTES. The Effects of Alcohol upon Lon- Electric Blasting Battery.......... 258 FRRMS~adoopedeoadcasdS odaoaoonce 254 An Electric Boat on the Housa- The Food Treatment for Insomnia. 254 —KONCscn9 Dadcoosvon[s coances go 258 Mr. SETH Low, ex-mayor of Brooklyn, has been elected presi- dent of Columbia College, to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Dr. F. A. P. Barnard. President Low is an alumnus of the col- lege of which he has just been made the head. He is a native of Brooklyn, and as mayor of that city attained a national fame. The general verdict is that the trustees have done well in selecting a man who has always shown himself equal to the positions of trust in which he has been placed, who is in the very prime of life, being about forty years old, and who has the due scholarly training for his new work. THE WORLD’S-FAIR FINANCE COMMITTEE met Oct. 8, and re- ceived the report of their executive committee. The report of the executive committee was discussed, but not acted upon. After careful examination of the whole subject, the committee report that in their opinion no complete financial scheme ‘can be determined upon until it is approximately known what is the aggregate amount of money to be raised ; and this will be largely an open question until the site, plan, and scope of the exhibition are finally agreed upon. It is of first importance that Congress should give to the exhibition a national and an international character by appropriate legal enactment, which should, at the same time, determine its loca- tion in this the principal port of entry and metropolis of the coun- try. It is also essential that-the exhibition should receive encour- SCIENCE: [Vor. XIV. No. 349 agement and assistance from the State and city of New York; and the suitableness and liberality of this assistance must bé an im- portant factor in any financial plan which may be adopted, for if direct money contributions are voted, or lands are set apart for the use of the exhibition which belong to or may be acquired by the city, and upon which it may lawfully erect buildings, a very much less sum will be needed than if the committee must raise all the money, or if private property must be leased or purchased. Mean- while, to show the sincerity and willingness of the citizens of New York, they recommend that steps be taken to raise a preliminary fund of $5,000,000, for which stock should be issued, when authorized by congressional or legislative enactment. The meeting of the world’s-fair committee on site on the same day was largely attended. The chief business was the considera- tion of a report from the sub-committee on buildings, consisting of Messrs. Towne, Chandler, and Hunt, who were appointed specifi- cally to ascertain in regard to the value of property within the boundaries of the proposed site. In substance the report said that the site should be ample for the construction of five buildings, to cover in the aggregate 65 acres, and 200 smaller buildings, to be scattered over an area not to exceed 250 acres. In regard to the area of the main site, the committee reported that the exposition could be held at Riverside and Morningside Parks and on adjacent private lands, of which there might be needed only 120 acres, but that it could be better accommodated in 200 acres, making the total area of the site from 200 to 270 acres. From all the inquiries that the committee had been able to make, the price of property in that section of the city was about $100,000 per acre, involving an outlay of $12,000,000 or $20,000,000, according to the choice of 120 or 200 acres. When the various amendments had been voted on, the resolution, which was passed unanimously, read as follows: ‘“ That the proposed site, which includes River- side and Morningside Parks, shall be held to comprise such por- tions of Central Park north of Ninety-seventh Street as are physi- cally available and may be found absolutely necessary for the pur- poses of the exposition, and also to include adjacent lands fronting onthe north and east of Central Park, is in all respects the best; that therefore all efforts should be concentrated upon the acquisi- tion of the needed area in this locality.” MENTAL SCIENCE. New Experiments upon.the Time-Relations of Mental Processes. WITH the law once admitted that all mental states are definitely related to and conditioned upon physical ones, it would readily follow that mental processes, or at least the physical changes that accompany them, take a definite amount of time for their normal performance. Furthermore, these times can be regarded as an in- dex of the complexity of the act in question; and a comparison of the times taken up by various mental processes will furnish a basis for their classification, and may afford desirable glimpses of the nature of the processes themselves. This is the cardinal thought that has urged investigators to carefully measure those simple acts that lie at the basis of psychic life with all the accuracy that ihe use of refined and complicated apparatus could furnish. A great many interesting results were obtained, and many theories refuted. Re- cently the fact has come into prominence that the attitude of the subject, the direction of his attention, exercises a profound influence upon the results, and many observations have been repeated with this fact in mind. Among these the work of Dr. Miinsterberg (“ Beitrage zur Experimentellen Psychologie,” Heft 1, 1889), of the University of Freiburg, merits detailed notice. As re-actions were to be made by each of the five fingers of the right hand, many preliminary experiments were made with each to eliminate the difference in alertness of the fingers. The fingers pressed down upon the keys of a keyboard, and as soon as a sound (usually a word) was heard the re-action was made by raising the appropriate finger. In this simplest process of executing a move- OcToBER I1, 1889. ] ment as soon as an expected sensation has been received, Lange had found a great and constant difference according as the atten- tion was fixed upon the sensation, the expected sound, or upon the movement of re-action. In the first case the subject distinctly waits for the sensation, appreciates it, and then proceeds to move the finger: it is a “sensory” re-action. In the second case the impression is taken in almost automatically, and the desire is to have the finger move the moment any impression is felt : it is a “motor” re-action. The sensory is always longer than the motor re-action. Lange found in three observers sensory times of .230, .223, and .224 of a second; and motor times of .123, .125, and .137 of a second, — an average difference of one-tenth of a second. I. Miinsterberg’s sensory time is .162, his motor .120, of a second, —a :nuch smaller difference of only .042 of a second. Itis to be noted that the motor times of all the observers agree remark- ably well, while their sensory times show individual variations. The explanation of these facts will be attempted after the results of certain other experiments have been given. II. The next complication consisted in calling out in an arbi- trary order “one,” “two,” “ three,” “ four,” or “ five,” to which the thumb, forefinger, middle finger, ring-finger, and little finger were to respond respectively. This is more complicated, and involves the association of “one” with a movement of the thumb; and so on. As before, one may fix the attention upon the expected sound or upon the movement. The sensory time for the entire process was .383 of a second; the motor, .289 of a second, —a difference of .og4 of asecond. When making a sensory re-action, the sound is always appreciated; and errors, i.e., raising the wrong finger, never occur. In motor re-actions they occasionally occur, the error invariably consisting in raising a neighboring finger. III. Here the re-action was the same; but, instead of the. words “one,” “two,” “three,” “four,” “ five,’’ the Latin declension — lupus, lupiz, lupo, lupum, lupe —was associated with the five fingers, the process being the same as before, but the association more artificial. The result was, for sensory re-actions, .465 of a second; for motor, .355 of a second, —a difference of .110 of a second. Only a single false re-action was made. IV. The movements of the five fingers were associated respec- tively with the five members of the three following declensions of German pronouns: 2ch, mezner, mir, mich, wir, du, deiner, dir, dich, thr ; der, des, dem, den, dze. This is more complex not only by the change between three series, but by the relatively minute and irregular distinctions between the words. The sensory time was .688 of a second; the motor, .430 of a second, —a difference of .258 of asecond. Here errors occurred in the motor re-actions ten per cent of the time, showing the increased facility of confusion. It was noticed, too, that the second finger was often erroneously raised in answer to dz, apparently on account of its position in the familiar series zc, du, er. V. Here the elements of the process are changed. If a noun is called, the thumb is to be raised; if an adjective, the fore- finger; if a pronoun, the middle finger; if a number, the ring- finger ; if a verb, the little finger. ‘This very artificial relation was first thoroughly learned by going over the list, raising each finger as the class to which it corresponded was mentioned. All the words were monosyllables, and new words were being constantly used, no word. occurring twice. The sensory time was .712 of a second ; the motor, .432 of a second, —a difference of .280 of a second, Hereerrors are very frequent (thirty per cent), but are con- fined to the motor re-actions. VI. This series was just like the former except that the cate- gories were “‘a city,” “a river,” “an animal,” “a plant,” “an ele- ment;” such as “London,” “Rhine,” ‘dog,’ ‘‘rose,” ‘“ gold.” The sensory time was .893 of a second; the motor, .432, —a dif- ference of .461 of a second. Errors occurred in twelve per cent of the motor re-actions. VII. Here the categories were still more difficult ; viz., “an author,” “a musician,” ‘‘a naturalist,” “a philosopher,” ‘‘a states- man or general.” Only in a few very prominent cases is this decis- ion easy. The average time was, for sensory re-actions, 1.122 seconds; for motor, .437 of a second, —a difference of .685 of a second. Errors occurred in twenty-five per cent of the (motor) re- actions. ; SCIENCE. 253 It is to be noted that the cases I., II., and III. involve associa- tions of a finger-movement with but one word: it is an “antici- pated” association. In the other cases a more or less wide range of words is to be re-acted upon by the same movement: it is a “free” association. It will have been noticed, too, at what a rapid rate the difference between sensory and motor times increases as the processes become more complex, this difference being sixteen times as great in VII. as in I. The explanation of the shortening of the re-action time by the motor form of re-action is comparatively simple in Case I. We need only assume, quite naturally, that the fixation of the attention upon the movement really gets ready the innervation (as it were, lights the match beforehand), and is thus immediately ready to make the movement (to set afire the train of powder). But in the following cases not only does this explanation become doubtful (for, inasmuch as it is not known which finger is to be moved, only a general, unspecialized innervation to move a finger can be an- ticipated), but it can only account for .o42 of a second of difference, while the real difference progressively rises to sixteen times that amount. We can be quite sure, then, that the shortening takes place in the purely mental process of recognizing a given word as an instance of a more or less general class, and of appreciating that this class is to be represented by a certain movement. While in the four last cases the sensory times rose from .688 to .712, to .893, to 1.112 seconds, the motor time practically remained unchanged,— -430, .432, .432, and .437 of asecond. The increase in the sensory time indicates that the processes are becoming mentally more complex. It is more difficult to recognize that a given word (heard -only once during the experiments) is a certain part of speech than to recognize a word as one of the same three, zch, du, der, or meiner, deiner, des, and so on; still more difficult to recognize a concept as belonging to one of five well-known general categories ; and most difficult to place a man in one of five special, somewhat closely related professions. But why should these differences dis- appear by simply fixing the attention upon the movement to be executed? Indeed, according to a current theory, of which Wundt is the acknowledged champion, and which Dr. Miinsterberg fiercely combats, turning the attention towards an act shortens the time of its accomplishment ; fixing the attention upon the mental, sensory part of the process should shorten the time. This apperception theory, that conceives the mind as a point in which only a single act has room at a given moment, and through which accordingly the several elements of a complicated process must pass serzatzm, gives no satisfactory explanation. Dr. Miinsterberg regards the true explanation to lie in the fact that in the motor re-actions the several parts of the mental process overlap in time. In the motor re-action we have before us, as it.were, five possible movements, each (aided, perhaps, by unconscious tentative movements) ready to be made, and five lines of association along one of which the impulse is coming. The moment the word is sounded, it is referred to the “ third-finger-moving category,” or whichever it may be, — the intermediate acts of recognizing, let us say, that the word was “frog,” that a frog is an animal (and not one of the other four classes), and that when an animal’s name is called we must raise the third finger; which acts are gone through consciously and successively, in the sensory re-action being performed almost simultaneously and automatically, or at least subconsciously. This, in Cases IV., V., VI., and VII., would be about the same process, the tracts of association (cortical fibre-connections to concretize the conception) being about equally much used in each case, since their entire use was that brought about by the experiments them- selves. We see, too, why it is natural that in the sensory cases errors did not arise, but that in the motor re-action an impulse could readily be switched into a neighboring association-tract. Dr. Miinsterberg regards the motor form of re-action as the one more closely corresponding to natual, every-day processes; the sensory re action being a mere artificial, experimental result. When we act and speak, the movement results before we have consciously appreciated the excitation, analyzed it, and referred it to certain categories. Itseems to be referred to certain definitely established trains of thought, the reasons for doing so never consciously ap- pearing. While this explanation is not entirely adequate, it has the advan- 254 tage of giving a very real interest to the facts, of being in harmony with current psychophysical and neurological conceptions, and of suggesting further experimental inquiry by the results of which it can be substantiated or refuted. A point unnoticed in the original essay may.be here appended. If we compare the gradual increase in the motor times from I. to VII., we find the greatest difference (.169 of a second) in passing from I. to II.; that is, when, instead of re-acting by one certain motion, we re-act according to circumstances by any one of five, — an evident increase of motor complexity. Next, in passing from II. to III., we find a smaller increase of .066 of a second easily ex- plicable by reflecting that we have already had practice in consider- ing the fingers as “one,” “two,” “three,” “ four,” “five ;’’ and so the connections are easier, while the associations with Zpus, etc., are new. In passing from III. to IV. we have an additional motor complexity in the fact that each of the association tracts is sub- divided into three sub-tracts, and the expectation of the intended movement is accordingly less definite. The time increases by .075 of asecond. When these tracts become divisible into an indefinite number of strands, it does not seem to complicate matters, and from here on the motor times are the same. A similar comparison of the increase of sensory times and of the percentage of error will be equally instructive. An account of further experiments by Dr. Miinsterberg will be given in a future number of Sczence. HEALTH MATTERS. THE EFFECTS OF ALCOHOL UPON LONGEVITY. — The British Medical Association appointed a commission to inquire and ascer- tain the average age of three classes of drinkers; to wit, total ab- stainers from alcoholic beverages, moderate drinkers, and sots. The commission reported its observations upon 4,234 deaths, divided into five categories: 1. Total abstainers; 2. Habitual, temperate drinkers, — those who consume a moderate amount of alcoholic liquors; 3. Careless drinkers, —those who do not mean to get drunk, but are simply imprudent drinkers; 4. Free and habitual drinkers ; 5.. Decidedly intemperate drinkers, — sots. According to this classification, the average age reached by each of these categories is as follows: first class, 51 years 22 days; second, 63 years 13 days; third, 59 years 67 days; fourth, 57 years 59 days; fifth, 53 years 3 days. From this the curious fact is brought out that the teetotalers are the shortest lived, the sots having but a slight advantage over them in the average duration of life. The moderate drinkers reach the most advanced age. THE FOOD TREATMENT FOR INSOMNIA. — Dr. Eggleston says, in the Fournal of the American Medical Assoctation, that most students and women wha are troubled with insomnia are dyspeptic, and he has found it easy to successfully treat such cases without medicine. They are instructed to eat before going to bed, having put aside work entirely at least an hour before. If they are not hungry, they should simply be instructed to eat; and if they are hungry, they should eat whatever they want. A glass of milk and a biscuit is sometimes all that can be taken at first, or a mashed potato buttered. In ashort time the night appetite will grow, and the appetite will then need no particular directions. If possible, the night meal should be taken in another room than the sleeping- apartment, and for men in the city it will be found advantageous to go out toa restaurant. The idea of going out for something to eat, and having to wait a short time for it, will excite the appetite. Before eating, however, a bath should be taken, preferably cold or cool, which should be given with a sponge or stiff brush, and the body thoroughly rubbed off with a coarse towel afterward. The bath need not be more than five minutes in duration. After the bathing and rubbing, or after eating, a moderate amount of exer- cise should be taken. For this a few minutes with Indian clubs or dumb-bells is sufficient. Further than this, the patient should go to bed at the same hour every night, and arise at the same hour every morning. There is a popular superstition that grown people should not eat immediately before going to sleep; that it will give them indigestion or nightmare, or both. Dr, Eggleston cannot see why adults should be so very different in this respect from babies. It may be true that digestion is carried on slowly during sleep, and SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 349 that the digestive function is less active, but here one need not be in a hurry for the completion of the operation. The average per- son should be in bed seven or eight hours, which is time enough for the digestion of almost any thing edible. In our American life, he thinks, the digestion carried on through sleep probably has the: better chance for thoroughness. PARASITES OF THE BLOOD.— A Russian scientific observer some years since discovered in the blood of birds animate bodies. of the nature of parasites, to which he has given the name of Polimitus, presenting a striking resemblance to the organisms described by M. Laveran as existing in the blood of persons at- tacked by malarial fever. Subsequent researches have shown that the presence of microbial parasites of animal origin in the blood is. much more common than had been suspected, more especially in cold-blooded animals. -Of warm-blooded animals, carnivora are more liable to be invaded by these intruders than others; but it is. comforting to learn, that, for the most part, their presence does not appear to entail any particular inconvenience. According to The Medical Press, only four or five out of three hundred birds ex- amined died if consequence of lesions caused by the parasites, and the pathological appearances were then identical with those observed in the subjects of malarial fever. EXECUTION BY ELECTRICITY.— At.a recent meeting of the Paris Academy of Sciences a communication from Mr. Edison was read respecting the use of electricity as a means of inflicting capital punishment. He is of opinion that an alternative current will cause death without pain, but he adduces no experimental evi- dence in support of that contention. The matter was referred to. the medical section of the Academy, which is to have the assist- ance of M, Marcel Desprez, the electrician, in drawing up a report on the subject. BOOK-REVIEWS. Strength: How to get Strong and keep Strong, with Chapters on Rowing and Swimming, Kat, Age, and the Wazst. By RICHARD A. PRocTOR. London and New York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 12°. 75 cenis. HERE is a somewhat lengthy title, and one recalling those of a hundred years ago, when in the titlepage were generally revealed the author’s tenets, be they in religion or the sciences. Mr. Proctor defines the strength to which he refers as that which it is well that all actively employed members of the human family should have. The average man or woman is so engrossed in his struggle for ex- istence, that he has no time and energy to give to keeping his body in good working order in allits parts. It may be that it works well enough under ordinary circumstances, but after a few years of inattention any effort at unusual exertion reveals a softened muscle here, or a stiff joint there, that had not been suspected. How by a due but not excessive amount of exercise to find these weakening parts, and to bring them back to healthful vigor, is one of the author's objects. e But in the chapters on reducing fat, on nature’s waist and fashion, on learning to swim, and on other cognate subjects, are to be found some good advice, and some suggestions likely to prove fruitful of discussion. The Reconstruction of Europe. By HAROLD MuRDOCK. New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 12°. $2. THIS work is an account of leading political events in Europe from the establishment of Louis Napoleon’s empire in 1850 to the close of the Franco-German war in 1871. The introduction by John Fiske gives a general survey of the great political movements of the century, and Mr. Murdock then takes up his theme at the downfall of the French republic of 1848, and the defeat of the other revolutionary attempts of that time. Attention is given almost ex- clusively to international affairs, and both diplomatic and military manceuvres are described at length. The work is well written, though sometimes with little too keen an eye to dramatic effect, and with less philosophical insight than might have been wished. Too much space is given to unimportant military details to the ex- clusion of political events of much greater consequence, a fault that is specially noticeable in the earlier chapters. Moreover, we do * OcrToBER II, 1889.] | not see the propriety of including the Crimean war in the subjects treated ; for, though it occurred after the time at which Mr. Mur- dock begins his narrative, it had nothing to do with the recon- struction of Europe, and its connection with the later events de- scribed is very remote. Of course, the greater part of the volume is devoted to the unification of Italy and Germany, and the author shows pretty clearly why the revolutionists of 1848 failed to reach these ends, and why and how they were afterwards attained. The diplomacy of Cavour and Bismarck is well described, while the ob- tuseness of the French Emperor and his ministers and marshals is strikingly shown. Some of the great battles of the epoch, espe- cially that of Sadowa and the engagements around Metz, are very clearly delineated, and those who are fond of military history will find many interesting chapters in Mr. Murdock’s book. He closes without alluding to the Russo-Turkish war of 1878, doubtless be- cause the work of reconstruction in that quarter is not yet com- pleted, and no one can tell how it will end. On the whole, and in spite of some drawbacks, Mr. Murdock has written an interesting work, and one that will be specially useful to those persons who wish to keep informed of the general course of European affairs without going into all the details. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. ARNOLD & Co., Philadelphia, publish this week Mrs. S. T. Rorer’s book on “‘ Home Candy-Making.” — Among the scientific notes in the Fokus Hopkins University Czrculars for September are “ Contributions to the Mineralogy of Maryland,” by George H. Williams; “ Note on some Minerals. from the Chrome-Pits of Montgomery County, Md.,” by A.C. Gill; “A Study of the Oyster-Beds of Long Island Sound with Refer- ence to the Ravages of Starfish,” by C. F. Hodge; and “ Associa- tion in Substitution and Rotation,” by Professor Morton W. Easton of the University of Pennsylvania. —The Publishers’ Weekly notes the promotion of one of the most popular and promising members of the trade. Mr. Edward W. Bok last week resigned his position as manager of the adver- tising department of Charles Scribner’s Sons, to assume the editor- ship of Zhe Ladies’ Home Journal of Philadelphia, under most favorable arrangements. Mr. Bok has been with the Scribners for five years, and in graduating to the editorial chair becomes, perhaps, the youngest chief editor in the country. He is twenty- five years of age. In this connection, the following extract from the New York Szar possesses special interest at this time: ‘‘ Only those on the ‘inside’ of New York literary and journalistic circles know any thing about ‘The Bok Syndicate Press,’ a bureau from which emanate many of the best and most striking literary articles by famous authors found in the modern newspaper. It is owned and managed by two brothers, Edward W. and William J. Bok. The combined ages of these two young publishers do not make the figure fifty, and yet within their control rests one of the most re- markable literary influences of to-day. They control the literary work of some forty-five of the most famous men and women of the day, which they supply to newspapers simultaneously all over this country and in Canada and England. Edward Bok holds a re- sponsible position in one of the big New York publishing-houses, and his name is withheld from the enterprise. William devotes all his time to the work, and under his name the business is con- ducted.. While Edward makes all the contracts with authors, William stands at the helm and carries out the ideas of his younger brother. A better matched couple of brothers it would be difficult to find. Edward has a wonderfully extensive acquaintance among famous people. He is well read, has good literary judgment, and knows precisely what the people want. William is of untiring en- ergy, and a doubtful literary venture becomes a success in his hands. The brothers are very popular in society, and one is almost sure to meet them at any prominent literary or social event. Both are good talkers, have pleasant manners, and what the one lacks the other supplies. They have built up their business from nothing. Henry Ward Beecher started Edward by making him his literary manager, and in this way the bureau began. Now almost every author of note writes for the two brothers. They have no difficulty in securing writers, for they pay promptly and SCIENCE. 255: manage excellently. Their principal writers include Grace Green- wood, Wilkie Collins, Marion Harland, Lew Wallace, Ella Wheeler, Will Carleton, Max O’Rell, and a score of others. They work quietly, the general public hears but little of them, yet it is doubt- ful whether any two young men in New York have so bright a fu-- ture before them.” — Brentano’s will publih shortly a collection of papers on tech- nical and historical subjects under the title of ‘ Military Miscella- nies,” by Gen. J. B. Fry, U.S.A. — Roberts Brothers have just ready ‘‘ Louisa’ M. Alcott: her Life, Letters, and Journals,” edited by Ednah D. Cheney, illustrated with portraits and a view of the Alcott house in Concord. — Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. published on the 5th “ A Summer Journey to Alaska,” by Maturin M. Ballou, who describes in a most. interesting manner not only the resources and features of the coun- try and people of Alaska, but also the wonders of the Yellowstone Park and the marvellous country along the Canadian Pacific Railway;. “ The Reconstruction of Europe,” a sketch of the diplomatic and military history of continental Europe, from the rise to the fall of the second empire, by Harold Murdock, with an introduction by John Fiske ; also the first two volumes of the scientific papers of Asa Gray, selected by Charles Sprague Sargent, comprising reviews of works on botany and related subjects, 1834-87, and essays and biographical sketches, 1841-86. They publish this week the pretty two-volume edition of the “ Autocrat of the Breakfast-Table.” It is promised in beautiful type, tasteful binding, and with steel-en- graved titlepages. Miss Lucia T. Ames’s novel, ‘‘ Memoirs of a Millionnaire,” comes very opportunely, when the public is engaged as never before in thinking on social questions; and her story, which suggests some excellent uses for wealth, is likely to find eager readers. Rev. Julius H. Ward’s little book, “ The Church in Modern Society,” is an attempt to show what influence the Church is entitled to exert, why it fails now to exert it, and how it may regain its lost prerogative. The new edition of the Atlantic index, affording ready access to the varied riches of the sixty-two volumes of the Adlantzc Monthly, will be welcome to many. — Count E. De V. Vermont, author of ‘“ America Heraldica,” and a publisher at 744 Broadway, this city, is no relation to the man arrested under the name of W.C. Tenner, a/zas Terrail de Vermont, for having forged various checks in New York, Canada, etc. — The friends of Psyche, a journal of entomology published by the Cambridge Entomological Club, have made an appeal to en- tomologists for support. The limited funds of the club are not sufficient to publish the journal with the present subscription list without falling into arrears, so that the journal has been a heavy drain upon its local supporters, though several friends at a distance have generously assisted. A slight increase of the subscription list would render it nearly self-supporting, which is all the club asks, and it is believed that the special circumstances of the pres- ent time. indicated in the form of a subscription, will find a re- sponse from those interested in its welfare. Sample copies will be sent to any one desiring to call the attention of others to its char- acter. A friend of the Cambridge Entomological Club having as- sured the publication of Psyche to the end of 1893 on condition that fifty ew subscriptions to the present volume (at five dollars the volume) are received before Nov. 1, 1889, Mr. George Dimmock of Cambridge has subscribed for five copies; Mr. Samuel H. Scud- der of Cambridge, for five; Mr. Roland Hayward of Boston, for two; and Mr, Holmes Hinckley of Cambridge, for one copy. Sub- scriptions and payments may be made to Samuel Henshaw, treas- urer, Cambridge, Mass. —“The Butterflies of the Eastern United States and Canada, with Special Reference to New England,” describes in detail all the butterflies known to occur in North America east of the Mis- sissippi, excepting such as are found only in the unsettled parts of Canada or south of Kentucky and Virginia. It was originally issued in twelve monthly parts, each containing 8 plates (colored and plain) and about 150 pages of text. The first part was pub- lished Nov. 1, 1888; the last will be published Oct. 1, 1889. As now completed, it contains 17 plates of butterflies, 6 of eggs, 11 of 256 caterpillars, 2 of the nests of caterpillars, 3 of chrysalids, 2 of para- sites, 33 of structural details in all stages of life, 19 maps and groups of maps to illustrate the geographical distribution of butter- flies, and 3 portraits of early naturalists of this country, — in all, about 2,000 figures on g6 plates, of which 41 are colored. The text contains 2,000 pages, including an introduction of 104 pages, and an appendix of 150 pages, which contains descriptions of such species concerned as have not been found within the limits of New England, and also descriptions of all known parasites of North American butterflies, by Messrs. Howard and Williston. Special attention is paid in this work to the distribution, habits, and life- histories of our butterflies; and careful descriptions are given of every stage of life, not only for the species, but for the genera and SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 349 higher groups wherever the data are attainable. Analytical tables applicable to every stage (a feature never before attempted in a work of this kind) are introduced wherever possible. Seventy-six essays scattered through the work discuss such special questions as arise in studying butterflies, and in themselves form a complete treatise on the life of these insects. The work makes three vol- umes: the first contains the introduction and the family Vymphalz- de, the second, the remaining families of butterflies; the third, the appendix, plates, and a full index. Explanations of the plates are placed beside them. The price, bound in three volumes, half levant, gilt top, is $75. It will be ready for delivery, bound, Oct. I, 1889. Communications concerning it should be addressed to Samuel H. Scudder, Cambridge, Mass. MACMILLAN & 60.’ NEW BOOKS. NEW AND LARGELY REVISED EDI- TION. A TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. By M. Foster, M.A., M.D., LL.D.,F.R.S. With illus- trations. Part II. Comprising Book II. The Tissues of Chemical Action with their respective Mechanisms. Nutrition. 8vo. $2.60. RECENTLY PUBLISHED. PART I., COMPRISING BOOK I. Blood. The Tissues of Movement. The Vascular Mech- anism. 8yvo. $2.60. PHYSICS OF 1HE EARTH’S CRUST. By Rev. Osmond Fisher, M.A., F.G.S. New Edi- tion, Altered and Enlarged. 8vo. $3.50. NEW AND REVISED EDITION. ELEMENTARY LESSONS IN AS- TRONOMY. With illustrations and colored di- agrams. By J. Norman Lockyer, F.R.S. 16mo. $1.25. TRON AND STEEL MANUFACTURE. A Text-Book for Beginners. By Arthur H. Hiorns. 16mo. $1.00. OXFORD CLARENDON PRESS. BOOKS, A HAND-BOOK OF DESCRIPTIVE AND PRACTICAL ASTRONOMY. By George F. Chambers, F.R.A.S. Fourth Edition, re- vised, greatly enlarged and re-arranged. (In Three Volumes.) Vol. I. The Sun, Planets and Comets. With numerous illustrations. (Clarendon Press Series.) 8yvo. $5.25. THE MATHEMATICAL THEORY OF ELECTRICITY AND MAGNETISM. By H. W. Watson, D.Sc., F.R.S., and S. H. Burbury, M.A. VOL. II. MAGNETISM AND ELECTRODYNAMICS. Svo.* $2.60. NEW RECENTLY PUBLISHED. VOL. I. ELECTROSTATICS. $2.75. 8vo. NEW EDITION NOW READY. A TREATISE ON INFINITESIMAL CALCULUS. By Bartholomew Price, M.A., F.R.S. Vou. IV. DYNAMICS OF MATERIAL Sys- TEM. Second edition. 8yvo. $4.50. xy Macmillan & Co.’s New Catalogue of Publications is now ready and will be sent to any address on application. MACMILLAN & CO., 112 Fourth Ave., New York. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO’S NEW BOOKS, A NEW VOLUME IN LONGMANS’ ELEMENTARY SCIENCE MANUALS. MAGNE TISM AND ELECTRICITY. . By A. W. POYSER, M A., Assistant Master in The Wyggeston and Queen Elizabeth’s Grammar School, Leicester, With 235 Illustrations. Crown 8vo, 80 cents. *.**¢ This book is the result of practical experience in teaching, and it has been thrown into experi- mental form froma conviction that, if the student is to gain an adequate knowledge of the subject, itis absolutely necessary for him to acquire it by experiment. Scientific knowledge derived from mere book- work, with a view to pass some particular examination, is almost useless, and indeed is not unlikely to produce a result the opposite of that intended by the student.”EXTRACT FROM AUTHOR’S PREFACE. A full list of this series will be sent upon application. HANDBOOK OF COMMERCIAL GEOGRAPHY. By G. G. CHISHOLM, M.A., B.Sc. 8vo0, $5.00. “This book is designed to meet a want recognized by all who are interested in adapting our education to the needs of the time. . - Ihave endeavored to impart an ‘intellectual interest’ to the study of the geographical facts relating tocommerce. . , another way of saying that it has been my aim to make the book really educational. In writing the work I have had three classes chiefly in view—first, teachers who may wish to impart additional zest to their lessons In geography from the point of view of commerce; secondly, pupils in the higher schools and colleges that are now devoting increased attention to commer- cial education; and thirdly, those entering on commercial life, who take a sufficiently intelligent interest in their business to make their private studies bear on their daily pursuits.” . —EXTRACT FROM AUTHOR’S PREFACE. A PRACTICAL PLAN FOR ASSIMILATING THE ENGLISH AND AMERICAN MONEY AS A STEP TOWARDS A UNIVERSAL MONEY. By the late WALTER BAGEHOT, Reprinted from the Economist, with Additions and a Preface. Second Edition. Crown 8vo, 75 cents. THE ROTIFERA; OR, WHEEL-ANIMALCULES, By C. T. HUDSON, LL.D., Cautab, F.R.S. Assisted by P. H. GOSSE, F.R.S. pages, with Plates XXXI. to XXXIV. Paper covers, $4.00. “Tt was originally intended that the two volumes of the ‘Rotifera,’ should "contain all the foreign, as well as all the British species; but while the work was being written,so many new British forms were discovered that want of space compelled the authors to omit all but a few of the more remarkable foreign Rotifera. The Supplement, however, now remedies this omission ; and completes the work, by describing every known foreign species, as well as the British that have been discovered since its publication in 1886.” —EXTRACT FROM PREFACE. *.* The complete work, with 34 plates (30 colored), 2 vols., 4to, cloth, with Supplement as above, $28,00. OUTLINES OF THE LIFE OF SHAKESPEARE. By J. O. HALLIWELL-PHILLIPPS, F.R.S. Eighth Edition. 2 vols., royal 8vo, $6.00. ““By direction of the Executive Committee of the Shakespeare Soctety of New York, I am directed to advise you that you have the License of the Society to use, in the preparation of the forthcoming edition of the ‘Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare,’ the wood blocks and electros of wood blocks which the late J. O. Halliwell-Phillipps, Esq., left by Will to the Shakespeare Society of New York.” —Letter from the President of ‘*‘ THE SHAKESPEARE SOCIETY ” of New York. THREE LECTURES ON THE SCIENCE OF LANGUAGE: AND ITS PLACE IN GENERAL EDUCATION. By F. MAX MULLER. Second Edition. SUPPLEMENT, 4to, 64 70 cents. Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. will be happy to send their new General Catalogue, ana Catalogues of Sczentific and Medical works upon applicatzon. LONGMANS, GREEN & CO.,15 EAST 16th ST., NEW YORK. FOUR NEW BOOKS. Scientific Papers of Asa Gray. an Introduction by JOHN FISKE, and several Selected by CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT. Maps. Crown 8vo. $2.00. Vol. I: Reviews of Werks on Botany and Re- The New Eldorado. lated Subjects, 1834-1887. Vol. Il. Essays ; Biographical Sketches, 1841— A Summer Journey to Alaska. By MATURIN M. BALLovu. Crown 8vo, $1.50. 1886. 2 vols. Svo, $3.00 each. Professor Sargent says in the Introduction : ‘Many of the reviews are filled with original and suggestive observations, and, taken together, furnish the best account of the development of botanical literature during the last fifty years that has yet been written.’”’ The Biographical Sketches are every way admirable. The Reconstruction of Europe. A Sketch of the Diplomatic and Military His- tory of Continental Europe from the Rise to the Fall of the Second French Empire. With! « For sale by all booksellers. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., Boston, A fresh book on a fresh subject, by an accom- plished traveller. Those who have read ‘* Due West,” ‘‘Due South,” ‘‘Due North,” and ‘‘Un- der the Southern Cross” will heartily welcome Mr. Ballou’s new book. Our Cats and all about Them. Their Varieties, Habits, and Management; and, for Show, their Points of Excellence and Beauty. By HARRISON WEIR. With a Portrait, and many Illustrations by the Author. 12mo, $2.00. Sent by mail, post-paid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, 1! East 17th Street, N. Y. OcToBER I1, 1889.] | —The London correspondent of Zhe New York Tzmes says, “The Mew Revzew has been such a remarkable success that it will henceforth contain ten additional pages. Its freshness, ability, and scope have made even the For¢nzghtly and the Contemporary seem dull by comparison, and this month in the table of contents it easily leads all its older and costlier rivals. A little two-page paper by Cardinal Manning on the strike is one of the wisest and most valuable deliverances on the subject I have ever seen, and John Burns’s longer article is extremely forcible.” —In the New England Magazene for October many of the ar- ticles are devoted to subjects relating to education. Mr. Albert P. Marble, the retiring president of the National Educational Asso- ciation, contributes an article on the history and prospects of the association; W. A. Mowry, the editor of Educatzon, writes on Dr. Harris and the Bureau of Education ; there is a brief article on his- tory, by A. E. Winship, the editor of the Mew England Fournal of Educatzon ; and there is a long and fully illustrated article on the educational institutions of Nashville. Nashville receives further notice in a general article on the history and new life of the city, by Hon. A. S. Colyar. This article also is illustrated, and is timely, as the recent meeting of the National Educational Association in this « Athens of the South ” has drawn to it the attention of thousands of the teachers of the country. It is the first of a series of articles, in which the Vew England Magazine proposes to present the enterprising cities of the New South to Northern readers. Dr. Holmes, whose eightieth birthday has just been celebrated, receives attention in this number of the magazine. The frontispiece is a portrait of Dr. Holmes, from a recent photograph. There is an illustrated: article, “Dr. Holmes at Fourscore,” by George Willis” and inter-_ - Cooke; an article on ‘“ Dr. Holmes’s Pilgrim Poems ; ” esting facts about the poet among the editorial notes. Professor Hosmer’s story, “ The Haunted Bell,” is continued, and there are some short stories, one by Mrs. Celia P. Woolley, the author of “Love and Theology.” Mr. Mead’s study of the question, ‘“‘ Did John Hampden come to New England?” is finished, the whole evidence on this puzzling point being laid on the table. Another historical article is by Professor Charles H. Levermore, “ Pilgrim and Knickerbocker in the Connecticut Valley.” Mr. Hale has a gossipy paper entitled “‘ Tarry at Home Travel,” not easy to de- scribe, but delightful to read. There is a brief article on John Boyle O'Reilly; and a long and thorough one by William Clarke of London on Parnell, which will attract much attention. It is ac- companied by a portrait of Parnell, from a recent photograph. The articles on O’Reilly and Dr. Harris also have portraits. — Messrs. Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. have published a small volume by Mary E. Burt, an Illinois teacher, entitled “Literary Landmarks.” The authoress is impressed with the importance of giving children a taste for better reading than much that they now indulge in, and more knowledge of the literary history of the world. She lays the most stress on works of imagination, though she does not neglect scientific and historical books, and others that convey information. She gives some account of her experience in teach- ing the history of literature by means of specimen works, — a study which she has found more interesting to school-children than is commonly supposed. The book contains some charts to illustrate the literary history of the world, one of which is quite elaborate, and would, we should think, be useful to other teachers. Miss Burt is perhaps a little too positive in expressing her views, and the list of books that she recommends for young people is too full for ordinary use; but we welcome her attempt and all attempts to raise the standard of juvenile reading. — “Evolution of Morals,” by Lewis G. Janes, and “ Proofs of Evolution,” by Nelson C, Parshall, are the contents of Nos. 11 and 12 of the Modern Sczence Essayzst. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. Lightning-Strokes. THE attempt of Sczence to obtain information regarding light- ning-strokes and their damage is very praiseworthy, and it is to be hoped that it will result in a clearer understanding of the danger SCHEIN CE. 257 from these strokes to unprotected houses. I have heard intelligent men say that a lightning-rod attracted the lightning, and was more dangerous than none. This is unquestionably an entirely errone- Ous supposition, in case the lightning-rod has a good ground, for its whole duty is to cause electricity of increased tension to pass off silently and insensibly, rather than to gain a sufficient potential to. give a disruptive discharge. The following is a brief account of a few strokes that have come to my attention, in which damage re- sulted, in the past four years. On Aug. 23, 1885, a church with a high steeple, and protected by an iron lightning-rod, was struck in aseverestorm. The stroke stopped the tower clock, but without serious injury. The electri- city came down the rod to within fifteen feet of the ground, when it dashed across twenty feet of air space, to a faucet connected with the city water-pipes, and disappeared without further injury. It slightly dazed a man who was within a few feet of the line from the rod to the faucet. A singular point is, that this same church was struck in precisely the same way several years before ; and on that occasion, as the stroke entered the water-pipe, it broke the marble front of the sink, and threw it on the floor. It is very plain that the whole difficulty in this case was an insufficient ground. After the last catastrophe the rod was changed to copper, but it is plain that the only method of avoiding danger is by improving the ground. In this same storm, lightning struck a house about three- quarters of a mile from the church. This house had no rod. The main part had a hip roof, and was shingled ; while a lower south- ern extension had a tin roof, from the south-west corner of which a tin eaves-spout ran down to about ten inches above the earth. The lightning struck the south-west corner of the extension, and divided, a part going down to the end of the spout, and then into the house, where it knocked off the plastering. The other part crossed to the north-east corner, passed down between the weather- boarding and plastering, and finally dug a furrow in the ground, and disappeared ina pool of water about fifteen feet from the house. The latter part of the stroke drove off, as by an explosion, the plastering on the inside and the weather-boarding on the out- side. There was no trace of scorching on the boards. A woman and her two sons in the house were dazed and partly stunned. A year or two later a modern house was struck on one of the principal avenues of the city.. It had no lightning-rod ; but, from a tower having a slate roof, a gilded ornament projected to about three feet. The whole house excepting this tower was roofed with tin. The stroke passed down the inside of the tower, knocking off the plastering, stunning one of the inmates, and doing other slight damage. This house has had the same ornament erected, and no rod put in place to protect from a similar stroke. The last stroke that has been called to my attention occurred this summer. A gilded wooden cross about four feet in height, on the tower of a beautiful stone church which had no protection from lightning, was struck. Various ornaments on the tower were shattered, and the tower itself was damaged. The whole damage was two hundred or three hundred dollars. The gilded cross has again been erected without a lightning-rod to invite another visita- tion by Providence. It seems to me the architects of modern buildings are largely responsible for this state of affairs. It is probable that in a large city with numerous tin roofs the danger from lightning on ordinary roofs is very slight; but certainly in isolated spots, and all pro- jecting metallic or gilded points, there is a constant hazard from lightning unless protected by a rod well grounded. H. A. HAZEN. Washington, D.C., Oct. 7. A Queer Maple-Tree. A HARD-MAPLE tree in the yard of S. G. Scott at Plainwell, Mich., is an object of great curiosity. It has been shedding its foliage through September, but new leaves are again appearing, and after the fall frosts the tree again drops its leaves. This it has done regularly for several seasons. It differs only in respect of shedding its foliage twice a year, from other maples standing within a few feet of it. M. G. MANTING. Holland, Mich., Oct. 4. 258 INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Electric Blasting Battery. THE small dynamo-electric machine shown in the accompanying illustrations is intended for use in exploding blasts in mining and ‘similar operations. It is called the “Crescent” battery, and is manufactured by the Ingersoll-Sergeant Rock Drill Company of this city. It is said to be the only electric blasting-machine which discharges a uniform current of electricity at every operation, no ‘matter who may use it. Its action does not depend upon the skill of the operator, and, what is very important, there are no parts liable to break or get out of order. The following is a description of the machine: A strong steel- wire spring is fixed to a shaft which carries a racked segment. The operator, when he presses the lever over, simply tightens the spring, and at a certain fixed point the lever is automatically re- deased from its contact with the shaft, and the recoil of the spring -gives a rapid and uniform movement to the armature, which gener- cates the current. A nut is provided for giving greater or less ten- SCIENCE. motor is used, and it does its work without a hitch. It is a small arrangement, and is stowed away under the seat in the stern, where it is entirely out of the way. Two hundred and forty revolutions per minute are made by the screw, which gives the boat a speed of about five miles an hour. The boat being a very wide one, this is a very good result. There is no puffing little engine, asin a steam- yacht, heating up the little craft to an uncomfortable degree, re- quiring the constant attention of the engineer in shovelling coal and watching the steam-gauge, and rendering the boat top-heavy by the weight of the boiler. The batteries are directly over the keel, taking up no room which is needed, as their wood-casing makes good seats ; and, as they weigh nearly five hundred pounds, they make excellent ballast. The master of the craft moves a little lever, which starts the motor, and then, seating himself directly over it, he has nothing further to do but steer the boat. The batteries take about eight hours to discharge, and the motor will run that length of time without a particle of attention. The motor makes no jar in the boat, as an engine always does on a small boat, and the only noise ELECTRIC BLASTING BATTERY. ‘sion to the spring, thus adjusting the capacity of the battery. The ‘spring never breaks. Those who are familiar with electric blasting will not fail to ‘appreciate the great importance of a uniform discharge. Missfires and serious accidents are often due directly to a lack of uniform strength in the battery-current: one hole will fire while another in the same circuit will miss. With the Crescent, it is claimed that -one can estimate with certainty that a certain number of holes will -go off at each operation. An Electric Boat on the Housatonic. A boat propelled by electricity was first launched Sept. 20 by George G. Grower, electrician and chemist, of Ansonia, Conn.; and about 4 P.M., Monday, Sept. 23, a party, consisting of Mr. Grower, Frank A. Kirkham, and Fred Wehrle, of Ansonia, and a report- -er, stepped into the boat and pushed off. There is nothing unusual in the appearance of the boat, except a long, box-like structure extending the length of the boat over the keel. When the party was seated, and Mr. Grower pressed a little lever, the boat started up the river at a good rate of speed, although stemming a strong current, as the tide was running out. The boat is an ordinary-sized row-boat, fourteen feet in length, and four feet wide. The structure in the centre contains the Storage-battery, of fifty cells, which furnishes the power. A Perret that can be heard is a slight one from the gear, the little vessel gliding along as smoothly as an ocean steamer. Electric lights could easily be arranged, the power of the batteries being calcu- lated for the purpose. Many persons watched the craft from the shore,-and they had good reason to be puzzled. The picture of a number of persons in a boat, no one being occupied except the pilot, with no oars, sails, or even a smoke-stack visible, and with the boat rushing through the water, would naturally excite the curiosity of the uniniti- ated. The trip made Monday was the third one, and on no occasion has there been the slightest hitch or cause for discouragement. The Perret motor, which is used, is a light one, weighing but ninety pounds, but is of one horse-power, and is of 100 volts electro- motive force. It is very simply managed, all four of the party Monday taking a turn as “engineer,” with equal success. It can be reversed quickly, and stopped instantly. It is built so that in starting the power is applied gradually to the motor, thus obviat- ing the danger of burning out the armature. Mr. Grower is now introducing the Perret motors into factories, where power is lost by the large quantity of shafting required. Several of the motors scattered through a factory do away with a lot of the shafting, and save a large proportion of the power which is otherwise lost. [VoLt. XIV. No 349° OcTOBER 11, 1889.] | SCIENCE. Rei Gee aig. you have a L I F E 7 L O R E : Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New A MONTHLY MAGAZINE OF POPULAR BIDLOGY. ae Cc Le) LD or Cc Oo U Cc H 9 The Subject-Matter is LIFE—Life in all its forms, Will exchange ‘‘ Princeton Review’’ for 1883, Hugh = ; a Miller’s works on geology ard other scientific works, for acute) or leading to plant and animal, from the “lowest” to the ** high- est,” recent and extinct. Theengravings and letter- ‘back numbers of ‘* The Auk,” ‘* American Naturalist,’’ Co Ni Ss U Mi PTIO Ni 9 Bicasleine BecrittHlallapoReRieed or other scienfific periodicals or books. Write.— J. M. Keck, Chardon, Ohio. ) A collection of fifty unclassified shells for the best offer in bird skins ; also skins of California birds for those of birds of other localities. Address Th. E. Slevin, 2413 —e PUBLISHED BY W. MAWER, at Essex Hall, Essex Street, Strand, London, W.C. Post-free for twelve months for $1.25, prepaid. NOTICES OF THE PRESS.. “Attractive in form, beautifully printed, and vig- orously written.”—Despatch. “We expect it will become one of our most im- portant magazines.”—Halifax Courier. ‘We predict a career for Life-Lore worthy of its high aims and the ability it displays."—Citizen. “It {gs handsomely printed; the engravings are well executed, and the matter is excellent.” Standard. ““A model of what a popular s-ientific magazine shouldba . . . gives sigas of vigor and staying power.”—Literary World. “Hxceedingly well got up. Tne letterpress and illustrations are in the bast style of printer’s and wood engraver's art ’’ —Boston Guardian. “Bears evidence that it means to ba sound, as the first number undoubdtedlyis. . . Wewlsh thiscon- scientious venture suvcess.”—Bazaar, Exchange & Mart. ‘““A decided advance upon the too often unsclen- tific popular journals of its class. . . We have nothinggpbut praise for this conscientious attempt.” —Staffordshire Advertiser. ““Lite-Lore is the telicitous title of a new monthly Sacramento St., San Francisco, Cal. E : | LS 0 ie I have forty varieties of birds’ eggs, side blown, first OF PURE COD LIVER OIL ‘class, in sets, with full data, which I will exchange for books, scientific journals, shells, and curios. Write me, AND HYPOPHOSPHITES OF LIME AND SODA stating what you have to offer.—Dr. W.S. Srrope, Irs SURE CURE FOR rT. Bernadotte, Fulton County, Ill. “T wish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the This preparation contains the stimula- ting properties of the Hypophosphites ‘eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’’—P. C. Truman, and fine Norwegian Cod Liver Oil. Used by physicians all the world over. It is as Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or palatable as milk. Three times as effica- cious as plain Cod Liver Oil. A perfect minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Emulsion, better than allothers made. For Davenport, Iowa. all forms of Wasting Diseases, Bronchitis, I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of CONSUMPTION, ‘beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. Scrofula, and as a Flesh Producer there is nothing like §COTT’S EMULSION. too botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- Itis sold by all Druggists. Let no one by profuse explanation or impudent entreaty nished, and receive a similar list in return. — Also cabinet ‘specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. BoGue, Orwell, Ashta. County, O induce you to accept a substitute. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants rom the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles. H. Sternberg vesgesusususnscusecesesusesasnse cere cree oer on on on oe om fauthor “Young Fossil-Hunters’”), 1033 Kentucky Siege we Bie magazine of natural history which seems admirably Street, Lawrence. Kan. catealavedstg a upagap to our serial literature. , i i ty a One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for Newcastle DE ee spseeaetton: making 4 X 5 pictures, in excellent condition ; also one “The first volume, which is before us, contalns **new model” double dry-plate holder (4” X 5"), for fine =: excallent papers and illastrations.”—G@raphic. * geological or mineraligical specimens, properly classi- PATENT WRENCH “Whilst far eclipsing its on® Eoglisn rival in the dedi Bora Frick, 101g West Lehigh Avenue, D SCREW Rc BIN matter of beauty ot typ», illustration, and paper, and popularity of treatme it, it is marked edit »rially by The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the an unu3ually strong grip.”—Bayswater Chronicle. exchange of Lepidoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North x7th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. Readers of Science California onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- : . 5 11: ; Fearn ae : s Nuts rs or Pipe without adjustment. Corresponding with or visiting Advertise lection. — W. C. Thompson, 6r2 East r4rst Street, New EERE NR CoS Re Steel. Rent by_mail for 25 cts. A 8 © a) York, N.Y. Cuar.es U, Ezy, P, O. Box 1945, New York City. willconfer a great favor by mentioning this paper. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres't. - T) Guaranteed Farm Mortgages J The Company calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : I. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers’ & Traders’ National Bank, New York. II. Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the general development of the section where the farm is located. III.. An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. IV. Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. V. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm Products. The Exhibition at the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the W/GHEST AWARD of superiority. VI. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report for 1888, HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. SCIENCE. (Vou. XIV. No. 349 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™,to 100 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY: N. J. Please Mention ‘‘Science.” Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. SCIENCE CLUBBING RATES. ¢ DISCOUNT. ¢ ns We will allow the above discount to any ie subscriber to Sczence who will send us an] 9 5 order for periodicals exceeding $10, count- > e ing each at its full price. om Agricultural Science........+.-0-++. . .- $2.50 American Agriculturist...........-...... 1.50 American Architect and Building News Imperial edition.......-..--.-+2..02- 10.00 Gelatine ‘* 7-00 Regular ‘* 6.00 American Garden....-- 2.2... eee ee cere ee 1.00 American Journal of Philology. 3.00 American Machinist........---. 2.50 American Naturalist 4.00 Andover Review.... 4.00 Atlantic... ....... 4-00 Babyhood.. 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Any person seeking a posttion for which he is guali- fied by his scientific attainments, or any person seeking some one to fill a position of this character, be it that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what not. may have the ‘ Want’ inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, if he satisfies the publisher of the suit- able character of his application. Any person seeking information on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or who car in any way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. ANTED.—A teacher of science in an ENDOWED MALE COLLEGE in Ky. Sal- ary $1200.00. Address ‘‘M. H.” care of Se7- ence 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. ANTED. aR concerning the handling of air from Caves, for Cool- ing and ventilating rooms. Address ‘‘ M. H.” care of SHE 47 Wafay ette | Place, N. Ne HYSIOLOGY “AND HYGIENE. —A Fellow of the Mass. Med. Society, Mem- ber of the Suffolk District Medical Society, and former Assistant Editor of The Annals of Gynecology, desires a position as ae in Physiology and Hygiene. Address ‘‘N, Lafayette Place, N.Y. City: ANTED a young man shin some Tener edge of mineralogy to assist in our Min- eral Department. A. E. FOOTE, 1223 Bel- mont Av., Philada., Pa ECHANICIAN.—An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad 6f a position where: his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J , care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. [Agee — Concise descriptions of the effects of lightning discharges are de- sired. State whether the object struck was pro- vided with a lightning rod, the character of the rod, and the way in which it was set up. Be- ginning at the top, describe briefly the effects. State whether there was any smoke or dust raised, and whether there was any odor. Any reports of recent and of especially interesting discharges will be published in Scéence.—Sci- ence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. VW — By a large manufacturing house, an intelligent, energetic young man about twenty years of age, to make working drawings of electrical instruments from free-hand sketches and verbal assistance. Must be able to execute tinted drawings and tracings as well, and have a fair knowledge of general physics and prin- ciples of electrical measuring instruments. One who has had some practice in brass and machine work preferred, as also one who will remain and learn the business. Specimens of work required. Address, stating salary expected, experience and references, E.G. W. , SCIENCE Office, N.Y. City. —— A TEMPORARY BINDER for Science is now ready, and will be mailed ae on receipt of price. Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind ing. Filed in this binder, Sczezce is always convenient for reference. 75 cents. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. ‘JOHN HASTINGS= | = Turns Nuts, Gas Burners or pane without adjustment. Made of Best Polished Steel. Sent by_mail for 25 cts, CHARLES U, Exy, P. O. Box 1945, New * York City. ESTABLISHED 1859. Hee Diss ‘Commercial Printer, 37 Clinton Place, near Broadway, New York, ‘Wedding Orders, Souvenirs, Invitations, Or- | ders of Dance, etc., etc., done in the latest and | most elaborate styles, at reasonable prices. All Favors promptly attended to. | cee CHANCE FOR ALL [GReatAnenican To Enjoy a Cup of Perfect Ts Tea. A TRIAL ORDER of #6 pounds of Fine Tea, either Oolong. Ja- pan, Imperial, Gunpowder, Young Hy- son, Mixed. English Breakfast or Sun Sun Chop, sent by mail on receipt of $2.00. Be particularand state what kind of Tea you want. Greatest inducement ever offered to get orders for our cele- Coffees and Baking Powder. For full particu- suene GREAT AMERICAN TEA CO. $1 and 33 Vesey St., New York. SCIENCE. [VoL. XIV. No. 350 Sprague Electric Railway and Motor Company. Lightest Weight Consistent with Highest Efficiency. SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION. Not Liable to get out of Order. Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION, Commutator Wear Reduced to a Minimum. ro and 18 BROAD STREE RINE W VOR SSS JAMES McCREERY & CO. are show- ing for Bridal Dresses, Evening, Dinner, Reception, and Street Costumes, in Metal, Silks and Velvets, the Richest and most Beautiful Designs and Combinations pro- curable. In low and medium-priced Novelties, ladies will experience no difficuity in find- ing goods suited to the various uses to which Fancy Silks can be applied. Dress Silks in the latest Colorings and the newest and most approved Weaves, from 85 cents to $4.00 a yard. Mail Orders receive most careful atten- tion. JAMES McCREERY & C0. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YOR E.& H. T. ANTHONY & CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, a Apparatus and Supplies of every description. Sole proprietors of the Patent Detective, Fairy Noy- eu el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the A () Cel ebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Uutfits in great variety, from $0. oo upward, Send for Catalogue or call and examine. {2§~More than 40 years established in this line of jbusiness: ROOD. * ADULTERATION And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues on application. E. & F. N. SPON, 12 Cortlandt St., New York. Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. Tea Gowns, cenole) O 7 ented [c es ACES AND GAZES.—Point and Duchesse Collars and sets in Van Dyke effects. Bridal Veils in Duchesse Point and Applique, with trimming laces to match. Reallace Handkerchiefs, Ducbesse and Valenciennes, Mousseline de Soies Embroideries, flounces and all overs in choice evening shades. Black Lace Drapery Nets, White and Colored, Plain and Fancy Crepes and Crepe de Chine for evening toilets. ARIS DRESSES AND CLOAKS.—Costumes for Evening, Dinner, Reception and Promenade, Matinees, Suits, Wraps, Sacques, Cloaks, Long Garments, Opera Wraps and Jackets. Also, those of our own manufacture, from Paris styles, in the most fashionable fabrics. oss AND FUR TRIMMINGS.—Sealskin Sacques, Dolmans, Jackets and Paletots (London dye), Blue Lynx, Alaska Sable and Krimmer. Shoulder Capes, Pelerines and Muffs. Fur Trimmings. Broadway HK 19th bt. (6 NEW YORK. HOUSEHOLD MICROSCOPE Sent to any address for $5.00 This instrument is simply for use by a beginner in Microscopy. The finer Microscopes vary in value from $25. to $250. Send for catalogue to G. S$. WOOLMAN, 116 FULTON ST., New York. ies Pee OL, Si fel LONDON 1883, SIA Jouoester, Maso Used by thousands of Ficharey mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano | Co., &c., &e. Repairs Everything. Tis success has brought a lot of ii) | imitators copying us in every way possible. emerber that THE Onty GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send-10c, and dealers? card ua doesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. Ry RLEANS z Qe Patent Pocket Can. No waste.| MORRIS EARLE & CO. SUCCESSORS 10 R. & J. BECK, 1016 Chestnut Street, Phila. Microscopes and all Accessories and Ap- paratus. Photograph- ic and Photo-Micro- graphic Apparatus and Outfits. Spectacles, Eye Glasses, Opera and Marine Glasses, etc. Illustrated Price List mailed fvee to any ad- dress. Mention SCIENCE in corresponding with us. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New 2 Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS: Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored vews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YORK. International Mineral Cabinets, specimens from Europe, Asia, " Africa, S. America, Mexico, Greaalewh Canada, and U.S. 100 spec, $3.50 ; 50 spec., $1.75 ; 25 spec., $x, each collection in handsome polished hard-w oad case, expressage prepaid. Finest stock of specimens in U.S. | Minerals for blowpipe analysis by the pound cheap. Complete Catalogue Free. Consign- ments from all parts of the world constantly arriving. GEO. L. ENGLISH & CO, Dealers in Minerals, 1512 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. pS lIEN PS - . 44 Ys LIP ES { (Our 28 4 NG aS ae t 2 vy ™~ Fa <* % e7 [Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter.} PenVERKY NEWSPAPER OF ALL: THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, SEVENTH YEAR. Vou. XIV. No. 351. NEW YORK, OcToser 25, 1889 SINGLE COPIES, TEN CENTS, $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. A REMARKABLE ELECTRIC-LIGHT PLANT. THE Heisler plant operated by the Illinois Valley Electric Light and Power Company is one of the most remarkable incandescent electric-light plants in the world. We illustrate some of its promi- nent features. The location and arrangement of this plant, so characteristic of the Heisler system, deserve more than ordinary notice. The area covered by one circuit has never been equalled in the history of incandescent lighting. Their circuit of forty-five ll The Illinois Valley Electric Light and Power Company, was organized at Ottawa, Ill., in the spring of 1889. Desiring their operating expenses to be a minimum, they looked around for a suitable location. They were fully impressed with the advantages of water-power, and found an excellent site at Marseilles, eight miles distant. The advantages of the incandescent light were such as to lead the projectors of the enterprise to favor its adop- tion, but some investigation into the cost of the circuits required by some systems revealed the fact that the investment for coppe ANIA I unin | ll il i aT LTT ETL Ac mn cy (IM Di Sa ae A MMH i i i i Wil | (te | — = Ee eel | Sites ! GE: 0) ; : Sai R Hal) i i H i LM = oo a FIG. 1.—INSIDE VIEW OF THE HEISLER DYNAMO-ROOM, MARSEILLES, ILL. miles is, so far as we have been able to learn, the longest incandes- cent circuit in the world, nor do we know of a longer are circuit. Not only is this the case, but the investment in copper for the cir- cuits is a very small part of the total cost of the installation. An- other fact characteristic of this system is that the most distant lights burn fully as brightly as those near the dynamos. The re- sults have been eminently satisfactory, both to the parties using the light, and the citizens who inaugurated the enterprise, and carried it through to success. would be prohibitive. Although somewhat discouraged by this view of the matter, they did not cease their investigations. Hear- ing of the claims made regarding the adaptability of the Heisler system of St. Louis for such locations, they were induced to look into its merits. The investigation resulted in the adoption of the system, and the installation of an extensive plant at Marseilles. The lights were started in the summer of 1889, and have been suc- cessful from the beginning. Arrangements are now being per- fected to extend the circuits from Marseilles to Seneca, located five 276 miles distant in the opposite direction from Ottawa. The capacity of the original apparatus is now almost fully taken up, and enlarge- ments are necessary. From the accompanying engravings an excellent idea may be secured of the peculiar features of the plant mentioned. The out- line map of La Salle County (Fig. 3) shows the relative location of the cities of Ottawa, Marseilles, and Seneca, also the Illinois River, and the Illinois and Michigan Canal. It will be seen that the lighting done by this plant extends for a distance of thirteen miles along the Illinois River, from the centre to the border of La Salle County. Fig. 2 is an outline map of the city of Ottawa. The in- candescent circuits are indicated by dotted lines, and can be seen entering the city from the east, on the right of the engraving. This circuit is constructed throughout of No. 8 wire, hard drawn and weather-proof. Fig. 4 is a view of the company’s buildings. | ooo ago ooo gc Go| oe SOSScb SS JOON (| = SS SBe0O00 ainial ate Ue i MOO DE = Oo Nhs — SCIPINGE: [Vot. XIV. No. 351 that are imported from Singapore. Many persons who have an objection to tinned foods generally, have pronounced these to be of excellent quality and flavor, and though they are to be obtained almost at any grocer’s, and at a very cheap rate, they are not in such great demand as might be expected. The prejudice against new products or preparations is. difficult to overcome, and this prejudice is more general even among the poorer and working classes than among those better informed. There is a general be- lief among them, says the Fournal of the Soczety of Arts, London, that only the commoner qualities of food-products are put up into tins, and consequently they reject them. The success of the pine- apple, however, treated thus, ought to dispel that notion, and to lead to other fruits, especially those of tropical countries, to be similarly treated for export purposes. There seems to be no reason why mangoes, guavas, rose-apples, and a host of others, should LA SALLE CO., Mei OS | 10 call Oo ie Lid EE Sis NN \ )s FIGS. 2 AND 3.—MAPS OF OTTAWA, ILL., AND OF LA SALLE COUNTY, ILL The large building with the cupola, in the foreground, contains the water-wheels, and the small building to the left is the dynamo- room. This engraving also shows the flume as it enters the build- ing, and the circuits leaving the station. Fig. 1 is an inside view of the dynamo-room, showing the machines in position, together with the shafting, pulleys, and belting by which the dynamos are driven. The engraving also shows the method of connection be- tween the dynamo and automatic regulator. On the whole, this station may be ranked as being highly typical of modern progress in incandescent electric-lighting. CONDENSED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES. THE introduction of preserved or condensed foods, both of animal and vegetable origin, in hermetically sealed tins, has de- veloped to an enormous extent of late vears. One of the most suc- cessful of the recent introductions is undoubtedly the pine-apples not become regular articles of import and consumption, and even perhaps some of the other vegetable productions of distant lands. That the ordinary English vegetables and fruits can be preserved for winter use when the fresh ones are not obtainable has been proved over and over again. The preservation of vegetables and herbs by desiccation by the natural action of the sun has been known to and practised by agriculturists from time immemorial. Within historical times it has been supplemented and improved upon by the introduction of drying in kilns. Both the ancient Chinese and Egyptians used this method in remote ages. The vegetable substances offered great difficulty for stowage and transport in consequence of their bulk, and the imperfect nature of their preservation. This diffi- culty was very successfully overcome in 1846 by a Mr. Masson, who was head gardener to Louis Philippe, King of the French, and who invented a process by which kiln-dried vegetables, herbs, and fruits can be compressed by powerful hydraulic pressure, re- OcroBER 25, 1889. | . ; | SCIENCE. 277 taining their hygienic properties-for a length of time. By this very largely used, and were mixed, dried, and compressed under process a quantity of vegetables sufficient for a mess of forty thou- certain rules laid down by an international Anglo-French military sand persons was reduced to the volume of one cubic metre, thus and naval medical commission, to which the celebrated Alexis effecting an enormous saving in stowage and in transport. Soyer, who was chief inspector of army cookery to the campaign, FIG. 4.—HEISLER COMPANY’S BUILDINGS AT MARSEILLES, ILL. Later on, the invention was patented by Messrs. Chollett & Co. gave practical assistance. For the mixed vegetables, the following of Paris and London, who introduced improvements, and have proportions were decided upon, and are still adhered to: potato, ultimately brought the process to its present state of perfection; 40 per cent; carrot, 30; cabbage, 10; turnip, 10; seasoning herbs so that their successors, Messrs. C. Prevet & Co., prepare enormous (onion, leek, celery, parsley, parsnip, etc.), 10. FIG. 5,—HEISLER COMPANY’S POLE LINE. quantities of dried and compressed vegetables and fruits for the The vegetables are gathered in the autumn, when they are in supply of the British army and navy, the Board of Trade making their prime, and carefully sorted, then cleaned, washed, peeled, it compulsory that every outgoing vessel is supplied with a certain _ sliced, and slightly steamed (fixing the saccharine and albuminous quantity. parts, preventing to a great extent the volatilization of the essential At the time of the Crimean war these prepared vegetables were oils, and thus preserving their hygienic and antiscorbutic proper- 278 | ties). The various manipulations were formerly performed by hand, but all are now done by machinery. The vegetables thus prepared are then dried in kilns and on lattice work trays by cur- rents of moderately hot, dry air, thereby retaining their natural color, flavor, and aroma. This stage of the process requires the greatest care and attention, so as to keep the temperature con- stantly at the level ascertained by experience to be necessary for each kind of vegetable. The vegetables and herbs are then care- fully mixed in the proportions given above, and then compressed to one-eighth of their original bulk (when fresh) by powerful hy- draulic pressure into moulds, thus forming square slabs about three-quarters of an inch thick, grooved so as to be divided into cakes of five rations each, at the rate of one ounce per ration, easily separated for convenience of issue. These slabs are then wrapped in paper, and packed by machinery into square tins, which are hermetically soldered. Before the lid is soldered down, a punch stamps it automatically from the inside with the season of manu- facture. When two years appear on this stamp, as “‘ 1888-89,” the first is the year of the crop, and the second the year of compression. The tins are now made of bright “coke” tin-plate of the best quality, it having been found by experience that the vegetables keep much better in this material than in the dull terne-plate formerly used. SCIENCE: [VoLt. XIV. No. 351 THE BOYNTON BICYCLE RAILROAD. IN last week’s issue we briefly described the Boynton Bicycle Railroad at Gravesend, between Bay Ridge and Coney Island, a few miles from this city. The novelty of the Boynton system, and its vast possibilities in the line of high.speed combined with safety, which rest on the fact of its running, like the bicycle, on one rail, justify us in giving our readers some further particulars concerning it. Among the advantages inherent in this system (in which the train is like a wide plank on edge), the development of which is only a question of the proper adaptation of means to ends, are the following, as given by a competent and disinter- ested-authority on engineering: 1. A great increase in smoothness of mo.ion at high speeds, permitting an almost indefinite increase of speed without. danger in this respect; 2. A diminished air re- sistance, due to the narrower vehicles and running-gear; 3. A narrower road-bed, less costly to construct and to maintain. To these may be added the much greater ease, smoothness, and safety in rounding curves at high speed, as well as the excellent facilities _ for electrical propulsion afforded by the guard-rail overhead. An- other advantage, the great flexibility of the system, must not be neglected. It is as well adapted to the slower and heavier freight traffic as to the light and rapid passenger service; tothe high speed VANES AY iit i Wale ~ fl 5 [ls Lire I} ae 7 Ren AINWA Fig | ray im cll aa eam (ae AE La SUING ASIENGN=i ZOE INS The vegetables and herbs are also prepared separately, as there is a greater demand in some quarters for some kinds than for others : as, for instance, in South Africa, for compressed celery as a cure, when stewed, for rheumatism caused by sleeping on the open veldt ; in India, for compressed onions, to make a soup considered a sovereign remedy for the effects of over-indulgence in spirituous liquors; in the Hudson Bay territory, for the same article as a generator of warmth in the stomach; and in Burmah, for com- pressed apples and pears, which are prepared in a similar manner to the vegetables and herbs. All these vegetables, herbs, and fruits are also obtainable in their dried and desiccated condition, without being compressed into cakes. In either state they are extremely convenient, portable, and useful, as are also the prepared and condensed soups and flours made from potato, pea, lentil, haricot bean, carrot, chestnut, etc. They are, moreover, whole- some; and the use of these vegetables, fruits, etc., will probably be- come more widely extended. The Engineering and Building Record appeared in a colored cover last week, and is enlarged by the four pages which the cover made. The improvement has been under consideration for a con- , siderable time, and, as the current volume closes with the last issue for November, it seemed best to make it now. The getting of a cover which should at once be distinctive in color and meet all the other requirements was no easy task, and the reader is left to judge of the result finally reached. — FREIGHT LOCOMOTIVE FOR THE BOYNTON BICYCLE RAILWAY. and frequent stoppages of city and suburban rapid-transit trains as to the long runs of the limited express on trunk-lines ; to electrical as to steam propulsion ; and to elevated or underground as to sur-. face roads. Its development in all these directions must follow as a necessary consequence to its successful introduction in any one of them. For this reason the progress made in perfecting the de- tails of the system, at the Gravesend road and elsewhere, will be watched with unusual interest by the intelligent people of every country in which railroads have been introduced. The section of road at Gravesend upon which the Boynton sys- tem is used had long been abandoned by the company formerly operating it, as they had secured a more direct route with fewer heavy grades. It was in poor condition, owing to the decay con- sequent on long disuse; but as in some respects at least (such, for instance, as high grades and several sharp curves) it was well adapted for showing the merits of this system, it was secured by the Boynton Company. They equipped it with an overhead guard-rail, and are getting the road-bed and track into good repair as speedily as possible, so that they will soon be able to double the speed of the trains without danger of accident from defective ties, etc. Even in its present state, with the train-speed limited by un- favorable conditions to a fraction of that possible under more fav- orable circumstances, this short railroad is attracting a great deal of attention, not only from railroad men, but also from men emi- nent in engineering, electrical, and scientific circles generally. On Saturday of last week a representative of this paper was ! OcToBER 25, 1880. | present at an experimental trip over the road, made to test the re- sults of some repairs to the track and road-bed, as well as to give an idea of the workings of the system to a party of gentlemen in- terested in railroad matters, among whom were a few from Europe. The run over the road was fully up to the expectations of all present, the train gliding along asasmoothly, and as free from jar ‘or oscillation, at the highest speed reached as at the slowest. Even when rounding curves of short radius at high speed, where cars are subject to the violent and disagreeable oscillations caused by the difference in level of the rails combined with the centrifugal force due to the swing around the curve, the Boynton car, on its one-rail track, ran as smoothly and steadily as on a tangent. In fact, the only thing to indicate that the car, when rounding a curve, was not running on a straight stretch of track, was the slight in- . cline given the car by the guide-rail overhead to counteract the centrifugal force caused by the rapid motion and curvilinear course of the train. Inequalities in the track also, which make themselves manifest by oscillations in ordinary. railroad travelling, merely caused a slight vertical motion of the car, softened, of ‘course, by the springs. To sum up the impressions produced by a ride over the road, every thing seems to indicate that Mr. Boynton’s theories are based on correct scientific principles, that his system solves the problem of high speed combined with safety, and that for a continuous speed greater than fifty-miles, reaching perhaps a hundred or more, —a speed urgently demanded by present busi- ness methods as a natural sequence to telegraphic and telephonic’ development, — Mr. Boynton’s system, or some modification of it, must necessarily be adopted. Our illustration shows a freight-engine of a type designed by Mr. Boynton for the bicycle or single-rail system of railroad. Though presenting many novel features, being intended for great hauling power rather than high speed, it embodies the same gen- eral principles as\ the high-speed locomotive illustrated and de- scribed in our issue of last week. It carries two boilers, two cylinders, and two sets of drivers. The two-story cab is located midway between the boilers, so that one engineer and one fireman control both parts of the engine. THE KONGO RAILWAY.? In November, 1885, a syndicate_of English capitalists, headed by Sir William Mackinnon, was constituted with a view of obtain- ing from the Kongo State the concession of the railway from the Lower Kongo to the Stanley Pool. The time, however, had not yet come for great enterprises on the Kongo. Stability was not yet sufficiently secured. The political work was not sufficiently advanced; so that capital, in order to insure-its security, was obliged to demand powers which the Kongo was unable to grant, so that the negotiations fell through, and the English syndicate was dissolved. Shortly afterwards the affair was taken in hand, at my sugges- tion, on a more modest scale, by the Compagnie du Congo pour le Commerce et l’Industrie, constituted with a capital of 1,000,000 francs, which sum was afterwards raised to 1,225,000 francs, with the immediate object of studying ina practical and definitive fashion the possibility of laying the railway. The statutes were drawn up, however, in order to allow the Compagnie to become, by simply increasing its capital, the company for laying and working the rail- way. The Compagnie du Congo was definitely constituted on the gth of February, 1887. By the 8th of the following month of May, the first expedition of engineers left for the Kongo. On the roth of June a second group sailed from Antwerp. At the end of July the gangs, assembled at Matadi, were composed of one director of survey, twelve engineers, and one physician. Those who had ar- rived first determined the geographical position of Matadi, made some soundings to satisfy themselves of vessels of a large draught being able to land without considerable works, and reconnoitred the environs. From the first days of August, work began. One study-gang walked in advance, reconnoitring the country, and de- termining rapidly, by means of the levelling-compass, the zone of 1 Paper read before the Geographical Section of the British Association by Capt. Thys. SCIENCE. 279° the ground to be surveyed. Three gangs, each composed of three engineers, followed, and drew with the tacheometer the plan of the reconnoitred zone. Haussas, negroes of the Gold Coast, were employed as staff-holders. The zone on which the operations with the tacheometer were performed varied, according to circumstances, from 50 to 200 metres on both sides of the likely axis of the way. The progress of the work, which at the very beginning of the operations was only from 300 to 500 hundred metres per brigade and per day, on the difficult ground near Matadi and Palaballa, soon increased to one or two kilometres, the expedition having passed the mountainous region, and by way of exception was raised to four or five kilometres per day, the maximum space be- tween the stations of the instrument being 300 metres. The operations on the ground continued in 1887 up to December, when the study had been carried on as far as Lukunga. The work then suffered an interruption of four months on account of the rainy season; nevertheless a special gang continued working during January and February, 1888, in order to execute near Matadi the survey of an alteration made in that region to the first direction- line. In May, 1888, the staff having again their full complement, works were resumed. While the chiefs of the gangs went to rec- onnoitre previously the region which extends between the Lukunga and the Stanley Pool, the other engineers completed the works around Matadi. At the beginning of July the whole staff resumed the operations with the tacheometer. On the 4th of November, 1888, the level was set up for the last time at Stanley Pool, and the engineers went back to Europe. The railway which is proposed to be laid in the cataract region, according to the survey plans and estimates, will have a gauge of 75 centimetres, with steel rails weighing 23 kilos, steel sleepers at equal distances of 80 centimetres, and weighing 23 kilos, the whole of the line weighing 75 tons per kilometre. The total length of the line will be 435 kilometres. The laying of the first 26 kilome- tres only will offer some important difficulties, while the remainder of the line will be laid under exceptionally easy circumstances, either in plains by straight lines, or along the hillsides by means of curves of great radius. The earthworks of the first 26 kilometres not only will be much more considerable, but a great deal of it will have to be done by excavating the rock ; while farther the cuttings can be proceeded with in argillaceous ground, and nearly always in sandy and friable earth. If we except the first part, there will be few constructive works, the most important of them being a bridge of 100 metres across the Inkissi, two bridges of 80 metres across the Mpozo and the Kwillu, and six bridges ranging between 40 and 60 metres. The others will have a length of from 5 to 20 metres only in the clear. The construction of the abutments of bridges will be everywhere very easy, as firm soil is to be met with at no great depth from the surface of the ground. Nearly everywhere, except on the first sec- tion, the nature of the soil will admit of bricks being made; and in the valleys of the Luima, of the Unionzo, Kwillu, and Inkissi, lime- stone is to be found in abundance. Fragments of quartzite and sand, everywhere to be met with, will supply the ballast. The maximum of incline will be 46 millimetres per metre, and will be reached three times during the first portion, where, as a rule, steep inclines will be met with. Nevertheless it has been possible to combine the slopes and horizontals so as to render traction as easy as possible, and during the last 400 kilometres the slopes and inclines are very infrequent and generally insignificant. Likewise, in the first section, curves are rather numerous and of short radius, although the latter will never be less than 50 metres. Thus all the difficulties of laying and working accumulate at the starting-point, — a most fortunate circumstance, as the first section also offers greater facilities for laying; and, on the other hand, by establishing a twofold traction for the first 26 kilometres, and, re- organizing the trains beyond Palaballa, it will be possible to work the whole of the line under far greater economical conditions than if the working difficulties had to be dealt with at some distance from the starting-point. ; The locomotives, when loaded, will weigh 30 tons, and drag, with the speed of 18 kilometres per hour, an average useful load of 50 tons. The starting-point of the railway on the Lower Kongo will be 280 at Matadi, — a point which is easily reached by sea-going steamers, and where inexpensive works will easily enable those steamers to unload their cargoes on wagons. The terminus of the railway at the Stanley Pool will be at Ndolo, at a little distance above Kin- chassa, and also above all the rapids which hinder navigation in the cataract region. Beyond this point light-draught vessels can ascend the Kongo and its affluents for an uninterrupted length of 11,500 kilometres. Ndolo is admirably situated for the building of spacious quays. Matadi and Ndolo will be the two principal stations. A second- class station will be erected in the district of Kimpésé, where trav- ellers will stop, as two days will be required to pass the distance between Matadi and Stanley Pool. The trains will not run by night. Three other stations will be established along the line, — one at the Lufu, another at the Inkissi, and a third at Ntampa, — thus dividing the total distance between the Lower Kongo and the Stanley Pool into five sections of an average length of 85 kilometres each; each section being itself divided into four sub-sections by three halting-places, with water-tank and crossing-way. To sum up, the general estimate of the scheme demands a capi- tal of 25,000,000 francs, which will be sufficient to build the road, purchase the rolling stock, cover the general expenses both in Europe and Africa, and meanwhile pay the interest on capital dur- ing the construction of the railway, which, according to estimate, will occupy four years. The figure of 60,000 francs, or more exactly 58,500 francs per kilometre, for the Kongo Railroad, is a maximum price, which has only been reached, on the one hand, because the construction really does, on one portion of the track, involve some difficulties ; on the other hand, because the highest valuation has beenadopted. When we look to the matter closely, we must even admit that the price we have named is a high one; for, as a matter of fact, the Kongo Railway is an exceptionally easy undertaking. The laying-out of its course was only influenced by purely topographical considera- tions ; and the surveyors had no troublesome allowances to make for connecting the road with any particular establishment for in- dustrial, commercial, or even political purposes. There were no lands to purchase, besides which (and this is an important item, to which I call your full attention) there are and there will be no side profits to be allowed for. The undertaking is, and will re- main, completely independent from speculation; the cost of the railway, such as we give it, being strictly that established by the estimates. Furthermore, the proposed railway is not a wide-gauge railway, but a narrow-gauge railway, adapting itself to all the variations of the ground it will travel over, and exactly befitting the commercial position of a country yet in its infancy. I remember the graphic words used by one of mycolleagues on the Board of the Compagnie du Commerce et |’Industrie while we were discussing the width of the road, and I will repeat it to you. ‘‘ What we want,” he said (and we all agreed with him), “is a good and substantial iron track, where locomotives and wagons may be set rolling.” The transport-power of the Kongo Railway, with its seventy- five centimetres gauge, between “ bourrelets,” will meet all present requirements, and will meet them for a large number of years to come. The construction of the Kongo Railway will be proceeded with by the Compagnie du Chemin de Fer du Congo, commanding a registered capital of £1,000,000 sterling, of which one-fifth has been subscribed by English capitalists, thanks to the spirited enterprise and the great authority of Sir William Mackinnon. Thanks to the disinterested intervention of the Belgian Govern- ment, who have subscribed £400,000 worth of shares which will never bear more than 34 per cent interest, and who forfeit all ex- cess of profit in favor of the other shares, it will only require, in order that the ordinary capital invested in the undertaking may reap a return of 8 per cent, that our receipts shall reach 3,000,000 francs, — an amount which, according to the terms laid down by the contract for the early period of the undertaking, will certainly be realized if the up traffic reaches 2,250 tons, if passenger traffic reaches the total figure of 300 up and down passengers, and if the railway in its down journey carries 200 tons of ivory, 600 tons of gutta-percha, and 3,000 tons of miscellaneous goods, paying only SCIENCE. [VoLt. XIV. No. 35: \ 100 francs for carriage. These figures will undoubtedly be reached from the beginning. Even at the present time, 1,800 tons are carried up the Kongo. We only, therefore, provide for an increase of 450 tons within four years. The 200 tons of ivory above men- tioned merely represent what is actually conveyed by native carriers. As to the 600 tons of gutta-percha, one single branch of the Com- pagnie du Haut Congo—the Luébo branch—is ina position to purchase 240 tons per annum; and the 300 remaining tons will be provided by palm-oil, gums, wood for building-purposes, etc. The opportunities afforded to communication by the 11,500 kilometres of practicable waterway of the Upper Kongo and its tributaries will, indeed, enable us to drain towards the Stanley Pool, for carriage by the railway, the various exchangeable com- modities which the immense territories of the Upper Kongo abun- dantly produce. HEALTH MATTERS. A Physiological Study of Absinthe. As commonly met with, absinthe only contains about thirty minims of essence of absinthe to the litre, the remainder consisting of alcohol, together with from sixteen to a hundred drops each of the essence of anise-seed and star anise-seed, coriander, fennel, peppermint, angelica, hyssop, and mélisse; and the color is given by fresh parsley or nettles. Cadiac and Meunier, as reported in | The Medical Anatlectzc, recently undertook to investigate the ac- tion of the various components of the liqueur, in order to ascertain to which of them its peculiarly intoxicating effects were due. They found that hyssop induces epileptiform attacks in ten-grain doses, while fennel induces visual troubles andlanguor. Poisonous doses of coriander give rise to sudden anesthesia and muscular convul- sions. Mélisse determines a passing stimulation, followed by lassitude and sleepiness. Both varieties of anise-seed possess powerfully stimulating properties, with consecutive visual troubles, muscular inco-ordination, and dulness of sensation, with abrogation of the will and heavy sleep. . Although not, strictly speaking, poisonous, anise-seed is a vio- lent excitant of the nerve-centres, even in the relatively small quantities contained in the usual allowance of the liqueur. If the dose be increased, epileptiform attacks are induced. A litre of ordinary absinthe only contains about thirty drops of the essence, —a dose which, if taken all at once, only gives rise to powerful mental lation, increasing the appetite and facilitating diges- tion. Moreover, it leaves behind it neither depression nor somno- lence. The sum total of the effects of the blend is a sensation of comfort and physical and mental activity, followed by lassitude and indisposition to exertion, and, in large doses, to epileptiform at- tacks. The authors are disposed to attribute the major part of the injurious effects to the collateral essences, and seriously recom- mend manufacturers to discard the use of several of these, and of anise-seed in. particular. THE NATIVE EGYPTIAN AS A SUBJECT FOR SURGICAL OPERA- TION.— The native Egyptian is an extremely good subject for surgical operation. Clot Bey, the founder of modern medicine in Egypt, has it that “it requires as much surgery to kill one Egyp- tian as seven Europeans. In the native hospitals, the man whose thigh has been amputated at two o’clock is sitting up and lively at six.” Shock is almost entirely unknown, and dread of an impend- ing operation quite an exception. In explanation may be noted the resignation inculcated by their religion ; the very small propor- tion of meat in, and the total absence of alcohol from, their diet ; and in general their regular, abstemious, out-of-door life. THE DISEASED-MEAT SCARE.— The Medical Record com- ments editorially on Dr. Behrend’s article, which has excited much talk and learned editorial writing in the daily press. It says, “ But it is yet entirely unproved that the meat of tuberculous cattle ever caused tuberculosis in man. Bovine tuberculosis is generally pul- monary. Tuberculous bacilli are found sometimes in the glands, but practically never in blood or muscle, except in acute general infection. Even if the bacilli do get in meat-muscle, Nocard, who is an ingenious and skilful bacteriologist, has shown that they are destroyed or digested in the tissue. And Nocard has positively ‘OcToBER 25, 1889] ° affirmed that one can safely eat the flesh of tuberculous animals the tubercles of which are limited to the viscera and lymphatics. High temperatures destroy the bacillus also, and therefore thorough cooking would make even tuberculous tissue safe. Dr, Behrend ought to know, also, that tuberculous meat can only infect the body through the alimentary tract; but Koch has shown that adult ba- cilli are destroyed in the stomach, and that the spore bacillican only *get through alive by a narrow margin. But, furthermore, if tuber- culous meat were so dangerous, there should be more primary in- testinal tuberculosis. practically it may be ignored. Even including infants, it does not make up ten per cent of tubercular diseases. We venture to say, therefore, that the 375,000 Londoners who possibly ate the pre- sumably tuberculous meat digested it and its bacillus, and were the better for their repast. It must be very evident, we think, that the _ danger to adults from eating flesh of tuberculous cattle is so extraor- dinarily remote that it may be practically ignored. The liver, “lights,” and glands of such cattle, however, are perhaps not so safe, and sausage made up from meat seriously affected may not be free from danger. We advise, therefore, as we have done, the govern- mental inspection of slaughter-houses; but we much more seri- ously urge the supervision of milk. This, it is known, can carry the tuberculous virus, and, being consumed uncooked by delicate and growing children, is a far more dangerous product than the flesh of tuberculous cattle.” SAWDUST AS A DRESSING FOR WOUNDS. — Cosmos suggests the use of fine soft sawdust as a dressing for wounds, and as a ve- hicle for medicaments or antiseptics. It says that the dust, freed from splinters and sharp bits of wood by sifting, when used alone and dry, makes a clean and grateful dressing ; that it readily takes up and holds the discharges without packing or adhering; and that it is easily rendered antiseptic by any of the methods used in pre- paring antiseptic cotton or wool. The St. Louzs Medical and Surgical, Journal suggests that our yellow pine sawdust, rich as it is in turpentine, would prove of itself a valuable antiseptic appli- cation. DANGER IN SILK THREAD. — Silk thread, says Sanztary News, is soaked in acetate of lead to increase its weight, and persons who pass it through the mouth in threading needles, and then bite it off with the teeth, have suffered from lead-poisoning. SOME DOMESTIC REMEDIES IN THE TRANSVAAL. — Mr. Wal- ter H. Haw, in a letter to Ze Lancet upon medical practice in the Transvaal, gives the following list of remedies in which the Boers have the most implicit faith, and to which they recur in many of the ills of themselves and their families: 1. Cow-dung poultices. 2. Stink blaar (Datura stramonzum) leaves applied for the relief of pain. These act well, and are often used. 3. Prickly-pear leaves skinned and applied. 4. For children, a young goat killed and opened, the child being put in bodily after removal of the viscera, — a good poultice, probably. 5. Rimpis (threads) of eel-skin worn round the painful joints in chronic rheumatism. This was de- scribed to me by a man who was wearing one round almost every joint of his body as being a splendid remedy. 6. Rimpis of the tanned skin of a tame goat worn as above for sprains, etc. 7. The finely chopped hair of a black cat, which should not have the faintest trace of white about it, — a remedy for convulsions. 8. A spoonful of dog’s blood taken from the ear, for ‘‘ buur en de mag ” {inflammation of the bowels”). 9. For snake-bite repeated fowl poultices. EFFECT OF CANNON-FIRING ON THE EIFFEL TOWER.— Of all the indispositions (and there are many) created by the exhibi- tion, according to the Paris correspondent of The Lancet, the most ‘curious is that which is caused by the firing of the cannon on the Eiffel Tower. Evvry evening at ten o'clock, when the gun is fired for the last time in the day, it is not unusual to see produced a sort of frenzy among the young female visitors to the exhibition. Un- ‘der the already strong impression produced by the illuminations, the luminous fountains, etc., when the gun is fired, they seem to be seized with a veritable panic. It appears to them that a sudden ‘catastrophe, such as a great fire, has taken place. Cries of admira- tion escape from some, and of terror from others, when fainting, SCENE: In adults this disease is a great rarity, and * _ solids depend almost entirely on variations of the fat. 281 attacks of hysteria and of prostration, occur. The subject has at- tracted the attention of Professor Charcot and other physicians. POISONING BY POTATOES.—In The Therapeutic Gazette is an account of serious symptoms of poisoning which occurred in a hundred and one members of a battalion of French infantry. The symptoms were headache, dilatation of the pupils, colic, diarrhoea, sweating, fever, pain in the epigastrium, vertigo, nausea, thirst, troubles of vision, and cramps. The poison was evidently con- tained in the food, and, after successive eliminations, suspicion rested upon the potatoes, which were withheld for forty-eight hours, with the result that no new cases developed. It was found on examination that the potatoes simply consisted of sprouts, which, as is well known, contain solanine, an alkaloid of a poisonous char- acter, and which produces results similar to those detailed above. “ AMMINOL” FOR THE DISINFECTION OF SEWAGE, — A new method of precipitating sewage has been tested at Wimbledon, England. The Zoxdonx Tzmes now devotes a large amount of space to the consideration of this new disinfectant method, which was discovered by Mr. Wollheim of London, and which, in the opinion of Medzcal News, bids fair to revolutionize the sewage question. The disinfecting power of amminol gas is such, that, when introduced into sewage, it very quickly destroys the microbes of putrefaction and of many diseases. The odor of sewage is almost instantly displaced by that of the re-agent, and in less than an hour the sewage thus treated is both deodorized and sterilized . It is reported that Dr. Klein has in part confirmed the claims of the discoverer, in so far that onesample of sewage examined by him was found to be absolutely sterile after having been treated by the amminol method. If this alleged discovery should be verified, it will undoubtedly become one of the most useful discoveries of the present day, and must materially influence the future of sanitary practice. VARIATIONS IN THE COMPOSITION OF MILK.— From the results of about fifty thousand analyses made in the laboratory of the Danish Dairy Supply Company, and reported in the Medical and Surgical Reporter, it is found that the dry matter less fat is an almost constant value (8.7 to 8.8). The fluctuations in total The evening milk contains more fat and more total solids than the morning milk. In October and November the milk is richer in fat and total solids than in other parts of the year. How DRUNKARDS ARE TREATED IN NORWAY. — The London correspondent of the Amerzcan Practitioner and News says that a well-known medical man, who has recently been in Norway, gives a glowing description of their manner of treating dipsomani- acs. An habitual drunkard in Sweden and Norway is treated as a criminal in this sense, that his inordinate love of strong drink renders him liable to imprisonment, and while in confinement it appears he is cured of his bad propensities on a plan which, though simple enough, is said to produce marvellous effects. From the day the confined drunkard is incarcerated, no nourishment is served to him or her but bread and wine. The bread, however, it should be said, cannot be eaten apart from the wine, but is steeped in a bowl of it, and left to soak thus an hour or more before the meal is served to the delinquent. The first day the habitual toper takes his food in this shape without the slightest repugnance ; the second day he finds it less agreeable to his palate, and very quickly he evinces a positive aversion to it. Generally, the doctor states, eight or ten days of tnis regimen is more than sufficient to make a man loathe the very sight of wine, and even refuse the prison dish set before him. This manner of curing drunken habits is said to succeed almost without exception, and men or women who have undergone the treatment not only rarely return to their evil ways, but from sheer disgust they frequently become total abstainers afterward. THE VENOM OF SNAKES. — The venom of the rattlesnake has been frequently made the subject of study, and, while its action as a poison has been generally conceded, some writers have en- deavored to prove its efficacy asa drug. Surgeon L. A. Waddell, M.B., says the Zazcet, has recently been availing himself of his opportunities as a deputy sanitary commissioner in Bengal to de- 282 termine a point about which it would seem that much uncertainty existed, — the curious question of the effect of serpent-venom on the serpents themselves. Ina paper he has published he quotes the contradictory conclusions arrived at by previous experimenters, and endeavors to show, that, from the accounts of the experiments, it by no means followed that death, when it occurred, was the re- sult of auto-toxic action. Accordingly, he felt that the question was still open, and proceeded to some very interesting investiga- tions, conducted under different conditions of temperature and season, verifying his results by control experiments upon other animals and by fost-mortem examination of the snakes he em- ployed. In every case the fresh venom was injected into the cobra with an ordinary hypodermic syringe; the serpents operated upon were all healthy, and had recently been caught; the snakes were kept under observation from nine to fifteen days subsequently, and were then killed. The experiments generally confirm and extend the principle formulated by Fontana in 1765, that the venom is neither a poison to the snake itself nor to those of its own species. This immunity is not to be explained upon the mere fact of the animal being cold-blooded, or upon the anatomical conformation of ophidians, since most, if not all, of the non-venomous snakes are susceptible to venom. Surgeon Waddell suggests that it may result from a toleration established through frequent imbibition of the venom in the modified or attenuated form which it assumes when mixed with salivary and gastric juices and absorbed through the alimentary canal ; and in support of this hypothesis he mentions the popular belief that certain snake-charmers, by a process of in- oculation with venom, gain protection against the bite of a particu- lar species of venomoussnake. If this hypothesis can be verified by further experiments, it will go far towards affording indications for combating the action of the venom on man. The subject is of such importance, and the experiments detailed appear so con- clusive, that we look forward with interest to the further prosecu- tion of this inquiry. NOTES AND NEWS. A SCHEME for bridging the “English Channel has actually been discussed by the Iron and Steel Institute of Great Britain. The cost is set by the projectors at $170,000,000, The danger to navigation, aside from any considerations of cost, is likely to be enough of an objection to prevent the accomplishment of the project for many years to come. — The International Medical Congress, we learn from Vature, will meet next year in Berlin, from Aug. 4 to Aug. 10. Inquiries by intending visitors should be addressed to the general secretary, Dr. Lassar, Karl Strasse, Berlin. The congress will be divided into eighteen sections, and the official languages will be German, English, and French. — According to azure, the Ethnographic Congress, which held meetings of its various sections every day of the week ending Oct. 5, in Paris, brought its proceedings to a close on Monday afternoon, Oct. 7, in one of the large halls of the College of France. It was decided that the congress should hold its next meeting at Bucha- rest in the autumn of 1890. — Atthe first regular meeting of the Boston Society of Arts, held at the Institute of Technology, Oct. 10, the paper of the even- ing, as we learn from the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal, was upon “‘ Biological or Chemical Water-Analysis,” by Professor W. T. Sedgwick of the institute. He analyzed different waters, claiming that one-third of a teaspoonful of Cochituate water, tested by the gelatine process, contains sixty to one hundred bacteria, and yet is as pure as the average water. The State Board of Health was highly commended for its practical system of analyzing water. After an interesting exhibition of filtered waters and vegetable de- posits through sand, the meeting was adjourned. —The Philadelphia /xguzver’s Pittsburgh special, Oct. 15, says, “That the natural-gas supply in that and adjoining districts has passed its zenith, and is now upon the wane, can no longer be satisfactorily denied. The reason usually given was that new mains were being laid to the wells, or that the size of those already down was being increased. These changes have all been made, and still the desired fuel does not pour through in the necessary SCIENCE. (Vou. XIV. No. 35? quantities. This state of affairs was first noticed the latter part of last winter ; but the coming of warm weather relieved the pressure for domestic purposes, and nothing was heard of a shortage during the summer months. But with the first appearance of a change of temperature this fall the trouble recommenced in an aggravated form. The last move of the natural-gas companies has been to ask the big mills to run only at night, when the demand upon the fuel for other purposes would be slight. Many of the establish-" ments have decided to return to the use of coal, and some have already done so.” — The British consul-general at Constantinople, in his last re- port, refers to the declining commercial importance of that city. Its trade has suffered considerably since 1878, and more particularly: during the past two years. Large wholesale houses which for- merly did business with Persia and central Asia, and acted as. middlemen between European manufacturers and the merchants of those parts, have in recent years lost their customers, and are gradually disappearing from the city. This is owing, in a measure, to new and more direct routes having been thrown open to markets that were formerly supplied from constantinople, and also to the fact that produce which used to go to the Turkish capital for ship- ment to Europe is now despatched direct from the outports. Per- sia, which previously drew a considerable part of her imports from Constantinople, has latterly commenced to make use of Bushire,. and the entire import trade of lower Persia is at present centred in that place. The provinces of Azerbijan and Mazanderan alone- continue to take their supplies by way of Constantinople, and then only when Russian competition permits of their doing so, The export trade of the city has suffered in a similar way. The produce of Turkish Kurdistan, estimated to amount to an annual value of £320,000, which two years ago went through the capital, is now shipped from Bagdad, — a route which is considered to be less ex- pensive and safer. As regards Persian trade especially, Mr. Faw- cett observes that during the years 1887-88 it was not satisfactory. — Two items which appeared on p. 250 of our issue of the 11th inst. — one in relation to the deepest hole in the world, and the other touching the effect of gas on asphalt pavements — should have been credited to The Engineering and Building Record. A feature of this journal in which many of our readers would be in- terested is the insert architectural drawing given each week. These drawings are remarkably well chosen, and are reproduced and. printed especially well. — The Exgzeneertng and Mining Journal announces that a movement has been started to erect a monument to the joint — memories of Fulton and Ericssonin Trinity Churchyard, New York. The idea originated out of an application which has been made». and which is likely to be granted, for the interment of the great Swedish inventor’s remains in the Livingston Manor vault, which would, as it happens, place them immediately next to the grave of Robert Fulton, so that a joint memorial would seem to be espe-- cially appropriate. — The National Council of the Phi Beta Kappa Society, at its. triennial meeting at Saratoga in September, appointed a committee to consider means of securing, in connection with the proposed national commemoration of the discovery of America in 1892, “a proper representation of the intellectual life of the American people,. as manifested by their progress in science and literature.” The committee was instructed especially to consider, according to Zhe Publishers’ Weekly, the preparation of a “ monumental work,” to- comprise a series of monographs on the progress of our people, during the four centuries since the discovery by Columbus, in science and literature. The committee was authorized to offer two: prizes, of $3,000 each, “ for the best general essays on the progress. of science and literature respectively ; such essays to embrace a philosophical discussion of the development in the past and of the outlook for the future.” The committee appointed is a thoroughly competent and admirably representative one, its members being Bishop Henry C. Potter, chairman; President Eliot of Harvard University ; President Dwight of Yale; President Gilman of Johns Hopkins; President Adams of Cornell; President Angell of the University of Michigan ; and President Northrup of the University of Minnesota. OcroBER 25, 1889.] — Attempts to prevent the formation of smoke have hitherto mainly had reference to the grate or furnace. Recently there has been exhibited in London a method in which the coal before use is treated chemically, by a process the details of which we have not learned, but which results in no deterioration of the heat-producing qualities pf the coal, while it prevents its burning with an excess of smoke. The coal seems to be hardened by this process, which is said to cost not more than twelve cents a ton. — Professors L. H. Baily, E. S. Goff, and W. H. Green were appointed at the last meeting of the Association of Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations to report on the nomenclature of kitchen-garden vegetables. In their report, just issued by the Department of Agriculture, and summarized in Garden and forest, after stating that a name is bestowed upon a plant solely for the purpose of designating, and not for describing it, the com- mittee lay down the following rules: 1. The name of a variety should consist of a single word, or at most of two words. A phrase, descriptive or otherwise, is never allowable ; as, “ Pride of Italy,” “King of Mammoths,” ‘“ Earliest of All.” 2. The name should not be superlative or bombastic. In particular, all such epithets as ‘‘ New,” “ Large,” ‘ Giant,” “Fine,” ‘‘Selected,” “ Im- proved,” and the like, should be omitted. If the grower or dealer has a superior stock of a variety, the fact should be stated in the description immediately after the name rather than as a part of the name itself; as, “ Trophy, selected stock.” 3. If a grower or ‘dealer has procured a new select strain of a well-known variety, it shall be legitimate for him to use his own name in connection with the established name of the variety ; as, “ Smith's Winningstadt,” “ Jones’ Cardinal.” _4. When personal names are given to varie- ties; titles should be omitted; as, ‘‘ Major,” ‘“ General,” ‘“‘ Queen.” 5. The term ‘‘hybrid ” should not be used, except in those rare in- stances in which the variety is known to be of hybrid origin. 6. The originator has the prior right to name the variety ; but the oldest name which conforms to these rules should be adopted. 7. This committee reserve the right, in their own publications, to re- vise objectionable names in conformity with these rules. — The following description of the way in which floating fields and gardens are formed in China is from an article by Dr. Macgowan, in the Chzza Review: “In the month of April, a bamboo raft, ten to twelve feet long and about half as broad,is prepared. The poles are lashed together with interstices of an inch between each. Over this a layer of straw an inch thick is spread, and then a coating two inches thick of adhesive mud taken from the bottom of a canal or pond, which receives the seed. The raft is moored to the bank in still water, and requires no further attention. The straw soon gives way, and the soil also, the roots drawing support from the water alone. In about twenty days the raft becomes covered with the creeper /fomea reptans, and its stems and roots are gathered for cooking. In autumn its small, white petals and yellow stamens, nestling among the round leaves, present a very pretty appearance, In some places marshy land is profitably cultivated in this manner, Besides these floating vegetable-gardens, there are also floating rice-fields. Upon rafts constructed as above, weeds and adherent mud were placed as a flooring; and when the rice shoots were ready for transplanting, they were placed in the floating soil, which being adhesive, and held in place by weed-roots, the plants were maintained in position throughout the season. The rice thus planted ripened in from sixty to seventy in place of a hundred days. The rafts are cabled to the shore, floating on lakes, pools, or slug- gish streams. These floating fields served to avert famines, whether by drought or flood. When other fields were submerged, and their crops rotten, these floated and flourished ; and when a drought prevailed, they subsided with the falling water, and, while the soil around was arid, advanced to maturity. Agricultural treatises contain plates representing rows of extensive rice-fields moored to sturdy trees on the banks of rivers or lakes which existed formerly in the lacustrine regions of the Lower Yangtsze and Yellow Rivers.” — A method for coating porcelain with platinum is described as follows: The porcelain is first covered with platinum chloride to which a little hydrochloric acid has been added. It is then ex- posed in a muffle to a temperature of 1,000°-1,200° for twenty SCIENCE 283 minutes. This operation ‘is repeated till a sufficient [coating is secured. — President D. C. Gilman has gone abroad for an absence of some months. While he is away, Professor Ira Remsen will act as president of Johns Hopkins University. — At the close of the Paris exposition the Belgian exhibits will be mainly transferred to London, where they will form part of a Belgian exhibition to be opened next year. It is to be feared, if we may judge from the emptiness of the Spanish exhibition in London, that this special exhibit may not prove financially successful. — In Sweden, which boasts being the fatherland of modern ex- plosives, a considerable amount of time and attention is constantly given to experiments in this direction; and an engineer, Mr. J. W- Skoglund, has recently invented a new explosive, which so far, ac- cording to Exgznecrzng, has given great satisfaction. It is called “gray powder” (Swedish grakrut), and has during the summer been tested at Rosersberg Gunnery School, in addition to which it will be further tested in the course of the present month by a spe- cial commission, and to a considerable extent for comparison with a Belgian powder called foudre de paper. It has also been ac- cepted for trials at the fleet. According to the official reports, the gray powder has been used with 25-millimetre as well as with Nordenfelt’s machine guns. The former has, with 70 per cent of the new powder against 100 per cent (or the usual charge) of ordi- nary powder, given a 33 per cent greater initial velocity, without the pressure in the gun being increased more than 5 per cent. With 62 per cent (ordinary charge weight) of gray powder, the initial velocity was increased with 24 per cent without any perceptible in- crease in pressure. With a charge of 74 per cent (ordinary charge weight) the initial velocity was increased 4o per cent, without the gun being subject to any undue pressure. With regard to the im- portant question of smokelessness, the report states, that, while with Nordenfelt’s machine-guns smoke of ordinary powder remains for twenty-five seconds, the gray powder only leaves a transparent steam, which is only visible for five seconds. —It is satisfactory to learn, on the authority of M. Gulisham- baroff, that there is not-the slightest ground for the absurd rumor, set in circulation by the acting consul at Batoum, that the Baku oil-supply had begun to show signs of exhaustion. M. Gulisham- baroff is the chief petroleum adviser of the Russian Government, and recently has been conducting an investigation into the oil- industry of this country, in conjunction with Mr. Marvin. Having only just arrived from Baku, after one of his regular official visits, he is in a position to speak with authority on the position of affairs in that quarter, irrespective to that general knowledge of the Baku industry, from the earliest time of its European development, which has resulted in the publication of so many books on the subject. So far from there having beena “ cave-in” of the supply, says Engineering, there has really been a “ shut-down” of a large num- ber of wells, to check a wasteful over-production. Instead of 500, only 200 wells have been at work this autumn. Moreover, in order to put a stop to the waste of oil on the surface, the Russian Govern- ment has been lately discouraging the commencement of new wells outside the present limit. Administrative action of this sort has long been advocated by Marvin and other nqn-Russian writers, as well as by Russians themselves. It is no uncommon thing for a native of Baku to tap a supply of 20,000,000 gallons of oil, and waste 19,000,000 out of it, simply from want of foresight in pro- viding a cap for the well, or by the omission to arrange for surface storage. Waste of this character has become such a scandal that to check it the authorities now seize a well that is not properly managed, and empower the neighboring well-owners to gag the supply at the culprit’s cost. In view of the rapid increase in the demand for petroleum, it is a satisfaction to know that Baku is as prolific of oil as ever. The oil-trade is rapidly assuming such gigantic proportions that for many a year there will probably be ample room for America, Russia, and Burmah, as well as for the minor fields that will in time furnish a supply for the world’s market. But, in any case, petroleum ought not to be wasted as it has been at Baku, and it will be a good thing for Russia when the more careful and economical methods of America are adopted in the Caspian region. 284 SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY NG -1D4 (5 Js OID Gs Ss, 47 LAFAYETTE PLacE, New YORK. SupscripTions.— United States and Canada............--++---- $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe........-.-.....+---- 4.50 a year. Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author on request in advance. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- tended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but asa guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the ‘‘ Wants’? column. All are invited to use it in soliciting information or seeking new positions. The ‘‘ Exchange "’ column is likewise open. Vout. XIV. NEW YORK, OcToBeErR 25, 1889. No. 351. CONTENTS: A RemarKaBLE ELeEctTRICc-LIGHT | NorEs AND NEWS........+--+.----- 282 RNAS. 6Gabo0coU ecopScocRadeac 2 P 73! American Pusiic Heart Associa- CoNDENSED FRUITS AND VEGETABLES 276 TION ao ee Decal Es 284 Tue Boynton BicycLe RAILRoAD.. 278 | PROGRESS OF CHINA.......-.- ...--- 285 Tue Konco Raltwal.......--.----- 279 | Jape IN BurmaH......-..-----..---- 285 | HeattH Matrers | MENTAL SCIENCE. A Physiological Study of Absinthe. 280 The Native Egyptian as a Subject New Experiments upon the Time- Relations of Mental Processes .. 28 The Nature of Negative Halluci- for Surgical Operation........... 280 ‘ The Diseased-Meat Scare........ . 280 | ETO TS: poo cnosasessdee seaben0800 287 Sawdust as a Dressing for Wounds. 281 Danger in Silk Thread............- 281 | EvectricaL News. Some Domestic Remedies in the The Telephone on Railways......-. 287 eRransyaalyemeencneteiteetiactine 281 The Duration ofa Lightning-Flash 287 Effect of Cannon-Firing on the Eiffel Tower.......... z gaaRDeRad 281 BOOK; REVIEWS: Poisoning by Potatoes......... 281 The Struggle for Immortality...-.. 287 Amminol for the Disinfection of A Dictionary of Electrical Words, ipSewage scar soscpoeiiees-ssec ent 281 | Terms and Phrases............-. 287 Variations in the Composition of | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS...... .. .. 287 Wit 5a" Badeoodn Obesdseseekancae 281 How Drunkards are treated in Nor- | Inpustriat Norgs. WERToOGN S080 NavedSosoDaoSpeosnSS 281 The Bower-Barff Rustless Iron Pro- The Venom of Snakes.............. 281 | CEG! Goodecccecéuacss Sba0ke cous 290 AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION. THE seventeenth annual convention of the American Public Health Association was opened Tuesday in the Brooklyn Institute. About two hundred members from all parts of this country and Canada were present. The first paper was upon “ The Overshading of Our Homes,” by Dr. William Thornton Parker of Newport, R.I. It was read by Dr. C. A. Lindsley of New Haven. In the paper the writer said in part, “ Overshading is a serious fault, and directly lessens the value of real estate, and noticeably increases disease and shortens life. Houses overshaded are not healthful, no matter how commodious or’ well built they may be. This condition of overshading is very noticeable in our New England and Middle States towns. The white faces and sickly appearance of so many of our people are largely attributable to this cause, and suggest that medical men should call attention to the growing evil. Where houses are overshaded, the nervous system also suffers, as well as the general bodily health.” The discussion brought out clearly that this is a subject on which doctors disagree. Dr. Lindsley said that it was his belief that the great number of trees in New Haven was unquestionably the cause of much malaria and other disease in that city. Dr. Henry P. Walcott of Massa- chusetts remarked that he had lived in a town as much shaded as New Haven, and found no harm from the great number of trees, but a direct benefit. Dr. George M. Sternberg, U.S.A., believed that many malarious places were redeemed by the planting of trees. Dr. Gilhon of Washington mentioned the fact that the Roman Campagna had been freed from malaria to a great degree SCIENGE. [Vot. XIV. No. 351 by the planting of eucalyptus trees. were dried in the same way. The second paper, upon “ Clothing in its Relation to Hygiene,” was by Dr. James F. Hibberd of Richmond, Ind. His conclusions are that many persons dress too warmly, and thus induce disease. Most persons only regard the amount of clothing to be worn so that it should protect sufficiently against cold, and wholly disre- gard the effect of over-heating and thus disarranging the functions of the skin. Dr. Hibberd maintained that an insufficiently clothed person was not the one who caught cold, but it was the overclad one who was most subject to it. He summed up as follows = “ It seems time that the relation of clothing to the health of the people of temperate climates engaged in civil industries should be reviewed, and the points for investiga- tion may be summarized thus: viz., 1. The popular and profes- sional estimate of the hygiene of the skin is much below its real im- portance; 2. The physiology of the skin cannot be largely inter- fered with without endangering the general health ; 3. One of the influential factors in the sound health of man is to establish and maintain in his organization a resisting power to the causes of dis- ease ; 4. The tendency is to overdress, enervating the skin, and curtailing its power, and thereby the power of the whole system, to resist the causes of disease; 5. A proper exposure of the surface of the body to environing low temperature is a valuable general tonic; 6. Ventilation of the skin is indispensable to good health; 7. Habit may enable one to bear wide differences in clothing un- der similar surroundings without detriment, and this should im- press the necessity of cultivating correct habits of dress. A paper on “ Causes and Prevention of Infant Mortality” was presented by Dr. Jerome Walker of Brooklyn. Dr. Walker finds from statistics that the common belief was not sustained that infant mortality in this country had decreased of late years. The hope of the future lies in a radical change, so that mere political doctors may not control the health boards, and in the sanitary education of the masses. The speaker said, ‘‘ We may conclude from what is known of institutions for children, (1) that a large proportion of the deaths in them are preventable; (2) that the younger the chil- dren and the larger the number, the greater the mortality ; (3) that the mortality can be lessened, but the decrease costs money, time, patience, and energy ; and to obtain the best results the attending and resident physicians should be reliable, should be given control over all medical and sanitary matters, and should be held responsi- ble for the same.” In the next paper, on “ The Relations of the Dwellings of the Poor to Infant Mortality,” by Alfred F. White, C.E., of Brooklyn, were quoted statistics to show that such institutions as the Pea- body Association of London were needed here. Through the re- forms thus instituted. in tenement-house construction, the infant mortality of London had been reduced to 15 per cent of all deaths, while in this city it was 26 per cent. Dr. George Homan of St. Louis, secretary of the Missouri State Board of Health, read a paper advocating the employment a better men as local health-officers at higher pay. In the evening the delegates and their friends went to the Academy of Music. Dr. J. H. Raymond opened the exercises with a short address of welcome. Mayor Chapin welcomed the dele- gates on behalf of the city, and Dr. Hutchins performed a similar office for the medical profession. Then came the address of Presi- dent Johnson. His purpose, he said, was to talk to the people, not to scientists. He said, — “A death from typhoid-fever now means not so much a dispen- sation of Providence as it means foul water, foul food, or foul air. A city is decimated by a pestilence, and it is found that its founda- tions are honeycombed with cesspools, and its drinking-water is diluted sewage. The judgments of God, in the light of these revelations, become no more mysterious than the pains of the child that laughingly thrusts its tiny finger into the brilliant flame only to feel the terrible infliction that follows. There has come to be an enthusiasm in the medical profession on this subject which has made itself felt in various ways. This zeal has communicated it- self to the public. An intelligent foundation has been laid for sanitary reforms. The swamps in California ee OcTOBER 25, 1880. | “As typhoid-fever is a greater calamity than TexasZfever, as Asiatic cholera is more to be dreaded than hog cholera, so do we need a department of public health more than a department of _ agriculture, a bureau of vital statistics more than a bureau of ani- \ mal industry. “The death-rate of twenty-six of the principal cities of America, with a population of 9,873,448, is 20 per 1,000. I think it morally certain that this rate could be reduced by means and methods now known to sanitary science to 16 per 1,000, and probably still less than that. The death-rate for London for the year 1888 was 18.5 per 1,000. This can be still further reduced. That of New York and Brooklyn for the same year, taken together, is 25.5 per 1,000; New York, 25.9; Brooklyn, 23.7. The death-rate of these two cities, if reduced to that of London, would secure a saving of 7 per 1,000, or annually 15,986 lives. These lives are public wealth. “ But this is not all. For one death annually two persons are sick during the entire year, or, in other words, there are two years of disabling sickness to one death, 31,972 years in New York and Brooklyn of sickness, preventable sickness, annually. The value of these years of sickness cannot be reached with accuracy; but the wages lost on account of sickness, the cost of care and main- tenance during sickness and convalescence, and the money-value of the lives destroyed, considering them only as machines, will, in New York and Brooklyn, reach annually into the millions. I ven- ture to suggest to the business-men of these cities that this loss is enough every year to buy a great railroad or to build and subsi- dize a fleet of ocean-going steel steamships.” The session continues through Friday, while the sanitary exhibi- tion will continue for some weeks. PROGRESS OF CHINA. MR. R. S. GUNDRY read a paper on “Industrial and Commer- cial Progress in China” to the British Association last month. Premising that the wide differences in character and habits of thought between Europeans and the Chinese made it difficult to convey to an English audience an accurate impression of the situa- tion, the paper, as reported in Te Scottish Geographical Maga- zine, went on to sketch the leading features of Chinese industry and commerce in so far as they concerned, and had been affected by, foreign enterprise. Beginning to move at a time when she had been defeated in a foreign war, China’s first efforts were to provide herself with the warlike material which experience had shown her to be so powerful: hence the early construction of arsenals and steamers. The beginnings of telegraphs, and the acceptance in principle of railways, were due also, in a measure, to warlike stress in connection with Kulja. and Tongking; and mining was recog- - nized largely as a means of providing for all this additional ex- penditure. But imperfection of knowledge, jealousy of foreign supervision, and a disorganized condition of finance, which involves venality and harassing taxation, retard a progressive movement, to which the Z¢eva¢z who constitute the mind of the nation are still as a body disinclined. The imperial finances, too, have been strained by a series of wars, rebellions, and disasters ; and distrust of their officials prevents native capitalists from investing money in enterprises with which the officials persist in meddling. The great staples of tea and silk are severely menaced by the competition of India and Ceylon in the one case, and of southern Europe in the other; and the Chinese are slow to accept improved methods of preparation which would enable them to hold their own. China tea is heavily handicapped also by taxation, in competition with its duty-free rival. Fiscal hinderances, imperfect communications, and consequent cost of transport, have much to do with the slow de- velopment of trade. But the wide prevalence of domestic industry, and difficulties of exchange caused by the demonetization of silver, tend also to check the anticipated growth of demand for European manufactures. There seems every prospect that more railways will shortly be constructed, and that machinery will be tentatively admitted for purposes of industrial manufacture; but much time, a more widespread desire for progress, and radical financial re- form, will be required before China is likely to rival Japan in the completeness of its transformation. SCIENCE. 285 JADE IN BURMAH. ACCORDING to a recent official report from Burmah, the jade- producing country is partly enclosed by the Chindwin and Uru Rivers, and lies between the 25th and 26th parallels of latitude. Jade is also found in the Myadaung district, and the most cele- brated of all jade deposits is reported to be a large cliff overhang- ing the Chindwin, or a branch of that river, distant about eight or nine days’ journey from the confluence of the Uru and Chindwin. Of this cliff, called by the Chinese traders “‘ Nantclung,” or “ diffi- cult of access,” nothing is really known, as no traders have gone there for at least twenty years. Within the jade tract described above, small quantities of stone have been found at many places, and abandoned quarries are numerous. The largest quarries now worked are situated in the country of the Merip Kachins. The largest mine is about 50 yards long, 40 broad, and 20 deep. The season for jade operations begins in November, and lasts till May. The most productive quarries are generally flooded, and the labor of quarrying is much increased thereby. In February and March, when the floor of the pit can be kept dry for a few hours by bal- ing, iiamense fires are lighted at the base of the stone. A careful watch is then kept in a tremendous heat to detect the first signs of splitting. When this occurs, the Kachins attack the stone with pickaxes and hammers, or detach portions by hauling on levers in- serted in the cracks. The heat is almost insupportable, the labor severe, and the mortality among the workers is high. The Ka- chins claim the exclusive right of working the quarries, and there is not much disposition on the part of others to interfere. Traders content themselves with buying the stone from the Kachins. The jade is then taken by Shan and Kachin coolies to Namia Kyank- seik, one long day's journey from Tomo. Thence it is carried by dug-outs down a small stream, which flows into the Tudaw River, about three miles below Sakaw, and down the Tudaw River itself to Mogaung. MENTAL SCIENCE. New Experiments upon the Time-Relations of Mental Processes. IN the preceding issue of this department an account was given of certain experiments measuring the time of re-action to words, both simply and when the movements of the five fingers were as- sociated respectively with five words or five general classes of words. The results revealed a striking difference, according as the atten- tion is directed to the sensory factors of the process and their appreciation, or the motor factors and their execution. The latter is a much briefer act, and seems torequire a quite different series of mental processes from the former. To the theories explaining these and other facts we shall recur in this study. Dr. Miinster- berg continues the work by applying similar methods to the study of association, judgments, and in general more complex operations. I, As the more mechanical process in every association consists in hearing and understanding a spoken word and in speaking a word, we can easiest measure how much time is needed to accom- plish this part of the process by measuring the time intervening between the speaking of a word by the experimenter and the rep- etition by the subject. Throughout this study there are two sub- jects, M and R; and in addition to the time there is given in parentheses the average variation, v, which marks the relative con- stancy, regularity of the process measured. As the words used in later experiments were both monosyllables and others, these were introduced at the outset, care being taken by the experimenter when calling a polysyllabic word to press the key in speaking the last (or the last accented) syllable, and by the subject always to press the key when speaking the first syllable of his reply-word. The simple repetition of a word, then, was accomplished by A¢ in .403 of a second (v, .060) ; ‘by R, in .362 of a second (vu, .070). II. Here, instead of repeating the called word, one re-acts by calling as quickly as possible a word associated in any way what- ever with the first; that is, an ordinary “‘association-time.” M does this in .845 of a second (v, .140); R, in .948 of a second (v, .170). The shortest time was for “ gold-silver’’ (.390 of a sec- 286 ond); the longest, for “sing-dance,” “ mountain-level” (from 1.100 to 1.400 seconds). III. Instead of accepting the first association formed with the call-word, the experimenter requires a word bearing a definite re- lation to that word. What this relation is to be is announced just before the call-word itself. The relation is always such as to admit of several replies. Such general rubrics as, given a country to name a city in it, or given a general term to name a particular instance of it, sufficiently well describe what was wanted. How- ever, the same rubric was not repeatedly given in succession, as Cattell had done (for this gives too much scope for preparing the answer), but all kinds of relations were employed in an arbitrary order. This “limited ” association occupies M .970 of a second (v, .200), and R 1.103 seconds (v, .210) ; or .125 and .155 of a sec- ond longer than I]. The shortest times were found, rather sug- gestively, in naming an instance of ‘‘a German wine, — Riidi- sheimer ;”’ ‘‘a number between 10 and 4, — 6;” “a Greek poet, — Homer ;’ — all between .450 and .600 of a second. The longest were “ beast of the desert, — lion; ” “« French author, — Voltaire ;”’ “a drama of Goethe, — Gotz ;”” — between 1.200 and 1.500 sec- onds. IV. Here the associations were still further limited, there being in each case only one correct association : it is in the nature of question and answer. Though, of course, the question was not asked in full, it was easily understood as such; nor was the query such as to immediately suggest an evident answer. The average time was, for M, .808 of a second (v, .180); for R, .889 of a sec- ond (z, .140) ; or .162 and .214 of a second shorter than III. It thus takes longer to name a drama of Schiller, than ¢he frs¢ drama of Schiller. Times between .400 and .600 of asecond were, “‘ Three times four, — Twelve;” ‘‘ On what river is Cologne ?— Rhine ;”’ “In what season is June? —Summer;” “In what continent is India ?— Asia.” The longest times, I.100 to 1.300 seconds, were needed to answer the following questions: “ By what author is Hamlet ? — Shakspeare;” “‘ What is the capital of Baden ? — Karls- ruhe;” ‘“ What is the color of ice? — White;” ‘Who was the teacher of Plato? — Socrates.” These times seem t» be influenced by momentary fluctuations of the mind as well as the intrinsic difficulty of the question. V. Asin IV., there is but one correct answer: but this is not obtained simply as an act of memory, but some process of com- parison and judgment must be gone through after the question is proposed; e.g., ‘“‘ Which is larger, —a lion or a mouse?” “ Who is greater, — Hume or Kant?” First the general nature of the comparison is announced, then the special terms to be compared. An actual test shows no difference in time when the correct answer was the first and when it was the second of the two terms. M’s average time was .g06 of a second (v, .180); R’s, 1.079 (u, .220) seconds. Most quickly answered (.600-.800 of a second) were, “ What smells better, — cloves or violets ?— Violets ;” “‘ Who is greater, — Virgil or Ovid ?— Virgil; “‘ What is. prettier, — woods or mountain ?— Mountain.” It took longest (1.200-1.500 seconds) to answer, “ What is healthier, — swimming or dancing ? — Swim- ming ;’‘“‘ What of Goethe do you know better, — drama or lyric ? — Lyric; “ What is more difficult, — physics or chemistry ? — Chemistry.” VI. This variation consisted in employing the same general line of questions as in the foregoing, but preceding the question with a series of about a dozen words of the same general class as the two to be compared, and mentioning the two among the number. Thus, “Apples, pears, cherries, nuts, peaches, grapes, strawberries, dates, figs, raisins: which do you like better, — grapes or cher- ries ?— Cherries.” The questions were prepared in advance, and read as monotonously as possible. The result was, for M, .694 of a second (v, .130) ; for R, .659 of a second (vu, .160); or .212 and .420 of a second shorter than V.,—certainly a striking result. Among the shortest times (.400 to .600 of a second) were “ [men- tioning twelve composers] Who is greater, —Gliick or Bach ? — Bach ;” ‘‘ [twelve capitals] Which is more important, — Rome or Madrid ?— Rome.” Among longest times (.800 to 1.000 second) were “ [ten classical dramas] Which is more taking, —Gotz or Tasso ?— Gotz ;” “ [ten colors] Which goes better with blue, — yellow or green ? — Yellow.” SCIENCE. [Vor oes Noma VII. Here we combine III. and V. Instead of first asking, “What isa drama of Goethe?” (III.), and then ‘“ Which is the finest of Goethe’s dramas, — Gotz, Faust, etc.?” (VI.), we ask at once, ‘‘ Which is the finest of Goethe’s dramas?” the subject hav- ing first to recall what the dramas are, and then to make his choice. — For this, M requires .g62 (uv, .180), and R 1.137 (uv, .160), seconds ; or only .o08 and .034 of a second more than in III. The shortest times (.600-.700 of a second) were in answering ‘“ What is the pleasantest odor ?— Rose ;” “ Which is the most important German river ?>— Rhine:” the longest (1.400 to 1.600), in answering “‘ Who is the most difficult Greek author ?— Pindar;” ‘“ Who is your favorite French writer ? — Corneille.” VIII. By adding a comparison to the process in VII., we have the scheme of VIII.: e.g., ‘“‘ Which is the more westerly, — Berlin, or the most important German river?—-[answer] Rhine;’’ or, “What letter comes first in the alphabet, — L, or the initial letter of the name of the prettiest tree?— [answer] Beech.” This very complex process engaged M for 1.844 seconds (v, .370), and R for 1.866 seconds (v, .340). Here the variations in the difficulty of the questions and the alertness of the individual become rather impor- tant. A still more complicated scheme was attempted, but the results proved too variable. The questions were of this type = “What is more impressive, — Shakspeare’s finest drama, or Wag- ner’s finest opera? [answer] Lohengrin.” The result for M was 2.197 seconds (v, .970); for R, 2.847 seconds (v, .720). It is the scheme of VIII. with case VII. in each term of the comparison. IX. This bears the same relation to VIII. that VII. does to IV. The type of query would be, “Which lies more westerly, — Berlin, or the river on which Cologne is situated [it is a comparison in which one term is reached by the substitution of a concrete for a generally described term]? ” or, again, ‘‘ Which is less, —15, or 20 — 8?”’ “ Who lived later, — Klapstich, or the author of ‘ Lear Bake The times were, for M, 1.291 seconds (z, .180) ; for R, 1.337 seconds (v, .230). These times are .553 and .529 of a second less than VIIL., although the differences between VII. and IV., which have the same relation pair to pair, were only .154 and .248 of a second. X. This is IX. preceded by a series of words of the same cate- gory as the terms of the comparison: e.g., the experimenter first calls twelve names of parts of the body, and then, “ Which is larger, —the hand, or that with which one smells?” “[ten colors] Which is lighter, — blue, or the color of sulphur?” Here we have the same process of shortening the time as in VI. The times are 1.153 seconds for M (wv, .170), and 1.145 seconds for R (7, .210) ; or .138 and .192 of a second less than IX. The results of the ten cases are based upon about 800 experiments. . Finding the current theory? entirely unable to explain these re- sults, Dr. Miinsterberg attempts an explanation upon the principle “that a stimulus begins to have an effect before the latter is con- sciously perceived,” and that “ the process consists in the re-awak- ening of the effects of previous stimuli, so that it is shortened by any circumstances tending to call up these reproductions in advance of the stimulus.’ We must note that all these associations are really of the form of judgments. When we are asked to associate a word with a given word, we really do not answer with the first impression that may be passing through our minds at that particu- lar moment ; but we give a word called up by the former, and the relation to which we more or less clearly recognize. The question is, “Name a word standing in some relation to the following word;” and our answer is, “‘ This word answers this description.” Every such judgment, again, is the assertion of identity between two objects standing in different associative relations. When we say the beech is the prettiest tree, we mean that the thing that from one aspect we call and recognize as a beech, and the concept which from another aspect we describe as the prettiest tree, are one and the same. The mind can be placed in more or less favorable attitude for the calling-up of these association ties, and thus the time as meas- ured be shortened ; and again the calling-up of certain associative 1 The theory as represented by Wundt would require the limited association to take longer than the unlimited, because it involves the latter and something more; _ but IV. requires less time than IIT. or II. Again, as VII. is composed of Ill. and V., we should get the times by the addition of these two times ; but this gives far too large results. Other discrepancies could easily be pointed out. OcTOBER 25, 1880. | links may in itself be a sufficient means of appreciating the appear- ance of other closely related trains of thought. Under this general position, it remains to interpret the following four characteristics of the results, which may be regarded as the most essential out- come of the study : first, the time of a limited association is longer than the time of a free association (III. is longer than II.); second, univocal association (where the answer is limited to one) is less than the limited, or even than the free (IV. is less than III. or II.) ; third, by reading a series of words belonging to the same category as the words to be compared, the time of the mental process is much shortened (VI. is less than V., and X. than IX.) ; fourth, the com- bination of any two or three factors in the same process takes less time than the sum of the times needed to perform each of the fac- tors separately (VII. is less than the sum of III. and V., less the time of I., which is counted twice). The first fact is not new, and is explained by considering that in both cases, III. and II., several associations present themselves to the mind, but that, while any one of them will answer in II., some may have to be rejected (or the association impulse inhibited) in case III. The second fact is more striking, and seems to mean that the mind does not run over the general category and select the one answering to the particular relation, but takes the nearest and usually prominent association of the limited character. Irrelevant associations do not consciously reach the focus of apperception. The third fact brings out the mechanism of preparation. When a series of words is read, and we know we are to compare some two terms of the series, we an- ticipate the general kind of comparison, and so shorten the process. We throw out all those associations with the terms in question other than those which they have in common with the series of words read. The fourth fact accentuates the importance of the position that the mind can do more than one thing at a time. If each mental pro- cess had to be finished before the next one is begun, such acts as reading ahead, as forming a sentence or an argument while speak- ing other words, would be impossible. The results distinctly show how the various processes overlap in time, and form that rich complexity of inter-associated and mutually dependent fators that is the charm as well as the strain of mental labor. THE NATURE OF NEGATIVE HALLUCINATIONS.—M. J. Foutan has recently devised an interesting method of showing that in hypnotism the physiological processes remain, while their psychic interpretation is altered. If a subject be told that he sees nothing red, every thing of this color falls out of his mental horizon, and we have an ordinary instance of a negative hallucination. If, now, the red object viewed be a red light, and if we suggest to the subject that when a bell is sounded he will again be restored to normal vision, and if as the bell is sounded the light is put out, the subject sees a light of the complementary color, green, just as he would have done when normally viewing a red light. While the brain refuses passage to the sensation of red, the retina is impressed with it, and re-acts to it, just as though the action were normal in every respect. ELECTRICAL NEWS. The Telephone on Railways. THERE has been in use on the Austrian State railways a portable telephone that can easily be attached to a passing wire so as to place the trainmen in connection with the neighboring stations. An exhibition of the apparatus was recently made before a number of Austrian railway-men-on a line running from Hiittelsdorf to Purkersdorf, with satisfactory results. THE DURATION OF A LIGHTNING FLASH. — The researches of Trouvelot, Colladon, and Dufour have shown that the duration of a lightning-flash is not infinitesimal, but that the flash lasts a measurable time. For instance: if one sets a camera in rapid vibration, and exposes in it a plate so as to receive the impre-sion of the flash, it is found that the impressions appear widened out on the negative, showing the negative to have moved during the time the flash was in existence. _ -ARTHUR WINSLOW has entered upon the duties of State geolo- gist of Missouri, with headquarters at Jefferson City, and the work of the survey is now begun. SCIENCE. 287 BOOK-REVIEWS. The Struggle for Immortaltty. By ELIZABETH STUART PHELPS New York, Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. 16°. $1.25. THIS book is characteristic of the times, and could not have- been written at any other period. The authoress is a Christian of the new liberal type,—a type so different from the old that it seems another thing, — and she is a passionate believer in immor- tality. She presents her views and arguments in an epigrammatic- style and generally with clearness, and her book is certainly enter- taining. Unhappily she is a pessimist of a rather extreme type, declaring expressly that there is far more pain than pleasure in this. life, and consequently, that, if there is no other life before us, God) is not good. She admits, however, that with rare exceptions men cling tenaciously to this life, which seems very strange if it brings. a surplus of pain. She insists that there is more in man than material forces can account for, and adduces the phenomena of hypnotism and telepathy in support of this claim. Her theory of immortality is as set forth in the following passage: “ Immortality is not a right, but a ‘privilege. . . . This gift is offered to you or me upon conditions which we can accept or deny at will. The founder of our religion makes, we may say that he constitutes, the- conditions. Everlasting life is, in fact, according to this religion, bestowed by Jesus Christ upon the human soul. The consequence of declining this gift and its conditions would seem to be logically, if not theologically, wrapped in the phrase ‘everlasting death’ ’” (p. 137). This means, if we understand it, that, if we live like- Christ in this world, we shall live forever in another and happier one; but if not, we shall be annihilated. Hence arises a “ struggle for immortality ” analogous to the struggle for existence here, in which we may win or lose according to our conduct. This seems. to us rather singular doctrine; yet there is much in the book that is both true and valuable, and it will serve to some extent as an antidote to the prevailing spirit of negation. A Dictionary of Electrical Words, Terms and Phrases. By EDWIN J. HousTON. New York, The W. J. Johnston Co. 16°. $2.50. THE need has long been felt of some work that should give good) definitions of the terms which have come into use in the electric science and practice that have been brought into existence mainly within the past ten or twenty years. The larger dictionaries are too- slow in adopting new words to serve this special purpose. In fact, some of the terms defined in Houston’s “ Dictionary ”’ may be out- of use, and no longer words in any proper sense as conveyors of ideas, by the time they figure in Worcester or Webster. Such is- the march of language with those who are creating apparatus and phenomena never before existing. It is unnecessary to introduce- the chief editor of this electrical dictionary to our readers. Pro~ fessor Houston is too well known to need this. What he has- done in the dictionary is, first, to give a concise definition of each word or phrase, and then a brief statement of the principles of the science involved in the definition, that it may be clear, in so little trodden a field, just what the definition means. This statement is- frequently illustrated by appropriate cuts. To some extent the short explanations make the work encyclopedic in its character, This is a first edition, and-it may be that the difficulty of intro— ducing a phrase under the most appropriate catch-word, so that it may be readily found, has not been completely. overcome ; yet such an elaborate system of cross-references has been introduced as to overcome this trouble toa great extent. We must say we have found it satisfactory in use so far. A The publishers are to be commended for the large number of illustrations they have placed at Professor Houston’s command. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. THERE is announced to appear Nov. 2, 1889, and each Saturday thereafter, ature, a weekly journal for the gentleman sportsman and naturalist, to which the contributing editors will be William C. Harris, Charles Hallock, Charles Barker Bradford, and J. Charles Davis. The articles will include sketches about all kinds of game— hunting ; sketches about all kinds of game-shooting; sketches om 288 the hunter’s camp; sketches on life in the woods ; articles on guns, gunning, and ammunition; articles on game birds and animals ; articles on game dogs; on the mountains and in the meadows; in the woods and on the waters; abroad in the fields and forests, and stories about rural nature in general; special articles by the leading sportsmen writers. The Nature Publishing Company, No. 10 Warren Street, New York, will publish the paper. — Outing for November has for its leading article, “‘ A Winter’s Sport in Florida,’ by O. A. Mygatt. Other principal articles are “Whaling,” by Herbert L. Aldrich; “Our Four-footed Friends,” by “ Borderer ;”’ and “ The Orange Athletic Club.” Other articles are, ‘‘ Lobsters and Lobster Pots;” “ Crankslinger Skaddle Rides Back to his Youth,” a cycling story by President Bates ; “ Squirrel- Hunting ;”” and the hunting story, “ Over Rag Wheel Mountain.” —Charles Scribner’s Sons published last week “ The Viking Age,” by Paul B. Du Chaillu. This work is the product of many years of incessant labor in the collection and arrangement of facts which throw light upon the character of the progenitors of the Eng- lish-speaking race. Recent researches have made it clear that those Northmen who at the decadence of the Roman Empire over- ran and settled in Britain and the northern coast of Germany and France, were not barbarians, as has long been erroneously sup- posed, but a most highly civilized and accomplished people. Vast quantities of objects, including arms and armor, gold and silver ornaments of the most skilful workmanship and refined beauty, wood-carving, filigree work, agricultural and domestic implements, Magnificent carriages, etc., have been unearthed. The work is in two octavo volumes, and contains 1,400 illustrations. — The Reform Club, New York, has just issued a tariff dittion- ary, explaining the specific and ad valorem duties as imposed on every article under the present law, and as proposed by the Mills and Senate bills. It has been prepared by the tariff-reform com- mittee of the club. — G. P. Putnam’s Sons have just ready Alfred Church’s “To the Lions,” a story of the persecution of the Christians under the early Roman Empire; and “ The Story of Boston,” by Arthur Gil- man, in the series of Great Cities of the Republic. — Gebbie & Co., Philadelphia, have just issued “Froudacity : West Indian Fables by James Anthony Froude,” explained by J. L. Thomas, — a criticism of Mr. Froude’s late book on the West Indies, written by a native in defence of his colored companions in the West Indies. —J. G. Cupples Company announce a little book entitled “‘ The Elixir of Life,” being a compilation of what has been written con- cerning Dr. Brown-Sequard’s discovery. It also contains Dr. Brown-Sequard’s own account of his famous alleged remedy for ‘debility and old age, Dr. Variot’s experiments, and a sketch of Dr. Brown-Sequard’s life, and a portrait. — Longmans, Green, & Co. are about to issue an outline history ‘of the development of modern music, showing the growth of opera, ratoiio, and symphony, without digressing into mere biography of composers. It has been prepared by Mr. W. J. Henderson of the New York Z7zes, and it will be called ‘“‘ The Story of Music.” — Sun and Shade, published by the Photo-Gravure Company, New York, has just concluded the first volume of a most success- ful year. Starting almost as an experiment, with a list of less than fifty subscribers, it has, by dint of its excellency, won for itself, as its publishers claim, a circulation of four thousand copies monthly. It is a novel undertaking, in that it is simply a picture periodical without letterpress excepting a table of contents. In the next volume will be presented reproductions of leading pictures in the Metropolitan Museum of Art; portraits of prominent leading men, first among which will be one of Mr. W. H. Appleton, the senior ‘of the firm of D. Appleton & Co., to be followed by one of Henry George; and reproductions of the works of American artists, whether painters, sculptors, or architects. The reproductions, by whatever process, are all of the very best quality. The subscrip- tion price is four dollars per year. —J. B. Lippincott Company have just ready a work entitled “Cycling,” by R. P. Scott, which will be of interest to all who are fond of the exhilarating and healthful sport afforded by the bicycle, SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 351 tricycle, etc. The book contains a great deal of curious and useful information for wheelmen, and is-illustrated by numerous engrav- ings showing the development of the “ wheel ”’ itself. — Judge S. M. Green, well known as the author of a number of legal works, embodied in an excellent treatise on crime, to appear shortly from the press of J. B. Lippincott Company, the opinions and settled convictions to which he has been led by a long: experi- ence as judge both in the circuit and supreme courts of Michigan. While the volume will naturally be of much service to lawyers, it is not specifically a legal book, but is a popular, and at the same time exhaustive, discussion of the nature, causes, treatment, and prevention of crime. The author looks on the criminal as diseased, and enables us to sympathize with him while we hate his crime, and, moreover, encourages us to bright hopes and strenuous effort — for his cure. — The Geological Survey of Pennsyivania has issued “ A Dic- tionary of the Fossils of Pennsylvania and Neighboring States named in the Reports and Catalogues of the Survey,” compiled by J. P. Lesley, State geologist. There are given three thousand fig- ures of all the forms of animal and vegetable life hitherto seen in the geological formations of the State, both those collected by the assistant geologists of Professor H. D. Rogers, fifty years ago, and those collected since 1874. — The “ Bibliographical Catalogue of the Described Transfor- mations of North American Lepidoptera,’ by Henry Edwards, issued by the Smithsonian Institution as Bulletin No. 35 of the National Museum, will supply a want that has long been felt by many entomologists, and will be acceptable to the students of the earlier stages of North American Lefzdoptera. In its compilation, the author has occupied a good portion of the spare time at his command for three years past, and has carefully examined every publication that has been accessible to him. — By permission of the Institution of Civil Engineers, the Scien- tific Publishing Company of this city publish the admirable paper of Sir Frederick Abel on “ Mining Accidents,” and the instructive discussion of it by the best-informed experts in Great Britain. This book summarizes the most advanced modern practice in coal- mining and the prevention of accidents; and it should be in the hands of every one interested in mining, as it is unquestionably the most valuable treatise on coal-mining in the language. In order to still further increase its value, the laws governing coal-mining in every State and Territory in the Union, and those of Great Britain and of the chief German mining districts, have been added to it. —‘‘A Preliminary Catalogue of the Shell-bearing Marine Mol- lusks and Brachiopods of the South-Eastern Coast of the United States,” with illustrations of many of the species, by William Healey Dall, A.M., honorary curator, Department of Mollusks, United States National Museum, has just been issued by the Smithsonian Institution. This work is intended to assist students of the AZo/lusca in the United States by bringing together for their use a large number of excellent figures of species belonging to or illustrating the fauna of the southern and south-eastern. coasts of the United States, from Cape Hatteras south to the Straits of Florida, and west to Mexico, with the adjacent waters. These figures are explained and connected by a catalogue of the mollusks known to inhabit that region, either from the presence of authen- ticated specimens in the National Museum or on the authority of reputable naturalists who have collected in the region, and whose specimens have been seen or reliably identified. This catalogue, arranged for convenience in tabular form, includes not only the species which are illustrated on the plates, but all other species common to the region, as far as known. —J. E. Munson, Tribune Building, New York, has reprinted his important ‘‘ Phonographic Phrase- Book,” which has long been out of print. — D.C. Heath & Co. will issue at once Hoffman’s “ Tales from History.” Every student of German should read something of an historical nature, and the difficulty lies in finding something brief enough for class use. These tales are short, and independent of each other, and yet complete enough to insure sustained interest. The notes are both historical and explanatory. This firm will also OcTOBER 25, 1889. | issue at the same time Freytag’s ‘‘ Aus dem Staat Friederichs des Grossen,” with notes explanatory and critical, by Herman Hager. In this sketch we have not a detailed account of the facts of Fred- erick’s life, but the author directs his attention mainly to the work- ing of the hero’s mind, to the gradual building-up of that char- acter which came to be the moulding force of Germany. An appendix adds some notes on the phonetic changes in German, and special attention is given to awaken an interest in the gradual development of the meaning in words. — Macmillan & Co. have just ready ‘Select Essays of Dr. Johnson,” edited by George B. Hill, in the Temple Library; a selection of the best essays of De Quincey, edited by W. H. Ben- nett, in the Stott Library ; and a new library edition of Words- worth, in eight octavo volumes. — From the Publishers’ Weekly’s “ Notes on Authors,” we learn the following : Friedrich Spielhagen is reported to be writing his autobiography. It is to be issued in instalments in a new German magazine. Miss Kate Field, the author and lecturer, contemplates starting a journal. Gustav Freytag, the novelist, will shortly pub- lish a little work on the late Emperor Frederick, taken from: his notes during the war, and his letters from the camp ‘down to the election of the German Emperor. Horatio Seymour of Marquette, Mich., who was formerly State engineer of New York, is preparing for publication the correspondence of Gov. Horatio Seymour, and desires to secure copies of letters not already in his possession. — In spite of the rapid increase in the number of millionnaires in the United States in recent years, the popular notion is that wealth is yet very much more evenly distributed in this country than in England. Mr. Thomas G. Shearman, the well-known New York statistician, has been engaged for some time in collect- ing facts to show as precisely as possible the proportion of the wealth of the country held by a few rich men and families ; and he finds a greater concentration of wealth here than in any other country. The results of his investigation will appear in Zhe Forum for November, from advance sheets of which the following facts are taken. Mr. Shearman makes the following enumeration of owners of more than $20,000,000 each: $150,000,000, J. J. Astor, Trinity Church ; $100,000,000, C. Vanderbilt, W. K. Vander- bilt, Jay Gould, Leland Stanford, J. D. Rockefeller ; $70,000,000, estate of A. Packer ; $60,000,000, John I. Blair, estate of Charles Crocker ; $50,000,000, William Astor, W. W. Astor, Russell Sage, E. A. Stevens, estate of Moses Taylor, estate of Brown & Ives; $40,000,000, P. D. Armour, F. L. Ames, William Rockefeller, H. M. Flagler, Powers & Weightman, estate of P. Goelet ; $35,000,- ooo, C. P. Huntington, D. O. Mills, estates of T. A. Scott, J. W. Garrett ; $30,000,000, G. B. Roberts, Charles Pratt, Ross Winans, E. B. Coxe, Claus Spreckels, A. Belmont, R. J. Livingston, Fred Weyerhauser, Mrs. Mark Hopkins, Mrs. Hetty Green, estates of S. V. Harkness, R. W. Coleman, I. M. Singer; $25,000,000, A. J. Drexel, J. S. Morgan, J. P. Morgan, Marshall Field, David Dows, J. G. Fair, E. T. Gerry, estates of Gov. Fairbanks, A. T. Stewart, A. Schermerhorn; $22,500,000, O. H. Payne, estates of F. A. Drexel, I. V. Williamson, W. F. Weld; $20,000,000, F. W. Vander- bilt, Theo. Havemeyer, H. O. Havemeyer, W. G. Warden, W. P. Thompson, Mrs. Schenley, J. B. Haggin, H. A. Hutchins, estates of W. Sloane, E. S. Higgins, C. Tower, William Thaw, Dr. Hos- tetter, William Sharon, Peter Donohue. These 70 names represent an aggregate wealth of $2,700,000,000, an average of more than $37,500,000 each. Although Mr. Shearman, in making this esti- mate, did not look for less than twenty-millionnaires, he discovered incidentally fifty others worth more than $10,000,000 each; and he says that a list of ten persons can be made whose wealth averages $100,000,000 each, and another list of one hundred persons whose wealth averages $25,000,000. No such lists can be made up in any other country. “The richest dukes of England,” he says, “fall below the average wealth of a dozen American citizens; while the greatest bankers, merchants, and railway magnates of England cannot compare in wealth with many Americans.” The average annual income of the richest hundred Englishmen is about $450,000 ; but the average annual income of the richest hundred Americans cannot be less than $1,200,000, and probably exceeds $1,500,000. The richest of the Rothschilds, and the world-re- SCIENCE 289 nowned banker, Baron Overstone, each left about $17,000,000, Earl Dudley, the owner of the richest iron-mines, left $20,000,000. The Duke of Buccleuch (and the Duke of Buccleuch carries half of Scotland in his pocket) left about $30,000,000. The Marquis of Bute was worth, in 1872, about $28,000,000 in land; and he may now be worth $40,000,000 in all. The Duke of Norfolk may be worth $40,000,000, and the Duke of Westminster perhaps $50,- 000,000. Mr. Shearman’s.conclusion is that 25,000 persons own one-half the wealth of the United States; and that the whole wealth of country is practically owned by 250,000 persons, or one in sixty of the adult male population; and he predicts, from the rapid recent concentration of wealth, that under present conditions. 50,000 persons will practically own all the wealth of the country in thirty years, or less than one in 500 of the adult male population. — Col. H. G. Prout, in the November Scrzbner, gives the follow- ing pen-picture of Emin Pacha, whom he knew about thirteen years ago: “In person Emin is a-slender man, of medium height and tough and wiry figure. He is swarthy, with black eyes and hair. His face is that of a studious professional man, and that impression is heightened by the glasses he always wears. . His attitudes and movements are, however, very alert. He stands erect and with his heels together, as if he had been trained as a soldier. He was al- ways reticent about himself, and his history was known to no one in the Soudan or the provinces of the equator. He was supposed to be a Mohammedan. I am notsurethat he ever said that he was, but I am quite sure that he did not deny it when I knew him. It has become known later that he is German, of university educa- tion ; but there were many at that time who thought he was a Turk of extraordinary acquirements. He is certainly a man of great abilities in many ways, and of strong character.” There is a circle in Paris which pays weekly visits to the studio of a young Russian artist, Marie Bashkirtseff, who died five years ago. This ambi- tious and gifted young woman left a remarkable journal, which has been published in France, and has attracted many readers because of the frankness with which she here draws the complete story of her life, her ambition, her suffering, and her love. The book has many of the qualities which made Amiel’s journal famous. Miss Josephine Lazarus, a sister of the poet, Emma Lazarus, will sum- marize this notable book in the same number of Scrzbzer. William Henry Bishop, author of “ The House of the Merchant Prince,” who has been living abroad for the past year, has written, also for this number, a picturesque description of the old Spanish university of Salamanca, giving a clear idea of modern Spanish student life. —In Lippincott’s Monthly Magazine for November, Edward Heron-Allen contributes an article on “The Violin,” which gives much information concerning that instrument. The poet-critic R. H. Stoddard continues his series of papers upon American authors by contributing a sketch of William Cullen Bryant. William S. Walsh has an article upon “ Handwriting and Writers,” in which he dilates upon the chirography of many famous people. Some funny stories are told of Horace Greeley, arising from the well- known illegibility of his handwriting. In ‘ Does College-Training Pay?” D. R. McAnally severely arraigns the methods of instruc- tion in our colleges, and hurls some hard facts at the dons, which it is to be hoped they will take cognizance of. ‘The Question of Pure Water for Cities” is an article contributed by William C. Conant, editor of The Sanztary Era. It contains suggestions for rendering water pure and drinkable, —suggestions that should be acted upon by the authorities in every large city. Melville Philips, one of the editors of the Philadelphia Pvess, tells what it costs to issue big newspapers. — ‘“ The Lost Inca,” by the Inca Pancho-Ozollo, is one of Cas- sell’s Sunshine Series of original novels. In this story, the scene of which is laid in Peru, the dramatzs persone mainly consist of a party of North American engineers and a newly discovered people in the valley of the Inti-Mayu. This party become suddenly and without preparation residents of the valley, and find there much cultivation and refinement, and themselves add many modern scientific appliances to an already advanced civilization. It is an historical fact that an Inca disappeared from history. The Span- iards declared that he was killed in an engagement: there is no proof of it. The bodies of the Spanish soldiers were found, but 290 ‘none of the Indians ; and it is still believed in Peru, among las .barbaras in the upper Amazonas, that the descendants of this Inca still live. The author has found the Lost Inca: the Last Inca is mot yet. — Col. H. G. Prout (Baroud Bey), in his article on Emin’s prov- since in the November Scrzbner, says, ‘‘ Emin’s uncertain power in a savage land is all that remains of the late Khedive’s Central African ‘Empire. One day, in Khartoum, Gordon asked me what I thought -would be the future of the Equatorial Provinces. I said, ‘The :power will gradually return to the Arabs, the negroes will kill their friends and tormentors together, and the good old times of war and famine will come back.’ I am still of that opinion. Unless the -enlightenment of Europe can control the upper Nile country, either through the Soudan or from the south, barbarism will control it. ‘By control I mean physical control, and that must be directed by some one better than the Turk, the Arab, or the Circassian.” Dr. James E. Pilcher, captain Medical Department, U.S.A., will ‘describe in the same number the organization and appliances of the modern Sanitary Corps, which aims to relieve and care for the sick and wounded in the time of battle and in peace. The abun- -dant illustrations of this article have been made from photographs -of the corps actually at practice-work, and show very clearly the »methods, which are of equal interest to all those who are members of the many societies for First Aid to the Injured, and the National «Guard, which has adopted this system. In view of the congress of representatives of maritime nations in Washington, Professor J. ‘Russell Soley’s article will be of especial interest. He shows how -certain principles of international law (which Great Britain has mainly been instrumental in establishing) will re-act to the disadvantage, -and even great peril, of that nation in the event of another Anglo- continental war. He also discusses the effect which our navigation laws will have in preventing us to profit from the redistribution of “the carrying trade which would ensue. Goethe’s house at Wei- mar, from which the public have been excluded rigidly until within a year, will be fully described by Oscar Browning. The many rillustrations are from the first photographs taken since the house was thrown open, and represent the rooms as Goethe left them. ‘Dr. M. Allen Starr will describe the effects of electricity upon rthe human body. This subject is of special importance, owing to ‘the frequent reports of accidents due to contact with electric wires, ‘to the recent adoption of electricity as a means for executing crimi- ‘nals, and to the extravagant claims of the curative powers of elec- “tricity in diseases. Dr. Starr will draw the line very sharply be- tween the legitimate use of electricity and quackery. — The November issue of Zhe Chautauguan presents the fol- lowing table of contents: “The Burial of Rome,” by Rodolfo 'Lanciani, LL.D. ; “ The Politics which made and unmade Rome,” ‘by President C. K. Adams, LL.D. ; “ The Life of the Romans,” ‘by Principal James Donaldson, LL.D; “ The Story of Sejanus,” by “George Parsons Lathrop; “Map Quiz” on The Chautauguan Map Series; “ The Cause of Geographic Conditions,” by Professor "N. S. Shaler; “Mental Philosophy,” by John Habberton; “ The Uses of Mathematics,” by Professor A. S. Hardy, Ph.D.; “ Traits -of Human Nature,” by the Rev. J. M. Buckley, D.D.; “ What shall the State do for me?” by Thomas B. Preston; “ English Politics -and Society,” by J. Ranken Towse; ‘‘The Story of No Man’s Land,” by John R. Spears ; “ Maria Mitchell,” by Harriet Prescott Spofford ; “The French Constitution,” by Albert Shaw, Ph.D. ; «Electricity at the Paris Exposition,” by Eugene-Melchior de- “Vogue; “In Armenian Villages,” by Harriet G. Powers; ‘“ The Modern Thermometer,” by Ernest Ingersoll. — D.C. Heath & Co. will publish this month Lessing’s “ Minne von Barnhelm,”’ a comedy in five acts, edited with notes and an extended introduction by Sylvester Primer. The play is highly in- teresting, since the style is Lessing’s best, and the dramatic effects well sustained. The study of Lessing as a dramatist and a critic is essential to a comprehensive knowledge of Germany’s great -classic period: hence the importance of this masterpiece to students of German. In the introduction the editor gives the progress of »German literature from the time of Opitz to Lessing, the condition of the German stage, and something of the intellectual develop- ment of the people during this period. A discriminating biogra- SCIENCE. [Vor”“X1TV. No. 354 phy of Lessing and a “critical analysis” of the play give a full analysis of the characters and an account of the historical and other sources, while its national importance as being truly German is well brought out. fe INDUSTRIAL NOTES. The Bower-Barff Rustless Iron Process. ABOUT eighteen months ago, Mr. Henry M. Howe, the eminent metallurgist whose work on steel is now being published in Zhe Engineering and Mining Fournal, applied to several of the licensees of the Bower-Barff Rustless Iron Company for samples of cast and wrought iron which had been treated by the processes . controlled by this company, for the purpose of testing their resist- ance to oxidation. Mr. Howe, who is now in Paris acting as United States iron and steel commissioner at the exposition, writes to the company as follows in relation to these experiments : — “T have just summed up the results of my experiments in the matter of protective coatings for iron. I enclose table of results, which you may use if you want, and as you want. The Bower- Barff wins easily, beating even tinned and galvanized badly. The galvanizing was done by the Rhode Island Tool Company, whose work, I understand, is of the very highest ; and they were informed that the work was for a test trial. The conditions were rigidly Loss of Weight of Wrought and Cast Iron with Different Pro- tective Coatings and under Different Conditions, in Pounds per Square Foot of Surface per Annum. Sheet Iron (No. 23 Gauge, Black). i Exposed to the Weather Inland.|| Immersed in Protective : Coatings. Canada. Newyork Fresh Water. Sewage. Bower-Barffed.. . .o | Gain .000.3 || -006.7 -003.6 Tinned... .. ...|| Gain .002.0 -000.1 +019 4 -007.E Nickel-plated.... +0 000 5 +€50.4 -003.1 Galvanized...... (CeIn @aeba || = = cddo00 +045.9 -080.5 “Bartled eeecielaleters OOI.0 003.1 - 083-9 . 117.0 | Black ; i.e., un- | arotected am 001.3 | .022.6 +137-0 + 169-0 Copper-plated.. . .000.2 .005.0 -179-0 -182.0 Cast Tron. x Exposed to the Weather Inland. Immersed in Protective Coatings. Canada. news Vor Fresh Water. Sewage. Bower-Barffed...|| Gain .004.0 | Gain 0031 || Gain —.a05.5, .O01.4 Bower-Barffed and paraffined 000.6 001.9 -000.2 008.4 Galvanized...... .0 .0 1049.1 061.0 Tinned siceenieceee ...., | Gain 003.1 2065.5 .061.0 Nickel-plated. .. | Gain 003-4 002.5 .136.7 083.3 Copper-plated.. . as 004.0 005.0 || -150.8 |, -I1Q.2 Black; i.e., un- protected ... | ‘ .006.3 .012-0 | 148.3 +272.4 identical. It is a fair victory. I shall publish the results as an appendix to my “ Metallurgy of Steel,” and perhaps more fully thereafter. Immersed in Chestnut Hill Reservoir, Boston, for a year, the Bower-Barffed wrought-iron plate was hardly discolored, except where held by the crate. Another immersed in the Bos- ton main-sewer sewage for a year retained its skin, and was only slightly pitted, while most of the tin was removed from a tinned iron sheet beside it. If you publish these, credit R. W. Lodge with doing the work with me. He put in a good deal of hard work and deserves credit.” OcToBER 25, 1880. ] SCIENCE. mo Exchanges. [Free of charge to all, if ofsatisfactory character. wot N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. Morris’s ‘‘ British Butterflies,’ Morris’s ‘‘ Nests and Eggs of British Birds,’’ Bree’s ‘‘ Birds of Europe”? (all colored plates), and other natural history, in exchange for Shakesperiana ; either books, pamphlets, engravings, or cuttings. — J. D. Barnett, Box 735, Stratford, Canada. I have anodonta of alina (Weatherby), and many other species of shells from the noted Koshkonong Lake and vicinity, also from Western New York, and fossils from the Marcellus sha!e of New York, which I would be lad to exchange for specimens of scientific value of any ‘Baal I would also like to correspond with persons inter- ested in the collection, sale, or exchange of Indian relics.— D. E. Williard, Albion Academy, Albion, Wis. Will exchange ‘‘ Princeton Review’’ for 1883, Hugh Miller’s works on geology ard other scientific works, for back numbers of ‘*‘ The Auk,’ ‘* American Naturalist,’’ ‘or other scientific periodicals or books. Write.— J. M. Keck, Chardon, Ohio. A collection of fifty unclassified shells for the best offer in bird skins ; also skins of California birds for those of - birds of other localities. Address Th. E. Slevin, 2413 Sacramento St., San Francisco, Cal. I have forty varieties of birds’ eggs, side blown, first class, in sets, with full data, which I will exchange for books, scientific journals, shells, and curios. Write me, stating what you have to offer.— Dr. W.S. Srrope, Bernadotte, Fulton County, IIl. “Twish to exchange Lefzdoftera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308-East Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of ‘beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 100 botanical specimens and analyses. for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. Bocuse, Orwell, Ashta ‘County, O. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous}, correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg dauthor ‘‘ Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. Biological Society, Washington. Oct. 19. —C. Hart Merriam, “ Description of a New Spermophile from the Painted Desert, Arizona;” Theo. Holm, “The An- cestors of Liriodendron tulipifera;’’ Theo. Gill, “On the Dactylopteroidea.” Engineers’ Club, Philadelphia. Oct. 5. — Mr. George N. Bell presented a paper upon “ The Development of Suburban | Property,” in which it was clearly shown that this cannot be done to the best advan- tage without the assistance of systematic and intelligent engineering and landscape-gar- dening. The paper and kindred subjects were discussed by Professor Arthur Beards- ley and Messrs. T. M. Cleemann and How- ard Murphy. Western Society of Naturalists. The Western Society of Naturalists held its second annual meeting in the University of Wisconsin, at Madison, Wis., Wednesday and Thursday, Oct. 24 and 25, beginning Wednesday morning at 9.30 A.M. The president of the society, President T. C. Chamberlain, delivered his address, ‘“‘ The Method of Multiple Working Hypotheses in Investigation, in Instruction, and in Citizen- ship,” on Wednesday evening. The meeting was largely devoted to a discussion of methods of investigation. PATENT WRE AND SCREW DRIVER COM 4) In. Long. Turns Nuts, Gas Burners or. Pipe without adjustment. Made of Best_Polished Steel. Sent by mail for 25 cts. CHARLES U, ELy, P. O. Box 1945, New York City. nn. Stop that CHRONIC Couey Now! t Yor if you do not it may become con- )sumpitxe: For Consumption, Scrofula, General Debility and Wasting Diseases, there is nothing like ( i ( ( SCOTT'S MULSION Of Pure Cod Liver Oil and HY POPHOSPHITES Of Inime and Soda. It is almost as palatable as milk. Far better than other so-called Emulsions. A wonderful flesh producer, : Scott’s Emulsion There are poor imitations. Get the er CHANCE FOR ALL a THES, ; ag tay \Wiaieie to Enjoy a Cup of Perfect ne T Tea. A TRIAL ORDER of *1¢ ‘ pounds of Fine Tea, either Oolong, Ja- ‘ E pan, Imperial, Gunpowder, Young Hy- son, Mixed, English Breakfast or Sun ES Sun Chop, sent by mail on receipt of COMPANY $2.00. Be particularand state what kind upoed yd of Tea you want. Greatest inducemen& > ever offered to get orders for our cele- brated Teas, Coffees and Baking Powder. For full particu- larsaddress THE GREAT AMERICAN TEA CO. P. O, Box 289. 31 and 33 Vesey St., New York. GUARANTY INVESTMENT COMPANY CAPITAL $250,000. Hon. ALBERT H. HORTON (Chief Justice, Kansas Supreme Court), Topeka, Kan., Pres’t. ‘) Guaranteed Farm Mortgages J The Company calls the special attention of Investors to the following points : I. All loans guaranteed and interest payable semi-annually at the Importers’ & Traders’ National Bank, New York. Il. section where the farm is located. a III. MITTEE OF INVESTORS sent for the purpose. IV. V. Unusual fulness of information, not only about the security itself, but about the general development of the An examination each year of the general business of the Company and the Mortgages themselves by a COM Many hundred Mortgages taken and NOT A SINGLE FORECLOSURE. Exhibitions in New York at frequent intervals, of Kansas and Nebraska Farm ‘Products. The Exhibition at the American Institute in the fall of 1888, received the HJGHEST AWARD of superiority. VI. Monthly Bulletins giving full information about all Mortgages offered for sale. Address for Monthly Bulletin and Investors’ Committee Report for 1888, HENRY A. RILEY, General Eastern Manager, 191 Broadway, N.Y. ii SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 351 TO ADVERTISERS! HOW TO GET THE MOST SHRVICH HOR THE MONEY ! The Advertiser who would be willing to pay twenty-five cents for every family who could be ‘“‘ educated” up to the value of his goods would thus devote $3,000,000 to educate the 12,000,000 families which make up the 60,000,000 people of the United States. This sum would do the business thoroughly in a year, for it is sufficient to pay for the insertion of a full column in every issue of every publication, and for resetting the matter, making it new in every issue of each separate publication. We will receive and execute the contract. For a quarter of a million of dollars a year $250,000. an advertisement as conspicuous as_ the familiar one of the ‘‘ ROYAL BAKING POWDER” can be inserted in a choice position, head of column, and next to reading matter on yearly contract, to appear in every issue of a very large pro- portion of the newspapers published in America, but not, by any means, in aj]. A serious objection to attempting in advance to furnish any very definite and exact estimate of the cost of each particular paper to be used arises from the difficulty of making plain any proposed variation from specifications in particular eases ; although such variation may better serve the advertiser at a materially lessened cost. $100,000 ment on a yearly contract in a choice posi- tion in a judicious selection of the papers of every State and | Territory of the Union. At one-fifth of a cent a line for each thousand issues, it will pay for inserting 100 lines of advertising in every publication in America sixteen times. Persons often ask for very large estimates who have neither the nerve nor the “means to do the advertising. The application reaches us by mail. If we proceed to prepare the estimate asked for without any as- surance of good faith on the part of the Advertiser we waste valuable time which is more profitably devoted to promoting the interests of actual customers whose business is already in hand. ‘.~ Expended in a single month will place a con- 50,000 spicuous advertisement in a choice position in all the leading daily newspapers issued in towns of more than 20,000 population, and in all the weekly and monthly publica- tions which issue more than 50,000 copies regularly. A page for one insertion in the Century Magazine costs $250. One hundred lines in the New York Daily Times cost $25.00 a day. If you constitute us your Agent to expend a fixed sum for you, in ad- vertising, we shall do it to the best of our ability and our reputa- tion for placing advertising on advantageous terms is very good. The Advertisers whose business is transacted $25,000. through our office in a manner most uni- formly satisfactory and profitable to themselves, are those who trust us most implicitly. They tell us what they wish to accom- plish and we prepare and submit plans which the Advertisers examine and revise. We then consult with the Advertiser and compare notes, after which the orders to insert are forwarded to such papers at such rates and for such periods of time as are de- | cided to be best in each case. ‘I'wenty-five thousand dollars is sufficient to place a conspicuous advertisement for from one to three months in nearly all of the publications of the country which are really of exceptional value in proportion to the rates demanded. One of the most successful Advertisers we ever 5,000. had always ordered his advertisements in this way, ‘* Get the best service you can for me for $5,000,” leaving every detail tous. We were thus enabled to say to a Publisher, if you put this in at a large reduction from your rate it will be no criterion for further transactions. It was a surprise to find ourselves so often able to contract for the insertion of that par- ticular advertisement at half rates, in papers which would not permit us to OFFER their columns at a penny’s deviation from their printed schedule. The advertising rates of one New York paper are double those of another which has twice the circulation of the first. Similar discrepancies are not uncommon. The ad- vertisement intrusted to us to be placed in accordance with our judgment often does double service for half the money. A dollar for twenty-five cents. $1 000 If we are given authority to insert advertisements HY e toa limited amount, in such mediums as offer in- ducements which seem to us specially favorable, we shall not abuse the confidence reposed in us, and shall render statements of whatever is done (if anything) from day to day. When TRUSTED with the placing of an advertisement, we are put upon honor, and are bound in honor to give the best service pos- sible for the money to be used. Leading Newspapers, especially the leading Agricul- 500. tural Newspapers, frequently issue large special edi-— tions (of twenty, fifty, a hundred, or even five hundred thousand copies,) and solicit advertisement orders from us on terms which would often be accepted by our patrons if there was time to in- vite attention to the matter ; but the question must generally be decided before there would be time to write and receive a reply, and often the case cannot be fully stated within the limits of a | letter. Will insert a one-fourth column advertise- | $2 O Prepare a small advertisement and send with check 5 ¢ for $250, or any other sum. The practice of asking the Agent to name his papers in advance compels him to name such as are well known, otherwise there is reason to suspect that his judgment is biased ; —and the best papers do not like to have their rates quoted below their schedule.. $ I0o The Advertiser who sends his advertisements asking + for the best service possible for one hundred dollars, will often get from five to fifty per cent. more service for his money, than he would had he required us to tell him in advance exactly what service we would promise ; for when an estimate has been given its plan and specifications must, in a general way at least, control the advertising to be done: Tt ties the Agent’s hands and prevents his giving his patrons TO-DAY a better ser- vice than he could have promised yesterdsy» oecause yesterday the opportunity had not presented itself : ‘0-;vo~row tt may have pussed! Some publications are used most economically on con- tracts for a single issue ; in others insertion for a month may be had as cheaply as for a single week ; but in furnishing an esti- mate in advance, if the Agent attempts to go into details, his correspondence becomes voluminous and the advertiser confused. If you are in the habit of occasionally inserting a small 50. advertisement in a few papers, investing a few dollars and carefully noting the result ; we desire you to make trial of our Advertising Bureau, sending us the advertisement and the money, leaving the selection of the papers to us, and judging of | the service rendered by results rather than by names, circulation claims or prices. To make up careful estimates calls for much work. It don’t pay to make them indiscriminately for every applicant. If such estimates as are asked for were always given the Advertiser who wished to expend $50 would frequently find himself in possession of a scheme which it would cost $500 or possibly $5,000 to carry out. $1 We devote all necessary care to placing small orders O. for Advertising : —even the smallest! Time is saved by sending check with the order. Often the Advertiser is not possessed of sufficient information on the subject to enable him to judge of the merits of an estimate for advertising, and he decides by the footings of the figures whether he will or will not do the work. Yet the estimate binds the Agent and makes it improper — for him to make any variation in its specifications, however much his judgment may point to material changes which ought to be made. This is specially liable to be the case when the order comes a considerable time after the estimate was made. GEO. P. ROWELL & CO., Newspaper Advertising Bureau, 10 Spruce St., N.Y. OctToBER 25, 18809. | SCUEINGE: 111 C. & C, ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all ‘Power Purposes. York City. New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. Western Office, 139-l41 Adams Street Chicago. + Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, Wants. Any person seeking a position for which he is quali- jied by his scientific attainmen’s, or any person seeking some one to fill a position of this character, be it that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what not. may have the * Want’ inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, 7/ he satisfies the publisher of the sutt- able character of his application. Any person seeking information on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or who can in any way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. EACHER OF NATURAL SCIENCE.— A young lady desires a position as a teacher of Natural Sciences, especially Chem- istry and Physics. One year’s experience. Testi- monials given. Address Miss J. S., No. 31, N. Hanover St., Carlisle, Pa. CIENCE-TEACHING. —A specialist in science-teaching, physics, chemistry, and physiography desires an engagement, preferably in a high or a normal school. Is well known as an author of several popular text-books. Ad- dress X., care of SCIENCE. OLLEGE ALUMNI AND PHYSI- CIANS. —The American Academy of Medicine is endeavoring to make as complete a list as possible of the Alumni of Literary Col- leges, in the United States and Canada, who have received the degree of M.D. All recipi- ents of both degrees, literary and medical, are requested to forward their names at once to Dr. R. J. Dunglison, Secretary, 814 N. 16th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. ANTED.—A teacher of science in an ENDOWED MALE COLLEGE in Ky. Sal- ary $1200.00. Address ‘‘M. H.”’ care 0 Sci- ence 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. ANTED.—Information concerning the handling of air from Caves, for Cool- ing and ventilating rooms. Address ‘‘M. H.” care of Sczence 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. ANTED a young man with some knowl- edge of mineralogy to assist in our Min- eral Department. A. E. FOOTE, 1223 Bel- mont Ay., Philada., Pa. IGHTNING. — Concise descriptions of the effects of lightning discharges are de- sired. State whether the object struck was pro- vided with a lightning rod, the character of the rod, and the way in which it was set up. Be- ginning at the top, describe briefly the effects. State whether there was any smoke or dust raised, and whether there was any odor. Any reports of recent and of especially interesting discharges will be published in Sczence.—Sci- ence, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SciENcE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. ANTED. — By a large manufacturing house, an intelligent, energetic young man about twenty years of age, to make working drawings of electrical instruments from free-hand sketches and verbal assistance. Must be able to execute tinted drawings and tracings as well, and have a fair knowledge of general physics and prin- ciples of electrical measuring instruments. One who has had some practice in brass and machine work preferred, as also one who will remain and learn the business. Specimens of work required. Address, stating salary expected, experience and references, E. G. W., SCIENCE Office, N.Y. City. HYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE. — A Fellow of the Mass. Med. Society, Mem- ber of the Suffolk District Medical Society, and former Assistant Editor of The Annals of Gynzecology, desires a position as instructor in Physiology and Bygiene: Address ‘‘N,” Lafayette Place, N.Y City: ECIIANICIAN — An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J., care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. A TEMPORARY BINDER for Science is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. i Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for sub-equent permanent bind ing. Filed in this binder, Scvence is always convenient for reference. N. D. €. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. 75 cents. {Were yeah », 67 PARK PLACE, NEW aa ————————————— SE e—_— ENGRAVING FORSALL*ILLUSTRATIVE AND “ADVERTISING PURPOSES - Al Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. SCIENCE CLUBBING RATES. 10% DISCOUNT. We will allow the above discount to any subscriber to Sczence who will send us an order for periodicals exceeding $10, count- ing each at its full price. Year’s, Subscription. With Agricultural Sciences tell iieisei lle American Agriculturist .....-...... ... American Architect and Building News Imperial edition Gelatine ‘* Regular 0 aco ccdecees aeur American! Gardentrrseeeer ee ere rererens American Journal of Philology. ..... .... American Machinist us Atlantic...00...... 4 io} Babyhood.. Bradstreet’s. Century Magazine. Chautauquan, The . Christian Union, The..........- Cosmopolitan, The............-- 2 Critic. . = co Eclectic Magazine. Edinburgh Review. . 36 go08 BlectricalbWiorldteereeesser eres e meee Electrician and Electrical Engineer. Electrical Review..--.-......--.2- Engineering and Mining Journal. English Illustrated Magazine. ... Forest and Stream............:-- Forum, ‘The Garden and Forest............-. Harper’s Bazar......... soegoos0 Harper’s Magazine. . Harper’s Weekly Harper’s Young People...................] Illustrated London News (Amer. reprint). .| Independent, ‘Vhe...........--.---- bse | Iron Age (weekly) Sel Journal of SE CEY (Eng.) . Judge.. L) Art Life.. Lipp aga Littell’ s Living Age.. London Quarterly a0 Macmillan’s Magazine........-.. Magazine of American History.. Medical and Surgical Journal... Mechanical Engineer.......... Metal Worker....... NEGIRE= oho cacecos North American Review (ONG ep soc scrcpscas Overland Monthly Political Science Quarterly Popular Science Monthly...... Popular Science News.......-- Portfolio, The............... Practitioner...... anes Public Opinion ... Puck Puck (German) Quarterly Review CED Queries... St. Nicholas. Scientific American Supplement... Architect and B oe Scribner’s Magazine...............-. -... | Texas Siftings Trained Nurse... HRW NUWWHEUMWWY HUWARWU DHA HUW OWN HA HEYA NARA RENE HPWH AUOWNWHE HAWH HRP NWH ON C PAMWMUIUUFS ANY HOSIVN DY Oh PAY HOUVHE QUVN HE AAAIA DE QUUU ANUS UF AP WAIL HAAIUN AF CON SCIENCE: [ VoL. XIV. Nos aign DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™,to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. dis Please Mention “Science.” TOE O nied? (c Kk FALL NOVELTIES. CILKS. —Brocades, Damassé, Moire Francais. Striped, Metal effects in Gold and Silver: Cotele Bengalines. 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Samples sent on request. JAMES McCREERY & C0. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK. COURSE OF MINERALOGY for young People (- gassiz Association Course). Expense for pamphlet, collection correspondence (1st grade), one dollar. Postage 25 cents.—G. Guttenberg, Cen- tral High School, Pittsburgh, Pa. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF 0 cone Stands, and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus, IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored wews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YoRK. International Mineral Cabinets, specimens from Europe, Asia, Africa, S. America, Mexico, Greenland, Canada AS U.S. 100 spec., $3.50 ; 50 spec., $1.75 ; 25 spec., $1, each collection in handsome polished hard-wood case, expressage prepaid. Finest stock of specimens in U.S. _ Minerals for blowpipe analysis by the pound cheap. Complete Catalogue #vee. Consign- ments from all parts of the world constantly arriving. GEO. L. ENGLISH & CO., Dealers in Minerals. 1512 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. E.& H. T. ANTHONY &CO. 501 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, : 1 ; Apparatus and Supplies of every SNK, description. Sole proprietors of i the Patent Detective, Fairy Noy- el, and Bicycle Cameras, and the d Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits in great variety, from $9.00 upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. {28 More than 40 years established in this line of business. Old and Rare Books. Will contain Catalogue No. 29 nearly ready. many scarce works pertaining to Natural His- tory, Americana, out of print books, as a whole, interesting. | ; A. S. CLARK,. 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. Schools. Connecticut, NEw Haven, RS. CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate.. Circulars. Early application necessary. Micuican, HoucuTon. ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. FOOD ADULTERATION And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues on application. E. & F. N. SPON, 12 Cortlandt St., New York. De THE WORLD. STE LuE Se © AWARDED © LONDON Cae woRLEANs ss as e Jloucester Masn~, Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano Co., &e., &e. Repairs Everything. Its success has brought a lot of imitators copying us in every wa: jpcesibles emereber that ‘TH wiry GENUINE LePage’s Liquid Glue i is manufactured solely by the 4|RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c. and dealers’ card ig loesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. No waste. Patent Pocket Can. . ie ey — =i Sats) A 4 Any |Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. | Pe VWiebKiyY NEWSPAPER OF ALI DHE ARTS AND SCIENCES. SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 352. NEW YORK, Novempser 1, 1889. SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS, $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. THE HALPINE TORPEDO-BOAT. THE object in this invention is to provide a small vessel, if we may call it such, that can be steered electrically from the shore or from a war-vessel, and capable of carrying a torpedo that shall be thrown out on the boats touching any obstruction, such as a ship’s side, and then discharged ; the boat, however, first automatically backing away from the torpedo, so as to be at a safe distance when the explosion takes place. The necessity for doing this by some small contrivance is that it vented years ago, In this torpedo, motive and steering apparatus were provided, to be operated in various ways, but in the end to be controlled electrically from the starting station, whether on shore or shipboard. Some torpedoes of this design worked fairly well, but the explosion involved the destruction of apparatus costing thousands of dollars, so that practical experiments were few. The Halpine torpedo-boat is a fish torpedo, which, after leaving its torpedo in any desired position, remains a fish, and runs away, so that when the explosion occurs it may be at a safe distance. This plan is credited to Lieut. Nicholas J. Halpine of the United THE HALPINE-SAVAGE TOPEDO-BOAT. may be as inconspicuous as possible, and that it may furnish a small target for an enemy’s guns. This last point is not of so much importance, however, since the modern machine-guns can pepper the surface of the water with shot to such an extent that no torpedo craft is likely to escape destruction ifseen. These very machine-guns make the use of the so-called torpedo-boats ex- tremely hazardous, and, some would have us believe, entirely un- serviceable. Even at night the search-lights would detect their approach, when the guns would make quick work of them. To avoid this difficulty of approach, the fish torpedo was in- States Navy. But just as the plans of the lieutenant were about to materialize, he received orders to join the ‘‘ Tallapoosa ” in South American waters. It thus happened that the further carrying-out of the scheme devolved on Mr. Arthur W. Savage, the inventor of improved small arms. In some of the electrical work Mr. Savage was assisted by Mr. Frank A. Perret of Brooklyn, to whom we had occasion to refer not long since as the inventor of the Perret motor. Our illustration shows the boat on shore. In the cigar-shaped hull are contained storage-batteries capable of driving the electric 292 motor attached to the propeller-shaft. A case containing the high explosive is carried in a chamber in the forward end. This chamber slopes downward, so that the torpedo, which has a rocket attachment at its rear end, will be thrown down and out on being released. It is also porposed to invert the boat when occasion may require, and provide means for throwing the torpedo from this chamber into the air, so that it may fall on a vessel’s deck. The position of the opening to this torpedo-chamber may be seen in the illustration, as the small chain connecting with the har- poon in front is attached to the torpedo. When the harpoon strikes a wooden bottom, it is expected to penetrate deeply enough to hold. When it passes through a torpedo-net, the harpoon-head will pass through the meshes till the cross-arms are reached, when a spring catch is released allowing other cross-arms to open inside the net, and nearer the harpoon-head. In any event, the harpoon is held. At the same time the torpedo is released, the rocket chamber in its rear end is ignited, and the torpedo discharged downward. The chain attachment to the harpoon-head then compels a swinging motion, so as to bring the torpedo up against the vessel’s bottom. While all this is going on, the automatic arrangements have re- versed the boat, and carried it away from its dangerous position, so that the operator may then guide it safely back for use in another attack. AMERICAN PUBLIC HEALTH ASSOCIATION. ON the second day, Wednesday, Oct. 23, Dr. John 5. Billings of the United States Army read a paper on ‘‘The United States Census in its Relation to Sanitation.” He emphasized the impor- tance of the collection of vital statistics. Many do not regard this as so important as other work in behalf of public health. In order to convince the press and the community that the work of a board of health is necessary, you must produce constant, undeniable evi- dence; and this evidence must be mainly death-rates, to which should be added all the sickness-rates obtainable. To do this there must be a complete registration of deaths and births, and an enumeration of the whole population. Before this association meets again, the eleventh United States census will have been taken, and its methods and results are of great interest to all sani- tarians. One of the most important questions to be settled before the census is taken is, ‘‘ What shall be the boundaries of the spe- cial districts of the city for which a separate statement of the population is desired?” In some cities the wards form fairly satisfactory districts for the purpose, and where this is the case it makes the problem very easy. But in many cities these divisions bear no proper relation to different sanitary conditions: therefore in about a dozen of our large cities itis proposed to make a sys- tematic division of the area into sanitary districts having special relations to altitude, character of habitations or of population, etc., and to have special death-rates calculated for each of these dis- tricts. This is being done in conference with the health authorities of these cities, and it is hoped that in this way some very interesting data will be obtained which will serve as a foundation for sanitary work in the future. To make the statistics as correct and useful as possible, all deaths oceurring in hospitals should be charged to the ward or district of the city from which the patient was taken to hospital, when this can be ascertained ; otherwise the death-rate in the ward in which the hospital is located will be too high, and in the other districts it will be too low. The birthplace of the parents of the decedent should be also reported. Moreover, it is very desirable that in all cases of deaths of colored persons it should be stated whether the decedent was black or of mixed blood, such as mulatto or quad- roon. One of the most important questions in the vital and social statistics of this country relates to the fertility, longevity, and liability to certain diseases, of those partly of negro and fartly of white blood; and the only way to obtain data on this subject is through the registration of vital statistics. For all cities of ten thousand inhabitants and upward, it is proposed to collect as com- plete information as possible with regard to altitude, climate, water- supply, density of population, sewerage, proportion of sewered and non-sewered areas, and other points bearing on the healthfulness SCE NCE: [Vot. XIV. No. 352 of the place which will permit of interesting comparisons with the death-rates. The cordial co-operation of all physicians and sani- tarians is solicited in making the data of these reports accurate and complete. It is desired to make these vital statistics an unanswer- able argument in favor of systematic public sanitary work and of the granting of State and municipal funds necessary for maintain- ing such work. In a paper by Dr. Ezra M. Hunt, secretary of the State Board of Health, Trenton, N.J., on “ The Prevention of Phthisis Pulmonalis, and Methods for its Limitation,” the author criticised those who regard the infection of phthisis pulmonalis as exclusively due to inhalation of the dried sputa of this disease. The theory was ad- vocated that the breath of a consumptive patient is capable of carrying the contagion. Dr. W. M. Smith, quarantine officer of the port of New York, read a paper on “Improvements at the New York Quarantine Station.” An excursion to the Quarantine and East River Hospital ac- companied by Dr. Smith, took up most of the day. At an evening session, Dr. George M. Sternberg, U.S.A., gave an account of recent researches relating to the etiology of yellow- fever. The investigations were- made in Havana, between the middle of March and the first of September, 1889. Ample material has been obtained for a thorough research by modern culture methods. Thirty autopsies have been made in typical cases of yellow-fever. The cultures obtained require further study and ex- tended comparative research before any definite conclusion can be reached as to the specific etiological relation of one or other of the micro-organisms found in yellow-fever cadavers, principally in the intestine. One method followed in the entire series of cases was the preservation of a piece of liver or kidney in an antiseptic wrap- ping, by which the exterior was sterilized and the entrance of germs from without prevented. Such a piece, after forty-eight hours in, the laboratory, appeared fresh, and had no odor, but when cut was found to contain various micro-organisms. The cut surface had an acid re-action. The bacilli were of various species, and corre- sponding with those found in the contents of the intestine. No satisfactory evidence has been obtained, up to the present time, that any one of these is the veritable yellow-fever germ. One of the most constantly found of these micro-organisms was a large motionless, anzerobic bacillus, resembling that of malignant cedema. This, and others found in a less number of cases, were present in small numbers at death, and in a large proportion of cases the re- sult of an examination made immediately from fresh liver-tissue was negative. Material from a piece of liver, kept as above, and containing micro-organisms, is very pathogenic for guinea-pigs when injected subcutaneously in small quantities, while the fresh tissue may be injected in considerable amount without noticeable effect. The micrococcus of Freire has not been found in any cultures of this series, and the bacilli of Finlay and Gibier have not generally been found in the tissues of yellow-fever cadavers. Dr. Theobald Smith of Washington read some preliminary ob- servations on the micro-organism of Texas fever. Cultures have been made from the spleens of animals who died of Texas fever, and a variety of bacteria found. A variety of experiments led to the discovery of an organism within the red blood-corpuscles. The intraglobular bodies found are round or oval, and nearly colorless. There is usually one, but two or more may be found in one cor- puscle. This was followed by a paper by D. E. Salmon, D.V.M., chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Washington, entitled “‘Some General Observations on Texas Fever.” The resemblance in the characteristics of yellow-fever in man and Texas fever in cattle was noticed. Each disease has a permanently infected and well- known district which is its home. The contagion of both diseases is carried, not by the sick, but by the healthy. Natives in the in- fected districts have a certain immunity from disease, while non- residents entering the locality will contract the fever. Both dis- eases, when carried north of their home, require a period of warm weather for development. Neither contagion survives a winter of snow and frost beyond its home. Both diseases are accompanied by an inflammation of the liver which causes yellow discoloration of the tissues, and in both hematuria is seen. These points of NovEMBER I, 1880. | similarity may indicate that the germs have a similar nature, but the facts are given as a coincidence. Edward Atkinson, LL.D., of Boston, Mass., read a paper on -“The Art of Cooking.” A form of oven heated by an oil-lamp, with great saving of heat and fuel, was shown, and food prepared before the audience. For the reports of this day we are indebted to Ze Medzcal Record. The first paper on Thursday, Oct. 24, was by Health Commis- sioner Martin of Milwaukee, upon the disposal of garbage in that city. He considered various methods of getting rid of the refuse of cities. Many forms of crematories were in the market for burn- ing garbage, but none worked with absolute satisfaction, and some were intolerable nuisances. Dr. Martin claimed that the cremation of garbage had had its day. He strongly favored the Merz system, which has been in use in Milwaukee since June last. From June 11 last, the quantity of garbage collected is forty tons daily, which, with that brought to the works by the commission dealers, whole- sale men, and grocers, brings the total up to fifty tons, which is promptly disposed of. The works are situated in the slaughter-house district, and the building is a two-story frame, 62 by 110 feet. The garbage-teams drive up an inclined roadway to the second story, where the garbage is thrown on the floor to be scraped into the driers, of which there are eight. The time occupied in drying the garbage varies, of course, with the quantity and amount of moist- ure, but is usually from eight to eleven hours. Dr. S. S. Kilvington, health commissioner of Minneapolis, pre- sented a paper upon “ Statistics on River-Pollution, with Observa- tions Relating to the Destruction of Garbage and Refuse Matter.” He said, that, out of thirty-five health officials he had communi- cated with, twenty-three favored the cremation system. He also said that in the Mississippi River, during the past year, eight cities alone deposited 152,675 tons of garbage and offal, 108,250 tons of night-soil, and 3,765 dead animals. In the Ohio River five cities in the same period dumped 46,700 tons of garbage, 21,157 tons of night-soil, and 5,100 dead animals. In the Missouri River, four cities cast 36,000 tons of garbage, 22,400 tons of night-soil, and 31,600 dead animals. No theory of self-purification of running water will dwarf the magnitude of this sanitary crime. The speaker doubted the practicability of using garbage as a fertilizer, because, while it contained fertilizing elements, they were not suffi- ciently concentrated for agricultural use. The trouble with the Merz system was, that it dealt only with garbage which had to be separated from other refuse. He urged the cremation of animal and household waste as far as possible in kitchen ranges and fur- naces. Dr. Kilvington said that he had found no reason in the last year to change his belief that cremation, if not a perfect pro- cess, is at least the most desirable method for the disposal of the greater part of a city’s refuse. After a few more speeches, Dr. Gibbon of the Marine Hospital offered a resolution providing that the committee on garbage be increased from eight members to nine, and be asked to report at the next convention as to the best method of handling refuse. This was adopted. An important paper upon “ Food in its Relation to Health ” was presented by Professor W. O. Atwater. He spoke of the evils of over-eating, and gave tables of dietaries of various people, going to show that people in this country over-ate enormously, especially in the matter of meat and sweetmeats. Charts were shown on which the dietaries of people of various countries were displayed, com- pared with a standard dietary. The smallest dietary on which persons had lived for any great length of time was that of the Greely party in the Arctic regions. The standard as estimated by Ger- man physiologists was exceeded by nearly all classes of workers in this country. Dr. Atwater compared the amount of food eaten by college professors, students, and families in New England, and gave many details of experiments. He said that the amount of food needed for intellectual exertion had not been estimated, and would require long and complex experiments, but it would be done some day. Much smaller quantities of food were needed than were actually used by many people in this country, with the result of undermining health to a great degree. The great cattle and pork business of the West, and the great corn-crop of this country, were responsible for the immense consumption of meat, and the SCIENCE 203 cheapness of sugar was responsible for the enormous consumption of sweetmeats. In the discussion, Dr. Jerome Walker gave some facts from the experience in his own family. He claimed that meat once a day was enough for any ordinary person. The practice of children consuming large amounts of crackers was sharply condemned. Edward Atkinson of Boston said he had carefully estimated the average size of the American man from facts obtained from dealers in ready-made clothing, and had found an increase. Mr. Atkinson said he had tried to reduce his waist without success, and by avoiding fat and sugar he had brought in seven devils worse than the first. At the afternoon session the first paper was read by Dr. E. Plater of Ottawa, Can., on ‘“ The Prevention and Restriction of Tuberculosis in Man.” He dwelt upon the importance of lung de- velopment as a means of prevention, and favored systematic exer- cises in the schools, calculated to produce such development. Dr. P. H. Kretzschmar of Brooklyn read the next paper, on “The Prevention of Pulmonary Consumption.” He said there was no such thing as consumption without bacilli. For that rea- son he had no doubt that the disease could be spread by contagion. Dr. Kretzschmar then went on to treat of the influence of heredity on pulmonary disease. He laid down the following propositions : First, If there are many children in a family, those born after the sixth or after the seventh are apt to develop pulmonary consump- tion; Second, If the children in a large family are born at short in- tervals, say, one year, the younger ones are apt to develop pulmo- nary consumption; Third, If the offspring of healthy parents, born under conditions named above, escape the disease, their children are apt to develop pulmonary consumption. The doctor confessed that these views were novel, but said he believed that they were fully justified by his own experience and that of other physicians who had recorded their observations. Out of 556 cases which had been treated\ in Dr. Brohmer’s sanitarium in Goerhersdorf, 4 were suffering from other diseases than con- sumption, 46 failed to give a satisfactory account of their family antecedents, 184 were offsprings of consumptive parents or grand- parents ; in 65 cases the disease came from the father, in 76 from the mother, in 14 cases from both sides, 16 times from the father’s parents, 12 times from the mother’s parents, and twice from the grandparents of both father and mother. Of the 322 remaining . cases, 109 were from families with many children, and none of them were earlier born than sixth or seventh; 32 belonged to families where children had followed one another rapidly, mostly at inter- vals of one year; 147 were cases of acquired disposition. Of the 175 cases unaccounted for, 135 had parents who were born subject to conditions described in the doctor’s first proposition. In the discussion, Dr. Hibbard of Richmond, Va., dwelt chiefly on the necessity of easy-fitting clothing as a means of prevention. Then Dr. Plater took the floor in radical opposition to the whole theory of hereditary consumption. He was briefly answered by Dr. Kretzschmar. Dr. Cyrus Edson of New York read a paper of great interest to medical men on the use of sulphur dioxide as a disinfectant. He had found this of great importance in tenement-house work against contagion in New York. This statement precipitated a discussion in the course of which the views of Dr. Edson as to the value of this agent were supported by Dr. Gray of Montreal, who told about its use in successfully stamping out a terrible epidemic in his city within six months. He said sulphur dioxide was of doubt- ful value only in the case of diphtheria. Dr. Raymond of Brooklyn said the use of water with this agent was absolutely necessary. He asked whether the New York au- thorities had any record which would show the permanent effect of disinfection at any given time. Dr. Edson replied that the New York record showed every thing about the sanitary history of every house in the city where contagious diseases had occurred for three years back. Dr. Maxwell of Florida opposed Dr. Edson’s con- clusions, and insisted that it was doubtful whether sulphuric fumes were a Safe disinfectant in any form. He backed up his position by reverting to the complete failure of this disinfectant in the yellow- fever epidemic at Tampa, Fla., Memphis, Tenn., and elsewhere in the South. 294 Many delegates took part in this debate. Dr. Edson said that the use of water with sulphur dioxide was a point on which he had not touched. Unhappy memories in his experience were connected with this practice. He tried it on 500 pairs of children’s trousers. The water made a bleaching powder out of the disinfecting agent, and he had to pay damages on the trousers. A general impression seemed to prevail, that, while sulphur was of use, it needed to be used with great care and thoroughness. Some delegates favored the substitution of chlorine. In answer to a question, Dr. Edson explained that in New York, when a room was to be disinfected, three pounds of sulphur were used for every thousand cubic feet of air. The sulphur was put on a dish in a tub of water, four ounces of alcohol to every three pounds were poured over it, and the alcohol was ignited. Dr. John H. Roach of Chicago sent in the following preamble and resolution : “Whereas Asiatic cholera, leaving its usual restricted bounds, threatens to advance by the same lines that it has followed in the last four epidemics, be it resolved, that the American Public Health Association desires to call renewed attention to this fact, and to urge that quarantine authorities on the Atlantic and Pacific seaboards, and Boards of Health throughout the country, make every effort to prepare for this threatened danger.” The resolution was at once referred to the executive committee. In the evening a paper on “ Sanitary Entombment,” by the Rev. Charles R. Treat of this city, was the first. A carefully written paper on “Do the Sanitary Interests of the United States demand the Acquisition of Cuba?” was read by Dr. Benjamin Lee, secre- tary of the Pennsylvania State Board of Health. He summarized his conclusions as follows : — “ The exigencies of traffic and travel render rapid and constant communication between the United States and Havanaa necessity. Havana is one of the most notorious breeding-places of yellow- fever, and is never free from its presence. The only means by which the germs of this disease can be eradicated are a proper system of sewerage and drainage, which shall deliver the filth of the city at a distant point into the waters of the ocean, and the re- moval of all the feculent soil. There is no hope that the Spanish Government will ever undertake a work of this magnitude for a dependency. “The introduction of yellow-fever into the United States through both legitimate and illegal channels of trade must be of frequent occurrence so long as this condition of things continues. A single widespread epidemic of yellow-fever would cost the United States more in money —to say nothing of the grief and misery which it would entail — than the purchase money of Cuba. “ The precautions against the spread of small-pox in Cuba are entirely inadequate, and are rendered ineffective by reason of the superstition of a large proportion of the inhabitants: hence epi- demics of that loathsome disease are of frequent occurrence. “Leprosy prevails in Havana and the island of Cuba to a serious and constantly increasing extent. Leprosy is absolutely unre- stricted in this island. While there is an immense and admirably administered leper-hospital in Havana, its inmates go and come among the residénts of the city and country at will, until locomo- tion is rendered impossible by mutilation. The ravages of the dis- ease are confined to no class or race. Leprosy has already ob- tained a foothold in the United States in the ports nearest to and in most constant communication with the island of Cuba. Leprosy has but one history, that of constant progression unless it is checked by isolation of the most absolute and unrelenting character. No centre of leprosy has ever originated in the United States. The importation of the first case of a series can always be distinctly traced.” A paper on “ Railway Sanitation,” by Dr. Samuel W. Latta, medical examiner for the Pennsylvania Railroad Voluntary Relief Department, was read, and, after some general discussion, the as- sociation adjourned till Friday. On Friday the first paper read was by D. E. Salmon, D.V.M., chief of the Bureau of Animal Industry, Washington, D.C., upon “The Necessity for a More Rigorous Inspection of Meat-producing Animals at the Time of Slaughter.” Dr. Albert M. Gihon, U.S.N., read a paper on ‘The Causes of Infant Mortality,” prepared by Dr. R. O. Beard, assistant commis- SCIENCE, [VoEePXI Ve Noman sioner of health of Minneapolis. The various causes of the deaths of infants were carefully considered, being classified as arising from the bacillus tuberculosis and from nutritional and nervous disor- ders. For the first class the remedies were to be found in fresh air, disinfection, and the application of heat to all forms of infant food. The prevention of infantile disorders would be greatly pro- moted by the education of the people in sanitary matters. One of the great mistakes of the present day was to regard infants’ stom- achs as of a different character from those of adults. The writer said, ‘“‘ How long would the best of us of mature years with- stand the terrors of marasmus if we should be confined in one or two close, stove-warmed or furnace heated rooms for an entire winter, without an excuse for ventilation or a sniff of outdoor air; if we were strangers, born and bred, to the taste of pure water or of any water ; if we were compelled to be perpetually ‘hungry ’ in order to get any thing to drink; if we revelled in ten or twelve square meals a day, and lunched at pleasure through the live- long night? And yet this is no parody upon the lives of infants in the majority of families in the humbler walks of life, and even among the educated classes. It devolves upon the medical profes- sion, in the face of this prevailing ignorance, to educate the public in the principles of infant hygiene.” The paper further considered the various forms of food for chil- dren, and the writer said in conclusion, ‘‘ The too frequent feeding of infants is a vice almost universally prevalent, and quite generally countenanced, or actually encouraged, by the profession. It is grounded in custom as absurd as the incasement of Chinese in- fants’ feet in permanent baby-shoes. It is intrenched behind that most dangerous of all arguments — the argument from experience — among the ignorant, while it is condemned by every careful ob- servation of the lower orders of animal life, and by every physio- logical principle bearing upon infancy.” Dr. G. C. Ashmun said that no class of the community needed instruction more in regard to this matter than the medical profes- sion. While so much misinformation upon the subject existed, physicians needed carefully to consider the subject. Dr. Hibbard suggested that in the first twenty-four hours of the life of a child a foundation was laid for a life of health or disease. Health Officer Smith recommended more care in preparing death statistics, and that certificates setting forth debility, marasmus, or heart-failure as the causes of death be returned for correction. Dr. George H. Rohe suggested that all infants’ food should be sterilized by boiling for ten or fifteen minutes. He wanted a fuller study of the causes of cholera-infantum. The outcome was the adoption of a motion by Dr. J. H. Raymond for a committee of five to consider the whole subject of mortality among infants, and to report at some future meeting. Two papers by Edgar Richards, microscopist of the United States Treasury Department, — upon “American Methods of Manufacturing Oleomargarine ” and ‘‘ The Oleomargarine Law of the United States,” — were read by title. Charleston was selected as the place for the next meeting, and the date of meeting will be not earlier than Nov: 1, 1890. The following officers were elected : president, Dr. H. B. Baker of Lansing, Mich. ; first vice-president, Dr. Frederic Montizambert of Quebec; second vice-president, Dr. Joseph H. Raymond of Brooklyn; secretary, Dr. Irving N. Watson of Concord, N.H.; treasurer, Dr. J. Berrian Lindsley of Nashville, Tenn.; executive committee, Drs. L. F. Solomon of Louisiana, William Bailey of Kentucky, H. B. Horlbeck of South Carolina, Walter Wyman of Washington, D.C., J. F. Kennedy of Iowa, Peter H. Bryce of Toronto, and the twelve ex-presidents of the associa- tion. : The total number of members who have attended the convention is 144. Resolutions of thanks were adopted for the hospitality of Brooklyn, with special thanks to Ex-Health Commissioner Ray- mond for his work in caring for the association. ELECTRICAL NEWS. A New Ammeter. PROFESSOR H. J. RYAN of Cornell has invented an ammeter which Zhe Crank states to be remarkable for its simplicity and ac- curacy, and describes as follows. It works on the same principle NovemMsBeER 1, 1889. | as the Thompson electrical balance; but the latter is an expensive instrument, beyond the reach of the ordinary electrical engineer, and is not readily portable. Professor Ryan’s invention, consisting of a method of suspension and the laying-off of a scale, renders the construction of the appa- ratus a matter of a few hours’ labor by any fair mechanic. As in the Thompson balance, the current passes through two parallel fixed coils, and through a coil swinging between them. In the Thompson balance the current passes into this swinging coil through the suspension, consisting of a great number of fine copper wires, which will conduct a large current, but at the same time offers but little resistance to the movement of the swinging arm._ The mounting of these wires is a very laborious operation, which adds greatly to the cost of the machine. Professor Ryan over- comes this difficulty thus. From each end of the axis of the arma single silk thread extends upward through a hole in the hard-rubber framework above. These holes are drilled at an angle with the vertical, and the threads bearing on their upper acute edges form what is practically a knife-edge suspension. The current is taken into the coil by means of two broad strips of thin silver foil, fas- tened at one end to the base, at the other to the arm near the axis, This foil is so thin and light that it offers practically no resistance to the swinging arm, but at the same time is capable of carrying a very large current. The balancing of the coil-bearing arm is accomplished by the movement of an arm carrying a weight and a pointer, and swing- ing in the horizontal plane. This arm has the greatest moment about the axis of suspension when it is perpendicular to it, and the least when it is parallel to it. In moving from one of the positions to the other, the pointer swings over a quadrant. The force tending to move the coil, and hence the moment re- quired to balance it, must be proportional to the square of the current. If ona line through the pointer pivot, and perpendicular to the axis of suspension, distances be laid off proportional to the squares of the currents, and perpendiculars be erected at those points, the distances of their intersections with the arc of the quad- rant from the axis of suspension will be proportional to the squares of the corresponding currents. If these points be marked with the square roots of their respective distances, the instrument will give direct readings. INDICATING TEMPERATURES AT A DISTANCE.— For many purposes it would be convenient if the temperature indicated by a thermometer, in some situation not easily accessible, could be telegraphed, as it were, to some spot convenient to the observer. Many methods more or less successful have been devised ; and M. Morin, a French inventor, as we learn from Enxgzneerzug, has re- cently patented another method, which, if of a somewhat limited range of applicability, may nevertheless be useful in certain situa- tions. Ina few words, his apparatus consists of a thermometer, with a scale about 8 inches long, reading from 0° to 30° C. The bore of the tube is about .o2 of an inch in diameter, and the bulb is constructed to hold about 7 cubic centimetres of mercury. A platinum wire, with a diameter of about .oo08 of an inch, runs from one end of the tube to the other, being connected with plati- num terminals fused through the glass. The length of wire com- prised between the 0° and 30° marks on the scale has a resistance of 200 ohms. The resistance of the whole thermometer, therefore, will vary considerably as the mercury rises and falls in the tube, and it is on this fact that the arrangements for telegraphing the temperature to a distant point depends. The receiving instrument consists of a low-resistance Deprez-d’Arsonval galvanometer, and an auxiliary resistance of about 200 ohms. Two Leclanché cells of large size connected in parallel, the electromotive force of which is very constant for varying temperatures, are employed to send a current through the thermometer, resistance, and galvanometer ; and the deflection of the latter indicates the height of the mercury in the thermometer-tube. METAL SHEETS AS ELECTRICAL SCREENS.— Professor O. Lodge contributed a paper, at the recent meeting of the British Association, “On the Failure of Metal Screens to screen off the Electrostatic Effect of Moving or Varying Charges,” which is in- teresting, inasmuch as Maxwell suggested the bird-cage form as SCIENCE. 295 the best form of lightning-protector. Professor Lodge has found, that, as long as a charge is stationary, the thinnest film of a con- ductor is indeed a perfect screen. An ordinary wire gauze is also impervious to electric disturbances from without, and so is a silver- coated beaker, as long as the coating is not too thin. This was investigated by placing a very light needle, highly charged with opposite electricities at its ends, within the beaker. When, how- ever, the coating became thinner and thinner, so that the resistance of the silver film increased from a fraction of an ohm to 100 ohms and more, and when the charged bodies were rapidly approached, being shot towards the beaker sometimes, the needle was de- flected, the deflections becoming measurable at tooo ohms’ re- sistance. One may simply say that the protection ceased as soon as the silver film became translucid, as Hertz has observed in his classical researches. ; AUTOMATIC ELECTRIC BALANCE. — There has been exhibited in Paris an electric balance, the invention of Mr. William Snelgrove. The placing of the object to be weighed in the pan closes an elec- tric circuit. The current along this circuit operates a motor at- tached to the weight on the beam, causing it to run out on the beam till an equipoise is established, when the circuit is broken. When the pan is cleared, every thing returns to the original con- dition. HEALTH MATTERS. Chloroform as an Anesthetic. A CONTRIBUTOR to The Lancet states that in the medical jour- nals for the last ten years there are reported one hundred and twenty (if not more) cases of death under chloroforms Many of these are very imperfectly described, but in at least forty-nine cases the patients were in good general health at the time of administra- tion, and required an anesthetic merely for the performance of some minor operation; e.g., extraction of teeth (eleven cases of death), reduction of dislocations (nine cases), eye operations, fistulz, and so on. In some fifty-nine cases death occurred before the commencement of the operation, and so was clearly due to the chloroform alone. In about twenty of the cases it is noted that chloroform had been successfully given on previous occasions, in one as many as eight different times before the fatal administra- tion. It is evident from the foregoing that chloroform is uncertain in its action; that not only do people die while under chloroform, but also from it; frequently, too, even when it is used by skilful hands. Of course, it is possible to retort that “it was not properly given,” which may be correct. This will not alter the fact that these accidents prove chloroform to be a powerful agent, very diffi- cult to administer properly ; indeed, so difficult and dangerous that it is scarcely suitable. for a routine anesthetic, when a drug less powerful for evil can replace it. The nauseous flavor and the sense of suffocation from ether can be entirely done away with by the use of nitrous oxide, and its in- halation made more agreeable than even that of chloroform, while the patient quickly becomes unconscious without the struggling so common with chloroform. The writer goes on to say, “I have not yet found a single patient who has once inhaled ether preceded by nitrous oxide complain of suffocation, or object to take it again on the ground of its unpleasantness. “The readiness with which chloroform affects the heart, the smallness of a fatal dose, and especially the ease and suddenness with which such a dose can be inhaled, almost by a couple of deep inspirations, will make its safe exhibition always a difficult task to invariably accomplish. Having had many years’ experience, I have gradually come to believe chloroform to be a less safe anzs- thetic than ether.” Preventable Blindness. 2 AT a meeting of the Boston Society for Medical Observation, April 1, 1889, a paper was read by Hasket Derby, M.D., on this subject. We have recently published the report of the Albany committee on the increase in blindness. A certain proportion of this loss of sight is preventable. Being desirous of estimating the relative number of such cases in his own community, Dr. Derby 2096 applied for permission to examine the inmates of the Perkins Insti- tution for the Blind in South Boston, and was enabled to take notes of 183 cases, all but one of which he personally examined. The single exception was absent at the time of the visit, but his re- corded history left no doubt as to the cause of his loss of sight. Following the classification of Magnus, Dr. Derby divided these cases’ into four classes: I. Congenital blindness; II. Blindness in consequence of idiopathic diseases of the eye; III. Blindness of traumatic origin; IV. Blindness attributable to general dis- ease. It is with the figures in the second class that we are more im- mediately concerned, and especially with those of blindness de- pendent on the ophthalmia of new-born children. There were 34 such cases out of 183, being a percentage of about 18.6. This is, however, a smaller proportion than has been obtained by other observers, and can only be accounted for by the limited number of individuals he was able to examine. At the Sheffield School for the Blind, Mr. Snell found 38.3 per cent blind from this cause, and observers in general estimate that some 30 per cent of all blindness is due to this disease. Even the examination at South Boston reveals the fact that at least one in every five of the inmates of the institution need not necessarily have ever come there. For it is an established fact that the ophthalmia of new-born children can, with few exceptions, be successfully prevented when there is reason to apprehend its occurrence. It is also not an exaggeration to claim that hardly a disease of the eye yields with more certainty to ap- propriate treatment. Modern observers are united in the belief that efforts at disinfection should mainly be directed to the eyes of the child, which are most apt to receive the poisonous matter after birth. Such being the case, is strict cleanliness alone sufficient, or should an active disinfectant in addition be employed ? Experiments carried on by different observers have demonstrated that the purulent infection of the eyes of new-born children can be reduced to a minimum by the use of a disinfectant, and that the most efficacious disinfectant is the nitrate of silver. Simple cleans- ing of the eyes with water was found by Bischoff to reduce the number of cases only one-half. Crede, the original proposer of the use of nitrate of silver, had, before the introduction of prophylaxis, 314 cases among 2,897 children, 10.8 per cent. After beginning to use the 2-per-cent solution of nitrate of silver, he had but from one to two cases in 1,160 children, being 0.1 to 0.2 of one per cent. Other agents have been tried. In the present state of our knowledge, it is not presumptuous to assert that a case of this disease, terminating in a manner fatal to sight, and treated without topical applications of nitrate of silver, would be regarded as having been culpably neglected. So much for the principal factor that operates in causing preventable blind- ness; Of that from trachoma it is less necessary to speak, as that disease appears to be greatly decreasing in this community. The greater care used in the regulation of emigration, the gradual im- provement in the housing and sanitary surroundings of the poor, and the discovery of jequirity as a remedy, are all working such a change for the better that one is almost justified in looking for- ward to a time when “granular lids” will be a tradition of the past. There is but one other cause of preventable blindness on which Dr. Derby briefly dwelt, — traumatic sympathetic ophthal- mia, — of which he found 12 cases at the Blind Asylum, something over 6 per cent of all affections investigated. With young children the occasion for the occurrence of this disease is most frequently the wounding the other eye by forks, scissors, and knives carelessly left in their way. It can be guarded against by the timely removal of the injured eye. To sum up the results of his investigation, Dr. Derby found 34 cases of ophthalmia neonatorum, 4 of trachoma, and 12 of the re- sults of sympathetic ophthalmia,— together, 50 instances of prevent- able blindness; in all, 27 per cent of the inmates of the South Boston Asylum who need never have gone there had they received suitable care or enlightened treatment at the proper time. To di- minish such a percentage in the future, the more careful medical education of the present day will not alone suffice. Those who propose to follow the profession of nursing must also be properly instructed, and some degree of knowledge on these subjects be diffused in the community. SCIENCE. [VorseXTV. “Noy 352 SUGGESTIVE THERAPEUTICS. — Binswanger, in the Zhera- peutische Monatschrift, Heft iii., 1, 2, 3, 4, 1889, warns against the inconsiderate and incautious employment of hypnotism. He says that hypnotism under all circumstances has a disturbing effect upon the mental condition, and that subjects of experiment are always transiently hysterical, that the results in different individuals cannot be predicted, and that unfavorable results may follow. He further says, according to the Amerzcan Journal of Insanity, that in severe hysteria is the chief ground for suggestive treatment, where the hypnotic suggestion is the most effective and the least danger- ous. When other methods are available for cure, hypnotism is not needed, and in hysteria minor it should be kept in mind that the possibility of a transition into hysteria major cannot be excluded in the use of hypnotism. OXYGEN INHALATION.—The opinions held among medical men concerning the therapeutic value of inhalations of pure oxygen are so various that any careful observations upon the subject are worthy of attention. In the Practztzoner (August, 1889) Dr. Thompson discusses the subject from a theoretical point of view, and gives also the result of experiments upon animals and of ob- servations upon patients. From experiment, and from considera- tion of the laws of physics as they bear upon the absorption of oxygen by the blood, it is quite evident, that, if an animal in a state of perfect health is made to breathe pure oxygen at the pressure under which this gas exists in the atmospere, but very little more oxygen will be taken into the blood than if it breathed common air. In order to make any considerable amount enter the blood above that which is usually absorbed by it, a degree of pressure is neces- sary which causes mechanical interference with circulation and respiration. The old idea that animals cannot live in an atmos- phere of pure oxygen is erroneous. As might be expected from the foregoing statements, it is now proven that animals can live for many hours in pure oxygen, under ordinary atmospheric press- ure, without any symptoms or appreciable change, provided the CO, exhaled and the nitrogenous waste products of the body be removed. The vague and inconstant sensations, experienced by healthy persons who inhale pure oxygen freely, may be due to im- purities contained in it. Practically, Dr. Thompson, as we learn from a summary in Medzcal News, has found the inhalation of oxygen valuable in many cases. In anemia and chlorosis he has derived no decided benefit from it. In malignant diphtheria with rapid respiration, subjective dyspnoea, and cyanosis, relief was af- forded only to the subjective dyspnoea, the cyanosis remaining the same, and the patient dying from pulmonary cedema and heart- failure. In a case of illumjnation-gas poisoning, with persistent unconsciousness and subsequent pneumonia, the continuous inhala- tion of oxygen had no effect whatever, either upon the breathing or upon the cyanosis which occurred during several attacks of pul- monary cedema. In a case of malignant endocarditis, with ex- tensive valvular disease and dilatation, oxygen failed to relieve the dyspncea, either before or after obstruction occurred in the lungs. In pneumonia, with rapid breathing, dyspnoea, and cyanosis, he has often found oxygen of very great value. The dyspnoea may diminish, while the cyanosis. quickly vanishes, and the respiration becomes slower and more natural. So also in capillary bronchitis and asthma, especially when it is accompanied by much bronchial secretion. In uremic dyspnoea he has found it of great use. In one such case, with normal lungs and very intense dyspneea, last- ing for three days, each inhalation of oxygen was followed in fifteen minutes by slowing and quieting of the breathing, slight improve- ment in the cyanosis, and great increase of comfort to the patient. Upon stopping the inhalation, the dyspnoea always returned. A bibliography of the subject is appended to the article. NOTES AND NEWS. THROUGH the efforts of Professor J. E. Denton, Stevens Insti- tute is to have a new foundry and machine-shop. The building will be 40 feet long by 26 feet wide, and will adjoin the end of the main shop. It will be two stories high. The lower floor will be used as a foundry and blacksmith’s shop, and the upper floor for wood-turning and carpentry. NOvEMBER I, 1880. | — Mr. C. L. Heisler of Cornell is building a new form of calorim- eter of his own design. : —Enrnest G. Merrit of Cornell has been appointed instructor in physics at that university. — Harris J. Ryan, M.E., instructor in physics at Cornell, has been appointed assistant professor of mechanical engineering. —E. P. Roberts, M.E., last year assistant professor of electrical engineering at Cornell, is now with the Brush Electric Light Com- pany, Cleveland, O. — A new Yale movement, proposed by prominent graduates and patrons of the university, is for the establishment of a department of music, to be liberally endowed. — Professor W. O. Atwater has been appointed director of the New Jersey Agricultural Experiment Station at Rutgers College. If he accepts, he will also retain his place at the head of the Wash- ington Station. — Francis John Henry Jenkinson, M.A., fellow of Trinity Col- lege, has been elected without opposition to the office of librarian of Cambridge University, England, vacant by the resignation of Professor Robertson Smith. — During the summer, Professor Ryan and Mr. Merrit of Cor- nell were at work on alternating-current curves and converters. The results are very satisfactory, and will be published in a short time, says The Crank. — The cap and gown movement at Johns Hopkins has received asetback. The class of ’90 has voted against it, and the junior class has followed the example. The freshmen are not strong enough to make the movement a success. — Dr. Albert Shaw is delivering at Cornell a series of lectures on the results of his fifteen months of study of European cities. It is rumored that he is likely to be called to the chair of political economy, left vacant by President Andrews of Brown. — At a meeting of the New York Electrical Society in Clinton Hall on Oct. 24, Mr. A. A. Knudson read a paper descriptive of the recent electrical exposition at St. John, N.B., of which he had charge; and Mr. Joseph Wetzler, who had just returned from the Paris Exposition, described some of the electric plants and instal- lations he had visited in Europe. — Gen. M.C. Meigs of Washington has published a chart giving a graphic and tabular representation of the progress of population in the United States from 1750 to 1990, showing clearly the results of his study of the subject. To this he has added some notes of Great Britain, of Europe, of Spain, and of France, showing the law of population. While England doubled in forty years, Great Brit- ain and Ireland required sixty-six years to double, owing to the decrease of the Irish population in their original seat. — The Student of Amherst is advocating the formation of State o Ge lst © 1) E129, 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, New YorK. SupscripTions.— United States and Canada.................... $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe....................- 4.50 a year. Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author on request in advance. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- tended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer; not necessarily for publication, but asa guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the ‘“‘ Wants’’ column. All are invited to use it in soliciting information or seeking new positions. The name and address of applicants should be given in full,so that answers will go direct to them. The ‘t Exchange ’’ column is likewise open. Vou. XIV. NEW YORK, NovemBer 8, 1889. No. 353 CONTENTS: THe WELts LiGuT.....- eae eatery 307! Health of New York and London CERTAIN PROVISIONS OF CONTINEN- Gompared Winns hrs oee en eee 317 TAL LEGISLATION CONCERNING MineralaWatersi pues -eee eee cre 317 Foop ADULTERATION | Boox-ReviEws ear Richards 308 | cs LEAST NORTON | The Life-Work of the Author of THe ANCIENT ETRUSCANS.....-....- 310 Uncle Tom’s Cabi 18 S\Cabingseereeer err 3 TBs Wis9 Oy Oliteacosccacoddes, coenn 313 | , : 33 Hypnotism : Its History and Present MENTAL SCIENCE. am Development .. .......... paodso 318 xperiments in Crystal-Vision..... 313 | B Z ak N P 3 373 Practical Electric Bell Fitting...... 318 OTESVAND “NEWS. s0()- <2 eels oe e I i : Bu Proceedings of the Society for Psy- MEETING OF THE JNTERNATIONAL 2 chicalfResearchter een ener 318 ConGress OF ZO6LOGISTS AT | | AMONG THE PUBLISHERS...... o oc SH Paris, AuG. 5-11, 1889 A. S. P. 316 | eae HeattuH Matters. | LETTERS TO THE Ep1ToR. Electrical Injuries......... .....-- 316 | The Various Discoveries of Lake The Behavior of the Germs of Mistassini Cholera, Tuberculosis in Whey, and Cheese Sterilized Milk delivered to Patients in their Dwellings................ 317 Typhoid-Fever, and Ptomaines and Leucomaines, and Milk, Butter, their Relation to Disease Fos. LeConte 322 InDusTRIAL Notes. Storage-Battery Litigation......... 323 MEETING OF THE INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF ZOOLOGISTS AT PARIS, AUG. 5-11, 1880. THIS was the first general gathering of zodlogists from nearly all the countries of the Old and New World, and was one of the many notable congresses called into being on the occasion of the Universal Exposition of 1889. It should be said that the initiative was taken by the Société Zoologique de France. The sessions were held from the sth to the 11th of August, under the presidency of Professor Alphonse Milne-Edwards. The opening meeting for organization was held on the afternoon of Aug. 5, and was largely attended. Among the more distinguished savan¢s present were the venerable De Quatrefages, Retzius of Stockholm, Topinard, Riitimeyer of Basel, Hubrecht of Utrecht, Fritsch of Prague, be- sides well-known naturalists from Belgium, Moscow, Kiew, Buda- pesth, Prague, Berlin, London, Geneva, Cairo, Malta, Algeria, southern France, Scotland, Ireland, Cape Town, and the United States. Papers were read by scientists of all nationalities ; so that the meeting was truly cosmopolitan in its nature, though, naturally enough, French was the language in which the papers were read. Here it might be observed, that, though many of the papers were presented by foreigners, but few of the speakers used notes or manuscript; and we were, on the whole, struck with the fluency, readiness, and elegance of diction, and the lack of hesitation, clumsiness, and verbosity. The audience consisted mainly of ex- perts; and the papers, with the ensuing discussions — in fact, all the work of the congress was performed, as an American would SCIENCE. Facques W. Redway 321 [Vor. XIV. “Nor 353 say, in a thoroughly business-like manner. The sessions began promptly at 9 o'clock, and adjourned at noon. The afternoons were devoted to visits to the new and commodious museum build- ing in the Jardin des Plantes, the Ecole des Mines, to portions of the exposition of special interest to the members, where, among other attractions, the Prince of Monaco exhibited his dredging and other apparatus for deep-sea research. Private collections were thrown open to individual members; private hospitality shown at- the noon hour for breakfast, in France, as well as at dinner-time ; while on three of the evenings the members attended the delightful sozrées at the houses of Professor Milne-Edwards, of Prince Roland Bonaparte, and M. Certes, inspector-general of finances; and on other evenings they mingled with the host of savants, teachers, and students at the notable sozvées given by M. Guyot, the minister of public works, and the colossal reception at the Hotel de Ville given by the municipality of Paris. To return to more prosaic matters: one of the principal topics discussed in the meetings, and which was especially considered in the opening presidential address, was deep-sea explorations, while most of the papers were of a general nature, giving methods and results. The special topics for discussion, and which were an- nounced beforehand, the reports being in print and distributed at the meetings, were the following: 1. The rules to be adopted for the nomenclature of organized beings ; the adoption of an interna- tional scientific language (reporter, Dr. R. Blanchard). 2. Determi- nation of the regions of the globe of which the fauna is insufficiently known, and which need exploration; indications of the method of research, of the preparation and preservation of animals (reporter, Dr. P. Fischer). 3. The services rendered by embryology to the classification of animals (reporter, Professor E. Perrier). 4. The relations which exist between the existing and fossil faunz (re- porter, Dr. Filhol). ; The discussion on nomenclature was not introduced until the last days of the session. The report of Professor Blanchard was conservative, excellent, and generally accepted by those present, and should be widely disseminated; the law of priority was adopted, beginning with the year 1722, the date of publication of Lang’s work; while little approbation was given by the congress to trinomial nomenclature, although the report favored it in special cases. The idea of such congresses, it seems to us, was a happy con- ception; and so successful were its results, that, we were told by Professor Milne-Edwards, another will be called in three years, The great value of such international gatherings to a foreigner is the stimulus and pleasure resulting from meeting distinguished workers in other than his own narrow specialty, the friendships formed, the solution of the personal equation so to speak, and the examination of private and public collections and libraries in a metropolis. To an American the occasion was one of great in- terest and lasting value, and one cannot return to his work with- out pricking in “some flowers of that he hath learned abroad.” A.S. P. HEALTH MATTERS. Electrical Injuries. AT a meeting of the Practitioners’ Society, Oct. 4, 1889, Charles L. Dana, A.M., M.D., of New York, read a paper onthe above sub- ject. As he pointed out, with the introduction of new industrial methods we are meeting accidents and injuries of all grades of severity ; and in time there will be associated with electrical sys- tems, classes of injuries some of which will be perhaps peculiar to them; some will resemble those known as railway brain and rail- way spine, traumatic hysteria, and other neuroses or psychoses ; while a large number will be only of the ordinary surgical char- acter. The telegraph and telephone produce peculiar neuroses, due to the demand made upon the nervous system of the operator, the results being telegraphers’ cramp, aural and mental disorders of telephone transmitters, etc. Most of the observed cases of this electrical injury come from the apparatus carrying electrical currents for lighting and power. Such currents have varying effects. In some cases they merely ‘alone. NoveMBER 8, 1889 ] . stun the victim, and burn the parts in contact with the wire; in others they have been known to produce permanent paralytic ef- fects (of such cases, however, there are only two on record); in still other instances almost instantaneous death results; while sometimes a mental shock is produced, which affects the system just as other shocks do, causing conditions known as traumatic hysteria or neurasthenia. The number of fatal accidents from electrical currents during the past ten years has been variously estimated at from 100 to 200. The electrical current burns or not, according to the dryness of the skin and clothes and the consequent degree of resistance. With a dry skin there is more burning, less penetration, less shock, and less danger of death. With a wet skin and good connections there is little burning and more serious internal effect. Dr. Biggs has noted that most of the fatal electrical accidents have occurred: on or after rainy days. Dr, William C. Thompson recently reported a curious case of traumatic hysteria. A man, aged fifty, not long ago saw an Italian killed by an electric wire. Two weeks later, while walking along the street, an electric wire which had just been cut fell, and struck his head. He grasped it in his hand, and fell down. He says that he knew nothing until a few hours later, when he found him- self in the hospital. He then had right hemiplegia and hemi- anesthesia, including the senses of smell and taste. There was limitation of the visual and auditory fields, bone deafness, pharyn- geal anesthesia, and all the stigmata of typical hysteria. The wire which struck him was a ‘“‘dead”’ one; and the blow was slight, and caused no contusion. The fact is, that the practical introduction of electricity has been attended with much less fatality than that caused by gas, steam, railroads, and many other of the inventions of modern life. For example: in France, among 223,000 railway employees, there is an annual average of 239.5 killed and 1,850.4 wounded ; in Germany there are 1.35 per 1,000 of railway-servants killed, and 3.09 per 1,000 wounded ; in England the annual mortality is 2.43 per cent ; in the United States among 418,957 employees, in 1880, there were 923 killed and 3,617 injured, —a higher rate than anywhere in Europe (United States Census). In coal-mining the ratio in France is 1.56 per 1,000 of killed, 8.87 per 1,000 of wounded. Some of the points which Dr. Dana wished to make in the article, which is published in full in Te Medical Record, are, the extraor- dinary increase now going on in the practical application of elec- tricity, there being already nearly $100,000,000 invested in lights and power alone; a practically new class of injuries met in connec- tion with the new industries. Such injuries have been heretofore produced only by lightning, and they have been consequently rare. These injuries are not numerous or serious as compared with those met with in connection with other great industries. There have been in ten years only about roo deaths in the whole world from artificial electrical currents. The railroad kills annually over 2,500 people (2,541 in 1880), and injures about 6,000, in the United States Electrical currents produce three kinds of severe accidents : they kill at once; or they burn severely; or, by the mental and physical shock, they cause traumatic neurosis. Usually if they burn severely they do not kill: hence, practically, the rule is, if contact with electrical wires does not kill, the victim gets only a burn cr a harmless shock. In very rare cases the current seems to affect the nerves or nerve-centres, causing paralysis. The min- imum current safe to receive is not definitely known. Probably eight hundred to one thousand volts of continuous current, and a third less of alternating current, would not be fatal. The wires for lighting and for power carry the more dangerous currents. THE BEHAVIOR OF THE GERMS OF CHOLERA, TYPHOID- FEVER, AND TUBERCULOSIS IN MILK, BUTTER, WHEY, AND CHEESE. — Among the numerous labors of the Reichsgesundheit- samt has been that of determining the behavior of certain germs of disease in various articles of food. Milk is one of the most com- mon articles of diet ; and one of the health-office collaborators, L. Heim of Wiirzburg, has lately concluded a lengthened inquiry into the relations of the bacilli of tuberculosis, cholera, and typhoid- fever to it, and its products, whey, butter, and cheese. That milk SCIENCE. 317 is a favorite medium for dissemination of disease is well known; and Koch, among others, has shown that it is peculiarly adapted for this purpose. As regards cholera, the germs of the disease were still viable after remaining for six days in milk that had un- dergone no antisepticizing processes : in milk of the same character that had been kept in the ice-chest, on the other hand, no living bacteria were found at the end of three days. This part of the in- quiry shows that cholera bacteria remain active in fresh milk the whole length of time it is customary to keep it, and that they do not lose their dangerous quality for some days after the milk has become sour. The same germs were found active under some circumstances, even at the end of a month. In ordinary strong cheese they did not retain their viability over a day, neither did they in unripe cheese. The bacilli of typhoid were alive and capa- ble of development in milk at the end of thirty-five days, but no longer so at the end of forty-eight days; in butter they remained active between three and four weeks, in cheese only three days, and in whey only during the first day. Tubercle bacilli remained capable of development for ten days in fresh milk; in milk gradu- ally undergoing decomposition they lost their power in a period varying between ten days and four weeks. In butter, on the other hand, they retained their full power at the end of four weeks; in whey and cheese, after two weeks, but not after four weeks. The practical importance of the investigations is so obvious as scarcely to need pointing out; and their bearing on the use of milk, the preservation, carriage, preparation, and sale of it and its products, is equally obvious. Something has been done, much remains to be done, to stop the ravages of disease; and the labors of Dr. Heim are another step forward. STERILIZED MILK DELIVERED TO PATIENTS IN THEIR ~ DWELLINGS. — Since Aug. 1, sterilized milk has been furnished to children under treatment at the Philadelphia Polyclinic. The milk, says Medical News, is sterilized by the Visiting Nurse Society of Philadelphia, and taken to the child by the nurse in attendance, in the bottles in which it is prepared. Milk and bottles are furnished the parents at cost. The results have been excellent. HEALTH OF NEW YORK AND LONDON COMPARED. — Some interesting points of comparison between the health of London and that of New York are summarized in The Boston Medical and Surgical Fournal. The deaths in London last year numbered 78,848, or 18.5 per 1,000; in New York, 40,175, or 26.33; and in Paris, 22.6 per 1,000. The birth returns for New York are incom- plete; but the birth-rate in London was 30.7 per 1,000; in Paris, 27.0. The male births in Paris were 30,723; the female births, 29,913. In London the numbers were, males, 66,629; females, 64,451: but in the total population of London there is a majority of 250 females. Premature births in New York numbered 1,155 ; in London, 2,099. To be equal, the figures referring to New York should only be a third. New York compares unfavorably with London in the matter of suicides. There were 247 in New York, and 400 in London. Between 800 and goo persons take their own lives in Paris every year. In New York 1,138 were killed by acci- dents ; and in London, 2,516. There were only 1,892 deaths from bronchitis in New York, while in London there were 10,085. But while some hundreds die every year in London as the result of idleness and obesity, 61 deaths were recorded last year from starva- tion. A decreased death-rate is invariably accompanied by a lower birth-rate. The deaths in London last year were the lowest on record ; the births, the lowest since 1841. In the western districts, where the wealthy reside, and where the degree of comfort is high, the deaths fell to 16.4, and the births to 25.5; but in the impover- ished and overcrowded east, where the poor never get a breath of fresh air, and are huddled together in unhealthy alleys, the deaths rose to 27.2, and the births to 36.5. The people least able to sup- port children are the most prolific; and the higher the degree of social comfort and well-being, the less the increase of population. MINERAL WATERS. — The Paris correspondent of the Boston Medical and Surgical Journal says, that, of the numerous interna- tional congresses that have been held in Paris since the opening of the exhibition in May last, there has been none more important or interesting than the Congress of Hydrology, which has just ter- minated its meetings. The object of this congress was to eluci- 318 date a certain number of those obscure problems which concern the nature and therapeutic value of mineral waters. One of the most original memoirs produced at the congress was that of Dr. Schlemmer, on microbes and thermal waters. According to the author, there is found a certain number of microbes in these waters ; but, far from offering any danger. the microbes of mineral waters seem, on the contrary, to possess beneficial properties. It is thus that in certain springs of Vichy, Chantemesse and Frémont have isolated a micrococcus possessing a most pronounced diges- tive power on albuminoid alimentary substances, which it trans- forms into peptones. With the knowledge of this fact, it will be seen that it is impossible to imitate this natural mineral water by the aid of the bicarbonate of soda. No artificial chemical com- bination would be capable of conferring on a water this micro- organic life, any more than of conferring upon it the electro-dynam- ism of telluric elaboration. The origin of the gases contained in the mineral waters was well demonstrated by Dr. Labat. He stated that whether they proceed from the air or from watery vapor, or whether they are manifestations of the soil or of vol- canoes, the gases do not ordinarily play a preponderating 70/e in the curative action of mineral waters. Nevertheless, nitrogen is an agent distinctly sedative and anti-catarrhal; sulphuretted hydrogen, a modificator of the skin and of mucous membranes; carbonic acid, an excitant of the blood-vessels and nerves. It is capable, for instance, of arousing the languishing functions of the digestive mucous membrane. BOOK-REVIEWS. The Life-Work of the Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. By FLO- RINE THAYER MCCRAY. New York, Funk & Wagnalls. 12°. $2: THIS book contains both a biography of Mrs. Stowe and an analysis of her principal works. It is written with the approbation of the Stowe’ family, who have supplied information on certain points. It contains much that is interesting, and, so far as facts go, gives a fair picture of Mrs. Stowe and her work. But it is marred by an overflow of ‘“ gush,’ which is neither pleasing nor improving to the reader. Mrs. McCray is_so enthusiastic over her theme that she can hardly write soberly, even in the most common- place passages, and some of the most ordinary personages assume in her eyes the character of heroes. Thus, she says that certain sermons on intemperance by Lyman Beecher “shook the world,” and that Professor Stowe on another occasion “spoke eloquently and with magnetic force,” and ‘stood forth a commanding figure upon the arena of the world’s advancement.’ Of course, Mrs. Stowe herself is still more highly lauded. The book is a handsome one, but is marred by bad punctuation and by frequent misspell- ings, such as “ Arabian Knights,” ‘‘ Thomas Carlisle ” for “‘ Thomas Carlyle,” Henrick Heine” for “ Heinrich Heine,” etc. Still the work has an interest from its subject, and also from the sincerity and earnestness of its author. Fiypnotism : Its History and Present Development. By FREDERIK BJORNSTROM, M.D. Tr. by Baron Nils Posse, M.G. New York, Humboldt Publ. Co. 8°. 75 cents. THE general aspects and methods of hypnotism may be now re- garded as sufficiently well understood to make a detailed review of the contents of a general véswmé of the subject unnecessary. As, however, the available literature of standard merit in English is small, and much of this is in the way of translations, it may be useful to call attention to the present essay of an eminent Swedish physician, especially as its general accessibility will provide it with a large body of readers. The work is purely expository in char- acter, and offers about as convenient an introduction to the subject as we have in English. The topics are well selected, the points clearly stated, and the whole fairly represents the present status of investigation upon this vexed phenomenon. A general historical introduction is followed by a chapter defining the ordinary hypnotic condition, according to various authorities. The method of hypno- tizing and the stages of hypnotism are next interestingly discussed. The so-called “ unilateral hypnotism” is needlessly honored with a special chapter, thcugh the physical and the psychical effects of SCIEN GE: ‘advance is made in the present discussion of cases. [Norn I Vie Noms hypnotism are more satisfactorily treated in succeeding chapters. As is proper, most space is given over to the phenomena of sugges- tion ; in which, however, the selection of cases is not as judicious as it might be, considering the needs of the general reader. The concluding chapters treat of hypnotism as a remedial agent, as a . moral remedy, in relation to the law, and, finally, its abuses and dangers. Considering the short space at command, the topics are fairly presented except the last, which concerns itself rather use- lessly with Parisian methods of deceiving the credulous. The chief defect of the work, however, lies in its placing too nearly on a par views and theories the evidence for which is still regarded by the most able investigators as very different. This is true of the “hemi-hypnotic ” phenomena; but it is still truer of the “ mental suggestion,” or telepathic experiments, to which entirely too much space is devoted. This somewhat uncritical treatment of the out- lying fields of hypnotism is certainly the chief defect of the work. In spite of this, however, the work is a valuable addition to the easily accessible literature of the topic, and can safely be placed in the hands of the general reader, especially if he bring to the read- ing of it the understanding that the views expressed are partly in- dividual, and partly prematurely positive. Practical Electric Bell Fitting. New York, Spon. 12°. By F. C. ALLSOP. $1.25. THIS treatise on the fitting-up of electric bells and the apparatus necessary therefor supplies just the information on the subject that would naturally be needed by the average workman. Beginning with the proper way to join two pieces of wire, it goes carefully through all the ramifications of the subject, explaining, in a manner not easily misunderstood, each step, by means of well-worded text and a sufficient number of illustrations. The author shows that he not only thoroughly understands his subject, but that he knows how to treat it clearly and exhaustively without saying a word too much. Much of the thoroughness of the treatise is due, no doubt, to the manner in which it first appeared, or, rather, to the way in which it grew from that part of it which first appeared. The work was first published as a series of papers in a technical journal, and their favorable reception induced the author to re-issue it in book form, taking the opportunity to revise it according to the light gained by the comment and criticism accorded it in its serial form. Much additional matter was added also, the result of numerous questions addressed to him on the subject from time to time. The points treated are grouped as follows. The first chapter is devoted to wiring, soldering, and joining wires, and earth connec- tions. This is followed by a chapter on pushes, pulls, contacts, and switches, and another on bells, relays, and indicators. Batte- ries and the magneto bell have each a chapter devoted to them, followed by one on connecting-up. The last two chapters treat of the localizing of faults and of portable sets of apparatus. The book contains nearly a hundred and fifty explanatory engray- ings. Proceedings of the Soctety for Psychical Research. Pt. NIV. June, 1889. London, Soc. Psych. Research. 8°. — London and THE varied contents of this issue testify to the vigorous activity of the society in the directions inaugurated in former publications. The most interesting and novel contribution is upon the curious phenomena of crystal-vision, an account of which will appear else- where in Sczezce. The president’s address is very brief, and con- tains hardly more than a report of progress, with renewed protests against misinterpretation of the society’s work. A paper by the late Edmund Gurney, completed by F. W. H. Myers, treats of apparitions occurring soon after death, and in part refers the fre- quency of such apparitions to the emotional disturbances connected with the decease of a friend, and in part considers the matter as of super-normal significance. It cannot be said that any essential Mr. Myers also writes suggestively, though with a disproportion of introduc- tion to thesis, upon the Daemon of Socrates, explaining this vexed question as the appearance of the unconscious mind of Socrates through the medium of spoken language, just as the subconscious “strata of personality ” reveal themselves in automatic writing. In the supplement we have an account of some very heterogeneous NoveMBerR 8, 1889.] -_ and unsatisfactory experiments in various fields of psychic research made at Pesaro, and a review of a recent German work on hypno- tism. The society has decided to collect a library in honor of the late Mr. Gurney, to contain works in the special fields of his labors. A catalogue of the library is appended, and contributions are in- vited. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. THE J. B. Lippincott Company will soon publish “As You Like It,” forming the eighth volume of the new variorum Shak- speare edition, edited by Dr. Horace Howard Furness. This edition of Shakspeare throws much light on these dramas, and gives an interesting compendium of what has been written about them. — Houghton, Mifflin, & Co. will publish shortly “Standish of Standish,” a story of the Plymouth Colony, by Mrs, Jane G. Aus- tin. — D. Appleton & Co. have nearly ready “ Five Thousand Miles in a Sledge — Midwinter’s Journey across Siberia,” by Lovel F. Gowing; and David A. Wells’s new work, “ Recent Economic Changes, and their Effect on the Production and Distribution of Wealth and the Well-being of Society.” — Fleming H. Revell, Chicago and New York, publishes this week a series of thirty maps and plans of the entire world as known in Scripture. The series is entitled “ Revell’s Biblical Wall Atlas,” and was prepared by T. Ruddiman Johnson, who has availed him- self of the results of the latest geographical research, including the recent surveys of the Palestine Exploration Fund, together with every benefit of the most accurate modern scholarship. — The next edition of the “ Naturalists’ Directory ” (Boston, S. E. Cassino) will be issued early in 1890. Any list of the names of scientific men that are not already represented in the work will be thankfully received. While the new edition will be as complete as possible in American names, it has been thought best to exclude from the lists of foreign countries the names of all persons who do not reply to the blanks or letters sent them, thus making it a more useful exchange list. Unless a sufficient number of subscribers is received to meet the expense of publication, the book will not be issued. —The September Bulletin of the Ohio Agricultural Expert- ment Statzon contains five articles discussing the results of experi- ments in preventing the injuries of the plum curculio, striped cu- cumber-beetle, currant-worm, and various other injurious insects, and also an important experiment with remedies for potato-rot. These experiments were carried on by the entomologist and bota- nist of the station, Clarence M. Weed, and the bulletin is illustrated with numerous original engravings. It will be sent free to any Ohio farmer who requests it. The address of the experiment sta- tion is Columbus, O. — Babyhood for November opens up the question of how to meet the increasing demand for intelligent nursery-maids. It is a sub- ject in which all mothers of young children are interested, and the methods proposed by Baéyhood for raising the standard of nurse- SCHUEIN GIS, eu) girls deserves careful consideration. No less important to parents is the warning as to growing pains given by Dr. J. Lewis Smith. “Nursery Cookery,” ‘‘ Nursery Helps and Novelties,” may be men- tioned among the topics discussed in the current number. — “Origin and Formation of the Hebrew Scriptures,” to be published soon by Lee & Shepard, Boston, is the indicative title of Lorenzo Burge’s third volume bearing upon the human family in its origin, and in the general trend of the purposes of its crea- tion, and its relation to the Creator, at the same time interpreting the Scriptures, and explaining their relation with mankind. Mr. Burge’s previous works in this line of investigation are “ Pre- Glacial Man and the Aryan Race;,” and “Aryas, Semites, and Jews ; Jehovah and the Christ.” In his “ Origin and Formation of the Hebrew Scriptures,” the author presents the arguments as to when, where, under what circumstances, for what purpose, and by whom, were these Scriptures written, from the records of the eminent Persian nobleman and historian, Nehemiah, for many years governor of Palestine, from B.C. 445. The work includes. an appendix containing prophecy sustained in the histories of Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon, and a review of what the author terms “radical views of the Bible.” ‘The Heroes of the Cru- sades,” by Amanda M. Douglas, announced by Lee & Shepard, is a history of the Crusades, and a story of the personal incidents. and efforts of the Crusaders themselves. — The Harvard Monthly (Cambridge, Mass.) enters on its fifth year with an appeal for increased support outside the college, be- cause the editors believe that they can give graduates their money’s. worth. The purely literary side of the magazine is sufficiently known. In addition to this, events have led it more and more into the practical discussion of college questions. The editors purpose henceforth to recognize decisively this part of their field in the two following ways. Heretofore they have accepted nothing shorter than formal articles. In the future, upon any subject which would concern a Harvard graduate or undergraduate as such, they will regularly open their columns to matter such as the Century might print under “ Open Letters,” or the (Va¢zon under “ Correspond- ence.” They will also begin to publish each month, with brief comment, a record of recent events deserving note; not a chroni- cle of the daily routine, but of whatever changes the daily routine, of college life, including in the latter word every thing from the broader aspects of athletics to the A.B. degree. In gathering the facts, the editors have been promised the aid of President Eliot, so that what information the paper gives will be authentic. All com- ment will be entirely the editors’ own. These two changes will enable graduates at a distance to keep track of developments at Harvard, and so to do intelligent missionary work, and will also give them a better means than in the past of expressing their own views both on student life and on the college government. The editors wish eventually to make the J/onzhly the recognized organ of communication between alumni, members of the governing boards, and undergraduates, The value to the college of such a medium, it seems to them, would be very great. It depends on graduate support, both in subscriptions and in contributions, how quickly and how thoroughly they can accomplish this end. Publications received at Editor's Office, Oct. 28.-Nov. 2. Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting NOW IN PRESS. Ser Oi ee NC GE Ne Advertisers Bett, A. M. Popular Manual of Vocal Physiology and Visible Speech. New York, N. D. C. Hodges and E. S. Werner ; London, Triibner. 59 p. 16°. s5ocents. Corson, H. An Introduction to the Study of Shakes- peare. Boston, Heath. 377p. 12° Jury, The. Vol. I. No. 1. w. Rochester, N.Y. W. M. Butler. 18p. 4°. $2 per year. McCray, Florine Thayer. The Life-Work of the Author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin. New York and London, Funk & Wagnalls. 440p. 12°. $2. Myers, P. V. N. Ancient History for Colleges and High Schools. Part I. The Eastern Nations and Greece. Boston, Ginn. 369p. 12°. $1.10. will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. Old and Rare Books. Catalogue No. 29 nearly ready. Will contain many scarce works pertaining to Natural His- tory, Americana, out of print books, as a whole, interesting. A. S. CLARK, 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates ow. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. A large work of 200 pp. with 35 full-page illustra- tions on the greatest of all Ohio Valley Earthworks, and similar enclosures, By Warren K. Moorehead, assisted by scientists. from Washington. It is compiled from a careful survey and is correct in all details. The entire summer was spené in surveying, exca- vating, photographing and preparing this work. Fort Ancient consists of 18,712.2 feet of embank- ment, and In size, state of preservation and impor- tance as an aboriginal fortification is unequalled in this country. Price of book, $2 00. It will be ready for sale Dec. ist. Illustrated prospectus mailed free to any address, Send for one. WARREN K. MOOREHEAD, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Published by Robt. Clarke & Co., Cincinnati. 320 SCIENGE: INGE: IVE Now352 THE CENTURY MAGAZINE: g)'2* The first of the “ Present-Day Papers” Enters upon a new volume with the issue of November, which con- tains the opening parts of several leading features of the year. In this number are the first chapters of the ‘“‘ Autobiography of Joseph Jefferson.” In it the author relates the story of his life, from his first appearance on the stage as “‘ property ” baby, to within the past few years. His reminiscences and the portraits of actors and actresses with whom he has been associated — among them the elder Booth, the Wallacks, Forrest, and Charlotte Cushman —are especially in- teresting. His own experiences in the pioneer West, in Mexico, >>) Australia, South America, England, France, and the Southern and \’\. Eastern States, are related in a frank and charming manner. Mr. \\ Jefferson writes as naturally as he acts. \ I) Stockton and Amelia E. Barr also begin in the November number. \\ Mr. Stockton humorously describes the extraordinary cruise of The Merry Chanter. Mrs. Barr, the author of “Jan Vedder's Wife,” | etc., has written for THE Century a story of love in the days JOSEPH JEFFERSON. of Cromwell and the Merry Monarch, entitled “Friend Olivia.” During the year there will be printed other serials and a number of short stores by such well-known writers as Arlo Bates, H. S. Edwards, Sarah Orne Jewett, Richard M. John- ston, Octave Thanet, H. H. Boyesen, and others. printed in the November Century. These are a series of discussions of timely social questions Serial stories by Frank R. by prominent men who have associated for this purpose, among them Bishop Potter and the Hon. Seth Low, the new President of Columbia College. Fisher, of Yale, on the ‘‘ Nature and Method of Revelation.” popular science papers by Prof. Holden, describing the latest discoveries in astronomy at the Lick In December will begin the series by Prof. During the year will be published Observatory and illustrated articles on “‘ Pre-historic America,” by Prof. Putnam, of Harvard. A number of papers on Art will also be printed. In the November number will be found ‘‘A Con. - necticut Yankee at King Arthur’s Court,” a new story by Mark Twain; a description of the Gro- lier Club, by Brander Matthews ; poems by Walt. Whitman, T. W. Higginson, Margaret Deland, and others. Tue CEnTuRY costs $4.00 a year. Subscriptions are taken by booksellers and postmasters, ‘or remittance may be made by check, money-order, or in registered letter, direct to the publishers, Tue Century Co., 33 East 17th Street, New York. 3S) NICHOLAS New, NV olumes News iyipe: Since 1873, when ST, NICHOLAS was begun, it has led all maga- zines for boys and girls. Nothing like it was known before, and to-day, -as the Chicago Inter-Ocean recently stated ‘‘lt is the model and ideal juvenile magazine of the world.” Through its pages the greatest writers of our time are speaking to the youth of two great nations, and the best artists and engravers are training the eyes of boys and girls to appreciate the best in art. There is only one w ay that Mrs. Mary Mapes Dodge, its editor, can make it better, and that is by making more of it, and so, be- ginning with the seventeenth volume, ST. NICHOLAS will be enlarged ‘by the addition of eight or more pages to each number and the magazine will be printed in new and clearer-faced type. During the year there will be four important serial stories by four well-known American writers. Athletic and out-door sports will be a special feature, and Walter Camp, of Yale, and others, will continue to make thisdepartment notable. Both “the December and January issues will be holidaynumbers. In December there will be published a remarkable article on Thackeray by his daughter containing new portraits and reproductions of the great novelist’s writings when a boy. -NO INCREASE IN PRICE. Subscription price as heretofore, $3.00 a year; 25 gents a number. November begins the volume. FOLKS. More Pages. New subscribers should commence with that issue. Booksellers and postmasters take subscriptions, or remittance may be made, by check, draft, money or express-order, or in registered etter, to the publishers, THE CENTURY CO,, 33 East 17th St., New York. is a NovemsBer 8, 1889.] | —E. & F. N. Spon announce as in preparation, ‘‘ Practical Elec- trics,” a universal handybook on every-day electrical matters, in- cluding connections, alarms, batteries, coils, dynamo-machines, motors, phonographs, telephones, etc., reprinted from the third series of “ Workshop Receipts ;” “‘ Treatise on Evaporation by the Multiple System in Vacuum, its Construction and Working in’ Sugar Factories,” by James Foster; ‘‘ Experimental Science: Treatise on the Various Topics of Physics in a Popular and Practical Way,” by George M. Hopkins ; ‘‘ The Steam Engine and the Indicator,” by William B. Le Van; and “A Practical Treatise on Mine En- gineering,” by G. C. Greenwell, F.G.S., third edition, reprinted from the second. ; — The eighth edition is in preparation, to be ready in January, of “ The Electrician,” electrical trades’ directory and handbook for 1890 (corrected to December, 1889). This will contain a carefully compiled list of British, colonial, and foreign electricians, electrical engineers, electric-light engineers and contractors, electrical-appa- ratus makers, electric-bell makers and fitters, electric-light, tele- graph, and telephone companies, electric-light, telegraph, and telephone engineers, wire makers and drawers, and of all persons engaged in electrical pursuits throughout the world ; useful tables relating to dynamos, arc and incandescent lamps, batteries, etc. ; and a biographical section, giving interesting particulars concerning eminent men connected with electricity in all its applications, with portraits. Full particulars will be sent immediately on application to “ The Electrician” Office, 1 Salisbury Court, Fleet Street, Lon- don, E.C. — D. C. Heath & Co. of Boston have issued “ An Introduction to the Study of Shakespeare,” by Hiram Corson. It does not cover all the ground that an introduction ought to cover, for it gives no account of the dramatist’s life, nor of the state of the English drama in his time; and many other points necessary to a thorough understanding of Shakspeare are left unnoticed. Still it presents a good deal of matter in a concise though not very artistic style. There is quite an elaborate discussion of Shakspeare’s verse, and many pages of textual criticism, the latter of which seems hardly appropriate in an introductory work. But the greater part of the book is taken up with literary criticisms on certain of the plays, — “Romeo and Juliet,” “ Macbeth,” ‘‘ Hamlet,’ and others. In these criticisms Professor Corson expresses strong dissent on certain points from the views of Coleridge and the German critics; but we have no space to discuss the questions thus raised, and must refer the interested reader to the book itself. — The division of ornithology and mammalogy of the United States Department of Agriculture is engaged in mapping the geo- graphical distribution of birds and mammals, in addition to the study of their economic relations. The purpose of this work is to ascertain the boundaries of the natural faunal areas of North America. is collected mainly by the special field agents employed by the division. A smaller portion is contributed by voluntary observers. In the progress of the work many new facts are obtained which ought to be put on record for the benefit of other workers in this _ department of science. It is not unusual to find new species in the collections made by the field agents of the division, and such species must be named and assigned their proper systematic position be- fore they can be discussed intelligently. It is evident that the re- sults of the investigations of the division are of importance to two distinct classes of readers, — farmers and naturalists. It is deemed desirable, therefore, to publish such of the results as are of use mainly to those engaged in scientific research separately from those of a more purely economic character. The publication of the eco- nomic material being already provided for (and appearing as bulle- tins and reports), it has been decided to publish a series of faunal » papers, under the title ““ North American Fauna.”’ This publication will contain, in addition to the faunal papers proper, such technical matter as results from the study of the material collected, or as may be necessary to an intelligent understanding of the reports which follow. No attempt will be made to issue the separate num- bers at regular intervals, but each number will bear date of actual publication. The first of the series is “ A Preliminary Revision of SClENCE- The original information on which the maps are based - 321 the North American Pocket Mice” (genera Perognathus et Crice- todipus auct.), with descriptions of new species and subspecies, and a key to the known forms, by Dr. C. Hart Merriam. This contribution toward a revision of the North American pocket-mice is the outgrowth of a recent attempt to identify a large number of specimens for the purpose of mapping their geographical distribu- tion. The results are wholly unexpected. Only six species were previously recognized. This number is here increased to eighteen. Three subspecies also are described, and several well-known names are shifted to forms other than those to which they have been here- tofore commonly applied. The present revision of the group is by no means exhaustive: it is intended merely as a foundation for future study. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. * "Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. tn all cases required as proof of good faith. The writer's name is The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. On request, twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished free to any correspondent. The Various Discoveries of Lake Mistassini. IN being persistently discovered, the now unmythical Lake Mis- tassini has a record not surpassed by the “true”’ source of the Mississippi. If the lake in question were some recent upstart, grovelling in quaternary detritus, one might pardon such unseemly conduct; but a severed body of water, quietly slumbering in Archean rocks, has a right to resent such intrusions on its privacy. Furthermore, it is a sacred lake, dedicated to the Great Spirit; for on its bank, one historian informs us, there were found “ aztye curteux de marbre d'environ 30 & 35 pzeds en qguaré ; sa voute est de8 a 9 pieds de haut. Les sauvages Vappelent Tchicht Manitou Quitchonap, la maison du Grand Esprit” (sic). Its first discovery, more than two hundred years ago, is forgot- ten except to the dusty pigeon-holes of the Department of Crown Lands. Its last gestation-required the combined services of half a score of explorers and a great metropolitan journal to exploit it. In the mean time, still another journal which is daily read by more than a quarter of a million of people was frantically demanding to be informed whether the lake had an actual existence, or whether, like the fountain of perpetual youth, it lay just beyond the end of the rainbow. Briefly stated, Lake Mistassini was discovered by Father Abanel, a Jesuit, in 1672. It appears on Franquelin’s map of New France (“ Carte de l’Amerique Septentrionale ”) under the name of “ Lac Timagaming.”” On this map the shape of the lake is fairly shown, and the long peninsula at the southern end is clearly recognizable. Generally the outlines of the lake, though roughly charted, are tol- erable accurate. Franquelin seems to have been a competent to- pographer, and the slopes and drainage of the country surrounding the lake are reasonably correct. The Heights of Land (Hauteurs ‘des Terres), or divide between the St. Lawrence and the Arctic basin, are correctly charted. The outlet of the lake, Rupert River, is followed to Baye du Nord, now called “ James Bay.’ On his map there appears a Jake much larger than Lake Mistassini lying to the south-west. This, in all probability, is Lac St. Jean of Pére Laure’s map ; it is, however, greatly exaggerated. Pére Laure, a Jesuit missionary who explored the region about fifty years afterwards, was a man of far more than ordinary ability. He may not have been a trained surveyor, but his keen perception and faithful work more than balance any lacking in that direction. He explored and mapped a large part of the region between the Gulf of St. Lawrence and James Bay, and his manuscript map is now in the archives of the minister of marine, in Paris. The map herewith presented is reproduced from a tracing of a portion of the original. As late as 1866, a reproduction of this map appears in a work by Father Charlevoix. Still more recently, the “Atlas de Geographie Militaire,” compiled for the Military Academy at San Cyr, contains a map of a part of the Dominion of Canada, evidently edited from Father Laure’s map. Less than ten years since, Lake Mistassini was again ruthlessly disturbed by a discovery. This time its dimensions were enlarged 322 -until it surpassed Lake Superior in size. In 1884 Mr. John Bignall -of the Geological and Natural History Survey was ordered to com- plete an unfinished survey of the lake; and his work, essentially ‘finished, appears in the report of Mr. A. P. Low, also of the Geo- logical Survey. A carefully reduced copy of Mr. Bignall’s map is ‘herewith presented; some of the details, however, having been -omitted for want of space. A casual inspection shows that not only is Lake Mistassini insignificant compared to Lake Superior, but also that-it is not comparable even to Lake Ontario in size. ‘In examining the maps of Mr. Bignall and Father Laure side by side, the differences are not so great as one might imagine. The salient features are alike in both, and the one is easily reducible to the other. The foreshortening in the latter probably arose from yplacing too much reliance on the appearance to the eye. Every topographer who has plotted a similarly shaped object, guided by the eye only, knows that it is extremely difficult to avoid such dis- ~tortion. The axis of the lake in Father Laure’s map is certainly out of its proper angle ; but, if we allow about 30° for variation of the com- pass, this objection disappears. It is hardly probable that at that early date Father Laure should have any means of estimating the WistTASSING pereee and pO eorei® : ae. BLOT Gy aN Matson Au ., | Grand: Esprt ERS PU PER. PLSt Ambrose (var. 32°.) Extratt de la Carte du Domaine du Roi en Canada, du Reverand Pére Laure, Jésuiste, 1731. REDUCED COPIES OF THE MAPS OF ~variation of the compass, or that such a factor should enter into his calculations ; so that, on the whole, there are but very few dis- crepancies between the two maps that cannot be reconciled. Furthermore, except the direction of the axis, there are no differ- ences between the outlines as shown by the two maps that might not have resulted from the natural erosion of the basin and the corrasion of its outlet. ‘Rivers,’ as Gilbert aptly remarks, “ are the mortal enemies of lakes ;” and it is not reasonable to suppose that Rupert River is an exception to the rule. ‘“ Le grand percé”’ of Father Laure’s map has been degraded to a narrow gash, and it is by no means improbable that the level of the water has been con- siderably lowered by drainage. Indeed, the fall between the adja- cent lakes renders such an hypothesis highly probable, for a fea- ture of such importance would not likely have passed Father Laure’s notice. Lac Dauphin has disappeared, — possibly from having been drained, — and the long chain of islands traversing the centre of the lake bears further testimony to the lowering of the water in recent times. Unfortunately, Father Laure gives no esti- mate either of the depth or of the area of the lake, beyond the allu- sion “ @’envivon 300 Uzeues de tour,’ so that a comparison of these elements at the two different dates is impossible. It goes without saying that the lake bears every indication of glacial origin, and the severe winters of the present age cannot fail to leave their traces on the outlines of the lake, even from year to “year. JACQUES W. REDWAY. SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 353 Ptomaines and Leucomaines, and their Relation to Disease. SEEING the article in Sczence of Oct. 18 induces me to send you this. It was published in a local medical journal (Paczfic Medzcat Journal, September, 1889), but I should be glad to give it wider circulation. Some recent notices in regard to the composition of leucomaines, and suggestions as to their probable relation to disease (Amerzcan Microscopical Journal, vii. p. 216, 1888 ; Sczence, xii. p. 335, 1888 ; Revue. Sctentzfigue, xiii. p. 187, 1889), have induced me to embody some reflections of my own on this subject. There is no longer any doubt that the announcement and gen- eral acceptance of the germ theory of disease constitute one of the greatest epochs in the history of medicine. But as in the case of all great truths, so in this, the first ideas on the subject have had to be greatly modified : the first extravagant hopes have been dis- appointed or deferred, and the first claims of its advocates found to be too sweeping. ; At first it was imagined that all the grave symptoms of a germ disease, and the death of the patient, were due directly to the pres-. ence and multiplication of a specific microbe in the same sense as Map of Lake Mistassini reproduced from the official surveys of Mr, A. P. Low, Geological Survey of the Dominion of Canada, 1886. MR. BIGNALL AND FATHER LAURE. the destruction of fruit trees and field-crops is sometimes due to the ravages of insect-pests. The first great modification of this original idea was, that the disease and death in these cases are not due directly to the microbes, but to the accumulation in the blood (or on the mucous surfaces to be absorbed into the blood) of a poison- ous chemical substance, a by-product of microbian multiplication. These by-products of albuminoid fermentation (for there are many kinds) have now been isolated from their microbian culture-fluids and analyzed.. They may be regarded as alkaloids of albuminoid decompositions, and are called ptomaines. They are most of them deadly poisons. Septic poison, which is the by-product of putre- factive fermentation, i.e., of the multiplication of putrefactive ba- cillus, is the most familiar example. The fact of a poisonous by-product of .disease-germ multiplica- tion ought to have been anticipated ; for every form of fermenta- tion has its peculiar chemical by-product, and many of these are poisonous. The different kinds of alcohol, ethylic, amylic, etc., and different kinds of organic acids, such as lactic, acetic, butyric, etc., are familiar examples. It would be strange indeed if the same were not true of albuminoid fermentations determined by the — growth and multiplication of disease germs. As already said, some of these chemical by-products of disease germs have been separated from their generating microbes (as alcohol may be sepa- rated from the yeast-plant) ; and, by the inoculation of these pure chemical products, the corresponding diseases have been produced. eases Novemser 8, 1 889. | All the symptoms of typhoid-fever and of diphtheria have been thus produced without the presence of any pathogenic microbes. These pure chemical substances have also been successfully used as a vaccine against the corresponding disease, precisely as alcohol is used as a preventive of alcoholic fermentation. This was indeed a great modification of the original form of the germ theory, but one which only confirmed its truth. We are now probably on the eve of another modification equally important and sweeping. I must explain. We have seen that ptomaines are alkaloids of albuminoid decom- position generated in the presence and under the guidance of mi- crobian life. Now, there is going on continually in the animal body, as a strictly physiological process, albuminoid decomposition (wasting of the tissues) in the presence and under the guidance of cell life. This also,as might be expected, produces poisonous prod- ucts. These products also have been isolated and analyzed, and are found to belong to the same class of chemical bodies as the ptomaines. They are alkaloids of albuminoid decomposition, and are therefore in the highest degree poisonous, They are called leucomaines. If they are not also usually deadly to the animal body, it is only because they are continually being eliminated by appropriate organs. But suppose there should be some change in the process of tis- Sue-waste, and therefore of the composition of the leucomaines, rendering these more poisonous; or suppose, what is still more probable, there be some failure in the function of the organs by which these poisons are normally eliminated: evidently the result would be disease. And not only so, but (mark this) disease similar to those produced by disease germs, except that they would lack the property of contagiousness, because not due to the presence of microbes. Here, then, we would have dis- similar to so-called germ diseases produced without germs. Can we point out any such? Perhaps not yet with any certainty. It is hardly probable that any strongly marked specific and clearly contagious’ diseases, like small-pox, measles, scarlet- fever, whooping-cough, diphtheria, etc., are ever produced other- wise than by microbes. But it is possible that some of those ob- scure, sporadic, and apparently non-contagious forms of fever which often run so insensibly into each other, and so puzzle the physician to classify, such as some forms of typhoid, malarial, typho-malarial, continued fever, etc., may be produced in this way. Perhaps, also, countless unclassified, slight fevers and indispositions may come under the same head. As thus modified, it seems to me that the last remaining objec- tion to the germ theoryisremoved. But observe: this modification is an abatement of the arrogance of that theory, — is equivalent to an abandonment of its former claims as a universal theory of the cause of disease. We have said that leucomaines are not usually deadly in their effects on the animal body, only because they are continually elimi- _ nated by appropriate organs. What organs? I answer, there may be more than one, but undoubtedly by far the most important is the liver. By careful experiments on animals, Schiff has shown that the liver has the remarkable property of eliminating, or else of decomposing and rendering innocuous to a greater or less degree, all kinds of organic alkaloid poisons, but especially alkaloids of. albuminoid decomposition, produced by wasting of tissues; i.e., leucomaines. If the vessels of the liver of a dog be ligated so that the venous blood containing these leucomaines cannot pass through that organ, the animal quickly falls into deep lethargy, and in a half- hour dies of blood-poisoning. That death is not the result of mere mutilation, is proved by the fact that a single drop of the blood of a dog dead of ligated liver injected into the veins of a frog will immediately kill the animal if his liver be ligated, but is innocuous if his liver be free (Archzves des Sctences, \viii. p. 293, 1877). But the question still remains, ‘How does the liver eliminate these poisons ?’’ Not directly as such, for they do not appear in the bile. The answer to this weighty question is, I am persuaded, to be found in my interpretation of the glycogenic function of the liver, In my article on this subject, published in 1878 (Amerécan Journal of Science, xv. p. 99, 1878; also Western Lancet for the same year, but I do not remember the number), I maintain that the liver has the power of splitting albuminoids, whether of food or of SCLEINGE: 326) waste tissue, into glycogen (which is immediately changed into liver sugar and burned) and a nitrogenous incombustible residue, which is eliminated by the kidneys as urea. Thus leucomaines are ren- dered innocuous, and at the same time utilized as fuel to miintain vital heat and force by the liver. But if leucomaines, then also probably ptomaines, produced by microbes may also be disposed of by the liver in the same way, and the patient often saved. If this view be true, then the belief in the pre-eminent importance of the functions of the liver, and the practice based thereon, of clearing the bowels and stimulating the action of the liver in the onset or in the early stages of disease, — a practice reached empirically, and often ridiculed as savoring of routine, — receives ample justification. Jos. LECONTE. eee INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Storage-Battery Litigation. THE Electrical Accumulator Company of New York have issued a circular under date of Nov. 1, in which they state that the litiga- tion involving a patent monopoly of the secondary-battery industry has been so prolonged, and is so technical, that it is believed a few words of explanation are appropriate, in order to enable the public to have a clear understanding of the situation. In March, 1887, suit in equity was commenced in New York by the above-mentioned compary, owning the Faure patent, against the Julien Electric Company, designed to stop further infringement of that patent, covering improvements in secondary batteries. During the progress of the suit it became evident that the Faure patent would be sustained, and early in 1888 the Julien. Company modified their method of applying the active material to the battery- plates. In March, 1889. Judge Coxe rendered his decision sustain- ing the Faure patent, and holding that it could be construed to cover any secondary battery having the active material applied to a plate or support in the form of a “‘paint, paste, or cement.” The modified method of the Julien Company accordingly came within the scope of the Faure patent. On April r1, 1889, an injunction was issued restraining the defendants from further acts of infringe- ment. In June the Julien Company petitioned the court for a re- hearing of the case; and their factory, which had shut down in April after the injunction was issued, again resumed operations, the method of manufacturing the batteries being again slightly modified ; which second modification, it was claimed, did not in- fringe the Faure patent. Apparently becoming alarmed at the probability that this second modification was also an infringement, the Julien Company devised a third form, and subsequently a fourth form was employed. In August a new suit in equity was brought against the New York and Harlem Railroad Company and the Julien Electric Trac- tion Company as co-defendants. These parties were using large numbers of these so-called new forms of battery. Motion was made for a preliminary injunction, and in October Judge Lacombe rendered his decision, which, as will be seen after careful perusal, virtually gave the Electrical Accumulator Company all that they asked or claimed. An injunction was issued on Oct. 28, operat- ing to stop the use of all of their four modifications as well as the original form. This decision of judge Lacombe has been printed for the information of interested: parties. It is concise, accurate, and clearly defines what Brush is said to have done in anticisation of Faure’s patent. Quoting from the decision on this point, ‘‘ What Brush did was to immerse a plate coated with dry material not only into fluid, but into the very fluid in which it was forthwith, and w7thout re- moval therefrom, put to use as a battery plate.’ It is to benoted, that, under this decision, the manufacture of secondary batteries in any quantity will, if at all possible, be utterly impracticable with- out infringing Faure’s patent. It has yet to be demonstrated that such form of battery will work outside of the laboratory. It has never been done, although’ ten years have elapsed since Brush is said to have made the ex- periment ; while manufacturers, both in this country and Europe, have been studying the problem with the strongest incentives to attain success, 324 SCIENCE: (Vor XIVe = Nomese CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. Biological Society, Washington. Nov. 2.—C. V. Riley, The Remarkable Increase of Vedolia cardinals in California; W. H. Dall, Notes on the Genus Gemma» Deshayes ; George Marx, On a New Spider and its Influence on Classification ; C. Hart Merriam, Remarks on the Spotted Skunks (Genus Sfzlogale), with Descriptions of New Forms. Boston Society of Natural History. Nov. 6.— Thomas Dwight, The Joints and Muscles of Contortionists. Engineers’ Club, St. Louis. Oct. 23.— The secretary read a letter from the chairman of the board of managers of the Association of Engineering Societies, proposing a meeting of the board to consider the question of proposed affiliation with the American Society of Civil Engineers. Pro- fessor Johnson stated that this announce- ment was made for the club’s information, in order that an opportunity might be given the club to instruct its members of the board regarding some plan of united action. Mr. H. A. Wheeler then presented some notes regarding the recent European trip of the } ical Engineers, and the Institute of Mining Engineers, took part. Professor Johnson exhibited a test piece of iron which had been welded by the electrical process at the expo- sition. Minnesota Academy of Natural Sciences, Minneapolis. October. — N. H. Winchell, The so-called Huronian Rocks in the Vicinity of Sudbury, Can.; H. V. Winchell, The Iron-bearing Formations of Minnesota; Professor Cha- ney, Some Remarkable Forms supposed to be of Cryptozoon in the Shakopee Limestone at Northfield; Warren Upham, A Recent Visit to Itasca Lake. Exchanges. [Free of charge to all, if of satisfactory character. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] Morris’s ‘‘ British Butterflies,’ Morris’s ‘‘ Nests and Eggs of British Birds,’’ Bree’s ‘‘ Birds of Europe”? (all colored plates), and other natural history, in exchange for Shakesperiana ; either books, pamphlets, engravings, or cuttings. — J. D. Barnett, Box 735, Stratford, Canada. I have anodonta of alina (Weatherby), and many other species of shells from the noted Koshkonong Lake and vicinity, also from Western New York, and fossils from the Marcellus shale of New York, which I would be glad to exchange for specimens of scientific value of any “Twish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.”—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Davenport, Iowa. eareerneras| DOES CURE CONSUMPTION In its First Stages. Be sure you get the genuine. OO Nw rn rn rr ORR FR RUINS USO Bn rn wn on rn rns 8 8S BRS Dorn enrnerne ONE LANGUAGE FOR THE WHOLE WORLD. WORLD-ENGLISH : THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE. 25 CENTS. Every one has heard of the butcher who, after a long search for his knife, at last found it in his mouth: so speakers of English have been seeking for a universal language, when, lo! it is intheir mouths. The intelligi- bility of English words has been obscured by a dense mist of letters. This is now dispersed by A. Melville Bell, who has already won a world-wide reputation through his invention of ‘‘ Visible Speech,’ the great boon to deaf-mutes. Professor Bell calls this new discov- ery of his ‘‘ World-English,”’ and the result isa language which cannot fail to meet with acceptance, and at once supersede the supposed necessity for ‘‘ Volapiik,” or any other artificial language. No language could be invented for international use that would surpass English in gram- matical simplicity, and in general fitness to become the tongue of the world. It is already the mother-tongue of increasing millions in both hemispheres, and some knowl- edge of the language is demanded by all educated popula- tions on the globe. Social and commercial necessities require that the acquisition of this knowledge shall be facilitated, and it is believed that Professor Bell’s inven- tion has removed the last impediment to English becom- ing the universal language, for which vague desires have long been entertained, although hitherto only futile ef- forts have been made. Ex-President Andrew D. White, of Cornell University, says: “I believe that the highest interests of Christian civilization and of humanity would be served by its adoption. China and Japan would be made English- speaking peoples within fifty years, and so brought with- in the range of Christianizing and civilizing ideas, in the largest sense. All existing missionary work is trivial as compared with this. For yoursystem would throw wide open those vast countries, as, indeed, all the countries of the world, to the whole current of English and American thought.” For Diffusion of English throughout the World THE UNIVERSAL LANGUAGE This “ Hand-Book of World-English” is the Complete, Simple, and Efficient Medium, FOREIGNERS Will Acquire, by Means of this Hand-Book, a PERFECT PRONUNCIATION OF ENGLISH. For Primary School Pupils and Mliterate Adults World-English is a Royal Road to Reading. To Teachers of English and Modern Languages This Hand-Book will be of Primary Importance as a Phonetic Directory. DEFECTS OF SPEECH Will be Readily Corrected by Means of the Articula- tive Directions in this Hand-Book. HAND-BOOK OF WORLD-ENGLISH, 25 CENTS. The plan of this little book is altogether new. Letters and sounds are so associated, in all the exercises, that from the mere knowledge of letters a learner cannot fail to pronounce words with certainty. English reading will thus be easily acquired, whether by natives or foreigners, children or adults. The general resemblance of World-English to Literary English is such that any reader of the latter deciphers the former at sight, or, at most, after a few minutes’ study of the new letters. A like result may be antici- pated for those who shall learn to read from World-Eng- lish. They will transfer their power of reading to the literary form of the language, almost without effort. The orthographic aspect of words will, besides, be so fixed in the eye, by contrast, that spelling will be remembered as — what it really is—a pictorial association with words. No special training is required to qualify teachers for using this book. Thesubject can even be successfully in- troduced in the kindergarten and the nursery. This phonetic mode of initiation in reading cannot be too strongly urged on the attention of School Boards on both sides of the Atlantic. The ordinary orthography of each word is interlined with the World-English version throughout the Exer- cises and Readings. So set down, our tongue is the best for the world to unite upon.—Brooklyn Eagle. The idea of Mr. Bell has much to recommend it, and the presentation is charmingly clear.— A7zericaz, Phila. The result is a language which cannot fail to meet with acceptance.—Boston Traveller. Has the merit of great ingenuity.—Razlway Age. His treatise, as a study of English orthoepy, condenses the result of much thought and experience in small com- pass.— The Critic. World-English deserves the careful consideration of all serious scholars.—Modern Language Notes. _ World-English is the English language unburdened-of its chaotic spelling.—Popular Science Monthly. We commend it to the attention of teachers.—O#tawa Globe. “World-English” and “Hand-Book of World-English” can be had of all booksellers, or will be sent for 50 cents, post free, by the publisher, IN. D.C.§HODG HS, 47 Lafayette Place, New Yor kE. NovemMBEk 8, 1880. | GC. & Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. © Motors Designed for all Power Purposes. SCIENEGE. = GC, ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New York City, New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. Western Office, 139-I41 Adams Street Chicago. Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, New Orleans, Wants. Any person seeking a position for which he ts quali- fied by his scientific attainmen’s, or any person seeking some oneto fill a position of this character, be rt that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what not, may have the ‘ Want’ inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, if he satisfies the pubiisher of the suit- able character of his application. Any person seeking information on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or who car inany way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. YOUNG SCOTCHMAN desires an ap- pointment in America. Three years in English Government Office. Good references. Address “‘ Jack” care J. Lawson & Coy, 17 Princes St., Aberdeen, Scotland. EACHER OF NATURAL SCIENCE.— A young lady desires a position as a teacher of Natural Sciences, especially Chem- istry and Physics. One year’s experience. Testi- monials given. Address Miss J. S., No. 31, N. Hanover St , Carlisle, Pa. CIENCE-TEACHING. —A specialist in science-teaching, physics, chemistry, and physiography desires an engagement, preferably in a high or a normal school. Is well known as an author of several popular text-books. Ad- dress X., care of SCIENCE. OLLEGE ALUMNI AND PHYSI- CIANS. —The American Academy of s1edicine is endeavoring to make as complete a list as possible of the Alumni of Literary Col- leges, in the United States and Canada, who have received the degree of M.D. All recipi- ents of both degrees, literary and medical, are requested to forward their names at once to Dr. Rk. J. Dunglison, Secretary, 814 N. 16th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. eee giommation concerning the handling of air from Caves, for Cool- ing and ventilating rooms. Address ‘‘ M. H.” care of Sctence 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. HYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE. — A Fellow of the Mass. Med. 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Tissuccess has brought a lot of imitators copying us in every way ossible. emer=ber that THE | | Onty GENUINE LePage’s Liquid i | Glue is manufactured solely by the 4|RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c, and dealers’ card who loesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. Ly has bat Rl SLU Sen SH0 POT SsHOLpORN VIADUCT to Patent Pocket Can. No waste.} w—e 5 = \ 734 BF ndvi6 bo mCiE CE [Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y,, as Second-Class Matter. | Pe PEKEV NEWSPAPER OF ALE THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, SEVENTH YEAR. Vout. XIV. No. 354. NEW YORK, Novemser 15, 1889 SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS, $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE. ELECTRIC ACCUMULATORS. THE world moves slowly, — faster, perhaps, than formerly, — but still the movement is well ordered and regular, new things not jumping into existence fully developed and ready for their most advantageous use. All this is true of the accumulators or storage-batteries for electricity, about which the public has heard for a number of years. The principle on which they are based is an old one. That an electric current, in passing through many chemical solutions, would decompose them, is a fact shown in every school in the land. That store up its electricity? The answer to these questions is well given in a paper by George B. Prescott, jun., read at a meeting of the American Institute of Electrical Engineers on Oct. 29. There are in use electrical systems for lighting purposes; and, as every one knows, these are mainly of service after the sun goes down, and then they are called on for a maximum service for a short time, which is followed by a smaller demand during the rest of the night. It is patent that such a method of production can- not be economical, for the plant must be idle, or working to but a fraction of its capacity, most of the time. The accumulator comes in as a storehouse ; so that the dynamos may be run at an even TLL wi WAN WH mal ni FIG. 1.—ELECTRICAL ACCUMULATOR COMPANY’S STORAGE-BATTERY. when the battery sending the current is removed, and the wires entering the solution joined, a current can be detected in these wires opposite in direction to the original current, is also known. The decomposing apparatus shows itself as a storage-battery from which, to all intents and purposes, electricity runs out again when the experiment of electrolysis is over. What those interested in storage-batteries have been doing is to make this effect of com- mercial value. But why should this effect be of commercial value at all? Why not use the current from the primary battery itself, and not first rate of production, and any spare electricity stored till the extra demand has to be met. There is a field, then, in which accumulators may play an impor- tant part, not in competition with the direct application of the cur- rent from the dynamo, but standing to the electric-light systems very much as gasometers do to gas-works. The demand for light during the day is not 77/7, yet it is so small that few electric-light companies are justified in running their dynamos the twenty-four hours through. But it is calculated that there will be ample sur- plus of current to charge the necessary storage-batteries if the 326 dynamos are started at 2 P.M. and work till midnight, — a working day of ten hours, —thus rendering the ordinary electric-light plant efficient the whole day. ts There is another field in which accumulators take:an active part, —that of long-distance lighting, now so successfully occupied by the alternating converter system, in which the high-potential cur- In E | A | Fic. rents on the main lines are converted into those of lower potential before entering buildings for use. An accumulator is a chemical converter ; and, now that the questions of cost and durability are practically solved, the accumulator is likely to find an application for this converting process. There is, of course, a practical loss every time energy is trans- SCbE NGI: [Vor. XIV. No. 354 type, is proportional to the number and size of its plates; its rate of discharge depending upon the number of plates and the effec- tive surface of each, while the time of such discharge varies with their thickness. Although there are no obvious theoretical reasons why a single cell of accumulator should not be made sufficiently large to possess any desired capacity, there are mechanical con- 2 siderations which make it advisable to limit the dimensions of a cell to the extent that it may be conveniently portable, Therefore, when higher rates or longer discharges than an ordinary cell will give are demanded, two or more cells must be connected in par- allel. When two or more series of cells connected in parallel are to be Fic. 3. formed from one form to another, and this loss is greater the more rapid the rate of charge and discharge of a storage-battery ; but this loss, added to the cost of the accumulators, is not believed to be enough to counterbalance the advantages already mentioned. Generally speaking, the total current capacity, expressed in ampere hours, of a single cell of accumulator of the lead lead-oxide charged at the same potential, it is evident, that, unless each series is in precisely the same state in respect to residual charge, there will be a difference in their electro-motive forces, and in conse- quence less current will flow in those series having higher poten- tials than in others. While the larger current flowing into the less charged cells will have a tendency to bring up their potentials NovEMBER 15, 1889.] to the average, it is found in practice that some series will become fully charged sooner than others. The details of the methods of use we hope to publish later. Our illustrations show the battery and street-car of the Electric Ac- cumulator Company ; this car, as is well known, calling for no street wires. MAGNOLIA-METAL. For the last fifty years the soft metal made of copper, regulus of antimony, and tin, invented by Isaac Babbitt of Boston, and named for him, has been in use for the bearings in machinery, as the friction was much reduced by its use. ANGLE OF COEFFICIENT OF FRICTION. SCIE NEE: 327 posed to be the best of their class. The machine used was a 5- inch shaft keyed on a 3-inch shaft lubricated with sperm-oil, 5-inch shaft running in the oil. With light pressure and slow revolutions of shaft, the metals showed little difference, but, with rapid revolu— tions and heavy pressures, magnolia-metal showed great superiority. The foregoing table shows a detailed statement of the tests, which occupied an hour’s time. The testing-machine consists of a shaft revolving in suitable bearings, between two of which is a steel journal on which the test-piece is placed ; the top half only of the bearing being used, which was lined with the metals tested. The brass sets in a frame, to the under side of which is suspended a platform. On Parts marked with A are Thermometers. COUNTER ——— MAGNOLIA 4 TIMES IAS VALUABLE FROM FRICTION TESTING MACHINE. Steam Engineering Department, Navy Yard, N.Y. June 12, 1888. FIG. 1.—APPARATUS USED IN TESTING MAGNOLIA-METAL, In these days of demand for high speed on railways and in Ocean steamers, a diminution of the friction is imperative, and magnolia-metal is offered as furnishing a material for bearings much superior to any thing that has gone before. Temperature. By By 4 A. i 2 t 1 oe | cS) f=1 ; 8 . a 2 3) i) - & | 6 2 g a & Cals ae Bo ee 2 es 5 ls 2 2 9 rc 35 S oS aS) feces ae 2 | #3 o a eS Es eee = as aoe | 2 fQ a £ Ss once 3 3 S|) Be Bee ES se | 38 E @ s 5 a a = 2 3e 2g a = i | a —4 n | 5 2gen. Babbs. 200 ° & ° 2 5 ft. ° 65° BF. go’ F, ga° F. Magnolia 300 1,600 2,095 ft 10 115° 156° 140° 300] 1,550 |2,030 “‘ | 20 150° 180° 170° 500] 1,550 |2,030 ‘* 30 160° 230° 230° 800} 1,£00 ieee ss 40 180°. 345° 320° 1,000] 1,500 1,965 ‘* 45 397° 1,000} 1,500 |1,965 ‘* 50 270° 360° 1,000] 1,500 |1,965 “* | 35 Ves 75m | 1,900] 1,509 |1,965 ‘* 60 400° 1,000] 1,500 1,965 ‘‘ Magnolia ran fulltime free without melting out or stopping machinery ; Hoyt’s melted and stuck to shaft at end of 45 minutes ; de-oxidized genuine Babbitt melted and stuck to shaft at end of 55 minutes. Mr. H. G. Torrey, who has been assayer at the United States Mint, New York, for thirty years, has made several friction tests of journal-bearing metals, the results of which have just been made known. Those selected were magnolia-metal, and Hoyt’s genuine Babbitt and the de-oxidized genuine Babbitt, the latter two sup- this platform the weights are placed for producing the pressure. There are two knife-edges, allowing freedom of the frame, and the weighted platform. A pan beneath the test journal, carrying oil, lubricated the bearing. Thermometers were inserted in the oil- bath and in a recess in the top of the metal. In this machine the co-efficient of friction is obtained by the angle of deviation of the knife-edge from a vertical line passing through the centre of the journal in terms of the radius of the journal, and is independent of the weight entering directly into this calculation. Other satisfactory tests have been made by the United States Government at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, and by Professor R. H- io Ze i er: B FIG. 2.— MAGNOLIA-METAL BEARING. Smith of Mason College, Birmingham, England, who reports that: his tests show the metal to be superior to either Babbitt or gun— metal, producing less friction, keeping the bearing temperature lower, requiring less lubrication, and possessing greater durability. Professor Smith says that the longer the magnolia-metal bearing is used, and the more severe the duty imposed on it, the better be- comes its condition. Recently this new metal has been introduced in the “ City of Paris” and the “ Augusta Victoria,” contributing its share in the speed developed by these ocean racers. 328 ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN AS PLANT-FOOD. FARMERS in all older portions of the country buy large quantities of nitrogen in artificial fertilizers. Nitrate of soda, sulphate of ammonia, dried blood, cottonseed-meal, and fish-scraps owe their fertilizing value mainly, and Peruvian guano and tankage largely, to nitrogen; and the same element is one of the chief ingredients of bone manures, ammoniated phosphates, and many other fertil- izers. According to an estimate by the Connecticut Experiment Station, not less than five hundred thousand dollars are expended annually for commercial fertilizers in Connecticut. A large amount of this goes for nitrogen, which is one of the dearest of the ingre- dients of fertilizers, and costs at retail from eight or ten to eighteen cents or more a pound. The Storrs School Agricultural Experiment Station, Mansfield, Conn., in its October bulletin, reports a continuation of an investi- gation of atmospheric nitrogen as plant-food, begun some years ago at Wesleyan University, Middletown, where the chemical work of the station has been carried on since the establishment of the latter in 1888. The details of the experiments there reported were conducted by Mr. C. D. Woods, formerly assistant in chem- istry in Wesleyan University, and now chemist of the station. The quantities of nitrogen in ordinary crops, and the cost of the same in the better commercial fertilizers, vary from 31.5 pounds for potatoes, to 80.3 pounds for clover-hay, costing from $4.73 to $12.05. The plants must have this nitrogen, or they cannot grow. They obtain part of it from the soil, and the rest from the air. The ni- ‘trogen of the soil has either been accumulated in the past or is supplied in manures. A small quantity, in the form of ammonia -and other compounds of nitrogen, is continually brought to the soil by rain or snow. Late research implies that soils acquire ni- trogen from the air by the aid of microbes or electricity, or proba- bly both. The nitrogen in the soil is being continually leached -away by drainage-waters, and more or less of it escapes into the air. Soils which are not cultivated, and from which the produce vis not removed, accumulate more nitrogen than they lose, so that many virgin soils have a large stock. By ordinary cultivation and ‘cropping, the nitrogen is gradually exhausted, unless it is returned iby manures or otherwise. The main questions have been, first, Can plants make use of at- mospheric nitrogen to any considerable extent? second, If they do, is it the free nitrogen of the air that they acquire? There are cer- tain kinds of plants, like clover, beans, and others belonging to the family of the legumes or Papzlzonacee, which generally get on very well without nitrogenous fertilizers in worn-out soils ; and it would seem as though these plants, at any rate, must in some way be able to make use of the nitrogen of the air. But the classic experi- ments of Boussingault in France, of Lawes and Gilbert in Eng- land, and others, have been widely accepted as proving that plants cannot use the free nitrogen of the air, and that they get practi- cally very little combined nitrogen from the air, so that they are dependent upon that previously stored in the soil or supplied in manures. Still many experimenters have not regarded the question as definitely settled. While the experiments of Boussingault, and Lawes and Gilbert, differ in their details, they agree in this, that the plants were under- conditions widely different from those in ordinary culture. The especial object was to find whether plants acquire free nitrogen ; and the plants were for the most part grown under cover, to ex- clude combined nitrogen, and in artificial soil containing little or no nitrogen. The growth was generally stunted and abnormal. Later experiments on more or less similar plans have brought similar results. Investigations by Ville in France, however, im- plied that plants can acquire nitrogen from the air, but his conclu- sions were not generally accepted. Some years ago a series of experiments was conducted by Mr. C. D. Woods, in which the conditions were more like those in which plants commonly grow. The method used was that of sand-cul- ‘ture. By proper management, feeding, and watering, plants may be grown as large, as healthy, and in every way as well developed, in pure sand as in the richest soil. For these experiments sea-sand was used. To remove all traces of material containing nitrogen SCIENCE, ~except that in the seed and the free nitrogen of the air. [Vot. XIV. No. 354 (except, of course, air), the sand was carefully sifted, then washed, and finally heated in iron pots in a furnace, so hot that the pots nearly melted. It was then put in glass jars, and water was added in which were dissolved salts containing the mineral elements of plant-food, potash, lime, iron, sulphuric acid, phosphoric acid, etc., and in some cases nitrogen in the form of nitrate of potash or lime. The seeds were then sown, and the plants grew. They were kept in the open air in a building erected for the purpose. The arrange- ment was such that the plants were exposed in the day-time in pleasant weather, but put under cover when it rained and at night. They had enough plant-food to enable them to make more or less growth independently of the nitrogen of the air, but were free to get the nitrogen from the air in case they were able todoso. They grew well. Many of them were as well or better developed than those in a rich garden-soil near by. The amount of nitrogen in the seeds and in the nutritive solu- tions was determined by analyses at the beginning of the experi- ments. The same was done with the nitrogen in the plants at the end of the experiments, and with that left in the nutritive solutions. The quantities of nitrogen supplied to the plants at the beginning, and contained in them at the end, of the experiment were thus de- termined. The plants were found to contain more nitrogen than had been supplied by the nutritive solutions and the seeds. For this gain there was but one possible source, the atmosphere. The peas had in some way acquired nitrogen from the air, and in some cases the quantities of atmospheric nitrogen, thus obtained were very large. Since that time a number of investigators have obtained similar and even more striking results, and much light has been thrown upon the ways by which the plants are enabled to obtain the nitro- gen from the air. Professor Hellriegel in Germany has found from a large number of experiments that pea, lupine, and serradella plants obtain large quantities of nitrogen from the air, while oats, barley, and buck- wheat seem to be restricted to that supplied to them in the soil and obtained through the roots. He has furthermore brought out the very important fact that there is a connection between the nitrogen acquired and the tubercles which are found on the roots of leguminous plants. The root-tubercles are the bulb-like en- largements, from the size of a pin-head to that of a pea or larger, sometimes called “ warts,” which are found on the roots of beans, peas, clover, cow-peas, and other leguminous plants. They are often thought by persons not botanists to be indications of disease. This suggests that minute organisms, termed ‘ microbes,” which are in some way connected with these tubercles, may be the agents by which the plants obtain nitrogen from the air. To test the influence of the microbes in the soil, Professor Hell- riegel prepared soil-infusions by putting small quantities of soil in water, shaking the mixture thoroughly, and letting it settle. The water was then assumed to contain the microbes. The infusions thus prepared were put into the sand in which the plants grew. In a very remarkable series of trials it was found that where legu- minous plants were supplied with mineral but no nitrogenous food, and received these infusions, they grew well, had tubercles upon their roots, and contained large quantities of nitrogen when mature. Those which received no infusions, or infusions which had been sterilized, i.e., in which the microbes had been killed, made very little growth, had few or no tubercles, and showed no gain of nitro- gen. In another experiment Professor Hellriegel grew peas and buckwheat inside a large glass globe, as Boussingault had done, except that soil-infusions were added. In both Hellriegel’s and Boussingault’s experiments the plants had practically no nitrogen Boussin- gault’s plants made very little growth, and showed no gain of nitrogen. The same was true of Hellriegel’s buckwheat ; but his peas grew well, and gained considerable nitrogen. In other words, where the microbes were present, the peas evidently utilized the free nitrogen of the air. Professor Wolff in Germany has reported experiments with clover which imply acquisition of atmospheric nitrogen. Numer- ous other late experiments indicate that both plants and soil obtain nitrogen from the air. The experiments now described in this bulletin may be divided NoVEMBER 15, 188g. | into the following series: 1888, Champion of England peas, 25 trials ; 1888-89, alfalfa, 5; 1889, East Hartford Early peas, first series, 33; 1889, Champion of England peas, 16; 1889, oats, 10. Other series with other plants are begun, but are not yet ready to be reported upon. The following questions were proposed for study: 1. May plants grown under normal conditions acquire any considerable amount of nitrogen, free or combined, from the sur- rounding atmosphere? 2. What effect has the addition of soil- infusions upon the formation of root-tubercles? 3. Is there a - definite relation between the formation of root-tubercles and the acquisition of atmospheric nitrogen ? The method was essentially the same as in the previous experi- ments by Mr. Wood above described. The plants were grown in glass jars containing sand, purified by washing and igniting. Nutritive solutions, either free from or containing known quanti- ties of combined nitrogen in the form of nitrate of potash or lime, were applied to the sand. The amounts of nitrogen supplied in nutritive solutions and seed were compared with the amounts found at the end of the experiments in residual solutions and plants. The difference between these two amounts must show the loss or gain if nitrogen. A loss must indicate decomposition of either the organic nitrogen of the seed or plants or the nitric acid of the ni- trates fed, or both. A gain must represent the nitrogen acquired from the air in excess of any lost. either from organic matter of seed or plant or from nitrate of the food. The conditions of growth were varied by varying the amounts of nitrogen supplied in nutritive solutions. The minerals needed for the growth of the plants were added in amounts to make one part or less by weight of dissolved salts in one thousand parts of the solution. Some of the plants received no combined nitrogen except that in the seed; to others nitrates were added, but in such small quantities that the minerals were relatively in excess; to others enough nitrogen was added to make the mixture of plant-food correspond more nearly to the composition of the plants. The answer to the question, ‘‘ May plants grown under normal conditions acquire any considerable amount of nitrogen from the atmosphere ?’’ coincides with the earlier experiments at Mansfield, and is plain and unmistakable. Peas of small, early variety (Early Hartford) planted in sand, with no nitrogenous food except that in the seed, grew to a height of over five feet. With nitrogen sup- plied in the solutions, they sometimes reached a height of over eight feet. Many of the peas and alfalfa plants accumulated large quantities of nitrogen from the air. In one case a single plant thus obtained more than one-third of a gram (54.6 grains) of nitro- gen. In a number of experiments with peas in which the roots had few or no tubercles, instead of gain, there was a decided loss of nitrogen. This gives added force to the suggestion that if nitrogen escaped in some of the trials, it may have escaped to some extent ' in other cases also. If so, the results are all inaccurate as indica- tions of the actual atmospheric nitrogen acquired, and the plants must have really obtained more than the figures imply. It may be that the loss of nitrogen is greater in some classes of plants than in others. The apparent loss in the experiments with peas was about as large when they were not fed combined nitrogen, other than that in the seed, as when they were fed con- siderable quantities of nitrates. In the experiment with oats the results were very different. Without the addition of nitrates, there was no loss, but a slight gain. When nitrates were fed, there was loss; and the larger the amount of nitrates added, the greater was the loss of nitrogen. These experiments do not tell to what extent the loss observed with the oats, and with the peas which had no root-tubercles, was from the seed, and to what extent from the nitrates; whether, as seems most likely, it was due to the action of microbes; or what connection there may be between plants of different species and the loss of nitrogen. These and kindred questions must remain for future research to decide. But one can hardly help coupling this observation of the large loss of nitrogen in the oat experiments with the common observation of practical farmers that oats are an exhaustive crop. The power of leguminous plants to acquire ni- trogen from the air evidently explains in part why they are such valuable “ renovating crops.” SCIENCE: 329 Experiments by Berthelot and others imply that nitrogen is be- ing continually gathered from the air by soils, and that microbes, and probably electricity, aid the process. A large amount of late research tends to show that nitrogen compounds in the soil are be- ing constantly decomposed by the action of microbes, and that the nitrogen thus set free escapes into the air. In Hellriegel’s experiments the development of the root-tuber- cles on the plants seemed to be dependent upon the addition of soil-infusions : in those of the Storrs School Station, although the sand ‘and water were sterilized, root-tubercles were often abun- dant where no soil-infusions were added. This was especially the case where the plants had some nitrogenous food. Indeed, where the plants were reasonably well fed, so far as the root-tubercles were concerned, it made no apparent difference whether they had soil-infusions or not; nor was there much difference where the plants had no nitrogen in their food. The plants were grown near a garden in which the soil was rich; and the microbes, which seem to be connected with the root-tubercles, were probably abundant. The most natural explanation is, that the organisms or their germs (spores) were floating in the air; found their way to the pots in which the plants were cultivated, and grew there; and that the growth of the microbes was especially favored where the plants had nitrates, i.e., had food enough to keep them vigorous until the tubercles were formed. 2 - These experiments, like those of Hellriegel, reveal a remarkable relation between root-tubercles and the acquisition of nitrogen from the air by plants. Leguminous plants thus far experimented with have root-tubercles, and acquire atmospheric nitrogen. Other plants have been found to be without root-tubercles, and to gain little or no nitrogen; while in some experiments, as in those with oats, above cited, there is a large loss. There is an evident con- nection between root-tubercles and microbes, though the exact nature of the microbes and their connection with the tubercles re- main to be explained. While there is as yet no positive proof that the root-tubercles or the microbes are the cause of the gain of nitrogen, the fact that there is a connection between the root-tubercles and the amount of nitrogen acquired by the plants from the air is unmistakable. In every case, without exception, where there were no root-tuber- cles, there was loss of nitrogen; where there were ‘“‘few’’ tuber- cles, there was sometimes a slight loss of;nitrogen, at other times a slight gain; with a “ fair number” of tubercles, there was a de- cided gain; where there was a “‘large number” of tubercles, the gain of nitrogen was very large. It may be that this relation holds in fields as well as in pot-cul- ture. The past season the station grew a half-acre of cow-peas, which yielded at the rate of about eight tons of green fodder per acre. In some ten different places in the field the roots were examined, and found to be covered with tubercles of large size. At one end of the field, where the yield was relatively light, the roots had less tubercles than elsewhere, and in general where the growth was heaviest the tubercles seemed to be most abun- dant. As to whether the nitrogen which the plants obtain is the free or the combined nitrogen of the air, these experiments do not bring absolute proof, but the quantities of nitrogen obtained areso very large as to leave little doubt that it is free nitrogen; and the experiments of Hellriegel above cited would seem to prove that the uncombined nitrogen can thus be used. This and the cog- nate question as to how the nitrogen is acquired, demand further study. Investigations in this line are being planned for at the station. This subject has a wider significance than what has been said above implies. The future welfare of our race, material, intel- lectual, and moral, depends upon the food-supply, or, in other words, upon the product of the soil. This, in turn, reduces itself essentially to a question of phosphoric acid, potash, and nitrogen. Enough of the first two for indefinite time to come is assured in the deposits of phosphates and potash salts already discovered, but the probability of a sufficient supply of nitrogen has been ques- tioned. This costliest of the fertilizing elements escapes from our soils into the air and into the sea, and is taken away by crops, and not completely returned. Artificial fertilizers promise to meet but 330 a small fraction of the coming demand. If, as has been urged, the exhaustless stores of the atmosphere are not available to plants, the outlook is dark enough; but if the farmer may use his crops to gather it, without money and without price, we may dismiss our solicitude. With the assurance that plants obtain nitrogen from the air, the fear of starvation for the over-populated earth of the future may be ignored. That research is bringing the brighter answer to this problem, there seems to be most excellent ground to hope. WARM AND COLD WATER FOR MILCH COWS IN ~ WINTER. WHETHER or not it is desirable in Wisconsin to warm water for domestic animals, has been experimented upon by F. H. King at the Agricultural Experiment Station at Madison. On the night of Jan. 21, 1889, six cows were placed in stanchions side by side, in two groups of three each, upon a daily ration of five pounds of bran mixed with two pounds of ground oats and six pounds of hay, together with what dry cut corn-fodder they would eat up clean; and this ration was not changed until after the close of the experiment, March 25. During this time the cows were fed twice and watered once daily. They were allowed the freedom of the barnyard during the middle of each pleasant day, and in every way received similar treatment, except that, when one group of cows was getting water at 32° F., the other group took it at 70° F. The time of the experiment was divided into three periods of six- teen days each, having intervals between them. At the close of the first and second periods the temperatures of the water were reversed for each of the cows in order to eliminate, so far as might be, the individual differences of the two groups. In plan this experiment contemplated as its chief object ascer- taining whether it is true, as many farmers believe, that warm water for milch cows produces a measurable increase in the yield of milk over that of cold water, and, if so, whether this increase affected the volume simply, or the weight of the solids contained, to an extent which weuld make it remunerative in general practice to warm the water for cows. The discussion of the results obtained has shown for these six- cows, while under experiment, the following facts : — 1. While on warm water, they gave, on the average, 1.002 pounds of milk per cow per day more than while on cold water, or 6.23 per cent of the general average daily yield of 16.06 pounds. 2. They drank on the average, daily, while on cold water, 63 pounds; but while on warm, 73 pounds, or Io pounds per cow more. 3. They ate more while on warm water than while on cold, and at the rate of .74 of a pound of corn-fodder per cow per day. 4. An increase in the amount of water drank was coincident with an increase in the quantity of milk given; and this was true irre- spective of whether the water was warm or cold, an increase of 1o pounds in every 100 pounds of water drank being accompanied by an increase of 1 pound in every 100 pounds of milk given, nearly. 5. They consumed solid food, while on warm water, at the rate of 1.44 pounds for each pound of milk produced; and while on cold water, at the rate of 1.54 pounds for each pound of milk given. 6. An increase in the amount of water drank, when the temper- ature of the water remained the same, was associated with an increase in the amount of water in the milk without a notable increase in the total solids contained. “7. An increase in the temperature of the water drank, rather than an increase in the quantity of it, was associated with an in- crease in the total amount of solids produced. 8. There was a daily fluctuation in the percentage of water in the milk associated with a fluctuation in the amount of water drank. i g. Five cows manifested a strong preference for water at 70° over that of 32°, but one of the cows showed an even stronger lik- ing for the iced water. 10. With but one exception, the cows, while they ate less and drank less during the cold-water periods, weighed more at their SCIENCE. [Vor. XIV. No. 354 close, and, with but three exceptions, they weighed less at the close of the warm-water periods. 11. With butter at 20 cents per pound, skimmed milk at 25 cents per hundredweight, corn-fodder at $5 per ton, and the cost of warming water for forty cows 120 days at $15, the results obtained from the cows on the experiment indicate that a net gain of $21.36 would be realized on a herd of forty cows averaging sixteen pounds of milk per cow per day, and at least $10 on a herd of twenty, and $5 on a herd of ten cows. Counting corn-fodder at $10 per ton, the net gain on a herd of forty cows would still be $12.48. THE ETHNOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE OF THE BEECH. THE new science of linguistic paleontology has thrown a flood of light on several obscure problems of ethnology. It has, for in- stance, been proved that the names of the ass and the camel in Aryan languages are not primitive, but merely loan-words from the Semitic. This fact by itself goes far to disprove the hypothesis which placed the cradle of the Aryans i in Central Asia, a pepion of which these animals are natives. According to an article on the above subject by Canon Isaac Taylor, published in a recent number of Avowledge, in no case have more valuable results been obtained than in the case of the beech. This tree, which flourishes only in temperate climates, and is a lover of chalk subsoils, is confined to a definite and restricted area. It grows in the extreme south of Norway and Sweden, but is not found east of a line which strikes across Europe from the Frische Haff on the Baltic coast, near Kénigsberg, through Poland to the Crimea, ending finally in the Caucasus. In former times the limit was more narrowly restricted. In Czesar’s time the beech had not reached Britain or Holland, while at the close of the bronze age, or the beginning of the iron age, it was only just beginning to replace the oak in Denmark. Early in the neolithic age its range was probably confined to France, north- ern Italy, and northern Greece ; while in Germany, as Dr. Schrader believes, it did not extend north of the Thuringian forest. It flourishes in Macedonia, and clothes the north-eastern slopes of the Thessalian coast chain, while in the south of Epirus the ilex or evergreen oak replaces it as the characteristic forest-tree. Within these ancient limits of the beech we must place the cradle of four Aryan languages, —German, Latin, Celtic, and Greek. We draw this conclusion from the following philological facts : the word for beech is, in Gothoic, doa ; in Latin, fagus ; in Celtic, fazdhbhzle ; while the corresponding word, @7yéc, de- notes the oak in Greek. With regard to other members of the Aryan family, the names for the beech — dz&y in old Slavonic, das in Lithuanian, and duz in Russian — are manifestly loan-words from the German. This would go to prove that the Slavs, in the prehistoric period, must have dwelt east of the beech line, though they have since advanced within it. Johannes Schmidt has shown reason for believing in the unbroken geographical continuity of the European Aryans, previous to the linguistic separation : hence they must be placed astride, so to speak, of the beech line, — the Slavs and Lithuanians in European Russia; and the Celts, Latins, Hellenes, and Teu- tons, farther to the west. We have now to account for the fact that the word denoting the beech in Latin, German, and Celtic, has come in Greek to denote, not the beech, but the oak. A well-known explanation of the dif- ficulty has been offered by Professor Max Miiller in the second series of his lectures. He contends that the word originally de- noted the oak, but that it was transferred to the beech at the time when the oak-forests of Jutland were replaced by beech-forests. But this does not account for the fact that the Latin word fagws means the beech, for Helbig has shown that the Umbrians had already reached Italy before the commencement of the age of bronze. The bronze age began in Italy earlier than in Denmark, and in the bronze age the oak was still the prevailing tree in Den- mark, and was quite unknown in the neolithic age, when the Um- brians, whose language was a dialect of Latin, were already settled in Italy. The word fagws, therefore, must have denoted the beech in Latin at a period prior to the change in the forest-growth to NoveEMBER 15, 1889.]| which Professor Max Miiller attributes the alteration in the mean- ing of the word. Moreover, a great change in the vegetation of a country, such as the replacement of the Danish oak-forests by forests of .beech, must have occupied many centuries. At what moment, then, was the name transferred from one tree to the other? Were the people of Denmark content to have no name for the beech when it first appeared, and what did they call the oak after having deprived it of its original title, in the prolonged period during which the two trees must have been growing side by side? Another hypothesis, less beset .with difficulties, has been ad- vanced by Geiger and Fick, who suppose that the word originally signified the beech, and received among the Greeks the changed signification of the oak. If the Greeks had migrated from a land of beeches to a land of oaks, there is no difficulty in understanding that they may have transferred the name of one tree to the other. The word meaning the food-tree (gay 7, “ to eat’) would be as ap- plicable to the evergreen oak, with its acorns, as to the beech, the mast of which was the staple food for their swine. The beech, as has been said, is not found south of Dodona, which lies in the cen- tre of Epirus. It is noticeable that the most ancient Greek legends ‘are connected with Dodona, where the Greeks made their first halt in their progress to the south, and where the earliest prophetic * utterances were obtained from the rustling of the leaves of the sacred tree, — the éyyis.. Hence we may believe that the Greeks entered the peninsula, not from Asia Minor, but from the north- west, through the valleys of Epirus. This route would explain how the old Aryan word denoting the beech came to be applied by the immigrants to designate the tree which flourished on the hill- slopes of their new territory. In modern times we have similar in- stances of transferred names in the United States, where such English names as “the robin,” “the hemlock,” and “‘ the maple ” are used to denote wholly different species. But with regard to the Greeks, it may be urged that before they entered the peninsula they must have been already acquainted with the deciduous oak which flourishes in the region whence they emi- grated. This objection is met by the fact that the Greeks had a second name for the oak, dpus, which corresponds to the old Irish daur oak, as well as to the Gothic ¢vzz, and the Sanscrit dru, which mean simply a tree. Both of the Greek words for the oak are used by Sophocles in speaking of the sacred oak at Dodona. The Greek word for the deciduous oak agrees with the Celtic word, while the Greek word for the evergreen oak was the word which in their former home had denoted the beech. The question as to whether the original Aryan word denoted the beech or the oak is not unimportant, as from it may be drawn an inference as to the primitive seat of the Aryan race. According to Professor Max Miller, the Aryans migrated from Central Asia, where the beech is unknown. If this had been the €ase, it is extremely difficult to explain how the ancestors of the Latins, Celts, and Teutons, migrating, as Pictet maintains, at dif- ferent times and by different routes, to lands where the beech abounds, should all have chanced to call it by the same primitive name, merely modified according to the fundamental phonetic laws of Latin and German. But, on the other hand, all such difficulties disappear if we assume that the cradle of the Aryans was in the original beech region ; that is, roughly speaking, in the valleys of * _ the Rhine, the Main, and the Danube; and that it was here that the differentiation of the Greek, Latin, Celtic, and German lan- guages took place. The name of the beech bears also on the solution of the ques- tion as to which of the neolithic races has the best claim to repre- Sent the primitive Aryans. The choice probably lies between the brachycephalic Celto-Latin race, some of whose earliest settlements may be discovered in the pile-dwellings of Bavaria, Switzerland, and northern Italy, and the dolichocephalic Scandinavian race, whose remains are found in the Danish kitchen-middens. That one of these races constituted the primitive Aryan race, and im- posed its language on the other, is highly probable. Now, as we have already seen, in the neolithic age the beech had not yet reached Denmark, the fir being at that time the predomi- nant tree. In the bronze age, the fir was succeeded by the oak, which gave place in the iron period to the beech: hence the beech SCIEN CE. 33) region was at that time inhabited by the Celto-Latin people, while the Scandinavian race in all probability dwelt to the north of its limit. The beech has therefore a threefold ethnological significance. 1. It proves that the Greeks entered Hellas from the north, probably through Epirus, and not, as has been contended, from Asia Minor. 2. It proves that the differentiation of the Aryan languages took place not in Asia, but in Central Europe, on either side of the beech line ; the Slavs and Lithuanians being to the east of it, the Greeks, Celts, and Latins, farther to the west. 3. It makes it prob- able that the primitive Aryans belonged to the brachycephalic Celto-Latin race, and not the dolichocephalic Scandinavians. ENGLAND’S COAL-RESOURCES. A PAPER on this subject was read by Professor Edward Hull at the recent meeting of the British Association. To at once set at rest any alarm that may be felt as to Professor Hull unfurling the old banner of “Exhaustion of English Coal-Fields,” Engéneering states that he estimates there is enough coal in Northumberland and Durham to last, at the present rate of consumption, for three hundred years ; supposing, of course, one goes deep enough for it. Before that period has elapsed, however, it is to be hoped, on be- half of posterity, that the petroleum-engine, the sun-motor, or some other force, will have promoted steam and gas engines to the serener atmosphere of the antiquarian museum. Professor Hull is the director of the Geological Survey in Ireland, and he naturaily turns to coal as a refreshing subject, which has not become hackneyed to him by his official labors. By a diagram shown on the walls, the output of coal since the beginning of the century was given. The figures have often been quoted, but may be given once again in brief. In the year 1800 the output of coal probably did not exceed 10,000,000 tons, a very large proportion of which was drawn from the Newcastle district. In the year 1830 the quantity raised in the British Islands was about 29,000,000 tons, it 1860 it had reached 80,042,698, and in 1888 the quantity had reached about 170,000,000 tons, as shown by the returns issued by the Board of Trade. There was reason for believing that between the beginning of the century and the year 1875 the output of coal had more than doubled itself for each successive quarter of a cen- tury. Since the year 1860, in which the author had estimated that sufficient coal existed to a limiting depth of 4,000 feet to last, at the rate of production for that year, for one thousand years, the available quantity of coal had been reduced by 3,650,000,000 tons ; but this amount, great as it was, had not very materially affected the coal-resources. The production of the South Wales coal-field had doubled in the quarter of a century between 1854 and 1879, and in 1888 amounted to the enormous total of 27,355,000 tons, largely owing to the demand for steam-coal in the Cardiff district. The resources of this great basin are enormous, and render it capa- ble of maintaining or increasing its present output for a long period of years. The Lancashire and Cheshire and the great Yorkshire and Nottingham coal-fields are highly progressive, as is also the Northumberland and Durham. This great northern coal-field, not- withstanding the long period over which it has been worked, shows no signs of falling off in its output. The discovery of the liassic ironstone of the Cleveland district, and the great exports from the northern ports, have given a vast impetus to northern coal-mining during the last quarter of a century ; and the enormous drain upon this coal-field, the limits of which have been definitely determined, cannot fail to cause a serious falling-off in its output during the twentieth century, although there is sufficient to maintain the pres- ent rate of consumption for three hundred years. The relation between coal-production and the development of the iron trade since the discovery of the ironstone deposits of the North Riding of Yorkshire, and the richer hematites of North Lancashire and Cumberland, was then considered ; and the different coal-fields of the British Isles were passed in review in order to show those which are in a progressive condition, and which are stationary or retrogressive. The author concluded his subject by expressing an opinion, that, while the enormous output of coal during the past few years had not actually crippled England’s resources, a general rise in the value of coal must ensue in the near future, owing to OS the greater depth at which the mines will have to be worked, and the increased cost of coal-mining. Reference was then made te the great expansion of coal-mining in America, and the author agreed with the late Professor Jevons that future British manufac- turers must not expect to derive any help from the import of coal from the United States when coal shall have become dear or scarce at home. A good discussion followed the reading of this paper. Mr. Bourne pointed out that the opening of the Canadian route to the East would ease the demand on English product, as coal had been discovered in the Dominion. Thus the Peninsular and Oriental ships, instead of filling with English coal at foreign stations, would probably be running from Vancouver to China and Japan, and use Canadian coal. The speaker looked to petroleum to lessen the de- mand for coal in many instances, as it had already done in many cases. He did not consider the electric light had done much in this direction, but, if water-power could be more largely used, some relief might be hoped for in that direction. Mr. G. W. Hastings, M.P., spoke on the aspect of the question from the political economist’s standpoint, and pointed out that coal-owners had been making very little profit from their ex- ports. ‘ Mr. John Marley, president of the Northern Institute of Mining and Mechanical Engineers (Darlington), said it would be well if Professor Hull had taken into consideration one or two facts in con- nection with the coal-trade. One was that thirty years ago the amount of coal required for the production of eyery ton of pig-iron and its detailed manufacture was double the quantity it is now. That would, therefore, form an element in future calculations. Also the manufacture of steel only required about half the number of tons of coal which was required for each ton of manufactured iron. Another point which the professor had named was his differing from the Royal Coal Commission in not taking into ac- count the coal-seams between 12 inches and 24 inches in thickness. The professor evidently thought that these seams will not come into play so much as he (Mr. Marley) would venture to sub- mit they will, on account of the great depth to which shafts will have to be sunk to work them. Hull’s attention to the fact that these shafts have to be sunk, and are sunk, to the thicker seams; and when these thicker seams are exhausted, then the thin seams, between 1 foot and 2 feet in thickness, come into play. He spoke of what_was an actual fact, for he knew many instances where seams of 14, 16, and 18 inches were at this moment being worked profitably in the county of Durham from shafts sunk from the thicker seams. Professor Hull would therefore see that his objection to the expensive shafts for these thin seams did not really apply. Professor Hull, in reply, did not anticipate that petroleum, how- ever largely it was likely to come into use in England, would make very much difference in the demand for coal. As to Mr. Marley’s remarks on the greater economy of fuel in the manufacture of iron, he himself could remember when eight tons of coal were required in the Midlands for the production of one ton of iron, while now only 14 tons of coke were required in Cleveland per ton of pig-iron. At the same time, the economy in the use of coal was more than coun- terbalanced by the enormous increase in the production of iron. HEALTH MATTERS. Insanity following Surgical Operations. IN a recent letter to the Bretzsh Medical Fournal, Dr. Tait writes, — “‘T have now performed, so far as I can estimate, between seven thousand and eight thousand operations requiring the use of an- zesthetics, and I have had anzsthetics administered in my practice for purposes not involving traumatism probably in three thousand more instances, and I know of seven cases of sequent — not neces- rarily consequent — insanity. Of course, there may have been others not known to me, and I shall say fourteen cases to cover that margin of error. My own practice, therefore, does not yield a proportion of cases of insanity following operations larger than the general proportion of insanity in the adult female population ; and, SCIENCE. He would call Professor [VoL. XIV. No. 354 if I include the cases of anesthesia, it is probably considerably smaller. “Dr. Denis, in his book on this subject, says, ‘En moyenne, on observe 2.5 cas d’aliénation mentale sur 100 opérations.’ But if this had been the case, all of us engaged in active operating prac- tice would have felt the influence of the fact long ago. Personally I have been struck by the occurrence of insanity after operations as being like the occurrence of tetanus, —something to be met with occasionally, but not a matter to calculateupon. If I saw an insanity rate of 2.5 in my operations, it would be more striking than any death-rate in every thing but my hysterectomies, and in that class I have already said I have never seen insanity follow in a single instance; and Dr. Bantock’s experience amounts to prac- tically the same result, for his exception cannot really be called one of insanity following an operation. As a fer contra, 1 can point to at least thirteen cases where operations have cured insanity.” TRANSPLANTATION OF SKIN FROM A CORPSE TO A LIVING PERSON. — Dr. Bartens has successfully transplanted the skin of a corpse to a living person who had been severely burned. His method of procedure, as described in the Brooklyn Medical Jour- nal, was as follows: On Dec. 13 a lunatic died in the hospital of pyzemia following a compound fracture of the arm, and about twenty minutes after his death two large, good-conditioned flaps were removed from the legs of the corpse. These were laid in warm water to which a little salt had been added, and then were taken to the division of the hospital (two or three hundred yards away) in which the scalded boy lay. These flaps were then care- fully washed, and cleansed of their subjacent fatty pannus; that done, they were divided into smaller pieces of from one centimetre wide to about one to two centimetres long (the ulcerated surfaces of the boy’s legs had been cleansed in the same manner as the flaps in the mean time); then these pieces were laid on to fit as nearly as might be, dusted over with iodoform and covered with batting, and compresses applied. This whole proceeding took about one hour and a half from the time of the death of the old man. There were twenty-eight pieces applied in all; as it hap- pened, too, fourteen on each limb. On the 19th of December the bandages were removed for the first time, and it was found that there was union of twenty-four of these grafts. COCAINE HALLUCINATIONS. — MM. Magnan and Saury report three cases of hallucination due to the cocaine habit. According to the Brztish Medical Journal, one patient was always scraping his tongue, and thought he was extracting from it little black worms; another made his skin raw in the endeavor to draw out~ cholera microbes; and a third, a physician, is perpetually looking for cocaine crystals under his skin. Two patients suffered from epileptic attacks, and a third from cramps. notice that two of these patients were persons who had resorted to. cocaine in the hope of being able to cure themselves thereby of the morphine habit, —an expectation which had been disappointed. For more than a year they had daily injected from one to two grams of cocaine under the skin; without, however, giving up the morphine injections, which were only reduced in quantity. The possibility of substituting cocainism in the endeavor to cure mor- phinomania is a danger, therefore, which must be carefully held in view. NOTES AND NEWS. THE officers for the coming year of the Society for the Promo- tion of Agricultural Science are Professor C. E. Bessey of the Uni- versity of Nebraska, for president; Professor W. R. Lazenby of Ohio University, for secretary and treasurer ; and professor T. J. Burrill of Illinois University, for third member of the council. — The thirty-third annual convention of the Association of Col- lege Presidents in New England began Nov. 7, in New Haven, Conn., at the residence of President Dwight. Delegates were present from eleven colleges, including President Eliot of Harvard, President Warren of the University of Boston, Professor Richard— son of Dartmouth, President Smith of Trinity, President Carter o£ It is important to NovEMBER 15, 1889. ] Williams, President Dwight, Professors Newton and Wright of Yale, President Capen of Tufts, President Raymond of Wesleyan, President Hyde of Bowdoin, and President Andrews of Brown. The discussions were on these subjects: First, ‘‘ What should be the Minimum of Mathematical Studies for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts?” Second, “‘ Ought not our Courses of Study, both Pre- scribed and Elective, be so arranged that any Given Candidate for the Degree of Bachelor of Arts should be compelled to confine his Time to a Smaller Number of Subjects?” Third, “The Expedi- ency of requiring Somewhat of Natural Science for Admission to College.” Fourth, ‘‘ The Means of inducing Secondary Schools to teach Science by Laboratory Methods.” The convention continued through Nov. 8. Among the subjects discussed were, ‘‘ The ex- pediency of reducing the College Course to Three Years,” “ Limi- tation of Society Conventions in Term Time,” ‘“‘The Advantage of College Training for Teachers,” and “ The College Pastorate.” — Peter Graff of Worthington has announced the gift of twenty- five thousand dollars out of the estate of his son, Charles H. Graff, M.D., to endow a professorship of hygiene and physical culture in Pennsylvania College at Gettysburg. Dr. George D. Staley of Lebanon, formerly of Harrisburg, has been chosen to fill the chair. — The leading ship“builders in England have just submitted to the Canadian Pacific Company offers for the construction of three first-class passenger-steamers for the Atlantic service in connection with the new route to the East. It will be remembered, says Z7- gineering, that a week or two ago the Naval Construction and Armament Company, whose works are at Barrow, were commis- sioned to build three twin-screw steamers of 7,000 tons, being 440 feet long, to attain a speed of 18 knots an hour, for service between Vancouver and Yokohama, the other sea-passage of the route; the Canadian Pacific Railroad carrying the passengers from the At- lantic seaboard in Canada to the Pacific. The new Atlantic steamers will be faster than the Pacific vessels, having a maximum speed of 20 knots, with the engines indicating about 10,000 horse- power, and the boilers, of which there will be ten, working at a pressure of 165 pounds to the square inch. The intention is that the voyage from the south of England to Halifax in the winter, and Quebec in the summer, should be accomplished in at most five days anda half. Unlike the Pacific steamers, they will be propelled by a single screw, but it is quite possible that before the contract is ultimately fixed this may be altered. In the case of the Pacific steamers the first idea was to have a single screw; and, as nego- tiations proceeded, the builders were asked to tender for twin-screw boats, and the beam and depth of the hulls were considerably in- creased. The Atlantic vessels will, according to present design, be 480 feet long by 54 feet beam by 25 feet draught. The first of the new vessels, according to the mail contract with the govern- ment, must be ready to sail in February, 1891, so that the order for the steamers will likely be placed before long. It is expected that the passage from the south of England to Japan will be made in twenty-three days without any difficulty. The distance is about 9,250 miles, as against. 13,750 by the Suez Canal, and 15,500 by the Cape. To Shanghai, also, the route is shorter vza Canada, being 10,500 miles, as against 12,500 and 14,500 respectively by Suez and the Cape. — An imperial Chinese edict, dated Aug. 27, 1889, states that “the sovereign is of opinion that to make a country powerful, rail- ways are essential.” What a wonderful change this represents in Celestial opinion since the time of the Chinese war! The great trunk line between Peking and Hankow is to be immediately com- menced in two places, —in the south, from Hankow to Sin- Yang Chow; in the north, from Lu-Kow K’iao to Cheng-Ting Fu,— leaving the intervening sections for a future period. Lu-kow is five miles south of Peking. The construction of the line, accord- ing to Engineering, is to be under the management of Chow Fu and Taoti Pan Chiin-teh, under the general superintendence of Li Hung Chang and the Admiralty. Li has transferred the whole of the foreign staff of the existing Maiping-Tientsin line to the new railway, although one of his colleagues advises that Chinese capital and labor should be relied upon solely. There is stilla very strong opposition to railways in China; and the emperor, out of compas- sion for those who, in pulpit phraseology, may be called his “ weaker SCIENCE. _per cent of the men with blue eyes had fair hair. 333 s brethren,” has ordered the viceroys and governors of Chihli, Hupeh, and Honan to issue explanatory proclamations, exhorting: and commanding all people to throw no impediment in the way.. “It is the imperial desire that all shall work together to make this: great work a success.” This will be the first railway openly con- structed in China. The existing line commenced as a tramway from the coal-mines to a canal. Then a locomotive was put upon: it, and little by little it was extended until it reached Tientsin. If the Chinese would only commence to build railways in good ear- nest, the effect would soon be felt in England. —At the recent meeting of the Congress of German Men of Science and Physicians at Heidelberg, Herr O. Ammon submitted to the Anthropological Section some interesting results of observa- tions he had made in Baden. These observations, says Vature, related to five thousand soldiers, The tall men had generally long skulls, or skulls of medium length, whereas the short men had round skulls. Most of the round-skulled men came from the Black Forest ; the long-skulled usually belonged to the valley of the Rhine, and were especially numerous in towns and in the neighbor- hood of the castles of ancient families. From this fact Herr Am- mon concluded that the round-skulled men had been the origina) inhabitants of the Rhine valley, that they had been driven from it by long-skulled invaders, and that the latter had established them- selves near the settlements of their victorious leaders. Having shown that there is a certain relation between the height of the figure and the shape of the skull, Herr Ammon went on to indicate the relation between fair hair and blue eyes. No fewer than 80 He found also that physical growth is generally quicker in the case of the brown- eyed than in that of the blue-eyed type. — In a paper read before the Royal Danish Academy in Feb- ruary, M. Adam Paulsen gave some interesting particulars of ob- servations made with the object of determining the height of the aurora. JVature states that two theodolites were used, the ob- serving telescopes of which were replaced by short tubes having small holes at the eye ends, and metallic cross-wires at the other ends. Two of the stations were situated in the same magnetic meridian, on opposite banks of the Fiord of Godthaab, at a distance apart of 5800.4 metres. The vertical circles of the two theodolites were placed in a common plane by means of observations of “ blue- fire” signals given at each station. Signals were also exchanged on the appearance of an aurora which it was thought possible to measure, so that simultaneous observations were secured ; and it was previously agreed to direct the instruments to the base of the auroral arc. The observations at Godthaab gave heights for dif- ferent aurore ranging from 0.6 of a kilometre to 67.8 kilometres. A second series of observations with the same apparatus and methods was made in 1885 by MM. Garde and Eberlin at Nanor- talik, near Cape Farewell, the base-line in this case being 1247.8. metres ; and the values determined here were 1.6 to 15.5 kilometres.. The results obtained by the staff of the Swedish International Ex- pedition at Spitzbergen, with a base of 572.6 metres, range fron» 0.6 to 29.2 kilometres. These observations, therefore, lead to the conclusion that aurore are by no means confined to the highest parts of our atmosphere, but that they occur almost indifferently at all altitudes. In support of this view, M. Paulsen gives accounts of several appearances of aurorz: beneath the clouds and the summits of mountains. It is interesting to compare the new values with those given by previous observers. M. Flégel calculated the heights. of several auroree which appeared in the autumn of 1870, and con- cluded that only the very lowest parts of the aurora came at all within the limits of our atmosphere: he gave the actual limits as 150 to 500 kilometres. For an aurora on Oct. 25, 1870, M. Rei- mann found a height of from 800 to goo kilometres, and Norden- skiéld came to the conclusion that the mean height of aurore was about 200 kilometres. On the other hand, Lemstrom has observed aurorze as low as 300 metres, and M. Hildebrandsson has seen aurore in a completely clouded sky. Considering all the facts of the case, M. Paulsen inclines to believe that in the temperate zone, aurore only appear in the higher layers of the atmosphere ; where- as in the auroral zone, properly speaking, the phenomenon is gen— erally produced in the lower layers. 334 SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY Wo IDs Ce lef @ad) Giz Ss, + 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEw YORK. SupscripTions.— United States and Canada...............-....$3.50 a yeal. Great Britain and Europe. . - 4.50 a year. Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers -are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author -on request in advance. Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- ‘tended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; mot necessarily for publication, but asa guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the ‘‘ Wants’? column, All are invited to use it in soliciting ‘information or seeking new positions. —The name and address of applicants should be given in full,so that answers will go direct to them. The ‘* Exchange ’’ column is likewise open. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, NoveMBer 15, 1889. No. 354 CONTENTS: ELectric ACCUMULATORS.........-. 325 tional Instructors ? — Cave-Air | for Ventilation. MacGnoria-METAL..........- «-+--+ 32 | |} 40399} ISIE DN 7oooonccesboabe |c6n00 335 28 = 3 | THe Kansas ACADEMY OF SCIENCE, 337 Warm anv Co_p Water For MILcH Boox-REVIEWS. Cows 1n WINTER.........-.- = 330 | | Studies in Pedagogy............... 337 THe ETHNOLOGICAL SIGNIFICANCE c ee Seven Thousand Words often Mis- OF THE BEECH..... . ..- .-e++s 330 PRONCVICC so5 sos0n00598 sHosEO 337 TEENGLAND’S COAL-RESOURCES ....... 331 The State. Elements of Historical and Practical Politics............ 338 /Heattu Matters. . eI ; p AMONG THE PUBLISHERS...... Insanity following Surgical Opera- aS 338 MONS eee ee eects one 332 | LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. “Lransplantati f Ski P : ed Si io Sake te a A Precocious Botanist C.S.M. 340 2B A SSE ROG 28 332 The Champlain Period in the Sus- ‘Cocaine Hallucinations............ 332 : quehanna Valley SNOTES PANDENEWSieeieiesocice ache secs 332 Harvey B. Bashore 340 ID MOVIN GG So5boGcaNe6acx0000000-000 334 | InDusTRIAL NotEs. A New Stage in the Prosperity of * Microscopes and Photographic Sup- Johns Hopkins. University. — Will Schools and Colleges make known their Wants as to Addi- Sanitary Ventilation . The Merritt Type-Writer WHEN JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY was first opened, it was feared by some that it would have to depend for support on the funds left it by Johns Hopkins, and that others who might give freely to any of the older educational institutions would hesitate about aiding an institution which is so young as Johns Hopkins University, and whose prosperity is yet a credit to the memory of the founder. The events of the last few months show, however, that Johns Hopkins University has entered on a second stage in its development. It is known to all that when, on the stopping of the dividends on Baltimore and Ohio stock, it became impera- tive that funds be raised to supplement the income from other sources, enough admirers of the stand the university has taken among American educational institutions were found willing and able to give one hundred thousand dollars to enable the university to maintain the high grade of teaching and investigation so charac- teristic of it from the start. This was well enough, so far as it went; but this seems now to have been merely No. 1 in the list of gener- ous gifts to the university this year. There followed the gift of twenty thousand dollars by Mr. Eugene Levering to the Christian Association, which has been used in erecting a building, now mearly completed. Mr. John W. McCoy gave the university, upon his death, more than one hundred thousand dollars, a magnificent library, and made the university the residuary legatee of a large estate, from which it will realize another considerable sum. The gift of twenty thousand dollars to found the Turnbull lectureship ~ SCIENCE. of English poetry preceded the bequest of Mr. McCoy, and filled a long-felt want in the English department. In all, during the last six months, the university has been the recipient of more than four hundred thousand dollars, including the amount that will probably be realized from the residuum of the McCoy estate. This does not include the McCoy library. A most satisfactory gift, as showing approval of the work done by Johns Hopkins University, is that of Mrs. Caroline Donovan, which we chronicle this week. Mrs. Donovan in her letter stated she had observed with satisfaction the work at the university, and as an evidence of her appreciation she asked the trustees to accept a gift of one hundred thousand dollars, provided that the income thereof should be used in the endowment of a chair in the univer- sity. Mayor Latrobe of Baltimore, the legal adviser of Mrs. Dono- van, through whom the gift was announced to the university trustees, said, in his presentation address, ‘‘ My friend, Mrs. Caro- line Donovan, directs me to say in this connection, first, that she has written two letters, — one of them designating English litera- ture, the other not naming any particular branch of instruction for which the chair is to be established. Her preference is thus shown for the study of English literature, but at the same time she does not wish to encumber the gift with this condition, and therefore leaves it to be decided by the university, she desiring to found such a chair as may be of the most practical service. From her con- versations with me on the subject, I can say, however, that Mrs. Donovan would greatly prefer if the decision of the university in this connection was not for instruction in any of the so-called ‘dead languages.’ Second, Mrs. Donovan desires me to say that the money she gives is her own, made by herself, and not by gift or devise. this gift she has liberally provided for all those having any claim upon her through blood relationship or otherwise. No just com- plaint can therefore be made by any one, that he’or she has been wronged by her thus disposing of her own money.” Mrs. Dono- van is the widow of William Donovan, who died several years ago. She is about eighty-six years of age, and resides in Baltimore County, a few miles from Catonsville, and is a liberal giver to many worthy charities, all of which she does secretly, in a very unosten- tatious manner. Her greatest fear was of having the matter men- tioned in the newspapers, but Mr. Latrobe told her that it was im- possible to keep any thing from them. When Mayor Latrobe suggested the gift should be called “ The Caroline Donovan Chair,” she objected on the ground that a chair bearing a woman’s name was unusual. This succession of gifts marks the advent of a grow- ing prosperity in the life of this university, of which all Americans are proud. WILL SCHOOLS AND COLLEGES take advantage of the opportu- nities we offer them to make known, free of all cost, their needs as to additional teachers? We want to publish such items as news, and news of very great interest to many of our readers, but we find it next to impossible to rouse the school owners and managers to use what we offer. So far, in the several months that our “ Want” column has been open, but one, ‘“ M. H.,” has availed himself of it to advertise for a teacher. That he didso to good pur- pose may be judged by the following extract from his letter: “I have to thank you and your admirable paper for securing a most competent man as teacher of natural science in Ogden College. I have had, I suppose, thirty or more applications, and they are still coming.” This feature has been urged on us occasionally; but, to make it of due value, there is need of a great waking-up on the part of those most interested. The backbone of any of the nu- merous engineering papers published in this country is the weekly list of new engineering undertakings, showing manufacturers and others where they can place their goods. The goods of some of our readers are their teaching capacities, and we hope that both [Vor. XIV. No. 354 Third, She also instructs me to say that before making . NovemMBER 15, 1889. } teachers of science and employers of such teachers will use the columns of this weekly to make public their needs, that they may be the better filled. We appreciate that the commercial spirit is weak in the class to which we are appealing, but it is hard to be- lieve that it is so weak as not to lead them to write us a postal the ‘contents of which when published may lead to an improvement in their position. Co. M. H. Crump of Bowling Green, Ky., is carrying on ex- periments to see whether the air from the so-called Grand Avenue ‘Cave cannot be used for regulating the temperature of a proposed hotel at that point. We have already called attention to these ex- periments, and Col. Crump has advertised in Sczezce constantly for some weeks for information on the use of cave air for such purposes, but none of the readers of Sczezce have much to offer. ‘The scheme is novel, and the prominent geologists of the country who have been consulted have expressed considerable interest in the outcome. THE HORN-FLY. THE knowledge of this pest now in the possession of the division of entomology of the United States Agricultural Department is sufficiently far advanced to enable it to present a preliminary article in the last number of /zsect Lzfe, giving the main facts ascertained. A more complete article will be published in the annual report. Attention was first called to this pest in September, 1887, when Mr. I. W. Nicholson of Camden, N.J., wrote to the department, under date of Sept. 22, as follows : “‘ Herewith I send some speci- mens of flies which appear to have made their first appearance about the middle of August. They are very annoying to cattle, but rarely settle upon the horses or mules. They gather in patches or clusters, particularly upon the legs, and are very active. I should like to know if they are common in other parts of the United States. They appear to be very numerous in all the counties near Philadelphia, yet I have seen no person who has observed them before this season.” Later letters the same season from Mr. Nicholson mentioned the common habit of clustering upon the horns, and the fact that after a severé frost in the middle of October the fly disap- peared. May 15, 1888, the same gentleman wrote that the flies had promptly made their appearance May Io, or a little before, in great mumbers. A few days later the same insect was heard of in Har- ford County, Md., through Mr. George R. Stephenson, who re- ported its occurrence in that locality the previous summer. By the summer of 1889 the pest had extended in numbers much farther_to the southward, and the department was early informed of its occurrence in Harford and Howard Counties, Md., and Prince William, Fauquier, Stafford, Culpeper, Louisa, Augusta, Bucking- ham, and Bedford Counties, Va. The alarm became-great. Con- siderable time has therefore been devoted to the study of the habits and life-history of the insect. This was done mainly by Mr. Howard, who made a number of short trips to The Plains, War- renton, and Calverton during June and July. Later in the season Mr. Marlatt assisted in the work, which had been greatly facilitated by Mr. G. M. Bastable, Mr. David Whittaker, Mr. M. M. Green, and Mr. William Johnson, and particularly by Col. Robert Beverly. Aug. 20, Mr. Howard found the flies practically in Washington, — in Georgetown, —and the next day Mr. Marlatt found them in _ Rosslyn, at the Virginia end of the Aqueduct Bridge, so that further trips for material were not necessary. The result of the summer’s observations by these two gentlemen is that the life-history of the insect has been accurately made out from the egg to the fly through several consecutive generations, and that substances can be recommended which, from their ex- perience, will keep the flies away for from five to six days; while from the life-history a suggestion as to preventives is made, which, under certain circumstances, will prove undoubtedly of great benefit. SCIENCE. 335 Since this insect was first brought to notice, it has been felt that it was an imported pest. Its first appearance in the neighborhood of Philadelphia, and its gradual spread southward, have favored this idea. The fact that in this country it has spread with much greater rapidity towards the south than towards the north would seem to indicate that it is a south European species. The exact time and place of the introduction, it is impossible to ascertain. Upon its first importation in small numbers, it was probably for some time unnoticed, and its first noticeable appear- ~ ance may not have been at the point of importation. All imported cattle from Europe pass through the quarantine stations of the Agricultural Department at either Littleton, Mass., Garfield, N.J., or Patapsco, Md., and an examination of the records develops one or two points of interest. Since 1884 only ten head of cattle have been imported into the country direct from France. All of these have passed through the New Jersey station, but their ultimate destinations have in no cases been within the regions now infested with the fly. The other importations have been from points like Antwerp, London, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Glasgow, Liverpool, Southampton, Hull, Rotterdam, and Bristol. The year 1886, immediately preceding the appearance of the fly, was marked by quite an extensive importation of Holsteins from Am- sterdam and Rotterdam and London, through the Garfield station, mainly for parties in New York City. Over three hundred were imported, and an interesting point to investigate will therefore be the occurrence or non-occurrence of this fly in Holland. The popular name which is here adopted — the “ horn-fly ” — has the sanction of popular use. It is sufficiently distinctive. The names of “ Texas fly’ and “ Buffalo fly” and “ Buffalo gnat ” are also in use in some sections, and indicate an impression that the insect came from the West. Dr. Lintner uses the term “ cow-horn fly.”” The most prominent of the popular errors is the belief that the fly damages the horn, eats into its substance, causes it to rot, and even lays eggs in it, which hatch into maggots and may penetrate to the brain. There is no foundation for these beliefs, As will be shown later, the flies congregate on the bases of the horns only to rest where they are not liable to be disturbed. While they are there, they are always found in the characteristic resting position. Where they have been clustering thickly on the horns, the latter become fly-specked, and appear at a little distance as though they might be damaged ; and it is doubtless this fact which has given rise to the erroneous opinions cited. Mr. Howard's first impression upon entering the field, that the eggs would be found to be laid in freshly dropped dung, proved to be correct. He brought to Washington with him from Calverton dung dropped on the night of July 28, and exposed in the field during the 29th; and from this dung the first adult flies, five in number, issued Aug. 7, only ten days from the laying of the eggs. This settled the point of place of oviposition and breeding. It seemed probable that this was the only substance in which the ~ species breeds, as indeed it is the only likely substance which exists in sufficient quantity through the pastures to harbor the multitudes of flies which are constantly issuing through the summer. How- ever, many living females were captured, and placed in breeding- cages with horse-dung and decaying animal and vegetable material of different kinds, each isolated ; and it resulted that a few ovipos- ited in the horse-dung, and four flies were reared from this sub- stance. There is no evidence, however, that in a state of nature the flies will lay their eggs in any thing but cow-dung. The time and manner of oviposition were puzzling at first. After hours of close watching of fresh dung in pastures close to grazing cattle, not a single Hematobza was seen to visit the dung, much less to lay anegg. This close observation was made at all times of the day from dawn till dusk without result, while breeding- cage experiments were all the time proving that nearly all fresh droppings contained many eggs. With some hesitation, therefore, the inference was made that the eggs were presumably laid at night. The question was, however, considered by no means settled ; and, on the discovery of the fly at Rosslyn, Mr. Marlatt was directed to make especial observations upon this point. The first result was, that careful examination of dung dropped in the early 336 morning (prior to 7 A.M.) showed very few eggs, not more than eight or ten to a single dropping, while that dropped between 4 P.M. and later in the night contained still fewer. On a dung dropped between Io and 11.30 A.M. in the hot sunshine, however, examination a few minutes after showed a large number of eggs, estimated at three hundred and fifty. Other very fresh droppings were examined, and the eggs were found to range from none at all _ to over three hundred. One animal was then fortunately observed, from close quarters, in the act of passing her dung. As the opera- tion commenced, forty or fifty of the flies moved from the flank to the back of the thigh, near the “ milk mirror;” and at the close of the operation they were seen to dart instantly to the dung, and to move quickly over its surface, stopping but an instant to deposit an egg. The abdomen and ovipositor were fully extended, and the wings were held in a resting position. Most of them had left the dung at the expiration of thirty seconds, while a few still remained at the expiration of a minute. Every individual had returned to the cow, however, in little more than a minute. This explains the previous non-success in observing the act of oviposition; for the Virginia cattle on the large stock-farms are comparatively wild, and, although the dung was examined as speedily as possible after dropping, the flies had already left. The results, therefore, indicate that the eggs are deposited dur- ing daylight, chiefly during the warmer time of the day, between 9 and 4, and mainly between 9 in the morning and noon. They are laid singly, and never in clusters, and usually on their sides on the surface of the wet dung, seldom inserted in cracks. After the eggs hatch, the larvae descend into the dung, remain- ing, however, rather near the surface. When ready to transform, the larvae evidently descend from the dung into the ground below from a half to three-quarters of an inch. Actual observations were made on larve in dung in breeding-cages where the soil was fine sand, affording ready entrance to the larve. Where the dung has been dropped upon hard ground, the probabilities are that they will not enter so deeply, and may indeed transform upon the sur- face of the ground at the bottom of the dung. From the records it appears that from ten to seventeen days, say two weeks, is about the average time from the laying of the egg to the appearance of the flies; and with four active breeding months, from May 15 to Sept. 15, there will be eight generations. The flies will undoubtedly breed later than Sept. 15, but this time may be allowed to make up for the time occupied in the development of the eggs in the abdomen of the female. With seven or eight annual generations, the numbers of the flies are not surprising. “The flies were observed in the greatest abundance during July. They make their first noticeable appearance in Virginia early in May, and, from hearsay evidence, remain until “late in the fall” or until “right cold weather.’ Sept. 28, they were still as abundant as ever around Washington. The characteristic habit of cluster- ing about the base of the horn seems to exist only when the flies are quite abundant. When they average only a hundred or so toa single animal, comparatively few will be found on the horns. Moreover, as a general thing, the horn-clustering habit seems to be more predominant earlier in the season than later, although the flies may seem to benearly as numerous, The clustering upon the horns, although it has excited considerable alarm, is not productive of the slightest harm to the animal. Careful study of the insects in the field show that they assume two characteristic positions, — one while feeding, and the other while resting. It is the resting position in which they are always found when upon the horns. In this position the wings are held nearly flat down the back, over- lapping at the base, and diverging only moderately at the tip. The beak is held in a nearly horizontal position, and the legs are not widely spread. In the active sucking position, however, the wings are slightly elevated, and are held out from the body, not at right angles, but approaching it, —approximately an angle of sixty de- grees from the abdomen. The legs are spread out widely ; and the beak, inserted beneath the skin of the animal, is held in nearly a perpendicular position. The fly, before inserting its beak, has worked its way through the hairs close to the skin. While feed- ing, however, the hairs which can be seen over its body do not seem to interfere with its speedy flight when alarmed; for at a fling of the tail, or an impatient turn of the head, the flies rise instantly in SCIENCE: [ VoL. XIV. No. 354 ® a cloud for a foot or two, returning again as quickly, and resum- ing their former positions. The horns are not the only resting-places ; for, with the horns black for two inches above their base, we have seen the flies towards nightfall settle in vast numbers upon the back between the head and fore-shoulders, where they can be reached by neither tail nor head. When feeding, they are found over the back and flanks, and on the legs. During a rain-storm they flock beneath the belly. When the animal is lying down, a favorite place of attack seems to be under the thigh and back belly, around the bag. With certain animals the dewlap seems to be badly attacked, while with others this portion of the body is about exempt. Certain cattle, again, will be covered with flies, and will lose condition rapidly, while others are but slightly troubled. On the horns the flies settle thickly near the base, often forming a complete band for a distance of two inches or more. They seem to prefer the concave side to the convex side of the curve of the horn, probably for the reason that the cow cannot scrape them off so readily; and one cow was noticed in which they_reached nearly to the tip of the horn on the concave side of the curve only. The amount of damage done by the fly has been exaggerated by some, and underestimated by others. Many rumors have been heard of the death of animals from its attacks, but not a single case as yet has been substantiated. It is believed that the flies alone will never cause the death of an animal. They reduce the condition of stock to a considerable extent, and in the case of milch cows the yield of milk is reduced from one-fourth to one-half. Their bites seldom even produce sores by themselves, although a number of cases have been seen where large sores had been made by the cattle rubbing themselves against trees and fences in an endeavor to allay the irritation caused by the bites; or, in spots where they could not rub, by licking constantly with the tongue, as about the bag and on the inside of the hind-thighs. A sore once started in this way will increase with the continued irritation by the flies, and will be difficult to heal. Those who underesti- mate the damage believe that the flies do not suck blood ; but such persons have doubtless watched the flies only upon the horns or elsewhere in their resting position, when the beak is not inserted, or have caught them and crushed them when their bodies con- tained little blood. In reality, the flies suck a considerable amount of blood, however, and it is their only nourishment. If captured and crushed at the right time, the most sceptical individual will be convinced. - Almost any greasy substance will keep the flies away for several days. A number of experiments were tried in the field, with the result that train-oil alone, and train-oil with a little sulphur or carbolic acid added, will keep the flies away for from five to six days, while with a small proportion of carbolic acid it will have a healing effect upon sores which may have formed. Train-oil should not cost more than from fifty to seventy-five cents per gallon, and a gallon will anoint a number of animals. Common axle-grease, costing ten cents per box, will answer nearly as well; and this substance has been extensively and successfully used by Mr. William Johnson, a large stock-dealer at Warrenton, Va. Tallow has also been used to good advantage. The practice of smearing the horns with pine or coal-tar simply repels them from these parts. Train-oil or fish-oil seems to be more lasting in its effects than any other of the substances used. A great deal has been said during the summer concerning the merits of a proprietary substance, consisting mainly of tobacco- dust and creosote, known as “ X. O. dust,” and manufactured by a Baltimore firm, as an application to cattle : and it has received an indorsement from- Professor J. B. Smith, entomologist to the New Jersey Experiment Station. This substance has considerable merit as an insecticide, and will kill many of the flies when it touches them, although they die slowly, and a few may recover. The substance costs twenty-five cents per pound, and is not last- ing in its effects. Where it is dusted through the hair, the flies, on alighting, will not remain long enough to bite; but two days later they are again present in as great numbers as before. A spray of kerosene emulsion directed upon a cow would kill the flies quite as. surely, and would be cheaper; but it is not advisable to attempt to reduce the numbers of the pest by actually killing the flies. NovEMBER 15, 1889.| Throwing a spadeful of lime upon a cow-dung will destroy the larve which are living in it; and, as in almost every pasture there are some one or two spots where the cattle preferably congregate during the heat of the day, the dung which contains most of the larvz will consequently be more or less together, and easy to treat at once. If the evil should increase, therefore, it will well pay a stock-raiser to start a load of lime through his field occasionally, particularly in May or June, as every larva killed then represents the death of very many flies during August. Dr. C. V. Riley feels certain that this course will be found in many cases practical and of great avail, and will often be an advantage to the pasture besides. THE KANSAS ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. THE annual meeting of this society was held at Wichita. Among the papers read was the following : “On Monstrosities in Flower- ing Plants,” by W. A. Kellerman. The author illustrated what may be called extreme variations: in the development of certain parts of plants. These are looked upon as interesting phenomena in botany, and deserve greater attention. E. A. Papenoe discussed oviposition in 7ragzdon, and showed that this beetle places its egg within an elliptical case on the sur- face or bark of the chestnut, oak, and other trees. The egg is oblong, smooth, and dull white. The bark is not punctured, as is com- monly the case with this class of beetles. Robert Hay read a paper on artesian wells, in which he showed by diagrams how such wells are possible, and what progréss had been made in the West with these wells. The relation of artesian wells to irrigation in arid © “regions was discussed. J. T. Willard gave a brief description of devices and methods used in the analysis of agricultural products. He described a desiccating apparatus, a method of purifying ether, and a method to prevent foaming in boiling liquids. G. H. Failyer communicated the results of his work on nitric acid and ammonia in rain-water. These observations have extended through more than three years. The per cent is usually greater in smaller rains. About three pounds and a half of nitrogen are annually added to an acre of soil by the rains. But little continuous work has been done in this line in this country. F.H.Snow gave the results of his attempts at artificial spreading of contagious disease among chinch-bugs. It has been observed that a certain fungus is present where the bugs are dying in large numbers. The attempt was made to propagate this disease by sending the infected bugs to different parts of the State and to several other States. The result has been thus far successful, and the war will be pushed next sea- son with the help of a lot of infected material which is being kept over. The same author showed the curve of mean daily tempera- ture for twenty-one years at Lawrence, Kan. Among the interest- ing facts brought out, it may be noted that the average coldest day is Jan. 6; and the hottest day, July 15. There seems to be a re- markable rise in temperature during the first ten days of April, and a corresponding fall of temperature in November, thus showing a more sudden change of seasons than has been observed in some other States. Professor Snow has also made a discovery on the method of respiration of the salamander. In its final or air-breath- ing stage, a stream of water was observed passing into the mouth through each nostril, the mouth being opened eight or nine times a minute to allow the water to escape. Folds of mucous membrane in the posterior part of the mouth appear to perform the function of removing the oxygen from the inspired water. E. C. Murphy gave some tests of cements manufactured in Kansas. From these tests it was shown that the native cements are inferior in tensile strength, compressive strength, and transverse strength, to Portland cement. L. I. Blake gave the result of tests made in the physical laboratory on the insulation resistance of electric wires exposed to moisture. The wires were immersed in water, and daily tests were made for three months. The results were shown by a series of curves, and a remarkable difference in quality was observed. The underwriter’s wire was especially condemned. The same author gave the results of experiments in telephonic communication be- tween vessels at sea. W.S, Franklin presented a paper on classi- fication of the sense of smell. D.B. Jennings gave the result of his observations on hot winds. Though the paper is too long to SCIENCE. 337 be successfully abstracted, many interesting points were brought out. This is simply a preliminary paper on the subject. ‘ F. O. Marvin exhibited an isogonic chart of the State of Kansas. There is shown to be an irregularity in the action of the needle in several contiguous counties. E.H.S. Bailey and E. E. Slosson presented a paper on the occurrence of celestite and associated minerals in concretionary formations in eastern Kansas. Complete analyses of the minerals will be published. E. H. S. Bailey also. called the attention of the academy to the analyses of some Kansas mineral waters. Their occurrence and constituents were discussed. J. R. Mead gave a réswmé of his observations on the occurrence of gold in Montana. L. E. Sayre gave the history and process of manufacturing binding-twine. In the discussion which followed, W. A. Kellerman suggested that perhaps some common weeds, like the velvet-leaf or the dogbane, might be used as a substitute for the more expensive fibres now in use. F.O. Marvin gave the result of a series of experiments on the second setting of cements. L. E. Sayre gave some notes on albuminoids, and also exhibited a novel and ingenious microscope attachment to be used to facilitate field-work in botany. At the close of the meetings an excursion was made to the salt- fields of Kingman, where an opportunity was afforded to examine the practical work of salt-manufacture and salt-mining. BOOK-REVIEWS. Studies 7n Pedagogy. By THOMAS J. MORGAN. Boston, Silver, Burdett, & Co. 12°. $1.75. THE author of this work, who is the principal of the Rhode Island State Normal School, here gives the public a statement of the views on education to which his experience and reflection have led him, We cannot say, however, that there is much that is new or valuable in them ; on the contrary, they are mostly of a commonplace order. Mr. Morgan rightly lays stress on training, or discipline, as of more importance than mere instruction ; but there is nothing new in this idea, and we cannot see that he has any thing striking to offer in regard to methods of training. He lays great stress on the educa- tion of the senses and the imagination, and even proposes to have a special series of exercises for training the nose, which he char- acterizes as an organ of “ neglected merit and overlooked modesty.” He points out the importance to the teacher of a thorough knowl- edge of psychology, and also of a preliminary training in methods of teaching. He has a high conception of the function of the teacher, and of the qualifications necessary for their perfect performance. Mr. Morgan’s views appear to us in the main sound and true; but they are so familiar that there seems to be no good reason for writing a whole volume for the purpose of setting them forth. Seven Thousand Words often Mispronounced. By WILLIAM HENRY P. PHYFE. New York and London, Putnam. 12°. $1.25. THE editor of this book has produced already two books on pronunciation, — one “The School Pronouncer,” and the other “How Should I Pronounce ?” That every one cares to pronounce correctly goes without saying. That every one, even if he may be reckoned among the well edu- cated, does not necessarily know the accepted or most acceptable pronunciation of our mysteriously spelled English words, is equally true. But it is not always true that one seeking the recognized pronunciation of a word in dispute is willing to handle his big dic~ tionary, even if he is so fortunate as to possess such; and, again, it not infrequently happens that the word may be a proper name, and proper names are sparingly treated in even the big quartos. “Seven Thousand Words often Mispronounced ” includes fully that number of words which, through inherent difficulty or care-~ lessness on the part of the speaker, are liable to be mispronounced, with twenty-five hundred proper names. There are the necessary introductory chapters on the sounds of the English language, — sounds both native and adopted or im- ported, as it were, from foreign tongues; it being the editor’s idea that the adoption of so considerable a number of foreign words inta 338 frequent use in English conversation calls for an appreciation, on the part of English speakers, of the sounds peculiar to these im- ported words. There are also the helps and suggestions as to the way of using the book. But the suggestion to use the book will be willingiy accepted by all to whom it may be available, it is so well suited to its purpose. The State. Elements of Historical and Practical Politics. By WOODROW WILSON. Boston, Heath. 12°. THIS is one of the most ambitious books that we remember to have met with, but we are sorry to say that the execution is by no means adequate to the design. The work is mainly descriptive and historical, and attempts to give an account of all the more im- portant constitutional governments on record, including those of Athens, Sparta, Rome, France, Germany, Switzerland, England, the United States, and several others. In the case of the United States, not only is the Federal Government described, but also those of the States, of the Colonies before the Revolution, and even of the counties, cities, and towns. But this is by no means all. The author has undertaken not only to describe these various govern- ments as they now are or as they were at some particular epoch, but also to give a history of them all from the days of Homer to the present time. He has, besides, several chapters on the origin of government and on its nature and functions, on the nature and development of law, and so forth; and all this is crowded into one duodecimo volume. The necessary result is that the work is so condensed and so crammed with facts that it is almost impossible to read it through ; and the broad outlines of the subjects treated are obscured by the mass of insignificant detail. We are obliged to add that the author’s conception of politics and political history seems to us defective. He confines his atten- tion mainly to the mere machinery of government, the details of ‘organization and administration, and has little or nothing to say on the all-important subject of the relations between the government and the people. The main question about any government is as to what rights it guarantees to the people, and how these rights are secured; but on these points Professor Wilson gives scarcely any information. His remarks, too, on the nature and functions of government are slight and superficial, and the philosophy of the book generally is very thin. After finding so much fault, we are glad to add that the facts recorded seem to have been carefully and conscientiously collected ; and, though we have not undertaken to verify them, we have no doubt they are trustworthy, and they also are pretty well arranged. The book has an elaborate table of contents, as well as an index; and it will, no doubt, be of considerable value as a book of refer- ence, but it can hardly be used for any other purpose. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. THE J. B. Lippincott Company have published a new edition, revised, of Professor Joseph P. Remington’s text-book on the “ Practice of Pharmacy.” — Sidney S. Rider, Providence, R.I., has in preparation for the series of Rhode Island Historical Tracts a ‘‘ History of Privateer- ing,” as connected with Rhode Island during the Revolution (1776-83). — D. Appleton & Co. have published a volume on the land ques- tion, entitled ‘‘ The Land and the Community,” by the Rev. S. W. Thackeray, with an introduction by Henry George ; and a new edi- tion of Bellamy’s “ Dr. Heidenhoff’s Process.” — Beginning with the coming year, the orth Amerzcan Review will be printed on a larger page. Among the attractions of the year is announced a “ Duel between Free Trade and Protection: a Great Discussion between Two Prime-Ministers, the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone and the Hon. James G. Blaine.” — In view of the unceasing efforts for the suppression of the African slave-trade, interest will be taken in the announcement that Longmans, Green, & Co. are about to publish an authorized life of Cardinal Lavigerie, the primate of Africa, which will contain a full statement of the means by which he proposes to check this infamous traffic. SCIEN CE. [VoL. XIV. No. 354 — “The Descendants of Paleolithic Man in America” is the subject of an article, by Dr. Charles C. Abbott, which will open the December Popular Sczence Monthly. \t describes the surround- ings and occupations of the men who made the rough pottery and the implements of slaty rock which Dr. Abbott has found so abun- dantly in the Delaware valley. Another of Professor C. H. Hen- derson’s illustrated articles on “ Glass-making ” will appear in the same number. In this one the evolution of a glass bottle is pic- turesquely described. Some new phases in the Chinese problem will also be presented by Willard B. Farwell. The writer asks, in view of the wretchedness of millions of the Chinese at. home, whether exclusion will exclude, and invites more thoughtful consid- eration of the Chinese problem, which is made especially serious by the peculiar constitution of the Chinese mind. Col. Garrick Mal- lery’s American Association address on “Israelite and Indian” will be concluded in this number. This portion of the essay deals es- pecially with the similarity in the myths and social institutions of the two peoples. — One of the most accurate pictures ever given of the slums of New York will appear in Scrvzbmer’s for December under the title “How the Other Half Lives.” The author is Jacob A. Riis, for many years police reporter of the Associated Press, who has had every facility during his very active career to collect definite infor- mation on the subject. The illustrations are from flash-light. pho- tographs taken by the author. Edward J. Phelps, ex-minister to England, in his article in the same number, says, ‘‘ Never since the creation has there come upon the earth such a deluge of talk as the latter half of the nineteenth century has heard. The orator is everywhere, and has all subjects for his own. The writer stayeth not his hand by day or by night. Every successive day brings forth in the English tongue more discourse than all the great speakers of the past have left behind them, and more printed mat- ter, such as it is, than the contents of an ordinary library. .. . We certainly seem to be approaching the time when hardly any thing will be left to be said on any subject that has not been said before —perhaps many times over; when all known topics will begin to - be exhausted.” , — Professor Paul Haupt of the Johns Hopkins University is edit- ing, in connection with Professor Friedrich Delitzsch of the Uni- versity of Leipzig, a new periodical, Bectrage zur Assyriologze und verglecchenden semitischen Sprachwissenschaft (“ Contributions to Assyriology and Comparative Semitic Philology”). The plan of such a series was conceived by Professor Haupt as early as 1878, but various circumstances prevented its realization. This new series will form a Jendanz to the quarto volumes of the Assyrio- logical Library, edited by Friedrich Delitzsch and Paul Haupt, which now includes Haupt’s “ Akkadian and Sumerian Texts ” and his ‘“‘ Babylonian Nimrod Epic,” Bezold’s “ Achaemenian In- scriptions, with the Cuneiform Text of the Smaller Achaemenian Inscriptions,” autographed by Professor Haupt, Strassmaier’s “ Alphabetical List of Assyrian and Akkadian Words,” Lyon’s — “Sargon,” Zimmern’s “ Babylonian Penitential Psalms,” Delitzsch’s « Assyrian Dictionary,” Lehmann’s “ Samassumukin,” Weisbach’s “Second Species of the Achaemenian Inscriptions,” and Bang’s “ Old Persian Texts.” Due regard will be given to the principles of comparative philology, and this will be a distinctive feature of the contributions published in the Beztydge. Naturally the Bez- trage will chiefly contain the work of the German Semitic School ; though articles in other languages, especially in English, French, or Latin, will not be excluded. The editors do not propose to issue the journal at fixed intervals, but from time to time, as sufficient satisfactory material is at hand. Part I. of Vol. I. is now ready. Subscription and orders may be addressed to the Publication Agency of the Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, Md. — G. P. Putnam’s Sons announce a new edition (the nineteenth) of “Haydn's Dictionary of Dates,” brought down to the fall of 1889; a revised edition of Edward L. Anderson’s treatise on “Modern Horsemanship ;”’ the first volume of Charles Booth’s “Labor and Life of the People,” describing East London; “A History of Austro-Hungary from the Earliest Time to the Year 1889,” by Louis Leger, translated from the French by Mrs. Birk- beck Hill, with a preface by Edward A. Freeman; “ The First In- 7) NOVEMBER 15; 1880. | ternational Railway and the Early Colonization of New England,” a history of the railway system which opened Canada to the United States, together with an account of the settlement which estab- lished the English title to New England, both subjects being pre- sented in a study of the life and writings of John Alfred Poor, edited by Laura E. Poor; ‘‘ A Handbook of Precious Stones,” by M. D. Rothschild ; “ The Sayings of Poor Richard,” a collection of the wit and wisdom of Benjamin Franklin, edited by Paul Leicester Ford, in The Knickerbocker Nuggets Series; and ‘‘ Thomas Jeffer- son’s Views on Public Education,” by John C. Henderson. —J. B. Lippincott Company have in preparation George W. Childs’s reminiscences, a portion of which have been given in Zzf- pincott's Magazine. — Dulau & Co., 37 Soho Square, London, W., announce to be ready early in December “A Catalogue of British Fossil Verte- brata,” by Arthur Smith Woodward, F.G.S., and Charles Davies Sherborn, F.G.S. The earlist list of British fossil Vertebrata was published by Samuel Woodward, in his ‘‘ Synoptical Table of Brit- ish Organic Remains,” in 1830, and occupied two pages of the vol- ume ; while thirty-five years ago the late John Morris published a “Catalogue of British Fossils,” of which fifty pages were devoted to this group. The present volume will consist of about three hundred and fifty pages, and will deal with the Vertebrata alone, tabulating the results of researches upon the British fossil forms of this group since the time of Linnzus. In the synonymy, the latest authorities have, for the most part, been followed, though a critical study of some genera has led to the adoption of certain modifica- tions. whenever traceable, the museum or collection in which it is now preserved is mentioned. The type species of each genus, when founded upon a British fossil, is also distinctly marked. In order to render the work as complete as possible, the authors have con- sul -d the publications of all provincial societies ; most of the prin- cipal collections of British fossil Vertebrata, both public and pri- SGIENGE The nature of the type specimen in each case is stated, and, _ sia/2) vate, have been visited; and it is therefore hoped that all essential references to each genus and species are included. Special atten- tion has been given to the distribution of the pleistocene JZam- malza, every well-authenticated locality for each species being re- corded. The work will be prefaced by a general introduction, giving particulars of the principal collections available to the stu- dent, and a table of the stratigraphical distribution of the genera. The published price will be 12s. 6d. subscriptions (if received be- fore Dec. 1), Ios. 6d. — The author of “An Honest Hypocrite,” a theological novel in the sense that its hero is a young clergyman who is troubled with doubts and fears after he has taken orders, is the Rev. Ed- ward Staats de Grote Tompkins, who is the rector of a church in Troy, N.Y. Mr. Tompkins is a graduate of Yale College, and is of Dutch ancestry; his family having come from Holland, and settled in Westchester County, N.Y., in 1620, which refutes the charge that the story is autobiographical. A young Englishman in New York with whom Mr. Tompkins is acquainted, and whose waverings and doubts form the basis of the plot, gave himvhis leading motive. The book is really the author’s own beliefs put into the form of a story instead of into a sermon. The point that is at once raised by this story is, “Is Christianity 4 sham, or is it not?’’ The question is not as to its theological, historical, or liturgical truth, but as to its actual practical workings. Mr. Tompkins denies the portraits he is said to have painted. The fashionable “‘ Dr. Grady ” is not the well-known clergyman he is supposed to be, nor is ‘“‘ Adrienne’”’ intended for the Duchess of Marlborough. To be sure, the Duchess of Marlborough came. from Troy, where the scene of the story is laid, but the author did not know her when she was a young woman. Her character was formed before he had the pleasure of meeting her. Such, in brief, is the idea of one of the most striking novels of the day, the readers. of which may be interested to know that Mr. Tompkins is a young man and unmarried. MACMILLAN & Co’s NEW BOOKS. THE CRITICAL PHILOSOPHY OF IMMANUEL KANT. By EDWARD CalrD, LL.D., Professor of Moral Philosophy in the University of Glasgow, late Fellow and Tutor of Merton College, Oxford. 2 Vols. 8vo0, $7.50. The object of this book is to glvea connected view of the Critical Philoso- phy, showing the re’ation of the three *‘ Critiques” to each other and to the other works of Kant, which may be regarded as illustration; or developments of the main arguments. The first part, on the “Critique of Pure Reason,” deals with the same subject as my former work entitled, “ The Philosophy of Kant,” but, except in a few passages, it is not a reproduction of it.—Hxtract from Preface. Just Published, Volume Two, Completing Dr. MWceKendrick’s work on Physiology. A TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. By Joun Gray McKen- DRICK, M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. Including Histology, by PHILIPP ST6HR. In two volumes. Vol. I. GENERAL PHYSIOLOGY. Including the Chem- istry and Histology of the Tissues and the Physiology ‘of Muscle. 8vo, $4.00. Vol. Il. SPECIAL PHYSIOLOGY. Ineluding Nutrition, Inneryation, and Reproduction. 8yo, $6.00. ° NEW VOLUME (Part II.) OF DR. MICHAEL FOSTER’S TEXT-BOOK PHYSIOLOGY. A TEXT-BOOK OF PHYSIOLOGY. By Micuart Foster, M.A., M.D., LL.D., F.R.S. With lllustrations. Fifth edition, largely re- vised. Part. I. COMPRISING BOOK I. Blood—The Tissues of Movement—The Vascular Mechanism. 8yo, $2.60. | Part II. COMPRISING BOOK II. The Tissues of Chemi- cal Action, with their Respective Mechanisms—Nutrition. 8vo, $2.60. “Tt is in all respects an ideal text-took. It is only the physiologist who has devoted time to the study of some branch of the great science who can read between the lines of this wonderfully generalized account, and can see upon what an intimate and extencive knowledge these generalizations are founded. It is only the teacher who can appreciate the judicious balancing of evidence and the power of presenting the conclusions in such clear and lucid forms But by every one the rare modesty of the author in keeping the element of self so entirely in the background must be appreciated. Reviewing this volume as a whole, we are justified in saying that it is the only thoroughly good text-book of physiology in the English language, and that it is probably the best text-book in any language.”—EHdinburgh Medical Journal. | HANDBOOK OF PRACTICAL BOTANY for the Botanical Laboratory and Private Student. By E. STRASBURGER, Professor of Botany in the University of Bonn. Edited from the German by W. HILL- HOUrE, M.A., F.L.S. Revised by the author, and with many additiona) | notes by author and editor. Second edition, revised and enlarged. With | 116 original and 33 additional illustrations. S8yo, $2.50. | HYDROSTATICS FOR BEGINNERS. By F. W. Sanpzr- | SON, M.A. 16mo, $1.10. | ee | NATURE SERIES. NEW VOLUMES. MODERN VIEWS OF ELECTRICITY. By Outer J. Longe, D.Se., LL.D., F.R.S. With Illustrations. 12.mo, $2.00. “So far as electricity is concerned, this is the book of the year. The object of this book is to present to the non-mathematical reader the modern view of the etheral theory of electricity. To our mind there is no living exponent of these theoretical yiews so able as the author of this book. He writes from conviction, with a thorough knowledge of his subject, and goes straight to the point without superfluity of language.’ —Electrical Engineer. TIMBER AND SOME OF ITS DISEASES. SHALL WARD, F.R.S., F.L.S. With lllustrations. By H. Mar 12mo, $1.75. MACMILLAN & CO., 112 Fourth Avenue, New York. 340 — Estes and Lauriat have published the ‘‘ Salon of 1889,” con- taining 100 photogravures of prize paintings, prepared by Goupil & Co. of Paris. — Harper & Brothers publish “ The Political Problem,” by Al- bert Stickney, brought out by the discontent that can be observed in Europe and in this country with the practical working of exist- ing forms of democratic government ; “ Winter in Algeria,” writ- ten and illustrated by Frederick A. Bridgman ; “A Little Journey in the World,” a satire upon modern social life in America, by Charles Dudley Warner; “Cradle and Nursery,” by Christine Terhune Herrick, advocating the treatment of “the baby” as a reasonable being. —- The publishing committee of the Appalachian Mountain Club announces the appearance, from the press of John Wilson & Son, of a volume with the title ‘‘ Mountaineering in Colorado: the Peaks about Estes Park,” by Frederick H. Chapin, one of the club’s most widely known members. The book contains one hundred and sixty-eight pages. The work will be embellished with eleven full- page heliotype plates, besides other illustrations; all from photo- graphs taken by the author upon expeditions described in the text. The work will have an interest for lovers of mountain scenery. —P. Blakiston, Son, & Co., Philadelphia, make the important an- nouncement of a ‘“‘ Chemical Technology ; or, Chemistry in its Ap- plication to Arts and Manufactures,” to be edited by Charles Edward Groves and William Thorp. Vol. I. is now ready, entitled “Fuel and its Applications,” by E. J. Mills and F. J. Rowan, as- sisted by others, including Mr. F. P. Dewey of the Smithsonian Institute, Washington, D.C. This new edition of ‘‘ Chemical Technology ” is founded on that written by Richardson and Ronalds, and subsequently enlarged and rewritten by Richardson and Watts. As the German technology of Dr. Knapp was taken as the basis of the original, Richardson and Watts’s work has long been familiarly known as “ Knapp’s Technology.” The historical portions of the original have been retained, but supplemented by a ull account of the methods and appliances introduced of late years in the application of chemistry to the arts. This work will be -divided into sections, of which the most important are, “ Fuel and its Applications;” “ Lighting; “Acids and Alkalies;” “Glass and Pottery;” ‘‘Metallurgy;” “Textile Fabrics; ia lzeather, Paper, etc.;”’ “Coloring Matters and Dyes;” “Oils and Var- nishes ;” “ Brewing and Distilling ;” ‘Sugar, Starch, Flour, etc.” The first volume treats of fuel and its applications generally ; its -special employment in various branches of chemical manufacture ‘being reserved for detailed consideration in the volumes devoted to the special subjects enumerated above. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. A Precocious Botanist. ACCORDING to the “ English Annals of Botany,” vol. ii. p. 418, Jean Baptiste Lieurry appears to have been unusually precocious, having published a paper in 1874 on Polyporus. He was born, it is affirmed, on Dec. 14, 1888: so his researches were perpetrated fourteen years before his birth, which was subsequent to his death, that having occurred on Sept. 3, 1888. For these unusual bio- graphical data, the editors state, they are indebted to M. Eugéne Niel of Rouen. Such cases of posthumous rejuvenation are fortu- nately very rare in this country. GxSa Me The Champlain Period in the Susquehanna Valley. I HAVE lately made some observations on the drift along the river at this point, — Harrisburg, — which I wish to report, This -district, being only eighty-five miles from the Terminal Moraine, was consequently much influenced by the post-glacial floods. The stream is very shallow; and its bed, composed for five or six miles of Hudson slates, is laid bare almost every summer, offer- ing exceptional advantages for observing the overlying drifts. The deposit consists, for the most part, of clay variously inter- mixed with gravel. At one point I noted a bottom layer of gravel one foot thick, overlaid by twenty feet of fine clay. Scattered through the deposit are bowlders of various sizes— the largest be- SCIENCE: ing from six to ten tons in weight — composed of conglomerate and sandstone from the mountains beyond. The height of the drift varies, of course, with the local topog- raphy. From one hundred feet in the mountain-gorges, to thirty feet in the lowlands opposite Harrisburg, is a fair general average. The width of the deposit is not very great, owing to the narrow- ness of the valley ; still it has furnished ground for most of the towns in the neighborhood, Harrisburg itself being built to a great extent on a level flood-plain thirty feet above the present water- level. At no place in this locality has the terrace formation eon noted. One level flood-plain, of equal height on both sides of the stream, is all that marks the limit of the great post-glacial river. HARVEY B. BASHORE. West Fairview, Penn., Noy. 7. INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Microscopes and Photographic Supplies. Mr. Morris EARLE, of the late firm of Morris Earle & Co., 1o16 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, informs his friends and former customers that he is now a member of the firm of Williams, Brown, & Earle, 33, 35, and 39 South Tenth Street, corner of Chestnut.. The new firm has been appointed sole agents in the United States for Messrs. R. & J. Beck of London, the well-known manufacturers of microscopes and ‘ Autograph” photographic lenses. In addition to the manufactures of the latter firm, there will be a complete stock of goods of foreign or domestic manufac- ture pertaining to the business. Mr. Earle will give his personal attention to the photographic supplies, photographic printings and microscopical branches of the business. Sanitary Ventilation. ONE of the most important sanitary problems of the day i! Voat of the adequate ventilation of our schoolrooms, factories, churches, theatres, and other buildings in which many people are gathered together for any considerable time. Even in the best of modern dwelling-houses the atmosphere is none too good, while in crowded places, such as those mentioned, the air is positively poisonous un- less proper means of ventilation are employed. The air exhaled in breathing contains, besides the vapor given off by the lungs, from four to five per cent of carbonic-acid gas, at least a hundred times the normal proportion found in pure air. This gas, though not poisonous in itself, is to some extent a measure of other impurities in the air which are poisonous, and, taking the place of the oxygen, obstructs respiration by preventing that necessary gas from being absorbed by the lungs. Careful observations and experiments show that the air of a room designed to be occupied for any length of time should not be allowed to become vitiated to an extent indicated by the presence of six or eight parts of carbonic-acid gas in ten thousand. Yet careful analyses made some years ago showed that the average atmosphere in sixty schools in this city and Boston contained, in ten thousand parts, fifteen parts, the air in one of the schools con- taining thirty-one parts. The mean of the air in the New York theatres had twenty-six parts of carbonic-acid gas in ten thousand, one of them being vitiated to the extent of seventy-six parts. For healthful ventilation it has been found that different quanti- ties of air are required under different circumstances. One author- ity gives as the proper quantity of fresh air per hour for each per- son, in ordinary hospitals, 2,400 cubic feet ; epidemic hospitals, 5,000 ; workshops for ordinary trades, 2,100, for unhealthy trades, 3,600; halls for long meetings, 2,000; schools for youths, 1,000. The problem of introducing this large quantity of fresh air into a building has been attacked from various directions, and with varying degrees of success. One method, much in use in this city, is that of positive ventilation, by means of a ventilator-wheel or air- propeller. One of these devices, the Blackman power ventilator- wheel, is now on exhibition at the American Institute Fair in this city, where it attracts much attention from persons interested in sanitary matters as well as from architects and builders. This wheel, and one of the means for actuating it, a high-speed steam- engine, are shown in the accompanying illustrations. (VoL. XIV. No. 354 NovEMBER 15, 1880. |’ There are certain peculiar features about the Blackman wheel which entitle it to more than passing notice. It is said to be the only exhaust or blast fan made which takes in air at right angles to, as well as parallel with, its shaft, the peripheral flange increas- ing its supply area by about sixty-six per cent. As the amount of air removed and power required depend upon the area of the feed and delivery surfaces of air-moving machines, this wheel must necessarily give a maximum delivery with a minimum absorption SCIBNG@EX 341 The fan, of course, may be driven by belt or electric motor, being adapted to any desired motive power. The Merritt Type-Writer. THE little writing-machine shown in the accompanying illustra- tion belongs to the class of type-writers referred to in these columns last week, and known as lever or single-key machines. The paper being placed in position on the rubber roll or platen, and the latter set at the proper point for beginning a sentence, the finger-key or THE BLACKMAN AIR-PROPELLER AND SOLANO HIGH-SPEED STEAM-ENGINE. of power. The actual air-propelling capacity of the wheel, as given by the manufacturers, is one million cubic feet per hour for each horse-power used. These wheels are giving satisfactory results in public halls, schools, theatres, mines, and other places, where they are used to remove vitiated air or to supply fresh air. They range in diameter from twelve inches to ten feet. : The Solano high-speed engine also possesses some features peculiar to itself. It has no dead centre, and can therefore be lever is moved to the letter it is desired to print, and pressed down into a notch in the guide-rack. The types, which are the same as ordinary printer’s types, are carried in a type-holder attached to and moved by the finger-key, and correspond in relative position with the letters on the index-plate. The movement of the finger-key to any desired letter, therefore, brings the corresponding type to the printing-point ; and the depression of the key into the notch both locks the type-holder in position and forces the proper type up MVWPLYO 123 456789% started with the crankin any position; and the working parts are entirely enclosed and protected from dust. The pistons, of which there are three, are light and deep, and guide themselves in the cylinders. The valve motion is very simple, a single rotary valve being steam, exhaust, and relief valve allin one. The lubrication is entirely automatic, and, up toaspeed of four hundred revolutions per minute, the only lubricator required is that on the steam-pipe, whence the oil is forced to all the parts needing it. This engine and the wheel or fan described, to the shaft of which it is attached, make a self-contained, compact, and efficient ventilating-machine. - pensive key-board machines. into contact with the paper. means of a type-guide. This machine prints capitals, small letters, punctuation-marks, figures, etc., and its work is as clear and legible as that of the ex- It uses 78 ordinary printing-types, which are inexpensive to replace when worn out. The types are inked automatically, and no ribbon is used. A speed of sixty words a minute is claimed for it; the speed-test, of course, being made by the frequent repetition of a short sentence with short words, as in all type-writer tests of the kind. Accurate alignment is secured by 342 SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 354 Ag DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors 1,to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. J. Please Mention ‘‘Science.” CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. Anthropological Society, Washington. Nov. 5. — Romyn Hitchcock, The Shinto Faith; O. T. Mason, Anthropology at the Paris Exposition. Philosophical Society, Washington. Nov. 9.— Asaph Hall, Saturn and its Ring; C. E. Dutton, Remarks on Irrigation in the Arid Region. Appalachian Mountain Club, Boston. Nov. 11.—C. W. M. Black, Stony Man Mountain, the Pride of Blue Ridge; Frank O. Carpenter, The Great Smoky Mountains and Thunderhead Peak. Engineers’ Club, St. Louis. Nov. 6. — Mr. Winthrop Bartlett presented an informal paper on the “ Olive Street Cable Road.” The total length is 9.6 miles. The conduit is 39 inches deep. The Johnson rail, weighing 65 pounds to the yard, is used. The speaker gave the particulars of numer- ous details of construction. The road was built at the rate of 274.2 feet per day, count- ing every day between the time of starting and finishing. Interesting information on the subject of the horse-power required un- der varying conditions of service was given. The enormous fluctuations of power were shown by an indicator card, in which the power varied from 136 horse-power to 609 horse-power within one minute. The per- centage of power required to drive the cable only, as compared with the total power used, was about 50 per cent, much lower than on other roads. A number of practical points of experience were explained, with details of improvements that had been made. Messrs. Russell, Johnson, Seddon, and Hubbard took part in the discussion of this paper. The hour being late, it was ordered that Professor Potter's paper on “Fuel Gas” be made the special order of the next meeting, Nov. 20. Exchanges. [Free of charge to all, if of satisfactory character. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] Morris’s ‘‘ British Butterflies,’ Morris’s ‘t Nests and Eggs of British Birds,’”’ Bree’s ‘‘ Birds of Europe”’ (all colored plates), and other natural history, in exchange for Shakesperiana ; either books, pamphlets, engravings, or cuttings. — J. D. Barnett, Box 735, Stratford, Canada. I have Anodonta opalina (Weatherby), and many other species of shells from the noted Koshkonong Lake and vicinity, also from Western New York, and fossils from the Marcellus shale of New York, which I would be glad to exchange for specimens of scientific value of any Kind. I would also like to correspond with persons inter- ested in the collection, sale, or exchange of Indian relics.— D. E. Willard, Albion Academy, Albion, Wis. Will exchange ‘ Princetun Review’’ for 1883, Hugh Miller’s works on geology ard other scientific works, for back numbers of ** The Auk,” ‘* American Naturalist,” or other scientific periodicals or books. Write.— J. M. Keck, Chardon, Ohio. “Twish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’’—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. % Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., ~Davenport, lowa. A collection of fifty unclassified shells for the best offer in bird skins ; also skins of California birds for those of birds of other localities. Address Th. E. Slevin, 2413 Sacramento St., San Francisco, Cal. I have forty varieties of birds’ eggs, side blown, first class, in sets, with full data, which Twill exchange for books, scientific journals, shells, and curios. Write me, stating what you have to offer.—Dr. W.S. Srrope, Bernadotte, Fulton County, Ill. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. 100 botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities far the same. Scientific corre- suordence solicited. —E. E. Bocue, Orwell, Ashta County, O I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘* Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. — Children always SCOTT'S EMU! of pure Cod Liver Oil with Hypo- phosphites of Lime and Soda Is almost as palatable as milk. Children enjoy it rather than otherwise. A MARVELLOUS FLESH PRODUCER it is indeed, and the little lads and lassies who take cold easily, may be fortified against a cough that might prove serious, by taking Scoti’s Emulsion after their meals during the winter season. Beware of substituiions and imitations, ew NOW IN PRESS. “FORT ANCIENeS A large work of 200 pp. with 35 full-page illustra- tions on the greatest of all Ohio Valley Earthworks, and similar enclosures. By Warren K. Moorehead, assisted by scientists from Washington. It is compiled from a careful survey and is correct in all details. The entire summer was spen¢ in surveying, exca- vating, photographing and preparing this work. _ Fort Ancient consists of 18,712.2 feet of embank- ment, and in size, state of preservation and impor- tance as an aboriginal fortification is unequalled in this country. Price of book, $2 00. It will be ready for sale Dec. ist. lllustrated prospectus mailed free to any address, Send for one. WARREN K. MOOREHEAD, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Published by Robt. Clarke & Co , Cincinnati. Old and Rare Books. Catalogue No. 29 nearly ready. Will contain many scarce works pertaining to Natural His- tory, Americana, out of print books, as a whole, interesting. A. S CLARK 34 Park Row, New York City. ACK NUMBERS and complete sets of leading Mag- azines. Rates low. AM. MAG. EXCHANGE, Schoharie, N.Y. Schools. Connecticut, New Haven, ME: CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. arly. application necessary. Micuican, HoucuTon. ICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. 7 CHANCE FOR ALL To Enjoy a Cup of Perfect Tea. A TRIAL ORDER of Alg pounds of Fine Tea, either Oolong, Ja- pan, Imperial, Gunpowder, Young Hy- son, Mixed, English Breakfast or Sun Sun Chop, sent by mail on receipt of $2.00. Be particular and state what kind of Tea you want. Greatest inducement ever cffered to get orders for our cele- and Baking Powder. For full particu: brated Teas, Coffees | lursaddress THE GREAT AMERICAN TEA CO. P. O. Box 289. 31 and 33 Vesey St., New York. TWRENCH DRIVER COMBINED. Turns Nuts, Gas Burners or Pipe without adjustment. Made of Best Polished Steel. ent by_mail for 26 cts. CHARLES U. Ety, P. O. Box 1949, New York City. a La NoveEMBER 15, 1880. | SCIENCE: C. & C. ELECTRIC MOTOR COMPANY. OFFICE and MANUFACTORY: Electric Motors FOR Arc and Incandescent Circuits, Most Eco- nomical Motor on the Market. Regulation Perfect. Motors Designed for all Power Purposes. York City. 402 and 404 Greenwich Street, New New England Office, 19 Pearl St., Boston Philadelphia Office, 301 Arch St. Western Office, 139-141 Adams Street Chicago. New Orleans, = Southern Office, 25 Carondelet Street, Wants. Any person seeking a posttion for which he is guali- fied by his scientific attainments, or any person seeking sone one to fill a position of this character, be it that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what not, may have the ‘Want’ inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, if he satisfies the publisher of the sutt- able character of his application. Any person seeking information on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or who car in any way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. EACHING.—A young man desires a posi- tion to teach the Natural Sciences, Botany in particular, in a High or Normal School or Institute. Can also teach first Latin and Ger- man. Best of references given. Address ‘‘ E,” care of Science. A GRADUATE OF THE JOHNS HOP- KINS UNIVERSITY desires a position as teacher of physical science. Specialty, chem- istry, for which he refers to Prof. Remsen by permission. Address B. H. H., care of Sczence. ANTED.—To correspond with concholo- gists in America, especially in California, with a view to exchange. Many British land, fresh water, and marine duplicates; some for- eign. Address Mrs. FALLOON, Long Ashton Vicarage, Bristol, England. YOUNG SCOTCHMAN desires an ap- pointment in America, Three years in English Government Office. Good references. Address “Jack” care J. Lawson & Coy, 17 Princes St., Aberdeen, Scotland. EACHER OF NATURAL SCIENCE.— ' A young lady desires a position as a teacher of Natural Sc: ences, especially Chem- istry and Physics. One year’s experience. Testi- monials given. Address Miss J. S., No. 31, N. Hanover St , Carlisle, Pa. CIENCE-TEACHING. —A specialist in science-teaching, physics, chemistry, and physiography desires an engagement, preferably in a high or a normal school. Is well known as an author of several popular text-books. Ad- dress X., care of SCIENCE. OLLEGE ALUMNI AND PHYSI- CIANS.—The American Academy of Medicine is endeavoring to make as complete a list as possible of the Alumni of Literary Col- leges, in the United States and Canada, who have received the degree of M.D. All recipi- ents of both degrees, literary and medical, are requested to forward their names at once to Dr. R. J. Dunglison, Secretary, 814 N. 16th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SCIENCE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. ANTED a young man with some knowl- edge of mineralogy to assist in our Min- eral Department. A. E. FOOTE, 1223 Bel- mont Avy,, Philada., Pa. ANTED.—Information concerning the handling of air from Caves, for Cool- ing and ventilating rooms. Address ‘‘ M. H.” care of Sctence 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. HYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE. —A Fellow of the Mass. Med. Society, Mem- ber of the Suffolk District Medical Society, and former Assistant Editor of The Annals of Gynecology, desires a position as instructor in Physiology and Hygiene. Address ‘‘N,” 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. City. ECHANICIAN.—An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J., care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. ESTABLISHED 1859. H. A. DREW, Commercial Printer, 37 Clinton Place, near Broadway, New York. Wedding Orders, Souvenirs, Invitations, Or- ders of Dance, etc., etc., done in the latest and most elaborate styles, at reasonable prices. All Favors promptly attended to. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York, Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus, SCIENCE CLUBBING RATES. of DISCOUNT. | © o nw | £0 We will allow the above discount to any| %.2 | = 5 subscriber to Scfexce who will send us an| 9 5 | S35 order for periodicals exceeding $10, count- tara) n ing each at its full price. | ow | | AgriculturalyScience-. «ssc ese) <) ‘With 226 Illustrations ; 13 Maps; 19 Charts, many being colored; and a fullfindex. in half leather. 8vo, $6.00 net. Bound CONTENTS: THE FREIGHT CAR SERVICE. By Theodore Voorhees. THE PREVENTION OF RAILWAY STRIKES. By Charles Francis Adams. HOW TO FEED A RAILWAY. By Benjamin Norton. THE RAILWAY MAIL SERVICE. | By Thomas L. James. THE RAILWAY IN ITS BUSINESS RELATIONS. | By Arthur T. Hadley. EVERY-DAY LIFE OF RAILROAD MEN. By H,. G. Prout. By B.B. Adams, Jr. RAILWAY PASSENGER TRAVEL. | STATISTICAL RAILWAY STUDIES. E By Gen. Horace Porter. ' By Fletcher W. Hewes. “‘ This is, beyond all compare, the greatest American work on rallways. It is difficult to devise a ques- “Introduction by Judge Thcmas M. Cooley, Chairman of Interstate Commerce Commission- THE BUILDING OF A RAILWAY. By Thomas Curtis Clarke. -FEATS OF RAILWAY ENGINEERING. By John Bogart. AMERICAN LOCOMOTIVES AND CARS. By M. N. Forney. RAILWAY MANAGEMENT. By Gen. E. P. Alexander. *SAFETY IN RAILROAD TRAVEL. ELECTRIC LIGHTING. In the December Number of the North American Review Mr. George Westinghouse, Jr., replies to Mr, T. A. Edison’s article on the *‘ Dangers of Electric Lighting,” which appeared in the November number of the REVIEW. This number contains, also, articles by the Rt. Hon. W. E. Gladstone, Justice J. P. Brad- ley, of the U. S. Supreme Court, Senator J. N. Dolph, Walter Damrosch, Roger Q. Mills, Marion Harland, Karl Blind, the Governors of Massachusetts and Connecticut, Charles T. Sax- ton, Andrew Carnegie, Lord Wolseley, Gen. J. B. Fry, Col. R.G. Ingersoll, and other eminent writers. : 50 CTS. A COPY. $5.00 A YEAR. For sale by all newsdealers. f THE NORTH AMERICAN REVIEW, 34 East Fourteenth St., New \ ork. A NEW BOOK. LOUISA M-ALCOMT: Her Life, Letters, and Journals. Edited by Ednah D. Cheney, with portrait and view of the Alcott Home in Concord. One vol.,16mo. Uniform with ‘‘ Little Women.”’ Price, $1 50. Nobody can read of the struggles of the Alcott family, and of the tender yet resolute heroism with which Miss Alcott met and relieved them, without being touched to tears by the pathos and reality of the picture. Louisa Alcott was not a member of any Church, *but her belief in God, her loyalty to “tion on railway construction or management for which the answer may not be found in this book. Itis a -great book, and remarkably handsome beside.”—W. Y. Herald. “ One of the most interesting and valuable gift books of the season. The nearness of the theme, the -authority of the writers, ard the scope of the exposition make this a work for almost every class of adult conscience, her fidelity to duty, her re.cue of the Alcott family from its peculiar perils, place her among the women-saints of the century, and it will be hard to find any one of her sex who has more readers.”— NV. Y. Evening Post. THE VIKING AGE. ahs Early History, Man- 1s, and Customs of the Ancestors of the English-spesking Nations. Illustrated from the antiquities ciscovered in Mounds, Cairns, and Bogs, as well as from the ancient Sagas and Eddas. By Pavt B. Du CuHar1v. With 1400 Ilus- trations. 2 vols., 8vo, $7.50. “These luxuriously printed and profusely illus- /ASPECTS OF THE EARTH, A Popular. Ac- | | trated volumes embody the fullest account of our | Norse ancestors extant. Mr. Du Chaillu has gone very fully ard very csrefully over the whole of his grourd. Thisextensive and important work must | be of high interest to all English-speaking people.” | —WN. Y. Tribune. count of Some Familiar Geological Phenomena, By N.S. SHater, Professor of Geology at Harvard. With 100 Illustrations. S8vo, $4.00. The general reader will find here an interesting and graphic account of those phenomena of the earth’s surface—earthquakes, cyclones, volcanoes, rivers, forests, caverns, etc.—whicbh most directly etecubuman life. The illustrations are many and artistic. “The curlously- close inter-relation between Datural science and the progress and development of man isimpressively shown in this great work.”— Boston Traveller. x” For sale by all Booksellers, or sent, postpaid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, CHARLES SCRIBNER’S SONS, 748-745 BROADWAY, NEW YORK. faithfully responded to the duties of the position in which God had placed her.—Boston Herald. The pages from her journals are full of the shrewd observations, the kindly good sense, the overflowing humor, that, recognized at last, won her her fame, and the reading world will rejoice in their possession. The book is sure of permanent success, and of the widest and most affectionate of welcomes.—Commonwealth. Sold everywhere. by the Publishers, ROBERTS BROS? BOSTON, MASS. Sent, postpaid, on receipt of price 7 NOVEMBER 29, 1889.] results are of great interest. He finds that the Bermudian fauna is essentially a wind-drift and current-drift fauna, whose elements have been received in principal part from the United States and the West Indies. Some portion of the fauna appears to have been derived from the west coast of Europe and Africa, or from the Azores. The fauna appears to be of considerable antiquity, —a ‘conclusion which is supported by the fact that the predecessor of a group of Px/monata now peculiar to the islands is found fossil or sub-fossil in the rocks of these islands. Certain marked ele- ments of the Bermudian fauna are of a distinctively Pacific type, but it seems impossible at the present time to explain this mixed relationship. The book is illustrated with good views from the Bermudas, and a number of plates illustrating the concluding chapters on zodlogy. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. THE second part of the “ Contributions to the Micro-Palzon- tology of the Cambro-Silurian Rocks of Canada,” published by the Canadian Geological and Natural History Survey, is by Mr. E. ©. Ulrich of the Geological Survey of Illinois. It consists of a de- Scriptive report on some fossil Polyzoa (Sryozoa) and Ostracoda from Manitoba, and is illustrated by two full-page lithographic plates. To facilitate the binding of the present part with Mr. Foord’s previously published report, the pagination and numbering of the plates of both have been made consecutive. —A new guide-book to Florida, by Charles Ledyard Norton will be published by Longmans, Green, & Co. early in December. The scheme of the volume is similar to that of the well-known Baedecker guides, adapted to requirements of travellers in such a ‘country as Florida. Separate maps of the counties with post-roads and the new railway systems are a noteworthy feature of the book. This guide-book is a revival, on a new and more comprehensive plan, of “The Florida Annual”’ originally published, and most favorably received by the public, in 1885. — The “ Handbook of Precious Stones,” by M. D. Rothschild, just published by G. P. Putnam’s Sons of this city, is- intended for the merchant, workman, and amateur. Mr. Rothschild is a well- known diamond-dealer of this city ; and he was led to write this book by finding how many of those having to do with diamonds, tubies, sapphires, and emeralds, know nothing of these precious stones. The information is given in concise form, we fear even too concisely ; but we trust that Mr. Rothschild’s ambition may be gratified, and that a second and larger edition may appear in due time. — Mr. Edwin Lassetter Bynner opens the December number of the Adlantzc Monthly with an article of interest to the antiquarian, and especially to the student of Old Boston. This paper is devoted to ‘The Old Bunch of Grapes” Tavern, one of the most famous New England hostelries of the last century, and Mr. Bynner gives an amusing account of the various events which took place within its hospitable walls. Mr. Henry Van Brunt’s paper on “ Archi- tecture in the West” tells about the difficulties which Western architects have to struggle against, and the new school of archi- tecture which is gradually arising to solve the problem of making art keep step with progress without losing the finer and more deli- ate artistic sense. It will be studied by all Western men and all architects with a great deal of interest. Professor N. S. Shaler of Harvard College contributes a paper on “School Vacations ;” and Mr. William Cranston Lawton, whose articles on the Greek drama hhave been among the best literary papers the Az/anzzc has lately had, writes about “Delphi: The Localicy and its Legends ;” and “Latin and Saxon America” (the relations of this country with South American countries) forms the subject of a paper by Mr. Al- bert G. Browne. INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Improved Belt Power Air-Pump and Condenser. THE air-pump and condenser here illustrated has been newly -designed by the builders, Conover & Co., 219 Market Street, New- ark, N.J., in answer to the demands of power-users who are seek- ing the greatest attainable economy in all details of the modern steam-plant. With the introduction of high-speed compound engines there is felt the need of a thoroughly efficient and simple condensing appa- SCIENCE: 377 ratus. ‘The power required to drive it must be reduced to a mini- mum, and this same power must be of the most economical sort; otherwise the advantages gained by condensing will be seriously affected, if not wholly counteracted. In fact, it is a matter of rec- ord where tests have proven that certain engines have shown bet- ter economy running non-condensing than when condensing, owing to the very wasteful manner in which the power was applied to the condensing apparatus. In presenting this air-pump and condenser to the public, the builders believe that they are offering a highly efficient, simple, and durable arrangement. As will be seen by the engraving, the air- pump is run by belt, which can be direct from the engine-shaft or from a counter-shaft, whichever may be the more convenient. Being driven by the main engine, it is obvious that the power used to operate the air-pump must of necessity be of the same economy as the engine. Thus, if the engine in question be com- pound condensing, running on two pounds of coal per horse-power or less, it necessarily follows that the air-pump will be operated by a similar economy. An examination of the engraving will make the operation of the condenser and air-pump quite plain. The BIATLENT BOD. WY POWER AIR-PUMP AND CONDENSER. spray distributes the injection water in such a manner that every particle of steam must come in contact with the water, and thus effect condensation with a minimum amount of water, and at the same time heat the overflow to the maximum temperature. The opening from the condenser to the air-pump is shaped to allow the greatest quantity of water to flow through a given opening. The pump is made amply large to remove the greatest quantity of water needed for condensing to the full capacity of the condenser. The reciprocating parts are counterbalanced by means of a weight in the wheel, to insure smooth running. As will be seen, the air- pump is vertical and single-acting ; and this the builders believe to be the best form to avoid air-locks. In fact, the design throughout looks to the avoidance of all corners or pockets where air can collect and remain. This condenser is specially adapted to the re- quirements of high-speed compound engines in electric light and power plants, because it can be run at a speed independent of that of the engine, or it may be attached to more than one engine. It is also adapted to be applied to existing plants as a saver of fuel or an increaser of power on the same fuel. The machine is made throughout of the best of the several materials. All wear- ing parts and valve-seats that come in contact with injection water are made of best composition, and the workmanship is of the best. When the air-pump is in operation, the valves and stuffing-box are constantly covered with water, effectually sealing them. Jl parts are easily accessible without cdismounting wheel or shaft. 378 CIENCE. [VoL XIV. No. 356 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPANY. Power Stations. Stationary Motors ™,to 100 H.P. Electric Railways. Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CITY, N. Je Please Mention “‘Science.” Exchanges. [Free of charge to all, if ofsatisfactory character. Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New York.] Morris’s ‘* British Butterflies,” Morris’s ‘*‘ Nests and Eggs of British Birds,”’ Bree’s ‘‘ Birds of Europe”? (all colored plates), and other natural history, in exchange for Shakesperiana ; I have Anodonta opalina (Weatherby), and many other species of shells from the noted Koshkonong Lake and yicinity, also from Western New York, and fossils from the Marcellus shale of New V ork, w hich I would be glad to exchange for specimens of scientific value of any kind. I would also like to correspond with persons inter- ested in the collection, sale, or exchange of Indian relics.— D. E. Willard, Albion. Academy, Albion, Wis. Will exchange ‘‘ Princetun Review”’ for 1883, Hugh Miller’s works on geology ard other scientific works, for back numbers of ‘f The Auk,” ‘* American Naturalist,’ or other scientific periodicals or books. Write.— J. M. Keck, Chardon, Ohio. “‘T wish to exchange Lepzdoftera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other Jocalities.’’—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. g Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., Davenport, lowa. A collection of fifty unclassified shells for the best offer in bird skins ; also skins of California birds for those of birds of other localities. Address Th. E. Slevin, 2413 Sacramento St., San Francisco, Cal. I have forty varieties of birds’ eggs, side blown, first class, in sets, with full data, which I will exchange for books, scientific journals, shells, and curios. Write me, stating what you have to offer.— Dr. W.S.Strove, Bernadotte, Fulton County, Ill. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida. — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. oo botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. BoGue, Orwell, Ashta. County, O. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg (author ‘‘ Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. ‘Any one who Hae a botanical box in good condition wil please write. I will offer about 30 specimens in ex- change. —C. B. Haskell, Box 826, Kennebunk, Me. Lead, zinc, mundic, and calcite. — Lulu Hay, secre- tary Chapter 350, Carthage, Mo. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and plants — to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, leaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc. —Alda M. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. California onyx. for minerals~and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East rq4ist Street, New York, N.Y One mounted single achromatic photographic lens for making 4X5, pictures, in excellent condition ; 3 also one “new model”? double dry-plate holder (4” 5”), for fine geological or mineralogical specimens, aaiodky classi- fied. —Charles E. Frick, 1o1g West Lehigh Avenue, Philadelphia, Penn. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lepidoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named and in good condition. — Charles S. Westcott, 613 North 17th Street, Philadelphia, Penn. CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. Anthropological Society, Washington. Noy. 19. — J. Owen Dorsey, Some Omaha Religious Practices; W.H. Holmes, Ancient | Chipped Stone Workshops on Piney Branch, DIC : either books, pamphlets, engravings, | or cuttings. — J. D. Barnett, Box 735, Stratford, Canada. | 3 a Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, New Haven. Nov. 20.—Professor Brewer, The Progress of the Topographical Survey of Connecticut ; Professor Verrill, A Remarkable Illusion Apropos of Haunted Houses. Sottied. “VYou-must so to Bermuda. If you do mot 7 will not be responsi= ible for the consequenees.” * But Wecnnnda ‘Well, if time mor the momey.” that is impossivie, try OF PURE NORWEGIAN COD LIVER OIL. semictimes call it Bermuda Bot- thea. ama Bany cases .f CONSUMPTION, Bronchitis, Cough or Bere Cold Y fi it; and the ; ne MOSt SeMsie ack: fan take it. Another vEnmends it is the es of the Hy-= té contains. find it for sale at your S but se CoPT’s Wi the yeu sct UESION.” DR dector, H can affurd neither zi i) 5 } JNINSC OID Prof. A. MELVILLE BELL'S WORKS Elocution — Visible Speech — Principles of Speech—Faults of Speech—Phonetics—Line Writing — World - English, etc., SUPPLIED BY N. D. C. HODGES, 47% Lafayette Place, N.Y. gTea- A TRIAL ORDER of 26 pounds of Fine Tea, either Oolong. Ja- pan, Imperial, Gunpowder, Young Hy- son, Mixed, English Breakfast or Sun Sun Chop, sent by mail on receipt of $2.00. Be particularand state what kind of Tea you want. Greatest inducement ever offered to get orders for our cele- brated aw Coffees and Baking Powder. For full particu~ larsaddress THE GREAT AMERICAN TEA CO. P. O. Box 289. 31 and 33 Vesey St., New York. IMPROVED OIL LIGHT MAGIC LANTERNS. Also Lime and Electric Light Apparatus, and mechanical, plain, and fine colored wews. J. B. COLT & CO., Manufacturers, No. 16 BEEKMAN STREET, NEW YorK. E &H.T ANTHONY &CO. 591 Broadway, N.Y. Manufacturers and Importers of PHOTOGRAPHIC INSTRUMENTS, ; Apparatus and Supplies of every jescription. Sole proprietors of he Patent Detective, Fairy Noy- 1, and Bicycle Cameras, and the Celebrated Stanley Dry Plates. Amateur Outfits in great variety, from $9.00 upward. Send for Catalogue or call and examine. [6$~ More than 40 years established in this line of business. A TEMPORARY BINDER for Science is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable.and elegant, has gilt side- title, and allows the opening “of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind ing. Filed in this binder, Sczence is alw. ays convenient for reference. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. 75 cents. YOUNG MAN can haye lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SciENcE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. NoveMBER 29, 1880. | Sere NCE: Wants. | Any person seeking a position for which he is quali- | fied by his scientific attainments, or any person seeking sone one to fill a position of this character, be tt that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what | not, may have the ‘ Want’ inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, 2/ he satisfies the pubitsher of the sutt- able character of his application. Any person secking tnforination on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or whocan in any way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. ey ANALYTICAL CHEMIST is open to an engagement in mining, metallurgy, calico-printing, and bleaching, or as research chemist in alkali manufacture. Address “Alkali,” care of SCIENCE. HEMIST.—A young man of twenty- three, lately a special student of chemistry in the Scientific Department of Rutgers Col- lege, desires a position as assistant in some chemical works. Address, B. G. D., 526 Cherry St., Elizabeth, N.J. EACHING.—A young man desires a posi- ticn to ‘each the Natural Sciences, Botany in particular, in a High or Normal School or Institute. Can also teach first Latin and Ger- man. Best of references given. Address ‘‘ E,” care of “ctence. GRADUATE OF THE JOHNS HOP- KINS UNIVERSITY desires a position as teacher of physical science. Specialty, chem- istry, for which he refers to Prof. Remsen by permission. Address B. H. H., care of Science. ANTED.—To correspond with concholo- gists in America, especially in California, with a view to cxchange. Many British land, fresh water, and marine duplicates; some for- eign. Address Mrs. FALLOON, Long Ashton Vicarage, Bristol, England. EACHER OF NATURAL SCIENCE.— A young lady desires a position as a teacher of Natural Sc'ences, especially Chem- istry and Physics. One year's experience. Te:-ti- monials given. Address Miss J. S., No. 31, N. Hanover St, Carlisle, Pa. W eral Department. mont Av., Philada., OLLEGE ALUMNI AND PHYSI- CIANS.—The American Academy of Medicine is endeavoring to make as complete a list as possible of the Alumni of Literary Col- leges, in the United States and Canada, who have received the degree of M.D. All rccipi- ents of both degrees, literary and medical, are requested to forward their names at once to Dr. R, J. Dunglison, Secretary, 814 N. 16th Street, Philadelphia, Pa. ANTED a young man with some kucwl- edge of mineralogy to assist in our Min- A. E. FOOTE, 1223 Bel- Pa. YOUNG SCOTCHMAN desires an ap- pointment in America. Three years in | English Government Office. Good references. Address “Jack” care J. Lawson & Coy, 17 Princes St., Aberdeen, Scotland, HYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE. —A Fellow of the Mass. Med. Society, Mem- ber of the Suffolk District Medical Society, and former Assistant Editor of The Annals of Gynecology, dcsires a position as instructor in Physiology and Pygieue: Address ‘‘N, ” Lafayette Place, N.Y _ City. ECHANICIAN.— An optician naa maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educat‘onal institution. Address G. J , care of SCIENCE, 47 Taleyelts Place, New York. _~ CIENCE-TEACHING. —A specialist in science teaching, physics, chemistry, and physiography desires an engagement, preferably in a high or a normal school. Is well known as an author of several popular text-books. Ad- dress X., cre of SCIENCE. ANTED.—Information concerning the handling of air from Caves, for Cool- ing and ventilating rooms. Address ‘‘ M. H.” care of Sczence 47 Lafayette I'lace, N.Y. ESTABLISHED 1859. HAD DREW, Commercial Printer, 37 Clinton Place, near Broadway, New York, Wedding Orders, Souvenirs, Invitations, Or- ders of Dance, etc., etc., done in the latest and most elaborate styles, at reasonable prices. All Favors promptly attended to. J, GRUNOW, 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. Established 1852. MAKER OF Microscope Stands, Oil Immersion Object- ives and Abbe Con- densers for Bacterial and Histological work, \ of Objectives, Camera Lucida and other ac- cessory apparatus. 0 HN HASTINGS= =A=R=HART= =JOS=TRIPP. Prest. fea VPres't, BRANCH *T 728: CHESTNUT STi 9 2 PHAIlSADELPHIA- PAP: ater VE AND ADVERTISING URPOSES 22253 Park Peaces W YORK: Turns Nuts, Gas Burners or Pige without adjustment. Made of Best OTs Steel. Sent by mail for 25 cts. . Box 1945, New York City. Schools. Connecticut, New Haven, Mé:: CADY’S SCHOOL FOR YOUNG LADIES. Prepares for Smith and Wellesley, and admits to Vassar by Certificate. Circulars. Early application necessary. CHARLES U, ELy, P. MicuHican, HoueuTon. MICHIGAN MINING SCHOOL. — For Catalogues address M. E. Wadsworth, A.M., Ph.D., Director. Readers of Science Corresponding with or visiting Advertisers will confer a great favor by mentioning the paper. ee SCIENCE CLUBBING RATES. 10% DISCOUNT. ial as | <3 We will allow the above discount to any} &.2 | = g subscriber to Sc‘ence who will send us an| 5 5 S56 order for periodicals «xceeding $1o, count- > n ing each atits full price. a Agricultural Science $2.50/$5.30 American Agriculturist. 1.50] 4-30 American Architect and Building News Imperial edition 10.00| 12.80 Gelatine ‘* 7.00| 9.80 Regular ‘* 6.00) 8.80 American Garden............... I.00| 4.25 American Journal of Eilology.t 3.co| C.25 American Machinist..... 2.50) 5.30 American Naturalist 4.00} 7.50 Andover Review . 4.00} 6.80 Atlantic... 4.00| 6.80 Babyhood I 50) 4.30 Bradstreet’s- 5-cO| 7.80 Brain eee ere | 3.50| 6.30 Building (weekly) .| 6.00) 3.80 Carpentry and Building....... | I.00] 4.25 Century Magazine............. | 4.00! 6.80 Chautauquan, The ........... 200| 4.80 Christian Union, The........... 3-00] 5.80 Cosmopolitan, The 2.co| 4.80 C@ritictt =<. --| 3-00] 5.80 Eclectic Magazine... 5-00! 7.80 Edinburgh Review.. -| 4-00] 6.80 Electrical World 2 | 3-00! 5-80 Electrician and Electrical Engineer. . -| 3-00} 5 80 Blectrical Review...-.....0...--005 ‘ 3-00] 5.80 Engineering and Mining Jounal’ El 4.0c| 6.80 English Illustrated Magazine.. [pate 7 Sieeaess, Forest and Stream. -......-....:-... 4.00 6.80 Forum, The 5.00, 7-80 Garden and Forest.............. .. -| 4.00] 7.50 elev gg aIe S BEVEYeocmg conecaonandconad .| 4.00] 6.80 Harper's Magazine.........-....-- 4.00| 6.80 Harper's Weekly... 400} 6.80 Harper’s Young People 2.00| 4.Co Illustrated London N 4.co| 6.80 Independent, he. . 3-00] 5.80 Tron Age (weekly). . 4-50} 7.30 Journal of Philology 2.50] 5.30 YmlES soto cons soossosboesseosccccaabeceses 4.00] 6.80 ERAT EAS reas oie oslo ont clot creame eis 12.00! 14.80 IW PSrncg ocgouspScoasendsoosacoaaocOsssces 5.00! 7.80 Lippincott’ s Magazine 3.00] 5.80 MittellishlyinpaA pecse emcee eee aaeeeee 8.00) 10.80 London Quarterly..... 4-00} 6.80 Macmillan’s Magazine 3-00] 5.80 Magazine of American History........... 5-00! 7.80 Medical and Surgical Journal. ..... ...... 5.00] 7.80 Mechanical Engineer.........-.---- ..- -| 2.00} 4.80 WIG ey Re Goancdss coscosqdasboctsnas I.o0| 4 25 Microscope deli hes--sciemese ee aeeee eee T.00| 4.25 INEGI coo ciSiscécocedocosacogusnbo exes 6.00 8.80 North American Review.....-. .-........ 5.00] 7.80 (Oli octane ssasqscnosebacecoscubee. se <5 3.00} 5.80 Overland Monthly....-...- 4-00, 6.80 Political Science Quarterly. ches 3.00] 5.80 Popular Science Monthly................ 5.00] 7.80 Popular Science News.......-..+-++..--. 1.00} 4.25 Portroliqwmihe seccslenttne ren icinesecinen enn 7-50} 10.30 IDENT soGguadon oonpaDSScoDono5 3-50, 6.30 Public Opinion 3.00] 5.80 Puck cocau 5.00, 7.80 Puck (Germs 5-00} 7:80 Quarterly Rev 4.00) 6.80 Queries. . 1.00] -4.25 St. Nichol ee 3.00! 5.80 Scientific American...........sseee0-s-2e- 3.00] 5 Supplementiawiels mice wslesinliielnlei=ielsiomcinte 5-00} 7.8 Architect and Builders’ edition....... 25 5- Scribner's Magazine. 2. -esnee sen) see 3 5. Texas Siftings ae 6. Trained Nurse I. 4-3 it SCIENGE, [VoLt. -XIV. No. 356 Sprague Electric Kailway and Motor Company. Lightest Weignt Consistent with Highest Efficiency. SIMPLE IN CONSTRUCTION, Not Liable to get out of Order. Bearings Self Oiling. NON-SPARKING IN OPERATION. Commutator Wear Reduced to a Minimum. foand-18 BROAD STREET NEW YORis Royal Armure Plaids. A new line of all-wool Royal Armure Plaids, just arrived, are commended to purchaser for beauty of design and coloring, width 48 inches, | price $2 per yard. A large variety of Serge and Foule Plaids at 75 cents and $1 per yard. We would also direct attention to remarkable values in Robes and Pattern Dresses» Patterns worth $27.59 and $25, may be p $17.50 and $16, JAMES McCREERY & CO. BROADWAY AND ELEVENTH STREET, NEW YORK. HOUSEHOLD MICROSCOPE Sent to any address for $5.00 This instrument is simply for use by a beginner in Microscopy. The finer Microscopes vary in value from $25. to $250. Send for catalogue to G. S. WOOLMAN, 116 FULTON ST.; New York. For Chemical Manufacturers,) Sold at MINERALS. 4 For Blowpipe Analysis, owest Prices For Technical Purposes, j By Weight. Most varied and complete stock of fine cabinet speci- mens in U. Recent additiors include fine Fluorite, Calc'te, Barite, Specular Iron, etc., from England ; Ber- trandite, Phenacite, Descloizite, Brochanti! er Vanadinite, Copper ‘Pseudomorphs after Azurite, etc., ‘from U. S Send for complete catalogue free. GEO. lL ENGLISH & CO, Dealers in Minerals. 1512 Chestnut St . Philadelphia, Pa Hoena O Dee) Genahle ae ee (hee eaueet woot Lambs’ Wool, Camels’ Hair, Natural Wool, Cachmere, Merino, Bal- Underwear for Ladies, briggan and Pure Silk Gentlemen and Children. ** CARTWRIGHT & WARNER'S” CELEBRATED MERINO UNDERWEAR. ADI&S’ UNION DRESSES.—In Silk, Silk and Wool, and Merino. OSIERY.—Pure Silk, Raw Silk, Camels’ Hair, fi Cachmere and Fieece-lined Hose and Half- ose. O OTOCLC dovay A 19th ot. EW YORK. FOOD A DUA RAST oIN And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and a bibliographical appendix. By J P. Batteishall 328 pages, 8vo, cloth. Price, $3.50. Circulars and Catalogues on application. EK. & F. N. SPON, 12 Cortlandt St., New York. H. Wunderlich & Co.. 868 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, Invite special attention to their latest importations of Modern Etchings, En- gravings, Brown’s Carbon Photographs and Watercolor Paintings, also to their large collection of Rare English Mezzo- tints, Fancy Subjects by Bartolozzi, old Line Engravings, and Original Works by Rembrandt, Durer, and other old masters. THE Aneviean Bell Yelephone COMPANY. 95 MILK ST, BOSTON, MASS. This Company owns the Letters Patent granted to Alexander Gra- ham Bell, March 7th, 1876, No. 174,465, and January 30, 1877, No. 186,787. The Transmission of Speech by all known forms of KLECTRIC SPEAKING TELEPHONES in- fringes the right secured to this Company by the above patents, and renders each individual user of tel- ephones, not furnished by it or its licensees, responsible for such un- lawful use, and all the conse- quences thereof and liable to suit therefor. STERBROOK’S STEEL PENS. OF SUPERIOR AND STANDARD QUALITY. Leading Nos.: 048, 14, 130, 135, 239, 333 For Sale by all Stationers. THE ESTERBROOK STEEL PEN CO., Works: Oamden, N.J. 26 John St., New York, foietiNG NEW ene ES) PATENT [| 40 THE VEDAL 2 Pst a a Pe ee S NEW ORLEANS ; $5 Cd Shoucestor Masur Used by thousands of first-class mechanics and by such manufact- urers as Pullman Palace Car Co., Mason & Hamlin Organ and Piano 'o., &c., &e. Repairs Everything. Itssuccess has brought a lot of By | imitators copying us in every wa; Al eo ossible, Remer:ber that ‘TH i i sux GENUINE LePage's Liquid A iA 00": 4 POT. 46HOLEORN SEIS LON Glue is manufactured solely by the RUSSIA CEMENT CO. GLOUCESTER, MASS. Send 10c, and dealers’ card CaO jPatent Pocket Can. No waste, doesn’t keep it in stock, for sample. ve Rts iin IENCE [Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. ] A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES, SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 357. NEW YORK, DEcemBErR 6, 1889 SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS. $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, THE FORWARD GAS-ENGINE. THE more thoughtful among us will welcome any improvement in the arts which will modify the conditions under which motive power is available, and render it more accessible to small estab- lishments whose existence depends upon the closest economy in all directions. One means of attaining this end is the introduction of gas-motors into these small industries. The great care and atten- tion which have been paid to economic conditions in Europe have caused this subject to receive more consideration there than in this country : hence many important improvements in this class of ma- It is now for the first time presented in the form of a business en- terprise on this side of the Atlantic. The distinguishing feature of this engine is a rotating valve by which the ignition of the combustible charge in the cylinder is ef- fected. In the valve are eight ignition ports, which come into ac- tion successively. Each port, having performed its duty, makes a complete revolution before it comes into action again, and in the mean time is exposed to the air, by which the greater part of the heat which it has absorbed is carried away. This insures the cool working of the valve, which runs scarcely any risk of cutting, while the constant motion in one direction affords another element of i iy. il! c] \eree i \ FIG. chinery have found their origin and their greatest field among our transatlantic kindred. The sharp rivalry, however, engendered among them by the great demand, has stimulated efforts to perfect these motors, which have finally resulted in the group of inven- tions, patented both in Europe and America, by the producers of the Forward gas-engines. This motor has only been on the mar- ket for about a year in Europe, but is rapidly coming to the front. It was-exhibited at the recent electrical and industrial exhibitien at Birmingham, where, we are informed, it received the only gold medal for excellence of construction in gas-engines, as well as the only medal awarded gas-engines for electric lighting, although the other leading motors of the same class were well represented. 1.—THE FORWARD GAS-ENGINE. safety. Every time the cylinder takes in a charge, the valve gives a partial revolution ; but, when the gas is cut off completely, the valve ceases to move, and the small firing charge, which would otherwise be wasted, is saved. The number of missed explosions, however, is not great in this engine, as the strength of the charge is reduced as the work falls off, until it approaches the point at which it would cease to explode; the gas is then cut off entirely, and the valve left stationary until the governor arms again fall. The mechanical devices by means of which these operations are performed are shown by the accompanying illustrations. Figs. 1 and 2 are perspective views of a 4-horse-power engine; Fig. 3 is an outline of the working parts, looking from the crank-shaft; and 380 SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 357 Figs. 4 and 5 are plan and sectional views of the ignition valve. ture. The disk a is, by the interimibient gsihiton imparted to it, The valve a (Figs. 3, 4, and 5) is mounted on a pivot at the rear of brought into position at the required time for igniting the mixture the combustion chamber of the cylinder, and has a number of inthe cylinder. The slot or small gas-chamber / g in the disk a, Fic. 3. ratchet-teeth (c) around its circumference. It is rotated by a pawl, which is approaching the port @, receives inflammable gas from the 1, worked by a small crank at the end of the side shaft, and a con- _ fixed gas-duct 7 in the cover 4, the passage 7* in the rotating disk a necting link, z. The cylinder being ’charged with compressed ex- being brought opposite during the motion of the said disk, and plosive mixture, the port @ is also charged with the gaseous mix- communicating with the duct or curved slot 7 in the cover 6. The DeEcEMBER 6, 1880. | slot or small gas-chamber / g receives atmospheric air to form an inflammable mixture with the gas in the small chamber through the duct 7? in the fixed cover 4, which duct f? communicates with the port g of the small gas-chamber / g. By the action of the ratchet motion the small gas-chamber / ¢ in the disk a, having been charged in the manner described, is car- ried rapidly forward, and the gaseous mixture therein is ignited by the fixed relighting gas-jet 21. The igniting of the charge in the small gas-chamber / g takes place immediately before the passage / comes opposite the port @ into the gas-cylinder a*. The passage A coming opposite the port d, the flame in the small gas chamber fg ignites the gaseous mixture in the port @ and the engine cylin- der a?. The passage % opens into the port g of the small gas- chamber / g immediately after the small gas-chamber and the port f? are closed, the duct 7 communicating with the port @ a little py) YY SA A> Wa Rass fe | on 94 GF WM So “an MMMM, 92140 Fic. 5. before the part 4 communicates with the port d@ to effect the igni- tion of the gaseous mixture in the gas-chamber or cylinder a’. The supply of gas is regulated by the lever 9 and the gas-valve 7. The lever receives its motion through a spindle, 01, from a sec- ond lever, which is,acted upon by a cam on the side shaft. This cam is under the control of the governor. The lever 0 carries a cam, #', which engages with a lever, , having at its end a stud, g', ‘taking into a slot,g, in the pawl 7 Upon the lever o moving SCIEN Gi 381 so as to open the gas tappet-valve, the cam #! operates upon the lever Z, causing the stud g to be disengaged from the slot, and allowing the pawl to fall into the teeth of the valve. When the engine is running so fast that the gas-valve is not opened, the stud holds the pawl out of gear. This engine has been subjected to a series of tests by Professor R. H. Smith of Mason College, Birmingham, and has given most satisfactory and economical results. It was tried at full working load, at half load, and without load, the latter test being divided into three parts,—at fast, medium, and slow speeds. The full working load trial lasted 85 minutes, the speed being 176.86 revo- lutions per minute. The indicated horse-power was 5.54, and the brake horse-power 4.807, giving a mechanical efficiency of 0.8677. The gas consumed in driving the engine was 163.2 feet, or 20.79 Fic. 6 Imitialipresstte seme eee era enter eeti eet. 220 bs. per sq. in. Average mean pressure.... ..-.,..-.-2----0eee eee oee 77°73 i Revolutions per minute.. .........-.2.-.-..-+------ 175 cubic feet per hour per indicated horse-power, and 23.97 feet per brake horse-power. Fig. 6 shows an average indicator card taken during this trial; and Fig. 7, a high-pressure card, illustrating how the governor supplies a richer charge of gas when any sudden de- mand is made on the engine. At half-power, the brake horse- power was 3.084, equal to a gas consumption of 31.86 feet per horse-power per hour. The lighting jet burned about two feet an hour in both cases. When the engine was running empty, it burned 53 feet of gas per hour at the high speed, 44 feet at the medium speed, and 34 feet at the low speed. A comparison of these results with those obtained in the Society of Arts trial in England shows that the Forward gas-engine ranks very high in the matter of economy, while its mechanical simplicity is a great additional recommendation. ; One of these engines, of 4 horse-power, is now on exhibition in Fic. 7 nitialspressuce seer eeeeeiseer eae seeiee emer eian 165 lbs. per sq- in. Average mean pressure.........-----0- sees eee e ee eens 65.11 S SS Revolutions per minute ... 1,-2.2. ses ee eee eee eens 177 Boston, by the Forward Gas Engine Company, who, we under- stand, control the patents for this country, and will soon begin their manufacture. A DANGEROUS INSECT PEST IN MEDFORD, MASS. Mr. C. H. FERNALD of the Division of Entomology of the Hatch Experiment Station of the Massachusetts Agricultural Col- lege, Amherst, Mass., has issued a special bulletin on “ A Danger- ous Insect Pest in\Medford,” known as the gypsy-moth (Ocnerza dispar L.). On the 27th of last June, during his absence in Europe, several caterpillars were received at the station from Hon. William R. Sessions, secretary of the Board of Agriculture, with the re- quest for information as to what they were, and the best methods of destroying them. These caterpillars were brought into the sec- retary’s office by Mr. John Stetson of Medford, Mass., who stated that they were very destructive in that town, eating the leaves of fruit and shade trees. Mrs. Fernald, who had charge of the entomological work during Mr. Fernald’s absence, determined the insect to be 382 the gypsy-moth (Ocaerza dispar Linn.) of Europe; but as the moths were emerging, and laying their eggs for next year’s brood, there was nothing to recommend at that time except to destroy the moths and their eggs as far as possible, and prepare for the destruction of the caterpillars when they first appear next spring. There is a statement in the second volume of the Amerzcan En- tomologzst, p. 111 (published in 1870), and also in Riley’s ‘* Second Missouri Report on Insects,” p. 10, that ‘‘ only a year ago the larva of a certain owlet moth (Hyfogymna dispar), which is a great pest in Europe both to fruit-trees and forest-trees, was accidentally intro- duced by a Massachusetts entomologist into New England.” Mr. Samuel Henshaw and Dr. Hagen of Cambridge both state that the entomologist who introduced this insect was Mr. L. Trou- velot, now living in Paris, but at that time living near Glenwood, Medford, where he attempted some experiments in raising silk from our native silk-worms, and also introduced European species for the same purpose. It seems, then, that this was an accidental introduction, but that they have now become acclimated, and are spreading, and doing so much damage as to cause very great alarm. The gypsy-moth is abundant in nearly all parts of Europe, north- ern and western Asia, and it even extends as far as Japan. In this country it occurs only in Medford, Mass., occupying an area in the form of an ellipse about a mile and a half long by half a mile wide. This represents the territory where the outbreak occurred, and where the insects were very abundant. Without doubt, they are distributed in smaller quantities outside of this ellipse, but how far it is now impossible to tell. This insect was reported as feeding upon the leaves of apple, cherry, quince, elm, linden, maple, balm of Gilead, birch, oak, willow, wisteria, Norway spruce, and corn. The food-plants given in Europe are apple, pear, p!um, cherry, quince, apricot, lime, pomegranate, linden, elm, birch, beech, oak, poplar, willow, horn- beam, ash, haze!-nut, larch, fir, azalea, myrtle, rose, cabbage, and many others. Curtis, in his ‘ British Entomology,” states that they are sometimes very destructive in gardens. Professor W. P. Brooks reported this insect as very abundant in Sapporo, Japan, in 1883, and gave strawberry as a food-plant in addition to those mentioned above. The fact that this insect has now been in this country for the last twenty years, and has not only held its own, but has multiplied to such an extent as to cause the entire destruction of the fruit- crop and also to defoliate the shade-trees in the infested region, is sufficient cause for alarm. The citizens of Medford are immedi- ately interested, but the entire Commonwealth and country are threatened with one of the worst insect pests of all Europe. In 1817 the cork-oaks of southern France suffered severely from the attacks of this insect. One of the papers of that time stated that the beautiful cork-oaks which extended from Barbaste to the city of Podenas were nearly destroyed by the caterpillars of the gypsy- moth. After having devoured the leaves and young acorns, they attacked the fields of corn and millet, and also the grass-lands and fruit-trees. In 1878 the plane trees of the public promenades of Lyons were nearly ruined by this same insect. Mr. Fernald states that only last summer he saw the moths in immense numbers on the trees in the Zodlogical Gardens of Berlin, where the caterpillars had done great injury; and the European works on entomology abound with instances of the destructiveness of this insect. When its long list of food-plants is considered, it will be seen how injurious this in- sect may become if allowed to spread over the country, and become established. The opinion was expressed to him by prominent entomologists in Europe, that, if the gypsy-moth should get a foothold in this country, it would become a far greater pest than the Colorado potato-beetle, because it is so prolific, and feeds on so many dif- ferent plants, while the potato-beetle confines itself to a small number. In Europe eleven species of the /chvezmonzde, and seven species of flies ( Zachzna), have been known to attack the eggs and ca‘er- pillars of this moth ; but it is not known that there are any parasit- ic insects in this country that destroy it. Undoubtedly our pre- daceous beetles and bugs destroy more or less of them, and SCIEN [VoL. XIV. No. 357 mud-wasps and spiders are also to be counted among’ their enemies. All the masses of eggs should be scraped from the trees and’ other places where the females have deposited them, and burned. Crushing is not sufficient, as possibly some might escape uninjured. This should be done in the fall, winter, or early spring, before the eggs hatch. It is not at all probable that one will find all the egg- masses even with the most careful searching on the trees in a small orchard; but, when one remembers that this insect deposits its. eggs on all kinds of shade and forest trees also, it appears a hope- less task to exterminate this pest by an attempt to destroy the eggs_ It is a habit of these caterpillars, after they have emerged, to cluster together on the trunks or branches of the trees between the times of feeding, and this affords an opportunity of destroying vast num- bers by crushing them; and after they have changed to pupe they may be destroyed wherever they can be found. The female moths are so sluggish in their flight, and so conspicuous, that they may be easily captured and destroyed as soon as they emerge; yet any one or all of these methods which have been employed in Europe are not sufficient for their extermination. At best they will only reduce the numbers more or less, according to the thoroughness. with which the work has been done. Mr. Fernald could not learn: that any attempts have ever been made in Europe to destroy this. insect by means of poisonous insecticides, and it is to this method that we may look for positive results in this country. If all the trees in the infested region in Medford be thoroughly showered with Paris-green in water (one pound to a hundred and fifty gallons) soon after the hatching of the eggs in the spring, the young caterpillars will surely be destroyed; and, if any escape, it will be because of some neglect or ignorance in the use of the in- secticide. It will be absolutely necessary to shower every tree and shrub in that region ; for, if a single tree be neglected, it may yield a crop sufficiently large to eventually restock the region. We can hardly feel confident that all these insects can be ex- terminated in one year; but if this work of showering the trees be continued during the months of April and May for two or three years under competent direction, we have no doubt but that they may be entirely destroyed. This is, in the opinion of Mr. Fernald, the cheapest and surest method of exterminating this pest, but its effectiveness depends. entirely upon the thoroughness and carefulness with which it is done ; and those who do the work must have authority to shower the trees not only on public, but on private grounds. As this insect was introduced into this country by an entomolo- gist who carelessly allowed it to escape, the same thing may occur elsewhere if the people of Medford allow the eggs or caterpillars to be sent out of the town. The only proper thing to do with such a dangerous and destructive enemy is to burn it. eter different common names have also been given to the in- sect in Europe, as the “sponge-moth,” the “ gypsy-moth,” the “‘oreat-headed moth,” the “ fungus- moth,” and others. ELECTRICAL NEWS. SPECIFIC INDUCTIVE Capacity. — Mr. W. A. Rudge writes on the above subject to ature as follows : “ On p. 669 of Ganot’s. ‘Physics ’ (eleventh edition) the following statement is found: ‘ At a fixed distance above a gold leaf electroscope, let an electrified sphere be placed, by which a certain divergence of the leaves is produced. If, now, the charges remaining the same, a disk of sul- phur or of shellac be interposed, the divergence increases, showing that inductive action takes place through the sulphur to a greater extent than through a layer of air of the same thickness.’ If this state- ment were correct, there should be less electric action on the side of the ball farthest from the electroscope when the dielectric is in- terposed. To test this, | arranged an experiment as follows: The knob of a charged Leyden jar was placed midway between two~ insulated plates of metal, each plate being in connection with an electroscope. The leaves of each electroscope now diverged to an equal extent. A plate of ebonite was now placed between the knob of the jar and one of the plates. If the statement above quoted is correct, the leaves of the electroscope in connection with this plate should show an increased divergence, but the reverse DECEMBER 6, 1880. | effect was observed. The leaves partially collapsed. In all exper- iments that I have made by inserting dielectrics between a charged body and an electroscope, less electric action has been the result. If, while the charged ball be near the electroscope, the plate of it be touched with the finger, the leaves collapse; and on removing the finger, and then the charged ball, they again diverge. Now let a dielectric be placed between the ball and the electroscope, touch the latter, and remove the finger and ball as before, and much greater divergence will be produced. In both cases the electroscope is charged by induction. Without putting the electroscope to earth, I fail to see theoretically why any greater divergence should occur. I suppose some one must have made the experiment as quoted ; but, if a greater effect was produced, it must have been caused by the substance used for a dielectric being charged itself. I have found very great difficulty in preventing plates of ebonite, paraffine, sulphur, etc., becoming electrified when placed near a charged body. I should like to know if any one has experimented in this direction, because either the text-books or myself must be wrong. In Guth- rie’s book (p. ror) there is a statement similar to Ganot’s.”” ELECTRIC LIGHTING AT BERLIN. — M. Wybau,a Belgian elec- trician, has recently read a paper before the Belgian Electrical So- ciety on the electric lighting of Berlin, from which the following particulars of this important system are taken. At Berlin the electric light, as stated in Engzneerzng, is supplied from a number of central stations, the two principal of which are situated in Mark- grafenstrasse and the Mauerstrasse. Of the other: stations, one lights the Kaiser Galerie, and the other a block of houses at the cor- ner of Unter den Linden and Friedrichstrasse. A fifth station, of but small importance, supplies the lighting of Leipzigerstrasse. At the Markgrafenstrasse station there are eight steam-engines, each of 150 horse-power, which drive sixteen Edison dynamos. To this plant there have recently been added four compound inverted en- gines, each capable of indicating 300 horse-power, which drive direct four dynamos of 165 kilowatts each. These dynamos are of the multipolar type, and are slow-moving machines, their armatures making but eighty-six revolutions per minute in normal working. The boiler-house contains eight De Naeyer tubulous boilers, which supply the steam for the whole plant. In the switch-room is a theostat of exceptionally large size, which is used to regulate the current in the distributing. mains. These mains are eighty in number, most of which are with their coverings about 3 inches in diameter, and the greatest section of copper in any one of them is 800 square millimetres. At the Mauerstrasse station there are six boilers, three engines of 180 horse-power each, and three of 300 horse-power each. At the Friedrichstrasse station there are four engines of 60 horse-power each, and at the Kaiser Galerie four of 80 horse-power each. At the small station on the Leipzigerstrasse there are two engines of 80 horse-power. The floor space required in the above installations per 1,000 lamps for boilers and machinery is from 323 to 377 square feet. At the Edison station in New York about 194 square feet of floor space are required, but the dynamos and engines run at much higher speeds. The total length of cables laid in Berlin is about 170 kilometres, which are laid un- der the footpaths. In every case Siemens cables are used. ELECTRICAL SUNSTROKE. — As a remedy against “ electrical sunstroke,” as the affection is called that attacks men exposed to the intense rays of the electric arc by means of which metals are fused and welded, is a veil or mask of glazed taffeta, supported by a wicker head-piece, and provided with goggles of gray glass. THE HOUSTHOLM ELECTRIC LIGHTHOUSE. — This lighthouse, the most powerful electric lighthouse in the world, was opened a few weeks ago, and its working has given great satisfaction. Even in rainy weather its light has been distinctly visible at Blokhus, a straight distance of about thirty-five miles. The only undesirable incident attending the working of the new lighthouse is the im- mense number of birds which get killed, and which amount to thousands, comprising starlings, snipes, larks, etc., basketfuls being collected every morning in the vicinity of the lighthouse. As stated in Lngzneerzng, the lighthouse is 209 feet high, and the light-power in the beam is 2,000,000 candles. To guard against the stoppage of the light through any accident to the machinery, this is, as far as it has been possible, constructed on the twin SCIENCE 383 principle. There are two engines, three tubular boilers, one of which is a particularly quick-heating one, two electro-magnetic machines with a joint capacity of 45 volts, 250 ampéres, from Meritens & Co., Paris, two electric lamps, with various reserve lamps, etc. In connection with the lighthouse, and at a distance of respectively about 2,000 and 16,000 feet, are two powerful sirens, which are fed with compressed air from two air-pumps in the engine-house, and which can be coupled together with the engines. At the siren stations there are reservoirs of compressed air, which are worked by means of electricity and clock-work, and great care and forethought seem to have been bestowed upon the whole in- stallation in all its details. ELECTRIFICATION DUE TO CONTACT OF GASES WITH LIQ- UIDs. — At the meeting of the London Physical Society, held on Noy. 15, Mr. Enright read a paper on ‘‘ The Electrification due to Contact of Gases with Liquids.” Repeating his experiments with zinc and hydrochloric acid, the author, by passing the gas into an insulated metallic vessel connected with the electrometer, proved that it was always charged with electricity of the opposite kind to that of the solution. The electrical phenomena of many other re- actions have been investigated, with the result that the gas, whether Hi, CO,, SO;, SH, or Cl, is always electrified positively when escaping from acids, and negatively when leaving a solution of the salt. In some cases, according to Exgzneerzng, distinct reversal is not obtainable, but all these seem explicable by considering the solubility and power of diffusion of the resulting salts. Various _ other results given in the paper tend to confirm this hypothesis. Seeking for an explanation of the observed phenomena, the author could arrive at no satisfactory one excepting ‘contact’ between gases and liquids; and, if this be the true explanation, he hoped to prove it directly by passing hydrogen through acid. In this, how- ever, he was unsuccessful, owing, he believes, to the impossibility of bringing the gas into actual contact with the liquid. True con- tact only seems possible when the gas is in the nascent state. Some difficulty was experienced in obtaining non-electrified gas, for the charge is retained several hours after its production, even if the gas be kept in metallic vessels connected to earth. Such vessels, when recently filled, form condensers, in which the electri- city pervades an enclosed space, and whose charge is available on allowing the gas to escape. Soap-bubbles blown with newly gen- erated hydrogen were also found to act as condensers, the liquid of which, when broken, exhibited a negative charge. This fact, the author suggested, may explain the so-called “ fire-balls ” sometimes seen during thunder-storms ; for if, by any abnormal distribution of heat, a quantity of electrified air becomes enclosed by a film of moisture, its movements and behavior would closely resemble those of fire-balls. A similar explanation was proposed for the phenom- enon mentioned in a recent number of /Vatwre, where part of a thunder-cloud was seen to separate from the mass, descend to earth, and rise again. The latter part of the paper describes methods of measuring the contact potential differences between gases and liquids, the most satisfactory of which is a ‘‘ water-drop- per ;”’ and by its means the potential difference between hydrogen and hydrochloric acid was found to be about 42 volts. HEALTH MATTERS. SALT AND MICROBES. —A foreign observer has carried out some instructive researches into the effect of salt on various patho- genic micro-organisms. He found, says the J/edzca/ Press, that the results varied a good deal, according to the particular microbe experimented upon. The cholora bacillus, for example, curled up and died in a few hours, while the bacillus of typhoid-fever and the micrococci of pus and erysipelas resisted its influence for weeks and even months, That part of his observations bearing on tuber- culosis possesses a practical importance, owing to the custom in slaughter-houses of salting the flesh of animals recognized to be tuberculous, and exposing it for sale in the course of a few weeks. M. de Freytag has shown that the tubercle bacillus thrives in the presence of an excess of salt, and salting the tuberculous tissues of an ox in no wise prevented the infection of animals fed there- on: hence it is highly desirable that a stop should be put to a 384 practice which exposes those who partake of the diseased meat to such obvious risks of infection. COOLING OF THE BODY BY SPRAY. — Dr. S, Placzek, follow- ing up some laboratory experiments by Preyer and Flashaar on the effect of spraying a considerable part of the body surface of ani- mals with cold water, has applied the spray for the purpose of re- ducing febrile temperatures in human beings. In the case of a man suffering from phthisis, whose temperature was high, he found, that, by spraying about a pint of water at between 60° and 70° F. over his body, the temperature fell to normal, and continued so for several hours. Again, a similar method was satisfactorily applied in the case of a girl with diphtheria. In the healthy human sub- ject, according to the Zazcef, the spray lowered the temperature nearly two degrees, and, in animals which had been put into a condition of septic pyrexia by injections of bacteria, the tempera- ture was reduced to normal by the spray. By keeping healthy guinea-pigs and rabbits some hours under spray, and using from half a pint to a pint of water at the temperature of the room (44° to 62°), the temperature of the animals fell several degrees. DEATH BY ELECTRICITY.— At the meeting of the Medico- Legal Society held in this city Nov. 20. Dr. Phillip E. Donlin, deputy coroner, who read a paper on “ The Pathology of Death by Electricity,” in the course of which he said, “ The popular idea that the electrical current passes along the nerves and produces shock by conducting the current to the brain, is, as you know, fal- lacious. Our knowledge of the great electrical conductive power of water, and the experiments of Dr. Richardson, which show the still greater electrical conductive power of blood, would lead one to suppose — and, in fact, it is proved by the greater damage done to the most vascular organs of the body —that the blood is the great conductor of electricity; and that in all cases of exposure to the electric current the blood is the first to suffer, and the nerve- centres and cells the last. Unquestionably our knowledge of the smanner of death points out clearly, that, when death is not on the rmoment produced by the shock of the current, it must be produced mby the electric current’s action (conducted by the blood) upon the -ganglia of the heart, causing spasm of the heart muscle, emptying «he ventricles, and abnormally forcibly propelling the charged and -‘luid blood to the periphery, producing hyperemic ecchymosis in the most vascular portions of the most vascular organs. Where death is not instantaneous, it must be produced by disorgan- ization of the blood, interference with the circulation causing engorgement of some vital vascular organ. The lungs being the most vascular, death usually results from asphyxia either through the unoxygenated condition of the blood, or hyperzemia of these organs.” In reply to a question as to the effect likely to be produced by the infliction of the death penalty ‘iby electricity, Dr. Donlin said that the immensity of the power of the machines constructed was such that the purely mechanical re- sult would occasion death. It was possible with- those appliances to drive the current of electricity through the tissues with such jpower as to destroy them, though the amount of power to be em- ployed was clearly within the control of the electrician. Is COLORADO’S CLIMATE CHANGING ?— The inhabitants of Denver are asking what is the meaning of the unusual snow-fall and humidity of the past month. The newspapers of that city, as we learn from MZedzcal News, have expressed the opinion that their climate is about to undergo a change, in consequence of sur- flace changes of “building up” and improving the State. The present moist season has been especially disappointing to Eastern people, who have journeyed to Denver to escape the humidity of ‘our seaboard winters. From a letter recently received, a few sen- itences are quoted: ‘‘ Snow has fallen each night and morning, but ithe sun conquers by mid-day, making walking almost impossible. “As a usual thing, the inhabitants expect about ten days of inclem- ent weather during winter and spring, and have not looked upon the paving of streets and crossings as at all necessary. But they are now aroused to remedy this condition. The snow-fall is said by some to be already greater than the total for three ordinary winters.’’ The total fall at the Denver station, in October, was 2.11 inches, and is the only October since 1871 when 1.49 inches have been exceeded, with the single exception of that of 1877, SGIENEGE: [Vor. XIV. No. 357 when 2.15 inches were registered. There have been but nine cloudless days in the same month, while nineteen were partly cloudy. The mean temperature has been somewhat above that of the past decade. Fog —a condition hitherto almost unknown in Colorado — occurred during five mornings in October. CARE OF THE TEETH. — At the meeting in Berlin last spring, of the German Association of American Dentists, the best means of preserving the teeth were discussed, and Dr. Richter of Breslau said, ‘We know that the whole method of correctly caring for the teeth can be expressed in two words, rush, soap. In these two things we have all that is needful for the preservation of the teeth. All the preparations not containing soap are not to be rec- ommended; and if they contain soap, all other ingredients are useless except for the purpose of making their taste agreeable. Among the soaps, the white castile soap of the English market is especially to be recommended. A shower of tooth preparations has been thrown on the market, but very few of which are to be rec- ommended. ‘Testing the composition of them, we find that about 90 per cent are not only unsuitable for their purpose, but that the greater part are actually harmful. All the preparations containing salicylic acid are, as the investigations of Fernier have shown, de- structive of the teeth. He who will unceasingly preach to his patients to brush their teeth carefully shortly before bedtime, as a cleansing material to use castile soap, as a mouth wash a solution of oil of peppermint in water, and to cleanse the spaces between the teeth by careful use of a silken thread, will help them in preserv- ing their teeth, and will win the gratitude and good words of the public.” THE DIGESTIBILITY OF BOILED MILK. — Though the impor- tance of sterilizing milk for bottle-fed infants in cities has been proven beyond a doubt, the process seems to have some disadvan - tages. Inarecent number of the Zectschrzft fiir physcologésche Chemze, Dr. Randnitz publishes some striking experiments on the subject. He shows by analysis of the milk ingested, and of the feeces and urine, that much less nitrogenous material is abstracted from boiled than from unboiled milk. If 15.6 grams of nitrogen in the form of unboiled milk were given to dogs for three days, analy- sis showed that 9.4 per cent was stored in the tissues of the animal. On the other hand, with the same amount of nitrogen in boiled milk, but 5.7 per cent was assimilated. If these results are con- firmed, it is evident that an infant must need a larger quantity of sterilized than of raw milk. ARTIFICIAL FOOD FOR INFANTS. — Dr. Escherich of Munich gave a lecture in the pediatric section of the sixty-second meeting of German naturalists and physicians at Heidelberg, advocating a reform in the artificial feeding of infants. He bases his belief in the necessity of such a reform on the errors produced by Biedert’s theory, which depends upon the difference between cow’s milk and normal human milk. Biedert’s view was, as stated in the Lazce?, that all the troubles and diseases occurring in artificially fed infants were due to the indigestion of the caseine of the cow’s milk, causing irritation of the mucous membrane of the bowels. He therefore considered, that, if the latter were diluted so as to contain one per cent only of caseine, the infant could not possibly take an injurious quantity of this noxious substance. Dr. Escherich considers that this theory, and the practice resulting from it, have gone far to pre- vent due care being exercised as to much more important condi- tions. Such are, according to the lecturer, germs and fermentation in improperly kept cow’s milk, the number of meals, and the quan- tity of food given at a time in proportion to the capacity of the in- fantile stomach, the total quantity of nutritious matter and its pro- portion in the food, and finally the injurious effect which the water which has been added to the food has on the digestion and the metamorphosis of nutritious matter. Dr. Escherich holds it, above all, necessary to return to physiological principles, and so to ap- proximate artificial feeding as much as possible to the mother’s milk, as regards the absence of germs and the number and quanti- ties of meals. The lecturer then pointed out that it is easy enough, by sterilization of small quantities of milk according to Soxhlet’s plan, to comply at least theoretically with all these conditions, and at the same time to limit the quantity of caseine so as to fulfil Bie- dert’s requirements. DeceMBER 6, 1889. | NOTES AND NEWS. THE eighth congress of Russian naturalists and physicians will be held at St. Petersburg from Dec. 27, 1889, to Jan. 7, 1890. — There are now thirty-nine crematories in various parts of the world. Italy has twenty-three ; America has ten; while England, Germany, France, Switzerland, Denmark, and Sweden have one apiece. In Italy there were two cremations in 1876; the number rose to fifteen in 1877, and in 1888 the number was 226. Since 1876, 1,177 cremations have taken place in Italy, while the com- bined numbers in all other countries brings the total only to 1,269. — The following is a list of the papers read at the meeting of the Royal Meteorological Society, London, Nov. 20: “ Second Report of the Thunder-Storm Committee,” being a discussion by Mr. Marriott on the distribution of days of thunder-storms over Eng- land and Wales during the seventeen years 1871-87; ‘On the Change of Temperature which accompanies Thunder Storms in Southern England,” by Mr. G. M.-Whipple; “Note on the Ap- pearance of St. Elmo’s Fire at Walton on the Naze, Sept. 3, 1889,” by Mr. W. H. Dines; ‘Notes on Cirrus Formation,” by Mr. H. Helm Clayton, who has made a special study of cloud-forms and their changes; ‘‘A Comparison between the Jordan and the Campbell Stokes Sunshine Recorder,” by Mr. F. C. Bayard, being the result of a year’s comparison between these two instruments; “Sunshine,” by Mr. A. B. MacDowall, being a discussion of the hours of sunshine recorded at the stations of the Royal Meteoro- logical Society; ‘On Climatological Observations at Ballyboley, County Antrim,” by Professor S. A. Hill, the result of observations made during the five years 1884-88. — A circular letter has been sent to the members of the National Electric Light Association by the secretary, Mr. Allan V. Garratt, asking them to state to him as briefly as possible the most difficult electrical problems they meet in their investigations or in the con- duct of their electrical business. They are also requested to state what feature of their business is the least economical or efficient, -and why, and where the greatest economy could be effected if the difficulty could be overcome. The answers to these queries will be digested, and the results submitted to Professor Henry A. Rowland of Johns Hopkins University. Professor Rowland has consented to address the next electric-light convention at Kansas City in Feb- ruary, basing his remarks upon the problems suggested by the members, and pointing out the direction in which their solution must be sought. — From a memorandum appended to the last report of the United States consul at Shanghai. it appears that the greatest silk- producing province in China is Che Kiang, and Kiang-Su comes second. The two great divisions in silk as exported from central China are known in all places of consumption as ¢saz/ees and ¢ay- saams. Tsatlee is simply the Cantonese for ¢sezh /e (or ‘‘ seven li’) ; that is to say, an area of that dimension, taking Nanzing as the centre, where the best fine-sized silk was formerly produced. The radius has been extended, in consequence of the higher price paid for fine compared with coarse sorts ; and /sa¢/ees now include some silks reeled from Sinsze and Seloo cocoons, which formerly were only employed for silks of the coarser thread. Considerable quantities of Zaysaamzs are still, however, being reeled in the two last-named districts. At the present time /saz/ee means silk pro- duced at Nanzing, Chinza, Linglooh, Shwangling, Woochin, Leensze, Hoochow, and a portion of Sinsze and Seloo, besides the intermediate towns, all situated in Che-Kiang. 7aysaam (mean- ing “a big worm’’) has really only the signification of silks of a coarse reeling, and under the denomination are classed silks from Kiahsing, Sinsze, Dongse, Shaouhing, Woosieh, and Laeyang, the last two districts being situated in Kiang-Su. Haining or Yuenfa, situate in Che- Kiang, produces silk reeled of the finest size known in China; and when native competition was crippled by the Tai- Ping rebellion, large quantities annually found a ready sale in Europe, Of late years, however, the export has dwindled down to almost nothing. Hang-Chow, also Che-Kiang, produces both fine and coarse sized silks, ¢sa¢/ees and faysaanis, the size of the former from this district very nearly approaching to that of Kiah- sing Zaysaams, and they are generally in favor both for export and for home use, while the coarse sorts are mostly taken by Chinese. SCIENCE! 385 Shaouhing, in Che-Kiang, produces a very considerable quantity of silk, that, when reeled on foreign methods, is said to be equal to any in the empire, but which, as natives persist in reeling on a large wheel and without care, has gradually lost all interest to foreigners. Laehang, in Kiang-Su, produces from 3,000 to 4,000 bales annually, but the same remarks as those applied to the Shaouhing produc- tion must apply also to this district's production. The principal towns where throwing is carried on are Nanking, Soo-Chow, and Hang-Chow, and the business must be large to meet the require- ments of the enormous piece-goods trade of China. Formerly foreigners used to export considerable quantities ; but the improve- ments made in Europe which have not extended to China have extinguished the trade. The re-reeling of silks (for the purpose of rendering the manipulation of the silk easier to manufacture) is carried on in the centres of Nanzing and Chinza, and the outlying farms and hamlets. The production is considerable, and would be larger, it is said, if the Chinese-would use greater care and abstain from adulterating the silk during the process. —In response to a despatch from Emin Pacha, doubtless sent on to Zanzibar in advance of the main party, and thence cabled to Cairo, the Egyptian government steamer ‘‘ Mansourah”’ has been sent to meet Stanley and Emin and their party at Zanzibar. This will hasten Stanley’s return to Europe, and the completion of his adventurous three-years’ task may be chronicled very soon. A long letter from Stanley to a friend, dated September, 1888, has just been published. It records his discoveries, and recounts the difficulties anticipated on his homeward journey. There is an ac- count of the hostility of the King of the Kabburega, who stripped Casati, and turned him adrift to perish. He was fortunately found and rescued by Emin. Another letter gives a full account of his sojourn with Emin. — The Lancet, commenting on the passage of the English in- fectious disease notification bill, says, “‘ One thing is remarkable in this legislation, —the slight resistance which politicians of ad- vanced views have been able to offer to its fundamental principle ; viz., the right of the community to insist on knowing the affairs of individuals and families where these are likely to involve in any de- gree the health of others: in other words, the subordination of the individual to the community. This is, of course, the fundamental principle of society, but it is ever undergoing fresh development. National education, vaccination, isolation, and notification of dis- ease, are all illustrations of the same principle. We have ourselves no hesitation in accepting the principle that individual liberty must give way where such doubtful advantages as the freedom to have small-pox and scarlet-fever are the only badges of liberty ; and it will involve no misfortune to the world if many other rights claimed by well-meaning but discordant individuals are curtailed in the in- terests of society.” — The New York Electrical Society, the oldest body of the kind in the country, is the Electrical Section of the American Institute. The object of the society is to bring before its members such topics and new inventions as merit their study and attention. There is a large and rapidly growing class of those who wish to gain a greater familiarity with electricity, and it is to the education of this class that the society directs its work. There is another class, composed of those who, while not earning a livelihood from elec- trical work, are greatly interested in all the developments of elec- tricity, and who are glad to attend the meetings of the society, be- cause they there are given the opportunity to come into contact with practical electricians, from whom they may elicit instruction and information such as no book could impart. The appreciation of the work of the society in connection with this element of the community is shown by the growing attendance at the meetings, and by the readiness of the press to publish reports of the pro- ceedings. During the present season the society will introduce to its members a number of the leading men in the electrical profes- sion, who will handle the subjects with which they are most familiar, and of which they are acknowledged masters. From sucha course of papers and lectures as has been arranged, there can be no doubt that a great stimulus will be given to the study and application of electricity in New York; and the society therefore confidently ap- peals to those in any way interested in electricity for allthe support 386 that they can give. Among the papers and lectures already read this season are ‘“‘ Electrical Exhibitions, and a Description of Recent Electrical Developments in Europe,” and ‘ How to test Electric Motors.” Among those yet to come are “ Progress of Electric Railroads,” “A Talk on Cables,” ‘The Electrical Torpedo, — New York’s Sole Defence,” “‘ Storage-Batteries,” ‘“° The Incandes- cent Lamp,” “ The Telegraph,” ‘‘ The Telephone,” “‘ The Alternat- ing Current,” ‘‘ The Galvanometer and its Uses,” “Electricity in War,” ‘ Phantom Wires,” ‘‘ How to run an Electric-Light Sta- tion,” ‘‘ Transformers,” ‘Power Transmission,” ‘ Laboratory Manipulations,” “ The Social Side of the Electric Street Railway,” “The Solution of Every-day Electrical Problems,” and “The Progress of the Year.” The officers of the society are as follows: president, Francis B. Crocker; vice-presidents, Joseph Wetzler, Francis Forbes, and Dr. Otto A. Moses; secretary, George H. Guy; treasurer, H. A. Sinclair; trustees, J. M. Pendleton, C. O. Mailloux, and A. A. Knudson. — It is well known, says Vad¢zre, that whales can remain a long time under water, but exact data as to the time have been rather lacking. In his northern travels, Dr. Kiickenthal of Jena recently observed that a harpooned white whale continued under water forty-five minutes. — For determination of the air-temperature at great heights, the Berlin Society for Ballooning, we learn from A’z2b0/dt, is going to try a method of Herr Siegsfeld, who uses a thermometer, which, by closure of an electric circuit when certain temperatures are reached, gives a light-signal. Small balloons, each containing such a thermometer, will be sent up by night; and the light will affect photographically a so-called “ phototheodolite,” while the height then attained will be indicated in a mechanical way. It is hoped that more exact formule for the decrease of temperature with height may thus be obtained. — From the Journal of the Anthropological Soczety in Vienna, we take the following conclusions of Dr. B. Hagen, respecting the Malay peoples: Their great predilection for the sea, which makes them pray to Allah that they may die on sea, seems to render the Malay race adapted for the Polynesian and Further Indian Archi- pelago. The centre from which they migrated is to be sought in the highlands of West Sumatra, particularly in the old kingdom of Menang-Kabau. Thence the peoples extended slowly eastwards, — at first probably the races now to be found only in the interior of the great islands (the Battas in Sumatra, the Sundanese in Java, the Dayaks in Borneo, the Alfurus in Celebes, etc.). These ‘‘ abori- gines’”’ of the islands crushed out a population already in posses- sion, as remains of which the Negritos may be taken. The Malays in the narrower sense, occupying Sumatra, Malacca, and North Borneo, are to be regarded as the last emigration from the centre referred to, occurring from the twelfth to the fifteenth century, A.D. With the Indians and Chinese, who have been long in inter- course with the archipelago, arose mixtures and crosses, in less measure also with the Arabs. One must not therefore expect the pure racial type, especially in the coast population. The crania of the anthropological collections are too imperfectly determined in respect of their Zoca/e to be of any service for a judgment of the Malay peoples. Of more value are the measurements of the living, begun by Dr. Weisbach and executed by Dr. Hagen, in four hun- dred cases. The latter’s conclusions are: (1) The peoples in the interior of Sumatra —the Battas, the Allas, and the Malays of Menang-Kabau — compose a closely allied group always in direct contrast with the hither-Indian peoples, and yet showing just as little community with the Chinese. We must therefore take them for the pure original type, characterizable as follows: small, com- pact, vigorous figure, of less than 1,600 millimetres average size ; long arms; very short legs; very long and broad mesocephalous skull of very great compass, with high forehead; a prognathous face Io per cent broader than long, with large mouth, and uncom- monly short, flat, and broad nose with large round nostrils opening mostly frontwise, and with broad nasal root. (2) The Malays of the east coast of Sumatra and those of the coasts of Malacca indi- cate a much greater affinity to the Indians than to their tribal peoples of Menang-Kabau. They are plainly, therefore, thoroughly mixed with Indian blood. (3) The Javanese peoples stand much SCIENCE: [Vowel Se INowieis, nearer to the original type of the Sumatrans than to the Malays just mentioned. They show, therefore, less mixture with Indian, but, on the other hand, more mixture with Chinese, blood; and the Javanese more so than the Sundanese. e E — A London paper says that some experiments in judging dis- tance by sound were carried out recently by one of the London brigades of the Metropolitan Volunteers. This branch of military tactics is quite a new departure. It was first explained to the men that sound travels at the rate of 1,100 yards in three seconds, and on this basis they were to estimate the distance at which some rifles were being discharged in the darkness. The answers at first were very wide of the mark, some of the men being as much as 150 yards out in their calculations. With a little practice, however, a great improvement was shown, many of the men guessing the distance exactly. The experiments are net as satisfactory as was hoped, and it is thought some time must elapse before judging distance by sound can be relied upon with any certainty. — At the monthly meeting of the Royal Society of Tasmania on Sept. 9, the president (his Excellency Sir Robert G. C. Hamilton) said he desired to bring before the society a matter relating to the young salmon at the Salmon Ponds. These were the undoubted product of the ova brought out by Sir Thomas Brady, which had been stripped from the male and female fish and artificially ferti- lized, and the utmost care had been taken to keep them apart from any other fish bred,in the ponds. He recently visited the ponds, accompanied by the chairman of the Fisheries Board, the secretary, and two of the members, when they carefully examined a number of the young salmon, among which they were surprised to find marked differences existing, not only in size, but in their characteristics. It has often been held, according to ature, that the Sa/monzde caught in Tasmanian waters cannot be true Salmo salar, because so many of them have spots on the dorsal fin, and a tinge of yellow or orange on the adipose fin; but nearly half of the young salmon they examined, which had never left the ponds, had these characteristics. Again, many of them were almost “ bull- headed ” in appearance, — another characteristic which is not sup- posed to distinguish the true Sado salar. He would suggest to the chairman of the Fisheries Board, whom he saw present, that the secretary should be asked to make a formal report of the result of this visit, and to obtain some specimens of the young fish, which could be preserved in spirits; and perhaps sent to Sir Thomas Brady to be submitted for the consideration and opinion of natu- ralists at home. — British Consul Pettus of Ningpo, in his last report, says that one of the principal and perhaps most profitable industries of his consular district is the wzzze fw or cuttlefish trade. For two months, from the latter part of April until the closing days of June, the number of small and somewhat barren islands of the Chusan archipelago, situated within a radius of fifty miles of Chinhae (at the mouth of the Yung River), swarm with men engaged in the occupations of cleaning and drying the fish for the Ningpo market, and the adjacent waters are covered with boats engaged in fishing. The cuttlefish boats are from twenty-five feet to thirty feet in length, with a beam of seven feet. They are furnished with a single lug-sail, usually made of foreign cloths tanned with man- grove-bark. They are worked with two, sometimes three, oars, with which the boats are propelled with immense speed. The boats, as a rule, work in pairs, a bamboo fastened at the bows of each to keep them separated, with a space of about twenty feet between. To the bamboo is attached the large net. Others, again, catch the fish by means of a square net, fastened at the corners to the ends of two slender bamboos which cross at right angles, and sewn together in the middle. These bamboos, with the attached net, are suspended from a stout beam which projects some distance over the bow, and has fastened to the inboard end a heavy weight for facilitating the raising of the net. This is used in shallow water, and principally at night, when a fire is kept burn- ing in a pan in the bow of the boat to attract the fish. One or two men attend to the working of this net, while the rest of the crew are employed in scooping in the fish with hand-nets. The fish are then landed, cleaned, and sun-dried, the latter operation taking about three days. The cuttlefish is called by the Chinese DeEcEMBER 6, 1889.] | wrt tsé (“black thief’): mzng fu is the commercial name of the fish when dried. The black liquid secreted by the fish was used as a substitute for ink, but was abandoned, as it faded after a lapse of a few years. — Many late and valuable reports of ocean-currents have been received at the United States Hydrographic Office, but lack of space forbids any extended reference tothem. The graphic record of the tracks of derelicts, wrecks, buoys adrift, etc., published each month on the “ Pilot Chart,” is itself instructive as to the general set of currents, especially in the case of a large iron buoy like that from Port Royal, S.C. Attention is called, also, to the “‘ bottle papers ” issued by the Hydrographic Office, for masters of vessels to seal up in empty bottles and throw overboard, in order, that, when found and returned, data may be obtained regarding the general drift of surface currents. This is an old plan, but one that is still used, and is thought to give results of some value when a large number of such facts are available for study. Many of these papers have been returned to that office, and the latest may be mentioned here. One was thrown overboard Dec. 30, 1888, by Chief Officer Downie (British steamship “Crown Prince’’) off the north-west coast of Cuba: it was picked up on the beach at Matagorda Is- land, Texas, Aug. 10, 1889, by the keeper of the Saluria life-saving station. Another was thrown overboard March 27, 1889, by First Officer Conklin (American steamship ‘‘ Cherokee’) in latitude 36° 42’ north, longitude 75° 06’ west : it was picked up on Sept. 25 by Capt. Touguerant (French brig “ Bonne Joséphine”) in latitude 44° 30' north, longitude 52° 10’ west. The forms issued for this purpose are printed in six languages, and efforts are being made to give them a wide distribution. — A lake-dwelling has,been discovered in the neighborhood of Somma Lombardo, north-west of Milan, through the draining of the large turf moor of La Lagozza. The Berlin correspondent of the Standard, who gives an account of the discovery, says that . this “relic of civilization” was found under the peat-bog and the underlying layer of mud, the former being 1 metre in thickness, and the latter 35 centimetres. The building was rectangular, 80 metres long and 30 metres broad ; and between the posts, which are still standing upright, lay beams and half-burnt planks, the latter hav- ing been made by splitting the trees, and without using a saw. Some trunks still retain the stumps of their lateral projecting branches, and they have probably served the purpose of ladders. The lower end of these posts, which have been driven into the clay soil, is more or less pointed, and it can be seen from the partly still well-preserved bark that the beams and planks are of white birch; pine, fir, and larch. Among other things, were found polished stone hatchets, a few arrow-heads, flint knives, and unworked stones with traces of the action of fire. — According to recent work of Professor H. W. Wiley, the chemist of the United States Department of Agriculture, the value of sorghum-seed as a food for man and other animals is fully equal to that of maize and oats, and but little inferior to that of wheat. The essential constituents of the cereals as food are the albuminoids and the carbohydrates. Comparing these two constituents of sor- ghum-seed with the other great cereals, it contains more albuminoids than either unhulled oats or maize, and only about three-fourths of a per cent less than wheat. Its contents of carbohydrates is al- most identical with that of the other cereals mentioned. The glumes of the sorghum-seeds contain a coloring-matter of great intensity, and it has been thought that this substance might prove injurious to the health of animals consuming it. Professor Wiley has therefore had a careful examination made of the properties of this coloring-matter, and finds it to be a vegetable coloring-matter without noxious principles, and, as far as the investigations have extended, wholly free from tannin. This study includes only the chemical re-actions of the color, and the characteristics which dis- tinguish it from other companion colors of a vegetable origin. Owing to the small quantity of pure color obtained, and the diffi- culties of complete purification, no experiments were made with regard to its dyeing qualities. The richness of the color (a deep red) would certainly point to the desirability of such experiments. {n the heavier and larger hulled seeds, such as those of Deutcher’s Hybrid, Early Tennessee, and the Early Amber varieties, the color SCIENCE: 387 seems to constitute between five and fifteen per cent of the alco- holic extract, which latter ranges from five to ten per cent of the seed. The yield of cane per acre appears to average from ten to twelve tons; and the seed-head, fifteen to twenty per cent of the cane. Assuming the seed to constitute seventy-five per cent of the head, we have three hundred pounds of seed to the ton of cane. This affords thirty pounds of extract, and three pounds of pure color, to the ton of cane, or thirty pounds per average acre. The higher the tonnage, and the darker and heavier the hull of the seed, the greater the yield of color. — A curious instance of the vicissitudes of commerce is afforded by the change going on in the raisin trade between this country and Spain. In 1882 Malaga shipped to this country nearly a mil- lion boxes of raisins, which was about half its production for that year. Since that time the annual production in Malaga has steadily decreased, while that of California has as steadily increased, till in 1888, out of a total crop of 112,000 boxes, Malaga sent us only 700,000 boxes. It is now predicted by vine-growers that in a few years California will be shipping raisins to Spain. — Iron buoys, being constructed so as to withstand the buffet- ings of the heaviest seas, are apt to remain long afloat when once they get adrift from their moorings. Although their movements are then governed by the combined influence of wind and current, the relative effects of each of these components of the force acting upon . them vary more or less, according to the shape and immersion of the buoy. When a considerable portion of the moorings are still attached, the immersion is generally so great that the influence of the current largely outweighs that of the winds, and the drift of the buoy is a very fair indicator of the set of the current it has ex- perienced. A notable instance is afforded by the mid-channel buoy from Port Royal, S.C., which went adrift in the latter part of November, 1886, and is still floating about in the North Atlantic, probably somewhere between the parallels of 35° and 45° north, and the meridians of 45° and 55° west. Eleven reports have been received thus far by the United States Hydrographic Office. — The following is a list of the Saturday morning lectures to be given in the Law School building of Columbia College during the season of 1889-90: Nov. 16, “ The Influence of Locality in Ameri- can Fiction,” by L. J. B. Lincoln, Esq. ; Nov. 23, ‘‘ Petroleum and Natural Gas” (with illustrations), by Dr. John S. Newberry; Nov. 30, “ Czesar and Cleopatra,” by John William Weidemeyer, Esq. ; Dec. 7, ‘“‘ Benjamin Franklin, America’s Practical Philosopher,” by Dr. Henry M. Leipziger ; Dec. 14, “ The Avesta and the Religion of Zoroaster,’ by Dr. A. V. W. Jackson; Dec. 21, ‘“‘ The Geolo- gical History of Man” (with illustrations), by Dr. John S. New- berry; Dec. 28, “ The Relation of the Higher Education of Women to Literature in America,” by L. J. B. Lincoln, Esq. ; Jan. 4, 1890, ‘“«Shakspeare and Corneille,’’ by Professor Adolphe Cohn ; Jan. 11, “The Cyclades,” by Dr. Louis Dyer; Jan, 18, “ The Career of Leon Gambetta,” by Professor Adolphe Cohn; Jan. 25, “ Progress of Education in the United States,’ by Dr. Henry M. Leipziger; Feb. 1, “ Total Solar Eclipses and What We learn from Them ” (with illustrations), by Professor J. K. Rees; Feb. 8, “ Where and How We remember,” by Dr. M. Allen Starr; Feb. 15, “ The Moon: A Study of her Surface” (with illustrations), by Professor J. K. Rees; Feb. 22, “ Methods of teaching French,” by Dr. B- O'Connor; March 1, ‘‘ Emerson as an English Writer,” by Pro- fessor T. W. Hunt; March 8, ‘“ Methods of Education,” by Dr. B. O'Connor; March 15, ‘‘ Words and their Abuse; from Philologi- cal, Rhetorical, and Moral View-Points,” by Dr. J. D. Quackenbos; March 22, “The Poetic Edda,” by Professor Charles Sprague Smith ; March 29, the same subject continued; April 5, ‘“ Swin- burne and the Later Lyrists,’ by Professor H. H. Boyesen; April 12, “ George Eliot and the English Novel,’ by Professor H. H. Boyesen; April 19, ‘‘Shakspeare’s Dramatic Construction: The Winter's Tale,’ by Professor T. R. Price; April 26, ‘‘Shak- speare’s Verse Construction,” by Professor T. R. Price; May 3, “ Athenian Days,” by Professor A. C. Merriam; May to, “ The Geographical Distribution of North American Plants ’’ (illustrated by lantern projections), by Dr. N. L. Britton; May 17, “ Daniel O'Connell,” by Dr. William A. Dunning; May 24, “ Shop-Girls and their Wages,” by Dr. J. H. Hyslop. SCIENCE: A WEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIENCES. PUBLISHED BY Ne IDS 1. 1s Ou G1ss,; 47 LAFAYETTE PLACE, NEW YORK. 2 SuBSCRIPTIONS.—United States and Canada..... Asaaguobeadness $3.50 a year. Great Britain and Europe 4.50 a year. Communications will be welcomed from any quarter. Abstracts of scientific papers are solicited, and twenty copies of the issue containing such will be mailed the author on request in advance Rejected manuscripts will be returned to the authors only when the requisite amount of postage accompanies the manuscript. Whatever is in- tended for insertion must be authenticated by the name and address of the writer ; not necessarily for publication, but asa guaranty of good faith. We do not hold our- selves responsible for any view or opinions expressed in the communications of our correspondents. Attention is called to the ‘‘ Wants’”’ column. information or seeking new positions. All are invited to use it in soliciting The name and address of applicants should be given in full,so that answers will go direct to them. The ‘* Exchange’’ column is likewise open. VoL. XIV. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 6, 1889. No. 357 CONTENTS: Tue Forwarp Gas-ENGINE ....... 379 INFLUENCE OF Foop, AnimMaL Ip1I0- A Dancerous Insect Psst 1n Mep- SYNCRASY, AND BREED ON THE x Composition OF Butter... .... 388 TON, MUNSS! sooo qseundodcoe a06 - 381 THE STING OF THE JELLY-FISH..... 390 EvecrricaL News. MENTAL SCIENCE. Bpeciticainductive Capac ey a 382 The Energy and Rapidity of Volun- Electric Lighting at Berlin ........ 383 tary Movements............. ... 390 Electrical Sunstroke .....-... 5 oo 339 Rapidity of Movements......... « 39 The Houstholm Electric Light- Boox-REviEWs. house... --.-- .-e 0.22 222 ees 383 A Treatise on Linear Differential Electrification due to Contact of IME So teceacco. sonos0ande 391 Gases with Liquids ... ..... ... 383 AMONG THE PUBLISHERS......... .. 392 Hearty Matters. LETTERS TO THE EpITOR. Saltfand) Microbes...) s-0- eae ce 383 _ ‘Intelligence of Ants Cooling of the Body by Spray....-. 384 HES LETS TOTO BH Galton’s Bodily Efficiency Diagram and the Marking System Arthur E. Bostwick 394 Death by Electricity Is Colorado’s Climate Changing?.. 384 Care of the Teeth... .... ... .... 384) Cave-Arr for Ventilation a ae e P WW. H. 2 5 The Digestibility of Boiled Milk... 384 Lilo LTRGL 383 ee InDusTRiAL NoTEs. Artificial F\ Infantsyerre- er 3 = n pun ood or nian: 384 Elektron Manufacturing Company. 395 . NoTEs AND NEWS..........++..---05 385 Electrical Accumulators........... 395 INFLUENCE OF FOOD, ANIMAL IDIOSYNCRASY, AND BREED ON THE COMPOSITION OF BUTTER.’ ONE of the fundamental principles of dairying is regard for the influence which the care of the animal, supervision of the milking, separation of the cream, ripening of the cream, churning and wash- ing, have on the quality of butter for table use. These processes also, together with the method of packing, have a notable influence upon the preservation of the butter in a sweet state. The discus- sion of the above problems, however, is a thing for the practical dairyman rather than the chemist. The chemical composition of butter-fat, as influenced by the character of food received by the animal, the race of the animal, and the peculiarities of the animal, has hitherto been little studied from a chemical point of view. To the latter subject I propose to devote the following paper. Late in February this year, I received a letter from Professor H. H. Harrington, chemist of the Experimental Station of Texas, accompanied by two samples of butter, which he asked me to ex- amine. The following extract from Professor Harrington’s letter will indicate the motive which led him to send the samples : — “Some work in our laboratory indicates that volatile acids from the cottonseed butter are much lower than has been generally sup- posed. I send two samples of butter, — one from cottonseed feed, and the other from feed containing no cottonseed. If you can do 1 Abstract of a paper by H. W. Wiley, read before the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural Science at its annual meeting held in Toronto, Canada, Aug. 26, 27, 1889. SCIENCE. [Vot. XIV. No. 357 me the favor of analyzing this butter, I shall send more samples. from the same cows on the same feed. We hope in the near future: to follow up these analyses with complete analyses of butter from: different feeds, feeding two cows on cottonseed, and then changing” them to other feed.” The samples sent by Mr. Harrington were small, and a complete: analysis could not be made; but the results obtained are of such ; interest that I will communicate them at the present time, and calli attention to the peculiarities noticed. Butter Butter from from Cottonseed. | Other Feed. Volatile acids, No. cc N—10 BaOoHp for 5 grams........ 21.00 28.50 Percentage of iodine absorbed..... .... ..........---055 33 40 31.89 Melting-pointerencie nostra ee eee nner en eon AB? Ge 34°.2 C.. Reduction of silver by Bechi ...:......-.....--..-..--- distinct none The most remarkable points connected with the analyses are as. follows: 1. The low percentage of volatile acids in butter from cottonseed; 2. The phenomenally high melting-point of the butter from cottonseed ; 3. The persistence of the reducing agent of the butter from cottonseed, as indicated by its action upon nitrate of silver. The melting-point of the butter is higher than that of pure lard. The particular point to be noticed in this matter is, that in butter designed for consumption in Southern countries, or produced in Southern countries, the mixture of cottonseed with the feed of cows will tend to raise the melting-point of the butter, and. render it more suitable for consumption in hot climates. The persistence of the reducing agent is also a matter of interest. It has passed, in the samples examined, through the digestive or- ganism of the cow, and has re-appeared in the butter with almost undiminished activity. The selective action of the digestive organs. on the different glycerides contained in the food of the animal is. also a matter of importance. It would be expected a frzorz that the butter from a cow fed largely on cottonseed-oil would contain: more oleine and have a lower melting-point than if ordinary food were used. On the contrary, it is seen that either the more solid glycerides have been absorbed during the process of digestion, or that the oleine has undergone some distinct change in the digestive ‘organism by which it has assimilated the qualities of the other glycerides. © From an analytical point of view, the results are of great impor- tance, since they show that a butter derived from a cow fed on cottonseed-meal or one excreting a fat of unusual quality might be condemned as adulterated when judged alone by the amount of volatile acids present. Since cottonseed-meal is destined to be a cattle-food of great importance, especially in the southern part of the United States, this is a fact of the greatest interest to analysts. The observation of Mayer, soon to be mentioned, that the specific gravity of butter-fat varies with its content of volatile acids, I have also verified in some cases by the determination of the specific gravity of samples of butter-fat taken from the milk of the same cows kept on the same food, but taken the following day after the samples mentioned. The specific gravity for the cotton-meal fed sample was .8929 at 99°; that for the ordinary fed sample, 8991 at 99°. Professor Mayer's experiments were made on a single cow of a North Holland breed. From time to time during the progress of the experiments the original food was used, in order to see what effect the period of lactation would produce. The cow was fed for twelve days on each separate ration before the samples were: taken. After two days more, another set of samples was taken,. and then the food changed for a new experiment. In the butter-fat the melting and solidifying points were taken, and the volatile acids determined according to the method of Reichert. The specific gravity was also determined by the West— phal method at 100°. The rations of the cow were composed of the following ma— DECEMBER 6, 1880. | terials : ration No. 1, 15 kilograms of meadow-hay and 2 kilograms of linseed cake; No. 2, siloed grass ad /zbztum, and 2 kilograms of linseed cake; No. 3, 20 kilograms of.beets, 8 kilograms of hay, and 2 kilograms of linseed cake ; No. 4, pasture-grass ad /zbztum ; No. 5, chopped clover with 14 per cent of other grasses ad zbztum. The highest melting-point observed, viz., 40.5, was from ration No. 1; and the lowest, viz., 32.5, from ration No.5. The highest volatile acids were produced by No. 3; the lowest volatile acids were observed with ration No. 2. The results of my analyses were obtained on the first samples of butter sent by Mr. Harrington, and were published in Agrzcultural Sczence for April 1, 1889, pp. 80 e¢ seg. Not fully satisfied with the result of a single determination, I asked Professor Harrington to send me other samples of butter, which he did on two subse- quent occasions. The analyses of the two last sets of samples sent did not fully bear out the results obtajned in the first set. The importance of a more careful study of this subject led meto institute some feeding experiments of my own, in order to unravel, if possible, the mysteries of the preceding analyses. I accordingly obtained authority from the secretary of agriculture to arrange for certain feeding experiments with Professor Alvord of the Maryland Agricultural Experiment Station. Three cows were selected for these experiments, described by Professor Alvord as follows: No. I, full-bred Jersey; No. 2, full-bred Ayrshire; No. 3, cross-bred Jersey and Ayrshire. These cows were kept on ordinary pasturage for ten days, and then the milk from each of the cows for three days was taken for the experiments. All the milk was subjected to the same condi- tions. It was set in earthen bowls in a refrigerator at 45° to 50° F., and skimmed after twelve hours. The cream was mixed and kept at 55° to 60° until the fourth day after the beginning of the milkings. The cream was then ripened in a room at 60° F. temperature for twenty-four hours. After cooling to 62° F., the cream was churned ; the temperature rising from 62° F. at the be- ginning of the churning, to 65° at its close. The time required for each churning was twenty minutes. The three days on which the milk was saved were damp, hot days, very unfavorable for making good butter.. In all cases the butter was thoroughly washed in cool well-water, made into rolls, and put in glass jars. One-half of each sample of the first lot was salted at the rate of two-thirds of an ounce of salt to one pound of butter. After the conclusion of the first set of experiments, the cows were gradually changed to a ration of cottonseed-meal, using the commercial variety, such as is used for fertilizing purposes, as no unextracted cottonseed-meal could be obtained at this season of the year. The ration of cottonseed-meal was gradually increased, the cows finally being given all they would eat of it. The follow- ing are the facts as to the second lots. The feeding of cottonseed- meal was commenced on the 25th of July, giving but one pound at a feed at first, but constantly increasing the quantity. During this trial the cows were turned into a small lot with very short pasturage, for exercise and access to running water. They were fed only the cottonseed-meal, and consumed the quantity stated. -At the close of the trial, the Jersey and cross-bred cows were beginning to refuse the meal. The Ayrshire continued to eat all offered, and probably could have been fed twelve pounds a day ; but I was afraid to give her over eleven pounds a day, and did that only twice. She later kept on at eight and ten pounds per day, while the others fell to one pound and two pounds. In general, the data obtained corroborate the results of the first study of the samples sent by Professor Harrington. The melting- points of the butters from cows fed on cottonseed meal are markedly higher than from the other samples. T-here is also a mark- edly diminished content of volatile acids in these butters, and a lower iodine absorption power, The latter character is unlike the Harrington sample. Another characteristic phenomenon noticed in the first samples of butter is also here repeated; viz., the persist- ence of the reducing agent which is present in cottonseed-oil in the butter derived from animals fed thereon. The physiological im- portance of this phenomenon will be mentioned in another place. The most curious results, however, of these experiments is found in the increase in the butter of the glycerides having a high melt- ing-point ; in other words, the glycerides of the palmitic and stearic SCIEINGE: 389 series. While further experiment may be necessary to show that there is a uniform diminution of volatile acids in butters from cows fed on cottonseed-meal, the fact is now most clearly established that the melting-point of such butters is uniformly higher. In re- gard to the absorption of iodine by the butters from cottonseed-fed cows, the results obtained are somewhat at variance with those secured by Ladd, who states that butter from cows fed on linseed- meal contained 3.5 per cent more oleine than those samples which were obtained from cows fed on bran. This conclusion of Ladd’s, however, may not be the true one, since linseed-oil has an iodine absorption of about 155 per cent, and this high co efficient may have had some influence upon the butter as regards iodine absorp- tion. It is possible, therefore, that some of the linoleic glyceride, which has so high an iodine-absorbing power, may have found its way into the butter, thus increasing its iodine absorption. Another important characteristic of the butters examined is seen in their abnormally low content of volatile acids. If we compare the samples from the Maryland station with those from Kansas, we have a very characteristic contrast between abnormal pure but- ter and normal pure butter. The two samples from Kansas show a percentage of volatile acids which is not unusually met with in samples of pure butter. On the other hand, the samples from the Maryland station show an abnormally low content of volatile acids. This percentage of volatile acids is indeed so low that these butters would be condemned as spurious if we relied upon the volatile acid test alone. It does not seem so strange, in the light of these facts, that Allen should have found abnormal Danish butters which, nevertheless, from their history, were certainly genuine. In so far as the breed of the animal is concerned in the above experiments, it does not seem to have greatly influenced the com- position of the butter. The low content of volatile acids may therefore be attributed either tothe pasturage, or to the peculiarity of the animals themselves, or to the period of lactation. It would hardly seem probable, however, that three animals taken at random should have exhibited in almost the same degree the abnormal qualities indicated in the composition of the butters. The physiological questions which are suggested by the above study are of the utmost consequence. Ina paper entitled ‘“ Note on the Action of Digestive Fluids on Oil,” published in The Medz- cal News of July 28, 1888, I called attention to the remarkable in- fluence exerted on a large quantity of oil in the human digestive organs. A pint of oil, presumably sweet-oil, but more likely cot- ton-oil, was administered to the patient for the relief of an obstruc- tion in the gall-duct. This oil, in passing through the digestive organs, was completely decomposed mostly into fatty acid with some soap, forming an emulsion in the alimentary canal, and, being voided in the form of rounded masses of considerable consistence, was mistaken by the patient for gall-stones. This action of the digestive liquids was entirely unexpected, and seems to show that the commonly accepted notion that the fats are acted upon in the digestive organs by being emulsified, and thus absorbed into the circulatory fluids, is an erroneous one. It is the common supposition that the facts have for a physiologi- cal function the maintenance of the animal heat of the body, and the nutrition and supply of the fatty portions thereof. The experiments in feeding cows on cottonseed-meal would seem to indicate that the natural glycerides contained in cotton- seed-meal do not appear in the butter of the cows fed thereon. If the cottonseed-oil in the food should pass unchanged into the butter, we might, it is true, have a lowering of the volatile acids; but this would be accompanied by a great increase in the iodine absorption and a marked lowering in the melting-point. It is quite certain that the glycerides of butter which yield on saponification volatile: acids are not derived from similar glycerides in the food of the animal. It may also be quite true that none of the glycerides in the butter of the cow is derived from the fat of the food of the animal. It is more than likely that the fat of milk is a direct prod- uct of digestion, and is formed conjointly from the carbohydrates. and the albuminoids in the cow’s food. We need not, therefore, be perplexed any longer at the presence of so small a portion of stearine and so large a proportion of the butyric series of the glycerides in the fat of milk. From the evidence already at hand, I think we would be justified 399 in saying that practically all the fats in milk are products of diges- tion, and none of them results of simple translation through the digestive organs: of fats already present in food. On the other hand, we have undoubted evidence of thé translation of other sub- stances directly from the food of the cow to the butter-fat, as is shown in the presence of the aldehyde in cotton-oil, which reduces silver, in the butter of cows fed on these substances. Among other studies on the influence of the food on the composition of butter, 1 might cite the paper of Ladd, already noted ; and also one by C. J. von Lookeren, published in the MWz/ch Zeztung (No. 3, 1889, p. 47) ; and the paper of Mayer, published in Dze Land- wirtschafllichen Versuchs Stationen (vol. xxxv. p. 261). These studies are of such practical interest, that it is my intention to con- tinue them during the coming year on an extended series of feed- ing experiments, in which I hope to interest experimenters in differ- ent parts of the country. THE STING OF THE JELLY-FISH. Dr. B. W. RICHARDSON writes on the above subject in the last number of the Asclepzad, giving a personal experience of his own. He says, — “In my case I was caught by the shoulders and chest in the tentacles of a large medusa, and had really for a minute or twoa difficulty in freeing myself. The surface of the skin touched by the tentacles began to smart at once, and, by the time I was out of the water and partly dressed, the skin was covered, over the surface attacked, with a bright erythema, accompanied with a sense of extreme heat and irritation. The sensation was much the same as that brought on by the application of a mustard poultice, except that it was not so uniformly diffused, but was rather in the form of wheals in slightly raised lines, with a considerable number of points at which the tingling and heat were most severe. Un- fortunately, I had no clinical thermometer by me with which to take the local temperature, but, judging by the touch of the hand, the local temperature was raised at least two or three degrees. The redness and irritation lasted seven hours, and did not abso- lutely subside until after a night’s rest ; but, during the time it was on in the acute form, it was soothed considerably by the applica- tion of water, rendered alkaline by common washing soda in the proportion of an ounce of the soda to about two quarts of water. “A friend of the writer suffered far more severely. He was bathing where a number of jelly-fish were present, and got so en- tangled amongst them, that, as he said, he was ‘stung over almost all the surface of his body.’ He suffered from an acute erythema- tous eruption, which lasted over sixteen hours, attended with two degrees of general fever, and followed by malaise that lasted three days. “A still more important case happened in a very singular man- ner to another friend and patient. I had gone down to a bathing- place in the summer of 1872, not knowing that my friend was there. I had not been on the spot two hours, when a messenger came to me, asking if I would go at once to Mr. G., the friend in question, ‘because he had been ‘stung in the throat by a jelly-fish, and they were afraid he would not live.’ On reaching my friend, who had accidentally heard I was near to him, I learned that about two hours before, while he had been floating on his back in the sea, with his mouth open, the tentacles of a jelly-fish swept into his mouth, and stung him severely in the back of the throat. There could be no doubt about the mischief, for the throat over the whole of the pharynx was intensely red, and the surface was rough and raised, With this condition there were considerable heat and irritation, amounting to acute pain, and attended with inability to swallow any thing except fluids cooled with iced water. The idea of ex- treme danger was present in the mind of the sufferer, and I believe my firm assurance that he would take no harm contributed as much to the recovery that succeeded as the simple alkaline reme- dies which formed the chief part of the medical treatment. In this case also there was a rise of two degrees of temperature, and dur- ing convalescence there was marked depression of both mind and body for a period of two or three days. “In describing these phenomena,” he adds, ‘I have used the SCIENCE. [VorsecINe Ss Noss ordinary word ‘sting’ for the want of one more accurate. Really, I do not know whether it is a sting, like that of a wasp or a nettle, that is inflicted, or whether a secretion, acrid in kind, is thrown upon the surface, and acts directly as an irritant fluid. On the whole, I suspect it is a fluid, or organic acid, which is the cause of the irritation. For the resultant erythema, local alkaline treatment is particularly effective. In the throat case, bicarbonate of soda with 7e/ doraczs proved very grateful and useful.” MENTAL SCIENCE. The Energy and Rapidity of Voluntary Movements.+ M. FERE, whose volume upon the relations of sensation and movement, upon the phases of hypnotism and. kindred topics, has given him a deserved reputation, has recently investigated the re- lation between the energy or physical power at the disposal of the individual and the rapidity of his re-actions to simple physical pro- cesses. His main thesis is, that great energy and great quickness of movements are concomitant, and vary in the same way under similar circumstances. He has studied this relation among the hysterical and epileptic (as typical instances of abnormal sensori- motor organisms) as well as in normal individuals. M. Féré had shown that in hysteria the influence of certain emo- tions, pleasant in their nature, was to increase the maximum power of exertion, as tested by the ‘‘ squeezing ” of a dynamometer, which action he terms “ sthenic;’’ while opposite emotions decrease such power, and are “asthenic.’”’* He now studies the variations in the re-action times to an electrical shock under the same influences, and the concomitant variation in dynamometric power. In five subjects re-acting from the forehead and the back of the hand, both on the right side and on the left, the average re-action times were, T .61, M .61, V .42, R .28, and B .27 of a second, when the dynamometer registered respectively, T, 24; M, 24; V, 28; R, 28; and B, 29. Furthermore, the side of the body from which the re- action is quickest (the subjects are affected with partial anzesthesia) also claims the hand with greatest dynamometric force. If these subjects are put into the somnambulic stage of hypno- tism, the effect upon the re-action time may be either to shorten it or lengthen it, or leave it unaltered; but in every case the power of the maximum contraction is affected in the same way. The re- action times are, for T .61, for V .61, for R .35, for B .25, for M .20, of a second ; and the strength of squeeze respectively, 24, 25, 30, 36, 40. Under the influence of an “asthenic”’ or strength- depriving unpleasant emotion, such as fear, B’s re-action time in- creased from the normal of .29 to .44 of a second, and his muscular force decreased from 29 to 20; M's re-action time of .61 becomes .65 of a second, and his dynamometric record of 24 becomes 25. Similar changes for V are from .42 to .51 of a second, and from 28 to 24; for R, from .28 to .45 of a second, and from 28 to 16; for T, from .61 to .62 of a second, and from 24 to 30. We notice the individual variations, but in general the law is maintained. Under the influence of a “sthenic” or strength-giving emotion, the re- action times decreased and the squeeze increases as follows: for B, .13 of a second and qo; for M, .16 of a second and 46; for V, .28 of a second and 37; for R, .14 of a second and 42; for T, .19 of a second and 38. Essentially similar results are shown for two hysterical patients re-acting to sound instead of to touch impres- sions. M. Féré records the form of the contraction of the hand, and finds, that, when the effort is powerful and the re-action quick, the curve of contraction rises suddenly, while in the opposite case it rises slowly. He notes, too, many other mainly physiological con- ditions into which we cannot here enter, but all of which go to show that the speed of re-action times depends upon the rate at which the nutritive processes of circulation, etc., proceed. Essen- tially similar results were obtained in epileptics. In one case the re-action time to a touch impression was .34 of a second; toa sound impression, .28 in the normal condition; one hour after an 1 Revue Philosophique, No. 7, 1889. : ~ # It is interesting to compare this action with the re-enforcement of the patellar- tendon reflex or knee-jerk by similar means. Any impressive sensation will cause an jncrease in the response to a simple blow below the knee. Both may be regarded as very sensitive and quickly registering indices of the effect of stimuli upon the ner- vous system, and have the extreme value that the great rarity of such indications gives them (see Lombard, in Vol. I. No. 1. of the Amencan Journal of Psychology). DeEcEMBER 6, 188g. | epileptic seizure it was .50 of a second for touch, and .37 for sound. {n another patient the re-action times were .35 of a second for touch and .30 for hearing three hours after an attack, as against .21 of a second and .16 normally. A third patient, whose normal re- action times were .28 of a second (touch) and .34 of a second (sound), two hours after a seizure, re-acted in .40 of a second to touch and .37 of a second toa sound. The same patient, seventy- two hours after the last of fifteen successive attacks, required 1.11 seconds to re-act to touch, and 1.25 seconds to re-act to a sound. In an independent research, M. Féré had shown that in the aver- age of twenty cases the dynamometric power was reduced to 45 per cent of its normal value immediately after a seizure, to 33 per cent after one-quarter of an hour, to 25 per cent after an interval of one half-hour, and to 17 per cent after an interval of three- quarters of an hour. Apart from special relations of the nature of the seizure to the diminution in muscular power, the general thesis of M. Féré is well borne out by these facts. In normal individuals the same relations can be demonstrated, though the contrasts are not as sharp. Fatigue diminishes muscu- lar force, and increases the times of re-action. Intelligent persons, speaking generally, have a short re-action time and a high dyna- mometric pressure. In order to study in closer detail the relation of reaction time and motor power in special motor groups, M. Féré had constructed a dynamometer in which the pressure of each finger was recorded separately. With this apparatus M. Féré was able to establish that the movements of flexion were from three to ten times as powerful as those of extension; that the power of different fingers varies with different individuals, and stands in re- lation to the profession of the individual, the third and fourth fingers being especiaily strong in piano-players; and that intel- lectual persons have an especially strong thumb, an essentially human movement. Flexion. Extension. | Re-action Time. |Re-ection Time. | Dynamometer. | Dynamometer. Seconds. Seconds. Sihuwimnbye =) == 4.2 -163 ; I2 -199 Forefinger... .-. 4.0 -Igt 1.0 .261 Middle finger... a5 -103 -9 230 ‘Third finger ... 2.0 -201 6 -299 Little finger .. I.9 -203 at .310 Thumb. .-......< 2.7 230 I.0 235 Forcfinger:..... 33 -160 1.1 -260 Middle finger... 2.2 180 4 277 Third finger... 2-0 105 -35 296 Little finger -. 18 246 BS =309 suhumb). 7... 4.1 .170 r.1 -220 Forefinger...... 3.0 Ir 6 -210 Middle finger . 3-2 182 <7 .190 ‘Third finger ... 2.2 -18r 7 183 Little finger. . 5-1 +171 6 = a ct . |Warming.|Warming. |Warming.| Warming. ote eesecaliy ey zt | | those ordina- | | | rily the slow- pGhum beeen eeeeeerr cr 2340 nena =233 .362 | .194 | est, seem to | | | be most bene- Porefinger.........-- «- .269 | .186 | fited by this i | additional Middle finger......... .! .266 | .20% warmth. sGhirdifingers spencers | +255 | 250 | Little finger........ a0 --| 283 220 This research, though incomplete, and founded upon rather few experiments with each subject, yet admirably suggests the close relations that exist between the motor, sensory, and nutritive func- tions of the psycho-physical organism. As our knowledge of this relation becomes more and more exact, the possibilities of utilizing such knowledge for making the elementary processes of knowledge and action easier and quicker, become more and more real. RAPIDITY OF MOVEMENTS. — A pianist, in playing a presto of Mendelssohn, played 5,595 notes in four minutes and three sec- onds. The striking of each of these notes, it has been estimated, involved two movements of the finger, and possibly more. Again, the movements of the wrists, elbows, and arms can scarcely be less than one movement for each note. As twenty-four notes were played each second, and each involves three movements, we would have seventy-two voluntary movements per second. Again, the place, the force, the time, and the duration of each of these move- ments, was controlled. All these motor re-actions were conditioned upon a knowledge of the position of each finger of each hand before it was moved, while moving it, as well as of the auditory effect in force and pitch, all of which involves at least equally rapid sensory trans- missions. If we add to this the work of the memory in placing the notes in their proper position, as well as the fact that the performer at the same time participates in the emotions the selection de- scribes, and feels the strength and weaknesses of the performance, we arrive at a truly bewildering network of afferent and efferent impulses, coursing along at inconceivably rapid rates. Such esti- mates show, too, that we are capable of doing many things at once. The mind is not a unit, but is composed of higher and lower cen- tres, the available fund of attention being distributable among them. BOOK-REVIEWS. A Treatise on Linear Differential Equations. By THOMAS Craic. New York, Wiley. 8°. THE theory of differential equaiions has undergone within the last thirty years a most fundamental change. The object of the older theory was to integrate a given differential equation “in finite 392 form;” that is to say, by means of the elementary functions of analysis. But though the importance of this problem for practical purposes must be acknowledged, the problem itself, understood in this form, is in general an impossible one. i The modern theory, inaugurated by Briot and Bouquet’s and Fuchs’s discoveries, has reversed the whole problem. It considers the differential equation (together with a proper number of initial conditions) as defining a function, and proposes to derive directly from the differential equation the characteristic properties of its in- tegrals, true to the general principle of the theory of functions, that the essential thing about a function is not its form, which usually may be varied in many ways, but the totality of its characteristic properties. It is in particular the theory of linear differential equations that has been very fully considered from this standpoint ; and there is scarcely any branch of mathematical science that has attracted a more general attention in our day, and in which more important discoveries have been made, than the theory of linear differential equations. Still every one who wished to become familiar with it, and who had to work his way through the vast and difficult litera- ture on the subject, has keenly felt the want of a systematic expo- sition uniting the numerous researches scattered in the different mathematical journals and publications of learned societies. To meet this want, and to give an account of the theory as it stands to-day, is the object of the “ Treatise on Linear Differential Equations,” by Professor Thomas Craig of Johns Hopkins Uni- versity. The first volume, which is to be followed by a second one, is entitled ‘‘ Equations with Uniform Co-efficients,’’ and deals principally with Fuchs’s theory and the investigations immediately connected with it. The rich material has been carefully sifted, and is presented in a clear and intelligible language in the most natural order of ideas. An introductory chapter gives the general properties of a system of linear differential equations of a more formal character, among others the well-known theorems on systems of independent partic- ular integrals. 4 . Next follows an elegant exposition of the theory of linear differ- ential equations with constant co-efficients, where the reader will find, besides Euler's solution, an account of various ingenious methods due to Cauchy, Hermite, and others. After these preparations, we are led, in Chapter III., into the very centre of the modern theory ; viz., the determination of the form of the integrals in the region of a critical point. It is first shown, that, if the differential equation be written in the form dry qily = oP ii = tf : dan dan the critical points of any one of its integrals are always found among the critical points of the system of co-efficients, 4; fg... gn. Then Fuchs’s theorems concerning the form of the integrals in the region of a critical point are developed with all the details about “ groups of integrals’ added by Hamburger, Floquet, and others. A particular integral is said to be regular in a critical point a, if it remains finite for x=a after multiplication by some proper power of « — a, and, in order that all the integrals may be regular in a, it is necessary and sufficient that (*—a)* f+ (a=I, 2... 2) be holomorphic in a. Chapter 1V. contains an account of Frobenius’s elegant treatment of this case, and gives a simple criterion for the non- appearance of logarithms. The next chapters are devoted to that important class of differ- ential equations (called regular equations) all of whose integrals are regular in all the critical points; and the fertility of the general methods is abundantly shown in the application to the equation of the second order, in particular that with three critical points, which, on account of its high importance, is very fully treated, with many interesting results concerning Riemann’s P-function, spherical harmonics, Bessell’s functions, etc. The differential equation of the hypergeometric series, to which the above equation can always be reduced, takes such a central place in recent mathematical researches that it well deserves to be considered with all detail, as is done in Chapter VII., which con- tains a reproduction of Goursat’s ‘‘ Thesis on the Hypergeometric Series.” ar Pr¥ = 20, SCIENCE: Vioite 2s, INOS 2&7. The theory of irregular integrals is still in a very imperfect state. Chapter IX. gives an account of Frobenius’s and Thomé’s re- searches, and the same subject is treated in Chapter X. by the ele- gant method of decomposition of a differential quantic into sym- bolic prime factors. Interesting special classes of irregular equa— tions will be found in the chapters on Halphen’s equations, and on equations with doubly periodic co-efficients. The two remaining chapters might, it seems to us, as well have been reserved for the second volume, where the same subjects will be more fully dwelt upon. Still the two conceptions of group and’ of invariant of a differential equation which they develop are of so- fundamental importance that they can scarcely be introduced too- soon. If the co efficients of a linear differential equation are uniform: functions of x, any system of z independent particular integrals. submit to a homogeneous linear substitution when the variable point + describes any closed path in its plane. The entire system of substitutions obtained in this way forms a group, called the “ group of the differential equation.” The notion of “invariant” of a linear differential equation, on the other hand, arises when the given equation is transformed into: another of the same form by the introduction of two new variables, and its definition is analogous to that of an invariant of an alge- braic quantic. We must confine ourselves to these few indications, and refer the~ reader to the book itself for further information. Only then will he obtain an adequate idea of the thoroughness and completeness. with which the subject has been treated. As far as we are able to- judge, no investigation of any importance has been omitted, and the justice and conscientiousness with which continually reference to the original papers is given are a characteristic feature of this. most valuable book, which, we are sure, will contribute a great deal to spread the knowledge of this important discipline. We look forward with much interest to the appearance of the second volume, which will contain, among other things, an exposi- tion of the theory of linear differential equations with algebraic in— tegrals, and of Poincaré’s theory of Fuchsian groups and Fuchsiam functions. AMONG THE PUBLISHERS. THE Bulletin of the Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station for October, 1889, is Vol. I, No. 1 of a technical series, and contains three articles by Clarence M. Weed, —“ Preparatory Stages of the 20-Spotted Ladybird,” “Studies in Pond Life,’ and “A Partial Bibliography of Insects affecting Clover.” —The opening article in the December number of Ouzfeng,. “Wabun Anung,” by F. Houghton, is aclear description of a tour in the region of the Great Lakes. Another article is the “ Merits and Defects of the National Guard,” by Lieut. W. R. Hamilton. We note further the ‘“‘ Game of Curling,” by James Hedley ; ‘‘ Wheel- ing through the Land of Evangeline; ’ “Game Protection; ’’ “ In- stantaneous Photography,” by W. I. Lincoln Adams; “ Women and their Guns ;” ‘The Yale Stroke;” ‘Alligator Shooting in Florida;” and ‘ Na-ma-go-os,”’ a fishing sketch. 3 — John Wiley & Sons have just published “ A Hand-Book for Sugar Manufacturers and their Chemists,” by Guilford L. Spencer of the United States Department of Agriculture. The volume contains practical instruction in sugar-house control, the diffusion: process, selected methods of analysis, reference tables, etc. The essential requirements of a thorough chemical control and superin- tendence of a sugar-factory are carefully described, and only such: analytical processes are given as relate to sugar-house products. and the waste residues when necessary to a complete control.. Technical chemical terms have as far as possible been avoided. The little book ought to stimulate our sugar-manufacturers andi their chemists to more extensive investigations and more thorough work. — Messrs. Ginn & Co. announce for publication early in De- cember the first volume of a serial entitled ‘Harvard Studies im Classical Philology,’ edited by a committee of the classical instruc- tors of Harvard University. It is the expectation that one volume, DeEcemRER 6 1889.) _ SCIENCE: 393 Publications received at Editor's Office, Nov. 25-30. BaAGEHOT, Walter, The Works of. Ed. by Forrest Mor- 5 vols. Hartford, Conn., Travelers Ins. Co. 2625p. 8°. Becker. G. F. Geology of the Quicksilver Deposits of the Pacific Slope, with an Atlas. Washington, Goy- ernment. 486p. 4°. : Cuurcu, A. J.. The Story of Early Britain. New York, Putnam; London, T. Fisher Unwin. 382 p. 12°. $1.50. Husert. P. G., jun. Liberty and a Living. New York and London, Putnam. 239p. 16°. $1. Jacoss, H. B., and Brower, A. L. The Graphic Sys- tem of Object Drawing. Nos. 1-4. New York, A. Lovell & Co. 92 p. 7 by 85% inches. Same. Nos.5and6. New York, A. Lovell & Co. 43 p. a4 by 1134 inches. —Hand-Book to accompany The Graphic System of Object Drawing. New York, A. Lovell & Co. 5op. 12°. — Notes to accompany Books 5 and 6 of The Graphic System of Object Drawing. New York, A Lovell & Co. 11p. 12°. f Newsexry, J. S. Fossil Fishes and Fo sil Plants of the Triassic Rocks of New Jersey and the Connecticut Valley. Washington, Government. 152p. 4°. Poyser, A. W. Magnetism and Electricity. London and New York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 247 p. 12°. 80 cents. Ricks, G. Natural History Object Lessons. Boston, Heath. 352 p. 12°. $1.35. Ripper, W. Steam. London and New York, Long- mans, Green, & Co. 202p. 12°. 8o0cents. Taser, C. A. M. Winds, Ocean Currents, and Ice Periods. Boston, G.H. Fllis. 86 p. 12°. U.S. Army. Annual Report of the Chief of Engineers, 1889. Washington, Government. 429p 8°. Wricut, IM. R. Elementary Physics. London and New York, Longmans, Green, & Co. 248 p. 12°. 80 cents. NOW IN PRESS. ee ORDA ANCIENT.” A large work of 200 pp. with 35 full-page illustra- tions on the greatest of all Ohio Valley Earthworks, and similar enclosures. By Warren K. Moorehead, assisted by scientists - from Washington. i It is compiled from a careful survey and is correct sin all details. The entire summer was spen? in surveying, exca- -yating, photographing and preparing this work. Fort Aucient consists of 18,712.2 feet of embank- ment, and In size, state of preservation and impor- tance as an abori-inal fortification is unequalled in this country. Price of book, $2 00. It will be ready for sale Dec. 1st. Illustrated prospectus mailed free to any address. Send for one. WARREN K. MOOREHEAD, Smithsonian Institution, Washington, D.C. Published by Robt. Clarke & Co , Cincinnati. ‘ANY OF Prof. A. 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THE WEEK has entered onits SIXTH year of pub- lication, greatly enlarged and improved in every re- spect, rendering it still more worthy the cordial support of every one interested in the maintenance of a first-class literary journal. 5 The independence in politics and criticism which has characterized THE WEEK ever since its first issue will be rigidly maintained ; and unceasing ef- forts will be made to improve its literary character and increase its value and attractiveness as a jour- nal for the cultured home. Many new and able writers are now, or have promised to become, con- tributors to its co'umns, and the constantaim of the Publisher will be to make THE WEEK fully equal to the best literary journals in Britain and the Uni- ted States. As heretofore, PROF. GOLDWIN SMITH will, from time to time, contribute articles. London, Paris, Washington and Montreal letters from accomplished correspondents will appear at regular intervals. Special Ottawa Letters will appear during the ses- sions of Parliament. THE WEEE in its enlarged form will be the same size as ‘‘ Harpers’ Weekly,’ and the largest paper of its clsss on the continent. SEND FOR FREE SAMPLE COPY. C. BLACKETT ROBINSON, Publisher, 5 Jordan St., Toronto. "= ¥UST PUBLISHED. POPULAR MANUAL OF VISIBLE SPEECH AND VOCAL PHYSIOLOGY. For use in Colleges and Normal Schools. Sent free by post by N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. Price 50 cents. HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & COS NEW BOOKS. ASOLANDO. Facts AND Fanciges. .A new volume of Poems. By ROBERT BROWNING. Crown 8vo, gilt top, $1.25. [Ready Dec. 13.] BROWNING'S POETICAL WORKS. New Issue of the Riverside Edition. In- cluding all the corrections and changes re- cently made by Mr. Browning, and the poem ‘' Pauline,” in its previous form, in an Appendix to the volume in the body of which the latest revised version appears. In 6 volumes, crown 8vo, green cloth, gilt top, $1.75 each; the set, in a box, $10,00; half calf, $18.00 ; half levant, $24.00. PORTRAITS OF FRIENDS. By JOHN CAMPBELL SHAIRP, author of “« Aspects of Poetry,’’ ete. With a Sketch of Principal Shairp by Professor W. Y. SELLAR, and an etched Portrait. 16mo, $1.25. This volume contains papers on Thomas Fr- skine of Linlathen, Bishop Cotton of Calcutta, Arthur Hugh Clough, Norman Macleod, Dr. Macleod Campbell, and others. AMERICAN RELIGIOUS LEADERS. Vol Il. Witsur Fisk. By Professor GEORGE PRENTICE. 16mo, $1.25. A book worthy to follow Dr. Allen’s ‘‘ Jona- than Edwards,” and treating wisely the career and character of Wilbur Fisk, the eminent Methodist divine. THREE DRAMAS OF EURIPIDES. The Medea, The Hippolytos, and the Alkestis. By WILLIAM CRANSTON LAw- TON. Crown 8yo, gilt top, $1.50. A clear and admirable aid to an intelligent concepticn of the Greek drama. To a fine metrical translation of the three dramas are added such explanatory remarks as serve to give an adequate impression of them as produced on the Athenian stage. THE RECONSTRUCTION OF EUROPE. A Sketch of the Diplomatic and Military History of Continental Europe from the Rise to the Fall of the Second French Empire. With an Introduction by JOHN FISKE, and several Maps. Crown 8vo, $2.00. THE NEW ELDORADO. A Summet Journey to Alaska. By Maru- RIN M BALLOU. Crown 8vo, $1.50. A fiesh book on a fresh subject by an ac- complished traveler. Those who have read ‘* Due West,” ‘‘ Due South,” '‘ Due North,” and ‘t Under the Southern Cross” will heartily welc. me Mr. Ballou’s new book. SCIENTIFIC PAPERS OF ASA GRAY. Selected by CHARLES SPRAGUE SARGENT. Vol. I. Reviews of Works on Botany and Re- lated Subjects, 1834-1887. Vol. II. E-stys ; Biographical Sketches, 1841- 1886. 2 vols., 8vo, $3.00 each Professor Sargent says in the Introduction : “Many of the reviews are filled with original and suggestive observations, and, taken to- gether. furnish the best account of the develop- ment of botanical literature during the last fifty years that has yet been written.”” The Bio- graphical Sketches are every way admirable. For sale by all booksellers, or mailed, postpaid, on receipt of price, by the publishers, HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN & CO., BOSTON, 11 EAST SEVENTEENTH STREET, N.Y. 394. containing about two hundred octavo pages, will be issued each year. The contributors will be, for the most part, instructors in the university, or graduates of the same, but contributions of other scholars will not be absolutely excluded. Any correspondence respecting contributions should be addressed to Professor James B. Greenough, Professor John Williams White, or Professor F. D. Allen, Cambridge, Mass. Subscriptions (one dollar, four marks, or five francs a volume) may be sent to Otto Harrassowitz Leipzig, Germany ; Ginn & Co., 57 & 59 Ludgate Hill, London E.C., England ; or the latter firm at Boston, New York, or Chicago — With the December number the Wagazine of Amerzcan Hzs- tory completes its twenty-second volume. The frontispiece to the current issue is a-portrait of Lord Brougham; and the opening paper by the editor is a sketch of his early career during the in- fancy of our Republic, with pen-pictures of his contemporaries and surroundings, the establishment of the Edinburgh Review, and the marriage of its editor in New York City. The second illus- trated paper is a ‘Tribute to Hooper C. Van Voorst,” the late president of the Holland Society, by George W. Van Siclen. The third contribution is ‘The Story of Brave, Beautiful Margaret Schuyler,” an historic ballad from the pen of Judge Charles C Nott of Washington. Curiously interesting is the article following , of R. W. Shufeldt, “ The Drawings of a Navajo Artist,” illustrated with the Indian pencil; as is also the ‘Acrostic by John Quincy Adams,” in facsimile, from Ella M. M. Nave. ‘The Sciota Pur- chase in 1787,” by Col. E.C. Dawes of Cincinnati, and the “Private Contract Provision in Ordinance of 1787,” by Hon. W. P. Cutler, are important contributions to the number. These are ably written, and will doubtless serve to correct many errors in recent histories of Ohio. ‘‘ Joseph Hawley, the Northampton States- man,” is the theme of a paper by Charles Lyman Shaw; “ Fort Perrot, Wisconsin,” is from T. H. Kirk; ‘First Editions of the Bible printed in America,” from Clement Furgeson; and ‘Gen. Grant and the French,” from Theodore Stanton of Paris. This magazine is steadily exerting an educational and healthful influence . in all departments of literature and study. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR. * "Correspondents are requested to be as brief as possible. The writer's name is in all cases required as proof of good faith. The editor will be glad to publish any queries consonant with the character of the journal. On request, twenty copies of the number containing his communication will be furnished free to any correspondent. Intelligence of Ants. I SEND you the following regarding ants, by Mr. W. E. Bos- worth of this city, written out at my request, which seems to me an interesting and at the same time somewhat rare observation. It is almost exactly similar to the account by McCook of the sleeping of harvesting ants, of Texas, as quoted in G. J. Romanes’ “ Animal Intelligence,” p. 84. I do not recall any other instance given of the sleeping of ants. ‘At different times, and for more than one season, I was favorably situated to see the movements of quite a large colony of small black ants, as they passed to and fro in their busy haste over a board floor, going, as I supposed, for their sup- ply of water, which was in the direction of a small stream close by. While watching their quick, eager movements, there were several along the line that attracted my attention, as they remained in one place so long that I concluded they must be dead; and although they were directly on the line of march, and in the way of the others, these passed on, paying no attention to them whatever. At another time I noticed that one of the ants supposed to be dead got up, and walked off as lively as the rest; and, while watching this one, another one close by began to slow up, seemed to totter in his gait, and finally came to a dead halt. After seeing this, it occurred to me that the one had just waked up, and the other had justigone to sleep. In order to test the matter, and gratify my curiosity, I concluded to experiment on some of them. With a fine straw they were gently rubbed on the back. This mild treat- ment did not make the slightest impression on them; but a sharp push seemed to take them completely by surprise, and to fully arouse them. For an instant they seemed lost, circulating around, running up and down, but finally starting off with the rest. This SeClIENGE: (Vou. XIV. No. 357 was repeatedly tried with the same result. Their movements on being disturbed very forcibly reminded me of a child when sud- denly waked out of sound sleep.” Jas. LEwis HOWE. Louisville, Ky., Nov. 21. Galton’s Bodily Efficiency Diagram and the Marking System. FRANCIS GALTON’S bodily efficiency diagrams (Vad¢ure, Oct- 31, 1889) can evidently be applied to the rating, on an arbitrary scale, of all sorts of things besides physical measurements and tests. For instance: the annexed diagram represents, by Galton’s. method, the rating of errors as the measure of precision gradually rises. The data were taken from the table on p. 12 of Merriman’s. “Least Squares” (first edition). The curves are drawn in general for values of x differing by .1; the ordinates in all cases being values of #, and the abscissas the rating on a scale of 100. The diagram shows at a glance how in all cases the rating of the same error decreases as the measure of precision increases, but how, for very large and very small errors (see the curves + =.o1 and x = 1.7), the measure of precision affects the rating little. The rating of any errors which are distributed roughly according to the probability curve, as they are, for instance, in every school examination, ought to conform in general to these curves, and I think teachers usually strive to have it do so, either consciously or instinctively. If the error is flagrant, the question containing it is marked zero, or nearly so. The discrepancies in the marks of dif- ferent teachers, or in the marks of the same teacher at different times, seem due to the different measures of precision mentally “adopted. The curves show that these variations of the measure of precision affect most the rating of mediocre work, and this also accords with the experience of teachers. Now, of course the errors. of each scholar have their own probability curve and their own value of 4, which perhaps might be calculated from a long series of examination-papers. It would probably differ for different sub- jects. The custom, then, of marking good and poor scholars on different scales has a reason. The only question is, whether these scales can be so systematized as to be quite just, and whether it DecemBeER 6, 1880. | would not be better to assume, in rating, the same measure of pre- cision for all. At any rate, the study of these curves cannot help being of in- terest to teachers. ARTHUR E. BOSTWICK. Montclair, N.J., Nov. 22. Cave-Air for Ventilation. Cou. CRUMP’S effort to utilize cave-air has a personal interest. I warm my dwelling with furnace-heat, and in place of taking in air through a basement window, as is usual, I place an intake pipe or tube (I use stone pipe) under a porch upon the south side of the house, which passes under ground eight feet, around the building to the north side, beneath the cellar wall and below the cellar floor, to the furnace, — a length of about a hundred feet. The size of this pipe should be the same as the chimney. This must depend upon the size of the building to be warmed. My chimney is eigh- teen inches clear space. My house contains twelve rooms. This chimney is sufficient to ventilate the house, and carry off the smoke from the furnace. Sometimes it is necessary to build a small fire in the bottom of the chimney, where provision is made for such purpose. Ventilating-tubes are placed under the floor from the outside corners of the rooms, to draw off the cold air on the floor, which is constantly being replaced by the warmed air from the ceiling. Now, the advantage of this improvement in the use of cave-air is that in cold weather a modified air comes into the furnace. In hot weather, using the same apparatus to cool the air before coming into the house, the windows should be closed. The SCLEINEE: 395 difference of temperature is from ten to fifteen degrees in the shade. I have used it successfully for two summers, and I know of no system so satisfactory. W. H. LEONARD. Minneapolis, Nov. 18. INDUSTRIAL NOTES. Elektron Manufacturing Company. A FEW weeks ago fire destroyed the factory of the Elektron Manufacturing Company of Brooklyn, whose Perret motors and dynamos were described in Sczence recently. The company at once secured a larger factory, at 79 and 81 Washington Street, near the bridge, equipped it with a complete installation of special tools and machinery, and are doing their best to catch up with their orders, which had fallen far behind during their enforced idle- ness. Electrical Accumulators. IN the suit of The Electrical Accumulator Company vs. The Gibson Electric Company in the United States Circuit Court for the Southern District of New York, which was instituted in Febru- ary last, the complainants have recently moved for a preliminary injunction, and Judge Lacombe on Friday last granted the motion, and the injunction issued. The complainants’ testimony shows conclusively that the Gibson Company have continuously infringed the Faure patent, and that their various modifications are infringe- ments. CALENDAR OF SOCIETIES. Biological Society, Washington. Nov. 30.— Theobald Smith, Preliminary Observations on the Micro-organisms of Texas Fever; D. E. Salmon, General Re- marks on Texas Fever, illustrated by Lan- tern-Slides ; C. D. Walcott, Description of a New Genus and Species of Inarticulate Brachiopod from the Trenton Limestone ; Frank Baker, An Undescribed Muscle of the Infraclavicular Region in Man. Engineers’ Club, Philadelphia. Nov. 16.— Mr. William B. Spence exhib- ited a working model of the Rimmer oxi- dizer, a filtering- material, which he described, and for which he made various claims as to its utility in the purification of water by oxidation. He stated that the material used is an English invention, and that it is known as “ magnetic carbide of iron.’’ It consists of a mixture of granulated iron ore and car- bon. The iron ore is said to be cleaned of all natural impurities by a patented process. It is then chemically treated at a certain temperature. It is claimed that this mate- rial will absorb and retain a large quantity of oxygen from the atmosphere. In use itis charged daily with atmospheric air, when, it is claimed, a re-action takes place with the impurities which have accumulated in the filtering material, and that the result passes off in the form of gas. It is claimed that metals in solution in the water will form in- soluble oxides. The upper layer of the filtering plant consists of sand, for the re- moval of suspended matter by mechanical filtration, and the lower layer of the material above described for the chemical removal of impurities in solution. It is claimed that both vegetable and animal organic impuri- ties and metallic contaminations are entirely removed by this process. The following the filter. potassium. Lead and copper tests same results. of organic matter, pleasant odor. verts.” little attention. tests were made in the presence of the meet- ing. The filtering materials were contained in a large glass funnel. as that of the Schuylkill River during freshets, was made apparently perfectly clear. A solution of sulphate of iron in water was made, and a portion thereof passed through The unfiltered and filtered por- tions were then tested with ferrocyanide of The former showed a distinct blue tint, while the latter remained perfectly clear, showing the elimination of the iron. To illustrate the destruction sulphide of ammonia, sulphide of iron, and acetate of lead were added to water, making a compound which | was almost black, and of strong and un- After filtration, it was clear, and tests seemed to fail to discover any trace of the impurities. ing-ink and water was passed through the filter with the same results. Boston Society of Natural History. Dec. 4.— R. T. Jackson, Certain Points in the Development of the Mollusca; J. Walter Fewkes, A Remarkable Instance of Rock Excavation by Sea-Urchins. Engineers’ Club, St. Nov. 20. — Mr. Robert Moore addressed the club on the subject of “ Railway Cul- This question was usually given too The speaker described the various forms of culverts used, with the ad- vantages and disadvantages of each, also stated the methods of determining the size and best mode of construction. that sewer-pipe, while admirably adapted for small culverts, should not be used over fif- |- teen inches in diameter. cast-iron pipe answered well. pipe which had been condemned for heavy pressures was being largely used for this purpose. Mr. Moore also presented a dia- gram, based on Kutter’s formula, using a value of 17 for z, bearing in mind that one inch of rainfall per hour is equivalent to one cubic foot per acre per second. In the dis- cussion, Mr. Ferguson described a number of practical points of difficulty he had met with. The discussion was also participated in by Messrs. J. A. and W. L. Seddon, M. L. Holman, and A. W. Hubbard. Mr. Hol- man stated that iron pipe for this purpose was being made as large as six feet in diam- eter and ten feet long, being lighter and of poorer quality than the pipe used for water- service. Water, as muddy seemed to show the A mixture of copy- Asa Flesh Producer there can i no question but that scons, Of Pure tod Liver Oil and iyaniscnltes Of Lime and Soda is without a rival. Many have ained a pound a day by th orate It ess Milani ca CONSUMPTION, SCROFULA, BRONCHITIS, COUGHS AND COLDS, AND ALL FORMS OF WASTING DIS- EASES. AS PALATABLE AS MILK. Be sure you get the genuine as there are { Poor imitations, ? Louis. He stated RRR RETR RAT RINE RE OOH For larger sizes, Cast-iron ee oe on re oe oe ee renew ens &. cert eu see 396 SCIENCE. + [Vou XIV. No. 357 DAFT ELECTRIC LIGHT COMPAN Yy; Electric Railways. Power Stations. Stationary Motors Car Motors 15 to 250 H.P. 1, to 100 H.P. ZZ LAI Executive Office, 115 Broadway, N.Y. FACTORY, JERSEY CIRYs N. J. Please Mention ‘‘Science.”’ Exchanges. [Free of charge to all, if of satisfactory character. a j For Chemical Manufacturers, Sold at MINERALS. ~ For Blowpipe Analysis, Lowest Prices Address N. D. C. Hodges, 47 Lafayette Place, New Most ens paula Ces fine Cees York.] 621 Sixth Avenue, New York. mens in U.S. Recent additions include fine Fluorite, Morris’s ‘‘ British Butterflies,’’ Morris’s ‘‘ Nests and | Established 1852. Calcite, Barite, Specular Iron, etc., from England ; Ber- Eggs of British Birds,”’ Bree’s ‘* Birds of Europe”? (all | | trandite, Phenacite, Descloizite, Brochantite, Vanadinite, colored plates), and other natural history, in exchange MAKER OF Copper Pseudomorphs after Azurite, etc., from U. S. Send for complete catalogue free. GEO. L. ENGLISH & CO., Dealers in Minerals. 1512 Chestnut St., Philadelphia, Pa. for Shakesperiana ; eithe- books, pamphlets, engravings, or cuttings. — J. D. Barnett, Box 735, Stratford, Canada. Microscope Stands, I have Anodonta opalina (Weatherby), and many i x f other species of shells from the noted Koshkonong Lake Oil Immersion Object- and vicinity, also from Western New York, and fossils | , from the Marcellus shale of New York, which I would be | IV€S and Abbe Con- glad to exchange for specimens of scientific value of any B fal kind. I would also like to correspond with Berens inte densers for acteria ested in the collection, sale, or exchange of Indian relics.— ‘ . es SEMA illaxa Allon vAlcademyspAllbion Wiss and Histological work, Will exchange ‘* Princetun Review’’ for 1883, Hugh | of Objectives Camera Miller’s works on geology ard other scientific works, for 5 d back numbers of ‘* The Auk,’’ ‘* American Naturalist.” | Lucida and other ac- or other scientific periodicals or books. Write.— J. M. Keck, Chardon, Ohio. cessory apparatus, ““T wish to exchange Lepidoptera with parties in the eastern and southern states. I will send western species for those found in other localities.’’—P. C. Truman, Volga, Brookings Co., Dakota. THE .CHEAPEST AND ‘BEST ! oto En 7 PARK PLACE, ENGRAVING FOR ALL-ILLUSTRATIVE AND {ADVERTISING :FURPOSES - 2 eee . TAL wa Shells and curiosities for marine shells, curiosities or sO minerals address W. F. Lerch, No. 308 East Fourth St., COLL 7) Davenport, Iowa. A collection of fifty unclassified shells for the best offer in bird skins ; also skins of California birds for those of birds of other localities. Address Th. E. Slevin, 2413 ‘Sacramento St., San Francisco, Cal. I have forty varieties of birds’ eggs, side blown, first .class, in sets, with full data, which Twill exchange for books, scientific journals, shells, and curios. Write me, stating what you have to offer.—Dr. W.S.Srrope, Bernadotte, Fulton County, Il. I want to correspond and exchange with a collector of beetles in Texas or Florida, — Wm. D. Richardson, P.O. Box 223, Fredericksburg, Virginia. roo botanical specimens and analyses for exchange. Send list of those desired and those which can be fur- nished, and receive a similar list in return. Also cabinet specimens and curiosities for the same. Scientific corre- spondence solicited. —E. E. BocGue, Orwell, Ashta. (County, O. I will sell to chapters or individual members of the Agassiz Association, 25 fine specimens of fossil plants from the Dakota group (cretaceous), correctly named, for $2.50. Send post-office order to Charles H. Sternberg dauthor ‘‘ Young Fossil-Hunters’’), 1033 Kentucky Street, Lawrence, Kan. Any one who has a botanical box in good condition wil please write. I will offer about 30 specimens in ex- change. —C. B. Haskell, Box 826, Kennebunk, Me. Lead, zinc, mundic, and calcite.— Lulu Hay, secre- tary Chapter 350, Carthage, Mo. Drawings from nature — animals, birds, insects, and -plants—to exchange for insects for cabinet; or I will fwo armor’d knights in mortal combat meet And after many a parry, guard and lunge ‘send them in sets of ten each for ten cents in stamps. Armed ¢1})-a-pie—that is, from head to feet. He thought it wisest to throw up the sponge. “My drawings in botany are in detail, showing plant, The helmet, breastplate, shield and spear of one “See here,” he cried, ‘‘this isn’t fair, you know, deaves, flowers, seed, stamens, pistils, etc. —Alda M: Shone like the dazzling brightness of the sun. Your armor’s polished with SAporio. Sharp, Gladbrook, Io. The other suit of mail begrimed with rust I cannot see to fight—I’m sure to fail— Was scarcely proof against his foeman’s thrust, SaPo.Lio protects you from BiacKk-Matz !” A few first-class mounted birds, for first-class birds’ eggs of any kind in sets.—J. P. Babbitt, secretary Chapter 755, 10 Hodges Avenue, Taunton, Mass. B E Ww A R E 0 FE I M I 1 A 1 I 0 N S i California onyx. for minerals and coins not in my col- lection. — W. C. Thompson, 612 East r4rst Street, New York, N.Y. i one mounted single qcbromaric photographic lens for makin ictures, in excellent condition ; a 6 Fees GN ee Aeersiate RaLee aR here ane Grocers often substitute cheaper goods for Sapolio to make a better profit. Send geological or mineralogical specimens, properly classi- a age fe “ fied. — Charles E. Frick, 1019 West Lehigh Avenue, | back such articles, and insist upon having just what you ordered. Philadelphia, Penn. The undersigned wishes to make arrangements for the exchange of Lepidoptera of eastern Pennsylvania for those from other localities. All my specimens are named FAtGeeeDINISAC SRE Pene: feat aoaSane ENOCH MORGAN’S SONS CO., NEW YORK. ’ DercEMBER 6, 1880. | SCIENCE. — Wants. Any person seeking a position for which he is quali- fied by his scientific attainmen’s, or any person seeking some one to fill a position of this character, be it that of a teacher of science, chemist, draughtsman, or what not, may have the ‘Want? inserted under this head FREE OF Cost, 2f he satisfies the publisher of the suit- able character of his application. Any person seeking information on any scientific question, the address of any scientific man, or who can in any way use this col- umn for a purpose consonant with the nature of the paper, ts cordially invited to do so. N ANALYTICAL CHEMIST is open to an engagement in mining, metallurgy, calico-printing, and bleaching, or as research chemist in alkali manufacture. Address “Alkali,” care of SCIENCE. HEMIST.—A young man of twenty- three, lately a special student of chemistry in the Scientific Department of Rutgers Col- lege, desires a position as assistant in some chemical works. Address, B. G. D., 526 Cherry St., Elizabeth, N.J. EACHING.—A young man desires a posi- tion to teach the Natural Sciences, Botany in particular, in a High or Normal School or Institute. Can also teach first Latin and Ger- man. Best of references given. Address ‘‘ E,” care of Science. GRADUATE OF THE JOHNS HOP- KINS UNIVERSITY desires a position as teacher of physical science. Specialty, chem- istry, for which he refers to Prof. Remsen by permission. Address B. H. H., care of Science. ANTED.—To correspond with concholo- gists in America, especially in California, with a view to exchange. Many British land, fresh water, and marine duplicates; some for- eign. Address Mrs. FALLOON, Long Ashton Vicarage, Bristol, England. EACHER OF NATURAL SCIENCE.— A young lady desires a position as a teacher of Natural Sciences, especially Chem- istry and Physics. One year’s experience. Testi- monials given. Address Miss J. S., No. 31, N. Hanover St, Carlisle, Pa. ANTED a young man with some knowl- edge of mineralogy to assist in our Min- eral Depariment. A. E. FOOTE, 1223 Bel- mont Av., Philada., Pa. OLLEGE ALUMNI AND PHYSI- CIANS.—The American Academy of Medicine is endeavoring to make as complete a list as possible of the Alumni of Literary Col- leges, in the United States and Canada, who have received the degree of M.D. All recipi- ents of both degrees, literary and medical, are requested to forward their names at once to Dr. R. J. Dunglison, Secretary, 814 N. 16th Street, YOUNG MAN can have lucrative engage- ment, not only a fixed salary, but accord- ing to his work accomplished in travelling for SciENCE. A personal interview invited. N. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. A YOUNG SCOTCHMAN desires an ap- pointment in America. Three years in English Government Office. Good references. Address ‘‘ Jack”’ care J. Lawson & Coy, 17 Princes St., Aberdeen, Scotland. HYSIOLOGY AND HYGIENE. —A Fellow of the Mass. Med. Society, Mem- ber of the Suffolk District Medical Society, and former Assistant Editor of The Annals of Gynecology, desires a position as instructor in Physiology and Hygiene. Address ‘‘N,”’ 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. City. ECHANICIAN.—An optician and maker of instruments of precision of experience would be glad of a position where his skill would be valued in connection with some higher educational institution. Address G. J., care of SCIENCE, 47 Lafayette Place, New York. See ae —A specialist in science-teaching, physics, chemistry, and physiography desires an engagement, preferably in a high or a normal school. Is well known as an author of several popular text-books. Ad- dress X., care of SCIENCE. ANTED.—Information concerning the handling of air from Caves, for Cool- ing and ventilating rooms. Address ‘‘ M. H.” care of Sctence 47 Lafayette Place, N.Y. A TEMPORARY BINDER for Sczence is now ready, and will be mailed postpaid on receipt of price. Half Morocco - This binder is strong, durable and elegant, has gilt side-title, and allows the opening of the pages perfectly flat. Any number can be taken out or replaced without disturbing the others, and the papers are not muti- lated for subsequent permanent bind ing. Filed in this binder, Sczezce is always convenient for reference. RN. D. C. HODGES, 47 Lafayette Place, N. Y. CHANCE FOR ALL To Enjoy a Cup of Perfect Tea. A_ TRIAL ORDER of 16 pounds of Fine Tea, either Oolong. Ja- pan, Imperial, Gunpowder, Young Hy- son, Mixed, English Breakfast or Sun Sun Chop, sent by mail on receipt, of $2.00. Be particular and state what kind of Tea you want. Greatest inducement ever offered to get orders for our cele- and Baking Powder. For full particu: 75 cents. osm GREATAMERICAN: AB icy brated Tras, Coffees larsaddiess THE GREAT AMERICAN TEA CO. Philadelphia, Pa. P. O. Box 289, 31 and 33 Vesey St., New York. JONNHASTINGS= Sens red a) Invite special attention to their latest] Prate a Te is THE ag ranae For full particu. a 0. Box 28! A importations of Modern Etchings, En- SOARS VEEL Sp SOOT gravings, Brown’s Carbon Photographs EF 0 0 D and Watercolor Paintings, also to their large collection of Rare English Mezzo- ADULTERATION tints, Fancy Subjects by Bartolozzi, ne al iE |: Hfsson & 6 Ha alin aa and Piano Repairs Everything. Tis su cons nasa) Bro mene allo oe im ators c 2 Ren . 5 5 5 s si member’ tha at THE J 3 aa And its Detection. With photomicrographic plates and Y old Line Engravings, and Original a bibliographical appendix. By J. P. Battershall. 328 Works by Rembrandt, Durer, and other te ee ae ae oS ares and Catalogues | | Gitnre seule GLOUCESTER, MASS. a z Bd ) ae Ss and dealers? card who old masters. 12 Cortlandt St., New York. 2t Keep it in stock, for sample, | INS OTHER Life Policies as liberal cost as little money, no others as cheap give as much for the money, as those of THE VELERS OF HARTFORD, CONN. Best either for Family Protection or Investment of Savings. Non-forfeitable, world-wide, lowest cash rate. SCIENCE {Entered at the Post-Office of New York, N.Y., as Second-Class Matter. J POWEEKLY NEWSPAPER OF ALL THE ARTS AND SCIEN CES: SEVENTH YEAR. VoL. XIV. No. 359. NEW YORK, DECEMBER 20, SINGLE Copies, TEN CENTS. 1889 $3.50 PER YEAR, IN ADVANCE, THE SHORTT HIGH-SPEED ENGINE THE new type of steam-engine illustrated on this and the follow- ing page possesses several points that will naturally attract the at- tention of engineers and steam-users generally. There are features about it that will specially commend it to marine engineers and _ yacht-owners, as well as to others interested in compact high-speed _ reversible engines giving a maximum of efficiency with a minimum _ ever being on a dead-centre. of fuel, and as free from complication of parts as possible. g Se erlecal results as to strength and stiffness are got from a given weight of metal. The pistons are double-acting ; that is, steam is admitted to them at each end of the stroke. An engine of this type, with cylinders two inches in diameter and two-inch stroke, will develop two horse- -power under ordinary conditions, but with high steam- pressure it is capable of doing much more. A launch engine of this size and power, running at four hundred revolutions a minute, has been used to run a twenty-five foot launch during the past year with excellent results. Though the model of the boat is not one EE | _ Cu AAA FIGS. 1 The engine shown in the illustrations is known as the Shortt duplex high-speed engine, and it is being placed on the market by the Hussey Re-heater and Steam Plant Improvement Company of this city. Figs. 1 and 2 are perspective views of a reversing engine designed more especially for steam-launch and yacht service. Fig. 3 is a section showing the frame, cylinder and piston, steam-valve, connecting-rod, ete. It will be observed that there are two cylin- ders and a double crank, the crank-pins being set at an angle of ninety degrees with each other, thus preventing the engine from The cylinders are made in one cast- ing, and are supported on a frame of A-pattern, in which the best AND 2.—THE SHORTT DUPLEX HIGH-SPEED ENGINE. calculated for speed, it is said to have run along easily and con- tinuously at a rate of ten miles an hour. The valves, though cylindrical in form, are the same as the regu- lar slide-valve in action and principle. take their motion from the pistons, the piston and valve of the right-hand cylinder controlling the admission and cut-off of steam to the left-hand cylinder, and vice versa, the steam ports being crossed. Fig. 4 is a diagram of the valve-seat and ports, the dotted lines showing the crossed steam-passages. The steam-ports are designated by the letter D, and the exhaust ports by C. The valves are shown in Fig. 5, £ being the reversing-valve, and / the main valves. The They 414 steam- passages are shown. at G, and the exhaust-passages at H. The reversing-valve acts inside the main valve, the reversal of the engine being effected by giving the inner valve a half-revolution in TTT a linet i FIG. 3. the outer valve, thereby changing the register of the steam-pas- sages. The reversing-lever is shown in the plan of the valve-seat, Fig. 6. A cross-section of one of the main bearings with anti- friction metallic bushing is shown at Fig. 7. These bearings are FIG. 4. conical, and milled through, so that all wear may be easily and quickly taken up by turning the adjusting nut on the bearing casing. The connecting-rods are of the skeleton pattern, with self-oiling bronze boxes lined with anti-friction metal. SCIENCE, [Vor. XIV. No. 359 These engines are made by special tools in such a way as to in- sure that alllike parts are interchangeable, thus facilitating repairs. The plain non-reversible engine made by the same manufacturers is the same as the engine shown, except that it has no reversing- H Pea iff te HS Z (=i ISB hee Scie aed Ei iit 3s en) ! VS sy 1a a SON He HH v\ tf buy \\ 1 i oot (Ore