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SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISH- 
ING THE OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


NEW SERIES. VOLUME XIX. 


JANUARY -JUNE, 1904. 


NEW YORK 
THE MACMILLAN COMPANY 
1904 


1909 6) 


CONTENTS AND INDEX. 


N.S. VOL. XIX.—JANUARY TO JUNE, 1904, 


The Names of Contributors are Printed in Small Capitals. 


A., J. A., Palmer’s Index Generum Mammalium, 
498 

Academies, Int. Assoc. of, 930 

ADAMS, J., Vegetable Balls, 926 

Adaptation, Organic, C. W. Hareirr, 132 

Aeroplane, Wright’s, 269; H. H. Cuayron, 76 

Agricultural Colleges and Exper. Stations, E. W. 
ALLEN, 61 

Agriculture, Department of, 635 

Albino Brook Trout, C. R. Prerris, 867 

Aten, E. W., Assoc. Am. Agric. Colleges and 
Exper. Stations, (1 

American Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, President’s Address, 1; Botany, 11, 165; 
Proceedings of the St. Louis Meeting, C. S. 
Hown, 81; Chemistry, 88, 441; Geology and 
Geography, 121, 178, 521; Mathematics and 
Astronomy, 161, 401; Physics, 201; Zoology, 
210; Membership, 257; Social and Economic 
Science, 281; Mech. Sci. and Engineering, 321, 
361; Anthropolog 449; Philosophical So- 
ciety, 713 

Ames, J. S., Experimental Physics, A. Kundt, 730 

Amitosis in the Egg Follicle Cells of Insects, 
VY. F. Kewxioee, 392 

Analysts, Public, R. O. Brooxs, 465 

ANDREWS, W. S., Fluorescence and Phosphores- 


cence, 435 
Animal Behavior, A. W. WEYSSE, 955 
Anthropological Society of Washington, W. 
Hoven. 27, 70, 149, 381, 457, 616, 660, 699 


Anthropology, and Psychology, N. Y. Acad. Sci., 
J. BH. Loueu, 106, 335, 578, 890, 950; at the 
Am. Assoc., G. H. Pepper, 449 

Arnold, R., Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of 
San Pedro, Cal., J. C. Mrrriam, 540 

Astronomical and Astrophysical Soc. of Am., W. 
S. EICHELBERGER, 296 

Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry at the N. Y. 
Acad. of Sci., C. C. TRowsBrines, 226, 582, 825 

Arxinson, G. F., Convocation Week, 431 

Audition, Tests of, I. M. BentiEy, 929 

Australasian Association, P. MARSHALL, 536 


B., F. A., The Term ‘ Bradfordian,’ 434; Titles of 
Papers. 702 

Barry, EH. H. S§., Convocation Week, 341 

Bancrort, W. D., Convocation Week, 264 

Banks, N., Notes on Entomology, 470 

Barometer, the Word, J. C. SHEpp, 108 

BASKERVILLE, C., Elements, Verified and Unveri- 
fied, 88; Titles of Papers, 702; Thorium, 892 

Bauer, M., Mineralogy, G. F. K., 823 

Brau, W. J., Convocation Week, 797 

Beecher, Charles Emerson, W. H. Datt, 453 


Behr, Hans Hermann, A. EAstwoop, 636 

Belgian Antarctic Expedition, W. H. DALL, 656 

Bei, A. G., Multi-nipple Sheep, 767 

BrngamMin, C. H., Smoke Prevention, 488 

BenJAMIn, M., Convocation Week, 310 

Bren tiey, I. M., Tests of Audition, 959 

Bessey, C. E., Botanical Notes, 36, 315, 768, 868, 
963; Convocation Week, 429 

Brssny, E. A., Organization und Physiologie der 
Cyanophyceenzelle, E. G. Kohl, 260 

BicEtow, F. H., The New Cosmical Meteorology, 30 

BicEtow, M. A., Biology at the N. Y. Acad. of Sci., 
307, 503 

BicELow, 8. L., The Modern Laboratory, 641 

Binet’s L’année psychologique, E. B. DELABARRE, 
298 

Biological, Society of Washington, F. A. Lucas, 
26, 70; W. H. Oscoop, 546, 615, 700, 857; 
Survey of Waters of S. Cal., C. A. Koro, 
505; Station, Bermuda, E. L. Marx, C. L. 
BristoL, 709; Laboratory of Bureau of Fish- 
eries, 770 

Biologists, American, Strictures on, L. StrsNEGER, 
371 

Biology, and Medicine, Exper., Soc. for, W. J. 
Gigs, 104, 459, 828; Acad. Sci. and Art, Pitts- 
burg, F. S. Wesster, 191, 585, 827, N. Y. 
Acad. of Sci., M. A. Brertow, 307, 503 

Brain, JR., A. W., Mich. Ornithological Club, 108 

BLAKESLEE, A. F., Zygospore Formation, 864 

Botanical, Notes, C. E. Bessry, 36, 315, 768, 868, 
963; Club, Torrey, F. S. Harte, 71, 309; M. 
A. Howse, 793; T. E. Hazen, 824; Society of 
Washington, H. J. Wesper, 71, 337; Cary §. 
ScorireLp, $823; Garden, Missouri, 237; Work 
in the Philippines, 516; Society of America, 
D. T. MacDoueat, 888 

Botany, Twentieth Century, B. T. Gatitoway, 11; 
at the Am. Assoc., F. E. Liuoyp, 165; Crypto- 
gamic, of Harriman Expedition, L. M. Un- 
DERWOOD, 917 

“ Bradfordian,’ The Term, F. A. B., 434 

Brapiey, H. C., Zine in Certain Invertebrates, 196 

BRANNER, J. C., Convocation Week, 386 

Brazil, in Ancient Cartography, O. A. Drrpy, 681 

British Association, 771 

Britton, N. L., The Honeysuckles, A. Rehder, 145 

Brooxs, A. H., Geological Society of Washington, 
24, 304, 459, 502, 544, 733, 794, 856, 921 

Brooks, R. O., ‘ Public Analysts,’ 465 

Burrity, J. H., Degrees for Scientific Work, 820 


C., T. D. A., Palmer Hall, Colorado College, 475 
Cameron, F. K., Soil Investigation, 343 
Carnegie Institution, 37, 238, 268, 596, 965 


iv ; SCIENCE. 


Casg, E. C., Nature Study, 550 

CASTLE, W. E., Sex in Bees and Ants, 389 

Castle and the Dzierzon Theory, W. M. WHEELER, 
587 

Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 66, 147, 334, 
860, 886 

CaTTELL, J. McK., Degrees for Scientific Work, 814 

Cephalaspis and Drepanaspis, C. R. Eastman, 703 

CHAPMAN, F. M., The Case of William J. Long, 387 

Chemical Society, of Washington, A. SEMDELL, 25, 
69, 306, 429, 583, 618, 758; American, N. C. 
Section, C. D. Harris, 67; New York Section, 
H. C. SHERMAN, 68, 227, 618, 695, 923; North- 
eastern Section, A. M. Comny, 191, 339, 547, 
619, 698, 796; Cornell Section, W. C. GrEr, 
858 

Chemistry, Inorganic, Notes on, J. L. H., 270, 394, 
513; at the Am. Assoc., G. B. FRANKFORTER, 
441 

Chemists, Official Agricultural, Association of, 

i 116; Technical, Training of, J. B. . HeRREs- 
Horr, T. J. Parker, M. C. WHITAKER, W. 
McMurtris, EH. Hart, W. A. Noyes, C. F. 
Cuanpter, A. A. Noyes, H. P. Tausor, W. J. 
SCHIEFFELIN, H. ScHwerrtzerR, M. Tocu, M. 
T. Bocrrt, 561 

CHITTENDEN, I’. H., Economic Zoology, F. V. Theo- 
bald, 65 

Cincinnati, University of, and its Presidency, X., 
661 

CrarRKE, J. M., Convocation Week, 231 

Crayton, H. H., Wright’s Aeroplane, 76 

Crements, F. E., Desert Botanical Laboratory, 
F. V. Coville and D. T. MacDougal, 885 

Clemson College Science Club, F. 8S. SuHiver, 263, 
382, 586, 660 

CockErRELL, T. D. A., Coccidae of the British Isles, 
kh. Newstead, 501 

CocKERELL, W. P., Rubber-producing Plant, 314 

Coney, 8. S8., Biographie Clinies, G. M. Gould, 694 

Coz, F. N., Am. Math. Soe., 101, 462, 792 

College Entrance Requirements, J. G. NEEDHAM, 
650 

Colorado College, Palmer Hall, T. D. A. C., 475 

Comet a 1904, KE. Hays, 833 

Comry, A. M., Northeastern Section Am. Chem. 
Soe., 191, 339, 547, 619, 698, 796 

Concilium Bibliographicum, 802 

Conran, A. F., Odoriferous Secretions, 393 

Convocation Week, 41; E. L. Nicnoxts, 192; W. 
Le C. Stevens, 192; J. S. Kinestey, 194; 
J. L. Hown, 228; H. W. Witry, 230; J. M. 
CLARKE, 231; O. T. Mason, 232; T. W. Ricu- 
ARDS, 263; W. D. Bancrort, 264; C. W. Har- 
cirt, 265; C. H. Hrrencock, 266; J. H. Lone, 
309; M. Benzamin, 310; J. E. Russewy, 311; 
C. M. Woopwarp, 312; EH. F. Nicwoxs, 340; 
BH. H. S. Bartny, 341; T. C. Hopkins, 341; 
T. H. Macpring, 342; C. S. Hows, 383; J. C. 
BRANNER, 383; C. W. Strems, 384; C. J. HEr- 
RICK, 385; C. E. Bressry, 429; G. F. ATKIN- 
son, 431; W. J. Hottanp, 433; W. F. Ga- 
none, 463; A. H. Forp, 464; W. N. Rick, 548; 
A. Hortick, 620; HE. P. Fert, 622; W. J. 
Bray, 797 

Cook, O. F., Metcalf’s Evolution Catechism, 312; 
Natural Selection in Kinetic Evolution, 549; 
Cotton Boll Weevil, 862 

Corpuscles, Elliptical Human Red, M. DresBacu, 
469; A. Frint, 796 


CONTENTS AND 
INDEX 


Cotton Boll Weevil, O. F. Coox, 862 

CouLtTer, J. M., Degrees for Scientific Work, 817 

Coville, F. V., and D. T. MacDougal, Desert Botan- 
ical Laboratory, F. E. CLemmnts, 885 

Cowxss, H. C., Ecology in 1903, 879 

Crew, H., The Teaching of Physics, 481 : 

Croox, A. R., Excursion of Geol. Soc. of Amer., 197 

CROWELL, J. F., Atmospheric Nitrogen, 197; So- 
cial and Economie Science at the Am. Assoc., 
281; Students at German Universities, 594 

CunnincHam, J. T., Morgan on Evolution and 
Adaptation, 74 


Dart, W. H., Charles Emerson Beecher, 453; 
Belgian Antarctic Expedition, 656; Namato- 
gean or HEpigean, 926 

Dall, W. H., Tertiary Fauna of Florida, H. A. 
Pinspry, 613 

Davenrort, C. B., Color Inheritance in Mice, 110; 
Wonder Horses and Mendelism, 151 

Davis B., Gravitational Constant and Constants 
of Ether, 928 

Davis, W. H., Natural and Unnatural History, 667 

Davis, W. M., Geography in the United States, 
121, 178 

Davison, Alvin, J. P. MeM., 22 

Dean, B., Traquair on Lower Devonian Fishes, 
64; Evolution and Adaptation, T. H. Mor- 
gan, 221; Paleospondylus, W. J. Sollas and 
I. B. J. Sollas, 425; An Early Letter by La- 
marck and Geoffroy, 798 

Death Gulch, F. W. TRAPHAGEN, 632 

Degrees for Scientific Work, W. TRELEASE, D. 8. 
JorDAN, C. R. Van Hisn, J. McK. Carrer, 
J. M. Courter, J. H. Burricy, 809 

DELABARRE, EH. B., L’année psychologique, A. Binet, 
298 

DELLENBAUGH, F. S., Water Supply of the Rio 
Grande, 505 

Dennett, W. 8., The Eye, 919 

Derpy, O. A., Brazil in Ancient Cartography, 681 

Discussion and Correspondence, 29, 74, 108, 150, 
192, 228, 263, 309, 340, 383, 429, 463, 505, 
548, 587, 620, 661, 702, 737, 760, 796, 832, 
860, 892, 926, 952 

DresBacu, M., Elliptical Human Red Corpuscles, 
469 

Dwicut, T., LeDouble on the Cranial Bones, 302 


Harte, 8. F., Torrey Botanical Club, 71, 309; Re- 
form of Nomenclature of the Fungi, 508 
HastMaAn, C. R., Recent Zoopaleontology, 396; 
Cephalaspis and Drepanaspis, 703 

Eastwoop, A., Hans Hermann Behr, 636 

Heology, Principles of, W. F. GAnone, 493; in 
1903, H. C. Cow iss, 879 

Edison Medal, 835 

Efficiency, Mental, and Health, R. MacDoueatt, 
893 

EICHELBERGER, W. S., Astronomical and Astro- 
physical Soc. of Am., 296 

HIGENMANN, C. H., Leptocephalus of the Conger 
Eel, 629 

Electrochemistry, Advance of, J. W. RicHArps, 905 

Electron Theory, 896 

Elements, Verified and Unverified, C. BASKERVILLE, 
88 


Eliot, President, 512, 557 

Elisha Mitchell Scientific Society, A. S. WHEELER, 
429, 587, 760 

Etrop, M. J., Resources of Montana, 777 


New xix. | y 
VoL. XIX. 


Energetics and Mechanics, F. SLATE, 510 

Eneperce, J. C., Skew Frequency Curves, J. C. 
Kapteyn, 575 

Entomology, Notes on, N. Banks, 470 

Erythrocytes, Elliptical Human, A. Frint, 796 

Ewell, EH. E., 595, 741 


Farranp, L., Aboriginal American Basketry, O. 
T. Mason, 538 ; 

Fret, HE. P., Convocation Week, 622 

Finches, Wild, Rearing, W. E. D. Scorr, 551 

Fish New to Florida Waters, H. M. Smiru, 314 

Fisheries, Bureau of Wood’s Hole Laboratory, F. 
R. SuMNER, 241 

Frint, A., Elliptical Human Erythrocytes, 796 

Fluorescence and Phosphorescence, W. S. ANDREWS, 
435 

Flying Machine in the Army, E. W. SERRELL, 952 

Forp, A. H., Convocation Week, 463 

‘Formation,’ Misuse of, by LEcologists, F. H. 
KNowLton, 467 

Fossil Fishes in the Am. Museum, 437 

FRANKFORTER, G. B., Chemistry at the American 
Association, 441 


Gate, H., Minnesota Acad. of Sci., 855 

Gartoway, B. T., Twentieth Century Botany, 11 

Ganone, W. F., Society for Plant Morphology and 
Physiology, 413; Convocation Week, 463; 
Principles of Ecology, 493; Vegetable Balls, 
591; Writings of Wm. J. Long, 623 

GreER, W. C., Cornell Section of the Am. Chem. 
Soe., 858 : 

Geographic Congress, International, 472 

Geography in the United States, W. M. Davis, 
121, 178 

Geological, Society of America, Excursion of, A. 
R. Crook, 197; Society of Washington, A. H. 
Broogs, 24, 304, 459, 502, 544, 733, 794, 856, 
921; Journal Club of Mass. Inst. Tech., G. F. 
LovucHuin, 307, 586, 736; Survey, 354 

Geology, and Geography at the American Assoc. 
and Geological Soc. of Am., G. B. SHATTUCK, 
521; and Mineralogy, N. Y. Acad. of Sci., HE. 
O. Hovey, 106, 580, 617, 858, 891; of Harri- 
man Expedition, I. C. RussELy, 783 

Geometry, Non-Euclidean, G. B. Hatstep, 401 

German Universities, Students at, J. F. CRows.1, 
594 

Gibbons, E. E., The Eye, W. 8S. Dennett, 919 

Gizs, W. J., Soc. for Exper. Biol. and Medicine, 
104, 459, 828 

GiBerT, G. K., Mont Pelée Spine, 927 

Gitt, THEo., The Encyclopedia Americana on 
Ichthyology, 675; ‘ Horses’ not Horses, 737; 
Non-education of the Young by Parents, 861 

Gout, G. M., Right and Left Eyedness, 591 

Gould, G. M., Biographie Clinics, S. S. Coen, 
694 

Gravitational Constant and Constants of the 
Ether, B. Davis, 928 


H., J. L., Notes on Inorganic Chemistry, 270, 394, 
513 


Hatt, A., The Lunar Theory, 150 

Haxstep, G. B., Non-Huclidean Geometry, 401 

Hareirr, C. W., Organic Adaptation, 132; Con- 
vocation Week, 265 

Harriman Expedition, I. C. RussmLy, 862 

Harris, C. D., N. C. Section, Am. Chem. Soc., 67 


SCIENCE. 


Vv 


Harris, R. A., Measurement of Tides at Sea, 704 

Hay, O. P., Soc. of Vertebrate Paleontologists of 
America, 253 

Hays, E., Writings of Wm. J. Long, 625; Comet 
a 1904, 833 

Hazen, T. E., Torrey Botanical Club, 824 

Hepecocg, G. G., Rhizoctonia, 268 

Heriprin, A., The Pelée Tower, 800 

HeERRESHOFF, J. B. F., and Orners, The Training 
of Technical Chemists, 561 

Herrick, C. J., Zoology at the Amer. Assoc., 210; 
Convocation Week, 384 

Hirearp, EH. W., Soil Work in the U. S., 233 

Hitcucocr, C. H., Convocation Week, 266 

Houianp, W. J., Convocation Week, 433 

Holland, W. J., Moth Book, L. O. Howarp, 188 

Houck, A., Convocation Week, 620 

Hopkins, C. G., Soil Investigation, 626 

Hopxins, T. C., Onondaga Acad. of Sci., 262; Con- 
vocation Week, 341 

‘Horses’ not Horses, THEO. GILL, 737 

Horticultural Varieties of Common Crops, W. J. 
SPILLMAN, 34 

Houeu, W., Anthropological Society of Washing- 
ton, 27, 70, 149, 381, 457, 616, 660, 699. 

Hovey, E. O., Geology and Mineralogy, N. Y. Acad. 
Sci., 106, 580, 617, 858, 891 

Howarp, L. O., The Moth Book, W. J. Holland, 
188; Mosquitoes, F, V. Theobald, 333 

Howse, C. §., Proceedings of St. Louis Meeting of 
Am, Assoe., 81; Convoeation Week, 383 

Howse, J. L., Convocation Week, 228 

Howe, M. A., Torrey Botanical Club, 793 

Hyatt, James, J. J. SOHOONHOVEN, 635 

Hume, A., Science Club of Univ. of Missi 
759 


ssippl, 


Ichthyology, Encyclopedia Americana on, THEO. 
GILL, 675; D. 8S. Jorpan, 767 

Indian Tribes of California, C. H. Mmrriam, 912 

Inheritance, Color, in Mice, C. B. Davenport, 110 

Ion Action, A. S. Lorvennart, J. H. KAstir, 630 

Iowa Academy of Science, H. W. Norris, 790 


Japanese Brain, Heavy, H. A. SpirzKa, 899 

JEFFERSON, M. 8. W., Scaurs on the River Rouge, 
150 

JONES H. C., Wilhelm Ostwald, P. Walden, 821 

JoRDAN, D. §., Loach from Nanaimo, 634; Ichthy- 
ology in the ‘ Encyclopedia Americana,’ 767; 
Degrees for Scientific Work, 810 


K., G. F., Geology of Economic Minerals, F. Miron, 
261; Mineralogy, M. Bauer, 823 

ISAHLENBERG, L., Chemie, W. Ostwald, 854 

Kapteyn J. C., Skew Frequency Curves, C. C. 
ENGBERG, 575 

Kasrip, J. H. and A. 8. Lorvennart, Ion Action, 
630 

Kettoee, V. L., Amitosis in the Hge Follicle Cells 
of Insects, 392 

Kent, WoM., Metric System, 767 

Kinetic Evolution, O. F. Coox, 549 

Kinestry, J. §., Convocation Week, 194; The 
Mark Anniversary Volume, 455 . 

Kurgwoop, J. E., Onondaga Acad. of Sci., 584, 619, 
925 

Know ton, F. H., Misuse of ‘Formation’ by 
Ecologists, 467 

Korom, C. A., Biol. Surv. of Waters of S. Cal., 505 


Vi SCIENCE. 


Kohl, E. G., Organization und Physiologie der 
Cyanophyceenzelle, E. A. BESSEY, 260 


L., F. A., Paleontological Notes, 436 

Labor Problem, H. T. NeEwcoms, 46 

Laboratory, The Modern, 8. L. BrerLow, 641 

Lamarck and Geoffroy, an Early Letter by, BAsH- 
FoRD DEAN, 798 

Lane, A. C., The Metric System, 389 

Lanerorp, G., Science Club of Wellesley Col., 339 

Leaves, Palisade Tissue and Resinous Deposits in, 
E. N. TRANSEAU, 866 

LeDouble on the Cranial Bones, T. Dwieur, 302 

Ler, F. S., Allgemeine Physiologie, M. Verworn, 
189; Physiology in the Int. Catalogue of Sci. 
Literature, 886 

Lenuer, V., Science Club, University of Wiscon- 
sin, 149, 339, 620, 759, 832 

Leptocephalus of the Conger Hel, C. H. EreEn- 
MANN, 629 

Levees, Outlets and Reservoirs in the Mississippi 
Valley, R. 8. Taytor, 601 

Lévy-Bruhl, L., Positive Philosophy of Auguste 
Comte, L. F. Warp, 376 

Linpsry, E., Reddish-brown Snowfall, 893 

Luoyp, F. E., Botany at the Am. Assoc., 165 

Loach from Nanaimo, D. S. Jorpan, 634 

LokvENHART, A. S., and J. H. Kastixz, Ion Action, 
630 

Lone, J. H., Convocation Week, 309 

Lone, Wm. J., Science, Nature and Criticism, 760 

Long, Wm. J., Writings of, W. M. WHEELER, 347; 
F. M. CHapman, 387; W. F. GANONG, 623; 
E. Hayes, 625; W. H. Davis, 667 

Loven, J. E., N. Y. Acad. of Sci., Anthropology 
and Psychology, 106, 335, 578, 890, 950 

Louentin, G. F., Mass. Institute of Technology 
Geol. Journal Club, 307, 586, 736 

Loomis, E. H., Noyes on Physical Science, 102 

Lucas, F. A., Biological Society of Washington, 
26, 70 

Lunar Theory, A. Hatt, 150 

Lyon, E. P., Rhythms of CO, Production during 
Cleavage, 350 ; 


M., Anatomy, Human, in the Int. Catalogue of 
Sei. Literature, 147 

M., C. E., Light Waves, A. A. MicHetson, 380; 
Literature of the Spectroscope, A. TuUCKER- 
MANN, 380 

Macsring, T. H., Convocation Week, 342 
MacDoueat, D. T.. Botanical Soe. of America, 888 
MacDoucatt, R., The Sense of Time, 707; Mental 
Efficiency and Health, 893 

Macruper, W. T., Mech. Sci. and Engineering at 
the American Association, 361 

Mark, E. L., Bermuda Biological Station, 709 

. Mark, E. L., Anniversary Volume, J. S. Irnas- 
LEY, 455 

MarsnHatt, P.. Australasian Association, 536 
Mason, O. T., Convocation Week; 232; Blackening 
of Teeth, 926 

Mason, 0. T.. American Basketry, L. FARRAND, 538 
Mathematical Society, American, F. N. Corn, 101, 
462, 792; San Francisco Section, G. A. Miz- 
LER, 148, 855 

Mathematics, and Astronomy at the Am. Assoc.. 
L. G. Wetp, 161; and Engineering, C. A. 
WALDO, 321 


CONTENTS AND 
INDEX. 


Mechanical Science and Engineering at the Am. 
Assoc., W. T. Macruper, 361 

Medical Association, American, 961 

Metrzer, 8. J., Vitalism and Mechanism in Biol- 
ogy and Medicine, 18 

Mendelism and Wonder Horses, C. B. DAVENPORT, 
151 

Merriam, C. H., Indian Tribes of California, 912. 

Merriam, J. C., Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene 
of San Pedro, Cal., R. Arnold, 540 

Merritt, E., American Physical Society, 330, 542 

Mercarr, M. M., Mutation and Selection, 74 

Metealf’s Evolution Catechism, O. F. Coox, 312 

Meteorology, The New Cosmical, F. H. BicEtow, 
30; Current Notes on, R. DEC. Warp, 115, 
236, 353, 395, 555, 740, 801 

Metric System, A. C. Lane, 389; W. Le C. Sts- 
VENS, 534; W. Kent, 767; A. G. WEBSTER, 860 

Michelson, A. A., Light Waves, C. EH. M., 380 

Michigan Academy of Science, R. PEARL, 787 

Miter, D. C., Physics at the Am. Assoc., 201 

Minimr, G. A., San Francisco Section of the Am. 
Math. Soe., 148, 855 

Mixts, W., Comparative Psychology, 745 

Minnesota, Seaside Station, 676; Acad. of Sci., 
H. GALE, 855 : 

Minor, C. §., Elizabeth Thompson Sci. Fund, 354 

Miron, F., Geology of Economic Minerals, G. F. 
K., 261 

Montana, Resources of, M. J. ELrop, 777 

Morgan, T. H., on Evolution and Adaptation, J. 
T. CunnInGHAM, 74; B. DEAN, 221 

Mosetry, E. L., Ohio State Acad. of Sci., 736 

Museums and Popular Culture, 610 

Mutation and Selection, M. M. Mrrcatr, 74 


Namatogean or Epigran, W. H. Darr, 926 

National Academy of Sciences, 698 

Natural and Unnatural History, W. H. Davis, 
667 

Nature Study, EH. C. Casg, 550 

Nebraska Academy of Sciences, R. H. Wo.cort, 
925 

NEEDHAM, J. G., College Entrance Requirements, 
650 

Newcome, H. T., The Labor Problem, 46 

Newcomser, F. C., Research Club, University of 
Michigan, 73, 791 

Newstead, R., Coccidae of the British Isles, T. D. 
A. CocKERELL, 501 

Nicuots, E. F., Convocation Week, 340 

Nicnots, HE. L., Convocation Week, 192 

Nitrogen, Atmospheric, J. F. CrowEL1, 197 

Nomenclature, of Fungi, F. S. Harur, 508; Er- 
rors in, B. G. WixpEr, 798 

Norris, H. W., Iowa Acad. Sci., 790 

Noyes on Physical Science, E. H. Loomis, 102 


O., H. F., Recent Zoopaleontology, 35, 270 

Observatory, U. S. Naval. 154 

Ohio, State Acad. of Sci., E. L. Mosetny, 736; 
Teachers of Mathematics, 796 

Onondaga Acad. of Sci., T. C. Hopxins, 262; J. E. 
IXirkwoop, 584, 619, 925 


“Ornithological Club, Michigan, A. W. Buaty, Jr., 


108 
Osporn, H. F., Karl Alfred von Zittel, 186 
Oscoop, W. H., Biological Society of Washington, 
546, 615, 700, 857 


NEW SERIES. 
VoL. XIX. 


Ostwald, Wilhelm, P. Walden, H. C. Jonzs, 821; 
Chemie, L. KAHLENBERG, 854 


-PALACHE, C., Mineralogy in the Int. Catalogue of 
Sei. Literature, 334 

Paleontological Notes, F. A. L., 436 

Palmer’s Index Generum Mammalium, J. A. A., 
498 

Parasite of Yellow Fever, H. W. RoBinson, 29 

Peart, R., Mich. Acad. of Science, 787 

Pelée Club, 556; Tower, A. Hnriprin, 800; Spine, 
G. IK. GinBerRT, 927 

Pepper, G. H., Anthropology at the Am. Assoc., 
449 

Perris, C. R., Albino Brook Trout, 867 

Philosophical Society, of Washington, C. K. WEAD, 
23, 225, 428, 546, 660, 735, 796, 922; Amer- 
ican, 541, 713 

Physical, Society, Am., E. Merritt, 330, 542; EH. 
B. Rosa, 888; Laboratory, National, 708 

Physics, at the Amer. Assoc., D. C. Miter, 201; 
Teaching of, H. Crew, 481; College, J. S. 
STEVENS, 832 

Physiology in the International Catalogue of Sci- 
entific Literature, F. §. Ler, 886 

Pinspry, H. A., Tertiary Fauna of Florida, W. H. 
Dall, 613 

Plant, Morphology and Physiology, Society for, 
W. F. Ganone, 413; Food, Water Soluble, H. 
SNYDER, 834 

Polyodon, I., G. WaGner, 554 

Psychologists, Experimental, Meeting of, 659 

Psychology, Comparative, W. Mitis, 745 


Quotations, 268, 512, 961 


Radium, the Scintillations of, R. W. Woop, 195 

Raphides of Calcium Oxalate, H. W. Wi try, 434 

Rehder, A., The Honeysuckles, N. L. Brirron, 145 

ReMsEN, I., Scientific Investigation and Progress, 1 

Research, Club, Univ. Mich., F. C. NEwcomse, 73, 
791; in State Universities, I. C. RUSSELL, 841 

Rhizoctonia, G. G. Hepecock, 268 

Rhoads, S. N., Mammals of Pa., and N. J., W. H. 
Osceoop, 576 

Rhythms of CO, Production during Cleavage, E. 
P. Lyon, 350 

Rice, W. N., Convocation Week, 548 

Rice, W. N., Christian Faith and Science, R. M. 
W., 949 

RicHARDS, J. W., Advance of Electro-chemistry, 
905: 

Ricwarps, T. W., Convocation Week, 263 

Rideal, S., Disinfection and Preservation of Food, 
H. W. Witey, 731 

Right and Left-eyedness, G. M. Gourp, 591 

Rosinson, H. W., Parasite of Yellow Fever, 29 

Rocks of the Watkins Glen Triangle, H. 8. W., 234 

Rosa, E. B., American Physical Society, 888; 
Bureau of Standards, 937 

Rubber-producing Plant, W. P. CockERELL, 314 

Russetz, I. C., Research in State Universities, 
841; Geology of Harriman Expedition, 783, 
862 

RUSSELL, J. E., Convocation Week, 311 

Rutherford, E., on Radium, 899. 


St. Louis Acad. of Sci, 504, 587, 660 

Seaurs on the River Rogue, M. 8. W. JEFFERSON, 
150 

Scarier, W. T., Tourmaline in S. Cal., 266 


SCIENCE. 


vil 
ScHoonHOVEN, J. J., James Hyatt, 635 
Schweinitz, EH. A. de, 356, 595 
Scimncr, Kditorial Committee of, 77; Club of 
Wellesley, Col., G. Lanerorp, 339; Fund, 


Elizabeth Thompson, C. 8. Minor, 354; The 
Study of, 476; Club of the University of 
Mississippi, ALFRED Humeg, 759; Nature and 
Criticism, Wm. J. Long, 760 

Sciences, National Academy of, 698 

Scientific, Investigation and Progress, I. REMSEN, 
1; Books, 22, 64, 102, 145, 188, 221, 298, 333, 
376, 425, 455, 498, 538, 575, 613, 656, 694, 
730, 757, 783, 821, 854, 885, 917, 949; Notes 
and News, 38, 77, 116, 156, 198, 238, 275, 316, 
357, 397, 437, 477, 516, 557, 597, 636, 677, 
711, 741, 772, 805, 836, 869, 900, 931, 966; 
Journals and Articles, 67, 103, 147, 190, 225, 
260, 308, 334, 381, 427, 457, 502, 541, 578, 
615, 659, 698, 732, 823, 855, 920, 968; So- 
cieties, Affiliated, Meeting at Philadelphia, 
100; Literature, Int. Catalogue, 66, 147, 334, 
860, 886; Positions in the Philippines, 770. 

ScorieLp, C. S., Botanical Soe. of Washington, 823 

Scorr, W. E. D., The Inheritance of Song, 154, 
957; Rearing Wild Finches, 551 

Seecretions, Odoriferous, A. F. Conrapti, 393 

Seeds, Climate and Soil, W. W. Tracy, JR., 738 

SEIDELL, A., Chemical Society of Washington, 25, 
306, 429, 583, 618, 758 

SERRELL, E. W., Flying Machine in the Army, 952 

Sex Determination in Bees and Ants, W. E. 
CASTLE, 389 

SHattuck, G. B. Section E of the Am. Assoc. 
and Geol. Soc. of America, 521 

SueEpp, J. C., The Word Barometer, 108 

Sheep, Multi-nipple, A. G. Beri, 767 

SHERMAN, H. C., N. Y. Section of the Am. Chem. 
Soe., 68, 227, 618, 698, 923 

Suiver, F. S., Clemson College Science Club, 268, 
382, 586, 660 

Skinner, E. B., Wisconsin Acad. of Sci., 191 

Sate, F., Energetics and Mechanics, 510 

Smiru, F., Am. Soc. of Zoologists, 221 

Smirn, H. M., Fish New to Florida Waters, 314 

Smiru, J. C., Animal Parasite of Yellow Fever, 
314 

Smithsonian Institution, 273, 514 

Smoke Prevention, C. H. BENJAMIN, 488 

Snyper, H., Water Soluble Plant Food, 834 

Social and Economic Science at the Am. Assoc., 

; J. F. CRow8.L, 281 

Societies and Academies, 23, 67, 104, 148, 191, 
225, 262, 304, 335, 381, 428, 541, 578, 615, 
659, 733, 758, 787, 823, 888, 921, 950 

Soil Work in the U. S., E. W. Hincarp, 233; 
¥F. K. Cameron, 343; C. G. HopKins, 626 

Solar Research, Expedition for, 964 

Sollas, W. J. and I. B. J., Paleospondylus, BASH- 
FORD DEAN, 425 ef 

Song, Inheritance of, W. E. D. Scorr, 154, 957 

Special Articles, 30, 110, 151, 196, 234, 266, 314, 
350, 392, 435, 468, 505, 551, 591, 629, 675, 
704, 738, 767. 798, 834, 862, 893, 927, 957 

Spencer, Herbert, Autobiography, L. F. Warp, 873 

Sprntman, W. J., Horticultural Varieties of Com- 
mon Crops, 34 

Sprrzka, HE. A., A Heavy Japanese Brain, 899 

Standards, Bureau of, E. B. Rosa, 937 

StemNreeER, L., Strictures on American Biologists, 
371 


Vill 


Srevens, J. 8., College Physics, 832 

Stevens, W. Le C., Convocation Week, 192; The 
Metric System, 534 

Srites, C. W., Convocation Week, 384 

Sumner, F. R., Woods Hole Laboratory of Bureau 
of Visheries, 241 


Taytor, R. S., Levees, Outlets and Reservoirs in 
the Mississippi Valley, 601 

Theobald, F. V., Economie Zoology, F. H. Curr- 
TENDEN, 65; F. M. Wesster, 757; Mosqui- 
toes, L. O. Howarp, 333 

Thorium, C. BASKERVILLE, 892 

Tides and Currents at Sea, R. A. Harris, 704 

Time, Sense of, R. MacDouGAatLL, 707 

Titles of Papers, H. H. Witpmr, 468; C. BASkER- 
VILLE, 702; F. A. B., 702 

Torrey Botanical Club, F. S. Eartr, 71, 309; M. A. 
Hows, 793; T. E. Hazen, 824 

Tourmaline in S. Cal., W. T. ScHALLER, 266 

Tracy, JR., W. W., Influence of Climate and Soil 
on Seeds, 738 

TRANSEAU, HE. N., Palisade Tissue and Resinous 
Deposits in Leaves, 866 

TRAPHAGEN, F. W., Death Gulch, 632 

Traquair, R. H., Lower Devonian Fishes, BAsH- 
FORD DEAN, 64 

TRELEASE, W., Degrees for Scientific Work, 809 

TrowsRincE, C. C., Astronomy, Physics and Chem- 
istry, N. Y. Acad. of Sci., 226, 582, 825 

Tuberculosis, Royal Commission on, 929 

Tuckermann, A., Literature of the Spectroscope, 
C. BE. M., 380 


Unprrwoop, L. M., Cryptogamic Botany of Harri- 
man Expedition, 917 

University and Educational News, 40, 80, 120, 160, 
200, 240, 280, 320, 360, 400, 440, 479, 519, 560, 
599, 640, 680, 712, 744, 775, 808, 840, 871, 904, 
936, 968 


Van Hise, C. R., Degrees for Scientific Work, 812 

VaucHan, T. W., Zoology in the International 
Catalogue of Sci. Literature, 860 

Vegetable Balls, W. F. Ganone, 591; J. ADAMS, 
926 

Verworn, M., Allgemeine Physiologie, F. S. Ler, 
189 

Vitalism and Mechanism in Biology and Medicine, 
S. J. Merrzmr, 18 


W., H.-S., Classification of the Rocks of the Wat- 
kins Glen Triangle, 234 

W., R. M.,. Christian Faith and Science, W. N. 
Rice, 949 

Waaner, G., Polyodon, T., 554 

Walden, P., Wilhelm Ostwald, H. C. Jonus, 821 

Watpo, C. A., Mathematics and Engineering, 321 


SCIENCE. 


CONTEND ANI 
INDEX. 


Warp, L. F., Positive Philosophy of Auguste 
Comte, L. Li&yy-BrunL, 376; Herbert Spen- 
cer’s Autobiography, 873 

Warp, R. DeC., Current Notes on Meteorology, 
115, 236, 353, 395, 555, 740, 801 

Water Supply of the Rio Grande, F. 8. DELLEN- 
BAUGH, 505 

Wrap, C. K., Philosophical*Society of Washington, 
23, 225, 428, 546, 660, 735, 796, 922; Cata- 
logue of Musical Instruments, 426 

Wepser, H. J., Botanical Society of Washington, 
71, 337 

Wesster, A. G., The Metric System, 860 

Wesster, F. M., Theobald on Economic Zoology, 
757 

Wesster, F. S., Biology, Acad. of Sci. and Art, 
Pittsburg, 191, 585, 827 

Werks, F. B., Geology in the Int. Catalogue of Sci. 
Literature, 66 i 

WELD, L. G., Mathematics and Astronomy at the 
Am. Assoe., 161 

WeysseE, A. W., Animal Behavior, 955 

WHEELER, A. S., Elisha Mitchell Scientifie Society, 
429, 587, 760 

WHEELER, W. M., Woodcock Surgery, 347; Castle 
and the Dzierzon Theory, 587 

Wiper, B. G., Errors in Nomenclature, 798 

WixtpER, H. H., On Titles for Papers, 468 

Winery, H. W., Convocation Week, 230; Raphides 
of Caleium Oxalate, 434; Disinfection and 
Preservation of Food, 8. Rideal, 731 

Wisconsin, University, Science Club, V. LeEnuER, 
149, 339, 620, 759, 832; Acad. of Sci., H. B. 
SKINNER, 191 

Wotcort, R. H., Nebraska Academy of Sciences, 
925 

Woop, R. W., The Scintillations of Radium, 195 

Woodcock Surgery, W. M. WHEELER, 347 : 

Woods Hole Laboratory of Bureau of Fisheries, 
F. R. Sumner, 241 

Woopwarp, C. M., Convocation Week, 312 


X., University of Cincinnati and its Presidency, 
661 


Yellow Fever, Animal Parasite of, H. W. RoBrn- 
son, 29; J. C. Smiru, 314 


Zine in Invertebrates, H. C. Brapiey, 196 

Zittel, Karl Alfred v., H. F. OsBorn, 186 

Zoologists, Am. Soc. of, FRANK SmiruH, 221 

Zoology, at the Am. Assoc., C. J. Herrick, 210; 
International Congress, 474; in the Int. Cata- 
logue of Sci. Literature, T. W. VAUGHAN, 860 

Zoopaleontology, Recent, H. F. O., 35, 270; C. R. 
EASTMAN, 396 

Zyeospore Formation, A. F. BLAKESLEE, 864 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Pripay, JANuArY 1, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advancement 
of Science :-— 


Scientific Investigation and Progress: 
PRESIDENT TRA REMSEN.................; 1 


The Twentieth Century Botany: Brverty T. 

GALLOWAY 
Vitalism and Mechanism in Biology and 

Medicine: Dr. 8. J. Meuzer.............: 18 
Scientific Books :— 

Davison’s Mammalian Anatomy: J.P. McM. 22 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Philosophical Society of Washington: 

CuHartes K. WEED. Geological Society of 

Washington: Aurrep H. Brooks. Chemical 

Society of Washington: A. SrrpELy. Biolog- 

ical Society of Washington: F. A. Lucas. 

Anthropological Society of Washington: 

DRA N VAUD TOUGH Sas aeecee acces fee 23 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

The Animal Parasite swpposed to be the 

Cause of Yellow Fever: Dr. H. W. Ropinson 29 
Shorter Articles :— 

The New Oosmical Meteorology: Dr. FRANK 

H. Bicrrow. Horticultural Varieties of 

Common Crops: Dr. W. J. SPILLMAN...... 30 
Recent Zoopaleontology :— 

Field Hapeditions during the Past Season: 

TELS TRY (Oa Fg gt cece tnalehaan Lede Mar RR alata be as 35 
Botanical Notes :-— : 

The Missouri Botanical Garden; An Hle- 

mentary Journal of Mycology; Some Recent 

Papers on Systematic Botany; Chemistry 


of Plant and Animal Life: Proressor 

Cwarmns) Bs Brssax iso 5-) 2000005. la), 36 
The Oarnegie Institution................... 387 
Scientific Notes and News.................. 38 
University and Hducational News.......... 40 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScieNncE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION AND 
PROGRESS.* 

Art the weekly services of many of our 
churches it is customary to begin with the 
reading of a verse or two from the Scrip- 
tures for the purpose, I suppose, of put- 
ting the congregations in the proper state 
of mind for the exercises which are to fol- 
low. It seems to me we may profit by this 
example, and accordingly I ask your atten- 
tion to Article I. of the Constitution of the 
American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, which reads thus: ‘ The 
objects of the association are, by periodical 
and migratory meetings, to promote inter- 
course between those who are cultivating 
science In different parts of America, to 
give stronger and more general impulse 
and more systematic direction to scientific 
research, and to procure for the labors of 
scientific men imereased facilities and a 
wider usefulness.’ 

The first object mentioned, you will ob- 
serve, is “ to promote intercourse between 
those who are cultivating science in dif- 
ferent parts of America’ ; the second is 
“to give a stronger and more general im- 
pulse and more systematic direction to sci- 
entific research ’ ; and the third is ‘ to pro- 
eure for the labors of scientific men in- 
ereased facilities and a wider usefulness.’ 
Those who are familiar with the history 
of the association are well aware that it has 
served its purposes admirably, and I am 
inclined to think that those who have been 

* Address of the retiring president of the Ameri- 


can Association for the Advancement of Science, 
St. Louis meeting, December 28, 1903. 


2 SCIENCE. 


in the habit of attending the meetings will 
agree that the object which appeals to 
them most strongly is the promotion of in- 
tercourse between those who are cultivat- 
ing science. Given this intercourse and 
the other objects will be reached as a neces- 
sary consequence, for the intercourse stim- 
ulates thought, and thought leads to work, 
and work leads to wider usefulness. 

While in 1848, when the association 
was organized and the constitution was 
adopted, there was a fair number of good 
scientific investigators in this country, it 
is certain that in the half century that has 
passed since then the number of investi- 
gators has inereased very largely, and nat- 
urally the amount of scientific work done 
at present is very much greater than it 
was at that time. So great has been the 
inerease in scientific activity during recent 
years that we are apt to think that by com- 
parison scientific research is a new acquisi- 
tion. In fact there appears to be an im- 
pression abroad that in the world at large 
scientific research is a relatively new thing, 
for which we of this generation and our 
immediate predecessors are largely respon- 
sible. Only a superficial knowledge of the 
history of science is necessary, however, to 
show that the sciences have been developed 
slowly, and that their beginnings are to be 
looked for im the very earliest times. 
Everything seems to point to the conclu- 
sion that men have always been engaged in 
efforts to learn more and more in regard to 
the world in which they find themselves. 
Sometimes they have been guided by one 
motive and sometimes by another, but the 
one great underlying motive has been the 
desire to get a clearer and clearer under- 
standing of the universe. But besides this 
there has been the desire to find means of 
imereasine the comfort and happiness of 
the human race. 

A reference to the history of chemistry 
will serve to show how these motives have 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


operated side by side. One of the first 
ereat incentives for working with chemical 
things was the thought that it was possible 
to convert base metals like lead and copper 
into the so-called noble metals, silver and 
gold. Probably no idea has ever oper- 
ated as strongly as this upon the minds of 
men to lead them to undertake chemical 
experiments. It held control of intellectual 
men for centuries and it was not until 
about a hundred years ago that it lost its 
hold. It is very doubtful if the purely 
scientific question whether one form of 
matter can be transformed into another 
would have had the power to control the 
activities of investigators for so long a 
time; and it is idle to speculate upon this 
subject. It should, however, be borne in 
mind that many of those who were engaged 
in this work were actuated by a desire to 
put money in their purses—a desire that 
is by no means to be condemned without 
reserve, and I mention it not for the pur- 
pose of condemning it, but to show that a 
motive that we sometimes think of as pecu- 
liarly modern is among the oldest known 
to man. 

When the alchemists were at work upon 
their problems, another class of chemists 
were engaged upon problems of an entirely 
different nature. The fact that substances 
obtained from various natural sources and 
others made in the laboratory produce 
effects of various kinds when taken into 
the system led to the thought that these 
substances might be useful in the treat- 
ment of disease. Then, further, it was 
thought that disease itself is a chemical 
phenomenon. These thoughts, as is evi- 
dent, furnish strong motives for the inves- 
tigation of chemical substances, and the 
science of chemistry owes much to the 
work of those who were guided by these 
motives. 

And so in each period as a new thought 
has served as the guide we find that men 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


have been actuated by different motives, 
and often one and the same worker has 
been under the influence of mixed motives. 
Only in a few cases does it appear that the 
highest motives alone operate. We must 
take men as we find them, and we may be 
thankful that on the whole there are so 
many who are impelled by one motive or 
another or by a mixture of motives to take 
up the work of investigating the world in 
which we live. Great progress is being 
made in consequence and almost daily we 
are called upon to wonder at some new and 
marvelous result of scientific investiga- 
tion. It is quite impossible to make pre- 
dictions of value in regard to what is likely 
to be revealed to us by continued work, but 


it is safe to believe that in our efforts to_ 
discover the secrets of the universe only a 


beginning has been made. No matter in 
what direction we may look we are aware 
of great unexplored territories, and even 
in those regions in which the greatest ad- 
vances have been made it is evident that 
the knowledge gained is almost imsignifi- 
cant as compared with that which remains 
to be learned. But this line of thought 
may lead to a condition bordering on hope- 
lessness and despondeney, and surely we 
should avoid this condition, for there is 
much greater cause for rejoicing than for 
despair. Our successors will see more and 
see more clearly than we do, just as we see 
more and see more clearly than our prede- 
eessors. It is our duty to keep the work 
going without being too anxious to weigh 
the results on an absolute scale. It must 
be remembered that the absolute scale is 
not a very sensitive instrument, and that 
it requires the results of generations to 
affect it markedly. 

On an occasion of this kind it seems fair 
to ask the question: What does the world 
gain by scientific investigation? This ques- 
tion has often been asked and often an- 
swered, but each answer differs in some re- 


SCIENCE. 3 


spects from the others and each may be 
suggestive and worth giving. The ques- 
tion is a profound one, and no answer that 
can be given would be satisfactory. In 
general it may be said that the results of 
scientific investigation fall under three 
heads—the material, the intellectual and 
the ethical. 

The material results are the most ob- 
vious and they naturally receive the most 
attention. The material wants of man are 
the first to receive consideration. They 
can not be neglected. He must have food 
and clothing, the means of combating dis- 
ease, the means of transportation, the 
means of producing heat and a great va- 
riety of things that contribute to his bodily 
comfort and gratify his esthetic desires. 
It is not my purpose to attempt to deal 
with all of these and to show how science 
is helping to work out the problems sug- 
gested. I shall have to content myself by 
pointing out a few of the more important 
problems the solution of which depends 
upon the prosecution of scientific research. 

First, the food problem. Whatever 
views one may hold in regard to that which 
has come to be called “ race suicide,’ it is 
certain that the population of the world is 
increasing rapidly. The desirable places 
have been occupied. In some parts of the 
earth there is such a surplus of population 
that famines occur from time to time, and 
in other parts epidemics and floods relieve 
the. embarrassment. We may fairly look 
forward to the time when the whole earth 
will be overpopulated unless the produc- 
tion of food becomes more scientific than 
it now is. Here is the field for the work 
of the agricultural chemist who is showing 
us how to inerease the yield from a given 
area and, in case of poor and worn-out” 
soils, how to preserve and increase their 
fertility. It appears that the methods of 
cultivating the soil are still comparatively 
erude, and more and more thorough inves- 


t SCIENCE. 


tigation of the processes involved in the 
growth of plants is called for. Much has 


been learned since Liebig founded the ~ 


science of agricultural chemistry. It was 
he who pointed out some of the ways by 
which it is possible to increase the fertility 
of a soil. Since the results of his investi- 
gations were given to the world the use of 
artificial fertilizers has become more and 
more general. 

But it is one thing to know that artificial 
fertilizers are useful and it is quite another 
thing to get them. At first bone dust and 
euano were chiefly used. Then as these 
became dearer, phosphates and potassium 
salts from the mineral kingdom came into 
use. 

At the Fifth International Congress for 
Applied Chemistry, held at Berlin, Ger- 
many, last June, Dr. Adolph Frank, of 
Charlottenburg, gave an extremely inter- 
estine address on the subject of the use 
of the nitrogen of the atmosphere for agri- 
culture and the industries, which bears 
upon the problem that we are dealing with. 
Plants must have nitrogen. At present 
this is obtained from the great beds of salt- 
peter found on the west coast of South 
America—the so-called Chili saltpeter— 
and also from the ammonia obtained as a 
by-product in the distillation of coal, espe- 
cially in the manufacture of coke. The 
use of Chili saltpeter for agricultural pur- 
poses began about 1860. In 1900 the quan- 
tity exported was 1,453,000 tons, and its 
value was about $60,000,000. In the same 
year the world’s production of ammonium 
sulphate was about 500,000 tons, of a value 
of somewhat more than $20,000,000. Of 
these enormous quantities about three 
quarters finds application in agriculture. 
The use of these substances, especially of 
saltpeter, is increasing rapidly. At pres- 
ent it seems that the successful cultivation 
of the soil is dependent upon the use of 
nitrates, and the supply of nitrates is lim- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 470. 


ited. Unless something is done we may 
look forward to the time when the earth, 
for lack of proper fertilizers, will not be 
able to produce as much as it now does, 
and meanwhile the demand for food is in- 
ereasing. According to the most reliable 
estimations indeed the saltpeter beds will 
be exhausted im thirty or forty years. Is 
there a way out? Dr. Frank shows that 
there is. Im the air there is nitrogen 
enough for all. The plants can make only 
a limited use of this directly. For the 
most part it must be in some form of chem- 
ical combination as, for example, a nitrate 
or ammonia. The conversion of atmos- 
pheriec nitrogen into nitric acid would solve 
the problem, and this is now carried out. 
But Dr. Frank shows that there is another, 
perhaps more economical, way of getting 
the nitrogen into a form suitable for plant 
food. Calcium carbide can now be made 
without difficulty and is made in enormous 
quantities by the action of a powerful elec- 
trie current upon a mixture of coal and 
lime. This substance has the power of 
absorbing nitrogen from the air, and the 
product thus formed appears to be capable 
of giving up its nitrogen to plants, or, in 
other words, to be a good fertilizer. It is 
true that this subject requires further in- 
vestigation, but the results thus far ob- 
tained are full of promise. If the outcome 
should be what we have reason to hope, we 
may regard the approaching exhaustion of 
the saltpeter beds with equanimity. But, 
even without this to pin our faith to, we 
have the preparation of nitric acid from 
the nitrogen and oxygen of the air to fall 
back upon. 

While speaking of the food problem, a 
few words in regard to the artificial prep- 
aration of foodstuffs. JI am sorry to say 
that there is not much of promise to report 
upon in this connection. In spite of the 
brilliant achievements of chemists in the 
field of synthesis it remains true that thus 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


far they have not been able to make, ex- 
cept in very small quantities, substances 
that are useful as foods, and there is abso- 
lutely no prospect of this result being 
reached within a reasonable time. A few 
years ago Berthelot told us of a dream he 
had had. This has to do with the results 
that, according to Berthelot, are to be 
brought about by the advance of chem- 
istry. The results of investigations already 
accomplished indicate that, in the future, 
methods will perhaps be devised for the ar- 
tificial preparation of food from the water 
and carbonic acid so abundantly supplied 
by nature. Agriculture will then become 
unnecessary, and the landscape will not 
be disfigured by crops growing in geomet- 
rical figures. Water will be obtained from 
holes three or four miles deep in the earth, 
and this water will be above the boiling 
temperature, so that it can be used as a 
source of energy. It will be obtained in 
liquid form after it has undergone a 
process of natural distillation, which will 
free it from all impurities, including, of 
course, disease germs. The foods prepared 
by artificial methods will also be free from 
microbes, and there will consequently be 
less disease than at present. Further, the 
necessity for killing animals for food will 
no longer exist, and mankind will become 
gentler and more amenable to higher in- 
fiuences. There is, no doubt, much that 
is fascinating in this line of thought, but 
whether it is worth following, depends 
upon the fundamental assumption. Is it 
at all probable that chemists will ever be 
able to devise methods for the artificial 
preparation of foodstuffs? I can only say 
that to me it does not appear probable in 
the light of the results thus far obtained. 
I do not mean to question the probability 
of the ultimate synthesis of some of those 
substances that are of value as foods. This 
has already been accomplished on the small 
seale, but for the most part the synthetical 


SCIENCE. 5 


processes employed have involved the use 
of substances which themselves are the 
products of natural processes. Thus, the 
fats can be made, but the substances from 
which they are made are generally ob- 
tained from nature and are not themselves 
synthetical products. Emil Fischer has, 
to be sure, made very small quantities of 
sugars of different kinds, but the task of 
building up a sugar from the raw material 
furnished by nature—that is to say, from 
carbonic acid and water—presents such 
difficulties that it may be said to be prac- 
tically impossible. 

When it comes to starch, and the pro- 
teids which are the other chief constit- 
uents of foodstuffs, the difficulties are still 
ereater. There is not a suggestion of the 
possibility of making starch artificially, 
and the same is true of the proteids. In 
this connection it is, however, interesting 
to note that Emil Fischer, after his re- 
markable successes in the sugar group and 
the urie acid group, is now advancing upon 
the proteids. I have heard it said that at 
the beginning of his career he made out a 
program for his life work. This included 
the solution of three great problems. 
These are the determination of the consti- 
tution of uric acid, of the sugars and of 
the proteids. Two of these problems have 
been solved. May he be equally successful 
with the third! Even if he should be able 
to make a proteid, and show what it is, the 
problem of the artificial preparation of 
foodstuffs will not be solved. Indeed, it 
will hardly be affected. 

Although science is not likely, within 
periods that we may venture to think of, 
to do away with the necessity of cultivat- 
ing the soil, it is likely to teach us how to 
get more out of the soil than we now do, 
and thus put us in a position to provide 
for the generations that are to follow us. 
And this carries with it the thought that, 
unless scientific investigation is kept up, 


6 SCIENCE. 


these coming generations will be unpro- 
wided for. 

Another way by which the food supply 
of the world can be increased is by re- 
lieving tracts of land that are now used 
for other purposes than the cultivation of 
foodstuffs. The most interesting example 
.of this kind is that presented by the culti- 
vation of indigo. There is a large demand 
for this substance, which is plainly 
founded upon esthetic desires of a some- 
what rudimentary kind. Whatever the 
cause may be, the demand exists, and im- 
mense tracts of land have been and are 
stiJl, devoted to the cultivation of the in- 
digo plant. Within the past few years sci- 
entifie investigation has shown that indigo 
can be made in the factory from sub- 
stances, the production of which does not 
for the most part involve the cultivation 
of the soil. In 1900, according to the re- 
port of Dr. Brunck, Managing Director of 
the Badische Anilin- and Soda-Fabrik, the 
quantity of indigo produced annually in 
the factory ‘ would require the cultivation 
of an area of more than a quarter of a 
million acres of land (390 square miles) in 
the home of the indigo plant.’ Dr. Brunck 
adds: ‘‘ The first impression which this 
fact may be likely to produce, is that the 
manufacture of indigo will cause a terrible 
calamity to arise in that country; but, per- 
haps not. If one recalls to mind that 
India is periodically afflicted with famine, 
one ought not, without further considera- 
tion, to cast aside the hope that it might 
be good fortune for that country if the 
immense areas now devoted to a crop 
which is subject to many vicissitudes and 
to violent market changes were at last to 
be given over to the raising of breadstuffs 
and other food products.’’ “* For myself,’’ 
says Dr. Brunck, ‘‘ I do not assume to be 
an impartial adviser in this matter, but, 
nevertheless, I venture to express my con- 
viction that the government of India will 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 470- 


be rendering a very great service if it 
should support and aid the progress, which 
will in any ease be irresistible, of this 1m- 
pending change in the cultivation of that 
country, and would support and direct its 
methodical and rational execution.’’ 

The connection between scientific investi- 
gation and health is so frequently the sub- 
ject of discussion that I need not dwell 
upon it here. The discovery that many dis- 
eases are due primarily to the action of 
microscopic organisms that find their way 
into the body and produce the changes that 
reveal themselves in definite symptoms is a 
direct consequence of the study of the 
phenomenon of alcoholic fermentation by 
Pasteur. Hverything that throws light 
upon the nature of the action of these 
microscopic organisms is of value in dealing 
with the great problem of combating dis- 
ease. It has been established in a number 
of cases that they cause the formation of 
products that act as poisons and that the 
diseases are due to the action of these 
poisons. So also, as is well known, investi- 
gation has shown that antidotes to some of 
these poisons can be produced, and that by 
means of these antidotes the diseases can be 
controlled. But more important than this 
is the discovery of the way in which dis- 
eases are transmitted. With this knowl- 
edge it is possible to prevent the diseases. 
The great fact that the death rate is de- 
creasing stands out prominently and pro- 
claims to humanity the importance of scien- 
tifie investigation. It is, however, to be 
noted in this connection that the decrease 
in the death rate compensates to some ex- 
tent for the decrease in the birth rate, and 
that, if an increase in population is a thing 
to be desired, the investigations in the field 
of sanitary science are contributing to this 
result. 

The development of the human race is 
dependent not alone upon a supply of food 
but upon a supply of energy in available 


. JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


forms. Heat and mechanical energy are 
absolutely essential to man. The chief 
source of the energy that comes into play is 
fuel. We are primarily dependent upon 
the coal supply for the continuation of the 
activities of man. Without this, unless 
something is to take its place, man is 
doomed. Statistics in regard to the coal 
supply and the rate at which it is being 
used up have so frequently been presented 
by those who have special knowledge of this 
subject that I need not trouble you with 
them now. The only object in referring to 
it is to show that, unless by means of scien- 
tifie investigation man is taught new 
methods of rendering the world’s store of 
energy available for the production of heat 
and of motion, the age of the human race is 
measured by the extent of the supply of 
coal and other forms of fuel. By other 
forms of fuel I mean, of course, wood 
and oil. Plainly, as the demand for land 
for the production of foodstuffs increases, 
the amount available for the production of 
wood must decrease, so that wood need not 
be taken into account for the future. In 
regard to oil, our knowledge is not sufficient 
to enable us to make predictions of any 
value. If one of the theories now held in 
regard to the source of petroleum should 
prove to be correct, the world would find 
much consolation in it. According to this 
theory petroleum is not likely to be ex- 
hausted, for it is constantly being formed 
by the action of water upon carbides that 
in all probability exist in practically un- 
limited quantity in the interior of the earth. 
If this be true, then the problem of supply- 
ing energy may be reduced to one of trans- 
portation of oil. But given a supply of 
oil and, of course, the problem of trans- 
portation is solved. 

What are the other practical sources of 
energy? The most important is the fall of 
water. This is being utilized more and 
more year by year since the methods of pro- 


SCIENCE. , 7 


ducing electric currents by means of the 
dynamo have been worked out. There is 
plainly much to be learned before the 
energy made available in the immediate 
neighborhood of the waterfall can be trans- 
ported long distances economically, but ad- 
vances are being made in this line, and al- 
ready factories that have hitherto been 
dependent upon coal are making use of the 
energy derived from waterfalls. The more 
rapidly these advances take place the less 
will be the demand for coal, and if there 
were only enough waterfalls conveniently 
situated, there would be no difficulty in 
furnishing all the energy needed by man 
for heat or for motion. 

It is a fortunate thing that, as the popu- 
lation of the earth increases, man’s tastes 
become more complex. If only the simplest 
tastes prevailed, only the simplest occupa- 
tions would be ealled for. But let us not 
lose time in idle speculations as to the way 
this primitive condition of things would 
affect man’s progress. As a matter of fact 
his tastes are becoming more complex. 
Things that are not dreamed of in one gen- 
eration become the necessities of the next 
generation. Many of these things are the 
direct results of scientific investigation. No 
end of examples will suggest themselves. 
Let me content myself by reference to one 
that has of late been the subject of much 
discussion. The development of the arti- 
ficial dye-stuff industries is extremely in- 
structive in many ways. The development 
has been the direct result of the scientific 
investigation of things that seemed to have 
little, if anything, to do with this world. 
Many thousands of workmen are now em- 
ployed, and many millions of dollars are 
invested, in the manufacture of dye-stuffs 
that were unknown a few years ago. Here 
plainly the fundamental fact is the esthetic 
desire of man for colors. A colorless world 
would be unbearable to him. Nature 
accustoms him to color in a great variety of 


8 SCIENCE. 


combinations, and it becomes a necessity to 
him. And his desires increase as they are 
eratified. There seems to be no end to de- 
velopment in this line. At all events, the 
data at our disposal justify the conclusion 
that there will be a demand for every dye 
that combines the qualities of beauty and 
durability. Thousands of scientifically 
trained men are engaged in work in the 
effort to discover new dyes to meet the in- 
creasing demands. New industries are 
springing up and many find employment in 
them. As a rule the increased demand for 
labor caused by the establishment of these 
industries is not offset by the closing up of 
other industries. Certainly it is true that 
scientific imvestigation has created large 
demands for labor that could hardly find 
employment without these demands. 

The welfare of a nation depends to a 
large extent upon the success of its indus- 
tries. In his address as president of the 
British Association for the Advancement of 
Science given last summer Sir Norman 
Lockyer quotes Mr. Chamberlain thus: “‘I 
do not think it is necessary for me to say 
anything as to the urgency and necessity of 
scientific training. * * * It is not too much 
to saly that the existence of this country, as 
the great commercial nation, depends upon 
it. * * * It depends very much upon what 
we are doing now, at the beginning of the 
twentieth century, whether at its end we 
shall continue to maintain our supremacy 
or even equality with our great commercial 
and manufacturing rivals.’’ In another 
part of his address Sir Norman Lockyer 
says: “‘Further, I am told that the sum of 
£24,000,000 is less than half the amount by 
which Germany is yearly enriched by hav- 
ing improved upon our chemical industries, 
owing to our lack of scientific training. 
Many other industries have been attacked 
in the same way since, but taking this one 
instance alone, if we had spent this money 
fifty years ago, when the Prince Consort 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


first called attention to our backwardness, 
the nation would now be much richer than 
it is, and would have much less to fear from 
competition. ’’ 

But enough on the purely material side. 
Let us turn to the intellectual results of 
scientific investigation. This part of our 
subject might be summed up in a few 
words. Itis so obvious that the intellectual 
condition of mankind is a direct result of 
scientific investigation that one hesitates to 
make the statement. The mind of man can 
not carry him’ much in advance of his 
knowledge of the facts. Intellectual gains 
can be made only by discoveries, and dis- 
coveries can be made only by investigation. 
One generation differs from another in the 
way it looks at the world. A generation 
that thinks the earth is the center of the 
universe differs intellectually from one that 
has learned the true position of the earth in 
the solar system, and the general relations 
of the solar system to other similar systems 
that make up the universe. A generation 
that sees in every species of animal and 
plant evidence of a special creative act 
differs from one that has recognized the 
general truth of the conception of evolution. 
And so in every department of knowledge 
the great generalizations that have been 
reached through the persistent efforts of 
scientific investigators are the intellectual 
gains that have resulted. These great gen- 
eralizations measure the intellectual wealth 
of mankind. They are the foundations of 
all profitable thought. While the general- 
izations of science belong to the world, not 
all the world takes advantage of its oppor- 
tunities. Nation differs from nation in- 
tellectually as individual differs from in- 
dividual. It is not, however, the possession 
of knowledge that makes the efficient in- 
dividual and the efficient nation. It is well 
known that an individual may be very 
learned and at the same time very ineffi- 
cient. The question is, what use does he 


January 1, 1904.] 


make of his knowledge? When we speak of 
intellectual results of scientific investiga- 
tion, we mean not only accumulated knowl- 
edge, but the way in which this knowledge 
is invested. A man who simply accumu- 
lates money and does not see to it that this 
money is carefully invested, is a miser, and 
no large results can come from his efforts. 
While, then, the intellectual state of a 
nation is measured partly by the extent to 
which it has taken possession of the general- 
izations that belong to the world, it is also 
measured by the extent to which the 
methods by which knowledge is accumu- 
lated have been brought into requisition and 
have become a part of the equipment of the 
people of that nation. The intellectual 
progress of a nation depends upon the adop- 
tion of scientific methods in dealing with in- 
tellectual problems. The scientific method 
is applicable to all kinds of intellectual 
problems. We need it in every department 
of activity. I have sometimes wondered 
what the result would be if the scientific 
method could be employed im all the mani- 
fold problems connected with the man- 
agement of a government. Questions of 
tariff, of fimance, of international re- 
lations would be dealt with much more 
satisfactorily than at present if the spirit 
of the scientific method were breathed 
into those who are called upon to deal 
with these questions. It is plain, I think, 
that the higher the intellectual state 
of a nation the better will it deal with all 
the problems that present themselves. As 
the intellectual state is a direct result of 
scientific investigation, it is clear that the 
nation that adopts the scientific method will 
im the end outrank both intellectually and 
industrially the nation that does not. 
What are the ethical results of scientific 
investigation? No one can tell. There is 
one thought that in this connection I should 
like to impress upon you. The funda- 
mental characteristic of the scientific 


SCIENCE. ) 


method is honesty. In dealing with any 
question science asks no favors. The sole 
object is to learn the truth, and to be guided 
by the truth. Absolute accuracy, absolute 
fidelity, absolute honesty are the prime con- 
ditions of scientific progress. I believe that 
the constant use of the scientific method 
must in the end leave its impress upon him 
who uses it. The results will not be satis- 
factory in all cases, but the tendeney will 
be in the right direction. A life spent in 
accordance with scientific teachings would 
be of a high order. It would practically 
conform to the teachings of the highest 
types of religion. The motives would be 
different, but so far as conduct is concerned 
the results would be practically identical. 
I need not enlarge upon this subject. Un- 
fortunately, abstract truth and knowledge 
of facts and of the conclusions to be drawn 
from them do not at present furnish a suffi- 
cient basis for right living in the case of the 
ereat majority of mankind, and science can 
not now, and I do not believe it ever can, 
take the place of religion in some form. 
When the feeling that the two are antagon- 
istic wears away, as it is wearing away, it 
will no doubt be seen that one supplements 
the other, in so far as they have to do with 
the conduct of man. 

What are we doing m this country to en- 
courage scientific investigation? Not until 
about a quarter of a century ago can it be 
said that it met with any encouragement. 
Since then there has been a great change. 
Up to that time research was sporadic. 
Soon after it became almost epidemic. The 
direct cause of the change was the estab- 
lishing of courses in our universities for 
the training of investigators somewhat 
upon the lines followed in the German uni- 
versities. In these courses the carrying 
out of an investigation plays an important 
part. This is, in fact, the culmination of 
the course. At first there were not many 
following these courses, but 1t was not long 


10 SCIENCE. 


before there was a demand for the prod- 
ucts. Those who could present evidence 
that they had followed such courses were 
generally given the preference. This was 
especially true in the case of appointments 
in the colleges, some colleges even going so 
‘far as to decline to appoint any one who 
had not taken the degree of doctor of phi- 
losophy, which is the badge of the course 
that involves investigation. As the demand 
for those who had received this training 
increased, the number of those seeking it 
inereased at least in the same proportion. 
New universities were established and old 
ones caught the spirit of the new move- 
ment until from one end of the country to 
the other centers of scientific activity are 
now found, and the amount of research 
work that is done is enormous compared 
with what was done twenty-five or thirty 
years ago. Many of those who get a taste 
of the work of investigation become fasci- 
nated by it and are anxious to devote their 
lives to it. At present, with the facilities 
for such work available, it seems probable 
that most of those who have a strong de- 
sire and the necessary industry and ability 
to follow it find their opportunity some: 
where. There is little danger of our losing 
a genius or even one with fair talent. The 
world is on the lookout for them. The 
demand for those who can do good research 
work is greater than the supply. To be 
sure the rewards are not as a rule as great 
as those that are likely to be won by the 
ablest members of some other professions 
and occupations, and as long as this con- 
dition of affairs continues to exist there 
will not be as many men of the highest in- 
tellectual order engaged in this work as we 
should like to see. On the other hand, 
when we consider the great progress that 
has been made during the last twenty-five 
years or so, we have every reason to take a 
cheerful view of the future. If as much 
progress should be made in the next quar- 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 470. 


ter century, we shall, to say the least, be 
able to compete with the foremost nations 
of the world in scientific investigation. In 
my opinion this progress is largely depen- 
dent upon the development of our univer- 
sities. Without the opportunities for train- 
ing in the methods of scientific investiga- 
tion there will be but few investigators. It 
is necessary to have a large number in 
order that the principle of selection may 
operate. In this line of work as in others, 
many are called, but few are chosen. 
Another fact that is working advyan- 
tageously to increase the amount of scien- 
tifie research done in this country is the 
support giyen by the government in its 
different scientific bureaus. The Geolog- 
ical Survey, the Department of Agricul- 
ture, the Coast and Geodetic Survey, the 
National Bureau of Standards and other 
departments are carrying on a large 
amount of excellent scientific work, and — 
thus helping most efficiently to spread the 
scientific spirit throughout the land. 
Finally, two exceedingly interesting ex- 
periments in the way of encouraging sci- 
entific investigation are now attracting the 
attention of the world. I mean, of course, 
the Carnegie Institution, with its endow- 
ment of $10,000,000, and the Rockefeller 
Institute, devoted to investigations in the 
field of medicine, which will no doubt be 
adequately endowed. It is too early to 
express an opinion in regard to the in- 
fluence of these great foundations upon the 
progress of scientific investigation. As 
both will make possible the carrying out 
of many investigations that would other- 
wise probably not be carried out, the 
chances of achieving valuable results will 
be increased. The danger is that those 
who are responsible for the management 
of the funds will be disappointed that the 
results are not at once of a striking char- 
acter, and that they will be tempted to 
change the method of applying the money 


JANUARY 1, 1904.) 


before those who are using it have had a 
fair chance. But we who are on the out- 
side know little of the plans of those who 
are inside. All signs indicate that they are 
making an earnest effort to solve an ex- 
eeedingly difficult problem, and all who 
have the opportunity should do everything 
in their power to aid them. 

In the changes which have been brought 
about in the condition of science in this 
country since 1848, it is safe to say that 
this association has either directly or indi- 
rectly played a leading part. It is certain 
that for the labors of scientific men in- 
ereased facilities and a wider usefulness 
have been procured. 

TrA REMSEN. 


THE TWENTIETH CENTURY BOTANY.* 

AT previous meetings of this and kindred 
societies the retrospective field in botany 
has been pretty thoroughly covered. It 
would seem a fitting time, therefore, to take 
a glance into the future and endeavor, to 
see what there is for botany and botanical 
science in the years immediately before us. 
It is realized that an endeavor to set forth 
the lines along which botany will develop 
is a risky thing, and no doubt fifty years 
hence the views I may express at this time 
will cause only a smile in the light of actual 
developments. Notwithstanding this fact, 
I am willing to essay somewhat the role of 
a prophet, not so much with the idea that 
I expect all of my prophecies to be realized, 
but rather in recognition of a principle 
that to wish a thing or to desire a thing is 
at least a point gained in the full realiza- 
tion of the wish or desire. What I have 
to say, therefore, will be rather in the na- 
ture of an expression as to what I desire to 
see brought about in a field of work which 
to me seems fast opening to great, possibili- 
ties. If an expression of these desires and 


* Address of the past-president, Botanical So- 
ciety of America, St. Louis meeting, 1903. 


SCIENCE. | inl 


the vitalizing of the thoughts which inspire 
them by placing them before you serve but 
to put in motion some of the forces which 
will act for the betterment of botany, my 


- object shall have been fulfilled. 


Before taking up specifically the more 
important lines alone which botany seems 
likely to develop, and before considering 
some of the demands which may be made 
upon botany in the twentieth century, I 
should like briefly to call attention to what 
may be termed the present attitude of the 
state toward the work, for about this ques- 
tion hinge some points which are of vital 
importance to the future expansion and 
growth of botany as a whole. By the atti- 
tude of the state I of course mean the atti- 
tude of the people, for, in this country at 
least, the state is the people. It requires 
no argument to prove that the attitude of 
the state toward botany is rapidly chang- 
ing. Even those of the younger generation 
realize that within their time the feeling 
of the people toward botany as a science 
and botany applied has changed greatly for 
the good of the work. TI believe this is due 
to the fact that the utilitarian side of bot- 
any has been kept largely in the fore- 
ground, and the people have come to know 
and understand that a substantial encour- 
agement of the work means a direct benefit 
to many important interests. When bot- 
any and botanical work were confined 
largely to the collecting and mounting of 
plants, the building up of herbariums and, 
perhaps, the working out of obscure labora- 
tory problems, public sentiment could not 
be aroused in its behalf. Every time we 
have reached into new fields with the ob- 
ject of broadening the work and benefiting 
the people, the people have responded and 
given us most generous aid. 

As an object lesson in this field I may 
eall attention to the rapid growth of botany 
and botanical work in the Department of 
Agriculture at Washington. Fifteen years 


12 SCIENCE. 


ago the total amount expended for work of 
this kind did not reach $25,000 annually. 
The present year the honorable secretary’s 
estimates for the work will aggregate about 
$400,000; and if the allied lines of investi- 
gation in which botany and botanical sci- 
ence play an important part are considered, 
the funds devoted to the work will exceed 
half a million dollars. This amount, it 
must be borne in mind, is an annual ex- 
penditure and practically represents an 
endowment on a three-per-cent. basis of 
over fifteen million dollars. This is for 
investigations and experiments alone, as 
purely educational subjects are considered 
only in an indirect way. That the people, 
or the state, are not averse to responding to 
the needs of botany from the educational 
point of view is manifested in the remark- 
able development of the work in a number 
of our important universities and in the 
erowth of educational institutions, a type 
of which is found in the New York Botan- 
ical Garden. Here, through the energy of 
a corps of earnest workers, the educational 
value of botany has been recognized and 
generous support has been secured for the 
development of gardens, museums and 
laboratories. These results, however, I im- 
agine, would not have been attained with- 
out appealing to the utilitarian ends in 
view. The practical value of such an in- 
stitution to the community and to the coun- 
try has been presented in the proper. way, 
and the necessary support was forthcoming. 
The argument, therefore, in all this is 
that for the future development of botany 
and botanical work we must make up our 
minds to two important things; first, the 
presentation of our wants to those upon 
whom we must depend for support, in such 
a way that the ultimate practical value of 
what we desire to do will be seen; second, 
the thorough discharge of our duties to the 
end of showing that the trust imposed on 
us has been fully and honestly respected. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 470. 


I may be preaching an heretical doctrine 
and be criticized on the ground that science 
has nothing to do with such material things 
and will take care of itself if kept pure and 
undefiled. This may be true, but I have 
long since reached the opinion that the doe- 
trine of science for science’s sake may be 
beautiful in theory, but faulty im practice. 
Some one has said that pure science and 
science applied are like abstract and prac- 
tical Christianity, both beautiful, but one 
is for gods and the other for men. 

It is men that we are to deal with in the 
future—keen, practical, analytical men, 
and they want and should know the why 
and the wherefore of what they are asked 
to support. It is recognized that there are 
but few men who have the gift of present- 
ing what is frequently an abstruse problem 
in such a way as to gain material support. 
There ought to be more such men, and as 
the needs of the work develop, doubtless 
there will be more. From the tendency of 
the times the fact becomes evident that 
more and more the pursuit of science must 
be looked upon in a business-like way. 
Therefore, future aid for this work, be it 
in botanical or other lines, must come by 
eoine after it im the proper manner. In 
other words, the scientific man can not 
afford to wrap about himself a mantle of 
false dignity and assume that because his 
work is scientific he is debarred from seek- 
ing aid where aid is needed. What we 
shall expect to see, therefore, in the future 
is a manifestation of that spirit of progress 
which recognizes that science must seek its 
own interests and not wait to be sought. 

Science, and I mean, of course, in the 
main, botanical science, can not and will 
not suffer by this attitude. I do not mean 
that the spirit of commercialism, of barter 
and trade, will enter into the matter. This 
is an extreme which will be avoided, as well 
as that other which comes with it, the idea 
that the responsible head of scientifie work 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


must stand on a pinnacle and say, ‘I am a 
scientist; this is enough; walk up and lay 
at my feet your tributes in order that you 
may receive my beneficent smiles.’ I am 
not overdrawing this picture, for this very 
day there are institutions founded and con- 
ducted for the advancement of science 
where this attitude is maintained. ‘The re- 
sult is that men with the love of their work 
at heart who are forced to work under these 
conditions find themselves handicapped on 
every side by a sort of immaculateness, 
perhaps beautiful in theory, but of no prac- 
tical value in the every-day affairs of life. 
Under this system work is carried to a cer- 
tain point, and then, when a little effort 
would make it complete, the dignity—and 
I use this word with a question mark—of 
science looms up, and the needed support 
must give way to that. Fortunately, bot- 
any has not suffered so much from this atti- 
tude as some of the kindred sciences, but 
her cause has been delayed by it in certain 
eases and is being delayed even to-day. 

I repeat, therefore, that the twentieth 
century shall see this spirit disappear, and 
in its place shall come one which is fully 
progressive, recognizing that to be a scien- 
tist is to be a man of affairs, a man gifted 
with that most uncommon of all things— 
common sense. It will be recognized that 
“ true science is an invention, the invention 
of a tool, which will enable man to become 
more vital, more effective, more adequate 
in the world in which he finds himself.’ 
This is especially true of botanical science, 
which in the future must necessarily spread 
into many walks of life. 

It is evident from what has been said 
that botanists themselves will have much to 
do with shaping the future attitude of the 
state toward the work in question. Ex- 
pediency in all cases will govern the action 
of the state, and the fact that the botany of 
the future will more and more become 
closely identified with utilitarian projects 


SCIENCE. 


13: 


will make the state dependent upon it. 
The rapid changes taking place in popula- 
tion, the fillmg up of sparsely settled re- 
gions, the shifting of general commercial 
centers, and the unification of commerce in 
all its branches will bring more and more 
imperative demands for plants and their 
products. With these demands will come 
the necessity for knowing more of such 
plants, how to use them to the best advan- 
tage, and how to increase the possibilities 
of production so as to meet the demands of 
the times. These great questions will neces- 
sarily force themselves upon the attention 
of the state through the demands of the 
people, and the state will on its part re- 
quire of those charged with this important 
work investigations which must necessarily 
be far-reaching in their importance. 

The shaping of these lines of work will, 
as already pointed out, depend in large 
measure upon the wisdom and farsighted- 
ness of botanists themselves. The fact will 
not be lost sight of that to attain the highest 
results the true spirit of scientific work 
must be kept constantly in the foreground. 
I maintain that this can always be done in 
such a way as to command the respect and 
confidence of the scientific world and at the 
same time secure the practical aid which 
must necessarily be at hand if anything is 
to be accomplished at all. So much, there- 
fore, for the probable future attitude of 
the state toward botany and. botanical sci- 
ence. » The high place which botany and 
botanical work have taken in the affairs of 
nations during the past few years makes it 
evident that in the years to come this posi- 
tion will not only be maintained, but ma- 
terially advanced in numerous directions. 

And now let us turn to another some- 
what general question which it seems to 
me must necessarily receive careful con- 
sideration in the near future, and that is 
the effect of the present tendency to ex- 
treme specialization in botany. No one, I 


14 SCIENCE. 


think, will question the value of a division 
of labor im science as well as in other pur 
suits, but the danger comes from carrying 
this division too far. The specialist is 
likely to be a dreamer, and a dreamer is 
dangerous. He is apt to see things of his 
own creation and not as they actually exist. 
I have been fortunate im being placed where 
I could study the specialist, and while I 
ean not help but admire and encourage the 
patience and persistency with which a spe- 
cial problem is pursued, I am confronted 
every day with the fact that a concentra- 
tion of mind on one subject is apt to distort 
the vision and bring on a sort of neuras- 
thenia, difficult to combat and wholly unaf- 
fected by argument. Now there is danger 
in this sort of thing, not so much where the 
specialist is surrounded by other specialists, 
for here each will have a tendency to de- 
hypnotize the other, if I may use such an 
expression. The difficulty comes where the 
specialist is necessarily much alone, where 
he will not be subject to rude awakenings 
which will come if his work is under the 
eye of others. Just as the present tend- 
enecy in political economy is toward a tem- 
porary division of labor rather than a per- 
manent division, so it must be with special- 
ization in botany. From all the signs spe- 
cialization has reached its extreme develop- 
ment, as is evidenced by the fact that we 
are beginning to realize something of its 
dangers. In the near future, therefore, we 
may expect to see a movement toward bet- 
ter unification of the many special lines 
of botanical work. Rather than division 
there will be integration where imaginary 
lines which have been built up will come 
down and unification will follow. 

When we come to consider carefully some 
of the effects of specialization during the 
past few years, we are led to the conclusion 
that it has had more or less of a tendency 
to cause working botanists to group them- 
selves into castes. Like other castes, these 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


sometimes look upon each other with more 
or less respect, and again with more or less 
disdain. In other words, the tendency to 
concentrate one’s effort on a special subject 
naturally has a tendency to develop more 
or less egotistical and conceited ideas as to 
the importance and value of such subjects. 
Henee, there is produced a sort of aristoc- 
racy which prevails more pronouncedly mn 
some cases than in others.. For example, 
the cytologist is pretty apt to look with 
more or less commiseration on what he con- 
siders his less fortunate brother who may 
be working just outside the range of the 
plant cell. Then again, the worker who 
has branched off into some special morpho- 
logical line, systematic line or physiological 
line, even though these may be broad 
branches of botanical science, considers 
that his particular field is naturally pre- 
eminent, and that in handling his prob- 
lems he must do so without full regard for 
the consideration of all the questions in- 
volved in the other problems. No one can 
question the fact that specialization has 
been of great value, particularly during 
recent years. It has emphasized the im- 
portance and necessity for a concentration 
of energy in one direction. While this is 
true, experience has shown, as already 
pointed out, that such concentration neces- 
sarily limits one’s field of vision, and as a 
result the true facts, and especially their, 
relationships, can not always be deter- 
mined. The reaction against this feeling, 
which is just beginning to be noticeable, 
is due no doubt to the gradual realization 
of the fact that all scientific problems are 
more or less interdependent. We are com- 
ing more and more to see that not only are 
scientific problems im a particular field 
interdependent, but that all lines of science 
are closely related, and that to consider 
them in the most intelligent and far-reach- 
ing manner they must be looked upon as 
part and parcel of one great whole. 


JANUARY I, 1904.] 


Hence, we look to the twentieth century 


for material changes in this matter of spe- 
cial work and special problems. There 
will be closer relationships established in 
the various lines of investigation, not only 
so far as concerns different phases of 
botanical work, but other branches of sci- 
ence as well. 

Brief reference has already been made 
to the educational advances which are likely 
to be made in botany. But these were ed- 
ucational advances of an indirect sort, 
which naturally arose out of, or in con- 
nection with, pure research. Of course all 
work is educational, but in the sense that 
we now use the term we mean work that 
will in the future be conducted in our 
schools, universities and colleges. In the 
light of the developments in this field dur- 
ing the past twenty-five years it would 
seem hazardous to predict what the future 
is likely to bring forth. Twenty-five years 
ago the subject of botany in any of our 
best educational institutions meant pri- 
marily teaching in systematic botany. 
Naturally, the bringing together, grouping 
and naming of our more or less virgin flora 
attracted first consideration. Thus sys- 
tematic botany received an impetus which 
it maintained for a considerable time. The 
weakness of the work, however, was to be 
found in the fact that the problems dealt 
with had little to do with living subjects. 
Plants were gathered, named, mounted and 
placed in herbariums, and the whole ques- 
tion of proper relationships was based on 
unsound and fallacious reasoning. Natur- 
ally, the paramount question here was one 
of names, and we are still struggling in a 
maze of doubts and uncertainties which are 
the direct outcome of our efforts to correct 
what appeared to be a growing evil. 

Perfection, however, is never reached in 
a leap. Human nature must have experi- 
ence to guide it, so that we must look upon 
all that has been done in the past in the 


SCIENCE. 15 


matter of systematic work as essential to 
broader views and broader aims for the 
future. It is believed, therefore, that sys- 
tematic botany in the twentieth century 
will take on new strength as a result of an | 
increasing study of living plants and a bet- 
ter understanding of the manner in which 
species come into existence. The compli- 
cated problem of species relationships will 
no longer be a matter of more or less guess- 
work, but will be considered in the light of 
the results of actual experimentation with 
the plants themselves. 

In this connection the question of meet- 
ing some of the requirements for study in 
this and allied fields will have to be con- 
sidered. The experience of the old world 
in the matter of botanic gardens is such as 
would suggest caution in any attempt to 
emulate what has been accomplished there. 
Representative collections of living plants 
are highly important and valuable, but in 
bringing them together the fact should not 
be lost sight of that botany can in the fu- 
ture be advanced by giving more heed to 
the esthetic side of the work than has been 
done in the past; that is, assuming that 
collections of living plants are for study 
and general educational effect, much of 
their value in both directions may be lost 
by adhering too closely to rigid systems. 
Collections meeting every requirement for 
study and having great value in a general 
educational way will probably be main- 
tained in what is more likely to be a natural 
system. Such collections can, moreover, 
be maintained at much less expense than 


the stereotyped ones, and will do much to 


bring the science of botany home to large 
numbers of people who can appreciate a 
bit of lovely landscape, but can see nothing 
in the little plots and formal labels so sug- 
gestive of cemeteries. In other words, it 
seems to me that the old idea of botanical 
collections, with small groups of plants 
representing certain systems of botanical 


16 SCIENCE. 


nomenclature or certain systems of botan- 
ical grouping, will give place to natural 
gardens where may be grouped herbaceous, 
shrubby and other plants in such a way as 
to appeal to the mind through the eye. 
Unquestionably a much greater apprecia- 
tion of botany and botanical work can be 
brought about by gardens of this kind, and 
it is believed that great encouragement will 
be made in the matter of their development 
at educational institutions wherever oppor- 
tunity affords. 

In morphology and physiology we shall 
expect to see more and more important 
problems worked out by experimental 
methods. less attention will be given to 
the mere accumulation of facts without 
proper coordination. The value and im- 
portance of experimental morphology are 
already beginning to be realized; that is, 
experimental morphology from the stand- 
point of work on plants in their natural 
environment rather than under laboratory 
conditions. The same is true of physiol- 
ogy. In the past our knowledge of plant 
physiology has been largely based on labo- 
ratory work and studies of one or more 
individual plants. From such data broad 
generalizations have been made, which, as 
time has shown, have in many cases been 
erroneous. In other words, it has been 
found unsafe and unreliable to base gen- 
eralizations in the matter of the life pro- 
cesses of plants on laboratory experiments 
alone. The physiology of the future will 
undoubtedly pay more heed to the broader 
questions of plant life in their relation to 
environment and their adaptation in gen- 
eral to surrounding conditions. In other 
words, ecology in its broad sense is to be 
an important factor in the future study of 
plants. In the past we have had a school 
of scientific workers arise and endeavor to 
demonstrate that the growth of plants is 
controlled in large measure by the chem- 

ical properties of the soil. More recently 


(N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 470. 


another school has developed in which the 
physical properties of the soil are pointed 
out as the chief factors in influencing life 
processes. Those who study plants them- 
selves can not accept such generalities. It 
is not safe. Future ecological studies will 
undoubtedly furnish much new light on the 
true relationships existing between plants 
and their environment. These questions 
must naturally receive a great deal of at- 
tention for the reason that many of the 
most important problems in agriculture, 
horticulture and forestry will be based 


upon them. 


It is in pathology that we shall expect to 
see very important advances within the 
near future. This science is just on the 
threshold of its development. From the 
purely utilitarian standpoint it will be of 
vital consequence, and everything in the 
nature of strengthening it will necessarily 
need to receive most careful thought. The 
pathology of the future will have its 
eroundwork in physiology. Less and less 
attention will undoubtedly be given to the 
mere question of remedial measures, and 
more thought will be paid to the causes of 
plant diseases and the relation of environ- 
ment to these causes. The highest type of — 
pathological work, in other words, will be 
in the field of preventive measures, either 
by the correction of unfavorable conditions 
or by developing plants in such a way that 
they can meet conditions which are not 
favorable. 

In the light of these probable develop- 
ments, an important question to consider is: 
Where are the workers to come from and 
how are they to be trained? Undoubtedly 
in the future much greater interest will be 
taken in botanical work in our educational 
institutions, for the reason that it is grad- 
ually coming to the knowledge of young 
men that there is a demand for persons well 
trained in plant lines. Asa matter of fact, 
during the last few years the supply of 


January 1, 1904.] 


such men has not been equal to the demand. 
The reason for this is not far to seek, for 
there still exists in the minds of most 
young men who go to college an idea that 
their future welfare in large measure de- 
pends on taking some academic course. It 
seems important and necessary, therefore, 
that botanists should put forth their best 
efforts to bring about a better appreciation 
of the advantages to be gained in the field 
of botanical work. A number of colleges 
and universities already have courses of 
study which pretty well equip graduates 
for the advanced work in botany now re- 
quired. In the future there will be more, 
and at the same time there will be a greater 
encouragement for applied work than there 
is at present. In most colleges it is not 
practicable at the present time to give men 
the necessary training for government 
work. <A few years ago this was different, 
for at that time a graduate from one of 
our best universities was able at once to 
meet the general requirements of govern- 
ment investigations. The government re- 
quirements, however, have been broadened, 
so that men capable of handling the prob- 
lems which now present themselves must 
necessarily have some preliminary experi- 
ence with men and affairs before they are 
in a position to take up independent prob- 
lems. With a good foundation training in 
botanical science, especially plant physiol- 
ogy and pathology, a good traiming in lan- 
guages and a proper appreciation of the 
relation of science to practice, men can 
soon get a sufficient grasp of broad prob- 
lems to make themselves exceedingly valu- 
able. Those who from temperament or for 
other reasons are interested only in pure 
science must necessarily have their field of 
work limited. For this reason it is be- 
lieved that in the future colleges will more 
and more endeavor to emphasize the value 
and importance of applied work. 

After reviewing, necessarily with more 


SCIENCE. 17 


or less haste, these various questions as to 
the probable future development of botany, 
I have left for the last the question which 
seems to be of primary importance, for 
upon a proper appreciation of it will de 
pend much of the success of whatever, is 
undertaken in botanical limes during the 
years to come. I refer to the necessity for 
properly organizing the botanical forces 
which not only exist now, but which are 
likely to come into existence as the years 
go by. We have developed in this country 
a group of botanical organizations, all of 
which are domg good work and most of 
which have arisen largely out of the ex- 
igencies of the moment. There has as yet 
been little attempt toward a proper co- 
ordination of these various forces, with the 
object of bringing about unity of action 
upon all matters which will be for the best 
interest of botany and botanical work in 
the broadest sense of the word. 

This society was organized primarily to 
take the lead in botanical work in America. 
Its standards are high and should be main- 
tained. Criticism, if criticism may be of- 
fered, of the work of the society, is that 
it has so far not developed the individuality 
that might have been developed, in the hght 
of the questions which were in mind at the 
time of its organization. The papers which 
are offered do not differ materially from 
those presented by other societies and or- 
ganizations. To my mind it has not been 
so much a question of the presentation of 
papers as some would think. Unless the 
papers presented can be in some way made 
different from those offered in other organ- 
izations, there is little to be gained by pre- 
senting them except affording an oppor- 
tunity for those who wish to bring their 
problems before coworkers. It would seem 
to me that this society might very well dis- 
pense with a considerable portion of this 
plan, and devote its energies more in the 
future to broad questions of shaping policy 


18 SCIENCE. 


in botanical work generally throughout the 
country. To accomplish this, it is realized 
that the aid and cooperation of all other 
botanical societies should be secured. No 
question is raised as to the value and neces- 
sity of other botanical organizations. We 
do not believe that there are too many of 
them, but that there is a woeful lack of 
proper unification and coordination was 
shown at the last Washington meeting, 
where the number of papers presented was 
so great that it was impossible for visiting 
botanists to take anything like advantage 
of them. In the future it is hoped and 
believed that existing botanical organiza- 
tions can be continued and their integrity 
and independence maintained, but at the 
same time it would seem highly important 
that some steps be taken toward unification. 
There would seem no reason why the Botan- 
ical Society of America should not be the 
medium for bringing this about, and why, 
through its efforts, there should not be ef- 
fected an organization representing the 
various botanical societies throughout the 
country which would affiliate with this 
society and assist in shaping a general 
policy on all matters affecting the welfare 
of the science. 

The time seems ripe for bringing about 
this result. Never was botany more pros- 
perous, never more aggressive. On the 
threshold of the twentieth century we 
stand, knowing our strength and only need- 
ing to weld it into harmonious action to 
make it vital and lastimg. Let us joim 
hands and do our best to bring this about. 

BEVERLY T. GALLOWAY. 


VITALISM AND MECHANISM IN BIOLOGY 
AND MEDICINE.* 


UNTIL some sixty years ago the prevalent 
view was that nearly all life phenomena 


* Introductory remarks made at the D. W. 
Harrington lectures on ‘(idema, a Consideration 
of the Physiological and Pathological Factors 
Concerned in its Formation, delivered at the 
University of Buffalo, November 30, December 1, 
2 and 3, 1903. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


were guided essentially by an all-pervad- 
ing vital force. Hyen after the discovery 
by Wohler in 1828 of the possibility of pro- 
ducing synthetically such an organic sub- 
stance as urea, such a universal mind as 
that of Johannes Miller was still clinging 
to the belief in the all-powerful force as 
the ereator and harmonizer of the various 
mechanisms of the living body. The be- 
lief in the omnipresence of an all-creating 
vital foree furnished little stimulus for 
laborious studies of the innumerable mech- 
anisms of life. In the forties of the last 
century, however, there came a change. 
With the improvement of the methods of 
investigation, with the rapid progress in 
organic chemistry, with the establishment 
of the law of conservation of energy in 
physics, with the successful application of 
physical and chemical laws to some of the 
intricate problems of life, the conviction 
developed that a great many of the mys- 
teries of life will resolve themselves into 
physics and chemistry, and this belief grad- 
ually grew in some quarters into a theory 
that all life phenomena are nothing else 
but complex phenomena of the morganic 
world. As just in those days it was recog- 
nized in physics that all energies can be 
converted into motion, and that the me- 
chanical energy is the essential principle in 
the inorganic world, the new theory which 
made no distinction between the animate 
and inanimate phenomena became known 
as the mechanical theory of life. Right 
or wrong, this theory was of incalculable 
benefit to the progress of the biological 
sciences. The conviction that all parts of 
life are accessible to an analysis by the 
methods employed in natural science, stim- 
ulated then and stimulates now thousands 
of patient investigators in their indefati- 
gable attempts to unravel an infinitely 
small fraction of the mysteries of life. Vi- 
talism had a paralyzing effect. The me- 
chanical conception of the life phenomena 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


as a working hypothesis is a marvelous 
stimulus. But it did not remain a working 
hypothesis. 

Men of letters with a transcendental 
bent of mind have turned it soon into a 
philosophical system and have extended it 
to regions which can never become the 
domain of natural science. Some of the 
extravagances proclaimed in the name of 
the mechanical theory brought undeserved 
discredit upon it. I need only to remind 
you of the statement that ideas are secreted 
by the nerve cells just as urime is secreted 
by the kidney epithelium. Assertions of 
this kind initiated a reaction against the 
entire theory. The theory of natural selec- 
tion by Darwin, which, during its rise, lent 
its glory to our theory, since in the minds 
-of the literary public the two were nat- 
urally linked together, subsequently also 
brought some discredit to it during its slow 
descent in the favor of that public. 
Furthermore, the very incessant activity in 
the investigation of biological problems 
which was stimulated by the mechanical 
theory soon brought out the unmistakable 
fact that, so far, comparatively only a 
small fraction of life phenomena are acces- 
sible to interpretation by the physics and 
chemistry of our day, and the enthusiastic 
originators of the mechanical theory have 
inadvertently proclaimed that the physics 
and chemistry of their day would explain 
all life phenomena. What a failure! say 
now the growing number of vitalists, or 
“neo vitalists,’ as they choose to call them- 
selves. Since the middle of the eighties 
of the last century a reaction set in against 
the mechanical theory. In all branches of 
biology an increasing number of writers of 
first standing are coming out, veiled or 
open, against the mechanical theory of life. 
We meet them in physiological chemistry, 
in general biology, and we meet them in the 
writings on medicine, the science as well as 
the practice of medicine. We meet them 


SCIENCE. 19 


in the writings on the very subjects I am 
going to discuss before you, on the subjects 
of the production of lymph and formation 
of edema. And withal the vitalism of our 
day is not such a modest or conservative 
creation as the prefix ‘neo’ would lead us 
to believe. Hor instance, because only cer- 
tain substances are absorbed within the 
intestines, a selection that can not be ex- 
plained by the laws of diffusion and osmosis 
as we know them to-day, it is assumed by 
some writers that the epithelium of the in- 
testinal mucosa has a selective power. But, 
instead of considering this assumption 
merely as a temporary resting place, until 
we know something more of physics and 
chemistry, the conclusion is drawn by 
Neumeister, a distinguished physiological 
chemist, that the epithelium possesses as 
much sensation, as much judicial power to 
know what is good for the body, as the 
nerve cells of the cortex. In what essential 
respect does this statement differ from the 
one of Carl Vogt, which was quoted above 
and which had such a shocking effect upon 
his contemporaries, namely, that there is 
not one difference between the nerve cells 
which secrete ideas and the kidney epi- 
thelium which exeretes urine? 

The point is that Vogt as well as Neu- 
meister, though both excellent scientists, 
have not made their assertions as natural- 
ists but as philosophers, who are dealing 
with transcendental problems. The dis- 
cussion which is going on between the vital- 
ists and mechanists and which has not only 
a theoretical but also a very important 
practical bearmg upon many problems in 
biology and medicine, suffers, in my opin- 
ion, from a confusion of conceptions with 
regard to the questions to be answered. 
Permit me to discuss here the problems of 
vitalism and mechanism from my own 
point of view. ; 

The phenomena of life are apparently 
different from those of the inorganic world. 


20 SCIENCE. 


. We wish to recognize as much of them as 
our human faculties will permit, and wish 
to study them by methods of investigation 
which proved to be reliable in the investiga- 
tions of the phenomena of the inorganic 
world. Then there are some preliminary 
questions to be answered. 


TRANSCENDENTAL VITALISM AND MECHANISM. 


The first question is: Suppose there will 
come a time when all laws of the organic 
world and also all structures and laws of the 
animated world, as far as they are accessible 
to the human faculties, will be completely 
known—will it then be found that the phe- 
nomena of life can be completely solved, 
or will it be found that life has still an 
element which is inconceivable, inaccessible 
to the grasp of human faculties. This is 
the concise question between mechanism 
and vitalism. What should be our position 
with regard to that question? To this I 
Say it is wholly a transcendental question 
and not one for physiology and biology to 
deal with. Since from the point of view 
of the natural or rather biological sciences 
‘we wish to investigate only that which is 
accessible to human faculties and by meth- 
ods approved in the natural sciences, we 
can obviously have no scientific opinions 
on a subject which is admittedly above the 
human faculties. An answer in the mech- 
anistic sense is not a whit more scientific 
than an answer in favor of vitalism would 
be. 

This position, however, should not be 
interpreted as denying the right to enter- 
tain such a question. It is certainly a 
perfectly legitimate problem in pure phi- 
losophy. Neither do I mean to deny the 
naturalist the right to discuss philosophical 
problems. But in such a case the discus- 
sion in both domains ought to be earried 
on strictly separately, otherwise, as experi- 
ence teaches us, a harmful confusion will 
be unavoidable. 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 470. 


To repeat again, we consider the prob- 
lem formulated in the preceding question 
as a transcendental one, and we shall, 
therefore, designate the theories contaimed 
in the answers to it as transcendental vital- 
ism or transcendental mechanism. 


NATURAL VITALISM AND MECHANISM. 


The second question is: Suppose there 
shall come a time when all laws of the in- 
organic world as well as the structures and 
laws of the animated world shall be per- 
fectly known to us. Would it then be found 
that the animated world is governed exactly 
by the same laws as the inanimate one, 2. ¢., 
by the laws of physics and chemistry, as 
they will then be known; or will it be 
found that the vital phenomena, in addi- 
tion to the chemicophysical forces, are per- 
vaded by separate energies, separate forces 
which are specific for living matter? It 
must be admitted that this question is a 
perfectly legitimate one and within the 
bounds of natural science. It is perfectly 
conceivable that one group of natural phe- 
nomena might possess energies which other 
groups do not possess and that vital phe- 
nomena might differ, indeed, from the 
phenomena of the inorganic world by a 
plus of specific energies. In contradis- 
tinction to the transcendental theories of 
life we might designate the theories con- 
tained in the answers to the second ques- 
tion as natural mechanism and natural 
vitalism. In other words, then, the theory 
of natural mechanism assumes that all the 
conceivable laws of life will prove to be 
nothing but physics and chemistry, and the 
theory of natural vitalism assumes that all 
vital phenomena are directed by specific 
energies besides those which are found also 
in the physical world. A little considera- 
tion will show that the natural and trans- 
eendental theories are perfectly independ- 
ent of one another. For instance, the 
transcendental vitalist can easily accept the 


. tion? 


January 1, 1904.] 


theory of natural mechanism, and the de- 
fender of the theory of natural vitalism 
may accept the theory of transcendental 
mechanism. I shall, however, certainly not 
dwell here on the particulars of this point. 

What shall be our position with regard 
to the problem involved in the second ques- 
Tt seems to me that the state of our 
present knowledge does not permit us yet 
to decide the question in one way or an- 
other with any degree of probability, and 
that for a great many years to come any 
decision of this problem will have to be 
considered as an arbitrary hypothesis with- 
out a sufficient scientific basis. The argu- 
ment in favor of vitalism, brought forward 
recently by Bunge, Neumeister, Stacke, 
Kassowitz and many others, consists in the 
statement that the further the investiga- 
tion in biology progresses, the more facts 
are brought to light which can not be ex- 
plained by physics and chemistry. But 
what does this signify? Our present 
knowledge of physics and chemistry surely 
is a most minute fraction of that which we 
shall know of the laws of the imorganic 
world in the thousands of years to come. 
Considering the length of human history 
we have to admit that even the science of 
physics is only in its very infancy. Why, 
it 1s only recently that they have tortured 
the father of physics for stating that the 
earth is turning around the sun, because it 
hurt their feelings to acknowledge that the 
abode of man is not the center of the uni- 
verse. And it hurts the feelings of men to 
be told that the mysteries of life are only 
unrecognized chemistry—hence the pas- 
sionate crusade in some circles against me- 
chanism in biology. In our very day un- 
dreamt of discoveries are made in physics 
and in chemistry. Think of the rays dis- 
covered by Roentgen which penetrate heart 
and kidneys. Think of the marvelous 
results of stereochemistry, of the laws of 
osmosis, of the ionization of solutions, etc., 


SCIENCE. 21 


all discoveries of our time. Why should 
we already now positively deny the possi- 
bility that chemistry and physics might 
not finally elucidate a great many, and 
perhaps all the facts in biology? Fur- 
thermore, the attempts properly and sys- 
tematically to apply physics and chemistry 
to the interpretation of biological phe- 
nomena are hardly older than half a cen- 
tury. Those among the crusaders who 
themselves lent a hand to such studies 
should know with what immense difficulties 
the physiologist has to struggle. He has 
to create his own physics and chemistry; 
he has to master a difficult and difficile 
technique, and then the difficulties in ob- 
taining and handling living material. The 
physicist and the chemist had always the 
aid of gold-seeking people. There is no 
gold for physiology, but plenty of obstruc- 
tion on its onward way, placed by the sen- 
timentalist, the ignorant and the wicked. 
With all the obstacles, physiology has 
already succeeded, in a great measure, to 
apply physics and chemistry to a good 
many biological phenomena, and the out- 
look for the future is brighter than ever. 
Think of the astonishing discovery in our 
country by Jacques Loeb of artificial par- 
thenogenesis by simple changes in the 
osmotic pressure in the surrounding me- 
dium of the ovum, a fact which was never 
dreamt of before! 

No, the crusaders against mechanism are 
wrong in their pessimistic views. There 
is nothing in the present stage of our 
knowledge discouraging for the hopes of 
those who believe in the ultimate solution 
of the problems of vital phenomena by the 
physies and chemistry of a far-off future. 
But it is also true that the success attained 
at present is, in comparison with what has 
yet to be attained, too minute, too insig- 
nificant to justify a prediction with any 
degree of probability. 

Transcendental mechanism and vitalism 


22 SCIENCE. 


have no place within the domain of natural 
science. Natural mechanism and vitalism 
are insufficiently supported by accumu- 
lated evidence to be considered as well- 
established scientific theories. 


VITALISM AS A WORKING HYPOTHESIS. 
But there is still another question. 


There are already numerous well-estab- 


lished biological facts which can not be 
explained for the present by physics and 
chemistry, and we have no means of know- 
ing whether they will ever be explained 
that way—what are we to do with these 
facts? Here is the answer: Vitalism as a 
storage place is indispensable. We should 
continue to call these facts vital phe- 
nomena until we discover a way to explain 
them by laws governing the inanimate 
bodies. But I shall still go further. I be- 
lieve that vitalism as a working hypothesis 
is of great advantage to the progress of 
biology. The belief that only those biolog- 
ical facts which can be reduced to physics 
and chemistry can be considered as scien- 
tifically understood, combined with the mis- 
leading and harmful notion to elevate 
physiology to an exact science, confined the 
activity of this biologic division to some 
favored domains—to its own detriment. 
The sterility of some parts of physiology 
is due to this inappropriate exclusiveness. 
The relation of the internal secretion of 
the thyroid to myxcedema and cretinism 
and of the pancreas to diabetes, was dis- 
covered without any reference to physics 
and chemistry and was discovered by med- 
ical men, and not by physiologists. The 
important fact of the marvelous effect of 
the extract of the suprarenal capsule upon 
the circulation was discovered by physiol- 
ogists without any reference to physics and 
chemistry. Surely physiology ought to 
search for the physics and chemistry of the 
vital processes as much as possible, but it 
ought to do more. It ought to unearth 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


vital phenomena, study their characters by 
methods peculiar to themselves, and estab- 
lish their laws aside from any relation to 
physics and chemistry of the inorganic 
world. That this can be successfully done 
is shown by the marvelous results obtained 
in the discoveries and the precise studies of 
toxines, antitoxines, hemolysines, cytoly- 
sines and their like without much regard 
for physics and chemistry. Especially 
medical men have reason to ask for such 
physiological studies. The experiments 
which nature\ is continually making upon 
human beings and which physicians are 
called upon to interpret and to mend are 
not confined to domains which are acces- 
sible to interpretations by physics and 
chemistry. And it is to such a far-seeing, 
liberal, broad physiology that the science 
and practice of medicine is looking for a 
delivery from the firm grasp of the one- 
sided teachings of pathological anatomy. 
S. J. Mruzmr. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Mammalian Anatomy, with special reference 
to the Oat. By Atvin Davison, Ph.D. 

Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s Son & Co. 

1908. 8vo. Pp. xi+ 250; 108 figs. 

Another book on the anatomy of the cat 
can not but awaken suspicion as to its utility, 
but an examination of this one shows the sus- 
picion to be unfounded. It is designed to 
fill the gap between the more detailed works 
and those which are merely laboratory guides, 
and to afford the student who can not pursue 
a lengthy course of zoological study, a general 
idea of the structure of a mammal and of the 
principles of mammalian anatomy. 

In writing such a work the important point 
is to determine what is to be omitted, and 
Professor Davison has treated his subject with 
an admirable perspective. Occasionally, as 
in the description of the peritoneum, a some- 
what fuller development of the subject would 
have been advisable, and occasionally, also, a 
brevity of statement tends to convey a some- 
what erroneous impression. But such errors 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


are few and the book furnishes an excellent 
idea of the structure of the cat, free from a 
superfluity of detail which too often serves 
merely to conceal from the young student the 
fundamental principles which they may be 
intended to elucidate. Profusion of detail 
does not always make for accuracy in the stu- 
dent and it is principles rather than facts that 
he should acquire from his laboratory training. 

Throughout the book are frequent remarks 
of a comparative nature and at the close of 
each chapter is a list of questions or sugges- 
tions, for the most part of a general nature, 
which will serve as excellent topics for com- 
ment by the teacher or for collateral investiga- 
tion under his direction by the student. An 
introductory chapter is devoted to an account 
of useful methods by which the dissection of 
a mammal may be facilitated, and the text is 
illustrated by numerous figures and diagrams 
for the most part admirably executed. 

J. P. MoM. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
Tue 573d meeting was held November 7. 
Dr. A. L. Day spoke on ‘The Black Body 

and the Measurement of Extreme Tempera- 
tures. He outlined the history of the 
theoretical study of the problem, and showed 
how such a body had been constructed arti- 
ficially ; he then discussed at length the results 
of experiments made with it, pointing out the 
relation between the temperature and the 
total radiation, and between the temperature 
and the wave-length of radiation of maximum 
intensity, and expressing these relations by 
equations; from these equations temperatures 
outside the range of measurement can be eal- 
culated by extrapolation. 

Mr. C. E. Van Orstrand followed with 
“Notes on the Emission Function,’ discussing 
mathematically the second of the equations 
presented by the preceding speaker. 

At the 574th meeting, held November 21, 
the subject of ‘Synchronous Actions in the 
Atmospheres of the Sun and the Earth’ was 
discussed by Professor F. H. Bigelow, of the 
Weather Bureau. The curves first published 


SCIENCE. 23 


in 1894, showing simultaneous variations in 
the sunspot areas, the magnetic field, the pres- 
sures and temperatures of the northwestern 
states, the movements in latitude and longi- 
tudes of the storm centers, were compared 
with the prominence secular variations and 
found to agree. The meteorological data have 
been extended to all parts of the earth and 
they give similar variations, supplemented by 
inversion of the type. Thus the direct type 
of temperature prevails throughout the tropics, 
and the inverse type in the temperate zones; 
the direct type of pressures holds around the 
Indian Ocean and the inverse type in North 
and South America. The distribution of the 
prominences in latitude and their movements 
in the eleven-year cycle were explained, also 
their distribution in longitude. From the 
latter were derived the periods of rotation of 
the sun in different zones, and the variations 
of the several periods in the eleven-year 
cycle, which gave the same curve as holds for 
the prominence frequency. 
phenomenon was referred back to the internal 
circulation of the sun, and it confirms the 
second case of von Helmholtz’s equations, as 
applied to a rotating mass heated at the center. 
The fundamental period of the sun’s rotation 
is that of the equator, 26.68 days, and as this 
is the shortest possible period in the sun it 
follows that numerous determinations of the 
solar rotation from terrestrial phenomena, 
such as aurora, thunderstorms, must be ex- 
cluded as misleading. The observed syn- 
chronism at the earth has its basis in the 
sun’s circulation, and this is of a kind to pro- 
duce vertical polarization, and an internal 
magnetic field. Hence all stars should be 
magnetized while the process of cooling under 
their own gravitation is going on. 

Mr. L. A. Bauer then presented several brief 
‘Contributions to the Theory of the Earth’s 
Permanent Magnetism.’ He showed that the 
energy of the earth’s magnetization had di- 
minished by one thirty-sixth part in forty-six 
years. He stated as a result of his analysis 
that the principal cause of secular variation 
resides outside the earth’s crust. He also 
attempted a calculation of the magnetic en- 


This important 


24 SCIENCE. 


ergy per unit of area at the surface of the 
earth. 

Tue 575th meeting on December 5 was set 
apart for the annual address of the retiring 
president, Professor James Howard Gore. 
His subject was ‘The Geoidal Figure of the 
Earth.” He pointed out that four views had 
been held successively regarding the form of 
the earth—that it was a plane, a sphere, a 
spheroid, and a geoid; he traced the history 
of the measurements that had led to the suc- 
cessive views, and discussed at length the 
present conclusions of geodesists. 

Caries K. Wrap, 
Secretary. 


GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Ar the 146th meeting held on November 25, 
1903, the following papers were presented: 
Ninth Session of the International Congress 

of Geologists, at Vienna; S. F. Emmons. 
The Alaska-Treadwell Mine: A. C. SPENCER. 


The Stratigraphic Position of the Judith 
River Beds: T. W. Stanton ano J. B. 
HAtcHEL. 

The above papers have been or shortly will 
be published in full. 

The 147th meeting of the society was held 
on December 9. Under the title ‘ Notes on 
the Deposition of ,the Appalachian Pottsville,’ 
Mr. David White presented certain conclusions 
respecting the physical geography of the Ap- 
lachian trough during early Pennsylvanian 
time, with correlations based largely on the 
study of the fossil plants. These show the 
existence in lower Pottsville time of an axial 
trough near the eastern margin of the present 
coal region. The loading and subsidence of 
this relatively narrow trough led to the sub- 
mergence of the western land, and in late 
Pottsville time the transgression of the sea 
across the bituminous regions of Pennsylvania, 
Ohio, western Maryland and northern West 
Virginia. The thickness of the Pottsville 
sediments, about 1,200 feet in the type section, 
was shown to be about 4,000 feet near the 
eastern border, in southwest Virginia near the 
Tennessee line. 

Dr. George H. Girty made a comparison of 
sections of upper Paleozoic rocks in Ohio and 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


northwestern Pennsylvania. He showed that 
not the Shenango sandstone, as had usually 
been supposed, but a much lower bed in the 
Crawford County section, was equivalent to 
the sub-Olean conglomerate. This was de- 
termined by tracing eastward from its typical 
locality the Corry sandstone, which near War- 
ren was found to occupy a position just above 
the sub-Olean. The latter, therefore, would 
appear to occur at about the horizon of the 
Berea grit of Ohio, which is the same as the 
Cussewago sandstone, which lies not far be- 
low the Corry sandstone in Professor I. C. 
White’s section of Crawford and Hrie coun- 
ties. 

The Waverly group of Ohio was explicitly 
included by Meek and Worthen, along with the 
Chouteau group of Missouri and the Goniatite 
limestone of Rockford, Indiana, in their defi- 
nition of the Kinderhook group or epoch. The 
only Waverly fauna well known at that time 
was the fauna of the Cuyahoga shale, and 
these authors seem to have had in mind as 
the Kinderhook fauna chiefly that of the 
Chouteau limestone. If any precise correla- 
tion is possible between the Waverly group 
and the early Mississippian of the Mississippi 
valley, it lies between the middle member of 
the Cuyahoga formation and the Chouteau 
limestone. It follows, therefore, that the 
series of rocks and faunas in southwestern 
New York which overlie the true Chemung, 
inclusive of the sub-Olean conglomerate, re- 
cently assigned by Professor J. M. Clarke to 
the Carboniferous, really lie below the base of 
the Carboniferous system as at present recog- 
nized in this country, just as they lie above 


_ the Chemung beds, the recognized top of the 


Deyonian. This series, having an’ approxi- 
mate thickness of 500 feet, represents an in- 
terval not provided for in the geological time- 
seale, and for it the term Bradfordian is pro- 
posed. This term, which will rank with Sen- 
ecan, Chautauquan, etc., includes the Cattar- 
augus, Oswayo and Knapp beds of the New 
York section, which may provisionally be ac- 
cepted as its subdivisions. The position of 
this series as an unrecognized interval in the 
time-seale is quite apart from the determina- 
tion of its age as Devonian or Carboniferous, 


January 1, 1904.] 


a question which is reserved for further study 
and discussion. The Bradfordian faunas are 
equally distinct from those of the Chemung 
group, on one hand, and from those of the 
Waverly group, on the other. They contain 
to some extent an intermingling of Carbon- 
iferous and Devonian species, and are in fact 
transitional between those of the two eras cor- 


responding to the position of the rocks in’ 


which they are found. 

A recent bulletin of the U. S. Geological 
Survey, by Professor H. S. Williams, which 
deals with the migrations of faunas, so far as 
it involves the rocks and faunas under con- 
sideration, is based upon a misconception of 
their stratigraphic relations. 

-~This was followed by a paper entitled 
“Fluorspar Deposits of Southern Illinois,’ by 
Dr. H. Foster Bain. 

These deposits occur within an elliptical 
area about forty miles in diameter covering 
positions of southern Illinois and the adjacent 
part of Kentucky, and forming a truncated 
dome probably reduced to a peneplain in Ter- 
tiary time. The region is one of the normal 
' faulting and the individual blocks of strata 
are very irregularly disposed. The ore occurs 
in fissure veins along these fault planes. In 
the region are a number of dikes of mica- 
peridotite, biotite-pyroxenite and diabase. The 
type of deposits, unusual in the Mississippi 
valley, associated with the igneous rocks sug- 
gests a genetic relation and the analogy with 
the fluorspar deposits of the northern England 
is very close. 


Tuer 148th regular and 11th annual meeting 
of the society took place on December 10. 
The first part of the meeting was occupied by 
the presidential address of Dr. ©. Willard 
Hayes, entitled ‘Should There be a Federal 
Department of Mines.’ later the reports of 
the secretaries and treasurers were presented 
followed by the election of officers for the 
ensuing year. 

President—C. Willard Hayes. 

Vice-Presidents—George P. Merrill and Walde- 
mar Lindgren. 

Seeretaries—Walter C. Mendenhall and Alfred 
H. Brooks. 

Treasurer—George W. Store. 


SCIENCE. 25 


Members of Council at Large—David White, 
T. W. Stanton, T. Wayland Vaughan, M. R. Camp- 
bell and Leslie F. Ransom. 

ALFRED H. Brooks, 
Secretary. 


CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 144th regular meeting of the Washing- 
ton Chemical Society was held on October 8, 
at 8 p.M., in the assembly hall of the Cosmos 
Club. In the absence of the president, the 
meeting was called to order by the vice-presi- 
dent, Dr. EK. T. Allen. 

The program for the evening consisted of 
two papers. The first paper, entitled ‘ Second 
Report on Cement Analysis,’ was presented by 
Dr. W. F. Hillebrand and dealt with the results 
of the analyses of two samples of cement ma- 
terial, which were made by nineteen chemists 
working independently. The results obtained 
by these chemists were compared with a stand- 
ard analysis made by Dr. Hillebrand and many 
of the determinations differed very markedly 
from the standard results. A discussion of 
these variations was entered into by the author, 
and it was pointed out that, although many 
differences existed among the determinations 
made by the various analysts, it was not neces- 
sary to assume that the source of the errors lay 
with the method, but was due to other factors 
which must be taken into consideration. 

The second paper on the program was pre- 
sented by Dr. Atherton Seidell, and was en- 
titled ‘Precipitation of Zine by Manganese 
Peroxide, with especial reference to the Vol- 
hard Method of Determining Manganese.’ 
The problem involved and the method used 
for the analysis of the precipitate formed in 
the Volhard method for the determination of 
manganese were briefly described. The re- 
sults of the investigation lead to the conclusion 
that zine is always carried down by the pre- 
cipitated peroxide of manganese. The amount 
found in the precipitate depends upon the 
quantity which is present in the solution at 
the time the precipitation is made. 

The ratio between the zinc oxide and the 
manganese peroxide found in the precipitates 
indicates the formation of mixtures having 
definite molecular ratios. 


26 SCIENCE. 


The! precipitate having the composition 
4MnO,.ZnO contained the highest relative 
amount of zine which could be carried down in 
combination with manganese peroxide. The 
water of hydration in the precipitates was 
found to be variable, and its amount at any of 
the temperatures selected for drying did not 
correspond to a whole number of molecules. 


Tue 145th regular meeting of the Wash- 
ington Chemical Society was held November 
12 in the assembly room of the Cosmos Club. 
Dr. H. N. Stokes and Mr. S. S. Voorhees 
were elected councillors of the American 
Chemical Society. Dr. Atherton Seidell was 
elected secretary of the Washington Chemical 
Society. The first paper on the program, en- 
titled ‘ European Notes,’ was delivered by Pro- 
fessor F. W. Clarke. The speaker described 
his recent visit to Manchester, England, in 
attendance upon the meeting held in honor of 
the one hundredth anniversary of Dalton’s 
discovery. He also told of his visits to Cam- 
bridge and the laboratories of Thorpe and 
Ramsay in London, to a meeting of the Royal 
Society and the Royal Society Social Club. 
A short account of the meeting of the Con- 
gress of Applied Chemistry held at Berlin 
was given, after which he described his sub- 
sequent visits to Dresden, then to Munich, 
where he was shown Beyer’s laboratory built 
by Liebig and also made acquainted with the 
great work in mineralogy which is now being 
done by Groth. Dr. Clarke also spoke of his 
visits to Zurich and to Heidelberg. The sec- 
ond paper, entitled ‘ The Solubility of Calcium 
Sulphate in Aqueous Solutions of Sulphuric 
Acid,’ by F. K. Cameron and J. F. Breazeale, 
was presented by Dr. Cameron. The authors 
showed that in the presence of any concentra- 
tion of sulphuric acid the solubility curve for 
gypsum or calcium sulphate did not show a 
maximum point, as this substance does in pure 
water, but increases steadily with increase in 
temperature. At temperatures from 25° C. 
to 85° C. the solubility of calcium sulphate 
increases with increasing concentration of sul- 
phurie acid until a maximum is reached and 
then decreases again. The position of the 
maximum point on the curve, the concentra- 
tion with respect to calcium sulphate and sul- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


phurie acid respectively being taken as or- 
dinates, depends upon the temperature. The 
data obtained seems to negative the assump- 
tion that both electrolytes yield a common 
ion. These hypotheses suggest themselves: 

1. That at higher dilutions sulphuric acid 
yields mainly an HSO, ion and with in- 
creasing concentration mainly an SO, ion. 
But this assumption is opposed to the results 
of previous work of others on the conduc- 
tivity, ete., of solutions of sulphuric acid. 

2. That double or bisulphates are formed. 
An examination of the solid phase in contact 
with the solution failed to throw light upon 
this point. 

3. That other solubility effects than that oc- 
casioned by the ions masked the action of the 
latter. 

No satisfactory criteria exist by which these 
assumptions may be adequately tested. The 
authors do not regard the facts as necessarily 
opposed to the dissociation hypothesis. But 
the hypothesis in its present form is unsatis- 
factory and inadequate to furnish assistance 
in the study of such phenomena. 

It was pointed out that in these solutions 
there was evidence of a condensation of the 
solvent, water, which might have an important 
bearing on the apparently abnormal results. 
Finally, the solubility of calcium sulphate in 
pure water was discussed in comparison with 
the results obtained by other investigators. 

A. SEWELL, 
Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE 377th meeting was held Saturday 
evening, November 28. 

H. F. Moore spoke on ‘The Artificial Fat- 
tening of Oysters,’ stating that experiments 
made by the U. S. Fish Commission showed 
that when placed in artificial ponds, kept at 
the right degree of temperature and salinity 
to foster the growth of diatoms, and with the 
water kept in motion to imitate the movement 
of the tide, poor oysters rapidly became fat. 

F. H. Hillman described ‘The Comparative 
Effects of the Seed Midge and of Brucho- 
phagus funebris on the Structure of Clover 
Flowers and Fruits.’ The speaker stated that 


/ 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


the seed midge, Cecidomyia leguminicola Lint- 
ner, arrested the growth of the clover corolla, 
usually causing it to project but slightly from 
the throat of the calyx, while its base became 
erustaceous, forming a hardened case about 
the growing larva. At the same time the 
pistil became aborted, its growth being ar- 
rested before fertilization, while, together with 
the stamens, it was pushed aside by the grow- 
ing larva. The attacks of Bruchophagus 
funebris (Howard) does not prevent the com- 
plete or nearly complete development of the 
corolla, which, in this case, does not become 
erustaceous. The ovary becomes nearly ma- 
ture, its hardened portion being fully formed. 
The seed attains nearly full size, but instead 
of being normally violet or yellow, plump and 
shining, it is brown, dull and somewhat 
shrunken. The kernel of the seed is prac- 
tically exhausted, leaving the seed coat as a 
frail shell. ; 

These essential differences in the life his- 
tories of the insects shown in their effects on 
the clover flowers and fruits appear to afford 
conclusive evidence of the correctness of Pro- 
fessor Hopkins’s opinion that Bruchophagus 
funebris feeds on the clover seed and is not 
parasitic on the seed midge, as has been be- 
lieved. 

An examination by the author of 32 red 
clover heads showed 53 per cent. of the seed 
farmed to be uninjured, while 47 per cent. 
was destroyed by the Bruchophagus. 

Enlarged figures showing the structures 
discussed were displayed. 

Charles Hallock spoke on the subject of 
“Sea Trout where no Rivers Are,’ the object 
of the communication being to establish the 
point that the sea trout is not a fresh-water 
species with marine habits, but primarily a 
resident of salt water. It was stated that the 
sea trout of the Shetland Islands and the 
Labrador coast, which attain a weight of 
twenty pounds, do not enter rivers to spawn, 
nor do more than a moiety of the Canadian 


sea trout, the bulk of these spawning in estu- _ 


aries in tide water. While these trout were 
structurally identical with the fresh-water 
species, they differed widely from the latter 
in habits, range, food and appearance, and the 


SCIENCE. 27 


speaker considered that these facts shouldbe 
allowed due weight in differentiating between 
species. In the course of his remarks Mr. 
Hallock intimated that the salmon of the At- 
lantic coast passed the salt-water portion of 
their life in the subarctic belt, being attracted 
thither by the abundance of coastwise food. 
The fourth paper of the evening, entitled 
“The Vegetative Vigor of Hybrids and Muta- 
tions,’ was read by Mr. O. F. Cook. Hybrids 
and mutations were interpreted as represent- 
ing opposite side-paths of the evolutionary 
thoroughfare, the free interbreeding of nu- 
merous moderately diverse individuals being 
the best condition for evolutionary progress. 
A declining reproductive power characterizes 
both of these extreme types of variation, but 
is often accompanied by unusual vegetative 
vigor. Physiological and selective explana- 
tions of this paradox appear to be inadequate, 
but from the standpoint of a kinetic theory 
of evolution it was suggested that the vigor 
is the same as that of normal variations and 
crosses, while the relative or complete sterility 
may be due in both cases to the absence of 
normal interbreeding, which also induces ab- 
rupt variations or aberrations of heredity. 
Vegetative vigor does not, therefore, conflict 
with the view that hybrids and mutations are 
degenerative variations. ¥F. A. Lucas. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 349th meeting was held on November 
3, 1908. 

Professor W J McGee gave an account of 
the work performed by the American Anthro- 
pological Association at the recent meeting 
held in New York and also gave a résumé of 
the work of the Department of Anthropology 
of the World’s Fair at St. Louis. 

Mr. Goddard, of the University of Cali- 
fornia, was present and was invited to address 
the society. He told of the investigations 
being carried on in the language, folk-lore 
and ceremonials of the Indians of California 
by the Ethnological and Archeological Survey 
of the state. He spoke of the extinction of 
stocks and the decay of customs and urged 
the aid of students before it is too late. 

Dr. John R. Swanton gave a communication 


28 ; 


on the Haida and other tribes he has been 
studying. In his winter field work he hopes 
to ascertain the relationships, if any, between 
the Tlinkit and the Haida. 

On account of the illness of Dr. Lamb his 
paper went over, and the society resolved itself 
into a committee of the whole to discuss the 
subject of cave exploration. 

Professor Holmes stated the problems to be 
solved and mentioned the explorations of 
Fowke, McGuire, Putnam and Moorehead. 
He pointed out that caves show undisturbed 
sites and hence give a good record, and an- 

“nounced that Professor Putnam has found 
early man with fossils in eaves of California. 
As yet he said the evidence of early man in 
the caves exploration in the east is negative. 

Dr. Fewkes said that caves were gathering 
places of men for religious purposes as the 
Cave of the Sun at Porto Plata, where it is 
believed by the natives that the sun and moon 
rose. He stated his belief that the lowest 
form of man is found in South America and 
in caves in the region of the Tapuyan stock. 
Dr. Hrdlicka remarked on the caves of north- 
ern Mexico where there are (1) shelters show- 
ing evidences of fire, chips and bones, and little 
art; (2) having human burial; (3) the deep 
variety containing ceremonial objects, and 
(4) the dwelling caves, and showed all occur 
in a region inhabited by a single people. 

Mr. McGuire gave an interesting account 
of his recent cave hunting in Maryland and 
Pennsylvania. He examined a number of 
eaves, and while the finds were numerous no 
evidence was found as to the antiquity of man. 

Professor McGee said that cave studies 
should be made not so much for man as for 
paleontology, and should be a geological prob- 
lem. 

The president told interestingly her obser- 
vations on cave exploration and said that 
some Indian words indicate going under the 
ground to enter the house, and perhaps refer 
to a period when caves were used as habita- 
tions. 

Tue 350th meeting was held November 17, 
1903. 

Dr. J. Walter Fewkes read a paper on the 
stone collars and tripointed images, or zemes, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox, XIX. No. 470. 


of Porto Rico. Doctor Fewkes illustrated his 
paper with large drawings of the types of 
these specimens. The collars, which are 
found almost wholly in Porto Rico, are fine 
examples of stone working, having gone 
through the process of carving and polishing 
after the rough work of pecking with a stone 
hammer. Each collar has an oval, flat, 
roughened area on one side. 

The tripointed images are of five types: 
(1) Smooth, without decoration; (2) with 
conoid projection modified into a head; (8) 
with face on one side; (4) with head on the 
right and two legs on the left; (5) with four 
legs. Most of the images have human faces, 
though some are in the shape of animals and 
birds. Im reference to the relation between 
the collars and the tripointed images, Dr. 
Fewkes called attention to the theory of J. J- 
Acosta that images generally have the same 
proportion and were placed on the flat surface 
of the collar and secured by cords.’ A speci- 
men showing the feasibility of such junction 
was displayed. Dr. Fewkes said that there is 
no proof that these objects are not idols and 
that they show the representation of anthro- 
pomorphic gods in Porto Rico. Most of the 
collars seem to be serpent forms. In absence 
of data, however, there are still enigmas that 
require for their solution more field work and 
research, to which end Dr. Fewkes will devote 
this winter’s labors in the West Indies. 

In answer to an inquiry from the president, 
Miss Fletcher, Dr. Fewkes said that the tri- 
form images are geographical and resemble 
Yunque Mountain. In answer to a question 
from Mr. McGuire, Dr. Fewkes said there 
seem to be more triform images than collars, 
and he further remarked that the locality 
where the collars have been found has not 
been recorded. 

The secretary mentioned that Professor 
Mason had remarked on the similarity be- 
tween the cedar bark collars of the northwest 
coast Indians and the stone collars of Porto 
Rico. 

Dr. John R. Swanton said that the resem- 
blance is probably accidental and further said 
that if the Porto Rican collars were evidence 
of a serpent cult the art modifications might 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


be due to the transfer of the cult to a locality 
where serpents do not exist. 

In reference to the human remains collected 
by Dr. Fewkes, Dr. Hrdlicka said that a com- 
parison of the Porto Rican skull with South 
American skulls shows it to be like specimens 
from Brazil. In answer to an inquiry from 
Dr. Lamb, Dr. Fewkes said the bones were 
found in a mound near Utuado. 

Under the head of voluntary communica- 
tions, Dr. Hrdlicka suggested that archeolog- 
ical and anthropological work be carried on at 
Panama in connection with work on the canal. 

The secretary presented data on the destruc- 
tion of ruins in the southwestern United 
States, and suggested that the movement for 
their preservation inaugurated some years ago 
be revived. After a brief discussion in which 
the president, Dr. Kober, Dr. Fewkes and Dr. 
Hrdlicka took part, the matter was postponed 
to the next meeting. Wattrer Houes, 

Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE ANIMAL PARASITE SUPPOSED TO BE THE CAUSE 
OF YELLOW FEVER. 

To tHe Eprror or.Scrence: In your issue of 
October 23, 1903, you publish a communica- 
tion from Mr. J. C. Smith, of New Orleans, 
in regard to the animal parasite in the bodies 
of mosquitoes infected from yellow-fever sub- 
jects. While the article is on its face con- 
tradictory and unsatisfactory, its burden is to 
claim the credit for scientific work to which 
he is not entitled. It reflects unfairly and 
unjustly upon Professor George E. Beyer, as- 
sociate professor of biology in Tulane Univer- 
sity, who was the biologist of the working 
party of the yellow-fever institute of the U. 
S. Public Health and Marine-Hospital Sery- 
ice, which made the investigations in Vera 
Cruz in 1902. 

Professor Beyer is an acting assistant sur- 
geon in that service, and for that reason can 
make no publication in the matter. 

In the first paragraph of the article Mr. 
Smith claims that he was ‘the first to have 
correctly interpreted and given value to the 
things found in the bodies of the mosquitoes 
infected from yellow-fever patients.’ After 
setting forth this claim, he closes with the 


SCIENCE. 29 


vastly more modest claim that he was entitled 
to have printed in the report of the working 
party an acknowledgment of his valuable sery- 
ices in working out the sexual life history of 
the parasite. 

Mr. Smith fixes January 23, 1903, as the 
time when his assistance was asked, and his 
work was performed subsequent to that date. 

The facts are that the working party dis- 
covered the animal parasite in mosquitoes in- 
fected from yellow-fever subjects in the sum- 
mer of 1902, that they classified and named 
the parasite, illustrated it with drawings, and 
sent the drawings in November, and a pre- 
liminary report to the Surgeon-General in 
July of 1902, nearly six months prior to the 
time fixed by Mr. Smith. This report is an 
official record, is on file in Washington, and of 
itself shows that Mr. Smith was neither the 
discoverer nor the first correctly to interpret 
the parasite. 

The eighth paragraph of the article does a 
particular injustice to Professor Beyer. It 
says: “Up to this time (January 23, 1903) 
Professor Beyer, who was the biologist of the 
party, knew of no evidence of a parasite in 
these mosquitoes, excepting some granular 
bodies, as they were styled, which were found 
in the cell of the salivary glands, and which I 
afterward showed the party were not granular 
bodies, but were linear bodies, five or six times 
longer than wide, the sporozites. On Jan- 
uary 380 [1903] I reported having found in 
the bodies of a number of the mosquitoes an 
animal parasite in process of sexual develop- 
ment.” 

Professor Beyer had found this parasite six 
months before the time fixed by Mr. Smith 
as the day when he saw it in slides loaned 
him by Professor Beyer and known by the 
latter to contain the parasite. A number of 
physicians were acquainted with the discovery, 
its interpretation and value, in the summer 
and fall of last year. Dr. N. Del Rio in a 
statement acknowledged before the American 
Consul at Vera Cruz, June 8, 1903, says that 
as delegates of the Superior Board of Health 
of Vera Cruz, he, Dr. Matienzo and Dr. 
Iglesias were, during June and July, 1902, 
shown by Professor Beyer in the stomach and 


30 SCIENCE. 


glands of mosquitoes infected with yellow 
fever, an animal organism which the members 
of the American Commission classified as a 
Protozoan of the order of Coceidiida. 

Dr. Henry R. Carter, a distinguished sur- 
geon of the Public Health and Marine-Hos- 
pital Service, in a letter dated October 31, 
1908, says that while attending the Public 
Health convention in New Orleans, on De- 
cember 12, 1902, he visited Professor Beyer’s 
laboratory in Tulane University, with several 
other physicians, and was shown a number of 
slides under the microscope. These showed, 
Professor Beyer told him, sections of the 
stomach walls, thorax and salivary cells of 
mosquitoes, with bodies which Professor Beyer 
claimed were the coccidium, and explained the 
stages in detail. Dr. Carter says that un- 
questionably, at that time, Professor Beyer 
claimed that his slides showed the sexual 
stages of a coccidium and that he had demon- 
strated the sexual cycle of a coccidium in the 
infected Stygomyia fasciata. 

The proof that the work which Mr. Smith 
claims to have done in January of this year 
was all originally done in the summer of last 
year by the working party of the U. S. Public 
Health and Marine-Hospital Service is so 
clear that it is difficult to see how Mr. Smith 
could set up such a claim. The letter of Dr. 
Pothier which he prints in his article is con- 
tradictory of his claim. 

Mr. Smith was consulted in January of 
this year and corroborated the work already 
performed. Ratification by a man of his 
undoubted high scientific knowledge was 
valuable. Professor Beyer has willingly 
counseled giving Mr. Smith all due acknowl- 
edgment, and has never sought to withhold all 
that he was entitled to, that is, due recogni- 
tion of his assistance in demonstrating the 
life eyele of the parasite. 

Mr. Smith has never published any inter- 
pretation of the coccidium different from the 
working party’s. It is hard to see, therefore, 
how he was the first correctly to interpret the 
discovery when his interpretation was the 
same as that made by the working party 
months before. 

I ask that you publish this refutation of 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 470. 


Mr. Smith’s claims in the same manner as 
his article. This request is made with no 
wish to provoke a controversy, but solely with 
a view to correcting an injustice. 

I also suggest that a warning note be issued 
by you against a too hasty conclusion that the 
animal parasite discovered in infected Stego- 
myta fasciata be accepted as the cause of yel- 
low fever. The working party’s report makes 
no such claim. Surgeon-General Wyman re- 
cently issued a letter pointing out that this 
claim is not made. The value of the dis- 
covery of the coccidium lay in the fact that 
it pointed out a path for future investigation. 


H. W. Rosinson. 


New ORLEANS, 
November 28, 1903. 


SHORTER ARTICLES. 
THE NEW COSMICAL METEOROLOGY. 

WIrtH every fresh outburst of large spots on 
the surface of the sun there is likely to be a 
sympathetic disturbance in the terrestrial 
magnetic and electrical fields, a change in the 
weather conditions of the world, and a recru- 
descence of popular interest in the subject. 
Speculation as to the causal connection be- 
tween this solar action and the terrestrial ef- 
fect is apt to become extravagant, even going 
to the length of seeking to identify particular 
spots on the sun with individual storms on the 
earth. This procedure overlooks some facts 
in the chain of events which in reality bind 
the two phenomena together, and it is the 
purpose of this paper to present in a some- 
what orderly form the sequence as at present 
understood. 

It has been found necessary to include both 
the sun and the earth in our meteorological 
research, and properly so, because the atmos- 
phere of the sun is at work in sending energy, 
and the atmosphere of the earth is receiving 
energy, each through its process of convyec- 
tion and radiation. By these agencies, a 
special circulation is sustained in the atmos- 
phere of the sun, and another in that of the 
earth, and the energy of one passing into the 
other binds the two together in a single cos- 
mical thermal engine. Solar physics and 
astrophysics are evidently only other names 
for meteorology, which embraces all atmos- 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


pheric phenomena in its scope. The details 
of the work of the Weather Bureau in this 
research are being published as rapidly as pos- 
sible, but as some time must elapse before 
this will be completed, it may be of interest to 


i 


make a comprehensive statement of the con- 
clusions that have been reached. 

The Circulation of the Sun. (Fig. 1.)—The 
thermodynamic conditions in the sun suggest 


SCIENCE. 


ol 


a viscous nucleus extending about half its 
radius from the center, which is surrounded by 
a gaseous envelope, the sun’s proper atmos- 
phere. The nucleus is apparently not spher- 
oidal, but dumbbell in shape, according to the 
Jacobian ellipsoid of equilibrium, so that the 
sun is an incipient binary star with two cen- 
ters of action instead of only one. This result 
rests upon the following facts: (1) The promi- 
nence frequency numbers on the surface have 
two distinct maxima, which move in opposite 
directions from the middle latitudes, one from 
latitude 25° towards the equator, as do the 
sunspots and faculz, and the other from lat- 
itude 50° towards the poles, in the course of 
an eleven-year cycle. The cycle begins at 
minimum with a strong outpouring in middle 
latitudes, which separates into the two 
branches mentioned. It is probable that the 
congested energy of the interior first seeks 
to escape from the region where the viscous 
nucleus ends, and that one wave spreads 
through the gaseous region towards the end 
ot the equator on the surface, while a second 
wave passes through the nucleus towards the 
center of the sun. The course of the max- 
ima points, as shown in the Monthly Weather 
Review for January, 1903, favors this expla- 
nation. (2) The distribution of the prom- 
inences in longitude gives two maxima, lo- 
cated on two opposite meridians of the sun, 
as if they sprang from two foci. (3) This 
division of solar activity is also found record- 
ed in the distribution of several other products 
of solar energy in the period of the solar rota- 
tion, which is 26.68 days on the equatorial 
plane, as in that of the sunspots and the 
facule, in one system of deflecting forces of 
the terrestrial magnetic field, in the baro- 
metric pressures and in the temperatures. 
That would be a good reason, if it exists, 


‘ why the sun in its rotation should effect dif- 


ferential impulses throughout the cosmical 
system. 

The periods of rotation of the sun have 
been determined in the several zones by a dis- 
cussion of the prominence numbers, and there 
is retardation from the equator to the poles. 
This conforms to von Helmholtz’s Case II., 
derived from the general equations of motion, 


32 SCIENCE. 


for discontinuous surfaces of different tem- 
peratures sliding past each other with different 
velocities, and rolling up vortex tubes between 
them. The layers are warmer around the 
axis of rotation of the sun, and have slower 
angular velocities than those more distant 
from it. The vortex tubes have the shape 
indicated in Fig. 1, right-handed in the 
northern hemisphere and left-handed in the 
southern. If the constituents of rotating 
matter carry electric charges in their atoms 
and molecules, this vortex entrainment will 
produce polarization and a true magnetic field 
extending outside the sun. The rotation 
period of the magnetic field near the poles, 
since it is primarily seated im the nucleus, is 
the same as that of the surface at the equator, 
namely, 26.68 days. The earth’s normal mag- 
netic field has a component system impressed 
upon it which is directed from north to south 
perpendicular to the ecliptic, and these vec- 
tors are probably portions of the lines here 
described as springing from the solar nucleus. 
Furthermore, all large cooling masses, con- 
tracting by their own gravity and rotating on 
am axis must, in conformity with the equa- 
tions of motion, set up such a polarized in- 
ternal structure, and, therefore, all stars are 
probably magnetic. The earth still possesses 
a residual magnetism originally produced in 
this manner, which is gradually fading away 
as the earth cools, and will become very feeble 
as the loss of convective heat progresses, some- 
what like that of the moon at the present 
time. The belt systems on the planets Jupiter 
and Saturn afford examples of rotations with 
discontinuous surfaces, and minor vortices be- 
tween them, under this law. The granulated 
surface of the sun is probably due to this 
vortex motion, where each granule represents 
the discharge of a single vortex tube. 

The Solar-terrestrial Synchronism. (Fig. 
2.)—The eleven-year cyclic period of the sun- 
spot variation gives a curve with one principal 
maximum and one principal minimum, but 
this register of the solar action is not so sen- 
sitive as that recorded in some of the other 
elements. The eruptions of the sunspots and 
the facule are confined to the gaseous en- 
velope, and do not directly represent the 


[N.S. Von, XIX. No. 470. 


working of the viscous nucleus. The prom- 
inences of higher latitudes, 40° to 80°, pro- 
duce the same fundamental curve, but there 
are minor crests superposed upon it, some- 
times one on the ascending branch, A, and 
usually two on the descending branch, 0, D. 
In some of the eleven-year cycles A does not 
appear, and one might count the length of 
the short period from the three crests, B, 0, D, 
and make it, 11.1 —38—23.7 years, as Lockyer 
has done. J have taken the four crests, A, 
B, C, D, and make the average period, 11.1 — 
4—922 years, as in ‘Weather Bulletin’? No. 
21, page 125. This more sensitive curve 
registers primarily the action of the solar 
nucleus, and the minor crests are the re- 
cerudescences of a contracting and congesting 
medium seeking to free itself of supercharged 
energy. The curve is found to be repeated 
in a remarkable manner throughout the cos- 
mical system. Thus, we have found, (1) that 
the periods of rotation in the higher zones of 
the sun, 50° to 70°, reproduce the curve in 
a secular variation, and refer its cause, with- 
out doubt, to the effects of internal circula- 
tion;* (2) that the magnetic field at the earth 
synchronizes with it;+ (3) that the terrestrial 
temperatures. in the tropical zones give the 
same curve directly, but in the temperate 
zones they synchronize in an inverted form; 
while the terrestrial pressures synchronize di- 
rectly with it in the regions around the Indian 
Ocean, Australia, South Asia and Africa, but 
in an inverted form throughout North and 
South America. This inversion implies that 
there is a surging of the earth’s atmosphere in 
the process of its general circulation, whereby a 
portion rises in pressure and temperature while 
another portion falls. This opens up a new field 
of meteorological research. A laboratory ex- 
periment, by means of cathode rays within a 
magnetic field, matches the observed distri- 
bution of the solar corona, and this is also 
in harmony with analysis of the sun’s physical 
condition here outlined. The computed sys- 
tem of ordinary magnetic deflecting vectors 
and of the large magnetic storms which dis- 


turb the earth’s normal field and fluctuate in 
*See Monthly Weather Review for October, 
1903. 
{ See Monthly Weather Review for July, 1902. 


A ink canopies 


JaNuARY 1, 1904.] 


the same curve as the solar circulation, is 
directed upon the earth in polar curves as if 
coming from a distant spherical magnet, and 
not along the radial lines of electromagnetic 
radiation. It is not easy to account for these 
disturbances by flights of ions from the sun 
along the lines of the electromagnetic me- 
chanical pressures. The further the discus- 
sion of the cosmical observations is pressed, 
the more positive becomes the evidence that 
the sun sustains a strong magnetic field, which 
responds to a variable magnetization within its 
nucleus. Radiation from the solar surface has 
another source of energy, namely, the atomic 
and molecular vibrations of the constituents 
of the outer envelope, as the photosphere, 
and hence much may go on at the surface 
which is not immediately representative of 
the state of the nucleus. Thus, the outpour- 
ing of heat, light and the ions streaming 
along the radii of electromagnetic pressure, 
together with the curved rays seen in the 
corona, consisting of positive and negative 
charges of electricity moving about a mag- 
netic field, may take place at a given time 
in one way, while the nucleus is operating 
temporarily in another manner. Thus there 
may be divergences instead of synchronisms 
between the individual outbursts of spots and 
prominences on the solar surface as compared 
with the terrestrial magnetic storms and 
auroral displays which proceed from the nu- 
eleus, without in the least invalidating the 
claim that in general substantial synchronism 
exists. When sufficiently long intervals are 
taken, as a year, or possibly a few months, 
the conditions of the earth’s atmosphere are 
affected by and vary with the changes in the 
solar processes. There has been much con- 
fusion in scientific writings arising from the 
failure to distinguish between physical actions 
at the surface and the interior of the sun, and 
many unsound criticisms have been published 
im consequence of it. The problem is com- 
plex, but with the growth of reliable data it 
is becoming yearly more promising of a satis- 
factory solution, and it is always interesting. 

The Circulation of the Earth's Atmosphere. 
(Fig. 3.)—The meteorological theories of the 
motions of the atmosphere of the earth are 


SCIENCE. 33 


now in a transition state; the old are passing 
away, and new ones are being constructed. 
Ferrel’s theories of the structure of cyclones 
and anticyclones, as well as of the general 
eyclone of the hemisphere, have crumbled 
under the strain of modern observations. The 
“Cloud Report’ of the Weather Bureau, 1898, 
disearded both the Ferrel and the Oberbeck 
local and general vortices, and indicated a 
new path of research. The International 
Meteorological Committee has at last reached 
the same conclusion. (See ‘Reports’ for 
1902 and 1903.) The problem at present is 
one of rebuilding in conformity with the facts. 
The general equations of motions were very 
briefly discussed by H. yon Helmholtz, who 
introduced into them potential temperatures, 
in place of the density, and the corresponding 
constant angular momenta. From these equa- 
tions arise three distinct cases, one of which 
was considered somewhat fully by him. The 
second case has been applied by Emden to 
solar circulation as above indicated, and the 
third case has not yet been sufficiently recog- 
nized by any one. Case I. shows that there 
are discontinuous surfaces of separation be- 
tween layers haying different temperatures 
and velocities, and that in the earth’s atmos- 
phere these should extend from about lati- 
tude 35° towards the poles, rising higher above 
the surface with progress poleward. Oase 
III. gives surfaces sloping towards the earth 
from the equator up to about latitude 35°. 
This system differs entirely from Ferrel’s, 
which adopted the canal theory of circulation 
with poleward currents at high elevations. 
These do not in fact exist, but there is evi- 
dence that the surfaces here specified are in 
conformity with the observed circulations as 
modified by mixtures. The local cyclones of 
the temperate zones are built up of counter 
currents of different temperatures derived 
from these general conditions, which in low 
levels near the surface of the ground under- 
flow the eastward drift of the upper strata. 
The configuration of the isobars of the local 
eyclones observed on the sea level extends 
upward two or three miles with diminishing 
intensity, , till absorbed in the system of nor- 
mal isobars pertaining to the season of the 


34 


year. These two sets of isobars have now 
been separated from each other, and the proof 
of this statement is positive. (See ‘Barometry 
Report, 1901; Monthly Weather Review, Jan- 
uary, 1903; and another forthcoming report.) 
The prevailing stream lines, velocities and 
temperatures in high levels have been deter- 
mined for the United States (see ‘Cloud Re- 
port,’ 1898), and are being worked up for the 
West Indies (report in preparation). The 
potential temperatures can be computed for 
both regions from the data in hand, and they 
are such that the heat of the upper strata of 
the temperate zones, where there is eastward 
flow increasing with the height, is above the 
quantity called for by the adiabatic law. In 
the tropics, with westward velocities diminish- 
ing upward, the heat of the upper strata is 
probably below the adiabatic quantity, though 
this remains to be determined. We have had 
since December, 1902, daily isobars for the 
United States on the three planes, the sea 
level, the 3,500-foot, and the 10,000-foot 
planes, and the result of the intercomparison 
of their varying configurations throughout the 
year is in conformity with this analysis. 
They possess much advantage in practically 
forecasting the areas of precipitation, the di- 
rection of storm tracks, and the rapidity of 
the propagation of the cyclonic areas over the 
United States. Frank H. BicEtow. 


WEATHER BUREAU, 
November 30, 1903. 


HORTICULTURAL VARIETIES OF COMMON CROPS. 


THE improvement of farm crops by breeding 
and selection has received a marked impetus 
in recent years, due partly to the success se- 
eured by a few pioneer workers in this field, 
and partly to recent discoveries in the laws of 
heredity. The present note is written for the 
purpose of calling attention to a method of 
improvement that has been applied to ordinary 
field crops only to a very limited extent, but 
which offers promise of immediate and marked 
results. It can be best illustrated by giving 
actual cases. Dr. A. D. Hopkins, at present 
connected with the Bureau of Entomology of 
this department, formerly of the West Vir- 
ginia Experiment Station, for many years 
grew timothy for seed. For this purpose the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 470. 


erop is ordinarily sown thinly, so that, during 
the first harvest year, the plants are sufficiently 
distinet to permit of the observation of indi- 
vidual plants. Many years’ close observation 
showed that the crop consists of a large num- 
ber of constantly recurring forms quite easily 
distinguished. A number of plants, each 
representing one of these forms, were taken 
up and separated into as many parts as the 
nature of the case permitted; in this way each 
plant became the parent, by divisions, of a 
large number of plants, all set side by side in 
a plat. When seed was harvested from these 
plats it was found that the plants produced 
from these seeds reproduced faithfully the 
characters of the original selection. Each 
original selection, therefore, became the parent 
of a variety. Several of these varieties are 
now growing in the grass garden of the De- 
partment of Agriculture, where they have 
been the object of careful observation during 
the past season. They differ markedly in 
character of growth, earliness, size, ete. Some 
of them are evidently far superior to the or- 
dinary timothy as grown by farmers (which is 
a mixture of superior and inferior varieties), 
some for seed production, others as hay plants, 
and others as pasture plants. 

In a manner exactly similar, Mr. A. B. 
Leckenby, director of the Eastern Oregon Ex- 
periment Station, has isolated ten varieties of 
brome grass (Bromus inermis Leyss.), as dis- 
tinet, for instance, as the ordinary varieties of 
wheat. He has also isolated a larger number 
of varieties of Poa pratensis, differing to a 
remarkable degree in character of growth, and 
consequently in agricultural value. 

This method of securing new and stable 
varieties is probably applicable to all unim- 
proved crops that are ordinarily close-fertil- 
ized. Im the case of cross-fertilized species, 
a different procedure would be necessary; but 
if Mendel’s law holds in these cases, similar 
results can be secured even in cross-fertilized 
species by artificially close-fertilizing the 
plants. In this case, the plants would imme- 
diately split up into a number of stable forms 
that could be segregated as varieties by iso- 
lating them from other forms. 

The origin of these varieties which are 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


found in stable form in close-fertilized species 
(and which exist potentially in cross-fertilized 
species) is a matter of great interest, both 
theoretically and practically. The adherents 
of the mutation theory will see in them a con- 
firmation of their views. The rest of us are 
compelled to admit that, thus far, their origin 
is obscure. 

In the light of the facts cited, the question 
whether a given crop is cross- or close-fertil- 
ized becomes a matter of prime importance, 
as different methods of procedure are required 
in the two cases. Dr. Hopkins states that 
clover plants selected in a manner analogous 
to that described for timothy did not repro- 
duce true to seed, but that the plants grown 
from the seed of a single plant represented all 
the forms observable in the original field of 
clover. This is what Mendel’s law leads us 
to expect, if clover is cross-fertilized, a matter 
which has recently been called in quéstion. 
It is easily seen that we have here a list of 
important problems for plant physiologists, in 
determining definitely what crops do and what 
do not eross-fertilize. There is likewise a broad 
and promising field of work in securing in 
a stable form superior strains of all ordinary 
erops to which these methods have not already 
been applied. The amount of improvement 
possible represents the difference between the 
mixture of all strains and the best components 


of the mixture. W. J. SPmnnuMan. 
U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 


RECENT ZOOPALEONTOLOGY. 
FIELD EXPEDITIONS DURING THE PAST SEASON. 


Tur Kansas chalk was visited by three 
parties during the summer. The first, under 
Professor S. W. Williston, representing the 
University of Chicago, was extremely suc- 
cessful, especially in procuring remains of 
mosasaurs, pterosaurs and toothed birds; the 
collection will be arranged principally as 
a study collection in the university. The 
second party represented the Carnegie Insti- 
tution of Pittsburg, and is reported to have 
been very successful also. The third party 
was that of Mr. Charles H. Sternberg in the 
same field. He writes that he collected over 
sixty specimens of Cretaceous fossils, includ- 


SCIENCE. 


Yo) 


ing especially well-preserved specimens of the 
turtles. Protostega gigas is represented by 
three skulls and a complete skeleton. The 
skeleton lay on its dorsal surface with the fore 
limbs stretched out at right angles to the me- 
dian line of the carapace, measuring six feet 
between the ungual phalanges; the hind limbs 
were parallel with the neural arch, and 
stretched out behind. Mr. Sternberg also 
secured a number of mosasaur skulls, with 
portions of the skeleton of Platecarpus (one 
individual ineluded sixty-six continuous verte- 
bre behind the skull); also skulls of each of 
the three genera of mosasaurs, the skeleton of 
Portheus, and skulls and skeletons of a num- 
ber of other genera of fishes. It appears that 
erosion of the chalk is quite rapid, and there 
are practically fresh exposures in many parts 
of this famous region. 

Professor Loomis, of Amherst College, who 
has been for some years with the American 
Museum of Natural History expeditions, dur- 
ing the past season conducted a party from 
Amherst into South Dakota. <A collection 
including the remains of some 500 animals 
was made, chiefly in the White River beds, 
the best specimens being the skeleton of a 
titanothere and of an oreodon. 

Princeton University sent an expedition 
under Dr. Marcus Farr into the Laramie and 
Judith River Beds of Montana. It is re- 
ported as having been very successful. 

The American Museum of Natural History 
sent four parties into the field. The first, 
the third Whitney Expedition for fossil horses, 
worked in western Nebraska and South 
Dakota, and added considerably to the collec- 
tion of fossil horses already in the museum. 
The choicest specimen found by this party 
was the skeleton of Camelus occidentalis. 
The second party worked in the Bridger Beds 
of western Wyoming under Mr. Walter 
Granger, and was successful in securing a 
representative collection of the small fauna 
of that region. The third party, under Mr. 
Peter Kaison, continued the excavation of the 
Bone Cabin Quarry in the Como region, the 
chief discoveries being a fore limb of Moro- 
saurus, a skull of Diplodocus, portions of an- 
other skeleton of Stegosaurus and a very large 


36 SCIENCE. 


collection of the limb bones of Camarasaurus 
from the Reed Quarry. The fourth expedi- 
tion went into South Dakota and northern 
Wyoming, under Mr. Barnum Brown, and 
resulted particularly in the discovery of abund- 
ant mosasaur and plesiosaur material. 

The explorations of the Carnegie Museum 


have been described by Mr. Hatcher in a re- 


cent number of Scrmnce. 

Mention should also be made of the continu- 
ation of the explorations in the Triassic under 
Professor Merriam, of the University of Cali- 
fornia, as well as of the cave fauna in Shasta 
County, a description of which has already 
appeared in SCIENCE. H. F. O. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 


THE appearance of the Fourteenth Annual 
Report of the Missouri Botanical Garden covy- 
ering the year ending December 31, 1902, 
enables us to note the rapid growth of this 
institution. The report shows that the in- 
come from all sources for the year was $1927,- 
142.50 and that considerably more than one 
half of this amount was expended on the gar- 
den, including library, herbarium, salaries, ete. 
The total number of species of plants now in 
cultivation in the garden is 11,551, which is 
more than double the number grown in 1895. 
The herbarium now includes 427,797 speci- 
mens. During the year there were added no 
less than 62,844 sheets of specimens. The 
botanical library was increased by more than 
2,000 books and pamphlets, bringing the total 
number up to about 42,000. Other interesting 
statistics are given, showing that the garden 
has been an active agent in the promotion of 
botanical knowledge. : 

The bulk of the volume is taken up with a 
paper by Alfred Rehder under the title of 
“Synopsis of the Genus ZLonzcera, covering 
206 pages, and including twenty full-page 
plates. The lapse of seventy years since the 
last general revision of the genus in the fourth 
volume of DeCandolle’s ‘Prodromus’ makes 
such a paper as this especially necessary. 
This is shown by the fact that of the 154 spe- 
cies recognized in this monograph, but 42 
oceur in the ‘Prodromus.’?’ The conservative 


treatment accorded to the genus is indicated 
by the small number of new species (eleven, 
only) which the author has described. Such 
moderation, after the ‘lying fallow’ of this 
particular botanical field for so long a time, 
should put to shame our ‘species makers.’ 
In this the Missouri Botanical Garden has 
rendered a distinct service to botanical science. 


AN ELEMENTARY JOURNAL OF MYCOLOGY. 


Apout a year ago Professor Kellerman, of 
Columbus, Ohio, began publishing a leaflet for 
the benefit of those who wish to learn some- 
thing about the fungi. He ealled it the Ohio 
Mycological Bulletin and filled it with excel- 
lent photoengravings of the larger fungi. 
With each picture was given a simple descrip- 
tion adapted to the understanding of ‘ children 
in years and children in knowledge.’ It has 
been so successful that practically all of the 
earlier numbers have been exhausted. The 
first volume, which includes twelve numbers 
aggregating forty-eight pages, closes with a 
good index. With the last number a title 
page for the volume is supplied. The new 
volume is to start with the new year, and it is 
announced that ‘ the frequency of issue during 
the year will depend on the financial receipts.’ 
The hope is expressed that two numbers a 
month may be issued during the spring and 
fall. For teachers in the public schools who 
wish to learn to know the commoner large 
fungi nothing better than this is published 
anywhere. 


SOME RECENT PAPERS ON SYSTEMATIC BOTANY. 

Wim R. Maxon in the ‘ Contributions 
from the United States National Herbarium’ 
(Vol. VIIL., part 3) publishes ‘A Study of 
Certain Mexican and Guatemalan Species of 
Polypodium, in which he notices eight species, 
five of which are new to science. Two good 
plates illustrate the’ paper. 

In the September number of the Bulletin 
of the Torrey Botanical Club Dr. G. N. Best 
revises the mosses of the genus Leskea, so far 
as the North American species are concerned. 
Ten species are recognized, two of which are 
new. He finds two new varieties also. The 
paper is accompanied with two plates showing 
structural details. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


JANUARY 1, 1904.] 


In the October number of the Journal of 
the Linnean Society the ‘ Enumeration of all 
the Plants known from China Proper, For- 
mosa, Hainan, Corea, the Luchu Archipelago 
and the Island of Hongkong,’ by Francis -B. 
Forbes and William B. Hemsley, is carried 
forward nearly through the Cyperacee. As 
the sequence is that of Bentham and Hooker, 
it is likely that a few more numbers will see 
the end of this great work. 

In No. 247 of the Journal of the Linnean 
Society (dated October, also) W. and G. S. 
West publish an interesting paper on the 
‘Scottish Freshwater Plankton,’ which shows 
that the Scottish phytoplankton ‘is unique in 
the abundance of its desmids.’ 


CHEMISTRY OF PLANT AND ANIMAL LIFE. 

Proressor Snyper, of the University of 
Minnesota, has compiled a handy little volume 
under the title of ‘The Chemistry of Plant 
and Animal Life,’ which merits a notice here, 
since it is an attempt to place within reach 
of the beginner many of the chemical facts 
which otherwise are inaccessible to him. It 
is an elementary treatise and was originally 
prepared for the students in the school of 
agriculture of the university. This made it 
necessary that the treatment should be quite 
simple, and as nearly non-technical as possible. 
It is not, therefore, a ‘contribution’ to sci- 
ence, but it is a contribution to the pedagogies 
of science. The author has found how to 
present the subject for the class of students 
under consideration; a class characterized by 
great earnestness and a desire to learn all that 
ean be reached, but whose scholastic prepara- 
tion is somewhat defective. Difficult as is the 
problem, Professor Snyder has successfully 
solved it. He first gives about twenty chap- 
ters to a simple statement (with experiments) 
of general chemistry, and follows these with 
such topies as ‘the water-content of plants,’ 
“the non-nitrogenous organic compounds of 
plants,’ ‘the nitrogenous organic compounds 
of plants,’ ‘chemistry of plant growth,’ ‘ com- 
position of fodders,’ ‘composition of wheat,’ 
ete. The book, while a simple one, and no 
doubt here and there open to the criticism of 
some confusion of details, is without question 


SCIENCE. 37 


one which will be of great service to beginning 
students, especially in the schools of agricul- 
ture. A new edition is under way, and is to 
appear soon. It should ‘find place in many 


schools. CuHarurs EK. Bassey. 
Tire UNIVERSITY oF NEBRASKA. 


THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 

THE trustees of the Carnegie Institution 
have approved the recommendation of the ex- 
ecutive committee that $10,000 be granted for 
twenty tables at the Marine Biological Labora- 
tory at Woods Hole, Mass., for 1904. Appli- 
eations received prior to February 1, 1904, will 
be considered, and twenty persons assigned to 
the tables at the laboratory, for the season of 
1904. 

The trustees have also approved of an appro- 
priation for two tables at the Naples Marine 
Biological Station, for which applications will 
be received and considered up to February 1, 
1904. 

It is desirable that all applications for re- 
search assistantships shall be in the hands of 
the committee by February 1. 

The regulations in regard to the research 
assistantships are as follows: 

It is the purpose of the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington, among other plans, to encour- 
age exceptional talent by appointing a certain 
number of research assistants. 

These positions will not be those commonly 
known as fellowships or scholarships; nor is 
the object of this provision to contribute to 
the payment of mechanical helpers or of assist- 
ants in the work of instruction. It is rather 
to discover and develop, under competent 
serutiny and under favorable conditions, such 
persons as have unusual ability. It is not in- 
tended to provide means by which a student 
may complete his courses of study, nor to give 
assistance in the preparation of dissertations 
for academic degrees. Work of a more ad- 
vanced and special character is expected of all 
who receive appointment. 

The annual emolument will vary according 
to circumstances. As a rule, it will not exceed 
$1,000 per annum. No limitations are pre- 
seribed as to age, sex, nationality, graduation 
or residence. Appointments will, at first, be 
made for one year, but may be continued. 


38 SCIENCE. 


It is desirable that a person thus appointed 
should work under the supervision of an in- 
vestigator who is known to the authorities of 
the Carnegie Institution to be engaged in an 
important field of scientific research, and in 
a place where there is easy access to libraries 
and apparatus—but there may be exceptions 
to this. 

Applications for appointments may be pre- 
sented by the head of, or by a professor in, 
an institution of learning, or by the candidate. 
They should be accompanied by a statement 
of the qualifications of the candidate, of the 
research work he has done, and of that which 
he desires to follow, and of the time for which 
an allowance is desired. If he has already 
printed or written anything of interest, a copy 
of this should be enclosed with the application. 

Communications upon this subject should 
be distinctly marked on the outside envelope, 
and on the inside, ‘Research Assistant,’ and 
should be addressed to the Carnegie Institu- 
tion of Washington, Bond Building, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

As all our readers know, the American As- 
sociation for the Advancement of Science, the 
American Society of Naturalists and about 
twenty affiliated societies are meeting this 
week at St. Louis. Several of the most im- 
portant national societies devoted to the bio- 
logical sciences, or their eastern branches, are 
meeting in Philadelphia. The American Philo- 
sophical Association is meeting at Princeton, 
and there are more or less local meetings in 
other cities. At the time of going to press 
information in regard to these meetings has 
not reached us; but we shall as usual publish 
full reports in the issue of next week and in 
subsequent issues. 


M. Entire Bertin has been elected a member 
of the Paris Academy of Sciences in the sec- 
tion for geography. 


M. H. Griénanr, professor of physiology in 
the Paris Museum of Natural History, has 
been elected a correspondent of the Philadel- 
phia Academy of Natural Science. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 470. 


Proressor Lupwic Bourzmany, of Leipzig, 
has been elected an honorary member of the 
Academy of Sciences at Moscow. 


Proressor Orro BurscHui, professor of zool- 
ogy and paleontology of the University of 
Heidelberg, has been appointed an honorary 
member of the Universities of St. Petersburg 
and Moscow. 


Tue honorary doctorate of the University 
of Marburg has been conferred on Dr. Thedor 
Tschernyshew, of St. Petersburg, director of 
the Russian Geological Committee. 


Tuer University of Munich has conferred an 
honorary doctorate of philosophy on Mr. L. 
Cockayne, of Christ Church, New Zealand. 


Mr. A. J. EvELAND, a graduate student in 
geology and mineralogy of the Johns Hopkins 
University, has been appointed geologist to the 
Mining Bureau established by the United 
States Government in the Philippine Islands. 


Mr. Joun Swarer, formerly custodian of 
botany at the Carnegie Museum of Pittsburg, 
has been appointed custodian of the Museum 
of the New York Botanical Gardens. 


Proressor Paun HuruicH, director of the 
Royal Institute for Experimental Therapeu- 
tics at Frankfurt, a/M, will deliver the first 
course of Herter lectures at the Johns Hop- 
kins University Medical School. Professor 
Ehrlich’s lectures will be in German, and will 
probably present the results of his researches 
on immunity. 


Dr. G. Suvs WoopHean, professor of pathol- 
ogy at Cambridge University and member of 
the Royal Commission on Tuberculosis, gave 
the third Henry Phipps Institute lecture on 
December 29 at Philadelphia, his subject beimmg 
‘Paths of Infection in Tuberculosis.’ 


Tue Bradshaw lecture was delivered before 
the Royal College of Surgeons on December 
9 by Mr. Henry Morris, the subject being 
“Cancer and its Origin.’ 

A spEciaL meeting of the Scottish Geograph- 
ical Society was held at Edinburgh on Decem- 
ber 17, under the presidency of Professor 
James Geikie. An address was delivered by 
Sir Thomas H. Holdich on ‘ The Patagonian 
Andes.’ 


January 1, 1904.] 


A CABLEGRAM to the daily papers states that 
Dr. Alexander Graham Bell arrived at Genoa 
on December 27. He will convey to the 
Smithsonian Institution at Washington, D. C., 
the remains of James Smithson, founder of 
the institution, who died in Genoa in 1829. 


We learn from the Botanical Gazette that 
the large herbarium of the late Professor C. 
Haussknecht will be maintained by his family 
under the auspices of the Thuringian Botan- 
ical Society. 


Iv is announced that Dr. Oscar Guttmann 
has presented to the London Chemical Society 
a photograph of the portrait of Roger Bacon in 
‘possession of Lord Sackville at Knole House, 
Sevenoaks. , 


Dr. FRIEDRICH GOLL, professor of pharma- 
cology at Zurich, has died at the age of 
seventy-three years. 


WE regret to record the death of M. Proust, 
professor of hygiene of the University of Paris 
and inspector general of the Sanitary Service; 
of Dr. Eugene Askenasy, honorary professor 
of plant physiology at the University of 
Heidelberg; and of Dr. Ottmar Schmidt, pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the Institute of Tech- 
nology at Stuttgart. 


Dr. P. CuatmMers MircHenn, secretary of 
the London Zoological Society, writes to the 
London Times: The recent death of the Polar 
bear, a popular favorite at the Zoological 
Gardens since 1895, has caused some interest 
and has been the occasion of many published 
comments based on inaccurate information. 
Perhaps you will allow me space to state the 
facts. The bear was in good health and 
spirits and fed well until the afternoon of 
Sunday, November 1, when, soon after taking 
food, it fell backwards and died almost in- 
stantaneously. The post-mortem changes were 
unusually rapid, and next day an examination 
was made in the presence of Mr. Beddard, the 
society’s prosector, and myself, and a prelim- 
inary diagnosis was arrived at. Subsequently 
Dr. Salaman, pathologist to the London Hos- 
pital, a fellow of the society, who has very 
kandly placed his services at the disposal of 
the society until the return from abroad of 


SCIENCE. 39 


the special pathologist recently appointed by 
the council, made a careful examination of the 
material that we had reserved, and established 
the correctness of the preliminary diagnosis 
that the cause of death was an aortic aneurism. 
The case was of great scientific interest, and 
Dr. Salaman will communicate to a future 
scientific meeting of the society a detailed ac- 
count of it. I may say now, however, that, 
except for the local lesion, the organs and 
tissues were healthy, and it is extremely im- 
probable that the creature suffered. It would 
have been impossible to make the diagnosis 
during life, or, had we known of the existence 
of the disease, to have taken any steps for its 
treatment. I may add that, while in the past 
very considerable additions to anatomical 
knowledge have been made at the prosectorium 
attached to the gardens, the council of the 
society, by increasing the accommodation for 
pathological work and by appointing a special 
pathologist, hope that additions to knowledge 
of the treatment of animals will be made. 


Baron EpmMunp bE Roruscum has placed in 
the hands of M. Albert Gaudry, president of 
the Paris Academy of Sciences the sum of 
10,000 franes to enable him to secure for the 
Paris Museum of Natural History the more 
valuable specimens in the Filhol paleontolog- 
ical collection. 


AccorpinG to Reuter’s Agency, Mr. Bruce, 
the leader of the Scottish Antarctic Expedi- 
tion which was sent out last year on board the 
Scotia, has arrived at Montevideo from the 
Falkland Islands. He reports that all is well 
in the Scotia, which is on the way to Buenos 
Ayres. Six men have been left behind in 
charge of a meteorological station. The news 
of the safe return of the Scottish Antarctic 
Expedition has come some two or three 
months earlier than was expected. It was 
not originally Mr. Bruce’s intention to winter 
in the Antarctic, but it was understood that if 
he did so nothing would be heard of the ex- 
pedition after its departure from Port Stanley, 
Falkland Islands, until March of next year. 
The meteorological station referred to by the 
explorer at which six of his men have been 
left appears to be the station set up by Mr. 
Bruce at Cape Pembroke, Falkland Islands, 


40 SCIENCE. 


before the Scotia left for the southern seas in 
January last. 


Tue National Geographic Society has re- 
cently moved into its new home, the Gardiner 
Greene Hubbard Memorial Hall. As the 
building is not entirely completed, the formal 
opening of the hall will be deferred for the 
present. The society offers three courses of 
meetings during the season of 1903-1904—a 
regular or scientific series of ten meetings; 
a popular series of ten illustrated lectures, and 
an afternoon or lenten series of five popular 
lectures. 


A spEcIAL Roentgen Congress and Exhibi- 
tion is to be held at Berlin during the spring 
to celebrate the tenth anniversary of the dis- 
covery of the X-rays. Professor Roentgen is 
expected to be present at the congress. Fur- 
ther information can be obtained from Dr. 
Immelmann, Liitzowstr. 72, Berlin, W., Ger- 
many. i 


Tue annual dinner of the Institute of 
Chemistry of Great Britain took place on 
December 14. Speeches were made by the 
president, Dr. Davis Howard, Sir William 
Huggins and Sir William Ramsay. 


Tue Canadian papers state that at a meet- 
ing of the board of directors of the Canadian 
Forestry Association, held at the office of 
Mr. E. Stewart, Dominion Superintendent of 
Forestry, the treasurer reported the receipt 
of a grant of $300 from the Government of 
Ontario to assist in the work of the associa- 
tion, and that the governments of Quebee and 
British Columbia had also promised assistance. 
The membership has reached the number of 
420, and, with the improved financial position 
in which the association finds itself, it is pro- 
posed to extend the sphere of its activities. 
The establishment of a journal devoted spe- 
cially to forestry interests was discussed, and 
it was decided to report favorably to the an- 
nual meeting. The publication will, if started, 
be managed by the association, and will prob- 
ably be at first a quarterly, with the expecta- 
tion of being finally issued as a monthly. It 
is hoped in this way to call public attention 
more distinctively to the work of the associa- 


LN. S. Von. XTX. No. 470. 


tion, and to the importance of proper forest 
management. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


At the forty-ninth quarterly convocation of 
the University of Chicago President Harper 
announced that Mr. John D. Rockefeller had 
given to the university $1,500,000 in real es- 
tate and $350,000 in cash. A donor, whose 
name was not made public, has given $1,096,- 
466 for a special purpose not yet designated. 


Ir is stated that Mrs. Phoebe Hearst will 
provide a building for the Department of 
Botany of the University of California. 


A qirt of $1,000 from Edward Mallinckrodt, 
of St. Louis, has enabled the department of 
chemistry of Harvard University to refurnish 
the library of Boylston Hall and to buy several 
hundred new books. EH. Mallinckrodt, Jr., has 
added to this a sum to be paid annually for 
the next five years to defray the running ex- 
penses of the library. The collection of books 
has also been enlarged by several gifts from 
Dr. Wolcott Gibbs. 


We learn from the London Times that the 
late Mr. Charles Seale-Hayne, M.P., has under 
his will provided for the establishment of a 
College of Science, Art and Agriculture in 
the neighborhood of Newton Abbot, open to 
students of the county of Devon. Details will 
be left to the exeeutors. It is thought that 
about £150,000 will be handed over for the 
college. 

Dr. Horace Crark RIcHARDS, instructor in 
physics in the University of Pennsylvania, 
has been promoted to an assistant professor- 
ship of physies. 

Mr. Henry Batrour, M.A., of Trinity Col- 
lege, Oxford, has been elected to fellowship at 
Exeter College. Mr. Balfour has been for 
some years curator of the Pitt-Rivers Museum. 
He is also president of the Anthropological 
Institute, and president-elect of the Anthropo- 
logical Section of the British Association for 
1904. 


Dr. Hermann GRAssMANN, docent at Halle, 
has been promoted to an assistant professor- 
ship of mathematics. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, JANuARY 8, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
Convocation Week............2.2...0e 25s 41 
Some Recent Phases of the Labor Problem: 
elec NEW COMB) cial ciel Ses civic eich mie tenet = 46 


The Association of American Agricultural Col- 
leges and Haperiment Stations: Dr. E. W. 
IAIN i. shes «fo « oendoseso2s90¢anasAnbe 61 


Scientific Books :— 
Traquair on the Lower Devonian Fishes of 
Gemiinden: PROFESSOR BASHFORD DEAN. 
Theobald’s Report on Hconomic Zoology: 
F. H. CHirrenpen. The International 
Catalogue of Scientific Literatwre—Geol- 
Oggyiwlny IBS| WEEKS! 2j.).}i)< sale: cleo nies cess 64 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 67 


Societies and Academies :— 
The North Carolina Section of the American 
Chemical Society: C. D. Harris. New 
York Section: Dr. H. C. SHerman. The 
Chemical Society of Washington: Dr. A. 
SEIELL. The Biological Society of Wash- 
ington: K. A. Lucas. The Anthropological 
Society of Washington: Dr. WALTER 
Houeu. The Botanical Society of Wash- 
ington: Dr. Hersert J. WEBBER. The 
Torrey Botanical Club: Dr. F. S. Earner. 
The Research Oluwb of the University of 
Michigan: Proressor Freperick C. NEw- 


CONDE yepe valance yctaliedstata aise we ysi aval sua oparatas a yea Rue 67 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

Morgan on Hvolution and Adaptation: Dr. 

J. T. CunnineHam. Mutation and Selec- 

tion: Dr. Maynarp M. Mereatr. Wilbur 

Wright's Successful Flight in a Motor- 

driven Aeroplane: H. H. CLayTon........ 74 
The Hditorial Committee of Science........ 77 
Scientific Notes and News.................. 77 
University and Educational News.......... 80 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


CONVOCATION WEEK. 

The second of the convocation week 
meetings of scientific and learned societies 
leaves no doubt as to the wisdom of the 
general plan, though it is evident that a 
final solution can only be reached by grad- 
ual evolution. The meetings held at St. 
Louis, Philadelphia, Pittsburg, Princeton 
and elsewhere brought together large 
groups of scientific men, and the programs 
of papers and other features, both formal 
and informal, were satisfactory and profit- 
able. With the exception of the first of 
the convocation week meetings held last 
winter at Washington, when practically all 
the scientifie societies met together, so 
many scientific men have not simulta- 
neously attended the meetings of their so- 
cieties. Last winter there was some fric- 
tion in the relations of the numerous so- 
cieties meeting together for the first time 
and partly confluent in their scope; but 
such friction naturally leads to attrition 
and adjustment. When individuals or so- 
cieties are isolated there are always exeres- 
cences in process of formation, which re- 
quire friction for their removal. 

We can not, consequently, regard the 
meetings this year as wholly satisfactory. 
The attendance of the meeting of the 
American Association and its affiliated so- 
cieties at St. Louis was not as large as had 
been expected. It seems unfortunate that 


49 SCIENCE. 


the of Naturalists 


should have met at a different place from 


American Society 


many of the national societies devoted to 
the biological sciences which have usually 
been affiliated with it; that the newly 
should 
have met apart from the Geological So- 


formed Paleontological Society 
ciety; that the psychologists should have 
met at St. Louis and the philosophers at 
Princeton; the mathematicians of the cen- 
tral states at St. Louis and those of the 
eastern states in New York, and the like. 
The vast area of the country makes sec- 
meetings but it can 
scarcely be assumed that the arrangements 


tional inevitable, 
this year were the best possible. 

This journal has consistently advocated 
a convocation week meeting of our national 
societies, in which all shall be represented, 
if not by sessions and programs, then by 
delegates. One of the most important 
problems of the present decade is the proper 
affiliation of men of science to promote their 
interests, which we sincerely believe repre- 
sent the interests of civilization. Combina- 
tions of labor and of capital may be purely 
selfish, promoting the interests of one class 
at the expense of another, though there is 
good reason to hope that in the end trades 
unions and corporations will benefit the 
whole community ; but from the very outset 
every advance in science is for the benefit 
of all. 


the phenomena of electromagnetism in the 


Faraday and Henry investigated 


laboratory; others joimed in the work and 
gave us the telegraph, the telephone, the 
electric motor and the rest, adding billions 
of dollars to the wealth of the world. The 
direct and indirect work of a single man, 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 471. 


such as Liebig or Pasteur, adds more to the 
common wealth than all the scientific men 
that have ever lived have drawn from it. 
The material contributions of science are 
obvious and trite; but it is sometimes not 
fully realized that the social and intel- 
All our 
mental, social and esthetic ideals have be- 


lectual results are even greater. 


come clarified. Great men lived before the 
dawn of modern science, greater perhaps 
than any now living, but their activity was 
often fragmentary, and in many directions 
childish. 
other scientific concepts are now the com- 


The doctrine of evolution and 


mon heritage of every one, guiding all 
thought and all action. 

It is entirely reasonable to urge that 
whatever advances science must benefit 
every one; first perhaps an individual, but 
then a class, a country and the world. 
This truth must be impressed on the whole 
people; and it must be done by those who 
realize it most fully, that is by scientific 
men themselves. Much progress has in- 
deed been made in this country. The na- 
tional government does more for scientific 
work than any other; the states and muni- 
cipalities do more; private gifts to univer- 
sities and scientific institutions are larger, 
But this is a 
matter of the last twenty years; we have 
The United States must as- 
sume the leadership im science, not only for 


far larger, than elsewhere. 
only begun. 


its own advantage, but also for the welfare 
of civilization. 

Our press, the pulpit, legislative bodies, 
public sentiment generally, are well mean- 
ing, but excessively crude. Scientific men 


have a large problem in education before 


January 8, 1904.] 


them, and it must be admitted that educa- 
tion must begin at home. All dissensions 
and petty quarrels are harmful. There is 
too much rivalry and too little cooperation 
in scientific work. We inherit from a long 
past certain competitive tendencies which 
should become obsolete. The attainment 
of priority, degrees, honors, membership in 
exclusive societies, and the like, have been 
Bet- 


ter no heaven than one with a limited seat- 


largely the rewards of scientific men. 


ine capacity, for which each strives to the 
It is less selfish to 
seek wealth by producing new wealth which 


exclusion of others. 


is shared by all, than to attempt to secure 
honors at the cost of depreciating others. 

The moral intended is, of course, that 
scientific men should unite to promote their 
common interests. A single individual 
should subordinate his interests to those of 
the group, and a single society to those of 
It is 
fortunately the case that the interests of 


the general organization of societies. 


the individual usually coimeide with those 
of the group; the conflict is more often be- 
tween the temporary and permanent inter- 
The 
theory of evolution tells us that this con- 


ests of an individual or of a group. 


flict is due to maladjustment, the environ- 
ment having changed more rapidly than the 
individual or the group has been able to 
adjust itself to it. 

This appears to be the case just now in 
Scientific 


workers have increased fivefold in from 


the organization of science. 


ten to twenty years; new and specialized 
lines of scientifie work have arisen; the 
geographical center of scientific population 
and interest is moving from the eastern 


SCIENCE. 43 


seaboard toward the west. The organiza- 
tion that sufficed twenty years ago is no 
longer adequate. Special societies for each 
science have arisen and regional and local 
sections have been formed. Organic fusion 
must be slow, but better progress can be 
made by intelligent guidance than by sub- 
mission to the wasteful processes of natural 
selection. No one can lay out a valid pro- 
eram for the future, but suggestions can be 
made subject to the survival of the fit, 
among which the waste by failure is less 
than in the case of experience by the rule 
of thumb. 

The Smithsonian Institution, the Nation- 
al Academy of Sciences and the Carnegie 
Institution, each has had an opportunity 
to become the center of scientific organiza- 
tion for the country, and each has com- 
pletely failed. This is not altogether re- 
erettable. We live in a democratic age 
and community; government by represen- 
tation is better than any aristocratic or 
The 


organization of the council of the American 


despotic form, however benevolent. 


Association adapts it for becoming the chief 
The as- 
sociation represents the entire country and 


center for scientific organization. 
all the sciences. If any regions are inade- 
quately represented in its membership or 
any sciences are not included in its scope, 
The 
council is not only the representative body 


this need not continue to be the ease. 


of the association, but also of all scientific 
societies that wish to be represented on it. 
It is not known to every one that any scien- 
tifie society may by vote of the council be- 
come affiliated with the association. In this 
case it sends one or two delegates, accord- 


44 SCIENCE. 


ing to its size, to the council, and has the 
option of meeting with the association; its 
members, even when not members of the 
association, enjoy all the privileges of re- 
duced rate of transportation, provision of 
place of meeting, entertainments, ete., pro- 
vided by the association. At the same time 
the society retains its complete autonomy. 
It can meet when and where it likes, and if 
it meets with the association its scientific 
program and other functions remain en- 
tirely under its own control. The associa- 
tion has been liberal and catholic in its 
treatment of affiliated societies. For ex- 
ample, at the meeting last week the So- 
ciety of College Teachers of Hducation 
and the Society for Horticultural Science 
were admitted to affiliation. Some socie- 
ties, as the American Chemical Society and 
the American Physical Society, met at St. 
Louis in conjunction with the correspond- 
ing sections of the association; others, as 
the Geological Society of America and the 
American Botanical Society, provided in- 
dependent programs. No society that has 
met several times with the association has 
shown any disposition to separate itself 
from it. Different societies may hold in- 
dependent meetings in summer or even in 
convocation week, but they will not break 
an affiliation that has proved useful for 
the society, for, the association and for the 
general progress of science. If any society 
is unwilling to become affiliated with the 
association, it is probably due to ignorance 
of the conditions. 

The American Association, the Ameri- 
can Society of Naturalists and about 


twenty affiliated societies, including all 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 471. 


those devoted to the physical sciences and 
many of those devoted to the natural sci- 
ences, met together at St. Louis. It was 
believed by many members of the council 
that it was undesirable to select St. Louis 
The 


council has in recent years recommended 


as the place of meeting this winter. 


a place of meeting two years in advance. 
When the meeting at St. Louis was first 
discussed at Denver, it was supposed that 
it would be last summer in connection 
with the exposition. The exposition was 
postponed for a year, and the association 
changed its time of meeting to the winter. 
It would probably have been wiser for the 
association to have continued its summer 
meetings, at least until the relative advan- 
tages of winter and summer meetings had 
become evident. If the association and 
such of the affiliated societies as had 
wished had met last summer at Ithaca, 
this winter at Philadelphia and next sum- 
mer at St. Louis in conjunction with the 
Congress of Arts and Science, the condi- 
tions would have been more satisfactory 
than is the case at present. But at Wash- 
ington the council of the association had 
no definite knowledge of the congress of 
the exposition, the chemists had met at 
Philadelphia the year before, and no one 
could have supposed that the eastern 
branch of the Zoological Society and other 
biological societies would have met at 
Philadelphia, when it was known that the 
association would meet there next year. 
Scientific societies, like national govern- 
ments, have a way of muddling through; 
but it is surely reasonable to suppose that 
men of science should be the first to 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


apply scientific methods to their own 
guidance. 

The American Association and a ma- 
jority of our scientific societies will meet 
next year at Philadelphia and the follow- 
ing year at New Orleans. Other societies 
should adjust their plans to this definite 
program. It may be desirable for the nat- 
uralists of the central states to hold a 
meeting of their own next year and for the 
naturalists of the eastern states to hold 
a separate meeting the following year, and 
individual societies may like to meet some- 
times apart from the general meeting. But 
it would be unfortunate to have two com- 
peting groups of naturalists meeting next 
year at the same time and in the same re- 
gion. If this should occur, it would not 
be the result of the wishes of the general 
body of naturalists, but through misunder- 
standings on the part of a few officers. If 
any of the societies that met at Philadel- 
phia last week are unwilling to return next 
year, or wish to hold meetings apart from 
the main group, itis to be hoped that they 
will meet separately in small university 
towns, rather than undertake to organize a 
conflicting group. 

It would be desirable for the council of 
the American Association, representing 
the association and affiliated societies, to 
lay out its program even more than two 
years in advance, it being of course always 
adjustable to new conditions. There ap- 
pears to be no valid argument against both 
It entails 
extra labor on the secretaries, but they 
should be adequately paid, and different 
Summer and winter secretaries could be 


summer and winter meetings. 


SCIENCE. 45 


The 
council of the association should and does 


elected should this prove desirable. 


meet twice a year, and it appears that a 
summer meeting would be a better occa- 
sion than the time of the meeting of the 
National Academy at Washington. A 
summer meeting, supposing waste on 
printing programs and the like to be elim- 
inated, would increase the receipts more 
than the expenditures; in any ease the as- 
sociation has an ample income, having 
been able in recent years to turn over 
large sums from the income to the perma- 
nent funds. Since the New York meeting 
of the association, when it was decided to 
send Science free of charge to all mem- 
bers, the membership has increased from 
1,700 to over 4,000. If seventeen hundred 
members—there were actually but twelve 
hundred who were in full standing—could 
hold one meeting annually, four thousand 
members can hold two. It is nearly always 
a mistake for those who do not want to do 
a thing to say to those who do: You must 
not. With the exception of certain officers, 
most of whom might be elected in dupli- 
eate, no one need attend any particular 
If the work 


were somewhat differentiated there would 


meeting of the association. 


be ample room for two meetings a year, 
with a satisfactory attendance and pro- 
gram at each. 

We look forward to seeing the convoca- 
tion week meeting in midwinter the great 
assemblage of American men of science, 
where all societies will be represented either 
by a plebiscite or by delegates, which will 
impress on the public at large the weight 


and magnitude of scientific work. The 


46 SCIENCE. 


meeting should be essentially an affiliation 
of scientific societies, but they should when 
convenient confine their special programs 
to the mornings, leaving the afternoons to 
the sections of the association, two or three 
of which should arrange for each afternoon 
programs of general interest to scientific 
men, uniting In many eases the common 
fields of several sciences. This convoca- 
tion week meeting must be held in a large 
city and its work must be largely technical. 
But there appears to be ample room for 
smaller and less formal meetings in the 
summer, held in a university town or sum- 
mer resort, where those who liked—and 
many teachers and others whose work in 
science is somewhat that of the amateur 
would appreciate the opportunity—could 
come together. Out-of-door life and scien- 
tifie excursions would there be possible, 
pleasant and profitable. 

A full discussion of the whole problem 
of scientific organization would be oppor- 
tune and useful at the present time. This 
journal will be glad to give space to those 
who are willing to express their views on 
the subject, and we hope that it will be dis- 
eussed from different standpoints. 


SOME RECENT PHASES OF THE LABOR 
PROBLEM .* 


OLD PROBLEMS, BUT NEW CONDITIONS. 

In the vapid development of modern in- 
dustry old problems are ever assuming new 
and perplexing phases, but intrinsica!ly 
new ones rarely develop. Each age is 
quick to imagine that its difficulties exceed 
those which were conquered by its prede- 
cessors, and to faney the latter as free 


* Address by the vice-president and chairman 
of Section I, Economics and Social Science, St. 
Louis meeting, December, 1903. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 471. 


from the obstacles in overcoming which 
the courage and genius of its own leaders 
are subjected to their supremest tests. But 
this is the superficial view only. Just as 
the principle upon which the most complex 
mechanism performs its marvelously spe- 
cialized functions is to be found in the 
erudest labor-saving devices of the earliest 
dawn of culture, so the most primitive in- 
dustrial organization, when subjected to 
minute serutiny, is sure to present traces 
of those elements of friction, which, one 
after another in different stages of prog- 
ress, become the particular and absorbing 
problems of generations to which each in 
turn seems the sole serious impediment to 
the realization of perfect conditions. 

The labor problem is no exception. It is 
the struggle between different factors in 
production over the relative shares of each, 
and its origin lies deep in fundamental 
conditions which have existed as long as 
men have known the wisdom of saving 
labor by the use of tools and of conserving 
productive resources by the device of pri- 
vate property. It will persist, in one or 
another of its protean forms, until by some 
unlooked-for alehemy man learns to satisfy 
all human wants without requiring from 
any individual more labor or abstinence 
than he will voluntarily undertake. In 
every historic era this unceasing struggle 
has left indelible traces upon the record of 
man’s progress, and rarely has it yielded 
the place of primary importance in the 
minds of men to anything less compelling 
than religious zeal. 


A PERSISTENT INQUIRY. 


How shall the comfort of satisfied eco- 
nomic wants be divided between those who 
contemporaneously endure the physical 
discomforts of toil and those who control 
the other factors in production? This is 
the everlasting question which, in various 
forms, has been asked and answered, re- 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


asked and answered again in unending 
repetition while humanity has struggled 
from the crudest forms of industrial or- 
ganization, through slavery and serfdom, 
up to the wages system. It is asked to-day, 
when the share of the poorest who labors 
with his hands is sufficient to purchase 
comforts which a few centuries ago were 
beyond the reach of kings, and although 
the agencies which capital has established 
seek daily in the uttermost limits of the 
earth and among the most distant islands 
of the sea to bring thence and lay cheaply 
at the feet of labor every product that can 
satisfy or please, the final answer is not 
yet. Indeed, in this most fortunate land, 
where sturdy manhood has found nature 
in her most generous mood and industry 
and genius have won an abundant and in- 
ereasing harvest, there is at this hour of 
highest prosperity a reverberating discon- 
tent which seems to some to menace much 
that has been gained. 

The organized demand for a better an- 
swer to this persistent questioning than 
labor has ever yet received appeals 
strongly to the sympathies of those who 
love their fellowmen, and, as long as it is 
kept within reasonable bounds by a due 
sense of the responsibilities of strength 
and the rights of others, will have the aid 
and approval of the right-minded. But 
sympathy may go where sanction must be 
denied, and in every step of its perpetual 
struggle for what it rightly or wrongly 
conceives to be the interests of labor, and 
the means of attaining a higher standard 
of comfort and culture, the demands of 
organized labor must be subjected to intel- 
ligent serutiny, and the probable conse- 
quences of granting them must be calmly 
and minutely examined. 


CONDITIONS OF THE PROBLEM OF 
DISTRIBUTION. 


iet us enumerate a few of the funda- 


SCIENCE. 


47 


mental conditions of this struggle over dis- 
tribution. Capital is the great labor-saving 
contrivance and the mother of all labor- 
saving devices. Withdraw that which ex- 
ists, and, with the most grinding toil, the 
earth could not be made to support a tithe 
of its present population. Stop its further 
accumulation, and industrial progress 
would cease until presently it should give 
place to retrogression. Remove the incen- 
tive to abstinence, and saving and accu-. 
mulation would stop, while the gradual 
consumption of existing capital, not offset 
by replacement, would inaugurate a move- 
ment toward barbarism. Reduce the in- 
centive, and the pace of progress will be 
proportionately slackened. But capital is 
not only the handmaiden of labor; it is 
the accumulated product of labor. Wher- 
ever it exists, it is conclusive evidence of 
previous effort and abstinence. Labor, 
alone, can pluck the ripened fruit; it can 
not inerease the product by cultivation, 
for it can not subsist during the period of 
growth. Labor can wade in the stream 
and catch a few fish with its naked hands, 
but it can not spread the net to gather food 
for a multitude unless capital provides for 
its immediate necessities while the fabric is 
beimg constructed. Labor can carry an 
armful of coal or a stick of lumber, but 
the locomotive which hauls its train of 
fifty cars, each containing one hundred 
thousand pounds of coal or lumber, is cap- 
ital. But the instruments of husbandry, 
the net, the locomotive, have no direct or 
final utility of their own. Of themselves, 
they neither feed, nor clothe, nor house the 
body of man, nor minister to his higher 
needs. They will not be brought into 
being, unless, for the effort expended in 
their creation, their producers are guaran- 
teed a fitting recompense. This recom- 
pense must be a share in the products ob- 
tained through their agency and the eco- 
nomic name for this share is ‘interest.’ 


48 i SCIENCE. 


‘Interest, including in that term compensa- 
tion for the risk assumed, is all that cap- 
ital, as such, ever obtains from produc- 
tion; it is the least which it will accept. It 
is high when the supply of capital is small 
in proportion to the demand for it, and 
low when the condition is reversed. Profit 
is not for capital; it is the wages of the 
usually arduous labor of determining the 
direction of industrial investments or the 
differential reward of exceptional eco- 
nomic foresight or technical skill. Those 
who reap profits are differentiated from 
those who receive wages by the fact that 
profits are dependent upon success (pos- 
sibly it is better to consider that in the 
ease of failure there are really negative 
profits), while wages constitute a pre- 
ferred claim, the payment of which is 
usually arranged for in advance. 


THE LIMIT OF WAGES. 


Here, then, are the conditions of the 
problem. Labor must have its wages at 
all times and under all conditions. In the 
long run directing efficiency must have its 
profits and capital must have its interest. 
Wages may often absorb portions of the 
shares of the other claimants, but unless 
these are eventually satisfied, the efficiency 
of industry will be impaired and eapital 
will cease to accumulate, either because the 
owners of wealth prefer to consume it or 
because they hoard it rather than permit 
its use as capital on unsatisfactory terms. 
Thus is the limit of wages fixed. The ef- 
forts of organized workingmen to secure 
higher wages deserve approval so long as 
they do not threaten industrial efficiency 
through a reduction of interest or profits 
below the minimum limits respectively 
fixed by marginal capitalists and entre- 
preneurs. 
its would, if granted, produce results 
which could only react unfavorably upon 
those who made them. The increase and 


Demands that exceed these lim- : 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 471. 


progressive diffusion of industrial intelli- 
gence tend to reduce the amounts which 
can be effectively demanded by those 
whose service to society lies in determining 
the character and organization of produc- 
tive efforts, and the rapid accumulation of 
capital tends to reduce the general rate of 
interest. Consequently, wage-earners can 
reasonably anticipate an increasing share 
of the value annually produced, and if, 
under favorable conditions, they fail to 
receive it they may justly demand a 
change in the proportion which they are 
accorded. 


WHY WORKMEN ORGANIZE. 


The instinct which impels workingmen 
to organize rather than to deal separately 
with their employers is precisely the same 
as that which at other points of economic 
contact has universally led to efforts to 
mitigate the consequences of competition 
by the simple device of combination. The 
single workman, dealing with an employer 
of many workmen engaged to render sim- 
ilar service, is at exactly the same sort of 
disadvantage which confronts the small 
manufacturer who has to sell in a market 
to which a multitude of competing pro- 
ducers have access on equal terms. There 
is nothing strange in the fact that the char- 
acteristic movement of the great industrial 
revolution which has been in progress since 
the invention of the spinning jenny and 
the power loom has left its impress upon 
labor as well as upon capital. If labor had 
not organized, it would have been a sadly 
belated factor in the industry of the open- 
ing years of the twentieth century. Just 
as capital must continue to compete with 
capital, so labor will compete with labor as 
long as capitalistic production and the 
wages system endure, but on either side 
folly could go no further than to seek the 
perpetuation of the crude, cut-throat com- 
petition which seeks the immediate exter- 


i 
| 
H 
: 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


mination of the rival at whatever cost to 
the survivor. Such competition is crude 
in its methods; it is destructive in its con- 
sequences, and it is not, to-day, a means of 
attaining the highest degree of economic 
efficiency. Both capital and labor are 
amply justified in uniting to mitigate this 
kind of competition. It is to be observed, 
in. passing, that the capitalistic combina- 
tion, when fully justifiable, is the means of 
economies in operation and management 
which lower the cost of production, and in 
the face of actual or potential competition 
are always finally expressed in reduced 
prices. The labor combination has so far 
almost always lacked this justification, and 
the leaders must systematically seek it or 
their organizations must continue to find 
their entire economic basis in the mitiga- 
tion of the evils of unrestrained and de- 
stuctive competition. 


THE EMPLOYERS’ SIDE. 


Enlightened employers do not expect or 
desire to obtain profits by securing the 
ereatest aggregate of labor, measured in 
hours or effort, at the lowest cost. The 
American manufacturer has seen the 
ereatest productive efficiency coincide with 
the highest wages, and he knows that the 
countries where workmen receive the low- 
est real wages are unable to compete in the 
markets of the world with those whose 
labor is better paid. He is able to estimate 
somewhat accurately the superiority of 
intelligent, well-fed, well-clothed, well- 
housed and contented workmen over those 
who do not enjoy similar advantages. He 
knows that every machine in his factory 
works better in the hands of those whose 
standard of living requires a high degree 
of comfort. Yet in the economic philos- 
ophy of American employers there is no 
place, and there should be none, for gra- 
tuities. High wages, liberal wages, are 
preferred not from any impulse of gener- 


SCIENCE. 


49 


osity, which would be out of place and 
destructive of its own purposes, but be- 
cause, dollar for dollar, the return from 
high wages exceeds that from low wages. 
When this is not the case, it means that 
the point of over-payment has been 
reached. The excess of the wages received 
by the overpaid group, in such an instance, 
over the normal amount, is a burden which 
must be borne by the other industries and 
the other workmen of the same community. 
Hach workman must give in labor a fair 
equivalent for what he receives in wages, 
or some other workman will receive less 
than he gives. The employer who, for the 
sake of continued peace during a period 
of high profits or for any other reason, 
aids in establishing such a condition, 
strikes a blow at industrial welfare which 
in the end will fall most severely upon the 
wage earners. Jt is not claimed that the 
practices of individual employers invar- 
jably attain to these standards. Narrow 
selfishness and unenlightened greed sway 
their proportions of the members of every 
industry and every grade in every indus- 
try. Employers have dealt grudgingly 
and even cruelly with workmen in far too 
many instances and always to their own 
injury. Yet the conditions which make 
for fair dealing are so compelling, even if 
we omit the paramount condition created 
by the force of public sentiment, and they 
are so easily read, that it is not too much 
to say that, in the main, American employ- 
ers desire to deal fairly, and do deal fairly 
with the men whose names are upon their 
pay-rolls. 


HOW IT LOOKS TO UNIONISTS. 

The economic philosophy of general ac- 
ceptance among the members of labor or- 
ganizations is not so easily grasped. In- 
deed, there is reason to believe that, except 
for a few generalizations of the broadest 
character, there is no economic creed to 


50 SCIENCE. y 


which American trade unionists as a class 
adhere. Among their leaders, there is 
every shade of belief from the strong -in- 
dividualism of John Mitchell to the social- 
ism of Hugene Debs. Hyen in the prin- 
ciples to which the various unions of the 
American Federation of Labor adhere, 
there is no uniformity, for we find organ- 
izations, like the United Mine Workers, 
which desire a monopoly of all labor en- 
gaged in certain kinds of production and 
move toward it by waging destructive war- 
fare upon existing unions of more modest 
ambitions, side by side with others which 
admit only the journeymen workers of 
single highly specialized trades. Theoret- 
ical agreement is probably confined to the 
propositions that the share of labor in the 
products of current industry should stead- 
ily increase at the expense of the share of 
capital, and that this can be accomplished 
by the enforcement of collective bargain- 
ing. It is less surprising that the first 
proposition should be pressed by some to 
the extreme of denying the validity of the 
claim of capital to even the smallest share 
in the benefits following production than 
it is gratifying that the socialists, whose 
philosophical system rests upon this view, 
have made so little progress in their efforts 
to turn the labor movement into an organ- 
ized demand for the socialization of all 
industry. 


DIVERGENT UNION METHODS. 

Even in the current practices of unionism 
there is little uniformity. At their best, as 
exemplified in the recent history of some 
of the brotherhoods of railway employees, 
these practices tend to increase the dignity 
of labor and to simplify the relations be- 
tween employers of large bodies of labor 
and the workingmen composing the latter. 
On the other hand, there have been in- 
stances in every great city and in most in- 
dustries in which organized labor has been 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 471. 


made the means of denying to American 
citizens some. of the most fundamental 
rights of indastrial liberty; of intolerable 
interference with public order, and of op- 
pression, fallmg with equal injustice upon 
representatives of capital and of labor. 
What more significant contrast could there 
be than that offered by American unionism ; 
one day paying tribute at the grave of P. 
M. Arthur, the conservative leader of a 
conservative organization, and, on another, 
parading under the leadership of a creature 
under conviction for using his position in a 
labor union as a means of blackmail and the 
erotesque figure of the man whose infamous 
name has became a synonym for the un- 
speakable vileness of the lowest period in 
the political degradation of the chief city 
of this country. Yet how short the interval 
between the funeral of the late Grand Chief 
of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engi- 
neers and the Labor Day parade led by 
Parks and Devery. 


CONDUCT THE TEST. 


I do not bring these facts to your recol- 
lection without a purpose. They are sub- 
mitted as conclusive evidence of the gulf 
which separates the best organizations from 
the worst. Between these extremes are un- 
doubtedly to be found representatives of 
nearly every intermediate degree. In fact, 
the same organization will not infrequently 
appear, within a short period, to be guided 
by utterly divergent ethical and economic 
principles. Such a lack of stability is of 
course unfortunate, but it is attributable to 
a cause that operates in all voluntary asso- 
ciations, and at times even in the state it- 
self; absence of interest on the part of those 
whose influence, if exerted at all, would 
usually fall on the conservative side. The 
conclusion to be drawn from these facts is 
an important one. They establish the prin- 
ciple that every labor organization and 
every demand of a labor organization must 


January 8, 1904.] 


be treated, and ought to be treated, accord- 
ing to its independent merit. It is impos- 
sible to generalize far beyond the right of 
workmen to organize, a right which no sane 
student of industrial affairs and no intel- 
ligent employer of labor ever now disputes. 
Workmen have the right to organize and to 
do so on such terms and for such lawful 
purposes as seem good to them, but em- 
ployers have an equal right to refuse to 
deal with organizations whose purposes or 
methods would lead to a loss in efficiency 
and to reject particular overtures whose ac- 
ceptance would have that effect. Hmploy- 
ers who earnestly desire to accord to a 
movement, the persistence of which against 
great opposition and in spite of enormous 
obstacles of internal origin, establishes the 
economic soundness of its central principle, 
will always strain a point in favor of deal- 
ing with labor organizations. Indeed, no 
employer ought to decide to refuse to con- 
sider an offer to make a collective bargain 
on the part of his employees except on the 
most convincing grounds and with the 
greatest reluctance. To destroy one labor 
organization is but to prepare the way for 
another, and the elimination of one set of 
labor leaders will never be more than the 
signal for others to enter upon the scene. 
Nor are the new organizations and the new 
leaders always to be preferred to the old. 


FAIR TREATMENT FOR FAIR EMPLOYERS. 

The character of a labor organization is 
to be measured by its acts and by the prin- 
ciples to which it adheres. The most com- 
mon tests of character relate to the treat- 
ment of non-union men, restriction of out- 
put and the strike. Before any of these, 
but not detracting from their importance, 
I should put the attitude of the organiza- 
tion toward the fair employer. What ob- 
‘jection can be raised to the declaration that 
neither a fair workman nor a just organiza- 
tion will enter into an agreement which 


SCIENCE. 51 


may compel unfair treatment of a fair em- 
ployer. Yet this principle, so obviously 
just, is openly and constantly violated by 
organized labor. Before the recent An- 
thracite Coal Strike Commission, witness 
after witness among those called on behalf 
of the striking mine employees, testified 
that prior to the great strike of 1902, he 
had no grievance against his employer, the 
Philadelphia and Reading Coal and Iron 
Company. This great company enjoyed 
an unimpeachable record for fairness to its 
employees, and among them there existed 
no doubt that should unintentional wrong 
oceur it could readily be brought to the 
attention of its mining superintendent and 
would be promptly and completely reme- 
died. The man who holds this position, 
John Vieth, has spent more than half a 
century in the anthracite mines, beginning 
as a day laborer. He knows the mines and 
the miners as probably no other man has 
ever known or can ever know them; his 
sympathies are broad; his manner, frank; 
his honesty, rugged; his fidelity to the in- 
dustry and every man in it, impartial and 
unbreakable. The Reading company re- 
duced the price of powder a full decade 
before its competitors; it established the 
sliding scale of wages; it never owned a 
company store; it long ago established an 
employees’ insurance fund, and it pays its 
miners on the simple per-car and per-linear- 
yard systems. Yet the organizers, who 
were sent to the anthracite fields from Illi- 
nois in the early part of 1900, were able 
to induce the employees of the Reading to 
pledge themselves to an agreement binding 
them to desert their fair and generous em- 
ployers whenever the miners in the north- 
ern and western anthracite regions should 
feel sufficiently dissatisfied with the wages 
or conditions in their fields to demand a 
general strike. This is precisely what hap- 
pened in May, 1902. The satisfied em- 
ployees of the Schuylkill region had no 


52 SCIENCE. 


desire to strike, but because the men of the 
other regions desired to do so, they con- 


sented to attack the prosperity of the com- 


pany which had brought prosperity to 
them, and, with no grievance of their own, 
to strike a severe blow against American 
industrial stability. This action is typical 
of hundreds of instances in which the most 
generous fairness on the part of individual 
employers has failed to protect them 
against sharing the penalty of real or 
fancied unfairness on the part of the own- 
ers of other establishments with which they 
had no connection. In fact, with few ex- 
ceptions, it is the current practice of Amer- 
ican unionism to refuse any special protec- 
tion to the employer who distinguishes 
himself from his competitors by the liberal 
treatment of his employees while, in a spec- 
tacular manner and with unbending spirit, 
visiting the sins of those who displease 
them alike upon the just and the unjust. 
Such a practice is destructive of the legiti- 
mate ends to be gained by organization. 
It places the generous employer at a greater 
disadvantage than that resulting from the 
ordinary competition of his rivals, and 
utterly destroys the business advantage 
that ought to go with righteous methods. 

The principle which requires the fair 
treatment of fair employers must be estab- 
lished as a part of the creed of unionism 
before the latter can become a genuine 
means of industrial and social betterment. 
‘This would require the revision of some 
very prominent features of the methods 
now current among labor organizations; it 
would abolish the sympathetic strike and 
also the general strike which, in recent in- 
stances that all will recall, has frequently 
paralyzed the industry of entire sections. 
It would leave labor controversies to be 
settled by the parties directly concerned 
and would pretty effectually deprive both 
of the equally fickle support and opposition 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 471. 


of public sentiment based on mere personal 
inconvenience and annoyance. 


TREATMENT OF NON-UNION MEN. 


The attitude of many numerically strong 
labor organizations toward those workmen 
who refuse to join their ranks approaches 
closely to a denial of personal freedom in 
matters concerning which no liberty-loving 
individual can submit to dictation. No 
organization except government can, with 
the sanction of the intelligent and far-see- 
ing, be permitted to demand allegiance. 
Yet many labor leaders declare that no 
workman has a moral right to remain aloof 
from their organizations, and compare those 
who dare to do so with those guilty of 
treason in its most repulsive forms. This 
doctrine has its natural consequence, during 
the stress of great strikes, in violence di- 
rected at the persons and property of those 
who give practical expression to their inde- 
pendence by retaining employment against 
the wishes of their fellows or by accepting 
positions abandoned by those on strike. It 
would be absurd to expect any other result. 
Idle men of somewhat limited culture, of 
violent passions and possessing a strong 
sense of the solidarity of their class, with 
abundant oportunities for the development 
of mob spirit, will always attempt to com- 
pel obedience to what they regard as the 
moral law when convinced that those who 
violate it are doing so to the positive injury 
of their class. Hence, when John Mitchell 
and other leaders in the great strike of 
1902 proclaimed against violence, in the 
abstract, with one breath, and with the 
next compared the men who were at work 
to Benedict Arnold and to the tories of the 
Revolutionary period, they laid a founda- 
tion upon which it is not strange that other 
men, whose opportunities to acquire self- 
control had been more limited than their 
own, should erect a superstructure of 


‘ 


yr 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


violent interference with the rights of 
others. 

These leaders did not even verbally con- 
demn the use of the boycott for the purpose 
of enforcing the new commandment: 
‘Without permission of the majority thou 
shalt not work.’ It was invoked to drive 
the daughters and sisters of non-union men 
from employment as teachers in the public 
schools and in the factories, to prevent 
medical attendance upon the sick and to 
interfere with the interment of the dead. 
Its most common use was to deprive fam- 
ilies of the necessaries of life, and fathers 
who sought work for the sake of their little 
ones were sometimes compelled to see them 
suffer from hunger because no one dared 
to sell them food. From this expedient to 
dynamite how short the step. No one need 
be surprised that it was repeatedly taken. 


THE VOICE OF AUTHORITY. 


It still remains to be seen whether those 
who have been most prominent in incul- 
cating this new doctrine of the depravity of 
refusing to join an organization and espe- 
cially of insisting on the right to work on 
terms which are unsatisfactory to others 
will learn wisdom from the Anthracite Coal 
Strike Commission and the President of the 
United States. To appreciate the contrast 
between their teachings and those of the 
great, extra-legal labor commission and the 
President who created it, it is necessary to 
compare certain expressions of Mr. Gom- 
pers and Mr. Mitchell with the later official 
utterances of the commission and the 
President. 

Mr. Gompers is the author of the follow- 
ing: 

* * * The individual workman who attempts 
to make a bargain with the directors, or the repre- 
sentatives of such a directorate, simply places him- 
self in the position of a helpless, rudderless craft 
on a tempestuous ocean. If he did but himself 


a wrong we might pity him and concede not only 
his legal but his moral right. But for the workman 


SCIENCE. 


53 


who toils for wages and expects to end his days 
in the wage-earning class, as conditions seem to 
point, it will be a necessity, his bounden duty to 
himself, to his family, to his fellowmen and to 
those who are to come after him to join in the 
union. 


Mr. Mitchell’s expression is, perhaps, 
still more forcible. He said of the non- 
union man who works during a strike that: 


He is looked upon, and I think justly, in the 
same light that Benedict Arnold was looked upon, 
or any traitor. He is a man that fails to stand 
for the movement that the people stand for, and, 
after all, the majority of the workers in any par- 
ticular community reflect the public sentiment of 
that community. It is the movement of the people 
of that community, and if a man wants to desert 
his fellow workers and wants to prevent them 
from accomplishing good ends, then he is justly 
looked upon with disfavor by those who are right, 
because his working does not affect himself alone. 
If it only affected himself, it would be a different 
proposition, but the fact that he works helps to 
defeat the objects of the men who go on strike. 


And then, answering the inquiry whether 
the ‘lives of the wives and children’ of the 
men he had thus condemned ought ‘to be 
made unendurable,’ Mr. Mitchell declared: 


I think those wives and children had better ask 
their fathers. 


Both of the foregoing declarations con- 
stituted part.of the record before the An- 
thracite Coal Strike Commission when it 
unanimously adopted a report containing 
the following: 


The non-union man assumes the whole responsi- 
bility which results from his being such, but his 
right and privilege of being a non-union man are 
sanctioned in law and morals. The rights and 
privileges of non-union men are as sacred to them 
as the rights and privileges of unionists. The con- 
tention that a majority of the employees in an 
industry, by voluntarily associating themselves in 
a union, acquire authority over those who do not 
so associate themselves is untenable. * * * It 
should be remembered that the trade union * * * 
is subordinate to the laws of the land and can not 
make rules or regulations in contradiction thereof. 
Yet it at times seeks to set itself up as a separate 
and distinct governing agency, to control those 
who have refused to join its ranks and to consent 


54 . SCIENCE. 


to its government, and to deny to them the per- 
sonal liberties which are guaranteed to every 
citizen by the constitution and laws of the land. 

Finally, exercising the authority volun- 
tarily accorded to it under the terms of the 
submission, the commission established the 
wise and salutary rule: 

That no person shall be refused employment, or 
in any way discriminated against, on account of 
membership or non-membership in any labor organ- 
ization; and that there shall be no discrimination 
against or interference with any employee who 
is not a member of any labor organization by 
members of such organizations. 

It is very highly to the credit of organ- 
ized labor that among the seven members 
of the tribunal which, without a dissenting 
voice, enunciated this fundamental prin- 
ciple of fairness toward all labor, sat the 
distinguished chief of the Brotherhood of 
Railway Conductors, probably the ablest of 
the living labor leaders of America, Edgar 
E. Clark. The last paragraph quoted has 
received especial presidential approval, 
having been quoted in full mm President 
Roosevelt’s letter of July 13 last to the 
Seeretary of Commerce and Labor, in which 
it is followed by these words: 

I heartily approved of this award and judgment 
of the commission appointed by me, which itself 
included a member of a labor union. This com- 
mission was dealing with labor organizations 
working for private employers. It is of course, 
mere elementary decency to require that all the 
government departments shall be handled in ac- 
cordance with the principle thus clearly and fear- 
lessly enunciated. 

Thus in decreeing that every productive 
establishment of the federal government 
should be an ‘open shop,’ in which there 
should be no discrimination among Amer- 
ican citizens on account of race or, creed or 
membership or non-membership in any 
legitimate organization, the President in 
the plainest terms gave the weight of his 
endorsement to the sound doctrine that the 
discrimination thus forbidden in the work- 
shops of the government ought not, any- 


[N.S. Vor, XIX. No. 471. 


where, to be permitted. . The freedom of 
American workmen could not survive the 
general abandonment of the ‘open shop.’ 
It is infringed whenever there is any dis- 
crimination such as can no longer exist in 
the government shops. Workmen who have 
faith in their own abilities, who treasure the 
liberties won for them by their predecessors 
here, who realize the spirit and the beauty 
of the Golden Rule, will not seek to debar 
others from the right to work on account 
of a disagreement as to the propriety of 
the terms and conditions on which work can 
be obtained. The ‘union label’ is one of 
the milder measures for compelling men to 
join organizations against whose principles 
or practices they wish to protest by remain- 
ing aloof from them. He who refuses to 
purchase goods not having this label is at- 
tacking the independence of some fellow- 
citizen. The employer who weakly assents 
to its use becomes a participant im a con- 
spiracy against those workmen who dissent 
from the principles or methods of those who 
control the organizations in their fields. It 
is not pleasant to condemn a deyice which 
does afford some guarantee that the goods 
to which it is attached are not produced 
under oppressive conditions, but while giv- 
ing partial protection against this danger 
the ‘union label’ threatens one of the most 
fundamental and sacred rights of every 
individual. Divest it of its proscription 
of the non-union man and its power for 
good will win for it deserved welcome from 
all right-thinking men. 


RESTRICTION OF OUTPUT. 

There would be little utility in discuss- 
ing the restriction of individual output in 
its theoretical aspects. That the practice 
is unsound in economics is recognized by 
all students and even by those leaders of 
labor organizations who are unable to deny 
that it is followed, more or less extensively, 
by the members of their organizations. 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


This general condemnation of the practice 
makes it extremely difficult to determine 
its extent, but no one doubts that in one 
way or another it is a characteristic of 
most unions. It can not, however, be said 
to have originated with them. Whenever 
two men work side by side, for an em- 
ployer, there is a decided tendency to limit 
the labor of both by the capacity of the 
less skillful and energetic. As the number 
of workmen increases the tendency in this 
direction is inevitably strengthened, and 
while there may be some increase, through 
example and emulation, in the labor of 
those who would do the least if working 
alone, the net result is always expressed 
im an average that is much nearer the ca- 
pacity of the least capable than that of the 
most efficient. All this will happen in any 
establishment without the aid of a labor 
union. What, then, is the consequence, 
in this connection, of organization? 
Usually its first effect is that the restric- 
tion which was formerly tacit and some- 
what irregularly enforced is reduced to a 
set of definite regulations that are syste- 
matically enforced. It may not become 
greater in amount, although it is: not un- 
likely that it will. There is some evidence, 
however, that the improved economic per- 
ception on the part of labor leaders is 
causing the older organizations to abandon 
their efforts in this direction. Yet the re- 
cent growth of the unions in numbers and 
power, and the reluctance of employers to 
resist their aggression in this particular, 
during a period of such tremendous gen- 
eral prosperity that nearly every produc- 
tive establishment was taxed to its utmost 
capacity, have unoubtedly led to an exten- 
sion of the practice of restriction which 
must be checked. The unit of production 
per employee per hour has suffered a very 
considerable decrease in almost all Amer- 
ican industries during the last six or seven 
years, and this diminution of effectiveness 


SCIENCE. 50 


has placed a more severe burden upon in- 
dustry than the enhanced wages by which 
it has been accompanied. The record of the 
United Mine Workers in the Anthracite 
region is probably an extreme one, but it 
can be more advantageously studied than 
any other on account of the elaborate 
investigation prosecuted last year. The 
testimony taken by the Strike Commission 
contained instances of probably every con- 
ceivable method by which the output of a 
body of workmen can be kept down to the 
level fixed by the least able and indus- 
trious. Those who dared to rebel against 
rules restricting their earnings were sub- 
jected to the ill-will and the systematic 
oppression of their less intelligent and en- 
ergetic comrades, until they either became 
less efficient or were driven from the mines. 
Tt is necessary to be patient with folly that 
springs from ignorance, but there is little 
excuse for leaders who, knowing the truth, 
do not use all their tremendous influence 
to spread an intelligent understanding of 
the simple economic principles which 
would at once destroy this most vicious of 
self-limiting practices. 


STRIKES. 


That recourse to the strike should ever 
be necessary is wholly deplorable, but the 
condition of men whom the laws deprived 
of the use this industrial weapon of last 
resort would be indeed pitiable. Freemen 
must have the right to work and the right 
not to work, and they may not be impelled 
to choose the former by any command 
more imperative than that springing from 
their own desire to enjoy the fruits of ex- 
ertion. The whole fabric of industry and 
commerce rests on bargains toward which 
there is no compulsion stronger than this. 
Between the buyer and seller of commod- 
ities there are successive offers and coun- 
ter-offers until a point acceptable to both, 
but less satisfactory to either than his orig- 


56 SCIENCE. 


inal demand, has become the point of con- 
tract. The corporation and the ‘trust’ do 
away with a great deal of dickering be- 
tween individuals, and in a precisely sim- 
ilar way the labor organization attempts 
to substitute a single collective bargain for 
a multitude of individual bargains. If, 
however, the corporation and the trust are 
unreasonable in their demands, every one 
now knows that the potential competition 
of smaller concerns, which always exist, is 
speedily actualized and the productive or- 
ganizations that have shown their commer- 
cial incompetence to bargain reasonably 
with buyers are destroyed. So it should be 
with labor organizations. Those organiza- 
tions which are reasonable in their de- 
mands will usually establish their right to 
survive by remaining at peace with the 
employers; those whose frequent strikes 
and repeated complaints of the alleged 
tyranny of employers prove their inability 
to bargain are usually inefficient in their 
efforts to promote the interests of their 
members and ought to pass out of exist- 
ence. Yet the decision as to the terms 
which they will accept must always be 
left with the workmen, organized or unor- 
ganized. The right to strike ought to be 
used rarely and reluctantly; its use should 
always throw the burden of justifying its 
course at the bar of public sentiment 
jointly upon the employed and the em- 
ployer; it can never be necessary except 
by reason of the grievous fault of one 
party or the other: yet it may be necessary 
and the greatest protection against its be- 
coming so, save that which lies in the devel- 
opment and spread of a broad and intelli- 
gent spirit of humanity, lies in its exceed- 
ingly careful preservation. Generally 
speaking, however, the union which strikes 
on small provocation and frequently is to 
be classed among those which are undesir- 
able, and the credit of any labor organiza- 
tion ought to be in inverse proportion to 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 471. 


the frequency of its resort to this extreme 
method of enforcing its demands. 

As somewhat justifying the assumption 
that every strike is evidence of lack of ¢a- 
pacity somewhere, and perhaps indicating 
where the blame more frequently ‘resides, 
I would call your attention to the very 
large number of strikes which always at- 
tend the transition from a period of great 
industrial prosperity to one of relative de- 
pression. The interpretation of this phe- 
nomenon is very simple. From almost the 
beginning of a period of prosperity the 
leaders of organized workmen perceive 
that their position is one of growing 
strength. The demand for products is a 
demand for labor, and as the one is ex- 
pressed in rising prices the other is natur- 
ally translated into rising wages. Organi- 
zations formulate their demands, make 
them, and they are granted. New de- 
mands and new concessions follow in an 
alternation which becomes more rapid as 
prosperity appears more intense, the wil- 
lingness of employers to grant even seem- 
ingly extravagant demands as to wages or 
conditions being based on a confidence in 
the continuance of heavy demand and high 
prices which often amounts almost to in- 
toxication. While this process has been 
going on the effect of high wages and re- 
duced efficiency is being transferred to the 
consumers, always with some addition to 
make up for the exactions of those in 
charge of production. Naturally, this can 
not continue forever. Sooner or later 
there is a consumers’ ‘strike.’ That is, 
high prices ultimately reduce the effective 
demand, orders come less freely, the bubble 
is about to burst. Employers rather 
promptly perceive the situation more or 
less clearly; labor too frequently does not. 
More wages or less work, or both, are again 
demanded, and, as this time the employers 
see that the cost of acquiescence can not be 
shifted or realize that a curtailment of pro- 


| 
| 


January 8, 1904.] 


duction must soon occur, the demands are 
refused. The strike which, if the workmen 
are ill-advised, follows, marks the turning 
point from prosperity to depression. 

The other typical strike is a protest 
against a reduction in wages when the de- 
cline in commercial activity is in progress, 
or before the change to perceptibly better 
conditions has arrived. Such strikes are 
less frequent but much more likely to be 
ereditable to the judgment of the strikers. 
Employers rarely refuse reasonable de- 
mands while industry is prosperous and 
the labor market empty or nearly so; some 
of them do attempt oppressive reductions 
in wages or unjust modifications in condi- 
tions when the times are dull and the labor 
market glutted with the unemployed. This 
is not to say that radical reductions in 
wages may not be necessary; they are very 
apt to be after such a period of unprece- 
dented activity in every line of industry 
as that which is but just closed or closing, 
but it should be recognized that when due 
allowance for the changed conditions has 
been made everywhere there may be some 
employers who will endeavor to take ad- 
vantage of the situation and to deal un- 
justly with their workmen. May the num- 
ber of such employers be few and the 
resistance of their employees wise, fearless 
and effective. 

OTHER TESTS. 

The character of any labor organization 
is further to be tested by its principles and 
practices in reference to labor-saving ma- 
chinery, profit sharing, pensions, insurance 
funds, home ownership by its members, 
admission of applicants for membership, 
apprentices, the boycott, the manner in 
which it conducts itself toward other 
unions, and its rules and general policy. 
The verdict of intelligence concerning most 
of these matters is so clear that discussion 
would hardly be warranted. A wise policy 
will prevent any labor union from discour- 


SCIENCE. i 57 


aging ~the introduction of improved ma- 
chinery, from refusing to accept or, opposing 
fairly formulated efforts of employers to ob- 
tain greater loyalty from employees, from 
counseling against the ownership of homes, 
from upholding the boycott, from prevent- 
ing the industrial education of intelligent 
youth, and from permitting controversies 
with other unions to interrupt work or oc- 
casion inconvenience to blameless employ- 
ers. That particular organizations have 
grievously erred in these matters is, per- 
haps, much better known than that some 
have stood steadfastly for sound prin- 
ciples. 

These defects in the current beliefs and 
practices of some prominent labor organi- 
zations have been pointed out in no spirit 
of intolerance. The evils are widespread 
and serious; they must be plainly pointed 
out and bravely overcome; but they are 
not necessary accompaniments of such or- 
ganizations. In fact, as to most of them 
the history of several highly successful 
unions can be cited to show that among 
organizations composed of the most intelli- 
gent workmen they are likely to be elimi- 
nated. It is even more true that the much 
less pardonable practices which involve 
blackmailing employers and combinations 
with unserupulous representatives of cap- 
ital to rob consumers and destroy compet- 
itors are merely temporary consequences 
of an early recognition of strength which 
is not restrained by a sobering conscious- 
ness of responsibility or by ability to per- 
ceive the consequences of such injustice. 


VALUE IN ORGANIZATION. 

The conclusion is that while the labor 
problem must always persist, the organiza- 
tion of labor will continue and will in- 
erease its power to be of service, not only 
to workmen but also to society. The prin- 
ciple of organization will not only survive 
the defeat and destruction of those organi- 


58 . SCIENCE. 


zations which obstinately adhere to vicious 
principles and practices, but the genuine 
progress of the labor movement will be 
substantially advanced every time such de- 
served defeat is administered. 


ARBITRATION. 

While this progress is being made 
toward the atttaimment of better things 
and substantial results are awaited, the 
public properly searches for a means of 
preventing or mitigating the annoyances 
and losses that spring from the interrup- 
tion of production caused by labor con- 
flicts. Until employers and employees 
learn such sweet reasonableness in bargain- 
ing together as to avoid strikes how shall 
their number and their evil consequences 
be reduced? Obviously the demand is for 
a temporary remedy for a difficulty which 
ought ultimately to disappear. With this 
fact kept carefully in view it is safe to con- 
sider the remedy of arbitration. This has 
actually but one form. To be arbitration 
at all it must be wholly voluntary. The 
term compulsory arbitration is self-contra- 
dictory, and however it may be disguised 
it really means the creation of a new type 
of court endowed with authority to make 
contracts relating to labor services. Arbi- 
tration—voluntary arbitration—is a term 
so grateful to the ear to which it comes as 
a substitute for the clash of bitter indus- 
trial struggles that it seems ungracious not 
to commend it without qualification. If 
men can not agree what can be better than 
to submit their differences to the settle- 
ment of a disinterested and impartial third 
party? If men can not agree. This qual- 
ification begs the entire question. Reason- 
able men can agree and unreasonable men 
must become reasonable or be replaced, in 
industrial affairs, by those who are. One 
way in which unreasonable men arrange for 
their own replacement is by getting them- 
selves into situations out of which they can 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 471. 


not be extricated except’ through the as- 
sistance of others. The adjustments of in- 
dustry are too delicate to endure, without 
injury to all concerned, the frequent inter- 
ference of the disinterested. A strong 
personal interest is the element which is 
most effective in preventing irreparable 
mistakes. Arbitration may be the smaller 
of two evils, but no one should fail to rec- 
ognize it as an evil. Aside from the fact 
that it leaves the determination of matters 
of primary industrial importance to per- 
sons who will neither gain nor lose by the 
success or failure of the industry, it is evil 
in its consequences, because, when there is 
reason to rely upon its being arranged for, 
that fact constitutes an incentive to 
making, and insisting upon, unreasonable 
demands. The easy-going policy which 
consents to the submission of questions 
vitally concerning the welfare of an enter- 
prise to persons who have no stake in its 
success naturally leads to the easy-going 
method on the part of arbitrators which 
is expressed by ‘splitting the difference’ 
between the conflicting demands of both of 
the contending parties. This is the almost 
uniform result of arbitration. If you will 
turn to the decision and award of the re- 
eent Anthracite Coal Strike Commission 
you will find that. that ablest and mest im- 
partial of arbitration boards was not able 
to avoid this nearly inevitable result. In 
its pages you will read the contradiction 
of every substantial averment of the strik- 
ing mine workers. You will find that the 
wages of the employees of the anthracite 
operators did not, in April, 1902, compare 
unfavorably with these of bituminous 
miners or men in other employments of 
similar character. You will find that the 
conditions of life and the standard of 
living in the anthracite counties of Penn- 
sylvania were not lower than in comparable 
regions. You will find that the basis of 
payment was not unfair to the workmen. 


5 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


You will find the United Mine Workers de- 
seribed as a body too strongly influenced 
by bituminous coal interests to be a safe 
factor in the anthracite industry. You will 
find that boys voted at its meetings and 
gave a reckless tone to its management. 
You will find that the period of the great 
strike was one of lawlessness and violence, 
which the leaders of the organization could 
not or, at any rate, did not effectively 
check. So much the gentlemen of the com- 
mission gathered from unimpeached and 
unimpeachable testimony, and so much 
they clearly, concisely and fearlessly set 
down in the permanent record of their ar- 


duous and graciously accepted task. But 


after bravely announcing these facts in 
terms quite equivalent to declaring that 
the strike had no justification, the commis- 
sion yielded, as any other arbitrators 
would have yielded and as nearly all arbi- 
trators will yield in future controversies, 
to the impulse, commendable in itself, to 
deal generously with those who have rela- 
tively little and awarded a general advance 
in wages. 


“COMPULSORY ARBITRATION.’ 


The term compulsory arbitration in the 
literal sense of the words is a verbal ab- 
surdity, but it refers to a definite idea and 
one fairly understood by all. Those who 
favor it urge that when men will not rea- 
sonably agree on a contract relating to 
wages or other conditions of employment, 
and will not agree to let some third party 
make a contract for them, they ought to be 
compelled to adopt the latter course. The 
adherents of this view are very apt to begin 
their argument with the assertion that 
‘there are three parties to every strike’— 
the strikers, the employer and the public. 
They quite understate the number; there 
are five. There is, of course, always the 
public or rather the consuming public. 
Then on the side of labor there are always 


SCIENCE. 59 


those, mistaken and. misguided, perhaps, 
but American freemen after all, and en- 
titled to that liberty under the law which 
has been deseribed as ‘freedom to do as you 
please and take the consequences,’ who are 
willing to work on the terms rejected by 
the strikers; as well as those who have de- 
clined to work. On the side of capital, 
there may be supposed always to exist some 
one, Over-Ssanguine, perhaps, but entitled to 
experiment as he would with his own, who 
would employ the strikers on their own 
terms; as well as the former employer. 
Compulsory arbitration shuts its eyes to 
both those willing to work for the rejected 
terms and those willing to become em- 
ployers on the terms demanded. It sees 
only the old employers and the old em- 
ployees, and would force them to continue 
the industry on terms very likely to be un- 
satisfactory to both. Manifestly, when 
this court of so-called arbitration has issued 
its decree containing the terms of a new 
labor contract, it must have scme effective 
means for its enforcement. But by what 
process, consistent with freedom, is an em- 
ployer to be compelled to pay wages that 
he believes must lead to bankruptey, or 
employees to work on terms which they 
regard as so unjust that they prefer idle- 
ness to their acceptance? Such power is 
beyond the limits of governmental au- 
thority as they are established in the con- 
ditions essential to the preservation of 
human liberty. Men must be free to con- 
tract or not to contract, to work or to refuse 
to work, to remain in an employment or to 
leave it, to utilize their wealth as capital 
or to withhold it from the fields of produc- 
tion, to open their workshops or to close 
them, and there can be no limitation upon 
their rights in these particulars except as 
fixed by their own voluntary contracts, 
which does not dangerously reduce the 
liberties of the citizen. Public opinion 
may praise or condemn the manner in 


60 SCIENCE. 


which you or I exercise our legal rights 
and privileges, and in the face of it we may 
be driven to act otherwise than as we would. 
This pressure is legitimate, and when the 
public is not led astray by prejudice or 
wrongly instructed by demagogues the com- 
pulsion of its intelligent opinion often has 
salutary results. There can be no objec- 
tion to this sort of compulsion, and if it 
leads to the arbitration of individual dis- 
putes, which would otherwise have caused 
prolonged and bitter strikes, it probably 
leads to the choice of the least evil of the 
available ways of escape from a condition 
too evil in itself not to result in some more 
or, less permanent inconvenience. ‘The dif- 
ference between the compelling pressure of 
public opinion and the exercise of govern- 
mental authority is wide. Jf such au- 
thority is used by officers of a government 
to which power to compel arbitration has 
not been delegated, then that government 
has undertaken to over-ride its own laws, 
and regard for the law by the officers of 
government constitutes the whole difference 
between a despotic government and one 
which rests on the will of a free people. 
The humblest American citizen and the 
wealthiest American corporation are alike 
entitled to exercise every right which they 
possess under the laws which the people 
have made, and when any particle of the 
power or, the prestige attaching to official 
position is used to curtail the liberty of 
either that of both is endangered. Public 
“opinion may condemn a particular act 
which is not in violation of any law and, 
if unanimous and strong, it will usually be 
obeyed; but the hand of government must 
never be lifted to hasten the compliance. 
So long as the act is legal, government and 
the officers of government have no business 
with it. If the popular respect attaching 
to the most exalted office in the land has 
lately been made a means of compelling 
men to submit to arbitration the manner, in 


[N. 8. Von. XIX. No. 471. 


which they shall exercise the rights which 
no one denies are theirs, there has been a 
misuse of official position and a precedent 
has been established which, if followed, will 
sooner or later seriously impair the quality 
of American liberty. Compulsory arbitra- 
tion has been rejected by organized labor, 
and when Americans generally comprehend 
what is meant by that term they will have 
none of it whether through statutory enact- 
ment or by the unauthorized action of even 
the highest officer of their government. 


THE OUTLOOK. 

But if voluntary arbitration is no more 
than a temporary and rather dangerous 
makeshift, and compulsory arbitration is 
utterly to be condemned, what can be done? 
The answer has been given—men must 
learn to bargain together reasonably. The 
remedy ought to appeal to us more because 
it is a process and not a panacea for all the 
ills of industrial conflict. That men can 
learn to settle their disputes over wages 
without outside aid, and that unions can 
make and keep collective bargains, has been 
abundantly proven during the recent in- 
dustrial experience of the United States. 
All that is required is that there shall be 
more of this reasonableness and much less 
of its opposite. That this will come with 
the growth and spread of intelligence there 
need be no doubt. When workingmen and 
employers scrutinize more thoroughly the 
conditions by which their relations are fixed 
they will appreciate the wastefulness of 
friction and will know that reasonable deal- 
ing and the observance of the Golden Rule 
constitute the best of all policies. In at- 
taining this state of higher intelligence 
organizations of employees and of employ- 
ers will bear an important and useful part. 
Whatever evils may be discovered in the 
current practices of either class of organ- 
izations, however absurd the doctrines or 
erude the practices of some of them, no 


® 
y 
. 
3 
f 
5 
% 
¢ 
*, 


a 


JaNuARY 8, 1904.] 


matter even how ill-advised thei leader- 
ship, the contact of man with man which 
they directly cause, must, in the long run, 
lead to higher principles and better meth- 
ods. Satisfaction with the distribution of 
the results of productive effort as between 
wage earners and capitalists, we shall not 
see. Probably, if we did see it, we should 
wish for a condition which gave more occa- 
sion for effort and more justification for 
hope. But while complete satisfaction 
with the proportions received is neither 
likely to be attained nor properly to be 
considered as entirely desirable, the time 
when much of the present friction shall 
have disappeared is already very clearly 
foreshadowed. 
H. T. NEwcome. 


THE ASSOCIATION OF AMERICAN AGRI- 
CULTURAL COLLEGES AND EXPERI- 
MENT STATIONS. 

Tue seventeenth annual convention of 
this association, held-in Washington, No- 
vember 17-19, 1903, was one of the largest 
meetings in point of attendance which has 
ever been held. Something over 200 dele- 
gates and visitors were registered, and the 
representation was very general from dif- 
ferent sections of the country. 

As has been customary for several years 
past, the annual meeting of the official hor- 
ticultural inspectors was held during the 
days of the convention in conjunction with 
the meetings of the section on entomology. 

The convention as a whole was notable 
for its harmony aud the expedition with 
which business was transacted, and was 
remarked by many of the delegates as a 
most satisfactory meeting. 

The address of the president of the asso- 
ciation, James K. Patterson, of Kentucky, 
dealt with the general topic of the origin and 
work of the colleges and universities repre- 
sented by the association, and the influences 


s 


SCIENCE. 61 


of these institutions upon the development 
of technical and industrial education. 

One of the most important items of 
business was the consideration of the 
amendments to the constitution proposed 
at the Atlanta meeting. These amend- 
ments had been before the association for 
a year, and were adopted with practically 
no discussion. They provide for a reduc- 
tion in the number of sections to two, one 
on college work and administration and the 
other on experiment station work, three 
members of the executive committee to be 
chosen by the first section and two by the 
latter. There is provision for each section 
to create such divisions as it may find de- 
sirable, but no such divisions have yet been 
made, and the report of the committee on 
the organization of the new section for 
station work recommended that for the 
present no such divisions be made. The 
section on horticulture and botany, how- 
ever, expressed a desire to continue its 
meetings in the future, and appoimted a 
committee to confer with the executive com- 
mittee with reference to this matter. 

The report of the bibliographer, A. C. 
True, called attention to the more impor- 
tant bibliographies which have appeared 
during the year, a list of 110 bibliographies 
with explanatory notes constituting the 
main part of the report. Special mention 
was made of the ‘International Catalogue 
of Scientific Literature,’ several parts of 
which have been noted in this journal. The 
incompleteness of this catalogue in regard 
to certain lines of work in agricultural 
science, notably that of the experiment sta- 
tions, was a matter of much regret. 

The standing committee on indexing ag- 
ricultural literature called attention in its 
report to the index cards for the publica- 
tions of the Department of Agriculture 
which are being prepared by the Depart- 
ment Library, and also to the cards for the 
accessions to this library. The latter are 


62 SCIENCE. 


now being printed by the Library of Con- 
gress, and can be obtained at small cost, as 
may also the catalogue cards of the Library 
of Congress relating to agriculture. The 
card catalogue of the Department Library 
now contains over 110,000 cards, and the 
library is thus in position to render more 
efficient aid than ever before to the agricul- 
tural colleges and experiment stations, by 
furnishing them information in regard to 
the literature on particular topics, loaning 
books, ete. Attention was called in this 
report to the combined index, now in press, 
to the first twelve volumes of ‘Experiment 
Station Record,’ and to the card index of 
agricultural literature issued by the Office 
of Experiment Stations. 

The report of the committee on methods 
of teaching agriculture, presented by A. C. 
True, was on the relation of the natural 
sciences to agriculture in a four years’ 
course, and presented a plan for a course 
of study including these natural sciences 
and noting in brief the principal subjects 
under each to be covered. The report 
pointed out that the older method of ar- 
ranging the courses in agriculture tended 
to make experts in analytical or agricultural 
chemistry or in pathology, rather than to 
give a broad training in agriculture and 
the natural sciences. It was urged that 
there should be a sufficient period of gen- 
eral study before specialties are taken up, 
and that the paths of the specialist and 
the agriculturist should early diverge. 
The college course can not be expected to 
fit men for expert work in the Department 
of Agriculture, and the experiment sta- 
tions, but for this work at least a mas- 
ter’s degree and ere long the doctor’s de- 
gree are likely to be required. This paper 
brought out much discussion, illustrating 
the marked interest which has developed 
within the past few years in the matter 
of courses of study and in agricultural 
edueation of different grades. The work 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No. 471. 


of this committee was highly commended 
and was pronounced one of the most impor- 
tant features of the association’s work. 

The standing committee on agricultural 
engineering presented its first report 
through W. HE. Stone, chairman. ‘The re- 
port pointed out the increase in the number 
of engineering problems in agriculture and 
their prominence, the enormous extent to 
which agricultural machinery, and espe- 
cially that of a complicated character, is 
being used by American farmers, the prob- 
lems of irrigation and of drainage, the 
terracing of hillsides, the construction of 
roads and other topics, as illustrating the 
desirability of more systematic attention to 
instruction in these topics in connection 
with the college courses, and of extended 
scientific investigation. The courses in 
rural engineering in the colleges, it was 
stated, have not kept pace with the progress 
of the times. The committee declared in 
favor of separate departments of rural en- 
gineering in the colleges, the enlargement 
of the work of the Department of Agricul- 
ture to include agricultural engineering 
in addition to irrigation, and recommended 
that the executive committee of the associa- 
tion aid in securing the increased appro- 
priation asked from congress for this pur- 
pose. This report was adopted, as was 
also a resolution commending the work of 
the Department along the lines of irriga- 
tion. The report brought out considerable 
discussion and indicated that this matter 
is occupying the attention of a number of 
institutions at this time. 

The report of the committee on coopera- 
tion between the experiment stations and 
the Department of Agriculture, presented 
by E. A. Bryan, ealled attention to the 
statement of ‘fundamental principles em- 
bodied in the two previous reports, ex- 
pressed gratification at the appointment of 
a committee within the Department of 
Agriculture for perfecting the details of a 


we 


Co ee 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


system of ‘cooperation, and reiterated its 
belief that a full and free consultation 
between the stations and the members of 
the department forces in regard to the 
work undertaken in the several states is 
very desirable and would do much to re- 
move possible sources of friction. 

The standing committee on uniform fer- 
tilizer laws, of which H. J. Wheeler is 
chairman, called attention to the satisfac- 
tory progress which is being made in the 
direction of greater uniformity, the recom- 
mendations of the association having been 
of value in securing the recent passage or 
amendment of fertilizer laws in Indiana, 
Florida, Missouri, Pennsylvania, Tennessee 
and other states. This report also in- 
eluded recommendations concerning the 
laws for feeding stuff inspection. 

The report of the standing committee on 
pure-food legislation, made by W. A. 
Withers, noted considerable progress along 
the line of pure-food legislation during the 
year. New legislation was enacted in two 
states, and provisions made by congress for 
the inspection and control by the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture of foods imported 
from foreign countries. This was pro- 
nounced an unusually important step in 
food legislation, and its execution has re- 
sulted in considerable progress in the prep- 
aration of standards of purity. 

The farmers’ itistitute work which the 
Department of Agriculture has taken up 
was outlined by A. C. True, who stated 
clearly the policy of the department in 
regard to this work. There will be no 
attempt to interfere with the state man- 
agement of farmers’ institutes in any way, 
but rather to cooperate with the state 
officials and to aid them in building up the 
institutes im the several states. The de- 
partment will be a general agency for co- 
ordinatine and strengthening this work 
throughout the country. One of the main 
objects at present is to help to increase the 


SCIENCE. . 63 


efficiency of ‘the institute lecturers, now 
numbering over 800, less than half of 
whom are connected with the work of the 
colleges or the stations. A corps of 
specially trained institute workers was rec- 
ommended as eventually desirable, to re- 
lieve the college and station men of much 
of the burden of this work, as it is the opin- 
ion of the department that the prime object 
of college men is to teach and of station 
men to investigate. The speaker pointed 
out the greatness and importance of the 
farmers’ institute enterprise as a means 
for the future development of agriculture, 
of building up of a proper system of agri- 
cultural education and research, and de- 
veloping a generation of farmers who will 
be in a position to appreciate and apply the 
results of the work of these institutes. 

The following officers were elected for 
the ensuing year: 

President—W. O. Thompson, of Ohio. 

Vice-Presidents—D. F. Houston, of Texas; J. C. 
Hardy, of Mississippi; J. H. Worst, of North 
Dakota; H. J. Wheeler, of Rhode Island; and B. 
C. Buffum, of Wyoming. 

_ Secretary and Treasurer—K. B. Voorhees, of 
New Jersey. 

Bibliographer—A. C. True, of Washington, D. C. 

BHxecutive Committee—H. C. White, of Georgia; 
G. W. Atherton, of Pennsylvania; J. L. Snyder, of 
Michigan; W. H. Jordan, of New York; and C. F. 
Curtiss, of Iowa. 

Section on College Work and Administration— 
Chairman, W. E. Stone, of Indiana; secretary, G. 
HK. Fellows, of Maine; committee on program, W. 
E. Stone, of Indiana, G. E. Fellows, of Maine, 
and H. W. Tyler, of Massachusetts. 

Section on Haperiment Station Work—Chair- 
man, H. H. Jenkins, of Connecticut; secretary, 
M. A. Scovell, of Kentucky; committee on pro- 
gram, J. H. Shepperd, of North Dakota, B. W. 
Kilgore, of North Carolina, and M. A. Scovell, 
of Kentucky. 

In the meetings of the sections the most 
important papers and discussions were those 
on soil fertility, animal breeding, instruc- 
tion in horticulture and botany, problems 
of forest entomology, methods of work in 


64 SCIENCE. 


4 


economic entomology, the mission of the 
land-grant eolleges and short courses. 
E. W. Aen. 


“U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE, 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The Lower Devonian Fishes of Gemiinden. 
By R. H. Traquair. Transactions of the 
Royal Society of Edinburgh, Vol. XL., Pt. 
4, pp. 723-739, pls. 7, 19038. 

Dr. Traquair’s recent paper will be wel- 
comed as throwing light on Drepanaspis, one 
of the lowliest vertebrates. In earlier papers 
Dr. Traquair has briefly referred to this 
armored form, known only from the lower 
Deyonian slates of Rhenish Gemiinden: in the 
present memoir he completes his studies upon 
it, basing them upon a remarkable series of 
the fossil which he has collected during the 
past dozen years. 

Gemiinden fossils, one may note incident- 
ally, are remarkable for the great beauty with 
which their external characters have been pre- 
served, shown especially in mollusks, trilobites 
and starfish; and the armored fishes have 
proven no exceptions to the rule. The speci- 
mens however, are always pyritized and are 
therefore, unfortunately, valueless for histo- 
logical study. Besides Drepanaspis, the only 
armored fish known hitherto in detail from 
this horizon, Traquair now describes a Coc- 
costeus, a Phlyctenaspis and two forms in- 
serte sedis. Of these the first, Gemiindina, is 
a fish somewhat ray-like in form, character- 
ized by a stout vertebral column and an in- 
tegument well encrusted with shagreen den- 
ticles. What it is no one ean say, although its 
deseriber regards it as ‘ possibly a chimeroid,’ 
admitting, however, that his idea ‘rests more 
upon feeling than upon anything else.’ Un- 
til, therefore, more and better material can be 
secured one is constrained to conclude that 
nothing further need be said about its affini- 
ties. Hunsriickia, the second problematical 
form, is represented only by a series of ver- 
tebral arches whose structures suggest very 
doubtfully a pleuracanth shark. Regarding 
Drepanaspis the paper gives many interesting 
details, and they do not, we find, lead the 
author to alter his earlier opinion as to the 


(N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 471. 


affinities of this form. He places it near the 
classic Pteraspis, and regards it as the more 
generalized, a view which will probably meet 
general acceptance. It is a source of satis- 
faction to students of these earliest chordates 
that in the present form both dorsal and ven- 
tral sides are now known with fair accuracy. 
Desirable, none the less, is a better knowledge 
of the region of the mouth, which is practi- 
eally terminal, surrounded by a rather in- 
definite series of dermal plates, and of the 
lateral angles of the body, where possibly an 
opercular opening is situated. And while we 
are duly grateful to Dr. Traquair for his skil- 
ful and continued efforts to elucidate this re- 
markable form, we are none the less impatient 
for further details. The object is, at the 
best, difficult to orient, and as a symptom of 
this it may be doubted whether the interpre- 
tations of even an author of Dr. Traquaiz’s 
experience and acumen are always valid. 
Thus, his grounds seem inadequate for dis- 
tinguishing dorsal and ventral sides. Im no 
specimen figured is the relation of the dorsal 
lobe of the tail shown convincingly to be con- 
tinuous with the so-called dorsal aspect; 
moreover, the eyes occur on the side which 
Traquair regards as ventral. Unless addi- 


tional evidence is forthcoming, it would ac- 


cordingly seem to me more probable that the 
‘labial’ of Traquair was the ‘rostral’ plate, 
a structure which appears constant in Heter- 
ostracans. ‘This interpretation would permit 
the eyes to be seen at the sides of the dorsal 
armoring, as indeed, they occur in Péeraspis, 
and would enable us, at the same time, to-lo- 
cate the greater number of the larger plates 
on the dorsal side. This conclusion is the 
more satisfactory on comparative grounds, 
since there is not an imstance in the chor- 
date phylum in which the eyes and the 
most complete part of the armoring appear on 
the (morphological) ventral side. And I 
doubt whether, on the present evidence, we can 
assume, with Professor Patten, that Drepan- 
aspis might have evaded the law of vertebrate 
orientation by swimming on its back. Dr. 
Traquair has attempted to solve this dorso- 
ventral difficulty by suggesting that either the 
orbits are ‘sensory’ pits, 2. e., not orbits, or 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


that, ‘since the specimens are all crushed ab- 
solutely flat, it is by no means certain that in 
the original uncompressed condition the open- 
ings- did not look out to the side.’ 

BasHrorD Dan. 


First Report on Economic Zoology. By ERep. 
VY. Tueopatp, M.A. London. 1903. Pp. 
xxxiv + 192. : i 
Under the above heading F. V. Theobald, a 

high authority on economic entomology in 

Great Britain, has published, under the aus- 

pices of the British Museum (Natural History), 

in three parts, his initial report of economic 
zoology. The volume in question is preceded 
by an introductory chapter of some extent 
by E. Ray Lankester, consisting of a classi- 
fication of animals from the point of view of 
economic zoology. The same writer has added 
considerable correspondence on the dreaded 
tsetse fly disease of Africa, termites or white 
ants and the locust plague of the same coun- 
try, as well as other matters not pertaining to 
entomology. Mr. Theobald is well known 
from his valuable treatise on the Culicide of 
the world, which has already reached the 
fourth volume. Although the main portion of 
the report is devoted to injurious insects and 
to other economical entomological questions, 
there is also frequent mention of the injury 
accomplished by mammals and birds and 
other pests as well as of fungous and other 
diseases. Much valuable information is fur- 
nished in regard to the means of preventing 
insect losses, a considerable proportion of 
which has been derived from actual experience 
or from reports of trustworthy persons. The 
work is not only of special interest and value 
to persons engaged in agriculture in Great 

Britain, but also to those of nearby countries 

in Europe, where many of the same species oc- 

eur, although not always in the same degree of 
abundance. Many of the species considered 
are cosmopolitan, while others are common to 

North America and Europe, which makes the 

work also of interest to farmers of the United 

States. Among the most interesting species 

treated are the following: 

The bud moth (Hedya (Tmetocera) ocellana 

Fab.), a well-known pest in the northern 


SCIENCE. 65 


United States; the mussel scale, or, as it is 
more familiarly known in America, oyster- 
shell bark-louse (Mytilaspis pomorum Bouché), 
the pear leaf and ‘big bud’ mites. Among 
potato pests is a species of caterpillar, Hy- 
drecia micacea, which works in the same 
manner as our stalk borer, Hydrecia mitela 
Say, well and unfavorably known to potato 
growers in the United States. Frequent men- 
tion is made of injury by millipedes attacking 
potatoes and other useful crops. 

Considerable attention is given to the oc- 
currence of the Colorado potato beetle in Eng- 
land, more especially in Tilbury, where it has 


_ been established for some little time. Judging 


by this report of local occurrence, it would not 
seem difficult to stamp out the pest in that 
region so as to prevent its spread to other 
portions of the country and eventually to the 
continent of Europe. 

The so-called leather jackets or maggots of 
the erane flies or daddy longlegs (Tipulide) 
are considered somewhat at length. Records 
are cited of injury to hundreds of acres of 
grass land by these insects, and it seems prob- 
able that much injury is done by related spe- 
cies (of which-there are many) in the United 
States, which is undetected or attributed to 
other forms of insects. 

There is always danger of introducing 
European species into America, and it is 
singular that some of the commonest pests 
of England have never found a complete 
establishment with us, for example, the 
thousand-legged worm or millipede, Poly- 
desmus complanatus, which has undoubtedly 
often been brought to this country in soil and 
has been mentioned as occurring here, but 
which our authorities state has not gained a 
permanent foothold. The same is true of the 
ear wig, Labia minor, which is said to be a 
pest in Europe, well established in America, 
but never injurious, so far as we know, in our 
own country. Another species frequently 
found in old buildings, in furniture and in old 
wood generally and commonly ealled death 
watch, Anobium domesticum, is in the same 
category, having undoubtedly been brought 
here in wooden material but, for some un- 
known reason, failing to survive. Mr. Theo- 


66 SCIENCE. 


bald’s work concludes with an appendix which 
includes a list of North American locusts and 
a list of African termites. 

F. H. CHiItTenpDEN. 


INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF SCIENTIFIC 
LITERATURE. GEOLOGY. 


In looking over the reviews that have ap- 
peared of the various parts of the Interna- 
tional Catalogue of Scientific Literature thus 
far issued for the year 1901, it is evident 
that those which are extremely critical have 
been written by men who are largely investi- 
gators. The men who have spent days in the 
laborious work of going over publications, 
writing out the titles of papers and arranging 
them according to a predetermined subject 
classification are certainly more generous in 
their commendation. 

The publication on geology is probably as 
satisfactory as any of the others. Its greatest 
weakness for the purposes of the whole body 
of geologists is that of omissions and the 
limited scope of the subject classification. 
Many papers that have been omitted appeared 
in publications that have not been examined. 
But the character of the publication to be ex- 
amined was limited by instruction concern- 
ing which the workers had no voice. 

The scope of the subject classification is 
one of very great importance to the working 
geologist. The mass of geological literature 
is so large that he no longer burdens his 
memory with the fact that certain persons 
wrote upon certain topics about such a time 
and in such a place. Modern methods de- 
mand that these papers be brought together 
under suitable headings and that these shall 
be sufficiently detailed in scope to meet the 
needs of the investigator. The geological clas- 
sification as it exists falls far short of filling 
this demand. This is not the fault of those 
who have prepared this bibliography, but the 
value of the publication under consideration 
would have been greatly enhanced if many 
papers had been brought out under more of 
the headings which were given them. ‘This 
is due to the fact that probably much of this 
work of examining the literature was per- 
formed by persons who had no special knowl- 


4 
[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 471. 


edge of the subject, the Jiterature of which 
they were classifying. This work to be well 


done—and no other sort of bibliographic work _ 


is acceptable—must be performed by those 
who have a considerable intimate knowledge 
of that portion of science which they are in- 
dexing. It is well known that some of those 
who participated in the formation of this 
organization were of the opinion that this 
work of classification could be executed by 
persons having a good general scientific edu- 
cation. The first annual issue of the bibli- 
ographies illustrates how erroneous is such a 
conclusion. If the preparation of the material 
by each of the regional bureaus were com- 
plete and satisfactory, the work of collecting 
and unifying them into a whole must be one 
replete with difficulties. 

Ii is not the purpose of this notice to point 
out particular errors of omission or com- 
mission or to note defects in a spirit of hostile 
criticism, but to indicate what is fundamen- 
tally inadequate with the hope that in due 
time it will be rectified. Jt may prove to 
have been a wise determination to carry on 
this work for a period of five years before 
holding a congress at which these questions 
of revision will be discussed and determined. 
But it is believed that a higher grade of 
bibliographic work would result if a larger 
measure of discretion had been given to the 
central bureau. The difficulties which attend 
the inauguration of such a peculiar work are, 
indeed, great, but they must be overcome, if 
the organization is to be permanent and the 
outcome of its labor to meet the approbation 
and support of those for whose benefit it is 
conducted. For the present the following sug- 
gestions are offered to those who have in 
charge the preparation of these bibliographies. 

1. Secure the assistance of specialists as far 
as possible. Would it not be practicable to 
send to such persons a list of current period- 
icals, publications of societies, ete., to be ex- 
amined for each regional bureau, and assemble 
and unify their work for transmission to the 
central bureau ? 

9. Enlarge the list of publications ex- 
amined to include those which only occasion- 
ally publish articles which should be entered. 


~ 


9600 @ epee 4g | ee ee * 


PO Saal te 


Whether 


January 8, 1904.] 


8. Classify in greater detail. Enter a paper 
under each subject heading of which it treats 
even though it seem unimportant. 

F. B. WEEKS. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Tur Bulletin of the Michigan Ornitholog- 
ical Club for December contains articles on 
the ‘ Nesting of the White-breasted Nuthatch,’ 
by Edwin G. Mummery; ‘ Purple Martin Notes 
from Waynesburg, Pa.,’ by J. Warren Jacobs; 
“Nesting of the Sandhill Crane in Michigan,’ 
by Edward Arnold. There is the third series 
of portraits of Michigan ornithologists and 
other illustrations, including a half-tone of 
the University of Michigan Museum. Besides 
the papers above mentioned and the official 
‘Minutes of Club Meetings, book reviews and 
the constitution of the organization there are 
numerous notes including ‘ Another Parasitic 
Jaeger (Stercorarius parasiticus) from Mich- 
igan,’ by Alexander W. Blain, Jr., and ‘ Nest- 
ing of the Cardinal Grosbeak (C. cardinalis) 
in Ingham County, Michigan,’ by Professor 
Walter B. Barrows, being the first authentic 
record of the breeding of the cardinal in the 
state. Beginning with 1904 Charles E. Wis- 
ner, of Detroit, will assume the business man- 
agement of the Bulletin. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


NORTH CAROLINA SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


THE seventh annual meeting of the section 
was held in the chemical lecture room of the 
Agricultural and Mechanical Oollege, West 
Raleigh, on November 28, 1903, at 11 a.m., 
with presiding officer, Chas. E. Brewer, in 
the chair. 

Preceding the presentation of papers a short 
business meeting was held and the following 
officers were elected for the ensuing year: 

President—Dr. A. 8. Wheeler, Chapel Hill, N. C. 

Vice-President—Dr. R. W. Page, Raleigh, N. C. 

Secretary-Treasurer—C. D. Harris, Raleigh, 
N. C. 

Councillor—Professor W. A. Withers, Raleigh, 
N.C. 

Reporters—W. G. Morrison, West Raleigh, and 
S. E. Asbury, Raleigh, N. C. 


SCIENCE. 67 


The following papers were presented and 
discussed : 


Action of Ultra-violet Light upon Rare Earth 
Oxides: CHARLES BASKERVILLE. 


See American Journal of Science, December, 
1903. 


‘ On the Action of Radiwm Compounds upon 


Rare Harth Oxides and the Production of 

Permanently Luminous Preparations by 

Mixing the Former with Powdered Min- 

erals: CHARLES BASKERVILLE AND Gro. F. 

Kunz. 

Will appear in American Journal of Science, 
January, 1904. 


Phosphorescent Thorium Oxide: CHARLES 

BASKERVILLE. 

As previously shown, thorium dioxide is one 
of the two rare earth oxides (zirconium di- 
oxide being the other) and the only radio- 
active one which phosphoresces with ultra- 
violet light. This method of testing was 
applied to different fractions obtained from the 
thorium dioxide by volatilization of the chlor- 
ides. The three fractions obtained varied as 
follows: The residue (containing the caro- 
linium) is only faintly phosphorescent, due 
doubtless to the retention of some thorium. 
The erystalline sublimate is about ten times 
as phosphorescent as the original oxide, where- 
as the very volatile fraction (weisser Dampff 
of Berzelius) does not phosphoresce at all. 
The last-mentioned preparation contains a 
little thorium. The radio-activity is greatest 
in the residue and least in the volatile body. 
The name berzeliwm is proposed for this 
third fraction of thorium. 


A Simple Device for Illustrating the Periodic 

Law: CHARLES BASKERVILLE. 

The device consists of blocks cut in length 
according to the atomic weight, taking one 
half inch for hydrogen. The blocks are planed, 
presenting flat surfaces corresponding to the 
valency. The electro-positive and negative 
properties are indicated by painting blue or 
red. When these blocks are arranged in an 
ascending series according to their heights, 
the resemblance of the properties of the ele- 


68 SCIENCE. 


ments in the different families of the periodic 
law is strikingly presented. 


Upward Filtration and Its Application in the 
Determination of Crude Fiber: J. M. 
PICKELL. 

This is a rapid method of washing and 
filtering fiber by sucking the fiber (contained 
in a beaker) up against a linen filter which is 
stretched across the top of a small funnel, or 
better, across a ‘carbon filter,’ which is pro- 
vided with a rim for this purpose. The time 
consumed in a filtration is usually a fraction 
of a minute, but in the more difficult cases, 
two, three, four and in rare cases, ten or 
fifteen minutes. In the few cases tested 
(cotton-seed meal, wheat bran) it was found to 
pass (and thus lose) 0.2 per cent. to 0.3 per 
cent. of solids, which a good thick, but slow- 
filtering asbestos (Gooch) filter took out. 
With cotton-seed meal, corn bran, wheat bran, 
rice chaff, ground corn cobs, peanut. hulls, 
peanut middlings, it gave duplicates agreeing 
within 0.01 per cent. to 0.80 per cent. A de- 
tailed description of the apparatus and method 
will be soon published. It is thought that un- 
glazed terra-cotta disks and with suitable pro- 
tection, even filter paper, especially the hard- 
ened variety, may be substituted for linen, and 
the method applied quantitatively to difficult 
filtrations other than those of fiber. Experi- 
ments in this line are in view. 


The Constitution of Cellulose (a report): 

Atvin S. WHEELER. 

A review of the literature on the subject 
up to date. The empirical formula of the re- 
acting unit is C,H,,O,. The evidence favors 
a cyclic formula for the unit. The fact that 
the tetra acetate of cellulose is a normal ester 
shows that four oxygens are hydroxylic. The 
fifth oxygen is carbonyl oxygen and the be- 
havior of cellulose clearly indicates the CO 
group to be ketonic and not aldehydic. Fen- 
ton and Gostling’s production of w-brom- 
methylfurfural from cellulose is exceedingly 
interesting in this connection. The provi- 
sional formula CO < (CHOH),+ CH, has 
many suggestions in it. The subject is a 
very complicated one. C. D. Harris, 

Secretary. 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 471. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
SECTION. 


At the regular meeting held on December 4 
the section elected to the council of the so- 
ciety, Professors E. H. Miller and Virgil 
Coblentz, and Drs. Leo Baekeland, Hugo 
Schweitzer and Durand Woodman. 

The following papers were then read: 


The Dissociation of Lead Nitrate: Luo BanKE- 

LAND. 

Dr. Baekeland described the methods and 
results of an extended investigation of the 
dissociation of lead nitrate under different 
conditions and discussed the principles of 
chemical dynamics involved in the interpreta- 
tion of his results. Several pieces of appa- 
ratus especially designed for this research 
were described and illustrated. 


On the Conversion of Lead Sulphate to 
Barium Sulphate and a Method for the 


NEW. YORK 


Determination of Sulphur in Lead Slags: 


EK. H. Miniter anp J. F. THompson. 

This paper showed that the conversion which 
would be expected from the difference in the 
solubility products of the sulphates could not 
be made to take place, as the mechanical coat- 
ing of the lead sulphate by barium sulphate or 
a barium lead sulphate always prevented com- 
plete conversion. By varying the procedure 
and dissolving the lead sulphate in hydro- 
chlorie acid, .a satisfactory precipitation of 
SO, ions as barium sulphate was obtained. 
This was made the basis of a method for sul- 
phur in lead slags. A variety of slags were 
tested in comparison with the Fahlberg-Ies 
method. 


The End Products of Self-Digestion of An- 
mal Glands (first communication): P. A. 
LEVENE. 

Dr. Levene gave the results of experiments 
with the pancreas gland and the liver. The 
pancreas was subjected to self-digestion in a 
0.5 per cent. sodium carbonate solution, the 
liver in a 0.2 per cent. acetic acid solution. 
The present report covers the examination of 
the end-products for amino-acids. Alanin, 
amino-isovalerianic acid, leucin, glutamic acid, 
phenylalanin and tyrosin were found in 
each case. The presence among the digestion 


——— 


acetic ie > eth 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] \ 


products of g-pyrolydin-carbonie acid could 
_ not be established with certainty. 


A Restant Source of Error in Optical Sugar 

Analysis: F. G. WIECHMANN. 

Dr. Wiechmann’s paper dealt with the error 
due to the space occupied by the precipitate 
formed by basic lead acetate used as a clari- 
fying agent. After a discussion of the extent 
of the error thus introduced in the examina- 
tion of different classes of raw sugars, the 
author outlined briefly the results of a study 
of the methods proposed by Scheibler and by 
Sachs for the determination of the volume of 
the precipitate. This paper will be found in 
the School of Mines Quarterly for November, 
1903. 


Dry Defecation in Optical Sugar Analysis: 

W. D. Horne. 

Dr. Horne described a method for clarifying 
sugar solutions so as to avoid or minimize the 
error discussed by Dr. Wiechmann. The 
‘normal weight’ of sugar is dissolved and 
diluted to 100 cubie centimeters and the solu- 
tion clarified by the addition of pulverized 
anhydrous subacetate of lead. The acetic acid 
going into solution appears to replace in vol- 
ume the organic acid, precipitated by the lead, 
so closely that the polarizations obtained on 
such solutions approximate the theoretical. 

After the reading of the above papers, Dr. 
G. Plath, of Berlin, exhibited and explained 
a number of specimens of improved stoneware 


apparatus designed for use in chemical opera- 


tions. 
H. C. SHERMAN, 
Secretary. 


CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 146th regular meeting of the Wash- 
ington Chemical Society was held Thursday, 
December 10, at 8 P.M., in the assembly room 
of the Cosmos Club. The program for the 
evening consisted of the following three papers. 

The first paper, entitled ‘The Bromine Ab- 
sorption of Oils,’ was presented by Mr. L. M. 
Tolman. 

A comparison of the results obtained by dif- 
ferent methods was made, and it was shown 
that the one third normal bromine in carbon 


SCIENCE. 69 


tetrachloride gave as high addition figures as 
the Wij’s and Hanus methods, when the ear- 
bon tetrachloride was dry and the reaction 
was allowed to take place in the light. Moist- 
ure was found to have a very marked effect on 
both the addition and substitution values. 
The length of time necessary to obtain com- 
plete reaction was found to vary in the light, 
30 to 60 minutes being necessary, while in the 
dark a definite point was reached in a very 
short time, but the results were much below 
those obtained in the light. Experiments were 
reported using iodine chloride and iodine 
bromide in carbon tetrachloride solution. The 
iodine chloride in carbon tetrachloride was 
found to be the most satisfactory. 

The second paper on the program, entitled 
‘The Action of Sal Ammoniae on Certain 
Chlorides,’ was presented by Dr. P. Fireman. 
The action of ammonium chloride upon inor- 
ganic and organic polychlorides in sealed tubes 
at temperatures about 450° C. was investi- 
gated. The author found that those inorganic 
polychlorides which are themselves dissociable, 
react with ammonium chloride in a manner 
similar to the reaction between ammonium 
chloride and phosphorus pentachloride. With 
respect to organic polychlorides, it was found 
that under certain conditions carbon tetra- 
chloride reacts with ammonium chloride, with 
the liberation of hydrochloric acid and the 
formation of a yellowish compound which is 
probably a polymeric modification of cyanogen 
chloride. 

The third paper on the program, entitled 
‘The Solubility of some Slightly Soluble 
Phosphates,’ was presented by Dr. F. K. Cam- 
eron. The author briefly reviewed the litera- 
ture bearing on the solubility of the phos- 
phates of calcium, aluminum and iron, and 
gave a preliminary announcement of some 
experimental investigations he has been car- 
rying on with Dr. Seidell and Mr. Hurst. It 
appears that the evidence obtained can not 
be brought in harmony with the indications of 
the dissociation hypothesis, even in very dilute 
solutions. But some of the apparent discrep- 
ancies between the hypothesis and the ob- 
served facts are undoubtedly due to the fact 


70 SCIENCE. 


that these substances are very slightly soluble 
in themselves, but hydrolize greatly with the 
formation of a readily solubie constituent. 
A. SEIDELL, 
Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

THE 378th meeting was held on Saturday, 
December 12. 

William H. Ashmead presented some ‘ Re- 
marks on Japanese Hymenoptera,’ stating that 
a recent study of specimens in the U. S. 
National Museum had raised the number of 
known species to over five hundred and fifty. 
Some of these were represented in eastern and 
southern Asia, while the relationship of the 
parasitic forms were largely North American. 
Specimens and drawings of some of the more 
interesting species were shown, including 
three distinct honey bees. 

V. K. Chesnut and Harry T. Marshall gave 
“Some Observations on ‘ Locoed’ Sheep.” 
Mr. Chesnut described the symptoms of lo- 
coed animals; tendency to stray, loss of appe- 
tite for ordinary food, evident hallucination, 
outbreaks of violence, wasting of flesh and, 
finally, death. He stated that animals that 
had acquired taste for the loco weed rarely, if 
ever, recovered, and that in parts of the west 
the loss of stock was very considerable. The 
property of ‘locoing’ animals had been as- 
cribed to various plants of the genera As- 
tragalus, Aragallus and Datura. Mr. Mar- 
shall gave the results of the examination of 
fourteen sheep, aftlicted with the loco-disease, 
and selected from a number as showing typical 
symptoms. These sheep exhibited no spe- 
cial lesions such as might be considered char- 
acteristic of the complaint, but some of them 
were infested by various parasites. The 
speaker stated that while he believed in the 
existence of a loco-disease so far as these sheep 
were concerned, the actual observations showed 
that it had been preceded by other causes 
and that sheep enjoying full health had not 
been attacked. 

Charles Hallock spoke of ‘The Bison as a 
Factor in the Distribution of Aboriginal Pop- 
ulation in Mid-Continental America,’ stating 
that the introduction of the horse had enabled 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 471. 


the Indians of the southwest to follow the 
bison northwards into the plains, while as the 
country in the eastern United States became 
settled the forest Indians were crowded west- 
ward into the same localities, following the 
bison as a source of food. F. A. Lucas. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 351st meeting was held December 1. 
Dr. D. S. Lamb read a paper entitled ‘ Albin- 
ism and Melanism,’ in which he carefully re- 
viewed the contributions to the study of this 
subject. Dr. Lamb spoke of the wide dis- 
tribution of albinism among human beings, 
its occurrence among animals and plants and 
of the experiments in the latter fields to pro- 
duce albinism. Albinism, he stated, is con- 
genital and inheritable. The theories on the 
cause of albinism were reviewed. The more 
important took civilization and the direct ac- 
tion of the nerves as causes. It was concluded 
that no satisfactory explanation of albinism 
and melanism has yet been advanced. In the 
discussion Dr. Hrdlicka showed photographs 
and samples of hair of the Hopi and Zuni 
albinos and observed that there are more fe- 
male than male albinos at Moki, that several 
are below the average intelligence and many 
were second child in order of birth. Dr. 
Hrdlicka expressed his belief in the causal 
relation of the nervous system to albinism. 
He related an extraordinary case where the 
wings of an albino jay bird which he eut off 
in Mexico had returned almost to their natural 
blue color when unpacked in New York. The 
president, Miss Alice C. Fletcher, said that 
housing among the different tribes accounted 
for differences of complexion and that albin- 
ism has been explained in this way. The sec- 
retary said that the purpose of the study of 
albinism and melanism from the anthropolog- 
ical side was to ascertain the causes of race 
coloration, which has been a fruitful subject 
for theorization. The discussion was taken 
part in by Mr. Hallock, Mrs. Lamb and Mrs. 
Seaman. 

Colonel Paul E. Beckwith read a paper en- 
titled ‘The Rise and Decline of the Sword. 
Colonel Beckwith pictured the conditions of 
the life of early times and showed that man 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


had to weapon himself for his protection. 
Prehistoric flmt weapons which stand at the 
beginning of the sword were exhibited and 
traced along to the seft of Egypt, down 
through the various derivative forms in Af- 
rica, Hurope and Asia in the different periods. 
Colonel Beckwith described the sword blade, 
the nomenclature of its parts and the reasons 
for the different forms, closing with remarks 


on the decline of the weapon incident to mod- 


ern warfare. 

The question of the preservation of the an- 
tiquities of the United States, which was laid 
over from a former meeting, was brought up 
by Dr. H. M. Baum, who urged action. Pro- 
fessor Holmes said that the Bureau of Eth- 
nology has taken up the subject and that Mr. 
McGuire is engaged in examining the laws of 
various countries with a view to the prepara- 
tion of an act for the United States. Dr. 
Baum suggested that a movement be put on 
foot to awaken public sentiment in the pres- 
ervation of antiquities and to this end the 
society should petition and put the matter 
before congress. Dr. Lamb moved that a 
committee of five members be appointed to 
consider and report on the ways and means 
for the preservation of antiquities. The mo- 
tion was seconded by Mrs. S. S. James, who 
spoke of the work in this line by the ladies of 
Colorado. The president thereupon appointed 
a committee consisting of W. H. Holmes, J. 
W. Fewkes, A. Hrdlicka, H. M. Baum and 
J. D. McGuire. Watter Houeu, 

Secretary. 


BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE sixteenth regular meeting of the Botan- 
ical Society of Washington was held at the 
Portner Hotel, December 5, 1903, with thirty- 
seven persons present. 

The following program was presented: 

1. The Salt Content of Seabeach Soils: T. H. 

K@arney. 

Most writers upon the ecology of strand 
vegetation have implied, or even explicitly 
stated, their belief that the sands of the sea- 
beach are impregnated with salt in amounts 
sufficient to determine the character of the 
plant growth. This hypothesis is not sus- 


SCIENCE. fal 


tained by an examination of samples of dune 

and beach sand taken on the shore of Buzzards 

Bay, Massachusetts, near Norfolk, Virginia, 

and near Los Angeles, California. On the 

contrary, the amounts of soluble salt present, 
as determined by the electrolytical method 
used by the Bureau of Soils of the United 

States Department of Agriculture, is generally 

less than that found in most cultivated soils in 

the eastern (humid) part of the United States. 

The greatest amount of salt detected in 
beach sand occurred in a sample taken at Los 
Angeles, California, which gave an electrical 
resistance (at 60° F.) of 158 ohms (equivalent 
to about 0.15 per cent. of salt to soil) for the 
first foot, and 180 ohms (equivalent to about 
0.12 per cent.) for the second foot, an amount 
not greater than that sometimes occurring in 
cultivated land in the eastern United States. 
We are, therefore, constrained to attribute the 
xerophytie character of sand-strand vegetation 
to factors in the environment other than the 
presence in the soil of an excessive amount of 
soluble salt. 

On the other hand, coast marshes that are 
regularly inundated by salt or brackish water 
possess a distinctly saline soil, and their 
vegetation may safely be termed halophytic, 
so far as halophytes may be regarded as form- 
ing an ecological class distinct from other 
xerophytes. 

2. The Influence of Climate and Soil on the 
Transmitting Power of Seeds: Winn W. 
Tracy, Sr. This paper will be published 
later in SCIENCE. : 

3. The American Ginseng Industry: F. V. 
CovILLE. Herpert J. WEBBER, 

Corresponding Secretary. 


TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


Ar the regular meeting of the club held at 
the College of Pharmacy, December 8, 1903, 
the scientific program consisted of a paper 
by Mr. W. L. Horne on ‘The Vegetation of 
Kadiak Island, Alaska.’ The paper was illus- 
trated by a large number of botanical speci- 
mens and by numerous photographs showing 
the topography of the island and the char- 
acteristics of the different plant formations. 
Kadiak Island is 58° north latitude and 155° 


72 SCIENCE. 


west longitude and is thirty miles from the 
mainland. It is twenty miles long by fifty 
wide and has a very irregular coast line. 
The surface is much diversified and broken. 
A fresh-water lake about twenty miles long 
is situated in the northwestern part of the 
island. Jt is connected with the sea by the 
Karluk River and furnishes an ideal breed- 
ing ground for the red salmon. One of the 
most important fishing stations and canning 
plants in the world is located near the mouth 
of this river. The winters are very long, be- 
ginning early in October, but they are not in- 
tensely cold. The lowest temperature during 
the two years of Mr. Horne’s stay was —-10°. 
There is much mild weather and there are fre- 
quent thaws. The soil only freezes to a depth 
of from one to two feet, and the frost is out of 
the ground early in June. The highest sum- 
mer temperature noted was 72°. The Chinese 
laborers in the canning factory make gardens 
where they cultivate successfully many of the 
more hardy vegetables. 

The principal plant formations discussed 
were those of the low-lying bogs, the com- 
paratively level grass lands, the higher lying 
peat bogs, and the alpine flora occupying the 
rocky hills. Marine plants are not particu- 
larly conspicuous, though many brown and 
red seaweeds occur. Two species of Potamoge- 
ton are found in the river at the point where 
the salt and fresh waters meet. Above this 
point it is comparatively free from vegeta- 
tion. The country is well watered by small 
streams. These are often full of various green 
algze and they are frequently dammed by 
dense growths of mosses. Some of the smaller 
slower brooks are completely blocked by dense 
growths of species of Vaucheria, which so re- 
tard the flow of the water as to form low wet 
bogs that are covered with a characteristic 
vegetation. The earliest plant to flower in the 
spring in these vaucheria bogs is the small 
Claytonia asarifolia. Other conspicuous 
spring plants are a species of Rumez, Caltha 
palustris and various species of the Crucifer. 
These bogs are showiest in midsummer when 
filled with Polemonium acutifolium, several 
species of Hpilobiwm and a handsome Mimulus. 
EHpilobium lutewm in particular forms showy 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 471. 


masses in the bogs and along the brooks. A 
large-flowered skunk. cabbage also occurs in 
wet places, frequently marking the course of 
little brooks along the hillsides. Carex cryp- 
tocarpa forms a dense zone bordering portions 
of the river bank. 

The drier and comparatively level grass 
lands are always completely covered by layers 
of mosses and lichens, so that they approach 
the condition of the tundras. The first spring 
flowers of the grass lands are the abundant 
pink blossoms of the little Rubus stellatus, 
which is also a conspicuous plant in the fall 
from the rich coloring of its leaves. The turf 
consists mostly of Carex Gmelinn. Scattered 
plants of species of Poa and Festuca are fre- 
quent, but the dominant grass is a species of 
Calamagrostis. A fragrant grass, a species 
of Hierochloa called locally ‘vanilla grass,’ 
occurs, but it is not abundant. Other conspic- 
uous plants are Trientalis Huropea artica, two 
species of violets, Geranium erianthum, also 
conspicuous in the fall from its red foliage, a 
yellow Castilleia, Viburnum pauciflorum, San- 
guisorba latifolia, Galium boreale and a large 
showy Lupinus. The salmonberry, Rubus spec- 
tabilis, is frequent and bears a large, delicious, 
edible berry. In midsummer great patches of 
fireweed, Chamenerion angustifolium, sud- 
denly burst into bloom, giving a most striking 
color effect. Later in the season Solidago 
lepida becomes conspicuous. Lathyrus palus- 
tris was the only plant observed having a vine- 
like habit. 

The peat bogs oceur at the foot of the hills. 
Among their characteristic plants are Betula 
glandulosa, a shrub reaching two feet in 
height; Hmpetrum nigrum, with black fruits 
that are called ‘blackberries’ and are eaten 
by the natives, and Ledwm palustre, the leaves 
of which are used for a tea. Vaccinium oval- 
folium grows along the upper edge of the 
grass lands. It furnishes an important eco- 
nomic fruit. ; 

The alpine flora on the rocky hills consists 
of a mat-like growth of mosses, Cladonias, 
Empetrum, dwarf blueberries, ete. The first 
to bloom in the spring is Merania alpina. The 
fall foliage of this plant is very showy, form- 
ing intense red patches on the hillsides. Other 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


conspicuous plants are Aragalus arctica, A. 
nigrescens, Chamecestus procumbens, Dra- 
pensia Lapponica, Lloydia serotina, Campan- 
ula lastocarpa, Arnica lassingi and various 
dwarf arctic willows. Vaccinium uliginosum 
and V. Vitis-I[dea are abundant and their 
fruits are of great economic importance to the 
natives. 

The paper brought out an interesting dis- 
cussion lasting till the hour for adjournment. 

F. S. Earte, 
Secretary. 


RESEARCH CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. 


Tuer regular October meeting was held on 
the evening of the twenty-first. Dr. Raymond 
Pearl discussed the problem of the ‘ Relative 
Variability of Man and Woman,’ and pre- 
sented statistical evidence of two sorts, bear- 
ing on the subject. (1) It was shown that 
with respect to age at death from fatal con- 
genital malformations woman was signifi- 
eantly more variable than man. The stand- 
ard deviation in age at death for men was 
2.104 years, while for women it was 2.699 
years, giving a difference of .595 year with a 
probable error of + .044. The mean age at 
death was not significantly different in ‘the 
two sexes. Since there is a positive correla- 
tion between (a) the degree or intensity of 
malformations sufficiently great to cause 
death, and (b) the age at which death occurs, 
it was maintained that these results give evi- 
dence as to the relative variability of the sexes 
with reference to, the degree or intensity of 
fatal malformations, and indicate a slightly, 
but significantly, greater variation in the fe- 
male. 

(2) It was shown from an analysis of 
Marchand’s data on human brain-weights that 
with reference to this character the female 
was slightly more variable than the male. 

These results are in accordance with Pear- 
son’s main conclusion from a study of the 
relative variability of the sexes with respect 
to a large number of physical characters. 

Professor E. D. Campbell read a paper on 
‘The Diffusion of Sulphides through Steel.’ 

Ten years ago the author had determined 
the diffusion of sulphide of iron through steel, 


SCIENCE. 73 


and later he found that to effect diffusion the 
sulphide must be an oxysulphide. 

That steel should be permeable to liquids 
even when heated to 1,200° C. was considered 
so unlikely that Professor J. O. Arnold, of the 
University Technical College of Sheffield, 
England, repeated a portion of the work, and 
confirmed the results. 

In September, 1902, H. Le Chatelier, of 
L’Ecole des Mines, Paris, with M. Ziegler pub- 
lished a paper in which they denied the per- 
meability of iron, stating that the escape of 
the sulphide of iron was entirely by capillary 
action through the space between the steel 
plug and the sides of the hole containing the 
sulphide. Professor Campbell described a 
series of experiments in which the sulphide 
was contained in a long steel tube closed at 
one end with a tapered screw plug, and heated 
in such a way that it was impossible for sul- 
phide to escape around the plug. When the 
steel tubes were heated above 1,200° C. a por- 
tion of the sulphide was found to have pene- 
trated the solid walls of the steel tube, thus 
confirming the author’s first contention, that 
steel when heated to about 1,200° C. is per- 
meable to oxysulphide of iron without increase 
in the per cent. of sulphur in the steel. 

The November meeting occurred on the 
eighteenth. Mr. G. O. Higley described ‘A 
Method for Determining the Excretion of 
Carbon Dioxide from the Lungs.’ ‘The exist- 
ing methods for measuring the amount of ear- 
bon dioxide in the expired air do not permit 
a study of the character of sudden changes 
such as oceur at the beginning and at the end 
of vigorous muscular work, nor such changes 
as accompany the ‘secondary rise’ in the 
pulse rate as described by Bowen (memorial 
volume of contributions to medical research 
dedicated to Victor C. Vaughan, 1903). In 
Mr. Higley’s method the expired air, after 
removal of moisture, is freed from carbon 
dioxide in an apparatus charged with soda 
lime, and suspended upon the arm of a bal- 
ance. A long, light lever attached to the end 
of the beam greatly magnifies the movements 
of the beam, and writes the curve of carbon 
dioxide excretion upon the blackened paper of 
a kymograph drum. On the same drum may 


74 


be recorded the carotid pulse, the respiration, 
the time in seconds and the rate of muscular 
movements. Experiments made with this ap- 
paratus show that the curve of carbon dioxide 
excretion during work closely resembles that 
of the pulse, and that carbon dioxide is at 
least in part the cause of the secondary rise 
in the pulse rate observed by Bowen. 

Dr. W. B. Pillsbury detailed some experi- 
ments on ‘The Attention Wave as a Measure 
of Fatigue.’ Not merely the daily rhythm of 
fatigue and practise of the typical morning 
and evening workers was reflected in the ratios 
of the period of visibility to the period of 
invisibility in the attention wave, but the de- 
gree of fatigue on days of severe work as 
compared with easy days had a corresponding 
variation in the fluctuation of attention. In 
the morning, practise shows itself in a con- 
tinuous increase in efficiency through at least 
a considerable portion of the experiment; 
while in the evening there is a decreasing 
effectiveness almost from the beginning. As 
further substantiation of the theory that the 
attention wave is closely related to the Traube- 
Hering or Mayer vaso-motor waves, it was 
noted that both have the same daily rhythm 
of length. Freprerick C. Newcomse, 

Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


MORGAN ON EVOLUTION AND ADAPTATION. 


To THe Epiror or Science: I have always 
supposed that what are generally called La- 
marckian views of evolution were considered 
with less prejudice by biologists in the United 
States than in England or Europe, and that my 
own publications in support of such views were, 
therefore, likely to be known and read in 
America even if they were almost completely 
ignored by my own countrymen. 

I find, however, that Dr. Thomas Hunt Mor- 
gan in his book ‘ Evolution and Adaptation,’ 
which has just appeared, makes no mention 
whatever of my book ‘Sexual Dimorphism in 
the Animal Kingdom, a Theory of the Origin 
of Secondary Sexual Characters,’ which was 
published in London more than three years 
ago. Any biologist, American or other, has 
a perfect right to reject all my conclusions, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 471. 


but it seems to me that an author who de- 
votes a great part of his book to the discussion 
of Darwin’s theory of sexual selection and the 
evolution of secondary sexual characters, in en- 
tire ignorance of thefacts and arguments which 
it cost me years of labor to collect and elabor- 
ate, lays himself open to the charge of writing 
without proper knowledge of the literature of 
his subject. JI have published the results of ex- 
perimental work apart from this, but the only 
reference Dr. Morgan makes to it is to a 
popular article in Natural Science; he has 
not apparently consulted the original memoirs. 

Like other English writers it has been my 
ambition that my work should be known to the 
scientific public of the United States, which 
is not only very intelligent but free from prej- 
udices which are stronger than reason in Eng- 
land. I am much disappointed to find that 
my chief contribution to the investigation of 
evolution is so little known to American evo- 
lutionists. J. T. CunnincHam. 

ZOOLOGICAL SOCIETY, 

3 Hanover Squarn, Lonpon, W. 


MUTATION AND SELECTION. 


In reading Professor Morgan’s very inter- 
esting and valuable book, ‘Evolution and 
Adaptation,’ it is surprising to find that he 
apparently regards the theory of evolution 
by selection and DeVries’s mutation theory as 
being to a degree in conflict. 

The evolution which observation shows us 
has taken place is chiefly characterized by the 
fact that it has brought organisms into fayvor- 
able relation with their environmental condi- 
tions. That this could have been secured by 
mutation unaided by selection seems alto- 
gether unlikely. 

In the case of the leaf butterflies of the 
genus Kallima the theory of evolution by 
mutation alone must assume that the remark- 
able resemblance arose all at once by a single 
mutation, or that there were a series of muta- 
tions which for some unaccountable reason 
were of such a character as to make the re- 
semblance to a leaf gradually grow more per- 
fect, though no selective action of the en- 
vironment controlled this improyement in 
pattern. 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


The first assumption, of the origin of the 
perfect leaf pattern by a single mutation, is 
unsupported by evidence and to me seems very 
improbable. That the resemblance arose by 
the cumulation of a series of mutations inde- 
pendent of selection seems no less improbable, 
for in this case we have either to assume some 
mysterious internal regulation of the -muta- 
tions directing them all in one direction, or 
else we must assume that among the many 
possible mutations only those that were in 
the direction of closer imitation happened to 
occur. The latter is of course practically 
impossible upon the theory of probabilities 
and the former leads us into a realm of 
darkness which we seem at present unable 
to explore. If, however, there is reason to 
believe in such internal directive influence, we 
are not justified in rejecting it because of our 
inability to study its nature and action. I 
can not see that we have such evidence. 

I have been impressed with the feeling that 
Professor Morgan has allowed his opposition 
to Darwin’s conception of evolution by the 
selection of favorable ‘ fluctuating variations’ 
to cause him to understate the importance of 
selection, though in parts of his book he recog- 
nizes that selection acts on mutants and va- 
riants. The Darwinian theory and the theory 
of evolution by selection are not identical, yet 
Professor Morgan frequently refers to them 
as if they were so. If mutations be distinct 
from fluctuating variations, as our as yet very 
scanty evidence seems to suggest may be the 
ease, still both mutations and variations, so 
far as we can see, would be subject to selec- 
tion. The theory of selection is an explana- 
tion of some of the phenomena of adaptation. 
It is difficult to see that the mutation theory, 
apart from selection, aids us in understanding 
or imagining how this adaptation, the most 
general phenomenon in organisms, has been 
secured. 

Mutation may be the mode of origin of 
certain useful qualities, but it is difficult to 
see how it explains their retention and per- 
fection. The theory of selection makes no 
pretense to explain the origin of varieties or 
mutations. It attempts to explain the adap- 
tation of organisms to their conditions of life, 


SCIENCE 70 


such adaptation resulting from the selection 
of those individuals which vary or mutate in 
useful directions. The theory of selection 
begins where the theory of mutation leaves off. 

Not even a combination of DeVries’s muta- 
tion theory with Weismann’s theory of germ- 
inal selection would give us, without natural 
selection, an explanation of progressive per- 
fection of adaptation. We should still need 
to add Nageli’s, or rather St. George Mivart’s, 
perfecting principle. 

The work of DeVries seems especially val- 
uable since it brings to the front such ques- 
tions as the following: 

Are there mutations which are distinct from 
fluctuating variations? Are fluctuating varia- 
tions restricted to rather narrow limits, and 
are the larger variations which occur of a dif- 
ferent sort, establishing a new mean about 
which a new series of fluctuating variations 
cluster ? 

Are mutations (or variations) definite or 
indefinite? Do they follow certain lines or 
do they occur in all directions? 

Tf the direction of mutations (or variations) 
is wholly or in part predetermined, what are 
these predetermining factors? Are they in- 
ternal Gnvolved in the nature of the organ- 
ism), or external (environmental), or both? 

Is there a tendency in mutants (or variants) 
to revert toward the condition of the parent 
stock ? 

Are mutants (or variants) of one sort more 
(or less) fertile or more (or less) vigorous 
when bred together than when bred with the 
parent stock or with mutants (or variants) of 
another sort? Does mutation (or variation) 
cause partial (or complete) segregation ? 

Are hybrids between mutants (or variants) 
of different sorts or between mutants (or 
variants) and the parent stock intermediate 
in character between the two parents, or do 
they follow wholly or chiefly one parent? If 
the latter, which parent is followed in the 
several kinds of crosses? 

Upon most of these points the Aiea 
of DeVries have an important bearing, though, 
without much further observation, they do not 
decide them. 

It seems possible that one of the most im- 


76 SCIENCE. 


portant results of the work carried on by and 
stimulated by DeVries will be to show another 
way in which partial segregation may be se- 
eured, and the theory of natural selection 
needs all the help it can get from segregation. 
It should hardly be necessary to urge that, 
in understanding the development of the con- 
ditions which prevail to-day among organisms, 
the problem of the origin of species seems of 
very secondary importance in comparison with 
the problem of the perfection of adaptation. 
Maynarp M. Mercatr. 
THE WOMAN’S COLLEGE OF BALTIMORE. 


WILBUR WRIGHT’S SUCCESSFUL FLIGHT IN A 
MOTOR-DRIVEN AEROPLANE. 


THE newspapers of December 18 contained 
the announcement that Wilbur Wright had 
flown a distance of three miles with an aero- 
plane propelled by a 16-horse power, four- 
cylinder, gasoline motor, the whole weighing 
more than 700 pounds. To the average news- 
paper reader this meant no more than similar 
statements previously made in the newspapers 
that men had flown in New York, or St. Louis, 
or San Francisco. But to the student of 
aeronautics, and particularly to those who 
had followed the careful scientific experiments 
with aeroplanes which were being made by Or- 
ville and Wilbur Wright, it meant an epoch in 
the progress of invention and achievement, 
perhaps as great as that when Stevenson first 
drove a locomotive along a railroad. 

It meant that after ages of endeavor man 
had at last been able to support himself in 
the air as does a bird and to land in safety 
at a spot chosen in advance. 

The report from an authoritative source 
confirms the fact of this flight, but modifies 
the details somewhat from those given in the 
newspapers. It appears that four successful 
flights were made in a motor-driven aeroplane 
on December 17 near Kitty Hawk, N. C. 
The wind was blowing about 21 miles an 
hour and a speed relative to the wind of 31 
miles an hour was attained by the aeroplane. 
This meant a speed of 10 miles an hour rela- 
tive to the ground. The aeroplane had a 
surface of 510 square feet and in the longest 
flight was in the air 57 seconds. The aeroplane 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 471. 


is said to have risen from a level. The re- 
ported distance of three miles was probably 
relative to the wind. 

The earlier work of the Wright brothers is 
deseribed in the reports of the Western So- 
ciety of Engineers and in part republished in 
the Annual Report of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution for 1902. Their invention of a for- 
ward rudder has contributed to the final suc- 
cess. 

The modern success in aeronautics may be 
said, I think, to date from the feat of Otto 
Lilienthal in 1891 in gliding down an incline 
in an aeroplane. These glides were repeated 
with much success and with an improvised 
aeroplane by Mr. Chanute and Mr. Herring in 
our own country. Mr. Herring even went so 
far as to carry with him 50 pounds of sand in 
his aeroplane which weight he computed would 
be that of an engine sufficient to support him. 

Mr. Pilcher, in England, repeated these ex- 
periments on a level by rising into the air 
in his machine when drawn by a horse attached 
to a rope, the machine rising like a kite and 
then gliding forward. Mr. Whitehead is de- 
seribed in the Scientific American as having 
repeated this experiment recently in Connecti- 
cut with a motor on board the aeroplane. 

In the meantime, in 1896, Dr. Langley had 
driven a model weighing about 25 pounds 
through the air with a small steam-engine, and 
Sir Hiram Maxim had performed the wonder- 
ful feat of lifting 7,000 pounds into the air 
for a moment. This was done with an aero- 
plane having 5,000 square feet of surface 
driven by serial screws attached to a steam- 
engine of 360 horse-power and of extraordin- 
ary lightness. 

But, notwithstanding all these partial suc- 
cesses, there was, owing to the recently re- 
ported failure of Dr. Langley to lift a man 
and to other causes, a wide skepticism as to 
the possibility of human flight. 

Mr. Wright’s success in rising and landing 
safely with a motor-driven aeroplane is a 
crowning achievement showing the possibility 
of human flight. Much yet remains to be 
done, but with the stimulus of this beginning 
progress will probably be rapid. In the prog- 
ress now achieved a great deal is due to Mr. 


2 Sagi stor yal 


JANUARY 8, 1904.] 


Octave Chanute, an eminent American engi- 
neer, whose enthusiasm and great knowledge 
have stimulated the work of Herring, Hufaker, 
the Wrights and many others, and whose ad- 
vice and supervision was freely given in per- 
fecting the machine which has finally suc- 


ceeded. 
H. H. Crayton. 


THE EDITORIAL COMMITTEE OF SCIENCE. 


At the recent meeting of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, the 
council resolved to add the vice-presidents of 
the association and the permanent secretary to 
the editorial committee of Sctrncr. The vice- 
presidents of the association, each of whom is 
chairman of one of the ten sections, repre- 
sent the sciences covered by the journal, and 
are always among the most efficient and active 
men of science of the country. Their cooper- 
ation during their term of office will greatly 
promote the interests of the association and of 
the journal. We also hope to secure the 
cooperation of several other men of science in 
order that all branches of science and all parts 
of the country may be adequately represented. 
The members of the committee who have had 
control of the journal during the nine years 
of the new series will of course remain as 
heretofore. ScIENCE is now so well established 
as the representative organ of American men 
of science that it seems unnecessary to print 
each week the names of the editorial committee 
and of the responsible editor. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND -NEWS. 


We hope to publish next week the official 
report of the St. Louis meeting of the Ameri- 
ean Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence, and as soon as possible the reports of the 
Societies meeting in affiliation with it and 
of the other societies that met during convo- 
cation week at Philadelphia and elsewhere. 
Professor Farlow, of Harvard University, the 
eminent botanist, was elected president of the 
association, and vice-presidents were elected as 
follows: Professor Alexander Ziwet, of the 
University of Michigan, Section of Mathe- 


SCIENCE. 77 


matics and Astronomy; Professor W. F. 
Magie, Princeton University, Section of 
Physics; Professor C. P. Kinnicutt, Worcester 
Polytechnic Institute, Section of Chemistry; 
Professor D. S. Jacobus, Stevens Institute of 
Technology, Section of Mechanical Science 
and Engineering; Professor EK. A. Smith, Uni- 
versity of Alabama, Section of Geology and 
Geography; Dr. C. Hart Merriam, U. S. 
Biological Survey, Section of Zoology; Pro- 
fessor B. L. Robinson, Harvard University, 
Section of Botany; Dr. Walter Hough, U. S. 
National Museum, Section of Anthropology; 
Martin A. Knapp, Interstate Commission of 
Commerce, Section of Social and Economic 
Science. President C. S. Howe, Case School 
of Applied Science, was elected secretary of 
the council, and Professor C. A. Waldo, Pur- 
due University, general secretary. The asso- 
ciation will meet next year at Philadelphia and 
the following year at New Orleans. 


Tuer American Society of Naturalists at the 
annual meeting in St. Louis last week elected 
officers as follows: President, EK. L. Mark, Har- 
vard University; vice-president for the Hastern 
Section, Franklin P. Mall, the Johns Hopkins 
University; vice-president for the Central Sec- 
tion, John M. Coulter, of the University of 
Chicago; secretary, Chas. B. Davenport, Uni- 
versity of Chicago; treasurer, Hermann von 
Schrenk, Missouri Botanical Garden and the 
Bureau of Forestry; additional members of the 
executiwe committee, Professor J. McKeen 
Cattell, Columbia University, and Professor 
William Trelease, Missouri Botanical Gar- 
den. The program of the Naturalists at 
St. Louis was similar to that of recent 
years. On Tuesday evening President David 
Starr Jordan, Stanford University, gave 
an illustrated lecture on ‘The Resources of 
the Sea,’ which was followed by a smoker at 
the University Club. On Wednesday after- 
noon the annual discussion was held, the sub- 
ject being ‘What kind of degrees should be 
conferred for scientific work?’ the open- 
ing speakers being President Jordan, Presi- 
dent Van Hise, Professor Cattell and Pro- 
fessor Coulter. The annual dinner was held 
on Tuesday evening at the Mercantile Club, 
and was followed by the address of the presi- 


78 SCIENCE. 


dent, Director William Trelease, of the Mis- 
souri Botanical Garden, whose subject was 
‘ Oritical Periods in the Life of a Naturalist.’ 
We hope to publish subsequently this address 
and the discussion. 

Ar the annual meeting of the Geological 
Society of America at St. Louis, Professor 
H. L. Fairchild, University of Rochester, was 
elected president; Professor J. C. Branner, 
Stanford University, secretary, and Professor 
I. CG. White, University of West Virginia, 
treasurer. 

Av the twelfth annual meeting of the Amer- 
ican Psychological Association held at St. 
Louis last week, Professor William James was 
elected president. This is the only occasion 
on which a past president has been reelected 
president of the association. Professor Jiv- 
ingston Farrand, Columbia University, will 
continue as secretary, and the members of the 
executive committee elected to succeed the re- 
tiring members, Professor John Dewey, of the 
University of Chicago, and Professor J. Mark 
Baldwin, of the Johns Hopkins University, 
were Professor Hugo Miinsterberg, of Harvard 
University, and Dr. Henry Rutgers Marshall, 
of New York City. 

Av the third annual meeting of the Amer- 
ican Philosophical Association, held at Prince- 
ton on December 29, 30 and 31, Professor G. 
T. Ladd, of Yale University, was elected presi- 
dent; Professor Frank Thilly, of the Univer- 
sity of Missouri, vice-president, and Professor 
H. N. Gardiner, of Smith College, secretary- 
treasurer. The new members of the executive 
committee are Professor James H. Tufts, Uni- 
versity of Chicago, and Professor H. Heath 
Bawden, Vassar College. 

Orricers of the New York Academy of Sci- 
ences haye been elected as follows: President, 
Edmund B. Wilson. Vice-presidents: Sec- 
tion of Geology and Mineralogy, James F. 
Kemp; Section of Biology, L. M. Underwood; 
Section of Astronomy, Physics and Chemistry, 
Chas. Lane Poor; Section of Anthropology 
and Psychology, F. J. E. Woodbridge. Corre- 
sponding secretary, Richard EK. Dodge. fe- 
cording secretary, Henry E. Crampton. Treas- 
urer, Charles F. Cox. Librarian, Ralph W. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 471. 


Tower. Hditor, Chas. Lane Poor. Councilors 
(to serve three years), Livingston Farrand, K. 
O. Hovey. Finance committee, John H. Hin- 
ton, C. A. Post, Henry F. Osborn. 

Tr is announced that Mr. John Morley will 
deliver the principal address at the opening of 
the Technical Institution, founded at Pitts- 
burg by Mr. Carnegie, in the autumn of 1904. 


Oxrorp University has conferred the degree 
of D.C.L. on Mr. Henry Wilde, F.R.S., in- 
ventor of the dynamo electric machine. Mr. 
Wilde is the founder of the Wilde Readership 
in Mental Philosophy and of the John Locke 
scholarship on the same subject. 

Tue large gold medal for services rendered 
to art and science has been awarded by the 
German government to Professor Paul Hhr- 
lich, director of the Imperial Institute of Ex- 
perimental Therapeutics at Frankfort. 

Mr. Recinaup Innes Pococn, F.Z.S., assist- 
ant at the Natural History Museum, South 
Kensington, has been appointed resident super- 
intendent of the Gardens of the London 
Zoological Society. Mr. Pocock entered on 
his duties on January 1, 1904. 

Tur United States Archeological and Eth- 
nological Commission met at the State Depart- 
ment on December 21. Dr. W J McGee, 
the anthropologist of the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition, is chairman of the commission. 
The other members are Mr. Volney W. Fost, 
of Chicago, and Professor Francis B. Kelsey, 
professor of Latin language’ and literature, 
the University of Michigan. 

Mr. Gurpon TrumBuLL, the well-known 
artist and ornithologist, died in Hartford, 
Conn., on December 28, in the sixty-third year 
of his age. 

A rire, on December 27, in the building in 
Washington occupied by the U. 8. Geological 
Survey caused a loss estimated at $15,000, in- 
cluding the destruction of some valuable maps 
and records. 

Tue Matin announces that it has placed the 
sum of 30,000f. at the disposal of Professor 
d’Arsonval in order to enable him to continue 
his researches in connection with the prop- 
erties of radium. 


JaNnuARY 8, 1904.] 


Tue U. S. Geological Survey will make an 


.exhibit at the Lousiana Purchase Exposition 


in St. Louis which will illustrate the survey’s 
methods of work and the products of its vari- 
ous branches as completely as the space placed 
at its disposal will permit. Small pamphlets 
containing descriptions of the methods of 
work pursued by the different branches, divi- 
sions, and sections of the survey will be pub- 
lished for distribution during the exposition. 


Srorrtary Oortenyou has recommended the 
establishment at Washington under the 
Bureau of Fisheries of an aquarium that shall 
surpass in importance any similar institution. 


Revuter’s AGENCY is informed that a scien- 
tific expedition, which has been organized by 
the anthropological section of the St. Louis 
Exhibition, is about to leave England for Cen- 
tral Africa under thé direction of Mr. S. P. 
Verner, who landed a few days ago from New 
York. Since his arrival in England Mr. 
Verner has been to Brussels to consult with 
the authorities there regarding his expedition. 
With reference to his journey Mr. Verner 
says: “In order to get at the aboriginal life 
as little changed as possible by the inroads of 
civilization it is desired to go entirely out of 
the track of previous explorers, as well as of 
all settlers, and to enter the most untouched 
region to which access can be obtained. One 
of these regions is that between the Congo and 
Zambesi valleys, to the north of Livingstone’s 
and the south of Stanley’s journeys. This 
territory embraces, among others, the vast 
Lunda Plateau. It is into this and contiguous 
territories that the expedition is proceeding. 
The region is 1,500 miles from the West Coast. 
The fact that the enterprise leads into a coun- 
try of cannibals and savages, and that the 
attainment of our object requires diplomacy 
and tact in dealing with the natives, makes 
the mission one of difficulty and hazard. The 
time at its disposal also will make it, if suc- 
cessful, a notable exploit. To secure permis- 
sion and cooperation of the European govern- 
ments controlling the territories in question 
representations are being made by the govern- 
ment of the United States. Our base of op- 
erations will be from the capital of Chief 


SCIENCE. 79 


Ndombe, paramount chieftain of the Lunda 
tribes, at the head of navigation of the Kassai 
river, the largest southern tributary of the 
Congo, from which place an effort will be made 
to penetrate the interior. Ndombe is one of 
the most remarkable of living African rulers. 
He is peculiar for being of a bright copper 
color, as are his family, although there has 
been no known white blood in his ancestry. 
He is also a firm friend of the white man, 
having signitied his assent to white suzerainty 
over his domain, and haying instructed his 
people to recognize the authority of the for- 
eigners. His general jurisdiction is very ex- 
tensive, and, including federated and associ- 
ated tribes, may be said to include several mil- 
lion people over a territory of several hundred 
thousand square miles. His own immediate 
family and their blood relations are known as 
the Bakwampesh, a word almost exactly equi- 
valent to ‘aristocracy.’ In his territory are 
tribes of pygmies, of cannibals, and the last 
remnant of the once powerful transcontinental 
slave-traders, the Bimbadi. ‘The scientific in- 
terest attaching to this expedition arises from 
the fact that it has lately become strongly 
suspected that the most primitive forms of the 
human race are to be found in remote Africa, 
the oldest region known where the native life 
has been longest undisturbed by outside influ- 
ences. It is desirable to record the conditions 
now existent there and to obtain specimens of 
the arts and products of the people before they 
have changed their aboriginal ways for the 
innovations of rapidly approaching civiliza- 
tion.” 


Mr. Ernest AtyscogHre FLoyeEr, inspector- 
general of Egyptian telegraphs, died at Cairo 
on December 1 from heart disease, at the age 
of fifty-one years. We learn from the London 
Times that Mr. Floyer was educated at the 
Charterhouse, receiving in 1869 an appoint- 
ment in the Indian Telegraph Service. In 
1876 he received his first long leave, and 
started, unaided and alone, for the unexplored 
interior of Baluchistan. His observations and 
surveys on this difficult and dangerous journey 
were of considerable geographical interest. He 


returned to London in the same year, and sub- 


80 SCIENCE. 


sequently published an account of his travels 
in a work entitled ‘ Unexplored Baluchistan.’ 
In the same year (1876) he was appointed 
inspector-general of Egyptian telegraphs. In 
1887 he surveyed, and described in the ‘ Pro- 
ceedings of the Royal Geographical Society,’ 
‘Two Routes in the Hastern Desert of Egypt,’ 
and later described the results of an expedition 
to the same desert in an official publication 
entitled ‘Etude sur la Nord-Etbai. It was 
during this journey that he rediscovered the 
ancient emerald mines of the Egyptians, and 
his maps and observations have been the basis 
for the subsequent exploitation of minerals in 
this region. During the last decade Mr. 
Floyer devoted much attention to the reclama- 
tion, by judicious planting, of the land which 
had been lost to cultivation by the encroach- 
ment of drifting sand upon the western border 
of the Delta. 


It is proposed to establish under the aus- 
pices of the International Sanitary Confer- 
ence an international sanitary bureau for the 
collection of information respecting infectious 
diseases, such as plague, cholera and yellow 
fever, and also for the harmonious working of 
those sanitary regulations in the east which 
have so greatly contributed within the last five 
years to the preservation of public health, as 
well as to the benefit of trade, by the suppres- 
sion of the old quarantine system. If the 
movement is successful the bureau will have 
its headquarters in Paris. 


UNIVERSITY AND BDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tue will of the late Washington Corring- 
ton, of Peoria, Ill., leaves the entire estate, 
valued at $750,000, for the founding of an 
educational institution to be known as Cor- 
rington Institute and University. The estate 
is to be managed by trustees until it reaches 
$1,500,000, when work is to be begun at Mr. 
Corrington’s late home, just outside the limits 
of Peoria. Professor John M. Coulter, of the 
University of Chicago, is one of the trustees. 


By the will of the late Ruth A. Hoar, the 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute receives $5,- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 471. 


000 and Clark University will ultimately re- 
ceive $30,000. 

Patmer University, at Muncie, Ind., has 
secured the $100,000 necessary to obtain the 
endowment of $100,000 left by the late F. A. 
Palmer. 


Dr. Epwarp Hirencock, JR., for several 
years professor of physical culture and hygiene 
and director of the gymnasium at Cornell Uni- 
versity, has resigned. 

Proressor W. A. S. Hewins, M.A., having 
resigned the post of director of the London 
School of Economies and Political Science, 
the senate has appointed in his place Mr. H. 
J. Mackinder, M.A., lecturer in economic 
geography at that institution. Mr. Mackinder 
has lately resigned the principalship of Uni- 
versity College, Reading, but will continue 
his lectures on economic geography in the 
University of London and historical geography 
in the University of Oxford. 


Mr. WitnrAm Ravenscrorr Hucuss, B.A., 
has been elected to a fellowship in Jesus Col- 
lege, Cambridge University. Mr. Hughes was 
fifth wrangler in the mathematical tripos, 1902. 

Tue council of King’s College, London, has 
appointed to the chair of mathematics Mr. S. 
A. F. White, M.A., of Wadham College, Ox- 
ford, who has been demonstrator in natural 
philosophy in King’s College since 1895. The 
council has also appointed Mr. EK. F. Herroun 
assistant professor of physics, and Mr. J. B. 
Dale, M.A., of St. John’s College, Cambridge, 
assistant professor of mathematics. 


Sir Jonn Scorr Burpon-Sanperson, M.A., 
D.M., hon. fellow of Magdalen, and Regius 
professor of medicine at Oxford University, 
has placed his resignation of the professorship 
in the hands of the vice-chancellor. Sir John 
Burdon-Sanderson was appointed to the regius 
professorship, to which is annexed the Al- 
drichian professorship of the practise of medi- 
cine, in 1895, upon the resignation of the late 
Sir Henry Acland, who had occupied the chair 
for thirty-eight years. Professor Burdon- 
Sanderson was the first occupant of the Wayn- 
flete chair of physiology, to which he was ap- 
pointed in 1883, his successor being the present 
professor, Dr. Gotch.- 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 


Fripay, JANuARY 15, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
The Proceedings of the St. Louis Meeting: 
PRESIDENT CHARIES S. Howe............. 81 
The Blements: Verified and Unverified: 


PROFESSOR CHARLES BASKERVILLE......... 8&8 
Meetings of Affiliated Scientific Societies at 

LUO UCCIOND HIG ie caterer rece eR RCRC Caer 100 
The American Mathematical Society: Pro- 

DOSSOR IN, IN/, Cows 5 seccedonapeoooadoues 101 
Scientific Books :-— 

Noyes on the General Principles of Physical 

Science: Proressor HE. H. Loomis........ 102 
Scientific Jowrnals and Articles............ 103 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Society for Hxperimental Biology and 

Medicine: Dr. Wi11am J. Gms. The 

New York Academy of Sciences, Section of 

Anthropology and Psychology: PROFESSOR 

James HK. Loucn. Section of Geology and 

Mineralogy: Dr. Epmunp Oris Hovey. 

Michigan Ornithological Club: ALEXANDER 

APO TEACIN, wcJRun | OO) SoS eg oes ae 104 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

The Word Barometer: PRoressor JOHN C. 

SEUEND Dames haqraep veka avey ifn folsuiiatas desis ue ge loeclin ta tews 108 
Special Articles :— 

Color Inheritance in Mice: PRoressor C. 

18}, IDEN AOIPHO Mo gh ap od bdsGdho aoe seb oR or 110 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 

Meteorological Bibliography; Cloud Obser- 

vations in India; Air Pressures in India; 

Note: Proressor R. DEC. WARD.......... 115 
The Association of Official Agricultural Chem- 

USUS MME R t-te vi rst cas Leet auch eats ba felerepevoNtease) sve tara: eve 116 
Scientific Notes and News.................. 116 
University and Educational News.......... 120 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


PROCEEDINGS OF THE ST. LOUIS MEETING. 
Tue fifty-third annual meeting of the 


American Association for the Advancement 


of Science was held in St. Louis, December 
26, 1903, to January 1,1904. This was the 
second time the association had met m St. 
Louis, the first being the twenty-seventh 
meeting in 1878. The association has met 
west of the Mississippi but six times. 

The. number of members in attendance 
was 385, while the number in the affiliated 
societies was 81, making a total attendance 
of 466. This places the meeting fifth in 
point of numbers of those held during the 
last ten years. As the total membership 
has rapidly increased in this time, this 
would seem to be a small meeting, but there 
are various reasons to account for it. The 
first and strongest of them is that the ex- 
position will be held in St. Louis next sum- 
mer and a large number of the members 
expect to visit the city at that time. Hence 
they did not feel like going to St. Louis in 
the winter, notwithstanding their strong 
desire to attend the meeting of the asso- 
ciation. 

Although the meeting was small in point 
of numbers, it was large in point of papers 
and earnest work in the section room. 
Many of the sections were very largely at- 
tended and had so many papers that they 
could not complete them during the regular 
time assigned. Several evening meetings 
were held, and at least two of the sections 
held meetings after the final adjournment 
of the association. This shows that the 


82 SCIENCE. 


meeting was what might be called a work- 
ing meeting. Those who had papers to 
present were there and took active part in 
the proceedings. It was unfortunate that 
a larger number could not have been pres- 
ent, but any meeting at which a large num- 
ber of papers is presented, and where a 
strong and vital interest is taken in the 
work of the section room must be called a 
successful one. 

Perhaps the second reason why the at- 
tendance was small was in the fact that the 
policy of the association, which calls for 
working meetings, does not meet hearty 
support from all of the members. There 
is still some discussion goimg on as to 
whether, it would be better to have a sum- 
mer meeting or a winter meeting, or per- 
haps both. Some of the older members do 
not feel like traveling long distances during 
the winter and subjecting themselves to the 
changes of temperature and other discom- 
forts which come from winter travel. In 
some cases it is not possible for college pro- 
fessors to get away from their institutions 
during the week of the meeting, and still 
others do not like to leave their families 
during the holiday vacation. On the other 
hand, the majority of those present seemed 
to feel that it was best to continue the pres- 
ent method, for a time at least. There was 
no open opposition to the winter sessions, 
and when the vote was taken in the general 
committee the winter meeting for next year, 
was unanimously decided upon. 

Winter meetings do not readily lend 
themselves to excursions. The time must 
be taken up in the reading and discussion 
of papers, and the social element must come 
in the form of banquets and smokers. St. 
Louis did all in its power to entertain the 
convention, and several excursions were ar- 
ranged, notwithstanding the unfavorable 
season. 

APFILIATED SOCIETIES. 


The following affiliated societies held 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


meetings in conjunction with the associa- 
tion: 


The American Anthropological Association. 

The American Chemical Society. 

The American Mathematical Society (Chicago 
Section) . 

The American Microscopical Society. 

The American Physical Society. 

The American Psychological Association. 

The American Society of Naturalists. 


The American Society of Zoologists (Central - 


Branch). 

The Association of Economic Hntomologists. 

The Association of Plant and Animal Breeders. 

The Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 
America. 

The Botanical Club of the Association. 

The Botanical Society of America. 

The Central Botanists’ Association. 

The Entomological Club of the Association. 

The Fern Chapter. 

The Geological Society of America. 

The Sigma Xi Honorary Scientific Society. 

The Society for Horticultural Science. 

The Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 
Science. 

The Wild Flower Preservation Society of 
America, 

The policy of encouraging the affiliation 
of scientific societies with this association 
has been continued, and two more societies, 
the Society of College Teachers of Educa- 
tion and the Society for Horticultural Sci- 
ence, have been added to the list. Some of 
the strongest of the affiliated societies have 
not sought any connection with this asso- 
ciation. It would seem that an earnest 
effort should be made to bring about some 
connection between these organizations and 
our own. ‘In union there is strength.’ 
The scientific forces of the country should 
stand together, and whenever it comes that 
assistance is needed for scientific research, 
or favorable legislation is needed for any 
purpose, it will be obtamed much more 
readily if it is known that practically all 
the scientists of the country are back of 
the association which asks for such action. 


The first session of the meeting was called 


4 

: 
y 
‘4 


JaNuARY 15, 1904.] 


to order in the auditorium of the Central 
Hich School, at 10 a.w., Monday, December 
28, 1908, by the retiring president, Dr. Ira 
Remsen. 

Dr. Remsen introduced the president- 
elect, Dr. Carroll D. Wright. Addresses of 
welcome were then made by the Hon. D. 
’ R. Francis on behalf of the local committee, 
by the Hon. C. P. Walbridge on behalf of 
the city of St. Louis, and by Professor C. 
M. Woodward on behalf of the educational 
institutions of the city and the state. To 
these addresses President Wright replied 
for, the association. 

President Wright announced that each 
day the council would meet at nine o’clock 
and the general session at ten o’clock. 

After the adjournment of the general 
session the several sections were organized 
in their respective rooms. 

On Monday afternoon the vice-presi- 
dents’ addresses were given as follows: 


At 2:30 P.M. 

Vice-President Halsted before the Section of 
Mathematics and Astronomy, in Room B2, en- 
titled ‘The Message of Non-Euclidean Geometry.’ 

Vice-President Baskerville before the Section of 
Chemistry, in Room 102, entitled ‘The Elements: 
Verified and Unverified.’ 

Vice-President Davis before the Section of Geol- 
ogy, in Room 202, entitled ‘Geography in the 
United States” © i 

At 4:00 P.M. 

Vice-President Waldo before the Section of Me- 
chanical Science and Engineering, in Room 310. 

Vice-President Hargitt before the Section of 
Zoology, in Room 202, entitled ‘Some Unsolved 
Problems of Organie Adaptation.’ 

Vice-President Coville before the 
Botany, in Room 102. 

Vice-President Newcomb before the Section of 
Social and Economic Science, in the auditorium, 
entitled ‘Some Recent Phases of the Labor Prob- 
lem.’ 


The address of Vice-President Nichols 
before the Section of Physics was omitted, 
owing to the absence of Mr. Nichols, who 
was detained by sickness in his family. 

On Monday evening the address of the 
retiring president, Dr. Ira Remsen, entitled 


Section of 


SCIENCE. 83 


‘Scientific Investigation and Progress,’ was 
given at the Odeon. 

On Tuesday evening, President David 
Starr Jordan, of Leland Stanford Junior 
University, gave a public lecture on ‘The 
Resources of Our Seas.’ After the lecture 
the American Society of Naturalists and 
affiliated societies held their annual smoker 
at the University Club. 

On Wednesday morning Dr. George A. 
Dorsey delivered his address as retiring 
president of Section H, upon the subject 
‘The Future of the American Indian.’ 

On Wednesday afternoon the American 
Society of Naturalists held their annual 
public discussion, the subject being ‘What 
Academic Degrees should be conferred for 
Scientific Work?’ 

On. Wednesday -afternoon Professor E. 
Rutherford, of MeGill University, Mon- 
treal, Canada, gave an illustrated public 
lecture on the subject ‘Radium and Radio- 
activity.” 

On Wednesday evening the retiring 
president of the American Chemical So- 
ciety, Dr. John H. Long, delivered an 
address upon the subject ‘Some Problems 
in Fermentation.’ 

On Wednesday evening the American So- 
ciety of Naturalists held its annual dinner 
at the Mercantile Club, after which was 
given the address of the retiring president, 
Professor William Trelease. 

On Wednesday evening the annual din- 
ner of the American Chemical Society and 
Section C was given at Faust’s. 

On Wednesday evening Dr. 8. F. Em- 
mons gave the president’s address before 
the Geological Society of America at the 
Planters’ Hotel. 

On Thursday afternoon, by invitation of 
the officers of the Louisiana Purchase Hx- 
position, the members of the association 
and affiliated sccieties visited the exposition 
grounds. <A buffet luncheon was tendered 
the association by the officers of the exposi- 


84 SCIENCE. 


tion, after which they were taken in small 
parties through the grounds and buildings 
and shown the various exhibits, under the 
personal charge of the chiefs of depart- 
ments. 

On Thursday evening the annual ban- 
quet of the Sigma Ni Honorary Scientific 
Society was given at the Mercantile Club, 
followed by the address of President David 
Starr Jordan. 

On Friday evening the members of the 
association attended the fourteenth annual 
banquet given by the trustees of the Mis- 
sour1 Botanical Garden at the Southern 
Hotel. 

REPORTS OF COMMITTEES. 


The following reports of committees were 
presented to the council. They were ac- 
cepted and ordered printed. 


On the Atomic Weight of Thorium. 
To the Cowneil of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science. 

Gentlemen: Since our last report we beg leave 
to state that Messrs. Charles Baskerville and R. 
O. E. Davis have secured further evidence of the 
complexity of the so-called element, thorium. This 
work has resulted from applications of methods 
of fractionation to the large amounts of purified 
material with which they were engaged, as stated 
in our last report. Under such circumstances 
these gentlemen deemed it advisable to prosecute 
further the fractionation until a stable thorium 
preparation was secured. This fractionation is 
controlled by atomic weight determinations and 
spectroscopic examinations. 

At the Washington meeting of the council, a 
grant of fifty dollars was made Mr. Charles 
Baskerville for work on preseodidymium and the 
supervision of the same given over to this com- 
mittee. Concerning this, we beg leave to state 
that Messrs. Baskerville, James Thorpe and T. B. 
Foust have secured about one kilogram of quite 
pure oxide by novel methods. At present Messrs. 
Baskerville and G. MacNider are subjecting a 
considerable portion of this purified material to a 
treatment which promises to show the complexity 
of this so-called element. 

We therefore, beg leave to report progress. 

Respectfully, 
CHAS. BASKERVILLE, Chairman, 
FrANcIS P. VENABLE, 
JAS. Lewis Howe. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


On the Relation of Plants to Climate. 


Gentlemen: The committee on the relation of 
plants to climate presents herewith a paper en- 
titled ‘Soil Temperatures and Vegetation,’ which 
sets forth recent results obtained by the aid of 
grants received in 1901 and 1902, and which was 
published in Contributions from the New York 
Botanical Garden (No. 44). 

Your committee is desirous of extending the 
observations already made to cover a wider range 
of soil and climatic conditions, and has secured 
the cooperation of the New York Botanical Garden 
and of the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the 
Carnegie Institution, both of which have under- 
taken the purchase and installation of sets of 
instruments. The major inquiry is concerned 
with the influence of the temperature of soils, 
with its diurnal and seasonal variations, upon 
growth and distribution of plants. As a result 
of the observations already made it has been 
found that different portions of the body of even 
small plants may differ as much as 40° F. in 
temperature, a fact which has hitherto escaped 
notice and which promises to be of great impor- 
tance in the interpretation of the physical pro- 
cesses of the plants. In order to carry along the 
entailed investigations, your committee asks an 
additional grant of seventy-five dollars. 

During the course of the work, the Hallock soil 
thermograph has been invented and perfected. 
Specifications have been placed in the hands of a 
competent instrument maker, and no limitations 
of any kind placed on its manufacture or use. 
The numbers of applications for instruments show 
that it is deemed useful for thermometric work 
in various kinds of observations, 

Respectfully, 
D. T. MacDoueat, 
For the Committee. 
WILLIAM TRELEASE, 
J. M. Courter, 
D. T. MacDoueat, 
Committee. 


On Anthropometric Tests. 

The committee of the association on anthropo- 
metric tests has continued its work throughout 
the year. A laboratory for physical and mental 
measurements was arranged at Washington, and 
tests of the fellows and members of the associa- 
tion were made by Mr. Miner and Mr. Davis under 
the direction of the chairman of the committee. 
The results of measurements of about one hun- 
dred fellows have been compiled and compared 
with similar measurements of members of the 
British Association and of other classes of the 


t 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


community, but the data are not yet sufficiently 
numerous for publication. Dr. McGee, of the 
committee, has taken steps toward the establish- 
ment of anthropometric and psychometric labora- 
tories as part of the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion, with special reference to the measurement 
of the savage tribes that will be gathered there. 
Professor Boas, of the committee, has published 
measurements of the cephalic index in relation to 
Mendel’s law, and has carried forward anthropo- 
metric work in other directions. The chairman 
of the committee has published two papers on 
the natural history of American men of science, 
seeking to apply metric methods to merit and 
other individual differences. Numerous meas- 
urements of physical and mental traits have been 
made in the psychological laboratory of Columbia 
University, and work has been carried on in the 
schools of New York City on the resemblance of 
brothers and twins, and in other directions. Pro- 
fessor Thorndike has published a book on ‘ Hdu- 
cational Psychology,’ concerned especially with the 
application of anthropometric methods to children. 
It did not appear feasible to arrange an an- 
thropometriec laboratory at St. Louis. We ask 
that the fifty dollars appropriated for such a 
laboratory be made available for next year. 


J. McKrmn CattTetLt, 
Chairman. 


On Indexing Chemical Literature. 


The committee on indexing chemical literature, 
appointed by your body at the Montreal meeting 
in 1882, respectfully presents to the Chemical Sec- 
tion its twenty-first annual report, covering the 
twelve months ending June 1, 1903. 


Works Published. 

‘An Index to the Literature of Thorium (1817— 
1902)’ By Cavalier H. Jouet, Ph.D. Smith- 
sonian Miscellaneous Collections, No. 1374. Wash- 
ington City, 1903. 

“References to Capillarity to the End of the 
Year 1900” By John Uri Lloyd (aided by Sig- 
mund Waldbott). Bulletin No. 4 of the Lloyd 
Library of Botany, Pharmacy and Materia Medica. 
Cincinnati, Ohio, 1902. Syvo. 212 pp. 

The 665 ‘ references’ extend from 1519 to 1900; 
each is accompanied by a summary of the con- 
tents of the paper cited. 

The Journal of the American Chemical Society. 
General Index to the first twenty volumes, 1879- 
1898, and to the proceedings, 1877-1879. Easton, 
Pa., 1902. S8vo. 237 pp. 

Though issued anonymously, the preface bears 
the initials of E. W. Morley and O. F. Tower, and 


SCIENCE. 85 


the labor was one of love. Accuracy of detail 
and adequate treatment on every page are its 
admirable features. Besides an index of authors 
and an index of subjects, there is an index of 
obituaries which is suggestive. Also an index 
of new books. 


Notes on Foreign Bibliographies. 

‘A Bibliography of Steel-works Analysis,’ by 
Harry Brearly, forms an appendix to the volume 
entitled ‘The Analysis of Steel-works Materials,’ 
by Harry Brearly and Fred Ibbotson. London, 
1902. 

This bibliography comprises 1,858 references, 
which occupy more than 130 pages octavo. The 
items are grouped under seven heads, besides 
minor subdivisions; the literature is, however, 
very incomplete, being confined to four British 
journals. 

‘A Catalogue of the Library of the Chemical 
Society (of London). Arranged according to 
authors with a subject index. London, 1903. 
8vo. 342 pp. 

‘International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 
ture. First Annual Issue (for the year 1901). 
D, Chemistry. Published for the International 
Council by the Royal Society of London. London, 
1902. Vol. II, Part I. June, 1902. 


Work in Progress. 

A second supplement to the ‘ Select Bibliography 
of Chemistry,’ by Dr. H. Carrington Bolton, has 
been completed and accepted for publication by the 
Smithsonian Institution. It brings the literature 
down to the end of the year 1902. 

An index to the literature of cadmium has been 


‘begun by Professor Ernest N. Pattee, of Syracuse 


University. 

An index to the literature of glucinum has been 
begun by Professor Charles L. Parsons, of New 
Hampshire College, Durham, New Hampshire. 

An index to the literature of germanium, gal- 
lium and indium has been begun by Dr. Philip E. 
Browning, of New Haven, Connecticut. 

Mr. Frank R. Fraprie, writing from Munich, 
Bavaria, reports substantial progress on an index 
to the literature of lithium, cesium and rubidium. 

Mr. Benton Dales is engaged on an index to the 
literature of the yttrium group of the rare earths. 
His address is Ithaca, New York. 

H. Carrineton Botron (in Europe), 
F. W. Crarke (in Hurope), 
ALBERT B. PRESCOTT, 
ALFRED TUCKERMAN, 
H, W. Witey, 
Committee. 
June 1, 1903. 


86 SCIENCE. 


On the Velocity of Light. 

The committee reports progress since the Pitts- 
burg meeting in the preliminary study of the 
methods of determining the group velocity and 
the absolute velocity of light in ponderable media 
and in space. 

The practicability of the method, involving the 
use of electric double refraction and electric oscil- 
lations for producing groups of waves, and the 
examination of them through a column of water 
at least 100 feet long and probably twice that 
distance, has been established. 

An estimate from the corresponding optical 
conditions in air would make the available dis- 
tance several miles. The preliminary study of the 
method for determining the absolute velocity has 
not yet been completed, but the apparatus is 
partly mounted and in place. 

The committee petitions a further grant of 
seventy-five dollars for the continuance of the 
preliminary experiments now in progress. 

Respectfully submitted, 
D. B. Brace, 
For the Committee. 


On the Teaching of Anthropology in America. 

To the President and Council: Your committee 
on the teaching of anthropology in America beg 
to report progress. 

During the year 1902 (for which a brief report 
was submitted to the council, though apparently 
lost before reaching the secretary of the council), 
the committee held one or two conferences, while 
different members took individual action in ac- 


cordance with the general policy looking toward - 


the promotion of anthropologic education in sey- 
eral leading institutions. Dr. MacCurdy, of the 
committee, continued the collection and publica- 
tion of statistics as to the teaching of anthro- 
pology; and Dr. Boas, Dr. Russell and the chair- 
man of the committee delivered addresses and 
published papers advocating the extension and 
betterment of anthropologic teaching in this 
country. During the year 1903 the committee 
have continued work, chiefly as individuals, and 
different members have been consulted and have 
expressed opinions as to the value of anthropology 
as a subject of instruction in educational insti- 
tutions. Recently the committee has suffered a 
grievous loss in the death of Dr. Frank Russell, 
one of the original members of the committee. 

It is recommended that the committee be con- 
tinued, and that the vacancy created by the death 
of Dr. Russell be filled by the appointment of Dr. 


Roland B. Dixon, of Harvard University. Since 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


the work of the committee is performed in occa- 
sional conferences and by correspondence, entail- 
ing little expense, no grant is asked for its main- 


tenance. Respectfully, i 
W J McGuz, Chairman. 
GEORGE GRANT MacCurpy. 
On Grants. 


The committee on grants recommends that ap- 
propriafions for the ensuing year be made as 
follows, namely: 

To the Concilium Bibliographicum of Zurich, 
$100. 

To the Committee on the Atomic Weight of 
Thorium, $100. 

To the Committee on the Study of the Relations 
of Plants to Climate, $75. 

To the Committee on Determination of the 
Velocity of Light, $75. 

To a committee of Section C, to be appointed, to 
study certain problems in electrochemistry, $60. 

To give effect to this last recommendation, the 
following resolution is suggested: 

Resolved, That a committee consisting of Pro- 
fessors W. D. Bancroft, Edgar F. Smith and L. 
Kahlenberg be appointed to conduct said investi- 
gations in electrochemistry and that this committee 
be designated the Committee on Electrochemistry. 


On Policy of the Association. 

The Committee on Policy of the Association re- 
ported the following resolutions, which were 
adopted. 

1. Concerning the proposition to authorize the 
appointment of an executive committee of five to 
consult with the permanent secretary and arrange 
details of the meetings, that the functions of such 
proposed executive committee be performed by 
the Committee on the Policy of the Association. 

2. The Committee on the Policy of the Associa- 
tion recommend to the council that at the next 
annual meeting only three general sessions be 
held, namely, those of Monday, Wednesday and 
Friday of the week of meeting. 

3. Amend Article 34 by the omission of the 
words ‘on the election of any member as a fellow 
an additional fee of two dollars shall be paid. 

4. That the commutation of secretaries of sec- 
tions be fixed at $30 for each meeting of the asso- 
ciation, provided that these secretaries lodge dur- 
ing the whole meeting at the hotel headquarters 
of the association. 

In ‘regard to granting credentials to members 
of the association who wish to visit foreign asso- 
ciations, the committee recommended that all such 
applications be referred to the Committee on 
Policy, with power. : 


STO er ale ES Te le aR eR 


<> 


Rat, co Ewin dean 


YS MOS git 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


In regard to the application of the Society of 
Gollege Teachers of Education and of the Society 
for Horticultural Science for affiliation with this 
association, the committee recommended that the 
applications be granted. 


On the Relations of the Journal Science with the 
Association. é 

On the recommendation of the committee it 
was voted: 

1. That the treasurer be added to this com- 
mittee. 

2. That the vice-presidents of the association 
and the permanent secretary be added to the edi- 
torial committee of the journal, Scrmncr. 


On Amendments. 


The following amendments to the constitution 
having been proposed at the Washington meeting, 
favorably acted upon by the council and reported 
to the general session were adopted: 

Article 34, second line, change the word assess- 
ment to the word dues. 

Artiele 35, first line, change the word assess- 
ment to the word dues. 

Article 37, first line, change the word assess- 
ment to the word dues. 


On Fellows 


The following members were elected fellows of 
the association: Edward Goodrich Acheson, Vic- 
tor ©. Alderson, J. M. Allen, Frank Marion 
Andrews, Henry Prentiss Armsby, B. J. Arnold, 
Luigi d@Auria, Oscar Phelps Austin, Thomas M. 
Balliet, J. H. Barr, John Mallery Bates, Albert 
T. Bell, W. Z. Bennett, William B. Bentley, Ber- 
nard Arthur Behrend, Samuel Lawrence Bigelow, 
Charles Edward Brewer, W. KX. Brooks, David I. 
Bushnell, Jr., Sidney Calvert, William E. Castle, 
Hubert Lyman Clark, Frederic Edward Clements, 
George HE. Coghill, James Milnor Coit, Charles A. 
Conant, Robert A. Cooley, Henry Crew, William 
Crozier, Richard Sydney Curtiss, N. M. Fenneman, 
George Egbert Fisher, Moses Gomberg, Benjamin 
Feland Groat, Charles M. Hall, Fred DeForest 
Heald, George Grout Hedgecock, J. S. Hine, Fred- 
erick W. Hodge, 8. J. Holmes, William Hoskins, 
Ira Woods Howerth, William James, John Black 
Johnston, Edwin S. Johonnott, Edward Kasner, 
Hdward Keller, C. A. King, J. S. Kingsley, Martin 
A, Knapp, Charles M. Knight, Jesse Goad Land, 
A. $. Langsdorf, F. M. Leavitt, Felix Lengfeld, 
Victor Lenher, P. M. Lincoln, G. W. Littlehales, 
George Edwin McLean, Haven Metcalf, Robert 
Treat Paine, Charles J. Reed, Jacob Reighard, 


SCIENCE. 87 


James Ford Rhodes, Isaac W. Riley, Samuel P. 
Sadtler, E. Dwight Sanderson, Homer LeRoy 
Shantz, John Lewis Sheldon, Bohumil Shimek, 
Edward Randolph Taylor, J. Bishop Tingle, Olin 
¥. Tower, J. L. Van Ornum, F. L. O. Wadsworth, 
S. W. Williston and A, N. Winchell. 


The following resolutions were proposed 
and adopted at the meeting of the general 
session held Friday, January 1: 


In view of the extremely complete and effective 
arrangements which have guarded and guided the 
conduct of the multiplied activities of the meeting 
with such unusual success, and in the thought of 
the many courtesies which have been extended to 
us on every hand with most genuine hospitality, 
it is a peculiar pleasure to be called upon to present 
for adoption by the association the resolution of 
thanks which are so incomplete an expression of 
our appreciation of these privileges. At the same 
time, each one of us must feel that the most ex- 
tended enumeration would only partially include 
the many who have so generously contributed 
to make this meeting a success in every direction. 

First of all, the thanks of the association must 
be extended to the local committee, and partic- 
ularly to the honorary president, the Hon. David R. 
Francis; to the chairman, Professor William Tre- 
lease; to the secretary, Professor A. S. Langsdorf; 
to the treasurer, Mr. William H. Thomson, and 
to the members of the executive committee, Chan- 
cellor W. S. Chaplin, Mr. George H. Morgan, Pro- 
fessor I. E. Nipher, Mr. John Schroers, Mr. 
Walter B. Stevens, Dr. William Taussig and Mr. 
H. C. Townsend, who, as chairman of the various 
subcommittees, have arranged for all the details 
with such forethought as to keep the machinery of 
a large and complicated program in operation 
without friction or interference, and to provide for 
many outside courtesies of the most enjoyable 
type. 

Sincere thanks are due to the Board of Edu- 
cation for placing at our disposal the Central 
High School building, so admirably adapted to the 
purposes of this meeting; to Superintendent of 
Public Instruction F. S. Soldan; to Principal W. 
J. S. Bryan and his corps of assistants and stu- 
dents for their untiring efforts in caring for the 
various sections, and to Messrs. George F'. Knox, 
William Butler and S. A. Douglas for their con- 
tinued oversight and manipulation of the lanterns 
and other appliances placed at the disposal of the 
sections. 

The association is deeply indebted to the trustees 
and director of the Missouri Botanical Gardens 


88 SCIENCE. 


for hospitalities extended to members in connec- 
tion with their visits to this splendid institution, 
and for the exceptional courtesies tendered in con- 
nection with the Shaw banquet. 

The association is under obligations to the 
officers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition for 
the luncheon and reception at the grounds of the 
exposition, and to the chiefs of departments un- 
der whose guidance the members were privileged 
to witness the progress already made toward the 
completion of this monumental work. 

The association must further acknowledge its 
indebtedness to the press, to the St. Louis Transit 
Company, to the president of the Board of Public 
Improvements and to all other organizations, cor- 
porations and individuals who have extended so 
many privileges to members individually and in 
groups in connection with visiting the great in- 
dustries and points of interest in St. Louis and 
vicinity. 

The association is under deep obligations to the 
Mercantile Club, to the University Club, and 
finally and in especial measure, to the Wednesday 
Club for the thoughtful hospitalities extended to 
the ladies registered at the meeting. 


It was unanimously voted to extend the 
thanks of the association to Professor 
Rutherford for his lecture on radium and 
radio-activity. 

At the meeting of the general committee, 
held Thursday evening, it was decided to 
hold the next meeting in Philadelphia, be- 
ginning Tuesday, December 27, 1904, and 
closing Monday, January 2, 1905, it being 
understood that the Executive Committee 
of the Council will meet Tuesday, De- 
cember 27, and the opening session of the 
meeting will be held Wednesday, December 
28. New Orleans was recommended as the 
place of meeting two years hence. 

The following officers were elected for 
the Philadelphia meeting: 


President—W. G. Farlow, Cambridge, Mass. 
Vice-Presidents : 


Section A—Alexander Ziwet, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan. 

Section B—William F, Magie, Princeton, New 
Jersey. 

Section C—Leonard P. Kinnicutt, Worcester, 
Massachusetts. 


Section D—Dayid S. Jacobus, Hoboken, New 
Jersey. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 472. 


Section E—Eugene A. Smith, University, Ala- 
bama. 
Section F—C. Hart Merriam, Washington, 
D. C. 
Section G—B. I. Robinson, Cambridge, Mass. 
Section H—Walter Hough, Washington, D. ©. 
Section I—Martin A. Knapp, Washington, 
D. C. 
Section K—The present vice-president, Mr. H. 
P. Bowditch, will serve another year. 
General Secretary—Charles §. Howe, Cleveland, 
Ohio. 
Secretary of the Council—Clarence A. Waldo, 
Lafayette, Indiana. 
CHaruEs S. Hows, 


General Secretary. 


THE BLEMENTS: VERIFIED AND 
UNVERIFIED.* 

Ir is the sad duty of the retiring chair- 
man of this section to chronicle the death of 
two members. One of them, James Francis 
Magee, B.S., University of Pennsylvania, 
1887, devoted his life chiefly to commercial 
pursuits, in which he was most successful. 
He joined the association at the fifty-first 
meeting, being one of the youngest mem- 
bers. he other was H. Carrineton Bolton, 
Columbia, 1862 (Ph.D. Gottingen, 1865), 
who, with the exception of four (Gibbs, 
Boye, Brush and Hilgard), was the senior 
of the section, having joined at the seven- 
teenth meeting. I beg permission to quote 
from an article of his in the American 
Chemist, 1876, the year following his ele- 
vation to fellowship in the association, as 
it exemplified in telling words one of the 
great aims in his life, with the fruitful 
accomplishment of which you are familiar: 

“So rapid are the strides made by sci- 
ence in this progressive age and so bound- 
less is its range, that those who view its 
career from without find great difficulty in 
following its diverse and intricate path- 
ways, while those who have secured a foot- 

* Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section C, Chemistry, of the American Association 


for the Advancement of Science, St. Louis meeting, 
December 28, 1903. 


JANnuARY 15, 1904.] 


ing within the same road are often quite 
unable to keep pace with its fleet movements 
and would fain retire from the unequal 
contest. It is not surprising, then, that 
those actually contributing to the advance- 
ment of science, pressing eagerly upward 
and onward, should neglect to look back 
upon the labors of those who precede them 
and should sometimes lose sight of the obli- 
gations which science owes to forgotten gen- 
erations.’’* His numerous contributions to 
and intimate knowledge of the history of 
chemistry, his gentle and generous sym- 
pathy aided and stimulated many active in 
research or technical applications of chem- 
istry. His monumental bibliographies put 
out by the Smithsonian Institution are mas- 
terpieces. The grief and keen regret of his 
loss are not confined to one nation. 

On another occasion it has been the good 
fortune of him who has the honor of ad- 
dressing you to-day to indicate that events 


of literary moment, governmental modifica-- 


tions, inventions and forward stridings in 
science, have apparently accommodated 
themselves to historical periods during the 
past century. Striking, novel facts and 
fancies, gleaned in the realm of inorganic 
chemistry, have crested not a few of the 
hich waves of those human tides that beat 
against the coasts of the untried and un- 
known. 

The human mind knows by contrasts. 
For the day we have night; for the good 
there is evil. Where man would have a 
God, he also had a devil; for the true there 
is the false; the verified and unverified. 
The false may be true through ignorance ; 
the true may be false in the light of new 
knowledge. Or, as Hegel put it, ‘Sein und 
das nicht Sein sind das Namliche.’ 


**Notes on the Early Literature of Chemistry— 
The Book of the Balance of Wisdom,’ New York 
Academy of Sciences, May 29, 1876. 

7‘ The Rare Harth Crusade; What it Portends, 
Scientifically and Technically, Scrency, N. S., 
XVII., 722-781. 


SCIENCE. 89 


Is matter continuous or discrete? argued 
the opposed schools of Grecian philosophy 
led by Leucippus, Democritus and Epicurus 
and dominated by Aristotle. Despite the 
clarity of the statements of the Roman 
Lucretius,* the atomic hypothesis received 
secant attention until the seventeenth cen- 
tury of the Christian era, when Galileo’s 
experimental science assailed Aristotelian 
metaphysics and demanded verification of 
the premises of that philosophy which had 
governed all the schools of Europe for two 
thousand years.t While Gassendi, Boyle, 
Descartes, Newton, perhaps Boscovich, 
Lavoisier, Swedeborg, Richter, Fischer and 
Higgins had to do with our modern atomic 
theory, Dalton one hundred years ago ‘cre- 
ated a working tool of extraordinary power 
and usefulness’ in the laws of definite and 
multiple proportions. As Clarke{ re- 
marked, ‘Between the atom of Lucretius 
and the Daltonian atom the kinship is 
very remote.’ Although the lineage is di- 
rect, the work of Berzelius, Gmelin and 
others; the laws of Faraday, Guy Lussac, 
Avyagadro, Dulong and Petit; the reforma- 
tions of Laurent and Gerhardt, but par- 
ticularly Cannizzaro; the systematizations 
of de Chancourtois, Newlands, Hinrichs, 
Mendelejeff and Lothar Meyer; the stereo- 
chemistry of van’t Hoff and LeBel have 
imperialized the ideas of the Manchester 
philosopher, so that the conceptions of the 
conservative atomists of to-day are quite 
different from those at the beginning of the 
closed century.$ 


* “Nature reserving these as seeds of things 


Permits in them no minish nor decay; 
They can’t be fewer and they can’t be less.” 
Again, of compounds— 
“ Decay of some leaves others free to grow 
And thus the sum of things rests unim- 
paired.” Book II., 79. 
7+ See ‘The Atomic Theory,’ the Wilde Lecture 
by F. W. Clarke at Dalton Celebration, May, 1903. 
£ Loe, cit. 
2 While I have examined much of the original 
literature, WVenable’s ‘History of the Periodic 


90 


These have not come about solely through 
the additive labors of the savants men- 
tioned, for they have been shaped quite as 
much by speculative and experimental op- 
position exemplified by Brodie* and Sterry 
Hunt.+ 

In Graham’s ‘Speculative Ideas Respect- 
ing the Constitution of Matter’{ we have 
the conception that our supposed elements 
possess ‘one and the same ultimate cr atomic 
molecule existing in different conditions of 
moyement.§ Apropos, we have the sug- 
gestion of F. W. Clarke || that the evolu- 
tion of planets from nebule, according to 
the hypothesis of Kant and Laplace, was 
accompanied by an evolution of the ele- 
ments themselves. Even Boyle—‘the cau- 
tious and doubting Robert Boyle,’ as Hum- 
boldt said of him—was inclined to the be- 
lief that ‘all matter is compounded of one 
primordial substance—merely modifications 
of the materia prima.’ 

The Daltonian ideas had scarcely reached 
adolescence before Prout (1815), giving 

heed to the figures concerned, would have 
all the elements compounded of hydrogen. 
The classical atomic mass values obtained 
by sympathetic Stas and the numerous in- 
yestigations of those who followed him, 
with all the refinements human ingenuity 
has been able to devise, temporarily silenced 
‘such speculations, but not until Marignac 


Law’ has been most helpful. I have, furthermore, 
hhad the privilege of reading very carefully the 
manuscript of a work entitled ‘The Study of the 
Atom’ (in press), by Dr. Venable. 

**Caleulus of Chemical Operations,’ J. Chem. 
Soc., 21, 367 (1866), and his book, ‘ Ideal Chem- 
istry,’ 1880. 

+ Numerous 
Basis for Chemistry.’ 
(fourth edition). 

+ Proc. Roy. Soc., 1863. 

' 4 Venable, ‘The Definition of the Element,’ vice- 
presidential address, Section ©, American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, Columbus 
meeting, 1899. 

|| ‘ Evolution and the Spectroscope,’ Pop. Sc. MU. 
Jour., 1873. 


papers summarized in “A New 
New York, 1887 and 1892 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472, 


had halved the unit, Dumas had quartered 
it, and Zingerle, as late as 1882, insisted 
upon the one thousandth hydrogen atom. 

The notion, like Banquo’s ghost, will ever 
up, for if one may judge from the proba- 
bility caleulations of Mallet* and Strutt,+ 
a profound truth underlies the now crude 
hypothesis. 

Crookes,{ from observations made during 
prolonged and painstaking fractionations of 
certain of the rare earths, supported his 
previously announced ‘provisional hypoth- 
esis’ as to the genesis of the elements from 
a hypothetical protyle, which existed when 
the universe was without form and void. 
He designated those intermediate entities, 
like yttrium, gadolinium and didymium, 
‘meta-elements,’§ a species of compound 
radicals, as it were. Urstoff, fire mist, pro- 
tyle, the ultra-gaseous form, the fourth 
state of matter || was condensed by a pro- 
cess analogous to cooling; in short, the 
elements were created. The rate of the 
cooling and irregular condensation pro- 
duced ‘the atavism of the elements,’ and 
this caused the formation of the natural 
families of the periodie system. Marienac9] 
eriticizine this hypothesis, states: ‘‘I have 
always admitted*** the impossibility of ac- 
counting for the curious relations which are 
manifested between the atomie weights of 
the elements, except by the hypothesis by 
a general method of formation according 
to definite though unknown laws; even 
when these relations have the character of 
general and absolute laws.’’ 

Further, ‘“‘I do not the less acknowledge 


* Phil. Trans., 171, 1003, 1881. 

} Phil. Mag. (6), 1, 311. < 

£ Chem. News, 55, 83, 1886. 

@ Address before Chemical Section of the Brit- 
ish Association, Chem. News, 54, 117, 1885. 

|| Crookes, Royal Societies, June 10, 1880. 

{| Archives des Sciences Physiques et Naturelles, 
17-5; Chemical News, 56, 39. 

**Remarks made in 1860-5 after publication of 
Stas’s ‘Researches on Atomic Weights,’ Archives, 
9, 102, 24-376. 


January 15, 1904.] 


that the effect of constant association of 
these elements is one of the strongest 
proofs that can be found of the community 
of their origin. Besides, it is not an iso- 
lated fact; we can find other examples such 
as the habitual association in minerals of 
tantalum, niobium and titanium.”’ 

Sir John Herschel thought that all the 
atoms were alike and the elements, as we 
know them, ‘have the stamp of the manu- 
faectured article.’ 

Hartley* this year says: ‘It is more than 
twenty years since the study of homology 
in spectra led me to the conviction that the 
chemical atoms are not the ultimate par- 
ticles of matter, and that they have a com- 
plex constitution.’ 

The peculiar discharge from the nega- 
tive electrodes of a vacuum tube was in- 


vestigated many years ago by Hittorf and ; 


Crookes, who arrived at the conclusion that 
it was composed of streams of charged 
particles. All are familiar with the very 
recent proposed ‘electrons’ and ‘corpuscles’ 
resulting from the beautiful physical re- 
searches of Lodge and J. J. Thomson. 
These appear to have caused a trembling in 
the belief of many in the immutability of 
the atom, and the complete abandonment 
of the atom is seriously discussed by 
others. 

“Tf the electrons of all elements are ex- 
actly alike, or, in other words, if there is 
but one matter, just as there is but one 
force, and if the elements be but the various 
manifestations of that one matter, due to 
a different orbital arrangement of the elec- 
trons, it would seem that we are fast re- 
turning to the conceptions of the mid- 
dle-aged alchemist. The transmutation of 
metals involves but the modification of the 
arrangement of the electrons.’’ Such ef- 


* Address before the Chemical Section, British 
Association, Southport meeting, September, 1903, 
Chem. Neves, 88, 154. 


SCIENCE. 91 


forts as Fittica’s* should not be treated 
with scorn, but given careful examination 
and merited consideration, as Wuinklert+ 
gave his. Science should thus ever be ‘a 
foe of raw haste, half-sister to delay.’{ 

Although by chemical means, so far, we 
have been unable to break up the atoms, 
apparently electrical energy, in the form 
of cathode rays, for example, follows the 
erain of atomic structure. Some advanced 
thinkers look upon the atoms as disem- 
bodied charges of electricity. Ostwald 
has taught it. Hlectric charges are known 
only as united to matter, yet Johnstone, 
Stoney and Larmor, have speculated on the 
properties of such charges isolated. “‘Such 
a charge is inertia, even though attached 
to no matter, and the increase of inertia 
of a body due to electrification has been 
calculated by both Thomson and Oliver 
Heaviside, the conception accordingly 
being advanced that all inertia is electrical 
and that matter, as we know it, is built 
up of interlocked positive and negative 
electrons. If it were possible in any mass 
of matter to separate these electrons then 
matter would disappear and there would 
remain merely two cnormous charges of 
electricity.’”’ We are aware of phenomena 
attributed to the negative electrons; we 
await anxiously the announcement of ihe 
positive electrons. But here the water is 
deep and one may not swim too well. 

We do know, however, as A. A. Noyes 
says,§ that ‘there exists in the universe 
some thing or things other than matter 
which, by association with it, give rise to 
the changes in properties which bodies ex- 
hibit, and give them power of producing 
changes in the properties: of other bodies.’ 

* “Black Phosphorus, or Conversion of Phos- 
phorus into Arsenic,’ Chem. News, 81, 257; 82, 
166. 

{ Berichte, 33, 10; Chem. News, 81, 305. 

£Van Dyke in ‘The Ruling Passion.’ 

2 ‘General Principles of Physical Science,’ p. 13, 
1902. 


92 SCIENCE. 


Further (p. 15), ‘‘* * * matter is that 
which gives rise to the localization of the 
complex of properties which certain por- 
tions of space exhibit. Even though, on 
the one hand, it must be admitted that the 
existence of matter is inferred only from 
various energy manifestations which bod- 
ies exhibit, it must be acknowledged, on 
the other, that there are no manifestations 
of energy except those which are asso- 
ciated with the manifestations of it that 
have led to the adoption of the concept of 
matter; in a word, the two assumed enti- 
ties, matter and energy, are indissolubly 
connected in our experience.’’ ‘Thus, as 
Dumas said, ‘Hypotheses are the crutches 
of science to be thrown away at the proper 
time.’ 

I have dared to sketch these conceptions 
in a few bold outlines, for 

“We can’t enumerate them all! 
In every land and age have they 
With honest zeal been toiling on,* 
To turn our darkness into day.” 

The imposition upon your good nature 
practiced in the foregoing craves its par- 
don in an effort to seek a definition for the 
term, element. Shall we say, as does Rem- 
sen, ‘An element is a substance made up of 
atoms of the same kind?’ Can we say that 
it is not?  Venablet+ truly says: ‘An ele- 
ment is best defined by means of its prop- 
erties.’ These conceits are not exclusive. 
The properties are the result of the action 
of physical forces and chemical affinity, 
whatever that may be. Certain of the 
novel atmospheric gases have so far re- 
sponded but poorly to the latter, as pre- 
dicted before their discovery by Flawitz- 
sky, Julius Thomsen and de Boisbaudran 
in 1887. This necessitates, according to 
Piecinif our dividing them at once into 
two classes. 


* Aikens’ poem at Priestley centennial, Am. 
Chemist, 1875, 23. 

7 The ‘ Definition of the Element,’ loc. cit. 

£ Zeit. Anorg. Ohem., 19, 295, 1899. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


Pattison Muir gives a satisfactory defini- 
tion.* ‘‘The notion of the elements that 
has been attained after long, continued 
labor is that of certain distinct kinds of 
matter, each of which has properties that 
distinguish it from every other kind of 
matter, no one of which has been separated 
into portions unlike the original substance, 
and which combine together to produce 
new kinds of matter that are called com- 
pounds.’’ The following simpler defini- 
tion has finally served as my guide: An 
element 1s that which has not been de- 
composed, so far as we are aware, into any- 
thing other than itself. In short, it is con- 
sistent. 

It is well to stop occasionally and take 
stock. The Daltonian centenary could not 
but be an opportune time. Stable, cer- 
tified securities are not enumerated in the 
list which follows. Having in mind the 
second chapter of the first book of Chroni- 
cles, certain so-called elements are men- 
tioned, for, yttrium begat cerium, and ce- 
rium begat lanthanum, and lanthanum 
begat samarium and didymium, and didy- 
mium begat neodidymium and priseodidy- 
mium, and preseodidymium begat a- and 
@-preseodidymium, ‘wnd so weiter.’ 

Unpractised as a reading clerk, I shall 
spare you the strain of hearing this long 
list of elements on probation, but submit 
for leisure perusal printed copies which 
will form an appendix to the address as 
published in the Proceedings of the asso- 
ciation. 

From the table have been omitted urstoff, 
protyle (Crookes), electrons (Lodge), cor- 
puscles (J. J. Thomson) and pantogen - 
(Hinrichs). It appeared also unnecessary 
to incorporate phlogiston, nitricum (the 
imaginary body, thought by Berzelius 
united with oxygen to form nitrogen), and 
arzon (ponderable caloric). According to 


**The Alchemical Essence and the Chemical 
Element,’ London, 8vo, pp. 94, 1894. 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


Meissner, hydrochloric acid is composed of 
“two equivalents of oxygen, one of water, 


combined with areon and the imaginary 
radical murium (vide Bolton). Often al- 


_loys have been prepared and given names 


like the elements, ‘magnalium,’ for exam- 
ple. These are omitted also. - Otherwise, 
I have purposely included every sugges- 
tion of an element I could obtain. The 
summary, while doubtless deficient, may 
secure an historical vindication. 

What shall we do with these numerous 
aspirants whose recognition is urged? 
“These elements perplex us in our re- 
searches, baffle us mm our speculations and 
haunt us in our very dreams. They stretch 
like an unknown sea before us, mocking, 
mystifying and murmuring strange revela- 
tions and possibilities,’’ said Crookes, refer- 
ring to the rare earths. Some have been 
verified, many unverified; some are true, 
some are false. Without doubt some have 
been presented without sufficient stage set- 
ting, yet the good faith of many can not be 
questioned. In fact, from this list, as one 
reads, he perceives the whole gamut of sci- 
entific emotions. There he may find the 
tragedies of elemental pretension, the com- 
edies, yea, the very farces. 

We need not look far to ascertain expla- 
nations for certain incorrect conclusions. 
The extreme rarity of the minerals in which 
many of the tentative elements have been 
detected, the excessively small percentages 
of the new ingredients, and the extraor- 
dinary difficulties attending their separa- 
tion from known and unknown substances 
combine to render the investigations labori- 
ous, protracted and costly. De Boisbau- 
dran required 2,400 kilograms of zine 
blend for 62 grams of gallium. Ramsay* 
has shown one part of erypton in twenty 
million volumes of air, while a like amount 
of xenon requires one hundred and seventy 
million. How patiently and persistently 

* Zeit. phys. Ohem., 44, 74, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 93 


that modest Parisian couple followed Bece- 


-querel’s rays! 


Furthermore, when one feels that he has 
obtained something novel, the absolute 
proof is fraught with difficulties and un- 
certainties. We have decided to define an 
element by its properties. The alterations 
produced in the properties of the most char- 
acteristic elements by the presence of small 
amounts of foreign substances are evident 
in steel. The influence of arsenic upon the 
conductivity of copper is well known, and 
Le Bon* has recently shown that traces of 
magnesium (one part in 14,000) in mer- 
cury cause the latter to decompose water 
and to oxidize rapidly in the air, at ordinary 
temperatures. Thorium with less than a 
trace of actinium produces an auto-photo- 
graph. 

This point can not be too strongly 
stressed in the rare earth field. One who 
has wrought with thorium dioxide well 
knows the influence a small amount of 
cerium has upon its solubility. The con- 
flicting statements in the literature as to 
the colors of the oxides of the complexes, 
neodidymium and preseodidymium, cause 
one to wonder if different researchers have 
had the same hecceeity. 

An appeal to the spectroscope is of course 
in the minds of all my hearers. 

It was once supposed that each element 
has its characteristic spectrum which re- 
mained the same under all circumstances. 
Keeler} calls attention to modern investiga- 
tions which have shown that the same ele- 
ment can have entirely different spectra. 
For example, oxygen may be caused to have 
five different spectra; nitrogen, two, ete. 


In fact, there is no indication in the appear- 


ance of the spectra that they belong to the 

same substance; yet through the result of 

the work of Rydberg, Kayser, Runge and 
* Compt. rend., 131, 706, 1900. 


ft Scientific American Supplement 88, 977, 1894, 
and Popular Astronomy. . 


94 SCIENCE. 


Precht, series of groups of lines are had 
which satisfy mathematical formule. 

“‘It was proposed by de Gramont, at the 
International Congress in Paris, in 1900, 
and agreed, that no new substance should 
be described as an element until its spark 
spectrum had been measured and shown to 
be different from that of every other known 
form of matter.’’ As Hartley * remarks, 
“This appears to me to have been one of 
the most important transactions of the con- 
egress.’ Radium 7} was the first to be tested 
by this rule. Exner and Haschek obtained 
1,193 spark and 257 are lines for Demar- 
eay’s europium. It must not be forgotten, 
however, that by overlapping, lines in mix- 
tures may be masked or appear, which are 
absent, in those bodies of the highest state 
of purity. It must not be forgotten that 
pressure influences the spectrum, usually 
producing a broadening of the lines, as 
shown by Schuster, and that it may occur 
symmetrically or only towards the least re- 
frangible red. lest we forget, the spectro- 
scope failed a long time to show radium and 
we knew it was there. It must not be for- 
gotten, as Kriiss§ has shown, that the ‘in- 
fluence of temperature can not be neglected 
and ignored, but must be considered by 
every chemist who wishes to make correct 
spectroscopic observations.’ It is well 
Inown to spectroscopists that band spectra 
are obtained at temperatures intermediate 
between those required for the production 
of continuous spectra and line spectra.|| 

* Address before the Chemical Section of the 
British Association, Southport, 1903. 

f Runge and Precht, Am. Physik., IV., 12, 407, 
1903. 

{ British Association, Report, 1880, 275. Vide 
also Lockyer and Frankland, Proc. Roy. Soc., 27, 
288, 1869. 

@°The Influence of Temperature upon the 
Spectrum; Analytical Observations and Measure- 
ments,’ Liebig’s Annalen, 238, 57; Ohem. News, 
56, 51. 


|| ‘Spectrum Analysis,’ Landauer, English trans- 
lation by Tingle, p. 70. ° 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 472. 


The explanations of these facts do not con- 
cern us at present. 

It has been shown by the researches of 
Newton, Dale, Gladstone, Jamin, Schrauff, 
Landolt and others that the refractive 
power increases in all liquids, except in 
water, between 0° and 4° with the increase 
of density—that is, with decrease of tem- 
perature. Rydberg showed that various 
solid bodies, such as quartz and aragonite, 
follow the same law. There are some ex- 
ceptions, however. Among these is glass, 
as proved by Arago and Neumann prior to 
Rydberg. ‘“‘On a rise of temperature all 
phenomena of absorption or emission are 
displaced toward the violet with the glass 


_ prisms, but toward the red with quartz 


prisms. These displacements are the great- 
er the more refrangible the region of the 
spectrum in which they oceur.’’ As the 
result of a large number of observations, 
Kriiss learned that by a variation of 25°, 
marked changes would be observed in the 
spectroscopic lines. From a table given, it 
could be seen that errors may spring from 
neglect of the temperature (of the instru- 
ment?) in stating wave-leneths, since a 
rise of 5° is sufficient to transfer the D, to 
the position D,. Roscoe obtained an en- 
tirely new spectrum with the metal sodium, 
whereby it appears that this metal exists in 
a gaseous state in four different degrees of 
aggregation, as a simple molecule, and as 
three or four or eight molecules together. 

Griinwald in a series of papers on his 
theory of spectrum analysis* endeavors ‘‘to 
discover relations between the spectra and 
thus to arrive at simpler, if not funda- 
mental ‘elements.’’’ He came to the con- 
clusion that ‘all the so-called elements are 
compounds of the primary elements a and 


**Uber das Wasserspectrum, das Hydrogen— 
und Oxygenspectrum,’ Phil. Mag., 24, 304, 1887. 
“Math. Spectralanalyse des Magnesiums und der 
Kohle,’ Monatshefte fiir Chemie, 8, 650. ‘Math. 
Spectralanalyse des Kadmiums,’ Monatshefte fiir 
Chemie, 9, 956. 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


b’ (coronium and helium). Ames,* having 
called attention to the use of uncorrected 
data by Grimwald, remarks: ‘The concave 
erating gives the only accurate method of 
determining the ultra-violet wave-lengths of 
the elements; and as a consequence of not 
using it, most of the tables of wave-lengths 
so far published are not of much value.’ 

Hutchins and Holden,} after a compara- 
tive study of the are spectra of metals and 
the sun with a twenty-one-foot focal Row- 
land grating, state: ““ We are convinced that 
there is much in the whole matter of coin- 
eidences of metallic and solar lines that 
needs reexamination; that something more 
than the mere coincidence of two or three 
lines out of many is necessary to establish 
even the probability of the presence of a 
metal in the sun. With the best instru- 
ments the violet portion of the solar spec- 
trum is found to be so. thickly set with fine 
lines that, if a metallic line were projected 
upon it at random, in many places the 
chanees for a coincidence would be even, 
and coincidences could not fail to occur in 
ease of such metals as cerium and vana- 
dium, which give hundreds of lines in the 
are.”’ 

“Moreover, a high dispersion shows that 


_ very few lines of metals are simple and 


short, but, on the contrary, winged and 
nebulous, and complicated by a great va- 
riety of reversal phenomena. A ‘line’ is 
sometimes half an inch wide on the photo- 
graphic plate, or it may be split into ten 
by reversals.’’ 

Lockyer maintained that the lines of cer- 
tain brilliant substances vary not only in 
length and in number, but also in bril- 
lianey and in breadth, depending upon 
the quantity of the substance as well as 


* Am. Chem. J., 11, 138, 1889. 

7‘On the Existence of Certain Elements, To- 
gether with the Discovery of Platinum, in the 
Sun, Am. Jour. Sci.; Sci. Am. Supp., 25, 628, 
1888. 


SCIENCE. 95 


temperature.* Beimg unable to decompose 
the elements in the laboratory, he studied 
the spectra of the stars. The spectra of 
the colder stars} show many more metals, 
but no metalloids, whereas the coldest 
stars, A. Orionis, show the Crookes spec- 
trum of metalloids which are compounds. 
None of the metalloids are found in the 
spectrum of the sun. Over 100,000 visual 
observations and 2,000 photographs were 
made in the researches. 

Liveing,{ as the result of the work of 
Young, Dewar, Fievez and himself on the 
spectrum of the sun, by which some lines 
were resolved with a new instrument, 
which they before had not been able to 
devise, comments on Lockyer’s work: That 
the coincidence of rays emitted by differ- 
ent chemical elements, especially when de- 
veloped in the spark of a powerful induc- 
tion coil, and the high temperature of the 
sun and stars, gives evidence of a common 
element in the composition of the metals 
which produce the coincident rays. ‘‘This 
result can not fail to shake our belief, if 
we had any, in the existence of any com- 
mon constituent in the chemical elements, 
but it does not touch the evidence which 
the spectroscope affords us that many of 
our elements, in the state in which -we know 
them, may have a very complex molecular 
structure. ’’ 

Hartley§ in his recent admirable address 
said: 

“T have always experienced great difficulty in 
accepting the view that because the spectrum of 
an element contained a line or lines in it which 
Were coincident with a line or lines in another 
element, it was evidence of the dissociation of the 


elements into simpler forms of matter. In my 
opinion, evidence ef the compound nature of the 


* Roy. Soc. Proc., 61, 148, 183; Chem. News, 79, 
145. 

{ Chem. News, 79, 147. 

t Address before the Chemical Section of the 
British Association, Scientific American Swpple- 
ment, 14, 356, 1882. 

§ Loe. cit. 


96 SCIENCE. 


elements has never been obtained from the coin- 
¢cidence of a line or lines exclusively belonging to 
the spectrum of one element with a line or lines 
in the spectrum exclusively belonging to another 
element. This view is based upon the following 
grounds: (1) Because the coincidences have gen- 
erally been shown to be only apparent, and have 
never been proved to be real; (2) because the great 
difficulty of obtaining one kind of matter entirely 
free from every other kind of matter is so great 
that where coincident lines occur in the spectra of 
what have been believed to be elementary sub- 
‘stances, they have been shown from time to time 
to be caused by traces of foreign matter, such as 
by chemists are commonly termed impurities; 
(3) no instance has ever been recorded of any 
homologous group of lines belonging to one ele- 
ment occurring in the spectrum of another, ex- 
cept and alone where the one has been shown 
to constitute an impurity in the other; as, for 
instance, where the triplet of zine is found in 
cadmium and the triplet of cadmium in zine the 
three strongest lines in the quintuple group of 
magnesium is graphite, and so on. The latest 
elucidation of the cause of coincidences of this 
kind arises out of a tabulated record from the 
wave-length measurements of about three thou- 
sand lines in the spectra of sixteen elements made 
hy Adeney and myself. The instances where 
lines appeared to coincide were extremely rare; 
but there was one remarkable case of a group of 
lines in the spectrum of copper which appeared 
to be common to tellurium; also lines in indium, 
tin, antimony and bismuth which seemed to have 
an origin in common with those of tellurium.” 


The last sentence presents the point I 
wish to emphasize. Tellurium has long ob- 
truded itself before a satisfactory vision 
of the natural system. The table alone 
recites not a few efforts to obtain the con- 
taminating constituent of tellurium which 
@ priory is present from Hartley’s observa- 
tions (see also Grtinwald 1889 table). The 
fractionation of a rubidium-cesium mix- 
ture, perhaps, is a simpler problem than 
that confronting Pellini,* who reports a 
definite amount of an element with a high 
atomic weight (about 214), similar to and 
associated with tellurium. 


* Gaz. Chim. ital., 33, 11, 35. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 472. 


What has been said applies especially 
to the elements of the rare earth class 
—‘asteroids of the terrestrial family’—as 
phrased by Crookes. Many of them have 
not been secured with sufficient purity to 
claim an inherent spectrum; further, the 
spectra attributed have not been obtained 
under uniform conditions. 

I have referred* somewhat in detail 
elsewhere to the factors producing varia- 
tions in the absorption, as well as the ad- 
vantages and disadvantages of the phos- 
phorescent and reversal, spectra. 

Without doubt the spectroscopic criteria 
are the most valuable we have in judging 
finally the elements, and mayhap will re- 
main so, but m my humble opinion, such 
have not alone sufficient authority, as yet, 
to usher the aspirant to a place among the 
elect. The contention frames itself, how- 
ever, in an expression of the need for uni- 
formity. 

Whether we follow the most advanced 
metaphysico-chemical teachings or no, if 
there be any one concept upon which mod- 
ern practical chemical thought depends, it 
is the law of definiteness of composition. 
There may be, and doubtless are, definite, 
perhaps invariable, properties of our ele- 
ments other than their combining propor- 
tions, the atomic weights, if you please, 
yet, as far as we know, they approximate 
more closely than any fixed, if not perma- 
nent, ratios. Many of these values, by 
which we lay such store, are dependent 
upon data} in which, I venture the asser- 
tion, too great confidence has been be- 
stowed, or opinions to which sufficient at- 
tention has not been given. 

Although in this connection we shall 
give little heed to the suggested variability 
of the relative values, it may be remarked 
that Boutlerow, noting the variations ob- 

*<The Rare Earth Crusade,’ loc. cit. 


7 Others have been referred to in the address to 
which this is a sequel. Loc. cit. 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


served in 1880 by Sehiitzenberger, who, by 
the use of different atomic weights, ob- 
tained analyses summing 101 instead of 
100, expressed the opinion that the chem- 
ical value of a constant weight, or rather 
mass of an element, may vary; that the 
so-called atomic weight of an element thay 
be simply the carrier of a certain amount 
of chemical energy which is variable 
within narrow limits. (See also Crookes.) 
Wurtz’s summary of Boutlerow’s views, at 
a meeting of the Chemical Society of Paris, 
provoked an interesting discussion. Cocke 
later published a statement that he had ex- 
pressed similar views more than twenty- 
five years before. That is, in 1855, he had 
questioned the absolute character of the 
law of definite proportions and had sug- 
gested that the variability was occasioned 
by the very weak affinity between elements 
manifesting a fluctuating composition. 
Without doubt “The Possible Significance 
of Changing Atomic Volume,’ in which a 
suggestion as to the probable source of the 
heat of chemical combination is put for- 
ward by T. W. Richards, bears directly 
upon this phase of the problem. 

While the atomic mass values depend di- 
rectly upon the ratio between the constit- 
uents of the compounds, they rest equally 
upon the molecular weights. Many of the 
latter attributed to salts of some of the 
rare earths depend solely upon the spe- 
cifict heat determinations of Hullebrand 
and Norton,{ Nilson and Pettersson,§ who, 
in the light of subsequent investigations, 
we know, worked with complexes. To be 
sure, those elements which were apparently 
exceptions to the law of Dulong and Petit, 
possess low atomic weights (beryllium, 
boron, carbon, silicon, aluminum and sul- 


* Proc. Am. Acad. Arts and Sciences, 27, 1, 1901, 
and 27, 399, 1902. 

+ Berichte, 13, 1461, 1880. 

+ Pogg. Annal., 156 and following. 

§ Berichte, 13, 146, 1880. 


SCIENCE. 


3 97 
phur):,and have for the most part been 
brought into harmony. ‘‘The specific 
heats of all substances vary with the tem- 
perature at which they are measured; and 
though the variation is often slight, it is 
occasionally of relatively great dimensions. 
When this is so in the case of an element, 
the question arises: At what temperature 
must the measurement of the specific heat, 
be made in order to get numbers compar- 
able with those of the other elements? No: 
definite answer has been given to this ques- 
tion, but it is found that as the tempera- 
ture rises, the specific heat seems to ap- 
proach a limiting value, and this value is 
not in general far removed from that 
which would make the atomic heat approx- 
imately equal 6.4.’”* In view of this, allo- 
tropism, and the work of Richards ad- 
verted to, it appears that a revision of the 
specific heat values now taken is necessary 
before we can accept fully this law, which 
has been most helpful. 

Time will not admit of detailed state- 
ments, and itis unnecessary in this presence 
to more than call attention to the fact that 
what has been said is not applicable to each 
specifie case. ‘La critique est facile, mais 
Wart est difficile,’ as Berthelot} has said, 
yet we must appreciate that all our laws 
have their limitations. ‘‘Man being ser- 
vant and interpreter of nature, can do and 
understand so much and so much only, as 
he has observed in fact or in thought in the 
course of nature. Beyond this he neither 
knows anything nor can do anything.’’t 

A glance at the extensive, even censored, 
list of claimants will evoke serious thought. 
““Thus was the building left ridiculous.’’§ 
The difficulties briefly outlined and the 
eauses for lack in uniformity are by no 
means insurmountable, but will continue - 

* “Introduction to Physical Chemistry,’ James 
Walker, London, p. 33. ° 

7 ‘ Les Origines de l’Alchimie,’ Paris, 1885. 


¢ Bacon’s ‘ Novum Organum,’ Aphorism I. 
2 Milton, ‘Tower of Babel.’ 


98 SCIENCE. 


until more systematic direction and prose- 
cution of the work come about. Investiga- 
tors in pure chemistry as a rule hold pro- 
fessorships, or other positions making equal 
demand upon their time. Furthermore, it 
is extremely rare that one man can become 
a master of the various delicate operations 
hinted at. Mallet* made a proposition for, 
systematizing atomie weight work and F. 
W. Clarke in this country} and abroadt 
has urged the establishment of an institute 
for its prosecution. This appeals to all in- 
terested in what we are pleased to term the 
exact sciences, and doubtless in time will 
come about. For the time being, however, 
it is not unreasonable to suppose that a 
concerted appeal of the chemists of this 
country to the direction of the munificent 
endowment recently made American science 
for funds to clarify the elemental enigma 
presented above would not be in vain. 
There are splendidly equipped chemical de- 
partments in some of our great American 
universities which would make room for, 
and cordially welcome, I am sure, a selected 
corps of supported researchers, who would 
test the claims of each of these and other 
elemental aspirants. Such a community of 
effort should receive even greater substan- 
tial assistance from governments and cor- 
porations than has been accorded individ- 
uals. I need only refer to the aid given 
the Curies by the Austrian government, 
and generosity shown by the Welsbach 
Lighting Company in this country to sev- 
eral investigators, especially myself. 

It must be evident to all that we are not 
indulging in special pleading, for every 
phase of that division of science designated 
chemistry rests upon what we choose to 
term the elements. 

* Stas memorial lecture, Chemical Society (Lon- 
don), delivered December 13, 1892. 

7 Presidential 
Chemical Society. 

+ Wilde lecture at the Dalton Centenary, Man- 
chester, 1903. 


address before the American 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


Victor Meyer,* referring to the phan- 
tasies of science, said: ‘‘Hie, however, who 
only knows chemistry as a tradition of per- 
fectly clear facts, or who thinks to see the 
real soul of chemical study in measuring 
physical phenomena which accompany 
chemical transformations, feels no breath 
of this enjoyment.’’ Reflecting upon the 
good and ill that have come to us through 
unrestrained imagination, we may give a 
careful acceptance of Newton’s ‘Physies, 
beware of metaphysics’ for as Clifford 
wrote, ‘Doubtless there shall by and by be 
laws as far transcending those we know as 
they do the simplest observations.’ 

The graphic representation of the ele- 
ments, ‘the foundation stones of the ma- 
terial universe which amid the wreck of 
composite matter remained unbroken and 
unworn,’ as Maxwell gracefully spoke of 
them, has often been mistaken for the 
periodic law. Carnelley’s “reasonable ex- 
planations’ of the periodic law were given 
a respectful hearing and forgotten. t 

““Granting that the chemical character- 
istics of an element are connected with its 
atomic weight, we have, however, no right 
to assume them to be dependent upon that 
fact alone’’ (iveine). Hinrichs says 
weight and form, + concerning the latter of 
which I am ignorant. No doubt the pen- 
dulum lately has swung back toward Ber- 
zelian thought revivified by the like mas- 
ters, van’t Hoff and Arrhenius. 

Le Verier predicted the planet Neptune 

* Lecture on ‘ The Chemical Problems of To-day’ 
before the Association of German Naturalists and 
Physicians at Heidelberg, September, 1889; _ 
Chemical News, 61, 21. 

yj He regarded the elements as compounds of 
carbon and ether analogous to the hydrocarbon 
radicals, and suggested that all known bodies are 
made up of three primary elements—carbon, 
hydrogen and ether—truly an assumption which 
can not be disproved. Aberdeen meeting, British 
Association. 

{ ‘ Atom Mechanies,’ Hinrichs, Vol. I., St. Louis, 
1894, p. 242. 


JaNuARY 15, 1904.] 


and his predictions were verified. While 
all of Mendelejeft’s predictions, specific and 
tacit, have not been verified, some have. 
Ramsay* and others, without a periodic 
guide, predicted certain of the inert gases, 
which predictions have been verified. 

- Victor Meyer, in speaking of the comple- 
tion of the Mendelejeff table, calls attention 
to the summing up of one hundred ele- 
ments, from which it appears that 258 
would be the limit to our atomic mass 
equivalents. Iam not prepared positively 
to contradict such a conclusion at the pres- 
ent time, but there are reasons for thinking 
otherwise. 

Clarke+ has shown that the mean density 
of the earth, 5.5 to 5.6, is more than double 
that of the rocky crust, and ‘the difference 
may be accounted for as a result of pres- 
sure, or by supposing that, as the globe 
cooled, the heavier elements accumulated 
towards the center.’ While it is quite im- 
possible to judge of the order of this intra- 
mundane pressure, I am not aware of such 
marked changes being brought about in the 
specific gravities of the heavier solid ele- 
ments of their compounds, either by pres- 
sure, allotropic or isomeric changes, except 
the cerebral argentaurum of the late 8. H. 
Emmens.{ The examinations of volcanic 
dusts by Hartley,§ Fleet|| and others ap- 
pear to contradict the latter explanation, 
although we are unable to state the depth, 
perhaps within the shell considered by 
Clarke, at which voleanoes begin their bois- 
terous activity. While awaiting a fulfill- 


** Address before the Chemical Section, British 
Association, Toronto meeting (1898). 

+ ‘The Relative Abundance of the Chemical Ele- 
ments, F. W. Clarke, read before the Philosoph- 
ical Society of Washington, October 26, 1899; 
Chem. News, 62, 31. 

{ Argentaurum papers published by Hmmens, 
New York. 


@ Royal Society, February 21, 1901; Chem. 
News, 83, 174. 
|| Abstr. Proc. Geol. Soc., 1902, 117; Journ. 


Chem. Soc. (Land), 81-82, ii., 518, 1902. 


SCIENCE. 99 


ment of Martinez’s* project to explore the 
earth’s center, we may offer a third solu- 
tion, not wholly unscientific, as it can do no 
harm, and has nought to do with any yellow 
peril in science, namely, the existence of 
elements with atomic weights higher than 
those set by the silent limit of periodic 
tables. 

““Most molecules—probably all—are 
wrecked by intense heat, or, in other words, 
by intense vibratory motion, and many are 
wrecked by a very impure heat of the 
proper quality. Indeed, a weak force, 
which bears a considerable relation to the 
construction of the molecule, can by timely 
savines and accumulation accomplish what 
a strong force out of relation fails to 
achieve.’ + 

As hinted at in the earlier portion of 
this unduly prolonged address, many 
have theorized as to the ultimate composi- 
tion of matter. The logic of Larmor’s{ 
theory, involving the idea of an ionic sub- 
stratum of matter, the support of J. J. 
Thomson’sg experiments, the confirmation 
of Zeeman’s phenomenon, the emanations 
of Rutherford, Martin’s|| explanations, can 
not fail to cause credence in the correctness 
of Crookes’s idea of a fourth state of 
matter.4] In the imaugural address as 
president of the British Association (1898), 
he acknowledges in the mechanical con- 
struction of the Roentgen ray tubes a sug- 
gestion by Silvanus Thompson to use for 
the anticathode a metal of high atomic 
weight. Osmium and iridium were used, 
thorium tried, and in 1896 Crookes ob- 
tained better results with metallic uranium 
than platinum. 

These and the facts that most of the ele- 
ments with high atomic weights, in fact 


* “Ta Nature,’ Sc. Am. Sup., 21, 546, 1886. 
+ Tyndall in Longman’s Magazine. 

{ Pil. Mag., December, 1897, 506. 

z Phil. Mag., October, 1897, 312. 

|| Chem. News, 85, 205, 1902. 

q Plul. Trans., I1., 1881, 433. 


100 SCIENCE. 


all above 200 (thallium not reported‘on),* 
exhibit radio-active properties, are doubt- 
less closely associated and have to do with 
the eventual composition of matter. I 
have unverified observations which go to 
show the existence of at least one element 
with a very high atomic weight. If it be 


confirmed, then we have them now or they | 


are making, and probably breaking up, as 
shown by that marvelous class of elements 
in the discovery of which the Curies have 
been pioneers. 

If our ideas that all known elements 


come from some primordial material be- 


true, then it stands to reason that we are 
coming in time, perhaps, to that fixed 
thing, a frozen ether, the fifth state of mat- 
ter. I may make use of dangerous analogy 
and liken our known elements, arranged in 
a perfected natural system, to the visible 
material spectrum, while electrons, ete., 
constitute the ultra-violet and cosmyle 
composes the infra-red, either one of the 
latter by proper conditions being convert- 
ible into perceptible elemental matter. No 
positive evidence supports these ideas, but 
I like to fancy scientific endeavor as the 
sea—calm and serene, supporting and mir- 
roring that which is below it, bearing that 


which is upon it, reaching to and reflecting . 


that which is above it, moving all the 
while; yet, torn and rent at times by con- 
flict from without and contest within, it 
runs; it beats against the shores of the 
unknown, making rapid progress here, 
meeting stubborn resistance there, com- 
passing it, to destroy but to rebuild else- 
where; and the existence of those within 
it! ‘Like that of Paul, our life should be 
a consecrated unrest.’ 
CHARLES BASKERVILLE. 

*See the exquisite paper by Madame Curie on 
“Radioactive Substances,’ also ‘ Radio-active Lead,’ 
Hofmann and-Strauss, Berichte, 34, 3033, Pellini 
(loc. cit.) on ‘ Radio-active Tellurium’; Strutt, 
Phil. Mag., 6, 113, Elster and Geitel, Giesel, 
Marckwald, ete., ete. 


[N.S:. Von. XIX. -No. 472. 


_ MEETINGS OF AFFILIATED. SCIENTIFIC 
SOCIETIES AT PHILADELPHIA. 

Tue Association of American Anato- 
mists, the Society of American Bacteriolo- 
gists, the Society for Plant Morphology and 
Physiology, the American Physiological 
Society, the American Society of Zoolo- 
gists (Hastern Branch), the American So- 
ciety of Vertebrate Paleontologists, met in 
Philadelphia, Pa., December 28-31, 1903. 
All of these societies except the last, which 
was organized only one year ago, have 
heretofore been affiliated with the Amer- 
ican Society of Naturalists, and, with the 
exception of the annual discussion and 
dinner which the Society of Naturalists 
holds, the meetings this year were wholly 
similar to those which have been held by 
these societies during the past ten or twelve 
years. 

-On Monday evening there were informal 
meetings of the members of the various so- 
cieties. The Society for Plant Morphology 
and Physiology was given a reception at 
Biological Hall, University of Pennsyl- 
vania; the American Physiological Society 
held a smoker at the Hotel Walton, while 
the other societies held smokers at the 
“Rathskellar.’ 

Tuesday morning and afternoon, sessions 
of all the societies were held at the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, and all the societies 
except the physiologists held morning and 
afternoon sessions there on Wednesday also. 
The Physiological Society met on Wednes- 
day at Jefferson Medical College. Liunch- 
eon was served by the University of Penn- 
sylvania to all the societies on Tuesday and 
to all except the physiologists on Wednes- 
day; on this day the latter society was en- 
tertained at luncheon at the Philadelphia 
Club. 

Tuesday evening all the societies were 
the guests of the local committee at a 
smoker at the University Club. 

Wednesday evening a lecture was given 


JANUARY: 15, 1904.] 


before the mémbers of the various societies 
at the Academy of Natural Sciences by 
Professor W. B. Scott, on ‘The Miocene 
Fauna of Patagonia and the Problem of 
the Southern Hemisphere.’ After the 
lecture a brilliant and most enjoyable re- 
ception was given to the members of the 
societies by Dr. and Mrs. Horace Jayne. 

About two hundred members of the vari- 
ous societies attended the meetings, and the 
papers presented were numerous and, in 
some of the societies at least, more than 
usually interesting. 

The following officers were elected for 
the ensuing year: 


Association of American Anatomists: President, 
Professor Charles §. Minot, of Harvard Univer- 
sity; First Vice-President, Professor George A. 
Piersol, of the University of Pennsylvania; Sec- 
ond Vice-President, Professor J. M. Flint, of the 
University of California; Secretary and Treasurer, 
Dr. G. Carl Huber, of the University of Michigan; 
Executive Committee, Dr. Franklin P. Mall, Dr. 
George S. Huntington. 

Society of American Bacteriologists: President, 
Dr. F. G. Novy, of the University of Michigan; 
Vice-President, Dr. H. O. Jordan, of the University 
of Chicago; Secretary and Treasurer, Dr. F. P. 
Gorham, of Brown University. Dr. William H. 
Welch was elected a delegate to the Council of 
the American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. : 

Society for Plant Morphology and Physiology: 
President, Dr. G. T. Moore; Vice-President, Pro- 
fessor Clara E, Cummings; Secretary and Treas- 
wrer, Professor W. F. Ganong. 

American Physiological Society: President, 
Professor Russell H. Chittenden, of Yale Univer- 
sity; Secretary and Treasurer, Professor Frederic 
S. Lee, of Columbia University; Members of 
Council, Professor William H. Howell, of Johns 
Hopkins University; Professor Warren P. Lom- 
bard, of the University of Michigan; Professor 
William T. Porter, of Harvard University; Pro- 
fessor Frederic §. Lee, of Columbia University. 

American Society of Zoologists, Eastern Branch: 
President, Professor E. A. Andrews, of Johns Hop- 
kins University; Vice-President, Professor W. E. 
Castle, of Harvard University; Secretary and 
Treasurer, G. A. Drew, of the University of Maine; 
Hxecutive Committee, Professor H. S. Jennings, of 
the University of Pennsylvania; T. H. Mont- 


SCIENCE. 101 


gomery,,Jr., of the University of Texas; H::C. 
Bumpus, of the American Museum of Natural 
History. 

_ American Society of Vertebrate Paleontologists: 
President, Professor Henry F. Osborn, of Columbia 
University and the American Museum of Natural 
History; Secretary, Dr. O. P. Hay, American Mu- 
seum of Natural History; Hxecutive Council, Pro- 
fessor Bashford Dean, of Columbia University; 
Professor Loomis, of Amherst College; Dr. C. R. 
Hastman, of Harvard University. 


AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY: 

THREE meetings of the American Mathe- 
matical Society were held during the 
Christmas holidays. On December 19 the 
San Francisco Section met at the Univer- 
sity of California; the annual meeting of 
the society was held at Columbia Univer- 
sity, December 28-29; and the winter 
meeting of the Chicago Section was held at 
St. Louis, in connection with that of the 
American Association for the Advanee- 
ment of Science December 31 to January 1. 

Reports of the sectional meetings will 
appear in a later number of Science. At 
the annual meeting in New York officers 
for the society for 1904 and members of 
the council to serve for three years were 
elected as follows: 

Vice-Presidents—Oskar Bolza and J. M. Van 
Vleck. 

Secretary—F. N. Cole. 

Treaswrer—W. S. Dennett. 

Librarian—D, E, Smith. 

Committee of Publication—F. N. Cole, Alex- 
ander Ziwet, D. H. Smith. 


Members of the Council—Maxime Bocher, 
Florian Cajori, M. B. Porter, J. H. Tanner, 


The president of the society, Thomas S. 
Fiske, continues in office, the presidential 
term being two years. 

The following persons were elected to 
membership in the society: R. F. Deimel, 
Columbia University; C. S. Forbes, Co- 
lumbia University; O. T. Geckeler, Geor- 
gia School of Technology; HE. A. Hook, 
Columbia University; L. A. Martin, Jr., 


102 


Stevens Institute of Technology; Miss Vir- 
ginia Ragsdale, New York City; 8. E. 
Rasor, Ohio State University; A. HE. 
Young, Purdue University; J. E. Wright, 
Bryn Mawr College. Six applications for 
membership were received. 

Annual reports were received from the 
treasurer, librarian and secretary. The 
society continues to hold its own finan- 
cially. It could accomplish more if larger 
funds were at its disposal. The library 
has increased to over 1,300 volumes, and 
now receives by exchange with the Bulletin 
and Transactions the current volumes of 
nearly every mathematical journal in the 
world. The membership of the society is 
now 455, a gain of 54 during the past 
year. The ‘Annual Register’ will be is- 
sued about the middle of January. 

Committees were appointed to arrange 
for the publication of the course of lec- 
tures delivered at the Boston colloquium, 
September, 1903, and to consider the ques- 
tion of the future financial support of the 
Transactions, which has hitherto been pub- 
lished by the aid of subventions termina- 
ting in 1904. 

The following papers were read at the 
annual meeting: 

E. V. Huntineton: ‘ A set of independent postu- 
lates for the algebra of logic (second paper).’ 

J. G. Hun: ‘On certain invariants of two tri- 
angles.’ 

O. D. Ketioee: ‘ Note on Cauchy’s integral, 

J. I. Huxenrson: ‘On certain automorphic 
functions.’ 

W. F. Oscoop: ‘On a gap in the usual presenta- 
tion of Weierstrass’s theory of functions.’ 

E. V. Hunrineton: ‘Third complete set of 
postulates for the theory of positive integers.’ 

E. V. Huntineton: ‘Second complete set of 
postulates for the theory of magnitudes or positive 
real quantities.’ 

W. B. Frre: ‘On some properties of groups 
whose orders are powers of a prime.’ 

Ji. J. Witezynsxi: ‘On ruled surfaces whose 
fleenode curve intersects every generator in two 
coincident points.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472, 


Vircit SnypER: ‘Complete enumeration of 
sextie scrolls having a rectilinear directrix.’ 

F. Moriry: ‘On the triplicity of 3-points in a 
plane.’ : 

C. lL. EH. Moorn: *‘ Classification of surfaces of 
singularities in the quadratic spherical complex.’ 

L. D. Ames: ‘On the theorem of analysis situs 
relating to the division of the plane or of space 
by a closed curve or surface.’ 

W. B. Forp: ‘On the function defined by a 
Maclaurin series.’ 

P. BF. Siri: 
quadratic form into itself.’ 

EK. B. Wiison: * Projective and metrical geom- 


“Linear transformations of a 


etry.’ 
C. H. Srsam: ‘On the depiction of the lines of 
a special linear complex on the points of space.’ 
Epwarp Kasner: “ Investigations on isothermal 
systems.’ 


About fifty persons attended the meet- 
ing. On Monday evening an informal - 
dinner contributed to the pleasures of the 
occasion. 

The next meeting of the society will be 
held at Columbia University on February 
27. The Chicago Section will meet again 
in April and the San Francisco Section in 
May. KF. N. Coxe, 

Secretary. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The General Principles of Physical Science. 
By Arruur A. Noyes. New York, Henry 
Holt & Co. 1902. Pp. vii 172. 

This is the first volume of a work on 
which the author is engaged, entitled the 
“General Principles of Chemistry.’ The pres- 
ent volume is introductory and has for its 
purpose the setting forth of the laws and gen- 
eral principles of physics and chemistry, so 
far at least as these underlie the broad subject 
which the author has undertaken. 

The present treatment is altogether syste- 
matie and not historical, and is intended for 
readers and students who are making special 
study of what is now generally known as 
physical chemistry. 

The book contains four chapters: I., ‘The 
Object, the Methods, and the Sub-divisions 
of Science’; II., ‘The Fundamental Con- 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


cepts of Physical Science’; III., ‘The Gen- 
eral Principles Relating to Matter, and IV., 
‘The General Principles Relating to Energy.’ 
To these are added a good general index. 

The basal importance of the subjects with 
which these chapters have to do is well estab- 
lished and the author has achieved a signal 
success in the clear and comprehensive man- 
ner in which he has presented them to the 
reader. 

For this is no rehash of what has been al- 
ready well said by various authors on these 
subjects, but is clearly the result of a close 
personal inquiry into the underlying con- 
cepts of modern science. The reader is thus 
not infrequently asked to set aside the tradi- 
tional form in which some concept has been 
hitherto expressed. The author’s independence 
of thinking is well illustrated in his treat- 
ment of compounds and mixtures, kinetic and 
gravitational energy and the second law of 
thermodynamics. 

Sometimes, however, an impression is left 
on the reader that the author’s restatements of 
old laws are a little hasty and so lack the ab- 
solute singleness of idea or exact precision 
which should characterize any general state- 
ment in physical science. 

Thus on page 117 we find Faraday’s laws of 
electrolysis expressed as follows: “The pas- 
sage of electricity through an electrolyte is at- 
tended at each electrode by a chemical change 
amvoluing a number of chemical equivalents 
strictly proportional to the “quantity of elec- 
tricity passed through, and dependent on that 
alone. This is hardly free from possible mis- 
understanding. A clearer statement of the 
facts, following the suggestion of the author, 
would be the following: The passage of elec- 
tricity through any electrolyte is attended by 
chemical changes which involve the same num- 
ber of chemical equivalents at each electrode, 
and which are directly proportional to the 
quantity of electricity passed through and 
dependent on that alone. 

Similarly on page 37 the statement of the 
law of multiple proportion would be clearer 
if the words the same were replaced by the 
words a given, so that the law would read: 
“When one element combines with another in 


SCIENCE. 103 


several proportions to form different chemical 
compounds, the quantities of the one element 
which in the several compounds are combined 
with a given quantity of the other element, 
stand to one another in the ratio of small 
whole numbers.’ 

The chapter on energy is especially valu- 
able. Throughout, the concept of energy is 
regarded as fundamental and the concept of 
force is made secondary. The treatment of 
the various forms of energy is such as to 
bring into prominence the factors of a par- 
ticular form of energy—namely the intensity 
and quantity factors. 

The first and second laws of thermodynam- 
1¢S or energetics, as our physical chemistry 
friends are pleased to call them, are presented 
and discussed with great distinctness. 

Credit also should be given the author for 
his consistent use throughout the book of a 
particular and distinct symbol or letter to 
denote a particular and distinct physical quan- 
tity. ‘This saves the beginner many pains. 
Beginners will owe him also much gratitude 
because he has made such free use of numer- 
ical examples to illustrate the applications of 
the various principles. 

Tt is a pleasure to say that the present in- 
troductory volume is a positive addition to 
the literature of physical science and the 
students of physical chemistry, especially in 
America, will await with eagerness the ap- 
pearance of the volumes which are to follow. 

E. H. Loomis. 

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, 

December, 1903. 
SCIENTILIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

Tue December number of the Bulletin of 
the American Mathematical Society contains: 
Report of the Boston Colloquium of the Amer- 
ican Mathematical Society, by F. N. Cole; 
“Linear systems of curves upon algebraic sur- 
faces, by H. S. White; ‘An expression of 
certain known functions as generalized hyper- 
geometric functions, by E. T. Whittaker; 
“On the factoring of large numbers,? by F. N. 
Cole; ‘ Note on the p-discriminant of ordinary 
linear differential equations,’ by Arnold Emch; 
“Hydrodynamic action at a distance,’ by H. B. 


104 


Wilson: Shorter Notices of Braunmiihl’s ‘His- 
tory of Trigonometry’ and of the recent re- 
print of Carnot’s ‘Treatise on heat engines’ 
(1824); Notes; New Publications. 

The January number of the Bulletin con- 
tains: Report of the October meeting of the 
American Mathematical Society, by F. N. 
Cole; ‘Two systems of subgroups of the 
quaternary abelian group in the general Galois 
field” by L. E. Dickson; ‘The determination 
of the constants in the problem of the brachis- 
tochrone, by Oskar Bolza; ‘On three types 
of surfaces of the third order regarded as 
double surfaces of translation,’ by A. S. Gale; 
‘On the generation of finite from infinitesimal 
transformations—a correction,’ by H. B. New- 
son; Review of Study’s Geometry of dynames, 
by Virgil Snyder; Review of Weber and Well- 
stein’s Eneyklopadie der Hlementar-Mathe- 
matik, by D. E. Smith; Shorter Notices of the 
mathematical papers of the late George Green, 
Agnes M. Clerke’s problems in Astrophysics, 
Miller and Presler’s Constructive geometry, 
and Schilling’s Catalogue of mathematical 
models; Notes; New Publications. 


AND ACADEMIES. 


SOCIETIES 
THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. 


Tue fourth regular meeting of the Society 
for Experimental Biology and Medicine was 
held in the demonstration room of the depart- 
ment of physiology of Columbia University, 
at the College of Physicians and Surgeons, on 
Wednesday evening, December 16. Dr. S. J. 
Meltzer presided. 4 

Reports of original investigations were of- 
fered as follows: 


The Changes in the Viscosity of the Blood 
Produced by Various Haperimental Pro- 
cedures, with Demonstrations :* R. Burvron- 
Opitz. 

Dr. Burton-Opitz described and demon- 
strated the apparatus used in determining the 
viscosity of the blood. This demonstration 
was followed by a discussion of the changes in 

“The abstracts here given have been prepared 
by the authors themselves. The secretary has 
made only a few abbreviations and minor changes. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


the molecular friction of the blood after intra- 
venous injections of distilled water, saline, 
dextrose and alcoholic solutions. The effect 
of aleohol, when introduced into the stomach 
and small intestine, was also noted. Next were 
considered the changes following subcutaneous 
administration of curare and the differences 
in the viscosity of arterial and venous blood. 
K, the coefficient expressing the viscosity was 
determined before and after each experimental 
procedure, two or three determinations being 
made in each ease. 

It was found that, if distilled water, in 
quantities of from 5 to 50 ce. is slowly al- 
lowed to flow into the facial vein, the viscosity 
of the blood is increased, but the increase is 
not considerable. The following experiment 
may serve asasample. The normal coefficient 
K, in a dog weighing 19.2 kilos, was 802.6, or 
5.8 times greater than K for distilled water at 
387° C. After the injection of 10 c.c. distilled 
water the coefficient showed the value 786.0, or 
6.0 times greater than distilled water at 
37° C. Normal saline solutions produce the 
reverse effect, z. e., the blood becomes less vis- 
cous. In one case after injecting 10 c.c. of 
0.7 per cent. NaCl solution, the viscosity of 
the blood fell from 5.9 to 5.6 times that of 
distilled water at 87° C. Concentrated solu- 
tions of dextrose (5 ¢.c.) injected into the facial 
vein bring about an increase in the viscosity 
of the blood which is more pronounced than 
that produced by distilled water. About half 
an hour after the injection the coefficient K 
shows again its normal value. 

If from 3 to 5 cc. of 10 or 25 per cent. solu- 
tions of alcohol in water are allowed to flow 
into the facial vein, the molecular friction of 
the blood becomes greater. The same result 
ean be obtained by introducing the alcohol 
directly into the stomach or duodenum. 30 
c.c. of a 25 per cent. solution were injected 
into the stomach. The viscosity determined 
twenty minutes later showed the value 608.09, 
as against 664.17, the normal coefficient. Thus, 
instead of being only 7.0 times greater than 
that of distilled water at 37° C., it changed 
after the injection to 7.7 times greater. An 
equally decisive change occurred after inject- 
ing 40 c.c. of a 25 per cent. solution into the 


January 15, 1904.] 


duodenum. 
also follows subcutaneous administration of 
curare; however, this result is not evident 
until the respiratory muscles become paralyzed. 

Venous blood is slightly more viscous than 
arterial, but the difference is often very insig- 
nificant. 

In all these determinations a direct parallel- 
ism exists between the viscosity values and the 
specific gravity. When the viscosity increases 
the specific gravity increases also, and vice 
versa. Not a single exception to this rule 
could be found. 

The viscosity was also determined in a dog 
having very large thyroid bodies. The right 
gland weighed 57, the left 52 grams. The 
viscosity coefficient, obtained by eight deter- 


minations, showed the value 1,233.17 (specific - 


gravity 1,05028), which means that the blood 
of this animal was only 3.8 times more viscous 
than distilled water at 37° C. The lowest 
previous value obtained by Dr. Burton-Opitz 
oceurred in a dog after three days of hunger. 
K equaled in this case 1,110.3 (4.2 times more 
viscous). 

In general it may be said that the less the 
viscosity the longer the period required for 
extra-vascular coagulation. This was espe- 
cially well shown in the case just mentioned. 
Clotting set in after about fifteen minutes. 


Survival of an Animal after Removal of both 
Suprarenal Capsules, due to a Previous 
Grafting of the Organ into the Kidney: S. 
J. Menrzer (for F. C. Busch and Charles 
yan Bergen, of the Department of Physiol- 
ogy at the University of Buffalo). 

Dr. Meltzer stated that in several instances 
survival of a part of suprarenal grafts was 
obtained after transplantation into the kidney 
of the same animal. 

Im one experiment the animal (a rabbit) 
survived, after apparently all other suprarenal 
tissue, aside from that which was grafted into 
the kidney, had been removed. In this ease, 
after total removal of the left suprarenal a 
part of the gland, including medulla and cor- 
tex, was introduced through an incision into 
the cortex of the left kidney. Eighty-six days 
later the remaining right suprarenal was re- 
moved in toto. The animal survived the op- 


SCIENCE. 


A marked increase in viscosity. 


105 


eration and was apparently normal for twenty;- 
one days, at the end of which time it was killed 
in order to examine the graft. This was 
found, upon histologic examination, to have 
been in part replaced by connective tissue. 
The surviving cells apparently belong to the 
medullary portion of the suprarenal. The 
cortex had been replaced by connective tissue. 
Blood supply was good. 

Slides showing the successful grafts were 
exhibited under the microscope. In this con- 
nection, also, Dr. Meltzer showed, under the 
microscope, a section of Zuckerkandel’s organ, 
the chromophilic bodies of which are similar 
in nature to the chromophilic granules of the 
medullary portion of the suprarenal capsule. 


On the Absence of a Cane Sugar Inverting 
Enzyme in the Stomach: Grawam LusK. 
It was shown by Professor Lusk that free 

hydrochloric acid and not an enzyme caused 

the inversion of cane sugar in the stomach. 


A new Head Holder for Rabbits, with Demon- 
stration: FreperIc S. Lenn. 


The following reviews were made: 


The Action of Potassium Cyanide wpon the 
Unfertilized Egg: HoumEs C. Jackson. 
Loeb and Lewis were the first to note the 

fact that unfertilized eggs (of the sea urchin), 
when placed in 7/1,000 KCN solution, retain 
their capability of fertilization much longer 
than when suspended in normal sea water. 
This was ascribed to the action of the KCN 
in inhibiting intracellular autolytic processes 
which lead normally to maturation and finally 
death. The bactericidal action of KCN was 
excluded, as the result of experiments in 
which eggs apparently died as rapidly in 
sterile as in putrid sea water. 

Gorham and Tower’s experiments in the 
same connection indicated, on the other hand, 
that the effect of KCN was entirely bacteri- 
cidal. The sterile eggs retained their capacity 
for fertilization longer under absolutely sterile 
conditions than when placed in n/1,000 KCN. 

As the question now stands there exist two 
almost identical series of sterilization ex- 
periments by two pairs of investigators, with 
results diametrically opposed to each other. 
Critically considered, the more carefully con- 


106 


ducted experiments seem to be those by Gor- 
ham and Tower; and in the lack of further 
evidence in favor of an intracellular action of 
KCN in this connection, we must conclude 
that the destruction of the bacteria by the 
KCN removes the condition which causes the 
death of the cell, and in the absence of which 
the eges retain their potential power for 
growth after fertilization. 

Results of Recent Investigations in Proteid 

Chemistry: BP. A. Lrvene. 

Recent work on the chemistry of the pro- 
teid molecule has furnished explanation of 
many biological phenomena. Thus, in cer- 
tain pathological conditions there appears in 
the urine a sulphur and nitrogen-containing 
substance, cystin. The source of the substance 
in the organism had been unknown, until 
through the efforts of Morner and Embden 
and others, its radical was demonstrated to be 
a normal constituent of the proteid molecule. 

The chromatin of a developed cell differs 
from that of an unfertilized egg by the pres- 
ence in it of radicals of purin bases. It is 
probable that these bases are derived from the 
histidin radical, which is also a normal con- 
stituent of proteids. 

Hemoglobin is known to be absent from 
the unfertilized egg and it appears only in 
course of development of the embryo. It 
was shown recently that the non-proteid part 
of hemoglobin is a pyrrol derivative and it is 
probable that a pyrrol radical is present in 
the proteid molecule. Chlorophyl is also a 
pyrrol derivative, a fact further establishing 
its close relationship to hemoglobin. 

The work of Emil Fischer points to the 
way in which the various component radicals 
may combine in order to form the proteid 
molecule, and makes probable the eventual 
synthesis of true proteid material. 

New Members.—The gentlemen named be- 
low were elected to membership: A. C. Abbott, 
Isaac Adler, B. H. Buxton, J. McK. Cattell, 
H. L. Cushing, E. K. Dunham, Simon Flex- 
ner, Reid Hunt, Hugo Miinsterberg, J. A. 
Murlin, Horst Oertel, E. L. Opie, Theobald 
Smith, A. B. Wadsworth, R. S. Woodworth, 
Naohidé Yatsu. Witi1am J. Gites, 

Secretary. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No: 472. 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SECTION 
OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 


Tue section met on November 23, in con- 
junction with the American Ethnological So- 
ciety. A paper was read by Dr. Clark Wissler, 
“Recent Researches on the Decorative Art of 
the Plains Indians.’ 

It was demonstrated by specimens and ex- 
planations that among the Indians of the 
plains may be found a type of graphic art 
that is purely decorative in contrast to a type 
that is absolutely symbolic. Im addition, a 
transition type occurs in which both the sym- 
bolic and the asthetic motives function. The 
whole of this art is the work of women. In 
the purely decorative art complex, geometric 
designs are built up from simple geometrical 
elements. These elementary designs have 
technical names and are worked into composi- 
tions according to recognized principles and 
standards. In the symbolic art the designs 
are conventional representations of objects 
with sacred or mystic associations and are 
realistic in motive. While a number of con- 
ventional designs are used which are known 
once to have possessed symbolic value and 
to have originated in realistic motives, the 
majority of design elements do not appear to 
have originated in this way. Their occa- 
sional use in a symbolic sense is an after- 
thought and a makeshift. From which it ap- 
pears that the graphic art of these Indians, as 
we find it to-day, is an objective development 
in contrast to the subjective symbolism of 
other tribes. JAMES EK. Loueu, 

Secretary. 


SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 

THE regular meeting of the section took 
place December 14, 1903, with Professor James 
F. Kemp in the chair. 

The first paper on the program was ‘ Ex- 
plorations and First Ascents in the Canadian 
Rockies,’ by Professor Herschel C. Parker. 

This paper occupied the evening. It con- 
sisted of an illustrated lecture describing the 
section of the Rocky Mountains in British 
Columbia and Alberta known as the ‘Ca- 
nadian Alps.’ 

In a brief introduction an explanation was 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


given of the physical characteristics that de- 
termine the alpine nature of mountain ranges, 
and it was pointed out that the Rocky Moun- 
tains of Canada may justly be termed the 
‘Switzerland of America.’ 

A series of more than 100 lantern slides was 
shown, many of them illustrating six first as- 
cents made by the lecturer. These summits 
were: Mt. Dawson, the highest peak of the 
Selkirks; Mt. Goodsir, one of the highest and 
most difficult peaks in British Columbia; Mt. 
Lefroy, Mt. Hungable (the ‘ Chieftain’), Mt. 
Deltaform and Mt. Biddle, these latter peaks 
being situated in Alberta near Lake Louise. 
The summits of some of these mountains were 
previously thought to be practically imacces- 
sible and the climbs were attended with the 
very greatest difficulties. Mt. Lefroy was 
climbed by the lecturer in 1897, Mt. Dawson 
in 1899 and the remaining four summits dur- 
ing the past season. 

The lecturer also briefly described an inter- 
esting trip of about 100 miles north of the 
railroad to Wilcox Pass, where the Saskatche- 
wan and Athabasca Rivers take their rise. 

The following two papers were submitted 
for reading by title and subsequent publica- 
tion: 

Gem Minerals of Southern California: Dr. 

Gerorcre F. Kunz. 

In this paper the author said in part that 
California, especially in its southern portion, 
had of late years produced the most interesting 
gem minerals of any state in the union. First 
came the magnificent series of colored tour- 
malines, described in recent reports of the 
Division of Mining and Mineral Resources, 
U. S. Geological Survey (1899, p. 38; 1900, 
p. 33; 1901, p. 31); next, the remarkable rose- 
beryl from Mesa Grande and Pala (ibid., 1900, 
p. 32), and lastly, the amethystine spodumene 
(kunzite), in crystals which for purity and 
beauty of color are unrivaled by any other 
mineral of North America.* 

Thus far the minerals are confined to two 
counties. The tourmalines occur near San 
Jacinto, in Riverside County, and at Mesa 
Grande and Pala, in San Diego; the pink 


* Amer. Jour. Science, Vol. 16, November, 1903; 
NV. Y. Acad. Sciences, October 19, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 


107 


beryl, in small amounts, at the two last-named 
localities; and the lilac spodumene at Pala, 
and also to some extent at Coahuila, in River- 
side County, in erystals of similar character 
but smaller. Other interesting gem minerals 
are now coming to light in association with 
the preceding ones. With the spodumenes 
from Coahuila have been found beautiful 
beryls, some yellow, closely resembling those 
from Sarapulka in the Ural Mountains, others 
pale green and eyen colorless. Some of the 
yellow erystals are finely formed, and the 
others show instances of remarkable etched 
faces, similar to the crystals from Sarapulka 
in Perm; while others are almost as delicate 
as a darning needle. The etching in certain 
of these is most curious; crystals of three 
inches long and an inch across, colorless and 
transparent as the finest rock erystal, are coy- 
ered all over the prismatic and basal planes 
with the most complicated etching, and within 
are hollow, made up of interlocking plates, as 
it were, exceedingly clear and brilliant. 

From Pala came a fine doubly terminated, 
detached pink beryl which measured 10 em. 
by 5 em., and which was quite transparent 
and an object of great beauty. 

Another recently observed at 
Coahuila is spessartite (manganese-aluminum 
garnet), in trapezohedral crystals of remark- 
able beauty. Some of these are absolutely 
pure and measure from 6 to 10 mm. in diam- 
eter, while large ones are as much as 30 mm., 
but less perfect. They are implanted upon 
erystals of albitic feldspar, recalling strongly 
the occurrence at Amelia Oourt House, 
Virginia. The smaller erystals are exceed- 
ingly brilliant and beautiful, of a honey-yel- 
low color, deepening to orange-red; others are 
quite large, but not transparent. The erystal- 
line form is that of the trapezohedron, n, in 
combination with the rhombic dodecahedron, d. 

Lastly, and of great interest, is the first- 
noted occurrence in the state of topaz, in dis- 
tinet and beautiful erystals. The source is 
the well-known mineral locality three miles 
from Ramona, in San Diego County. One 
crystal is absolutely transparent, of a pale blue 
color, like those from the Ural region, and 
measures 2 em. by 1 em. by 5mm. The faces 


mineral 


108 


c and X are entirely absent; those present are 
p, d, o, f and g, with m and / of the prism; 
the pyramid faces are etched. The general 
character strongly recalls the Alabashka type 
of the Urals, and this likeness would suggest 
that the minerals to be found with it will 
also resemble those of that noted locality. 
Other erystals are perfectly colorless, but with 
the same general form and proportions; those 
of about one centimeter in length are ex- 
tremely brilliant, the larger ones less so ex- 
ternally, but clear within. It is of great in- 
terest that this belt of rare species which 
traverses the state in its southern portion 
gives indication of further occurrences of 
remarkable minerals there to be found. 


Clackamas Meteoric Iron: Dr. Guorce F. 

Kunz. 

There has lately been discovered in Oregon 
an enormous iron meteorite, ranking with the 
two immense ones found respectively by 
Lieutenant Peary in Greenland and by Pro- 
fessor H. A. Ward in Mexico. ‘This is a mass 
of iron, measuring ten feet in length by seven 
in width and five in height, pitted in the usual 
manner, but in an extensive degree, and at 
one point even perforated, so as to leave an 
opening through it as large as a man’s hand. 
Tt was discovered in the autumn of 1902 by a 
prospector, Mr. Dale, on land belonging to 
the Oregon Steel and Iron Company, some 
two miles south of Oregon City, in Clackamas 
County. The official statement of its location 
is T. 2, S.; R. 1, KE. of Willamette Meridian. 
Tt was dug loose from the soil and removed on 
a truck to adjacent land belonging to Mr. Ellis 
Hughes, where it now lies, subject to a claim 
by the company and a suit now in progress. 
The material has been subjected to analysis by 
a local chemist and found to contain a small 
percentage of nickel; hut the exact figures are 
not yet in the author’s possession. According 
to Mr. A. W. Miller, of Portland, Oregon, 
from whom most of the facts have been 
learned, a piece which he examined for struc- 
ture did not show the Widmanstatten figures, 
but a marked cubical structure, with very 
high silvery luster. A fine photograph sent 
by him to the author shows the mass as 
roughly conical or dome-shaped, on an elliptic 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


base, wonderfully pitted, and with the hole 
through its lower portion. Men ‘standing by 
it indicate its size, which is perhaps as large 
as that of any other meteorite known. 
Epmunp Otis Hovey, 
Secretary. 


MICHIGAN ORNITHOLOGICAL CLUB. 

Tur last meeting of the Michigan Ornitho- 
logical Club for the current year was held at 
the Detroit Museum of Art on December 6. 
President Adolphe B. Covert presided. There 
was a good attendance and the papers pre- 
sented were of much interest. The program 


was as follows: 


Norman A. Woon: ‘ The Discovery of the Breed- 
ing Area of Kirtland’s Warbler in Michigan.’ 

ALEXANDER W. BLAIN, JR.: ‘ Observations made 
on the Habits of Birds of the Family Mniotiltide 
in Monroe County, Michigan, by Jerome Trombley, 
during the years 1875-81, 

J. CLarrE Woop: ‘Some Late Breeders.’ 

Epwarp Arnotp: ‘Nesting of the Sandhill 
Crane in Michigan.’ 

Proressor A. H. Grirriri: ‘ Birds in their Re- 
lation to Art, 


Following the papers a business session was 
held. Dr. J. A: Allen, of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, Wm. Brewster, of 
Cambridge, and Robert Ridgway, of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, were elected to honorary 
membership. Many new active members were 
elected. The constitution was amended so as 
to allow quarterly instead of monthly meet- 
ings. A class of patrons was created. 

The next meeting of the club will be held 
at the Detroit Museum of Art on February 5, 
1904. Visiting ornithologists are cordially in- 
vited to attend. 

ALExaNDER W. Buatn, JR. 

Detroit CoLLEcE OF MEDICINE. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE WORD BAROMETER. 

To tue Eprror or Science: In my letter 
of August 28 I expressed the belief that the 
letter of John Beale to Robert Boyle bearing 
date February 6, 1665, should read 1666. 
Since then Dr. J. B. Nichols, of Washington, 
D. C., has called my attention to the system of 


January 15, 1904.] 


double dating in -vogue during the time that 
both church and civil almanacs were in use. 
During this time a date falling between Jan- 
uary 1 and March 25 would by the church 
almanac be a year earlier than the same date 
on the civil almanac. This was sometimes 
indicated by a double date thus, February 6, 
1665/6. 

This was a point that I had overlooked, as 
had also Drs. Rotch and Bolton. A reexamin- 
ation of the various dates and of their con- 
text leads to the following conclusions. John 
Beale’s letter was written February 6, 1665/6. 
The paper cited by Dr. Rotch and myself is 
of date March 24, 1665/6. Henry Oldenburg’s 
letter to Robert Boyle, cited by me, is of date 
March 19, 1665/6. 

During the year 1665 several instances of 
the use of the word ‘barometer’ are to be 
found in Robert Boyle’s correspondence. In 
Robert Boyle’s paper of April 2, 1666, he refers 
to ‘barometrical observations’ made by John 
Beale; these observations Henry Oldenburg 
transmits to Robert Boyle on December 19, 
1665 (Vol. V., p. 343), and again on December 
30, 1665, and on January 16, 1665/6. 

More interesting than the above is what 
would seem to be the original passage in which 
the word barometer is used. This passage I 
found by following up the reference in John 
Beale’s letter to the three papers on ‘thermom- 
eters and baroscopes.’? A close examination 
of Robert Boyle’s papers shows these to be 
three papers printed with the ‘History of 
Cold’ in the spring of 1664/5. They are en- 
titled ‘New Thermometrical Experiments,’ 
and are preliminary to the ‘ History.’ There 
is also an introductory note by Henry Olden- 
burg of date March 10, 1664/5, and beginning 
thus: ‘I am fully persuaded, you will much 
rejoice to see that exquisite searcher of nature, 
the illustrious Robert Boyle, come abroad 
agains Vole eps 2350 AN little 
further on he says: “I am now to advertise 
you of one or two circumstances necessary to 
be taken notice of in its perusal. One is 
that the noble author being at Oxford, when 
the book was printed at London, he hopes the 
reader will not impute to him the errors of 
the press, which yet he is persuaded will not 


SCIENCE. 109 


be many, and out of which must be excepted 
a blank or two, occasioned by this, that the 
author’s papers being near two years since 
given to be transcribed to one. * * *” 
This passage shows that the papers were writ- 
ten by Robert Boyle prior to March, 1662/3. 

Turning to the author’s preface we find the 
following, “* * * how great a power my 
friends have with me * * * the reader may 
guess by the preamble he will find prefixed to 
the first title of the ensuing history. For by 
the date of that he will see how early my 
papers about cold were to have been communi- 
eated.” The preamble bears date ‘ Little Chel- 
sea, February 14, 1662, S. A.,’ or 1663 civil 
almanac. 

Turning to discourse I., we find the follow- 
ing interesting passage: “Among the several 
notes I find among my loose papers and in a 
diary I kept for a while of these observations, 
I shall content myself to transcribe the follow- 
ing two. * * * The first of these memoran- 
dums runs thus. Last night I took notice that 
there was but one or two divisions difference 
betwixt the two thermometers, but upon such 
a change of weather, that happened this day, 
as made me imagine that the atmosphere would 
be lighter than before, consulting the barom- 
eter Gf to avoid circumlocutions, I may so 
eall the whole instrument wherein a mercurial 
cylinder of 29 or 30 inches is kept suspended 
after the manner of the Torricellian experi- 
ment) * * *” (Vol. IL, p. 244b). The 
date of the diary from which these remarks 
are taken is not given, and the best that can 
be coneluded from a reading of the whole 
paper is to say that the date must be prior 
to March, 1662/3, and probably prior to Feb- 
ruary 14, 1662/3. Later on in the same paper 
the word baroscope is used. 

It is a pity that Robert Boyle had not 
earlier followed the determination of giving all 
requisite dates, expressed by him in the fol- 
lowing letter to Henry Oldenburg, dated Octo- 
ber 26, 1667. “* * * Care will be taken for 
the future, that the letters I send you be 
dated. * * * And I am the more solicitous 
about this matter, because frequent experi- 
ence shews us how much our English have 
lost, for want of being so; and (which is more 


110 SCIENCE. 


considerable) how difficult it is, otherwise, to 
avoid the occasions of personal disputes, or 
reflections; which, for my part, I heartily de- 
sire to shun” (Vol. V., p. 252b). 

One can not but conclude, judging from the 
phraseology, that the passage in the Phil. 
Trans. cited by Dr. Bolton is from the same 
pen as Henry Oldenburg’s prefatory note. 
Further evidence of the same authorship is 
found in the capitalization, following, as it 
does, the German method. Now Robert Boyle 
would not be likely to use this mode of writing, 
while -Henry Oldenburg, being a native of 
Bremen in lower Saxony, might easily have 
lapsed into the style of his native tongue. 

JouHN C. SHEDD. 

PuysicaL LABORATORY, 

CoLorADO COLLEGE. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
COLOR INHERITANCE IN MICE. 


Wiruty the last few years great interest has 
been aroused by the rediscovery of Mendel’s 
Law of Dichotomy in plant hybridization. 
This law has been confirmed for many species 
of plants, especially by De Vries (1902, pp. 
146-151, ete.), Correns, Tschermak and others. 
The study of mice, rats and rabbits has yielded 
a partial confirmation of this law for animals. 
I wish here to contribute additional although 
too meager data drawn from my experiments 
of the past four years. 

The two great laws enunciated by Mendel 
were these: Of the two antagonistic peculiari- 
ties possessed by two races that are crossed, 
the hybrid, or mongrel, exhibits only one; and 
it exhibits it completely, so that the mongrel 
is not distinguishable as regards this character 
from one of the parents. Intermediate con- 
ditions do not occur. That one of the two 
parental qualities that alone appears in the 
mongrels is called dominant; the other reces- 
sive. Second, in the formation of the pollen 
or egg-cell the two antagonistic peculiarities 
are segregated; so that each ripe germ cell 
carries either one or the other of these pe- 
culiarities, but not both. It is a result of the 
second law that in the second generation of 
mongrels each of the two qualities of their 
grandparents shall crop out on distinct indi- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


viduals, and that the recessive quality shall 
appear in 25 per cent. of the individuals, the 
remaining 75 per cent. having the dominant 
quality. Such recessive individuals, crossed 
inter se, should never produce anything but 
recessive offspring. 


Now experiments with animals have re-. 


vealed the existence of recessive qualities— 
é. g., im mice, when white and wild gray are 
erossed and the mongrel offspring are crossed 
iter se, the second mongrel generation will 
yield some white mice, and such white mice, 
bred inter se, will thenceforth produce only 
white mice. These results have been got by 
Crampe (1885), von Guaita (1898, 1900)— 
ef. Davenport (1900)—Cuénot (1902, 1903) 
—cf. Bateson (1902, p. 173)—Darbishire 
(1902, 1903), Castle (1903) and Bateson 
(1903). Is the percentage of the recessive in- 
dividuals always 252 In such a second mon- 
grel generation Cuénot (1902) found 162 gray 
and 57 albino individuals, or 74 per cent. to 
26 per cent., and in yon Guaita’s breedings 
between walzing and albino mice the crossed 
gray hybrids gave 25 per cent. albinos; results 
that accord with theory. But instead of the 
75 per cent. gray which Mendel’s law calls for, 
von Guaita got 57 per cent. gray and 18 per 
cent. walzing mice of gray, gray-white, black, 
and black and white colors. Rabbits gave 
Woods (1903) only 21 per cent. instead of 
25 per cent. of the recessive type in the second 
mongrel generation, and in crossing hybrids 
with albinos he got only 40 per cent. albinos 
instead of 50 per cent., as theory demands. 

The discussion concerning the validity of 
Mendelism for mice has been based chiefly 
upon crosses between albinic mice on the one 
hand (Crampe, Cuénot, Castle and Allen) 
and gray or walzing mice on’ the other 
(Haacke, von Guaita, Darbishire). Bateson 
(1908) alone has recorded, without details, the 
results of crossing mice of varied colors. 
His data will be referred to in the following 
account of my experiments. 


A, THE OFFSPRING OF MICE OF THE SAME COLOR. 

I. Albino X Albino.—This cross appears to 
produce only albinos. Bateson (1903, p. 76) 
has examined the evidence and finds only one 


aa 


fay 


January 15, 1904.] 


doubtful case where white mice produced col- 
ored offspring. In two crosses of white par- 
ents I got nine offspring; all were white. 

II. Yellow X Yellow.—1. Yellow-red (8)* X 
yellow-red (7). The mother (8) was yellow- 
red with a patch of white below; the father 
was pure yellow-red. Of the offspring one 
was pure yellow-red like the father, two were 
brownish yellow above and much lighter below, 
one was brownish red with patches of white, 
and five were chocolate with yellow flanks and 
patches of white above and below. Thus, one 
bred true to the father but the remainder were 
much darker and had a mixture of colors. 


white (6) 


au 
yellow a) ryelow 


2. Muddy yellow (35 | 


(7). Of the four offspring one was a uniform 
light yellow (57); one was yellow above and 
white below and on the flanks (59); one was 
dirty yellow above, white below (58); and the 
last was wild-mouse gray (or agouti) above 
and white on belly and flanks. The result in 
both cases is seen to be very variable. 

Tl. Black (2) and Black (2).—My blacks 
seemed delicate and relatively infertile, so that 
of two crosses only two individuals: survived 
—hboth were black. Black behaves something 
like albinism. Is it not likewise recessive? 

IV. Chocolate X Chocolate-—Chocolate is a 
broad class including various shades of color 
from a dark red-gray to a dark red-yellow. 
I raised four families as follows: 1 and 2. 
Chocolate (10) % Chocolate (1) with nine 
offspring, as follows: Uniform chocolate, nos. 
92, 23, 26, 66 and 65. Chocolate above, more 
or less white below, nos. 67, 68. Chocolate 
with white spots, nos. 24, 25. 


10 10 
3. Chocolate(66 A )x Chocolate (25 e ). 


These full siblingst of chocolate parents pro- 
duced five offspring. All were of a uniform 
chocolate color. 


10 1 
4. Chocolate (67 i )x Chocolate (25 ey 


*The numbers in parentheses are those of the 
pedigree mice. 

7 Sibling (Pearson) is a term applicable either 
to brother or to sister. 


SCIENCE. 


apie 


There was only one survivor of this pair; it 
was chocolate colored excepting for some white 
on the belly. 

Thus the chocolate color shows itself rather 
stable, especially in the second pure bred gen- 
eration. 


B. THE OFFSPRING OF MICE OF DIFFERENT COLOR. 


I. Gray and White—This cross has been 
made by several investigators, as indicated 
above. The usual result is that the offspring 
in the first filial G@mongrel) generation (/, in 
Bateson’s nomenclature) are prevailingly gray 
like the wild house mouse. My own experi- 
ence is partly confirmatory. 

A wild house mouse (15) * albino (5) gave 
five offspring: nos. 47 to 51. Four of these 
resembled the wild mother in coat excepting 
that they were yellower on the back of the 
neck and of a cream color in the region be- 
tween the fore legs and also between the hind 
legs. Also the coat had a richer, glossier look 
than the mother’s. The other one of the off- 
spring was generally agouti above and ashy 
below, but the hairs of the ventral part of the 
shoulder girdle were yellow tipped, there was a 
mid-ventral white patch and there were five 
distinct white patches on the dorsal side. 
These were unlike anything in the mother, and 
indicated particulate inheritance by the mon- 
grel from both parents, but especially from the 
mother. My results 
Crampe, who found that similarly bred rats 
give in F, either uniformly gray or gray and 
white. Darbishire (1903) crossing walzers 
and albinos finds that the mongrels have the 
less white the purer bred the albinos are, and 
von Guaita’s pure-bred albinos gave all gray 
offspring when crossed with walzers. I know 
nothing of the ancestry of the albino (5); but 
it may be inferred that it was not pure bred. 
With an albino that had been bred pure for 
two generations I got the following result: 


Gee (54 | 91, chocolate (10 X a. 


29, house 


agree with those of 


4, white ) 


hi ; 


Five offspring were obtained all gray like a 


~ 


112 


house mouse, but of a lighter color. Probably 
the earlier crosses of Crampe (1877, p. 390, 
391) with white and gray rats that led him to 
the conclusion that in inheritance the color 
of the species shuts out the color of the variety 
were made with pure bred rats. Cuénot cross- 
ing grays and albinos got gray mice without 
exception in the F', generation. 

From the foregoing the conclusion may be 
drawn that the offspring of pure-bred gray 
mice crossed with albinos inherit chiefly from 
the wild form but that the color is slightly 
modified, particularly when the albinos are not 
pure bred, first by an increase in the yellow 
and, secondly, in some cases, by the presence 
of white. Gray is dominant over albinism but 
the soma derived from hybrid germ cells shows 
traces of the albinic blood. The dominance 
is incomplete. The dominance, so far as it 
goes, accords with De Vries’s (1902, p. 145) 
generalization that the older type or the wild 
species is dominant over a more recent type 
or a cultivated variety. 

When these gray mice are crossed inter se 
there result gray mice and white mice in the 
proportion of three to one (Cuénot; Castle 
and Allen, 1903), and the albinos show them- 
selves purely recessive. That all recessive 
mice are, however, not alike, but differ accord- 
ing to their ancestry has been argued by 
Darbishire from the fact that pure bred al- 
binos transmit less to #', than albinos do that 
are derived from a mixed ancestry. 

II. Wild Gray (45) X Black (9).—Two off- 
spring of this cross were essentially of the 
wild, maternal color. 


10 
Til. Wild Gray (293) & Chocolate (21 | 1 ). 


—Nos. 52 and 54 were marked like the wild 
gray but were darker. No. 53 had a dark back, 
a light yellow belly and white on the shoulders 
and in the middle of the right flank. No. 55 
had a back like the house mouse, but its 
shoulders were white and its belly yellow and 
white. In these offspring there was an at- 
tempt at least at blending and there was a 
cropping out of an ancestral white, but on the 
whole the gray dominated. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


IV. Black < Albino.—This cross was made 
twice. z 


2, black 
Tele (19 fe or) 
: 4, albino 
Sailbine (18 | ee ). 


Five young were obtained, all reversions, be- 
ing of typical wild mouse color except that 
two of them had white spots on the belly. 


9. Black (126) X Albino 


( [ 39, yellow (6, albino X 
| 57, reversion | %, yellow) 
| 102 | 7, yellow 
: 4, albino. 
18, albino : 
L 5, albino 


—The two offspring were reversions, but one 
had a white spot at the center of the belly. 
These two matings indicate that neither black 
nor white is dominant, but that the repressed 
ancestral gray character is, as it were, liber- 
ated. 


V. Black (137) * Yellow 
f 102, albino 1 


102, albino 
126, black 


136 


j 
| 180, reversion | 
L 


—The single offspring was a typical reversion 
except that the front part of the belly and the 
flanks were white. Bateson (1903, p. 85) 
states that Miss Durham got sables and dingy 
fawns and even blacks from this cross. In 
any case there is no evident dominance. 

The following cases are still more complex. 


; 6, white 
VI. Reversion| 32 
7, yellow 
15, wild 
47 7 
x rr 88) 


—There were two of the progeny of this pair 
that survived infaney—both were of the 
typical wild mouse color. 

35, yellow) 
7, yellow | 


4, white 
5, white 


57, gray | 
109 
| 18, white} 
U 


VII. Reversion 


January 15, 1904.] 


34, yellow) 


Wile vellow| @, salon | 


Reversion | 117 


Ae rene ee wild 


5, white ; 


—There were three offspring; one was uni- 
formly black (a color not found in the an- 
cestry for at least three generations) and two 
were white. Black rats were got by Crampe 
(1877, p. 394) by crossing mongrels between 
wild and white-and-black rats; and black mice 
by von Guaita by crossing piebald dancing 
mice with albinos. 


: 6, white 
VIIL. Picbald (34 ) 
7, yellow 
G 6 8, yellow 
X Gray-yellow ( 2 | hicellow ). 


—Of the six offspring four (nos. 77, 78, 79, 
81) had the back colored yellow-red. In 
matching the color with the color wheel red, 
orange and yellow were found to constitute 
60 per cent. to 70 per cent. of the color. In 
no. 82 the dorsal pelage was yellow-chocolate, 
with the color formula, N51, R28, Y12, W9;* 
and in no. 80 it was chocolate, with the color 
formula, N76, R13, Y4, W7. Four had some 
white on the belly or flanks. In this cross a 
new color—chocolate—arose, which I interpret 
to mean that some of the primitive gray was 
added to the yellow; that is, there was a par- 
tial reversion. Otherwise the yellow is dom- 
inant. 


IX. Gray and White 


387, yellow (6, white < 7, yellow) 
7 
( 7, yellow ) 


4, white 


x< White (Qs! a Wits 


—There were eight offspring, three albinos and 
five gray. Four of the latter had white 
patches on the sides, legs or middle of the 
belly. This is like the case described by 


Castle (19038, p. 542). 


C. SUMMARY OF RESULTS. 
When the parents are of the same color, 
especially if they are pure bred, there is a 
*N, nigrum, black; R, red; Y, yellow; W, 
white. The numbers are percentages. 


SCIENCE. 113 


strong tendency for the offspring to be of the 
same color as the parents. In the case of 
albinos this tendency is so strong that the off- 
spring are probably always albinic; if both 
parents are black the tendency to black off- 
spring is likewise very strong; if chocolate, 
the result is more variable; if yellow, still more 
intermediate. The results indicate that there 
are different degrees in the strength of inherit- 
ance of different colors. 

When the parents are of dissimilar color 
the offspring show different kinds of inherit- 
ance in the different cases. When gray and 
white are crossed the offspring are gray with 
a little white, and this white is the more re- 
duced the purer bred the albinie parent; the 
gray is dominant. Likewise in the cross of 
gray and black, black is quite shut out, and 
the same is true of gray and piebald rats 
(Crampe, 1877, p. 394). The wild, gray color 
is strongly prepotent. Melanism and albinism 
act quite similarly in crossing. Both are in 
the nature of ‘sports.’ Perhaps ‘purity of 
the germ cells’ is the mechanism of isolation 
for which we have been so long looking, by 
which mutations are preserved from the 
“swamping effects of intercrossing.’”* 

When gray and chocolate are crossed the 
gray is incompletely dominant. When black 
and white are crossed, typical reversions ap- 
pear; neither color is dominant. When black 
is erossed with yellow the result is highly 
variable. If white and yellow be mixed in 
various proportions for several generations the 
progeny takes on various shades of yellow and 
may acquire the wholly new color of chocolate. 
Similarly, black may result from a mixed an- 
cestry in which there is no black. The study 
of the cropping out of new colors certainly 
forms an enticing subject for further inquiry. 


D. BEARING OF THE RESULTS ON MENDEL’S LAW. 


The enthusiasm kindled by the discovery of 
a new law leads us to go to extremes, to as- 


* Since the above was written I haye received 
Castle’s paper in Sctmnce for December 11, 1903, 
in which he states that the long-haired character 
in the Angora guinea-pig is recessive. This char- 
acter is probably a mutation, and as such behaves 
in accordance with the above hypothesis. 


114 SCIENCE. 


sume its universal validity, and to overlook 
apparent exceptions. Those who insist upon a 
critical examination of all evidence against as 
well as for the theory run the risk of being 
regarded as lukewarm and as clogs on the 
wheels of progress; but they should not be de- 
terred on that account from a full examination 
of all the facts in the interest of truth. 

Mendel’s Law is an hypothesis of great 
value both because it fits so many cases of in- 
heritance and because it is stimulating to ex- 
perimental investigations which will determine 
the limits within which it is valid. 

The first limitation of Mendel’s Law is 
-stated by De Vries (1902, p. 141), who cer- 
tainly can not be accused of lukewarmness 
toward the theory, since he was its redis- 
He says in effect: Mendel’s Law of 
dichotomy holds in general only for phylogen- 
etically recent characters, the so-called racial 
characters; and for only a part of those—what 
Even Mendel recognized 
that his rule was not generally applicable. 

The second limitation of Mendelism con- 
Sometimes 


coverer. 


part we do not know. 


cerns his theory of dominance. 
when dissimilar racial characters are crossed 
one of them is dominant, and sometimes not. 
For example, gray is (within limits) dominant 
over white or black in mice, but when black 
and white or black and yellow are crossed there 
is no dominance of one color over the other; 
both are recessive and a reversion to the primi- 
tive gray occurs. The whole hypothesis of the 
purity of the germ cells will bear careful 
scrutiny. The best example of a recessive 
character in animals is albinism, but even in 
this case, as Darbishire has pointed out, the 
recessives can not be perfectly pure and inde- 
pendent of ancestry, for the mongrel mice 
coming from a recessive crossed with a gray 
differ according to the ancestry of the reces- 
sive. The result of this study is, I think, to 
add evidence that Mendel did not discover all 
the important laws of inheritance, and that 
further investigation will unquestionably re- 
veal other and still broader principles of 
heredity. C. B. Davenport. 
Hurt ZooLtocican LABORATORY, 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO, 
December 13, 1903. 


LITERATURE CITED. 


Bateson, W., 1902.  ‘Mendel’s Principles of 
Heredity.’ Cambridge [Eng.]. 1902. 212 pp. 

Bateson, W., 1903. ‘The Present State of Knowl- 
edge of Colour Heredity in Mice and Rats.’ 
Proc. Zool. Soc. London, 1903, II., pp. 71-99, 
Cetober 1. 

Castie, W. E., 1903. ‘ Mendel’s Law of Heredity.’ 
Proc. Amer. Acad. Arts and Sci., XXXVIIL., pp. 
530-548. 

Castin, W. L., and Atten, G. M., 1903. ‘The 
Heredity of Albinism.’ Proc. Amer. Acad, Arts 
and Sci., XXXVIII., pp. 603-622, April. 

CrampPe [H.], 1877. ‘ Kreuzungen zwischen Wan- 
derratten verscheidener Farbe.’ Landwwirtsch. 
Jahrbiicher, VI., pp. 539-619. 

Cramer [H.], 1885. ‘Die Gesetze der Vererbung 
der Farbe. Landwirtsch. Jahrbiicher, XIV., 
pp. 539-619. 

Cutnot, L., 1902. “La loi de Mendel et 
Vhérédité de la pigmentation chez les souris.’ 
Arch. de Zool. EHxpér. et Gén. (3), X., Notes 
et Revue, pp. xxvii-xxx. 

Cutnor, L., 1905. ‘ L’hérédité de la pigmentation 
chez les souris. Arch. de Zool. Hupér. et 
Gén. (4), I., Notes et Revue, pp. xxiii—xli. 

Darpisuire, A. D., 1902. ‘Note on the Results 
of Crossing Japanese Walzing Mice, with Euro- 
pean Albino Races.’ Biometrika, II., pp. 101— 
104, November. 

DarsisuHire, A. D., 1902. ‘Second Report on the 
Result of Crossing Japanese Walzing Mice with 
European Albino Races.’ Biometrika, II., pp. 
165-173, February. 

Darpisuire, A. D., 1902. “Third Report on 
Hybrids between Walzing Mice and Albino 
Races, On the Result of Crossing Japanese 
Walzing Mice with ‘Extracted’ Recessive Al- 
binos.” Biometrika, II., pp. 282-285, June. 

Davenport, OC. B., 1900. ‘Review of von 
Guaita’s Experiments in Breeding Mice.’ Biol. 
Bull., U1., pp. 121-128. 

Davenvort, GC. B., 1901. Mendel’s Law of Dichot- 
omy in Hybrids.’ Biol. Bull., I1., pp. 307-310. 

De Vries, H., 1902. ‘Die Mutations-theorie,’ 
Il. Bd., Leipzig. 

Guaira, G. von, 1898. ‘ Versuche mit Kreuzungen 
von verschiedenen Rassen der Hausmaus.’ Ber. 
Naturf. Ges. ew. Freiburg, X., pp. 317-332, April. 

Guaira, G. von, 1900. ‘Zweite Mittheilungen 
liber Versuche mit Kreuzungen von verscheid- 
enen Rassen der Hausmaus.’ Ber. Naturf. Ges. 
au Preiburg, XL, pp. 131-138, August. 

Woops, FI’. A., 1903. ‘Mendel’s Laws and some 
Records in Rabbit Breeding. Biometrika, IL., 
pp. 299-306, June. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 472. 


ee ee ed i eee 


erty een VERON, 


poetics 


Ses 


Oat Tam 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
METEOROLOGICAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 

To the ‘Note on Meteorological Bibliog- 
taphies,’ published in Screncz for December 
18, p. 795, there should have been added a 
reference to one other publication which con- 
tains a valuable list of titles in physics and 
meteorology. This is the Fortschritte der 
Physik, Halbmonatliches Litteraturverzeich- 
miss, an octavo publication, issued twice a 
month, now in its second year. The Fort- 
schritte der Physik, already well known in 
this country, contains reviews of publications 
in astrophysics, meteorology and geophys- 
ics, but the Fortschritte necessarily appears 
some time after the date of the books and 
articles reviewed therein. The object of the 
new Halbmonatliches Litteraturverzeichniss is 
to publish the titles of all physical books and 
articles immediately after their issue, and 
without reference to the later reviews in the 
larger volumes of the Fortschritte. The mat- 
ter is in the hands of the Deutsche Physi- 
kalische Gesellschaft, the editor for ‘ Cosmical 
Physics’ being the well-known meteorologist, 
Dr. Assmann. No one can fail to appreciate 
the advantage of this bibliography, which ap- 
pears frequently, is well edited, and will prove 
of the greatest service to meteorologists. It is 
altogether the best current meteorological bib- 
liography published, although one could wish 
that an author catalogue were included, and 
that the same classification of subjects were 
used as in the ‘International Catalogue’ (or 
a better one). The price of the Litteraturver- 
zeichniss is four Marks yearly. 


CLOUD OBSERVATIONS IN INDIA. 


OBSERVATIONS of the movements of the up- 
per clouds were made at six stations in India 
during the period 1895-1900, and the results 
are now discussed by Sir John Eliot in Vol. 
XYV., Pt. I., of the Indian Meteorological 
Memoirs (pp. 112, Pls. XII., Caleutta, 1903). 
Nephoscopes of the Finemann pattern were 
used. No observations of altitude are in- 
eluded. The discussion concerns the direc- 
tions of movement of each cloud type at each 
station, during dry and wet seasons. These 
being the first considerable Indian contribu- 


- SCIENCE. 


115 


tions to the study of the upper air movements 
as shown by cloud directions, the results are 
especially noteworthy. The movement of cir- 
rus and cirro-stratus clouds is remarkably 
steady at the four northern stations (Simla, 
Lahore, Jaipur and Allahabad) during the dry 
season, being from almost due west, 7. e., in 
accordance with theory. The number of ob- 
servations at WVizagapatam and Madras is 
small, but the indications are that the upper 
air movement recurves from southeast through 
south to southwest in the southern portions 
of India, also in general accordance with 
theory. The lower as well as the upper air 
movement is from west over the whole of 
northern and central India during the dry 
season, the direction of movement of the alto- 
cumulus, cumulus and cumulo-nimbus being 
almost as regular as that of the upper clouds, 
but more southerly. During the rainy season 
there is great variability and unsteadiness 
in the cloud movement up to the elevation 
of the highest cirrus at Allahabad, which is 
in the center of the Indian trough of low pres- 
sure at that season. Photogrammetric obser- 
vations at Allahabad in 1898-1900 showed that 
the mean altitude of the cirrus in the rainy 
season is 32,654 feet. Hence it appears that 
the unsteady movement in the monsoon trough 
extends up to 30,000 feet at least, and perhaps 
even to 40,000 feet. The regular movement 
in the higher atmosphere (from west to east) 
is then suspended, or else occurs at a greater 
elevation than in the dry season. 


ATR PRESSURES IN INDIA. 


Vou. XVI., Pt. IL, of the ‘Indian Meteor- 
ological Memoirs’ contains the ‘ Normals 
of the Air Pressure Reduced to 32° F. and 
Constant Gravity, Lat. 45,’ by Sir John Eliot. 
The memoir includes the monthly and annual 
means of the barometric observations at all 
observatories in India which haye been in 
operation at least twenty years. At most of 
the observatories, the observations date from 
1875, when the department was ‘ imperialized.’ 
In June, 1878, the government of India sanc- 
tioned arrangements for the publication of a 
daily weather report, which included observa- 
tions made at 10 a.m., at about 100 stations. 


116 


The hour was later changed to 8 a.m. It is to 
be noted that certain persistent discrepancies 
appear when the observations, after reduction 
to sea-level, are compared, the most noteworthy 
eases being those of stations which are more 
or less completely shut in by hills of consider- 
able elevation. The result of this condition 
is to check somewhat the horizontal movement 
of the air, and to give too high a pressure dur- 
ing the morning. At the three stations where 
this topographic effect is most marked the 
excess of pressure averages about .02 inch 
at 8 A.M. 
NOTE. 

It is well known that the winter snowfall is 
a great help in lumbering operations in our 
northern forests, for it greatly facilitates the 
labor of hauling out the trees. In a recent 
article on the ‘Forest School at Biltmore’ 
(Forestry and Irrigation, November), Dr. 
Schenck notes, among the disadvantages. of 
the Biltmore forest tracts, the lack of winter 
snows, which allow ‘cheap sleighing to take 
the place of expensive wagoning.’ 


R. DeC. Warp. 


THE ASSOCIATION OF OFFICIAL AGRI- 
CULTURAL CHEMISTS. 

THE twentieth annual meeting of the asso- 
ciation was held at the Columbian University, 
Washington, D. C., on November 19, 20, 21, 
with an attendance of 150, the largest on 
record. A large part of the meeting was de- 
voted to the reports of the referees and asso- 
ciate referees on the analysis of foods. Dr. 
William Frear, as chairman of the committee 
on pure food standards, reported that those 
on meats and the principal meat products, 
milk and its products, sugars and related sub- 
stances, condiments (except vinegar), and 
cocoa products, were ready for adoption as 
official and the proclamation so declaring them 
was signed by Secretary Wilson on November 
21. The circular containing these standards 
is now in press and will be ready for distribu- 
tion in a short time. 

Slight changes were made in the official 
methods for the analysis of sugars and in- 
secticides and a new division of the work was 
created by a motion to appoint a referee on 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


drugs. A resolution was adopted requesting 
the Bureau of Standards through its chemist 
to participate in the work of the referees fix- 
ing standard methods of analysis. The com- 
mittee on fertilizer legislation was instructed 
to prepare a bill for submission to Congress 
regulating interstate commerce in fertilizers 
and fertilizing materials. 

The executive committee was given permis- 
sion to call the meeting of the association 
next year at St. Louis and there is every 
probability that such action will be taken. 
The officers elected are as follows: 

President—M. H. Jaffa, Berkeley, Cal. 

Vice-President—C. L. Penny, Newark, Del. 

Secretary—H. W. Wiley, Washington, D. C. 

Additional Members of the Hxecutive Committee 
—W. P. Headden, Fort Collins, Colo.; W. R. 
Perkins, Agricultural College, Mass. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Mr. SHyamagt KrisHNAvARMA, of India, has 
offered $5,000 to Oxford University to estab- 
lish a lectureship in honor of Herbert Spencer 
to be known as the Spencer Lectureship. 

THE prize for French contributions to sci- 
ence given by M. Osiris through the Paris 
Press Association has been divided between 
Mme. Curie and M. Branly. Mme. Curie re- 
ceives 60,000 franes for her work on radium 
and M. Branly 40,000 franes for his work in 
connection with wireless telegraphy. 

Tue sixtieth birthday of Dr. Robert Koch 
was celebrated on December 11. A portrait 
bust was unveiled in the Institute for In- 
fectious Diseases, Berlin, a museum for bac- 
teriology was established and a Festschrift is 
in press. Dr. Koch expects to return from 
South Africa in March. 

Art the St. Louis meeting of the Astronom- 
ical and Astrophysical Society of America the 
following officers, including those who hold 
over, were elected for the ensuing year: 
President, Simon Newcomb; First Vice-Presi- 
dent, George E. Hale; Second Vice-President, 
W. W. Campbell; Secretary, George C. Com- 
stock; Treasurer, C. L. Doolittle; Councilors, 
Ormond Stone, W. S. Eichelberger, H. OC. 
Pickering, R. S. Woodward. 


JANUARY 15, 1904.] 


Av the St. Louis meeting of the Geological 
Society of America, Professor John C. Bran- 
ner, of Stanford University, was elected presi- 
dent and Professor H. L. Fairchild, of the 
‘University of Rochester, was reelected secre- 
tary. We regret that the names were acci- 
dentally interchanged in the last issue of 
Screncs. 

Governor Batss, of Massachusetts, in his 
annual message recommends the appointment 
of a state forester and greater attention to the 
foreSt resources of the state. 

Prorussor N. S. Saver, of Harvard Uni- 
yersity, will spend the next four months 
abroad traveling in Hgypt, Asia Minor and 
Greece. 

Dr. J. CO. Branner, professor of geology at 
Stanford University, has received leave of 
absence and is about to go to Kurope. 


The American Geologist states that Mr. O. 
- Hi. Hershey has charge of the gold mine in 
Humboldt County, California, and is study- 
ing the geology of the Klamath Mountains. 


An Ohio State Forestry Association has 
been organized with Mr. W. I. Chamberlain 
as president, and Professor W. R. Lazenby as 
secretary. 

Dr. Herman M. Bices, medical officer of the 
health board of the City of New York, lec- 
tured at the College of the City of New York, 
on January 5, his subject being ‘The Health 
ot the City of New York.’ 


Sir Oxtver Longe lectured at the University 
of Birmingham on ‘ Radium and its Meaning, 
on January 5, Mr. Joseph Chamberlain, the 
chancellor of the university, presiding. 


Mr. Girrorp Pincuot, chief of the Bureau 
of Forestry, will attend the meetings of the 
National Live Stock Association and the Na- 
tional Woolgrowers’ Association, which will 
be held at Portland, Ore., from January 11-15, 
in order to learn the sentiment of these asso- 
Ciations in regard to the policy of forest re- 
serves. 

Proressor RusseLt H. Cuirrenpen, director 
of the Sheffield Scientific School of Yale Uni- 
versity, has announced the thirty-eighth 
Course of Sheffield Lectures for 1904. The 
list of subjects and speakers is as follows: 


SCIENCE. 


‘of British 


117 


January 15. “The Tower of Pelée: New Re- 
searches in Martinique’: Professor Angelo Heil- 
prin. 

January 22. ‘Triumphs of Engineering’; Mr. 
Frank W,. Skinner, C.E. 

January 29. ‘Expeditions among the Rockies 
Columbia; a Reconnaissance for the 
Platinum Metals’: Mr. Howard W. DuBois, M.E. 

February 5. ‘Around the World in Search of 
the Unexpected’: Mr. Horace Fletcher. 

February 12. ‘Recent Archeological Discoy- 
eries in Northwestern America’: Mr. Harlan I. 
Smith. 

February 19. 
fessor M. I. Pupin. 

February 26. ‘Comets’: 
L. Chase. 

March 4. ‘The Revolutionary Movement in the 
Philippines’: Capt. John R. M.' Taylor, U.S.A. 

Mareh 11. ‘Electrochemistry at Niagara 
Falls’: Professor C. F. Chandler. 

March 18. >; Professor Ernest 


* Radio-activity ’: 
Rutherford. 
Proressor Kari ALFRED VON ZITTEL, the 
eminent paleontologist of the University of 
Munich, died on January 6. 


“Wireless Telegraphy’: Pro- 


Professor Frederick 


Mr. Henry W. Lorurop, a student of ento- 
mology, died at Providence, R. I., on January 
5, at the age of sixty years. 

Mr. Beverty Burton, an American chemist, 
who has resided in Munich for a number of 
years, died in that city on January 5. 

A Clvin service examination will be held on 
February 3 and 4 to fill vacancies in the 
position of civil engineer in the Philippine 
services at salaries of $1,400 and $1,800. 

Tue House of Representatives ihas appro- 
priated $250,000 toward the eradication of the 
eotton boll weevil. 

Tue will of Peter B. Brigham, of Boston, 
leaving $5,000,000 to the Brigham Hospital, 
has been sustained by the court. 

Joun Winutam CupwortH has bequeathed 
about £70,000 to the Dr. Pusey Library, 
Oxford. 

Herr A. Samson has bequeathed to the 
Munich Academy of Science 500,000 Marks 
for research in scientific ethics. 

Tue Hlectrical World states that in order to 
celebrate the twenty-fifth anniversary of the 
introduction and commercial development of 


118 


the incandescent lamp, the friends and asso- 
ciates of Mr. Thomas A. Edison have taken 
steps to found a medal which will be entrusted 
to the American Institute of Electrical Engi- 
neers. The circular which is being issued by 
the Edison Medal Asociation announces that 
it is the intention that the medals shall be 
awarded each year to the graduating student 
who shall present the best thesis on some 
original subject from the universities and 
colleges of the United States and Canada 
which have regular courses in electrical engi- 
neering. It is proposed that the medal shall 
be executed by some artist of distinction and 
that if possible a permanent fund of about 
$5,000 shall be established for its maintenance. 
It is proposed to present the medal fund at 
the annual dinner of the institute on February 
11, which is Mr. Edison’s birthday. 

Wn learn from Nature that the Venetian 
Academy of Sciences, Letters and Arts, offers 
prizes of 3,000 lire under the Querini- 
Stampaglia foundation for monographs on the 
following subjects: The lakes of Venetian dis- 
trict, treated from a physiographic and biolog- 
ical standpoint; the works of Manuzi as a 
eritic of Greek and Latin literature; the 
origins of Venetian painting; and advances in 
the projective geometry of algebraic surfaces 
of two dimensions in space of nm dimensions. 
Under the Cavalli foundation, a similar prize 
is offered for an essay on the effects of modern 
social and economic conditions, ete., on land- 
lords and farmers, with especial reference to 
the Venetian provinces. Under the Balbi 
Valier foundation an award of the same 
amount is offered for advances in medicine or 
surgery for the period 1902-3, and under the 
Minich foundation a prize of 3,000 lire is 
offered for embryological researches on the de- 
velopment of the larynx, the trachea and the 
lungs in vertebrates and birds. 

Iy his annual message Governor Odell, of 
New York, writes as follows in regard to the 
New York State School of Forestry: “ By 
Chapter 122 of the Laws of 1898 the State 
purchased Townships 23 and 26 in the County 
of Franklin, and Cornell University there- 
upon took title and undertook practical dem- 
onstration and instruction in the School of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 472. 


Forestry. Its operations had for their object 
the substitution for so-called worthless timber 
of valuable growths, but this has resulted in 
the practical destruction of all trees upon the 
lands where the experiment was in progress. 
No compensating benefits seem possible to the 
present generation. The preservation of the 
forests is primarily for the protection of the 
water supply, and this is not possible through 
the denudation of the lands. Therefore this 
school failed of its object, as understood by 
its founders, a failure which was not due, 
however, to the work of the university, 
which followed out the letter and spirit of 
the law. The report of the committee of the 
assembly at the last session of the legisla- 
ture, and the knowledge of the disapproval of 
many of our citizens, led me to veto the item 
for its support in the appropriation bill of 
1903. The question, therefore, is before you, 
and to the legislature we must accordingly ~ 
look for such action as will properly protect 
all interests. Cornell University undertook 
this work at the request of the state, and as 
such was its agent. In so doing it has made 
contracts for which it is primarily responsible, 
but which responsibility as the agent of the 
commonwealth it should not be called upon 
to assume. Neither should the school it 
founded be discontinued, because with the 
lapse of years a proper understanding of scien- 
tifie forestry will become more and more a 
necessity. This is particularly true of farm 
forestry, which will form an important part 
in the future of agriculture within the state. 
That our people do not desire, however, that 
publie lands shall be denuded is beyond ques- 
tion. It would seem, therefore, desirable that 
immediate legislation be had to recover to the 
state this property, of which there are about 
30,000 acres, and for the payment into the 
treasury of the unexpended portion of the 
captital fund advanced by the state. Permis- 
sion should be given to clear up and remove 
all cut timber and wood by the university, so 
that the danger of fire may be lessened. The 
contracts made between Cornell and the Brook- 
lyn Cooperage Company might be left with 
the executive for adjustment, and failing in 
this either to the Court of Claims, if the state 


January 15, 1904.] 


is to be the party defendant, or to the Supreme 
Court if Cornell should be the responsible de- 
fendant. In neither case, however, should any 
burden be placed upon the university. 

Mr. Jamwus Boyun, U. S. Consul at Liver- 
pool, England, writes to the Department of 
State that the British government has taken 
the first step toward the adoption of the 
decimal system of weights. It has just been 
announced by the Board of Trade that, under 
a special order in council, it will sanction the 
use of a weight of 50 pounds, instead of the 
present standards of 112 pounds (called a 
hundredweight) and 56 pounds (called a half 
hundredweight). The 50 pounds is by this 
action made a legal standard of weight. This 
reform has been adopted after forty years of 
agitation by Liverpool merchants and later 
on by petitions to the government by the 
chambers of commerce throughout the coun- 
try, and particularly by the chamber of com- 
merce of this city. Liverpool has felt the 
necessity for the change more than any other 
city, as this is the leading entrepot for Ameri- 
ean and colonial produce of bulk, the weighing 
of which is a considerable item in the handling 
and, indeed, in the ultimate cost of the ship- 
ments. More cotton, corn, provisions and 
tobaceo are imported into Liverpool than into 
any other city in the world, and by far the 
largest proportion of these imports come from 
the United States; so the United States is 
peculiarly interested in the reform just insti- 
tuted. The Liverpool Journal of Commerce 
comments approvingly as follows: 

All these great quantities are calculated by the 
American sellers in pounds ayoirdupois, but by 
the British buyers they have had to be counted 
in hundredweights, quarters, and pounds, in ac- 
cordance with our antiquated and absurd and 
anomalous system of weights. What is the con- 
sequence? To give a concrete example: The buyer 
wishes to ascertain, say, the weight of 100 pounds 
of tobacco; to do so the nearest weight he can 
employ is a quarter, or 56 pounds, to which must 
be added smaller weights until the exact quantity 
is ascertained. But two 50-pound weights will 
give him the exact amount at once; three will 
give him the weight of 150 pounds, four 200 
pounds, and so on, smaller weights being used for 
fractions of 50 pounds. The consequence is an 
enormous simplification of calculation. It should 


SCIENCE. 


119 


be remembered that the men who weigh these 
materials at the docks are not, as a rule, mathe- 
maticians who can tell the time of day by algebra. 
They are largely day laborers, who have not had 
& superior education, and to weigh quantities 
with a set of weights necessitating the calculation 
of fractions of pounds, and thereby the use of 
dozens of small weights, necessitates a mental 
effort of which all are not capable, and the use 
of a multiplicity of weights which confuses them 
leads to errors and loss of time—and time is 
money. But by the adoption of a 50-pound 
weight a unit of calculation has been obtained 
which will sweep away a whole set of weights, 
prevent errors, confusion, time and 
money. It should be remembered that the pres- 
ent complicated and wasteful method of calcula- 
ting weigths has to be gone through four times— 


and save 


first, when the goods are warehoused; second, 
by the customs, for the purpose of duty; third, 
in the counting-house; and fourth, in the factory 
and in all these cases the same cumbrous sys- 
tem of calculation by hundredweights, quarters 
and pounds has to be gone through, and the loss 
of time, convenience and money quadrupled. But 
by the adoption of a 50-pound weight, though four 
separate calculations will still be necessary, they 
can be done simply and quickly. The savings in 
bookkeeping will alone be great. The present 
system necessitates a maze of figures of different 
denominations; but by their reduction to the one 
common denominator of pounds weight whole 
columns of figures will be saved and the risk of 
mistakes minimized. 


Americans have great difficulty im wunder- 
standing the English system of weights— 
almost as much as they encounter in trying 
to understand the English fractional system 
of coinage. For instance, if you ask a man 
here how much he weighs he will tell you, say, 
‘11 stone 7.2 A ‘stone’ is 14 pounds; so 11 
stone would be 154 pounds, and adding the 
extra 7 pounds the weight given would be 161 
pounds. Even Englishmen ‘to the manner 
born’ have to make a mental calculation in 
arriving at the result in pounds in such a 
case. Sometimes provisions and other articles 
are sold at so much a stone, and then if the 
quantity purchased weighs a few odd pounds 
over a stone or a number of stones the pur- 
chaser and seller have to figure out the price 
per pound. It is the hope and expectation 
that the results from the adoption of the new 


120 SCIENCE. 


standard weight of 50 pounds will be so satis- 
factory that before long the old-fashioned 
“hundredweight’ of 112 pounds will be en- 
tirely abolished along with the stone, and that 
a decimal fractional system of 5 pounds, 10 
pounds, and 25 pounds will come into general 
use. f 

Wan learn from the London Times that the 
first meeting for the session of the Geologists’ 
Association, held recently, took the form of 
a conversazione, held in the library of Uni- 
versity College, London. The most important 
geological exhibits were the erratics from 
Hertfordshire, and the facetted pebbles from 
Berkshire and Oxfordshire, shown by Dr. 
Salter; the Hertfordshire pudding-stones by 
Mr. Green, and the iron, flint and lime con- 
eretions, closely resembling animal forms, 
sent by Dr. Abbitt. The small erratics are of 
great interest, as it is not easy to account for 
the presence of rhomboid porphyry of Nor- 
wegian origin on the uplands of Hertfordshire. 
On this subject Dr. Salter intends to publish 
a paper, advancing another theory than that 
generally accepted—the transportation by ice 
across the North Sea. The facetted pebbles 
of banded quartzite were probably worn down 
by a natural sand-blast. Anthropology was 
well represented. The Rev. R. Ashington 
Bullen showed prehistoric implements; as did 
Mr. Elliott, whose exhibits included photo- 
graphs of and implements from the Mentone 
caves. Among the other exhibits were worked 
Chinese jade, collections of fossil mollusea, 
photographs and maps, and other objects of 
interest to students of geology. 

Tue following books have recently been sold 
at auction in London: ‘ Catalogue of the Birds 
in the British Museum,’ from Vol. 1 to Vol. 
27, 1874-95, with numerous beautifully-colored 
plates, £32; the Ibis, from 1859 to 1903, with 
numerous colored plates and the general 
index, 1877-94, £60; ‘Colored Figures of 
the Birds of the British Islands,’ 1891-97, 
second edition, £63; Hl. E. Dresser, ‘ History 
of the Birds of Europe,’ published by the 
author, 1871-96, with numerous colored plates, 
£61; two by John Gould, ‘ The Birds of Great 
Britain,’ 1878, £58; ‘Birds of Asia,’ 1850-83, 
£75; ‘English Botany,’ 1790-94, 36 volumes, 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 472. 


£18 15s.; W. C. Hewitson, ‘ Exotic Butterflies,’ 
1876, £19. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Corne“L University will receive more than 
$200,000 from the estate of the late Frederick 
W. Guiteau of Irvington-on-the-Hudson, 
which is nearly $50,000 more than was an- 
nounced at the time of Mr. Guiteau’s death 
last year. The money will be used as a fund 
for the assistance of needy students, and will 
be lent them without interest. 

By the will of George Sykes, of Rockville, 
Conn., a fund of $100,000 is provided for a 
manual training school. 

A NEw science hall, to cost $100,000 is to be 
erected at Colgate University. A sum of 
about $30,000 has been subseribed for the 
purpose. 

Tur French minister of public instruction 
has recommended the establishment of a chair 
of physics at the University of Paris, to which 
M. Curie will be called. 

Iy the report of the registration of the uni- 
versities, recently published in Scmnen, the 
number of students in the graduate school of 
the University of Michigan was given as 69. 
We are informed that it was at that time at 
least 85, and is now nearly 100. 

Dr. Cuartes W. Dasney has’ accepted the 
presidency of the University of Cincinnati. 

Dr. Grorcr Stuart FULLERTON, professor of 
philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania 
and formerly dean and yice-provost, has been 
elected professor of philosophy at Columbia 
University. 

At Teachers College, Columbia University, 
Dr. Edward L. Thorndike was promoted from 
an adjunct professorship to a professorship 
of psychology; Dr. J. H. MacVannell from 
an instructorship to an adjunct professorship 
in education, and Dr. Herman Vulté from a 
lectureship to an adjunct professorship of do- 
mestic science. 

Mr. Ginserr Van Invern has been appointed 
assistant in geology and curator in inyerte- 
brate paleontology at Princeton University. 

Mr. Howarp D. Mincuty, of the University 
of Michigan, has been appointed instructor 
in physics at Rochester University. 


SCIENCE - 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, JANUARY 22, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
Geography in the United States, I.: Pro- 
MHSSOR, Wi. M. DAVIS. 0... .0028.000 eee nee 121 


Some Unsolved Problems of Organic Adapta- 
tion: PROFESSOR CHARLES W. HareiTrT.... 132 


Scientifie Books :-— 
The Honeysuckles: Dr. N. L. Brirron. 
Human Anatomy in the International Cata- 
logue of Scientific Literature: M.......... 145 
Scientific Journals and Articles............. 147 


Societies and Academies :-— 
The San Francisco Section of the American 
Mathematical Society: Proressor G. A. 
Minter. he Anthropological Society of 
Washington: Dr. Water Hoven. The 
Science Club of the University of Wiscon- 


SH VICTORMUENEBR S.o.ln.. as eersce nec 148 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

The Lunar Theory: Proressor AsAapH 

Harm. The Scaurs on the River Rouge: 

Dr. Mark §. W. JEFFERSON.............. 150 


Shorter Articles :-— 
Wonder Horses and Mendelism: Proressor 
C. B. Davenport. The Inheritance of Song 
in Passerine Birds: Wiri11aAM E. D. Scorr. 151 


The U. 8. Naval Observatory.............. 154 
Scientific Notes and News............... oo) US 
University and Educational News.......... 160 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.. intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of Scimncn, Garri- 
_ S0n-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


GHOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES.* TI. 


For twenty years past our section has 
acknowledged in its name an equal rank 
for geology and geography, but not one of 
the vice-presidential addresses during that 
period, or, indeed, since the foundation of 
the association over fifty years ago, has 
been concerned with the subject second 
named. Unless we cross off geography 
from the list of our responsibilities, it 
should certainly receive at least occasional 
attention; let me, therefore, depart from 
all precedents, and, even though geologists 
may form the majority in this gathering, 
consider the standing of geography among 
the sciences of the United States; how it 
has reached the place it now occupies, and 
what the prospects are for its further ad- 
vance. 

One measure of the place that geography 
occupies in this country may be made by 
considering the share that geographical 
problems have had in the proceedings of 
our association; here follow, therefore, the 
results of a brief examination of our fifty 
volumes of records. In the early years of 
the association there was no fixed division 
into sections. The meetings were some- 
times so small that papers from various 
sciences were presented in general session. 
At least once in the early years the work 
of our predecessors was recorded under the 
general heading, ‘ natural history, ete.’ 
As early as in 1851 there was a section of 


* Address of the vice-president and chairman of 
Section E—Geology and Geography—of the Ameri- 
can Association for the Advancement of Science, 
St. Louis meeting, December, 1903. 


122 


geology and physical geography, and 
another of ethnology and geography, but 
that classification did not endure. Once 
only, in 1853, did geography stand by 
itself as a sectional heading, but at many 
meetings physics of the globe and meteor- 
ology had places to themselves. Through 
the ’60’s and ’70’s geography was some- 
times coupled with geology, but the latter 
more often stood alone or with paleontol- 
ogy, and it was not until the Montreal 
meeting of 1882 that Section E was defi- 
nitely organized with the title that 1t now 
bears. 

In those years when physics of the globe 
and meteorology were given sectional rank, 
problems concerning the ocean and the at- 
mosphere received a good share of atten- 
tion. It is curious to note, in contrast to 
this, how little consideration has been 
given to the exploration and description of 
the lands, that is, to the geography of the 
lands, in this Association for the Advanee- 
ment of Science, either before or after the 
establishment of the double name for our 
section. The exploration of foreign lands, 
for many years a prominent subject in the 
meetings of the British Association, where 
eeography has had a section to itself since 
1869, has attracted hardly any notice in 
our gatherings; perhaps because we have 
been busy exploring our own domain. At 
the first meeting, 1848, a summary of then 
recent explorations, prepared by Alexan- 
der, is the only paper of its kind. Other 
papers treating the geography of foreign 
lands are so few in number that most of 
them may be noted here; in 1850, Squier 
eave an evenine address on the volcanoes 
of Central America; in 1858 and 1860, 
Hayes and Wheildon discussed arctic ex- 
ploration; Orton described the valley of 
the Amazon in 1869; in 1884 and 1898, two 
Enelish visitors had papers on different 
parts of Asia; in 1891 and 1898, Craw- 
ford described features of Nicaragua; and 


SCIENCE. 


in 1894 and 1895, Hubbard read papers 
on China, Corea and Japan. LEven geo- 
logical essays on foreign regions have been 
few; Dana, Branner, Hill, Spencer, Heil- 
prin and Hitchcock being the chief con- 
tributors. Inattention to foreign explora- 
tion is, however, not to be fully explained 
by devotion to the geography of our own 
country, so far as the latter is measured 
by the pages devoted to it in our proceed- 
ings. The first meeting started well 
enough, with accounts of the terraces of 
Lake Superior by Agassiz, of the physical 
geography of northern Mississippi by Bol- 
ton, and of the topography of Pennsyl- 
vania and Ohio by Roberts. Again, in 
1851, when physical geography was named 
with geology, the first subject had two 
essays, the distribution of animals in Cali- 
fornia, and the climate, flora and fauna of 
northern Ohio; and geography joined in 
the same year with ethnology had three 
rather scattering titles: a deep-sea bank 
near the Gulf Stream, measurement of 
heights by the barometer, and a geograph- 
ical department in the Library of Con- 
gress; but this beginning had no worthy 
sequel. The many expeditions across our 
western territory contributed little geo- 
eraphic matter to our records; in 1856 
Blake described the orography of the west- 
ern United States, and Emory the bound- 
ary of the United States and Mexico; 
and the latter added in 1857 an account of 
the western mountain systems of North 
America. From that time onward there 
has been very little primarily of a geo- 
graphical nature concerning the United 
States. Even the modern discussions of 
glacial geology in the last twenty years, 
profitable as they have been to the phys- 
ical geographers of glaciated regions, have 
in very few, if any, cases been presented as 
contributions to geography. The new 
phase of the physiography cf the lands is 
seantily represented; there have been 


ta 
[N.S. Vor. XIX. No.473. 
4 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


hardly more than accounts of Mexico by 
Hill, of California by Perrin Smith, of 
North Carolina by Cobb; it is to be noted, 
moreover, that these three authors are pri- 
marily geologists, not geographers. This 
meager showing leads one to suspect that 
our proceedings do not give a fair measure 
of geographical activity in North America. 

There has been in reality a great deal 
of work of a geographical nature done by 
our people, but the proceedings of the asso- 
ciation do not seem to have commended 
themselves as a place to put the work on 
record. Our geological surveys, state and 
national, have contributed numerous geo- 
eraphie chapters and reports of prime 
value; our weather bureau is in many re- 
spects the leading institution of its kind; 
our coast survey sets a high standard for 
triangulation, coast maps and tide current 
studies; we have held a prominent place in 
arctic exploration, and have taken some 
part in exploration elsewhere. But in 
spite of all this accomplishment, we have 
not made great contributions to the full- 
fledged science of geography, There are, 
for example, few steps toward scientific 
geography of greater value than good 
maps, but for the geographer to stop with 
. the production of good maps is as if the 
botanist stopped with the collection of 
dried plants. The survey reports of our 
various states and territories contain a 
great fund of geographical matter, and 
some of the members of these surveys have 
carried the physical geography of the 
lands so far forward as to develop it into 
a new science, to which a name, geomor- 
phy or geomorphogeny, has been given; 
yet geography has not flourished among us 
as a maturely developed subject. The sur- 
vey reports have not, as a rule, been pre- 
pared by persons whose training and inter- 
ests were primarily geographical, and very 
few of the eeomorphogenists have carried 
their new science forward into a geograph- 


SCIENCE. 


123 


ical relation; they have usually stopped 
with the physical aspects of the subject, 
and left the organic aspects with scanty 
consideration. It is as if there had been 
some impediment in the way of the full 
development of geography as a maturely 
organized science. There are in fact three 
serious Impediments. 

During all these years geography has 
suffered greatly from being traditionally 
a school subject in its educational rela- 
tions; the subject as a whole has been 
almost everywhere omitted from the later 
years of college and university training, 
although certain of its component parts 
have received some attention in college 
years. Again, geography as a whole leads 
to no professional career outside of school- 
teaching; it is perhaps chiefly on that ac- 
count that our colleges and universities can 
give little time to it. Finally, there is not 
to-day in this country an organized body 
of mature geographical experts at all com- 
parable to the bodies of physicists or of 
zoologists who are organized into effective 
working societies; in the absence of such 
an organization geography suffers greatly 
for the lack of that aid which comes from 
mutual encouragement among its workers. 
How can we remove these impediments of 
low educational rank, no professional e¢a- 
reer and no professional organization ? 

Geography will find a place in our col- 
leges and universities very soon after it is 
shown to be a subject as worthy of such a 
place as are the subjects whose position is 
already assured. Physical geography is 
to-day slowly winning a more respected 
place than it has ever had among the sub- 
jects on which examinations are set for 
admission to college. Commercial or eco- 
nomie geography is, I believe, destined to 
attract increasing attention from mature 
teachers and nearly mature students. The 
general geography of various parts of the 
world must receive more and more consid- 


124 


eration in our colleges during the century 
that opens with the outgrowth of our home 
country; and just so soon as mature teach- 
ers of mature geography can make their 
lectures of value to the young men of to- 
day, who are to be the leaders of enterprise 
to-morrow, place will be found for geo- 
eraphical courses in our higher institu- 
tions of learning. Progress in this respect 
is visible, though not rapid. In order to 
hasten progress, increased attention might 
well be given to so-called practical courses 
in geography, as well as to courses of a 
generally descriptive nature. The imped- 
iment of low educational rank is not per- 
manent; it need not discourage us, for it is 
destined to disappear. 

The study of geography is not hkely 
soon to lead to a large, independent career, 
but it may be made useful in many careers, 
as has just been indicated. It will, how- 
ever, be made particularly serviceable to 
a class of men that is now of small but of 
increasing numbers, namely, those who 
travel about the world, seeking fortune, 
entertainment or novelty. With the pres- 
ent rapid increase of wealth among us, this 
class is destined to grow, and while it may 
never be large, it may soon be important, 
and its members need careful cultivation; 
and at the same time the teachers of this 
class, and of other classes with whom geog- 
raphy becomes important, will win a re- 
spected career for themselves. The imped- 
iment arising from the lack of a large pro- 
fessional career will, therefore, have no 
great importance when the many relations 
of geography to other subjects are recog- 
nized. 

The third impediment to the maturing 
of geography is the most easily overcome 
even if at present the most serious, for its 
removal depends only on the action of 
geographers themselves, and not on the 
action of higher bodies, such as executive 
officers, trustees and so on, or on the action 


SCIENCE. 


of lower bodies, such as students. The ab- 
sence of a society of mature geographical 
experts is the fault of the experts them- 
selves. No greater assistance to the devel- 
opment of mature scientific geography lies 
within our reach than the establishment of 
a geographical society which shall take 
rank with the Geological Society of Amer- 
ica, for example, as a society of experts, in 
which membership shall be open only to 
those whose interests are primarily geo- 
graphical and whose capacity has been 
proved by published original work in a 
distinctly geographical field. In order to 
determine whether such a society can now 
be organized, I propose to consider the 
classes of persons in the community from 
which the members of the society could be 
recruited. 

There are at least four classes of geo- 
graphical associates, as they may be called, 
from which mature geographical experts 
might be drawn. First and in largest 
number is the class consisting of the teach- 
ers of geography in our schools. It is true 
that our school-teachers, as a rule, devote 
themselves to immature geography; that 
is, to only so much of the whole content of 


the subject as can be understood by mi- - 


nors, indeed by children. But, on the other 
hand, one who is acquainted with recent 
educational progress can not fail to recog- 
nize the notable advance made in the last 
ten years alone in the preparation for and 
in the performance of geographical teach- 
ing. There are in the secondary schools 
to-day a number of teachers who are com- 
petent to make original, mature geograph- 
ical exploration of their home country, and 
some of them have actually traveled east 
and west with the object of making geo- 
graphical studies. There are several teach- 
ers’ geography clubs, and the leading mem- 
bers of these clubs are thoughtful workers. 
IT am sure that a significant number of ac- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. — : 


4 
fa 
. 


in eae 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


ceptable members of an expert geograph- 
ical society would be found in this class. 

The second class of geographical asso- 
ciates includes the observers of the na- 
tional and state weather services, who have 
chiefly to do with that important branch 
of geography comprehended under eclima- 
tology; these observers are gathering a 
ereat crop of facts, not always very accu- 
rately determined or very widely applied as 
far as the observers in the state services are 
concerned; yet from among the thousands 
of persons thus employed there will now 
and then come forth the original worker 
whose contribution will fully entitle him to 
expert rank; when his published studies 
are seen to be of a thoroughly geographical 
character and of a mature grade, they 
would warrant his admission to a society 
of geographical experts. 

Third comes the class made up from the 
members of various governmental bureaus, 
state and national, whose work is of a more 
or less geographical character; for exam- 
ple, topographers and hydrographers, geol- 
ogists and biologists, ethnologists and stat- 
isticians; this class being as a whole of 
much higher scientific standing than the 
two classes already mentioned. It may 
happen that many persons thus classified 
have a first imterest in the strictly geo- 
graphical side of their studies, although 
faithful work in the organization to which 
they belong associates them with other sci- 
ences. I should expect the greatest part 
of the membership in a society of geo- 
graphical experts to be drawn from this 
class. 

Tt may be noted that the absence of 
a body of mature geographers, as well or- 
ganized and as scientifically productive as 
are the workers in various other sciences, 
is explained by some as an inherent char- 
acteristic of geography, necessitated by the 
great diversity of its methods and its in- 
terests. The diversity is already an embar- 


SCIENCE. 125 


rassment, it is claimed, even in school 
years; and it afterwards compels the sepa- 
ration of the branches of this highly com- 
posite subject, at best but loosely coherent, 
into a number of specialities, each of which 
is so much more closely allied to other 
sciences than to the other branches of geog- 
raphy, that those workers whose union 
would constitute a body of mature geo- 
eraphical experts are found scattered 
among other unions, geological, botanical, 
zoological, ethnological, economical and 
historical. The claim.that the disunion of 
geographical experts is necessary does not 
seem to me well founded. May we not, 
indeed, prove that there is no such dis- 
union by pointing to the fourth class of 
geographical associates, concerning whom 
my silence thus far may perhaps have 
awakened your curiosity, namely, the 
members of our various geographical so- 
cities ? 

There are at the present time between 
five and seven thousand such persons in 
the United States, but in the absence of 
any standard of geographical knowledge 
from the requirements for membership, 
these societies can not, I regret to say, be 
taken as evidence that there is a common 
bond by which experts in all branches of 
geography are held together. None of our 
geographical societies is composed solely 
of experts, and none of them is held 
together by purely geographical bonds. 
While we must not overlook the excellent 
work that our geographical societies have 
done, neither must we overlook the fact 
that in makine no sufficient attempt to 
require geographical expertness as a condi- 
tion for membership, there is a very im- 
portant work that the societies have left 
undone. They have truly enough culti- 
vated a general interest in subjects of a 
more or less geographical nature, but they 
have failed to develop geography as a ma- 
ture science. Indeed, it may be cogently 


126 


maintained that the absence of any stand- 
ard of geographical knowledge as a con- 
dition for society membership has worked 
as seriously against the development of 
mature scientific geography as has the gen- 
eral abandonment of geographical teaching 
to the secondary schools. Large member- 
ship seems to be essential to the mainte- 
nance of good libraries in handsome so- 
ciety buildings, and it is certainly helpful 
in the collection of funds with which jour- 
nals may be published and with which ex- 
ploring expeditions may be equipped and 
sent out. I should regret to see the mem- 
bership in a single existing geographical 
society decreased, but I regret also that 
there is no geographical society of the same 
rank as the American Mathematical So- 
ciety, the American Physical Society or 
many others in which number of members 
is secondary to expert quality of members. 
Large numbers of untrained persons are 
not found necessary to the maintenance 
of vigorous societies in which these other 
sciences are productively cultivated, and it 
is, therefore, reasonable to believe that 
large numbers would not be essential to 
the formation of a geographical society of 
high standing. Indeed, it can hardly be 
doubted that the acceptance of a low stand- 
ard for membership in our geographical 
societies has had much to do with the pre- 
vailing indifference regarding the devel- 
opment of a high standard for the qualifi- 
cation of geographical experts. 

Not only may any respectable person ob- 
tain membership in any of our geograph- 
ical societies, however ignorant he may be 
of geography, but various kinds of socie- 
ties are ranked as geographical, even 
though their object may be geographical 
in a very small degree. This is indicated 
by a list of geographical societies recently 
published, in which is included a small 
travelers’ club lately organized in one cor- 
ner of our country. The object of this 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


club is simply ‘ the encouragement of intel- 
ligent travel and exploration.’ Interest in 
rather than accomplishment of exploration 
and travel suffice to recommend a candi- 
date, otherwise qualified, for membership. 
The object of travel is nowhere stated to 
be geographical. As a matter of fact, 
travel for the sake of art, archeology, lan- 
euage, history, astronomy, geology and 
botany, for discovery, or even only for 
sport and adventure, as well as for strictly 
ceographical objects, 1s encouraged by this 
young organization, which is really noth- 
ine more than its name claims it to be: a 
travelers’ club. The same list of geograph- 
ical societies includes several clubs. of 
excursionists, outing-takers or mountain 
climbers, among whom, as a matter of fact, 
geooraphy attracts hardly more interest 
than botany. These societies are doing 
an excellent work in taking their mem- 
bers outdoors, sometimes on walks near 
home, sometimes farther away to a hotel 
in the country, sometimes to a camp among 
the mountains. The chief result of such 
outings is an increased enjoyment and ap- 
preciation of the landscape, of natural 
scenery and of everything that enters into 
it; but this excellent result is by no means 
exclusively, perhaps not even largely, geo- 
graphic in its quality. 

One might question whether geographic 
rank was really accorded to these clubs by 
general assent, if their recognition in the 
eroup of geographical societies were ex- 
pressed only by an individual opinion in 
the list referred to; but this is not the ease. 
In preparation for the meeting of the In- 
ternational Geographical Congress, to be 
held in this country next summer, dele- 
gates to the committee of management 
have been invited from the Appalachian 
Mountain Club, in one corner of the coun- 
try, and from the Mazamas in another. 
The delegates appointed by these clubs are, 
as might have been expected, men compe- 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


tent to act with the others in organizing 
the congress for us, but the same result 
would have been attained if delegates had 
been asked from the various geological, 
botanical, zoological and historical socie- 
ties, for all these societies contain among 
their members persons of a certain amount 
of geographical knowledge and of a suffi- 
cient executive ability. The same would 
be true had delegates been invited from 
the Boone and Crocket Club, a choice or- 
ganization of sportsmen, for all such clubs 
have men of undoubted ability in the way 
of organization among their members, and 
* are largely concerned with matters of geo- 
eraphical location and distribution in their 
activities. Nevertheless, neither the sport- 
ine nor the outing clubs are essentially or 
characteristically geographical in their ob- 
jects. Do not, however, understand me to 
object to the acceptance of delegates from 
the above-named clubs as members of the 
committee on management of the Interna- 
tional Geographical Congress. I approve 
of the plan heartily; for in the absence of 
geographical societies in many parts of our 
country there was no other plan so appro- 
priate. The matter is mentioned here only 
to show the straits to which geographers 
are reduced in attempting to give a na- 
tional weleome to an international geo- 
graphical congress; the difficulty, so far 
as it is a difficulty, arises from the absence 
among us of a body of mature geograph- 
ical experts, united in an advanced ac: 
quaintance with some large part of a well- 
defined science. This condition of things 
seems to me unsatisfactory. The absence 
of a strong society of geographical experts 
indicates an insufficient attention to scien- 
tifie geography, and J, therefore, now turn 
to consider the direction in which serious 
efforts may be most profitably made 
toward a better condition of things. Let 
it be understood, however, that no quick- 
acting remedy is possible, for the reason 


SCIENCE. 


127 


that many of those concerned with the 
problem—namely, the advance of scientific 
seography—do not seem to recognize that 
the existing state of things needs a remedy. 
It is, therefore, only as a change of heart— 
a scientific change of the geographic heart 
—makes itself felt that much can be ac- 
complished toward the development of sci- 
entifie geography, and such a change is 
notoriously of slow accomplishment. Prog- 
ress is apparent, however, and from prog- 
ress we may gather encouragement. In 
what direction, then, shall our further 
efforts be turned ? 

Let me urge, in the first place, that close 
serutiny should be given to things that are 
properly called geographical, with the 
object of determining the essential content 
of geographical science and of excluding 
from our responsibility everything that is 
not essentially geeographic. Only in this 
way can we clear the ground for the culti- 
vation of really geographical problems in 
geographical education and in geograph- 
ical societies. This scrutiny should be ex- 
ercised all along the line: m the prepara- 
tion of text-books, in the training of teach- 
ers, in the study of experts, and in the 
conduct of any geographical society that 
attempts to take a really scientific posi- 
tion. The essential content of geograph- 
ical science is so large that the successful 
cultivation of the whole of it demands all 
the energies of many experts. Those who 
are earnestly engaged in cultivating geog- 
raphy proper should treat non-geographic 
problems in the same way that a careful 
farmer would treat blades of grass in his 
cornfield: he would treat them as weeds | 
and cut them out, for however useful grass 
is in its own place, its growth in the corn- 
field will weaken the growth of the corn. 
So in the field of geographical study, there 
is no room for both geography and history, 
geography and geology, geography and 
astronomy. Geography will never gain the 


128 SCIENCE. 


disciplinary quality that is so profitable in 
other subjects until it is as jealously 
enarded from the intrusion of irrelevant 
items as is physics or geometry or Latin. 
Indeed, the analogy of the blades of grass 
in the cornfield is hardly strong enough. 
It is well known that Ritter, the originator 
of the causal notion in geography, and, 
therefore, the greatest benefactor of geog- 
raphy in the nineteenth century, was so 
hospitable in his treatment of history that 
his pupils grew up in large number to be 
historians, and his own subject was in a 
way lost sight of by many of his students 
who became professors of geography, so- 
called, in the German universities, until 
Peschel revolted and turned attention 
again to the essential features of geog- 
raphy proper. 

Close scrutiny of what is commonly 
ealled geography will certainly be bene- 
ficial in bringing forward the essence of 
the subject and in regulating irrelevant 
topics to the background; but it is not to 
be expected that any precise agreement 
will soon be reached as to what constitutes 
geography, strictly interpreted. Opinions 
on the subject, gathered. from different 
parts of the country, even if gathered 
from persons entitled to speak with what 
is called ‘authority,’ would probably differ 
as widely as did the nomenclatures of the 
leading physiographic divisions of North 
America as proposed in a symposium a 
few years ago; but if careful consideration 
and free discussion are given to the sub- 
ject, unity of opinion will in due time be 
approached as closely as is desirable. 

As a contribution toward this collection 
of opinions, let me state my own view: the 
essential in geography is a relation between 
the elements of terrestrial environment 
and the items of organic response; this 
being only a modernized extension of Rit- 
ter’s view. Everything that involves such 
a relationship is to that extent geographic. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 473. 


Anything in which such a relationship is 
wanting is to that extent not geographic. 
The location of a manufacturing village at 
a point where a stream affords water- 
power is an example of the kind of rela- 
tion that is meant, and if this example is 
accepted, then the reasonable principle of 
continuity will guide us to include under 
geography every other example in which 
the way that organic forms have of doing 
things is conditioned by their inorganic 
environment. The organic part of geog- 
raphy must not be limited to man, because 
the time is now past when man is studied 
altogether apart from®* the other forms of 
life on the earth. ‘The colonies of ants on 
our western deserts, with their burrows, 
their hills, their roads and their threshing 
floors, exhibit responses to elements of en- 
vironment found in soil and climate as 
clearly as a manufacturing village exhibits 
a response to water-power. The different 
coloration of the dorsal and ventral parts 
of fish is a-response to the external illumin- 
ation of our non-luminous earth. The 
word arrive is a persistent memorial of the 
importance long ago attached to a success- 
ful crossing of the shore line that separates 
sea and land. It is not significant whether 
the relation and the elements that enter 
into it are of easy or difficult understand- 
ing, nor whether they are what we eall im- 
portant or unimportant, familiar or unfa- 
miliar. The essential quality of geography 
is that it involves, relations of things or- 
ganic and inorganic; and the entire con- 
tent of geography would include all such 
relations. A large library would be re- 
quired to hold a full statement of so broad 
a subject, but elementary text-books of 
geography may be made by selecting from 
the whole content such relations as are 
elementary, and serviceable handbooks 
may be made by selecting such rela- 
tions as seem important from their fre- 
queney or their significance. The essen- 


PA ONES S a cane rp Dupetielyesk <0 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


tial throughout would, however, still be a 
relation of earth and life, practically as 
Ritter phrased it when he took the impor- 
tant step of introducing the causal notion 
as a geographical principle. 

Thus defined, geography has two chief 
divisions. Everything about the earth or 
any inorganic part of it, considered as an 
element of the environment by which the 
organic inhabitants are conditioned, be- 
longs under physical geography or physi- 
_ ography.* Every item in which the or- 
ganic inhabitants of the earth—plant, ani- 
mal or man—show a response to the ele- 
ments of environment, belongs under 
organic geography. Geography proper in- 
volves a consideration of relations in which 
the things that belong under its two divi- 
sions are involved. 

The validity of these propositions may 
be illustrated by a concrete case. The loca- 
tion and growth of Memphis, Helena and 
Vicksburg are manifestly dependent on 
the places where the Mississippi River 
swings against the bluffs of the uplands 
on the east and west of its flood plain. The 
mere existence and location of the cities, 
stated independently of their controlling 
environment, are empirical items of the 
organic part of geography, and these items 
fail to become truly geographic as long as 
they are stated without reference to their 
cause. The mere course of the Mississippi, 
independent of the organic consequences 
which it controls, is an empirical element 
of the inorganic part of geography, but it 
fails to become truly geographic as long as 
it is treated alone. The two kinds of facts 
must be combined in order to gain the real 
geographic flavor. Geography is, there- 
fore, not simply a description of places; it 
is not simply an account of the earth and 
of its inhabitants, each described independ- 

*Tt should be noted that the British definition 
of physiography gives it a much wider meaning 
than is here indicated. 


SCIENCE. 


129 


ent of the other; it involves a relation of 
some element of physical geography to 
some item of organic geography, and noth- 
ing from which this relation is absent pos- 
sesses the essential quality of geographical 
discipline. The location of a cape or of a 
city is an elementary fact which may be 
built up with other facts into a relation of 
full geographic meaning; but taken alone, 
it has about the same rank in geography 
that spelling has in language. A map has 
about the same place in geography that a 
dictionary has in literature. The mean an- 
nual temperature of a given station, and 
the occurrence of a certain plant in a cer- 
tain locality, are facts of kinds that must 
enter extensively into the relationships 
with which geography deals; but these 
facts, standing alone, are wanting in the 
essential quality of mature geographical 
science. Not only so; many facts of these 
kinds may, when treated in other relations, 
enter into other sciences; for it is not so 
much the thing that is studied as the rela- 
tion in which it is studied that determines 
the science to which it belongs. I, there- 
fore, emphasize again the broad general 
principle that mature scientific geography 
is essentially concerned with the relations 
among its inorganic and organic elements; 
among the elements of physical and of 
organie geography, or, as might be said 
more briefly, among the elements of phys- 
lography and of ——. Let me cunfess to 
the most indulgent part of this audience 
that I have invented a one-word name for 
the organic part of geography, and have 
found it useful in thinking and writing 
and teaching; but inasmuch as the ten, or 
at the outside twelve, new words that I 
have introduced as technical terms into the 
erowing subject of physiography have 
given me with some geological critics the 
reputation of being reckless in regard to 
terminology, it will be the part of pru- 
dence not to mention the new name for 


130 


organic geography here, where my au- 
dience probably consists for the most part 
of geologists. 

There can be no just complaint of nar- 
rowness in a science that has charge of all 
the relations among the elements of terres- 
trial environment and the items of organic 
response. Indeed, the eriticism usually 
made upon the subject thus defined is, as 
has already been pointed out, that it is too 
broad, too vaguely limited and too much 
concerned with all sorts of things to have 
sufficient unity and coherence for a real 
science. Some persons, indeed, object that 
geography has no right to existence as a 
separate science; that it is chiefly a com- 
pound of parts of other sciences; but if it 
be defined as concerned with the relation- 
ships that have been just specified, these 
objections have little force. It is true, in- 
deed, that the things with which geog- 
raphy must deal are dealt with in other sci- 
ences as well, but this is also the case with 
astronomy, physics, chemistry, geology, 
botany, zoology, history; economics. * * * 
There is no subject of study whose facts 
are independent of all other subjects; not 
only are the same things studied under 
different sciences, but every science em- 
ploys some of the methods and results of 
other sciences. The individuality of a 
science depends not on its having to do 
with things that are cared for by no other 
science, or on its employing methods that 
are used in no other science, but on its 
studying these things and employing these 
methods in order to gain its own well- 
defined object. Chemistry, for example, is 
concerned with the study of material sub- 
stances in relation to their constitution, 
but it constantly and most properly em- 
ploys physical and mathematical methods 
in reaching its ends. Botanists and zoolo- 
gists are much interested in the chemical 
composition and physical action of plants 
and animals, because the facts of composi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


tion and action enter so largely into the 
understanding of plants and animals con- 
sidered as living beings. Overlappings of 
the kind thus indicated are common 
enough, and geography, as well as other 
sciences, exhibits them in abundance. It 
may be that geography has a greater 
amount of overlapping than any other 
science; but no valid objection to its con- 
tent can be made on that ground; the max- 
imum of overlapping must occur in one 
science or another—there can be no dis- 
eredit to the science on that account. Geog- 
raphy has to do with rocks whose origin is 
studied in geology; with the currents of 
the atmosphere, whose processes exemplify 
general laws that are studied in physics; 
with plants and animals, whose forms and 
manner of growth are the first care of the 
botanist and zoologist; and with man, 
whose actions recorded in order of time 
occupy the historian; but the particular 
point of view from which the geographer 
studies all these things makes them as 
much his own property as they are the 
property of any one else. 

In view of what has been said, let me 
return to the close scrutiny that I have 
urged as to what should be admitted 
within the walls of a geographical society. 
We will suppose the geography of Penn- 
sylvania is under discussion; as a result 
there must be some mention of the oceur- 
rence of coal, because coal, now an element 
of inorganic environment, exerts a control 
over the distribution and the industries of 
the population of Pennsylvania. But the 
coal of Pennsylvania might be treated 
with equal appropriateness by a geologist, 
if its origin, its deformation and its ero- 
sion were considered as local elements in 
the history of the earth; by a chemist, if 
its composition were the first object of 
attention; by a botanist, if the ancient 
plants that produced the now inorganic 
coal-beds were studied. Furthermore, it 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


would be eminently proper for the geolo- 
gist to make some mention of the present 
uses to which coal is put; or for the chem- 
ist and the botanist to tell something of the 
geological date when coal was formed, if 
by so doing the attention of the hearer 
could be better gained and held, and if the 
problem at issue could thereby be made 
clearer and more serviceable. So the geog- 
rapher is warranted in touching upon the 
composition, the origin, the exploitation of 
the Pennsylvania coal-beds, if by so doing 
he makes a more forcible presentation of 
his own problem; but if he weakens the 
presentation of his own problem by the in- 
troduction of these unessential facts, still 
more if he presents these unessential facts 
as his prime interest, he goes too far. The 
point of all this is that students in many 
different sciences may have to consider in 
common certain aspects of the problems 
presented by the coal of Pennsylvania, 
but that each student should consider 
Pennsylvania coal in the way that best 
serves his own subject. The scrutiny that 
I have urged would, therefore, be directed 
chiefly to excluding from consideration 
under geography the non-geographic rela- 
tions of the many things that various sci- 
ences have to study in common, and to 
bringing forward in geography all the 
problems that are involved in the relations 
of the earth and its inhabitants. The 
things involved in the relations of earth 
and life are the common property of many 
sciences, but the relations belong essen- 
tially to geography. It would be easy to 
point out topics in text-books and treatises, 
in the pages of geographical journals and 
in lectures before geographical societies, 
that would not fall under any division of 
geography as here defined. In many such 
cases, however, the topics might without 
difficulty have been given a sufficiently geo- 
eraphical turn, had it been so desired or 
intended; the topics might have been pre- 


SCIENCE. 


131 


sented from the geographical point of 
view, so as to emphasize the essential qual- 
ity of geographical study, had there been 
a conscious wish to this end. But in other 
eases, the subjects presented belong so 
clearly elsewhere, or are treated so com- 
pletely from some other than a geograph- 
ical point of view, as to fall quite outside 
of geography; for example, a recent num- 
ber of one of our geographical journals 
contained an excellent full-page plate and 
a half page of text on the ‘ Skull of the 
Imperial Mammoth,’ with brief descrip- 
tion of its size and anatomy, but with noth- 
ing more nearly approaching geographical 
treatment than the statement that the 
specimen came from “ the sands of western 
Texas.’ In all such cases it is open to 
question whether close scrutiny as to inclu- 
sion and exclusion has been given, and 
while the policy pursued by many geo- 
graphical societies of generously accepting 
for their journals many sorts of interest- 
ine articles has something to commend it 
in the way of pleasing a mixed constit- 
uency, it is, nevertheless, open to the objec- 
tion of not sufficiently advancing the more 
scientific aspects of geography. Blades of 
erass and mammoth skulls are very good 
things, if crops of hay and collections of 
fossils are to be gathered; but they are in 
the way of the growth of the best corn and 
of the publication of the best geographical 
journals. Let no one suppose, however, 
that the audiences in geographical lecture 
halls or the readers of geographical jour- 
nals need suffer under the scrutiny that is 
here urged regarding lectures and articles. 
There is, even under the strictest scrutiny, 
an abundance of varied and interesting 
matter of a strictly geographical nature; 
few, if any, sciences are richer than geog- 
raphy in matter of general interest. There 
is, indeed, some reason for thinking that 
the real obstacle in the way of applying 
close scrutiny in the way here recom- 


132 


mended is the difficulty of obtaining high- 
grade material presented in an essentially 
geographical form. Inasmuch as this diffi- 
culty arises from the relative inattention 
to geography as a mature science, it is the 
business of geographical societies to re- 
move the difficulty. 
W. M. Davis. 
Harvard UNIVERSITY. 
(Lo be concluded.) 


SOME UNSOLVED PROBLEMS OF ORGANIC 
ADAPTATION.* 

Wir the advent of the ‘Origin of Spe- 
cies’ became current the naturalistic inter- 
pretation of organic nature, epitomized in 
such phrases as ‘natural selection,’ ‘sur- 
vival of the fittest,’ ete. So rapid and 
general was the acceptance of this concep- 
tion as a working hypothesis that in thirty 
years, or within a single generation, Wal- 
lace made bold to claim for it universal 
recognition in the well known and oft- 
quoted declaration, ‘He (Darwin) did his 
work so well that descent with modifica- 
tion is now universally accepted as the 
order of nature in the organic world.’ 

As a general statement of the fact of 
evolution, as the phrase may be literally 
interpreted, it may, after fifteen additional 
years of intense biological activity, be as 
vigorously claimed and as readily con- 
ceded. If, however, it be so interpreted 
as to include the full content of Darwin- 
ism and the all-sufficieney of natural se- 
lection as the prime factor, with its details 
of endless adaptations to environment, 
whether physical or physiological, it need 
hardly be said that consent would be far 
less general or prompt. 

Moreover, with the highly metaphysical 
and speculative deductions which, under 
the caption of ‘Neo-Darwinism,’ or, more 
plainly, ‘Weismannism,’ which have 


* Address of the vice-president and chairman 
of Section F, Zoology, St. Louis meeting, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 473. 


boldly assumed the omnipotence and all- 
sufficieney of natural selection to account 
for the least and last detail of organic dif- 
ferentiation or constaney, widespread 
doubt and open protest are too common to 
elicit surprise or comment. 

It need hardly be pointed out at this 
late day, though it is more or less persis- 
tently ignored, that primitive Darwinism, 
while essayine to explain the origin of 
species, and emphasizing the importance 
of natural selection as a means in the proc- 
ess, did not in the least presume to account 
for the origin of variation and adaptation, 
which were recognized as fundamental and 
prerequisite in affording conditions with- 
out which natural selection must be hope- 
lessly impotent. Nor, moreover, should it 
be overlooked that while recognizing the 
inseparable correlation of the factors just 
mentioned and their essential utility either 
to the individual or species in the majority 
of cases, Darwin was free to concede and 
frank in declaring the efficiency of many 
other factors in the intricate and compli- 
cated problems of organic evolution. 

The recent impulse which has come to 
biologic progress by experimental methods, 
and the remarkable results which have 
been attained thereby, may without exag- 
geration be said to have raised anew many 
an earlier doubt as well as brought to light 
problems apparently beyond the scope of 
the older explanations. It may not, there- 
fore, be an extravagant assumption to an- 
nounce the entire question of organic adap- 
tations as open for reconsideration, in the 
light of which no apology will be necessary 
for directing attention to certain phases 
of the subject upon the present occasion. 

Among the many problems which recent 
investigations and conclusions have 
brought into better perspective as well as 
sharper definition, and which might profit- 
ably be discussed, the limits of a single 
address preclude any very wide range of 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


review. I have, therefore, chosen to re- 
strict my discussion chiefly to problems of 
coloration among lower invertebrates, in- 
eluding incidental references to correlated 
subjects, and the probable limitations of 
color as a factor in organic adaptation. 

Interesting as it might be to glance at 
the earlier views of a subject, the nature 
of which from earliest times must have 
been a source of keen interest to mankind 
in general, and which must have appealed 
to the esthetic and rational nature, inspir- 
ing not only poetic imagery, but admiring 
awe and a devout fervor akin to reverence, 
it must suffice in the present discussion to 
hold attention well within the period of 
thought immediately concerned, which, as 
already indicated in the opening para- 
graph, was brought into prominence by the 
‘Origin of Species.’ 

As is perfectly well known, color in na- 
ture is due to one of two causes, or to a 
combination of both, namely: (1) What 
has been termed optical or structural con- 
ditions, such as diffraction, imterference 
or unequal reflection of light, examples of 
which are familiar in the splendid hues of 
the rainbow, the iridescent sheen and me- 
tallic colors of the feathers of many birds, 
wings of insects, ete. (2) What are known 
as pigmentary colors, due to certain mate- 
rial substances lodged within the tissues of 
animals or plants which have the prop- 
erty of absorbing certain elements of light 
and of reflecting others, and thereby pro- 
ducing the sensation of color. While the two 
are physically quite distinct it is not unus- 
ual to find them associated in producing 
some of the most exquisite color effects of 
which we have knowledge. In a general 
way one may usually distinguish between 
these two sorts of color by noting that 
those which are purely optical in their 
character produce a constantly changing 
impression as the relative position of ob- 
ject or observer may happen to vary with 


. SCIENCE. 133 


reference to the angle and direction of 
light; while, upon the other hand, colors 
which are due to pigments show this prop- 
erty very slightly or not at all, and that, 
moreover, pigment colors are usually more 
or less soluble in various reagents, such as 
aleohol, ether, acids, alkalies, etc., and that 
they often fade rapidly under the in- 
fluence of strong light or in its absence, or 
upon the death of the organism. 

The presence of many and various colors 
in inorganie nature, the large majority of 
which are due to purely physical causes, 
such as the colors of the ocean, the sky, 
the clouds, the mineral or gem, while ap- 
pealing to our sense of beauty elicit no 
special inquiry as to their significance or 
purpose. It suffices to know that they are 
constitutional or structural, inseparable 
from the physical conditions in which they 
have their place. 

Tt is different, however, with much of 
the color found in the organic world. 
While such colors as those of the grass or 
leaf might seem to have hardly any differ- 
ent significance or to call for special ex- 
planation different from the preceding, as 
Wallace has pointed out, on the other 
hand, as he has also forcefully expressed 
it: ““It is the wonderful individuality of 
the colors of animals and plants that at- 
tracts our attention—the fact that colors 
are localized in definite patterns, some- 
times in accordance with structural char- 
acters, sometimes altogether independent 
of them; while often differing in most 
strikme and fantastic manner in allied 
species. We are, therefore, compelled to 
look upon color not merely as a physical 
but also as a biological characteristic, 
which has been differentiated and special- 
ized by natural selection, and must, there- 
fore, find its explanation im the principle 
of adaptation or utility.”’ 

It is under the stimulus of this conecep- 
tion that the significance of color has come 


134 


to have the large place and concern in the 
literature of evolution which it at present 
occupies, as expressive of which such well- 
known phrases as ‘protective coloration,’ 
‘warnine colors,’ ‘mimicry,’ ete., have 
come to be household commonplaces among 
us. It is not surprising, therefore, that 
in a book like Wallace’s ‘Darwinism’ out 
of a total of some 475 pages more than 150 
should be devoted to this phase of the 
problem alone, while it has frequent ref- 
erence in other connections. 

And the same is largely true of much 
of the literature dealing with the subject 
of organic colors. In other words, color 
in these relations has been studied largely, 
if not wholly, as a factor in adaptation— 
fittine the animal better to meet the exi- 
gencies of life in the struggle for exist- 
ence, in certain cases serving as a disguise 
or sereen against detection, in others by 
elaringly advertising some noxious qual- 
ity, in still others by flying a signal of 
alarm or warning, and in flight serving to 
segregate the members of a herd in whose 
collective aggregate a larger measure of 
protection might be realized. 

Hence it naturally came to pass that 
color was looked upon largely as a physical 
factor in the sum total of the animal’s 
morphology which must have some funda- 
mental relation to the adaptation or fitness 
for survival of the species. It is not 
strange, under prevailing conditions, that 
small attention was directed to the more 
fundamental problem of the physiological 
significance of color, or the part it has to 
do in the processes of metabolism of the 
individual organism. Recent work in ex- 
perimental morphology has directed atten- 
tion to this phase of the problem, and one 
of the objects of the present discussion will 
be to make somewhat more evident a too 
long neglected aspect of animal biology. 

Tt ought not to be overlooked in this con- 
nection that along with the development in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 473. 


experimental ‘morphology: to which refer- 
ence has been made, those of organic chem- 
istry, and particularly chemical physiol- 
ogy, have been perhaps equally important 
in directing attention to certain phases of 
our problem. Nor ought we to forget that 
the spectroscope has thrown its hght upon 
the same general problem, though with 
perhaps less of conclusiveness than could 
have been desired. As a result of this 
erowing activity there has been accumu- 
lated a body of information, a part of 
which stands directly related to the sub- 
ject under consideration, and a part indi- 
rectly concerned with the same essential 
principles, and from it we may safely pre- 
diet the solution of problems hitherto only 
predicated hypothetically, and such side- 
lights upon others equally important that 
it is not too much confidently to forecast 
substantial progress all along the line. 

It may be well in this connection to 
elance briefly at some of the results at 
present known as in some measure justify- 
ing these somewhat optimistic assumptions, 
as well as pointing the line along which im- 
portant and promising researches may be 
prosecuted. : 

The work of Krukenburg, MacMun, Ma- 
callum, M’Kendric, Hopkins, Urech, Hisig, 
Cunningham and a host of others, com- 
prising a mass of literature of enormous 
proportions, will be available to those im- 
terested and may afford some faint con- 
ception of the magnitude and importance 
of the field to be explored, as well as an 
introduction to that already made avail- 
able. And while as a result of this activity 
many and various organic pigments have 
been isolated and their composition in part 
or entirely made known, it must be recog- 
nized that the task of the chemical analy- 
sis of any such highly complex compounds 
as most of these are known to be is at- 
tended with extreme difficulty and no 
small measure of uneertainty. Still, it 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


has been ‘possible fairly to distinguish’ sev- 
eral classes of such pigments, differen- 
tiated physiologically as follows: 

1. Those directly serviceable in the vital 
processes of the organism. Under this 
head may be classed such pigments as he- 
moglobin, chlorophyll, zoonerythrin, chlo- 
rocruorin and perhaps others less known. 
It need not be emphasized that by far the 
most important of these are the two first 
named. The others, found chiefly among 
the lower invertebrates, are believed to 
serve a function similar to the first. 

2. Waste products. Among these the 
several biliary products are too well known 
to call for special note. Guanin is a pig- 
ment of common occurrence in the skin of 
certain fishes and is associated with the 
coloration of the species. Similarly cer- 
tain coloring matters have been found in 
the pigments of many lepidoptera, known 
as lepidotie acid, a substance closely allied 
to uric acid and undoubtedly of the na- 
ture of a waste product. 

3. Reserve products. Of these there are 
several series, one of which, known as lipo- 
chrome pigments, is associated with the 
metabolism involved in the formation of 
fats and oils. Perhaps of similar charac- 
ter are such pigments as carmine, or rather 
cochineal, melanin, ete. It may be some- 
what doubtful whether these pigments do 
not rather belong to the previous class, 
where should probably be listed such pro- 
ducts as hematoxylin, indigo, ete., all of 
which have been claimed as resultants of 
destructive metabolism in process of being 
eliminated from the physiologically active 
tissues of the body of the organism. Of 
similar character is probably tannic acid, 
a substance well known among plant prod- 
ucts and involved in the formation of 
many of the brownish and rusty colors of 
autumn foliage, particularly of the oaks 
and allied trees, as are the lipochromes in 
the formation of the reds and yellows 


SCIENCE. 


135 


which form so conspicuous a feature 
among autumn colors. 

While the association of these and other 
pigmentary matters has long been known 
im connection with both animal and plant 
growth, and while the conception of their 
more or less intimate relation to the active 
metabolism of the various tissues is not 
new, comparatively little has been done 
toward directly investigating and eluci- 
dating the exact nature and extent of the 
process. This seems to be especially the 
ease in relation to the part played by 
these products in the formation of those 
features of coloration among organisms 
with which we are now concerned. 

The most strenuous advocates of the pri- 
mary importance of natural selection as 
the chief or only factor in adaptation are 
free to admit that among the simplest 
forms particularly, color has originated in 
some more or less obscure way through 
growth or some of the vital activities of 
the organism, Darwin, for example, merely 
suggesting that ‘Their brightest tints re- 
sult from the chemical nature or minute 
structure of their tissues,’ and Wallace in 
the even less explicit statement that ‘color 
is a normal product of organization,’ what- 
ever that may imply. 

So far as I am aware Hisig was among 
the earliest to claim that among certain 
annelids the colors were primarily expres- 
sions of the katabolic processes of the tis- 
sues, and were excretory in character. He 
was able largely to demonstrate this with 
species of Capitellide by experimental 
methods. By feeding the animals with 
carmine he was able to follow its course 
through the alimentary tract, its progress 
through the tissues, and final deposition 
in the hypodermal tissues beneath the ecuti- 
ele, where in the process of moulting it 
was finally eliminated. He also found that 
in a species of Hunice, which fed upon 
sponges, the pigment granules of the food 


156 


passed unchanged through the intestine 
and into the body tissues much as had been 
the case in the experiments with the pre- 
ceding. 

Graff later reached very similar conclu- 
sions concerning coloration in the leeches, 
but was able to go a step farther than Hisig 
had done and to show in great detail the 
exact process through which it was 
brought about. He found in the endothe- 
lium certain migratory cells which wander 
about in the ccelom or penetrate through 
the tissues, and that among their func- 
tions one of the most important seems to 
be the absorption of foreign bodies and 
their conveyance into the mouths of the 
nephridia or through the tissues to the 
hypodermis and their lodgment in that 
tissue. He was even able to show that the 
special markings or color patterns which 
are so characteristic of the animals may 
be explained by the disposition of the mus- 
cele bands, and their relation to the lines of 
pigmentary deposition by the wandering 
cells, which Graff has designated ‘exereto- 
phores.’ He was also able to confirm the 
results of Hisig as to the experimental 
demonstration of feeding with various pig- 
mentary matters, and subsequently tracing 
them from point to point in the process of 
elimination. Furthermore, he showed that 
the amount and density of pigmentation 
was closely related to the intensity of me- 
tabolism, being greatest in those specimens 
which were most voracious feeders. 

Observations of a similar character have 
been made upon certain of the protozoa, 
particularly upon Stentor. Schuberg in 
1890 found that the blue-green pigment 
so characteristic of this organism was con- 
stantly being excreted bodily in the form 
of definite granules. 

In 1893 Johnson, in an extended study 
of the morphology of these protozoa, con- 
firmed the preceding observations, and 
showed that the pigment was excreted 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


along with other excrementitious matter. 
He found also that the principal region of 
exeretory activity was at the base of the 
animal, where was formed after a short 
time a definite mass of debris near the foot. 

Perhaps one of the most important con- 
tributions along this line is that of Har- 
mer on the character of the ‘brown body’ 
of the polyzoa. By a series of critical ob- 
servations upon the life-history of these in- 
teresting organisms and painstaking exper- 
iments in feeding with carmine and other 
pigments, he was able to prove beyond 
reasonable doubt that the so-called “brown 
body’ of the polyzoa is a direct product 
of the destructive metabolism within the 
body and its excretion in a mass at this 
particular region. He found that the leu- 
eocytes of the funicular organ as well as 
certain cells of the organ itself engulfed 
pigmentary wastes, and with the periodic 
decline of the polypides these cells be- 
came crowded into a close mass, thereby 
constituting the ‘brown body.’ The new 
polypide arising by a sort of regenerative 
process was found to be always devoid of 
any coloration, no pigment appearing for 
some time following the activity of the 
new polypide, but that it is formed in res- 
ularly increasing amounts with the age 
and degree of metabolism of the organisms. 

Correlated with these views concerning 
the origin of certain colors and their dis- 
position in the organism is that of the rela- 
tion of coloration to the food. It has long 
been known that in many eases there is a 
more or less intimate relation of color to 
the food consumed by certain animals. 
Instances of this are too numerous for de- 
tailed consideration here. Let it suffice 
that Darwin, Semper, Himer, Koch, Bed- 
dard, Poulton, Gunther and many others 
have, by extended observations and by de- 
tailed experimentation, apparently estab- 
lished the general fact. Beddard quotes 
the following observation made by G. 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


Brown-Goode as to such an explanation of 
protective coloration in fishes. ‘‘On cer- 
tain ledges along the coast of New England 
are rocks covered by dense growths of sear- 
let and crimson seaweeds. The codfish, the 
eunner, the sea raven, the rock eel, and the 
wrymouth, which inhabit these brilliant 
groves, are all colored to match their sur- 
roundings; the cod, which has naturally 
the lighter color, being most brilliant in 
its searlet hues, while others whose skins 
have a large and original supply of black 
have deeper tints or dark red and brown.’’ 
He then quotes farther the suggestions of 
Goode that these colors are due to pigment 
derived either directly or indirectly, from 
the red algw; those which are carnivorous 
feeding upon the crustacea and other ma- 
rine organisms whose stomachs are full of 
the alg and their pigments which pass 
unchanged into the tissues of the fishes. 

He also quotes a similar conclusion of 
Gunther as to the origin of the red pig- 
ment of the salmon being derived from the 
red pigment of the crustacea upon whieh it 
feeds. While admitting that in the cases 
just cited there has been no attempt at 
demonstration of the proposed explana- 
tion, it yet would seem highly probable. 
“Tt is too remarkable a coincidence that 
the fish normally with but little pigment 
should when among these weeds be bright 
red, and that the fish normally possessing 
black pigment should be dark red, to per- 
mit of a settlement of the question off- 
hand by the easy help of natural selection 
—without at least some further inquiry.”’ 

With the foregoing considerations con- 
cerning the general origin and develop- 
ment of pigments and their relations to the 
colors of organisms, we may next proceed 
to pass rapidly in review such groups of 
animals as we may choose to consider, and 
may institute a brief inquiry as to the sig- 
nificance of their types of coloration as 
factors of adaptation. 


SCIENCE. 


137 


With the avowed purpose of restricting 

my observations and discussion as far as 
practicable to the lower groups of inver- 
tebrates as already announced, it will 
suffice to say further that in justificatiow 
of such a course I am constrained to con- 
sider the lower animals, particularly 
ceelenterates, as more favorable subjects 
from which to obtain fundamental conelu- 
sions than are the more highly specialized 
insects or birds which have had so large a 
measure of attention in earlier investiga- 
tions along these lines. 
; Furthermore, it seems highly probable 
that future investigations will involve 
more of direct experimentation than has 
hitherto been the ease, and if so, these 
lower series will naturally afford some of 
the best material available for such in- 
quiries, not only because of the more 
ready and rapid responses obtained, but 
from the relative simplicity of their organ- 
ization and the consequent simplicity of 
results likely to be obtained in each ease. 

If further warrant were demanded for 
a comparatively limited survey, or special 
emphasis upon a limited group of animals, 
I should find it in a measure in the per- 
sonal interest and familiarity which has 
come from special researches connected 
therewith. 

Beginning with the hydrozoa it may be 
noted in the outset that though including 
the simplest of the Ccelenterates we shall 
find a remarkable. variety and range of col- 
oration. Among the hydroids, as is well 
known, coloration is neither very remark- 
able as to brilliance nor distribution. 
Many, if not most, are almost without 
color distinction, except in the dull brown- 
ish or amber colors found in such as 
Obelia, Halecitwm, and other campanula- 
rians. This may be due in part to the fact 
that the colonies are so generally encased 
within a chitinous perisare which, while 
somewhat colored as already indicated, is 


138 


seldom-if ever of any considerable brill- 
‘jance or diversity.”' Among the tubula- 
rians, in many of which the development 
of a perisare is slight, and always lacking 
over the hydranth itself, there is often 
found considerable coloration, as in Hu- 
dendrium, Pennaria, Corymorpha and 
others. And in these color is usually 
found associated more particularly with 
the development of the sexual products, 
or during the season of reproductive activ- 
ity, which is a matter of considerable sig- 
nificance, to be taken up im a later con- 
nection. 

As is well known, the predominance of 
alternation of generations in these animals 
brings into prominence the sexual phase, 
which in most species is an independent 
organism—the medusa. And it is im con- 
nection with the meduse that we find the 
most marked development of color. There 
does not, however, appear to be any well- 
defined distribution of colors into patterns. 
Among the Hydromeduse the distribution 
of pigment, which is almost the only con- 
spicuous kind of color present, is chiefly 
in association with the gonads, the tissues 
of the stomach and the regions of the chy- 
miferous canals, though in some cases also 
extending to the tentacles and in the re- 
gions of the sensory organs. It should not 
be overlooked, however, that in many of 
these medusze the color tints are among the 
most beautiful and delicate known, though 
lacking the intensity more common among 
the Seyphomedusz and corals. 

Turning attention to the Secyphomeduse 
we find as just suggested a more copious 
development of color, and also what is 
more significant, in many eases its distri- 
bution into something like definite pat- 
terns, as is more or less evident in such 
genera as Cyanea, Pelagia and Rhizostoma. 
It is, however, no less evident that among 
these we have, as in the former, the deposi- 
tion of pigment along the lines of most 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 473. 


active metabolism; suchas the gastrovas- 
cular and reproductive organs, in most 
abundance and usually of greatest bril- 
liance. 

It is, however, when we come to the An- 
thozoa, which includes the corals, acti- 
nians, sea-fans, ete., that we find the cli- 
max of coloration, both as regards bril- 
liance and intensity. To look into the 
crystalline depths of the waters about a 
coral reef where these varied forms thrive 
in great garden-like areas is to gaze upon 
a scene, the fairy-like features of which it 
would be difficult to exaggerate. Here are 
actinians, corals, sea-fans, sea-feathers, 
ete., which abound in the richest profusion 
and endless variety, seeming to vie with 
each other in the effort to produce the most 
exquisite displays of every tint of the spec- 
trum. 

In the distribution of color there is not 
apparently any advance as to differentia- 
tion over that found in the Scyphomedusez, 
if indeed as much, though among the actin- 
jans certain stripings and mottlings occur 
over the exterior of the body. It is worthy 
of note that in those forms in which the 
tendeney toward definite coloration is more 
evident there appears to be in many cases 
considerable variation of coloration. This 
is particularly noticeable in such forms as 
Metridium and Cyanea. 

Face to face with this rich profusion 
and beauty of color what is its signifi- 
cance? How has it originated and what 
does it mean? Is it simply the expression 
of some original constitution, peculiar to 
the entire class, and if so why does it differ 
in so marked a degree among the different 
subelasses? We may safely dismiss such 
an alternative as altogether unnecessary 
and without value as an explanation. May 
it be considered as an adaptation to pro- 
tection, the result of natural selection? 
Certainly in no direct sense, for without 
exception, so far as I am aware, the more 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


brightly .colored) forms, are thereby ren- 
dered correspondingly more conspicuous 
and, therefore, more liable to attack from 
enemies. May it come within the category 
of ‘warning’ coloration, due to the offen- 
sive cnidarian armor borne by most of the 
members of this phylum? So-not a few 
who have essayed an account of the matter 
would have us believe. It seems to me, 
however, open to serious doubt, aside from 
the fact that it lacks evidence. On the 
other hand, among hydroids I have found 
that those having brighter colors are most 
liable to be eaten by fishes in the habit of 
feeding upon such a diet. Furthermore, 
various worms, snails, ete., which are 
known to feed upon them would be more 
likely to be attracted by colors than to be 
repelled. It is also matter of common ob- 
servation that such animals are much more 
abundant among colonies of highly colored 
hydroids like Hudendriwm, Pennaria and 
Tubularia than among species of Obelia or 
others of little color distinction. Many 
fishes with finely adapted dental apparatus 
are constant feeders upon corals, tran- 
quilly browsing among the animated 
foliage of this luxuriant forest. 

Finally, may it come within the cate- 
gory of ‘sexual selection’? So far as I am 
aware, no one has ventured to assign to it 
any such a significance. Where sex char- 
acters are so little differentiated as among 
at least a portion of the phylum such an 
explanation would be as far-fetched as it 
would be unnecessary. While upon the 
part of some of the older naturalists there 
was a disposition to regard the massing of 
members of the Seyphomedusz at certain 
times as having a sexual meaning, it may 
be doubted whether it has any consider- 
able support im facts. 

Concerning coloration among the antho- 
zoa, Duerden, whose work on the group is 
so extended and so favorably known, has 
summarized the following account: 


SCIENCE. 


139 


““The prevalence of the yellow and 
brown color is,easily understood when an 
examination is made of the polypal tissues. 
For in all instances in which it occurs, the 
entoderm is found to be crowded with the 
so-called ‘yellow cells’ or Zooxanthelle, 
which are unicellular, symbiotic algxe, the 
chromatophores of which are yellow or 
yellowish-green. That these are the main 
eause of the external coloration may be 
easily proved from colonies of Madrepora. 
In this genus the polyps toward the apex 
of branches are nearly colorless, and on a 
microscopic examination of the entoder- 
mal layer Zooxanthelle are found to be 
absent while they are present in abundance 
in older pigmented regions.”’ 

These symbiotic alge are not, however, 
the only source of color among the corals. 
Duerden finds ectodermal pigment gran- 
ules, aggregated in somewhat irregular, 
isolated patches in some cases, in others 
somewhat regularly distributed. 

He also found that a third source of col- 
oration among corals was the presence of 
what he has termed ‘boring alge.’ These 
were both red and green, and penetrate 
into the skeletal mass and color it a dis- 
tinct red or green, as one or the other may 
be present. 

In his work on the Actiniaria of Jamaica, 
this author has found in many eases the 
presence of unicellular green alge growing 
upon the surface and giving to the polyp 
a distinetively green color. He found also 
superficial granular pigments in certain 
species which could be removed by any 
erosion of the ectoderm. I have found the 
same in several species of New England 
actinians, and in some eases the pigmenta- 
tion was irregularly distributed, sometimes 
in blotches, sometimes in longitudinal 
stripes, more often the latter. So ex- 
tremely variable is the coloration in many 
of these organisms that it is impossible to 
utilize it as a factor in differentiating spe- 


140 


cies. Duerden has called attention to this 
feature among both corals and actinians, 
and believes it to be due to the presence or 
absence of ereater or less intensity of light, 
and believes it to be an expression of the 
fact that the Zooxanthelle are not able to 
thrive except under proper light, and that, 
moreover, where light is too intense, as in 
shallower waters, certain dark pigment 
found in such specimens is thought to be 
due to its utility as a sereen. While there 
may be a measure of credibility as to 
phases of this view, it does not seem to me 
as of general adequacy. The variability 
of species to which I have just referred 
and to the very common genus Metridiwm 
is certainly not due in any appreciable de- 
gree to the factor of light, since it occurs 
indiseriminately among specimens taken 
in identical situations as well as under 
those of differing conditions. 

In this connection may be mentioned the 
same phenomenon among meduse. The 
variation of coloration in Cyanea has long 
been known and is so marked that the 
elder Agassiz distinguished two additional 
species chiefly on this character, both of 
which have long since been discarded. It 
is quite well known to observers that these 
animals when placed in aquaria usually 
show within a very short time a more or 
less marked diminution in colors. Dacty- 
lometra, while living fairly well for many 
days in the aquarium, loses within this 
time so much of its usually bright colora- 
tion as not to seem like the same creature. 
The same is true of many other animals 
than meduse. On the other hand, it is 
equally well known that many other ani- 
mals may be placed under these more or 
less artificial environments with little ap- 
parent loss in this or other respect. That 
it is not due to light alone is evident in the 
fact that similar changes occur in medusz 
which haye been kept in open pools or 
enclosures about docks or elsewhere. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 473. 


It seems to me rather that the true ex- 
planation is to be found in the changed 
conditions of nutrition and the consequent 
change in the metabolism of the animal. 
Hydroids placed under these conditions 
show the same tendency. 

Those which take kindly to the change 
show no appreciable decline as to color or 
other vital process. The same is true of 
meduse. Gonionemus may be kept for 
weeks in the aquarium, and if properly fed 
will show no decline in color, while if the 
conditions become bad an immediate 
change is noticeable in this as well as other 
features. 

The same may be said concerning the 
actinians. While many seem to suffer no- 
ticeably when placed in aquaria others 
show no apparent difference. Cerianthus 
membranaceus, one of the finest of the 
actinians to be seen in the Naples aqua- 
rium, and one of the most variable, shows 
no apparent decline in any vital function. 
Specimens have been kept in flourishing 
condition in the aquarium for several 
years and show no sign of decline, the col- 
oration continuing as brilliant as in the 
open sea. The same is true of many other 
organisms found in finest condition in this 
celebrated aquarium. Among the annelids 
Protula soon shows decline in color vigor, 
and the same is true, though to a less 
degree, in the ease of Spirographis and 
Serpula. 

While it may not be without probability 
that some measure of this color change 
may be due in certain cases to the changed 
conditions of light, it still remains true, 
I believe, that light alone is but a single 
factor, and that often a minor one involved 
in the changes observed, and that changed 
conditions of nutrition and metabolism are 
by far the more important. 

The main factor of our problem, how- 
ever, is still unsolved. What answer shall 
we make to ourselves concerning the sig- 


| 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


nificance of the multiform colors more or 
less general among members of the ccelen- 
tera? It seems to me more or less evident 


that natural selection can have at best but 
‘a limited place in its explanation. 
mo place for it along the lines of protec- 


I see 


tion, either direct or indirect. 
Of even less significance can any modi- 


‘fication of it under the guise of sexual se- 


lection be claimed; for even aside from the 
large majority of cases where there is 
shght if any sex differentiation, no sen- 
sory organization, which Darwin recog- 
nized as essential to the exercise of this 
factor, is present through which it might 
become operative in even the smallest 
degree. 

Two, and only two, other methods of 
explanation have seemed to me to afford a 
reasonable account. First, that it is due 
primarily to the normal course of metabo- 
lism, during which color appears as one 
of its many expressions. Darwin himself 
was not indifferent to this possibility, and 
expressly states in connection with the 
same problem that color might very nat- 
urally arise under such conditions. ‘‘Bear- 
ing in mind,”’ he suggests, ‘““how many 
substances closely analogous to organic 
compounds have been recently formed by 
chemists, and which exhibit the most splen- 
did colors, it would have been a strange 
fact if substances similarly colored had 
not often originated, independently of any 
useful end thus gained, in the complex 
laboratory of the living organism.’’ It 
has also been pointed out im an earlier 
portion of this paper that Wallace had 
to appeal to a similar source in his search 
for the primary factors of animal colora- 
tion. 

Geddes and Thomson in discussing the 
problems of sex likewise make a similar 
claim. They declare, ‘‘pigments of rich- 
ness and variety in related series, point to 


SCIENCE 141 


preeminent activity of chemical processes 
in the animals which possess them. 'Tech- 
nically expressed, abundant pigments are 
expressions of intense metabolism.’’ They 
further find in the phenomena of bright 
colors among the males of most of the 
higher animals simply the expression of 
the correspondingly greater activities of 
the process of metabolism. 

I believe that in this source we have a 
real account of a considerable body of color 
phenomena among the lower invertebrates, 
and particularly of that series under pres- 
ent consideration. 

The second factor to which I would ap- 
peal is so nearly related to the former as to 
be involved more or less intimately there- 
with. It is to the effect that certain pig- 
ments are products of waste in process of 
elimination. This has already been re- 
ferred to in a former connection and need 
not be separately emphasized apart from 
the conerete cases to which it may be 
applied. 

Strongly significant of the importance 
of this process among the Hydrozoa is the 
fact already pointed out that pigments are 
found deposited along the lines of prin- 
cipal metabolism, namely, the gastrovascu- 
lar regions, the gonads, and to a less extent 
the immediate regions of sensory bodies, 
when these may be present. While this 
alone as a mere statement of fact does not 
prove the point at issue, when taken in con- 
nection with other facts of a similar na- 
ture, it amounts to a high degree of prob- 
ability. 

What evidence have we that in the ease 
of hydroids, medusx, ete., colors are asso- 
ciated with excretory processes? While 
the facts are not numerous, they are, I 
believe, rather convinemg. In work upon 
regeneration in hydroids, Driesch and 
Loeb ealled attention to certain pigmen- 
tary matters found in Tubularia and 


t 


142 


claimed,,for it, an, important function. in - 


the regenerative process:, Morgan, and 
later Stevens, working upon the same hy- 
droid, became convinced that the claims 
of the former investigators as to the im- 
portance of this pigment were not well 
founded. They found that not only was 
the pigment of no special importance, but 
that it was really a waste product, and 
that during the process of regeneration 
was actually excreted and finally ejected 
bodily from the hydranth. I have person- 
ally been able to confirm these results on 
the same and related hydroids, and have 
also shown that in regenerating medusz 
there is formed de novo in each regener- 
ating organ, such as manubrium, radial 
canals, ete., the characteristic pigment of 
the normal organ. This was particularly 
noticeable in the case of radial canals. Fol- 
lowing their regeneration and promptly 
upon their functional activity the deposi- 
tion of pigment made its appearance, and 
within a comparatively short time had ac- 
quired the normal intensity. This was also 
true of other organs, tentacles and ten- 
tacular bulbs, as well as manubrium and 
canals. 

Substantially the same results have been 
obtained, though here first announced, in 
experiments upon one of the Scyphome- 
dusz. In very young specimens where the 
tissues are delicate it is possible to note 
the intense activity in regenerating organs, 
such as the sensory body. The first part of 
this organ to make its appearance is the 
sensory papilla, which is soon followed by 
the otoliths, and later by the special pig- 
mentation of the entire organ. 

From the foregoing considerations three 
things seem to me to be more or less evi- 
dent: 

1. That in all regenerative processes a 
very marked degree of metabolism is in- 
volved, whether in the mere metamorphosis 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


of old ;tissuesinto new, or in the.direct 
regeneration of new tissues by growth 
processes, both of which seem to occur. 

2. That in regenerative processes there 
is often associated the development of pig- 
mentary substances which seem to have no 
direct function in relation thereto. 

3. That m many cases there follows a 
more or less active excretion and elimina- 
tion of portions of the pigment in ques- 
tion. 

Concerning color phenomena among the 
several classes of worms we are in much 
the same uncertain state of mind as in the 
former. For while in some of the annelids 
there may be found fairly well developed 
visual organs it may be seriously ques- 
tioned whether they are of any such degree 
of perfection as would enable their pos- 
sessors to distinguish small color distine- 
tions. And if this be the case there would 
at once be eliminated any possibility of 
conscious adaptation in seeking a suitable 
environment, or such as would be involved 
im so-called sexual selection. 

Furthermore, it is very well known that 
among this group some which exhibit among 
the richest of these color phenomena have 
their habitat in seclusion, buried in sand or 
mud, or hidden beneath stones, or with 
tubes built up from their own secretions, 
or otherwise so environed as to render 
practically nil the operation of natural se- 
lection. 

Again, it should not be overlooked in 
this connection that in many of the anne- 
lids, as well as others, the most pronounced 
source of color is to be found in the hemo- 
globin dissolved in the blood, and that it 
would be as futile to ascribe its color to 
natural selection as it would to claim a 
similar explanation of the color of the 
same substance in the blood of vertebrates, 
where, as color, it is absolutely of no select- 
ive value, except in such special cases as 
the colors of the cock’s comb, where it may 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


' ecome’to play’ a secondary function as a 
sex character. 

What shall be said of such forms as 
Bipalium and Geoplana among land plan- 
arians, which exhibit in many cases bril- 
lant coloration, but since they are chiefly 
nocturnal in their habit and conceal them- 
selves during the day under logs or other 
cover, the color could hardly serve any 
selective or adaptive function? 

The same is equally true of such forms 
as nemerteans whose habitat is beneath 
the sand along the tide line or below, and 
also of many annelids having a similar 
habitat. Some of these, particularly 
among the latter, have types of coloration 
which are often of brilliant character and 
splendid patterns, vying, as one writer has 
expressed it, “with the very butterflies.’ 

It can not be questioned that in some 
cases we find among these forms what 
would seem at first sight to be splendid 
illustrations of protective coloration. Tf, 
however, we trace in detail their distribu- 
tion and variable habitat we shall often 
find, as did Semper in the case of Myzicola, 
that the supposed case of marvelous mim- 
iery resolves itself into merest coincidence. 
This case cited by Semper is described in 
detail in ‘Animal Life,’ and its careful 
study by some of our over-optimistic selec- 
tionists would prove a healthy exercise, 
conducing to a more eritical scientific 
spirit and, as a consequence, to saner inter- 
pretations of appearances in the light of 
all the facets. 

The mimicry in the case was of coral 
polyps among which the annelid was 
found growing and which, in the form of 
its branches, their size and coloration, 
seemed so perfect that it had long escaped 
notice and was described by Semper as a 
new species. 

It was found in various localities among 
the corals, but invariably having precisely 
the same simulation of the polyps, so that 


SCIENCE. 


143 


Semper! noted it as among: the finest cases 
of mimicry which had come to his atten- 
tion. It so happened, however, that soon 
after he happened to discover his mimetic 
Myaicola growing upon a sponge whose 
color and form were so different as to ren- 
der it very conspicuous. A systematic 
search for it in other situations soon re- 
vealed it among the rocks, and in his own 
language, ‘Almost everywhere, and wher- 
ever I examined it carefully, it was exactly 
of the size and color of the polyps of Cla- 
docora cespitosa.’ 

Attention has already been ealled to 
Hisig’s account of coloration among the 
Capitellide, in which he discards the fac- 
tor of natural selection as wholly inade- 
quate in the ease of the organisms under 
consideration as well as in many others, 
and refers to many investigators who have 
likewise found it deficient. In his exhaus- 
tive monograph the subject is discussed in 
considerable detail and references given, 
which it would be impracticable to cite in 
such a review as the present. 

It will be possible to refer but briefly 
to another group or two in the present dis- 
cussion, the first of which is the echino- 
derms, and chiefly the starfishes. As is 
well known, these organisms exhibit a con- 
siderable range of variety and richness 
of coloration, among which red, orange, 
brown, yellow and black are more or less 
common. In not a few cases of course the 
colors comprise combinations of two or 
more of those named. An examination has 
been made of these pigments in a few cases 
and has sufficed to show that for the most 
part they are lipochromes and, therefore, 
belong to either reserve or waste products. 
Similar colors are also found among the 
brittle-stars, with occasional admixtures of 
blue or green, colors less common in the 
former group. 

As is also well known similar colors are 
found among the crustacea, into a consid- 


144 


eration of which it is impossible to enter 
here. There is a matter, however, which 
I ean not ignore in connection with the 
group, namely, the rather remarkable fact 
that in two phyla having so little in com- 
mon as to habit, structure or environment, 
there should be so striking a color resem- 
blanee. This is further heightened by the 
fact that while one is a prey to almost 
every denizen of the sea of predatory 
habit, the other is almost correspondingly 
‘exempt. So far as I know echinoderms 
have few enemies, and are of course 
largely invulnerable against such as might 
otherwise find palatable feeding among 
these sluggish herds. If the color is in the 
one case protective, why not in the other? 
Or if it be not protective on the other 
hand, why claim such in the first? That 
sexual selection might have some place 
among crustacea may not seem improbable. 
But if color is its signal here what does it 
imply among echinoderms, where in the 
nature of the case it must be ruled out of 
account ? 

Discussing the significance of colors 
among the echinoderms Mosely submits 
the following interesting problem: “‘ Those 
coloring matters which, like those at pres- 
ent under consideration, absorb certain 
isolated areas of the visible spectrum, must 
be considered as more complex, as pig- 
ments, than those which merely absorb 
more or less of the ends of the spectrum. 
* * * Tt seems improbable that the eyes 
of other animals are more perfect as spec- 
troscopes than our own, and hence we are 
at a loss for an explanation on grounds of 
direct benefit to the species of the exist- 
ence of the peculiar complex pigments in 
it. That the majority of species of Ante- 
don should have vivid coloring matters of 
a simple character, and that few or only 
one should be dyed by a very complex one, 
is a remarkable fact, and it seems only pos- 
sible to say in regard to such facts that the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


formation of the particular pigment in the 
animal is accidental, 7. e., no more to be 
explained than such facts as that sulphate 
of copper is blue.”’ 

Considered from the standpoint of met- 
abolism such facts would hardly seem to 
assume the difficulty which might be im- 
plied in the case just cited, indeed they are 
in perfect alignment with what might be 
anticipated, and what has in cases pre- 
viously cited been found to be actually 
occurring. 

Similar conditions as to color and color 
significance are also matters of common 
knowledge in relation to molluseca. Per- 
haps few groups among animals exhibit 
more brilliant and varied colors than are 
to be found among gasteropods, yet in 
many of them this factor can have no 
more value as a means of adaptation than 
do biliary pigments or hemoglobin among 
vertebrates, where as pigments their sig- 
nificance is nil. Of them, Darwin, with 
his usual frankness, has said, as previously 
cited, ‘These colors do not appear to be 
of any use as a protection; they are prob- 
ably the direct result, as in the lowest 
classes, of the nature of the tissues—the 
patterns and the sculpture of the shell de- 
pending on its manner of growth.’ Re- 
ferring in the same connection to the 
bright and varied colors of nudibranchs, 
he further declares, ‘‘many brightly col- 
ored, white, or otherwise conspicuous spe- 
cies, do not seek concealment; whilst again 
some equally conspicuous species, as well 
as other dull colored kinds, live under 
stones and in dark recesses. So that with 
these nudibranch molluscs, color appar- 
ently does not stand in any close relation 
to the nature of the place which they in- 
habit.’’ 

Into the classic shades afforded by the 
insects as a fruitful haunt and stronghold 
of natural selection I must not venture. 
Not that its problems have all been solved, 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


nor that some considered as settled beyond 
controversy may not have to be readjusted, 
not excepting the much exploited Kaluoma 
itself, but out of pure regard for the exi- 
gencies of the occasion. 

No more dare I presume to enter the 
abysses of the deep sea and to pass in re- 
view its manifold and almost untouched 
problems of color significance, great as is 
the temptation and attractive as are its in- 
ducements. It must suffice to suggest that 
had half the ingenuity which has been ex- 
ereised to bring these problems into align- 
ment with the general sway and supposed 
supremacy of natural selection been em- 
ployed in an analysis of the pigments and 
some efforts to discover the origin of col- 
oration and its general significance as a 
physiological, rather than as a physical 
one, we should have been saved the sad 
rites attending the obsequies of still-born 
hypotheses and half-developed theories. 
The desperate attempt to save natural se- 
lection from drowning in its submarine 
adventures by lighting its abyssal path 
with the flickering and fitful shimmer of 
phosphorescence was worthy of a better 
cause. It is difficult to be serious with this 
phase of a subject the nature of which de- 
mands anything but ridicule or satire. But 
the attempts to illuminate the quiescent 
abysses with the dull glow which under all 
known conditions requires, if not violent, 
at least vigorous stimulus to excite it, and 
the assumption that its sources were suffi- 
cient to meet even a moiety of the necessi- 
ties involved, makes a draft upon one’s 
eredulity which might arouse either indig- 
nation or the sense of the ludicrous, de- 
pending upon the point of view! But se- 
riously, such a conception apparently loses 
sight of too many evident known condi- 
tions of phosphorescence with which we 
are familiar, not to mention the growing 
belief that the phenomenon is in itself of 
the nature of one of the wastes of metab- 


SCIENCE. 


145 


olism to justify the hereulean attempt to 
make it serve a cause so desperate. 

As a concluding word allow me to say 
that in the present review I have not in the . 
least sought to ignore or discredit the value 
of natural selection as a factor in organic 
evolution. Nor would I be understood as 
wholly discarding color as a factor in or- 
ganic adaptation, particularly among the 
higher and more specialized forms, but 
rather to show its limits. At the same time 
I must submit to a growing conviction that 
its Importance has been largely overesti- 
mated, and that other factors have been as 
largely lost sight of. If the present discus- 
sion may serve in even the smallest degree 
to direct attention to some of the latter it 
will have served its chief purpose. 


CHARLES W. Harcirr. 
SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
THE HONEYSUCKLES.* 

Tuts notable addition to the literature of 
the genus Lonicera is a most welcome contri- 
bution, presenting as it does the first com- 
plete systematic treatment of the honey- 
suckles since their description by De Candolle 
in the fourth volume of his ‘ Prodromus,’ pub- 
lished in 1830. Mr. Rehder has consulted 
the specimens preserved in all the larger 
American herbaria, and in the most important 
of those of Europe, and has consulted the liv- 
ing collections in the larger botanical gardens, 
his investigations having extended through 
several years. The treatment of the genus in 
De Candolle’s ‘Prodromus’ recognized 53 
species, of which 42 are now held to be 
valid; the present monograph recognizes 154 
species, together with 3 imperfectly known 
and not named, making 157 in all, thus adding 
115 species to those known in 1830. In addi- 
tion to these 157 species, a large number of 
varieties are given rank, as also are a consider- 
able number of forms recognized under name; 

*©Synopsis of the Genus Lonicera,’ by Alfred 


Rehder (Ann. Rep. Mo. Bot. Gard., 14: 27-232, 
pl. 1-20, October 8, 1903). 


146 


some of these varieties and forms will prob- 
ably come to be taken as species or subspecies, 
but most of them are clearly only deviations 
from ordinary states of the species in color 
or size of yarious organs, and the formal rec- 
ognition of such things lumbers up nomen- 
clature without any useful result. 

Mr. Rehder recognizes two subgenera, 
Chamecerasus, with four sections, and Peri- 
clymenum, following the division accepted 
by Linnzus, who united the four genera ac- 
cepted by Tournefort in 1700, Caprifolium, 
Periclymenum, Xylosteum and Chamecerasus, 
into the one genus Lonicera, of which it would 
appear that the Lonicera Caprifolium is to be 
taken as the type. Mr. Rehder remarks that 
the two subgenera form two very well-defined 
and natural groups if based on the character 
of the inflorescence, but he evidently does not 
agree to recent propositions to recognize them 
as genera. The genus Distegia of Rafinesque 
is only given rank as a subsection, while 
Nintooa of De Candolle is given rank as a 
section. Including the Mexican types, 21 
North American species are recognized, no 
new ones being described by Mr. Rehder from 
within this territory in the present work; of 
recently described North American species, 
LL. sororia of Professor Piper is reduced to L. 
conjugialis Kellogg and L. ebractulata of Dr. 
Rydberg is found to be inseparable from JL. 
Utahensis S. Watson. The species which has 
long been ealled Z. ciliata Mubhl., is found to 
have an older name in LZ. Canadensis Marsh.; 
L. villosa Michx. is reduced to a variety of 
L. cerulea U., following Torrey and Gray; L. 
flavescens Dippel is made a variety of L. 
involucrata (Richards) Banks; L. Japonica 
Thunb., naturalized in recent years in eastern 
North America from New York southward, 
is not uncommonly cultivated in the West 
Indies; L. sempervirens receives a new variety 
in var. hirsutula Rehder from North Carolina, 
but an examination of two of the specimens 
cited leads me to believe that this has no 
serious claim to recognition under name; 
L. subspicata H. and A. and ZL. interrupta 
Benth., reduced to varieties of L. hispidula 
by Dr. Gray, are restored by Mr. Rehder to 
specific rank; LZ. dwmosa Gray, which has 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


recently’ been regarded as synonymous’ with 
L. albiflora T. & G., is maintained as a variety 
of that species; Dr. Rydberg’s recently pro- 
posed L. glaucescens is accorded specific rank. 
Only one American species known to the 
writer is not referred to by Mr. Rehder, being 
deseribed by Dr. Small in his ‘ Flora of the 
Southeastern United States,’ issued in July, 
1903, viz., Lonicera flavescens from Tennessee 
and Kentucky; in naming this species, which 
is related to L. Sullivanti and to L. flava, Dr. 
Small inadvertently overlooked the older ZL. 
flavescens of Dippel, so that if the species 
holds good it will have to receive another 
name. 

Myr. Rehder’s excellent paper is illustrated 
by four plates of details of inflorescence and 
morphology and by reproduced photographs of 
little-known or rare Asiatic species taken from 
sheets in the older herbaria of Europe, largely 
from the collections at St. Petersburg. 

Mr. Rehder records 14 doubtful species at 
the end of his monograph which he has been 
unable to refer satisfactorily, and 24 hybrids, 
most of which have originated in various 
gardens, where the parent species have been 
growing in proximity; none of the hybrids 
is indicated as of origin in the wild condi- 
tion; two fossil species of the genus are 
known, both of them from European terranes. 

N. L. Brirron. 


International Catalogue of Scientific Lntera- 


ture. First annual issue. O, Human An- 
atomy. London, Harrison & Sons. 1903 
(June). Pp. xiv-+ 212. Price, ten shill- 


ings and sixpence. 

Although the plan of this catalogue is ex- 
cellent and its contents are good as far as they 
go, it is improbable that any anatomist who 
has access to Schwalbe’s ‘ Jahresberichte 
ueber Anatomie und Entwicklungsgeschichte ’ 
will find it very useful. For several genera- 
tions past anatomists have been accustomed to 
excellent year-books and a new catalogue will 
naturally be compared to those already in 
existence. The last volume of Schwalbe 
(1901) is a large book containing over 1,300 
pages, filled with numerous abstracts, giving 
the titles to over 3,300 papers taken from over 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


650 journals. 
anatomical subjects which appeared in 1901 
are not given in this volume, and there are 
numerous papers appearing in 1900 cata- 
logued, but the series of volumes gives prac- 
tically a complete catalogue of such papers. 
When we compare the new catalogue with 
Schwalbe’s so many deficiencies are at once 
seen that only a few of them can be mentioned 
in this review. Less than half as many titles 
(about 1,600) are given as in Schwalbe. To 
be sure, it is stated in the preface of the new 
eatalogue that it is to be a complete index, 
but it is noted that the literature of Austria 
has not been included and this omission of 
literature is not sufficient to account for the 
difference between the new catalogue and 
Schwalbe’s. The omissions are best expressed 
by making some comparisons. In Schwalbe’s 
‘Jahresbericht’ the blood and lymph, the fe- 
male organs of sex and the integument are 
represented by 301, 65 and 74 titles and in 
the new catalogue by 77, 48 and 36 titles re- 
spectively. Under ‘Pedagogy and Biography’ 
we miss, among others, Spalteholz, ‘Zum ‘70 
Geburtstag von Wilhelm His’; Gegenbaur, 
‘Erlebtes und Erstrebtes’; Barker, ‘On the 
Study of Anatomy,’ and Jackson, ‘ A Method 
of Teaching Relational Anatomy’; all of 
which are given in Schwalbe’s ‘ Jahresbericht.’ 
We also do not find any reference to the Jowr- 
nal of Morphology, The Biological Bulletin, 
The Journal of Hxperimental Medicine, The 
American Journal of Physiology, The Johns 
Hopkins Hospital Reports, The Bulletin of the 
Johns Hopkins Hospital, The American Jour- 
nal of Anatomy, The Journal of Comparative 
Neurology, the Proceedings of the Association 
of American Anatomists and the Journal of 
Medical Research, each of which contains 
articles on anatomy—83 altogether. In the 
new catalogue we find but one reference to 
Minot and one to Bardeen; in Schwalbe there 
are eleven references to these two authors. 
While there are many omissions there are 
also many duplications. Spalteholz’s ‘ Atlas’ 
with its translation is entered thirteen times; 
Szymonowiez, which came out in parts is given 
fifteen times, while Stohr is given six times in 
the subject catalogue and not at all in the 


SCIENCE. 


To be sure, all the papers on. 


147 


authors’ ¢atalogue. There are also a number 
of contributions which should not have been 
included in this catalogue, e. g., Meisenheimer, 
‘Die Entwicklung von Herz, Perikard, 
Niere und Genitalzellen bei Cyclas; ete., 
and also a few subjects catalogued under the 
wrong headings. Hisler on the ‘ Muscularis 
Sternalis’? should be under ‘ Abnormalities’ 
and Parskij, ‘Die Anatomie und Histologie 
der Schildriise,’ should not be under ‘ Pitui- 
tary Body.’ 

The above illustrations are only a few, but 
they are sufficient to show that the ‘ Interna- 
tional Catalogue of Scientific Literature on 
Human Anatomy’ is very incomplete; so 
much so, that anatomists will not find in it a 
substitute nor a supplement to the lists ac- 
companying the Anatomischer Anzeiger nor to 
Schwalbe’s ‘ Jahresbericht.’ It is to be hoped 
that the volume for 1902 will include all the 
titles found in any of the lists, for they are at 
hand and can be copied and supplemented. 
A complete authors’ catalogue with a subject 
catalogue will be welcomed by all anatomists. 


M. 


SOIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


We have received the first number of the 
Journal of Philosophy, Psychology and 
Scientific Methods, edited by Professor Fred- 
erick J. E. Woodbridge, of Columbia Uni- 
versity and published by The Science Press 
(Sub-station 84, New York City). The con- 
tents are as follows: ‘The International Con- 
gress of Arts and Science,’ Professor Hugo 
Miinsterberg; ‘The Religious Consciousness 
as Ontological’ Professor George Trumbull 
Ladd; ‘Some Points in Minor Logic, Chris- 
tine Ladd Franklin; ‘The Third Meeting of 
the American Philosophical Association’; 
“Stratton’s Experimental Psychology,’ Pro- 
fessor H. Austin Aikens; ‘Journals and New 
Books’; ‘Notes.’ The scope of the journal 
is explained in an editorial note which reads: 
“Tn so far as an explanation or even an ex- 
euse may be needed for the establishment of 
a new journal, it is hoped that this may be 
given by the contents and form of the first 
number of The Journal of Philosophy, Psy- 
chology and Scientific Methods. ‘There are in 


148 


Germany ‘ Centralblitter’ for nearly all the 
sciences, and there are in all countries ‘ trade 
journals’ for the applied sciences such as 
medicine and engineering. But there exists 
no journal covering the whole field of scien- 
tific philosophy, psychology, ethics and logic, 
appearing at frequent intervals and appealing 
directly to the interests of all professional 
students. It is a matter of importance at the 
present time that the relations between phi- 
losophy and psychology should remain inti- 
mate, and that the fundamental methods and 
concepts of the special sciences, now receiving 
attention on all sides, should be kept in touch 
with philosophy in its historic development. 
What may be accomplished by the prompt 
publication of short contributions is demon- 
strated by the Comptes Rendus of the Paris 
Academy, whose four-page articles cover 
nearly the whole scientific activity of France. 
A fortnightly journal is particularly suited for 
discussion, the interval being just long enough 
to permit of questions and answers. Finally 
the special function of such a journal is the 
quick and complete publication of reviews and 
abstracts of the literature.” 


The Botanical Gazette for December con- 
tains the following articles: E. N. Transeau, in 
a paper ‘On the Geographic Distribution and 
Ecological Relation of the Bog Plant Societies 
of Northern North America,’ finds that the 
bog plant societies of North America show an 
optimum dispersal in moist climates subject 
to great temperature extremes. Relations of 
the bog societies are with the conifer rather 
than with the deciduous forests. The bog 
societies are considered as relicts of former 
widespread societies, and are observed in vari- 
ous places largely because of favorable tempera- 
ture conditions. Edward W. Berry discusses 
‘Aralia in American Paleobotany,’ giving a 
eritical account of the fossil forms that have 
been referred to this genus.—In his conelud- 
ing instalment of ‘The Vegetation of the Bay 
of Fundy Salt and Diked Marshes: an 
Ecological Study,’ Professor Ganong considers 
the mesophytie and hydrophytic conditions of 
the Bay of Fundy marshes, also the succession 
of plants in place and time. In his con- 
clusion he makes an earnest appeal for more 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 472. 


eareful description of ecological facts, longer 
periods of study before publication, and ad- 
vance in the method of correlating meteorolog- 
ical data with vegetation, the recognition of 
physiological as well as structural adaptations, 
and a careful study of the exact nature of 
plant cooperation and competition.—Alice 
Eastwood publishes a synopsis of Garrya, a 
characteristic California genus, and describes 
three new species.—J. Y. Bergen, in a study 
of ‘The Transpiration of Spartina junceuwm 
and other Xerophytic Shrubs,’ has reached 
the conclusion that during the leafy season 
the relative power of transpiration of the 
leaves compared with that of the cortex is 
much greater for equal areas, and that leafless 
individuals of Spartina grow but little in any 
season. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE SAN FRANCISCO SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
_ MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


THe fourth regular meeting of the San 
Francisco Section of the American Mathe- 
matical Society was held at the University 
of California on December 19, 1903. Four- 
teen members of the society were present. A 
number of other teachers of mathematics liv- 
ing in or near San Francisco attended both 
of the sessions. The following officers were 
elected for the ensuing year: 

Chairman—Professor Allardice. 

Secretary—Professor. Miller. 

Program Committee—Professors Haskell, String- 
ham and Miller. 


The dates of the regular meetings of the 
section were changed from May and Decem- 
ber to February and September. This change 
is to go into effect after the next regular meet- 
ing, which will be held at Stanford University 
in May. ‘The following papers were read: 


Dr. E. M. Braxe: ‘Exhibition of models of 
polyhedra bounded by regular polygons.’ 

Proressor M. W. HAsKeti: ‘ Brianchon hexa- 
gons in space.’ 

Proressor R. EH. ALLARDICE: ‘On the locus of 
the foci of a system of similar conics through 
three points.’ 

Proressor IRvING STRINGHAM: 
in absolute space.’ 


*On curvature 


oe 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


Proressor H, F, Bricurerpr: ‘ On the order of 
linear homogeneous groups IL’ 

Proressor E. J. Wriiczynsii: ‘Studies in the 
general theory of surfaces.’ 

Proressor KE. J. Witezynsxi: ‘A fundamental 
theorem in the theory of ruled surfaces.’ 

Proressor G. A. Mizurr: ‘On the roots of 
group operators.’ 

Dr. D. N. Leumer: ‘On the Jacobian curve of 
three quadric surfaces and a certain ruled sur- 
face connected with it.’ 

Dr. D. N. Lenmer: ‘On a new method of find- 
ing factors of numbers.’ 

Mr. W. A. Mannine: ‘On the primitive groups 
of classes six and eight.’ — 

Prorussor M. W. Hasxern: ‘ Approximations 
to the square root of positive numbers.’ 

In the absence of their authors, Dr. Blake’s 
models were explained by Professor Haskell, 
Professor Wilezynski’s papers were presented 
by Dr. Lehmer, and Mr. Manning’s paper was 
read by the secretary. G. A. Miner, 

Secretary. 


ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

THe 352d meeting was held December 15, 
1903. The committee on the preservation of 
ancient monuments reported a form of peti- 


tion to congress which might be sent out for 


signatures. The report was accepted, the 
committee continued and instructed to give 
publicity to the petition, and they were author- 
ized to frame a bill on the lines of the petition. 

Mr. W. H. Babeock communicated to the 
society a letter from Mr. J. EH. Betts on the 
aborigines of China called Changkia and 
Miao. 

The paper of the evening was by Dr. George 
Byron Gordon, of Philadelphia, on the sub- 
ject, ‘The Ruins of Copan.’ 

Doctor Gordon traced the limits of the 
Maya and Aztec peoples, and said that they 
sprung from a stem whose origin and location 
is wrapped in mystery. Views of the elabor- 
ately carved monoliths of Quirigua were 
thrown on the screen and Doctor Gordon said 
that those showing bas reliefs of men are 
placed to the north and those of women to the 
south of a given line through the ruins. No 
metals were found here and few stone tools, 
but the sculpture was worked out with stone 
implements. The phases of art displayed in 


SCIENCE. 149 


the monoliths were discussed and it was 
pointed out that the dragon-like carvings of 
serpents represent the rattlesnake, the spots 
on the back being transferred to the side in 
the carving. Views of the sculptures, the 
ruins and surroundings of Copan were next 
presented and discussed. One of the pyramids 
has been partly cut away by a stream, and in 
the section are a number of successive pave- 
ments and sewers, giving evidence of consider- 
able antiquity to the structures. 

Dr. H. M. Baum asked whether the present 
Mayas are descendants of the people who made 
the buildings. Doctor Gordon replied that 
none of the tribes know anything about them 
so far as any one has been able to discover. 

Doctor Fewkes said that the Pueblo Indians 
eall the north, male; the east, female; the 
south, male; and the west, female. The great 
plumed serpent of the Pueblo mythology is 
also related to the serpent of Central America. 
Doctor Fewkes believes that the different cities 
of Copan carry back man on this continent 
a long period. 

Doctor Hrdlicka said, in reference to the 
buried cities of Copan exposed in the section 
of a pyramid, that the work may represent 
different periods of advancement of the struc- 
ture rather than different ages. 

At the close of the meeting a vote of thanks 
ot the society was given to Doctor Gordon for 
his interesting paper. Water Houeu. 


THE SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
WISCONSIN. 


A MEETING of the club was held on Novem- 
ber 17, when two papers were presented by 
Professor Augustus Trowbridge, as follows: 
(a) ‘ Personal Reminiscence in an Italian Uni- 
versity. This paper was illustrated with 
lantern slides and dealt with the lecturer’s 
experiences while recently traveling in Italy. 
(b) ‘New Experiments in Wireless Teleg- 
raphy, was a description of some recent 
original devices got up by the lecturer for 
receiving wireless messages. The paper was 
illustrated, and wireless messages were re- 
ceived in the lecture room during the lecture. 

; Victor Lenuer, 
Secretary. 


150 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE LUNAR THEORY. 


In a recent number of the Monthly Notices 
of the Royal Astronomical Society, Mr. P. H. 
Cowell gives an account of his investigations 
on the motion of the moon. Je finds con- 
siderable errors in Airy’s theory, but gives no 
explanation of the small defect in the tables 
of Hansen. A curious result of several in- 
vestigations is to show the accuracy of the 
tables of Damoiseau, made four score years 
ago, and after a theory which has gone out 
of use. 

The interest now shown in the lunar theory 
by several astronomers promises to give us 
better tables of the moon. Two methods can 
be followed. The attractive one is to make 
a new theory, since in this case one has the 
entire question in hand. But this requires a 
great expenditure of labor. The other method 
would be to correct the tables of Hansen. The 
accuracy of the coefficients in these tables is 
very great, and it is a pity so much good work 
should be lost. Im determining the orbit of 
the moon for the formation of his tables 
Hansen introduced twelve unknown quantities 
into his equations of condition, or fourteen, 
if we include the two depending on the dis- 
tance from the center of figure to the center 
of gravity of the moon. It is not much won- 
der that a small error should have been com- 
mitted in such a complicated theory. The 
manuscript of Hansen must be preserved, 
probably in the observatory of Gotha, where 
he spent most of his life. There are several 
astronomers in Germany who studied with 
Hansen, and who understand his methods. 
It is to be hoped that a careful revision of 
Hansen’s calculations on this theory will be 
made and that his error may be discovered. 

After looking at some of the works on this 
theory I venture to make this suggestion: that 
astronomers should unite on a system of 
notation for the lunar theory. So many 
changes have been made that it is almost 
necessary to have a dictionary of symbols in 
order to read the various memoirs. 

A. Hatt. 


NORFOLK, Conn., 
January 5, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 473. 


THE SCAURS ON THE RIVER ROUGE. 


To tHE Eprror or Science: The earth’s rota- 
tion causes in the winds of our hemisphere a 
tendency to deviate to the right of straight 
ahead in whatever direction they are flowing 
(Davis’ ‘ Meteorology,’ p. 101). It ought to 
produce the same effect on rivers (Russell, 
“Rivers of North America,’ p. 41). Instances 
have been supposed to be found in the streams 
on the south coast of Long Island (American 
Journal of Science, 1884, p. 427), in the 
great detrital cone of Lannemezan, on the 
Rhine, Danube, Ob, Irtish, Nile, New Zealand 
streams, Parana and Paraguay by authors 
eited in Penck, ‘Morphologie der Erdober- 
flache,” pp. 351-860. From objections that 
have been made to most of these illustrations 
it appears that there is more of unanimity as 
to the theory than in the conviction aroused 
by the evidence offered. 

The Michigan rivers have long seemed to 
me suitable to examine for evidence of this 
sort. They are young, meandering streams, 
not usually encountering ledges, but flowing 
either in lake clays or in a till that has few 
large boulders and is fairly homogeneous. 

The Rouge is a stream some twenty-five 
miles long that flows into the Detroit River 
a few miles west of Detroit. At Dearborn 
two forks of the river unite into one. Early 
in November I visited the west branch in com- 
pany with Mr. Isaiah Bowman to look over 
the availability of the valley for work with 
my class in field geography. The river is 
ten or fifteen feet wide, meandering on a flood 
plain two or three hundred feet wide, which is 
incised in the level clays that once formed the 
floor of Lake Maumee. Every now and then 
the stream in its meandering undercuts the 
bank, causing a naked bluff of clay in a land- 
scape that is elsewhere well grassed. Such a 
bluff is what the Scotch call a scaur.’ As the 
scaurs indicated the points where the river is 
actually at work widening its valley, it was 
proposed to measure the proportion of bank 
occupied by them. To this end we paced the 
distance along the river bank under each scaur 
and by the flood plain to the next one, noting 
whether the scaur was on the right bank or 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


the left. The results are given in the fol- 
lowing table. 


First Day. 
Scaur. Flood Plain. 

Right. Left. 
222 945 
55 187 
73 350 
96 271 
90 442, 
73 303 
21 518 
34 273 
41 287 
76 236 
50 280 
31 100 
53 466 
95 168 
653 3857 4,126 
lim Gills, onsccdoseanocoecc0c.s 5,136 
Total both banks............ 10,272 
Total scaur.............-... 1,010 
Per cent. of scaur........... 10 
Per cent. of scaur on right... 64 


SECOND Day. 


Scaur. Flood Plain. 


Right. Left. 
66 295 
56 300 
130 273 
120 153 
173 225 
195 1,160 
39 144 
30 350 
60 245 
16 341 
178 256 
47 196 
37 100 
200 343 
48 260 
100 1,218 
27 78 
30 30 
17 259 
180 
978 591 6,406 
MODAN eae sclcespesseeetn rere ieee asiets 7,975 
Total both banks............ 15,950 
Rotalmscayiie ee eseeta cece en 1,569 
Per cent. of scaur........... 10 
Per cent. of scaur on right... 62 


Mr. Bowman’s pacing gave practically the 
same results. 

As my pace is 2.75 feet, we walked the first 
day 2.6 miles and the second 4.1, and found 
each time that along one tenth of its course 
the Rouge is widening its valley, while two 
thirds of this work is being done on the right 
bank. This called Mr. Bowman’s attention 


SCIENCE. 


151 


at once and he will prosecute further studies 
on this and other streams. Of course, the 
interest here is in a possible criterion for 
detecting deflection of rivers by the effect 
of the earth’s rotation. The distance is short, 
yet the results are singularly uniform, as ap- 
pears from the following analysis in detail. 

Grouping the secaurs by successive amounts 
of about 500 paces, we have: 

Percentage 


Total Scaur. Right. Left. on Right. 
536 318 218 59 
474 335 139 71 
545 349 196 64 
518 224 294. 43 
506 405 101 80 

2,579 1,631 948 64 


Rivers ought to show the effect of the 
earth’s rotation and no criterion could be 
simpler in theory or application than this. 
As the Rouge flows fairly to the east prevalent 
westerly winds urge the river neither to right 
nor left. Mark S. W. JrErrerson. 

Micuican State NorMAL COLLEGE, 

December 7, 1903. 


SHORTER ARTICLES. 
WONDER HORSES AND MENDELISM. 


Dr. Castix’s reference to the Oregon Won- 
der horse in Science for December 11 reminds 
me that in the autumn of 1899 I corresponded 
with Mr. James K. Rutherford, of Wadding- 
ton, N. Y., who then owned a horse called 
Linus IJ. Mr. Rutherford sent a photograph 
of the horse, taken in 1898. The photograph 
shows a Morgan horse probably about five 
years old with a double mane which trails on 
the ground on either side for a distance of two 
feet. The tail trails on the ground for a dis- 
tance of about six to eight feet. Correspond- 
ence with Mr. Rutherford yielded the follow- 
ing additional statements: Linus II. is the 
son of Linus I., which had a mane that was 
single, but at fourteen years old eighteen feet 
long, while the tail was twenty-one feet long. 
“The mother also had a remarkable growth of 
hair.” The paternal grandmother was known 
as the ‘Oregon Beauty’ and was noted for the 
mass and length of her hair. My correspond- 
ence with the owner of Linus I. led to few 
additional facts. He stated that the long 


152 


hair had been in the family since importation 
[to Oregon(?)] and added: ‘the growth and 
quantity has increased with each generation.’ 

It will be seen that the data are somewhat 
inconclusive. Had the father as well as the 
mother of Linus I. been long-haired (reces- 
sive, according to Dr. Castle’s hypothesis), 
then we can understand the long hair of Linus 
I. The latter was mated with a recessive (7?) 
mare (if ‘remarkable growth of hair’ may be 
so interpreted) and produced Linus II. 

On the whole, it would seem more probable 
that the long-haired property was dominant, 
unless, indeed, Linus II. got no long-haired 
progeny. The data are, as we see, insufficient 
to decide the matter. 

The question of the Mendelian behavior of 
animal mutations has long interested me and 
I have collected some statistics bearing on the 
subject. The records concerning polydactyl- 
ism are, perhaps, the most complete and in- 
structive. In the Jenaische Zeitschrift, X XII., 
Fackenheim, 1888, has given a table that may 
be thus summarized: Hach letter n (normal) 
or p (polydactyl) stands for a person, the 
coefficient being used to indicate the number 
of such persons in a family. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 473. 


only two cases. The majority of the p off- 
spring should produce p and n in equal num- 
bers in the second filial generation—we get 
7 p and 12 n in generation III. and 5 p and 
5 m in generation IV. or 12 p and 17 n alto- 
gether, which is a wide but not unlikely dis- 
agreement from theory. Of the n children 
mated with mn consorts, theory would demand 
that all should be n, since R X RF gives only 
FR qualities. In the second filial generation 
this happens in one family of seven children, 
but does not happen in two families with a 
total of 19 children in which 5 p’s oceur. The 
total of the three families is 21 n and 5 p. 
This is not Mendelism, but there is certainly 
a marvelous prepotency of the normal quality. 
In the third filial question from three n X n 
families all of the 16 children are n. If we 
had this generation only we should certainly 
have a right to suspect that n is truly reces- 
sive. 

Consider next the records of polydactyl cats 
given by Poulton, 1883, in Nature. The 
fathers are not known, but Poulton says it is 
highly improbable that an abnormal female has 
ever crossed with a likewise abnormal male. 


n xP 

Case iT | l ] | 

Ie fp DD jIXKD DXR W><D DXB mre 

[i ee] | on -| 
lool el eal ie | 
II. 6n 3p 4n 3p ™m 3n 2p 8n 2p Qn pxXn BD De LS ia 
(anal . 0 | 

IIL. Qn 3p 12n- 3n 2p  3n n 

On the assumption that polydactylism (p) DE 
is dominant and the normal condition (n) is | 1 
recessive, any » of unknown ancestry may be I. p Pp ise p 
a (D+). Then the offspring of the parents Qdlitter- | Ist / litter | —_3d litter 
EX(W-+.#) might give (DR)+ (RR) o YW. of p p pX? 2 3p 
an equal proportion of p and n. There are ; ae 
4 p and 4 n in the first filial generation; thus Ags a gd Wiper 
agreeing with theory. Of the p offspring of III. Qn 2p pr? 
this first filial generation one third should be ne ae 


pure D+ D and should produce only poly- 
dactyl children even with normal consorts. 
This condition is not realized, for both of the 
polydactyls of whose offspring we have a rec- 
ord produced both n and p offspring; but this 
is not surprising, considering that there are 


This case is easily explained on Mendelian 
principles, for assuming p to be dominant and 
the mother in the first filial generation to have 
(D + R) gametes, then there should be out of 
10 offspring 5 p and 5 n; there are 6 p and 


a 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


4m. The third generation accords with the 
assumption that the p parent has (D+ R) 
gametes, while the p parent in the third gen- 
eration behaves as would one that had purely 
dominant gametes. Unfortunately, the record 
stops here. 

Struthers has given the following case of 
polydactylism in man: 


px? 
| 
| 
I. p oS nN 10p 
| | 
II. 3p DX n 
| | 
Til. 4n 4p 


This result can be explained on the Men- 
delian hypothesis by considering the original 
parent to have only D gametes; and that the 
father was also polydactyl. The offspring (1.) 
are all p and purely dominant. In the first filial 
generation D is crossed with R and the dom- 
inant offspring have (D+ R) gametes; when 
one of these gametes of the second filial gen- 
eration is crossed by R the product is DR + 
RR (third generation). We should expect an 
equal number of dominant and recessive indi- 
viduals and we get them. If, on the other 
hand, we calculate the proportion of abnormal 
individuals in accordance with Galton’s Law 
we should get only 33 per cent. instead of the 
actual 50 per cent. Mendel’s Law here ac- 
cords with the facts better than Galton’s Law. 


SCIENCE. 


153 


These relations and the remaining descendants 
are given in the accompanying diagram. 

This case differs from the preceding in the 
small proportion of p’s occurring in any gen- 
eration. These small percentages can hardly 
accord with Mendel’s Law. 

Finally, we may consider some cases of 
inheritance of deaf-mutism for records of 
which we are indebted to Bell, 1884, Mem. 
National Academy of Sciences, I1., pp. 179 
and 208. 


A. 2x? 
| 

i v <i nxn d Kn 

IL. d 7 we d De = 
Til aXd d dX si 
IV. z a 
B Pee 2 

I n Xd ; d 

| 

10 d aX d at 

III. z = 


It seems impossible to regard either n or d 
as recessive. If nm is recessive how can d be 
derived from two n parents as in Case A, 
Gen. I.? If d is recessive, how can 5 n come 
from two d parents as in A, Gen. III.? 

The conclusion of this communication is that 
while Mendelian principles seem applicable to 


Gen. n Xp 
leeril | | | | 
[Qn nXn nxn 5n pxXn ™ 
| | 
| | | | | | | | : 
Il n n nxn 8n nXp Qn pxXn n p xn 9n (all progeny of n’s normal) 
| sousll | | 
| | 5n 9n | | 
III. D ™ nx<n pYn 
No more abnormalities in | | a a 
IV. later generations. ~ np i Son t i 
eas 
eal 
V. n p 


Another series is given by Struthers (1863) 
in the Hdinburgh New Philosophical Journal 
for July. Mr. A. L., normal, married E. P., 
who had six fingers on the left hand. They 
had eighteen children, of whom one only was 
abnormal, with six fingers on both hands. 


some cases of crosses between sports and the 
normal species, there seem to be others where 
neither Mendel’s nor Galton’s Law of Inherit- 
ance holds. C. B. Davenport. 
HuLL ZooLogicAL LABORATORY, 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 


104 


THE INHERITANCE OF SONG IN PASSERINE BIRDS. 
REMARKS AND OBSERVATIONS ON THE SONG 
OF HAND-REARED BOBOLINKS AND RED- 
WINGED BLACKBIRDS (DOLICHONYX 
ORYZIVORUS AND AGELAIUS 
PH@NICEUS). 

Durine the past spring (1903) I secured a 
brood of bobolinks and two broods of red- 
winged blackbirds. These young nestlings 
were carefully reared, and, while allowed to 
hear many other kinds of birds sing, were not 
placed where it was believed that they could 
hear the songs of their own species. ‘The re- 
sults about to be deseribed have been based 
on continuous observation, in the case of the 
blackbirds for six weeks, and for the bobolinks 
three weeks. Care has been taken to have 
competent judges, well acquainted with the 
song of both species, listen to the song of 
these birds without seeing the singers. In no 
instance was the song recognized; one listener 
ascribed the song of two red-winged black- 
birds to the brown thrasher (Yoxostoma 
rufum), and was wholly unable to form an 
opinion as to what birds were singing when 
listening to the performance of two bobolinks. 
It should be stated that there were but two 
males of each of the species in question from 

the broods that had been reared. 

The song of the bobolinks is loud and bril- 
liant as well as sustained; that of the red- 
winged blackbirds is even of greater volume 
and may be best described as continuous. 

A word seems essential as to the eall-notes 
of the two kinds of birds in question. I have 
failed to distinguish anything that resembles 
the call-note of the bobolink in its wild state, 
nor any sound that emanates from the two 
representatives of this species that are under 
observation which could be referred to bobo- 
links in a wild state. The interval of the 
notes and the duration of the song seem, how- 
ever, not unlike those of wild bobolinks. One 
of the young birds, moreover, has been noticed 
both by myself and other observers attemp- 
ting with a marked degree of success to sing 
the continuous rolling warble with its rising 
and falling inflection that characterizes the 
Hartz Mountain roller canary. 

The eall-note of the red-wing blackbird is 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 473. 


clearly distinguishable in the two red-wing 


blackbirds under observation, but is the only 
sound that might be referred to that species. 
The song of these two birds seems to be made 
up of a composite jumble wherein robin and 
thrush-like notes of great clearness and vyol- 
ume predominate. The duration of the song 
is not marked by any particular break, the 
performance generally lasting from five to 
ten minutes. The clear robin and thrush-like 
notes are connected by fainter warbles and 
lisps, the whole being continuous. 

The blackbirds were taken during the first 
weeks in June and were probably about a 
week old. They began to sing early in 
September, and the only interruption was an 
interval of four or five days when they 
changed from the liberty of a room where they 
could fly about to two large room cages. 

The bobolinks were taken on the twelfth day 
of June and were much younger than the 
blackbirds, being not more than four days 
old. They have been kept all the time to- 
gether in a large cage, and have not known 
the freedom of a flying room. They began to 
sing about the first of November, and in a few 
days could be heard in song at almost any 
time during daylight. 

Wititam E. D. Scort. 

Princeton, N. J., 

November 30, 1903. 


THE U. 8. NAVAL OBSERVATORY .* 


Tue astronomical force has been grad- 
ually diminished year by year, first by the 
detachment of a number of line officers 
who were formerly assigned positions as ob- 
servers, and more recently by the detach- 
ment of several professors of mathematics for 
duty at the Naval Academy. This not only 
left the observatory short-handed, but made 
frequent rearrangements of the personnel 
necessary. Hach new assignment to astro- 
nomical duty retards the work, breaks up its 
continuity, and diminishes the output. It is 
such changes as these subordinate 
officers who have special work to do that pro- 


among 


* From the reports of the Superintendent Rear- 
Admiral C. M. Chester, for the year ending June 
30, 1903. 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


duce confusion, as in the case of every other 
executive branch of the government; not, as 
is frequently maintained, the change of the 
head or administrative officer. He must nec- 
essarily continue the policy left by his pre- 
decessor until experience has demonstrated the 
wisdom of innovations. 

In addition to the drawback to efficient ad- 
ministration and labor caused by the reorgan- 
ization of the personnel, most of the time of 
the superintendent and staff during the latter 
half of the year has been given up to answer- 
ing questions called forth by several investi- 
gating boards. These boards have consisted 
of: 

1. A board ordered by the Navy Depart- 
ment, composed of MRear-Admiral F. M. 
Ramsay, U. 8S. Navy; Capt. J. E. Pillsbury, 
U. S. Navy; and Commander C. J. Badger, 
U. S. Navy; “for the purpose of inquiring 
into and reporting upon the advisability of 
eliminating or transferring to other than the 
control of the Navy Department any of the 
work now performed at the Naval Observa- 
tory.’ 

This board reported that ‘in the opinion of 
the board, the regular work of the Naval Ob- 
servatory is essential to the Navy; it can be 
systematically and successfully accomplished 
only under government control; and no portion 
of it should be discontinued or transferred to 
other than the control of the Navy Depart- 
ment.’ ; 

2. The General Board of the Navy, of 
which Admiral of the Navy George Dewey is 
president, to which was referred the same 
subject that was referred to the preceding 
board, rendered a similar decision. 

3. A committee ordered by the President 
of the United States, composed of Mr. Charles 
D. Walcott, chairman; Brig. Gen. William 
Crozier, U. S. Army; Rear-Admiral Francis 
T. Bowles, U. S. Navy; Mr. Gifford Pinchot 
and Mr. James R. Garfield, to report upon 
various matters connected with the organiza- 
tion of the government scientific work. The 
report of this committee has not yet been made 
public, but it also thoroughly investigated the 
Naval Observatory. 


SCIENCE. 2 


105 


‘Added to the drain on the time of the astro: 
nomical stat incident to the above-enumerated 
conditions is that due to the greatly increased 
demand for navigational instruments for the 
numerous ships building for the Navy. No 
small portion of the labor due to this demand 
has fallen on the Naval Observatory. Form- 
erly from four to six naval line officers were 
employed in the three departments of nautical 
instruments, storekeeper and chronometers 
and time service. Now one lieutenant-com- 
mander is the only line officer detailed for the 
combined duties of all three departments. 
Other branches of the naval service haye been 
supplied with additional men paid from the 
general appropriation ‘ Increase of the Navy’ 
to meet these conditions, but the requirements 
of this observatory seem to have been over- 
looked. 

Failing to procure the needed force for this 
important service, it has been necessary, un- 
der the Bureau of Equipment’s general order 
to saerifice astronomy for military duties, to 
assign two computers from the astronomical 
force to keep up with the extraordinary de- 
mands of the fleet. Further than this, as is 
shown in the report of the head of the depart- 
ment of nautical instruments, articles of 
equipment for naval vessels are such that the 
board of inspection which passes upon in- 
voices before they are paid for must devote 
much time to the examination of each article, 
and thus not only has the fleet made an un- 
usual number of calls on the observatory staff, 
but each eall has required a greater amount 
of time than is usual at other naval stations. 
It should be remembered that navigational in- 
truments can not be passed over with the 
cursory inspection given to ordinary supplies 
for a ship, but must be subjected to a critical 
test of all their different parts under varying 
conditions, needing at times several hours to 
pass one item of a schedule. As the one line 
officer at the observatory can not report upon 
the articles under his charge, professors of 
mathematics who are employed for astro- 
nomical work have been detailed to act on 
the board of inspection, thereby detracting 
from their own individual work. 

Feeling as I do that the work of the Naval 


156 SCIENCE. 


Observatory has been greatly handicapped by 
the conditions briefly outlined above, I com- 
mend to the department the zeal of the staff as 
worthy of more consideration than seems to 
have been accorded it in the past. The mem- 
bers of the staff have vied with each other dur- 
ing the past year in doing more than was re- 
quired of them, and thus have been enabled to 
maintain a good average of records; but such 
conditions can not be expected to continue. 
In one instance a member of the Nautical 
Almanac Department, Mr. H. B. Evans, in 
addition to a full-time service in that depart- 
ment, has devoted a good part of three nights 
in the week to observational astronomy, giving 
to the records data of much value. Also, Mr. 
Hammond, a member of the computing divis- 
ion of the observatory, has contributed over- 
time work in the search for and location of 
_asteroids, a work that has been much appre- 
ciated by outside astronomers. 

Such observations have been published in 
astronomical periodicals and the authors given 
eredit for their work, thus making an incen- 
tive for additional labor. 

While such work may be only incidental to 
naval purposes, it helps to maintain the inter- 
est of observers in a class of astronomy that 
is more or less a drudgery and carries out the 
precept of the observatory to contribute to 
astronomical science. It also produces better 
results in routine observations. 


SOIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Tue French minister of public imstruction 
and fine arts has conferred the degree of 
officer of public instruction upon Dr. Lester 
F. Ward for his scientific and sociological 
works. This highest degree of the academic 
order is usually only conferred on persons 
who have for five years held the degree of 
officer of the academy. 


Dr. W. Roux, professor of anatomy at Halle, 
has been elected a foreign member of the 
Brussels Academy of Sciences. 


Proressor H. Dr Vries, of Amsterdam, and 
Professor R. von Wettstein, of Vienna, have 
been elected honorary members of the Berlin 
Botanical Society. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 473, 


GRANTS in aid of research have recently been 
made from the Rumford Fund of the Amer- 
ican Academy of Arts and Sciences as fol- 
lows: to Professor Edward W. Morley, for his 
research on the nature and eftects of ether 
drift, $500; to Professor Carl Barus, for his 
research on the study by an optical method 
of radio-actively produced condensation, $200; 
to Mr. J. A. Dunne, for his research on fluc- 
tuations in solar activity as evinced by changes 
in the difference between maximum and mini- 
mum temperature, $200. E 


PRESENT ROOSEVELT has appointed the 


assay commission for 1904, which will test 


the weight and fineness of coins produced at 
the mints of the United States during the 
year. The members include Dr. 8. W. Strat- 
ton, chief of the Bureau of Standards; Mr. 
Marcus Benjamin, of the Smithsonian Insti- 
tution; Professor Edgar F. Smith, of the 
University of Pennsylvania, and Professor 
William Hallock, of Columbia University. 

Mr. J. A. Ewine, F-.R.S., lately professor 
of mechanism and applied mechanics, Cam- 
bridge, and Mr. Karl Pearson, F.R.S., pro- 
fessor of applied mathematics in University 
College, London, and formerly fellow, have 
been elected to honorary fellowships at King’s 
College, Cambridge. 

Tue silver medal of the Munich Academy 
of Sciences has been conferred on Professor 
Rudel, of Niiremberg, for his researches in 
climatology. 

Dr. W. T. Buanrorp, F.R.S., who was on 
the staff of the Geological Survey of India 
from 1855 to 1872, has been made a Com- 
panion of the Order of the Indian Empire. 

Mr. R. G. Carrutuers and Mr. G. W. Grab- 
ham have been appointed geologists on the 
British Geological Survey. 

BrIGADIER-GENERAL A. W. GREELY, chief 
signal officer of the U. S. Army, has refused 
to go on the retired list with the rank of 
major-general, preferring to remain in active 
service. : 

Dr. T. D. Woop, professor of physical edu- 
cation in Teachers College, Columbia Uni- 
versity, has been given leave of absence for 
the rest of the year on account of his health. 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] 


Proressor E. B. Voornerss, of Rutgers Col- 
lege, has been appointed president of the New 
Jersey State Board of Agriculture. 

Mr. Orro EB. Jennincs has been appointed 
custodian of botanical collections at the Car- 
negie Museum, Pittsburg, Pa. Mr. Jennings 
has been Professor Kellerman’s herbarium 
assistant for two years in the Ohio State Uni- 
versity. 

Dr. E. W. Outve, who has been studying for 
the past year some nuclear problems of certain 
lower plants in the laboratory of Professor 
Strasburger, has received another grant from 
the Carnegie Institution and will continue 
his work in the laboratory of Professor Harper, 
at Madison. 

Proressor VerRNoN F’. Marsters, of the de- 
partment of geology in the University of 
Indiana, is spending a year’s leave of absence 
at Columbia University, pursuing work in 
geology and anthropology. 


Mr. Grorce T. Hastines, a graduate of 
Cornell University and assistant in botany in 
that university in 189900, recently returned 
from Santiago, Chili, where for two years he 
has been teacher of science in the English 
Institute. Mr. Hastings made a good collec- 
tion of plants from central Chili during his 
stay there and is now preparing sets for dis- 
tribution to herbaria. He is doing this work 
in the botanical department at Cornell. 


Proressor BLANCHARD, of Paris, accom- 
panied by Dr. R. Wurtz, professor in the 
medical faculty of the University of Paris, 
and twelve students of the Paris Institut de 
Médecine Coloniale, paid a visit to the London 
School of Tropical Medicine on December 28. 


As we have already stated, Dr. Hans Gadow, 
F.R.S., lecturer on zoology in the University 
of Cambridge, is coming to America at the 
end of March for the purpose of giving six 
lectures on ‘The Coloration of Amphibia and 
Reptiles, specially prepared for the Lowell 
Institute in Boston. He desires to secure en- 
gagements for lectures in other institutions. 
Communications regarding engagements for 
lectures may be sent directly to Dr. Gadow 
at the University Museum of Zoology, in 
Cambridge, or, after March 15, in care of Pro- 


SCIENCE. 


157 


fessor W. T. Sedgwick, Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology, Boston. 


Ir is expected that Dr. Alexander Graham ~° 
Bell, bringing the remains of James Smithson 
on the steamship Princess Irene, will arrive in 
New York this week. It is planned that the 
Dolphin, of the U. S. Navy, will meet the 
steamship and carry the remains of Smithson 
to Washington. 


Tur District of Columbia Library Associa- 
tion has held a meeting in memory of the late 
Henry Carrington Bolton and Marcus Baker. 
Professor F. W. Clarke made the principal 
address on Dr. Bolton, and Dr. W. H. Dall, 
the principal address on Mr. Baker. 


THe Max Miller Memorial Fund, which is 
to be held in trust by the University of Oxford 
for the promotion of learning and research in 
the history, archeology, languages, literature 
and religion of ancient India, now amounts to 
about $12,000. 


Ir is proposed to erect at Rome a memorial 
to the eminent mathematician, Luigi Cremona, 
and it is hoped that the contributions will 
be international in character. Subscriptions 
should be sent to Signor I. Sonzogno, Piazza 
San Pietro in Vineoli, 5, Rome. 


Tue death is announced of Miss Anna Win- 
lock, of the Harvard College Observatory. She 
was the daughter of Professor Joseph Win- 
lock, superintendent of the Nautical Almanac, 
and later, until his death in 1875, director of 
the Harvard College Observatory. At this 
time Miss Winlock entered the observatory as 
a computer and subsequently assisted in the 
preparation of a large number of important 
papers issued from the observatory. 


Tue death is announced of the eminent pro- 
fessor of psychiatry and nervous diseases in 
the University of Berlin, Dr. Friedrich Jolly. 
Professor Jolly, who was born at Heidelberg in 
1844, occupied professorial chairs at Wiirzburg 
and at Strasburg before he was called to 
Berlin in 1890. We regret also to record the 
deaths of M. Jean Dufour, professor of plant 
physiology at Lausanne at the age of forty- 
three years; of Dr. A. Edinund Hess, pro- 
fessor of mathematics at Marburg, at the age 
of sixty years; of Dr. Sophus Ruger, professor 


158 SCIENCE. 


of geography and anthropology at the Tech- 
nical Institute of Dresden, at the age of 
seventy-two years, and of Dr. Sophie Pere- 
jaszlawzena, formerly head of the Zoological 
Station at Sebastopol. 


A casLecram to the New York Times states 
that by the will of the late Herbert Spencer 
all rights and property in his books and in- 
vestments are given to the trustees, the Hon. 
Auberon Herbert, Dr. Henry Charlton Bas- 
tian and David Duncan, with instructions to 
employ the yearly revenue “in resuming and 
continuing during such period as may be 
needed for fulfilling my express wishes, but 
not exceeding the lifetime of all descendants 
of Queen Victoria who shall be living at my 
decease and of the survivors and survivor of 
them, and for twenty-one years after the death 
of such survivor, the publication of the exist- 
ing parts of my ‘ Descriptive Sociology,’ and 
the compilation and publication of the fresh 
parts thereof upon the plan followed in the 
parts already published.” Afterward all copy- 
rights, stereotype plates, ete., are to be auc- 
tioned and the proceeds divided among a 
number of scientific societies. The will orders 
that Spencer’s autobiography is to be pub- 
lished simultaneously in Great Britain and 
the United States, and requests David Duncan 
to write a biography in one volume of mod- 
erate size. 


Tur Linnean Society of New South Wales 
has received about $170,000 from the late Sir 
William Macleay for the endowment of re- 
search fellowships in science. 


We learn from Nature that a meeting was 
held in the house of the Zoological Society 
on January 5 to consider proposals for the 
organization of zoologists. Forty-one zoolo- 
gists from England, Seotland and Ireland at- 
tended the meeting. The following resolu- 
tion was carried by a large majority: “ That 
it is desirable that the zoologists of Great 
Britain and Ireland be organized for the con- 
sideration of all matters affecting the interests 
of zoology and zoologists, and to take such 
action as may seem desirable.” A committee 
consisting of Professor Cossar Ewart, Pro- 
fessor Bridge, Professor Hickson, Dr. Scharff, 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 473. 


Dr. G. C. Bourne, Dr. Ridewood and Mr. 
Cunningham was appointed to draw up a 
scheme. 


Baron Ertanp NorDENSKJOLD’s expedition to 
Peru and Bolivia is expected to arrive about 
February 15 at La Paz, the capital of Bolivia, 
which will be the departing point for the ex- 
pedition to Lake Titicaca. 


OwING to a fire in a printing house in New 
York City the electrotype plates and matter 
in type of several volumes of the Transactions 
of the American Institute of Eletrical Engi- 
neers have been destroyed. 


Nature states that the Brothers Kearton have 
arranged to hold an exhibition of enlarged 
photographs of birds, beasts, reptiles and in- 
sects at the Modern Gallery, London, on Jan- 
uary 2-12, 1904, inclusive. The gallery will 
be open from 10 a.m. until 9 p.m., and Mr. R. 
Kearton will deliver lime-light lectures to 
children each afternoon, and to adults in the 
evening. 


We learn from the London Times that Mr. 
James G. Ferrier, secretary of the Scottish 
Antarctic Expedition, has received from Mr. 
W. 8S. Bruce, the leader of the expedition, nar- 
ratives of the voyage of the Scotia, written by 
Mr. Bruce and the individual members of the 
staff, dealing with meteorology, zoology, biol- 
ogy and other scientific departments of the 
work of the expedition. Mr. Bruce, in his 
letter, stated that the Scotia had made a very 
satisfactory record, and he expressed the hope 
that he and his staff might be allowed to com- 
plete their researches. The appeal for funds 
to enable the expedition to prolong its stay 
in the Antarctic has now been so liberally re- 
sponded to that the cruise will be continued 
for at least six months, and as Mr. Ferrier is 
still receiving donations an extension for a 
year may be possible. Mr. Bruce’s desire will 
then be fulfilled. Meantime, the Scotia has 
gone north to Buenos Ayres to refit. The 
expedition left its winter quarters in Scotia 
Bay, South Orkney Islands, on November 23 
—sooner than was anticipated owing to the 
unexpected breaking of the ice. Some mem- 
bers of the expedition were left behind in 
the winter quarters in charge of a meteorolog- 


7 
le 


JANUARY 22, 1904.] ‘ 


ical station. They were stocked with pro- 
visions for fully 18 months, and the place 
also abounds with penguins, fish and seals. 
Mr. Bruce reports that all on board the Scotia 
are in robust health and eager for further 
work. 


Dr. H. W. Witey, chief of the Bureau of 
Chemistry, U. S. Department of Agriculture, 
appeared before the committee on commerce 
of the house of representatives on January 5, 
in support of the pure food bill now before 
congress. 


Tue regular annual meeting of the New 
Mexico Academy of Sciences, held on De- 
ecember 28, at Santa Fé, was well attended 
and interesting papers were presented. The 
geological part of the program included the 
following: Presidential address by Hon. Frank 
Springer on the ‘Life of Louis Agassiz’; 
“Note on Block Mountains,’ by Dr. Charles 
R. Keyes; ‘New Rapid Assay Method for 
Zine,’ by Professor Francis C. Lincoln; ‘ Gla- 
ciation in the High Plateau of Bolivia,’ by 
Professor W. G. Tight; ‘ Revised Geological 
Column for New Mexico,’ by Dr. Charles R. 
Keyes; ‘Notes on Some New Mexico Min- 
erals,’ by Dr. Rufus M. Bage; ‘Some Irriga- 
tion Problems in New Mexico,’ by Professor 
Oliver R. Smith; ‘Geographic Development 
of South America, by Professor W. G. Tight. 


The president of the academy is Hon. Frank: 


Springer, of Las Vegas; vice-president, Dr. 
Charles R. Keyes, president of the New 
Mexico School of Mines, Socorro; secretary, 
Professor W. G. Tight, of Albuquerque. 


At a recent meeting of the State Commis- 
sion in Lunacy, held December 1, the recom- 
mendation contained in the resolution passed 
by the advisory board of the Pathological In- 
stitute, October 29, 1908, to the effect that: 
“Physicians appointed to the state hospital 
service should serve a preliminary term of 
from three to six months on Ward’s Island; 
that the Pathological Institute and the Man- 
hattan State Hospitals on Ward’s Island or- 
ganize a training school for this purpose and 
that provisions be made for the construction 
of additional accommodations in connection 
with the staff house at Manhattan State Hos- 


SCIENCE. 


159 


pital, west,” was given careful consideration: 
The recommendation was adopted, and the 
state architect has already been notified to 
arrange at once plans and specifications for 
the construction of an addition to the staff 
house at Manhattan, west, to the extent of 
providing twelve additional bed-rooms. 

At a meeting of the British Astronomical 
Association, held on December 30, Sir William 
Ramsay gave a lecture entitled ‘Some Specu- 
lations regarding Atoms and Stars.’ Begin- 
ning with a sketch of the discovery of helium, 
he gave reasons for holding that terrestrial 
helium was the same as that existing in the 
sun, and that there was no other unknown 
body, asterium, associated with it in the chro- 
mosphere, as was sometimes supposed. He next 
pointed out that of the group of inactive gases, 
helium, neon, argon, krypton and xenon, only 
helium and krypton had been detected in 
stellar bodies, and went on to apply the fact 
that the characteristic line of krypton was 
prominent in the spectrum of the aurora to 
the explanation of that phenomenon. These 
five gases, having their molecules composed of 
single atoms, not of a pair of atoms like the 
other gases of the atmosphere, would get 
heated more rapidly than the others, and would 
be carried up more rapidly to the outer con- 
fines of the atmosphere by the general at- 
mospherie circulation. Hence the top layers 
of the atmosphere might be supposed to con- 
sist largely of those gases. Now, Arrhenius’s 
hypothesis was that electrified particles were 
shot out from the sun and in turn electrified 
the gases in those top layers; in this way the 
argon and its companions would be excited to 
yield their characteristic spectra. The reason 
why that of krypton alone was visible was, as 
was indicated by laboratory experiments he 
had carried out, because it had a greater power 
of emitting light than the others. The aurora 
might then be considered as a ring discharge 
round the poles of the earth, by which the 
yellow-green line of krypton, the line that 
made the aurora what it was, was caused to 
shine out, the streamers being the effect of 
the magnetic action exerted by the earth. In 
the latter part of his lecture, Sir William 
Ramsay described some of the phenomena af- 


160 


forded by radium. He described how, in addi- 
tion to three kinds of rays, it gave off a self- 
luminous gas or emanation, which contracted 
very quickly—so quickly indeed that in a 
month it contracted itself out of existence, 
leaving only a purple discoloration in the glass 
of its tube. He told how in trying to get the 
spectrum of this emanation he found one ot 
the helium lines, and a few days later discov- 
ered that the tube yielded the complete spec- 
trum of helium, his inference being that the 
emanation was continually changing into 
helium which perhaps disappeared in the glass. 
The speculation was suggested that there was 
a limit to the size of atoms, as of stars, and 
that some atoms were too heavy to be stable 
and threw off electrons, just as the planets, on 
the nebular hypothesis, were thrown off by the 
original nebula. The atoms of bodies like 
uranium or radium might be supposed to have 
reached this limit of stability, and conceivably 
the electrons they shot off formed matter with 
simple atoms which in turn polymerized into 
heavier ones. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Syracuse University has received $150,000 
from the estate of the late James J. Belden. 
$50,000 goes to the Medical College and $100,- 
000 to the College of Liberal Arts. Syracuse 
University also receives the residue of the 
estate of the late John Lyman. The value of 
the estate is not stated; but special bequests 
to charitable institutions were made by Mr. 
Lyman, amounting to over $150,000. 


Tue new library building of Clark Univer- 
sity was dedicated on January 14. The build- 
ing has been erected at a cost of $125,000 
provided by the will of the founder of the 
university. President Hall announced a gift 
of $100,000 from Mr. Andrew Carnegie for 
the library, this gift being made in honor of 
Senator Hoar, president of the board of 
trustees. 


Tur Catholic University of America has 
received $50,000 from the Knights of Colum- 
bus for the endowment of a chair of secular 
history. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 473. 


Princeton University has received a be- 
quest of $25,000 from the late Louis C. Van- 
uxem, of Philadelphia. 


E. W. D. Houway, banker of Decorah, Iowa, 
has given his private library and collection of 
fungi to the University of Minnesota. The 
library numbers about 1,000 volumes, in- 
cluding many rare and valuable works, and 
the collection, with some 85,000 specimens, 
is especially rich in illustrative material of 
the smuts and rusts, a group in which Mr. 
Holway is a well-known specialist. 


Sir Winuiam H. Wints and Sir Frederick 
Wills have each contributed $5,000 to liqui- 
date the debt of $25,000 at University College, 
Bristol. The whole sum has now been col- 
lected. 


Tue Rev. Dr. William EH. Huntington has 
been elected president of Boston University. 
He has been since 1882 dean of the university, 
and since the resignation of Dr. Warren last 
year, acting president. The trustees decided 
that the university should equip laboratories 
for chemistry, physiology, biology, geology and 
botany, but that the courses in physics be con- 
tinued as heretofore at Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology. 


J. H. Bam, Pu.D., Carnegie research as- 
sistant working in the psychological labora- 
tory of Columbia University, has been ap- 
pointed professor of psychology and education 
in the University of Colorado. 


Av Edinburgh University, Mr. E. M. Hors- 
burgh has been appointed lecturer on practical 
mathematics; Dr. Jacob Halm, lecturer on 
astronomy, and Dr. H. J. Stiles, lecturer in 
applied anatomy. 


Mr. Hersert Tomurnson, F.R.S., known for 
his contribution to physics, has resigned the 
principalship of the Southwestern Polytechnic 
at Chelsea, London. 


Mr. R. H. Yapr, of Cambridge, has been 
appointed professor of botany in the Univer- 
sity College of Aberystwyth. 


Proressor F. C. M. Stormer has been ap- 
pointed professor of pure mathematics at the 
University of Christiania. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, JANUARY 29, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
Section A, Mathematics and Astronomy: 
Proressor Larnas GirrorRD WELD........ 161 


Section G, Botany: Proressor FRANCIS HE. 


WiLOWD ogocarsoedsansovaod oomonanogng es 165 
Geography in the United States, II.: PrRo- 
FESSOR W. M. Davis........:........... 178 
Karl Alfred von Zittel: PRoressor HENRY 
InAmminie) OOS Gogeoosddosanesboedses 186 
Scientific Books :— 
The Moth Book: Dr. L. O. Howarp. Ver- 
worns Allgemeine Physiologie: PROFESSOR 
Freperic S. Len................-...-.--. 188 
Scientific Journals and Articles............. 190 
Societies and Academies :— 
The Academy of Science and Art of Pitts- 
burg: Frepertc S. WEBSTER. Wisconsin 
Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters: EH. 
B. Skinner. Northeastern Section of the 
American Chemical Society: ArtHuR M. 
(CORN hie on fein cee errs Clee erence eat 191 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Convocation Week: Proressor EH. L. 
NicHois, Proressor W. Le Conte StT#- 
VENS, Proressor J. S. Kinestey. The 
Scintillations of Radium: Prorgessor R. 
NVA OOD asters (oustarstcn ein retin s-cieteneaney select a 192 
Special Articles :— 
The Occwrrence of Zine in Certain Inverte- 
brates: Haronp C. BRADLEY.............. 196 
Atmospherie Nitrogen for Fertilizing Pur- 
{NOSIS iP ERO GS ABS AD ears Bmeyctd ob ae a Oa 197 
Missouri Lead and Zine Regions visited by 
the Geological Society of America: Pro- 
TSISISON, JA, IR, (CINOONE, ooo guaudaovcscc0use5 197 
Scientific Notes and News................. 198 
University and Hducational News.......... 200 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
SECTION A, MATHEMATICS AND 

ASTRONOMY. 

Vice-President—Otto H. Tittmann, Superin- 

tendent U. S. Coast and Geodetic Survey, Wash- 

ington, D. C. 

Secretary—Professor Laenas G. Weld, Univer- 

sity of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa. 

Member of Cowncil—Professor Ormond Stone. 

Sectional Commvittee—Dr. G. B. Halsted, Vice- 

President, 1903; President C. S. Howe, Secretary, 

1903; Superintendent O. H. Tittmann, Vice-Presi- 

dent, 1904; Professor L. G. Weld, Secretary, 1904— 

1908; Professor W. W. Beman, one year; Dr. J. 

A. Brashear, two years; Professor J. R. Eastman, 

three years; Professor Ormond Stone, four years; 

Professor EH. B. Frost, five years. 

General Committee—Mr. Philip Fox. 


Professor Alexander Ziwet, of the Uni- 
versity of Michigan, was elected vice-presi- 
dent for the next meeting. 

The Chicago Section of the American 
Mathematical Society and the Astronom- 
ical and Astrophysical Society of America 
met in affiliation with Section A. The pa- 
pers presented before these affiliated socie- 
ties will be noticed elsewhere. Those read 
before Section A were as follows: 


THE 


A New Treatment of Volwme: Professor 
George Bruce Haustep, Kenyon Col- 
lege, Gambier, Ohio. 

In September, 1902, Poincaré wrote in 
his review of Hilbert’s ‘Grundlagen der 
Geometrie’: ‘““The fourth book treats of 
the measurements of plane areas. If this 
measurement can be easily established 
without the aid of the principle of Archi- 
medes, it is because two equivalent poly- 
gons can either be decomposed into trian- 
gles in such a way that the component tri- 


162 SCIENCE. 


angles of the one and those of the other are 
equal each to each, or else can be regarded 
as the difference of polygons capable of 
this mode of decomposition. But we must 
observe that an analogous condition does 
not seem to exist in the case of two equiv- 
alent polyhedrons; so that it becomes a 
question whether or not we can determine 
the volume of the pyramid, for example, 
without an appeal more or less disguised 
to the infinitesimal calculus. It is, there- 
fore, not certain that we can dispense with 
the axiom of Archimedes in the measure- 
ment of volumes. Moreover, Professor 
Hilbert has not attempted it.’’ 

Professor Halsted, in the paper in ques- 
tion, has attacked the problem in the fol- 
lowing manner: é 

The product of an altitude of a tetrahe- 
dron by the area of its base is the same 
whichever of the four faces may be chosen 
as base. This product is, therefore, a ‘nat- 
ural invariant’ of the tetrahedron and 
may be designated as its volume, except 
that in order to adjust the conception to 
our ordinary numerical scale the factor 
one third is arbitrarily introduced. After 
defining a transversal partition of a tetra- 
hedron as one made by a plane through 
an edge and a point of the opposite edge, 
it was shown that, however this solid be 
eut by a plane, the partition can be ob- 
tained as a result of successive transversal 
partitions, using not more than two other 
planes. 

The above being explained, it was shown 
that the volume of any tetrahedron is 
equal to the sum of the volumes of all 
tetrahedrons which result from any set of 
transversal partitions. This need not be 
assumed as self-evident, but may be dem- 
onstrated as a necessary consequence of 
the so-called ‘betweenness’ assumption 
with reference to three co-straight points. 
Similar principles were deduced for poly- 
hedrons in general, and by their use a gen- 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 474. 


eral theory of volume was built up with- 
out reference to the ordinary notions of 
ratio and commensurability. The same 
method of treatment may be applied to 
figures in hyperspace of any order. 


Lines on the Pseudosphere and the Syn- 
tractrix of Revolution: BH. L. Hancock, 
Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana. 
The lines of the pseudosphere are re- 

viewed and those of the syntractrix of rey- 

olution studied. The latter surface S, is 
defined as the surface generated by the 
revolution of the curve C, about its asymp- 

tote; C, being determined by laying off a 

constant distance d on the tangents of the 

tractrix. 

The geodesic, asymptotic and loxodro- 
mic lines on S, are worked out and studied 
by classifying the surfaces according as 


d=2, 


c being the constant of the tractrix. When 
d = 2c it happens that the geodesic lines on 
S, are all real; while for d < 2c they are 
real or imaginary according as 

ed? 
a —4cd 


2—= 
K* >= 


’ 


« belmg a constant of integration. 

The loxodromie lines of the syntractrix 
of revolution are represented in the plane 
by the same system of straight lines as rep- 
resent the loxodromie lines of the pseudo- 
sphere. 


The Rotation Period of the Planet Saturn: 
Professor G. W. Houex, Director of 
Dearborn Observatory, Evanston, Ills. 
In 1877 Professor Asaph Hall, then at 

the U. S. Naval Observatory, observed a 

spot near to Saturn’s equator and by its 

means determined: the period of the 
planet’s rotation. From that time on, 
until the recent opposition, no well-defined 

spot has been visible. On June 23, 1903, 

however, Professor EH. E. Barnard, of the 


i 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


Yerkes Observatory, noted a large and dis- 
tinct spot in Kronocentric latitude 36°.5. 
This was observed micrometrically on 
June 27 and July 13. 

Acting upon the request of the author, 
micrometrie observations of spots on 
Saturn were made by Professor S. W. 
Burnham with the 40-inch Yerkes equa- 
torial. Measurements were secured on 
July 29 and August 15. From these data 
the ‘mean’ rotation period deduced was 
104 38™ 278: but the observations showed 
the period to be variable. The value 
105 38™ 188-| n < 08.1856 was found to 
satisfy all the observations with a mean 
error of =0™.8. In the formula n is the 
number of rotations of the planet counting 
from the epoch of the discussion, June 
23, 1903. 


An Extension of the Group Concept: Dr. 
Epwarp Kasner, Columbia University, 
New. York. 

Read by title. 


Facilities for Astronomical Photography 
in Southern California: EB. L. LarKtn, 
Director of Lowe Observatory. 
Attention was called to the fact that, 

from May 1 to November 1, the observer 

upon Echo Mountain enjoys an almost un- 
broken succession of cloudless days and 
nights. During the greater part of this 
season the air becomes remarkably steady 
shortly after sunset; so much so that the 

rings of Saturn may be seen rising as a 

minute but sharply defined arch over the 

erest of the neighboring mountain ridge. 

Tn the rainy season, after a shower, the air 

is of such transparency that mountains 

distant a hundred miles or more may be 
seen with clearness and distinctness. 

In view of these conditions Mr. Larkin 
urged the establishment of an observatory 
equipped for astro-photography upon the 
summit of Echo Mountain. Attention was 
ealled to the faint nebulous light forming 


SCIENCE. 


163 


the background of large regions of the sky 
as observed from this station. Some inter- 
esting views of Lowe Observatory and its 
surroundings were projected upon the 
sereen, together with a number of the 
famous Lick Observatory photographs. 


Coincident Variations: Luctnus S. McCoy, 
Whitten, Iowa. 
Read by title. 


On the Generalization and Extension of 
Sylow’s Theorem: Dr. G. A. Muiuuer, 
Stanford University, California. 

Dr. Miller’s paper, which will shortly 
be printed in full, is in abstract as follows: 
Let p* be the highest power of p which 
divides the order of a group (G@), and sup- 
pose that a subgroup (P,) of order p* 
contains only one subgroup (P,) of order 
p® and of a particular type. It is proved 
that the number of subgroups of G which 
are of the same type as la is of the form 
1+ kp, and that all of these subgroups 
form a single conjugate set. Hence the 
order of G is of the form pfh,(1-+ kp) 
where ph, is the order of the largest sub- 
group of G which transforms P, into 
itself. By letting @=« we have Sylow’s 
theorem. When §= a the factor h, is not 
divisible by p while it is divisible by p for 
all other values of @: Some simplifications 
of the proof of Frobenius’s extension of 
Sylow’s theorem are also considered. 


The Supporting and Counter-weighting of 
the Principal Axes of Large Telescopes: 
C. D. Prrrine, Lick Observatory, Mt. 
Hamilton, California. 

In large telescopes it is necessary to 
reduce the friction of the axes in their 
bearings. This has usually been done by 
a system of friction wheels held against 
the axis by weights and levers. 

Experience with the roller bearings used 
in the driving-clock for the new mounting 


164 


of the Crossley reflector suggested the 
same principle as being suitable for the 
axes of large telescopes. These bearings 
are very simple in construction and con- 
sist of a ring of hardened ‘steel rollers 
around the axis, in the bearmg. The roll- 
ers fit closely about the axis and, therefore, 
do not require any frame to hold them in 
their relative positions. There is no loose- 
ness and the axis revolves with perfect 
accuracy, yet easily. 

Such bearings would be fully as efficient 
in the case of a large overhang of the 
polar-axis as in the ordinary form of 
mounting. Where the ends of the polar 
axis are supported on separate piers the 
bearings can be made self-aligning. 


A Linkage for Describing the Conic Sec- 
tions by Continuous Motion: J. J. 
Quinn, Warren, Pa. - 

This linkage is the material embodiment 
of the facts set forth in the following 
theorem : 

If one vertex of a movable pivoted 
rhombus be fixed in position, while the 
opposite vertex is constrained to move in 
the are of a circle, the locus of the inter- 
section of a diagonal (produced) through 
the other two vertices, with the radius 
(produced) of the circle in which the ver- 
tex moves is a conic. 

If the fixed vertex is in the diameter 
of the cirele, and the directing radius 
finite, the locus is an ellipse. If the direct- 
ing radius is infinite and the fixed vertex 
in the diameter, the locus is a parabola. If 
the directing radius is finite, and the fixed 
vertex is in the diameter produced, the 
locus is a hyperbola. Modifications of the 
essential features of this linkage give rise 
to many interesting corollaries involving 
the geometric construction of the conics, 
their tangents and normals. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 474. 


Circles Represented by p®P+L2Q4+Mph 
+NS =0: T. R. Runnine, Ann Arbor, 
Michigan. 

In the equation discussed » is a variable 
parameter; LZ, M and WN are constants; P, 
@, R and S represent circles. The equa- 
tion itself represents circles for all values 
of the parameter. Three circles of the sys- 
tem pass through each point of the plane. 
The locus of the centers of the system is 
a cubic having eight arbitrary constants. 

There will be a circle orthogonal to the 
system if any one of the circles P, Q, R, S 
ean be derived linearly from the other 
three. There are six point circles m the 
system, all lying upon the locus of the cen- 
ters. Four circles of the system are tan- 
gent to any one. Hight pairs of tangent 
circles have a common linear relation con- 
necting their parameters. ; 

The envelope of the system is 


18 LMNPQERS — 27 N?P?S? + L?M?2Q?R? 
— 4(L3NQ3S + M3PR?) =0 


which may be written 


B’?=4A0, 
where 
A=L°Q?—3PMR, O= V2R2—LOQNS, 
B= LMQR— 9PNS. 


It is shown that this is the envelope of 
wA+ uB+C=0, 


A, B, C being bicireular quarties which 
are themselves envelopes of systems de- 
rived from the original circles. 

The envelope of the radical axes of a 
particular circle and other circles of the 
system is a conic. This conic may be said 
to correspond to the particular circle, and 
there is such a conic corresponding to 
every circle of the system. The system of 
circles represented by 


P+ LwQ + Muk + NS=0 


is called the primary system, and the sys- 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


tem of conics corresponding to it in the 
manner above explained, the secondary 
system. It is shown that the equation of 
a conic of the secondary system is of the 
fourth degree with respect to the param- 
eter and that, therefore, four conics of 
the secondary system pass through any 
particular point in the plane. 

The equation of the radical axis of two 
cireles, » and v’, of the system is 
Ff and H being of the fourth degree in v 
and »’ and G of the third degree. 
appears that there are sixteen sets of 
values of » and p’ for which this equation 
represents the same radical axis; that is, 
there are sixteen pairs of circles having the 
same radical axis. Moreover, to these 
thirty-two cireles there correspond thirty- 
two conics of the secondary system, all of 
which are tangent to the same radical axis. 

The paper includes, by way of introduc- 
tion, a brief discussion of the equation 


w2P+LuQ+ MR=0. 


A .New Type of Transit-Room Shutter: 
Professor Davin Topp, Amherst, Massa- 
chusetts. 

The type of shutter here described is 
that used to cover the two transit slits of 
the new observatory of Amherst College. 
These slits have a clear opening of 100° 
each way from the zenith and are three 
and one half feet in width. Each shutter 
is twenty-one feet lone and sixteen feet 
high. It is made of structural steel with 
two vertical members and one truss mem- 
ber across the roof. Its weight is about 
three thousand pounds. 

The entire shutter moves as a unit upon 
ball-bearing rollers underneath the verti- 
eal members. These rollers travel upon 
rails lying east and west along the north 
and south walls of the building. The two 


SCIENCE. 


It thus © 


165 


ends of the shutter are made to travel in 
unison by means of rack and pinions with 
sprocket wheels and link-belt chain. 

The roof-member travels ten inches 
above the roof of the transit room, thus 
clearing all ordimary depths of snow. 
Only the bottom of this member is covered 
in, the structural elements of its top and 
sides being left exposed as in bridge work. 
Wind thrust is thereby minimized. 

The entire shutter opens or closes full 
width in four seconds, by eight turns of 
a hand wheel. A small shaft lock holds it 
firmly in either position. 

LAENAS GIFFORD WELD, 
Secretary. 


SECTION G, BOTANY. 

Section G at the St. Louis meeting was 
organized, under the chairmanship of Pro- 
fessor T. H. Macbride, on December 28, 
1903. The other officers were as follows: 

Secretary—F. HE. Lloyd. 

Cowncillor—Wm. Trelease. 

Sectional Committee—T. H. Macbride, vice- 
president, 1904; F. EH. Lloyd, secretary, 1904-1908 ; 
F. VY. Coville, vice-president, 1903; C. J. Chamber- 
lain, secretary, 1903; W. A. Kellerman (one year) , 
F. S. Earle (two years), C. E. Bessey (three 
years), W. T. Beal (four years), F. E. Clements 
(five years) . 

Member to General Committee—C. L. Shear. 

Meetings of the section for the reading 
of papers and for other business were held 
on December 28, 29, 30, 31 and January 
1. The Mycological Society and the Bota- 
nists of the Central States met conjointly 
with the section. 

A committee consisting of Professor C. 
E. Bessey, Dr. B. T. Galloway and Pro- 
fessor C. MacMillan drew up a resolution 
stronely endorsing the efforts at present 
being made looking toward the passage 
of such laws by Congress as will provide 
for the perpetual preservation of the Cala- 
veras Grove of Big Trees in California. 

On Friday morning the section, together 


166 


with visitine botanists, had the pleasure 
of paying a visit to the Missouri Botan- 
ical Garden, where, under the guidance of 
Dr. Wm. Trelease and his staff, the various 
appointments and collections were exam- 
ined with great profit and enjoyment. 
The section returned a vote of thanks to 
Dr. Trelease for his courtesy to the visiting 
botanists. 


The following papers were presented : 


The Work of the Year 1903 in Ecology: 
H. C. Cowuns. (By special invitation 


of the sectional committee.) This paper 


will be published in full in Science. 
Notes on the Botany of the Caucasus 

Mountains: C. BH. Bussey. 

General characteristics of the moun- 
tains and their climate. The steppes north 
of the range. The vegetation of Kislo- 
vodsk, Bermamut, Kasabek and Ardon, on 
the north side. 
Valley, the higher mountain slopes and 
the Rion Valley to Kutais. The forests of 


Colchis. Tiflis and its botanical garden. 
The region of Upper Armenia. The 
plains of Hrivan on the Zenga River. The 
gardens at Batum and Chackva. Tea 


plantations and bamboo thickets at 
Chackva. The forests of the northeast 
shores of the Black Sea. 


The Cypress Swamps of the Saint Francis 

River: 8. M. Couurmr. 

The Saint Francis River covers wide 
stretches of lowland in Missouri and Ar- 
kansas with a varying depth of water. At 
some seasons these lands are dry, at others 
covered with two feet of water. Sub- 
merged aquatic plants cover the river bot- 
tom and Polygonum densiflorwm seems to 
be the first aerial plant; Zizaniopsis mil- 
vacea succeeds it very closely; Peltandra 
undulata, Saururus cernwus and Typha 
latifolia are next in order, then a willowy 
undergrowth, sueceeded by Cephalanthus 


SCIENCE. 


Vegetation of the Ardon 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 474. 


occidentalis; Nyssa wuiflora and Taxodiwm 
distichum oceupy the next zone and are 
the principal forms which have worked 
out so-called adaptations to their habitat. 

The young trees of Nyssa uniflora, the 
tupelo gum, are crowded in pure groves, 
and as they imerease in size they develop 
a peculiar bulging in the trunk near the 
water line. These dome-shaped bases be- 
come as much as twelve feet in diameter 
and are accompanied by the decay of the 
central tissue in base and trunk. Upper 
portions of the trees are usually blown 
away, leaving a hollow shaft thirty or 
forty feet high. The habitat of the cypress 
is similar. The young groves are not so 
unmixed as those of the tupelo. The cy- 
press base, instead of being dome-shaped, 
becomes conical, but does not decay im the 
center. The development of the cypress 
‘knees’ or upward enlargements of the 
roots is another peculiarity of the cypress 
growing in water. They are enormously 
developed in the Saint Francis region, 
sometimes reaching a height of eight feet 
above the ground. When cypress grows 
under mesophytiec surroundings, neither 
the enlargement of the base occurs nor the 
development of knees. Beyond the cy- 
press-tupelo gum association is found a 
large variety of shrubs and trees. The 
tension line between the cypress and most 
broad-leaved trees seems dependent upon 
the amount of water; the cypress can live 
on land or water, but the other forms only 
on land. However, they are more vigorous 
under those favorable conditions and soon 
occupy the land to the exclusion of the 
cypress. These marginal forms include 
Liquidambar styraciflua, white and red 
oaks, sassafras, sycamore, Celtis Mississip- 
piensis, Nyssa sylvatica and a large num- 
ber of shrubs. 


Ecological Notes on the Islands of Ber- 
muda: S. M. Countsr. 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


The Bermuda Islands are compcsed of 
porous limestone with a thin covering of 
soil. The nature of this substratum pre- 
vents the accumulation of water excepting 
a few brackish ponds near the level of tide- 
water. Conditions of moisture and expo- 
sure are very uniform, hence plant asso- 
ciations are not large, nor do they vary 
widely. The largest ecological area com- 
prises in a general way all the hillsides and 
slopes that have sufficient soil to support 
a large vegetation. Their appearance is 
somber on account of the large number of 
cedars which cover them. ‘Two species of 
Lantana (called the Bermuda sage-brush) 
are associated with the cedars, and crab- 
grass and cape-weed cover the ground. 
Tall oleanders are marginal to the cedar 
eroves and Yucca alsifolia is abundant 
along the cliffs. A second area comprises 
the rocky shores alone the ocean, charac- 
terized by gnarled forms of Conocarpus 
erectus, Borrichia arborescens, Solidago 
sempervirens and Opuntia Tuna. A third 
area is formed by the sandy beaches and 
small dunes along the south shore. The 
sea blackberry, Scwvola lobelia, is the most 
abundant form and Ipomaa pes-capre is 
almost as common, trailing its long vines 
over the sands and helping to bind them 
together. Secondary in importance are 
Cakile equalis, Towrnefortia gnaphaloides, 
the golden-rod mentioned above and the 
sea ox-eye, Borrichia arborescens. These 
mesophytie and xerophytic areas are most 
prominent, but there are two types of 
swamps to be noted. The Devonshire 
marsh was apparently once a large pond 
but there is little water left. Two species 
of Sphagnum, Proserpimaca palustris, 
Typha latifolia and Hichornia oceupy the 
lower pools. Hydrocotyle Asiatica and 
Herpestis monniera are rooted in the mud. 
Osmunda Cinnamomea and O. regalis are 
abundant in somewhat drier places, while 
in the dry, peaty soil Pteris aqwilina cor- 


SCIENCE. 


167 


data, the cedar, palmetto and dog-bush are 
most common. The mangrove swamps 
about small inlets of the sea constitute the 
second hydrophytie area. The aerial roots 
from the limbs of Rhizophora Mangle and 
the curving prop-roots add considerable 
interest to these swamps. The seeds begin 
to grow on the trees, then drop into the 
mud, their pointed ends fixing them up- 
right, while the growing roots soon pene- 
trate the soil and a pair of leaves appear — 
at the upper end. Avicenna nitida, the 
false mangrove, is associated with the true 
and along the tide-water margins are Sali- 
cornia fruticosa, Statice Lefroyi, Seswvvwm 
Portulacastrum and Coccoloba wvifera. 


A Lichen Society of a Sandstone Riprap: 

Bruce FINK. 

A general discussion of the conditions 
under which the society has developed and 
is now growing, including some statement 
as to amount of moisture in various por- 
tions of the riprap, amount of disintegra- 
tion at various points and amount of ex- 
posure to sun and wind. Following this 


-Is a consideration of the ecologic condi- 


tions and resulting spermaphytic flora in 
the area, and the effect of these surround- 
ings on the composition of the lichen so- 
ciety. Next in order is given a list of the 
lichen species of the society, followed by a 
discussion of the conditions under which 
each species is growing and the adapta- 
tions of each species to these conditions. 
Brief comparisons are made between this 
society and three others found on sand- 
stone, and herein are shown some very 
marked responses between ecologic condi- 
tions and structural adaptations. 


Relation of Soil to the Distribution of Veg- 
etation in the Pine Region of Michigan: 
E. B. Livineston. 

The study here reported is of about 
fifteen townships lying in Roscommon and 


168 SCIENCE. 


Crawford Counties, Michigan. The soils 
are classed as clay, clay loam, sandy loam, 
and sand, power to hold and lft water 
from an underground water level decreas- 
ing with the different soils in the order 
named. The region is glacial and consists 
of ridges and plains. The former are usu- 
ally gravelly and sandy loam. The latter 
are loamy sand, clay or nearly pure sand. 
Some ridges are quite clayey. The vegeta- 
’ tion is divided into (I.) upland and (IL.) 
lowland types. Of the former are consid- 
ered the following, named for the charac- 
teristic tree species: (1) The hardwood, 
(2) the white pine, (3) the Norway pine 
and (4) the jack pine. These types be- 
come more xerophytie in character in the 
order named. In general, the upland 
types follow in their distribution the dis- 
tribution of the soils, the hardwood occur- 
ring on low clay plains, on swamp margins 
in loamy soil, and on certain plains of loam 
which are well covered with humus. The 
white pine occurs on certain ridges of clay 
loam and of clay and also on swamp mar- 


gins in loam and clay. The Norway pine: 


type is found on loamy sand plains and 
on the ridges of sandy and gravelly loam. 
The jack pine type occupies exclusively 
the well-washed sand plains. The only 
complicating factors in distribution are 
the effect of humus (which seems able to 
make eyen sand able to support hardwood) 
and the effect of the rise of the under- 
eround water level, as at swamp margins. 
The latter makes a sandy soil able to bear 
vegetation which would otherwise be 
found only in loam or clay. Analyses of 
the soil seem to show that its chemical 
properties are unimportant, that the real 
factor to determine distribution is the 
power of the soil to hold water, this power 
increasing with fineness of particles or 
with presence of humus. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 474. 


Research Methods im Phytogeography: FE. 

E. CLEMENTS. 

(1) The use of simple and automatic 
instruments, photometer, psychrometer, 
thermometer, etc., in the exact determina- 
tion of the physical factors of a habitat; 
(2) the study of the structure and devel- 
opment of formations by means of perma- 
nent and denuded quadrats, and migration 
eireles; (3) experimental ecology in the 
field by moving plants from one habitat to 
another, or by modifying the controlling 
factor of a habitat; (4) experimental ecol- 
ogy in the plant house by equalization and 
control of physical factors. 


Ensayo para la formacion de wn foto-herb- 
arto Botanico y medico de la flora Meai- 
cana: FERNANDO ALTAMIRANO.* 
Contendra una colleecién de 6000 foto- 

erafias tomadas de los especimenes del 

Herbario de Plantas Mexicanas del Insti- 

tuto Medico Nacional. Cada fotografia 

sera. de y llevara dos etiquetas: una corre- 
spondera al Colector y tendra los datos de 
celasificacion, lugar de vegetacion, ete., y la 
otra correspondera al instituto, conten- 
iendo los nombres vulgares, las rectifica- 
clones que se hayan hecho 4 la clasifieca- 
cion, ete. Cada lamina del Foto-herbario, 
que contendra 4 foto-grafias, ira accom- 

panada de una hoja de igual temano (0.20 

peor 0.25 préximamente), conteniendo 

datos deseriptivos, aplicaciones y la distri- 
bucidn geoerafica con su mapa respectivo. 

Las plantas del Herbario seran fotografia- 

das en orden de familias naturales, comen- 

zando por las Ranuneulaceas. Cada lam- 
ina contendra solamente especies de un 
mismo género, especies que iran numera- 
das progresivamente, tal como se repre- 
senta en la muestra que se remite, la cual 
comprende 100 fotografias. La impresién 
del texto y el tiro de las laminas, lo hara 

*Ta palabra foto-herbario sera substituida por 
otra si se considerare inadecuada. 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


el Instituto, en ntiimero de 1,000 ejem- 
plares, que repartira en toda la Republica 
y 4 lag corporaciones cientificas extran- 
geras. El objeto de la publicacion de este 
Foto-herbario es facilitar el conocimiento 
de nuestras plantas 4 toda clase de per- 
sonas, atin de aquellas que sean menos ver- 
sadas en la Botanica. Para eso se pre- 
senta la figura de la planta que atraé la 
atencién y facilita las descripeiones; y por 
eso tambien se dan 4 conocer las aplica- 
ciones y el lugar donde vegeta una planta, 
lo cual aumenta el interés por conocerla y 
facilita su adquisicién 4 los colectores. 
Formaré pues, este Foto-herbari o un eat- 
4lozo como el que acostumbran publicar 
los boténicos de sus herbarios; pero con la 
ventaje de que el Foto-herbario es un cata- 
logo y un herbario 4 la vez, podriamos 
decir, acompafiado de otras muchas no- 
tisias que no se acostumbra poner en los 
simples catdlogos. Este Foto-herbario 
puede tener una aplicacién mas amplia 
todavia, y ese es mi deseo, que comprenda 
las Fotografias de todas las plantas mexi- 
canas conocidas. Para consequirlo me 
propongo que tambien sean fotografiados 
los especimenes de los herbarios extran- 
geros que no tengamos en los de México. 
Asi por ejemplo, procurarémos fotografias 
de aquellas plantas mexicanas, de los her- 
barios de los Hstades Unidos, de los de 
Europa, ete. A la vez que trabajemos en 
México se proeurara que tambien se tra- 
baje, sobre el mismo asunto, en los her- 
barios de fuera, siguiendo un plan deter- 
minado para que cuando al fin de algun 
tiempo (dos anos probablemente) que se 
haya completado le coleccién de las foto- 
eratias de la Flora Mexicana, no resulten 
desordanadas ni haya repeticiones. Si 
pues se considerare util la publicacion del 
Catalogo del Herbario del Instituto, segin 
la manera que he indieado, y que sea apli- 
eable 4 toda la Flora Mexicana, procu- 
raremos fotografiar cuanto antes, todas 


SCIENCE. 


169 


las plantas de los herbarios que haya en 
México, y yo me atreveré a pedir desde 
ahora la valiosisima cooperacion de los 
botanicos de todas las naciones. Ojala 
que esta autorizada Asociacion tuviera a 
bien iniciar el monbramiento de una Com- 
isin que se siriera dictaminar sobre cual 
seria la mejor manera de llevar a cabo la 
formacion de un Catalogo General de la 
Flora de cada Nacién 6 sea un Foto-her- 
bario-Pan-Americano. 


The Alamogordo Desert; A Preliminary 

Notice: THomas H. MacBripz. 

The Alamogordo Desert is situated in 
southwestern New Mexico; it is a bolson, 
i. €., an undrained desert plain. The to- 
pography of the region and its geology are 
briefly described and an effort made by 
illustration and deseription to connect the 
present distribution of the flora with geo- 
logical history. It is claimed that in this 
desert, as often in other parts of the coun- 
try, the distribution problems can be un- 
derstood only as the geologic story is more 
or less perfectly read. The flora of the 
plain is contrasted with that of the moun- 
tain side and summit. 


The Flora of the St. Peter Sandstone im 
Towa, An Ecological Study: B. SuHIMeEK. 
‘The distribution of the St. Peter expo- 

sures in Iowa. The physical characters of 

the St. Peter sandstone. <A brief discus- 
sion of the plants which are peculiar to it. 

A corresponding discussion of the plants 

which are common to rocky ledges and 

which also oceur on the St. Peter sand- 

stone. A more detailed discussion of a 

series of plants which normally belong to 

other habitats, but which have gained a 

foothold on the sandstone, or on the sands 

resulting from the decomposition of the 
sandstone. These latter are very much 
developed. 


170 


An Ecologically Aberrant Begoma: WiL- 
1AM TRELEASE. 

An account of a Mexican species of 
Begonia possessing a single large sessile 
leaf closely applied to the cliff on which 
the plant grows, so as to afford protection 
to its roots. 


Plant Formations in the Vicinity of Co- 
lumbia, Mo.: FRANcIS DANIELS. 

The vegetation of the region falls into 
four main classes: (1) The aquatic and 
subaquatice floras; (2) the mesophytic, or 
in poor soil, xerophytic, sylvan flora; (3) 
the rupestrine flora of the limestone cliffs; 
(4) the cultural and ruderal floras. The 
aquatic and subaquatic vegetation falls 
into six zones: The aquatic, amphibious, 
limose, ulignose (wet swamp), paludose 
(open marsh) and riparian zones. The 
mesophytie (or xerophytic) sylvan flora 
assumes five main types: The alluvial, the 
mesophytic sylvan proper, the open brush, 
the arborescent glade and the sterile hill 
type. The rupestrine flora exhibits four 
types: The fontinal or dripping rock, the 
soil-covered ledge, the bare rock and the 
cliff summit types. The cultural and ru- 
deral floras have the forms proper to pas- 
tures, meadows, fields, orchards, gardens 
and waste places. Besides these there are 
a host of parasitic and saprophytic fungi, 
and a few flowering plants, like Cuwscuta, 
Thalesia and Monotropa. 


The Distribution of Some Iowa Plants; 
Formations on which they Occur: Li. H. 
PAMMEL. 

A brief account of some of the more im- 
portant plants found on the carbonifer- 
ous sandstone in eastern Jowa, noting the 
oeceurrence of the white pine, Pinus Stro- 
bus, Gaylussacia resinosa, Aspidium mar- 
gimale, A. acrostichoides, Lycopodiwm 
lucidulum, Phegopteris Dryopteris, Dier- 
villa trifida and Danthonia spicata. The 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 474. 


occurrence of boreal types like Salina can- 
dida, Lobelia Halmu, Cnicus muticus, Gen- 
hana crinita. 


The Chemical Oonstitwents of a Soil as 
Affecting Plant Distribution: S. M. 
TRACY. 

The author calls attention to the fact that 
the distribution of plants is often attrib- 
uted wholly to the physical and mechan- 
ical condition of the soil, though in many 
eases the chemical constituents of the soil 
are equally potent. 


Vegetation of the North Shore of Lake 

Michigan: C. MacMinnan. 

A brief sketch of the characteristic shore 
and forest vegetation of the North Shore. 
The strong resemblance of this to the 
mountain vegetation of British Columbia 
was pointed out. Not only does the re- 
semblance appear in the many northern 
species, but more particularly im the gen- 
eral association of plants and the relative 
preponderance of generic types. 


Zones of Vegetation About the Margin of 

a Lake: W. J. BRAu. 

About a mile and a half northwest of 
Lansing, Mich., is a natural pond which 
goes by the name of Jones’ Lake with an 
outlet at the west. The lake is nearly cir- 
cular in outline and about forty rods in 
diameter. There is a slight extension both 
to the north and to the south. The bottom 
and the shaky margins all around consist 
uniformly of dark mud, ooze or muck. 
The lake contains a few species of fish, 
such as sunfish, blue gills and spotted bass. 
From the soft banks within two to three 
rods, the bottom uniformly descends rap- 
idly to deep water. J examined the mar- 
eins of this lake on August 23, 1903. Be- 
ginning with the deep water this is the 
order of the bands of some of the leading 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


kinds of plants: (1) Potamogetons, not 
yet in fruit, prominent among which was 
Potamogeton amphifolius Tuckerman, 
which formed an unbroken band about the 
margin of the lake. (2) In most places a 
narrow strip of some species of Chara. (3) 
Castalia tuberosa (Paine) Greene, and 
Nymphea advena Soland, usually mixed, 
but sometimes only one or the other, 
formed a band ten to thirty feet in width, 
and this band was rarely broken, and then 
only for a space of ten to thirty feet. (4) 
In many places were narrow patches of 
Pontederia cordata L., but scarcely ever in 
long strips. (5) Typha latifolia L., with 
very rarely an exception of a few feet, 
formed a band from five to twenty feet in 
width. (6) Sedges in variety with some 
species of rushes and grasses, and others of 
like needs formed an uninterrupted band. 
(7) Several species of Salix, or some one or 
two, surrounded the lake completely. (8) 
A band of Laria laricina (Du Roy) Koch 
was unbroken excepting for a few rods on 
the north, where it may have been formerly 
cut away next to a cleared farm. As the 
condition of the margins of the lake and 
surrounding it are so nearly uniform, we 
have reason to expect the zones of vegeta- 
tion will be little if at all interrupted. As 
the descent of the bottom from the flat 
margins of the lake to the deep water are 
so rapid, there is only room for narrow 
zones of vegetation. Beyond the eighth 
zone (of Larix) in two places for a quar- 
ter of the circumference the slope rises 
rapidly to dry arable land, while in the 
remaining three fourths there are many 
kinds of aquatic and lowland plants. In 
all his travels, the author never remem- 
bers to have seen a place where so many 
zones of plants were so well marked for 
so long a distance as were found at Jones’ 
Lake. 


SCIENCE. 


ical 


The Genus Harpochytrium, tts Develop- 
ment, Synonymy and Distribution: G. 
FE, ATKINSON. 

Describes the genus Harpochytrium, its 
structure, formation of sporangia and 
spores; the movement of the spores and 
attachment to host. Also discusses the 
synonymy as well as the distribution of the 
genus in different parts of the world. 


The Phylogeny of the Lichens: F. E. 

CLEMENTS. 

(1) A general consideration of the un- 
derlying principles of polyphylesis; (2) a 
detailed discussion of the points of con- 
tact of fungi and lichens; (3) the treat- 
ment and classification of lichens as para- 
sitie fungi. 


The Necessity for Reform wm the Nomen- 
clature of the Fungi: KF. S. HARLE. 
Cites the conflicting usages in Engler 

and Prantl’s ‘Pflanzenfamilien’ and in Sac- 

eardo’s ‘Sylloge Fungorum’ to show that 
there is no unanimity in the use of 
genus names for fungi at the present time. 

Shows from unpublished data in regard to 

the types of the earlier genera that in 

forty-five per cent. of these cases the ear- 
liest available name is not used by Sac- 
eardo. Shows that this process of shifting 
generic names from one group of species 
to another is still in progress and urges 

that immediate steps be taken to put a 

final stop to the practice. 


Taxonomic Value of the Spermogonium: 

J. C. ARTHUR. 

The physiological significance of the 
spermogonium is yet unknown. It had 
been tentatively assumed to be associated 
with sexual reproduction as the male struc- 
ture. It has been known for more than 
fifty years, and it ‘still bears the name 
eiven by the discoverer, Tulasne, but its 
sexual character is still problematical. 


172 


The numerous forms of spores among the 
Uredinee are shown to belong to two 
classes, the teleutospores, which are doubt- 
less of a sexual character, and conidia, the 
latter being either wcidia or uredo. These 
follow in an invariable order. The sper- 
mogonium always appears in the life cycle 
as the first fruiting structure. If the first 
subsequent spore structure is the uredo, 
there is no xcidium in the cycle; if it is 
in the teleutospore, there is neither ecid- 
ium nor uredo. The presence and associa- 
tion of the spermogonia, therefore, furnish 
important information regarding the ex- 
tent of the life cycle. The, characters 
drawn from form, size and origin of the 
spermogonia furnish minor characters. 
The spermogonia, as well as any or all of 
the conidia, may be suppressed in certain 
species. 


Proof of the Identity of Phoma and Phyl- 
losticta on the Sugar Beet: Guoree G. 
HeEpG@cock. 

This paper gives the results of a ecul- 
tural study of Phoma betw and Phyllos- 
ticta tabifica im which two fungi are shown 
to be identical, both causing a similar rot 
of the root of the sugar beet, and pro- 
ducing upon inoculation upon the leaves 
the typical Phyllosticta leaf spots. The 
cultural characters of the two fungi are 
identical. 


Craterellus taxophilus, A New Species of 

Thelephoracee: C. THom. 

A delicate fleshy Craterellus found at 
Ithaca, N. Y., is described and figured as 
new. Photographs, specimens and draw- 
ings of structure are presented, and show 
it to differ from previously deseribed spe- 
cies. Its association with Yaxus, which 
seems very close, is made the basis of the 
specific name. The technical description 
of the species as Craterellus taxophilus is 
added. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 474. 


The Fungi Cultivated by Texas Ants: A. 

M. Frereuson. 

The fungi found in the so-called ‘mush- 
room gardens’ of certain fungus-eating ants 
occurring in central and southern Texas 
(Atta fervens Say, A. septentrionalis Me- 
Cook, A. turrifex Wheeler and Atta n. sp. 
Wheeler) consist of a white slow-grow- 
ing mycelium. with characteristic clusters 
of terminal swellings, the ‘Kohlrabihauf- 
chen’ of Moller, which are eaten by the 
ants. While no kind of spore formation 
was found, it is probably the same as the 
form deseribed by Moller from the gardens 
of Brazilian Attas. The fungus grows 
slowly in culture, but was often more vig- 
orous than in the garden under the control 
of the ants. The formation of the charac- 
teristic swellings seemed to be governed by 
local conditions (probably controlled in 
the garden by the ants), for in cultures, on 
beans, for example, they would be formed 
in abundance in some tubes and not at all 
in others. Efforts to feed one species with 
the fungus grown in the garden of 
another, or from cultures, gave erratic re- 
sults, rarely succeeding, and then only 
after prolonged starving. Some observa- 
tions of Moller bearing on the systematic 
position of the fungus were unconfirmed. 
A Dematiwm-like fungus proved to be the 
organism cultivated in the nests of Cypho- 
myrmez rimosus. This ant was sup- 
posedly carnivorous until its fungus-feed- 
ing habit was observed by Dr. W. M. 
Wheeler. In this case caterpillar pellets 
are used exclusively by the ants for a me- 
dium upon which to grow the fungus. 


Symbiosis in Lolium: BH. M. Freeman. 

In a previous paper I have deseribed the 
unique year-cycle of the fungus symbiont 
of Lolium temulentwm and other species 
of Lolium. Further experiments support 
the theory that the fungus does not form 
spores. There are two races each, of L. 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


temulentum, L. perenne and L. lnicola, 
one with and one without the fungus sym- 
biont. Of these the with-fungus race is 
the slightly more vigorous. Present 
knowledge poimts to the probability that 
the fungus is an Ustilagene, which has lost 
its power of spore formation and has 
adopted a method of intraseminal mycelial 
infection at the first appearance of the 
stem growing point. Infection of without- 
fungus plants seems impossible, as is also 
the elimination of the fungus from the 
with-fungus plants. 


Mitotic Division of the Nuclei in the Cyan- 
ophyceew: Epaar W. OLIVE. 

The ‘central body’ in the Cyanophyces 
is a nucleus, not essentially different from 
the nuclei of higher plants. When condi- 
tions for growth are favorable, the vegeta- 
tive cells divide with unparalleled rapidity, 
so that their nuclei are rarely in a state of 
rest. Consequently during this period of 
mitotic division a nuclear membrane is not 
present. In spores and heterocysts, on the 
other hand, the nuclei form nuclear mem- 
branes and they resemble, furthermore, in 
other respects the resting nuclei of the 
higher plants. When in division, the ‘cen- 
tral body’ is made up, for the most part, 
of a more or less dense kinoplasmie achro- 
matic substance, which corresponds to the 
spindle, and which is composed both of 
mantle fibers, attached to the partition 
walls of the cell, and of connecting fibers. 
The chromosomes, which can be success- 
fully demonstrated only by careful differ- 
entiation of stained material, are very 
minute, and are usually sixteen in num- 
ber. In the large species Oscillatoria prin- 
ceps and O. Froehlichui, however, there are 
thirty-two, while in Nostoc commune and 
in Gleocapsa polydermatica there are but 
eight chromosomes. In Gleocapsa the 
plane of division of the chromosomes is 
exceptional, in that it takes place at right 


SCIENCE. 


173 


angles to the resulting plane of division of 
the cell. Im all the other forms studied, 
embracing five genera, the plane of divi- 
sion of the chromosomes is normal, being 
parallel to the resulting plane of division 
of the cell. Im the filamentous forms di- 
vision of the cells takes place with wave- 
like regularity; and in all cases studied, 
with the exception of Gleocapsa, division 
of the cell is accomplished by the growing 
in from the peripheral wall of a ring- 
formed wall. In Oscillatoria several ring- 
shaped walls, in different stages of growth, 
may be present at the same time in the 
same cell, long before the one first formed 
has completely divided the cell. Two 
kinds of granular inclusions, which are 
characteristic of the Cyanophycee, the 
eyanophycin granules and the slime glob- 
ules, or ‘central granules,’ are usually 
present in the cytoplasm. The peripheral 
position of the cytoplasm is generally dif- 
ferentiated into a denser, fibrous region— 
the chromatophore—which contains the 
diffused green and blue coloring matters. 
No evidence whatever was found of the 
presence of minute globular chloroplasts, 
such as several investigators say are pres- 
ent in certain fornis. In this investigation 
the conclusion was reached. that the cell 
organization of these low plants can not 
be successfully studied except in thin sec- 
tions, cut longitudinally as well as cross- 
wise. 


Chemical Stimulation of Algw: EH. B. Liv- 

INGSTON. 

The study was carried on with the poly- 
morphic form of Stigeocloniwm previously 
worked with by the same author. In the 
previous work it was shown that with rela- 
tively high osmotie pressure of the medium 
the alga produces only spherical cells, a 
Palmella or Plewrococcus form. With low 
osmotic pressure it grows out with long 
branching filaments. Zoospores are formed 


174 


only with low osmotic pressure and they 
germinate to form filaments. If filaments 
are placed in a medium of high pressure 
they break up into round cells or form 
eroups of round cells. When the solution 
of low osmotic pressure has added to it a 
trace of such a poison as nitrie or sulfuric 
acid, copper sulphate, silver nitrate, etc., 
the alga takes the Palmella form as though 
the pressure were high. If the poison is 
still more dilute there is a stimulation of 
zoospore production, though the zoospores 
are checked in germination. Nitrates and 
sulphates were used and it appears that 
the poison kations have the effect of pro- 
ducing the Palmella form in a solution 
whose osmotic pressure is far too low to 
bring about this result. The kations so far 
studied are: H, Li, Rb, NH,, Cu, Ag, Al 
and Fe. All of these also produce stimula- 
tion of zoospore production when in 
weaker solution, and to the list may be 
added Ba and Sr. 


The Differentiation of the Strobilus: F. EH. 

CLEMENTS. 

(1) A brief consideration of the anti- 
thetic evolution of the sporophyte from 
Tetraspora to Anthoceros; (2) a discus- 
sion of the probable origin of Selaginella 
and Isoetes; (3) the derivation of the stro- 
bilus of Pinus, Myosurus and Alisma from 
Selaginella; (4) the general ecological 
principles involved in the modification of 
the strobilus; (5) the essentials of the 
phylogenetic method. 


The Histology of Insect Galls: M. T. Coox. 

The function of the gall is to furnish 
nutrition and protection for the larva. 
The simplest galls only show two zones, 
the inner nutritive and the outer pro- 
tective. The most highly developed galls 
show four zones, the second and third 
often separated; the innermost zone is nu- 
tritive and the other protective. When 
the gall first forms it is a mass of irregular 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 474. 


parenchyma cells which soon become dif- 
ferentiated into the zones. In the simplest 
galls, where we have only two zones, the 
inner nutritive zone is rich in protoplasm, 
starch, ete., until the insect is near ma- 
turity, while the other zone forms tannin. 
In the most highly developed galls, tannin 
is also developed in abundance. The in- 
nermost zone is very rich in nutrition, the 
remaining three zones are protective. The 
separation of the second and third zone is 
undoubtedly a protective device. The 
shape of the gall and its complexity are 
probably due to efforts for protection 
against parasites and birds. 


Morphology of Caryophyllacew: M. T. 

Coox. 

Some time since the writer published a 
short paper on Agrostemma Githago L. and 
Claytoma Virgimca L. Among the most 
interesting. points in these papers was the 
formation of the peculiar beak to the ovule 
and the two zones of the nucellus in A. 
Gthago. The writer has since continued 
the study upon two species of the Caryo- 
phyllacee for the purpose of demonstrat- 
ing the importanee, if any, of the morphol- 
ogy of the embryo sae and surrounding 
structure in taxonomy. The two species 
selected for study were Vaccaria Vaccaria 
(L.) Britton and Alsine pubera (Michx.) 
Britton. Jn both cases a beak is formed 
similar to A. Githago and the embryo fol- 
lows a similar line of development, but the 
sae enlarges in the same manner and di- 
rection as in @. Virginica. Other points 
are as yet not definitely determined. 


The Phylogeny and Development of the 
Archegonium of Mrniwm cuspidatum: G. 
M. Hourerry. 

After brief statements in regard to the 
collection and method of treatment of ma- 
terial, and the terminology to be used, the 
author reviews the more important litera- 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


ture on the development of the moss arche- 
gonium from 1851 to the present. A sum- 
mary of this literature shows considerable 
divergence in the opinions and interpreta- 
tions of the several investigators. The 
erux of discussion has been in respect to 
the origin of the members of the axial row, 
but particularly whether the terminal cell 
(cover cell of liverworts) adds to the row 
after its first division. The discovery of 
a mitotic figure in this cell after one cell 
had been cut off enables the writer to de- 
cide this question affirmatively. In a sec- 
ond part of the paper, the author demon- 
strates the homology of archegonia and 
antheridia from the standpoint of (a) 
homology of the organs as indicated in 
early stages of development; (b) homology 
of the eee and other members of the axial 
row; (c) the homology of. the members of 
the axial row and sperm mother cells. 
From certain bisexual organs, and from 
abnormal or slightly modified forms of 
both archegonia and antheridia, the au- 
thor is able to offer support to recent 
views as to the phylogeny of the archego- 
nium and to throw light upon the meaning 
of abnormal forms, and particularly to 
eroups of cells at the apexes of certain 
~ archegonia for which up to the present no 
adequate interpretation has been sug- 
gested. 


The Enzyme-secreting Cells in the Seed- 
lings of Zea Mais and Phemea dactyl- 
ifera: Howarp S. REED. 

During the process of germination, the 
above-named seedlings produce an enzyme 
for the solution of endcsperm. The en- 
zyme is secreted from a differentiated 
layer of cells. These cells show continuous 
morphological changes during the time the 
enzyme is being secreted. When secretion 
begins the cells of the secreting layer are 
full of the fine proteid granules, which are 
thought to be zymogen, because, as secre- 


SCIENCE. 


175 


tion progresses, they constantly disappear. 
In the early stages of secretion the nuclei 
of the secreting cells of Zea Mais are 
found in the basal end of the cell; in the 
later stages they are in the apical end 
next the endosperm layers. As secretion 
progresses, there is a continuous increase 


‘in the amount of chromatin in the nuclei 


of the secreting cells. At the same time 
the nucleoli decrease in size and staining 
properties. At the end of the process 
the protoplasm of the secreting cells 
breaks down and the products of disinte- 
eration disappear from sight. 


Discoid Prth in Woody Plunts: EF. W. Hox- 

WORTHY. 

Diseoid Pith: Any pith which is inter- 
rupted at frequent and tolerably regular 
intervals by transverse partitions dividing 
the pith up into a series of chambers. 
These partitions, disks, diaphragms, plates 
or lamelle, as they are variously called, 
may be composed either of thick-walled or 
of thin-walled cells, and the spaces between 
the disks may be empty or filled with cel- 
lular tissue. Thus, M. Gris classifies discoid 
pith as: (1) Heterogeneous continuous 
diaphragmatic, when the pith is: contin- 
tuuous between the disks, and (2) hetercge- 
neous discontinuous diaphragmatic, when 
the pith is not continuous between the 
disks, but the interspaces filled with air. 
The first type of pith is found in Lirioden- 
dron, Magnolia species, Asimina, Nyssa, 
ete., and the cells forming the disks are 
very thick-walled and heavily lignified, 
while the cells forming the interspaces are 
small, very thin-walled and empty. The 
second type is found in Juglans, Ptero- 
carya, Celtis, Halesia, Forsythia viridis- 
sima, Jasminum species, Paulowia, ete., 
and the cells forming the disks are thin- 
walled, empty and often shrunken. Dis- 
eoid pith seems to be of taxonomic impor- 
tance for generic distinctions in some 


176 


cases; though the characters it furnishes © 


may be of only specific rank, as in For- 
sythia and Jasminum. 


A Plea for the Preservation of Owr Wild 
Flowers: C. H. Bessny and §. Counter. 
Cultivated flowers are planted and cared 

for by man, but no one cares for the wild 

beauties of the woods and meadow. We 
must preserve them. It is our privilege 
as lovers of plants to care for them and to 
see that they are not exterminated. The 
rarer the plant the greater the danger that 
it will be eradicated. Who are the offend- 
ers? The tourists, who lay their vandal 
hands on everything pretty; the amateurs, 
who*desire to have samples of everything; 
and some botanists who think more of col- 
lecting specimens than of the beauties of 
nature in the field.. At Colorado Springs 
the once beautiful Cheyenne Canyon has 
been made barren by the vandals, and 
there is scarcely a fern or a pretty flower 
now left init. What shall we do about it? 
First of all let us talk vigorously against 
this vandalism. Talk in season and out of 
season, and denounce the wholesale de- 
struction of wild flowers in the strongest 
language possible. Then write against 
vandalism. Do not fail to say what you 
think through the public press. The news- 
papers will help you every time if you 
call upon them. Then organize clubs and 
ouilds and societies. Do this as you please. 

If you prefer to form a local chapter of the 

Wild Flower Preservation Society well 

and good. We shall take great pleasure in 

helping you. But if you prefer to form 
an independent club—do so by all means. 

Tt is not how you do it; it is only that you 

do something. Agitate the matter persist- 

ently and vigorously, and keep at it. In 
this way, only, may we hope to save our 
_attractive wild flowers from extinction. 


Type of the Genus Agrostis: A. S. Hircu- 
COCK. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 474. 


In view of the fact that stable generic 
nomenclature depends upon the methed of 
fixing the type of each genus, investigations © 
concerning the effect of various rules upon 
different genera must be carefully worked 
out. For this reason the history of the 
grass genus Agrostis is presented. The 
effect of the application of different rules 
will be shown. 


The Morphology of Elodea Canadensis: R. 

B. Wyin. 

The pistillate flower is strongly epigy- 
nous, the fused parts of the flower forming 
a long floral tube which extends from the 
sessile ovary to the surface of the water. 
The stamens each bear two sporangia and 
the staminate flowers at maturity break 
loose from the stem and rise to the surface 
of the water. The rise of these flowers is 
aided by bubbles of oxygen. Though the 
pollen grains are heavier than water, the 
multitudes of spines on the exine hold back 
the surface film, thus imprisoning enough . 
air to keep the spores afloat. The male 
cells, which are formed in the pollen 
grains, are very large, and during their 
continuance in the spores remain joined 
together. The pistillate flower opens upon 
reaching the surface of the water and the 
stigmas soon recurve, arching out over the 
floral parts. Since the stigmas are im- 
pervious to water, the weight of the flower 
resting on them forms a depression in the 
surface film. Pollen grains floating near 
are now attracted to the flower by gravity, 
operating through the declined surface 
film. They approach and drop into this 
depression in contact with the stigmas. In 
the development of the embryo-sac, four 
megaspores are usually formed, though six 
were noted in one instance. The embryo- 
sae at the two-celled stage develops an 
antipodal pouch, in which the antipodal 
group of nuclei is formed. The pollen 
tube shows a marked development. Its 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


course is down the floral tube, thence di- 
rectly through the ovarian cavity to the 
upturned micropyles of the ovules. The 
pollen tubes that have failed to enter 
ovules often swell up at their tips into 
tuber-like enlargements, which may be 
fifteen times the normal diameter of the 
tube. In these tubers which le amcng the 
ovules, the male elements can be made out, 
each distinctly a cell, rather than a nucleus 
only. About each male nucleus, which 
usually shows a nucleolus, is an ample ey- 
toplasm bounded by a membrane. The 
functioning pollen tubes pass through the 
micropyle and seem to enter one of the 
synergids. Numerous preparations showed 
one sperm in contact with the egg nucleus, 
and in several instances the second sperm 
was found fusing with the endosperm nu- 
cleus. The ego regularly divides before 
the primary endosperm nucleus. The 
functioning pollen tubes persist for a long 
time, sometimes until the embryo is well 
developed. 


Prothallia of Botrychiwm obiiquum: H. L. 

Lyon. 

During the summer of 1903 gameto- 
phytes of Botrychium obliquum were col- 
lected im considerable numbers in Minne- 
sota. In shape they resemble those of B. 
Virguuanum but average only about one 
third the size of the latter. The repro- 
ductive organs are borne dorsally and do 
not differ essentially from those of other 
Ophioglossacee described. The embryo 
sporophyte is bipolar instead of tripolar 
as in B. Virginianum, the stem growing 
directly upward and the root directly 
downward through the prothallium. There 
is no pronounced nursing-organ. All the 
superficial cells of that portion of the em- 
bryo lying within the tissue of the gameto- 
phyte apparently act as absorbent cells. 
The primary root usually protrudes 1 to 3 


SCIENCE. 


17% 


em. from the prothallium before the first 


’ leaf bursts through the calyptra. 


The Life History of Ephedra trifurca: W. 

J. G. Lanp. 

Material for a morphological study of 
Ephedra trifurca was obtained in the vi- 
cinity of Mesilla, N. M. Collections were 
made at regular intervals between Decem- 
ber 20, 1902, and May 20, 1903. The pri- 
mordium which gives rise to the staminate 
flowers was apparent in the first material 
collected. The perianth appeared a month 
later. The primary wall -cell divides to 
form two layers, the wall cell and the tape- 
tum. The microspore mother cells remain 
in the resting condition about one month. 
The reduction division occurs about March 
15. The gametophyte number of chromo- 
somes 1s twelve. The male gametophyte 
at the time of the shedding of the pollen 
grain consists of two prothallial cells, tube 
nucleus, stalk cell and body cell. The body 
cell divides shortly before fertilization 
oceurs. The ovule has two integuments: 
an outer one resulting from the fusion of 
four bracts, the inner one from the fusion 
of two bracts. The megaspore mother cell 
appears about March 8. Sometimes two or 
three megaspore mother cells are present, 
but only one megaspore functions. As the 
result of the division of the megaspore 
mother cell a row of four or sometimes 
three megaspores is formed, the lowest 
one being of course functional. The di- 
vision of the megaspore is followed by free 
nuclear division and parietal placing. At 
least 256 nuclei are formed before walls 
appear. One, two or three archegonia are 
formed, and the central cell is placed 
deeply in the tissues of the gametophyte. 
The ventral nucleus is cut off shortly be- 
fore fertilization, which occurred the pres- 
ent year about April 20. The oospore 
forms from two to eight free nuclei, each 
one of which organizes a wall and gives 


178 


rise to an embryo. The normal number of 
free nuclei is in general four. The single 
suspensors are very long and thrust the 
embryos deeply into the endosperm. Only 
one of the embryos develops. 


The Effect of Chemical Irritation wpon the 
Respiration of Fungi: ApA WATTERSON. 
These experiments concerning the ef- 

fect of chemical irritation upon the res- 

piration of fungi were carried on with the 

Kunstmann and with the Pettenkofer 

forms of apparatus. The fungi used were 

Sterigmatocystis migra and Penicillium 

glaucwm, and the irritants were ZnSO,, 

FeSO, .and LiCl. The results go to show 

that although the economic coefficient of 

the sugar ‘is increased, yet the CO, re- 
spired by the fungus remains proportion- 
ally the same. 


The Dehiscence of Anthers by Apical 

Pores: J. A. Harris. 

The author presents a systematically ar- 
ranged descriptive list of all genera in 
which the dehiscence of the anthers is by 
apical pores, and makes a series of com- 
parisons of the floral structure of these 
forms with other members of the same 
family, showing the modifications in not 
only the stamens, but the other floral parts 
as well, upon the assumption of the apically 
dehiscent habit. The forms are divided 
into groups or ‘types’ on structural 
erounds and the ecological relations of 
these considered. While the types as a 
whole are not sharply limited, a pro- 
nounced similarity of form in the corre- 
sponding parts of the different genera is 
observable even when these belong to sys- 
tematic groups differing widely in floral 
habit. For some of these types the geo- 
graphical distribution of the genera and 
species has a similarity which does not 
seem to depend on systematic relation- 
ships. The only explanation which seems 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 474. 


possible is that of the somewhat similar 
distribution of the Apide, upon which 
their structure indicates they are largely 
dependent for pollination. 
FRANCIS H. Liuoyp, 
Secretary. 


GHOGRAPHY IN THE UNITED STATES. II. 

Iv has been maintained that one of the 
embarrassments from which geography 
suffers is the incoherence of the many 
things that are involved in its broad rela- 
tionships. This is not really a serious em- 
barrassment, and so far as it is an embar- 
rassment at all it is not peculiar to geog- 
raphy. It is not a serious embarrassment, 
because when any element of geography is 
treated in view of the relations into which 
it enters, it becomes reasonably interesting 
to all who are concerned with scientific 
geography. The embarrassment is not pe- 
euliar to geography, for it is found im all 
other studies; in history, for example, 
where an essay by a specialist on the mod- 
ern history of South America is not likely 
to excite an enthusiastic interest im the 
mind of the student of classic times in 
Greece, or in the mind of the student of 
medieval church history in Germany; the 
embarrassment is known also in geology, 
where the student of the petrography of 
the southern Appalachians, or of the pa- 
leontology of the Trias in California, may 
eare little for a paper by a colleague on 
the glaciation of the Tian Shan Mountains 
in Turkestan. Yet, however unlike these 
various topics in history or in geology may 
be, they are welcomed, if well treated, by 
all the members of the expert society or by 
all the readers of the special journal in 
which they are presented, because they so. 
manifestly make for progress in the science 
to which they belong. Geographers need 
not, therefore, be embarrassed on finding 
discussions of magnetic declination as af- 
fecting the navigation of the antarctic re- 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


gions, of the relations of climate and 
religion among the Hopi amerinds, and 
of the facilities for irrigation peculiar to 
agerading fluviatile plains, all in one jour- 
nal; this diversity of topics only illustrates 
the great richness of geography, and thus 
likens it to history and geology. 

Let me consider next the advantages 
that will come to geography from the sys- 
tematic collection and classification of all 
the facts pertinent to it. The popular idea 


of geographical research is fulfilled when 


an explorer discovers a new mountain or a 
new island; but discovery is not enough. 
The thing discovered must be carefully de- 
seribed in view of all that is known of sim- 
ilar things, and the relation into which the 
thing enters must be sought and analyzed. 
Careful work of this nature involves the 
development of systematic eeography, in 
which all items of a kind are brought 
together, and. all kinds of items are ar- 
ranged according to some _ serviceable 
scheme of classification. Geographers are 
far behind zoologists and botanists in this 
respect, for there is to-day no comprehen- 
Sive scheme of geographical classification 
in general use. Hxistinge schemes are too 
generally empirical and incomplete. So 
important a group of land forms as moun- 
tains has never yet been thoroughly treated 
in a physiographic sense, while the organic 
responses to imorganice controls are as a 
rule not classified by geographers at all; 
yet a comprehensive scheme of classifica- 
tion should certainly provide systematic 
places for the organic responses as care- 
fully as for inorganic controls. In the ab- 
sence of a generally accepted scheme of 
classification, it is natural that items of one 
kind and another should be neglected in 
text-books and elsewhere; for it is well 
known that incompleteness of treatment 
goes with unsystematie methods. So sim- 
ple and manifest a response to the glob- 
ular form of the earth as is afforded by a 


SCIENCE. 


179 


wide extent of modern commerce is seldom 
mentioned in connection with its control. 
The many important and interesting re- 
sponses to the eternal and omnipresent 
force of gravity are not habitually treated 
as geographical topics at all; nor is the 
definition of boundaries in terms of me- 
ridians and parallels usually recognized as 
a response that civilized nations now habit- 
ually make to the form and rotation of the 
earth, when they have oceasion to divide 
new territory in advance of surveys and 
settlement. Yet surely all these responses 
to environment deserve systematic mention 

when the earth is described as a rotating, © 
gravitating globe, just as the location of 
villages and the growth of cities at some 
point of advantage to their inhabitants 
deserve mention in the pages given up to 
geography of the more conventional kind. 
The development of a well-tested scheme 
of systematic geography may, therefore, 
be urged upon every geographer as a prob- 
lem well worthy of his attention. A prac- 
tical step toward the construction of such 
a scheme is evidently the accumulation of 
items that call for classification ; therefore, 
let the geographer study the world about 
him: and a most effectual aid in the accu- 


‘ mulation of items is found in searching for 


the organic response to every inorganic 
control, and for the imorganie control of 
every organic response that comes to one’s 
attention; therefore, let the geographer 
think carefully as he looks about him over 
the world. It can hardly be doubted that 
the explorer who goes abroad or the stu- 
dent who stays at home will make better 
progress in his investigations in propor- 
tion to the completeness of the systematic 
scheme with respect to which he con-. 
sciously carries on his work. I would, 
therefore, urge the development of the 
habits of always associatine causes with 
their consequences and consequences with 
their causes, and of always referrine both 


180 


causes and consequences to the classes in 
which they belong. If to these two habits 
we add a third, namely, that of making a 
careful arrangement of the classes in a 
reasonable and serviceable order, we shall 
have taken three important steps in geo- 
graphical progress, and, as a result, geog- 
raphy will flourish. 

There is no device by which the work of 
the specialist is so helpfully relieved of its 
narrowing influence as by the simple de- 
vice of looking always for the general geo- 
eraphical relations of any special topic. 
The specialist in the geographical study of 
ocean currents, of caverns or of deltas, of 
forests, of trade routes or of cities, should 
not lessen his attention to his chosen line 
of work, but he should, often to his great 
advantage, increase his attention to the 
place that his chosen subject holds in the 
whole content of geography. Not only will 
his work be broadened in this way, but 
both he and his work will be brought into 
closer relations with the whole body of 
geographers and the whole content of geog- 
raphy, and the possibility of organizing a 
society of mature geographical experts will 
be thereby greatly increased. If the geo- 
eraphical relations of a special topic are 
not looked for, the specialist fails to that 
extent of becoming a geographer. The cli- 
matologist who studies the physical condi- 
tions of the atmosphere for their own sake, 
the oceanographer who makes no applica- 
tion of the physical features of the ocean 
as controls of organic consequences, the 
geomorphist who is satisfied with the study 
of land forms as a finality, the student of 
the location of cities and the boundaries 
of states who makes no search for the ex- 
planation of his facts as affected by physi- 
ographie econtrols—these specialists may 
all be eminent in their own lines, but they 
fall short of being geographers. In the 
same way it might be shown that a petrog- 
rapher who makes no study of field rela- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 474. 


tions and discovers no results of processes 
and no sequences in time, fails of being a 
geologist, for geology deals essentially with 
processes and structures in time sequence; 
likewise a chronologist who is satisfied with 
mere dates of occurrence fails of being a 
historian, for history involves the meaning 
as well as the mere sequence of human 
events. There is, of course, no blame to 
be attached to interest in specialization, no 
praise to an interest in larger relations; 
it is merely a matter of fact that the iso- 
lated specialist remains somewhat to one 
side of the larger sciences with which he 
might become associated. On, the other 
hand, the geographer is not necessarily so 
broad-minded that he must be shallow; he 
may specialize deeply on the climatologic, 
oceanographic, geomorphic, topographic, 
organic divisions of his subject; but if he 
wishes to be considered a geographer he 
should cultivate all the geographic rela- 
tions into which the facts of his chosen 
division enters, and he will find that it is 
largely through these relations that he as- 
sociates himself profitably with other geog- 
raphers. 

Two of the most beneficial results of the 
systematic study of geography are the 
great increase in the number of classes or 
types with which the geographer becomes 
familiar, and the great improvement in the 
definition of these types. This is partic- 
ularly the case with those types which con- 
tain many individual examples, such as 
rivers and cities, and which are, therefore, 
capable of division into many headings. 
So long as the geographer deals only with 
things in an empirical fashion, he may be 
satisfied with a rough classification; as 
soon as he begins to treat his problems 
more carefully, his classification becomes 
more refiried and he has relatively more 
to do with classes of things than with the 
things themselves. The things are actual, 
the classes are ideal, and therein lies one 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


of the greatest values of systematic geog- 
raphy; it enforces attention upon the 
idealized type; by means of this increased 
attention the type is more fully conceived, 
and both observation and description of 
actual things are greatly aided. Let me 
illustrate. 

The breezes that descend from mountain 
valleys at night are well known and well 
understood phenomena. As a result, one 
may form a well-defined conception of such 
a breeze—a type mountain breeze—im- 
agining its gradual beginning, its increase 
in strength with its extension in area, and 
its gradual extinction; all its phases of 
waxing and waning beine duly related to 
the passing hours of the night and to the 
associated changes of temperature. It is 
safe to say that no actual mountain breeze 
is as well known by direct observation of 
all its parts and stages as is the type 
breeze, in which all pertinent observations 
are properly generalized, and in which the 
deficiencies of observation are supple- 
mented. as far as possible by inferences 
deduced from well-established physical 
1aws. It is entirely possible that there may 
be some errors in the deduced elements of 
the ideal type-breeze, but it may be confi- 
dently asserted that the errors will be re- 
placed by the truth through the methods 
involved in observing, imagining and 
checking, guided by the conception of the 
type, sooner than the truth will be discoy- 
ered by blind observation unguided by the 
aid that a well-defined type affords. 

It is the same with an alluvial fan; an 
element of land form that has, by the way, 


* more similarity to a mountain breeze than 


appears on first thought. Observation 
shows only the existing stage of the surface 
of a fan; the fully developed type-fan in- 


cludes the structure as well as the surface, 


the process and the progress of formation, 
extended into the future as well as broucht 
forward from the past. There can be no 


SCIENCE. 181 


question that the explorer who is equipped 
with a clear conception of a type-fan can 
do much better work in observing and de- 
seribing the fans that he may find than 
will be done by an explorer who thinks’ 
he can dispense with all idealized types, 
and who proposes simply to deseribe what 
he sees. The shortcomings of the simple 
observational method would be less if it 
were not so difficult to see what one looks 
at and to record what one sees; but any 
one who has had experience in field studies 
knows how far short seeing may be of look- 
ing, and how far short recording may be of 
seeing. The best results in geographical 
investigation can only be obtained when 
every legitimate aid to observation and 
description is summoned; and of all aids, 
that furnished by carefully considered 
types, reasonably classified, is the greatest. 
When large and complicated features, such 
as valley systems or cuestas, are to be de- 
seribed, the need of types is vastly in- 
ereased. Hence one of the most impor- 
tant and practical suggestions that can be 
made toward the maturing of geographical 
science is to cultivate the geographical 
imagination in the direction of acquiring 
familiarity with a large, systematic series 
of well-defined ideal types. As progress is 
made in this direction there will be profita- 
ble advance from that narrow conception 
of geography which is based on the school- 
day study of names, locations and bounda- 
ries—the only conception of geography 
that many mature persons in this country 
possess—to a wider conception in which 
everything studied is considered as an ex- 
ample of a kind of things, so that it shall 
appeal to the reasonable understanding 
rather than to the empirical memory. 
Progress of this sort is already apparent 
in the schools, but it has not yet reached a 
desirable measure of advance. 

One of the best results that follow from 
the systematic recognition of a large num- 


182 


ber of well-defined types will be the nat- 
ural development of an adequate geo- 
eraphical terminology. When review is 
made of modern geographical articles it is 
curious and significant to find only a small 
addition to the school-boy list of technical 
terms. This is not true of any subject that 
is cultivated in the universities as well as 
in the schools. It is a reproach to geog- 
raphy that the results of mature observa- 
tion are so generally described in the inade- 
quate terms of immature study; this re- 
proach will have the less ground the more 
thoroughly: systematic geography is stud- 
ied. With the development of more ma- 
ture methods of description there may 
come a larger share of attention to the 
thing described, and thus a relative de- 
erease of attention to matters of merely 


personal narrative. I do not wish to lessen’ 


the number of entertaining books of travel 
which now fill many of the shelves in libra- 
ries called geographical, but it would be a 
creat satisfaction to see the standard works 
of geographical libraries given a more ob- 
jective quality, so that they might compare 
favorably with the standard works of geo- 
logical or botanical libraries, in which the 
element of personal narrative is reduced to 
its properly subordinate place. 

Another step of equal importance with 
the establishment of geographical types is 
the change from the empirical to the ex- 
planatory or rational or genetic method of 
treating the elemental facts that enter into 
geographical relationships. The rational 
method has long been pursued in regard to 
the facts of the atmosphere and the ocean; 
it is coming to be adopted for facts con- 
cerning the lands; and since the adoption 
of an evolutionary philosophy, the evolu- 
tionary explanation of the organic items of 
geography may replace the teleological 
treatment that obtained in Ritter’s time. 
It is, however, very seldom the ease that 
geographers adopt the rational method 


SCIENCE. 


[N-S. Vor. XIX. No. 474. 


consciously and‘ fully; hence special atten- 
tion to this phase of the theoretical side of 
geography may be strongly urged. It may 
be noted in this connection that the appli- 
cation of the explanatory method has been 
so lately made to the treatment of land 
forms that the geographer may for the 
present make himself to his advantage 
something of a specialist in this branch of 
the subject. It should be added that, so ~ 
long as he studies land forms in order bet- 
ter to understand the environment in 
which living things find themselves, he re- 
mains a geographer and does not become a 
geologist. There is a needless confusion in 
this matter, which may, perhaps, be les- 
sened if its untangline be illustrated by 
the following geological comparison. 

For some decades past a new method of 
treatment has been applied to the study of 
rocks, greatly to the advantage of geolo- 
cists. The method requires a good knowl- 
edge of inorganic chemistry and of optical 
physies, and the geologists who have spe- 
cialized in the study of rocks have had to 
make themselves experts in these phases of 
physies and chemistry; but they are not 
for that reason classified as physicists or 
chemists. They remain geologists, though 
sometimes taking the special title of pe- 
trographer. So with the geographer who 
specializes in the study of land forms; he 
must make himself familiar with certain 
phases of geology, but he does not, there- 
fore, become a geologist; he remains a 
eeographer. His object is not to discover 
for their own sake the past stages through 
which existing land forms have been devyel- 
oped; he studies past forms only in order 
to extend his knowledge of systematic phys- 
lography and thus to increase his appre- 
ciation of existing forms. As far as he 
studies the sequence of past forms he is 
studying a phase of geology, just as the 
geologist who examines existing arrange- 
ments of climate, of oceanic circulation, or 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


of land forms,,is studying a phase. of 
physiography. The two sciences are mani- 
festly related, but they need not be con- 
fused. For, as has been shown for sciences 
in general, geology and geography are best 
characterized by the relations in which 
their topics are studied, and not by the 
topics themselves. Both are concerned 
with the earth and life. The whole content 
of knowledge concerning the earth and life 
might be shown by a cube, in which ver- 
tical lines represented the passage of time, 
and horizontal planes represented phe- 
nomena considered in their areal exten- 
sion; then if the whole mass of the cube 
were conceived as made up of vertical lines, 
that would suggest the geological concep- 
tion of the whole problem; while if the 
cube were made up of horizontal planes, 
that would suggest its geographical aspect; 
and the whole series of paleogeographies, 
horizontally stratified with respect to the 
vertical time line, would culminate in the 
geography of to-day. 

Objection is sometimes made to the plan 
of geography, as here set forth, that it in- 
volves hypotheses and theories, instead of 
being content with matters of fact, as the 
advocates of a more conservative method 
in geography suppose themselves to be. 
There is no doubt that geographical inves- 
tigation of the kind here exposed does in- 
volve abundant theorizing, but that is one 
of its chief merits, for therein it adopts 
the methods of all inductive sciences. 
Furthermore, as between the progressive 
geographer, who candidly recognizes that 
he must theorize, and the conserva- 
tive geographer, who thinks that he 
observes facts only and lets theories alone, 
the chief difference is not that the first 
one theorizes and the second does not, 
- but: that the first one knows when he is 
theorizing and takes care to separate his 
facts and his inferences, to theorize log- 
ically, to evaluate his results, while the 


SCIENCE. 


183 


second one theorizes unconsciously and 
hence uncritically, and, therefore, fails to 
separate his inferences sharply from his 


‘facts, and gives little attention to the eval- 


uation of his results. Geography has, in- 
deed, suffered so long and so seriously 
from the failure of geographers to culti- 
vate the habit of theorizing as critically as 
the habit of observine—studies of the at- 
mosphere and the ocean still excepted, as 
above—that a strong recommendation 
must be given to the acquisition of the 
methods of theoretical investigation, im 
which deduction is an essential part, by 
every one who proposes to call himself a 
scientific geographer. Let me give an ex- 
ample of the loss of time that has resulted 
from the failure of geographers to develop 
the habit of theorizing. 

For forty years past there has been ac- 
tive discussion as to how far land forms 
in glaciated regions had been shaped by 
glacial erosion, but not till within five 
years has any geographer clearly defined 
the deductive side of this problem. In or- 
der to determine whether land forms are 
carved by glacial ercsion or not, two meth- 
ods have been open: one is to observe the 
action of existing glaciers and thus deter- 
mine whether they are competent or not 
to earve land forms; but this is difficult, 
because the beds on which glaciers lie can 
not be well examined. The other method is 
to deduce the appropriate consequences of. 
both the affirmative and the negative sup- 
positions, and then to confront these con- 
sequences with the facts found in regions 
once glaciated, and see which set of con- 
sequences is best supported. This deduct- 
ive method is very simple. Its application 
involves no principle that was not per- 
feetly well known fifty years ago, though it 
does involve a facility in theorizing that 
does not seem to have been familiar or 
habitual with geographers until more re- 
cent times. On the supposition ‘that gla- 


184 


ciers do not erode, the valley systems of 
once glaciated mountains ought not to ex- 
hibit any significant peculiarity of form, 
but should correspond to the normal 
stream-worn valley systems of non-gla- 
ciated mountains. On the supposition that 
glaciers do erode, the valley systems of 
once glaciated mountains should exhibit 
the highly specialized feature of a discord- 
ant junction of branch and trunk; for the 
channels eroded by a small branch glacier 
and by a large trunk glacier must stand 
at discordant levels at their junction, just 
as the channels of a small stream and a 
large river do, though the measure of dis- 
cordance is much greater in the channels 
of the clumsy, slow-moving ice-streams 
than in the channels of the nimble, quick- 
moving water-streams. There can be no 
question that these well-specialized conse- 
quences, deduced from the postulate. that 
elaciers can erode their channels, are much 
more accordant with the actual features of 
valley systems in once glaciated mountains 
than are the consequences deduced from 
the opposite postulate; but my reason for 
introducing this problem here is not to 
eall attention to the value of ‘ hanging 
valleys ’ in evidence of glacial erosion, as 
first clearly set forth by Gannett in 1898 
in his account of Lake Chelan, but rather 
to point out how slow geographers have 
been to employ the deductive method in 
solving this long-vexed problem. The 
moral of this is that geographers as well as 
geologists, physicists, astronomers, ought to 
have good training in scientific methods of 
investigation, in which all their faculties 
are employed in striving to reach the goal 
of full understanding, instead of depend- 
ing so largely on the single faculty of ob- 
servation. 

Some may, however, object that the 
problem of glacial erosion, just touched 
upon, belongs exclusively to geology, and 
not at all to geography. It belongs to 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 474. 


both; its association will be determined by 
its application, as the following considera- 
tions will show. The accumulation of 
sand-dunes by wind action, the abrasion 
of sea-coasts by waves, the erosion of 
gorges by streams, the construction of vol- 
canoes by eruptions now in progress, man- 
ifestly belong in the study of physical 
geography, in close association with the 
blowing of the winds, the rolling of the 
waves, the flowing of streams, and the out- 
bursting of lavas and gases. Both the 
agent and the result of its action are ele- 
ments of the environment by which life is 
conditioned. Similarly, the grass-covered 
dunes of Hungary, the elevated sea-cliffs 
of Seotland, the abandoned gorges of cen- 
tral New York, and the quiescent volcanoes 
of central France, are all elements of land 
forms and are all treated as geographical 
topics and explained by reference to their 
extinct causes in the modern rational 
method of geographical study. likewise 
the discordant valley systems of glaciated 
mountains are proper subjects for explan- 
atory treatment in the study of geography, 
although the glacier systems that eroded 
them are extinct; they deserve explanatory 
treatment in geography just as fully as do 
the accordant valley systems of non-gla- 
ciated mountains. It is true that discus- 
sion as to whether certain sculptured land 
forms are due to glacial erosion is likely 
to continue more or less actively through 
the present decade; but when this problem 
is as well settled as the problem of stream, 
erosion has already been, the geographer 
will be content with the simplest statement 
of the evidence that is essential to the con- 
clusion reached; and the explanatory de- 
seriptions of land forms will inelude due 
reference to forms of glacial origin, just as 
much as a matter of course as they now in- 
elude reference to forms of marine or of 
subaerial origin. Forms of glacial sculp- 
ture will be given as assured a place in 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


geographical study as forms of glacial dep- 
osition are already given. Neither the 
thing studied, nor the agent by which it 
was produced, nor the method by which 
the agent is shown to be accountable for 
the thing, suffices to show whether the thing 
is of a geological or a geographical nature. 
This question will be decided, as has 
already been shown, by the relations into 
which the thing enters. It would be as 
unreasonable to omit all reference to gla- 
cial erosion in a geographical description 
of Norway as to omit all reference to sub- 
aerial erosion in a geographical account of 
our Atlantic coastal plain. 

Nowhere is the cultivation of systematic 
geography more helpful than in the study 
of local or regional geography: The truth 
of this may be appreciated by considering 
the ease of botany. No botanist would at- 
tempt to deseribe the flora of one of our 
states until he had obtained a good knowl- 
edge of systematic botany in general. 
Such knowledge would help him at every 
turn in his study of a local flora, not only 
in deseribing the plants that he might find, 
and in arranging the descriptions in a sery- 
iceable order, but also in finding the 
plants themselves. I believe that a closely 
equivalent statement might be made with 
regard to the geography of a state; and 
yet there is not, to my knowledge, a single 
work on regional geography in which a 
recognized scheme of systematic geography 
has been avowedly followed as a guide for 
the treatment of local features. The adop- 
tion of such a guide would lead to various 
advantages; on announcing that a certain 
scheme of systematic geosraphy has been 
chosen as a standard, the writer of a re- 
sional work thereby gives notice in the 
simplest manner to the reader as to the 

‘kind and amount of knowledge necessary 
to understand the work in hand; deserip- 
tions are made at once briefer and more 
intelligible than by phrasing them in terms 


SCIENCE. 


185 


of a scheme that is elsewhere stated in full; 
relative completeness of treatment is as- 
sured, for with a systematic list of all 
kinds of geographical relations at hand, 
the writer is not likely to overlook any 
element of the subject that occurs within 
his chosen region; the reader can easily 
find any desired topic, not only by means 
of the table of contents and index, but also 
by means of the standard scheme of classi- 
fication in accordance with which all ele- 
ments are arranged; and finally, books on 
different regions will come to exhibit a 
desirable uniformity of treatment when 
they are based on a common scheme of sys- 
tematic geography. Although no books of 
this kind now exist, I do not think it over- 
venturesome to say that some such books 
will soon exist, and that they will form 
very serviceable contributions to the litera- 
ture of our subject. 

The various recommendations that I 
have made are likely to remain in the air, 
or at most to secure response only from 
isolated individual students, unless those 
who believe that the adoption of these rec- 
ommendations would promote the scien- 
tifie study of geography are willing to give 
something of their time and thought 
toward organizing a society of geograph- 
ical experts—an American geographers’ 
union. From such a union I am sure that 
geography would gain strength, but it is 
not yet at all clear in my mind that any 
significant number of persons would care 
to accept the strict conditions or organiza- 
tion which appears to me essential for the 
success of such an enterprise. ,The most 
important of the conditions are as follows: 

1. The adoption of some definition for 


‘geooraphy that shall sufficiently indicate 


the boundaries as well as the content of 
this broad subject. 

2. The limitation of membership to per- 
sons with whom geography as thus defined 
is a first or at least a second interest, and 


186 


by whom more than one geographical ar- 
ticle of advanced grade, based on original 
observation and study, has been’ published. 

3. The independence of the union thus 
constituted of- all other geographical so- 
cieties. 

Although we can not adduce any exist- 
ing geographical society in this country as 
a witness competent to prove that geog- 
raphy has sufficient unity and coherence 
to tempt geographers to form such a union 
as is here contemplated, a careful review 
of the problem convinces me that a suffi- 


cient unity and coherence really exist in ~ 


the science as I have treated it; and I, 
therefore, believe that the formation of an 
American geographers’ union is feasible as 


- well as desirable. 


It has been my object in this address to 
deseribe briefly the status of mature geog- 
raphy in our country, and to suggest sev- 
eral steps that might be taken for its im- 
provement. Certain branches of the sub- 
ject have reached a high development, but 
the subject as a whole does not thrive with 
us. The reason for its relative failure is 
not, I believe, to be found in the very 
varied nature of its different parts, but 
rather in the failure to place sufficient em- 
phasis on those relationships by which, 
-more than by anything else, geography is 
to be distinguished from other sciences, 
and by which, more than by anything else, 
eeographers may come to be united. 
Among the great number of persons— 
' many thousands in all—whose attention is 
given primarily to subjects that are closely 
related to geography as here defined, there 
must certainly be many—probably several 
hundred—with whom mature geography is 
a first interest. It is upon these persons, 
eeosoraphers by first intention, that the 
future development of sound and thorough, 
mature and scientific, geography among us 
primarily depends. To these geographers, 
in particular, I would urge the importance 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 474. 


of developing’ the systematic aspects of the 
science, and of constantly associating the 
special branch that they cultivate with the 
subject as a whole. Observation will not 
suffice for the full development of geog- 
raphy ; critical methods of investigation, in — 
which deduction has a large place, must be 
employed; for only by the aid of careful 
theorizing can an understanding of many 
parts of the subject be gained. With the 
progress of systematic geography we may 
expect to see a parallel progress of local 
or regional geography. As the science is 
thus developed, societies of mature geo- 
graphical experts will be formed, and sc1- 
entific geography will thrive; but whether 
thus developed into a thriving science or 
not, I hope that another long term of years 
may not pass without a representative of 
geography in this vice-presidential chair. 
W. M. Davis. 


HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


KARL ALFRED VON ZITTEL. 


In the death of Karl Alfred von Zittel 
paleontology has lost one of its most dis- 
tinguished advocates. Although a German 
by birth, Professor von Zittel belonged to 
every country, and through his remarkable 
work ‘Handbuch der Palontologie’ his 
influence extended everywhere. It is prob- 
ably not an exaggeration to say that he 
did more for the promotion and diffusion 
of paleontology than any other single man 
who lived during the nineteenth century. 
While not gifted with genius, he possessed 
extraordinary judgment, eritical capacity 
and untiring industry. 

The first volume of his great work bears 
the date 1876-1880, covering the extinct 
Protozoa, Coelenterata, Echinodermata and 
Molluseoidea; the second volume, covering 
the Mollusea and Arthropoda, bears the 
date 1881-1885; the third volume, begin- 
ning the Vertebrata, was issued between 
1887 and 1890, and covers the Pisces, Am- 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


. phibia, Reptilia and Aves; the. fourth vol- 
ume, issued between 1891-1893, is devoted 
to the fossil mammalia. Under his editor- 
ship appeared also the second part of the 


ereat ‘Handbuch,’ including the ‘Palszo- 


phytologie’ begun by Schimper and con- 
tinued and concluded by Schenk, and is- 
sued in 1890. 

These volumes, which together number 
4.315 pages, are richly illustrated and ad- 
mirably indexed, and constitute a veritable 
encyclopedia of paleontology. 

Immediately after the completion of this 
work the author began the preparation of a 
condensed treatise upon the whole subject, 
entitled ‘Grundziige der Palontologie,’ 
which was issued in 1895, consisting of 950 
pages. A second revised edition has just 
appeared (1903). 

We mention this monumental work first, 
because it was chiefly through this that the 
influence of von Zittel was exerted. The 
prodigious progress of paleontology in the 
nineteenth century was scattered through 
thousands of monographs and_ special 
papers, a hopeless labyrinth to the student, 
and an extremely difficult field even to the 
expert investigator; it had ceased to be 
possible to gain a perspective view of the 
whole subject, not to speak of the difficulty 
of mastering the details. With remarkable 
clearness and fullness, with impartial 
justice to workers in every country, with 
especially warm appreciation of the work 
done in America, von Zittel devoted him- 
self for twenty years to this great task. I 
had the privilege of studying with him in 
Munich while he was engaged on the volume 
on the mammalia, and I was greatly struck 
with his extremely effective and compre- 
hensive methods of work, which he carried 
on while giving a full and delightful course 
of lectures on the same subject. 

This, however, was only one form in 
which von Zittel’s influence was exerted. 
He established a great historical collection 


SCIENCE. 


187 


in the Alte Akademie of Munich, in which 
he gathered from all parts of the world 
collections illustrating the evolution of 
plants and of invertebrate and vertebrate 
animals. . Here are to be found not only 
fossils from all parts of Germany, but rare 
collections from Pikermi and Samos, from 
the French Tertiaries, especially the phos- 
phorites, from North America, including 
especially a remarkable collection of Cre- 
taceous fossils made for him by Charles H. 
Sternberg, as well as a valuable collection 
of Permian fossils made by Dr. Broil, Mr. 
Sternberg and others. In addition to these 
there are remarkably fine specimens secured 
by exchange and purchase from the Ter- 
tiaries of North America, from the Oligo- 
cene. The same clear judgment which was 
displayed in the ‘Paleontologie’ is evi- 
denced in the arrangement of this vast 
collection, so that nowhere else in the world 
can a student follow with equal ease the 
whole story of the evolution of life. 

It is small wonder that Munich became 
the Mecca of paleontologists, young and 
old. Professor von Zittel had an excep- 
tionally charming and magnetic personal- 
ity. His face was full of keen intelligence 
and enthusiasm. He took the deepest in- 
terest in the original researches of young 
men who came to him from various parts 
of the world, and was unusually generous 
in placing in their hands much of his rarest 
material; in fact, the memoirs which were 
published under his supervision far out- 
number those which he was able to publish 
himself, because of his long-continued de- 
votion to his preparation of the ©“Hand- 
buch.’ He occupied a position in paleon- 
tology similar to that occupied by the 
lamented Gegenbaur in comparative an- 
atomy. Among his pupils may be num- 
bered, with a few exceptions, all the 
younger American, most of the German, 
and many of the younger French and 
Austrian paleontologists. All bear him in 


1388 SCIENCE. 


most grateful remembrance and will sadly 
mourn his loss. 

The following details of his life are 
taken from one of the newspaper notices 
of his death. He was a son of Karl Zittel, 
the leader of the Clerical Liberals in Baden, 
and was born at Bahlingen, near Freiburg, 
on September 25, 1839. He studied at 
Heidelberg, Paris and Vienna. After 
serving as assistant in the Hofmineralien- 
Kabinet in Vienna, he was appointed pro- 
fessor of mineralogy at Karlsruhe, and in 
1866 he assumed the same professorship 
in Munich, where he also became director 
of the Paleontological Staatsmuseum. The 
ereat scientifie value of the Rohlf expedi- 
tion to the Libyan desert in 1873-74 was 
owing chiefly to his participation in it. 
He wrote a book on the expedition; another 
on the Sahara, and many treatises on geo- 
logical and paleontological subjects. In 
1899 he published his ‘Geschichte der 
Geologie und Palontologie’—an impor- 
tant work carrying the subjects to the 
end of the nineteenth century. He was 
editor of the periodical Palwontographica. 
He was present at the opening of the 
Northern Pacific Railroad in August and 
September, 1883. It may be added that 
he had been in delicate health for some 
years. His death was unfortunately hast- 
ened by his beime struck by a bicyclist, 
causing a serious injury to his knee and 
a long and debilitating confinement. 

He traveled extensively. Aside from the 
special journey to the United States in con- 
nection with the Northern Pacific Railroad, 
he came here again in connection with the 
meeting of the International Geological 
Congress, visiting all the American mu- 
seums and studying the great collections 
with most intense interest. At the meeting 
of the Geological Congress in Paris in 1900, 
Professor von Zittel received the honors 
to which he was so richly entitled, fre- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 474. 


quently presiding over the paleontological 
and geological sections. 
Henry FAIRFIELD OSBORN. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The Moth Book. A Popular Guide to a 
Knowledge of the Moths of North Amer- 
ica. By W. J. Honntanp. New York, 
Doubleday, Page & Company, 1903. Pp. 
xxiv + 479. Forty-eight plates in color 
photography and numerous illustrations in 
the text. 

All persons interested in the study of Lepid- 
optera, including hundreds of amateur collect- 
ors, have arixiously been awaiting the publi- 
cation of Dr. Holland’s ‘Moth Book,’ which 
was promised five years ago in the introduc- 
tion to his well-known and very useful ‘ But- 
terfly Book’ The volume has now appeared, 
and will be a delight to collectors and will 
greatly facilitate their attempts to determine 
their specimens, and will no doubt induce 
many others to take up the study of these 
beautiful and interesting insects. In his 
‘Butterfly Book’ Dr. Holland had a restricted 
group of comparatively few species, and was 
able to illustrate or describe practically every 
species known to occur within the limits of 
the United States. The task of producing a 
serviceable moth book has been much more 
difficult. To illustrate and describe all of the 
thousands of species of moths of this country 
would require the publication of several vol- 
umes. Therefore, an effort has been made to 
select those species which adequately represent 
the various families and the commoner and 
more important genera, thus providing a work 
which will serve as an introduction to the 
study. The selection has been admirable. 
The 48 colored plates illustrate with beautiful 
accuracy more than 1,500 species, and all 
through the text are illustrated other species 
to the number of more than 250. Dr. Holland 
adopts in the main the classification of Sir 
George Hampson, and uses 43 family names. 
In nomenclature he wisely follows, for the most 
part, Dr. Dyar’s list of the Lepidoptera of the 
United States, and has conformed the text of 
his volume to Dr. Dyar’s serial arrangement. 
Dr. Holland differs, as he says, from Dr. Dyar 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


in his views as to the position which should 
be held in relation to each other of a number 
of genera, but as Dyar’s list is certain for 
many years to come to be used largely by 
American students in arranging their collec- 
tions, he has thought best to follow it. As in 
the ‘ Butterfly Book,’ the ‘Moth Book’ con- 
tains a number of digressions and quotations. 
The quotations are extremely apt, and the 
digressions are extremely readable. 

Dr. Holland’s literary style is charming, and 
his cosmopolitan training and wide range of 
information lend interest and value to every 
line of the  digressions. The one entitled 
‘Walking as a Fine Art’ deserves a place in 
literature as well as in a treatise on hygiene. 
The book is by no means confined to deserip- 
tive matter of the species treated. State- 
ments concerning the habits and the life his- 
tories are scattered through the pages, and 
much sound information of a practical eco- 
nomic character accompanies the accounts of 
many of the injurious species. The general 
chapters on the life history and anatomy of 
moths, and on the capture, preparation and 
preservation of specimens, contain all the in- 
formation that is necessary, and in the chapter 
entitled ‘Books about the Moths of North 
America’ the author has given a competent 
bibliography for the use of students who wish 
to go further into the subject. The index is 
very full. 

As a bit of book-making, the volume is a 
handsome one. Some of the text figures suf- 
fer in the printing on account of the character 
of the paper used, but this is by no means a 
serious blemish. 

Dr. Holland is to be congratulated on the 
completion of this very attractive and useful 
work, and the number of collectors and stu- 
dents is sure to be increased rapidly as the 
result of its publication. L. O. Howarp. 


Grundriss der 
Max VERWORN. 


Allgemeine Physiologie. Hin 
Lehre vom Leben. By 
Fourth Edition, revised. Jena, G. Fischer. 
1903. Pp. 652; illustrations 300. 

The favor with which this work is still re- 
garded is evinced by the fact that the fourth 
edition is now called for within nine years of 


SCIENCE. 


189 


the book’s first appearance. The author has 
made in it less radical changes than in pre; 
vious editions. Those portions which have 
received the most considerable alterations are 
the section on ‘Physical World and Mind, 
which has been rewritten and enlarged, and 
endeavors to present more clearly than before 
the author’s psychomonistiec conception; the 
section on ‘ Enzymes and Their Mode of Ac- 
tion,’ which has again been rewritten, largely 
for the purpose of showing the analogy be- 
tween ferment actions and the catalytic ac- 
tions of inorganic chemistry; and the section 
on ‘ Growth as the Fundamental Phenomenon 
of Change of Form,’ which has been revised 
and extended by Professor Rhumbler, and 
contains the latest conclusions of that well- 
Imown investigator, with figures and discus- 
sions of Rhumbler’s and Heidenhain’s models 
of the dividing cell. Im the revision of the 
chemical portions of the book the author has 
had the counsel of Professor von Baeyer, of 
Munich, and Dr. Coehn, of Gottingen, and the 
alterations, though not great, represent im- 
provements. 

Engelmann’s law of complementary chro- 
matic adaptation. is cited, according to 
which the color of an organism becomes 
more and more complementary to that of 
colored light to which the organism is sub- 
jected. Macfadyen’s observations are sum- 
marized on the resistance of bacteria to ex- 
treme cold, and Regnard’s observations of the 
temporary cessation of vital activity in a large 
variety of organisms subjected for not too 
long a time to great pressure. Wallengren’s 
demonstrations are quoted of anodic, kathodic 
and transverse galvanotaxis in the same or- 
ganism by the application, to the same spot, 
of polar stimuli of different intensities. Many 
other recent discoveries are cited; but with the 
multiplicity of present investigations in gen- 
eral physiology one naturally finds many im- 
portant omissions. By judicious excisions and 
condensations of the previous text the en- 
largement of the book, caused by the addi- 
tions and a much-needed revision of the index, 
is limited to twenty-one pages. 

Freperic §. Las. 

CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


190 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Journal of Infectious Diseases, Volume 
I., No. 1. 


Freperick G. Novy and Warp J. McNrAtL: 
On the Cultivation of Trypanosoma Brucei.’ 

Louis B. Winson and Witi1Am M. CHowNine: 
“Studies in Pyroplasmosis Hominis (‘Spotted 
Fever’ or ‘ Tick Fever’ of the Rocky Mountains) .” 

Joun R. MeDiix and Witt1am B. WHERRY: 
“A Report on Two Cases of a Peculiar Form of 
Hand Infection due to an Organism Resembling 
the Koch-Weeks Bacillus.’ 

H. Gmron WELLS and Lee O. Scorr: 
Pathological Anatomy of ‘ Paratyphoid Fever. 

Grorcr H. Weaver: ‘ Agelutination of Strepto- 
cocci, Especially Those Cultivated from Cases of 
Scarlatina, by Human Sera.’ 

Gusray F. Rurpicer: ‘The Effects on Strepto- 
cocci of Sera of Cold-blooded Animals.’ 

WiLFrrReD H. Manwarine: ‘The Action of Cer- 
tain Salts on the Complement in Immune Serum.’ 

Mitton M. Portis: ‘ Experimental Study of 
Thyrotoxic Serum.’ 

ALFRED Scorr WarTHIN and Davin Murray 
Cowie: ‘A Contribution to the Casuistry of 
Placental and Congenital Tuberculosis.’ 

C.-E. A. Winstow and D. M. BELcurEr: 
“Changes in the Bacterial Flora of Sewage During 
Storage.’ 

S. C. Prescorr and 8. K. Barer: ‘On Some 
Cultural Relations and Antagonisms of Bacillus 
Coli and Houston’s Sewage Streptococci; with a 
Method for the Detection and Separation of These 
Microorganisms in Polluted Waters.’ 


“ The 


299 


THE opening (January) number of volume 
5 of the Transactions of the American Mathe- 
matical Society contains the following papers: 

L. E. Dickson: ‘The Subgroups of Order a 
Power of 2 of the Simple Quinary Orthogonal 
Group in the Galois Field of order p” = J + 3.” 


J. G. Hun: ‘On Certain Invariants of two 
Triangles.’ 

Epwarp Kkasner: ‘Isothermal Systems of 
Geodesics.’ 


A. Lorwy: ‘Zur Gruppentheorie mit Anwend- 
ungen auf die Theorie der linearen homogenen 
Differentialgleichungen.’ 

J. W. Youne: ‘On the Group of the Sien 
(0, 3; 2, 4, co) and the Functions belonging to it.’ 

SauL EpsTeen: ‘On the Definition of Reducible 
Hypercomplex Number Systems.’ 

K. Goursar: ‘A Simple Proof of a Theorem in 
the Calculus of Variations (Extract from a Letter 
to Mr. W. F. Osgood). 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 474, 


The American Naturalist for November is 
a little belated. It contains the second of the 
papers on ‘ Adaptations to Aquatic, Arboreal, 
Fossorial and Cursorial Habits in Mammals,’ 
this being by Louis I. Dublin on ‘ Arboreal 
Adaptations. In a few instances it would 
seem that the writer may not have distin- 
guished between physiological adaptation and 
morphological characters. D. T. MacDougal 
considers at some length ‘Mutation in Plants,’ 
some of his conclusions being that new types 
of specific rank have arisen in @nothera by 
discontinuous variation, that natural selection 
is universally prevalent is certainly disproved 
and that nothing in the nature of living or- 
ganisms demands that all species should have 
originated in the same manner. SS. E. Meek 
presents a paper on the ‘ Distribution of the 
Fresh-Water Fishes of Mexico,’ considering 
that four distinct fish faunas are present, and 
that their origin and number of species are 
as follows: From the Colorado River, 9; from 
the Rio Grande, 80; from the Lerma, 49; and 
from Central America, 246. The final paper, 
by Pehr Olsson-Seffer, is on the ‘ Examina- 
tion of Organic Remains in Postglacial De- 
posits,’ particularly in peat, and contains very 
good and full directions as to the methods 
and apparatus necessary. 


The Popular Science Monthly for January 
has for a frontispiece a portrait of the late 
Herbert Spencer from a bust made when he 
was seventy-six. The first article is ‘A Case 
of Automatic Drawing,’ by William James, 
with numerous illustrations of the curious 
pictures made by the subject. In ‘The Col- 
lege Course’ John J. Stevenson makes a plea 
for a return to the college with a course of 
four years, mainly compulsory, and in ‘ The 
Functions of Museums’ F. A. Bather suggests 
such a division of the material as would make 
it most available for the general student, the 
special student and the general visitor. T. A. 
Jaggar describes ‘The Eruption of Pelé, 
July 9, 1902’; Allan McLaughlin discusses 
‘Immigration and the Public Health, sug- 
gesting more carefully drawn laws on the 
subject, and Amanda Carolyn Northrop con- 
siders ‘The Successful Women of America,’ 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


being a study of those who appear in ‘ Who’s 
Who in America.’ Authors are in the great 
majority, and, save in science, those educated 
in private schools exceed in number those 
educated in public schools. D. D. Wallace 
presents the case of ‘Southern Agriculture: 
Its Condition and Needs,’ the latter being bet- 
ter trained labor, credit at reasonable rates 
and a more suitable education for his work. 
Wm. Scheppegrell describes ‘ Voice, Song and 
Speech,’ and there is a reprint of Herbert 
Spencer’s ‘What Knowledge is of Most 
Worth?’ ‘The Progress of Science’ contains 
a criticism of what the Carnegie Institution 
has not accomplished. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND ART OF PITTSBURG. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 


Tue regular monthly meeting of the section 
was held on December 1, in the lecture hall of 
the Carnegie Institute. Doctor E. G. Matson, 
city bacteriologist of Pittsburg, discussed with 
the members, the germ theory and the zymotic 
theory of epidemic diseases; the discovery of 
bacteria, their form, structure and office in the 
economy of nature, evidence upon which rests 
the doctrine that they are the causes of dis- 
eases, the advantages of having the specific 
agents of these diseases for practical purposes, 
and at the same time the possibility of getting 
on without this knowledge; the individuality 
of contagion and the necessity of taking this 
into account in the attempt to prevent epi- 
demics, such as smallpox, typhoid fever and 
yellow fever; how the bacteria make their 
attack; toxin, antitoxin and the immunity 
problem. 

The malarial mosquito received some atten- 
tion, and considerable valuable information 
was given regarding the epidemic of typhoid 
fever which has been raging for several weeks 
in Butler, Pa. There have been about 1,800 
eases, with 84 deaths, representing a fatality 
of a little more than 10 per cent. 

Many thousands of dollars have been gen- 
erously contributed from various sources. 

The infection of the water supply of the 


SCIENCE. 


191 


city seems to have been responsible for the 
general spread of the disease, two cases being 
discovered not far from the city’s reservoir. 


Freperic S. WEBSTER, 
Secretary-Treasurer. 


WISCONSIN ACADEMY OF SCIENCES, ARTS AND 
LETTERS. 

Tur thirty-fourth annual meeting of the 
Wisconsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and 
Letters was held in the State Normal School 
Building in Milwaukee, Tuesday and Wednes- 
day, December 29 and 30, 1903, President J. 
J. Davis in the chair. The program contained 
thirty-six titles, nearly every field of science 
being represented, although physical papers 
Several excellent papers 
were presented upon philosophical, pedagogical 
and literary subjects. The program was 
notable in that so many sections of the state 


were entirely absent. 


and so many different institutions were rep- 
resented. The number of papers coming from 
the university, from the colleges and from the 
normal schools was nearly equal. Volume 
XIV., part 1, of the Transactions of the acad- 
emy, containing fifteen papers, has just been 
published. 
E. B. SKINNER, 
Secretary. 


NORTHEASTERN SECTION OF THE 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


AMERICAN 


Tue 48th regular meeting of the section 
was held Friday, December 18, 1903, at 8 
pM. at the Tech Union, Boston, President 
W. H. Walker in the chair. Sixty members 
were present. 

Dr. Garl Otto Weber, of Manchester, Eng- 
land, addressed the section on the ‘ Applica- 
tion of Scientific Data to Technical Problems 
in India Rubber Manufacture,’ in which he 
discussed the various steps in the evolution 
of a scheme for rubber analysis, and the 
methods of applying the results to the theoret- 
ical and practical consideration of the chem- 
istry of india rubber. 

Artuur M. Comey, 
Secretary. 


192 SCIENCE. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


To rue Eprror or Scimnce: I am in hearty 
sympathy with nearly all the opinions ex- 
pressed in the recent article in Scimnce en- 
titled ‘Convocation Week. The American 
Association has a large membership. One of 
its chief functions is to provide for its mem- 
bers the means of getting together for scien- 
tific and social intercourse. The plan of a 
convocation week into which might be gath- 
ered so far as practicable the numerous scat- 
tered meetings of special societies, which were 
being held without any correlation of time or 
place, was in my opinion a distinct step in 
advance. 

When the ancetcn of winter meetings for 
the American Association first began to be 
considered it became evident that many 
members of the association preferred the sum- 
mer meeting. Comparatively few probably 
would attend two meetings a year, but I think 
it safe to estimate that if by its present plan 
of holding one meeting a year the association 
succeeds on the average in securing an attend- 
ance of 500 of its 4,000 members, it would, 
by holding both summer and winter meetings, 
in localities and at times selected with judg- 
ment, have almost if not quite as large an 
attendance at each. It would thus double its 
usefulness by supplying the facilities for a 
scientific meeting to twice as many of its 
members every year. 

The general feeling in the west is for sum- 
mer meetings. In the east the majority fayors 
meetings in the winter, but the geographical 
lines are not sharply drawn. Many of us 
would be glad of a choice between the summer 
and the winter meeting with privilege of at- 
tending one, both or neither at our conven- 
lence. The summer meetings should be held, 
as a rule, in some attractive and accessible 
resort; in the mountains, on the lakes or at 
the seashore. By selecting the earliest pos- 
sible date after the closing of our colleges it 
would be practicable to house the entire at- 
tending membership under one roof. The 
great summer hotels at the beginning of the 
season are almost empty and they would wel- 
come the association. The end of the summer, 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 474. 


while desirable in certain respects, is the 
crowded season at such places and it would be 
difficult to find suitable accommodations. 

Summer meetings would probably be as well 
attended as those held in convocation week ; 
the attendance at the former would indeed 
be the much larger but for the greater gath- 
ering of the affiliated societies in winter. 

The association in bringing together men 
of many sciences has a more important funec- 
tion than appears to be commonly recognized. 
Without some such organization we shall meet 
in the various special societies only those who 
are engaged in our own particular lines of 
work. The bringing together of the various 
affliated societies at a common meeting place 
helps to mitigate one of the most unfortunate 
features of modern specialization in science, 
namely, the separation of men of science into 
small groups. Moreover, the formation of 
special societies has gone so far that every 
one is compelled to hold membership in sey- 
eral. In addition to being a member of the 
American Physical Society the physicist is or 
should be interested in the work of the Insti- 
tute of Hlectrical Engineers, of the Physical 
Chemists, of the Society for Astrophysics, of 
the Mathematical Society, of the Electro- 
Chemical Society, ete. The affiliation of these 
and other special societies in the American 
Association would make it easy for one to 
get in touch at least once a year with the vari- 
ous activities which they represent, hence the 
importance of convocation week, . It is not 
less imperative that the American Association 
afford those of its members who can not at- 
tend its winter meetings an opportunity for 
intercourse with kindred spirits at times and 
places possible to them. The question of the 
expense of two meetings a year is not worthy 
of consideration. It is absurd to say that an 
association with a membership of 4,000 is 
unable to carry on two, or if desirable, even 
more meetings every year. 


E. L. Nicuots. 


Wun the American Scientific Association 
was organized in 1847 it was, like its im- 
mediate predecessor the Association of Ameri- 
can Geologists and Naturalists, the only 
national society devoted to pure science in 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


this country. To be elected a member was 
a certificate of scientific standing. Its first 
president, William B. Rogers, was equally well 
known as a physicist and as a geologist, and 
the day otf close specialization had not yet 
begun. The formation of the National Acad- 
emy during the civil war was not undertaken 
with a view to organizing any more select 
body of investigators, but rather for utilitarian 
purposes. To be selected as a scientifie ad- 
viser for the government was a high honor, 
but it seems not to have interfered with the 
loyalty of any member to the national asso- 
ciation. At the memorable Albany meeting 
in 1851 about 27 per cent. of the total mem- 
bership of 769 were present. At the Wash- 
ington meeting in December, 1902, about 27 
per cent. of the total membership of 3,596 
were present. 

That differentiation should result from in- 
creasing growth was naturally to be expected. 
In 1875 the first division into two sections was 
made, the total membership being still only 
807. It was at the Saratoga meeting in 1879 
that the policy of popularizing the association 
seems to have been inaugurated, the barriers 
to membership, in the form of recognized sci- 
entific credentials, being in great measure re- 
moved. The next meeting, held in Boston, 
was attended by 997 persons, and the total 
membership was increased to 1,555. At the 
Cincinnati meeting in 1881, although the at- 
tendanee was but half that of the Boston 


“meeting, it was decided to break up into nine 


sections. Already a serious source of em- 
barrassment had sprung into existence in the 
form of an inyasion of cranks. About the 
same time was noticed the absence of a num- 
ber of members of the National Academy who 
had formerly been regular attendants» To 
guard against the admission of papers by ill- 
balanced or ignorant persons it was necessary 
to form committees of inspection whose duty 
it should be to suppress such papers, a sum- 
mary of each being required before it could 
be presented to any section. The laxity in 
regard to admission soon became such as to 
develop the wide-spread impression that any- 
body of either sex could be elected to member- 


SCIENCE. 193 


ship by exhibiting willingness to pay the usual 
tees. 

If the term scientific aristocracy is admis- 
sible at all it was applicable to the association 
in its earlier days. The rapid change to de- 
moecracy after the Saratoga meeting produced 
dissatisfaction among many, and this was 
manifested in the formation of the American 
Chemical Society as an offshoot. ~The inter- 
est of its members was very perceptibly with- 
drawn for a time from Section C, although 
affiliation was claimed. One after another of 
these affiliated societies has since been formed, 
until their number now considerably exceeds 
the number of sections of the parent associa- 
tion. Where the attliated society has a field 
identical with that of a section of the associa- 
tion the two usually meet together, as a matter 
of courtesy, but division is still perceptible. 
The American Physical Society, for example, 
has four meetings each year, the agreement 
being that one of them shall be held in con- 
junction with Section B of the association and 
the others usually in New York. The chief 
reason alleged for the formation of the Phys- 
ical Society was that many of the leading 
physicists of the country could not be induced 
to attend the meetings of the larger associa- 
tion on account of the lack of discrimination 
in its make-up. It has been repeatedly notice- 
able that some of the most active members of 
the Physical Society were absent from the 
joint meetings. No ground for criticism is 
implied in such a statement. Every one is 
perfectly free to attend only such meetings 
as are found attractive, and an appeal based 
on loyalty to the parent association can never 
be effective, especially now that the number of 
gatherings is so great that nobody can attend 
them all. 

The tendeney toward disintegration of the 
growingly unwieldy national association is 
not due merely to increasing diversity of in- 
terests or undue liberality in admitting those 
who are not specialists. The great size of 
our country and the consequent expense in- 
volved in long journeys make the conditions 
essentially different from those which seem to 
have maintained the unity of the British Asso- 
ciation. Reduced rates on the railroads can 


194 


generally be secured for almost any gathering 
of more than fifty or a hundred persons, but 
in spite of this a trip from Boston or 
Savannah to Denver or San Francisco implies 
an expenditure in both money and time which 
is prohibitive to many. The plan advocated 
by the editor of Screncr, that each aftiliated 
society shall send delegates to the annual 
meetings of the national association, is much 
to be commended and well worth trying, but 
its availability depends much upon the loca- 
tion of each delegate’s home with regard to 
the place of meeting. The tendency toward 
the formation of separate societies irrespective 
of the American Scientific Association seems 
now to be well developed. Two of them met 
recently in New Orleans where they launched 
a third into existence. Recommendations 
may be made at will by those who wish to 
maintain unity, but the ordinary processes of 
evolution will continue without regard to in- 
dividual preferences. 

The present writer gives his hearty approval 
to the views advocated by the editor of Scrmncz, 
which have been well thought out. The policy 
of adaptation to the multitude inaugurated at 
the Saratoga meeting has had nearly a quarter 
of a century in which to become fixed. What- 
ever change may yet be developed, it will not 
be to the conditions of 1850. No plan elab- 
orated by any single individual will be carried 
out in full, but the views of many, if given 
full expression, will be helpful in preparation 
for the Philadelphia meeting. 

W. Le Conte STEVENS. 

WASHINGTON AND LrE UNIVERSITY, 

January 16, 1904. 


Tue Hditor of Scmncr invites comments 
upon the article ‘Convocation Week’ pub- 
lished in that periodical on January 8. With 
much of the article I am in full accord, but 
with one matter I do not agree. 

As the article in question says, there was 
considerable friction at the Washington meet- 
ing a year ago. Under the circumstances 
this seemed unavoidable. The rooms avail- 
able were few in number and, naturally, the 
association and its sections were first pro- 


vided for. The result was that at least two 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 474, 


of the independent societies—the Zoologists 
and the Anatomists—were forced to put up 
with inadequate and inconvenient quarters. 
It would seem probable that similar disagree- 
able and irritating conditions will reeur when- 
ever sO many organizations meet together. 
The only escape seems to be either the merging 
of the separate societies in the sections of the 
association or in their meeting apart, as sey- 
eral did this year. 

The greatest objection to such a merger is 
the enormous extent of our country. The 
association is national in character and its 
meetings have been held at points as remote 
from each other as Portland and Denver, 
Charleston and Minneapolis. It is the policy 
of the association to meet one year in the 
east, the next in the west—Denver, Washing- 
ton, St. Louis, Philadelphia and New Orleans. 
With this no one can find fault. A national 
society should supply all parts of our country. 
When, however, the matter of amalgamation 
is considered, it is seen that many of the 
members, most of whom are living on mod- 
erate salaries, must either take long journeys 
or forego the meetings on alternate years. 

Another objection is the difference in char- 
acter between the association and the inde- 
pendent societies. The latter are strictly 
professional organizations, aiming at the ad- 
vaneement of science. As such they limit 
their membership, thus ensuring audiences, 
the majority of whom are able fully to com- 
prehend any paper presented. The associa- 
tion admits all who apply for membership, and 
its function, in spite of its name, has largely 
become that of the popularization and dif- 
fusion of knowledge. There is nothing more 
difficult than the presentation of the results 
of research to an audience which can not ap- 
preciate the points made. Again, with the 
smaller societies under the present conditions 
there is too little time for discussion of the 
papers presented; united with the sections of 
the association the program would be so long 
that this valuable feature would be entirely 
lost. 

In view of these facts it seems best to the 
writer that the societies should retain their 
independence and should hold their meetings 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


without regard to the movements of the larger 
organization. They might all meet together 
at times and places where the accommodations 
were adequate, but such places would be few 
and far between. 

_ Of course, this would result, under the pres- 
ent conditions, in a society and a section with 
similar aims meeting in different places at the 
same time and a member of both might have 
difficulty in deciding which of the two he 
should attend. But the remedy is a simple 
one. These separate societies have, by right 
of preemption, a claim upon the Christmas 
holidays for their meetings. The whole 
trouble has been caused by the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, which 
has encroached upon this period and is now 
trying to force the independent organizations 
to accommodate themselves to its actions. All 
that is necessary for full harmony is that the 
association return to its summer meetings, 
leaving the Christmas vacation free to its 
rightful possessors. J. S. Kinestey. 

TUFTS COLLEGE, 
January 13, 1904. 


THE SCINTILLATIONS OF RADIUM. 


Tur phenomenon of the scintillation of a 
phosphorescent screen, under the influence of 
the radium bombardment, which was first de- 
seribed by Sir William Crookes, is one of the 
most impressive spectacles which we have had 
for a long time. 

As comparatively few of us have had an 
opportunity of witnessing this remarkable 
sight, I have prepared about two dozen ‘spin- 
thariseopes,’ which I shall be very glad to pass 
around among my colleagues, on the condition 
that they be promptly returned. 

Last autumn, while experimenting with 
some phosphorescent materials, I found that 
the scintillations could be as easily seen when 
the radium was mixed with the phosphorescent 
powder (the mixture being pressed between 
two plates of glass) as in the usual form of 
Crookes’s spinthariscope. 

If one sits for several minutes in an abso- 
lutely dark room, and then examines the plate 
with a powerful pocket magnifying glass, the 
appearance reminds one of an enormous star 
cluster as seen in a telescope, the individual 


SCIENCE. 


195 


stars lighting up and disappearing in rapid 
succession, producing an impression which has 
been likened to that produced by moonlight 
on rippling water. 

Whether the flashes are produced by the im- 
pact of the individual electrons which consti- 
tute the g rays, as was imagined by Crookes, 
or whether they represent microscopic cleay- 
ages which are occurring in the crystals as a 
result of the bombardment, as Becquerel be- 
lieves, is still an open question. The fact 
that hundreds of flashes appear every few 
seconds, the action showing no signs of abate- 
ment after several months, makes it difficult 
to believe that each flash represents a split in 
a crystal, unless one is prepared to accept the 
doctrine of ‘infinite divisibility” It is, per- 
haps, equally hard to believe that the impact 
of a single electron is responsible for each 
flash. The obvious way of settling this ques- 
tion would be to make a rough estimate of the 
number of flashes produced in a given time 
by a very small amount of radium of very 
low activity, and see if the number was of the 
same order of magnitude as the number of 
positive electrons given off in the same time. 
If the number of emitted electrons far exceeds 
the number of flashes, we may find a way out 
of the difficulty by assuming that the electrons 
are thrown out in intermittent streams, the 
impact of each ‘squirt’ producing a flash. 

On carefully scrutinizing the screen it is 
almost impossible to avoid forming the opinion 
that the points of light are in motion, the 
whole field squirming with light, like a colony 
of infusoria under the microscope. This ap- 
pearance is, perhaps, a little more pronounced 
with the Crookes spinthariscope, in which a 
speck of highly active radium is mounted at 
a little distance above the screen. If this 
motion should turn out to be real and not 
illusory it could, perhaps, be explained by a 
slight sweeping motion of the streams of 
electrons emitted by the radium. Such specu- 
lations are scarcely worth while, however, in 
view of the very deceptive nature of illusions 
of motion. The plates which I have prepared 
for distribution are packed in small tin boxes, 
which can be sealed up in an ordinary envelope. 
Institutions desiring to borrow one will be 


196 


accommodated as promptly as possible. The 
limited number of plates available will of 
course cause more or less delay in complying 
with many requests. A prompt return of each 
plate is to the interest of all. A self-addressed 
envelope with four cents in postage affixed 
should accompany each application. 

Failure to observe the phenomenon can only 
result from an insufficient resting of the eyes. 
Half an hour in subdued light such as lamp- 
light, followed by four or five minutes in 
absolute darkness is the sine qua non of suc- 
cess. 

The magnifying glass employed should have 
a power of five or six diameters. A Codding- 
ton lens, or Hastings triplet is suitable. 

R. W. Wooo. 


Jouns Hopxins UNIVERSITY. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE OCCURRENCE OF ZINC IN 
INVERTEBRATES. 


CERTAIN 


In the course of an investigation on the 
chemical physiology of certain invertebrates, 
undertaken under the direction of Dr. La- 
fayette B. Mendel, it was found that the ash 
of the hepato-pancreas of the large carnivorous 
gastropod, Sycotypus canaliculatus, contained 
an element hitherto unobserved in such con- 
So far as the writer 
is aware, this element has never been observed 
as a normal constituent of the tissues of 
any animal, vertebrate or invertebrate. The 
reaction by which zine was first suspected was 
the ordinary ferrocyanide test for ferric iron 
in acid solutions. Not only was iron present, 
as indicated by the blue color, but some other 
metallic element as well, giving a marked 
slimy precipitate. Further investigation 
showed the presence of a heavy metal having 
all the characteristic chemical properties of 
zine. 

Quantitative separations were made difficult 
by the presence of very large amounts of 
phosphoric acid, and the basic-acetate method 
was resorted to. The well-known limitations 
of the latter make it, however, scarcely more 
than of qualitative value. By this method 
samples of ash from Sycolypus canaliculatus 


nection, namely zine. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 474. 


gave approximately eleven per cent. and 
twelve per cent. respectively of ZnO. 

Further separations have since been made 
by means of Hampe’s well-known method 
(slightly modified),* depending upon the pre- 
cipitation of ZnS from a formic acid solution 
of sufficient strength to prevent the precipita- 
tion of the iron. By this method concordant 
results have been obtained as shown in the 
table below. At the same time qualitative 
examinations were made of specimens dredged 
from various parts of Long Island Sound 
about New Haven, and in all cases zine was 
found in large quantities in the ash of 
Sycotypus and Fulgur carica. 

Copper was estimated electrolytically in 
each case; in one sample by the rotating 
cathode method of Gooch and Medway. Iron 
was determined by permanganate titration in 
the usual way. Blanks were run through to 
detect the possible presence of zine in the 
reagents, and great care was exercised through- 
out to prevent any contamination. 

Other tissues besides the hepato-pancreas 
were incinerated and examined, and other 
gastropods and erustacea dredged from the 
same localities were also tested. With the 
exception of the blood of Sycotypus, no fur- 
ther occurrence of zine has yet been detected. 

The following table of ash analyses summar- 
izes the result of the investigation as far as 
it has been carried. 


Samples \ 7, 

Obtamed. Fe: Cu. Zn0. 
Sycotypus (hepato- 

pancreas. May, 1903 | Present Present 

Sycotypus. May, 1903 S 11.97% 
Sycotypus. - May, 1903 “ 10.81% 
Sycotypus. Sept., 1903 | ie 19.00% 
Sycotypus. | Sept., 1903 fe 23.38% 
Sycotypus. | Nov., 1903 0.84% 18.80% 
Sycolypus. | Noy., 1903 0.84% a . | 18.60% 
Blood of Sycotypus. | Noy., 1903 Present | Present | Present 
Bulgur. May, 1903 eS a ee 
Fulgur. Sept., 1903 of aS . 
Pulgur. Noy., 1903 ff OH “ 


The following other marine forms have 
been examined for zine, with negative or doubt- 
ful results in all cases: Urosalpina cinerea, 
Mytilus edulis, Modiola plicatula, Argina 

*W. Hampe, Ohemiker Zeitung, IX., 543 (esti- 
mation of zinc). 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


pexata, Hupagurus pollicaris, Ostrea virgin- 
zana and Cancer trroratus. 

The significance of this unique occurrence 
of zinc in the economy of Sycotypus and 
Fulgur is still to be determined, as is the 
nature of the combination in which it exists. 
These points, together with the distribution of 
the element in other marine forms about the 
sound, are at present being investigated and 
will be reported upon later. 

Haroup C. BrapDiey. 

SHEFFIELD LABORATORY OF PHYSIOLOGICAL 

CHEMISTRY, YALE UNIVERSITY. 


ATMOSPHERIC NITROGEN FOR FERTIL-— 
IZING PURPOSES. 

Or much interest to scientific students of 
agricultural economy is the report of the 
United States Consul-General Mason, at 
Berlin, Germany, on a new method of pro- 
ducing nitrogen from the atmosphere for soil 
fertilization, as announced in the daily ‘ Con- 
sular Report,’ No. 1804, issued by the Bureau 
of Statistics, Department of Commerce and 
Labor. 

The gradual but ultimately inevitable ex- 
haustion of the known nitrate deposits of 
South America, the report states, lends a 
growing interest to the methods which have 
been devised for obtaining a supply of nitro- 
gen for fertilizing purposes from the inex- 
haustible storehouse of the air. That this can 
be done as a scientific process has long been 
known. The first method was by passing a 
current of air over red-heated copper, whereby 
the oxygen combined with the metal to form 
oxide of copper, leaving the nitrogen free. 
At first the nitrogen thus produced was fixed 
by combination with calcium carbide to form 
nitrate of lime (Kalkstickstoff) or calcium 
eyanimide, a combination of lime carbon and 
nitrogen, which had all the essential properties 
of a nitrate fertilizer. But as the use of 
calcium carbide rendered the product unduly 
expensive, a method was sought which would 
employ a substitute for that material, and this 
was found by Dr. Erlwein, who brought the 
nitrogen into combination with a mixture of 
powdered charcoal and lime in an electric 
furnace. The product of this combination is 


7 


SCIENCE. 


197 


a black substance containing, besides the lime 
and carbon, ten to fifteen per cent. of nitrogen, 
in perfect condition to be used as a fertilizer. 
From the experiments thus far made with this 
new artificial nitrate—which is known in com- 
merce as calcium cyanimide—it appears that 
its nitrogen acts upon plants quite as effect- 
ively as that contained in a proportionate 
quantity of nitrate of potassium or sodium 
nitrate (Chile saltpeter). The scientific prob- 
lem of obtaining nitrogen for fertilizing pur- 
poses from the atmosphere would seem, there- 
fore, to be satisfactorily solved. Whether it 
can be done on a very large scale and at a 
cost which will make it economically available 
for general agricultural purposes remains to 
be demonstrated by practical experience. 
JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL. 


MISSOURI LEAD AND ZINC REGIONS 
VISITED BY THE GEHOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 

At the close of the St. Louis meeting of the 
Geological Society of America, January 2, an 
excursion to the Missouri lead and zine re- 
gions was given by the Missouri Bureau of 
Geology and Mines to the members of the so- 
ciety whose work would allow them time for 
the journey. In the company several univer- 
sities were represented—Alabama, Dartmouth, 
Kentucky, McGill, Missouri, Northwestern, 
Rochester, Springfield and Toronto, and sev- 
eral members of geological surveys were pres- 
ent—Geological Survey of Canada, Missouri, 
Ontario, West Virginia and the United States. 
The excursion allowed of a view of the Mis- 
souri geological scale from the St. Louis for- 
mation (of the sub-Carboniferous), through 
Devonian, Ordovician, Cambrian to the Al- 
gonkian, and many phases of geology, from 
peneplain to paleontology, had their share of 
attention. However, the chief place in the 
thought of the visitors was occupied by the 
mineral resources of the famous lead and zine 
localities. A day and a half was spent in the 
eastern lead region—the classical locality for 
lead production in the Mississippi valley. A 
number of mines and mills at Bonne Terre 
and Central were visited, and the facts ob- 
tained there, when combined with those ob- 


198 


tained on the visit made during the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
meetings to the lead pipe works in St. Louis, 
gave a complete view of the lead industry, 
from deposits disseminated in the Third Mag- 
nesian Limestone to the finished product, to 
be disseminated eventually throughout the 
homes and shops of American cities. A dozen 
mines a score or two miles from the old mine 
LeMotte, famous in the history of lead min- 
ing in the Mississippi valley are being worked 
by modern methods. Companies of large 
capitalization are able to mine and mill suc- 
cessfully in a region where the individual 
could not afford to work, and the annual pro- 
duction is now measured by millions of dollars. 
At the St. Joe Mine a depth of 350 feet has 
been reached, and the workings extend about 
two miles from north to south. One chamber 
is about 130 feet in length, and furnished ore 
throughout its entire distance. The mines are 
in the Bonne Terre or lower division of the 
Third Magnesian Limestone—a shaly mag- 
nesian limestone about 500 feet thick, which 
rests on Potsdam sandstone, and is overlaid 
by the Potosi, or upper member of the group. 
The size and perfection of the concentrating 
and milling plants were a surprise to the vis- 
itors. Two mills were visited, each of which 
has a daily capacity of 1,500 tons. 

Some of the party took a side excursion to 
Pilot Knob and Iron Mountain. The char- 
acter of the iron formations reminded the 
visitors of similar formations in the Lake Su- 
perior region. : 

From the eastern region the company were 
taken four hundred miles to Joplin and Webb 
City, where sub-Carboniferous zine and lead 
deposits and the treatment of their ores oc- 
eupied the attention for a day. A few of the 
eight hundred mines in the region were not 
visited. The two which were examined gave 
an idea of the remarkable richness of the 
region, and explained the prosperous condition 
of the cities in southwestern Missouri. Pic- 
turesque names are not confined to the far 
west. The ‘One Gallus Mine’ shows such 
deposits of sphalerite as to make the most 
thorough. pessimist forget his position. This 
region is still favorable as a ‘poor man’s dig- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 474. 


gings. With almost no capital, a man can 
lease a plot of ground and start in to make 
his fortune. Yet improved methods and well- 
equipped mills are seen on every hand, and 
have as a result the addition of several mil- 
lions of dollars’ worth of lead and zine to the 
wealth of the country. 

The execursionists were shown unlimited 
hospitality by various organizations in the re- 
gions visited, and by five railroad companies, 
which not only carried the party nearly a 
thousand miles, but furnished extra engines 
and held an important train in order that*our 
delayed car could be attached. 

The value of the trip was enhanced by the 
unending courtesy of our ‘ English-speaking 
guides,’ Drs. Shepard, Wheeler and Buckley, 
who were ever ready to answer questions and 
point out facts of interest. 

The excursion was due to the enterprise of 
the state geologist, Dr. Buckley, to whom the 
visitors are under very pleasant and great ob- 
ligations for the increased knowledge which 
they have of the geology of the remarkable 
lead and zine deposits of Missouri. 

A. R. Crook. 


NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
Tue Lalande prize in astronomy has been 
conferred upon Director W. W. Campbell, of 
the Lick Observatory, by the Paris Academy 
of Sciences. 


Tue Gold Medal of the Royal Astronomical 
Society of London has been conferred upon 
Professor George E. Hale, director of the 
Yerkes Observatory, for his researches in solar 
and stellar physics. 


WE understand that at its recent meeting 
the executive committee of the Carnegie In- 
stitution adopted the recommendation of the 
biological committee to establish a Department 
of Experimental Biology and to call Professor 
C. B. Davenport, of the University of Chi- 
cago, to the charge of it. The work of the 
department will include at present, among 
others, a station for Experimental Evolution 
at Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, on land 
granted by the Wawepex Society, and a Trop- 
ical Marine Biological Station at the Dry 


JANUARY 29, 1904.] 


Tortugas. Dr. Davenport is proposed as di- 
rector of the former station and Dr. Alfred 
G. Mayer, of the Museum of the Brooklyn 
Institute of Arts and Sciences, as director of 
the latter station. Fuller details are prom- 
ised as the plans of the department progress. 


Proressor Kari ScHLeIcH, of Berlin, has 
received from the University of Wiirzburg a 
medal and a 1,000 Mark prize for the discoyv- 
ery of a method of making surgical operations 
painless by what he calls the ‘ Infiltrationsan- 
aesthesie.’ 

Tuer University of Giessen has conferred its 
honorary doctorate on Herr Hermann Strebel, 
of Hamburg, for his work in zoology and 
Mexican archeology. 


A portrair of Dr. Robert Fletcher, editor 
of the Index Medicus, will be presented to the 
Library of the Surgeon General’s office, Wash- 
ington. 

PROFESSOR CHANTEMESSE, professor of ex- 
perimental and comparative pathology at the 
University of Paris, has been appointed to 
succeed the late Professor Proust as general 
inspector of the French Sanitary Service. ' 


Prorsessor W. F. M. Goss, of Purdue Uni- 
versity, who has been engaged for some time 
in testing locomotives, has been granted 
$5,000 by the Carnegie Institution to carry 
on the work. 

Proressor Jostan Royce, of Harvard Uni- 
versity, will give the following lectures at 
Columbia University at 4:30 p.m. 

February 1, ‘The Comparative Study of Scien- 
tifie Concepts.’ 

February 2, ‘General Survey of Certain Funda- 
mental Concepts of Science; (1) Classes and 
Classification, (2) Relations and their Types, (3) 
Ordinal Concepts and Ordinal Series.’ 

February 8, ‘(4) Concepts of Transformation, 
(5) Concepts of Levels.’ 

February 9, “Application of the Survey to 
Various Special Problems.’ 

February 15, “ Philosophical Consideration sug- 
gested by the Survey.’ 

Dr. W. M. Baytiss is giving a course of ten 
lectures on ‘Enzymes and their Actions,’ at 
University College, London. 


The Sibley Journal of Mechanical Engineer- 
img has published a memorial number in honor 


SCIENCE. 


Ig) 


of the late R. H. Thurston. It contains a 
biographical notice by William Kent; an ap- 
preciation entitled ‘Our Friend,’ by John H. 
Barr; an article entitled ‘ Dr. Thurston’s Work 
in Sibley College,” by H. J. Ryan and R. C. 
Carpenter; an article entitled ‘The Literary 
Work of Dr. Thurston,’ by H. Diederichs; 
and a partial list of papers by Dr. Thurston. 

Tue steamship Princess Irene, bringing the 
remains of James Smithson, arrived in New 
York on January 20. These were transferred 
to the Dolphin of the U. S. Navy and taken 
to Washington. They have been deposited in 
the Smithsonian Institution until arrange- 


ments can be made for suitable burial in the 


grounds of the institution and the erection of 
a monument. As readers of Scmmnce know, 
the remains were brought to this country by 
Dr. A. Graham Bell, at whose instance the 
regents arranged for the removal, owing to the 
fact that the English cemetery at Genoa in 
which Smithson was buried was to be aban- 
doned. 


THE Rev. George Salmon, F.R.S., provost 
of Trinity College, Dublin, and eminent for 
his mathematical publications, died on Jan- 
uary 22 at the age of eighty-five years. 


WE regret also to record the death of Dr. 
Wilhelm Behrens, professor of botany at Got- 
tingen. 

Tuer sum of four thousand dollars has been 
granted to the Lick Observatory by the Car- 
negie Institution for the employment of assist- 
ants in the year 1904, in continuation of the 
grant. of an equal sum for the year 1903. 


Tue daily papers report that Professor A. 
Hi. Phillips, of Princeton University, has ex- 
tracted radium from carnotite, an ore found in 
Utah, and that an abundant supply of this. 
ore exists. 


Tue observing station of the D. O. Mills: 
expedition to the southern hemisphere, from 
the Lick Observatory of the University of 
California, was completed in October. It is: 
located on the summit of San Cristobal, a hill 
1,000 feet high in the northeast suburbs of 
Santiago, Chile. The elevation of the plain 
on which Santiago is built is about 1,800 feet 


above sea level. The principal item of equip- 


200 


ment consists of a large Cassegrain reflecting 
telescope with clear aperture of 363 inches; a 
modern three-prism spectrograph; a thirty- 
foot Warner & Swasey steel dome, and office 
buildings. Spectrograms had been secured by 
November 1 for determining the radial veloc- 
ities of twenty-five or more stars. It is ex- 
pected that results will rapidly accumulate, 
as the equipment is devoted to this purpose 
exclusively. The station is in charge of 
Acting Astronomer William H. Wright of the 
Lick Observatory staff, who is assisted by Dr. 
Harold K. Palmer. 

Sr. Francisco M. Ropricunz, director of the 
Museo Nagional, City of Mexico, reports sev- 
eral interesting discoveries of ancient remains 
in the valley of Mexico. In the southeastern 
part of the valley, a number of hieroglyphic 
inscriptions cut in the rock have been found. 
In the southwestern part of the valley Mr. 
Rodriguez has discovered the remains of an- 
cient habitation sites in nearly a score of 
places, and also rock inscriptions which seem 
to date back to a remote epoch. The museum 
authorities have plans for the removal to the 
museum of the famous tablets at the ruins of 
Palenque. 

A prspaAtcH from Yakutsk, eastern Siberia, 
dated January 15, says that boatmen of the 
expedition commanded by Lieutenant Kolchak 
had arrived there and reported that the efforts 
of the expedition to find Baron Toll on New 
Siberia and Bennett Islands, in the Arctic 
Ocean, have been unsuccessful. Baron Toll 
left documents on Bennett Island showing that 
he turned southward on November 8, 1902. 

Tue president of the British Board of Agri- 
culture and Fisheries has appointed a depart- 
mental committee to inquire into and report 
upon the present position of fruit culture in 
Great Britain, and to consider whether any 
further measures might with advantage be 
taken for its promotion and encouragement. 
Mr. A. G. Boscawen is chairman and Mr. 
Ernest Garnsey secretary of the committee. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Tur will of the late Charles F. Doe, a lum- 
ber manufacturer of San Francisco, bequeaths 
about one fourth of his estate to the Uni- 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 474. 


versity of California for a library. The uni- 


versity will receive over $500,000. 


Towarps the fund being raised by the senate 
of the University of London for the proposed 
Institute of Medical Sciences, Mr. Butlin, the 
dean of the Faculty of Medicine, has con- 
tributed £1,000, and Sir William Church, 
president of the Royal College of Physicians, 
and Mr. Tweedy, president of the Royal Col- 
lege of Surgeons, £100 each. 


ASSEMBLYMAN Davis of the Committee of 
Public Edueation has introduced in the 
assembly of New York State a bill providing 
for educational unification and the reorgan- 
ization of the Board of Regents. The bill 
provides that the secretary of state shall draw 
nine names from a box containing the names 
of the present Board of Regents, and the 
persons thus indicated shall constitute the 
Board of Regents, serving for from one to 
nine years. Thereafter one regent is to be 
elected each year, to serve for a period of nine 
years. They are to elect a commissioner of 
education, to serve during the pleasure of the 
board, at an annual salary of $7,500 a year. 
He shall perform the duties now devolving 
upon the superintendent of Public Instrue- 
tion and the secretary of the board of regents, 
both of whose offices are abolished. The first 
commissioner is to be elected by the legisla- 
ture. Neither the state superintendent nor 
any member of the Board of Regents, nor 
any employee or appointee of either shall be 
eligible. 


Governor OpeEwt has sent to the senate the 
report of the director of the New York State 
School of Forestry and a letter from Presi- 
dent Schurman of Cornell University. In his 
letter President Schurman states that Govy- 
ernor Odell’s recommendation that the experi- 
mental work be resumed subject to the condi- 
tion that the state assume liability for the 
contracts that Cornell University has already 
entered into, is acceptable. The university 
is willing to acquiesce to a discontinuance 
provided it is protected against any liability 
on contracts which as agent of the state it 
has made in connection with the operation of 
the school. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


FrpAy, FEBRUARY 5, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
Section B, Physics: Prormssor Dayton C. 
NUTTER, opecondouenesgdoeuabouaoocmoD OD 201 
Section F, Zoology: PRroressor C. JUDSON 
TELDRRIGIK Gj oety doeeobedecocusueGb oudCUdOD 
The American Society of Zoologists, Central 
Branch: PROFESSOR FRANK SMITH......... 221 
Scientific Books :— 
Morgan’s Hvolution and Adaptation: PRo- 


FESSOR BASHFORD DHAN.........--.-.---- 221 
Scientific Jowrnals and Articles............. 22 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Washington Academy of Sciences. The 

Philosophical Society of Washington: 


CHartes K. Wrap. Section of <Astron- 
omy, Physics and Chemistry of the New 
York Academy of Sciences: DR. CHARLES C. 


TRowBRipgE. The New York Section of the 
American Ohemical Society: Dr. H. C. 
SismIMUNRE Goong esopoooEKe Bn. OOS eo 225 


Discussion and Correspondence :-— 
Convocation Week: PRoressor JAS. LEWIS 
Hower, Dr. H. W. Witery, Dr. Jonn M. 
CLARKE, Proressor O. T. Mason. Soil 
Work in the United States: PRorEssor EH. 
WY, IEMTU@UNED). 5 so ppp coaaenabnongoconoDoURA 228 


Special Articles :— 
The Classification of the Rocks of the Wat- 
ihies Clans Val, Sy NWoogadsenccondononondos 234 


Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Meteorological Society of Japan; Protec- 
tion of Peach Trees from Frost; The Me- 
teorology of the Sdntis; South African 


Meteorology: Prormssor R. DEC. Warp... 236 
The Missouri Botanical Garden............. 237 
The Department of Economics and Sociology 

of the Carnegie Institution............... 238 
Scientific Notes and News................. 238 
University and Hducational News........... 240 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudsgon, N. Y. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 
VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 
- SHCTION B, PHYSIOS. 

THE annual meetine of Section B, 
Physics, of the American Association for 
the Advancement of Science, in affiliation 
with the American Physical Society, was 
held in St. Louis, from December 28 to 
31. The sessions were universally pro- 
nounced successful and enjoyable. The 
attendance varied from forty to seventy- 
five, and was representative of the middle 
west, while there was also present a num- 
ber of the prominent members from the 
east, and a few from the Pacific coast. 

The retiring vice-president, Professor E. 
F. Nichols, of Columbia University, was 
unable to be present. The section passed a 
resolution expressing its disappointment in 
not having the opportunity of listening to 
the expected vice-presidential address. 

The presiding officers were Professor H. 
H. Hall, of Harvard University, vice-presi- 
dent of Section B, and Professor A. G. 
Webster, of Clark University, president of 
the American Physical Society. The other 
officers of the section who were in attend- 
ance were Dayton C. Miller, secretary; D. 
B. Brace, councilor, and the following 
members of the sectional committee—H. H. 
Hall, D. C. Miller, Ernest Merritt, D. B. 
Brace, A. G. Webster and EF. E. Nipher. 

For the next meeting to be held in Phila- 
delphia, from December 28 to 31, 1904, the 
vice-president is Professor W. F’. Magie, of 
Princeton University. The other officers 
for the Philadelphia meeting, so far as 
now determined, are: retiring vice-presi- 


202 


dent, E. H. Hall; secretary, Dayton C. 
Miller, Case School of Applied Science, 
Cleveland, Ohio; members of the sectional 
committee, H. H. Hall, W. F. Magie, D. C. 
Miller, D. B. Brace, A. G. Webster, G. F. 
Hull and F. EH. Nipher. 

Professor E. Rutherford, of McGill Uni- 
versity, gave a popular scientific lecture on 
‘Radium and Radio-activity.’ The lecture 
was illustrated with many experiments and 
demonstrations, some exhibiting Professor 
Rutherford’s recent researches. The lec- 
ture was greatly appreciated by the large 
audience in attendance. 

The number of papers read at St. Louis 
was thirty-six, twenty-four before Section 
B, and twelve before the Physical Society. 
Of these papers thirteen were upon elec- 
trical subjects, eleven were optical, four 
were upon heat, three upon radio-activity 
and five were upon miscellaneous subjects. 
The abstracts of the papers read before 
Section B are given below; the papers 
given before the Physical Society are de- 
seribed in the report of that society. 


Report of the Committee on the Velocity of 
Light: D. B. Bracz, University of Ne- 
braska. 

A Half-Shade Elliptical Polarizer and 
Compensator: D. B. Bracz, University 
of Nebraska. 

To be published in full in the Physical 

Review. 


On the Effect of a Magnetic Field on the 
Interference of Natural Light: JoHN 
Miuus, University of Nebraska. 

The conception of natural light as an 
elliptical vibration and our knowledge of 
the Faraday ‘effect’ would give as a eri- 
terion for an analogous rotation of natural 
light, the disappearance of interference 
fringes, previously observable, upon the 
formation of a magnetic field capable of 
rotating plane polarized light through an 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 475. 


angle of an odd multiple of 90°. The ap- 
paratus consisted of a Michelson inter- 
ferometer. In the path of each beam was 
placed a tube of carbon disulphide sur- 
rounded by a solenoid. Natural mono- 
chromatic ight was used and the current 
varied. Observations were taken at the 
points of disappearance and reappearance 
of the fringes. The mean of these cur- 
rent readings was taken as that for which 
interference was impossible. These values 
of the current would have produced in 
plane polarized light a rotation of 95.8°, 
256.8°, 447.5°, 613.6°. 

The apparent invalidation of the results 
obtained because of a partial polarization 
of the entering light by the reflecting sur- 
faces is also discussed. 


On the Velocity of Inght in a Magnetic 

Field: JoHN Mis. 

The experimenter undertook to measure 
the acceleration or the retardation ex- 
perienced by a circular component travers- 
ing a magnetic field. The apparatus con- 
sisted of a Michelson interferometer. In the 
path of each beam was placed a tube of 
carbon disulphide surrounded by a solenoid. 
The light passed through a Nicol prism and 
a Bravais double plate. Half of the fringes 
were thus composed of light circularly 
polarized in a direction opposite to those 
of the other half. The formation of a 
magnetic field produced a shifting of the 
two sets in opposite directions. The cur- 
rent causing a shifting of one full band 
(corresponding to a difference in phase of 
360°) was observed. On the assumption 
that the rotation of plane polarized light 
is the result of a difference of phase he- 
tween its circular components, produced by 
an acceleration of one component and a 
corresponding retardation of the other, the 
difference of phase corresponding to this 
value of the current was ealeulated. It 
was 368°. he readings for the current 


Frpruary 5, 1904.] 


giving a displacement of three bands (that 
is, a difference in phase of 1080°) corre- 
sponded to a difference of 1101° calculated. 


Hertzian Waves since Hertz: A. D. Coun, 

Ohio State University. 

Hertz’s experimental proof of the exist- 
ence of electromagnetic radiation in 1888 
was the culmination of Maxwell’s work and 
led to a large output of new research. In 
this Germany took the lead. Arons, Lecher, 
Boltzmann and Zehnder introduced better 
methods of showing the electrical waves. 
The coherer came in 1895, although its 
principle was discovered by Branly in 1891. 
Three of the new receivers were strictly 
quantitative; the electrometer of Bjerknes, 
the oscillation-bolometer of Paalzow and 
Rubens and the thermo-receiver of Klemen- 
cié. Important improvements in the exciter 
were made by Righi in 1893 and by Blond- 
lot. J.J. Thomson and Lecher used the 
Hertzian oscillations to measure dielectric 
constants. Rubens and Arons showed that 
the Maxwellian relation between these and 
the refractive index held better with Hertz- 
jan than with light waves. Cohn extended 
this to the case of water. This was shown 
to be rigidly true by Drude, by Cole and by 
Cohn and Zeeman. Cole showed that 
alcohol possesses anomalous dispersion for 
electrical waves. Drude and Lampa proved 
this true of many substances. Drude per- 
fected apparatus for determining refractive 
indices. Lecher and also Larasin and de 
la Rive showed that the velocity along wires 
is the same as in air. Blondlot, Trowbridge 
and Duane, and Saunders gave more exact 
proofs that this velocity was that of light. 
The gap between the wave-lengths of 
electrical and light waves has been nar- 
rowed from each side. Lebedew reduced 
the former to 1 mm., Dubois and Rubens 
produced longer infra-red waves. 

The essentials of the electromagnetic 
theory have been established. It remains 


SCIENCE. 


203 


to correlate with it our views of corpuscles 
and the Beequerel rays. 


A Simple Alternate Current Prequency 
Recorder: H. S. JOHONNOTT, Rose Poly- 
technic Institute. 

The instrument may be attached directly 
to alternating current mains and a record 
of the frequency obtaimed. ‘To one pole 
of the electromagnet of an ordinary electric 
bell is attached a light armature which is 
held at some little distance from the other 
pole by a stiff flat spring. If now an 
alternating current is sent through the 
coils the armature vibrates, ordinarily, with 
a frequeney equal to twice that of the eur- 
rent. If a stylus be arranged on the outer 
end of the armature to leave a trace on a 
smoked drum alongside that of a seconds 
pendulum or an electromagnetic tuning 
fork the frequency may be counted off at 
onee. The current through two incandes- 
cent lamps in parallel in 100 volts is suffi- 
cient to give ample motion. 


Iron Losses in Loaded Transformers: 3. 
S. Jononnott, Rose Polytechnic Insti- 
tute. 

With the addition of a differential coil 
to the Rayleigh phasemeter it was adapted 
to measure directly the loss of energy in 
the iron of a loaded transformer. The 
readings give at once also the magnitude 
of the exciting current and its phase with 
respect to the induction. A transformer 
of special design to test the effect of mag- 
netic leakage was used in the experiments. 
The conclusions drawn from the work were 
as follows: (1) In a transformer having 
creat magnetic leakage between the prim- 
ary and secondary, and in which a constant 
induced E.M.F. is maintained and meas- 
ured. (a) In the secondary. ‘There is 
an apparent increase in values of the loss 
of energy in the iron, the magnitude of the 
exciting current and the cosine of the angle 


204 


of lag between this current and the induced 
E.M.F. as the load in the secondary is in- 
creased. (b) Inthe primary. There is an 
apparent decrease in the loss of energy in 
the iron, the magnitude of the exciting cur- 
rent and the cosine of the angle between, 
as the load increases. (2) If the load is 
inereased in the secondary of a transformer 
in which there is little magnetic leakage, 
not only the loss of energy in the iron, but 
the exciting current and its phase with re- 
spect to the induction remain constant. 


A Method for the Determination of Mutual 
Induction Coefficients: Augustus TRow- 
BRIDGE, University of Wisconsin. 

The method is based on the fact that 
when a pair of coils are joined in series so 
that the magnetic tubes of force form one 
thread through the other in the same direc- 
tion as those due to it the selfinductance 
of the pair is Z,-+2M@4+D,. When the 
current is reversed through the one coil but 
not through the other the coefficient of 
self induction of the pair is 1, — 2M + I[,. 

By a bridge method each of these quan- 
tities may be determined in terms of a 
standard self inductance and thus WM (the 
coefficient of mutual induction) is obtained. 
A careful comparison of the results obtain- 
able with this method with those by other 
known methods seems to be considerably in 
favor of this method, the probable error 
being about 1 part in 800. 


The Inflwence of Occluded Hydrogen on 
the Electrical Resistance of Palladium: 
W. E. McEurresu, Williams College. 
To be published in full in the Transac- 

tions of the American Academy of Arts and 

Sciences. 


On Hydrogen-charged Palladium: EH. H. 
Hatu, Harvard University. 
This paper is a review of the main facts 
known in regard to the properties of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 475. 


hydrogen-charged palladium and an ex- 
amination of the various suggestions which 
have been made as to the nature of the 
union between the two elements concerned. 
The point is made that previous estimates, 
by Graham and by Troost and Haute- 
feuille, of the density of the hydrogen in 
the combination gaye values very much 
greater than the observed value of liquified 
hydrogen. These estimates practically 
neglected the possibility of spaces between 
molecules of palladium sufficiently large to 
admit molecules of hydrogen with little 
expansion of the solid. The evidence in 
favor of a definite chemical combination 


- between the palladium and the absorbed 


hydrogen is, on the whole, inadequate. 


A New Form of Frequency Meter, Pre- 
liminary Note: A. S. Langsdorf, Wash- 
ington University. 

The paper described a type of instrument 
to indicate frequency on alternating-cur- 
rent circuits, the readings to be independ- 
ent of fluctuations of voltage on the line, 
the connections similar to those of an in- 
dicating wattmeter. 


A Remarkable Distribution of Carbon on 
the Bulb of a ‘Hylo’ Incandescent 
Lamp: ArtHur lL. Foury, University of 
Indiana. 

In the ‘Hylo’ turn-down incandescent 
lamp there are two filaments, one of 16 e. p. 
(Ff) and one of 1 @ p. (f), the former 
consisting of two and the latter of three 
turns. Whatever be the direction of the 
current, the filament coils are of opposite 
polarity. 

When f is burning F is in series with it, 
but the current is insufficient to render the 
latter luminous. When fF is burning f 
is short-cireuited. Let P and P’ be points 
on the globe at the ends of a diameter 
through the plane of the filaments, and 
NS and sn be points on the globe where 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


the axes of the filaments F and f meet it. 
At P there is a deposit from one to two 
centimeters wide, while the globe is per- 
fectly clear on either side. At P’ the con- 
ditions are exactly reversed, the central 
region being dark with clear glass on each 
side. At 7, also at s, there is a small circu- 
lar deposit about half the area of a turn of 
f. This deposit is surrounded by another 
in the form of a ring about one centimeter 
wide and two centimeters in diameter, the 
ring being open next to the base of the 
lamp. Between the central deposit and 
the ring the glass is clear. There is no 
deposit within two centimeters of the base 
of the lamp, and very little on the crown. 
The theory of molecular shadows and the 
Edison effect, so thoroughly worked out by 
Fleming* and others, explains the general 
character of the deposit, but seems to fail 
to explain the definiteness of it. In gen- 
eral the deposit is of uniform density and 
quite dark, while the clear places are per- 
fectly clear, the line of separation being as 
definite as if the deposit had been laid on 
with a brush. The weak magnetic field 
of the small filament was sufficient to con- 
centrate the deposit at the ends of its axes, 
leaving certain regions perfectly clear. It 
seems that it should be possible to keep 
clear any desired part of the wall of a 
vacuum table. The peculiarity of the de- 
posit above described was noticed but a 
few weeks since, hence the incompleteness 
of this investigation. An attempt to age 
a number of similar lamps by running at 
an excessive voltage resulted in a prac- 
tically uniform deposit. 


On the Charges given to Surfaces by the 
Diffusion of Ions, and the Earth’s Nega- 
twe Potential: Joun ZELENY, University 
of Minnesota. 

**“™Molecular Shadows in Incandescent Lamps,’ 
Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 20, 1885. ‘A Fur- 
ther Examination of the Edison Effect in Glow 
Lamps,’ Philosophical Magazine, Vol. 42, 1896. 


SCIENCE. 


205 


Experiments are described showing that 
neutral ionized air in passing through a 
long tube at first gives a negative charge 
to the walls, but as it passes along it 
eventually gives them a positive charge. 
Tn passing through a short tube the ionized 
air acquires a positive charge, while the 
tube itself becomes charged negatively. 
Similar effects were obtained with dry car- 
bonie acid, but when the gas was saturated 
with water vapor the effects were all re- 
versed in sign. The experiments are all 
explained by supposing the charges to arise 
from the unequal rates of diffusion of the 
two ions. It is shown that Villari’s hy- 
pothesis that charges are given to metals 
by the friction of the ionized gas against 
the metal does not suffice to explain all of 
the facts. Simpson’s objection to Geitel’s 
explanation of the earth’s negative po- 
tential is next taken up and the results of 
the above experiments are used in refuta- 
tion of the objection. Other theories of 
the cause of the earth’s negative potential 
are briefly considered. 


The Rate of Propagation of Smell: JoHN 

ZELENY, University of Minnesota. 

The propagation of smell through tubes 
where the air is free from convection ecur- 
rents was found to be very slow, as has 
already been noted by Ayrton; showing 
that the fast propagation ordinarily ob- 
served in free space is due almost entirely 
to convection currents. For example, with 
ammonia diffusme through a tube a meter 
and a half long, over two hours elapsed 
before the smell could be detected at the 
other end of the tube. Using different 
lengths of tubing, it was found that the 
time required for the diffusion of the smell 
was roughly proportioned to the square of 
the length. Ammonia and hydrogen sul- 
phide were used for the above experiments. 
The presence of ammonia could be detected 
chemically at a point in a tube after about 


206 SCIENCE. 


the same time as when the sense of smell 
was used for a detector. The rate of 
propagation of the smell of ammonia was 
not markedly different when this had to 
pass along the same tube either horizontally 
or vertically upward or vertically down- 
ward. With camphor, however, while the 
rates horizontally and downward were 
about the same, the speed upward was 
about twice as great. The smell given to 
iron and brass by rubbing these with the 
fingers was also tried, but gave no definite 
results. 


On the Theory of the Electrolytic Rectifier: 
S. R. Coox, Case School of Applied 
Science. 

When aluminum is the anode in an elec- 
trolytie cell im which oxygen is set free 
there is very quickly introduced into the 
eell an exceedingly high apparent resist- 
ance. If aluminum is made the kathode 
and carbon or platinum the anode, the re- 
sistance is normal and very low. ‘The 
anomalous action of this cell was noted by 
Professor Tait in 1869, but the cell did not 
attract attention until 1897, when Pollok 
and Gratz showed that the cell could be 
used to rectify an alternating current. 
Since 1897 investigations on the electrolytic 
rectifier have been published by Wilson 


and Norden, Burgess and Hambuecher, - 


Taylor and Ingals, and Dr. Guthe. Each 
investigator set forth an independent 
theory for the high resistance of the 
aluminum anode. The object of this in- 
vestigation was to determine the cause of 
this anomalous action of the aluminum 
anode, and it was found by a series of meas- 
urements of the appled electromotive force 
and the current, and also of the counter 
electromotive force with the same current; 
that the very high apparent resistance 
eould be accounted for on the theory that 
it was due to the counter electromotive 
foree. The potentials were measured by 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


methods that were independent of the re- 
sistanee, and curves were plotted showing 
the direct and counter electromotive force 
with current. When the electromotive 
force is greater than a certain critical value 
depending on the temperature the high re- 
sistance breaks down. This was shown to 
be due to the erystallization of the film 
around the aluminum anode, which exposed 
free metallic surfaces to the ions. It was 
also shown by direct determinations that 
free metallic aluminum conducted as 
readily when anode as when kathode, and 
the counter electromotive force was due to 
charged ions that could not penetrate the 
film formed on the aluminum. 


On the Position of Aluminum in the Voltaic 
Series and the Use of Aluminum as a 
Positwe Element wm a Primary Cell: 8. 
R. Coox, Case School of Applied Science. 
Wheatstone in 1855, while determining 

the position of aluminum in the voltaic 

series, found that when immersed in a 

dilute solution of potassium hydroxide 

aluminum was negative to zine and positive 
to cadmium, tin, lead, copper, iron and 
platinum ; and in a solution of dilute hydro- 
chloric acid aluminum was negative to zine 
and positive to other elements. The ob- 
ject of the research was to make quantita- 
tive measurements on the difference of 
potential between aluminum and the other 
elements in different solutions. Measure- 
ments were made in several alkaline solu- 
tions, three acids and several salts. It was 
found that the difference of potential did 
not remain constant, but, in general, any 
solution the negative ions of which would 
attack the aluminum producing a soluble 
compound, the potential was more constant 
than m those solutions in which oxygen 
was the negative ion forming with the 
aluminum an insoluble compound. Meas- 
urements were taken with zine, cadmium, 
tin, lead, copper, iron and platinum in solu- 


FEeBRU SRY 79,7 1904. ] © 


tions of potassium hydroxide, hydrochlorie, 
-nitrie and sulphuric acid, and ammonium 
chloride, potassium chloride, aluminum and 
potassium sulphate. A primary cell com- 
posed of aluminum, potassium sulphate, 
aluminum and carbon, was also inyesti- 
gated. The peculiarity of this cell was 
that it gradually increased to a maximum 
and again fell to its normal value when 
disturbed. It was also shown that the 
amount of current that could be taken from 
the cell -was very small, and that the tem- 
perature coefficient was positive. 


On the Differential Telephone: Wiu1aM 

Duane, University of Colorado. 

Two separate coils are wound on the 
bobbin of a telephone receiver, and by suit- 
able means are adjusted so as to have equal 
resistance, and equal self-inductances, and 
so that the magnetizing effect of a current 
flowing through one coil would be annulled 
by that of an equal current flowing in the 
proper direction through the other eoil. 
To measure a self-inductance the unknown 
coil Y and a variable self-inductance stand- 
ard S are placed in series with the two 
receiver coils respectively, and a non-in- 
ductive resistance box F is inserted in series 
with S or X, according as the resistance of 
A is greater or less than that of S. The 
two entire circuits are joined in parallel, 
and an alternating H.M.F. is applied to 
the branch points. Values for R and S 
ean be found easily, such that no sound is 
heard in the receiver, and, when this is the 
ease, the self-inductance of S equals that 
of the unknown coil XY. The magnetizing 
effects of the two receiver coils can be equal- 
ized by placing a small auxiliary coil in 
series with one of the receiver. coils and with 
its plane parallel to the axis of the receiver. 
Joining the two receiver coils in series and 
sending an alternating current through 
them, a position for the auxiliary coil can 
be found that completely extinguishes the 


SCIENCE. 


“wave-lengths. 


207 


sound. With a receiver that will detect 
10° amperes, the theoretical accuracy is 
about one one-hundredth per cent. Prac- 
tically an accuracy of one part in five thou- 
sand is not difficult, as absolute silence can 
be obtained, if there is no iron im coil X. 
The advantages of this method of measur- 
ing self-inductance are: (a) That the appa- 
ratus is portable and does not get out of 
order easily; (0) that great accuracy can 
be obtained and-the manipulation is not 
difficult; (c) that only one standard is re- 
quired, and it is not necessary to know the 
value of any resistance or bridge-wire 
lengths. The disadvantage is that the self- 
inductance of the standard must equal that 
of the unknown coil. A range from zero 
to 150 milli-henrys can be obtained, how- 
ever, with ordinary laboratory apparatus. 


The Selectwe Reflection of Fuchsin: W. B. 
CarrmMrn, University of Cincinnati. 
Presented by D. B. Brace. 

This investigation was undertaken in 
order to ascertain whether the reflection 
from substances showing metallic reflection 
agreed with the values computed from re- 
flection formulas. The reflection from a 
film of fuchsin was determined for various 
The films of fuchsin were 
deposited upon a glass plate, and the re- 
flection was measured not only from the 
upper surface of the fuchsin, but also 
from the interface between the fuchsin and 
the glass. The measurements were made 
by means of a Brace spectro-photometer. 
Tnstead of using the usual method of com- 
paring the light reflected from the fuchsin 
with the light reflected from some other 
substanee, whose coefficient of reflection 
was assumed to be known, the reflected 
light was compared with the direct light 
from the same source which supplied the 
reflected light. The work was begun last 
summer at the University of Nebraska and 
1S now being continued at the University of- 
Cincinnati. 


208 


Primitiwe Conditions in the Solar Nebula: 
Francis E. Nipuer, Washington Uni- 
versity. 

The writer has used the equations de- 
veloped in his paper forming No. 5, Vol. 
XIIL., of the Transactions of the Academy 
of Science of St. Lows, for computing the 
numerical values throughout the primitive 
solar nebula. He finds that the resulting 
density and pressure, if the nebula be as- 
sumed a gas, filling the volume internal to 
Neptune’s orbit, is incompatible with 
known physical conditions. The author 
coneludes that the solar nebula was com- 
posed of discontinuous masses of solid mat- 
ter during most of its early life. It was 
only in its later stages that gravitating 
compression caused the central mass now 
called the sun to fuse and vaporize. 


On the Investigation of the Kinetic Theory 
of Gases by Elementary Methods: HmnRY 
T’. Eppy, University of Minnesota. 

This paper establishes some of the prin- 
cipal results of the kinetic theory of gases, 
such as the mean frequency of collision, the 
mean free path, the number of molecules 
striking a given area per second, the ratio 
of the specific heats, etce., on the assump- 
tion of a given constant velocity for all 
molecules, by simple semi-geometrical 
methods. 


A Demonstration to disprove the Second 
Law of Thermodynamics: JAcoB WAIN- 
WRIGHT, Chicago. 

Paper published in full by the author. 

At the 1902 meeting, at Pittsburg, the 
author presented to the members of the 
section a demonstration haying substan- 
tially this same title. That particular 
demonstration was based upon a phe- 
nomenon disclosed by the published re- 
search work of Emile Hillaire Amagat, of 

Paris, viz., ‘At or about an absolute tem- 

perature of 274°, and at pressures above 

the critical pressure, carbon dioxide be- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 475. 


comes practically or absolutely imcom- 
pressible or inert, as regards the influence 
of pressure alone.’ The demonstration 
was confronted by the suggestion that 
Amagat’s work should be thoroughly 
verified before it could be accepted as evi- 
dence to effect a so important revolution 
in physical and chemical science. In order 
to overcome such difficulty, the subject 
was presented in a simple manner free 
from all questions of quantitative analysis 
and unverified matter. The pressure con- 
dition of a practically perfect gas is 
manipulated and transformed, and all 
postulations, except the ‘first law’ of con- 
servation of energy, which is properly a 
postulation in a strict sense, but has been 
thoroughly verified as it relates to the 
various phenomena which contribute to 
this demonstration, are dispensed with. 
Maxwell questioned the validity of the 
“second law,’ but failed in his attempts to 
devise a material or real cycle to effect a 
refutation; and as a last resource, invoked 
his demon and kinetic theory combination. 
This particular problem was solved by de- 
visine a working medium consisting of a 
combination of a gas and solid matter; the 
solid matter being arranged so as to con- 
stitute a complete heat engine in itself and 
having the peculiar property of trans- 
muting heat into work by reason of either 
a rise or a fall in temperature. In this 
manner is produced a working medium 
which, taken as a whole, is not amenable to 
the ‘second law.’ 


The Continuous Method of Steam Calorim- 
etry: JosepH H. Hart, University of 
Pennsylvania. 

The continuous method of steam ealo- 
rimetry here outlined is capable of meas- 
uring readily latent and specific heats of 
fluids with a degree of accuracy seldom at- 
tained by other methods, even though they 
be made with the greatest refinement in 
the method and observations. If a stream 


FrBRuUARY 5, 1904.] 


of water at a temperature of 7, be passed 
through a worm immersed in a steam bath 
and energies at a temperature 7., the 
quantity of heat absorbed is mS(T, — af.) 
where m is the mass of water passed 
through and S the mean specific heat of 
water between 7, and 7,. If the heat ab- 
sorbed by the water is obtained by direct 
condensation of steam alone we have the 
equation 
4 ML=mS(T2.— T;) 


when M is the mass of the condensed 
water and L the latent heat of condensation 
of steam. If either DZ or S is taken as 
known the other may be readily obtained. 
Barnes’s values of S were taken and a num- 
ber of determinations of Z made to test the 
efficiency of the method. In the practical 
development of the method, the process was 
made continuous. The water in the worm 
and the condensed water were drawn off 
constantly and measured. Radiation and 
conduction entered as important factors in 
the construction of the calorimeter, but 
were eliminated or a least satisfactorily ac- 
counted for in the amount of condensed 
water by both theory and practice. Re- 
sults were obtained in consecutive experi- 
ments which were concordant to the fifth 
significant figure. The value of LZ which 
was obtained was slightly lower than Cal- 
lendar’s value of 540.2 calories at 20° C. 
and points to the existence of a slight con- 
stant error. 


On the Thickness of Adsorbed Aqueous 
Films: Li. J. Brieags anp A. W. McCat, 
United States Department of Agricul- 
ture. 

Parks (Phil. Mag., May, 1903) found 
the thickness of the aqueous film adsorbed 
on the surface of glass wool to be 13.6 x 
10-* em. He also calculated the thickness 
of the film on silica by an indirect method 
based upon Martini’s calorimetric measure- 


SCIENCE. 


209 


ments, and obtained the value 44 x 10-° 
em. 

The authors have measured the thick- 
ness of the aqueous film on glass wool, silica 
and quartz when exposed at 30° C. to an 
atmosphere five sixths saturated. The sub- 
stances were kept at constant temperature 
in a thermostat, and were continually 
stirred so as to bring the material into thor- 
ough contact with the water vapor. The 
amount of water taken up was determined 
by drying at 110° C. The surface area 
was calculated from microscopic measure- 
ments. The following values for the thick- 
ness of the film were obtained, based upon 
the assumption that the density of the ad- 
sorbed layer is the same as that of the 
liquid in mass. 


Silicate eiotecreeakne 167 X10—* cm. 
(Gilaissteee shee inceeeioncnees 18 xX 10—* cm. 
@tantzmeeca skies 0.45 X 10—* em. 


The great discrepancy in the results ob- 
tained for silica and quartz indicates that 
in the ease of silica we have something 
analogous to a solid solution—a conclusion 
supported by the results of Bellati and 
Finazzi. It is not improbable that in the 
case of glass also there is something more 
than simple adsorption, and that the meas- 
urements with quartz give more nearly the 
true value of the thickness of the adsorp- 
tion film. 


The Circulation of the Atmosphere, as im- 
dicated by the Recent Abnormal Sky 
Colors: A. LAwRENcE Rotcu, Blue Hill 
Meteorological Observatory. 

The author urges upon physicists and 
others in various parts of the world the 
importance of recording the dates when un- 
usually brilliant sunset glows and the red- 
dish corona around the sun, known as 
Bishop’s rings, are visible, as has been the 
case intermittently during the past year. 
These phenomena are probably caused by 
discontinuous clouds of voleaniec dust in 


210 SCIENCE. 


the upper atmosphere, and the author has 
ascertained that the analogous optical 
effects were observed in the eastern United 
States about twenty days later than in cen- 
tral Europe, which, assuming a movement 
from the west of the dust-bearing currents, 
indicates an approximate velocity of thirty 
miles an hour, or considerably less than 
that of the highest ice-clouds. After the 
Krakatoa eruption in 1883 the rate of prop- 
agation of the voleanic dust from east to 
west, at a height above the equator caleu- 
lated from the duration of the sunset colors, 
was determined with considerable accuracy 
by a committee appointed by the Royal 
Society, and it is hoped that sufficient ob- 
servations will now be collected to enable 
the velocity of the highest currents above 
the temperate regions to be deduced equally 
well. Dayton C. Minumr, 
Secretary. 


ZOOLOGY AT THE ST. LOUIS MEETING. 

Section F of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science and the 
Central Branch of the American Society of 
Zoologists met in joint sessions at the St. 
Louis Meeting for the reading of papers, 
but held separate business meetings. On 
Monday afternoon, December 28, the ad- 
dress of Vice-President Hargitt before Sec- 
tion F was read by Professor C. C. Nutting, 
in the absence of the author, the subject 
being ‘Some Unsolved Problems of Organie 
Adaptation.’ Section EF was organized 
with the following officers: 

Vice-President—H. L. Mark, Harvard Univer- 
sity. 

Secretary—C. Judson Herrick, Denison Univer- 
sity. 

Councilor—A. M. Bleile. 

Sectional Committee—E. L. Mark, Vice-Presi- 
dent 1904; C. W. Hargitt, Vice-President, 1903; 
C. Judson Herrick, Secretary, 1904-1908. For 
one year, H. F. Osborn; for two years, 8. H. Gage; 
for three years, C. H. Higenmann; for four years, 
H. B. Ward; for five years, Frank Smith. 

Member of General Committee—Jacob Reighard. 

Press Secretary—C, Judson Herrick. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 475. 


Joint sessions for the reading of papers 
were held on Tuesday and Wednesday, at 
which the followime communications were 
presented. Titles preceded by an asterisk 
were presented by Section F'; others by the 
Society of Zoologists. 


*The Albatross Rookeries on Laysan: C. C. 

Nuttine, University of Iowa. 

An exhibit of lantern slides after orig- 
inal photographs taken by the author dur- 
ing the Hawaiian cruise of the Albatross 
in May, 1902. 


A Restricted Habitat of Scutigerella im- 
maculata (Newport), together with some 
remarks on the Animal and its Habits: 
STEPHEN R. Wimi1AMs, Oxford, O. 

In the bed of a small branch of Four 
Mile Creek, a tributary of the Great Miami 
River, a comparatively large number of 
specimens of this little centipede have been 
found. As far as ascertained the range of 
this particular group of this species is lim- 
ited to a part of the bed of this small 
branch perhaps 600-feet in length. A dis- 
cussion of the surroundings in general, the 
precise habitat which the animals seek, 
some of their observed habits in captivity, 
and one instance of breeding in confine- 
ment, were included. larvee have been 
kept through one molt and certain bodies 
which may possibly be eggs have been seen. 


On the Analogy between the Departure 
from Optimum Vital Conditions and 
Departure from Geographic Life Cen- 
ters: CHarLES C. Apams, University of 
Michigan. 

In a previous paper (Biological Bulletin, 
IiI., 115-131) the writer briefly discussed 
some of the criteria which may be used to 
determine geographic life centers, and cer- 
tain functional and structural changes re- 
sulting from departure from such centers. 
At the present time attention is called to 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


other principles involved in radiate’ dis- 
persal and the significance of these prin- 
ciples in the interpretation of certain eco- 
logical laws, habitats and faunal areas. 
There are certain well-known physiological 
laws which must be borne in mind. The 
natural starting point is the vital optimum. 
Departure from this optimum has a certain 
definite result. The new vital conditions 
are a cause of stimulation, and with further 
departure (beyond a certain limit) lead to 
inereased stimulation or to unfavorable con- 
ditions. This results in retarded growth, 
development and reproduction of the or- 
ganism as a whole. Thus the end results 
of extreme departure from the optimum in 
either direction are similar. In many re- 
spects a center of geographic origin is an- 
alogous to a vital optimum and any de- 
parture from such a center may result in 
effects similar to those brought about by a 
departure from the vital optimum, retarded 
growth, development and reproduction. 
The results of extreme departures from 
such a center are also remarkably similar. 
In view of these relations, many apparently 
isolated distributional and ecological facts 
may be correlated. 


*A Feature in the Evolution of the Trot- 
ting Horse: Francis E. Nipuer, St. 
Louis, Missouri. 

Twenty years ago the author published 
an equation representing the relation be- 
tween the speed of the trotting horse and 
the time measured from any assumed date. 
The date for the origin of any speed was 
determined by the rate of increase in the 
number of horses capable of making that 
speed. It was, therefore, determined with- 
out any reference to the date when some 
individual horse broke the world’s record. 
The author drew the curve represented by 
the equation published in 1882, and plotted 
the observed cases from 1845 to date when 
the record was actually broken upon the 


2 


SCIENCE. 


211 


same diagram. The general agreement of 
these experiments with the curve is very 
striking. The points representing the ob- 
served speed of record-breaking horses are 
found to group themselves into steps cor- 
responding to generations of the horse. 
Flora Temple found the horse slow on the 
computed speed represented by the curve. 
She put the horse ahead. The same is true 
of Dexter, of Goldsmith Maid, of Maud S. 
and of Naney Hanks. The diagram shows 
that this evolution of speed is not a con- 
tinuous operation, but that it goes on im 
steps or jumps. In 1892 the new sulky 
with ball bearings made a similar jump in 
the time of trottmg a mile. It is very 
likely that this advance will also be taken 
up in time, and will correspond to less 
radical improvements made in the old 
sulky before 1892. A photograph of the 
diagram was exhibited. On the same dia- 
eram the performance of the running horse 
is shown from three widely separated 
records. 


Further Observations on the Breeding 
Habits and on the Function of the Pearl 
Organs in Several Species of Hvento- 
gnathi: JAcoB REIGHARD, University of 
Michigan. 

At the Washington meeting of the so- 
ciety the writer described the breeding 
habits of the horned dace, stone-roller and 
black-headed dace. In the breeding season 
the males of these forms possess hard, 
spine-like thickenings of the epidermis 
known as pearl organs. 
these transient structures had been hither- 
to a matter of conjecture, but it was shown 
that they are used by the males of some 
species in their battles with one another 
and in building their nests, while in the 
males of all species the chief function of 
the organs was shown to be that of en- 
abling the male to hold the female during 
the spawning act. In the present paper 


The function of | 


212 


the writer reviewed his work on the horned 
dace and showed instantaneous photo- 
craphs of the spawning fish. He described 
further the breeding habits of the common 
shiner, in which the function of the pearl 
organs is essentially the same as in the 
horned dace. He described also the breed- 
{ing habits of the back sucker. In this 
form the spine-like pearl organs occur in 
rows on the lower half of the sides of the 
tail and on the enlarged anal of the male. 
In spawning the female is held by two 
males, one on either side of her. The 
rough anals and caudals of the two males 
press against the sides of the body and tail 
of the female, and hold her in place. They 
also press against one another beneath and 
behind the female, and thus hold the two 
males side by side. Spawning is accom- 
plished by a rapid vibration of the tails 
of the three fishes, and during the act the 
egos and milt are emitted and mingled 
with the sand and gravel which have been 
stirred up. 


Phototaxis in Ranatra: 8. J. Houmns, Uni- 
versity of Michigan. 

Ranatra shows under ordinary circum- 
stances a marked positive phototaxis. In- 
dividuals when in the water keep swim- 
ming vigorously for a long time in the 
endeavor to go towards the lightest portion 
of their environment. When taken out of 
the water Ranatras at first feign death, 
lyimg practically motionless for several 
minutes. If a strong light is moved about 
near them they come out of their feint 
much more quickly than when left entirely 
alone, and soon begin to follow the light 
with much vigor. The first responses, how- 
ever, are slight and consist of a small lat- 
eral movement of the head when the light 
is moved from side to side. Shortly after 
this the animal will respond by vertical 
head movements as the light is moved back 
and forth over the long axis of the body. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 475. 


Moving the light around in a circle, the 
head responds by circular movements of a 
most regular and precise kind. For every 
position of the light there is a correspond- 
ing attitude of the head. Next following 
the head reflexes come the reflex move- 
ments of the respiratory tube, which be- 
comes raised and lowered coincident with 
the head as the light is moved to and fro 
above the body. After a greater or less 
interval the animal rises on its legs, and if 
the light is now moved from side to side, 
the body will perform swaying movements, 
leaning over strongly towards the’ side on 
which the light is held. The legs on the 
side towards the light are strongly flexed, 
while those on the opposite side are held 
in a state of extension. If the light is 
passed to and fro in a longitudinal direc- 
tion corresponding swaying movements are 
likewise performed. When the light is in 
front, the animal bows down; when it is 
moved behind, the anterior end of the body 
is elevated, often at an angle of forty-five 
degrees. Moving the light around the ani- 
mal in a circle, the body follows with cor- 
responding motions. These responses are 
so regular and definite that one might al- 
most tell what particular attitude of the 
body, legs and head will be assumed for a 
given position of the light. Light in Ran- 
atra apparently produces a powerful eftect 
upon the tension of the muscles and may 
be made to control the behavior of the 
creature in a most precise and arbitrary 
manner. 


*Studies on Protoplasmic Structure: A. 
W. GREELEY, Washington University, St. 
Louis. 

The influence of chemical, electrical, 
thermal and osmotic stimuli upon the pro- 
toplasmic structure. The effect of these 
variations in structure upon the element- 
ary vital phenomena, with special refer- 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


ence to the chemotropic and galvanotropic 
reactions. 


Amitosis in the Embryo of Fasciolarw: 
Henry Lesui Ossorn,. Hamline Uni- 
versity, St. Paul, Minnesota. (Read by 
title. ) 

Very early embryos of Fasciolaria ex- 
hibit amitosis, a fact of imterest because 
direct nuclear division is seldom seen in 
embryos. ‘The embryos are in the gastrula 
stage, the various organs of the head, foot 
and visceral regions not yet having begun 
to put in an appearance. The Fasciolaria 
embryo is very peculiar in being greatly 
dilated by the large number of primitive 
ova which it has swallowed to serve as food. 
Each of these ova is a large mass of smail 
yolk grains enclosed by a distinct cell wall 
and permeated by cytoplasm containing 
nuclei. The endoderm is composed of 
cubical cells in which one sees nuclei in all 
stages of direct division. In addition to 
the ordinary form of amitosis, one also sees 
here certain very large nuclei, constricting 
at various points as if in an act of giving 
rise to nuclei by gemmation. Mitotic fig- 
ures are also seen in the endoderm. A 
part of the endoderm of the embryo soon 
becomes much enlarged and vacuolated, 
and is evidently the seat of active secretory 
processes connected with the digestion of 
the yolk. The amitosis can thus be con- 
sidered aS coming in line with Ziegler’s 
view that it is an accompaniment of secre- 
tory activity in the cells, but it is not in 
accord with that part of his theory which 
attaches amitosis to cell senescence. The 
embryo possesses peculiar external organs, 
the larval kidneys, which gradually assume 
a large size, though purely provisional 
structures. They lie directly under the 
velum and are made up of ectodermal cells 
‘swollen to huge dimensions by the accumu- 
lation within them of a homogeneous, 
faintly-staining material. It is generally 


SCIENCE. 


213 


supposed that these are excretory organs. 
In the outer ends of the cells one finds 
strong indications of amitosis. Here, of 
course, amitosis is occurring in cells which, 
though an important part of the body of 
the larva for the time being, are in reality 
seeretory cells and not destined subse- 
quently to give rise to new cells. Nuclear, 
divisions are found in the food-ova, which 
are plainly degenerative, and the ova soon 
after break up and lose their identity al- 
together. These nuclear divisions appear 
to be amitotic. They are clearly connected 
with cell senescence. 


*On the Morphology of Artificial Par- 
thenogenesis in the Sea-urchin, Arbacia: 
S. J. Hunter, University of Kansas. 

The unfertilized eggs of Arbacia sub- 
jected to the influence of sea water concen- 
trated by evaporation to three fourths its 
normal yolume for about two hours may, 
when transferred to sterilized sea water, 
develop into free-swimming plutei. The 
subsequent behavior of the eggs is depend- 
ent upon the stage of maturation attained 
when placed in the concentrated solution. 
Both eytoplasm and nucleus are concerned 
in development. Hges isolated and placed 
under continuous observation until blastu- 
lation at first become ameeboid, nuclear 
division following, sometimes repeated sev- 
eral times before cleavage of cytoplasm 
oceurs. Cleavage is not total nor progress- 
ive, partial or complete fusion of blas- 
tomeres intervening. Cleavage prior to 
blastulation is at no time comparable with 
normal processes. Different embryos show 
wide variations in character of external 
changes. At blastulation ectoderm cells 
are formed over large cells, generally three 
in number. The blastula does not become 
ciliated and free-swimming before nine 
hours. Mesenchyma cells are thrown off 
from the vegetable pole into the blastoccele. 
The amceboid activity spoken of begins at 


214 


about the time of first cleavage in normal 
fertilization, the rate of development falls 
gradually behind the normal, being in 
specific cases as 2:3 at the moment of 
active swimming, and 1:2 in time of de- 
velopment of pluteus. The artificial gas- 
trulz are less symmetrical and less active 
than the normal forms. The pluteus three 
days old, by measurements, equals in size 
the normal pluteus a day and half old, 
differing in lack of symmetry and poorly 
developed skeletal spicules. Mouth, 
cesophagus and stomach are present, but 
no anal opening has been noted. Develop- 
-ment in fused fragments is similar to that 
of the whole egg, except that no fusions 
are known to have become plutei. No 
membrane appears, but a perivitelline mem- 
brane surrounds eggs placed in a solution 
composed of 50 ee. of 24 » MgCl, solution 
and 50 ec. of sea water for from one to two 
hours. The same effect, though in not so 
ereat a percentage of eggs, is obtained by 
use of 24 » NaCl solution in same propor- 
tions. 

The primary nucleus equals in size and 
eccentric position in ege (as revealed in 
sections) the nucleus of odtids measured in 
sections of the ovary. The nucleus ad- 
vanees to the center, enlarges. A small 
aster with central dark body (partheno- 
centrosome) appears in contact with ex- 
terior of nuclear membrane. This divides 
to form the amphiaster. The various 
phases of mitosis ensue. The chromatin 
nucleolus contributes to formation of chro- 
mosomes. These are between twelve and 
fourteen in number. In a few cultures the 
nucleus was amceboid in movement and 
amitotie in division. From such cultures 
no larval forms developed. Both cleavage 
asters and eytasters contain central bodies 
similar to centrosome of fertilization. These 
bodies appear to be formed de novo, and 
in the case of the cleavage asters there is 
evidence which suggests that their origin 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 475. 


may be in the second polar body. Cy- 
tasters appear to divide and are some- 
times centers of cleavage. They are more 
abundant in oodtids placed in the concen- 
trated solution. Nuclear division is not 
necessarily- followed by cytoplasmic cleay- 
age. Cleavage of the cytoplasm is pre- 
ceded by nuclear division. 


*Biological Interpretation of Skew Varia- 
tion: Frank E. Lutz, University of 
Chicago. (Read by title.) 

A departure from the ‘normal’ curve of 
biological measures may be brought about 
either (1) by removal of a number of indi- 
viduals from one side of the mean, (2) by 
increase of individuals or (3) a combina- 
tion of the two. In skewness caused by 
removal, we have, in the sign of the skew- 
ness, a prophecy of the direction of varia- 
tion. In skewness caused by the starting 
of a new race about a mean within the 
range of the old race, skewness would be 
prophetic at the beginning of evolution and 
historic at the end. The distance between 
the two means is a factor determining the 
uni- or bi-modality of the combination 
curve. Skewness as the result of both addi- 
tion and removal seems too complicated 
for present analysis. And in no case have 
we, at the present time, enough data to 
interpret definitely, m any particular case, 
the significance of skew variation. 


The Correlation of Brain Weight with other 
Characters: RAYMOND PEARL, University 
of Michigan. 

*The Relation between the Law of Ances- 
tral Heredity and Mendelianism: FRANK 
K. Lutz. (Read by title.) 

The ‘purity of the germ’ idea applies 
quite as well to the law of ancestral hered- 
ity as to Mendelianism and is in harmony 
with it. The confusion seems to have 
arisen because of the difficulty in distin- 
euishing between the different grades of 
intensity of the characters used im certain 


—_— 


Frsruary 5, 1904.] 


lines of work. If we suppose four males, 
having conditions of the character in ques- 
tion, which we may represent as ab, ef, 2j 
and wm, borne by their germ cells, to mate 
with four females bearing this character in 
the conditions cd, gh, kl and op; and if 
we mate their successive generations, we 
shall always get the old Galtonian formula. 
If, however, we suppose the conditions of 
the character, which we have represented 
by various letters as borne by the males, 
to be indistinguishable inter se, so that we 
may represent them all by 7; and, likewise, 
those of the female by y; and if we then 
go through the same hypothetical mating 
as above, we get the Mendelian formula. 
It would be dangerous to insist upon a 
strict adherence to ‘purity of the germ.’ 
External and internal factors undoubtedly 
influence it. It is also improbable that a 
ease could be found in which, by careful 
work, gradations of the character in ques- 
tion could not be found. We would, there- 
fore, conclude that the Mendelian school 
arose either by an unfortunate selection of 
data (taking something in which the varia- 
tions of the character were hard to per- 
ceive and measure), or by a careless hand- 
ling of the data used. 


Evolution without Mutation: C. B. DAVEN- 
port, University of Chicago. 

While recognizing that mutation is an 
important factor m evolution, the author 
finds, from a statistical study of geograph- 
ical and paleontological series, that the 
transitions between species of the scallop 
(Pecten) may be graduated, and of the 
order of individual variations. Thus the 
Pectens from Cape Hatteras are inter- 
mediate im their qualities between those 
from Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, 
and Tampa, Florida. 

Also the fossil Pecten ebonus of the 
Pliocene Nansemond River (Virginia) beds 
taken from the lowest to the highest beds 


SCIENCE. 215 


leads in a uniform series towards the recent 
P. twrradians of North Carolina. 


*Studies in Compensatory Regulation: 
CHARLES ZELENY, University of Chicago. 
The ontogenetic development of the 

opercula in the serpulid Hydroides corre- 
sponds very closely with the probable 
phylogenetic development. The regener- 
ation, however, does not agree with the 
ontogeny. In both ontogeny and regener- 
ation there is a close correlation between 
the two opercula, and each side has the 
potentiality of forming a functional oper- 
eulum. When one side has a lead in de- 
velopment at the start it restricts the other 
to a rudimentary condition. When both 
have an equal start two functional opercula 
develop. A similar close relation between 
organs is shown in other cases. In the 
serpulid Apomatus after removal of the 
branchiz and opercula, the differentiation 
of the new opercula is much more rapid 
when the posterior region of the body is 
also cut off than when this region is un- 
injured. In the decapod crustaceans 
Gelasimus and Alpheus, when both chele 
are thrown off the animals pass through 
the succeeding molts sooner than when no 
chel, or only one, is removed. Finally, in 
the ophiurid Ophioglypha, the rate of re- 
generation of the arms is greater the 
ereater the number of removed arms, with 
the exception of the case where all are re- 
moved. 


Iridescent Feathers: R. M. Strone, Chi- 
eago, Ill. 

*Study of Cross-sectional Courses through 
the Brain with Cortex Surface Relations 
by Aid of Fuiler Sections and Models: 
Crarues H. Hueuss, St. Louis. (Read 
by title.) To be published in The 
Alienist and Neurologist. 

The Morphology of the Vertebrate Head 
from the View-point of the Functional 


216 SCIENCE. 


Divisions of the Nervous System: J. B. 

Jounston, University of West Virginia. 

(Read by title.) To be printed in the 

Journal of Comparatwe Neurology and 

Psychology. 

The Vascular System and Blood Flow in 
Diplocardia communis Garman: PRANK 
Smiru and J. T. BARRETT. 

Diplocardia communis is a species of large 
earthworms that are abundant in Ilhnois 
and that have a vascular system which may 
be profitably studied for the ight thrown 
on disputed points concerning the blood 
flow of other species. Posterior to VI. the 
dorsal vessel is double in each somite. In 
TX. to XIV. there is a distinct supra-in- 
testinal vessel which at its extremities joins 
the vascular plexus of the cesophageal wall 
and is connected with it by several short 
branches in each of the somites X., XI. and 
XII. There is nothing peculiar about the 
ventral vessel. A subneural and lateral- 
neurals are absent. A pair of lateral- 
longitudinal vessels connects anterior 
capillaries with the csophageal plexus of 
somites IX. to XIII. inclusive. From it 
they extend outward to the body wall and 
posteriorly along the latter in the clitellar 
regions (XIJI—XVIII.). Three pairs of 
dorso-intestinal hearts in X.—XII. force 
blood from the dorsal and supra-intestinal 
into the ventral. Paired dorsal hearts in 
VIX. force blood from the dorsal into the 
ventral. In each somite posterior to XX. 
one to three intestino-tegumentaries connect 
the intestinal wall with each dorso-tegu- 
mentary at points near the body wall. Ob- 
servations of pulsations and of the results 
of clamping and cutting vessels have led to 
conclusions of which the following is a brief 
‘summary: In D. communis the blood flows 
anteriorly in the dorsal; anteriorly in the 
ventral in front of the hearts and poste- 
riorly back of them; posteriorly in the 
lateral-longitudinals into the cesophageal 
plexus of IX.—XIII. and then partly into 


[N. S. Vou. XTX. No. 475. 


the supra-intestinal and’ partly to ‘the 
clitellar regions. Blood flows outward 
from the ventral through ventro-tegument- 
aries to the body wall, nephridia, nerve 
cord; and through ventro-intestinals to the 
intestine. Blood flows into the dorsal from 
the intestine through the dorso-intestinals 
and from the body wall, nephridia, etc., 
through the dorso-tegumentaries. Through 
the intestino-tegumentaries blood flows 
from the integument to the intestinal wall. 
These results closely accord with those of 
Johnston and Johnson on Lumbricus ter- 
restris as far as the vessels correspond, and 
differ materially from those of other ob- 
servers on that and other species. 


*The Diffusion of North American Hawk 
Moths: EF. M. Wessrrer, Urbana, Ilnois. 
The paper shows the probable northern 

trend of diffusion from the tropics through 

the Antilles into Florida, and through Cen- 
tral America and Mexico into the south- 
western and Pacific Coast states, or from 

Honduras into the West Indies and thence 

to Florida, and their diffusion from these 

points of entrance into the United States 
over North America. 


*Insect Life above Timber Line in Colo- 
rado and Arizona: FRANcIs H. Snow, 
Lawrence, Kansas. To be published in 
the Kansas Umversity Science Bulletin. 
This paper calls attention to the differ- 

ence in the character of insect life in the 

two locations. In Colorado the species 
above timber are generally peculiar and, 
for the most part, not found below timber 
line. In Arizona the species above timber 
line do not differ from those below timber 
line. Illustrations are given. The reason 

suggested is that the glacial ice mass did 

not extend to the Arizona summits. 


*The Salmomde and Thymallide of 
Alaska: Barton WARREN HVERMANN, 
Washineton, D. C. (Read by title.) 


natal 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


_» The total number of species of Salmon- 
ide now known from Alaskan waters is 17, 
distributed among genera as follows: Core- 
gonus, 3; Argyrosomus, 3; Stenodus, 1, 
Oncorhynchus, 5; Salmo, 3; Cristivomer, 
1, and Salvelinus 1. Of the closely related 
family of Thymallide there is one species. 
Thymallus signifer. This number is much 
ereater than is known from any other re- 
gion; and as regards the number. of indi- 
viduals of important species of Salmonide, 
there is no other region that approaches 
Alaska. The Pacific salmons (of the genus 
Oncorhynchus) are by far the most abund- 
ant, one or more of the five species liter- 
ally swarming in every suitable stream at 
spawning time. These are all anadromous 
fishes, spending the greater part of their 
lives in salt water, entering fresh-water 
streams only for spawning purposes. In- 
mediately after spawning all the individ- 
uals of Pacifie salmon, of whatever species, 
die, none surviving the spawning act and 
none ever, returning to the sea. The eggs 
do not hatch until several weeks or even 
months after the fish that produced them 
have died, and, therefore, no Pacific salmon 
ever saw either its offspring or its parents; 
the generations never overlap. While 
many of the facts in the life histories of 
these salmon are now well known, there 
are many others which remain to be worked 
out. The Bureau of Fisheries is now 
taking steps looking towards a careful and 
thorough study of the salmon streams of 
Alaska and the life histories of the various 
species of salmon. During the recent in- 
vestigations of the Alaska Salmon Commis- 
sion many important facts were determined 
regarding these fishes. Much new informa- 
tion was secured regarding the habits and 
distribution of the Dolly Varden trout and 
the cut-throat trout, and the presence of 
a species of rainbow trout in southeast 
Alaska was first made known. A fine se- 
ries of specimens of the fishes of the upper 


SCIENCE. 


217 


Yukon, including the Arctic grayling, was 
also secured. BS 


*Preliminary Description of a New Fanily 
of Gymnoblastic Hydroids from the Ha- 
watian Islands: C. C. Nutrrine, Univer- 
sity of Iowa. To be published in con- 
nection with a report on the hydroids of 
the Hawaiian cruise of the Albatross, 
U. S. Bureau of Fisheries. 

The Development and Relationships of the 
Rugosa (Tetracoralla): J. H. DuERDEN, 
University of Michigan. 

The paper gives: (1) A brief historical 
account of the various theories which have 
been held with regard to the nature and 
relationships of the extinct group of corals, 
the Rugosa or Tetracoralla; (2) the con- 
elusions-of the author from the examina- 
tion of a large number of species in the 
light of more recent results on living Zoan- 
tharia. At different times the Rugosa have 
been supposed to be related to the Hydro- 
zoa, Cerianthee, Aleyonaria, Seyphome- 
dusze and modern hexameral corals. The 
last view prevails mostly among English 
writers, the distinctness of the group being 
maintained by most German and French 
authors. The present investigations have 
been carried on mainly by the method of 
erinding down of individual coralla, each 
successive stage in the growth being drawn 
as it appeared. In this way the complete 
development and relationships of the septa 
have been established. In every instance 
where the perfect tip has been preserved 
a eyele of six septa is found to occur, thus 
demonstrating the primary hexameral re- 
lationships of the Rugosa as contrasted 
with the tetrameral usually assumed. The 
subsequent septa appear in only four of 
the six primary chambers and in a manner 
differing altogether from that in modern 
corals. The conclusions reached are that 
the Rugosa must remain as a distinet group 
of the Zoantharia, related in their proto- 


D8 . “~~ SCIENCE. 


septal stage to modern corals and actinians, 
but later developing in an altogether char- 
acteristic manner. Of modern forms they 
are most closely allied to the zoanthids, 
_ which are without any true skeleton; in 
these the growth of the mesenteries takes 
place in a manner comparable to that of 
the septa in the extinct forms, though pro- 
ceeding in only two of the six primary 
chambers. 


Demonstration of Preparations made dur- 


ing a Study of the Life-history of the - 


Cestode Crossobothriwm lacimatum (Lin- 
ton): W. C. Curtis, University of Mis- 
souri. 

*The Types of Limb Structure in the Tri- 
assic Ichthyosaurs: JoHN C. Merriam, 
Berkeley, California. To be printed in 
American Journal of Science. 

The limb structure in the Triassic ich- 
thyosaurs shows generally a much stronger 
resemblance to the type of extremity found 
in the primitive shore forms of the rep- 
tilia than is seen in the Jurassic forms. 
The limbs of Triassic ichthyosaurs show as 
ereat a degree of differentiation as is found 
in the later types. Two fairly definite 
lines of evolution are noticeable in the 
paddle structure of the Ichthyosauria, one 
leading to the broad-paddled Latipinnati, 
the other leading to the Californian 


Triassic genera and to the narrow-paddled 


Longipinnati. 


*A New Growp of Marine Reptiles from 
the Upper Triassic of California: JOHN 
C. Merriam, Berkeley, California. To 
be printed in ‘Publications’ of the Uni- 
versity of California. 

Marine saurians with abbreviated limbs 
and slender, elongated snout. External 
nares median. Temporal arcades slender. 
Dentition heterodont, posterior teeth flat, 
anterior teeth slender, conical. Elongated 
vomer with two rows of flat teeth. Ptery- 
goid (2) with numerous slender conical 


teeth. This group stands in somewhat the 
same relation to the typical Rhynchoce- 
phalia as that which the Pythonomorpha 
bear to the Lacertilia. Evidently derived 
from primitive land or shore rhynechoce- 
phalians, it has taken somewhat the same 
course in evolution as that followed by the 
ichthyosaurians and parasuchians. Fron 
both of these groups it differs very consid- 
erably in the structure of the vertebre, 
limbs and skull. It is sharply separated 
from both by the characters of dentiticn. 
The name Thalattosauria has been used to 
designate this group. 


An Anomaly in the Arterial System of the 
Dog: Joun C. Brown. (Introduced by 
H. F. Nachtrieb. ) 

The right subelavian artery arises from 
the dorsal aorta beyond the origin of the 
left subclavian artery and passes dorsad to 
the csophagus and trachea before reach- 
ing the right fore limb. The right fourth 
branchial arch is entirely wanting. 


The Brain and Nerve Cord of Placobdella 
pediculata: Illustrated by wax models 
made after the Born method by E. H. 
Hemineway. (Presented by Professor 
Henry F. Nachtrieb. ) 

Placobdella pediculata Moore is a new 
species of leech parasitic in the gill cham- 
bers of the sheepshead. The description 
of this leech has not yet been published, but 
will appear in connection with Mr. Hem- 
ingway’s account of the anatomy of the 
animal. In general the results of Mr. 
Hemingway’s work confirm the conclusions 
reached by Whitman for Clepsine hollensis 
and other species. The models represented 
the brain, the ganglion of a typical somite 
and the posterior mass of ganglia. 


The Mechamsm of Feeding and Breathing 
in the Lamprey: JEAN Dawson, Univer- 
sity of Michigan. (Presented by Jacob 
Reighard.) 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


¢ 
H 
| 


AC NSO e pe ee ene ne 


Frpruary 5, 1904.] 


“It was shown that there is no good 
evidence that lampreys feed except when 
attached, and that, according to accepted 
accounts, they breathe when free as when 
attached, through the external branchio- 
pores. There is thus apparently no occa- 
sion for a backward current of water into 


the mouth, either for the purposes of respi- 


ration or for the purpose of feeding, and 
the published observations and those of the 
writer show that such a current is of rare 
occurrence. It would thus appear that the 
velar, valves, water tube and valves of the 
external branchiopore must serve chiefly 
for the purpose of enabling a current of 
water to be directed forward out of the 
mouth. It was shown that such a current 
is directed forward whenever the animal 
cleanses the pharynx or mouth of irritating 
foreign bodies and whenever it detaches 
itself. Synchronously with the forwardly 
directed current there is a closure of the 
external branchiopore by means of the 
ectal and ental valves described by Gage. 
Hence water tube, velar valves and ectal 
and ental valves of Gage find their ex- 
planation chiefly in this forwardly directed 
current. There was also described a pair 
of jaws—the velar jaws, connected with the 
velar valves. These jaws serve to hinder 
the entrance of foreign bodies into the 
water tube, and are so arranged as to close 
when the water tube closes by the action of 
the velar valves, and to open when the 
water tube opens through the relaxation of 
the velar valves. It was shown further 
that the attached lamprey feeds not only 
on the blood of its host (as stated by 
Gage), but also on its soft tissues. 


*Some Reactions of Mnemiopsis leidyi: 
Grorce Winuism Hunter, Jr., New 
York City. (Read by title.) 
Geotropism.—The animal becomes posi- 

tively or negatively geotropiec under condi- 

tions seemingly intimately associated with 


SCIENCE. 


219 


the given supply of light and degree of 
temperature. Stereotropism.—Mnemiopsis 
exhibits marked stereotropism, especially 
in the darkness. Large numbers of ani- 
mals will frequently be found resting in 
pockets in the eel-grass. They also exhibit 
this same phenomenon in dishes in the labo- 
ratory. Reactions to Light (Phototaxis 
and Photopathy ).—Sudden light causes ac- 
tivity; sudden darkness inhibits activity. 
(This is partly in harmony with the find- 


ings of Yerkes on Gomionemus. See 
American Journal of Physiology, IX., 
No. 5.) Orientation with reference to the 


directive influence of the light rays (pho- 
totaxis) was long sought for, but only ob- 
tained in a few instances, with very strong 
or focused sunlight. A large number of 
experiments were made in dishes covered 
with strips of red, blue and green glass. 
It was found that in a given period of time 
(one to ten hours, observations made every 
half hour) the greater number of animals 
were counted under the green glass. The 
totals from 5 sets of experiments read as 
follows: Blue, 90; red, 126; green, 235. 
These results need much more careful 
study before an explanation is offered. 
Effects of Changes in Temperature.— 
Mnemiopsis is relatively more resistant to 
changes in temperature than is Gonionemus 
(see Yerkes, American Journal of Phys- 
tology, Vol. IX., No. 5). Responses to 
electrical stimulation under condition ‘of 
decrease of heat show little change in reac- 
tion time to 15° C.; lower than that a grad- 
ual increase in reaction time until no reac- 
tion is reached. Responses to electrical 
stimulation under conditions of increase of 
temperature show a slight quickening in 
the reaction time up to about 29° C. After 
that a rapid imerease in reaction time. 
Electrotaxis.—A definite orientation of the 
animal is the immediate effect of stimula- 
tion with a current of moderate strength 
(one half to three volts, voltage taken in 


220 


dish of water about one inch from. the 
electrode)... The body is turned so that 
the long axis comes to lie approximately in 
the direction of the current, the aboral end 
is directed toward the anode, and the ani- 


mal moyes with more or less rapidity (de-. 


pending upon the strength of the current) 
to the cathode. With a very weak current 
the animal may simply orient itself without 
movement towards the cathode. Still 
weaker stimulation may simply cause slight 
muscular contraction and movement of 
cilia without orientation. Reversal of 
current causes reversal in the orientation 
of the animal and reversal in the direction 
of its progression. The immediate cause of 
the change in direction of the animal is a 
reversal in the direction of the beat of the 
ciliated paddle-plates. In general, these 
may be said to beat more strongly in the 
direction of the anode. But orientation is 
brought about by more vigorous beating of 
the plates in certain regions of the body— 
possibly more strongly in the more direct 
lines of current. Muscular action also aids 
in orientation and in locomotion. Obser- 
vations on the action of cilia and muscles 
under the induced current were also made, 
but are too incomplete for present notice. 


*Mouth Parts and Oviposition of Gall- 
producing Insects: Muu. T. Coox, De 
Pauw University. 

Gall-producing insects have two methods 
of depositing eggs, 2. e., on the surface of 
the plant and within the tissues. In the 
case of the hymenopterous insects, the eggs 
are placed within the tissues of the bud, 
the incipient shoot or in the undeveloped 
leaves of the bud. There is no indication 
of chemical stimulus. The gall forms after 
the hatching of the larva and is probably 
due to the stimulus from the mouth parts 
of the larva. The mouth parts are of two 
forms, those for sucking and those for bit- 
ing. The strength of the mandibles varies 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


with the firmness)of thegall. The stimulus 
is due to mechanical irritation. 


*The Bermuda Biological Station for Re- 
search: E. L. Marx, Harvard University. 
*A Theory of the Histogenesis, Constitu- 
tion and Physiological State of Peri- 
pheral Nerve: Portmr H. SARGENT, Cam- 
. bridge, Massachusetts. (Read by title.) 

To be published in the Journal of Com- 

paratwe Neurology and Psychology. 
*The Two Chief Faune of the Earth: 

AupHeEus 8. PACKARD, Brown University. 

(Read by title.) 

‘From the recent studies on the distribu- 
tion of several groups of moths, I have been 
led to review the recent work and views 
of those who advocate the former connec- 
tion between South America and Africa, 
and the possible connection of the southern 
land-masses with Antarctic land. There 
seem to be two main centers of origin, 2. ¢., 
two chief zoological areas—that of the 
northern and that of the southern con- 
tinents. To the former Huxley’s name, 
Arctogea, is=by general consent applied. 
For the southern area Sclater’s name, 
Antarctogrea, may be employed. Indeed, 
we had thought of this term before learn- 
ing that the name had already been sug- 
gested. Although Gadow extends the term 
Notogea so as to embrace the three south- 
ern continents, yet it seems preferable to 
confine it to its former limits. The Ant- 
arctogrean area thus includes what are re- 
garded by Blandford, Lydekker and others 
as two separate realms, 7. ¢., Neogxa (South 
and Central America) and Notogzea (Aus- 
tralasia, Polynesia and Austro-Malaysia), 
while Africa south of the Sahara was re- 
garded as a region or dependence of 
Arctogea. The opinion, however, that the 
form and distribution of the continents 
were very different in past ages from 
what they are now is gaining ground. 
Thus northeastern America and western 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


sand central Hurope seem to have - been 
more or less connected during and since 
the Cambrian period, with intermigra- 
tions of life-forms. This connection, with 
probable interruptions, appears to have 
continued down to the early centuries of 
the Quarternary. Also, from what little 
we know of the extinct animals and of 
the present relations of the plants and 
animals of the continents south of lati- 
tude 20° north, several observers have 
been led to suppose that these continents 


were more or less intimately united, and ° 


that possibly there were land connections 
with a former Antarctic continent. From 
maps, though naturally very hypotHetical, 
published by de Lapparent and Koken, 
showing the probable distribution of land 
during the Middle Devonian, South 
America, Africa, southern Asia and Aus- 
tralia were possibly connected. Towards 
the end of the Carboniferous period there 
was probably a more or less continuous ex- 
tent of land over what is now South 
America, Africa and Australia. This land 
connection between what are now separate 
continents appears to have persisted 
through the early Mesozoic age (Trias and 
Jura), though towards the end of the 
Jurassic Australia became widely sepa- 
rated by the Indian Ocean from Africa, 
while South America and Africa remained 
united. Our studies on the distribution of 
Neogeic and African (Hthiopian) Cer- 
atocampide and two related families point 
to a connection in Cretaceous or early Ter- 
tiary times between Brazil and western 
Africa, thus bearing out the views of Iher- 
ing, Gill, Ortmann and others. The former 
connection of these Antarctogric con- 
tinents (whatever may be said of their 
possible connection with Antarctica) is 
borne out by the well-known facts in the 
distribution of certain terrestrial worms, 
land and fresh-water mollusks, insects, 
fresh-water fish, Dipnoi, Peripatus, am- 


SCIENCE. 


221 


phibians, ‘reptiles; birds and” mammals.. 
Our results also suggest that Africa south 
of the Sahara should properly be regarded 
as a zoological realm (for which the word 
Afrogea is proposed), and not a depend- 
ence or region of Arctogza. 
C. Jupson HERRICK, 
Secretary. 


AMERICAN SOCIETY OF ZOOLOGISTS, 
CENTRAL BRANCH. 

THE first annual meeting under the pres- 
ent organization was held at St. Louis, 
December 29 and 30. The following of- 
ficers were elected for the ensuing year: 

President—Professor C. H. Kigenmann. 

Vice-President—Dr. S. J. Holmes. 

Secretary and Treasurer—Professor F, R. Lillie. 

Additional Members of the Executive Committee 
—One year, Professor G. A. Lefevre; two years, 


Professor T. G. Lee; three years, Professor Her- 
bert Osborn. 


The titles and abstracts of the papers 
presented appear together with those pre- 
sented by Section F of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science, in 
Professor Herrick’s report printed above. 

FRANK SMITH, 
Secretary. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Evolution and Adaptation. By Tuomas Hunt: 
Morean. The Macmillan Company. 1903. 
Pp. 470. 

The modern evolutionist is obliged to con- 
fess, and somewhat painfully, that the proc- 
esses connected with ‘ Darwinism’ continue to 
receive different and conflicting explanations. 
—this, too, in the face of a mass of documents 
which an ever-increasing number of investi- 
gators have been bringing together during the: 
past decades. Jn token of this lack of concord 
in interpretation witness two volumes, not 
mere tracts, which have lately appeared. In: 
the first of these, Plate,* following Darwinian: 

*“*Ueber die Bedeutung des Darwin’schen Se- 
lectionsprincips und Probleme der Artbildung,’ 


Zweite, vermehrte Auflage, 1903, Engelmann, pp.. 
247. 


222 SCIENCE. 


lines, does not hesitate to deelare that ‘for the 
harmony which exists between the living con- 
ditions of organisms and their morphological 
and physiological characters there is at the 
present time no other scientific explanation 
than natural selection. In the second book, 
on the other hand, Morgan is firmly convinced 
that as a means of accounting for adaptations 
the doctrine of selection is largely to be dis- 
carded. Morgan represents the newer school 
of evolutionists, and from this standpoint 
his book has a timely value, for it is the first 
non-technical work of its kind. Whether he 
proves his case satisfactorily—for the work 
is parti pris throughout—is a question which 
each critic must answer. But all will agree 
that his work will find its place on the general 
bookshelves side by side with the volumes of 
Romanes, Lloyd Morgan, Spencer and Wallace. 

Morgan, as he states in his preface, was 
early led to a belief in the inadequacy of 
natural selection from his studies upon re- 
generation, for this process often concerns 
itself with structures which play no part in 
strict Darwinism. The author now aims to 
explain some of these difficulties by muta- 
tions. Thus, keeping in mind especially the 
results of De Vries, Morgan emphasizes the 
probability of mutations having occurred 
broadeast under infinite conditions of manner, 
degree, place and time. Such mutations pro- 
duced series of creatures which were suited or 
unsuited to their particular locality, or were 
perhaps indifferent. Some, like Kallima, were 
even better adapted to their neighborhood than 
necessity for survival demanded; others were 
impertectly adapted, but surviving in spite, 
e. g., of bright colors, asymmetry or compli- 
cated reproductive processes. According to 
such a doctrine of mutations organic forms 
sueceed one another kaleidoseopically, their 
variability becoming largely arrested between 
the definitely marked periods of change. Thus, 
if a species be compared to a facet upon which 
a polyhedron is balancing, the species, like 
the facet, may oscillate within definite limits. 


* The Lamarckian hypothesis is given little im- 
portance: ‘I am not sure that we should not be 
justified at present in claiming that the theory 
is unnecessary and even improbable.’ 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


But if the limits of variation are transcended, 
the entire polyhedron changes its position and 
comes to equilibrium on a new facet. This 
plan of variation forms the undercurrent of 
Morgan’s philosophy; through it he sees ap- 
pearing structures, forms and habits, which 


have no ‘selective value,’ their purpose or - 


utility may be partly or wholly nil, ‘for we 
can not measure the organic world by measure 
of utility alone, yet they appear as perfectly 
and as plentifully as the crystal-forms of snow. 
Granted then a galaxy of mutations some of 
them will fit their surroundings with marvel- 
ous accuracy. And with this in mind Mor- 
gan develops what he believes is a probable 
answer to many of the puzzles of shape and 
symmetry, the mutual adaptation of colonial 
forms, degeneration (those mutations only 
surviving which ‘we may almost say, have 
been forced’ into a parasitic environment, 
‘for these degenerate forms can only exist un- 
der such conditions’), coloration, life-length, 
regeneration, individual adjustments, second- 
ary sexual characters and even of sex itself. 


It is obviously impracticable for a reviewer - 


to consider more than the barest outlines of 
a work which touches many fundamental view- 
points. Each of the dozen chapters of the 
present book contains enough to warrant sep- 
arate reviews and reviewers. And each critic 
will find little trouble in pointing out some of 
the many ‘pitfalls’ referred to in Morgan’s 
preface. For discussions in evolution have 
long since shown that facts may be read in 
different ways. 

There are general features in which the 
present volume deserves warm praise, as in 
providing a mass of helpful examples, and in 
urging attractive arguments against many 
‘purposeful’ or ‘useful’ variations, and above 
all things in considering critically the doc- 
trine of sexual selection, furnishing against 
the latter—in spite of lack of reference to 
Cunningham’s work—the most serious objec- 
tions hitherto given. There are other fea- 
tures, however, in which improvement might 
well have been made. MRegrettable is a gen- 
eral dearth of exact references—there are, in 
fact, not a dozen citations in all. And espe- 
cially regrettable, in view of the scope of the 


Frpruary 5, 1904.] 


book, is the total absence of treatment of 
vitalism, which, as all admit, has become too 
troublesome a specter to be ignored in prob- 
lems of adaptation. Regrettable is this omis- 
sion, none the less, since there are few authors 
in a better position than Morgan to summarize 
the strongest arguments of the neovitalists. 
Altogether the book would have been more 
valuable, it seems to me, if the author had 
readjusted somewhat his themes; he might 
thus have included a discussion of vitalism, 
amplified his section on Naegeli’s ‘ perfecting 
principle,’ and given a more adequate account 
of orthogenesis, respects in which the work is 
not to be mentioned in terms of Plate’s, and 
by the same token abridged his discussion of 
natural and artificial selection. As it stands, 
the work gives page after page quoted from 
Darwin—indeed, throughout the entire book 
there are over a hundred pages in quotation 
marks. This extended treatment of the classic 
aspects of selection, we freely admit, led us to 
the false hope that the newer theme of organic 
selection, as set forth by Osborn, Lloyd Mor- 
gan and Baldwin, would at least be given 
definite reference. 

As already remarked, each reviewer of a 
work of the present broad scope will find 
abundant ground for criticism. The most 
formidable and most pertinent discussion 
might easily arise over mutations themselves. 
Morgan, like Korschinsky and De Vries, holds 
that mutations are saltations by which new 
‘modes’ are established in organisms, while 
variations, in the sense of the usual selection- 
ist, are changes occurring about the same 
‘mode.’ But we find that Morgan is willing 
to go further, and embrace under the term 
mutation all discontinuous variations. And 
if this point is granted, I confess that I can 
not see that his standpoint is widely different 
am esse from that of the rank and file of latter- 
day selectionists. For after all discontinuity 
im variations is a question of degree, and it 
would not be a serious matter to show that 
transitions occurred between discontinuous to 
continuous yariations. A case, one which I 
happen at the present moment to be interested 
in, occurs in the development of Chimera. 
In the fertilization of this form supplemented 


SCIENCE. 223 


spermheads, as they pass into the’egg, divide 
at once amitotically. And we have thus what 
appears at first sight a distinct saltation from 
the usual conditions in polyspermy. Com- 
paring, however, Chimera with the conditions 
in the allied sharks, we find that this peculiar 
behavior of the sperm nuclei is not a feature 
which has arisen as a discontinuous variation; 
it represents nothing more nor less than an 
abbreviated process of what occurs in the more 
primitive sharks; in these forms amitosis in 
sperm nuclei appears at the end of a graded 
series of nuclear divisions, a series at one end 
of which mitosis oceurs, and at the other ami- 
tosis. In the development of Chimera the 
earliest stage of the sperm nucleus thus cor- 
responds to a late stage in the sperm nucleus 
of sharks, and thus we conclude that the dis- 
continuous character in Chimera is not a new 
“mode,’ but a modified phase of a simple con- 
tinuous process. This example, be it under- 
stood, occurs not immediately between off- 
spring and parent, but, like ‘mutations’ in 
paleontology, between offspring and early an- 
eestor, but it seems to me that a typical mu- 
tation differs from it in degree rather than in 
substance, and that similar processes may com- 
bine to form the complex of wonderfully ad- 
justed discontinuous variations which we call 
a typical mutation. JI incline to the belief 
that, in the elaboration of the doctrine of mu- 
tations, Morgan, like some other transmutation- 
ists,* keeps too prominently in the foreground 
not the strands which make up the compli- 
eated web of adaptation, but the mutant as a 
whole, picturing not the few details of struct- 
ure which our present knowledge enables us 
to grasp, but a progression of brilliant, per- 
fectly formed organisms, delicate in internal 
adjustments and new, different from their 
parents, indeed, even from their earliest 
stages, a picture which, as Morgan says of 
Naegeli’s progression ‘has a grandeur that 
appeals directly to the imagination.’ On the 
other hand, admitting that-discontinuous vari- 


* Morgan substitutes ‘transmutation’ for ‘ evo- 
lution,’ adjusting the term more closely, therefore, 
to his interpretation of the process. If terms are 
to be shifted, why should not the Lamarckian 
“transformism’ be revived? 


224 SCIENCE. 


ations (‘mutations’) areoimithemselyes but 
adaptations of continuous variations, and 
bearing always in mind that extreme muta- 
tions are numerically rare, and, in our present 
knowledge, obscure as to fate, I take it that 
we are hardly in a position to give them su- 
preme importance in the economy of species- 
building. Of extreme interest they are, none 
the less, and from theoretical standpoints, they 
are worthy of the most painstaking research, 
and are not to be discredited as mere ‘ freaks’ 
or ‘sports’ important only in the praxis of 
gardening, as Plate concludes. There is, fur- 
thermore, a feature of mutations which has, 
it seems to me, never been adequately con- 
sidered, 2. e., the definiteness of their char- 
acters, a feature which tells rather in favor 
of orthogenesis than the less definite in- 
terpretation which Morgan supports. For 
in all mutations—we refer to typical cases— 
the creature which appears is constant to a 
remarkable degree; the peacock mutant is the 
black-japanned, never the yellow- nor the red-, 
and even when many mutants appear ‘ simul- 
taneously’ they are surprisingly constant in 
characters. The word orthogenesis, by the 
way, does not occur in the index, and in sim- 
ilar instances we find that the index is trouble- 
somely brief. 

Tt is, I conclude, as a postulate of his doc- 
trine of mutations that Morgan attacks our 
venerable recapitulation (or, as he prefers to 
eall it, repetition) theory. For when a mutation 
does oceur it appears literally ab ovo, although 
the author does not commit himself as to the 
exact point at which the ‘presto change’ oc- 
eurred, whether in fertilization or segmenta- 
tion, but, if I understand him aright, it oc- 
curred during earliest development; nor does 
he say concretely whether all mutants date 
from an identical stage. But the drift of his 
remarks on recapitulation leads us to infer 
that they do, for otherwise this chapter seems 
to lose its point. For, outgrowing the days of 
Oken, no author of good repute has maintained 
that the adult structures of ancestors are still 
present in embryos, nor that the embryo chick 
resembles an adult reptile, nor even that the 
embryo of one species is ever exactly identical 
with the embryo of the corresponding stage 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 475. 


of the mearest,species. , We might. even, go 
further and-.assert that no modern zoologist 
has maintained that even within the same 
species any individual is absolutely identical 
with any other individual at any correspond- 
ing stage, early or late, in growth. Even the 
enthusiast who substituted a cut of an embry- 
onic dog for one of man, and cheerfully ad- 
mitted the imposture on the ground that the 
figures were equivalent, has never been 
charged with believing that the stages were 
equivalent, but only with crudely illustrating 
an elementary text-book, and with unscientific 
levity. Morgan’s therefore must imply some- 
thing more than the doctrine of von Baer— 
which was to the effect that chick embryos 
resemble (he does not say are absolutely iden- 
tical with) embryos of lizards, and that the 
stages of chick and lizard correspond during 
a longer period of development than do em- 
bryos of chick and fish. And J have gathered 
what I believe is his meaning only piecemeal, 
through his references to larval forms, his as- 
sertion that ‘jumps, or short cuts, of the de- 
velopmental process are unknown in the physi- 
ological process of development,’ and his quo- 
tations regarding the early appearance of mu- 
tational characters in the development of birds 
and dogs. He entirely fails to appreciate, it 
seems to me, the part played by adaptation at 
all stages of growth. 

A final word regarding useful variations. 
Morgan maintains (and we believe that the 
majority of zoologists are in sympathy with 
such a view as opposed to Wallace’s) that 
many ‘useful’ characters in organisms are 
useless and accidental, even although, a priori, 
the case appears adapted to purpose in mar- 
velous detail. We smile at the silhouetted 
skull on the back of a moth, or the head of 
the drowned Taira warrior on the carapace of 
a Japanese crab, or the profile of a Seandi- 
nayvian face on the ‘earbone’ of a Norwegian 
whale, but are these complicated coincidences 
more accidental than some of the ‘ purposeful ” 
variations which we accept rather on the faith 
of coincidence than upon actual proof of 
utility? Facts are clearly what we need be- 
fore we can assert that definite characters or 
variations are useful—but it is equally true 


—o n 


ec ag ne 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


that’ facts must be cited before many of the 
stock examples of ‘useful adaptations’ can be 
east out. And from this standpoint a number 
of Morgan’s examples of non-useful adapta- 
tion fail to convince. Thus, why may not 
the different colors in the mouths of the male 
and female hornbills be useful in sexual selec- 
tion? Morgan assures us that these differ- 
ences in the colors are useless since they can 
not be seen, but on the other hand, from what 
we know of the habits of huge-billed birds, it 
is quite possible that during nuptial antics the 
bills are widely open. Again, Morgan admits 
that the green color of a frog is probably use- 
ful, but believes useless the black pigment 
lining the body cavity. He does not show that 
it 7s useless, in spite of our lingering suspicion 
that a black screen behind a thin body wall 
might well be useful in collecting warmth, or 
even in protecting from light delicate viscera. 
So, also, we are not convinced that gray hair 
and retreating chin are altogether useless or- 
gans, for it is quite possible that there is some 
foundation for the popular belief that they are 
adverse to sexual sentiment, and may thus, 
after all, play a useful part in selection. 
BasHrorp Dran. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Journal of Physical Chemistry, No- 
vember. ‘History of the Water Problem’ 
(Mrs. Fulhame’s theory of catalysis), by J. 
W. Mellor. A sketch of Mrs. Fulhame’s 
“Essay on Combustion,’ published in 1794, in 
which appears the first clear statement of the 
influence of water on chemical transforma- 
tions. ‘An Apparatus for the Electrolytic 
Determination of Metals, Using a Rotating 
Cathode,’ by E. S. Shepherd. By this means 
the copper in chalcopyrite was determined 
electrolytically in from twenty-five to forty 
minutes. ‘Solubility of Calcium Sulfate in 
Aqueous Solutions of Sulfuric Acid,’ by F. 
K. Cameron and J. F. Breazeale; ‘The Solu- 
bility of Magnesium Carbonate in Aqueous 
Solutions of Certain Electrolytes,’ by F. K. 
Cameron and A. Seidell. December. ‘ Ac- 
tion of Sodium and Potassium Amalgams on 
Various Aqueous Solutions,’ by Gustave 
Fernekes; ‘The Rate of Formation of Iodates 


SCIENCE. 


225 


in Alkaline Solutions: of Iodin;i:by HE. L. C. 
Forster; ‘Iron Salts in Voltameter Solutions,’ 
by J. M. Bell. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE WASHINGTON ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


THE annual meeting of the Washington 
Academy of Sciences was held on Wednesday 
evening at the Cosmos Club and the following 
officers were elected for the ensuing year: 

President—Charles D. Walcott. 

Vice-Presidents—Krom the Anthropological So- 
ciety, D. S. Lamb; Archeological Society, J. W. 
Foster; Biological Society, B. W. Hvermann; 
Botanical Society, F. V. Coville; Chemical Society, 
F. W. Clarke; Entomological Society, W. H. 
Ashmead; Geographic Society, A. Graham Bell; 
Geological Society, G. K. Gilbert; Historical So- 
ciety, W J McGee; Medical Society, C. W. 
Richardson; Philosophical Society, C. F. Marvin. 

Secretary—Frank Baker. 

Treaswrer—Bernard R, Green. 

Managers: 1905—L. O. Howard, O. H. Titt- 
mann, Carroll D. Wright; 1906—C. W. Hayes, 
G. W. Littlehales, C. Hart Merriam; 1907—Geo. 
M. Kober, Gifford Pinchot, F. A. Lucas. 


PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


At the 33d annual meeting, December 19, 
1903, Professor C. F. Marvin, of the Weather 
Bureau, was elected president; Messrs. Abbe, 
Hagen, Littlehales and Day, vice-presidents; 
Mr. B. R. Green, treasurer; Messrs. Hayford 
and Wead, secretaries, and Messrs. De Cain- 
dry, Paul, Winston, Bauer, Briggs, Fischer, 
Harris, Rosa and Abbot as members of the 
general committee; on this committee are also 
ex officio Past Presidents Dall, Walcott, Rath- 
bun and Gore. : 

The secretaries’ and treasurer’s reports 
showed the society to be in a prosperous con- 
dition. 

Tuer 577th regular meeting was held Jan- 
uary 2, 1904, President Marvin in the chair. 

Mr. F. G. Nutting presented by invitation 
a paper on ‘ The Electron Theory of the Radi- 
ation of Gases,’ pointing out how this theory 
explains various peculiarities in the spectra 
of gases. 

Mr. C. G. Abbot then described work of the 
past two years at the Smithsonian Astrophys- 


226 


ical Observatory, consisting in measures of 
the transparency of the air, the rate of receipt 
of solar energy at the earth’s surface, and 
computations therefrom of the ‘solar con- 
stant’ of radiation and of the probable tem- 
perature of the sun. 

The transparency of the air, measured at 
many different wave-lengths by the aid of the 
spectro-bolometer, had appeared to vary great- 
ly, so that the means for the first eight months 
of 1903 fell below the means for 1901-2 by 
amounts ranging from five per cent. in the 
infra-red, to twenty per cent. in the blue. 
During the latter four months of 1903 the 
transpareney had again risen, and approached 
within two or three per cent. of its values for 
the year before. 

Results were given of some twenty separate 
determinations of the solar constant, but these 
depended directly on the constants and theory 
of the mercury pyrheliometer, so that they 
may later be subject to amendment. In re- 
sponse to questions Mr. Abbot described a 
new form of pyrheliometer capable of exact 
cheeks on its results, and now being tried 
with most promising results at the Astro- 
physical Observatory. 

A curve was shown giving the mean of five 
days’ determinations of the distribution of 
solar radiation outside the atmosphere. From 
this the position of maximum radiation ap- 
peared at a wave-length of 0.494, correspond- 
ing, according to Wien’s law, to a solar tem- 
perature of from 5800° to 5900°. 

Dr. Day remarked that the mean value of 
the solar constant, as given by Mr. Abbot— 
2.167 calories per cm. per minute—would 
yield by Stefan’s law a solar temperature of 
5700° to 5800°. CuHarLes K. Weap, 

Secretary. 


NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

SECTION OF ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

Tue regular meeting of the section was held 
on January 4 at the American Museum of 
Natural History. The officers of the section 
for the year 1904, who were elected at the last 
regular meeting of the section, are: 

Chairman—Professor Charles Lane Poor. 

Secretary—Mr. Charles C. Trowbridge. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No. 475. 


The first paper of the evening was read by 
Professor Herschel C. Parker and was entitled 
“Altitude Observations with the Hypsometer 
in the Canadian Rockies.’ 

A brief outline of the various methods used 
in altitude determinations was first presented, 
showing that all are based on two general 
methods, triangulation or measurement of 
atmospheric pressure. In the latter method 
the determinations are made either by means 
of the several forms of barometer or by the 
hypsometer. The difficulties attending the 
use of all of the different forms of barometer 
were pointed out and the advantages of porta- 
bility and accuracy of the hypsometer shown. 
Examples were then given illustrating the 
extremely satisfactory results obtained with 
the hypsometer during mountaineering ex- 
peditions in the Canadian Rockies last sum- 
mer. 

Professor Parker has had many years’ ex- 
perience in mountain work, making numerous 
‘first ascents’ in British Oolumbia and 
Alberta, and he gave as his conclusion that the 
hypsometer is by far the most convenient and 
accurate instrument for the determination of 
altitudes under ordinary mountaineering con- 
ditions. 

The second paper was read by Dr. George F. 
Kunz and Professor Charles Baskerville on 
“Phosphorescence in Diamonds Produced by 
Pitchblende.” They stated that a naturally 
fractured piece of pitchblende (uraninite), 
weighing 800 grams, from Pribram, Bohemia, 
caused the 1411 carat diamond (tiffanyite) * 
to phosphoresce when laid upon it, or even 
when a piece of window glass or a board three 
fourths of an inch thick was interposed. The 
diamond glowed, although more than one inch 
of space intervened between it and the pitch- 
blende. We have in this instance a substance 
with a radio-activity of only 2 or 24 affecting 
a radio-actively responsive substance, proving 
that there exists a body of the latter character 
in this case that responds almost to the unit 
one of radio-activity. The same specimen 
of pitehblende did not affect a platinum- 
barium cyanide screen. Another specimen of 
pitchblende from Pribram, and others from 


* Science, December 18, 1903. 


Fresruary 5, 1904.} 


Johanngeorgenstadt, Saxony, and Central City, 
Colorado, caused the diamond to phosphoresce. 
It was further shown that if either kunzite (a 
variety of spodumene), pectolite or wollaston- 
ite, pulverized, were mixed with radium- 
barium carbonate, of 240 activity, the mixed 
powder became permanently luminous. When 
these mixtures were put in a Bologna flask and 
held on a metal plate, hot but not showing any 
color, they immediately became very luminous 
and remained so for a long time. Kunzite, 
pectolite and wollastonite became phosphores- 
cent by heating alone, the kunzite showing an 
orange glow. When a kunzite crystal 5 cm. 
square and 5 em. thick was exposed to the pas- 
sage of an oscillating current, the entire crys- 
tal glowed an orange pink, losing its lilac 
color, a well-defined line through the center in 
the path of the current being much more bril- 
liant; this phosphorescence lasted for quite a 
time after exposure. Further experiments 
were made with the same sensitive diamond 
mentioned above as to its tribo-luminescence. 
Prints were obtained from negatives made by 
laying the diamond face downward directly 
upon the photographie plate, and rubbing the 
back of the diamond with a stick coated with 
wool, in one instance for a quarter of a minute, 
in another for one half minute, the tribo- 
Juminescence induced causing the printing. 
The same type of diamond from British 
Guiana, when heated on a metal plate below 
redness, phosphoresced distinctly, as also did 
pectolite and wollastonite. We have here, 
therefore, luminescence of the tiffanyite body 
in diamond, produced by radio-active pitch- 
blende, by friction and by heat. 

The next paper on the program was the first 
of a series of papers on ‘ Recent Progress in 
Physical Science,’ and was delivered by Dr. 
Bergen Davis, who spoke on ‘The Latest 
Theories Relating to the Discharge of Elec- 
tricity in High Vacua, and Ionization of 
Gases. Account was given of Dr. H. A. 
Wilson’s investigation of the distribution of 
electrical intensity along the striated positive 
column, and his theory for the electrical in- 
tensity in a uniform positive column. An out- 
line was also given of Professor J. J. Thomp- 
son’s theory of the discharge through Geissler 


SCIENCE. 


227 


tubes... Dr. Davis also reviewed Professor J. 
S. Townsend’s theory of the sparking potential, 
Professor Townsend having showed that the 
ionization is due to impact of both positive 
and negative ions with the neutral molecule. 
The theoretical sparking potential thus de- 
duced agrees very closely with the experi- 
mental value. 
Cuartes C. TROWBRIDGE, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NEW YORK SECTION. 
Ar the meeting held on January 8 at the 
Chemists’ Club, 108 West 55th Street, the pro- 
gram was as follows: 


The Dietetic Value of Patent Foods: W. D. 

HALLIBURTON. 

Professor Halliburton, who was present: as 
the guest of the section, spoke especially of 
the conditions influencing the digestibility of 
various foods and dietetic preparations, the 
relative importance of nitrogenous and non- 
nitrogenous nutrients, the disadvantages of 
separating a single nutrient from the other 
constituents of the food in which it occurs, 
and the question of the nutritive values of 
meat extracts and proteolytic products. It 
was pointed out that while the meat extracts 
are practically devoid of food value, the prep- 
arations which consist of proteolytic products, 
such as proteoses and peptones, have practi- 
cally the same nutritive effect, ‘nitrogen for 
nitrogen,’ as the original proteids, being syn- 
thesized to proteids in the body, probably in 
the epithelial cells. Im conclusion Professor 
Halliburton urged the cooperation of chemists 
with physiologists and physicians in the edu- 
cation of the public, and the prevention of 
fraud in the matter of artificially prepared and 
‘patent’ foods. 


Notes on the Preparation of Standard 

Alkalimetric Solutions: F. D. Dover. 

Dr. Dodge reviewed the principal methods 
employed and discussed especially the merits 
of various acid and alkaline substances which 
have been suggested as standards for use in 
the direct methods of standardizing. For this 
purpose he proposes the use of salicylic acid 


228 SCIENCE. 


for titration in aleoholic solutions, and. of the 
acid phthalates where aqueous solutions are to 
be used. In the discussion following the read- 
ing of this paper, Professor Coblentz spoke 
highly of tartaric acid and acid potassium tar- 
trate as standards for titration in aqueous 
solutions. 


On the Structure of Metals and Alloys; 
Aluminium Alloys: Witu1am CAMPBELL. 
Dr. Campbell, after describing the micro- 

structure of the whole series of alloys of cop- 

per and aluminium, and the change in struc- 
ture due to casting, dwelt at some length on 
the change which takes place in the solid state 
in alloys containing over 84 per cent. copper. 

It appears that the alloys solidify as solid 

solutions, and at a lower temperature rear- 

range themselves in a manner similar to that 
of the alloys of copper and tin between 68 and 

75 per cent. copper, or of the carbon-iron 

alloys containing up to 1.8 per cent. carbon. 

Photographs of the alloys which had cooled 

slowly were contrasted with those of alloys 

which had been quenched from above the crit- 
ical temperatures. On annealing the quenched 
specimens, the original structure was restored. 

The paper was illustrated by lantern slides. 


The Determination of Molybdenum in Steel: 

F. V. D. Cruser. 

Mr. Cruser described the analytical separa- 
tion of molybdenum from iron and the rarer 
metals now added in making steel, such as 
chromium, tungsten, uranium and vanadium, 
and the various methods used for the deter- 


mination of molybdenum. In the course of 


the work it was found that the separation of 
iron from molybdenum by caustic alkali was 
inaccurate, due to the formation of small but 
variable quantities of ferric molybdate which 
was soluble in alkali. A method was worked 
out which is believed to be entirely accurate; 
it is in brief as follows: Dissolve the steel in 
nitrosulphurie acid; separate the molybdenum 
as MoS, by hydrogen sulphide under pressure; 
dissolve the sulphide and convert to sulphate; 
reduce the molybdenum by zine and reoxidize 
by a standard solution of permanganate. If 
tungsten is present the addition of three to 
four grams of tartaric acid prevents its con- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


taminating the molybdenum sulphide... This 
method was tested on a number of steels and 
molybdenum alloys, and none of the metals 
present was found to interfere, while by the 
methods recently published the results were 
unreliable in many cases, especially when 
tungsten or vanadium was present. 


On the Determination of Nitrogen in Food 
Materials and Physiological Products: H. C. 
SHERMAN. Read by title. 

H. C. SHERMAN, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


Tue multiplication of scientific and learned 
societies is the normal outcome of the enor- 
mous expansion in the fields of learning dur- 
ing the past few decades. The farther one 
pursues a single branch, say of science, the 
more he becomes separated from those follow- 
ing other branches of science. The scientific 
society represents, like all other societies, the 
grouping of those of similar tastes for mutual 
profit and entertainment. As soon as a So- 
ciety covers a field so large that many of the 
matters brought before it are uninteresting or 
unprofitable to any considerable number, the 
society breaks up, either into new societies or 
into sections, each with its own gatherings. 
This fact was recognized early in the history 
of the American Association. 

But specialization can be carried too far. 
I do not mean merely that the man, mining 
so industriously at the bottom of his own 
shaft, is of little account to the rest of the 
world, indeed, often forgets that there is any 
world outside of his own hole. He himself 
may recognize that this is true and not care 
a whit, so that he discovers the truth for 
which he is searching. What is of far more 
importance is that in losing his sense of per- 
spective he greatly hampers his own work. 
He needs to know what others are doing that 
he may gain a better conception of what he 
himself is doing. 

We need the meetings of the special socie- 
ties, and we need also the meetings of a gen- 
eral society, where men come in contact with 


Sl 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


the workers in other fields than their own. 
The value of such gatherings is not so much 
in listening to papers or addresses, though 
these are often profitable, but in social inter- 
course, coming into contact with minds not 
cast in our own mold. It is particularly 
stimulating to younger men thus to meet with 
those who have already won their spurs, and 
is it not the duty as well as privilege of the 
latter to give this inspiration to their younger 
colleagues? The discovery of a man may be 
as important as the discovery of a theory. 

How then shall such an ideal be brought to 
pass? We have such a society, covering the 
general field of science, the American Asso- 
ciation; what should be its function and what 
the character of its meetings? 

1. In its journal, for such we may call 
Screncr, it is actually accomplishing much 
to prevent narrowness in specialization. In 
an hour each week I get a glimpse of what is 
going on in the world of science. It seems 
to me that no specialist can afford not to at 
least glance through the carefully prepared 
papers on special branches, yet of general in- 
terest, the discussions and correspondence, the 
reviews of literature, the current notes on spe- 
cial sciences (would there were more of 
them!) and the general notes and news. 

9. As- regards meetings. Each society 
should have its regular annual meeting in the 
summer, for the presentation of papers, for 
excursions, for study or for whatever is of 
most value to the members as specialists. For 
many of the societies summer is the most fa- 
vorable time for such purposes. ‘These meet- 
ings should be held by each society without 
regard to the meetings of any other society, 
as to either date or place. In winter there 
should be a convocation week meeting of all 
the scientific societies, together with the Amer- 
ican Association. At this meeting it seems 
to me that no papers of restricted interest 
should be read, but rather presidential ad- 
dresses and lectures should be given, and sec- 
tional discussions (carefully prepared by a 
limited number of leaders) on topics of gen- 
eral sectional interest. No inconsiderable at- 
tention should be devoted to the social side of 
these annual meetings, but the time should be 


SCIENCE. 229 


so apportioned daily that there should be no 
conflict; that is, a certain portion of each day 
should be set apart for each general purpose. 

All this would necessitate points of adjust- 
ment between the sections of the American 
Association and the various societies. The 
functions of the sections and the societies are 
in many respects similar, and the question 
may well be asked, as it has been many times 
in the past, as to whether there is a place for 
both. Would it not be better for the asso- 
ciation to become merely a federation of the 
scientific societies of the country? As it is 
at present, many members of the different so- 
cieties attend the meetings and enjoy all the 
privileges of the association, except holding 
office and receiving the Proceedings of the 
association and SciENCcE, and contribute noth- 
ing to the treasury. Then there is always 
more or less friction in arranging the sec- 
tional programs where there is this dual con- 
trol. In ease of federation, with the council 
made up, perhaps exclusively, of representa- 
tives chosen by the societies, all this would be 
obviated. The chief difficulty would probably 
be arranging for the financial support of the 
federated association. ~Yet this would be by 
no means insuperable. It could be provided 
that each member of the societies should be 
charged the present dues of three dollars for 
the support of the federation, receiving there- 
for ScIENCE as now. Since the addresses 
would be printed in Scrmncr, the Proceedings 
could be discontinued, and a collective list of 
members printed in addition to the lists of 
members of each society now published. The 
reduced expense would in the end probably 
amount to as much as the income received 
from initiation fees, a source of income de- 
pendent upon growth in the association. Of 
course, such a plan would necessitate a certain 
amount of altruism on the part of the feder- 
ated societies, but I can well believe a ma- 
jority of the members of every society would 
be willing to sacrifice something for the gen- 
eral good of science, even outside of their own 
specialties. 

Such a winter gathering should be held in 
a large and easily accessible center, in order 
to insure the largest possible attendance. Here 


230 


we meet the difficulty of the great distances 
separating workers in the various sections of 
this country. <A satisfactory way of obviating 
this would be to hold a general meeting of 
the association only biennially, dividing the 
association geographically in the alternate 
years, with meetings simultaneously in per- 
haps half a dozen sections of the country. 
Such changes as these suggested are radical, 
but changes have been going on in the admin- 
istration of the association for the past decade, 
and it is evident other changes must come. 
Would not these meet the requirements? 
Jas. Lewis Howe. 
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY. 


To tHE Epitor or Science: The relation 
which the various scientific societies of the 
country bear to the American Association is 
one which demands careful consideration. 
First of all I think it may be assumed that 
the organization of all scientific societies 
should be of such a nature as to promote the 
welfare of the American Association. The 
latter body is the one organization of the 
United States in which all scientific men are 
brought together on a common level. 

The necessity for special societies is, of 
course, recognized, but the greater necessity 
for a single society is equally as evident. 

I should like to discuss, for a moment, some 
of the problems suggested in an article in 
ScimncE, January 8, on convocation week, and 
especially with reference to the position oc- 
cupied by the American Chemical Society. 
This society now has a membership of nearly 
twenty-five hundred and is rapidly growing. 
I have consulted the records of the attendance 
at the meetings of the American Association 
for the past few years and find that the mem- 
bers of the American Chemical Society repre- 
sent about 30 per cent. of the whole attend- 
ance. During the whole of this period the 
American Chemical Society has held its meet- 
ings in conjunction with Section C of the asso- 
ciation and the utmost harmony and good-will 
have prevailed. It appears to me, therefore, 
that the American Chemical Society has a 
more intimate union with the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science than 
any of the other affiliated societies. My idea 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 475. 


is that each section of the association would 
be benefited by the adoption of this system of 
cooperation. It might even be made more 
intimate with great advantage. For instance, 
in the case of Section C the officers of the 
American Chemical Society might well be ac- 
cepted as the officers of Section C, thus mak- 
ing Section C practically the American Chem- 
ical Society. It is evident at once that the 
aims and intentions of Section C and the 
American Chemical Society are the same, and 
by having the same set of officers there would 
be less trouble in arranging the program and 
dividing the time than there is at present. 
This, however, is only a suggestion, as I realize 
that the present form of collaboration is very 
satisfactory. 

Tf all the other branches of science could be 
represented by powerful national societies the 
same collaboration could be established in 
almost all the sections. For instance, there 
is no reason why there should not be an Ameri- 
can Botanical Society of approximately the 
same numerical strength as the American 
Chemical Society, and this is true of physics, 
geology, entomology and the other sciences. 
It might be well, however, to establish a limit 
of membership, so that before a subsociety 
should become intimately associated with the 
parent society it should have a membership 
entitling it to such a position. I should say 
that any national society representing a great 
science which has a thousand members could 
safely be admitted to the same affiliation as 
the Chemical Society now enjoys. 

Unfortunately, I think, for the advancement 
of science, there is too great a tendency to 
organize separate and independent societies in 
each branch of investigation. This has been 
done already in regard to chemistry in this 
country in the establishment of two very 
powerful societies entirely distinct from and 
without any affiliation whatever with the 
American Chemical Society. I refer to the 
American Electro-chemical Society and the 
American section of the Society of Chemical 
Industry. I do not wish to speak in a re- 
proachful way of these two organizations, be- 
cause [ am a member of both and fully appre- 
ciate the great work that each is doing, but it 


FEBRuARY 5, 1904.] 


seems to me that this work might be even more 
effective if conducted in conjunction with the 
American Chemical Society. 

The same tendency to disintegrate seems to 
pervade the other sciences. For instance, I 
note that at the St. Louis meeting there were 
represented in the American Association the 
American Society of Naturalists and the 
American Society of Zoologists. Now, of 


course, I do not know just what kind of a. 


science naturalism is, but I suppose a part of 
its work is zoology. I also notice that there 
were represented the Association of Heonomic 
Entomologists and the Entomological Club of 
the Association, the Association of Plant 
Breeders, the Botanical Club of the Associa- 
tion, the Botanical Society of America, the 
~Central Botanists’ Association, the Wild 
Flower Preservation Society of America and 
the Fern Chapter. Again I am at a loss to 
know exactly what a fern chapter is, but I 
assume that it has something to do with 
botany. JI also note the presence of some so- 
eieties which can hardly be associated with 
any one science, for instance, the ‘Sigma Xi 
Honorary Scientific Society,’ the Society for 
Horticultural Science and the Society for the 
Promotion of Agricultural Science. Would 
it not be better for all parties concerned if all 
these botanical clubs and societies were sec- 
tions of one great national society? It seems 
to me, therefore, that the sections of the asso- 
ciation devoted to physics could thus become 
affiliated or become really the American Phys- 
ical Society, the geological bodies become the 
American Geological Society, zoologists be- 
come the American Zoological Society, the en- 
tomologists the American Entomological So- 
ciety, and all the botanical clubs be united in 
the American Botanical Society. The presi- 
dents of these societies, respectively, would be- 
come the presidents of the sections of the asso- 
ciation. This would in no way interfere with 
the autonomy of the national scientific so- 
cieties, but would unite them all under a com- 
mon head, namely, the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science. It would 
also permit the great national societies to 
divide up into sections to study special sub- 
jects. Separate sections of the American 


SCIENCE. 


231 


Association could be formed for scientific 
discussion of general subjects such as econom- 
ics, medicine, ete. It would, indeed, be excel- 
lent if the American Medical Society would 
become affiliated in a similar way with the 
association. If all this could be accomplished, 
instead of having four thousand members of 
the American Association, we would have four 
times that number. The moral effect of such 
a union would be great and its economical 
effect still greater. 

There may be many objections to such a 
form of affiliation, but judging from experi- 
ence in connection with the American Chem- 
ical Society and its relation to the American 
Association, I should say that these objections 
are not fatal. H. W. Witey. 


To THE Eprror or Science: A response to 
your inquiry, if a faithful reflection of my 
convictions, may serve only to range me with 
a conservative minority on this matter of 
scientific organization and expose me to the 
raking fire of the progressists. 

I confess to a feeling of apprehension at 
the insistent and impetuous efforts which are 
making toward the centralization of scientific 
endeavor in the United States and the crea- 
tion of a formidable scientific machine in 
which individuality is to be reduced to a cog. 
Scientific organization on a grand scale is 
claimed in your recent vigorous brief on its 
behalf, to be important, not for the good of 
the scientific man, but for that of science, in 
which particular the science union or science 
syndicate will differ from the actual genius in 
the combinations of labor or capital. These 
are organized emphatically for the benefit of 
the individuals who are in, not for any such 
vague objective as the good of labor or the 
idealizing of business. The ideal man of 
science may be so supramundane that he can 
afford to give allegiance to such an altruistic 
purpose as the enthronement of science re- 
gardless of his own interests, but the actual 
scientific investigator, no whit below the ideal 
in his ardor, wants to do the work, as much 
of it as his powers and his years permit, to 
achieve all within the range of his opportuni- 
ties; and he also has a just pride in and right 


232 


to the honors that he earns and the credit that 
he wins. If he is laureled by some exclusive 
society of select spirits wherein the seating 
eapacity is small, some ancient, time-honored 
fraternity whose notice is recognition of his 
successful achievement, let him wear his hon- 
ors. They are well won and were well worth 
striving for, unless the world is to be made 
over. But laurels on the wheels of a great 
machine will be very much in the way. 

This central agent of science will, you ven- 
ture to hope, obliterate all individual rivalry 
for precedence, all controversy directed to en- 
force or maintain the individual view or in- 
terpretation, and differences of opinion are, I 
infer, to be adjusted by conference and arbi- 
tration; but I hold it the very essence of scien- 
tifie vigor that the investigator maintain his 
conclusions against all comers. In keen, well- 
behaved controversy, more than in conference, 
in determined and relentless adherence to con- 
viction, rather than in meek surrender to ‘ the 
good of the party,’ the real vitality of scien- 
tific labor reveals itself. If any laborer in 
your own field of research is weak, faulty in 
his method, careless of fact and indifferent in 
deduction, it is somebody’s duty to tell him so 
or the truth may remain concealed, and, I take 
it, it is the truth we are after and not merely 
the ‘advancement of science.’ But a science 
machine that will do away with all this, throws 
laurels in the waste basket and calls every one 
mister, stops the mouths of lions, pools all 
individuality and makes us all sucking doves 
and a spectacle for angels, may seem a benefi- 
cent institution, for now that all American 
men of science have been reduced to mere 
algebraic expressions, tagged and filed, there 
would be nothing for them but to take their 
numbers, get their union cards and try to 
live up to the motto, ‘ Better to be the tail of 
a mouse than the head of a lion.’ 

After perusing your article with care I am 
disposed to apprehend that centralization of 
science means the creation of a juggernaut 
which will crush endeavor, stupefy ambition, 
incinerate stimulus, minify personal achieve- 
ment and cachinnate at honor—the sweet 
recompense which comes from a life of earnest 


labor. Joun M. Cuarke. 
January 12, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


To tHE Epiror oF Science: I thank you for 
your invitation to join in discussing the ques- 
tion how best to organize into one cooperative 
fraternity all our national scientific societies. 

I would have the members of the council of 
the American Association feel that the entire 
burden of this holy mission rests on their 
shoulders; that as success would be their 
crown, its failure would be their undoing; if 
need be the martyr spirit is to be dominant, 


‘and whosoever would be chief, let him be the 


servant of all. 

Say to them, always seek to draw and not 
to drive, to encourage and not to discourage; 
to suggest cleverly and not seem to direct; to 
attract and not to coax or bully. The old say- 
ing, Where the carcass is there will the eagles 
be gathered together, will prove true in their 
case as in every other. Remember what Jean 
Paul told us long ago, Not all are always rea- 
sonable, but all have feeling—never forget 
that in addressing them. 

I would have the council in this matter gen- 
erous to a fault. A distinguished botanist 
living 3,000 years ago or such a matter, who 
knew the plants of his country from the 
lichens to the conifers, must have been think- 
ing of our association council when he wrote: 


“There is that scattereth and yet increaseth 


and there is that withholdeth more than is 
meet and it tendeth to poverty.’ 

Try to improve your volume of Proceedings. 
It is not altogether hopeless, though you 
shake your heads. Remember Hercules. 
Moreover, dear friends, the weekly journal 
chosen to be the Aaron of our scientific Moses 
ought to be dignified, true to the truth always, 
but at the same time moderate in utterance. 
Surely, surely, no council planning to do mis- 
sionary work can make friends at the outset 
by denouncing through its official organ three 
highly honored institutions of science as hay- 
ing completely failed. 


“Let dogs delight,’ etc. 


Take especial pains to have at the annual 
gatherings and mass meetings men of distine- 
tion, of whom all have heard and whom they 
desire to see. I recall the long-ago delight 
with which my young eyes first gazed on E. B. 
Tylor, and when as a student I held in my 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


grasp the hand of Lewis H. Morgan. If such 
men only knew how good the sight of them is 
to young and longing eyes, they would make 
sacrifices to give so much pleasure. 

Encourage specialization. The closest affili- 
ation of specialists and aggregation imto a 
mutually helpful cooperation are necessary to 
the intension of a science. It can not be too 
compact or too lively. The moment they or- 
ganize the institutional mind is born. 

But to the special societies let me say that 
the beau ideal of learning is to know all about 
some and some about all. Jn your meetings 
the infimee species of details, instruments and 
processes are scrutinized and discussed; but 
in your family gatherings all learn the re- 
sults of the tedious labors of each. You ac- 
quire the ability to read or listen intelligently. 
Let me illustrate great things by small: There 
is an old man in one of the dependencies of 
the Smithsonian who was engaged to write 
up the textile arts of the American aborigines. 
Through its many agencies he was furnished 
with overwhelming material from the whole 
area between Point Barrow and Magellan 
Strait; between Nova Scotia and Attu Island. 
If he had possessed seven league boots, a 
eanoe that shot past the wild geese, the 
hundred eyes of Argus Panoptes, the hands of 
Briareus and the longevity of Methusaleh it 
would have surpassed his powers to bring to- 
gether so much. But no sooner had he sat 
down among the stuff than he discovered his 
lack of omniscience, a quality required of him 
before taking the first step in so comprehensive 
an industry. He must know chemistry for 
dyestuffs, geology for horizons, geography and 
meteorology for environments, botany thor- 
oughly for plants, zoology for staples and im- 
plements, ethnology for peoples, philology for 
names, not to neglect mythology and folklore 
for the charming symbolism. 

I will not worry you with the long list of the 
Covilles, Merriams, Holmeses, Houghs, Ches- 
nuts, Willoughbys, Boases, Dorseys, Mooneys 
and more; nor of the many bureaus and 
branches of the government that gladly put 
themselves at his disposal; nor of the leading 
museums, Peabody, American, Field-Colum- 
bian, Golden Gate Park, with the rest, whose 


SCIENCE. 


233 


treasures illustrate his pages. The thing that 
bothers him now is what name to put on the 
title page. 

The lesson I would learn from this parable 
is that the highest possible specialization only 
makes the closest solidarity that much more 
necessary. The council has my blessing and 
best wishes and shall have my cooperation in 


its endeavor. O. T. Mason. 
January 19, 1904. 


SOIL WORK IN THE UNITED STATES. 

In the Beet Sugar Gazette, published on 
December 5, 1903, on page 419 is given an 
account of the trip of the Secretary of Agri- 
culture through the beet sugar region of 
Michigan. At Rochester the Secretary made 
an address in which are found the following 
words: 

“ When I went to Washington I found that 
we had no knowledge of the soils and I went 
to work and organized a bureau of soils and 
have over two hundred scientists engaged in 
this work. I shall send a corps of soil phys- 
icists next year to every sugar factory in 
Michigan to examine the soils, and the infor- 
mation which the Department of Agriculture 
obtains is at your disposal.” 

In many other public addresses the Secre- 
tary of Agriculture has given expression to 
similar sentiments, and especially has he criti- 
cized the colleges and universities of the 
United States, because, as alleged, they fail to 
train their students in such a way as to make 
them valuable to the Department of Agricul- 
ture. 

We all know that the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture means well and does the best he can for 
the interests over which he presides. Under 
his energetic administration, the activity of 
the Department of Agriculture has been ma- 
terially increased, and its usefulness greatly 
enhanced. He does not pretend to be a scien- 
tifie expert, and we must presume that his 
ideas on scientific work are mainly the re- 
sult of the environment in which he lives. 
It, therefore, becomes an interesting ques- 
tion whence has come to him the informa- 
tion that the agricultural colleges fail to train 
students usefully in agriculture; that the uni- 


234 


yersities are doing nothing for the promotion 
of agricultural science; and that at the time 
he came to Washington, and until the Bureau 
of Soils was established, nothing was known 
about soils—meaning, presumably, the soils of 
the United States. 

In the light afforded by Bulletin No. 22 of 
the Bureau of Soils, which I have recently 
diseussed in the columns of Science, the 
source of the Secretary’s information is not 
far to ‘seek. Having departed from all pre- 
cedent in the matter of soil work, whether in 
the field or in the laboratory, in the old world 
or in the new, the Bureau of Soils simply de- 
clares all former soil work to be “nul et non 
avenu —void and of no effect; and so informs 
the Seeretary. 

In view of the existing records, this seems 
an extreme liberty to take with the facts of 
the case. It is true that in some of the states, 
the public surveys and even some stations 
have taken the soil features but very little 
into account. But in many others, the soil 
features have been quite elaborately observed, 
elaborated and discussed. Beginning more 
than half a century ago, David Dale Owen 
conducted the work of the geological surveys 
of Kentucky and Arkansas; and we find in 
the reports of these surveys not only the chem- 
ical analyses of several hundred soils from 
these two states, but, accompanying them, de- 
scriptions of their physical and agricultural 
characters, as well as of their native vegeta- 
tion. Following the lead of Owen, the present 
writer undertook similar work in connection 
with the geological and agricultural survey of 
Mississippi, and from 1857 to 1873 continued 
these studies from the physical, chemical 
and botanical standpoint. In 1880, being in 
charge of the report on cotton production of 
the Tenth Census of the United States, he 
undertook to compile detailed agricultural 
descriptions of the cotton-producing states 
(then including California), which were elab- 
orated largely by the respective state geolo- 
gists, and form parts of Vols. V. and VI. of 
the Census report of 1880. There are em- 
braced within these volumes extended descrip- 
tions and maps of the several soil areas in 
these states, with 612 chemical and 12 physical 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


analyses of soils, fully discussed in their bear- 
ings on agriculture. In 1892, the Department 
of Agriculture published, as Bulletin No. 3 
of the Weather Bureau, a paper prepared by 
myself ‘On the Relations of Soils to Climate,’ 
in which among other things there is given a 
discussion of 779 analyses of soils of the 
United States, and of the nature, occurrence 
and reclamation of alkali lands. 

Since that time many other states have en- 
tered upon similar lines of work; among them 
especially Minnesota, Texas, South Carolina, 
North Dakota, Washington, Idaho, Wyoming, 
Michigan and Rhode Island, in some eases 
with very elaborate cultural data and discus- 
sion. The entire number of soil analyses 
made in the United States thus far is prob- 
ably in excess of 1,500. 

In the face of all these facts, of which the 
records are easily accessible, especially at 
Washington, the Secretary of Agriculture has 
evidently been informed that practically no 
soil work worthy of the name had been done 
in this country until the present Bureau of 
Soils was organized by him; and has thus been 
induced to think it a matter of first necessity 
to send over two hundred scientists (sic) into 
the various states to fill these glaring defi- 
ciencies. Kvidently it has been possible for the 
Bureau of Soils to find within the United 
States so large a body of qualified soil experts. 
The phenomenal rapidity with which these ob- 
servers map the soil areas laid down in the 
reports of the bureau, seems to show that this 
feat has been accomplished. How well the 
work so done will stand the test of criticism 
from the scientific and practical standpoint 
remains to be seen. E. W. Himearp. 

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 

January 8, 1904. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


PRELIMINARY REPORT ON THE CLASSIFICATION OF 
THE ROCKS OF THE WATKINS GLEN (30’) 
QUADRANGLE (U. S. GEOLOGICAL 
SURVEY ).* 

Durrneé the summer of 1903 Henry S. Will- 
iams assisted by Edward M. Kindle made the 


* By permission of the Director of the U. S. 
Geological Survey. 


Frepruary 5, 1904.] 


survey of the Watkins Glen quadrangle pre- 
paratory to forming the folio map of this 
region. The results of the field work are now 
sufiiciently well elaborated to permit of the 
following announcement: 

The general similarity of the rocks of this 
whole region has made the use of paleontology 
in classifying them a necessity, and the re- 
sulting classification is primarily based upon 
paleontological evidence. 

The rocks of the region haye a general 
southerly dip, and the formations exposed on 
the surface are all Devonian. The lowest 
formation mapped is the Genesee black shale 
outcropping in the extreme northern part of 
the quadrangle in the bottom of the valleys of 
Cayuga and Seneca Lakes. Two major for- 
mational divisional planes are traceable across 
the quadrangle from east to west. These 
planes separate the Genesee from the following 
Portage, and the Portage from the succeed- 
ing Chemung. The paleontology is the chief 
ground for drawing these lines, but the lithol- 
ogy is in harmony with the other evidence. 
The Portage formation lying between these 
two planes attains a thickness of from 1,250 
to 1,300 feet. Below it the Genesee is 120 
to 150 feet thick. Above the Portage 1,225 
feet of Chemung has been traced, but the top 
of the range of the Chemung fauna was not 
reached in the area surveyed. 

No other planes offered sufficient continuity 
of evidence, either lithological or paleon- 
tological, for drawing the lines across the 
whole quadrangle. In the eastern half of the 
quadrangle the Portage is divisible, on clear 
paleontological evidence, into three members: 
the lower Portage, approximately 250 feet; 
the Ithaca, 400 feet; and the upper Portage, 
600 feet thick. Faunally the same species 
characterize the lower and upper members of 
the Portage. The central member (the 
Ithaca) holds an entirely distinct fauna, 
homeotopie with that of the Hamilton and 
Chemung faunas lying below and above it. 
The lithological characters of the Ithaca are 
in general distinct from those of the Portage, 
but the difference is due rather to the domin- 
ance of the argillaceous shales in the Ithaca, 
over the flags and thin-bedded fissile, and 


SCIENCE. 


235 


generally dark-colored, shales which are more 
characteristic of the Portage, than to any uni- 
form lithological character of either. 

Im the Seneca Lake valley the subdivision 
of the Portage into three members can not 
be made out sharply upon either lithologic 
or paleontologic evidence. A few scattered 
species of the Ithaca fauna appear within their 
proper zone, but the lower and upper Portage 
conditions dominate all through the sections 
for the whole 1,200 to 1,300 feet. The Portage 
fauna also recurs in some sections after the 
entrance of the Chemung fauna into the gen- 
eral region. The faunas of the Genesee and 
Portage are more closely related to each other 
biologically than either of them is to the 
Hamilton or to the Chemung fauna. 

A recurrence of Hamilton species takes 
place in several zones; the more conspicuous 
eases are near the base of the Ithaca member, 
in Caseadilla Creek in Ithaca (as was stated in 
Bulletin 3 of the U. S. Geological Survey in 
1884); near the base of the Chemung within 
the lowermost 100 feet of several sections in 
the quadrangle; and again in the upper 
Chemung about 600 feet above its base. This 
highest discovered Tropidoleptws zone is seen 
in quite a number of the sections in the 
southern half of the quadrangle. 

In these recurrent faunas the more char- 
acteristic as well as dominant species are 
Tropidoleptus carinatus, Rhipidomella vanu- 
aemi, Cypricardella bellistriata; also Phacops 
rana has been seen, and specimens of a Spirifer 
not to be distinguished from typical Hamilton 
forms of Spirifer (mucronatus) pennatus. 

The lower zone of this fauna in the Chem- 
ung is below the first appearance of Spurifer 
disjunctus, but the upper zone is hundreds of 
feet above the first appearance of the typical 
Spirifer disjunctus fauna, and in several sec- 
tions that fauna occurs abundantly both below 
and above it within a few feet of thickness 
of strata. The recurrent species are generally 
associated with a few of the common species 
of the normal fayna of the part of section in 
which they occur, but Spirifer disjunctus has 
not been discovered associated with them, 
though often occurring below as well as above, 
not very far distant. 


236 


These Hamilton recurrent zones rarely oc- 
cupy over a couple of feet thickness. They 
are more conspicuous in the eastern than in 
the western parts of the quadrangle. In them 
the Hamilton species are often quite abund- 
ant, to the almost total exclusion of other 
species. Some slabs were obtained from: ac- 
tual outcrops on which nothing distinctively 
Chemung was apparent. 

Near the top of the Chemung formation of 
the quadrangle, in the townships of the south- 
ern part of the Waverly quarter sheet are some 
distinct conglomerates with a fauna diverse 
from that of the Chemung which appears 
above as well as below them stratigraphically. 
The conglomerates are quite local, as shown 
by their non-appearance at the same altitude 
in some hills not far distant from those in 
which they were seen. In several parts of the 
quadrangle local limestone bands were seen, 
reaching a thickness of over a foot in some 
cases. 

On the geological map of the state pub- 
lished by the State Geologist in 1894 a line 
is drawn between Hamilton and Portage, 
but as to which side of the Tully or Genesee 
no indication is given, and in the legend the 
Portage covers lower Chemung and Ithaca. 
In the revision of that map published in 
1901 the outcrop of the Genesee is indicated, 
this is followed by the Portage in the western 
part of this region and over the quadrangle 
in part. In the eastern part the Ithaca rests 
upon the Genesee, thus making the Portage 
and Ithaca to occupy the same stratigraphic 
interval. Further east, in Chenango County 
and beyond, the lower half of this interval is 
indicated as Ithaca, and the upper half as 
Oneonta. 

The upper line is drawn in the 1894 map 
between the Portage and Chemung; in the 
1901 map between Portage and Chemung for 
the western half of the Watkins Glen quad- 
rangle, and for the eastern half between the 
Ithaca and Chemung. 

The result of the summer’s work clears up 
both of these lines, showing the Ithaca to be 
a member of the Portage formation, as was 
first, pointed out in Bulletin 3 of the U. S. 
Geological Survey in 1884, where also it was 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 475. 


then indicated that the Ithaca is not the lower 
part of the Chemung (as was claimed by Hall 
in 1843) but is separated from its base by an 
upper part of the Portage, of several hundred, 
now shown to be approximately 600, feet of 
strata. 

H.S. W. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY OF JAPAN. 


Numpers 5 to 8 of the Journal of the 
Meteorological Society of Japan, recently re- 
ceived, show encouraging signs of the con- 
tinued activity of that scientific body. The 
society was founded in 1882, and numbers now 
more than 260 members. The language used 
in the Journal (now in its twenty-second year) 
has hitherto been exclusively Japanese, but in 
the future it is intended to insert articles on 
Japanese meteorology, as well as on other 
scientific matters, in English, French and 
German. The Journal is published by the 
editorial committee of the society, with head- 
quarters in the Central Meteorological Ob- 
servatory in Tokio. The title pages of the 
separate issues of the Journal are printed in 
English, and the list of papers shows a con- 
siderable range of interesting topics, e. g., 
“Cloud Cap on Mt. Fuji,’ ‘On the Stationary 
Low Pressure Area in Formosa,’ ‘Storms in 
the North Pacific Ocean in April, 1903, ete. 


PROTECTION OF PEACH TREES FROM FROST. 

In Bulletin 80 of the Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station of the Agricultural College of 
Colorado (1903) a description is given of the 
new method of protecting peach trees from. 
frost by ‘laying down.’ This was first tried 
in the fall of 1896, at Cafion City, and has 
proved very successful. Early in November 
(at Cafion City) the trees are put into winter 
quarters. The earth is removed from a circle 
about four feet in diameter around the tree, 
and water is turned on. When the ground is 
saturated, the trees are worked back and forth, 
and are finally pushed over, with compara- 
tively little injury to the roots. Then the 
limbs are brought together by a cord, and 
burlap, covered with earth, is put over them. 
In the spring, the covering is gradually 


Frpruary 5, 1904.] 


loosened, and later removed; then the trees are 
raised and propped up. 


THE METEOROLOGY OF THE SANTIS. 


Hann continues his valuable studies of 
mountain meteorology in a publication en- 
titled ‘Die Luftstromungen auf dem Gipfel 
des Sintis und ihre jahrliche Periode’ (Sztz- 
ungsber. Wien Akad. Wiss., math. naturwiss. 
Ki., OXII., Abth. Ila, 1903, pp. 42), the 
Sintis being one of the most important moun- 
tain observatories of Europe. Fifteen years 
(1886-1900) of hourly observations of wind 
are discussed in detail, and compared with 
similar records at lower levels. In winter the 
mean wind direction is northeast; in summer 
nearly due west; in autumn (September-No- 
vember) south to southeast. Southwest is the 
most frequent wind direction. 


SOUTH AFRICAN METEOROLOGY. 
Soutu Arrican meteorology is beginning to 
make encouraging progress. Three recent 
papers, by J. R. Sutton, have been published 
in the Transactions of the South African 
Philosophical Society, Vol. X1., Part 4, and 
Vol. XIV., Parts 1 and 2, under the titles 
“Some Pressure and Temperature Results for 
the Great Plateau of South Africa,’ ‘ Results 
of some Experiments upon the Rate of Evapo- 
ration’ (at Kimberley) and ‘An Elementary 
Synopsis of the Diurnal Meteorological Condi- 
tions at Kimberley.’ Mr. Sutton, who is 
already known for previous meteorological 
work at Kimberley, is in charge of the 
meteorological station of the De Beers Con- 

solidated Mines. R. DEC. Warp. 


THE MISSOURI BOTANICAL GARDEN. 


ADVANCE proofs of the fifteenth administra- 
tive reports on this institution, which have 
been received from its director, show custom- 
ary growth and activity. In 1903 $27,272.48 
was expended in maintaining the garden itself; 
$3,085.69 was spent on the herbarium; 
$4,239.85, on the library; $5,325.98, on the 
office; $967.68, on research; and $1,307.87 for 
the training and care of garden pupils. For 
improvements of the grounds and buildings 
$1,954.35 was spent; a fire-loss to the plant 


SCIENCE. 


237 


houses and collections led to the expenditure of 
$2,033.40; $481.17 was spent on the prepara- 
tion and equipment of a phyto-chemical 
laboratory, and the cost of publications was 
$1,849.16. 

The director’s report combines a summary 
of progress for the past five years with the de- 
tails for 1903, and the liberal use of coordinate 
curves makes the growth in all departments 
evident at a glance. An inventory at the 
end of the year showed that 11,357 distinct 
species or varieties were then in cultivation, 
an inerease of 41.8 per cent. for the last five 
years. The visitors for the year numbered 
79,039, and their distribution by months forms 
an interesting curve of seasonal out-of-door 
life in St. Louis. The herbarium now con- 
tains 465,205 specimens, valued at $69,780.75. 
Of these, 37,408 were incorporated last year, 
and the growth for the last five years amounts 
to 51.3 per cent. of the number reported at 
the end of 1898. The library contains 42,262 
books and pamphlets in nearly equal numbers 
and 311,218 index ecards, and is valued at 
$74,472.90. Its growth for the last five years 
is shown to be 27.7 per cent. The serial pub- 
lications now received number 1,185, an in- 
erease of 27.4 per cent. over the number re- 
ceived five years ago. 

The continued use of the equipment of the 
garden for research by its employees is noted, 
and the statement is made that “in every 
feasible way the library, herbarium and living 
collections are made useful to investigators, 
whether connected with the institution or not: 
when they can be used on the spot, every 
possible facility for their use is given visiting 
botanists: when this is not possible they are 
sent to trustworthy persons or institutions, 
when their safe return is guaranteed; and, 
except for specimens or books of especial 
value which could not be replaced in case of 
loss, or those in constant use, the garden has 
always stood ready to place its library and 
collections for a reasonable time at the disposal 
of botanical departments of colleges, or of 
capable investigators not having official con- 
nection with the centers of learning.” 

Small but satisfactory results are reported 
in the Shaw School of Botany, through which 


238 


in 1903 two candidates earned the master’s 
degree, and one, the doctor’s degree, in Wash- 
ington University, in which one candidate for 
the former and three for the latter are now 
enrolled with majors in botany. 

Details are given of the workings of the 
school of gardening, the organization of the 
office staff, and the gardening operations for 
the past year; and the report closes with an 
account of the special testamentary provisions 
of the founder of the garden, among them the 
recent banquet of the trustees, at which sey- 
eral hundred of the scientific men of the 
country were guests during the last convoca- 
tion week. 


THE DUPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS AND 
SOCIOLOGY OF THE CARNEGIE 
INSTITUTION .* 

Tur Department of Economics and So- 
ciology of the Carnegie Institution was by the 
action of the executive committee placed wholly 
in charge of Carroll D. Wright, commissioner 
of labor. The first great work to which this 
department is to address itself is the prepara- 
tion of an economic history of the United 
States, embracing eleven subjects: 

(1) Population and Immigration—Yo this 
branch Commissioner Wright has assigned Pro- 
fessor Walter Willcox, of Cornell University. 
Professor Willcox will not treat his subject 
merely on its statistical side, but will deal 
broadly with such questions as the influence 
of the movement of population and immigra- 
tion on the economic development of the coun- 
try, one of the principal features to be con- 
sidered being the routes that immigration has 
taken at various stages. 

(2) Agriculture and Forestry, 
public land and irrigation interests. To this 
work Mr. Wright has assigned President 
Kenyon L. Butterfield, of the Rhode Island 
Mechanical and Agricultural College. 

(3) Mining.—This is committed to Edward 
W. Parker, of the Geological Survey. 

(4) Manufactures—This subject will be 
handled by S. N. D. North, director of the 
United States Census. 


including 


* From the New York Hvening Post. 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


(5) Transportation will be considered by 
Dr. W. Z. Ripley, of Harvard University. 

(6) Domestic and Foreign Commerce, in- 
cluding fisheries, is in the hands of Professor 
Emory R. Johnson, of Pennsylvania Univer- 
sity. 

(7) Money and Banking will be considered 
by Dr. David R. Dewey, of the Massachusetts 
Tnstitute of Technology. 

(8) The Labor Movement has been reserved 
by Commissioner Wright for himself. 

(9) Industrial Organization is the subject 
assigned to Professor J. W. Jenks, of Cornell 
University. : 

(10) Social Legislation will be treated by 
Professor Henry W. Farnam, of Yale Univer- 
sity. He will include in his study provident 
institutions, poor laws, and kindred topics. 

(11) Federal and State Finance, including 
taxation. The authorship of this treatise the 
department is not yet ready to announce. 

The collaborators will utilize all available 
material that has been published mostly in 
fragmentary ways, as well as all material that 
can be secured from original sources by special 
research. For this purpose, graduate students 
and others interested in special lines will be 
employed. It is impossible to state how long 
it will take to finish the work, but it will be 
pushed with all the foree compatible with ac- 
curacy and completeness. The allotment of 
money for the first year is $30,000. 

As has been said, Commissioner Wright has 
been put in charge of the entire enterprise, 
and during the present year he will have the 
direction of the work of the staff from the 
office of his department at Washington. After 
this year, when he will have retired from the 
Department of Labor, he will direct the work 
from his new seat of activity in Worcester, 
Mass. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue twenty-fifth anniversary of the confer- 
ring of the doctorate on Dr. Wilhelm Ostwald 
was celebrated at Leipzig on December 19. A 
Festschrift has been prepared by his pupils. 

Prorressor F. W. Putnam has resigned his 
position in the American Museum of Natural 
History which he has held for nearly ten 


FEBRUARY 5, 1904.] 


years. He has been granted leave of absence 
from Harvard University for three months 
this winter, and will spend this time in direct- 
ing the work of the Department of Anthro- 
pology and the Anthropological Museum of 
the University of California. Professor Put- 
nam has been appointed chairman of the De- 
partment of Anthropology in the International 
Congress of Arts and Science at the St. Louis 
E}xposition. 

Proressor S. P. Lanenry has been ap- 
pointed by the International Meteorological 
Committee a‘member of the commission (men- 
tioned on page 658 of Vol. XVIII.) to consider 
the study of the relations of solar physics to 
meteorology. 

Tun board of visitors to the Naval Academy 
includes President Henry S. Pritchett, of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and 
Professor Ira N. Hollis, of Harvard Univer- 
sity. 

Proressor F. E. Luoyp, of Teachers College, 
Columbia University, has received a grant 
from the Botanical Society of America, to 
carry on researches at the Desert Botanical 
Laboratory of the Carnegie Institution at 
Tueson, Arizona. 

Dr. Nicuonas Senn sailed from San Fran- 
cisco on January 7 for Tahiti, where he will 
join a commission appointed by the French 
government to investigate the diseases of the 
island. 


Drs. E. L. Tyser and W. R. Brinckerhoff, of 


the Harvard Medical School, have been sent on 
a commission to the Philippines to study 
smallpox and other contagious diseases. 


Mr. Winiiam Barnum, formerly of the Fish 
Commission, has been appointed chief clerk 
of the Carnegie Institution. 

Proressor F. H. Kine, of the Bureau of 
Soils, U. S. Department of Agriculture, has 
resigned. He has been connected with the 
Bureau of Soils since November, 1901, in 
charge of the work in soil management. 


Mr. Cuartes Henry THomeson, assistant in 
botany at Stanford University, has been ap- 
pointed to take charge of the Department of 
Succulent Plants at the Missouri Botanical 
Garden. 


SCIENCE. 


239 


Dr. Wittiam OsiER, professor of medicine 
at the Johns Hopkins University, will give 
this year the Ingersoll lecture at Harvard Uni- 
versity, his subject beimg ‘Science and Im- 
mortality.’ 


Tue chapter of the Sigma Xi at the Ohio 
State University is giving a series of lectures 
this winter. The first was by Professor A. D. 
Cole on ‘ Why Light is believed to be an Elec- 
trical Phenomenon’; the second lecture was 
delivered January 25 by Dr. Victor C. 
Vaughan, of the University of Michigan, on 
“Immunity from Disease’; the third lecture 
will be given by Professor F. L. Landacre. 


Proressor W. B. Scort, Blair professor of 
paleontology at Princeton University, has be- 
gun a course of sixteen lectures at the Wagner 
Tnstitute, Philadelphia. 


Tue death is announced of Dr. Georg von 
reception on January 13 to celebrate the re- 
turn of some of the members of the Gauss 
South Polar Expedition. Count Posadowsky, 
minister of the interior, delivered an address 
of welcome. Dr. yon Drygalski then gave a 
lecture recounting his experiences, and was 
afterwards presented with a gold medal. 


Tue prize of the Swedish Medical Associa- 
tion has been awarded to Professor M. G. 
Blix, of Stockholm, for his work on the tem- 
perature of the muscles. 

Tue death is announced of Dr. Georg von 
Liebig, docent in climatology at the University 
of Munich. He was a son of Justus von 


- Liebig. 


A Givin service examination will be held on 
March 2 and 3 for the position of miscel- 
laneous computer of the U. 8. Naval Observa- 
tory. 

Tue sixth International Congress of Phys- 
iology will be held at Brussels from August 
30 to September 3. Communications should 
be addressed to Dr. Slosse, Institute Solvay, 
Pare Leopold, Brussels, Belgium. 


Governor Opent has signed a bill author- 
izing the consolidation of the New York State 
Medical Society and the New York State 
Medical Association. 


240 


Tur Madrid correspondent of the London 
Times writes that in anticipation of the total 
eclipse of the sun of August, 1905, the papers 
are beginning to urge the government to in- 
clude in next year’s estimates an item pro- 
viding for a scientific mission of Spanish as- 
tronomers to be sent abroad, in order to study 
in foreign observatories the latest methods of 
investigating the phenomenon. For the eclipse 
of 1900 the Cortes voted 190,000 pesetas, but 
the measure was taken so late that the money 
was spent at a loss: It may be mentioned that 
the zone of about 200 kilometers covered by 
the eclipse of 1905 traverses Spain’from Ga- 
licia and Asturias to Valencia and Castellon. 
The northern coast between Corufia and San 
Vicente de la Barquera and the eastern from 
Valencia to the Gulf of San Jorge will be 
included in the zone of total obscurity. Ob- 
servers at Ferrol, Lugo, Oviédo, Gijon, Léon, 
Palencia, Burgos, Soria, Teruel and Saragossa 
will have some four minutes in which to make 
their notes. Madrid lies to the south of the 
zone of total eclipse. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Iv was announced at the meeting of the 
trustees of the Catholic University of America 
on January 28 that the annual collection au- 
thorized for the university will amount to 
$100,000, and that this sum might be expected 
in each of the next nine years. 

TracHERS CoLLEGE, Columbia University, 
has received a gift of land valued at $50,000 
from the heirs of William Earl Dodge. 

Mr. Henry Puiprs has given $20,000 to the 
Johns Hopkins Hospital to establish a clinic 
for consumptives. 

Harvarp Untversity has received $6,000 for 
scholarships from the estate of Daniel A. 
Buckley. 

Tue finance committee of Liverpool has 
recommended a grant of $50,000 to Liverpool 
University for the current year. 

A FELLOWSHIP in dermatology has been en- 
dowed at Liverpool University by Dr. Stopford 
Taylor. 

Tue Association of American Universities 
will hold its next meeting at Yale University 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 475. 


on February 18, 19 and 20. The program in- 
cludes a discussion of uniformity of university 
statistics opened by Dr. Rudolf Tombo, Jr., 
of Columbia University; a discussion of the 
question ‘ Are the degrees of Bachelor of Sci- 
ence, Bachelor of Philosophy and Bachelor of 
Letters to be preserved or to be merged in the 
degree of Bachelor of Arts?’ by Professor 
Richard Hudson, of the University of Mich- 
igan and by Professor Paul Shorey, of the 
University of Chicago, and a discussion on 
the administration, financial support and cir- 
culation of university publications, including 
doctor’s dissertations and scientific journals 
and the general transaction of the business of 
the university, by President Ira Remsen, of 
the Johns Hopkins University, and Professor 
Charles Montague Bakewell, of the University 
of California. Papers will also be presented 
on the actual and the proper lines of distine- 
tion between college and university work by 
President Hadley of Yale University, and 
President Jordan of Stanford University. The 
admission of Brown University and New York 
University as members of the association will 
be considered. 


Dr. Cartes 8S. Howe will be inaugurated 
president of the Case School of Applied Sci- 
ence on May 11. 


Mr. W. D. Gress; director of the Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station of the University of 
Texas, has been appointed president of the 
New Hampshire College of Agriculture and 
the Mechanic Arts. ; 


_ Dr. H. D. Brreny has been appointed assist- 
ant professor of bacteriology at the University 
of Pennsylvania; Drs. Leo Loeb, William T. 
Cummins and Henry R. Alburger have been 
appointed assistant demonstrators of pathol- 
ogy; Dr. H. C. Richards has been appointed 
assistant professor of physics. 


Dr. Oskar ECKSTEIN, instructor in organic 
chemistry in Tufts College, has been appointed 
lecturer in chemistry in the University of 
Chicago. 

Mr. CrristopHer Royce has been appointed 
instructor in mathematies at New York Uni- 
versity on account of the illness of Professor 
Pomeroy Ladue. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Frspruary 12, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The Summers Work at the Woods Hole Labo- 
ratory of the Bureau of Fisheries: Dr. 


FRANCIS B. SUMNER..................-- 241 
Society of the Vertebrate Paleontologists of 
Ay perugag Dick Oy 12, 1s beae BUN aon daemenon 253 


The Membership of the American Association 257 
Scientific Books :-— 
Kohl iiber die Organization und Physiologie 
der Cyanophyceenzelle: Dr. Ernest A. 
BrssEy. Miron on the Geology of Eco- 


nomic Non-metallic Minerals: G. F. K.... 260 
Societies and Academies :-— 

The Onortaga Academy of Science: Pro- 

ressor T. C. Horxins. The Clemson Col- 

lege Science Club: F. S. SHIvER.......... 262 
Discussion and Correspondence :-—— 

Convocation Week: Jupce Simron HE. Batp- 

WIN, Proressor THropore W. RICHARDS, 

PROFESSOR WILDER D. Bancrorr, Pro- 

FESSOR CHARLES W. Harcitt, PRorEessor 

CAEP MTT CH COCKE te halal uses iste lataiaiceariens 263 
Special Articles :— 

The Tourmaline Localities of Southern Cali- 

forma: Dr. WALDEMAR T. ScHaLtER. A 

Note on Rhizoctonia: G. G. Hrnacock..... 266 
Quotations :— 

The Carnegie Institution; Experiments in 

HIE RMIG BENS seas atten) lana led ay ete ev ete aca 268 
Notes on Inorganic Chemistry: J. L. H...... 270 
Recent Zoopaleontology :— 

hes Sanmopoda ss He BC asso eee 271 
The Milwaukee Musewm: ................ 272 
The Smithsonian Institution................. 273 
Scientific Notes and News................. 275 
University and Educational News........... 280 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIEncs, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y j 


THE SUMMERS WORK AT THE WOODS 
HOLE LABORATORY OF THE BUREAU 
OF FISHERIES (FORMER U. 8. FISH 
COMMISSION ).* 

Tue laboratory was thrown open on the 
sixteenth of June last for the nineteenth - 
summer since the establishment of its pres- 
ent quarters, and scientifie work was in 
progress until the end of September, after 
which time there remained but a single 
investigator. The work accomplished dur- 
ing the season is summarized below, to- 
gether with mention of certain important 
lines of work which were planned and com- 
meneced. This statement has been pre- 
faced by a brief account of the present 
equipment for scientific work at the sta- 
tion, although this latter of course varies 
but little from year to year. 


I. EQUIPMENT. 

Rooms.—In addition to the large labo- 
ratory room with nine tables, there were 
fourteen private rooms at the disposal of 
investigators, all of which are provided 
with gas and electricity and otherwise 
equipped for research. To this list must 
be added the library, supply-room and 
aquarium, as well as the main hatching- 
room, which, as usual, was available for 
laboratory purposes from the end’ of the 
lobster-hatching season, early in July. 
Through the courtesy of Superintendent 
Locke, certain other portions of the fish- 
cultural plant were also at the service of 
investigators. Harly in the summer im- 


“Report to the Commissioner of Fisheries by 
the director of the laboratory. 


242 SCIENCE. 


{ 
portant improvements were made in the 
plumbing of the main laboratory, and some 
others have been authorized which will be 
carried out before the opening of the fol- 
lowing season. 

Fleet.—The steamer Fish Hawk, the 
yacht Phalarope, the tug Blwe Wing and 
two steam launches were available during 
the whole or a part of the season. A cat- 
boat and an abundance of row-boats com- 
plete the list. 

Fish Pownds.—Both of these were set 
this year in Buzzards Bay, at points not 
far removed from the station. A daily 
record was kept by Mr. Edwards of the 
species taken, together with a rough esti- 
mate of the number of each. Such records, 
which have been kept for many years past, 
furnish yaluable data concerning the an- 
nual migrations of fishes. The pounds 
constitute also one of the important sources 
of supply for the materials of investiga- 
tion. 

Iibrary.—This comprised (1) the per- 
manent collection, including about 16,000 
titles, mainly reprints donated by the au- 
thors, and reports of our own and foreign 
governments; and (2) the collections 
loaned for the summer months by Brown 
University and the College of the City of 
New York, comprising about 650 and 100 
volumes respectively. A subject catalogue 
was commenced by the librarian, Miss R. 
MeDonald, in addition to the author ecata- 
logue already on hand. 

Residence.—One floor of the large resi- 
dence building was, as usual, at the service 
of those who had been employed by the 
bureau to carry on special investigations. 


Il. STAFF. 

The staff of the laboratory during the 
season comprised a director, a librarian, a 
secretary, five salaried investigators, work- 
ing upon special problems of interest to 
the fisheries, an assistant in charge of the 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 476. 


supply-room, an assistant in charge of the 
fish pounds, and nine assistants, mainly 
college and medical students, doing mis- 
cellaneous work in the laboratory and in 


the field. To the above list must be added. 


a collector, who is permanently attached to 
the station, and. the crews of the various 
vessels while these are in service for the 
laboratory. 


Ill. INVESTIGATORS. 

The total number of investigators who 
availed themselves of the privileges of the 
laboratory during the summer past was 
thirty, the greatest number at any one time 
being twenty. These men represented two 
government departments and sixteen edu- 
cational institutions, ranging from Ala- 
bama to Vermont and west to Illinois. The 
average length of their stay at the labora- 
tory was almost exactly six weeks, though 
a few stayed nearly or quite twice that 
time. A brief statement of the work done 
by each of the investigators is given below. 


IV. COLLECTING TRIPS. 


Leaving out of account the daily visits 
to the pound nets, about forty collecting 
trips were made by the smaller steam craft. 
The localities visited were: Wareham, 
Monument Beach, Quisset, Hadley Harbor, 
Weepecket, Penikese, Cuttyhunk, Great 
Pond, Vineyard Haven, Muskeget, Katama, 
Gay Head and various points in Vineyard 
Sound. To this list must be added fifteen 
dredging trips made by the Fish Hawk, 
whose operations were confined almost ex- 
clusively to Vineyard Sound. The work 
of the Fish Hawk will be dealt with in a 
separate section. Mention should also be 
made of four days spent in camp by Mr. 
I. A. Field and an assistant at Menemsha 
Bight, Martha’s Vineyard, where they were 
engaged in noting the fish taken in the 
numerous traps at that point, and of a 
journey to Provincetown, also by Mr. 


Frepruary 12, 1904.] 


Field, in quest of data relating to the food 
of the dog-fish. 

The collector, Mr. Vinal N. Edwards, 
continued, as usual, the collection and pres- 
ervation of fishes, fish parasites and other 
material of biological interest. 


V. SEMINAR. 

A seminar or research club was estab- 
lished early in the season, and thereafter 
met weekly until near the close of the sum- 
mer. It was thought possible that coopera- 
tion might be profitable in certain lines of 
work, and in general it was thought desir- 
able that there should be some recognized 
medium by which investigators might 
profit by the results of one another’s work. 
The experiment proved entirely successful 
and the meetings were well attended. The 
first few of these were devoted to a dis- 
cussion of plans relating to the catalogue 
of local fauna and flora, and to the pro- 
posed dredging work of the Fish Hawk. 
At the later meetings, reports were pre- 
sented by investigators upon their work 
at the laboratory. 


VI. CATALOGUE OF LOCAL FAUNA AND FLORA. 

The compilation of a catalogue of the 
fauna and flora of the region, as far as 
kmown, was commenced by the director in 
cooperation with several others. The 
work, as projected, contemplates much 
more than a catalogue in the sense of a 
mere list of species. Certain data of prac- 
tical or scientific interest are, when avail- 
able, recorded for each of these. Jn order 
to permit of indefinite expansion, the whole 
record is to be in the form of a ecard eata- 
logue, having eleven cards for each species. 
The specific name and common name (local 
name, whenever such exists) find their 
place on the first card; then follow in order 
‘relative abundance,’ ‘geographical dis- 
tribution’ (within region catalogued, of 
course), ‘seasonal distribution,’ ‘habitat,’ 


SCIENCE. 243 


‘reproduction’ (breeding and spawning 
season, etc.), ‘food,’ ‘method of collecting,’ 
“economic data,’ ‘references’ and ‘remarks.’ 

The first step in the preparation of such 
a catalogue must consist in the sifting of 
the various published reports and papers 
containing the data desired. The classical 
report of Verrill and Smith upon the in- 
vertebrates of Vineyard Sound is, of 
course, one of the first to be utilized, as 
are also the numerous synopses of special 
eroups published in the ‘Bulletin’ of the 
Fish Commission and elsewhere. In addi- 
tion to these strictly faunistic papers, data 
relevant to the present work are to be 
found scattered through a large part of 
the biological literature emanating from 
Woods Hole—incidental observations on 
spawnine-time, distribution, food and the 
like. Add to this the wealth of facts ac- 
cumulated by Mr. Vinal Edwards, during 
his long experience as collector for the 
Fish Commissicn, and the large stock of in- 
formation, as yet unrecorded, in possession 
of the numerous investigators who have 
occasion to collect material at Woods Hole. 
This only awaits.a recognized receptacle, 
such as it is hoped that the present cata- 
logue may become. 

A fair start has already been made in 
the work cf compiling this catalogue, many 
of the principal reports and synopses havy- 
ing been abstracted, and records of about 
750 species having been entered. In this 
work Mr. Raymond C. Osburn cooperated 
with the writer, and several of the tem- 
porary assistants were engaged in the 
elerical work involved. The notes on the 
fishes, based upon the list prepared in 1898, 
by Dr. H. M. Smith, and supplemented by 
abundant data furnished by Mr. V. N. 
Edwards, are by far the most complete. 

In this work, assistance has been 
promised by several systematists in com- 
piling the records relating to their respec- 
tive groups, and the active cooperation 


244 SCIENCE. 


of at least one of the botanists is assured, 
in the endeavor to have the flora, as well 
as the fauna, included in the catalogue. 
A liberal appropriation, which has been 
eranted by the bureau, will enable the 
writer to continue this work during the 
present winter. 


VII. DREDGING WORK OF THE ‘FISH HAWK.’ 


The Fish Hawk arrived at Woods Hole 
on the nineteenth of July, and remained 
until September 10, during the greater part 
of which period she was at the disposal of 
the laboratory. It was thought that the 
admirable facilities for dredging possessed 
by this vessel could be put to greatest ad- 
vantage by carrying out a systematic sur- 
vey of the bottom of Vineyard Sound, a 
task which had not been undertaken since 
the days when Professor Verrill and his 
associates gathered the material for their 
reports on the invertebrate fauna of these 
waters. 

Accordinely, dredgings were made at 
intervals of three fourths of a mile along 
parallel lines crossing the sound, these 
lines being constructed at intervals of one 
mile. Various sorts of dredges were em- 
ployed, according to the character of the 
bottom, and frequently one spot or ‘sta- 
tion’ was covered by more than one sort 
of dredge. The usual physical data— 
density of water, character of bottom, tem- 
perature, ete.—were recorded for each sta- 
tion. Material for a complete record of 
the biological data has been preserved. 
The more familiar species were listed as 
they were taken aboard, record being kept 
of the condition and relative abundance of 
each. The remainder are at present rep- 
resented by preserved specimens which 
await identification by experts. An even 
approximate list of the species taken can 
not, at present, be given. In all 82 ‘sta- 
tions’ are recorded in Vineyard Sound, 
ranging from Nobska Point to Gay Head. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


In addition, a trip was made to Crab 
Ledge, a shoal about seven miles east of 
Chatham, on Cape Cod, where seven sta- 
tions were dredged. 

It is planned that this dredging of the 
bottom of Vineyard Sound shall be con- 
tinued and shall be supplemented by thor- 
ough work upon the shore life of this re- 
gion, thus completing a biological survey 
of these waters. It is likely, too, that some 
sort of cooperation with the botanists will 
be arranged for. Such extensive plans 
can not, of course, be carried into effect 
without the employment of several special- 
ists as assistants. The relation which such 
a survey would bear to the catalogue above 
discussed is obvious. 

A regular form of collecting record 
blank was adopted for work of this char- 
acter, and 2,500 copies were printed at the 
Government Printine Office. 

Acknowledgment must here be made of 
the valuable assistance of Mr. R. C. Osburn, 
in connection with the dredging work; of 
the services of Dr. J. P. Moore and Dr. 
R. P. Bigelow, who identified respectively 
the annelids and the erabs collected; and 
of Dr. B. M. Davis and Miss Millian 
McRae, who identified the alge. Finally 
it must be mentioned that without the able 
and conscientious services of Capt. James 
A. Smith, in command of the Fish Hawk, 
the present measure of success would have 
been impossible. 


VIlU. OTHER INVESTIGATIONS. 

In the brief statements given below, the 
language of the investigators themselves 
has been used as far as possible. 

Robert Payne Bigelow, Ph.D., instructor 
in biology, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology: (1) ‘Stomatopoda of the 
Albatross Hawaiian Expedition,’ (2) 
‘Brachyura of the Woods Hole Region.’ 
During the spring there was placed in Dr. 
Bigelow’s hands a collection of stomato- 


Frsruary 12, 1904.] 


poda gathered by the Albatross during the 
Hawaiian and Samoan expeditions of 1902. 
This collection was brought by him to 
Woods Hole, and his chief work during the 
summer was the sorting of this material 
and the identification of the known forms 
preparatory to making a detailed study of 
each species, with drawings. ‘The collec- 
tion is especially rich in larvee, and the 
sorting of these has been done with a view 
to discovering series of stages, and the 
identification of larvee with adult forms. 

Dr. Bigelow also identified crabs col- 
lected by the Fish Hawk, and collected ma- 
terial in connection with his report on the 
Brachyura of the Woods Hole region, now 
in preparation. 


Frank C. Carlton, graduate student in 
Harvard University: ‘The Color Changes 
of some Fishes.’ Fundulus heteroclitus 
was found to exhibit marked changes of 
color, depending primarily upon differ- 
ences in the illumination. The skin is of 
a light gray color in the daylight, but is 
almost black in the dark. A fish put into 
a porcelain bowl and set in the light was 
found to change to a paler color, but the 
same fish put into a dish lined with black 
cloth remained dark, even if the illumina- 
tion of the latter dish were the same as 
that of the white porcelain one. 

The spinal cord of a fish which had pre- 
viously shown the normal color changes 
was cut, and, after recovery from the 
shock of the operation, the fish was placed 
in the light. The posterior part now re- 
mained dark under all circumstances. 
This experiment seemed to prove that the 
change from dark to light is under nervous 
control. 

From experiments in cutting the optic 
nerves of fishes whose color changes had 
previously been normal, it was concluded 
that light must influence the pigment cells 


SCIENCE. 


245 


TarOneh the eyes, since such fish did not 
show the reactions above described. 


Leon J. Cole, Austin Teaching Fellow in 
Zoology, Harvard University: ‘Studies 
upon Carp.’ Material was worked over 
and notes compiled, based upon field work 
at various places on the Great Lakes dur- 
ing the past three summers. The results 
will be embodied in a report for the bureau. 


Ulric Dahlgren, M.S., assistant professor 
of histology, Princeton University: Hn- 
gaged in collecting material for histological 
studies. 


George Wilton Field, Ph.D., assistant, 
Massachusetts State Board of Health: (1.) 
“The Edible Lamellibranchs as a Source 
of Infection.’ Together with Dr. C. A. 
Fuller, Dr. Field carried on, from August 
10 to October 15, an investigation on the 
relations between shell-fish and sewage bac- 
teria, and instituted experiments for the 
purpose of answering the following ques- 
tions: (1) Are sewage bacteria (Bacillus 
colt, the type form) normal and usual in- 
habitants of shell-fish? (2) How soon 
after the introduction of B. cols into the 
water does it appear in the clam? (38) 
How long does B. coli live in ordinary sea 
water? (4) How long, under normal con- 
ditions, does B. coli remain alive and ac- 
tive in the intestine of the shell-fish? (5) 
Is it probable that the shell-fish digest B. 
col and thus incidentally act as purifiers 
of the sewage-polluted waters, and, fur- 
ther, that by digesting B. colt, shell-fish 
may after a time become free from sewage- 
bacteria, and, therefore, harmless as food 
for man? (6) Examination to ascertain 
what anatomical region is most certain to 
give a true index of the presence of B. colt. 

The methods used by Dr. Field and Dr. 
Fuller for securing proper conditions of 
infection with Bacillus coli and for main- 


246 SCIENCE. 


taining the normal conditions of life for 
the clams proved satisfactory. The re- 
sults are probably to be published by the 
Massachusetts Board of Health in its an- 
nual report, and are believed to be of con- 
siderable importance. 

(II.) ‘The Lobster Problem.’ At the 
request of Capt. J. W. Collins, chairman 
of the Fish and Game Commission of 
Massachusetts, Dr. Field secured at Woods 
Hole and Cuttyhunk important data con- 
cerning the lobster industry, bearing upon 
the biological importance of preserving the 
adult lobsters and permitting the catching 
of immature ones. Figures were obtained, 
indicating the commercial value, in terms 
of edible meat, of lobsters 84, 94 and 104 
inches long respectively; also the weights 
and measurements (length, weight and 
diameters of chelxe, thorax and abdomen) 
of upwards of eight hundred newly caught 
lobsters, coming from different sections; 
and some observations upon the relative 
numbers of mature and immature lobsters 
in the ocean. In connection with the re- 
commendation of a law which would insure 
the perpetual protection of the adult lob- 
ster, experiments were made looking 
toward the adoption of a pot which would 
exclude lobsters above eleven inches in 
length, and permit the escape of those un- 
der nine inches. ‘The result of this would 
be the automatic regulation of Jobster 
eatechine to practically only those sizes 
which fell between nine and eleven inches. 
These results will be published as soon as 
possible. 


Irving A. Field, Denison University: 
“The Food of Certain Fishes of Little or no 
Food-value’ (conducted for the bureau). 
The fishes chosen were the smooth dog-fish 
(Mustelis canis), killifish (Fundulus he- 
teroclitus), cunner (Tautogolabrus adsper- 
sus) and toad-fish (Opsanus tau), all of 
which are common in the vicinity of Woods 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


Hole. The purpose of the study was to 
seek for the possible economic relation 
which these fishes might bear to the fish- 
eries industries. Are they destructive 
either to other fishes directly or to their 
food ? 

The method employed in these investiga- 
tions was to take a great number of these 
fishes from various localities about Woods 
Hole and to preserve the stomach-contents 
of each as soon as possible after death. 
The various ingredients composing the con- 
tents of each stomach were ascertained 
quantitatively, the approximate percentage 
of each ingredient being estimated, and 
whenever possible, the total number of any 
eiven sort of animal which had been swal- 
lowed was determined. From data thus 
obtained a tabulated record was made out, 
including the date and locality of capture, 
number of specimens (fishes) examined, 
and the number of specimens containing 
each kind of food. A few preliminary ex- 
periments were also made with the dog-fish 
for the purpose of finding products that 
would make it of commercial value. Its 
food value was likewise tested. The re- 
sults will shortly be ready for publication. 


Caleb Allen Fuller, Ph.D., Providence, 
R. I: Assisted Dr. G. W. Field in the ex- 
periments above described. 


Frederic P. Gorham, Ph.D., associate 
professor of biology, Brown University: 
‘Causes of Certain Fish Diseases’ (con- 
ducted for the bureau). (1) An attempt 
to study the life-history of a fungus 
pathogenic to lobsters; to determine the 
paths by which the infection reaches the 
internal tissues of the lobster; to devise 
methods of combating the fungus. (2) 
With Mr. Marsh a very careful study was 
made of the causes operating in the pro- 
duction of the gas disease and “pop-eye’ 
in fishes kept in the aquaria (see below). 


Vrpruary 12, 1904.) 


(3) Some experiments were made to de- 
termine the effects of different kinds of 
metal piping on fishes and other forms of 
life in aquaria. (4) Some experiments 
with phosphorescent bacteria obtained 
from sea water, to determine the part 
played by them in the production of phos- 
phorescence in various crustacea. 


John Y. Graham, Ph.D., professor of 
biology, University of Alabama: ‘A Study 
of a Parasite of the Oyster (Bucephalus 
cuculus MeC.).’ This trematode, though 
very common in the region of Beaufort, 

'N. C., and doubtless elsewhere on the 
southern coast, was not found in any of 
the oysters of the region near Woods Hole, 
although large numbers of the latter were 
examined, coming from Wareham River 
and Buzzards Bay. Dr. Graham was con- 
sequently obliged to confine his attention 
to the material which he had collected two 
years before at Beaufort. From a study 

of this, a careful account is now possible 
of the structure of the most advanced 
cerearia stages, which will perhaps give us 
a elue to the identity of the adult form, 
the latter being without doubt some species 
of the genus Gasterostomum. 


Clarence W. Hahn, A.M., graduate stu- 
~dent, Harvard University: (1) ‘On Dimor- 
phism in Metridiwm marginatum.’  Re- 
generation experiments begun the year 
before and continued during the past 
summer led to the conclusion that the 
diglyphie Metridia are typical, and that 
the monoglyphie individuals arise by 
asexual budding from the base of the body 
or column. This method of reproduction 
is very common. The diglyphie condition 
is not transmitted asexually. The method 
of regeneration was also worked out. A 
new pair of directives is usually produced 
on the regenerated side of the young 
polyp. (2) ‘On the Blood Parasites of the 


SCIENCE. 247 


Turtle.’ As a result of studies begun at 
Harvard and continued at Woods Hole, 
Mr. Hahn believes that he has established 
the existence of three kinds of adult indi- 
viduals, with distinct life cycles similar to 
those deseribed by Huitzi (702) for 
Drepanidium ranarwm of the frog. There 
was found to be an asexual form, which 
reproduced by a process of sporulation dif- 
ferent from that of the sexual individual. 
In the sporulation of the latter, a process 
of mitosis was found to occur. The adult 
sexual hemogregarine, which is worm-like 
in form, is believed by Mr. Hahn to be 
identical with the vermiform parasite de- 
seribed by Siegel (703) im the leech, 
Placobdella catenigera. 


Arthur D. Howard, M.S., graduate stu- 
dent, Harvard University: ‘Minute Struc- 
ture of the Rods of the Retina of Fishes.’ 
Mr. Howard continued studies, previously 
made upon higher vertebrates, now using 
various fishes. Retine of the following 
forms, among others, were examined with 
the polarizing microscope, and confirma- 
tion of previous results obtained; butter- 
fish, squeteague, sand-dab, king-fish, men- 
haden, barracuda, eel, tautog, bonita, 
eutlass-fish, smooth dog-fish and skate. 


Liynds Jones, M.S., instructor in zoology, 
Oberlin College: ‘The Food of Marine 
Birds.’ The investigations were made on 
Weepecket, Penikese and Muskeget Islands. 
Stomachs of young terns were examined, 
and the feeding of the young by the parent, 
as well as the feeding of the adult birds, 
were carefully examined. Mr. Jones gives 
the following estimate of the tern popula- 
tion of the various islands where they 
nest: Weepecket, 2,000; Penikese, 10,000; 
Muskeget, 80,000; total, 92,000 terns. The 
two species (Sterna hirundo and S. dou- 
galli) are represented in about the pro- 
portion of two to one. The feeding habits 
and food of the two are the same. The 


248 


estimated number of fishes eaten in. this 
region by terns in the course of one day is 
estimated by Mr. Jones as follows: 


Per Cent. 

Ammodytes americanus..........- 80 736,000 
Tautogolabrus adspersus.........- 8 73,600 
MUGAU CUPCINGe =. = 2 eae = eee) 4 36,800 
Pollachius wvirens.............-.. 3 27,600 
Clupea or Pomolobus............ 3 27,600 
Pseudopleuronectes americanus.... 2 18,400 

100 920,000 


Mr. Jones concludes that the number 
of food fishes consumed by terns is a 
negligible quantity. The food of the gulls, 
loons, kingfishers, osprey and ducks was 
not studied. 


Austin P. Larrabee, A.M., graduate stu- 
dent, Harvard University: ‘The Effect of 
Heredity on the Dimorphism exhibited in 
the Optic Chiasma of Teleosts.’ 


Edwin Linton, Ph.D., professor of biol- 
ogy, Washington and Jefferson College: 
‘Investigations on the Parasites of Fishes’ 
(conducted for the bureau). From Au- 
cust 13 to September 6, about 150 fishes, 
representing 32 species, were examined. 
In addition to this, a preliminary examina- 
tion was made of material which had been 
collected by Mr. Vinal N. Edwards at vari- 
ous times during the past four or five years, 
comprising parasites from 27 species of 
fish and two mammals. The greater part 
of this collection consisted naturally of 
comparatively large and common species of 
parasites. In some eases, however, where 
the entire viscera had been preserved in 
formalin, many small and rare forms were 
found which would certainly have been 
overlooked by the general collector. 

The plan of investigation of the fresh 
material consisted in making careful search 
for parasites in the alimentary tract and 
body-eavity, on the gills and occasionally 
in the muscular tissue of the fish. So far 
as time would admit, sketches and meas- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 476. 


urements were made, especially of varying 
states of contraction in the soft-bodied 
forms. Note was also made of the color, 
relative abundance, place of occurrence in 
the host, ete.; and particular attention was 
given to diseased conditions resulting from 
the presence of parasites. The nature of 
the food was also noted, since the character 
of the food may sometimes furnish a clue 
to the discovery of the intermediate host. 

Thus far but little has been accomplished 
in working out the life history of the para- 
sites of fishes. Some hint of the source of 
infection may be obtained by noting the 
relative abundance of parasites in the dif- 
ferent seasons of the year. For this rea- 
son, such collections as those of Mr. 
Edwards are especially valuable. 

Of forms which are new, or at least 
which have not been reported before, 
there were found: One species of the order 
Acanthocephala, two of the order Nema- 
toda, six of the class Trematoda, and four 
of the class Cestoda. The results of this 
summer’s work will be made the subject of 
a special report. 


Joseph A. Long, graduate student, Har- 
vard University: “The Reaction of Hyeless 
(Blinded) Fish to Light.’ The fish used 
were Fundulus majalis and F. heteroclitus. 
By using an aquarium provided with an 
electric light, and covered with black cloth 
in such a way that one half was darkened 
and the other half was in bright light,it was 
found that normal fish in good condition 
were decidedly phototropic in a positive 
way. After observations had been made 
on the normal fish, the optic nerves were 
eut, and the previous experiments repeated. 
No evidence was found that in Fundulus 
there were sense organs in the skin or 
lateral line that were responsive to light. 


M. C. Marsh, pathologist of U. S. 
Bureau of Fisheries: ‘The Causes of the 


FreBruary 12, 1904.] 


Gas-disease of Fishes.’ This work, which 
was carried on jointly with Professor Gor- 
ham, was directed toward discovering the 
cause of ‘pop-eye’ due to gas, and the 
causes of mortality among fishes in the 
local aquarium whether with or without 
‘pop-eye.’ It was found that the sea 
water from the supply pipes of the station, 
when delivered below the surface of the 
water in an aquarium, was fatal to most 
species of fishes after a longer or shorter 
time, Fundulus being most resistant; that 
when the water delivered was first some- 
what broken up, causing it to spatter or 
spray, the mortality tended to lessen, and 
“pop-eye’ to decrease; that when the de- 
aeration process was sufficiently complete, 
the ‘pop-eye’ and the mortality were pre- 
vented completely. 

By placing fishes (seup) under various 
air pressures greater than the atmospheric, 
in the same water which ordinarily pro- 
duced ‘pop-eye’ and killed the fish, the 
‘pop-eye’ and the mortality were found to 
be checked, being inhibited altogether by a 
pressure of between six and seven pounds 
per square inch. 

Seup adjusted to surface pressure for one 
week were as susceptible as those brought 
directly from the fish traps, which had 
probably come from somewhat deeper 
water. Artificial reduction of air pres- 
sure produced the same gaseous legions as 
those which had been shown by fishes in 
the aquaria under the influence of the local 
water supply, viz., ‘pop-eye,’ gas blebs, 
death with free gas in the blood vessels, 
according to the degree and the duration 
of the reduction. Death occurred in a 
few hours at a pressure reduced to less 
than that of twenty inches of mercury. 

Determinations showed that the aqua- 
rium water has a proportion of dissolved 
gas considerably in excess of that from the 
basin or harbor. This excess is believed 
by the investigators to be caused by the 


SCIENCE. 


249 


hydrostatic pressure of the supply system, 
in conjunction with leaks in’ the suction 
pipe which admit air to the water imme- 
diately prior to its being pumped to the 
supply tank. This excess of gas in solution 
consists of one or more of the constituents 
of air. 

The immediate cause of death was usu- 
ally found to be the presence of free gas 
in the blood vessels. According to the in- 
vestigators, this free gas is formed in the 
following manner: The blood of fishes liv- 
ing in this supersaturated water takes up, 
while in the gill capillaries, more than the 
usual amount of gases, thus reaching 
nearly or quite to the saturation point. 
These gases are, however, liberated as soon 
as the blood becomes raised to a higher 
temperature in the systematic circulation, 
thus continually accumulating in the ves- 
sels. 


Samuel Steen Maxwell, Ph.D., instructor 
in physiology, Harvard Medical School: 
“Comparative Study of Muscular Tonus.’ 
The phenomena of muscular contraction 
were studied in a somewhat wide range of 
forms. Especial attention was given to 
the occurrence of spontaneous or rhythmic 
contractions in muscles or muscle groups 
separated as completely as possible from 
the influence of nervous tissues. Among 
the forms investigated were Nereis, 
Crepidula, Modiolus, Mytilus, Homarus, 
Inbinia, Limulus, Carcinus, Mnemiopsis 
and Gonionemus. 

In order to retain the muscle alive for a 
sufficient period of time, it seemed neces- 
sary to find a solution which could be used 
upon the tissues of marine animals in the 
same way as the customary physiological 
salt solution is used upon the tissues of 
land animals, and considerable time was 
devoted to experiments along this line. 

A full report of the experiments will 
be published as soon as possible. 


250 SCIENCE. 


J. Perey Moore, Ph.D., instructor in 
zoology, University of Pennsylvania: ‘A 
Synopsis of the Annelids of the Woods 
Hole Region’ (prepared for the bureau). 
The families Cirratulide, Maldanide, 
Ampharetide, Terebellide and Sabellide 
have been completed. Several new species 
were discovered and descriptions prepared 
for publication, one of the most striking 
of which is a laree and handsome species 
of Trinia. A number of hitherto unre- 
corded species have been added to the 
known fauna, among them tropical spe- 
cies of Hipponoe and Hwphroryne trans- 
ported by the Gulf Stream on barnacle- 
laden logs. Tomopteris was taken in 
the tow at the Fish Commission wharf. 
Valuable data concerning the exact distri- 
bution of species were derived from the 
trawlings of the Fish Hawk and from 
shore collections. e 


Raymond C. Osburn, graduate student, 
Columbia University. Mr. Osburn co- 
operated, as a salaried assistant, in the 
compilation of the card catalogue of local 
fauna and flora (see above), and in the 
work upon the dredging material obtained 
by the Fish Hawk. 


George Howard Parker, Ph.D., assistant 
professor of zoology, Harvard University: 
‘Physiology of the Lateral-line Organs’ 
(research conducted for the bureau). Six 
species of fishes were tested: dog-fish, 
skates, killifish, seup, toad-fish and winter 
flounder. In each species individuals with 
normal lateral lines, and those in which the 
nerves going to the lateral-lme organs had 
been cut, were tested. The most complete 
series of tests covered temperature, salin- 
ity, oxygen pressure, carbon dioxide, foul- 
ness, water-pressure, water-currents, water- 
vibrations of high and of low frequency. 
Differences between fishes with and with- 
out lateral-line organs were noticed only in 


(N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


relation to vibrations of low frequency (six 
per second). It was, therefore, coneluded 
that the lateral-line organs are stimulated 
by water vibrations of low frequency. 


Henry Farnham Perkins, Ph.D., in- 
structor in biology, University of Vermont: 
‘Studies of the Morphology of Hydro- 
meduse.’ Collections were made in the 
eel pond durimg a preliminary visit early 
in May, and many immature specimens of 
Gonionema murbachu were taken, also 
some Willia ornata and scatterine speci- 
mens of other genera. Dr. Perkins’s aim 
was to find the young of Gonionema in the 
process of transformation into the medusa 
form, but the earliest of the young stages 
found possessed all of the adult characters. 


Many young meduse were preserved with a _ 


view to studying the development of the 
tentacles and sense organs. All of these 
specimens showed the remarkable scheme 
of origin of the tentacles mentioned in a 
previous paper by Dr. Perkins. A number 
of specimens of Hybocodon prolifer were 
taken in the deep water outside the harbor. 
Many of these exhibited not only the 
asexual reproduction by budding at the 
base of the parent tentacle, described and 
figured by Agassiz and others, but also 
sexual reproduction in the same individ- 
uals, larvee being developed in the ectoder- 
mal tissue of the manubrium, and escaping 
as actinule. 

July 6 to August 4, mature specimens 
of Gonionema were collected on nearly 
every day, and the eggs obtained from 
these were reared in a variety of ways with 
a view to haying the larve mature in the 
laboratory. Many thousand polyps are 
now under observation. A careful study 
of the sexual reproduction of Hybocodon 
prolifer was made during this time and a 
paper was prepared for publication. Con- 
stant watch was kept for specimens of 
meduse in the waters about Woods Hole, 


-° ee” 


FEBRUARY 12, 1904.] 


but very few specimens were found, and 
none at all of unusual interest. Hxperi- 
ments were carried on in order to find un- 
der what artificial conditions it was pos- 
sible to rear larvee of various meduse, and 
to keep the adults in good state for obser- 
vation. Observations were also made upon 
the degeneration of tentacles in Gononema. 


Amos W. Peters, Ph.D., instructor in 
physiology, University of Illinois: ‘Studies 
on the Phosphorescence of Ctenophores.’ 
Efforts were directed toward the following 
ends: (1) To follow the phenomenon back 
through the ontogeny of the animal; (2) 
to the determination of the influence of 
light upon the deposition of eggs; (3) to 
the relations between phosphorescence and 
various stimuli. 


W. O. Richtman, expert in pharma- 
ecognosy, U. S. Department of Agriculture : 
Assisted Dr. True in his experiments upon 
artificial sea waters. 


G. FE. Ruediger, M.D., Memorial Insti- 
tute for Infectious Diseases, Chicago (Rush 
Medical College) : ‘Bactericidal Properties 
of Sera of Marine Animals.’ The object 
of this work was to find a normal blood 
serum, in cold-blooded animals, which 
would be destructive to streptococci. Sera 
from butter-fish, dog-fish, conger-eel, 
flounder, mackerel, dusky shark, sand- 
shark, scup, squeteague, butterfly-ray, 
sting-ray, common skate, squid, lobster, 
spider-erab, king-crab, snapping-turtle, 
painted turtle and spotted turtle were 
used. Streptococci were found to grow 
well in all of these sera, excepting those 
of the painted turtle and spotted turtle. 
These two sera seemed to kill off large 
numbers of organisms from some cultures 
of streptococci, other cultures, however, 
not being affected. Heating the serum 
destroyed its bactericidal properties. An 
attempt was also made to immunize dog- 


SCIENCE. 


251 


fish, but lack of time prevented conclusive 
results. 


Geo. G. Seott, M.A., tutor in the College 
of the City of New York; assistant in charge 
of supply-room, at the laboratory : ‘Studies 
of the Gregarines.’ Numbers of inverte- 
brates were examined for gregarines. 
None were found in the blue-crab, lady- 
erab, spider-crab, king-crab, squid nor 
Phascolosoma. In the lobster, specimens 
of the gregarine, Porospora gigantea were 
found, almost every lobster having eysts 
of this parasite in the folds of the rectum. 
Gregarines were also found in Crrratulus, 
Nereis and Clymenella. In Cynthia, the 
movements of a gregarine were observed 
carefully and camera drawings were ob- 
tained, representing the changes of shape. 
Several specimens of Amphitrite showed 
pathological enlargements beneath the 
ectoderm of the body wall. These are as 
yet undetermined. 


John A. Shott, A.M., professor of biology 


- and physies, Westminster College: ‘Photo- 


taxis in Copepoda’ (in cooperation with 
Dr. Parker). The problem was to deter- 
mine the reactions of the copepods in a 
oraded field of light when they were started 
toward the source of light. The work was 
done during the last two weeks of July, at 
which time the copepods were difficult to 
obtain, so that the results were not con- 
clusive. 


Grant Smith, graduate student, Harvard 
University: Assisted Dr. True in experi-' 
ments upon artificial sea water, also carried 
on experiments upon phototactic responses 
of star-fish. 


Francis Bertody Sumner, Ph.D., in- 
structor in zoology, College of the City of 


New York; director of laboratory: (1) 
‘Card Catalogue of Local Fauna and 


Flora,’ commenced, with cooperation of 
Mr. R. C. Osburn (see above) ; (2) “Dredg- 


252 


ing Survey of Vineyard Sound’ (see 
above); (3) ‘A Statistical Study of Fwn- 
dulus majalis with a view to the deter- 
mination of selective characters.’ During 
the preceding summer large numbers of 
this fish were placed in aquaria from which 

the water was turned off. When about 
~ half had died, the living and the dead, 7. e., 
the survivors and non-survivors, were pre- 
served. This year, nearly a thousand of 
these fish were carefully measured by two 
assistants, Messrs. C. R. Metcalf and W. 
H. Curtiss. Nine measurements were 
made for each fish. The rather formidable 
task of making the desired computations 
from these figures has scarcely been com- 
menced, but enough has been done to show 
the existence of certain measurable char- 
acters of selective value. 


Millett T. Thompson, Ph.D., instructor 
in zoology, Collegiate Department, Clark 
University: (1) ‘Crustacean Metamor- 
phosis’; (2) ‘Studies of the Head and 
Alimentary Canal of Diptera.’ 

Rodney H. True, Ph.D., physiologist of 
Bureau of Plant Industry: ‘Artificial Sea 
Waters as tested in Aquaria’ (assisted by 
Mr. W. O. Richtman). At the suggestion 
of Mr. W. De C. Ravenel, representative of 
the Bureau of Fisheries at the St. Louis 
Exposition, experiments were made under 
the authority of the Secretary of Agricul- 
ture, and of the Commissioner of Fisheries 
in order to determine, if possible, in how 
far it may be practicable to make artificial 
sea water, capable of sustaining marine 
plant and animal life. 

Experiments were made with artificial 
sea water prepared in two ways: (1) By 
dissolving in distilled water the complete 
salts of the sea, obtained by evaporation; 
(2) by dissolving in distilled water chem- 
ically prepared salts in proportions deter- 
mined by analysis. The Challenger anal- 
yses by Dittmar were used. Aquaria were 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 476, 


provided with artificial waters prepared ac- 
cording to each of these methods and with 
sea water dipped up from the current at 
the end of the wharf at the Woods Hole 
station. Two sets of such aquaria were 
prepared: (1) Standing aquaria kept at 
constant salt content by the addition of 
fresh water; (2) aquaria through which a 
small stream of water was kept flowing, 
providing thereby a system of closed cir- 
culation. 

Aquaria thus prepared were stocked 
with both plant and animal life; the plants 
most used being green forms common at 
Woods Hole: Cladophora, Enteromorpha, 
Ula and Aghardiella tenera. Many types 
of animal life were studied, including, es- 
pecially, sea-anemones (Metridiwm), star- 
fish (Asterias), meduse (Gonionemus), 
squid (Loligo) and fish (silversides, scup, 
pipe-fish, ete.). 

The general result may be summed up 
as follows: Sea-anemones seemed to flourish 
during the period under observation in all 
media. Star-fish survived and behaved 
normally in the water made from evapo- 
rated sea salt, in cases, however, showing 
symptoms of injury in the synthetic solu- 
tion. Gonionemus survived for several 
weeks in both solutions, but appeared to 
suffer from other forms of life with which 
it came in contact. The squid could 
not be made to survive for more than a 
few days in any medium, artificial or 
natural. They died in the synthetic solu- 
tion in less than ten minutes with violent 
symptoms; they survived in the other arti- 
ficial solution as long as in the natural sea 
water. Fish seemed in all cases to live as 
well in the artificial solution as in the 
natural, including delicate forms, like 
Menidia. Several other forms of fish and 
invertebrates were tested in various ways, 
with the general result that the artificial 
solution made from the salt obtained by 
evaporation permitted survival to a degree 


FEBRUARY 12, 1904.] 


not clearly different from that seen in sea 
water. The synthetic artificial solution 
seemed equally favorable to most forms, 
but distinctly less so to a few. 

FrRANcIs B. SUMNER. 


SOCIETY OF THE VERTEBRATE PALEON- 


TOLOGISTS OF AMERICA. 

THE second meeting of this society was 
held at Philadelphia, December 29, 1903, 
in the Biological Hall of the University of 
Pennsylvania. In the absence of the presi- 
dent, Professor S. W. Williston, the chair 
was taken by Professor H. F. Osborn. 

The following are abstracts of papers 
which were read and discussed: 


A Remarkably Preserved Specimen of a 
Pelycosaur Collected During the Last 
Summer in Texas: Dr. HB. C. Case. 
The specimen has afforded a nearly com- 

plete skull and the anterior part of the 

vertebral column, with the incomplete fore 
limbs of both sides. The most important 
addition to our knowledge is in the anat- 
omy of the articular region of the skull 
and lower jaw. The specimen shows that 
the author, in collaboration with Dr. Baur, 
was in error in ascribing to the articular 
region of the skull what belongs to the 
articular region of the lower jaw. The 
quadrate is, therefore, not a depressed bone 
largely covered by the bones of the tem- 
poral region, squamosal and jugal, but it 
is elevated and very similar in appearance 
and relations to the same bone in Sphen- 
odon. There is a foramen between the 
lower end of the quadrato-jugal and the 
quadrate, as in Sphenodon. The finding 
of this foramen removes the last possible 
question as to the position of the Pelyco- 
sauria in the order Rhynchocephalia. 
There are two temporal arches present. 


In the Matter of Menaspis: Dr. BASHFORD 
Dean, Columbia College. 
Professor Bashford Dean discussed the 


SCIENCE. 253 


relationship of the puzzling Permian fish, 
Menaspis, pointing out that on the evidence 
of an unfigured specimen in the Berlin 
Museum, which, thanks to the courtesy of 
Professor Jaekel, he had recently had the 
privilege of examining, there were grounds 
for regarding this form as distinetly chim- 
eroid. The present specimen retains the 
dental plates, and from their size leads us 
to conclude that the region of the fossil 
regarded by earlier writers as the hindmost 
trunk region (terminating in blunt spines) 
is in reality the occiput. He compared the 
tuberculated spines of Menaspis with those 
of Myriacanthus, referring especially to an 
unfigured specimen of this form to which 
Professor EH. T. Newton called his attention 
in the Paleontological Museum in Jermyn 
Street. The puzzling non-tuberculated 
spines of Menaspis, on the other hand, best 
correspond to the so-called lip cartilages 
of Squaloraja. Such structures, moreover, 
would be apt to take a position dorsal to the 
antero-ventral lateral head spines during 
fossilization. Accepting this comparison, 
Menaspis indicates that in matters of 
dermal defenses and teeth the Permian 
chimeeroid resembled contemporary cestra- 
ciont sharks. 


On Some Famous Old Collections and 
Early Studies of Monte Bolca Fishes: 
C. R. HastmMan. 

This paper reviewed the pre-Linnean 
discussions as to the nature and origin of 
the famous fossil fish fauna of Monte Bolea, 
in northern Italy, with a notice of the prin- 
cipal contributions to the literature made 
The history was 
given of several large Veronese collections 
containing important type material, and 
where the latter had become dispersed, the 
present location was indicated of such as is 


during the last century. 


now preserved amongst different museums. 


TAs | SCIENCE. 


On the Finding of Skulls of Trionychide 
in the Bridger Deposits of Wyoming: 
Dr. O. P. Hay, American Museum of 
Natural History. 

More than twenty species of fossil Tri- 
onyechide have been described from the 
Cretaceous and Tertiary deposits of North 
America. All these have been based on 
more or less incomplete shells. No skulls 
have hitherto been found. During the past 
summer a party from: the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History was engaged in 
collecting in the Bridger Hocene of Wy- 
oming. Among many other turtle remains 
secured were two skulls of Trionychide. 
One of these is very large, having a total 
leneth of more than six inches. The lower 
jaw is missing. The form is strikingly like 
that of the skull of Platypeltis ferox of the 
southern states; but the snout is broader, 
the inter-orbital space is- wider and the 
choane are constricted, as in Aspidonectes 
sinensis. The species is named Aspidon- 
ectes tritor. A skull of another species 
is much smaller and is accompanied by the 
lower jaw. 

These specimens show that since the 
Eocene there has been no important change 

‘in the structure of the Trionychide. Dr. 

Baur was led to the same conclusion regard- 

ing the Trionychide of the Upper Creta- 

ceous, from the examination of shells and 
limb bones from the Laramie of Wyoming. 

Shells from the still older deposits of the 

Judith River and Belly River beds sim- 

ilarly give indications that the members 

of this group have undergone little change 
since the early periods of the Upper Cre- 
taceous. We must, therefore, look to dis- 
coveries in the fresh-water deposits of the 

Lower Cretaceous or of the Jurassic for 

light on this group. 

The Grasping Power of the Manus of Orni- 
thomimus altus Lambe: LAwRENcE ML. 
Lamer, of the Geological Survey of 
Canada. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 476 


The description of the manus is based 
on materials found by the writer in the 
Belly River deposits of Alberta, Canada. 
The pes of O. altws shows that the animal 
was adapted to swift running. The manus 
can not yet be wholly reconstructed, but 
the claws were quite different from those 
of O. sedens. O. altws may be regarded 
as the successor of Ormitholestes hermanni 
Osborn, and there are many similarities in 
the manus of the two. The manus of OQ. 
altus is much stouter and less elongate, but 
it probably had equally great grasping 
power. The phalanges of what is supposed 
to be the second finger were described. <A 
channel between the condyles of the distal 
end of the first phalanx extends through 
an angle of about 223°. The amount of 


rotation which the second and distal pha- 


langes may make is very great. O. altus 
probably pursued a rapid prey and grasped 
it tenaciously with its fore limbs. Hvi- 
dently the claws were lone and sharp. 


On Some Marine Fossils in the Titanothere 
Beds: Dr. F. B. Loomis, Amherst Col- 
lege. 

On Bear Creek, near the Cheyenne River, 

South Dakota, in the lower part of the 


Titanothere horizon of the Oligocene, were 


found about seventy-five baculites and parts 
of a Platecarpus, these being Ft. Pierre 
species. These occurred in concretions and 
had a limited distribution. Their presence 
was explained by river action, the fossils 
having been excavated from the Ft. Pierre 
and redeposited during the building up of 
the Titanothere beds. 


The Relationships of the Phytosauria: Dr. 
J. H. McGrecor, of Columbia Univer- 
sity. 

This group of reptiles, represented by 
the belodonts of the Huropean and Amer- 
ican Triassic, were regarded by Huxley as 
constituting a primitive division of the 
crocodiles, for which he proposed the sub- 


a a 


Wrpruary 12, 1904.] 


ordinal name Parasuchia. Though Hux- 
ley’s view has received quite general ac- 
ceptance, several paleontologists, notably 
Marsh, Baur and H. Fraas, have observed 
certain resemblances to Sphenodon and 
the. dinosaurs. The present studies of 
the group, based chiefly upon extensive 
material recently discovered in Germany 
and in North America, have cleared up 
most of the doubtful points of the skeletal 
morphology, and it may be said that, save 
for the carpus and tarsus, the phytosaurian 
skeleton is now pretty well known. Nearly 
all the newly discovered structures indicate 
that the affinity to crocodiles is much more 
remote than Huxley supposed, and certain 
characters of the skull and atlas alone pre- 
elude the possibility that these forms were 
ancestral to crocodilia. The strong general 
resemblance between the two groups is 
chiefly superficial or, parallel adaptation to 
similar habit and environment. 

The relationship of phytosaurs to car- 
nivorous dinosaurs, on the contrary, 1s op- 
secured by the adaptive or secondary differ- 
ences correlated with bipedal habit in the 
latter animals; but careful comparison of 
the skeletons shows that the relationship 
in this case is scarcely more remote than 
the - relationship with crocodiles. The 
group which undoubtedly stands nearest 
the phytosaurs comprises the small ar- 
mored Aétosauria; in fact, the phytosaurs 
are chiefly distinguished from these animals 
by the prenarial elongation of the snout. 
For this reason it seems best to place the 
two groups as suborders within a single 
order, to designate which Huxley’s sub- 
ordinal name Parasuchia may be taken in 
a more inclusive sense and raised to ordinal 
value. The derivation of these Parasuchia 
from Rhynchocephalian ancestors scarcely 
admits of doubt; they might be briefly de- 
seribed as Rhynchocephalia which have ac- 
quired strongly bicipital ribs, thecodont 
dentition and a dermal armature. 


SCIENCE. 


200 


Hyidence was also adduced to show ge- 
netie affinity between Phytosauria and Ich- 
thyosauria. Many structures, especially in 
the skull and limb girdles, indicate deriva- 
tion of both from a common ancestor at no 
very remote period. 


On the Position of the Bones of the Fore- 
arm in the Opisthocelia or Sauropoda: 
Henry FParrrrenD OSBORN. 

In the Sauropoda the forearm is modi- 
fied in adaptation to support a very great 
weight in a manner entirely analogous to 
that in the Proboscidea, namely, the fore- 
arm is completely rotated inward, bringing 
the thumb, or first digit, on the internal 
side of the foot; the ulna is also enlarged 
proximally until it covers the entire pos- 
terior face of the radius. This gives rise 
to a deceptive appearance of the shafts of 
the radius and ulna, and has led to the 
statement that these elements do not cross. 
Careful study of the entire. forearm, how- 
ever, shows that the upper end of the 
radius rises from the radial condyle which 
is on the external side of the lower end of 
the humerus below the deltoid crest; on the 
front surface of this condyle is a groove for 
the main flexor of the forearm; immedi- 
ately below this condyle the radius is ar- 
ticulated, and on its front face is seen the 
rugosity for the attachment of the flexor 
tendon which passes through the groove in 
the radial condyle above; these relations 
fix the radius on the external side of the 
limb proximally; distally the radius is 
found on the internal side articulating with 
the scapho-lunar and supporting the radial 
digit, or thumb. The ulna is also strongly 
developed on the external side of the limb 
proximally, and extends behind the radius 
around to the internal side, its primary 
position; the shaft of the ulna descends and 
articulates with the ulnare on the external 
side of the limb inferiorly. Thus when 
seen in front view the shafts of the radius 


256 SCIENCE. 


and ulna actually cross each other, al-. 


though as in the Proboscidea this crossing 
is much less apparent, owing to the great 
proximal expansion of the ulna. 


On the Use of the Sandblast in Cleaning 

Fossils: HENRY FAIRFIELD OSBORN. 

The introduction of the compressed air 
chisel by the Field Columbian Museum has 
ereatly reduced the cost of removing rock 
from fossils. This chisel has been intro- 
duced also in the National Museum with 
success. Hor larger masses of rock it an- 
swers every purpose. The writer has re- 
cently been experimenting with a sand- 
blast, driven by a compressed air engine, 
with admirable results. This method is 
peculiarly adapted to the fier work. It 
should be used under fifty-pound pressure, 


with tubes of fine diameter. Although not 


thoroughly tested as yet it promises to give 
remarkable results both in cleaning surfaces 
and in removing the matrix in the cavities 
of small skulls. Combined with the com- 
pressed air chisel it will probably reduce 
the cost of preparing fossils to one third of 
that involved by the use of hand tools. 


Conclusive Paleontological Evidence for the 
 Tritubercular Theory: HENRY FAIRFIELD 

OSBORN. 

That part of the tritubercular theory 
which homologizes the cusps composing the 
main triangle in the upper and lower 
erinding teeth of mammals, has been seri- 
ously questioned of late; first, because it 
does not accord with all the embryological 
evidence, second, because the superior pre- 
molar teeth appear to afford a demonstra- 
tion that the upper molar teeth evolved in 
a manner which was subsequently pursued 
by the premolars. The tritubercular the- 
ory has been steadily losing ground; some 
authors have recommended that the cusp 
homologies and terminology be totally 
abandoned. A fresh investigation of the 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


paleontological material available has, how- 
ever, demonstrated beyond question the 
truth of the theory in its original form. 

The superior molars of Triconodon and 
of Peralestes in the British Museum sup- 
port the original view that the cusp (pro- 
tocone) homologous with the reptilian cone 
is internal or lingual in position. Through 
the kindness of Professor Charles E. Beech- 
er, the superior molar teeth of the Jurassic 
Dryolestes n the Yale Museum have been 
reexamined, and are found to correspond 
exactly both with the original description 
of Marsh and with the conditions set forth 
in the original tritubercular theory. The 
main cusp, or protocone, is internal and 
supported on a stout fang; the secondary 
cusps, representing the para- and meta- 
cones, are external and supported on lesser 
fangs. This evidence, together with that 
deduced from comparative anatomy and 
paleontology, establishes the tritubercular 
theory beyond further question. 


A Reclassification of the Reptilia: Hunry 


FAIRFIELD OSBORN. 

The Reptilia are divided into two sub- 
classes: (1) Synapsida, including the Co- 
tylosauria, Anomodontia, Sauropterygia 
and Testudinata. The Anomodontia are 
divided into the Therocephalia (Broom), 
the Theriodontia (Cynodontia Owen), 
the Dicynodontia, representing progressive 
phases of evolution of the skull and spe- 
clalization of the teeth. Of these the 
Theriodontia stand nearest the Mammalia. 
(2) Diapsida, embracing the new super- 
order Diaptosauria, which includes the 
seven orders and suborders Procolophonia, 
Protorosauria, Proganosauria, Gnathodon- 
tia, Choristodera, Pelycosauria and Rhyn- 
chocephalha. The remaining Diapsidan 
orders are the Parasuchia (= Phyto- 
sauria), Ichthyopterygia, Crocodilia, super- 
order Dinosauria, superorder Squamata 
and the order Pterosauria. Birds sprang 


er er a 


Fesruary 12, 1904.] 


from a stem near that which gave rise to 
the Dinosauria. 

The paper is an abstract, with some ad- 
ditions, of the memoir ‘The Reptilian Sub- 
classes Diapsida and Synapsida and the 
Barly History of the Diaptosauria’ (Mem. 
Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., Vol. 1., November, 
1903). 


On the Primary Components of Veriebre 
and Their Relations to Ribs: HENRY 
FAIRFIELD OsBorN. Read by title. 

The vertebrze of the Stegocephala and of 
certain Permian Reptialia and the embry- 
onie vertebree of Hatteria establish beyond 
question the fact that there are four pairs 
_ of primary components, to which the names 
neurocentra, pleurocentra, hypocentra and 
hypocentra-pleurale may be given. Hach 
is present in pairs on opposite sides of the 
notochord and neural tube. The ‘neuro- 
centra’ correspond with the neural arches or 
neuropophyses of authors. The ‘pleuro- 
centra’ (Cope) form the main components 
of the vertebr in the Reptilia, Aves and 
Mammalia, and probably also in the Am- 
phibia, although this fact has been ques- 
tioned by Baur and Cope. The ‘hypo- 
centra’ were first named by Gaudry, and 
subsequently termed “intercentra’ by Cope; 
they are primarily paired elements lying on 
either side of the notochord below and an- 
terior to the pleurocentra; by Cope and 
Gadow it has been held that they form the 
main components of the vertebre in certain 
if not in all Amphibia. The ‘hypocentra- 
pleurale’ (Fritsch) lie in pairs below and 
posterior to the pleurocentra; they are 
only found in certain Stegocephala. The 
vertebral complex thus made up is modified 
by the degeneration of the hypocentra- 
pleurale and in many forms of the hypo- 
centra; by the development of the pleuro- 
centra uniting with the neurocentra to 
form the centrum and neural arches. 

Both on paleontological and embryolog- 


_ SCIENCE. 5s 


ical evidence the ribs always rise primarily 
opposite the hypocentra; they are thus 
placed between the pleurocentra and may 
be deseribed as ‘intervertebral’ or ‘inter- 
central.’ The capitulum of the rib is hypo- 
central while the tubereulum is pleurocen- 
tral in attachment. Secondarily the ca- 
pitulum may migrate to the side of the 
pleurocentrum, and the tuberculum to the 
side of the neurocentrum. This rib migra- 
tion, observed independently in many dif- 
ferent orders of reptiles, proves that the 
position of the head of the rib can not be 
adduced as evidence of the homology of 
that portion of the vertebral complex to 
which it is attached. 

Mr. G. I. Adams, of the U. S. Geological 
Survey, read a paper entitled ‘The Differ- 
entiation of the Permian in the United 
States, and the Diagnostic Value of Rep- 
tiles as Indications of Permian Age.’ No 
abstract has been furnished. 

Other papers by Messrs. J. C. Merriam, 
H. F. Osborn, Wm. Patten, H. 8. Riges, 
W. J. Sinclair and 8. W. Williston were 
read by title. 

Before adjournment Professor H. F. 
Osborn was elected president and O. P. 
Hay secretary for the ensuing year. 

O. P. Hay, 
Secretary. 


THE MEMBERSHIP OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION. 


THe following persons have completed 
membership in the association since the 
publication of the list contained in SctmncE 
of December 25, 1903: 

Adams, Charles Francis, Head of Science Dept., 
Central High School, Detroit, Mich. 

Aitken, Robert G., Lick Observatory, Mount 
Hamilton, Cal. 

Alt, Adolph, M.D., 3819 W. Pine Ave., St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Andrews, Clement Walker, Librarian, The John 
Crerar Library, Chicago, Ill. 

Banta, Arthur M., Instructor, Indiana Univer- 
sity, Bloomington, Ind. 


258 SCIENCE. 


Barbour, Miss Carrie Adeline, Dept. Geology, 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebr. 

Basquin, Olin H., Associate Professor of Phys- 
ics, Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill. 

Bell, John Eyerett, Care The Stirling Co., Bar- 
berton, Ohio. 

Bierbaum, Christopher H., Consulting Engineer, 
330 Prudential Building, Buffalo, N. Y. 

Bigelow, W. D., Bureau of Chemistry, Dept. of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Bissell, G. W., Professor of Mechanical Engi- 
neering, lowa State College, Ames, Iowa. 

Bonnet, Frederic, Jr., 2719 Russell Ave., St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Brooks, Charles, Botanical Laboratory, Univ. of 
Mo., Columbia, Mo. 

Brown, Linus Weed, ex-Chief Engineer, City of 
New Orleans, 741 Carondelet St., New Orleans, 
La. 

Browning, William, M.D., 54 Lefferts Place, 
Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Burrill, Thomas J., Professor of Botany, Uni- 
versity of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. 

Burton, E. F., Demonstrator in Physics, Uni- 
versity of Toronto, Toronto, Ontario, Canada. 


Chamberlain, Clark Wells, Professor of Physics, 
Denison University, Granville, Ohio. 

Cramer, Gustave, Pres. G. Cramer Dry Plate 
Co., St. Louis, Mo. 

Crampton, ©. Ward, M.D., 160 West 119th 
Street, New York, N. Y. 

Curtis, Winterton C., Ph.D., Instructor in Zool- 
ogy, University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 


Daugherty, Lewis 8., Professor of Biology, State 
Normal School, Kirksville, Mo. 

Davies, Arthur Ernest, Ph.D., Ohio State Uni- 
versity, Columbus, Ohio. 

Detweiler, Andrew J., M.D., State Board of 
Health, Columbia, Mo. 

Douglas, Archer Wall, 5101 McPherson Ave., St. 
Louis, Mo. 


Harhart, Robert F., Asst. Professor Physics, 
Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. 

Hikenberry, William Lewis, Instructor in Bot- 
any, High School, St. Louis, Mo. 

Evans, Thomas, University of Cincinnati, Cin- 
cinnati, Ohio. 

Hycleshymer, Albert Chauncey, Department of 
Anatomy, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 


Fischer, Charles E. M., Care Western Electric 
Co., 259 §. Clinton St., Chicago, Ill. 

Folsom, Justus Watson, Instructor in Entomol- 
ogy, University of Illinois, Champaign, Ill. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476, 


Fox, Philip, Carnegie Assistant at Yerkes Ob- 
servatory, Williams Bay, Wis. 


Galloway, David Henry, M.D., Payette, Idaho. 

Gazzam, Joseph M., Lawyer, 611-614 Real Hs- 
tate Trust Bldg., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Glasgow, Frank A., M.D., 3894 Washington Ave., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Gorham, Frederic P., Associate Professor of 
Biology, Brown University, Providence, R. I. 

Gould, Charles Neton, Professor of Geology, Uni- 
versity of Oklahoma, Norman, Okla. 

Grat, August V., 1825-29 S. 7th St., St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Greeley, Arthur White, Asst. Professor of Zool- 
ogy, Washington University, St. Louis, Mo. 

Greenway, James C., 667 Madison Ave., New 
York, N. Y. 

Gunsaulus, Rev. Frank W., President Armour 
Institute, Chicago, Il. 


Hairgrove, John Whitlock, M.D., Jacksonville, 
Til. 

Ham, Miss Clara Eleanor, Instructor in Biology, 
Northfield, Mass. 

Haukinson, Thomas L., Asst. in Biology, E. Ill. 
State Normal School, Charleston, Ill. 

Hess, Selmar, Publisher, 122-124 Wifth Ave., 
New York, N. Y. 

Huston, Henry A., 134 Laclede Building, St. 
Louis, Mo. 


Jones, Arthur Taber, Instructor in Physics, 
Purdue University, La Fayette, Ind. 


Kern, John H., M.D., 1317 Madison St., St. 
Louis, Mo. : 

Knab, Frederick, Entomological Artist, Urbana, 
Tl. 

Knox, Geo. Platt, Teacher of Chemistry, 5178A 
Morgan St., St. Louis, Mo. 


Landacre, Francis L., Associate Professor of 
Zoology and Entomology, Ohio State University, 
Columbus, Ohio. 

Latham, Vida A., M.D., 808 Morse Ave., Rogers 
Park, Chicago, Il. 

Leith, Charles Kenneth, Professor of Economic 
and Structural Geology, University of Wisconsin, 
Madison, Wis. 

Lewis, EH. P., Associate Professor of Physics, 
University of California, Berkeley, Cal. 

Lightner, Calvin R., M.D., 2313 Washington 
Ave., St. Louis, Mo. 

Lischer, Benno Edward, 2313 Washington Ave., 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Lutz, Frank Eugene, Assistant in Zoology, Uni- 
versity of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 


BS TG SF Hid 


Frervuary 12, 1904.] 


Lyman, Elmer A., Professor of Mathematics, 
Mich. State Normal School, Ypsilanti, Mich. 


McBeth, William A., Asst. Professor of Geog- 
raphy, State Normal College, Terre Haute, Ind. 

McClure, Geo. E., 4418 Arsenal St., St. Louis, 
Mo. : 

McElfresh, William Edward, Asst. Professor of 
Physics in Williams College, Williamstown, Mass. 

McKee, Ralph Harper, Professor of Chemistry, 
Lake Forest University, Lake Forest, Ill. 

Mallinckrodt, Edw., Jr., 26 Vandeventer Place, 
St. Louis, Mo. 

Marquis, J. Clyde, La Fayette, Ind. 

Miller, Louallen F., Instructor in Physics, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 

Mills, John, Instructor in Physics, Western Re- 
serve University, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Mohler, George H., Fremont Normal School, 
Fremont, Nebraska. 


Neal, Herbert V., Knox College, Galesburg, Ill. 
Nelson, N. L. T., Instructor in Botany, Cen- 
tral High School, St. Louis, Mo. 


O’Donoghue, Martin, Westernport, Md. 
Oleson, Olaf M., Fort Dodge, Iowa. 


Pauls, Gustavus, St. Louis Altenheim, St. Louis, 
Mo. . 

Pearl, Raymond, Ph.D., Instructor in Zoology, 
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

Peters, Amos W., Instructor in Zoology, Uni- 
versity of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. 

Piper, Charles V., Office of Agrostologist, De- 
partment of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Porter, Albert B., 1232 Forest Ave., Evanston, 
Tl. 

Poth, Harry A., Technical Brewer, 216 N. 33d 
St., Philadelphia, Pa. 

Praeger, William LEmilius, Department of 
Botany, University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 

Priest, Henry, Ph.D., Dean of College of Letters 
and Science, St. Lawrence University, Canton, 
INE 

Proctor, Chas. A., Department of Physics, Uni- 
versity of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 

Pyle, William Henry, Supt. 
Schools, Vandalia, Il. 


Rea, Paul M., Professor of Biology and Geology, 
College of Charleston, Charleston, S. C. 

Reed, Howard Sprague, Instructor in Botany, 
University of Missouri, Columbia, Mo. 

Riley, Cassius M., Professor of Chemistry in 
Barnes Medical College and Barnes College of 
Pharmacy, St. Louis, Mo. 

Robertson, Charles, Carlinville, Ill. 

Ruppert, G. E., 5 W. 86th St., New York, N. Y. 


Vandalia City 


SCIENCE. 


259 


Sale, Rev. Samuel, 4010 W. Bell St., St. Louis, 
Mo. 

Schaller, Waldemar T., U. S. Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. 

Scherf, C. Harry, 114 Marietta St., Burlington, 
Towa. 

Schmucker, Samuel Christian, Ph.D., Professor 
of Biology, Normal School, West Chester, Pa. 

Seaman, Arthur Edmund, Professor of Geology 
and Mineralogy, Michigan College of Mines, 
Houghton, Mich. 

Segerblom, Wilhelm, Professor of Chemistry, 
Phillips Hxeter Academy, Exeter, N. H. 

Shibley, George H., 53 Bliss Building, Washing- 
ton, D. C. 

Shimer, Hervey Woodburn, Instructor in Geol- 
ogy, Mass. Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 

Shull, George Harrison, Assistant in Botany, 
University of Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 

Six, William Lewis, Philippi, W. Va.. 

Smith, Alice Maude, M.D., 327 North G St., 
Tacoma, Wash. 

Sprague, Robert J., Knox College, Galesburg, 
Hl. 

Stearns, H. D., Associate Professor of Physics 
in Stanford University, Stanford University, Cal. 

Stickney, Malcom Enos, Instructor in Botany, 
Denison University, Granville, Ohio. 

Stookey, Lyman Brumbaugh, Ph.D., Patholog- 
ical Institute, Wards Island, New York, N. Y. 

Summa, Hugo, M.D., Professor of Medicine, St. 
Louis University, St. Louis, Mo. 


Taylor, Edson Homer, Teacher of Mathematics, 
Jastern Illinois State Normal School, Charleston, 
Tl. 

Thornton, William M., Professor of Applied 
Mathematics, University of Virginia, Charlottes- 
ville, Va. 

Townley, Sidney Dean, International Latitude 
Observatory, Ukiah, Cal. 

Transeau, H. N., 220 S. Ingalls St., Ann Arbor, 
Mich. 

Tucker, George M., Ph.D., University of Mis- 
souri, Columbia, Mo. 

Tutton, Charles H., 140 York Street, Buffalo, 
N. Y. 

Wackenhuth, F. C., Jr., Technical Brewer, 57 
Freeman St., Newark, N. J. 

Wallace, Robert James, Yerkes Observatory, 
Williams Bay, Wis. 

Walton, L. B., Professor of Biology, Kenyon 
College, Gambier, Ohio. 

Weidman, Samuel, Geologist, Wisconsin State 
Geological and Natural History Survey, Madison, 
Wis. 


260 SCIENCE. 


Wetzel, Reinhard A., Supt. Science High School, 
Fargo, N. D. 

Wilcox, Guy Maurice, Professor of Physics, 
Armour Institute, Chicago, Ill. 

Willett, James R., 434 W. Jackson Blvd., Chi- 
cago, Ill. 

Williams, Frank Blair, Ph.D., Assistant Pro- 
fessor Civil Engineering, Union College, Schenec- 
tady, N. Y. 

Wilson, Delonza Tate, Case School of Applied 
Science, Cleveland, Ohio. 

Wiseman, Carl Marshall, Optician, 301 W. 
Chestnut St., Louisville, Ky. 

Woods, Carl Fred, Dartmouth College, Han- 
over, N. H. 

Zeleny, Charles, University of Chicago, Chicago, 
Til. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Ueber die Organization wnd Physiologie der 
Cyanophyceenzelle und die mitotische Teil- 
ung ithres Kernes. Von E. G. Kount. 
Jena, Gustav Fischer. 1903. Pp. 240, 10 
plates. 20 mk. 

This book, the result of several years of 
work on this interesting group of algz on the 
part of Professor Kohl, will probably clear 
away definitely many of the clouds of doubt 
and contradiction over the structure of the cell 
of these plants. Professor Kohl applied his 
attention first to one species, TYolypothria 
latana, until he had mastered the proper 
technique, and had acquired exact knowledge 
of its structure. Then he applied the same 
intensive study to Anabena catenula and 
Nostoe cerulewm, afterwards testing his dis- 
coveries on a large series of the most diverse 
Cyanophycez. 

Many points of structure, especially those 
bearing upon the shape and structure of the 
resting nucleus, as well as its behavior during 
division, were made the object of study in 
cells stained im vivo, as well as in cells fixed 
by various chemical reagents. The most im- 
portant contribution to our knowledge is that 


in regard to the nucleus. The author confirms ~ 


Biitschli’s and Hegler’s contention that the 
central body (Zentralkorper) is the nucleus. 
This organ occupies the center of the cell and 
runs out in numerous tapering branches into 
the surrounding cytoplasm, these processes 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


often extending to the cell wall. As ordinary 
fixation methods cause their immediate re- 
traction, they usually have been overlooked. 
The nucleus has no definitely staining de- 
limiting membrane, nor does it contain a 
nucleolus. In it, and in it alone, are con- 
tained certain granules named by Kohl ‘ cen- 
tralgranules (Zentralkorner) and thought by 
him to consist of reserve stuffs. The ap- 
parent occurrence of these granules in the 
cytoplasm is explained by their being often 
found in the processes of the nucleus. Sim- 
ilarly, granules belonging in the cytoplasm 
sometimes appear to be in the nucleus, when 
they are imbedded in cytoplasm between the 
bases of the nuclear processes. The central 
granules are identified by Kohl with Biitschli’s 
red grains, Nadson’s Chromatinkérner, ete., 
and with the Volutanskugeln of the bacteria. 

The cytoplasm contains various inclusions, 
chief among which are the cyanophycin 
granules (protein ecrystalloids), fat drops and 
certain semi-fluid bodies in the heterocysts 
which are found to fill up the pits in the cell 
wall at the point of attachment to adjoining 
cells. 

According to many authors, this blue-green 
cytoplasmic mantle between the nucleus and 
cell wall is the single, cylindrical chromato- 
phore. Kohl, however, combats this idea and 
considers as chromatophores the very nu- 
merous minute, colored bodies about 0.6 pin 
diameter scattered throughout the otherwise 
colorless eytoplasm. In their reaction 
towards stains they behave as do the chro- 
matophores of higher plants. A study of the 
coloring matter of the cell shows that besides 
chlorophyll and phycocyanin, there is also 
always present carotin, the xanthophyll of 
many authors, which is never absent where 
chlorophyll is found, throughout the vegetable 
kingdom. It is the combination of these 
coloring matters in various proportions that 
makes possible the great variability of color 
of the different species, or even within the 
species of this group. 

Instead of starch these algee produce as cur- 
bohydrate the nearly related glycogen, storing 
it, apparently equally distributed, in the cyto- 
plasm and not in granules. 


Sse 


ee ee ee ee? 


Fepruary 12, 1904.] 


The cell membrane consists of chitin with a 
very small amount of cellulose and pectin. 
In the heterocysts, however, a layer of cellulose 
is laid down when it (the heterocyst) begins 
to develop. Im those genera with sheaths the 
filaments lie free in the sheath except the 
heterocysts, which are grown fast to it. Kohl 
sees in this the explanation of the function 
of these cells. They serve as points of resist- 
ance in the formation of hormogones, and in 
the branching of the filament. What the 
function can be in the forms without a sheath 
he does not clearly explain. They are evi- 
dently, however, not reserve cells, for they orig- 
inate by the formation of stoppers for the pores 
through which alone the adjacent cells could 
furnish or receive reserve stuffs. They then 
build the cellulose wall and totally degenerate. 

Here and there in the filament a single cell 
or several cells soften and degenerate, forming 
the points at which the filament breaks when 
it divides or produces hormogones. In the 
forms with false branching such degenerated 
cells are formed below the heterocysts and 
seem to help soften the sheath wall so as to 
enable the filament to turn out through the 
sheath when the resistance of the fast-grown 
heteroeyst prevents its growing further in a 
straight line. 

Normally the cells have no cell-sap vacuoles. 
They resemble meristematic cells in the size 
of the nucleus and density of the cytoplasm. 
Only in old or terminal cells and in the hetero- 
eysts do such vacuoles oceur. The so-called gas 
vacuoles that Kohl mentions as occurring in 
some Cyanophycez have been proved definitely 
by Molisch and Brand, working independently, 
to be not of gas nature. 

All cells are connected by a fine thread of 
plasm, which penetrates the center of the pore 
in the cell wall; even in the heterocysts where 
the pore is filled up the plasma thread remains, 
but it is unable to convey enough foodstuffs to 
keep the heterocyst plasma in good condition. 

The nuclear division was made the object of 
especial study. By staining the living cells 
with methylene-blue Kohl was able to follow 
the process without subjecting himself to the 
criticism that his chromosomes were artefacts. 
The nucleus consists of a ground mass and a 


SCIENCE. 


261 


difficultly visible fe chromatin-bearing fila- 
ment. This thickens itself and finally forms 
a spirem. This breaks up into usually six 
straight chromosomes which arrange them- 
selves parallel to the long axis of the thread. 
They then begin to bow in somewhat, until 
they are much farther apart terminally than 
centrally. They then divide crosswise in the 
middle, not lengthwise, and eollect at each 
end of the cell. At this point in the division 
a few achromatic fibers are visible, connecting 
the two masses of chromosomes, but no spindle 
in the proper sense is seen. The daughter 
chromosomes arrange themselves parallel, then 
form a spirem. As the chromosomes divide, 
the body of the nucleus which retains its dis- 
tinctness from the cytoplasm begins to pinch 
in at the middle, and soon the separation of 
the two nuclei is complete. A cell wall sepa- 
rates the new cells at once. 

The author also discusses the relationship of 
the Cyanophycez to the bacteria, holding that 
they are closely related and that the latter too 
probably have a nucleus similar to that de- 
seribed. 

The book is, unfortunately, marred by an 
excessive number of typographical errors. 
The ten plates illustrating the book are finely 
executed and are very helpful to the under- 
standing of the subject. 5 
Ernest A. Brssny. 


Geology of Economic Non-metallic Minerals. 
By Francis Miron, C. E.* 


This little volume is published as one part 
of the ‘Encyclopédie Scientifique des Aide- 
Mémoire,’ issued under the direction of M. 
Léanté, member of the Institute of France. 
It is the fourth by the same author, the pre- 
ceding volumes having dealt respectively with: 
(1) Mineral oils, (2) subterranean waters 
and (8) metallic minerals and mining. The 
general object is to furnish a series of brief 
hand-books deseribing the geological distribu- 
tion, manner of occurrence and methods of 
procuring and utilizing of the substances 
treated of in each of the volumes. ‘The pres- 

**Gisements Mineraux; Stratigraphic et Com- . 
position,’ par Francois Miron, Paris, Masson et 
Cie, pp. 157. (Part of *‘ Encyclopédie Scientifique 
des Aide-Mémoire.’) : 


202 SCIENCE. 


ent one deals with economic minerals strictly, 
exclusive of metallic ores, and in the main of 
precious and ornamental stones. 

The plan of the work is good, and the geolog- 
ical element in it is valuable; but the treat- 
ment is very unequal, some portions being well 
and fully presented, and others but imade- 
quately. The work bears no date, and takes 
no note of some important recent develop- 
ments, e. g., that of monazite and the related 


rare earths. Its chemical formulas, too, are- 


not modern. As a whole, the book is of inter- 
est in its suggestion of what might be, if the 
author’s ideas were carried out more fully and 
comprehensively, errors and omissions cor- 
rected, and the treatment brought up to date. 
G. F. K. 


SOCIETIDS AND ACADEMIES. 
ONONDAGA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 


At the October meeting of the academy, 
held in the Syracuse high school building, 
Dr. T. C. Hopkins presented an illustrated 
paper on the glaciers of Switzerland and 
Austria. The paper was based on field studies 
in the Alps during the past summer. It illus- 
trated many features of the Alpine glaciers 
such as the snow fields, aiguilles, crevasses, 
moraines, gorges and the marked recession of 
many of the glaciers in recent years. 

At the November meeting of the academy, 
held in the historical society rooms there were 
three papers on biological subjects: 


1. Diseases of Cultivated Flowering Plants: 


Grorce T. Hareirr. 

The diseases were classified, according to the 
funetion disturbed, into three classes: 

(a) Disturbed Photosynthesis—The rusts 
are one of the commonest diseases of plant 
life and in the carnations it is caused by the 
fungus Uromyces caryophyllinus, one of the 
most serious diseases of this plant. Darluca 
filum, usually occurring in connection with 
this rust, is commonly considered as parasitic 
on the rust, but investigations seem to show 
it rather to be parasitic on. the carnation. 
Plants affected by both the rust and Darluca 
are in worse condition than those affected only 
by the rust. The disease ‘white legs’ of the 
aster results in dwarfing, malformation and 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


final decay. It is caused by nematode worms 
of the genus Heterodera or perhaps Aphenen- 
chus. Leaf spot diseases, common in a great 


many plants, are caused by a number of dif-_ 


ferent fungi. 

(b) Disturbed Transpiration—The rusts 
also cause a disturbance of the transpiration, 
which is usually the more destructive, due to 
the unguarded evaporation of water through 
the ruptures in the epidermis caused by the 
liberatign of the spores. In carnations a dis- 
ease called stigmonose is caused by the punc- 
tures of insects. 

(c) Interference with the Supply or Absorp- 
tion of Water.—The most destructive disease 
of this type is the aster wilt or stem rot. The 
characteristic effect is a wilting and a yellowish 
color first seen on one side of the plant, usually 
in one of the lower leaves. It is caused by 
the growth of a Fusariwm fungus in the large 
water-carrying vessels, which are thus gradu- 
ally clogged up. A more elaborate paper on 
this subject by Mr. Hargitt appears in the re- 
port of the Nebraska State Horticultural So- 
ciety for 1903. 

2. Some Features of the Development of 
Flowering Plants: Dr. J. EK. Kirkwooo. 
The paper embodies the results obtained 

from the study of the embryology of about 
fifteen species of the Cucurbitacer. In all 
the forms examined the ovary begins by the 
invagination of a lateral shoot and the organs 
of the flower appear in the following order: 
sepals, petals, staminodia (when present) and 
earpels. In the early stages of embryonic 
growth the endosperm plays an important part 
by digesting the nucleus and nourishing the 
embryo. 

3. Bithynia tentaculata: Atpert J. May. 
The gastropod Bithynia tentaculata was in- 

troduced into the United States from’ Hurope 

and has become very abundant in New York. 

It was first noticed in this country in 1879, 

when specimens were taken simultaneously at 

Oswego and in the Champlain canal near Troy. 
They seem to multiply and spread very 

rapidly. They are now reported from points 

all along the Hudson River and the Hrie 

Canal. They are abundant in the Genesee 

and Niagara Rivers. 


ae 


ee ee ee ee ee 


rl Oe 


Freprusary 12, 1904.] 


It is quite noticeable that wherever Bithynia 
appears the native forms appear to thin out 
rapidly. 

The species is herbivorous, feeding on alge 
and other plants. They are oviparous. The 
female deposits her eggs on stones and aquatic 
plants in a mass of gelatinous material which 
is covered with a tough elastic membrane. 
The eggs are laid in numbers varying from 
15 to 25, in bands of two or three rows. 

The December meeting of the academy in 
the high school building was addressed by Dr. 
C. W. Hargitt, on the subject of recent activi- 
ties of Mt. Vesuvius. It was fllustrated by 
photographs made during the last summer and 
ten years ago. The speaker illustrated many 
features such as the lava streams, the ash 
cone, the crater, the partially excavated Pom- 
peli, and many of the small voleanic cones 
and associated phenomena in the vicinity of 
Vesuvius, T. C. Hopxms, 

Corresponding Secretary. 


THE CLEMSON COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 

Tue Clemson College Science Club held its 
regular monthly meeting November 20, 1903. 
The first on the program was Mr. B. H. Rawl 
with a paper entitled ‘Pasteurized Milk.’ 
The speaker explained fully the objects de- 
sired to be accomplished in the pasteurization 
of milk. The differences between sterilization 
and pasteurization were pointed out. The 
speaker, while not minimizing the importance 
of pasteurization, emphasized the necessity of 
producing milk under sanitary conditions, 
thus preventing the entrance of harmful bac- 
teria into the milk. This was considered 
more desirable than attempting to rid the milk 
of bacteria after their entrance by such proc- 
esses as pasteurization, ete. Apparatus for 
pasteurizine in the home and on a commer- 
cial scale was described. 

The next on the program was Dr. G. E. 
Nesom, whose subject was ‘The Relation of 
Bovine Tuberculosis to Man’ This com- 
munication consisted largely of a selection of 
readings from a bulletin published by the 
author and papers published by Drs. Ravenal 
and Cary. The speaker referred to the dis- 
tribution of tuberculous animals in the United 


SCIENCE. 263 


States, the figures showing that Massachusetts 
contained the highest percentage. The num- 
ber of tuberculous animals in the south and 
especially in South Carolina is relatively 
small. The speaker brought out the fact that 
there are no differences, morphological or 
otherwise, in the bacteria of human and bo- 
vine tuberculosis. The bacteria of bovine 
tuberculosis, however, are believed to be more 
virulent. Numerous experiments were cited 
to show the ability of bovine tuberculosis 
bacteria to cause the disease in man. The dis- 
covery and uses of tuberculin were pointed 
out. In view of the transmissibility of bo- 
vine tuberculosis to man, the speaker urged 
in conelusion the necessity of a thorough in- 
spection of all animal products (meat and 
milk). F. S. Suiver, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


THERE are various objects that may be 
achieved by a meeting of a body like the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science. 

1. It must give opportunities for making 
the acquaintance of or renewing acquaintance 
with men whom one likes to know. 

2. It must give opportunities for discussion 
of scientific subjects with those competent to 
discuss them. 

3. It must give opportunities for learning 
of new discoveries and theories in the field of 
science, from those who are competent to de- 
seribe them. 

4. It may open the road to the publication 
of papers submitted, in such a manner as to 
command general public attention. 

5. It may concentrate the influence of men 
of science, and give their views that power 
with the general public that can only flow 
from acknowledged authority. 

The three objects first named may be meas- 
urably achieved at the meetings of every sci- 
entific society of specialists. The two objects 
last named can not be. They can be prose- 
cuted only by a society for the promotion of all 
science: hence they should be specially culti- 
vated by the American Association for the 


264 SCIENCE. 


Advancement of Science, which is practically 
the only American organization of that char- 
acter. 

~ The way to get the public ear is to get it, 
as far as one can, at first hand. The door of 
the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science is wide open for the public 
to enter. Itshould be. Sectional discussions 
are at their best when there are enough listen- 
ers to stimulate the speaker to do his best. 
Scientific statements are at their best when 
plainness of speech is compelled by a miscel- 
laneous audience of people educated, indeed, 
but differently educated. 

Therefore, I think the meetings of the asso- 
ciation should be held when and where they 
will attract the largest attendance, and sec- 
tional meetings or meetings of affiliated so- 
cieties so arranged as to make it easy for 
members to pass from one room to another, 
and hear something upon many subjects. 

The largest attendance, I believe, can be 
secured in July or August. Convocation 
week is not even a free week for all college 
and university teachers; to school teachers it 
is seldom free; to business and professional 
men, rarely, if ever. SrmEon EH. Banpwin. 


THE meetings of scientific societies seem to 
me to serve a real purpose in affording a 
pleasant opportunity for the personal ac- 
quaintanee of scientific men, but I can not 
think that they are otherwise a great factor 
in the progress of science. It seems to me 
to be highly expedient that all the affiliated 
societies should meet at the same time and 
place, but I do not think that this meeting 
should be coincident with any other great 
distracting event, because attention will there- 
by be diverted from the main object of the 
meeting, and because no city can comfortably 
distend its possibility of accommodation to 
include excessive numbers. A general meet- 
ing once a year ought to be enough, in view 
of the many local meetings, the restricted 
means of many of the members, and the great 
extent of the country. Both midwinter and 
midsummer are likely to be unpleasant for 
travel in America, and, therefore, early autumn 
seems to me the time when the largest number 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


of members could be assembled, unless, in- 
deed, the colleges could be induced to unite 
upon a common time for a spring vacation. 
Another argument against midwinter, but in 
favor of the spring or early autumn, lies in 
the fact that after April the results of a 
winter’s laboratory work are usually in a more 
presentable condition than they were in the 
preceding December, while the following De- 
cember often finds the papers already in print. 
This is, however, a secondary consideration, 
since the main office of the meeting is personal, 
rather than scientific. 
TuHroporE W. RicHARDs. 


BrrorE very much can be done in the way 
of bringing together men working in different 
scientific fields, it will be necessary to im- 
prove the meetings of the sections. Rela- 
tively few men go to the meetings of the 
American Association because they, feel that 
they will lose something by staying away. 
The attendance is very largely the result of 
a_sense of duty. One reason for this has 
been a mistaken idea on the part of the offi- 
cers of the sections as to the real objects of 
the meeting. Each presiding officer has felt 
that the success of the meeting is measured 
by the number of papers presented before his 
section and he has done his best to overload 
the program. In order to finish on time, it 
has been necessary to ask that discussion of 
the papers be omitted or be made as brief as 
possible. To the people who do not read 
papers, the morning session becomes a trial of 
endurance with no enlivening features. After 
a few years of this, people lose all tendency 
to discuss and it is then necessary for the 
officers to overload the program. 

In the afternoon things are not much better. 
The local members of the section are both 
hospitable and energetic. They arrange one 
or more excursions for each afternoon. People 
hurry through their lunch and walk round in 
crowds for hours, not understanding a quarter 
of what they see, and getting back to their 
hotels in a state bordering on collapse. It is 
all well meant, but it is a case of misdirected 
energy. 

The usefulness of the meetings lies in the 


Fesruary 12, 1904.] 


personal element, in making men acquainted, 
and in giving them a chance to discuss things 
and to exchange ideas in a way that can not 
be done by letter. The mere reading of 
papers is a waste of time. Tagging round as 
one of a crowd on an afternoon excursion is 
a waste of energy. 

The ideal meeting, as I see it, is very dif- 
ferent. In the morning we should have short 
papers, if possible of general interest, and each 
paper should give rise to an animated discus- 
sion taken part in by as many people as pos- 
sible. Im the afternoon men should get to- 
gether in small groups to talk over matters in 
a more careful way. ‘There is no objection to 
one excursion, but that is enough. The even- 
ings would then be left free for general social 
gatherings which certainly should not be con- 
fined to the single sections. 

We get a little of all this now, but rela- 
tively little and that rather under protest. 
While there will be some differences of opinion 
as to what constitutes a successful meeting, 
it is certain that the meetings can be made 
of more value than they now are; and that 
the way to do it is for each member to decide 
for himself what he wants and then to work 
for it. Witper D. Bancrort. , 


To tHe Epiror or Science: The desirability 
of so organizing and correlating the scientific 
activities of our country as to secure the lar- 
gest results both in progress and influence can 
hardly be open to serious question. Just 
how to secure these ends is, of course, a diffi- 
cult problem. We have some three types of 
scientific societies, two of which only are of 
immediate concern in the problem under con- 
sideration, namely, the more specialized or 
technical societies, such as the Society of 
Anatomists, Society of Bacteriologists, Society 
of Zoologists, ete., and those of broader or 
more general scope, of which the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
is representative. Of the other type, repre- 
sented by the National Academy of Sciences, 
it is unnecessary to speak, since the exclusive- 
ness of its membership as well as the fact of 
its independence of meeting as to both time 
and place do not bring it into direct relation 


SCIENCE. 


265 


with the more serious aspects involved in the 
correlation of the others as to times, places, 
programs, ete. 

While in the first attempt of the conjunction 
of these technical and affiliated societies with 
the American Association at Washington a 
year ago there may not have been entire har- 
mony, nor the realization of that adjustment 
of programs and hours of meeting which was 
hoped for, it may be doubted whether, as a 
whole, there has been a more enthusiastic 
meeting of scientific men from the entire 
country, with larger opportunity for congenial 
conference and acquaintance, in the history of 
such gatherings in our country. 

While there must of necessity exist many of 
the strictly technical class of associations, and 
with inereased specialization they are likely 
to become more rather than fewer, there still 
remains the no less imperative necessity for 
such organization of scientific effort as will 
make possible concentrated and consistent and 
direct sentiment for the enactment of needed 
measures of influence for whatever emergency 
may call for such. While this may have been 
measurably afforded by the Society of Natural- 
ists, it was necessarily limited to a small class 
of scientists and to a limited range of terri- 
tory. And though western sections, or many 
sections, be organized, there can never be any- 
thing like an ideal organization for aggressive 
work of a generally representative character 
through those sources. It may well be doubted, 
indeed, whether the day and the demand for 
the existence of the Society of Naturalists 
have not passed away, and whether a new 
demand under new conditions has not arisen 
which ought to be recognized and welcomed. 

Tt is my firm conviction that there are in 
the American Association and in the technical 
societies conditions and factors which, properly 
correlated and adjusted, afford the most hope- 
ful outlook for organized scientific progress 
within the present generation. And with the 
submergence of personal ambitions and as- 
pirations and an earnest effort to secure the 
larger results of broad and well-organized 
effort an era of advance unparalleled may be 
entered upon. 

Cuas. W. Harerri 


266 SCIENCE. 


To tHe Epiror or Science: I cordially sym- 
pathize in your desire to have the scientific 
men ot the country come together in the ses- 
sions of the American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science. I learned to love the 
society in the ante-bellum days, when the 
greatest scientific minds of the whole country 
made it their business to attend and to par- 
ticipate in the discussions. Every year new 
members joined us, and we used to say, Mr. 
X was one of the number who came to us at 
the Providence or Montreal meeting, and has 
been a constant attendant ever since. It 
was more convenient then for the association 
to meet in the summer—and perhaps one may 
be excused for believing the warm season to 
be the best for these gatherings, because of 
the great success of those early meetings. I 
like your suggestion of having two meetings 
annually, one in the summer and the other 
in the winter, and I should say the localities 
might be chosen to fit the season—the far 
south im the winter, and the far north in the 
summer; or there might be a contrast between 
the east and the west. 

With provisions for two meetings, some of 
the affiliated societies could arrange to meet 

by themselves, say in the winter, and in the 
summer to throw all their energies into their 
sections. It would be an important point 
gained if more interest was taken in the sec- 
tions of the general association at one of the 


meetings. 
Publication holds the first place in the 
thoughts of many. The question arises, 


Shall I present my subject before the section 
or before my special society; and the con- 
clusion reached is usually in favor of the 
latter, because the paper may be published. 
Tf one has something important to present he 
wishes to have it printed. Of late years the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science has printed only the presidential 
addresses, and, therefore, the tendency is to 
slight the sections. If there were two annual 
meetings there could be two volumes printed, 
with some of the more important papers. 
Then there is no opportunity for amateurs 
or new recruits to be represented in type un- 
less there be some provision for the printing 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 476, 


of papers. Perhaps I overlook the great serv- 
ice SctNce is doing for us, which prints 
some of the papers that do not appear in the 
Proceedings. 

Section E has instructed its committee to 
arrange for a summer meeting this year. All 
will be interested to see the outcome of. this 
move. The meeting will probably be held at 
St. Louis, and thus two questions will be 
answered by the results. Can there be an 
enthusiastic meeting of a single section in the 


summer, and can the section hold the attention - 


of its members in the midst of the distractions 
of a world’s fair? C. H. Hircucock. 


SPHCIAL ARTICLES. 


THE TOURMALINE LOCALITIES OF SOUTHERN 
CALIFORNIA. 


Tue tourmaline deposits of southern Cali- 
fornia have attracted much attention recently, 
owing to the development of these mines for 
their gem stones. A recent discovery of lilac- 
colored spodumene has added considerably to 
the interest. For the purpose of acquiring a 
knowledge of the character of these tourmaline 
deposits and of studying the associated min- 
erals, the writer spent several weeks among 
these mines last summer and collected some 
very interesting material. In this note is 
given a brief account of the principal locali- 
ties and of the minerals that have been found 
there. The writer intends to make a complete 
study of this remarkable field, and especially 
of the minerals occurring in it, many of which 
are of more than ordinary interest. Some of 
the work has already been completed * and 
the remainder is well under way. 

The gem tourmalines occur in rather large 
quantities, but are inferior to the Maine 
tourmalines both in color and in the brillianey 
of the eut gems. The localities at which they 
have been found are comprised in an area less 
than thirty miles across in northern west- 
eentral San Diego County, extending into 
Riverside County and including portions of 
Smith’s Mountain and the western part of the 

**Spodumene from San Diego Co., California,’ 
by W. T. Schaller, Bull. Dept. Geol. Univ. of Cal., 
Vol. 3, No. 13. 


SO ee 


FrBpruary 12, 1904.] 


San Jacinto Mountains. The places where 
working mines are located are not many and 
may be grouped under four heads—those at 
(1) Pala, (2) Mesa Grande and (3) Oak 
Grove in San Diego County, and those at 
(4) Cuahuila in Riverside County. 

1. The mines at Pala consist of the famous 
lepidolite mine from which the well-known 
specimens of rubellite come and the spodu- 
mene mine, about a mile away, which has 
already been described by the writer. The 
immense deposits of lithia minerals at the 
lepidolite mine occur in a pegmatite dike 
striking across a large body of diorite and 
dipping towards the west at a low angle. This 
dike is about a mile long and has a thickness 
of from twenty to eighty feet. 

The pegmatite, in which large bodies of 


lepidolite and other lithia minerals oceur, con- 


sists of a coarse muscovite-granite with gar- 
nets and black tourmalines. There are at 
least four of these large bodies of lepidolite 
exposed, only one of which is at present being 
mined. A conservative estimate of the size 
of this body of lepidolite, now in sight, would 
be 200 & 100 25 feet. Im some parts radi- 
ated groups of rubellite occur, and near the 
northern end of the body quartz and feldspar 
become rather abundant and the deposit seems 
to grade into the normal muscovite-pegmatite. 

The pink clay—so often associated with 
gem tourmalines—occurring here has been de- 
termined to be halloysite. A large deposit of 
pure amblygonite, showing broad cleavage 
faces, has been uncovered. Numerous well- 
terminated green tourmalines, with complex 
combinations, have also been found, as well as 
several pounds of native bismuth and its 
oxidation products, bismuthinite and bismuto- 
spherite. The bismutospherite occurs in 


grayish-black masses and also as a yellow 


powder. A qualitative test showed the pres- 
ence of carbonic acid and the absence of 
water. Doubly terminated quartz crystals are 
not uncommon. The list of minerals from 
this mine so far identified is lepidolite, tour- 
maline (black, green, pink), amblygonite, 
orthoclase, muscovite, quartz, kaolinite, hal- 
loysite, garnet, plagioclase feldspar, bismuth, 
bismuthinite and bismutospheerite. 


SCIENCE. : 267 


At the spodumene mine the followmg min- 
erals have been identified: tourmaline (black, 
pink, blue, blue-green), spodumene, lepidolite, 
beryl (pink), quartz, muscovite and orthoclase. 

Very pale green, colorless and lilac-colored 
spodumene has been found in the mountains 
a few miles east of the mine. 

2. The Mesa Grande district is the most 1m- 
portant one for tourmalines. Two mines, only 
one of which was accessible to the writer, are 
situated here, both being located on the same 
series of pegmatite dikes. The country rock 
in which these muscovite-granite dikes occur 
is a diorite. 

In the mine visited three such dikes are 
being followed, only one of which is at all rich 
in tourmalines. The dikes, only a few feet in 
thickness, dip southwest at an angle of 45° 
and are usually not much decomposed. Some- 
times, however, the granite has become altered 
to a red clay and then this is carefully searched 
for loose tourmalines. Lepidolite is not abun- 
dant and is usually rather coarse. Muscovite, 
with a lepidolite border, is of frequent occur- 
rence. Several fine erystals of lepidolite have 
been found in this mine, one complete erystal 
measuring 10 mm. across the base and haying 
a height of 6 mm. 

The tourmalines are mostly pale pink, 
though some red ones of good color, as well 
as green ones, have been found. Several good 
achroites have also been found, one in the 
possession of the writer measuring 35 mm. 
in length and 14 mm. in thickness. Besides 
the minerals mentioned above, quartz and 
orthoclase in large, complete crystals are found 
here. Garnet and beryl occur in the imme- 
diate vicinity. 

3. The geology of the Oak Grove mine is 
similar to that of the other localities. Some 
of the cut tourmalines from this mine are 
exceedingly brilliant. Several fine yellow 
tourmalines have been obtained here. The 
minerals oceurring at this mine are the same 
as those found at the Mesa Grande mine. 

4. The Cuahuila locality is similar to the 
others, and the list of minerals found here 
includes tourmaline (pink, green, blue, blue- 
green, smoky, colorless, yellow and _ black), 
spodumene (the amethystine variety), beryl 


268 


(transparent pink crystals, one measuring 110 
< 75 X65 mm. and weighing 850 grams), 
lepidolite, pink andalusite, muscovite, ortho- 
clase and quartz. 

The field is certainly a very interesting one 
and is well worth further study. Many of the 
minerals occur in good erystals having rich 
combinations of forms, and the color of some 
of the specimens suggests interesting chem- 
ical possibilities. It is probable that with 
further exploration the list of minerals will 
be considerably increased. 

Wapemar T. SCHALLER. 

U. S. GmoLocicaL SURVEY. 


A NOTE ON RHIZOCTONIA. 


Tue bean crop in the vicinity of St. Louis 
was severely injured this year in many in- 
stances by Rhizoctonia, sp. which not only at- 
tacked the stems and larger roots of the plants, 
but also produced brown, sunken areas on the 
surface of the pods, penetrating the latter and 
disecoloring the seeds. An examination of a 
number of seeds whose surface was discolored 
disclosed the fact that the mycelium of the 
fungus had established itself in the seed coat 
and in many instances had formed minute 
sclerotia there without rotting the seed or even 
penetrating the cotyledons. Pure cultures of 
Rhizoctonia were easily obtained from a num- 
ber of mature discolored beans which had been 
carefully removed from diseased pods. The 
presence of the fungus does not prevent the 
germination of the seed, as was proved by a 
test. From this it follows that a very com- 
mon means of disseminating Rhizoctonia on 
the bean is through diseased seed, and that 
seedsmen should be careful not to send out 
discolored beans. 

G. G. Hepecocr. 

MISSISSIPPI VALLEY LABORATORY, 

Sr. Louis, Mo. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 

Ir is worth pointing out that the almost in- 
evitable outcome of the present policy will be 
a centralization of a very objectionable kind. 
If the activities of the Carnegie Institution 
were to be wholly confined to aiding individ- 


SCIENCE. 


“ (N.S. Voz. XIX. No. 476. 


uals here and there, that end could have been 
best attained by dividing the endowment 
among the leading institutions of learning, 
under such restrictions as might have been 
necessary. Hvery such organization could 
then have determined for itself, better than a 
central one at Washington, what the needs 
of its professors were, and what might be the 
importance of their work. It could have es- 
tablished branch stations at least as well as 
can the Washington institution. It could 
have sought out the exceptional man with even 
better chances of finding him, because its field 
of knowledge would have been wider than that 
of any central authority. Hach could, for 
itself, have selected the best research-assistant 
to be found. 

Now, instead of this result, we actually have 
a central authority passing judgment upon the 
relative importance of the work being done at 
all the institutions of learning from which 
applications may come, and aiding them, or 
refusing aid, according to their judgment. 
One very probable outcome of this has not 
been sufficiently considered. It must tend, to 
a greater or less extent, to diminish the spirit 
of individual effort, just as gifts are apt to do 
in many other walks of life. This effect will 
be intensified by a very obvious and reasonable 
provision announced by the institution as 
governing its action. Jt does not propose to 
undertake anything that is being well done by 
other agencies. It would, of course, be super- 
fluous to assist a professor in cases where the 
patrons of his own institution could be in- 
duced to do so. The latter will naturally not 
be very liberal in giving their funds if the 
Carnegie Institution can be successfully ap- 
pealed to. If the appeal is a failure, that 
failure will be a reason against the project in 
the mind of a possible donor. The dilemma 
will be that of Omar: If the Carnegie Institu- 
tion can be induced to support your work, our 
aid is not needed; if it can not be so induced, 
the object is not worthy of our support. Of 
course, it is not claimed that this considera- 
tion will be universal, or will be operative im- 
mediately and in all cases. But to suppose 
that it will never be operative in any degree 
is contrary to every principle of human nature. 


Frepruary 12, 1904.] 


‘The progress of knowledge has brought us to 
a point where our nation needs the services 
of a body of men who shall be engaged in work 
of a distinctively different type from that car- 
ried on in our traditional institutions of learn- 
ing, a work which belongs peculiarly to the 
present and future, because it was not possible 
in the past. Looking at our intellectual his- 
tory, we have grown from the high school of 
our revolutionary ancestors to the college; 
from the college stage we have grown to the 
university stage. Now we have grown to a 
point where we need something beyond the 
university. We want an institution at the 
eity of Washington at which shall be organ- 
ized a system of research on that higher plane 
and larger scale which the progress of experi- 
mental science and observational knowledge 
now requires. Such a work would be at a 
disadvantage in being connected with any ex- 
isting university for the same reason that the 
college was at a disadvantage when grafted 
on the preparatory school, and for the same 
reason that our universities are now at a dis- 
advantage in being grafted upon the colleges. 
What we want might be appropriately called 
the National Research University. Jf the 
Carnegie Institution is not to grow into any- 
thing of this kind, is there not among us some 
possessor of great wealth ready to become its 
founder ?—Professor Simon Newcomb in The 
North American Review. 


EXPERIMENTS IN FLYING. 

In October last we resumed the trials on the 
Kill Devil practice ground with the machine 
which we had used during the previous year, 
and succeeded in making flights in which the 
operator remained in the air over a minute, 
at one time being suspended 1 minute 11.80 
seconds. While carrying on the experiments, 
our power machine was under construction. 
In dimensions it measures a little over 40 feet 
from tip to tip of the wings, of which there 
are a pair. Its length fore and aft, to use 
a nautical phrase, is about 20 feet, and the 
weight, including that of the operator, as well 
as the engine and other machinery, is slightly 
over 700 pounds. We designed the machine 
to be driven by a pair of aerial screw pro- 
pellers placed just behind the main wings. 


SCIENCE. 


269 


One of the propellers was set to revolve ver- 
tically and intended to give a forward motion, 
while the other underneath the machine and 
revolving horizontally, was to assist in sus- 
taining it in the air. 

We decided to use a gasoline motor for 
power, and constructed one of the 4-cycle type, 
which, revolving at a speed of 1,200 revolu- 
tions a minute, would develop 16 brake horse- 
power. It was provided with cylinders of 
4-inch diameter and having a 4-inch stroke 
and intended to consume between 9 and 10 
pounds of gasoline an hour. The weight of 
the engine, including the wheel, is 152 pounds. 

We had calculated that this amount of me- 
chanical power would be sufficient to maintain 
the machine in the air, as well as to propel it, 
the calculations being the result of gliding ex- 
periments, which showed that when the wind 
was blowing at a rate of 18 miles an hour the 
power consumed in operation was equal to 1.5 
horse-power, while with a wind of 25 miles 
an hour it represented 2 horse-power, being 
capable of sustaining a weight of 160 pounds 
per horse-power at the 18-mile rate. 

After the motor device was completed, two 
flights were made by my brother and two by 
myself on December 17 last. The apparatus 
had been placed on a single rail track, built on 
the level, the track supporting it at a height 
of eight inches from the ground. It was 
moved along the rail by the motor, and after 
running about 40 feet ascended into the air. 
The first flight covered but a short distance. 
Upon each successive attempt, however, the 
distance was increased, until at the last trial 
the machine flew a distance of a little over a 
half mile through the air by actual measure- 
ment. We decided that the flight ended here, 
because the operator touched a slight hum- 
mock of sand by turning the rudder too far in 
attempting to go nearer to the surface. The 
experiments, however, showed that it pos- 
sessed sufficient power to remain suspended 
longer if desired. According to the time taken 
of each flight a speed varying from 30 to 35 
miles an hour was attained in the air. 

We should have postponed these trials until 
the coming season, but for the fact that we 
wished to satisfy ourselves whether the ma- 


270 SCIENCE. 


chine had sufficient power to fly, sufficient 
strength to withstand the shock of landing, 
sufficient capacity to control. Winter had 
already set in when the last trials were made, 
but these facts were definitely established, and 
we know that the age of the flymg machine 
has come at last—Wilbur Wright in The In- 
dependent. . 
NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 

Two papers have recently appeared in this 
country which, while not directly concerned 
with inorganic chemistry, have an important 
bearing on it. The first of these is a ‘ New 
Method for Determining Compressibility,’ by 
Theodore William Richards and Wilfred New- 
some Stull, and is published by the Carnegie 
Institution. Very little work has been pre- 
viously done on the compressibility of inor- 
ganic substances, although such investigations 
are caleulated to throw light upon the subjects 
of chemical affinity and cohesion. New meth- 
ods have been devised by which the compressi- 
bility of nearly all solids and liquids can be 
determined up to 600 atmospheres or more. 
By means of these methods Richards and Stull 
have determined the compressibility at 20° of 
iodin, bromin, carbon tetrachlorid, chloro- 
form, bromoform, water, phosphorus and mer- 
eury, while that of chlorin was estimated by 
extrapolation. Bromin is much more com- 
pressible than iodin, and it is probable that 
chlorin is still more compressible, being rather 
more than twice as compressible as water. 
Phosphorus is hardly half as compressible as 
water, while mercury was the least com- 
pressible substance measured, having a value 
less than ten per cent. that of water. In 
every case the compressibility decreases with 
increasing pressure. The authors suggest the 
use of the term megabar to indicate the pres- 
sure of a megadyne on a square centimeter, 
giving an absolute standard instead of the un- 
scientific unit of an atmosphere. The value 
of a megabar is 75.015 centimeters of mercury 
or 98.703 per cent. of an ‘atmosphere.’ This 
the authors point out is more nearly the av- 
erage pressure at the laboratories of the world 
than the arbitrary ‘ atmosphere’ usually taken. 

The second paper is on ‘ The Electrical Con- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 476. 


ductivity of Aqueous Solutions at High Tem- 
peratures, by Arthur A. Noyes and William 
D. Coolidge. 
from the recently established research labora- 
tory of physical chemistry of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology, and concerns 
the description of the apparatus used and the 
results with sodium and potassium chlorid up 
to 306°. Great difficulty was encountered in 
devising a suitable conductivity cell which 
should fulfil the other necessary conditions 
and be capable of withstanding the great pres- 
sures at high temperatures. The cell finally 
found satisfactory was a platinum-lined soft 
erucible steel cell, with gold wire packing and 
quartz insulation. In the experiments with 
sodium and potassium chlorids it was found 
that the degree of dissociation decreases with 
the temperature. With tenth-normal solution 
of sodium chlorid this decrease is very rapid, 
from about 83 per cent. at 18°, to 60 per cent. 
at 306°, and indicates that the degree of dis- 
sociation is very small at the neighborhood of 
the critical temperature (about 360°). The 
conductivity of the vapor over a tenth-normal 
solution of potassium chlorid at 306° was too 
small to be observed with the apparatus, and 
is at all events exceedingly small. The in- 
vestigations with this cell are beimg continued 
and it is hoped to extend the observations up 
to the critical temperature. 


To the ‘ Quarterly Statement of the Pales- 
tine Exploration Fund’ a paper is contributed 
by William Ackroyd on a principal cause of 
the saltness of the Dead Sea. After showing 
the imsufficieney of the soil and rocks to fur- 
nish more than a fraction of the salt present, 
and that the theory that its saltness is due to 
its being a former arm of the Red Sea, which 
has gradually become concentrated, is not 
substantiated by facts, he claims that the most 
important cause is the atmospheric transporta- 
tion of salt from the Mediterranean. As in 
other localities, the rain water would be 
charged with salt to a degree which varies in 
a direct manner with the velocity of the winds 
coming from the sea. This view is confirmed 
by the fact that the ratio of chlorin to bromin 
is approximately the same as that for these 
two elements in the Mediterranean. 


This is the first contribution — 


% 
i 
& 
7 


eT te eee tes 


parte rte Teens 


is cng aaee a Apuaiany mat tah 


EL eee 


FEBRUARY 12, 1904.] 


Ir has been generally accepted that Moissan 
prepared diamonds synthetically by chilling an 
iron rich in carbon, the supposition being that 
in the interior of the mass of iron, solidified 
on the exterior, the pressure on solidification 
must be intense, and that under these condi- 
tions the carbon erystallized in the form of 
the diamond. This position is very strongly 
attacked by C. Combes in the Moniteur Scv- 
entifique. In his paper he argues that Goep- 
pert and Friedel have found plant remains in 
diamonds, showing that the crystals must have 
been formed at a temperature below at least 
772°. At the temperature of fused cast iron 
the diamond is converted into graphite. The 
diamonds supposed to have been formed by 
Moissan were doubly refracting, and hence 
‘not diamonds. Moissan’s analyses of his 
erystals were unsatisfactory for diamonds. 
Finally Friedel has proved that such a mass 
of iron as was used by Moissan really contracts 
on cooling instead of expanding, and hence 
the supposed pressure was not present. Thus 
it appears to Combes impossible that Moissan 
has prepared diamonds synthetically. It is, 
however, possible that Hannay was more suc- 
cessful in this respect. J. LL. Hi. 


RECENT ZOOPALEONTOLOGY. 
THE SAUROPODA. 


Two memoirs have recently appeared on 
this group which greatly extend our knowl- 
edge, from the Carnegie and the Field Co- 
lumbian Museums. 

“Osteology of Haplocanthosaurus”* This 
memoir by Mr. J. B. Hatcher is devoted to a 
new sauropod which is decidedly more primi- 
tive than any of the American Sauropoda 
hitherto discovered. In an exhaustive memoir 


**Osteology of Haplocanthosaurus with De- 
scription of a New Species, and Remarks on the 
Probable Habits of the Sauropoda and the Age 
and Origin of the Atlantosaurus Beds,’ by J. B. 
Hatcher, Memoirs Carnegie Musewm, Volume ILI., 
No. 1, November, 1903. There are a few points 
requiring revision: The sacral ribs are described 
as “parapophyses,’ which a reference to the 
Permian ancestors of the dinosaurs will probably 
show to be incorrect. The theory that the Sauro- 
poda were aquatic reptiles is through a misunder- 
standing attributed to Osborn. 


SCIENCE. 271 


illustrated with six plates the author describes 
it in detail. 'The principal new points ‘are 
the following: The spines of all the cervical 
and dorsal vertebrze are single or simple, as in 
the carnivorous dinosaurs, instead of double, 
as in Diplodocus, Morosaurus and Bronto- 
There are apparently fourteen dorsal 
vertebre instead of ten as in the above-named 
forms, and from thirteen to fifteen cervicals; 
five sacrals and about forty caudals. The lo- 
eality is the classic one of Cafion City, from 
which Marsh secured his type of Diplodocus 
about 150 feet above the summit of the red 
Triassic sandstones; the author believes it to 
be a lower horizon, of greater age than the 
Como Bluffs. As regards proportions, the 
thoracie region is believed to be proportion- 
ately longer than in the other dinosaurs. The 
limbs are elevated, and HMaplocanthosaurus 
appears to have been an essentially quadru- 
pedal type. 4 

As regards general questions, the author 
considers the Dinosauria as a subclass. He 
adheres to the use of the term Sauropoda in 
preference to Opisthocelia Owen or Cetio- 
sauria Seeley. In this connection it may be 
pointed out that while Owen defined the Opis- 
thocelia as the suborder Crocodilia in 1859, 
he recognized them as Dinosauria in 1875. 
Haplocanthosaurus is placed in the family 
Morosauridz, which is considered the most 
primitive family of Sauropoda. An especially 
interesting point is its resemblance to a type 
recently described from South America. 

A very valuable feature of the memoir is 
the discussion of the age of the Atlantosaurus 
beds and of the geological section at Cation 
City. The author shows that Cope’s Camara- 
saurus skeleton was probably found 350 feet 
higher than Haplocanthosaurus. The conclu- 
sion is that the beds are chiefly of Upper 
Jurassic age, but in their uppermost members 
they may represent a portion at least of the 
Cretaceous. 

“Structure and Relationships of Opistho- 
celian Dinosaurs.’?* The skeleton on which 


SAUIUS. 


*« Structure and Relationships of Opisthocelian 
Dinosaurs, Part I., Apatosaurus Marsh,’ by Elmer 
S. Riggs, A.M., Publ. Field Columbian Museum 
82, Geol. Ser., Vol. I1., No. 4, August, 1903. 


272 SCIENCE. 


Dr. E. S. Riggs bases this interesting memoir 
was found’ in the Grand River Valley, near 
Fruita, Colorado, in 1900. As illustrating 
the enormous labor connected with the prepa- 
ration of such a specimen it may be mentioned 
that three skilled men were employed for more 
than eighteen months in mounting it. 

The author adopts the term Opisthoccelia as 
having priority over either Cetiosauria or 
Sauropoda. Of still greater novelty is his 
identification of Brontosaurus with Apata- 
saurus, the type of which is that of a young 
animal differing from the subsequently de- 
seribed Brontosaurus in juvenile characters 
only. 

The material includes the last cervical ver- 
tebra and the entire dorsal, sacral and caudal 
series as far back as the twenty-fourth caudal. 
We thus for the first time come into pos- 
session of the exact characters of the dorsals 
and of the full series of anterior caudals. 
These are very accurately figured and de- 
scribed by the author. The formula, like that 
of Diplodocus and Morosaurus, is, dorsals, 10, 
sacrals, 5, caudals, 294+. The writer shows 


that Marsh placed too many vertebree in the 


back in his restoration, while Osborn also 
erred in placing too many in the anterior 
portion of the tail. 

The morphology of the sacral region of the 
Opisthocelia in general is very accurately 
described, the only error being in the dia- 
grammatic representation of the rib of the 
eaudo-sacral, which should be like that of the 
primary sacrals and unlike that of the dorso- 
sacral as shown by reference to the Permian 
ancestors of the Dinosaurs. The author’s 
theory (p. 185) of the early formation of the 
sacral vertebree is also probably incorrect, be- 
cause the primitive Diaptosauria (Palwohat- 
teria) show very early a marked separation 
of the anterior sacral ribs from the posterior 
dorsal ribs. 

The restoration of Brontosaurus is by far 
the most correct we have ever had. It illus- 
trates especially the,extreme shortness of the 
back and the marked elevation of the sacral 
spines. 


H. F. O. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 476. 


THE MILWAUKEE MUSEUM. 


Tuer Report of the Board of Trustees of the 
Public Museum of the city of Milwaukee may 
well be read in conjunction with Mr. Bather’s 
article in Popular Science Monthly on ‘The 
Functions of Museums,’ as in it the custodian 
explains what has been done and what, with 
proper facilities, may be done for the public 
and for students. Mr. Ward’s desire to give 
a proper representation of the animals of Wis- 
consin and of North America, before ‘ dab- 
bling in foreign specimens’ is a step in the 
right direction; the Milwaukee Museum is 
one of our larger municipal museums and yet 
much smaller institutions waste much time 
and effort in the endeayor to duplicate the 
work of the large museums, the result being 
a small ill-balanced display of heterogeneous 
objects with nothing properly represented. 

Few realize how extensive is the fauna and 
flora of any given locality and how interesting 
and instructive is a properly arranged and 
well-labeled local collection. The importance 
and efficiency of a museum does not depend 
merely upon its size, but upon the manner in 
which its collections are cared for and utilized. 
Mr. Ward shows great courage in discussing 
the question of gifts to museums, and treats 
the matter much as did Mr. Bather. In the 
earlier stages of growth of a museum collec- 
tions are often accepted with the proviso that 
they are to be kept by themselves, and later 
on these gifts prove so many millstones 
around the neck of the institution, seriously 
hampering the progress of the museum. The 
way out of the difficulty is pointed out by 
both Mr. Ward and Mr. Bather; either let the 
gift be confined to desirable specimens or ex- 
hibits that may form part of an orderly whole, 
or let them be declined. Those who really 
have the good of a museum, or for that mat- 
ter, other institutions at heart, will appreciate 
and accept the proviso and contribute to its 
growth and progress. 

The Milwaukee Museum has added to its 
exhibition series cases containing the birds of 
the region about Milwaukee and a case com- 
prising the birds found at various periods of 
the year, the contents of this being changed 
according to the season; also a number of 


(oligo d C 


—_ 


Frpruary 12, 1904.] 


living animals of the lower forms, and an 
exhibit of such wild flowers as may be in 
bloom. 

The Nunnemacher collection of arms has 
been extended and it is noted that this prob- 
ably contains the best series of firearms ex- 
hibited in any museum in the country. 

There is the usual plea for more room and 
it is to be hoped that this plea may meet with 
a favorable response and the fine building 
extended to meet the exigencies of the case. 

L. 


THE SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION. 

We reproduce from the Washington papers 
the accounts of the meeting of the regents of 
the Smithsonian Institution, held in Wash- 
ington on January 27, which it is understood 
are given out by the secretary. As an ad- 
journed meeting was held in the evening, for 
the first time in recent years at least, it may 
be assumed that the general policy and admin- 
istration of the imstitution were under dis- 
cussion. 


The annual meeting of the board of regents of 
the Smithsonian Institution was held at the insti- 
tution at ten o’clock on the morning of January 
27. Of the members of the board those present 
were: Mr. Chief Justice Fuller, the chancellor of 
the institution, who presided; Senator S. M. 
Cullom, Senator O. H. Platt, Senator F. M. Cock- 
rell, Representative R. R. Hitt, Representative 
Robert Adams, Jr., Representative Hugh A. Dins- 
more, ex-Senator John B. Henderson, Dr. A. Gra- 
ham Bell, Dr. James B. Angell, ex-Secretary of 
State Richard Olney and the secretary of the 
institution, Dr. S. P. Langley. Senator William 
P. Frye, president pro tempore of the Senate; 
Judge George Gray and Dr. Andrew D. White were 
unable to be present. It was announced that 
Representatives Hitt, Adams and Dinsmore had 
been reappointed regents on the part of the House 
for a term of two years, and that Mr. John B. 
Henderson and Professor A. Graham Bell had been 
elected regents from the District of Columbia for 
a period of six years. 

The secretary presented his annual report re- 
viewing the work of the year ending June 30, 
1903. The total permanent fund now stands at 
$937,000, deposited in the treasury. Certain rail- 
road bonds forming a part of the Hodgkins fund 
make the total fund of the institution about 
$1,000,000. 


SCIENCE. 


273 


The institution in addition was charged with 
the disbursement of congressional appropriations 
for the United States National Museum, the 
Bureau of American Ethnology, the international 
exchanges, the Astrophysical Observatory and the 
National Zoological Park, amounting in all to 
$472,400. 

Under the Hodgkins fund a memoir has been 
issued by Dr. Barus, entitled “The Structure of 
the Nucleus,’ and grants have been made to Pro- 
fesor M. W. Travers, of University College, Lon- 
don, for researches ‘on the attainment of very 
low temperatures’; to Dr. Victor Schumann, of 
Leipsic, for work on vacuum spectroscopy, and to 
Professor E. W. Scripture, of Yale University, 
for the construction of a ‘ vowel machine.’ 

The subscription to the Smithsonian table at 
the Naples Zoological Station has been renewed. 
During the year this table was occupied by eight 
American biologists, all of whom conducted special 
researches of value. 

In the series of ‘Contributions to Knowledge’ 
two valuable publications have been issued, those 
of Dr. Barus and Dr. Schumann, while a memoir 
by Dr. Frederick W. True, entitled ‘The Whale- 
bone Whales of the Western North Atlantic, com- 
pared with those occurring in European Waters, 
with some Observations on the Species of the 
North Pacific,’ and a work by Professor N. S. 
Shaler, of Harvard University, entitled ‘A Com- 
parison of the Features of the Earth and the 
Moon,’ are in course of publication. A number 
of papers have been issued in the series of ‘ Miscel- 
laneous Collections, and a work by the late Dr. 
G. Brown Goode, ‘ What Has been Done in America 
for Science,’ is now being prepared for the press. 

The usual reports have been issued and greatly 
sought after. The library has received valuable 
additions from Gen. John Watts De Peyster, in 
Napoleonana, and on gypsies. The museum 
library has received two important gifts, being 
the EH. A. Schwartz collection of books on Ameri- 
can coleoptera, and the W. H. Dall collection of 
books on recent and fossil mollusks. 

The institution has taken over for America the 
work of the International Catalogue of Scientific 
Literature. 

At its last session Congress authorized the con- 
struction of a fireproof building for the use of the 
National Museum, at-a cost not to exceed $3,500,- 
000. The plans for this structure are now prac- 
tically finished, and borings for the foundation 
have been made. ‘The actual work will begin in 
warm weather, though it will probably be three 
or four years before the building is completed. 

Two hundred and thirty-six thousand specimens 


274 SCIENCE. 


were received, making the present total over 
5,650,000, and about 33,000 objects were dis- 
tributed to educational establishments. Among 
the most interesting accessions were those illus- 
trating the native arts and industries of Sumatra 
and the Straits Settlements, collected by D. W. 
L. Abbott; a series of models of United States 
war vessels and of land and naval ordnance; and 
some relics of General and Mrs. Grant, of: much 
intrinsic and historic interest. 

After paying a tribute to the late Major John 
W. Powell, the first director of the Bureau of 
American Hthnology, the report describes the con- 
tinuance of the work, under the direction of its 
new chief, Professor W. H. Holmes. Systematic 
field work has been successfully prosecuted in 
many states and territories, and in Santo Domingo 
and Porto Rico. The preparation of the diction- 
ary of Indian tribes has been taken up with re- 
newed vigor. 

The number of correspondents and beneficiaries 
of the international exchange service is now over 
44,000. 

In the National Zoological Park a new elephant 
house has been built. Im view of the increased 
number of buildings in the park, each one of which 
has now to be provided with its own heating ap- 
paratus, it is recommended that a special building 
in the park, lying within a reasonable radius, 
be erected for a central heating plant. Much in- 
terest has been shown in the park by our officers 
abroad, of whom there may be specially mentioned 
Dr. F. W. Goding, United States consul at New- 
eastle, New South Wales, who has sent more than 
140 specimens from that region. 

The astrophysical observatory has been enriched 
by a large horizontal telescope, to be used for 
studies of special portions of the solar radiation. 
Results of uncommon interest have been reached 
in the bolographic work, and it has been shown 
that the earth’s atmosphere has been more opaque 
than usual within the present calendar year, so as 
to reduce the direct radiation of the sun at the 
earth’s surface by about ten per cent. throughout 
the whole visible spectrum, and by more than 
double this amount in the blue and violet portions 
of the spectrum. This alteration of the trans- 
parency of the air has not been confined to the 
region of Washington. A new determination of 
the temperature of the sun, based on the distribu- 
tion of the solar radiation in the. spectrum, has 
yielded a result of 5,920 degrees of the centigrade 
scale above absolute zero. A horizontal reflecting 
telescope of 140-foot focus and 20-inch aperture, 
and a coelostat of improved construction, to fur- 


[N.8. Vou. XIX. No. 476 


nish at all times a 20-inch horizontal northerly 
directed solar beam, has been provided. The most 
interesting part of the results consists in showing 
a notable variation of atmospheric transparency 
which is likely to have affected climate and the 
growth of vegetation over a considerable part of 
the earth’s surface, and in the studies relating to 
the solar constant, so that there seems renewed 
promise of progress toward the goal ‘for telling 
by such means those remoter changes of weather 
which affect harvests,’ which is one of the aims 
had in view in the foundation of the observatory. 

The question of vandalism and exploitation for 
commercial purposes of archeological sites having 
been brought to the attention of the board, the 
following resolution was adopted: Resolved, that 
the passage by congress of an act for the preserva- 
tion of archeological objects on the public domain 
is in the national interest, and would aid in pro- 
moting the science of archeology and ethnology; 
and that the secretary be requested to present to 
the congress the draft of a bill having this end 
im view. 

Dr. Alexander Graham Bell, who was a com- 
mittee of one on behalf of the regents charged 
with the duty of bringing the remains of Smith- 
son to the United States, submitted a report. Dr. 
Bell reached Genoa on December 25, and on the 
31st of that month the remains of Smithson were 
exhumed in the presence of the American consul 
and six other witnesses. He submitted a certifi- 
cate of the United States consul, Mr. William 
Henry Bishop, describing the exhumation. Mrs. 
Bell then placed within the coffin a wreath of 
leaves from the grave of Smithson and the United 
States consul placed an American flag as a cover- 
ing for the casket. Brief addresses were made 
immediately before the removal of the remains 
from the mortuary chapel by the United States 
consul and Dr. Bell and Mr. Noel Lees on behalf 
of the British burial ground fund committee. 

The regents, after the report, voted that there 
be placed upon the record an expression of their 
profound appreciation of the services of Dr. Bell 
in going to Genoa and returning with the remains 
of James Smithson that they might find a resting 
place in the grounds of the institution he so 
nobly founded ‘for the increase and diffusion of 
knowledge among men.’ 

‘A committee was appointed to choose the spot 
in the Smithsonian grounds where the remains of 
Smithson may be interred and a monument erected 
to his memory. The committee includes the chan- 
cellor, the secretary and the executive committee. 


Frpruary 12, 1904.] 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Dr. Witnetm Wawpryer, of Berlin, has 
been elected a foreign member of the Paris 
Biological Society. 

PRESIDENT JORDAN, of Stanford University, 
will be absent from Palo Alto for about three 
weeks on a visit to the east. He will make an 
address at Yale University, at the meeting of 
the Association of American Universities, on 
February 18, and will visit other universities. 
Dr. Jordan has been invited to give the ad- 
dress at the opening of the new science build- 
ing of the University of Colorado. 


GeneraL J. J. Wistar, president of the 
American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia, 
sailed on February 2 for a visit to the Medi- 
terranean and the Orient. 


Dr. H. V. Hmprecut, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, is making arrangements for 
another expedition to Babylonia next fall. 


Tue Council of the Geological Society of 
London has this year made the following 
awards: Wollaston Medal to Professor Albert 
Heim of Zurich; Murchison Medal to Pro- 
fessor G. A. Lebour of Neweastle-on-Tyne, 
chiefly in recognition of his work on the ear- 
boniferous rocks and in connection with coal; 
Lyell Medal to Professor A. G. Nathorst of 
Stockholm; Wollaston Fund to Miss EK. M. 
Wood, joint-author of the ‘Monograph on 
British Graptolites,’ and assistant to Professor 
Lapworth of Birmingham; Murchison Fund 
to Dr. A. Hutchinson, demonstrator of 
mineralogy at Cambridge; the Lyell Fund is 
shared between Professor 8. H. Reynolds of 
Bristol, who is whole or part author of several 
contributions to Enelish stratigraphy, and Mr. 
C, A. Matley of Dublin, another British strati- 
graphical paleontologist; Barlow-Jameson 
Fund to Mr. H. J. Beadnell for his strati- 
graphical work in connection with the Hgyp- 
tian Geological Survey. We understand that 
the new president is likely to be Mr. J. E. 
Marr of Cambridge. We regret to learn that 
the out-going president, Professor Lapworth, 
is still prevented by ill health from under- 
taking his professorial or presidential duties, 
among them the delivery of the annual ad- 
dress. 


SCIENCE. 275 


THE Royal Society of New South Wales 
has awarded the Clarke memorial medal to 
Mr. A. W. Howitt, of Melbourne. 


Dr. Grorcze F. Kunz, special agent of the 
United States Geological Survey, has been 
appointed commissioner of the radium exhibit 
at the St. Louis Exposition, and has been 
authorized to prepare and procure material 
comprising radio-active substances of all 
kinds and also exhibits to illustrate the action 
of radium compounds, ultra-violet light and 
Rontgen rays upon mineral and chemical sub- 
stances. This exhibit is to be made by the 
United States Geological Survey in the United 
States building at St. Louis. There will be 
a second exhibit of radium and radio-active 
substances in the mines building. 

Dr. F. H. Baker, superintendent of the 
National Zoological Park, will be in charge 
of the aviary at the St. Louis Exposition. 
The cage for the flying specimens, now build- 
ing at the fair grounds, will be 200 feet long, 
60 feet wide, and 70 feet high. 

Tue patents of Professor Michael I. Pupin, 
concerned with long distance telephony, have 
been upheld by the’German courts, as against 
the contention of the postal administration. 
Professor Pupin is at present in Berlin. 

Sm Winuim Ware, F.R.S., president of 
the British Institution of Civil Engineers, has 
been appointed a member of the Engineering 
Standards Committee. 

Ar the annual meeting of the Anthropolog- 
ical Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, 
Mr. H. Balfour gave an address and was re- 
elected president. 

Tue Zoological Society of _London has 
elected the following members: Dr. Lorenzo 
Camerano, of the Royal Zoological Museum, 
Turin, Italy; Dr. Fritz Sarasin and Dr. Paul 
B. Sarasin, of Basle, Switzerland. 

A society for the prehistoric study of 
France has been founded at Paris, with M. 
Emile Riviére as first president. 

THE president of the British Board of Trade 
has appointed Lord Rayleigh, F.R.S. (chair- 
man); Sir William de W. Abney, F-.R.S.; 
Robert Farquharson, Esq., M.D., M.P.; Will- 
iam King, Esq.; and J. Fletcher Moulton, 


276 


M.P.; to be a committee to inquire and report 
as to the statutory requirements relating to 
the illuminating power and purity of gas sup- 
plied by the metropolitan gas companies, and 
as to the methods now adopted for testing 
the same, and whether any alteration is de- 
sirable in such requirements or methods, and, 
if so, whether any consequential alteration 
should be made in the standard price of gas. 


Tuer Swiney prize, founded by Dr. Swiney, 
who died in 1844, for a work on jurisprudence, 
has been awarded to Sir Frederick Pollock, 
LL.D., D.C.L., and Professor Frederic Will- 
iam Maitland, LL.D., D.C.L., for their book 
on ‘The History of English Law before Ed- 
ward the First.’ The prize consists of a silver 
cup of the value of £100 and money to the 
same amount. The award is made jointly by 
the Society of Arts and the Royal College of 
Physicians, and the prize, under the terms of 
Dr. Swiney’s will, is given every fifth year 
on the anniversary of the testator’s death. 


Proressor Desove, dean of the Medical 
Faculty of the University of Paris, has been 
appointed president of the French Consulta- 
tive Committee of Hygiene, in the room of 
Professor Brouardel, who has been named 
honorary president. Dr. Roux, sub-director 
of the Pasteur Institute, has been reelected 
vice-president of the committee. 


Prorressor ANGELO Hermprin lectured before 
the People’s Institute at Cooper Union, New 
York, on February 5, his subject being ‘ Mount 
Pelée Revisited.’ 


Dr. CrHartes B. Dupuey, chief chemist of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad Company, deliv- 
ered a lecture on February 1, at the Cosmos 
Olub, Washington, on ‘The Work of a Chem- 
ist on a Railroad.’ 


Lorp RaynrigH will give a course of six 
lectures, at the Royal Institution, London, 
on ‘ The Life and Work of Stokes,’ beginning 
on February 20. 


Aw oil painting of the late Dr. Thomas G. 
Morton was presented to the Pennsylvania 
Hospital by the Association of Resident 
Physicians of that institution, January 11. 
Dr. Morton was connected with the hospital 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 476. 


im various capacities’ for more than forty 
years. 


WE regret to announce the death of Arthur 
William Palmer, D.Se. (Harvard), head of 
the Department of Chemistry of the Univer- 
sity of Illinois. Dr. Palmer was graduated 
from the University of Illinois in 1883, and 
was for two years assistant in the Department 
of Chemistry. In 1890, after studying for two 
years at Harvard University and one year in 
Germany, he was appointed professor of chem- 
istry and has since served continuously in 
that capacity. As member of the Chemical 
and Biological Survey, he had lately com- 
pleted an important report on the water sup- 
ply of the state of Illinois, and was the au- 
thor of many papers embodying the results 
of chemical investigation. 


Tur Rey. Dr. Jacob Cooper, professor of 
philosophy and rhetoric in Rutgers College 
since 1893 and previously professor of Greek, 
has died at the age of seventy-three years. 


Dr. FriepRICH VON HeErnrer-ALTENECK, the 
eminent German engineer, died on January 7 
at the age of fifty-eight years. 


Reuter’s Agency reports that on January 
16 the chief of the laboratory of the Imperial 
Institute of Experimental Medicine for the 
preparation of plague remedies, whose name 
is not given, was taken ill after having been 
engaged in experimenting with living plague 
cultures. He died of plague on January 20, 
in spite of every medical assistance and re- 
peated injections of anti-plague serum. IJn- 
jections of the anti-plague serum were made 
in good time into all persons who had been in 
contact with him. The laboratory is in Fort 
Alexander I., which is on a small island com- 
pletely isolated from Kronstadt and the other 
forts. 

Dr. Fenix Kanirz, known for his archeolog- 
ical and ethnographical researches in the 
Balkan peninsula, died at Vienna on January 
5, in his seventy-fifth year. 

We also regret to record the death of Dr. 
August G. Gareke, professor of botany at 
Berlin, at the age of eighty-four years. 

A pesparcn from Buenos to the 
Figaro announces that the Francais, with 


Ayres 


FeBRUARY 12, 1904.] 


Dr. Charcot’s antarctic expedition on board, 
reached Ushuaia, Patagonia, on January 15. 
An Argentine vessel brought her coal supply 
and mails, and the Francais then left for the 
* south. 


TuerRE will be a civil service examination 
on March 9 and 10 to fill vacancies in the 
position of geologic aid and assistant geolo- 
gist in the Geological Survey, at salaries 
ranging from $1,000 to $2,000 per annum. 

Baron Lion pe Lenvat, of Nice, has given 
8,000 franes to found a prize to be awarded 
periodically to the otologist who has made the 
greatest progress in the practical treatment of 
the affections of the ear since the previous 
award, to the inventor of a portable appara- 
tus susceptible of notably improving the hear- 
ing of deaf persons. The value of the prize 
is the interest on this sum accruing in the 
interval of two meetings of the International 
Otological Congress. 

The Illustrated Review of Physiologic 
Therapeutics offers the sum of fifteen hun- 
dred dollars in cash prizes for the best essays 
on X rays in medicine and surgery, the first 
prize being $1,000. 

Sir Norman Lockynr’s address as president 
of the British Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science on ‘The Influence of Brain 
Power on History’ has been reprinted from 
Inttel’s LInving Age by the New England 
Education League and International Eduea- 
tion Conference. Copies may be obtained in 
large or small quantities at the rate of two 
cents each (postage extra) by addressing Mr. 
W. Scott, secretary, 40 Dover Street, West 
Somerville Station, Boston, Mass. 

SENATOR CuLLom has introduced a bill for 
the preservation of aboriginal monuments, 
ruins and other antiquities to apply to all 
government reservations. 

Tuer agricultural appropriation bill, as 
passed by the house on February 5, carries a 
total of $5,711,240, being an increase of $233,- 
080 over the current law. Only two salaries are 
raised by the bill, and these only temporarily, 
being $500 each to the chiefs of the Bureau of 
Animal Industry and the Division of Ento- 
mology. Commenting on the amount carried, 


SCIENCE. 


277 


Chairman Wadsworth says in the report: “ It 
has been asserted by some that the United 
States is not spending enough toward the pro- 
motion of agriculture. Having this in mind 
your committee requested the Census Bureau to 
furnish it with statistics showing the amounts 
spent by the several states and territories for 
this purpose, and as near as can be ascertained 
by that bureau the aggregate yearly expendi- 
tures by the states and territories are some- 
thing over $4,500,000, which, added to the 
$6,250,000 spent annually by the United States 
government for the same cause, makes a 
total of $10,750,000 spent annually for the pro- 
motion of agriculture. Certainly,” the report 
concludes, “this is a most liberal figure and 
much more than is being expended by any 
other government in the world for the same 
purpose.” The bill contains the following 
new clause regarding the relation of the agri- 
cultural experiment stations to the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture: “ The Secretary of Agri- 
culture is hereby authorized and directed to 
coordinate the work of the several stations and 
the work of the stations with the Department 
of Agriculture, to the end of preventing un- 
necessary duplication of work, of increasing 
the efficieney of the stations and the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, and to unify and sys- 
tematize agricultural investigations in the 
Jnited States.” 


Iv appears from the reports in the press that 
in discussing the agricultural bill in the 
house on February 5, Mr. Sheppard (Dem., 
Texas) made a determined but vain effort to 
bring about a reform in the matter of the 
distribution of seeds by the government, and 
specially for the purchase of rare and untried 
seeds. He read a letter from a constituent 
who asked him to send certain seeds and in 
addition a suit of clothes. He declared that 
the system was degenerating into a farce, and 
said that if the congressional comedy con- 
tinues and drifts into a continuous perform- 
ance, congressmen will no longer be statesmen 
but seedsmen. , Mr. Sheppard developed to the 
merriment of the house, in a colloquy with Mr. 
Candler, that the latter had received a request 
from a man for a hat for himself and his 
wife. Mr. Cochran (Dem., Mo.) said he re- 


278 


ceived a letter from one of his constituents a 
few months ago asking for a piano for his 
daughter. Mr. Cochran wrote back that he 
was very sorry that he could not gratify him, 
but he was in the minority and could not get 
any allowance of pianos. However, he said, 
Mr. Bartholdt, being the only republican from 
the state, could get all the pianos he wanted. 
He had just received twelve as his allowance. 
In a few days Mr. Bartholdt got several letters 
asking for pianos, and now he is receiving 
four or five letters every day from Missouri 
making the same request. 

A CORRESPONDENT writes as follows to the 
London Times with reference to Mr. J. S. 
Budgett, of Trinity College, Cambridge: By 
the death of Mr. Budgett Cambridge has lost 
one of the most promising of her biologists 
and one of the most active of those who take 
an interest in volunteering in the university. 
Mr. Budgett was educated at Clifton College 
and came up to Trinity College about ten 
years ago. From early childhood he showed 
a keen interest in all matters of zoological 
interest; and these tastes whilst he lived in 
his father’s house at Stoke Bishop, 
Clifton, were fostered by the friendship and 
sympathy of Professor Lloyd Morgan and of 
Professor 8. H. Reynolds, of University Col- 
lege, Bristol. During his third year at Cam- 
bridge Mr. Budgett accompanied his friend 
Professor Graham Kerr to the Gran Chaco 
of Paraguay, where he made large collections 
of the local fauna, especially of amphibians 
and birds. Returning to Cambridge, he took 
his degree in 1898, and almost immediately 
started for the Gambia. Here he remained 
the best part of a year endeavoring to secure 
material for the study of the development of 
the archaic fish Polypterus. He revisited the 
Gambia in the rainy season of 1900 with the 
same object; and although in these trips he 
did not absolutely succeed in his object he 
collected a vast quantity of valuable material, 
notably a complete series of the eggs and 
larve of the African lung-fish, Protopterus, 
and of several other fresh-water fishes and 
amphibians. In 1902 Mr. Budgett was ap- 
pointed Balfour student in the university, and 
with indomitable courage he renewed: his ef- 


near 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 476. 


forts to solye the riddle of the development 
of Polypterus. He set out in June for 
Uganda, and proceeding from Mombasa by 
the Lakes Victoria and Albert, his caravan 
reached the head waters of the Nile, and he 
finally returned home by the Sudan and 
Egypt. Last June he started on his fourth 
and at last successful expedition to Africa. 
On the delta of the Niger he found what he 
had so long and courageously sought, and he 
returned home last November with a complete 
series of eges and larve of Polypterus, and 
immediately began to work up the material 
he had collected. On his return it was evi- 
dent that his health had been affected by the 
climate. Mr. Budgett was a man gifted in 
many ways. His power with the pen and 
pencil were a great help to his scientific work. 
In 1901 he raised a detachment of mounted 
infantry in connection with the Cambridge 
volunteers, and has continued to command 
that body till his death. He was a man of 
strong personality, and of a high and sensitive 
personal honor. 


Tne fifth International Congress of Zoology, 
held at Berlin in 1901, selected Switzerland 
as the place of meeting for the sixth session, 
and elected Professor I. Studer president. 
Nature states that in accordance with this 
resolution, the congress will meet at Bern 
from August 14-19 of this year. Professor 
Studer, Bern, is president of the general com- 
mittee, and the vice-presidents are: Professor 
Ki. Beraneck, Neuchatel; Professor H. Blane, 
Lausanne; Dr. V. Fatio, Geneva; Professor L. 
Kathariner, Fribourg; Professor A. Lang, 
Ziirich; Professor E. Yung, Geneva, Professor 
F. Zschokke, Basel; and Professor R. Blanch- 
ard, Paris. The secretaries are Professor M. 
Bedot, Geneva; Dr. J. Carl, Geneva; and Dr. 
W. Volz, Bern. The general meetings will be 
held in the Palace of Parliament, at Bern, 
and the sectional sittings in the new univer- 
sity. During the congress there will be an 
excursion to Neuchatel and to the Jura lakes, 
in order to visit the lake-dwellers’ settlements. 
The closimg meeting of the congress will be 
held at Interlaken. Afterwards members will 
be invited to visit other Swiss cities. Com- 
munications or inquiries referring to the con- 


mk 


FEBRUARY 12, 1904.] 


gress should be addressed to the president of 
the sixth International Congress of Zoology, 
Museum of Natural History, Waisenhaus- 
strasse, Bern. The congress is open to all 
zoologists and to all who are interested in 
zoology. 

CotumBiA UNIVERSITY, in cooperation with 
the Academy of Political Science, has ar- 
ranged for a series of nine free lectures on 
‘The Problems of Municipal Administration,’ 
to be given in Earl Hall by the heads of de- 
partments of the last city administration. 
The lectures are to be as follows: 

February 26— The Dock Department’ 
trated), McDougall Hawkes. 

March 4—‘The Street Cleaning Department’ 
(illustrated), John McG. Woodbury. 


(illus- 


March 11—‘The Police Department,’ Gen. 
Francis V. Greene. 

March 18—‘The Fire Department,’ Thomas 
Sturgis. ‘ 

March 25—“The Board of Education,’ C. C. 
Burlingham. 


April 1— The Department of Charities,’ Homer 
Folks. 

April 8—‘The Tenement House Department,’ 
Robert W. DeForest. 

April 15—‘The Health Department’ 
trated), Dr. Ernst Lederle. 

April 22— Bellevue and Allied Hospitals,’ John 
W. Brannan. 

The British Medical Journal states that 
new county buildings at Chelmsford con- 
taining laboratories for Essex were formally 
opened recently by the Earl of Onslow, presi- 
dent of the Board of Agriculture. The new 
buildings, which are conveniently situated 
near the center of the town, have cost about 
£12,000. They comprise chemical, physical 
and biological laboratories and class rooms, 
together with agricultural and horticultural 
museums and libraries, and provide facilities 
for systematic instruction in agriculture and 
horticulture, as well as in pure science. They 
are under the control of the Essex Education 
Committee, and were built by the Essex County 
Council. As the chairman of this committee, 
Mr. E. N. Buxton pointed out at the inaugural 
proceedings that Hssex was an agricultural 
county and the laboratories were intended to 
be a center for agricultural or horticultural 


(illus- 


SCIENCE. 


219 


information for the whole county; they in- 
cluded rooms for the analysis of soils, ma- 
nures, foods, seeds, ete., and for other scien- 
tifie work carried on in the interests of these 
industries. There is also a large dairy, in the 
basement, for instruction in butter and cheese 
making and the treatment of milk, and within 
three quarters of a mile is the school garden, 
three acres in extent, provided with potting- 
shed and hothouses. In addition to the more 
purely agricultural and horticultural courses 
of lectures and practical work, classes are held 
in chemistry, physics and biology, largely for 
the training of teachers. Several scholarships 
are offered by the county council, while sey- 
eral of the classes are free to selected candi- 
dates resident in Essex. The laboratories are 
large, well arranged, and well fitted up, and 
should prove, with the agricultural depart- 
ments, of great service to the cause of agricul- 
ture and technical education in Essex. In 
the prospectus of the dairy school it is stated 
that ‘it is also proposed to give a one-week’s 
course of instruction in milking and the treat- 
ment of milk for selling’ Such a course, if 
properly given and attended, should be of 
value in promoting a more satisfactory and 
hygienic treatment of milk, and will be wel- 
comed by all interested in a pure milk supply: 


Proressor Harry Fietpine Re, of Johns 
Hopkins University, who is in charge of earth- 
quake records for the United States Geological 
Survey, was designated by the State Depart- 
ment as the delegate from the United States 
to the International Seismological Conference 
held in Strassburg last July. The object of 
the conference, which was held at the invita- 
tion of the German Government and was at- 
tended by delegates from nineteen countries, 
was to form an International Seismological 
Association of the various countries for the 
purpose of cooperative work in such earth- 
quake investigations as could be carried out 
only by cooperation. The conference adopted 
a constitution, which is to be submitted to all 
civilized countries, and they will be asked to 
join the association. The constitution pro- 
vides for a general assembly, to meet at least 
once in four years, and a permanent commis- 
sion, composed of one delegate from each 


, 


280 


nation, which will direct the work of the asso- 
ciation in accordance with the resolutions of 
the General Assembly. A Central Bureau 
is to be located ‘at Strassburg in connection 
with the Imperial Seismological Station there, 
and reports are to be forwarded to its director 
as frequently as possible. These reports will 
be edited and published. The nations, mem- 
bers of the association, are to contribute sums 
varying from $100 to $800 annually, according 
to their population. The amount thus ob- 
tained is to be used for the expenses of ad- 
ministration and publication and may be used 
in part for such special purposes as the prose- 
cution of special investigations ordered by the 
General Assembly or for the support of partic- 
ular observatories founded by the association, 
observations from which are considered of 
special importance, and which could not other- 
wise be made. Each country is to enjoy the 
utmost liberty in the method of making obser- 
vations and in the choice of instruments, but 
the reports are all to be sent to the Central 
Observatory in terms of Greenwich civil time. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Proressor JoHN Hays Hammonp has added 
$50,000 to his previous gift of $50,000 for a 
metallurgical laboratory of Yale University. 


Tue late James A. Woolson has left his 
property in trust for his wife and daughters 
and their issue, if any, after which it is to 
go to public purposes. Boston University will 
ultimately receive $600,000, Radcliffe College 
$300,000 and the Wesleyan Academy at Wil- 
braham, Mass., $300,000. 


Tue University of Michigan has received 
from Arthur Hill, of Saginaw, eighty acres of 
land just outside Ann Arbor, to serve as an 
experiment farm for the Forestry Department. 
The tract is called ‘The Saginaw Forest 
Farm.’ The tract is to serve as an object 
lesson in forestry and is planned to provide 
for: (1) An arboretum of all useful forest 
trees suited to Michigan. (2) Demonstration 
areas for seed bed and nursery work. (3) 
Model plantations of forest trees. (4) Special 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 476. 


experiments in forestry, such as the various 
methods of propagation of special kinds of 
timber and the raising of particular kinds of 
forest products, as well as for other practical 
purposes. The university has also received 
from Mr. Joseph B. Whittier, of Saginaw, 
$4,000 for the Angeline Bradford Whittier 
fellowship in botany, in honor of Mr. Whit- 
tier’s mother, and from the Michigan Federa- 
tion of Women’s Clubs, $3,000 for a scholar- 
ship for women. The sum will later be in- 
ereased to $5,000. 


Mr. Atrrep Patmer has written to the prin- 
cipal of University College, Reading, offering 
to present to the college a site for the pro- 
posed new college buildings. The extent of 
the gift is about five acres, centrally situated. 


Present JRA Remsen, of the Johns Hop- 
kins University, will give the commencement 
address at the Worcester Polytechnic Institute 
in June next. 


THE new medical laboratories of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania will be dedicated next 
June, and the medical department will move 
into its new quarters during the summer. 


Tue Northwestern University has estab- 
lished in the College of Liberal Arts one hun- 
dred scholarships open to students from any 
part of the country who may be able to com- 
ply with the conditions. The scholarships are 
to be assigned upon a new basis, which re- 
sembles in some respects the Rhodes scholar- 
ships. The chief emphasis in the selection 
of students will be laid upon promise of 
superior achievement or probable fitness for 
public usefulness after leaving college. 


Mortimer E. Coonry, professor of mechan- 
ical engineering at the University of Mich- 
igan, was appointed dean of the engineering 
department at the last meeting of the regents. 
He succeeds the late Charles KE. Green, who 
was dean of the department from its founda- 
tion until his death in October last. 


Av University College, London, the Derby 
scholarship in zoology has been awarded to 
Mr. W. N. F. Woodland. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frmipay, Frpruary 19, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :-— : 
Section L., Social and Economie Science: 


Dr. JoHN FRANKLIN CROWELL............ 281 


The Astronomical and Astrophysical Society 


of America: Dr. W. 8. EICHELBERGER.... 296 


Scientific Books :— 
Binet’s Année psychologique: PRorrssor EB. 
B. DELABARRE. Le Double on the Variation 
of the Cranial Bones: PrormEssor THOMAS 


DwicHtT 298 


303 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Geological Society of Washington: AL- 
rrep H. Brooks. The Ohemical Society 
of Washington: A. SmIpELL.  Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology Geological 
Journal Club: G. F. Louguiin. Section 
of Biology of the New York Academy of 
Sciences: Proressor M. A. BiceLow. The 


Torrey Botanical Club: Dr. F. S. Harte... 304 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Convocation Week: Prormssor J. H. Lone, 
Dr. Marcus BengAMIN, PROFESSOR JAMES 
EH. RusseLt, Proressor C. M. Woopwarp. 
Professor Metcalf’s Evolution Catechism: 
0. F. Coox. The Animal Parasite sup- 
posed to be the Cause of Yellow Fever: Dr. 
SIP OSIM 2c tesa dcdny seumingints aial wvaya Stecolees Ses 


Special Articles :— 
A Fish New to Florida Waters: Dr. H. M. 
SMITI. Note on a Rubber-producing 
Plant: Witmarre Porter COCKERELL.... 
Botanical Notes :— 
Progress in Forestry Instruction; An Eng- 
lish Edition of Schimper’s Plant Geog- 
raphy: PROFESSOR CHARLES E. BESSEY.... 


309 


314 


315 
Scientific Notes and News................. 316 


University and Educational News........... 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
_ for review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE AD- 
VANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. SECTION 
I, SOCIAL AND HCONOMIC 
SCIENCE. 

Tue St. Louis program comprised four 
regular sessions, in addition to that of the 
delivery of the retirime vice-president’s 
address by Mr. H. T. Newcomb, on ‘Some 
Recent Phases of the Labor Problem’ 
(Scrence, January 8, 1904). This address 
was made the basis of discussion at the first 
regular session, which was occupied with 
papers and discussions on the labor prob- 
lem generally. The second session, on eco- 
nomie aspects of the new agriculture, was 
held jointly with the Society for the Pro- 
motion of Agricultural Science. The third 
session dealt with the status of instruction 
im social and economic science in schools, 
colleges and universities; and the fourth 
included papers on commerce, finance and 
government. All the sessions were pre- 
sided over by Hon. Simeon EH. Baldwin, of 
the Yale Law School, New Haven, Conn. 
The other officers were as follows: 

Secretary—John Franklin Crowell. 

Councilor—Marcus Benjamin. 

Sectional Committee—Simeon E. Baldwin, vice- 
president, 1904; John Franklin Crowell, secretary, 
1904-08; H. T. Newcomb, vice-president, 1903; 
Frank H. Hitchcock, secretary, 1903; HE. L. 
Corthell (one year), Carroll D. Wright (two 
years), B. HE. Fernow (three years), Frank R. 


Rutter (four years), Wm. R. Lazenby (five 
years). 

Member of General Committee—Allen Ripley 
Foote. 


The following papers were contributed : 


282 SCIENCE. 


Functions of Forestry in the New Agricul- 
ture: THos. H. SHmrrarD, Bureau of 
Forestry, Department of Agriculture, 
Washington, D. C. 
Mr. Sherrard’s paper dealt with the 

problem of forest culture, as it related to 
farming rather than to lumbering, and 
showed the work of the Bureau of Forestry 
to this end. Instead of a struggle to win 
tillable land from the forests the farmer 
is more often confronted with the difficulty 
of obtaining building material for his house 
and wood for his home use. With the 
erowing appreciation of the urgent need 
for forest preservation, the demand for 
better methods for handling wood lots to 
secure their permanency takes a more and 
more important place. How important is 
conservative management of wood lots from 
the standpoint of national economy may 
be seen from the fact that from one third 
to one half of the forests of this country 
are in the hands of farmers. In the new 
agriculture, the spirit of which is to use 
every part of the land, forestry has an 
important place. Just as the new agri- 
culture requires the highest possible pro- 
duction along other lines, so with equal 
reason it demands that the wood lot should 
be managed to produce as much wood as 
possible. The Bureau of Forestry in the 
Department of Agriculture in the past five 
years has introduced practical forestry 
upon over a million and a half acres of 
private forest land, with applications for 
assistance covering five and a half million 
acres. 

In principle forestry is an exceedingly 
simple matter, but its application requires 
the trained man. The warp and woof of 
forestry is silvieulture—the science of 
euiding forest growth so that it will best 
meet the individual need. 

The manner of treating these applica- 
tions involves an examination of the tract 
by an agent, a report on the same and a 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


recommendation of a working plan if 
deemed advisable. The Bureau makes the 


working plan. In the ease of large tracts _ 


the expense of the field work, necessary to 
the preparation of the workine plan, and 
the cost of its execution, is borne by the 
owner. In the case of wood lots with an 
area not exceeding two hundred acres, the 
expenses are borne entirely by the Bureau. 
The purpose of the woodlot work is two- 
fold. rst, to assist the individual owner, 
in applying such management to his wood- 
lands as will make them most productive 
and profitable. Second, to encourage, by 
examples of forest management, a more gen- 
eral understanding of the simple principles 
underlying forestry. In almost every case 
owners have asked help of the bureau, be- 
cause they have a very definite problem of 
their own to solve. A large proportion of 
men counting on permanent ownership of 
their land have wished to know how and 
where to cut their annual supply of cord 
wood and such material as they require, so 
as constantly to improve the value and 
productiveness of their woods. 


Improvement 1n Farm Management: W. 
H. Hays, Minnesota State Agricultural 
Experiment Station, St. Anthony, Minn. 
Referring to the 838,591,774 acres in this 

country, of which 414,498,487 acres were 

under cultivation and 424,093,287 acres 
not yet under cultivation, the problem of 
farm management is, How can the nation 
and the state assist so that these separate 
farms and farm-houses may be so well man- 
aged that they shall not be supplanted by 
a system of estates with their centrally 
located farmsteads and their peasant-like 
employees? Shall our government and 
states provide simply higher institutions 
of agricultural learning to educate man- 
agers of large estates, and thus follow the 
present tendeney to centralize industrial 
work under a few managers? Or shall the 


Meera: 


Frspruary 19, 1904.] 


government and the state aid in providing 
technical education to the great mass of 
farmers so that the practical farmer can 
sustain himself and maintain a strong posi- 
tion in life? Technically educating the 
whole of the farmers and making it pos- 
sible for each to remain in the life-school 
of independent business experience, by 
means of consolidated rural schools, agri- 
cultural high schools and the central col- 
lege—is the answer, which has been worked 
out to some extent so successfully in Minne- 
sota. (See Review of Reviews, October, 
1903.) The cost as compared with the 
present developing systems of schools might 
be larger, but the immediate economic 
benefit from enlarged farm production 
would several times over pay the increased 
cost. 

The next problems are to accumulate the 
facts, the philosophies and the processes 
which a scheme of education should teach, 
and to reduce them to pedagogical form. 
The teachers and experimenters of America 
have worked out many of the details of 
farm management, but have not vigor- 
ously taken up the farm as a whole. The 
soils, the erops and the stock, and the 
manufacture of farm crops into finished 
products have been investigated as indi- 
vidual features. These investigations of 
the parts have reached that degree of de- 
velopment where it seems practicable to 
take up the problem of managing the farm 
as a whole. In fact, a few teachers and 
experimenters have in a preliminary way 
blocked out some of the more general prob- 
lems. 

There is imperative need of facts as to 
the relative value per acre of the several 
erops adapted to a given farm; the cost of 
labor, seeds, buildings and machinery re- 
quired for each crop; the amount of its 
beneficial or mjurious effect on the land; 
the time of year when it requires labor; 
the desirability with which it dovetails in 


SCIENCE. — 283 


with other crops and with the care of live 
stock; and the value per acre of each crop 
when marketed, or manufactured into 
meat, milk, sugar or other finished product 
before marketing. A knowledge of how to 
arrange the sequence and the proportions 
of the best paying crops into the most 
profitable combination of crop rotation 
with live stock is a necessity. 


Economic Functions of Lwe Stock: 
Cuartes FE’. Curtis, lowa State College, 
Ames, Lowa. 

The fertility of the soil as part of the 
nation’s working capital returns an annual 
dividend proportionate to the intelligence 
of methods employed. However large the 
erop, not more than one per cent. of the 
soil’s total supply of plant-food is ex- 
hausted by a single crop. Otherwise one 
generation might impoverish another com- 
pletely by robbing the soil of its resources. 
Maintenance of fertility is secured by ro- 
tation of crops, by chemical fertilizers and 
by bacteriological methods. But by none 
of these has the virgin strength of the soil 
been maintained over long periods except 
as plant production has been associated with 
animal husbandry. By selling products 
(butter) and restoring by-products we 
take from the soil but one tenth of fertility 
lost by a grain crop. Grain growing and 
animal husbandry are complemental in- 
dustries, the one a summer industry and 
the other a winter industry. 

Thus the latter is necessary to furnish 
continuous employment for farm labor 
throughout the year, the demand being 
ereatest durine the winter months when 
there is a cessation of field work, and light- 
est during the summer when the field work 
is most exacting. The live stock industry 
is, therefore, admirably adapted to supple- 
ment grain growing in its labor relations. 

Then again, it contributes to a more 
economical use of plant food that may be 


284 SCIENCE. 


added to the soil through feeding stuffs 
than by any other means. If fertilizing 
material must be bought for the farm, it 
ean, under all ordinary conditions, be 
bought in vastly cheaper form as feed 
stuffs and utilized as such, and the residue 
applied to the soil, than by purchasing fer- 
tilizers outright. The very best of fer- 
tilizers are often obtained in this way with- 
out any direct outlay. The use of feed 
stuffs, rich im fertility, may even return 
a handsome profit as a separate proposi- 
tion, and thus fertilizing constituents come 
on to the farm under most advantageous 
circumstances. The British and the Euro- 
pean farmers buy large quantities of our 
flaxseed and corn by-products. They 
figure that they are the gainers even if they 
do not make any profit on their feeding 
operations with these products, and they 
are. Until recently the packing house by- 
products, including dried blood and tank- 
age in various forms, have practically all 
gone direct to the land as fertilizers. To- 
day these products are serving a most im- 
portant purpose as feed stuffs, and the time 
is near at hand when practically every 
pound of this material will first be utilized 
as stock food, and later returned to the 
soil. The returns are so much greater and 
so much more economical in this way as to 
put the purely commercial fertilizer farmer 
out of business in the space of a few years 
at the outside, where other conditions are 
sunilar. 

It is true that fertilizers can not all be 
bought in the form of stock foods. In 
some cases it may not be practicable to 
combine stock raising with the system of 
agriculture being practised. These condi- 
tions are the exception, however, and they 
do not apply to the distinctive and most 
productive agricultural regions of our 
country. 

If the seven southern states that annually 
expend $20,000,000 for commercial fer- 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 477. 


tilizers, would stock their farms, feed their 
cottonseed meal, instead of exporting it, 
buy other feed stuffs rich in plant food, 
rotate with the legumes and practise the 
best known methods of cultivation im soil 
tillage, they would in a short time be in- 
dependent of the fertilizer dealers, and 
save the vast expenditure which is now 
such a drain upon the resources of that 
section of country. 

The information, which has gone out re- 
cently with scientific endorsement from 
high authority, to the effect that soil fer- 
tility may be maintained indefinitely with- 
out resort to fertilizers of any kind, might 
be viewed with grave alarm if it were to be 
taken literally. Likewise the doctrine that 
the deficiencies in soil constituents must be 
determined by chemical analysis and sup- 
plied by chemical fertilizers is equally per- 
nicious. The manifest tendency in regions 
where farmers rely upon commercial fer- 
tilizers, like the tendeney where men rely 
on stimulants, is to use them to excess, and 
when they are not necessary or profitable. 


Agricultural Economics: H. C. Taynor, 
University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 
““The modern farmer produces primarily 

for the market. This is the chief charac- 

teristic of modern commercial agriculture 
as distinguished from the self-sufficing 
agriculture of earlier times. * * * The 
well-being of the modern farmer does not 
depend, therefore, upon his capacity to 
produce for himself the things which he 
wishes to consume, but upon his capacity 
to win profit in agricultural production. 

To win the largest net return is then the 

goal of modern commercial agriculture; 

and if the economist wishes to make him- 
self useful to the farmer he should under- 
take, first of all, to solve this problem.’’ 

This principle was applied to the selection 

of land, to the selection of crops for the 

field system by groups of competing and 


Frpruary 19, 1904.] 


non-competing crops, to the size of the 
farm best suited to the farmer, and to the 
questions of ownership, tenantry and forms 
of rental. 

Where intensive culture is desired, the 
renting of land on the shares naturally 
gives way to a cash rent system which re- 
quires careful regulation if the best imter- 
ests of all are to be conserved. As com- 
petition for the use of land grows more and 
more keen all of these questions become of 
vital importance to the farmer, and of real 
significance to the country as a whole. 
The study of the past experience and pres- 
ent practises of older countries, England 
and Germany, for example, is helpful; but 
it is of vital importance that the student 
of these problems be thoroughly familiar 
with conditions at home. 


Evolution of Agriculture in the Middle 
West and its Social and Economic S1g- 
nificance: HUGENE DAVENPORT, State 
College of Agriculture, Urbana, Illinois. 
This paper, after describing agricultural 

conditions in the west and pointing out 

radical changes both in the farm and in 
the farmer, concluded as follows: 

1. Agriculture is eminently profitable 
and the farmers are not to be reckoned as 
among the poor of the earth. 

2. Farming, as now being organized, is 
not exhausting the fertility of the soil, but 
is On a permanent basis and, therefore, the 
future of the industry and its people is 
practically assured. 

3. That it is raising the value of lands at 
a rapid rate, thus making the man and not 
the acre the unit of farm value, the acre 
being worth its capitalized income. 

4. That it is becoming too difficult an 
occupation, especially on the better lands, 
for men of inferior ability lacking in spe- 
cial knowledge and training. 


SCIENCE. - 


285 


Relation of the Family to the Labor Prob- 
lem: Rrv. Joun W. Day, Church of the 
Messiah, St. Louis, Mo. 

We must recognize the importance of 
the part played by the home in the making 
of the labor problem and the imfluence it 
may have in the working out of the prob- 
lem. The reply made by John Mitchell to 
the inquiry whether the ‘lives of the wives 
and children’ of the men he had condemned 
as traitors to the laborers’ cause because 
they worked independently of the union, 
ought to be made unendurable, was: 

‘I think those wives and children had 
better ask their fathers.’ 

In this significant reply there is the as- 
sumption of a superior loyalty than that 
to the family. The union claimant asserts 
therein that the real interest of the family 
lies in absolute subordination to the union. 
The union disclaims responsibility for any 
harm that may come to the outside family 
through its action. The welfare of the 
family can only be considered through its 
subjection to the union organization. ‘Let 
the fathers answer that question’ means 
that the family can not command their 
central loyalty, that the union acknowl- 
edges no duty to the family as such, but 
only to the family as a part of itself. The 
union thus becomes the modern feudal lord 
whose protection the family must obtain 
in vassalage and may disregard only at its 
peril. 

It is obvious that where this principle 
is accepted the influence of the family in 
the unionist conflicts will be to sharpen 
feeling and heighten purpose. A motive 
stronger than loyalty to a class, stronger 
than trade fidelity, stronger than patriotism, 
is thus vitally connected with any cause the 
union may espouse. This must be an un- 
reasoning attitude, and must have the un- 
equaled force of sentiment. The associa- 
tion of ideas is immediate and inseparable, 
and the strength of the union must be 


286 SCIENCE. 


multiplied by the family feeling existing 
among its members. The potency of the 
feeling thus intensified is incalculable. It 
must always be borne in mind in estimating 
the power of the union. 

As this is one of the strongest bonds of 
union loyalty, so it is the most serviceable 
weapon of defense and attack. The social 
expression of the boycott is the evidence of 
this. So entirely are the currents of fam- 
ily feeling identified with union loyalty that 
even when the family is divided against 
itself the stream often follows the union 
branch rather than the family direction. 
A mother whose son lay dead in her house 
could declare without compunetion that it 
served him right to be killed for working 
outside the union. The compulsion of 
family interest forces compliance where 
personal interest alone would not avail. 
This leverage, when possessed by the union, 
is of mighty and varied application. 

Nor does the suffering borne chiefly by 
the family in protracted strikes seem to 
counteract this tendency. Those who have 
been nurtured in the atmosphere of the 
unionized family are likely to endure hard- 
ship in the spirit of martyrdom, and the 
blows of pain but weld a firmer bond of 


sacrificial devotion. Whatever protest 
there may be is absorbed by a loyalty tried 
as by fire. 


Only the last pinch of necessity can 
compel yielding for the sake of the fam- 
ily, and such compulsion does not modify 
the intense feeling which springs from the 
amalgamation of the sentiment of home 
protection with union preservation. 

The modifying influence of the family 
in the conflicts of labor unions with em- 
ployers is chiefly to be found in connec- 
tion with non-union labor. When wives 
and children ask fathers who have decided 
that they have the highest right to the 
exercise of industrial liberty whether their 
lot is to be made unendurable, the answer 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 477. 


is likely to be one that unionists will not 
hear with indifference. 

What considerations specially warrant 
the expectation that this modifying in- 
fiuence will be increasingly potent? 

The elevation of the family into a posi- 
tion of central interest is a feature of the 
times. The wider range of comforts with- 
in reach of imdustrial families; the im- 
fluences of refinement and culture through 
public school education, through libraries 
and by the press; the multiplied points of 
contact between families hitherto socially 
separate, of which the social settlement 
work is a remarkable manifestation and a 
sure prophecy; the stimulus to family 
pride through the operation of the prin- 
ciples of modern democracy; the intrinsic 
purifying of the family ideal, of which 
even its apparent contradiction in freedom 
of divorcee is partly an evidence, since in 
spite of license and often by means of 
liberty the welfare of the family does not 
suffer and even improves so far as it is 
given a natural rather than an artificial 
root; the suggestions conveyed more im- 
peratively through family influences than 
by any other toward thrift, good habits, 
and affectionate ambitions; these are in- 
fluences which, when gained by independ- 
ent industry, will work mightily toward 
mitigating the constraints which hamper 
true industrial development. 

They are influences of intrinsic primacy 
and, while held in check by an arbitrary 
and mechanical structure, which lacks some 
of the essential elements of vital organiza- 
tion, they will inevitably gam their legiti- 
mate ascendency and compel reconstruc- 
tion. : 

Let the laboring man see the real pre- 
eminence of the family; and value at its 
possible worth his own fireside, let the 
family be made by all the helps of ciy- 
ilization such that he must see its su- 
premacy, and he will have a rallying ery 


Pe eet 


Tepruary 19, 1904.] 


for a new reformation. When the welfare 
of their wives and children really becomes 
the chief concern of their supporters, the 
unions whose leaders insolently claim in- 
fallibility of judgment and indisputable 
rights of disposition will learn over again 
the lesson long ago forced upon an intoler- 
ant and intolerable ecclesiasticism. 

They will learn that the natural rights 
of man are first in right, and will at the 
last be first in fact, that nothing can stand 
against the right and duty of a man to ex- 
ercise his private judgment, to work out 
his own industrial salvation, and to set 
before every other loyalty the loyalty to the 
highest and most sacred of human obliga- 
tions. 


Mutual Insurance for Prevention of 
Strikes: Hpwarp ATKINSON, Boston, 
Mass. 


It is commonly believed that laborers 
are organized, using that term in its ap- 
plication to working people, male and fe- 
male. This assumption is without any 
foundation in fact. There are to-day over 
30,000,000 male and female working people, 
imeluding farmers and farm laborers, earn- 
ing their living for compensation in money, 
or, according to the common expression, 
mostly ‘wage earners.’ They are, as a 
body, without organization. On the other 
hand, a small fraction have organized what 
are commonly called trades unions. 

It is not probable that five per cent. of 
the working people of this country belong 
in all these unions combined. They are not 
federated or organized for any common 
action and as they rarely fail to antagonize 
one another they may be said to represent 
the disorganization of labor rather than its 
organization. On the other hand, large 
amounts of capital are organized in cor- 
porations, trusts and combinations. 

It is not to be inferred from this state- 
ment that any exception is taken to the 


SCIENCE. 


287 


organization of trades unions. They are 
a natural outcome of modern conditions of 
industry and are due in a large degree to 
the displacement of the individual manager 
of mills and workshops by the corporations. 
Trades unions are schools, but they are as 
yet primary schools, in the study of social 
economy. As their members become in- 
dividually more and more competent to 
manage their own affairs, they cease to 
adopt violent and aggressive methods; they 
witness more and more the evils of strikes 
and boycotts, and they are now passing into 
the next stage above the primary school, 
which will by and by qualify them for the 
high school course in the organization of 
labor. 

Neither is it intended to affirm that all 
capitalists or greater employers act with 
intelligence in dealing with workmen. 
Strikes, boycotts, violence, force and lock- 
outs are often indications of the ignorance 
on the part of workmen and of ignorant 
capitalists. Therefore they are evil. They 
have destroyed the harmony or community 
of interest which in the nature of things ex- 
ists in the relation of labor and capital, 


‘which harmony and community of interest 


ean only be disturbed by lack of intelli- 
gence on the part of laborers and capitalists 
alike, one or both. 

Is there any way in which the neces- 
sary harmony between capital and labor 
ean be brought into effect by capitalists 
and workmen? Possibly there may be. 
Manufacturers and employers of labor in 
many branches of industry and in many 
parts of this country are now planning to 
combine for mutual insurance against a 
loss by strikes. When a great factory of 
any kind is stopped by a strike, what are 
called the fixed charges run on; only the 
wages are saved. The officers, the heads 
of departments, many of the highest class 
of employees, who seldom belong to a trades 
union, must be continuing the service and 


288 


must be paid. The taxes, the general ex- 
penses and the cost of insurance and other 
charges continue. 

In a rough-and-ready way one may take 
as a standard proportions which are almost 
an example of general average. We find 
the cost of materials which are converted 
in the factory or workshop into finished 
forms ready for final sale comes to fifty or 
sixty per cent. of the total cost of the 
finished product. ‘The fixed charges come 
to about five per cent. The wages of the 
workmen come to from twenty to thirty 
per cent., seldom more. The plan for this 
organization of capitalists is that each shall 
make a small annual contribution or pre- 
mium, so called, to a mutual insurance com- 
pany, which shall assure to each member so 
many dollars during the term of a strike, 
at the rate of about five per cent. of the 
value of the total product for one year. 
Other similar combinations prove that 
such an organization for mutual msurance 
against loss by strikes would be simple, sure 
and safe at a very small ratable charge each 
year upon each member. 

It may be here remarked that the mid- 
dle body of non-union workmen, the most 
competent and capable of the number, 
may be the victims of a lockout on the 
part of the employers or of a strike on 
the part of the union. They may be 
ground between the upper and the nether 
millstone, with no fund except their own 
savings, and with no organized body to 
protect them by legal or other service 
against the abuses either of the employers 
or of the unions. As the oppression of 
trades unions has become plain, we wit- 
ness what may be called the beginning of 
an organization of free laborers in many 
parts of the country. Workmen are now 
combining to bring to the support of their 
individual rights the funds that they may 
subseribe, and to do what is yet more im- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 477. 


portant, to organize and direct public opin- 
100 in support of the free laborers. 

What next? It would be a very plain 
and simple work for the corporations or 
individual owners of capital, who are now 
organizing and combining for mutual in- 
surance against loss by strikes, to call upon 
the non-union workmen or free workmen 
of the country to join in that organization 
—each workman to contribute such small 
premium as will be required and to assure 
to himself such number of dollars a day as 
his contributions will warrant during the 
term during which the free laborers are 
deprived of work by the strike on the part 
of the trades unions. If this organization 
of labor and capital for mutual insurance 
and support were once established, many 
of the workmen, who are now joined in the 
trades unions because there is no other 
place where they can go, would leave them 
to join the mutual union of the free labor- 
ers and the free employers. In this way 
the antagonism of laborer and capitalist 
would be displaced by the mutual service 
of labor and capital. 


When Labor 1s King: AuisANn WILSON, 
Washington, D.-C. Read by title. 


Status of Social and Economic Science in 
High Schools: W. J. S. Bryan, Prin- 
eipal, St. Louis High School. 

To ascertain what work is done and what 
estimate is placed by high school men upon 
the value of the study of social and eco- 
nomic science in high schools, letters were 
written to the principals of seventy-five 
representative high schools. They were 
asked to answer four questions: 

1. What instruction in social and eco- 
nomic science is given im your school? 

2. In what grades is such instruction 
given? 

3. How many pupils are engaged in such 
study ? 


FEBRUARY 19, 1904.] 


4. In your opinion what is the value of 
such instruction and what should be its 
place in the course of study of secondary 
schools? 

Answers were received from fifty-six 
schools. Replies to the first question show 
that in twenty-one schools no instruction is 
given ; that in twenty-one, political economy 
is taught; in four, civies; and that in nine, 
such instruction is given only incidentally. 

The amount of time given to such study 
is forty weeks in thirteen schools; twenty 
weeks in fifteen schools; ten weeks in two 
schools. 

From the answers to the second question 
it is learned that in twenty-one schools in- 
struction is given in the fourth year; in ten 
schools in the third and fourth years; in 
three in the third year; and in one in the 
second year. 

In the fifty-six schools named instruction 
in social and economic science is given to 
1,152 pupils specifically, and to 2,681 inci- 
dentally. : 


The fourth question elicited interesting . 


replies. From these expressions of opinion 
it appears that there is considerable diver- 
sity of views, ranging from pronounced 
disapprobation to emphatic approval. 
Twenty-four are of the opinion that it is a 
very valuable subject, second to none. The 
general opinion favors the last year of the 
four years for the study, on account of 
maturity of the pupils and their awakening 
interest in the problems of the day, and 
also on account of their previous acquisition 
of knowledge essential to apprehension of 
the present stage of civilization, domestic, 
economic, political, religious, educational. 

The great service of social science will be 
the discovery and statement of the laws of 
association in obedience to which men may 
live together in a stateof freedomand attain 
the fullest individual development. In the 
secondary schools originality of thought is 
not to be expected. To rediscover and 


SCIENCE. 


289 


verify and apply the laws discovered and 
announced by science of every kind is the 
immediate task of secondary pupils. More 
they must not be expected to do. The com- 
plex social organism with its fivefold exe- 
eution, the family, society, the state, the 
church, the school, furnishes a subject of 
study thatdemands sustained attention, con- 
centration of mind, apprehension of princi- 
ples, familiarity with history. If this 
study of institutions be undertaken late in 
the course, when the effect of previous years 
is apparent in power of concentration and 
the vigor of grasp, it may be made ex- 
tremely profitable. Itis only by a study of 
institutional life around us that we awake 
to a consciousness of our relation to our 
material, social and spiritual environment. 
The world of the individual is commonly 
limited by sight, hearing and touch. The 
debt of obligation to the great institutions 
through which he is made partaker of all 
the results of centuries of struggle and trial 
and saerifice and sufferime is not realized. 

To give a youth rational conceptions of 
the presuppositions of present social condi- 
tions and spirituality of ideals is to render 
him and society a much-needed service. A 
teacher who is imbued with the importance 
of the subject will make opportunity for its 
introduction, but its close relation to his- 
tory is apparent. The evolution of insti- 
tutions is the theme of history. After a 
course in general history sufficient time 
should be given to a systematic study of 
the evolution of institutions whose existence 
conditions the life of to-day, that it may 
appear from what beginnings and through 
what modifications social order has been de- 
veloped. From this study of institutions 
doubtless there will come a more intelli- 
gent comprehension of the process of civil- 
ization, a juster appreciation of present 
conditions, and a sincere and earnest desire 
to contribute to their betterment and to 
serve the cause of social elevation. 


290 SCIENCE. 


Status of Instruction in Social and Eco- 
nomic Science in Normal Schools: HENRY 
W. Txuursron, Chicago Normal School, 
Chicago, Il. 

Special reports from forty-three repre- 
sentative normal schools in twenty-seven 
different states show that ten of them have 
courses in sociology, seventeen in economics 
and twenty-two in civics. 

In practise there is yet no agreement 
among normal school men that a course 
even in elementary civices—to say nothing 
of economics and sociology—is needed by 
teachers in elementary schools. 

Still there is a large and influential body 
of opinion in favor of the study of all three 
of these social sciences by even those teach- 
ers whose work will be confined to the 
lowest grades. Some of the reasons of this 
opinion are: 

1. Economies and ecivies are needed to en- 
able a teacher to teach specific work in these 
subjects in the lower schools, but to teach 
geography, history and current events 
properly, the economic and political ele- 
ments in these subjects bemg so funda- 
mental, are necessary. 

2. As the individual can not come to a 
knowledge of himself and his own powers 
except through his social relations, the 
teacher must know those social conditions 
that are fundamentally necessary to the 
normal development of his pupils. 

3. The individual hungers for intelli- 
gence and efficiency in the world of human 
institutions as well as in the world of 
things. 

4. A democratic society needs a greater 
and greater social and ethical efficiency on 
the part of all its citizens. 

5. The civilization of any age tends to 
educate its young in the direction of its 
own greatest needs, hence we are in the 
midst of a movement toward a better social 
education of our children whether we will 
or not. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 477. 


Among the more immediate steps toward 
better social education the following are 
suggested : 

1. Such an agreement among normal and 
their tributary high schools that courses 
in at least civics and economics may be 
prescribed in one school or the other for all 
prospective teachers. 

2. Normal schools should keep pace with 
other professional schools in lengthening 
their courses and raising the standards, in- 
eluding social education, for teachers. 

3. Where courses can not be lengthened 
some way of emphasizing the opportunities 
and duties of teachers in the social educa- 
tion of their pupils must still be found. 

4. There is need of greater intercommu- 
nication among normal school teachers in 
order that the best things in any school may 
become contagious in all. 


Work of the College in the Formation of 
Social and Economic Opinion: RoBert 
J. Spragur, Knox College, Galesburg, 
Tllinois. 
From figures comparing colleges and uni- 

versities as represented by their graduates 

in congress, it was concluded that the uni- 
versity had evidently given a greater stimu- 
lus to the study of economics and social 
science than the college had. This result 
was attributed to the comparative slowness 
of the college in providing departments of 
social and economic science. College ex- 
tension work was advised in the locality to 
establish an educational unity between 
town and college as to which the narrow 
sectarian spirit of the college and commu- 
nity often stands in the way. Hyening 
classes open to adults and supported by 
the municipality afford excellent oppor- 
tunity and present a new line of duty in 
smaller cities and towns especially, where 
such facilities are lacking. Finally, the eo- 
operation of the newspapers is one of the 
most helpful agencies to the work of the 


Se ae 


yr 


Fepruary 19, 1904.] 


college in molding and enriching public 
Opinion in social and economic lines. Hach 
college should have at least a good teacher 
of economies and social science, who, with 
a good working library, could readily meet 
these requirements. 


Status of Instruction in Social and Eco- 
nomic Science in Uniwwersities: J. H. 
Hagerty, Ohio State University, Colum- 
bus, Ohio. 

The first thing that is to be noticed is 
the crude, imperfect and illogical classifi- 
cation of the so-called social sciences. So 
indefinite is our classification and so im- 
perfect our nomenclature that a layman 
has hard work to discover the difference 
between socialism and sociology, political 
economy and eivilization, and does not 
know what anybody means when he says 
“political science.’ There are three distinct 
lines of instruction in most universities, but 
they are so confused in their classification 
aS sometimes not to be readily discovered. 
These are politics, economies and sociology. 
Frequently all of these are classified under 
‘sociology,’ again under ‘economies’ and 
again under ‘political science.’ In reality 
the terms ‘social science’ and ‘political sei- 
ence’ should never be used, but ‘sociology’ 
and ‘politics’ instead. A brief classification 
of the special sciences would bring them 
under the following main heads: I., ethics; 
II., economies; III., polities, and IV., soci- 
ology. There should be a thorough classifi- 
cation and an orderly arrangement of the 
social sciences in each university. This 
would give a pedagogical as well as a 
scientific unity to the work. 

Another very important condition notice- 
able in American universities is a tendency 
toward the applied sciences, or a tendency 
to study the facts of human society more 
and to engage in less speculation about 
them. In political economy, for instance, 
investigators and instructors dwelt almost 


SCIENCE. 291 


entirely on the theories and principles of 
the subject. Now they are recognizing that 
human society is a laboratory of economies 
and sociology and they are inclined to do 
laboratory work. It is somewhat different 
in the study of sociology, for beimg a very 
young science it is yet passing through the 
period of controversy, speculation and 
theory. An investigation of the courses 
presented in fifteen of the leading universi- 
ties of the West, classified as nearly as could 
be under theoretical and applied sciences, 
shows that im economics the number of 
applied is twice as many as the number 
dealing in pure theory, while in sociology 
the ratio of theoretical to practical is that 
of three to one. Heonomies, then, is tend- 
ine toward the status of a natural science 
based upon classified phenomena. 

There is a tendency for instruction in the 
social sciences to fit people for the practical 
affairs of life. Some of the universities 
have gone so far as to establish schools for 
commercial education, especially for the 
fitting of students for the business world. 
While many of these schools or courses are 
rather crude or padded, they strongly indi- 
eate the trend of economic study. The 
time will come when men will be prepared 
for the business world just as definitely as 
they are now prepared for law, medicine, 
engineering or pedagogy. In the same 
manner the study of politics will prepare 
individuals for the political administra- 
tion of affairs. Sociology very early be- 
gan to prepare experts for the administra- 
tion of charitable and correctional affairs, 
and this is what ought to have occurred 
many years ago in the study of the social 
sciences. 

While one should not ignore the value of 
the study of theory or of principles, years 
of time have been wasted over the fine-spun 
theories of wages, interest, rent, value, etc., 
which might have been used profitably in 
finding out the actual conditions of human 


292 


society, bringing students in touch with the 
same, and: thus improving these conditions. 

Politicians and business men have always 
pointed to the economist as a speculative 
dreamer, and we must admit that in the 
past there have been sufficient grounds for 
such accusation. But he is rapidly emer- 
ging into a clear-headed thinker on prac- 
tical affairs. And just in proportion as he 
demonstrates this ability he is recognized 
by the business and political world. 


Public Purposes for which Taxation 1s 
Justifiable*: ALLEN RipueY Foorr, State 
Chamber of Commerce, Columbus, Ohio. 
Taxation for absolutely necessary pur- 

poses includes legislation, administration 

and the judicial activities of government. 

The limitations of legislative powers appear 

in making provision for educational; sani- 

tary, charitable and police functions. 
Both custom and law have settled im 
quite a definite way what are necessary 
public purposes in behalf of these func- 
tions. But by the arts of sophistry there 
has appeared the claim that an authoriza- 
tion to perform a function implies an 
authorization to do whatever may be neces- 
sary to the proper performance of the 
funetion. Take the function of education 
to illustrate. To teach children teachers 
must be employed. They must have houses 
in which to teach. They must have books 
and blackboards. Materials of many kinds 
must be used to construct the houses. 

Other materials must be used to furnish 

them, keep them clean and warm. Does it 

follow that since all of these things are 
necessary for the proper performance of 
the educational function that it is justifi- 
able for the government to raise money by 
taxation for the purpose of makine brick, 
cutting lumber, making elass, making hard- 

*Title of paper read by Mr. Frederick N. 


Judson (no copy available) and discussed by Mr. 
Foote. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 477. 


ware, operating coal mines, equipping and 
operating printing and book-binding estab- 
lishments, ete.? We think not. In all the 
government does there is a fundamental 
principle that needs affirming with em- 
phatie distinctness, the application of 
which will correctly determine the limita- 
tion that should be placed upon legislative 
power in declaring what is a necessary pub- 
he purpose for which taxation is justifiable. 
Every function that is commercial should 
be performed by private enterprise. 
Everything the government may require 
for the performance of its functions, that 
is In character identical with a service that 
is being performed by the people for each 
other in their industrial vocations, should 
be obtained by the government by contract 
with private persons, firms and corpora- 
tions engaged in supplying each service for 
private use. This will prevent the govern- 
ment from monopolizing any private in- 
dustry, or from withdrawing the public de- 
mand from the general market. Under the 
correct application of this principle the 
government will continue to construct its 
buildings by contract, to buy books, sup- 
plies and coal. It will continue to con- 
tract for the transportation of mails, the 
lighting of streets and the transmission of 
intelligence. A correct application of this 
principle will prevent the encroachment of 
governments upon the domain of private 
enterprise, industry and commerce. Every 
such encroachment is a perversion of 2oy- 
ernment from the fundamental purpose for 
which it is instituted, the promotion of the 
general welfare. The need of an emphatic 
declaration of this principle is clearly ap- 
parent when account is taken of the efforts 
being made in this country, mostly for pur- 
poses of political patronage and prestige, 
to embark municipalities in undertakings 
that hitherto have been conducted by pri- 
vate enterprise. The need of constitutional 
limitations on legislative power is shown 


Frpruary 19, 1904.] 


by an opinion rendered by Judge Holmes, 
now of the United States Supreme Court, 
when requested by the General Court of 
Massachusetts to interpret its powers in 
these respects. This opinion is quoted in 
Judson’s ‘Taxation’ (1903), page 426, foot- 
note 1, as follows: 

““T am of the opinion that when money is 
taken to enable a public body to offer to 
the public without discrimination an arti- 
cle of necessity, the purpose is no less pub- 
lic when the article is wood or coal than 
when it is water or gas or electricity or edu- 
cation, to say nothing of cases like the sup- 
port of paupers or the taking of lands for 
railroads or public markets. I see no 
eround for denying the power of the legis- 
lature to enact the laws mentioned in the 
question. The need or expediency of such 
legislation is not for us to consider.’’ 


Services of Commercial Organizations im 
the Social and Economic Development of 
Cities: WILLIAM FLEWELLYN SAUNDERS, 
Seeretary Business Men’s League, St. 
Louis, Mo. 

Of these organizations there are nearly 

a thousand in the United States. The 

high-grade modern business organizations, 

through the volunteer service of their offi- 
cers and members and the paid work of 
their secretaries and experts, are doing 
work which is systematic, thorough and of 
great value to the purposes of science. 
Their fundamental usefulness is in pre- 
venting the deplorable waste of fine in- 
dividual power that would oceur without 
them, either by the dissipation of energy 
through lack of organization or by the fric- 
tion arising from the exertion of the force 
along different lines of individuals having 
the same general purpose. They organize 
and systematize commercial experiences; 
they reduce to uniformity the variety of 
business practises; they apply accepted 
principles of trade to local conditions; they 


SCIENCE. 293 


collect statistics; they promote beneficial 
legislation and prevent harmful legislation ; 
they prevent litigation and waste of com- 
munity energy; they mold public opinion 
on economic questions; they generally de- 
velop the associative efficiency of citizen- 
ship. 

No commercial organization could enter 
practical politics further than influencing 
legislation, without great injury to its use- 
fulness as a business organization, and it 
should lay stress upon the necessity of these 
organizations confining themselves to com- 
mercial work. 


Some Recent Developments m Representa- 
twe Government: Grorch H. SHIBLEY, 
Bureau of Economie Research, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

The referendum and initiative are sys- 
tems whereby the people possess a right to 
a direct vote on legislative questions. Far- 
reaching results are observed by those who 
for years have been studying the workings 
of the system in Switzerland and in this 
country. The system is well established in 
several countries, is being rapidly extended, 
with scarcely a reversion, then only tem- 
porarily, thus demonstrating that it is part 
of the evolutionary process—a world tend- 
ency. 

Where the people take to themselves the 
right to a direct ballot, the results are ex- 
ceedingly important. The final power is 
in the people through the right to a direct 
ballot, by means of the optional referendum 
and direct initiative. It follows that the 
party machine or boss can no longer enact 
legislation. The elected representatives 
simply recommend. This ensures the 
termination of legal privilege, thereby ren- 
dering it unprofitable for monopolists to 
invest money im polities, thus leaving the 
people free to nominate and elect men who 
really represent their interests. In short, 
representative government is restored and 


294 SCIENCE. 


polities becomes. a life-work—a profession, 
and of the highest order. 

All this is seen in Switzerland where the 
optional referendum has existed in federal 
affairs for twenty-nine years, and the direct 
initiative since 1891. 

The strikine changes which this system 
effects are seen mest clearly in the execu- 
tive department of the Swiss government. 
The final power being in the people, has 
freed the heads of departments from sub- 
servience to the instructions of a party con- 
vention. Stated another way, through the 
optional referendum each public question 
goes to the people after it has been con- 
sidered by the heads of departments and by 
congress, thus leaving these officials free to 
recommend whatever their best judgment 
dictates. They are more independent, and 
probably more effective, than are the offi- 
cials in our mammoth private corporations, 
for these heads of departments are abso- 
lutely dependent for their positions on the 
autocratic general manager, who is a chan- 
ging factor. Not so in the Swiss govern- 
ment. The expert heads of departments 
are continued in office from term to term. 
For the past thirty years not a member of 
the Swiss cabinet has been obliged to retire. 
Yet there is no fossilism, for changes can be 
made by congress, and the subordinate 
officers, beine more independent than in 
private corporations and subject to promo- 
tion for ability, propose changes. Uniform 
accounting opens up the keenest kind of 
competition. 

In the general field of legislation there 
is absolutely no corruption under the ref- 
erendum and initiative, owing to the final 
power in the people, and as the legislators 
represent the people’s interests, scarcely a 
bill is ordered to a vote of the people. In 
South Dakota and Oregon not a bill has 
yet been referred. 

The order of development in systems of 
government is from one-man power to 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 477. 


party government; which in the course of 
centuries becomes thoroughly autocratic 
and is the political basis of the trusts and 
other forms of industrial monopoly. The 
next higher system is the transfer of final 
legislative power from the party machine 
to the people. It is the people’s rule in 
place of trust rule. But in framing the 
legislation the people act through repre- 
sentatives, who are uninstructed, and there- 
by the highest and best forms of legisla- 
tion are proposed to the people, who usually 
aecept these bills without a direct vote. 


Wall Street and the Country: CHaruEs A. 
Conant, Treasurer, Morton Trust Com- 
pany, New York. (Atlantic Monthly, 
February, 1904.) : 
What is the meaning of the recent flota- 

tion of industrial enterprises in Wall Street 

and their significance in the economic de- 
velopment of the country? The offer of new 
financial projects is the natural result of 
the great fund of saved capital seeking in- 
vestment, and the merits of new methods of 
investment must be determined by the 
question whether they survive the tests of 
time and competition. Only those can 
survive which have in them real elements 
of benefit to the community. In so far 
as methods of investment are diversified 
there is greater inducement to capital to 
enter the market and to place itself at the 
disposition of far-sighted men for produc- 
tive use. Speaking of such forms of organ- 
ization as the security-holding company and 
the voting trust and of the ultimate result 
of such developments, the system of the 
security-holding company permits far- 
sighted men, for instance, who are willing 
to postpone present dividends to future 
wealth, to study the needs of a growing 
community, and to promote its growth by 
building traction lines in advance of the 
public demand instead of waiting for such 
a demand to become imperative. It enables 


vec 


ee 


all 


FEBRUARY 19, 1904.] 


the managers of a great trunk line to put 
an end to transfers of passengers at state 
boundaries and local terminals, and to run 
the palatial trains across the continent upon 
harmoniously adjusted schedules, which, 
far from being ‘in restraint of trade,’ have 
done more to promote it than all the laws 
for preventing combination or all the suits 
begun in pursuance thereof. The system 
of the holding company undoubtedly in- 
ereases the power of the big financiers, but 
it enables them in many cases to go for- 
ward with far-sighted plans for meeting 
the certain expansion of local traffic in our 
imperial city, or of international traffic be- 
tween the grain fields of Minnesota and 
the markets of Asia, which would be diffi- 
cult or impossible under the old system of 
petty competing organizations governed by 
the restricted vision of some neighborhood 
magnate. 

America has a great destiny to perform 
in the industrial development of the world. 
She can perform it only by applying to 
every part of the machinery of production, 
transportation and exchange the principle 
of the greatest economy of effort to obtain 
the greatest sum of results. The oppor- 
tunity for every man to rise by his talents 
from the lowest to the highest place, the 
right to reap and hold the rewards of one’s 
labor without excessive taxation or vexa- 
tious visitation, the privilege of transfer- 
ring property on the stock exchanges with- 
out the fetters imposed on such transactions 
in Europe, and the freedom to extend new 
methods of economy and combination in 
trade and finance across the continent, un- 
trammeled by local tariffs and state bound- 
aries, are among the weapons which give 
our country its great advantages in dealing 
with older competitors. 

The new methods and the new projects 
are goine through the test of fire to-day, 
and some of them are being consumed. 
The tests which weeded out the badly or- 


SCIENCE. 295 


‘ganized and incompetent of the early stock 


companies, which drove to the wall the 
‘wildeat’ banks of ante-bellum days, and 
which wiped out dividends and stock rights 
in badly managed railways, are now being 
applied to the new forms of organization 
which have been the growth of the past de- 
eade. But the stronger and better organ- 
ized of these new corporations are likely 
to meet these trials without disaster or to 
modify their methods to conform to the 
teachings of experience, until there remains 
to the financial world a valuable residuum 
of new methods for giving flexibility to 
capital and promoting its transfer promptly 
and efficiently from the industries where 
it is not needed to those where it will render 
its highest service. 


Social and Economic Significance of Street 
Railway Traffic in Cities: BH. Dana 
Duranp, Bureau of Corporations, De- 
partment of Commerce and Labor, Wash- 
ington, D. C. 

This paper embodied many of the results 
of the census inquiry on street railways 
(1902), covering a period of twelve years 
since 1892. In this period trackage had 
erown from 8,123 miles to 22,589 miles. 
Passengers carried were about three times 
the world’s population. In 1902 the num- 
ber of rides was 170 times the country’s 
urban population. In some of the larger 
cities the number of street car rides ex- 
ceeded 250 per capita annually. 

Among developments cited as character- 
istic were the substitution of electrical 
power, the extension of trackage outside of 
city limits as suburban and interurban 
lines, consolidation among urban lines and 
improvement in street railway service gen- 
erally. : 

The social and economic significance of 
these agencies appears in their capacity as 
distributors of population to and from 
centralized localities, in which industries 


296 


and mercantile. activities are grouped in 
propinquity. The street railways make 
possible the centralization of the retail 
trade, and widen the range of recreation 
and amusement of most people. Yet they 
haye not reached their limits of usefulness 
to the artisan and the well-to-do. Too 
much of the time of these users is consumed 
on street railways and the charge is as yet 
too high, the average cost of carrying a 
passenger in the United States being 2.9 
cents, not counting profits. 

Discussions. The following participated 
in the discussion of one or more of the 
above papers: Lee Meriwether, St. Louis; 
W. M. Bryant, St. Louis High School; J. 
H. Searborough, Warrensburg (Mo.) Nor- 
mal School; Joseph A. Wright, St. Louis; 
Frederick N. Crunden, St. Louis; Carroll 
D. Wright, Washington, D. C.; Wiliam H. 
Lynch, Mountain Grove, Mo. 

JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL, 


Secretary. 
WaAsuineTon, D. C. 


THE ASTRONOMICAL AND ASTROPHYSICAL 
SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 

Tue fifth meeting of this society was 
held in St. Louis, Mo., during convocation 
week, in affiliation with the American As- 
sociation for the Advancement of Science. 
All the sessions were held at the Central 
High School, where rooms were occupied 
conjointly with Section A. 

The first session of the society was held 
on Tuesday afternoon, December 29, at 
which officers were nominated to be voted 
for at the annual election the next day. 

On Wednesday morning a joint session 
was held with Section A, for the reading 
of papers, and on Wednesday afternoon 
the reading of papers was finished and the 
annual election of officers held. 

The members of the society were served 
lunch at the High School by the local com- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


mittee on both Tuesday and Wednesday at 
noon. 

The meeting was the smallest ever held 
by the society, there being less than twenty 
members present. Ten new members were 
elected. 

The officers elected were: 

For 1904. 

President—Simon Newcomb. 

First Vice-President—Geo. EH. Hale. 

Second Vice-President—W. W. Campbell. 

Treasurer—C, L. Doolittle. 

For 1904-5. 

Councilors—K. C. Pickering, R. S. Woodward. 

Geo. C. Comstock and W. 8S. Hichelberger were 
elected members of the Council of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science from 
the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society of 
America. 

PAPERS PRESENTED. 

G. W. Hoven: ‘ The Prediction of Occultations 
of Stars by the Moon.’ 

W. W. CAMPBELL: ‘ The D. O. Mills Expedition.’ 

G. C. Comstock: ‘The Sun’s Motion Relative 
to a Group of Faint Stars.’ 

F, W. Very: ‘The Absorption of Solar Radia- 
tion by the Sun’s Atmosphere.’ 

SEBASTIAN ALBRECHT: “ Borelly’s Comet.’ 

W. S. EicHreLprercer: ‘The Pivots of the nine- 
inch Transit Circle of the U. 8. Naval Observa- 
tory.’ 

M. S. Brennan: ‘A Short Sketch of the Prog- 
ress of Astronomy in the United States.’ 

H. C. Witson: ‘ The Eros Parallax Photographs 
at the Goodsell Observatory.’ 


ABSTRACTS OF PAPERS. 
The D. O. Mills, Expedition: W. W. Camp- 

BELL. 

The observing station of the D. O. Mills 
expedition from the Lick Observatory to 
the Southern Hemisphere was completed in 
October. It is located on the summit of 
San Cristobal in the northeastern suburbs 
of Santiago, Chile. Its elevation above the 
city is about 950 feet, the altitude of San- 
tiago above sea level being 1,800 feet. The 
distance from the center of the city is about 
two miles. 

The expedition is in charge of acting as- 


Fesruary 19, 1904.] 


tronomer W. H. Wright, who is assisted by 
Dr. H. K. Palmer. 

The unfortunate delays encountered in 
completing the mirrors for the reflecting 
telescope made it unavoidable that the ex- 
pedition should reach Chile at the begin- 
ning of the southern winter—the rainy 
season. San Cristobal was selected as the 
site early in June. The expedition reached 
Chile just a few days before the breaking 
out of very serious labor troubles. This 
and the storms of winter made the con- 
struction of the observatory on the summit 
one of considerable difficulty. The require- 
ments for erecting the Warner and Swasey 
steel dome, the reflecting telescope, the elec- 
trie power line from the valley to the sum- 
mit, ete., could not be met by skilled labor 
obtainable in Chile, and the astronomers 
were called upon to supply this almost en- 
tirely themselves. 

Up to October 9 spectrograms had been 
secured for determining the speeds of 
twenty stars, and ere this the number is 
undoubtedly much greater. At the time 
of writing, photographs of the dome, office 
building and general surroundings have not 
been received. 

The completion of the extensive installa- 
tion in the four winter months, in spite of 
lack of skilled assistance and the frequent 
interruptions by storms, together with the 
securing of a considerable number of spec- 
trograms, is sufficient testimony that nu- 
merous and valuable results will be secured 
in the time assigned for the work. 


_ The Sun’s Motion Relative to a Group of 

Fant Stars: Guorce C. Comstock. 

A year, ago the author presented to this 
society a set of proper motions of faint 
stars (ninth to twelfth magnitude, dis- 
tributed throughout the twenty-four hours 
of right ascension) determined from micro- 
metric observations extending over a pe- 
riod of about half a century. During the 


SCIENCE. 


297 


past year the author derived from these 
proper motions a determination of the di- 
rection and magnitude of the sun’s motion, 
using Airy’s method for the formation of 
the necessary equations. This method re- 
quires that some assumption shall be made 
with regard to the distance of each star 
employed, and for this purpose the author 
used an extrapolation of Kapteyn’s for- 
mula, which represents this distance as a 
function of the proper motion and stellar 
magnitude. 

The author has thus derived from abso- 
lutely new data, no one of the proper mo- 
tions employed having entered into any 
previous investigation, the following co- 
ordinates of the apex of the solar motion: 

R. A. = 297°, Dec. = -+ 28°. 


The mean result of previous determina- 
tions from brighter stars is 


R. A. = 275°, Dec. = -+ 30°. 


The present solution furnishes as the 
linear velocity of the sun’s motion 4.8 radii 
of the earth’s orbit per annum, which, com- 
pared with Campbell’s spectroscopic result, 
4.2 radii per annum, indicates that the 
assumed parallaxes of the stars are not 
greatly in error. Adjusting the assumed 
distances so that the resulting solar velocity 
shall agree with the spectroscopic deter- 
mination, the author finds for the average 
parallax of 67 stars included between the 
ninth and twelfth magnitudes, z= 0.0051. 

This number, 67 stars, represents the 
entire amount of data at the author’s dis- 
posal, no proper, motion having been re- 
jected in the discussion, but it is doubtless 
too small a basis for a determination of 
the elements of the solar motion and, at 
least provisionally, the author prefers to 
interpret the results noted above, as evi- 
dence that the proper motions obtained for 
these faint stars are real quantities and 
that the methods employed for their der- 
ivation may with advantage receive wider 


298 


application, The author has now in hand 
a similar determination of proper motions 
of all stars fainter than the eighth magni- 
tude for which suitable data can be ob- 
tained from the earlier double star obser- 
vations of the Struves. 


Photographs of Comet 1903 c (Borelly): 

SEBASTIAN ALBRECHT. 

This paper gave a preliminary account 
of results obtained from thirty-seven pho- 
tographs of the comet taken at the Lick 
Observatory. The photographs show that 
the comet had two distinct types of tails— 
one very much curved and short, never 
much exceeding a degree and a half in 
leneth, the other long, and im its general 
direction straight. Measures of the long 
tail show that its average lag behind the 
radius vector was less than two degrees. 

The period from the 22d to the 26th of 
July was one of unusual activity in the 
comet. The plates of July 23, 24 and 26 
show detached portions of the main tail, 
indicating changes in the emission of com- 
etary matter from the head. From a com- 
parison of the Lick plate of July 24 with 
two plates of the same date taken at the 
Yerkes Observatory and one taken at Nan- 
terre, an average recession from the head 
of thirty-five miles per second was obtained 
for a detached section of the main tail. 
This is equivalent to thirteen miles per 
second relative to the sun. 

The paper was accompanied by slides 
showing the principal features of the 
comet. 

A more complete account of results will 
be published in a Bulletin of the Lick Ob- 
servatory. 


The Eros Parallax Photographs at the 
Goodsell Observatory: H. C. Wimson. 
Some of the results of the measurements 

of photographs taken with the eight-inch 

photographie telescope at the Goodsell Ob- 


SCIENCE. . 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


servatory were exhibited. A.rough solution 
of the equations derived from the best situ- 
ated plates gives for the solar parallax 
8.799. Similar equations from the pub- 
lished results from photographs taken at 
the Bordeaux and Paris Observatories give 
for the parallax 8.798 and 8”.794 re- 
spectively. W.S. HICHELBERGER, 
é For the Council. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


L’Année psychologique. 9me Année, 1902. 
Publiée par Atrrep Binet. Paris, Schleich- 
er Fréres et Cie. 1903. Pp. 666. 

This ninth number of the yearly publication 
issued from the psychological laboratory of the 
Sorbonne is rendered especially notable by the 
clear and acute analysis which M. Binet gives 
of the oldest of the problems of experimental 
psychology. His conclusions are at variance 
with all the prevailing ideas concerning the 
measurement of the threshold for the diserim- 
ination of sensations of contact. Since Weber 
first introduced the problem, it has been be- 
lieved, and the researches of numberless ex- 
perimenters have seemed to confirm the be- 
lief, that this threshold of tactile sensibility 
could be definitely determined, and that it was 
uniformly lowered by practise. M. Binet as- 
serts that what has been measured is not the 
acuteness of tactile discrimination, but a man- 
ner of judging, of interpreting; that the 
threshold itself practically can not be deter- 
mined; and that in all probability practise 
does not alter its real position. 

The original articles in this number, of 
which there are three besides that just men- 
tioned, cover 252 pages. They are followed by 
255 pages of bibliographical analyses of nearly 
80 books and articles; and by the international 
Bibliographical Index for the year 1902. 
Analysis of the original articles follows. 

(1) P. Malapert: ‘Inquiry Concerning the 
Feeling of Anger in Children’ (pp. 1-40). 
This is a presentation of the results of a 
questionnaire sent out in 1900 by the newly 
founded Société libre pour étude psychol- 
ogique de l’enfant. The author remarks upon 
the ambiguity of some of the questions, the 


. Fesruary 19, 1904.] 


uncertainty concerning the figures given and 
‘their interpretation, and the general difficul- 
ties attaching to this method of investigation; 
and then discusses his facts under three head- 
“ings. I., ‘General Statistics’: 183 observa- 
tions are given, of which 141 were on boys and 
49 on girls. Children of normal intelligence, 
of normal height and of good health are sub- 
ject to anger, in even greater proportion than 
those less well endowed. Paleness is a fre- 
quent characteristic of anger, as well as hyper- 
emia, a fact neglected by many previous ob- 
servers. Secretions are augmented sometimes. 
Innervation of the voluntary muscles is in- 
ereased, but is uncoordinated and spasmodic. 
Tears appear at the close of an attack in a 
very large proportion of cases. The malign 
influence of heredity is very apparent. In all 
but 20 per cent. of the cases the attacks of 
-anger have diminished in violence and fre- 
quency with increase in age. II., ‘ Different 
Forms of Anger; Irascible Children’: Two 
fundamental types of anger are distinguish- 
able, the one defensive and the other offensive, 
both connected with the instinct of self-pres- 
ervation. Considerable space is given to the 
demonstration and description of the former 
type, which had not been recognized by M. 
Ribot. Children of a pronounced irascible 
type show the influence of ill-health and of 
hereditary taint more strongly than do the 
others. Anger is rarely due primarily to ex- 
ample. III., ‘Pedagogical Considerations’: 
Hygienic measures are as important as moral 
ones. The method of cure must be adapted 
to the individual nature. It is essential that 
some image, idea or feeling, profoundly in- 
corporated within the mind and awakened by 
the very fact of the arousal of anger, should 
oppose the latter and dominate it. Corporal 
punishment is often beneficial. The appli- 
cation of cold water is preferable. In general, 
motives of an intellectual and moral nature 
are best of all. 

2. B. Bourdon: ‘On the Possibility of Dis- 
tinguishing the Sensations from the Two 
Eyes’ (pp. 41-56). It is possible to distin- 
guish which eye receives an impression, when 
the impressions received by the two eyes 
differ in intensity, in distinctness or in the 


i SCIENCE. 


299 


number of details. The distinctionis due to a 
subjective phenomenon consisting in a sensa- 
tion of heaviness or constraint in the eye which 
receives the impression less strong, less clear 
or less rich in details, and in a feeling of 
lightness or of facility in the other eye. The 
author believes, contrary to the opimion of 
Briickner and Briicke, that these feelings have 
a peripheral origin, being due probably to sen- 
sations from the muscles or tendons of the eye. 
Feebleness of retinal excitations leads to a 
low degree of innervation of eye muscles, in- 
volving a greater degree of effort in fixating, 
hence a feeling of heaviness or constraint. An 
objective phenomenon, consisting in a shadow 
accompanying the luminous point, sometimes 
appears. It can be shown that this it not due 
to excess of convergence when both eyes view 
the point, as has been surmised, but that it is 
closely related to the subjective phenomenon. 

3. A. Binet: ‘Writing during States of 
Artificial Excitation produced by Work of a 
Graphie Nature’ (pp. 57-78). The author had 
previously observed in experiments on hys- 
terical patients that in states of excitation 
writing became larger and its lines thicker; 
and in tests on school children that marks 
made in crossing out certain letters from a 
printed page became longer, thicker and more 
inclined when the task was rendered more 
difficult by habituating them to one set of let- 
ters and then giving them another group to 
eross out. He now tries a series of experi- 
ments on normal persons, in which a phrase is 
first written correctly and then rewritten with 
the vowels omitted or with other vowels sub- 
stituted for the correct ones. -The change 
from the relatively mechanical act of normal 
writing to a task involving a greater degree 
of attention and effort causes the letters to be 
written larger, better and often detached from 
their neighbors. The fact is accounted for 
probably by a more vivid representation of 
the letters, by a desire to make the incorrectly 
written letters legible, and especially by an 
attendant diffuse excitation of the movements 
of writing. 

4-9. M. Binet divides his discussion on the 
‘Measurement of Tactile Sensitivity’ into six 
separate articles (pp. 79-252). They all to- 


300 


gether, howeyer, form a unitary paper, and it 
will be more convenient to analyze them to- 
gether. The primary object of the research 
is an inyestigation into the possibility of any 
true measurement of tactile sensitivity. 

(a) Introductory Discussion; Methods.— 
The different meanings of the term sensitivity 
are discussed. Much space is given to an 
account of Weber’s researches, a little to that 
of his successors. ‘Tawney’s recent analysis 
of the Vexirfehler (mistaking of one point 
for two) is very significant, and really throws 
doubt on the very possibility of determining a 
threshold. There have been grave errors of 
method in all previous researches. The exs- 
thesiometer should be one capable of exerci- 
sing a known and equal pressure on both points 
stimulated; of stimulating them simultane- 
ously, or, in case simultaneity is not attained, 
of registering the fact; and of regulating and 
recording the rapidity of application of the 
stimuli. The author describes such an instru- 
ment. The method of minimal changes is 
faulty in that it introduces suggestion strongly 
and gives the subject too slow an adaptation to 
the difference between the feelings attending 
small and large distances between the points. 
The threshold given by the method of right 
and wrong cases is a mere convention. A 
mixed method, that of irregular variations, is 
preferable. It consists in arranging a series 
of minimal differences, but applying them in 
irregular yet uniformly determined order. 
There is a serious disadvantage in employing 
as subjects laboratory students exclusively. 
Most important of all is the giving of full psy- 
chological indications. It is necessary to take 
account of the subject’s degree of acquaintance 
with zsthesiometry, and of everything that is 
said and done which has any relation to the 
study of tactile sensitivity. It is a mistake to 
confine the responses of the subject to the 
simple words one and two, and when he is 
doubtful, to make him guess or to count the 
doubtful cases half to the correct and half 
to the incorrect replies. A long and minute 
analysis of everything that is felt should be 
exacted, since the states of consciousness are 
very complex and variable. It is essential to 
guard against distraction and to recognize it 


SCIENCE. ~ 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 477, 


when. it occurs;, this can, perhaps;be accom- 
plished best by requiring the subject to esti- 
mate the distances between the points. This 
procedure has the further advantage of fur- 
nishing a control as to the correctness of the 
replies concerning the number of the contacts. 
The author quotes frequently from his records 
of every word that was spoken during his sit- 
tings and of all facts that might have any pos- 
sible bearing upon them, and the insights 
gained thereby into the intricacies of the con- 
scious processes and into the influence of sug- 
gestions of all sorts, revealing facts to which a 
bare enumeration of numerical results would 
have given no clue, amply justify his insist- 
ence on the essential importance of such 
records. 

(b) The Simplists—There are certain per- 
sons who make no errors for the single point 
(no Vexirfehler); few errors for points sep- 
arated by small distances (7. e., they call them 
almost uniformly one); whose threshold is 
obtuse and well-defined; and who after prac- 
tise lose their exact perception of the single 
point and begin to make mistakes. These the 
author calls ‘les samplistes. Now Claviére 
has shown that between the definite sensation 
of a single point (A) and that of two distinet 
points (C’) there exists a series of intermediate 
sensations (B) of a single contact of varying 
thickness. The simplists are those who inter- 
pret sensations B as meaning a single contact, 
whether or not they know that all the stimula- 
ting points are of the same thickness. The 
author found such among school children, who 
were informed in advance that only one or 
two stimulating points were to be used and 
that the number of stimulating points felt was 
the information desired of the subject; and 
among adults to whom absolutely no prelim- 
inary instructions were given, who knew noth- 
ing of exesthesiometry, nothing of the nature 
of the points used nor of the object of the ex- 
periment, and who, after a long series in which 
they had at first occupied themselves with 
considering the character of the stimulating 
object or with the thought of possible painful 
sensations that might be inflicted, arrived 
spontaneously at the idea of indicating the 
number of contacts that were felt. The ab- 


Frpruary 19, 1904.] 


sence’ of preliminary explanation or its exact 
nature when given has a decisive influence on 
‘the character of the replies. The threshold for 
the back of the hand lies between 1 and 2 em., 
and this is the same as the threshold for the 
difference between sensations B and C, for 
persons who deliberately seek to make this dis- 
tinction. Continued practise tends to intro- 
duce Vexirfehler—to make interpreters out of 
the simplists; and the difference between the 
more and the less intelligent subjects, at first 
very marked—the intelligent having a lower 
threshold and being more subject to the Vexir- 
fehler—tends to diminish. It is imterpreta- 
tion of the sensations, especially those of class 
B, and not improvement in attention or a real 
lowering of the threshold, that explains these 
effects of practise. 

(c) The Results of Distraction of Attention. 
—Distraction may occur when attention is 
strongly directed elsewhere, or when there is 
difficulty in fixing the attention at all. The 
usual method of producing it consists in 
having the subject execute two tasks at once. 
When this is tried, the resulting mental states 
may vary enormously in different persons: 
there may be an easy and rapid alternation 
of attention between the two tasks, and thus 
no distraction; or an irregular alternation, 
with many errors and confusions; or a fixa- 
tion in one direction, in which case the second 
task is suspended or becomes automatic. The 
author had his subjects carry out long addi- 
tions aloud, and made contacts when the effort 
of attention to the figures, as clearly indicated 
by the voice, was greatest. Cases where at- 
tention alternated, going actually to the con- 
tacts when they were made, without distrac- 
tion, could be easily distinguished from those 
where true distraction occurred, and presented 
no differences from the normal results. In- 
vestigations were made also of cases where 
distraction occurred as a result of mental 
revery, and on account of congenital defect in 
backward children. The effect of distraction 
is to produce a systematization of the replies, 
showing itself in an automatic repetition of 
the same reply, either ‘one’ or ‘two’; or to 
produce replies that are due wholly to chance. 
The former effect, systematization, probably 


SCIENCE. 


301 


characterizes-distraction with fixed attention; 
the latter is produced during distraction with 
mobile attention, due either to exterior causes 
or to congenital weakness. 

(d) The Interpreters—The author had his 
own tactile sensitivity tested, adopting two 
mental attitudes: in the one he answered 
“two’ only when he was certain that he felt 
two distinct contacts, ‘one’ in all doubtful 
eases; in the other he sought to make an in- 
terpretation for the doubtful cases, to deter- 
mine whether the sensations of class B were 
oceasioned by one point or two. In the latter 
ease he obtained a lower threshold and more 
numerous errors for the single contact. One 
of his subjects exhibited in early trials a, thresh- 
old of 1.5 em.; a year later, one of 0.5 cm., 
but had meanwhile become fully acquainted 
with the processes and results of ssthesiom- 
etry, and this fact alone accounted for the 
difference. In general, the interpreters, who 
form the majority of intelligent adults, and 
thus of the subjects who have been employed 
im researches in zesthesiometry, are character- 
ized (1) by a lower threshold for the ‘ double 
sensation,’ which signifies not a greater de- 
gree of tactile acuteness, but merely a differ- 
ence of judgment, of mental attitude; and (2) 
by a larger number of errors for the single 
contact. There are very many types of inter- 
preters—sceptical, deliberate, unconscious, ete. 
—of which the author describes several. True 
hyperesthesia may exist, and a probable case is 
deseribed. It reveals itself not merely by the 
ambiguous apparent lowering of the threshold, 
which is usually only apparent, but also by an 
increase in the delicacy with which the dis- 
tance separating the two points can be esti- 
mated for distances lying ordinarily below the 
threshold. 

(e) Influence of Practise and Suggestion on 
the Position of the Threshold.—Transform a 
simplist into an interpreter, and you have an 
apparent lowering of the threshold. The trans- 
formation may take place spontaneously, or 
it may be due to a suggestion, to seeing or 
touching the apparatus, to a knowledge that 
all the points are of equal thickness, to ob- 
serving that two points very near together 
give a sensation of thickness, to an expecta- 


302 SCIENCE. 


tion that the threshold will be Jowered, to a 
fear of making errors, to a reprimand, etc. 
When such influences are lacking, practise has 
not been found, in the experience of the author, 
to lower the threshold, and his results agree 
in this respect with those of Tawney. 

(f) The Threshold of Double Contact can 
not be Determined Scientifically—FKor a sim- 
plist there is a determinable threshold. But 
every simplist is a latent imterpreter. The 
determination of the threshold is practically 
impossible. It varies from moment to mo- 
ment, and the more one seeks it the less he 

finds it; and it depends so strictly on the 
manner of interpreting the sensations, even in 
the cases where it appears to have a definite 
position, that one can not be sure that it ex- 
presses the degree of acuteness of the organ. 
Eyen if all persons had exactly the same de- 
eree of sensitivity, apparent differences would 
appear. 

This research is certainly of the greatest 
value, and no future investigation in zsthesi- 
ometry can neglect the facts that it estab- 
lishes. It seems legitimate, however, to ques- 
tion whether the author’s final conclusion 
is fully justifiable. May it not be possible to 
make simplists of all one’s subjects? To 
determine the threshold between sensations B 
and (, and thus to secure valuable informa- 
tion concerning the relative sensitivity of 
different regions of the body, of different per- 
sons and of the same person at different times 
and under various conditions ? 

HK. B. DeELaparre. 

Brown UNIVERSITY. 


Traité des Variations des Os dw Crane de 
Homme, et de leur Signification aw point 
de vue de l Anthropologie Zoologique. Par 
M. le Dr. Le Doustr. 118 Dessins dans le 
texte. Paris, Vigot Fréres. 1903. 

A volume of four hundred pages and all on 
the variations of the cranial bones! Be it 
noted, moreover, that the word ‘cranial’ is 
used in the strict sense, and that, therefore, 
the facial bones are not included. Ponderous 
as the work may seem, it is one that will be 
warmly welcomed by anatomists. It will be 
of great value not only to those devoted to 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 477. 


human anatomy, but to all interested in verte- 
brate morphology. We are glad to under- 
stand that the author intends to continue the 
study of the variations of the human skeleton 
and that we may expect next a treatise on 
the facial bones. His method is that pursued 
in his treatise on muscular variations, which 
is already a classic. Side lights from em- 
bryology and comparative anatomy are thrown 
on the questions, while the various and often 
contradictory views of authors are discussed. 
It is natural enough that the size of this work 
should astonish outsiders; yet even anatomists 
will be surprised at the number of points of 
variation which present themselves. 

There is no possibility of reviewing such a 
work in detail; but let us mention a few of the 
points of interest in a single bone in order to 
show how extensive is its scope. Let us take 
the first bone, the occipital. We must take up 
the story of the development of the squamous 
portion, the difference between the supra-oc- 
cipital and the epactal bones, the former of 
which is that part which develops in mem- 
brane, while the latter is merely a wormian 
bone, or several together. On the outside 
there is the torus and the very rare median 
erest. On the inside are the endless varieties 
of arrangement of the venous sinuses (which 
the author attempts to classify), the torcular 
fossa, and the middle cerebellar fossa. Here 
as elsewhere the author is very severe on 
Lombroso and his school, who, as is well 
known, make much of the latter fossa as a 
eriminal feature. He exclaims: “ Must we 
consider Scarpa a madman or a criminal be- 
cause his occipital, like that of Charlotte 
Corday, had a vermian fossa? If a defect in 
the formation of the skull or of the brain is 
an index of mental inferiority or of a tend- 
ency to crime, how happens it that Dante and 
Pericles had asymmetrical skulls (with great 
development of the parietal), that Kant had 
an interparietal bone, Volta a metopic suture, 
Byron, Humboldt and Meckel premature clo- 
sure of sutures, and Bichat one hemisphere 
much smaller than the other?” For our part, 
while we have no wish to minimize the ab- 
surdities that the followers of the school of 
criminal anthropology have been guilty of, 


ne get ge 


Frsruary 19, 1904.] 


we think that the strength of their position is 
that the occurrence of many anomalies in the 
same individual, and especially the occurrence 
of multiple anomalies in many members of 
the same family, may fairly be considered 
marks of degeneration; that in short there is 
a core of truth in the system, hampered as it 
is by errors. This in parenthesis. The author 
then goes on to discuss the various theories to 
account for the presence of the fossa. This in 
turn brings up the significance of Kerkring’s 
ossicle, which Le Double declines to consider 
as representing a part of the proatlas. Here 
we are once more in the midst of deep ques- 
tions of embryology and comparative anatomy, 
and yet we have not finished the squamous 
portion alone. Later comes a discussion of 
how many segments the basi-occipital may 
represent, and whether a subdivision of the 
anterior condyloid foramen into two, three or 
even four, results from anything more ab- 
struse than the quasi-accidental ossification of 
strands of fibrous tissue. There is, as every 
one knows, much that is interesting in the 
condyloid region. We could have wished that 
more had been said of the fusion of the atlas 
and occiput, but the consideration of this 
phenomenon was probably beyond the plan of 
this volume. We must not forget to mention 
the interesting peculiarities of the inferior 
surface of the basi-occipital, nor the minute 
canals sometimes found in its cerebral side. 

This may suffice to give some idea of the 
thoroughness of the work. We must, how- 
ever, refer the reader to the question of the 
variations of the pterion, for it serves as an 
introduction to the author’s views. Referring 
to the process from the squamous portion of 
the temporal which occasionally reaches the 
frontal, he writes as follows: “In accord with 
Gruber, Calori, Virchow, Broca, ete., and in 
opposition to Anoutchine, Ranke and Schwalbe, 
I persist in considering the frontal process of 
the temporal an animal analogy (thero- 
morphie). It does not seem to me necessary, 
in order to affirm its reversive nature, that 
this should be the normal arrangement in all 
the simians. It occurs in a large number of 
them and in many other animals, which seems 
to me sufficient; especially as in man it occurs 


SCIENCE. 


303 


most. frequently.in what are held the lower 
races.” What makes this announcement 
doubly interesting is that Professor Le Double 
is not one of those who eall every representa- 
tion of a condition normal in some animal a 
reversion. This was one of the mistakes of 
the cruder days of evolution. On the con- 
trary, he maintains, as we have, that similarity 
of certain parts is no proof of descent. This 
is true both when we deal with structures that 
are normal in a species and when we deal 
with such as appear exceptionally in indi- 
viduals. What has long been a crucial 
point in our mind is whether we are justified 
in ealling a peculiarity a reversion unless 
we can point out at least a plausible line 
of descent which shall lead us back to it, 
and which, moreover, shall not be at vari- 
ance with the pedigree necessary to account 
in the same way for other anomalies. To 
say, as some do, that there is no way of 
tracing by descent some particular feature 
through the mammalia and that, therefore, 
we must call its occasional appearance a re- 
version to something still earlier is simply 
to beg the question. If what we have sug- 
gested be demanded, it seems that, at present 
at least, the difficulties presented by the theory 
of reversion are insuperable. Professor Le 
Double, judging from the above quotation, 
would hardly think such a demand justifiable. 
None the less he very judiciously recognizes 
other causes. : 

We do not write, however, for the purpose 
of discussion. Our object is instead to bring 
an excellent book to the notice of those in- 
terested in the subject. Had it no other merit 
than that of bringing together the observa- 
tions that have been made in the last genera- 
tion, it would be indispensable to anatomists 
who wish to study the deeper problems. 

Tuomas Dwicut. 

HarvarD MeEpicaL SCHOOL. 


SOCLENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Botanical Gazette for January con- 
tains the following articles: ‘A Morphological 
Study of Hlodea canadensis, by R. B. Wylie, 
brings out the general facts in regard to floral 


304 


development, the. growth of the gametophytes, 
pollination and fertilization. Pollination is 
largely dependent upon the surface film of 
water. ‘The functionless pollen tubes swell up 
into ‘cystoids’ in the ovarian cavity. ‘These 
enlargements contain the male structures, still 
showing themselves as distinct cells instead of 
nuclei only. Double fertilization occurs and 
the oospore divides before the endosperm 
nucleus.—A paper on the ‘Chemotropism of 
Roots,’ by F. ©. Newcombe and Anna L. 
Rhodes, records Lupinus albus roots as posi- 
tively chemotropic toward disodium phosphate, 
no concentration of the salt producing a nega- 
tive curve. Roots will bend into a solution 
strong enough to kill them. There is no 
evidence of osmotropism. Roots of Cucurbita 
pepo exhibit a general indifference to chem- 
icals, showing no chemotropism even toward 
disodium phosphate-—— A Botanical Survey of 
the Huron River Valley,’ by L. H. Weld, forms 
a second contribution to the botanical survey 
of this region undertaken under the direction 
of Professor Spalding. The paper gives de- 
tailed accounts of the soil and vegetation. 
The author’s plan has been to give exact data, 
so that a comparative study may be made in 
the future by himself or others. Vegetation 
is considered largely from the dynamic stand- 
point.—‘ Southwestern Plants,’ by L. N. Good- 
ding, is a paper describing a number of new 
species, chiefly from southern Nevada and 
Utah—wW. ©. Coker publishes a series of fig- 
ures of the sprouting spores of Hquwisetum, 
showing great variation, and also describes 
spore distribution in liverworts.—J. B. Farm- 
er explains his views of the quadripolar 
spindle in the Hepatic, in view of the fact 
that several late papers seemed to attack it. 


Tue contents of The Journal of Compara- 
tive Neurology for December are as follows: 


O. P. Jengins and A. J. Caruson: ‘The Rate 
of the Nervous Impulse in the Ventral Nerve-Cord 
of Certain Worms.’ 

O. S. Srrone: ‘ Notes on the Technique of Wei- 
gert’s Method for Staining Medullated Nerve 
Fibers.’ 

C. Jupson Herrick: ‘The Doctrine of Nerve 
Components and some of its Applications.’ 

B. F. Kinessury: ‘ Columella Auris and Nervus 
Facialis in the Urodela.’ 

Editorials and reviews. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


A MONTHLY journal for teachers.of mathe- 
matics, entitled ‘School Mathematics,’ edited 
by Messrs. George W. Myers and C. E. Line- 
berger has begun publication. It is a con- 
tinuation of the mathematical supplement of 
“School Science.’ 


Dr. Tounousr has become editor of the 
Revue Scientifique, the French weekly journal 
whose scope most nearly corresponds with 
that of Natwre and of Scmencz. Dr. Toulouse 
is director of the laboratory of experimental 
psychology at the Paris Ecole des Hautes 
Etudes and editor of the ‘ International 
Library of Experimental Psychology,’ now be- 
ing published in fifty volumes. 


Ir is said that there will shortly be pub- 
lished at Paris a monthly journal devoted to 
radium and called Le radium. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


TueE 149th meeting was held on January 13, 
1904. The following papers were presented in 
the regular program. 


The Work of the Strassburg Seismological 

Congress: H. F. Ret. 

Professor Reid, who was the official delegate 
from the United States, stated that the con- 
gress was held in response to a call from the 
German government to discuss the organiza- 
tion of an international seismological associa- 
tion. The congress was attended by official 
delegates from nineteen countries, and two 
others were unofticially represented. 

The conference resulted in the determina- 
tion of the form of an international seismolog- 
ical association, which will be submitted to all 
civilized nations of the world by the German 
government. The most important clauses of 
the constitution are as follows: 

“The object of the association is the study 
of seismological problems, whose solution is 
only possible by the cooperation of many ob- 
servatories in all parts of the world. The 
principal means of attaining this object are: 
(a) Observations according to common prin- 
ciples; (b) experiments on problems of special 
importance; (c) foundation and support of 


FEBRUARY 19, 1904.] 


seismological observatories in countries ‘which 
need the pecuniary aid of the association; (d) 
organization of a central bureau for the col- 
lection, study, editing and publication of the 
reports sent from various countries. 

“The members of the association shall be 
the nations which may join. They are to 
make the following annual contributions 
through the department of state at Berlin: 
(a) Nations with a population of less than five 
million, $100; (6) nations with a population 
between five and ten million, $200; (¢) na- 
tions with a population between ten and 
twenty millions, $400; (d) nations with a 
population of more than twenty million, $800. 

“The organs of the association are: (a) 
The general assembly; (0) the permanent 
commission; and (c) the central bureau. 

“The general assembly shall consist of dele- 
gates from the nations which are members of 
the association, and is to meet at least once 
in four years. Delegates from scientific so- 
cieties and other persons may be invited to 
attend the general assembly. 

“The permanent commission shall consist 
of the director of the central bureau and one 
delegate from each nation. 

“Tt shall elect from its own number its 
president, vice-president and secretary-general. 

“The permanent commission shall have gen- 
eral control of the affairs of the association, 
and shall see that the resolutions of the gen- 
eral assembly are carried out. It shall also 
direct the method of expenditure of the funds 
of the association, which are to be used for: 
(a) Expenses of publication and administra- 
tion; (6) salary of the secretary-general; (c) 
to subsidize theoretical work or experiments 
of exceptional importance which may have 
been ordered by the general assembly; (d) for 
the foundation and support of seismological 
observatories founded by the association, the 
observations of which are of general interest 
for the study of seismical phenomena. 

“A financial account shall be published in 
the proceedings of the permanent commission. 

“The central bureau shall be located at the 
imperial central seismological station at 
Strassburg, and the director of the latter shall 
be the director of the central bureau; the cen- 


SCIENCE. 


309 


tral bureau'shalluhave the benefit of the assist- 
ants and resources of the central station. 

“ The central bureau shall collect the reports 
from the different countries, edit and publish 
them. The director of the central bureau 
shall present an annual report covering the 
whole work of the bureau, and shall also out- 
line the work proposed for the following year. 

“The secretary-general shall make a report 
to every general assembly on the work and con- 
dition of the association. He shall attend to 
the publication of the proceedings of the 
permanent commission, of the deliberations of 
the general assembly and of investigations un- 
dertaken by order of the association. He shall 
have charge of the general affairs of the asso- 
ciation under the direction of the president of 
the permanent commission. : 

“The association shall be formed for a 
period of twelve years, beginning April 1, 1904. 
Nations which join the association may with- 
draw at the end of each period of four years, 
on giving six months’ notice of their inten- 
tion.” 

The next paper, entitled ‘Experiments on the 
Pollution of Deep Wells in Georgia,’ presented 
by Mr. M. L. Fuller, dealt with a practical ex- 
periment, conducted by the United States 
Geological Survey and the Geological Survey 
of Georgia, acting in cooperation, to deter- 
mine the liability of contamination of the 
deep wells and springs in the vicinity of Quit- 
man, Georgia, by the proposed action of that 
city in turning the public sewage into an un- 
derground stream through a bore hole. ‘To 
test the matter the surveys mentioned inserted 
two tons of salt into the well into which it was 
proposed to turn the sewage. Samples of 
water were taken before the experiment to 
determine the normal chlorine of the waters, 
and at short intervals during and for some 
time after the experiment. On analyzing the 
samples it was shown that the salt had en- 
tered all of the deep wells in town, thereby 
demonstrating that the insertion of sewage 
would have contaminated all of the wells and 
possibly led to a dangerous epidemic. 

Mr. Arthur J. Collier then presented a paper 
on ‘The Tin Deposits of the York Region, 
Alaska.’ 


306 


The York region occupies. the western part 
of the Seward Peninsula, and has the form of 
a triangle, with Cape Prince of Wales, the 
most western point of the continent, at the 
apex, the Arctic Ocean and Bering Sea for the 
sides. The region has no harbor, and land- 
ings are made through the surf, but Port 
Clarence, a safe, deep harbor, lies twenty-five 
miles southeast. 

The principal topographic features are the 
York Mountains, which occupy the southeast 
corner of the triangle, and the York Plateau, 
900 to 600 feet high, surrounding these moun- 
tains on the south, west and north sides. 
Cape Mountain and Cone Hill are ‘monad- 
nocks’ on this plateau, the former marking the 
westernmost point of land. Three sedimentary 
formations are recognized, forming irregular 
belts, which extend north and south. The 
York Mountains are composed of Silurian 
limestones. West of these is a belt of meta- 
morphic slates of undetermined age, and be- 
yond these is a narrow limestone belt probably 
of lower Carboniferous age. ‘These sediments 
contain intrusive masses of granite and 
rhyolite, with which tin ore is associated, and 
greenstones which have no economic bearing. 

The Lost River tin deposits are four or five 
miles from the coast in the York Mountains. 
The tin occurs in a greisen dike, about one 
mile long and 100 feet wide, which cuts the 
limestone and extends east and west. The 
rock consists of fluorite, calcite, quartz and 
lithia mica, with cassiterite, pyrite, galena, 
wolframite and garnet as accessory minerals. 
In a granite boss, south of this dike, some 
stannite was found. 2 

On Cape Mountain, which is an intrusive 
granite boss, cassiterite, closely associated 
with tourmaline, has been found on the sur- 
face, at at least three distinct points. During 
the past year several short tunnels were driven 
into the mountain in search of the veins from 
which it was derived, but so far without suc- 
cess, though the granite is partially altered to 
ereisen, and possibly carries small amounts of 
tin. 

On Buck Oreek, which lies twenty miles 
inland and drains into the Arctic Ocean, the 
ore occurs in the form of stream-tin. The 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


‘ alluvial deposits were exploited ‘during the 


past season, and a number of tons of tin ore 
were mined and shipped. The stream-tin evi- 
dently came from small veins in the slates. 
No veins of this kind have been found in place, 
but specimens, showing their character, have 
been found in the gravels. 

The placers on the Anikovik River and 
Buhner Creek, in which tin ore was found in 
1900, have been abandoned, but all of the dis- 
coyeries and developments noted date from 
that report. Aurrep H. Brooks, 

Secretary. 


THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 147th regular and the 20th annual 
meeting of the society was held on January 
14 in the Assembly Hall of the Cosmos Club. 

The annual reports of the treasurer and 
secretary were read and the following officers 
elected: 

President—Dr. Hi. T. Allen. 

First Vice-President—Mr. S. 8. Voorhees. 

Second Vice-President—Mr. L. M. Tolman. 

Secretary—Mr. Atherton Seidell. 

Treasurer—Mr. F. P. Dewey. 

Additional members of the executive committee 
—Dr. W. T. Hillebrand, Mr. L. S. Munson, Dr. 
E. A. Hill and Mr. Allen Wade Dow. 

Nominated to represent the Chemical Society 
as Vice-President in the Washington Academy of 
Sciences—Dr. Frank W. Clarke. 

Representatives in the Council of the American 
Chenvical Society, elected November, 1903—Dr. 
Henry N. Stokes, Mr. 8. S. Voorhees. 


A SPECIAL meeting of the society was held 
at 8 p.m., February 1, in the Chemical Lecture 
Hall of the Columbian University, to hear an 
address by Dr. Chas. B. Dudley, of Altoona, 
Pa., upon the ‘ Work of a Chemist on a Rail- 
road.’ 

The speaker first briefly presented statistics 
of the equipment and annual expenditures of 
the Pennsylvania Railroad system. It ap- 
peared that up to the time of the establishment 
of the chemical laboratory of that railroad the 
supplies were bought solely upon the repre- 
sentation and reputation of dealers or manu- 
facturers, but the work of the chemist has 
shown the necessity for critically examining 
all materials bought for the road. 


2ae® 


aaa 


FEBRUARY 19, 1904.] 


The work:jof a railroad chemist divides it- 
self into three main divisions, which are: (1) 
Experimental investigations to ascertain the 
requirements of the railroad, respecting dif- 
ferent classes of supplies, and from such in- 
vestigations the preparation of written speci- 
fications describing such requirements. The 
importance of this work for the future good 
to the road was emphasized. (2) The testing 
of supplies to learn if the quality of the ma- 
terial corresponds with that provided for by 
the specifications. (3) Difficulties or problems 
which other officers of the road, from lack 
either of time or of proper training, are unable 
to solve. A number of examples of such 
difficulties which came within his experience 
were described. The speaker concluded by 
assuring the young men present that the num- 
ber of problems for the railroad chemist to 
solye was greater now than ever, and this field 
of work still offers very important opportuni- 
ties for usefulness. A. SEIDELL, 

Secretary. 


MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 
GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL CLUB. 


Tue club reviewed the following articles 
during December and the first two weeks in 
January: 

L. T. Buell, ‘The Tin Deposits of the Malay 
Peninsula’ (Jour. Geol., February-March, 
1903); H. A. Buff, ‘ Conditions in the Penn- 
sylvania Anthracite Region’? (Hng. and Min. 
Jour., November 28, 1903); P. M. Paine, ‘ The 
Laurentian Peneplain’ (Jour. Geol., October— 
November, 1903); J. T. Glidden, ‘ Lead Re- 
sources of the United States’? (Hng. and Min. 
Jour., November 28, 1903); B. L. Johnson, 
‘Some Montana Coal Fields’ (Am. Geologist, 
December, 1903); W. L. Spalding, ‘The Ore 
Deposits of Tonopah, Nevada’ (Hng. and 
Min. Jour., November 21, 1903); W. L. Whit- 
temore, ‘Cobalt Mining in New Caledonia’ 
(Eng. and Min. Jour., November 28, 1903); 
R. H. Allen, ‘Gold Mining in Rhodesia’ 
(Eng. and Min. Jour., December, 10, 1903) ; 
C. H. Clapp, ‘The Wisconsin Zine Fields’ 
(Eng. and Min. Jour., December 5, 1903); 
W. G. Ball, ‘The Quicksilver Mines in Idria’ 
(Eng. and Min. Jour., December 17, 1903); 


SCIENCE. 307 


.C. BE. Danforth, ‘ Asphalt Mining and Re- 


fining in the Indian Territory’ (Hng. and 
Min. Jour., December 17, 1903); C. W. Johns- 
ton, ‘ The Gold Placers of Bokhara’ (Hng. and 
Min. Jour., December 24, 1903); E. Burton, 
‘Age of Gypsum of Central Iowa’ (Jowr. 
Geol., November—December); F. S. Elliot, 
“Geology of the Apache Cafion Placers’ (Hng. 
and Min. Jour., December 24, 1903); M. 
Rubel, ‘The Anthracite Conciliation Board’ 
(Eng. and Min. Jour., December 24 and 31, 
1903). 

The following original papers were read: 

Professor W. O. Crosby, ‘The Physiographic 
Geology of the Gold Regions of Alaska.’ 
The paper was illustrated by several lantern 
views which were taken by Professor Crosby 
on his recent trip through Alaska. Professor 
W. H. Niles, ‘The Life of Joseph Le Conte’; 
Professor A. W. Grabau, ‘ Rock Classification.’ 
Professor Grabau presented a new system of 
classification which should inelude all the dif- 
ferent kinds of rocks. His paper was dis- 
cussed with very great interest and met with 
general approval. G. F. Loughlin described 
a granite-gneiss of central Connecticut. The 
igneous origin of this formation was proved 
by Mr. Lewis Westgate (Jour. Geol., Vol. 
VII., No. 7, October, 1899). Mr. Loughlin 
reviewed Mr. Westgate’s paper, and spoke of 
the fitness of the stone for building purposes. 
He attributed the tendency of the stone to 
stain on exposure to the minute grains of 
pyrite and microscopic garnets which are 
abundant in the rock. J. Daniels spoke 
briefly on the methods of taking sample bor- 
ings and the uses made of them. 

G. F. Loven, 
Secretary. 


NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 

Tue January meeting was held on the 
eleventh of the month, Professor Underwood 
presiding. Papers were read by Professor 
H. F. Osborn and Miss Adele M. Fielde. 

Professor Osborn’s paper, entitled ‘The 
Classification of the Reptilia,’ presented the 
history of the classification as follows: (1) 
Recognition of the Cotylosauria as the most 


308 


primitive group of reptiles, by Cope and Baur. 
(2) The separation of the Anomodontia, Che- 
lonia and Sauropterygia as reptiles with a 
single temporal arcade, by Smith Woodward 
and Broom. (8) The affiliation of the Ich- 
thyosaur with the two-areched rather than 
single-arched reptiles, by Baur and McGregor. 
(4) The recognition.of Sphenodon as the an- 
cestral type of the two-arched reptiles, by 
Baur and others. (5) Separation of the 
reptiles into two great groups of single-arched 
and two-arched types, by Smith Woodward 
(6) The demonstration that 
reptiles are separated not only by the struc- 
ture of the temporal arch but by many funda- 
mental characters into two distinct groups, by 
Osborn and McGregor (1902). (7) Conse- 
quent division of the Reptilia into two sub- 
classes Synapsida and Diapsida, by Osborn 
(1903). (8) The proposal of the Diaptosauria 
to include all of the most primitive two-arched 
reptiles without armature, by Osborn (1903). 
(9) The classification of the Reptilia accord- 
ing to the accompanying table (1903-4). 


and Broom. 


CLASS REPTILIA. 


I. Subclass Synapsma, Osborn. 

1. Order Coryrosaurta, Cope [= Pareiasauria, 
Seeley]. 

Family Diadectide. 

Family Pariotichide. 

Family Pareiasauride. 

Superorder AnomoponT1a, Owen [= Thero- 

morpha, Cope, in part]. 

Order I. THERTODONTIA, Owen. 
Suborder I. Therocephalia. 
Suborder II. Cynodontia, Owen. 

Order II. Dicynopontra, Owen. 
Ine. Sedis. 

Order III. Pracopont1A, Owen. 

3. Order SAUROPTERYGIA. 
Suborder I. Simosauria, Gervais 

sauria]. 

Suborder II. Plesiosauria. 

4. Order TasTuDINATA. 
Suborder I. Pleurodira. 
Suborder II. Cryptodira. 
Suborder III. Trionychia. 

II. Subclass Drapsipa, Osborn. 

1. Superorder Diaprosaurta, Osborn. 
Order I, ProconopHonta, Seeley 
Order II. PRororosaurta, Seeley. 


to 


[= Notho- 


SCIENCE. 


of the inert young. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 477. 
Order III. Proganosaurra, Baurt 
Order IV. GNaTHopoNTIA, Owen. 
Order V. PELycosaurta, Cope. 
Order VI. CuortstoprrA, Cope. 
Order VII. RuyNcHocEPHALIA, Giinther. 


2. Order ParasucHiA, Huxley. 
Suborder I. Aétosauria. 
Suborder II. Phytosauria. 
3. Order IcHrHyosauRiIa, Blainville, 
[= Ichthyopterygia, Owen, 1839]. 
4. Order Crocopria. 
Suborder I. Mesosuchia. 
Suborder II. Husuchia. 
Suborder ILI. Thalattosuchia. 
5. Superorder DinosaurtIA, Owen. ~ 
Order I, THERopopA, Marsh. 
Suborder I. Megalosauria [= Thecodontia, 
Owen]. 
Suborder II. Compsognatha, Huxley. 
Order II, OpistHoc@i1a, Owen [=Sauro- 
poda, Marsh]. 
Order III. OnnrrHoPopa, 
tata, Marsh]. 
6. Superorder SquaMatTa. 
Order I. Lacerrmta. 
Order JI. Mosasaurta. 
Order JIT. OpHipia. 
. Order PTEROSAURIA. iz 


1835 


Cope [= Preden- 


7 


Miss Fielde’s paper, on the ‘ Sense of: Smell 
in Ants,’ described her experiments with many 
species of these insects. Each species appears 
to have its distinetive odor, discernible by 
other ants. Within each species there are also 
differences of odor, dependent on the age of 
the colony and the age of the queen from 
whose eggs its inmates are produced. The 
ant’s organs of smell are its antenne, in which 
the joints are as a series of noses, each having 
a special function. The distal joint appre- 
ciates the nest-aura informing the ant 
whether it is in its own nest or in that of an 
enemy. The second joint discriminates be- 
tween the odors of ants of the same species as 
itself, but of different colonies. The third 
joint discerns the scent of the track laid down 
by the ant’s own feet, and enables the ant to 
return upon any route that has been pre- 
viously traversed. The fourth and fifth joints 
smell the larve and pups, and the removal of 
these joints disables the ant from further care 
The sixth and seventh 
joints make known to the ant the presence of 


a 


WesruaRy 19, 1904.] 


ants of other species than her own. ‘So many 
as five joints may be retained by ants whose 
antennz have normally eleven or twelve joints, 
and these ants will live peacefully together 
though they be of different subfamilies. But 
if seven joints be retained, the ants, sim- 
ilarly grouped, will fight one another to the 
death. If ants make one another’s acquaint- 
ance before they are twelve hours old they 
will thereafter live amicably together al- 
though they be of different species, genera 
or even of different subfamilies. But in three 
days after hatching their criterion of correct 
ant odor is established, and they refuse to 
affiliate with ants whose odor is not in accord 
with their standard. 
M. A. Bicrtow, 
Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

Tuer Torrey Botanical Club met at the New 
York Botanical Garden, January 277. 

The first paper on the scientific program 
was by Dr. J. K. Small, on ‘ Recent Explora- 
tions in Southern Florida.’ Dr. Small was 
accompanied on his trip by J. J. Carter, of 
Pennsylvania, and for a part of the time by 
A. A. Eaton, who paid special attention to the 
orchids and ferns. From Miami as a base 
expeditions were made in different directions. 
One trip was made to the northward in the di- 
rection of Ft. Worth. Four strikingly dif- 
ferent plant formations were noted in this 
region: (1) Sand ridges covered with gnarled 
and stunted trees and shrubs mixed with 
eactuses with almost no grass or herbaceous 
vegetation, (2) low-lying moist lands covered 
with grass and sedges but destitute of trees 
and shrubs, (3) the pine lands, and (4) the 
hummocks filled with broad-leaved evergreens 
and deciduous trees. The country south of 
Miami is just being opened up to settlement 
and is still in a primitive condition. Most 
of the excursions were in this direction, ex- 
plorations being made for a distance of forty- 
five miles. The region consists of low coral- 
limestone ridges with no appreciable soil, but 
still supporting a dense pine forest. The 
lower levels are filled with water and constitute 
arms of the everglades. The pine lands are 


SCIENCE. 


-on ‘ The Birch Trees of North America.’ 


309 


interspersed with occasional small hummocks. 
An exceedingly interesting flora was found, 
and over a thousand numbers were collected, 
which include an unusual number of new and 
interesting things. So far as the collections 
have been studied, the plants from the hum- 
mocks show a close relationship to the-Cuban 
flora and include a considerable number of 
West Indian species not heretofore known 
from the mainland. The pine-land plants, 
on the contrary, are largely endemic and in- 
clude many undescribed species. 

In the discussion which followed the read- 
ing of the paper it was stated that the expedi- 
tion would probably add at least a hundred 
species to the known flora of the United States. 

The second paper was by Dr. J. C. Arthur, 
on ‘ An Interesting Unpublished Work on the 
Fungi.’ The paper will be printed in an 
early issue of Torreya. 

The third paper was by Dr. N. L. Britton, 
Re- 
cent study in arranging the dendrological ex- 
hibit in the museum has shown the necessity 
for a further investigation of our arborescent 
flora. Im some genera, notably in Fraxinus, 
too many species are now recognized and some 
reductions will be necessary. In the birches, 
on the contrary, it is necessary to recognize 
at least four new species. One of these is in 
the Alleghany region, and the others are north- 
western. 

F, S. Earws, 
Recording Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 

Tur problem of cooperation and practical 
affiliation between the important scientific so- 
cieties of the country and the American Asso- 
ciation is one which, admittedly, is becoming 
each year more difficult of solution. The dif- 
ficulty, moreover, is multiple and dependent 
on a variety of factors, rather than on one or 
two. 

The consideration of expense, dependent 
partly on distance, is usually urged as the 
most important one, but this plea is not al- 
ways sufficient. During the last convocation 
week it is known that many men in going to 


310 SCIENCE. 


Philadelphia spent more time and money than 
would haye been required in going to St. 
Louis. The fact is, most scientific specialists 
will go where they expect to receive the great- 
ést benefit, and not a few entertain the notion, 
apparently, that the special society with lim- 
ited membership offers a better field for labor 
than the more democratic sections of the asso- 
ciation. The difficulty in such cases might 
be obviated through the plan followed by the 
chemists. The American Chemical Society, 
which ineludes probably the whole of the mem- 
bership of Section C, holds two meetings an- 
nually. By agreement made seven or eight 
years ago through committees from both or- 
ganizations, one meeting of the Chemical So- 
ciety is held each year in connection with that 
of Section C. The program of this meeting 
is a joint production; the officers of Section 
C preside through half the sessions and those 
from the society through the other half. This 
scheme has worked well from the beginning, 
and I have yet to discover that there is any 
tendeney to make one of these annual meet- 
imgs any more aristocratic or exclusive than 
the other. The plan works to maintain Sec- 
tion C in flourishing condition and gives a 
separate meeting for such chemists as may 
desire it, once a year. 

To make any such arrangement permanently 
satisfactory one thing will be found neces- 
sary. The association will have to decide 
upon and publish its meeting places several 
years in adyance. This will give the chemists 
and other special organizations an opportunity 
of planning properly for the intermediate or 
semi-annual meeting. Advance knowledge of 
this kind would make it possible to avoid an 
awkward situation like the one in which some 
of the societies now find themselves. The 
Chemical Society held a meeting in Philadel- 
phia two years ago; other societies have just 
been there, and all those who are loyal to the 
association will expect to return there next 
winter. As individuals most of us would 
doubtless prefer to go to some place not so 
recently visited. 

I, therefore, suggest that a committee from 
the association, perhaps the committee on 
policy, take the matter up and invite coopera- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


tion from the various societies. In this way 
it may be possible to prepare a program for 
four or five years ahead. The contingency of 
returning to the summer meeting, after the 
meetings at Philadelphia and New Orleans, 
of course, would have to be considered by this 
committee. It is not too early to begin work 
on such an advance program, which should 
be in shape for presentation at Philadelphia. 
Most of the interchange of views will have to 
be by correspondence, which consumes time. 

Now, as to the continuation of the conyo- 
cation week scheme. The Washington gath- 
ering was a> great success for several reasons. 
The St. Louis convocation was not as satis- 
factory, and a number of factors operated to 
keep down the attendance. Bad weather was 
partly at fault, and many were doubtless kept 
away through the expectation of visiting St. 
Louis next summer. It is not fair to draw 
many conclusions from this occasion. For 
those organizations which, like the American 
Chemical Society, hold two meetings each 
year convocation week should be as convenient 
a time as any for the large general gathering. 
My personal preference would be for the last 
week in June, and this date, just after the 
commencement season, would doubtless suit 
most men from the schools of the west or 
middle west. But, on the other hand, the 
date is too early for men from some of the 
eastern schools. A September meeting is too 
late for some college men, and in August the 
temperature factor is usually against us, ete. 
Bringing up these points now is like thresh- 
ing over old straw. I am, therefore, in favor 
of giving the winter meeting plan a trial long 
enough thoroughly to test its merits, which 
may require several years. In any event, I 
believe it is for the best interests of every 
selentifice man in America to aid in building 
up and maintaining the power and influence 
of the association in developing lines of scien- 
tifie work. The section scheme and convoca- 
tion week bring us all together. Why not 
continue a good thing! 


J. H. Lone. 


Ty regard to the question of the best organ- 
ization of scientific societies, my experience 


es rte 


FrBruary 19, 1904.] 


has been, if you will let me eliminate the word 
scientific, that the most flourishing societies 
are those where the governing body has been 
fairly permanent. By such means a stable 
organization and consistency of purpose are 
possible. 

The great value to be derived from a dis- 
cussion of this character is that from the 
various opinions presented some ideas will be 
offered that may be of service in improving 
the government of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science. Therefore, 
I may at the outset say what every one con- 
nected with the association knows, that it has 
been continually experimenting, in the hopes 
of finding something that would give satisfac- 
tion to every one; but as that is an impossi- 
bility it should be accepted as such at the 
beginning. What is needed, therefore, is a 
consistent policy that will extend over a num- 
ber of years, in order that the advantages of 
the existing policy may become apparent and 
sufficiently numerous to outweigh possible ob- 
jections. For instance, it matters little to 
most of us whether the meetings are held in 
summer or during convocation week, but if 
they are held at one time, those who prefer 
the other time naturally criticize the change, 
and discontent is the result. 

The council, which is the governing body of 
our association, should be a permanent organ- 
ization, so far as possible, and changes should 
be limited to the new officers elected each 
year. What is needed, it seems to me, is 
more conservatism, that is, less disposition to 
change. Originally, this was provided for by 
making the past presidents permanent mem- 
bers of the council, but unless the meeting is 
held in some convenient place, the past presi- 
dents are apt to be conspicuous by their ab- 
sence, or if they are registered at the meeting, 
they do not attend the council. The result 
has been that each year new men, many of 
whom are possessed of decided opinions and 
are unfamiliar with the traditions of the 
organization, have come into the council, and 
they have suggested innovations that seemed 
to offer advantages, which on experiment 
failed to manifest themselves. May I illus- 
trate my point by a note that appeared in 


SCIENCE. 


dll 


Scimnce subsequent to the Washington meet- 
ing, written by one of the vice-presidents of 
the organization, who criticized the local com- 
mittee for not having offered certain facilities 
which he deemed desirable; whereas, as a mat- 
ter of fact, the local committee had distinctly 
made the very provision that he called for, 
but it was completely ignored by the visiting 
scientists. Had the gentleman who wrote the 
note been more regular in his attendance at 
the meetings, he naturally would have known 
that his wants had been anticipated, a fact 
that could readily have been ascertained by 
inquiry of the local secretary. Finally, it 
seems to me highly desirable that the affiliated 
societies should be represented on the council 
by men who should serve for a term of years. 
In conclusion, so far as my experience is 
concerned, J venture the opinion that the most 
satisfactory form of organization is the one in 
which the governing body is changed each 
year only by a minority of its members. 
Marcus Brenzgamin. 


To THE Eprror or Science: The recognition 
by our leading universities of one week in the 
year as convocation week is an indication of 
the academic value put upon the work of our 
scientific and learned societies. No other 
eause could secure such recognition, and it 
behooves those who have the guidance of these 
societies to make the meetings worth attending. 

A large attendance of those interested and 
competent to take a part is, I take it, next to 
honest work, the chief desideratum; otherwise 
publication would meet all reasonable demands. 
How to secure a good attendance, therefore, 
is the first question to raise. Is the first week 
of the new year the best time for the purpose ? 
For most societies I assume that it is. But 
the Society of the College Teachers of Educa- 
tion, the latest affiliated group, finds itself 
unable to meet regularly with the American 
Association. In most states the state teachers’ 
association meets during the Christmas holi- 
days, and properly enough many of the college 
teachers of education are expected to be pres- 
ent. Attendance on two meetings within two 
weeks is a heavy task for the holiday time. 
Furthermore, the Department of Superin- 


312 


tendence of the National Hducational Associa- 
tion meets annually in February, and many 
college teachers of education find it desirable 
to attend its meetings. Consequently the so- 
ciety plans to alternate between convocation 
week in January and the superintendents’ 
meeting in February. It is very doubtful if 
the educationists could secure satisfactory at- 
tendanee during convocation week unless the 
meetings were held in a very central location. 
Nevertheless, I feel that it is worth while oc- 
casionally, say every other year, to sacrifice 
something in order to come in touch with the 
other great societies. This object, however, 
would hardly be gained if other societies 
should act in the same manner, unless some 
agreement could be reached concerning the 
biennial sessions. 

My suggestion is that once in two years 
all the societies meet in the same place, and 
that on alternate years the chance be given the 
affiliated groups to serve their various interests. 
The place of holding the biennial sessions 
should be on or near the trunk lines and have 
suitable hotel accommodations. In my judg- 
ment, too, much would be gained by returning 
biennially to the same place. It would tend 
to give the association a fixed home and, what 
seems to me of great importance, a permanent 
and reliable constituency. 

JAMES EH. RUSSELL. 


Concerning the plan of holding our annual 
session in the winter and also of the conflict- 
ing interests of the association and the afili- 
ated societies, it is perhaps too soon to give 
a decided opinion, but I have a strong impres- 
sion that a definite plan separating the sessions 
of the association from those of the societies 
is necessary to the highest welfare of both. 
Unless something is done the affiliated socie- 
ties will swamp the association. 

My preference would be to have it generally 
understood that the affiliated societies make a 
special business of meeting during the con- 
vocation week, each one where it chooses, and 
that all come together in the summer, either 
the week before or the week after the National 
Educational Association, for a grand associa- 
tion meeting, which shall be scientific, tech- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


nical and social, and where all papers will.be 
delivered either before the general association 
or before the departments of the same. By 
such an arrangement every section would be 
a success, and there would be no serious con- 
flict of interests, and the delightful social 
features of the association would be perhaps 
a prominent feature at the summer meeting. 

In my judgment persons who claim mem- 
bership in the American Association by virtue 
of membership in an affiliated society ought 
to pay something into the treasury of the 
association, or the aftiliated society should pay 
for them. The present arrangement seems to 
me unfair and unjust. 

At the present time the great body of people 
who would naturally be most interested in 
Section D have their special societies. Civil 
engineers, mechanical engineers, electrical en- 
gineers, architects and (including them all) 
the Society for the Promotion of Engineering 
Edueation; all these would naturally be more 
or less interested in the work of Section D. 
None of these societies are affiliated. They 
meet independently when they will, but they 
do not desire to conflict in any way with 
the American Association. In fact it may 
truthfully be said that the American Asso- 
ciation looks at the matters which interest all 
engineers and teachers of engineering from a 
somewhat different point of view from that of 
the societies I have named, and consequently 
it has a distinct function and sphere of its 
own. Section D affords an opportunity for 
the members of all these societies to get to- 
gether on a common platform. 


C. M. Woopwarp. 


PROFESSOR METCALF’S EVOLUTION CATECHISM. 

To THe Eprror oF Science: In Science of 
January 8, 1904, Professor Metcalf formulates 
(p. 75) a series of crucial evolutionary ques- 
tions. It is undoubtedly true that ‘much 
further observation’ will be necessary to de- 
cide them, to the satisfaction of everybody, 
but it is not less evident that we have already 
a vastly larger body of evolutionary facts than 
we have adequately interpreted. In the be- 
lief that the problem is at present one of inter- 
pretation quite as much as of observation, I 


Fepruary 19, 1904.] 


venture brief replies to Professor Metcalt’s 
questions, premising only that these sugges- 
tions are incidental to ‘A Kinetic Theory of 
Eyolution’ outlined in Science of June 21, 
1901, and in subsequent papers. 

“Are there mutations which are distinct 
from fluctuating variations? Are fluctuating 
variations restricted to rather narrow limits, 
and are the larger variations which occur of a 
different sort, establishing a new mean about 
which a new series of fluctuating variations 
cluster?” Yes; mutations or spots which ap- 
pear among inbred domesticated plants and 
animals differ from the ‘ fluctuating’ individ- 
ual diversity of unsegregated wild types in the 
amplitude or abruptness of the variation, and 
in a more or less pronounced reproductive 
debility. ‘Fluctuations’ and mutations are 
extremes of the same series of phenomena, 
but their evolutionary significance is very dif- 
ferent. New types are built up through the 
interbreeding and accumulation of genetic 
variations, but mutations which depend for 
their existence on narrow segregation do not 
contribute to the evolutionary progress of 
species. 

“Are mutations (or variations) definite or 
indefinite? Do they follow certain lines or 
do they occur in all directions?” Variations 
of both kinds occur in many directions. The 
idea that they exactly offset each other and 
thus maintain a stationary average has no 
warrant of observation and is opposed to the 
ealculus of probabilities. Species tend to 
move in some directions, but not in all direc- 
tions (Darwin), nor in one particular direc- 
tion (Naegeli). 

“Tf the direction of mutations (or varia- 
tions) is wholly or in part predetermined, what 
are these predetermining factors? Are they 
internal (involved in the nature of the organ- 
ism), or external (environmental), or both?” 
They are internal, but not predetermined. 
Organisms of the same descent under the same 
conditions give diverse mutations. Of their 
causes in detail nothing is known; mutations 
are, however, induced by persistent inbreeding. 
The direction or the extent of variation may 
also depend upon external conditions. A vari- 


SCIENCE. 


313 


ation in the direction of larger size would not 
be able to develop without adequate food. 

“Ts there a tendency in mutants (or vari- 
ants) to revert toward the condition of the 
parent stock?” Normal genetic variations 
are more vigorous and prepotent than their 
immediate relatives, but mutations tend to 
“reyert’ when the abnormal inbreeding is 
remedied by crossing. 

“Are mutants (or variants) of one sort 
more (or less) fertile or more (or less) vigor- 
ous when bred together than when bred with 
the parent stock or with mutants (or variants) 
of another sort?” Sustained vigor and fer- 
tility, and evolutionary progress, as well, de- 
pend on normal interbreeding (symbasis). 
Mutative varieties are, in general, rendered 
more vigorous by crossing with less inbred 
stock, but often at the loss of their peculiar 
characters. 

“Does mutation (or variation) cause 
partial (or complete) segregation?”  Muta- 
tions are sometimes completely segregated by 
sterility, perhaps also by cytological or other 
malformations which prevent the resumption 
of interbreeding, but such abnormalities have 
no general evolutionary significance. 

“ Are hybrids between mutants (or variants) 
of different sorts or between mutants (or 
variants) and the parent stock intermediate in 
character between the two parents, or do they 
follow wholly or chiefly one parent? If the 
latter, which parent is followed in the several 
kinds of crosses?” Crosses between different 
mutants or even between similar mutants of 
different descent tend to ‘revert’ to the 
parental type. Im crosses between mutants 
and their immediate and equally inbred rela- 
tives the mutant is prepotent, but individuals 
of the parental type may be prepotent if of a 
sufficiently remote line of descent. When the 
divergence of descent is too great or too long- 
standing to permit a return to the ancestral 
form, or when the prepotency of the mutation 
is balanced, as it were, by the prepotency at- 
taching to smaller degree of inbreeding of the 
form with which it is crossed, there result 
disjunctive or ‘ Mendelian’ hybrids.* 

* Further confirmation came to hand after this 
letter was sent in. Professor Davenport finds 


314 SCIENCE. 


The discussion of evolution has long since 
passed the stage when particular facts could 
be used to prove general conclusions. The 
difficulty with the current hypotheses of evo- 
lution through selection and mutation-is that 
while apparently supported by some facts, they 
are as definitely contradicted by others; a 
theory which can accommodate both series of 
phenomena has a larger basis of probability 
than either. From the standpoint of the 
kinetic theory the rejection of selection as the 
actuating cause or principle of evolution does 
not require the denial of selective adaptation. 
The recognition, on the other hand, that muta- 
tions are not caused by environment, does not 
mean that they are definitely predetermined. 
The abrupt and striking but more or less 
sterile aberrations of heredity which occur 
under inbreeding do not show that evolution 
depends upon segregation. Neither do they 
afford evidence against the view that evolu- 
tionary progress goes forward through the 
gradual accumulation of lesser and more nor- 
mal variations, independent of environment, 
but not beyond selective influence. The 
kinetic theory affords the explanation, hitherto 
lacking, of how selection produces adaptation. 
It does not set stationary organisms in motion, 
but it may, at times, determine which varia- 
tion shall most affect the direction of the mo- 
tion of the species. 

O. F. Coox. 


WaAsHInGtroN, D. C., 
January 14, 1904. 


(Scrmencr, N. S, 19: 112, January 15, 1904) that 
albino mice of mixed ancestry are more prepotent 
or less recessive than those of pure breed, a: re- 
sult contrary to that which should follow under 
the pure-germ-cell, character-unit theories ~ of 
Bateson, Wilson and Castle. The improbability 
of these mechanical hypotheses was already evi- 
dent, however, from the fact, known since the time 
of Darwin, that the crossing of two ‘recessive’ 
inbred ‘mutations’ may bring a return to the an- 
cestral type. The tendency to disregard older 
data seems to indicate that the recent DeVriesian 
and Mendelian mutations of terminology are pre- 
potent in closely segregated evolutionary investi- 
gations, but the ancestral facts are still vigorous 
and likely to reassert themselves whenever a wider 
intercourse of ideas is resumed. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 477. 


THE ANIMAL PARASITE SUPPOSED TO BE THE - 
CAUSE OF YELLOW FEVER. 

In Screnck of January 1 there appeared a 
letter signed H. W. Robinson, which purported 
to be a defense of one of the members of the 
working party which I arraigned in my article 
under the above caption in Scrmncr of October 
23, 19038. 

In reference to this letter I beg to state that 
I am not expected to give any attention to 
what one has to say whose knowledge of the 
matter is second-hand, but that I am fully pre- 
pared to defend whatever I have written in my 
article, whenever any of the working party 
answers to my arraignment of its members. 

J. C. Smiru. 

New ORtEANS, La., 

January 25, 1904. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
A FISH NEW TO FLORIDA WATERS. 

Wuite dredging off the coast of Florida in 
1902, the steamer Fish Hawk collected four 
specimens of a fish whose occurrence in that 
region was most unexpected and whose known 
distribution is thus extended in a most inter- 
esting direction. The fish in question is the 
snipe-fish or bellows-fish, Macrorhamphosus 
scolopax (Linnzeus), which is common in the 
Mediterranean and has occasionally been 
found as far north as the southern coast of 
England, inhabiting depths up to 170 fathoms. 
The Fish Hawk specimens were taken at two 
stations in the Gulf Stream off Key West 
at depths of 98 and 109 fathoms, respectively. 

There is one other known occurrence of this 
fish in American waters, recorded by Storer in 
the Proceedings of the Boston Society of 
Natural History for 1857 (Vol. VI.), a speci- 
men having been found at Provincetown, 
Massachusetts. 

H. M. Surrz. 


NOTE ON A RUBBER-PRODUCING PLANT. 
RECENT experiments have shown some in- 
teresting facts in regard to the products of 
Picradenia odorata wtilis, Olll., Bulletin 
Colo. College Museum, December, 1903, a 
plant belonging to the Composite and growing 
abundantly im the neighborhood of Buena 


Fresruary 19, 1904.) 


Vista, Colorado. Mr. F. R. Marsh, of Denver, 
first called my attention to the fact that the 
roots of one of our native plants contained 
rubber, and kindly supplied me with material 
for experiments. 

The roots tested were found to contain from 
five to twelve per cent. of crude rubber. This 
product is soluble in carbon bisulphide and 
benzol; it burns, giving off a strong odor of 
rubber. Several tests were made which 
showed that powder made from the bark con- 
tained a much larger per cent. than that made 
from the whole root. The crowns, when 
cleaned, contained about the same per cent. 
as the roots; the wool-like material surround- 
ing the crowns contained a small per cent., 
though it was not so elastic as that taken 
from the roots and crowns. 

The stems and leaves contained a resin sol- 
uble in carbon bisulphide, but it was a brown 
inelastic mass and when burned lacked the 
characteristic odor of rubber. The seeds con- 
tained a resin that superficially resembled 
that found in the stems. 

It is hoped that the occurrence of rubber in 
the permanent parts of this Pzcradenia and 
not in the parts lasting only through the sea- 
son may add to our knowledge as to the use 
of this substance. A detailed report on the 
physiological structure of these roots will be 
made as soon as fresh material can be ob- 
tained. Witmarre Porter CocKERELL. 

CoLoRADO COLLEGE, 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
PROGRESS IN FORESTRY INSTRUCTION. 


It is but a few years since American uni- 
versity professors have given serious attention 
to that department of botany which deals 
with trees, 7. e., forestry, and it is a good sign 
of a broadening view of the work of the uni- 
versity and its relation to the community that 
not only are courses in forestry now offered by 
a considerable number of colleges and univer- 
sities, but in addition their professors are 
writing books on the subject. Trees are no 
longer regarded by the botanist as mere species 
having place in a scientific system of classi- 
fication, and on a definite portion of the 
earth’s surface. These facts are important; 


SCIENCE. 315 


fully as important as they have ever been, but 
we have learned that these giant plants have 
other interesting relations. We have found 
it as interesting to study the biology of a pine 
or an oak as of a microscopic alga or fungus. 
How to grow a tree is as legitimate a subject 
of inquiry as how to grow a particular bac- 
terium or saprophytic fungus. The ecology 
of the forest affords as many interesting prob- 
lems as the study of the zones and belts of 
ponds and swamps. 

A little more than five years ago Professor 
Green, of the University of Minnesota, pre- 
pared a little book under the modest title of 
“Forestry in Minnesota,’ of which an edition 
of 10,000 was published by the Minnesota 
Forestry Association. After about three 
years, this edition being exhausted, Professor 
Green prepared a second which was published 
as a bulletin of the Geological and Natural 
History Survey of Minnesota. He has now 
revised the book again, enlarging and making 
it more general, so as to adapt it to the whole 
of the United States. Its title is now more 
general also— Principles of American For- 
estry’—and it bears the imprint of John. 
Wiley, of Néw York. 

The scope of the book may be learned from 
an enumeration of the principal chapter head- 
ings, as follows: ‘The Tree and Tree Growth’; 
“The Forest’; ‘Forest Influences’;. ‘ Forest 
Regeneration’; ‘Propagation’; ‘ Forest Pro- 
tection ’; ‘ Rate of Increase in Timber Trees’; 
“Uses of Wood’; ‘Durability’; ‘Forest Eco- 
nomics’; ‘The Important American Timber 
Trees’; ete. 

A single quotation from the chapter on. 
forest regeneration will suffice to show at once 
the style of treatment and the considerable 
botanical interest that this study involves, as 
presented in this admirable book: 

Succession of tree growth is an expression some- 
times used as though there were a natural rota- 
tion of trees on the land. There is nothing of the 
sort. Sometimes hardwoods will follow pine, or 
the pine the hardwoods, where the two were 
mixed at the time of cutting, and there was a 
young growth of one or the other kind which had 
a chance to grow when its competitor was re- 
moved. Where land is severely burned after be- 
ing cut over, the trees that show first are gen- 


316 


erally the kind with seeds that float long distances 
in the wind, such as poplar and birch, or those 
having fruits especially liked by birds, such as 
the bird cherry, which is very widely distributed. 
These show first on account of getting started 
first. The pine and the other trees may come in 
later owing to their being seeded later, or owing 
to the later advent of conditions favorable to 
their germination and growth. It may happen in 
the case of burnt-over pine lands that pine seed is 
distributed over it the first year after it is burned, 
but owing to there being no protection from the 
sun, the young seedlings of white and Norway 
pine, which are very delicate, are destroyed. 
After a young growth of poplars has appeared, 
the pine seed may find just the right conditions 
for growth for a few years, and finally get ahead 
of the poplars and crowd them out, while in 
the meantime it is being much improved by the 
presence of the poplars which grow rapidly and 
force the pines to make a tall growth. On the 
other hand, however, the poplars, birches and 
other trees and shrubs, and even weeds, may 
sometimes make so strong a growth as to kill out 
the young pine seedlings if they are not sufficiently 
well established at the time the mature growth 
is cut. 


AN ENGLISH EDITION OF SCHIMPER’S PLANT 
GEOGRAPHY. 


For several years it has been known that an 
English edition of Schimper’s ‘Plant Geog- 
raphy’ was in preparation, the work having 
been undertaken by Professor William R. 
Fisher, with the advice and consent of the 
author. ‘The untimely death of the author 
in 1901, shortly after the translation was be- 
gun, robbed the English edition of modifica- 
tions and improvements which he had in- 
tended to make,’ so the text of the book is 
exactly that of the German edition of 1898. 
The book in its English dress is characterized 
by the beautiful typography, paper and bind- 
ing of the Clarendon Press of Oxford, and is 
a thick octavo of 869 pages (as against 894 
in the German edition), and four maps. The 
only changes noticed are the omissions of the 
key-page to the plate of rock vegetation (Fig. 
487), and the new plate for Map IV. at the 
end of the volume. The latter is much coarser 
in the Oxford map, and while it is much 
more distinet, it is considerably less accurate 


SCIENCE. 


IN. S. Vor. XIX. No. 477, 


on the whole, than the German map. The 
translation has been revised and edited by 
Dr. Perey Groom and Professor Balfour, and 
Dr. Groom has added a sympathetic sketch of 
Schimper’s life work. 


Cuarurs KE. Bessey. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Av the annual meeting of the Royal Astro- 
nomical Society on, February 12, Ambassador 
Choate received the society’s gold medal on 
behalf of Professor George E. Hale, of the 
Yerkes Observatory. 

McGitt Universrry has conferred the de- 
gree of D.Sc. on Professor D. P. Penhallow, 
professor of botany at the university, and on 
John A. Low Waddell, a consulting engineer 
of Kansas City. 

Lorp Rayurien has been created, by the Ger- 
man Emperor, a foreign Knight of the Prus- 
sian Order Pour le Mérite for sciences and 
arts. 

Mr. F. E. Brpparp, F.R.S., of the London 
Zoological Gardens, has been elected a corre- 
sponding member of the Imperial Bohemian 
Academy of Sciences. 


Tuer following haye accepted positions on 
the permanent staff of the Station for Ex- 
perimental Evolution of the Carnegie Insti- 
tution, at Cold Spring Harbor: Professor 
C. B. Davenport, who will serve as director; 
Mr. Frank KE. Lutz, who will make quantita- 
tive studies in animal variation; Mr. George 
H. Shull, whose work will be largely in plant 
breeding and the study of mutations in na- 
ture; and Miss Anna M. Lutz, who will serve 
as recorder and cytologist. The plans of the 
new building are now in the hands of the 
architects, Messrs. Kirby, Petit and Green, 
of New York City, and construction will com- 
mence as soon as the frost is out of the ground,. 
so that the building may be in use next sum- 
mer. 


Dr. CHARLES J. CHAMBERLAIN, of the De- 
partment of Botany of the University of 
Chicago, has received from the Botanical So- 
ciety of America a grant to defray the ex- 
penses of a trip to Jalapa, Mexico, for the 


Fepruary 19, 1904.] 


purpose of studying cyeads. Assistant Pro- 
fessor Bradley M. Davis, of the same depart- 
ment, has received an appointment to a Car- 
negie table at the Zoological Station, Naples, 
for the spring of 1904. 

Nature states that the Tanganyika com- 
mittee (Professor Ray Lankester, Sir John 
Kirk, Sir W. Thiselton-Dyer, Mr. Boulenger 
and Dr. Sclater) has determined to send out 
another naturalist for the further investiga- 
tion of the ‘ Tanganyika problem,’ and Mr. 
W. A. Cunnington, of Christ’s College, Cam- 
bridge, has been appointed for this purpose. 
Mr. Cunnington will leave for Tanganyika 
(via Chinde and Zomba) in March, and will 
pay special.attention to the lacustrine flora of 
the lake, of which as yet little is known, but 
will not neglect other subjects relating to the 
lake basin. 

Dr. Epuarp ZELLER, emeritus professor of 
philosophy in the University of Berlin, cele- 
brated his ninetieth birthday on January 22. 
Emperor William presented him' with a por- 
trait and an autograph letter. 

Prorussor Aucust WEISMANN’s seventieth 
birthday was celebrated in Freiburg on Jan- 
uary 17, when, as we learn from Nature, a 
large and representative gathering assembled 
to do him honor. <A bust by Kowazik, of 
Frankfort, subscribed for by biologists in 
yarious parts of the world, was presented in 
the name of the subscribers by Dr. H. E. 
Ziegler, protessor of zoology at Jena; it is to 
be placed in the zoological institute of the 
university. A special number of the Zoolo- 
gusche Jahrbiicher, containing papers by vari- 
ous naturalists, was presented by Professor J. 
W. Spengel, professor of zoology at Giessen, 
and from the Grand Duke of Baden Professor 
Weismann received the cross and star of Ber- 
told I. 


Dr. Apotpn France, of Berlin, known for 
his contributions to chemical agriculture, 
celebrated his seventieth birthday on January 
20. : 


Dr. JosrpH Jastrow, professor of psychol- 
ogy and logic at the University of Wisconsin, 
has sailed for Europe to be absent until the 
autumn. 


SCIENCE. 


317 


It is said that Dr. Nicholas Senn, of Chi- 
eago, will have charge of the red cross work 
of the Japanese army. 

A GRANT of $500 was given this year by the 
Rockefeller Institute of Medical Research to 
Dr. A. S. Warthin, professor of pathology in 
the University of Michigan, for his researches 
on the etiology of the anemias. The grant 
has been used for the establishment of a 
fellowship in pathology, to which Mr. H. 
Woltmann has been appointed. 

Mr. W. Savitie-Kenr will shortly leave 
England to investigate and advise towards the 
further development of the pearl, shell and 
other fisheries pertaining to certain Polynes- 
ian Island properties. 

It is reported that M. Curie has declined 
the cross of the Legion of Honor offered him 
by the French government, because it has not 
also been offered to Mme. Curie. 


Prorsssor W. F. Barrerr has been elected 
president of the Society for Psychical Re- 
search, succeeding Sir Oliver Lodge. 

Dr. Hermann M. Brees, of New York City, 
gave, February 15, one of the lectures on 
tuberculosis before the Henry Phipps Insti- 
tute of Philadelphia, his subject being ‘The 
Administrative Control of Tuberculosis.’ 

Av Trinity College, President David Starr 
Jordan will lecture on February 19, on 
“Modern University Tendencies, and on 
February 26, Professor Henry Fairfield Os- 
born, on ‘The Evolution of the Horse.’ 

Mr. Frank Cuapman, of the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, gave a iecture, 
on January 24, before the Audubon Society 
at Sherry’s, New York City, his subject being 
“Travels of a Bird Lover.’ 

Proressor Enwoop Mnap, expert in charge 
of irrigation investigations for the United 
States Department of Agriculture, who also 
holds the chair of the institutions and prac- 
tice of irrigation in the University of Cali- 
fornia, has left Washington, D. C., for Cali- 
fornia, where he will deliver his annual 
course of lectures on the ‘ Organization of the 
Irrigation Industry.’ 

Unper the auspices of the West India Com- 
mittee, London, Dr. John S. Flett read a 


318 SCIENCE. 


paper on February 9, on ‘The Volcanic Erup- 
tions in the West Indies’; on March 8, Sir 
Frederick Manson will read a paper on ‘ Trop- 
ical Diseases.’ 

Tur prizes in the gift of the Journal of 
Tropical Medicine for prize essays on subjects 
connected with tropical diseases have been 
awarded as follows: The Belilios prize of 
£10, presented by the Hon. E. R. Belilios, 
C.M.G., for the best article on ‘The system 
of drainage and sewerage best suited for 
tropical climates,’ has been awarded to Cap- 
tain J. W. Cornwall and Major F. Smith. 
The Lady MacGregor prize of £10, presented 
by Lady MacGregor, for the best article on 
“A critical examination of the practical value 
of anti-typhoid inoculation,’ has been awarded 
to Major F. Smith. The Sivewright prize of 
£10, presented by Sir James Sivewright, for 
the best essay on ‘Intestinal affections in 
warm climates,’ was not awarded. 


Jospri Prinstuey, the discoverer of oxygen, 
died at Northumberland, Pa., February 6, 
1804. On February 7, 1904, the Unitarian 
Club of Washington held a meeting to com- 
memorate the centenary of that event. The 
speakers were F. W. Clarke, on Priestley as a 
discoverer; Rev. U. G. B. Pierce, who dis- 
cussed Priestley’s religious career, and the 
Rey. Edward Everett Hale, who spoke of 
Priestley’s connection with America. 


Dr. Davin Duncan, having been entrusted 
by the late Mr. Herbert Spencer with the 
writing of his biography, will be obliged to 
persons who may possess letters from him of 
value if they will kindly lend them to him 
for the purpose of such biography. All letters 
addressed to Dr. D. Duncan, care of H. R. 
Tedder, Hsq., secretary, the Athenzeum, Pall- 
mall, London, S. W., will be carefully pre- 
served and returned in due course to their 
owners. 

Dr. CHartes Emerson BreEecuer, professor of 
historical geology at Yale University and a 
member of the governing board of the Shef- 
field Scientific School, died suddenly from 
heart-disease on February 14. 


Mr. W. B. Powe died at Mount Vernon, 
New York, on February 6, at the age of sixty- 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 477. 


seven years. Mr. Powell was for many years 
superintendent of schools in Illinois and occu- 
pied this position at Washington, D. C., from 
1885-1900, where he introduced many reforms. 
He was a brother of J. W. Powell, the late 
eminent anthropologist. 


THERE will be on March 1 a civil service 
examination to fill the position of pharma- 
ecologist in the Bureau of Plant and Animal 
Industry, U. 8S. Department of Agriculture, 
at a salary of $800 a year. On March 2 and 
3 there will be an examination for miscel- 
laneous computer in the U. S. Naval Ob- 
servatory, the salary of the position amount- 
ing to from $800 to $1,000 a year. On March 
16 and 23 there will be examinations for the 
position of aid in the National Museum in 
the Division of Fishes and in the Division 
of Birds’ Eggs, with salaries of $600 and $540 
a year, respectively. 


Mr. Samurt H. Scupper has given to the 
Boston Society of Natural History his pri- 
vate library of nearly eight thousand pam- 
phlets and volumes. This addition makes the 
society’s collection of entomological works one 
of the foremost in the country. 


Tur New York Evening Post states that 


Professor J. Laurence Laughlin, of the Uni- 


versity of Chicago, has been authorized by a 
Chicago business firm to offer four prizes for 
the best essays on topics relating to commerce 
and industry. The first prize will be $1,000, 
the second $500, the third $300, and the fourth 
$150, and any person who has received the 
degree of bachelor of arts from an Amer- 
ican college since 1893 is eligible to compete. 
The essays are to be judged by Professor 
Laughlin; Professor Clark, of Columbia Uni- 
versity; Professor Adams, of the University 
of Michigan; Dr. Carroll D. Wright, of Wash- 
ington, and Horace White, of New York. 

Av the ordinary quarterly comitia of the 
London Royal College of Physicians, held on 
January 30, the President, Sir William 
Church, announced that Dr. Horace Dobell, 
of Dorset, had presented a sum of £500 in 
cumulative consols to the college for the pro- 
motion of original research into the ultimate 
origin, evolution and life history of bacilli 


Veedig® 


Frepruary 19, 1904.] 


and other pathogenetic microorganisms. The 
conditions are that the president and censors 
of the college shall select a lecturer once in 
every two years, who shall give a record of 
original researches on the above subject, made 
by himself and others, and that he shall re- 
ceive a fee of £50 for so doing. These lec- 
tures are to be continued biennially, as long 
as a sufficient amount of the £500 and its 
accumulated interest remains. The first lec- 
ture will be delivered during the year 1904. 


Ar the recent meeting of the Society for 
Psychical Research, it was announced that the 
sum of $30,000 had been collected for a 
scholarship, which it was hoped would be in- 
ereased to $40,000. The English society now 
numbers 832 members, and the American So- 
ciety 530 members. 


Tu Philadelphia Neurological Society cele- 
brated its twentieth anniversary on January 
97 by a dinner at University Club. Speeches 
were made by Dr: S. Weir Mitchell, Dr. E. C. 
Spitzka, Dr. George Lincoln Walton, Dr. 
Wharton Sinkler and Dr. Charles K. Mills. 


THE annual meeting of the American Insti- 
tute of Mining Engineers, which was to have 
been held in Baltimore from February 16 to 
20, has been called in Atlantic City, N. J., 
owing to the Baltimore fire. 


A coneress for experimental psychology is 
to be held at Giessen, beginning on April 20. 


Tue tenth Congress of Polish Physicians 
and Scientific Men will be held at Lemberg, 
Austrian Poland, on July 20-24, 1904. Pro- 
fessor HE. Machek is chairman, and Professor 
W. Sieradzki is secretary of the committee of 
arrangements. 


Tue British parliamentary committee on 
physical deterioration is now holding sittings. 
Evidence has been given by Dr. D. J. Cun- 
ningham, professor of anatomy at the Univer- 
sity of Edinburgh and chairman of the an- 
thropometrie committee of the British, Asso- 
ciation, by Sir Lauder Brunton, M.D., F.R.S., 
Mrs. H. G. Close, Mr. J. B. Atkins, London 
editor of the Manchester Guardian, Dr. Ed- 
ward Malins, president of the Obstetrical So- 
ciety and others. 


SCIENCE. 


319 


A PETITION is being extensively signed in 
Great Britain in support of the bill for the 
adoption of the metric weights and measures 
which will be introduced in the house of lords 
by Lord Belhaven, and seconded by Lord 
Kelvin. 


Aw industrial and_agricultural exposition is 
to be held at Nantes during the present year, 
beginning on May 5 and ending on September 
29. The exposition is to be international in 
character and is to comprise four sections— 
agriculture, industry, marine and fine arts. 


Tuer Davenport Academy of Sciences gave 
during January and February a course of 
seven lectures as follows: ‘Some Interesting 
Features of Insect Life,’ by Dr. L. O. Howard, 
Division of Entomology, Washington, D. C.; 
‘Protective Coloration among Animals, by 
Professor C. C. Nutting, University of Lowa; 
‘Alamogorda, A Problem of the Desert,’ by 
Professor Thomas H. Macbride, University 
of Iowa; ‘ Sanitary Engineering,’ by Professor 
Charles S. Magowan, University of Iowa; 
“Man in the Tropics,’ by Professor Bohumil 
Shimek, University of Iowa; ‘The Geology 
and Scenery of the Pipestone Region,’ by Pro- 
fessor Samuel Calvin, University of Iowa. 

Tue U. S. Geological Survey has published 
a paper on ‘ Chemical composition of igneous 
rocks, expressed by means of diagrams, with 
reference to rock classification on a quantita- 
tive chemico-mineralogical basis,’ by Pro- 
fessor J. P. Iddings, of the University of 
Chicago. The materials erupted from the 
depths of the earth vary greatly in composi- 
tion. Silica, alumina, iron, magnesia, lime, 
soda and potash are present in considerable 
amounts in most eruptive rocks, and other sub- 
stances often occur in notable quantities. The 
mineralogical composition and, through that, 
various other features of igneous rocks, de- 
pend in large degree upon the chemical com- 
position of the fluid magmas of which they 
represent the solid forms. It is, however, 
difficult, even for the specialist in this sci- 
ence, to perceive readily the significance of 
the differences in composition between two 
rocks when presented in the form of long 
chemical analyses; hence petrographers have 
for many years sought to express in the form 


320 SCIENCE. 


of some diagram the principal facts of each 
analysis, so that they may at once appeal to 
the eye. Professor Iddings describes the vari- 
ous kinds of diagrams that have been used, 
finally explaining the kind which seems to him 
the most useful. These diagrams express 
the relations of all the leading constituents of 
an analysis. Professor Iddings has also de- 
vised a plan for the comparison, upon charts, 
of diagrams representing separate analyses, 
so that the full range of composition-found for 
known igneous rocks is at once illustrated. 
This publication presents these charts, which 
are printed in four colors and accompanied by 
descriptive text. This graphic representation 
brings out many facts concerning the com- 
position of the earth’s magmas. The fact 
that there are no well-defined chemical groups 
of rocks, but rather a continuous series with 
no natural dividing lines, is clearly illustrated. 
The author discusses the relations exhibited 
by the charts, with particular reference to 
rock classification. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

CotumBia University, the Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technology, the Lawrence Sci- 
entifie School of Harvard University and the 
Sheffield Scientific School of Yale University 
will unite in a summer school of mining to 
be held in Colorado. The conduct of the sum- 
mer school is to be in the hands of an execu- 
tive committee, consisting of Dr. John Hays 
Hammond, representing Yale University; Pro- 
fessor Robert H. Richards, of the Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology; Professor 
Henry L. Smyth, of Harvard University, and 
Professor Henry S. Munroe, of Columbia Uni- 
versity. The last named has been appointed 
director of the school for the first year, and 
he will have under him a corps of competent 
instructors drawn from the several institu- 
tions. Mr. George Crocker, through Professor 
John Hays Hammond, has offered to pay the 
cost of the school this summer, and has placed 
$12,000 for this purpose in the hands of Mr. 
Hammond and the presidents of the four in- 
stitutions named, who will act as trustees of 
the fund. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 477. 


THE new science and administration build- 
ing of Colorado College, at Colorado Springs, 
known as Palmer Hall, will be formally 
opened with various celebrations during the 
latter part of the month. The dedicatory 
address will be delivered on February 23, by 
Dr. David Starr Jordan; on February 22 ad- 
dresses will be delivered by Dr. C. R. Van 
Hise, Dr. S. L. Bigelow, Dr. C. E. Bessey and 
Dr. Henry Crew. The new building has been 
erected at an expense of $280,000, and con- 
tains ample laboratory facilities for the sei- 
entific department, a museum, ete. 


A numBeR of influential heads of colleges 
and professors at Oxford have issued a leaflet 
urging that candidates for honors in mathe- 
matics and natural science shall be allowed 
to substitute for the entrance examination in 
Greek, mathematics, a-science or a modern 
language. 


Henry S. WILLiAMs, since 1892 professor of 
geology in Yale University, where he was 
ealled from Cornell University, has accepted 
a call to the head of the department of geology 
at Cornell. 


Dr. W. R. WHITEHORNE, formerly professor 
of physics and chemistry at Muhlenberg Col- 
lege, Allentown, Pa., has been appointed in- 
structor in physics at Lehigh University. 


Dr. Watpremar Kocn, associate in pharma- 
cology in the University of Chicago, has re- 
signed to accept the assistant professorship 
of pharmacology and physiological chemistry 
in the University of Missouri. 


Dr. Grorcz: Byron Gorpon has been ap- 
pointed instructor in anthropology in the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 


Dr. W. S. Baytey has resigned the chair 
of mineralogy and geology at Colby College 
which he has held since 1888. 


Proressor CHARLES H. Haskins, of the 
mathematical department of the Sheffield 
Scientific School, Yale University, has re- 
signed because of impaired health. 


Dr. Bonnuorer, of Koénigsberg, has been 
eleeted professor of psychiatry and director 
of the Insane Asylum at Heidelberg. 


> 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Frspruary 26, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
The Relation of Mathematics to Bngineer- 
ing: PRoressor C. A. WALDO............ 
The American Physical Society: PROFESSOR 
IRNMIST MIGRRIDT 00) s\c00s feet eas eis + cies wares 
Scientific Books :-— 
Theobald on Mosquitoes: Dr. L. O. Howarn. 
Mineralogy in the International Catalogue 
of Scientific Literature: Dr. C. PALACHE. . 
Scientific Journals and Articles............. 
Societies and Academies :— 
Section of Anthropology and Psychology of 
the New York Academy of Sciences: PrRo- 
FESSOR JAMES E. Lougu. The Botanical 
Society of Washington: Dr. H. J. WEBBER. 
- Haculty Science Club of Wellesley College: 
Grace Lanerorp. he Science Club of the 
University of Wisconsin: Victor LENHER. 
The Northeastern Section of the American 
Chemical Society: ArtHuR M. Commy..... 


321 


330 
334 


330 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Convocation Week: PRoressor Ernest Fox 
NicHois, Proressor E. H. S. Barney, Pro- 
Fressor T. C. Hopkins, Proressor THOMAS 
H. Macprive. Reply to an Address on the 
Present Status of Soil Investigation: FRANK 
Kk. Cameron. Woodcock Surgery: Pro- 
FESSOR WILLIAM Morton WHEELER....... 
Special Articles :— 
Rhythms of CO, Production during Cleav- 
GG@5. IDR, IB, 12; IUMORE ous ve dobaoudedoatoe 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Olimatology of California; Sky Colors and 
Atmospheric Circulation; Weather Folk- 
lore: PRroressor R. DeC. WARD.......... 
Hlizabeth Thompson Science Fund: PROFESSOR 
CHARTESH Ss MIENODE stan cmiecielcc seis oe ae 
The Annual Report of the Director of the 
Geological Survey .....-.--.2..00.e0.ee, 
Hmil Alexander de Schweinitz.............. 
Scientific Notes and News................. 
University and Educational News........... 


340 


350 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc.. intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


330. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


THH RELATION OF MATHEMATICS TO 
ENGINEERING. 


A rew years ago technical education as 
we now understand it was unknown in 
America. We have now in our midst more 
than 20,000 students preparing themselves 
distinctively for the engineering profession. 

While the technical schools of the country 
have had a development which for rapidity, 
strength and importance is little short of 
marvelous, yet their rise and growth have 
been profoundly influencing the thought as 
well as the welfare of the nation. Hs- 
pecially in the domain of mathematics have 
they had a directing and vivifying influence 
which is little short of a revolution. To- 
day mathematics wishes no stronger reason 
for her, existence and no stronger eall to her 
cultivation than the fact that she is the un- 
challenged doorkeeper to the appreciation 
and mastery of the physical sciences, both 
in their theory and in their application by 
the engineer to things useful. 

The time is past when mathematics is re- 
ferred to by the thinkers of the day as 
being principally a discipline. It is of 
course true that, rightly pursued, mathe- 
matics is a discipline, but it is far, more, it 
is a knowledge, a tool, a power, a civilizer. 
The day is gone when, on the one hand, the 
student, Chinese fashion, learns his geom- 
etry word for word from cover to cover 
or memorizes all the propositions of his 

* Vice-presidential address before Section D, 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science. St. Louis meeting, December, 1903. 


322 


analytic geometry down to the last index 
and subscript, or, on the other hand, when 
the devotee of a cult toasts his favorite sub- 
ject with the words ‘Here’s to the higher 
mathematics, may they never be useful.’ 
To the workaday world the higher ranges 
of mathematics have been a sealed book; 
the man who traverses them successfully 
a magicilan—a man whose mental occupa- 
tions awaken mingled feelings of awe and 
pity, awe that he can soar so high, pity that 
he wastes his strength in such useless flight. 
A generation ago the mathematician was 
joined in hand with the Roman and the 
Greek, and the three easily persuaded the 


educational world that they were the di- 


vine trio. Without them for a basis there 
could be nothing but a sham college course. 
Why it was that these three lines of study 
held such a commanding and, for the most 
part, unchallenged position, it is now diffi- 
eult for us to say. Possibly they gained 
higher esteem as means of mental disci- 
pline because their most ardent votaries 
so seldom succeeded in making them di- 
rectly useful except in certain narrow pro- 
fessional lines. Of the men in college 
courses who studied required mathematics 
beyond trigonometry very few gained any 
vital conception of analytic geometry and 
the caleulus. To most collegians the mass 
of symbols with which they juggled in pur- 
suing these subjects was a distressing night- 
mare, a matter of jest and to be forgotten 
with all possible speed. 

Our colleges to-day have seen a great 
light and have reformed their curricula. 


They now know there is no discipline in the 


pursuit of mathematics to the man who 
does not understand its language. Harly 
in his course, if not throughout it, the stu- 
dent is allowed the more rational way of 
getting his education, by pursuing subjects 
that he can understand. This sensible treat- 
ment of educational material has grown up 
during the development of technical col- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 478. 


leges and may be referred in a measure at 
least to their influence. Certainly great ad- 
vance in the teaching of mathematics has 
recently been made, yet very much remains 
to be done, and the next great forward 
movement seems to be coming directly from 
the engineers and the forces they are setting 
in operation. 

The literature on the question of reform 
in the teaching of mathematics is growing 
rapidly. In 1901 John Perry, professor 
of mechanics and mathematics of the Royal 
College of Science, London, and chairman 
of the Board of Examiners of the Board 
of Education in Engineering and Mathe- 
matics, produced a profound impression 
upon the British Association by a paper 
on “The Teaching of Mathematics.’ His 
ideas require attention further along. In 
Germany Nernst and Schoenflies, for ex- 
ample, have met the thought of the hour, 
in their ‘Hinftihring in die Mathematische 
Behandlung der Naturwissenchaften.’ In 
our own country Perry centers are spring- 
ing up for the reformation and profound 
improvement, if not revolution, of mathe- 
matical teaching in our secondary schools. 
In the west the apostle of this movement is 
Professor EH. H. Moore, of Chicago Univer- 
sity. One needs only to read his admirable 
presidential address before the American 
Mathematical Society in New York almost 
exactly a year ago to understand the full 
meaning and extent of the changes sought. 

The address will be found in the num- 
ber of the Bulletin of the American Mathe- 
matical Society for last May, and it will 
repay a careful perusal on the part of those 
of you who have not read it. Professor 
Moore has been counted as a pure mathe- 
matician ef the most pronounced type, but 
into this new movement he has thrown him- 
self with the ardor of one whose whole life 
had been spent in applying a wide range of 
mathematical power to the design and con- 
struction of the great objects of engineer- 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


ing. If the reformation which has been 
planned and begun shall go on to comple- 
tion, the mathematical teaching in the set- 
ondary schools of the middle west will have 
little resemblance ten years hence to the 
work of to-day. 

Arithmetic, algebra, geometry and trigon- 
ometry will no longer be set off in ‘water- 
tight compartments,’ but will all be de- 
manded in various combinations for the 
solution of single elementary problems. 
Squared and polar coordinate paper will 
represent the facts to the eye in geometrical 
symbolism and at the same time will give 
a practical introduction to the fundamental 
ideas of analytics and the calculus. By 
pursuing through the four years of second- 
ary school life a carefully selected and 
properly graded problem course the pupil 
will review the whole range of elementary 
mathematical truth and become familiar 
with it, not only in theory, but also in prac- 
tice. He will never be asking, ‘what use?’ 
But with the enthusiasm which original in- 
vestigation only can arouse he will find 
his educational material in the simpler 
problems of the shop, the store, the farm, 
the bank, the railroad, the steam-boat, the 
steam-engine, the electric motor, political 
economy, geodesy, astronomy, time, space, 
force and so on through the range of the 
elementary aspects of the things of daily 
thought and experience in this complex and 
highly developed life of ours. Such a 
change can not be perfected in a day. No 
inferior or untrained teacher can succeed 
with it. Elementary work must be in the 
hands of those who have come into living 
contact with some of the deep, broad prob- 
lems of chemistry, of physics and of engi- 
neering, demanding for their solution a 
large acquaintance with the higher ranges 
of mathematics. In turn colleges and uni- 
versities which strive to train such teachers 
must revise their mathematical courses and 
adjust themselves to these new ideas. 


SCIENCE. 


323 


In many of our leading institutions ex- 
actly that thing is occurring, stimulated 
perhaps in the first place by the great de- 
mand of technical colleges for mathema- 
ticilans in sympathy with engineering ideas. 

Those who are dealing with freshmen 
in colleges are asking the question, ‘What 
is the matter with our preparatory schools?’ 
If you wish to see this question strongly 
formulated and illustrated, read the com- 
mencement address of 1903 by President 
Tra Remsen at Mount Holyoke College. 

This is the indictment of the schools, that 
they use, largely to the exclusion of the 
thought element, a mass of formal and 
conventional educational material and thus 
paralyze thought and make abortive any 
natural mental growth. 

In the grades the clear, keen, accurate 
thinking of childhood soon disappears and 
does not usually show itself again until the 
laboratory or the practical problems of life 
make it once more dominant. We refer to 
President Remsen’s question only so far as 
it relates to mathematical trainimg. The 
technical schools long ago recognized the 
barren results of primary and secondary 
mathematical instruction and have been 
deeply interested in its improvement. Most 
keenly this loss has come to the engineer 
who must subject himself to the long, hard 
discipline necessary in his profession for 
the successful solution of his original and 
independent problems. Yet certain people 
seem to look askance upon the engineer and 
discover no advancement of science in the 
design of an entirely new machine to carry 
out an entirely novel idea. According to 
their notion, Whitney was not a scientist 
when he invented the cotton gin, nor Fulton 
when he constructed the first steam-boat, 
nor Morse when he perfected the telegraph. 

This was all pure commercialism. Even 
if these worthies cared nothing for the 
financial side of their work and only sought 
to serve and benefit their fellow men, they 


324 


could not be classified with the man who 
deseribes an unrecorded bug, or the one 
who makes a new but useless chemical com- 
pound. The latter work without the hope 
of direct money return for their labors. 
Therefore, theirs is the true method and the 
higher life even when their disinterested 
consecration to science is mingled with a 
hope that a little fame will bring them 
an increase in salary from some practical 
person or persons who appreciate their un- 
selfish efforts. 

However all of this may be, we know that 
the essence of any engineering work worthy 
the name is its independence. With this 
there is usually some degree of originality, 
as it seldom happens that the same 
problem repeats itself in every particular. 
What is more, with the independence 
and originality of the engineer must 
come character— confidence in his own men- 
tal processes and a willingness to shoulder 
responsibility in embodying his conclusions. 
A scientist may announce his discovery of 
the tidal evolution of the moon and yet 
be forgiven if later it should be shown that 
he is in error. Not so with the engineer. 
When his bridge falls under, prescribed 
conditions of safe load, his own ruin as well 
as that of his structure is complete. Of all 
men living the intellectual life the engineer 
is the one most interested in sound and log- 
ical training for his profession and most 
intolerant of all shams. It is not surprising 
then that the one subject in secondary 
schools whose natural purpose is to train the 
student to severe logical and productive 
thinking should respond most fully to his 
influence. Neither is it surprising that 
from the ranks of the engineers should 
come the reformer who sees clearly the de- 
fects of our present mathematical work in 
the lower grades and who is moving power- 
fully to seeure better conditions. 

We may sum up what now seem to be the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.§. Vor. XIX. No. 478. 


best ideals im secondary mathematics as 
follows: 

These ideals come from the engineering 
professions. 

They insist upon quality rather than 
quantity. 

They insist that the problems shall be 
largely conerete and shall be worked out to 
an accurate numerical result. 

They insist that the thought shall pre- 
cede the form, that the symbol shall not 
conceal the thing symbolized. 

They insist that systematic and progres- 
sive problems based upon every-day ex- 
perience and observation shall be, to a much 
greater extent, the materials of education. 
’ They demand that the several elementary 
mathematical subjects from arithmetic to 
the caleulus shall develop side by side in 
the boy’s mind. 

They demand that the mastery of these 
subjects shall be more the work of the judg- 
ment than of the memory. 

They demand that from first to last, at 
least during the secondary period, mathe- 
matical ability and the ability to think 
clearly, investigate closely and conclude cor- 
rectly shall develop together, and to the 
extent that four well-spent years will on 
the average permit. 

Those who formulate these ideas contend 
that they lead to the correct mathematical 
training for all professions and all careers. 

It remains for us to consider the mathe- 
matical courses in our technical colleges. 
What is their relation to the development 
of the engineer? What shall they include? 
How shall they be administered? These 
are not new questions, neither has the last 
word been said in answer to them. Fifteen 
years spent in directing engineering mathe- 
maties gives the writer some excuse to un- 
dertake some further discussion of them. 

Important contributions were made by 
Professor Mansfield Merriman in 1894, and 
Professor Henry T. Eddy in 1897, whose 


Fepruary 26, 1904.] 


articles are published in the Proceedings 
of the Society for the Promotion of 
Engineering Education, Volumes II. and 
VY. But among the most suggestive dis- 
cussions during the last year, as well 
as all previous years, are the papers 
of some of our brightest electrical en- 
gineers presented at the joimt meeting 
last July at Niagara Falls of the so- 
ciety just mentioned and of the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers and pub- 
lished this year in the proceedings of both 
societies. To those interested in finding the 
best educational conditions leading to the 
average as well as the most important 
engineering operations of the day these 
papers come with peculiar weight and au- 
thority. Judging from the expressions of 
opinion contained in them the active engi- 
neer in his occupation, at least, cares noth- 
ing for the philosophic basis of the concept 
of number, nor for the geometry of non-eu- 
clidian space, nor for Grassman’s stufe of 
the fifth or sixth degree, nor for com- 
putations of plane triangles when the sum 
of the angles is less than 180 degrees. These 
subjects may and should interest the pro- 
fessional mathematician, but the engineer 
asks first for the ability to use numbers 
rapidly and to carry numerical computa- 
tions, no matter how complex, to an ac- 
eurate conclusion. As for ordinary mathe- 
matics, including of course elementary 
geometry, algebra and trigonometry, the 
engineer should know them as he ‘knows 
the currency of his native country. In 
other words, he ought to be able to make 
change with ease, quickness and accuracy 
—not as if one were in a foreign country 
in a constant state of painful reckoning.’ 

On a basis of barter modern business 
would be strangled. The very existence of 
commerce in the modern sense, in which 
the line of cost and profit is so finely drawn, 
would be utterly impossible without a stan- 
dard currency. So without mathematics 


SCIENCE. 


325 


engineering would be a mass of empiricism 
and tradition. Instead of a pioneer leading 
the way in the progress of the people it 
would be an outcast trailing in the rear of 
every science. 

This proposition that mathematics is the 
very bone and sinew of an engineering 
course needs no discussion. It is every- 
where conceded. The extent and nature 
of the mathematical element in the curric- 
ulum, however, are two decided fiuents with - 
curves of opposite slope. More mathemat- 
ics but fewer kinds seems to be the tend- . 
eney. The opinion appears to be gaining 
ground that the purely descriptive and 
highly specialized and professionalized ele- 
ments in our technical courses should be 
reduced, while more subjects with a mathe- 
matical basis, with long unbroken continu- 
ity and bound together with a strong log- 
ical element should command the attention 
of the student to the end of his undergradu- 
ate period. 

Upon the question what mathematical 
subjects shall the undergraduate courses 
include in our technical colleges, opinions 
are decidedly at variance. Upon the four 
ordinary elementary subjects the sentiment 
is practically unanimous, but these should 
be principally taught in the secondary 
schools. The practical people, however, are 
inclined to relegate analytic geometry and 
the calculus to the scrap pile. 

To such subjects as vectors, theory of 
functions, theory of groups, they allow no 
place whatever. 

One can not but feel that this verdict 
against analytic geometry and the elemen- 
tary caleulus—not to mention higher sub- 
jects—is a great pity. Especially does it 
seem true when we recall that instruction 
in these two lines forms the principal 
mathematical element of the second and 
third years of the ordinary technical course 
and that the calculus itself is probably the 


most powerful and wonderful tool for in- 


326 


vestigation that the genius of man has ever 
contrived. 

The student of mathematics who has re- 
flected deeply upon the meaning and in- 
terpretation of its symbolic language knows 
that man, in his struggle for the mastery 
and direction of nature’s laws and pro- 
cesses, has no more subtle and no more 
powerful ally than he finds in the calculus. 
The other subjects leading to it are con- 
ventional and highly artificial, but with this 
one we return to simplicity and operate 
with perfect ease and freedom in the realms 
of time, space and force. 

As we find nature operating by growth, 
and force by insensible gradations, so over 
against that the caleulus is the science of 
continuous number. Why then does the 
mathematician find so much in this, his 
favorite subject, while the practical engi- 
neer—even the one of great ability, pro-- 
ficiency and success—is inclined to think 
that time spent upon it is wasted or at 
least not employed to the best advantage? 
Why this great divergency in conviction? 

No one will doubt the ability of our best 
mathematical instructors and teachers, nor 
their perfect familiarity with the matter 
they are teaching. But are analytics and 
the caleulus—especially the latter—pre- 
sented to the average student in the best 
way? Does not the formal smother the 
thought element and leave nothing but 
routine machine work upon symbols? As 
the student learns laboriously how to find 
the first derivative of a wide range of 
rider problems has he a faint conception 
even of what it is all about? Sir William 
Thomson, you know, said he did not under- 
stand an equation until he could make a 
model of it. Is the average student able 
to make a model of his operations with the 
differential caleulus? And when he takes 
up the integral caleulus and begins his at- 
tack upon a mass of algebraic and trans- 
cendental functions, using at times devices 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 478. 


of great complexity and extreme refine- 
ment, does he usually walk by sight or by 
faith? Does he not often go forward long 
and painful journeys in utter darkness as 
to the meaning of it all, trusting, hoping, 
praying that by and by his teacher and his 
text-book will land him on solid ground 
and in the clear light to revel and operate 
in a new world of thought and action? 
How many men of good natural endow- 
ments, who are sorely needed in the higher 
ranks of the world’s workers, become ter- 
rified in this period of distressing gloom; 
how many have lost individual initiative 
and independence and are content thence- 
forward to walk, not upright, vigorous, ag- 
eressive, daring, in the clear light of right 
reason, but by faith, humble and submis- 
sive? 

Why do practical men almost unani- 
mously place caleulus among the dispen- 
sable elements of a technical curriculum? 

The answer, of course, is very simple; 
they have never found any use for it, prob- 
ably because they have never learned how 
to use it. Yet they dare not pronounce 
against it altogether. They know that 
Rankine and Maxwell were master mathe- 
maticians, and that through this mastery 
of the most powerful of tools they were 
able to do for terrestrial what Newton and 
Laplace did for celestial mechanics. In 
college the engineer has not learned to use 
the modern tool called the higher analysis; 
it remains to him as foreign currency. Out 
of college he has not time to learn its use. 
Are you a teacher of mathematics and did 
you pursue the subject under the direction 
of a master; yet how many classes did 
you yourself guide through the calculus 
before its hidden meaning, its range, its 
versatility, its power, were in any adequate 
measure revealed to you? How simple 
and how majestic it has now become! But 
if you were so slow in reaching the true 
light, is it to be wondered at that students 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


who go over the subject but once and under 
conditions not greatly superior to those of 
your own college days should not see clearly 
and should not use what they so little un- 
derstand! Because, as matters now stand, 
the man who does not repeat his course in 
calculus many times will fail to appreciate 
it and use it, shall we say that it should be 
cut out of the engineering courses and its 
place taken by more algebra, more trigo- 
nometry and more descriptive geometry, 
or shall we retain it and reform its pre- 
sentation? The true mathematical teacher 
will always vote for the latter proposition 
whatever may be the attitude of the pro- 
fessional man on the faculty or the pres- 
sure from the outside of the practicing 
engineer. How, then, may the higher 
analysis in our technical schools be made 
effective as a true means of discipline and 
as a tool with which to equip the engineer 
in his life of investigation ? 

It is to be understood that the answer to 
this question here is not claimed to be 
the word nor the last word on so important 
atopic. It is a word to be taken for what 
it is worth. 

1. The most effective teaching of the 
higher analysis will be possible only when 
the reforms in mathematical instruction re- 
ferred to earlier in this paper have per- 
meated the principal secondary schools. 

2. The teacher should be saturated with 
his subject. Not only should he be strong 
and apt on the formal side, but more im- 
portant still, its inner meaning should be 
clear to him and its close relation to the 
phenomena of the objective and subjective 
life. Some contend that the only man to 
whom the mathematics of a technical col- 
lege can be entrusted is an engineer. Does 
that make any difference? Rather are not 
these the essential questions? Does the man 
know his subject? In his teaching can he 
assemble from engineering and other rec- 
ords the material that will vitalize his 


SCIENCE. 


327 


work? Is hein sympathy with engineering 
essentials and ideals? 

3. Throughout the college course the 
teaching should be mainly conerete. The 
problem, say from the physical sciences in- 
eluding engineering, should first be pre- 
sented concretely. It should then be 
stated in mathematical symbols. The oper- 
ations performed upon the symbols should 
be accompanied by drawings or models, 
the final result reduced to numerical form 
and then interpreted in language. Upon 
every problem the student must bring to 
bear the whole range of his acquired powers 
and be taught to select the shortest method 
within his ability. 

In other words, all typical problems 
should receive a threefold consideration: 
(a) Its statement in words, and the state- 
ment in words of its solution when effected ; 
(6) its graphical statement and solution in- 
volving geometry and mechanical drawing 
with squared paper; (c) its analytic state- 
ment and solution, ending with a numerical 
result. 

4. The purely formal should be pre- 
sented as a necessity arising from the so- 
ealled practical and in order that a body 
of knowledge and technical ability may be 
accumulated which will give the student 
easy control over the practical in whatever 
one of its various forms experience shows 
that it may arise. 

od. The problems chosen should be pro- 
gressive in character and their mastery 
should amount to a complete laboratory 
course in all that part of the higher anal- 
ysis in which it is desirable that the engi- 
neering student should be well versed. 

6. The course should be lecture and sem- 
imarium and individual, more after the 
manner of the German Technische Hoch- 
schule. The text-book should become a 
book of reference. The instructor should 
know clearly and be able to state accurately 
the limitations of his methods; but abstruse 


328 SCIENCE. 


discussions of obscure points should be 
postponed as long as a due regard for log- 
ical development will allow. ‘Time is 
wasted in removing difficulties whose ex- 
istence and importance the student has not 
yet recognized. 

These are some of the necessary exten- 
sions into college work of the reformation 
now urged upon the secondary schools, and 
though every one of them seems familiar 
enough when taken separately ; all together 
their united application to the mathematical 
courses in our technical colleges amounts 
to a departure from our present traditional 
methods little short of revolutionary. Yet 
isn’t this the thing our engineers are de- 
manding, and isn’t this the logical way to 
train an engineer in higher mathematics? 
Isn’t it the way to approach the higher 
mathematics anywhere or in any kind of a 
school? 

The pure mathematician may object and 
exclaim, What is to become of our cur- 
ricula which have been evolved after so 
many years of intellectual conflict! The 
rule is so much algebra, so much geometry, 
so much trigonometry, so much analytical 
geometry and so much ecaleulus. At the 
end the student has passed with greater or 
less suecess so many formal examinations 
upon so many formal topics and his ac- 
quirements are supposed to range some- 
where between the maximum and minimum 
erade of passing. But are these the ques- 
tions which the enlightened educator of to- 


day is asking? Is it not How much power? 


A dry, barren, fruitless familiarity with 
a number of highly specialized and unre- 
lated things can not be education. The 
engineer demands that the unity of the 
mathematical branches should be emphas- 
ized and that they should accumulate in 
the soul of the student not as dry and un- 
related facts, but as a magazine of energy.* 

* Little has been said in this paper about de- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 478. 


You may ask for some definite conerete 
expression upon the way that the study of 
ealeulus should be undertaken. This 
paper will close with an attempt at a brief 
answer to this question. 

We will suppose that experimentally or 
otherwise the student is familiar with the 
equation of falling bodies s=igi?. By 
this time also the student must be some- 
what skilled in the use of squared paper 
and acquainted with this curve itself 
through its application to parabolic mir- 
rors or otherwise. Perhaps, our parabola 
had been studied from its geometrical side 
as a conic section. It now takes on a 
symbolic meaning, for it gives in a certain 
sense a picture of the first law of falling 
bodies. But does the student grasp the 
full meaning of the picture? Using the 
approximation g—=82, we have a numerical 
equation. The abscissas of the curve repre- 
sent elapsed time; the corresponding ordi- 
nates represent total space traversed. At 
some point on the curve proceed geometri- 
cally and analytically to construct the 
tangent, at every step making a threefold 
interpretation, one of the curve, one of the 
analysis, and one of the fact connected 
with these in the familiar phenomena of a 
falling body. Show the limiting position 
of the secant, deduce the number towards 
which your successive numerical approxi- 
mations tend, and connect both of these 
with the velocity of the body at the point 
considered. Draw the tangent and show 


scriptive geometry and mechanical drawing as 
necessary parts of a general mathematical train- 
ing. Both of these subjects are of the highest 
value as disciplinary studies. They make definite 
and effective other mathematical material. Is not 
one reason for the barrenness of mathematics in 
university courses the fact that these branches 
simple though they are, have been so long ne- 
glected? Do we not find one important explana- 
tion of the effectiveness of technical college mathe- 
matics in the fact that these subjects are always 
a large part of a technical training? 


a ey, ee 


——— 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


how it represents uniform velocity. Show 
that the results reached at one point on the 
curve are general and apply equally well 
to every point and that everywhere on your 
curve the geometrical tangent and your 
analytic limit interpret each other and give 
the rate or velocity of the falling body. 

Note that the tangents are changing, that 
the corresponding numbers are changing 
and that these constitute a rate of change 
of velocities. Show graphically the oblique 
straight line representing the changing 
velocities. Give its graphical, its numerical 
and its nature interpretation. In the same 
way study the line parallel to the axis of 
abscissas representing gravity. Study the 
graphs and their relation to each other. 
Study the series of numbers resulting from 
the selection of equal increments along the 
X-axis, the relation, therefore, of these 
operations to the theory of number series. 
Connect the first differential coefficient 
with the tangents and with rates, the sec- 
ond with the changes of tangents or of 
rates of tangents, and thus with the thing 
in this problem that produces the changes 
of velocities, that is, with the force of grav- 
ity. Note the deformation of the original 
eurve if the resistance of the air had been 
considered and its influence accounted for 
by some simple law. Construct the curve 
of the body projected upwards. Let up and 
down destroy each other, so that the ordi- 
nates at each point will be the algebraic 
sum of opposite motions. Note the point 
in the curve when the projected body is for 
an instant stationary in the air. Observe 
its connection with the first differential 
coefficient. Note the deformation of the 
curve due to the resistance of the air acting 
according to some assumed law. 

Similarly, construct approximately the 
smooth integral curve which represents 
the movement of a steam railroad train 
from station to station fifty miles apart. 
Connect the contour of the curve with ve- 


SCIENCE. 


329 


locities and with forces, including in the 
latter the steam in the cylinder, gravity 
assisting or retarding, friction and air re- 
sistance always retarding. Note how the 
second differential coefficient carries us 
back to steam in the cylinders, the third to 
the causes leading to a variation of the 
artificial forces, such as fuel, skill in stok- 
ing, ete. Pursue maxima and minima prob- 
lems in the same way. But now, instead 
of a rate of change directly dependent upon 
a conventional unit of time, we have rela- 
tive rates of change and we quickly enlarge 
our ideas of the meaning and application 
of the first and second differential coeffi- 
cient. We can safely begin the formal 
element of the subject. Even then we 
should continue the diagram and its in- 
terpretation, though we may be utterly un- 
able to set the highly artificial equation 
over against any definite problem known 
to exist in nature. 

Just as differentiation always has a sym- 
bolic interpretation in tangents and rates, 
so the integration of any expression may 
be interpreted as the finding of an area. 

From engineering we have a remarkable 
series of connected quantities and these may 
be selected, as given by Professor W. K. 
Hatt in the Railroad Gazette of December 
23, 1898, for, illustrating the cumulative 
effect of successive integrations. Five suc- 
cessive diagrams used in engineering prac- 
tice are connected by integrations. These 
are in their order the load diagram, the 
shear diagram, the moment diagram, the 
slope diagram and the deflection diagram. 

But it is not necessary to enter further 
upon specific illustration. The higher 
analysis is replete with problems which 
the skilled teacher may use as stepping 
stones by which he may help the student 
to pass with safety to higher and higher 
mathematical attainment. Step by step he 
masters his method while he is gaining a 


330 


clearer insight into the causal relations of 
things about him. 

The thought element is ever dominant. 
He goes from strength to strength until no 
task seems too difficult for his disciplined 
powers. 

Two young men stand before an intricate 
machine. They are told that their success 
in life depends in large measure on their 
ability to understand and use it. One ex- 
amines piece by piece the parts of which 
it is composed. He discovers the way in 
which these parts are connected, the ma- 
terial of which they are made, their size, 
their strength, their beauty. After long 
and arduous study, he knows very much 
about the machine but he can not put it in 
motion, he can not make it work, he can do 
nothing with it except to admire its per- 
fection of form. 

The other student begins to construct 
another machine like the one shown him. 
As it grows under his hands, he is con- 
stantly using it for every operation to 
which it can be applied. As it approaches 
completion he admires more and more its 
adaptability and wide range of useful ap- 
plications. Its beauty no longer affects 
him greatly, but he is lost m wonder 
and admiration before its marvelous 
power. This power he harnesses to the car 
of progress and he himself becomes one of 
the benefactors of his race. 

Do we need to stop long to discover who 
is the ‘man thinking’? 

In later years mathematical instruction 
in this country has greatly improved in its 
thought content, but it has responded slowly 
and conservatively to modern methods. We 
are still more English than German. In the 
work of training a master of the physical 
sciences the text-book and the senseless 
repetition of words and formulas falling 
upon the dull ear of an instructor half 
asleep have been replaced by the lecture, 
the laboratory and the seminarium. Why 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 478. 


should not mathematics, so intimately re- 
lated to them, follow their lead and partake 
in the benefits of modern methods carried 
to their legitimate and logical completion ? 
C. A. WALDO. 


PuRDUE UNIVERSITY. 


THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 

THE winter meeting of the American 
Physical Society was held in cooperation 
with Section B of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science at 
St. Louis, joimt sessions bemg held on 
December 29-31, 1903. The business 
meeting of the Physical Society was held 
on December 30, and the program for that 
day consisted of Physical Society papers. 

The meeting was a distinctly successful 
one. The program, consisting of twelve 
papers, was as large as could be satisfac- 
torily handled, and contained several 
papers of exceptional interest. While 
comparatively few eastern members were 
present, the attendance was, nevertheless, 
well up to the average of previous ‘annual’ 
meetings. The large attendance of physi- 
cists from the middle west, most of whom 
are only rarely able to attend the meetings 
in New York, offered a strong argument in 
favor of more frequent meetings in that 
part of the country. 

At the annual election the officers of the 
past year were reelected, 1. ¢., 

President—A. G. Webster. 

Vice-President—Hlihu Thomson. 

Secretary—KErnest Merritt. 

Treasurer—William Hallock. 

Members of the Council—Messrs. H. Rutherford 
and W. S. Franklin. 

It was decided to hold the spring meeting 
of the society (1904) in Washington, this 
action beimg taken in consequence of a 
cordial invitation extended to the society 
by the Philosophical Society of that city. 
Not only is the local membership of the 
society in Washington large, but the ad- 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


vantages of the capital as a place of meet- 
ing are exceptional, as was evidenced by the 
very enjoyable meeting there last winter. 
It seems, therefore, that a successful meet- 
ing may be confidently expected. 

The Physical Society also voted to accept 
an invitation from the International Elec- 
trical Congress to hold a meeting in St. 
Louis during September, 1904, in connec- 
tion with the meetings of the congress. 

It was the sense of the council that a 
definite plan should be presented by the 
council at this meeting looking to the es- 
tablishment of a western section of the 
society. 

The papers. presented were as follows: 


The Radwoactivity of Ordinary Metals: B. 

F. Burton. 

The conducting power acquired by gases 
‘when confined in a closed metal vessel has 
been explained as the result of two causes: 
(1) The radioactivity of the metal walls; 
(2) a penetrating radiation from without, 
which reaches the confined gas by first pass- 
ing through the walls of the vessel. Mr. 
Burton has attempted to eliminate the lat- 
ter, rays by surrounding the vessel with a 
screen of water. A decrease in the con- 
ducting power of the confined gas was in 
fact produced, the decrease being approxi- 
mately proportional to the thickness of 
water, and amounting to 32 per cent. when 
the water was 60 em. thick. While the 
vessel was surrounded by a water screen of 
this thickness its conducting power was 
tested for, different pressures, ranging from 
19 mm. to 752 mm. The conductivity was 
found to be almost exactly proportional to 
the pressure. The author concludes that 
the conductivity is due to a penetrating 
type of radiation. 


Does the Radioactivity of Radium depend 
on the Concentration? EK. RuTHERFORD. 
The intensity of the 7-rays from radium 

bromide was determined by the electrical 


SCIENCE. 


331 


method, first when the salt was in the solid 
form, and second when dissolved in a solu- 
tion of radium chloride. The volume occu- 
pied in the second test was more than a 
thousand times as great as that in the first. 
No difference in the intensity of the y-rays 
could be detected. Since the intensity of 
these rays serves as a comparative measure 
of the activity, the conclusion is reached 
that the activity of radium is independent 
of the concentration in the range covered 
by these experiments. 


The Heating Effect of the Radium Emana- 
tions: EK. RUTHERFORD and H. T. BARNES. 
The authors described the results of 

further experiments on this subject. (For 

the preliminary experiments see Nature, 

October 29, 1908.) The evolution of heat 

by the emanation and by the deemanated 

radium was followed from the time of 
separation throughout the radioactive life 
of the emanation. The variation of the 
heating effects with time was found to be 
the same as the variation in radioactivity, 
as measured by the a-rays. Hstimating 
the volume of the emanation released by 
heating one gram of radium as between 

6 xX 10-4 ee. and 6 X10 @e., and as- 

suming its density to be about 100 times 

that of hydrogen, the authors compute that 

1 gram of the emanation would radiate 

during its life an amount of energy lying 

between 2X 10° and 2 10%* gram ea- 
lories. A pound of the emanation would 
radiate energy initially at the rate of about 

100,000 horse power. 


The Phosphorescence of Organic Sub- 
stances at Low Temperatures: EH. WU. 
NicHots and HE. Merrirv. 

About 120 substances, chiefly organic 
compounds of definite composition, were 
tested for phosphorescence and fluorescence 
at the temperature of liquid air. Of these 
only 21 failed to show luminescence at this 
temperature, while in numerous instances 


302 


the phenomena were quite brilliant. HEx- 
cept the phosphorescent sulphides no sub- 
stances were found whose phosphorescence 
was diminished by cold. Perhaps the most 
interesting substance tested was tetrachlor- 
phthalic acid. This showed both phos- 
phorescence and fluorescence at —186° C., 
while quite inactive at ordinary tempera- 
tures. It was also stimulated by Roentgen 
rays, fluorescing under their influence as 
brilliantly as a good X-ray screen. 


The Spectro-photometric Study of Fluores- 
cence: H. li. NicHous and EH. Mrrrirr. 
The authors investigated the spectrum of 

the fluorescent light from fiuorescein and 
other substances when excited by light of 
widely different wave-lengths. The spec- 
trum was found to be the same in all cases, 
even when the wave-length of the exciting 
light was greater than that of the brightest 
region in the fluorescent spectrum. In 
agreement with Lommel, and in opposition 
to Lamansky, Becquerel and others, two 
conclusions are reached, viz., (1) the dis- 
tribution in the fluorescent spectrum is 
independent of the exciting light; (2) for 
substances of this class Stokes’s law does 
not apply. 


The Electrical Conductivity of Liquid 
Films: L. J. Briees and J. W. McLane. 
The thickness of films of Plateau’s solu- 

tion was computed from the area and 
weight, and the resistance of the films was 
directly measured. It was found by this 
method that the specific conductivity of 
films about 1 y thick is less than one third 
that of the solution in mass. 


On the Use of Nickel in the Marconi Mag- 
netic Detector: A. L. Founy. 

A detector with a core of nickel wires 
was found to have about the same sensi- 
tiveness aS one using iron. The greatest 
sensitiveness was obtained by using a core 
contaming both nickel and iron wires. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 478. 


On Double Refraction in Matter moving 
through the Ether: D. B. Brace. 


Electric Double Refraction in Gases: D. 

B. BRACE. 

The author presented a brief prelim- 
inary account of work on the subjects men- 
tioned in the two titles above, but looked 
upon the experiments as not yet carried 
far enough to make a detailed report de- 
sirable. 


The Work of the National Bureau of 
Standards: EH. B. Rosa. 


The Spectrum of the Afterglow of the 
Spark Discharge in Nitrogen at Low 
Pressures: PERCIVAL LEWIS. 

The phosphorescence studied is produced 
only im the purest obtainable nitrogen. 
Instead of a continuous spectrum, which is 
observed in most cases of afterglow, the 
light in this case gave a banded or line 
spectrum. The spectrum contains a num- 
ber of unidentified lines, of which four in 
the visible region are especially prominent. 
Certain of the lines of nitrogen, mercury 
and aluminium (the last due to the elec- 
trodes) were also present. 

J. J. Thomson has advanced the hypoth- 
esis that afterglow effects are due either 
to chemical actions in a mixture or to 
polymeric changes in a pure gas. If this 
be the explanation—and it seems a reason- 
able one—how can a chemically neutral gas 
excite luminosity im every metallic vapor 
which may be present, such as mercury 
and aluminium ? 


The Spectrum of the Electrodeless Dis- 
charge in Nitrogen: Percival Lewis. 
The discharge was obtained in the form 

of a ring by the use of an oscillatory dis- 

charge in a coil surrounding the tube. Any 
effects due to electrostatic influences were 
eliminated by sereens of moistened paste- 
board. The spectrum showed the bands of 
the second and third groups, as’ classified 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


by Deslandres in the case of the positive 
column of the ordinary discharge with 
electrodes. The first group was entirely 
absent. It was interesting to find that 
some of the characteristic bands of the 
negative glow were also observed: 
Ernest MERRITT, 
Secretary. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


A Monograph of the Culicide or Mosquitoes. 

By Frep. V. THEropaup, M.A. Volume III. 
- London, printed by order of the trustees of 

the British Museum. 1903. Pp. xvii + 

359; 193 text figures; 17 plates. 

Interest in matters connected with mosqui- 
toes has been increasing so rapidly of late, and 
so many students and physicians in all parts 
of the world have been taking up the investi- 
gation of this family of dipterous insects, 
that Mr. Theobald’s monograph of 1901, pub- 
lished in two volumes of text and one volume 
of plates, was hardly in the hands of investi- 
gators before almost enough material had ac- 
cumulated for another volume. Between 
April, 1901, and February, 1903, over one 
hundred collections were received at the 
British Museum, and the present volume in- 
cludes consideration of this material. Jn the 
volume are described 23 new genera, 88 new 
species and 8 new varieties. At this point 
Volume III. stops. Since that time already 
25 new collections have been received at the 
British Museum, and whatever new forms are 
contained in these and subsequent collections 
will be described in journals, and it is not pro- 
posed to issue another volume until the arrival 
of new species slackens and the subject has 
reached a more final stage. This means that 
for some time to come people wishing to iden- 
tify mosquitoes must base their work pri- 
marily upon the three volumes published and 
afterwards consult all sorts of scientific peri- 
odicals, both biological and medical, for de- 
scriptions of new forms, which will necessitate 
‘some rather extensive card-cataloguing. In 
the meantime it may parenthetically be stated 
that no doubt Mr. Theobald will be glad to 
name specimens for persons sending them to 


SCIENCE. 


393 


him, and’ the writer holds the services of his 
force at Washington at the disposal of in- 
quiring medical men and other culicidologists. 

In Volume IJJ. the British Museum au- 
thorities have abandoned the colored plates 
which formed so attractive and excellent a 
feature of Volumes I. and II., but the text 
contains many figures giving anatomical de- 
tails of the new species, including a number 
of figures of various stages. The plates are 
all done by the collotype process from photo- 
graphs, and are in the main very good. Care- 
ful drawings would have been much better 
than some of them, especially the heads on 
Plate IX. and the larva and pupa on Plate 
XVI. 

In the preparation of this volume Mr. Theo- 
bald has shown great care and very good 
judgment. He has been most industrious in 
bringing together many points concerning the 
biology of different species in spite of the fact 
that his main interest seems to have been in 
the classification of the adults, and as a matter 
of course the volume is a mine of information 
concerning the geographic distribution of spe- 
cies. He had before him practically no addi- 
tional material from North America in the 
preparation of Volume JII., although he in- 
troduces some Central American forms, some 
from the West Indies and a number from 
South America. The bulk of his additional 
material, however, has come to him from 
Afriea, India and Australasian regions. 

One point which he brings out which will 
be of interest to North American students is 
his decision that Anopheles walkeri, which he 
described from specimens (number not given) 
collected at Lake Simcoe, Ontario, in Sep- 
tember by E. M. Walker, is really a synonym 
of Anopheles bifurcatus Linneeus of Europe, a 
species of rather wide European distribution, 
occurring from Lapland to Italy and the Medi- 
terranean islands. 

Since the publication of Volumes I. and II. 
an important attempt has been made by M. 
Neveu-Lemaire to formulate a classification 
of mosquitoes mainly on palpal and vena- 
tional characters. Mr. Theobald shows that 
while the French author in his classification 
upholds certain genera proposed by Theobald 


304 


himself and which were originally based al- 
most entirely upon scale structure, certain 
others of his genera suffer from the applica- 
tion of this class of characters. The main 
objection to the palpal characters is their dif- 
ficulty to the student, and, if possible, for 
convenient use tables for the separation of 
species should be based upon characters which 
ean be studied without mutilating the speci- 
mens. This plea Mr. Theobald makes for the 
retention of his seale characters, since they 
can be made out with any compound micro- 
scope, and even with a high-power hand lens. 
Mr. Theobald deserves great credit for the 
work which he has done with scale characters, 
but there can be no doubt that the rational 
classification depends to a greater extent for 
its generic characters upon such distinctions 
as have been pointed out by Neveu-Lemaire. 
It will be rather difficult to draw the line, for 
example, between the ‘narrow curved scales’ 
and the ‘broad curved scales’ found upon the 
heads of certain mosquitoes, since there are 
curved scales which it would be difficult to 
distinguish as narrow or broad. There is a 
gradation, in other words, which makes it 
difficult in some cases to accept them as 
generic characters. 

Mr. Theobald has done a great and lasting 
service to the medical profession and to the 
students of biology in producing this elab- 
orate monograph, and deserves the thanks of 
all classes. The authorities of the British 
Museum should also be included in this vote 
of thanks, since they have published the re- 
sults of his labor in very beautiful form. 

L. O. Howarp. 


International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 
ture. G, Mineralogy including Petrology 
and Crystallography. First Annual Issue. 
Published for the International Council by 
the Royal Society of London. Vol. XI, 
1908 (January). Pp. xiii + 208. 

The general character and scope of this 
international catalogue have already been 
sketched in this magazine (Vol. XVI., 1902, 
p. 861). This volume embracing mineralogy, 
petrology and crystallography is of the same 
high quality that has characterized the earlier 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 478. 


appearing volumes on other subjects. The 
scheme of classification of the subject cata- 
logue is as follows, the numbers given being 
the so-called registration numbers by which 
each section is designated: 0000 to 0070, gen- 
eral, including philosophy, history and biog- 
raphy, periodicals, text-books, addresses, insti- 
tutions and nomenclature; 10 to 19, general 
mineralogy, including chemistry, mode of oc- 
currence, economic mineralogy and artificial 
minerals, ete.; 30 to 32, determinative mineral- 
ogy; 40, new mineral names; 50, descriptive 
mineralogy with alphabetical list of mineral 
names; 60, geographical distribution; 70 to 73, 
meteorites; 80 to 87, petrology, including 
igneous, sedimentary and metamorphic rocks, 
unclassified rocks and chemical analysis of 
rocks; 100 to 750, crystallography, including 
geometrical and mathematical crystallography 
(105 to 150), crystal structure and growth 
(200 to 240), physical and optical erystallog- 
raphy (800 to 440), chemical crystallography 
(500 to 540) and determinative crystallography 
(600 to 750). 

This scheme and a topographic classification 
of localities is printed in four languages. The 
catalogue proper is introduced by an authors’ 
catalogue containing 1,072 entries, comprising 
53 pages. The remaining 120 pages contain 
the subject catalogue as above outlined. The 
catalogue fills a want much felt by all workers 
in science, and while alterations in the scheme, 
especially in the subject classification, may 
suggest themselves later as advisable, there 
can be only praise for the work accomplished. 
The fact that larger funds and more complete 
equipment of the several bureaus will in the 
future make it possible to keep the catalogue 
more nearly concurrent with the period whose 
work it records insures a still greater useful- 
ness for the work. 

CHARLES PALACHE. 


SCIENTIFIO JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Popular Science Monthly for February 
has for frontispiece a portrait of Professor W. 
G. Farlow, president of the American Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, while 
the first article is the address of the late presi- 
dent, Ira Remsen, on ‘ Scientific Investigation 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


and Progress.’ ‘This is followed by the ad- 
dress of David Starr Jordan, entitled ‘ Com- 
rades in Zeal,’ before the Sigma Xi Society. 
Edward S. Holden discusses ‘ The Predecessors 
of Copernicus, giving much information 
about the early astronomers, and J. Madison 
Taylor considers ‘ The Conservation of Energy 
in those of Advancing Years.’ Oliver C. 
Farrington treats of ‘The Geographical Dis- 
tribution of Meteorites’ and Charles P. Pettus 
describes the origin and progress of ‘ Wash- 
ington University,’ whose fine and harmonious 
buildings will be a surprise to many. The 
final article is by G. A. Miller, on ‘ What is 
Group Theory?’ 


Bird-Lore for January-February opens with 
an illustrated article on ‘The Black Tern at 
Home,’ by Ernest Thompson Seton and Frank 
M. Chapman, and this is followed by.‘ Horned 


Larks in Colorado Springs, by E. R. Warren. ~ 


“The Christmas Bird Census’ comprises rec- 
ords by 78 observers scattered well over the 
eountry. There is a second paper, with 
colored plates, on ‘The Migration of War- 
blers,’ by W. W. Cooke, and an interesting 
prize essay in the department ‘ For Young Ob- 
servers.’ In the editorial section is a protest 
against ‘humanizing the birds,’ and under 
“The Audubon Society’ there is much of in- 
terest. A 


The Museums Journal of Great Britain for 
January has an article by Benjamin Ives Gil- 
man, ‘On the Distinctive Purpose of Mu- 
seums of Art,’ in which the writer takes the 
ground that there is a marked difference be- 
tween museums of art and other museums. 
The function of the art museum is not pri- 
marily that of popular instruction, this being 
of secondary importance to its esthetic in- 
fluence. The notices of art forgeries con- 
tained in the notes should put collectors of 
paintings and bric-a-brac on their guard. 


Prorussor R. Krause and Dr. M. Mosse, of 
Berlin, announce the foundation of a new 
Centralblatt f. normale und pathologische 
Anatomie mit Hinschluss der Mikrotechnik. 


SCIENCE. 


330 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. SECTION OF 
ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 


THE regular meeting of the section was 
held on January 25 at the American Museum 
of Natural History in conjunction with the 
New York Branch of the American Psycho- 
logical Association. Afternoon and evening 
sessions were held, the members dining to- 
gether between sessions. The program was as 
follows: 


Primary and Secondary Presentations: Dr. 

Henry Rurcers MarsHatt. 

Dr. Marshall in his paper aimed to present 
evidence that presentations are always new 
presentations, and that, therefore, images can 
not be properly said to be copies of impres- 
sions, nor can what we call representations 
be properly said to be duplications of any 
presentations which have previously existed. 
His paper was a summary of an article which 
is presently to appear in Mind. 


The Generic Relation of Organic Sensation 
and Simple Feeling: Professor Marcaret B. 
WASHBURN. 


The Universe's Place in Man: Dr. Francis 
Burke BRaAnpr. . 
The paper emphasized the necessity for a 

fresh start in modern empirical investigation 

through a critical restatement of the postu- 
lates of experience. The starting point of 
every empirical science, it was contended, is 
individual conscious experience. The primary 
datum of individual experience is a perceptive 
and a conceptive consciousness combined or- 
ganically in the unity of a personal life exist- 
ent in a universe of persons. The material 
universe thus primarily takes its place in man 
rather than man his place in the material 
universe, for scientific philosophy has demon- 
strated beyond eriticism, first, that the visible 
universe always exists primarily in and for a 
momentary perceptive consciousness limited in 
space, and second, that the unseen universe is 
always primarily a conceptive construction 
whose validity is always verifiable within the 
realm of momentary pereeptiye experience. 
The material universe, whether conceived 


306 


* phenomenally or existentially, participates in 
one case in the content, in the other in the 
being of absolute personality, and as such, so 
far as individual man is concerned, is the 
objectification of the conditions of higher in- 
dividual development. 


Retinal Local Signs: Mr. Wautrr I. Drar- 

BORN. 

This paper was offered as a critique of the 
first of the three Lotzean hypotheses concern- 
ing the nature of the retinal local signs. Ex- 
periments to determine the accuracy of the 
motor impulse, as shown by the ability to 
fixate directly eccentric visual stimuli forty 
degrees to the right of the primary line of 
regard, found an average error of corrective 
movements considerably in excess of the 
threshold value of local discrimination for the 
same part of the retina. These discrepancies 
between the accuracy of the motor impulse 
and the delicacy of local discrimination seem 
to necessitate some modification of the tradi- 
tional view in regard to the nature of the 
local signs, or at least in regard to the relative 
importance of the motor factor. 


Dewey's “Studies in Logical Theory’: Dr. 

Henry Davirs. 

In this paper only the four chapters con- 
tributed by Professor Dewey to the above work 
were considered. 

Toward the right understanding of the work 
two conditions of a historical character must 
be borne in mind. One of these is the rela- 
tion of recent logical theory to the Kantian 
dualism of sense and reason which tended 
to separate thought from its object. The 
other is the influence of the evolutionary 
method, which drives the investigator to study 
logical distinctions in the light of their 
genesis in experience. 

Both of these conditions exert a profound 
influence over Dewey’s thought. For it is 
the essence of his contribution to logical theory 
that he shows that the obstinate manner in 
which logicians have accepted the Kantian 
reading of experience is the most fruitful 
historical cause of the contradictions, e. g., in 
Lotze’s ‘ Logic’ as well as in that of Bradley 
and Bosanquet. Dewey claims that this is a 
complete misreading of the thought situation. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XEX, No. 478. 


On the other hand, common sense and em- 
pirical science with their pragmatic and evo- 
lutionary method disclose the real situation. 
Thought is a question of specific purposes, 
specific contexts and specific conflicts. Com- 
mon sense and empirical science assume: for 
these specific aims the unity and continuity 
of experience. The logical problem emerges 
when this is broken up by an inward conflict 
into fact and theory, datum and ideatum. 
The content of thought is just this conflict, 
which is only a temporary phase of the logical 
situation, the outcome of which must always 
be the reestablishment of the original unity 
in our experience. 

It follows from this that logic can not con- 
template as its aim a completely rationalized 
metaphysics. Rather its function is to act 
as a philosophy of experience, as a method by 
which experience may be advanced towards 
better and more complete knowledge. But the 
rectification of experience and the complete 
correlation of all the functions of experience 
presuppose a logic of genetic experience. It 
is Dewey’s merit to have pointed this out and 
to have, in large part, supplied the need in the 
present work. 

The Distribution of Errors in Spelling Eng- 
lish Words: Professor Ropert MacDouGatu. 
Dr. MacDougall made a provisional report 

upon an inyestigation of the distribution of 

errors in spelling English words. These oc- 
eur characteristically in the latter part of the 
word, but do not present a continuous in- 
erease from beginning to end. The curve of 
error is an anticlinal having its maximum 
in the third quarter of the word and its 
points of origin the initial and final letters, 
of which the latter is the higher in the scale 
of errors. Similar relations are presented by 
the component syllables, fewest errors occur 
in the initial, most in the median letters. 

Considered apart from their relation to the 

termination of the word, the frequency of 

error in successive letters is found to increase 
with each remove from the beginning of the 
word. 


The Ultimate Relation between Magic and 
Religion: Dr. Irvine Kine. 
Magic and religion can not be legitimately 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


distinguished on the side of the actual content 
of their respective practices, nor by using such 
notions as that of the supernatural, unless 
they are critically reconstructed with refer- 
ence to the type of culture in which they are 
applied. It seems more legitimate to differ- 
entiate magic and religion according to the 
types of situations within which they ap- 
pear. Some tensions in the experience of 
the primitive man are merely occasional and 
appeal to him chiefly as an individual; others 
are more general and appeal more insistently 
to the consciousness of the social group. In 
connection with the former sort of tensions 
magical practices are developed, and in con- 
nection with the latter variety religion differ- 
entiates. James E. Loueu, 
Secretary. 


BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE seventeenth regular meeting of the Bo- 
tanical Society of Washington was held at 
the Portner Hotel, January 7, 1904. 

Messrs. A. D. Shamel, W. W. Tracy, Sr., 
Professor C. V. Piper and Professor W. M. 
Scott were elected to active membership. 

At the close of the business meeting the fol- 
lowing papers were presented: 


The Identity of American Upland Cotton: 

Mr. L. H. Dewey. 

The common cultivated cotton of the south- 
ern states is known in American botanical 
literature as Gossypium herbaceum L. Euro- 
pean authors, especially in recent years, have 
referred it to G. hirsutum L. Nearly all 
authorities agree that the cotton of southern 
Asia, cultivated in India since the earliest 
records, also cultivated in southern Europe 
and known as the Levant cotton, is G.-her- 
baceum. The descriptions of Linneeus do not 
characterize the species definitely, though 
“five-lobed leaves’ applies best to G. her- 
baceum, and ‘acutely three- to five-lobed 
leaves’ to G. hirsutum, but the authors cited 
by Linnzeus state clearly that G. hirsutum is 
the American cotton. 

The name Gossypium herbaceum has evi- 
dently been applied to American cotton as the 
result of a misidentification hy early American 


SCIENCE. 


307 


authors and the assumption that it originated 
from seed brought from Europe. American 
upland cotton is almost certainly of American 
origin. Both American and Asiatic cottons 
exhibit a wide variation, but the general char- 
acters within the limits of variation are sufii- 
ciently constant to mark them with certainty 
as distinct species. Gossypium herbacewm 
has leaves with roundish or broadly acuminate 
lobes, yellow flowers purple at the base of the 
petals, toothed bracts and nearly spherical 
umbonate five-celled bolls to which the lint 
tenaciously clings. Gossypiwm hirsutum has 
acutely lobed leaves, white flowers, turning 
purple (but rarely with purple at the base of 
the petals) deeply cleft bracts, and ovate four- 
to five-celled bolls from which the lint is free 
at maturity. Tournefourt, in 1700, described 
it as the ‘ finest American cotton with greenish 
seeds’; Linnzeus, in 1763, called it Gossypium 
hirsutum, and this is the name by which it 
should now be known. 


The Influence of Insoluble Substances on the 
Poisonous Action of Aqueous Solutions on 
Plants: Dr. Ropney H. True. 

The paper by Dr. True, on the effect exerted 
on the action of poisonous substances by the 
presence of insoluble bodies in the solutions, 
presented in a preliminary way the results of 
a series of experiments, still in progress. 

Finely divided paraffine, quartz sand, filter 
paper, and other insoluble substances were 
found to reduce the action of salts of the 
heavy metals and of certain non-electrolytes 
by their mere presence. This was explained 
on the basis of a supposed adsorption of the 
molecules of the poisonous compound by the 
surface of the insoluble body. A parallel was 
pointed out between the rates of growth seen 
in solutions containing a constant amount of 
copper sulphate provided with increasing 
quantity of quartz sand, and the growth rates 
seen in a series of progressively diluted cop- 
per sulphate solutions. The effect was similar 
in both eases, indicating that the insoluble 
substance in its essential effect removes 
molecules or ions of the poisonous materials 
from the free solution. The bearing of this 
situation on all physiological problems deal- 
ing with the soil was pointed out and the 


335 SCIENCE. 


possibility of an important action in the in- 
ternal physiology of plants was suggested. 


The Present Confusion Among the Species of 
Dioscorea: Mr. W. E. Sarrorp. 
Mr. Safford became interested in the classi- 
fication of the species of Dioscorea during his 
cruises among the islands of the Pacific. On 


many of them yams are among the principal - 


food staples of the natives, and occur both 
spontaneously and in cultivation. Many dis- 
tinct forms occur which have received ver- 
nacular names on the various islands, but the 
delimitation of species and varieties is very 
difficult. The same species varies under dif- 
ferent conditions of light and moisture; leaves 
vary in shape, pubescence, and relative posi- 
tion on young and old specimens, and, indeed, 
on different parts of the same plant. Many 
of the early collectors contented themselves 
with giving lists of native names together with 
a brief description of the tubers to which they 
apply. Many of these names prove to be 
deseriptive, as ‘white yam,’ ‘blue yam,’ ‘ one- 
head yam,’ ‘devil yam’ and the like. No at- 
tempt has been made to bring together the 
various forms of different island groups for 
comparison, and no confidence can be placed 
in. existing synonymy. 

On the island of Guam the natives have 
divided the yams| into two classes according to 
the shape of their leaves, calling all those with 
broadly cordate or orbicular leaves with a deep 
basal sinus ‘ Nika,’ and those of which the 
leaves are more or less sagittate or hastate 
‘Dago.’ -Gaudichaud, botanist of the Frey- 
einet expedition which visited Guam in 1818, 
referred the varieties called Dago to Dioscorea 
alata, and those, called Nika to Dioscorea 
aculeata.. In Guam the wild Nika (‘ Nika 
cimarron,’ or ‘Gado’) differs radically from 
the cultivated form in having a mass of lateral 
roots about the base modified into sharp, wiry, 
branching spines. . Whatever may have been 
the cause of their origin, they serve to protect 
the sweet farinaceous tuber below. Gaudi- 
chaud referred this species to D. aculeata, but 
it proves to be D. spinosa Roxb. 

Linneus’ descriptions are brief and quite 
insufficient. Many of them were evidently 
made from type plants in poor condition, and 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 478. 


in some of them a single deseription included 
two or more species. According to Sir Joseph 
Hooker a part of Linnzus’ description of 
Dioscorea sativa (‘ Spee. Pl.,’ ed. I., 1033) ap- 
plies to D. spinosa Roxb., to which should also 
be referred Roxburgh’s own D. aculeata. The 
true D. aculeata L. is without the basal spines 
above described, and D. sativa L. is a glabrous 
plant with a terete bulbiferous stem. To the 
latter species should be referred the D. bulbosa 
of Robert Brown. 

In looking over herbarium specimens it be- 
comes apparent that yams can not be studied 
from dried plants. Points of distinction often 
lie in the flowers or fruit, which are often 
wanting in herbaria or are represented by 
only one sex. Cultivated yams are propagated 
asexually; and many varieties, like those of 
sweet potatoes, ginger, Colocasia, and other 
cultivated plants, are seldom’ seen in flower 
or fruit. Other species have been differ- 
entiated according to the form of their tubers; 
and these are almost always lacking in her- 
baria. Still others have been described with 
reasonable accuracy, but figures of different 
species have been cited as illustrations. 

Sir Joseph Hooker found the species of 
Indian Dioscorez in such indescribable con- 
fusion that, after devoting much labor in de- 
termining and delimiting them, he had to let 
them appear in his ‘Flora of British India’ 
in a shape most unsatisfactory to himself, say- 
ing that he could not hope to avoid errors; 
that the Roxburghian food-yielding species 
are for the most part indeterminable, and that 
the Malayan species are even more loosely de- 
seribed than the Indian; while in the Wallich- 
ian collection, which is very complete, the 
species are often mixed. 

It is evident then that food-yielding 
varieties of Dioscorea must be studied on the 
spot where they are cultivated, and not in 
market places or in museums. Series of 
complete specimens of the plants should be 
secured, showing different parts of the stem, 
basal and cauline leaves, flowers of both sexes, 
fruit and photographs of growing plants and 
tubers attached to the stem, together with 
specimens in alcohol or formalin of the in- 
florescence and the tubers themselves. 


a 


Fesruary 26, 1904.] 


In this way alone will it be possible to bring 
together and compare in a satisfactory manner 
forms from Polynesia, India, the Malay 
Archipelago, Africa, Australia and America. 

Hersert J. WEBBER, 
Corresponding Secretary. 


FACULTY SCIENCE CLUB OF WELLESLEY COLLEGE. 

THE meetings of the Faculty Science Club 
for the current academic year have been of 
sustained interest. Professor Charlotte F. 
Roberts spoke in October on the ‘ Action of 
Metallic Magnesium upon Aqueous Solu- 
tions,’ detailing experiments performed in the 
chemical laboratory, the results of which were 
published in the Journal of the Chemical 
Society. 

The November meeting was addressed by 
Professor Sarah F. Whiting, on ‘The Latest 
Theory of Electricity and its Historical De- 
velopment.’ This paper was amply illustrated 
by experiment, and finally some radium salt 
was exhibited, also photographs taken with it, 
and its action im discharging electricity. 

Professor Irving Fisher, of Yale, was the 
guest of the club in December, and spoke on 
‘Sundials, their Different Forms and Mathe- 
matical Theory.’ He especially described a 
bronze cylindrical sundial of his own construc- 
tion, which gives not only local apparent time 
but that of any standard meridian and sidereal 
time. This dial is, through President Hazard, 
placed in the Whitin Observatory. 

At the January meeting Miss Alice Wilson 
Wilcox spoke on “ Pectinatella magnifica; de- 
tailing her own studies of this form. This 
paper was illustrated by drawings, photo- 
graphs and microscopes. 

Grace LANGForD, 
Secretary. 


THE SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
WISCONSIN. 


THE December meeting of the club was held 
on the 22d inst., President Turneaure in the 
chair. 

The first paper, by Professor Sandsten, on 
“Conditions which affect the Production and 
Fertility of Pollen, dealt with a number of 
interesting questions which have been subjects 


SCIENCE. 


339 


of research by Professor Sandsten. A week’s 
rain at the time of blossoming of apples was 
shown absolutely to prevent distribution of 
pollen and cause an orchard to be barren. 

The second paper, by Professor Whitson, on 
‘The Influence of Climate on Soil,’ was illus- 
trated by striking examples of plants grown 
in soil which had been used for ten years in 
the university greenhouse, as compared with 
similar plants which had been grown in the 
same soil which had been only recently re- 
moved from the field. The plants in the first 
case were enormously advanced, while the 
comparative analysis of the soils showed the 
greenhouse soil to be much richer in soluble 
matter and to have undergone marked nitri- 
fication. 


Tue January meeting of the club was called 
to order on the twenty-sixth at 7:30 p.m. in 
the physical lecture room of Science Hall, 
President Turneaure in the chair. 

The first part of the evening was devoted to 
reports of the recent meetings of the science 
associations. W. H. Hobbs reported on the ~ 
geology and mineralogy section of the Amer- 
ican Association for the Advancement of 
Science; B. W. Snow on the physics section 
of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science; V. Lenher on the American 
Chemical Society, E. B. Skinner on the Wis- 
econsin Academy of Sciences, Arts and Letters. 

The paper of the evening, ‘Some Economic 
Problems in the Location of the K. L. and J. 
R. R. in Tennessee,’ by W. D. Taylor, was 
presented in a very interesting manner, being 
illustrated by lantern slides of the region and 
of the workings in the construction of the 
road. Victor LENHER, 

Secretary. 


THE NORTHEASTERN SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue forty-ninth regular meeting of the sec- 
tion was held at the rooms of the Tech. Union, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Bos- 
ton, Friday, January 22, at 8 p.m., with Presi- 
dent W. H. Walker in the chair. Forty mem- 
bers were present. : 

Mr. Maximilian Toch, of New York, pre- 


340 SCIENCE. 


sented a paper on the ‘ Permanent Protection 
of Iron and Steel,’ in which he discussed the 
different kinds of coatings used for the pur- 
pose, with especial reference to the good effects 
obtainable by the use of a paint made from 
Portland cement of a certain definite com- 
position. Lantern slides were shown illustra- 


ting the microscopical character of cements of - 


various compositions, and the effects of corro- 
sion on structural iron and steel. 
Arruur M. Comey, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


To THE Epitor or Science: I, with doubtless 
many others, feel indebted to you for the clear 
exposition, in your editorial on convocation 
week, of certain problems in the policy of the 
American Association. The purposes of the 
association to encourage research and special- 
ization and, at the same time, disseminate 
scientific and. useful knowledge among the 
people, divides the membership of the associa- 
tion now, more than at any time in the past, 
into two more or less distinct groups—investi- 
gators and popular teachers. Under ideal 
conditions, taste and ability for these two oc- 
cupations should be perfectly balanced in each 
individual, but rarely is this the case. With 
increasing specialization in science, we are 
approaching more and more nearly to indus- 
trial conditions, where production and distri- 
bution are the separate functions of the manu- 
facturer and the merchant. These two deal 
with each other oftenest not directly, but 
through a middle man. There is, to be sure, 
a vast difference between knowledge and 
merchandise, but the similarity in develop- 
ment deserves attention. It must be ad- 
mitted that at times in the past the two 
purposes of the association have gone but 
lamely together. To some lack of community 
of interest between them, which I grant ought 
not ‘to have existed, the birth of some of our 
separate societies was due. If efficiency in 
each branch were the sole consideration, it 
would be better to have investigators and 
specialists in each science in a group by them- 
selves for their serious work, but some point 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 478. 


of contact among specialists in the different 
sciences and with the public at large must be 
found, or the whole system will fail from too 
much intellectual im-and-in breeding, on the 
one hand, if not from lack of popular sym- 
pathy and support, on the other. The conyo- 
cation week meeting of the association, if 
wisely conducted, can doubtless bring together 
the meetings of a large number of affiliated so- 
cieties, and thus effectually emphasize the com- 
mon ground and common purpose of the sci- 
ences, which is now too often forgotten by both 
scientific societies and scientific men. The 
function of the association at such a meeting 
would be largely that of a clearing house, and 
the second purpose of the association could re- 
ceive but the scantiest attention. This would 
be unsatisfactory to what I take to be the 
larger and more rapidly increasing part of the 
present membership of the association. I he- 
lieve, therefore, some ampler provision should 
be made for this already too much neglected 
body by a second meeting at a different time 
of year, preferably in the summer season. It 
is plain, however, that the most careful judg- 
ment and balance must be shown in making 
up the programs of the two meetings, to meet 
effectually the double purpose of the associa- 
tion, and still make both meetings attractive, 
if not of compelling interest, to the whole 
membership. Aside from such considerations, 
the financial aspect of two meetings a year 
may prove to. many a vexing one. It may be 
true that the association can, with its increased 
membership, carry the financial burden of two 
meetings; but how about the individual who 
in most cases is compelled to live on a salary 
inadequate to his growing obligations? If 
those who can attend but one meeting a year 
can be brought to see that their freedom and 
convenience are better served when they have 
two meetings from which to choose, the prob- 
lem will be simplified. 

The suggested change of policy seems to me 
one of such far-reaching importance that it 
should receive the broadest discussion from the 
most varied points of view before a decision 


is attempted. Ernest Fox NicHots. 
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY, 
February 2, 1904. 


— 


Frpruary 26, 1904.] 


JUST now, before the busy scientific men all 
over the country have allowed the memories 
of the recent holiday meetings of scientific 
societies to be covered up with the details of 
every-day work, is a good time to consider 
the object of the union of these organizations 
and how this may be made more effective. 
For the purpose of reading papers on subjects 
to which they are devoting their lives and 
their best enthusiasm, or to discuss the latest 
information, or to meet and compare notes 
with men of similar thought and labor, this, 
I take it, is the impelling motive that brings 
men together at a scientific association. 

That the attendance on the recent meeting 
of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science and affiliated societies at St. 
Louis was not larger was to be expected, in 
view of the fact that meetings of those in- 
terested in nearly all branches of scientific 
work have already been announced for next 
summer in the same city. Many can not 
sacrifice the time nor bear the expense of 
more than one visit to St. Louis, and will so 
time their visits to the fair next summer as 
to include the session of the scientific meet- 
ings. With regard to enthusiasm, and strict 
attention to the business that brought them 
together, and in the absence of that sensation- 
alism, which moves every scientific man to 
shrug his shoulders, the St. Louis meeting was 
a great success. 

The plan that has been inaugurated, of 
having all societies interested in a common 
work meet under the same auspices, at the 
same place, during ‘convocation week,’ has 
been carefully considered. That it is satis- 


_. factory is attested by the meetings already 


held under this arrangement; but it should 
receive the hearty support of every one and 
the cooperation of all scientific societies. Any 
subsection or class of specialists has a per- 
fect right to hold a meeting elsewhere at the 
same time, but though a closer fellowship 
with men of the same cult may perhaps be at- 
tained, the larger benefit of association with 
those possessed of culture, and who are men 
of ideas, in other allied or, indeed, widely dif- 
ferent subjects, is not attained. It is of as 
mueh importance that the horizon be extended 


SCIENCE. 34) 


as that we knit closer the bonds of fellowship 
in a limited cirele. An annual meeting of 
aftliated societies brings about just the desired 
result. 

It may be assumed that a large per cent. of 
those attending the meetings are associated 
with different educational institutions, and 
for them a winter meeting will no doubt prove 
most convenient, when local conditions, such 
as meetings of state educational and scientific 
bodies, are adjusted to this condition of af- 
fairs. It has been found that a general meet- 
ing held during the summer, even if as late 
as the last week in August, breaks in upon a 
vacation at the seashore, in the mountains, 
by the lakes, or seriously interrupts some lab- 
oratory, investigation or scientific excursion. 
On the latter account many biologists espe- 
cially have frequently been unable to attend 
the meetings. 

There can certainly be no valid objection 
to having semi-annual meetings of sections or 
of aftiliated societies held during the summer 
at appropriate and convenient localities, but 
this should not be allowed to interfere with 
attendance at the larger and more important 
annual meeting, held in the winter at some 
central and convenient point. 

It will, I think, be found that the men of 
the central west can be depended upon to at- 
tend meetings held during convocation week, 
if they are not obliged to travel over from 
500 to 800 miles. Some will double these dis- 
tances for the sake of the advantages that a 
meeting of this kind affords. If the men 
along the Atlantic coast will do as well there 
will be no lack of attendance. By concerted 
action and hearty cooperation, then, it is pos- 
sible to make the annual meeting of scientific 
societies, even more than it has been for the 
last fifty years, a center of scientific life and 


enthusiasm. E. H. S. Bamey. 
UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS. 


As is well known, the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science used to meet 
in midsummer and the different professional 
societies in midwinter. Now the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
has changed its meetings to winter and the 


042 


professional societies, many of them at least, 
do not feel like giving up their winter meet- 
ing. The result has been considerable friction 
between some of the section meetings and the 
other societies. The difficulties have not been 
removed entirely, but are being adjusted by 
compromises. 

It occurs to me that the trouble might be 
removed in large measure by having meetings 
of the sections of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science in mid-sum- 
mer. They need not all meet at the same 
place. In fact it would be better for them not 
to meet at the same place, as the summer 
meetings should have for their paramount 
objects excursions and field trips, and the lo- 
eality that would be highly interesting to the 
geologist might have little to attract a chemist 
or botanist. 

Furthermore, the sections by meeting sepa- 
rately could go to.smaller places which could 
not entertain the entire association, and thus 
whatever good influence these meetings might 
possess would be more widely distributed. 
The meetings in the smaller cities would prob- 
ably have a greater influence than in the large 
cities, because in the smaller place they would 
be ‘events’ that would attract. the attention 
and interest of nearly every one, while in 
large cities they attract little attention, being 
lost in the bustle of the city. 

This arrangement would enable a greater 
number of the scientists to partake of the 
benefits of the meetings, as many could attend 
the summer meetings in one place who could 
not attend the winter meeting in another and 
vice versa. : 

Let us then have the meetings of the sec- 
tions in the summer in a locality containing 
points of interest to the section concerned. 
For instance, Syracuse, with its many objects 
of geological interest, would make an ad- 
mirable place of meeting for the geological 
section. Another summer it could go to the 
iron district of Lake Superior or Alabama, 
again to the cave district of Kentucky or 
Indiana, and so on from year to year. 

T. C. Hopxins. 

SYRACUSE UNIVERSITY, 

January 14, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 478. 


To THE Eprtor or Science: Referring to the 
questions noted in your editorial in a recent 
number of Sormncr, I beg leave to suggest: 

It is more and more apparent that the 
naturalists of the country are laboring under 
certain serious disadvantages by reason of 
which we are likely, unless we are cautious, 
soon to lose the whole inspiration which 
should come from organization. In the first 
place, this is an exceedingly wide country and 
we are, by the nature of the case, much scat- 
tered, unable to meet together in one place 
without a considerable sacrifice on the part of 
the greater number, both of time and of money. 
In the second place, in an effort to better this 
and for possibly other reasons not here to be 
discussed, we are at present overwhelmed with 
a multiplicity of organizations. The botan- 
ists, for example, are in this particular no 
better off than any of the rest. 

For the botanists, I beg to offer the follow- 
ing suggestions: 

Let us maintain at all hazards the botanical 
section of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science as part of a national 
organization of the utmost value to the people 
of this country for educational reasons, if for 
none other. Then let us have a single Botan- 
ical Society of America to have at least two 
meetings per year, one of which shall always 
be in connection with the meeting of the Amer- 
ican Association for the Advancement of Sei- 
ence. Let the program of Section G consist 
of two parts, the one to be offered, say, in the 
forenoon of each day, to be of more popular 
character, open to all America; the other to be 
in charge of the Botanical Society, to con- 
tain papers of a purely professional character, 
reports of research work, contributions to 
knowledge. 

In some such way as this, it seems to me, we 
can preserve the high standard of our associa- 
tion meetings, gain the inspiration which comes 
from a general assembly, and at the same 
time not lose sight of the objects sought in 
the way of popular impulse, encouragement 
and education. 

The Botanical Society might hold as many 
meetings as it likes, be divided into as many 
subdivisions as might be deemed convenient, 


mae 


HEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


for purposes of local assembly and fellowship, 
but always with the understanding that the 
great meeting of the year should be with the 
association, which shall shift about in its ses- 
sions as heretofore. 
Tuomas H. Macsripe. 

Towa City, Ia. : ’ 


REPLY TO AN ADDRESS: PRESENT STATUS OF SOIL 
INVESTIGATION. 

Some criticism of Bulletin No. 22, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, has appeared re- 
cently, the tenor of which is that the au- 
thors of the bulletin have proposed new 
chemical methods for the determination 
of soil fertility, and that they have con- 
cluded that the use of fertilizers is of no value 
in affecting the yield of crops. These criti- 
cisms have generally been copied from Cir- 
cular No. 72, Agricultural Experiment Station, 
University of Tllinois, in which parts of sen- 
tences from Bulletin No. 22 are brought to- 
gether in an attempt to show a meaning which 
they do not possess in their proper position. 
The first paragraph of an ‘ Explanatory State- 
ment’ prefixed to the Circular is as follows: 


This address was written for the purpose of 
ealling attention to certain discrepancies in the 
work of the different prominent investigators in 
the subject of soil fertility, especially such as 
have a bearing upon investigations and conclu- 
sions touching soil conditions in Illinois. The 
paper deals particularly with the recently issued 
and much advertised Bulletin No. 22, from the 
Bureau of Soils, United States Department of 
Agriculture, on ‘The Chemistry of Soils as Re- 
lated to Crop Production,’ which says that ‘ prac- 
tically all soils contain sufficient plant food for 
good crop yields,’ and that ‘this supply will be 
indefinitely maintained.’ This is commonly un- 
derstood and is certainly intended to mean that 
the use of farm manure, the growing of clover 
and other leguminous crops, as a source of nitro- 
gen, or the application of bone meal or other 
fertilizers has little or no tendency toward per- 
manent soil improvement, and that even the effect 
which they do produce is due very largely, if not 
entirely, to improved physical condition of the 
soil, which effect, the Bureau of Soils believes, 
can be better obtained by ‘a simple rotation and 
change of cultural methods,’ and the statement is 


SCIENCE. 


343 


added that ‘the effect due to cultivation is also 
more permanent than the effect due to fertilizers.’ 


As a matter of fact, these statements are 
utterly at variance with the complete context 
and plain meaning of the bulletin, but they 
have been copied in the lay publications of 
this country to such an extent as to call for 
an explicit denial. That the authors of the 
bulletin fully recognize the importance of the 
proper use of fertilizers is made perfectly plain 
by the following quotations (pp. 58 and 59): 


There is no question that in certain cases, and 
in many cases, the application of commercial 
fertilizers is beneficial to the crop. The ex- 
perience of farmers, the enormous sums expended 
for commercial fertilizers, and the many experi- 
ments carried on at the experiment stations prove 
that under certain conditions fertilizers are very 
beneficial in increasing the yield of crops. The 
fundamental idea under all of this work, however, 
has been that of supplying plant food in an avail- 
able form; that is, adding to the supply existing 
in the soil. It is significant that other conditions 
of growth have so much influence on the yield that 
in but very few instances, even after long-con- 
tinued experiments, has it been demonstrated that 
any particular fertilizer ingredient or ingredients 
are required for any particular soil, and that even 
then the effect of the fertilizer varies so greatly 
from year to year that no specific law has been 
worked out, even for a particular soil, from which 
the fertilizing requirements could be deduced in 
any exact manner. 


* * * * * * * * 


In cooperative experiments carried on by At- 
water, numerous cases are cited where phosphoric 
acid is said to be a regulating ingredient and the 
predominating factor in controlling crop yields 
one year, while it is more or less efficient in the 
same soil in other years, and is inefficient in 
many cases in the same soils in still other years. 
The same fact is brought out in regard to potash 
and nitrogen, and it is clearly and unquestionably 
demonstrated that the effect of fertilizers is de- 
pendent upon the season, it being so influential in 
one season as to be designated as a dominant 
factor in the yield of the crop, while on the same 
soil in a different season it has no apparent effect. 
It is not that the effect is one year greater and 
the next year less, which might be attributed to 
the previous application, but it is just as likely 
to be inefficient one year and the controlling 
factor the next year as it is to be a controlling 
factor one year and inefficient the succeeding year. 


344 


While it is thus explicitly stated, and it is 
a matter so notorious as to admit of no ques- 
tion, that crop yields are often affected ad- 
vantageously by proper fertilizers, it is main- 
* tained that such substances can not be held 
as alone the chief factor in determining yield 
of crop, since climate, soil management, ete., 


produce effects of the same order of magnitude. 


as do the fertilizers, and that it may happen 
that the several effects would nullify one an- 
other in any particular season, illustrations 
almost innumerable being on record. 

Attention may also be called to the fact that 
the bulletin does not attempt to treat specifi- 
cally of commercial fertilizers, nor of their 
use in practice, but the matter is brought into 
the text only as a necessary consequence of the 
discussion of the crop-producing power of 
soils. No claim to an exhaustive presentation 
of this subject was made. 

It is also maintained, and the reasons there- 
for clearly stated, that no scheme of chemical 
analysis yet proposed can, in itself, determine 
the fertility or crop-producing power of a soil. 
A chemical procedure is described, novel in 
some respects, which the authors of the bul- 
letin used in their researches, but it is made 
so evident as to allow of no misconception that 
this procedure has proved and would generally 
prove as futile as all its predecessors in attempt- 
ing’ to show the probable productive capacity of 
a soil or its fertility. This is not the place to 
enter into a discussion of the technical rea- 
sons for the inadequacy of our analytical pro- 
cedures to measure or estimate fertility, but it 
is safe to say that the position taken, in regard 
to this point at least, is in full harmony with 
that of the best authorities.* To cite two re- 
cent utterances on this point, at the meeting 
of the Association of Agricultural Colleges 
and Experiment Station Officers held in Wash- 
ington last November (1903) Director Thorne, 
of the Ohio Experiment Station, in describing 
the results of plot experiments extending over 

*From the many citations which could be 
given the following is taken as one of the most 
conservative: Bailey (Cornell University Agr. 
Exp. Sta. Bull. No, 119, 1896) states, ‘a chemical 
analysis of soil is only one of several means of 
determining the value of land, and in the general 
run of cases it is of secondary value.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 478. 


a number of years, stated that it was difficult 
to see how the results could possibly have been 
anticipated by laboratory examinations of the 
soils. At this same meeting Dr. H. W. Wiley, 
chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, U. S. De- 
partment of Agriculture, stated: “When a 
man sends to me a specimen of a given soil 
and writes, ‘Please analyze this soil and tell 
me what crops I can grow on it,’ I send him 
word, ‘ Ask your soil itself what you can grow 
on it; in that way asking your question di- 
rectly of the soil, you can get your answer, 
and in no other way.’” At a later point in 
this address it was explicitly stated that if 
chemical methods could be devised for deter- 
mining the food constituents in soils, different 
procedures must of necessity be devised for 
extracting each constituent from the soil, and 
different procedures again for each crop. 
Hopkins delivered an address at the meeting 
in Washington already mentioned, and has 
anticipated the publication of the proceedings, 
the address having appeared as Cireular No. 
72, Agricultural Experiment Station, Uni- 
versity of Illinois. Jn it exceptions are taken 
to Bulletin No. 22, partly through evident 
misinterpretation of the text; partly through 
disapproval of the use which the authors have 
made of the well-known data from the Rotham- 
sted Station, although the validity of the 
conclusions drawn is in general admitted; and 
partly because it has been possible on the basis 
of chemical analysis, to advise the use of fer- 
tilizers containing potassium on certain Illi- 
nois soils, with improved yield of crop. The 
relevancy of this last argument is not ap- 
parent unless it is meant to imply that the 
same method of analysis would always lead 
to as favorable results, a conclusion unfortu- 
nately disproved by numerous instances on 
record. Indeed, it is a matter worthy of 
notice in passing that such an instance is cited, 
without explanation, on page 10 of Circular 
No. 72 of the Illinois Experiment Station. A 
soil containing according to analysis an enor- 
mous amount of nitrogen (67,000 pounds per 
acre), an abundant amount of phosphorous 
(2,000 pounds per acre) but what is regarded 
as a deficient amount of potassium (1,200 
pounds per acre) produced no corn when either 


2 eexeiatl 


FEepruary 26, 1904.] 


nitrogen or phosphorous or both were applied; 
yielded about the same, 36 bushels when 
potassium, 40 bushels when potassium and 
nitrogen or 38 bushels when potassium and 
phosphorus were applied. But when potas- 
sium, nitrogen and phosphorus were all ap- 
plied, the indications of the analysis were 
flatly contradicted by a yield of 60 bushels. 
In an ‘Added Note’ to the circular it is 
stated: “In connection with the discussion 
which followed the reading of this and several 
other addresses relating to this general sub- 
ject at the convention in Washington, the 
fact was clearly developed that some of the 
new analytical methods devised by the Bureau 
of Soils and used in the work reported in Bul- 
letin No. 22, instead of being ‘very accurate 
methods of analysis,’ are absolutely untrust- 
worthy.” This statement is not in accord 
with the facts. The only method mentioned 
in the discussion was that for determining 
phosphates. The validity of the method itself 
was not questioned and the discussion was con- 
fined to the discrepancy in the solubility of the 
phosphates in the Rothamsted soils, as shown 
by the results reported in the bulletin, and 
those reported on the same soil samples in an- 
other publication.* During the public dis- 
eussion referred to it was distinctly and ex- 
plicitly stated that the authors of Bulletin No. 
92 were aware of the discrepancy between 


their results and those in the publication cited, | 


that they believed they knew the reasons there- 
for through work which was being done upon 
the solubility of phosphates, in the laboratory 
of the bureau, and that they had satisfied 
themselves that the results given were sub- 
stantially correct. 

Nevertheless, in the ‘Added Note’ it is 
stated that the absolute untrustworthiness of 
the methods used ‘is further established by an 
examination of the data which are given in the 
publications referred to,’ and a table is sub- 
mitted in which there is a comparison of the 
number of pounds of phosphorus per acre, to 
a depth of seven inches, in the Rothamsted 
soils, as calculated from the data in the two 
publications. In this table results are stated, 
‘reported’ by Bureau of Soils, three minutes’ 


* Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., 24, 79, 1902. 


SCIENCE. 


345 


extraction with distilled water, whereas the 
method actually employed and described in de- 
tail was to stir the soil in water vigorously 
for three minutes, then allow to stand 
twenty minutes before decanting and filtering, 
and the work of King was cited to show the 
significance of the time element. Equally 
inaccurate is the heading to the other column 
of figures which are stated as ‘ obtained’ after 
fifteen hours’ extraction with dilute acid. As 
a matter of fact, according to the statement 
in the paper from which the data were taken, 
the soils were digested for five hours in a 
hydrochloric acid solution, which contained 
enough hydrochloric acid to be a N/200 solu- 
tion when the carbonates of the alkaline earths, 
ete., were neutralized, and here also the im- 
portance of the time element was emphasized 
by the author of the method. Beyond the in- 
excusable carelessness of misquoting results 
and statements in a controversial paper, these 
inaccuracies are objectionable because pur- 
posely stated in such a way as to infer in- 
vidious and quite inaccurate comparisons. 
Moreover, it is not at all clear why the phos- 
phorus as determined in the two investigations 
should be compared on the basis of an acre 
surface with a depth of seven inches, for it is 
inconceivable that any one at ‘this day, and in 
view of the well-known work of Darwin and 
others, would suppose that the same identical 
seven inches of soil would remain at the sur- 
face for any considerable period of time. 
Following the table, the statement is made 
that the author of the Journal article cited 
“ determined the phosphorus by the absolute 
gravimetric method of the Association of 
Official Agricultural Chemists, and there is no 
reason to doubt the accuracy of the results thus 
obtained. The Bureau of Soils used a newly 
devised colorimetric method which evidently 
gives results about a thousand per cent. above 
the truth.” These statements are incorrect. 
The procedure of the Association of Official 
Agricultural Chemists was not followed; but 
an entirely different one, which is not absolute, 
but indirect; is not a gravimetric, but a 
volumetric one; and the accuracy of the pro 
cedure which was actually used has not been 
established by any published work upon it 


346 


The method is described at length (loc. cit., 
pp. 97-98) and since the author of the circular 
quotes freely from the paper he is presumably 
familiar with its contents, and his statements 
are inexplicable. The absurdity of the state- 
ments is also apparent from the fact that 
the dilute acid digestion is reported to yield 
one to six parts per million of P,O, in the 
Rothamsted soils, the lower figure being ob- 
tained for four out of the seven soils, and 
supposing the entire solution to be used for 
the phosphate determination, there would be 
only from 0.00016 gm. to 0.00096 gm. of phos- 
phorie acid (P,O,) available for weighing. 

It would not be proper, and it is not per- 
mitted me, to discuss here the methods or re- 
sults given in the Journal article as the au- 
thor is a colleague in this department. It 
seems worth while, however, to call attention 
here to the work upon which the method used 
by the Bureau of Soils rests. 

This method is the one described by 
Schreiner® and in the appendix of Bulletin 
No. 22. It appears to have been first suggested 
by Lepierre,t was worked out further by Jolles 
and Neurath,t Woodman and Cayvang§ and 
others. Its value for solutions containing dis- 
solved silica as well as phosphates, a condition 
existing in aqueous extracts of soils, was crit- 
ically tested in the laboratory of the Bureau 
of Soils by Veitch|| and Seidell,**and at the 
University of Wisconsin by Schreiner.tt 

The results of these investigators showed 
the method to be of a very high order of ac- 
curacy as well as delicacy. The figures in 
the published papers of Veitch and Schreiner 
speak for themselves, and’ it seems entirely 
unnecessary to add additional ones here, al- 
though a large number of results obtained by 
‘the method on solutions of known concentra- 
tions are in our possession, and show remark- 
ably good agreements between the results ob- 
tained and the known concentrations. The 


* Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., 25, 1056, 1903. 
} Bull. Soc. Chem., 15, 1213. 

~ Monatsh. Chem., 19, 5. 

§ Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., 23, 96. 

|| Jour. Am. Chem. Soc., 25, 169, 1903. 
** Results unpublished. - 

+1 Loc. cit. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 478. 


concentrations of phosphoric acid, stated as 
PO,, involved in these Rothamsted soils was 
found to be 10.5 to 19.6 parts per million of 
air-dry soil or within the limits of 2 to 4.5 
parts per million of solution actually ex- 
amined. Veitch has given results for solu- 
tions containing from 1 to 10 parts per mil- 
lion and Schreiner from 1.35 to 42.8 parts per 
million of solution, which leave absolutely no 
doubt as to the validity of the method for the 
concentrations involved in the examination of 
these Rothamsted soils, or the other soils 
cited in the bulletin. 

The papers cited are all contained in readily 
accessible journals and they have never been 
disputed or controyerted. It seems wiser, 
therefore, to confine attention to data already 
published than to add further figures from our 
own experience, which would merely accumu- 
late evidence, all in the same direction. It is 
worth while to note, in this connection, that 
while Dr. Schreiner’s investigation was done 
for and at the instance of the Bureau of Soils, 
it was actually carried on in the laboratory of 
the University of Wisconsin in entire igno- 
rance of the work being done by Veitch and 
Seidell, and before he was acquainted with 
any member of the laboratory force in Wash- 
ington or with the work upon which they were 
engaged. 

The statement in the ‘ Added Note’ ‘ that it 
has long been common chemical knowledge 
that water dissolves but the merest trace of 
phosphorus from soils’ is, to say the least, 
misleading, and in this connection entirely 
unjustifiable. It must be assumed that the 
author is familiar with the classic paper of 
Dyer* in which he proposes the use of his now 
famous method for digesting soils in a solution 
of citric acid. In the early pages of this 
paper Dyer cites some results he obtained by 
digesting a soil in water. 250 grams of soil 
in 1,000 ec. of water gave six parts phos- 
phoric acid per million of dry soil. The soil 
and solution were in contact for two days be- 
fore the examination, but no further phos- 
phorie acid was obtained when the solution had 
acted on the soil for 28 days, so that it is fair 
to assume that the solution of the phosphorie 


* Jour. Chem. Soc., 65, 115, 1894. 


Sr a 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


acid was accomplished very rapidly. By 
changing the ratio of water to soil from two 
to ten, Dyer found from seven to eighteen 
parts of phosphoric acid per million of dry 
soil. 
147 analyses of a number of types of soil is 
7.64 PO,, equivalent to 5.73 P.O, and for 
the Rothamsted soils from 10.5 to 19.6 PO, 
equivalent to 7.9 to 11.7 P,O,, figures entirely 
comparable with those obtained by Dyer. This 
question of the solubility of the phosphoric 
acid of the soil in water has been frequently 
diseussed in the literature since the work of 
Knop, who used an unreliable method of 
analysis, and the very interesting replies of 
Schulze,* Heident and others. This early 
work has been described at length by Johnsont 
and is supposed to be familiar to every tyro 
in agricultural chemistry. 


Analyst. Parts P.O, per Million of Soil. 
Jarriges, 20 
trace 
Grouven, 50 
15 
trace 
Hoffmann, 50 
trace 
oe 
(17 
Hellriegel, 10 
10 
Kiillenberg, 5 
Mixter, ] 
Heiden, 57 
26 subsoil 
53 
19 subsoil 
Hichhorn, 31 
Schulze, 6 
Ulbricht, trace 
7 
trace 
3 


The preceding figures obtained by several 
investigators using varying proportions of 
water and soil, digesting for widely varying 
lengths of time, from a few minutes to many 
days, using generally gravimetric methods of 

* Landwirthsch. Versuch-Stat., 6, 409, 1864. 

fj Annal. der Landwirthsch., 45, 189, 1865. 

=‘ How Crops Feed,’ pp. 309 et seq., 1890. 


SCIENCE. 


In Bulletin No. 22 the average for 


347 


recognized yalue, will show that the results 
presented in Bulletin No. 22 are in no way 
unusual, and that ‘merest trace’ is without 
significance until more specifically defined. 

Several investigators besides Knop have-re- 
ported only traces or no phosphoric acid in 
water extracts of soils, but generally because 
of the analytical difficulties in determining it 
rather than as statements of the actual 
amounts present. 

The further reference in the ‘ Added Note’ 
to Warrington’s examination of drainage 
waters is irrelevant, since it has been perfectly 
well known since the time of Liebig that drain- 
ing or leaching a soil does not remove the salts 
which may actually be in solution in the soil. 
Agricultural chemists are perfectly familiar 
with this fact through the classic papers of 
Liebig, Way and van Bemmelin, as well as 
others. Moreover, there are quite a large 
number of figures for drainage and lysimeter 
waters recorded in the literature which are 
much larger than that of Warrington, many 
of them being quoted by Johnson.* 

Hilgard presented an address at the meeting 
in Washington, attacking Bulletin No. 22, 
and he also has anticipated publication of the 
proceedings.| Serious consideration can not 
be given to this paper, however, since the au- 
thor claims a non-sequitur to the arguments 
of Bulletin 22, on general principles rather 
than specific instances. He devotes almost his 
entire effort to a personal attack on the pres- 
ent Chief of the Bureau of Soils, but in- 
cidentally expresses his displeasure with agri- 
cultural chemists of the country because they 
use the ‘official method’ of analyzing soils 
rather than the one which he proposed a num- 
ber of years ago. 

Frank K. Cameron. 

WaSHIneToN, D. C. 


WOODCOCK SURGERY. 

In its desire to do nothing by halves, the 
American public is at present evincing an ex- 
traordinary fondness for ‘nature books.’ This 
would certainly be most commendable, were 


* Loc. cit. 
7 This journal, Vol. XVIII., p. 755, 1903, and 
Los Angeles Herald, Sunday, December 27, 1903. 


348 


there not evinced at the same time a lack of 
discrimination as deplorable as it is, in cer- 
tain respects, inexcusable. We have, indeed, 
nature writers of every conceivable shade, from 
the ponderously accurate, scientific-because- 
incomprehensible, inartistic, biological special- 
ist, through the whole gamut of good, bad and 
indifferent writers, to those who seruple not to 
take all manner of liberties with natural his- 
tory facts in order to make an impression— 
and a fortune. And the public reads on with 
patient equanimity without distinguishing 
sound and eritical observations on animal be- 
havior from the drivel in which animals are 
humanized beyond all recognition. 

Any endeavor to disturb such complacency 
will, perhaps, seem unkind, but it is clearly a 
duty which no serious student can shirk who 
has at heart the development of true animal 
psychology. In an admirable article pub- 
lished in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 
1903, Mr. John Burroughs called attention to 
certain abominations in current nature books. 
He dwelt especially on the unwarrantable 
humanizing of animals which has become 
almost a mania with a certain class of writers. 
Mr. Burroughs’s remarks, if anything, were 
too temperate, as events have shown. One 
would have supposed that his eriticisms of 
Mr. William J. Long, for example, would have 
led that gentleman, before publishing further 
observations on animal behavior, to gain some 
idea of the value, or rather, lack of value, 
which serious students attach to anecdotes as 
evidences of rational endowment in animals. 
Instead of this, however, he publishes in a 
reputable and widely circulated journal (The 
Outlook, September 12, 1903) and republishes 
in book form with illustrations (‘A Little 
Brother to the Bear, and Other Animal Stud- 
ies’) a series of anecdotes which for rank and 
impossible humanization of the animal can 
hardly be surpassed. Verily, quem deus vult 
perdere prius dementat. 

Although a careful dissection of this whole 
article, entitled ‘ Animal Surgery,’ would yield 
no little instruction and some amusement, it 
will suffice to quote only one of the author’s 
anecdotes with a brief commentary: 

“Twenty years ago, while sitting quietly by a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 47s. 


brook at the edge of the woods in Bridgewater, 
Mass., a woodcock fluttered out into the open, 
and made his way to a spot on the bank where 
a light streak of clay showed clearly from 
where I was watching. It was the early hunt- 
ing season, when gunners were abroad in the 
land, and my first impression was that this was 
a wounded bird that had made a long flight 
after being shot at, and that had now come 
out to the stream to drink or to bathe his 
wound, as birds often do. Whether this were 
so or not is a matter of guesswork; but the 
bird was acting strangely in broad daylight, 
and I crept nearer, till I could see him plainly 
on the other side of the little stream, though 
he was still too far away for me to be abso- 
lutely sure of what all his motions meant. 

“ At first he took soft clay in his bill from 
the edge of the water and seemed to be smear- 
ing it on one leg near the knee. Then he 
fluttered away on one foot for a distance and 
seemed to be pulling tiny roots and fibers of 
grass, which he worked into the clay that he 
had already smeared on his lege. Again he 
took more clay and plastered it over the fibers, 
putting on more and more till I could plainly 
see the enlargement; he worked away with 
strange, silent intentness for fully fifteen 
minutes, while I watched and wondered, scarce 
believing my eyes. Then he stood perfectly 
still for a full hour under an overhanging sod, 
where the eye could with difficulty find him, 
his only motion meanwhile being an occasional 
rubbing and smoothing of the clay bandage 
with his bill, until it hardened enough to suit 
him, whereupon he fluttered away from the 
brook and disappeared in the thick woods. 

“T had my own explanation of the incredible 
action—namely, that the woodcock had a 
broken leg, and had deliberately put it into a 
clay cast to hold the broken bones in place 
until they should knit together again; but, 
naturally, I kept my own counsel, knowing 
that no one would believe in the theory. For 
years I questioned gunners closely, and found 
two who said that they had killed woodeock 
whose legs had at one time been broken and 
had healed again. As far as they could re- 
member, the lee had in each ease healed per- 
fectly straight instead of twisting to one side, 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


as a chicken’s leg does when broken and al- 
lowed to knit of itself. I examined hundreds 
of woodeock in the markets in different locali- 
ties, and found one whose leg had at one time 
been broken by a shot and then had healed 
perfectly. There were plain signs of dried mud 
at the break; but that was also true of the 
other lee near the foot, which only indicated 
that the bird had been feeding in soft places. 


“ All this proved nothing to an outsider, and- 


I kept silence as to what I had seen until last 
winter, twenty years afterwards, when the 
confirmation came unexpectedly. I had been 
speaking of animals before the Contemporary 
Club of Bridgeport, when a gentleman, a 
lawyer well known all over the state, came to 
me and told me eagerly of a curious find he 
had made the previous autumn. He was 
gunning one day with a friend, when they 
shot a woodcock, which on being brought in 
by the dog was found to have a lump of hard 
clay on one of its legs. Curious to know what 
it meant, he chipped the clay off with his pen- 
knife and found a broken bone, which was 
then almost healed and as straight as ever. 
A few weeks later the bird, had he lived, would 
undoubtedly have taken off the cast himself, 
by first soaking it in water, and there would 
have been nothing to indicate anything un- 
usual about him.” 

Mr. Long virtually claims that a woodeock 
not only has an understanding of the theory 
of casts as adapted to fractured limbs, but is 
able to apply this knowledge in practice. The 
bird is represented as knowing the qualities of 
clay and mud, their lack of cohesion unless 
mixed with fibrous substances, their tendency 
to harden on exposure to the air, and to dis- 
integrate in water. Inasmuch as woodcocks 
have for generations been living and feeding 
in muddy places, we could, perhaps, although 
not without some abuse of the imagination, 
suppose the bird to possess this knowledge. 
But the mental horizon of Mr. Long’s wood- 
cock is not bounded by the qualities of mud. 
He is familiar with the theories of bone forma- 
tion and regeneration—in a word, with osteo- 
genesis, which, by the way, is never clearly 
grasped by some of our university juniors. 
This woodcock has never been hampered by 


SCIENCE. 349 


a college training, has never been required to 
study sections of decalcified bone—has, in fact, 
never seen a bone, at least to recognize it as 
corresponding to a part of his own anatomical 
structure, and yet he divines the functions of 
the periosteum and the necessity for proper 
‘setting’ of the bony tissue. This wonderful 
knowledge can not be the result either of ex- 
perience or of instinct, for it would be as ab- 
surd to claim that the same woodeock is contin- 
ually breaking his legs and has learned to profit 
by such accidents, as to maintain that wood- 
cocks for innumerable generations past have all 
broken their legs with sufficient frequency and 
regularity to lead to the development of such 
an exalted chirurgical instinct. We are in- 
clined to believe that while the woodeock was 
waiting for the cast to harden on his leg, his 
versatile mind was revolving the problem 
whether even his human observer, Mr. William 
J. Long, would be capable of attaining to such 
@ priort knowledge of the surgery of fractures 
without ever having seen such a thing as a 
bone or a east. 

Now, what are the proofs furnished by Mr. 
Long? First, reminiscences of ‘twenty years 
ago.’ A recent apology by Ginn and Company 
for the existence of Mr. Long’s works informs 
us that the gentleman was born in 1867. He 
was, therefore, a lad of sixteen when he met 
that surgical genius among woodcocks. Grant- 
ing that he was a most unusual and precocious 
observer, are we to suppose that twenty years 
ean elapse in any human life without distort- 
ing and exaggerating the impressions of ado- 
leseence? Observe the wavering, nebulous 
language 2f the anecdote. The bird was < act- 
ing strangely,’ but there was absolutely no 
proof that his leg was broken. That such was 
the case is- pure ‘guesswork’ on Mr. Long’s 
part. He ‘could see him plainly on the other 
side of a little stream,’ but he was too far 
away for him to be ‘absolutely sure of what 
all his motions meant.’ He ‘seemed’ to be 
smearing clay on his leg; he ‘seemed to be 
pulling tiny roots,’ ete. Then the language 
suddenly becomes positive as the unwarrant- 
able inference crystallizes into definite form 
in the brain of the observer. We can not 
sufficiently deplore the fact that this rara avis 


350 SCIENCE. 


with a vengeance was permitted to disappear 
‘in the thick woods,’ after adjusting and hard- 


ening his clay cast. Could the creature have - 


been captured, we venture to affirm that he 
would have been eligible to a chair of surgery 
in one of our leading medical schools, and a 
phenomenally rapid progress of the science 
would have been insured. 

Mr. Long does not rely entirely on the hazy 
reminiscences of his boyhood. A brace of 
reminiscing ‘gunners’ is introduced and an- 
other surgical genius among woodcocks, who, 
though deeply versed in osteogenesis, must 
have been singularly ignorant of such com- 
paratively simple mechanisms as firearms or 
he could hardly have come to such an igno- 
minious end as hanging in a market. ‘This 
bird, unfortunately, had mud on both legs, 
though only one of them had been injured. 
It is surprising that Mr. Long supplies so 
obvious an explanation of the presence of mud 
on the sound leg. As he seems to set consid- 
erable store by this woodcock anecdote, we 
suggest that in future editions of his work he 
discard so commonplace an explanation and 
adopt one more in harmony with the re- 
mainder of his story. Thus he might state 
that the fracture occurred while the bird was 
sojourning in a country of unusual geological 
formation. He was unacquainted with the 
“physical qualities of the mud in that par- 
ticular region, so that before making the cast 
for his fracture he made an experimental cast 
for his sound lee in order to test the cohesive 
properties of the substance. 

The heavy artillery of Mr. Long’s proof is 
the concluding reminiscence of a lawyer 
“known all over’ the vast state of Connecti- 
eut. Again, from a dead bird, which in this 
instance he has not even seen, he not only 
infers what the living bird had done, but he 
indulges in some vaticination as to what the 
bird ‘undoubtedly’ would have done had he 
escaped death or, in other words, evolved from 
his inner consciousness as clear a knowledge 
of firearms and explosives as of fractures and 
easts. Since an ounce of prophylaxis is worth 
at least a pound of cure, it is rather surprising 
that the wise woodeocks should spend so much 
time making casts for their broken limbs in- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 478. 


stead of keeping out of the reach of gunners. 

In last analysis the whole fanciful anecdote 
is seen to be built on the finding of mud on 
the legs of a couple of dead woodeocks. In 
both cases the mud had accumulated at a 
healed fracture, not at all an unlikely occur- 
rence in mud-frequenting birds. In the whole 
passage one looks in vain for a particle of 
authentic proof that the woodcock possesses 
any chirurgical knowledge or skill whatsoever. 
Before publishing his article, Mr. Long should 
have consulted his legal acquaintance on the 
evidential value of boyhood reminiscences and 
the tales of sportsmen. He seems really to 
put implicit confidence in all sorts of hunting 
and fishing yarns, even when they fall from 
the lips of lawyers known all over the state 
of Connecticut. The careful reader of the 
paper can see between the lines the sly, mirth- 
ful twinkle in the eyes of some of these old 
gunners to whom Mr. Long seems to be con- 
tinually running for confirmation and ampli- 
fication of his vagaries. 

The passage above quoted is a fair sample of 
not a little of the literature that is being 
recommended by teachers and publishers as 
collateral reading for the pupils of the ‘nature 
study’ classes of our schools. Such reading 
is fondly supposed to afford both instruction 
and entertainment. That it furnishes in- 
struction can be flatly denied, for it lacks 
truth, the first requisite of instructive read- 
ing. It is bad even as fiction. Amusement 
it undoubtedly furnishes—more, in fact, than 
the authors contemplate, since it not only 
titillates the fancy of the boys and girls, but 
adds to the gayety of comparative psycholo- 


gists. Those who are attacking the fads of — 


our educational system will find plenty of 
work awaiting them as soon as they turn their 
attention to the exerescences of ‘nature 
study.’ Winuiam Morton WHEELER. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
RHYTHMS OF CO, PRODUCTION DURING CLEAVAGE. 
THE wonderful sequence of morphological 
changes in indirect cell division is a subject 
of perennial interest to biologists. The visible 
changes are generally recognized to be the 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


expressions of different physiological states. 
As a means of gaining further insight into the 
physiological conditions underlying cleavage, 
I adopted the plan two years ago of testing 
the susceptibility of the egg at different stages 
in the first cleavage. Potassium cyanide was 
used; also lack of oxygen produced by a cur- 
rent of hydrogen. A rhythm of alternate 
susceptibility and resistance was demonstrated. 
About ten or fifteen minutes after fertilization 
the echinoderm egg is very easily poisoned 
by KCN. The resistance increases from that 
time to about the time of the first cleavage. 
A period of susceptibility follows; then an- 
other rise of resistance as the second cleavage 
approaches. Probably this rhythm goes on in 
each subsequent division. The rhythm to lack 
of oxygen is similar. This makes it probable 
that the cell needs oxygen, especially in the 
period immediately following division, this 
being the time of nuclear growth and presum- 
ably of active synthesis. 


During the last summer I have been work- 
ing on the effects of heat and cold on the divid- 
ing ege. The experiments show well-marked 
rhythms of susceptibility and resistance dur- 
ing each cleavage. The details will be pub- 
lished later. 

While pursuing this work it occurred to me 
that the production of CO, during cell division 
might also run in rhythms. The question 
seemed one of sufficient interest to warrant 
a careful investigation. Unfortunately ap- 
paratus for aecurate chemical analysis was 
not available at Woods Hole. Furthermore, 
the season had so far advanced that only com- 
paratively small quantities of Arbacia eggs 


SCIENCE. 


301 


were obtainable. It seems best, therefore, to 
put my results in the form of a preliminary 
publication, it being understood that the con- 
clusions are tentative and subject to revision 
on further experimentation. 

The apparatus finally adopted is shown in 
the diagram. Positive pressure forced air in 
the direction of the arrows. The test-tubes 
were tightly closed with rubber stoppers. 
Tubes A and B contained KOH solution to 
absorb the CO, of the air. Tube C contained 
Ba(OH), solution and served as an indicator 
of the efficient action of A and B. D con- 
tained Arbacia sperm in sea water. J# con- 
tained the unfertilized eggs of a large number 
of females, in sea water. These eggs had been 
carefully freed from body liquids and from 
immature ova by allowing them several times 
to sink through sterile, filtered sea water in 
test-tubes or Naples jars. Tube # was kept 
at a constant temperature, usually 23°. Tubes 


_ F and G contained Ba(OH), solution whose 


degree of turbidity constituted an index of 
the amount of CO, produced by the eggs and 
sperm. 

Before the experiment began the egg tube 
was nearly filled with sterile sea water and a 
current of air free from CO, passed through 
for several hours. Tube D, which meanwhile 
had been empty, now received a few cubic 
centimeters of sea water containing fresh 
sperm. ‘he eggs, recently washed, were added 
(with as little water as possible) to the water 
in #. The air was allowed to pass for fifteen. 
or twenty minutes. Then measured amounts 
of Ba(OH), solution were placed in F' and G, 
the air current being continued. After ten 
minutes the eggs were fertilized and fresh 
tubes substituted for # and G, the first two 
being securely closed with rubber stoppers and 
labelled ‘0’ Every ten minutes fresh tubes 
were substituted at # and G, those used dur- 
ing the ten minutes following fertilization 
being numbered ‘1,’ and so on. 

It was found that in ten minutes either be- 
fore or after fertilization tube F' became 
visibly turbid. On standing, a precipitate of 
BaCO, formed. Tube G showed little or no 
turbidity or precipitate and, therefore, was 
usually disregarded. In some experiments 


302 SCIENCE. 


fifteen or twenty-minute periods were used 
instead of ten-minute periods. 

Fertilization of the eggs was accomplished 
in the following manner: The tube marked X 
was pushed down into the sperm. The latter 
was, therefore, immediately forced over by 
the air pressure and mixed with the eggs. 
Fertilization was usually very perfect and 
cleavage, so far as I could determine, went on 
in a normal way, provided sufficient air was 
forced through. In one experiment the cur- 
rent of air equalled 25 c.c. per minute. One 
difficulty experienced was the maintenance of 
a uniform current. This is a possible source 
of error. 

The experiment was continued usually about 
two hours, or over two or three cleavages. In 
one case it was continued until swimming 
blastule had formed. 

Tt will be noted that tubes ‘0’ contained the 
CO, produced by both the sperm and unfertil- 
ized eggs during ten minutes. A single trial 
indicated the probability that the larger pro- 
portion of CO, was due to the sperm, probably 
because of their motility. Tubes ‘1,’ on the 
other hand, contained the CO, produced in 
ten minutes by the fertilized eggs and the 
unused sperm. 

It is, therefore, plain that no accurate com- 
parisons of the CO, production of unfertilized 
and fertilized eggs, and no measurement of 


the CO, produced by the eggs in either condi- . 


tion, can be made until the CO, production of 
the sperm has been ascertained. This has not 
yet been done. 

The results so far apparent may be briefly 
stated. It appeared in nearly all the experi- 
ments that an increase in CO, production oc- 
eurred in the first ten- or fifteen-minute in- 
terval following fertilization. The increase 
was slight and sometimes could not be detected. 
Following this came an interval in which the 
CO, production was small, visibly less, indeed, 
in two or three experiments than that of the 
unfertilized eggs and sperm. This is the mid- 
period of cleavage, approximating, perhaps, 

. the time of nuclear growth and the early stages 
of karyokinesis. 

The interval during which the eggs were 
actively dividing into the first two blastomeres 
(say 45 to 60 minutes after fertilization) was 


mand for oxygen. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 478. 


one of active CO, production. In nearly every 
experiment the barium hydrate tubes for this 
time became markedly turbid as compared with 
any others. After this period of greater CO, 
production came an interval of lessened pro- 
duction. In one or two cases a second rise 
occurred at about the time of the second 
cleavage. Presumably a regular pendulum 
swing of increased and decreased CO, produc- 
tion oceurred in the successive cleavages. 

If this rhythm proves, on further investi- 
gation, to be constant, we have in the segment- 
ing egg an interesting demonstration of the 


principle that oxygen consumption and CO, 


production are not parallel and concomitant 
processes. Pasteur’s yeast experiment shows 
well that abundant oxygen leads to synthesis 
and growth, and little CO, is exereted. Lack 
of oxygen, on the other hand, means fermenta- 
tion and a large production of gas. Jn my ex- 
periments the time of maximum oxygen need 
was apparently one of only moderate CO, pro- 
duction, while the period of maximum CO, 
production was really the period of least de- 
In other words, the CO, 
produced in cleavage seems to be largely the 
result of splitting or fermentative processes 
and not of direct oxidation. 

Another fact clearly indicated was the in- 
erease in CO, production as development pro- 
‘eresses. By the time the eggs have reached 
the blastula stage, even before they begin to 
swim, they produce much more CO, per hour 
than in earlier stages. 

An effort was made to determine the CO, 
production quantitatively. At Dr. Mathew’s 
suggestion the BaCO, in tube # was allowed 
to settle; measured samples of the supernatant 
liquid were drawn off and titrated with m/20 
oxalic acid. Phenophthalein was used as an 
indicator. Enough was done to indicate the 
applicability of the method. 

As indicated earlier in the paper, I do not 
consider the results so far obtained conclusive. 
But by the application of refined methods the 
problem can be solved. I hope at some future 
time to work out a modification of Blackman’s* 
or Fletcher’st apparatus which may be appli- 

* Blackman, Philosophical Transactions, Vol. 
186, 1895. 

} Fletcher, Jour. of Physiol., Vol. 23, 1898. 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


cable to the conditions. It will also be neces- 
sary to command larger quantities of eggs. 
In this connection it may be worth mention- 
ing that in one experiment the number of 
eggs used was estimated at 17,850,000. The 
method consisted in diluting 1 ce. of eggs to 
100 ec. and then counting the eggs in ten 
drops, which equaled .4 cc. This number 
seems large and several hundred animals were 
opened to obtain them; but from a single ripe 
sea urchin at the height of the season was 
taken a mass of eggs estimated at 4,600,000. 
Thus by working at the proper time of the 
year it will be easily possible to obtain ten 
times the number of eggs I was able to get for 
these experiments. 
EH. P. Lyon. 
UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
CLIMATOLOGY OF CALIFORNIA. 


CauirorniA has the good fortune to have its 
climate discussed in considerable detail in 
‘Bulletin L’ of the Weather Bureau (Clima- 
tology of California, by Professor A. G. Mc- 
Adie). In fact this is the most complete tab- 
ulation hitherto published of the climatic data 
of any single state in the union. The ‘ Bul- 
letin’ numbers 270 pages, and is illustrated by 
means of numerous charts, curves and half-tone 
views. After a consideration of the control- 
ling factors of the climate (pressure, storms, 
topography, ete.), there follow tabulated data 
and brief discussions of the climate of indi- 
vidual localities. Much of the report is 
naturally tabular. In some eases the tab- 
ulation is remarkably complete, as in the case 
of San Francisco, for example, where the daily 
rainfall is given for the period January 1, 
1865, to March 19, 1902. Persons interested 
in obtaining meteorological data for California 
will find this report of great service. A good 
deal of the present ‘Bulletin’ has appeared 
in separate instalments in the Monthly Re- 
view of the Californa Climate and Crop 
Service, and it is a great convenience to 
teachers, and all others interested, to have the 
matter collected in one volume. Special re- 
ports on frost, fog and thunder-storms are 
found at the end of the ‘ Bulletin’ 


SCIENCE. 


309 


SKY COLORS AND ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION. 


In Nature for December 24, Mr. A. L. 
Rotch, of Blue Hill Observatory, calls atten- 
tion to the fact that the occurrence of Bishop’s 
ring and of abnormal glows after sunset, ob- 
served at Blue Hill during the past year, was 
intermittent, and that the respective phenom- 
ena occurred at Blue Hill about twenty days 
later than they did in Switzerland. Assuming 
that the conclusions are approximately correct, 
the drift of the dust clouds from central 
Europe to the eastern United States was at 
the rate of about thirty miles an hour, or a 
good deal less than the velocity of the highest 
clouds. The importance of such studies in 
connection with the general circulation of the 
atmosphere is great, and the suggestion made 
by Mr. Rotch, that a committee, like the Kra- 
katoa Committee of 1884, undertake an in- 
vestigation of the recent sky colorations, will 
have the support of all meteorologists. In 
Nature for January 21, Mr. H. H. Clayton 
ealls attention to the steadily diminishing size 
of the new Bishop’s ring around the sun, as 
determined by measurements made at Blue 
Hill Observatory. 


WEATHER FOLK-LORE. 


Unper the title ‘Weather Folk-Lore and 
Local Weather Signs,’ the Weather Bureau 
has recently published ‘ Bulletin No. 33’ (8vo, 
1903, pp. 153), prepared by Professor E. B. 
Garriott. The object of the ‘Bulletin’ is to 
collect the weather proverbs and sayings that 
are applicable to the United States, and to 
combine with these the local prognostices noted 
by observers of the Weather Bureau at the dif- 
ferent stations over the United States. Per- 
sons who are interested in weather proverbs 
will find abundant material in this collection. 
The proverbs are grouped by subjects, as tem- 
perature, clouds, humidity, barometer, etc., 
often, however, rather haphazardly, as when 
we find under ‘The physiological effects on 
animal life of changes of pressure’ the saying 
“smoke falls to the ground preceding rain.’ 
There are several extracts from daily news- 
papers which, unless the writers of the articles 
referred to are persons of scientific standing, 
are out of place in an official publication of 


304 


the Weather Bureau. Over half of the ‘ Bul- 
letin’ is taken up with local weather signs 
for different Weather Bureau stations, these 
signs being such as the following: winds 
which bring precipitation; relation of pressure 
changes to precipitation; directions of high 
and of warm winds; conditions for frost, ete. 
In other words, these are type local weather 
conditions, which will doubtless prove useful 
to many persons. These local weather signs 
are illustrated by a series of seasonal charts, 
showing, for the United States, the directions 
of the rain winds; the direction of movement 
of cirrus or cirro-stratus clouds before rain, 
and the number of hours they appear before 
rain; the barometer heights preceding precipi- 
tation, and the wind direction during periods 
of high and of low temperature. 
R. DEC. Warp. 


HARyARD UNIVERSITY. 


ELIZABETH THOMPSON SCIENCE FUND. 


THE 29th meeting of the board of trustees 
was held at the Harvard Medical School, Bos- 
ton, Mass., on February 5. The following 
officers were elected: 

President—Henry P. Bowditch. 

Treasurer—Charles S. Rackemann. 

Secretary—Charles §. Minot. 


The report of the treasurer, showing a bal- 
ance of income on hand of $1,788.29, was read 
and accepted. 

The secretary presented reports of progress 
from the holders of various grants, the work 
for which is not yet completed, as follows: 


No. 27. E. Hartwig. No. 98. J. Weinzirl. 
60. F. Kruger. 99. H. S. Grindley. 
65. O. Lubarsch. 100. H. H. Field. 
71. A. Nicolas. 101. T. A. Jagegar. 
73. J. von Kennell. 102. E. O. Jordan. 
94. A. M. Reese. 103. EH. Anding. 


96. H. EH. Crampton. 
97. F. W. Bancroft. 


104. W. P. Bradley. 
106. W. Valentiner. 


Professor Belopolsky having completed and 

published the work under grant No. 76, it 

was voted to close the record of that grant. 
The secretary reported that 59 applications 


had been received for the consideration of the. 


board, the total amount asked for being nearly 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 478. 


$10,000. Under these circumstances it be- 
came necessary to decline, not only applica- 
tions of minor interest, but also several which 
in the opinion of the board were of exceptional 
merit and highly deserving of encouragement 
and support. 

It was voted to make the following new 
grants: 


No: 107. $300 to Professor Morris W. Travers, 
London, England, for researches on the absolute 
scale of temperature, by experiments with liquid 
hydrogen. 

No. 108. $150 to Professor Benjamin L. Sea- 
well, Warrensburg, Missouri, for study of the 
taxonomy and ecology of the organisms of fresh- 
water lakes, in relation to fish foods and water 
supplies. 

No. 109. $40 to Professor A. Nicolas, Nancy, 
France, for studies on the embryology of reptiles. 

No. 110. $250 to Professor H. S. Grindley, 
Urbana, Ill., for the separation and purification of 
the nitrogenous substances of meats. 

No. 111. $200 to Professor R. Hiirthle, Bres- 
lau, Germany, to determine the relation between 
pressure and the obliteration of circulation. 

No. 112. $143 to Professor W. J. Moenkhaus, 
Bloomington, Ind., for studies on the individuality 
of maternal and paternal chromatin in hybrids. 

No. 113. $50 to S. P. Fergusson, Esq., Hyde 
Park, Mass., to measure the errors of absorption 
hygrometers. 

No. 114. $300 to Dr. Werner Rosenthal, 
Erlangen, Germany, for researches on the Lom- 
bardy chicken pest. 

No. 115. $300 to Professor Henry S. Carhart, 
Ann Arbor, Michigan, for the preparation and 
study of Clark and Weston standard cells. 

Cuartes 8. Minor, 
Secretary. 


THE ANNUAL REPORT OF THE DIRECTOR 
OF THE GEOLOGICAL SURVEY. 

THE twenty-fourth annual report of the 
director of the United States Geological Sur- 
vey, which is now ready for distribution, 
shows that the several branches of that organ- 
ization greatly enlarged the scope of their 
work and increased their activities during the 
last fiseal year. The period covered is from 
July 1, 1902, to July 1, 1903, for the work of 
which congress had appropriated the sum of 
$1,377,470. 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


The survey as now organized is divided into 
five branches: The geologic, topographic, 
hydrographic, publication and administrative. 

The geologic branch includes the divisions 
of geology and paleontology, of mining and 
mineral resources and of physics and chem- 
istry. The administration of the division of 
geology and paleontology was-in the hands of 
the geologist in charge of geology, while sci- 
entific supervision rested with the chiefs of 
sections. The various sections included those 
of areal geology, Pleistocene geology, pre- 
Cambrian and metamorphic geology, petrol- 
ogy, economic geology of metalliferous ores, 
economic geology of non-metalliferous min- 
erals and paleontology. A new section was 
created during the year—that of petrology. 
The petrographic laboratory maintained in 
connection with this section has probably no 
equal in the quality or the rapidity of its work. 

A new feature of the work of the division 
of geology and paleontology was the prepara- 
tion and publication of a bulletin entitled 
‘Contributions to Economic Geology, 1902,’ 
which is intended to be the first of an annual 
series. 

From the appropriation of $163,700 for 
geologic work allotments were made for 47 
field parties, which were sent to all parts of 
the country. In addition to this, $14,000 was 
appropriated for the paleontologic work of 
six other parties. Brief accounts of the re- 
sults accomplished by each party are given in 
the report. 

Under authority of an act of congress ma- 
king an appropriation of $60,000 for a con- 
tinuation of the investigation of the mineral 
resources of Alaska, five parties were actively 
engaged in field work during the summer of 
1902. A somewhat detailed account of the 
investigations made by these parties is given 
in the report. 

The principal work of the division of 
mining and mineral resources is the prepara- 
tion of the annual report on the mineral re- 
sources of the United States, although con- 
siderable time is devoted to answering tech- 
nical inquiries. At the request of the 
director of the census, the schedules of inquiry 
of the twelfth census in regard to mining 


SCIENCE. 


305 


were included with the statistical cards an- 
nually sent out by the survey. The returns 
were transmitted through the Geological Sur- 
vey to the Census Office, thus affording both 
offices the benefit of cooperation. 

The division of physical and chemical re- 
search made 225 analyses of rocks and coals, 
and 443 qualitative determinations of min- 
erals during the year. A research into the 
action of ammonium chloride on silicates was 
finished. Experiments were made upon 
methods for the analysis of cements. The 
experimental work of the physical laboratory 
related mainly to the behavior of the rock- 
forming minerals and analogous but somewhat 
simpler chemical compounds at high tempera- 
tures. Experiments upon the linear force 
exerted by growing crystals were also con- 
tinued. 

Near the close of the fiscal year, the topo- 
graphic branch was reorganized for adminis- 
trative purposes into two divisions, one of 
topography and one of geography and forestry. 
The division of topography- now includes three 
sections: The eastern and western, and a 
third section, subordinate to the other two, 
which is called the triangulation and com- 
puting section. A federal appropriation of 
$309,200 was spent on the work, besides an 
additional sum of $90,000 allotted by various 
states for cooperative work. 

The year’s work of the division of topog- 
raphy may be summarized as follows: Two 
base lines were measured; primary azimuth 
observations were made at 4 triangulation 
stations; 395 triangulation stations were oc- 
cupied or located; 1,487 miles of primary 
traverse were run; 36,275 square miles were 
covered by detailed topographic mapping, this 
area being distributed through 36 states and 
territories; 29,160 miles of levels were run; 
and 1,826 permanent bench marks were estab- 
lished, and at each of these an iron post, a 
bronze or aluminum tablet, or a copper or 
aluminum plug was set in place. In con- 
nection with the Alaskan surveys, about 20,080 
square miles were mapped topographically. 
About 45 miles of the boundary of the Big- 
horn Forest Reserve of Wyoming were sur- 
veyed and marked with special iron posts, 


306 


this work completing the survey of the re- 
serve; also 154 miles of the boundaries of the 
Black Mesa Forest Reserve and 12 miles of 
those of the Mount Graham Forest Reserve 
of Arizona were surveyed and similarly 
marked. In the office 97 atlas sheets were 
completed and the entire revision and redraft- 
ing of the large topographic wall map of the 
United States was commenced. 

The division of geography and forestry was 
instrumental in making an agreement be- 
tween the representatives of the farming in- 
dustry and the sheep industry in Utah, to the 
effect that the entire mountain region of 
Utah, which constitutes at present the sum- 
mer range for sheep, be reserved; that in such 
portions of these reserves as contributed to 
the water supply of the agricultural settle- 
ments sheep grazing be prohibited; that the 
remaining portions of the reserves be allotted 
to the various sheep owners for extended 
periods, and that the number of sheep to be 
grazed upon a unit of area be restricted far 
below the present number. About 17,500 
square miles of forest reserves were examined 
during the season. The appropriation for 
this work amounted to $130,000. 

The funds available for the work of the 
division of hydrography were doubled by 
the appropriation act of June 28, 1902, and 
the operations under the reclamation law 
were entrusted to the officials of this divi- 
sion. As a consequence, it became neces- 
sary, for administrative purposes, to create a 
separate branch of the Geological Survey. 
This is known as the hydrographic branch, and 
includes the work of the division of hydrog- 
raphy and also that of the reclamation ser- 
vice, organized to carry on the surveys and 
examinations authorized by the reclamation 
law. The proceeds of the sale of public lands 
in the western states and territories, which 
were set aside to create a fund for this pur- 
pose, amount to between $3,000,000 and 
$4,000,000 a year. Preliminary investiga- 
tions made to show the extent to which the 
arid lands can be reclaimed by irrigation have 
been carried on by the Geological Survey for 
many years. At the beginning of the fiscal 
year the various engineers who had previously 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. KIX. No. 478. 


been engaged in these investigations were pro- 
vided with added facilities for extending the 
work and carrying on to construction the pro- 
jects that were considered feasible. Surveys 
and examinations were made in the states of 
Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Kansas, 
Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New Mexico, 
North Dakota, Oklahoma, Oregon, South 
Dakota, Utah, Washington and Wyoming. 

A division of hydrology has also been added 


_to the hydrographic branch, the purpose of 


which is to study geologic conditions govern- 
ing the occurrence of underground waters. 
Another feature of this branch is the division 
of hydro-economics, of which the chief raison 
d’étre is the investigation of the equality of 
water and its effect on various industries. 

Many interesting details are also given in 
this report concerning the work of the publi- 
cation and administrative branches of the 
survey. Significant of the amount of matter 
published by the survey is the statement that 
20,756 pages of manuscript were edited dur- 
ing the year and 257 atlas sheets and special 
maps were engraved. 

This report is published for gratuitous dis- 
tribution and may be procured on application 
to the director of the Geological Survey, 
Washington, D. C. 


EMIL ALEXANDER DE SCHWEINITZ. 


THe Medical and Dental Departments of 
Columbian University have passed the follow- 
ing resolutions in memory of the late Dr. de 
Schweinitz : 


A great calamity has befallen the medical and 
dental departments of the Columbian University 
in the death of Dr. Emil A. de Schweinitz, pro- 
fessor of chemistry_and toxicology and dean of 
the medical faculty. 

Dr. de Schweinitz became professor of chem- 
istry in 1893, and four years thereafter (1897) 
he was appointed dean of the medical faculty. 
He filled both positions with marked ability until 
his death on February 15, 1904. 

Not only was he admired and beloved by the 
students for his ability as a skillful teacher, both 
in the lecture room and laboratory, but his 
gentle method and kindly interest in their wel- 
fare won for him their deyout regard and un- 
limited esteem. 


Frpruary 26, 1904.] 


In his work as dean of the medical faculty he 
displayed unusual executive ability. In the 
equipment and internal arrangement of labora- 
tories for the new college building he labored with 
untiring industry, care and skill; and in the es- 
tablishment of a hospital for the medical school 
(for which many of us worked conjointly) it may 
be safely said that in the original design of this 
institution the leading spirit whose persistent 
and energetic efforts became a prime factor in 
the development of the enterprise, and whose 
never-failing hope encouraged those of us who 
were inclined to despond, was the progressive and 
unrelenting spirit of Dr. de Schweinitz. 

In thus recording our appreciation of his valued 
services to ourselves and our university, we must 
not neglect also to join with the world of scien- 
tifie medicine at large in commending his impor- 
tant labors in the domain of original research. 
His work in bacteriology, in the investigation of 
tuberculosis and other infectious diseases both in 
men and animals, has won for him deserved dis- 
tinction and renown. 

Cut off suddenly in the prime of his manhood 
and professional usefulness, we devoutly mourn 
his untimely end. Im his demise we have lost 
a friend, counselor and companion whom we had 
learned to love, honor and admire. 

We offer to his bereaved relatives our tenderest 
sympathy. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tue American Institute of Electrical En- 
gineers held its annual dinner in New York 
on February 11, at the same time celebrating 
the fifty-seventh birthday of Mr. Thomas A. 
Edison. The president of the institute, Mr. 
J. B. Arnold, made the opening address. Mr. 
Edison was unwilling to make a speech, but 
replied by sending a telegraphic message 
through an installation placed in the room. 
Addresses were made by Professor A. KH. 
Kennelly, of Harvard University, Professor 
Cyrus F. Brackett, of Princeton University, 
Mr. Joseph B. McCall and Mr. C. L. Edgar. 
The deed of gift of the Edison Medal, for 
which about $7,000 had been collected, was 
presented to the institute by Mr. F. Insull. 
Many congratulatory messages were read, in- 
eluding the following from President Roose- 
velt: I congratulate you as one of the Ameri- 
cans to whom America owes much; as one of 
the men whose life work has tended to give 


SCIENCE. 


307 


America no small portion of its present posi- 
tion in the international world. 


Tur centenary of the death of Kant was 
commemorated on February 12 by the uni- 
versity and the town of Konigsberg. A tablet 
was unveiled by the Prussian minister of 
edu¢ation, Dr. Studt, who made a commem- 
orative address. The town of Konigsberg has 
appropriated $2,500 for the establishment of 
a philosophical prize. A collection of Kanti- 
ana was placed on exhibition. The British 
Academy has also held a celebration at which 
an address in honor of Kant was made by 
Dr. Shadworth Hodgson. At Columbia Uni- 
versity Dr. Felix Adler gave a commemorative 
address. 

A COMMITTEE has been formed to prepare a 
medal in honor of the late Professor A. Cornu, 
the eminent physicist. 


Dr. Emm Fiscuer, professor of chemistry 
at Berlin, has been made a knight of the 
Prussian order ‘ Pour le merite.’ 


Tue Turin Academy of Sciences has 
divided the Ballauri prize of about $6,000 be- 
tween Signor Marconi and Professor Grassi, 
and has awarded the Brasso prize of about 
$1,600 to the Duke of the Abruzzi. 


Tuer University of Edinburgh has awarded 
the Cameron prize in practical therapeutics to 
Professor Niels R. Finsen, M.D., of Copen- 
hagen, in recognition of his pioneer work in 
connection with the application of light rays 
to the treatment of disease. 

Tue board of control of the Naval Institute 
has awarded the annual prize for the best 
essay to Lieut. S. P. Fullenwider, U.S.N. The 
subject was ‘The Fleet and its Personnel.’ 
The prize is $200 and life membership in the 
institute. 

Mr. James Gayzry has been elected presi- 
dent of the American Institute of Mining 
Engineers. 

Dr. Epwarp Cowes has resigned the super- 
intendeney of the McLean Hospital, at Wav- 
erly, Mass., where much excellent work in 
psychiatry has been accomplished under his 
direction. 

Mr. W. OC. Nass, superintendent of the 
Magnetic and Meteorological Department of 


308 


Greenwich Observatory, has retired in accord- 
ance with the rules of the admiralty service. 
He has been connected with the observatory 
for forty-eight years. 


Proressor Marston T. Bogert, of Columbia 
University, was injured by an explosion in 
his classroom on February 20, while making 
a demonstration to his class in chemistry. It 
is expected that he will be confined to the 
house for about two weeks. 

BrertHa SroneMan, D.Sc. (Cornell, 96), 
who has for the past six years been professor 
of botany at the Huguenot College, Welling- 
ton, Cape Colony, is on her way to America 
on leave of absence. 

Marcaret C. Frreuson, Ph.D. (Cornell, 
1901), instructor of botany at Wellesley Col- 
lege, delivered a lecture before the Boston So- 
ciety of Natural History, on February 3, on 
“The Development of the Gametophytes, Fer- 
tilization and Related Phenomena in Pines.’ 


Dr. Emit KRarprenin, of the University of 
Heidelberg, has gone to the Dutch East In- 
dies to study insanity among the natives. 

Proressor WILHELM UnUutTorr, professor of 
ophthalmology at Breslau, has been appointed 
secretary for the next meeting of the German 
‘Men of Science and Physicians. 

Dr. Kart BurckHarpt, formerly geologist 
in the Museum of La Plata, has been ap- 
pointed chief geologist of the Geological Sur- 
vey of Mexico. 

Dean Bovey and Professor Durley, of the 
faculty of applied science of McGill Uni- 
versity, are visiting engineering schools in 
the United States with a view to the new rail- 
way department at McGill. 


Accorpine to the New York Hvening Post 
the official delegates to the sixth annual con- 
ference of American Universities were as 
follows: Clark University, President Hall; 
University of Michigan, Professor Richard 
Hudson; Johns Hopkins University, President 
Remsen and Dr. Gilman; Leland Stanford, 
Jr., University, President Jordan and Instruc- 
tor A. H. Suzzalo; University of California, 
President Wheeler, Professor ©. M. Bakewell 
and Dr. Irving Stringham; University of 
Pennsylvania, Professors Penniman and New- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 478. 


bold; Cornell University, Professor Thomas 
F. Crane; University of Wisconsin, Professor 
D. C. Munro; Columbia University, President 
Butler, Professors Smith, Carpenter and 
Perry; the Catholic University of America, 
Dr. George M. Bolling; Harvard University, 
President Eliot; Princeton University, Presi- 
dent Wilson, Professor Andrew F. West, Dean 
Fine and Professor Hibben; University of 
Chicago, President Harper, Professors Paul 
Shorey and A. W. Small; Yale, President 
Hadley, Secretary Stokes and Professor 
Lounsbury. 


Dr. Emm ALEXANDER DE SCHWEINITZ, di- 
rector of the Biochemie Laboratory of the 
U. S. Department of Agriculture and dean 
of the Medical Department of Columbian 
University, well known for his contributions 
to bacteriology, died at Washington on Feb- 
ruary 15, in his thirty-ninth year. 


JAMES A. SKILTON, a writer on social ques- 
tions and a student of Herbert Spencer, 
died in Brooklyn on February 19, at the age 
of seventy-five years. 


Dr. Epwarp JoHN CHAPMAN, from 1853 to 
1895 professor of mineralogy in the Univer- 
sity of Toronto, died at the beginning of 
February, at the age of eighty-three years. 


Dr. WitttAM Francis died on January 18, 
at the age of eight-five years. He was a 
member of the printing and publishing firm 
of Taylor and Francis and had been for more 
than fifty years one of the editors of The 
Philosophical Magazine. He had translated 
and abstracted many papers on chemistry and 
physics. 

M. Firmin Bocourt, formerly curator of the 
Paris Museum of Natural History, died on 
February 4, at the age of eighty-five years. 
His connection with the museum began in 
1834, and on its behalf he made scientific 
journeys to Siam, Mexico and elsewhere, be- 
ing known especially for his work on the 
reptiles. The deaths are also announced of 
Baron de Ujfalvy, professor at the University 
of Paris, known for his researches in anthro- 
pology and his travels in central Asia, and 
of Dr. Imigi Barbera, professor of philosophy 
at the University of Bologna. 


FEBRUARY 26, 1904.] 


Senator Barnes has introduced a bill in 
the New York legislature appropriating $5,000 
to establish in the State Prison Commission’s 
Department a laboratory for the study of 
criminal, pauper and defective classes. A 
director of the laboratory is to be appointed 
by the governor at a salary of $3,000. 


Tue second International Congress of Phi- 
losophy will be held at Geneva from the 
fourth to the eighth of September of the 
present year. The congress meets in five 
sections—the history of philosophy, general 
philosophy and psychology, applied philos- 
ophy, logic and philosophy of the sciences 
and history of the sciences, the last named 
being at the same time the third Interna- 
tional Congress of the History of the Sciences. 
The subjects announced for the general ses- 
sions are ‘ The place of the history of philos- 
ophy in the study of philosophy,’ the definition 
of philosophy, the individual and the group, 
and final causes in biology and neo-vital- 
ism. The honorary president of the congress 
is M. Ernest Naville, honorary professor of 
philosophy at the University of Geneva, and 
the president is M. J. J. Gourd, professor at 
the university. The general secretary to 
whom communications should be addressed is 
Dr. Ed. Claparedéde, 11 Cliampel, Geneva. 


A CORRESPONDENT writes that ‘The Order of 
the Eshai’ is a recent scientific organization 
whose membership consists of those who 
earnestly and seriously have been and are par- 
ticipating in the study of the paleontology 
and geology of the sedimentary formations 
of New York state. The order’s monogram 
is a combination of the letters N and Y, 
slightly imverted, which form the Russian 
letter eshat, and hence this word has been 
used as the name of the order. One section 
is composed of the ‘ Immortales’ or those who 
have toiled and who now have ceased from 
their labors, and there are two other sections 
composed of living members. The keeper of 
the rolls is Dr. John M. Clarke, state paleon- 
fologist of New York. 


THE Johns Hopkins Press announces the 
publication of the lectures on ‘ Molecular 
Dynamics and the Wave Theory of Light, 


SCIENCE. 


309 


given by Lord Kelvin at the university in 
October, 1884, and based on Mr. A. S. Hatha- 
way’s stenographie report; twelve appendices 
on allied subjects are added by Lord Kelvin. 


A MEETING of gentlemen interested in as- 
tronomy was held at Edinburgh, on January 
9, to make arrangements for resuscitating the 
Astronomical Institution, originally founded 
in 1812. 


THE report of the meeting of the Zoological 
Society of London held on January 19, 1904, 
contains the following announcement: “ An 
“Abstract of the Proceedings of the Zoological 
Society of London’ is published by the So- 
ciety at 3 Hanover Square, London, W., on 
the Tuesday following the date of meeting 
to which it refers. It will be issued, free of 
extra charge, to all fellows who subscribe to 
the publications along with the ‘ Proceed- 
ings’; but it may be obtained on the day of 
publication at the price of sixpence, or, if 
desired, sent post-free for the sum of six 
shillings per annum, payable in advance.” 
This new publication, which has started with 
the year 1904, is not the same as the privately 
distributed reports of the meetings, which will 
be continued as heretofore. The ‘ Abstract 
of the Proceedings’ will, we understand, be a 
small octavo of about eight pages, and will 
include abstracts of the papers read, which 
such authors as care to publish preliminary 
and more or less intelligible descriptions of 
their new species will be at liberty to use for 
that purpose. We presume that the editor 
will not insert in the ‘ Abstract’ brief diag- 
noses of any new species of which the author 
has not already supplied a complete and 
proper description, accepted by the society 
for ultimate publication in extenso. 


Tue Biological Society of Washington has 
arranged for five Saturday afternoon illus- 
trated lectures to be given in the United 
States National Museum. The program of 
lectures is: February 20, ‘The Exploration of 
the Deep Sea,’ C. H. Townsend; February 
97, ‘The Living Forest,’ Gifford Pinchot; 
March 5, ‘A Naturalist?s Winter in Mexico, 
E. W. Nelson; March 12, ‘The Evolution of 
the Horse,’ Henry F. Osborn; March 19, ‘ The 


360 SCIENCE. 


Coast Region of Alaska, its Fiords, Glaciers 
and Volcanoes,’ C. Hart Merriam. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mr. J. Ogprn Armour has given $250,000 
to the Armour Institute of Technology for 
an athletic field. 


Me. Joun A. Creicuton has given a further 
sum of about $250,000 to Creighton Univer- 
sity, a Catholic institution at Omaha, Nebr. 


Tuer Liverpool city council has decided to 
grant £10,000 to the university during 1904, 
on condition that the council nominate from 
time to time some person to inspect the work 
of the institution; that the university make 
an annual report to the council of its work, 
including a statement of accounts; and that 
not less than £1,000 of the grant be devoted 
for Liverpool scholarships and for the pay- 
ment and remission of fees. It is intended 
to make the grant an annual one. 


Lorp_SrratHcona has given $20,000 to 
Manitoba University to extend its scientific 
work. 


Mrs. WrnsourT has offered to the University 
of Cambridge £500 to found an annual prize 
in civil engineering in memory of her late 
husband, Mr. John Steddy Winbolt, M.A., 
Trinity College. 


Tue new Laboratory of Hygiene in the Uni- 
versity of Jena was dedicated on January 24. 


DartmoutH Hatt, the oldest building of 
Dartmouth College and one of much historic 
interest, has been destroyed by fire. The loss 
of $25,000 is partly covered by insurance. The 
trustees have already resolved to rebuild the 
hall in more permanent material at a cost of 
$250,000. _ West College, Colgate University, 
has been damaged by fire, the biological and 
geological departments suffering especially. 
Several buildings belonging to the Johns 
Hopkins University were destroyed in the 
recent fire. They were, of course, insured, 
but the amount of loss to the university is 
not at present known. It is said that prop- 
erty to the value of $1,300,000 belonging to 
the Johns Hopkins Hospital was destroyed. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 478. 


This was insured, but there will be a large 
curtailment in revenue until the property can 
be rebuilt. 


ATTORNEY-GENERAL CuNNEEN holds that the 
land in the Adirondacks, to which Cornell 
University took title for the purpose of a 
College of Forestry, has now become the 
property of the state, and is a part of the 
forest preserve. The attorney-general also 
holds that the contract between Cornell Uni- 
versity and the Brooklyn Cooperage Company 
concerning the cutting of timber from this 
land is in yiolation of the constitution, and 
void. 

A CORRESPODENT writes to the London Times, 
in view of recent developments at Oxford and 
Cambridge, that it is interesting to learn that 
the Cambridge Union Society has decided by 
a majority of 87 votes to 70 ‘that this house 
would regret the abolition of compulsory 
Greek in the previous examination.’ This 
expression of undergraduate opinion appears 
the more significant when it is remembered 
how small a proportion of the members of the 
university are professedly classical students. 
Last year of the 400 students who passed the 
first parts of the various examinations for 
honors only 90 were classical men. 

Dr. Wi.t1am C. Srurcis, formerly mycol- 
ogist of the Connecticut Agricultural Experi- 
ment Station, has been appointed lecturer on 
botany at Colorado College, Colorado Springs. 

Dr. H. K. Anprrson, Caius College, Cam- 
bridge, has been appointed university lecturer 
in physiology in succession to Dr. Langley, 
appointed to the professorship. 

Dr. Henry Kenwoop has been appointed 
professor of hygiene at University College, 
London, in succession to the late Professor 
W. H. Corfield. 

Dr. E. P. Wricut has resigned the chair of 
botany at Trinity College, Dublin. 

Stenor Boccarpt, late assistant in the Ob- 
servatory of Catania, has been appointed pro- 
fessor of astronomy and director of the Ob- 
servatory of the University of Turin. ; 

Dr. Benno Erpmann, professor of philos- 
ophy at the University of Bonn, has been 
called to Tiibingen. 


> tei 


SCIENCE 


_A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Marca 4, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
Section D—Mechanical Science and Engi- 
neering: PROFESSOR WILLIAM T. MacRupER 361 


A Reply to Recent Strictures on American 


Biologists: Dr. LEONHARD STEJNEGER..... 371 
Scientific Books :— 

Lévy-Bruhl on the Positive Philosophy of 

Auguste Comte: Proressor Lester F. 

Warp. Michelson on Light Waves and 

their Uses ; Tuckerman’s Index to the Iiter- 

ature of the Spectroscope: C. EH. M........ 376 
Scientific Journals and Articles............. 381 
Societies and Academies :— 

Anthropological Society of Washington: 

Dr. WALTER HoucH. Clemson College Sci- 

ence Club: Dr. F. S. SHIVER.............. 381 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Convocation Week: PRESIDENT CHARLES S. 
Hower, Proressor J. C. Branner, Dr. Cu. 
WARDELL STILES, PRoFESSOoR C. JUDSON 
Herrick. The Case of William J. Long: 
FranK M. Cuapman. The Metric System: 
Dr. AurRED C,. LANE. Sex Determination 
im Bees and Ants: PROFESSOR W. H. CASTLE 383 
Special Articles :— 
Amitosis in the Egg Follicle Cells of In- 
sects: PROFESSOR VERNON lL. Ke LLoce. 
Variations in the Protective Value of the 
Odoriferous Secretions of Some Heter- 
optera: ALFRED F. CONRADI.............. 
Notes on Inorganic Chemistry :-— 
Mendeléef’s Conception of the Ether; At- 
mospheric Corrosion of Zinc: J. L. H..... 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Meteorological Phenomena of the Mont Pelée 
Hruption; Demtschinsky’s Long-range Fore- 
casts; The ‘Iine Storm’ Fallacy; The 
Climate of Iowa: PRoressor R. DEC. Warp 395 
Recent Zoopaleontology :— 
Revised Hdition of Zitte’s Paleontology ; 
Tertiary Blasmobranchs from Southern 
Italy; Jurassic Fishes from Spanish Litho- 
graphic Limestone; Further Light on the 


392 


394 


Tremataspidae: Dr. C. R. HASTMAN...... 396 
Scientific Notes and News................. 397 
University and Educational News........... 400 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SOIENCE. 


SECTION D—MECHANICAL SCIENCE AND 
ENGINEERING. 

THE work of Section D of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence is In mechanical science and engineer- 
ing. The section devotes itself to showing 
the advances which recently have been 
made in the principles and applications of 
science in regulating and using the forces 
of nature. The papers which are pre- 
sented usually deal with what are com- 
monly known as the applied sciences, more 
particularly with those which are based 
upon physics and chemistry. Under elec- 
tricity are included its generation, adapta- 
tion and use on a commercial scale. Under 
heat are included such practical questions 
as the generation and use of steam. Under 
chemistry are included the combustion of 
coal and other fuels, and the production 
and use of gas for heating, forging and 
annealing, and for the generation of power 
in gas and oil engines; while in the allied 
science of metallurgy the problems of the 
mining engineer and metallurgist of iron 
and steel are included. Under hydraulics 
we find a long list of problems, the ad- 
vancement of which has been rapid in re- 
cent years in the utilization of the results 
of the work of the sun as a heat agent, and 
in controlling this same transmuted heat 
energy when it manifests itself in swollen 
streams. 

The section is to be congratulated on 
having had as its chairman Vice-President 
Calvin M. Woodward, of St. Louis, who is 


362 


well known in that city as professor of 
applied mathematics at Washington Uni- 
versity, and as the originator, of the St. 
Louis Manual Training School. Through- 
out the country he is equally well known 
as ‘the apostle of manual training’ and as 
one of the leading educators of the world; 
his reputation and position in the com- 
munity enabled him to be a most efficient 
vice-president. 

Professor J. Burkitt Webb, of Stevens 
Institute, at Hoboken, N. J., was elected 
as councilor, and Professor George W. 
Bissell, of Iowa State College of Agricul- 
ture and Mechanic Arts, Ames, Iowa, was 
elected a member of the general committee. 
Professor William Kent, of Syracuse Uni- 
versity, Syracuse, N. Y., was elected mem- 
ber of the sectional committee for five 
years. The sectional committee consisted 
of Professor Clarence A. Waldo, Purdue 
University, Lafayette, Ind., vice-president 
1903; Mr. Elwood Mead, Department of 
Agriculture, Washington, D. C., secretary, 
1903; Professor Calvin M. Woodward, 
Washington University, St. Louis, Mo., 
vice-president, 1904; Professor W. T. Ma- 
eruder, Ohio State University, Columbus, 
Ohio, secretary, 1904-8; Professor Mans- 
field Merriman, Lehigh University, South 
Bethlehem, Pa.; Professor J. Burkitt 
Webb, Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. J.; 
Professor H. S. Jacoby, Cornell University, 
Ithaca, N. Y.; Professor H. T. Eddy, Uni- 
versity of Minnesota, Minneapolis, Minn., 
and Professor William Kent, Syracuse 
University, Syracuse, N. Y. 


VICE-PRESIDENT ’S ADDRESS. 

The vice-president’s address was deliv- 
ered by Professor Clarence A. Waldo, pro- 
fessor of mathematics at Purdue Univer- 
sity, Lafayette, Ind., on the subject of 
“Hngineering and Mathematics.’ It was a 
statement of the great influence of the 
engineering colleges upon the teaching of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 479. 


mathematics, and was a strong plea for the 
rationalization of mathematics and espe- 
cially for engineering students, and also 
for illustrating the reality of mathematical 
formule and expressions by examples drawn 
from engineering practise. By this means 
it will be found that the student will per- 
ceive the utility of mathematical applica- 
tions earlier in his course, and will not be 
studying the subject for reasons of either 
blind faith or stolid obedience. As the 
paper has already been published im the 
columns of Scrmncz, we gladly refer the 
reader to the address itself. 


EXCURSIONS. 

The section met for the presentation and 
discussion of papers on Tuesday, Wednes- 
day and Thursday mornings and on 
Wednesday evening. Tuesday afternoon 
was spent in an excursion under, the aus- 
pices of the St. Louis Engineers’ Club, to 
the Hads Bridge, and by special train to 
the Union Station to inspect the changes 
now being made in its terminal facilities. 
The members of the section availed them- 
selves of the kind invitation of the man- 
agers of the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion, and visited the exposition grounds on 
Thursday afternoon, where, after luncheon, 
they inspected the extensive buildings and 
grounds, and the machinery which was be- 
ine installed. 

PAPERS. 

Professor A. S. Langsdorf, of Washing- 
ton University, presented a paper giving 
“Graphic Methods for Determining the 
Equations of Experimental Curves’ and 
eivine means for fixing wpon the type of 
equation to be used and of evaluating the 
constants of an equation which represents 
a curve found experimentally. Parabolic, 


_hyperbolic, logarithmic and periodic curves 


are treated by his method. The paper will 
probably be published in the Journal of the 
Association of Engineering Societies. 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


Professor J. L. Van Ornum, of Wash- 
ington University, St. Louis, Mo., described 
the results of his experiments on ‘The Fa- 
tigue of Cement Products.’ In his experi- 
ments he made tests of cubes and prisms of 
neat Portland cement, and of concrete, ap- 
plying different loads at the rate of about 
four times per minute until rupture en- 
sued, and plotting a curve of results show- 
ing the number of repetitions necessary to 
cause rupture when the load was a given 
per cent. of the ultimate static strength. 
The results of the tests of cubes of neat 
cement show that repeated loads, less in 
intensity than the ultimate strength of the 
material, will cause failure. The number 
of repetitions necessary to produce this ef- 
fect imereases very rapidly for loads less 
than 65 per cent. of the ultimate strength, 
and seems to become infinite at about 50 
per cent. value. For example, 180 repeti- 
tions of the load of 80 per cent. of the ulti- 
mate static strength are sufficient to cause 
rupture. Four hundred repetitions of the 
70 per cent. load, or 1,000 repetitions of the 
62 per cent. load, or 1,700 repetitions of the 
60 per cent. load, or 4,000 repetitions of the 
56 per cent. load, or 5,000 repetitions of 
the 554 per cent. load, will do the same. 
The same general law applies equally to 
conerete. The above results with cement 
and conerete are, therefore, similar to those 
obtained by Woehler on iron and steel. 
The modulus of elasticity of cement and 
conerete is greatly reduced in value under 
the influence of repeated loads of the in- 
tensities indicated. Prisms 5’ & 5” x 12” 
high were used in this work. The paper 
will be printed in The Transactions of the 
American Society of Civil Engineers. 

A paper on ‘The Design of Steel Concrete 
Arches,’ by Professor H. J. McCaustland, 
of Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y., was 
read in his absence by his colleague, Pro- 
fessor H. S. Jacoby. The author calls at- 
tention to the lack of clean-cut, definite 


SCIENCE. 


363 


Imowledge as to the action of steel com- 
bined with concrete under stress, and par- 
ticularly im an arch ring subject to moving 
loads, and states that arches are built with 
factors of safety ranging probably all the 
way from 3 to 150. He is of the opinion 
that we do not so much need new theories 
as we do an extension of our practical 
knowledge of the mechanical properties of 
conerete. He gives an abstract and dis- 
cusses a graduating thesis on the subject 
by Mr. W. 8S. Edge. After briefly stating 
the theory which formed the basis of the 
investigation and describing the details 
thereof, he summarizes Mr. Hdge’s con- 
clusions as follows: (1) that the graphie 
method of solution is as accurate as is 
justified by our knowledge of safe unit 
stresses In concrete; (2) that an arch 
ring designed for thrusts due to uniform 
live loading will be too thin at the 
haunches to resist stresses due to eccentric 
loads; (3) that in large spans it is more 
accurate to use Cain’s method of sub- 
dividing the arch ring, since it gives, in 
general, results for thrusts which are about 
two per cent. greater than will be given by 
dividing the arch into equal horizontal sec- 
tions; (4) it is better not to try to use a 
modified semi-ellipse for an earth-filled arch 
when the rise is less than one sixth, or pos- 
sibly one eighth of the span, as the equi- 
librium curve flattens it too much at the 
haunches. It is better to take full advan- 
tage of the rise by making the arch linear 
from crown to springing, thereby reducing 
the crown thrust. (5) The maximum bend- 
ing moment is not produced by a live load 
covering one half of the bridge. For the 
crown section the bending moment is the 
greatest when the load is about three fifths 
on the bridge. The greatest positive mo- 
ment, however, occurs with the arch prac- 
tically one half loaded. The greatest nega- 
tive moment occurs when the arch is three 
fifths loaded. As the result of designing 


364 


about fifteen arches, Mr. Edge suggests a 
method of procedure which he has found 
to be the most simple, and hopes that some 
one else will be interested in extending the 
investigations. The paper, will probably 
be published in the Transactions of the 
American Society of Cwil Engineers. 

Professor Henry S. Jacoby then gave an 
account of ‘The New Features and Tenden- 
cies in Bridge Hngineering’ which he had 
observed in his very extensive bridge in- 
spection tours which he has had the priv- 
ilege of taking during the sabbatical period 
which was granted to him by Cornell Uni- 
versity. He noted the increase in the use 
of plate girders up to those of 128 feet 
4 inches from center to center of supports; 
that the present tendency in railroad 
bridge construction seemed to be to get 
rid, so far as possible, of the overhead 
portions of bridges; that riveted trusses 
were now built in spans up to 230 feet; 
that the length of panels had now been 
increased to 37 feet, and mentioned bridges 
over the Monongahela and Allegheny Rivers 
of the Pratt type, with curved upper chords 
having only 11 panels in 417-foot spans. 
The maximum span of simple trusses is 
still the same as it was ten years ago, the 
record being held by the Louisville bridge 
of 546 feet 6 inches. The Pratt truss seems 
to be in the ascendeney in both riveted and 
pin construction. The author stated that 
the majority of the masonry now being con- 
structed by the railroads, with one notable 
exception, is of concrete, and that conerete 
arch bridges had been built with spans up 
to 130 feet. Professor Jacoby has evidently 
improved his opportunities during the past 
year, and his work as an instructor must 
of necessity be correspondingly benefited 
by the opportunities which he has accepted 
for studying bridges in the drawing-room, 
in the shop, in the field and in use. 

The next two papers presented were from 
the Ohio State University, at Columbus, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 479. 


Ohio. The first one was by Professor Wm. 
T. Magruder, and described “An Hydraulic 
Micrometer Caliper’ which was presented 
for inspection to the section. This caliper 
consists of a bronze graduated circle sixteen 
inches in diameter which is secured to the 
end of a hydraulic drum connected to a 
stand-pipe, and so that it can be rotated 
around its axis. Cross-screws, both radial 
and axial, are carried by the revolving ring 
so that pointers fixed in the ends of the 
axial screws can be brought into contact 
with the surface of a jet of water issuing 
from the orifice, and so that by means of a 
scale on the screws all the coordinates of 
the jet can be obtained for a distance of 
six inches or more from the entrance to 
the orifice. 

Professor James H. Boyd and Professor 
Horace Judd presented a paper describing 
and giving the results of their experiments 
with ‘Pitot Tubes,’ and on “The Experi- 
mental Determinations of the Forms of 
Water Jets.” The paper describes “‘a Pitot 
tube as a simple contrivance for measuring 
the velocity of water. It consists of a small 
tube placed in the stream so that the water 
strikes fairly against one end. Some dis- 
tance from the end it is bent and connected 
to a vertical glass tube. The current 
striking against the end produces a pres- 
sure which is measured by the height to 
which water rises in the glass tube (or, in 
case of high pressures, by a gauge of some 
sort). Pitot claimed that this height was 
equal to the distance a body must fall to 
acquire a velocity equal to that of the 
stream. Later observers have thought that 
this is incorrect, and that the water rose 
much higher. These experiments were 
with jets, and showed that Pitot was prac- 
tically correct. Incidentally it was found 
that the contracted vein in a jet of water 
from an orifice in a thin plate is about 
.785 of the diameter of the orifice, and that 
the velocity of such a jet is over 99 per cent. 


Marcy 4, 1904.] 


of the theoretical velocity. The paper de- 
seribes experiments to determine the con- 
stants of Pitot tubes. Tubes with variously 
formed tips and of inside diameters ranging 
from .162 inch to .007 inch were placed in 
the jet from an orifice in a thin plate. 
Each tube gave a pressure practically the 
same as that in the drum, from which the 
water was flowing. No change was ob- 
served when the tubes were moved back and 
forth along the axis of the jet, the increase 
of static pressure back of the plane of the 
orifice exactly compensating for the dim- 
inution of velocity pressure. To determine 
the velocity of the jet, measurements were 
taken of the coefficient of contraction, the 
coefficient of discharge, and of the relative 
velocities at different distances from the 
axis of the jet. The mean velocity from a 
two-inch orifice was found to differ from 
that in the center by less than .0002. The 
coefficients were: 


Coefficient of Coefficient of Coefficient of 


Orifice. Contraction. Discharge. Velocity. 
2 inch. -6162 6112 -992 
1.5 inch 6115 .6119 1.001 


As the velocity was practically the same 
in all parts of a section, the figures for the 
coefficient of velocity represent the con- 
stants of the Pitot tubes, which give read- 
ings equal to the statie pressure behind the 
orifices. Similar measurements were made 
with a short pipe from which the coefficient 
of the Pitot was found to be .993.’’ The 
hydraulic micrometer caliper described in 
the preceding paper was used in making 
the above measurements. 

Professor J. Burkitt Webb, of Stevens 
Institute, Hoboken, N. J., presented a 
paper on ‘Molecular Velocities,’ in which 
he offered a simple illustration in sup- 
port of Maxwell’s theory that the only 
permanent state for the molecules is one 
in which the velocities are not the same 
for all molecules, but that all possible 


SCIENCE. 365 


velocities must be supposed arranged ac- 
cording to the law of probabilities. ‘‘Sup- 
pose a number of small elastic spheres of 
equal mass moving in all directions with 
equal velocities, and consider two of them 
moving at right angles to each other, and 
so that sphere B strikes sphere A at the 
instant that the center of A crosses the path 
of B, the velocity of A in the direction of 
B’s motion is zero, and therefore all of B’s 
motion will be transferred to A. This will 
inerease the velocity of A from v to v4/2 
Evidently another rectangular blow from 
a sphere © would increase this velocity to 
v7/ 8, and so on, so that we have in this a 
proof that an equal distribution of veloci- 
ties would not be a permanent one, and 
that the final permanent distribution must 
depend upon the possibilities of the various 
phases of collision that may occur.”’ 

Professor G. W. Bissell, of Iowa State 
College, Ames, Lowa, presented a paper on 
‘Iowa Coals.’ He stated that the Iowa 
coal fields have an area of 20,000 square 
miles, and include the southwest one third 
of the state. The Des Moines valley mines 
are the most active. In this district coal 
is found at depths of from 100 to 300 feet 
in veins from 18 inches thick and upwards. 
The thinner veins are profitably worked in 
conjunction with the manufacture of brick 
and other clay products made from the coal 
shales. Lowa coals are mostly bituminous 
and non-coking. The average proximate 
analysis gives: 


IMIOISE UME Hn) Eta ava cries 8.08 
Hixeducanboneswerrei ae ce 45.60 
Wiolatileprpe musccetyers! ie acces 38.14 
ANG) tip Beco s enneOn Se A eeRER RE EEE 8.18 100.00 
SUPINE Jooeocwscavadaede 3.42 


The calorific power of Iowa coals as de- 
termined at Iowa State College with the 
Parr calorimeter ranges from 9,180 to 
13,141, with an average of 11,780 B. T. U. 
per pound of oven-dried coal. From a 


366 


number of proximate analyses of lowa 
coals, and from determinations of their 
ealorifie value by medns of the Parr calor- 
imeter, he deduced the formula that the 
calorific value of an Iowa coal = (14,6000 
+ 12,180V + 4,0008) x .01 B. T. U. The 
following table gives the results of boiler 
tests made with Marquisville (lowa) coals 
of different sizes, with coke and anthracite 
nut, and is of interest in showing the pro- 
hibitive price of anthracite, and that the 
fuel cost of generating steam with slack 
coal is from 30 to 40 per cent. less than the 
fuel cost with lump, nut or steam coal in 
the same mine. 


Fuel cost of 
Kind of Fuel. Cost per ton |; 099 Ibs. steam 


of 2,000 Ibs. from and at 212°, 
Marquisville, Slack.... $1.43 14.9 cents. 
Steam.... 2.35 Pil SS 
INN coco 2.54 Oils 
Lump.... 2.88 240 * 
Coke, Eastern Foundry . 8.00 60.4 ‘* 
Anthracite Nut........ 8.95 Bae oY 


Following in this line came a paper by 
Professor C. H. Benjamin, of the Case 
School of Applied Science, Cleveland, Ohio, 
on ‘The Science of Smoke Prevention.’ As 
Professor. Benjamin was for several years 
the engineering expert in enforcing the 
ordinance against smoke production in 
Cleveland, his conclusions are the result 
of both scientific attainment and practical 
experience in dealing with the smoke ques- 
tion in cities. They are as follows: (1) 
That objectionable smoke from soft coal can 
readily be prevented; (2) that such preven- 
tion will result in a higher efficiency and 
smaller fuel bills; (3) that all new plants 
should be subject to permits issued by 
proper city officials; (4) that educational 
and legal measures combined should be used 
in eases where the evil already exists; (5) 
that the control of such work should be in 
the hands of properly trained engineers 
who understand the whole subject thor- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 479. 


oughly; (6) that the people of each com- 
munity must see to it that they are pro- 
tected from this evil as from poor drainage 
and dirty streets. 

Professor William T. Magruder, of Ohio 
State University, Columbus, Ohio, pre- 
sented a paper entitled “A Producer Horse 
Power—A Proposed New Unit.’ After 
reviewing Watt’s unit for a boiler horse 
power, and that adopted by the Philadel- 
phia Centennial Commission, he stated that 
the rapid introduction of the use of gas- 
engines using blast-furnace gas or producer 
gas leads to the suggestion of a unit for 
the horse power of a gas producer similar 
to the unit for the horse power of a boiler. 
As some gas engines are now delivering a 
brake horse power for the generation of 
10,000 B. T. U. per hour, and a few are 
doing 10 to 15 per cent. better, than this, 
he suggested as a proposed new unit that of 
a ‘producer horse power.’ He defined it as 
‘the generation in an hour of sufficient gas 
at 60° F. to produce 10,000 B. T. U. when 
burned to water and gas at 60° F., or its 
equivalent.’ 

Before availing itself of the invitation of 
the St. Louis Engineers’ Club, the section 
listened to a paper by Mr. A. P. Greens- 
felder, assistant engineer of the Terminal 
Railroad Association of St. Louis, on “Re- 
cent Improvements at the Union Station 
at St. Louis.” The paper was illustrated 
by the plans for the improvements which 
are now under way, showed the necessity 
for them for handling the passenger and 
freight business of St. Louis, and deseribed 
in some detail the methods which had been 
adopted for changing the tracks and moy- 
ing all the express company buildings, 
while operating over 1,100 passenger cars 
each day. Incidentally, the paper showed 
the advances which have been made in 
terminal railroad facilities by the use of 
applied science. 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


AERONAUTICS. 

The program for Wednesday morning 
was made up of a series of papers on prob- 
lems connected with aeronautics. Pro- 
fessor J. Burkitt Webb, of Stevens Insti- 
tute, Hoboken, N. J., presented two papers. 
One was on ‘The Flying Machine Problem,’ 
in which he showed among other things that 
‘for rapid flight a considerable altitude is 
favorable.’ The second one was on ‘Prac- 
tical Artificial Flight.’ The author stated 
that the inventor should aim for the most 
practical results and should attack the main 
difficulties at the start. To this end, he 
suggested that the question of motive power 
be eliminated, and that power be supplied 
from a trolley or from an overhead source, 
and that the endeavor should be to develop 
a machine which can slowly and surely rise 
from the ground and as slowly and safely 
descend again; and which should be con- 
trolled by an automatic balancing device. 

Mr. A. Lawrence Rotch, director of the 
Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, Hyde 
Park, Mass., read a most interesting paper, 
which was illustrated by the stereopticon, 
descriptive of the ‘Exploration of the At- 
mosphere as Practised with Kites at the 
Blue Hill Observatory since 1894.’ The 
methods employed and the results obtained 
are in part described in the appendix of 
the ‘Smithsonian Report’ of 1900, and the 
later technical details will be published in 
the Annals of Harvard College Observa- 
tory, Part IIL. of Volume XLIII. 

‘The Aeronautical Contests at the 
World’s Fair, St. Louis, 1904,’ were out- 
lined and discussed in three papers pre- 
sented by Professor Calvin M. Woodward, 
Washineton University, St. Louis, Mo., Mr. 
A. Lawrence Rotch, director of Blue Hili 
Meteorological Observatory, Hyde Park, 
Mass., and Mr. Willard A. Smith, chief of 
the transportation exhibits, and in charge 
of the Department of Aeronautics, of the 


SCIENCE. 


367 


St. Louis World’s Fair. All three gentle- 
men are members of the committee having 
the subject in charge. Professor Wood- 
ward introduced the subject. Mr. Rotch 
described and illustrated with the lantern 
the most successful dirigible balloons and 
flying machines, some of which are likely 
to be tried at St. Louis, and discussed the 
regulations for these experiments as drawn 
up by the committee. Mr. Smith con- 
tinued the subject, discussing it in detail, 
and describing the facilities which would 


be offered to contestants for inflating their 


balloons with hydrogen gas, 97 per cent. 
pure, made by a new English process, 
which is guaranteed to deliver 25,000 cubic 
feet of hydrogen for the combustion of one 
ton of slack coal. The method of genera- 
tion, it was stated, will consist of the dis- 
sociation of steam by incandescent iron 
shavings, and the revivification of the oxide 
of iron so formed by producer gas. 

The last paper of the morning was by 
Mr. Octave Chanute, on ‘Aerial Naviga- 
tion,’ and was a most able one. After call- 
ing attention to two probable solutions of 
the problem, he described what has been 
accomplished with balloons and flyimg ma- 
chines, the evolution and limitations of 
such apparatus, their limited uses, and dis- 
eussed the prospect of any one winning the 
prize offered by the World’s Fair Commis- 
sion. It is published in the March Popular 
Science Monthly. The series of papers. be- 
ing by noted specialists of high scientific 
attamments were greatly enjoyed by all 
those who availed themselves of the priv- 
ilege of hearing them. 


THE HYDROLOGY OF THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 

The Wednesday evening program in- 
cluded in its scope the entire Mississippi 
River Valley, beginning with a paper by 
Professor C. W. Hall, of the University of 
Minnesota, at Minneapolis, Minn., on ‘The 
Stream Flow of the Upper Mississippi 


368 


River’ and ending with a paper by Mr. 
James A. Seddon, of St. Louis, on ‘The 
Lower Mississippi River.’ 

Professor, Hall’s paper was illustrated by 
a number of lantern slides showing the 
head-waters of the Mississippi, the geolog- 
ical formations of the valley and a study 
of the currents and the flow of the waters 
of the river. 

A paper by Judge R. S. Taylor, of Ft. 
Wayne, Ind., a member of the Mississippi 
River Commission, was then read on “Lev- 
ees, Outlets and Reservoirs.’ He stated 
that the alluvial valley of the river below 
Cairo contains 29,790 square miles of lands 
subject to overflow im its natural state; that 
it is all capable of protection and reclama- 
tion by levees, which has been going on for 
nearly 200 years, except a small area at the 
foot of each drainage basin, which has to 
be left open for the escape of surface drain- 
age. The existing lines of levees are about 
1,350 miles long and about 80 miles remain 
to be constructed to complete in length the 
main river system. In few places, how- 
ever, are the embankments as high and as 
strong as they should be for the greatest 
safety. ‘The potential high water of floods 
to come’ has been the subject of much study 
and discussion. The nearest approach to 
a standard has been that the levee should 
be three feet above the highest previous 
flood line in that locality. 

The flood of 1897 made 38 crevasses 
having an ageregate width of about 8 
miles; the flood of 1903 made 9 crevasses, 
having an aggregate width of about 3 miles. 
The levees in place in 1903, if no crevasses 
had breached them, would have protected 
about 26,000 square miles from overflow. 
Of that area a total of about 3,000 square 
miles was overflowed in consequence of the 
erevasses which took place, which is less 
than one eighth of the entire area which 
the existing levees could and would have 
protected if they had all been high enough 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 479. 


and had held their places. In the phrase 
of the target-shooters, they accomplished 
874 per cent. of success out of a possible 
100. The levee system is at this moment 
in the very crisis of its history. It has 
demonstrated the possibility of its useful- 
ness. It wants just the last grand effort 
to carry it to completion. We ought not 
to think of the diversion of any part of our 
resources to any other work while that re- 
mains unfinished. During the flood of 
1903 the existing levees protected from 
overflow seven eighths of all the lands 
capable of protection. If great floods 
should come once in five years, and we 
should never do any better than we did 
last spring, this would mean that there 
would be an average annual mundation of 
24 acres out of every 100 acres. This 
would seem to show that the present sys- 
tem of levees is successful. The author 
does not believe in the successful protection 
by outlets and reservoirs, and paid their 
advoeates the compliment of a polite refu- 
tation of their arguments. The paper will 
be published by the Werner Co., Akron, 
Ohio. 

He was followed by Professor Lewis M. 
Haupt, of Philadelphia, Pa., who referred 
to the law of 1879 and to reports of the 
‘Board of Engineers.’ He quoted the reso- 
lution of congress of 1891 that ‘no portion 
of the appropriation then made should be 
expended to repair or build levees for the 
purpose of reclaiming land, but only when 
it may afford ease and safety to the naviga- 
tion and commerce of the river and deepen 
the channel. He stated that it was shown, 
by a comparison of surveys made at an 
interval of twelve years, that the bed had 
risen about four feet, and that the banks 
above low water had caved in to a large ex- 
tent. He urged that the law be amended 
so as to provide for specific appropriations 
for levees to protect the waste and swamp 
lands, which, he claimed, were quite as de- 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


serving of national aid as the arid lands of 
the plains. He advocated a more thorough 
system of drainage by the removal of the 
obstacles and bars in the section below Red 
River. He discussed the statements made 
as to the effect, of crevasses, showing from 
surveys that they are of great benefit in 
reducing the flood stages and improving 
navigation, as well as in adding extensive 
tracts to the arable lands of the state and 
nation. By removing a large percentage 
of silt from the river, they also retard 
the gulfward movement of the bars and 
flatter slopes which contribute to flood 
heights. By the natural process of hy- 
draulic grading not less than 150 square 
miles have been deposited above the gulf 
level within thirty years. To have filled 
this up by dredges at ten cents per yard 
would have cost $1,500 per acre, which 
would have been prohibitory. He also 
dwelt on the need of removing bars from 
the front of all passes, by a curved form of 
jetty, simulating and applying the action 
of all streams in creating the deep-water 
pools found in their concave bends. Thus 
vessels could freely navigate all the passes, 
while at the same time the floods would 
be lowered and the sediment be deposited 
on the opposite or convex bank. 

Colonel J. A. Ockerson, of St. Louis, 
with the aid of stereopticon illustrations 
deseribed the work of the Mississippi River 
Commission, of which he isa member. He 
discussed some of the physical character- 
istics of the river and the subjects of flood 
control and channel improvement, and 
showed scenes along the river from its 
source to its mouth, including the levees 
and levee building, crevasses, and the hy- 
draulic dredges used in the channels and 
the methods of removing obstructions to 
navigation. 

The last paper of the evening was on 
“The Lower Mississippi River,’ by Mr. 
James A. Seddon, of St. Louis, Mo. He 


SCIENCE. 


369 


stated that the word ‘river’ is a geograph- 
ical and not a physical term. That, unlike 
the tidal rivers, the Mississippi is a power 
that has made its valley and is master of it. 
The great flood has more than ten times 
the power of Niagara in its flow to the gulf. 
He discussed in considerable detail the 
physical conformation of the valley, showed 
that the river has an excess of power to 
carry its sediment, and stated that the only 
place where the Mississippi River has 
formed a bar by dropping this sediment is 
where it meets the waters of the gulf. At 
the mouth the flow can no longer earry its 
sediment, as it is too weak. In the valley 
the flow is too strong and it chokes itself 
up and spreads out in shallows. He dis- 
cussed the subject of dykes and bank pro- 
tection and gave many interesting facts 
concerning levee history. The author is in 
favor of a reservoir system of protection, 
and stated that this would give the bottom 
lands a certain flood protection, while 
emptying the reservoirs at the time of 
low water in the river would triple its 
depth, and the cost of the work of reser- 
voir construction would have been a little 
more than half of the $80,000,000 which 
has been spent on the lower Mississippi. 
By this means the river would become a 
deep waterway which would not stop at 
the Ohio River, but continuing up the Ili- 
nois River through the Chicago drainage 
canal, would join the lake and gulf com- 
merece. He is of the opinion that what is 
most needed in this case is a statesman to 
see ‘that the river and harbor bill carries 
a responsibility that will produce results 
with its expenditure.’ 

This series of papers gave as complete a 
résumé of the subject as the time allotted 
would permit, and showed what a wide di- 
versity of opinion there is among scientific 
experts on this extremely important prob- 
lem in civil engineering and hydraulics. 

The Thursday morning program was, as 


370 


usual, well filled with several papers which 
had been left over from Tuesday, and with 
the remaining papers of the program. One 
of these was by Professor Frank B. Will- 
jams, of Union College, Schenectady, N. 
Y., on ‘Methods of Determining the Coeffi- 
cients of Elasticity.” By loading a beam 
supported at its ends at two points equi- 
distant from each other and from the 
ends, and thereby eliminating the cross 
shear, the coefficient of linear elasticity can 
be determined by measuring the deflections. 
Knowing #, the coefficient of elasticity for 
shearing is obtained by the formula given 
by Professor Merriman. 

General EH. W. Serrell, of West New 
Brighton, N. Y., followed with a paper on 
‘A Proposed Method of Building the Man- 
dingo Ship Tunnel,’ through the Cordil- 
lerian range of mountains in Central Amer- 
ica, where the distance from sea to sea is 
but twenty-nine and one half miles. The 
Gulf of San Blas and the magnificent har- 
bor of Mandingo are at the north end, while 
directly south, behind the Pearl Islands, 
within the Bay of Panama, is another 
harbor. The mountain range averages 
about 1,520 feet high. The proposed ship 
tunnel is to have portals 300 feet high. 
The length of the crown of the tunnel will 
be less than five miles. Instead of the 
shales found in the lines of the two other 
proposed routes for ship canals across the 
isthmus, the geological formation at this 
point has been investigated by an expert 
geologist, who states that the rock extends 
across the isthmus, that it is very uniform, 
strong and in every way suited for tunnel- 
ing. ‘Tested at the Watertown Arsenal, 
it was found to be stronger than Quincy 
granite. Analyzed at the geological labora- 
tory at Washington, it was found that 
hornblende predominated in the granite. 
The canal-tunnel will be a straight line 
from sea to sea, and therefore capable of 
passing a ship of any leneth. The paper 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 479. 


discussed the elements of the cross-section 
of the tunnel, the method for its construc- 
tion, using three headings and understoped 
as well as open benches, and nine overhead 
tracks to remove the debris, and it is stated 
that the 18,000,000 cubic yards in the tun- 
nel and the 37,000,000 cubie yards of ex- 
cavation outside the tunnel can all be made 
for less than $100,000,000. It is estimated 
that the work can be completed in two 
years, although three years have been al- 
lowed. 

Considering its good geological position, 
the excellence of the harbors available, the 
abundant supply of water at sea-level, no 
locks to delay passage of shipping, and 
more than ten times the capacity for busi- 
ness, aS compared with any other proposed 
isthmian canal, it would be cheap at three 
or four times the cost, to say nothing of 
the short time which will be required to 
build it. 

Before adjourning on Thursday to enjoy 
the hospitality of the officers of the World’s 
Fair, the section had the privilege of listen- 
ing to Lieutenant G. Li. Carden, U. S. Rev- 
enue Cutter Service, on ‘Some Topics Con- 
nected with the Machinery Department of 
the World’s Fair.’ The author is superin- 
tendent of ‘arsenal tools’ in the depart- 
ment of machinery at the fair, and was 
sent abroad and secured many of the for- 
eign exhibits of machinery. 

The section chose Professor David S. 
Jacobus, of Stevens Institute, Hoboken, N. 
J., aS its vice-president for the next meet- 
ing; and, on nomination to the general 
committee, he was duly elected. 

To say the least, the program of Section 
D was very full. <A large number of the 
papers were by the leading experts of the 
country on the subjects discussed. It is 
questionable whether the interests of sci- 
ence are the better advanced by permitting 
a more lengthy and general discussion of 
the papers presented, than by having the 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


other sides of the same subject formally 
presented by some one who may not fully 
agree with the preceding author, but who 
has had time to prepare a written paper 
defending his position and advocating his 
opinions. While persons may differ in 
their opinions as to which is the better plan, 
the consensus of opinion of the members 
present was that the program presented 
gave them much information and food for 
thought. Many branches of mechanical 
science and engineering were touched upon, 
and while special emphasis was put upon 
those sessions devoted to aeronautics and 
hydrology, it was thought that the place 
and its surroundings warranted it. 

The attendance at the meetings of the 
section has been excelled in recent years 
only by the 1902-3 Washington meeting. 
It is thought that this is encouraging for 
the future of the section. It is to be hoped 
that the members of the association con- 
nected with the section will show their con- 
tinued interest in it by their attendance 
and by presenting papers at future meet- 
ings. Wm. T. Macruper, 

Secretary. 


A REPLY TO RECENT STRICTURES ON 
AMERICAN BIOLOGISTS.* 

A NOT uncommon, though possibly more 
or less indefinitely formulated, opinion has 
recently found an expression in print} to 
the effect that American systematic zoology 
has degenerated into a mere recording of 
minute facts, instead of being a study of 
problems; in other words, that it has been 
reduced to a somewhat low-level, though 
possibly sometimes useful, craft, and has 
lost caste among the sciences. 

Tt must be admitted at the outset that 

“Read at the Twenty-first Congress of the 
American Ornithologists’ Union, at its meeting 
in Philadelphia, November 18, 1903. 

7 Talcott Williams, ‘On the Skirmish Line of 
Science, Booklover’s Magazine, II., November, 
1903, p. 458. 


SCIENCE. 


Bye 


this criticism is deserved to a limited ex- 
tent. If we take ornithology as an example, 
what are the results of our labors in this 
country? Look over the long files of the 
Auk and see what they contain: An as- 
tounding and in many ways admirable 
record of facts relating to the distribution 
of our birds, their habits, their specific 
and subspecific characters! The refine- 
ment and acumen of discrimination with 
regard to the latter have reached a high 
degree of development, and it is doubtless 
true that the birds of North America are 
better known than those of any other part 
of the globe of even approximately similar 
extent. Our collections of native species 
are vastly larger and more complete than 
those of any other country and our methods 
and technique, both of collecting and of 
recording, greatly superior to those of the 
rest of the world. And the work goes on 
unceasingly, and the details are being more 
skilfully and accurately and voluminously 
elaborated every day. In fact, we are 
working so fast and so well that we have 
left the rest of the ornithological world 
far behind. Some of the younger Euro- 
pean ornithologists are trying to catch up, 
but they will never be able to do so because 
the North American material can only be 
had here and because we have gained such 
a lead in the race. 

But for what purpose are we accumu- 
lating all this minute detail, this enormous 
material? What are we straining our best 
faculties, our acknowledged ingeniousness, 
for? Thus far we have but little to show 
that would give a satisfying answer to 
these questions. On the surface, at least, 
it looks as if we were following these pur- 
suits chiefly for their own sake, for the 
satisfaction of mere accumulating, for the 
exercise of these mental faculties. To the 
outsider it must certainly appear as if we 
regard the work we are doing as an end, 
not as a means towards an end. The ques- 


372 


tion then arises: Have we really, in our 
eager pursuit of the details, lost sight of 
the final object of our studies, which alone 
can justify the expenditure of brain work 
and money; and have we thus degraded 
our science to a mere sport or a brilliant 
jugeling with facts and words? Have we 
forgotten that the problems are the essen- 
tial part of science and that the records 
are only the tools with which to work out 
the problems? 

Thus far there are but slight indications 
on the surface that the higher problems 
have attracted much attention, and I am 
afraid that many of:us must plead guilty 
to having groped in the lower regions so 
long that we almost forgot that there is 
something higher. Nevertheless, any one 
who has the opportunity to look below the 
surface must be aware that a notable 
amount of thinking and theorizing is going 
on without causing much outward commo- 
tion. While this holds true to a slight ex- 
tent for the whole range of problems, it 
is particularly so with regard to a certain 
limited class, referring, as I do, to the 
problems more or less intimately connected 
with the question of life zones or the zonal 
distribution of life. Here, thanks to the 
brilliant work of some of the most prom- 
inent scientists of the American Ornitholo- 
cists’ Union, considerable progress has been 
made in the right direction, and more may 
be confidently expected in the near future. 

It is not difficult to demonstrate just why 
this class of problems should first receive 
attention. The explanation is that not 
only have the requisite facts been recorded 
on an unprecedented scale and with a clear 
understanding of the requirements of the 
case, but nearly all the material necessary 
for at least a partial solution of the prob- 
lems are available within the boundaries of 
this country. The question, up to a cer- 
tain point at least, is a local one, viz., the 
interrelation between the North American 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 479. 


biota and the various zonal areas which its 
component animals and plants occupy. Up 
to this point our scientists will be able to 
solve the problems. It must be conceded, 
furthermore, that the truly monumental 
way in which the material is bemg gath- 
ered, recorded and elaborated makes it pos- 
sible for them to construct upon it a philo- 
sophie building which shall be more endur- 
ing than the ephemeral structures of past 
times. We may confidently look forward 
to the establishing of proof where formerly 
we had only uncertain theories and hy- 
potheses. 
Just here we have reached the point 
where we become aware of our limitations 
and their cause. We have the means of 
approaching and solving the local prob- 
lems and questions in so far as they can be 
elucidated by local work, but we are utterly 
shut out from attacking the larger, more 
universal problems, without which we shall 
have to submit to the stigma of bemg mere 
sciolists, a name applied the other day to 
American biologists generally by a reviewer 
of the achievements of American science. 
Whether we accept a holarctic region, or 
recognize the nearctic and the palearctic 
as two separate regions, no one will now 
deny that a great portion of the biota of 
the northern parts of the new and the old 
world is intimately related. But when it 
comes to the questions as to the extent and 
the degree of this intimacy; whether their 
faunas and floras have a common origin; 
or whether they are a blending of two or, 
more biotas, and in such a case, where each 
component part originated and how the 
blending took place, by what routes and at 
what time—when it comes to these and 
similar questions, we find that opinions and 
theories are digressing in all directions. If 
we ask ourselves, in what genetic relation 
do the animals and plants now inhabiting 
the northern world stand to those lving 
before them in the same territory ; whether 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


the forms which to-day occupy a certain 
region are descended directly from those 
whose bones we find in the strata under- 
neath them, or have originated in some far 
distant continent from ancestors indigenous 
there, we meet again a distressing amount 
of uncertainty and diversity of opinion. 
And if we inquire into the reason for all 
this controversy, this lack of agreement 
among biologists, one cause stands pre- 
‘eminently forth as responsible, viz., insuffi- 
cient and defectwe records! 

Thirty or forty years ago the biologists, 
with an almost childish faith, believed that 
they had gathered all the material that was 
to be had, and that they would exhaust 
the supply of facts in a very few years. 
Europe, according to them, was thoroughly 
explored, the records were complete; north- 
ern Asia had just been covered by the 
magnificent expeditions of Middendorff, 
Schrenck, Radde and others; the biotic 
secrets of North America were divulged in 
the Pacific Railroad reports, the Mexican 
Boundary reports, the reports of the expe- 
dition west of the 100th meridian, and of 
the survey of the territories. They con- 
ceeded that a few more species might be 
expected to turn up in the interior of 
Africa, but these, it was thought, would not 
be able to alter conclusions materially. 
And so they proceeded to speculate and 
generalize, to pull biology out of the mire 
of mere recording and gathering of facts 
into the regions of real science. But un- 
fortunately, although theories and hypoth- 
eses multiplied, they nearly all led in dif- 
ferent directions, and each philosopher 
came to results at variance with those of 
the others, according to the kind of material 
or the portion of the record he happened 
to get hold of. 

Far be it from me to speak lightly either 
of the records and material gathered by 
the men of that generation, or of their 
generalizations. It was not their fault if 


SCIENCE. 


373 


the ultimate results have been disappoint- 
ing. Many of their records are of perma- 
nent value; a great deal of their material 
still serves as foundation for our present 
work; some of their conclusions and the- 
ories have proven to be correct. Without 
them we were not standing where we are 
now. The fault lies with their successors 
who considered the preliminary work fin- 
ished and who failed to continue it sys- 
tematically and symmetrically. 

Shortly after the period alluded to it be- 
came painfully clear to biologists that the 
amount of facts, material and records 
which had been gathered was not only a 
mere handful as to numbers, but even more 
hopelessly defective as to accuracy and 
minuteness of the data. With the opening 
up of the world by means of improved 
facilities of communication, the enormous 
mass of new material representing unex- 
pected forms in endless number fairly 
swamped the systematic biologist during 
his work of recording and describing. This 
flood of new species and genera naturally 
affected the scientists of Europe most, as 
it accumulated in the museums of countries 
which not only previously had colonial pos- 
sessions all over the world, but now by the 
division of Africa despoiled a whole big 
continent of its most striking novelties. 
The American biologists, on the other hand, 
whose field was in nearly all cases limited 
by the political boundaries of the United 
States, were shut out from the rest of the 
world and reduced to a more intensive cul- 
tivation of their own area. The result has 
been curious in more than one way. On 
the one hand, our development became de- 
fective, because we lost touch with the outer 
world and so in a measure were left be- 
hind; while, on the other hand, we extended 
the accurate, 2. €., scientific, knowledge of 
our own field far beyond that of the rest 
of the world. 

This, then, is the standpoint we occupy 


374 


to-day: We are still confronted by the same 
problems which our, predecessors failed to 
solve because of their lack of definite and 
detailed knowledge of the facts. With a 
view to their solution we have gathered a 
material which, for technical perfection 
and minute accuracy, is unrivaled. It has 
but one fault—it is terribly lopsided. We 
have or are in a fair way of obtaining 
shortly most of the data relating to the 
nearectic region, but we have not a scrap of 
the right kind of material relating to the 
other half of the northern world. Nor is 
the right kind of material in existence any- 
where at present; for while there is pre- 
served in the numerous museums of Europe 
a large number of specimens, and while the 
literature contains a vast accumulation of 
records, neither the data accompanying the 
former nor the observations contained in 
the latter are, as a rule, so precise or so 
detailed as now required. This widely 
scattered material, in addition to its insuf- 
ficiency due to superficial and haphazard 
collecting, is distressmely uneven in qual- 
ity. Moreover, it has not been worked up 
according to uniform methods, nor by 
workers occupying the same viewpoint. 
Its component parts are not only uncor- 
related, but they are at present utterly 
impossible of correlation. 

Thanks to the example set here, Hurope 
is Just beginning to realize the fact that 
she has neglected her own fauna. Some 
of her more wide-awake biologists have 
recently attempted to grapple with the 
problems I have alluded to above, but they 
have not advanced much farther than to 
formulate them. They have found their 
records far too insufficient and defective. 

Lest I be accused of exaggerating let me 
quote what I wrote more than two years 
ago in a review of the attempt, by a 
prominent European biologist, to general- 
ize from the incomplete data at hand. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 479. 


After having said that one of the distinct 
merits of his work was that it revealed the 
defects in our knowledge, I continued: 

“Tt is a kind of stock-taking by which 
we find out just how our business stands. 
It must then be admitted with regret that 
the status is not as satisfactory as one 
might have reason to expect. There is yet 
a great uncertainty as to the exact and 
detailed distribution of many of the larger 
and more important animals in the Arctic 
regions and in Europe. The grosser facts 
are known of course in a general way, but 
they are not sufficient for the purpose. 
The finer details are still unknown, or if 
known in some isolated cases are unavail- 
ing because they are as yet only isolated.’’* 

This statement has remained unchal- 
lenged ever since and but little has been 
done to remedy the defects in a compre- 
hensive way. What is true of Hurope is 
no less true of Asia. Let me recall to you 
that a distinguished member of this union, 
in a paper published during the present 
year and dealing with a single class of 
vertebrates only, found himself obliged to 
bewail his impoteney to settle important 
questions by such statements as these: 

“‘Material from northern Hurope avail- 
able for comparison with the Siberian 
series is too scanty * * * to be of any 
importance. * * * ”’ 

‘“Also material is lacking in sufficient 
quantity to give much new information in 
respect to the supposed difference. * * * ”’ 

“But lack of material prevents a critical 
consideration of the subject. * * * ” 

“Without other material it is impossible 
to compare the present series. * * * ”’ 

““Tn the absence of specimens * * * it 
is provisionally referred. * * * ”’ 

And so forth no less than eight times in 
the same paper under eight different 


* Scharff’s ‘History of the European Fauna,’ 
Amer. Naturalist, XXXV., 1901, p. 113. 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


species.* I may add that he had the con- 
tents of all the leading museums of our 
country at his disposal. 

Another member of the union, who also 
brought together all the available material 
from the American museums, published a 
- monograph of a holaretic genus of birds 
last year.t He recognized 35 different 
forms by name, 22 from the nearctic region 
and 13 from the palearetic region. As a 
basis for this work he had no less than 
2,150 specimens, a material which, if it had 
represented evenly the range of the genus, 
might have been sufficient to give an ex- 
haustive account of the various forms and 
might have led to valuable generalizations 
with regard to their origin and their dis- 
tributional migrations, but the ridiculous 
inadequacy of the palearctic material for the 
purpose may be plainly seen when I state 
that while the American specimens at his 
command numbered 2,108 specimens, or an 
average of over 95 specimens per recog- 
nized form, the Huropean and Asiatic ma- 
terial consisted of 42 specimens, or 3} 
specimens per recognized form. Of three 
of the latter there is not a single specimen 
in any American museum. 

One more striking example, this time de- 
rived from the class of mammals. The 
only museum in North America which has 
made strenuous efforts to obtain palearctic 
mammals, and which by all odds contains 
the largest material from the holarctic 
region, possesses about 94,000 specimens 
from the nearctic, as against about 3,300 
from the entire palearectic. It is safe to 
say that this enormous discrepancy is even 
excelled in the other museums. A similar 
census of the birds in the same museum 
was not practicable, but it is perfectly safe 
to say that the proportions are nearly the 

*J. A. Allen, Bull. Amer. Mus. Nat. Hist., 
XIX., 1903, pp. 126, 129, ete. 


7 H. C. Oberholser, Proc. U. 8. 
XXIV., No 1271, 1902, pp. 801-884. 


Nat. Mus., 


SCIENCE. 


375 


same, or thirty nearctie specimens to each 
palearctic. The discrepancy is the more 
marked when we consider that the area 
comprised in the palearctic region is nearly 
twice as large as that of the nearctic, so 
that area for area the palearctic material 
in our museums is searcely one and two 
thirds per cent. of the total holarctic ma- 
terial. 

It is unfair, therefore, to blame the 
modern American biologist for his failure 
to enter a higher philosophic sphere. He 
has the ambition to do so, he has also the 
ability; moreover, he has done part of the 
preliminary work and done it exceedingly 
well. But as yet he is without the means. 

And now, how ean this unfortunate con- 
dition be remedied ? 

There is only one way, viz., the acquwist- 
tion of more and better palearctic material 
and records, collected by professionally 
trained observers; worked up together with 
and econformably with the nearctic ma- 
terial and records already gathered and 
elaborated with such signal success. Be- 
cause of the possession of the latter it fol- 
lows of necessity that the American biol- 
ogist should also gather and elaborate the 
former. The work already done pre- 
eminently qualifies him to carry the whole 
to a satisfactory conclusion. He has done 
the first part well; he will do the remaining 
work equally well, if only given the chance. 

It may seem strange to call for more 
material and more records in reply to the 
accusation that we are losing ourselves in 
that very kind of work. It must be borne 
in mind, however, that what is here called 
for is not the insatiate, indiscriminate ac- 
cumulation with no clear purpose in view, 
but a well-digested, premeditated search for 
the material which bears directly on the 
problems already outlined and which ex- 
perience has shown to be indispensable for 
their solution. 

The fact is that we are not losing our- 


376 


selves as alleged; it only appears so to the 
outsider. Yet, it is necessary that our 
higher duties should be held up to view 
‘lest we forget.’ Moreover, the time has 
come for the gathering of the new material 
unless we are to sink back into a shallow 
rumination of the old. The American 
biologist stands ready to expand his do- 
minion into the old world, if he be given 
the means, and when he shall be through 
with his work, the facts and records will 
be in such a shape that the philosopher can 
rear a structure upon them that will stand. 

The means by which he may be put in 
this enviable position have been set forth in 
another connection* and need not occupy 


us here. LEONHARD STEJNEGER. 
WASHINGTON, D. C., 
November 14, 1903. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. 
By L. L&vy-Bruuu. Authorized translation, 
to which is prefixed an introduction by 
Freprric Harrison. New York, G. P. Put- 
nam’s Sons. 1903. Pp. xiv-+ 363. 8°. 
Anything that will help to make the phi- 

losophy of Auguste Comte known to the read- 

ers of English can not fail to be useful. The 

English translation, therefore, of a work on 

that subject by such a man as M. Lévy-Bruhl, 

the well-known author of the ‘History of 

Modern Philosophy in France,’ and who 

“writes as a student and not an adherent of 

Comte,’ is especially welcome. 

It will probably be one day regarded as the 
most remarkable anomaly in the history of 
science that the work which formed the turn- 
ing point from metaphysical to scientific phi- 
losophy—the ‘ Positive Philosophy ’ of Auguste 
Comte—remained three quarters of a cen- 
tury without being translated into the English 
language. This singular circumstance has 
led to some very peculiar results, and accounts 
for the totally false idea that the English- 

* Carnegie Inst. Yearbook, No. 1, pp. 241-266, 
‘Plan for a Biological Survey of the Palearctic 
Region,’ by Leonhard Stejneger and Gerrit S. 
Miller, Jr. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 479. 


speaking world entertains with regard to 
Comte and his doctrines. Many suppose that 
he was a very bad, irreligious man. An 
eminent divine recently stated from the pulpit 
that ‘Comte, the great French philosopher, 
taught that religion was only a phase of super- 
stition that belonged to the childhood of the 
race and would be outgrown.’ Interrogated 
as to where Comte taught this doctrine, he was 
unable to cite any work or passage. The fact 
is that Comte had a strong religious nature, 
and one of his aphorisms was that ‘man is 
becoming more and more religious.’ 

Others, like Huxley (who does not seem to 
have read the ‘Positive Philosophy’), see 
nothing of value in Comte’s system. A com- 
mon opinion is that it is a sort of utopia, and 
Comte’s name is frequently associated with 
that of Fourier. Scarcely any one has the 
idea that he was a scientific man in the ac- 
cepted sense of the expression, although he 
was by profession a mathematician. 

The fact that Comte wrote another and later 
work, his ‘Politique Positive,’ in which he 
drew up a program of social regeneration and 
founded a cult, created the general impression 
that he was only a dreamer. His zealous fol- 
lowers from the standpoint of the cult saw 
to it that this work should be translated into 
English. There is no doubt that this did 
inealeulable harm to Comte’s entire system. 
For, in the first place, as M. Léyy-Bruhl 
clearly shows, it is impossible to understand 
the ‘ Politique Positive’ without an acquaint- 
ance with the ‘Philosophie Positive’ If 
Lévy-Bruhl had done nothing else than to dis- 
pel the illusion that the ‘ Politique Positive’ 
was an after-thought, the product of a diseased 
mind, and a mere dream of a fanatic, it would 
have fully justified his writing this book. 
The few who have read the ‘ Philosophie 
Positive,’ and especially those who have also 
read the five early papers written from 1819 
to 1825, know already that the ‘ Politique 
Positive’ was contemplated by Comte from the 
beginning, and was steadily kept in mind dur- 
ing all the patient years that it required to 
write the ‘Philosophie Positive.’ That work 
was to be simply the necessary preparation and 
scientific foundation for his final great con- 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


struction. How many edifices have crumbled 
whose foundations have stood the test of time! 
But the superstructure was built upon that 
foundation, and every line of the ‘ Politique 
Positive’ must be read with the ‘ Philosophie 
Positive’ in full view, otherwise it is utterly 
incomprehensible. It is small wonder, there- 
fore, that the readers of the English trans- 
lation of the former, called Comte’s ‘ Positive 
Polity,’ could make nothing of it, and set 
Comte down as a dreamer or something worse. 

Another marked consequence of the failure 
to translate the ‘Philosophie’ has naturally 
been a systematic plagiarism of Comte’s ideas. 
Persons of a certain type, and they are com- 
mon enough, finding a great body of original 
ideas in a work almost completely unknown, 
have made it their opportunity to pass them- 
selves off as profound thinkers. A learned pro- 
fessor in one of the leading universities once 
came by invitation and read a paper on the 
classification of the sciences before one of the 
‘scientific societies of Washington. It proved 
to be simply a summary of the Comtian 
hierarchy, but Comte’s name was not men- 
tioned and the views were put forth as orig- 
inal with the speaker. There was only one 
member present who detected the plagiarism 
and felt it his duty to expose it. I have col- 
lected a large number of similar cases, many 
of which are amusing. 

As a third effect of the same cause may be 
mentioned the manner in which COomte’s 
ideas have influenced English thought. Ac- 
eessible only to the highest types of mind, they 
found themselves reflected only from such 
high sources, and as such men usually have 
systems of their own, they strive to conceal 
the extent to which they are influenced by 
others. This has been notably the case with 
Comte’s influence. In this day it is easy to 
see that it was very great in England. John 
Stuart Mall and George Henry Lewes were the 
most frank in acknowledging it, but it is now 
clear that Carlyle, Buckle and many others 
were profoundly affected. That Herbert 
Spencer recognized Comte’s value to the sci- 
entific world no one now doubts, notwithstand- 
ing his vigorous disclaimers of discipleship. 
No one has maintained that he was a disciple. 


SCIENCE. 


oll 


Indeed, the only disciples were those who ac- 
cepted and strove to propagate his religion of 
humanity, and these usually cared very little 
for his scientific works; otherwise they would 
have had his ‘Philosophie Positive’ trans- 
lated. That Spencer arranged his topics in 
substantially the Comtian order I have re- 
peatedly shown,* but this does not imply dis- 
cipleship, since it is the true order of nature. 
But Spencer could not have been ignorant of 
Comte’s classification of the sciences. It had 
been before the world for thirty years before 
Spencer began the ‘Synthetic Philosophy.’ 
Others besides Mill had expounded it, and it 
was familiar to all the best minds. Spencer 
adopted both of Comte’s new words ‘ sociol- 
ogy’ and ‘altruism,’ and defended them with 
proper acknowledgments. Even his ‘ Social 
Statics’ proved to be Comte’s term, although 
Spencer thought it was Mill’s. But his book 
by that name shows that he really had no idea 
of Comte’s social statics or of social statics 
in any scientific sense. © 

Notwithstanding the handicap of a foreign 
language, Comte’s fundamental doctrines have 
conquered the scientific mind, not only of 
England, but of the whole world. In con- 
formity with the Scriptural saying, France 
was the last to recognize its own philosopher, 
but his day is now come. Streets are named 
for him, statues are erected to him, and his 
power has penetrated not only into academic 
but into legislative and administrative halls. 

M. Lévy-Bruhl passes Comte’s entire phi- 
losophy in review, but the treatment is some- 
what uneven. ‘The biological side is the least 
complete. It is true that Comte was not 
strong in biology, and accepted with certain 
reserves the doctrine of the fixity of species, 
as did nearly everybody in those pre-Darwinian 
days, but he was acquainted with Lamarck 
and believed in evolution and in the descent 
of man from an animal, even simian, ancestry. 
He worked out the doctrine of the interaction 
of the organism and the environment and 
carried it to a very advanced stage. He even 
foreshadowed the principle of natural selec- 
tion, and it is remarkable that Lévy-Bruhl 


*See Scrence, N. S. Vol. III, February 21, 
1896, p. 294; ‘ Pure Sociology,’ p. 69. 


318 


failed to point this out, especially as it had 
been pointed out by others, first in 1883 by 
the writer of this review,* and subsequently 
by Heinrich Waentig,t and also by his own 
countryman, M. Alfred Fouillée,t the passage 
being quoted im each ease. It will bear quot- 
ing again. In the third volume of the ‘ Phi- 
losophie Positive,’ which appeared in 1838, 
written, as he states in 1836, on page 392 he 
says: 

If we conceive all possible organisms to be suc- 
cessively placed, during a suitable time, in all 
imaginable mediums, the greater part of these 
organisms would of necessity finally disappear 
and leave only those surviving which could satisfy 
the general laws of this fundamental equilibrium; 
it is probable that, after a succession of analogous 
eliminations, the biological harmony must have 
established itself little by little upon our planet, 
where we still see it continually modifying itself 
in a similar manner. 


A searecely less remarkable passage occurs 
in the fourth volume (p. 448), which appeared 
in 1839. 


Lévy-Bruhl’s treatment of Comte’s psychol- 


ogy is much more satisfactory. It may seem 
strange that he should devote a chapter to 
psychology, when Comte expressly repudiated 
the word. But he gives a simple explanation 
of all this. Im Comte’s day psychology meant 
“the science of the soul reached through the 
introspective method.’ ‘It was the science 
founded by Cousin on the analysis of the ego,’ 
as taught by the eclectic school of philosophers. 
“Comte, who opposes these philosophers, did 
not wish his theory of psychical phenomena, 
which differed from theirs, to be called by the 
same name.” He said in 1828: “Some men, 
not recognizing the present and irrevocable 
direction of the human mind, have endeavored 
for ten years to transplant German metaphys- 
ics into our midst, and to constitute, under the 
name of psychology, a so-called science en- 
tirely independent of physiology.” Comte re- 
._ fused to regard psychic phenomena as distinct 

**Dynamie Sociology,’ Vol. I., p. 119. 

t ‘Auguste Comte und seine Bedeutung fiir die 
Entwicklung der Socialwissenschaft,’ Leipzig, 
1894, p. 120. 

{~ ‘Le Mouvement Positiviste et la Conception 
Sociologique du Monde,’ Paris, 1896, p. 101. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 479. 


from those of physiology, and, therefore, he 
included their study in biology, although he 
spoke of them as dealing with ‘ transcendental 
functions.’ In fact, Comte thought that there 
might be a true science of phrenology, and 
tried to found that science, although, even in 
his day, as he himself knew and deplored, the 
process of prostituting that term had already 
begun, and soon after his death this had gone 
so far that the word, notwithstanding its per- 
fect etymology and appropriateness, was 
wholly abandoned by scientific men, and the 
term psychology was resuscitated and adopted 
for the same science. But it is absurd to ac- 
cuse Comte, as has been done, of lending any 
countenance to the vagaries of phrenology. 
M. Lévy-Bruhl brings into clear relief the 
importance of sociology as a necessary part 
of Comte’s scheme. When we remember that. 
down to the year 1839 he had always called 
this science ‘social physics,’ first using this 
term in 1822, we can see very clearly what 
was in his mind. With him the characteristic 
of a true science was that its phenomena 
should conform to invariable laws. This he 
believed social phenomena to do. The name 
social physics was chosen to emphasize this. 
view. It completed the series and supplied the 
final term that had always been lacking. ‘We 
possess now,’ he said, still at that early date, 
“a celestial physics, a terrestrial physics, either 
mechanical or chemical, a vegetal physics 
and an animal physics; we still want one other 
and last one, social physics, in order that the 
system of knowledge of nature be complete.’ 
But he went farther and divided up the 
science on strict mechanical lines, founding 
both social statics and social dynamics. It 
would unduly extend this review to attempt 
to show how these two sciences were consti- 
tuted, and the reader is referred to Lévy- 
Bruhl’s fairly satisfactory presentation of the 
subject. But any mention of Comte’s name: 
almost requires the coupling of it with some 
reference to his celebrated law of the three 
stages (trois états) in the historical develop- 
ment of human thought, which constitutes the 
basis of his social dynamics. The attempt to 
maintain that this law was discovered and an- 
nounced by Turgot, Condorcet, Burdin and 


Marcu 4, 1904.) 


others is like ascribing the discovery of the 
principle of natural selection to Goethe, or 
Wells, or even to Comte himself, merely be- 
cause in the writings of all these are to be 
found adumbrations of it. Comte it was who 
formulated the law and developed it at full 
length, devoting more than two volumes of 
the ‘ Positive Philosophy’ to its elucidation, 
‘in all of which,’ said John Stuart Mill, ‘ there 
is scarcely a sentence that does not add an 
idea’. Suffice it to say that it is a historical 
demonstration of the aphorism that ideas rule 
the world, and constitutes a complete phi- 
losophy of history based on the dictum of 
Leibnitz, that in all ages ‘the present is full 
of the past and pregnant with the future.’ 

But this law has a still deeper significance, 
since whatever we may think of the theological 
and metaphysical stages of history, the posi- 
tive stage is the age of scientific thought. The 
full characterization of this stage is the essence 
of the positive philosophy. As George Henry 
Lewes said, ‘ positive thinkers may be counted 
by thousands, but no one before Comte had a 
glimpse of the positive philosophy.’ Now, to 
add sociology to the ‘hierarchy’ of the sci- 
ences was simply to complete the scheme of 
the ‘Positive Philosophy.’ Without it the 
scheme was truncated. But sociology was 
more than any of the other sciences. Jt was 
in a certain sense the science of the sciences, 
since it presupposed and embraced all the rest. 
An acquaintance with the others was necessary 
to it, because it was a synthesis of them all, 
and dealt besides with social phenomena, with 
which none of the others had anything to do. 

So far as ethics is concerned, M. Lévy- 
Bruhl clearly shows that it is with Comte 
simply an aspect of sociology. Comte’s ethics 
is not a moralizing, or a treatise on duty or on 
right and wrong, but a discussion of the origin 
of ethical ideas, growing out of the, as 
he claimed, spontaneous sociability of men— 
in a word, it is social ethics. 

We need not follow our author farther and 
point out the ‘positive transpositions,’ or re- 
valuations, that the positive philosophy has 
wrought in the ideas that prevailed before 
Comte’s day. It is sufficient to have shown 
that M. Lévy-Bruhl has set him in a just light 


SCIENCE. 


before the world as a great organizing genius. 
His knowledge relatively to the time he lived 
was, like that of Spencer for his time, en- 
eyclopedic. Different as the systems of these 
two philosophers are, they each have prac- 
tically the same relation to their respective 
dates and times. Comte was the philosopher 
of the first half, as Spencer was of the second 
half, of the nineteenth century. Comte’s. 
weight turned the scale in favor of the scien- 
tific method, and inaugurated a positive, 
which is the same as a scientific, Weltan- 
schauung, destined to banish the hitherto pre- 
vailing theological and metaphysical concep- 
tions of the universe. As Comte’s works are 
more fully studied it is found that they con- 
stitute a vast storehouse of ideas. When a 
supposed new thought is put forth by some 
modern writer nothing is more common than 
to find that Comte had given clear expression 
to it more than half a century earlier. Much 
of the contemporary sociology consists in the 
rediscovery of the truths that Comte reached 
and fully set forth, and sociologists are just 
beginning to learn that they must go back to 
Comte as certainly as the metaphysicians 
must go back to Kant. 

M. Lévy-Bruhl, in citing Comte’s ‘ Phi- 
losophie Positive,’ has used the fifth edition, 
1892, which, unfortunately, is not uniform 
with all previous editions, and this makes the 
verification of passages somewhat difficult for 
those who can only consult the earlier and 
better known editions. The English transla- 
tion bears the marks of ‘ business enterprise.’ 
The short note by Mr. Frederic Harrison is 
magnified on the title-page into an ‘ introduc- 
tion.’ It is matter for regret that Mr. Har- 
rison did not really contribute an introduction. 
On the other hand, the name of the translator, 
Kathleen de Beaumont-Klein, who contributes 
an excellent preface, does not appear on the 
title-page. 

The translation is in the main good, but it 
is easy to find what are called ‘ gallicisms,’ 
such as using the word ignore in the French 
sense of not to know, writing movement for 
motion. eaperience for experiment, precious 
for valuable, conscience for consciousness, etc. 
There certainly was no excuse in an English 


380 


translation for citing all German works by 
their French titles. Lester F. Warp. 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 


Light Waves and The Uses. By A. A. 
Micuretson. Decennial Publications of the 
University of Chicago. Second Series, Vol- 
ume III. University of Chicago Press, 
1908. 

The ‘uses’ with which this book is con- 
cerned are altogether those with which the 
author’s name is so intimately associated; that 
is, the applications of interference methods 
whereby light waves are made the tools and 
units of measurements for physical and astro- 
nomical investigation. The Michelson form 
of interferometer, which has tremendously in- 
ereased the applicability of this method, was 
invented as a means of attack upon one im- 
portant problem which is here treated briefly 
—the well-known Michelson-Morley ether-drift 
experiment—still the subject of study, both 
experimental and theoretical. 

An introductory chapter on wave motion 
and the general phenomena of interference 
serves to prepare the reader for the develop- 
ment of the interferometer principle, by which 
is meant the use of a plane reflecting and 
transmitting (glass) surface to split a beam 
of light into two, which are subsequently re- 
combined, to produce interference fringes. 
The quantity directly measured is either a 
movement or shift of these fringes, or a 
change in their distinctness or ‘ visibility,’ 
produced by changes in the relative retarda- 
tion of the two beams between the points of 
separation and recombination. By this means 
changes in the relative retardation, which may 
in a particular case be produced by changes in 
position of a plane reflecting surface, can be 
measured with extreme accuracy. Again, the 
change in relative retardation may be pro- 
duced by changes in the index of refraction 
of the medium through which one beam passes, 
or motion of the medium, or by the introduc- 
tion of transparent films—and the correspond- 
ing shift of the fringes affords an exceedingly 
accurate means of measuring these changes. 

Some of the many special cases in which 
this method has been applied are dealt with in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 479. 


succeeding chapters; for example, the meas- 
urement of angles and distances, the study of 
spectrum lines and close groups of lines, the 
eftect of a magnetic field on light-emission, the 
determination of the angular magnitude and 
‘structure’ of stars, and the fundamental, but 
less fascinating, matter of the use of light 
waves as standards of length—. e., the evalu- 
ation of the meter in terms of the wave- 
lengths of the red, green and blue radiations 
of cadmium. 

The book is avowedly popular, being a re- 
print of Lowell Institute lecturés, and the 
lecture style is retained throughout; neverthe- 
less, it is to be feared that without the aid 
of experimental demonstrations, for which the 
good illustrations are hardly an equivalent, 
the ‘general reader’ would be rather over- 
taxed by some of the chapters. However, 
from the other standpoint of the preface, the 
book as a résumé in untechnical form, of im- 
portant researches which have occupied Pro- 
fessor Michelson for the past twenty years, 
will be of great value, not only to scientists 
who have not read the original papers, but to 
many who have. C. BE. M. 


Index to the Literature of the Spectroscope 
(1887 to 1900, both inclusive). By Atrrep 
TUCKERMAN. Smithsonian Miscellaneous 
Collections, 1902. 

This index forms a continuation of a pre- 
vious volume by the same author, which dealt 
with the literature up to 1887, and continues 
the subject up to the time when the work was 
taken over by the International Committee for 
Indexing Scientifie Literature. The first half 
of the book is taken up with the author index, 
alphabetically arranged, of which the chief 
characteristics should be accuracy and com- 
pleteness. Concerning the former a short 
examination suffices to detect a fairly large 
number of misprints, mostly trivial, besides 
a few cases of confusion of names, and one 
erroneous reference. Again, while absolute 
completeness is too much ‘to ask for, there are 
omissions here which do not seem based on a 
fair estimate of the relative importance of 
yarious papers. 

The second half of the volume contains the 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


same titles arranged according to subject, and 
here the matter of judicious choice of main 
and subheading, the distribution of titles 
among them, and eross-referencing, are of es- 
pecial importance. In some cases, as, for 
instance, the heading ‘ Hlectrie spectra,’ too 
little subdivision has been made, while in 
others, for example, infra-red work, too many 
and not sufficiently distinct subheadings have 
been introduced. Cross-references and a list 
of the subdivisions of the subject index would 
be a great addition; and the more frequent 
insertion, as is done in some cases under ‘ ab- 
sorption spectra,’ of a few words of explana- 
tion as to the scope and character of the work 
would add greatly to the usefulness of this 
part of the volume. 

In spite of these faults, however, and in 
spite of the fact that Kayser’s ‘ Handbuch’ 
will doubtless contain more references, this 
bibliography should be of considerable value. 

C. HE. M. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for December, 
1903, presents the third of the series of ar- 
ticles on ‘ Adaptations to Aquatic, Arboreal, 
Fossorial and Cursorial Habits in Mammals,’ 
the present being by H. W. Shimer on ‘ Fos- 
sorial Adaptations.’ These are fewer in num- 
ber than those for other modes of life, but 
among them the writer fails to include the 
use of the tail as a tactile organ, making the 
mistake of supposing it to be ‘a useless ap- 
pendage. W. Patten gives a valuable paper 
‘On the Structure of the Pteraspide and 
Cephalaspidz’ with the purpose of strength- 
ening his theory on the genetic relationship 
between the vertebrata and arthropoda, and 
James G. Needham describes ‘An Out-Door 
Equipment for College Work in Biology.’ 
Unluckily, all colleges are not so well situated 
as that of Lake Forest. W. McM. Wood- 
worth has a most interesting ‘ Preliminary 
Report on the Palvlo Worm of Samoa, Hunice 
viridis (Gray.)’ W. E. Ritter gives ‘ Further 
Notes on the Habits of Autodax lugubris,’ 
including the important information that this 
species breeds in holes in trees. The con- 
eluding paper, by Wilmatte P. Cockerell, de- 


SCIENCE. 


381 


seribes ‘A Trip to the Truchas Peaks, New 
Mexico.’ The number contains the ‘ Quar- 
terly Record of Gifts, Appointments, Retire- 
ments and Deaths.’ 


The American Museum Journal commences 
its fourth volume with the January number; 
it contains much information as to new ex- 
hibits, including notes on ‘The Behavior of 
the Minerals and Gems of the Morgan Col- 
lections toward Radium and Other Sources of 
Light,’ ‘The Long-tailed Japanese Fowls,’ 
“The Draught Horse in Action,’ ‘ Extraordi- 
nary Ants’ and ‘The Exhibit of Chuckchee 
Clothing.” The skeleton of the great Perch- 
eron, mounted by S. H. Chubb, is the best 
mounted skeleton we have ever seen and shows 
what may be done in this direction. The 
Supplement, Guide Leaflet No. 13, is an illus- 
trated General Guide to the American Mu- 
seum of Natural History. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tuer twenty-fifth annual meeting was held 
January 12. The following officers were 
elected : 


President—Dr. D. S. Lamb. 

General Secretary—Walter Hough. 

Ourator—Mrs. Marianna P. Seaman. 

Treasurer—P. B. Pierce. 

Councilors—Dr. George M. Kober, J. D. Me- 
Guire and Dr. J. Walter Fewkes. 


The 254th meeting was held January 26. 
Dr. W J McGee reported progress of the 
various expeditions to secure examples of in- 
teresting tribes for the Louisiana Purchase 
Exposition. It is intended to have at St. 
Louis families of Central African pygmies, 
Tehuelches of Patagonia, and Ainos of Hok- 
kaido, and members of tribes of the United 
States engaged in ancient industries. A 
model school for Indians will be another at- 
tractive feature. 

The first paper was by Professor W. H. 
Holmes, the title, ‘One of the Great Stone 
Buildings of Yucatan.’ The paper was illus- 
trated by a superb model made for exhibition 
at St. Louis. Professor Holmes said that the 
architecture of the natives of America is not 


382 SCIENCE. 


well understood, and the subject has received 
less attention than it deserves. There is, 
however, a widespread interest in the more 
noteworthy products of the skill of the aborig- 
inal architect and builder, and for this reason 
five examples of the great buildings of Mexico 
have been selected and models prepared. The 
building described is the largest in Uxmal, 
and is 320 feet long, 40 wide and 20 high. 
The walls are of rubble cement and earth 
faced with limestone, the front wall 4 feet 
and the back wall 9 feet thick. The remark- 
able feature of this building is the cornice, of 
which there is 740 feet, with 10,000 stones 
set in it. Masks numbering 180, requiring 
5,000 stones, meander over the cornice, and 
at intervals are placed seated figures bearing 
elaborate head dresses. The building was a 
residential one, and was the first of a pro- 
jected group around a square. The paper 
was further illustrated with diagrams and de- 
tail models. 

Professor L. S. Rowe, of the University of 
Pennsylvania, presented a brief communica- 
tion, entitled ‘The Work of the American 
Academy of Political and Social Science.’ 
Professor Rowe said that there is serious 
danger that political science will become a 
mere dogma, and for this reason anthropology 
should come to its aid, mainly by defining the 
origin of social relations. To this end he 
bespoke the good offices of anthropologists in 
the field of political and social science. 

Dr. McGee said, in discussing Professor 
Rowe’s communication, that anthropology and 
political science are closely related, and that 
the appreciation of the aid of anthropology 
is gratifying. The most advanced views are 
upheld in the Anthropological Society of 
Washington. In this society there are sec- 
tions each devoted to an aspect of the science 
of man. One is sociology, which embraces 
the relations of man as groups. Political 
science represents but one aspect of the same 
object that social science has to deal with. 
Political science has a narrower field, and 
deals with only one face of the great diamond. 

Dr. Alés Hrdlicka read a paper entitled 
‘The Indians of Sonora, Mexico.’ The paper 
was illustrated with lantern views of the 


people and scenery. Dr. Hrdlicka confined 
his remarks to the Yaki and Opata, giving a 
historic account and showing their geograph- 
ical distribution. The Yaki are a virile tribe, 
and are not declining, while the Opata are 
being amalgamated. Dr. Hrdlicka gave an 
interesting account of these tribes, of which 
there is so little scientific observation. Nu- 
merous slides illustrated the paper which will 
appear in extenso in the forthcoming Amer- 
ican Anthropologist. Water Hoven, 
; General Secretary. 


CLEMSON COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 


Tue club held its regular monthly meeting 
on December 18, 1903. Professor C. C. New- 
man gave a paper entitled ‘ Notes on Pecan 
Culture. The speaker brought out the fact 
that the pecan grows wild over quite a large 
extent of territory in the United States. 
Methods of propagation were described, the 
fact being brought out that the usual method 
of planting seed for the production of seed- 
lings is unsatisfactory, since these latter do 
not come true to seed. The high price at 
which the nuts are sold for seed was mentioned 
in passing. The only satisfactory method of 
propagation is by grafting. The speaker, by 
means of a number of specimens, illustrated 
in detail the different methods of grafting 


used. In closing, the possibilities of pecan * 


culture on a commercial scale in the south 
and, especially South Carolina, were pointed 
out. Quite a large amount of interesting illus- 
trative material was used by the speaker who 
gave this paper. 

Professor J. Volney Lewis gave a paper en- 
titled ‘Notes on the Physiographic Develop- 
ment of the Rocky Mountains.’ The author 
prefaced his paper with an outline of the 
leading events in the development of the 
Rocky Mountains in their relations to other 
portions of the continent. Some account was 
then given of observations made in the sum- 
mit region of the Rockies between the North 
Platte valley in Wyoming and the canyon of 
the Arkansas in Colorado, in connection with 
the work of the U: S. Geological Survey in 
the Encampment region during the summer 
of 1902. The closely folded and faulted pre- 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 479. 


RS ae 


Marcon 4, 1904.] 


Cambrian rocks of the Encampment region, 
with east-west axes, were reduced to a pene- 
plain at a time as yet undetermined, and the 
warping of this old surface by post-Mesozoic 
disturbances produced the arches of the present 
mountains, with their axes north and south. 
This peneplain is recognizable on the conti- 
nental divide and the long spurs and parallel 
ranges to the east and west in the Encamp- 
ment region. The sedimentary strata occupy- 
ing the flanks of the mountains and valleys 
and ‘parks’ of this region doubtless once cov- 
ered most, if not all, of the peneplain, but it 
has been laid bare over large areas of higher 
ground by subsequent denudation and more 
or less deeply incised by the streams. Brief 
reference was made to the dissection of the 
floors of some of the ‘parks’ by the streams 
draining them; to the systems of terraces 
oceurring along nearly all the larger streams 
of the region and the diverse hypotheses ac- 
counting for their origin, and to the minor 
glacial phenomena. The paper was illus- 
trated by a considerable number of lantern 
slides and maps. F. S. Suiver, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


To THE Epiror or Science: I heartily agree 
with the views expressed in your editorial of 
January 8 in regard to the affiliation of the 
various national scientific societies. If scien- 
tifie men in this country are to exercise the 
influence they ought to exercise in educational 
matters; if they are to influence legislative 
action when it concerns scientific work; if 
they are to hold the place in the country which 
is due to them and their work, they must come 
together; they must learn to know each other 
and to act as a unit. It seems to me that it 
is yery important to bring the scientific bodies 
together at least once a year. The American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
has taken the initiative because it is the 
largest of all of the scientific societies. Its 
policy has been to hold a meeting during con- 
vocation week and invite the other scientific 
societies to meet: at the same time and at the 


SCIENCE. 


383 


same place. The greatest freedom has been 
granted these bodies, and all the privileges 
which the large membership of the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
secures have been granted to them. There 
seems to be a feeling on the part of some of 
the societies, however, that the large associa- 
tion is trying to influence their action and 
foree them into affiliation with it. I am con- 
fident that the only desire of the American 
Association is to bring the scientific men to- 
gether for the good of all. 

I would suggest that each national scientific 
society be asked to send a representative to a 
meeting to be held at some central point be- 
fore next summer, where this whole question 
can be discussed in all of its bearings, and 
see whether it is not possible to arrange for 
meetings of all of the societies at the same 
time and place once each year or at other 
stated intervals. Such a committee could 
diseuss the advantages and disadvantages of 
such gatherings, the influence which could be 
brought to bear upon scientific education and 
research and many other matters which would 
naturally suggest themselves. I believe that 
ScIENCcE might take the initiative and request 
the various scientific societies to send repre- 
sentatives to such a meeting. 

Cuarues 8. Howe. 

Case ScHooL or APPLIED SCIENCE. 


As the editor of Sctmence has pointed out, 
the advantages of the winter meetings of the 
American Association and of its affiliated so- 
cieties are evident, and they certainly are 
desirable for those who can afford to attend 
them. The council, it is to be presumed, 
would be glad, however, to hear and to con- 
sider objections. Those of us who live on the 
Pacific slope have some that are peculiarly our 
own. 

1. In order to attend a winter meeting we 
are obliged to rush off at the beginning of 
our very short Christmas vacation, and to 
spend a large part of that vacation crossing 
and recrossing the continent. 

9. The trip is one of several thousand miles 
that requires from six to ten days on trains. 

3. For this long trip we are unable to obtain 


384 


any considerable reduction of railway rates. 

4. The season has certain objections for 
some of us who would like a few days of 
quiet with our families during the Christmas 
holidays. 

The second and third objections may seem 
to hold also against the summer meetings of 
the association. But as the summer meetings 
fall in the long vacations a trip to the east 
is generally utilized for other purposes as well 
as for attending the scientific meetings, while 
the short Christmas vacation does not leave 
us time for anything else. 

We of the Pacific slope, however, fully 
realize that this question should be settled 
with a view to the interests of the majority 
of the scientific men of the country, and that 
the majority lives east of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. We hope, though, that it will not be 
forgotten that the association has always tried 
to do a little missionary work whenever it 
has been possible. J. C. BRanner. 


To THe Epiror or Science: Replying to 
your request for an expression of opinion rela- 
tive to scientific organization in this country, 
I would say that the reorganization of the 
medical profession seems to me to offer an 
example which we might well follow. 

Let the present American Association for 
the Advancement of Science be taken as basis, 
forming the national organization; let the 
present council be supplanted by a house of 
delegates, composed of representatives from 
each state society, the number being in propor- 
tion to the state membership; let all business 
affairs, questions of policy, ete., be transacted 
by this house of delegates; let the national 
association hold its meetings in convocation 
week, and be divided into as many sections as 
seems necessary or desirable for the purpose 
of presenting papers, but let it be divided 
into state associations for the purpose of rep- 
resentation and government. The national 
association can prepare a model constitution 
for the use of the state and local associations 
and have such constitution cast so that only 
the state or local names need be inserted, thus 
saving considerable expense, work and worry. 

The state associations should hold inde- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 479. 


pendent meetings or two or three adjoining 
states could unite for joint meetings, prefer- 
ably in summer. A division into sections 
could obtain for presentation of papers, but 
the business affairs could best be conducted by 
a state house of delegates, composed of dele- 
gates from the local associations. Such meet- 
ings would doubtless be attended by many col- 
lege assistants, college students and especially 
high school teachers who can not afford to at- 
tend the national meeting and who might feel 
lost if they did attend. 

Loeal associations could be formed in any 
community in which a given number of scien- 
tifie workers could be organized. It is but 
natural that the universities and colleges 
would form the centers of the local societies 
and by interesting all senior students in the 
local societies, the national association would 
eventually practically represent a national 
alumni organization. At least all scientific 
students in colleges and universities would, 
upon graduation, enter the post-graduate na- 
tional organization. In places like Boston, 
New York, Washington, Chicago, ete., there 
would be a differentiation into sections, ac- 
cording to subjects represented and members 
enrolled. 

Such an organization would unite all Amer- 
ican scientists into one strong body, which 
upon occasion would be an important factor 
in national or state legislative and other public 
matters. It would give every member of a 
local scientific society representation in the 
national organization. It would decrease ex- 
penses in local and state societies, and thus 
decrease the number and amount of annual 
dues, which are already too large. It might 
enable us gradually to assume control of and 
responsibility for technical publications. It 
might result in the union of several existing 
publications with the plan of distribution by 
signatures, so that it would be possible for a 
zoologist to subscribe for all of the zoological 
papers issued without his purchasing four 
times as many papers on other subjects, and 
the same advantage would accrue to the bot- 
anist, the chemist, the mathematician, ete. 
And to the great delight and relief of the 
bibliographer, such a plan would probably re- 


Marca 4, 1904.] 


sult in the early death and future prevention 
of the numerous struggling, ephemeral publi- 
cations issued by various local organizations. 
There is nothing original in the suggestions 
made above. ‘The plan has been inaugurated 
by the medical fraternity and its good results 
are already evident. Would it not be wise 
for the scientific organizations to consider the 
same plan seriously, even if it should involve 
the demise of several existing organizations? 
Cu. WaRDELL STILES. 
Wasuineton, D. C. 


To tHE Eprror or Science: The problems 
connected with convocation week may be ap- 
proached from the point of view either of that 
which is in the abstract most desirable or of 
that which is best adapted to present condi- 
tions. The latter question can not be treated 
properly without some consideration of the 
former, but it is idle to confine our attention 
- to the ideal. 

Few men of science can fail to recognize 
the enormous advantages resulting from the 
unification of all the scientific interests of 
the country under a single organization. The 
main question seems to be whether it is prac- 
ticable to effect such a unification without the 
sacrifice of other and more important in- 
terests. 

Objection is made on the part of the tech- 
nical societies to any form of affiliation which 
would tend to degrade the professional stand- 
ing of the membership of the societies. The 
objection certainly is a valid one, and refer- 
ence to the editorial of January 8 will show 
that no such effect of affiliation on the pro- 
fessional societies is necessary or desired. 

The objection to joint meetings growing out 
of the great extent of territory covered by the 
national organization and the resultant ex- 
pense in time and money involved in reaching 
distant cities is common to any form of na- 
tional society, however limited in scope, and 
may be met practically in a variety of ways. 
It certainly is not greater with the affiliated 
societies than with those entirely separate. 

Another difficulty not so easily disposed of 
grows out of the crowding together of many 


SCIENCE. 


385 


programs in the short space of one week and 
the interruptions due to the numerous public 
lectures and social events of general interest. 
This situation presents a problem of the first 
magnitude and one better solved by a process 
of natural growth in experience than by aca- 
demic discussion. 

We have already had experience with three 
chief methods in the conduct of our mid-win- 
ter meetings. (1) Each society has met inde- 
pendently, with no attempt at correlation with 
any other organization. This was the method 
until very recently, with the result, perhaps, 
that three societies with which one might wish 
to keep in touch were meeting simultaneously 
in three widely separate cities, a situation so 
intolerable as to have provoked the agitation 
for convocation week. 

(2) A second method is for the independent 
societies by mutual agreement to meet at one 
time in the same city. In the biological sci- 
ences we had a practical illustration of this 
at the last Washington meeting, where several 
sessions were held simultaneously offering 
programs covering substantially the same 
field. This situation was far from satisfac- 
tory to any of the membership, some declaring 
that it were better to return to the former 
plan of wholly separate meetings. Others 
considered that the resultant social advantages 
more than compensated for the distressing 
conflict of desires by which one was torn dur- 
ing the hours devoted to the reading of papers. 

(8) The third method is for all of the so- 
cieties to meet together and for those dealing 
with related subjects to combine their pro- 
grams so as to have but one series of papers” 
on the same subject running at one time. An 
inordinate length of program on any subject 
may be obviated by a further topical division 
of the program into smaller sections for all 
or part of the time. To be sure, it is a very 
difficult matter sometimes to find a natural 
line of cleavage in a program, but a separation 
of papers in accordance with any principle, 
however defective, is better than a separation 
based on no principle save the accidents of 
membership in the several societies; and if 
the programs are published in advance and 
are as closely followed as possible and espe- 


386 


cially if the paper in course of reading and 
the paper next to be read are posted outside 
each section room during the sessions, then it 
will be possible for any one at least to choose 
intelligently between papers appearing simul- 
taneously, instead of leaving this largely to 
chance, as was too often the case at Wash- 
ington. 

That some such plan is not impracticable 
is shown by the very recent history at the St. 
Louis meetings, as illustrated by the program 
in zoology. Section F and the Central Branch 
of the American Society of Zoologists, by 
previous arrangement of their executive com- 
mittees (these societies, by the way, not even 
being affiliated), combined for program pur- 
poses. This arrangement provided that all of 
the papers submitted and approved by the re- 
spective program committees should be con- 
sidered by a joint program committee just 
before the meeting and that all papers ap- 
proved by this joint committee should be 
pooled and arranged in a single program 
classified by subjects, with the proviso that if 
this made too long a program they should be 
divided into two groups on the basis of sub- 
ject matter, not on the basis of the societies 
presenting them, and that simultaneous ses- 
sions should be held for such time as might be 
necessary. Conference with the executive 
officers of both societies after the meeting 
shows that this plan worked out to the satis- 
faction of all concerned with no friction or 
other unpleasant features save for some in- 
convenience to the secretaries growing out of 
a tardy beginning of the negotiations. A 
critical examination of the joint program 
shows, as it happens, that the two societies 
represented were very evenly balanced, both 
in number of papers submitted and in their 
scientific worth. 

The plan here outlined is not recommended 
as an ideal, nor even a practicable, solution 
of the problem for every case, but it is men- 
tioned as another illustration of the fact that 
the problem can be solved in a conerete case. 
Doubtless a different solution would have to 
be worked out for some other case. 

In view of this history, the present writer, 
who is a loyal member of both Section F and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 479. 


the American Society of Zoologists, fails to 
see any reason why the societies should not 
have the advantages which would accrue to 
both by such an affiliation as was referred to 
above, uniting their forces for certain execu- 
tive functions of national import, but leaving 
each free to work out the details of its organ- 
ization in its own way. Hither branch of the 
professional society would be able to meet in- 
dependently at any time, but when the Amer- 
ican Association meets in its region it should, 
as a rule, secure the advantages of joint ses- 
sions. 

For my part, to be perfectly frank, I do not 
go to the national meetings primarily to hear 
papers read, much as I enjoy that feature, for 
these can generally be studied at leisure after- 
wards. As a comparative neurologist I, of 
course, want to get the first word of every 
advance movement in my specialty in this 
way; but I prize not less highly the oppor- 
tunity possible only in a gathering of many 
different societies, of meeting my colleagues 
in related fields, by attending the Physiolo- 
gists’ and Anatomists’ smokers, the Natural- 
ists’ dinner, and in other ways keeping in 
closer personal touch with the men who are 
doing the work in related departments of re- 
search on which I must so largely build. This 
is for me one of the most important gains 
that I win at the national meetings and one 
that can not be fully realized in any meeting 
of a single professional society, no matter how 
high the scientific standard or how wide a 
territory may be represented. 

To secure this gain I, for one, am willing 
to make considerable sacrifices, though, as 
indicated above, these sacrifices do not neces- 
sarily include any loss in the efficiency or 
interest of the programs of convocation week. 
My own feeling is that in the final adjustment 
we shall probably come to a summer meeting 
of the association, with field excursions made 
prominent, some of the sections perhaps meet- 
ing in different places, and a convocation meet- 
ing in the winter devoted mainly to the read- 
ing of technical papers, with a due proportion 
of the time devoted to public discussions and 
lectures on themes of general scientific inter- 
est and to social intercourse. There should 


Maron 4, 1904.] 


be no difficulty in maintaining in these pro- 
grams a scientific standard of papers read as 
high as that now presented by the professional 
societies. Indeed, there would be no impro- 
priety, particularly in the case of any section 
which holds summer meetings, in relegating 
the reading of technical papers at the conyo- 
eation meeting to the affiliated professional 
societies, the section, if possible, offering, in 
addition to the vice-presidential address, one 
or more set papers or discussions of more gen- 
eral interest. 

The solution when finally wrought out will 
no doubt come by a process of evolution 
rather than by revolution, and the present 
trend is clearly in the direction of reserving 
the time of convocation week very largely for 
the reading of papers by the technical socie- 
ties. Any attempt to force these societies 
into the summer months is foredoomed to 
failure. C. Jupson Herricr. 


THE CASE OF WILLIAM J. LONG. 


To THE Epriror or Science: The criticism 
of William J. Long’s published observations 
on the habits of animals inaugurated so 
vigorously by John Burroughs in The At- 
lantic Monthly for March, 1903, and continued 
no less forcibly by William Morton Wheeler 
in your issue of February 26 arouses no little 
interest in the personality and methods of a 
writer whose work has met with so unfayor- 
able a reception by naturalists. 

Are we to believe the accusation that the 
author in question, to put the matter squarely, 
is a ‘liar, or have we in Mr. Long a naturalist 
whose powers of observation, discrimination 
and interpretation are so far beyond those of 
any other student of nature, living or dead, 
that he is in effect a Galileo among animal 
psychologists ? 

It can not be denied that Mr. Long, in spite 
of his youth, has placed upon record more 
remarkable statements regarding the behavior 
of the birds and mammals of New England 
and New Brunswick than ean be found in all 
the authoritative literature pertaining to the 
animals of this region. } 

The story of the crows and their game with 
a china zing; of the kingfisher that stocked an 


SCIENCE. 


387 


isolated pool with fish in order that it might 
easily teach its young the art of fishing; of 
the partridge that repeatedly drummed a roll- 
call for the two missing members of a brood 
ot eleven; of the red squirrel with cheek- 
pouches; of the poreupine that coiled in a ball 
before rolling down hill; of the loon that 
hatched its eggs, not by sitting on them, but 
by gathering them close to her side with her 
wing; of the woodcock that placed its broken 
leg in a plaster cast; of the ducks that have 
learned to drown salt-water mussels in fresh- 
water pools; of the great blue heron that 
seattered a pollywog in fragments on the water 
as bait to draw fish within spearing distance: 
these and many other equally remarkable ob- 
servations and experiences are recounted with 
a circumstantial detail that carries conviction 
to all but the informed. 

Indeed, one has not to read far in any of 
the half a dozen or more volumes which Mr. 
Long has produced to discover some more or 
less remarkable description of the actions of 
animals, 

The nature of their contents and their un- 
deniable literary merit furnish abundant rea- 
son, therefore, why Mr. Long’s works should 
claim not only the attention of naturalists, but 
of the public generally, and again it may be 
asked, is the unsparing criticism to which 
they have been subjected warranted ? 

An apparently satisfactory reply to this 
query is furnished by a defense of Mr. Long 
published in the Boston Hvening Transcript, 
March 7, 1903, and by Mr. Long himself. The 
writer of the Transcript communication seems 
to have been acquainted with Mr. Long at An- 
dover Theological Seminary. After saying 
that Mr. Longe prepared himself for college 
by ‘solitary’ study and that in entering the 
sophomore class he had not experienced that 
year in an wundergraduate’s life ‘when a 
young man learns to take himself for very 
little, he continues: 

From both these circumstances it comes about 
that we have here a man easily tempted to over- 
rate his personal knowledge, a man tempted to 
superficiality, a man likely to draw rash and ill- 
considered conclusions. It is also to be remem- 
bered that Mr. Long is of Irish extraction—in- 
flammable, poetic and volatile in temperament. 


388 


No matter how great his learning up to a cer- 
tain point, he is continually in peril of making 
irrational ventures beyond that point, lured for- 
ward by pure imagination. This has come out 
in his preaching. Eccentricities and extremely 
radical outbursts have had a disturbing effect 
upon his audiences and have limited his success. 
It is just this sort of thing that has made him the 
prey of Mr. Burroughs. I well remember an 
utterance of Mr. Long’s in a class-room in An- 
dover when he took issue with the professor, be- 
ginning by saying: ‘I always love to think ’— 
to which the professor replied, ‘Mr. Long, we are 
not concerned with what we love to think, but 
with what we ought to think.” Here was the 
whole situation in a nutshell. What he has loved 
to think and not what he ought to think has 
colored whatever has met his eyes in the theolog- 
ical as well as the biological world. 

Honest, absolutely honest, and yet not quite 
telling the truth—that is a seeming paradox, but 
a real paradox only as many a poetic tempera- 
ment is itself a paradox, and any poetic tempera- 
ment, any temperament to which imagination is 
all but reality, and to which the thing loved and, 
therefore, the thing sought, is by a natural con- 
sequence the thing believed—any such tempera- 
ment will prepare bitter grief for itself when it 
enters the world of natural science. Scientists 
have always to guard against the personal equa- 
tion. This is well illustrated in the disappearance 
from scientific use of the pencil sketch and its re- 
placement by the photograph. Let me draw the 
strata in yonder rocks, and nine chances in ten 
I shall unconsciously draw into them the theory 
which I intend them to illustrate. The camera, 
on the other hand, tells no lies, and very plainly 
Mr. Long is some other thing than a camera. 
His finished product is art, not science; it is the 
forest plus Mr. Long; it is the woodland folk 
introduced, interpreted, beloved—I had almost said 
at the first, created by Mr. Long. And I wonder 
whether, after all, Mr. Burroughs is not equally 
writing his own delightful personality into his 
own charming pages. The world-wide difference 
comes in at one point only. Mr. Burroughs is 
temperamentally fitted to interpret nature through 
the forms of literature; Mr. Long is not so fitted. 


Evidently the author of these illuminating 
paragraphs knew whereof he wrote, and his 
delineation of Mr. Long’s peculiar character- 
istics appears to explain satisfactorily that 
gentleman’s ability to make more startling 
discoveries in one short lifetime than have 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 479. 


fallen to the lot of naturalists in preceding 
centuries. Additional light is thrown on Mr. 
Long’s methods and their results by his con- 
fession that he has ‘never studied nature con- 
sciously, but only loved it,’ and has found out 
many of its ‘ways long ago, guided solely by 
a boy’s instinet’ (‘Ways of Wood Folk, 
preface); while the dedication of ‘ Fowls of 
the Air’ is a surprising avowal of its author’s 
point of view. It reads: 


To the Teachers of America who are striving 
to make nature study more vital and attractive 
by revealing a vast realm of nature outside the 
realm of Science, and a world of ideas above and 
beyond the world of facts, these studies from 
nature are dedicated. 


To the naturalist further comment will be 
unnecessary, but it doubtless will be inquired 
why make all this disturbance about one of 
scores of inaccurate producers of so-called 
‘nature’ books? Chiefly, it may be replied, 
because of the magnitude of Mr. Long’s of- 
fenses, of the audience which he has won 
through his marked literary gifts in descrip- 
tive writing, and of the prominence injudi- 
cious criticism has brought him. 

In a well-meant but somewhat ill-considered 
attempt to stamp out the fire, Mr. Burroughs 
merely scattered it. From an insignificant 
smudge, it has become a roaring blaze and its 
sparks are kindling throughout the land. 

It requires the briefest consideration of the 
fact that tens of thousands of Mr. Long’s 
books have been sold for supplementary read- 
ing in the schools—where, judged only by 
their literary charm, they are almost uni- 
formly commended by teachers—to realize 
their far-reaching influence for evil. As I 
write, a prominent educational journal is re- 
ceived containing a review of Mr. Long’s 
latest book, which the reviewer says, is ‘ by 
one who knows whereof he speaks, and who has 
studied so carefully and lovingly that he will 
make revelations that will hold us breathless.’ 
This is a fair indication of the esteem in 
which Mr. Long and his works are held by 
the average teacher. 

Is it not, then, the duty of naturalists to 
enlighten the general public, and especially 
those entrusted with the education of children, 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


in regard to the real character of Mr. Long’s 
efforts to reveal ‘a vast realm of nature out- 
side the realm of science’ in ‘ideas above 
and beyond the world of facts’? 
Frank M. CHapman. 
AMERICAN Musrum or Narurat History. 


THE METRIC SYSTEM. 


To tHE Eprror or Science: It is now years 
since the metric system has been authorized 
and permitted in this country and yet very 
little progress has been made in its practical 
introduction. We still labor with the old 
system. We can never tell in statistics or 
contracts what a ton of coal means (long or 
short) unless it is explicitly stated. And so 
in water analyses, they are stated in three or 


SCIENCE. 


389 


pints, and a gallon four such quarts, and a 
peck eight such quarts, and a bushel thirty- 
two such quarts, and no other measure of 
volume shall be permitted, the distinction 
between fluid and dry measure being abol- 
ished. 

3.* The U. S. standard foot shall be the 
length of the edge of a cube which shall con- 
tain 1,000 U. S. standard ounces of water 
under certain conditions of temperature and 
pressure, 7. ¢., 62.5 U. S. standard pints. The 
popular use of the terms would not need be 
changed a# all, and the actual change of units 
would be so slight (ten per cent. or less) that 
it would not popularly be noticed, as may ap- 
pear from the following table: 


United States Standard. 


.985 present ton = 1 proposed 
1.102 “¢ pounds = i i 
1.102 “¢ ounces = ll oe 
1.05671 ‘‘ Jiquid pints = il is 

9081 “ dry pint = il of 

Wien ef bushel = il hd 
1.05671 ‘ liquid gallons = 1 “ 

984 “foot = ireill “ 


Metric. 

ton = 1 metric ton. 
pound = x Kilo., German ‘ Pfund.’ 
ounce = gz Kilo. =314 grams. 
pint = x liter 
quart = 1 liter 
bushel = _ 32 liters 
gallon = af 

25 [2 cma. 
eon ~ (3815 cm. 


four different ways, so that it is hard to com- 
pare them. 
grains per gallon, it remains to be determined 
whether the gallon is imperial or U. S. 

Allow me to suggest a method of intro- 
ducing the metric system which might meet 
much less friction and meet all practical pur- 
poses. 

The proposed legislation would be as fol- 
lows: 

1. On and after January 1, 1906, the U. 
S. standard ton shall be the metric ton, which 
shall contain 2,000 U. S. standard pounds, 
each of which shall contain 16 U. S. standard 
ounces. No other ounce, pound or ton 
weights, or weights purporting to be fractions 
or multiples thereof, shall be used under 
penalty. 

2. The U. S. standard pint shall be the 
volume of one U. S. standard pound of pure 
water under certain conditions of tempera- 
ture and pressure, and shall be equivalent to 
one-half liter. A quart shall be two such 


Eyen if we know they are in 


Moreover, the old proverb, ‘A pint is a 
pound the world around,’ will be strictly true, 
and in water analyses a nickel’s weight in a 
pint will be the same as an ounce per cubic 
foot and, specific gravity apart, the same as 
parts per thousand. 

Especially in ending the long wrangle over 
various tons, I think the proposed changes 
would be decided improvements, and the dif- 
ferences between wet and dry measure should 
be abandoned. Aurrep C. LANE. 


SEX DETERMINATION IN BEES AND ANTS. 


In Scmnce for December 25, 1903, Pro- 
fessor W. M. Wheeler characterizes as lacking 
in critical caution and ‘ apodictic’ the state- 
ment that ‘the egg of the bee, if unfertilized, 
invariably develops into a male, but if fertil- 
ized into a female.’ If Wheeler’s objection is 
directed merely against the form of this state- 
ment and not against its general content, if 
he desires merely the eradication of the word 


* This is not so essential to the scheme. 


390 SCIENCE. 


imvariably and would see it replaced with so 
far as observed, I am quite ready to grant all 
that he desires. It scarcely requires explicit 
statement here that all conclusions of induct- 
ive science must be so qualified. 

But if, as seems possible, Wheeler’s objec- 
tion extends farther and he would have us 
understand that the generalization made is 
supported by insufficient or uncritical observa- 
tion, I would join issue with him sharply. 
Dzierzon’s theory did not grow out of idle 
speculation, as a casual reading of Wheeler’s 
article might lead one to suppose; it was the 
outgrowth of much careful observation and 
thought on the part of a keen-eyed bee-keeper. 
It won its way to general recognition in the 
face of bitter opposition and has successfully 
withstood for half a century repeated assaults 
from various sources, scientific and otherwise. 
A brief summary of the evidence on which it 
rests may not be out of place here. 

1. Dzierzon showed more than fifty years 
ago* that mating of the queen-bee-(the egg- 
laying female of the hive) does not take place 
within the hive, but high up in the air. It 
takes place, if at all, before the queen has 
begun to lay eggs, and occurs but once in the 
lifetime of the queen, viz., in what is called 
her ‘nuptial flight.’ For this flight she issues 
from the hive on a bright still day. Her 
seminal receptacle then contains only a thin 
watery fluid, as Dzierzon and his coworker, 
Berlepsch, found by dissection. When she 
returns, the seminal receptacle is swollen and 
opaque, crowded with spermatozoa. This ob- 
servation we have on the added authority of 
von Siebold, who made microscopical examina- 
tion of the seminal receptacle of a queen cap- 
tured as she returned from the nuptial flight. 

2. If for any reason the queen is unable to 
take the nuptial flight, as because she has 
crippled or defective wings, or because her 


* The original papers of Dzierzon were published 
in a bee journal now not generally accessible, Die 
Bienenzeitung, but extensive quotations from them 
are contained in the classical paper of von Sie- 
bold, “ Wahre Parthenogenesis bei Schmetterlingen 
und Bienen,’ Engelmann, Leipzig, 1856. Other 
important papers on this subject are those of 
Bessels (1868), and Petrunkewitsch (1901, 1903). 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 479. 


wings have been artificially removed, she is 
not prevented thereby from laying eggs ca- 
pable of development, but from such (unfer- 
tilized) eggs develop only bees of the male 
sex (drones). This conclusion, the outcome 
of repeated observations made by Dzierzon, 
Berlepsch and Bessels, is further supported by 
an experiment made by Berlepsch. He in- 
duced a hive of his bees to rear queens late 
in the season (mear the end of September), 
after the drones had disappeared. One of 
these queens, which was: wintered over, pro- 
duced in the following spring some 1,500 cells 
of drone brood in worker cells. A dissection 
of this queen made by Leuckart showed that 
she really was, as expected, unimpregnated. 

3. Worker bees, which are only imperfectly 
developed females, sometimes lay eggs capable 
of development. This frequently occurs after 
a hive has lost its queen. From such ‘ worker’ 
eggs develop only male offspring. Dissections 
of egg-laying workers, which were made by 
Leuckart, revealed no seminal receptacle, 
hence the eggs of such animals can not have 
been fertilized. 

4. Old queens, which possibly have ex- 
hausted or lost control of the supply of 
spermatozoa received at the nuptial flight, 
sometimes produce only drone offspring (in 
worker as well as in drone cells). An old but 
fruitful queen, which had been producing off- 
spring of both sexes, was accidentally crushed 
toward the tip of the abdomen by Berlepsch, 
so seriously that he thought her dead, but she 
revived after about an hour and was replaced 
in the hive. All the eggs which she subse- 
quently produced (and they numbered thou- 
sands) developed into drones. This ease is, 
with a good show of reason, explained on the 
hypothesis that the genital organs of the 
queen were so injured by the accident that 
thereafter none of her eggs could be fertilized. 

5. Queens which have mated in normal 
fashion subsequently lay eggs some of which 
are fertilized, others unfertilized. The fer- 
tilized eggs are deposited ordinarily only in 
the small worker cells or the very large queen 
cells, and they develop into females. The 
unfertilized eggs are deposited ordinarily only 
in the drone cells, and they develop into males. 


ee 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


That the eggs laid in such cases in worker 
cells are in reality fertilized, and those laid in 
drone cells unfertilized, has been established 
by direct observation. Von Siebold examined 
under the microscope 40 fresh laid eggs taken 
from worker cells; in 30 of these he was able 
to identify one or more spermatozoa; in three 
eases the spermatozoa were still moving. In 
94 eges taken from drone cells and carefully 
examined, no spermatozoa were seen. Von 
Siebold’s observations are fully confirmed by 
results obtained by the more perfect methods 
of microscopical study now available. Pe- 
trunkewitsch (1901), who has recently made a 
eareful study of the bee’s egg by means of 
sections, found 61 ripe eggs taken from worker 
cells to have been fertilized, while in only one 
such egg he found no evidence of fertiliza- 
tion; on the other hand, 273 eggs taken from 
drone cells were all, with one exception, wun- 
fertilized. In this one egg the presence of a 
spermatozoon was indicated. That egg, how- 
ever, can hardly rank as an undoubted excep- 
tion to the perfectly obvious general rule. It 
may well have come from one of the cells of 
intermediate size on the border between the 
drone comb and the worker comb, from which 
either workers or drones may develop, or it 
may even have been introduced accidentally 
from worker comb into the lot of eggs in 
which it was found. 

Tn favor of the view resurrected by Wheeler, 
that female bees may develop from unfertil- 


-ized eggs, not a bit of trustworthy evidence 


has ever been presented, so far as I know. 
Certainly Wheeler presents none. The 
strongest support ever given to such an idea 
came from the experiments of Landois (1867). 
He transferred eggs from drone to worker 
cells and vice versa, and concluded that the 
sex of the bee produced depends upon the 
nature of the cell in which it develops, or 
more directly upon the character and amount 
of the food supplied to it. But Bessels (1868), 
who repeated the experiments of Landois, 
found that the workers regularly destroy eggs 
transferred from one cell to another, and the 
queen then lays new eggs in their stead. Ber- 
lepsch, however, as quoted by Bessels, by first 
removing the queen from the hive, and then 


SCIENCE. 391 


by transferring a segment of the cell with the 
egg attached, succeeded in getting the workers 
to rear in worker cells a few eggs laid in drone 
cells. From these developed only drones! 

But in the case of ants, Wheeler thinks it 
even a ‘probability’ that female ants develop 
from unfertilized eggs, and the title of his 
article would lead one to suppose this already 
a demonstrated fact. His conclusion cer- 
tainly receives no support from the case of 
the honey-bee. We may accordingly reason- 
ably ask for pretty clear evidence in its favor 
from some other source before accepting it 
as even probable. What evidence has Wheeler 
to present? Three different cases recorded by 
competent observers, in which worker ants 
have produced female offspring. But does it 
follow. that the eggs from which these off- 
spring developed were unfertilized? Clearly 
not. Because worker bees do not mate with 
drones, it does not follow that worker ants 
never mate with male ants. Indeed, Wheeler 
quotes Reichenbach, whom he characterizes as 
“a very conscientious worker,’ to the effect 
that in at least one species of ant, Anergates 
atratulus, ‘fertilization always occurs nor- 
mally within the nest.’ If fertilization may 
occur within the nest, why may not the wing- 
less worker mate with a male, as does the 
winged queen? At any rate, this possibility 
must first be excluded before we shall be justi- 
fied in drawing the conclusion that all eggs 
laid by workers are necessarily unfertilized 
eges. It is a possibility which two of the 
authorities cited by Wheeler, viz. Tanner and 
Reichenbach, distinctly recognize. They both 
emphasize the fact that the workers which 
under their observation produced female off- 
spring ‘had been living in community with 
males.’ 

Nor does the third authority, as cited by 
Wheeler, Mrs. A. B. Comstock, even suggest 
that the eggs laid by worker ants in the colony 
kept by her were wnfertilized eggs. The credit 
for that idea belongs solely to Wheeler. What 
she records is that worker ants taken from 
out of doors laid in captivity eggs which de- 
veloped into females. Is there any reason for 
supposing that the ants captured had not pre- 
viously been with males? If not, then where- 


392 


in does this case differ from the other two? 
May we not reasonably exercise some 
‘critical caution’ before with Wheeler we 


conclude it probable ‘that worker ants can. 


really produce other workers or even queens 
parthenogenetically’? But suppose they can; 
wherein lies the ‘ominous import’ which such 
a possibility has for ‘current views on sex 
determination’? For myself, I do not see 
that the case of the ant would then present 
any new problems not found either in the 
ease of Nematus, or in the silk-moth, or in 
Daphnia, to any theory of sex determination 
eyer conceived or conceivable. Should it be 
shown that the unfertilized eggs of the ant 
may develop either into males or into females 
(at present we have no evidence whatever that 
such is the case), then it would be in order 
to inquire whether all such eggs undergo two 
maturation divisions, as do the eggs of the 
bee, or whether, as in the Rotifera and Crus- 
tacea, male parthenogenetic eges undergo two 
maturation divisions, whereas female par- 
thenogenetic eggs undergo only one. 
W. E. CastLe. 
ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, 
HarvARD UNIVERSITY, 
January 25, 1904. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


AMITOSIS IN THE EGG FOLLICLE CELLS OF INSECTS. 

Proressor CoNKLIN’s interesting account of 
the amitotically dividing egg follicle cells of 
the common crickets (Gryllus pennsylvanicus, 
abbreviatus and domesticus) in the American 
Naturalist for October, 1903, recalls attention 
to a condition and phenomenon in animal 
eytology all too little known. Despite the 
rarity of amitotic cell division elsewhere 
among animals, and the interest and signifi- 
eance of the phenomenon, the opportunity 
offered for its study in the egg follicle cells of 
insects has been taken little advantage of. 
We know simply that amitotie division occurs 
in some of these cells in certain insects. How 
consistently through the insect class; whether 
identical or varying in character among the 
different insect species in which it occurs; and 
finally and most importantly, how far back 
in the lineage (ancestry) of the cells them- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 479. 


selves the phenomenon persists; in other 
words, at what time the amitotic division ap- 
pears in the history of cells which must be 
derived from cells with mitosis; all these in- 
teresting questions remain to be answered. 
Professor Conklin finds that only in the 
follicle of the lowest egg-chamber of each 
ovarial tube of Gryllus are all the cells ami- 


Fie. 1. Egg follicle cells of Hydrophilus sp. ; showing 
amitotic division. 


totically dividing. In the upper chambers or 
sections of the tubes the division of the cells 
is always (as far as observed) mitotic; in the 
lowest chamber, on the contrary, always ami- 
totic. 

The obvious conclusion, in the light of our 
knowledge of the fate of the follicular cells 
of the lowest chamber—they secrete here the 
chorion of the egg and then give up the ghost 
—that the amitosis is a concomitant with 
senescence and decay, is probably indisputable. 
But it is a fact that in not all of the few 
insects in which this amitosis has been stud- 
ied is it limited to the follicle cells of the last 
ege chamber. 

Certain differences exist in the character 
of the amitosis of the egg follicle cells of 
Gryllus (as described by Professor Conklin) 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


and this process in the follicle cells of 
Hydrophilus sp., the common large water- 
scavenger beetle of our ponds and stream 
pools, as I have observed it. In the first place, 
amitosis is not confined to the lowest egg- 
chamber; unfortunately I can not say from 
my present preparations how far up the tube, 
1. e., toward its germinal chamber, amitosis 
may be found among the follicle cells, but it 
is found above the last (lowest) chamber. In 
the second place, there-is no well-defined 
single nucleolus. So the phenomenon of such 
a nucleolus surounded by a clear zone and 
regularly dividing before the nucleus (de- 
seribed for Gryllus) is wholly wanting in the 
follicle cells of Hydrophilus. Each nucleus 
of these cells contains a large number of 
spherical, strongly staining (chromatin) 
masses or grains gradating in size from a 
point up to conspicuously large nucleolus-like 
balls. The larger of these structures might 
be looked on as nucleolar masses, if one 
wanted to use the name nucleolus at all; but 
if so, from half a dozen to a score of nucleoli 
would haye to be accepted and their only dis- 
tinction (from the many smaller masses) 
would be the arbitrary one of size. Fig. 1 
shows this disposition and relative massing 
of the staining (chromatin) substance in the 
nuclei. No sign of chromatin thread (linin 
or skein) is apparent. There is absolutely no 
sign of a division of these nucleoli or 
chromatin balls accompanying the nuclear 
division. ‘The nuclei simply seem to be senes- 
cent structures with their chromatin content 
segregated into many small globular masses 
which vary in size, with all intermediate gra- 
dations from small to large. About each of 
the larger masses a narrow clear zone is ap- 
parent. 

Fig. 1 shows also the various stages in the 
simple division of the nucleus and the great 
size of the nucleus compared with the cyto- 
plasm body containing it. In some cases a cell 
wall appears between the daughter nuclei after 
division, but in others the cytoplasm does not 
seem to effect a clean division, both nuclei 
then lying, it may be said, in one cell. The 
actual size of the nuclei averages .04 mm. 

Vernon L. KeLioce. 

STANFORD UNIVERSITY, CALIFORNIA. 


SCIENCE. 


393 


VARIATIONS IN THE PROTECTIVE VALUE OF THE 
ODORIFEROUS SECRETIONS OF SOME 
HETEROPTERA. 

WHEN on a collecting trip near College Sta- 
tion, Texas, early in October, I examined the 
stomach contents of a half-grown toad. In 
this mass I found two stink-bugs (Huschistus 
fissilis). 
account of the great amount of apparently 
more palatable insects available here; and es- 
pecially interesting in connection with the 
fact that the examinations of the contents of 
152 toads’ stomachs since the summer of 1901, 
made to determine what rédle the common 
squash bug played in the toad’s diet during a 
season when these bugs were exceptionally 
abundant, revealed less than three per cent. 
hemipterous material. Mr. Kirkland, in Bull. 
46, Mass. Agric. Coll., p. 16, estimated the 
percentage of hemipterous and dipterous 
food, after careful examinations of 149 toads 
stomachs, below two per cent of the whole. 
There are variations in the protective 
efficiency of the secretions of some heteroptera, 
and this may be an important factor in gov- 
erning the percentage of diet such insects 
form with some animals. 


This seemed very interesting on 


Many experiments 
with the common black squash bug were made 
during the summer of 1901 while at the New 
Hampshire Experiment Station, and the re- 
sults there obtained showed that with constant 
use for a short time the secretions become 
weaker, and after fifteen minutes are decidedly 
less effective. Although toads in confinement 
were witnessed to eat squash bugs, it was only 
after the secretions were partially exhausted 
or where the bug was snatched before dis- 
charging the liquid. The greatest number 
a hungry toad would eat was three. In no ease 
was this done in the face of a discharge from 
the secretion glands. 

After twenty-four hours’ rest under natural 
conditions the glands apparently regained 
maximum strength. This does not apply to 
hibernating specimens of heteroptera. 

On September 15, 1901, half-grown toads 
were repeatedly killed from the full effects of 
the fresh discharges from several specimens of 
squash bugs. 


394 SCIENCE. 


On September 20, 1901, similar experiments 
required much more time to bring about sim- 
ilar results. Since then I have repeatedly 
killed half-grown toads in the same manner, 
while in a number of instances I was unable 
to kill any. 

On October 5, 1903, while carrying 22 cot- 
ton boll weevils over a cotton plantation in a 
vial of 30 cc. capacity three specimens of 
Euschistus fissilis were suddenly introduced. 
The secretions were powerfully ejected by 
these bugs when in the bottle, and in ten 
minutes the weevils were dead. ‘This experi- 
ment was repeated the same day with equal 
success. 

On October 14 and 18, 1903, repeated trials 
of the preceding experiments resulted in com- 
plete failures. 

On December 2 four specimens of Brochy- 
mena annulata were put in a bottle of 45 ce. 
capacity, and these killed a blow fly and three 
stable flies in nine minutes, and quieted a 
centipede in fifteen minutes, but the latter 
recovered. 

On December 6, 1903, a repetition of the 
experiments of December 2 showed that twenty 
minutes more time was required to obtain 
similar results. 

On December 9, 1903, the experiments of 
December 6 were failures. ‘ 

On December 13, 1903, four fine specimens 
of Brochymena annulata were found hiber- 
With these 
They were 


nating under kindling wood. 
many experiments were made. 
put in the same vial used December 6 and 9, 
and when introduced in a warm room the 
secretions were discharged with much greater 
effect than in any of the above experiments. 
Two blow flies and two stable flies, each in- 
troduced separately, were killed in five 
After twenty minutes a centipede 
Although motionless after 


minutes. 
was introduced. 
eight minutes, the specimen recovered. After 
this time no more specimens could be killed, 
although many were introduced. 

In all the experiments above referred to the 
vial was kept tightly corked except when speci- 
mens were introduced. Although other in- 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 479. 


sects could be killed, the bugs themselves suf- 
fered, apparently, no inconvenience. 
Apert F. Conrant. 
AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE, 
CoLLEGE STATION, TExas, 
December 15, 1903. 


NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
MENDELEEF’S CONCEPTION OF THE ETHER. 


Tue Chemisches Centralblatt contains the 
abstract of a paper by Mendeléef published in 
the journal Prometheus on the subject of an 
attempted chemical explanation of the ether. 
From a realistic standpoint it is not satisfac- 
tory to ascribe to the ether the properties of 
weight and chemical individuality. It can 
not consist of matter now known, disseminated 
in an exceedingly attenuated condition, be- 
cause it penetrates all matter, nor can it be 
the ‘ Urstoff, since this would involve the 
possibility of the annihilation and evolution 
of atoms. It must rather be considered as a 
definite chemical substance so light that its 
molecular velocity is great enough to over- 
come gravitation; it is without chemical affin- 
ity; its power of diffusion is so great that it 
can penetrate all bodies, and hence can not 
be weighed, although it actually possesses an 
extremely small weight. Mendeléef would 
thus consider the ether to be the first mem- 
ber of the argon group in the periodic system, 
or what he calls the zero group, and places 
immediately before the alkali group. By ex- 
trapolation he posits an element in this group 
immediately before hydrogen, with an atomic 
weight of about 0.4. This he considers pos- 
sibly identical with coronium. The ether 
must have a still smaller atomic weight, whose 
value, owing to this double extrapolation, is 


extremely doubtful, but certainly can not be - 


over 0.17. For this ether as an element he 
proposes the name Newtonium. That the 
ether molecule can escape the attraction of 
the largest bodies of the universe its velocity 
must be, according to the kinetic theory of 
gases, at least 2,240 kilometers per second, and 
from this its atomic weight would be about 
one millionth that of hydrogen. 

By means of this conception, it becomes 
possible to account for radio-activity, without 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


having recourse to what Mendeléef denomi- 
nates the metachemical and vague (‘ver- 
schwommene”’) theory of electrons. The radio- 
active atoms, with their high atomic weights, 
possess, as large centers of mass, the power of 
holding a relatively large number of ether 
atoms, though there is no chemical combina- 
tion. The entrance and exit of these ether 
molecules from the groups is accompanied 
by those disturbances of the ethereal medium 
which cause the rays of light. The phosphor- 
escence of bodies immersed in liquid air is 
caused by the increased absorption and con- 
densation of ether molecules at low tempera- 
tures. The original article contains many 
other suggestive thoughts, such as the proba- 
bility of a fifth halogen element, with. atomic 
weight of about three, corresponding to the 
fifth metal of the alkalies. 


ATMOSPHERIC CORROSION OF ZINC. 


A srupy of the action of the atmosphere 
upon zine has recently appeared in the Pro- 
ceedings of the Chemical Society (London), 
by G. T. Moody. Strips of thin sheet zinc 
were exposed for five months to the action of 
the atmosphere, with the result that the metal 
became completely covered with a half-erystal- 
line coating of a basic carbonate, of formula 
ZnCO,, 32n(OH),. From this it appears that 
the corrosion is to be ascribed, not to a direct 
oxidation, but to the action of the atmospheric 
earbonie acid. A confirmation of this was 
found in the fact that zine dissolved in a 
saturated solution of carbon dioxid, the acid 
carbonate of zine being formed, and on spon- 
taneous evaporation a precipitate of basic 
carbonate was formed, of the same composi- 
tion as that occasioned by atmospheric cor- 
rosion. While commercial hydrogen peroxid 
has a very rapid action on zinc, converting it 
into the hydroxid, pure hydrogen peroxid, even 
of thirty per cent. strength, is entirely without 
action, and the same is true regarding iron. 
Lead, on the other hand, is rapidly acted on 
by this reagent, being converted superficially 
inte lead peroxid. Thus the action of the 
atmosphere on lead may be due to the pres- 
ence of hydrogen peroxid, but this can not be 
the case with the corrosion of zine and iron. 


SCIENCE. 


395 


That zine is less corroded in the atmosphere 
than iron is attributed by Moody to the fact 
that so much of the carbonic acid is retained 
by the zine in the form of basie carbonate, 
while in iron the carbonic acid is set free as 
soon as it has done its work, and thus keeps 
on in its attack upon the iron. 
Uo IEs JEL 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 


METEOROLOGICAL PHENOMENA OF THE MONT 
PELEE ERUPTION, JULY 9, 1902. 


In the Popular Science Monthly for Jan- 
uary, Professor T. A. Jaggar gives an account 
of the eruption of Pelée on July 9, 1902, in 
which several of the meteorological phenom- 
ena associated with the eruption are noted. 
One of the most striking features of the ex- 
plosion was a great column of steam ob- 
served at 8 A.M. on July 11. “A vertical 
put from the voleano rose 10,000 feet into 
the air, showing at first superb gray-brown 
cauliflower surfaces, and later taking on 
smooth outlines, with a funnel-shape and a 
feathery fringe.” A similar steam column 
was observed on July 16, and a fine photo- 
graph was taken of it. The height of this 
latter column was between four and six miles. 
As clearly seen in the photograph, the upper 
part of the cloud was turned towards the east, 
Showing the effect of the anti-trades. On 
July 9 the tops of a number of cumulus 
(? ecumulo-nimbus) clouds were seen to be far 
below the black dome of volcanic dust. The 
dust in the air gave the moon a dim reddish- 
yellow appearance. No strong indraft of air 
towards the voleano was noted. 


DEMTSCHINSKY’S LONG-RANGE FORECASTS. 

In the journal Climat, the publication of 
which was begun in 1901, and to which refer- 
ence has been made in these notes, Demt- 
schinsky, a Russian engineer, has been making 
public long-range weather forecasts, based 
chiefly on supposed lunar influences. These 
forecasts and the method used by Demt- 
schinsky in making them, have lately been 
subjected to a critical study by Professor 
Klossovsky, of Odessa, the director of the 
Meteorological Service of southwestern Russia 


396 SCIENCE. 


(‘ Examen de la méthode de la prédiction du 
temps de M. N. Demtschinsky,’ Odessa, 1903, 
8vo, pp. 74). The conclusions reached by 
Professor Klossovsky are distinctly unfavor- 
able, as was to be expected. The author sug- 
gests that if M. Demtschinsky persists in 
issuing these forecasts, the whole matter 
should be taken up by the International 
Meteorological Committee. Dr. Klossovsky, 
in connection with his study of the Demt- 
schinsky forecasts, summarizes briefly the 
present state of weather forecasting, and out- 
lines the older method of mean values, the 
new method of synoptic meteorology, the use 
of analytical methods and the question of 
periodicity. 


THE ‘LINE STORM’ FALLACY. 


Iy the annual summary of Climate and 
Crops, New England Section, a tabulation of 
daily precipitation between September 14 and 
28 at Boston, during 32 years (1872-1908) is 
given, with a view to throwing light on the 
popular belief in the equinoctial storm. On 
September 21 measurable amounts of pre- 
cipitation occurred but six times during the 
period, and for the week of which September 
21 was the middle day, there have been but 
twelve years in which the total weekly pre- 
cipitation was over one inch. 


THE CLIMATE OF IOWA. 

Tue ‘Annual Report of the Iowa Weather 
and Crop Service’ (Des Moines, 1903) con- 
tains an appendix on ‘Towa Climate and 
Crops,’ in which there is a good brief account 
of the climate of the state (pp. 11-23). 

R. DeC. Warp. 


ATARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


RECENT ZOOPALEONTOLOGY. 
REVISED EDITION OF ZITTEL’S PALEONTOLOGY. 


Tue first volume of the revised edition of 
yon Zittel’s ‘Grundztige der Palaontologie,’* 
which has just made its appearance, is a work 
of 558 pages covering the whole field of fossil 
invertebrates. It represents an enlargement 
of about forty pages over the original edition, 

**Grundziige der Paliiontologie, by K. A. von 


Zittel, Abth. I., 1903, R. Oldenbourg, Miinich and 
Berlin. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 479. 


with twenty new figures, but except for cer- 
tain portions relating to the corals and echino- 
derms, there is essentially no change either in 
subject matter or in classification. The au- 
thor remarks in the preface that he has duly 
considered the merits of the new system 
adopted in the English version, but has chosen 
to abide by the older established usage. In 
the case of the brachiopods and trilobites at 
least, there are many who will regard this as 
a backward step, where the studies of Beecher 
and others have resulted in as satisfactory a 
classification as exists in the animal kingdom, 
and it is rather a pity that in the choice of new 
figures, none of the classic illustrations show- 
ing stages of development in these groups were 
selected. Whether the vertebrate classes will 
be treated with equal conservatism remains 
to be seen when the second volume appears. 


TERTIARY ELASMOBRANCHS FROM SOUTHERN 
ITALY. 

THOSE interested in the distribution of Ter- 
tiary elasmobranchs will find this memoir of 
Dr. Pasquale,* a student of Professor F. Bas- 
sani at Naples, particularly useful, not only 
on account of the new data it contains, but 
also because of the careful comparisons the 
author has made with the type specimens of 
older writers, resulting in many cases in re- 
vised determinations. The various tables 
given at the end of the memoir are of great 
convenience. Signorina Pasquale has done 
for the Italian faunas what Leriche has re- 
cently accomplished in praiseworthy manner 
for the Belgian, in his memoir published by 
the Brussels Museum, and it is to be hoped 
that other localities will be taken up by pale- 
ichthyologists in similar close detail. 


JURASSIC FISHES FROM SPANISH LITHOGRAPHIO 
LIMESTONE. 

Since the discovery made by L. Vidal a year 
or two ago of the occurrence of lithographic 
stone in northeastern Spain exactly com- 
parable to that found in Bavaria and central 
France, a number of fossil remains have been 

*©Reyvisione dei Selaciane Fossili,’ by Maria 
Pasquale, Atti Accad. Sci. Napoli, Vol. XII., No. 
2, 1903. 


he witch rene 


Marcu 4, 1904.] 


described proving this formation to be con- 
temporaneous with that of Cerin in the Bugey, 
which is referred by Lapparent and Haug to 
the summit of the Virgulien. Professor 
Sauvage,* the eminent director of the Boul- 
ogne Museum, now gives us an account of the 
piscine fauna so far as known from the new 
locality, which comprises in all thirteen spe- 
cies. The more important of these are illus- 
trated in four photographic plates, amongst 
the number being a supposed chimeroid egg- 
ease, certainly a very rare petrifaction. It 
is also interesting to note the presence of 
Paleobatrachus and ichthyosaurs in these 


beds. 


FURTHER LIGHT ON THE TREMATASPIDA. 


In an interesting memoir of thirty-three 
pages published by the St. Petersburg Acad- 
emy, Professor William Patten,t of Dart- 
mouth, discusses the structure and classifica- 
tion of the primitive family of ostracaphores 
known as the Tremataspide. He describes 
with painstaking minutie the cephalic shield 
of Tremataspis schmidti, illustrating the same 
with two excellent plates. Our knowledge of 
this form has been increased by Patten’s 
studies in several important particulars, such 
as regards the sensory canal system, arrange- 
ment of ventral plates, and number of in- 
cisions which are commonly regarded as 
branchial openings, but are interpreted by 
Patten as having served for the attachment 
of swimming appendages. Professor Patten’s 
views in regard to arthropod affinities of os- 
tracophores have recently been discussed by 
Dr. O. Jaekel in the Zeitschrift der deutschen 
geologischen Gesellschaft, and by the reviewer 
in the American Naturalist. 

C. R. Eastman. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE University of Pennsylvania has con- 
ferred its Doctorate of Science on William 


*“* Noticia sobre los Peces de la Caliza litografica 
de la Provincia de Lérida,’ by H. EH. Sauvage. 
Mem. R. Acad. de Ciencias y Artes de Barcelona, 
Vol. IV., No. 35, 1903. 

7 ‘On the Structure and Classification of the 
Tremataspide,’ by William Patten, Mém. Acad. 
Imp. Sci. St. Petersb., Vol. XIII, No. 5, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 


397 


Healey Dall, of the U. S. Geological Survey 
and the U. 8. National Museum. 

Dr. Cuaruzs S. Minot, of Harvard Medical 
School, and Dr. Franklin P. Mall, of Johns 
Hopkins University, have been made mem- 
bers of the commission for Neurological Re- 
search, appointed by the International Asso- 
ciation of Academies. 


EpinsurcH Uvniversiry will confer the 
honorary LL.D. on Dr. Alexander Macalister, 
professor of anatomy at Cambridge, and on 
Dr. Hannis Taylor, professor of constitutional 
and international law at Columbian University. 


St. Anprews Untversiry will confer the 
degree of LL.D. on Dr. J. N. Langley, pro- 
fessor of physiology at Cambridge University. 

Tue French Geographical Society has 
awarded its great gold medal for 1904 to Sven 
Hedin, the Swedish explorer. 


Dr. Nicnonas Senn, of Chicago, has been 
elected a member of the Swedish Medical 
Association. 

ARRANGEMENTS are being made to celebrate 
the seventieth birthday of Professor Hugo 
Schiff, the Italian chemist. 

PRESIDENT RoosEvELT has received accept- 
ances from five of those appointed as members 
of the Isthmian Canal Commission, namely, 
Rear Admiral John G. Walker, United States 
Navy, retired; Gen. George W. Davis, United 
States Army, retired; Col. Frank Hecker, of 
Detroit, director of transportation during the 
Spanish-American war; William Barclay Par- 
sons, engineer of the New York subway, and 
William H. Burr, professor of engineering at 
Columbia University. 

Tue Royal Commission on London Traffic 
have nominated Sir John Wolfe Barry, one of 
the royal commissioners, Sir Benjamin Baker 
and Mr. W. Barclay Parsons, consulting engi- 
neer to the Board of Rapid Transit Rail- 
road Commissioners of New York, to advise 
the commission on certain important technical 
questions connected with locomotion and 
transport in London. 

Dr. JAMES Oraurorp Duntop has been ap- 
pointed superintendent of statistics in the 
office of the registrar-general for Scotland, in 
place of the late Dr. Blair Cunyngham. 


398 SCIENCE. 


Mr. H. F. Newatut has been appointed as- 
sistant director of the observatory of Cam- 
bridge University. 

Prorressor BuaserNA, of Rome, has been 
elected a foreign member of the French Phys- 
ical Society. 

Proressor A. EH. Austin, of the Tufts Col- 
lege Medical. School, will pass the next seven 
months working in Ludwig’s Biochemie Labo- 
ratory in Vienna. 

Dr. D. H. Scorr, F.R.S., has been elected 
president of the Royal Microscopical Society 
for the ensuing year. 


M. p’Arsonvat has been elected president of 
the French Physical Society. 


M. Henri Corpirr has been elected presi- 
dent of the Paris Geographical Society. 


Dr. OC. W. Hayes, of the U. S. Geological 
Survey, is giving a course of six lectures to 
the geological students of the Johns Hopkins 
University during the month of February. 
The lectures embrace a discussion of the 
structure of the Appalachian district and of 
the origin of some of the more important non- 
metallic deposits of economic value in the 
eastern and southern states. — 


Dr. Pumire JaisoHn, late special adviser to 
the privy council of the king of Korea, lec- 
tured before the Geographical Society of Phil- 
adelphia on March 2 on ‘Korea and its 
People.’ 


Art the Royal Institution, London, Professor 
H. L. Callendar has begun a course of three 
lectures on ‘ Electrical Methods of Measuring 
Temperature, and lectures haye been an- 
nounced for February 26 by Mr. Alexander 
Siemens, his subject being ‘New Develop- 
ments in Electric Railways’; for March 4, by 
Professor W. Stirling, on ‘ Breathing in Liv- 
ing Things’; and for March 11, by Professor 
F. T. Trouton, on ‘The Motion of Viscous 
Substances.’ 


Tue Academy of Sciences at Berlin has 
held a meeting to celebrate the birthday of 
Frederick the Great and of the present Ger- 
man emperor. The principal address was 
made by Dr. Wilhelm Waldeyer, professor of 
anatomy. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 479. 


On February 12, exercises commemorative 
of the centenary of the death of Immanuel 
Kant were held at the University of Alabama, 
at which short addresses were made by Dr. 
Edward F. Buchner, on the life of Kant and 
his influence on philosophy; by Dr. H. F. 
Sayre, on Kant in his relations to astronomy 
and physical science; by Dr. John Y. Graham, 
on Kant’s contributions to the theory of evo- 
lution; by Professor T. W. Palmer, on his 
contributions to the development of mathe- 
matics, and by Mrs. J. Y. Graham, on Kant 
as a factor in the literature of Germany. 

WE learn from Nature that the hundredth 
anniversary of the death of Priestley was com- 
memorated in Leeds by the congregation of 
Mill Hill Chapel, where Priestley was min- 
ister for some six years, and also by the Priest- 
ley Club. The members of the club, to the 
number of fifty, dined together, and the presi- 
dent, Dr. T. E. Thorpe, C.B., F.R.S., after- 
wards gave a public address on ‘The Life and 
Work of Joseph Priestley,’ in the Philosoph- 
ical Hall. At Warrington on the same day, 
Dr. Thorpe unveiled a memorial tablet at the 
house which Priestley occupied during his 
stay in that town. 

It is proposed to publish a volume com- 
memorating the work of the late J. S. Budgett, 
of Trinity College, Cambridge, whose death 
we were recently compelled to record. A large 
part of the material collected by him in 
Africa has not been described, and it is in- 
tended that this shall be worked out by his 
friends and issued under the editorship of 
Professor J. Graham Kerr. 

WE regret to record the death of Sir Leslie 
Stephen, one of the great men of letters of the 
Victorian era, whose work was largely in- 
fluenced by the scientific thought of the nine- 
teenth century. His ‘Science of Ethics,’ pub- 
lished in 1882 and based largely on the theory 
of evolution, is a scientific work of importance. 

Tue deaths are announced of Mr. W. G. 
MacMillan, secretary of the British Institu- 
tion of Electrical Engineers and formerly lec- 
turer on electrical engineering in Mason Col- 
lege, Birmingham; of Dr. Vassili Afanasieff, 
professor of pathological anatomy in the Uni- 
versity of St. Petersburg, at the age of fifty- 


i" 
i 
: 


Marco 4, 1904.] 


five years; and of M. A. Laumonier, the 
French physician and botanist at the age of 
sixty-four. 

THE senate passed the legislative, executive 
and judicial, and the agricultural appropria- 
tion bills on February 25. 

Mr. Henry L. Dowerty, president of the 
National Electric Light Association, has of- 
fered a gold medal for the best paper on 
underground construction for alternating or 
direct current plants. 


THE foundation of Schnyder von Wartensee 
offers its prize of about $700 for an essay on 
the climate of Switzerland during the last 
thirty-seven years. Essays, which may be in 
English, should be sent before September 30, 
1906, to the library at Zurich. 


Nature states that the Municipal Council 
of Paris has adopted a proposal of M. Bussat 
for the foundation of a laboratory of applied 
physiology. M. Bussat has himself sketched 
out a scheme of the work which should be 
undertaken in such a laboratory, relating to 
the alimentary value of foodstuffs, muscular 
work, intoxication, ete., and he suggests that 
the director should give publicity to the work 
of the laboratory by means of courses of lec- 
tures addressed to the pupils of the profes- 
sional and normal schools of Paris. 


Nature states that it is proposed to hold a 
horticultural and gardening exhibition in the 
month of June next under the auspices of the 
Royal Botanic Society in the new exhibition 
grounds of the society, situated in the center 
of the Botanic Gardens in Regent’s Park, 
London. The proposed scheme embraces hor- 
ticulture, forestry, botany, educational meth- 
ods, nature-study, and a special section for 
colonial produce. In addition to the exhibi- 
tion, lectures and conferences are in course 
of arrangement. 


Accorpiné to the London Times the British 
Board of Agriculture, through Mr. Brook 
Hunt, has asked the governors of the South- 
eastern Agricultural College, Wye, Kent, to 
consider a scheme for establishing local field 
stations for experiments and for providing 
special courses of training in the processes of 
agriculture. The board has also suggested 


SCIENCE. 


399 


the appointment of an instructor in poultry- 
rearing for the counties of Kent and Surrey. 
A scheme for establishing school gardens 
throughout the county of Kent is already 
under consideration. This, it is understood, 
has the approval of the Board of Agriculture, 
and no difficulty in obtaining their sanction 
for the expenditure of the necessary money 
is anticipated. The technical education funds 
of the county will bear the cost of the experi- 
ment. 


PENNSYLVANIA’S commission for the World’s 
Fair has applied for 3,500 square feet of space 
for its fish exhibit in the Forestry, Fish and 
Game Building, and has appropriated $10,000 
for the display. A letter from Mr. W. E. Mee- 
han, state fish commissioner of Pennsylvania, 
announces that he is prepared to put in thirty- 
five aquaria, as many as the United States 
Fish Commission will have in its exhibit in 
the Government’ Fisheries Building. Penn- 
sylvania’s exhibit will also ‘include stuffed 
specimens of mammals, birds and reptiles that 
prey upon fish life, fishes of abnormal size, 
legal and illegal devices for taking fish, paint- 
ings in colors of the principal food and game 
fish of the state, state literature upon the sub- 
ject of fish protection and culture, a miniature 
waterfall and trout stream, and a hatchery in 
full operation.’ 


Tur United States Department of Agri- 
culture has just issued ‘Farmers’ Bulletin 
No. 189,’ ‘Information concerning the Mexi- 
ean Cotton Boll Weevil.’ It was prepared by 
W. D. Hunter, special agent in charge of Cot- 
ton Boll Weevil Investigations, Division of 
Entomology. The work of the Division of 
Entomology for several years has demon- 
strated that there is not even a remote prob- 
ability that the boll weevil will ever be 
absolutely exterminated. Although the very 
large yields of cotton of former years may 
perhaps no longer be possible, it is neverthe- 
less entirely feasible to produce cotton at a 
margin of profit that will compare favorably 
with that involved in the production of most 
of the staple crops of the United States by 
what have become known generally as cul- 
tural methods. These methods consist of 
modifications of the system of cotton raising 


400 


made necessary by the weevil. They were 
originally suggested by a careful study of 
the life history and habits of the pest, and 
naturally any improvement that may event- 
ually be made will be the result of the con- 
tinuation of that study. They have been 
tested successfully on a large scale by the 
division of entomology, as well as by many 
planters, during two very unfavorable seasons. 
These methods are in brief as follows: First. 
Plant early. Second. Cultivate the fields 
thoroughly. Third. Plant the rows as far 
apart as experience with the land indicates is 
feasible, and thin out the plants in the rows 
thoroughly. Fourth. Destroy, by plowing 
up, windrowing, and burning, all the cotton 
stalks in the fields as soon as the weevils be- 
come so numerous that practically all the 
squares and bolls are being punctured. Of 
greatest advantage is the reducing for the 
next year of the number of the weevils by the 
destruction of the plants in the fall. The ad- 
vantage thus gained is followed by bending 
every effort toward procuring an early crop the 
following season. Fifth. While fertilizers 
are not now used to any considerable extent in 
cotton producing in Texas, there is no doubt 
that they should be; not that the land is poor, 
but that crops may be procured earlier so as 
to avoid a considerable degree of injury by the 
weevil, which is more destructive to later 
erops. The bulletin contains a description of 
the weevil, the territory affected, and the plan 
of the investigations by the division of ento- 
mology, and gives some of the results of the 
field work and an experiment showing the 
damage resulting from favorable hibernating 
quarters. The bulletin concludes with an ac- 
count of the legal restrictions concerning the 
shipment of infested cotton seed and a warn- 
ing to cotton planters against the inflation of 
prices of the seed of certain varieties, and the 
attempts of unscrupulous persons to dispose 
of common seed from various localities as that 
of early maturing varieties. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

THe presidents of seven New York uni- 
versities and colleges—Syracuse, Rochester, 
Union, Colgate, St. Lawrence, New York, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX, No. 479. 


University and Hamilton have appeared be- 
fore the senate finance committee at Albany, 
to urge the adoption of a substitute instead 
of the proposed bill appropriating $250,000 
for the erection of an agricultural hall at 
Cornell University. 


THE supreme court of New Jersey has 
rendered a mandamus directing the state 
comptroller to issue a warrant on the state 
treasury for $80,000 in favor of Rutger’s 
College. ‘The money is due for scholarships 
established by the legislature, and has re- 
mained unpaid for a long time on the con- 
tention that the legislative act relating to 
scholarships was unconstitutional. 


Mr. Puitirp H. Waker has given £1,200 to 
Oxford University, to establish a studentship 
in pathology. 


THE new buildings for the Medical School, 
the Sedgwick Geological Museum, the Bo- 
tanical Library and the Law School of Cam- 
bridge University were opened on March 1. 


On February 19, fire completely destroyed 
the building at the Ohio State University 
containing the Departments of Chemistry, 
Pharmacy, Metallurgy and Mining Engineer- 
ing. The loss is estimated at $100,000. 


THE course in economic geology at The 
University of Chicago this year consists of 
a double study for twelve weeks. The course 
is divided into two parts: ‘The Non-metallic 
Mineral Resources,’ and ‘The Metallic Min- 
eral Resources.’ The first part was given 
Dr. E. R. Buckley, director of the Missouri 
Bureau of Geology and Mines and the second 
part is being given by Dr. H. Foster Bain, 
geologist of the U. S. Geological Survey. 


Tue following have been appointed electors, 
at the University of Cambridge, to the pro- 
fessorships indicated: chemistry, Professor J. 
J. Thomson; anatomy, Sir M. Foster; botany, 
Professor Clifford Allbutt; Jacksonian (chem- 
istry), Sir William Ramsay; Downing (medi- 
cine), Sir M. Foster; zoology, Mr. J. W. 
Clark; physics, Professor R. B. Clifton; 
physiology, Professor Clifford Allbutt; sur- 
gery, Sir Frederick Treves, Bart.; pathology, 
Professor R. Muir. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, 


Frmay, Marca 11, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 


The Message of Non-EHuclidean Geometry: 


PROFESSOR GEORGE BrucE HALSTED....... 401 
The Society for Plant Morphology and Phys- 

iology: Proressor W. F. GANONG........ 413 
Scientific Books :— 

Still another Memoir on Paleospondylus: 

Proressor BASHFORD DEAN. Catalogue of 

Keyboard Musical Instruments: CHARLES 

HRC VVIEVAND Jot pale Pall pohiley 2, s Gace tel ouschek s wesolaae atl 425 
Scientific Journals and Articles............. 427 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Philosophical Society of Washington: 

CHARLES K. Wrap. The Chemical Society 

of Washington: A. Srmpett. The Hlisha 

Mitchell Scientific Society: Atvin S. 

IWVAERIS ERS eo ayer ay sci skei eae hm ciicesroneyave ek eusneces 428 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

Convocation Week: PROFESSOR CHARLES E. 

Bessey, Proressor Gro. F. ATKINSON, DR. 

W. J. Hortanp. The Raphides of Calcium 

Oxalate: Dr. H. W. Witey. The Term 

, Bradfordians HW. AL Re... 522-222. 5 eos 429 

\ 

Special Articles :— 

Notes on Fluorescence and Phosphores- 

cence: W. S. ANDREWS.................. 435 
Paleontological Notes :— 

Pleurocoelus versus Astrondon; The Armor 

Oy Zengtkoclome Ik. IN, Wee scusccoucauocussos 436 
Fossil Fishes in the American Museum of 

INCU IFO) Gabuecodonsedd son B ROA le 437 
Scientific Notes and News................. 437 

440 


University and Educational News........... 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 

ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 

THE MESSAGE OF NON-EUCLIDEAN 
GHOMBTRY.* 

1. MATHEMATICS AND ITS HISTORY. 


Tum great Sylvester once told me that 
he and Kronecker, in attempting a defini- 
tion of mathematics, got so far as to agree 
that it is poetry. 

But the history of this poesy is itself 
poetry, and the creation of non-Euclidean 
geometry gives new vantage-ground from 
which to illuminate the whole subject, from 
before the time when Homer describes Pro- 
teus as finger-fitting-by-fives, or counting, 
his seals, past the epoch when Lagrange, 
confronted with the guillotine and asked 
how he can make himself useful in the new 
world, answers simply, ‘I will teach arith- 
metic.’ 

Who has not wished to be a magician like 
the mighty Merlin, or Dr. Dee, who wrote 
a preface for the first English translation 
of Euclid, made by Henricus Billingsley, 
afterward, Aladdin-like, Sir Henry Bill- 
ingsley, Lord Mayor of London? 

Was not Harriot, whose devices in alge- 
bra our schoolboys now use, one of the 
three paid magi of the Earl of Northum- 
berland? Do not our every-day numerals 
stand for Brahmin and Mohammedan, com- 
ing first into Europe from the land of the 
sacred Ganges, around by the way of the 
pyramids and the Moorish Alhambra? 


* Address of the vice-president and chairman 
of Section A, American Association for the Ad- 
vancement of Science, St. Louis meeting, De- 
cember, 1903. 


402 SCIENCE. 


The appearance of courses on the history 
of mathematics in all our foremost univer- 
sities is a fortunate and promising sign of 
the times. I had the honor of being the 
first to give such a course in America, at 
Princeton, in 1881. 


2. GEOMETRY AND ITS FOUNDERS. 

But something especially fascinating, 
pure, divine, seems to pertain to geometry. 

When asked how God occupies himself, 
Plato answered, “He geometrizes contin- 
ually.’ : 

It is a difficult, though highly imterest- 
ing, undertaking to investigate the vestiges 
of primitive geometry. Geometric figures 
and designs appear in connection with the 
primitive arts; for example, the making of 
pottery. Arts long precede anything prop- 
erly to be called science. The first crea- 
tions by mankind are instruments for life, 
though it is surprising how immediately 
decoration appears; witness the sketches 
from life of mammoth and mastodon and 
horses by prehistoric man. But, ima sense, 
even the practical arts must be preceded by 
theoretical creative acts of the human mind. 
Man is from the first a creative thinker. 
Perhaps even some of our present theo- 
retical presentation of the universe is due 
to creative mental acts of our pre-human 
ancestors. For example, that we inevitably 
view the world as consisting of distinct in- 
dividuals, separate, distinct things, is a pre- 
human contribution to our working theory 
and representation of the universe. It is 
conscious science, as a potential presenta- 
tion and explanation of everything, which 
comes so late. 

Rude instruments were made for astron- 
omy. 

The creative imagination which put the 
bears and bulls and crabs and lions and 
scorpions into the random-lying stars made 
figures which occur in the Book of Job, 
more ancient than Genesis itself. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 480, 


The daring astrologer, whose predictions 
foretold eclipses, saw no reason why his 
constructions should not equally ft human 
life. He chose to create a causal relation 
between the geometric configurations of the 
planets and the destinies of individuals. 
This was the way of science, where thought 
precedes and helps to make fact. No de- 
scription or observation is possible without 
a precedent theory, which stays and sticks 
until some mind creates another to fight it, 
and perhaps to overshadow it. 

That legend of the origin of geometry 
which attributes it to the necessity of re- 
fixing land boundaries in Egypt, where all 
were annually obliterated by the Nile over- 
flow, 1s a too-ingenious hypothesis, made 
temporarily to serve for history. Some 
practical devices for measurement arose in 
Egypt, where periodic fertility fostered a 
consecutive occupancy, whose records, ac- 
cording to Flinders Petrie, we have for 
more than nine thousand years. 

But im the Papyrus of the Rhind, meas- 
urements of volume come before those for 
surface. 

Geometry as a_ self-conscious science 
waits for Thales and Pythagoras. 

We find in Herodotus that Thales pre- 
dicted an eclipse memorable as happening 
during a battle between the Lydians and 
Medes. The date was given by Baily as 
B. C. 610. 

So we know about when geometry, we 
may say when science, began; for though 
primarily geometer,. Thales taught the 
sphericity of the earth, was acquainted 
with the attracting power of magnetism, 
and noticed the excitation of electricty in 
amber, by friction. 

A greater than he, Pythagoras, was born 
B. C. 590 at Samos, traveled also into 
Eeypt and the east, penetrating even into 
India. Returning in the time of the last 
Tarquin, and finding Samos under the do- 
minion of the tyrant Polyerates, he went 


a 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


as a voluntary exile to Italy, settled at 
Croton (as Ovid mentions), and there ere- 
ated and taught new and sublimer hypoth- 
eses for our universe. The most diversely 
demonstrated and frequently applied theo- 
rem of geometry bears his name. The first 
solution of a problem in that most subtle 
and final of ways, by proving it impossible, 
is due to him; his solution of the problem 
to find a common submultiple of the hy- 
pothenuse and side of an isosceles right 
triangle, an achievement whereby he cre- 
ated imcommensurability. 

It is noteworthy that this making of in- 
commensurables is confused by even the 
most respectable of the historians of mathe- 
matics with the creation of irrational num- 
bers. But in the antique world there were 
no such numbers as the square root of two 
or the square root of three. Such num- 
bers can not be discovered, and it was cen- 
turies before they were created. The 
Greeks had only rational numbers. 


3. EUCLID. 


Under the Horseshoe Falls at Niagara 
press on beyond the guide; risk life for 
the magnificent sensation of a waterspout, 
a cloudburst, an avalanche, a tumbling 
cathedral of waterblocks! It must end in 
an instant, this extravagant downpour of 
whole wealths of water. Then out; and 
look away down the glorious canyon, and 
read in that graven history how this mo- 
mentary riotous chaos has been just so, 
precisely the same, for centuries, for ages, 
for thousands of years. 

In the history of science a like antithesis 
of sensations is given by Huclid’s geometry. 

In the flood of new discovery and rich 
advance recorded in books whose mere 
names would fill volumes, we ask ourselves 
how any one thing can be permanent? 
Yet, looking back, we see this Euclid not 
only cutting his resistless way through the 
rock of the two thousand years that make 


SCIENCE. 


403 


the history of the intellectual world, but, 
what is still more astounding, we find that 
the profoundest advance of the last two 
centuries has only served to emphasize the 
consciousness of Huclid’s perfection. 

Says Lyman Abbott, if you want an in- 
fallible book go not to the Bible, but to 
Euchd. 

In ‘The. Wonderful Century,’ Alfred 
Russel Wallace says, speaking of all time 
before the seventeenth century: ‘“Then go- 
ing backward, we can find nothing of the 
first rank except Huclid’s wonderful sys- 
tem of geometry, perhaps the most remark- 
able product of the earliest civilizations.’’ 

Says Professor Alfred Baker, of the Uni- 
versity of Toronto: “‘Of the perfection of 
Huelid (B. C. 290) as a scientific treatise, 
of the marvel that such a work could have 
been produced two thousand years ago, I 
shall not here delay to speak. I content 
myself with making the claim that, as a 
historical study, Euclid is, perhaps, the 
most valuable of those that are taken up 
in our educational institutions.’’ 

At its very birth this typical product of 
the Greek genius assumed sway over the 
pure sciences. In its first efflorescence, 
through the splendid days of Theon and 
Hypatia, fanatics could not murder it as 
they did Hypatia, nor later could that dis- 
mal flood, the dark ages, drown it. Like 
the phcenix of its native Egypt it rises 
anew with the new birth of culture. An 
Anglo-Saxon, Adelhard of Bath, finds it 
clothed in Arabic vestments in the Moorish 
land of the Alhambra. 

In 1120, Adelhard, disguised as a Mo- 
hammedan student, went to Cordova, ob- 
tained a Moorish copy of Euclid’s ‘Ele- 
ments,’ and made a translation from the 
Arabic into Latin. 

The first translation into English (1570) 
was made by ‘Henricus Billingsley,’ after- 
ward Sir Henry Billingsley, Lord Mayor 
of London, 1591. And up.to this very 


404 


year, throughout the vast system of ex- 
aminations carried on by the British gov- 
ernment, by Oxford and by Cambridge, 
to be accepted, no proof of a theorem in 
geometry should infringe Huclid’s sequence 
of propositions. For two millenniums his 
axioms remained undoubted. 


4, THE NEW IDBA. 

The break from Huclid’s charmed circle 
came not at any of the traditional centers 
of the world’s thought, but on the circum- 
ference of civilization, at Maros-Vasarhely 
and Temesvar, and again at Kazan on the 
Volga, center of the old Tartar kingdom; 
and it came as the creation of a willful, 
wild Magyar boy of twenty-one and an 
insubordinate young Russian, who, a poor 
widow’s son from Nijni-Novgorod, enters 
as a charity student the new university of 
Kazan. 

The new idea is to deny one of Euclid’s 
axioms and to replace it by its contradic- 


tory. There results, instead of chaos, a 
beautiful, a perfect, a marvelous new 
geometry. 


5. HOW THE NEW DIFFERS FROM THE OLD. 


Euclid had based his geometry on cer- 
tain axioms or postulates which had in all 
lands and languages been systematically 
used in treatises on geometry, so that there 
was in all the world but one geometry. 
The most celebrated of these axioms was 
the so-called parallel-postulate, which, in a 
form due to Ludlam, is simply this: ‘Two 
straight lines which cut one another can not 
both be parallel to the same straight line.’ 

Now this same Magyar, John Bolyai, and 
this Russian, Lobachevski, made a geom- 
etry based not on this axiom or postulate, 
but on its direct contradiction. Wonder- 
ful to say, this new geometry, founded on 
the flat contradiction of what had been 
forever accepted as axiomatic, turned out 
to be perfectly logical, true, self-consistent 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 480. 


and of marvelous beauty. In it many of 
the good old theorems of Euclid and our 


‘own college days are superseded in a sur- 


prising way. Through any point outside 
any given straight line can be drawn an 
infinity of straight lines in the same plane 
with the given line, but which nowhere 
would meet it, however far both were pro- 
duced. 


6. A CLUSTER OF PARADOXES. 

In Euclid, Book I., Proposition 32 is 
that the sum of the angles in every recti- 
lineal triangle is just exactly two right 
angles. In this new or non-Huclidean 
geometry, on the contrary, the sum of the 
angles in every rectilineal triangle is less 
than two right angles. 

In the Euclidean geometry parallels 
never approach. In this non-Kuclidean 
geometry parallels continually approach. 

In the Euclidean geometry all points 
equidistant from a straight line are on a 
straight line. In this non-Huclidean geom- 
etry all points equidistant from a straight 
line are on a curve called the equidis- 
tantial. 

In the Euclidean geometry the limit ap- 
proached by a circumference as the radius 
increases is a straight line. In the non- 
Euclidean geometry this is a curve called 
the oricycle. Thus the method of Kempe’s 
book ‘How to draw a straight line,’ would 
here draw not a straight line, but a curve. 

In the Huclidean geometry, if three 
angles of a quadrilateral are right, then 
the fourth is right, and we have a rect- 
angle. In this non-Huclidean geometry, if 
three angles of a quadrilateral are right, 
then the fourth is acwte, and we never can 
have any rectangle. 

In the Euclidean geometry two perpen- 
diculars to a line remain equidistant. In 
this non-Euclidean geometry two perpen- 
diculars to a line spread away from each 
other as they go out; their points two 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


inches from the line are farther apart than 
their points one inch from the line. 

In the Euclidean geometry every three 
points are either on a straight line or a 
circle. In this non-Huclidean geometry 
there are triplets of points which are nei- 
ther costraight nor concyclic. Thus three 
points each one inch above a straight line are 
neither on a straight line nor on a circle. 


7. MISTAKE OF THE INEXPERT. 

These seeming paradoxes could be multi- 
plied indefinitely, and they form striking 
examples of this new geometry. They 
seem so bizarre, that the first impression 
produced on the inexpert is that the tradi- 
tional geometry could easily be proved, as 
against this rival, by careful experiments. 
Into this error have fallen Professors An- 
drew W. Phillips and Irving Fisher, of 
Yale University. In their ‘Elements of 
Geometry,’ 1898, page 23, they say: “‘Lo- 
bachevski proved that we can never get rid 
of the parallel axiom without assuming the 
space in which we live to be very different 
from what we know it to be through ex- 
perience. Lobachevski tried to imagine a 
different sort of universe in which the 
parallel axiom would not be true. This 
imaginary kind of space is called non- 
Euclidean space, whereas the space in 
which we really live is called Huclidean, 
because Euclid (about 300 B. C.) first 
wrote a systematic geometry of our space.’’ 

Now, strangely enough, no one, not even 
the Yale professors, can ever prove this 
naive assertion. If any one of the possible 
geometries of uniform space could ever be 
proved to be the system actual in our ex- 
ternal physical world, it certainly could 
not be Huclid’s. 

Experience can never give, for instance, 
such absolutely exact metric results as pre- 
cisely, perfectly two right angles for the 
angle sum of a triangle. As Dr. EH. W. 
Hobson says: ‘‘It is a very significant fact 


SCIENCE. 


405 


that the operation of counting, in connec- 
tion with which numbers, integral and 
fractional, have their origin, is the one and 
only absolutely exact operation of a mathe- 
matical character which we are able to 
undertake upon the objects which we per- 
ceive. On the other hand, all operations 
of the nature of measurement which we can 
perform in connection with the objects of 
perception contain an essential element of 
inexactness. The theory of exact measure- 
ment in the domain of the ideal objects of 
abstract geometry is not immediately de- 
rivable from intuition.”’ 


8. THE ARTIFICIALLY CREATED COMPONENT 
IN SCIENCE. 

In connecting a geometry with experi- 
ence there is involved a process which we 
find in the theoretical handling of any em- 
pirical data, and which, therefore, should 
be familiarly intelligible to any scientist. 

The results of any observations are al- 
ways valid only within definite limits of 
exactitude and under particular conditions. 
When we set up the axioms, we put in place 
of these results statements of absolute pre- 
cision and generality. In this idealization 
of the empirical data our addition is at first 
only restricted in its arbitrariness in so 
much as it must seem to approximate, must 
apparently fit, the supposed facts of ex- 
perience, and, on the other hand, must in- 
troduce no logical contradiction. Thus our 
actual space to-day may very well be the 
space of Lobachevski or, Bolyai. 

If anything could be proved or disproved 
about the nature of space or geometry by 
experiments, by laboratory methods, then 
our space could be proved to be the space 
of Bolyai by inexact measurements, the 
only kind which will ever be at our dis- 
posal. In this way it might be known to 
be non-Huclidean. It never can be known 
to be Euclidean. 


406 


9. DARWINISM AND GEOMETRY. 

The doctrine of evolution as commonly 
expounded postulates a world independent 
of man, and teaches the production of man 
from lower forms of life by wholly natural 
and unconscious causes. In this statement 
of the world of evolution there is need of 
some rudimentary approximative practical 
geometry. 

The mighty examiner is death. The 
puppy, though born blind, must still be 
able to superimpose his mouth upon the 
source of his nourishment. The little chick 
must be able, responding to the stimulus 
of a small bright object, to bring his beak 
into contact with the object so as to grasp 
and then swallow it. The springing goat, 
that too greatly misjudges an abyss, does 
not survive and thus is not the fittest. 

So, too, with man. We are taught that 
his ideas must in some way and to some 
degree of approximation correspond to this 
independent world, or death passes upon 
him an adverse judgment. 

But it is of the very essence of the doc- 
trine of evolution that man’s knowledge of 
this independent world, having come by 
gradual betterment, trial, experiment, ad- 
aptation, and through imperfect instru- 
ments, for example the eye, can not be 
metrically exact. 

If two natural hard -objects, susceptible 
of high polish, be ground together, their 
surfaces in contact may be so smoothed as 
to fit closely together and slide one on the 
other, without separating. If now a third 
surface be ground alternately against each 
of these two smooth surfaces until it ac- 
eurately fits both, then we say that each 
of the three surfaces is approximately 
plane. If one such plane surface cut 
through another, we say the common 
boundary or line where they cross is ap- 
proximately a straight line. If three 
approximately plane surfaces on objects 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 480. 


cut through a fourth, in general they make 
a figure we may call an approximate tri- 
angle. Such triangles vary greatly in 
shape. But no matter what the shape, if 
we cut off the six ends of any two such 
and place them side by side on a plane 
with their vertices at the same point, the 
six are found, with a high degree of ap- 
proximation, just to fill up the plane about 
the point. Thus the six angles of any two 
approximate triangles are found to be to- 
gether, approximately four right angles. 

Now, does the exactness of this approxi- 
mation depend only on the straightness of 
the sides of the original two triangles, or 
also upon the size of these triangles? 

If we know with absolute certitude, as 
the Yale professors imagine, that the size 
of the triangles has nothing to do with it, 
then we know something that we have no 
right to know, according to the doctrine 
of evolution; something impossible for us 
ever to have learned evolutionally. 


10. THE NEW EPOCH. 

Yet before the epoch-making ideas of 
Lobachevski and John Bolyai every one 
made this mistake, every one supposed we 
were perfectly sure that the angle-sum of 
an actual approximate triangle approached 
two right angles with an exactness depend- 
ent only on the straightness of the sides, 
and not at all on the size of the triangle. 


11. THE SLIPS OF PHILOSOPHY. 

The Scotch philosophy accounted for this. 
absolute metrically exact knowledge by 
teaching that there are in the human mind 
certain synthetic theorems, called intui- 
tions, supernaturally inserted there. Dr. 
McCosh elaborated this doctrine in a big: 
book entitled “The Intuitions of the Mind 
Inductively Investigated.’ One of these 
supernatural intuitions was Huclid’s par- 
allel-postulate! Voila! 

“Yet,’ to quote a sentence from Wenley’s 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


criticism in Screncn, of McCosh’s disciple 
Ormond, “we may well doubt whether a 
thinker, standing with one foot firmly 
planted on the Rock of Ages and the other 
pointing heavenward, has struck the atti- 
tude most conducive to progress.’ 

Kant, supposing that we knew Huclid’s 
geometry and Aristotle’s logic to be true 
absolutely and necessarily, accounted for 
the paradox by teaching that this seem- 
ingly universal synthetic knowledge was in 
reality particular, being part of the appa- 
ratus of the human mind itself. 

But now the very foundations are cut 
away from under the Kantian system of 
philosophy by this new geometry which is 
in simple and perfect harmony with ex- 
perience, with experiment, with the prop- 
erties of the solid bodies and the motions 
about us. Thus this new geometry has 
given explanation of what in the old geom- 
etry was accepted without explanation. 


12. WHAT GEOMETRY Is. 

At last we really know what geometry is. 
Geometry is the science created to give 
understanding and mastery of the external 
relations of things; to make easy the ex- 
planation and description of such relations, 
and the transmission of this mastery. 
Geometry is the most perfect of the sci- 
ences. It precedes experiment and is safe 
above all experimentation. 

The pure idea of a plane is something we 
have made, and by aid of which we see 
surfaces as perfectly plane, over-riding 
imperfections and variations, which them- 
selves we can see only by help of our self- 
created precedent idea. Just so the 
straight line is wholly a creation of our 
own. 

13. ARE THERE ANY LINES? 

I was once consulted by an eminent 
theologian and a powerful chemist as to 
whether there are really any such things 
as lines. I drew a chalk-mark on the 


SCIENCE. 


407 


blackboard, and used the boundary idea. 
Along the sides of the chalk-mark is there 
a common boundary where the white ends 
and the black begins, neither white nor 
black, but common to both? 

Said the theologian, yes. 
ist, no. 

Though lines are my trade, I sympa- 
thized with the chemist. 

There is nothing there until I create a 
line and then see it there, if I may say I 
see what is an imvisible creation of my 
mind. 

Geometry is in structure a system of 
theorems deduced in pure logical way 
from certain unprovable assumptions pre- 
ereated by auto-active animal and human 
minds. 


Said the chem- 


14. THE REQUIREMENT OF RIGOR IN 
REASONING. 

Some unscientific minds have a personal 
antipathy to ‘a perfect logical system,” 
‘deduced logically from simple funda- 
mental truths.’ But as Hilbert says: 
“The requirement of rigor, which has be- 
come proverbial in mathematics, corre- 


‘sponds to a universal philosophic necessity 


of our understanding; and, on the other 
hand, only by satisfying this requirement 
do the thought content and the suggestive- 
ness of the problem attain their full effect. 
Besides, it is an error to believe that rigor 
in the proof is the enemy of simplicity. 
On the contrary, we find it confirmed by 
numerous examples that the rigorous 
method is at the same time the simpler 
and the more easily comprehended. The 
very effort for rigor, forces us to find out 
simpler methods of proof. 

“Tet us look at the principles of an- 
alysis and geometry. The most suggestive 
and notable achievements of the last cen- 
tury in this field are, as it seems to me, 
the arithmetical formulation of the concept 


408 


cof the continuum, and the discovery of 
non-Huclidean geometry.’’ 

The importance of the advance they had 
made was fully realized by John Bolyai 
and Lobachevski, who claimed at once, un- 
flinchinely, that their discovery or creation 
marked an epoch in human thought so mo- 
mentous as to be unsurpassed by anything 
recorded in the history of philosophy or 
science, demonstrating, as had never been 
proved before, the supremacy of pure 
reason, at the very moment of overthrow- 
ing what had forever seemed its surest 
possession, the axioms of geometry. 


15. THE YOUTH LOBACHEVSKI. 
Young Lobachevski at the University of 
Kazan, though a charity student, and, as 
seeking a learned career, utterly dependent 
on the authorities, yet plunged into all 
sorts of imsubordination and wildness. 
Among other outbursts, one night at eleven 
o’clock he scandalized the despotic Russian 
authorities of the Tartar town by shooting 
off a great skyrocket, which prank put him 
promptly in prison. However, he con- 
tinued to take part in all practical jokes 
and horse-play of the more daring stu- 
dents, and the reports of the commandant 
and inspector are never free from bitter 
complaints against the outrageous Loba- 
chevski. His place as ‘Kammerstudent’ 
he lost for too great indulgence toward the 
misbehavior of the younger students at a 
Christmas festivity. In spite of all, he 
ventured to attend a strictly forbidden 
masked ball, and what was worse, in dis- 
cussing the supposed interference of God 
to make rain, ete., he used expressions 
which subjected him to the suspicion of 
atheism. From the continual accusing re- 
ports of the commandant to the Rektor, 
the latter took a grudge against the 
troublesome Lobachevski, and reported his 
badness to the curator, who, in turn, with 
expressions of intense regret that Loba- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 480. 


chevski should so tarnish his brilliant 
qualities, said he would be forced to in- 
form the minister of education. Loba- 
chevski seemed about to pay dear for his 
youthful wantonness. He was to come up 
as a candidate for the master’s degree, but 
was refused by the senate, explicitly be- 
cause of his bad behayior. But his friend, 
the foreign professor of mathematics, now 
rallied the three other foreign professors 
to save him, if he would appear before the 
senate, declare that he rued his evil be- ~ 
havior, and solemnly promise complete 
betterment. 

This was the mettle of the youth, the 
dare-devil, the irrepressible, who startled 
the scientific sleep of two thousand years, 
who contemptuously overthrew the great 
Legendre, and stood up beside Euclid, the 
god of geometers; this the Lobachevski who 
knew he was right against a scornful world, 
who has given us a new freedom to explain 
and understand our universe and ourselves. 


16. THE BOY BOLYAT. 

Of the boy Bolyai, joint claimant of the 
new world, we have a brief picture by his 
father. “‘My (13 -+ +) year old son, when 
he reached his ninth year, could do nothing 
more than speak and write German and 
Magyar, and tolerably play the violin by 
note. He knew not even'to add. I began 
at first with Huclid; then he became fa- 
miliar with Euler; now he not only knows 
of Vega (which is my manual in the col- 
lege) the first two volumes completely, but 
has also become conversant with the third 
and fourth volumes. He loves differential 
and integral calculus, and works in them 
with extraordinary readiness and ease. 
Just so he lightly carries the bow through 
the hardest runs in violin concerts. Now 
he will soon finish my lectures on physics 
and chemistry. On these once he also 
passed with my grown pupils a public ex- 
amination given in the Latin language, an 


Marcu 11, 1904.| 


examination worthy of all praise, where in 
part others questioned him ad aperturam, 
and in part, as opportunity served, I let 
him earry out some proofs in mechanics 
by the integral caleulus, such as variable 
motion, the tawtochronism of the eycloid, 
and the like. Nothing more could be 
wished. The simplicity, clearness, quick- 
ness and ease were enrapturing even for 
strangers. He has a quick and compre- 
hensive head, and often flashes of genius, 
which many paths at once with a glance 
find and penetrate. He loves pure deep 
theories and astronomy. He is handsome 
and rather strongly built, and appears 
restful, except that he plays with other, 
children very willingly and with fire. His 
character is, as far as one can judge, firm 
and noble. I have destined him as a sacri- 
fice to mathematics. He also has conse- 
erated himself thereto.’’ 

His mother, née Zsuzsanna Benk6é Arkosi, 
wonderfully beautiful, fascinating, of ex- 
traordinary mental capacity, but always 
nervous, so idolized this only child that 
when in his fifteenth year he was to be 
sent to Vienna to the K. K. Ingenieur- 
Akademie, she said it seemed he should go, 
but his going would drive her distracted. 
And so it did. 

Appointed ‘sous-lieutenant,’ and sent to 
Temesvar, he wrote thence to his father a 
letter in Magyar, which I had the good 
fortune to see at Maros-Vasarhely : 

My Dear and Good Father: 

I have so much to write about my new inven- 
tions that it is impossible for the moment to enter 
into great details, so I write you only on one 
fourth of a sheet. I await your answer to my 
letter of two sheets; and perhaps I would not 
have written you before receiving it if I had not 
wished to address to you the letter I am writing 
to the Baroness, which letter I pray you to send 
her. 


First of all I reply to you in regard to the 


binomial. 
* * * * * * * % 


Now to something else, so far as space permits. 


SCIENCE. 


409 


T intend to write, as soon as I have put it into 
order, and when possible to publish, a work on 
parallels. 

At this moment it is not yet finished, but the 
way which I have followed promises me with cer- 
tainty the attainment of the goal, if it in general 
is attainable. 

It is not yet attained, but I have discovered such 
magnificent things that I am myself astonished at 
them. It would be damage eternal if they were 
lost. When you see them, my father, you yourself 
will acknowledge it. 

Now I can not say more, only so much: that 
from nothing I have created another wholly new 
world. 

All that I have hitherto sent you compares to 
this only as a house of cards to a castle. 

P. S—I dare to judge absolutely and with con- 
viction of these works of my spirit before you, my 
father; I do not fear from you any false interpre- 
tation (that certainly I would not merit), which 
signifies that, in certain regards, I consider you 
as a second self. 


Nor was the young Magyar deceived. 
The early flashings of his genius culmin- 
ated here in a piercing search-light pene- 
trating and dissolving the enchanted walls 
in which Euclid had for two thousand 
years held captive the human mind. 

The potential new universe, whose ecrea- 
tion this letter announces, afterward set 
forth with master strokes in his ‘Science 
Absolute of Space,’ contains the old as 
nothing more than a special case of the 
new. 

Already all the experts of the mathe- 
matical world are his disciples. 


17. SOLVING THE UNIVERSE. 


Henceforth the non-Euclidean geometry 
must be reckoned with in all culture, in all 
scientific thinking. It shows that the rid- 
dle of the universe is an indeterminate 
equation capable of entirely different sets 
of solutions. It shows that our universe 
is largely man-made, and must be often 
remade to be solved. 

In Science for November 20, 1903, page 
643, W. S. Franklin, under a heading for 


410 


which he shows scant warrant, expresses 
himself after the following’ naive fashion: 

A clear understanding of the essential limita- 
tions of systematic physics is important to the 
engineer; it is I think equally important to the 
biologist, and it is of vital importance to the 
physicist, for, in the case of the physicist, to 
raise the question as to limitations is to raise the 
question as to whether his science does after all 
deal with realities, and the conclusion which must 
force itself on his mind is, I think, that his sci- 
ence, the systematic part of it, comes very near 
indeed to being a science of unrealities. 


Of course, we deeply sympathize with 
this seemingly sad perception, with its 
accompanying ‘simple weeps,’ ‘trailing 
weeps’ and ‘steady weeps,’ but are tempted 
to prescribe a tonic or bracer in the form 
of a correspondence course in non-Huclid- 
ean geometry. 

At least in part, space is a creation of 
the human mind entering as a subjective 
contribution into every physical experi- 
ment. Hxperience is, at least in part, 
ereated by the subject said to receive it, 
but really in part making it. 

In rigorously founding a science, the 
ideal is to create a system of assumptions 
containing an exact and complete descrip- 
tion of the relations between the element- 
ary concepts of this science, its statements 
following from these assumptions by pure 
deductive logie. 


18. GEOMETRY NOT EXPERIMENTAL. 

Now, geometry, though a natural sci- 
ence, is not an experimental science. If 
it ever had an inductive stage, the experi- 
ments and inductions must have been made 
by our pre-human ancestors. 

Says one of the two greatest living 
mathematicians, Poimearé, reviewing the 
work of the other, Hilbert’s transcendently 
beautiful ‘Grundlagen der Geometrie’: 

What are the fundamental principles of geom- 
etry? What is its origin; its nature; its scope? 
These are questions which have at all times en- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 480. 


gaged the attention of mathematicians and think- 
ers, but which took on an entirely new aspect, 
thanks to the ideas of Lobachevski and of Bolyai. 

For a long time we attempted to demonstrate 
the proposition known as the postulate of Euclid ; 
we constantly failed; we know now the reason for 
these failures. 

Lobachevski succeeded in building a logical edi- 
fice as coherent as the geometry of Euclid, but in 
which the famous postulate is assumed false, and 
in which the sum of the angles of a triangle is 
always less than two right angles. Riemann de- 
vised another logical system, equally free from 
contradiction, in which this sum is on the other 
hand always greater than two right angles. These 
two geometries, that of Lobachevski and that of 
Riemann, are what are called the non-Huclidean 
geometries. The postulate of Euclid then can not 
be demonstrated; and this impossibility is as abso- 
lutely certain as any mathematical truth whatso- 
eVvelu ee 

The first thing to do was to enumerate all the 
axioms of geometry. This was not so easy as one 
might suppose; there are the axioms which one 
sees and those which one does not see, which are 
introduced unconsciously and without being no- 
ticed. 

Kuclid himself, whom we suppose an impeccable 
logician, frequently applies axioms which he does 
not expressly state. 

Is the list of Professor Hilbert final? We may 
take it to be so, for it seems to have been drawn 
up with care. 


But just here this gives us a startlmg 
incident: the two greatest living mathe- ~ 
maticians both in error. In my own class 
a young man under twenty, R. L. Moore, 
proved that of Hilbert’s ‘betweenness’ as- 
sumptions, axioms of order, one of the five 
is redundant, and by a proof so simple and 
elegant as to be astonishing. Hilbert has 
since acknowledged this redundancy. 

The same review touches another funda- 
mental point as follows: 

Hilbert’s Fourth Book treats of the measure- 
ment of plane surfaces. If this measurement can 
be easily established without the aid of the prin- 
ciple of Archimedes, it is because two equivalent 
polygons can either be decomposed into triangles 
in such a way that the component triangles of the 


one and those of the other are equal each to each 
(so that, in other words, one polygon can be con- 


MarcH 11, 1904.1] 


yerted into the other after the manner of the 
Chinese puzzle [by cutting it up and rearranging 
the pieces]), or else can be regarded as the dif- 
ference of polygons capable of this mode of de- 
composition (this is really the same process, ad- 
mitting not only positive triangles but also 
negative triangles) . 

But we must observe that an analogous state of 
affairs does not seem to exist in the case of two 
equivalent polyhedra, so that it becomes a ques- 
tion whether we can determine the volume of the 
pyramid, for example, without an appeal more or 
less disguised to the infinitesimal calculus. It is, 
then, not certain whether we could dispense with 
the axiom of Archimedes as easily in the measure- 
ment of volumes as in that of plane areas. More- 

‘over, Professor Hilbert has not attempted it. 


Max Dehn, a young man of twenty- 
one, in Mathematische Annalen, Band 55, 
proved that the treatment of equivalence 
by cutting into a finite number of parts 
congruent in pairs, can never be extended 
from two to three dimensions. 

Poinearé’s review first appeared in Sep- 
tember, 1902. But on July 1, 1902, I had 
already presented, before this very section, 
a complete solution of the question or 
problem -he proposes, the determination of 
volume without any appeal to the infini- 
tesimal calculus, without any use of the 
axiom of Archimedes. 


19. THE TEACHING OF GEOMETRY. 

As Study has said: ‘‘ Among conditions 
to a more profound understanding of even 
very elementary parts of the Huclidean 
geometry, the knowledge of the non-Euclid- 
ean geometry can not be dispensed with.’’ 

How shall we make this new creation, 
so fruitful already for the theory of 
knowledge, for kenlore, bear fruit for the 
teaching of geometry? What new ways 
are opened by this masterful explosion of 
pure genius, shattering the mirrors which 
had so dazzlingly protected from percep- 
tion both the flaws and triumphs of the 
old Greek’s marvelous, if artificial, con- 
struction ? 


SCIENCE. 


411 


One advance has been safely won and 
may be rested on. There should be a pre- 
liminary course of intuitive geometry 
which does not strive to be rigorously 
demonstrative, which emphasizes the sen- 
suous rather than the rational, giving full 
scope for those new fads, the using of pads 
of squared paper, and the so-called labo- 
ratory methods so well adapted for the 
feeble-minded. Hailmann, in his preface, 
sums up ‘the purpose throughout’ in these 
significant words: ‘And thus, incidentally, 
to stimulate genuine vital interest in the 
study of geometry.’ 

I remember Sylvester’s smile when he 
told me he had never owned a mathematical 
or drawing instrument in his life. 

His great twin brother, Cayley, speaks 
of space as ‘the representation [creation] 
lying at the foundation of all external ex- 
perience.’ ‘And these objects, points, lines, 
circles, ete., in the mathematical sense of 
the terms, have a likeness to, and are rep- 
resented more or less imperfectly, and 
from a geometer’s point of view, no matter 
how imperfectly, by corresponding phys- 
ical points, lines, cireles, ete.’ 

But geometry, always relied upon for 
training in the logic of science, for teach- 
ing what demonstration really is, must be 
made more worthy the world’s faith. 
There is need of a text-book of rational 
geometry really rigorous, a book to give 
every clear-headed youth the benefit of his 
living after Bolyai and Hilbert. 


20. THE NEW RATIONAL GEOMETRY. 

The new system will begin with still 
simpler ideas than did the great Alex- 
andrian, for example, the ‘betweenness’ 
assumptions; but can confound objectors 
by avoiding the old matters and methods 
which have been the chief points of objec- 
tion and contest. For example, says Mr. 
Perry, ‘I wasted much precious time of 
my life on the fifth book of Euclid.’ Says 


412 


the great Cayley: ‘There is hardly any- 
thing in mathematics more beautiful than 
his wondrous fifth book.’ 

For my own part, nothing ever better 
repaid study. But the contest is over, for 
now, at last, without sacrificing a whit of 
rigor, we are able to give the whole matter 
by an algebra as simple as if only approxi- 
mate, like Euclid, including incommen- 
surables without even mentioning them. 

Again, we shall regain the pristine 
purity of Euclid in the matter of what 
Jules Andrade calls ‘cette malheureuse et 
illogique definition’ (Phillips and Fisher, 
§7): ‘A straight line is a line which is the 
shortest path between any two of its 
points.’ 

As to this hopeless muddle, which has 
been condemned ad nauseam, notice that it 
is senseless without a definition for the 
length of a curve. Yet, Professor A. 
Lodge, in a discussion on reform, says: 
“‘T believe we could not do better than 
adopt some French text-book as our, model. 
Also I., 24, 25, being obviously related to 
I, 4, are made to immediately follow it 
in such of the French books as define a 
straight line to be the shortest distance 
between two points.’’ Professor Lodge, 
then, does not know that the French 
themselves have repudiated this nauseous 
pseudo-definition. Of it Laisant says (p. 
223) : 

This definition, almost unanimously abandoned, 
represents one of the most remarkable examples 
of the persistence with which an absurdity can 
propagate itself throughout the centuries. 

In the first place, the idea expressed is incom- 
prehensible to beginners, since it presupposes the 
notion of the length of a curve; and further, it is 
a vicious circle, since the length of a curve can 
only be understood as the limit of a sum of recti- 
linear lengths; moreover, it is not a definition at 
all, since, on the contrary, it is a demonstrable 
proposition. 

As to what a tremendous affair this 
proposition really is, consult Georg Hamel 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 480. 


in Mathematische Annalen for this very 
year (p. 242), who employs to adequately 
express its content the refinements of the 
integral caleulus and the modern theory of 
functions. 

Moreover, underneath all this even is 
the assumption of the theorem, Huclid, I., 
20: ‘Any two sides of a triangle are to- 
gether greater than the third side’; upon 
which proposition, which the Sophists said 
even donkeys knew, Hilbert has thrown 
brilliant new light in the Proceedings of 
the London Mathematical Society, 1902, 
pp. 50-68, where he creates a geometry in 
which the donkeys are mistaken, a geom- 
etry in which two sides of a triangle may 
be together less than the third side, exhib- 
iting as a specific and definite example a 
right triangle in which the sum of the two 
sides is less than the hypothenuse. 

Any respectably educated person knows 
that in general the length of a curve is 
defined by the aggregate formed by the 
lengths of a proper sequence of inscribed 
polygons. 

The curve of itself has no length. This 
definition in ordinary cases creates for the 
curve a length; but in case the aggregate 
is not convergent, the curve is regarded as 
not rectifiable. It had no length, and even 
our creative definition has failed to endow 
it with length; so it has no length, and 
lengthless it must remain. 

If, however, it can be shown that the 
lengths of these inscribed polygons form a 
convergent aggregate which is independent 
of the particular choice of the polygons of 
the sequence, the curve is rectifiable, its 
length being defined by the number given 
by the aggregate. 


21. GEOMETRY WITHOUT ANY CONTINUITY 
ASSUMPTION. 

Euclid in his very first proposition and 

again in I., 22, ‘to make a triangle from 

given sides,’ uses unannounced a contin- 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


uity assumption. But nearly the whole of 
Buelid can be obtained without any con- 
tinuity assumption whatever, and this great 
part it is which forms the real domain of 
elementary geometry. 

Continuity belongs, with limits and in- 
finitesimals, in the Calculus. 

Professor W. G. Alexejeff, of Dorpat, in 
‘Die Mathematik als Grundlage der Kritik 
wissenschaftlich-philosophischer Weltan- 
schauung’ (1903), shows how men of sci- 
ence have stultified themselves by igno- 
rantly presupposing continuity. He calls 
that a higher standpoint which takes ac- 
count of the individuality of the elements, 
and gives as examples of this discrete or 
discontinuous mathematics the beautiful 
enumerative geometry, the invariants of 
Sylvester and Cayley, and in chemistry the 
atomic-structure theory of Kekulé and the 
periodic system of the chemical elements 
by Mendelejev, to which two theories, both 
exclusively discrete in character, we may 
sately attribute almost entirely the present 
standpoint of the science. 

Still more must discontinuity play the 
chief réle in biology and sociology, dealing 
as they do with differing individuals, cells 
and persons. How desirable, then, that 
the new freedom should appear even as 
early as in elementary geometry. 

After mathematicians all knew that 
number is in origin and basis entirely in- 
dependent of measurement or measurable 
magnitude; after in fact the dominant 
trend of all pure mathematics was its 
arithmetization, weeding out as irrelevant 
any fundamental use of measurement or 
measurable quantity, there originated in 
Chicago from the urbane Professor Dewey 
(whom, in parenthesis, I must thank for, his 
amiable courtesy throughout the article in 
the Educational Review which he devoted 
to my paper on the ‘Teaching of Geom- 
etry’), the shocking tumble or reversal that 


SCIENCE. 


413 


the origin, basis and essence of number is 
measurement. 

Many unfortunate teachers and pro- 
fessors of pedagogy ran after the new 
darkness, and even books were issued try- 
ing to teach how to use these dark lines in 
the spectrum for illuminating purposes. 

There is a ludicrous element in the 
parody of all this just now in the domain 
of geometry. 

After mathematicians all know of the 
wondrous fruit and outeome of the non- 
Euclidean geometry in removing all the 
difficulties of pure elementary geometry, 
there comes another philosopher, a Mr. 
Perry, who never having by any chance 
heard of all this, advises the cure of these 
troubles by the abolition of rational geom- 
etry. 

Just as there was a Dewey movement so 
is there a Perry movement, and books on 
geometry written by persons who never 
read ‘Alice in Wonderland’ or its com- 
panion volume, ‘Huclid and his Modern 
Rivals.’ 

But the spirits of Bolyai and Loba- 
chevski smile on this well-meaning strenu- 
osity, and whisper, ‘It is something to 
know what proof is and what it is not; and 
where can this be better learned than in a 
science which has never had to take one 
footstep backward 2’ 


GrorGeE Bruce HALSTED. 
Kenyon COLLEGE. 


THE SOOIETY FOR PLANT MORPHOLOGY 
AND PHYSIOLOGY. 

Tu seventh regular annual meeting of 
this society was held, in conjunction with 
the meetings of several other scientific so- 
cieties, at the University of Pennsylvania, 
Philadelphia, Pa., December 28-30, 1903. 
In the absence of the president and vice- 
president, the most recent past president, 
Dr. Erwin F. Smith, presided. Though 
not large in point of numbers the meeting 


414 


was in every respect one of the best in the 
society’s history. The officers elected for 
the ensuing year were as follows: 

President—Dr. G. T. Moore, of the Department 
of Agriculture, Washington. 

Vice-President—Professor Clara EH. Cummings, 
of Wellesley College. 

Secretary-Treaswrer—Professor W. F. Ganong, 
of Smith College. 


The following new members were elected : 
Professor G. J. Peirce, of Leland Stanford 
University ; Professor C. H. Shaw, of the 
Medico-Chirurgical College, Philadelphia; 
Dr. H. S. Conard, of the University of 
Pennsylvania. A committee, consisting of 
the new president, the secretary-treasurer 
and Professor D. S. Johnson, was appointed 
to confer with similar committees from the 
other botanical societies upon possible 
future affiliation or union of botanical so- 
cieties. 

The social features of the meeting were 
very enjoyable. They included a reception 
to the society by the Botanical Society of 
Pennsylvania and the Graduate Botanical 
Club of the university, in Biological Hall, 
Monday evening, December 28, luncheon 
tendered to the members of all the societies 
by the university on Tuesday and Wednes- 
day, December 29 and 30, the smoker given 
by the local committee to all the visiting 
scientific men on Tuesday evening, Decem- 
ber 29, the reception to the members of all 
the scientific societies by Dr. and Mrs. 
Horace Jayne on Wednesday evening, 
December 30, and many courtesies extended 
to the visiting members by members of the 
society resident in Philadelphia. On 
Wednesday afternoon the members of the 
society visited and were shown the Phila- 
delphia Museums, on the special invitation 
of the director, Dr. W. P. Wilson, and later 
they visited Horticultural Hall. 

The papers, of which abstracts follow, 
were all presented in full and discussed by 
the society, and they include every paper 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 480. 


which appeared upon the program. The 
abstracts are in every case by the author 
of the paper. 


Experimental Morphological Investiga- 
tions on the Abietinee (illustrated by 
photomicrographie stereopticon slides) : 
Professor E. C. Jerrrey, Harvard Uni- 
versity. 

The intention of the present communica- 
tion is to show that experimental investiga- 
tion is useful in determining the most 
primitive type of wood in the Abietinex, a 
matter of considerable importance from the 
standpoint of the phylogeny of the Coni- 
ferales, since the identification of fossil 
species in this group rests at present very 
largely on the study of fossil woods. 
Among the existing genera of Abietinee, 
Pinus, Picea, Lariz and Pseudotsuga are 
characterized by the presence of resin- 
canals in their woody tissues, while Cedrus, 
Abies, Pseudolariz and Tsuga are without 
ligneous resin-ducts. The question arises, 
which of these two types of wood is the 
more primitive, and this question the author 
has attempted to settle from the experi- 
mental and comparative anatomical stand- 
points. 

Abies may be taken as an example of a 
genus without ligneous resin-canals. In 
Abies balsamea resin-ducts appear in the 
wood as a result of mechanical injury and 
also as a result of the attack of parasitic 
fungi, producing ‘witches’ brooms.’ In 
this and (all?) other species of Abies resin- 
canals are also normally present in the pri- 
mary wood of the root. In certain species 
of Abies investigated in this connection, 
resin-canals are found not only under the 
conditions described for Abies balsamea, 
but also in the woody axis of the female 
cone and in the first annual ring of vigor- 
ous shoots. The two last-mentioned modes 
of occurrence of resin-canals are of special 
interest, for they must be regarded as 


MarcwH 11, 1904.] 


ancestral. It is now a well-established 
generalization that palingenetic features of 
anatomical structure are apt to persist in 
reproductive axes, and consequently the oc- 
eurrence of ligneous resin-canals in the 
cones of certain species of Abies is good evi- 
dence that resin-canals were once a general 
feature of the wood in the ancestral species 
of the genus. This conclusion is strongly 
supported by the presence of resin-ducts in 
the first annual ring only of vigorous 
branches in certain species of the genus 
under consideration, for in this instance we 
have to do with the phenomenon of recapi- 
tulation, so well exemplified in seedlings of 
plants and in the young of animals. The 
conclusion is accordingly drawn, from both 
comparative anatomical and experimental 
data, that the genus Abies has come from 
ancestors possessing ligneous resin-ducts. 
Similar data in the case of the other genera 
usually described as lacking ligneous resin- 
canals, viz., Cedrus, Pseudolarix and Tsuga, 
lead to the same conclusion, that is, that 
these too have. come from ancestry posses- 
sing ligneous resin-canals. As a further 
consequence of these observations the gen- 
eralization is made that the older type of 
wood in the Abietinee, is that in which 
resin-canals are present. The full signifi- 
cance of this generalization does not appear 
at the present time, but will be made clear 
as the remaining families of the Coniferales 
are described, from both the morphological 
and the anatomical standpoints. 


Vegetative Reproduction in Certain Epi- 
phyllous Lejeuneew: Professor A. W. 
Evans, Yale University. 

The circular or oblong discoid gemmsz 
found in Lejeunea convexistipa, L. accedens 
and an allied new species were described. 
Each consists of a single layer of cells and 
is attached by its margin to a single pro- 
jectine leaf-cell. Similar gemmz have 
been deseribed for the genus Radula and 


SCIENCE. 


415 


also for other Lejeune, but all of these 
differ in various points of detail. In the 
two Lejeune referred to the gemmz are 
shaped like a watch-glass and become in- 
verted before germination takes place, in 
this way turning their concave faces toward 
the substratum. In the flat gemme of the 
undescribed species no such inversion seems 
to be necessary. In ZL. convexistipa the 
gemma retains its apical cell and upon ger- 
mination gives rise directly to a leafy shoot. 
In LZ. accedens the gemma does not retain 
its apical cell and upon germination pro- 
duces a flat protonema, from which the leafy 
shoot develops later. In the undescribed 
species both types of germination occur. 
This last plant is further remarkable be- 
cause the protonema sometimes gives rise 
to secondary gemme, similar in all respects 
to those developed on the leaves. In this 
respect it resembles the peculiar genus 
Metzgeriopsis, of Java, in which the long- 
lived protonema bears both discoid gemmz 
and leafy shoots. 


Additional Notes on the Structure of the 
Starch Grain: Dr. Henry Kraemer, 
Philadelphia College of Pharmacy. 
The author has continued his work on 

the study of the starch grain, and presented 

evidence to show (1) That the peripherical 
layer of the starch grain is a distinct mem- 
brane; (2) that soluble starch is present in 
the unaltered grain; (3) that iodine forms 

a definite, but easily dissociated, compound 

with starch; and (4) he gave a method for 

staining wheat starch grains. This method 
is as follows: To 0.500 gm. of starch add 

2 ¢.e. of an aqueous iodine solution (con- 

taining 0.1 per cent. of iodine and 0.5 per 

cent. of potassium iodide) ; allow the mix- 

ture to stand 20 minutes, and then add 2 c.c. 

of a saturated aqueous solution of gentian 

violet; allow this mixture to stand from 

12 to 24 hours, examining mounts of the 

material from time to time; when the grains 


416 


are satisfactorily stained, the mixture is 
transferred to a filter and the excess of 
stain is removed as quickly as possible by 
washing the magma with water; the: ma- 
terial is then allowed to dry spontaneously, 
and mounted in Canada balsam, both the 
preparations and the dried material being 
permanent. 

The foregoing method has features simi- 
lar to the method used for demonstrating 
the so-called continuity of protoplasm in 
the vegetable cell-wall, and those who are 
interested in the latter subject will do well 
to compare their preparations with those of 
the wheat starch grain, made by the method 
just described. 


On an Undescribed Thermometric Move- 
ment in the Branches of Woody Plants: 
Professor W. F. GANonG, Smith College. 
Some years ago the author observed a 

definite radial or in-and-out movement of 

the ascending branches of certain shrubs 
in winter, and undertook a systematic study 
of the movement, which appears not to have 
been investigated hitherto. By means of 
accurate measurements made with steel 
tapes from a central permanent tripod, the 
exact amount of the movement was deter- 
mined for several shrubs and small trees. 
The results, when plotted, not only showed 
the movement to be real and of considerable 
amount, but also proved that the inward 
movement increases steadily after leaf fall 
till past midwinter, when an outward move- 
ment commences, long before the weight 
of the leaves begins to be felt. Further- 
more, the important fact was discovered 
that the movement shows remarkable in- 
and-out secondary fluctuations, which are 
closely correlated with temperature changes. 

Experiments undertaken to determine the 

physical basis of the movement eliminated 

one possible cause after another until it 
was determined that it was correlated with 
the percentage of water in the stems, this 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 480. 


rising with a higher and falling with a 
lower temperature. It was proved that the 
weight of this water was insufficient to 
cause the entire movement though it does 
influence it, and evidence was given to show 
that the movement is probably due to the 
swelling of the parenchyma cells of cortex 
and pith under the osmotic absorption of 
the water permitted by the increased sup- 
ply conducted up the stems in the periods 
of warmer weather. This swelling of the 
cells causes a straightening of the branch 
and hence the outward movement. The 
movement appears, therefore, to have no 
ecological significance but to be simply the 
incidental result of the physical and me- 
chanical construction of the stems, but it is 
a new and interesting phenomenon. As it 
is an incidental result of, and closely de- 
pendent upon, temperature changes, the 
author has named the movement thermo- 
metric. ; 


The Olive Tubercle (illustrated by stereop- 
ticon photographs and inoculated speci- 
mens): Dr. Erwin F. Smite and Mr. 
JAMES B. Rorpr, Department of Agri- 
culture. 

This disease was taken up because its 
bacterial origin has recently been called 
in question by Dr. Fischer. After describ- 
ing the disease, which has been known for 
many centuries in Hurope and has recently 
done much damage in California olive orech- 
ards, the experiments of Savastano and 
others were outlined, and then those under- 
taken in Washington. Tubercles were ob- 
tained from California. No difficulty was 
experienced in plating out bacteria or in 
finding them in the tissues on microscop- 
ical examination. They occurred abund- 
antly in small irregular pockets. No fungi 
were present. From small knots pure cul- 
tures of a white bacterium were plated out, 
and with this organism the knots were re- 
produced. The olive trees used were small 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


ones propagated from older trees which 
have been in a hothouse of the U. S. Depart- 
ment of Agriculture for many years and 
which have always been free from this dis- 
ease. The 
young growing tissues (shoots) by needle 
pricks, using subcultures made from single 
colonies. In this way, using the right 
organism, knots have been produced on 
about fifty plants—in fact, on every one 
inoculated. The tumors began to appear 
within a few weeks and were well developed 
in two months. From these artificially 
produced knots, pure cultures of the origi- 
nal organism have been plated out in 
quantity a number of times, and have also 
been demonstrated in situ both stained and 
unstained. Young knots are also now de- 
_ veloping on shoots recently inoculated with 
the organism plated out of the artificially 
induced knots. An equal number of check 
punctures made into the same plants, in 
shoots of the same age, healed promptly 
and did not develop any tumors. During 
the seven months covered by these experi- 
ments only one accidental infection has 
oceurred. This recently discovered knot 
appeared on an inoculated shoot about fif- 
teen inches below the punctures (where a 
tumor also developed), and the infection 
appears to have entered through a leaf scar. 
Old tumors*may contain other bacteria, but 
these when inoculated do not produce the 
disease. The experiments fully confirm 
Savastano’s statements respecting the bac- 
terial origin of this tumor, but the parasite 
appears to be a white rather than a yellow 
organism. The knot is an enormous hyper- 
plasia, the exciting influence of the bacteria 
‘extending far beyond their actual pres- 
Various tissues are involved in the 
tumor and they are much changed. A spe- 
cial paper will be devoted to this feature of 
the subject. 


ence. 


SCIENCE. 


moculations were made into - 


417 


Bacterial Leaf Spot Diseases (illustrated 
by numerous stereopticon photographs) : 
Dr. Erwin F. Smirn, Department of 
Avriculture. 

This paper was presented principally to 
eall renewed attention to the fact that bac- 
terial infection of plants through the ordi- 
nary stomata is not at all infrequent. Much 
remains to be done on these spot diseases, 
but a careful study of serial sections made 
through very young stages of spots occur- 
ring on several different plants show the 
epidermis unbroken and the enclosed bac- 
terial masses lying in such relation to the 
stomata as at once to suggest such infec- 
tion. No other avenue of infection is open. 
The plum leaf spot and the angular leaf 
spot of cotton have been studied within the 
year, particularly with reference to this 
mode of infection. In case of the spot dis- 
ease of the larkspur, pure cultures of the 
bacterium have been plated out of the spots 
and the disease reproduced in blue hybrid 
Delphimums and also in D. ajacis within a 
few weeks’ time by simply putting pure 
cultures into sterile water and spraying 
this on the plants. The result of this dis- 
ease iS numerous sunken black spots on 
leaves and stems, with more or less distor- 
tion. The inoculations were made in 
Washington, some in the hothouse, others 
inagarden. The disease is known to occur 
naturally only in Massachusetts. The 
organism is motile, gray-white, nitrate-re- 
ducing, non-liquefying, and on agar in 
early stages the small circular surface col- 
onies have a wrinkled structure easily 


“demonstrated by magnification of twelve. 


It grows well at 30° C. but not at all 
at 37.5°. Its thermal death point is 
over 48° and below 49.10° C. It grows well 
in Uschinsky’s solution. In agar the 
buried colonies are small. For this organ- 
ism the name of Bacillus delphini is sug- 
gested. The other bacterial spot diseases 
mentioned as having come to the writer’s 


418 


attention within the last two years were 
those of Pelargomuwm, soy bean, cow pea 
and ginseng. The latter is rather a yellow- 
ing and fraying of the leaf margins than a 
true spot. From the extremely numerous 
and quite characteristic spots on the soy 
bean leaves a yellow bacterium was isolated. 
This disease has been observed only in the 
vicinity of Washington. 


A Fungus Infesting Stored Sugar: Dr. 
C. O. TowNnsenD, Department of Agri- 
culture. 

The attention of the writer was called 
last summer to the abnormal condition of a 
quantity of granulated sugar stored in 
barrels. The sugar had become damp and 
unsalable, and could be restored perma- 
nently to its normal condition only by re- 
melting and reworking. It was at first 
thought that this peculiar condition of the 
sugar was due to the presence of hygro- 
scopic salts, but a careful examination 
showed that the sugar was practically free 
from salts of any kind. Upon placing a 
small quantity of the abnormal material 
under the microscope, numerous fungous 
threads and many round bodies resembling 
fungous spores were observed. When the 
material was plated out, three distinct 
fungi were found and pure cultures of each 
were made. As soon as these produced 
spores, quantities of normal sugar were in- 
oculated and placed in damp chambers. In 
from two to three weeks the cultures made 
from one kind of spores—a Penciullawm— 
showed the same characteristics that had 
been observed in the stored sugar, the cul- 
tures from the other fungi remaining un- 
changed for an indefinite period. It was 
found that the Penicilliwm spores would 
germinate and that the fungus would grow 
readily on sugar solutions of all strengths 
up to and including a fifty per cent. solu- 
tion, and even on a saturated solution the 
spores germinated’and produced new spores 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 480. 


in from six to eight days. The fungus 
erows readily on pure dextrose solutions, 
on solutions of C. P. maltose, and on all 
kinds of cooked vegetables, but it does not 
erow readily upon raw vegetables. The in- 
fested sugar becomes inverted, as shown by 
Fehling’s test and by the fact that the 
polarization is reduced in all cases. Some- 
times the reduction is as much as 99.8 to 
92. The trouble may be prevented by stor- 
ing the sugar in dry, well-seasoned barrels 
and keeping in a dry place. 


Observations on the Structure of Dischidia, 
a Olimbing Epiphyte from the Philip- 
pines: Dr. JoHN W. HarsHBercer, Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania. 

Dischidia sp. is a twining epiphyte native 
to the open areas in the province of Zam- 
bales, P. I. The plant, which early severs 
its connection with the soil, lives attached 
by horizontally placed adventitious roots to 
the surface of dead bamboo canes. It has 
two forms of leaves. The foliage leaves are 
thick and fleshy. The others are pitcher- 
shaped and about an inch and a half long. 
A second kind of adventitious root develops 
and grows into the pitchers, where it 
branches and forms an interlacing mass 
closely applied to the lower, inner surface 
of the saceate leaves. Inside the outer 
pitcher, a smaller one is developed, which 
represents the incurved apex of the highly 


_ modified leaf. A small black ant frequents 


the outer pitchers and carries into them de- 
caying wood and leaf mold, from which the 
roots in the pitcher derive a constant sup- 
ply of plant food. The details of the struc- 
ture have been elaborated by Treub, Groom, 
Scott and Sargant for Dischidia rafflesiana, 
but the plant from the Philippines differs 
from this species in the following points: 
(1) The presence of long adventitious roots, 
which penetrate the pockets of decaying 
matter, collecting where a circle of bamboo 
branches arise; (2) the development of a 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


second pitcher within the outer one; (3) 
the shape of the outer pitcher, which is 
broader than long, and (4) the growth of 
the plant on dead bamboos instead of dead 
trees, as with D. rafflesiana. The presence 
of a purple color on the under surface of 
the pitcher the speaker believed to be cor- 
related with the growth of the roots on that 
side and is not, as Groom claims, to shade 
the roots from too intense light. The ab- 
sence of dead or partially digested ants 
would exclude the possibility of the pitch- 
ers being insect traps. In all probability 
they serve as chambers where water in the 
aqueous or gaseous state collects, and for 
the collection of humus upon which this 
asclepiadaceous plant primarily depends 
for food. 


On the Hacretion of Hygroscopic Salts in 
Frankema and Statice: Mr. T. H. 
Kaarney, United States Department of 
Agriculture. 

Certain plants of arid regions, notably 
members of the Tamaricaceer, Frankenia- 
cee and Plumbaginacex, have long been 
known to possess the property of excreting 
salts in solution by means of epidermal 
glands of highly specialized structure. 
The excreted salts, in the cases recorded, 
are strongly hygroscopic. During the day- 
time when evaporation is intense, they exist 
as a dry granular deposit or as a thin con- 
tinuous coating on the surface of the plant, 
while during the night they take up water. 
In the early morning the leaves and stems 
are often covered with drops of solution. 

Observations were made upon Frankenia 
grandifolia im California and Statice limo- 
mum var. Californica in western Texas, 
both plants occurring in moist, strongly 
saline soils. In both cases chemical analy- 
sis showed that the principal constituents 
of the excretion were also the principal 
soluble constituents of the soil in which the 
plants were growing, although the propor- 


SCIENCE. 


419 


tions differed sufficiently to indicate select- 
ive power on the part of the plant. In 
Frankema, sodium and hydrochloric acid 
were the principal constituents of the ex- 
eretion, while in Statice, calcium and sul- 
phurie acid predominated. That the 
glands function actively in the process of 
excretion was demonstrated by brushing 
over portions of the leaf surface in living 
plants with an alcoholic solution of mer- 
curie chloride. Areas thus treated nearly 
or quite ceased to excrete, while unpoisoned 
areas of the same leaf continued to excrete 
vigorously. Hence the ‘salt glands’ evi- 
dently belong to that type of hydathodes or 
water-execreting organs in which an active 
glandular function is involved. 

What is the significance to the plant of 
this excretion of salts? Volkens, on the 
basis of a simple experiment performed 
upon Reawmuria hirtella near Cairo, con- 
eluded that the glands are able to take up 
water from the strong salt solution with 
which the surface of the plant is covered in 
the night and early morning, and thus sup- 
plement the roots as absorbing organs. 
Marloth and Haberlandt, however, have 
shown that Volkens’s experiment does not 
necessarily prove more than a reduction of 
transpiration effected by the presence of 
the salt excretion. 

A series of experiments upon Statice by 
the writer demonstrated that the absorbing 
power of the uninjured surface of the liv- 
ing leaves, even when immersed in pure 
water, is very small. Furthermore, con- 
centrated salt solutions, applied either by 
immersing the leaf in them with the cut 
surface protected from contact with the 
solution or by placing a small amount of 
powdered calcium chloride on leaves kept 
in a saturated atmosphere, so far from giv- 
ing up water to the leaves, actually with- 
drew a large amount from them, although © 
not causing plasmolysis under these condi- 
tions. Addition of coloring matter to salt 


420 


solutions and to pure water in which leaves 
were immersed showed only a very slight 
penetration of the stain into the glands and 
other epidermis cells, and none into deeper- 
lying tissue. Incidentally, the gland cells 
were found to be much more resistant to 
plasmolysis than are other cells of the leaf. 

Hence it is reasonably certain that in the 
ease of Statice, at least, the epidermal 
glands are not absorbing, but merely excret- 
ing organs. Their importance to the plant 
may consist in their enabling it to rid itself 
of excessive amounts of salt, while second- 
arily the presence of the salt deposit on the 
plant is, perhaps, useful in reducing the 
rate of transpiration from its surface. The 
question whether under natural conditions 
the leaf is able to withstand the attraction 
exerted upon its water content by the solu- 
tion tension of the excreted salts, remains 
unanswered. 


The Cardinal Principles of Ecology: Pro- 
fessor W. F. Ganone, Smith College. 
The paper comments upon the rise and 

promise of ecology, points out certain 

marked defects in its present methods, and 
discusses the direction it must take in order 
really to advance in the future. The 
ecology of the future must be based upon 
the exact study of environmental physics 
in correlation with physiological life his- 
tories of plants. Then the principles 
underlying the nature of adaptation are 
discussed, including the reality of adapta- 
tion, its evolutionary origin, its race (not 

individual) character, the necessary im- 

perfection of all adaptation, its metamor- 

phic phylogeny. This paper is to be pub- 
lished in full in Scrmnce. 


Cinchona in Jamaica as a Botanical Sta- 
tion (illustrated by stereopticon photo- 
graphs): Professor D. 8S. JoHNSON, 
Johns Hopkins University. 

Cinchona Station, recently visited by the 
speaker, is located on a spur running south- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 480. 


ward from the Blue Mountain chain. It 
is 4,900 feet above sea-level and has a cli- 
mate that is comparatively dry, cool and 
stimulating. On the plantation at present 
are a well-built residence, several buildings 
fit for laboratories, a greenhouse and a 
rather extensive garden. The latter con- 
tains many introduced alpine and temper- 
ate-climate plants from many parts of the 
globe. On the remaining 20,000 acres of 
the plantation, and in the surrounding 
regions, are to be found many types of 
vegetation, varying from the dense forest 
of the mountains and of the deep river 
valleys, through many types to the xero- 
phytic vegetation of the hills and plains 
south of the Blue Mountains. 

The rich and varied flora, delightful cli- 
mate, equipment and ready accessibility 
from all the Atlantic ports of the United 
States, make together a series of advan- 
tages such as probably no other location in 
tropical America possesses. 


The Influence of Differences in the Elec- 
trical Potential on the Growth of Plants: 
Professor G. HE. Stone and Mr. N. F. 
Monanan, Massachusetts Agricultural 
College. 

For many years the idea has prevailed 
that atmospheric electricity exerts an in- 
fluence upon plant growth. It is known 
that vegetation frequently becomes charged 
with electricity to quite an extent, also that 
during thunder-storms the potential of the 
air is likely to be high, and frequently 
changes from positive to negative. 

Observations made in our laboratory 
have shown that at a distance of thirty 
feet from the ground the air is charged 
positively about 90 per cent. of the time. 
The differences in potential between the 
earth and the air ranged in voltage from 
75 negative to 300 positive. Some of the 
earlier experiments, carried on in a limited 
way, seemed to show that when atmospheric 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


electricity was withdrawn from a plant 
growth was retarded. These earlier experi- 
‘ments were conducted by surrounding 
plants with wire cages, thus screening them, 
as it were, from atmospheric electricity. A 
series of experiments were made for the 
purpose of ascertaining whether any rela- 
tionship existed between the growth of out- 
door plants and the differences in atmos- 
pherie electrical potential as obtained by 
frequent measurements of the plants, and 
by the aid of a Thompson self-recording 
electrometer. These experiments were not, 
however, for various reasons, very satisfac- 
tory. 

Subsequent experiments were, therefore, 
conducted in a large glass case which was 
charged to various potentials, and for this 
purpose potted tomato plants, about three 
inches high, corn seedlings and molds, 
such as Mucor and Phycomyces, were em- 
ployed. Potentials varying from 100 to 
2,000 volts were made use of; the latter 
appeared to act disastrously in many cases. 
Small tomato plants responded most favor- 
ably under a potential of about 50 volts, 
which is not far from the optimum for 
tomato plants of this size. Mucor and 
Phycomyces responded most favorably to 
lower potentials, and the effects of high 
potentials were particularly disastrous to 
them. The latent period had a duration 
of from fifteen to twenty-five minutes. 

The experiments with various seeds 
showed that germination was greatly ac- 
celerated, although in the case of old seeds 
there was no evidence that electrical stimu- 
lation resuscitated life. 

The most essential facts brought out were 
that there exists a minimum, optimum and 
maximum potential corresponding with the 
nature, size and degree of development of 
the plants, and that when plants are grown 
under conditions in which the influence of 
atmospheric electricity is eliminated, they 
exhibit a marked response to electrical 


SCIENCE. 


421 


stimuli. The potential which induced this 
response is within the range of that usually 
found in nature. There is every reason to 
believe that electricity acts as a stimulus to 
plants in nature, and undoubtedly has 
much to do with their development and 
configuration. 


The Effect of the Presence of Insoluble 
Substances on the Toxic Action of 
Poisons: Dr. RopNey H. True and Mr. 
C. S. OctEver, Department of Agricul- 
ture. 

During the summer of 1903, at the Ma- 
rine Biological Laboratory at Woods Hole, 
Mass., the authors undertook a study of the 
effect of insoluble substances on the poison- 
ous action of solutions of electrolytes and 
non-electrolytes. A modifying action has 
been observed by Nageli in the ease of 
alge, and it is a common observation that 
poisonous solutions applied to said cultures 
are not as effective as in even more dilute 
water cultures. In the experiments here 
summarized, mereuric chlorid, silver nitrate 
and copper sulphate have received attention 
as representative electrolytes; and phenol, 
resorcinol and thymol as representative 
non-electrolytes. Carefully prepared sand, 
filter paper and paraffine were used as in- 
soluble bodies. The test reaction was the 
erowth rate of the primary root of Lupinus 
albus seedlings, made during a period of 
twenty-four hours of exposure to the solu- 
tions in question. The toxic substances 
were made up in strong stock solutions 
which in these experiments were diluted to 
concentrations sufficiently toxic to exert a 
marked effect on the growth of the plants. 
In the case of the heavy metals above men- 
tioned, a decided acceleration in growth was 
seen to accompany the presence of the in- 
soluble substances in the solution. No such 
acceleration followed the introduction of 
the insoluble substances into the check ecul- 


422 


tures in distilled water, nor did any marked 
result appear. 

In the case of the copper sulphate solu- 
tions, the action of the imsoluble bodies 
seemed to be especially well marked. In 
many instances the introduction of 40 grms. 
of sand into 150 ¢.c. of a given solution 
was seen to accelerate the growth rate from 
a few millimeters in the check solution con- 
taining the copper salt alone to a growth 
rate nearly normal for the distilled water 
used in making the solutions. The modi- 
fying action of the insoluble substances was 
found to vary widely, according to the 
quantity used, assuming that the volume 
and concentration of the solution are con- 


stant. The following instance is typical: 
35,000 liters solution. 2.0 mm. 
«+40 grms. sand. dQ 
(73 + 80 it7 ce 10.0 ce 
ce + 120 ii3 ce 16.0 ce 
ce + 160 (77 ce 13.0 it3 
7 ae 200 “ c 12.0 « 
Distilled water. 220 Roos 


In this case erowth was practically at a 
standstill in the copper solution. The in- 
troduction of 40 grms. of sand gave a 
erowth rate equal to one half of the growth 
rate in distilled water. The addition of 
further sand resulted in a growth rate of 
increasing rapidity, until when 120 grms. 
were added a maximum was reached. Fur- 
ther addition of sand was followed by a de- 
ereased rate of growth, finally approxima- 
ting that of the check. 

Unpublished investigations were cited in 
which it was shown that a somewhat similar 
situation results when a series of progress- 
ively diluted solutions of the copper sul- 
phate is tested by the above method with 
the lupine radicles. In concentrations of 
toxic activity, growth is quickly suppressed. 
As the solution is diluted more and more, 
the growth rate increases, until a rate char- 
acteristic of distilled water is reached. In 
the action of the copper sulphate solution 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 480. 


the phase characterized by the depressed 
growth rate may be termed the depression 
phase. This is succeeded, at a given con- 
centration, by a growth rate like that of the 
check, the copper being neutral in its 
action. Upon further dilution the radicles 
are found to grow more and more rapidly 
until at a definite concentration a maxi- 
mum rate is reached, which much exceeds 
that of the check. Further dilution at this 
point is followed by a falling off in the rate 
of growth until at a definite concentration 
the solution is so weak in its action as to 
leave the medium equivalent to so much 
distilled water. The first neutral phase is 
thus seen to be followed by a phase of pro- 
nounced acceleration of growth rate. This 
acceleration rises to a maximum and de- 
elines to a second neutral phase of indefi- 
nite extent covering all greater dilutions. 

From these experiments it seems clear 
that the presence of insoluble substances 
exerts an effect closely paralleling that of 
simple dilution. By comparison with the 
erowth curve obtaimed in increasingly 
diluted solutions, it is possible to indicate 
what amount of copper remains in the free 
solution unremoved, physiologically speak- 
ing, by the solid. 

Various investigators have shown that 
gases are condensed over surfaces of solid 
bodies, the layer of gas in contact with 
them containing a much greater concen- 
tration of molecules than is contained by a 
like volume of free space. This has been 
extended to solutions. It has been shown 
that the walls of the containing vessels or 
solid particles placed in the solutions con- 
dense substances from aqueous solutions. 
It has been found that this process, known 
as adsorption, is largely dependent upon 
the nature of the adsorbing solid and on 
the amount of surface it offers to the solu- 
tion. The adsorptive activity of sand, 
filter paper, charcoal and other bodies has 
been demonstrated. These bodies are all 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


wetted by the solution from which mole- 
cules are adsorbed. In the investigations 
here reported, not only were solids used 
which were wetted by the aqueous solution, 
but also paraffine, in the case of which a 
different type of contact exists between the 
solid and the solution. Perhaps no contact 
exists in the sense of a relation so intimate 
as to bring the molecules of the dissolved 
substance into actual contact with the 
paraffine. The contact surface between the 


paraffine and aqueous’ solution may, per-, 


haps, be regarded as comparable to a sur- 
face film which bounds the contact of the 
solution with air. Whether or not an 
actual air film is present between the 
paraffine and aqueous solution, the presence 
of paraffine in solutions of the toxic agents 
was seen to exert a marked effect, perhaps 


as great as that of sand. It is probable, 


therefore, that the generalization of the 
physical chemists concerning adsorption 
may be extended so as to include among 
adsorbing surfaces those films which in 
solutions surround bodies which are not 
moistened by the solution. Physical in- 
vestigations on this point are lacking. 

It is regarded by the authors as probable 
that the insoluble substances used in ex- 
periments here summarized act as adsorb- 
ing surfaces for molecules or ions of the 
poisonous substances used, the number of 
molecules or ions thus adsorbed being, at 
the extreme dilution here cited, sufficient to 
remove a very considerable proportion of 
the ions or molecules from the free solu- 
tion. These are considered as collected 
over the surfaces of the insoluble sub- 
stances or films present in the solutions in 
a layer molecularly much denser than the 
free solution. In bringing about this redis- 
tribution of molecules or ions, the free solu- 
tion, when equilibrium has been established, 
is necessarily much weakened in ions or 
molecules. This affects the solution much 
like the addition of water, bringing about a 


SCIENCE. 


423 


decreased number of molecules in a given 
volume of the free solution. Hence the 
close parallel seen between the conduct of 
the radicles in solutions containing increas- 
ing quantities of insoluble substances and 
iu progressively diluted aqueous solutions. 

Concerning the relation of the poisonous 
substance to the adsorbing surfaces, a fur- 
ther point is developed. Im the solutions 
of the heavy metals already referred to, 
complete ionization is probable, and a pos- 
sible electrical relation might be supposed 
to exist. This is, however, not necessarily 
so, since in solutions of thymol, a non- 
electrolyte, a similar action was seen, indi- 
eating that the electrical conditions in the 
solution play no necessarily important part. 

The bearings of this work on practical 
problems of plant physiology are very 
many. It is impossible to argue from the 
behavior of plants in water cultures to their 
behavior in soil, since in the soil adsorption 
is seen in a high degree of efficiency, where 
films and insoluble substances bring about 
a situation entirely different from that seen 
in a free solution. Hygroscopie water, so 
ealled in works on plant physiology, is 
doubtless to be regarded as an adsorbed 
solution governed by the laws of adsorp- 
tion. The recognition of this relation 
would render physiological discussions 
bearing on soil conditions much clearer. 
The stock experiments in elementary plant 
physiology demonstrating that solutions 
poured from clean sand come out weaker in 
molecules than they go in, is to be explained 
as an example of adsorption rather than 
absorption by the soil. The importance of 
adsorption physiologically with reference 
to the root system, especially the root 
hairs, is seen when one bears in mind the 
fact that in the ground water those por- 
tions of the solutions are richest in mole- 
ecules which are adjacent to insoluble sub- 
stances or films. Many relations of a plant 
to its substratum are affected by this con- 


424 


dition of affairs which can not be pointed 
out here. 

In the interior of the plant, with the 
large amount of wall surface, and, in case 
of storage cells, of solids like starch grains, 
ete., adsorption may also play a consider- 
able réle. It seems probable that in addi- 
tion to osmosis and diffusion the distribu- 
tion of dissolved materials in the plant 
may be very largely affected by adsorption. 
It seems probable that this form in which 
energy is exerted may play a part of un- 
suspected importance in the plant. Not 
the least important, perhaps, may be the 
effect of adsorbing surfaces in bringing 
about at points of greatest activity an in- 
ereased concentration of the raw materials 
needed in connection with these processes. 

The efficiency of bacteria as adsorbing 
bodies is probably great and the physio- 
logical activity of minute organisms may 
be in part due to the energy of adsorption, 
which brings about a concentration of the 
medium at the surfaces of the organisms, 
making possible the characteristically active 
metabolism even in dilute media. Further 
experiments along the various lines here in- 
dicated are in progress. 


An Exhibition of Several New Precision 
Appliances for Investigation and Demon- 
stration in Plant Physiology: Professor 
W. F. Ganong, Smith College. 

It was pointed out that the development 
of makeshift or improvised apparatus for 
plant physiology has gone as far as prac- 
tically possible, and farther than is edu- 
cationally and scientifically desirable, and 
that the next movement in this subject 
should be towards the development of nor- 
mal apparatus, pieces which will be manu- 
factured for the specific work to be done or 
topie to be studied, which will perform that 
work with accuracy and with convenience 
and economy of time in manipulation, and 
which will be obtainable from the supply 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 480. 


companies precisely as physical and chem- 
ical appliances are. Several new pieces, 
which have been invented by the exhibitor, 
were then exhibited. They are to be manu- 
factured and offered for sale under his 
supervision by the Bausch & Lomb Optical 
Co. The pieces exhibited included (1) a 
new clinostat, very compact, capable of 
working in any position whatsoever, power- 
ful enough to carry a five- or six-inch pot 
in any position, needing winding but once 
in two days; (2) a new portable clamp- 
stand for apparatus, with handles for 
carrying it about, levelling screws, special 
positions for the rods, and new special 
clamps; (3) an autographic transpirometer, 
which can be used with any balance sensi- 
tive to a gram, and which records precisely 
on a drum the transpiration of a plant for 
a week; (4) a new photosynthometer, by 
which the exchange of gases in photosyn- 
thesis may be exactly and conveniently 
measured, either for demonstration of the 
processes to classes, or in investigation for 


‘particular plants; (5) a new leaf clasp 


chamber for use wherever it is desired to 
apply patterns, cobalt chloride paper or 
other object exactly matching upon the two 
faces of the leaf; (6) a new leaf chamber 
for holding a leaf under approximately 
normal conditions perfectly flat in any 
desired position while studying various 
phases of photosynthesis, ete. The appa- 
ratus is all mechanically unexceptionable, 
and it was announced that other pieces are 
in preparation and more or less advanced 
towards completion. 


On the Spores of Certain Conifere: Pro- 
fessor W. C. Coxrr, University of North 
Carolina. 

It has been long known that the mature 
pollen grain of a number of conifers con- 
tains no sterile prothallial cell. The pos- 
sibility still remained, however, that one 
or more such cells might be cut off early in 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


development and, by complete absorption, 
leave no trace in the fully mature grain. 
For the determination of this point the fol- 
lowing forms were examined: Cupressus 
(four species), Taxus baccata and four va- 
rieties, Juniperus (two species), Chame- 
cyparis (five species), Callitris (one spe- 
cies), Cryptomeria japonica, Thuja orient- 
alis. 

The results showed that in all these forms 
there was no prothallial cell formed at any 
time in the development of the pollen. 
Ovules of Thuja orientalis and Taxus bac- 
cata were examined to determine the num- 
ber of potential megaspores formed. It 
was found that in Taxus there are four 
produced—these lying, as a rule, in a row, 
and the lower developing into the pro- 
thallium. 

In Thuja there are also four magaspores 
produced, but they are arranged, not in a 
row, but in nearly regular tetrad form, dif- 
fering in this respect from all other gym- 
nosperms so far studied. 

W. F. GANONG, 
Secretary. 


SMITH COLLEGE, 
NORTHAMPTON, Mass. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
STILL ANOTHER MEMOIR ON PALZZOSPONDYLUS. 


Paleospondylus, like Gloster, seems to have 
been born to bite the world—for in its few 
short years of morphological nurture it has 
succeeded in causing trouble to an amazing 
degree. And we venture to use an Elizabethan 
simile with a clearer conscience, since in the 
latest time we are told that this obscure little 
fossil is not to be looked upon as a toothless 
lamprey, but rather as a shark. We must 
none the less admit that it gives us a sense of 
sadness to learn of the new role of the fish, 
since this reduces by one the novelty of its 
being assigned to still other groups, for we re- 
call that the number of groups is well nigh ex- 
hausted. There remains in fact but one more 
of the major groups of aquatic vertebrates to 
which it can possibly be assigned. It has 


SCIENCE. 


425 


already been reckoned among arthrodires 
(4 ostracophores), lampreys, teleostomes (AL 
lis), sharks, lung-fishes, even amphibians. 
To make our list complete, we have now only 
to assign it to holocephals. And lest some 
one anticipate us, we may as well regard it as 
a chimeroid at this time, and in evidence 
of this refer to its continuous dorsal fin, 
‘protocereal’ tail, ring vertebrx, elaborate 
nasal cartilages, huge head—and we might 
find other similarities if we tried hard enough. 
Seriously, though, such a state of affairs is a 
reproach to modern morphology, that with all 
our extensive knowledge of fishes we are not 
able to come to a better understanding of our 
Devonian ‘lamprey.’ For if the remains of 
Paleospondylus are so poorly preserved that 
they cannot be definitely described, why do 
we continue to add papers to the troublesome 
literature? The only possible excuse is that 
the creature is seductive, full of suggestions 
as to the origin of the gnathostomes, and the 
mode of evolution of jawless vertebrates. 

During the past summer I happened to see 
in South Kensington some of the elaborate 
models of Palewospondylus which Professor 
Sollas and Ingerna B. J. Sollas have been 
preparing. These are built up of thin wax 
plates, after the method of Born, the sections, 
however, having been outlined at a series of 
levels (differing in thickness for about .1-+, 
.025 mm.) as the fossil was carefully ground 
down. And I examined the models with great 
interest, wondering whether by a new method 
there could be gained facts which would help 
to solve the present puzzle. 

In their complete paper* the authors now 
discuss the results obtained from a series of 
their models, of which no less than eight have 
been prepared. They describe the character- 
istic parts of the fossil, christening some of 
them with rather difficult names such as 
“hemidome,’ ‘ tauidion,’ ‘ ampyx,’ ‘ gammation ’ 
and ‘pre-gammation. But the structures 
described which interest us especially are the 
“branchial arches,’ four in number, showing 


** An Account of the Devonian Fish, Palgo- 
spondylus gunni, Traquair, by W. J. Sollas and 
Ingerna B. J. Sollas, Phil. Trans., Series B, Vol. 
196, pp. 267-294, pls. 16 and 17. 


426 


both ‘ epi-’ and ‘basi-’ and ‘ cerato-branchial ’ 
divisions, and the ‘ quasi-maxillary’ cartilage. 
For if these structures are present, our knowl- 
edge of Palwospondylus has made a forward 
step and an important one. For it excludes 
one hypothesis, that of a Devonian lamprey. 
I confess, however, much as I am in sympathy 
with this result, that a critical examination of 
the present plates does not convince me that 
the authors have carried their point. When 
one bears in mind the fact that the head re- 
gion of the tiny fossil is flattened out of rea- 
son, bitumenized, with parts displaced, with 
irregular contours now separate, now con- 
fluent, it is difficult to see, for example, why 
the ‘maxillaries’ should be anything more 
than the rim of the ‘hemidome’ (ef. Figs. 
10, 11, 12), or the most conspicuous ‘gill 
arches’ more than the anterior and posterior 
rims of the ‘otic’? mass. And there is in 
fact variation enough in these elements, even 
in the figures given, to warrant our skep- 
ticism. Indeed, if one has still any faith in 
the preservation of intricate interrelationships 
of delicate elements in Palewospondylus, he 
has only, I believe, to consider the shapeless 
condition of the neighboring vertebral column 
and fin supports as shown in any of the models, 
for we are morally sure that centra and fin 
rays never existed in the living animal in such 
an amorphous mass as here represented. 
Grateful we certainly are to these pains- 
taking authors, for the facts they present are 
desirable, even though we may be disappointed 
in their content. But the chiefest virtue of 
their research is to my mind this—that by the 
micro-section method we can add little of im- 
portance to our knowledge of this form. For 
in spite of such a method, and admirably car- 
ried out, no certain details have been added to 
those already detected in the usual way by the 
keen eye of Dr. Traquair. And if this is true 
one need hardly add that what is especially 
needed in our future dealings with Palco- 
spondylus is less memoir and more material. 
In this regard I can not repress the belief that 
the paleontologist who will spend some time, 
possibly months, in the little quarry at Achan- 
arras will yet solve the puzzle. There is cer- 


tainly evidence that although five out of ten’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 480. 


of the fossils measure between 20 and 30 mm. 
some certainly occur which are over 50 mm. 
in length, and that between the largest and 
the smallest there are gradations in the pro- 
portions of head and column both in length 
and thickness. And if this be true, why may 
not Palewospondylus prove a larval form, and 
in this event more abundant material might 
reasonably prove what the adult is? The latest 
authors ‘far from deny that some change in 
the proportional size of the organs of 
Paleospondylus has taken place with growth,’ 
but I think they would have been more im- 
pressed had they examined better preserved 
specimens, and those especially with a greater 
range in size. Their smallest specimen prob- 
ably measured little under 18 mm., for it 
measured 14 mm. and lacked obviously the 
tail tip. On the latest evidence, therefore, we 
ean hardly deny the possibility that Pal@ospon- 
dylus was a larval-form. BasHrorp Dran. 
CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


Catalogue of Keyboard Musical Instruments 
in the Crosby Brown Collection, 1903. The 
Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York. 
4to. Pp. 313. Price, $1.00; express, 25 cents. 
In continuation of the series of catalogues 

already noticed in Science (N.S., XV., p. 948, 

1902) the present sumptuous volume has re- 

cently been published. 

In 127 half-tone plates made from photo- 
graphs from the originals, 84 keyboard instru- 
ments are shown. No such eollection of 
instruments is found elsewhere in the world, 
and no such collection of illustrations is avail- 
able in any other book, or dozen books. There 
are 43 plates of 24 plucked imstruments— 
psaltery, spinet and harpsichord; 47 plates 
of the 32 instruments with struck strings— 
dulcimer, clavichord and piano; 2 plates of 
bowed instruments; 28 plates of the 21 key- 
board wind instruments—regals and organs; 
and 7 plates of 5 pianos with metal or glass 
bars; then follow 7 plates illustrating actions. 
Many of them are full-page plates. There 
is a brief description of each instrument, and 
the late A. J. Hipkins (remembered by phys- 
icists as associated with A. J. Ellis in some 
of his important work on scales) has furnished 
a valuable short introduction which points out 


/ 


MarcH 11, 1904.] 


the relation of the more important specimens 
to the development of the art. Where the 
history or authenticity of a certain instrument 
is of importance the evidence bearing on these 
points is furnished. No expense has been 
spared in bringing out the volume, for its 
preparation is stated to have cost over two 
thousand dollars. 

But unfortunately the work leaves some- 
thing to be desired. Generally the instru- 
ments were placed for photographing in posi- 
tion to show the whole to the best advantage, 
and especially any ornamental features. This 
procedure has two disadvantages; the figures 
being in photographic perspective, they are 
much distorted and can not be scaled; and 
while the general appearance of an instrument 
is well shown, the details that interest the 
student can rarely be made out. Views taken 
in different positions diminish somewhat this 
disadvantage, and the excellent plate X X VIII. 
of the clayichord action is a notable exception 
to the general criticism. A useful addition 
to the descriptions would have been statements 
of the vibrating lengths of strings, say for all 
the ©’s in the principal instruments, and the 
striking point; also the diameters of the wires 
where these appear to be the original ones. 
Almost any details of construction would be 
welcome, since they are not easily obtained by 
the student and yet are of great significance 
in the technical development of the piano. 
The few cuts of actions are very unsatisfac- 
tory; apparently the draftsman was not 
familiar with mechanism or mechanical draw- 
ing, so some of the figures are misleading or 
unintelligible. 

This catalogue, however, in spite of any de- 
fects, is a very valuable addition to the small 
collection of books that illustrate the prede- 
cessors of the modern piano, and nothing else 
ean fill its place. CuarLes K. WEap. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

In the Botanical Gazette for February Mr. 
Francis Darwin describes a method of study- 
ing the movements of stomata, which depends 
on the fact that when widely open the stomata 
permit more rapid evaporation than when 
closed, the leaves becoming correspondingly 


SCIENCE. 


427 


cooler. The differences of temperature are 
measured by a Callendar recorder, in which 
the difference between the temperatures of two 
fine platinum wires is recorded on the revoly- 
ing drum. He describes the apparatus and the 
various tests that were made to discover the 
errors and limitations of the method.—G. M. 
Holferty has investigated the development of 
the archegonium of Mniuwm and reports that 
a two-celled apical cell is organized by the 
archegonium initial, that this later gives place 
to a three-sided one which is truncate, that 
this terminal cell gives rise to the first cell 
of the canal row and also contributes to the 
growth of the neck, that the terminal cell 
contributes to the growth of the axial row by 
the addition of cells cut from its truncate 
face, and that growth in length of the arche- 
gonium neck is interealary as well as apical in 
both the neck and canal rows. Unusual con- 
ditions were found in which the canal series 
is double for a greater or less distance, in 
which the venter contains two eggs and two 
ventral canal cells, in which there was a 
double venter with two eggs, and one in which 
amass of sperm mother cells was developing 
in the pedicel tissues of the archegonium. 
Conclusions are drawn that archegonia and 
antheridia are homologous structures through- 
out, and that they probably had a common 
origin from an isogamous gametangium, 
which in turn was derived from a multilocular 
sporangium.—Charles EK. Lewis, in studies of 
certain anomalous dicotyledons (Podophyllum, 
Jeffersoma and Caulophyllum), finds small 
embryos surrounded by an abundant endo- 
sperm, and a cotyledonar primordium con- 
sisting of a broad ridge-like structure opening 
at one side, the ridge later bifurcating to form 
the two lobes known as the cotyledons.—F. A. 
Shriner and EK. B. Copeland give definite data 
in reference to the relation between deforesta- 
tion and creek flow about Monroe, Wisconsin. 
—Taetitia M. Snow publishes a preliminary 
notice of results in the investigation of the 
effects of external agents on the production 
of root hairs, showing that there is a relation 
between the production of root hairs and the 
elongation of the roots. The same causes 
which control growth determine the formation 


428 SCIENCE. 


of root hairs.—J. W. T. Duvel records the 
germination of seeds buried in soil at least 
three and a half years, the seedlings obtained 
being 128 in number and representing seven 
genera and nine species.—Conway MacMillan 
describes cumaphytism in Alaria, showing how 
strongly the Alaria-type of body may become 
modified by existence in the surf. 


SOOCLELTIES AND ACADEMIES. 
PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 579th meeting was held January 30, 
1904. 

Mr. O. H. Tittmann, superintendent of the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey, gave a brief ac- 
count of the meeting of the International 
Geodetic Association during the past summer, 
at Copenhagen. The most important ques- 
tions considered during the nine days’ meet- 
ing were longitude, gravity on land and sea, 
and variation of latitude. 

Mr. L. A. Fischer, of the Bureau of Stand- 
ards, read a paper on ‘The International 
Bureau of Weights and Measures,’ which was 
established in accordance with an agreement 
signed by seventeen of the principal nations 
of the world, including the United States, at 
Paris, in 1875. A deseription was given of 
the laboratory and other buildings, situated 
on neutral territory in the Park of St. Cloud, 
at Sévres, near Paris. An account of the 
principal work of the bureau was given. This 
included the comparison of the various na- 
tional prototypes of the kilogram and meter 
with one another and with the international 
kilogram and meter, at present deposited in an 
underground vault at the International 
Bureau. The investigation of nickel-steel 
alloys, the determination of the volume of the 
kilogram of water, and the establishment of 
the present standard hydrogen temperature 
seale were also mentioned. The paper closed 
with a brief account of the recent comparison 
of the U. S. Prototype Meter No. 27 with 
the two standards of the International 
Bureau. Only preliminary results of this 
comparison were given, the final results be- 
ing deferred until further comparisons have 
been made between No. 27 and the two other 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 480. 


copies of the International Meter in possession 
of the Bureau of Standards. 

Mr. James Page, of the Hydrographic Office, 
then presented the modern view of ‘ocean 
currents.’ 

Two independent circulations are involved 
in the movement of the waters of the sea: 
(1) The vertical, sustained by differences of 
temperature; (2) the horizontal, having its 
source in the energy supplied by the wind. 
The phenomena ordinarily described as ocean 
currents belong wholly to the latter. These 
eurrents have their origin in the impulse given 
the layer of water immediately at the sur- 
face by the wind. This impulse, by virtue 
of internal friction, is communicated down- 
ward, but with extreme slowness; the rate of 
propagation being expressed by the formula 


Vt=1736-2- 
nN 


in which », is the velocity at the surface, and 
t the interval (in seconds) required to com- 
municate a velocity v,/n to a layer at a depth 
of a meters. Immediately at and near the 
surface the currents will thus be quite as 
variable as the winds themselves. The truth 
of this was shown by a comparison of the ob- 
served frequency of winds from the several 
quadrants with the observed frequency of 
currents towards the opposite quadrants for 
various portions of the sea. For the area 
in the North Atlantic Ocean bounded by the 
parallels 40°-45° N., and the meridians 30°— 
35° W. the percentages were as follows: 


Winds....N. E. 16, S. E. 20, S. W. 36, N. W. 28. 
Currents.. S. W. 20, N. W. 18, N. E. 31, 8. B. 31. 


At some little distance below the surface 
these irregularities disappear, in consequence 
of the sluggishness with which the impulse 
given by the wind is transmitted downward. 
Here the changes of the wind, as they occur 
from day to day, are no longer felt; and the 
waters probably move in a fixed direction and 
with a constant velocity, namely, that which 
the above formula would give them if there 
prevailed continuously at the surface a wind 
having the force and direction of the resultant 
of the actual winds. 

At the 580th meeting, held February 13, 


mere 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


Mr. Winston spoke briefly on the plans of a 
committee of delegates at Paris appointed in 
the interest of an international auxiliary 
language intended to serve as a medium of 
communication especially between scientific 
men. 

Mr. R. A. Harris, of the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, in a paper entitled ‘On the Feasi- 
bility of Measuring Tides and Currents at 
Sea, suggested the use of a piano-wire sound- 
ing apparatus for such measurements, and 
ascertained the magnitudes of errors which 
might be inyolved when the weight of the 
wire, impulse of the current and inaccurate 
estimates of verticality at the surface are in- 
volved. The sounding ‘lead,’ which is not to 
be recovered in deep water, consists of some 
weight, a box of stones for example, sufii- 
ciently heavy for permitting a suitable tension 
to be obtained. The measurements of the 
rise and fall of the tide, as here suggested, 
necessitate much greater care than do those 
of the tidal streams and other currents. 

Mr. F. J. Bates, of the Bureau of Stand- 
ards, then spoke on ‘ The Effect of a Magnetic 
Field on Plane-polarized Light.’ Commencing 
with Faraday’s discovery in 1849, the histor- 
ical development of the subject was followed 
and ended with the speaker’s work on the 
rotary dispersion of anomalous dispersing 
substances. Solutions of fuchsin, cyanin, 
lackmus and analine-blue were studied with a 
sensitive-strip spectral polariscope and a mag- 
net which gave 18,000 lines per sq. cm. The 
differences between 1 em. cells of solvent and 
solution were noted. In no instance was it 
possible to observe an anomaly in the rota- 
tion, even though the sensibility of the ap- 
paratus was ten times that of preceding in- 
vestigators. The anomalous effects observed 
by Schmauss were shown to be due to the 
effect of the selective absorption of the solu- 
tions studied. For a detailed account of the 
work see Bates, Wied. Ann., No. 13, 1903. 

Cuarites K. WEaD, 
= Secretary. 


CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 148th regular meeting of the Chemical 
Society of Washington was held Thursday 


SCIENCE. 


429 


evening, February 11, in the Assembly Hall 
of the Cosmos Club. The program for the 
evening consisted of an address by Professor 
Wilder D. Bancroft, of Cornell University, 
upon the subject ‘Inorganic Chemistry and 
the Phase Rule.’ 

The speaker discussed the subject under the 
two general heads—the phase rule as an in- 
strument for research and secondly the phase 
rule as a rational basis for the classification of 
inorganic chemistry. Under the first of these 
topics he cited a large number of illustra- 
tions of cases to which the phase rule has been 
successfully applied. Among these was men- 
tioned the work of van’t Hoff and his asso- 
ciates upon the Stassfort salt deposits. Also 
the work which is now being earried on at 
Cornell University on the bronzes. The ap- 
plication of the phase rule to the separation 
of mixtures of salts by crystallization was 
illustrated briefly by referring to the case of 
a mixture of sodium and potassium chlorides. 

A. SEIELL, 
Secretary. 


THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 


Tur 152d meeting was held in Person Hall 
in the Chemical Lecture Room on February 
9, at 7:30 pw. The following papers were 
given: 

Dr. W. C. Coker: ‘Mendel’s Law of Heredity.’ 

Dr. H. V. Witson: ‘Incomplete Division in 
Vertebrate Animals.’ 

PROFESSOR COLLIER CoBs: ‘Composition of 
Coastal Plain Sands in Relation to Distance from 
Existing Shore Lines.’ 

Anyin S. WHEELER, 


Recording Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


To THE Epiror or Science: The first thing 
to be done in connection with the convocation 
week meetings of the scientific societies is to 
secure a more perfect organization. Some 
man or committee must take up the matter 
of arranging a complete program so as to 
avoid the present go-as-you-please condition 
in which meetings are set at almost any time 
in the week. This is one of the causes of the 


430 SCIENCE. 


friction and jealousy which detract so much 
from the pleasure and profit of these annual 
meetings. One who would like to attend two 
meetings occurring at the same hour is not 
in the best humor, and is pretty likely to think 
that somebody blundered, or that some so- 
ciety is crowding out his society. If I find 
that A has a meeting set at the same time as 
B, taking away some members of the latter, 
I quite naturally blame the A’s for doing so, 
and no doubt the A’s blame the B’s in return. 
It may be an almost impossible task to ar- 
range a program so as to ayoid such inter- 
ferences, but without question much can be 
done to lessen their frequency. I think I 
know the botanists of the country well enough 
to be able to say confidently that if a program 
were made so as to allow time for each asso- 
ciation, society and club, we should be a veri- 
table ‘happy family.’ As it is, there is a re- 
markably good feeling among American bot- 
anists, although some of us think that there 
is something yet to be desired. It is not 
enough, in these days of compact organization 
in all other lines of human effort, that scien- 
tific men should be on good terms with one 
another. They may do their individual pieces 
of work almost as well, perhaps. But this is 
not sufficient; scientific men should present 
a united front; they should be like a well- 
organized army, and not as isolated guerrillas. 
We should ‘ get together’ ourselves, into some- 
what compact societies or clubs (not too 
many), and then ask the council or its com- 
mittee to make such a program as will pre- 
vent interference in times of meetings. 

The council should be the central organ- 
izing body. Its membership should include 
at least the secretaries of all sections and 
affiliated societies, in order that the programs 
of these organizations may be considered in 
making up the general program. The council 
should meet for several sessions for general 
as well as routine business, one day before 
the public meetings begin. It should have at 
least one session after the close of the asso- 
ciation meetings. Do away with council ses- 
sions during the public meetings of the asso- 
ciation. Dispense with the formality of re- 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 480. 


ferring council action to the general session 
of the association for ratification. 

Now use the evenings for general sessions, 
in which popular papers and addresses suit- 
able for a general audience are presented. 
These papers should be short, not exceeding 
twenty or thirty minutes. Hach section might 
be requested to furnish one such paper or 
address. Here the lantern might be used to 
great advantage. By such general sessions 
the chemists might be able to absorb a little 
botany, and the botanists a little chemistry, 
from masters of the subjects. The non-scien- 
tific portion of the audience would be bene- 
fited and instructed by listening to authorita- 
tive and yet non-technical accounts of certain 
scientific facts and theories. 

With the council meetings and the general 
sessions out of the way the whole of every 
forenoon could be given to the meetings of 
the affiliated societies, and the afternoons to 
the section meetings. Here I should like to 
suggest that the chairmen of the sections 
should be elected two or three years before 
they are to preside, and that the place of 
meeting should be decided upon as long in 
advance. We now choose our section secre- 
taries for periods of five years. The earlier 
election of chairmen would enable the officers 
to work out better programs. 

In the making of section programs the 
chairman and secretary should appoint cer- 
tain men to prepare papers or addresses. 
They should invite others to do so. This 
should be done a year or so in advance, in 
order that time may be given for the work. 
Then the sectional committee should select 
from the papers or full abstracts, at least 
two months before the meeting, only as many 
more papers as may be adequately presented 
in the allotted time. TI like the rule of the 
London omnibuses which refuse to take more 
passengers than can be given places better 
than that which allows an indefinite number 
to crowd in and fight for even standing room. 
At St. Louis some of the best botanical papers 
were crowded out by others which were of 
little value. JI can not refrain from saying 
again what I have said on more than one 
oceasion before this, that while every man 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


who has anything to present should have it 
fully written out, he should not read it, but 
should present a clear, oral summary of it. 
He should have his matter so well in hand 
that he can give the audience a good notion 
of it in from five to ten minutes. Only on 
rare occasions should any one be allowed to 
take more than ten minutes, or read details 
from his paper. In St. Louis I listened to 
descriptions of details which were useless to 
present to any audience, since no one could 
follow them unless he had the object or a 
drawing of it before him. On the other 
hand, something should be said as to the duty 
of listening patiently to what certain men 
have to say. It is quite childish for men to 
yawn or even to quit the room because they 
are ‘not interested’ in a particular topic. 
Every man who is given a place on the pro- 
gram is entitled to a respectful hearing. 

In regard to the time of meeting, I have 
first of all one complaint to make in regard 
to convocation week. When the matter was 
first talked of I understood that it was to 
come after the Christmas New Year holidays. 
In many states the state societies have met 
annually for many years during this week 
between Christmas and New Year’s. It is 
desirable, if not absolutely necessary, that col- 
lege and university professors should attend 
these local meetings. When convocation 
week was proposed, I supposed it was to fol- 
low the week already preoccupied by the 
state societies, but I find that this is not the 
ease, and every winter I must decide whether 
to run away from the state meetings or to 
omit the association meetings. Convocation 
week should come a week later, or the state 
meetings a week earlier, than now. | 

As to whether we should meet twice a year 
or only once, I am inclined to accept Dr. 
Cattell’s suggestion to have a big winter meet- 
ing alternating with smaller and less formal 
summer meetings. This will meet the geo- 
graphical difficulty by allowing the two meet- 
ings to be held in widely separated parts of 
the country. Thus when the winter meeting 
is held in Philadelphia the summer meeting 
preceding or following it might be held in 
Minneapolis, Colorado Springs, Seattle or San 


SCIENCE. 


431 


Francisco. And so with a winter meeting in 
New Orleans, the summer meeting might be 
held in Portland (Maine or Oregon). I 
rather like the idea of two meetings because 
it helps to settle the geographical problems 
which confront us. The New Englander can 
searcely be asked to go to San Francisco, for 
the distance is too great (although it is no 
greater than for the Californian to go to 
Boston). And we can not be expected to 
hold winter meetings in our far northern 
cities, nor summer meetings in the south. 
The two-meeting plan is a good one for this 
reason. 

Lastly, it is evident that this will require 
a great deal of careful planning, in order that 
these beneficial results may follow. It will be 
necessary to fix upon the places of meeting 
several years in advance, and also to decide 
upon the general features of the section pro- 
grams a year or so before the meetings. 

Cuarues E. BEssry. 

THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


Ir has seemed to me that in one respect the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science is drifting in an unfortunate direc- 
tion, namely, away from its historic policy of 
attempting to keep in close touch with the 
general public and the younger students. A 
person who has had some scientific training 
and is interested in the work of the associa- 
tion has usually been admitted to membership 
if he desired to join. I believe the encourage- . 
ment to the young student has been invalu- 
able. It has brought young and inexperi- 
enced persons into close association with older 
men who are experienced investigators. The 
mere association and contact of the inexperi- 
enced with the experienced investigator has a 
great educational value for the former and it 
serves in addition to stimulate his ambition 
and to give him an opportunity to put in a 
word in the discussions or to offer his 
‘maiden’ speech or paper, either one of which 
gives him better command of his scientific 
thought and is an encouragement to investi- - 
gation on his part, with an ambition to offer 
something more worthy another time. For- 
merly there was great public interest in the 


432 SCIENCE. 


association and it was more active in interest- 
ing the general public. This may be due to 
one of two causes, or to both: (1) To the 
change from summer to winter meetings; (2) 
to the tendency to discontinue the former 
policy of ‘science extension’ work, and to the 
desire to federate the different scientific so- 
cieties of the country. 

With regard to the last question, however 
much there may be in favor of it, there are, 
I believe, grave obstacles in the way of secur- 
ing a satisfactory federation even if it were 
desirable. There still would remain the def- 
nite field of work and the special problems 
for consideration on the part of specialists 
and investigators which have led them to 
organize distinct societies, with membership 
necessarily determined in some eases on a dif- 
ferent basis from that of the American Asso- 
ciation. Furthermore, such a federation 
would not be successful unless it practically 
included all the prominent scientific societies. 

There seems to be a growing feeling on the 
part of many members that greater emphasis 
should be laid on the social features of the 
meeting, 7. e., the opportunity for the meeting 
of friends, for making new ones, and for 
friendly discussions. This is one of the most 
wholesome features of the meetings; but large 
meetings do not encourage this so much as 
smaller gatherings, for under the present 
system of making up the programs there are 
too many papers. 

I believe the most successful field for the 
work of the American Association, since it is 
a broad and inclusive one, is that of dealing 
with subjects of more general scientific inter- 
est. If the programs of the different sections 
were confined to subjects of general interest, 
the papers on the program would be fewer, 
there would be more time and inclination to 
discuss them, and the interest would be 
greater. Printing abstracts in advance, as in 
the British Association for the Advancement 
of Science, would increase particularly the 
opportunity for discussion. More general 
papers would offer an opportunity for mem- 
bers of different sections to hear something 
of matters of general interest outside of their 
own specialty, and would make sectional meet- 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 480. 


ings of greater interest to the general public. 
The interest of the general public in the work 
of the association has in the past been one of 
its aims as shown by the encouragement given 
to local members by placing them on commit- 
tees and encouraging them to become tem- 
porary members, as well as by the lecture 
given ‘complimentary to the citizens’ of the 
place where the meetings were held. 

I believe the American Association might 
be the means of doing a great work for science 
in the United States (which the special so- 
cieties can not do so well) by emphasizing the 
social features of these gatherings, by em- 
phasizing this feature of science extension in 
encouraging the interest of its members in 
the general progress of all departments of 
science, and by bringing it within the reach 
of the great mass of secondary school and 
academy teachers, as well as the educated 
public who are interested in learning the gen- 
eral results of scientific research. In this 
way the field for the special societies would 
be more clearly marked. Many of them would 
probably be glad to work generally in affilia- 
tion with the association, their papers of 
general interest to be presented before the sec- 
tions, while each would at other times differ- 
entiate into their individual sections for the 
more technical papers, to which, of course, 
any member of the association or an outsider 
would be welcome if he chose to attend. 

Then since SCIENCE is generally recognized 
as the official organ of the association its field 
might be directed more definitely to what 
might be the field of the association, and cease 
to publish matter which is not of general 
scientific interest, or at least cease to publish 
technical or special notes, which are more ap- 
propriately published elsewhere. ScImNCE is 
the medium for the discussion of questions of 
general scientific interest, for the publication 
of addresses or papers of general interest pre- 
sented before the meetings of the association, 
and for bringing to its patrons weekly sum- 
maries of the important and interesting re- 
sults of scientific research, discovery and 
travel. This latter feature should be as com- 
plete as possible, and Science would form a 


rail 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


weekly hand-book which few of us could afford 
to be without. 

The season of the year when the meetings 
of the association should be held is, perhaps, 
one of the most difficult things to decide un- 
less the knot is cut by adopting the suggestion 
made by Professor EH. L. Nichols, that the 
association is large enough and strong’ enough 
to hold both a summer and a winter meeting. 
Winter meetings could then be held usually 
in a more southern latitude while summer 
meetings could be held in the northern states. 

Gro. F. ATKINSON. 


Iv appears to me that the idea of effecting 
a union on lines of more or less close aftilia- 
tion between the various scientific organiza- 
tions of the country under the leadership of 
the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science is in many respects eminently 
wise and eminently desirable. Large bodies 
possess more power than small ones. This is 
the age of consolidation and combinations, and 
scientific men are not behind the leaders of 
industrial enterprise in recognizing the fact 
that ‘in union there is strength. It is to be 
borne in mind, however, that many of these 
scientific organizations are composed for the 
most part of specialists, whose sympathies are 
only to a very limited extent enlisted on behalf 
of the broader movement for which the Amer- 
ican Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence stands. The object which many of the 
affiliated societies have in view in holding 
annual meetings is to permit friendly inter- 
course and the discussion of questions which 
only indirectly are of interest to the great 
mass of the membership of the larger organ- 
ization. In these days of easy communication 
between all parts of our country the larger 
organization must hold out to its constituent 
sections and to its aftiliated societies some- 
thing more than mere sentimental considera- 
tions in order to hold these bodies in line with 
the general movement. Furthermore, the 
times and seasons adopted for the holding of 
general meetings must coincide with the con- 
venience of at least a majority of the members 
of the constituent organizations; otherwise 


SCIENCE. 433 


sooner or later these affiliated societies will 
fall away from the central group. 

The idea represented in the movement for 
a convocation week seems to me theoretically 
admirable. It, nevertheless, appears to me 
that the selection of the time for meeting, 
which has been made, is somewhat unfor- 
tunate. There are some things that antedate 
in their origin, as we all know, the American 
Association for the Advancement of Science, 
and among them are the festivals of the Chris- 
tian year. About Christmas center the joys 


- of the home and of the fireside. In the 


business world, furthermore, the last days of 
the old year and the first days of the new 
year are generally devoted to the settling up 
of accounts and to the transaction of a vast 
amount of business, which is more or less 
engrossing and of genuine importance to men 
of affairs. People who have families do not 
care, as a rule, to absent themselves from their 
homes at the Christmas season. Bidding fare- 
well the day before Christmas to the boys and 
girls who have returned to the roof-tree from 
school or college, for the purpose of under- 
taking a lengthy pilgrimage to a distant city 
in the interest of scientific discussion, reveals 
more of the ‘martyr-spirit’ than is common, 
except among old bachelors. Most scientific 
men, so far as my observation teaches me, 
who have homes of their own, are exemplary 
husbands and fathers, and while their devo- 
tion to science may be keen, they will not 
feel themselves called upon to neglect what 
appear to be domestic duties in order to par- 
ticipate in discussions which, it must be said, 
are often at most of minor and transient im- 
portance. I am quite firmly of the opinion 
that if convocation week is to be generally 
recognized, and the majority of our societies 
are to be led enthusiastically to favor gather- 
ings in such a week, the time chosen should 
fall in the period of mid-summer vacation. 
The meetings of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science and its 
affiliated societies, held in the summer months, 
have, as a rule, been eminently successful. 
The change to the mid-winter holidays seems 
to me, in common with a multitude of others, 
who have spoken to me, to be objectionable. 


434 SCIENCE. 


Personally, I desire frankly to say, that, as 
between staying at home at such a time in 
the cheerful society of my family and friends, 
and going to a distant city to endure the 
doubtful comforts of even the best hotel in 
the town, for the purpose of discussing the 
best method of combating the San Jose scale- 
bug, of collecting dinosaurs, or discovering the 
fossil fig-leaf aprons of Adam and Eve in the 
kitchen middens of Kilat-i-ghiljie, I will elect 
every time the former alternative, and I think 
I represent the sentiment of a very large num- 
ber of gentlemen, who are honored by mem- 
bership in the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science. We do not yield to 
any of our brethren in our devotion to science, 
but at the same time we have not yet come 
to that point where we are willing to sacrifice 
our known duty to our wives and children for 
the somewhat vague benefits of attendance 
upon meetings where at best we shall not 
learn much. I am told by one of the officers 
of the late meeting at St. Louis that very few 
persons were present at the meeting coming 
from a distance, except those who stood in 
some official relationship to the body, and who, 
therefore, felt compelled to be on hand. Those 
who were present, besides the official member- 
ship of the society, largely represented the 
local constituency. The reason for this is 
perfectly plain to my mind in view of what 
I have already stated. If the American Asso- 
ciation insists upon meeting in the last week 
of the dying year the gatherings are likely to 
reveal moribundity as the years die in suc- 
cession. W. J. Houzanp. 
Carnecin INSTITUTE, 
PITTSBURGH, PA., 
February 25, 1904. 


THE RAPHIDES OF CALCIUM OXALATE. 

To THE Eprtor or Science: In your issue 
of July 24, 1908, I gave a description of a 
phenomenon observed by Mr. B. J. Howard, 
of this bureau, showing the collection of the 
erystals of oxalate of lime in bomb-like 
eells in certain acrid plants, such as the 
Indian turnip. I beg to call attention to the 
fact that Dr. H. A. Weber in the Journal of 
the American Chemical Society, Vol. 13, No. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 480. 


7, published some interesting data regarding 
the cause of acridity in certain plants. As 
the conclusion of his experiments he stated: 
“These experiments show conclusively that the 
acridity of the Indian turnip and ealla is due 
to the raphides of calcium oxalate only.’ 
Dr. Weber’s explanation of the destruction 
of acridity in certain cases where calcium 
oxalate crystals are found is interesting. He 
ascribes it to the presence of a thick mucilage, 
or in eases where starch is present and where 
boiling destroys the acridity he ascribes this 
loss of acridity to the production of starch 
paste. The mucilage and the starch paste 
serve to restrain the activity of the erystals 
and prevent them from entering the surface 
of the tongue and mouth. 

Mr. Howard has found that the colocasia 
leaf, which contains but little starch, retains 
its acridity when boiled until the acicular 
erystals are destroyed. The same observation 
applies to the Indian turnip, which contains 
a notable percentage of starch. It is probable 
therefore in all cases that the acridity con- 
tinues as long as the needle-like crystals are 
intact. On recrystallization in these cases the 
lime oxalate assumes the octahedral form and 
the acridity is not restored. It is only in 
case the erystals-are very fine and sharply 
pointed that acridity is pronounced. Large 
and more bluntly pointed erystals produce 
little or no effect. 

Dr. Weber describes also the investigations 
of Professor W. R. Lazenby on the occurrence 
of crystals in plants, and states that Professor 
Lazenby is of the opinion that the acridity of 
the Indian turnip is due to the presence of the 
erystals of calcium oxalate. It seems only 
proper in this connection to call attention to 
these earlier observations which the experi- 
ments described in my letter of the above date 
fully confirm. H. W. Witey: 


THE TERM ‘ BRADFORDIAN.’ 

To THE Eprtor or ScieNcE: On page 24 of 
the current volume of Science, January 1, 
1904, Dr. G. H. Girty is reported as having 
proposed the term Bradfordian for transition 
beds between Devonian and Carboniferous. It 
is not quite clear whether he intends the term 


Marcu 11, 1904.] 


to denote ‘a series of rocks’ or an ‘ interval 
in the time-scale.’ In any case, the name 
Bradfordian is well known to students of 


European Mesozoic rocks, having been pro-, 


posed by Desor in 1859, for Upper Bathonian 
rocks, as exemplified at Bradford-on-Avon in 
England. Dr. Girty doubtless overlooked this, 
although he might have found it in Professor 
Renevier’s valuable ‘Chronographe géologique’ 
published by the International Congress of 
Geologists. 

It is always a pity when the names of well- 
known European places are applied by geolo- 
gists to newly established stratigraphical 
divisions in other countries. Instances of 
this, both in the British colonies and in the 
United States of America, are perplexingly 
numerous. Even such terms as ‘ Cussewago’ 


and ‘ Cuyahoga’ are to be preferred. 
FE. A. B. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
NOTES ON FLUORESCENCE AND PHOSPHORESCENCE. 


Tue phosphorescent and fluorescent proper- 
ties of natural minerals have attracted con- 
siderable notice and some highly interesting 
papers have been recently written on the sub- 
ject, but artificial products of this class do 
not appear to have claimed much attention. 

It is well known that minerals found in 
one locality may fluoresce brightly under 
suitable excitation, while other specimens, ap- 
parently similar, but taken from another lo- 
eality, may be unresponsive under a like 
excitation. 

Tt is also well known that a minute trace 
of certain substances, when properly incor- 
porated with a large quantity of another sub- 
stance, will sometimes impart fluorescent and 
phosphorescent properties to the latter. For 
example, if a trace of manganese chloride 
is fused with sodium chloride, the latter will 
fluoresce red under ultra-violet light, whereas 
sodium chloride fused by itself will show no 
color fluorescence. It, therefore, appears al- 
together probable that the fluorescent proper- 
ties of some natural minerals is due to the 
presence of another substance in minute quan- 
tity, and in the absence of this constituent 


SCIENCE. 


435 


an otherwise similar mineral may be non- 
fluorescent. 

The writer having given some study to the 
artificial production of fluorescent and phos- 
phorescent compounds, is tempted to present 
a description of a few simple experiments in 
the hope that their results may prove interest- 
ing to other investigators, and thus lead to 
further developments in this fascinating field 
of research. 

The ultra-violet light used for testing was 
made by a small high-tension are produced by 
a condenser discharge between two iron balls 
about one half inch in diameter, the air gap 
being adjustable and the condenser being 
charged by an alternating current of 60 cycles 
and 120 volts, stepped up to about 5,000 volts. 

Haperiment No. 1—Zine-sulphate was dis- 
solved in a small quantity of distilled water 
holding a trace of manganese sulphate in so- 
lution. The mixture was boiled to dryness 
and then calcined at a full red heat in a 
porcelain crucible for about thirty minutes. 
The resulting white powder fluoresced a light 
pink and phosphoresced an intense red, having 
the appearance of being red hot. 

Haperiment No. 2.—Zine chloride was dis- 
solved in a small quantity of distilled water 
holding a trace of manganese sulphate in solu- 
tion. An equal quantity by measure of soda 
silicate of a syrupy consistency was then 
‘added and the mixture triturated to a thick 
eream. It was then dried and calcined at a 
full red heat in a porcelain crucible for about 
three hours. The resulting white powder 
showed a light green fluorescence and phos- 
phoresced brightly the same color. 

Experiment No. 3.—Substituting cadmium 
chloride for zine chloride, but otherwise using 
the same ingredients and treatment as de- 
scribed in the last experiment, the resulting 
white powder fluoresced a light pink and phos- 
phoresced an orange yellow. 

Experiment No. 4—Cadmium sulphate was 
dissolved in distilled water with a trace of 
manganese sulphate, evaporated to dryness 
and calcined at a red heat in a porcelain 
erucible for fifteen minutes. The resulting 
powder fluoresced a dull yellow, and phospho- 
reseed a light green. The phosphorescence of 


436 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 480. 


TABULATED RESULTS OF EXPERIMENTS WITH FLUORESCENT AND PHOSPHORESCENT COMPOUNDS. 


By Ultra- 


violet Light. By Roentgen Rays. 


Material. By Natural Light. |} ——— — 
Fluorescence. | Phosphorescence.| Fluorescence Phosphorescence. 
Experiment No. 1. White. Light pink. Dark red. 
tt re ke ee Light green. Bright green. | Green. Faint green. 
Oe coon ss Light pink. Orange yellow.| Faint orange. | None. 
ag “4, Yellowish. Brownish-yel. | Light green. Greenish-yel. Very faint. 
Powdered Calcite.* White. Bright pink. Intense red. Faint red. Very faint. 
a Willemite.*| Greenish-white.| Vivid green. Faint green. Bright yellow-| Very faint 
ish green. green. 


this product was remarkable for its persist- 
ency. 

The product of experiment number 2 is, in 
part, a silicate of zine which somewhat re- 
sembles willemite in the color of its fluores- 
cence, but it differs from willemite in being 
intensely phosphorescent. It is worthy of 
notice that without the trace of manganese 
the resulting zine silicate will show no fluo- 
rescence nor phosphorescence, in this respect 
resembling the non-fluorescent specimens of 
willemite. An inference may be drawn from 
this fact as to one of the probable causes of 
the brilliant green fluorescence of the wille- 
mite found in’ Franklin, N. J. 

W. S. ANDREWS. 


ScumnectaDy, N. Y., 
December 29, 1903. 


PALEONTOLOGICAL NOTES. 
PLEUROC@LUS VERSUS ASTRODON. 

In the Annals of the Carnegie Museum, 
Vol. II., p. 12, Mr. Hatcher reaches the con- 
clusion that the dinosaurian genera Plewro- 
celus and Astrodon are identical, and that 
Astrodon, having priority, should stand; 
furthermore, Mr. Hatcher concludes that 
Pleurocelus may be the young of some larger 
species. Both of these conclusions are, it 
seems to me, open to doubt. The vertebrx 
and foot bones ascribed to Pleurocelus greatly 
outnumber all the other vertebrate remains 
obtained from the vicinity of Muirkirk, Md., 
the locality where most of the vertebrates of 
the Potomac formation have been collected. 
The small, slender, cylindrical, blunt-pointed 
teeth supposed to be those of Plewrocelus also 
outnumber all other teeth found in the Po- 
tomac formation, so that there is good reason 

*From Franklin, N. J. 


to believe the identification to be correct. 
The type of Astrodon was an imperfect, large 
tooth, thrice the size of any ascribed to 
Pleurocelus, and not over four of these teeth 
have been discovered, while there are none of 
intermediate size between the two. A section 
of a tooth of Pleurocelus shows that the 
enamel is proportionately much thicker than 
in the tooth of Astrodon figured by Leidy, 
and while this may be partly due to a differ- 
ence in the planes of the respective sections 
this evidence is proffered for what it is worth. 
Finally, it may be said that no large vertebrz 
or foot bones similar to those of Plewrocelus 
have as yet come to light, so that for the 
present it would seem well to accept the 
validity of this genus. 


THE ARMOR OF ZEUGLODON. 


THERE is such a determined effort nowadays 
to derive the whales from armored ancestors 
and to foist a shield and buckler upon Zeu- 
glodon that it requires some courage to sug- 
gest that at present there is no good evidence 
that either of these theories is correct. If 
any living cetaceans carry with them traces 
of armor, it seems strange that no partly 
armored form has come to light among the 
abundant cetacean remains found in Miocene 
deposits. As for Zeuglodon (Basilosaurus), 
the only armor that undeniably belongs to 
this animal consists of a few, somewhat pyri- 
form, slightly keeled ossicles, the largest some- 
what greater than a man’s fist. There are two 
of these in the collection of the U. S. National 
Museum and no other traces of armor have 
been found, either by Dr. Andrews in Egypt, 
or by Mr. Schuchert in the southern states. 
There is no reason to suppose that the ir- 
regular fragment in the Koch collection, fig- 


MarcH 11, 1904.] 


ured and described by Dr. Abel, had any con- 
nection with the living Zewglodon. The os- 
sicles above referred to are not symmetrical 
and, therefore, did not lie in the median line, 
while they are entirely too large to have been 
attached to the paddles. If a few scattered 
ossicles on a creature sixty feet long consti- 
tute armor, then Zeuglodon was a mail-clad 
‘animal; otherwise he seems to have been un- 
protected. 

It may not be amiss once more to call atten- 
tion to the fact that Zeuglodon was so highly 
specialized that it could not have been in the 
line of descent of modern whales; also that 
the same strata which contain remains of 
Zeuglodon have yielded half a dozen vertebre, 
quite like those of a true whale, and indicating 
some animal from thirty to forty feet long. 
When more of this animal comes to light we 
shall probably have better information on the 
phylogeny of the cetacea than we have at 
present. ‘ 


F. A. L. 


FOSSIL FISHES IN THE AMERICAN MU- 
SHUM OF NATURAL HISTORY. 
UNDER an agreement with the trustees of 
Columbia University the American Museum 
has recently received on deposit the John 
Strong Newberry collection of fossil fishes. 
And this acquisition is noteworthy, in view 
of the fact that during later years the museum 
has been securing other important collections 
of fossil fishes. Among these are the Cope 
collection, consisting largely of North Amer- 
ican forms, from the devonian of Pennsyl- 
vania, permian of Texas, carboniferous of 
Tilinois and Ohio, and a very rich series from 
the Green River shales; the Jay Terrill collec- 
tion from the devonian of Ohio, a gift of the 
late Mr. William E. Dodge; and the collection 
of eretaceous fishes from Mount Lebanon, 
secured from the American College in Syria 
by the president of the museum, Mr. Morris 
K. Jesup. The Newberry collection itself is 
probably the most important representation of 
American forms extant; its catalogue includes 
nearly six thousand numbers, and among these 
are many of the type specimens described in 
the ‘Monograph on the Paleozoic Fishes of 


SCIENCE. 


437 


North America’ and on the ‘ North American 
Triassic Fishes.’ 

An exhibition of fossil fishes has become, 
therefore, a need of the museum. And for 
its installation the director has recently set 
aside the corner circular room opening out of 
the reptile gallery. Its arrangement will be 
in charge of a new curator, Dr. Bashford 
Dean, a former student of Professor New- . 
berry. The new gallery will include recent 
forms side by side with their fossil kindred, 
and will contain special guide cases to illus- 
trate the structure and evolution of the more 
prominent groups. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Stik Joun Murray has been awarded the 
Liitke gold medal of the Russian Geographical 
Society. 

Dr. H. Srruve, director of the Observatory 
at Konigsburg has been appointed director of 
the Observatory at Berlin. 

Tue following fifteen candidates have been 
selected by the council of the Royal Society 
to be recommended for election into the so- 
ciety: Dr. Thomas Gregor Brodie, Major Sid- 
ney Gerald Burrard, Professor Alfred Cardew 
Dixon, Professor James Johnstone Dobbie, 
Mr. Thomas Henry Holland, Professor Charles 
Jasper Joly, Dr. Hugh Marshall, Mr. Edward 
Meyrick, Dr. Alexander Muirhead, Dr. George 
Henry Falkner Nuttall, Mr. Arthur Everett 
Shipley, Professor Morris William Travers, 
Mr. Harold Wager, Mr. Gilbert Thomas 
Walker and Mr. William Whitehead Watts. 

Dr. FrepERIcK Peterson has resigned the 
position of chairman and medical member of 
the New York State Lunacy Commission. 


Dr. L. E. Dickson, assistant professor of 
mathematics in the University of Chicago, 
editor of The American Mathematical Monthly 
and associate editor of the Transactions of the 
American Mathematical Society, has been ap- 
pointed research assistant to the Carnegie In- 
stitution. The object of his investigation 
is the application of group theory to certain 
problems in geometry and function-theory. 

Tue NV. Y. Hvening Post states that the 
grant to the Department of Astronomy, of 
Princeton University, has been increased by 


438 


the Carnegie Institution at Washington, on 
the application of Professor William Maxwell 
Reed, to $1,200. “This renders possible the 
use of the telescope on all clear nights in meas- 
uring the brightness of certain standard 
stars.” The same newspaper reports that the 
Carnegie Institution has made a grant of $500 
in aid of research work in the Department of 
Physical Chemistry of the University of 
Toronto. 

S. I. Franz, Ph.D. (Columbia), instructor 
in physiology in the Dartmouth Medical Col- 
lege, has been appointed physiologist at the 
McLean Hospital for the Insane, Waverly, 
Mass. 

A DINNER in honor of Dr. D. B. St. John 
Roosa and to celebrate the twenty-first anni- 
versary of post-graduate medical instruction 
was given in New York on March 2. A cup 
was presented to Dr. Roosa by Dr. A. H. 
Smith, and speeches were made by Dr. Will- 
iam Osler, Dr. OC. A. Blake, Dr. W. W. 
Keen and others. 

Dr. Srmmon SCHWENDENER, director of the 
Botanical Garden of the University of Berlin, 
celebrated on February 10 his seventy-fifth 
birthday. 

Dr. Epwin Kiess, the eminent pathologist, 
celebrated his seventieth birthday on Febru- 
ary 6. 

It is reported that Professor EK. von Behring 
will succeed Professor Robert Koch as head 
of the Berlin Institute for Infectious Diseases. 

Dr. Rosert Bett, F.R.S., acting-director of 
the Geological Survey, Canada, has been ap- 
pointed a companion of the Imperial Service 
Order. 

Dr. ABBE, professor of physics at Jena, and 
Dr. Neumann, professor of mathematics at 
Leipzig, have been appointed members of the 
Bavarian Maximillian Order for Science. 


A cGotp medal engraved by M. Chaplain has 
been presented to Professor Bouchard, the 
eminent French pathologist. 


Av the annual meeting of the Geological 
Society of London on February 19, officers 
were elected as follows: President, Mr. John 
E. Marr; vice-presidents, Professor T. G. Bon- 
ney, Sir Archibald Geikie, Mr. E. T. Newton 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 480. 


and Mr. H. B. Woodward; secretaries, Mr. R. 
S. Herries and Professor W. W. Watts; for- 
evgn secretary, Sir John Evans; treasurer, 
Mr. W. T. Blanford, C.I.E. Sir Archibald 
Geikie, vice-president, delivered the anniver- 
sary address, which dealt with ‘ Continental 
Elevation and Subsidence.’ Medals and funds 
were awarded in the manner already an- 
nounced. ; 

Tue Sedgwick prize, for 1903, at Cambridge 
University, is adjudged to Herbert Henry 
Thomas, B.A., Sidney Sussex College, for an 
essay on ‘The Petrology of some Groups of 
British Sedimentary Rocks.’ 


Proressor CHartes L. Parsons, New Hamp- 
shire College, secretary of Section C of the 
American Association, who was prevented 
from attending the St. Louis meeting on ac- 
count of a severe attack of corneal ulcers, will 
completely recover his sight. He has been 
granted three months leave of absence to re- 
cuperate in the south. 


Proressor FE. W. MacBrinz, D.Se., of 
McGill University, has been requested to rep- 
resent the university at the approaching 
jubilee of the University of Wisconsin. 


Rerar-ApMirAL Rixey, surgeon-general of the 
Navy, and Colonel W. C. Gorgas, U.S.A., are 
expected to proceed to the Isthmus of Panama 
to study the sanitary conditions. 


THE medical journals state that Drs. EK. Mar- 
choux and P. L. Simond, of the Paris Pasteur 
Institute, arrived in Rio Janeiro, February 17, 
to study yellow fever. A fund has also been 
raised by the merchants and wharf owners of 
Hamburg to send Drs. Otto and Neumann of 
the Institute for Tropical Diseases to South 
America to study these diseases on the spot. 

Mr. James Hornett has been appointed 
marine biologist to the government of Ceylon 
with special reference to the pearl beds. 

Dr. Hermann Kuatscu, professor of anat- 
omy of Heidelberg, has undertaken a scien- 
tific expedition to Australia. 

Dr. Ropert Apps, of New York City, is to 
deliver the medical alumni lecture at Yale 
University, on March 9, on the ‘ Present 
Status of Radium as regards its Therapeutic 
Utility.’ 


‘Marc 11, 1904.] 


A BRONZE statue of the late Professor Sedg- 
wick, by Mr. Onslow Ford, has been unveiled 
in the newly erected geological museum of 
the University of Cambridge. 


Mr. Russett WHEELER DavENpPorRT, a well- 
known metallurgist, died at Philadelphia, on 
March 2, at the age of fifty-five years. 


Tue death is announced of Mr. Henry 
Michaelson, supervisor of Pike’s Peak forestry 
reserve and a writer on irrigation and forestry 
matters. 


GENERAL CHARLES ALEXANDER McManon, 
F.R.S., died in London, on February 21, at 
the age of seventy-four years. . After per- 
forming distinguished military and civil ser- 
vice in India, he took up the study of geology 
at the age of forty years and studied at the 
Royal School of Mines under Professors Judd 
and Huxley when fifty years of age. He sub- 
sequently carried on important geological 
studies of the rocks of the Himlayas and in 
other directions. 

Sir Epwarp SIEVEKING, a well-known phys- 
ician and author of important works on nery- 
ous diseases, died in London on February 24, 
at the age of eighty-eight years. y 

Dr. V. RopELLA, professor of chemistry at 
the Technical Institute at Novara, has died 
as the result of poisoning in the course of 
chemical experiments. 


Tuer death is also announced of M. Cal- 
landreau, member of the Paris Academy of 
Sciences in the section of astronomy. 


THE common council of the city of Detroit 
has declined Mr. Carnegie’s offer of $750,000 
for library buildings. 

THe Washington Hvening Star states that 
congress has appropriated $25,000 for the con- 
tinuation of Dr. S. P. Langley’s experiments 
on aerial flight. 


THE women of the Marine Biological Labo- 
ratory at Woods Hole are making an organ- 
ized effort to raise $5,000 for a dormitory for 
women students. All those who are inter- 
ested in this work are earnestly requested to 
send their subscriptions to the treasurer, Mr. 
D. Blakely Hoar, 220 Devonshire Street, Bos- 
ton, Mass. 


SCIENCE. 


439 


King Epwarp has offered one hundred 
guineas to the proposed London Institute of 
Medical Sciences. 


We learn from the Chemical News that the 
Chemical, Metallurgical and Mining Society 
of South Africa has decided to make six 
awards annually of fifty pounds each, accom- 
panied by a gold medal and diploma, for the 
following subjects: mining, milling, cyan- 
iding, chemistry (pure and applied), metal- 
lurgy (other than milling and cyaniding), and 
agricultural chemistry. These prizes are open 
to the members, associates and students of the 
society. Papers dealing with the South Af- 
rican mining industry are to have precedence 
in the awards. 


Tue American Society of Civil Engineers, 
by a vote of 1,139 to 662, has decided not to 
become one of the constituent societies in the 
occupancy and control of the proposed union 
engineering building, for the erection of which 
Mr. Andrew Carnegie has promised to give 
$1,500,000. The civil engineers own a build- 
ing on West Fifty-seventh Street near Seventh 
Avenue. 


Nature states that an astronomical society 
has been formed at Neweastle-upon-Tyne 
under the presidency of the Rev. T. E. Espin, 
who will give the first lecture, at the Literary 
and Philosophical Society’s rooms, on March 
11, on ‘The Work of an Amateur Observa- 
tory.” The honorable secretary of the society 
is Mr. J. D. Hastings, Warkworth House, 
Tynemouth. 


Tue Prussian Government will take over 
the serum institutions founded in the neigh- 
borhood of Marburg by Professor Behring. 


Reurer’s Agency is informed that an ex- 
pedition left England, on February 26, by the 
steamship Olenda for West Africa, under the 
leadership of Lieutenant Boyd Alexander, who. 
is accompanied by his brother, Lieutenant C. 
Alexander and Captain G. Gosling. The ob- 
ject of the expedition is to conduct a survey 
of part of the eastern portions of the North- 
ern Nigerian Protectorate and also to make 
zoological collections. The expedition will 
proceed direct up the Niger to Lokoja, whence 
it will travel along the Benue, afterwards. 


440 


striking northeast to Lake Chad. The objec- 
tive of the expedition is Kulka, on the shores 
of Lake Chad, and it is unlikely that this 
point will be reached before the end of the 
year. Lieutenant Alexander’s 
after reaching that town are uncertain, as it 
has not been settled whether the explorers 
shall seek to penetrate the Great Desert or 
return vid the German Cameroons. Some 
specially constructed steel boats for the nayi- 
gation of the shallow rivers in the Lake Chad 
region have been made in England. ‘The ex- 
pedition will probably not return for two years. 


movements 


Nature states that some considerable rear- 
rangements have been made in the museums 
at the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. A new 
gallery 130 feet long by 16 feet wide at the 
back of museum No. IIT. was opened on Feb- 
ruary 1. To this the entire collection of 
Gymnosperms (Conifers, Cycads and Gneta- 
cer, including Welwitschia) has been trans- 
ferred. The space in museum No. I. thus set 
free has been utilized in making a more effect- 
ive display of its contents, which had become 
very crowded. The well-lighted wall space in 
the new gallery has enabled the collection of 
maps and plans of the establishment at various 
periods to be brought together. Several of 
these have been contributed by the late Queen 
and by His Majesty’s Office of Works, and are 
of considerable historical interest. A set of 
the fine photographs of Kew in its various 
aspects which were sent by the government 
to the Paris Exhibition of 1900 are also shown, 
as well as an extensive series of photographs 
of coniferous trees in their native countries. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Harvarp University has received a gift of 
$250,000 from Mr. David Sears, of Boston, a 
graduate of the class of 747. 


Mrs. Wittram E. Dopce has offered the 
University of Virginia $40,000 for a Young 
Men’s Christian Association building provided 
other friends of the institution raise an en- 
dowment of $20,000. 


Iv is announced that the bequest of James 
Woolson to Boston University, most of which 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 480." 


will not be paid for a long time, will amount 
to $325,000. 


G. H. Myers has given the Forest School 
of Yale University the library of the late 
Professor Robert Henry, of Munich, contain- 
ing about 1,500 books and pamphlets on for- 
estry. 

Ir is announced that Mr. P. N. Russell, 
who for many years carried on extensive en- 
gineering works in Sydney, but has latterly 
resided in London, has made a further dona- 
tion of £50,000 for an additional endowment 
to the School of Engineering at the Univer- 
sity of Sydney. Mr. Russell originated this 
school some seven years since by an endow- 
ment of £50,000. 


Tue legislature of the state of Ohio has 
passed an emergency bill for the temporary 
relief of the departments of chemistry, phar- 
macy and metallurgy, the building for which 
was, as we have already announced, burned 
to the ground on February 19 at a loss of 
$125,000. 

Denny Hatt, a brown stone building be- 
longing to Dickinson College, was destroyed 
by fire on March 3. The loss is estimated at 
$60,000, which is said to be covered by in- 
surance. 


Tue University of Toronto has asked the 
government to provide a new physical labo- 
ratory. 

Kine Epwarp opened the new buildings of 
the University of Cambridge on March 1. 
These included a geological museum, a botan- 
ical institute, new medical buildings, com- 
prising laboratories and lecture rooms for the 
departments of medicine, surgery, pharmacol- 
ogy, and pathology and the Humphry museum 
of anatomy and pathology. 

Dr. Atexanper Situ, B.Se. (Edinburgh), 
who has for some years been associate pro- 
fessor of chemistry in the University of Chi- 
cago, has been appointed a professor of chem- 
istry and director of general and physical 
chemistry in that institution. 

Mr. WintiaAm Harper Davis, fellow in psy- 
chology at Columbia University, has ‘been ap- 
pointed instructor in philosophy in Lehigh 
University. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES,AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Marcu 18, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science :— 
Section C, Chemistry: Grorce B. FRANK- 
ORDER gen aticsicis ok aii spane ccarersts Gls este sia teeisrare ee 
Section H, Anthropology: GmorcrE H. Pepper 449 


Charles Emerson Beecher: Dr. W. H, Daty.. 453 
Scientific Books :— 

The Mark Anniversary Volume: PROFESSOR 
Beeps Sep PISCE G SIGE Yinist cccegaye oy sparen sis qst asus. sears Soet ace 455 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 457 
Societies and Academies :— 
The Anthropological Society of Washing- 
ton: Dr. WALTER HoucH. Society for Hau- 
perimental Biology and Medicine: Dr. 
WiLiiAM J. Girs. The American Mathe- 


matical Society: PRrormssor F. N. Cote.. 457 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

Convocation Week: Proressor W. F. 

Ganone, Proressor A. H. Forp. Our Fu- 

twre ‘ Public Analysts’: R. O. Brooks. The 

Misuse of * Formation’ by Ecologists: F. 

ERRNO WLU ONE ster -repate a acne iercseee) cota cps iemer 463 
Special Articles :-— 

On Titles for Papers: PRoFESSOR HARRIS 

HAWTHORNE WILDER. Liliptical Human 

Red Corpuscles: MELVIN DRESBACH....... 468 
Notes on Entomology: NATHAN BANKS..... 470 
The Highth International Geographic Congress 472 
The Sixth International Congress of Zoology. 474 
The Dedication of Palmer Hall, Colorado Col- 

LEG Caren ae Ta teats Mis ect eee ra ky dos 475 
Whe Study of Science. +4 .-8- 5400-52 -.- 476 
Scientific Notes and News................. 477 
University and Educational News........... 479 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION FOR THE 
ADVANCEMENT OF SOIENCE. 
SECTION C, CHEMISTRY. 

THE joint meeting of Section C and of 
the American Chemical Society at St. 
Louis, December 28 to 31, 1903, was one 
of the most interesting in the history of 
the organization. Besides the usual tech- 
nical papers were those of a physical chem- 
ical nature, with several of industrial and 
commercial value. The general order was 
varied by one whole session being devoted 

to a general discussion of valence. 

The address of welcome was given by 
Dr. Frerichs, president of the St. Louis 
Chemical Society. The response was 
given by President J. H. Long of the 
Chemical Society. Dr. Long presided at 
the Chemical Society sessions and Vice- 
President Baneroft at the Section C ses- 
sions. The address of the retiring vice- 
president, Dr. Charles Baskerville, was 
delivered Monday afternoon, subject: “The 
Elements: Verified and Unverified.’ The 
address of the retiring president of the 
Chemical Society, J. H. Long, was deliv- 
ered Wednesday evening, subject: ‘Some 
Problems in Fermentation.’ 

The officers for the coming year are: © 

Vice-President—Wilder D. Bancroft, Cornell 
University. : 

Secretary—R. S. Curtiss, Union College. 

Councilor—E. H. S. Bailey, University of 
Kansas. 

Members of the Sectional Committee—H. C. 
Franklin, Leland Stanford; M. T. Bogert, Co- 
lumbia University; L. P. Kinnicutt, Worcester; 
L. Kahlenberg, University of Wisconsin; G. B. 
Frankforter, University of Minnesota. 


442 SCIENCE. 


Member of General Committee—A. Springer. 
Press Secretary—G. B. Frankforter. 
Local Press Secretary—J. H. Knox. 


The papers read were as follows: 


The Ternary System, Benzene, Acetic Acid 
and Water: A. F. Lincoun, University 
of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. 

It was pointed out by Bancroft about 
ten years ago that the equilibria between 
two non-miscible liquids and a consulate 
liquid follow the mass law, and that there 
are only two sets of equilibria. The ap- 
plication of the law of mass action to the 
equilibria of these physical reactions has 
subsequently been demonstrated to hold 
very closely in the system, benzene, alcohol 
and water. -Waddell concluded from his 
experiments that the system benzene, acetic 
acid and water does not conform to the 
mass law, and that the equilibria can not 
be represented by expotential formulas. 
The work on this system has been repeated 
by the author, who finds that one of the 
chief sources of error in a work of this 
kind is the ascertaining of the point of 
saturation, that is, of equilibrium. Values 
are given for temperatures 25° and 35°. 
The data show that the two equilibria can 
be represented by two expotential formulas 
and that, as in the case of chemical reac- 
tions, the exponent is not a function of the 
temperature. The conclusion is that for 
the system benzene, acetic acid and water, 
the equilibria do follow the law of mass 
action. 


Thermometric Analysis of Solid Phases: 
Witper D. Bancrort, Cornell Univer- 
sity, Ithaca, N. Y. 

When two different solutions of a three- 
component system belong in the same field 
and reach the same boundary curve at the 
Same point, the composition of the solid 
phase in that field can be deduced from the 
difference in the concentrations of the two 
solutions. This method has been applied 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 481. 


to experiments of Heycock and Neville on 
gold and cadmium in tin and other sol- 
vents, published in 1891. It was shown 
that the compounds AuCd and AuCd, are 
formed. Reversing the process and as- 
suming the existence of AuCd, it is pos- 
sible to calculate the temperature measure- 
ments of Heycock and Neville. This work 
was done by Mr. E. S. Shepherd and will 
be published under his name in the Feb- 
ruary number of the Journal of Physical 
Chemistry. 


A Method of Grading Soaps as to their 
Detergent Power: H. W. Hmtyer, Uni- 
versity of Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 
When a soap solution is caused to make 

drops beneath the surface of an oil, the 
number of drops formed by a given vol- 
ume of the solution increases with the con- 
centration of the solution. The increase 
in the number of drops with increase in 
concentration is a measure of the increased 
power of the solution to emulsify oily mat- 
ter and consequently to cleanse. Advan- 
tage was taken of this connection between 
the number of drops and cleansing power, 
to work out a method of determining the 
cleansing power of commercial soaps. Cer- 
tain soaps are efficient for use with cold 
water but not especially good for use with 
hot water. The reverse is also true. The 
method grades soaps for these two kinds 
of use. The cleansing agent is not the 
alkali of the soap, but the soap in its un- 
decomposed form. 


The Determination of Gliadin in Wheat 
Flour by Means of the Polariscope: 
Harry Snyper, Minnesota Experiment 
Station, St. Anthony Park, Minn. 

The various proteids in wheat flour were 
briefly discussed and the desirability of a 
rapid and accurate method for the deter- 
mination of gliadin noted. Methods based 
upon the use of the polariscope appeared 


—— 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


to offer a satisfactory way for its deter- 
mination. The quantity of optically ac- 
tive substances in wheat flour, as sucrose, 
invert sugar and the non-gliadin proteids 
soluble in alcohol, was found to be small, 
and if desired corrections could be made 
for these substances by precipitating the 
gliadin and polarizing the filtrate, the 
gliadin could be determined by difference. 
Tt was found that if 15.97 grams of flour 
were treated with 100 ¢c.c. of 70 per cent. 
aleohol for 18 hours with occasional agi- 
tation, and the filtrate then polarized in a 
220 mm. tube, the readings on the sugar 
scale ranged from —4 to —7 according 
to the amount of gliadin in the sample. 
It was also found that the polariscope read- 
ings multiplied by .2 gave results corre- 
sponding with the per cent. of gliadin 
nitrogen obtained by the usual process. 
When the results are substituted in the 
formula (a)D—==—a/PL, the value ob- 
tained for the specific rotation of gliadin 
was found to be —90. Kjeldahl and Os- 
borne obtained approximately —92. While 
only tentative standards could be formu- 
lated, on account of lack of sufficient data, 
it would appear from the results. obtained 
that the polariscope offers a rapid and ac- 
curate method for the determination of 
gliadin in wheat. 


Factors of Availability of Potash and Phos- 
phoric Acid in Soils: G. S. Fraps. 

In the determination of plant food in 
soils, chemists have usually considered 
only that part which is soluble in the com- 
mon solvents. Solubility is not, however, 
‘the only factor of fertility in the soil. 
The rate of decomposition or weathering 
of the soil is of great importance, as is also 
the power of the plants to assimilate. 
Weathering has received little or no at- 
tention. It is known to be of great im- 
portance with nitrogenous bodies, but in 
regard to phosphorus and potash no data 


SCIENCE. 


443 


ean be given. Hxperiments show that 
there is a slight increase in both phosphorie 
acid and potash when the soil is kept moist 
and a great increase in potash when or- 
ganic matter is present. This accounts for 
the necessity of vegetable matter in soils. 
Another factor is the difference in the 
solvent powers of plants. A soil may con- 
tain sufficient food for one plant, but not 
enough for another. 


Thirty Years’ Progress in Water Analysis: 
Eiiurn H. RicHarps, Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technology, Boston, Mass. 

It is hardly possible- for the younger 
chemists to appreciate the benighted con- 
ditions in which the early ’70’s found us. 
Wanklyn’s book, written in 1868, was the 
first book published on the subject of water 
analysis alone. Frankland and Arm- 
strong, between 1866 and 1888, made 
eritical examinations of methods, and 
reached important conclusions as to the 
meaning of the presence of the various 
substances in drinking-water. 

During this time occurred a bitter con- 
troversy over the question whether the 
whole of the organic carbon and nitrogen 
or only a certain ratio of the total was im- 
portant. It must be remembered that at 
this time chemistry was still young in this 
country. There were a few laboratories 
in the better scientific schools and there 
were a few strong men at work, yet chem- 
istry in general, and water in particular, 
were far from satisfactory. 

My note-book, dated 1872-73, contains, 
so far as my knowledge goes, the records of 
the earliest so-called sanitary analyses. 
About this time the method of reducing 
to grams was changed to milligrams, and 
when finally accepted produced astounding 
results. 

The cause of the great diseredit to water 
analysis in the ’80’s was due to the taking 
up of the quick and comparatively simple 


dit SCIENCE. 


‘albuminoid ammonia’ process by inex- 
perienced chemists. Men with little or no 
training posed and advertised themselves 
as expert water analysts. What followed 
ean easily be imagined. The public nat- 
urally became skeptical, and learned to dis- 
eredit not only the work of these pseudo- 
chemists, but also the results of the experts. 
It was not an uncommon thing, as late as 
1895, for samples of water to be sent to 
four or five different analysts in order to 
see how widely they differed in their opin- 
ions of the same sample. Of course, the 
fault lay largely with the analysts who as- 
sumed that their laboratory tests were all- 
sufficient. 

Great good was accomplished along this 
line by the Massachusetts Legislature in 
1886, resulting in a law entitled ‘An Act to 
Protect the Purity of Inland Waters.’ 
This organization included not only a 
chemical laboratory, but an engineering, 
biological and bacteriological staff as well, 
and the new idea of control of the water- 
sheds and water supplies came to the front 
in order that selfishness of municipal dis- 
posal might be checked out of regard for 
the general good. This idea has been con- 
tinued in the various state and municipal 
laboratories ever since. 

At the present time the field of contro- 
versy has been somewhat shifted from or- 
ganic matter to organisms whose pernicious 
activities are supposed to give rise to the 
most serious dangers. 


A Study of the Nitrogenous Constituents 
of Meats: H. S. Grinpuny, University of 
Illinois, Urbana, IIL. 

Object.—To imerease by experimental 
study the present very limited knowledge 
of the proteids of flesh, in the condition in 
which they exist in meat as used for food. 

Method.—Two samples of lean, raw beef 
flesh and one sample of cooked beef flesh 
were extracted successively with the follow- 


[N.8. Von. XIX. No. 481, 


ing reagents: Cold water, 10 per cent.; 
sodium chloride solution, .15 per eent.; 
hydrochloric acid solution, .15 per cent; 
potassium hydroxide solution, and lastly 
hot water. The several forms of proteid 
and non-proteid nitrogen in each of these 
extracts were determined. 

Results.—The detailed results are given 
in thirteen tables. 

Conclusions.—1. Cooked meat is much 
less soluble in the above solvents than raw 
meat. 

_ 2. The acidity of a solution of flesh in- 
ereases upon the coagulation of its proteids. 

3. Cold water extracted 3.06 per cent. 
nitrogenous matter from raw meats and 
only .27 per cent. from boiled meat. 

4. A 10 per cent. solution of sodium 
chloride extracted from raw meats 6.10 per 
cent. of proteid matter and only .5 per 
cent. from boiled meat. 

5. A .15 per cent. solution of hydro- 
chloric acid dissolved from raw meat 2.28 
per cent. proteid and from boiled meat 
2.30 per cent. 

6. A .15 per cent. solution of potassium 
hydroxide extracted from raw meats 2.88 
per cent. and from boiled meat 4.84 per 
cent. of proteid. 

7. Hot water removed from raw meats 
49 per cent. and from boiled meats 6.24 
per cent. proteid matter. 

8. Of the total proteid existing im the 
original raw meats 95.22 per cent. was dis- 
solved by extracting successively with the 
above-named reagents, while only 50.59 per 
cent. of the total proteid of the boiled meat 
was thus made soluble. 


Some Double Salts of Lead: JoaN WHutIts, 

Rose Polytechnic, Terre Haute, Ind. 

In 1863 the observation was made by 
Carius (Liebig’s Ann., 125, 87) that lead 
acetate is acted upon by alkyl haloids when 
heated with them in a sealed tube, using 
glacial acetic acid as the solvent, and that 


eee he 


MarcH 18, 1904. | 


a class of compounds is obtained of the 
general type 


Pb{ 61,0, 


where # is any halogen. These compounds 
he designated as the acetines of lead. 

It is well known that lead sulphate is 
soluble in alkaline acetates, tartrates, etc., 
and experiment shows that the halogen 
salts of lead are also soluble under like 
conditions. It seems probable that these 
in passing into solution may form com- 
pounds of similar character to those men- 
tioned above. 

To test this, experiments were planned, 
whereby the products of the reaction might 
be collected and examined. lead iodide 
was chosen for the preliminary experi- 
ments, because it was found that the prod- 
ucts resulting from its solution in acetates 
and tartrates is white, hence the reaction 
could be followed by observing the change 
of color. 

The following method of preparation of 
the salts was adopted: A very concentrated 
solution of the acetate to be used was first 
made in alcohol, the strength of which was 
adjusted for each case, varying from 50 
to 95 per cent. To this a few drops of 
glacial acetic acid were added—otherwise 
the lead iodide is transformed almost en- 
tirely into the basic iodide—and then 
freshly precipitated lead iodide was 
brought into the hot solution until it was 
nearly saturated, the solution filtered and 
allowed to cool in a vacuum over sulphuric 
acid. 

In each case, upon cooling, well-defined 
colorless crystals were obtained, which, 
after draining off and washing with a mix- 
ture of strong alcohol and ethyl acetate, 
were subjected to analysis. In no ease, 
however, was the simple compound 


I 
Pb { o.H,0, 


SCIENCE. 


445 


corresponding to Carius’s salt obtained; 
instead, the analyses showed that com- 
pounds were formed, which may be inter- 
preted as a combination of this with the 
metallic acetate used. The following salts 
have so far been isolated and analyzed: 


fl 
TEPC ELOEENACIELO AChE On 


melting point (uncorr. ) 124-125° C. 


Be a ee le ,0,- 4C,H,0,, 


melting point undetermined. 


Ill. Pb 
ares » + KC,H,0,, 


melting point 208-208.5° C. 


I 
ED { C,H,0, ++ NH,C,H,0,, 
melting point 166-167° C. 
Vv. Pb 
om C,H,O, + Pb(C,H;0,)>- 2C,H,0,, 
melting point 202-205° C. 


They all (with the exception of II.) pos- 
sess a characteristic crystal form and give 
fairly sharp melting pomts. It will be 
observed that some of them contain acetic: 
acid of erystallization, while others do not,, 
although they were all prepared in a sim- 
ilar manner. When dry they are quite 
stable, but are decomposed by water or 
moist air, forming first lead iodide, then 
the basic iodide. Organic solvents are 
without action. On account of the imsolu- 
bility and general inactivity of these sub- 
stances, it has not yet been possible to 
determine with positiveness their molecular 
structure. Itis hoped that further investi- 
gation may throw additional light upon this 
point. 


The Theory of Valence: G. B. FRANK- 
FORTER, University of Minnesota, Min- 
neapolis, Minn. 

Valence followed, as a natural conse- 
quence, Dalton’s atomic theory and the 
laws of definite and multiple proportion. 
The first real expression of the present 
valeney theory was made by Frankland, 
followed by Kolbe and others, who showed 


446 


the new idea was in close accord with facts. 
Notwithstanding the enormous amount of 
work and speculation of the past fifty 
years, the idea of valence remains as 
mysterious as ever. Whether valence rep- 
resents certain lines of force as a result 
of some modified application of chemical 
affinity, or whether it represents certain 
electrical charges, remains for the future 
to determine. The electrolytic dissociation 
theory and the ionization theory would 
seem to point to the latter as one of the 
coming theories. Hyvery one must admit 
that the present valence theory has been 
of inestimable value in the development of 
the science, yet none can doubt the fact 
that the foundation upon which the whole 
theory rests is by no means a firm one. 


The Theory of Double Salts: James Locks, 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, 
Boston, Mass. 

The present theory of double salts is 
untenable. In the development of the 
double-salt theory during the past. thirty 
or forty years, the tendency has been to 
represent even the most complex of these 
double compounds as if the valences of the 
respective elements were absolutely fixed. 
This condition of affairs has been brought 
about largely by the organic chemists who 
have carried the structural arrangement 
to the extreme, and many compounds are 
represented by definite fixed formulas with- 
out the slightest shade of reason. The 
salts of hydroferro and hydroferricyanic 
acids serve as excellent illustrations. The 
double salts of platinum, as represented by 
Remsen in his theoretical chemistry, also 
show the absurdity of the present theory. 
In fact, the present double-salt conception 
is without foundation and must sooner or 
later fall. The Werner theory comes 
nearer to a logical representation of the 
double salts than any theory which has yet 
been proposed. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 481. 


Werner’s Theory of Valence and the Con- 
stitution of Compounds: J. E. TEEPLE, 
Cornell University, Ithaca, N. Y. 

The most common objection to Werner’s 
theory is that it discards the present theory 
of valence, although Werner himself be- 
lieves that it is only a logical outgrowth 
of the valence theory. The development 
of the present theory since the time of 
Frankland and Kekule may be summed up 
as follows: (1) A rise in the valence as- 
signed to each element; (2) the inereasing 
use of compact concentric formulas; (3) 
the common acceptance of the idea of 
varying valence; (4) the introduction of 
space relations in formulas, and (5) the 
erowth of the idea of partial or residual 
valence. The results of the development 
along these five lines have been remarkable, 
notwithstanding the fact that no satis- 
factory explanations are offered for any 
of the complex compounds and especially 
the double salts. In facet, Werner’s theory 
is the first to give a satisfactory explana- 
tion of the structural formulas as CoCl,- 
6H,O, CoCl,-3NH,;, CoCl,-4(NH,), Fe- 
(CN),K, and Fe(CN),K,. 

To understand Werner’s theory three 
concepts are necessary: (1) Primary 
valence, (2) secondary valence and (3) 
coordinate number. By primary valence 
is understood the idea of valence in the 
ordinary sense as the power of holding to- 
gether ions or radicals which usually unite 
with ions. Secondary valence, on the 
other hand, only combines substances which 
can not act as ions and are not equivalent 
to them. The coordinate number of an 
atom represents the maximum number of 
eroups or atoms with which it may come 
into direct contact. This number is def- 
inite and unvarying for each element: four 
for carbon, six for cobalt and most of the 
metals. The number ean easily be de- 
termined by its ammonia compounds or 
similar derivatives. 


Marcnm 18, 1904.] 


Following out these three concepts, we 
are able, for the first time, to express such 
compounds as CoCl,(NH,), satisfactorily. 
Thus, around a central cobalt atom are 
arranged the six ammonia groups attached 
to the cobalt atom by secondary valences. 
They are in the first sphere of influence, 
and hence the whole complex Co(NH,), 
acts as a single ion. These six groups are 
probably regularly distributed around 
cobalt as the central atom and may, there- 
fore, be represented by an octahedron with 
an ammonia group joimed to each of the six 
vertices. In the second sphere, and not 
directly connected with the cobalt atom, 
lie the chlorine atoms. Being necessarily 
farther removed from the cobalt atom, we 
should expect more freedom of action for 
them than for the ammonia, that is, they 
would act as ions when the salt is in solu- 
tion. All this may be briefly represented 
by the formula Co(NH,),Cl,. It has been 
experimentally proved that such complex 
ions as Co(NH,), do actually exist in solu- 
tion and that, in this particular salt, all 
three chlorine atoms do act as ions. 

Werner’s theory also explains 
hitherto inexplicable phenomena of the 
simpler compounds. Why does ammonium 
chloride, NH,Cl, dissociate while the cor- 
responding compound methyl chloride, 
CH,Cl, its left-hand neighbor in the 
periodic system, does not? According to 
the idea given above, the hydrogen in the 
ammonium chloride would be in the first 
sphere of the nitrogen, the group NH, act- 
ing as an ion, while the chlorine would act 
in the second sphere. The compound 
should dissociate. It does. In the case of 
the methyl chloride, there is no dissocia- 
tion because both the hydrogen and the 
chlorine are in the first sphere of influence 
and joined directly to the carbon atom. 
This same explanation also applies to the 
oxonium, sulphonium, phosphonium, iodon- 
ium and diazonium salts. 


many 


SCIENCE. 


447 


It is impossible to explain these molecular 
compounds by the old theory. The very 
term ‘molecular compound’ is proof that 
the old valence is insufficient. 

Various attempts have been made to dis- 
prove Werner’s theory, but in most cases 
experiments have proved rather than dis- 
proved the theory. This is especially true 
with regard to coordinate number, which 
gives to each element a fixed number and 
secondary valence which has a definite 
limit. It is not understood that this 
theory was designed to replace the old 
valence theory in cases of simpler com- 
pounds like sodium chloride or in any case 
where the present theory is satisfactory. 
Tt was only intended as an extension of the 
present theory. 


Solubility of Gold wm Certain Oxidizing 
Agents: Victor LenueEr, University of 
Wisconsin, Madison, Wis. 

Metallic gold is soluble in such inert 
acids as sulphuric and phosphoric when 
heated in the presence of such oxidizing 
agents as selenic, telluric, nitric and 
chromie acids, red lead, lead dioxide, 
nickelic oxide, manganese dioxide and the 
higher oxides of manganese. Anode 
oxygen will also readily cause solution of 
a gold electrode with electrolytes of either 
acids or alkali, most of the metal subse- 
quently depositing on the cathode. In 
ease of such salts as sodium sulphate or 
sodium nitrate, very little of the gold 
passes through or enters the electrolyte, 
and the gold anode is completely trans- 
formed into gold oxide. 


On a Method for Preparing Salts with a 
Definite Number of Molecules of Water 
of Crystallization: ULauncELotT WW. 
AnprEws, University of Towa, Iowa 
City, Iowa. 

Salts containing a maximum amount of 

water of crystallization when enclosed in a 


448 SCIENCE. 


tight vessel with a large amount of the 
same salt in a more or less completely 
dehydrated condition are, when a condition 
of equilibrium is attained, converted with 
precision into a phase containing a definite 
amount of water greater by one step than 
that present in the salt used as desiccant. 
The employment of the method for the re- 
moval of mechanically adherent water 
from highly efflorescent salts, and for the 
preparation of compounds containing alco- 
hol, benzene or acetic acid of crystallization 
was also referred to. 


An Interesting Deposit from City Water 
Pipes: HE. H. 8. Battny, University of 
Kansas, Lawrence, Kan. 

The soft brown deposit, resembling peat, 
contained the following percentages: 
Silica, 13.20; water, 27.62; manganese 
oxide, Mn,0,, 34.07; ferric oxide, 8.04; 
alumina, 3.29, and therefore, resembles 
woad. The water itself only contained a 
minute trace of manganese. 


A Method of Determining the Total Car- 
bon of Coal, Soil, Htc.: S. W. Parr, Uni- 
versity of Illinois, Urbana, Ill. 

The substance is mixed with an excess of 
sodium peroxide and burnt in the well- 
known Parr calorimeter. The residue is 
then mixed with an excess of dilute sul- 
phurie acid and the evolved carbon dioxide 
measured in a gas burette, the amount of 
earbon being calculated from the volume 
of the gas. The amount of carbon in the 
peroxide used is determined in a special 
blank experiment. The method gave good 
results for total carbon in iron, organic 
compounds, ete. 


The Application of Physical Chemistry to 
the Study of Uric Acid in Urine: F. H. 
McCrupren, Boston, Mass. 

The greater solubility of urie acid in 
urine as compared with pure water is 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 481. 


shown to be due to the establishment of an 
equilibrium between the uric acid and the 
acid phosphates. Hence the addition of 
even considerable amounts of alkalies, as 
compared with the uric acid, does not ap- 
preciably influence the solubility of the 
latter. The interesting details of this 
paper do not lend themselves to discussion 
in an abstract. 


Investigation of the Bodies called Fuber 
and Carbohydrates in Feeding Stuffs, 
with a Tentatiwe Determination of the 
Components of Hach: P. SCHWEITZER. 
The author presented in tabular form 

the results obtamed by approximate 

methods of determination of ‘pure fiber,’ 
fibro-pentosan, pectose, pecto-pentosan, 
pentosan, sugar, starch and ‘indefinite car- 
bohydrates’ in a large number of feeding 
stuffs. 

The following papers were also read: 


HrrMan Scutunpr: ‘The Dielectric Constants 
of some Inorganic Solvents.’ 

Haminttow P. Capy: ‘Concentration Cells in 
Liquid Ammonia.’ 

JAMES Locke: ‘The Action of Ammonia upon 
Solutions of Copper Sulphate.’ 

CHARLES BASKERVILLE: ‘ Phosphorescent Thor- 
ium Oxide.’ 

CHARLES BASKERVILLE and GrorcE F. Kunz: 
‘On the Action of Radium Compounds on Rare 
Earth Oxides and the Preparation of Permanently 
Luminiferous Preparations by the Mixing of the 
Former with Powdered Substances.’ By title. 

CHARLES BASKERVILLE: ‘ Action of Ultra-Violet 
Light on Rare Harth Oxides.’ 

W. D. BierLtow, H. C. Gorm and B. J. Howarp: 
“The Ripening of Apples.’ 

Joun Uric Ner: ‘Dissociation Phenomena of 
the Alkyle Haloids and of the Monatomic Alco- 
hols. Published in Liebig’s Annalen, Vol. 318, 
p. 137. 

Epwarp Barrow: ‘Synthesis of the Quinoline 
Series.’ 

Anrvip Nitson: ‘The Life of a Barley Corn.” 


G. B. FRANKFORTER, 
Secretary. 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


SECTION H—ANTHROPOLOGY. 

Srction H of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science held its 
regular sessions at the fifty-third meeting, 
which was in progress in St. Louis, Mo., 
during convocation week. The American 
Anthropological Association affiliated with 
Section H. Owing to a meeting of the 
anthropologists in New York City during 
the latter part of October, few of the work- 
ing members were present. 

The organization of Section H took place 
on Monday morning, December 28, imme- 
diately after the adjournment of the gen- 
eral session. This session, as well as all 
the subsequent ones, was held in room 
218 of the Central High School. Owing 
to the absence of the vice-president, Mar- 
shall H. Saville, the council granted per- 
mission to appoint a vice-president pro 
tempore. Dr. Anita Neweomb McGee was 
elected to this office. The officers for the 
meeting were as follows: 

Vice-President—Dr. Anita Newcomb McGee (in 
the absence of M. H. Saville). 

Secretary—George H. Pepper. 

Member of Council—W J McGee. 

Sectional Oommittee—George A. Dorsey, vice- 
president Section H, 1903; Roland B. Dixon, secre- 
tary Section H, 1903; M. H. Saville, vice-president 
Section H, 1904; George H. Pepper, secretary Sec- 
tion H, 1904-08; William H. Holmes, F. W. 
Hodge, W J McGee, Miss Alice C. Fletcher and 


George Grant MacCurdy. 
Member of General Committee—Amos W. Butler. 


Officers of the American Anthropological 
Association : 

President—W J McGee. 

Secretavy—George A. Dorsey. 

During the meeting the followmg mem- 
bers of Section H were elected fellows: 
Frederick W. Hodge and David I. Bush- 
nell, Jr. 

Frank Russell, Ph.D., instructor in an- 
thropology in the Peabody Museum, Cam- 
bridge, Mass., died in November, 1903, at 
the age of thirty-five. He became a member 


SCIENCE. 


449 


of Section H of the American Association 
for the Advancement of Science in 1896, 
was made a fellow at the forty-sixth meet- 
ing and was elected secretary of Section H 
for the forty-ninth meeting, which was held 
in 1900. 

Report of the committee on the death of 
Dr. Frank Russell: 

WHEREAS, The death of Dr. Frank Russell has 
removed from our ranks one whose career, though 
brief, was full of achievement and promise; in 
order to express our appreciation of what he was 
and what he accomplished, as well as our personal 
sense of loss through the untimely termination of 
his labors, we recommend the following resolu- 
tions: 

Resolved, That in the death of Dr. Russell the 
association has lost one of its most efficient and 
faithful workers in the field of anthropology, and 
one whose industry and patience, through years 
of physical suffering, will remain a noble example 
to his co-workers and all who knew him. 

Resolved, That copies of these resolutions be 
sent to his widow and family, and that a copy 
be placed among the records of the section. 

Gore A. DorSEY, 
Grorce GRANT MacCurpy, 
GEORGE H. PEPPER. 

The address of the retiring vice-presi- 
dent, Dr. George A. Dorsey, ‘The Future 
of the Indian,’ was delivered Wednesday 
morning in Room 218 of the Central High 
School. 

Owing to the small attendance and in 
view of the fact that all the members 
of the American Anthropological Associa- 
tion present were members of Section H, 
there was no formal meeting of the affili- 
ating association, the vice-president of Sec- 
tion H occupying the chair throughout the 
meeting. 

The followimg is a list of papers pre- 
sented, with discussions, and abstracts: 


TUESDAY, DECEMBER 29. 
Presentation of Holiths from England and 
Belgium: GrorGcE GRANT MacCurpy.. 

Paleoliths from the Quaternary deposits 
of Europe had a long hard struggle for 


450 


recognition, which was freely granted only 
after Sir Joseph Prestwich’s visit to Abbe- 
ville in 1859. The eoliths are passing 
through a similar struggle with increasing- 
ly brighter prospects of success. It was 
also Prestwich who came to their rescue at 
a critical time. Rutot, of Brussels, is their 
most powerful living exponent. Mr. Mac- 
Curdy made important collections last sum- 
mer both in Belgium and in southern Ene- 
land. The eoliths found in Belgium came 
from a series of the oldest Quaternary de- 
posits. The specimens found in patches of 
old southern drift which cap the highest 
levels of the Kentish Chalk Plateau are still 
older. If the chipping on them is artificial, 
it was done by Tertiary man. 

This paper was discussed by W J McGee, 
who said that much of the material from 
the region under consideration was of such 
a character that in many eases it was hard 
to determine whether the chipping was 
really the work of man or of natural 
agencies. 


Danish Museum of Archeology: GEORGE 

Grant MacCurpy. 

The present system of museums of north- 
ern archeology has been in force since 1880. 
The center of the system is the unrivaled 
collection of Danish antiquities in the Na- 
tional Museum at Copenhagen, that alone 
has enough material from which to write a 
fairly complete account of northern ‘arche- 
ology. Its branches are the ten provincial 
museums. Seven of these are in Jutland 
—the largest bemg at Aarhus—and one 
each in Fiinen, Laaland and Bornholm. 
Each provincial museum receives annually 
1,000 kroner ($280) from the state. In 
return for this subsidy the museums may 
be called upon at any time to relinquish 
important specimens that are wanted for 
the national collection at Copenhagen, and 
the director, of the national collection is 
ex officio advisory director of all the pro- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 481. 


vincial museums. The latter are not al- 
lowed to excavate without a permit from 
the National Museum authorities, and are, 
of course, reimbursed for such specimens 
as are given over to the Copenhagen Mu- 
seum. At the time of Mr. MacCurdy’s 
visit to Denmark, Dr. Sophus Miiller, the 
director of the National Museum, was 
making his annual tour of the provincial 
museums. 

While the system is, on the whole, satis- 
factory, it is defective in so far as it tends 
to discourage competition. There is no 
incentive to local pride, hence the provin- 
cial treasuries are seldom augmented by 
gifts from private citizens. 


The Cahokia and Surrounding Mound 

Growps: Davin Il. BUSHNELL, JR. 

Below the mouth of the Missouri, for a 
distance of some sixty or seventy miles, the 
Mississippi is bordered on the east by the 
rich alluvial plain to which the name Amer- 
ican bottom is generally applied. Near the 
center of this area is the largest earthwork 
im the United States, the Cahokia Mound, 
which has four terraces and rises to a 
height of 100 feet above the original sur- 
face. Its greatest dimension is from north 
to south, 1,080 feet; its width from east to 
west is 710 feet; area at base about four- 
teen acres. Cahokia is surrounded by a 
group of more than seventy lesser mounds. 
The mounds of this group are of two 
classes, conical and truncated rectangular 
pyramidal. One and six tenths miles west 
of Cahokia is a group of five mounds. Ex- 
tending in a southwesterly direction is a 
chain of mounds terminating in a group. 
Twenty-six mounds formerly existed at a 
place on the bluff opposite these mounds. 
They were destroyed some years ago and 
are now covered by houses which form a 
part of St. Louis. The slope of the bluff 
eastward from the Cahokia group appears 
to have been one extensive burial ground. 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


The name Cahokia applied to the mound 
group perpetuates the name of an Illinois 
tribe. There were formerly two groups of 
small mounds near the center of the west- 
ern half of Forest Park in St. Louis, the 
area now -known as the world’s fair site. 
These were explored. The average dimen- 
sions of the mounds of the smaller group 
were, diameter 48 feet, elevation 3 feet. 
Chert, potsherds and charcoal were found 
on the original surface. They may have 
been the remains of earth-covered lodges. 

_ George A. Dorsey, in discussing this 
paper, said that the abandoned villages of 
the Mandans, Pawnees and other, plains 
tribes had been noted by him, and that the 
ruins of the fallen earth lodges did not 
leave a mound, but rather a depression 
with an enclosing rim. 


The Mounds of the American Bottom of 
Illinois: Report on a Group Heretofore 
not mentioned and a New Light thrown 
upon Their Former Use: Dr. HW. KINNER. 
The great group of mounds of the Amer- 

ican bottom were described, and their posi- 

tion shown by means of maps. Special 
attention was given to the Fish Lake group. 
The speaker endeavored to show that the 
earthworks were not of a ceremonial na- 
ture, but were built for and used as places 
of refuge during the time of floods. 
Paper discussed by H. M. Whelpley. 


The African Pygmes: S. P. VERNER. 

At the request of Mr. Verner, W J 
McGee presented this paper. He stated 
that Mr. Verner had spent considerable 
time among the pygmy tribes of Africa 
and, at the present time, was on his way 
to that country to obtam a group of these 
interesting people for the anthropological 
exhibit of the Louisiana Purchase Exposi- 
tion. These savages have rarely been 
taken from their native wilds and the ones 
to be brought to America will be the first 
that have ever visited this country. 


SCIENCE. 


451 


Instead of having the regular afternoon 
session in the room of the Central High 
School, the section voted to accept an in- 
vitation of Professor W J McGee to visit 
the fair grounds and there listen to his 
paper on ‘The Department of Anthropol- 
ogy at the World’s Fair.’ 

Professor MeGee’s paper was presented 
in his office in the Washington University 
building, and was illustrated with maps 
and later by means of an inspection of the 
grounds and buildings that are to be de- 
voted to anthropology. 


WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 30, 
The Future of the Indian: Guorge A. 

Dorsey. 

This interesting address was discussed by 
W J McGee, H. M. Whelpley, H. Kinner, 
A. B. Reagan, Dr. Anita McGee, R. H. 
Harper and C. E. Slocum. 


The Kmufe in Human Development: W J 

McGes. 

The history of the knife was carried 
back to the time when a water-worn 
boulder was used instead of a stone with 
cuttmg edge. This primitive custom may 
still be seen among the Seri Indians of 
Tiburon Island in the Gulf of California 
and of the mainland. The speaker cited 
an instance In which a Seri woman was 
pounding the flesh from the leg of a horse. 
The implement with which she worked was 
a rounded stone. In pounding with this 
hammer it was broken in two, thereby pre- 
senting cutting edges that might have been 
used to advantage. Instead of utilizing 
this superior form of tool she threw the 
pieces away and sought another stone with 
a rounded surface. When the edged tool 
was first used the natural fractures were 
no doubt utilized for a long period. Then 
came artificial chipping with a slow devel- 
opment toward the higher types of cutting 
implements. 


452 


The Torture Incident of the Cheyenne Sun- 
Dance of 1903: Guorce A. DorsEy. 
This paper was in the form of a concise 

account of the dance, the torture which 

eaused the trouble and the charges made 
by the agents. 

John H. Seager and Mr. White sent in- 
dividual reports to the Commissioner of 
Indian Affairs in Washington. They 
charged that Dorsey and Mooney had paid 
fifteen dollars to an Indian to undergo 
torture. Seager had previously charged 
his superior officer with having revived the 
sun-dance and that it cost six beeves to 


renew it. This charge was made before 
the Mohonk conference. It was never in- 
vestigated. Dorsey demanded that the 


Indian Department investigate the charges 
on both sides. He stated that no money 
was paid for the dance that he saw, and 
that practically no torture was undergone. 


No session was held in the afternoon. 
The section was invited by the local com- 
mittee to visit the Cahokia Mound and the 
surrounding mound groups, and a number 
of the members took advantage of the op- 
portunity to visit this wonderful earth- 
work. 

THURSDAY, DECEMBER 31. 
The History of an Arickaree War Shield: 

Grorce A. DorseEy. 

The history of this particular shield was 
traced from the time that the owner died. 
The shield was stolen by a member of the 
tribe. It had been willed to the favorite 
son of the deceased. The son went to his 
father’s grave and saw a vision. In it a 
bear appeared, and there were various 
other phenomena such as the presence of 
lightning. He found the man who had 
stolen the shield and regained the inner 
part of the frame. The cover had been 
thrown away. He painted the shield, using 
as decorations the symbols seen while 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 481. 
watching his father’s grave. Thus he ob- 
tained good medicine. 


Presentation of Ceremonial Flint, and 
Facts Relative to its Discovery: H. M. 
‘WHELPLEY. 

Discussion by George Grant MacCurdy 
and R. H. Harper. 


Archeology of the Afton Sulphur Springs, 

Indian Territory: R. H. Harprr. 

In this contribution the preliminary 
work in the Sulphur Springs was de- 
seribed, leading up to the final cleaning 
out of this interesting ceremonial spring 
which contained the deposit of stone imple- 
ments. He mentioned the fact that the 
oldest Indians of the region were inter- 
viewed and all seemed to agree that it was 
a place of sacrifice. The absence of arrow 
points within a radius of several miles 
would tend to show that hunting was not 
allowed near the spring. Outside of this 
area a great many stone implements are 
found. 


The Efficiency of Bone and Antler Arrow 
Points as shown by Fractured Human 
Bones from Staten Island, New York: 
Grorce H. Pepper. 

The Indians of Staten Island were of 
Algonkin stock and members of the Mo- 
hegan tribe. Their village sites and imple- 
ments have always been in evidence, but 
no burial places of importance were noted 
until 1858. 

The first exploration work was earried 
on by Mr. Pepper in 1894, followed by 
explorations for the American Museum of 
Natural History of New York City the fol- 
lowing year, the latter work being under 
the direction of Professor Marshall H. 
Saville. The scene of these operations was 
a sandy bluff overlooking Raritan Bay in 
the village of Tottenville. 

Many human skeletons were found, the 
most interesting being three adults, among 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


the bones of which were twenty-five arrow 
points. Twelve of these were made of deer 
antler and four of bone. Many of the 
bones of the skeletons were shattered and 
pierced; one rib in particular presents a 
cleanly cut hole which was made by a long 
tapering antler point. 

At the time of this discovery only one 
antler arrow point had been recorded from 
this portion of New York state. 


Certain Rare West Coast Baskets: H. 
NEWELL WARDLE. 
This paper was read by title. 


Stone Graves and Cremation Cists wn the 

Vicinity of St. Lows: H. Kinner. 

A résumé of explorations in the mounds 
and bottom lands in the vicinity of St. 
Louis with an endeavor to determine pe- 
riods by the manner of inhumation. 


Some Drawings from the Estufa of Jemez, 

New Meaico: A. B. REAGAN. 

The drawings shown were made by the 
speaker during a two years’ stay with this 
Pueblo tribe. The paintings from which 
the drawings were made were cosmic signs 
which may be noted in many of the estufas 
in the southwestern pueblos. The element 
of white contact was shown in the faces 
depicting the sun and moon. 

This paper was discussed by George A. 
Dorsey, who dwelt upon the fact that it 
was no easy matter to persuade the con- 
servative Indians of the Rio Grande region 
to divulge the meaning of their sacred 
symbols. 


A Glossary of the Mohegan-Pequot Lan- 
guage: J. D. Princze and FRANK G. 
SPECK. 

Read by title. Will be published in the 

American Anthropologist. 


The newly elected officers for the Wash- 
ington meeting are: 


SCIENCE. 


453 


Vice-President—Walter Hough, U. 8. National 
Museum, Washington, D. C. 
Secretary—George H. Pepper, American Mu- 
seum of Natural History, New York City. 
GxrorcE H. PEppPEr, 
Secretary. 


CHARLES EMERSON BEECHER. 

Dr. CHartes EMERSON BEECHER, pro- 
fessor of paleontology and curator of the 
geological collections in the Peabody Mu- 
seum of Yale University, died very sud- 
denly at his home in New Haven on the 
fourteenth of February, of an affection of 
the heart. Up to within an hour of his 
demise he had appeared in his usual health. 

Dr. Beecher was the son of Moses and 
Emily (Emerson) Beecher, born at Dun- 
kirk, New York, October 9, 1856. He was 
prepared for college at the high school of 
Warren, Pa., took the scientific course at 
the University of Michigan and was grad- 
uated as B.S. in 1878. His tastes had led 
him to a study of the native invertebrates, 
living and fossil, and after graduation he 
became an assistant to Professor James 
Hall, State Geologist of New York, and 
incidentally an expert collector and skilled 
preparator of fossils, in which the State 
Museum is so rich. Here he remained ten 
years, during which he perfected himself 
in the science of invertebrate paleontology, 
and then through the influence of Professor 
Marsh was placed in charge of the collec- 
tion of invertebrate paleontology at Yale. 
Here he pursued his studies for the doc- 
torate of philosophy, which he received 
from the university in 1889, his thesis be- 
ing a-memoir on a group of Silurian 
sponges. At the instance of Professor 
Marsh he spent the summer of that year 
collecting fossils m Wyoming. Subse- 
quently he accompanied Dr. G. Baur on a 
visit to various Huropean museums. He 
had had the advantage of a course in geol- 
ogy under Dana, and in 1891-2, during the 
illness of that veteran teacher, he conducted 


454 


the classes in geology. In 1892 he was 
made the assistant professor of historical 
geology in the Sheffield Scientific School, 
and in 1897 full professor anc a member 
of the governing board. March 10, 1902, 
his title was changed to that of university 
professor of paleontology. In 1899 he suc- 
ceeded the late Professor Marsh as curator, 
of the geological collections and became a 
member of the board of trustees of the 
Peabody Museum. At the time of his 
death he was secretary to the board and a 
member of the executive committee. In 
1899 he was elected a member of the Na- 
tional Academy of Sciences, a correspond- 
ent of the Geological Society of London 
and a fellow of the Geological Society of 
America. In 1900 he became president of 
the Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sci- 
ences and held this office until 1902. 

Professor Beecher married, September 
12, 1894, Miss Mary S. Galligan, who with 
two youne daughters survives him. The 
interment was in Grove Street Cemetery, 
New Haven. 

Like most successful students of organic 
life, Beecher was a born naturalist. As a 
boy he collected the shells of the region 
about Warren, Pa., where his home was 
situated, and his first scientific paper, pub- 
lished in conjunction with Mr. Walker, was 
a list of the land and fresh-water shells 
found about Ann Arbor, Michigan, the seat 
of the state university. The abundance of 
Devonian fossils about his home at Warren 
doubtless contributed to his early imterest 
in them. In 1884 he published his first 
paleontological paper, an essay on the rare 
Paleozoic crustaceans known as phyllocari- 
da, a subject to which he returned eighteen 
years later, in a memoir which will be clas- 
sical. Always a field naturalist, after his 
connection with the Sheffield Scientific 
School began his opportunities for work in 
the west became more frequent and fruit- 
ful. On becoming curator of the geological 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 481. 


collections he presented to the university 
his private collection of fossils, the result 
of many years of accumulation and of great 
scientific value. 

Beecher was one of those students who 
derived from the teachings of Hyatt and 
Cope those guiding principles in research 
which have proved so fruitful for American 
science. By the application of these prin- 
ciples, together with a thorough and minute 
knowledge of details, he produced those 
memoirs on the Trilobites, the Brachiopoda 
and the origin and significance of spines, 
upon which (with much other worthy 
work) his reputation in days to come will 
chiefly rest. Space fails for an analysis of 
these contributions, which are universally 
known among professional experts. 

Beecher had the artist’s gift and his 
papers were largely illustrated by himself, 
many of his drawings being of a high order 
of merit. He had the sense of order and 
proportion so necessary for a museum ex- 
pert. He was quiet, cautious, without os- 
tentation, efficient and enthusiastic. 

The director of the scientific school has 
said of him:* ‘‘Quiet and unassuming, he 
never sought adulation, but when there was 
earnest work to be done, requiring skill, 
patience and good judgment, he would 
labor quietly and industriously, bringing 
to bear upon the problem such a measure 
of common sense and of thoughtfulness 
that confidence in and respect for his con- 
clusions were inevitable.-* * * No matter 
how trivial the duty, it was always done at 
the appointed time and thoroughly done. 
* * * Ag a friend he was loyal and trust- 
worthy and his memory will always be 
cherished by his associates in the Sheffield 
Scientific School.’ 

One of his pupils has testified to the in- 
spiration given by him to his students, and 
how his patience, perseverance and inge- 


* Yale Alumni Weekly, XIII., p. 488, March 2, 
1904. 


Marcy 18, 1904.] 


nuity served as an incentive to his asso- 
ciates, who were drawn closely to him by 
his enthusiasm and entire lack of egotism. 
There is no doubt that in the death of 
Professor Beecher, not only has Yale sus- 
tained a serious loss and paleontology a 
severe blow, but the ranks of those capable 
of bringing to the study of fossils keen in- 
sight and a philosophical spirit of enquiry, 
guided by principles whose value can hard- 
ly be exaggerated, are diminished by one 
whom science could ill afford to lose; and 
to whom, humanly speaking, there should 
have remained many years of industrious 
and fruitful research. W. H. Datu. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
THE MARK ANNIVERSARY VOLUME.* 


Votumus in celebration of some noteworthy 
educational event are more common in Hurope 
than with us, and naturally so. The advanced 
courses of instruction which alone can pro- 
duce a body of trained disciples have had only 
about a quarter of a century’s existence in 
America. As time goes on these memorials 
will doubtless increase in number; at present 
they can be counted on the fingers of one hand. 

Few men have had more influence upon the 
highest class of zoological work in America 
than Professor Mark. Leaving his early 
mathematics and astronomy, he went to Ger- 
many, worked there with Leuckart and Haeck- 
el and, on his return, at once entered the 
teaching force at Harvard. What he has ac- 
complished during these years can only be 
realized by reading the list of the one hundred 
and forty former students who sign the ap- 
preciative dedication of this volume, and by 
examining the long list of papers turned out 
from the laboratory under his charge. 


**Mark Anniversary Volume To Edward 
Laurens Mark, Hersey Professor of Anatomy and 
Director of the Zoological Laboratories at Har- 
vard University, in celebration of twenty-five years 
of successful work for the advancement of zoology, 
from his former students, 1877-1902.’ New York, 
Henry Holt and Company. 1903. Pp. xiv-+ 
513; 36 plates. 


SCIENCE. 


‘the food sae of Littorina rudis. 


455 


It is impossible for one man to write a 
critical review of the twenty-five papers which 
are contained in this splendid quarto volume. 
Even a bare summary of the articles will take 
more space than this journal can spare. All 
that can be done is to enumerate the papers, 
with such hints of their contents as will con- 
yey some idea of their scope. A fine photo- 
eravure of Professor Mark forms the frontis- 
piece; then follows the dedication, to which 
allusion has been made, and next the papers 
which make up the volume. These have a 
wide range of subjects, but one thing which 
is striking is the small number of strictly 
embryological articles such as formed the 
bulk of the work from his laboratory during 
the first half of his labors at Harvard. 

Two of the papers deal with habits. H. BR. 
Linyille deals with a couple of tube-building 
annelids, describing among other things the 
manner in which they build their tubes; while 
Jacob Reighard gives a long, detailed and 
interesting account of the habits of Amua, 
especially during the breeding season and the 
care of the young. 

Four of the papers describe new species. 
C. A. Kofoid describes a new protozoan, Pro- 
tophrya ovicola allied to Opalina, found in 
S. Goto gives 
an account of two new meduse, Olindoides 
formosa and Gonionema depressum, from 
Japan, pointing out that these genera with 
Olindias, Halicalyx and Gonionemoides form 
a natural family Olindide, and that the prob- 
lematical fresh-water genera Limnocodium 
and Limnocnida belong near them. Four 
new species of trematodes, three of them from 
the air passages of snakes and one from the 
frog, form the subject of the paper by H. S. 
Pratt, while H. P. Johnson describes three 
species of polychzte annelids from the fresh 
waters of the world, enumerating in his article 
twenty-four species of the group known to 
oceur in fresh water. 

The morphological articles are more nu- 
merous. J. H. Gerould discusses the develop- 
ment of Sipunculus and Phascalosoma from 
the beginning of gastrulation to the escape of 
the larva, pointing out that the ‘serosa’ of 
Sipunculus is a modification of the prototroch 


456 SCIENCE. 


of Phascalosoma. Ida Hyde has examined 
the eyes of Pecten with the aid of modern 
neurological methods, and concludes that our 
previous interpretation of the function of 
some parts must be erroneous. H. B. Ward 
gives a detailed account of several larve of 
the bot fly, Dermatobia hominis, which occur 
as parasites in man and other warm-blooded 
animals in the tropics. 

Two papers deal with the Tunicata. Will- 
iam KE. Ritter has a new tunicate, Herd- 
mannia claviformis, from California, the an- 
atomy of which is detailed and some facts 
concerning its development are given. It ap- 
parently belongs near Amaroucium, but must 
form a new family. F. W. Bancroft found a 
colony of Botryllus at Naples which partly 
died down and then exhibited rejuvenescence. 
The physiology and the structural changes in- 
volved are described, the author concluding 
that deficient nutrition was the cause of the 
phenomena observed. 

H. V. Neal and W. A. Locy both deal with 
the nerves of sharks. Neal describes the 
method of the formation of the ventral roots 
of the spinal nerves, analyzing the fates of 
various cellular elements which have been ,de- 
seribed in the cord, and concluding that all 
the neuraxones are formed from medullary 
cells and that the cells of the ventral nerves 
are concerned alone in the formation of the 
neurilemma and possibly some of the con- 
nective tissue. Locy returns to his ‘new 
nerve,’ which parallels more or less closely the 
olfactory nerve. He has now found it in 
nineteen genera of elasmobranchs, but finds 
no traces of it in the teleosts and amphibians 
which he has studied. P. C. Sargent takes 
for his contribution an account of that pe- 
culiar structure, the torus longitudinalis of 
the teleost brain, which he shows is nervous in 
character and serves as a center for the re- 
ceipt of those impulses from the optic nerves 
which call for quick reflexes. ©. H. Eigen- 
mann has been fortunate enough to obtain 
eggs of the blind fish, and he has given here 
an account of the development and degenera- 
tion of the eye. 

R. M. Strong shows that the metallic colors 
of the feathers on the neck of the domestic 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 481. 


pigeon can not be explained as produced by 
diffraction spectra or by refraction prisms, but 
that they must arise as thin plate interference 
colors produced between the contained spher- 
ical pigment granules and the outer trans- 
parent layer of the feathers. 

Thomas G. Lee presents a paper on the 
fixation of the ovum in the striped gopher, 
Spermophilus tridecemlineatus, the first of a 
series on the development of this form. The 
details are not readily presented in abstract, 
but it is shown that this form differs from all 
other mammals in the temporary fixation mass. 

The only paleontological paper is by C. R. 
Eastman upon the peculiar selachian fossils, 
Hdestus and its allies, which are known chiefly 
by a peculiar series of structures, often in- 
terpreted as spines, but now shown to be a 
coiled series of symphysial teeth, the struc- 
tures reaching their extreme in Helecoprion. 

The subject of variation is treated in two 
papers by Dr. and Mrs. C. B. Davenport. 
Dr. Davenport compares the variability of the 
scallops from Florida and from southern Cali- 
fornia, showing that the latter are much more 
variable and correlating this with the more 
varied environment and the greater geological 
changes on the Pacific coast. Mrs. Davenport 
has studied the number of stripes in the sea 
anemone, Sagartia leucolena, and concludes 
that their number is in part due to longitudinal 
fission. She also confirms the observations of 
Torrey and Parker which show that the mono- 
glyphie conditions so frequently found in nor- 
mally diglyphic hexactinians are to be ex- 
plained by the same type of asexual reproduc- 
tion. 

The two physiological papers, by G. H. 
Parker on the phototropism of Vanessa an- 
tiopa and by R. M. Yerkes on the reactions of 
Daphnia to light and heat, hardly admit of 
summary. Parker shows that Vanessa creeps 
and flies towards the light, but comes to rest 
with its head away from strong light. When 
the eyes are blackened all phototropism ceases. 
It is not affected so much by strength of light 
as by the size of the light area, and its retreat 


.at night is largely dependent upon tempera- 


ture changes. In Daphnia, according to 
Yerkes, phototropism occurs with light of all 


Kate aot 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


intensities and heat seems to have no effect, 
except in the absence of light, when they mi- 
grate to the colder area. Experiments also 
show that heat does not act in the same way 
as light upon the organism. 

H. S. Jennings points out that in infusoria 
and in certain rotifers, besides the radial and 
bilateral types there is a third type, the spiral 
or at least one-sided, asymmetrical type of 
structure with a definite relation to the 
method of movement and life. In the rotifers 
this asymmetry affects the internal organs as 
well as the external features which cause the 
spiral swimming. 

The only cytological paper is by R. Floyd, 
who deseribes the nerve cells of the cockroach 
under various kinds of preservation. He con- 
eludes that all nervous studies must be con- 
trolled by study of the living tissue. The 
thoracic ganglion cells have no evident cell 
walls. The eytoreticulum is studied, but no 
classification of the cells found was possible. 

Last to be mentioned is the paper by W. E. 
Castle and G. M. Allen on the heredity of 
albinism and Mendel’s law. They have ex- 
perimented with mice, guinea-pigs and rabbits, 
and find that complete albinism is always re- 
eessive. A suggestion is made to account for 
the phenomena of mosaics, and it is pointed 
out that cross-breeding frequently brings out 
latent characters and that this probably af- 
fords the explanation of many cases of rever- 
sion. 

In closing this synopsis of the volume the 
reviewer may be allowed to praise the mechan- 
ical execution of the work. The plates—pro- 
duced by lithography, heliotype and other 
photo processes—illustrate the papers. The 
proof-reading has been done in a careful man- 
ner, and probably the work owes not a little 
of its many excellencies to its editor, Dr. G. 
H. Parker. J. S. Kinestey. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


~ The Bulletin of the American Mathematical 
Society for February contains the following 
papers: Report of the Tenth Annual Meeting 
of the American Mathematical Society, by F. 
N. Cole; Report of the Cassel meeting of the 
Deutsche Mathematiker-Vereinigung, by R. E. 


SCIENCE. 


457 


Wilson; ‘On a Test for Non-uniform Con- 
vergence, by W. H. Young; ‘On the Condi- 
tion that a Point Transformation of the Plane 
be a Projective Transformation, by Elijah 
Swift; ‘ Note on Cauchy’s Integral,’ by O. D. 
Kellogg; Review of Bauer’s Algebra, by L. E. 
Dickson; Shorter Notices of Wolfing’s Mathe- 
matischer Biicherschatz, Bucherer’s Vektor- 
Analysis, and Ferraris’s Grundlagen der Elek- 
trotechnik; Notes; New Publications. 

The March number of the Bulletin con- 
tains: Report of the December Meeting of the 
San Francisco Section, by G. A. Miller; Re- 
port of the Fifty-third Annual Meeting of the 
American Association for the Advancement of 
Science, by L. G. Weld; ‘On a Gap in the 
Ordinary Presentation of Weierstrass’s Theory 
of Functions, by W. F. Osgood; ‘On the 
Theorem of Analysis Situs Relating to the 
Division of the Plane or of Space by a Closed 
Curve or Surface,’ by L. D. Ames; Review of 
Hadamard’s Propagation des Ondes, by HK. B. 
Wilson; Review of Burkhardt’s Theory of 
Functions, by L. E. Dickson; Notes; New 
Publications. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 355th meeting was held on February 
9. A letter from Miss Fletcher was read in 
which she stated that, owing to sickness, she 
would not be able to deliver the presidential 
address. A letter from Dr. Daniel Folkmar 
deseribing the anthropological work he is 
carrying on in the Philippines was read by 
the secretary. 

Dr. Ales Hrdlicka exhibited cremated hu- 
man bones from the Choptank River, Md., 
collected by Dr. Elmer Reynolds, and stated 
that they are interesting as the first evidence 
of cremation in the eastern United States 
except in Florida. Dr. Reynolds, who was 
present, described the conditions under which 
the remains were found. 

The first paper of the evening, by Mr. W. E. 
Safford, discussed the question, ‘Were the 
Aborigines of Guam Ignorant of the Use of 
Fire?’ Mr. Safford showed in the clearest 
manner the origin of the myth that the 
Chamorros of Guam were fireless at the dis- 


458 


covery of the island, finally running it back 
to the story of a sailor who had accompanied 
Magellan. At present the inhabitants of 
Guam make fire by the plow and saw methods, 
the latter introduced: from the Philippines. 

The title of Professor L. F. Ward’s paper 
was ‘ Monogenism or Polygenism.’ Professor 
Ward added much from the biological side that 
is new and germane to the topic of man’s 
descent, which long agitated anthropologists 
until the weight of opinion fell to the balance 
of monogenism. There is no such thing in 
nature as a first pair; nature is a becoming; 
there is no abrupt beginning; monogenism, 
therefore, is the theory that the human races 
have all descended by various lines from a 
common ancestry. Biologists are practically 
at one as to the descent of all living creatures 
from one primary source. Polygenism is 
regarded by them as impossible either for the 
human race or for animals or plants. 

The difficulty is to make this clear to non- 
biologists, and Professor Ward began by ex- 
plaining that function is simple, while struc- 
ture is immensely varied. Functions are the 
ends to which structures are the means. 

For example, there is only one kind of life, 
and only one kind of mind or reason. There 
are comparatively few vital functions and the 
same function may be performed by entirely 
different structures. This is illustrated by 
what are called analogies in biology. Flight, 
for example, is a function, but the wings of 
insects, birds and bats are all different struc- 
tures. While functions are always the same, 
there is complete fortuity in structures, and 
the same structure would never be independ- 
ently developed twice. Man is a bundle of 
structures, and the chances are infinity to 
one that another being could have independ- 
ently arisen exactly like him. Following out 
this idea, Professor Ward said that the in- 
habitants of Mars, should there be such, could 
not be like any of our types of animals. Fer- 
tility inter se, which obtains in all the human 
races, was also urged as an argument against 
the possibility of polygenism, and as showing 
that the lines of descent of the human races 
are very short. 

One of the most important corollaries from 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 481. 


the monophyletic origin of man is that all 
races are of the same age; 7. e., all are equally 
old. There are no ‘primitive’ races. Man 
is characterized only by degrees of culture and 
advancement, but all have taken the same time 
to reach the point of development in which 
they are now found. 

The paper was discussed by Dr. O. F. Cook, 
who objected to the use of both monogenism 
and polygenism and suggested eurygenism as 
denoting the tendency of all life to ramify. 


Tue 356th meeting was held February 23. 
The report of the committee on the preserva- 
tion of American antiquities was heard and 
the bill which they have prepared read to the 
society. The matter was referred to the next 
meeting for discussion. 

Dr. Ales Hrdlicka exhibited and described a 
true fossil human skeleton from the western 
coast of Florida. Very few such remains have 
been found in which the organic matter of 
the bones has been replaced by mineral. The 
specimens shown are in the National Museum, 
one of them a skull converted into limonite, 
the other a fragmentary skeleton, mineralized 
in somewhat different manner. The former 
was described by Professor Leidy in 1879. 
The bones have been analyzed and are found 
to contain only eight tenths per cent. of or- 
ganic matter, but the physical characteristics. 
of the skeleton are Indian-like, and do not 
point to any great antiquity. 

Dr. J. M. Casanowicz read a paper entitled, 
“Saerifice as a Means of Atonement and Com- 
munion with the Deity.’ The origin of sacri- 
fice was assumed to be a homage actuated by 
fear and the offerings were naturally of food, 
and the act was a providing for the wants of 
the god. Jn ancient belief the spirits of the 
gods gathered like flies around the sacrifice. 
It came to be thought that the gods smelt the 
sweet savor of the sacrifice and that men de- 
pended on the gifts of the gods, and conversely 
the gods depended on the offerings of men. 
Later the dependence of the gods on men was 
eliminated and we have sacrifices of another 
kind, as the human sacrifice, which may 
emanate from the belief that the value of the 
gift is proportioned to the privation of the 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


giver, and the sacrifice of the first born arises 
and the self-infliction of pain. 

The blood relationships between men and 
gods arising from the organization of men in 
kindreds with heads, representatives of gods, 
was discussed by Dr. Casanowicz and interest- 
ing examples of the beliefs and rites given. 

Dr. B: Rosalie Slaughter, who has recently 
returned from the east, gave an illustrated 
paper, entitled, ‘A Journey in Korea and 
North China.’ Attractive views were shown 
of the scenery, villages, architecture and 
people, with comments on them that showed 
the thorough acquaintance of Dr. Slaughter 
with the subject. At the close of the paper 
the society passed a vote of thanks to Dr. 
Slaughter for her interesting address. 

Water Hoven, 
General Secretary. 


THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. 


Tue fifth regular meeting of the Society 
for Hxperimental Biology and Medicine was 
held on the evening of February 17, in the 
rooms of the department of pathology of the 
Cornell University Medical College. Dr. S. 
J. Meltzer presided. Members present: Adler, 
Calkins, Crampton, Dunham, Ewing, Gies, 
Jackson, Levene, Lusk, Meltzer, Murlin, 
Norris, Richards, Wadsworth, Wallace, Wil- 
son, Woodworth, Yatsu. Abstracts* of the 
reports of original researches follow: 


The Nature and Basis of Sexual Selection in 

Moths: H. E. Crampton. 

The object of the investigation described 
was to obtain a quantitative expression for the 
strength of the mating instinct in certain 
species of large saturnid moths (Philosamia 
cynthia and Samia cecropia), and to deter- 
mine the correlation between the mating in- 
stinct and structural characters. The re- 
sults of earlier statistical studies upon the 
pupze of these species were reviewed, dealing 
with the nature and basis of the process of 
natural selection during the period before 


* The authors of the reports have furnished the 
abstracts. The secretary has made only a few 
abbreviations and minor alterations in them. 


SCIENCE. 


459 


emergence and at emergence. It was shown 
that: 

1. Those pups which die after pupation 
and prior to metamorphosis are structurally 
different from and more variable than those 
individuals which successfully survive the 
pupal period. 

2. Those pupxz which become perfect moths 
are likewise different from those which can 
not emerge as perfect moths. 

3. The basis for selective elimination is to 
be sought in correlation between the various 
structures. 

The mating period follows immediately 
after metamorphosis, when certain individuals 
with weak mating instinet fail to take part 
in the production of the next generation, 
and are thus ‘sexually eliminated.’ In order 
to determine the points mentioned above, 
pupz of the two species named were isolated 
as the time for metamorphosis approached, 
and upon emergence were given one oppor- 
tunity to mate. It was, therefore, possible to 
compare the pup of the two classes of mating 
and non-mating individuals. The results, 
briefly stated, are: 

1. That even slightly imperfect moths pos- 
sess very little mating instinct, or im other 
words, that with the structural conditions as- 
sociated with an imperfect power of emergence 
is correlated a low grade of mating ability. 

9. That the mating individuals of the per- 
fect class differ structurally to a certain ex- 
tent from the non-mating ones, but they are 
very much less variable than the latter class. 

The importance of these results from the 
standpoint of inheritance and evolution is 
sufficiently clear to render extended discussion 
unnecessary. 


Observations on a Serous Fluid of Unusually 
High Molecular Concentration: EK. K. Duy- 
HAM. 

The fluid was removed from the pleural 
cavity of a man suffering from lobar pneu- 
monia. The patient was a scene-shifter in 
a theater and had suffered considerable pain 
in the chest for four months before his ad- 
mission to the hospital. His occupation re- 
quired severe labor for brief periods, during 


460 SCIENCE. 


which he became much heated, with intervals 
of leisure and exposure to cold drafts of air. 
The immediate reasons for his admission were 


a chill and inability to continue work. There 


-was nothing unusual in the clinical course of 
the pneumonia or peculiar in his treatment. 
A few days after he entered the hospital 400 
«.c. of a clear serous fluid was aspirated from 
the affected side of the chest and was exam- 
ined on the same day, with the following re- 
sults: ' 

Distinctly alkaline, specific gravity, 1021; 
depression of freezing point, 1.383° C. (mean 
of three examinations with different portions 
of the fluid, 1.395, 1.385 and 1.370° C. respect- 
ively) ; electrical conductivity, 0.009119; chlo- 
rine calculated as NaCl, 0.58 per cent.; total 
nitrogen, 0.84 per cent.; nitrogen from washed 
tannic acid precipitate expressed in percentage 
of the fluid, 0.83 per cent.; proteid (N X 6.25), 
5.21 per cent. of the fluid; traces of reducing 
substance (sugar?) after removing proteids 
with ferric acetate; traces of nitrogen liber- 
ated by hypobromite of soda; no extractives 
of appreciable amount upon shaking with 
ether, acetic ether, or chloroform. 

The matter of chief interest in the results 
was the considerable depression of the freezing 
point—0.81° C. greater than that by the blood, 
which was found to be 0.57° C. This 0.81° C. 
represents nearly 0.438 gram-molecule in solu- 
tion in excess of the molecular concentration 
of the blood, and appears to be a clear indica- 
tion that osmotic interchanges between this 
fluid and the blood did not freely take place, 
possibly because of a thick layer of fibrin upon 
the pleural surfaces. Such a deposit would 
not, however, explain the high molecular con- 
centration of the fluid. It appears most prob- 
able that this was produced subsequent to the 
formation of the fluid, by cleavages in the 
larger molecules originally present in solution 
or by the solution of substances not at first 
dissolved. These substances could not be dis- 
sociable, because the electrical conductivity 
was rather lower than is usual in such fluids. 
If the substances causing the high molecular 
concentration were organic compounds they 
were not extractives soluble in ether, acetic 
ether or chloroform. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 481. 


On the assumption that cleavage products 
of proteid substances, precipitable with tannic 
acid, might be present and cause the unusual 
depression of the freezing point, the following 
experiments were made: Sterile horse serum, 
which had not been subjected to heat, was 
divided into portions. Of these some were 
kept for controls and others were inoculated 
with pure cultures of Staphylococcus pyogenes 
aureus, or Fraenkel’s pneumococeus. Freezing- 
point determinations were made on certain of 
these portions and the rest were sealed up in 
pipettes holding 100 c.c. each. These were 
incubated at 37° C. for a week, when freezing- 
point determinations were made on one of the 
controls and one of the tubes inoculated with 
each of the bacteria mentioned. Cultures at 
this time showed the presence of great num- 
bers of the species used, with no admixture 
of other species. The remaining tubes were 
left in the incubator for several months, when 
cultures proved to be sterile. The results of 
physico-chemical examination of these sera are 
tabulated below: 


HORSE SERUM A. 
Sterile Controls. 
1903 : °C. 
May 19—A=0.580; K=0.009394 
May 26— A =0.580; K=0.009491 
1904 
Jan. 16—A=—0.590; K=0.009684 


Inoculated with Staphylococcus. 
1903 oC. 
May 19— A =—0.585; K=0.009370 
May 26—A=0.585; K=0.009674 
1904 : 
Jan. 16— A=0,640; K=0.010128 


HORSE SERUM B. 
Sterile Controls. 
1903 Ce 
May 21— A=—0.560; K=0.009516 
May 28— A=—0.560; K=0.009516 
1904 
Jan. 15— A=0.600; K=0.009897 


Inoculated with Staphylococcus. 


1903 “OL, 
May 28— A=0.580 
1904 


Jan. 15— A=0.640; K=0.010372 


aoe 


i a 


Reed, cae it em Ay Oy lnm Py. 


MarcnH 18, 1904.] 


These data show but slight changes in the 
molecular concentration of the sera, and such 
changes as have occurred occasion an inerease 
in the electrical conductivity as well as in the 
depression of the freezing-point, showing that 
dissociable bodies have been produced. The 
experiments, therefore, fail to explain the high 
molecular concentration of the serous fluid 
from the chest; but it is possible that further 
experimentation in this direction ‘will be more 
successful. 


An Hxperimental Study of the Hosinophile 
Cells during Infection with an Animal 
Parasite—Trichina spiralis: Eugene LL. 
Opre. (Presented by James Ewing.) 

The administration of Trichina spiralis to 
the guinea-pig causes an increase of the 
eosinophile leucocytes in the blood, compara- 
ble to that which accompanies human infec- 
tion. There is no constant alteration of the 
number of these cells until the end of the 
second week after infection, when their rela- 
tive and absolute number rapidly increases and 
reaches a maximum at the end of the third 
week. At this time embryonic trichine are 
in process of transmission from the intestinal 
mucosa by way of the lymphatic vessels and 
the blood through the lungs to the vascular 
system. 

Kosinophile cells accumulate in the mesen- 
teric lymph glands and in the lungs, and form 
foci which resemble small abscesses in which 
polynuclear leucocytes are replaced by eosino- 
phile cells. These cells are provided with 
polymorphous nuclei and do not differ from 
the eosinophile leucocytes of the circulating 
blood. Accumulation of the eosinophile cells 
in the mesenteric lymph glands and in the 
lungs is explained by the transmission of the 
embryonic parasites through these organs. 

Increase of eosinophile cells in the blood 
and in other organs is accompanied by char- 
acteristic changes in the bone marrow. The 
fat is diminished in amount and cellular ele- 
ments replace it. Cells with eosinophile 
granulation are present in immense number 
and particularly numerous are the eosinophile 
myelocytes, cells peculiar to the bone marrow. 
Kosinophile cells undergoing mitotic division 
are more numerous than usual. 


SCIENCE. 46] 


The number of eosinophile leucocytes in the 
blood always diminishes before death, so that 
the proportion is usually less than one per 
cent. Infection with a very large number of 
trichinee causes a rapid diminution of the 
number of eosinophile leucocytes and is quick- 
ly fatal. The eosinophile cells of the bone 
marrow exhibit degenerative changes of which 
nuclear fragmentation is most characteristic. 
Similar changes may affect the eosinophile 
cells of the intestinal mucosa and of the 
mesenteric lymph glands. Mild infection 
stimulates the eosinophile cells to multiplica- 
tion, but severe infection causes their destruc- 
tion. 


Subcortical Hxpressive Reflexes and their 

Spinal Pathways: R. S. Woopworru. 

Dr. Woodworth reported on some experi- 
ments done in collaboration with Professor 
Sherrington in the latter’s laboratory. It was 
shown that in a recently decerebrated cat 
powerful sensory stimuli evoked reactions such 
as in a normal animal would be expressive of 
pain, anger and other similar emotions. Such 
reactions are, therefore, primarily subcortical 
reflexes and not dependent on the organ of 
consciousness. The ‘ether ery’ also appeared 
in decerebrate animals. The sensory spinal 
pathway, by which these signs of pain were 
aroused, was found by experiments in which 
partial cross-sections of the cord were made, 
to run, not in the posterior, but in the lateral 
columns. The pain pathway from either side 
of the body runs up both halves of the cord, 
but more largely up the opposite half. 


An Experimental Study of the Cause of 
Shock: W. H. Howertt. (Presented by S. 
J. Meltzer.) 

Professor Howell’s experiments were made 
upon dogs anesthetized with morphia and 
ether, and brought into a condition of shock 
by operations of various kinds. Blood-pres- 
sure records were obtained in the usual way 
during the experiment. The following general 
conclusions were reached: 

1. The most important and dangerous fea- 
ture of severe shock is a long-continued, prac- 
tically permanent fall in blood pressure to 
about 20-40 mm. of Hg. This condition is 


462 SCIENCE. 


designated as vascular shock and is due to a 
long-lasting loss of activity of the vaso-con- 
strictor center. 

2. A second important result of shock is a 
very rapid and feeble heart beat. This con- 
dition is designated as cardiac shock; since, 
although it may result secondarily from the 
permanent fall in blood pressure, it may also 
occur quite independently of the vascular 
shock as a primary result of the operations. 
Cardiae shock, so far at least as the rate of 
beat is concerned, is due to a more or less 
permanent loss of activity of the cardio-in- 
hibitory center. 

3. Intravenous infusions of alkaline salt 
solutions (NaCl, 0.6 per cent—Na,CO,, 0.5 
per cent.) cause a rise of pressure by in- 
creasing the force of the heart beat. The 
effect is more durable than with salt solution 
alone and may be renewed by repeating the 
injection. 

4, The fundamental cause of vascular and 
eardiae shock is not exhaustion of the vaso- 
motor and eardio-inhibitory centers from over- 
activity, but a more or less permanent inhibi- 
tion of these centers from excessive stimula- 
tion of the inhibitory paths. 

New Members.—Drs. Isaac Levin and J. P. 
Atkinson were elected to membership. 

Officers for the ensuing term were elected 
as follows: 

President—S. J. Meltzer. 

Vice-President—James Ewing. 

Secretary—William J. Gies. 

Librarian—Graham Lusk. 

Treasurer—Gary N. Calkins. 

Witiiam J. Giss, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 

A REGULAR meeting of the American Mathe- 
matical Society was held at Columbia Univer- 
sity on Saturday, February 27. The Amer- 
ican Physical Society met at the same time 
and place, and an especially interesting fea- 
ture of the occasion was the presidential ad- 
dress of President A. G. Webster of the Phys- 
ical Society on ‘Some practical aspects of the 
relations between physics and mathematics,’ 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 481. 


which was delivered before a joint session of 
the two societies. 

The attendance at the meeting of the Mathe- 
matical Society was about forty-five. Presi- 
dent Thomas S. Fiske occupied the chair at 
the regular sessions and at the joint session 
with the Physical Society. The following new 
members were elected: Mr. E. P. R. Duval, 
Harvard University; Professor G. A. Good- 
enough, University of Illinois; Mr. H. OC. 
Harvey, State Normal School, Kirksville, Mo.; 
Dr. J. G. Hun, Princeton University; Dr. T. 
P. Running, University of Michigan. Nine 
applications for membership in the society 
were received. 

Professor E. H. Moore, who had served as 
editor-in-chief of the Transactions since its 
inception in 1900, was reelected to the editorial 
board for a term of three years. 


The following papers were presented at this_ 


meeting: 


Wittiam Finpiay: ‘The Sylow subgroups of 
the symmetric group.’ 

L. P. Ersennart: ‘ Three particular systems of 
lines on a surface.’ 

JOSEPH Bowben: ‘The definition of sine and 
cosine.’ 

H. E. Hawkes: ‘The quaternion number sys- 
tems.’ 

L. E. Dickson: ‘On the subgroups of order a 
power of p in the linear homogeneous and frac- 
tional groups in the GF[p™].’ 

C. M. Mason: ‘On the solutions of Aw- 
AA(2,y)U=f(#,y) which satisfy prescribed 
boundary conditions.’ 

F. N. Core: ‘ The groups of order p*q8.’ 

Epwarp Kasner: ‘Galileo and the concept of 
infinity.’ 

E. W. Brown: ‘On the smaller perturbations 
of the lunar elements.’ 

E. B. Van Vueck: ‘ On the convergence of alge- 
braic continued fractions whose coefficients have 
a limiting form.’ 

Henry Taser: ‘ Hypercomplex number systems.’ 

Epwarp Kasner: ‘On the geometry of ordinary 
differential equations.’ 

Ips M. ScuHorrenrets: ‘On a theory of func- 
tions related to a hypercomplex number system 
in two units.’ 

G. D. Birxuorr: ‘ A general remainder theorem.’ 


The members of the two societies lunched 
together in the interval between the sessions, 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


and a representative number were present at 
an informal dinner arranged for the evening. 

The next meeting of the Mathematical So- 
ciety will be held at Columbia University on 
April 30. The Chicago Section will meet at 
Northwestern University, Evanston, Ill., on 
April 2. The San Francisco Section will meet 
at Stanford University on April 30. 

¥. N. Cots, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 

Tue present multiplicity of scientific so- 
clieties appears to have its origin in four 
conditions: (1) in adaptation to the present 
differentiating or specializing tendency in 
science; (2) in adaptation to the magnificent 
distances in this country; (3) in historical 
peculiarities of origin, notably the former ex- 
istence of both summer and winter meetings, 
and (4) in sundry failings of human nature. 
In so far as this multiplicity is due to the 
first condition, it is inevitable, if not actually 
desirable; in so far as it is due to the second, 
it is necessary; in so far as it is due to the 
third, it is susceptible to an appeal to reason 
and public spirit; while as to the fourth, it 
must be allowed for in any plans for improve- 
ment of existing conditions. The other ex- 
treme from the present multiplicity, viz., con- 
solidation into a single great many-sectioned 
society, seems to me, for the above reasons, 
not only impracticable, but highly undesirable. 
There is no real analogy between the condi- 
tions of scientific progress, which depends 
much upon individualism and little on organ- 
ization, and the conditions of a great business 
where organization is in itself of prime im- 
portance; and it is a mistake to suppose that 
the benefits of consolidation would be as great 
in the one case as in the other. The real task 
before us, I believe, is to seek and to achieve 
that optimum in number and kinds of socie- 
ties which lies somewhere between the present 
uneconomical maximum and the unattainable 
and undesirable minimum of a single society. 

Some of the essential conditions of this 
optimum seem to me these. It must provide 
for yearly meetings in each of the great 


SCIENCE. 


463 


natural divisions of the country, the eastern, 
central, (and ultimately-) western and Pacific 
sections; for, so great are the distances, and 
so high the cost in money, time and effort 
required to cover them at the midwinter 
season, that a far greater aggregate attend- 
ance on scientifie meetings, with the result- 
ant benefits, will be secured by this system 
than can possibly be attained by any single 
meeting, however central. Furthermore, it is 
a mistake to suppose that the biggest meetings 
are, other things being equal, necessarily the 
best; there is much to be said for the greater 
profit, as well as pleasure, of smaller meetings. 
While, of course, a single great society could 
meet in geographical divisions, it is certainly 
wiser to utilize for this purpose the existent 
arrangements, namely, local meetings organ- 
ized under the auspices of the American So- 
ciety of Naturalists. There are other reasons, 
also, why a second group of societies in addi- 
tion to the American Association is desirable: 
(1) A vigorous but friendly rivalry will be 
distinctly advantageous, and much preferable 
to a society monopoly, and (2) since the 
American Association is unlimited as to 
qualifications of membership, and must al- 
ways have and care for a large semi-scientific 
or popular element in its activity, there is 
certainly a need for other societies which will 
be strictly scientific in their membership and 
able to conduct their affairs upon a purely 
scientific basis. JI think, therefore, it is very 
desirable that both the American Association 
and the American Society of Naturalists 
should exist, the former meeting in different 
sections of the country in different years, and 
devoting itself to the more general aspects of 
the sciences, and the latter forming a center 
for the meetings of the more technical scien- 
tific societies, and holding a meeting each 
year in each of the great geographical divi- 
sions of the country. The relations between 
the two should be friendly and cooperative, 
and that division of the American Society 
within whose territory the American Associa- 
tion happens to’meet should always combine 
with it in joint meetings, the other divisions 
meeting in their own territory. It might be 
advantageous at certain intervals, of not less 


464 


than five years for all the divisions and so- 
cieties to hold one meeting in common. 

This does not, however, touch one of the 
most serious phases of the present situation, 
namely, the existence of many independent 
societies within the same science, a condition 
especially pronounced in botany. Not only 
does this entail a great waste of effort, but it 
deprives the science of the advantage and 
prestige of a powerful national body which 
can speak and act with authority in the in- 
terests of the science. At the same time each 
science is becoming so specialized that it is 
more agreeable and profitable for those inter- 
ested in the same phase of it to meet by them- 
selves. It is customary to deprecate this 
tendency, on the ground that specialists should 
keep more in touch with other phases of their 
science as well as with other sciences. But 
in practise I think this segregation is inevi- 
table, and not undesirable or, at all events, it 
represents the lesser in a choice of evils. A 
specialist in one branch of a science can not 
keep in touch with another branch by suffer- 
ing through technical papers read on that lat- 
ter phase; he can accomplish this result much 
better around the social table in the evenings, 
and by listening to, or reading, those admir- 
able summaries of progress in other branches 
which it is becoming more and more the cus- 
tom to present in vice-presidential addresses, 
in semi-popular lectures by great specialists, 
ete. The best solution of this particular 
problem seems to me to lie in the combina- 
tion of all the societies devoted to a certain 
science into a single strong national society, 
which shall be divided into as many sections 
as there are special phases, attracting enough 
men to form working sections, and which shall 
hold simultaneous meetings in the great geo- 
graphical centers, along with the other scien- 
tific bodies affiliated with the American So- 
elety of Naturalists. This can undoubtedly 
be accomplished without the abandonment of 
any of the existent societies, through their 
transformation into the special sections of the 
national society. W. F. Ganone. 


I beg leave to submit the following plan for 
increasing the usefulness and influence of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 481. 


American Association for the Advancement 
of Science: 

Organization.—In addition to the present 
organization, establish a branch in each com- 
munity where there are a number of members 
of the association. 

Meetings.—In addition to the general meet- 
ing, have each section meet once a year and 
each branch once a month, or oftener if it 
should appear to be profitable. 

Publications—Publish Science as at pres- 
ent, and in addition publish all the papers 
presented at the section meetings and the 
more important of those presented at the 
branch meetings (in the Transactions) ; issu- 
ing a set of the 7’ransactions for each section. 

In nearly every community there is a de- 
mand for some organization of those inter- 
ested in science; so we see science clubs in 
nearly every university. These clubs form 
social centers for the scientists of the com- 
munities, and their meetings offer an oppor- 
tunity for their members to report on and dis- 
cuss the work which they are doing. In most 
eases they would be willing to reorganize as 
branches of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science if given considerable 
freedom in the character of organization. The 
parent society could charter a branch on re- 
ceiving a copy of its constitution, which should 
make provision for a report of each meeting, 
being sent to the general secretary. Each 
will then have -the advantage of cooperation 
while still having freedom of government. 

The best time for holding the general meet- 
ing, at which the social element should be 
emphasized, appears to be in the early sum- 
mer. ach section would hold its meeting in 
connection with the general meeting as at 
present; but in addition would hold a meeting 
during convocation week, the summer meeting 
being given to the more general papers and 
excursions, while the more technical papers 
would be presented at the winter meeting. 
These winter section meetings need not be 
held all at the same place, and if desirable 
any section might hold two simultaneous 
meetings at different places. 

SciencE is serving a very useful purpose 
now in publishing the vice-presidential ad- 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


dresses and the abstracts of all the papers, as 
well as serving as a clearing house for scien- 
tific thought. The objection may be raised 
that publishing all the papers would make 
the Transactions too expensive. The answer 
to this is that the present fee should cover the 
general expenses and ScrENcE only,. while the 
Transactions should be sold by subscription; 
each member subscribing for the Transac- 
tions of those sections in which he may be 
interested. 

This plan would provide more time for the 
presentation of papers; provide meetings at 
_which matters of somewhat local interest 
could be discussed; allow the sections a choice 
as to the place of meeting, and provide a place 
where all papers could be found instead of 
haying them scattered through many period- 
icals. The economy of this plan as to both 
time and money would probably check the 
formation of new societies and also lead to 
the abandonment of many now organized; 
which are ends much to be desired. 

ArtHurR H. Forp. 


OUR FUTURE ‘PUBLIC ANALYSTS.’ 

THE era of scientific investigation and pro- 
tection of our food products and standard 
drugs, in distinction to the medico-political 
attempts of the past twenty years, is appar- 
ently at hand, and, as time will undoubtedly 
demonstrate, in proper hands. ‘To be sure a 
certain few boards of health and food com- 
missioners have at various times accomplished 
much in partial food inspection and one or 
two, notably the Massachusetts Board of 
Health, through its efficient secretary, Dr. 
Abbott, have rigidly inspected both foods and 
drugs for many years, bringing the universal 
fifty per cent. adulteration of those foods, etce., 
that can be adulterated, as shown by investi- 
gation statistics in other states, down to 
about fifteen per cent. and keeping it there. 
In these few widely separated states the legisla- 
tures will no doubt ‘let well enough alone,’ 
and, if appreciative at all of what has been 
accomplished, will increase the appropriation, 
which in nearly every case is absurdly small 
at present. In the forty odd states as yet 
unawakened or only partially awakened to a 


SCIENCE. 


465 


realization of our national negligence in this 
great economic question, it is gradually be- 
coming apparent that the state experiment 
stations are, or soon will be, the logical and 
most appropriate institutions to entrust the 
collection, investigation and subsequent de- 
fined inspection work to; the ‘food commis- 
sioner’ (if that be what he is called) being 
merely a prosecuting officer, which in general 
is the arrangement (and doubtless a satisfac- 
tory one) in Connecticut at present. 

There are several gradually developing and 
well-founded reasons why we must begin to 
consider these well-organized, federal and state 
supported, scientifically equipped branches Gn 
their chemical work) of the Bureau of Chem- 
istry at Washington in this light. In the 
first place, there is very little adulteration of 
food products harmful from a hygienic stand- 
point. Physicians of course must be able to 
depend upon the strength of the drugs they 
prescribe, but otherwise the whole subject is 
really an economic one, closely related to 
agriculture, horticulture and animal industry, 
the three most important lines of experiment 
station work. Secondly, the Bureau of Chem- 
istry, under Dr. Wiley’s direction, already has 
charge of the examination of imported food 
products and, as soon as the long-delayed 
federal food law becomes effective, will have 
charge of the interstate commerce aspect of 
the question, thereby greatly assisting the 
states in their necessary local work. In sey- 
eral states, notably Connecticut, Pennsylvania 
and Kentucky, the experiment stations already 
carry on the state investigation and food in- 
spection analysis work. Thirdly, these sta- 
tions are financially and scientifically able to 
carry on research work upon the composition, 
nutritive value, utility, ete., of new or little- 
understood foods, simultaneously with official 
inspection work; and finally the chemists of 
these stations in their official association, com- 
monly spoken of as the A. O. A. C., have re- 
cently studied, compiled and published pro- 
visional official methods of food analysis (at 
present, however, better adapted to investiga- 
tion work rather than to rapid inspection and 
legal work), -and defined the standards that 
legally pure food products should conform to. 


466 ; SCIENCE. 


In their annual convention in Washington, in 
November, a most important place in the pro- 
gram has been given to the whole subject, and 
soon afterwards many of the stations will un- 
doubtedly establish special laboratories for 
investigation and possible inspection work, 
carrying out a suggestion made by the Office 
of Experiment Stations in Washington, a 
number of years ago (Bulletin No. 17). 

So much for the experiment station and the 
probable part it will play in the solving of an 
economic question wherein we are a half cen- 
tury behind European nations. The natural 
and very important question next arising is 
relative to our future ‘public analysts,’ that 
comparatively large body of specially trained 
chemists, presumably young, considering the 
meager salaries usually allowed for routine 
laboratory work, who will be required in every 
state, and often at a moment’s notice, by the 
experiment stations and by every state, county 
or municipal board of health or officer charged 
with the enforcement of locally protective 
legislation. These men will not only have 
to be already familiar with the modern 
methods of food and drug investigation and 
rapid legal inspection analysis, especially 
microscopical methods, which are frequently 
the only ones showing the nature and ap- 
proximate proportion of the adulterant as the 
courts always require; but they will find that, 
upon the expert witness stand, a quite thor- 
ough knowledge of the natural composition, 
nutritive and economic value, utility, methods 
of adulteration and character of usual adulter- 
ants of foods is indispensable. The first con- 
tested prosecution, a grocer, backed by a large 
manufacturing concern and furnished with 
the best of legal aid and an experienced chem- 
ist looking for flaws and coaching said legal 
aid, was the experience demonstrating to the 
writer the above requirements; and one hun- 
dred and fifteen other mostly successful and 
often contested cases since, only serve to em- 
phasize the fact in his mind. 

In the British Isles the ‘public analysts’ 
constitute the best trained, most progressive 
and finely organized class of practical chem- 
ists to be found, their official association, the 
Society of Public Analysts, being always con- 


[N.S. Von. XIX, No. 481. 


sulted by the government on any subject in- 
volving analytical chemistry, and their jour- 
nal, The Analyst, being the leading and almost 
the only publication devoted to analytical 
chemistry in the English language. These 
chemists are trained in special schools or 
special university courses and, after passing 
an examination, including the whole subject 
of foods and drugs and their chemical and 
microscopical examination, are admitted to 
membership in the Institute of Chemistry 
and become eligible to appointment by coun- 
ties or municipalities inspecting or intending 
to inspect the local food, drug and water 
supplies. Now let us turn to the status of 
affairs in our own country. It is said, 
and it will be generally admitted as true, 
that if, in the season of legislative activity, 
a half dozen of the as yet unawakened states 
were to pass laws protecting and governing 
the sale of foods and drugs, it would be im- 
possible to find the necessary number of 
specially trained analysts ready and competent 
to undertake the work at hand. Of course, 
plenty of chemists with the ordinary college 
training in analytical chemistry or some other 
special training would be found and appointed, 
but so long a period of confidence acquiring 
study and practise would be necessary before 
any prosecutions were advisable, that the tem- 
porarily enthused legislature and public would 
forget about and lose all interest in the work 
and decide that it had been found to be un- 
necessary or impolitic—a condition of affairs 
that the grocery and druggist organizations 
would not be slow to take advantage of, as 
has been shown more than once in the not 
remote past. 

Yale University has recently outlined 
courses in several of the afore-mentioned 
necessary subjects, and has engaged Winton, 
state chemist at the Connecticut Experiment 
Station, to give the necessary instruction in 
lectures and laboratory work. A few other 
large universities are planning to, and doubt- 
less will, introduce similar and perhaps more 
complete courses in the near future. With 
the exception of Yale and possibly Harvard, 
however, they will not have the distinct ad- 
vantage of having the students brought in 


—= 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


direct contact with official work and official 
chemists. In the forty-eight state colleges or 
universities, partially supported by the fed- 
eral government through the land grant and 
Morrill acts, we have, however, practically the 
same number of very conveniently situated 
and well-equipped institutions for training, 
at least the locally needed, public analysts of 
the future. That their location is especially 
fortunate for this purpose is due to the fact 
that nearly all the experiment stations are 
located in the same towns and in fact are often 
really departments of the university or college, 
with a staff made up principally of members 
of the college faculty. Some of these public 
educational system extensions, Cornell Uni- 
versity and the University of California, for 
examples, must of course be considered as 
better officered and equipped than many of 
the others, especially those in the far south 
and southwest. 

All, however, if their catalogues and the 
Office of Experiment Stations statistics are 
trustworthy, have the facilities (departments, 
professors and laboratories) wherewith to give 
instruction in the subject of foods, their com- 
position, nutritive and economic value, meth- 
ods of adulteration and detection of the same, 
ete.; and in the senior year or as post-graduate 
assistants give the students an opportunity to 
gain an insight into and a little actual ex- 
perience in food investigation work, and also 
if possible, in methods of rapid legal inspec- 
tion work at the local experiment station, or 
at least from the official chemists of these sta- 
tions. The preparatory subjects, which we 
may consider as junior year electives, would 
include organic chemistry and outlines of 
organic analytical methods (fat extractions, 
melting point determinations, etc.), histolog- 
ical botany and microscopy and physiology, 
especially the subjects of nutrition, digestion 
and assimilation. In the senior year the 
really special studies would be undertaken, 
yiz., the study of foods as previously outlined; 
the natural composition, nutritive and eco- 
nomic value, utility, methods of adulteration, 
ete., of foods being taught by lectures, while 
the methods of scientific investigation and 


SCIENCE. 


467 


rapid legal inspection, especially the use of the 
microscope and the utilization of histological 
botany, would be taught simultaneously in 
the laboratory. 

Whether this senior year specialization led to 
a special degree, or to the ordinary bachelor’s 
degree in science only, is immaterial. One 
thing is assuredly certain, however, and that 
is that such a comparatively simple, wholly 
possible and practicable course of training, 
especially if supplemented with actual ex- 
perience in the local experiment station, would 
supply a national and soon to be a pressing 
need for competent trained ‘public analysts,’ 
similar to those regarded necessary by the 
smallest and least pretentious English towns 
and cities. Then, and then only, will our 
American Society of Public Analysts acquire 
a membership and influence sufficient to war- 
rant its admittance as a section of the older 
society in the mother country or, perhaps, what 
is more patriotic, a similar relationship to the 
American Chemical Society. 

R. O. Brooxs. 


State LABorATORY or HYGIENE, 
TRENTON, N. J. 


THE MISUSE OF ‘FORMATION’ BY ECOLOGISTS. 


GEOLOGISTS, paleobotanists and a few botan- 
ists have several times called attention during 
the past few years to the persistent misuse by 
many ecologists of the word ‘ formation,’ when 
referring to plant societies or associations. 
Regardless of the sanction of a century or 
more of usage for ‘formation’ in the geolog- 
ical sense, they have proceeded within the 
past dozen years to transplant the word, via 
Germany, into English botanical literature, 
unmindful of the fact that where employed in 
the German language it is little or not at all 
confusing, but when translated into English 
comes in direct competition with well-estab- 
lished usage in other fields. The usual reply 
to these protests has been that this employ- 
ment of ‘formation’ has the sanction of the 
earlier writers in this ‘newly discovered’ field 
of ecology, and, moreover, is hardly likely to 
lead to any serious confusion with its use in 
geology, mineralogy or paleobotany. If those 


468 SCIENCE. 


who hold this view will take the trouble to 
look in the issue of Science for January 29, 
page 170, they will find enumerated a list of 
papers read before Section G (Botany) at the 
recent American Association meeting, two 
papers: ‘Plant Formations in the Vicinity of 
Columbia, Mo., and ‘The Distribution of 
some Iowa Plants; Formations on which they 
Occur. Here, in succeeding papers, the word 
‘formation’ is employed with two distinct 
meanings. The first paper, we learn from the 
abstract, deals with the several associations of 
living plants found in the locality treated of, 
while the second is ‘ A brief account of some 
of the more important plants found growing 
on the Carboniferous sandstones in eastern 
Iowa.’ Suppose some one had read a paper, 
as might very appropriately have been done at 
the same meeting, on the ‘Plants of the 
Potomac Formation of Maryland and Vir- 
ginia,’ would it be a paleobotanical, a geolog- 
ical or an ecological paper? 

In this connection I may perhaps be par- 
doned for calling attention to the title of an- 
other ecological paper in the same number of 
Science (p. 169), viz., ‘The Flora of the St. 
Peter Sandstone in Iowa.’ This as it stands 
is calculated to cause a decided stir in paleo- 
botanical circles when it is remembered that 
the St. Peter sandstone in Towa is of Silurian 
age, and, so far as I know, has not thus far 
been found plant-bearing! It is only fair to 
add, however, that the second part of the title 
(‘An Ecological Study’) explains its scope, 
but the fact seems to remain that ecologists, 
aside from their misuse of terms, do not always 
sufficiently consider the titles for their papers. 

F. H. Know ton. 

WASHINGTON, D. C., 

February 3, 1904. 


SPEOIAL ARTICLES. 
ON TITLES FOR PAPERS. 

Ons of the indirect advantages of the indi- 
vidual card catalogue will be that of the con- 
densation of titles, since a man who has been 
often called upon to fill up several lines of a 
38 <5 card with the title of a four-page paper 
will become considerate of others, and reduce 
the titles of his own future articles to their 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 481. 


lowest terms. There is in this regard the great- 
est disparity of usage among different authors 
and different schools. Thus in general it may 
be said that the fashion of long and ponderous 
titles is a characteristic of the English school, 
as may be seen by consulting the pages of the 
Quarterly Journal or the Journal of Anatomy 
and Physiology, in the last of which the size 
of the title is still farther set out by being 
printed entirely in large capitals. The op- 
posite seems to be the case with Gegenbaur 
and his followers, as may appear by consult- 
ing the Morphologisches Jahrbuch, where oc- 
casionally, among others of moderate length, 
an exceptionally terse title meets the eye. An 
especially good example of this is Maurer’s 
‘Blutgefiisse im Epithel,’ which another would 
have expanded into ‘ Ueber das Vorhandensein 
yon capillaren Blutgefasse im LEpithel der 
Mundschleimhaut bei einigen einheimischen 
Amphibien’” It is apparent that Gegenbaur 
himself set the lead in this movement, as may 
be seen by the titles which he employed, most 
of them those of masterpieces, ‘Die Epi- 
glottis,’ ‘Zur Morphologie des Nagels,’ ‘ Ueber 
das Archipterygium,’ ‘Clavicula und Clei- 
thrum,’ ete. 

There seem to be two main reasons for em- 
ploying lengthy titles, first, the desire to show 
the limitations, the point of view and the treat- 
ment of the subject, giving rise to the ea- 
planatory title, and, secondly, the desire to 
appear sufficiently modest, to show how keenly 
one feels the vastness of the subject and how 
little has really been accomplished; the modest 
title. 

A recent example of the first has just ap- 
peared in a leading journal, and with its 
twenty-four words leaves little to the imagina- 
tion of the reader concerning its scope. ‘This 
may well have been unavoidable in this case, 
but for the benefit of cataloguers it might be 
suggested that in such instances there might 
be used a title and a subtitle, the former short 
and for the use of the card index and general 
bibliographies, the other longer and more ex- 
plicit, to assist the reviewers and those who 
have actually taken the work into their hands. 

As a timely warning and to show what the 
outcome of this tendency may become if not 


1 
: 


ee 


Marco 18, 1904.] 


properly checked, I will quote the following, 
which is a masterpiece of descriptive writing, 
and leaves little doubt concerning the various 
standpoints from which the subject has been 
treated: 

Sacus, Phil. Jacob. 
gammarorum, vulgo cancrorum consideratio 
physico- philologico - historico- medico-chymica, 
m qua preter Gammarorum singularem 
naturam, indolens et multivarium usum non 
minus reliquorum crustatorum tractatio ad 
normam collegu nature curiosorum plurimis 
amventis secretionibus nature artisque locu- 
pletata. 8yvo, Francofurti et Lipsiz, 1665. 

On this head I may state as a sort of con- 
fession, that in an early article of my own I 
employed a title of eighteen words to desig- 
nate the same number of pages. There may 
possibly have been reasons other than the 
length of the title which denied me the pleas- 
ure of seeing this article extensively quoted, 
but in my own later experience I know that 
an article of indifferent value may often be 
saved for a bibliography through the merit 
of haying an easily quotable title. 

Modest titles, or those in which the author 
acknowledges that the final word has not been 
said upon the subject, usually begin with ‘A 
contribution to the study of,’ ‘A few points 
in the anatomy of,’ ‘Observations upon the 
structure and development of,’ and seem to 
be especially popular with younger investi- 
gators. While composed in the most laudable 
sipirit, such titles are hardly necessary, since 
there is little danger of a misunderstanding on 
the point guarded against by the writer. 

There are in all probability other forms of 
lengthy titles besides those touched upon here, 
and it is certain that titles may have numer- 
ous other defects besides length, but this ar- 
ticle is intended as a protest, not a treatise; 
in short, ‘a contribution to the study of the 
relative length of scientific titles, including 
an inquiry into the cause and origin of those 
that may be considered excessive, together 
with suggestions concerning the remedy for 
the same.’ 


Pappapohoyta sive 


Harris HAwTtHoRNE WILDER. 
SmirH CoLiLrce, 
February 6, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 469 


ELLIPTICAL HUMAN RED CORPUSCLES. 


In this short note the writer desires to place 
on record a peculiar anomaly in human red 
blood corpuscles. This interesting variation 
came to notice in the histological laboratory 
ot the Ohio State University in October, 1902. 
The class at that time was studying the hu- 
man corpuscles, and the attention of the lab- 
oratory assistant, Mr. Seymour, was attracted 
by the sketches made by a student who had 
represented the red corpuscles by elliptical 
outlines. Examination disclosed the fact that 
the colored corpuscles in the sample recently 
drawn by the student from his own finger were 
elliptical and not circular. 

The student was directed to prepare another 
specimen, using a perfectly clean slide and 
cover-glass, and he followed directions closely, 
covering the slide as quickly as possible. The 
corpuscles were observed to have the same 
shape as before. Professor Bleile and Dr. 
Morrey confirmed the observation, and at Pro- 
fessor Bleile’s suggestion numerous samples 
were taken by several people and the speci- 
mens invariably showed the same peculiarity. 
It was deemed advisable to extend the obser- 
vations over a period of several weeks, sub- 
jecting the corpuscles to the action of various 
reagents, and also making measurements of 
the size of the cells. 

To this end the writer carried the work on 
during a period of four months, specimens 
being taken at various intervals. The reac- 
tions to such reagents as water, dilute caustic 
potash, dilute acetic acid, dilute hydrochloric 
acid, tannic acid, ete., were normal, but in 
each specimen taken many cells haying the 
abnormal shape were noted. The erythrocytes 
were distinctly elliptical, slightly biconcave, 
non-nucleated cells which did not adhere in 
rouleaux. In many of them the biconecavity 
was scarcely perceptible. It was estimated 
that 90 per cent. of the red cells did not have 
the circular outline of normal corpuscles. It 
was also shown that these cells were elliptical 
whether they were subjected to the pressure 
of a cover-glass or not. This seemed to be 
the only manner in which they differed mor- 
phologically from the normal cells, except in 
the slight degree of biconeavity. As this dif- 


470 


ference proved to be a permanent one, and 
not a variation caused by accident or error in 
technique, it was deemed worthy of being 
placed on record. 

A large number of corpuscles were meas- 
ured, but only the extremes and averages are 


here presented. They are as follows: 


Shortest width observed ....... 3.9 microns. 
Greatest width observed ....... 4.8 microns. 
Shortest length observed....... 8.5 microns. 
Greatest length observed....... 10.7 microns. 


eres eeer hie esclete 10.3 microns. 
Lay Sia err Ae 4.1 microns. 
I s@uay, 

microns. 


Average length 
Average width 
Ratio of width to length....... 
Average thickness 
Thus it is seen that the outline was dis- 
tinctly elliptical, the long diameter being on 
the average two and a half times the shorter 
diameter. It is also to be observed that the 
above figures differ considerably from those of 
the normal red corpuscles, which vary from 
7.2 microns to 7.8 microns. 
was practically the same as that of the nor- 
mal red corpuscles. The number was five 
millions per cubic millimeter and the quantity 
of hemoglobin was up to the standard. The 
colorless corpuscles presented no peculiarities. 
The student in whose blood these corpuscles 
were found was a healthy mulatto about 
twenty-two years of age. His brother, who 
attended the university a few years ago, had 
normal red blood cells. Other than this no 
family history is at hand. 
Metyry Drespacn. 
Onto STATE UNIVERSITY. 


NOTES ON ENTOMOLOGY. 

Aucuste BarsBry, an expert Swiss forester, 
has published a review of the Scolytide of 
central Europe.* They are treated from a 
systematic standpoint, but after the descrip- 
tion of each species there is usually a consid- 
erable amount of biological matter. With 
each species of great destructive power is given 
the best means of combating it. A number 
of the European species also occur in the 
United States, so that the book will be of 
great value to all American students of forest 
insects. The excellent plates illustrate the 

** Les Scolytides de Europe Centrale,’ Geneva, 
folio, 120 pp., 18 plates (also a German edition). 


SCIENCE. 


The thickness — 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 48i. 


insects and their work; several of the latter 
are particularly fine. 

The Miinchener Koleopterologische Zeit- 
schrift is a new entomological journal, 
devoted to the study of palearctic beetles. 
It is issued from Munich, and edited by 
Drs. Karl and Joseph Daniel. Volume I. 
(1903) is now complete and contains over 400 
pages. A large majority of the articles are 
systematic, and consist of reviews and revi- 
sions of genera and groups, and descriptions 
of new species and varieties. This volume 
contains Dr. Ganglbauer’s notable classifica- 
tion of the coleoptera. He criticizes the 
recent classifications of Lameere and Kolbe, 
and presents a new one, which, in general, is 
like that of LeConte and Horn (1883). There 
are seven leading groups of families, but the 
groups Clavicornia and Serricornia of those 
authors are arranged under the groups Staphy- 
linoidea and Diversicornia. It would appear, 
however, even from the names of some of the 
groups, that a logical classification of the 
beetles is a thing only to be hoped for. 

The British Museum of Natural History 
has issued an elaborate account of the African 
tse-tse flies, prepared by Mr. KE. KE. Austen.* 
The fact that one species (G. morsitans) 
carries the germs of the Nagana disease lends 
great interest to the study of these flies. This 
disease, so fatal to domestic animals, was sup- 
posed to be due to a poison injected by the 
bite of the tse-tse fly. All travelers in those 
regions have been delayed or disheartened by 
its ravages in their animals. And Mr. Austen 
suggests that were it not for the tse-tse fly, 
the entire history of South Africa would have 
been different. Although as long ago as 1879 
it was suspected that the tse-tse fly was merely 
the carrier of a blood-parasite, it was not so 
proved until 1895 by Col. Bruce. This para- 
site was then described by Plimmer and Brad- 
ford as Trypanosoma brucet. Mr. Austen de- 
votes many pages to the recital of the ravages 
of the disease, quoting from many works of 
travel. Detailed technical descriptions are 
given of the seven species of the genus, one of 

**A Monograph of the Tse-tse Flies (@los- 


sina), with a chapter on the mouthparts, by H. 
J. Hansen, London, 1903, pp. 319, 9 pls. 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


which is new. The beautiful plates illustrate 
the species. Dr. Hansen has described the 
mouth-parts and compared them to the allied 
genus, Stomozys, the stable-fly of this country 
and Europe. A map is given showing the 
known distribution of Glossina in Africa. 

It may be added that Lieut. Col. Bruce, who 
worked out the life history of the trypano- 
some of Nagana, has lately discovered that 
another species of tse-tse fly, G. palpalis, is 
the carrier of the trypanosome of sleeping 
sickness. 

Dr. Adolph Lutz has published an account 
of the life history of an injurious Brazilian 
Anopheles.* This mosquito, which is the 
carrier of the germ of an intermittent fever, 
is a small species of Anopheles, A. lutzi Theo- 
bald. In the locality where the sickness oc- 
curred there are very few pools of stagnant 
water. Dr. Lutz, therefore, sought for other 
breeding places, and found the larva of this 
species in the cayities of various epiphytic 
plants of the family Bromeliacee. He also 
found the larva of a Megarhinus feeding upon 
the other culicid larve. Two species of Culex 
were also bred from the water in the cavities 
of these plants. The article shows the diffi- 
culty in the tropics of localizing the breeding 
places of mosquitoes. 

. Mr. C. T. Brues has added considerably to 
our limited knowledge of the Stylopide. + 
From Texan species of Polistes which he kept 
in confinement he obtained females and bred 
males of two new species of Xenos (X. pal- 
lidus and X. nigrescens). Upon these, and 
a large series of X. pecki collected in Con- 
necticut by Dr. Wheeler, Mr. Brues has made 
a study, principally of the early stages of the 
embryo and the origin of the eggs. He finds 
no similarity between the Stylopide and the 
Coleoptera, and concludes that the former 
should form a separate order of insects—the 
Strepsiptera. 

The second volume of Bingham’s ‘ Hymen- 

** Waldmosquitos und Waldmalaria,’ Centralbl. 
f. Bakter. Parasitenk. u. Infektionskrankheiten, 
Bd. XXXIII., pp. 282-292, 1903, figs. 

+ ‘A Contribution to our knowledge of the 
Stylopide,’ Zool. Jahrb., Abt. f. Anat., Vol. 
XVIII., pp. 241-270, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 


471 


optera of British India’* contains the ants 
and cuckoo (or golden) wasps. There are 398 
species of ants described, representing prob- 
ably one of the largest ant-faunas in the 
world. There are many notes of a very inter- 
esting nature on the habits of some of the 
ants. Of the cuckoo-wasps (Chrysidide) 79 
species are described. The colored plate shows 
some of these handsome insects. 

Dr. J. Vosseler has given an, attractive ac- 
count of his studies on the Orthoptera of 
Algeria and Tunis.t The first part contains 
notes on the physical condition of the country, 
the réle of wind in the distribution of the 
forms, and an annotated catalogue of the 
species (224 in number). Part second has a 
chapter on the distribution of these species in 
the Mediterranean fauna, one on the mark- 
ings and adaptive appearances in Acridiide, 
notes on the squirting of blood by various 
species, and on the odor-glands in one genus 
—(Mdaleus. 

The squirting of blood, or the body-fluid, is 
considered as a means of defense. In 
Hugaster there is a hole in the legs near the 
coxa through which the blood is forced; in 
Platystolus there is a slit at the posterior part 
of the pronotum. Many of the species are 
confined to desert regions, and of these a 
number are protectively colored when at rest, 
yet when flying display the brilliant colors 
on their hind wings. Some of the species 
vary considerably, and one colored plate. is 
devoted to the variations in Hremobia crista 
Fabr. 

Dr. C. G. Attems has published a synopsis 
of the geophilid myriapods of the world.¢ It 
consists of a chapter on the structure of the 
family, a synopsis to genera and species of 
the palearctic forms, a catalogue of the 
species of other countries, and descriptions 
of many new species, mostly non-Kuropean. 
Altogether about 290 species are mentioned. 


«The Fauna of British India, including Ceylon 
and Burma; Hymenoptera, Vol. II., London, 
1903, 506 pp., 1 pl., 161 figs. 

} ‘ Beitrige zur Faunistik und Biologie der 
Orthopteren Algeriens und ‘Tunesiens, Zool. 
Jahr., Abt. f. Syst., Vol. XVI. pp. 3388-404, 2 
pls.; Vol. XVII., pp. 1-98, 3 pls., 1902. 

{ ‘Synopsis der Geophiliden,’ Zool. Jahr., Abt. 
f. Syst., Vol. XVIII, pp. 155-302, 6 pls., 1903. 


472 


Dr. J. C. Nielsen has two papers in the same 
volume of the same periodical. One treats of 
the development of Bombylius pwmilus, a fly 
parasitic in the nest of a bee—Colletes 
daviesiana. THe shows that when the Bom~ 
bylius is ready to issue the pupa bores through 
the earth, and does not follow the channel 
of the nest. The second article is on the life- 
history of the longicorn beetle, Oberea linearis. 
The female beetle, after the manner of our 
Oncideres, cuts off the twig of hazel just be- 
yond where it has deposited an egg. It takes 
two years for the young to reach maturity. 

About two years ago a French woman, 
Marie Pellechet, offered a prize for a work on 
the insects injurious to books and their bind- 
ings.. The committee in charge of the prize 
awarded it to Constant V. Houlbert, and his 
essay has been published.* It is the most 
complete work yet written on the subject. 
He treats of 60 different species, and gives 


remedies or means of prevention as far as . 


known. There is a bibliography of 94 num- 
bers, from which the author has drawn for 
most of his facts. He finds that the worst 
insect enemies of books are the species of 
Anobiwm and allied genera, known to the 
French as ‘ Vrillettes.’ The remedy chiefly 
advised is fumigation, based on American 
methods. NarHan Banks. 


THE EIGHTH INTERNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 
CONGRESS, WASHINGTON, 1904. 

THE executive committee of the Seventh 
International Geographic Congress, held in 
Berlin in 1899, having yoted to convoke its 
next session in Washington, the National 
Geographie Society, as the organization re- 
sponsible for the management of the sessions 
in the United States, will welcome the eighth 
congress and its friends to the national capital 
of the United States in September, 1904. 

Geographers and promoters of geography 
throughout the world, especially members of 
geographic societies and cognate institutions 
of scientific character, are cordially invited to 
assemble in Washington, D. C., on September 
8, 1904, for the first international meeting of 
geographers in the western hemisphere. 

** Tes insectes ennemis des livres,’ pp. 269 + 38, 
3 pls., 59 figs., Paris, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XTX, No. 481. 


On the invitation of the National Geo- 
graphic Society, the following societies join in 
welcoming the congress and undertake to co- 
operate toward its success, especially in so far 
as sessions to be held in their respective cities 
are concerned: 


The American Geographical Society. 
The Geographic Society of Baltimore. 
The Geographic Society of Chicago. 
The Geographical Society of California. 
The Mazamas. 

The Peary Arctic Club. 

The Geographical Society of Philadelphia. 
The Appalachian Mountain Club. 

The Geographical Society of the Pacific. 
The Sierra Club. 

The American Alpine Club. 

The Harvard Travellers Club. 


The congress will conyene in Washington on 
Thursday, September 8, in the new home of 
the National Geographic Society, and will 
hold sessions on the ninth and tenth, the latter 
under the auspices of the Geographic Society 
of Baltimore. Leaving Washington on the 
twelfth, the members, associates and guests of 
the congress will be entertained during that 
day by the Geographical Society of Philadel- 
phia, and on the ‘thirteenth, fourteenth and 
fifteenth by the American Geographical So- 
ciety of New York, where scientific sessions 
will be held; on the sixteenth they will 
have the opportunity of visiting Niagara 
Falls (en route westward by special train), 
and on the seventeenth will be entertained 
by the Geographic Society of Chicago; 
and on Monday and Tuesday, September 
19 and 20, they will be invited to participate 
in the International Congress of Arts and 
Science connected with the World’s Fair in 
St. Louis. Arrangements will be made here 
for visiting exhibits of geographic interest. 
In case any considerable number of members 
and associates so desire, a far-west excursion 
will be provided from St. Louis to the City 
of Mexico, thence to Santa Fé, thence to the 
Grand Canyon of the Colorado, and on to San 
Francisco and the Golden Gate, where the 
western geographic societies will extend 
special hospitality, afterward returning by any 
preferred route through the Rocky Mountains 
and the interior plains to the eastern ports. 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


If the membership and finances warrant, 
the foreign delegates will be made guests of 
the congress from Washington to St. Louis, 
via Baltimore, Philadelphia, New York, 
Niagara Falls and Chicago. On the far-west 
excursion special terms will be secured, reduc- 
ing the aggregate cost of transportation, with 
sleeping-car accommodations, and meals, ma- 
terially below the customary rates. It may 
be necessary to limit the number of persons 
on the far-west excursion. It is planned also 


to secure special rates for transportation of 


foreign members from one or more EHuropean 
ports to New York, provided requisite informa- 
tion as to the convenience and pleasure of such 
members be obtained in time. Final informa- 
tion on these points will be given in the pre- 
liminary program of June, 1904. 

The subjects for treatment and discussion 
in the congress may be classified as follows: 

1. Physical geography, including geomorphol- 
ogy, meteorology, hydrology, ete. 

2. Mathematical geography, including geodesy 
and geophysics. 

3. Biogeography, including botany and zoology 
in their geographic aspects. 

4. Anthropogeography, including ethnology. 


5. Descriptive geography, including explora- 
tions and surveys. 
6. Geographic technology, including cartog- 


raphy, bibliography, etc. 
7. Commercial and industrial geography. 
8. History of geography. 
9. Geographic education. 


A special opportunity will be afforded for 
the discussion of methods of surveying and 
map-making, and for the comparison of these 
methods as pursued in other countries with 
the work of the federal and state surveys main- 
tained in this country. 

Members of the congress will be entitled to 
participate in all sessions and excursions, and 
to attend all social meetings in honor of the 
congress; they will also (whether in attend- 
anee or not) receive the publications of the 
congress, including the daily program and the 
final Compte Rendu, or volume of proceedings. 
Membership may be acquired by members of 
geographic and cognate societies on payment 
of $5 (25 franes, one pound, or 20 Marks) to 
the committee of arrangements. Persons not 


SCIENCE. 


473 


members of such societies may acquire mem- 
bership by a similar payment and election by 
the presidency. Ladies and minors accom- 
panying members may be registered as asso- 
ciates on payment of $2.50 (494 frances 10 
shillings, or 10 Marks); they shall enjoy all 
privileges of members except the rights of 
voting and of receiving publications. 

Geographers and their friends desirous of - 
attending the congress or receiving its publi- 
cations are requested to signify their intention 
at the earliest practicable date, in order that 
subsequent announcements may be sent them 
without delay and that requisite arrangements 
for transportation may be effected. On re- 
ceipt of subscriptions, members and associates’ 
tickets will be mailed to the subscribers. The 
privileges of the congress, including the ex- 
cursions and the social gatherings, can be ex- 
tended only to holders of tickets. 

It is earnestly hoped that the congress of 
1904 may be an assemblage of geographic and 
cognate institutions no less than of individual 
geographers; and to this end a special invita- 
tion is extended to such organizations to 
participate in the congress through delegates 
on the basis of one for each one hundred mem- 
bers up to a maximum of ten. No charge will 
be made for the registration of institutions, 
though the delegates will be expected to sub- 
seribe as members; and in order that the list 
of aftiliated institutions (to be issued in a 
later announcement) may be worthy of full 
confidence, the committee of arrangements re- 
serves the right to withhold the name of any 
institution pending action by the presidency. 
The publications of the congress will be sent 
free to all institutions registered. It is espe- 
cially desired that the geographic societies of 
the western hemisphere may utilize the oppor- 
tunity afforded by this congress for establishing 
closer relations with those of the old world, 
and to facilitate this, Spanish will be recog- 
nized as one of the languages of the congress, 
with French, English, German and Italian, 
in accordance with previous usage; and com- 
munications before the congress may be writ- 
ten in any of these languages. 

Institutions not strictly geographic in char- 
acter, libraries, universities, academies of sci- 


474 


ence and scientific societies are especially in- 
vited to subseribe as members in order to re- 
ceive the publications of the congress as issued. 

Members and delegates desirous of present- 
ing communications before the congress or 
wishing to propose subjects for discussion are 
requested to signify their wishes at the earliest 
practicable date, in order that the titles or 
subjects may be incorporated in a preliminary 
program to be issued in June, 1904. The time 
required for presenting communications should 
be stated, otherwise twelve minutes will be 
allotted. It is anticipated that not more than 
twenty minutes can be allotted for any com- 
munication unless the presidency decide to 
extend the time by reason of the general in- 
terest or importance of the subject. The 
presidency with the complete organization of 
the congress will be announced in the prelim- 
inary program of June, 1904. 

All papers or abstracts designed for presen- 
tation before the congress, and all proposals 
and applications affecting the congress, will be 
submitted to a program committee, who shall 
decide whether the same are appropriate for 
incorporation in the announcements, though 
the decisions of this committee shall be subject 
to revision by the presidency after the con- 
gress convenes. 

Any proposal affecting the organization of 
the congress or the program for the Washing- 
ton session must be received in writing not 
later than May 1, 1904. Communications de- 
signed to be printed in connection with the 
congress must be received not later than June 
1, and any abstracts of communications (not 
exceeding 300 words in length) designed for 
printing in the general program to be pub- 
lished at the beginning of the congress must 
be received not later than August 1, 1904. 
Daily programs will be issued during the 
sessions. _ 

All correspondence relating to the congress 
and all remittances should be addressed to the 
Eighth International Geographic Congress, 
Hubbard Memorial Hall, Washington, D. C., 
TDK, (Sb JAN 

Committee of Arrangements—W J McGee, 
National Geographic Society, chairman; Henry 
G. Bryant, Geographical Society of Philadelphia; 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou, XIX, No. 481. 


George B, Shattuck, Geographic Society of Balti- 
more; A. Lawrence Rotch, Appalachian Mountain 
Club, Boston; Zonia Baber, Geographic Society 
of Chicago; George Davidson, Geographical So- 
ciety of the Pacific, San Francisco; Frederick W. 
D’Evelyn, Geographical Society of California, San 
Francisco; John Muir, Sierra Club, San Fran- 
cisco; Rodney L. Glisan, Mazamas, Portland; 
Angelo Heilprin, American Alpine Club; Herbert 
L. Bridgman, Peary Arctic Club; William Morris 
Davis, Harvard Travellers Club; J. H. McCor- 
mick, secretary. 

Finance Committee—John Joy Edson, chair- 
man, president Washington Loan and Trust Com- 
pany; David T. Day, United States Geological 
Survey; Charles J. Bell president American Se- 
curity and Trust Company. 


THE SIXTH INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS 
OF ZOOLOGY. 


Tue Fifth International Congress of Zool- 
ogy held at Berlin in 1901, selected Switzer- 
land as the place of meeting for the sixth 
session, and elected Professor Doctor Th. 
Studer president. 

The congress will meet at Bern from August 
14-19, 1904. 

The general committee consists of the fol- 
lowing gentlemen: 


President—Dr. Th. Studer, professor at the Uni- 
versity of Bern. 

Vice-Presidents—Dr. E. Beraneck, professor at 
the Academy of Neuchatel; Dr. H. Blane, pro- 
fessor at the University of Lausanne; Dr. V. 
Fatio, Geneve; Dr. L. Kathariner, professor at 
the University of Fribourg; Dr. A. Lang, professor 
at the University and at the Polytecknicum of 
Zurich; Dr. E. Yung, professor at the University 
of Geneva; Dr. F. Zschokke, professor at the Uni- 
versity of Basle. 

General Secretary of the Standing Committee 
of International Congresses of Zoology—Dr. R. 
Blanchard, professor of the Medical Faculty of 
Paris. 

Secretaries—Dr. M. Bedot, professor at the 
University of Geneva; Dr. T. Carl, assistant to 
the Museum of Natural History of Geneva; Dr. 
W. Volz, assistant to the Zoological Institute of 
the University of Bern. 

Treasurers—Mr. EK. Von Biiren von Salis, banker, 
Bern, and Mr. A. Pictet, banker, Geneva. 

Committee on Scientific Works—Besides the 
president and the vice-presidents of ‘the general 
committee: President—Dr. H. Strasser, professor 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


at the University of Bern; Dr. E. Bugnion, pro- 
fessor at the University of Lausanne; Dr. R. 
Burckhardt, professor at the University of Basle; 
Dr. H. Corning, professor at the University of 
Basle; Dr. U. Duerst, privatdocent at the Uni- 
versity of Ztirich; Dr. A. Forel, professor, Chigny ; 
Dr. F. Sarasin, Basle; Dr. Sarasin, Basle; Dr. 
H. Stehlin, Basle. 
Committee on Finances: 
Von Biiren von Salis, Bern. 
Committee on Publications: President—Dr. M. 
Bedot, professor at the University of Geneva. 
Committee on Receptions: President—Dr. H. 
Kronecker, professor at the University of Bern. 
Committee on Lodgings—Dr. E. Hess, pro- 
fessor at the University of Bern. 
Committee on Entertainments—Dr. O. Rubeli, 
' professor at the University of Bern. 
Committee on Refreshments—Dr. H. Graf, pro- 
fessor at the University of Bern. 
Press Committee—Dr. G. Beck, Bern. 


President—Mr. H. 


The general meeting will take place at Bern 
in the Palace of Parliament, and the section 
sittings in the new university. 

During the congress there will be an excur- 
sion to Neuchatel and to the Zura lakes, in 
order to visit the lake-dwellers’ settlements. 

The closing session of the congress will be 
held at Interlaken. Afterwards, the members 
of the congress will be invited to visit other 
Swiss cities. Concerning intended communi- 
cations, inquiries, etc., address the president 
of the Sixth International Congress, Museum 
of Natural History, Waisenhausstrasse, Bern. 

The congress is open to all zoologists and 
to those interested in zoology. 


THE DEDICATION OF PALMER HALL, 
COLORADO COLLEGE. 

Parmer Hawn, the new science and admin- 
istration building of Colorado College, at 
Colorado Springs, was formally dedicated on 
February 23, the dedicatory address being de- 
livered by Dr. David Starr Jordan. The new 
building, which cost about $280,000, is 287 
feet long and 95 feet wide. Besides a sub- 
basement six feet high, there are three stories, 
a basement and a first and second floor. The 
style of architecture is that which has been 
chosen for the entire system of buildings 
eventually to occupy the college campus, the 
first example of which was presented in the 


SCIENCE. 


475 


Coburn Library. The structure is built of 
the ‘peach blow’ sandstone of Colorado, and 
is fire-proof, with steel frame and concrete 
floors, overlaid with terazzo finish. In the 
basement are laboratories for chemistry, phys- 
ies and psycho-physics, and a large demonstra- 
tion room. On the first floor are the executive 
offices, general lecture rooms, other labora- 
tories for chemistry and physics, the lecture 
room of the department of sociology, ete. On 
the second floor are the museum, and the de- 
partments of biology and geology, ete. An 
endowment of $50,000 has been provided for 
the building, and the equipment to date has 
cost about $30,000. These sums, of course, 
are wholly inadequate. The members of the 
staff of Colorado College (including Cutler 
Academy) whose work is more especially con- 
nected with science are as follows: Dr. W. F. 
Slocum, president and head professor of phi- 
losophy; Dr. F. Cajori, dean of the engineer- 
ing school and head professor of mathematics; 
Dr. E. G. Lancaster, assistant professor of 
philosophy and pedagogy; Dr. F. H. Lond, 
professor of mathematics and astronomy; 
Professor W. Strieby, professor of chemistry 
and metallurgy; Mr. M. F. Coolbaugh, in- 
structor in chemistry; Dr. E. C. Schneider, 
professor of biology; Dr. W. C. Sturgis, lec- 
turer on botany; Dr. G. I. Finlay, professor 
of geology, mineralogy and paleontology; Dr. 
T. K. Urdahl, professor of political and social 
science; Dr. J. C. Shedd, professor of physies; 
Mr. F. R. Hastings, lecturer on the history of 
philosophy; Miss KE. P. Hubbard, instructor in 
mathematics; Mrs. W. P. Cockerell, instructor 
in botany in Cutler Academy; Mr. T. D. A. 
Cockerell, curator of the museum. 

In addition to the dedicatory exercises 
proper, addresses were delivered on February 
22 by Dr. C. R. Van Hise, on ‘ Colorado as a 
Field for Scientific Research’; by Dr. S. L. 
Bigelow, on ‘The Growth and Function of 
the Modern Laboratory’; by Dr. C. E. Bessey, 
on ‘The Possibilities of the Botanical Labo- 
ratory,’ and by Dr. Henry Crew, on ‘ Recent 
Advances in the Teaching of Physics. In 
connection with the exercises, the degree of 
LL.D. was conferred on General William J. 
Palmer, in whose honor Palmer Hall was 


476 


named. General Palmer is one of the prin- 
cipal founders of Colorado Springs, and has 
probably had more to do with the upbuilding 
of Colorado than any other one man. He has 


during many years aided the college in innu- . 


merable ways, and is one of its trustees. 

Colorado College does not pretend to be a 
university, and in fact always has insisted on 
the college ideal as distinguished from that of 
the university proper. Nevertheless Dr. Jor- 
dan, in his address, spoke the following sig- 
nificant words: 

“Tam told that Colorado College is one of 
those which aspires to be only a college, a 
thoroughly good college of course, but that 
she has no thought of becoming a university. 
I do not learn this from my friend, Dr. Slo- 
eum, and I know that his ambition is bound- 
less. But whether it be true or not, I am 
going to oppose the idea. She will be a uni- 
versity before you know it. This Palmer Hall 
may be offered in evidence that the college 
period is past. Colorado College has already 
become a university. A university in em- 
bryo, perhaps, if you like, but still with all 
the marks by which the university is known— 
as certain to become a university in fact as a 
pine seedling on your royal hills is sure some 
day to become a pine tree. 

“A university in America is a place where 
men think lofty thoughts, and where men test 
for themselves that which seems to be true, 
where men go up to the edge of things and 
look outward into the great unknown, where 
men find their life work.” 

And, it may be added, it appears to be 
universally expected and desired by those who 
insist upon the word college that the opening 
of Palmer Hall shall mark the beginning of 
a period of scientific research, the extent of 
which is only to be limited by the men and 
materials available. 


45 ID, AG Ct 


THE STUDY OF SCIENCE. 

THE secretaries of the Royal Society have 
submitted to the universities of the United 
Kingdom the following ‘ Statement regarding 
Scientific Education in Schools, drawn up 
by a Committee of the Royal Society’: 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 481. 


“Notwithstanding efforts extending over 
more than half a century, it still remains sub- 
stantially true that the public schools have 
devised for themselves no adequate way of 
assimilating into their system of education 
the principles and methods of science. The 
experience of ‘modern sides’ and other ar- 
rangements shows that it can hardly be ex- 
pected that, without external stimulus and 
assistance, a type of public-school education 
can be evolved which, whilst retaining literary 
culture, will at the same time broaden it by. 
scientific interests. On the other hand, it is 
admitted that many students trained in the 
recent foundations for technical scientific in- 
struction have remained ignorant of essential 
subjects of general education. 

“The bodies which can do most to promote 
and encourage improvement in these matters 
are the universities, through the influence 
which they are in a position to exert on sec- 
ondary education. This improvement will 
not, however, be brought about by making the 
avenues to degrees in scientifie or other sub- 
jects easier than at present. Rather, the test 
of preliminary general education is too slight 
already, with the result that a wide gap is 
often established between scientific students 
careless of literary form and other students 
ignorant of scientific method. 

“Tt may be suggested that the universities 
might expand and improve their general tests, 
so as to make them correspond with the edu- 
cation, both literary and scientific, which a 
student, matriculating at the age of nineteen 
years, should be expected to have acquired; 
and that they should themselves make pro- 
vision, in cases where this test is not satisfied, 
for ensuring the completion of the general 
education of their students, before close spec- 
jalization is allowed. 

“Tn particular, it appears desirable that 
some means should be found for giving a 
wider range of attainment to students prepar- 
ing for the profession of teaching. The re- 
sult of the existing system is usually to place 
the supreme control of a public school in the 
hands of a head master who has little knowl- 
edge of the scientific side of education; while 
the instructors in many colleges have to deal 


a ad 


Amy 


sae 


Marcu 18, 1904.) 


with students who have had no training in 
the exact and orderly expression of their ideas. 

“ Our main intention is not, however, to of- 
fer detailed suggestions, but to express our be- 
lief that this question of the adaptation of 
secondary education to modern conditions in- 
volves problems that should not be left to 
individual effort, or even to public legislative 
control; that it is rather a subject in which 
the universities of the United Kingdom might 
be expected to lead the way and exert their 
powerful influence for the benefit of the 
nation.” 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

By order of its council the next meeting of 
the Astronomical and Astrophysical Society 
of America will be held in affiliation with the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, at Philadelphia, during convoca- 
tion week, 1904-05. 

Dr. Atpxanprer Acassiz, director of the Har- 
yard University Museum and president of the 
National Academy of Sciences, has been ad- 
vaneed to a foreign associate of the Paris 
Academy of Sciences, to fill the vacancy 
eaused by the death of Sir George Gabriel 
Stokes. 

McoGitt Universiry has conferred the de- 
eree of LL.D. on Dr. Edward L. Trudeau of 
Saranac Lake, N. Y., in recognition of his 
work on the open-air treatment of tuberculosis, 
and on Mr. Edward Weston, of Newark, N. J., 
the investigator and inventor in electrical sci- 
ence. 

Proressor W. Ostwatp, of Leipzig, has been 
elected an honorary member of the Society 
of Scientific Men at Moscow. 

Tue University of Utrecht has conferred an 
honorary doctorate of medicine on Professor 
J. H. van’t Hoff, of Berlin. 

Proressor G. H. Darwin, of Cambridge, has 
been elected a foreign associate of the Belgian 
Academy of Sciences. : 

Lorp Ketyin is one of three nominees for 
the chancelorship of the University of Glas- 
gow. 

PRESIDENT JORDAN, of Stanford University, 
is expected to joi the Albatross on about 


SCIENCE. 


el} 


477 


April 10 to make a biological examination of 
Monterey Bay. Professor W. E. Ritter, of 
the University of California, is at present 
carrying on a survey of the coast between 
San Diego and Catalina Island, under the 
general direction of President Jordan. 

Rear Apmirat Grorce W. Mernyinie, U.S.N. 
(retired), and Mr. George Westinghouse ar- 
rived in Paris at the beginning of March after 
an extended European trip. The former is 
making an investigation of the extent to 
which turbine engines are being applied in 
naval construction. 

Proressor H. C. Ernst, of the Harvard 
Medical School, has recently appeared before 
a committee of the Massachusetts legislature 
in opposition to the bill to restrict animal ex- 
perimentation in the state. 


DurineG the summer Assistant Professor J. 
O. Snyder, of Stanford University, will un- 
dertake for the government an examination 
of the rivers and streams of northwestern 
California, Nevada and Oregon. 

Dr. W. R. BrinckerHorr and Dr. E. E. 
Tozzer, of the Harvard Medical School, mem- 
bers of the expedition to the Philippines sent 
out under the direction of Dr. Councilman, 
have arrived in Manila. 7 

Proressor Freperic §. Ler, who has re- 
cently been promoted to a full professorship 
of physiology at Columbia University, has 
been granted leave of absence for the academic 
year of 1904-5, and will spend the time in 
European laboratories. 

Sir Davin Grit, director of the Royal Ob- 
servatory at the Cape of Good Hope, is on a 
visit to Great Britain. 

Tr is stated in the newspapers that Professor 
EK. P. Lewis, of the University of California, 
has received a grant of $500 from the Car- 
negie Institution to purchase prisms and 
lenses for the study of the spectra of gases 
under different physical conditions. 

Sirk Wini1am Huecis, president of the 
Royal Society, celebrated his eightieth birth- 
day on February 7. 

Dr. August Dorie, titular professor of phi- 
losophy at Berlin, has celebrated his seventieth 
birthday. 


478 i SCIENCE. 


Proressor Kuno Fiscrr, of Heidelberg, 
will not retire, as has been announced, but 
offers this summer four lectures a week on 
‘The History of Modern Philosophy.’ 

Av the instance of Professor John Marshall 
and Professor Edgar F. Smith, of the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, thirty-four Americans, 
who formerly studied chemistry at the Uni- 
versity of Gdéttingen, have united to send a 
gift to Heinrich Mahlmann, who is celebra- 
ting his fiftieth year of service as ‘Diener’ in 
the Chemical Laboratory at Gottingen. 

Dr. Henry F. Ossorn, of Columbia Uni- 
versity and the American Museum of Natural 
History, lectured before the Academy of Sci- 
ence and Art at Pittsburg in the Carnegie 
Institute on March 10, his subject being ‘ The 
Evolution of the Horse.’ : 


We regret to record the deaths of Dr. 
Magnus Blix, professor of physiology at the 
University of Lund, at the age of fifty-five 
years; of Dr. Ludwig Beushausen, docent for 
geology and paleontology at the Berlin School 
of Mines, at the age of forty-one years, and 
of Professor F. S. Schmitt, director of the 
Natural History Museum at Stockholm. 

Tue St. Petersburg Academy of Science has 
offered $3,750 for information in regard to 
the party of Baron Toll, the Arctic explorer, 
from whom nothing has been heard since he 
left the yacht Zaria, in 1902, and started for 
Bennett Island. 


SEVERAL subscriptions are announced for 
the Institute of Medical Sciences, to be es- 
tablished under the auspices of the University 
of London, the largest of which is $25,000 
from Mr. Alfred Beit. 


Tue American Electrochemical Society will 
hold its fifth general meeting at Columbian 
University, Washington, D. C., on April 7, 8 
and 9. The headquarters wil be at the Shore- 
ham Hotel. The chairman of the local com- 
mittee is Colonel Samuel Reber, and the chair- 
man of the executive committee, Dr. H. W. 
Wiley. 

Tue Southern Society for Philosophy and 
Psychology was organized on February 23 in 
Atlanta, Ga. Its officers are: President, Pro- 
fessor J. Mark Baldwin, Johns Hopkins Uni- 


[N.S. Voz. XIX, No. 481. 


versity; Secretary, Protessor Edward Franklin 
Buchner, University of Alabama; Council, the 
president, secretary, Dr. William T. Harris, 
Washington, D. C., Mr. Reuben Post Halleck, 
Louisville, Ky., and Professor A. Casewell 
Ellis, University of Texas. The aim of the 
organization is to promote the welfare of phi- 
losophy and psychology in southern institu- 
tions. 


WE are requested to state again that the 
Association for maintaining the American 
Women’s Table at the Zoological Station at 
Naples and for promoting Scientific Research 
by Women announces the offer of a second 
prize of one thousand dollars for the best 
thesis written by a woman on a scientific sub- 
ject, embodying new observations and new 
conclusions based on an independent labora- 
tory research in biological, chemical or phys- 
ical science. The theses offered in competi- 
tion are to be presented to the executive com- 
mittee of the association and must be in the 
hands of the chairman of the committee on 
the prize, Mrs. Ellen H. Richards, Massachu- 
setts Institute of Technology, Boston, Mass., 
before December 31, 1904. The prize will be 
awarded at the annual meeting in April, 1905. 


We learn from The Observatory that an 
observatory has been established at Zagreb, 
the capital of Croatia (Hungary), under the 
direction of Professor Otto Kucera. This in- 
stitution, which is an offshoot of the Croatian 
Philosophical Society, established in 1887, 
aims at doing good astronomical work as well 
as popularizing the science in Croatia. It 
already possesses equatorials of 6.4 inches and 
4.25 inches aperture, as well as other instru- 
ments, and with these it is proposed to observe 
the sun and planets, and variable and colored 
stars. 

A PARLIAMENTARY paper has been published 
relating to the proposed adoption of a metric 
system of weights and measures for use within 
the British empire. The London Times states 
that in a circular sent from the Colonial 
Office, dated December 9, 1902, the colonial 
governors were asked to say what action was 
likely to be taken in their respective colonies 
with regard to the resolution adopted at the 


Marcu 18, 1904.] 


Conference of Colonial Premiers in London in 
favor of the adoption of a metric system. The 
replies received are thus summarized. The 
metric system is already used in Mauritius 
and Seychelles. The following are favorable 
to its adoption: Australia, New Zealand, Cape 
of Good Hope, Transvaal, Orange River Col- 
ony, Southern Rhodesia, Gambia, Northern 
Nigeria, Gibraltar, British Guiana, Trinidad, 
Leeward Islands, Windward Islands. Also, 
with a reservation that it must also be adopted 
in the United Kingdom or in the empire gen- 
erally, Sierra Leone, Southern Nigeria, Cey- 
lon and Falklands. Hongkong would take 
common action with other colonies. The 
states of New South Wales, Victoria and 
Western Australia are also favorable, but, to- 
gether with South Australia and Tasmania, 
consider that the matter is one for the Com- 
monwealth Government. Fiji is doubtful, but 
must follow Australia and New Zealand. 
British New Guinea would go with Australia. 
Jamaica and British Honduras need the adop- 
tion of the system in the United States of 
America. The practise of India is important 
to the Straits Settlements, which would be 
followed by Labuan; and the Bechuanaland 
Protectorate would follow the rest of South 
Africa. St. Helena, Cyprus, Lagos, Wei-hai- 
wei, Barbados and Bahamas are on the whole 
unfavorable. The Gold Coast Colony and the 
state of Queensland are prepared to adopt the 
system, but consider that inconvenience would 
occur. Natal can not consider the matter 
until some general lines of legislation have 
been agreed upon. No definite answer has 
been given by Newfoundland, Malta or Ber- 
muda. Canada has not yet replied. 


Tue forthcoming annual volume of ‘ Min- 
eral Resources’ published by the U. S. Geo- 
logical Survey will contain a report of Mr. 
F. H. Oliphant on the production of petro- 
leum in 1902. Seven facts with reference to 
the petroleum industry of 1902 are empha- 
sized in this report. (1) The production of 
crude petroleum, which amounted to 88,757,- 
395 barrels, was greater than that of any pre- 
vious year. (2) The great increase was due 
principally to the development of an inferior 


SCIENCE. 


less than that of 1901. 


479 


grade of petroleum in Texas, California and 
Louisiana. (3) There was a slight decrease 
in the production of the Appalachian field and 
a slight increase in the Lima-Indfana field, 
caused by the increased production in the 
state of Indiana. (4) The general average 
price paid for the crude petroleum produced 
was less than in any year since 1898, although 
the average price for the better grades pro- 
duced in the Appalachian and the Lima- 
Indiana fields was four cents greater in 1902 
than in 1901. (5) Stocks held in the Appa- 
lachian and Lima-Indiana fields showed a con- 
siderable decrease, principally in the Appa- 
lachian field. (6) The amount of refined and 
erude petroleum exported in 1902 was slightly 
There was an increase 
in the amount of crude petroleum and re- 
siduum exported, a decrease in illuminating 
petroleum, and an increase in lubricating pe- 
troleum. While the quantity of exports of 
all grades decreased only 1.87 per cent., the 
value decreased 5.62 per cent. The home con- 
sumption has been increasing more rapidly in 
the last three years than it did in former 
years. (7) No new pools were discovered in 
1902. Indications point to the existence of 
a new source of petroleum supply in Alaska. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tue College of Pharmacy of the City of 
New York, established in 1831, and possessing 
a well-equipped building on Sixty-eighth St., 
has become a part of Columbia University. 
President Butler becomes president of the 
college, which, however, remains a separate 
corporation, its finances being managed by 
its own board of trustees, as is the case with 
Teachers College and Barnard College. It is 
also announced that Columbia University has 
received an additional sum of $50,000, making 
$350,000 in all, for Hartley Hall, and will 
proceed to erect this and another dormitory 
on the Amsterdam side of South Field. 


Princeton Untversiry has received gifts 
of the value of $85,000, including $15,000 
from Mr. Morris K. Jesup, to increase the 
endowment fund bearing his name. 


480 


ANNOUNCEMENT is made in the NV. Y. Hven- 
ing Post in regard to the celebration of the 
jubilee of the University of Wisconsin, and the 
inauguration of President Van Hise. Wednes- 
day, June 8, will be ‘semi-centennial’ day. 
An address of congratulation on behalf of the 
American universities will be delivered by Dr. 
Daniel C. Gilman, president of the Carnegie 
Institution. The universities of the far west, 
the south and the middle west will be repre- 
sented respectively by President Benjamin 
Ide Wheeler, of the University of California, 
President R. H. Jesse, of the University of 
Missouri, and President Cyrus Northrop, of 
the University of Minnesota. President 
James B. Angell, of the University of Mich- 
igan, will deliver an address on the function 
of the State University. The inauguration 
of the president, Charles R. Van Hise, the 
eminent geologist, will occur on Tuesday, 
June 7. President William R. Harper of 
Chicago University will present the greetings 
of other American universities. Governor La 
Follette, a classmate of Dr. Van Hise, will 
welcome him to the presidency, and Professor 
Frederick J. Turner, ’84, will respond on the 
part of the faculty. The state superintendent 
of public instruction, Mr. Cary, will make an 
address on the western educational system, 
which makes the state university the crown 
of the public school system. 


A GABLEGRAM to daily papers states that the 

' University of Vienna has been closed in con- 

sequence of threats of disturbances among the 

students. The German students were much 

incensed at the demonstrations of the Czechs 

‘against their German comrades at Prague, 
Bohemia, and threatened retaliation. 


A scHOLARSHIP valued at $150.00 has re- 
cently been established in the New Mexico 
School of Mines, open to the best member of 
the graduating class of each year, desiring 
to make a special study of mining machinery 
in the large manufacturing works. 

Dr. Anprew S. Draper has resigned the 
presidency of the University of Illinois to be- 
come commissioner of education of New York 
State. This is a result of the unification bill 
which was signed by Governor Odell on March 
8. Under the new organization the eleven re- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 481, 


gents and their terms of office are as follows:. 
Whitelaw Reid, nine years; Edward Lauter- 
bach, seven years; Eugene A. Philbin, five 
years; Charles A. Gardner, six years; St. Clair 
McKelway, two years; Dr. Albert Vander 
Veer, one year; Charles S. Francis, eleven 
years;. William Nottingham, three years; 
Daniel Beach, four years; Pliny T. Sexton, 
ten years; T. Guilford Smith, eight years. 


Proressor Frank Tunty, of the University 
of Missouri, has been elected to the Stuart 
chair of psychology at Princeton University, 
vacant by the removal of Professor J. Mark 
Baldwin to the Johns Hopkins University. 


Ow1ne to the continued illness of Professor 
John Krom Rees, of Columbia University, he 
will be absent with leave for the year 1904-5. 
The trustees have made Adjunct Professor 
Harold Jacoby professor and acting head of 
the department of astronomy during Pro- 
fessor Rees’s absence. Charles L. Poor, Ph.D., 
formerly assistant professor of astronomy in 
the Johns Hopkins University, is also made 
professor of astronomy. The following ad- 
junet professors have been promoted to pro- 
fessorships: Frederic S. Lee, Ph.D., to be pro- 
fessor of physiology; Edmund H. Miller, 
Ph.D., to be professor of analytical chemistry; 
Marston T. Bogert, Ph.D., to be professor of 
organic chemistry; Bashford Dean, Ph.D., to 
be professor of vertebrate zoology; Cary N. 
Calkins, Ph.D., to be professor of zoology, and 
H. E. Crampton, Ph.D., to be professor of 
zoology at Barnard College. The following 
instructors have been made adjunct pro- 
fessors: Eugene Hodenpyl, M.D., in patholog- 
ical anatomy; Francis C. Wood, M.D., in clin- 
ical pathology; Frederick R. Bailey, M.D., in 
normal histology; Lea Mel. Luquer, Ph.D., in 
mineralogy; and Bradley Stoughton, B.S., in 
metallurgy. 


Dr. TH. Zrenen, of Halle, has been called 
to the chair of psychiatry at Berlin vacated 
by the death of Dr. F. Jolly. 


THE Isaac Newton studentship at Cam- 
bridge University, of the value of £250, for 
study and research in astronomy has been 
awarded to Zia Uddin Ahmad, B.A., of Trin- 
ity College. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frmay, Marcu 25, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


Recent Advances in the Teaching of Physics: 
PROFESSOR HENRY CREW...........+-.-- 481 


The Science of Smoke Prevention: PROFESSOR 


CHAS. H. BENJAMIN....:..............- 488 
The Cardinal Principles of Ecology: PRo- 

Fressor W. F. GANONG......-.-....--5-- 493 
Scientific Books :— ; 

Palmer's Index Generum Mammalium: J. 

A. A. Newstead’s Monograph of the_Coc- 

cidae of the British Isles: T. D. A. CocxK- 

IPMN Hoon IME ME Pe OO eon e DUm AOS 5 498 
Scientific Journals and Articles............ 502 


Societies and Academies :-— 
The Geological Society of Washington: AL- 
FRED H. Brooks. Section of Biology of 
the New York Academy of Sciences: PrRo- 
ressor M. A. BiceLtow. The Academy of 


Science of St. Wows... 2 .2.2..22.. sete 502 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 


Instability of the Water Supply of the Rio 
Grande: Dr, ¥. 8. DELLENBAUGH 
Special Articles :— 

Biological Survey of the Waters of Sowth- 
ern California: PROFESSOR CHARLES AT- 
woop Koromw. The Necessity for Reform 
in the Nomenclature of the Fungi: Dr. F. 
S. Harte. Hnergetics and Mechanics: Pro- 


FESSOR FREDERICK SLATE...............- 505 
Quotations :-— 

IPESUACTUG FEU bn a) 0) vera ahs) “fn srs sesste- spied 44 p 5 2 
Notes on Inorganic Chemistry :— 

Water Gas in the Chemical Laboratory; 

Yellow Arsenic; Copper Cyanid Solutions ; 

Corrosion of Iron Water Mains: J. L. H.. 513 
A Quarterly Issue of the ‘ Smithsonian Miscel- 

lameows “Collections\*....2...:....,.,-+.+--- 514 
Botanical Work in the Philippines........ 516 
Scientific Notes and News................. 516 
University and Educational News.......... 519 


MSS. intended for publication and books, ete., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


RECENT ADVANCES IN THE TEACHING OF 
PHYSICS.* 

THis is an hour when anything but con- 
eratulation is impossible, not alone for this 
queenly city seated at the foot of the 
majestic Front Range, but for the entire 
commonwealth. The foresight as well as 
the generosity of the donor in aiding an 
institution which had already richly de- 
served such aid, the skill and taste of the 
architect, the adaptation of the laboratories 
to the needs of modern science, these all 
command our admiration. The manner in 
which a quarter of a century has trans- 
formed a mountain foothill into an educa- 
tional center challenges the respect of 
every one. 

From a sister university on the eastern 
slope of the Mississippi I brimg to your 
president and to his staff greetings and all 
good wishes. I bring them no reminder of 
the responsibility which always accom- 
panies opportunity such as is represented 
by this building, for there is probably, in 
all the land, no group of men more keenly 
aware of the fact that endowment and 
duty are close friends. No one knows bet- 
ter than the men who have this work in 
hand that. not to advance is to recede. 

Times are not so simple as they were even 
twenty-five years ago, and we are finding 
ourselves daily more and more in the posi- 
tion of the red queen in the Alice books 
where ‘it takes all the running you can 
do to keep in the same place.’ 

* Paper read before the Science Conference held 


at the dedication of Palmer Hall, Colorado Col- 
lege, February 22, 1904. 


482 


But change does not always spell ad- 
vance, and not every novelty is an im- 
provement. It may be well, therefore, 
before we consider progress along any par- 
ticular line, to recall what constitutes prog- 
ress in general. ‘The profound studies of 
Mr. Spencer led him to a very happy defi- 
nition of progress, namely, ‘an increase in 
the adaptation of man to his environment.’ 
This description would be eminently satis- 
factory were it not that im another place 
Mr. Spencer characterizes progress as a 
‘benevolent necessity,’ thus robbing it of 
every element of human initiative and of 
conscious endeavor. For this reason many 
of Mr. Spencer’s most ardent admirers— 
among whom I count myself—while ad- 
mitting the happiness of his phrasing, will 
nevertheless prefer the view of Professor 
Karl Pearson who regards progress as the 
result of a distinct program, the outcome 
of plans laid with care and according to 
the soundest biological principles. 

Having in mind this point of view from 
which progress is a consequence of delib- 
erate forethought, I invite your attention 
to some of the advances recently made in 
the teaching of physics to English-speaking 
students. 

Let us use the word ‘recently’ as refer- 
ring to the last thirty years and consider 
first some advances in the teaching of 
physies which have resulted from advances 
in the science of physies. 


I. IMPROVEMENTS IN MATERIAL. 

The purchase by Princeton College of 
one of the Gramme machines exhibited at 
the Centennial Exposition in 1876 may, 
perhaps, be fairly considered as marking 
the introduction of the modern dynamo 
into the American physical laboratory. 
Only five years after this date I found 
myself a student in this laboratory which 
had purchased the Gramme machine—an 
excellently equipped and ably directed 


SCIENCE. 


laboratory, then as now. A single illustra- 
tion must suffice to show how matters have 
changed. On turning the pages of my first- 
year note-book, I find that one of the ex- 
periments assigned me was the measure- 
ment of the current furnished by this 
Gramme machine under certain definite 
conditions. This was done in two ways: 
(1) the earth’s horizontal magnetic com- 
ponent was determined at a certain point; 
at this particular point was placed a tan- 
gent galvanometer whose constant I had 
computed; the deflection which the current 
produced in this instrument completed the 
data necessary to determine the current in 
webers. Amperes were yet novelties, not 
to say mysteries. The graded galvanometer 
and the ampere-balance of Kelvin were not 
yet on the market. The beautiful instru- 
ments of Weston were unknown. (2) The 
second method employed was to assume the 
electro-chemical equivalent of copper and 
proceed to measure the average current by 
weighing the amount of metal which it had 
deposited. 

Each of these processes proved highly 
instructive, and they are cited merely to 
show the amount of time and detail which 
the student was driven to consume when 
for any reason he wished to know the value 
of the current he was using; for the ‘work- 
ing constant’ of the galvanometer carried 
about the laboratory was by no means so 
constant as its name might imply. 

Another forward step was marked by the 
introduction of the low-resistance, portable 
D’Arsonval galvanometer which permits 
the elementary student, at his own labora- 
tory table, to study practically all the 
fundamental properties of electric cur- 
rents; this with an outfit which is sim- 
plicity itself, and at a cost which brings 
the entire equipment easily within the 
range of the most modest high school. The 
point here, let me insist, is not the increased 
convenience and comfort of the student, 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 482. 


MarcnH 25, 1904.] 


but rather the power which it confers upon 
him of devoting his energies to those phases 
of the subject which are under inyestiga- 
tion, those topics which for the time being 
have become really fundamental. 

Among other improvements in this direc- 
tion there came after, the dynamo, in rapid 
succession, like a host of beneficent corol- 
laries, the electric motor, the are lamp, the 
incandescent lamp, the storage cell, the 
powerful magnetic field, the transformer, 
the electric furnace, the electrolytic inter- 
rupter, the oscillograph, each opening up 
hitherto-undreamed-of possibilities in the 
way of demonstration for elementary stu- 
dents and of investigation for advanced 
students. 

I shall not detain you further to illus- 
trate a point which is, perhaps, more fa- 
miliar to many of you than to me. Let 
' me only mention, as opening up new possi- 
bilities for the student, the platinum ther- 
mometer, the high temperature mercury 
thermometer, the Rowland grating, the 
Wallace-Thorpe replica, the interferometer, 
Jena optical glass, quartz ware, the cheap 
production of aluminium, platimum mir- 
rors, isochromatic dry plates, and so on 
almost without end. 

But if these devices have aided under- 
graduate instruction, what shall we say of 
the student advanced to the point where 
he is ready to take up a piece of research? 
For him they have rendered problems 
soluble, by the hundred, which previously 
lay in the region denoted by Mr. Gladstone 
as ‘outside of practical politics.’ 

But best of all the discoveries which the 
last generation has made concerning the 
merely mechanical side of teaching physics 
is the fact that practically all the funda- 
mental—and many even of the more re- 
condite—principles may be demonstrated 
with apparatus of the utmost simplicity. 
One condition only stands between the 
simple material outfit and success, namely, 


SCIENCE. 


483 


an instructor who is so thoroughly master 
of the subject and of the situation that he 
will see that the student gets from his out- 
fit all the information and all the training 
intended. The older any man becomes, the 
more he admires simplicity, and especially 
the simplicity of nature (our ever-present 
model), of whom Fresnel remarked: “She 
never balks at the difficulties of analysis, 
but always hesitates to employ methods 
which are complicated.’ 

The nations of light and leading have 
made a capital discovery just at the close 
of the nineteenth century; they have just 
awakened to the fact that they can ‘go 
in and possess the land’ more easily when 
they have at home an intelligent rank and 
file, an educated parliament, a scientific 
government, a free and happy electorate. 
So also in the teaching of physics a capital 
discovery has, I think, been recently made 
in the fact that armament is not every- 
thing. No number of expensive and 
elaborate demonstrations, no striking ex- 
hibitions of machinery can ever replace 
the simple experiment, the lucid and or- 
derly presentation of phenomena, the dis- 
tinet effort made by the student to grasp 
the essential principle, or the conscious 
effort at accurate observation and judg- 
ment called forth by an ambition to get 
from a simple device the best attainable 
result and the simplest possible point of 
view. There is danger in any instrument 
when it becomes so perfect and so accurate 
that the young man who is working with 
it is tempted to degenerate into an ‘organ- 
erinder.’ The accuracy in a laboratory 
should not all be confined to its machinery ; 
some should be left for the judgment. 

It was, therefore, no small step in ad- 
vance when the instructor came to see 
clearly that all he can ask of a piece of 
apparatus is that it shall be capable of 
yielding the results which he demands of 
the student, and conversely that he can 


484 SCIENCE. 


not hope to train the student in habits of 
precise thinking without demanding of 
him nearly the best which the apparatus 
can give. 

With such an undoubted improvement 
as the advent of the student laboratory, it 
was inevitable that some enthusiastic ad- 
mirers should push it too far. In the 
earlier days mistakes were undoubtedly 
made in thinking that if once a labora- 
tory could be established and once the stu- 
dent gotten into it, his scientific salvation 
was immediately insured, if not, indeed, 
already accomplished. 

But now the pendulum has swung back; 
the days of ‘organ grinding’ in the labo- 
ratory have largely ceased, and I reckon 
it not least among recent advances in the 
teaching of physics that the modern in- 
structor has learned that an undergrad- 
uate can not be simply turned loose in a 
laboratory. Much forethought, indeed, is 
demanded in order that during laboratory 
hours the instructor may keep quiet and 
the student keep busy—and keep busy not 
on any haphazard problem, but keep busy 
on a series of problems so graded that, by 
solving them in order up to any point, he 
has developed the power of intelligently 
undertaking the next. Carefully planned 
courses of this kind are to be found in 
many laboratories, every one of them a 
powerful aid toward putting a young man 
into a position where he always ‘knows 
what to do next,’ which, as President Jor- 
dan has admirably remarked, constitutes a 
liberal education. 


Il. IMPROVEMENTS IN METHODS. 

1. Introduction of the Energy Treat- 
ment.—Leaving now to one side all ques- 
tions of material outfit, let us consider some 
improvements of a still more fundamental 
nature. I refer to those which have been 
made in the method of teaching. Here. it 


[N.S. Von. XIX, No. 482. 


is scarcely possible to believe the changes 
which a single generation has wrought. 

Progress is something to which the 
Anglo-Saxon takes so kindly that he is apt 
to forget just what manner of man he was 
some thirty years ago. 

Perhaps I can most briefly illustrate by 
reading a few lines from Tait’s review of 
Balfour Stewart’s ‘Lessons in Elementary 
Physics.’ Stewart, as many of you know, 
was one of the first men to treat physics as 
a single subject—to treat heat, light, sound 
and mechanics from the energy point of 
view—the view which, twenty years before, 
had, as we now believe, been thoroughly es- 
tablished by Joule, Helmholtz and Kelvin. 
This review was published in Nature De- 
cember 29, 1870. Here is what Tait says: 
““This is a bold experiment and decidedly 
deserves to be a successful one. * * * It is 
scarcely possible to form a judgment as to 
the probable success of the present work! 
It is so utterly unlike anything to which 
we have been accustomed that we can only 
say that we never saw such a work in 
English at least. * * * The reign of in- 
artificiality and simplicity must soon be 
Inaugurated and this work will greatly 
tend to hasten its advent.’? 

These are the remarks of an experienced 
teacher and able investigator concerning a 
text-book which to-day we all recognize as 
eminently natural and simple. So familiar 
are we with the energy treatment that we 
are apt to forget how recently these ‘water- 
tight compartments’ existed in physies as 
they yet do, according to the gospel of John 
Perry, in the department of mathematics. 

But, after all, the energy view-point is 
merely the outcome of the Lagrangian 
dynamics and Helmholtz’s little tract on 
the ‘Conservation of Energy.’ Trow- 
bridge’s ‘New Physics,’ appearing some 
twenty years ago, did excellent service in 
furthering this standpoint. 

The introduction of the energy idea did 


én nha 


MarcH 25, 1904.] 


more than merely unify the subject; it 
placed in the hands of the teacher the pos- 
sibility of making a really simple and log- 
ically-arranged presentation of his subject, 
a presentation which had been mm vogue 
among the classicists for many years, and 
possibly the only presentation which could 
make the experimental study of physics a 
genuine training for power. 

In the domain of higher physics, the 
work of J. J. Thomson, in 1887, on the 
“Application of Dynamics to Physics and 
Chemistry’ may fairly be considered as 
marking an epoch in the energy treatment 
and in the unification of physical science. 
Equally impressive are the three volumes 
containing the proceedings of the Interna- 
tional Congress of Physicists at Paris in 
1900. One turns the entire two thousand 
pages of this report without feeling the 
slightest discontinuity either of subject or 
of method, from the dynamical papers at 
the beginning to the electrical papers at 
the end. 

2. Introduction of the Student Labora- 
tory.—But of all reforms in method the 
most revolutionary was the introduction of 
the student laboratory, which came in at 
about the same time with the energy treat- 
ment. 

To be sure, especially favored students 
have always been admitted to the private 
workshop of the master, but it is only 
within the last generation that students in 
general have obtained similar privileges. 

In a letter to Nature, dated January, 
1871, Professor H. C. Pickering describes 
the new physical laboratory of the Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology, where he 
was then an instructor, and proceeds to 
add: ‘There are now in America at least 
four similar laboratories either in operation 
or in preparation and the chanees are that 
in a few years this number will be greatly 
imereased.’ 

How amply this prediction has been ful- 


SCIENCE. 


485 


filled may be realized when we consider that 
America has to-day more nearly four hun- 
dred fairly equipped physical laboratories. 

In this connection it is well for those of 
us who are inclined to be optimistic to turn 
now and then to Professor Pickering’s 
‘Physical Manipulation,’ the only English 
laboratory manual available in my under- 
eraduate days, and see how thoroughly 
modern his treatment remains. Confess- 
edly the problems are not eraded exactly 
as we should do it to-day, yet in spirit, m 
method, in economy of teaching energy and 
in sound learning these two volumes may 
well give us pause, and make even the most 
sanguine ask whether evolution is not a 
provokingly tedious process. 

Let no one infer, however, that improve- 
ments in method are entirely illusory, for 
the present-day instructor in physics cer- 
tainly has in mind more clearly than any 
before him just what the goal is and just 
what the method of approach. He knows 
full well that no student can work out his 
own salvation while seated in a comfortable 
auditorium chair, observing a speaker man- 
ipulate certain curious apparatus with cer- 
tain curious effects. 

3. Lessons Learned from the Engineer. 
—The modern instructor has learned also 
to take advice from the engineer—this too 
without bowing to the immediately useful 
and without substituting mere knowledge 
for intellectual power. He realizes that 
centrifugal forces, centrifugal couples and 
the energy of rotation may quite as well 
be studied from bicycles and the driv- 
ing wheels of a locomotive as from an 
ellipsoid strung on a knitting needle. 
Hlectrical science and electrical engineer- 
img were at one time much farther apart 
than they are to-day; the engineer and the 
physicist are closer friends than they were 
twenty-five years ago. 

Perhaps neither all the phariseeism nor 
all the charity has been confined to one 


486 SCIENCE. 


side. America’s two leading physicists 
were each educated in engineering schools, 
the one at Troy, the other at Annapolis. 

Helmholtz says: ‘Action alone gives a 
man a life worth living, and, therefore, 
he must aim either at the practical appli- 
eation of his knowledge or at the extension 
of the limits of science itself.’ 

Here we have, at once, the justification 
of the engineer and of the investigator— 
a view which has, I believe, been accepted 
by many instructors greatly to the ad- 
vantage of their method. 

Briefly, then, the marked improvements 
in method have been: (1) The introduc- 
tion of the energy viewpoint, thus secur- 
ing unity and simplicity of treatment; (2) 
the introduction of the student laboratory, 
and (3) the introduction of more concrete- 
ness; this last being a beneficent reflex in- 
fluence from the engineering side. 


Ill. MEN. 


Passing now to the men who have been 
and are teaching physics in America, the 
word ‘progress’ raises a difficult and al- 
most insoluble problem. At any rate, I 
shall asume that we all agree in putting 
the main emphasis upon the spirit and 
ability of the instructor. The fundamen- 
tal difference between laboratories is, in- 
deed, after all a difference between men. 
What they call at Berlin ‘die Glanz-periode 
der exakten Wissenschaften’—the years 
immediately following the Franco-Prussian 
war—was essentially the product of four 
or five men, Virchow, du Bois-Reymond, 
Hofmann, Kirchhoff and Helmholtz. 

I may as well at the outset confess my- 
self a hero worshiper and say that my re- 
spect for the university instructors of the 
preceding generation—some of whom I 
met during nine years at Princeton, Ber- 
lin and Baltimore—is so nearly unbounded 
that I dare not think the talent engaged 
in teaching physics to-day is, in any im- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 482. 


portant respect, superior to that of the 
recent past. 

When, however, we turn to the average 
college instructor or to the average high 
school instructor it becomes patent that 
the entire situation has changed. Recent 
developments in physical science and the 
duplication of instructors have driven men 
to specialize. As Professor Runge once 
said to a meeting of astrophysicists at the 
Yerkes Observatory: ‘Nature is becoming 
more and more disorderly every day!’ 
The young teacher without special train- 
ing navigates uneasily a stream beset with 
small craft hailing him for information 
about the trolley line, about the automatic 
telephone, about the transformer, about 
liquid air, about radium. 

The modern instructor in physics—and 
I dare say the same change has occurred 
in other sciences—is first of all a man who 
has shown his ability to widen the borders 
of human knowledge. Power to investi- 
eate is becoming more and more a first 
eriterion for his ability to teach. (Shortly 
it will be a necessary criterion.) In any 
event he is a man who has an intelligent 
interest in and an active sympathy with 
physical research. 

In the second place, he is a man with a 
keen Greek perception of relative values, 
a cultivated sense of proportion, always 
subordinating mere facts to methods, 
always placing the power of clear thought 
above any amount of mere knowledge. 

Again he is frank and fearless in the 
confession of ignorance, but only after he 
has made every effort to bring this ignor- 
ance to a minimum. 

The modern instructor does not trifle 
with atoms, molecules and other hypothet- 
ical creatures which he has not seen and 
does not know about. He takes pains to 
point out the line of demarcation between 
the known and the unknown, believing 
that few things are more instructive for 


Mahe Deed 


FSR wee ay) fee enon ot 


ne i 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


the learner than the limitations of human 
knowledge concerning even household mat- 
ters. As a boy I was taught to respect 
_Newton as the man who had explained 
gravitation; to-day the lad is taught that 
Newton distinctly refused even to make a 
guess at its explanation. - With equal piety, 
I was taught that there are six kinds of 
electricity, all mysterious and imperfectly 
understood; but it was never hinted in 
those days that we are no less ignorant 
of what carbon or what copper is than we 
are as to the nature of electricity. 

Illustrating this point, I have long main- 
tained that one of the most scholarly men 
I ever met was a motorman on a trolley 
line running out of Denver some thirteen 
years ago. I was at the time visiting the 
then new University of Denver. And 
seeing what appeared to me an extra wire 
suspended above the trolley, I stepped to 
the forward end of the car and inquired as 
to its purpose. I shall never forget the 
reply of the man as he turned his frank 
countenance toward me and said: ‘My 
dear sir, all I know about this is just 
enough to turn on the juice and let her 
buzz!’ 

Still again the instructor in modern phys- 
ies 1s a man who believes in the careful 
serutiny of all the data which enter into an 
argument, and in the avoidance of reason- 
ing from insufficient data—the ‘bastard 
@ priort method’ as deseribed by Spencer. 
The modern laboratory instructor is a man 
whose ambition for his student is that 
in the presence of physical phenomena he 
shall maintain a certain mental attitude of 
independence, a habit of observation, in- 
quiry, experiment and judgment, that he 
shall acquire what is known in military 
circles as skill in scouting. 

The difficulty of these tasks was not 
first pointed out either by Longfellow or 
by Goethe; for Hippocrates* had already 

** Aphorisms,’ T, I. 


SCIENCE. 


487 


remarked that: “Art is long, time is fleet- 
ing, opportunity brief, experiment diffi- 
eult, judgment uncertain.’ 

In conelusion we find that improvements 
in the teaching of physics have come from 
three directions, improvements in material, 
improvements in method and improve- 
ments in men. But unfortunately the 
greatest changes appear to have occurred 
in the least important direction, namely, 
that of material; while the least change 
is visible in the most important direction, 
namely, in the teaching staff. 

So much for the past, but what of the 
future? The physical and biological sci- 
ences have changed the entire face of 
civilization; they have ameliorated human 
suffering, they have prevented disease, 
they have set us free from a thousand and 
one painful superstitions. Does any one 
imagine their career at an end? The fact 
appears to be that in the immediate future 
these sciences are to become the determin- 
ing factor in deciding the superiority of 
nations. Numbers are a potent factor, 
but they are not everything. What a host 
of phenomena in the South African War 
are explained by the incident of the Boer 
father who handed his boy a single ecar- 
tridge and instructed him to go out and 
bring in an antelope! 

Two duties would, therefore, appear to 
thrust themselves upon every instructor, 
every investigator and every patron of sci- 
ence. The first is to see that science is 
taught in a still more effective manner. 
The test of effectiveness we must find in the 
students’ ability to do something; he must 
either help us to use the energies of nature 
to make life easier or he must join the 
pioneer corps and show us new properties 
of matter and energy whose usefulness no 
one to-day will question. 

And secondly we who have faith in the 
scientific method must exhibit the courage 
of our convictions in seeing that science 


488 


becomes the handmaid, or better still the 
adviser, of the state. 

More than a quarter of a century ago it 
became evident that stone fortifications 
are worse than useless in the presence of 
modern armaments; but as a people we 
have yet to learn that the stone building 
which is about to be dedicated is one of 
the bulwarks of the nation. The executive 
branch of our government has learned it 
partially ; the legislative branch not at all. 
I look forward with hope—and even con- 
fidence—to the day when science will be in 
in the saddle, not for science’s sake so much 
as for America’s sake. 

And it is precisely in Palmer Hall that 
young men and young women are going to 
learn that accuracy of speech and thought 
which is at once the first step in morality 
and the best preparation for action. Here, 
if anywhere, will be acquired productive 
scholarship. 

Could we have with us the man whose 
life and character is celebrated to-day 
throughout this broad land no one would 
be more enthusiastic than he in applauding 
the purposes of this institution and in ac- 
knowledging our national indebtedness to 
this and to similar foundations. 

Upon the teacher of science, perhaps, 
above all others falls the duty of insisting 
with Lotze that ‘while the scientific method 
may not be the royal road to salvation it 
will at least keep us from straying very 
far from the path.’ 

And when on the morrow Old Glory is 
raised above this beautiful structure let us 
salute her as marking one of our national 


defenses. HEnry Crew. 
NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY. 


THE SCIENCE OF SMOKE PREVENTION. 

PrrHAps a better statement of the sub- 
ject would be “The Science of Perfect Com- 
bustion,’ for perfect combustion is attended 
by no visible smoke. It is always best in a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 482. 


discussion of this kind to define terms be- 
fore making statements. The Century 
Dictionary says that smoke is ‘the exhala- 
tion, visible vapor, or material that escapes 
or is expelled from a burning substance 
during combustion’ while the Encyclopedia 
Britannica states that ‘Usually the name 
smoke is applied to this vaporous mixture 
discharged from a chimney only when it 
contains a sufficient amount of finely di- 
vided carbon to render it dark-colored and 
distinetly visible.’ Hor us who live in the 
soft-coal belt the definition may be further 
narrowed down, for when we say smoke we 
mean the densely-laden fumes from the 
combustion of soft coal which deposit thick 
layers of soot on all exposed surfaces. The 
smoke from hard coal, coke and wood is so 
innocuous compared with that just men- 
tioned that it may be entirely disregarded 
in the discussion. 

The occasional production of dense black 
smoke is peculiar to that group of fuels 
known as hydrocarbons, of which the more 
common are the petroleums and bituminous 
coal. The combustion of hydrocarbons 
seems to be always complete at first. If 
one watches the slow burning of a lump of 
cannel in the open grate he will see a 
whitish or yellowish vapor expelled from 
the coal by the gradual heat of the fire. 
This is the carbon and hydrogen combined 
which is distilled by the heat and leaves 
behind the free carbon as coke. While the 
escape of this vapor unburned represents 
a distinct loss of heat, the vapor is not 
smoke as: we understand it. It does not 
deposit soot and will not stain or disfigure 
surfaces in its path. 

As the heat inereases and air is supplied 
the vapor ignites and burns with a yellow 
flame showing the presence of solid par- 
ticles. If the temperature remains high 
and the air supply contimues, the combus- 
tion is complete and the colorless carbon 
dioxide and water vapor pass up the chim- 


Marco 25, 1904.] 


ney. If, however, the burning gas becomes 
chilled by contact with the relatively cool 
bricks of the chimney back or if insufficient 
air is supplied, the yellow flame becomes 
red and dingy, while particles of finely 
divided carbon are deposited on the ad- 
jacent surfaces or whirled away up the 
chimney. 

The ordinary coal-oil lamp is one of the 
best illustrations of perfect combustion and 
consequent smoke prevention. The heated 
gases rising in the chimney produce a draft, 
and fresh air is continually drawn in at 
the bottom through the hot gauze, which 
warms and divides it so as to insure thor- 
ough mixing with the gases from the burn- 
ing oil. ‘Turn up the wick and the flame 
becomes smoky—too much hydrocarbon for 
the air supply. Raise the chimney slightly 
from the bottom and again there is smoke 
—too much air at too low a temperature, 
which chills the flame. Insert a cool metal 
rod into the chimney and soot is deposited 
on it—chilling of the flame again and dis- 
engagement of the carbon, while the hydro- 
gen continues to burn. 

And thus we may learn of the three 
requisites for good combustion; enough air, 
a sustained high temperature and a thor- 
ough mixing of the gases. The last two 
are so important that it is entirely possible 
to have an excessive supply of air and 
dense black smoke at the same time. 

Having thus decided upon the conditions 
which promote good combustion and pre- 
vent smoke, it remains to determine how 
they may be realized in practise. 

It may be said at the outset that it is 
entirely possible for a good fireman with 
his shovel, a pile of soft coal and an or- 
dinary flat grate, to so fire a furnace as to 
make practically no smoke. It may also 
be said that this is highly improbable and 
that such a man would command higher 
wages than are usually paid to firemen. 

The best method of hand firing consists 


SCIENCE. 


489 


in first maintaining as uniform a rate of 
combustion as possible by putting on coal 
often and in small quantities; and secondly 
by varying the air supply to suit any lack 
of uniformity which may exist. This is 
known as the one-shovel system of firmg 
and has been successfully used on many of 
the leading railroads as a means of saying 
coal and reducing smoke. The nation 
which shortens its swords lengthens its 
boundaries and the railroad which shortens 
its coal-scoops lengthens its mileage per 
ton. The air supply is usually varied by 
leaving the door slightly ajar just after 
coal is put on and then closing it when the 
coal begins to glow. Several automatic ap- 
pliances for doing this have been invented 
and in numerous instances have given good 
results. The usual plan is to have the de- 
vice operated by the opening of the fire 
door at the time of firing. 

When the door is opened some simple 
combination of levers and chains raises the 
piston of a dash-pot, which in turn lifts a 
flap in the door itself and opens the valve 
in a steam-pipe connecting with a system 
of steam-jets over the door. After the 
door is closed the flap in the door remains 
open and so do the steam-jets. The draft 
ereated by the latter assists to draw in ad- 
ditional air and the steam mixes it thor- 
oughly with the burning gases. The jets 
should be directed to the back of the fire 
near the bridge wall. All this time the 
plunger of the dash-pot is slowly settling 
down, dropping the air damper and closing 
the steam-valve until at the instant when 
the fresh coal becomes incandescent the air 
supply is shut off. If the apparatus is 
made to operate a check-draft in the uptake 
at the same time the efficiency will be still 
more improved. 

The efficiency of such an arrangement 
can be clearly represented by diagrams, 
one showing a cloud of black smoke just as 
it is cut off by the apparatus being thrown 


490 


into gear, while in another are shown the 
one chimney where the smoke preventer is 
in use and the three where it is not, about 
one minute after heavy firing. 

The writer has experimented somewhat 
with air jets maintained by a blower and 
operated by a dash-pot, but the effect was 
not so good as when steam-jets were used. 
When the jets are used intermittently in 
the manner indicated the waste of steam is 
small, not over two or three per cent., while 
the saving in coal is frequently fifteen per 
cent. Any attempt to solve the problem 
by admitting a constant additional supply 
of air through the bridge or side walls has 
been and will be a failure, since the air 
supply must be varied as the demand 
varies. 

Hand firing is at best a crude and un- 
satisfactory method and is gradually being 
superseded by mechanical means of feed- 
ing the coal to the furnace. Mechanical 
stokers, as they are now called, have two 
ereat advantages over hand firing: (1) 
The uniformity of coal feed which allows 
a uniformity also in the air, supply; and 
(2) the fact that it is no longer necessary 
to open the door. Add to these the saving 
of hand labor and the possibility of hand- 
ling the coal mechanically from car to fur- 
nace, and you have a good argument for 
the new way. 

All mechanical stokers, whether inclined 
erate, underfeed or chain grate, are in- 
tended to feed the coal steadily and uni- 
formly at a speed proportionate to the de- 
mand for steam, and by thus maintaining 
a constant rate of combustion to simplify 
the problem of air supply. There are at 
the present time at least ten different makes 
of stokers which are capable, when properly 
eared for, of maintaining this uniform com- 
bustion in such a way as to prevent smoke 
and save fuel. Of course somewhat ex- 
travagant claims have been made by manu- 
facturers and agents with regard to the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 482. 


economy of these machines. Speaking in 
a guarded and conservative way, it is safe 
to say that any of the stokers above re- 
ferred to can show a saving of from ten 
to fifteen per cent. over the results of or- 
dinary hand firing. 

Perhaps one of the most common causes 
of smoke is the overcrowding of the boilers. 
As the amount of work done in a factory 
gradually increases, new machines are 
added, more shafting and pulleys pur- 
chased, perhaps under pressure from the 
engineer a new engine is installed. The 
boiler plant is usually the last to receive 
attention, although all this time it has been 
suffering from overload. <A boiler gives 
the best efficiency when worked up to or 
slightly over its rating; any further crowd- 
ing will result in smoky fires and waste of 
fuel. The writer recalls one instance of 
this kind where an analysis of the ash 
showed fifty per cent. of free carbon. 

Although mechanical stokers will some- 
times increase the capacity of boilers, they 
are liable to overcrowding as well as the 
flat grate. This results in fires which are 
too heavy to be successfully handled and 
in a loss of economy. Overcrowding also 
imereases the repair bill on both furnace 
and boiler, and is on the whole an expensive . 
experiment. 

Cleaning fires is another common cause 
of black smoke, in most cases without ex- 
euse. <A careful and skilful fireman can 
keep his fires clean and bright whether on 
flat grates or mechanical stokers, without 
any great disturbance of running condi- 
tions. Many firemen do not, either because 
they do not know or because they do not 
care. The writer has seen a fireman so 
completely uproot and tear in pieces his 
fire in cleaning as to necessitate almost a 
rebuilding. On the other hand, he has 
seen a skilful man so clean fires on stokers 
in an efficiency test where the boilers were 
being crowded to their utmost, that there 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


was practically no drop in pressure and no 
perceptible checking of the combustion. 

Unskilled and underpaid firemen are re- 
sponsible for a great deal of the poor econ- 
omy and the black smoke of our boiler 
furnaces. 

Of the efficiency of mechanical stokers 
in preventing black smoke there can be no 
doubt in the mind of any one who has seen 
them in operation side by side with the old 
type of hand-fired flat grates. 

Their economy can be estimated from 
the following figures, which are the result 
not of isolated tests, but of a careful ob- 
servation covering a period of years. The 
average rate of evaporation with hand- 
fired Ohio or Pittsburg bituminous slack is 
from five to six pounds of water per pound 
of coal under actual conditions. With 
mechanical stokers the average rate is from 
seven to eight pounds of water per pound 
of coal, and more than this has been ob- 
tained under test conditions. 

A saving of from 15 to 30 per cent. may 
‘be expected from the use of mechanical 
stokers, and if the cost of steam to run the 
machine be estimated at 5 per cent. (a lb- 
eral allowance) there is left a very com- 
fortable margin. 

As the writer is no longer connected with 
any city government and can not be ac- 
eused of any warping of judgment, he has 
no hesitation in saying that he considers 
the chain grate, as made by the Babcock 
& Wilcox Co., the Green Engineering Co. 
and others, as being the most successful 
solution of the problem of burning soft 
coal economically and without smoke, so 
far presented. 

The uniform thickness of fire, the steady 
feed under the boiler and the automatic 
cleaning are the salient features in an ap- 
paratus which is much better than any 
stoker yet invented. 

If one could have a picture of Newburg, 
that smoky suburb of Cleveland, as it was 


SCIENCE. 


491 


five years ago, and then again as it is to- 
day and as it will be a year from now, 
when the transition from hand firing to 
chain grates shall have been entirely com- 
pleted, there would be no need of any argu- 
ment on this score. 

“There is more than one phase in the 
science of smoke prevention. So far we 
have considered the strictly mechanical 
side. There are also the ethical and the 
legal sides to be considered. Grant that 
smoke can be prevented, how shall we in- 
sure that it will be, without trenching on 
those rights which every American citizen 
claims as his? Ethically considered, every 
one has a right to as much smoke as he 
wants, so long as he does not incommode or 
injure his neighbors. 

The damage to property and to health 
from soft-coal smoke is now so generally 
conceded that no argument on this point is 
necessary. In other words, the man who 
allows black smoke to issue from his chim- 
ney is guilty of maintaining a nuisance as 
much as he who allows garbage or foul 
water to accumulate on his premises. 

To quote from the ordinances of the city 
of Cleveland: 


See. 2. That the owner, agent, lessee or occu- 
pant of any building or structure of any descrip- 
tion from the smoke-stack or chimney of which 
there shall issue or be emitted such dense or black 
cr gray smoke within the corporate limits of the 
city of Cleveland, shall be deemed and held to be 
guilty of creating a public nuisance, and of vio- 
lating the provisions of this ordinance. 


The fact once established by law and 
precedent that smoke production is a nui- 
sance and that smoke producers may be 
fined like other law-breakers, 1t would seem 
to be a comparatively easy matter to con- 
trol the evil. Experience has shown that 
this is not the case and that very few con- 
victions have been made under the law. 

The first step that should be taken to: 
regulate smoke production is to make it 


- 492 


incumbent on the owner or builder, of every 
new establishment, where soft coal is to be 
burned, to install the proper apparatus for 
burning it smokelessly. It should be neces- 
sary for such owner or builder to obtain 
a permit for setting boilers or furnaces, 
contingent on proper compliance with the 
laws regarding smoke abatement, just as it 
should be necessary to obtain a permit for 
erecting a building in compliance with the 
laws concerning safety against fire and 
accident. This provision is not a hardship 
and it ures as much to the benefit of the 
owner. as to that of the public. 

If every new furnace is thus set in a 
proper manner and is under the inspection 
of the proper officers, a rapid improvement 
will take place. The old will in the nature 
of things disappear; it is the new which 
must be the more carefully watched. 

In dealing with establishments where 
smoke is already in evidence both moral 
and legal suasion must be employed; the 
former when it will serve, the latter as a 
final resort. Once convince a man that coal 
will be saved when smoke is stopped, and 
the battle is half won. The writer has a 
record of scores of such bloodless victories. 

Before very much can be said to an of- 
fender it is necessary to prove to him that 
he is an offender, and this can only be done 
by systematic observation covering some 
little period of time. Whatever system is 
adopted, the ratings of the various stacks 
will depend largely on the judgment of the 
observer and smoke charts are an unneces- 
sary Incumbrance. Readings taken at in- 
tervals of three or five minutes for several 
hours, with a grading from one to four in 
the scale of blackness, will give a fair rela- 
tive showing for the various chimneys ob- 
served and furnish a basis for arguments 
with the various proprietors. 

An observer who has had experience can 
rate twenty to thirty chimneys in this way 
from a convenient vantage point. If 4 is 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 482. 


taken as dense black smoke and 0 as ab- 
sence of smoke, a two-hour series of five- 
minute readings, or twenty-five in all, will 
give the percentage directly by summation. 
These two-hour sets can be repeated at dif- 
ferent times of day so as to cover the whole 
period of daylight. In this way the in- 
spector soon becomes thoroughly familiar 
with each district and knows all the black 
sheep. <A fair comparison made from such 
ratings will often shame the offenders into 
better performance. 

In rating locomotives a different method 
must be adopted, as the time of observation 
is rarely over, two or three minutes. For 
this work a graphic log has been found most 
reliable. Heavy horizontal lines represent 
per cent. of black smoke, while vertical 
rulings represent time intervals, usually 
from three to five minutes each. The ob- 
server counts recularly as he watches the 
stack and puts down at each interval of 
time a dot on one of the horizontal lines 
corresponding with the smoke at that in- 
stant. A line drawn through these dots 
shows plainly the variation in conditions. 
The other data are filled in as far as they 
can be ascertained and a copy of this report 
(made in duplicate by the use of carbon 
paper) is sent to the proper official of the 
road immediately. This makes a record 
which is rarely disputed by the engineer 
or fireman. 

This system as applied in Cleveland had 
the immediate effect of reducing the smoke 
from locomotives to less than half the 
former amount as a result of improved 
firing, and there has been steady improve- 
ment ever since. 

In dealing with the smoke problem where 
the evil already has a firm foothold it is 
necessary to institute at first an educational 
campaign, showing the conditions as they 


exist, the possibility of betterment and the 


resulting economy. Most smoke-producers 
are intelligent and reasonable men and will 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


listen to such arguments and will endeavor 
to effect improvements. 

When such methods fail and the parties 
interested are obdurate, legal methods 
should be used. The law or ordinance 
must be carefully drawn and subjected to 
the best legal criticism before it is tried. 
‘It is better never to have sued than to 
have sued and lost.’ But if the ordinance 
does fail, one has profited by experience 
and the next ordinance will be stronger. 

To sum up the facts and conditions as 
they have been outlined in this paper it 
may be said: 

(1) That objectionable smoke from soft 
coal can readily be prevented; (2) that 
such prevention will result in a higher effi- 
ciency and smaller fuel bills; (3) that all 
new plants should be subject to permits 
issued by proper city officials; (4) that 
educational and legal measures combined 
should be used in cases where the evil al- 
ready exists; (5) that the control of such 
work should be in the hands of properly 
trained engineers who understand the whole 
subject thoroughly; (6) that the people of 
each community must see to it that they are 
protected from this evil as from poor drain- 
age and dirty streets. 

Cuas. H. BengaMin. 

CasE ScHoot or APPLIED SCIENCE, 


CLEVELAND, OHIO, 
December 15, 1903. 


THE CARDINAL PRINCIPLES OF ECOLOGY.* 

WirHIn recent years that old phase of 
natural history which is concerned with 
the adaptations of organisms to their en- 
vironment has become segregated into a 
distinct department of study under the 
name of ecology (ecology, biologie). This 
separation is unnatural, but it is expedient, 
and it is likely to result in great advances 
towards that most important, difficult and 

* Read before the Society for Plant Morphology 


and Physiology at its Philadelphia meeting, De- 
cember 29, 1903. 


SCIENCE. 493 


alluring of scientific ends, the explanation 
of the raisons d’etre in organic nature. 

As now studied by botanists, ecology is 
concerned mostly with that synthetic phase 
of the subject dealing with the interpreta- 
tion of the physiognomy of vegetation, 
while comparatively little is bemg done in 
the analytic phases which investigate par- 
ticular features, or elements, of adapta- 
tion. To such an extent is this the case, 
in this country at least, that we are ac- 
customed to use the word ‘ecology’ as a 
synonym for ‘ecology of the vegetation’ or 
‘ecological plant-geography,’ a somewhat 
misleading usage which has been, with 
some justice, censured. Criticism of the 
use of the name, however, is of slight ac- 
count in comparison with the current erit- 
icism, unpublished -but wide-spread, of the 
methods of the subject as followed among 
us. Such eriticism arises in part from 
that ubiquitous human failing which leads 
us to exalt our own lines of work by in- 
vidious reflections upon other lnes which 
we do not, or will not, understand; but it 
is in large part deserved. Ecological pub- 
lications in America are too often char- 
acterized by a vast prolixity in compari- 
son with their real additions to knowledge, 
by a pretentiousness of statement and 
terminology unjustified by their real 
merits, and by a weakness of logic deserv- 
ing the disrespect they receive. The sub- 
ject suffers, I fear, from a phase of the 
‘eet-rich-quick’ spirit. These opinions I 
ean express with the better grace when I 
hasten to admit that, so far as my own few 
publications are concerned, I am one of 
the chief of sinners. I believe it is a fact 
that, despite our numerous ecological pub- 
lications, the only material advances made 
in ecology in this country for some years 
past are in descriptions of vegetation, in 
which a considerable body of fact has been 
accumulated. But in interpretation, the 
very soul of ecology, we have done little 


494 


else than continue to kaleidoscope the old 
and familiar matter. Yet the aim of ecol- 
ogy is perfectly definite, and as lofty as 
any in science, being nothing less than to 
explain why each plant is what it is, where 
it is and in the company it is. Why then 
do we fall so far behind our ideal? The 
reason is perfectly plain. We have 
reached, and long since, the point at which, 
with our purely observational methods, the 
law of diminishing return apples strongly 
to the investigation of the subject; and 
further substantial advance is now possible 
only through the aid of some new method. 
Further, the nature of this new method is 
equally plain, and it is only practical limi- 
tations of time and cost which keep us 
from utilizing it. It lies in the precise 
experimental study of the physies of the 
environment, and of the physiological life 
histories of particular plants, with the in- 
vention of a mode of recording the results 
in a form to permit the one to be corre- 
Jated with the other. There must go alone 
with this an improvement in our ecological 
reasoning; or rather, to be correct, real 
reasoning, involving logical proof, must 
be substituted for those speculative yokings 
of conspicuous effects with prominent pos- 
sible causes which too often take the place 
of reasoning in our ecological works. 

For this indispensable dual study of en- 
vironmental physics and adaptational 
physiology we have some, though no great, 
foundation. Our knowledge of the phys- 
ics of the atmosphere and our methods 
for investigating it are, thanks to meteorol- 
ogy, fairly satisfactory, but we need a new 
form of record for meteorological data 
which will make them more directly avail- 
able than at present in the interpretation 
of ecological phenomena. Our knowledge 
of the physics of the soil, however, involv- 
ing factors more important in the agere- 
gate than those of the atmosphere, is com- 
paratively scanty, while methods for its 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 482. 


exact study are only beginning to be de- 
veloped. The exact study of soil physics 
(using this term broadly) seems to me the 
ereatest present single need of ecology. 
Turning to the other member of the eco- 
logical equation, the plant, whose physio- 
legical powers and limitations determine its 
adjustment to particular environments, it 
appears to be a fact that no attempt has 
yet been made to apply our considerable 
physiological knowledge, and our excellent 
physiological methods, to the elucidation of 
the physiological life-history of any one of 
even the important forms constituting our 
vegetation. Yet it is only through such 
studies, for which some new appliances and 
methods must be developed, that we can 
hope to understand not only the factors in- 
volved in the adaptations of the particular 
form to its environment, but also the na- 
ture of the all-important subject of plant- 
competition, which determines how the 
forms build up a vegetation. No doubt the 
subject will ultimately work itself out as a 
series of ecological life histories, im which 
the physiological powers and limitations of 
each plant will be expressed in a system of 
standard units or formule with all the 
definiteness of the taxonomic terminology 
of the present day. But such studies as 
these can not be made by busy teachers 
who can give to them only a vacation leisure 
and a scanty equipment. They can be 
made only by trained investigators who, 
with ample time, expert assistance, and 
properly equipped field laboratories, can 
give themselves wholly to it. Into this 
fruitful field we welcome the Carnegie 
Desert Laboratory; may its kind inerease 
until we have not only mountain, jungle, 
seaside and forest laboratories, but also an- 
other form which can be moved from place 
to place in pursuit of the most pressing 
problems. 

Such seems to me the status of plant 
ecology at present and the direction it must 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


take for the future. I propose to discuss 
now very briefly the principles which ap- 
pear to me to be fundamental to a right 
understanding of the nature of ecology. 

Principle 1. The Reality of Adaptation. 
—To a first view it seems logically possible 
that adaptation may have only a subjective 
existence, and that the cases we consider 
adaptations may be merely accidental cor- 
respondences between certain features of 
the organism and certain characteristics of 
the environment, involving no real advan- 
tage to the organism. Now there can be 
no doubt that many cases commonly reck- 
oned as adaptations are of this imaginary 
nature (it could hardly be otherwise while 
post hoc propter hoc is the prevailing type 
of ecological reasoning), but that some of 
our adaptations have an objective existence 
is susceptible of direct proof. Thus the 
mechanisms connected with cross-pollina- 
tion in specialized orchids represent a 
typical adaptation. If, without other in- 
jury to the plant, these mechanisms are 
prevented from operating, no seed is formed 
and the result is disastrous to that race 
of plants. Hence the advantage of the 
mechanism is made manifest, and the real- 
ity of the adaptation is proved. 

This case illustrates the fundamental 
idea, and permits a definition, of adapta- 
tion. It is an adjustment between some 
feature of an organism and some charac- 
teristic of its environment such that the 
organism functions better than it could 
did such an adjustment not exist. 

Principle 2. The Evolutionary Phylog- 
eny of Adaptation.—Logically two views 
are possible as to the phylogeny of a real 
adaptation. (1) It may have developed 
quite independently of any connection with 
the environment it now fits and have come 
into its present relation with that environ- 
ment by a sort of sifting process permitted 
by the constant movement or circulation of 


organisms in nature, very much as a num- - 


SCIENCE. 


495 


ber of vari-shaped blocks shaken in a box 
having vari-shaped cells opening from it 
would each come finally to fill the cell with 
which it most nearly corresponds in shape. 
(2) It may have arisen gradually, either 
by innumerable fine gradations or by some- 
what marked steps, in close touch with the 
environment, which may be acting either 
directly causatively or only selectively. 
The former view has received its strongest 
advocacy in the recent book by Morgan, 
while the latter is that almost universally 
prevailing, and, as I believe, correctly. 
There is no doubt that some adaptation is 
of the former sort; and in some phases of 
ecology, notably in distributional phenom- 
ena of ecological plant geography, it plays 
an important réle. But that adaptation is 
usually and essentially of this character 
seems to me wholly denied by the evidence. 
There is not, so far as I know, any form of 
proof that can be adduced to decide be- 
tween these two possibilities, but there is 
an argument from probability so strong as 
to be practically conclusive. It lies in the 
cooperation of many distinct features of 
adaptation to fit a form to a very special 
or unusual environment requirine simul- 
taneous and different kinds of modification 
im many parts. Thus, to take the case of 
epiphytes (such as the tropical epiphytic 
ferns), if these were adapted in but one 
feature alone, such as the roots, it would 
be logically quite possible that this kind 
of root had arisen by some method inde- 
pendent of contact with the environment, 
and that this form having been brought 
accidentally into this habitat persists there 
because these roots fit that environment 
better than any other. But the probability 
that this adaptation of the roots has arisen 
independently of the environment is greatly 
weakened when we note that so different a 
structure as the leaves are also, and equally 
well but in a different way, adapted to this 
habitat. And when, further, we observe 


496 


that adaptations equally good but of a dif- 
ferent kind are found in the stems, in the 
tissue systems, in several phases of irrita- 
bility and in other features all involving 
considerable changes from the ancestral 
forms, then the chances that all of these 
adaptations, involving most or all of the 
external structures of the plant, could have 
arisen without regard to the environment 
become so small as practically to disappear. 
On the other hand, the development of 
adaptations in causative touch with the 
environment, by whatsoever method the 
modification may be brought about, gives 
a perfect explanation of such cases of con- 
comitant adaptations as are here in con- 
sideration.* 

Adaptation, as the probabilities over- 
whelminely indicate, usually develops in 
touch with the environment. But from the 
point of view of the ecologist the method 
of evolution, whether by selection of fiuc- 
tuating variations, by inheritance of indi- 
vidually acquired characters, by mutations 
or by some other method yet unknown, is a 
matter of only incidental and not of essen- 

*These cooperations of many adaptations fit- 
ting a form to a particular habitat, involving 
changes in many features simultaneously, seem 
to me to offer one of the very greatest difficulties 
to the selection theory of the development of 
adaptations. On the hypothesis of selection of 
fluctuating variations, favorable variations in one 
feature bear no relation to favorable variations 
in another, except in rare cases of correlation. 
When, therefore, selection is preserving the in- 
dividuals favorably varying in one character, it 
is surely preserving unfavorable variations in 
some other characters. Selection, it would seem, 
could only produce adaptive modifications in one 
or a very few characters at a time, and hence 
simultaneous modifications in many distinct char- 
acters, such as actually appear to have occurred 
in such cases as epiphytes, would not be possible. 
The mutation (theory offers even greater diffi- 
culties. The Lamarckian (Neo-Lamarckian) 
theory, on the other hand, admits of indefinitely 
numerous concomitant or simultaneous adapta- 


tions, though this theory has its difficulties from 
other points of view. 


SCIENCE. 


tial interest. On the other hand, it is alto- 
gether likely that adaptation, properly 
studied, will throw light upon the method 
of evolution, for it is probably true that 
adaptation has been in some measure the 
guide of evolution; or, to express the sub- 
ject in another way, adaptation seems to 
bear to evolution a relation somewhat an- 
alogous to the relation of a stimulus to its 
irritable response. 

Principle 3. Adaptation a Race, not an 
Indwidual, Process.—Many phenomena in 
organic nature point to a distinction be- 
tween the race and the individuals which 
compose it. The distinction is not meta- 
physical but physical, though its precise 
physical basis is uncertain, the race having 
its basis in the protoplasm, or the part of 
it, bearing the characters common to all the 
individuals, and the individual having its 
basis in its share of the race protoplasm 
plus the differences which are its own 
alone. Now as to the relation of adapta- 
tion to race vs. individual, two views are 
possible, aside from any theories: (a) 
adaptation originates and develops in the 
individuals, and then, by a method un- 
known, becomes fixed in the race (a corol- 
lary of which is that the individuals are 
the leading or important element in or- 
ganic nature, the race being secondary) ; 
and (0b) adaptation is primarily a race 
matter, finding its visible expression in the 
individuals (a corollary of which is that 
the race is the leading and important ele- 
ment, the individuals being secondary to 
it). The former is the popular conception 
and that of some students, but the avail- 
able evidence seems to poimt overwhelm- 
ingly to the correctness of the second. The 
phenomena exhibited by the social insects 
among animals, the regular transmission 
of both sexes through one sex, and the 
phenomena of reproduction generally can 
only be explained on the basis of race 
adaptation being dominant over individual 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 482. 


’ sn itn Pir asain RIN ie ences PY SAR 


waaay 


+2 PO ag Cee ereepaar tae coir 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


adaptation. The distinction often made 
between adaptations for the good of the 
individual, such as irritable responses to 
stimuli, and those for the good of the race, 
such as various reproductive processes, 1s 
merely a matter of convenience without 
logical basis, for not only is the line be- 
tween the two extremely indefinite, but also 
it is evidently as necessary for the good of 
the race to preserve the reproducing indi- 
viduals as to secure their reproduction. 
Adaptation may apparently all be reduced 
to a race basis, only that bemg individual 
which is connected with individual vari- 
ability. The relation of the race to the 
individual appears to resemble somewhat 
the relation of the mortality tables to the 
individual human life; or the race is like 
a mighty moving current, while the imdi- 
viduals are the ripples that play upon its 
surface or the eddies that swirl in its 
depths. In practice, therefore, adaptation 
is to be studied from the point of view of 
its advantage to the race under considera- 
tion rather than from the point of view of 
its individuals; and, further, conclusions 
ean not safely be drawn from individual 
cases, but must be based upon studies of 
the race, which can be accomplished best 
through the use of statistical methods. A 
corollary of this principle is this, that the 
meaning of adaptation is to be sought 
deep in the activities of protoplasm rather 
than in the superficial manifestations of 
structure. Structure is but the external 
manifestation of protoplasmic activity, the 
tool, as it were, by the aid of which the 
protoplasm more perfectly accomplishes its 
work. 

Principle 4. Metamorphic Origin of 
Adaptation.—In such eases as I can recall, 
in which the phylogeny of an adaptive 
feature is known with reasonable certainty, 
it seems to be the case that the new adapta- 
tion has not arisen de novo out of the plant 
substance, but through the metamorphosis 


SCIENCE. 497 


of some preexistent feature, itself formerly 
adaptive. It seems to me logically a prob- 
ability that adaptations frequently, if not 
generally, have their origins in the meta- 
morphoses of preexisting adaptations, and 
omms adaptatio e adaptatione may yet be- 
come a postulate of ecology. The origin 
of a new adaptation, upon this principle, 
would be somewhat after this manner. 
When changing environmental conditions, 
or the opening of a new field, bring about 
a need for a new adaptation, both change 
and need arising very gradually, this need 
can be met, and a new adaptation can arise, 
only in ease there is available in the plant 
some existent feature which happens to be 
capable of filling that need in its earliest 
stages, and of being modified to fill it bet- 
ter, either by selection of its fluctuating 
variations or mutations, or by more direct 
method, as the need becomes more intense. 
In such a ease, when the full intensity of 
the need has been reached, the modification 
or, metamorphosis of the original feature 
will have gone so far that we recognize a 
new adaptation. If, however, no feature 
capable of fillme the need in its earlier 
stages exists, or if the need arises too sud- 
denly, then there is no adaptation, the 
organism can not meet the new conditions 
confronting it, and it must either keep to 
its old mode of life, or, if that be impos- 
sible, become extinct. Such a principle 
gives a logical explanation of the remark- 
able irregularity of distribution of adapta- 
tion at the present day, and removes much 
of the difficulty as to the origin of new 
adaptations. In discussing the origin of 
adaptation we too often forget, not only 
that the need for new adaptations must 
arise as a rule very gradually, but also that 
the modifying agency, whatever that may 
be, makes its effects felt very gradually; 
or, as it may be expressed, the plant is 
passed from under, the action of one adapt- 
ing agency to the action of another not 


498 SCIENCE. 


suddenly but gradually. It certainly seems 
as logical that both adaptations and adapt- 
ive agencies should show continuity as that 
organisms should; and we should be able 
to trace adaptations back, precisely as 
we trace organisms, through simpler and 
simpler conditions until we reach the ulti- 
mate origin of them all in the simple undif- 
ferentiated protoplasm of the original or- 
ganisms. 

Principle 5. Inevitable Imperfection of 
all Adaptation.—It appears to be true that 
no feature of any organism is free to re- 
spond unhampered to the influence of an 
agency producing adaptation. Inevitable 
impediments to such complete responses 
arise from several sources—from various 
hereditary influences, from physical and 
chemical limitations of their powers, from 
the necessity of providing for nutrition, 
support and protection, from the presence 
of other adaptations, and from the presence 
also, it is possible, of other features highly 
developed without reference to any utility. 
The result of the operation of all of these 
influences upon any feature is a state of 
equilibrium, of which adaptation is a part, 
no doubt usually as large a part as the 
other conditions will permit, but frequently 
only a minor part. In every case, there- 
fore, adaptation must fall below its perfect 
development, or must be imperfect. Of no 
feature can it be true that it is all adapta- 
tion, but it must be adaptation plus other 
considerations, and the latter in any struc- 
ture may collectively even outweigh the 
former. Now it is without doubt the task 
of the ecologist not only to determine 
adaptation, but as well to delimit the other 
influences which interoperate with it to 
make structures what they are. In other 
words, it is the task of the ecologist to 
determine the meaning of the features of 
the plant whether that meaning involves 
adaptation or not. 

Such seems to me the nature of adapta- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 482. 


tion as indicated by the evidence we pos- 
sess. Certainly it is true that ecology is 


but in its beginning. W. F. GANnone. 
SmirH CoLtece, NortHAMPTON, Mass. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
PALMER’S ‘INDEX GENERUM MAMMALIUM.’* 


Dr. Paumer’s “Index Generum Mam- 
malium’ is a work of immense labor, pains- 
takingly and intelligently performed, and its 
publication will form a landmark in the his- 
tory of mammalian nomenclature. It fur- 
nishes not only an elaborately annotated list 
of all the generic and family names of mam- 
mals, recent and extinct, published since the 
beginning of the binomial system of Linnzus 
down to the end of the year 1903, but the 
introduction, besides disclosing the origin, his- 
tory and scope of the work, furnishes a fund 
of historic information that should most 
favorably influence the methods of the future 
in the bestowal and use of names by systemat- 
ists, not only in mammalogy but in other de- 
partments of natural history. 

The work consists of an ‘introduction’ of 
about 70 pages, followed by Parts I—III., with 
an appendix, and an index to Part III. Part 
I. comprises ‘ Index of Genera and Subgenera’” 
(pp. 71-717); Part II., includes the ‘ Family 
and Subfamily Names of Mammals’ (pp. 719- 
776); while Part III. is an ‘ Index of Genera 
Arranged According to Orders and Families” 
(pp. 777-948). The appendix contains names 
discovered too late to insert in their proper 
places in Part I. and various additions and 
corrections, by means of which ‘the index is 
brought down to January 1, 1904.’ 

In the ‘introduction’? (pp. 8-69) there is 
first a statement of the history and purpose 
of the work. From this it appears that the 
work was begun by Dr. C. Hart Merriam about 


**Tndex Generum Mammalium: A List of the 
Genera and Families of Mammals. By T. S. 
Palmer, Assistant, Biological Survey. Prepared 
under the direction of Dr. C. Hart Merriam, 
Chief of Division of Biological Survey. North 
America Fauna No. 23, U. S. Department of 
Agriculture, Division of Biological Survey. Wash- 
ington, Government Printing Office, 1904. (Jan- 
uary 23, 1904.) 8vo, pp. 984. 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


1884, and was taken in hand by Dr. Palmer 
in 1889, who continued it, aided by competent 
assistants, till its completion in 1903, it being 
carried on in connection with the systematic 
work on mammals conducted by the Biological 
Survey. Under ‘acknowledgments’ special 
mention is made of the careful and painstak- 
ing work of Miss Thora Steineger, who spent 
much time in several of the leading libraries 
of Europe in verifying references, besides 
rendering important clerical assistance in 
Washington throughout the progress of the 
work. Especial thanks, on behalf of the users 
of the index as well as ‘the author, are also 
rendered to Mr. F. H. Waterhouse, librarian 
of the Zoological Society of London, who, on 
learning of Dr. Palmer’s work, generously 
placed in his hands a large amount of manu- 
script he had already prepared for a similar 
undertaking. 

The introduction treats in much detail all 
the principal questions, moot and otherwise, 
that relate to nomenclatural usage. Under 
“References and Dates’ is considered the im- 
portant question of what constitutes publica- 
tion, and the necessity of determining, and 
respecting, actual dates of publication, which 
are often difficult to ascertain. In this con- 
nection is presented a useful list of special 
papers giving dates of publication for works 
issued in parts, and dates of the parts of the 
‘Proceedings’ of a number of scientific so- 
cieties and museums. Under ‘ Authorities 
and Loealities, and ‘Types and their Deter- 
mination,’ are treated important questions of 
usage about which authorities often differ, as 
the determination of types of genera, etc., 
apropos of the author’s methods in the present 
work. A list of ‘ Hypothetical Genera’ is ac- 
companied by pertinent comment; ‘ Changes 
in Form of Names’ covers a consideration of 
the much-vexed question of the proper treat- 
ment of ‘emended’ names. On this point 
the author says: “ Probably no section of the 
A. O. U. Code has been the subject of so much 
eriticism as Canon XIL., which provides that 
‘the original orthography of a name is to be 
rigidly preserved, unless a typographical error 
is evident.’ Stability and priority are two 
of the cardinal principles of the code, but 


SCIENCE. 


499 


priority is merely a means of securing sta- - 
bility, and applies as well to the adoption of 
the earliest name as to the earliest form of 
that name. Experience has shown that any 
other course leaves the door wide open to 
emendation and resultant confusion.”, <A 
number of generic names are cited, having 
from five to eight variants that have been more 
or less in use, in illustration of the results of 
emendation; and in further elucidation of the 
extent to which emendation may be earried, 
it is shown that the name Aplodontia, with 
eight actual variants, ‘is capable of at least 
twenty-four modifications, each one differing 
from the rest by a single letter.’ Some 
eminent zoologists maintain that a difference 
of a single letter in two names is sufficient to 
distinguish them, and to prevent the later 
name or names (for there are often several) 
from being thrown out as preoccupied, whether 
the difference in form is due to gender, to a 
difference in the connecting vowel in com- 
pound words, or to the presence or absence of 
aspirates; while others consider names the 
same when having the same etymological 
origin, though differing in form. 

Under ‘ Rejection of Names’ the author 
considers at length the following topics: ‘ Pre- 
occupied names,’ under which is given a most 
useful ‘ List of Homonyms within the Class 
Mammalia; and another list of preoccupied 
names in mammalogy and ornithology; ‘nom- 
ina nuda,’ French common names of Latin 
derivation, ‘ plural subgeneric names,’ ete. 

Pages 41-46 are devoted to the ‘ Etymology 
of Names,’ under which are considered class- 
ical names, barbarous names, ‘nonsense 
names’ (‘coimed’? names and anagrams), 
mythological names, geographical names, per- 
sonal names, compounds and double generic 
names. These pages contain an immense 
amount of information, both historic and 
etymological, in reference to the sources and 
relative prevalence of these different classes 
of names, illustrated by tabular expositions, 
which are not only of high interest but of 
much practical utility, but which it is im- 
possible here to particularize. The section 
devoted to ‘ Application of Names’ (pp. 60- 


500 SCIENCE. 


67) also abounds in interesting and practical 
information. 

In Part I., ‘Index of Genera and Sub- 
genera, the names stand in alphabetic se- 
quence, and under each are given from half 
a dozen to a dozen distinct and important 
items of information, as follows: Author and 
date; the order and family to which it is re- 
ferred; the place of its original publication; 
its variants, if any, and by whom, when and 
where published; its type if specified, and if 
no type was given by the author, and none 
has been since ‘fixed,’ a list of the species 
originally included under it; the locality 
whence, and the place where the type was 
described, and, if an extinct species, the char- 
acter of the type specimen, and its geological 
formation and locality; its etymology and 
significance, or, in the case of a barbarous 
name, its original source and use. If the 
name be antedated or preoccupied, these facts 
are duly noted; and where the same name has 
been proposed for different genera of mam- 
mals, its several uses are given chronologically. 
In this way the history and status of each 
name is fully set forth, so that its availability 
or non-availability is easily determined. In 
no other work has such fulness of treatment 
been given, nor is it easy to see where any- 
thing essential to the history of a name has 
been omitted. As the ‘index’ includes up- 
ward of 4,500 names, the immense amount of 
labor involved in its preparation is evident, 
while no similar work is to be compared with 
it in fulness of detail and consequent useful- 
ness. Of these 4,500 names, it is stated that 
over 400, or 10 per cent., prove to be preoc- 
eupied, and of these latter ‘about 150, or nearly 
40 per cent., are homonyms in the class Mam- 
malia’ (p. 953). 

In Part II., ‘ Family and Subfamily Names,’ 
the treatment is necessarily different, in ac- 
eordance with the requirements of the case. 
Here the name, author, date and the order to 
which it is referred are stated, followed by a 
reference to the place of first use, with sec- 
ondary references to its variants, if any, and 
modified uses as regards the rank of the group. 
The arrangement is, of course, alphabetic, and 
the index proper is preceded by several pages 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 482. 


giving the history of the origin and use of 
such names, particularly in reference to the 
final adoption of the terminations ide and 
ime, indicating respectively families and sub- 
families. There is also a summary of the 
rules that have been proposed by different 
nomenclatural codes in relation to these 


groups, and illustrations of the difficulty of- 


applying these rules. 

Part III., ‘Index of Genera Arranged Ac- 
cording to Orders and Families,’ has been 
prepared to show ‘ what names have been used 
in a certain group, why a name is unavailable, 
or whether any published nanie is available for 
one which is preoccupied.” ‘Lhe arrangement 
is here alphabetic, first as regards orders, and 
secondly as respects the families, subfamilies 
and genera, within the orders. The cu.cssifica- 
tion adopted is that of Flower and Lydekker 
in ‘Mammals, Living and Extinct’ (1591), 
with modifications; the nomenclature, how- 
ever, is often different. ‘The name of the 
class Mammalia,’ says the author, ‘is one of 
the few names concerning which there is uni- 
versal agreement.’ After illustrating how 
modern authorities differ in respect to the 
names of even the primary divisions of the 
elass, the author gives an outline of the classi- 
fication and nomenclature here adopted, and 
an explanation of his system of cross refer- 
ences designed to facilitate the finding of any 
desired name. 

This part of the work is especially impor- 
tant, and amounts to, practically, a revision of 
the nomenclature of the Mammalia, recent and 
extinct. Jn respect to family names, the name 
based on the earliest generic name has been 
adopted when available, as when the genus on 
which it is based is not antedated or preoccu- 
pied. Under the family name are cited (1) 
its synonyms and subfamilies, (2) its genera, 
with the author, date and type species of each. 
Recent genera are distinguished from extinet 
genera by the use of black-faced type for the 
former and italic for the latter; preoccupied 
names have a dagger (+) prefixed, but names 
otherwise untenable appear not to be desig- 
nated, except as shown by the context. 

The appendix adds 35 names discovered too 
late to be included in Part I. These include 


ae Tee ee 


rer eee 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


a few from Frisch (1775) and a considerable 
-number from Billberg (1828), and others pro- 
posed during 1903. These earty names are 
fortunately merely nomina nuda, or synonyms, 
or otherwise untenable. The appendix also 
includes several pages of corrections, some of 
them important, affecting the authorities for 
a few genera given in Part I., and in one case 
the orthography of a name, Tayassu G. Fischer 
(1814) becoming Tagassw Frisch (1775), with 
a corresponding change in the family name 
based on this genus. 

It can not be supposed that a work of this 
character can be entirely free of errors, but 
with the great care taken in the preparation 
of the manuscript (see p. 11) they are doubt- 
less reduced as nearly to a minimum as can 
reasonably be expected. The work embodies 
the results of a vast amount of labor, for 
which mammalogists can not be too grateful; 
it has set a high standard for future workers 
in the same line to emulate; and has placed 
in the hands of experts in nomenclature an 
invaluable aid in their work. J. A. A. 


Monograph of the Coccide of the British Isles. 
By Roserr Newsteap. Vol. 2. London, 
Ray Society, 1903. Pp. 270; 41 plates. 
The long-expected second volume of Mr. 

Newstead’s monograph is at last to hand, and 

we have in the completed work the best treatise 

on the Coccide yet published. The beautiful 
colored plates, the excellent notes on habits 
and modes of occurrence and other good fea- 
tures maintain the high standard set in the 
first volume; and as before, many of the spe- 
cies are as familiar in America as they are in 

England. 

The nomenclature employed is in most cases 
very different from that of Mrs. Fernald’s new 
catalogue, although the more recent views are 
discussed in an appendix. Mrs. Fernald’s 
catalogue had not appeared when Mr. New- 
stead’s volume went to press, which is to be 
regretted, as it contains much bibliographical 
matter which would have been of service to 
the author. In the present state of coccidol- 
ogy any writer may well be excused for not 
accepting all the recently proposed innova- 
tions; but it does seem to me that some of 


SCIENCE. 


501 


them stand on unassailable ground, and should 
not be resisted by any logically minded person. 
For example, Pseudococcus can not be allowed 
to stand for species, none of which were placed 
therein by the describer of the genus. 

As regards both genera and species, Mr. 
Newstead is a ‘lumper,’ though by no means 
a reckless one. J have been studying his ex- 
cellent descriptions and figures, and find that, 
according to the system represented by Mrs. 
Fernald’s catalogue, the followimg changes 
(among others) should be made: 

Lecanopsis formicarum, Newst., 
Spermococcus formicarum. 

Dactylopius pulverarius, Newst., becomes 
Trionymus pulverarius. 

Ripersia terrestris, Newst., becomes Rhi- 
zoecus terrestris. 

Ripersia halophila (Hardy) becomes Riper- 
siella halophila. : 

Thus four genera are added to the British 
fauna; the third, however, evidently intro- 
duced by man. The indication of these gen- 
eric relationships, whatever may be thought 
of the genera, is strongly suggestive of certain 
specific resemblances. It is not improbable 
that future careful comparisons will bring to 
light some synonymy. 

If, as Mr. Newstead holds, all the British 
forms of Phenacoccus (he calls them Pseudo- 
coccus) are of one species, the conclusion 
seems almost irresistible that Phenacoccus 
prunt (Coccus pruni, Burm., 1849) is its 
proper name. According to Mr. Newstead’s 
figures, the second antennal joint, while usu- 
ally considerably longer than the third, varies 
to about equal with it. Among our American 
species, these joints also vary, but we have 
recognized what appear to be three different 
types, not. normally intergrading: 

1. Second and third joints nearly equal. 
P. dearnesst, rubivorus, minimus, spiniferus, 
acericola. 

9. Second conspicuously longer than third. 
P. solenopsis, helianthi, wilmatte, artemisie, 
cevallie. 

3. Third conspicuously longer than second. 
P. osborni, simplex, stachyos. 

These species of course have other peculiari- 
ties, but I certainly have believed that the 


becomes 


502 SCIENCE. 


antennal characters (allowing a good deal of 
variation) were specific. Of course, it is quite 
possible that the English insect is more vari- 
able than the American ones, as is true of cer- 
tain English plant genera, e. g., Rubus and 
Hieracium. 

One of the best tests in all such eases is the 
transplanting of specimens to different food- 
plants. Mr. Newstead did this rather exten- 
sively in the case of Pulvinaria ribesie, which 
he treats as a variety of P. vitis. It was found 
that the P. ribesie could not live on certain 
plants which are normally infested by P. vitis, 
and this, I think, should make one hesitate to 
assume the identity of closely similar forms. 

Dactylopus walkeri, Newst., is evidently the 
British representative of our D. neomexicanus, 
the antenne and other characters being very 
similar. In the figure accompanying New- 
stead’s original account of D. walkeri the last 
antennal joint was apparently made too short. 

It is strange that no mention whatever is 
made of Lecanium liriodendri, which was de- 
seribed from English specimens. 

T. D. A. CockERELu. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The Popular Science Monthly for March 
opens with an article on ‘ Aerial Navigation,’ 
by O. Chanute, which gives a résumé of what 
has been accomplished up to the present. W. 
LeConte Stevens discusses ‘The Metric Sys- 
tem: Shall it be Compulsory? intimating that 
it must not be. J. Madison Taylor has a 
second paper on ‘ The Conservation of Energy 
in Those of Advancing Years’ and Edward F. 
Williams has the first of a series of articles 
on ‘ The Royal Prussian Academy of Science, 
Berlin” N. L. Britton describes ‘The Trop- 
ical Station at Cinchona, Jamaica,’ and Edw. 
TD. Jones discusses ‘ Education and Industry,’ 
noting the changes that have taken place in 
training for commercial life. O. F. Cook 
presents a paper on ‘Evolution Not the 
Origin of Species,’ holding that while evolu- 
tion may change the character of species it 
‘does not originate them, this being due to 
vital motion. Lafayette B. Mendel gives 
“Some Historical Aspects of Vegetarianism’ 
and Naohidé Yatsu gives a sketch of ‘ Tokyo 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 482. 


Teikoku Diagaku (Imperial University of 
Japan).’ y 


The Musewms Journal of Great Britain for 
February contains an article on ‘The Mu- 
seum Question in Europe and America,’ by 
Ant. Fritsch, in which the author notes that 
many undesirable features are to be found in 
museum buildings through the undue influence 
of architects. It is noted that most exhibi- 
tion collections are too large and a plea is 
made to have them of smaller size and greater 
educational value. Alex. M. Rodger describes 
“A Method of Mounting Fish with Natural 
Surroundings,’ large, rectangular tanks being 
employed and the fish preserved in formalin. 
A meeting is noticed to consider ‘ The Organi- 
zation of British Zoologists’ and the balance 
of the number is filled with reviews and notes. 


We learn from the Journal of the American 
Medical Association that Dr. K. Kjellberg, of 
Stockholm, has commenced the publication of 
a weekly medical journal, to be the official 
organ for the General Swedish Medical Asso- 
ciation. The title is Alménna Svenska 
Likartidningen. The first two numbers con- 
tain instructive articles on ‘ Arrhenius and 
the Doctrine of Immunity’ and others on 
Finsen treatment of lupus, paraftin prothesis, 
ete. The list of collaborators on the journal 
includes Professor EK. Almqvist, J. Borelius, 
H. Koster and seventeen others. The journal 
Hira was previously the organ of this asso- 
ciation, but it suspended publication on 
the death of its editor, Dr. Simon, last 
June. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY, WASHINGTON. 


Tue one hundred and fiftieth meeting of 
the society was held January 27. 

Mr. Wm. H. Dall read a paper on ‘The 
Miocene of Maryland and its Relations,’ in 
which the relations of the Chesapeake Miocene 
of Maryland to that of Virginia, North Caro- 
lina, Florida and the Miocene of central and 
northern Europe were elucidated and discussed. 
This paper will form a chapter in the forth- 
coming report on the Miocene of Maryland, 


ene tae 


Marcu 25, 1904.) 


in the publications of the Geological Survey 
of that state. 

Mr. Ralph Arnold then presented a paper on 
the ‘Faunal Relations of the Carrizo Creek 
Beds of California.’ He first described the 
physiographic features of the Carrizo Creek 
country, which lies in San Diego County on 
the edge of the Colorado Desert near the Mex- 
ican boundary line. The faunal relations of 
the mollusks of the formation were next dis- 
eussed. The molluscan fauna indicates that 
the Carrizo Creek beds are for the most part 
of Miocene age, that they were laid down in 
comparatively shallow water, and that their 
fauna bears little relation to other known 
California Miocene, but is intimately related 
to the recent fauna of the Gulf of California. 
These facts point to the conclusion that during 
at least a part of the Miocene period the Car- 
rizo Creek country was occupied by a tropical 
shallow sea or gulf, an extension of what is 
now the Gulf of California; and that this 
gulf was separated from the cold waters of the 
main California Miocene sea by a peninsula 
similar in position to the present peninsula of 
Lower California. Im other words, he con- 
cluded that the major physiographic features 
in the peninsular and gulf region of Lower 
California were approximately the same in 
Miocene times as they are at present. 

This was followed by a paper by Mr. T. 
Wayland Vaughan, entitled ‘A Californian 
Tertiary Coral Reef and its Bearing on Amer- 
ican Recent Coral Faunas.’ The coral reef, 
concerning which he spoke, occurs in San 
Diego, County, California, the locality being 
the same as that of the Carrizo Creek beds 
described in the preceding paper by Dr. 
Arnold. Mr. Vaughan first called attention 
to the striking difference between the recent 
coral faunas on the Atlantic and Pacific sides 
of subtropical America. 

In the collection that has so far been made 
from the California fossil reef five genera are 
represented, all of which oceur in the fossil 
and recent faunas of the Antilles and not one 
of which is at present known to occur on the 
Pacific coast. The age of the beds in which 
these fossils occur has been determined by Drs. 
Arnold and Dall to be Lower Miocene. The 


SCIENCE. 


503 


following conclusions seem warranted: (1) 
There was water communication between the 
Atlantic and Pacific across Central America 
not much previous to the Upper Oligocene or 
Lower Miocene, that is, during the Upper 
Eocene or Lower Oligocene. This conclusion 
is the same as that reached by Messrs. Hill 
and Dall, theirs, however, being based upon a 
study of the fossil mollusks. (2) During 
Lower Miocene time the West Indian type of 
coral fauna extended westward into the Pacific 
and it was subsequent to that time that the 
Pacific and Atlantic faunas have become so 
markedly differentiated. 


AurreD H. Brooks, 
Secretary. 


NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 


At the February meeting the following 
papers were presented : 


A New Gigantic Tortoise from the Miocene 
of Colorado: O. P. Hay. 

This tortoise was discovered during the year 
1901 by Mr. Barnum Brown, of the American 
Museum of Natural History, in the Pawnee 
beds of the Miocene, in the northeastern part 
of Colorado. The remains consist of the shell 
complete; the skull, lacking the lower jaw; 
the pelvis and hind limbs; the terminal por- 
tion of the tail; and portions of the dermal 
armor. These materials were exhibited before 
the academy. 

The length of the carapace is about 31 
inches. It is high and tumid, with the sides at 
the bridge perpendicular, and with the hinder 
border little flaring. The outline is truncated 
in front, broadly rounded behind, and only 
slightly repand. The free edges are acute. 
The bridge peripherals rise somewhat above 
the middle of the height of the shell, their 
length transversely to the animal being nearly 
equal to that of the costal plates. The nuchal 
seute is narrow; the vertebral scutes not so 
wide as the costal scutes. The anterior lip 
of the plastron is broad, rounded in front, and 
slightly notched in the midline. The posterior 
lobe has a broad, shallow notch. The pectoral 
scutes are extremely narrow. 


504 SCIENCE. 


The skull has the palate deeply excavated. 
The masticatory surface on each side is tra- 
versed by a prominent, sharp and dentated 
ridge. The oral surface of the premaxillaries 
is excavated for the reception of the tip of 
the lower jaw. The cutting border of the 
maxilla is coarsely dentated. 

The exposed portions of the hinder limbs, 
and probably of the fore limbs also, were pro- 
tected by an armor of dermal bones, as in some 
living species of the genus. The extremity of 
the tail is expanded and covered on the upper 
surface by a plate composed of several bones 
joined by sutures. The skin of the region 
around the tail was provided with many 
pebble-like dermal bones. On the hinder part 
of each thigh there was a large bony spur. 
All these bones were covered in life with a 
thick layer of horn. This new species is 
named Testudo osborniana, in recognition of 
the interest of Professor H. F. Osborn in the 
fossil testudines. 

Remarks were made by the author of the 
paper on the geographical and geological dis- 
tribution of the genus Testudo and its related 
genera, and on their probable origin. 

The Flora of Dominica: F. E. Luoyn. 

This paper gave a general account of the 
vegetation of the Island of Dominica, which 
the author visited during last summer. 

The island is of voleanic origin, remarkably 
broken in contour, and very difficult for travel. 
The rainfall is excessive, but with considerable 
differences in distribution. For example, on 
the west coast there is a mean annual rainfall 
of 59.51 inches, while 239.50 inches were re- 
ported for Middleham in 1901, an amount not 
far from the mean. The eastern slopes of the 
island are exposed to the trade winds, and the 
vegetation, from the shore line to the top of 
the mountains, shows the effects in the pe- 
culiar molding. The temperatures are not 
excessive, but the atmospheric humidity is 
great. 

The vegetation, excepting in certain re- 
stricted areas, is of the tropical rain-forest 
type. The large trees are clothed with a 
heavy epiphytic growth chiefly composed of 
bromeliads, aroids, orchids, ferns and a Oy- 
clanthera. At the higher levels the Hymeno- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 482. 


phyllacew, Musci and Hepatic predominate, 
among which, however, many larger ferns and 
small orchids find a place. Four species of 
tree ferns, and several species of palms are to 
be found. Heliconia, a plantain-like plant, is 
very abundant at high altitudes. lLianas and 
‘ropes,’ as air roots are called locally, are 
abundant. 

In the Grand Savannah desert conditions 
prevail, caused by the small rainfall (59 
inches) and the shallow soil underlaid by trap 
rock. The vegetation here, and along the 
rocky shore, is quite distinct in character. 
A viviparous agaye and four cacti are here to 
be found. The savannah is a sloping grassy 
plain with scattered shrubs and small trees 

~among which occur several Mimosoidee. 

The strand vegetation on account of the 
steep, gravelly character of the shore is meager 
in species. The sea-grape (Coccolobis uvifera) 
is everywhere, and JIpomca pes-capre and 
Canavalia are common. Terminalia occurs in 
some localities. M. A. Bicetow, 

Secretary. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 


THE academy now meets in its own build- 
ing, at 3817 Olive St., and held its regular 
meeting on February 15. 

Rey. Martin’ S. Brennan delivered a pop- 
ular lecture on the ‘ Nebular Hypothesis’ ac- 
cording to La Place, illustrated with lantern 
slides. In the discussion following, Mr. 
Nipher remarked that he had applied the 
equations for gaseous nebule, which had been 
deduced in his paper on the ‘ Law of Contrac- 
tion of Gaseous Nebule,’ to the case of our 
own planetary system. 

Introducing an integration constant into 
the pressure formula, the pressure and, as a 
consequence, the temperature, can be made 
zero at any radius from the center. He had 
given the constant a value which made the 
mass of the nebula equal to that of the entire 
solar system. When the nebula has reached 
such a stage that the mass external to Nep- 
tune’s present orbit is equal to Neptune’s 
mass, the density at Neptune’s orbit will be 
1.938 <10—15 grams per e.c., and the pres- 
sure will be 1.49 < 10—1° atmospheres. The 


oe ee es ee Ti | eee rie 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


outer limit of the nebula -will be about half 
a million miles further out, the temperature 
being zero at the outer limit. This means 
that molecular motion will not there exist. 
The forces there acting will be gravitation 
and the repelling action of light waves from 
the central nucleus. 

The entire mass of Neptune will exist in a 
space far more highly rarefied than any 
_ Crookes tube vacuum. 

It is, of course, possible for such nebule to 
exist, but it certainly is impossible to believe 
that such a nebula can throw off a system of 
planetary bodies. The greater part of our 
solar nebula must have existed as solid 
meteoric matter, with a temperature ap- 
proaching alsolute zero. Only the central 
part, which is now represented by the sun, 
was largely gaseous, and at a higher tempera- 
ture. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


INSTABILITY OF THE WATER SUPPLY OF THE RIO 
GRANDE. 


To tHe Eprror or Science: In 1540 when 
Coronado’s men were exploring on the Rio 
Grande, they reported arriving eighty leagues 
below Tiguex at a place where the river van- 
ished into the ground. Some Amerinds of 
the region told them it reappeared again much 
larger farther down. This they did not verify. 

As their report of this disappearance, I be- 
lieve, has usually been ascribed to ‘ Spanish 
exaggeration,’ it is interesting, as well as im- 
portant, to place beside it Humboldt’s men- 
tion, in his ‘ Political Essay on New Spain,’ 
p. 213 (English translation by John Black), 
of a similar phenomenon, which took place in 
1752. 

The whole bed of the river became dry all of a 
sudden for more than 30 leagues above and 20 
leagues below the Passo, and the water of the 
tiver precipitated itself into a newly formed 
chasm and only made its reappearance near the 
Presidio de San Hleezario. This loss of the Rio 
del Norte remained for a considerable time; the 
fine plains which surrounded the Passo and which 
are intersected with small canals of irrigation, 
remained without water and the inhabitants dug 
wells in the sand with which the bed of the river 
was filled. At length after the lapse of several 


SCIENCE. 


505 


weeks the water resumed its ancient course, no 
doubt because the chasm and the subterraneous 
conductors had filled up. 


From this it seems fair to infer that the 
Spaniards of 1540 were witnesses of a phe- 
nomenon which repeated itself in 1752. 

Springs have also been known to be changed, 
in that region, by earthquake shocks, and it 
would, therefore, appear that in the past there 
has been considerable instability in the water 
supply. There is a probability that a large 
branch entered the Rio Grande, from the 
northeast, just above El-Paso, in Coronado’s 
time, which has since vanished, leaving only 
marshy spots where it once ran. These 
changes in volume of springs and in stream- 
flow have, it is needless to say, an important 
bearing on the archeology of that district. 

¥F. S. DELLENBAUGH. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


BIOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE WATERS OF SOUTHERN 
CALIFORNIA BY THE MARINE LABORATORY 
OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA 
AT SAN DIEGO. 


Tue marine biological survey undertaken 
by the Department of Zoology of the Univer- 
sity of California of the Pacific Ocean adja- 
cent to the southern coasts of the state in 
1901,* continued for six weeks in the summer 
of 1902 at San Pedro, with a limited amount 
of shore work and some attention to the plank- 
ton of San Pedro harbor, and transferred in 
the summer of 1903+ to San Digeo or, more 
specifically, to Coronado on the peninsular side 
of the Bay of San Diego was again taken up 
during the holiday intermission of the univer— 
sity for a period of three weeks from Decem- 
ber 15, 1903, to January 6, 1904. The com- 
mittee of the Chamber of Commerce of San 
Diego, which raised the funds for the work of 
the preceding summer provided also, in the 

*W. E. Ritter, ‘A Summer’s Dredging on the 
Coast of Southern California, Scrmncr, Vol. XV., 
p. 53, 1902. 

7 W. E. Ritter, ‘Preliminary Report on the 
Marine Biological Survey Work carried on by 
the Zoological Department of the University of 
California at San Diego, Scimncz, Vol. XVIIL., 
pp. 360-366, 1903. 


506 SCIENCE. 


main, for the explorations of the winter. The 
laboratory was again opened in the boat-house, 
partially equipped and courteously placed at 
the disposal of the Chamber of Commerce by 
the Coronado Beach Company. The labora- 
tory was fortunate in again securing the serv- 
ices of Mr. Manuel Cabral as collector, and 
the power boat St. Joseph, by means of which 
it was possible to have collections made in the 
early morning ten to fifteen miles off shore 
from Coronado brought to the laboratory 
early in the forenoon for the day’s work. 

The climatic conditions were ideal for win- 
ter work. Bright sunshine every day and an 
equable temperature obviated the necessity of 
artificial heat in the laboratory, and no storms 
interfered with the regular trips of the col- 
lector. Tides at this season of the year are 
also favorable, reaching lowest levels in the 
afternoon, while in the summer the best tides 
for shore collecting all occur before daybreak 
or early in the morning. The persons en- 
gaged in the survey and subjects of their 
investigations were as follows: Professor W. 
E. Ritter, director of the laboratory, Balan- 
oglossus, Tornaria, pelagic and littoral tuni- 
cates; Assistant Professor Charles Kofoid, 
pelagic Protozoa; Dr. Alice Robertson, Bry- 
ozoa and Copepoda; Mr. L. H. Miller, assist- 
ant in zoology, and Mr. R. D. Williams, a 
graduate student, working with Professor 
Kofoid on the Protozoa and Miss Margaret 
Henderson continuing her work of last sum- 
mer with Dr. H. B. Torrey, on the pelagic 
Ceelenterata. 

The physical observations made in the pre- 
vious summer by Mr. H. M. Evans on tem- 
peratures and salinity were continued this 
winter by Professor W. T. Skilling, of the 
San Diego Normal School. These observa- 
tions show, as might be expected, that the 
shallow bay waters have cooled down more 
than the surface waters of the adjacent ocean. 
Whereas last summer the bay waters were 
4°_5° CG. warmer than the ocean, they were in 
midwinter 1°—2° cooler. Temperature in sum- 
mer in the bay ranged from 22.7° to 26.7°, 
in winter from 13.3° to 14.7° C. Surface 


waters in the adjacent ocean in summer 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 482. 


ranged from 18° to 22.5° except during a cold 
spell August 27-31, when they fell as low as 
14.8°. In winter the range was from 14.6° 
to 15.6°. 


The salinity also declined slightly below the, 


summer determinations, the average of the 
readings, reduced to Dittmar’s standard, of 
ocean water iat Coronado pier falling from 
1.02455 to 1.023748; of the middle portion 
of the bay near the mouth of Glorietta Bight 
at Coronado falling from 1.02546 to 1.024274. 
Determinations of salinity were also made in 
the mid-channel between Coronado and San 
Diego at the ferry crossing, yielding an aver- 
age of 1.023997. 

The biological explorations of the winter 
were again directed in the main to the plank- 
ton. Quantitative examinations were made 
of the plankton of the Bay of San Diego near 
the laboratory and of Glorietta Bight. Sur- 
face waters of the ocean off-shore from Coro- 
nado were also examined, but the principal 
field of operations was ‘Cabral’s bank, an 
uncharted area about ten miles off Point 
Loma with 60-90 fathoms of water, known 
to loeal fishermen. A number of hauls were 
also made in the adjacent deeper waters of 
the Coronado submerged valley.* In all of 
these localities there was a noticeable decrease 
in the quantity of the plankton as compared 
with that taken in similar hauls of our nets 
in midsummer. There was a marked dim- 
inution in the quantity of diatoms and a still 
more pronounced reduction in the volume and 
variety of the Peridinida. Gonyaulax, which 
was so abundant in August as to color the 
water and cause an appreciable odor along 
shore, was found in living condition but a 
few times though empty skeletons were still 
not infrequent. The Tintirnide, on the other 
hand, were abundant in the ocean waters and 
showed marked increase over summer ratios 
in the bay. The Radiolaria were also, rela- 
tively to summer conditions, greatly increased 
in numbers and variety in all collections made 
some distance off shore, but were not common 

* George Davidson. ‘The Submerged Valleys of 
the Coast of California, U. 8. A., and of Lower 
California, Mexico.’ Proc. Calif. Acad. Sci. Geol., 
Third Ser., Vol. I, pp. 73-103, Pls. 2-10, 1897. 


: 
i 


er 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


in bay and coastal waters. The Acantharia, 
which in summer abound in shore and bay 
waters, were less abundant everywhere this 
winter. The Spumellaria were also somewhat 
reduced in frequency, while the Nassellaria 
were greatly increased and diversified in 
waters near the 100 fathom line, where the 
major part of our oceanic. collections were 
made, rivaling if not surpassing in richness 
the Challenger collections from the tropical 
Pacific as reported by Haeckel. 

The Ceelenterata are reported by Dr. H. B. 
Torrey to be fewer in the winter collections, 
both as species and as individuals, in all orders 
but the Siphonophora, where numbers were 
much larger, especially of Diphyes. 

The Entomostraca were less abundant than 
in summer, especially in shore waters. Sap- 
phirina was found several times and an ap- 
parently new ‘peacock form?’ allied to Calo- 
calanus was obtained. Cyphonautes was very 
common in all collections, and Ophio-, 
Echino- and Asteroplutei were not infre- 
quent, indicating breeding of many echino- 
derms at this season of the year. 

The pelagic Mollusca were more numerous 
than in summer. Oreseis and young Pneu- 
modermon were found, and young Plewropus 
were very abundant in the oceanic collections. 

Professor Ritter reports the presence of 
Salpa, Doliolum and Appendicularia though 
less abundant than in the summer. A small 
Yornaria of uncertain relationships was found 
this winter in small numbers on the bank 
where the large 7. ritteri was found last 
summer. 

A few collecting trips were made at low 
tides and some dredging was done off shore 
and in the harbor. Oviona was exceedingly 
abundant and of great size in loose colonies 
on the sand in the shoal waters of the harbor, 
and Perophora and sponges were in great 
breeding activity on the floats and piles near 
the laboratory. Amphioxus californicus was 
again collected on the ‘middle ground’ near 
the mouth of the harbor in shelly deposits, 
and Dolichoglossus was found in great abund- 
ance on the mud flats about the bay associated 
with another possibly new member of the 
genus.  Oerianthus and Renilla were col- 


SCIENCE. 


507 


lected on the sand and the mud flats exposed 
at low tide. Many annelids were breeding in 
the mud flats about the harbor and in the 
False Bay. New collecting grounds on the 
ocean front near Pacific Beach were found 
on rocks exposed at low tide, which equal in 
richness and in yariety of their fauna any- 
thing thus far found on the coast of Cali- 
fornia south of Monterey Bay. 

One of the most noticeable changes in the 
local fauna was an unusual development of 
a large bryozoan, Bowerbankia, in the harbor, 
forming masses often several feet in diameter. 
This species was dying out rapidly during our 
stay at Coronado, living zooids being very rare 
on the colonies. Another remarkable change 
was the development of Donawx californicus in 
great numbers at Pacific Beach, where on a 
gently sloping sandy shore in the notoriously 
heavy breakers of the region these little 
lamellibranchs were found in enormous num- 
bers, literally covering the beach on a strip 
several miles in length and fifty yards or more 
in width. The levels at which they occurred 
would bring them into the turmoil of the 
breakers with every tidal recession during plus 
tides and leave them exposed on the beach for 
several hours during minus tides. A similar 
occurrence at Long Beach near Los Angeles 
several years ago led to the formation of a 
fertilizer corporation to exploit these re- 
sources of the sea, but Donaz disappeared 
before the stock was floated, as mysteriously 
as it eame. Associated with Donaz in what 
seems to be a commensal relationship is an 
undescribed Campanularian hydroid attached 
to the shell in small tufts between the umbo 
and siphons. This was sufficiently abundant 
to add an appreciable color to the banks of 
Donax in situ on the beach. 


Chimera was caught on the fishing banks 
and Gyroplewrodes was taken in the Bay. 

A great abundance of animal life is thus 
available at San Diego in winter months for 
the biologist, and the desirability of this 
location for the establishment of a marine 
station open throughout the year grows in- 
creasingly evident. 

In furtherance of this object a Marine 
Biological Association was formed at a public 


508 SCIENCE. 


meeting of interested citizens of San Diego 
and vicinity September 27, 1903. 

The by-laws as adopted designate the pur- 
poses of the organization and in part are as 
follows: 

“The organization shall be called the 
Marine Biological Association of San Diego, 
for the purpose of securing the foundation 
and endowment of a scientific institution to 
be known as the ‘San Diego Marine Biological 
Institution.’ 

“The general purposes of the institution 
shall be to carry on a biological and hydro- 
graphic survey of the waters of the Pacific 
ocean adjacent to the coast of South Cali- 
fornia, to build and maintain a public aqua- 
Tium and museum and to prosecute such other 
kindred undertakings as the board of trustees 
may from time to time deem it wise to enter 
upon. 

“The founding of the institution having 
been perfected and its endowment secured, the 
whole or such part thereof as may in the judg- 
ment of the trustees seem best shall, under 
such conditions as the trustees may impose, 
be transferred to the regents of the Univer- 
sity of California, to become a department 
of the university coordinate with its already 
existing departments. 

“The officers of the association shall be a 
president, vice-president, scientific director, 
secretary and treasurer. In addition there 
shall be a board of trustees consisting of seven 
members, three of whom shall be the president, 
vice-president and scientific director.” 

Officers were elected as follows: 

President—Homer H. Peters. 

Vice-President—Miss Ellen Scripps. 

Scientific Director—Professor W. H. Ritter. 

Secretary—Dr. Fred Baker. 

Treasurer—Julius Wangenheim. 

Additional Directors—E, W. Scripps and James 
MacMullen. 


At a winter meeting of the board of trus- 
tees funds were guaranteed for three years 
which will enable the station to continue its 
work and expand it somewhat, perhaps to the 
extent of keeping the station in partial opera- 
tion throughout the year in charge of a resi- 
dent naturalist or fellow during the interim 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 482, 


between the summer and winter operations. 
A public spirited patron of the laboratory has 
offered to grant the laboratory the use of a 
nineteen ton schooner, the Loma, former pilot 
boat of the port, equipped with power, for 
purposes of collecting, sounding, dredging, 
etc., and also to erect a temporary building 
for accommodation of the laboratory which 
may be located at La Jolla, fifteen miles from 
San Diego on the ocean front. The perma- 
nent location of the buildings will not be de- 
termined until a thorough exploration of sey- 
eral possible situations shall have been made. 
Cuarites Arwoop Koror. 


THE NECESSITY FOR REFORM IN THE NOMENCLA- 
TURE OF THE FUNGI.* 


THE nomenclature question is almost en- 
tirely one of expediency. If the prevailing 
custom in making plant names has led to the 
establishment of a nomenclature that satis- 
factorily fills the requirements for accuracy 
and stability, and if it points out unfailingly 
the proper procedure where our increased 
knowledge of any given group of plants neces- 
sitates the modification of our ideas of generic 
limits, then any change in traditional methods, 
or any attempt to substitute other generic 
names for those now commonly used, would 
be a folly so great as to approach lunacy. Let 
us see what the facts are as regards the fungi. 
Fries, in his classical work ‘Systema My- 
cologicum,’ the final volume of which was 
published in 1829, recognized 248 genera of 
fungi. In the ‘Sylloge Fungorum’ of Sac- 
eardo, the eight original volumes completed in 
1889 contain 1,685 genera and 31,927 species. 
Supplementary volumes have appeared from 
time to time, the last in 1902, bringing the 
total number of recognized genera up to 2,348 
and the species to almost 50,000. The treat- 
ment of the fungi by Schroeter, Lindau, Hen- 
nings Dietel and Fischer in Engler & 
Prantl’s ‘ Pflanzenfamilien’ was completed in 
1900. The usage here differs radically from 
that of Saccardo in many respects and the 
number of genera accepted is only 1,811, or 
587 less than are recognized by Saccardo. A 

*Read before the Botanical Section of the 
American Association at the St. Louis meeting. 


March 25, 1904.] 


comparison of the generic treatment in the 
two works has not been attempted for all the 
groups. The following, however, will show 
that this difference in numbers is not a mere 
multiplication of genera by Saccardo. Of the 
54 genera of the Agaricacee given by Hen- 
nings in Engler and Prantl, 15, or nearly 28 
per cent., are not recognized by Saccardo, 
many of them not appearing even as synonyms, 
though his work is two years the later. If 
we reverse the comparison, the showing for 
uniformity in modern usage is much worse, 
since of the 82 genera given by Saccardo only 
Al, or exactly 50 per cent., are recognized in 
Engler and Prantl. This is certainly a case 
where it will be difficult to say what is the 
“prevailing usage. Taking the Hymenomy- 
cetes as a whole, Engler and Prantl give 147 
genera, 25 of which, or 17 per cent., are not 
recognized by Saccardo. If these glaring dif- 
ferences cause us to investigate as to which 
‘of these works is based on the more logical 
and consistent usage, and, therefore, which is 
the safer nomenclatorial guide, we are forced 
to the conclusion that neither of them follows 
any recognizable or consistent rule of nomen- 
clature. The case of each genus seems to 
have been settled on an independent basis and 
according to the whim of the moment. 
Doubtless the claim would be made for each 
work that the names were selected on the basis 
of priority, but priority has been flagrantly 
and repeatedly violated in both of them. 
Again is the ‘prevailing usage’ furnishing 
us at the present time with a safe rule for the 
establishment of new genera on a sure and 
stable basis? That this is no idle question is 
shown by the vast increase of over 2,000 
genera since 1829 and of 663 since 1889; if 
we count on the basis of the ‘Sylloge,’ and 
the tendency is for the still more rapid multi- 
plication of genera in the near future. Every 
revision of a large genus in these days re- 
sults in breaking it up into smaller generic 
groups. It is vitally important that this shall 
be done on some basis that will prove stable. 
What is really being done is illustrated by a 
recent revision of Ravenelia. After an ex- 
haustive and critical study of the species the 
author very properly decides to break up the 


SCIENCE. 


509 


genus. He leaves the majority of the species 
under the old generic name and proposes new 
names for the smaller segregations. Now it 
happens that Ravenelia was founded on a 
single species, R. glandulosa. In the pro- 
posed revision this species falls in one of the 
smaller groups and is no longer called a 
Ravenelia, while that name is applied to a 
group of species none of which were included 
under it by the author of the genus. If 
priority is to be more than an empty name 
such practices can certainly not be allowed 
to stand unchallenged, yet the author could 
point to hundreds and hundreds of precedents 
to justify his usage. In fact, we must admit 
that this usage has been the prevailing one 
ever since the time of Linnzus. The chaotic 
condition that must inevitably be produced by 
following this so-called ‘method of residues’ 
is well illustrated by the following figures 
taken from my work as a member of the 
nomencelatorial committee in finding the types 
of the older genera of fungi. I have listed 
485 names that were proposed between 1753, 
the first edition of lLinnzus’s ‘ Species 
Plantarum, and 1821, including the first 
volume of Fries’s ‘Systema Mycologicum.’ Of 
these, 242, or one half, are to be rejected for 
various reasons. Some are hyponyms, never 
having been associated with a recognizable 
binomial species; some are typonyms, being 
based on species already used as the types of 
other genera; some were only proposed as 
subgenera, and some were based on sterile 
mycelia, monstrosities, insect work or plants 
that are not fungi. The remaining 243 
names are available for use at the present 
time. The types of these have been deter- 
mined according to the code proposed at the 
Washington meeting. One hundred of them, 
or 41 per cent., were monotypic, being based 
on a single species. In 135 of them, or 55 per 
cent., the type was determined by page 
priority. Nine are historic types taken from 
pre-Linnzean authors and 4 were inferred from 
the form of the specific name. Of these 243 
available names, 118 are used by Saccardo in 
their proper historic sense, being still asso- 
ciated with their original type species. In 
the other 125 cases the names are either not 


510 SCIENCE. 


given by Saccardo or they have been shifted 
from their proper historic use and do not now 
contain their original types. Of course, in 
some cases this is correct, since the list in- 
cludes some metonyms where the type falls 
within the limits of an earlier valid genus. 
The number of these has not been determined, 
since it will depend on the conception of 
generic limits and will necessarily change 
from time to time with the increase of our 
knowledge. As genera are now recognized it 
probably does not exceed 20 per cent. This 
would leave an estimated 218 valid genera to 
100 of which, or 45 per cent., the oldest avail- 
able name is not applied by Saccardo. Of the 
100 monotypes 58 appear in Saccardo under 
their original name, while 42 must be sought 
under other genera. Jn one case noted, five 
genera have at different times been founded 
on the same type species, and three of these 
names are still doing duty in both Saccardo 
and Engler and Prantl. 

Glaring inconsistencies like those might be 
cited almost endlessly. The above, however, 
is sufficient to show conclusively first, that we 
have at present no widely accepted ‘ prevailing 
usage’ in regard to the names of fungus 
genera; and secondly, that the usage that has 
prevailed in the formation of generic names 
has not led to stability or to the establishment 
of any logical system of procedure. In fact, 
the existing condition is so confused and 
anomalous as to imperatively demand an im- 
mediate and sweeping reform. Doubtless all 
will now agree that any rational system of 
nomenclature must be based strictly on 
priority. This in itself is a long step in 
advance, for only a generation ago the fore- 
most systematists laid less stress on priority 
than on the supposed appropriateness of a 
name. The unfortunate result of their prac- 
tices has just been passed in review. While 
all will agree on the basic principle of priority 
there will be divergence of opinion when the 
attempt is made to formulate a code of rules 
for applying it. The ideas and methods of 
the earlier writers were so diverse from our 
own that it is impossible to bring their work 
into harmony with ours without adopting 
rules and methods that are necessarily more 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 482. 


or less arbitrary. It is perfectly clear that 
they had no idea of the type of a genus or a 
species in the sense in which we use the word 
to-day. Their ‘type,’ in so far as they had 
one, was a mental concept; and yet if we are 
to prevent this endless shifting of generic 
names from one group of plants to another, 
it becomes necessary to tie down these ancient 
concepts to the material basis of a single 
species. The exact way in which this is to 
be done really matters very little. No rule 
or system of rules can possibly be devised 
which, if consistently followed, will not throw 
out or change the meaning of many of the 
names accepted by modern writers. Any at- 
tempt at reform based on a method devised 
for the purpose’ of ‘saving names’ can only 
end by adding to the existing confusion. Let 
us then nerve our minds to the point of seeing 
not only any, but, if necessary, all of our most 
favored names sacrificed to consistency, and 
unite in adopting the simplest and most direct 
code of rules that can be agreed upon. When 
this is once done and its provisions are carried 
out in good faith we shall by the one cata- 
clysmie effort have placed the nomenclature 
of our science on so firm and stable a basis 
that we need no longer dread the appearance 
of each succeeding contribution to mycological 
knowledge on account of the changes in names 
that have been so constant and so annoying 
an accompaniment of each forward step in 


the past. F. S. Ears. 
New York BoranicaL GARDEN. 


ENERGETICS AND MECHANICS. 


Wirnin the past ten years energetics has 
been brought to the front as furnishing a 
systematic account of phenomena that are 
connected most directly with quantitative re- 
lations of energy, and of its transformations. 
To any one who has stood aloof from the 
polemic between the ‘energetic’ and the 
‘forcive’ view, it must seem proved that the 
former has rendered a permanent service to 
physies, by devising and putting into circu- 
lation forms of statement that are freed from 
superfluous hypothetical assumptions, and 
brought closer to the foundations of natural 
science in ascertained facts. For example, the 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


eurrent of thought, simplifying and clarifying 
in this sense, that runs through Professor 
Ostwald’s ‘ Naturphilosophie’ is undeniable, 
whatever particular attitude between full ac- 
ceptance and opposition we may take toward 
the author’s expressed or implied philosophy. 
But in summing up the gain due to such move- 
ments, that lesson from history must not be 
lost sight of which teaches that a new inter- 
pretation of phenomena rarely supersedes the 
previous views; it most often supplements and 
modifies them. So here, while we may accept 
the suggestion from energetics, and ery good 
riddance to a cumbrous apparatus of molecular 
forces, premature, at least, for our present 
state of experimental knowledge and, perhaps, 
finally illusory, it is not required by con- 
sistency to follow the extremists in their 
tendency to banish the conception of force 
completely, nor need we even derive those 
parts of mechanical doctrine which are stated 
through equations of motion from an ex- 
elusive source in energy relations. 

It is something, of course, that we have a 
direct and roughly quantitative appreciation 
of force through muscular sensation; but fur- 
ther, attacking the matter more broadly, sey- 
eral points may be urged in restraint of rele- 
gating force to the scientific lumber-room. 
First, let us grant fully one great advantage 
of an energy equation: that it renders possible 
a true statement of relation between conditions 
at the boundaries of an interval, while we are 
ignorant of the internal mechanism, 7. e. the 
details within the interval. But let us notice, 
also, that this is coupled with a corresponding 
disadvantage. The energy equation is not 
immediately capable of recording internal de- 
tails, even where the process has been traced 
continuously or minutely; and to this extent 
it fails to represent completely our acquaint- 
ance with those cases. In parallel with the 
energy equation (the integrated form), there- 
fore, the force equation or its equivalent (the 
differential form) is then justified and 
requisite. That is, though it is well to 
acknowledge ignorance and bridge the gap 
with the energy equation, yet it would be 
pedantic to use equations of that type ex- 
clusively, and thus ignore knowledge that we 


SCIENCE. 511 


really possess. Secondly, it is part of the 
general intellectual position which has led to 
the development of energetics, that the intro- 
duction and use of physical quantities are to 
be determined according to their convenience 
and sufficiency. Now it is true and interest- 
ing that the condition of equilibrium (zero 
value of accelerations) can be described as a 
compensation of one form of energy by an- 
other (Ostwald, passim); but that does not 
settle any question of practical convenience in 
the definite calculation of conditions for equi- 
librium. And it is precisely when those con- 
ditions obtain, that one factor of energy be- 
comes indeterminate or unimportant, leaving 
attention to be concentrated upon the remain- 
ing factor. Hence the universal procedure 
in measuring the forces, pressures, ete., that 
are practically essential elements in a state 
of balance, through the whole range from con- 
structing the piers of a bridge to applying 
D’Alembert’s principle. For the purpose of 
physics it is not always enough to know that 
an algebraic sum is zero; the magnitude of the 
self-neutralizing terms is of importance. To 
be sure, this particular aspect of the situation 
may be met by using freely coordinate deriva- 
tives of energy, and thus: narrowing the ques- 
tion to the choice between the directer and 
the more artificial introduction of the neces- 
sary forces. But even this resource would 
not occupy the vacant field entirely; a third 
point remains to be considered. What ac- 
count does the view peculiar to energetics give 
of normal forces, those actions which guide 
moving bodies without directly affecting their 
energy of motion? ‘The scalar kinetic energy 
is unaftected by mere change of direction; 
there is no measurable exchange of energy 
(apart from friction) between a body moving 
with constant speed in a curved path and the 
guiding mechanism. Yet these are not in- 
stances of equilibrium, either, describable in 
terms of compensating forms of energy; none 
of the extensions of energy equations to cover 
tangential forces by means of coordinate de- 
rivatives apply here. This seems to be the 
weakest spot in the scheme of energetics, at 
which it stands most in need of supplement by 
direct use of equations of motion. Everywhere 


512 SCIENCE. 


in dynamics the directive forces play a prom- 
inent part. Nor is this necessarily confined 
to molar mechanics; wherever the generalized 
equations of Lagrange are proved to be serv- 
iceable, the significance of the term 0H/0s 
cannot be overlooked. It registers the occur- 
rence of directive or guiding forces, as a 
type, in conjunction with those whose form 
(d/dt-O0H/Ov) indicates their relation to 


changes of energy. FREDERICK SLATE. 
UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, 
February 24, 1904. 


QUOTATIONS. 
PRESIDENT ELIOT. 


‘Narure’s patient ways shame hasty little 
man, a sentence from one of President 
Eliot’s lectures, is the keynote to much of his 
work; for he has made nature’s patient ways 
his own. He celebrates to-morrow (March 
20) his seventieth birthday, and this year, 
also, the thirty-fifth anniversary of his presi- 
dency of Harvard. For an estimate of his 
achievements this is neither the place nor 
the time: the limits of an editorial article 
are too narrow; and his labors are, we trust, 
far from an end. Serus in celum redeat. 
But we add our hearty congratulations to those 
of Harvard graduates, friends of learning 
from all colleges and schools, and worthy citi- 
zens in every walk of life; and we seize this 
moment as suitable for dwelling on two or 
three aspects of President Eliot’s career. He 
stands among the foremost citizens of the 
United States; were there a common denomi- 
nator by which one could measure men of 
widely different talents and callings, he might 
rank the very first. This success is indubi- 
tably due in large part to a power which has 
wrought, like the force of a glacier, without 
haste, and without rest. 

It is as an educator that he enjoys the 
widest fame. For more than a third of a 
century—a period of unexampled material 
progress—in a country which has leaped for- 
ward rather than developed, he has been at 
the head of our oldest and richest university. 
He has thus enjoyed a unique opportunity to 
set his stamp upon the educational system of 
a nation; and this opportunity he has em- 
ployed to the uttermost. The principles 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 482. 


which he intended to follow he laid down 
with precision in his Inaugural Address in 
1869; from those principles he has never 
swerved. He declared: “ This university rec- 
ognizes no real antagonism between literature 
and science, and consents to no such narrow 
alternatives as mathematics or classics, sci- 
ence or metaphysics. We would have them 
all, and at their best.” Against the old hard 
and fast curriculum—“ one primer, one cate- 
chism, one rod for all children ”—he set his 
face unflinchingly, and proceeded to build up 
the elective system, which at Harvard already 
rested on a firm foundation. The opposition 
within his faculty and without was deter- 
mined, sometimes bitter. His theory that “a 
well-instructed youth of eighteen can select 
for himself—not for any other boy, or for the 
fictitious universal boy, but for himself alone 
—a better course of study than any college 
faculty, or any wise man who does not know 
him and his ancestors and his previous life, 
can possibly select for him ”—this theory was 
assailed and ridiculed as individualism run 
mad. But President Eliot held to his course, 
and he has seen his theory accepted in every 
important college of the country. He has 
weathered the storm that raged about him 
twenty years ago, and has anchored in the 
desired haven. 

As champion of a movement which put 
sciences and modern languages in ‘fair com- 
petition’ with the classics, he has urged un- 
ceasingly more skillful instruction in these 
new subjects. In his Inaugural, he bluntly 
told the ‘scientific scoffers at gerund grind- 
ing’ that ‘the prevailing methods of teach- 
ing science the world over, are less intelligent 
than the methods of teaching language’ Hx- 
perimentation in the laboratory, original in- 
vestigation, drill in accurate observations, he 
has made the burden of many addresses and 
reports. Moreover, ié is owing largely to his 
efforts that the standard of professional 
schools has been raised, and that secondary 
and grammar schools are now reorganizing 
their programs according to the modern idea 
of developing the aptitudes of the individual. 
But it is upon English that he has laid the 
greatest stress. He began his presidency by 


ON SA = ape 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


quoting Locke’s complaint as to the neglect 
of the mother-tongue; and he has returned to 
the theme again and again. At Harvard he 
has built up an English department that has 
been a stimulus to every other college and to 
schools of all grades. 

In this vast enterprise, President Eliot him- 
self, the moving spirit, has had neither the 
authority nor the will to force the action of 
faculties or committees. More than once he 
has seen his opinions thrown into the arena of 
open debate and voted down. But, convinced 
that his views, if sound, will ultimately tri- 
umph, he has waited with Olympian calm for 
the march of events. Though the immediate 
effect of the changes has in some cases seemed. 
to be chaos, he has never been discouraged; 
he has shown that, to rearrange a curriculum, 
to train competent instructors in new subjects, 
to establish traditions of mental discipline, 
will be the task of generations yet to come. 

In his discussion of public questions he has 
insisted upon the right of the individual to 
attain his highest intellectual and moral de- 
velopment, unchecked by a cast-iron regimen 
of studies, or by intolerance in church or 
state. His criticisms of organized labor have 
voiced the conviction of our sanest publicists, 
that ‘democracy must profoundly distrust the 
labor union’s too frequent effort to restrict the 
efficiency and the output of the individual 
workman.’ This doctrine of individualism, a 
tenet of the liberals of the old school, is fall- 
ing into temporary decay; it is opposed by 
certain captains of industry, who want to 
erush out the individual and pile merger upon 
merger; it is opposed by the trades unionists, 
who condemn all laborers to the lock-step; 
yet President Eliot has steadily, with candor 
and courage, striven for the basic principle 
of our Declaration of Independence. 

These are the achievements, these the quali- 
ties that have won him, year by year, a wider 
recognition; have transmuted cold respect 
into affection. In the earlier days of his pres- 
ideney a reserve of manner, absorption in 
details of administration, and a frank indif- 
ference to the gusts of undergraduate senti- 
ment made students regard him with an un- 
comfortable awe, as if he were a sort of Iron 


SCIENCE. 


513 


Chancellor in an empire of education, or—to 
recur to a former comparison—as if he were 
really a glacier. Time has proved the falsity 
of this first impression; has shown that no 
college president has endured with more se- 
renity and good humor the criticism of his 
colleagues; that the springs of his kindness 
are as unfailing as the waters that melt from 
the eternal ice. He has reached the goal of 
his ambition. In describing’ Dr. Asa Gray’s 
life as ‘ happy,’ he declared: “Tt is the great- 
est of human rewards to be enfolded, as years 
advance, in an atmosphere of honor, gratitude 
and love.” That greatest of rewards Presi- 
dent Eliot himself has reaped in full measure, 
while his eye is not dim nor his natural force 
abated—New York Hvening Post. 


NOTES ON INORGANIC CHEMISTRY. 
WATER GAS IN THE CHEMICAL LABORATORY. 


A PAPER was recently read before the So- 
ciety of Chemical Industry by Masume Chi- 
kashige and Hitoshi Matsumoto on the defects 
of uncarburetted water gas as a fuel for labo- 
ratory use. Inasmuch as water gas is more or 
less extensively used in cities and as small 
local water-gas plants are easily installed, ex- 
tended studies of its use haye been made by 
the authors, resulting in its condemnation. 
Among the reasons given for these conclusions 
are the following, which seem most important. 

While the water-gas flame is non-luminous 
and always powerfully reducing, it is often 
desired to have a smoky flame temporarily, 
which is impossible with this gas, nor is it 
possible to produce a flame to any consider- 
able extent oxidizing in its nature. The air 
openings in a Bunsen burner are useless, as it 
is not possible to mix more than a very slight 
proportion of ‘air with the gas without pro- 
ducing an explosive mixture. The intense 
heat of the flame, far higher than can be ob- 
tained with coal gas, is not an unqualified ad- 
vantage, as it occasions the rapia destruction 
of wire gauze and copper vessels; copper air 
baths and water-baths are rapidly destroyed, 
unless provided with cast-iron bottoms. Ovw- 
ing to the presence of carbon monoxid, nickel 
vessels are quickly corroded, some crucibles 
being burnt completely through in a single 


514 


operation. Platinum vessels are seriously 
damaged, becoming brittle, and at the same 
time increasing in weight, owing to the depo- 
sition of iron from the iron carbonyl formed 
in the passage of the gas through iron pipes. 
A similar deposit, which can not be wiped off, 


is formed on the bottom of porcelain crucibles, 


precluding the use of such crucibles in quan- 
titative analysis. It was found that a very 
considerable quantity of unconsumed carbon 
monoxid escaped into the air, so that this 
could easily be injurious to health. In a labo- 
ratory where thirty coal-gas burners may be 
kept going without detriment to health, hardly 
eleven water-gas burners can be used with 
impunity. In the ensuing discussion of the 
paper it was suggested that where the water 
gas is carburetted, as is usual in this country, 
it is probable that it is less objectionable as a 
laboratory fuel. 


YELLOW ARSENIC. 

Tue yellow modification of arsenic, which 
has been observed by several chemists, has 
been submitted to a careful examination by 
Erdmann and Unruh, and their results are 
published in the Zettschrift fiir anorganische 
Chemie. The yellow arsenic corresponds to 
white phosphorus, and is produced by rapidly 
cooling the vapor of arsenic. In practice the 
best method was found to be sublimation in a 
tube of aluminum in an atmosphere of inert 
gas. The fumes are cooled rapidly by absorp- 
tion in carbon bisulfid, in which yellow arsenic 
is soluble. When a saturated solution is 
cooled to — 70° it deposits the yellow arsenic 
in the form of a yellow powder, which can be 
preserved at this temperature without change 
if kept in the dark. When exposed to light, 
even in solution, it is rapidly ¢hanged to or- 
dinary arsenic. After a time a brownish-red 
precipitate is formed in the carbon bisulfid 


solution which seems to be a fourth modifiea-- 


tion, and reminds one of red phosphorus. The 
molecular weight of the yellow arsenic was 
determined, and the molecule corresponds to 
As,. 
COPPER CYANID SOLUTIONS. 
In the same journal is a paper by F. P. 
Treadwell and C. vy. Girsewald on the colorless 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 482. 


solution of copper cyanid, which is not pre- 
cipitable by hydrogen sulfid, and which is very 
familiar to all students of qualitative analysis. 
The compound present in this solution is vari- 
ously given in different text-books, some con- 
sidering it merely a double cyanid of bivalent 
copper and potassium, as K,Cu(CN),, while 
others affirm that the copper is present in 
univalent form, being reduced by the potas- 
sium ecyanid. For this the formula KCu- 
(CN), is sometimes given. In both cases it 
appears wholly a matter of mere conjecture. 
The authors studied solutions containing vari- 
ous proportions of copper and potassium cy- 
anid, and arrived at the conclusion that the 
salt present is K,Cu,(CN),, though the salt 


itself was not isolated. ‘The complexity of the 


ion which is not decomposed by hydrogen sul- 
fid was determined to be [Cu,(CN),]#¥, by the 
use of eryoscopic methods. 


CORROSION OF IRON WATER MAINS. 

Aw interesting case of corrosion is reported 
from Frankfurt in the Zeitschrift fiir ange- 
wandte Chemie, by Martin Freund. This pipe 
contained in places holes as large as the palm 
of the hand. On the edges of these holes the 
iron had been converted into a dense, dark 
gray, soft mass resembling graphite. Analysis 
showed the mass to be composed of ferrous 
phosphate, ferrous silicate, carbon, and ten 
per cent. of metallic iron. As the surround- 
ing soil could not have supplied the phosphorus 
or silicon, it appeared that all the materials 
had come from the iron itself. By the action 
of stray electric currents the phosphorus and 
the silicon of the iron had been oxidized to 
phosphate and silicate. In order to test this 
supposition, Freund subjected a portion of the 
cast iron of the pipe as anode to the action of 
an electric current in a dilute salt or gypsum 
solution, and found that in a short time the 
iron became coated with a deposit containing 
phosphate and silicate of iron, and in every 
respect resembling the corrosion product of 


the pipe. J. L. H. 
A QUARTERLY ISSUE OF THE ‘SMITHSO- 
NIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS?’ 


Tue Smithsonian Institution has com- 
menced the publication of a Quarterly Issue 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


of its ‘ Miscellaneous Collections,’ ‘ designed 
chiefly to afford a medium for the early publi- 
cation of the results of researches conducted 
by the Smithsonian Institution and its 
bureaus, and especially for the publication of 
reports of a preliminary nature. The first 
number of the Quarterly Issue is a double 
one and contains seventeen articles, ranging 
in size from 1 page to 73 pages, in addition 
to notes on the activities of the institution, its 
collections, ete., the whole accompanied with 
fifty-six plates and numerous text figures. The 
scope of the journal is broad, the first issue 
embodying articles on mammalogy, astro- 
physics, paleontology, archeology, geology, 
ornithology, ichthyology, ethnology, etc., thus 
covering a considerable range of scientific 
subjects. The number in hand opens with a 
description of ‘Seventy New Malayan Mam- 
mals, by Gerrit S. Miller, Jr., based on col- 
lections made and presented to the National 
Museum by Dr. W. L. Abbott. Mr. C. G. 
Abbott presents the results of ‘ Recent Studies 
of the Solar Constant of Radiation,’ conducted 
at the astrophysical observatory of the institu- 
tion, under the direction of Secretary Langley. 
Another paper by Mr. Abbott describes ‘ The 
New Ceelostat and Horizontal Telescope of 
the Astrophysical Observatory,’ in which are 
given the results obtained with a device de- 
signed by Secretary Langley for the purpose 
of ‘churning’ a column of air traversed by a 
solar beam, with the view of reducing the 
‘boiling’ or confusion of all parts of the solar 
image due to variability of the strata of air 
traversed. Dr. F. W. True presents some 
photographic illustrations of ‘ Living Finback 
Whales from Newfoundland,’ these being the 
first photographs of living whales in American 
waters that have thus far been published. 
Brief descriptions of ‘ A Skeleton of Hesper- 
ornis, and ‘A New Plesiosaur,’ by Mr. Fred- 
eric A. Lucas, are given with plates, and Mr. 
W. H. Holmes illustrates and compares the 
designs on some remarkable ‘ Shell Ornaments 
from Kentucky and Mexico.’ 
specimen of a ‘Glacial Pothole in the Na- 
tional Museum’ is described by Mr. George P. 
Merrill, who explains the method by which 


SCIENCE. 


A noteworthy 


d15 


the specimen was procured. ‘Some Notes on 
the Herons of the District of Columbia,’ by 
Mr. Paul Bartsch, who made a systematic 
survey of two heron colonies and conducted 
experiments with a view of solving some of 
the problems of bird life, is of special interest. 
Dr. J. Walter Fewkes gives a ‘ Preliminary 
Report on an Archeological Trip to the West 
Indies,’ in 1903, describing particularly the 
remarkable objects of stone, bone, shell, wood 
and pottery which he collected during the trip, 
and giving an insight into their various uses. 
Dr. C. M. Child, of Chicago University, de- 
scribes the ‘ Form-regulation in Coelentera and 
Turbellaria,’ of which he made a special study 
during his occupancy of the Smithsonian seat 
at the Naples Zoological Station, and Dr. 
Carl H. Eigenmann introduces some ‘ New 
Genera of South American Fresh-water 
Fishes, and New Names for Some Old Genera.’ 
Of timely interest is the account of ‘ Korean 
Headdresses in the National Museum,’ by the 
late Foster H. Jenings, in which are described 
and illustrated twenty-four varieties of 
Korean hats and other headgear, including 
headband buttons and hatpins for topknots. 
A brief history of the ‘Hodgkins Fund of 
the Smithsonian Institution,’ and of what has 
been accomplished with its income toward 
“the imerease and diffusion of more exact 
knowledge in regard to the nature and prop- 
erties of atmospheric air in connection with 
the welfare of man,’ bears the name of Helen 
Waldo Burnside, and is accompanied with an 
illustration of the beautiful Hodgkins medal. 
Mr. A. B. Baker gives an account of ‘A 
Notable Success in the Breeding of Black 
Bears,’ which is of special interest to those 
having charge of animal collections. Of 
quite a different theme is Dr. James M. 
Flint’s ‘Chinese Medicine,’ which briefly ex- 
plains the origin of medicine and the theory 
of disease in the Celestial Empire. The last 
of the series of articles consists of ‘ Notes on 
the Rocks of Nugsuaks Peninsula and its 
Environs, Greenland” by W. ©. Phalen, the 
remaining pages of the journal being occupied 
by brief descriptions of various activities of 
the institution and their results. 


516 SCIENCE. 


BOTANICAL WORK IN THE PHILIPPINES. 


Srvcr the American occupation a consider- 
able amount of botanical work has been accom- 
plished on the Philippine flora, under the 
auspices of the insular government, and in 
the near future, due to the fact that the ap- 
pointment of an assistant botanist and two 
collectors was authorized by the civil com- 
mission some time ago, the work will be greatly 
increased. 

Shortly after the organization of the For- 
estry Bureau in May, 1900, some botanical 
work was undertaken by Regino Garcia, who 
had been an assistant in the Spanish Forestry 
Bureau. Little work, however, of lasting 
value was accomplished in this office. In 
April, 1902, the Bureau of Agriculture was 
organized, and Elmer D. Merrill was ap- 
pointed botanist. In July, 1902, he was also 
made botanist to the Forestry Bureau, while 
in July, 1903, he was transferred to the Bureau 
of Government Laboratories, when an assist- 
ant and two collectors were authorized. The 
object in transferring the work to the Govern- 
ment Laboratories was to get all work of a 
similar nature into one institution, and or- 
ganize a thoroughly equipped botanical labo- 
ratory. In November, 1903, Dr. E. B. Cope- 
land was appointed assistant botanist, and Mr. 
A. D. E. Elmer one of the collectors, the sec- 
ond collector not having as yet been appointed. 

In the past two years under Mr. Merrill’s 
direction a herbarium, exceeding 8,000 sheets, 
has been formed and for a large part identified, 
a well-equipped botanical library has been es- 
tablished and the following publications have 
been issued: ‘ Botanical Work in the Philip- 
pines, ‘Report on Investigations made in 
Jaya in the Year 1902,’ ‘A Dictionary of the 
Plant Names of the Philippines,’ ‘New or 
Noteworthy Philippine Plants,’ ‘The Amer- 
ican Element in the Philippine Flora.” The 
first article was published as a bulletin from 
the Bureau of Agriculture, the second as a 
bulletin from the Forestry Bureau, and the 
last three as bulletins from the Bureau of 
Government Laboratories. 

At the present time, in addition to the work 
on the Philippine flora being prosecuted under 
the auspices of the Philippine government, 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 482. 


Mr. R. S. Williams is collecting in Luzon for 
the New York Botanical Garden and Dr. H. 
Hallier is collecting in Mindanao for the 
Hamburg Museum. A considerable amount 
of botanical material was secured by various 
employees of the Philippine Exposition Board, 
this material, with the exception of one set 
retained in the herbarium of the Bureau of 
Government Laboratories in Manila, haying 
all been forwarded to St. Louis. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

M. Henrt Brcqurret, professor of physics 
at the Paris Ecole Polytechnique, has been 
elected a correspondent of the Berlin Acad- 
emy of Sciences. 


Tue University of Chicago has celebrated 
this week its fiftieth convocation. It has 
given its LL.D. to five German professors, in- 
eluding Professor Paul Ehrlich, director of 
the Royal Prussian Institute of Experimental 
Therapeutics at Frankfort-on-the-Main. 


Tue Senate of the University of Glasgow 
has resolved to confer its Doctorate of Laws 
on Mr. G. F. Deacon, civil engineer, of Lon- 
don; on Mr. J. H. Muirhead, professor of 
mental and moral philosophy in the Univer- 
sity of Birmingham; on Dr. W. Stirling, 
Brackenbury professor of physiology and his- 
tology at Owens College, University of Man- 
chester, and on Sir William Taylor, M.D., 
director-general of the army medical service. 


THe Turin Academy of Science has 
awarded one half of the Vallauri prize of 
$6,000 to Professor Giovanni Battista Grassi, 
of Rome, in recognition of the value of his 
researches on malaria. 


Dr. Grorce B. Parkin, representing the 
trustees of the will of the late Cecil Rhodes, 
sailed for New York on March 16 to assist 
in the holding of examinations in the United 
States and Canada for the Rhodes scholar- 
ships at Oxford. 


Dr. R. O. E. Davis, instructor in chem- 
istry in the University of North Carolina, 
having been granted a year’s leave of absence, 
sails on April 16 for work in the laboratories 
of Professors Ostwald and van’t Hoff. 


ae 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


Tue daily papers state that on the French 
Line steamship La Savoie, which arrived 
from Hayre on March 19, was a commission 
of men of science to study geology and for 
general scientific research. Professor Googe 
of the High School of Commerce at Geneva; 
Lieut. Bourée of the French navy, Comman- 
der Massari of the Italian navy, M. Richard, 
M. de la Burahaye, Count d’Audiffret-Pas- 
quier, and M. Langlois comprise the commis- 
sion. The officers were granted leave of ab- 
sence to come to this country. 


Proressor H. F. Ossorn has accepted an 
invitation to give an evening lecture before 
the British Association at Cambridge, on 
August 20, and has chosen as his subject ‘ The 
Evolution of the Horse.” He will also lecture 
before the International Zoological Congress 
at Berne, Switzerland. 


Proressor Witper D. Bancrort, of Cornell 
University, lectured before the students of 
seience in the University of North Carolina 
on the evening of February 11 on ‘ Physical 
Chemistry and General Science” On the 
morning of the twelfth he gave a lecture to 
special students in chemistry on ‘ Physical 
Chemistry and the Rare Earths.’ 


Proressor CuHartes S. Hasrines, of the 
Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University, 
lectured at the Woman’s College of Baltimore, 
on March 14. ‘The title of the lecture was 
“A Lost Medieval Art, Professor Hastings 
treating the subject of stained glass from a 
scientific standpoint. A reception by the 
physics department was given after the lec- 
ture. 


Unber the auspices of the Henry Phipps 
Institute for the Prevention of Tuberculosis, 
at Philadelphia, arrangements have been made 
with Dr. C. Maragliano, professor in the Uni- 
versity of Genoa, and senator in the Italian 
parliament, to lecture on March 28, on ‘The 
Serum Treatment for Tuberculosis.’ 


We learn from Nature that a committee 
has been formed with the object of obtaining 
subseriptions for a memorial to the late Pro- 
fessor Nicol, in association with the Univer- 
sity of Aberdeen, in which he taught for 
twenty-five years. The form the memorial 


SCIENCE. 517 


should take has not been decided, but a sug- 
gestion has been made that if a memorial 
brass, similar to those erected to the memory 
of his predecessors, the late Professor Mac- 
gillivray and Nicholson, were provided, and 
placed with them in the University of Aber- 
deen, the ornithologist, stratigraphist and pa- 
leontologist who have brought honor to the 
university would be fittingly remembered in 
association with the scene and center of their 
life work. The secretary and treasurer, to 
whom subscriptions should be sent, is Dr. W. 
Mackie, 13 North Street, Elgin. 


Arruur GREELEY, professor of biology at 
Washington University, St. Louis, died on 
March 15 after an operation for appendicitis. 


Mr. Joun I. Jucr, B.S. (Chicago, 1896), 
professor of psychology and physiology in the 
Milwaukee State Normal School, died at his 
home in Milwaukee on January 7. Among 
his publications are ‘A Syllabus of Human 
Physiology’ (1901), ‘Practical Lessons in 
Human Physiology’ (Maemillan, 1903), and 
“A Comparative Study of Auditory and Vis- 
ual Memory,’ in the ‘ Contributions to Philos- 
ophy’ of the University of Chicago. 


WE regret to record the death of M. F. A. 
Fouqué, of Paris, the well-known French 
geologist and mineralogist, on March 7, in 
his seventy-sixth year. 


THe House of Lords has unanimously 
passed a bill making compulsory the metric 
system in Great Britain on April 5, 1906, or 
at such later date as may be directed by an - 
order in council. 


THe Washington Star states that the For- 
tifications Board of the War Department, 
which has appropriated $50,000 for the aero- 
drome experiments of Secretary S. P. Lang- 
ley, has decided not to make further appro- 
priations for this purpose. 


Tue Russian government has offered a 
prize of about $25,000 for the discovery of 
some method to make alcohol undrinkable. 


Tue fifteenth annual session of the Biolog- 
ical Laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute of 
Arts and Sciences will be held at Cold Spring 


518 SCIENCE. 


Harbor during the coming summer. Regular 
class work will begin on Wednesday, July 6, 
and continue for six weeks. Investigators 
may make arrangements for using the labo- 
ratory from the middle of June until the mid- 
dle of September, or later, if desirous of doing 
so, but board at the laboratory will not be 
guaranteed after August 20. Application for 
admission to the laboratory should be made as 
early as possible, as the earlier applicants 
have the choice of rooms in the dormitories, 
and the number of students receiving instruc- 
tion is limited to 50. The courses of instruc- 
tion offered are as follows: 

High-school Zoology by Professors C. B. Daven- 
port, S. R. Williams and W. M. Wheeler. 

Comparative Anatomy by Professor H. S. 
Pratt and Dr. D. B. Casteel. 

Invertebrate Embryology by Professor H. E. 
Crampton and W. J. Moenkhaus. 

Animal Bionomics and Evolution by Professor 
Davenport. 

Cryptogamic Botany by Professor D. S. Johnson 
and Mr. A. H. Chivers. 

Plant Ecology by Mr. Forrest Shreve, of Johns 
Hopkins University. 

Microscopic Methods by Mrs. Davenport. 
Courses in beginning investigations are of- 
fered, and advanced investigators are offered 
free use of rooms at the laboratory. The 
laboratory fee is $380 and room and board 
are furnished for $6 upward per week. An- 
nouncements and further information may 
be obtained from any of the instructors, or 
from Professor C. B. Davenport, University 
of Chicago. 

THE annual meeting of the Michigan Orni- 
thological Club will be held at the museum 
of the University of Michigan, at Ann Arbor, 
on April 2, 1904, in connection with the meet- 
ings of the Michigan Academy of Science. 

Tuer thirty-eighth meeting of the Eastern 
Association of Physics Teachers was held in 
the Newton High School building on Satur- 
day, March 19. Professor S. W. Stratton, 
director of the Bureau of Standards, Wash- 
ington, D. C., read papers on ‘The Metric 
System’ and on ‘The Equipment of Physical 
Laboratory Workshops.’ 

A CONFERENCE of teachers of mathematics, 
well-attended and representing a large number 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 482. 


of universities, colleges and high schools, was 


held on February 22, 1904, in Columbus, Ohio. — 


This conference decided to form an association 
of Ohio teachers of mathematics and ap- 
pointed committees to arrange for a meeting 
to complete the organization. This meeting 
will be held in Columbus at the Ohio State 
University on April 2, 1904. The conference 
extended an invitation to the teachers of phys- 
ics and chemistry in Ohio to meet in Colum- 
bus with the teachers of mathematics to form 
a similar organization, with the suggestion 
that these several bodies be related in some 
desirable way under the name of ‘The Asso- 
ciation of Ohio Teachers of Mathematics and 
Science.’ 

Tue fifteenth International Medical Con- 
gress will meet at Lisbon April 19-26, 1906. 

We learn from The Geographical Journal 
that a project has lately been set on foot for 
the bringing together into one building of all 
the scientific societies which have their head- 
quarters in Edinburgh, and a meeting of the 
fellows of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 
in support of the proposed scheme was held 
in the society’s rooms on November 26 last, 
the subject being introduced by a speech by 
Sir John Murray. The Royal Society occu- 
pies a portion of the building known as the 
Royal Institution, which it shares at present 
with other public bodies, including the Board 
of Fishery, the School of Art and the Society 
of Antiquaries of Scotland, the whole being 
under the general control of the Board of 
Manufactures. It has long been thought that 
the building should be exclusively devoted to 
scientific purposes, thus, on the one hand, se- 
curing a community of interests on the part 
of all its users, and, on the other, facilitating 
the work of scientific research by the central- 
ization thus afforded and the avoidance of the 
dissipation of energy which is to a certain ex- 
tent the result of the present separation of 
the societies. It is held that, were the whole 
building given up to their use, it would be 
possible to find space for the housing of all 
the several libraries, including those of the 
Scottish Geographical and Meteorological So- 
cieties, besides allotting to each the rooms 
required for other purposes, and leaving the 


Rap OSes 


ern 


itt alien 


Marcu 25, 1904.] 


large central hall available for scientific dem- 
onstrations, lectures and the like. The pro- 
posal found warm support at the meeting 
alluded to, and a resolution in furtherance of 
the above-mentioned aims was unanimously 
adopted. 

Tuer British Medical Journal states that a 
health resort is to be established in Lapland. 
It is proposed to erect a sanatorium on the 
shores of Lake Torne, a long and beautiful 
sheet of water at Wassijauve, near the end 
of the Ofote Railroad. That railroad, it may 
be mentioned, has only one station in a dis- 
tance of 121 miles. There is no human dwell- 
ing near that station, which is on the line 
between Sweden and Norway, and was erected 
solely for the requirements of the Customs 
Office. Except for a small settlement at Was- 
sijauve, the only sign of human existence in 
the district is the occasional passage of a 
few Laplanders with their herds of reindeer. 
Apart from the scenery, the inmates of the 
Aretie sanatorium will have no external ob- 
ject of interest but a scientific station which 
has been erected with the help of private sub- 
scriptions by men of science. The work pur- 
sued at the station includes biological, geolog- 
ical, botanical and entomological, and other 
investigations conducted during the summer, 
and meteorological, magnetic and other obser- 
vations made at all seasons. The station is 
a solidly built block-house containing seven 
rooms, and it is proposed to build the sana- 
torium in the same way. 

THe Scottish Geographical Magazine re- 
ports that the ‘Société Belge d’Astronomie,’ 
has announced a scheme for the publication 
of a monograph on voleanoes. This will con- 
sist of an atlas containing a general map on 
the seale of 1:40,000,000, and ten regional 
maps on the scale of 1:2,000,000, illustrating 
the general distribution of volcanoes, together 
with a notice, detailed descriptive tables and 
block-maps in the text. It is estimated that 
the text and tables together will occupy about 
300 pages, large 8vo. The undertaking will 
be under the charge of M. Elisée Reclus. 
In order that the success of this undertaking 
may be assured, subscriptions are asked for 
in advance. A subscription of 25 francs will 


SCIENCE. 519 


entitle the subscriber to one ordinary copy of 
the atlas, and one of 100 franes to two copies 
printed on special paper and numbered. 
Communications should be addressed to the 
Society at 21 Rue des Chevaliers, Brussels. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Sir Donatp Currm has given £100,000 to 
University College and London University. 
It is intended with this sum to build a school 
of advanced medicine. 


Mr. AnpREW CarNeciE has given $50,000 to 
Kenyon College to endow a professorship of 
economics to be named for Edwin M. Stanton, 
three years a student of Kenyon, who once 
said: “Jf I am anything or have done any- 
thing in the way of usefulness, I owe it to 
Kenyon College.” The gift is said to be due 
to an interview with the late Senator Hanna 
when sick, who himself had given $50,000 to 
Kenyon College for a dormitory just now 
finished. 


Mr. Carnecie has also made a conditional 
gift of $50,000 to Mt. Holyoke College, the 
understanding being that the friends of the 
institution should raise a like amount before 
June 1. No stipulations are made regarding 
the use of the money, but it is said that a 
new library is contemplated. 


Puans have been accepted for the science 
building given to Rochester University by 
Mr. George Eastman, of Rochester, at a cost 
of $60,000, the construction of which will be 
begun during the summer. 


THE new medical laboratories of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania will be dedicated on 
June 11. The laboratories cost $700,000. The 
principal addresses will be delivered by Dr. H. 
P. Bowditch, professor of physiology at the 
Harvard Medical School; Dr. R. H. Chitten- 
den, director of the Sheffield Scientific School, 
Yale University; Dr. George Dock, professor 
of medicine at the University of Michigan, 
and Dr. Horatio C. Wood, professor of 
materia medica and pharmacy at the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania. 

Tr is reported that a plan has been suggested 
to unite the Columbian and American Uni- 
versities of the District of Columbia and the 


520 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 482. 


interests favoring a national university, to laboratory are now in process of erection 


form the nucleus of a great national uni- 
versity at the capital. The trustees of the 
American University, with its endowment of 
$2,000,000 and its tract of ground in the 
northwestern suburbs, have discussed the pro- 
ject. Bishop McCabe, the head of the uni- 
versity, has spoken favorably of the idea. 
President Needham, of the Columbian Uni- 
versity, and a number of the other officers of 
that institution have expressed a willingness 
to meet the officers of the American Univer- 
sity to consider the project. It is probable 
that within the next few months a meeting 
of the different interests will be had. It is 
suggested by friends of the plan that such a 
merger would retain at least one of the strong 
features of each of the chief institutions and 
would give much greater financial strength. 
The plan, however, is chiefly for the establish- 
ment of university post-graduate work. 


At the meeting of the Association of Amer- 
ican Universities held in New Haven on Feb- 
ruary 18-20, the University of Virginia was 
elected to membership in that association. 

THe administrative council of the French 
Association for the Advancement of Science 
has offered to defray the cost of a course on 
physical astronomy at the University of Paris, 
which will be given by M. Pierre Puiseux, 
astronomer of the observatory at Paris. 


Mr. Epwarp M. SHeEparp has been elected 
chairman of the board of trustees of the Col- 
lege of the City of New York, in place of 
Mr. Edward Lauterbach, who resigned to ac- 
cept the position of regent of the University 
of the State of New York. 


Assoctatr Proressor Crartes B. Daven- 
port, of the department of zoology of the 
University of Chicago, has resigned to accept 
the appointment, to which we have already 
called attention, from the Carnegie Institution 
as head of the department of experimental 
biology, which, for the present, is to include 
a marine station on the Tortugas and a 
Laboratory for Experimental Evolution at 
Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island. Professor 
Davenport is to be in immediate charge of the 
latter. The buildings in connection with the 


under the direction of Dr. Davenport, who is 
absent on a vacation during the winter. quar- 
ter. He will spend the spring quarter at the 
university and will then leave to take perma- 
nent charge of the new laboratory. 


Proressor L. V. Pirsson, of the chair of 
physical geology, has been chosen to fill tem- 
porarily the curatorship of the geological col- 
lection of the Peabody Museum, Yale Uni- 
versity, made vacant by the death of Pro- 
fessor C. EH. Beecher. 


Proressor L. H. Bamey, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, will superintend the nature study courses 
in the summer session at the University of 
Tennessee. 


E. V. Huntineron, Ph.D., and J. H. Woods, 
Ph.D., have been appointed instructors at Har- 
vard University in mathematics and philos- 
ophy respectively. 

THE Smith’s prizes at Cambridge Univer- 
sity have been adjudged as follows: E. Cun- 
ningham, B.A., St. John’s College, for his 
essay ‘ On the Normal Series satisfying Linear 
Differential Equations’; J. OC. M. Garnett, 
B.A., Trinity College, for his essay ‘On the 
Cause of Color in Metal Glasses and Metallic 
Films’; H. A. Webb, B.A., Trinity College, 
for his essay ‘On the Expansion of an Arbi- 
trary Function in a Series of Functions’; P. 
W. Wood, B.A., Emmanuel College, for his 
essay ‘On Coyariant Types.’ 


Avr University College, London, Dr. G. 
Dawes Hicks has been appointed to the chair 
of moral philosophy; Dr. E. R. Edwards, lec- 
turer in phonetics for a term of three years; 
Dr. H. Batty Shaw, lecturer in- therapeutics, 
and Mr. Perey Fleming, professor of ophthal- 
mic medicine and surgery, in succession to 
Professor Tweedy, resigned. 


Mr. J. J. E. Durack, B.A. (Sydney), B.A. 
(Research, Cambridge), has been appointed 
demonstrator in natural philosophy at King’s 
College, London. 

M. Fernpacu has been placed temporarily 
in charge of a course in biological chemistry 
at the Sorbonne, Paris, in place of M. Du- 
claux, who has been given leave of absence on 
account of his health. 


or 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. \ 


Fripay, Aprin 1, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


Meeting of Section EH of the American Asso- 
ciation for the Advancement of Science 
and of the Geological Society of America: 


Dr. GEoRGE B. SHATTUCK................ 521 
The Metric System: PRoressor W. Lr ContE 
ISIURIVIENIS Oech eteyerch sts raiovccecsas seem sicacesiave ath atersias 634 


The Australasian Association: P. MARSHALL 537 


"Scientific Books :— 
Mason on Aboriginal Basketry: PROFESSOR 
Livineston .Farranp. Arnold on the 
Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the Ma- 
rine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San Pedro, 
Cal.: PROFESSOR JOHN C. MERRIAM...... 6388 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 641 


Societies and Academies :— 
The American Philosophical Society. The 
American Physical Society: PROFESSOR ER- 
nest Merritt. The Geological Society of 
Washington: AuFRED H. Brooks. The 
Biological Society of Washington: WILFRED 
H. Oseoop. The Philosophical Society of 
Washington: CHARLES K. WeEAD. The 
Northeastern Section of the American 
Chemical Society: ArrHur M. Comry.... 541 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Convocation Week: PROFESSOR WILLIAM 
Norte Ricr. Natural Selection in Kinetic 
Evolution: O. F. Coox. Natwre Study: B. 


Special Articles :— 
Haperiments in Rearing Wild Finches by 
Foster-parént Birds: W. E. D. Scort. 
Notes on Polyodon I.: GEORGE WAGNER... 551 


‘Current Notes on Meteorology :— 
Climate in the Philippines; Conditions of 
Atmosphere during Fogs; Notes: Pro- 


FESSOR) R. DEC. WARD...........2...... 555 
NOG 12HIZD Clee 55 doo doanocon 5 be AoooDeoda 556 
EPHESident HMO bw statis tale «stale oleh stech seleisues « 557 
Scientific Notes and News................. 557 
University and Educational News........... 560 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, @arri- 
son-on-Hnudson, N. Y. 


MEETING OF SECTION H OF THE AMERICAN 
ASSOCIATION FOR THE ADVANCEMENT 
OF SCIENCE AND OF THE GEOLOG— 
ICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 


PAPERS READ BEFORE SECTION E. 
An American Geographers Unon: WM. 

M. Davis. 

There is to-day no geographical society 
in the United States of organization and 
rank similar to those of the Geological So- 
ciety of America. It is believed that the 
advance of geographical science would be 
promoted by the organization of a profes- 
sional society im which only those who have 
published papers based on original obser- 
vation should be eligible to membership. 
A method of beginning the organization of 
such a society is suggested. 


The Concentration of Geographical Publi- 
cations: IgrAnL C. Russeun. (Read by 
title. ) 

The immediate welfare and future devel- 
opment of geographical science demand 
that there shall be a union or concentration 
of the several journals, proceedings, maga- 
zines, etc., now issued by geographical so- 
cieties in North America, and one well- 
written, well-edited, well-illustrated and 
well-printed monthly magazine issued. 
Some of the advantages of such centraliza- 
tion are: 

The convenience of reading or consulting one 
publication instead of many. 

Less expense, as may be judged, of issuing one 
publication in place of several. 

The much less expense to subscribers of one 
publication instead of ten or more as at present. 


The larger audience to be secured by one cen- 
tralized bureau of publication than by any one 


522 


and, as there seems no doubt, all of its component 
bureaus. 

Greater promptness in the publication of re- 
sults in a monthly magazine than in quarterly, 
annual or occasional journals, ete., as is now the 
case in several instances. 

A larger and more important audience to be ad- 
dressed on geographical themes, and hence greater 
inducement for careful preparation and greater 
care in writing. ‘ 

Greater dignity and greater influence of one 
strong publication than of many, several of which 
are weak. 

The employment of one instead of several 
editors, thus saving both time and money. 

Greater revenues to be expected from advertise- 
ments from one widely circulated magazine than 
in the case of several local journals, ete., as at 
present, but few of which derive any assistance 
from this source. 

The greater inducements which one widely cir- 
culated magazine would have in securing contribu- 
tions from distinguished investigators, well-known 
explorers, ete., over a less widely distributed pub- 
lication. 

The probability that the proposed magazine, on 
account of its increased earning power over that 
of the several local publications now issued, would 
be able to pay for leading articles. 


Important also is the fact that the con- 
centration of geographical literature in one 
series of volumes, instead of several inde- 
pendent series as at present, would be con- 
ducive to the saving of time and energy on 
the part of all future generations of geog- 
raphers who may wish to consult the 
writings of their predecessors. In order 
to gain these many and great advantages, 
geographical societies are asked to relin- 
quish some of their purely local interests 
and look for compensation for such losses 
in the wider diffusion of geographical in- 
formation and a more general awakening 
to an interest In geographical work. 


Possiliferous Sandstone Dikes in the Eo- 
cene of Tennessee and Kentucky: Li. C. 
GLENN. 

Fossiliferous sandstone dikes are found 
to occur in basal Hocene clays in Tennessee 
and Kentucky. The dikes have no definite 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 483. 
orientation. They vary in width from 
mere stringers to masses several feet in 
width. The fossils are casts and are of 
Eocene aspect. The sands filling the fis- 
sures are micaceous and are regarded as 
derived from certain Hocene sands inter- 
bedded with the clays. There is no definite 
evidence as to their mode of origin, but as 
the region has recently suffered repeated 


‘earthquake shocks, 1t seems probable that 


it has similarly suffered in the past and 
that the fissures are of earthquake origin. 


The Fauna of the Potter Creek Cave: W. 
J: Stncuair. Presented by J. C. Mer- 
riam. (Illustrated with lantern slides.) 
The Potter Creek cave contains fossil re- 

mains representing a Quaternary fauna 
which has heretofore been very imperfectly 
known. Recent explorations in this and 
adjacent caves have brought to light over 
fifty species of mammals and birds. Of 
this number many forms are new. The 
paper treats of the occurrence of the re- 
mains and the general relationship of the 
fauna. 


Evidence of Recent Differential Movement 
along the New England Coast: Guo. 
CarroLu Curtis. (Read by title.) 
Evidence of change of level of the land 

in respect to the sea in recent geologic time 

has been noted by Shaler, De Geer, Stone 
and Willis... Davis has described a coastal 
plain of recent origin in the vicinity of 

Portland. Tarr and Woodworth lately re- 

port shore lines on Cape Anne up to eighty 

feet. A range of earlier shore margins 
from a few feet above tide im Boston Bay 
to 1,300 feet or more on Mount Desert has 
thus been recorded. Detail study within 
this zone, however, indicates that these 
movements have not been continuous. On 

Monhegan Island, ten miles off the middle 

coast of Maine, there are strongly marked 

shore lines 160 feet above present sea level, 
with an amount of wave work in the hard 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


gabbro rock 40 feet above the present limits 
of waves, approximating that done at the 
sea margin of to-day. Glacial drift has 
apparently been largely removed through 
wave action. On the lower Matinicus 
Group, which les some twenty miles to the 
eastward, banks of what seems to be glacial 
drift are now being rapidly eut away by 
the sea. Had these two groups of islands 
taken part in the same movements permit- 
ting the strong bench cutting in the hard 
rocks of Monhegan, the preservation of the 
yielding till has yet to be explained. A 
suggestion from this evidence is that the 
recent movements have not been continuous 
throughout the region. 


The Two Classes of Topographic Relief: 
GrorGE CARROLL CurTIS. (Read by 
title.) : 
During the last few years there has been 

both in this country and in Europe discus- 

sion in regard to the ‘proper method’ for 
representing the surface of the earth in 
relief. Some of this discussion has been, 
it appears, over two distinet kinds of work 
under a single classification. These two 
classes, though not yet generally designated 
by separate terms, are labeled here as 
Classes I. and II. 


CLASS TI. 


Requisites of Class I. 

A miniature or replica of the earth’s surface. 

A characteristic reproduction of the topographic 
form. 

As to scale; true. 

Detail of form; in same proportion as general 
scale. 

Color; consistent with natural laws. 

Culture; indicated by the forms which char- 
acterize it. 

CLASS IL. 

Attributes of Class II. 

An expression of a map in relief. 

An arbitrary representation of the topographic 
form. 

As to scale; optional. 

Detail of form; according to choice. 

Color; any desired scheme or pattern. 


SCIENCE. 523 


Culture; indicated by any method or arbitrary 
sign which may seem desirable. 
While these requirements and attributes 
cover but a portion of the subject, they 
may serve to illustrate the principles un- 
derlying it. Should Class I. be designated 
as topographic models and Class II. as re- 
lief maps (or by any more appropriate 
names) Class I. would inelude poor ‘models’ 
and Class IJ. good ‘relief maps.’ A poor 
‘model’ would be one which, while attempt- 
ing to follow the principles governing its 
elass, does so im an unskillful and imex- 
pressive manner. The requirements of a 
good ‘relief map’ are more difficult to state 
since, being of empirical character, based 
upon standards of choice, the style of relief 
maps may be subject to changes of fashion. . 
It seems reasonable, however, to assume 
that the most satisfactory work in Class II. 
will eventually be based on a thorough un- 
derstanding of the principles governing 
Class I. 


PAPERS READ BEFORE THE GEOLOGICAL 
SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 
Observations on the Geography and Geol- 

ogy of Western Mexico: Outver C. 

Farrineton. (Illustrated by lantern 

shies. ) 

This paper describes a journey from 
Durango westward to Ventanas across the 
plateau of the western Sierra Madre. The 
plateau exhibits a comparatively unbroken 
surface rising gradually from a height of 
6,000 feet at Durango to about 9,000 feet 
farther west. It then slopes toward the 
Pacifie and is deeply dissected by streams. 
Evidence is adduced to show a rather rapid 
eastward movement of the divide. The re- 
gion is for the most part comparatively arid, 
although on the western edge of the plateau 
extensive forests occur. The rocks are 
largely eruptive. The Carro Mereado or 
‘Iron Mountain’ is deseribed in some detail 
and its origin-diseussed, as is also an area 


524 SCIENCE. 


of remarkable forms, produced by erosion, 
known as the ‘City of Rocks.’ 


New Studies in the Ammonoosac District 
of New Hampshire: C. WH. Hrrencock. 
For several years the author has been in- 

vestigating the geology of the only part of 
New Hampshire which yields fossils, hoping 
to be able to interpret the mutual relations 
of the several formations as revealed by 
paleontology and a better understanding of 
the petrography. The fossils have been 
renamed by Mr. Schuchert. (1) The rock 
masses in this district formerly referred 
to; porphyritic gneiss, lake gneiss, Bethle- 
hem gneiss, protogene, diorite and horn- 
blendites are now regarded as igneous in- 
stead of metamorphic stratified terranes. 
(2) The fossils belong to the middle upper 
Silurian. (3) The rocks of Blueberry 
Mountain exhibit the synclinal structure— 
consisting in the upward order of lime- 
stones, argillite, conglomerate and black 
argillites. Only the limestones contain 
fossils. (4) Different ranges of argillite 
having somewhat diverse petrographical 
character are now esteemed to be equivalent 
—the variations being supposed to have 
been occasioned by a greater or less meta- 
morphie action. (5) Careful scrutiny of 
the slates reveals both a cleavage different 
from the stratification, and a structure 
analogous to stratification produced by a 
multitude of minute fractures. (6) The 
areal distribution’ and stratigraphy of the 
‘auriferous conglomerate’ suggests its iden- 
tity with the “Coos quartzite’—a forma- 
tion traceable southerly into Massachusetts 
down the Connecticut valley. (7) The 
numerous fractures in this conglomerate 
indicate that the whole region is but a 
mosaic of faulted fragments. (8) This 
better understanding of the Ammonoosae 
rocks can not fail to improve our interpre- 
tations of the ages of the adjacent ecrystal- 
line groups in northern New England. 


Studies in the Western Finger Lake Re- 
gion: CHarLes R. Dryzr. (Illustrated 
with lantern slides.) 

The region discussed lies in western New 
York, between Canandaigua Lake and the 
Genesee River. ‘The northward slope of 
the Allegheny plateau is here trenched by 
deep, narrow valleys, four of which con- 
tain small lakes, while a fifth is lakeless. 
These valleys are similar in general char- 
acter to those of the larger Finger lakes, 
but bear peculiar relations to one another 
and to the east-west Cohocton valley. In 
several cases the head of a minor valley 
opens broadly into the side of a major 
valley but a few hundred feet above its 
floor, thus sustaining the relations of a 
headward hangine valley. These are 
thought to furnish eriteria for estimating 
the amount of differential deepening by 
ice erosion. The main valley heads are 
blocked by massive terminal moraines and 
overwash plains. The steep valley slopes 
are broken by rock terraces which support 
well-developed marginal moraines. Pitted 
or morainal deltas indicate the existence of 
high-level marginal lakes. Transverse 
passes and high-level longitudinal valleys 
are choked for many miles with morainal 
‘deposits terminating in an overwash plain. 
Some of the principal ridges present drum- 
linoid profile, while their lateral slopes were 
ereatly oversteepened. The phenomena 
indicate that during the late Wisconsin 
period the region was occupied by a com- 
plex system of distributary and intercept- 
ing ige streams, to which the present depths: 
and sharpness of the valleys are chiefly due. 


Note on the Geology of the Hellgate Valley 
between Missoula and Elliston, and 
Northward to Placid Lake, in Montana: 
N. H. WincHELL. (Read by title.) 

This paper gives an account of the gen- 
eral stratigraphy extending from the oldest 
sediments (Algonkian) to the Cretaceous 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 483. 


PO ng Peet NIE HOY Rake RARE 


Apri 1, 1904.] 


and an approximate estimate of the thick- 
ness of the various formations. The region 
is marked by many faults and close folds, 
the axes mainly running northwest and 
southeast. The author makes a provisional 
identification of the Algonkian formations 
deseribed further north by Willis, viz., the 
Kaintla argillite, the Sheppard quartzite 
and the Siyeh limestone. 
stone formation of the region, usually re- 
garded as mcluding the Carboniferous, is 
believed to extend downward so as to em- 
brace the Devonian and the Trenton of the 
Lower Silurian. The Jura-Trias, as iden- 
tified, contains a coal bed that promises to 
be of economic importance. The igneous 
phenomena are numerous and diversified, 
consisting of surface lava sheets, volcanic 
eraters and voleanic ash, as well as dikes 
of gabbro, diabase, quartz-porphyry and 
eranite. The oldest rocks constitute the 
highest relief of the country, the Cretaceous 
strata having been less disturbed, though 
the Cretaceous is probably older than the 
epoch of the principal voleanic action. One 
of the most important statements of the 
paper is to the effect that there seems to 
have been a practically continuous sedi- 
mentation from the Algonkian to the close 
of the great (Carboniferous) limestone. 


A Fossil Water Fungus in Petrified Wood 
from Egypt: Aupxis A. JULIEN. (Read 
by title.) 

A description is given of a specimen of 
silicified wood from a ‘petrified forest’ near 
Cairo, and the mode of distribution of the 
fungus throughout the ducts. An inter- 
esting association of crystals of hematite 
and of pseudomorphs after gypsum and 
halite occurs, which testifies to the earlier 
conditions of petrification. The organic 
forms have been preserved in remarkable 
perfection and abundance. These are 
successively deseribed, comprising discoid 
spores, an articulated macromycelium, ma- 


SCIENCE. 


The great lime-: 


525 


erosporanges enclosing sporules, micromy- 
celium bearing three forms of stalked cells, 
and large ovate capsules carrying the 
spores first described, a continuous series 
which apparently represents the life his- 
tory of the new organism. Its generic re- 
lationships and genetic local history are 
then discussed, with a review of various 
theories of the process of silicification. 


The Development and Relationships of the 
Rugosa (Tetracoralla): J. HK. DUERDEN. 
(Illustrated by lantern slides. Read by 
title. ) 

The paper gives (1) a brief historical 
account of the various theories which have 
been held with regard to the nature and 
relationships of the extinct Rugosa or 
Tetracoralla; (2) the conclusions of the 
author from the examinations of a large 
number, of species in the light of more re- 
cent results on living corals. The present 
investigation has been carried on mainly 
by the method of grinding down of indi- 
vidual coralla, each successive stage in the 
erowth being drawn as it appeared. In 
this way the complete development and re- 
lationships of the septa have been estab- 
lished. In every instance where the perfect 
tip has been preserved a cycle of six septa 
is found to occur, thus demonstrating the 
primary hexameral relationships of the 
Rugosa as contrasted with the tetrameral 
usually assumed. The subsequent septa 
appear in only four of the six primary 
chambers and in a manner differing alto- 
gether from that in modern corals. The 
conclusions reached are that the Rugosa 
must remain a distinct group of corals, re- 
lated in their early stage to modern corals 
and actinians, but later developing in an 
altogether characteristic manner. Of mod- 
ern forms they are most closely allied to 
the zoanthid actinians, which are without 
any true skeleton; in these the addition of 
the mesenteries takes place in a manner 


eomparable with that of the septa in the 
extinet forms, though proceeding in only 
two of the six primary chambers. 


The Sudbury Nickel-bearing Eruptwe: 

A. P. COLEMAN. 

Field work carried on for two summers 
for the Bureau of Mines of Ontario has 
proved that the eruptive rock accompanied 
by nickel ores in the Sudbury District has 
a continuous outcrop enclosing an oval area 
forty miles by’ sixteen in extent, and dip- 
ping inwards on all sides. It is in reality 
a sheet of rock from one to three miles 
thick forming a boat-shaped basin, but 
having an eruptive contact with the rocks 
both above and below. Its outer, lower 
edge consists of norite and is much more 
basic than the inner, upper edge, which is 
a micropegmatite consisting mainly of alka- 
line feldspars and quartz. The nickel ore 
bodies are found arranged along the basic, 
outer edge or on irregular dike-like exten- 
sions of the norite which may reach six 
miles from the main body of the eruptive. 
One mine contains several million tons of 
ore. Most of-the ore appears to have sep- 
arated by gravitation from the still molten 
eruptive, but part has been deposited by 
eirculating waters. 


The Widespread Occurrence of Fayalite in 
Certain Igneous Rocks of Wisconsin: 
SamMuEL WEIDMAN. 

In the central part of Wisconsin, within 
the area of pre-Cambrian rocks, is a large 
variety and abundance of igneous rock 
which intrudes a much older sedimentary 
series, and, in turn, lies beneath a later 
sedimentary series. These igneous rocks 
may be divided into three series; the oldest 
bemg rhyolite; the next, diorite, gabbro 
and peridotite; the latest, granite, quartz- 
syenite, nepheline, sodalite, and xgerite- 
syenites, and related rocks. In the last- 
mentioned series fayalite occurs as a per- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 483. 


sistent, though minor, constituent. Anal- 
ysis of the fayalite is given. Also analyses 
of the rock varieties are given, showing a 
remarkably low content of magnesia, which 
does not increase as the content of silica in 
the series decreases. The alteration of the 
fayalite is to magnetic iron oxide. A brief 
account of the general occurrence of fayal- 
ite in other places is given. The various 
principal types of rock from Wisconsin, 
containing fayalite, with thin sections and 
photo-micrographs, are exhibited. 


Structural Relations of the Gramtes of 
North Carolina: THomMaAs Lmonarp WAT- 
son. (Read by title.) 

Describes the occurrence, distribution 
and petrography of the North Carolina 
eranites, with special reference to their 
structural and age relations. The numer- 
ous dikes of basic igneous rocks penetrating 
the erystallines of the Carolina Piedmont 
Plateau region are discussed in their rela- 
tions to the jointed structure of the en- 
closing rocks, especially the granites. 


Field Work im the Wisconsin Lead and 

Zine District: U. S. GRANT. 

During the summer of 1903 the Wiscon- 
sin Geological and Natural History Survey 
did some detailed mapping of selected areas 
in the southwestern portion of the state, 
which is part of the Upper Mississippi 
Valley lead and zine district. In this field 
work the topographic and geologic map- 
pimgs were carried on part passu by the 
same individuals; the field sheets prepared 
were on the scale of eight inches to the 
mile, with ten-foot contour interval, and in 
publication the scale is to be reduced one 
half. While maps of this scale and detail 
will be valuable in themselves, it is hoped 
that they will give important results in 
working out the details of the relations of 
the ore bodies to the structure of the dis- 
trict. 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


Molybdenite at Crown Point, Wash.: A. 


R. Croox. (dilustrated with lantern 
Views. ) 
This locality furnishes the largest 


amount of molybdenite in the country. 
Twelve tons were produced in 1902. Min- 
eral is found in fourteen different associa- 
tions. 


Recent Studies in the Physiography of the 
Ozark Region in Missourt: C. F. Mar- 
But. (Illustrated with lantern slides.) 
Field work in the Ozark region during 

the past summer has demonstrated the ex- 

istence of a peneplain lying at a lower level 
than that of the so-called Cretaceous pene- 
plain of the same region. It is probably 
the same feature as the one described lo- 
cally in Barry and Stone counties by 

Hershey in 1895. This paper describes its 

character in the south-central part of the 

Ozark region. 


The Physiography and Glaciation of the 
Western Tian Shan Mountains, Turke- 
stan: W. M. Davis and E. HUNTINGTON. 
The existing ranges of the Tian Shan 

Mountains in central Turkestan result 
from the elevation and greater or less dis- 
section of a more ancient mountain system 
that had been previously subdued or worn 
down to small relief over a large area. The 
elevation of the old-mountain region was 
accomplished in part with moderate de- 
formation, in part with strong block-fault- 
ing. Local glaciation in several successive 
epochs is clearly recognized. 


A System of Keeping the Records of a 
State Geological Survey: H. R. BuckuEy. 
Two classes of inquiries are received by 

a state geological survey, viz., (1) The min- 

eral resources of a particular section of 

land and (2) the occurrence of a certain 
resource in a particular county. To an- 
swer these inquiries requires the collection 
and storing of a vast amount of informa- 


SCIENCE. 


527 


tion. The collecting of this information is 
eradually carried on by the usual field 
work of the survey and correspondence. 
The storing of this information in such a 
manner as to make it easily accessible is 
brought about by an adoption of the card 
catalogue system. A location case and a 
subject case are provided in whieh all data 
relating to the mineral resources of the 
state are recorded. 


The Tectonic Geography of Southwestern 
New England and Southeastern New 
York: Wi.t1AmM Hereert Hopes. (Il- 
lustrated with lantern slides. ) 

The paper discusses the important ele- 
ments in the architecture of the earth’s 
crust within the province designated, as a 
result of extensive surveys made for the 
U. S. Geological Survey. A number of 
‘key areas’ were selected having regard 
both to the intricacy of their structure and 
to their distribution within the province, 
and studied with much detail. The struc- 
tural elements characteristic of the indi- 
vidual areas were then compared and their 
relationship to the broader structural lines 
of the province as a whole considered. So 
far as possible the essential facts were set 
forth by means of maps projected upon 
the screen. 


The Lineaments of the Eastern United 
States: Wiuu1AmM Herbert Hoses.  (II- 
lustrated with lantern slides.) 

This paper is an extension of the investi- 
gation upon the teetonie geography of por- 
tions of New England and vicinity, with a 
view to determining whether structures 
found to characterize that province are 
common to the larger regions as well. The 
materials of the study have been the topo- 
eraphie maps of this region and the pub- 
lished works of other geologists, the meth- 
ods of examination and the point of view 
being, however, new. 


528 


A Pre-glacial Peneplain in the Driftless 

Area: U.S. Grant and H. F. Barn. 

In southwestern Wisconsin and adjacent 
portions of Illinois and Iowa is a well-de- 
veloped peneplain cutting across part of 
the Maquoketa shales, the whole of the 
Galena, Trenton, St. Peter and Lower 
Magnesian, and terminating to the north in 
a sharp scarp developed in the soft Pots- 
dam sandstone. It rises gradually to the 
north. Above it are the so-called ‘mounds’ 
capped with Niagara limestone and form- 
ing monadnocks left in the dissection of an 
older peneplain. Below it the streams 
have cut valleys with sides of simple con- 
tinuous slope. The valleys are arranged in 
normal dendritic fashion. Streams head- 
ing outside the area show terraces of gla- 
cial-derived material and their tributaries 


show commonly a low terrace developed by 


silting up of slack water. The peneplain 
represents the last great period of base- 
leveling before the oncoming of the gla- 
ciers. It was followed by one of sharp 
downward stream-cutting which continued 
apparently with but slight interruption 
through the Pleistocene to the present. 
Possible correlation of the peneplain with 
a similar one of Tertiary age in southern 
Illinois is discussed. 


The New Cone of Mont Pelé and Other 
New Features of the Mountain: E. O. 
Hovey. 

Some Striking Erosion Phenomena Ob- 
served on the Islands of St. Vincent and 
Martinique in 1908: EB. O. Hovey. 

The two papers announced in the above 
titles are essentially an exhibition of lan- 
tern slides illustrating facts brought out in 
recent publications. 


The Grand Soufriére of Guadaloupe: EB. O. 
Hovey. 
This paper emphasizes by means of lan- 
tern views the idea that this cone has been 


SCIENCE, 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 483. 


formed in the same way as that of Mont 
Pelé. 


Domes and Dome Structure in the High 
Sierra: G. K. Giepert. (Illustrated with 
lantern views. ) 

In many dome-like granite hills the rock 
is divided into plates by curved joints ap- 
proximately parallel to the surface. Some 
observers call the structure exfoliation, 
others regard it as an original structure of 
the granite. Under one view the surface 
forms determine the structure; under the 
other the structure determines the surface 
forms. A study of the High Sierra of 
California in the summer of 1903 has led 
the author to accept the former view, and 
to believe that the forms of the parting 
planes are conditioned by the forms of the 


‘topography. As to the cause of the phe- 


nomenon, the following hypothesis is ad- 
vanced: Formed deep within crust, the 
granite was initially subject to compressive 
stress, which was balanced by internal ex- 
pansive stress. As the unloading involved 
in subsequent denudation reduced the com- 
pressive stress, the unbalanced expansive 
stress caused strains which eventually re- 
sulted in exfoliation. 


The Trent River System and the St. Law- 
rence Outlet: AurreED W. G. Wuison. 
(Read by title.) 

The St. Lawrence River in the vicinity 
of the Thousand Islands crosses the Fron- 
tenae¢ axis, a narrow neck of Archean rocks 
which connects the Adirondack region with 
the greater Archean areas of Canada. 
West of this axis, the country which lies 
to the north and east of Lake Ontario is 
underlain by flat-lying, Ordovician rocks, 
chiefly Trenton limestones. The drift cover 
of the area is very thin, averaging perhaps 
two feet in depth, while the relief has an 
average measure of at least one hundred 
and fifty feet. There are numerous areas 
where the bed-rock exposures are very ex- 


Aprin 1, 1904.] 


tensive. In its present attitude the region 
is traversed by a number of southwest-flow- 
ing streams, running in broad, deep, rock- 
sided valleys. These valleys are older than 
the ice sheet which made the grooves on the 
bed-rock, and there is internal evidence to 
show that the amount of glacial erosion 
within the area has been very slight. The 
maturity of form, and the adjustments of 
these valleys, where they are not submerged 
beneath the waters of the present lake or 
obseured by morainic deposits, are regarded 
as indicating that they were eroded by the 
preglacial predecessors of the streams 
which flowin them. The form and adjust- 
ments of the valleys of the partly sub- 
merged portions of the limestone areas, 
particularly the Bay of Quinte and the 
present St. Lawrence outlet, suggest that 
these also are similar to those unsubmerged 
valleys which can be more readily and 
easily studied. It is concluded that these 
rock-sided valleys formed part of a now 
dismembered river system whose original 
general direction of flow was southwest; 
that the Trent River system occupies parts 
of no less than twenty of the tributary 
valleys of this system; and that the present 
St. Lawrence outlet from Lake Ontario, 
west of the Frontenac axis, consists of a 
complex of three of these ancient valleys 
in which the water is now flowing in a con- 
trary direction to that in which it was flow- 
ing when the valleys were carved. 


Postglacial Changes of Attitude in the 
Italian and Swiss Lakes: Frank Burs- 
LEY Tayvuor. (Read by title.) 

In the summer of 1894 the writer spent 
two weeks in exploring the shores of the 
lakes of northern Italy for evidences of 
change in the relative attitude of the lakes 
and the land. On Lakes Maggiore and 
Como no certain evidence of wave action 
was found above present lake level. But 
a study of the old deltas of the numerous 


SCIENCE. 529 


torrents which descend from the mountains 
shows that the lakes formerly stood in dif- 
ferent attitudes, with reference to the land, 
from those in which they stand to-day; and 
Lake Maggiore stood at a slightly higher 
level. The old deltas are fragmentary, but 
their, form and structure show the former 
lake level with approximate accuracy. 
Since the change of attitude the streams 
have cut down to the present level and 
some of the larger torrents have well- 
formed valley terraces connecting with 
their old deltas and standing high above 
their modern floods. In the northern part 
of Lake Maggiore fine examples may be 
seen at Macagno on the east side and at 
Conobbio on the west. The valley terrace 
back of Conobbio is a well-marked feature. 
At Arona and Meina near the south end, 
the old lake level was nearly 20 feet above 
the present level, and it rises gradually to 
50 or 55 feet near Locarno at the extreme 
north. The Ticino River below Lake Mag- 
giore seems to have cut down the morainic 
barrier, nearly 20 feet since the change of 
attitude. On Lake Como the old lake level 
at Cernobbio on the west side near the 
south end appears to be about the same as 
the present level and rises northward to 
30 or 35 feet at Gravedona. On lake 
Garda, along the western side of the south- 
ern part, a small but well-defined wave-cut 
beach was found descending from the east- 
ern end of the peninsula southeast of Salo, 
where it is about 15 feet above the present 
lake level, very nearly to the present level 
at Desenzano. It is also well shown on the 
outer end of the peninsula near Sermione 
and on Isola di 8. Biagio and other small 
islands. The east side of the expanded 
portion of the lake was not explored. In 
the narrower northern part there are deltas 
near. Riva lke those of Lake Maggiore, and 
a few also along the eastern side. These 
seem to indicate a former lake level at the 
north end 30 or 35 feet higher than the 


530 


present. Thus, on each of the three lakes 
there are remains of an old lake surface 
which rises in a northerly direction about 
one foot per mile as compared with the 
modern surface. Lake Geneva in Switzer- 
land was also studied for the same evi- 
dences. Sandy deposits apparently mark- 
ing an old beach were found at Lausanne 
12 to 14 feet above the present lake level. 
The paper then discusses briefly the signifi- 
cance of these facts and of similar facts in 
other parts of the world. 


The Basin of the Po River: Grorce L. 

Couuiz. (Read by title.) 

The paper is the result of field work done 
on the Po plain in the spring of 1903. The 
basin of the Po was an arm of the sea dur- 
ing the Miocene; a portion of the time 
probably a strait connecting the Adriatic 
with the Mediterranean, through the pres- 
ent Col d’Altare. The sea was gradually 
crowded out by the encroachment of sedi- 
ments, brought in from the Alps to the 
north and from the Apennines to the south. 
Sediments from Alpine sources are coarse ; 
from Apennine sources, fine. The total 
area of the basin is 27,000 square miles, of 
which 16,000 square miles are mountainous 
and 11,000 square miles belongs to the 
plain of the Po. Borings in the plain show 
that it is composed of a series of approxi- 
mately horizontal sands, clays and marsh 
deposits, the last including lignitiferous 
clays. The sands contain marine shells, 
the clays carry land shells. The whole 
succession indicates alternation of marine, 
fresh-water and land conditions. The 
thickness of the deposits ranges from 572 to 
695 feet. There is little fine alluvium in 
the upper Po, the river flowing over coarse 
deposits; but below the Sisera River allu- 
vium of a fine type is common. The upper 
Po is everywhere crowded close to the 


northern spur of the Apennines, forced’ 


over apparently by the large and heavily 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 483. 


laden tributaries from the Alps. In times 
of flood the river carries an immense 
amount of debris, estimated to be one three- 
hundredth of its volume. In spite of this 
heavy load, the river is not aggrading its 
bed to an appreciable extent. This non- 
aggradation is due in large measure to the 
lake system of northern Italy, which drains 
into the Po and supplies it with four tenths 
of its water content. During periods of 
high water in the fall and spring, the sedi- 
ment-laden streams from the Alps bring 
their load to the Po and deposit it. The 
lakes, however, being basins of reception, 
not only take out the sediments from the 
drainage, but also store the water and sup- 
ply it more gradually than do the lakeless 
streams. Lago di Garda, in time of great 
rainfall, scarcely changes its level; the 
small lakes, such as Como or Maggiore, 
show great changes of level within a few 
hours, but, on the whole, they all tend to 
restrain the water. The result is that after 
the debris-laden streams have deposited 
their sediments in the Po and temporarily 
raised its bed, later there comes a volume 
of comparatively clear water which re- 
moves the previous accumulations, and an 
equilibrium is maintained on the whole. 
The Po is thoroughly diked from Cremona 
to the marshes of the delta. It is cus- 
tomary to place the froldo or main dikes 
at some distance from the river, thus allow- 
ing the river to overflow the intermediate 
flood plain or golene for some distance be- 
fore reaching the dikes. The golene are 
frequently covered with willows and thick 
underbrush and the velocity of the current 
is greatly reduced thereby and there is 
little active erosion upon the dike itself. 
The dikes are continually being extended ; 
the extension of dikes accounts in a meas- 
ure for the rapid extension of the delta in 
modern times. Between 1200 and 1600 
A. D. the delta advanced on the average 
about 70 feet annually; for the Jast few 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


decades, its advance has been at the rate 
of about 200 feet annually. The flood 
plain deposits of the upper Po are cross 
bedded and very irregular; the beds are 
chiefly cobbles, coarse gravel and pebbles; 
occasionally wedges of sand are thrust in, 
the latter of limited extent. The beds show 
great variations in size of materials; there 
are sudden changes from coarse to fine 
eravel, and vice versa. The beds are not 
continuous over wide areas; generally there 
is a change in composition and texture 
every few rods. 
loeal deposits of silt and clay, stratified as 
a rule, which cover a few acres. One of 
these deposits in the environs of Turin 
covers forty acres. On the lower Po the 
flood plain deposits are much finer in tex- 
ture and show more regular arrangement 
than those quoted above. Much of the 
material is silty clay and fine sand. Lam- 
inated structure is common, the thin lam- 
ine extending for several hundred feet, but 
invariably replaced sooner or later by sedi- 
ments of different texture or composition. 
When long sections are exposed so that 
they can be seen ensemble, it is noticeable 
that the beds undulate. Strictly speaking, 
there is no horizontality of beds, but rather 
a slow rise and fall. Long, flat augen of 
sand are the apparent cause of this ar- 
rangement. These fiat lenses occur fre- 
quently, the finer sediments wrap them 
about, and the bedding of the latter is made 
to show corresponding undulations. The 
degree of undulation is determined by the 
thickness and leneth of the sand lenses. 


Nantucket Shore Lines, II.: F. P. Gut- 
Liver. (Illustrated with lantern views. ) 
During the past year the writer has con- 

tinued his studies of the recent changes in 

the shore lines of the island of Nantucket, 
and the results of such study are given in 
this paper. Details of changes are pre- 
sented in the following areas: Great Point, 


SCIENCE. 


Occasionally there are’ 


531 


Coskata, Haulover Break, Surfside, Mad- 
daket, Smith Poimt, Brant Point, Nan- 
tucket Harbor and Coatue. Original plane 
table surveys are given of Miacomet fore- 
land, at Surfside, where sand has been 
built out some 1,500 feet in the last forty 
years in one of the most exposed portions 
of the island, while extensive cutting back 
has taken place both east and west of this 
foreland; and also of Smith Pond, where 
the shore line is rapidly moving to the 
north. Since the break was made in the 
tombolo at the head of the harbor connect- 
ing Coskata Island with the eastern end of 
Nantucket, in the winter of 1896-7, at the 
point where the fishermen formerly hauled 
their boats over the sand, there have been 
many changes in the shore lines. The facts 
in regard to these changes have been col- 
lected from government surveys and many 
private sources, and a series of outline 
maps prepared. 


The New Geology under the New Hypoth- 
esis of Earth Origin: Herman L. Fatr- 
CHILD. 

A theoretical discussion of the geologic 
bearings of the planetessimal hypothesis. 
A brief comparison is made between the 
two conceptions of earth genesis, and it is 
shown how the nebular hypothesis has 
failed to explain phenomena and has been 
a hindrance to the progress of geologic 
science. Some of the topics discussed are, 
origin of the atmosphere, origin of the 
ocean, voleanic phenomena, source of hy- 
drocarbons, geologic climates, diastrophic 
movements, life on the earth. 


The Humboldt Region; a Study in Basin 
Range Structure: G. D. LoupERBAcK. 
Glacial Erosion in the Finger Lake Region, 

New York: M. R. Camppenn. (Read by 

title. ) 

The Finger Lake region of New York is 
an ideal field for the study of the effect of 
glacial erosion, presenting as it does simple 


532 


geologic conditions free from complicated 
structure and possessing fairly well-marked 
topographic forms from which its physio- 
eraphic history may be interpreted. The 
present paper is the result of an effort to 
make a systematic study of the physio- 
eraphic features of this part of the state, 
and it is based largely upon a careful study 
of the contoured topographic maps that 
have been assembled and reproduced here 
for the first time. The author has ap- 
proached the question free from any bias 
regarding the ability of glaciers to accom- 
plish extensive erosion, and has dealt with 
the problem entirely from the physio- 
eraphie standpoint; an effort was made 
first to account for the present topography 
largely through the simple process of sub- 
aerial erosion, but this failed to explain the 
peculiar features of the region. The con- 
clusion arrived at is that ice was the prin- 
cipal agent in not only giving the finishing 
touches to the present topography, but in 
the extensive erosion which has ‘reduced 
this portion of the state from an altitude 
of approximately 2,000 feet to that of 800 
or 1,000 feet above sea level, and that has 
produced the great topographic embayment 
of the Finger Lake region. 


Euidences of Slight Glacial Erosion im 
Western New York: 1. L. Farrcuinp. 


Waning of the Glaciers of the Alps: H. L. 

FAIRCHILD. 

Lantern views from photographs taken 
during the past summer illustrating the 
decrease of the Alpine glaciers within re- 
cent years. 


The Carboniferous of the Appalachian 
Basin; Part If., the Pottsville: J. J. 
STEVENSON. (Read by title.) 


Notes on the Deposition of the Appalachian 
Pottsville: Davin WHITE. 
General view of the thickness and pres- 
ent distribution of the main divisions of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 483. 


the Pottsville sediments in the Appalachian 
trough. Extent and duration of the basal 
uniformity as indicated by fossil plants. 
Suggestions as to conditions of deposition 
of the several divisions. 


The Benton Formation in Hastern South 
Dakota: J. HE. Topp. 


Further Studies of Ozark Stratigraphy: 

C. F. Marsut. 

During the past summer the reconnois- 
sance mapping of the formations of the 
Ozark Series was extended over the south- 
central counties of the state. The paper 
will describe the character and distribution 
of the various formations, and discuss 
briefly the evidence on which the correla- 
tion is based. 


The Iroquois Beach in Ontario: A. P. 

CoLEMAN. 

The detailed mapping of the Iroquois 
Beach in Ontario was begun in 1898 and 
practically completed im 1902, but publica- 
tion was delayed in hopes of extending the 
work northeast from Havelock, the last 
point at which the beach could be found. 
As it can be traced no farther, it is prob- 
able that the shore to the east and north 
consisted of ice. The highest point reached 
is 498 feet above Ontario or 744 feet above 
the sea. Northeast of Colborn it is split 
up into several beaches, in one case the 
highest being 80 feet above the lowest; but 
southwest to Hamilton the beach is prac- 
tically a unit, and the same is true on the 
south shore to Niagara River. There is 
evidence of the splitting up of the water 
levels at Toronto and Hamilton in the 
form of old surfaces of erosion, soils with 
trees, and remains of mammoth, ete., at 
levels from 30 to 80 feet below the gravel 
bars representing the latest Iroquois lake 
levels. It is believed that the evidence ob- 
tained proves that the Iroquois water was 
a-lake with an ice barrier to the northeast, 
and not an arm of the sea. 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


Evidence of the Agency of Water im the 
Distribution of the Loess in the Missourt 
Valley: GrorGE FREDERICK WRIGHT. 
The paper is the result of field work con- 

ducted during the past year in the vicinity 

of the Missouri between St. Joseph and St. 

Louis. The direct evidence of the agency 

of water in distributing the loess is found: 

(1) in the relations of the loess to the 

main valleys of the Missouri and its larger 

tributaries; (2) the existence of distinet 
lamine, at a height of 180 feet above the 
river at St. Joseph, which are very clearly 
of water origin; (3) the new light shed 
upon the glacial occupation of the region 
by the discovery of northern drift on the 
south side of the Missouri River forty 
miles beyond the boundary which has here- 
tofore been assigned to it; (4) considera- 
tions which show the doubtful character of 
the conclusions drawn from the fossil 
shells found in the loess; (5) calculations 
showing the reasonableness of the supposi- 
tion that at the close of the lowan stage 
of the glacial period there were periodical 
floods each summer sufficient to cover the 
whole region occupied by the great body of 
the loess, and the presentation of a theory 
that would seem to harmonize all the facts. 


The Loess at St. Joseph. (Illustrated by 
lantern slides.) Read by Professor G. 
Frederick Wright for Luella Agnes 
Owen. 

Exposures of undisturbed loess in cuts 
at a variety of elevations are described. 
Several of the highest are distinctly strati- 
fied and the horizontal strata, in places, 
regularly banded with iron stain. Fossil 
snail shells of the two forms common to the 
loess are abundantly distributed through- 
out these high-level laminations. The iron 
bands can be accounted for by aqueous 
deposition, but the eolian theory does not 
so readily offer a solution of their presence 
and regularity. Objection to the glacial 


SCIENCE. 


533 


origin of loess has depended largely for 
support on the absence of an adequate bar- 
rier on the south and west to have retained 
a body of water of sufficient depth for the 
deposition of the higher portions of the 
bluffs. Such a barrier, however, can be 
shown to have existed and to still remain, 
by giving attention to the elevations of the 
tributary water-sheds in those directions 
and to the known conditions during the 
flood period in May of 1903. Authority 
is quoted to the effect that snails can not 
be identified by the shells alone, as the same 
kind may be common to forms of radically 
different organization; and the shell, there- 
fore, is entirely subordinate to differences 
in structure of the animal. If this is true, 
the xolian theory suffers the loss of its best 
support. 


Fresh-water Shells in the Loess: B. SHi- 

MBE. 

1. A review of the available literature in 
which reference is made to the occurrence 
of fresh-water shells in the American loess, 
with a discussion of the significance and 
weight of such testimony, showing that 
as yet no well-authenticated cases of the 
occurrence of fluviatile shells, at least in 
original loess, are known. 

2. A statement of the author’s own ex- 
perience in the study of loess mollusks, 
which shows that land shells greatly pre- 
dominate, and that only such fresh-water 
forms as inhabit temporary small ponds 
and streamlets occur in the loess, and these 
in relatively small numbers. 


Comparison of the Stratigraphy of Black 
Hills, Big Horn Mountains, and Rocky 
Mountains, Front Range: N. H. Darton. 
(Read by title.) 

Grorce B. SHATTUCK, 
Secretary. 
JouNs Hopkins UNIVERSITY. 


534 


THE METRIC SYSTEM. 

Tn the current issue of Scrance (March 
4) Mr. Alfred C. Lane has presented some 
useful hints with a view to facilitating the 
popular adoption of the metric system in 
America. His chief points are the adop- 
tion of the metric ton as the standard of 
mass, the definition of the standard pint 
as the volume of a half-kilogram of water 
under standard conditions, and the defini- 
tion of the foot as the length of the edge 
of a cube whose capacity is 62.5 pints. 
This last definition is said, in an appended 
note, to be not essential to the scheme. 

In any system of metrology the unit of 
length is that to which all other units are 
finally referred, unless these are so arbi- 
trary as to preclude the use of the word 
‘system.’ The essentials of any desirable 
system are simplicity and consistency. An 
ideal system is that developed a century ago 
in France and now employed by all scien- 
tific workers, but not yet popular with the 
masses in Hnelish-speaking countries. The 
problem of conferring popularity upon it 
is one that will require many years yet for, 
its solution. 

Whatever may be the form taken by 
legislation in England and the United 
States, the people can not be compelled to 
adopt nomenclature that is thrust upon 
them as a substitute for that to which they 
have always been accustomed. The nomen- 
clature must be simple in order to secure 
adoption; it must be at least fairly in 
harmony with old customs in order to win 
favor. For many centuries past the foot 
has been by far the most popular unit of 
leneth, though the range of variation in 
its value has been 165 per cent. of the 
smallest magnitude to which the name was 
applied. In like manner the pound has 
been the popular unit of weight, with as 
many as 235 variations in value. The use 
of these names in different languages is 
popularly maintained, even in countries, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 483. 


like France and Germany, where the metric 
system is legally established. 

If the metric system is ever, to become 
popular in the United States it must be 
through the medium of such legislation as 
will give us its substance with as little as 
possible of its nomenclature. Its essential 
features are: 

1. A decimal relation between all the 
units employed. 

2. A direct and simple relation between 
units of length and mass. 

In view of the strong influence of old 
customs we can not expect a new system 
to be inaugurated that is exclusively deci- 
mal. If the people are accustomed to 
binary or duodecimal subdivision they will 
hold to it in spite of legislation. All of us 
are disposed to do what we find easiest. 
Nor is there much reason to expect that all 
units of length and mass will be discarded 
except those connected by the simplest re- 
lation. Ideas may differ as to what is 
simplest, and in any ease there will be a 
survival of what the populace finds fittest, 
irrespective of the prescriptions of theory. 
The introduction of the metric system can 
be accomplished only by some sort of com- 
promise, through which old names may be 
retained while the values of the correspond- 
ing magnitudes are slightly modified for 
the sake of simplicity. 

Everybody understands that by a process 
of selection the once chaotic British system 
has been becoming simpler. Many units 
that were in use a half century ago are now 
obsolete, though the inconvenient relation 
between those still surviving is bad enough 
and incapable of much improvement. By 
still further excision, by adoption of a few 
names and values from the metric system, 
and by such modification in existing values 
as will produce no great inconvenience, we 
may quite reasonably hope for such prac- 
tical adoption of a decimal system as to 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


satisfy all the demands of international 
commerce. 

It should be remembered that by act of 
congress, April 5, 1893, the international 
standard meter and kilogram were adopted 
as the standards of length and mass, re- 
spectively, for the United States. The yard 
and the pound are now legally defined as 
merely definite fractions of the meter and 
the kilogram. The following outline of an 
American system of metrology has occurred 
to me as perhaps capable of adoption. 
Some, if not all, of its features must have 
occurred to many of the advocates of 
metric reform. 

1. Let the length of the yard be changed 
by legal enactment so as to coincide with 
that of the standard meter. 

2. Let the foot be defined as the fourth 
part, instead of the third, of a yard. Let it 
be divided into ten instead of twelve inches. 
The length of the inch will thus be changed 
by less than two per cent. 

3. Let the pound be defined legally as 
one half of a kilogram. 

4, Let the quart be defined legally as the 
volume of a kilogram of water under the 
usual standard conditions. The quart and 
the liter become thus identified. 

5. Let the ton be defined as 1,000 kilo- 
grams. The American and metric tons are 
thus identified. 

6. Let the pint, gallon, peck and bushel 
be retained as secondary units, each being 
defined in terms of the quart. 

The latter part of this scheme, it will be 
observed, is identical with a part of that 
proposed by Mr. Lane, but the first part 
differs quite radically from his. The fol- 
lowing tabulation constitutes a summary 
for measures of length, mass and capacity, 
respectively. 


UNITS OF LENGTH, 


imeter=1 yard =100 centimeters =1,000 millimeters. 
Linch =1/40 yard= 2.5 0G = us 
1foot =10inches= 25 ‘ 


SCIENCE. 


535 


UNITS OF MASS. 
1 kilogram = 1,000 grams. 


lpound = ¥&kilogram = 500 grams. 
1ton = 1,600 kilograms = 2,000 pounds. 
UNITS OF CAPACITY. 

lliter = 1 quart =volume of 1 kilogram of water. 
ipint =% “ = « “J pound GG. <6 
lgallon= 4quarts= “ “ 8pounds ‘ “ 
lpeck =8 “ = “* “ 46 “ im de 
i bushel=32 = « 64 a ee 


This table includes about all of the units 
needed for most of our measurement. 
Units of area and volume need no defini- 
tion. For land measure the mile as unit 
of leneth and the acre as unit of area will 
probably last many years yet. ‘They have 
no place in international commerce, the 
needs of which constitute the most impor- 
tant ground for changing the units hitherto 
in use. No mere theoretic consideration 
will be apt to influence legislation. 

The scheme just outlined presents the 
advantages of both the decimal and the 
binary systems of subdivision. In prac- 
tise halves and quarters are much the most 
important of the binary subdivisions. In 
our decimal system of American money the 
only sudivisions of the dollar that now sur- 
vive are the half, quarter, tenth, twentieth 
and hundredth; though eighths and six- 
teenths seem to have been once coined, and 
were found more confusing than useful. 
The division of the foot mto tenths rather 
than twelfths is in accordance with custom 
now well established among engineers and 
surveyors. The binary subdivision of the 
inch may be retained as long as found use- 
ful, while the centimeter will be divided 
into both halves and tenths. 

Tt will be noticed that while some of the 
secondary British units are retained, espe- 
cially those with binary relation to the 
primary unit, the ounce, dram, penny- 
weight, scruple and grain are all discarded. 
There has been but little use for these out- 
side of the pharmacy and the mint. The 
retail dealer uses halves and quarters of a 
pound. All educated pharmacists to-day 


536 


have learned the metric system. They 
need no weights but the gram with its deci- 
mal multiples and divisions. The ounce 
ought long ago to have been abolished or 
defined as a definite fraction of the avoir- 
dupois pound alone. Its abolition is much 
preferable to its retention. 

An obvious advantage of dividing the 
foot into 10 inches is that a cubic foot be- 
comes 1,000 instead of 1,728 cubic inches. 
The weight of the cubie foot of water be- 
comes 31.25 pounds according to the sug- 
gested definition of the pound. The reduc- 
tion in length to 10 inches, furthermore, 
makes it coincide very closely with the 
length of the average masculine foot, while 
12 inches is more than twenty per cent. too 
long. 

The suggested length of the inch is be- 
tween one per cent. and two per cent. less 
than that of the present inch. Small as 
this change may be, it constitutes the most 
serious of all the changes suggested. The 
practical standard of length in the United 
States has been, not the yard or foot, but 
the inch. In the construction and use of 
all machinery inches and fractions of an 
inch are the units of measurement. If a 
serew-thread has been cut in accordance 
with a gauge based on the inch, a change 
of two per cent. in the inch would render 


such a serew worthless for the same 
machine. The mechanical engineers and 
machine manufacturers will, therefore, 


continue to be the most determined enemies 
of metric reform. Should legislation be 
adopted involving a change of standards, a 
generous allowance of time ought to be pro- 
vided, within which the machinists may 
adapt new instruments to the new stand- 
ards. Few, if any, machines can be ex- 
pected to continue available more than ten 
years. Such a period of erace would, per- 
haps, be as much as could be reasonably 
demanded. 

The pound equal to half a kilogram is 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XTX, No. 483. 


about one tenth greater than the avoirdu- 
pois pound. It is identical with the Ger- 
man pfund and the French livre. Its 
adoption by England and the United States 
would make the pound a definite unit 
readily understood throughout most of the 
eivilized world. It is now indefinite. 
Assigning the qualifier ‘metric’ to the 
proposed units to distinguish them from 
the old ones now in use ‘in the United 
States, their mutual relations are approxi- 
mately shown in the following table: 


1 metric yard =1.0936 old yard. 


1 ‘ foot =0.8202 ‘ foot. 

JS) intehy == 0'9842<5 sinchr 

1 ‘* pound = 1.1023 ‘‘ pound. 

ap kt ton = 0.9845 ‘* long ton. 

1 ‘“ quart =1.0567 ‘‘ wine quart. 
1 ‘“ pint =1.0567 ‘* wine pint. 
1 ‘* gallon = 1.0567 ‘‘ wine gallon. 
1 “ peck +=0.9081 ‘‘ peck. 

il 


«bushel = 0.9081 ‘* bushel. 


Tt is, of course, understood that the pro- 
poser of any change whatever in the units 
to which the American public is accus- 
tomed will be adversely criticized, particu- 
larly by the mechanical engineers and the 
manufacturers of machine tools. Such 
eriticism can be borne with equanimity 
if the compromise scheme just outlined 
should lead to the practical adoption of 
the metric standards and the decimal 
system of weights and measures, with a 
reasonable combination of the binary sys- 
tem with it. The decimal system of coin- 
age a century ago was regarded by some 
eritics as visionary, but it has stood the 
test of time. 


_ W. LeCoNTE STEVENS. 
WASHINGTON AND LEE UNIVERSITY. 


THE AUSTRALASIAN ASSOCIATION, 
Tue biennial meeting of the Australasian 
Association for the Advancement of Sci- 
ence was held this year at Dunedin, New 
Zealand. There was a large attendance of 
members from all the Australasian colonies 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


and the efforts of the general secretary, 
Mr. G. M. Thomson and his committee re- 
sulted in a highly successful gathering. 
The arrangements were satisfactory to the 
visitors, who were well entertaimed by the 
resident members and other citizens. 

The generous action of the New Zealand 
government in granting free railway passes 
to all visitme members was probably in 
part responsible for the large attendance. 

The address of the president, Professor 
T. W. Edgeworth David, was delivered on 
Wednesday, January 6, and the meeting 
was not concluded until January 13. In 
his address the president reviewed before 
a large audience the general advance of all 
branches of science in southern lands. He 
strongly encouraged those who are at pres- 
ent engaged in scientific work to redouble 
their efforts and pleaded that the minds of 
the young might be so traimed in the col- 
onial schools that they may be capable and 
eager to take up research work in their 
turn. 

On the following day the members were 
divided into the following sections: A, 
Astronomy, Mathematics and Physics; B, 
Chemistry; C, Geology; D, Biology; EH, 
xeography; F, Anthropology; G1, Social 
Science; G2, Agriculture; H, Architecture 
and Mining; I, Sanitary Science; J, Mental 
Science and Hducation. 

The president’s address in Section A was 
an able summary of some recent advances 
in the theory of the ionization of gases. 
Professor Brogy, of Adelaide, dealt with 
his subject in such a manner as to keep 
his large audience thoroughly interested 
throughout. On the followimg day an in- 
teresting discussion took place on tidal ob- 
servation and it was pointed out that New 
Zealand oceupied a very favorable position 
for such observations. Many other papers 
were contributed, including one from Pro- 
fessor Rutherford, of Montreal, on the 
heating effect of radium emanations. 


SCIENCE. 


537 


In Section B the president, Mr. Hender- 
son, gave an address on ‘Chemistry and 
Food,’ dealing particularly with the adul- 
teration most frequently found in ordinary 
food substances. Amongst the papers was 
an interesting research on the acids con- 
tamed in the resins of some of the New 
Zealand conifers by Professor Hasterfield. 

Mr. Twelvetrees in his presidential ad- 
dress to Section C dealt with ‘Some As- 
pects of Modern Petrology.’ The present 
confused state of petrological classification 
was particularly discussed and the presi- 
dent stated that though all systems hitherto 
proposed had glaring defects he could not 
believe that the new classification lately 
proposed in America would be the one 
finally adopted. Mr. Andrews described 
some of the glacial features of southern 
New Zealand, dealing with them in the 
manner so ably initiated by Professor 
Davis. Dr. Marshall read a paper on 
some of the highly interesting alkaline 
rocks near Dunedin. Some committees’ 
reports were read on ‘Glacial Phenomena 
in Australasia’ and important structural 
features in Australasia and on the possi- 
bility of a uniform system of nomenclature 
in petrology. In the last there were as 
many divergent views as members. 

In Section D the president dealt with 
the avifauna of Australasia, Polynesia and 
Austro-Malaya. Amongst many interest- 
ing papers were Dr. Chilton’s on ‘Subter- 
ranean Crustacea of New Zealand’; Dr. 
Fulton’s on the habits of the long-tailed 
euckoo and Mr. Steads’s studies of New 
Zealand bird life. The nesting habits of 
these were dealt with in many beautiful 
photographs. 

Anthropology in Section H opened with 
an address by Professor Baldwin Spencer 
on ‘Totemism in the Central Australasian 
Tribes.’ This was listened to with marked 
attention even by members who were not 
otherwise specially interested in anthro- 


538 SCIENCE. 


pology. Other papers were read on Maori 
folk-lore and studies on various southern 
languages. 

‘The Influence of the Southern Ocean 
on Australasian Climates’ was the presi- 
dential address of Professor Gregory in 
the geography section. The effect of 
oceanic circulation upon weather condi- 
tions and the occurrence of weather cycles 
were the two points most strongly insisted 
on. Mr. Bowen gave a highly interesting 
account of the work of the Discovery in 
the South Seas, illustrating his remarks by 
lantern slides prepared from photographs 
taken by the expedition. 

Agriculture in Section G2 dealt with 
highly practical matters. The president, 
Mr. Cato, chose for his subject ‘Pomology.’ 
Mr. Gilruth read an important paper on 
“The Effect of Injection of Non-pathogenic 
Cultures with Virulent Ones of Anthrax.’ 
He showed that the anthrax was under cer- 
tain conditions rendered quite innocuous 
by this means. 

In the architectural section the presi- 
dent, Mr. Deane, dealt with ‘Day Laborers 
on Government Works.’ This attracted 
much attention because of the many in- 
stances of colonial governments doing their 
own contracting. 

In the sanitary science section Dr. Tids- 
well, in dealing with the hygienic action of 
borie acid, spoke strongly of the deleterious 
effect that this acid has even when used in 
small quantities as a preservative of dairy 
produce. 

The education section was the best at- 
tended and a larger number of papers was 
presented to it than to any other section. 
The discussions evoked in many cases were 
animated. The president dealt with ele- 
mentary education in Queensland, and 
there were papers on the teaching of mod- 
ern languages, mathematics, geography, 
ete., and the discussions will probably do 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 483. 


much towards the adoption of modern edu- 
cational methods in Australasia. 

Besides the formal meetings of members 
the association had provided numerous ex- 
cursions to the many points of scenic or 
scientific interest in the neighborhood of 
Dunedin. The botanists were much inter- 
ested in the abundance of the endemic New 
Zealand flora still to be found near the 
town. The geologists viewed and collected 
from the outcrops of the rare and peculiar 
alkaline rocks that occur in the Otago 
Peninsula in such profusion. 

Several of the leading citizens of the 
town entertained the visitors by drives into 
the country and at afternoon parties at 
their residences and enabled the workers 
im various branches of science to meet im 
social intercourse. 

P. MarsHALL. 

Oraco UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS, 

Aboriginal American Basketry: Studies in a 
Textile Art Without Machinery. By Ors 
Turron Mason. From the Report of the U. 
S. National Museum for 1902, pp. 171-548, 
with 248 plates. Washington, 1904. 

A number of influences have been operating 
for ten years or more to arouse an interest, 
both scientific and popular, in the basketry of 
the American Indians. Our museums have 
sent their representatives far and wide in the 
search for types, and the competition of pri- 
vate collectors has resulted in a species. of 
basket hysteria which shows no particular 
signs of abating. This interest, however 
aroused, is widespread and real and has at 
last found fitting expression in the sumptuous 
memoir on the subject which has just ap- 
peared from the pen of Otis T. Mason. Pro- 
fessor Mason has long ranked as the leading 
American authority on primitive industries 
and technique and there was no one so well 
equipped as he to undertake the task of col- 
lecting and reviewing the results of the scat- 
tered studies which have recently been ac- 
cumulating at a rapid rate. He has acquitted 
himself admirably. 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


Primitive basketry is of interest chiefly 
from two aspects, namely, method of manu- 
facture and decoration. Both phases are con- 
sidered in the present work and are naturally 
given the lion’s share of attention, but noth- 
ing which has to do with the subject in hand 
seems to le outside the scope of the book. 
From the mental attitude of the woman who 
weaves to the use to which her product is 
put, all is fish to the genial author’s net. 

Professor Mason’s general point of view is 
geographical and wisely so. There is no other 
method which would permit a survey of the 
disparate phases of his subject without hope- 
less confusion. His classification, avowedly 
arbitrary and determined by the available 
material, is: 

1. Eastern region: Canada, Hastern States, 
Southern States, Western States. 

2, Alaskan region: Interior Alaska, Arctic 
Alaska, Aleutian Chain, Southeastern Alaska, 
Queen Charlotte Islands. ; 

3. Fraser-Columbia region: Fraser drain- 
age, Columbia drainage. 

4, Oregon-California region: Southern Ore- 
gon, California. 

5. Interior Basin region: Southern Oregon, 
California. 

6. Middle and South American region: 
Mexico, Central America, eastern and western 
South America. 

Varieties of basketry, materials used (in- 
cluding a botanical list by Mr. F. V. Coville), 
methods of manufacture, methods of ornamen- 
tation, symbolism, uses of basketry, distribu- 
tion of types, collectors and collections, and 
bibliography are all treated in successive chap- 
ters and supplemented by a superb series of 
248 plates, many of which are reproduced in 
color. The result is a monograph incom- 
parably the best in the field and one destined 
to stand as a high authority for years to come. 

It would be too much to expect a work of 
such compass to be equally good at all points 
and it must be admitted that some of the 
chapters are much more satisfactory than 
others. The author disarms criticism to a 
great extent, however, by his very frank 
recognition of certain shortcomings. 

As indicated above, the two points of chief 


SCIENCE. 


539 


interest are technique and ornament. In his 
chapters on methods of manufacture and dis- 
tribution of \types the author is at his best- 
They are both notable contributions to our 
knowledge. His descriptions of technique 
are so clear and accompanied by such a pro- 
fusion of illustrations of stitches and weaves 
that little is left to be said. Similarly with 
the distribution of types. This is a matter 
of great ethnological significance and its 
treatment is thoroughly good. Museums and 
private collectors far and wide have been 
drawn upon for material, and the result is an 
exhaustive mass of information for which all 
ethnologists will be devoutly thankful. 

With the sections on ornamentation and 
symbolism the author reaches his difficulties. 
These problems have been attracting atten- 
tion for years. The development of geometric 
patterns from- pictorial designs has long been 
recognized, and from the nature of the ma- 
terials this geometric ornamentation reaches 
its greatest complexity in basketry. The 
main problem has shifted of late from that 
of how far geometric patterns have arisen 
from realistic designs to that of how far 
meanings are read into designs already con- 
ventional. That this latter is a widespread 
tendency is certain. Designs and types of 
designs are borrowed and borrowed widely 
and the symbolic significance of these same 
patterns on foreign soil is quite as rich as 
though totally different from that obtaining 
in the groups of their origin. Culture and 
temperament determine the meaning even if 
not the form. 

The extent of this process is the present 
problem at issue and a necessary preliminary 
to its solution is an extensive study of the 
local distribution of types of patterns with- 
out regard to their interpretation. The trac- 
ing of pattern elements, say from California, 
northward through the Shahaptian to other 
stocks north and east would yield much. 
Such a research has never been made, and 
although he recognizes its necessity, Professor 
Mason does little more than touch upon it.. 
It is greatly to be deplored that one so well 
fitted did not accomplish for ornament what 
he has done for technique, but the author’s 


540 SCIENCE. 


explicit avowal that his primary concern 
is with the practical and not the esthetic 
stifles complaint while it leaves regret. Fortu- 
nately the splendid series of plates affords 
material for a study of this character which 
has never before been available to any one 
to whom our large museums are inaccessible. 
Filled as they are with descriptive detail, 
Professor Mason’s pages do not lend them- 
selves to quotation in a notice of this char- 
acter. The scope of his work has been in- 
dicated. Suffice it to say that it is a big 
book and a good book and we are grateful. 
Livineston FArranp. 
CoLtuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


The Paleontology and Stratigraphy of the 
Marine Pliocene and Pleistocene of San 
Pedro, Oalifornia. By RaupH ArRNoLp. 
Memoirs of the California Academy of 
Sciences, Vol. III., pp. 420, pls. 37, 4to. 
This memoir is the most important con- 

tribution to the invertebrate paleontology of 

the west American Cenozoic that has appeared 
since the publication of Gabb’s ‘ Paleontology 
of the California Survey.’ The author has 
worked yery carefully over both the stratig- 
taphy and the paleontology of the marine 
Pliocene and Pleistocene of California, ob- 
taining more satisfactory results than have 
been reached by previous workers in paleon- 
tology. The field and laboratory work upon 
which the paper is based occupied the author 
for a large part of his time during nearly six 
years and every problem which presented itself 
has been carefully worked out to the minutest 
details. The paper was prepared at Stanford 

University, where the work was carried on 

under the able supervision of Professor James 

Perrin Smith. 

The memoir is divided into two main diyi- 
sions: Part I., a general discussion of the 
stratigraphy, faunal succession and faunal 
geography; Part II., a purely zoological dis- 
cussion of the numerous forms represented in 
the faunas. Over four hundred species of 
invertebrates were obtained and this large 
number gives more than ordinary weight to 
the conclusions drawn by the writer. 

The Pleistocene formations occurring at 


San Pedro have been designated by Dr. 
Arnold as the San Pedro series. This is 
divided into an upper and a lower division, 
which are separated by an unconformity. The 
fauna of the lower San Pedro includes 247 
species, of which 12.5 per cent. are extinct. 
Of this number 64 per cent. of the species are 
now living at San Pedro, 17.4 per cent. are 
living only north of San Pedro, 3.2 per cent. 
only south of San Pedro. The conclusion is 
drawn that this is a cold-water fauna. The 
upper San Pedro fauna includes 252 species, 
of which 9.5 per cent. of the species are ex- 
tinet. Of this number 68.2 per cent. are now 
living at San Pedro, 6.1 per cent. only north 
of San Pedro, 14.2 per cent. only south of 
San Pedro. The fauna of the upper San 
Pedro series more nearly resembles that found 
living on the Pacific Coast two or three hun- 
dred miles south of San Pedro. In other 
words, this is a warm-water fauna. 

In addition to a careful discussion of the 
extensive series of species described from San 
Pedro, the author has studied a large number 
of other Pleistocene localities on the coast of 
California and has presented a valuable cor- 
relation table. 

The author makes an interesting compari- 
son of the faunas of the Californian and 
Japanese coasts in Pleistocene time, and has 
brought out the fact that the relationship 
was much closer then than it is now. As the 
lower San Pedro fauna of California is boreal, 
it is to be supposed that the northern fauna 
would also push down the Asiatic coast. In 
addition to this, the presence of a broad sub- 
marine shelf would make possible the inter- 
change of species. 

In Part Il. of his paper Dr. Arnold has 
deseribed many new and important species. 
He has made an equally important contribu- 
tion in the redeseription and figuring of a 
large number of species which have never been 
satisfactorily described or figured. This por- 
tion of the memoir will be of almost as much 
value to students of recent and Tertiary 
faunas as it will be to those who interest 
themselves in the life of the Quaternary. 

The author and the editorial staff of the 
California Academy are to be congratulated 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 48%. 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


on the very satisfactory form in which the 
memoir appears. The arrangement of the 
material, the typography and the character 
of the illustrations are all worthy of favorable 
comment. Joun C. Merriam. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


TE contents of the April number of the 
American Journal of Mathematics are as fol- 
lows: 

Henry Lewis Rietrz: 
of Odd Order.’ 

A. N. Wuirennap: 
Numbers.’ 

T. J. ’a Bromwicw: ‘The Caustic, by Reflec- 
tion, of a Circle.’ 

Harry Watpo KuuN: 
stitution Groups.’ 


‘On Primitive Groups 


“Theorems on Cardinal 


“On Imprimitive Sub- 


Tue American Journal of Psychology for 
January contains the following articles: 

W. P. Montacurn: ‘A Theory of Time-Percep- 
tion.’ 

BENJAMIN 
Tests.’ 

HK, B. Tircuener: ‘Some New Apparatus.’ 

I. M. Bentiey and E. B. Tircnenrr: ‘ Ebbing- 
haus’ Explanation of Beats.’ 

C. SpEARMAN: ‘The Proof and Measurement of 
Association Between Two Things.’ 

I. M. Brentiey: ‘ Professor Cattell’s Statistics 
of American Psychologists.’ 


Ricwarps AwnprRews: ‘ Auditory 


Tue first number of the Journal of Com- ° 


parative Neurology and Psychology as re- 
cently reorganized appears in March with con- 
tents as follows: ‘The Relation of the Motor 
Endings on the Muscle of the Frog to Neigh- 
boring Structures,’ by John Gordon Wilson. 
A description with illustrations of the motor 
nerve endings with special reference to the 
ultra-terminal fibrils and the relation of the 
ending to the sarcolemma. ‘Space Percep- 
tion of Tortoises,’ by Robert M. Yerkes. A 
quantitative study of the amount of hesitation 
exhibited by different species of tortoises be- 
fore crawling over the edge of an elevated 
board and correlation of these data with the 
natural habits of the species studied. ‘A 
Note on the Significance of the Form and 
Contents of the Nucleus in the Spinal 
Ganglion Cells of the Fetal Rat,’ by Shinki- 
shi Hatai. A cytological examination of de- 


SCIENCE. 


54] 


veloping spinal ganglion cells to determine 
the functional significance of the centrosome, 
aster and Nissl granules and their relations 
to the nucleus, illustrated by two plates. ‘An 
Hstablishment of Association in Hermit 
Crabs, by E. G. Spaulding. A demonstra- 
tion that the hermit crab is capable of pro- 
fiting relatively rapidly by experience. Edi- 
torials, a summary of the neurological papers 
read at the mid-winter meetings and reviews 
complete the number. 


Tue March number of the Botanical Ga- 
zette contains a contribution from John F. 
Garber on ‘The Life History of Ricciocarpus 
natans, the investigation having resulted in 
a very complete morphological study, to which 
are appended biological data derived chiefly 
from observation of the plant in the field dur- 
ing one season and from experimental work 
in the laboratory.—Mabel I. Merriman pub- 
lishes the results of her long study of ‘ Vege- 
tative cell division in Allium, this being one 
of the few complete studies of karyokinesis in 
vegetative cells of plants—John Donnell 
Smith publishes his twenty-fifth paper en- 
titled ‘Undeseribed plants from Guatemala 
and other Central American republics.’— 
Charles Thom describes Oraterellus taxophilus 
as a new pecies of Thelephoracer.—J. M. 
Greenman publishes notes on the indigenous 
Centaureas of North America, describing one 
new species.—W. J. Beal makes another con- 
tribution to the vitality of seeds. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE AMERICAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

Tne general meeting of the society will be 
held on April 7, 8 and 9, in the hall of the 
society in Independence Square (104 South 
Fifth Street), Philadelphia. 

Morning sessions, 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. 
Afternoon sessions, 2 to 4:30. Luncheon will 
be served in the rooms of the society from one 
to two o’clock. A reception will be given to 
the members and the ladies accompanying 
them at the Free Museum of Science and Art 
of the University of Pennsylvania on Thurs- 
day evening, April 7. The visiting members 
will be the guests of the resident members of 


542 


the society at dinner on Friday evening, April 
8. The University Club, 1510 Walnut Street, 
extends the courtesies of its house to the visit- 
ing members during their stay in Philadel- 
phia. 

The preliminary program is as follows: 

Dr. Cuartes ConrAp Aspsort, of Trenton, N. J.: 
*On the Occurrence of Artifacts Beneath a De- 
posit of Clay.’ 

Dr. CHARLES Conrap Apport, of Trenton, N. J.: 
‘On the Breeding Habits of the Spade Foot Toad 
(Scaphiopus solitarius) - 

Proressor L. H. Bartny, of Ithaca, N. Y.: 
‘Summary of the Recent Movements to Teach 
Agriculture in the Schools.’ 

Proressor Cart Barus, of Providence, R. I.: 
* Atmospheric Nucleation.’ 

Dr. Franz Boas, of New York: ‘ The Horizontal 
Plane of the Skull’ 

Dr. ARISTIDES Brezina, of Vienna: 
Collecting of Meteorites.’ 

Proressor WILLIAM KerrrH Brooks, of Balti- 
more: ‘ Doliolum and Scalpa’ 

ProressoR Wittiam W. CAMPBELL, of Mt. 
Hamilton, Cal.: ‘On the Spectra and General 
Nature of Temporary Stars’ (with lantern slide 
illustrations) . 

Proressor Epwin GRANT CONKLIN, of Phila- 

_delphia: ‘The Organization of the Germ Cells 
and Its Bearings on Evolution.’ 

Proressor Cuartes Li. DooLirrye, 
delphia: ‘The Reflex Zenith Tube.’ 

Mr. Ertc Doorirrin, of Philadelphia: ‘ Faint 
Double Stars.’ 

Dr. CHartes B. DupiEy, of Altoona, Pa.: ‘A 
System of Passenger Car Ventilation.’ 

Prorressor JoHN B. Harcuer, of Pittsburg, 
Pa.: ‘An Attempt to Correlate the Marine with 
the Fresh and Brackish Water Mesozoic Forma- 
tions of the Middle West.’ 

Proressor Paut Haupt, of Baltimore: ‘ Biblical 
Pessimism.’ 

Proressor ANGELO Hrrmprin, of Philadelphia: 
“Pompeii and Saint Pierre: an Examination of 
the Plinian Narration, and Other Studies’ (with 
lantern slide illustrations) . 

Proressor WATERMAN T. Hewett, of Ithaca, 
N. Y.: ‘The Use of the Relative Pronouns in 
Standard English Writers.’ 


*On the 


of Phila- 


WALDEMAR JOCHELSON, of New York: ‘The 
Yukaghis Language.’ 
Prorrssor H. F. Kerrier, of Philadelphia: 


‘Dimethyl Racemie Acid, Its Synthesis and De- 
rivatives.’ 


SCIENCE. — 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 483. 


PROFESSOR HeENRY Kramer, of Philadelphia: 
“The Origin and Nature of Color in Plants.’ 

PRoressor Preston A. LAmBert, of Bethlehem, 
Pa.: ‘The Expansion of Algebraic Functions at 
Singular Points.’ 

Proressor Marton D. Learnep, of Philadel- 
phia: ‘Results of the American Ethnographical 
Survey.’ 

Proressor LeRoy W. McCay, of Princeton: 
“Trisulphoxyarsenic Acid.’ 

PROFESSOR JOHN MarsHatt, of Philadelphia: 
“The Constituents of the Venom of the Rattle- 
snake.’ 

Prorressor Oris T. Mason, of Washington: 
‘The Ripening of Thoughts in Common.’ 

Dr. CHartes A. Otiver, of Philadelphia: 
‘Regulation of Color-Signals in Marine and Naval 
Service.’ 

Proressor A. H. Puinrips, of Princeton, N, J.: 
‘Radium from American Ores.’ 

ProFessor ALBERT B. Prescort, of Ann Arbor, 
Mich.: ‘The Role of Carbon.’ 

Proressor THEODORE W. RicHarps, of Cam- 
bridge, Mass.: ‘Sources of Error in the Deter- 
mination of the Atomic Weight of Nitrogen.’ 

Proressor Ferix E. ScHEeLiine, of Philadel- 
phia: ‘The Pedigree of Elizabethan Drama.’ 

ProFessor WiLt1amM B. Scorr, of Princeton, 
N. J.: ‘The Miocene Rodentia of Patagonia.’ 

Professor Epear F. Smirw and Mr. F. F. 
Exner, of Philadelphia: ‘The Atomic Weight of 
Tungsten.’ 

Mr. GiLperT VAN INGEN: ‘The Silurian Fauna 
of Arkansas.’ 

Mr. JosepH WHARTON, of Philadelphia: ‘ Pal- 
ladium,’ 


THE AMERICAN PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue February meeting of the Physical So- 
ciety was held in New York on February 27. 
For the first time since the famous address of 
Rowland in 1899 the society had the pleasure 
of listening to a presidential address, Pro- 
fessor Webster’s subject being ‘Some Prac- 
tical Aspects of the Relations between Physics 
and Mathematics.’ The address was delivered 
before a joint session of the Physical So- 
ciety and the Mathematical Society. It will 
be published in full both in Science and 
with the ‘ Proceedings of the Physical Society ’ 
in the Physical Review. 

Upon the recommendation of the council 
certain amendments to the by-laws were adopt- 
ed whose purpose was twofold, viz.: (1) to 


ApriL 1, 1904.] 


make possible the election of associate mem- 
bers as well as regular members; (2) to estab- 
lish, for regular members, an entrance fee of 
three dollars. 

The council was led to recommend such 
action because of its desire to extend the ad- 
vantages of membership in the Physical So- 
ciety to a larger number of persons, and at 
the same time to maintain a distinctly high 
scientific standard in the case of the regular 
membership. In the past the effort to accom- 
plish both of these two aims has sometimes led 
to considerable embarrassment, both to the 
council and to members making nominations. 

The policy of the council will hereafter be 
to elect to regular membership in the society 
only such persons as have contributed to the 
advance of physics by investigation of a seri- 
ous character. Those who have been prevented 
from carrying out work of investigation, but 
who are otherwise desirable as members of the 
society, will be eligible for election to asso- 
ciate membership. 
have all the privileges of membership except 
that they may not vote nor hold office. They 
will, for example, receive the two publications 
now furnished by the society to its members. 
Associate members may be transferred to reg- 
ular membership by action of the council 
whenever they have completed research work 
of such character as to warrant such transfer. 
It is not the policy of the council to make 
election to associate membership a mere for- 
mality for any who may desire it. On the 
contrary, there is a strong feeling that the 
society would best accomplish its object in 
“promoting the advance and diffusion of the 
knowledge of physics’ by maintaining a high 
standard for both regular and associate mem- 
bership. 

The spring meeting of the society will be 
held in Washington, on Friday, April 22, and 
Saturday, April 23, 1904. Sessions for the 
presentation of papers will be held on Friday 
from 2 p.m. to 5 p.M., and on Saturday from 
10 am. to1 p.m. On Friday at 6 p.m. there 
will be an informal dinner, and later in the 
evening a lecture upon a subject to be an- 
nounced later. On Saturday, at 1 pM., a 
luncheon by the Philosophical Society of 


SCIENCE. 


Associate members will: 


543, 


Washington, complimentary to the Physical 
Society. Saturday afternoon an excursion to 
the Bureau of Standards and the Weather 
Bureau. The arrangement of further details 
regarding the meeting is in the hands of a 
committee of the Philosophical Society of 
Washington, at whose invitation the meeting 
is held in that city. 

Brief abstracts of the papers read at the 
February meeting are given below. 


The Conduction of Electricity in Mercury 

Vapor: A. PR. Wits. 

This paper gaye the results of an extended 
study of the mercury vapor lamp carried out 
in the Hewitt laboratory during the past year. 
The measurements had especial reference to 
the electromotive intensity in the positive 
column. It was found possible to develop an 
empirical formula representing with great ac- 
curacy the dependence of the potential gradi- 
ent upon current, pressure and diameter of 
tube. The drop at the anode, usually about 
seven volts, was found to rise under abnormal 
conditions as high as fifteen volts. The drop 
at the kathode was about five volts. 


Hzperiments Showing the Action of a Magnet 
wpon the Mercury Arc: Prrer Cooper 
Hewitt. 

Several very interesting experiments with a 
large mercury vapor lamp were shown by Dr. 
Hewitt. The action of a magnet upon the 
positive column seemed to be about the same 
as in an ordinary vacuum tube. The effect 
upon the brilliant spot of light, or flame, at 
the kathode was especially interesting. When 
the lamp was in a rather strong field a lumin- 
ous bundle of rays was seen to proceed from 
the bright spot on the kathode surface, fol- 
lowing a path that was the same as that of 
the lines of force of the field. 


Microphotography of Fog Particles and the. 
Photographic Study of Atmospheric Nuclea- 
tion: Cart Barus. 

The author gave a description of his appara- 
tus and methods, and illustrated the results 
by a series of ten lantern slides and many 
positives showing the microphotographs of fog 
particles. Most of these were strikingly dis- 
tinet, the water globules ranging in size from 


o44 


about .0002 em. to .002 em., according as fogs 
of different degrees of fineness were precipi- 
tated. The most highly graded nuclei, as 
shown by the presence of fog particles of all 
sizes, were obtained from an exposure of dust- 
free air to the X-rays for from one to ten 
minutes, depending on the intensity of radia- 
tion. Much greater uniformity is shown in 
the cases of phosphorus and ordinary air 
nuclei. 

The author described a number of curious 
phenomena observed with these water particles, 
among which their continued motion when 
caught on a film of liquid oil, simultaneously 
to and fro between edges of the film, is most 
noteworthy. Particles moving in swarms in 
opposed directions are often in the focus of 
the microscope together, and thus lie very 
nearly in the same plane. The author 
finally remarked that the coronal method had 
now been so far perfected that the nucleation 
increment produced by a single gas flame in 
a moderately large lecture room could be de- 
tected in about ten minutes, even in the air 
collected from near the floor. This favorable 
quantitative result may then be supplemented 
qualitatively by the photographic method, 
which will show the presence of exceptionally 
small or large particles, whose effect vanishes 
from the corona as they are relatively few in 
number. 


Preliminary Measurements of the Short Wave- 
lengths Discovered by Schumann: THEODORE 
Lyman. 

The measurements were made with a con- 
cave grating ruled on speculum metal, which 
was found to reflect the extremely short waves 
used in considerable intensity. All work was 
carried on in an atmosphere of hydrogen and 
at low pressures. Numerous lines were found 
in the spectrum of hydrogen lying well be- 
yond the aluminum group at 1,854. The 
shortest wave-length thus far measured by Dr. 
Lyman was 1,206 Angstrém units. This lies 
far beyond the region where wave-lengths 
have previously been measured. Dr. Lyman 
is certainly to be congratulated upon the suc- 
cess of these distinctly difficult measurements. 
The present communication is merely pre- 
liminary. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 483. 


The Hall Effect in the Electric Arc: C. D. 

CHILD. 

If two carbon pencils are so placed in an 
are that there is little or no potential differ- 
ence between them, a potential difference is 
produced by creating a magnetic field about 
the are. This may be as high as 1.5 volts. 
It appears to be similar to the Hall effect in 
metals, and if it is this effect, it would show 
that the negative ions have a velocity enor- 
mously greater than that of the positive. 

Salts placed in the are which diminish the 
drop of potential at the anode also diminish 
the effect here studied. With KNO, the 
anode drop becomes as small as that at the 
‘cathode and the potential difference between 
the two pencils became approximately zero. 
When the pressure is reduced to about 1 cm. 
the effect also disappears. 

No definite explanation of the phenomenon 
can at present be given. It appears, however, 
to be a more complicated effect than the 
ordinary Hall effect in metals. 


Some Further Observations on the Radiation 
Produced in an Alternating Condenser 
Field; FERNANDO SANFORD. 

The author has continued the experiments 
described in the December number of the 
Physical Review, where it was found that 
certain photographically active rays are given 
off by a plate connected to the negative pole 
of an induction coil, even when no visible 
discharge occurs. It has now been found 
possible to measure the wave-length of these 
rays by means of a grating. Values are found 
ranging from 350yp to 377, depending upon 
the metal of the kathode. The rays, there- 
fore, lie in the ultra-violet just beyond the 
edge of the visible spectrum. 

Ernest Merritt, 
Secretary. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 151st meeting was held on February 
10, 1904. 

A topographic model of Alaska made by Mr. 
Edwin E. Howell was exhibited and was 
briefly described by Mr. Alfred H. Brooks. 

This model of Alaska, which is to form a 
part of the Geological Survey exhibit at the 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


Louisiana Purchase Exhibition, is based, for 
the most part, upon the topographic surveys 
made during the past six years by the Geolog- 
ical Survey parties. The coast line is taken 
from the charts of the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey. The base map, which was also ex- 
hibited, was compiled by Mr. E. C. Barnard, 
under the direction of the late Mr. R. U. 
Goode, and the scale of both the model and 
the map is forty miles to the inch. In the 
model the vertical scale has been exaggerated 
five times, while on the map the contour inter- 
val is 1,000 feet. This map represents the 
first attempt to show the relief of Alaska by 
contours. While much of it will be subject 
to revision by future surveys, it is believed 
that in its present form it is of a sufficient 
degree of accuracy to be worthy of publication 
and that it correctly represents the larger geo- 
graphic features of the territory. 

The coloring of the model is intended to in- 
dicate, in a broad way, the distribution of 
timber, as well as that of the ice and snow. 
Many will be surprised to find what a small 
part of Alaska is covered with perpetual snow 
and that the glaciers are practically confined 
to the coastal mountains of Alaska. It will 
be noted that the heavy timber is limited to 
the Pacifie coastal belt of Alaska, east of 
Kodiak Island, and to the immediate vicinity 
of the larger rivers of the Yukon Basin. 
Above the timber line, which in southeastern 
Alaska is between 3,000 and 4,000 feet, and in 
the northern part of the territory descends to 
about 1,000 or 1,200 feet, are broad areas which 
are entirely devoid of forests. The attempt 
has been made on the model to represent this 
treeless region by colors suggestive, at least, 
of vegetation. 

Besides this high timberless belt there are 
other large areas of regions of relatively low 
relief, which are also devoid of timber. These 
are the coastal plains, which stretch from the 
Alaskan Peninsula northerly to the Arctic, 
and thence sweeping around to the north of 
the Rocky Mountains, extend eastward to the 
McKenzie. This so-called tundra is a part of 
the great zone which encircles the polar re- 


gions. It is devoid of timber except for the 


SCIENCE. 


545 


dense growth of willow which is found along 
many of the sheltered stream valleys. 

Alaska includes an area of about 570,000 
square miles, about one fifth of the area of 
the United States, and two thirds of the re- 
gion included in the Louisiana Purchase. 
The shape is irregular and consists of a large 
compact body of land, with projections to the 
southeast and southwest, the former called the 
Panhandle, or southeastern Alaska, and the 
latter the Alaskan Peninsula. The peninsula 
is extended to the westward by the Aleutian 
Chain, to where it is met by the Commander 
Islands, a somewhat similar easterly extension 
from the Peninsula of Kamchatka. 

The Pacific and southern Bering Sea coast 
of Alaska exhibits unusual irregularity of 
form, including many islands and many 
fiords which penetrate the mainland. The 
arctic and northern Bering Sea coast line is 
much more regular, and is characterized by 
shoal water conditions and straight shore 
lines. he relief of Alaska exhibits a wealth 
of contrasting variety in mountains and val- 
leys, plateaus and lowlands, which are de- 
veloped on a truly grand scale. Broadly 
speaking, the larger features of topography 
correspond with those of the western United 
States. There is a Pacific Mountain system 
separated from the Rocky Mountain system to 
the north by a Plateau Region, and north of 
the Rockies lies a plains region, forming the 
Aretie Slope Provinee. 

The Pacific Mountain system includes four 
ranges, the Coast, the St. Elias, the Aleutian 
and the Alaskan. The highest points in 
northwestern America and also on the con- 
tinent lie within these ranges, and are Mount 
St. Elias, 18,080; Mount Logan (Canada), 
19,500, both in the St. Elias Range; and 
Mount Foraker, 17,000, and Mount McKinley, 
20,300, the two latter in the Alaskan Ranges. 

Less is known of the Rocky Mountain sys- 
tem, which extends through the Yukon ter- 
ritory, and upon approaching the Arctic coast 
bends westward. To the west it is divided 
into two ranges separated by the valley of the 
Kobuk River. Between the two mountain 
systems lies the province which has been 
called the Plateau Region. This is char- 


546 SCIENCE. 


acterized by broad, flat-topped inter-stream 
areas, whose summits mark a well-defined 
plain. The Arctic Slope Region includes a 
small area lying north of the Rocky Moun- 
tains. 

The model shows not only the relief, but also 
the distribution of the timber and the mineral 
deposits, as far as they have been determined. 
It will be noted that the gold placers have a 
very wide distribution through Alaska, that 
copper has been found only in the Pacific 
Mountain belt, tin at the western end of the 
Seward Peninsula, while coal has been found 
in many widely separated localities. The lode 
mines which have been developed up to the 
present day are practically all confined to the 
Pacifie Coastal belt. 

Mr. George B. Shattuck then presented a 
paper on ‘ Recent Elevations and Depressions 
in the Bahama Islands,’ illustrated by stereop- 
ticon. This paper was based on the results 
of the expedition sent out by the Geographical 
Society of Baltimore, and will soon be pub- 
lished in full. 

A third paper, by Mr. G. K. Gilbert, had 
for its subject, ‘Domes and Dome Structures 
in the Sierra Nevada,’ and is now in print as 
a bulletin of the Geological Society of Amer- 
ica. Aurrep H. Brooks, 

Secretary. 


BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 383d regular meeting of the society was 
held on Saturday evening, March 5, 1904. 
Dr. A. K. Fisher delivered an illustrated lec- 
ture on the ‘ Birds of Laysan Island,’ based on 
observations made by W. K. Fisher, of Stan- 
ford University, during the summer of 1902, 
while connected with the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission steamer Albatross. Laysan Island, 
which lies in the Pacific, about 800 miles 
northwest of Honolulu, is one of the most re- 
markable bird islands in the world. It is the 
home of countless thousands of sea birds, such 
as albatrosses, terns, gannets, frigates, shear- 
waters, petrels, etc., and has rarely been vis- 
ited by naturalists. A most detailed account 
of the bird population of the island was given. 
The photographs shown constitute one of the 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 483. 


most interesting series of bird pictures ever 
taken.* 

Mr. J. N. Rose exhibited some fifty water- 
color drawings to illustrate the genera of 
Crassulacezr recently segregated by Dr. N. L. 
Britton and himself. The drawings are the 
work of Mr. F. A. Walpole and have been 
executed with great skill. Mr. Rose pointed 
out the fact that the number of genera in 
Crassulaces as compared with the number of 
species is very small, and that nearly all the 
species of the world are to be found in six 
genera. He states that complaint is often 
made that the generic limits are very indis- 
tinet which he thinks can be remedied by in- 
creasing the number of genera. He finds 
that Cotyledon, a South African genus, is to 
be excluded from American groups, and that, 
in place of it, Hcheveria is to be restored. To 
the latter most of the Mexican species are re- 
ferred. A new genus, Dudleya, is proposed 
for certain species from the west coast of 
North America. Wiurrep H. Oscoon, 

Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE 581st meeting was held February 27, 
1904. The evening was devoted to aeronauti- 
eal subjects. 

Dr. A. F. Zahm read a paper on ‘ Atmos- 
pheric Friction with Special Refergnce to 
Aeronautics,’ giving a partial account of one 
of the researches on air resistance which he 
has been conducting the past three years, at 
the Catholic University of America. His 
measurements show that the skin friction R, 
of a thin material plane of length J, and speed 
» moving through still air, is expressed by 
an equation of the form R—=al™v", in which 
a, m, n are numerical constants for all speeds 
up to the limit of experiment, which was 
about 25 miles an hour. For a strip of the 
plane one foot wide and 7 feet long moving 
v miles an hour, the above formula gives 
FR = 0.00003361° *v' —R being in pounds. 
Applying this equation to practical problems 
he showed that the element of skin friction is 

* An illustrated account of the birds of Laysan 


has been published by W. K. Fisher, Bull. U. S. 
Fish Comm. for 1903, pp. 1-39, pls. 1-10. 


Aen Te ote! 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


as formidable an obstacle in aeronautics as 
im marine navigation, where it is one of the 
chief resistances. To overcome the friction 
on the surface necessary to support 100 pounds 
under practical conditions of flight requires 
about one horse power on a tow line, or nearly 
two horse power applied by propellers. 

Mr. Charles M. Manly, of the Smithsonian 
Institution, presented the ‘ History and Pres- 
ent Status of Aeronautics.’ He traced briefly 
the development of balloons for a century till 
Renard and Krebs in 1884 made a flight of 
two and one half miles, returning to their 
starting point; and he gave the data of the 
machines and flights of Santos Dumont, yon 
Zepplin, Le Baudy brothers and others. The 
highest speed reported is twenty-three miles 
per hour. 

The development of aeroplanes was traced 
in more detail. Models heavier than the air 
were flown in 1842 and 1878. In 1868 String- 
fellow built a model with steam-engine and 
boiler carried by the superposed planes sug- 
gested by Wenham in 1866, though this never 
flew. In 1891 Professor Langley, and about 
the same time Maxim in England, published 
the results of systematic experiments on the 
principles underlying the subject. Some 
years later successful flights were made by 
machines with motors of over one horse power. 
In 1903 Mr. Langley’s aerodrome, with a 52 
horse-power gasoline-engine weighing with 
cooling water and all accessories only 200 
pounds, and carrying one passenger, was 
launched. Accidents to the launching de- 
vices prevented a successful flight; but the 
speaker had no doubt of the ability of the 
machine to fly. Reference was made to the 
reported success of the Wright Bros. in North 
Carolina, but full data are not yet available; 
to the remarkable invention of Mr. A. G. Bell 
whose tetrahedral kites promise to furnish 
supporting planes, the weight of which in- 
ereases little faster than the area; and to the 
experiments of Lilienthal and others with 
gliding machines. 

In the discussion that followed Professor 
Langley emphasized the value of Dr. Zahm’s 
measurements, of Mr. Manly’s work in re- 
ducing the weight of the motor, and of Mr. 


SCIENCE. 


547 


Bell’s novel supporting planes. Professor 
Bell told of the curious history of the idea 
of air ships, and said Mr. Manly was the first 
to risk himself on a power-driven aeroplane. 
Others spoke of recent English theoretical 
work, and of the attitude of the U. S. Patent 
Office which, though granting nearly 300 
patents for structures involving a gas bag, 
has held that aeroplane devices, not having 
been shown to be operative, are not entitled to 
protection by a patent. 
CuarLes K. WEaApD, 
Secretary. 


THE NORTHEASTERN SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue fiftieth regular meeting of the section 
was held in Huntington Hall, Massachusetts 
Institute of Technology, Boston, Thursday 
evening, February 25, with President W. H. 
Walker in the chair. About 900 members 
and guests were present. 

Mr. E. Stiitz, vice-president of the Gold- 
schmidt Thermit Co., gave an address on 
“ Aluminothermies, and their Applications to 
Engineering and Metallurgy.’ Mr. Stiitz de- 
scribed the various uses of thermit, the trade 
name given to a mixture of powdered alu- 
minum and the oxides of various metals, in 
which when ignited a reaction is brought 
about, whereby a great amount of heat is gen- 
erated, oxide of aluminum is formed, and the 
metal set free from its oxide is obtained in a 
molten condition. Large masses of pure 
chromium, manganese and other metals were 
shown, and a demonstration of the prepara- 
tion of pure nickel from the oxide was made. 
The principal use of thermit at present is in 
the formation of iron from a mixture of 
powdered aluminum and oxide of iron, and 
the application of this to various forms of 
welding. Mr. Stiitz demonstrated the method 
by burning a hole through a plate of wrought 
iron three fourths inch thick, by allowing a 
stream of molten iron as formed by the reac- 
tion to fall on the plate, also by welding a 
nine-ineh girder rail, by welding iron to cast- 
ing to illustrate a method of repairing flaws, 
by welding iron pipe, and other experiments. 

A number of lantern slides were also shown, 


048 


illustrating the practical methods of using 
thermit in welding electric car rails in place, 
repairing broken stern posts and shafts in 
large steamers, etc. 
ArtHur M. Comey, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 

Iy the multitude of counselors there is said 
to be safety, and it may be hoped that a sound 
conclusion may be evolved from the widely 
differing views which are finding expression in 
the columns of Science. 

In my own opinion, as in the opinion of 
some others who have already written, it has 
been a mistake to change the time of the meet- 
ing of the American Association from summer 
to winter. The American Association is and 
should be a popular association. It seeks to 
melude in its membership not alone profes- 
sional workers in science, but the wider public 
who have a more or less intelligent interest in 
the results of science. It appeals not only to 
the professors in the universities and colleges, 
but also to the great army of teachers in the 
secondary schools. It draws its members not 
from one district, but from all parts of the 
continent. Now I think that the time for the 
meeting of such an association is the summer 
vacation. In our winter, long journeys are 
apt to be more or less uncomfortable, and 
trains are not infrequently seriously delayed 
by snow. It is impracticable for the colleges 
and schools to arrange their work so as to 
allow a long vacation at Christmas time; and 
part of the Christmas vacation is and ought 
to be devoted by most of the students of sci- 
ence in the country to the claims of home and 
family. Both the inclemency of the weather 
and the shortness of the time at our disposal 
render it impossible to have excursions in con- 
nection with a Christmas meeting; and, in the 
American Association, as in its illustrious 
prototype, the British Association, the ex- 
eursions are a very valuable part of the 
privileges offered by the meeting. Any one who 
has attended a meeting of the British Associa- 
tion in recent years, studied the elaborate 
guide-book for the locality prepared by the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 483. 


local committee, and availed himself of the 
opportunities of excursions adapted to his own 
tastes and studies, whether he be a geologist 
or a naturalist or an archeologist or an engi- 
neer, will appreciate how valuable this part 
of the work of such an association may be 
made. These excursions are valuable alike 
to the professional scientist and to the ama- 
teur. 

While the Christmas vacation seems to me 
a very unsuitable time for the meetings of 
the American Association, it is an excellent 
time for the meetings of the numerous asso- 
ciations of more restricted membership and 
definite scope. In cases 
these narrow professional societies haye al- 
ready divided themselves into sections dis- 
tributed in different regions of the country. 
The members of a local section of such a so- 
ciety can easily get together in the Christmas 
vacation. The journeys required are com- 
paratively short, and the time at their disposal 
is amply sufficient. Their program does not 
aim to cover all science; they are not required 
to do anything in the way of popularization; 
they can meet for a few days of quiet, earnest 
work in the discussion of the papers of a 
homogeneous program; they can find relief 
from the serious work of the sessions in a 
dinner or a smoker or both; and, when they 
have done their scientific work, and enjoyed 
their friendly greetings and renewal of cher- 
ished associations, they can go home in season 
for the opening of the winter term in the in- 
stitutions with which they are connected. 

It was said by many that the large attend- 
ance and the great interest in the Washington 
meeting were the vindication of the plan of 
a winter session of the American Association. 
It must be remembered, however, that Wash- 
ington is altogether an exceptional city. In 
the number of resident scientific men, and in 
the variety of museums and other indoor at- 
tractions for students of science, professional 
or amateur, Washington stands unrivaled. 
The success of the Washington meeting was 
due to the exceptional character of the locality. 
The comparative failure of the St. Louis meet- 
ing affords more nearly a just criterion of the 


more several 


expediency of the plan. 


Apri 1, 1904.] 


I believe, therefore, that the right plan is 
to put back the meeting of the American Asso- 
ciation to its old place near the close of the 
summer vacation, and to leave convocation 
week for the smaller, more homogeneous, and 
less popular associations of working scien- 
tists. Wititrm Norra Ricr. 


NATURAL SELECTION IN KINETIC EVOLUTION.* 


Tat there are species, varieties, mutations 
or hybrids which differ in one, two, or three 
characters, as commonly assumed in discus- 
sions of Mendel’s laws, is a misleading as- 
sumption. To speak of a species as having 
developed in one direction or as having a 
single peculiar character may be permissible 
for taxonomic purposes, but in evolutionary 
studies it is careless to forget that the di- 
versity is general, if not complete. The di- 
versity of varieties.and species is like that of 
individuals, but greater. Evolution, which 
is a continuous summary or integration of 
this individual diversity, is not a simple 
process, but highly multiplex; as much so, 
indeed, as the lines of descent in which the 
life of the species goes forward. A composite 
general direction is maintained by the species 
because the multitudinous strands of individ- 
ual descent are bound together by interbreed- 
ing. The variations take place in particular 
threads, but evolution signifies rather the 
progressive change of the whole organic net- 
work. + | 

The evolution of a new type means changes 
im many directions and of many kinds, in the 
germ cells and in the various tissues and 
organs, as well as in the external form of the 
complex cell-colony which we are accustomed 
to look upon as a single individual. Each 
cell, tissue, organ and feature is undergoing 
evolution, and for normal and permanent 
progress these manifold developments must 
keep together. When single lines or slender 
strands of descent are separated from the 
main network the congruence of type is lost. 
The normal variation and individual diversity 

*Read before the Biological Society of Wash- 
ington, March 19, 1904. 

+ The Popular Science Monthly, March, 1904, p. 
451. 


SCIENCE. 


d49 


of the species having been eliminated, the 
evolutionary coordination of cells, organs and 
functions breaks down, and abrupt changes or 
aberrations of heredity appear. These degen- 
erative mutations may not differ in their es- 
sential nature from normal variations, but the 
conditions of their appearance are abnormal, 
and the results often disastrous.* 

A domestic variety may be ‘improved’ by 
the further increase of the one or two char- 
acters or qualities which render it valuable, 
but a new specific or generic type is the com- 
pound or resultant of many variations in 
many characters. By close selection which 
restricts evolutionary progress to a narrow line 
of descent a ‘single character’ may push out 
farther in a decade than the natural multiplex 
evolution would carry it in a century or a 
millennium, but such a specialization weakens 
and unbalances the organism, and is a process 
of degeneration rather than a constructive 
evolution. Selective inbreeding and other 
forms of isolation accentuate single charac- 
ters, but the interbreeding of normally diverse 
individuals (symbasis) weaves new types out 
of the variations of many lines of descent. 

The neglect of this distinction vitiates much 
evolutionary literature, both that which treats 
selection as an actuating ‘force,’ and that 
which rejects selection for ‘ discontinuous 
variation’ or ‘the mutation theory.’} It is 

* Mutations, like hybrids, are sometimes com- 
pletely sterile, and they may have at the same 
time an increased vegetative vigor. The vegeta- 
tive vigor of many mutative varieties of domesti- 
cated plants has doubtless delayed the recognition 
of their abnormal evolutionary status, though 
the abnormality of infertile hybrids has long been 
appreciated. It is paradoxical, indeed, that the 
increased vigor which accompanies normal varia- 
tions and crosses should also attend degenerative 
changes, but there is room for this apparent 
contradiction in so complex and many-sided a 
process as evolution. 

+ Very recent examples of the latter tendency 
are found in Professor Morgan’s ‘ Evolution and 
Adaptation’ and also in Dr. D. T. MacDougal’s 
review of this work (Torreya, 3: 185, December, 
1903). Professor Morgan refers (p. 368) with 
approval to an admission by Darwin that selec- 
tion can not explain dimorphism in plants be- 


550 SCIENCE. 


true that many variations of inbred domesti- 
cated plants and animals are very abruptly 
discontinuous, and that such changes are not 
caused by selection,* but these facts in no way 
militate against others equally obvious, that 
the natural evolution of new types is a rela- 
tively slow and gradual process, and that selec- 
tion may easily influence the direction of this 
continuous vital motion. The older selective 
hypothesis was only half erroneous. Selection 
does not set stationary organisms in motion, 
but it often guides spontaneous change. It 
does not explain evolution or vital motion in 
general, but it does explain adaptation, or 
motion in some particular direction, as when 
one species differs from its relatives in special 
characters which enable it to exist in a special 
environment. That all adaptations are mere 
coincidences is as improbable as that all char- 
acters represent useful adaptations. 

Selection is not, as many ‘ Darwinians’ have 
maintained, the true, efficient cause of evolu- 
tion; the vital motion of species proceeds 
whether selection is operative or not. Species 
do not acquire characters from the environ- 
ment, but merely in accordance with it. At 
any point in the evolutionary journey, selec- 
tion may determine whether certain characters 
shall be acquired or not; it is an obstacle in 
the environmental road over which the species 
would travel, instead of being the source of 
power of the organic automobile. By prevent- 
ing motion in one direction selection may be 
said, of course, to cause advance in another, 


cause it can not be an advantage to a plant to be 
able to breed with only half of the members of its 
species. The same reasoning would apply, how- 
ever, to all the phenomena of sexual separation, 
of which the dimorphism of bisexual plants may 
be an incipient stage. It seems obvious, too, that 
to breed successfully with half of the individuals 
of a species is an important advantage over the 
alternative of breeding less effectively with all of 
them. The partial or complete sterility of some 
dimorphic plants to the pollen of others of their 
own caste may be due to impoteney rather than to 
adaptation, and a dimorphism by which this 
fatal result could be avoided would certainly be 
favored by selection. , 

*Exeept as selection implies -inbreeding, by 
which mutations are induced. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 483. 


but it is apparent that this causality is nega- 
tive and passive, or a mere figure of speech. 
Selection may explain why a particular char- 
acter is accentuated in a particular species, 
but it is no more a cause of the developmental 
progress of the species than the turns of the 
road are the motive power of the vehicle. 
Segregation enables species to attain differen- 
tial characters, and selection assists their ac- 
commodation to environment, but both these 
possibilities rest on the more fundamental fact 
that organic evolution goes forward without 
external causation in groups of diverse, inter- 
breeding individuals. If a species stood still 
selection could effect nothing except its par- 
tial extinetion. In the recognition of a con- 
tinuous and universal evolutionary motion the 
kinetic theory supplies the long-sought ex- 
planation of selective influence. By ceasing 
to look upon selection as a mysterious evolu- 
tionary cause we are able to ascribe to it a 
practical and easily comprehensible evolution- 
ary function. O. F. Coox. 


WasuineTon, D. C., 
March 11, 1904. 


NATURE STUDY. 

To tHe Eprror or Science: In the last two 
numbers of Science have appeared articles by 
Drs. Wheeler and Chapman on the abuses of 
nature writing as exemplified in the writings 
of Wm. J. Long. These articles have ex- 
pressed the fear that such work may increase 
and that it may invade the secondary schools 
as supplementary reading designed to aid in 
the instruction in zoology. That this is no 
idle fear is brought very vividly before the 
science teacher in the normal schools, for he 
stands, as it were, an outpost between science 
and its teaching to immature students. Per- 
mit me to call your attention to a pseudo- 
scientific extravaganza put forth in a seeming 
serious mood which exemplifies this point. 
Before me is a book designed evidently for 
students of the first grades called ‘The Tree 
Dwellers.’ It bears the publishers’ imprint 
of Rand, McNally and Co., 1903, and its 
author is Katherine E. Dopp, of the Extension 
Division of the Chicago University. The at- 
tempt of the book is to place before the stu- 


. 
5 
a 
° 
} 

| 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


dent an account of primitive child life. The 
author states in her preface that she was aided 
in the preparation of her material by the late 
Professor J. W. Powell, by Fred. J. V. Skiff, 
‘of the Field Columbian Museum, and by Pro- 
fessor Dewey, of the Chicago University; 
other less prominent names are mentioned as 
collaborators. 

Perhaps the most glaring errors that the 
author has included in her work are certain 
of the pictures; these are signed by Howard 
V. Brown. 

On page 67 is a sketch of a dinosaur, evi- 
dently intended for the Ceratosaurus of 
Marsh, an Upper Jurassic form, chasing a 
beast that is described as a ‘ five-toed horse’; 
accompanying this figure is the following 
text : 

Long, long before the tree-dwellers lived there 
were wild horses. 

They were tiny little creatures. 

Perhaps you would not think that they were 
horses at all. 

They were no larger than a fox. 

They had stripes like a zebra. 

They had five toes on each foot. 

They lived on the marshes and on the dry land. 

The land at that time was almost covered with 
water. 

The water was filled with fish and reptiles. 

Great reptiles crawled about everywhere. 

They were masters of the sea and the dry land. 

All the creatures feared them, the wild horses 
tried to keep out of their reach. 

The foot of the little horse was not shaped for 
running, but it was fitted for climbing trees. 

When a reptile appeared the horses climbed the 
trees. (Italics mine.) 

They stayed in the trees till the danger was 
passed. 

Then they came down to their pastures again. 

Again, on page 62 I find a picture of a 
man in a tree watching a herd of the same 
horses (?) that were pursued by the Jurassic 
dinosaur! This makes man contemporaneous 
with the dinosaur, although it is not so stated 
in the text. 

This book is filled with just such mistakes 
throughout, notably a figure of a saber-tooth 
tiger in fierce combat with a hairy mammoth. 

That such a book is taken seriously by cer- 
tain people is shown by the fact that it has 


SCIENCE. 


5ol 


been placed in the library of at least one nor- 
mal school as supplementary reading for stu- 
dents in the kindergarten course, girls who 
are preparing themselves to teach nature study 
to infants. 

Certainly if such things as anthropology 
and yertebrate paleontology are to be forced 
on the four-year-old child the perpetrators 
should see that it is correct. 

We are promised four other volumes by the 
same author from the same press! Certainly 


it is time to call a halt. EK. C. Caspr. 
Srare NormMaL ScHoor, 
MILWAUKEE, WIS. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


AN ACCOUNT OF SOME EXPERIMENTS IN REARING 
WILD FINCHES BY FOSTER-PARENT BIRDS. 

Durine the spring of 1901, having some 
twenty pairs of canary birds mated, I at- 
tempted to induce them, in two eases, to in- 
cubate the eggs and rear the young of wild 
fringilline birds. These experiments led me 
to continue similar efforts during each suc- 
ceeding spring, and I propose to summarize 
the results of what occurred in this way, in 
1901, 1902 and 1903. | 

In May, 1901, I secured a set of song spar- 
rows eggs (Melospiza cinerea melodia). 
There were four eggs in the nest and incuba- 
tion had just started. I brought the eggs, 
together with the nest, to my laboratory, and 
took away from a very tame hen canary bird 
four eggs which were in her nest, substituting 
the song sparrow’s eggs. I watched the hen 
canary for a short time to assure myself that 
my actions had not prejudiced the end I had 
in view, and was presently delighted to see 
her return to the nest and settle herself to 
brood the eggs as if they were her own. In 
due time, after about eight days, all of the 
eggs were hatched, and four lusty young song 
sparrows became the foster-children of the 
canary. This bird was an especially good 
parent, as I had proved, by her rearing with 
success three broods of canary birds during 
the preceding season of 1901, the whole of the 
young aggregating thirteen birds, all of which 
reached maturity, and were strong vigorous 
examples of their kind. This hen canary 


552 SCIENCE: 


seemed as solicitous for the young song spar- 
rows as she had been for the young of her own 
kind, and so far as I could see, she did every- 
thing in her power to rear her foster-children. 
In spite of all her efforts, when the song spar- 
rows attained an age of about six days, and 
were just beginning to show feathers, one by 
one they weakened and died, though both the 
parent canaries, cock and hen, fed and brooded 
them constantly. 

Later in the same season I secured a clutch 
of four field sparrow’s eges (Sipizella pusilla), 
and gave them to another equally good pair 
of parent canaries. The results were almost 
identical with the case cited above; the eggs 
were all hatched, the young seemed strong 
and vigorous, the foster-parents appeared to 
do everything conducive to their develop- 
ment, but all of the young died during the 
first week after they were hatched from the 
ege. This concluded my efforts in this direc- 
tion for the spring of 1901. In the month 
of May, 1902, I was able to carry on a much 
more elaborate series of experiments, which I 
will now summarize. Some of these, in the 
light of my former experience, I conducted 
under slightly varying conditions, which I 
thought might yield more definite results. On 
May 11, 1902, I found im a field on the ground 
a nest of field sparrows, the female sitting on 
four eggs, and there were, at the same time, 
two larger eges in the nest, which I took to be 
those of the cowbird (Molothrus ater). The 
nest and eggs I brought to the house, keeping 
them warm, and placed the four field spar- 
rows eggs under a hen canary which was 
sitting, and the two cowbird’s eggs I gave 
to another canary. Both females covered the 
new eggs which had been introduced into 
their nest, and brooded them within a moment 
after I had left them. The four field spar- 
row’s eggs, placed under the first canary, be- 
gan to hatch on the morning of May 22. I 
had left one canary bird’s egg in this nest, 
and this also was hatched early the next day. 
Another of the field sparrow’s eggs hatched 
late on May 22, and in the morning of 
May 23 there were in the nest one canary 
and three field sparrows, and one unhatched 
ege of a field sparrow. On May 24 I dis- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 483. 


covered the three field sparrows dead in the 
nest, but the young canary bird was flourish- 
ing, and in the course of time grew up to 
maturity under its parents’ care. 

To return to the cowbird’s eggs in the same 
clutch; both of these eggs were hatched on 
the morning of the twenty-second, and, also, 
two canary bird’s eggs which I had left with 
them, so that there were two cowbirds and two 
young canary birds in the nest. Throughout 
the day and on the succeeding one the parent 


‘birds paid close attention to the brood, and 


the young birds, I could see, were strong and 
hearty, as all four of them raised their heads 
to be fed, and seemed to be treated precisely 
alike by the two parent canaries. The same 
conditions prevailed on May 24. On the 
morning of May 25 the birds were doing well 
and had grown rapidly. On the afternoon of 
May 25 one of the cowbirds died, though the 
other was still strong, and with the two young 
canary birds was constantly fed by the 
parents. On May 25 the second cowbird died, 
and I introduced two young chipping spar- 
rows, apparently of about the same age as the 


two young canaries, to take the place of the — 


two cowbirds. J saw the old canary bird at once 
feed the two sparrows as she did her own birds, 
and during the day a young man, whom [ had 
posted to watch the proceedings, reported that 
they were constantly fed. On May 27 the two 
young sparrows were strong and healthy, as 
well as the young canaries. The same condi- 
tions prevailed on the twenty-eighth, and on 
the twenty-ninth of the month. On May 30 
one of the sparrows died and was removed. 
the other appeared strong and healthy, and 
so far fledged that its species could be dis- 
eriminated. The old birds fed the remain- 
ing young one throughout the day as well as 
the young canaries. On May 31 the young 
sparrow and the canaries were vigorous and 
flourishing. This condition of affairs was 
maintained until June 2. On June 2 I found 
the single sparrow so far grown as to be able 
to leave the nest, though the two canaries were 
not so far advanced. At eleven o’clock the 
young sparrow left the nest and hopped about 
the floor of the cage; after an hour I put him 
back in the nest, where he remained till the 


eS 


APRIL 1, 1904.] 


On June 3 the chipping spar- 
row again left the nest, and I did not return 
him to the structure until late in the day. 
On the fourth, the two young canaries and the 
chipping sparrow all left the nest, though the 
canaries resorted to it from time to time. All 
the birds grew and flourished, but on the ninth 
of June the chipping sparrow died. The 
two canary birds, however, throve and ulti- 
mately reached maturity. During the latter 
part of his life the sparrow was going about 
the bottom of the cage and hopping on the 
perches, attended to carefully by the parent 
birds. He, however, did not seem especially 
strong in his legs, and for a short period, four 
or five hours before his death, he was not only 
unable to grasp the perches, but could not 
run about the bottom of the cage as he had 
done earlier. JI concluded that several fac- 
tors may have militated against the rearing 
of this bird by the canaries: (1) His develop- 
ment seemed more rapid than that of the 
young canaries, and he was more restless and 
anxious to leave the nest than were the do- 
mesticated birds. (2) I think that the arti- 
ficial lining of the canary’s nest was of such 
a nature as not to permit the proper develop- 
ment of the leg muscles and feet during the 
time he was in the nest. (8) The length of 
the tarsus in the sparrow, being twice as great 
as that of the canary birds, seems an important 
element to take into account, as this part of 
the lee was so long that it seemed to be not 
only in his way, but was constantly trodden 
on and sat upon by his two associates. It 
must be remembered that this bird left the 
nest voluntarily on the date first mentioned, 
and though restored several times, very. soon 
left it again. He appeared to be very un- 
comfortable in the nest, and this discomfort 
was largely due to the length of his legs. At 
the time of his death the bird was about two 
thirds grown, and almost fully feathered in 
the first plumage of the chipping sparrow 
(Spizella socialis) ; though he could hop about 
the floor of the cage, and for a time was able 
even to balance himself on the perches, his 
legs, on the whole, seemed weak, and I at- 
tribute the cause of this misdevelopment of 
the muscles and tendons of the feet and legs 


next morning. 


SCIENCE. 


503 


to the kind of nest lining used by the canaries. 
I may say here that this consisted of deer-hair 
with an admixture of cow-hair, the whole be- 
ing a felted mass, and not presenting the 
grasping surface afforded by the fabric and 
lining of the chipping sparrow’s nest, as found 
out of doors. 

My experiments in the season of 1902 in- 
cluded, besides the above, an additional brood 
of song sparrows, which contained four song 
sparrow’s and one cowbird’s egg. All of these 
hatehed and lived from periods varying from 
four to seven days, none of the birds leaving 
the nest. I also experimented with a clutch 
of five fresh eggs of the yellow-winged spar- 
row (Ammodramus savannarum passerinus), 
which I divided between two different parent 
canaries, leaving two canary’s eggs with three 
yellow-winged sparrow’s eggs, and in the other 
case two yellow-winged sparrow’s eges with 
three canary bird’s eggs. Both clutches were 
hatched, there being five young birds in each 
nest. The canary birds in both cases were 
reared and reached maturity, but the young 
yellow-winged sparrows which were also 
hatehed died at ages varying from four to 
seven days. 

I also attempted during this season to raise 
young bobolinks under canaries (Dolichonyx 
oryzvvorus); to this end on May 28, having 
found a nest of five eggs, I introduced two 
of them to a large breed of English canary, 
leaving two of her own eggs in the nest; the 
other three bobolink’s eggs I placed under 
another canary of a similar kind, leaving two 
canary eggs in addition. This canary threw 
out her own eggs, but retained the bobolink’s 
eggs, and incubated them till they were 
hatched, which was on June 8. The three 
young: bobolinks lived for three days, when one 
of them died; the remaining ones died on the 
fifth day. The other bobolink’s eggs, under 
the English canary, were also hatched on the 
eighth, but both died on the tenth of the 
month; the young canary birds hatched at 
the same time were reared to maturity, when 
I no longer followed their history. 

In the spring of 1903 I tried several similar 
experiments, sometimes putting but one ege 
of a wild bird with a clutch of canary’s eggs, 


5d4. 


and never giving one canary an entire com- 
plement of wild bird’s eggs. In all cases the 
eggs were hatched and in no case did the 
foster-young attain an age of more than a 
week, though it is to be remembered that in 
every case young canaries in the same brood 
with the foster-birds flourished and reached 
maturity. During the season of 1903 I took 
two young song sparrows, just beginning to 
show the feathers, and put them with two 
canaries about the same size, though more 
fully feathered. These birds were readily 
adopted by the parent canaries, but one of 
them died after three days; the other was 
reared, reached maturity, was weaned by the 
old birds, being treated precisely as were their 
own young, and is still alive at this writing. 

This series of experiments I have reported 
as a suggestion for further work of a similar 
kind. JI had hoped that hatching the eggs of 
wild birds under canaries would enable me to 
observe the development of the foster-young 
to an advanced age. It seemed to me that 
there would be no possibility of their song 
being other than such as could be attributed 
either to inheritance or to intimate associa- 
tion with a new kind of singing bird. In 
all this I have, of course, met with disappoint- 
ment; the only young bird being reared to 
maturity, from the many I have tried, was a 
song sparrow, almost fledged before introduced 
to his foster-parents. It has occurred to me 
that perhaps the kind of food, partially di- 
gested by the parent canary birds, and then re- 
gurgitated and fed to their young, would have 
militated against the growth and development 
of another kind of bird. However, in the case 
of three cowbird’s eggs upon which I have 
experimented, all of which were hatched, this 
should not have prejudiced their growth, when 
we consider the variety of foster-parents that 
are induced to hatch and rear the eggs and 
young of the cowbird. 

To briefly summarize the work I have de- 
scribed in some detail, forty-one different eggs 
of wild birds, representing six species, and 
three young birds already hatched, form the 
aggregate of individuals dealt with. All of 
the forty-one eggs were fertile, and were 
hatehed by the foster-parents. This is sug- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 483. 


gestive in regard to the propagating powers ot 
wild birds, and though not conclusive, indi- 
cates a much higher percentage of fertility in 
the eggs laid by them than obtains in song 
birds when caged, or semi-domesticated. None 
of the young which were hatched from these 
eggs reached a greater age than seven days, 
which would seem to indicate that the food 
supplied by the foster-parents, which was the 
same on which they raised their own offspring, 
was of a kind so different from that used by 
wild birds in rearing their young, that it 
proved inadequate. JI also believe that the 
nest lining was of a character so unlike that 
of the nests natural to the foster-chicks, that 
it prejudiced their development and growth. 

In the light of the knowledge I have gained 
I shall endeavor, in the coming breeding sea- 
son, to conduct further experiments of a sim- 
ilar character, and hope for better results. It 
seems worthy of note that I have been able to 
rear not only all the kinds of birds mentioned 
by hand, but in addition some twenty other 
species of song birds. These birds have been 
taken from their parents’ care at ages varying 
from three to six or seyen days, and over 
ninety per cent. have been successfully reared, 
being fed by hand. Such birds in most cases 
have not only reached maturity, but many of 
them have lived from three to seven years. 

Wituiam E. D. Scorr. 
DEPARTMENT OF ORNITHOLOGY, 
PRINCETON UNIVERSITY. 


NOTES ON POLYODON, I. 


WHILE engaged last summer on the upper 
Mississippi in investigating the natural his- 
tory of the spoonbill (Polyodon spathula) I 
had oceasion to examine a great many speci- 
mens, caught by the fishermen in a five- 
hundred-yard seine. My attention was soon 
ealled to the presence of a pair of minute bar- 
bels some distance in front of the mouth. Not 
recalling any reference to these in the litera- 
ture on Polyodon, I examined a great many 
specimens and invariably found them present. 
A further examination of the literature shows 
that among systematists these barbels have 
been entirely overlooked, although the ordi- 
narily recognized affinities of the fish to the 


Aprit 1, 1904.] 


sturgeons would cause one to look for them 
especially. So Jordan and Evermann (Bul- 
letin 47, U. S. N. M., Pt. 1, p. 101), in their 
characterization of the Polyodontide, say 
definitely, ‘no barbels.’? Only within the last 
few weeks I have discovered what is seemingly 
the only reference to these barbels, in a paper 
by Mr. Edwards Phelps Allis, Jr. (Zoologische 
Jahrbicher, Abth. fiir Anatomie, etc., Vol. 17, 
p. 671). 
In a specimen of Polyodon 85 cm. long, 
_ these barbels lie 47 mm. in front of the mouth, 
on the ventral surface of the ‘paddle.’ They 
are 23 mm. apart, and the right one measures 
3.5 mm. in length. The left one is consider- 
ably shorter, and in general there is consider- 
able difference in their size in different indi- 
viduals. They are very slender, nearly 
colorless, and translucent. It seems doubtful 
whether they are functional. 

The fact that these barbels have not here- 
tofore been noticed even by our best systemat- 
ists suggests the idea that they may not be 
present in specimens from other regions. As 

_to this point I hope to gather evidence next 
summer, in connection with other researches 
on Polyodon. 

Another interesting point concerning 
Polyodon is the occurrence of peculiar small 
true scales over the surface lying over the 
entire scapular arch and extending forward 
the entire length of the isthmus. They thus 
form a barrier that must be crossed to enter 
the branchial region from behind. As this 
entire region is well covered over by the large 
opercular flaps and gular pouch, it was at first 
very difficult to see any significance in such 
an arrangement. But a few observations in 
the field soon disclosed the meaning. Polyodon 
is preyed upon, more than any other fish I 
know of, by the lampreys. To find from ten 
to fifteen of them attached to one paddlefish 
is not uncommon, and there is scarcely an 
individual that bears no sears. Once or twice 
I observed the lampreys had worked their way 
under the opereular flaps. Now these, if they 
worked further forward would encounter the 
band of seales which would undoubtedly stop 
them, to judge from their avoidance of scaled 
areas on other fishes. An examination, how- 


SCIENCE. 


550 


ever, shows that just inside of this band les 
the great branchial artery, but little below the 
surface. It is evident, therefore, that this 
band of scales is an important adaptation for 
the protection of this vital region against 
attack from so fearful an enemy as the 
lamprey. 
Grorce WAGNER. 
ZOOLOGICAL LABORATORY, 
UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN, 
February 22, 1904. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
CLIMATE OF THE PHILIPPINES. 


Iy an article by Gannett on ‘The Philippine 
Islands and Their People, published in the 
National Geographic Magazine for March, 
there are some notes on Philippine climate. 
The mean annual temperatures are not far 
from 80°, the range between the mean tem- 
peratures of the warmest and coldest months 
at Manila being but 7°. Temperatures of 
100° are almost unknown. The lowest tem- 
perature on record is 60°. The diurnal range 
near the seacoast rarely exceeds 15°, and the 
mean for the year is only 11°. The relative 
humidity is always high, being usually at least 
75 per cent. From November to June the 
northeast trade, and from July to October the 
southwest monsoon, is the prevailing wind. 
Rainfall is much heavier on the windward 
than on the leeward sides of the mountains. 
In most parts of the islands the northeast 
trade wind gives the dry season, and the south- 
west monsoon brings the rains. The mean 
annual rainfall varies between 40 and more 
than 100 inches. At Manila, four fifths of 
the annual rainfall comes between the first of 
July and the end of October. Then the 
streets are flooded, the air is saturated, and 
things are covered with mould. 


CONDITIONS OF ATMOSPHERE DURING FOGS. 

In Das Wetter for January, Elias discusses 
the conditions of the lower air during fogs, as 
shown by kite observations at the Aeronaut- 
ical Observatory near Berlin during the years 
1901-2. The results are plotted to show the 
variations in temperature, humidity and wind 
with altitude. The most striking fact is that 


506 SCIENCE. 


an inerease of temperature with altitude dur- 
ing fog is an exception, and is observed only 
at the beginning of fog formation, or during 
very light ground fogs. The usual condition 
is a decrease of temperature, and occasionally 
a very rapid decrease. 


NOTES. 


A paper by Sir J. Norman Lockyer, on 
‘Simultaneous Solar and Terrestrial Changes,’ 
read before the Southport meeting of the In- 
ternational Meteorological Committee (Sep- 
tember, 1903), is published in Matwre for 
February 11. In this paper Lockyer reviews 
the work done along similar lines by previous 
inyestigators, and gives the results of his own 
studies, to which reference has already been 
made in these Notes. 

Smithsonian Miscellaneous Collections, 
Quarterly Isswe, July-September, 1903, con- 
tains ‘Recent Studies of the Solar Constant 
of Radiation,’ by C. G. Abbot. 

R. DeC. Warp. 


THE PELEE CLUB. « 

Tue Periz Crus held its second annual 
meeting at the New Willard Hotel, Washing- 
ton, D. C., February 27. 

This unique organization is composed of men 
who participated in the events connected with 
the relief, scientific and news-gathering expe- 
ditions to Martinique and St. Vincent. Its 
original membership embraces about eighty 
people, including officers of the navy and army, 
geologists, journalists and magazine writers. 

While the club was originally organized to 
perpetuate the associations and friendships 
formed during the exciting moments of the 
Martinique incident, at its first annual meet- 
ing it was resolved to make the organization 
of permanent value to mankind by taking upon 
itself the function of collecting, as nearly as 
possible, a complete record of the events of 
the recent Martinique eruption, and by pub- 
lishing them in a composite volume, which is 
well under way. 

The society also undertook the collection of 
all photographs pertaining to the eruptions 
and relief expeditions, and this has resulted in 
a collection of nearly two thousand negatives 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 483. 


by Professor E. O. Hovey, chairman of the 
committee on photographs. The society has 
made the New York Museum of Natural His- 
tory (the only American institution, except 
the National Geographic Society, which has 
exhibited serious interest in the West Indies) 
the permanent repository for its collection of 
photographs and records. 

Having progressed thus far, the society at 
its recent meeting still further expanded its 
functions. Realizing. that the subject of 
voleanic geography in its widest sense, inclu- 
ding all branches of interest pertaining to 
voleanie countries and phenomena, is a wide 
and unorganized field of cooperative study, the 
society has resolved to widen its sphere of 
usefulness by taking up this subject and 
becoming a permanent organization for its 
study. Accordingly it resolved to use the 
present organization as a nucleus for the ex- 
pansion of the association, to adopt a perman- 
ent organization and to expand the member- 
ship by taking into the society all investiga- 
tors interested in the subject of volcanoes. 

When the importance of vuleanism in rela- 
tion to the environment of man, the part it 
plays in the structure of the earth, and how 
little is done to systematically study these 
subjects, is considered, it is evident that the 
Pelée Club has before it a most interesting and 
useful study. The character of its member- 
ship is unusually favorable for its successful 
operation, and it is believed that it will espe- 
cially stimulate interest in the recording of 
the important geographic observations of the 
large number of intelligent observers in the 
army, navy and journalistic circles, while the 
purely scientific element is also large and in- 
fluential. 

The society has also resolved to use its in- 
fluence for the encouragement of local organ- 
izations wherever they may be and accept as 
an affiliated society the unique Club Montagne 
of Guadeloupe, which in the out-of-the-way 
island of that name has provided an organiza- 
tion for the study of the Grand Soufriére, the 
highest and most dangerous-looking voleano 
of the West Indies, and which, at its own ex- 
pense, has constructed a road to the summit 
and made arrangements to guide and enter- 


Se oe 


Aprin 1, 1904.] 


tain all earnest students who wish to visit 
this remarkable voleano. Similar local or- 
ganizations will be encouraged in the Philip- 
pines, South America, Mexico and other 
yoleanie countries, where, by a little encour- 
agement, local observation will be stimulated. 

The committee on permanent organization 
consists of Capt. T. C. MeLean, Commander 
of the League Island Navy Yard, Philadel- 
phia; Professor I. C. Russell, of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan; Lieut. Com. J. B. Bernadou, 
of the U. S. Navy; Major H. J. Gallagher, of 
the U. S. Army; Professor E. O. Hovey, of 
the American Museum of Natural History; 
Professor T. A. Jaggar, of Harvard; Messrs. 
A. F. Jacacci and George Kennan, the well- 
known writers, and Messrs, J. Martin Miller, 
W. M. Mason and J. O. Hammitt, of the press. 

The president of the society is Mr. Robert 
T. Hull, the secretary, Mr. H. H. Smith, and 
its address is Washington, D. C. 


PRESIDENT ELIOT. 


Tue following letter with some ten thou- 
sand signatures was presented to President 
Eliot on his seventieth birthday. 


March 20, 1904. 

Dear Mr. President: As with undiminshed 
power you pass the age of seventy, we greet you. 

Thirty-five years ago you were called to be 
president of Harvard College. At the age of 
thirty-five you became the head of an institution 
whose history was long, whose traditions were 
firm, and whose leading counselors were of twice 
your age. With prophetic insight you anticipated 
the movements of thought and life; your face 
was towards the coming day. In your imagina- 
tion the college was already the university. 

You have upheld the old studies and uplifted 
the new. You have given a new definition to a 
liberal education. The university has become the 
expression of the highest intellectual forces of the 
present as well as of the past. 

You have held from the first that teacher and 
student alike grow strong through freedom. 
Working eagerly with you and for you are men 
whose beliefs, whether in education or in religion, 
differ widely from your own, yet who know that 
in speaking out their beliefs they are not more 
loyal to themselves than to you. By your faith 
in a young man’s use of intellectual and spiritual 


SCIENCE. 


5d7 


freedom you have given new dignity to the life 
of the college student. 

The universities and colleges throughout the 
land, though some are slow to accept your prin- 
ciples and adopt your methods, all feel your 
power and recognize with gratitude your stim- 
ulating influence and your leadership. 

Through you the American people have begun 
to see that a university is not a cloister for the 
recluse, but an expression of all that is best in 
the nation’s thought and character. From Har- 
vard University men go into every part of our 
national life. To Harvard University come from 
the common schools, through paths that have 
been broadened by your work, the youth who 
have the capacity and the will to profit by her 
teaching. Your influence is felt in the councils 
of the teachers and in the education of the 
youngest child. 

As a son of New England you have sustained 
the traditions of her patriots and scholars. By 
precept and example you have taught that the 
first duty of every citizen is to his country. In 
public life you have been independent and out- 
spoken; in private life you have stood for: sim- 
plicity. Im the great and bewildering conflict 
of economic and social questions you have with 


‘elear head and firm voice spoken for the funda- 


mental principles of democracy and the liberties 
of the people. 

More precious to the sons of Harvard than 
your service as educator or citizen is your char- 
acter. Your outward reserve has concealed a 
heart more tender than you have trusted yourself 
to reveal. Defeat of your cherished plans has 
disclosed your patience and magnanimity and 
your willingness to bide your time. 

Fearless, just, and wise, of deep and simple 
faith, serene in afiliction, self-restrained in suc- 
cess, unsuspected by any man of self interest, you 
command the admiration of all men and the 
gratitude and loyalty of the sons of Harvard.» 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Tue annual stated session of the National 
Academy of Sciences will be held in Wash- 
ington, D. C., beginning on Tuesday, April 19, 
1904. 

To celebrate President Eliot’s seventieth 
birthday, Harvard graduates and students 
have subscribed $5,000 for a portrait or bust 
to be placed in the Union. 

Dr. S. P. Laneury, secretary of the Smith- 
sonian Institution, has been made a corre- 


508 


sponding member of the Reale Istituto 
Veneto. 

Proressors Joscuikiso KogAaner and Tsuboi, 
of the University of Tokyo, have been made 
corresponding members of the German An- 
thropological Society. 

Dr. J. H. van’r Horr, the eminent chemist, 
has been made an honorary doctor of medi- 


cine by the University of Utrecht. 


Dr. Herricu Caro, of Mannheim, who cele- 
brated his seventieth birthday on February 13, 
has been given the honorary doctorate of en- 
gineering by the Technical School at Darm- 
stadt, in view of his contributions to chemical 
science and industry. 


Prorrssor F. L. Kwapp, formerly professor 
of technical chemistry at the Technical School 
of Brunswick, has recently celebrated his 
ninetieth birthday. 


At the request of the Peruvian government, 
the U. S. Geological Survey has sent Dr. 
George I. Adams to Peru to organize a service 
for hydrographic work. 

Dr. N. L. Brirron, Mrs. E. G. Britton and 
Dr. M. A. Howe, of the New York Botanical 
Garden, are now engaged in a collecting ex- 
pedition in Florida and in the Bahamas, using 
Miami as a base of operations. 


Dr. D. T. MacDoucat has returned from 
Sonora and Baja California, where he re- 
cently carried out some explorations. In ad- 
dition to the observations and collections of 
vegetation valuable data concerning tempera- 
tures and relative humidity were obtained. 


Dr. ArtHuR Ho3uick has obtained leave of 
absence from the New York Botanical Garden 
in order to examine and report upon a collec- 
tion of fossil plants representing the Creta- 
ceous (Island Series) flora of Staten Island, 
Long Island, Block Island and Martha’s Vine- 
yard for the U. 8. Geological Survey. 


Dr. JAMES Warp, professor of philosophy at 
Cambridge, will lecture before the summer 
school of the University of California. He 
will be one of the speakers before the Con- 
gress of Arts and Science of St. Louis, and 
will subsequently visit some of the eastern 
universities. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 483. 


Proressor Maracuiano, of Genoa, was un- 
able, owing to illness, to come to this country 
and give the lecture on tuberculosis before 
the Phipps Institute of Philadelphia, which 
had been announced for March 28. 


Mr. Overton W. Price, of the Bureau of 
Forestry, has been appointed lecturer in the 
Forest School of Yale University. 


Mr. Stewart Cunin, of the Brooklyn Insti- 
tute, on March 24, gave in the Fogg lecture- 
room of Harvard University the first of a 
series of three lectures arranged by the An- 
thropological Club, speaking on ‘ Recent An- 
thropological Investigations in the Southwest.’ 
On April 12, Professor A. F. Chamberlain, of 
Clark University, will speak on ‘What Our 
Civilization owes to the American Indian’; 
and shortly after the spring recess Mr. H. I. 
Smith, of the American Museum of Natural 
History, New York, will give an address on 
‘Recent Anthropological Investigations on the 
Northwest Coast of America.’ 


Ir is announced that the following have 
consented to lecture before the Carnegie Tech- 
nical School at Pittsburg: Professor C. L. 
Mees, president, Rose Polytechnie School, 
Terre Haute, Ind.; Miss Helen Kinne, Teach- 
ers College, Columbia University, New York; 
Harriet Sackett, Pratt Institute, Brooklyn; 
Professor Warren P. Laird, University of 
Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; Professor W. T. 
Goldsborough, Purdue University, Lafayette, 
Ind.; Professor W. F. Durand, Cornell Uni- 
versity, Ithaca, N. Y.; Professor C. F. Binns, 
Alfred University, Alfred, N. Y.; Professor 
Robert H. Richards, professor of mining and 
metallurgy, Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology, Boston; Professor James Russell, dean 
of Teachers College, Columbia University, 
New York City; H. H. Moek, mines and min- 
erals, Scranton, Pa.; William E. Gibbs, con- 
sulting engineer, New York, and Professor C. 
F. Chandler, Columbia University, New York. 


We have noted the death of the well-known 
zoologist, Professor Fredrik Adam Smitt, 
which took place at Stockholm on February 19. 
Born on the ninth of May, 1839, at Halmstad, 
he took his doctor’s degree at Upsala in 1863, 
and became docent in zoology at that uni- 


‘4 
a 


Aprm 1, 1904.] 


versity. While in this position he joined 
Torell and Nordenskiéld in their expedition to 
Spitzbergen in 1861, went with’ Nordenskidld’s 
expedition to Beeren Island and Spitzbergen 
in 1868 and accompanied the frigate Josefine 
on her voyage to the Azores, England and 
North America in 1869. On the death of 
Professor Sundevall in 1871 Smitt, though 
only thirty-two years old, was appointed to 
succeed him as professor and intendant at the 
Natural History Museum of the state. Smit 
wrote several papers on marine invertebrates, 
notably bryoza, but it was for his work on 
fish that he was best known, especially his 
eritical list of the Salmonidz in the state 
museum. Of late years he had paid much 
attention to the gobies. His scientific knowl- 
edge was freely bestowed in attempts to help 
the Swedish fisheries. 


Dr. Kart Scuumann, titular professor of 
botany at Berlin and curator of the Royal 
Botanical Museum, well known for his con- 
tributions to our knowledge of flowering 
plants, has died at the age of about fifty years. 


We regret also to record the death of Henry 
Perrotin, director of the Observatory at Nice 
at the age of fifty-eight years; of Dr. W. W. 
Markownikow, professor of chemistry in the 
University of Moscow; of Dr. Hermann Em- 
minghaus, formerly professor of psychiatry at 
Freiburg, at the age of fifty-nine years, and 
of Dr. L. Beushausen, docent of paleontology 
at the Berlin School of Mines, at the age of 
forty-one years. 

Tur French Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science will hold. its annual meeting 
at Grenoble beginning on August 4, 1904, un- 
der the presidency of M. C. A. Laisant. 


Tue following have been elected as an or- 
ganization committee of the American Biblio- 
graphical Society: Chairman—W orthington 
C. Ford, Library of Congress, Washington, 
D. C.. Secretary-treasurer—George W. Cole, 
New York City; Wilberforee Eames, Lenox 
Library; A. G. S. Josephson, John Crerar Li- 
brary; Azariah S. Root, Oberlin College 
Library. 


On April 19, there will be an examination 
for the position of scientific assistant, quali- 


SCIENCE. 


5d9 


fied in library science in the Bureau of Chem- 
istry, at a-salary of $840. There will also be 
held on April 19 an examination for compu- 
tors and for aid and deck officers in the Coast 
and Geodetic Survey. On April 19 and 20, 
there will be an examination for the position 
of librarian in the U. S. Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, at a salary of $1,800. Further in- 
formation in regard to these examinations 
ean be obtained from the Civil Service Com- 
mission, Washington, D. C. 


Binus have been introduced into the Senate 
and the House of Representatives imcorpora- 
ting the Carnegie Institution of Washington. 


ACTIVE preparations are being made at the 
New York Zoological Garden in Bronx Park 
for taking the animals out of winter quarters. 
Work is also being pushed with all possible 
speed on several new houses in the garden, 
the most important of which are the bird 
house, to cost $115,000; the small mammal 
house, to cost $38,000, and the ostrich house, 
to cost about the same sum. 


Two physicians of the Hamburg Institute 
for Tropical Diseases—Drs. Otto and Neu- 
mann—have gone to South America for the 
purpose of studying yellow fever. They are 
supplied with considerable means furnished 
by shippers and merchants of Hamburg. In 
addition to scientific studies they are to col- 
lect information with reference to the new 
preventive measures now used in South 
America against yellow fever, and to devise 
means to prevent the heavy damages which 
the German merchant marine has suffered in. 
the several years of yellow-fever epidemics. 


Mr. Henry GaNnNeETT, geographer of the 
United States Geological Survey, has re- 
cently received numerous letters of inquiry 
regarding the proper spelling of the place 
names in Korea and Manchuria that have be- 
come prominent. Mr. Gannett suggests that 
the matter would be much simplified if it were 
generally known that a system of translitera- 
tion of such names has been adopted by most 
European nations, by Canada and by this 
country. This plan is published in the Sec- 
ond Report of the United States Board on 
Geographic Names. The rules adopted by. 


560 


the Board on Geographic Names provide that 
the vowels shall have the sounds that are com- 
mon to the vowels in the languages of southern 
Europe. It follows, therefore, that w has the 
sound of oo in boot and that Manchuria is 
therefore preferred to Manchooria, Chefu to 
Chefoo, Amur to Amoor. It has been ruled 
that ai has the sound of 7 in ice; aw the sound 
of ow in how (ao—a very frequent combina- 
tion in the East, heard in names like Min- 
dadao and Nanao—is slightly different from 
the preceding); e2, as in Beirut, has the 
sound of the two Italian vowels, but is fre- 
quently slurred, when it is scarcely distin- 
guishable from ey in the English word they. 
In accordance with the rules, ¢ is always 
‘soft,’ having the sound of s. ‘Hard’ ¢ is 
represented by k, and it therefore follows that 
Korea is the accepted form, and not Corea. 
Other rules are that ch is always ‘soft,’ as in 
church; f is sounded as in English and ph 
should not be used to represent this sound; 
g is always ‘hard,’ as in get; h is always pro- 
nounced; 7 and & have the English sound; 
kh has the sound of the oriental guttural; 
gh is another guttural; ng represents in dif- 
ferent words different sounds—two sounds, as 
in finger, and one, as in singer; g should never 
be employed for the sound of qu, which is rep- 
resented by kw, as in Kwantung; y is always 
a consonant, as in yard. 


Tuer Boston Society of Natural History has 
undertaken to publish a series of lists of New 
England animals to form a volume of its Oc- 
easional Papers. These lists will be issued 
at irregular intervals, and are considered a 
necessary preliminary to more exhaustive 
monographs on New England animals, the 
publication of which the society hopes at some 
future time to undertake. To facilitate the 
preparation of these catalogues, the coopera- 
tion of persons interested in the fauna of New 
England is invited. Any New England speci- 
mens for the society’s museum should be sent 
to Mr. Charles W. Johnson, curator, and all 
notes, records, etc., to Mr. Samuel Henshaw, 
editor of ‘New England Fauna,’ in care of 
the society, Boston. The first two parts of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 483. 


the projected volume, containing lists of the 
Reptilia and Amphibia, are now in press. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Sir Wintram McDonatp will give $100,000 
to McGill University to establish a students’ 
union hall. 

Tue Chicago Board of Education proposes 
to build, at a cost of $500,000, a commercial 
high school on the lake front. 

Our consul at Bahia writes that the state 
of Bahia is about to organize a school of 
mines and wishes to arrange for a competent 
professor of mining. The state will make a 
contract for three years to pay the equivalent 
of from $3,000 to $4,000 a year as salary, with 
free transportation. It will be necessary that 
the applicant be a graduate of some recog- 
nized American school of mines and that he 
have both a practical and theoretical knowl- 
edge of mining. A speaking knowledge of 
Portuguese or Spanish is preferred, but lack 
of such will be no bar to a good man. Appli- 
eations should be addressed to Dr. Miguel 
Calmon du Pin e Almeida, Secretario da Agri- 
cultura, Industria, etc., Bahia, Brazil, or may 
be sent to the consulate for delivery. 

Tue report of the members of Mr. Moseley’s 
education commission to the United States 
will be published on April 9. Jt will contain 
about 600 pages and will be published at the 
nominal price of one shilling. ‘ 

Examinations for the Cecil Rhodes scholar- 
ship at Oxford will be held in the various 
states on April 13. 

Mr. Atexanper Smit has been made pro- 
fessor of chemistry and director of general 
and physical chemistry at the University of 
Chicago. 

Dr. Max Mason, of the Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technology, has been appointed 
instructor of mathematics in Yale University. 

Dr. Kart WeiRNICKE, professor of psychiatry 
at Breslau, has been called to Halle to fill the 
chair vacant by the removal of Professor Th. 
Ziehen to Berlin. 

Dr. K. S. Semstrom, professor of physics 
at the University of Helsingfors, has retired 
from active service. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Aprm 8, 1904. Department of International Research in Ter- 
3 d restrial Magnetism of the Carnegie Institu- 
; HODES IP, WW, JS UYU E46 Gags ebbeonocbo ce 596 
CONTENTS: Scientific Notes and News................. 597 
The Training of Technical Chemists: J. B. F. . . ; ’ 
HERRESHOFF, with Discussion by T. J. University and Educational News........... 599 


Parker, M. C. WuitaKer, Dr. WILLIAM 

McMourrriz, Proressor Epwarp Harr, MSS. intended tor punlication und books, eve., wievued 
Proressor W. A. Noyes, Proressor C. F. for review should be sent to the Editor of SCIENCE, Gurr,- 
CHANDLER, PRoressor A. A. Noyes, Pro- son-on-Hudson, N. Y 

Fessor H. P. Tarsor, Dr. WM. Jay ; 
ScCHIHFFELIN, Dr. Hueco ScHWEITZER, MAXxI- 

MILIAN TocH and PrRoressor M. T. *BoGERT 56] THE TRAINING OF TECHNICAL CHEMISTS” 


Scientific Books :— THe world’s growth in manufacturing 
Kapteyn on Skew Frequency Curves in Biol- industries has increased enormously during 


ogy and Statistics: Proressor C. C. Ene- - : 
BERG; Rhoads’s Mammals of Pennsylvania the last century. This marked progress 


and New Jersey: Witrrep H. Oscoop..... 575 has resulted from a greater and more 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 578 widely diffused knowledge of the SCHEMES 
OS y and their application. In this great ad- 
Societies and Academies :— Hen Stat esl eet 
The New York Academy of Sciences, Sec- vance the United States, aided by her won- 
tion of Anthropology and Psychology: Pro- derful and vast natural resources, has 
FESSOR JAMES EH. Loven. Section of Geol- Babe K 
ogy and Mineralogy: Dr. EomunD OTIS taken a very important part. In 1850 the 
er: Section ai ean Euaeics value of manufactured products in the 
and Chemistry: Dr. CHARLES C. TRow- : i : 
BRIDGE. The Chemical Society of Wash- United States was $1,000,000,000. This 
ington: A. SrEmELL. Onondaga Academy has increased to the astonishing figure of 
of Science: J. HE. Kirxwoop. The Section : . i 
E aEvaloGy ai eke cadens) Of Science and $13,000,000,000 in 1900, while the value of 
Art of Pittsburg: Freperic S. WEBSTER. unmanufactured agricultural products was 
Geological Journal Club of the Massachu- estimated at $4,000,000,000. 
setts Institute of Technology: G. F. ite SoH 
Loueniin. Olemson College Science Club: In bringing about this increase, chem- 
F.S. Suiver. The Academy of Science of istry, assisted by engineering, has played 
St. Lowis. The Elisha Mitchell Scientific > Oui al 1 
Society of the University of North Caro- a most important part. ur iron and stee 
lina: A. S. WHEELER...........--...--. 578 industries, our whole field of metallurgy 
Discussion and Correspondence :— and, indeed, the majority of the great in- 
Dr. Castle and the Dzierzon Theory: Pro- dustries, would have remained in a crude, 


FESSOR WILLIAM Morton WHEELER. Veg- 2 é 
etable Balls: Prorussor W. F. Ganone.. 587 dormant state had it not been for the im- 


eran Antics portant work of the chemist and his more 


Right-eycdness and Left-eyedness: Dr. practical brother, the technical chemist. 
Cio IME Crowin) a4 dolobbdodhadoben ooo 591 When we realize that the value of our 

Students at German Universities: Dr. JouN manufactured products is three times as 
IBIRAUNIKIGING & CRO WHMery etree) sy elepst- c= bei) = ol 594 


*p may; j Goan. \ayale 

Resolutions of the Chemical, Society of Wash- eames weenel et ihe aes ei une New York 

ington in Memory of E. BE. Ewell and EB. A. Section of the American Chemical Society, Feb- 
OE. SOMCHMB bocconcaccous ode tcooacn06 595 ruary 5, 1904. 


562 - 


great as our agricultural products, it is 
plain to see the vast importance of the 
work of the chemist, and especially the 
technical chemist, in the successful oper- 
ating, maintenance and improvement of 
our manufacturing industries. 

It will be inferred from this statement 
that the number of chemists engaged in 
active work in this country has greatly in- 
creased. It is a fact that in the last thirty 
years they have increased in a proportion 
far beyond that of the increase in the value 
of manufactured products. It is interest- 
ing to note also that their importance is 
more and more recognized. ‘Twenty years 
ago there were many establishments turn- 
ing out manufactured products where no 
chemists were employed; these firms have 
since engaged chemists, with the result that 
a marked saving in the costs and improve- 
ment in the quality of the goods produced 
has been effected. 

We are still very backward in this coun- 
try in the employment of chemists when we 
compare our position with that of Ger- 
many, especially in the chemical industry 
itself. It is not uncommon in Germany 
for one concern (as in the Badische Anilin 
und Soda Fabrik) to employ over 400 
chemists. We find in Germany that the 
highly educated technical chemists have 
done remarkable work in improving the 
chemical industrial condition of that coun- 
try, placing it far ahead of all nations in 
many branches, such as the great coal tar 
color industry. 

In the industrial strife which has been 
waging for some time between Germany 
and England, the former has gained on 
account of the fact that technical education 
is more widely diffused in Germany than in 
England. As an instance of this I quote an 
extract from the Spectator of December 5, 
1903, being a reprint of a speech by Mr. 
Haldane before the Liberal League, where- 
in he explains that the industries of Eng- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 484. 


land have declined, not because the goods 
manufactured are kept out of foreign mar- 
kets by protective duties, but because the 
goods themselves are inferior. to those pro- 
duced in foreign countries: 

“The German manufacturers make a 
finer quality of cellulose than the English 
manufacturers. We have not yet suc- 
ceeded in making it so white as they do, 
and for many of the uses to which cellu- 
loid is now put, whiteness is an essential 
quality. 
turers set about obtaining this whiteness? 
“Twelve of them,’ says Mr. Haldane, ‘com- 
bined together and put down £100,000, pro- 
viding besides £12,000 a year, and in one 
of the suburbs of Berlin, near the great 
university, founded an institution which 
we have nothing like in this country. They 
had the most distinguished professor of 
chemistry they could get from the Univer- 
sity of Berlin at the head of it; they gave 
him a large salary; they employed under 
him the best highly technically trained as- 
sistants that the university and the tech- 
nical schools of Berlin could produce. * * * 
Whenever they had a problem, whenever 
they found that the British manufacturer 
was making his celluloid a little whiter, 
they said to their experts, ‘Will you show 
us how to make ours whiter still?’ The 
investigators were set to work and we were 
beaten nearly out of the field.”’ 

In this country there are numerous ex- 
amples where the technical chemists have 
immensely improved manufacturing condi- 
tions either by lowering costs or by pro- 
ducing a higher quality of product. There 
is still much room for improvement, and I 
venture to say there is hardly a plant in 
the country turning out products requiring 
chemical skill where marked improvements 
could not be made by the very best work 
of technical chemists, in effecting changes 
that would reduce the cost of labor and 


How did the German manufac- ' 


ms ee 


oo 


A emtenitencie 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


fuel, in recoveries from waste products or 
by producing better material. 

Before deciding on the best methods of 
training our technical chemists, we must 
see that they are sufficiently educated in 
the proper lines to enable them readily to 
become technical chemists of great value. 
During my long experience in connection 
with chemical manufacturing and metal- 
lurgical work I have been forced to the full 
realization that the majority of chemists 
who are employed as analysts, technical 
chemists and as works or department man- 
agers, have perfected themselves in chem- 
istry alone and seem to have neglected the 
importance of physics and engineering. If 
one wishes to achieve the greatest success 
in such work he should not undertake the 
problem at all unless he has made up his 
mind to perfect his mathematics and be- 
come thoroughly familiar with physics as 
well as mechanical engineering. 

It seems a great mistake that the term 
technical chemist has been used in connec- 
tion with chemists who are obliged to apply 
chemistry in manufacturing processes. It 
would have been better had they been 
called chemical engineers, for this might 
have induced the study of chemical en- 
gineering in the colleges many years ago. 
I feel certain that, had this been done, our 
industrial situation would have been much 
further advanced than at present, and the 
standing of practical chemists would have 
been higher and their value more highly 
esteemed than is the case. We do not speak 
of a metallurgist as a technical metallur- 
gist, a miner as a technical miner, or an 
electrician as a technical electrician. The 
metalluregist is, properly speaking, a metal- 
lurgical engineer, the miner a mining en- 
eineer and an electrician who apples elec- 
tricity, an electrical engineer. In all of 
these positions it is impossible to succeed 
without a full knowledge of. mechanical 
engineering. The same is true in the ap- 


SCIENCE. 


563 


plication of chemistry. It would appear 
that when young men aspired to become 
chemists they looked upon the great chem- 
ists aS supreme beings. They also consid- 
ered mechanical engineering, with its ma- 
chinery, machine shop, foundry, ete. as 
beneath the dignity of the chemist; they 
left college knowing nothing of mechanical 
engineering, and of course were totally un- 
fit to take positions as works managers or 
wherever it became necessary to apply 
chemistry in a large way. I have known 
eases where young men, who were exceed- 
ingly clever as chemists, but totally ig- 
norant of engineering and as unpractical 
as one could imagine, were placed at once 
in positions of practical responsibility in 
small chemical works. No more eruel act 
could possibly be done to the chemist. The 
business managers were not practical and 
had studied neither engineering nor chem- 
istry. Of course many of the chemists 
who were placed in such positions proved 
utter failures, and for this reason many of 
the practical business men twenty-five years 
ago doubted the value of chemists in con- 
nection with manufacturing. Had these 
young chemists been chemical engineers 
and had the business managers received a 
moderate education in mechanical engi- 
neering and chemistry, the combination 
would have resulted in a marked success 
instead of failure. 

When we notice the enormous field in 
manufacturing in this country one can not 
help feeling that the study of mechanical 
engineering should be very much more gen- 
eral than at present. I have known chem- 
ists who had not studied engineering, who, 
when placed on practical work, realized 
their deficiencies and took a course in me- 
chanical engineering at night schools in 
order to enable them to properly apply 
their chemical knowledge. After men 
have gone through a regular course in 
chemical engineering they should be 


564 SCIENCE. 


trained, as far as possible, before leaving 
college in a thoroughly practical manner 
in the application of chemistry as well as 
in examples of engineering problems. 

The greater the application of chemistry, 
the more important becomes the combining 
of mechanical training with chemical train- 
ing. Our colleges should consider this 
matter more seriously than ever, and do 
their best to make the course in chemical 
engineering as complete and perfect in 
every way as possible. This is a duty they 
owe to our young men who desire to make 
a success in the great field of chemical en- 
gineering; it is a duty they owe to the 
manufacturers of this country who are 
doing their best to rival successfully the 
highest European competition and obtain 
our full share of the markets of the world 
for our manufactured products. Many of 
our manufacturers would receive the highly 
educated chemical engineer with open 
arms, and as a proof of their earnest be- 
lief in the importance of this matter they 
would gladly make necessary endowments 
to assist the colleges in carrying out this 
important work. The colleges should 
court their assistance by receiving all the 
practical suggestions that would enable 
them to readily turn out men so well edu- 
eated and trained that they would very 
easily become valuable chemical engineers. 

Chemical engineering necessitates a 
ereater variety of engineering than all the 
other branches of engineering combined. 
In designing the apparatus that is em- 
ployed in conducting the endless variety 
of chemical and metallurgical processes, 
every known metal and alloy is used in 
every conceivable variety or form. All 
kinds of brick are used, acid, basic, neutral 
and vitreous, glass, all sorts of pottery- 
ware, porcelain, stone, rubber, coke, as- 
phalt, wood, cements, ete., and these in 
every combination and form which the 
best chemical engineering skill can devise 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No, 484. 


to improve old methods and properly con- 
duct new processes.. In order to select the 
best material with which to carry on diffi- 
cult problems, the chemical engineer must 
have a wide knowledge of the action of 
acids, alkalies and chemicals under all con- 
ditions of solution and heat, upon all known 
substances which could be employed to 
carry on the processes. Generally in new 


problems; carefully conducted inyestiga- 


tions have to be made on a small scale, to 
show conclusively the best substances to be 
used. 

In the designing and construction of 
plants and apparatus the chemical engi- 
neer has not only to select the most suit- 
able material, but he must so carefully 
study the function of every detail of the 
apparatus to be used, that each part will 
successfully meet the full requirements. 
Each and every part must be proportioned 
to what it has to do; everything must be 
proportionately strong and large enough 
for the purpose, always avoiding unneces- 
sary extremes in order to curtail the first 
cost of the plant. The desired end must 
be met in the simplest possible manner and 
the devices so arranged that while opera- 
ting they will be so nearly automatic that 
good results will be achieved with the least 
possible labor. The plants must be so 
designed that the greatest yields will be 
obtained and the finest products turned 
out. 

But after all this is done the chemical 
engineer will not be thoroughly skilful and 
up to date unless he designs every part of 
the apparatus so that it will last the longest 
possible time. Everything must be ar- 
ranged so that when repairs are required 
they can be conducted with the least ex- 
pense. 

For the successful operating, maintain- 
ing and improving the condition of plants 
where chemical skill is employed, the man- 
ager or superintendent and his assistants 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


must be trained not merely in chemistry, 
but in mechanical engineering as well. 
Training in business and departmental 
management is also highly desirable. 
However perfectly a plant and its ap- 
paratus may be designed and erected, it 
will not necessarily give successful results 
unless every machine, furnace, still, con- 
denser, tower, ete., is operated under the 
management of a man who is fully con- 
versant with the function of every detail 
of the apparatus. In order to obtain in 
every way the best possible results, the 
superintendent is greatly handicapped if 
he has not received a full education and 
practical training in chemical engineering. 
Without the proper scientific knowledge 
that governs all the operations, he never 
fully understands the true reason for all 
the things that are done under his control. 
The inevitable outcome of such unintel- 
ligent management results in the contin- 
uance of a low standard of skill in all the 
working force under him. ‘The apparatus 
is not run to the best advantage, thus 
lowering the quality and raising the cost 
of the goods produced. On the contrary, 
if the superintendent is properly educated 
in chemical engineering and has had a 
proper training as an assistant superin- 
tendent or practical investigator, and es- 
pecially if he has a natural fondness for 
machinery and mechanics, then success will 
erown all his work. Whenever there is a 
difficulty—something breaks down and bad 
results follow—then he will at once clearly 
define the reason for the trouble and take 
the proper steps in completely correcting 
the evil. He gives true reasons for every- 
thing that is done in the yarious depart- 
ments of the plant. He sees much going 
on that is unreasonable, and step by step 
he brings the unsatisfactory work up to a 
higher and higher standard. His assist- 
ants are chemical engineers, and he inspires 
ereat confidence and interest in them by a 


SCIENCE. 


565 


course of training that causes them to think 
and reason from every standpoint, so that 
before taking action, everything having an 
important bearing on the chemical, phys- 
ical, engineering, business and labor sides 
of the problem in hand is most carefully 
considered. 

By such a course of training the young 
men learn~ to think systematically and, 
guided by a master of the art, they rapidly 
learn to make the best use of their edu- 
cation in applying it to important practical 
work. It is quite natural for the impulsive 
youth to put into practice the first thought 
that comes to his mind. In the practical 
training that he should receive I must im- 
press upon you the importance of making’ 
him consider, every problem most carefully 
and from all sides, before taking action. In 
this manner he will acquire a habit of not 
acting quickly or without deep considera- 
tion. You will find that men who have 
thus been made to think and reason broadly 
and in a systematic manner, will put into 
practice what may be considered good 
sound judgment. Such men are bound to 
make a success in the practical application 
of their chemical engineering. 

In a large chemical or metallurgical 
works, or any other establishment where 
the processes are controlled by chemical 
analysis and where the raw and finished 
products are bought and sold for values 
governed by analysis, it is necessary to 
have a well-appointed chemical laboratory. 
In large plants where many chemists are 
employed, an able chemist should be at the 
head of the analytical as well as the re- 
search laboratory; the chemists in the 
analytical laboratory are not always col- 
lege graduates, as most of the work is of a 
routine nature, requiring great skill in 
manipulation but not necessarily an exten- 
sive knowledge of chemistry. These men, 
when confined to this work, have no op- 
portunity to employ engineering skill ex- 


066 SCIENCE. 


cept in perfecting the apparatus used in 
making chemical analyses. It is of the 
utmost importance that their analyses are 
accurate and quickly performed. On very 
important work, such as analyses made for 
settlements on raw material and finished 
products, analyses are run in duplicate and 
settlements made on a split between the 
buyer’s and seller’s results. This com- 
petition encourages very accurate work on 
the parts of the analysts, and they become 
very skilful. 

It is the custom in all well-managed in- 
dustrial laboratories to investigate fre- 
quently the analytical methods used, in or- 
der to determine their accuracy, reliability, 
ease and quickness of performance. Old 
methods of analysis are thus improved, new 
methods invented and the new methods of 
others compared and adopted, if found the 
most suitable. For this reason it is not 
uncommon to find the most desirable ana- 
lytical methods used in the laboratories of 
our important industrial establishments. 
The colleges would do well to look into these 
methods as far as possible, and thus keep 
abreast with the best practice to aid them 
in teaching analytical methods. 

There is no reason why the training of 
analysts in large laboratories should not 
be of the highest order. It is a great mis- 
take to allow the standing of the work done 
in these laboratories to run down. It isa 
grave error to economize too much in the 
laboratory by employing too few analysts 
and thus prevent the practical managers 
from receiving all the information required 
to control intelligently the various pyro- 
cesses in the factory. 

After men have been a few years in an 
industrial laboratory they, as a rule, desire 
positions in the works. It is the exception 
when we find a chemist from college who 
has studied mechanical engineering; for 
this reason only very few chemists become 
good candidates, qualified for giving proper 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 484. 


attention to large factory processes where 
the many complicated devices require en- 
gineering as well as chemical skill. I have 
known many of the men in a laboratory to 
study mechanical engineering either at 
night schools or with correspondence 
schools. It would have appeared the part 
of wisdom for such men to have taken a 
course at college in mechanical engineering 
as well as in chemistry, thus fitting them 
for a wider field of work in their chosen 
vocation, and affording an opportunity to 
make greater advancements. 

The future success of any well-estab- 
lished industrial institution of a chemical 
nature is in grave peril if it does not have 
an investigation or research department. 
The manager of this department must be 
by education a chemical engineer. He 
should have had much experience as @ 
practical business manager of plants, and 
a direct acquaintance in the designing, re- 
construction and repairs of the same. 
This department must have a properly 
equipped research laboratory. The head 
of this research laboratory must be pos- 
sessed of very high attammments as a 
chemist and physicist, with a fair knowl- 
edge of mechanical engineering. His work 
through life will be stamped with the great- 
est success if he has been trained at college 
in methodical methods of thinking, as ap- 
plied to original work, and to many ex- 
amples of practical investigation and ex- 
perimentation. The chemists under him 
should have received the same education 
and training at college. It is desirable 
that this department should have the capac- 
ity to investigate new processes that are 
presented, and if they look promising, a 
small working plant should be constructed 
and operated by them to prove fully the 
value of the method and to give the neces- 
sary practical data to be used in the designs 
of a large and fully equipped plant. This 
department will keep in touch with every- 


ELS eC Cl ee 


Aprin 8, 1904.] 


thing that is published, in either technical 
journals or patent reports, having a bear- 
ing on the work under consideration. All 
the processes in the company’s works will 
be carefully investigated by them, to locate 
and devise means for preventing losses in 
gases, liquid and solid waste material, and 
thus increase the yield of the useful prod- 
ucts. They work up methods for making 
useful products from waste material. 
Much of their time is occupied in working 
up means for improving the quality of the 
various finished products. They are also 
busily engaged in working up new pro- 
cesses, putting the same into practice, and 
thus entirely supplanting the old methods. 

It will be seen from these remarks that 
to become a skilful or trained investigator 
in a research chemical laboratory requires: 

1, A proper education at college as a 
chemical engineer, especially full in chem- 
istry. 

2. Training at college in original thought 
as applied to practical investigation, and 
to working up and improving processes. 

Some of you feel that it is a mistake to 
divide the work of one man between chem- 
istry and mechanical engineering; that the 
chemist must be solely a chemist and the 
engineer an engineer alone. I admit that 
a very small proportion of the chemists 
have to devote all their time to pure chem- 
istry, and in certain lines of. theoretical 
and research work.. The great majority 
of chemists in this country, however, are 
engaged in practical work where they need 
engineering assistance, and in such eases 
the chemist who is not an engineer would 
have to consult the engineer for practical 
advice, and the engineer seeks chemical as- 
sistance from the chemist and without a 
knowledge of chemistry obtains but little 
satisfaction. 

My experience forces me to feel that a 
complete understanding of the various 
problems must come from a brain that can 


SCIENCE. 


567 


think in both chemistry and engineering. 
The dignity and fame of chemistry will 
not be injured by joining in close union 
with engineering. Indeed, the real value 
and glory of chemistry come from its ap- 
plication to useful products that add com- 
fort and happiness to the human race. 
These applications can not be carried on 
without the aid of engineering. 

Applied chemistry would be greatly 
benefited in this country if the colleges 
would come in closer touch with the manu- 
facturer. The professors of chemistry and 
mechanical engineering would do well to 
study more carefully the educational re- 
quirements as found in some of our large 
works, where the advantages of a well- 
directed knowledge of chemical engineering 
are clearly shown. I am sure the broad- 
minded manufacturers would gladly co- 
operate in this important work, seeing 
plainly that it must result in a general 
advantage to our industries, and to the 
industry and prosperity of our whole 
country. The best way to carry on this 
work would be to employ a plan that has 
been in successful practice at Brown Uni- 
versity for the last few years. They care- 
fully select from their alumni a separate 
committee for each department of study. 
These committees visit the college once or 
more a year; they consult and exchange 
views with the heads of the departments 
they represent. Hach member reports his 
recommendations to the chairman of his 
committee, who incorporates the same in 
his report to the president of the college. 
I am a member of the committee appointed 
to assist the chemical department of Brown 
University. I recommended to them to 
have a course in chemical engineering, and, 
indeed, outlined a four-year and a five- 
year course, giving the number of hours 
per week for each study. 

The more perfectly and completely 
chemistry is applied by engineering assist- 


568 


ance, the greater will be the volume of 
manufactured products and the larger 
will be the field for chemistry. May 
Americans stand foremost among the 
nations of the world in turning out chem- 
ical engineers having such great abil- 
ity that they can easily lead our manu- 
facturers to an unapproachable pinnacle of 
ereatness and perfection. May the chem- 
ists of the American Chemical Society ever 
be leaders in this great work, and may 
their name and fame remain to the end of 
time a living monument to industry, prog- 
ress and prosperity. 
J. B. F. HeRRESHOFF. 


DISCUSSION. 
Mr. T. J. Parker. 

It seems to me the keynote of the dis- 
cussion was struck by one sentence in the 
address, which was to the effect that the 
marvelous development of industrial chem- 
istry in this country is due to the work of 
the chemical engineer. I do not see from 
my standpoint how the dual existence of 
the engineer and the chemist is necessary 
for the higher development of the chem- 
istry and mechanics of the industry com- 
mitted to the charge of the competent tech- 
nical chemist. The important question 
arises, therefore, What shall we do to prop- 
erly equip the young men who are annually 
turned out from our technical schools and 
colleges? 

From the experience of many here pres- 
ent they could no doubt tell you of men 
who have been brought up in mechanical 
pursuits, not as chemists, and whose prac- 
tical knowledge of chemistry was acquired 
after they had left college, who have made 
very successful men, because they had me- 
chanical ability to apply the investigations 
and discoveries of the scientific chemist to 
the requirements olf the manufactures or 
arts under their charge. If the applica- 
tion of chemistry to manufacturing proc- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


esses 1s desired, it 1s certainly necessary for 
these young men to have a knowledge of 
mechanics or engineering as well as chem- 
istry, in order to apply it efficiently in our 
factories. 

The opening for the industrial chemist in 
the next five or ten years is simply phe- 
nomenal, judging from what we have heard 
here to-night. 


Mr. M. C. WurraKer. 

On the technical staff of a manufacturing 
establishment you will find a civil engineer 
who lays out the grounds and devises new 
construction, and you will find a mechan- 
ical engineer who plans his boilers and his 
new engines; both of these men, in the 
opinion of the superintendent, are very 
important individuals. The electrical en- 
gineer sets up his dynamos and places his 
motors. He devises new and ingenious 
electrical apparatus, and he, in the mind of 
the superintendent, is also a very important 
individual. Now, when the processes con- 
nected with these manufacturine industries 
are referred to the chemist for improve- 
ment, he repairs to his laboratory, and we all 
know that he goes through some very seri- 
ous, painstaking work. This work is not ap- 
preciated by the superintendent because he 
is not a chemist. What the superintendent 
asks for is actual merchantable results. 
The chemist is generally not a man who is 
capable of transmitting from a laboratory 
to a factory the ideas which he has devel- 
oped. He is not educated in the engineer- 
ing branches which have been so much 
emphasized here this evening. He should 
have a knowledge of electrical engineering 
and bring it to bear in the proper solution 
of problems coming before him. He should 
have such a knowledge of mechanical en- 
eimeering as to bring to bear the best me- 
chanical devices. Furthermore, and in my 
mind the most important of all, he should 
have that knowledge of getting along with 


ApRiIL 8, 1904.] 


people so developed that, after he has pre- 
pared his plans and laid them out, he can 
get the help to bring about the results 
which he desires. This is a very important 
step, but the point I have tried to make is 
that the man must not only have the knowl- 
edge to develop new ideas, but he must 
have the knowledge to put them into prac- 
tise. Now, we see that those men who have 
by themselves obtained this engineering 
knowledge, either before or after studying 
chemistry, are the men who make a fair 
success. Therefore, it seems to me very 
important that we should do all we can to 
help to produce the kind of a chemist that 
I have named—a chemical engineer. A 
man who has such a knowledge of chem- 
istry, of electrical and mechanical engineer- 
ing, of metallurgy and of the handling of 
men as will enable him to go into a labora- 
tory and develop a process, and then put 
it into operation and deliver to his concern 
a merchantable result, will have that recog- 
nition on the payroll which he deserves. 
In other words, I think that these men, 
instead of being assistants in our manu- 
facturing industries, will be leaders. 

Dr. Winuiam McMourtrin. 

Those of us who have had experience in 
the applications of chemistry in a large 
way have long recognized the truth that to 
be successful in the chemical industries in 
this country one must be at the same time 
a chemist and an engineer. One must 
know thoroughly not only the reactions in- 
volved in a particular industry and the 
laws of chemistry which govern them, but 
must have intimate acquaintance with the 
mechanical means whereby the reactions 
may be carried out in a large way. 

I know full well that teachers in the 
educational institutions object that the 
time allotted for the training of young men 
for the chemical industries is too short to 
cover both the branches of work indicated, 
and most or all of us are prepared to admit 


SCIENCE. 


569 


that this objection is valid. Part of the 
difficulty is due to the fact that those 
charged with this trainimg have to do with 
raw material in the student which is far 
too raw; that students present themselves 
not properly prepared for the work before 
them. I, therefore, believe that the train- 
ing of the technical chemist, as well as that 
of every technical and professional man, 
should begin much earlier than the en- 
trance to the technical school. It should 
begin even in the earlier, grades of the pri- 
mary school. Here the idea should be 
abandoned that the young minds are too 
immature for serious study and systematic 
work; that the children need to be amused 
rather than seriously educated; that they 
must be trained by kindergarten methods 
in lines which must later be traversed again 
in the serious struggle for education. And 
thus precious time is lost at the age when 
the mind is most pliable and receptive. 

It would be far better, to return to the old- 
fashioned methods of careful study of the 
three R’s. The children should be taught 
first of all to read understandingly; to 
write clearly; to comprehend readily the 
ereat truths of literature and science, 
whether expressed orally or in print. Then 
they should have continued training in 
mathematics, the successful study of which 
involves careful and systematic thought 
and work. The result sought in any eal- 
culation in mathematics is always most 
definite, and the attainment of an accurate 
result involves careful attention to every 
detail. For this reason the study provides 
splendid preparation for successful work 
in any profession or in business, im the re- 
search laboratories or in the wider fields 
of the applications of science—the great 
manufacturing and engineering works. 

So then let the children begin serious 
and systematic work early; let them be so 
trained that work once done need not be 
repeated; let them come to the technical 


570 SCIENCE. 


school with thorough and careful training 
first, in general culture, in language and 
literature, then in mathematics, and finally 
give them the advantage of the splendid 
courses provided in our technical schools 
in chemistry and engineering, and they will 
be prepared to meet effectively and success- 
fully the great problems the chemical in- 
dustries of the immediate future will have 
ready for them. That what is needed can 
be fully accomplished in a course of four 
years I doubt, but it may be helped by the 
preparation I have outlined. That the 
technical chemist of the future must know 
thoroughly the great laws of chemistry and 
at the same time be well grounded in the 
principles of engineering I do not doubt. 
And I am satisfied that justice to the young 
men, as well as to those who must employ 
them, demands that time for all the train- 
ing I have outlined should be provided. 


Proressor Epwarp Harr. 

It seems to me that we must in the first 
place reconcile ourselves to the idea of do- 
ing the best we can in four years. I am 
one of those who do not believe very much 
in post-graduate courses for, chemical stu- 
dents. There are many who must have a 
post-graduate course, of course, but if you 
take the ordinary man and follow the his- 
tory of such ordinary man, the man who 
passes through college and makes- after- 
wards a success, you will find that very 
many of them were poor boys. They haven’t 
the money to take more than a four years’ 
course. If we are to turn out such men 
_ we must educate them, as far as we can, 
in four years. How are we going to do it? 
We must limit the number of our subjects. 
We must attempt and to a large extent 
succeed in teaching those things that we 
attempt to teach well and not attempt to 
teach too many things, and that involves a 
very careful selection of one part of the 
equipment to which I am sure too little 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No, 484. 


attention is often paid, and that is those 
who take part in the work of teaching. 
I have had considerable experience in 
teaching. I have had very few assistants 
who did their work faithfully, very few. 
It is a very tiresome, thankless business to 
teach a lot of beginners, and it very seldom 
happens that before the end of two years 
of such work the man doesn’t lose a part of 
his enthusiasm and do his work less well 
than it should be done. This work must 
be done well if we are to succeed in turn- 
ing out the class of men that we want, and 
it is this work which determines very 
largely the quality of our product, for 
there is no truer thing in the world than 
that the student is largely the product of 
the self-sacrifice of his teacher. We must 
first teach the science of chemistry, so far 
as it is possible, and we must teach it thor- 
oughly and well, because we can’t go too 
far, and then we must teach engineering, 
because the chemical manufacturer is an 
artisan. He must be an artisan to a cer- 
tain extent. I do not believe, however, 
that in the four years’ course it will be 
possible to get into such a man more than 
the elements of engineering, but if these 
things are done well I am quite sure that 
the product will be quite different from the 
product that is turned out at the present 
time. 


Proressor W. A. NoyvEs. 

The discussion thus far has dwelt almost 
exclusively upon the necessity that the 
chemist should know many things besides 
chemistry and especially that he should 
know mechanical engineering, and with all 
that phase of the discussion I most heartily 
agree. 

With regard to the chemical side of the 
work we are in as great difficulty, almost, 
for lack of time as with regard to the ac- 
cessory side of it. Chemical science has 
expanded enormously in the last twenty- 


f 


Appin 8, 1904.] 


five or fifty years. It is as impossible to- 


day to know all chemical science, even in a 


general way, as it was fifty years ago to 
Imow all the sciences. Chemistry has so 
wonderfully developed in so many different 
directions that it is impossible for any one 
to cover the whole field. It is necessary, 
therefore, for the colleges to choose, in this 
large field, what shall be taught. Now, 
the basis of the training for the technical 
chemist and for the chemist of all kinds, 
must be a thorough training in analytical 
chemistry. I believe that the training 
in this particular field has become in- 
ferior to what it was a few years ago. Re- 
sults that have come to my knowledge, and 
no doubt to the knowledge of others of you, 
during recent years, of the way in which 
chemists fail in comparatively simple ana- 
lytical problems, show that the training of 
the- chemist is not always what it should 
be. Another important question which 
comes before the teacher in the college is, 
How much training in industrial chemistry 
can be given to the student. It seems to 
me that comparatively little in that par- 
ticular direction can be done, especially in 
a four years’ course. It is important that 
the student shall have a thorough training 
in the fundamentals of the science and a 
thorough training in analysis. If that 
training is given, it is impossible to crowd 
into the four years’ course any very con- 
siderable training in industrial questions. 


Another fact which makes any long or ex- 


tended training in industrial questions in- 
advisable, as well as impossible, in the col- 
lege course, lies in the extremely wide 
range of work in which these young men 


are going to engage, and, in a majority of 


cases, from the difficulty of tellmg what 
work the particular individual will do after 
he gets out of your hands. It is manifestly 
impossible, therefore, to train him for that 
particular field into which he will go. He 


SCIENCE. 571 


must of necessity gain his special training 
in that field after he enters it. 


Proressor C. F. CHANDLER. 

The difficulty is that our students come 
to us for four years. They never know 
what particular branch of chemistry they 
intend to pursue in after life. We are 
compelled, therefore, to treat them all sub- 
stantially alike, and give them all sub- 
stantially the same chemical education. 
Now, it is not possible in four years to do 
a great deal more than to lay the founda- 
tions of a chemical education, particularly 
if you want to devote some time to giving 
the students a good training m mathe- 
matics and various other branches which 
go to make up a complete chemical educa- 
tion. It seems to me as if the work of 
making the chemist was put entirely upon 
the instructors. The student expects the 
instructors to do the work. We suggested 
that we might increase the number of as- 
sistants, and let them make the analyses 
for the students. When I was a student 
I went into Wohler’s laboratory. He gave 
us a lecture every morning and we were 
expected to attend that lecture and make 
the most of it. Then we went into the 
laboratory. He handed me a piece of 
triphyline and said: ‘I want you to get 
some lithia out of that.’ He did not give 
me an hour’s lecture and tell me how to 
make lithia and have me write it down. 
He gave me a piece of the mineral and I 
had to hustle and find the solution of the 
problem myself. He said: ‘You have to 
make some lithia out of that, and after 
you have made up your mind, come to me 
and I will look over your proposition and 
see whether it is right.’ That was the way 
chemistry was taught in Wohler’s labo- 
ratory. There was a small number of stu- 
dents and that method of instruction was 
carried out. We had seven hundred stu- 
dents working in our chemical laboratories 


572 ‘SCIENCE. 


last year, and, of course, it is extremely 
difficult to give each student much personal 
attention. I think that one great difficulty 
is that somehow or other we have rather 
drifted into the condition that the student 
expects the professor to tell him every- 
thing that he has to do. I worked in 
Rose’s laboratory for a year, making min- 
eral analyses. He never told me how to 
make an analysis. He handed me a piece 
of mineral, samarskite, for example, and 
told me to find it out myself. I read every- 
thing I could find that had ever been writ- 
ten on the subject. I found out the best 
methods known for analysis. That was 
the system of those days. Now, the stu- 
dents expect us to stand up im the lecture 
room and tell them every step in the pro- 
eess of making an analysis. They must 
be told to weigh a gram and a half of this, 
and add this and that to it, so many cubic 
centimeters of this and so many of that, 
and they must do this, that and the other 
thing; and unless you tell the student every 
step of that kind, he can not make the 
analysis. 

I quite agree with everything that has 
been said upon the subject of adding to 
the instruction of the chemist a sufficient 
amount of engineering to enable him to 
rise to the dignity of superintendent or 
manager of large works, but I do not think 
that can be done in a four years’ course. 
If we train our men in analytical chemistry, 
in general chemistry, and in such an 
amount of industrial chemistry as can be 
taught in the lecture room, and such an 
amount of laboratory practice as can be 
carried on in university laboratories, and 
at the same time give them their thermo- 
dynamics and physics, and a certain 
amount of mineralogy, I think that is the 
best we can do. 


Prorressor A. A. Noyes. 
In the first place I would say, I believe 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


that a distinct demand by manufacturers 
for men trained in both chemistry and 
chemical engineering will make it much 
easier to induce students to take the extra 
fifth year that is necessary in order to do 
anything like justice to these two subjects. 
I believe, too, that institutions can do a 
great deal in this direction by laying out 
a definite course of fifth-year work, leading 
to some higher degree; for when a definite 
course is offered there are more likely to 
be applicants for it than if it is only stated 
in a general way that there is an oppor- 
tunity for advanced work. 

I should also like to ask the question, 
whether manufacturers prefer a chemical 
engineer or an engineering chemist—that 
is to say, a man whose education is mainly 
upon the mechanical engineering side, with 
some knowledge of chemistry included, or 
a man whose main training is in chemistry, 
this being supplemented only by such an 
amount of mechanical engineering as can 
be worked in without serious detriment to 
his chemical knowledge? I think it should 
be borne in mind in answering this ques- 
tion that, if the chemical engineer is pre- 
ferred, it would certainly mean a sacrifice 
of the power of attacking new problems 
on the part of our industrial chemists. The 
engineer is trained to put in application 
existing methods; and it seems to me that 
what is wanted of the factory chemist in 
this country is rather the power of solving 
new problems and of making improvements 
in processes—a power to be acquired far 
more by a good chemical training, which 
should include a large proportion of re- 
search and other work requiring independ- 
ent thinking, than by an engineering train- 
ing. 

In order to introduce any considerable 
amount of mechanical engineering in the 
chemical courses it is necessary to eliminate 
something that we have there now; and the 
question is a very pertinent one, What kind 


ex 


aoe 


RN ae A A 


aime neal 


APRIL 8, 1904.] 


of instruction can be best spared? By 
two of the speakers analytical chemistry 
has been emphasized as especially impor- 
tant, a subject to which already by far the 
larger part of the available time is devoted 
in most chemical courses. I myself con- 
sider it a question whether this can not 
be reduced to a considerable extent in the 
case of chemists preparing for positions in 
the works rather than the laboratory. An- 
other question that may, perhaps, be 
worthy of consideration is whether the 
modern languages to which a very large 
amount of time is devoted in most of the 
college courses are actually made use of 
to any considerable extent by manufactur- 
ing chemists. 


Proressor H. P. Tarpor. 

We can not probably hope to transform 
the student into a chemist and an engineer 
in the same four years, but we can hope, I 
think, to turn out a good chemist—a man 
fundamentally trained, at any rate—and 
at the same time to give him so much of 
the fundamental principles of engineering 
that he will at least know what a mechan- 
ical engineer is talking about and know 
what he ought to be expected to do. That 
is a good deal in itself. 

As to what shall be taken out of our 
chemistry courses to make a place for these 
other subjects, there must always be a cer- 
tain amount of sincere difference of opin- 
ion. While analytical chemistry is the 
yard-stick by which the chemist generally 
measures his practical attamments, it is 
possible, I think, that we sometimes make a 
mistake in teaching analytical chemistry 
in a too abstract way. Iam hopeful that, 
as time goes on, we shall be able so to 
arrange our courses that we can connect 
analytical chemistry in the mind of the 
student more closely with the scientific or 
industrial problems to which it is to be 
applied, and in this way can stimulate his 


SCIENCE. 


573 


interest and develop his ingenuity. If a 
change of this sort will produce a grad- 
uate with greater power to apply his knowl- 
edge and technique promptly and prac- 
tically, the time spent upon analytical 
chemistry will be fully justified. 


Dr. Wm. JAY SCHIEFFELIN. 

I want to say a word in answer to the 
questions which Dr. Noyes has put—first, 
should less time be devoted to analytical 
work; and second, are the languages im- 
portant? 

Most of the industrial processes are 
elaborations or applications of methods 
used in analysis; therefore, the technical 
chemist should know the methods. It is 
very hard to-day to get a man who is a 
good analyst, upon whose analysis you can 
entirely rely. If he must make an analysis 
which he has not made before, he takes a 
book of selected methods and goes through 
it, but his results are not satisfactory. I 
think it is vitally important that the man 
should be a trained analyst. It is the 
hardest thing in the world to have a min- 
eral accurately analyzed to-day and there 
are very few men in the country who can 
make an analysis of a new mineral from 
which its formula can be deduced. But 
what interests the chemist in the technical 
laboratory is improvement in processes and 
apparatus more than in minute accuracy 
of results; moreover, in any technical 
laboratory there are comparatively few 
varieties of analyses being made. It seems 
to me that the German language is im- 
mensely important, because the German 
works, Beilstein and Dammer, are to-day 
the chemist’s bibles, and contaim nearly 
everything on organic and inorganic chem- 
istry which he wants to learn about, and 
they haven’t their parallel in the English 
language. It is, therefore, very important 
to have a knowledge of the German lan- 
guage, and I do hope there will be no at- 


574 


tempt to reduce the amount of time given 
to quantitative analysis. 


Dr. Hueco ScHWEITzER. 

Until now we have been a happy family 
and I hate to sound the discordant note. 
I am absolutely against the introduction 
of chemical engineering in the education of 
chemists and want to restrict the same to 
pure chemistry. You haye heard from 
Professor Chandler and from Professor 
Noyes and the other gentlemen who are 
teaching at our universities and colleges 
that it is impossible to make a chemist and 
a chemical engineer in four years. This 
is not to be wondered at, as Mr. Herreshoff 
stated in his paper, and it was this that 
struck me most, that chemical engineering 
embraces more kinds of engineering than 
any other branch of engineering. Now, 
since he, the most successful, the most in- 
genious, the most prominent chemical engi- 
neer in this country, has been able to master 
both sciences, he thinks that we average 
people of little brains and little minds 
should also sueceed. Gentlemen, the proof 
of the pudding is in the eating. Let us be 
open and frank! What have American 
chemists originated in chemical manufac- 
turing? ‘You will find that we have been 
pioneers in only a very few instances. It 
is true we manufacture acids and alkali 
just as well and perhaps better than they 
do in Europe, but, as I say, we have been 
pioneers only in a few things, and the rea- 
son for it is in our method of education. 
Who asks that we should be both chemists 
and engineers? Do we chemists ask for it? 
No, we have trouble enough with chem- 
istry. Do the teachers of chemistry ask 
for it? No, because they tell us to-night 
that it is impossible for them to convert 
their students into chemists and chemical 
engineers. You remember Dr. Noyes said 
that ‘to-day chemical science requires as 
much detailed knowledge as did all sciences 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 484. 


together fifty years ago.’ Do you think 
that with such a broad field we can also 
master chemical engineering? Most de- 
cidedly not. 

It is the manufacturer who asks that we 
should be both chemists and chemical 
engineers. In my opinion, the education 
of the chemist, gentlemen, is entirely a sec- 
ondary question. As far as they are not 
educated chemically, it is the employers of 
chemists who need education. They engage 
a chemist, and paying him the generous 
salary which we chemists are wont to get, 
they think he ought to be a chemical engi- 
neer besides. What the manufacturers 
ought to do is: they should take the gradu- 
ates from the universities as they are edu- 
cated in pure chemistry and train them in 
their works at their expense during one or 
perhaps two years to become technical 
chemists and technical engineers. So, gen- 
tlemen, I urge upon you most sincerely to 
abandon the idea of educating chemists to 
be also chemical engineers, and now let us 
all work for the education of the chemical 
employer and the capitalist. 


Mr. Maximinian Toc. 


A student can study languages before 
he enters into his course of chemistry. 
German is essential, but French is not. 
When a student is admitted to college he 
is about seventeen years of age and he 
should then have a fundamental training 
in mathematics and languages; in fact, at 
the age of seventeen a student can be fairly 
well trained in elementary chemistry and 
in mathematics and drawing, so that the 
four years at college can be applied to 
chemistry, physics and electricity. 

My suggestion would be that the colleges 
invite men to lecture who have been suc- 
cessful in manufacturing industries and 
they naturally can impart knowledge to 
students such as a professor is not expected 
to have. 


+ tna a 


Aprin 8, 1904.] 


The college laboratory is totally different 
from a factory. Any student can make 
an ounce of a material, but when it comes 
to multiplying that by three thousand 
technical education is necessary. 


Prorgssor M. T. Bogurt. 

It appears to me that the employers of 
technical chemists really want two kinds of 
chemists. In the first place, they need 
what may be called technical directors; 
men who are trained more thoroughly on 
the mechanical side than on the chemical 
side; who understand the handling of both 
men and machinery and who know in a 
general way the chemical processes to be 
carried out; and secondly, scientifically 
educated chemists. The training of these 
two classes of chemists, it seems to me, is 
quite different. The man who has to do 
with a particular chemical problem and 
work it out in the laboratory needs a very 
thorough and highly specialized training 
in chemistry. Hngineering is not neces- 
sary. The value of the results accom- 
plished have been placed too much, in my 
opinion, to the credit of the technical di- 
rector. The man who is working in the 
laboratory, the man behind the guns, is 
the man who has accomplished results in 
Germany as well as in this country. I 
think the progress in Germany in technical 
chemistry has been due largely to the work 
in the research laboratories by men who 
have no engineering training, and I plead 
with the employers for recognition of the 
work of the men in the laboratories and 
for greater patience in their dealings with 
them, and for a more enlightened policy in 
establishing research laboratories, for, in 
my opinion, it is only through such estab- 
lishments that the American chemist can 
hope to compete with the German chemist. 


Mr. W. H. NicHoxs. 
The young man who goes to college to 
get his technical training should determine 


SCIENCE. 


575 


whether he is going to use it in the realm 
of pure research or whether he is going to 
be a chemical engineer. The mechanical 
engineer can not take the place of the chem- 
ical engineer, as he goes to the other ex- 
treme. We have already the purely sci- 
entific chemist and the engineer; between 
the two we have the technical chemist or 
chemical engineer and there is plenty of 
opportunity for him. 

It should be remembered in this con- 
nection that a college course is simply a 
foundation, on which the further education 
is to be built in after life; for it is not 
possible to furnish the thoroughly edu- 
cated man in four or even in five years. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

Skew Frequency Curves in Biology and 
Statistics. By J. C. Karreyn, ScD., Pro- 
fessor of Astronomy at Groningen. Pub- 
lished by the Astronomical Laboratory at 
Groningen. Groningen, P. Noordhoft. 
1908. 

This paper is almost unique in that it at- 
tempts to be at once a popular presentation 
of statistical methods and a mathematical 
derivation of a new theory regarding skew 
frequeney curves, thus attempting to ‘ bene- 
fit all students of statistics’ by his ideas. It 
is only necessary for the non-mathematical 
reader to take his mathematics for granted 
and apply the formule deduced, while the 
mathematician need not waste much time over 
the first ten paragraphs. - 

The author mentions how Francis Galton 
has shown that important biological conclu- 
sions may be derived from a discussion of the 
normal curve, and deplores the fact that most 
of these deductions can not be extended to the 
skew curves of Quételet and Pearson. -This, 
he says, is due to the purely empirical nature 
of these curves; they furnish a mechanical 
representation of the data without having any 
real and vital relation to them. The ad- 
vantages claimed for the new theory are: “(a) 
It assigns the connection between the form of 
the curves and the action of the causes to 


576 


which this form is due; (b) it enables one to 
reduce the consideration of any skew curve 
to that of the normal curve; (c) the sim- 
plicity of the application.” 

A popular discussion of the origin of nor- 
mal euryes follows. The curve, as is well 
known, is given by the expansion of (1/2 + 
1/2)". Professor Pearson derives his skew 
eurves by studying the expansion of (p+ q)”, 
where p+q—1. Now Professor Kapteyn 
considers the exponent nm as giving the 
number of causes which enter into the prob- 
lem of growth, and shows that with a suffi- 
ciently large value for mn, and natural 
causes must be looked upon as almost infinite 
in number, (p+ q)” approximates closely to 
a normal curve or, quoting Bessel: “ What- 
ever be the effect of the various causes of 
deviation, as long as they are: (a) very nu- 
merous; (b) independent of each other; (c) 
such that the effect of any one cause is small 
as compared with the effect of all such causes 
together, we shall obtain a curve which ap- 
proximates the nearer to the normal curve the 
greater n is.” 

But, though we may assume the effect of 
certain causes in producing deviations in cer- 
tain quantities x to be independent of the 
value of x, this can not be the case with quan- 
tities proportional to a, 1/a, or any non-linear 
function of xz The resultant curves under 
these conditions are the skew curves. To ob- 
tain these the author supposes that ‘on certain 
quantities x, which at starting are equal, there 
come to operate certain causes of deviation, 
the effect of which depends in a given way on 
the value of x.’ Let us imagine certain other 
quantities depending on the quantities x in 
the way given by z— F(z). 

Then we have 

Az 
F(x)’ 
where dz represents a series of deviations of 
the quantity z independent of the value of z. 
Thus the effects of the causes of deviation 
operating on « are proportional to 1/F’(a). 
Now since, according to assumption, the quan- 
tities z are distributed in a normal curve, say 


Az=F/(z)Az, or 4a = 


y= au en (z—m)? 
Va , 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 484. 


the quantities 2 must be distributed along the 
curve 
y= Wie F/(x%)e—"(F@) — 1)? 
Tw 
This is the frequency curve generated under 
the influence of causes, the effect of which is 
proportional to 1/F’ (a), no limits being placed 
as to the form of this. function. 
The author next takes up the case 


F(x) =(2+«)1 
the equation of the curve now being 


Alig 


(a +)? te e+ «) 02, 
Va 


y —— 
and derives complete formulz and tables for 
the finding of the five constants A, h, M,q, Kk 
for the five possible cases 


q=0 and g=-=+ ©. 


The solution is left in a rather unsatisfac- 
tory state, as we can not find A directly, while 
it is necessary to know A in order to find the 
other constants. As A is in most cases unity, 
he assumes this value for it, and computes 
the other constants. These having been found, 
A is readily computed. If A computed + A 
assumed, try again with some other value for 
A until a perfect agreement has been obtained. 
Another weakness of the solution is that only 
four of the observations of a set are used. 
These are so chosen that their abscisse are 
in arithmetical progression. The author, how- 
ever, considers this very fact an element of 
strength. 

It can not be denied that Professor Kapteyn 
gets some very good results and his theory is 
undoubtedly full of possibilities. 


C. C. ENGBERG. 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


The Mammals of Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey. A Biographic, Historie, and De- 
seriptive Account of the Furred Animals 
of Land and Sea, both Living and Extinct, 
Known to have Existed in these States. By 
Samuet N. Ruoaps. Illustrated with plates 
and a faunal map. Philadelphia, privately 
published. 1903. Pp. 252. 

Mammalogists have been so busy in recent 
years describing, classifying and getting their 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


work on a sound systematic basis that few ex- 
haustive studies of the mammals of limited 
areas have been made. ‘The ‘lay ornithol- 
ogist’ thrives throughout the United States. 
By his enthusiastic local work he has contrib- 
uted largely to the present high state of knowl- 
edge of the birds of the whole country. Interest 
in mammals, however, has been lamentably 
slight, except among professional workers con- 
nected with museums. Mr. Rhoads’s work 
on the mammals of Pennsylvania and New 
Jersey is a valuable object lesson for those 
who refrain from attempting local studies of 
mammals on the supposition that there are 
no opportunities for non-professional workers. 
The book, however, is not primarily non-pro- 


fessional, nor can Mr. Rhoads be called a ‘lay- - 


man,’ but the amount of interesting and valu- 
able data he has gathered in a comparatively 
limited region is very suggestive of what might 
be accomplished by local students elsewhere. 

The book takes the form of a list, with each 
species fully treated under several subtitles, 
such as faunal distribution, distribution in 
Pennsylvania and New Jersey, records, habits 
and economic status, and description of 
species. In addition to the recent species and 
subspecies, which number 96, a list of 95 
which occur in the fossil state is given, and 
also a brief hypothetical list. Introduced 
exotics are likewise enumerated. The large 
list of recent forms, which in many cases in- 
eludes two or more related subspecies, is 
swelled by 18 species of whales and dolphins 
found off the coast of New Jersey. 

Besides being an accurate list of all the 
mammals known to occur within the boun- 
daries of Pennsylvania and New Jersey, the 
work is of importance and interest in its bear- 
ing upon the history and habits of many well- 
known mammals. The accounts of species 
now extinct in the two states, such as the 
wapiti, the bison and the beaver, are of especial 
interest. The notes on habits are entertaining- 
ly written and will be found interesting alike 
to the ordinary reader and to the professional 
naturalist. The author’s own observations, 
which are stated to have covered a period of 
eleven years in the region, are freely given, but 
considerable quoted matter is also included. 


SCIENCE. 


577 


This is taken largely from correspondence 
with old residents of various parts of the 
region. The reliability of such sources is of 
course doubtful, but the notes are evidently 
given for what they are worth. In one ease, 
after a quotation of several pages, the fact is 
brought out that the narrator ‘was in the 
habit of making a good story of his exploits.’ 
Nevertheless, such information is valuable, and 
this method almost the only one for obtaining 
an idea of conditions no longer existing. As 
far as possible, primitive conditions haye been 
contrasted with those of the present, with 
particular reference to the influences of set- 
tlement and deforestation upon the existence 
and distribution of the native mammals. 
When these processes have progressed still 
further, the value of this work in carefully 
setting forth present conditions will doubt- 
less be appreciated by future students. Dis- 
tribution is usually stated in terms of life 
zones. A religious correspondence of the 
ranges of the mammals with the zones is im- 
plied throughout. Indeed, some subspecies are 
included solely because the zone they are sup- 
posed to inhabit is known to extend within the 
boundaries of the region. The extent to 
which such distributions are theoretical is not 
emphasized. In this connection there appears 
to have been an opportunity for a suggestive 
outline of desirable confirmatory work for the 
future. 

The nomenclature and technical treatment 
throughout are according to the most recent 
knowledge and standards. In several in- 
stances names in common use by others are 
slightly changed, but it is to the author’s 
eredit that the reasons for so doing are always 
stated, even if they merely amount to per- 
sonal opinion. In one ease, to which my atten- 
tion has been called, a name has been wrongly 
applied, that of a domestic animal, the so- 
called Belgian hare, which should be desig- 
nated as Lepus cuniculus, not Lepus ewropeus. 
Questions of doubtful relationships are dis- 
cussed in some cases, and in this connection 
occasional disparaging allusions to ‘the hair 
splitters’ occur, as if to lead the unsuspecting 
reader to the belief that the author abhors 
such. 


018 SCIENCE. 


The book is illustrated with nine full-page 
plates, chiefly photographs of specimens. <A 
double-page colored map of the life zones of 
the two states is also given. Since this is the 
most detailed zonal map of the region yet pub- 
lished, and since it differs in some respects from 
previous inclusive maps of smaller scale, it is 
regrettable that more space was not devoted 
to discussion of life zones and especially to 
the boundaries as indicated on this new map. 
It is also unfortunate that the colors are not 
those which from repeated use on other maps 
have become associated with the several zones. 
As a piece of book-making, the work is not all 
that might be desired. The paper is rather 
poor and errors in typography are not infre- 
quent. Minor shortcomings, however, may 
easily be overlooked in such a good and useful 
book. It is a thorough exposition of the 
knowledge, past and present, of the mammals 
of the two states, and may be safely ranked 
among our most important works on the mam- 
mals of eastern North America. 

Witrrep H. Oscoop. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Tue last number of The Journal of In- 
fectious Diseases contains the following 
articles: 


Auice Haminton: ‘The Toxic Action of Scar- 
latinal and Pneumonie Sera on Paramecia.’ 

C. P. Crark and F. H. Barman: ‘ Pneu- 
mococcal Bronchiolitis (Capillary Bronchitis) .’ 

E. H. Ruepicrr: ‘ Improved Technic of Agglu- 
tination Test in Typhoid Fever—The Use of 
Formalinized Cultures.’ 

Rocrr G. Prrxins: ‘Bacillus Mucosus Cap- 
sulatus: A Study of the Group and an Attempt 
at Classification of the Varieties Described.’ 

Mary C. Lincotn: ‘Agglutination in the 
Group of Fluorescent Bacteria.’ 

Epwarp C. Rosrenow: ‘Studies in Pneumonia 
and Pneumococcus Infections.’ 

JosrpH Louris Barr: ‘Epidemic Gonorrheal 
Vulvo-Vaginitis in Young Girls.’ 

Harte B. Puerpes: ‘A Critical Study of the 
Methods in Current Use for the Determination 
of Free and Albuminoid Ammonia in Sewage.’ 

Wm. Royat Strokes: ‘A Simple Test for 
Routine Detection of Colon Bacillus in Drinking 
Water.’ 

Greorcr A. Jounson: ‘ Isolation of Bacillus Coli 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


Communis from the Alimentary Tract of Fish 
and the Significance Thereof.’ 

CHARLES Harrineron: ‘Sodium Sulphite: 
A Dangerous Food-Preservative.’ 

STEPHEN DE M. GacE and GEoRGE O. ADAMS: 
‘Studies of Media for the Quantitative Estima- 
tion of Bacteria in Water and Sewage.’ 


ANNOUNCEMENT has been made otf the initial 
numbers of a series of Bulletins on pathology 
from the laboratory of the Medical Depart- 
ment of the University of California, Berkeley, 
under the editorship of Dr. Alonzo E. Taylor, 
head of the Department of Pathology and 
director of the Hearst Laboratory in San 
Francisco. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 


Tue regular meeting of the section was 
held on February 29 at the American Museum 
of Natural History in conjunction with the 
American Ethnological Society. The program 
was as follows: 


Ethnological Survey of the Pueblos of New 
Mexico and Arizona, during the Summer 
of 1903: Mr. Grorce H. Pepper. 

Mr. Pepper first went to Espafiola, and from 
there visited the pueblos of Santa Clara, San 
Ildefonso, Pojoaque, Nambe and Tesuque. 
One of the ceremonial dances at the pueblo 
of Santa Clara was witnessed. San Juan, 
Picoris and Tesuque next received attention. 
After this work was completed the Hopi region 
was visited, the time selected being the oc- 
easion of the Antelope and Snake dances at 
Walpi. In the pueblos of Hano, Sichomavi 
and Walpi, special attention was devoted to 
the work of the Hopi potters, particularly 
Nampayo of Hano, who is the only one living 
that has made a careful study of the old pig- 
ments and clays. 

On the second*mesa the pueblos of Ma- 
shongnayi and Shungopavi were visited, and 
the Snake Dance at Mashongnavi observed. 
Oraibi, the seventh of the Hopi pueblos, situ- 
ated fifteen miles to the west of the second 
mesa, came next. During the stay in this 
pueblo the wonderful Flute ceremony was en- 
acted. From the Hopi region the route taken 


+ 


ApriL 8, 1904.] 


led to the pueblo of Laguna in the western 
part of New Mexico, and from there to Acoma, 
where the Fiesta de San Esteban was seen. 
While in the pueblo of Isleta the Fiesta de 
San Augustine took place. 

Visits to the pueblos of Jemez, Zia, Santa 
Ana, Ranchitas de Santa Ana, Sandia, San 
Felipe, Santo Domingo, Cochiti and Zuii 
completed the season’s work, which included 
all of the twenty-six ‘mother pueblos’ now 
inhabited. 

The subject of primitive pottery-making as 
represented in the various groups was care- 
fully considered and the technique of each 
culture was investigated. Samples of the ma- 
terials used in the manufacture of pottery 
were obtained, as well as representative forms 
of finished vessels from each pottery-making 
pueblo. Nearly one thousand negatives were 
made to supplement the field notes, and to 
enhance the value of the exhaustive card cata- 
logue pertaining to southwestern ceramics, 
which is now in the course of preparation. 


Archeological Survey of the Interior of the 
State of Washington, during the Summer 
of 1903: Mr. Haran I. Suiru. 
Archeological explorations of the Jesup 

North Pacific Expedition were carried on in 

1897 by Mr. Smith in the Thompson and 

Fraser River valleys of Southern British Co- 

lumbia, and in 1898-99 in the shell-heaps along 

the coasts of British Columbia and Washing- 
ton. In continuance of the general archeolog- 
ical reconnoissance thus begun in the north- 
west, the Columbia Valley was chosen as the 
field for research during the field season of 

1903. 

It was thought that by working in the 
Yakima Valley the boundary between the cul- 
ture of The Dalles and that of the Thompson 
River region might be determined. The ma- 
terial, however, discovered by the expedition 
seems to prove that the Yakima Valley was 
inhabited by people having a culture which 
previously had been unknown to science. 

In the region were found numerous eyi- 
dences of the close communication of the 
people of this culture with tribes of the 
Thompson River region. Underground house 
sites, tubular pipes, engrayed detalium shells, 


SCIENCE. 579 


a decoration consisting of a circle with a dot 
in it, and rock-slide sepulchres, each of a par- 
ticular kind, were found to be peculiar to 
both regions. 

A considerable amount of material of the 
same art as that found in the Dalles region was 
seen. It is clear that the people living in the 
Yakima valley had extensive dealings with the 
tribes both northward, as far as the Thompson 
valley, and southward, as far as The Dalles 
of the Columbia. In this connection it is 
interesting to note that the present Indians 
of the region travel even more extensively 
than would be necessary to distribute their 
artifacts this far. Much less evidence of 
contact between the prehistoric people of the 
coast of Washington and that of the Yakima 
valley was discovered. A pipe, however, was 
seen which is clearly of the art of the north- 
west coast. It was found far up the Top- 
penish River (one of the western tributaries 
of the Yakima). 

From the Yakima Valley the expedition was 
transferred to the lower Cowlitz River for 
work down that stream and along the Co- 
lumbia from Portland to its mouth, partly to 
determine whether or not a portion of the 
evidences of coast culture which were found 
in the Yakima valley had not come up the 
Cowlitz and down the Toppenish River, since 
the head waters of the Cowlitz and the Top- 
penish are near each other. In this region 
many specimens were secured. The main 
work, however, was done in the Yakima valley, 
where many photographs were taken, not only 
of archeological sites, but also of the country 
in general. Human remains, which are use- 
ful in determining the type of these old 
people, were also collected. 

The most remarkable specimen secured was 
a piece of antler carved in human form. This 
was very thin, and when found it was nearly 
as soft as so much sawdust or moulder’s sand 
pressed together tightly. Proper treatment has 
rendered the object quite hard and able to 
bear handling. It was found under the verte- 
bre of a child in a grave. The graye was of 
peculiar interest because, contrary to usual 
practice, the body had been enclosed in a rude 
box made by placing about it thin slabs of 


580 SCIENCE. 


stone, and the cist thus formed had been cov- 
ered with jagged fragments of rock, over 
which earth was spread. ‘This doll-like carv- 
ing of antler is considered to be one of the 
finest pieces of prehistoric art ever found in 
northwestern America. 
JAMES KE. Loucu, 
Secretary. 


SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 


Tue Section of Geology and Mineralogy 
held its regular meeting January 18, 1904, 
with the chairman, Professor James F. Kemp, 
presiding. In the absence of the secretary, 
Dr. A. A. Julien was appointed secretary pro 
tem, and papers by Dr. Irving and Mr. Wil- 
son, abstracts of which follow, were presented. 


Microscopic Structure and Origin of Certain 
Stylolitic Structures in Limestone: J. D. 
IrvING. 

From an extended examination of stylolitic 
limestones collected in Indiana and Wyoming, 
mainly by Mr. M. L. Fuller and himself, the 
author has drawn the following conclusions 
regarding the origin of the peculiar struc- 
tures : 

1. They were initiated along a thin clay 
layer in limestone and have been produced by 
the interpenetration of the limestone material 
on either side of this clay seam. 

2. They are entirely independent of the 
presence of fossils existing in the rock, for 
they occur equally in those portions of the 
rock where fossils are absent and where they 
are present. 

3. They were not formed by metamorphic 
agencies, or by the weight of overlying strata, 
or by other causes which would tend to distort 
and crush the rock material. 

4. They were produced by a cause which 
operated on the material of the rock while it 
was yet unconsolidated, and in a condition 
approximating that which obtained at the time 
of deposition. 

5. They originated under great pressure, the 
rock material being sufficiently soft to allow 
the bending of individual stylolites, and yet 
potentially rigid, so that organisms were 
sharply sheared off while held in the soft 
matrix. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No, 484. 


While the cause of the pressure and the 
manner in which it had operated to produce 
these structures has not been determined, the 
author suggests that their production may be 
the result of the hydrostatic pressure of the 
sea water lying above the deposits. In the 
instances examined stylolites are character- 
istic of marine deposits formed in water vary- 
ing from 400 to 2,500 fathoms in depth. If 
sea water be taken to have an average 
specific gravity of 1.028, then a one-foot 
column of water exerts a hydraulic pressure 
of .484 lb. per sq. in. of area. This would 
give, for the depth stated, a hydrostatic pres- 
sure of from 1,041 to 6,408 lbs. per sq. in. 
Such a pressure as this, coupled with the soft 
unconsolidated nature of the rock at the time 
it might have been exerted, seems to fulfil 
better than any other the conditions de- 
manded by the observed facts. 


Recent Journeys among Localities Noted for 
the Discovery of Remains of Prehistoric 
Man: J. Howarp Witson. 

The author discussed man in the earliest 
times before the Neolithic age and afterwards 
illustrated his paper by nearly forty views of 
some of the most famous rock shelters, caves 
and deposits of Europe which have furnished 
remains of paleolithie man, including also 
slides of the type implements and weapons 
from which have been derived the principal 
evidence of man’s existence in Quaternary 
times. 

The paper recited briefly the history of the 
subject, the first finds, especially the work of 
Boucher de Perthes, and the gradual develop- 
ment of the science of prehistoric archeology. 
Reference was made to some of the disputed 
evidence of man’s existence in the Tertiary 
period, and then the subject of man’s existence 
as early as the Second Glacial period was 
treated more at length, with a consideration 
of the climate and physical conditions which 
prevailed in paleolithic times. 

The paper closed with an attempt at a real- 
ization of the great antiquity of paleolithic 
man as shown by the immense physical and 
geological changes which have taken place 
since he first made his undoubted appearance. 


1p = meeps hy eam cheat pen tee te; Te - . . 


6 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


At the regular meeting, February 15, Vice- 
President James F. Kemp presiding, the secre- 
tary read a letter from Dr. J. G. Aguilera cor- 
recting a statement in one of the papers pre- 
sented at the December meeting of the acad- 
emy, as reported in ScreNcE, regarding the 
great Bacubirito meteorite of Mexico. Dr. 
Aguilera called attention to the fact that this 
meteorite was discovered in July, 1871, as 
was stated by A. del Castillo in ‘ Catalogue 
deseriptif des Meteorites,’ Paris, 1889. It 
was described by F. Sosa y Avila in Minero 
Mexicano in 1890, and afterward was visited 
by Signor Buelna as a commissioner of the 
Geological Institute of Mexico for the pur- 
pose of calculating the cost of transporting it 
to the City of Mexico. In connection with 
this expedition Buelna made several drawings 
and photographs of the great mass of iron. 
Through the Geological Institute Professor 
H. A. Ward received exact information as to 
the locality of the meteorite and then visited 
it, removing the earth from about it and 
making new photographs. Professor Ward’s 
recent articles (1903) have drawn renewed 
attention to this enormous meteoric mass, but 
the credit of original discovery and descrip- 
tion belongs to the Mexicans. 

The program of the evening comprised two 
papers, abstracts of which follow: 


The Occlusion of Igneous Rock within Meta- 
morphic Schists: Dr. Aurxis A. JULIEN. 
The term ‘inclusive’ is commonly applied, 

by the petrographer, to ordinary dikes of 

igneous rock, surrounded by beds of sediment- 
ary rocks or of erystalline schists, intersect- 
ing them or intervening between their folia- 
tion planes. But for similar masses cut loose 
from all connection with the underlying 
magmatic source, swallowed up within strata 
of crystalline schists, and experiencing all 
stages in the process of reaction and final ab- 
sorption, during metamorphic change, an- 
other term seems to be called for, ‘ occlusion,’ 
signifying shut or sealed up beyond escape. 

Although the word is borrowed from the 

physicist, this can produce no confusion when 

applied to petrographic phenomena. Occlud- 
ed igneous rocks may belong to either the acid 
or the basic class, as illustrated respectively, 


SCIENCE. 


581] 


on Manhattan Island, by the earlier intrusions 
of pegmatite, never found as intersecting 
dikes, and by the intercalated sheets of diorite- 
schist. Occlusion is usually attended by 
mechanical and chemical processes. The 
former consist of thinning or thickening of 
igneous masses caught between the folia of 
schists during orogenic movements into len- 
ticular masses; the crumpling and corrugation 
of sheets, and even rolling into cylinders; and 
the forcing of the pasty masses along foliation 
planes, in the form of intercalated or ‘sec- 
ondary’ dikes. The chemical processes usu- 
ally consist of micaceous alteration and ulti- 
mate absorption by disintegration and dis- 
semination through the surrounding country 
rock. 

In discussing this paper, Professor Kemp 
spoke of the value of the interpretation to 
those who have studied the region. 


Outlines of the Continents in Tertiary Times: 

Dr. W. D. Marrurw. 

The author presented a series of world-maps 
showing the hypothetical outlines of the con- 
tinents during the Pleistocene, Pliocene, 
Miocene, Oligocene, later Hocene and at the 
opening of the Tertiary period, as contrasted 
with the modern conditions. The series was 
got up for use in the Hall of Fossil Mammals 
in the American Museum of Natural History, 
to illustrate the geographical distribution of 
different groups of mammals during the suc- 
cessive epochs of the Tertiary and Quaternary. 
It is intended to represent a somewhat con- 
servative view of past changes in world geog- 
raphy, and is regarded as a working hypoth- 
esis, based on our present knowledge of 
geology, paleontology and zoology, especial 
consideration being given to the mammalian 
paleontology. 

The former extension of the Antarctic con- 
tinent, so as to join Australia with South 
America, is regarded as occurring at the end 
of the Cretaceous period and is represented 
in the first map of the series. The connec- 
tion with South Africa is regarded as too 
problematic to place on the map. The Eocene 
map shows the extreme of Tertiary submerg- 
ence of the continents which are represented 
as forming six isolated land masses. The 


582 SCIENCE: 


three northern continents are connected 
throughout the Oligocene, Miocene, Pliocene 
and Pleistocene, Africa being joined to them 
by the Miocene, South America by the 
Pliocene epoch. ‘The Pleistocene map shows 
especially the simultaneous glaciation of both 
northern and southern regions, modified in the 
north by sinking of the old Arctic continent 
beneath the sea level. 

The supposed ancient continents of Lemuria, 
Atlantis, the Brazil-African land bridge, ete., 
are regarded either as proposed on insufiicient 
data or as being outside the limits of this 
series. 

In general it has been found possible to con- 
sider the true ocean basins (limited by the 
1,000-foot contour) as permanent throughout 
Tertiary time. The union of Antarctica with 
Australia and South America is an exception 
to this rule, but is based on a large amount of 
evidence. It appears probable also that the 
disturbed belt which stretches through cen- 
tral Europe to south-central Asia, and ends 
perhaps in the East Indian islands, has been, 
in part, raised from abyssal depths to an 
equally stupendous height above the sea, since 
the beginning of the Tertiary. 

Discussion.—Professor Osborn emphasized 
the value of these maps as expressing working 
hypotheses for the use of students of verte- 
brate paleontology. 

Dr. Julien called attention to the evidences 
of glaciation in South Africa as having a 
bearing upon the question of a previous ex- 
istence of land masses farther south. 

EpmuNnp Otis Hovey, 
Secretary. 


ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

THE regular meeting of the section was held 
on February 1 at the American Museum of 
Natural History. 

‘The first paper of the evening was a bio- 
graphical sketch of the late Dr. H. Carrington 
Bolton by Dr. D. S. Martin, which was read 
by Professor Crampton, the recording secre- 
tary of the academy, in the absence of Dr. 
Martin. The section then passed a resolution 
to the effect that Dr. Martin’s address should 
be published in the Annals of the academy, 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


together with a bibliography of Dr. Bolton’s 
papers. 

The second paper was entitled ‘ Researches 
as to the Identity of Lexell’s Lost Comet of 
1770 with the Periodic Comet of 1889, 1896 
and 1903,’ and was read by Professor Charles 
Lane Poor. This paper gave the result of a 
new investigation of the motion of the peri- 
odie comet of 1889, 1896 and 1903 (Brooks), 
dealing especially with the great changes in 
its orbit caused by the close approach to 
Jupiter in 1886. The comet has now been 
seen at three returns to perihelion and the 
many observations made allow of a most ac- 
curate determination of the present orbit on 
which to base the investigation. Attention 
was called to the supposed identity of this 
body with the lost comet of Lexell, 1770, which 
disappeared after passing close to Jupiter in 
1779, and this question was discussed at 
length. 

The next paper, entitled ‘The Year’s Work 
with Radium,’ was read by Dr. George B. 
Pegram, and was the second of the series on 
‘Recent Progress in Physical Science” Dr. 
Pegram gave a review of the most important 
experimental and theoretical advances made 
during the past year in the knowledge of 
radio-activity; especially the work of Ruther- 
ford and Soddy in formulating the atomic 
disintegration theory of radio-active change, 
the discovery of Curie in regard to the heat- 
ing effect of radium, and the experiments of 
Ramsay and Soddy bearing on the question 
of the continuous production of helium in 
radium compounds. An apparatus was ex- 
hibited like that of Mr. Strutt, to show by the 
alternate charging and discharging of an elec- 
troscope the production of electric charges by 
radium. The charging of the gold leaf in the 
apparatus shown by Dr. Pegram took place in 
about one minute. 

The next meeting of the Section of Astron- 
omy, Physics and Chemistry was held on 
March ~*7 and was devoted to an address by 
Dr. S. A. Mitchell under the title ‘ Recent 
Progress in Astronomy,’ the subject being 
‘The Results of the Observations of the Last 
Solar Eclipse” Dr. Mitchell gave an inter- 
esting résumé of the results obtained by the 


SE aii 


PR LOO OE tags 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


different expeditions which made observations 
in the island of Sumatra on May 18, 1901. 
CuHartes C. TRowBrincs, 
Secretary. 


THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

THe 149th regular meeting of the Washing- 
ton Chemical Society was held on Thursday, 
March 10, at 8 p.m., in the Assembly Hall of 
the Cosmos Club. 

The regular program for the evening was 
preceded by appropriate remarks and the pre- 
sentation of resolutions (published on page 
595 of this journal) upon the deaths of 
Mr. EK. E. Ewell and Dr. E. A. de Schweinitz, 
both of whom were former officers of the 
Washington Chemical Society. 

The first paper on the program, entitled 
‘Testing and Quality of Chemical Reagents,’ 
was presented by Mr. Lyman F. Kebler. 

The speaker first considered the subject 
from the point of view of the manufacturer 
who, on account of competition and the de- 
mands for lower priced material, often finds 
it necessary to send out inferior reagents 
designated as ‘C. P.’ with the tacit under- 
standing that this abbreviation stands for 
something other than its generally accepted 
meaning. The speaker believed that the above 
condition of affairs could eventually be over- 
come by the establishment of standards of 
purity for all chemical reagents, and the 
agreement of chemists and consumers gen- 
erally to insist upon receiving goods which 
are of the purity designated. Such a plan 
would tend to put all manufacturers on an 
equal footing and make it impossible for one 
firm to sell a lower grade of goods for the 
same price that another receives for better 
reagents. 

A great deal of the trouble up to the present 
time was considered to be due to the fact that 
government chemists generally have not in- 
sisted on getting pure materials, and it has, 
therefore, been difficult for chemists connected 
with manufacturing establishments to main- 
tain a high degree of purity, because it is fre- 
quently contended by dealers, that what is 
accepted by the government ought to be good 
enough for the individual. The speaker urged 


SCIENCE. 


583 


the necessity for all chemists standing together 
in the matter. A large number of specimens 
of reagents containing a greater or less 
amount of impurity were exhibited, and dis- 
cussion on the subject was entered into by 
Messrs. Hillebrand, Voorhees, Tolman and 
Noyes. 

The second paper on the program was pre- 
sented by Mr. B. J. Howard, and was entitled 
“Comparison of Tests for Turmeric in Mus- 
tard, 

Turmeric may be added to mustard either 
in the powdered or else as a form of extract. 
Though added as a powder, if it is subse- 
quently made up into prepared mustard by 
heating with water or vinegar, or both, the 
condition for the purpose of analysis is the 
same as the case of an extract. 

Five methods of testing were made, viz., 
(1) the alkali test, (2) the sulphuric acid test, 
(3) the diphenylamine test, (4) the boric- 
hydrochloric acid and (5) the boric-oxalic 
acid test. The last two are merely adapta- 
tions of the tests made use of for detecting 
borax or boric acid used in foods as preserva- 
tives. The boric-hydrochlorie acid reagent is 
made up of about equal parts of a saturated 
aqueous solution of boric acid and an equal 
solution of strong hydrochloric acid. 

For the detection of turmeric in the pow- 
dered form a thin film of the sample to be 
tested is spread upon a microscope slide with 
a few drops of the reagent and examined with 
a low power lens or reading glass. When the 
boric-hydrochlorie acid is used the film is al- 
lowed to evaporate—the best results being ob- 
tained with spontaneous evaporation. With 
sulphurie acid, boric-hydrochloric acid, or 
diphenylamine one part of powdered turmeric 
to 20,000 of mustard is easily detected, and 
much more positively than with either of the 
other reagents. In using diphenylamine, 
however, care must be taken not to confuse 
the after color produced by the action of the 
reagent upon the mustard itself for that pro- 
duced by the turmeric. 

For the detection of turmeric in the ex- 
tract form the method must be modified. The 
sample is mixed with three or four times its 
volume of 90 per cent. alcohol, and allowed 


584 SCIENCE. 


to stand for one or more hours, shaking from 
time to time. The solid particles are then 
allowed to settle and a portion of the super- 
natant liquid poured into a salt cellar. A 
wedge-shaped strip of filter paper is suspended 
so that the tip dips a short distance beneath 
' the surface of the liquid. The liquid is drawn 
up into the paper, and as evaporation takes 
place the turmeric is concentrated in the filter 
paper for subsequent testing. After standing 
for a few hours the paper is tested by the 
boric-hydrochlorie acid reagent upon a porce- 
lain or glass plate. A pink or bright red 
color which turns blue when treated with am- 
monia indicates the presence of turmeric. 
Some anilin dyes used for coloring mustard 
give a similar red tint but are not turned blue 
with ammonia. If a few drops of the boric- 
hydrochlorie acid are added to the test liquor 
in the salt-cellar before absorbing into the 
filter paper, the pink color shows up as the 
drying proceeds and thus sometimes lessens 
the time required in making the test. 

The third paper on the program was pre- 
sented by Mr. E. McKay Chace, and was en- 
titled ‘The Use of Basic Aluminium Acetate 
as a Preservative in Sausage.’ Two samples 
of imported sausage were found to be pre- 
served with aluminium salt to the extent 
of 200 milligrams to the pound can. The 
manufacturer of one of the samples admitted 
having used basic aluminium acetate in the 
proportion of one half of one per cent. 

As aluminium does not occur in the animal 
organism a qualitative test is sufficient to 
detect its addition. The following test was 
used: Ash the sample, boil with strong HCl, 
add NaOH in excess, filter, make the filtrate 
acid and precipitate the aluminium with am- 
monia. The aluminium hydroxide and phos- 
phate may be filtered off and tested on char- 
coal with cobalt nitrate. 

For a quantitative determination the meth- 
od of Wachenroder and Fresenius was used. 
(Fresenius, ‘Quantitative Analysis,’ 1904, 
Vol. 1, p. 459.) 

It was found that aluminium formed a 
stable compound with the constituents of the 
sausage, which was insoluble in water, or HCl 
N/10 strength, but which was broken up on 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


digestion with pepsin in .33 per cent. HCl, 
showing that the aluminium would be set free 
to retard the digestion in the stomach and in- 
testines. A. SEIDELL, 
Secretary. 
THE ONONDAGA ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 


At the January meeting of the Onondaga 
Academy of Science held in Syracuse, N. Y., 
the following officers were elected: 

President—H. H. Kraus. 

Vice-President—P. F. Schneider. 

Recording Secretary—Albert M. Reese. 

Corresponding Secretary—J. BE. Kirkwood. 

Treasurer—Miss L. W. Roberts. 

Librarian—Mrs. lL. L. Goodrich. 

Councilors to serve until 1907—Mr. J. D. Wil- 
son and Mrs. M. B. Ackerman. 


The annual reports of the different sections 
follow: 

Zoology.—Protessor C. W. Hargitt. The 
section of zoology suffered an irreparable loss 
in the death of its chairman, Mr. H. W. 
Britcher, which occurred early in the year. 

As a field naturalist he had few equals either 
among his associates in the academy or 
throughout the state. This will be measurably 
attested in the admirable check-list of the 
spiders of the county, which appears in the 
recent volume of the Proceedings and consti- 
tutes his final contribution to science, passing 
into type almost coincidently with the passing 
of his life. Other observations of like char- 
acter are recorded in: earlier contributions; 
notes on amphibia, reptilia and mammalia of 
the county appearing in the same volume. 
Would that his mantle might fall upon some 
worthy successor! 

Botany.—.L. Leonora Goodrich. The bo- 
tanical class organized by certain members of 
the section has pursued a study of trees in 
winter which has proved very interesting. Of 
special interest, however, is the discovery of 
three plants new to this (Onondaga) county, 
one of which is new to the state. Gaura 
biennis was found among the limestone rocks 
near Belle Isle, and Lythrum WSalicaria be- 
tween Syracuse and Baldwinsville, about six 
miles from the city. In October Phacelia 
dubia was found growing on top of limestone 
rocks about eight miles south of Syracuse. 


oy 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


In this locality the plant was abundant and 
in bloom, notwithstanding the fact that its 
usual time of flowering is from April to June. 
This appears to be the farthest northern limit 
of this plant’s occurrence and the only station 
thus far reported for it in this state. 

Geology—P. F. Schneider. The discovery 
is noted of two overthrust faults of small 
throw in the limestones of the Waterlime 
group, exposed by a cutting on the Jamesville 
suburban road. They are especially inter- 
esting because of the rarity of such occur- 
rences in our horizontally stratified Paleozoic 
rock, 

Several marked disturbances were also dis- 
covered in the limestones of the Helderberg 
series along the route of the Marcellus line 
and studied. A cave of considerable size was 
also opened up by the line of the Auburn inter- 
urban road. 

Peculiar erystals of bright sparkling hema- 
tite have been found in the Red Shale of the 
Saline formation, especially in the lines of 
the cavities formed by the pseudomorphs after 
salt. These have been collected, described 
and studied. Crystals of celestite have also 
been discovered disseminated through one or 
more of the layers of the waterlime group in 
a recent railroad cutting near Jamesville. 
Some of the cavities are over half an inch in 
length and show the fauna of the celestite 
crystals perfectly preserved. More of the 
peculiarly clear and limpid quartz crystals 
have been found in the veins of the crystalline 
Onondaga limestone and described. Much 
additional information has also been added to 
our knowledge of local Pleistocene geology. 

J. E. Kirkwoop, 
Corresponding ‘Secretary. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND ART OF PITTSBURG. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 

Tue monthly meeting of this section of the 
academy was held in the lecture hall of the 
Carnegie Institute, on January 5. Professor 
John C. Fettermann, biologist of the Western 
University of Pennsylvania, lectured on the 
“Relation of Bacteria to the Dairying In- 
dustry.’ 

The lecturer brought out a number of facts 


SCIENCE. 


585 


concerning this very important industry. He 
discussed the nature of milk as it is secreted 
from the milk glands; the various bacteria 
commonly found in milk, and sources of con- 
tamination; the keeping qualities of milk, and 
the influence temperature has on the develop- 
ment of the bacteria; the different preserva- 
tives used to keep milk from souring, and 
their action on milk, and the injurious effect 
upon the consumer. Condition of milk as 
sold in large cities; the significance of the 
great numbers of bacteria present in normal 
milk; results of the bacteriological examina- 
tion of normal milk, and the facts regarding 
sterilization and pasteurization; the use of 
pure cultures in butter making; the prev- 
alence of particular bacteria in certain 
localities, by which means a peculiarly desir- 
able flavor is imparted to the butter; the in- 
troduction of these bacteria into other local- 
ities, in order to produce butter of an equally 
good quality; the occurrence of bacteria in 
cheese, and their importance to the manu- 
facturer. 

A number of cultures in culture tubes were 
exhibited, showing the various stages of the 
development of the bacteria, and their effect 
on the milk. The method of making the 
cultures was also explained. The discussion 
following the lecture chiefly concerned tuber- 
culosis and the danger of inoculation of 
human subjects by the use of milk coming 
from infected cattle. 

Professor Fettermann stated that, unless 
the tuberculous stage involves the udder of 
the cow, there need be no cause for appre- 
hension of inoculation of human subjects, 
and as this only occurs in about one per cent. 
of all cows infected with tuberculosis, the 
danger resulting from the use of such milk 
is insignificant. 

Professor J. B. Hatcher exhibited before 
the section a molar tooth of Mastodon (Tetra- 
lophodon) brought from Burmah by Mr. J. 
F. Weller, of Emlenton, Pa. The specimen, 
which belongs to M. latidens or a closely re- 
lated species, exhibits an interesting stage in 
the passage of the molar teeth of the Pro- 
boscidea from the conular type of the mas- 
todons to that of the elephants, where the 


586 


enamel is arranged in numerous transverse 
lamine. 
Freperic S. WEBSTER, 
Secretary-Treasurer. 


THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 
GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL CLUB. 


Tue club has reviewed the following papers 
during the month of February: 

W. G. Ball, ‘The Outlook for Mining in 
the New Territory Opened up by the San 
Pedro, Los Angeles and Salt Lake Railroad’ 
(Eng. and Min. Jour., February 4, 1904); G. 
G. Wald, ‘Comparison of Fatal Mining Ac- 
cidents in the United States and Great 
Britain’ (ng. and Min. Jour., January 14, 
1904); L. T. Buell, J. T. Glidden, W. L. 
Spalding and E. Burton, ‘Theories of Ore 
Deposition Historically Considered’ (Eng. 
and Min. Jour., December 14, 1903); G. F. 
Loughlin, ‘The Differentiation of Rock 
Magmas’ (£ng. and Min. Jour, October 17, 
November 28 and December 14, 1903). These 
papers were discussions by J. F. Kemp and 
Blamey Stevens, and the arguments were pre- 
sented by Mr. Loughlin, with illustrations of 
occurrences of igneous rock in Massachusetts. 
R. H. Allen, ‘The Production of the Minor 
Minerals in 1903’ (Hng and Min. Jour., 
January 14 and 21, 1904); J. Daniels, ‘ The 
Geology of the Kolas Gold Fields’ (Hng. and 
Min. Jour., February 11, 1904); B. L. John- 
son, ‘Native Gold Original in some Meta- 
morphic Gneisses’ (Hng. and Min. Jour., 
February 4, 1904); S. Shapira, ‘Mining in 
Korea’ (Hng. and Min. Jour., March 8, 1904) ; 
U. S. Whittemore, ‘The Origin, Properties 
and Uses of Shale’ (The Michigan Miner, 
November, 1899, to February, 1900). 

The following original papers were pre- 
sented : 

H. W. Shimer, ‘The Discussions of Ques- 
tions Arising from the Interpretation of 
Faunas with Reference to Trilobite Mountain, 
Orange Co., N. Y. ‘The paper was taken 
from the results of detailed study in the re- 
gion, and dealt mainly with the determining 
of strata in the absence of definite fossil evi- 
dence. The complete results are now in pro- 
cess of publication. G. Richards, ‘ Experi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 484. 


ences in Mining in Mexico.’ Dr. C. H. War- 
ren, ‘Asbestus as a Fire-Proofing Material.’ 
Experiments by Dr. Warren on chrysolite, the 
principal asbestus of commerce, showed that 
it lost its cohesive strength after being sub- 
jected to red heat from three to four minutes, 
and gave ground for the conclusion that, in 
cases of great fires, asbestus could, at the most, 
serve only to delay the progress of the flames 
for a few minutes. 
G. F. LoucHin, 
Secretary. 


THE CLEMSON COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 


Tue club held its regular monthly meeting 
on Friday night, January 15, 1904. 

Professor W. M. Riggs gave some facts and 
figures in regard to street railways, as com- 
piled from reports of the last census. The 
figures were especially interesting as showing 
the small number of fatalities resulting from 
travel on street cars. 

Professor H. Benton gave a communication 
entitled ‘The Shipment of Fruits and Vege- 
tables on a Commercial’ Scale.” The speaker 
explained in detail the different kinds of ship- 
ping cases used in practice and pointed out 
the defects and advantages of the different 
types. The methods used in packing and 
handling the various fruits and vegetables on 
some large gardens and orchards in Georgia 
were pointed out. The methods of packing 
the various fruits and vegetables were ex- 
plained, special attention being paid to the 
eantaloupe. The construction and method of 
filling refrigerator cars were explained and 
the defects in the method of refrigeration, as 
used at present, were pointed out. Some of 
the improvements which have been proposed, 
namely, refrigeration by means of liquid air, 
ete., were mentioned. The effect of cold 
storage on fruit was shown by means of lan- 
tern slides. The whole paper was illustrated 
by a number of lantern slides. 

Under the title of ‘Some Leaf Mining In- 
sects,’ Professor Chas. E. Chambliss gave 
notes on Bucculatriz pomifoliella, Aspidisca 
splendoriferella and Tuascheria malifoliella. 
The work and the stages in the development 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


of Tischerta malifoliella were illustrated by 
photographs and photomicrographs. 
F. S. SHrver, 


Secretary. 
CLEMSON COLLEGE, S. C., 
March, 1904. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 


Tue academy held a regular meeting on 
March 7, Mr. Edwin Harrison presiding. 

Dr. ©. A. Snodgrass, city bacteriologist 
and pathologist, read a paper on the subject 
“Bacteria and Their Work,’ illustrated with 
drawings and cultures. He gave a clear 
conception of the place occupied by the bac- 
teria in the living world, and the important 
work they were doing. He emphasized the 
fact that bacteria must not be confounded 
with disease. The following were some of 
the topics discussed: The distribution of bac- 
teria on the globe; nitrogen fixation; changes 
in bacterial flora in milk supplies; the bacteria 
of the Illinois, Missouri and Mississippi 
Rivers; symbiosis; immunity; biological fac- 
tors that affect bacteria; the relation of hu- 
man and bovine tuberculosis, and various 
methods by which infection occurs. 


{HE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 


Tue 153d meeting was held in the Physics 
Lecture Room, Tuesday evening, March 8. 
The following papers were presented: 

Proressor A. S. WHEELER: ‘ Mercerization.’ 

Proressor I. H. Mannine: ‘The Work of the 
Digestive Glands.’ : 

PROFESSOR CHARLES BASKERVILLE: 
the New Gem; Its Unique Properties’ 
demonstrations) J 


* Kunzite, 
(with 


A. S. WHEELER, 
Recording Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
DR. CASTLE AND THE DZIERZON THEORY. 

In a recent number of Science (March 4, 
1904), Dr. W. E. Castle offers some criticism 
of my paper entitled ‘The Origin of Female 
and Worker Ants from the Eggs of Partheno- 
genetic Workers,’ published in the same jour- 
nal December 25, 1903. My paper was writ- 


SCIENCE. 


587 


ten for the purpose of calling attention to 
certain observations which go to show that 
worker ants can produce worker offspring, 
probably from unfertilized eggs. I indicated 
the possible bearings of such observations on 
current theories of sex, instinct and natural 
selection. Incidentally, I protested against 
the wording of the Dzierzon theory in such 
terms as to preclude further investigation of 
certain phenomena covered by it, against a 
premature extension of the theory to groups 
of social insects less perfectly known than 
the bees, and against its use in bolstering up 
other hypotheses. 

Castle pleads guilty to having used terms 
like ‘invariably’ in formulating the Dzierzon 
theory, but tries to evade the point by remark- 
ing that ‘it scarcely requires explicit state- 
ment here that all conclusions of inductive 
science must be so qualified,’ that is, by using 
such expressions as ‘so far as observed’ in- 
stead of ‘invariably,’ ‘always, ete. It is 
difficult to see what Castle gains by this state- 
ment unless he wishes to imply that all the 
conclusions of inductive science are on the 
same dead level of probability—Dzierzon’s 
theory, the circulation of the blood, the etiol- 
ogy of cancer, the rotation of the earth and 
what not. 

After virtually admitting that I was justi- 
fied in objecting to his formulation of the 
Dzierzon theory, Castle feels called upon to 
present the arguments in favor of that theory, 
all of which are well known to every tyro 
in zoology.. The remarks prefacing Castle’s 
disquisition show that he regards the Dzierzon 
theory as sufficiently and satisfactorily estab- 
lished, and any expression of doubt concerning 
some of its implications as certainly useless 
and possibly heretical or even malicious. He 
desires to ‘join issue’ with me ‘sharply.’ Al- 
though I am by no means opposed to the Dzier- 
zon theory, I accept the challenge, both be- 
eause I do not wish to disappoint Castle and 
because his presentation of my views amounts 
almost to misrepresentation. 

Since its promulgation more than half a 
century ago, there has never been a time when 
the Dzierzon theory lacked opponents, both 
among the bee-keepers and among zoologists 


588 SCIENCE. 


and physiologists. That this is still the case 
is shown by von Buttel-Reepen’s renewed de- 
fense of the theory within the past two 
months, that is, since my paper was published.* 
Of course, such opposition by no means proves 
that the theory is false, but it shows very clearly, 
nevertheless, that the phenomena to be ex- 
plained must be extremely complicated and 
difficult of observation. And no one who 
has studied bees or other social insects can 
doubt the truth of this statement for a mo- 
ment. Our knowledge of many of the honey- 
bee’s habits, so unique among animals, is 
based on inferences often very remote and 
derived from conditions difficult to control; 
and hence, from a strictly scientific stand- 
point, more or less insecure. It is impossible 
to observe these or any other social insects 
without a sense of powerlessness to ascertain 
just what is taking place in the life of the 
colony. We see the insects feeding and rear- 
ing their broods and regulating the number 
and character of the personnel of their 
colonies with a sure instinct analogous to 
the regenerative and regulatory phenomena 
manifested by the tissues of the individual 
organism, but all this takes place as if it were 
behind a veil. When we are still so pro- 
foundly ignorant of the exact way in which 
these wonderful creatures bring about the 
differences between the queen and the worker, 
that is, between two forms of the same sex, 
is it at all likely that we can pose as knowing 
how the sexes themselves are differentiated ? 
And even if we accept the Dzierzon theory for 
the bees, are we justified in transferring it to 
other insects of which our knowledge is still 
less satisfactory? Even so confirmed an 
advocate of the Dzierzon theory as von Buttel- 
Reepen regards such an extension as inadmis- 
sible at the present time.} 

Leuckart long ago stated that complete 
proof of the Dzierzon theory would be forth- 
coming only when we should have an accurate 


**Entstehen die Drohnen aus _ befruchteten 
Hiern?’ Bienenwirthschaft. Centralbl., No. 3; 
ff., 1904, 28 pp. 

+* Die stammesgeschichtliche Entstehung des 
Bienenstaates,’ etc., Leipzig, Georg Thieme, 1903, 
pp. xii, 1-138, 20 figs. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


knowledge of the bee’s egg. There are some, 
like Castle and von Buttel-Reepen, who be- 
lieve that this knowledge has been supplied 
by the recent Freiburg researches carried out 
by Petrunkewitsch.* Knowing from experi- 
ence the extreme difficulty of interpretation 
and the possibilities of error involved in a 
study of the polar bodies of the insect egg, I 
venture to dissent from this view and to re- 
gard the knowledge to which Leuckart referred 
as still in the lap of the gods. In support of 
this statement, I may briefly discuss one as- 
pect of Petrunkewitsch’s work, his contention 
that the reproductive organs of the drone de- 
velop from the second polar body of the egg. 
This fantastical conception, for which not a 
particle of evidence had ever been furnished 
by any animal, was suggested as a laboratory 
hypothesis by Weismann ‘mit aller Reserve’ 
to Petrunkewitsch while the latter was still 
working on his dissertation. The suggestion 
bore fruit in the ‘ Habilitationsschrift’ as a 
truly miraculous example of Weismann’s 
powers of prophesy. But to any one who is 
at all familiar with the developmental stages 
under discussion, Petrunkewitsch’s figures sug- 
gest anything but what he attempts to prove. 
Even in his first paper there is no satisfactory 
evidence to show that the cells regarded as 
derivatives of the polar bodies in the figures 
on plate 4 are really such, and not dividing 
cleavage cells or possibly vitellophags. These 
stages are all separated by a great gap from 
those represented on plate 3. When we take 
up the second paper we wonder how anybody 
could regard the figures there presented as 
even an adumbration of proof that the testes 
of the drone are developed from the polar 
bodies. There is, in fact, every reason to sup- 
pose that what Petrunkewitsch calls ‘ Zellen, 
aus dem Richtungscopulationskern entstand- 
en’ in his Figs. 1, 2 and 3, are vitellophags 
with altered nuclei, such as are often seen in 


**Die Richtungskérper und ihr Schicksal im 
befruchteten und unbefruchteten Bienenei,’ In- 
auguraldissertation, Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Anat. w. 
Ont., 14. Bd., 4. Heft, 1901; ‘Das Schicksal der 
Richtungskérper im Drohnenei. Habilitations- 
schrift., Zool. Jahrb. Abth. f. Anat. u. Ont., 17. 
Bd., 3. Heft, 1902. 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


the yolk of fertilized insect eggs (Doryphora, 
€. g.) coexisting with healthier vitellophags 
provided with more rotund nuclei. When we 
come to the polar body derivatives in his Figs. 
3, 5, 6, 7 and 8, we recognize the well-known 
“dorsal organ,’ or remains of the serosa aggre- 
gating and preparing to pass into the yolk. 
Between these stages and that of his Fig. 10 
with nearly completed mesenteron (which he 
derives from the mesoderm [sic/]) there is 
another big gap, and so far as the figures go, 
no demonstrable connection to show that the 
testes are really derived from such an absurdly 
improbable source as the ‘dorsal organ,’ to 
say nothing of the polar bodies. The only 
figures in Petrunkewitsch’s paper showing un- 
questionable rudiments of the reproductive 
organs are Figs. 14, 15, 17, 18, 19 and 20, and 
in all of these the organs are depicted in the 
relatively late stages of development that have 
been figured repeatedly by other authors. 
Then note the startling migrations described 
for the drone’s testes and their antecedent 
cells! The second polar body is at first on 
the anterior cephalic surface of the egg. 
The cell derivatives leave this surface and 
divide into two groups which migrate to the 
dorsocephaliec region and there reunite. The 
mass thus formed then proceeds caudally 
along the mid-dorsal line just beneath the 
blastoderm till it enters the abdominal region, 
where it breaks up into cells, which migrate 
ventrally on either side as far as the meso- 
blastic somites, become entangled with these 
and are again carried dorsally to the position 
of the definitive testes. Was ever organ more 
bedeviled in its development? And what 
shall we say of the ‘critical caution’? not only 
of taking work of this kind seriously, but of 
using it for propping up at one of its weak- 
est points a complicated theory of sex?* And 

*T allude to that salmagundi (Bull. Mus. Comp. 
Zool., Vol. XL., No. 4) in which the disjecta 
membra of certain Darwinian, Weismannian and 
Mendelian theories concerning three such intricate 
subjects as heredity, sex and parthenogenesis, are 
stirred to the point of turbidity, garnished with 
a few accessory hypotheses, and served up in a 
pamphlet of thirty pages. As if such messes 
could be either palatable or digestible! Morgan 
has presented an excellent criticism of this theory 


SCIENCE. 


589 


if such work on the origin of the drone’s testes 
ean be made the basis of a ‘ Habilitations- 
schrift, how implicit should be our faith in 
the same author’s ‘ Inauguraldissertation’ ? 
Having, as he supposes, established the 
Dzierzon theory beyond cavil, so far as it deals 
with the honey-bee, Castle next proceeds to 
consider the ants, after the fashion of the 
typical laboratory zoologist whose motto is 
“all species look alike to me.’ He finds it 
necessary to admonish me for deeming it ‘ even 
a probability’ that workers may develop from 
the unfertilized eggs of workers. Had he taken 
the pains to read the observations of Reichen- 
bach and Mrs. Comstock with care, or better 
still, had he acquired a first-hand acquaint- 
ance with the two insects mentioned by those 
authors, namely Anergates atratulus and 
Lasius niger, he would have seen that his 
criticism is really as feeble as it is captious. 
A more careful writer would have observed 
that Reichenbach is not a myrmecologist and 
that his remarks on Anergates, etc., were cited 
mainly on account of their psychological in- 
terest as showing the flurry into which a man 
is thrown on discovering a fact that conflicts 
with some formidable theory. Anergates 
atratulus is a rare, monotypic, parasitic ant, 
which has lost its worker caste and has wing- 
less, pupa-like males. Obviously, in such a 
species there can be no nuptial flight, and 
mating would naturally take place in the 
nest. Since the worker caste is non-existent, 
Reichenbach’s, and hence also Castle’s, refer- 
ence to this species, is really irrelevant. In 
regard to Lasius niger Castle asks: “Is there 
any reason for supposing that the ants cap- 
tured [by Mrs. Comstock] had not previously 
been with males? * * * May we not reason- 
ably exercise some ‘critical caution’ before 
with Wheeler we conclude it probable ‘that 
worker ants can really produce other workers 
or even queens parthenogenetically’?” It is 
(‘Recent Theories in Regard to the Determina- 
tion of Sex,’ Pop. Sci. Month., December, 1903). 
It turns out to be merely another case of the 
old fallacy of juggling the phenomenon to be ex- 
plained—in this case, sex—back into the germ- 
cells and then pulling it out again @ Ja Little 
Jack Horner, with the naive assurance of having 
contributed something ‘new’ to science. 


590 SCIENCE. 


clear, in the first place, that Castle is himself 
not only lacking in ‘critical caution,’ but in 
consistency, when he asks such questions. 
Since he accepts the Dzierzon theory and pro- 
ceeds to extend it to ants, he has no right to 
change the theory during the transfer. All 
adherents of this theory would agree in pro- 
nouncing fertilization of worker bees by 
drones an impossibility. They would contend 
that this had never been seen. Hence if the 
Dzierzon theory is to be extended to ants we 
should consistently make the same assump- 
tion. Nor would this be merely an assump- 
tion. All observations—in this case far more 
easily controlled than in the bees—go to show 
that worker ants do not mate with males. 
The case for Lasius niger is even stronger than 
in the bees on other grounds also. In this ant 
the differences in size and structure, both in 
the reproductive organs and in the soma, are 
vastly greater between the female and worker 
than they are between the queen and worker 
bee. No one, to my knowledge, has ever seen 
even a receptaculum seminis in a worker 
Lasius, though a very distinct vestige of this 
structure is present in the worker bee.* But 
even if the receptaculum were present, there 
is no reason to suppose that it would function 
any more than it does in the worker bee. 
This would have to be admitted, however, if 
we are to interpret Reichenbach’s and Mrs. 
Comstock’s observations in accordance with 
Castle’s preconceived notions, for it is clear 
that in the case of the Reichenbach colony 
months must have elapsed between the death 


* Castle’s familiarity with the conditions in the 
bee is well illustrated by his remark that ‘ dis- 
sections of egg-laying workers, which were made 
by Leuckart, revealed no seminal receptacle, hence 
the eggs of such animals can not have been fer- 
tilized.” The existence in worker bees both of a 
vestigial receptaculum and of accessory glands was 
pointed out by von Siebold more than sixty years 
ago. Moreover, Leuckart, as he later admitted, 
overlooked the receptacle in the dissections al- 
luded to by Castle. <A glance at the well-known 
Leuckart and Nitsche chart of the honey-bee, 
which can hardly be lacking in the Harvard 
laboratory, would have shown Castle a by no 
means insignificant receptacle in both the sterile 
and the egg-laying worker. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 484. 


of the males each year and the laying of the 
eggs, and Mrs. Comstock mentions the rearing 
ot ‘at least three complete broods’ of workers 
in the absence of males. From what we know 
of other ants we could hardly suppose a 
Lasius worker to function as Castle imagines. 
possible unless it were either a true or an 
ergatoid queen. But no one has eyer seen 
an ergatoid female Lasius niger though this. 
insect is not only the most abundant of ants 
but the most abundant of animals over a large 
portion of Europe and North America. In 
this country it occurs in innumerable colonies 
from an altitude of 10,000 feet in the Rocky 
Mountains to the sands of the Atlantic sea- 
shore. I have myself collected and examined 
thousands of these ants without ever seeing 
anything that even approached an ergatoid 
female. Is it probable then that two lots of 
ants collected at random, like those of Reich- 
enbach and Mrs. Comstock, should both con- 
tain fertilized ergatoid females indistinguish- 
able externally from normal workers, especially 
when we consider the remarkable propensity 
of the workers of this and many other Formi- 
cide for laying unfertilized eggs? Which, 
then, is the more probable interpretation of 
Reichenbach’s and Mrs. Comstock’s observa- 
tions? Assuredly that which I advanced in 
my former paper. 

Since the publication of my paper Professor 
Forel has sent me a short article,* from which 
I take the following paragraph: 

Zur Erklirung des _ Polymorphismus der 
Ameisen hat man zuniichst die Analogie der 
Bienen herbeigezogen, welche im Stande sind, in 
den ersten Larvaltagen, durch veriinderte Erniihr- 
ung und Vergrésserung der Zelle eine Arbeiter- 
larve in eine Weibchenlarve umzuwandeln. 
Ferner hat man nach Siebold stets angenommen, 
dass die Minnchen aus unbefruchteten Hiern, die 
Weibchen und Arbeiter dagegen aus befruchteten 
Eiern stammen. Letzere Thatsache schien auch 
bei den Ameisen zu stimmen, indem ich selbst 
and dann auch Andere stets Minnchen aus unbe- 
fruchteten Arbeitereiern erzogen hatten. Dock 
haben die neuesten Untersuchungen Reichen- 
bach’s klipp und klar den Nachweis geliefert, 


* Ueber Polymorphismus und Variation bei den 
Ameisen, Zool. Jahrb. Suppl. (Weismann’s Fest- 
schrift), VII., 1904. 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


dass aus unbefruchteten Arbeitereiern von Lasius 
niger Fabr. wiederum Arbeiter entstehen. Also 
wieder ein Dogma verfriihter Verallgemeinerung, 
dass in Nichts zerfliesst !* 

Surely I may be permitted to express as a 
probability what the most eminent myrme- 
ecologist states in such emphatic language. 
That I was well aware of the remote possibili- 
ties mentioned by Castle, and of others which 
he does not seem to have surmised, is clear 
from my express statement that the observa- 
tions of Tanner, Reichenbach and Mrs. Com- 
stock are ‘by no means final.’ It would have 
been natural for a less captious critic to sup- 
pose that the views advanced in my paper were 
not determined solely by the observations cited 
from other authors, but to some extent by my 
Own experiences, which though less tangible 
and less readily formulated at the present 
time, are not less suggestive to me of the trend 
of future investigation. ‘ 

Academie convictions like those advanced 
by Castle can be of service only in prejudging 
a field of inquiry; they can be of no imagin- 
able use in stimulating or furthering research 
except indirectly through the spirit of contra- 
diction aroused by their dogmatic character. 
If Castle had any new facts, or original inter- 
pretations of old facts, for that matter, to 
bring to bear on the problems under discus- 
sion, I should be the first to welcome them. 
We need something more, however, than 
mere discussions of possibility and probability, 
if we are ever to dispel the mystery that en- 
velops many of the instincts and reproductive 
processes in the social hymenoptera. 


Lee Wititiam Morton WHEELER. 
AMERICAN Museum or NatuRAL History, 
March 24, 1904. 


VEGETABLE BALLS. 


To tHe Eprror or Science: Can any of 
your readers refer me to any published men- 
tion or description (other than in Thoreau’s 
‘Walden ’) of those balls of matted vegetable 
matter formed on the sandy bottoms of shal- 
low ponds, apparently under the action of 
wave-motion? In what ponds or lakes (other 
than Flint’s or Sandy Pond, in Lincoln, 


*The italics are mine. 


SCIENCE. 591 


Mass.) are they known to occur? Have they 
any recognized names? Of what materials 
are they mainly composed other than Hrio- 
caulon leaves? Any information will be very 


welcome. W. F. Ganone. 
NORTHAMPTON, MASS. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
RIGHT-EYEDNESS AND LEFT-EYEDNESS. 

I wisn to solicit the aid of the readers of 
ScimNcE in securing answers to the follow- 
ing questions concerning left-handed persons 
they may know: 

1. Name, or at least imitials, residence, 
sex, age and occupation ? 

2. Is the left-handedness complete or only 
for some of the acts usually performed with 
the right hand by right-handed persons ? 

3. Is the left-handedness the result of acci- 
dent to the right hand or arm, or did it exist 
from infancy ? 

4. With which eye is a gun sighted, a 
board or yard-stick proved straight, or a table 
level, ete. 2 

5. With which eye, without glasses, is the 
vision of letters across a room in a good 
light the clearest? (Alternate covering either 
eye, not closing it.) 

6. If glasses are worn for distant vision, 
the oculist’s prescription, and. the relative 
sharpness of vision of each eye with the 
glasses ? 

Right-handed persons are, I believe, nat- 
urally right-eyed, and the left-handed are left- 
eyed. There is little doubt as to the first, 
but I have found it difficult to get-data con- 


_ cerning a sufficient number of the left-handed. 


The fact of right-eyedness or left-eyedness 
has, it seems to me, much greater significance 
than the similar conditions pertaining to the ~ 
hands, but, so far as I can learn, nobody has 
even thought of it, much less discussed its 
many suggestive implications. Indeed, I 
question if the right-handedness or left-hand- 
edness is not a simple result of the ocular one- 
sidedness which preexisted and made necessary 
the paramount use of the one or the other 
hand. Both conditions, moreover, seem to me 
probably the simple result of the usual loca- 
tion of the speech-center in the left-brain. I 


592 SCIENCE. 


see no reason so far for this left-side placing 
of the speech-center. 

Precision in running, fighting, defense, 
manipulation, distant vision of enemies, signs, 
ete., would begin at least early in the history 
of human savages, and winning in the strug- 
gle for existence even so early would depend 
generally far more on accuracy and perfection 
of vision than of manual dexterity. I have 
not been able to conclude as to the existence 
of any degree of right-handedness or left- 
handedness or of right-eyedness or left- 
eyedness, in animals. Beavers and monkeys 
might possibly show the beginnings of dif- 
ferentiation. In all human beings, of any 
degree at least of civilization, both facts 
ean be demonstrated. When civilization is 
present, the demonstration is apparent in the 
right-handedness of archers, and those using 
weapons of battle, and especially of gunners. 
All military regulations require the musket to 
be brought to the right shoulder in aiming 
and firing. These and many other right- 
handed uses and customs, of course, presup- 
pose and make necessary right-eyedness. In 
mechanical occupations all tools are made for 
the right-handed. Locomotive engineers sit 
on the right-hand side of the engine; that 
this is because of right-eyedness is proved by 
the fact that the throttle is manipulated by 
the left hand, the other and the more expert 
and stronger one being unused during the 
‘run.’ But, if right-eyed, the engineer can 
see the track and signals better from the right 
side of the boiler than from the left. The 
great mystery and the long-discussed problem 
of the varying usage of the drivers of wagons, 
carriages, etc., in passing on the right or left, 
will be explained, I suspect, by right-eyedness. 
That those afoot always pass to the right, 
even though the carriages in the same street 
pass to the left, is explained by the fact that 
the field of vision in front and the choice of 
directions are better under the circumstances 
than it would be with the right-eyed passing 
to the left. The danger of collision of 
vehicles makes passing to the left the pref- 
erable and safer plan. 

When the harp grew into the dulcimer, and 
that into the piano, the execution of the most 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 484. 


important, skilled and difficult part, the 
melody or air, was of course given to the right- 
hand side of the key-board, and the easier and 
accompanying part to the left. But prior 
to that was the yiolin, and it is only the 
theory of right-eyedness that can explain 
why the most difficult and rapid fingering 
was given to the more inexpert left hand, 
and the simpler and easier bowing to 
the more dextrous right. The advantage 
was unconsciously recognized and wuncon- 
sciously applied which comes from the learn- 
er’s greater ability to see the motions and 
positions of the fingers with the right eye 
when the fingering is done with the left hand. 
The left hand and the neck of the instrument 
in this position are seen at an angle, and, 
therefore, more correctly, than would be pos- 
sible if the right hand were used for fingering 
and the neck of the violin placed directly in 
the line of the axis of vision of the right eye. 
In this case there would be the difficulty and 
doubt which results from the foreshortening 
or from looking along a line or surface nearly 
level with the eye. 

The more expert hand in shooting a gun is 
used for the simple task of pulling the trigger, 
while the weaker and more awkward left is 
forced to do the all important tasks of sup- 
porting the gun and taking aim or directing 
the barrel upon the mark. The right eye 
compels also this reversal of what would 
otherwise be the natural and unconsciously 
preferred custom. In chopping, hoeing, 
shoveling, ete., the weaker left gives the force 
and direction of the blow, and the right only 
guides a little the end of the tool, and in gen- 
eral serves a subordinate function. In these 
occupations the angled axis of vision as in 
the violin is not necessary, and would even 
be a disadvantage. Looking downward, as in 
writing, the right does its work more accu- 
rately when straight below. 

Any number of similar examples will come 
to mind of the influence of right-eyedness in 
every department or phase of our life, and 
the explanation of a multitude of incon- 
eruities and peculiarities observed or hitherto 
unsuspected will be brought to light. There 
is hardly any act or custom, personal or social, 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


that does not give evidences of the influence 
of right-eyedness. ‘ 

’ One wonders if a new clearness will not be 
brought into neurology and psychology by a 
careful correlation of the suggestions which 
the theory offers. The unification and per- 
fection of innervation and cerebration must 
be better if imitiated and executed with the 
cerebral centers mainly upon one side of the 
brain, than if the unity is gained by means of 
the longer and more distant commissural 
fibers extending between the two sides of the 
brain. In the right-handed the speech center 
is in the left side of the brain, as is also the 
innervational motor center for the right hand, 
and the optical center of the right eye. The 
»dependence of all motion upon a perfect corre- 
lation of vision and judgment needs only to 
be mentioned. That. all intellect is psycho- 
logically the product of vision is less recog- 
nized, but is not less absolute truth. The 
right hand writes, possibly because the right 
eye looks down upon the writing more ac- 
curately than would the left; both depend 
upon the synchronous and closely interrelated 
guidance of the speech-making function. All 
three are in closer unity and contiguity than 
if either were in the opposite side of the skull. 
A gentleman acquaintance who is left-handed 
for most things has by training during youth 
developed the habitual use of the right hand 
for writing. When he plays billiards he takes 
aim two or three times as long as others, and 
makes from six to ten motions with the cue 
before giving the stroke. One feels that his 
correlation of vision, judgment and motion is 
much more difficult than with other players. 

In the left-handed, as is well known, the 
speech center is in the right brain. Hence 
the left-handed are also left-eyed. 

The pathologic presents itself when in the 
right-handed by heredity or habit, right-eyed- 
ness is prevented by a greater ametropia in 
the right, by accident, injury, cataract, 
leucoma or other disease which markedly 


lessens its visual acuity below that of the 


left. Right-eyedness, however, will persist 
with considerably greater acuity of the left 
eye. To be right-handed by heredity and 
habit, and at the same time left-eyed by dis- 


SCIENCE. 


593 


ease, ete., brings a doubt and an awkwardness 
into every act. After a half-life of right- 
eyed correlations and habits to be suddenly 
made left-eyed, ete., by disease, accident, or 
by glasses produces something like tragedy 
in a patient. Many problems and _ ill-suc- 
cesses in the practising ophthalmologists’ 
office receive an illuminating explanation by 
keeping in mind the physiologic fact of right- 
eyedness and the pathologic consequences of 
disease, or the result of interfering with it, 
by spectacle lenses. It may be better for the 
oculist to leave a person right-eyed rather than 
to give such lenses as suddenly compel left- 
eyedness. 5 

For the present I will cite only three illus- 

trative cases: 
The first is that of a man who is left-handed 
in billiard playing and in most occupations. 
Asked to see if his cue was straight, he brought 
it before the nose with both eyes open, and 
thus ‘sighted’ along it. Asked to sight more 
accurately, he finally brought it opposite the 
right eye and closed his left. Asked to ob- 
serve if two tables were exactly of the same 
height, he again sighted with the right eye, 
shutting the left. And he wrote with his 
right hand. These acts at first seemed to be 
incongruous, but they were all explained by 
the fact that his right arm had been broken 
when he was twelve years of age, and the 
right-handed acts since then performed with 
the left have been compelled because of per- 
manent injury of the right arm. Writing 
being largely a finger-movement, and espe- 
cially an intellectual act, was continued with 
the right hand. It has been demonstrated by 
pathology that the intellectual act of writing 
proves the location of the speech-center to be 
in the side of the brain opposite the hand 
used, although for all other usually right- 
handed acts the left may be preferred. 

The second case is that of a carpenter who 
is left-handed, and has been so from infancy. 
He is also left-eyed. During his youth 
parents and teachers tried to make him right- 
handed by tying his left hand behind him, 
ete. As a carpenter he has to use tools, the 
plane, a vise, etc., made for the right-handed, 
but he is always awkward when thus com- 


594 SCIENCE. 


pelled to work. After planing a board thus 
held in a vise, he goes to the other end of it 
in order to sight down it with his left eye. 
With this eye he is an excellent judge of 
levels and straight lines. He steps off with 
the left foot first. The most remarkable 
thing about this case is that, although the 
man is a good hunter and ‘an excellent shot,’ 
he, from some unexplained reason, puts the 
butt of the rifle against his right shoulder. 
But he does not sight with his right eye! He 
leans his head sufficiently to bring the left 
eye in the line of the sights, and with this eye 
only he takes his aim. He chooses highly 
crooked or angled gun-stocks because of this 
necessity. The left-eyed, I suspect, will 
always be found to haye some exceptional 
habits or vestiges of habits still unconquered 
by the outnumbering and preponderant right- 
handed ancestry. 

The third case is that of a man who has 
been left-handed from infancy in the use of 
all instruments, knife and fork, billiard cue, 
gun, hoe, ete. But so much was he trained 
and forced to use the right hand in childhood 
and youth in writing with pen and ink that 
he now habitually writes with that hand, if 
using pen and ink. If using a pencil, chalk, 
ete., he is equally expert with the left and 
usually prefers it. 

I gather that ambidexterity should be dis- 
couraged instead of stimulated. If a child 
prefers left-handedness, there will be a greater 
celerity and unity by means of the location of 
the three organs dominating action in one 
side of the brain. 

I have never seen anything but bad results 
from the attempt to train children to use the 
right hand instead of the left, when there 
is a decided tendency or habit to be left- 
handed. Moreover the attempt is never suc- 
cessful. The best consequences are poor, and 
are only awkward mixtures of the two forms, 
which yield confusions and indecisions during 
the entire subsequent life. The instance of 
the billiard player of whom I have spoken 
is one. Another and more striking evil re- 
sult is that of a naturally left-handed friend, 
A. VY. P., who by arduous and continuous 
training during his childhood was compelled 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 484. 


to write with his right hand. For all other 
acts he is left-handed but he can not use his 
left hand for writing. Although now past 
fifty he has always hated any writing, the 
mere act of doing so, and he can not do any 
original thinking while writing. He is for 
this purpose compelled to rely on a stenog- 
rapher, and then his ideas flow freely and 
rapidly. If he tries to think, plan, or devise 
and to write at the same time there is a posi- 
tive inhibition of thought and he must make 
sketches, epitomes, several efforts, copyings, 
ete., in a painful and most unsatisfactory 
manner. The attempt at ambidexterity has 
been a lifelong obstacle to him in his pro- 
fessional progress. The chief centers most 
closely interrelated in writing and thinking 
are thus demonstrably better harmonized 
when in one side of the brain. The me- 
chanies of neurology are plainly less difi- 
cult than could be achieved by any foolish and 
unsuccessful ambidexterity. 

As to the appearance of left-handed chil- 
dren of right-handed parents and ancestors, 
we are, of course, in no scientific stage to ex- 
plain, any more than we can explain dextro- 
cardia or other embryologic anomalies. Per- 
haps, as I have suggested, the location of the 
speech center in the right side of the brain, 
by some exceptional condition of development 
is the ultimate cause both of left-handed- 
ness and of left-eyedness. The problem of 
heredity of left-eyedness and right-eyedness 
‘vould prove a most interesting study by the 
method of Mendel. Grorce M. Gout. 


PHILADELPHIA, PA. 


STUDENTS AT GERMAN UNIVERSITIES. 

Tue following table, as reported by United 
States Consul Warner, Leipzig, Germany, 
shows the number of students attending 
twenty-one German universities during the 
winter semester, 1903-4, arranged in the order 
of their numerical importance: 

For the present winter course the total num- 
ber of matriculated students at the German 
universities is 37,854, of whom 3,093 are for- 
eigners, the largest number ever recorded. 
The number of foreign students is equivalent 
to 8.2 per cent. of the total number. 


Ss 


Aprit 8, 1904.] 


SCIENCE. 


Naan aa Others Attending 
University. eta Lees Total. 
Male. Female. 

Berlin..... 7,503 5,791 562 13,856 
Munich.... 4,609 224 2 4,855 
Leipzig..... 3,772 573 62 4,407 
Bonn...... 2,294 103 87 2,484 
Breslau... 1,770 111 98 1,979 
alle. S....: 1,753 160 51 1,964 
Tiibingen...| 1,387 26 3 1,416 
Gottingen. . 1,370 61 57 1,478 
Heidelberg. | 1,359 128 53 1,535 
Strassburg.| 1,333 96 71 1,500 
Freiburg...| 1,305 156 26 1,487 
Wiirzburg..| 1,283 21 75 1,379 
Miinster....) 1,204 60 336 1,259 
Marburg... 1,154 74 18 1,246 
Giessen.... 1,071 38 11 1,120 
Erlangen... 982 21 10 1,013 
Kénigsberg. 925 81 67 1,073 
Jena....... 816 49 25 890 
Kaeliires. 708 41 15 814 
Griefswald. 687 50 SH 737 
Rostock.... 519 30 nes 549 

Total....| 37,854 7,874 1,313 47,041 


Consul-General Guenther, at Frankfort-am- 


Main, reports further that of these foreigners © 


739 are studying philosophy, philology or his- 
tory; 722, medicine; 651, mathematics or 
natural sciences; 366, law; 231, political econ- 
omy or forestry; 178, agriculture; 1385, Evan- 
gelical theology; 32, Catholic theology; 26, 
dentistry and 13, pharmacy. Two thousand 
six hundred and twenty of them come from 
European and 473 from non-Kuropean coun- 
tries. Among the former are 986 from Rus- 
sia, 588 from Austria-Hungary, 318 from 
Switzerland, 162 from England, 73 from Bul- 
garia, 69 from Roumania, 64 from France, 
59 from Greece, 55 from Servia, 49 from Hol- 
land, 41 from Turkey, 43 from Italy, 33 from 
Luxemburg, 33 from Sweden and Norway, 14 
from Belgium, 13 from Spain, 12 from Den- 
mark, 4 from Portugal, 2 from Montenegro 
and 1 from the principality of Lichtenstein. 

Of the other foreign students, 319 are from 
America, 133 from Asia, 19 from Africa and 
2 from Australia. The Americans are mainly 
from the United States and the Asiatics for 
the largest part from Japan. 

These figures, however, include only the 
lawfully immatriculated students; to them 
must be added those who are enrolled as hos- 
pitants, of which 9,187 are reported in the 


595 


foregoing table, including 7,874 male and 
1,313 female attending as special students. 

Noteworthy among other things, in the table 
above, is the numerical preeminence of attend- 
ance at Berlin, where the total exceeds that 
of Munich, Leipzig, Bonn and Breslau com- 
bined. But 42 per cent. of Berlin’s attend- 
ance is made up of non-matriculated students, 
representing a floating element to a consider- 
able extent. Elsewhere in Germany this fea- 
ture is a minor one in university attendance. 

Among non-matriculated students, one out 
of every seven is a woman, and over 42 per 
cent. of these women in attendance at the: 
twenty universities are found at Berlin. Out- 
side of Berlin women students among non- 
matriculants are best represented at Breslau, 
Bonn and Strassburg, but at none of these 
institutions does the attendance reach a hun- 
dred. 

JOHN FRANKLIN CROWELL. 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 


RESOLUTIONS OF THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY 
OF WASHINGTON IN MEMORY OF E. 
E. EWELL AND #. A. DE SCHWEINITZ. 


At the regular meeting of the Chemical 
Society of Washington, held in the Assembly 
Hall of the Cosmos Club on Thursday even- 
ing, March 10, 1904, the following memorial 
was presented by Dr. Harvey W. Wiley and, 
in accordance with the custom of the society, 
was ordered spread upon the minutes of the 
meeting, published in Science and a copy fur- 
nished the family of the deceased: © 


Mr. E. E. Ewell was a faithful and loyal mem- , 
ber of the American Chemical Society and of the 
Washington Section thereof. At the time of his 
removal from Washington he was one of the vice- 
presidents of the section and in direct line to the 
presidency. For one so young his services to 
science were notable, and especially so in view 
of his willingness to engage in laborious routine 
work which occupied a great part of his time. 
His activities extended to all branches of agri- 
cultural and pharmaceutical chemistry. He or- 
ganized in the Bureau of Chemistry the investi- 
gations of the qualities of the articles offered to 
the government under contract, and had charge 
of that part of the work committed to the bureau 
from the different departments of the govern- 


596 SCIENCE. 


ment. His personality was always agreeable and 
his friends were quite as devoted to him as those 
who were drawn to him by scientific ties. He 
was a manly man, honest, frank and straight- 
forward in his conduct. He was always ready 
to take an active part in all the social festivities 
attending scientific reunions and was a welcome 
guest at a banquet or a smoker. His death re- 
moves from the field of scientific labor a faithful 
worker before he had reached his prime, while 
still full of promise made more sure by past 
achievements. As a man, as an investigator, as 
a coworker and as a friend we mourn his loss. 


At the regular meeting of the Chemical 
Society of Washington held in the Assembly 
Hall of the Cosmos Club on Thursday even- 
ing, March 10, 1904, the following resolutions 
were presented by Dr. Marion Dorset and, in 
accordance with the custom of the society, 
were ordered spread upon the minutes of the 
meeting, published in SctENcE and a copy fur- 
nished to the family of the deceased. 


WHEREAS, We, the members of the Washington 
section of the American Chemical Society have 
heard with deep regret and profound sorrow of 
the sudden and unexpected death of Dr. HE. A. 
de Schweinitz, be it 

Resolved, That we hereby record this expression 
of our grief on account of the loss which we, his 
colleagues, have suffered, and which the scientific 
world at large has experienced through his un- 
timely death. As a member and past president 
of this society he contributed in great measure 
to its success, and we feel that his death has re- 
moved not only a friend but a colaborer who has 
done much towards the advancement of his chosen 
profession; be it further 

Resolved, That these resolutions be spread upon 
the minutes of this society and that a copy be 
furnished his family, to whom we extend our 
sincere sympathy in their bereavement. 


Dr. H. W. Wiley, in seconding the resolu- 
tions, said: “Dr. de Schweinitz was first ap- 
pointed in the Division of Chemistry on 
August 23, 1888. A full account of his serv- 
ice to science, a list of the papers he has pub- 
lished and his career in medical educational 
work are found in the proceedings of the 
memorial meeting held in his honor at Co- 
lumbian University on Saturday evening, 
March 7. 

“Tt is not necessary to recapitulate these 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 484. 


proceedings here, as they will be published and 
made available to all his personal and scien- 
tific friends.” 


DEPARTMENT OF INTERNATIONAL RE- 
SEARCH IN TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM | 
OF THE CARNEGIE INSTITUTION. 

Tue Trustees of the Carnegie Institution 
at their annual meeting last December author- 
ized the establishment of what is to be known 
as the ‘ Department of International Research 
in Terrestrial Magnetism.’ An allotment of 
twenty thousand dollars ($20,000) was made 
with the expectation that, if the proposed 
work should be successfully organized, a sim- 
ilar sum would be granted annually for the 
period requisite to carry out the plan sub- 
mitted by the writer, indorsed by leading in- 
vestigators, and published in the Year Book 
No. 2 of the Carnegie Institution. 

The undersigned has been appointed director 
of the department, and has been given full 
authority to organize it beginning with April 
1, 1904. Arrangements have also been made 
so that the magnetic survey and magnetic 
observatories of the United States, conducted 
under the Coast and Geodetic Survey, re- 
main in his charge, as heretofore. 

The general aim of the work is ‘ to investi- 
gate such problems of world-wide interest as 
relate to the magnetic and electric condition 
of the earth and its atmosphere, not specifi- 
cally the subject of inquiry of any one coun- 
try, but of international concern and benefit.’ 
The prime purpose, therefore, of this depart- 
ment, is not to supplant any existing organ- 
ization, but rather to supplement, in the most 
effective manner possible, the work now being 
done, and to enter only upon such investiga- 
tions as lie beyond the powers and scope of 
the countries and persons actively interested 
in terrestrial magnetism and atmospheric 
electricity. 

At first principal stress will be laid upon 
the complete reduction, discussion and corre- 
lation of the, existing observational data and 
upon early publication of the results in suit- 
able form, in order to exhibit the present 
state of our knowledge. In this way will be 
revealed the gaps to be filled and the direction 


ee ee 


i 


Aprin 8, 1904.] \ 


of future and supplementary investigations 
will be suggested. While, however, this will 
constitute at first the chief work of the de- 
partment, it is likewise proposed to embrace 
favorable opportunities for supplementing, by 
observation, the existing data and to cooperate 
with others in the observing of such of the 
earth’s magnetic and electric phenomena as 
are of momentary occurrence, and the investi- 
gation of which is of great importance. 

Details as to the method of work to be fol- 
lowed by the department and the investiga- 
tions undertaken will be made known later. 
It is proposed that whenever feasible, those 
having certain pieces of work already in hand 
will be invited to associate themselves with 
the department. 

A word of explanation as to the ‘inter- 
national’ character of the undertaking. As 
all of the funds are supplied by the Carnegie 
Institution, it will not be possible to organize 
this department in accordance with the cus- 
toms governing organizations the funds of 
which are contributed by various nations in 
concert, such, for example, as the Interna- 
tional Geodetic Association, the International 
Catalogue of Scientific Literature, ete. 
While, however, the basis of organization can 
not be ‘international’ in the sense usually de- 
fined by such bodies, it is the intention to con- 
duet the work with the counsel of an Advisory 
Board composed of representative persons, 
irrespective of country, and in this sense, the 
department is to be truly ‘ international.’ 

That an important step has been taken by 
the Carnegie Institution, will be patent to 
all who are interested in the development of 
our knowledge of the earth’s magnetism and 
electricity. Professor Neumayer, one of the 
representative investigators who endorsed the 
undertaking and promised support, expressed 
himself thus when the project was submitted 
to the Carnegie Institution: 

“JT am of opinion that if this plan reaches 
its fulfilment, it is the most important step 
ever taken for the development of our knowl- 
edge of the earth’s magnetism. The thought 
which underlies it must appeal to every one 
who has ever been engaged in geomagnetic 
investigations. In no other branch of geo- 


SCIENCE. 


597 


physics is it more essential to extend the in- 
quiries over the entire earth. Magnetic re- 
search, to be successful, requires the coopera- 
tion of the most competent investigators of 
all countries.” 
All mail intended for the department should 
be addressed as below. L. A. Baurr. 
DEPARTMENT TERRESTRIAL MAGNETISM, 
Carnecig INSTITUTION, 
WASHINGTON, D. C. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Proressor W. W. Campsety has been elected 
one of the thirty foreign members of the 
Italian Society of Spectroscopists. 

Dr. W. J. Hounanp, director of the Car- 
negie Museum, Pittsburg, has been made a 
corresponding member of the Swedish Society 
of Anthropology and Geography. 


Proressor Eucen Warmine, of Copenhagen, 
has been elected a member of the Paris Aca- 
demy of Sciences in the section of botany. 


Proressor L. Luciani, of Rome, and Pro- 
fessor A. Mosso, of Turin, the eminent phys- 
iologists, have been appointed senators of the 
realm in Italy. 

MM. Appi, Lenfant and Lebaume-Pluvinet 
have been elected members of the council of 
the French Astronomical Society. 

Dr. W. C. Faraves, instructor in anthropol- 
ogy at Harvard University, is to conduct a 
party on an anthropological trip through the 
west, starting immediately after commence- 
ment. 

Proressor FE’. S. Haru, assistant curator at 
the New York Botanical Garden, has gone to 
Cuba, on leave of absence, at the request of 
the Cuban Government, for the purpose of aid- 
ing that government in the establishment of 
a Department of Agriculture. 

Proressor Ropert Kocer will return to Ber- 
lin at the end of June. He is at present at 
Dar-es-salaam, South Africa, studying malaria 
and the prevalent cattle disease. 

A cHapteR of the Scientific Society of the 
Sigma Xi has been established at the Univer- 
sity of Illinois with Professor S. A. Forbes as 
president. 

Tue staff of the Henry Phipps Institute of 
Philadelphia, gave a dinner on March 28, at 


598 SCIENCE. 


which Dr. Lawrence F. Flick, director of the 
institute, was presented with a piece of silver 
plate. 

Dr. M. Satomon has received the Alvarenga 
prize from the German Hufeland Society for 
his pamphlet on ‘Tuberculosis as a Disease 
of the Masses and Measures to Prevent it.’ 

THE municipal council of the City of Paris 
has presented M. and Mme. Curie with silver 
medals. 

Mr. Artaur THomson, assistant superin- 
tendent of the Gardens of the Zoological So- 
ciety of London, has been presented with the 
society’s silver medal for his services extending 
over thirty-four years. 

Proressor Cornit, of Paris, has been pre- 
sented with a portrait and medallion on retir- 
ing from hospital service at the age limit of 
sixty-five years. Dr. Cornil remains professor 
of pathological anatomy in the University of 
Paris. 

Dr. WitHELM Hirrorr, the eminent physicist 
and chemist, for many years professor at 
Miinster, celebrated his eightieth birthday on 
March 27. 

We learn from Nature that the Belgian 
Royal Academy has awarded its gold medal of 
1,000 franes to M. Mare de Selys-Longchamps 
for his memoir on the development of a 
Pharonis. The Théophile Gluge prize for 
physiology has been awarded to Dr. P. Nolf, 
of the University of Liége. 

Proressor WILHELM Ostrwatp will give at 
the Royal Institution, London, the Faraday 
lecture before the Chemical Society on April 
19. 

Tue Croonian lecture of the Royal Society 
was delivered on March 4, by Professor EH. H. 
Starling, F.R.S., and Dr. W. M. Bayliss, 
F.RS., the subject being ‘The Chemical 
Regulation of the Secretory Process.’ Pro- 
fessor E. Rutherford, of McGill University, 
will give in May the Bakerian lecture, on 
‘The succession of changes in radioactive 
substances.’ 

Tue following are among the lecture ar- 
rangements at the Royal Institution: Pro- 
fessor L. O. Miall, three lectures on ‘ The 
Transformations of Animals’; Mr. L. 


(N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 484. 


Fletcher, three on ‘ Meteorites’; Mr. H. F. 
Newall, two on the ‘ Solar Corona’; Professor 
Dewar, three on ‘ Dissociation’; and Sir W. 
Martin Conway, two on ‘Spitzbergen in the 
Seventeenth Century.’ The Friday evening 
meetings will be resumed on April 15, when 
Mer. Count vay de Vaya and Luskod will 
deliver a discourse on ‘Korea and the 
Koreans.’ 

Dr. Henry Minton WHELPLEY, professor of 
materia medica and pharmacy, Medical De- 
partment, Washington University, and of mi- 
eroscopy, St. Louis College of Pharmacy, 
delivered by invitation the valedictory address 
at the Pharmacy Department of Purdue Uni- 
versity, on March 30. 

A MeEmoRIAL has recently been erected to 
Max Schede in the grounds of the clinic at 
Bonn. The address was delivered by his suc- 
cessor, Professor Bier. 

Mr. Henry L. Marinpry, hydrographer con- 
nected with the United States Coast and 
Geodetic Survey since 1863 and a member 
of the Mississippi River Commission, has 
died at the age of sixty. 

Tue death is also announced of M. Jules 
Garnier, known as a geologist and metal- 
lurgist, at the age of sixty-five years, and of 
Captain Deburaux, known for his aeronautical 
experiments at the age of forty years. 

Tue A. W. AnrHony collection of birds has 
been purchased by the Carnegie Museum, 
Pittsburg. The collection contains ten thou- 
sand specimens, including the types of all the 
species and subspecies described by Mr. 
Anthony. Mr. OC. V. Hartman, the curator 
of archeology and ethnology in the museum, 
has removed the collection of Costa Rican 
antiquities made by Padre Jose Maria Velasco 
from the Archeological Department of the 
Free Museum of Science and Art in West 
Philadelphia to the Carnegie Museum at 
Pittsburg. This collection, together with 
another scarcely less important collection 
made by Padre Velasco, supplemented by the 
Troyo, the Ferraz and other collections re- 
cently acquired by the museum, give this in- 
stitution the largest assemblage of Costa Rican 
antiquities in existence outside of Costa Rica. 
In fact, the Carnegie Museum possesses more 


Aprin 8, 1904.] 


specimens of Costa Rican antiquities than are 
found in all the museums of the world put to- 
gether. 


Av a meeting held at the College of Physi- 
cians at Philadelphia on March 28, steps were 
taken to effect the organization of the United 
States Association for the Study of Tuber- 
culosis, and Drs. E. L. Trudeau, George M. 
Sternberg, W. H. Welch, L. F. Flick and 
H. M. Biggs were appointed members of the 
committee. Dr. Wm. Osler was chosen chair- 
man and Dr. H. Barton Jacobs, secretary for 
the committee, when it shall meet in connec- 
tion with the American Medical Association 
at the annual session in June at Atlantic City. 

Tur American Neurological Association will 
hold its meeting at St. Louis on September 
15, 16 and 17 immediately preceding the ses- 
sions of the various medical departments of 
the Congress of Arts and Sciences, beginning 
September 19. | 


Owina, it is said, to the war in the east, the 
Congress of Polish Scientific Men and Physi- 
cians will not meet at Lemberg this year, as 
has been announced. 


A Reuter telegram from Vienna, dated 
March 19, states that at the request of the 
Academy of Science, the Austrian Minister of 
Agriculture, in order to facilitate the solution 
of certain important questions relating to the 
nature of radium, has ordered that from Janu- 
ary 1 last until further notice no trading 
should be permitted in the residues from the 
manufacture of uranium colors at Joachims- 
thal, and that 10,000 kilograms of those resi- 
dues should be reserved for purchase by the 
academy and another 10,000 kilograms for M. 
Curie, the discoverer of radium, in Paris. 
These consignments are to be devoted entirely 
to the purpose of scientific experiment. 


M. Deutscu, having offered a prize of $25,- 
000 for the first flying machine making a 
flight in a circle of one kilometer, M. Ernest 
Archdeacon has added a like sum and has ap- 
pealed for further subscriptions.) 


Tue electric railway at Nice having inter- 
fered with the magnetic observations of the 
observatory, suit was brought by M. Bischofts- 


SCIENCE. 


599 


heim, and damages have been awarded to the 
amount of about $20,000. 


Tue Civil Service Commission invites atten- 
tion to the following named scientific and 
technical examinations to be held on April 19, 
1904, with the statement that but few applica- 
tions have been filed therefor: 

Aid, Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

Civil and electrical engineer. 

Civil and electrical engineer, Philippine Ser- 
vice. 

Civil engineer, Philippine Service. 

Civil engineer and draftsman. 

Architectural computer (Supervising Archi- 
tect’s Office). 

Computer, Nautical Almanac Office. 

Computer, Naval Observatory. 

Deck officer, Coast and Geodetic Survey. 

Topographical draftsman (Land Office Service). 

Library assistant. 

Manual training teacher. 

Trained nurse, Philippine Service. 

As the commission has experienced con- 
siderable difficulty in securing eligibles for the 
positions named, qualified persons are urged 
to enter the examination. Those who desire 
to compete should at once apply to the United 
States Civil Service Commission, Washington, 
D. C., for a copy of the Manual of Kxamina- 
tions and the necessary forms of application. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tue assembly has passed a bill appropria- 
ting $250,000 for the New York State College 
of Agriculture at Cornell University. 


Presipenr ©. E. Minipr, of Heidelberg 
University, Tiffin, Ohio, announced on March 
94, that he had secured pledges to the amount 
of $150,000 for the fuller equipment of the 
university, $50,000 of this amount to be ex- 
pended in buildings and $100,000 to be added 
to the permanent endowment. 

A xapy, who has requested that her name be 
not made known, has given $40,000 for the 
erection of a dormitory for the women stu- 
dents at Colby College, Waterville, Me. 

Mr. AnpREW CarNeEcIE has given $30,000 to 
Berea College in Kentucky. The trustees of 
the institution are preparing to test the con- 
stitutionality of the law recently passed for- 
bidding coeducation of the races. It is also 


600 


reported in the newspapers that Mr. Carnegie 
has donated library buildings to Winthrop 
College, at Rock Hill, 8. C., and to Converse 
College, at Spartanburg, S. C., both colleges 
for women. 


Tue Court of Appeals has affirmed the 
judgment of the lower courts in deciding that 
New York University has no title to the lands 
or properties of the Loomis laboratory at 414 
East T'wenty-sixth Street. The laboratory 
was founded with $100,000, contributed by 
Dr. Alfred L. Loomis in 1887; its properties 
are now valued at $200,000. 


Tur College of Pharmacy of the City of 
New York celebrated its seventy-fifth anniver- 
sary on March 29, by approving an agreement 
with the trustees of Columbia University 
whereby, after July 1, it becomes a part of the 
latter institution. Under the agreement the 
finances of the College of Pharmacy will re- 
main in the control of its trustees, although 
the president of Columbia will be its ex- 
officio president. The present course of in- 
struction will remain unchanged until the 
fall of 1905, when changes are to be made 
and approved by the officers of Columbia. 
The standard of admission to the College of 
Pharmacy, it is expected, will be raised. 
Students graduating as ‘graduates of phar- 
macy’ are not to receive the university degree, 
that being conferred only on doctors of phar- 
macy and post-graduates, who have passed the 
regents’ examination. 


Ir is expected that the new Agricultural 
Hall, now under construction at Clemson Col- 
lege at a cost of about $50,000, will be com- 
pleted during the summer and ready for 
occupation by the opening of the next session. 
This building will provide class-rooms and 
laboratories for instruction in agriculture, 
horticulture, botany and bacteriology, zoology 
and entomology, veterinary science, and geol- 
ogy and mineralogy, besides a natural history 
museum. ‘The state legislature, at its recent 
session, also established 124 agricultural 
scholarships at a value of $100 each. 


Tur Oxford convocation has passed a decree 
accepting with gratitude a donation by 
Pandit Shy4maji Krishnavarma4, M.A., of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 484. 


Balliol College, for the establishment of an 
endowment in memory of the late Herbert 
Spencer, the endowment to take the form 
of an annual lecture, with a provision that a 
‘Herbert Spencer’ prize may, if desired, with 
the consent of the founder during his lifetime, 
be substituted for the lecture. 


Tre trustees of Carleton College at North- 
field, Minn., have appointed the Rev. Dr. 
George R. Montgomery, lecturer on philosophy 
at Yale University, to be professor of phi- 
losophy, vice the Rev. E. W. Lyman, who 
goes to the Congregational Theological Semi- 
nary at Montreal. 


J. Vounny Lewis, professor of geology and 
mineralogy in the Clemson Agricultural Col- 
lege of South Carolina, has resigned to accept 
a similar position in Rutgers College after 
the close of the present session. 


~ Mr. J. HE. Bursann, B.A. (Bowdoin), M.A. 
(Harvard), has resigned his instructorship in 
physics at the University of Maine, to accept a 
position in the Magnetic Survey, at Wash- 
ington, D. C. Mr. L. E. Woodman, A.B. and 
A.M. (Dartmouth), formerly assistant in phys- 
ics at Dartmouth, has been elected to the 
vacant instructorship. 


Tue following appointments have been 
made at Harvard University: Instructors 
—QO. Ames and J. M. Greenman in botany, A. 
B. Frizell in mathematics, J. A. Moyer in de- 
scriptive geometry, S. E. Whiting in electrical 
engineering, P. S. Smith in geology, and H. C. 
Boynton in metallurgy and metallography. 
Assistants—N. 8. Bacon, L. S. Hapgood, P. H.. 
Provandie, in hygiene; A. B. Plowman in 
botany, O. F. Black, J. F. Langmaid, A. D. 
Wyman in chemistry, and J. N. Bell in zool- 
ogy. Austin teaching fellows—L. Ross in 
applied mechanics, A. H. Chivers in botany, 
A. Tyng in engineering, and A. E. Norton 
in mechanical drawing and mathematics. 

Mr. AntHuony Traut, M.D., LL.D., has been 
appointed provost of Trinity College, Dublin, 
in succession to the late Dr. George Salmon. 

Koraro SHIMOMURA, a graduate of the Wor- 


cester Polytechnic Institute, has been elected 
president of Doshisha College, Kioto, Japan. 


7] 


j i 


. MAP OF THE 


aa" 


LOWER 


MISSISSIPPI 
RIVER 


SCALE OF MILES. 
° ET) 


NOTE. 7he shaded area 
lands silycet to overtlow. 


Fauanateen te 


a 


yuan . 


RayouSarg 


C WClark, Del 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, Aprit 15, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


Levees, Outlets and Reservoirs as Means for 
Protection against Overflow of the Allumal 
Lands of the Mississippi Valley below 


Cairo: Ropert §. TAyLor, with maps...... 601 


Museums as Places of Popular Culture...... 610 


Scientific Books :— 
Dail’s Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna 
of Florida: H. A. PIDSBRY....-.......... 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 


613 
615 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Biological Society of Washington: WiL- 
FRED H. Oscoop. The Anthropological So- 
ciety of Washington: Dr. WALTER HoucH. 
The New York Academy of Sciences, Section 
of Geology and Mineralogy: Dr. EpMuUND 
Oris Hovey. The American Chemical So- 
ciety, New York Section: Dr. H. C. SuHrr- 
MAN. Northeastern Section: Artaur M. 
Comry. Zhe Onondago Academy of Sci- 
ences: J. Hi. IkirKwoop. The Science Club 
of the University of Wisconsin: VicTOR 


I LIDIA EROND Sec ate eh neem COS cre SPL 615 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Convocation Week: Dr. ARTHUR HOLLIcK, 
Dr. E. P. Fert. The Writings of William 
J. Long: Proressor W. F. Ganone, ELLEN 
Hayes. The Present Status of Soil In- 
vestigation: DR. Cyrtu G. HoPKINS....... 620 

Special Articles :— 

On a Leptocephalus of the Conger Hel: Pro- 
rEssoR C. H. Hicenmann. Jon Action: 
Drs. A. 8. Lorvenrart and J. H. KaAstre. 
Death Gulch: Dr. F. W. TrapHacen. A 
Loach from Nanaimo: PRESIDENT DAvip 
SDA Me) ORDA are era See texstey sii c atti, clot tora eis 


Quotations :— 


The Department of Agriculture.......... 635 
James Hyatt: Joun J. SCHOONHOVEN....... 635 
Hans Hermann Behr: Atick EASTWooD..... 636 
Scientific Notes and News................. 636 
University and Educational News........... 640 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SclENCE, Garn- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


LEVEES, OUTLETS AND RESERVOIRS AS 
MEANS FOR PROTECTION AGAINST OVER- 
FLOW OF THE ALLUVIAL LANDS OF THE 
MISSISSIPPI VALLEY BELOW CAIRO. 

Tue alluvial valley of the Mississippi 
River below Cairo contains 29,790 square 
miles of land subject to overflow in its 
natural state. It is all capable of protec- 
tion and reclamation by levees except a 
small area at the foot of each closed drain- 
age basin, which must be left open for the 
escape of surface water, and a fringe of 
sea marsh along its southern border. It 
has been in course of progressive reclama- 
tion by that method for nearly two hundred 
years. For the last twenty years the 
United States government has been assist- 
ing in the work and its progress has been 
rapid. The existing lines of levee are about 
1,350 miles long. About 80 miles remain 
to be constructed to complete in length the 
main river, system, not including some areas 
so small that they are not worth the cost 
of reclamation at the present time. In only 
a few places, however, are the embankments 
as high and strong as they should be for 
the greatest safety. It is not known, in 
fact, just how high they ought to be in 
order to accomplish that purpose. The 
work of building them began at the lower 
part of the river and has been carried up 
stream progressively. As they advanced 
they confined within the channel more and 
more of the water of great floods which had 
previously escaped over the bank and made 
its way to the sea by other paths. This 
process raised the flood levels within the 
levees higher as they were extended up 


602 SCIENCE. 


stream, and they had to be raised and 
strengthened to meet the added load. These 
additions were made as the need of them 
developed. These needs were forecast from 
time to time as nearly as possible. It was 
a difficult problem. The ‘potential high 
water’ of floods to come has been: the sub- 
ject of much study and discussion. The 
nearest approach to a standard has been 
that the levee should be three feet above 
the highest previous flood line in that lo- 
cality. In order to ascertain this line it 
has been the practice to record extreme 
hich-water levels by marks on trees at in- 
tervals of a few miles along the bank. 
These records show such irregularity of 
behavior in the great floods as to make it 
necessary to fit the grades of the levee to 
local conditions. One elenient of disturb- 
ance and uncertainty yet remains in the 
completion of the closure of the St. Francis 
front, where about 60 miles of embankment 
remain to be built. That great basin, 6,700 
square miles in area, has exercised in the 
past a profound influence on the channel 
along and below it. In its natural state it 
received a vast volume of overflow which it 
returned to the main stream again at and 
about the mouth of the St. Francis, imme- 
diately above Helena. This abstraction of 
water from the river along the upper and 
central portions of the front of that basin 
weakened the stream and so tended to 
shrink the channel in those parts; while its 
return at the foot of the basm augmented 
the stream, with a resulting tendency to 
enlarge the channel. Consequently, when 
we come to confine the flood discharge by 
levees along the St. Francis front, the 
water, in passing down, finds a channel of 
more ample dimensions in the neighbor- 
hood of the foot of the basin than that 
which it finds above. It is to be expected, 
therefore, that a great flood will reach a 
higher elevation in those parts of the chan- 
nel where, for ages past, the flood volume 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


has been depleted by overflow than in those 
parts where, during the same ages, the 
flood volume has been augmented by re- 
turn of the overflow. 


Still other circumstances enter in to com- — 


plicate the problem, so that, upon the 
whole, only the actual confinement of a 
series of great floods without a break from 
Cairo to the sea will give us the ultimate 
high-water profile. 

But we are making rapid progress toward 
that information. The great floods of 1897 
and 1903 carried more water, to the sea be- 
tween banks than any of their predecessors. 
They have left records of gauge readings 
and discharge measurements which afford 
a great field of interesting study into which 
I can not enter within the time and space 
at my command. Those limitations will 
permit only the briefest summary of what 
the levees accomplished and what they 
failed to accomplish toward the protection 
of the lands behind them. They were 
floods of the first rank and may be taken 
as typical of what may be expected to occur 
at intervals of a few years in the future. 

The flood of 1897 made 38 crevasses, hav- 
ing an aggregate width of about 8 miles; 
the flood of 1903 made 9 crevasses, having 
an ageregate width of about 3 miles. The 
levees in place in 1903, if no crevasses had 
breached them, would have protected about 
26,000 square miles from overflow. Of that 
area a total of about 3,000 square miles was 
overflowed in consequence of the crevasses 
which took place, which is less than one 
eighth of the entire area which the existing 
levees could and would have protected if 
they had all been high enough and had held 
their places. In the phrase of the target 
shooters, they accomplished 874 per cent. 
of suecess out of a possible 100. 

These experiences indicate that with com- 
plete restraint of the floods by levees we 
shall have, as an immediate result, some 
further elevation of the maximum flood 


A 3 ll ET i Os EO OG ELS baa sb & 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


level; but not very much—not enough to 
change any element of the problem, nor to 
introduce into it any new difficulty except 
the additional expense necessary to build 
and maintain the embankments at the 
higher grades required. The levees have 
done their work so well and are so far ad- 
vaneed toward completion that the aban- 
donment of that system for an attempt to 
protect the alluvial lands in some other way 
is not to be considered for a moment. The 
interests involved are too vast to be put in 
jeopardy by.experiment. To complete the 
existing system and maintain it is a duty 
so plain that it is not open to discussion. 
At the same time there is no reason why 
the believers in outlets and reservoirs 
should not continue to advocate their theo- 
ries, nor why their arguments should not 
receive the compliment of polite refutation. 
There is still great lack of information on 
the subject in the public mind. The goy- 
ernment has spent large sums from the 
United States treasury in aid of levee 
building, and must continue to do so if they 
are to be perfected and maintaimed; and 
all citizens who care to look into the sub- 
ject are entitled to know why that method 
of protection has been and is to be pursued 
instead of others that are proposed. 
Nothing could be more natural than the 
suggestion to seek relief from great floods 
by providing additional channels for the 
surplus water; and it takes some close con- 
sideration of the subject to perceive the 
fallacy of the proposal. But it is, as I 
shall attempt to show, a delusive scheme 
as a means of protection against overflow 
of general permanent practicability and 
utility. In the consideration of the sub- 
ject I shall try to come a little nearer to it 
than has been heretofore attempted, so far 
as I know, by locating an outlet system on 
the only lines upon which it would be avail- 
able for the advantage of the alluvial valley 
as a whole, and discussing its feasibility 


SCIENCE. 603 


and utility from a practical standpoint. 1 
have indicated such a system by the con- 
tinuous red lines on the accompanying map. 
The broken red line is to be disregarded for 
the present. 

Such a system would necessarily begin in 
the St. Francis basin. Suppose we should 
make a group of outlets near the head of 
that basin and connect them with a channel 
of sufficient capacity to carry, say, one 
tenth or one fifth of the combined discharge 
of the Ohio and the Upper Mississippi dur- 
ing great floods. The water thus diverted 
would be returned to the main channel at 
the foot of the basin, and would produce a 
flood height there as great as though the 
same water had come down the main chan- 
nel. What should we do with it there? 

A possible answer would be to make an- 
other outlet on the other side of the river 
into the head of the Yazoo basin, with a 
channel of like dimensions down that basin 
to its foot at the mouth of the Yazoo. To 
follow up the plan it would be necessary 
to make a third outlet, leadmeg this time 
into the Tensas basin, with a channel lead- 
ing down that basin across Red River and 
through the Atchafalaya basin to the gulf. 
We would then have two rivers from the 
head of the St. Francis basin to the sea, 
of which one would eross the other twice 
as a canal sometimes crosses a river in a 
pool raised by a dam. Those parts of the 
river, in the neighborhood of the crossings 
would have to carry the whole flood volume 
and would require levees as high as, or 
higher than would be required in a levee 
system without outlets. 

Such a combination would be enormously 
expensive. The secondary channel would 
be not less than five hundred miles long. 
In order to carry water enough to afford 
substantial relief from floods of the first 
magnitude it would need to be of large 
eapacity. It would pass through the cen- 
tral parts of the fat alluvial basins. To dig 


604 SCIENCE. 


it, with all the use that could be made of 
existing streams and bayous, would require 
the removal of earth enough to build sey- 
eral times its length of levee. Neverthe- 
less, with men and money and time enough 
it could be done. And if it were con- 
structed, and in order at the oncoming of 
a great flood, I should suppose that for 
once it would materially lower the high- 
water elevation except in those parts of the 


river in the neighborhood of the crossings 


of the main river by the subsidiary channel. 
So far up and down stream as that engorge- 
ment extended it would be necessary to 
maintain levees high enough to take care 
of the water, to whatever stage it might go. 

It would be the extreme of folly, how- 
ever, to construct so costly a work without 
the assurance of its permanent utility. The 
probability of this result may be considered 
from two hypothetical points of view. 
From the first of them would be contem- 
plated, I may say, a subsidiary channel 
sufficient in capacity to carry only a small 
part of an extreme flood—just the two or 
three feet on top which produce the greatest 
strain and danger under present conditions. 
Such an outlet opening would have to be 
very carefully constructed and guarded, in 
order to prevent its indefinite enlargement; 
but that could be done. For that purpose 
it would be desirable to take the water off 
through a number of small openings lead- 
ing to the subsidiary channel as indicated 
on the map. 

The extreme floods which this provision 
would be designed to relieve occur only 
rarely—not oftener, upon an average, than 
once in five years. During the intervals 
the unused channel, especially those parts 
of it not following the channel of some 
river or bayou, would be filled with a dense 
growth of vegetation—willows and cotton- 
woods, mostly. The floods have no regular 
periods of return, so that there would be no 
way to be sure that the channel would be 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


unobstructed except to keep it open and - 


clean all the time. This could be done too, 
but it would involve an annual expense 
equal to the cost of clearing a right of way 
for a railroad from Cairo’ to the gulf. It 
would be expected, I suppose, to lay out 
the subsidiary channel on comparatively 
straight lines down the interiors of the 
basins. This would result in a high ve- 
locity of flow in them; and this, again, 
would result m more or less cutting and 
caving of banks, with the consequent forma- 
tion of bars. There would be danger that 
the subsidiary channel would follow the 
vicious example of its parent and overflow 
its banks; and to be secure against this 
danger it would probably be necessary to 
restrain its inherited propensities by levees. 

It follows that, even with this smallest 
subsidiary channel that would suffice to re- 
lieve the tension of an extreme flood, we 
would have on our hands a work of pro- 
digious magnitude and cost which, at its 
best, would relieve us of only a small part 
of our present burdens and dangers. It 
would be necessary to continue to maintain 
the levees on the main stream. They would 
be subject to the same accidents which be- 
fall them now. Caving banks would un- 
dermine them, and muskrats would burrow 
in them as now. Considerations of expense 
would require us to build on as low grades 
as would be consistent with safety, just as 
we do now. When a great flood came there 
would be the same apprehension of disaster, 
the same necessity for incessant watch- 
fulness, and the same occasional crevasse 
which attend the floods now. Assuming 
that our outlets and subsidiary channel 
were entirely successful in accomplishing 
the work for which they were designed, we 
would still be little better off than we are 
now with the added burden of the enor- 
mous cost of the subsidiary system to be 
carried forever. 

This, it is to be remembered, is upon the 


a. a) ee 


pte 


through a single channel? 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


assumption that the outlets would be de- 
signed to take from the main channel only 
the surplus of an extreme flood over the dis- 
charge of an ordinary flood. To consider 
the subject from the other point of view 
referred to, we may suppose the system of 
outlets and channels already described to 
be made of sufficient capacity to carry all 
the surplus water, above the overflow stage, 
so that the levees on the main stream could 
be abandoned. This would require chan- 
nels of far greater size and cost. But as 
the plan would propose to dispense with all 
levees and so save the cost of them, we may 
set off that saving against the cost for the 
present purpose, and confine ovr attention 
to questions of maintenance and effective- 
ness. 

In such a system the subsidiary channel 
would be only another river. In all floods 
the two channels would divide the discharge 
between them, and water would flow in both 
of them all or a large part of the time. 
Would the river be able to maintain for 
itself as ample discharge room in the ag- 
gregate by a divided flow through two par- 
allel channels as by a concentrated flow 
To state the 
question is to answer it. The smaller the 
channel by which a fluid flows the greater, 
relatively, is the retardation due to friction. 
A river flows with greater velocity at high 
stages than at low stages because of its 
ereater volume. A flood divided between 
two channels would have less power to scour 
out and keep open the two channels than it 
would have to scour out and keep open a 
single channel. The two channels would 
have a greater tendency to fill up by de- 
posit of sediment than a single channel 
carrying the whole discharge would have. 
There can be no dispute over these proposi- 
tions among engineers. 

It is by reason of the immutable opera- 
tion of these laws that the Mississippi River 
has made for itself a single great channel 


SCIENCE. 605 


from Cairo to the sea. As between two 
parallel streams produced by division the 
smaller stream is the weaker. As it shrinks 
in capacity by deposit, what it loses in vol- 
ume of discharge the other stream gains. 
Thus the disparity between them in volume 
and energy increases at an increasing rate 
until the smaller channel is obliterated and 
the larger stream takes the whole discharge. 
To attempt to fight that tendency toward 
concentration in so great a river as the 
Mississippi flowing through a material so 
easy to erode and so ready to sink would 
be a futile undertaking. 

I have thus discussed two imaginable out- 
let schemes—one a mere tapping, or blood- 
letting, operation to take off the top layer 
of an extreme flood, leaving the levees to 
take care of all the lesser floods; the other 
a true subdivision of flow complete enough 
to obyiate the necessity of levees by pro- 
viding sufficient channel capacity to carry 
all floods without overflow. It requires, as 
it appears to me, only a little close atten- 
tion to the subject to make it apparent that 
they are both hopelessly impracticable. 

In the consideration of the latter of the 
two plans stated—that one assuming a gen- 
eral abandonment of levees, and a reliance 
upon outlets and subsidiary channels as sole 
protection against floods, I have not taken 
into account the problems which would be 
presented at the imtersections of the sub- 
sidiary channels and the main channel, be- 
cause the argument seemed to me to be 
sufficient without considering them. I 
think, also, that it would be sufficient with- 
out considering anything but them. 

Such an outlet scheme as I have supposed 
is the fairest one I can think of for illus- 
tration. It is not physically impossible. 
The soil of the alluvial valley can be fash- 
ioned in any shape you choose. There is 
an imaginable sum of money which would 
do the work. It would be a less violent 
contradiction of the natural course of 


606 SCIENCE. 


things than any other outlet scheme. The 
path of the subsidiary channel would le 
wholly within the alluvial basin and over 
eround undoubtedly occupied in many 
changing locations by the stream, or parts 
of it, in bygone ages. It would be like 
what the river does now on a small seale 
in many places. At every ‘chute’ there is 
an outlet from the main stream and a sub- 
sidiary channel passing around an island 
and joining the main stream below. It 
may be one mile long or twenty-five. The 
island may be a mere ‘towhead,’ or it may 
be large enough to form a county. My 
subsidiary channels down the St. Francis 
and Yazoo basins would be only longer 
chutes. 

Another scheme has been proposed, how- 
ever, which I regard as more impracticable, 
if possible, than the one which I have de- 
seribed. It is to take an outlet channel 
across the upper end of the St. Francis 
basin through Crawley’s ridge and thence 
to the gulf on a line lying wholly west of 
the Mississippi River. I have indicated 
one of its suggested locations by the broken 
red line on the map connecting the points 
at which it would leave and rejoin the sub- 
sidiary channel indicated by the continuous 
red line. 

The first point to be noticed about such 
a plan is that it would cut off all the west- 
ern confluents of the main stream below 
Cairo—the upper St. Francis, White, Ar- 
kansas, Black and Red. It would be an 
intercepting sewer for the southwestern 
quarter of the Mississippi valley. It would 
be a great big river. It would require an 
amount of excavation equal to several Pan- 
ama canals, and levees nearly as great as 
those on the main river, in order to enable 
it to hold its own floods. Men have done 
a great deal in the way of improving the 
work of the Almighty in the creation of 
the earth already, but this would be a more 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 485. 


extensive program of reconstruction than 
any before attempted. 

The next point to be noted is that it 
would permanently lessen the volume of 
the main stream from the location of the 
outlet to the gulf. It would do this to the 
extent of the discharge of the intercepted 
tributaries plus the volume taken from the 
channel by the outlet. What that volume 
would be would depend upon whether the 
scheme contemplated a mere tapping 
process, to take off the upper few feet of 
extreme floods, leaving the levees to take 
care of all ordinary floods, or such large 
reduction of volume as would make the 
levees unnecessary. If the former, then, 
as I have already pointed out, we should 
still have 1,400 miles of levee to maintain 
at nearly the same cost and hazard which 
they impose upon us now, besides a second 
river to take care of, with all its vicious 
tendencies and caprices; if the latter, we 
would have two Mississippi rivers to be 
maintained in equilibrium against the 
forces of nature which tend constantly in 
such a situation to give to that channel 
which hath, and take away from that chan- 
nel which hath not, even that’ which it hath. 

Such schemes necessarily take a man far 
afield in the domain of speculation, but this 
much is certain; if it should prove to be 
impossible to divert enough water from the 
main stream in that way to prevent the 
overflow of the natural bank, the project 
would have failed as a means of protecting 
the alluvial lands from inundation; and, on 
the other hand, if such diversion should be 
found possible and be accomplished the de- 
pleted main stream would contract its 
channel to correspond with its lessened dis- 
charge. A river channel through an 
erosible formation always fits the river as 
a turtle’s shell fits its back. There is no 
reason why the channel of the Lower Mis- 
sissippi is larger than the channel of the 


ee 


ee ee ee eee 


oe oe ee ee © 


a 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


Missouri except that the former carries the 
greater quantity of water. 

The immediate effect of permanently 
diminishing the volume of flow in the river 
would be to impair its value for navigation. 
This effect would follow quickly—within a 
very few years. A later effect would be to 
diminish the capacity of the channel to hold 
the floods, and so raise the flood heights. 
How rapidly this shrinkage would take 
place can not be stated; but it would begin 
at once and go on until the relations of 
volume and channel capacity found an ad- 
justment in which the natural bank level 
would approximate the mean annual flood 
height.. This would mean overflow in all 
floods above the mean. 

The modus operand: of the fillmg up 
process is simple enough. The flood leaves 
high, vertical banks on the concave sides of 
the bends. The enfeebled stream at low 
water cuts into those banks at the base. 
The undermined earth falls down in great 
masses into the pool. The weak current is 
unable to carry it away, and so climbs up 
over it and goes on gnawing at the base 
of the bank. By this process it grades 
down the bank and \fills up the pool to 
greater or less extent. This operation goes 
on during every low water in the Missis- 
sippi River now. Vast quantities of earth 
are knocked down into the pools by the un- 
dermining of the coneave banks. But when 
the flood follows it digs that material out 
again and piles it up on the convex sides of 
the bends. One of the striking sights to 
be seen on going down the river at low 
water after a great flood is the immense 
bars piled high up above the low-water line 
by the preceding flood. The present chan- 
nel is the result of nature’s adjustment 
between this fillme-up process and this 
digging-out process. If the activity and 
energy of the digging-out process were 
diminished the channel would fill up until 
the adjustment had been restored. 


SCIENCE. — 607 


If the present discharge down the main 
stream were reduced by one half at all 
stages, the energy of the excavating force 
would be reduced out of all proportion to 
the reduction of the effectiveness of the 
fillmg-up force. The low-water current 
would eat away the base of the high banks 
and fill up the pools with material which 
the diminished flood would be unable to 
remove. The result would be at last a re- 
adjustment of forces with shallower pools, 
lower concave banks, less fillmg up, less 
digging out, less everything that pertains 
to the life of a river. Then when the great 
flood came it would find a diminished chan- 
nel to carry it and would overflow the 
country as before. There would be less 
water to take care of and it may be that 
the floods could be restrained by levees of 
less height. As against that gain, however, 
we would have another river to take care of 
with its low water and high water, its bars, 
floods, overflows, levees, crevasses and other 
burdens and calamities. All in all, our last 
state would be worse than our first. 

As for navigation, the present large 
schemes for ten feet or more from Cairo 
down would all go glimmering. The superb 
advantages which nature gave us in the one 
great river would be thrown away in ex- 
change for two smaller rivers, more expen- 
sive to control, more destructive and less 
useful. 

I have been discussing the feasibility of 
general protection of the alluvial valley 
from overflow by outlets. I have en- 
deavored to take a practical view of the 
question by assuming definite plans with 
outlets and auxiliary channels definitely 
located. It seems to me that it is only 
necessary to approach the question in this 
direct and practical way to make it ap- 
parent that the outlet theory is a dream 
impossible of realization. : 

It does not follow from this that there is 
no situation in which no outlet of any kind 


608 SCIENCE. 


can have any utility. On the contrary, I 
think that there is a form of outlet which 
might possibly be employed upon the lower 
part of the river with advantage in condi- 
tious which may arise hereafter. Such 
outlets would be confined to points in the 
west bank below Red River. They would 
consist of regulated spillways, or waste- 
weirs, taking off the top layer of extraor- 
dinary floods and conducting the water 
to the sea across the Atchafalaya basin. 
Their object would be to alleviate extreme 
flood heights through the sugar country and 
at the city of New Orleans. They would 
have no effect upon floods in the central 
and upper parts of the valley. They would 
not be outlets, as the word is usually ap- 
plied, but waste-weirs in the strict sense of 
the word—long, shallow notches in the top 
of the levee, stone paved and side walled to 
prevent the possibility of enlargement, with 
secure channels leading to gulf leyel in the 
Atchafalaya lakes and bayous. Their con- 
struction would be experimental both as to 
benefits in relieving the strain of great floods 
and as to their effect on the channel below 
them. I speak of them now for the sake, 
more than anything else, of forestalling any 
suggestion of inconsistency on my part in 
case the developments of a few years to 
come should indicate a need of them. I do 
not want to be tied to a word. ‘The outlet 
theory is a delusion. At the same time, a 
safety valve in the form of an outlet might 
have a certain utility in a certain situation. 
This would not be as a substitute for a levee 
system, but as an adjunct to a completed 
and perfected levee system. 

The time has not come yet for the prac- 
tical consideration of such a scheme. We 
do not know enough to enable us to form a 
reliable judgment of the probable necessity 
and utility of it. We must hold a flood or 
series of floods so effectually that we shall 


be surer than we can be now of the eleva- - 


tions to be expected. It may cost us some 


dear experience—some bad breaks and dis- 
astrous overflows, but for the present noth- 
ing should be allowed to divert our, money 


or our attention from the main work in 


hand—the full completion of the grand 
levee system of the main river. JI have 
spoken of the possible utility of spill-ways, 
or waste-weir outlets, below Red River in 
order to mark with exactness that limited 
application of the outlet method which I 
believe to be feasible, and possibly useful, 
as distinguished from its general applica- 
tion, which I believe to be utterly imprac- 
ticable. 

On the subject of reservoirs little need 
be said. It is a delightful scheme to think 
of and talk about. It would beautify 
the map with lakes throughout the upper 
valley. It would bring the delights of 
boating, fishing and swimming within the 
reach of millions of us to whom they are 
now inaccessible pleasures. It would re- 
move all danger of a surplus in the na- 
tional treasury for a long time to come, 
and it might reduce the surplus in the 
Mississippi River somewhat. 

* When men think of reservoirs in this 
connection they commonly locate them in 
the headwaters of the Mississippi and the 
Missouri. Unfortunately, it is not there 
that the rains fall that furnish the stuff 
for great floods, but in the valley of the 
Ohio and its tributaries. The storms that 
sweep from the southwest across the Ozark 
Mountains and on over Kentucky, Illinois, 
Indiana, Ohio, western Pennsylvania, West 
Virginia and Tennessee are the bearers of 
woe to the people of the alluvial valley. 
One of the consequences of those rains has 
been to make the regions where they fall so 
fertile and attractive that they are filled 
with population, farms, cities, railroads, 
factories and all the adjuncts of high eivil- 
ization. To occupy the country with the 
reservoirs necessary to hold back a great 
Mississippi flood would involve an ineal- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 485. 


. 


eT NR ee ee 


—s 


ee eee 


ee 


Aprin 15, 1904.] 
culable destruction of property, to say 
nothing of the cost to build them. 

There is one place where it would be 
possible, in an imaginative sense, to im- 
pound a volume of water that would be 
missed from the river. That place is the 
St. Francis basin, 6,700 square miles in 
area. By cutting that area up into sub- 
divisions by dams crossing it at frequent 
intervals, and increasing in height progress- 
ively down stream as rapidly as the slope 
of the land surface would permit a vast 
storage of water could be secured, many 
feet deep at its lower border. But the only 
material that can be found there to make 
the dams of is earth. The expense of stone 
would be scarcely thinkable. And to im- 
-prison such a volume of water at the head 
of such a valley as would lie below it with 
only earthen walls to hold it back would 
be nothing less than criminal foolhardiness. 
The best use we can make of the reservoir 
theory is to keep it to talk about. 

We frequently hear the present large 
projects for the storage of water for pur- 
poses of irrigating arid lands in the west 
spoken of as though valuable aid in the 
control of the floods of the Mississippi could 
be obtained from those works. For want 
of more accurate knowledge of the possible 
extent of that storage and its locality I can 
say no more than that while it may help a 
little, it appears to me that it can be no 
more than very little. It must be remem- 
bered that it would be of no advantage to 
the Mississippi River to diminish its volume 
at ordinary stages, or even ordinary flood 
stages. It is only by the power of its vast 
discharge that its great channel has been 
produced or can be maintained. <A per- 
manent reduction of its ordinary annual 
floods would tend to diminish its channel 
capacity. Better a great channel with a 
maximum discharge of 2,000,000 cubie feet 
per second than a less channel with three 
quarters of that volume, so the water can 


SCIENCE. 


609 


be kept within the banks. If the irriga- 
tion reservoirs should operate, as I fancy 
they would, to store a substantially uniform 
quantity of water each year and distribute 
it over cultivated lands, to be for the most 
part evaporated or absorbed, they would 
serve no useful purpose to the Mississippi 
except in rare and extreme floods, when it 
may be said that the smallest reduction is 
of some value. 

All this emphasizes more and more the 
main truth that the present levee system 
has been so thoroughly tested, and has been 
of such incaleulable value, and is so near 
completion, that it is a sort of treason to 
turn aside to talk about anything else for 
any other purpose than to illustrate by 
contrast the transcendent importance of 
finishing up what we have in hand. 

Even this phrase needs definition. 
sense the levees of the Mississippi never will 
be finished. But they can be extended, 
raised and strengthened until they will hold 
the water even in such floods as that of last 
spring. At that period they will be ‘fin- 
ished’ in the only sense in which it will 
ever be possible to apply that word to them. 

It is not necessary, either, to the achieve- 
ment of ‘success’ that they shall never be 
broken by crevasses. I have said that dur- 
ing the flood of 1903 the existing levees 
protected from overflow seven eighths of 
all the lands capable of protection by them 
if not one had failed. Suppose we should 
never be able to do better than that. Sup- 
pose great floods should come once in five 
years, and we should always save seven 
eighths of the land from overflow. That 
would mean that, upon the whole, taking 
all the years and the whole valley into ac- 
count, there would be an average annual 
inundation of two and a half aeres out of 
every hundred. I should call that success. 


Ina 


Ropert 8. TAYLOR. 
Fort Wayne, INp. 


610 SCIENCE. 


MUSEUMS AS PLACES OF POPULAR 
OULTURE. 

A CONFERENCE on this important subject 
took place at Mannheim, Germany, on Sep- 
tember 21 and 22, having been convened 
by the Centralstelle fiir Arbeiter-Wohl- 
fahrtseinrichtungen, an organization for 
social work that has its headquarters in 
Berlin. The meetings were held in the 
Aula of the city Realeymnasium, under the 
presidency of Dr. Schenkel, minister of 
the interior for Baden, and were attended 
by about two hundred people interested in 
this social question, of whom over fifty 
were practical museum officials, from all 
parts of Germany, with half a dozen from 
Switzerland, Austria and England. A 
philosophically ordered program had been 
drawn up some time beforehand, and was 
carried out with very slight modification. 
We take the following from a special report 
in the Museums Journal. The meeting on 
each day lasted from 9:30 a.m. till 4:30 
P.M., with an hour’s interval for lunch. 
Opportunities for social intercourse were 
abundant—at lunch, dinner and in the 
evenings; the museums and similar insti- 
tutions of Mannheim and Heidelberg were 
thrown open to members, many of whom 
also visited the museums of Darmstadt, 
Mainz, Worms and other neighboring 
towns. Free seats were reserved for mem- 
bers at a special performance of ‘The 
Merchant of Venice,’ to which work-people 
were admitted for 40 pf. 

The object of the conference was to dis- 
cuss in what ways museums could bring 
themselves into touch with the working 
classes. The subject was introduced by 
Dr. Lichtwark, of Hamburg, who pointed 
out that modern museums differed from 
universities and academies in being open 
free to all classes; nevertheless, the very 
small proportion that the number of their 
visitors bore to that of the inhabitants 
showed that they needed to be made still 


‘ 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 485. 


more popular. Universal rules could not 
be laid down, but he foresaw a great revolu- 
tion in the equipment and methods of 
museums, which would have to be brought 
into relation with men’s daily life. The 
eradual change in the nature of museums 
was then traced by Dr. Jessen, of Berlin, 
who dealt with museums of fine and ap- 
plied art, and by Dr. Lampert, of Stutt- 
gart, who spoke of natural history mu- 
seums. There followed what professed to 
be accounts of actual attempts made by 
various museums to render their treasures 
more useful to a wide public; but these 
tended to become simple descriptions of 
the museums. One gathered, however, 
that the Bremen city museum depended 
more on labels than on guide-books, that 
visits to it were obligatory on the school 
children, who afterwards were made to 
write essays on what they had seen, and 
that a reading-room and lecture-hall were 
connected with the museum. Dr. Lehmann 


explained how the exhibits of the Altona. 


museum were devised so as to force their 
meaning on the dullest spectator, e. g., two 
eases of the same assemblage of animals, 
one in summer, the other in winter; the 
popularity of the recently installed fishery 
exhibit showed how crowds could easily be 
interested in what really came home to 
them. A somewhat similar museum at 
Celle was deseribed by Dr. Bomann. Pro- 
fessor Andreae advocated the use of photo- 
eraphs and their constant change, as at the 
Roemer Museum, Hildesheim; he thought 
that small museums should be many-sided. 
The description of the geological room at 
the Berlin museum, admirably arranged by 
Dr. Jaekel, showed that it was intended for 
students rather than the great public. Mr. 
Osthaus believed that a joy in art should 
and could be brought to the working 
classes, but the Folkwang Museum aimed 
at this by first influencing manufacturers 
and leaders of work through the exhibition 


— a 


EGS ae Lan rete setae 2 


rate 


Aprin 15, 1904.] 


of the best art, and chiefly living modern 
art, in the most beautiful manner. Better 
to ereate art to-day than to be learned in 
the art of the past. Thus could art be 
pressed into the service of all. On behalf 
of Dr. A. B. Meyer, Dr. Wandollek de- 
seribed the efforts of the American mu- 
seums in this direction, especially as re- 
gards children. The similar efforts of the 
school-museum at Hannover were detailed 
by Dr. Wehrhahn, who said that the small 
people found his simple rooms more at- 
tractive than the large museum palaces. 
An account of the Ruskin Museum in 
Sheffield had been distributed to members, 
and Mr. Gill Parker confined himself to 
showing a large series of lantern slides 
illustrating the activities of that institu- 
tion. In the discussion. on the above 
papers, Dr. Leisching, of Vienna, said that 
the Austrian government had established a 
circulating museum department, which 
sent art collections to towns that had no 
permanent museum, and arranged for lec- 
tures on these exhibitions by teachers at 
the high schools. Scepticism as to the 
value and possibility of the whole move- 
ment was manifest in the discursive speech 
of Dr. Lessing (Berlin), who maintained 
that the public as a whole, from the man 
in the street up to ‘his Excellence’—and 
higher still, had not and could not be given 
a feeling for art, which term, however, 
seemed in the speaker’s mind to signify 
chiefly ancient art and the old masters. 
A museum guide to art should be modeled 
on Huxley’s ‘Crayfish.’ Dr. Pauli, of 
Bremen, was astonished to hear such retro- 
grade views. No museum supposed that it 
could turn a road mender into a con- 


noisseur on a Sunday morning, but it might — 


be proud to have inspired only one or two 
per cent. of its visitors. The upper classes 
felt themselves above instruction, but work- 
ing people were far more susceptible, and 


SCIENCE. 611 


it was from them that future creative 
artists were to be expected. 

The program of the second day, dealing 
as it did with limited questions of practical 
importance, gave rise to a more lively dis- 
cussion. Dr. Lichtwark voiced those com- 
plaints about the architecture of museums 
with which we are familiar, objecting, 
among other things, to the corridor-like 
arrangement of rooms en suite, to the waste 
of space and money on a huge stair-hall, 
and especially to the domination of a whole 
museum by the architect’s conception of 
his facade. As a small museum in which 
the architect and decorator had solved 
their special problem in a satisfactory 
manner, he instanced the Thorwaldsen Mu- 
seum in Copenhagen. For appealing to 
the people of a large city, a number of 
small museums were better adapted than 
one large central museum. Dr. Jessen, 
emphasizing the point that museums 
should be built for the objects placed in 
them, maintained that the buildings should 
not be erected until a large amount of ma- 
terial had been collected, since not till then 
could one see precisely what was wanted. 
Professor Grosse, director of the art mu- 
seum at Freiburg i. B. pointed out very 
clearly that one should not confuse the 
scientific study of art with the faculty of 
appreciating beautiful works of art, which 
latter was the need of the lay public. The 
collections for these two purposes should 
be separated. He, therefore, advocated the 
setting apart for the public of certain 
rooms, in which earefully selected objects 
should be displayed according to esthetic 
principles, abundance of space being al- 
lowed to each object, especially to the 
smaller ones. Different classes of objects 
should be intermingled, and the exhibits 
should be changed at intervals. Dr. Grosse 
was warmly applauded and his ideas were 
supported by several subsequent speakers, 
for instance, Dr. Schmid, of the Bavarian 


612 SCIENCE. 


National Museum, who also urged the value 
of small local museums for the encourage- 
ment of an art connected with the life of 
the people. Dr. Lehmann held that, so far 
as the public was concerned, the same prin- 
ciples were applicable to natural history 
museums. These ideas also found expres- 
sion in a careful essay by Dr. Kautsch 
(Halle a. S.) on guides to, and lectures in, 
art-museums. The aim of these should be 
not to give a watered-down history of art, 
but to teach people to see; not to instil 
theories, but to evoke a conception of form; 
to create artists and artistic craftsmen, not 
to stifle the artistic faculty under the 
weight of learning that oppressed our so- 
ealled cultured classes. Professor Fraas, 
of Stuttgart, speaking of similar methods 
in natural history museums, gave the good 
advice that illustrations should be not pic- 
tures of specimens in the collection, but ex- 
planatory diagrams. His other remarks 
were much to the point, but the gist of 
them is familiar to our readers. In a de- 
tailed paper on temporary exhibitions in 
museums, Dr. Deneken, of Crefeld, in- 
veighed against the superfiuity of the usual 
class of exhibition, especially of art exhibi- 
tions, which had done the greatest harm to 
the development of art and were opposed 
to its true aims. EHspecially harmful were 
the permanent exhibitions of societies, with 
their commercial standpoint. For an ex- 
hibition to be useful, it should have a lead- 
ing idea rigidly carried out; thus esthetic 
pleasure could carry with it artistic in- 
struction. Hven when the museum relied 
on its own resources there should be a se- 
lection of exhibited material on these lines 
and a constant change so as to keep up the 
public interest. This change would be 
helped by loan exhibitions, but here too the 
most careful selection must be enforeed. 
A speech from the minister of the in- 
terior and a vote of thanks to the town of 
Mannheim brought the proceedings to a 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 485. 


close, and it only remains for us to mention 
an exhibition of various museum objects 
and methods that had been arranged, along 
with a collection of literature bearing on 
the subject. 

In estimating the value of this congress, 
one must not look for immediate results in 
the rush of working folk to museums. 
Museums, as they now exist, are not suited 
to this new part they have to play. Fresh 
museums must be built, old ones adapted 
where possible, and, above all, new men to 
direct them must be trained. Any doubt 
as to the trend of events would have been 
dispelled by attendance at this congress; 
in such controversy as there was, the 
younger men were all on one side, and it 
is their views that are endorsed by the able 
eritic of the Kélnische Zeitung (September 
27). Krom a social poit.of view the out- 
look is encouraging, and the Berlin head- 
quarters for the betterment of the workers 
may be congratulated. And as for mu- 
seum men themselves, let us note that this 
is the first public conference of museum 
officials as such that has been held in Ger- 
many, probably on the continent. But, 
the first though it be, we find a remarkably 
large attendance, and including men of the 
highest official standing, while the whole is 
patronized by the government, presided 
over by a minister, and, last but not least, 
fully noticed in the press. Seeing how 
overdone with congresses they are in Ger- 
many, this bears witness to the skill with 
which the meeting was engineered. Wheth- 
er it will give rise to further reunions, ar- 
ranged by the museum officials themselves, 
remains to be seen; but this at least has 
been a gain, that it has brought together 
the mutually indifferent, not to say intol- 
erant, science men and art men, and has 
shown them that they form allied branches 
of a great profession, working for one 
noble cause, and aiming at the same lofty 
mark. 


way 


Aprm 15, 1904.] 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Contributions to the Tertiary Fauna of 
Florida with especial reference to the 


Silex Beds of Tampa and the Pliocene of 

the Caloosahatche River. By Wi.iaM 

Hearty Datt, A.M. ‘Transactions of the 

Wagner Free Institute of Science of Phila- 

delphia, Vol. III., pp. 1654, 60 plates. 

With the appearance of part VI. the Wag- 
ner Institute has brought to a close the work 
upon the Tertiary geology and paleontology 
ot Florida begun in 1886, and recorded in 
Vol. J., and the series of volumes composing 
‘Vol. III.’ of the Transactions. Vol. I. (1887) 
by Professor Angelo Heilprin, announcing the 
discovery of the Caloosahatchie Pliocene beds 
by Professor Heilprin and Mr. Joseph Willcox, 
with a first report on its fossils and those of 
the silex beds at Tampa, has already been 
noticed in these columns. 

In 1890 the work was resumed by Professor 
Dall with the cooperation of the U. S. Geolog- 
ical Survey, originally with the intention of 
exploiting the Tampa silex beds (then called 
Old Miocene), the Chesapeake Miocene and 
the Caloosahatchie Pliocene. As the work 
progressed, these bounds were found too nar- 
row for the full development of the subject, 
and practically all marine Tertiary faunas of 
America, from Panama to Canada, have sup- 
plied materials for the work. Even Cretaceous 
horizons have been laid under contribution. 
This spreading of the subject over faunas not 
indicated in the title of the work has provoked 
some adverse criticism not wholly undeserved, 
for it is undeniably a hardship to have new 
Cretaceous species described in a work on 
Neocene paleontology. But to the evolution- 
ist, the student of mollusean genealogies, this 
wide range of comparison in a vertical direc- 
tion, so to speak, is of inestimable value, and 
in the hands of Dall has brought out the rela- 
tions of successive faunas in a way never at- 
tained by the old method of dealing with each 
formation separately. 

Although the work deals only -secondarily 
with stratigraphy, yet the collateral researches 
and field explorations undertaken in connec- 
tion with the paleontological work give it high 
value from the purely geological standpoint. 


SCIENCE. 


613 


It marks an epoch in the study of eastern and 
middle American Tertiary deposits. The 
recognition and exposition of the marine Oli- 
gocene of Florida and the Antilles is one of 
the notable advances in geological knowledge. 
In the earlier part of the work it was recog- 
nized that the so-called Miocene of Florida 
comprised two very dissimilar faunas, and to 
the earlier the term Old Miocene was applied 
in this work. Further study and material 
showed that this ‘Old Miocene’ had nothing 
to do with the Miocene of the United States 
in its most typical development, as in Virginia 
and Maryland, but represented a group of 
horizons strictly analogous to those which had 
received from Huropean geologists the name 
ot Oligocene. These horizons contained a 
very rich warm-water fauna which was soon 
found to be more or less distinctly represented 
in the Tertiaries of middle America and the 
West Indian Islands.” This led to the exam- 
imation of the fauna of the beds at Bowden, 
Jamaica, and in Santo Domingo, ete., that the 
correlation of Antillean and continental beds 
might be discovered. “It was found that the 
connection between the Atlantic and Pacific 
faunas ceased at about the climax of the 
Oligocene, and that the relations between the 
faunas were so intimate that the Pacific coast 
forms could not safely be entirely neglected.” 
These conditions gradually led to an extension 
of the work, in the course of which ‘several 
distinct Oligocene faunas have been worked 
out with fulness and their relations estab- 
lished; a wide extension has been given to the 
Pliocene deposits, long confused with those of 
the Upper Miocene; the geological relation- 
ships of the beds between the Vicksburgian 
and the Pleistocene have been established in 
their main lines more clearly than has hither- 
to been the ease.’ 

Regarding Antillean geology, Dr. Dall con- 
siders that the views of Professor R. T. Hill 
are supported by the evidence of Mr. T. W. 
Vaughan’s field observations, and the informa- 
tion from other sources, as opposed to the 
hypotheses of Dr. J. W. Spencer, based upon 
his studies of submarine topography and of 
non-fossiliferous terranes supposed by Spencer 
to be marine Pliocene and Pleistocene. This 


614 - 


conclusion is not unexpected by those who 
have carefully examined the evidence, both 
geological and faunal. The data of zoogeog- 
raphy are wholly at variance with Spencer’s 
hypotheses involving oscillations of gigantic 
vertical amplitude within late Neocene time. 

To the paleontology Dall has brought to 
bear the experience of a life-long study of 
recent mollusca, an advantage possessed by 
few, if any other, writers upon American fos- 
sils. This has led naturally to a juster ap- 
preciation of the morphologic problems en- 
countered than has been possible to most 
paleontologic authors, whose acquaintance with 
living mollusks is, as a rule, largely at second 
hand—from the manuals rather than the 
things themselves. With the great collection 
of recent American marine mollusks in the 
National Museum, the material for exact com- 
parison of the fossil and existing forms was 
always at hand, and a vast number of correc- 
tions and rectifications of all sorts, in the 
nomenclature and classification of both recent 
and Tertiary mollusks have been made. This 
gives the work fully as much value to the 
student of existing faunas as to the paleon- 
tologist. 

During the progress of the work a new 
classification of the bivalve mollusks (Pele- 
eypoda) has been elaborated, a separate part 
being devoted to an exposition of the general 
system of pelecypods. Whether or not this 
classification will eventually supersede that 
of Pelseneer, which at present is generally 
adopted abroad, it possesses certain manifest 
advantages for the paleontologist over that of 
the Belgian zoologist, in that the hard parts, 
which alone are preserved as fossils, are taken 
into account. The work of Newmayr, the 
researches of Bernard and others upon the 
ontogeny of the bivalve hinge, and the phylo- 
genetic studies of Dall himself, all indicate 
that the several elements of the hinge with its 
interlocking processes or ‘teeth’ are the bio- 
logical expression of stresses to which they are 
subjected in the individual. The evolution of 
these wonderfully adapted structures has been 
in part worked out, so that the great part 
played by parallel or convergent evolution, 
hitherto hardly taken into account by paleon- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 485. 


tological students of bivalves, is now exposed, 
and sound phylogenies become possible. 

Those who oppose the major divisions of 
Dall’s classification will admit that the mar- 
shalling of the families into superfamily 
groups, and the internal analyses of these 
groups, has been accomplished with the con- 
summate skill of a master. 

In many groups of bivalves the classification 
down to genera and subgenera is worked out 
for all known forms, so that the work is a 
general manual of the subject, often with an 
entire recasting of the groups and their defini- 
tions, as in the Mactracea and Leptonacea 
(Parts IV. and V.). The treatment of the’ 
Veneracea and allied groups in Part VI. is 
equally elaborate, though less completely rey- 
olutionizing prior conceptions. 

The matter of nomenclature has received 
great attention, and as a general rule the nu- 
merous changes of current usage have been 
made with excellent judgment. In some eases, 
such as that of Prsidiwm, it would seem that 
Dall has gone more than half way to meet 
trouble; while the emendation of some other 
names for the sake of Latin form will not be 
received with general enthusiasm. Thus if 
Pitiar Romer (1857) is barred from acceptance 
because of its derivation from a West African 
tongue, it can not be used as a generic name 
in the form Pitaria (Romer) Dall (1902), be- 
cause several other names were applied to 
members of the genus between these two dates, 
one of which would lead as a generic term. 
Here, as usual in such cases, it seems best to 
accept a generic name as it was coined, even 
if it is bad Latin. Little advantage or glory 
comes from breaking lances against such wind- 
mills. ; 

An interesting and valuable point to the 
evolutionist is the persistence through long 
periods of characters apparently trivial—now 
a minute lamella or tubercle in the hinge, now 
an external sculpture-pattern or an internal 
sculpture, like the marginal grooving of 
Transennella. What we have looked upon as 
mere ‘ornamentation’ has often suffered the 
least change from age to age, and characterizes 
the successive members of phyla which in 
structures apparently far more important have 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


gone on evolving in parallel or divergent 
series. H. A. Piuspry. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


The American Naturalist for January con- 
tains the fourth of the series of papers on 
“Adaptations to Aquatic, Arboreal, Fossorial 
and Cursorial Habits in Mammals,’ the pres- 
ent being devoted to ‘ Cursorial Adaptations,’ 
by Richard S. Lull. R. W. Shufeldt has a 
lengthy paper ‘On the Osteology and Sys- 
tematic Position of the Pygopodes,’ giving at 
the end a comparison of the differential char- 
acters of the loons and grebes which are con- 
sidered as forming two superfamilies. The 
affinities of these groups to the extinct 
Hesperorns are said to be practically certain, 
but this conclusion should be received with 
eaution. T. A. Jaggar, Jr., renders a trans- 
lation of the account of ‘The Eruption of 
Mount Pelée, 1851,’ from the French of Le 
Prieur, Peyraud and Rufz which is of con- 
siderable interest. The balance of the num- 
ber is devoted to reviews and notes. 

The Popular Science Monthly for April be- 
gins with an account of ‘ Recent Discoveries 
in Radiation and their Significance,’ by R. A. 
Millikan, briefly summarizing our present 
knowledge of the subject and suggesting that 
certain elements, at least, are transmutable 
into others. ‘The Evolution of the Human 
Form’ is discussed by Charles Morris, who 
reaches the conclusion (somewhat open to 
question) that if there are beings on the other 
planets that answer to man they must follow 
his physical configuration. Solon J. Bailey 
describes ‘The Arequipa Station of the Har- 
vard Observatory’ and Edward F. Williams 
presents his second paper on ‘ The Royal Prus- 
sian Academy of Science and the Fine Arts, 
Berlin. Carl Duisberg considers ‘The In- 
fluence of Liebig on the Development of 
Chemical Industries,’ believing that while this 
is now great his indirect influence will be 
still greater in the future. J. Madison Taylor 
has the third article on ‘The Conservation of 
Energy in Those of Advancing Years,’ a gen- 
eral plea being for rational exercise and diet 
and not dependence on drugs. ‘The Cau- 
casian in Brazil’ is considered by Thomas C. 


SCIENCE. 


‘fishes. 


615 


Dawson, who believes that he can hold his 
own in the tropics and adduees figures to show 
the greater fertility of the white race. 
Finally, Guy L. Hunner treats of ‘The Air 
of the Luray Caverns.’ The number con- 
tains the index to Vol. LXIV. 


Tue April number of the Transactions of 
the American Mathematical Society contains 
the following papers: 

G. A. Briss: ‘An Existence Theorem for a 
Differential Equation of the Second Order, with 
an Application to the Calculus of Variations.’ 

L. E. Dickson: ‘ Determination of all the Sub- 
groups of the Known Simple Group of order 
25920.’ 

C. N. Haskins: ‘On the Invariants of Quad- 
ratic Differential Forms, II.’ 

E. D. Ros, Jr.: ‘ On the Coefficients in the Prod- 
uct of an Alternant and a Symmetric Function.’ 

F. N. Cotz: ‘ The Groups of Order p?q8.’ 

Max Mason: ‘Green’s Theorem and Green’s 
Functions for Certain Systems of Differential 
Equations.’ 

K. J. Witczynski: ‘Studies in the General 
Theory of Ruled Surfaces.’ 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 384th regular meeting of the society 
was held Saturday evening, March 19, 1904. 
Dr. C. E. Waters exhibited numerous speci- 
mens of common ferns in which the fronds 
were only partially fertile. The entire series 
demonstrated a complete gradation from the 
sterile to the fertile fronds. Dr. B. W. Ever- 
mann exhibited a series of seventy-three en- 
grayers’ proofs of colored plates of Hawaiian 
All were drawn and colored from liv- 
ing fish, chiefly by A. H. Baldwin and ©. B. 
Hudson. The live specimens were placed in 
an aquarium as soon as caught and the artist 
began work on them immediately or within 
a very short time. The result is an accurate 
reproduction of the actual life colors of the 
animals. The plates will be published in the 
near future by the U. S. Fish Commission. 

Mr. W. P. Hay read a paper on the ‘ Life 
History and Economie Importance of the 
Blue Crab, Oallinectes sapidus, illustrating 
his remarks with lantern slide views. The 
more important life functions and habits of 


616 SCIENCE. 


the animal were described at some length. 
The process of casting the shell was detailed 
and several of the stages shown by photo- 
graphs. Attention was called to the fact 
that the two forms of the female which have 
been ‘described in this species are two condi- 
tions of the same individuals. One, with the 
narrow abdomen, is the original condition of 
the female, while the other, the form with the 
broad abdomen, is the condition assumed after 
union with a male preparatory to egg laying. 
It appears that eggs are not produced in water 
much less strongly salt than that of the open 
ocean. Consequently, ege-bearing females 
are seldom found in such bodies of water as 
Chesapeake and Delaware Bays, although 
erabs may be found in copulation there 
throughout the summer. The females prob- 
ably die soon after spawning. 

Under the title ‘Natural Selection in 
Kinetic Evolution’ O. F. Cook maintained 
that natural selection has a definite evolution- 
ary function, not to be disregarded as under 
the theory of evolution by mutation. Selec- 
tion is not, however, the direct cause of evolu- 
tion; it is able to produce adaptations or ac- 
centuate particular characters by deflecting 
the normal evolutionary motion of species, 
which proceeds whether selection is operative 
or not. Selection represents, as it were, an 
obstruction in the evolutionary highway; the 
species is able to turn aside because it is 
normally in motion, not because the environ- 
ment is able to initiate evolutionary changes 
in stationary organisms.* 

WitrreD H. Oscoop, 
Secretary. 


THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
THe 357th meeting was held March 8, 1904. 
An interesting letter from Mr. C. H. Robin- 

son, of Philadelphia, on certain ruins in 

Arizona, was read. Professor A. E. Jenks, 

of the Philippine Government, reports that he 

has secured living groups of the four prin- 
cipal peoples of the islands for exhibition at 

St. Louis. A letter from Dr. Daniel Folkmar 

detailing anthropological investigations car- 


* For full discussion see The Popular Science 
Monthly, LXIV., pp. 445-456, March, 1904. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 485. 


ried on by him in the Philippines was read. 
Dr. Ales Hrdlicka announced the finding 
of cremated bones from Rockingham County 
and Seott County, Virginia, in the collection 
turned over from the Army Medical Museum 
to the National Museum. 

The bill prepared by a committee of the so- 
ciety for the preservation of ancient ruins, 
and a resolution endorsing the same, were 
read. After a discussion by Dr. H. M. Baum 
and Mr. McGuire, the resolution was favor- 
ably acted on. 

The general secretary exhibited a number 
of fire syringes from Burma, Siam and the 
Malay Archipelago, and demonstrated the 
efficiency of the apparatus for producing a 
spark. The range of the fire syringe was 
discussed, and it was suggested that the in- 
vention may have originated from the use of 
the popgun, or other air-compressing device. 
The paper was discussed by Mr. Safford and 
Dr. Hrdlicka. 

Mr. W. E. Safford read a paper entitled 
“Notes on the Language of the Aborigines of 
Guam.’ The Chamorro-Spanish book on the 
Christian doctrine, written by an Augustinian 
friar, formed the basis of Mr. Safford’s studies. 
The primitive words are of Malay origin, and 
not one per cent. are Philippine. The Guam 
language has affinities with the Papuan, as 
shown by the sutiixed possessive particles. Mr. 
Safford discussed the spread of numerals, and 
says that complete data on this subject will 
go far to solve the problem of the origin of 
the Malayo-Polynesian and Papuan language. 
He ealled attention to the fact that the same 
system of numeration is spread from Formosa 
and the Malay Archipelago to Madagasear, 
and across the Pacific to Hawaii, New Zealand 
and Easter Island. A series of papers by 
Mr. Safford, embracing the grammar of the 
Guam vernacular, is appearing in the Ameri- 
can Anthropologist. The paper was discussed 
by Dr. Lamb, Dr. Baum, Mr. Hallock and the 
secretary. 

Mr. J. N. B. Hewitt read a paper entitled 
“The Clan Among the North American JIn- 
dians. Mr. Hewitt said that among the 
Iroquois and most other tribes descent is on 
the female line. The clan is formed from 


Se 


ee ee eee 


Aprin 15, 1904.] 


the coalescence of ‘ brood families or oachiras.’ 
He detailed the rights and privileges of the 
oachiras and those of the clan which are more 
extended. Clan names are of some attribute 
of an animal rather than the name of the ani- 
mal. In this connection Mr. Hewitt said that 
game animals were believed to be in duty 
bound to sustain man. The phratry was de- 
scribed as made up of several clans forming 
a unit for the celebration of festivals and 
ceremonies. The names of the Seneca clans 
with their meanings were given. The Ivo- 
quois League was organized like the clans by 
the rank or age of each unit giving a right 
to a certain place around the council fire. A 
very interesting branch of Mr. Hewitt’s sub- 
ject was the description of the method of 
transaction of business in council, when the 
matter under discussion was ‘thrown across 
the fire’ from side to side by the representa- 
tives of the different tribes. This valuable 
paper will appear in a forthcoming number 
of the American Anthropologist. 
; Water Houcs, 
General Secretary. 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 


A REGULAR meeting of the section was held 
at the American Museum of Natural History, 
Monday evening, March 21, with the vice- 
president, Professor James F. Kemp, in the 
chair. Two papers were upon the program 
for reading. The first of these was by Mr. 
H. H. Wotherspoon, Jr., upon ‘The Recent 
Advances in the Utilization of Peat and 
Lignite.’ 

The author said in part that the question 
as to the derivation of the fuel supply of the 
world is becoming more and more important. 
For years Europeans have been striving to 
devise a fuel to take the place of wood and 
coal. Recent advances in the price of coal 
in the United States have directed attention 
in this country along the same lines. In 
Europe, and particularly in Germany, many 
factories have been established for the com- 
pression of lignite, or brown coal, and peat 
into briquettes. 

The principal deposits of lignite are near 


SCIENCE. 


617 


Berlin and Cologne. The larger of these is 
south and east of Berlin and is known as the 
Lausitz district. About 280 factories for the 
manufacture of briquetted fuel, with a total 
of 680 presses, have been established in these 
two regions, and their output in 1902 was 
approximately 12,438,000 metric tons. “The 
briquettes are about 7 inches long, 24 inches 
wide and 14 inches thick, with rounded cor- 
ners. Their wholesale price in the larger 
German cities is between $2.10 and $2.25 per 
metric ton. 

Excellent briquettes have been made from 
the lignite of Alabama, but the experiments 
with the lignites of North Dakota have been 
less successful. The calorific value of the 
German briquettes is from 7,500 to 9,000 
B.T.U.’s. True peat and other bog matter 
is becoming of importance in the manufacture 
of briquetted fuel. The process of manufac- 
ture which has been employed in Canada has 
depended upon heat for the expulsion of the 
major part of the contained moisture. This 
has been an unsatisfactory method, because 
the temperature (280° F.) necessarily em- 
ployed has weakened the natural cementing 
qualities of the bog material. 

The German method which has been very 
successful is to break up rapidly and thor- 
oughly the cellular structure of the partly 
decomposed vegetable matter. This sets free 
the water from the plant fiber without injur- 
ing the cementing material. In the process 
part of the moisture is squeezed out of the 
mass, and the remainder evaporates rapidly 
on exposure to the air. The briquettes are 
ready to use in about two weeks after leaving 
the machine. Their calorific value is greater 
than that of the briquettes made from lignite. 

The briquettes made from American bog 
matter seem to be as good as the European. 
The percentage of ash is high, but the ash is 
very free in character. This characteristic, 
together with the absence of sulphur, makes 
the fuel work well under boilers. Wherever 
transportation charges bring the cost of coal 
up to seven or eight dollars a ton, it is ad- 
visable for Americans to investigate the mat- 
ter of utilizing neighboring bogs as a source 
of fuel supply. 


618 SCIENCE. 


Mr. Wotherspoon’s paper was illustrated by 
a series of briquettes manufactured from 
European and American lignites and peats. 
He also exhibited a machine by means of 
which he manufactured in the presence of 
the section briquettes from peat which origi- 
nated in Danbury, Conn. The paper was 
actively discussed, and many questions bearing 
upon the economic features brought forward 
by the author were asked. 

The second paper of the evening was by 
Dr. Charles P. Berkey, of Columbia Univer- 
sity, and was entitled ‘A Geological Recon- 
noissance of the Uintah Reservation, south- 
eastern Utah.’ The author said in abstract: 

Observations made in connection with other 
lines of work last summer have shown an 
erosion unconformity in the Carboniferous 
strata of the western Uintahs. It is marked 
on the south side of the range by an uneven- 
ness in the floor and a development of a con- 
glomerate the pebbles of which are of the 
preceding formation. The break comes just 
above the chief limestone member of the series. 

The junction between the great basal quartz- 
ite of the United States and the overlying 
strata is marked by a fault in this region with 
sufficient throw to bring two quartzite beds 
together on the higher plateaus and be easily 
overlooked. This makes it impossible to con- 
firm Powell’s unconformity at the top of the 
quartzite as described by him in the eastern 
Uintahs. 

The discovery, however, of the Carbonifer- 
ous erosion interval a little higher in the 
series throws additional doubt upon the as- 
sumed Carboniferous age of the great quartz- 
ite member. Allowing the breaking to cut 
out a part of the ‘ Wasatch’ limestone and 
the ‘Weber’ quartzite, as developed in the 
Wasatch uplift, the lithologic succession is 
satisfied better by assuming Cambrian age for 
the lowest member in the Uintahs. 

There is no other break to the close of the 
Cretaceous. A progressive unconformity, 
which increases in value against the flanks of 
the range, marks the development of Tertiary 
sediments in the Duchesne Valley. A con- 
glomerate formed in progressive overlap from 
the stream valleys to the higher mountain 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 485. 


tops of the flanks, has peculiar characters near 
the limestone belt, on account of which King 
called it ‘Wyoming’ conglomerate. These 
characters are too local to give it the assumed 
stratigraphic importance, while the flanking 
conglomerates are really of great range. 
Epmunp Otis Hovey, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NEW YORK SECTION. 


At the meeting held March 11 at the Chem- 
ists’ Club, 108 West 55th Street, the program 
was as follows: 


Derivatives of Ortho-Methoxry-Benzylidene 
Acetophenone: F. J. Ponp and J. V. R. 
Evans. 

The authors describe the preparation of 
o-methoxy-benzylidene acetophenone and of its 
di- and tri-bromides. The action of methyl 
and ethyl alcohols and of sodium alcoholate 
upon the two bromides is compared with the 
action of the same reagents upon the bromine 
derivatives of p-methoxy-benzylidene aceto- 
phenone. In the latter case, the alcoholate re- 
moves one atom of bromine with substitution 
of the methoxy- or ethoxy- group, while with 
the bromides of the ortho- derivatives no such 
change is noted; this marked difference in the 
reaction of the two classes of compounds is 
ascribed to the influence of the position of 
the phenolic ether group in the para- and 
ortho-compounds. 

The action of sodium alcoholate converts 
the dibromide into alpha-oxy-o-methoxy-benzyl- 
idene acetophenone, while the same treatment 
of the tribromide gives rise to two isomeric 
substances, alpha-oxy-o-methoxy-brom-benzyl- 
idene acetophenone and o-methoxy-brom- 
benzoyl benzoyl methane (a 1, 3-diketone), 
Various derivatives of each compound are de- 
seribed. 


Nitrosulphuric Acid and Its Action on Or- 
ganic Compounds; Part II.: C. W. Vouney. 
Dr. Volney presented the results of experi- 

mental work on hydrolysis of nitric acid by 

sulphuric acid and formation of nitric an- 
hydride, the existence of combinations between 
the anhydrides of sulphuric and nitric acids 


a es 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


having been shown in Part J. of this paper 
(vead November, 1903). 

The effect of mixtures of nitric and sul- 
phurie acids on organic compounds was then 
discussed and compared with the reactions 
obtained by the use of mixtures of nitric acid 
and anhydrous phosphoric acid under similar 
conditions. The conclusion reached was that 
nitrosulphuric acid or the ‘mixed acids’ of 
commerce are not merely mixtures, but con- 
tain the product of hydrolytic reactions of 
sulphuric acid in excess on nitric acid, thus 
explaining their reaction on organic com- 
pounds and production of nitro-substitutions, 
especially of nitro-dellulose. 


The Chemistry of Rubber Colors: M. Tocu. 
Mr. Toch pointed out that many of the 
ordinary pigments are not applicable to the 
coloring of rubber goods, either because the 
eolor would be changed by the heating and the 
reagents used in vuleanizing and finishing 
rubber, or because of some objectionable effect 
of the pigment upon the rubber mass. Oleic 
acid, used as a vehicle for aniline colors, is 
very deleterious. Stearic acid may be used for 
the same purpose and is less objectionable. 

The following were mentioned as being 
among the most important of the mineral 
pigments used: Zine oxide, zine sulphide, 
barium sulphate, vermilion. (less used than 
formerly), iron oxide pigments prepared from 
the sulphate, antimony sulphide, zine chro- 
mate, ‘chrome green,’ sesquioxide of chro- 
mium and ultramarine. 

Notes on the Analysis of Type Metal: BK. H. 

Minter and M. A. Lame. 

Dr. Miller referred briefly to some of the 
difficulties experienced in the analysis of type 
metal alloys, which are explained by the fail- 
ure to obtain the tin completely in the stannic 
condition, and recommended that Clarke’s 
separation be followed by the electrolytic 
deposition of tin as given by Herz, Ztschr. 
fiir Anorganische Chemie, 37, 1 (19038). 

H. C. SHERMAN, 
Secretary. 


NORTHEASTERN SECTION. 


Tue fifty-first regular meeting of the sec- 
tion was held Wednesday evening, March 16, 


SCIENCE. 


619 


in Huntington Hall, Massachusetts Institute 
of Technology, Boston, with President W. H. 
Walker in the chair. About 1,000 members 
and invited guests were present. 

Professor EK. Rutherford, of McGill Univer- 
sity, Montreal, gave an address on ‘ Radio- 
activity,’ in which he reviewed the history of 
the discovery of the property of certain forms 
of matter of giving off radiations, and de- 
seribed the properties of such radiations, as 
Rontgen rays, X-rays, the alpha, beta, and 
gamma rays of radium, ete. 

The theory of the continuous breaking down 
of the molecule of a high to one of a low 
molecular weight was adduced to explain the 
phenomena of the emanations and the enor- 
mous amount of energy manifested. The sub- 
ject was thoroughly illustrated by experi- 
ments, among which was the transference of 
the condensed emanation of radium from one 
tube to another cooled with liquid air. 

ArtHur M. Comey, 
Secretary. 


THE ONONDAGO ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


Tur February meeting of the academy was 
held on the nineteenth, at the College of 
Medicine, Syracuse University. 

Mr. I. U. Doust and Mr. W. H. McClelland 
were elected to membership. 

Dr. E. H. Kraus, as a reelected president, 
delivered an inaugural address, of which the 
following is an abstract: 


Some Interesting Mineral Occurrences in the 

Salina Epoch: BK. H. Kraus. 

Crystals which proved to be hematite were 
discovered in sewer excavations in the city 
of Syracuse during the spring of 1903, and 
in the summer of the same year celestite was 
found in the vicinity of Jamesville; the latter 
mineral up to that time had not been known 
to occur in that locality. 

The erystals of hematite usually occur in 
the cracks and crevices of the red shale and are 
from one sixteenth inch to one half inch in 
length. They occur in scales and plates in 
which the basal pinacoid is much larger than 
any of the other faces of the crystal. The 
hematite, as usual, occurs associated with 
small quartz crystals. 


620 SCIENCE. 


The mineral celestite does not oceur in 
veins or cavities, but disseminated through 
the rock, the manner of dissemination differing 
somewhat in different sections; in some places 
the crystals were not nearly so perfect as in 
others, often collected in small circular spots. 
The crystals have the usual combinations of 
faces found in celestite as well as the specific 
eravity and optical properties of this mineral. 

While the mineral was originally found near 
Jamesville it has more recently been found 
elsewhere and, the author believes, is of gen- 
eral occurrence in the limestones of the Sa- 
lina. Im places where rocks containing the 
celestite were exposed to the weather, the 
mineral was dissolved, leaving cavities which 
by their distinct outlines indicate the charac- 
ter of the material which they had contained. 
In some localities the crystals were large and 
their impressions simulate the marks of chisel 
blades of about three fourths of an inch in 
width, occasionally single but often crossing 
one another. 

In the rocks, where this mineral occurs in 
circular particles, leaching gives rise to an 
appearance as if the stone were worm-eaten, 
and bearing a striking resemblance to the 
‘vermicular limestone. The ‘vermicular 
limestones’ have given geologists much trouble 
as to a satisfactory explanation of their for- 
mation. That sodium chloride was the ori- 
ginal occupant of these cavities seems doubt- 
ful. But celestite is soluble in water contain- 
ing small quantities of sodium, calcium or 
magnesium-chloride. Analyses of the brines 
from the different salt-producing sections of 
the state easily proves the presence of these 
chlorides. With these facts in mind and know- 
ing that the dissemination of celestite through 
the rock is not unlike that which would be 
necessary to form cavities as found in the 
vermicular and that when such a rock has 
been leached, the appearance of the resulting 
roek is like that of the vermicular, the con- 
clusion seems unavoidable that these many 
cavities now empty in the vermicular must 
have once contained a mineral of the char- 
acter of celestite and that by the action of 
the agencies mentioned above the same was 


[N.S. Vou. XEX. No. 485. 


dissolved, leaving nothing but the so-called 
cells to show its former presence. 
J. E. Kirkwoop, 
Corresponding Secretary. 


THE SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
WISCONSIN. 


Tue fifth meeting of the club for 1903-4 
was held February 23, in the physical lecture 
room of Science Hall. The elub had for its 
guest the local section of the American 
Electrochemical Society, this being the first 
meeting of the local section. The papers 
were presented by members of the section. 
The first paper, by C. F. Burgess, on ‘ Electro- 
lytic Iron,’ was illustrated by specimens and 
products of pure iron recently obtained by 
him by electrolysis. One specimen of ex- 
tremely pure material weighted twenty-one 
pounds. 

The second paper, by Oliver W. Brown, on 
‘The Electric Furnace, was a general de- 
scription of the recent advances made in 
electric furnace work. 

The third paper, by V. Lenher, on the 
‘Solubility of Gold, was illustrated by ex- 
periments and dealt with some recent work 
of the author. : 
Victor LENHER, 

Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE, 
CONVOCATION WEEK. 


To tHe Eprror or Scmnos: Having at- 
tended a majority of the meetings of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science during the past fifteen years I may, 
perhaps, be considered competent to contribute 
some impressions in regard to recent tenden- 
cies and the future development of the associa- 
tion which they apparently indicate. 

It has always seemed to me that in any at- 
tempt to solve a problem such as that of the 
future policy of the association the proper 
course to pursue is to study the causes which 
have led up to existing conditions and from 
these to try and anticipate what the inevitable 
outcome is to be. Discussion of personal 
likes or dislikes is profitless if these are mani- 
festly at variance with the general course of 


=o 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


development and whatever I may have to say 
will be predicated upon that principle. 

The one tendency which has been so steadily 
persistent and so prominent in the develop- 
ment of the association as to overshadow 
everything else is that of specialization of 
work, and this factor is unquestionably des- 
tined to become more and more prominent 
from year to year. It was first manifested in 
the division of the association into its original 
sections, next in the subdivision of these, then 
in the organization of special societies distinct 
from the sections and finally in the further 
subdivision of the societies and the formation 
of new ones in accordance with the develop- 
ment of new lines of thought and investiga- 
tion. This is a condition with which we must 
reckon and our effort should be to study how 
it can best be made to serve the objects and 
interests of the association. Another tendency, 
of more recent origin, the underlying motive 
of which I confess I have not been able quite 
to understand, is the tendency to separate on 
geographic lines. This is more or less an un- 
certain quantity and, therefore, its importance 
may be underestimated, but it is a factor which 
has to be taken into consideration. 

Assuming that this course of reasoning is 
valid it would seem as if the association should 
make every possible effort to encourage the 
formation of new sections whenever the ne- 
cessity arises and to make the scope of its 
influence as broad as possible. Many earnest 
workers in educational and economic subjects 
find no place open to them in any of the sec- 
tions and hence the formation of many inde- 
pendent societies entirely out of touch with 
the association. Many of them meet at other 
times and places and both time and energy 
are wasted. On the other hand, the affiliated 
societies, which have sprung naturally from 
the influence of the sections, are a source of 
strength to the association and this could be 
further augmented by intelligent cooperation. 

Much has been accomplished in this direc- 
tion already, but it has not been systematically 
pursued. I have elsewhere proposed, and I 
take advantage of this opportunity again to 
urge, that an effort should be made to call a 
meeting of delegates from all societies which 


SCIENCE. 621 


could properly be affiliated with the associa- 
tion in order that some uniform basis of co- 
operation might be secured. 

The main province of the association in the 
future would seem to be that of organization 
and popularization of science. Let the sum- 
mer meetings be continued, with the under- 
standing that they are for the purpose of 
arousing and maintaining popular interest and 
to serve as a common meeting ground for pro- 
fessional and non-professional scientists, where 
the social element is to be encouraged and 
where beginners and amateurs may become 
acquainted with those whose names and works 
are known to them, but with whom they have 
neyer had the opportunity to become person- 
ally acquainted. I know of many instances 
in which embryo scientists obtained their first: 
inspirations and their first insight into the 
possibilities which lay before them, through 
the medium of these meetings. 

It may, perhaps, be an open question whe- 
ther winter meetings in addition are advisable. 
The tendency seems to be to make these more 
technical and, perhaps, it might be wiser to 
encourage this idea. In other words, that at 
these meetings the affiliated societies should 
assume the leading position. 

It ought to be feasible so to arrange the 
programs that at the summer meetings the 
societies could meet with the sections and 
have the association assume the greater promi- 
nence, while at the winter meetings the asso- 
ciation could act more as a medium for bring- 
ing the societies together at one time and 
place. 

Personally I do not believe in the advisa- 
bility of meeting in regional sections. The 
less separation we have on geographic lines the 
better, although if this tendency is obvious I — 
realize that it would be folly to oppose it. 
Before expressing any further opinion on 
this point, however, I should prefer to hear 
something more definite than has yet been 
brought forward by those who favor it, not 
only in regard to reasons for the proposed 
change, but also, approximately, the details of 
the arrangements which could be made for 
such meetings. 

Tt should also be borne in mind that the 


622 


members are discussing the policy of the as- 
sociation more or less in the dark, as to the 
manner im which any changes would or might 
affect, the finances and administration of the 
association. It would seem as if the dis- 
cussion ought to include some words from the 
standpoint of the administration in order that 
all sides may have a hearing. 


_ArtHuR Hotrick. 
New York BoranicaL GARDEN. 


Tue American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science accomplishes a great work in 
- making it possible for large numbers of sci- 
entific men to come together from year to 
year, and in this way alone does much for 
the promotion of science. The association 
can well afford to make generous concessions 
to afiliated and other scientific societies, even 
though they do not contribute directly to the 
financial support of the larger organization. 
We can not help feeling that these other so- 
cieties are important to the welfare of the 
general association, and we are decidedly in 
favor, if possible, of making conditions such 
that the various societies will see material ad- 
vantages in afhliating or coming into even 
closer relations with the older organization, 
and it would, therefore, seem to us wise to 
give the affiliated societies a larger representa- 
tion in the council. We are not afraid of their 
exercising too much power in that body. They 
have come into existence to supply a need. 
Specialists have increased so rapidly that the 
original sections are not adequate for present 
conditions. We do not believe that special 
papers should be read before the sections, but 
they should either be referred to subsections or 
special societies. 

It is much easier to suggest than to carry 
out, yet the last two meetings have emphasized 
the advisability of a more general classifica- 
tion of meetings and papers than has hereto- 
fore obtained. This is possible only through 
the cooperation of all societies meeting at the 
same time, and one of the great gains from a 
closer connection between affiliated and other 
societies and the association, would be the 
possibility of harmonizing programs. The 
many branches of science and the multiplicity 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 485. 


of interests, renders this extremely difficult, 
still there are ways in which the matter could 
be simplified. It seems to us that two general 
sessions ought to meet every demand; one to 
mark the opening of the meetings and to per- 
mit of addresses of welcome, ete., and another 
in the evening to give the president an oppor- 
tunity to deliver his address. The other gen- 
eral sessions amount to little more than a 
formal confirmation of the action of the coun- 
cil, and it would seem that this body might 
well be intrusted with all the governing pow- 
ers, including the election of officers, since 
its members are elected at various times by 
the different sections and affiliated societies. 
Notices for each day could appear upon the 
program and thus do away with any excuse for 
a short daily general session every morning. 
This would allow unbroken forenoons for gen- 
eral meetings, and it would seem as though 
all the papers in related sciences could be 
classified. The general and special should 
receive equal consideration, and we would 
suggest that morning meetings be devoted to 
general papers, and afternoon sessions to spe- 
cial papers, which latter should be read before 
subsections or special societies. Some papers 
are of general interest to more than one group, 
and these would naturally have precedence in 
the morning and could be delivered before a 
joint session of one or more sections. Some 
arrangement of special meetings would be 
necessary for afternoons, so as to avoid con- 
flicts likely to be produced by related sub- 
sections or societies holding sessions at the 
same time. Evenings not already occupied, 
as stated above, might be devoted to sessions 
for members of the association, at which two 
short addresses on topics of general interest 
could be delivered. Two such meetings might 
easily be held in different halls, and with 
proper grouping of subjects, there would be 
comparatively few who would wish to attend 
both. In addition to these short, general ses- 
sions, which should last an hour or a little 
over, we would favor continuing the popular 
complimentary lectures to the people of the 
city where the meetings are held and for such 
members of the association as cared to at- 
tend. These latter would be longer and more 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


formal than the short addresses mentioned 
above. All of these evening meetings could 
easily finish by 9:30, and give an opportunity 
thereafter for banquets and social gatherings, 
which have been a characteristic feature of 
previous meetings. 

We believe that a classified system, such as 
described above, and including not only the 
regular papers presented before the American 
Association but also those before special socie- 
ties, would do much for the advancement of 
science in America. The attending scientists 
would have, in the morning, a series of general 
seientific papers of interest to most of them, 
while meetings of subsections or special socie- 
ties occurring in the afternoon would give an 
opportunity for the consideration of technical 
questions. The semi-popular short addresses 
in the evening would appeal to many of our 
members, while the more formal public lec- 
tures by prominent men would be an im- 
portant stimulus and result in materially ad- 
vancing science in America. 


EK. P. Fett. 


THE WRITINGS OF WILLIAM J. LONG.* 

Tue last quarter of a century has seen a 
remarkable development of that form of lit- 
erature which consists of charming popular 
writings about animals and their doings. A 
leader in this movement was John Burroughs, 
whose work combines literary grace with sci- 
entific truth to a degree not surpassed by that 
of any other modern nature writer, and there 
are several others in this country writing in 
the same spirit. Recently, however, there have 
arisen somewhat suddenly into prominence 
three writers on nature subjects whose works 
enjoy a popularity far surpassing that gained 
by any of their predecessors or contemporaries. 
These three are Mr. Thompson Seton (earlier 
known as Seton Thompson), Mr. W. J. Long 
and Mr. C. G. D. Roberts. Of the former I 
know little, but the two latter have written 
extensively of New Brunswick animals, and 
hence I have been much interested in their 
works, upon which I propose to make some 


*Read before the Natural History Society of 
New Brunswick (Canada), March 1, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


623 


comments from the point of view of New 
Brunswick natural history. 

In examining the works of these two grace- 
ful writers, two queries naturally arise: First, 
as to the cause of their surpassing popularity, 
and second, as to their real scientific worth. 
The cause of their popularity is easily found. 
It does not lie in their literary charm primar- 
ily, for in this they do not so far surpass other 
nature books, but it consists in this, that they 
tell about animals, not as they are, but as 
people like to think they are. It is the hu- 
manization and idealization of animals, which, 
under the influence of the remarkable literary 
skill of these authors, has made their animal 
stories so popular. To accomplish this end, 
they have had to cut loose from the trammels 
of fact which hampered their predecessors, 
and have given their imaginations full play, 
thus producing fascinating works of fiction 
disguised as natural history. It is, however, 
this disguise which constitutes the chief 
ground of criticism against these works. We 
all agree that the use of animals as the heroes 
of romances is perfectly legitimate, but if 
such works pretend also to be accurate natural 
history, they unfairly deceive their readers 
and dishonestly claim a position to which they 
have no real title. It happens unfortunately 
that the works of both Mr. Long and Mr. 
Roberts are widely accepted as accurate in 
their natural history by the great majority of 
readers. Mr. Long positively claims that all 
he writes is accurate fact based on his per- 
sonal observation, while Mr. Roberts allows an 
extensive personal knowledge of animals to be 
inferred, and takes no steps to correct this 
popular error. 

Mr. Long has published five books on ani- 
mals, containing many references to New 
Brunswick. The most characteristic feature 
of these books, especially of the later, is the 
marvelous character and remarkable number 
of the experiences the author claims to have 
had in his observations of animals. The ag- 
gregate of Mr. Long’s reported observations, 
both as to quantity and character, is such that 
if all he reports is true, he has seen more 
widely and deeply into animal life than all 
other students of animal habits taken to- 


624 SCIENCE. 


gether. This I am not prepared to believe, 
especially in the light of the tone of his own 
writings, which seem to me to show that he 
possesses neither the temperament nor the 
training essential to a disinterested observer. 
I have no proof, with the single exception 
noted below, that any individual statement of 
Mr. Long’s is untrue; but an experience in 
the New Brunswick wilderness at least as 
great as Mr. Long’s has given me such a 
knowledge of the difficulties of observing wild 
animals in their native haunts that I can not 
believe that any man has had all of the re- 
markable experiences reported by Mr. Long. 
Furthermore, the one case in which I happen 
to know personally the evidence on which Mr. 
Long bases a statement does not allow me to 
entertain a high regard for his accuracy. In 
his book ‘School of the Woods’ he claims to 
have seen fish hawks catch and wound fish 
which they then dropped back into the water 
in order to teach their young to dive for them. 
This statement is criticized by Mr. Burroughs 
in his article on ‘Real and Sham Natural 
History’ in the Atlantic Monthly for March, 
1903, and in his reply to this article in the 
North American Review for May, Mr. Long 
reaffirms it, and adds: ‘Mr. Mauran Furbish, 
who probably knows more of the New Bruns- 
wick wilderness than any other man, has told 
me since my book was written that he had seen 
the same thing.’ Thinking I knew the inci- 
dent on which this statement was based, I 
wrote Mr. Furbish, who has been my com- 
panion in two journeys into the wilderness of 
New Brunswick, asking what statement he 
had made to Mr. Long. He replied that he had 
simply told Mr. Long of our finding one day 
a wounded gaspereau floating at the foot of a 
lake and that Mr. Long ‘had furnished all 
the romance and the reason for their being 
there. This incident, I believe, gives the 
elue to the character of much of Mr. Long’s 
work. He does not deliberately invent, but 
some trifling basis of fact happening to fit in 
with some theory developed by his sympathies 
is accepted by him as confirming his surmises, 
which he thereupon considers and publishes 
as proven. Mr. Long’s books undoubtedly 
contain a great deal of valuable fact, but this 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


is so mixed with matter that can not possibly 
be accepted simply on Mr. Long’s statement, 
that it makes his works practically valueless 
for any scientific purpose. 

Mr. Roberts, I believe, nowhere makes any 
claim that the natural history basis for his 
animal writings rests on personal knowledge, 
but that is the impression left with the reader, 
and Mr. Roberts takes no steps to set him 
right. Those who know Mr. Roberts are aware 
that his literary work for several years past 
has not permitted him to make those journeys 
into wild New Brunswick essential to the 
study of its animal life, and that his few 
earlier trips had not this object in view and 
were not of a character to permit it. His 
knowledge of New Brunswick animals has 
been gained chiefly in the public libraries, 
museums and menageries of New York City; 
his material is hence mostly second hand, and 
it is unfair to his readers that they should 
be given the impression that these works are 
founded on a personal knowledge of the ani- 
mals described. If Mr. Roberts would but 
state in the preface to his books that his 
studies are not based upon personal observa- 
tion of their subjects, but are as accurate as 
he can make them from other sources of in- 
formation, he would not only be dealing hon- 
estly with his readers but he would, in my 
opinion, greatly enhance the value of his 
really remarkable imaginative works. 

So opposite are the standpoints from which 
the scientific and the literary man view animal 
life, and so entirely indifferent are they to 
one another’s standards, that the two are not 
only nearly impossible to one person, but they 
are well nigh mutually exclusive. The charm 
of the study to the man of science is the tri- 
umph of demonstrating the truth. . He makes 
this his sole standard as it is his sole reward. 
Slowly, patiently, laboriously, indifferent to 
popular opinion as to popular applause, he 
makes his resistless advances, testing and 
proving each step before a second is made. 
He naturally has little regard, therefore, for 
showy leaps from scanty fact to sensational 
generalization, and he has no respect at all 
for a pretence of scientific knowledge not 
based upon an honest foundation. The lit- 


gee 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


erary man, especially the new nature writer, 
seems to view nature chiefly in the light of a 
fresh supply of literary material, and he val- 
ues her phenomena in proportion to their 
adaptability for interesting and clever treat- 
ment. To him the truth is not of first impor- 
tance, and imagination is allowed to improve 
upon nature whenever she can thereby be 
made more available for literary uses. All 
this may be legitimate in literature, but works 
thus inspired should not expect to be accepted 
also as science, nor should they pretend to an 
authority they do not possess. 

SmitH COLLEGE. W. F. Ganon. 

Ir the article entitled ‘ Woodcock Surgery’ 
(Screncr, February 26) were nothing worse 
than a frisky, good-natured breeze every one 
would doubtless be willing to let it pass with- 
out notice, but its temper and twists are such 
as to require a word that may possibly ‘seem 
unkind.’ Its author says that Mr. Long “ vir- 
tually claims that a woodecock not only has an 
understanding of the theory of casts as adapt- 
ed to fractured limbs, but is able to apply 
this knowledge in practise. The bird is rep- 
resented as knowing the qualities of clay and 
mud, their lack of cohesion unless mixed with 
fibrous substances, their tendency to harden 
on exposure to the air, and to disintegrate in 
water.” “His woodcoeck is familiar with the 
theories of bone formation and regeneration— 
in a word, with osteogenesis.” “‘ He divines 
the functions of the periosteum,” ete. IJn- 
stead of claiming anything of the kind, Mr. 
Long tells us in simple language what he has 
seen, offering neither inferences nor generali- 
zations. It is his eritic, Mr. Wheeler, who 
‘virtually’ affirms that a woodcock could not 
apply mud to a broken leg without a knowl- 
edge of surgery; and it is much as if he should 
say that a man who blows on his fingers to 
warm them or on his tea to cool it has a 
knowledge of the laws of thermodynamics and 
is ready to discuss entropy or an indicator 
diagram. It is the merest commonplace fact 
that im order to ayoid danger, to lessen pain, 
to save life, to gain pleasure, human beings 
are constantly performing acts the underlying 
principles of which they understand scarcely 


SCIENCE. 


625. 


any better than a woodcock understands the 
principles of surgery. This difference between 
what may be expected of man and of a bird is 
probably one of the recondite features of Mr. 
Wheeler’s animal psychology. If this ‘serious 
student’? means that action apparently or 
really intelligent on the part of animals im- 
plies scientific training and knowledge and 
accounts of such action are, therefore, to be 


‘contemptuously dismissed as ‘untrue,’ he has 


taken ground which he will undoubtedly be 
left to oceupy alone. One wonders that he 
has not long since exposed Mr. Darwin. The 
books of the master naturalist are full of 
anecdotes that, according to Mr. Wheeler, 
must be discredited. For instance, there is 
the delightful one of the motherly baboon who 
stole young dogs and cats which she contin- 
ually carried about. “An adopted kitten 
scratched this affectionate baboon, who cer- 
tainly had a fine intellect, for she was much 
astonished at being scratched, and immedi- 
ately examined the kitten’s feet, and without 
more ado bit off the claws” (‘ The Descent of 
Man,’ Chap. III.). Why does not Mr. Wheeler 
rise up and say that Darwin ‘ virtually claims’ 
that the baboon was familiar with the ‘ Novum 
Organum’ and the ‘ Positive Philosophy,’ and 
further say that this anecdote is a specimen 
of the ‘ drivel in which animals are humanized 
beyond all recognition.’ 

The woodeock incident is further discred- 
ited because the naturalist was a lad of six- 
teen when it occurred. The editors of Burd- 
Lore seem to think that lads of fourteen or 
under are capable of making pretty good ob- 
servations (see Bird-Lore, January-February, 
1904). But this incident dates back twenty 
years, we are reminded. That the lapse of 
twenty years will certainly or even probably 
cause a ‘distortion and exaggeration of the 
impressions’ made on the mind of a boy of 
sixteen, even when the impression is excep- 
tionally vivid, implies a theory of memory 
which is, perhaps, another peculiarity of the 
eritie’s psychology. 

Finally, ridicule is heaped on Mr. Long be- 
cause he presumes to bring forward a witness 
of what he believes to have been another case 
of animal surgery, and to give the credentials 


626 SCIENCE. 


of that witness. To those who have paid some 
attention to the nature of evidence it will be 
a matter of interest to learn, first, that addi- 
tional witnesses and additional instances do 
not strengthen a case; and second, that the 
trustworthiness of witnesses is of no conse- 
quence. What a lot of bother men of science 
would have been spared if they had only 
known this before; for it is unnecessary to 
point out that the history of science abounds 
in accounts of efforts to gather evidence and 
to determine the weights of various pieces of 
evidence. 

So far as the article ‘ Woodcock Surgery’ 
affords a cross-section of its author’s style of 
reasoning some of his universals seem to be: 
(1) Action that results in a causal correla- 
tion of antecedent and consequent is intel- 
ligent action in the sense that the agent 
understands the principles involved in the 
correlation; (2) any phenomenon which B has 
not witnessed A can not have witnessed; (3) 
unless an event is of common occurrence it 
ean not occur at all. 

Whom the gods wish to destroy they first 
lure into premises of this sort. 

As regards the ‘ nature-study’ classes in our 
schools, Mr. Wheeler may be spared that part 
of his anxiety which relates to the effect of 
such books as ‘A Little Brother to the Bear’ 
and ‘ Wilderness Ways.’ One may well wish 
that every boy and girl in the land might be- 
come acquainted with Killooleet and Cloud 
Wings and Hukweem. Children and mere 
lovers of nature on the one hand, and com- 
parative psychologists on the other, owe no 
small debt to men like William J. Long who 
have the patience and pluck to spend years 
in the wilderness home of birds and beasts in 
faithful observation of their life and habits. 

Eien Hayes. 


THE PRESENT STATUS OF SOIL INVESTIGATION. 

Aw address delivered on this subject before 
the Association of American Agricultural Col- 
leges and Experiment Stations, November 17, 
1903, and immediately published as Circular 
No. 72 of the University of Illinois Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station is discussed by Dr. 
F. K. Cameron in Science, February 26, 1904, 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 485. 


page 343. Dr. Cameron states that the criti- 
cisms of his Bulletin 22 (Bureau of Soils) 
which have appeared are to the effect that the 
authors of the bulletin (Whitney and Cam- 
eron) ‘have concluded that the use of fertil- 
izers is of no value in affecting the yield of 
crops.’ He further states that ‘these criti- 
cisms have generally been copied from Cir- 
cular No. 72, Agricultural Experiment Sta- 
tion, University of Illinois.’. 

As a matter of fact this statement does not 
oceur in Cireular 72, consequently, the ob- 
jection to ‘inexcusable carelessness of mis- 
quoting results and statements in a contro- 
versial paper’ is strictly applicable to Dr. 
Cameron’s own first paragraph. It is not be- 
lieved that Cameron or any other theoretical 
chemist is so ignorant of agricultural science 
and practise as not to know that the use otf 
fertilizers is of value in effecting the yield of 
crops. The statement in Circular 72 is that 
Bulletin 22 is commonly understood to teach 
that the use of fertilizers ‘has little or no 
tendency toward permanent soil improvement, 
and that even the effect which they do produce 
is due very largely, if not entirely, to improved 
physical condition of the soil.’ It is certainly 
safe to say that scientists and agricultural 
editors and practical farmers are all agreed 
that this is the teaching of Bulletin 22 regard- 
ing the use of fertilizers. 

It will thus be seen that Doctor Cameron 
devotes much valuable space to a matter which 
is not pertinent to the discussion. 

Both Bulletin 22 of the Bureau of Soils, 
Washington, D. C., and Circular 72 of the 
Illinois Experiment Station, Urbana, IIl., are 
available to the reading public, and conse- 
quently it is quite unnecessary and unreason- 
able to expect ScreNcE to reproduce any large 
part of those publications. The following 
direct quotation from page 59 of Bulletin 22 
fairly illustrates its teaching: 


In the truck soils of the Atlantic coast where 
10 or 15 tons of stable manure are annually ap- 
plied to the acre, in the tobacco lands of Florida, 
and of the Connecticut Valley, where 2,000 or 
3,000 pounds of high-grade fertilizers carrying 
10 per cent. of potash are used, even where these 
applications have been continued year after year 
for a considerable period of time, the dissolved 


salt content of the soil as shown by this method 


8 St 


Aprin 15, 1904.] 


is not essentially different from that in surround- 
ing fields that have been under extensive cultiva- 
tion. p 

In England and in Scotland it is customary to 
make an allowance to tenants giving up their 
farms for the unused fertilizers applied in pre- 
vious seasons. 

The basis of this is usually taken at 30 to 50 
per cent. for the first year, and at 10 to 20 per 
cent. for the second year after application, but 
in the experience of this Bureau, there is no such 
apparent continuous effect of fertilizers on the 
chemical constitution of the soil.* 

This quotation from Bulletin 22 is not re- 
ferred to in Cireular 72, but many other quo- 
tations are made which show this same general 
teaching and which Dr. Cameron now holds 
“are utterly at variance with the complete 
context and plain meaning of the bulletin.’ 
Of course, the ‘complete context’ can not be 
quoted here, but, so far as I am able to judge, 
this quotation, as well as all others which I 
have made, are fair samples of the accepted 
meaning of the bulletin as a whole. 

In this connection attention may well be 
called to the fact that the above quotation is 
quite out of harmony with the statement on 
page 64 of Bulletin 22, to the effect that the 
conclusions of the authors are ‘strictly in 
accord with the experience of good farm prac- 
tise in all countries. Probably there is no 
better farming practised in any country than 
in England and Scotland. After a full half 
century of agricultural investigation at Roth- 
amsted Sir Henry Gilbert says,t regarding 
the effect of farm manure on certain plots of 
ground: 


It has been seen that the unmanured plot has 
declined in yield and fertility; but there can be 
no doubt that the farmyard manure plot has, on 
the other hand, increased in fertility. Analyses* 
of the surface soil at different periods have 
shown* that it has become about twice as rich in 
nitrogen® as that of the unmanured plot. It has, 
indeed, been shown that a large amount of the 
constituents of farm manure accumulate within 
the soil.* 


* Italicized by C. G. H. 

+U. S. Dept. Agr., Office of Expt. Stations, 
Bull. 22, pages 149 and 150. (This most valu- 
able bulletin written by the late Sir Henry Gil- 
bert, himself, giving results of fifty years’ in- 
vestigation at Rothamsted, should be read by any 
one who reads Bulletin 22 of the Bureau of Soils.) 


SCIENCE. 


627 


Again, Sir Henry says: 

Referring first to the results obtained on the 
farmyard manure plot, the average annual produce 
over the [last] forty years was 34% bushels, and 
over the fifty years 3314 bushels; in the one 
nearly 7 bushels and in the other 51% bushels 
more than the average of the United Kingdom 
under ordinary rotation; in both not far short 
of three times the average produce of the United 
States, and more than two and one half times 
the average of the whole of the wheat lands of 
the world. 

Without any manure whatever the average an- 
nual produce was 13 bushels over the [last] forty 
[years], and 1314 bushels over the fifty years. 

Dr. Cameron apparently admits, as shown 
in Cireular No. 72, that ‘it has been possible 
on the basis of chemical analysis to advise 
the use of fertilizers containing potassium on 
certain Illinois soils with improved yield of 
crop,’ but by the same system which he has 
so successfully applied in using strictly se- 
lected data from the Rothamsted experiments, 
he evidently overlooked the fact that on the 
same page of Circular 72 is shown an equally 
striking case where the chemical analysis of 
other soils plainly shows the need of nitrogen, 
the addition of nitrogen to these soils having 
inereased the yield of wheat more than eight 
fold. 

Regarding the use of potassium, however, 
Dr. Cameron adds: 

A soil containing according to analysis an 
enormous amount of nitrogen (67,000 pounds per 
acre), an abundant amount of phosphorus (2,000. 
pounds per acre) but what is regarded as a 
deficient amount of potassium (1,200 pounds per 
acre) produced no corn* when either nitrogen or 
phosphorus or both [or nothing] were applied; 
yield about the same, 36 bushels when potassiwm,* 
40 bushels when potassiwm* and nitrogen or 38 
bushels when potassiwm* and phosphorus were 
applied. But when potassiwm,* nitrogen and 
phosphorus were all applied, the indications of 
the analysis were flatly contradicted by a yield 
of 60 bushels. 

This is, indeed, a most peculiar statement 
both chemically and otherwise. The ‘ indica- 
tions of the analysis,’ instead of being ‘ flatly 
contradicted by a yield of 60 bushels,’ are 
thereby confirmed, for if sufficient potassium 


* Italicized by C. G. H. 


628 SCIENCE. 


is applied to this soil, which already contains 
such an abundance of nitrogen and phos- 
phorus, the yield should certainly rise to 60 
bushels or more. Of course, there are reasons 
why the plots yielding 36 to 40 bushels did not 
yield 60 bushels instead of only 36 or 40. 
These reasons are fully explained in Illinois 
Bulletin No. 93, ‘Soil Treatment for Peaty 
Swamp Lands.’ Soils may all look alike to 
the theoretical chemist, but any one who is 
familiar with agricultural science and practise 
recognizes that there are differences in soils. 
Indeed, it seems pertinent to state that these 
differences were fully understood by the prac- 
tical farmers who watched the experiments, 
and who are now using carloads of potassium 
salts with very great profit on these soils. 
In 1903 five plots not treated with potassium 
yielded 15, 7, 4, 5 and 4 bushels of corn, re- 
spectively; while five other plots, with potas- 
sium applied, yielded 73, 71, 73, 67 and 70 
bushels. 

All agricultural chemists will agree with 
Doctor Wiley’s statement wherein he says: 
“When a man sends to me a specimen of a 
given soil and writes, ‘Please analyze this 
soil and tell me what crops I can grow on it,’ 
TI send him word, ‘ Ask your soil itself what 
you can grow on it; in that way, asking your 
question directly of the soil, you can get your 
answer, and in no other.’ ” 

Chemists recognize that soils have physical 
as well as chemical properties. On the other 
hand, no agricultural chemist of standing will 
agree with the statement of Whitney and 
Cameron, ‘that a chemical analysis of a soil, 
even by these extremely delicate and sensitive 
methods, will in itself give no indication of 
the fertility of this soil,’ understanding that 
the use of the word even is intended to con- 
vey the meaning that no other known methods 
need be thought of if these fail. Further- 
more, it is certainly pertinent to the discus- 
sion to state here that Professor King, a 
recognized authority on soils and a careful 
and exact investigator, found that the chem- 
ical analysis of soils, even by these methods, 
furnishes much information regarding the 
fertility of soils. According to notes which I 
made from Professor King’s address on the 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 485. 


differences between some southern and north- 
ern soils in the United States, read before the 
Association of American Agricultural Col- 
leges and Experiment Stations, he found that 
the northern soils contained 2.39 times as 
much water-soluble plant food as thesouth- 
ern soils and he also found that the yields of 
crops produced on the northern soils were 
2.47 times the yields produced on the southern 
soils. This is in direct contradiction to the 
conclusions drawn by Whitney and Cameron 
from the very miscellaneous and discordant 
data reported in Bulletin 22. The investiga- 
tion by Professor King and his assistants is 


evidently the most systematic accurate and 


valuable work which has yet been done by the 
Bureau of Soils; and it is certainly to be 
hoped that these investigations will soon be 
published in full, even though, being con- 
nected with the Bureau of Soils, Professor 
King can not ‘anticipate the publication of 
the proceedings’ of the Washington meeting. 

The only just criticism of Cireular 72 which 
Doctor Cameron makes in his ten-column 
article in SCIENCE is in regard to the state- 
ment concerning the methods employed by the 
Bureau of Chemistry in analyzing the Roth- 
amsted soils. These. statements were based 
on notes taken from the public discussion by 
the author of the Journal article* at the 
Washington meeting. Hither Mr. Moore 
misspoke himself in saying ‘ fifteen hours’ ex- 
traction’ and ‘gravimetric method,’ or he 
said ‘five hours’ extraction’ and ‘ volumetric 
method’ and I misunderstood him; and I 
humbly accept Doctor Cameron’s scathing re- 
buke for not having looked it up in the orig- 
inal paper. Cameron also insists upon hay- 
ing mention made of the twenty minutes 
allowed for settling in his water extraction. 

The corrections suggested by Doctor Cam- 
eron being accepted the obnoxious statement 
regarding the work from the two bureaus on 
the same soil samples would then read as 
follows: 

It will be observed that the Bureau of Soils by 
twenty-three minutes’ extraction with distilled 
water at room temperature reports from two to 
thirteen times as much soluble phosphorus from 

* Journal American Chemical Society, 24, 94 
(1903). 


atin 


Apri 15, 1904.] 


these soils as the Bureau of Chemistry obtained 
by five hours’ extraction with dilute acid of 40 
decrees centigrade. 

This correction will be made in the third 
edition of Illinois Circular No. 72. Analyt- 
ical chemists will recognize how little force 
there is in this single just criticism in its 
application to the principles under discussion. 

To illustrate his difficulty in finding suit- 
able material for criticism, Doctor Cameron 
says: : 

It is not at all clear why the phosphorus as 
determined in the two investigations should be 
compared on the basis of an acre surface with a 
depth of seven inches, for it is inconceivable that 
any one at this day, and in view of the well-known 
work of Darwin and others, would suppose that 
the same identical seven inches of soil would 
remain at the surface for any considerable period 
of time. 

This criticism is neither pertinent nor con- 
sistent. First, it may safely be assumed that 
neither earthworms nor crawfish were active 
in these particular samples of soil during the 
interval between the two investigations, hence 
the criticism has no bearing on the point. 
Second, all results and comparisons reported 
in Bulletin 22 of the Bureau of Soils are 
based upon soil samples taken to certain 
depths; hence the critic is inconsistent. Re- 
ports of soil investigations which are written 
for the benefit of agriculture and agricultural 
people are best given on the acre basis, because 
this is the basis used in measuring crop yields, 
in applying manure, fertilizers, ete. The 
classic agricultural investigations of Lawes 
and Gilbert are practically all reported on the 
acre basis. Seven inches is a common depth 
for good plowing and this method of report- 
ing results is in accord with the methods* 
adopted by the Association of Official Agri- 
cultural Chemists for collecting soil samples, 
which recognize that there are differences be- 
tween soils and subsoils, whereas the arbitrary 
method of soil sampling, 0-12 inches, 12-94 
inches, and 24-36 inches, in depth, as used 
by the Buréau of Soils (see pages 23-33 of 
Bulletin 22) commonly mixes surface soil 
and subsoil in one of the samples. 

*U. S. Department of Agriculture, Bureau of 
Chemistry, Bulletin 67, p. 152. 


SCIENCE. 629 


While it is true that, in the early publica- 
tion of his paper, Doctor Hilgard anticipated 
the proceedings of the Association of Amer- 
ican Agricultural Colleges and Experiment 
Stations and of the censorship of the Bureau 
of Soils over the publication of those pro- 
ceedings, it is also true that his arguments 
are unanswerable, as are, likewise, those of 
Director Hall of the Rothamsted Experiment 
Station, whose criticism of Bulletin 22 ap- 
peared in Nature last November, although it 
is entirely ignored by Cameron. 

Cyrit G. Hopxins. 


CoLLEGE oF AGRICULTURE, 
UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 

ON A LEPTOCEPHALUS OF THE CONGER EEL.* 

Durine late July, 1900, the first eel eggs 
taken outside of Italian waters were secured 
by the Fish Commission schooner Grampus 
on the surface of the Gulf Stream off New- 
port. The development of these eggs was de- 
seribed in the Bulletin of the U. S. Fish Com- 
mission for 1901. 

The largest larva reared measured about 
11 mm. in length. The larvee were charac- 
terized by the projecting lower jaw, the ar- 
rangement of the spots and the number of 
protovertebre. Since writing the account 
which appeared in the bulletin the larvee have 
been mounted on slides and a more satisfac- 
tory count of the protovertebre made possible. 
There is still some doubt about the number of 
caudal protovertebre. The count as near as it 
is possible to get it is 64-+ 86, 64-+ 91, 66 +- 
89, 67 +82, 67 +89, 68-+ 81 and 70+ 86 in 
seven larvee. 

On July 31, 1902, the Grampus collected a 
Leptocephalus 65 miles south of No Mans 
Land. It has a total length of 21 mm. and 
is undoubtedly the same species reared at 
Woods Hole in August, 1900. It agrees 
with the 1900 specimens in the projecting 
lower jaw, the general plan of the coloration, 
and has approximately the same number of 
protovertebre. The protovertebre are defi- 
nitely 73 for the abdominal portion of the 


* Contributions from the Zoological Laboratory 
of Indiana Uviversity, No. 54. 


630 


body and 82 or 83 for the caudal portion. 
The total number is, therefore, approximately 
equal to the total number found in the pre- 
vious laryee. 

The coloration differs from that of the 
smaller larve in that additional spots have 
developed along the alimentary canal and 
along the sides. There are ten spots along 
the alimentary canal from the gill-openings 


to the anus. Most of these are duplicated 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 485. 


described. The breeding season of this eel 
would, therefore, extend from about the mid- 
dle of June to the end of July. 
C. H. Eicenmann. 
INDIANA UNIVERSITY. 


ION ACTION. 
Ir has long been the view of the writers that 
the term ion action in the sense that it has 
been used in pharmacology and physiology, is 


above and below, the upper one being the 
larger. There are seven or eight spots 
along the tail, not counting the color at 
the tip, which is apparently much as in the 
younger larve. There is a marked spot 
near the tip of the lower jaw and another 
on the upper jaw. There are in addition to 
these spots, which had representatives in the 
younger lary, a number along the sides over 
the notochord. In the anterior part of the 
body, the abdominal portion, these spots con- 
sist largely of a single chromatophore between 
two protovertebre. Their arrangement on one 
side is as follows: No. 1 between the seven- 
teenth and eighteenth protovertebre; No. 2 
between 28 and 29; No. 3 between 35 and 36; 
No. 4 between 39 and 40; No. 5 between 45 
and 46; No. 6 between 51 and 52; No. 7 be- 
tween 55 and 56; No. 8 between 61 and 62; 
No. 9 between 70 and 71. Those of the other 
side have a slightly different arrangement. 

The spots on the tail have migrated up 
from the lower margin of the body so that 
they form a continuous series with those of 
the middle of the sides instead of with those 
of the alimentary canal. The last one of 
the caudal spots is, however, still located at 
the lower margin. Below it on the margin 
of the fin fold is a small spot, and there is a 
black stripe along the upper margin of the 
body at the base of the dorsal membrane, from 
a little in front of the last caudal spot to the 
end of the tail. 

The size of this specimen indicates that it 
is about a month older than those previously 


not justifiable and throws no light on the 
nature of salt action. It seems to have been 
accepted by many physiologists that the dif- 
ferences observed in the action of a series of 
analogous salts possessing, for instance, a 
common anion are to be attributed to a specific 
action of the cations upon the tissue. Such 
a conclusion seems to be unwarranted. Re- 
cent work on the catalytic decomposition of 
hydrogen peroxide offers a good example to 
illustrate our views. In a recent number of 
the American Journal of Physiology there ap- 
peared an article by Neilson and Brown* en- 
titled ‘The Effect of Ions on the Decomposi- 
tion of Hydrogen Peroxide by Platinum 
Black.’ After a study of the effect of a series 
of sodium salts and also a series of chlorides 
on the rate of the catalytic decomposition 
these authors conclude: ‘In the catalytic de- 
composition of hydrogen peroxide by platinum 
black the cation, in general, has an inhibiting 
or depressing effect, and the anion has an ac- 
celerating effect. We have recently shownt 
that the inhibitory action of certain salts on 
the catalytic decomposition of hydrogen per- 
oxide by various metals is due to the forma- 
tion of a thin insoluble film over the surface 
of the metal by the action of the salt on the 
metal. Thus it was shown that the catalysis 
by a given metal is inhibited by those salts 
whose constituent acid yields an insoluble salt 
with the ecatalyzer. Thus the catalysis by 
silver is inhibited by soluble chlorides, brom- 

*Amer, Jour. of Physiol., Vol. X., p. 225, 1904. 

t Amer. Chem. Jour., Vol. XXIX., p. 397, 1903. 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


ides and iodides, whereas fluorides do not in- 
hibit the catalysis. It is to be observed that 
silver chloride, bromide and iodide are in- 
soluble and that silver fluoride is soluble. 
This fact explains why chlorides, bromides 
and iodides inhibit the catalysis while fluor- 
ides do not, as in the latter case no insoluble 
coating ‘can be formed. Silver eyanide is 
insoluble and hence hydrocyanic acid and the 
soluble eyanides inhibit the catalysis by silver. 
Thallium resembles silver in the solubility of 
its halogen salts, 7. e., the fluoride is soluble 
while the chloride and bromide are insoluble, 
and similarly soluble chlorides and bromides 
inhibit the catalysis by thallium while fluor- 
ides do not. Thallium differs from silver in 
that its cyanide is soluble and it was found 
that hydrocyanie acid has only a slight inhib- 
itory action on the catalysis by thallium and 
this result is due to the fact that the metal is 
dissolved and hence the action of hydrocyanie 
acid on thallium is not at all comparable to 
its action on silver. Using freshly cut shav- 
ings of thallium the formation of the film on 
treatment with potassium bromide ean be di- 
rectly observed. On the other hand, hydro- 
eyanic acid accelerates the catalysis by copper 
sulphate and ferrous oxide and also by finely 
divided copper and iron. It was found that 
if the salts of a given acid exert a retarding 
effect on the catalysis by a given metal the 
ammonium salt retards more than the cor- 
responding sodium or potassium salt. This 
is also capable of simple explanation. Am- 
monium is a far weaker base than sodium or 
potassium, and is, therefore, more easily re- 
placed by the catalyzer. 

The ammonium salt thus lends itself more 
readily to the formation of a film. Thus the 
action of certain salts on the catalysis of hy- 
drogen peroxide by metals is readily explained 
when we take into account the simple and 
well-understood chemistry of the substances 
with which we are dealing. It is true that 
the action of all inhibitors has not been ex- 
plained as yet and in some instances undoubt- 
edly other factors play a part, as has been 
found in the case of ammonium sulphocy- 
anate. The action of accelerators is not as 
yet perfectly clear, but when the explanation 


SCIENCE. 


631 


is reached it will certainly take into consid- 
eration more the chemistry of each individual | 
substance than the mere fact that they are in 
the ionic state. Im general the sodium salts 
of the organic acids accelerate the catalysis. 
In our opinion the hydrolysis of these salts is 
to be taken into account as one factor in this 
acceleration, since the alkalies promote the 
decomposition of hydrogen peroxide and in- 
erease its instability. When we state that a 
thing is an anion or a cation we by no means 
exhaust the chemistry of the ion as seems to 
be sometimes inferred. An attempt to ex- 
plain the action of inhibitors on the catalysis 
of hydrogen peroxide by metals in terms of 
the ionic theory as ordinarily employed in 
physiological work leads to conclusions that 
are entirely misleading. Thus ammonium 
chloride inhibits the catalysis by silver and 
thallium much more than sodium or potas- 
sium chlorides. To conclude from this that 
the ammonium ion is the inhibiting agent 
would be entirely erroneous. It is the chlorine 
in all cases that acts on the metal to form the 
film and the ammonium chloride inhibits the 
catalysis more strongly because the chlorine is 
less firmly held. To state from such facts 
that the cation retards the catalysis would 
neither be expressing a fact nor offering an 
explanation of the supposed fact. In a sub- 
sequent publication* Neilson and Brown make 
the following statement: ‘In our work on the 
effect of ions on the decomposition of hydro- 
gen peroxide by platinum black, we obtained 
results which may be explained by the assump- 
tion that in general the anions exert a stimu- 
lating action, and the cations a depressing 
action, so that the action of a given salt de- 
pends on whether the anion or cation is the 
more powerful.’ The writers fail entirely to 
see the slightest suggestion of an explanation. 

It seems to be true that most chemical reac- 
tions occur between substances in the ionic 
state, and the necessity of the presence of 
water for many chemical reactions has led 
some chemists to assume that chemical inter- 
action only oceurs between ions. This is still 
an open question. Even in so simple a case 

*Amer. Jour. of Physiology, Vol. X., p. 336, 
1904. 


as the hydrolysis of cane sugar by acids, an 
action which has been studied so carefully and 
been found to be proportional to the number 
of hydrogen ions, it is not proved that the 
hydrolysis is due to the hydrogen ion inde- 
pendently of the anion, and it seems most im- 
probable to the writers that such is the case. 
The monatomic ions differ from atoms only 
in the possession of an electric charge. Hence 
jon action can only differ from atomic action 
in consequence of this charge. The writers 
have been unable to find any evidence in 
physiology or pharmacology that an ion ever 
effects a functional change in consequence of 
this charge. Such a demonstration would be 
heartily welcomed. The expression ion action 
in the sense in which it is so often used in 
physiological literature seems unwarranted. 

It must be added that the brilliant results 
which have been attained in the field of salt 
action are in no way affected by whatever 
explanation they may ultimately receive. 

A. 8. Lorvennart, 
J. H. Kastte. 


DEATH GULCH. 

Tr is certain that nowhere within a like area 
ean be found so many natural features of 
greatest interest as those to be seen in the 
Yellowstone National Park. 

Not the least of these is Death Gulch, dis- 
covered in 1888 by Walter Harvey Weed, of 
the United States Geological Survey. 

Mr. Weed’s description of his discovery ap- 
pears in Scimncn, February 15, 1889, and con- 
tains information concerning geological fea- 
tures, comparisons with the Death Valley of 
Java and other matters of general interest. 

At this time bodies of five bears, one elk, 
many small mammals in various stages of 
decomposition, and numerous insects were 
found. None of the animals showing signs 
of violence, Mr. Weed concluded death was 
caused by poisonous gas. 

In 1897 Dr. T. A. Jaggar, Jr.,* visited the 
gulch, finding the carcasses of seven grizzlies 
and one cinnamon hear. 

Tests made at various places along the 
bottom of the guleh failed to show sufficient 


*The Popular Science Monthly, February, 1889. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 485. 


gas to extinguish the flames of burning 
matches. 

A year or two later Capt. H. M. Chittenden 
visited the gulch and found no animal re- 
mains nor any evidence of noxious gases.* 

This experience caused him to express con- 
siderable doubt as to the authenticity of pre- 
vious accounts. 

As both Weed and Jaggar have indicated, 
the gulch is of such a nature, it is almost cer- 
tain to be cleaned out periodically by freshets 
resulting from melting snow or heayy rains. 

Quoting from the journal of the corporal 
in charge of the Soda Butte Station, the fol- 
lowing extract needs no comment. 

May 3, 1898—lLt. Lindsley and Corpl. Herb 
left station for Cache (Creek). Followed trail 
to Death Guleh. Crossed Cache Creek at Death 
Gulch and patrolled two gulches to find the one 
in which supposed skeletons were to be found. 
Run into a bear track and in following it, came 
to Death Gulch. Corporal Herb went into it to 
the bottom and counted seven bear, brown silver- 
tip and one grizzly. Part of gulch covered with 
snow. Signs of bear abundantly on both sides. 
The smell is that prevalent throughout the sul- 
phur regions of the park. On being in the 
bottom of the gulch the sensation experienced 
was that of dizziness leaving a headache behind. 

May 28, 1898—Pvts. Root, McDonald and Ed- 
wards, mounted to Death Gulch. Counted car- 
casses of seven bear and one fox. Saw fresh 
signs of large bear on east side of gulch. 

August 10, 1902—Pvt. Wilson from station to 
Death Gulch, found carcass of bear having re- 
cently died, probably within twenty-four hours. 

It has been my good fortune to visit Death 
Gulch, three different times. The first in 
1900 when returning from Hoodoo Basin, our 
party camped near the mouth of Cache Creek 
and visited the guleh. We counted the car- 
easses of four large bears, and saw the re- 
mains of many other animals, represented 
mainly by bones with occasional tufts of hair. 
At this time the smell of sulphureted hydro- 
gen was noticeable, and I determined then 
to learn, when possible, the composition of 
the gas of the gulch. 

With this end in view, I went to the park 
in June of the past year, with apparatus for 
the analysis of gases. 


*<The Yellowstone National Park,’ fourth edi- 
tion, p. 33d. 


Koeee 


Se 


ae, SA Se RRO SI Ea ty 


ApriL 15, 1904.] 


Upon reaching Soda Butte Creek, however, 
I found the waters too high to permit safe 
fording with a wagon, and had to be content 
with a horseback ride to the -gulch without 
my apparatus. The only fresh animal re- 
mains I then found were those of a small bear 
which I supposed was the bear Corporal Wil- 
son, of Soda Butte Station, had discovered the 
preceding year. The smell of sulphureted 
hydrogen was very strong, and later I no- 
ticed the silver coins I had in my trousers 
pocket while in the gulch were much tar- 
nished. 

In August we were successful in getting the 
apparatus over to the gulch. The wind was 
blowing at a fair rate during all the time we 
were in the gulch, and occasional sharp 
showers of rain occurred. 

Notwithstanding the extremely favorable 
conditions for the rapid diffusion of gases, 
the air near the bottom of the gulch showed 
the presence of more than ten per cent. of 
carbon dioxide, and strong traces of sulphu- 
reted hydrogen. A search for the outlets 
of the gas showed fissures on the sides of the 
gulch from which the gas literally poured. 

One crevice in particular, an opening about 
fourteen inches long by four inéhes high, fur- 
nished so much gas we decided to analyze it, 
and found a little over one per cent. of sulphu- 
reted hydrogen, and more than fifty per cent. 
of carbon dioxide, and we have reason to be- 
lieve the percentage of these gases was even 
higher than these figures, for there were sey- 
eral ways in which the air, constituting the 
remainder of the sample, may have entered 
the bottle. But these results show how, upon 


still days when gaseous diffusion is not very . 


active, a suflicient percentage of gases to 
cause death might remain mixed with the air 
along the bottom of the gulch. 

The question of sulphureted hydrogen 
poisoning has not been very carefully studied, 
and it is difficult to obtain any reliable data 
concerning’ it. 

The following translation, however, gives 
some information on this point :* 

Lehman states that when the proportion of 
sulphureted hydrogen in the atmosphere reaches 

** Toxikologie fiir Thieriirtze,’ Eugene Fréhner, 
2d ed., pp. 146, 147. 


SCIENCE. 633 


one to three parts per thousand, animals die in 
it in ten minutes, with apoplectic symptoms and 
great dilliculty in breathing. 

An atmosphere containing one half part per 
thousand sulphureted hydrogen produces death 
with cramps and edemic inflammation of the 
lungs. 

it further produces rhinitis, conjunctivitis and 
laryngitis. 

lt may be characterized as a blood poison 
which decomposes the oxyhemoglobin in the body 
to sulphmetahxmoglobin. 

It may be concluded, then, that about one 
tenth per cent. in air is a sufficient amount 
to produce fatal results. This percentage 
would be reached by the dilution of the gas 
issuing from the fissure to ten volumes, which, 
considering the large quantity coming from 
this and similar fissures, would require a very 
large volume of fresh air. ‘This dilution 
would reduce the carbon dioxide to five per 
cent., which would be considered generally a 
dangerous quantity. 

Another interesting point in connection 
with the question of the poisonous effects of 
sulphureted hydrogen gas is that concerning 
its effect when associated with large amounts 
of carbon dioxide. 

Would it not, for several reasons, be more 
dangerous, when associated with five per cent. 
of carbon dioxide? This phase of the ques- 
tion deserves careful investigation. 

At the time of my last visit we found the 
remains of one small bear, the one I had 
noted in June, another bear, elk hides, three 
birds, including a mountain blue jay and a 
great horned owl, numerous old skeletons not 
identified, beetles, moths, butterflies, flies and 
maggots. 

It is interesting to note, in respect to the 
dead maggots, the intermittent action of the 
gas. After the death of the bear on which 
they were found the atmosphere permitted the 
presence of flies which laid their eggs on the 
carcass. Maggots developed, lived for a time, 
until the gas became sufficiently strong to kill 
them. 

Flies were flying about the gulch while we 
were carrying on our work. Some of these 
we caught and held in the escaping gas from 
the crevices. In each case death occurred on 
six seconds’ exposure to the gas. 


634 


The slope from the bottom of Death Gulch 
from the mouth upward is very great, afford- 
ing a hard climb for any who may attempt to 
pass up it. Occasionally, shelves are en- 
countered adding to the difficulty of reach- 
ing the place where the animals are found. 
It is above one of these shelves or steps where 
all of the carcasses were lying, and the floor 
of the gulch at this place is comparatively 
level for a distance of twenty feet or more. 
At the upper end of this space and about four 
feet up the side is the fissure described. You 
may see this offers a fine opportunity for the 
accumulation of gas. 

Thinking of the preservative effects of the 
gas, I believed at first the bear discovered by 
“Pvt. Wilson’ was the one I found the fol- 
lowing June but later learned that the former 
was a large bear from which the claws had 
been taken by the soldiers, while the latter 
was a small bear still retaining its claws. 

Water flowimg in the upper part of the 
gulch has a distinct acid reaction. One de- 
termination showed the acidity calculated to 
sulphuric acid to be equal to one third of a 
gram to the liter. This acidity disappears 
before the lower part of the gulch is, reached, 
a sample half way down from the top giving 
a neutral reaction. 

The production of gas is probably connected 
with this neutralization of the acid water. 
The action of the acid on carbonates and 
sulphides liberates the gases. 

The symptoms experienced by members of 
our party while in the gulch were not those 
of asphyxiation, the usual result of the action 
of carbon dioxide, but while no two were 
affected exactly alike, dizziness was noted in 
each case. In addition to dizziness one had 
nausea, another headache and the third was 
dizzy but noticed no other effect. 

Taken altogether, the phenomena of this 
-region are most interesting and deserve fur- 
ther study. In taking samples of the gas it 
was necessary to watch the flow of acidulated 
water containing cadmium sulphate, in which 
the sulphureted hydrogen was collected, to 
see that none of the precipitated cadmium 
sulphide was siphoned off. 

Bending over watching this intently I was 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


almost overcome by the gas, and but for the 
assistance of my friends in getting to fresh 
air I should have remained with ‘ Wahb’ and 
his brethren at the bottom of Death Gulch. 
F. W. TRAPHAGEN. 


Montana State COLLEGE, 
BozeEMAN, MONTANA. 


A LOACH FROM NANAIMO. 


TuroucH the kindness of Mr. Jaeger, of 
Brannan St., San Francisco, Stanford Uni- 
versity has received a live specimen of a very 
mysterious fish. It is a loach, an eel-shaped 
fish with the head of a sucker and the beards 
of a cat-fish, a group of fishes abundant in the 
Old World in the brooks from Ireland to 
Japan, but never before found in America. 

The loaches are very hardy, as much so as a 
salamander, and they sometimes come out into 
the wet grass in search of insects. 

This loach was brought to San Francisco 
in a coaling ship from Nanaimo. He was said 
to have been found in a puddle in the coal- 
bank. He was put into a tumbler of water 
at San Francisco, and then revived. When 
I found him he was still in the glass of water 
and lively enough, the bottom of the glass _ 
being covered with coal dust. 

His origin is a puzzle. Some patriotic 
Englishman might have brought a loach to 
Nanaimo. Some Chinaman may have ear- 
ried about a live loach as good medicine. 
Some Japanese may have had him in his 
little tray-garden. It is not easy to conceive 
that this family should be native to America 
and that we should have overlooked it so long, 
while describing so many Asiatic and Euro- 
pean species. 

This loach has six barbels, short dorsal, a 
rounded eaudal. It can not, therefore, belong 
to any one of the three European genera. Its 
place is in the genus Orthrias, lately framed 
by the writer for a species from northern 
Japan. But the new loach is not this species, 
nor does any one of the few Chimese species of 
Orthrias, of which I find accounts, resemble it 
very much. 

This is clear. The loach from Nanaimo 
belongs to a new or rare species. It is either 
native to Vancouver Island or else it has been 
brought over alive from China. Meanwhile 


lon te 


D> iain ~ 


ove ese 


APRIL 15, 1904.] 


the type cheerfully lives in the aquarium, 
feeding on mosquito larvee and little tadpoles. 
Who will find a second specimen ?. 

Davi Starr JORDAN. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 


THERE is grumbling all the time on account 
of the continually increasing demands of the 
Department of Agriculture. For the fiscal 
year 1897-98 its appropriation was $3,182,902. 
For the current year the appropriation is 
$5,478,160, and the department will cost 
$6,229,880 next year. 

Although the amount spent by the depart- 
ment is large, other countries are expending 
proportionately more each year for the same 
purposes. The latest obtainable figures, as 
given in a recent report from the senate com- 
mittee on agriculture and forestry, show these 
to be the appropriations of several foreign coun- 
tries for the encouragement of agriculture: 


ESTAMICC Mine zeperctsteverereverseon cieteie tints $ 9,020,000 
PATS EDA peated eit oS woe aS 9,275,000 
BEIM AY? Teer oivicie ks cle bievere rete 9,400,000 
TRONS Sh Ea Meets arate pean te 25,280,000 
OA ANNaretsysepsie cocoate e slarere wil 3,750,000 


In order that these figures may mean some- 
thing, the committee has calculated the 
amount spent by each nation, including the 
United States, for each acre of tillable land 
and for each person in the agricultural popu- 
lation. These figures are: 5 


EXPENDITURE PER ACRE OF AGRICULTURAL LAND. 


: Cents. 
GAN CO ay ceehal eta eieiticester sa Acdsee ates 9.8 
INMEIOIE) Nory So eae aaa Oe ae aoe 13.3 
EDU Gravrye dr tesiaye aotevelo sie ile sete ims 12.4 
INVEIEL (ANDO) senccuddsos0nnooee 4 
United States ........ PSR REAM BRO 1.3 

EXPENDITURE PER CAPITA OF AGRICULTURAL 
POPULATION. 

Cents 

MT ATICE rep epne Ne) haves SNS MI 52 

PATUIS Ered sete tee secpepeeaten ave IS (eis lace cen 69 

FDU gaye sash oparceey eee cateieihes cabs hich 90 

Winted Stat esiacsscsestrcios a cayystoraratas 35 


Russia, with an area of 8,660,395 square 
miles, maintains 102 experiment stations, or 
one to every 84,906 square miles. The United 
States, with 3,692,125 square miles, has sixty 


” SCIENCE. 635 


experiment stations, or one to every 61,535 
square miles. The other extreme is reached 
with Belgium, where, in a country containing 
11,373 square miles, fifteen experiment sta- 
tions, or one to every 758 square miles of ter- 
ritory, are maintained. Germany and France 
maintain a station for every 3,000 square 
miles of their territory, roughly. In no sec- 
tion of the United States are there as many 
stations in proportion to the land surface as 
there are in Germany and France. In the 
states on the Atlantic seaboard there is one 
station to every 24,000 square miles of land. 
Texas, with one federal experiment station, 
is 27 per cent. larger than all of France and 
Germany, with their 151 stations. The ratio 
of experiment stations to area in France and 
Germany is 96 to 1 as compared with Texas, 
28 to 1 as compared with Minnesota and the 
Dakotas, and 39 to 1 as compared with our 
Pacific states. 

The quarrel that the public has with the 
Department of Agriculture does not hinge on 
the amount of its annual appropriation. 
There has never been any disposition to treat 
it in a niggardly fashion, but the impression 
is general that great sums of money are wasted 
on frivolous enterprises. 

The free distribution of seeds is the most 
notorious of the improper expenditures of 
which the system is guilty, and the amount of 
money involved in this is about the same as 
the annual increase in the appropriation 
granted by congress. The Weather Bureau, 
which costs the department $1,330,000 a year, 
is pretty generally laughed at now. 

If the department devotes itself to its legiti- 
mate business, and accomplishes its functions 
properly, it will not be hampered by any lack 
of funds.—The N. Y. Sun. 


JAMES HYATT. 

Dr. James Hyatt died at Bangall, N. Y., 
on February 27, in the eighty-seventh year of 
his age. He was one of the earliest members 
of the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, also a member of the New 
York Lyceum of Natural History, now the 
Academy of Sciences, and one of the founders 
of the Torrey Botanical Club. With him 


656 


passes away one of the last representatives of 
the early pioneers in scientific work in old 
New York. To the labors of this group of 
men, among whom were Professors Wood and 
Torrey, we owe many of our privileges to-day 
in the scientific world. Dr. Hyatt averaged 
during the years between 1860 and 1870 twenty 
lectures a week in sixteen schools and colleges, 
besides holding the chair of chemistry and 
toxicology in the Woman’s Medical College. 
He was the author of ‘ First Lessons in Chem- 
istry,’ published in 1839, and ‘The Elements 
of Chemistry,’ published in 1856. At the 
time of his death he was a volunteer observer 
of the Weather Bureau. It is well that we 
honor the memory of these pioneers. It was 
they who fostered the spirit of learning and 
the love for science when the humanities alone 
were thought worthy of the attention of those 
who sought education. To their labors and 
their foresight we owe our great scientific 
societies and associations which exercise so 
potent an influence on the thought and activ- 
ities of the educational world of to-day. 
JOHN J. SCHOONHOVEN. 


HANS HERMANN BHHR. 


, Tere died in San Francisco, March 6, 1904, 
Dr. Hans Hermann Behr, in his eighty-sixth 
year. His work belonged to the preceding 
generation; for though the brightness of his 
intellect was undimmed to the last, yet the 
feebleness of his body prevented his doing 
scientific work during the last years of his 
life, when his position as curator of the Ento- 
mological Department of the California Acad- 
emy of Sciences gave him leisure. His large 
and valuable collection of lepidoptera is in 
the possession of the California Academy of 
Sciences ,and contains, besides his own types 
of California insects, duplicates of the types 
of Xantus and Boisduval and others. The 
collection is cosmopolitan and is probably 
the most complete collection of Californian 
lepidoptera in existence. He attended the 
universities of Halle and Wiirtzburg, but took 
his degree from the University of Berlin. 
He numbered among his friends some of the 
leading scientific men of the age, Alexander 
yon Humboldt, Virechow, Schlechtendahl, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


Naumann, Garmar, Ferdinand yon Mueller, 
Dr. Hillebrand, Louis Agassiz, Max Miiller 
and others. 

For many years he was professor of botany 
at the California College of Pharmacy and he 
wrote two little books on the ‘Flora of San 
Francisco’ to assist the students. The ‘ In- 
troduction ’” to the earliest ‘ Local Flora’ shows 
that he was abreast if not ahead of his time, 
and also gives an original outline of the sys- 
tem of classification showing a complete grasp 
of the orders of plants that is very rare. He 
kept no record or copies of his publications, 
and it would be a work taking some time to 
unearth them from the German and American 
periodicals where they appeared. 

He was a many-sided man, wrote German 
poems of beauty and genuine feeling, wrote a 
story of life in the Philippine Islands which 
was published in the Atlantic Monthly, and a 
novel of life in California published in a 
German magazine. He understood every 
language of Kurope. Greek and Latin were 
about as familiar to him as English and he 
could quote from the classics indefinitely. 
He was a purist in the formation of scientific 
terms, and such words as ‘cotype’ and a 
genitive like ‘Salmonorum’ aroused his con- 
tempt and wrath. During his early manhood 
he was a deep student of Sanserit and he 
learned Hebrew when a boy. He was one of 
the early members of the now famous Bo- 
hemian Club of San Francisco. The papers 
which he wrote for the amusement of the club 
have been lately collected and published un- 
der the title of ‘The Hoot of the Owl,’ to 
amuse and charm every one with their quaint 
and original humor. 


ALicE Hastwoop. 
CALIFORNIA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Presipent Carrot D. Wricut has decided 
not to call a spring meeting of the council of 
the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science, in view of the fact that 
there seems to be no business of sufiicient 
urgency to warrant it. 


Dr. Smmon FLEexner, director of the Rocke- 
feller Institute, New York, has been elected 


W Pane aby 


—— 


oe eer ws 


Aprit 15, 1904.] 


president of the American Association of 
Pathologists and Bacteriologists. 

A COMMITTEE appointed im connection with 
the celebration of President Eliot’s seventieth 
birthday has decided to invite Mr. John Sar- 
gent to paint a portrait of President Eliot. 

A COMPLIMENTARY dinner is to be given this 
week to Rear Admiral George W. Melville, 
U.S.N., by the Institute of Naval Architects 
of Great Britain. The organizing committee 
includes the Earl of Glasgow, Lords Brassey 
and Inverclyde, Admiral the Right Hon. Lord 
John Hay, dean of the British Navy; Sir 
William White, chief constructor; Admiral 
Durston, engineer-in-chief, and Admiral Hop- 
kins. 

Dr. L. O. Howarp, chief of the division of 
entomology and permanent secretary of the 
American Association for the Advancement 
of Science, has been elected a foreign mem- 
ber of the Société Nationale d’Agriculture de 
France. 

GENERAL Bassot has been appointed director 
of the Observatory at Nice, in the place of 
the late M. Perrotin. 

Dr. J. N. Laneury, F.R.S., professor of 
physiology at Cambridge University, has been 
given the degree of doctor of laws by St. 
Andrew’s University. 

THE council of the Royal College of Sur- 
geons in Ireland has adopted the following 
resolutions: “That the president, vice-presi- 
dent and council express their gratification at 
the appointment for the first time of a medical 
man to the office of provost of Trinity College, 
and congratulate Dr. Anthony Traill on his 
appointment to that distinguished position.” 

Proressor EH. B. Witson, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, will spend the summer at the Naples 


- Zoological Station. 


Prorissor C. S. Suerrineron, of Liverpool 
University, will open his course of Silliman 
lectures at Yale University on April 22. 

THE subjects of the Herter lectures being 
given this week at the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity by Professor Paul Ehrlich are: (1) ‘ The 
mutual relations between toxine and anti- 
toxine’; (2) ‘Physical chemistry versus biol- 
ogy in the doctrines of immunity’; (8) 
“Cytotoxines and cytotoxic immunity.’ 


SCIENCE. 637 


Unirep States Ampassapor Townr, on April 
7, presented the New York Geographical So- 
ciety’s Cullom medal to Dr. George von 
Neumayer, director of the Hamburg Nautical 
Observatory, for distinguished services to sci- 
ence and especially for the discoveries which 
he made in his expeditions to Australia. 

THe Council of the Royal Geographical 
Society has decided to award the two Royal 
Medals for this year to Sir Harry Johnston, 
well-known for his discoveries in Africa, and 
to Commander R. F. Scott, R.N., who is re- 
turning from the Antarctic regions. Two of 
the other honors at the disposal of the council 
haye been awarded for Antarctic work. One 
of these, the Murchison grant, has been 
awarded to Lieutenant Colbeck for his ser- 
vices while in command of the relief expedi- 
tion. It will probably take the form of a 
silver globe, designed by the president, show- 
ing the route of the expedition. It has been 
decided to present the Gill memorial to Cap- 
tain Irizar, of the Argentine navy, for his 
rescue of the Nordenskjéld Antarctic expedi- 
tion. The Cuthbert Peek grant will be pre- 
sented to Don Juan Villalta for geographical 
discoveries to the east of the Andes while in 
command of a Peruvian exploring expedition; 
and the Back grant to Dr. M. A. Stein for his 
geographical work in Central Asia, and es- 
pecially for his mapping in the Mustaghata 
and Kuen Lun ranges. 

THE Carnegie Institution has made a grant 
of $500 to Professor Henry S. Carhart, of 
the University of Michigan, to be used for 
the determination in absolute measure of the 
electromotive force of Clark and Weston 
standard cells, and for the determination of 
the electrochemical equivalent of silver. Pro- 
fessor Geo. W. Patterson, Jr., is engaged with 
Professor Carhart in this work. 

Mr. Wittimm CamMppen, of the department 
of metallurgy of Columbia University, has 
been granted $1,500 by the Carnegie Institu- 
tion for a study of the effect of heat treat- 
ment on the microstructure and on the phys- 
ical properties of iron and steel. 

Tue legislature of Porto Rico has appro- 
priated the sum of $5,000 to defray the ex- 
penses of an investigation into the prevalence 


638 


of ankylostomiasis in the island. The in- 
vestigation is to be conducted by Captain 
Ashford, of the Military Hospital. 

Commanper Tomas ArtHur Hutt, a recog- 
nized authority on nautical surveying and 
navigation, at one time superintendent of 
charts in the British hydrographic department, 
died on March 25 in his seventy-fifth year. 
The death is also announced of Professor 
Emile Laurent, the Belgian botanist. 

Grounp has been broken at Cold Spring 
Harbor, Long Island, for the new building 
to be erected for the station of experimental 
evolution of the Carnegie Institution, of 
which Professor Chas. B. Davenport is the 
director. The structure will be 65x35 feet, 
of brick covered with stucco, two and one half 
stories high. It will take about two months 
to complete the building. It will be located 
in a field a short distance north of the state 
fish hatchery buildings, and about an equal 
distance south of the laboratory of the Brook- 
lyn Institute of Arts and Sciences. 

THE decision of the American Society of 
Civil Engineers not to join the other engineer- 
ing organizations in accepting Mr. Andrew 
Carnegie’s offer of a new building on Thirty- 
ninth and Fortieth Streets, New York, has 
been followed by the announcement that the 
society had completed a real estate purchase 
which will make possible the enlarging of its 
clubhouse on Fifty-seventh Street to twice its 
present size. The society has bought the lot 
on the south side of Fifty-seventh Street, 140 
feet east of Broadway, immediately adjoining 
its building on the west. Plans will be pre- 
pared immediately for extending the structure 
over this lot, which has a frontage of 25 feet 
and a depth of 114 feet. The exterior of the 
new addition will be made to conform with 
the present building. 

THe Peary Arctic Club has been incor- 
porated. The incorporators state they desire 
to associate themselves together to promote 
and maintain explorations in the Polar Sea, 
headed by Lieutenant Peary, and to provide 
funds for the same. 


Tue subject for the Sedgwick prize essay, - 


at Cambridge University, for the year 1906 is 
“The characters, geographical distribution, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


sources and mode of transport of the boulders 
of the Cambridge district.’ The essays must 
be sent in to the Registrary on or before Oc- 
tober 1, 1905. The prize is open to all gradu- 
ates of the University of Cambridge who shall 
have resided sixty days during the twelve 
months preceding the day on or before which 
the essays must be sent in. 

To inaugurate the opening of the Simplon 
Tunnel an exposition will be held at Milan 
from April to November, 1905. Special prizes 
will be given for air navigation. It is to be 
international, except for the fine arts, which 
will be exclusively national. 

Ir is announced that an association of 
English manufacturers has chartered the 
steamer Lake Megantic, belonging to the 
Canadian Pacific Railway Line, for a trip 
around the world with an exhibition of British 
goods and manufactures. She will leave Lon- 
don April 27 and be fitted out with samples 
of goods manufactured by the best British in- 
dustrial firms. She will make her first call at 
Halifax, and from here go to St. John’s, New- 
foundland, and afterwards to Canadian ports. 
From Canada the exhibition will sail to the 
West India Islands, thence to South Africa, 
and thence to Bombay via Mauritius. From 
Bombay, Colombo, Madras, Caleutta and Ran- 
goon will be visited; then, sailing by Penang 
through the Straits of Malacca, touching 
Singapore, the exhibition will visit Hongkong, 
Shanghai, Nagasaki and Yokohama, sailing 
thence to Australia and New Zealand. Home- 
ward, the vessel will call at Buenos Ayres, 
Montevideo, Rio de Janeiro and West Africa. 

We learn from the London Times that the 
International Marine Association, of which 
the president is M. Charles Roux, has issued 
the program of its fourth congress, which is 
to be held in Lisbon from May 22 to May 98. 
Among the topics which are to be discussed 
under the general head of oceanography and 
hydrography are bathymetric charts and the 
latest cruise of the Prince of Monaco’s yacht. 
The question of North Atlantic weather fore- 
casts will be considered, as also the various 
conventions for the unification of all matters 
connected with navigation on the high seas 
and the treatment of vessels in foreign ports. 


Sea a. 


ai Ne ee _ eee 


Apri 15, 1904.] 


The question of the improvement of ports by 
the installation of practical appliances is 
deemed so important that it has been given in 
the program under a separate heading. The 
Panama Oanal, sailors’ charitable associations, 
territorial seas, international marine statistics, 
yachting, sardine fisheries and wireless teleg- 
raphy also figure in the list of matters to be 
dealt with. 

Tur London Times states that Sir Alfred 
Jones entertained at lunch, in Liverpool, on 
February 22, a company of merchants and 
scientists to meet Professor Boyce on his re- 
turn from Egypt, and to hear his statement 
as to the success of the anti-malarial fever 
expedition to Ismailia. Sir Alfred Jones pre- 
sided and welcomed Professor Boyce. Pro- 
fessor Boyce said that when Major Ross vis- 
ited Ismailia in September, 1902, there were 
9,000 cases of malaria annually in a popula- 
tion of 9,000 people, of whom 2,000 were 
Europeans. The authorities at Ismailia loy- 
ally carried out Major Ross’s suggestions as 
to fillmg up marsh land close to the town and 
cleaning out small irrigating channels and 
stagnant waters. That involved an expense 
of £4,400, and at the same time they organized 
a drains brigade and petroleum brigade, as a 
result of whose work people could now sleep 
in any of the houses in the European quarter 
without mosquito nets. From something like 
9,000 cases of malaria a year the number had 
been reduced, according to the latest statistics 
drawn up by an independent medical officer, 
to 200. As a matter of fact, there were no 
fresh cases of malarial infection in Ismailia; 
there had been no deaths among Europeans 
during the year, and only four among natives, 
against something like 30 deaths the year be- 
fore. Such had been the improvement that 
Prince D’Arenberg, president of the Suez 
Canal Company, informed him that he hoped 
before two years were out to see Ismailia re- 
garded as the sanatorium and watering place 
for Cairo. Tropical medicine was bringing 
us to think that after all this little country of 
ours had been for centuries teaching medicine 
applicable to our own country and domestic 
life without thinking of our great empire all 
over the world. The time had come when 


SCIENCE. ~ 639 


they must teach students a medicine applicable 
to the whole world. Major Ronald Ross, C.B., 
remarked that the success of the anti-malarial 
campaign at Ismailia had taught two things 
—that it was possible to rid a large town en- 
tirely of mosquitoes, and that it was equally 
possible to eradicate malaria. . He had been 
asked by Mr. Brodrick to draw up a report as 
to malaria cases in India, which numbered 
300,000 admissions to hospitals among the 
troops and the gaol prisoners. With the 
Ismailia figures before him he would do that 
with complete confidence, for he was sure that 
very shortly they would reduce that immense 
admission rate to one third of its former 
number. 

WE learn from Nature that a bill for render- 
ing compulsory the use of the metric system of 
weights and measures in the United Kingdom 
was read a second time in the House of Lords 
and referred to a select committee. The bill 
provides that the metric system shall become 
compulsory on April 5, 1906, or at such later 
date as may be directed by His Majesty by 
order in council. It is, therefore, left to the 
discretion of the government to fix the date 
for inaugurating the compulsory adoption of 
the system. In moving the second reading of 
the bill, Lord Belhaven referred to the recom- 
mendations of the select committee of the 
House of Commons in 1895, and pointed out 
the educational and commercial advantages 
which would follow the adoption of the metric 
system in the place of our present irrational 
standards. Lord Kelvin, speaking in support 


_of the bill, remarked that in Germany, France 


and Italy, no inconvenience had resulted from 
the introduction of the metric system. He 
said it was of interest to know that the decimal 
system originated in England. In a letter 
dated November 14, 1783, James Watt laid 
down a plan which was in all respects the 
system adopted by the French philosophers 
seven years later, which they suggested to the 
King of England as a system that might be 
adopted by international agreement. James 
Watt’s objects were to secure uniformity and 
to establish a mode of division which should 
be convenient as long as decimal arithmetic 


640 


lasted. Speeches in favor of the bill were made 
by Lord Wolverton, the Marquis of Lansdowne 
and the Earl of Rosebery. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mr. Joun D. RockErELLER has given $500,- 
000 to the Johns Hopkins Hospital, in order 
that the work of the institution may not be 
curtailed owing to the losses from the recent 
Baltimore fire. The Maryland legislature has 
voted $25,000 annually for two years to the 
Johns Hopkins University. 


By the will of Mrs. Farnham, widow of the 
late Professor Henry Farnham, Yale Univer- 
. sity receives $52,500 for the endowment fund 
of the medical school and $39,000 for the 
endowment fund for the library. ; 


Tue Goldsmiths’ Company has transferred 
to the University of London the technical 
institute in South London which it has main- 
tained for the last twelve years. The value 
of the buildings and land is estimated at about 
$500,000. As work of the kind that the com- 
pany had been doing will henceforward be 
paid for by public funds, the institute has 
been made over to the University of London 
for higher education. 


Tue London Times states that the physio- 
logical laboratory committee of London Uni- 
versity has presented a report upon the work 
done in the laboratory during the past two 
years. This institution was established in 
February, 1902, to provide facilities for orig- 
inal work in physiology and experimental 
psychology, and to publish by means of lec- 
tures to advanced students the results of re- 
cent work in this branch of study. For the 
establishment and maintenance of the labora- 
tory the senate are chiefly indeoted to Mr. 
Walter Palmer, M.P., Mr. Alfred Palmer, and 
Mr. G. W. Palmer, M.P. During the past two 
years eleven courses of eight lectures each 
have been delivered in the laboratory, and 
arrangements have been made by the senate 
with Mr. John Murray for the publication, 
under the authority of the university, of such 
of these courses as may be from time to time 
approved. The first volume published in this 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 485. 


series has been Dr. A. D. Waller’s ‘On the 
Signs of Life.’ The laboratory has been used 
for various researches by 20 qualified students, 
and 23 communications from persons working 
in it have been published in the Proceedings 
of the Royal Society and other scientific 
journals. 


Tue Messrs. Mallinckrodt, of St. Louis, 
have agreed to pay $500 to a chosen student 
of chemistry in the graduate school of Har- 
vard University during the year 1904-1905, 
on condition that this student contract to 
serve in the Mallinckrodt Chemical Works 
during the year 1905-1906 at a suitable salary. 


Boston University is about to establish a 
scientific department in the College of Liberal 
Arts, and has appointed in this department 
A. W. Weysse, A.B., Ph.D. (Harvard), now of 
the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to 
be assistant professor of biology, and L. G. 
Newell, A.M. (Brown), Ph.D. (Johns Hop- 
kins), now of the State Normal School at 
Lowell, to be assistant professor of chemistry. — 


Grorce M. Srrarron, A.B. (California), 
Ph.D. (Leipzig), associate professor of psy- 
chology in the University of California, has 
been appointed professor of experimental psy- 
chology in the Johns Hopkins University. 


Dr. R. G. Van Name has been appointed 
to an instructorship in chemistry at Yale 
University. 

Proressor WitttAmM O. Emery has been ap- 
pointed head of the chemical department and 
director of the chemical laboratory in the New 
Mexico State School of Mines. Dr. Emery 
was for ten years instructor and docent in 
the Universities of Berlin and Bonn. He was 
later connected with the University of Chi- 
cago, and professor in Wabash College. 


Prorressor H. E. Crampton, of Columbia 
University, will take charge of the work in 
embryology at the biological laboratory at 
Cold Spring Harbor. 


Dr. Rorupietz has been made professor of 
geology and paleontology at the university of 
Munich, in the room of the late Professor yon 
Zittell. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fray, Aprin 22, 1904. 5 


CONTENTS: 
The Growth and Function of the Modern 
Laboratory: PRoFEssor §. LAWRENCE BIcE- 
LOM doo kod con ob.coo oD One none cose so ED UG 641 


Is the Course for College Entrance Require- 
ments best for those who go no further? 
Dr. JAMES G. NEEDHAM........... Helsewans 650 


Scientific Books :— 
Reports of the Belgian Antarctic Hapedi- 
LOND) Bay VV). Es eD ATT vey chee) etsile arse elereteee @ 656 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 659 


Societies and Academies :— 
Haperimental Psychology. The Philosoph- 
ical Society of Washington: CHartms K. 
Weap. The Academy of Science of St. 
Louis. Clemson College Science Club: F. 
Shy ASHEWI HOT We noes DRAPE Cece cn IR ecient Meare tea 659 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The University of Cincinnati and its Presi- 
dency: X. Natural and Unnatural His- 
tory: WM. HARPER DAVIS................ 661 


Special Articles :— 
-The Encyclopedia Americana on Ichthyol- 


OAs IIS Aliso. (Crotes Son etoosdacasen ose 675 
The Minnesota Seaside Station............. 676 
Scientific Notes and News................. 677 
University and Educational News........... 680 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE GROWTH AND FUNCTION OF THE 
MODERN LABORATORY.* 

It is opportune, upon an occasion such 
as this, when we are assembled at the dedi- 
cation of the newest of scientific labora- 
tories, to consider for a moment the process 
of development by which they arrived at 
the state of efficiency of which this build- 
ing is so striking an example. Then, too, 
it is of vital interest to those of us whose 
work lies in laboratories, and of much more 
than passing interest to every individual 
in the community, to have a clear idea as 
to what good purpose this and other sim- 
ilar institutions may be expected to serve, 
and how best they may accomplish that 
purpose. 

The marvelous advances of the past 
seventy-five years are well enough known 
to us all, and never fail to fill us with 
astonishment when we stop to think about 
them. Discoveries and applications of 
discoveries have followed each other with 
such rapidity that our sense of apprecia- 
tion is in a measure blunted, and we fail 
to realize adequately what they mean to 
each one of us, in comfort and convenience. 
No sooner did we become accustomed to 
the fact that we could telegraph across the 
ocean, than we were occupied in wondering 
at our ability to telephone to any one with- 
in a radius of several miles, and the great 
present extension of this radius, and the 
high probability that we shall be able to 
talk across the Atlantic in a very few years, 
does not meet appreciation to correspond 


* An address read at the dedication exercises of 
Palmer Hall, Colorado College, February 22, 1904. 


642 SCIENCE. 


to the difficulties which have been over- 
come. Gas lighting was not universally 
introduced before electric lighting reached 
such a high degree of development that 
many belated country towns skipped a cog 
and put in dynamos. If this possibility 
had been suggested fifteen or twenty years 
ago, it would have been greeted with in- 
eredulous smiles. Only an insignificant 
minority of us had actually looked through 
a fluoroscope and seen the bones of our own 
hands by means of Roentgen’s rays, when 
Becquerel rays and all the various rays 
from radium intervened to confuse us with 
the very multitude of wonders. All these 
ereat advances have been made possible 
and have had their, origin in laboratories 
and laboratory methods, so that it is but 
natural that laboratories themselves should 
have undergone equally rapid and radical 
changes. 

Highty years ago there was not, in any 
country, a single laboratory for the purpose 
of teaching chemistry. To be sure, the 
subject had been taught for many years, 
both abroad and here, by lectures which 
formed a recognized part of a medical edu- 
cation. At Harvard, Dr. Aaron Dexter 
was installed as professor of chemistry and 
materia medica in 1783. In 1791, Major 
William Erving died, and in his will de- 
elared that, ““Bemg unwilling to pass 
through existence without profiting the 
community, it is my will and pleasure that 
a sum of money, not less than one thousand 
pounds, be paid, as soon as it conveniently 
ean be after my decease, into the hands of 
the overseers and corporation of Harvard 
College, for the sole use and purpose of 
enlarging the salary of the professor of 
chemistry, who is to receive the annual 
interest of it.’”’ If this quotation adorns 
my tale, it also points a moral by no means 
out of date. The Erving professor of 
chemistry and materia medica, in the year 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 486. 


1811, was drawing the munificent salary 
of $700 annually. 

We get a realistic picture of the facilities 
for teaching chemistry at that time, from 
the early history of Columbia, in the first 
volume of ‘Universities and their Sons.’ 
It appears that in 1792 a committee of the 
trustees of that imstitution concluded that 
they needed ‘a professor of natural history, 
chemistry, agriculture and other arts de- 
pending thereon.’ They further defined 
his duties in this wise: ‘‘The schedule or 
sketch of this professorship to comprehend 
the philosophical doctrines of chemistry 
and natural history under the following 
heads: (1) geology, or the natural and 
chemical history of the earth; (2) meteor- 
ology, or the natural and chemical history 
of the atmosphere; (8) hydrology, or the 
natural and chemical history of waters; 
(4) mineralogy, or the natural and chem- 
ical history of fossil substances; (5) bot- 
any, or the natural and chemical history 
of plants; (6) zoology, or the natural and 
chemical history of animals.’’ 

This program would be sufficient to 
stagger most of us, and so it is with some 
relief that we learn a little farther on that 
the college had facilities for the work, 
which they described as ‘a handsome chem- 
ical apparatus * * * and a considerable 
collection of fossils.’ But any growing 
confidence in the desirability of the posi- 
tion is shattered when we learn that in 
1814 the trustees memorialized the legis- 
lature, and amongst numerous complaints 
detailed, the following is not the least 
erievous. They say, ‘they have found it 
due to the state of science and to public 
opinion to institute a professorship of 
chemistry as a part of the academic course, 
and have appointed a professor without 
being able to give him any compensation’! 

While all teaching was done by means 
of lectures alone, laboratories did of course 
exist, though we might well hesitate before 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


granting them the dignity of that title. 
They were private affairs, belonging either 
to rich individuals with a taste for natural 
philosophy, or to apothecaries, or to some 
of these lecturers, who provided themselves 
somehow or other, in spite of obstacles 
nearly insurmountable, at their own cost, 
with the means of experimenting. There 
is a minute description of a laboratory, 
evidently just such as it should be, in Dr. 
Ure’s ‘Dictionary of Chemistry,’ the Amer- 
ican edition of which appeared in 1821. 
A few sentences will suffice to give us a 
picture of the laboratory of that day. 
Dr. Ure tells us that, ‘Many people think 
that a laboratory level with the ground is 
most convenient * * * but it is subject to 
very great inconvenience from moisture.’ 
“‘TIn such a place, the inscriptions fall off 
or are effaced; the bellows rot; the metals 
rust; the furnaces molder, and everything 
almost spoils.’’? ‘“‘In the laboratory a 
chimney ought to be constructed, so high 
that a person may easily stand under it, 
and as extensive as is possible; that is, from 
one wall to another.’’ ‘‘As charcoal only 
is burnt under this chimney, no soot is col- 
lected in it; and, therefore, it need not be 
so wide as to allow a chimney-sweeper to 
pass up into it.’ “‘Under the chimney, 
at a convenient height, must be a row of 
hooks driven into the back and side walls; 
upon which are to be hung small shovels; 
iron pans; tongs; straight, crooked and 
circular pincers; pokers; iron rods, and 
other utensils for disposing the fuel and 
managing the ecrucibles.’’ ‘‘To the walls 
of the laboratory ought to be fastened 
shelves of different breadths and heights; 
or these shelves may be suspended by 
hooks.’’ ‘‘The shelves are to contain glass 
vessels, and the products of operations, 
and ought to be in as great a number as 
is possible.’’ ‘“‘In a laboratory where 
many experiments are made there can not 
be too many shelves.’’ The detailed de- 


SCIENCE. 


643 


scription which he gives as to the necessary 
equipment, not forgetting even ‘a glue pot, 
with its little brush,’ and ‘a good steel for 
striking fire,’ is both amusing and interest- 
ing, but these quotations are enough to 
produce a fairly precise picture of a “mod- 
ern’ chemical laboratory of 1820. 

We have another, and much more inter- 
esting and historically valuable description 
of one of these old laboratories, as it was 
just before the marvelous rush forward 
began. You will remember that Wohler, 
forever famous as the first to break down 
the apparently impenetrable barrier be- 
tween imorganie substances and _ those 
formed through processes of life and 
erowth, by making urea in the laboratory, 
went, in 1823, to study and work with the 
yet more famous Berzelius. He has left 
us a description of the laboratory, which 
was in Berzelius’s own house. He says the 
laboratory was ‘close to the living rooms 
and consisted of two ordinary rooms, most 
simply fitted up; they contained no fur- 
nace nor draft, no water nor gas pipes.’ 
“In one of the rooms stood two common 
pine wood-working tables; Berzelius had 
his working place at one, I mime, at the 
other.’’ ‘‘On the walls were some cup- 
boards containing reagents, of which there 
was no excessive variety, for I had to send 
to Liibeck for some potassium ferrocyanide 
when I needed it in my experiments.”’ 
““™he arrangement for washing apparatus 
consisted of a stone water jar, with a stop- 
cock and slop jar beneath it.”’ ‘‘The bal- 
ances and other, instruments were in the 
second room, and near by there was also 
a little workshop with a turning lathe.”’ 
‘‘In the kitchen, where the austere old 
Anna, cook and factotum to the northern 
master who was then a bachelor, prepared 
the meals, there stood a little furnace and 
the sand-bath which was always kept hot.’’ 
And yet in these surroundings and with 
these appliances Berzelius discovered sev- 


644 


eral elements, isolated others for the first 
time, determined a great number of atomic 
(or, as we prefer to call them, combining) 
weights, worked out numerous new ana- 
lytical methods, and did much of great im- 
portance in organic chemistry. You prob- 
ably recollect that Sir John Herschel, while 
at the university in 1819, for lack of a bet- 
ter place, converted his sleeping room into 
a laboratory, discovered the solvent action 
of sodium thiosulphate, so important in 
photographic processes, and had endless 
trouble with the chambermaid and his land- 
lady because of the mess he made. 

The leading scientific men of those days 
were as well aware of the necessity of labo- 
ratory teaching to convey a proper knowl- 
edge of the subject as we are ourselves, and 
repeated efforts were made to induce col- 
lege and university authorities to recognize 
this need. But insuperable difficulties 
were met, and not the least of these was 
the opposition of those engaged in teach- 
ing the classics. These ultra conserva- 
tives, to use no harsher term, were not 
even willing to grant that chemistry ranked 
aS a science, and vigorously resisted at- 
tempts to introduce it as a regular study. 
To Liebig, at Giessen, belongs the credit of 
making the first successful breach through 
these prejudices, and establishing the first 
chemical laboratory ever opened to students 
in a university. This was soon after 1824, 
the year in which he began his work at 
Giessen. This famous laboratory of his 
was small and had a precarious existence 
at first. Ten years after its opening Liebig, 
in a bitter letter to the chancellor of the 
university who controlled the funds, com- 
plained that he had been given nothing but 
four bare walls, and no money whatever 
for equipment or running expenses. Every 
piece of apparatus, and every chemical in 
it, he had bought and paid for out of his 
small salary. His patience was exhausted 
and he threatened to resign, and to make 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


Inown the treatment he had received in 
justification of his resignation. In re- 
sponse to this, and stirred by the fear of 
the scandal that exposure would cause, the 
chancellor provided the minimum amount 
of money necessary to appease and retain 
Liebig. But students had flocked to Gies- 
sen from every civilized country, and re- 
turned inspired and eager to follow Lie-. 
big’s example in their own homes. Labo- 
ratories, and courses in chemistry, modeled 
on Liebig’s, sprang up in too rapid succes- 
sion to follow. We may, however, describe 
one or two of the beginnings in our own 
country. 

Chemistry was taught in the laboratory 
in the medical department of Harvard, in 
the city of Boston, at an early date, and 
in 1846 a new medical school was built, 
the basement of which was devoted to a 
chemical laboratory capable of accommo- 
dating 138 students. In the academic de- 
partment recognition of the subject was 
slower. Professor Josiah P. Cook, Erving 
professor of chemistry, who died only a 
few years ago, succeeded in getting a small 
laboratory fitted up in the basement of the 
main university buildmg im 1851, and 
President Elot was the first student to 
take advantage of the opportunity offered. 

At Yale Professor Benjamin Silliman 
and his son established a laboratory of an- 
alytical chemistry and mineralogy, as a 
private venture, and it became of sufficient 
importance to be incorporated as part of 
the university in 1847. This proved to be 
the nucleus from which sprang the present 
Sheffield Scientific School. 

The University of Michigan is generally 
recognized as having always set the pace 
for other state universities, and maintained 
its leadership in this department also, by 
being the first of them to introduce the 
laboratory method in teaching. Three 
years after Professor Cooke had begun 
educating President Eliot, Dr. Douglas, of 


Se 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


the University of Michigan, was instruct- 
ing a class in qualitative analysis, im a 
small room of the medical building, now 
utilized as a preparation room for lectures. 
A building exclusively for the teaching of 
chemistry was finished at a cost of $6,000, 
including the equipment, and was in use 
in 1856, or a year before Boylston Hall 
was opened at Harvard. In one of his re- 
ports, written as this laboratory was near- 
ing completion, President Tappan says that 
it ‘will unquestionably be unsurpassed by 
anything of the kind in our country.’ 
Every tew years the demands for more 
space became so urgent and so obvious that 
an ell was added, or a cellar was excavated, 
until, in that huge labyrinth, whose very 
floors are worn through by constant use, 
as it stands to-day, one may study the de- 
velopment of laboratories, as the geologist 
studies the development of the earth, by 
an inspection of the strata. It is worthy 
of remark that we have the promise of our 
board of regents that the next large build- 
ing which they undertake shall be a new 
chemical laboratory. : 

Turning now from this review of by-gone 
times to the present, we may well marvel 
that such a complete revolution of condi- 
tions could occur in fifty years. It would 
be harder to find a university without mod- 
erately good laboratories to-day than it was 
to find one with them in 1850. And they 
are Increasing in numbers and size, through 
the munificence of individuals and of legis- 
latures and governments, at a surprising 
rate. These modern laboratories need no 
description, for we have the actual model 
here before us. 

At no other period in the history of the 
world has so much money been available 
for the teaching and the advancement of 
science. The great endowments and be- 
quests of recent years, as represented by 
the Carnegie Institution, Leland Stanford 
University and the University of Chicago, 


SCIENCE. 645 


to mention only three, are as well known 
to you as to me. I had the curiosity to 
look through Scrmmncn, for the year 1903, 
and to add together all the sums recorded 
there as actually given during that year to 
colleges and universities, excluding items 
that might be simply newspaper rumors. 
It was surprising to find that they footed 
up to $15,241,533. Add to this Carnegie’s 
ten millions to the Scottish universities, 
and the McKay fortune, variously esti- 
mated at from four to twenty millions, 
which is to go to Harvard eventually, and 
the total is truly princely. 

Such figures lead very naturally to the 
question: Have the universities deserved 
such sums, from the point of view of what 
they have accomplished in the past, and 
can they possibly require more than they 
now have? Any one who has had to do 
with a university can answer, in the affirma- 
tive to each of these questions without 
hesitation and without qualification. It is 
my intention to prove that all the money 
ever given to the cause of education and 
science does not equal a fraction of one 


per cent. of the returns made by them, 


and at the same time to prove that no bet- 
ter, nor more surely profitable investment 
for money is to be found, than in increasing 
these endowments and bequests many fold. 
In the first place, we should realize that 
most of these gifts are principal sums, and 
the interest only is available, which puts a 
different aspect on the question at once. 
Furthermore, we must also realize that 
most of the bequests are for specific pur- 
poses, and very generally are so hampered 
with restrictions that they can not be ap- 
plied where they will do the most good. 
An illustration of the way in which such 
conditions may work out in the course of 
time is the bequest of a well-meaning 
clergyman made more than a century 
ago to Harvard, the interest of which was 
to support a preacher among the Indians. 


646 


THe evidently intended to protect home in- 
dustries, but the bursar’s checks have to 
travel a long way now. 
least essential to my argument to diminish 
the total amount to be accounted for, rather 
let it be imagined that all the money now 
invested in the buildings and equipments 
of our universities has completely vanished, 
and still we shall be able to find hundreds 
of dollars’ worth for every dollar expended 
on laboratories or scientific work. 

The duties or functions of laboratories 
have always been, and properly are, two- 
fold, to teach and to advance knowledge, 
Some have been devoted exclusively to 
teaching and others exclusively to research, 
but the best balanced are undoubtedly 
those which take up the full burden and 
do both. The results along either line are 
ample to justify my contention. Consider 
what some of the discoveries made in labo- 
ratories have been, and what they have 
meant to civilization. It is not my inten- 
tion to weary you with a list of several 
hundred valuable discoveries, but rather 
to call your attention to certain character- 
istics possessed by them, not often enough 
emphasized. First and foremost among 
these characteristics must stand the fact 
that, with scarcely an exception, those dis- 
coveries which have been of the greatest 
material benefit to society have been the 
results of disinterested research in pure 
science, complete and unconditional gifts 
to the whole world. Brandt received noth- 
ing for his discovery of phosphorus in 1669, 
but after the lapse of a century and a half 
it gave us those simple but indispensable 
conveniences, matches. Valerius Cordus, 
when he first made ether in 1540, and 
Guthrie and Liebig, when they discovered 
chloroform in 1831, got no rewards for 
those godsends they were giving to sufter- 
‘ ing humanity. Such examples might be 
multiplied, and they would all have that 


SCIENCE. 


It is not in the 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 486. 


characteristic—they have been free gifts to 
mankind. 

To my mind, at least, another class of 
results is even more important than such 
as these. I refer to the great and funda- 
mental laws, principles and theories of our 
sciences. For while the chance of financial 
reward to the discoverer is practically 
eliminated, they alone make possible the 
far-reaching applications of science, and 
assure us of a continuation of our advance, 
by furnishing the firm working bases. 
Who can estimate the value of Dalton’s 
atomic theory, and all the patient and 
painstaking work involved in the determi- 
nation of the atomic weights, for the mani- 
fold chemical and allied industries, and 
through them for us all? How much was 
Faraday’s discovery and study of the phe- 
nomena of electrical induction worth, bear- 
ing in mind that it made possible our dyna- 
mos and motors? Scarcely an electrical. 
measurement is made but what Ohm’s law 
is used in the calculation, yet how many 
of us have stopped to think what an im- 
mense saving of time and money is effected 
daily by that simple formulation of his? 
But once more there is danger of becoming 
prolix with such a vista of apt examples 
opened out before me. 

The reproach is sometimes made by those 
who know little of science, that much of 
the research work done is useless from the 
practical point of view, and results only in 
scientific curiosities. Such curiosities were 
cerium and thorium at one time, but now 
we have the Welsbach gas mantle. The 
scientific curiosity of to-day is very apt to 
become the household necessity of to-mor- 
row. A friend once watched Faraday in 
his laboratory for a while, and then asked 
him of what use such work could be. 
Faraday immediately replied with the 
question, ‘Of what use is a baby?’ 

It is not impossible that the objection 
might be raised that many of the newest 


eS he 


POD PEN ae. 


Aprin 22, 1904.] 


inventions at least are patented, and that 
then tribute is levied in the shape of royal- 
ties. This is true, and it is somewhat un- 
fortunate, also, that in the majority of 
instances the wrong man gets the royalty. 
A law of nature is not patentable, but the 
application is, and so it comes about that 
the real discoverer, retiring and absorbed 
in his science as he must be to produce his 
intellectual marvels, is overlooked by the 
public, overshadowed by some one who 
happens to find a patentable application 
of a discovery in which he took no part. 
It is worth pondering a moment that prac- 
tical and patentable are not synonymous 
terms. It is far from my intention to 
imply that the patentee does not deserve 
his royalties; he unquestionably does, and 
fills an important and necessary function 
in the social economy. 
In any ease, such tribute as is levied in 
~this way is but a small fraction of the 
worth of the invention, and the public al- 
ways gets a good bargain. The actual 
value, in dollars and cents, of that portion 
of the fruits of scientific labor which is 
given for nothing is hard to estimate, but 
perhaps we.may get a notion of it by an- 
alyzing one specific case. Suppose some 
one unprincipled individual obtained an 
absolute and unquestioned monopoly of all 
telephones to-morrow. Suppose him to be 
under no legal restraint, and that he pro- 
ceeded to squeeze every user of a telephone 
as hard as possible. It is safe to predict 
that single business firms would pay him 
thousands of dollars, rather than lose that 
indispensable adjunct to their facilities for 
carrying on their work. Add together all 
that he could possibly get in this way from 
all over the world, and subtract from this 
total the amount now being paid, and we 
shall get the value of one little gift of 
science to mankind. Is it extravagant to 
estimate this one item, as exceeding the 


SCIENCE. 647 


total cost of all educational institutions 
since the dawn of civilization? 

Let me put the question in another form: 
What is the total value of all the time saved 
by telegrams and by our present means of 
transportation? And again, how much 
would you pay for enough antitoxin to 
save your child from death by diphtheria? 
These things are inestimable, and my orig- 
inal statement stands proved. 

Professor Dewar drew a particularly 
illuminating comparison about a year ago. 
He wished ‘to find out exactly what some 
definite quantity of scientific achievement 
has cost in hard cash.’ He found that ‘the 
total cost of a century of scientific work 
in the laboratories of the Royal Institution, 
together with public demonstrations,’ was 
£119,800. ‘This is the price which was paid 
for all the achievements of Young, Davy, 
Faraday, Tyndall and Dewar himself. No 
wonder that Dewar reaches the conclusion 
‘that the exceptional man is about the 
cheapest of natural products.’ We may 
sum all this up by saying that it is impos- 
sible to fix the value of the results obtained 
by research workers in laboratories, for the 
simple reason that they have been the crea- 
tors of nearly everything that makes money 
worth having. 

And so far we have touched upon only 
one of the two functions of our universities 
and laboratories. The laboratory of yester- 
day taught the engineer and the doctor, of 
to-day, and the laboratory of to-day is 
training the discoverer and inventor of to- 
morrow. The value of the educational 
work done is so generally recognized and 
attested by the donations of private citi- 
zens, and the constantly increasing grants 
made by far-sighted legislative bodies, that 
it requires no elaboration. It admits of no 
argument that the total knowledge of the 
human race is worth more than all the 
money in the world. Our constant strides 
to higher and higher planes of enlighten- 


648 SCIENCE. 


ment which were never so rapid as now, and 
which seem to be subject to a law of accel- 
eration similiar to that of gravitation, are 
due; we are all of us ready to acknowledge, 
more than to any other influence, to the 
constantly increasing numbers who obtain 
the advantage of superior, of college and 
of university educations. Statistics taken 
from biographical dictionaries for a defi- 
nite period show that one out of every 
250 of those with college training do some- 
thing worth recording in such a book, while 
of those without this traming the propor- 
tion is about one in 10,000. 

We are too apt to fix our attention ex- 
elusively upon the exceptions, upon those 
brilliant individuals who make their marks 
in the world, and to withhold deserved 
appreciation from that much larger num- 
ber of what we may call the average, the 
mediocre. Yet these latter do the most of 
the world’s work, and in the aggregate 
their output is in excess of that of the ex- 
ceptional individuals. Upon their ability 
to appreciate and to utilize the discoveries 
and the methods, found and described by 
the leaders, depends our advance as a race. 
The most useful and effective of machines 
is practically useless and ineffective, if 
only one man in the world has the knowl- 
edge and ability to run it. In this scien- 
tific and mechanical age of ours, where 
specialization has been carried so far in 
every branch of industry and every occu- 
pation in life, there is an ever-increasing 
necessity for more and better preliminary 
training, before a man is competent to con- 
trol and govern the more and more compli- 
eated conditions. Upon our laboratories 
devolves the task of disseminating a gen- 
eral knowledge, broad enough and widely 
enough distributed, to ensure the recogni- 
tion and immediate utilization of the great 
improvements made possible by scientific 
methods, and also of turning out ever 
larger numbers of men, thoroughly equip- 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 486. 


ped to cope with the industrial processes 
as they stand to-day, and with the intel- 
ligence to adopt improvements as they 
appear. - 

Our manufacturers are rapidly waking 
to the fact that it is sound business sense, 
and brings big returns, to fit up private 
laboratories of their own and employ well- 
trained scientists to study and to improve 
their processes. It is strange that, leaders 
as we are In so many particulars, we should 
be so far behind the Germans in this re- 
spect. They learned this lesson years ago, 
and to it owe their leadership of the world 
in nearly all branches of chemistry. A 
forcible comparison between German and 
British chemical industries is drawn by 
Professor Dewar in his address to which I 
have already had occasion to refer. You 
are doubtless familiar with it, but a few 
sample statistics will certainly bear repeti- 
tion. From details regarding 633 German 
and 500 British works-chemists, he finds 
that 69 per cent. of the Germans hold the 
degree of doctor of philosophy, and 84 per 
cent. have received thorough systematic 
training, while 31 per cent. is the outside 
figure for the thoroughly trained among 
the British works-chemists. He next finds 
that the German chemical industries do a 
business of over $250,000,000 yearly, and 
that they are largely based on English dis- 
coveries which were not appreciated nor 
developed, in spite of the abundance and 
cheapness of raw material close at hand. 
We sometimes forget, in the multiplicity 
of his accomplishments, that Faraday dis- 
covered benzene. He gives figures to show 
the progress of one of the German firms, 
that of Friedrich Bayer & Co., which em- 
ployed one hundred and nineteen workmen 
in 1875. He says: “‘The number has more 
than doubled itself every five years, and in 
May, 1902, the firm employed five thousand 
workmen, one hundred and sixty chemists, 
two hundred and sixty engineers and 


; 
‘ 
j 


Oe we 


i aS et a Fee 


ApRin 22, 1904.] 


mechanics, and six hundred and _ eighty 
clerks.’’ ‘‘For-many years past it has 
regularly paid eighteen per cent. on the 
ordinary shares, which in 1902 rose to 20 
per cent.; and in addition, in common with 
other and even larger concerns in the same 
industry, has paid out of profits for im- 
mense extensions usually charged to capital 
account.’’ ‘‘There is one of these factories, 
the works and plant of which stand in the 
books at $7,500,000, while the money ac- 
tually sunk in them approaches $25,000,- 


_000.’’ Such statistics are producing their 


inevitable effect, and the demand from our 
industries for graduates capable, not mere- 
ly of carrying out qualitative and quanti- 
tative analyses, but with a training fitting 
them to study and improve processes, and 
develop new ones to meet new wants, is 
already much in excess of the supply, and 
will grow larger and more imperative. 
Only a short time ago a recent graduate 
was offered a position in our university 
at $1,500, whereupon his employer raised 
his salary to $3,000, and wrote to the uni- 
versity jocularly suggesting that it increase 
its bid to that amount, and he would raise 
it again. 

To meet these demands, as well as the 
just expectation of society, that laboratories 
and scientific workers shall continue their 
free gifts to all, means that our laboratories 
must not merely keep abreast of the times, 
they must keep ahead of them. To do this 
they must have apparatus and equipments 
which grow more elaborate and more costly 
each year. 

Thinking of the astonishing results ob- 
tained by the pioneers of chemistry and of 
physics, as compared with the extreme sim- 
plicity and the paucity of their instru- 
ments, it is natural that the first impulse 
should be to conelude that our modern lJabo- 
ratories are extravagant in their demands. 
But there is more sound truth than there 
is generally conceded to be in that time- 


SCIENCE. 649 


honored jest about the young aspirant for 
scientific laurels who, after a long search 
through the archives of science, came back 
to his professor with the bitter complaint 
that ‘all the easy things had been discov- 
ered already.” The domain of science is 
not exempt from the general law that the 
simplest and easiest is done first, and say- 
ing this should not be construed as detract- 
ing in the least from the fame of a Colum- 
bus of science who launched forth in the 
courage of his convictions, and after much 
hardship discovered a new world. The 
first comer had but to pick the plant nearest 
at hand to obtain a new specimen, and the 
roughest sketch of the coast line was a great 
contribution to knowledge. But think of 
the years of skilled labor, the reams of eal- 
culations, and the thousands of exquisitely 
made instruments that had to be employed 
before the government could issue those 
perfect charts of the waters surrounding 
our country. It was not so very many 
years ago that gold and silver could be 
found on and near the surface hereabouts, 
but that is not now the case. It is said, 
and it is no doubt true, that the treasures 
of the Rocky Mountains have been no more 
than scratched as yet. These scratches are 
on the surface, and the easiest ones to make, 
and you must dig more mines and deeper 
each year. Once a pan and a stream of 
water were the essentials to wash out a for- 
tune; now gold-bearing quartz is crushed 
in the stamp mills, and is treated by the 
cyanide process. Your modern gold mine 
requires an initial expenditure of one or 
two hundred thousand dollars before it 
begins to pay dividends. The analogy is 
perfect. The prospector’s pan of yester- 
day is to the installation of to-day as the 
laboratory needs of yesterday are to the 


laboratory needs of to-day. 


Please notice it pays well to dig deeper, 
to erush the ore, to concentrate it and to 
send it to a smelter. The processes are 


650 SCIENCE. 


longer, and more expensive, but the invest- 
ment is still returned with high interest. 
The problems to be met have been growing 
more difficult, but they have been met, and 
successfully solved, by those with labora- 
tory training, or by those who have profited 
by the knowledge of the facts dug out in 
the laboratory. More problems, and more 
difficult ones, will arise, and they in their 
turn will be solved, if laboratories and 
their equipments are maintained at their 
highest degree of efficiency by liberal en- 
dowments and grants. But it would be as 
absurd to expect our men of science to cope 
with the complex questions of the present 
and the immediate future with antiquated 
utensils, as it would be to send our sailors 
off in the wooden ships of the war of 1812 
to grapple with the Japanese navy. 

The idea that a given sum will build and 
equip a laboratory, and that once set going 
it will run itself and require nothing more 
than occasional small sums to replace loss 
by breakage and the like is a pernicious 
fallacy. New methods, requiring new or 
improved instruments, appear each year, 
and these instruments must be had, if there 
is to be any pushing forward into the un- 
known in the branch to which they are 
adapted. It is a noteworthy fact that, 
erude as the materials of the early experi- 
menters were, they were the best for their 
purpose to be had in the world of that time. 
Faraday insulated his wires with bits of 
string and old calico, but no one had better, 
insulated wire. Davy obtained sodium and 
potassium by electrolysis, but he had the 
biggest and best galvanic battery in exist- 
ence at the time. It would have been prac- 
tically impossible to discover Hertzian 
waves, or Rontgen rays, or wireless tele- 
graphy, without the best of induction coils. 
And so we might continue ad infinitum. 
It is clearly impossible for one laboratory 
to have the best of everything, but it is 
equally clear that each laboratory should 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


have a fairly representative equipment on 
all general lines, primarily for teaching 
purposes, and should have an outfit equal 
to the very best for one or two topics. 
These topics should be different in different 
places, and may often be adapted to special 
localities; they should be chosen by the 
members of the instructing staff according 
to their individual aptitudes and interests. 

Our. laboratories have overwhelmingly 
justified their cost by their past history, 
and are justified in making greater de- 
mands than ever, by the importance of the 
functions which they fulfil. 

It is to be hoped that philanthropists 
will be still more liberal than they have 
been, and that the people will tax them- 
selves more than they ever have, through 
their legislatures, to give to all schools, 
colleges and universities. Such money is 
the fire insurance and the life insurance 
of society as a whole, guaranteeing the 
maintenance of law and order,. and the 
ability of the next generation to support 
the burden of advancing civilization, when 
its turn comes. 


S. LAWRENCE BIGELOW. 
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. 


IS THE COURSE FOR COLLEGE ENTRANCE 
REQUIREMENTS BEST FOR THOSE 
WHO GO NO FURTHER?* 

THE question is an old.one. Is there 
conflict or harmony of interests between 
secondary and higher education? Should 
the high-school student be laying founda- 
tions for future study, or should he be do- 
ing work that is complete in itself, so far 
as it goes; or may he not secure a maximum 
of present utility while laying satisfactory 
foundations for future studies? I should 
prefer to discuss the question the other 


* Address delivered before the Biological Sec- 
tion of the Central Association of Science and 
Mathematics Teachers in Chicago. General sub- 
ject of the meeting: ‘ Essentials of a High-school 
Course in Biology.’ 


Se 


eee 


Aprin 22, 1904.] 


~ end about, for the need of the majority is 


the constant term involyed—fairly con- 
stant, at least, since that need will change 
only with the slow alteration of environ- 
ment—while the entrance requirement is a 
much more variable quantity. Let us ask 
then: Is not the course in biology that is 
best for the student who ends his studies 
with the high school a good and satisfactory 
preparation for college? 

When the struggle for existence between 
subjects now contending for place in the 


- school program shall have worked itself out 


we shall probably know better what is best 
for the majority ‘who go no further.’ 
Now we must needs exercise foresight, 
while hindsight will be much clearer. We 
may gain some hints of things to come by 
comparing the situation with respect to 
these newer subjects with the state of those 
that have reached the end of the struggle 
and established themselves. The subjects 
now universally conceded a place in the 
school program, such as reading, writing, 
arithmetic, spelling, grammar, geography, 
ete., stand in marked contrast with some of 
the newer subjects as respects articulation. 
These older subjects are orderly, consecu- 
tive and complete in themselves: the stu- 
dent drops any of them anywhere without 
loss—with only gain for what he has had 
—even though, for example, he stop be- 
tween short and long division. The list 
of such studies is longer than it once was; 
and it may well be that other subjects will 
come to take their places as essentials when 
they demonstrate the same degree of edu- 
cational efficiency and adjust themselves 
in orderly and progressive sequence. 

It must be admitted at once that at pres- 
ent there is no biological program. Studies 
of living things begin in some places in 
the kindergarten; in some, in the grades; 
in some, in the high school; in some, in the 
college; and in some they do not begin at 
all. In some they are continuous; in some, 


SCIENCE. 651 


interrupted; in most there is little effort 
at articulation. The unsettled state of 
our subject 1s remarkably evidenced in 
three different ways: (1) The rapid 
shifts of emphasis as to what shall be 
taught, (2) the diversity of high school 
text-books and (3) the indefiniteness of 
the college entrance requirements. — 

1. The shifts of emphasis are due chiefly 
to the fact that most of our nature study 
has been handed down from above, instead 
of growing up from below. High-school 
and normal-school zoology and botany have 
too often been handed down ready-made 
by university professors. In my own high 
school days it was all systems of classifica- 
tion they were handing down. Jn my eol- 
lege days, it was all anatomy; now it is 
nearly all ecology. It is now hardly more 
than a decade since many teachers, newly 
returned from college or normal school, 
where their zoological training had con- 
sisted in dissecting a cat, were trying the 
same course they had taken, without dilu- 
tion or alteration, on the little innocent 
children. This did not last long, however, 
for the body politic is more or less resist- 
ant to the germs of educational diseases; 
but it lasted long enough to leave in the 
mind of the public an unsavory impression 
of zoology, not yet entirely lived down. 

2. The diversity of text-books is very 
ereat, in both subject matter and method. 
Some of the recent ones are all reading— 
storiettes about animals and plants; some 
are all dissecting; some are all keys and 
descriptions for determining of forms; 
some are all physiology; some are all ex- 
perimentation; some are all ecology, and 
some are admixtures of some or all of these 
things. This diversity is the result of try- 
ing to fit one of the most extensive subjects 
with which the human mind has to deal 
into one of the smallest niches in the high- 
school program. Hach author appears to 
have included what he has been able to get 


652 SCIENCE. 


in satisfactorily, and to have lopped off the 
remainder. And if any one wishes to 
learn whether these different things are 
considered pedagogical equivalents, just 
let him read the prefaces of these books! 

3. The usual college entrance require- 
ment in biology at present is ‘one year of 
some laboratory science’! Surely this is 
broad enough to meet the demands of 
pioneer conditions. 

What we have settled among ourselves 
appears to be that it is worth while to study 
livine things at first hand. Since we may 
not do more, let us congratulate ourselves 
that we have progressed thus far, and pull 
ourselves together for a new start. 

What of biology shall be taught in the 
high school? Is not this a pedagogic ques- 
tion? Yes, as are all questions of fitting 
subject matter to the receptivity of the 
developing mind. Is it not also a scien- 
tifie question? Yes, as science must ad- 
judge the worth of the subject matter. 
But biological education is more than either 
pedagogy or science—more than details of 
instruction, or biological phenomena. It 
must be in the long run orderly and pro- 
gressive development toward fitness for the 
activities of life. The place and portion 
of biology in the curriculum will not be 
determined by the dictum of the colleges, 
or the preferences of the schools, or the 
methodology of philosophers, but by the 
operation of natural laws chiefly, the law 
of natural selection. If biological teach- 
ing survive in the high school or anywhere 
else, it will survive by reason of its fitness 
as a part in the preparation for life. 
Therefore, we must never lose sight of the 
peculiarly intimate relations biology bears 
to human life. On the practical side, what 
other subject can compare with one whose 
chief practical applications are: 

First, living in this world—hygiene, in 
its very broadest application, including all 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


personal control over the welfare of body 
and mind. 

Second, getting the materials of lweli- 
hood—aericulture in its very broadest ap- 
plication, including all that relates to our 
dependence on the organic life of the 
world. 

Third, medicme—the healing art, some- 
times mistakenly called the principal appli- 
cation of biology. 

I will not mention the multitude of 
newer applications arising on every hand 
and making ever-increasing demands for 
Knowledge of the facts and principles of 
life. 

Out of these relations there grow, I 
think, four incontestable reasons why 
every one should study biology: 

1. To know animals and plants better. 
We have to deal with them in life. We 
should know how to protect our friends 
and combat our enemies among them, and 
to appreciate the place in the world of 
all of them. The ancient poetic vision of 
ereation ends with the statement concern- 
ing every living thing, ‘To you it shall be 
for meat.’ 

2. To know our environment better, not 
alone its economic, but also its esthetic 
side: to know the charm of life, its won- 
derful beauty of color and form, its grace 
of motion, its adaptation to place and fune- 
tion. Here poets and naturalists and 
artists alike have found themes: since the 
beginning of civilization. 

3. To know ourselves better—possessors 
of animal bodies, that are subject to the 
same laws, that are moved by the same 
instincts and that feel the same neces- 
sities as other animal bodies, and on the 
normal healthful activity of which all our 
possibilities of happmess and usefulness in 
life depend. 

4. To know something of the develop- 
ment of life in the world, and thus to get 
aequainted with those general develop- 


x) 
- 
° 
. 


’ 


POR aed 


RG Saget 2 oS kp EPR 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


mental principles which underlie modern 
-methods of study in all departments of 
knowledge: which were first fully devel- 
oped and are still best exemplified in the 
field of biology. 

Now it seems to me that the considera- 
tion of these matters will help us to de- 
termine what are some of the things that 
should constitute part of the intellectual 
stock-in-trade of the average coming 
citizen, who will go no further in formal 
studies than the high school. I will ven- 
ture to name seven phases of biology now 
more or less commonly studied, the value of 
which as parts of a high-school course I 
consider. already demonstrated : 

1. Elementary  lassification—the  sys- 
tematizing of the random observations of 
nature study in the grades and of contact 
in life with living things. It need not be 
very extensive, and might about as well 
use common names as technical; but it 
should be a genuine gathering together of 
known forms into natural groups and a fix- 
ing of such groups by names. It will not 
matter much if, through lack of insight, 
some forms occasionally get into the wrong 
group, for such slips still oceur with ac- 
complished specialists. Classification nat- 
urally and properly follows hard upon the 
heels of observation, and only goes astray 
when it runs on ahead. Classification fur- 
nishes the handles by which we move all 
our intellectual luggage. Let us have just 
enough for our needs. 

A modicum of collection making may be 
allowed here; if fondness is shown for it, 
it may even be encouraged in individuals 
and outside the allotted program; and the 
use of keys analytical should certainly be 
taught by a little practice. How many 
naturalists have begun their careers by 
making collections, and how great and how 
good is the influence in the present day of 
the ever-increasing number of manuals and 


SCIENCE. 653 


hand-books that are spreading abroad the 
knowledge of living things. 

For many years I have heard profes- 
sional botanists railing against the old- 
fashioned course in flower analysis; but I 
want to testify that I onee had such a 
course, and I have never had a better 
course in botany or in any other subject 
whatsoever. It was all nature study of 
the very best sort and full of the delights 
of discovery; and the worst that could be 
said of it is that it was one-sided and in- 
complete—not a very bad charge, consider- 
ing the limitations of our knowledge and 
the immensity of the field. 

2. The study of living nature; whether 
we call it old-fashioned natural history or 
new-fashioned ecology does not matter. In 
either case we mean the study of plants 
and animals in relation to their environ- 
ment. This is the study of the phenomena 
of fitness. It is simple enough to interest 
the youngest mind, and profound enough 
to have furnished the basis for our most 
important biological generalizations. 

It should never be merely reading and 
talking about remote and wonderfully 
adapted creatures, but instead, detailed 
and practical studies of the adaptation of 
common plants and animals. For instance, 
protective coloration should not begin with 
the kallima butterfly, but with the grass- 
hoppers and moths of the dooryard, and 
results should be secured that are as 
definite as those of the study of the anat- 
omy of the grasshopper. Merely noting 
resemblance is not studying it. The pupil 
should record comparatively the details of 
the resemblance, whether general or 
specific, whether in form or in color, how 
brought about, to what particular environ- 
ment best fitted, the relative perfection of 
it, the differences in different animals, 
ete. 

With all the emphasis that is placed on 
ecology in many recent high-school books, 


654 SCIENCE. 


it is astonishing how little attention is given 
to pointing a way for the inductive study of 
ecology on the part of students. It seems 
hardly to be recognized yet that ecological 
types are as common and as widely distrib- 
uted as are morphological types, and that 
their study may be made to yield equally 
definite results. It is perhaps excusable, 
therefore, when teachers read the interest- 
ing discussions presented in these books, 
and instead of applying inductive methods 
to the study of the same subjects, revert to 
anatomy for pedagogic results, or else lapse 
into text-book and recitation methods; but 
it is still painful, and lamentable, and 
altogether unnecessary. 

There are values of one sort growing out 
of the intensive laboratory study of a few 
types; these values have long been recog- 
nized. There are other and equal values 
growing out of the observation of nature in 
a great variety of forms and relations. 
These latter values a good ecological pro- 
gram will enable us to realize. 

3. A few practical, individual exercises 
in methods of economic procedure, based on 
and necessitating a somewhat intimate 
knowledge of structure, functions and hab- 
its of important animals and plants and 
their enemies—not the mere entertaining 
observations of nature study in the grades, 
such as feeding a frog on cut worms: such 
things should have been done already: but 
simple practical economic experiments un- 
der natural conditions, with the fundamen- 
tal biologie facts and the desired practical 
results kept clearly in mind. I would in- 
clude this, not as a sop to ‘practical folk,’ 
though it would in many cases make for 
solidarity between school and home, but 
because it is justified on good pedagogie 
grounds. The youthful mind is practical. 
Interest is sharpened, and the details of 
scientific knowledge are better appreciated 
when things taught are recognized ‘as con- 
stituting useful knowledge. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 486. 


4. The study of reproduction and devel- 
opment. This is in a sense half of biology; 
for the place of a species on the earth is 
maintained if it (1) get a living and (2) 
reproduce its kind. I deem the few local 
and sporadic attempts that have been made 
to exclude all consideration for reproduc- 
tion from the high-school course as an un- 
worthy concession to near-sighted pseudo- 
pedagogy. For my own part I have al- 
ways deemed it a privilege to bring to young 
people some real information as a basis for 
sane consideration of this much abused sub- 
ject. Aside from the paramount impor- 
tance of the subject biologically, I should 
regret to see this (oftentimes the only) 
gateway of practical knowledge shut be- 
fore them. Furthermore, I am inclined 
to think that the teaching of these matters 
is needed as an antidote to the smut of 
the ancient classics and of English history. 
I judge the results of the teaching of this 
subject not by the attitude of the student 
when it is first broached, but by his atti- 
tude when the study is done. 

Life history studies, it seems to me, 
are worthy of the greater part of the time 
spent on these matters, and to these may 
be added a modicum of embryology of the 
most elementary sort, preferably, for us in 
the interior, on the eggs of some amphibian, 
and a brief, clear and straightforward pre- 
sentation of the essential features of re- 
production, illustrated in the lower forms 
of animal life and in plants. 

5. Physiology, especially the physiology 
of organs. This already holds a secure 
and well-merited place; so I but mention 
it in passing. 

6. The study of structure. Anatomy, for 
a considerable period held the field, almost 
to the exclusion of every other phase of 
biological study. But with recognition of 
the fact that the educational values of bi- 
ology are far from being confined to the 
dissecting table, some of the anatomical 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


work has had to go. We must forever give 
over the attempt to illustrate the whole 
gamut of evolutionary changes in a series 
of types. But we may retain enough of 
anatomy to be comparative, enough to il- 
lustrate kinship clearly, enough to illustrate 
differentiation, homology, analogy, ete. 
And may we have this with a maximum of 
fact and a minimum of terminology! Let 
us give preference to external anatomy and 
the study of whole micro-organisms, over 
internal anatomy and microtome sections. 
Other things being equal, let us give prefer- 
ence to the sort of work that the inter- 
ested student may continue after he has 
left the laboratory behind. 

7. Lastly, there should be included the 
more general conceptions that have grown 
out of the consideration of biological facts 
and phenomena and that have taken their 
places in the world of thought. I mean 
that there should be considered evolution, 
with practical studies in the survival of the 
fittest; the biogenetic law, with practical 
detailed study of some illustration of the 
correspondence between ontogeny and 
phylogeny, ete. These should be introduced 
because they can not in justice be with- 
held rather than because the majority go 
no further. I would have them introduced, 
also, because some, who’are accustomed to 
get their basis for thinking by more round- 
about methods, are still maintaining that 
biology is a purely observational subject. 
These all but universal principles the world 
owes chiefly to biology, and may rightly ex- 
pect that teachers of biology will faithfully 
teach them and not withhold the indica- 
tions of their wide applicability. 

Let it be understood that these seven 
phases of the subject are not offered as a 
program; far from it. They are not topics 
for study, but matters to be emphasized 
in connection with any or all of the special 
topics to which they relate. I submit that 
among them is nothing that will not com- 


SCIENCE. 


655 


mend itself both for present value and for 
value as a basis for further progress in 
biology. I do not believe that any one is 
well equipped for intelligent participation 
in modern life if ignorant of these things. 
Without knowledge of them he will not 
know how to manage his own garden, his 
own table, his own appetites, his own emo- 
tions or his own thinking. It is, perhaps, 
true that there are those in circles of cul- 
ture ready to apologize for the mispronun- 
ciation of a Latin phrase, or for the admis- 
sion of not -having read ‘Ivanhoe’ or even 
‘Treasure Island,’ who would think nothing 
of it if one should call a whale a fish, or try 
to kill squashbugs by spraying them with 
Paris green, or ask what beetles turn into. 
Indeed, our leading newspapers still publish 
several times a year the circumstantial de- 
tails of the case of one who, while drinking 
at a spring, swallowed tadpoles, and later 
coughed up frogs. But these things will 
not always be. On the other side of the 
matter, I would say for my own part that, 
so far as knowledge goes, it is some little 
real and first-hand knowledge of just these 
seven aspects of biology that I should like 
to have the high-school graduate equipped 
with when he presents himself for further 
work in college. It will have become suffi- 
ciently evident, in my opinion, that if 
the course that is best for life is not best 
for college entrance, it is so much the worse 
for the entrance requirement. 

Even the few general topics I have 
named I would not at present require to be 
taught anywhere. I would merely recom- 
mend them. For while the science is so 
new, the field of possible studies so vast 
and the preparation of teachers so diverse, 
there is great danger that too much definite- 
ness in a set program may curb initiative 
and curtail spontaneity. I would let the 
teachers of the present generation of pio- 
neers do what they can do best to teach 
the rising generation to see and think, to 


656 SCIENCE. 


Inow and love their environment and to 
feel their kinship with the life of the world 
in body and spirit. Out of this work 
ereater uniformity and better correlation 
will proceed naturally. 

For pioneer conditions must pass. I 
onee had a teacher of arithmetic who had 
a failing for the duodecimal system; that 
system had its beauties and its educational 
utilities also; but it has had to go. As it 
is no longer permissible to pasture one’s 
cow on the common or to pick strawberries 
in any fence row, the time is sure to 
come when it will not be permissible for 
any teacher to teach what he pleases and 
when he pleases, according to the exi- 
gencies of his situation, the limitations of 
his knowledge or the prevailing fashion of 
his university. But it is this very freedom 
that allows the development of the possi- 
bilities of the subject; elimination will 
come later. May it be natural elimination, 
and not the forced kind that education suf- 
fers when ‘men of violence take it by force.’ 

What is best for life is not completeness, 
for that is unattainable; not so much great 
Imowledge, as a little knowledge rightly 
attained with an appetite for more. One 
danger in programs is that knowledge will 
be the chief end sought. But another and 
perhaps even greater danger is that they 
will be arranged from the standpoint of 
the specialist without due regard to the 
standpoint of the learner. How often has 
it been forgotten already that we had fin- 
gers before forceps, eyes before lenses, 
lenses before microscopes, jack-knives be- 
fore scalpels, scalpels before microtomes. 
I have never found a truer statement of 
this matter than the following one from 
Professor J. Arthur Thompson: ‘A cireui- 
tous course of study followed with natural 
eagerness will lead to better results than 
the most logical programs, if that take no 
root in the life of the student.’ 

I can not help feeling that science teach- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. - No. 486. 


ing, while it has earned its place, has fallen 
far short of accomplishing that public 
cood for which we may reasonably hope: 
the diffusion of honesty and directness of 
method and respect for the simple truth; 
the abandonment of dogmatism and super- 
stition. Perhaps it is because of the es- 
sential conservatism of human nature; per- 
haps it is because this teaching starts too 
late and finds scant lodgment in soil al- 
ready stocked with the notions of an un- 
scientific age; perhaps it is because that 
teaching is not yet direct and forceful 
enough to take hold upon the life and to 
touch the springs of conduct. But ulti- 
mate failure in these respects would rest 
especially upon biology, because of the inti- 
mate relations it bears to the life of the 
people. James G. NEEDHAM. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
REPORTS OF THE BELGIAN ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION. 


Résultats du Voyage dw S. Y. Belgica, en 
1897-8-9, sous le commandement de A. de 
Gerlache de Gomery. Rapports Scien- 
tifiques, publiés aux frais du Gouvernement 
Belge, sous la direction de la Commission 
de la Belgica. Anvers, J. E. Buschmann. 
1901 (et seq.). 4to, with plates and text- 
figures. 

After the return of the Antarctic expedition 
on the Belgica, in December, 1899, by royal 
mandate a commission was appointed under 
the presidency of General Brialmont to super- 
vise the publication of the scientific results. 
It is proposed to issue these in ten quarto 
volumes, the edition to be of 500 copies, ex- 
clusive of separate copies of the several papers, 
which, being issued with individual pagina- 
tion, dates and covers; may appear as promptly 
as possible after preparation; the assembling 
into volumes being a subsequent arrangement. 

Quite a number of these papers have al- 
ready appeared, so that it seems desirable to 
give our readers some idea of what has been 
accomplished, although considerations of space 
will restrict our comment to the utmost limit 
of brevity on the present occasion. In a gen- 


Ave 


te RT ee 


rata in 


Aprin 22, 1904.] 


eral way:it may be said that the manner in 
which the several papers are printed and il- 
lustrated is most satisfactory. The extremely 
barren nature of the region in which the party 
explored, renders many of the papers very 
short, but the possession of any well-founded 
results from this inhospitable region is a boon 
for which we are permanently indebted to the 


‘heroism of the explorers and the liberality of 


the Belgian government. 

The date of issue of the several parts, as 
noted on thé second page of each memoir, 
being often different from that appearing on 


_the cover, we have cited the former in the fol- 


lowing synopsis of the parts which have, so 
far, reached us. 

“Astronomie, Etude des chronométres’; L., 
Méthodes et conclusions. G. LucomrTer (62 pp., 
5 pl., 1901). 
1901). 

“Météorologie. Aurores Australes’ H. 
ARCTOWSEI (64 pp., 2 pl., 1901). 

Sixty-one auroras were observed during 
thirteen months. The maximum frequency 
was near the equinoxes, the diurnal maximum 
between ten and eleven p.m. A 26-day period 
was also plainly marked. The general char- 
acteristics were remarkably similar to those of 
boreal auroras, notwithstanding the great dif- 
ference of the surroundings. Particularly in- 
tense displays were usually coincident with 


similar displays recorded simultaneously in 


the aretic observatories, and were observed to 
coincide with the appearance of sunspots. 

“La neige et la givre.’ A. DosprowonsK1 (19 
pp., 1903). 

This memoir is chiefly devoted to a study 
of the forms and structure of snowflakes and 
hailstones. 

“Observations des nuages.’ A. DoBRowoLsKI 
(158 pp., 1902). 

The observations taken are minute and full, 
but were much interfered with during the 
winter months by fog. 

Phénoménes optiques de ’Atmosphére.’? H. 
ArctowskI (47 pp., 1902). 

A journal of the parhelia, paraselenia, phe- 
nomena of refraction, luminous clouds, ete. 

“Océanographie. Rapport sur les densités 


Il., Journal (131 pp., 1 pl. 


SCIENCE. 


657 
de Yeau de mer. H. Arctowski (22 pp., 1 
pl., 1901). 

“Détermination de la densité de eau de 
mer.” J. THounsr (29 pp., 1 pl., 1901). 
_ A journal and discussion of the observations 
and a review of methods of observation in 
general. 

‘Botany. Lichens.’ 
4 pl., 1908). 

Fifty-five Antarctic species were collected, of 


Ed. A. Warno (46 pp., 


‘which 38 per cent. are also Arctic or north 


European, 53 per cent. new or endemic, and 
only 19 per cent. common to the Magellanic 
region or South America, a somewhat un- 
expected conclusion. 

‘Mousses.’ J. Carnot (48 pp., 14 pl.) and 
‘Hépatiques.”’ F. SrepHant (6 pp., 1901). 

Cardot gives a general review of Magellanic 
bryology which will be most useful for stu- 
dents of mosses. A second section of the me- 
moir is devoted to the Antarctic mosses. 
Many of these are finely developed, yet all 
except two were found to be absolutely sterile, 
and it is probable that fruit is produced in this 
region only under exceptional conditions. The 
species are usually associated, apparently for 
protection. The three endemic liverworts hide 
among the mosses. Twenty-seven species of 
mosses were noticed, of which fifteen are new. 
Nine of the known species are common to 
the Aretic regions and the new forms are 
generally closely related to analogous Arctic 
species. There is very little in common be- 
tween the Magellanic and Antarctic mosses, 
the latter much more nearly resemble those 
of the boreal flora. This relationship is 
curiously opposed to the conditions which ap- 
pear in the fauna, which has hardly any trace 
of bipolarity. There is in the Antarctic only 
one phanerogam, a grass, Azra antarctica, 
which has been found in widely separated lo- 
ealities. 

‘Zoologie. Spongiares.’ 
54, 6 pl., 1901). 

Twenty-six species were obtained in Antare- 
tic waters, eight monaxonids and five hexac- 
tinellids, are new. There is no indication of 
bipolarity in the sponge fauna, which extends 
to the southernmost position attained. 


E. Torsent (pp. 


658 

‘ Actiniares. ©. Carucren (pp. 7, 1 pl. 
1903). 

‘Madréporaires.’ E. von MARENZELLER (pp. 
8, 1 pl.). 


Caryophyllia was obtained in latitude 71° 
09’ S., Desmophyllum in 71° 18’, and a new 
species, Hrrina gracilis, in 71° 19’. The ‘ Hd- 
wardsia’ stages of actinians were obtained in 
the tow net as far south as 71° 15’, and are 
described and figured. 

‘Seesterne.’ H. Lupwic (pp. 72, 7 pl., 1903). 

A detailed account of the starfishes, with 
much anatomy and full bibliography. Twenty 
species are described, eleven of which and one 
genus (Belgicella) are new and mostly deep- 
water forms; they were obtained to latitude 
41° 24’ S. There are no bipolar species but 
eight are found in Magellanic waters. 

‘Echinides et Ophiures. R. KorHurr (pp. 
42, 8 pl., 1901). 

There are eight echini and fourteen brittle 
stars. The Antarctic fauna is a special one, 
not closely related.to Magellanic or Arctic 
faunas, and has no bipolar species. 

‘ Brachiopodes.’ L. Jousin (pp. 13, 2 pl. 
1901). 

Two new Rhynchonelle, R. racovitske and 
R. gerlachei, and Crania Lecointet n. sp., were 
obtained south of latitude 70° S. The fauna, 
as in the case of the echini, seems distinct 
from any other, but most of the few speci- 
mens obtained were immature or imperfect. 

“Copépodes.’ W. GirsprecHT (pp. 49, 13 
pl., 1902). 

Some thirty species, of which about half 
were new, and one new genus, were obtained. 
Twenty per cent. of the species are common 
to the Arctic region, or bipolar. This me- 
moir has involved much labor and is pro- 
fuse in detail. 

‘ Acariens libres.’ EH. Trouessart (pp. 19, 
2 pl., 1903) ; three Antarctic species; ‘ Acariens 
parasites,’ G. Neumann (pp. 6); (‘ Aragniés et 
faucheurs,’ E. Simon (pp. 7). 

These papers are devoted to Magellanic 
forms, no Antarctic species are cited. 

‘Myriapodes.’ CO. Attems (pp. 5, 1 pl., 1902). 
Three Magellanic species noted. Includes 
also ‘ Collemboles.’ V. Willem. 

Six species treated, of which three are Ant- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vo. XIX. No. 486. 


arctic, five new genera are proposed. ‘ Two of 
the Antarctic genera have no known close re- 
latives elsewhere, the other, Isotoma, is cos- 
mopolite. The Antarctic species have the 
eyes of reduced size and number, and the 
author thinks this may be due to the dim light 
of this cloudy region, and the tendency to 
adopt for protection a subterranean situs. 

‘Seals’ G. E. H. Barrett-Hamilton (pp. 
20, 1 pl., 1901). 

The species of the region were already 
known to science though imperfectly. The 
collections of the expedition enable the au- 
thor to add important osteological and other 
data on the rare Ross and Weddell seals. 

‘Cetacea.”’ EH. G. Racovitza (pp. 142, 4 pl., 
1902). 

The outfit of the Belgica unfortunately 
comprised none of the equipment needed for 
taking large whales, though the region abounds 
with the humpback, finback and other species. 
The true right whale (Balena) is not found 
in the Antarctic, though it has been errone- 
ously reported there. The author made the 
most of his opportunities, however, and ob- 
tained interestmmg photographs of the whales 
in different positions in the water, and many 
notes, in the discussion of which he settles 
several doubtful questions and throws light 
on others. He has inspected the literature 
of the Antarctic for references to cetacea and 
has tabulated the results. 

“Amphineures, Gastropodes et lLamelli- 
branchs,’ P. Pelseneer (pp. 85, 9 pl., 1903); 
“Cephalopodes,’ L. Joubin (pp. 4). 

Professor Pelseneer enumerates a few Ma- 
gellanic species separately, and divides the 
Antarctic species into littoral, of which there 
are three species; fundicolar, of which there 
are twenty-nine, and pelagic, of which there 
are five. A few of the species were already 
known, as abyssal shells, but twenty-seven of 
the fundicolar species are described as new, 
and one is given a new generic name. Only 
four of the species belong to genera not found 
in the north polar or subtemperate regions, 
though the species are distinct. Of the two 
abyssal species previously named, one reaches 
the Azores, and one Prince Edward Island, in 
the North Atlantic. There are two forms 


Aprin 22, 1904.] 


which are essentially Magellanic, and all three 
of the littoral species are related to the Ma- 
gellanic fauna. The examination of the ana- 
tomy of the various forms preserved afforded 
opportunity for morphological notes of inter- 
est, especially those bearing on the relations of 
Modiolarca, Philobrya, ete. The cephalopods 
were represented only by beaks of cuttlefish 
found in the stomachs of seals and penguins 
more or less demoralized by digestive fluids 
and incapable of identification. 

These brief indications will show how much 
this series of memoirs is likely to add to our 
knowledge of the Antarctic regions, and how 
much science is indebted to the intrepidity of 
the explorers and observers on board the Bel- 


W. H. Datu. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Wirs the March issue the Bulletin of the 
Michigan Ornithological Club (quarterly) en- 
ters upon its fifth volume. The issue opens 
with the account of ‘The Discovery of the 
Breeding Area of Kirtland’s Warbler, by 
Norman A. Wood, which is practically a full 
life history of this race species with an ac- 
count of its breeding habits. The article is 
illustrated by a frontispiece showing the male 
and female beside a nest; a photo of the egg 
and other views showing the nesting situation 
and nature of the country (Oscoda County, 
Mich.). Chas. C. Adams follows with an 
article on the ‘ Migration Route of Kirtland’s 
Warbler,’ which is illustrated by three maps. 
Under the head of Michigan Ornithologists is 
given a full-page plate of A. H. Griffith, direc- 
tor of the Detroit Museum of Art. Professor 
Walter B. Barrows, of the Michigan Agri- 
cultural College, announces ‘A Forthcoming 
Bulletin on Michigan Birds’ to be published 
by the agricultural college, and requests in- 
formation from students in the state. Space 
is given to the Michigan Audubon Society 
which was organized February 27, 1904, as an 
auxiliary to the Michigan Ornithological 
Club, for the protection of birds in the state. 


gica. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY. 
A MEETING of experimental psychologists 
was held at Cornell University, April 4 and 5. 


SCIENCE. 


659 


The session of Monday morning was opened 
by Professor L. Witmer with a paper on the 
“Laboratory Investigation of Backward Child- 
ren. This was followed by a discussion of 
various phases of the reaction experiment, in 
the course of which the following papers were 
read: Professor C. H. Judd, ‘ Analysis of 
Movements made in Simple and Complex Re- 
actions’; Dr. G. M. Whipple, ‘The Simple 
Reaction as a Test of Mental Ability’; Pro- 
fessor C. EK. Seashore (read in absence), “ The 
Psychological Term ‘ Observer.’” Professor 
Witmer also spoke on ‘Shortest Reaction 
Values,’ and upon the ‘ Difference between 
Sensory and Muscular Reactions.’ At the after- 
noon session, Professor Judd read a paper on 
‘Eye Movements studied by Photography; with 
Special Reference to the Miiller-Lyer, Pog- 
gendorff and Zollmer Figures’; Mr. H. C. 
Stevens outlined a ‘ Study of Attention by the 
Method of Expression’; and Dr. J. W. Baird 
spoke upon recent investigations in perimetry. 

The session of Tuesday morning was opened 
by Professor EK. C. Sanford, with a report of 
Dr. Kuhlmann’s experiments upon idiots. Mr. 
C. EK. Ferree emphasized the importance of 
adaptation in fluctuations of the visual atten- 
tion, and Professor W. B. Pillsbury discussed 
the ‘ Influence of Closing Eyes upon Attention 
Waves.’ At the afternoon session Professor 
Pillsbury read a paper on ‘ An Apparatus for 
Investigating Torsion during Eye Movement, 
with some Results’; Professor Judd spoke 
upon the ‘ Imitation of Tones, With and With- 
out Distraction’; Professor Sanford demon- 
strated a novel form of color mixer, and Mr. 
G. H. Sabine a ‘Speed Regulator for the von 
Frey Limen Gauge.’ The remainder of the 
afternoon was devoted to a business meeting, 
and to an inspection of the psychological 
laboratory. At an evening session, held in 
the psycho-educational laboratory, Dr. Whip- 
ple spoke upon ‘Some Difficulties in the Use 
of the A-Test,’ and demonstrated an apparatus 
for determining the relative legibility of the 
small letters. 

The following papers were read by title: Dr. 
J. W. Baird, ‘Convergence and Accommoda- 
tion in the Perception of Depth’; Miss M. 
Castro (paper introduced by Professor J. R. 


\ 


660 SCIENCE. 


Angell), ‘An Outline of an Experiment In- 
vestigating the Interrelations of Taste and 
-Smell’; Mr. C. E. Galloway, ‘ Fluctuations of 
Attention and Vasomotor Waves’; Professor 
E. B. Titchener, “ The ‘Psychophysical Series’ 
as a Training Experiment: .Methods, Results 
and Computation ”; and ‘ Type vs. Instruction 
in Psychophysical Work.’ 

It was decided that a similar meeting should 
-be held in 1905; and Professor Miinsterberg’s 


invitation to the psychological laboratory of . 


Harvard University was gratefully accepted, 
with the understanding that the meeting 
should be transferred to Clark University in 
ease of any interference with Professor 
Miinsterberg’s plans. 


PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 
Tue 582d meeting was held March 12, 1904. 
Dr. A. F. Zahm continued his paper begun 

at the previous meeting, discussing several 
specific problems in aerodynamics in the light 
of the constants he had determined experi- 
mentally; he pointed out that some of the 
forms of flying machines of noted experi- 
menters had an excessive amount of skin 
friction, and showed some of the conditions 
of maximum efficiency in such machines. 
Mr. G. K. Gilbert spoke on ‘ The Feasibility 
of Measuring Tides and Ourrents at Sea.’ 
This problem appeals to the geologist as well 
as to the hydrographer. It was suggested that 
a hollow vessel might be anchored at some 
distance below the surface of the sea, con- 
-taining a registering pressure gauge on which 
the superincumbent column of water acted. 
Various forms of gauges were discussed as to 
their range, sensibility and adaptability. 
CuarLes K. Weap, 
Secretary. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE OF ST. LOUIS. 

At the meeting of the Academy held on 
March 21, Professor W. L. Hikenberry de- 
livered a lecture on the ‘ Principles of Ecology 
and the Development of Plant Societies.’ 
He showed that the science of botany had 
been greatly advanced by the study of plant- 
ecology or plant-sociology, 7. e., by the study 
of plants in their external relations to each 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 486. 


other, and the adjustment of plants and their 
organs to their physical surroundings. For- 
merly taxonomy, or the determining of a 
plant’s position in a scheme of classification, 
was the aim of all students and teachers. Now 
the study of botany is pursued on a broader 
scale, plants being studied as living things, 
which are not scattered at haphazard over the 
globe, but are organized into definite com- 
munities, determined by the conditions under 
which certain plants can live. Ecology, since 
it considers plants and their environments, 
takes the student directly into the field, instead 
of confining him to herbarium specimens. 
Systematic botany, while very essential, should 
always be made one of the means, and not 
the final end of botanical study. 

By a series of lantern slides Professor Eiken- 
berry showed the transition from a pond so- 
ciety to a swamp-forest. First we have a lily- 
pond with sedges at the margin of the water. 
As the lily-pond loses its water, the sedges and 
swamp-grasses crowd in. This swamp-moor 
is followed by shrubs, and finally by a swamp- 
forest, such as tamarack, pine and hemlock. 
Professor Eikenberry also traced the develop- 
ments of plant societies adapted to dry air 
and soil. Various plants, such as lichens, 
mosses and small crevice plants, are able to 
live upon bare rocks. As these exposed rocks 
are weathered away the crevices become larger, 
and seeds of small plants find lodgment 
there. As time goes on, the fissures increase 
in size, more soil is formed, and shrubs and 
finally trees root there, resulting ultimately in 
forests. 


CLEMSON COLLEGE SCIENCE CLUB. 
Av the regular monthly meeting held Feb- 


ruary 26, 1904, Dr. H. Metcalf presented a . 


paper entitled ‘A Contribution to Culture 
Methods. The speaker gave a description 
and exhibition of special apparatus for cul- 
tural work in plant pathology, as published in 
the Journal of Applied Microscopy for Sep- 
tember, 1903. This was preceded by a dem- 
onstration of various bacterial and fungus 
colonies through the projecting microscope. 
Professor P. T. Brodie gave a paper entitled 
‘Engineering Features of the Isthmian Canal.’ 


The speaker discussed his subject under the. 


i 
q 
| 
| 
| 


cee RATS NE MSN AM 


ee ee ee 


Aprit 22, 1904.] 


‘following topics: (1) Brief history of the 
Isthmian Canal problem, with special refer- 
‘ence to the Nicaragua, Panama and San Blas 
routes; (2) comparative advantages of the 
canals at Nicaragua and Panama; (8) gen- 
eral description of plans for Panama Canal, as 
made by the government commission and now 
adopted by provisions of treaty with the Re- 
public of Panama, and a comparison of this 
with the sea-level canal of de Lesseps and 
other plans by the French companies; (4) a 
discussion of the engineering difficulties in- 
volved at Culebra cut and the Bohio dam; 
(5) The Bohio Lake and the Gigaganti Spill- 
way for the control of the summit level and 
-the floods of the Chagris River; (6) a com- 
parison of the advantages of a lock canal at 
Panama with those of a sea-level canal at 
Mandingo, involving a tunnel through the 
continental divide. The lecture was illus- 
trated with forty lantern slides, prepared from 
drawings and photographs. 
F. S. Surver, 


; Secretary. 
Cremson Coxtece, §. C., 
March, 1904. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


THE UNIVERSITY OF CINCINNATI AND ITS 
PRESIDENCY. 


Tue history of the University of Cincinnati 
for the last five years, has, without doubt, a 
most important bearing upon the principles 
of university government. This is due to the 
features of its early organization and to the 
peculiar relations which it sustains to the com- 
munity. The original endowment of a ‘free 
college for white children’ by Charles Mc- 
Micken in 1858, the incorporation of the 
University of Cincinnati by act of legislature 
in 1874, with McMicken College as an integral 
part of it; the issue of city bonds for con- 
struction and the levying of a tax for the 
partial support of the institution, were the 
acts that gave a free university to Cincinnati. 

A municipal university, distinctly anoma- 
lous-among American universities, had to be 
provided with a mechanism of government. 
This was arranged for by the statute 
which created a board of directors of nine- 


‘SCIENCE. 


661 


teen members including the mayor of the city, 
ex officio. Origimally twelve of these mem- 
bers were appointed by the superior court 
and six were selected by the board of educa- 
tion, but in 1892 the law was so amended that 
the superior court appointed the entire board, 
thus taking it out of politics. The board had 
and still has control of the funds and of the 
faculty of the academic department alone, 
which for a number of years was the only 
department of the institution actively organ- 


zed and in working condition. 


In the beginning the board of directors 
invested the dean of the faculty with ex- 
ecutive functions, but in 1877 it elected 
Rey. Thomas Vickers rector. This arrange- 
ment lasted until 1884, when, after a long and 
sensational ‘ investigation’ the executive office 
again became vacant. An interreenum ensued 
until 1885, when General Jacob D. Cox, then, 
and for some years before and after, dean of 
the Cincinnati Law School, became president. 
His incumbency lasted until 1888. These two 
experiences and the dearth of funds prompted 
the board of directors to revert to the old 
policy of haying the dean of the academic fac- 
ulty exercise the executive functions in that 
department, and to provide, furthermore, that 
members of the faculty in the order of senior- 
ity should serve as dean, each one to serve for 
a year. 

In 1887 the board of directors, prompted by 
a desire to expand the institution to the pro- 
portions of a real university, affiliated certain 
loeal professional schools, namely, the Cincin- 
nati Law School, the Medical College of Ohio, 
the Miami Medical College and the Ohio Den- 
tal College. Hach of the affiliated institutions 
was only nominally a department of the uni- 


versity, since each maintained its autonomy, 


its own governing body and acted under its 
own charter. 

In 1892 the relations with the two medical 
schools were terminated, but the Medical Col- 
lege of Ohio in 1896 by surrendering its char- 
ter to the university became the medical de- 
partment; still, however, with many rights 
reserved, viz., the right to nominate all the 
members of its faculty, the control of its 
funds and of its internal management. 


662 


The new arrangement with the law school 
was a ten years’ contract (also begun in 1896) 
which recognized the right of the trustees of 
the Cincinnati College to control all funds of 
the law school and reserved to the faculty the 
right to nominate all members of the teach- 
ing staff and the complete control of its af- 
fairs. Thus the law school remained the de- 
partment of law of the university only in 
name, a distinction for which the university 
agreed to pay and yet pays annually out of 
public tax money the sum of a thousand dol- 
lars as ‘rental’ for premises owned and occu- 
pied by the law school itself. The original 
articles of affiliation with the dental school 
were not disturbed and the latter institution, 
a purely private and proprietary enterprise, 
secures valuable advertising through university 
publications. 

This brief statement sufticiently indicates 
the influences that were operative, especially 
during the decade from 1890 to 1900. 

The board of directors, made up of business 
and professional men, acted as safe conserva- 
tors of the funds of the institution, new build- 
ings were erected in Burnet Woods, the old 
buildings were given over to the medical 
school and the material interests of the insti- 
tution were carefully supervised. At this 
point the efficiency of the administrative board 
ended. With no practical university man as 
a member it failed, for a long time at least, 
to grasp the real necessities of the academic 
department. 

Each professor conducted his work accord- 
ing to his own ideas of what should be the 
quality and quantity of devotion to the inter- 
ests of the institution, with the inevitable 
reductio ad absurdum. Tach successor, with 
the allurements of the vacant presidency before 
him, sought to make a record that would se- 
eure his promotion thereto, while certain of his 
colleagues, awaiting their turns, were far from 
giving him a helping hand. ‘ Members of the 
board of directors,’ so that body stated in a 
formal declaration, ‘received with annoying 
frequency denunciatory statements from the 
professors about every member of the faculty.’ 

“As a matter of fact,’ declared the govern- 
ing body, ‘if all the suggestions of removal 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


urged by members of the faculty against mem- 
bers of the faculty had been acted upon, not 
a single member of the present teaching body 
would have been left in position.’ With in- 
cessant conflict in the faculty and with the 
students not amenable to discipline, things 
had manifestly reached a crisis. The directors 
began to think—and one of the first thoughts 
that came to them was that in all the years 
that had passed they had been altogether too 
perfunctory in the choice of professors. Selec- 
tions had rarely been properly safeguarded, 
and too many of them had been made through 
either the ‘push’ or the ‘pull’ of the appli- 
cant. A régime, absolutely untenable, had be- 
come established, the termination of which by 
radical changes in the personnel of the faculty 
became the imperative duty of the directory. 

This step having been informally but none 
the less definitely resolved upon, the selection 
of a new faculty became imminent. The 
disastrous experience of the directors with 
the incumbent faculty caused them to recoil 
from the responsibility. There was a unani- 
mous determination to call a president, a man 
of executive ability, familiar with the educa- 
tional world, who, in the selection of new pro- 
fessors, might save the institution from other 
pits such as those into which it had fallen. 
Committees were sent to Princeton, Harvard, 
Yale, Columbia, University of Pennsylvania, 
Amn Arbor, Chicago and elsewhere. A com- 
mittee, of which Hon. Wm. H. Taft, then dean 
of the law school, now secretary of war, was 
chairman, after investigating a number of 
candidates reported favorably on Dr. Howard 
Ayers, then professor of biology in the Uni- 
versity of Missouri. Dr. Ayers, after visiting 
the institution and having been informed of 
the internal conditions, after having been told 
that the directors had resolved upon extensive 
changes in the faculty and after having been 
impressed that his special and important task 
would be to select a new faculty and that 
only the successful reorganization of the fa- 
culty and the affairs of the academic depart- 
ment would warrant his continuance, was 
duly elected. Recognizing an unusual oppor- 
tunity to render a great service to the cause 
of sound education, he accepted the office un- 


Aprit, 22, 1904.] 


der these conditions and took up the work in 
July, 1899, in the executive position. He was 
fully assured that the successful accomplish- 
ment of this task would secure his administra- 
tion and other grateful recognition at the 
hands of the board and from the community. 

The work of President Ayers progressed 
without special incident until late in the en- 
suing winter. About this time, after having 
become familiar with the general situation, 
President Ayers, in consultation with mem- 
bers of the governing body, insisted that mem- 
bers of the faculty who (some of them before 
his coming) had been selected for dismissal 
ought, in fairness, to be notified quietly of the 
fact in time to secure employment elsewhere. 
However, before this thoughtful policy could 
be made effective, members of the faculty 
themselves on January 12, 1900, precipitated 
the issue by arbitrarily demanding of the 
president the names of all who were to be 
deposed. Certain professors in no wise in- 
volved, by inconsiderate action on this and 
immediately ensuing occasions, rendered their 
longer retention impossible. 

It thus happened that the final number of 
changes made was slightly increased beyond 
what was at first intended. The statement 
was repeatedly made by the daily press that 
the entire faculty had been dismissed. The 
fact is that out of a university teaching corps 
of about 150 members only 8 were asked to 
resign. 

The fact that this action had to be effected 
through the executive led to the erroneous 
supposition that the changes were made under 
the initiative of President Ayers. It was im- 
mediately inferred that he was a centralist 
in university government, an assumption that 
prompted representatives of the medical fa- 
culty, jealous of their prerogative to nominate 
their own fellows and of their complete control 
of the medical department, to array themselves 
in opposition to him. 

The matter was taken up by a few citizens 
who, instigated by deposed professors, called 
a small meeting and adopted resolutions of 
sympathy. This was followed by representa- 
tions to the board of directors that the deposed 
professors be given a trial. This demand the 


SCIENCE. 


663 


board of directors, after reviewing the whole 
case, including the representations that mem- 
bers of the faculty had made about each 
other, replied: “If the statements made by 
professors against professors were true the 
verdict should be upon that basis; if the state- 
ments were untrue the moral perturbation 
thereby implied makes their authors unfit to 
be identified with an institution of learning; 
in either event the faculty falls as a self- 
condemned body.” 

This incident marked the close of all formal 
demonstrations. The professors, with two ex- 
ceptions, completed their year’s labor, their 
work being taken up the following autumn by 
men who had been selected by President Ayres 
and who were confirmed by unanimous vote of 
the board of directors. The internal adminis- 
tration for the first time in many years be- 
came tranquil, the enrollment increased and 
the student body became enthusiastic support- 
ers of the new régime. 

A morning paper, however, for personal rea- 
sons, had become inimical and kept up a 
fusilade of abuse, texts for its various articles 
being furnished by practically the only oppo- 
sition that President Ayers encountered in his 
governing board, that of a single member, a 
representative of the medical faculty, whose 
coincident service as a professor and a trustee 
must be recognized as a violation of all correct 
principles of university government. 

This newspaper antagonism was kept up for 
nearly two years and culminated only when 
President Ayers by formal vote of the board 
of trustees had been vindicated of charges, 
petty in character, that had been preferred 
against him by his opponent on the board. 

The battle so long and bitterly waged 
against President Ayers had apparently been 
abandoned. The community at large recog- 
nizing that an efficient and harmonious faculty 
had been installed, that the attendance had in- 
ereased, that the standard of scholarship had 
been advanced, that the student body was 
earnestly and loyally cooperating with the 
teaching corps, which latter body was enthusi- 
astically engaged in promoting the welfare of 
the institution, and knowing that benefactors 
were manifesting renewed interest in the insti- 


664 SCIENCE. 


tution, accepted the condition as a praise- 
worthy achievement. 

The following excerpts from the other city 
papers indicate that no countenance was given 
by the press to the attacks of the one morning 
sheet. 

A weekly paper had the following to say, 
under date of January 13, 1900, about the 
reorganization of the university: 


Every thorough Cincinnatian ought to feel 
satisfied that our big university has at last got 
a head in Dr. Howard Ayers. If an institution 
ever needed a complete house cleaning the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati did. 

For years it has been a burlesque purely through 
being without a disciplinarian at the head. Dr. 
Ayers has taken the proper steps to place it upon 
its feet rightly, and the trustees have shown com- 
mon sense in supporting him. * * * A con- 
_ tinuation of the old methods in vogue at the 
university can result in but one way—the death 
of the institution. 


January 20, 1900, a local medical journal 
made the following editorial statement with 
reference to the relation of the medical and 
law departments to the university: 


They are and are not a part of the university, 
and from their first conjunction have occupied 
anomalous positions, which in the very nature 
of things can not be harmonious or lasting in 
their nature. They are a paradox. In neither 
the medical nor law faculties does the president 
or board of directors have any voice in their man- 
agement. They stand at this time as disem- 
bodied spirits, and, being disjoined, there can be 
little or no harmonized unification of interests, 
which in the general cause of education in Cin- 
cinnati is exceedingly unfortunate. 


April 14, 1900, a daily evening paper made 
the following comments on the appointment 
of Dr. Ayers to the presidency of the Uni- 
versity of Cincinnati: 


The public knows little of the troubles that 
beset the modern college president’s path and the 
peculiar conditions under which most of them 
have to work. These conditions were suddenly 
made clear in Cincinnati by the appointment, 
after years of executive chaos, of a president to 
the university. 

In the current Atlantic Monthly appears an 
article on the perplexities of a college president 
which might have been written with the late Uni- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


versity of Cincinnati discussion as a text, so 
thoroughly does it meet the points that were 
raised; 

The new president, continues the writer, finds 
that he is simply left to make the best of the 
present situation; to do what he may and can 


with such men as are already in place; to make 


his peace with malcontents, to be patient under 
opposition, to do the work of three men because 
the other two at least are not ready to cooperate 
with him, to explain misunderstandings, quietly 


to contradict misstatements when he is so fortu- 


nate as to have the opportunity to do this, to 
supplement the inefficiency of others, and to fur- 
nish enthusiasm enough not only to carry him- 
self over all obstacles and through all difficulties, 
but to warm blood in the veins of others whose 
temperature never rose above 32 degrees Fahren- 
heit. To compel him to undertake this work in 
this way is not only cruel to him personally, but 
it is as unnecessary as it is unwise. 

The writer in the Atlantic points to the fact 
that the educational executive is invariably 
handicapped by the precedent which, though it 
grows weaker, is still all-powerful, the feeling 
that the college professor is to be set upon a pin- 
nacle above criticism and beyond the reach of com- 
plaint. ‘‘It takes an act of the trustees to put 
a man in such a position but it takes the act of 
God to put him out.” 

Buildings that, for the most part, had been 
added during President Ayers’s three years 
of service were publicly dedicated at com- 
mencement time in 1903 by ceremonies the 
most successful in the history of the institu- 
tion, Hon. James Wilson, secretary of agri- 
culture, and Hon. Francis B. Loomis, first 
assistant secretary of state, being among 
the orators. 

In the meantime, however, another and 
altogether different set of influences were at 
work. In the early part of 1902 the Supreme 
Court of Ohio, in the case of State vs. Jones, 
rendered a decision which practically de- 
stroyed all the then existing legislation rela- 
ting to the government of municipalities in 
the state by declaring it to be special legisla- 
tion and, therefore, unconstitutional. The 
situation was so critical that Governor Nash 
ealled an extra session of the legislature, 
which, on the twenty-second day of October, 
1902, passed the law known as the ‘ Municipal 
Code of Ohio.’ 


a SRT Aes AV eye 


ner 


ash ine Me 


oP mV 


Aprit 22, 1904.] 


This law gave to all municipal corpora- 
tions the right to appropriate property for 
university purposes, excluded the tax for uni- 
versity purposes from the maximum levy for 
general purposes, provided for pro rata taxa- 
tion for university property, for public im- 
provements on university grounds; made the 
city auditor the supreme accountant of the 
university funds and finally provided that the 
control of such universities shall be vested in 
and exercised by a board consisting of nine 
electors of said municipal corporation who 
shall be appointed by the mayor. The board 
thus constituted was empowered to exercise 
full control over the university. \ 

The provisions of this law, relating to the 
appointments of trustees, when brought for- 
ward in the legislature, were met by appro- 
priate protest, but the principle of uniformity 
which it was intended to establish in the 
government of municipalities, a principle by 
which authority and responsibility alike were 
centered in the mayor, prevailed—and the 
University of Cincinnati went into politics. 

Of the board appointed, eight members are 
republicans; and one is reputed to be a 
democrat. 

Searcely had the eloquence of Secretary 
Wilson and Secretary Loomis and the ap- 
plause over the achievements of President 
Ayers died into an echo, when a concerted 
move was made to displace the executive un- 
der whose intrepid leadership so much progress 
had been made. : 

It was then discovered that some of the 


* alumnal members of the board, former pupils 


of the deposed professors, whom, in one or 
two instances, they had formerly served in a 
professional capacity, had entered into a com- 
pact with a minister and a doctor—a repre- 
sentative of and a professor in the medical 
faculty, also members of the new board, to 
remove President Ayers. About this time 
one member announced in the public press 
that he knew how every member of the board 
stood upon the question of dismissing Presi- 
dent Ayers before they were appointed. 

It was openly stated that this compact was 
a written one and that it was entered into 
not later than a few days after the appoint- 


SCIENCE. 665 


ments were made. An inspired article in one 


of the city papers declared that President 
Ayers was about to resign, as a majority of 
the board was unfavorable to his administra- 
tion. 7 

Word was sent in. a personal way to Presi- 
dent Ayers intimating that a change in the 
administration was desired. President Ayers, 
however, chose to stand upon the record of his 
achievements and to place the onus of his 
displacement, if he had to be displaced, upon 
the board where it belonged. 

When the matter became public there were 
general and surprised inquiries as to the 
cause. The answers made vague references 
to ‘arbitrariness’ and ‘lack of tact,’ but more 
generally consisted in the statement that 
“Ayers is not the man for the place. Dr. 
Charles A. L. Reed, former president of 
the American Medical Association, and a 
member of the former board, answered these 
objections as follows: “There is, it is true, 
some talk about a ‘lack of tact’—but the tact 
of President Ayers seems to have given the 
university the best four years since its founda- 
tion by Charles McMicken; there are mutter- 
ings about ‘ arbitrariness ’—but the arbitrari- 
ness of President Ayers seems to be of the sort 
that has brought order out of chaos and estab- 
lished government instead of anarchy; and 
there are whisperings about ‘tone’—but the 
tone of President Ayers seems to be of the 
stuft that, imparted to professors and students 
alike, has resulted in hard work in the class- 
room and fair play on the athletic field and 
that has infused high ideals into the lives 
of all who have been brought under his in- 
fluence.” 

Mr. E. C. Goshorn, a leading manufacturer 
and business man, wrote: ‘To-day the uni- 
versity occupies a position of which we may 
all well be proud, and it certainly would be a 
mistake to ask for the resignation of the man 
to whom this result is due in part if not 
wholly.’ 

Hon. John W. Warrington, a leader of the 
Cincinnati bar, wrote: “I had supposed that 
the last commencement day of the university 
furnished satisfactory evidence to all, not only 
that good work was being done at the univer- 


666 


sity, but that there was harmony among all 
concerned. I regard the present outbreak as 
highly injurious to the future of the institu- 
tion.’ 

Judge Wm. Worthington, one of the most 
highly esteemed of citizens and a patron of 
the institution, wrote concerning President 
Ayres that: “It is undoubtedly true that the 
university has prospered highly under his 
management, and that the teaching force 
has been strengthened, the morale of the 
faculty improved and the zeal and interest of 
the students stimulated since he took charge. 
What has been done is the more remarkable 
in view of the animosity aroused by the acts 
he was called upon to perform when he first 
took charge, and the constant criticisms, en- 
gendered in part by those animosities, to 
which he has been since subjected. His en- 
tire and sincere devotion to the interests of 
the university can not be denied and have 
borne good fruit which all may see.” 

Hon. Wm. H. Taft, then Governor-General 
of the Philippines, wrote from Manila, say- 
ing: “ Why, after Dr. Ayers has accomplished 
that which he was employed to accomplish, 
and has brought about such an excellent condi- 
tion of affairs, it should now be thought 
proper to dismiss him, I can not for the life 
of me see. * * * Jt would seem to be a 
time when those who have the interests of the 
university at heart should sink their personal 
likes and dislikes and recognize that the man 
under whom the university has made such 
distinct progress should continue at the head 
of it.” 

The matter was, therefore, postponed from 
the summer meetings until November, when, 
notwithstanding the foregoing and numerous 
other protests from alumni, students and 
citizens, all of which went unanswered, a reso- 
lution was passed declaring the presidency 
vacant after June 30, 1904, President Ayers 
being retained until that time. A few days 
later President C. W. Dabney of the Univer- 
sity of Tennessee was elected to the vacancy. 

The following are some of the salient points 
in the situation: 

1. The lack of security of tenure of the 
executive officer of the University of Cincin- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 486. 


nati, owing to the inability of the board of 
directors to make contract, good for more 
than one year, or in any other way to secure 
him against sudden and unwarranted dismissal. 
It is true a five-year contract signed by the 
officers of the board of directors has been 
made with President Dabney, but this docu- 
ment has no value beyond the expression of a 
moral obligation in written form. When 
President Ayers came to the University of 
Cincinnati in 1889 he also asked the board for 
a written contract, and upon being informed 
of their inability to make a contract for the 
payment of money not in the city treasury and 
upon the strongest assurances given him by 
the board of directors and by other prominent 
citizens, he concluded that he would be safe in 
accepting the offer of the presidency without 
exacting a binding legal document, which, it 
was discovered, the board was not in position 
to execute. 

2. The instability of the governing board, 
which is subject to the fluctuations of muni- 
cipal politics. 

3. That the administrative officer who came 
to the university under very adverse conditions, 
and performed a task seldom asked of an ex- 
ecutive officer, and who, overcoming very un- 
usual difficulties, carried out a successful and 
satisfactory reorganization of the university, 
was dismissed without recognition and with a 
refusal to consider the existing obligations 
towards him. 

4. The effect upon the educational work of - 
the university since the political powers have 
assumed the direction of its affairs, thereby 
carrying it into the maelstrom of municipal 
politics, is such as to render uncertain and 
unsatisfactory all attempts to carry out any 
desirable educational program. 

5. The unceasing efforts of religious denomi- 
nations to control the teaching of the uni- 
versity and to establish in it religious condi- 
tions which are not permissible in an institu- 
tion supported by taxation, but which may 
now be made effective through political agen- 
cies. 

The careful student of the establishment, 
government and development of universities 
will surely find instruction in the foregoing 


\ 


Aprit 22, 1904.] 


facts. There are any number of interesting 
questions involyed in the situation. The 
right of municipalities to support institutions, 
especially professional and technical schools, 
in whole or in part by taxation; the practi- 
eability of combining endowments with public 
revenues in the maintenance of universities; 
the policy of appointing a governing board by 
political agencies as contrasted with a self- 
perpetuating board; the question of large 
administrative boards as contrasted with small 
ones; the principle of alumnal representation 
in governing bodies; the right of constituent 
faculties to representation in the directory, 
and the results thereof; the right of faculties 
to nominate their own associates, and the re- 
sults thereof; the tenure of professional ap- 
pointments and the obligations, moral and 


legal, of universities to their executives; are 


a few themes suggested by recent events in 
the University of Cincinnati. X. 


NATURAL AND UNNATURAL HISTORY. 


To THe Epiror or Science: Every student 
of comparative psychology who has at heart 
the cause of sound education must welcome 
such criticisms of the writings of Mr. William 
J. Long as have appeared in recent numbers 
of Science.* Not because Mr. Long deserves, 
on his merits, either criticism as a naturalist 
or condemnation as a teacher, but solely be- 
eause of the far-reaching influence for evil 
which must inevitably attend the wide circula- 
tion of his books, and their possible offspring, 
through the schools. The present writer has 
not asked for space in your journal in which 
to review the numerous publications of this 
facile fabricator of fiction, nor yet to discuss 
the indisputable facts of animal behavior and 
intelligence which have suffered such distor- 
tion at the hands of Mr. Long—to name only 
the chief of a whole tribe of popular writers 
who, by the prostitution of their talents, have 
brought upon themselves the just censure not 


**Woodcock Surgery,’ by William Morton 
Wheeler, Sciencr, N. S., Vol. XIX., No. 478, pp. 
347-350, February 26, 1904; “The Case of Will- 
iam J. Long, by Frank M. Chapman, Science, 
N. S., Vol. XIX., No. 479, pp. 387-389, March 
4, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


667 


only of naturalists, but of all right-minded 
educators. 

Since the sad case of the Rev. William J. 
Long has already been brought forward in 
your journal, it would seem only fitting that 
it should be still further presented in all 
its preposterousness. Let it be understood 
from the outset that no personal feeling of 
any sort whatever prompts or accompanies 
this letter, which is intended solely to place 
on record a few reflections suggested by the 
recent controversy in the popular press and 
the aforesaid communications to SCIENCE, 
with a view to enlisting still further, perhaps, 
the interest of scientific men on behalf of a 
real educational need, and, indirectly, of 
warning educators against the adoption of a 
point of view and a method which threaten 
to make of ‘ nature-study’ not merely a farce, 
but an abomination to science and a menace 
to educational progress. Although the writer 
can have no personal quarrel with Mr. Long, 
with whose very name he was unfamiliar until 
Mr. Burroughs—perhaps unwisely ?—brought 
it into unmerited prominence, the duty does 
not on this account devolve upon him of ex- 
amining here the statements of all our pop- 
ular interpreters of nature. Mr. Long, to 
whom public attention is temporarily directed 
by reason of certain rather ludicrous cireum- 
stances, is taken merely as a type of his spe- 
cies. (Doubtless there are naturalists who 
would limit this particular species to the type 
specimen!) Mr. Thompson-Seton has also 
disseminated vicious notions of animal men- 
tality, but, apart from his inexcusable prefa- 
tory insistence upon the essential truthfulness 
of his narratives, and certain matters of taste 
which seareely fall within the scope either of 
this letter or of your journal, his case may 
be dismissed as relatively unimportant. Be- 
sides, it is whispered that he has reformed. 
If Mr. Long is but one among many offenders, 
he is facile princeps, and Mr. Thompson-Seton 
should not be named in the same breath. 
Moreover, one may doubt Mr. Long’s capacity 
for reform. As a romancer he does not stand 
alone, but as a ‘hopeless romancer’ he occu- 
pies a unique position. This is because of 
his inordinate gullibility. If it turn out that 


668 SCIENCE. 


Mr. Thompson-Seton has really reformed, we 
shall no longer be permitted to accuse him 
of gullibility. Meanwhile alternative hypoth- 
eses need not concern us here. 

That Mr. Long is a ‘hopeless romancer’ 
has already been abundantly proved by Mr. 
Burroughs’s article in the Atlantic Monthly 
for March, 1903,* which, although obviously 
unfair in spots, must be regarded as essen- 
tially sound, and in some respects even ‘ too 
temperate,’ as Mr. Wheeler has said. If any- 
thing remained to be added to Mr. Bur- 
roughs’s effective criticism of Mr. Long’s 
“sham natural history,’ the deficiency has been 
bountifully supplied by Mr. Wheeler and Mr. 
Chapman, both eminent as scientific natural- 
ists. 

It would also seem a work of supererogation 
to attempt further to establish Mr. Long’s 
gullibility, especially after Mr. Chapman’s ex- 
cellent letter, with its telling quotations. In- 
deed, I have no intention of arguing the 
matter further, but I happen to have in my 
possession a carefully prepared outline sketch, 
executed by Mr. Clifton Johnson, the vwell- 
known illustrator, of a mare’s nest which Mr. 
Long has seen fit to describe as the work of 
orioles, and (by the owner’s permission) I beg 
leave to reproduce it in your journal, that 
your readers may judge for themselves of 
Mr. Long’s competency to instruct the youth 
of our land in the ‘Secrets of the Woods.’ 
I quote for comparison Mr. Long’s own ac- 
count of this nest and the manner of its 
fabrication, from his article on ‘The Modern 
School of Nature-Study and its Critics’ in 
the North American Review for May, 1903 
(pp. 688-698) : 

**Real and Sham Natural History,’ Op. cit., 
pp. 298-309. 

f One could have wished that Mr. Wheeler had 
not felt obliged to indulge in that rhetoric about 
osteogenesis, etc., presumably intended to take 
off Mr. Long’s manner, but incidentally serving 
to prejudice certain readers against an otherwise 
convincing criticism. Surely Mr. Wheeler does 
not believe that the average country doctor, who 
sets all the broken bones of his township is 
“deeply versed in osteogenesis’! Nor would he 
deny him, on this account, his proper share of 
intelligence——Non potest non peccari. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 486. 


Last spring, two orioles built in a buttonwood 
tree, after having been driven away from their 
favorite elm by carpenters. They wanted a swing- 
ing nest, but the buttonwood’s branches were too 
stiff and straight; so they fastened three sticks 
together on the ground in the form of a perfectly 
measured triangle. At each angle they fastened 
one end of a cord, and carried the other end over 
and made it fast to the middle of the opposite 
side. Then they gathered up the loops and fast- 


ened them by the middle, all together, to a stout 
bit of marline; and their staging was all ready. 
They carried up this staging and swung it two 
feet below the middle of a thick limb, so that 
some leaves above sheltered them from sun and 
rain; and upon this swinging stage they built 
their nest. The marline was tied once around 
the limb, and, to make it perfectly sure, the end 
was brought down and fastened to the supporting 
cord with a reversed double-hitch, the kind that 
a man uses in cinching his saddle. Moreover, 
the birds tied a single knot at the extreme end 
lest the marline should ravel in the wind. The 


sy 
4 
; 
e 


aged ete 


ah hp nso 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


nest hangs above my table now, the reward of a 
twenty-five years’ search; but not one in ten of 
those who see it and wonder can believe that it 
is the work of birds, until in the mouths of two 
or three witnesses who saw the matter every 
word has been established (p. 692). 


Let the description be compared with the 
sketch; let it be observed that Mr. Long does 
not affirm that he himself ‘saw the matter’ 
(2. e., the fabrication of the nest by the 
birds?); let it be remembered, however, that 
Mr. Long accepts this remarkable structure 
as the work of orioles—there are the usual 
“two or three witnesses’ (one can not help 
wondering if they are the same ‘ friends’ who 
have played so many practical jokes on Mr. 
Long), and, above all, from Mr. Long’s point 
of view, there is the nest itself, which hangs 
above his table now, unless some ill fate has 
befallen it since last May, when the article 
appeared. This episode of the nest reveals a 
general incapacity for the estimation of evi- 
dence which must vitiate everything else that 
Mr. Long reports. Falsus in uno, falsus in 
ommobus. 

The article in question is such a remarkable 
production throughout that, perhaps, we should 
not take leave of it without quoting a few 
characteristic passages, which may serve to 
set forth Mr. Long’s curious creed. 

“The study of Nature,” we are told, “is 
a vastly different thing from the study of 
Science; they are no more alike than Psychol- 
ogy and History. Above and beyond the world 
of facts and law, with which alone Science 
concerns itself, is an immense and almost 
unknown world of suggestion and freedom 
and inspiration, in which the individual, 
whether animal or man, must struggle against 
fact and law to develop or keep his own indi- 
viduality. It is a world of ‘appreciation,’ 
to express it in terms of the philosophy of 
Professor Royce, rather than a world of ‘ de- 
scription’* Jt is a world that must be in- 
terpreted rather than catalogued, for you can 
not catalogue or classify the individuality for 
which all things are struggling. * * * This 


*Mr. Long evidently believes in hitching his 
chariot to a star! 


SCIENCE. 669 


upper world of appreciation and suggestion, 
of individuality interpreted by individuality, 
is the world of Nature, the Nature of the 
poets and prophets and thinkers. Though less 
exact, it is not less but rather more true and 
real than Science, as emotions are more real 
than facts [sic], and love is more true than 
EHeonomics—* * * *T study facts and law; 
they are enough, says the scientist. ‘We 
know the tyranny of facts and law too well,’ 
answer the nature-students. ‘Give us now 
the liberty and truth of the spirit. * * * In 
a word, the difference between Nature and 
Science [sic] is the difference between a man 
who loves animals, and so understands them, 
and the man who studies Zoology ” (pp. 688— 
689.—Italics mine here and throughout). 

Searcely could the ‘miraculous’ vocaliza- - 
ions common among the earlier Christians 
have been more unintelligible than this. Such 
crude misapprehension of contemporary philo- 
sophie discussions, such hopeless confusion of 
categories, such aimless emission of words— 
mere words,—such pitiful eries of an indi- 
vidual struggling against every fact and law, 
both of thought and of language, ‘to develop 
or keep his own individuality’ (which2), it 
would not be easy to match outside the litera- 
ture of Christian Science. Specific comments 
upon our subject’s phraseology would spoil the 
flavor of the original.* 

Men of science should perhaps pause to re- 
flect, in the presence of such crass misrepre- 
sentations of the nature and scope of science, 
whether they may not be responsible, in some 
measure, for the state of affairs which has 
made it possible for a confessed intellec- 
tual anarchist like Mr. Long to obtain a 
hearing in the schools. If ‘nature-study’ 
is what it is above represented to be, let 
us return without delay to the respectable, 
if meager, modicum of knowledge compre- 
hended under the one-time useful trinity of 
R’s; but if ‘nature-study’ has for its object 
the observation of fact and the recognition 
of law, without sacrifice of inspiration—if it 

* What a fine case of mixed categories for Pro- 
fessor Miinsterberg!—but Professor Miinsterberg 
apparently thinks it unnecessary to dredge in 
such deep waters of sciolism for his specimens. 


670 


be capable of nourishing the normal growing 
mind—then let us see to it that it be pursued 
and taught according to the full measure of 
its possibilities as a legitimate source of in- 
spiration.* 

By just such a curious inconsequence as 
might have been expected from one given to 
‘speaking with tongues’ as above, Mr. Long 
insists that he has been careful never to record 
an observation until he has ‘verified’ it from 
the testimony of another. The ‘ confirmation’ 
of most of his stories has come from the guides 


* No objection is here implied to the frankly 
imaginative treatment of nature. The same 
‘fact’ may be differently apperceived and trans- 
formed by the same mind for different purposes. 
There is an artistic observation as well as a scien- 
tific observation; accuracy being fundamental to 
both. Nobody can object, on scientific grounds? 
either to Shelley’s relatively objective poems of 
nature, or even to Wordsworth’s humanizing muse. 
Aisop’s ‘ Fables’ and Kipling’s ‘Jungle Books’ 
are likewise secure from scientific attack. (This 
of course apart from a possible ‘science of criti- 
cism.’) 

There is undeniably a place for sympathy in 
our relations with dumb animals, as in our rela- 
tions with children; although between the mind 
of the most ‘sagacious’ mammal below man and 
the mind of the child which has outgrown the 
“mewling and puking’ age, there is probably 
an interval of considerable psychological signifi- 
cance. Josephine Dodge Daskam’s clever stories 
about children, although not technically psy- 
chological, are nevertheless not contrary to fact. 
Her diminutive heroes and heroines are not made 
to appear interesting by being fantastically repre- 
sented as stronger and wiser than their parents, or 
(like Mr. Long’s animals) as differing radically 
in different localities—the youngsters of Massa- 
chusetts, for example, being revolutionary in- 
novators in science and art and conscious critics 
of government, whereas children elsewhere stupidly 
make mud pies and dress dolls and harmlessly 
“play police.’ 

But artistic creation apart, the ‘natural his- 
tory’ point of view as distinguished from the 
formulation of quantitative or genetic ‘laws,’ 
represents at once a stage in the development of 
all natural science and a permanent aspect of 
its pursuit, as exemplified and expressed by no- 
body so sincerely and so happily withal as by 
the acknowledged masters of investigation them- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 486. 


and trappers of his acquaintance. But in a 
‘world of suggestion and freedom and inspira- 
tion’ why bother about verification? Why 
trouble the trappers? Perhaps the trappers 
appreciate Mr. Long’s ‘struggle against fact,’ 
and cheerfully lend their aid in behalf of the 
development and maintenance of his individ- 
uality ! 

But Mr. Long is not a consistent dreamer 
of dreams and confirmer of the same through 
the cross-questioning of trappers; he thinks 
it important to remind his readers that ‘ for 
over twenty years’ he has ‘gone every season 
deep into the woods.’* And his publishers, 
Messrs. Ginn and Company, have issued a 
little pamphlet,t by way of apologizing for 
their literary protégé and incidentally adver- 
tising his books (to all of which Mr. Long 
submits as if it were quite a dignified thing 
to be thus personally defended and adver- 
tised), in which the public is favored with 
reproductions from photographs of Mr. Long 
in his boat, of his camp in the woods, and the 
like. Mr. Long has been on the ground! But 
so have his ‘ wood folk” Mr. Long has been a 
field observer from his youth! As much may 
be said of the wild ass. 

Possibly even Mr. Long recognizes that 
mere camping out among the ‘ wood folk’ is 


selves. Furthermore, the perception of ‘law’ has 
repeatedly given classic expression to what a 
scientific student of philosophy, the late Henry 
Sidgwick, first called ‘cosmie emotion.” I am 
not even prepared to deny the legitimacy of meta- 
physical construction (possibly a species of quasi- 
poetry?) upon the basis of an assumed psychic 
homogeneity of the universe, such as we find 
reflected in polite literature, as, e. g., in Robert 
Louis Stevenson’s impressive Pulvis et Umbra 
(reprinted in the volume entitled ‘Across the 
Plains,’ Scribners, 1900). 

* Op. cit., p. 691. 

7 ‘ William J. Long and His Books: A Pamphlet 
Consisting Chiefly of Typical Letters and Re- 
views in Reply to Mr. Burroughs’s Unwarranted 
Attack on Mr. Long.’—The unfortunate form of 
this authorized ‘defence’ of Mr. Long places one 
under an unpleasant obligation to refer more or 
less specifically to his personal qualifications,— 
an obligation from which one could wish to be 
released. 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


not in itself a sufficient qualification for the 
naturalist. Certainly Mr. Long’s publishers 
know better, for they have taken pains, in the 
published apology already cited, to establish 
the competency of their author as a naturalist 
by an enumeration of the successive stages of 
his education. Quoting from The Connecti- 
cut Magazine,* they assert that ‘his life has 
been one long search for the verities’ Unfor- 
tunately all searches are not rewarded, and 
length of search is after all of less moment 
than quality, which depends upon the searcher. 
Of the last we are told that “at eighteen 
years he made the sacrifice that few can 
measure, of giving up home, friends, money, 
position, to follow what seemed to him the 
truth,” which, being interpreted, turns out to 
mean that he attended the Bridgewater Nor- 
mal School, Harvard University, Andover 
Theological Seminary, Heidelberg University, 
where he took the degree of Ph.D., and the 
Universities of Paris and Rome! Are we to 
interpret this account of his martyrdom as an 
expression of educational cynicism?+ But 


*Vol. VIII., No. 1, Series of 1903, Pamphlet, 
pp. 2, 4. 

7 It is said that Mr. Burroughs has gone out 
of his way to emphasize the fact that Mr. Long 
isa clergyman. If this is true it would seem un- 
gracious. Clergymen are, as a class, probably 
neither better nor worse than other respectable 
citizens. While a theological education is fraught 
with grave intellectual dangers, it certainly need 
not unfit a man for science, any more than a 
‘fulfillment of the requirements for the degree 
of Ph.D.’ in a German university need fit a man 
for the same. There have been excellent natural- 
ists who were clergymen to begin with. Mr. 
Burroughs’s favorite, the good Gilbert White, is 
a case in point. Others, like the lamented Dr. 
Buckland, dean of Westminster, have attained 
eminence in natural science. Bitterness toward 
the clergy to-day strikes one as an anachronism. 
The ecclesiastic as we know him is either friendly 
towards science or indifferent to it, or, in any 
ease, ineffectual against it. Time was of course 
when things were different; possibly Mr. Bur- 
roughs remembers! There remain, however, 
abuses enough to counteract without turning our 
wrath backwards. The dinosaurs have _histor- 
ical interest for us, although certain of our 


SCIENCE. 


671 


such self sacrifice is not in itself enough to 
make a good naturalist. ‘He speaks four or 
five languages.’ ‘Four or five’—but if it 
should turn out that he speaks only four, and 
that five are requisite, what then becomes of 
the argument? No information is given rela- 
tive to the candidate’s preferences in neck- 
wear, not to mention other equally relevant 
items. ‘ His specialties,’ however, ‘ are philos- 
ophy and history,’ and ‘the study of nature 
and animal life is to him purely a recreation 
in a life of constant hard work,’ yet ‘it must 
be admitted that he brings to this study a rare _ 
training. Granted! For it has not even 
been hinted that Mr. Long has ever studied 
any branch of natural science. But if philos- 
ophy is a specialty with him, perhaps biology 
is another: for he understands the one about 
as well—or as ill—as the other. (Witness 
the confusion of categories exhibited above.) 

Let us see if Mr. Long’s methods are as 
‘rare’ as his training? ‘The pamphlet is 
again at our service, with its fusillade of 
quotations from The Ypsilantian, Our Am- 
mal Friends, The Christian Register, The 
Christian Advocate, and all the rest! The 
Yopsilantian* did not think it ‘exactly nice’ 
of Mr. Burroughs to write his Atlantic 
Monthly article; yet, at the risk of offending 
the good taste of The Ypsilantian, let us pro- 
ceed in the interest of truth. Mr. Richard 
Burton has assured the readers of The Boston 
Transcript} that Mr. Long ‘is a true natural- 
ist, a scientist in quest of knowledge.’ (This 
in spite of Mr. Long’s assertion that nature 
and science differ as emotions differ from 
facts, and love differs from economies! Hocus 
pocus, hocus pocus, X, Y,Z!) The readers of 
The Boston Heraldt know better; they know 
that “Dr. Long * * * never seeks exact facts, 
never studies consciously.” Are we to infer 
that. he dreams his stories? No, rather are 
we to believe Mr. Long’s own account of his 
attitude toward nature, when he says (if cor- 
rectly quoted by The Boston Herald— we have 


Mesozoic ancestors may have found it necessary 
to be veritable ‘ pragmatists’ in their presence. 

* July 16, 1903, Pamphlet, pp. 7-8. 

+ Date not given, Pamphlet, pp. 12-16. 

£ August 9, 1903, Pamphlet, pp. 18-19. 


672 SCIENCE. 


not the ‘confirmation’ of The Ypsilantian on 
this point): “I just love her, give myself 
wholly to her influence, expect nothing ”—to 
which one is tempted to add, in the words of 
a current beatitude, ‘ Blessed are they that ex- 
pect nothing, for they shall not be disap- 
pointed.’ Zhe Boston Herald is incidentally 
eareful to explain how Mr. Long became a 
‘maker of many books.’ “ Before he was 
twenty he had filled a dozen note-books with 
curious, hitherto unrecorded habits of ani- 
mals.” <A little later on “he prepared five 
_ articles, largely in fun, which, to his surprise, 
found ready acceptance and yielded a check 
of astounding proportions. Requests for book 
material followed, which he has since supplied 
at the rate of one or two books a year.” 

Our Animal Friends* thinks Mr. Long’s 
writings free of ‘mawkish sentimentalism,’ ap- 
parently because he does not insist that the 
hippopotamus is a ‘beauty,’ or the skunk a 
‘desirable companion.’ And on July 9, 1903, 
Public Opinion+ took the ‘ opportunity of re- 
affirming [its] belief in the correctness of Mr. 
Long’s theories and of again advising the 
study of this author’s work. Just so, Mr. 
Hamilton Wright Mabie is quoted as remark- 
ing that “ Mr. Long has a fresh, sincere style, 
an eager curiosity, and a trained habit of ob- 
servation.” Really, this is worthless from 
Mr. Mabie; yet just what one would have 
expected from this ‘genial’ preacher to the 
‘Christian Endeavorers of literature,’ whose 
‘tolerance of temper’ and ‘mellifluous com- 
monplaces’ have apparently become too much 
even for the urbane, yet always discriminating, 
editor of the Atlantic Monthly. Nobody 
takes Mr. Mabie seriously as a critic of values 
any more. Nor should any man of letters, as 
such, presume to pass judgment on the com- 
petency of a naturalist for his task. Jf Mr. 
Long adds arrogance to ignorance, Mr. Mabie 
genially follows in his steps. A wise and far- 
seeing friend, and a man both able and emi- 
nent in science, is wont to predict that the 

* August, 1901, Pamphlet, pp. 21-22. 

+ Pamphlet, p. 24. 

+ Reference not given, Pamphlet, pp. 16-17. 

§‘ Mr. Mabie’s Latest Book,’ by B. P., Op. cit., 
March, 1903, pp. 418-419. - 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


science of the future will have to reckon 
painfully with a ‘humanistic’ opposition as 
dangerous as was the theological opposition of 
the past and far more insidious. Already 
there are signs of such an opposition, although 
as yet it acts chiefly as a stumbling block in 
the path of popular education; yet, to change 
the figure, it sometimes stands arrayed in the 
garb of education itself. The New Hngland 
Journal of Education* informs us that, “ from 
Thoreau to Burroughs there has been no man 
quite so lovable to wild animals and to men 
at the same time as William J. Long. His 
experiences are well-nigh as fascinating in 
their way as were the songs of Jenny Lind.” 
Speaking of Mr. Burroughs’s criticism, it 
continues: “No one who has not made a 
saint of Burroughs and has not been in love 
with William J. Long, can appreciate the 
nightmare effect of that Atlantic article.” 
But let us turn from this erotic effusion, and 
conclude our notice of Messrs. Ginn and Com- 
pany’s pamphlet by quoting Professor William 
Lyon Phelps, of the Department of English 
Literature in Yale University, who is reported 
as declaring that “from the point of view of 
natural history, as well as that of literary art, 
these books [by Mr. Long] are masterpieces.”+ 
Thus does the humanistic ‘mush of conces- 
sion’ ever tend to ‘debase the moral cur- 
reney’; for it levels down as surely as it 
levels up, until all distinctions are obliterated, 
and truth remains just where Protagoras 
would have left it. 

I need not discuss Mr. Long’s modest-like 
defense of himself,{ which would be ludicrous 
if it were not so pitiful—apart from certain 
just strictures upon minor faults of Mr. Bur- 
roughs’s criticism. Which reminds one that 
Mr. Burroughs does not live in a house with- 
out some glass panes. But Mr. Burroughs 
knows that he has made mistakes, and knows 
how to account for them too. In the very At- 
lantic article which The Ypsilantian did not 
think was ‘exactly nice,’ Mr. Burroughs ac- 


* June 18, 1903, Pamphlet, pp. 8-11. 

7 Place not given, Pamphlet, p. 17. 

tA letter from Mr. Long to the editor of The 
Connecticut Magazine, quoted in Pamphlet, pp. 
25-32. 


é 
4 
. 
9 


a a 


¥ 


Aprin 22, 1904.] 


knowledges “the danger that is always lurking 
near the essay naturalist,—lurking near me as 
well as Mr. Sharp,—the danger of making 
too much of what we see and describe,—of 
putting in too much sentiment, too much 
literature,—in short, of valuing these things 
more for the literary effects we can get out of 
them than for themselves.”* This is admirable, 
and reassures one in venturing upon an ilWus- 
tration of the way in which Mr. Burroughs has 
himself inadvertently yielded to this besetting 
temptation of the ‘essay naturalist.’ For I 
should be sorry to appear other than an ad- 
mirer of Mr. Burroughs’s writings; and even 
as a technical student of comparative psychol- 
ogy I agree in the main with his point of view, 
which I hope to discuss elsewhere, pointing 
out, for a wider public, what I regard, in the 
light of recent research, to be the limitations 
as well as the advantages of his somewhat 
arbitrary position on the réle of instinct in 
animal life. Mr. Long’s plea for animal in- 
dividuality will then receive its full share of 
attention. 


* Op. cit., p. 299. 

+ Mr. Long’s contention that every boy who has 
watched animals has something to tell the ‘nat- 
uralist’ is not to be dismissed with a sneer. 
Some boys certainly have seen many things that 
no ‘naturalist’ has recorded. Nobody who has 
kept live animals feels that the stereotyped ac- 
count of their behavior is-quite adequate to the 
individual differences and the plastic ‘ accom- 
modations’ which they display; but these very 
individual differences and ‘ accommodations,’ in so 
far as they have any importance, are themselves 
susceptible of scientific study. That they have 
not been sufficiently recognized in certain ‘ sci- 
entific’ quarters can not be denied. But, if they 
have any meaning, they are ‘facts’ for the ‘ nat- 
uralist,’ and as such have in the first place to be 
established on trustworthy evidence and then in- 
terpreted in accordance with ‘ law.’ 

The exceptional, even when true, can scarcely 
be said to furnish the basis for the most whole- 
some instruction in ‘nature-study.’ Nor is it of 
prime importance for science itself. Of. E. L. 
Thorndike’s remarks in his ‘ Animal Intelligence,’ 
Psychological Review, Monograph Supplement No. 
8, June, 1898, pp. 3-5. The widespread eagerness 
in the quest of the unusual and the gusto with 
which the anomalous is too often greeted when 


SCIENCE. 


673 


This communication is not concerned with 
questions of interpretation. When it comes 
to these, the comparative psychologist finds 
himself in an embarrassing position. His 
work, if not actually scouted, is often lightly 
regarded by the neurologist and the pure 
physiologist, on the one hand, in the sup- 
posed interest of a mechanical explanation 
of nature, while, on the other hand, it is 
ignored by the ordinary naturalist, untrained 
in the analytic method of psychology, and 
poohpoohed by the ‘educated public,’ compla- 
cent in its anthropomorphic sentimentalism. 
The serious student of animal psychology 
labors under the disadvantage of having a 
popular subject to investigate! Wherefore he 
has constantly to be on his guard and may 
often seem to be ‘carrying a chip on his 
shoulder’ through no fault of his own. If he 
be not a pessimist, however, he must regard 
popular interest in his subject as in the long 
run a boon upon which he may favorably 
reckon.* 

But I have wandered far from my promise 
to illustrate Mr. Burroughs’s tendency to ‘slip 
up’ unawares. It is in one of Mr. Burroughs’s 
less satisfactory articles, on ‘The Ways of 
Nature,’+ that we read the following descrip- 
tion of the peculiar behavior of the common 
‘sissing or blowing adder’ (Heterodon platy- 
rhinus), when teased or persistently attacked: 


It seems to be seized with an epileptic or cata- 
leptic fit. It throws itself upon its back, coiled 
nearly in the form of a figure 8, and begins a 
series of writhings and twistings and convulsive 
movements that is astonishing to behold. Its 
mouth is open and presently full of leaf mould, 
tts eyes are closed, its head is thrown back, its 
white belly up; now it is under the leaves, now 


it is found are symptomatic of an intellectual 
malady which threatens the very life of reason 
in the community. 

*The camp of human psychologists is not a 
scientific Utopia, but that were too much to ex- 
pect in a territory still overrun with such pro- 
found personal prejudiees and imagined practical 
interests,—especially when the invaders are by 
nature so well-disposed towards the aboriginal 
enemy. 

+ The Century Magazine, Vol. LXVI., No. 2, pp. 
294-302, June, 1903. Citation from p. 299. 


674 


out, the body all the while being rapidly drawn 
through this figure 8, so that the head and tail 
are constantly changing places, ete. 

Surely these interesting phenomena are 
valued too much ‘for the literary effects’ to 
be got out of them; there is an unconscious 
heightening of the description, with the result 
that the eyes are described as ‘ closed,’ where- 
as the snakes are characterized, and distin- 
guished from the lizards, by the absence of 
eyelids. Nor is there a mectitating membrane 
present. Hence their eyes are set in a per- 
petual stare; although it is conceivable that 
their appearance might be (slightly) altered by 
certain movements, yet by no figure of speech 
could they be properly described as closed.* 
Mr. Burroughs’s writings are of such service 
as to warrant correction; they are of such 
merit as to deserve it.t 

While it is not my purpose here to sit in 
judgment in re Burroughs vs. Long, a char- 
acteristic difference between the two men may 
be noted, in passing, as it is revealed in their 
respective attitudes toward the great natural- 
ists, Darwin and Wallace. Mr. Burroughs is 
always deferential, seeking, sometimes inade- 
quately perhaps, to verify their results and to 
apply their conclusions, while Mr. Long dis- 
tinctly implies that these observers labored 
under a serious disadvantage by reason of 
their limited opportunities for the study of 

*The anatomical fact alluded to might easily 
have been overlooked, but no knowledge of anat- 
omy would have been necessary to a faithful rec- 
ord of observed fact. One of the ablest of our 
younger zoologists, and a college professor, when 
his attention was called to this curious statement 
of Mr. Burroughs, promptly replied in all serious- 
ness, ‘ Perhaps he refers to the nictitating mem- 
brane’! Another zoologist humorously suggested 
that ‘possibly the pineal eye was meant! ’—but 
surely this hypothesis is barred by Mr. Bur- 
roughs’s use of the plural. 

7 It is to be regretted, however, that Mr. Bur- 
roughs has brought telepathy into his animal 
psychology. See his article ‘On Humanizing the 
Animals, in The Century Magazine, Vol. LXVII., 
No. 5, pp. 773-780, March, 1904, especially pp. 
776-777. One of the consolations of the com- 
parative psychologist has always been his sup- 
posed freedom from the ‘confidences’ of the 
telepathists! 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 486. 


animal life, as compared with his own un- 
usual facilities, ‘with Indian hunters’ to his 
aid!*« 

The controversy between these gentlemen, 
as has been said, would not of itself warrant 
the sacrifice of so much space in your journal. 
“Where there is a manifest disproportion be- 
tween the powers and forces of two several 
agents, upon a Maxime of reason, we may 
promise the Victory to the Superiour,” as Sir 
Thomas Browne quaintly observes in his ‘ Re- 
ligio Medici’; but, as he further reminds us, 
“unexpected accidents’ may ‘slip in’ and 
“unthought of occurrences intervene,’ which 
‘proceed from a power that owes no obedience 
to those Axioms’ [of reason]. And surely in 
the case under consideration, such ‘ accidents’ 
(if not ‘unthought of occurrences’) as pop- 
ular prejudice, nourished by the indiscrim- 
inating leaders of the ‘ Christian Endeavorers 
of literature’ and fed upon by shrewd publish- 
ers, have intervened, ‘ to make the worse appear 
the better reason,’ and to gain, or momentarily 
to threaten to gain, the ascendency in the offi- 
cial instruction of youth. 

In so far as I have seemed to take Mr. 
Long’s ease seriously, it has been only by way 
of warning, not against the particular ex- 
travagances of an individual, but against the 
unchecked diffusion of the false conceptions 
and meretricious standards, of which Mr. 
Long’s teaching is typical and his following 
the unfortunate outcome. It is already too 
late and must needs be impossible, in our 
democratic civilization, for men of science to 
leave ‘ the public’ out of account. If ‘a little 
learning is a dangerous thing’ for the indi- 
vidual, it assumes multiple proportions when 
the bulk of the community becomes infected. 
This business of popular education is in some 
respects a grand nuisance! It leads to a 
thousand blatancies—of bigotry, of cocksure- 
ness, of an assumed appearance of superiority 
without the reality, taking protean forms 
throughout the entire range of our public ac- 
tivities. Yet, on the whole, ‘the greatest 
good to the greatest number’ probably flows 
from just such an ‘equality of opportunity’ 

* See The North American Review, article cited, 
page 695. ; 


gy OS 


ApRIL 22, 1904.] 


as the diffusion of knowledge permits. All 
must be given a chance to breathe the fresh 
air, one must suppose, that the born ‘saints’ 
be not stifled; while, if ‘saints’ may be made, 
there must first be ‘Christian Endeavorers’ 
(to continue under the figure already borrowed 
from the editor of the Atlantic Monthly). 
Wherefore we still need our Mr. Mabies, even 
as our Mr. Mabies need improvement. We 
perhaps need even our Mr. Carl Snyders, but 
we certainly do not need our Mr. William J. 
Longs. We do need such delightful ‘essay 
naturalists’ as Mr. Burroughs; we need also 
professional naturalists who do not find it 
necessary to struggle against facts in order to 
develop or keep their individuality, but who 
try to make facts themselves attractive to 
both young and old; we need serious investi- 
gators in zoology and comparative psychology, 
who bring to their task ‘an eye well practised 
in nature,’ a mind exacting in its critical 
demands and furnished with a just knowledge 
of the results of previous workers, who are at 
the same time conscious of their obligation, 
as teachers, to a larger public. Above all, we 
need to-day, as much as ever, perhaps as never 
before, men whose attitude toward ‘ the people’ 
resembles that of a Huxley or a Clifford, a 
Helmholtz or a Virchow, or that of many a 
lesser luminary, who by the popular exposition 
and inculeation of sound principles of science, 
have contributed effectively to the prevalence 
of light rather than darkness in the world, and, 
indirectly, at the same time, to the advance- 
ment of science itself. 

And all these are needed (let it be stated 
whether The Ypsilantian thinks it ‘nice’ or 
whether it does not) in order that our children 
may be spared the painful necessity either of 
unlearning such pseudo-scientifie fictions and 
anti-scientific prejudices as Mr. Long and his 
allies represent, or of growing up with minds 
perverted and ill adapted to survive as rational 
beings in a world of fact and law, though they 
struggle never so hard against both in the 
supposed interest of their individuality. 

Wm. Harper Davis. 

CotumBia UNIVERSITY. 


SCIENCE. 675 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 

THE ENCYCLOPEDIA AMERICANA ON ICHTHYOLOGY. 

‘Tur Encyclopedia Americana,’ now being 
published, is in some respects a meritorious 
work, but great carelessness has been mani- 
fested in some of the office editorial work. 
Such is especially the case in one of the ar- 
ticles of the last volume (Vol. VIII.) which 
has come to hand. The article in question 
is ‘Ichthyology’ and its author is President 
David Starr Jordan. The text is excellent 
but the illustrations are very badly identified 
and could not have been submitted to Dr. 
Jordan. We may imagine the surprise and 
disgust of the author when he finds the er- 


“roneous and strange names applied to more 


than half of the cuts. Those most erroneously 
named are the following in regular sequence 
(the pages are not numbered): 

Homocercal tail.—It is the tail of a Polyp- 
terus and consequently not homocercal at all 
but diphycereal. 

Port Jackson Shark (Cestraciontes).—This 
is not the Port Jackson shark but the bull- 
head shark of California (Gyropleurodus 
francisct). 

Sting-ray (Raia).—No species of Raia is a 
‘sting-ray’ and the figure does not represent 
what is generally called a ‘sting-ray,’ but a 
fish of a very different family, the Aétobatus 
narinari. 

Viviparous Perch.—The name is altogether 
too indefinite and misleading, inasmuch as it 
is very far from any true perch; it is the 
embiotocoid Cymatogaster aggregatus of Cali- 
fornia. 

Elephant Fish (Chimera).—Not the true 
elephant fish but the ratfish of California 
(Chimera or Hydrolagus Collet). 

Gafftopsal Cat (Galetchthys)—By no 
means, but the common channel eat of the 
United States ([ctalurus punctatus). 

Pike (Lucius).—The fish figured is not at 
all related to the pike and belongs to a dif- 
ferent order; it is a barracuda (Sphyrena 
barracuda). * 

Butterfly-fish (Holacanthus)—Not related 
to Holacanthus, but the common Zanclus cor- 
nutus of the Indo-Pacifie region. 


676 


Globe-fish (Tetraodon).—lt is the Ovoides 
setosus. 

Rose-fish (Sebastes)—The Sebastodes m- 
grocinctus of California, 

An Antellarid—This is by no means an 
antennariid (as the word meant should have 
been written) but a ceratiid (Caulophryne 
Jordani). . 

Bat-fish—As there are various fishes called 
bat-fish more definiteness is required than 
that name alone. The fish figured is the 
Malthe vespertilio of the eastern coast of the 
United States. 

Surely it is a wrong to the public as well 
as to the author to give such work the wide 
circulation that the new encyclopedia will 
doubtless enjoy. The author of the article 
of course knows—none better—what are the 
right names to be attached to the figures and 
those given furnish sufficient evidence of the 
fact that the proof was not submitted to him 
—or at least that he did not correct it. 

Turo. GILL. 


THE MINNESOTA SEASIDE STATION. 

Tuer Minnesota Seaside Station party of 
1904 will meet at the Hotel Dominion, Victoria, 
B. C., about the nineteenth of July. The pre- 
cise date, depending upon the sailing of the 
steamer, Queen City, will be announced, to 
those who join the party, when the sailings 
are determined upon by the navigation com- 
pany. 

The party will proceed to. the station and 
will remain in camp for one month, returning 
to Victoria in time to reach the east before 
the opening of the schools in September. 

Owing to the impossibility of making agree- 
ments about railway rates at the present time, 
no announcement of a party from Minneapolis 
can be made thus early. In the past it has 
been an easy matter to get excursion rates 
during July so that the railway fare and 
sleeping car tariff between Minneapolis and 
Victoria may be estimated under $75. If a 
sufficient number join the station and desire 
the organization of a party to make the trip 
together, such organization will be undertaken 
and the trip will be made by one of the 
northern transcontinental routes with the usual 
stop-offs in the mountains. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 486. 


The Minnesota Seaside Station is a biolog- 
ical camp and laboratory situated on the 
Straits of Fuca opposite Cape Flattery and 
in full view of the Olympic Mountains. The 
large log living house and the two laboratory 
buildings are upon the rocky and picturesque 
shore of the sea, while immediately behind 
there is the trackless forest of Vancouver 
Island with scarcely a human habitation. The 
combination of sea and forest and the absence 
of any of the distractions of the town make 
this camp one of the best spots in the country 
for study, recreation and health, as the hun- 
dred teachers and students who have visited it , 
during the last three years can very well at- 
test. During the season sunny weather is to 
be expected. There is an absence of noxious 
insects. One may sleep out of doors by drift- 
wood fires and there is a sand beach with 
good bathing. Leisure moments can be oc- 
eupied in cod or brook trout fishing, or in 
hunting. : 

The laboratories are equipped with micro- 
scopes and ordinary laboratory apparatus and 
during the month one can get a very complete 
introduction to a knowledge of the plants and 
animals of the shore. The configuration of the 
coast is favorable to the development of a 
varied fauna and flora. There are no restric- 
tions placed upon legitimate collecting, and 
many of those who have visited the station 
have brought back large amounts of valuable 
botanical and zoological material. There are 
facilities for research and some important 
work has already been accomplished by mem- 
bers of previous parties. 

An interesting feature at the station is lec- 
ture work conducted out of doors at various 
places within easy walking distance of the 
camp. Hyenings are spent with informal 
talks upon biological or educational subjects 
or in song and story, sometimes in the large 
living room of the camp and sometimes around 
bonfires or mussel-bakes on the beach. 

The botanical work during 1904 will be un- 
der the general direction of Professor Con- 
way MacMillan, who will conduct special 
laboratory courses upon the ecology and 
morphology of the kelps and upon the anatomy 
and classification of the liverworts and mosses 


aC St eye se eS dal oe) 


APRIL 22, 1904.] 


of the region. Two courses upon alge will 
be given by Miss Josephine E. Tilden and a 
course upon lichens by Dr. Albert Schneider, 
the author of the leading American text-book 
upon this subject. Dr. Schneider will also give 
some lectures upon bacteria and nitrogen as- 
similation. The name of the instructor in 
zoology, who will have charge of the zoological 
laboratory, can not be announced until later. 
Such courses as are provided are believed to 
be of the most value to the inland student 
visiting the seashore. 

By special arrangement with the authorities 
of the University of Minnesota it is possible to 
accept work done at the seaside station by 
graduates of colleges as counting for credit 
towards the degree of master of arts. 

The station fee which covers board, lodg- 
ing, laboratory space, instruction, ete., at the 


station is $75 for the month. Those who ex- 


pect to join the party are urged to send in 
their names as soon as possible in order that 
the director may know for how many to pro- 
vide. 

Descriptions of the station may be found in 
The Popular Science Monthly for January, 


1902; the Journal of Geography for June, 


1902; and Nature for December 18, 1902. 

To those who join the party full instructions 
concerning all matters of detail will be fur- 
nished by letter. 

Conway MacMinnan, 
Professor of Botany, 
University of Minnesota, 
Minneapolis, Minn. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tur Bruce Gold Medal of the Astronomical 
Society of the Pacific has been awarded to Sir 
William Huggins for distinguished services to 
astronomy. 

Princiea C. Lioyp Morean, of University 
College, Bristol, has been offered the honorary 
degree of LL.D. by the University of Wiscon- 
sin, but has been unable to accept the honor 
because he can not attend the ceremonies 
connected with the celebration of the fiftieth 
anniversary on June 9. 

CoNnGRATULATORY addresses will be presented 
on April 22 to Sir Henry Roscoe, the eminent 


SCIENCE. 677 


chemist, on the occasion of the fiftieth anni- 
versary of receiving the doctorate from Heidel- 
berg University. The presentation will be at 
Manchester, Sir Henry Roscoe having been 
professor of chemistry at Owen’s College from 
1857 to 1887. 


Tue following new members were elected by 
the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, 
of Boston, at the meeting of April 13, 1904: 
As resident fellows: Edward S. Sheldon and 
Herbert W. Smyth, both of Cambridge, Mass. 
As associate fellows: Eugene W. Hilgard, of 
Berkeley, Cal.; James D. Hague, of New York; 
Israel C. Russell, of Ann Arbor; Abraham 
Jacobi, of New York; and T. Mitchell Prud- 
den, of New York. As foreign honorary mem- 
bers: Felix Klein, of Gottingen; Adolph Har- 
nack, of Berlin; Pasquale Villari, of Florence; 
and M. L. Gaston Boissier, of Paris. 


Campripce Universiry has resolyed to con- 
fer the honorary degree of doctor of science 
on Wilhelm Ostwald, professor of chemistry 
in the University of Leipzig. 


Lorp Ketyin has been unanimously elected 
chancellor’ of the University of Glasgow in 
the room of the late Lord Stair. 


Tur Paris Academy of Sciences has elected 
the following corresponding members: Pro- 
fessor Volterra in the section of geometry in 
the place of the late Professor Cremona; 
Dr. W. C. Brégger, professor of mineralogy 
and geology in the University of Christiania, 
in the section of mineralogy, in succession to 
the late Professor Karl von Zittel, and M. 
Charles Flahault, professor of botany in the 
University of Montpellier, in the section of 
botany, to sueceed the late M. Millardet. 


M. Santos Dumont has been made a cheva- 
lier of the legion d’honeur by the French 
government for his experiments with dirigible 
balloons. 


Dr. Cart Duispere, director ot the Elber- 
feld Dyeworks, has been given the title of 
professor. 


It is announced that Professor A. Graham 
Bell will give an exhibition of his tetrahedral 
kites before the National Geographic Society 
on April 30. 


678 


Prorrssor Paut Hanus, who holds the chair 
of education at Harvard University, will be 
given leave of absence next year, and will 
spend the time making a study of foreign 
systems of school administration. Professor 
George Santayana, of the department of phi- 
losophy, will also spend the year abroad. 


Proressor Lrverrrt Mears, Ph.D., of the 
chemistry department of Williams College, 
has been granted a year’s leave of absence and 
will probably go abroad. 

Proressor H. CO. Jones, of the Johns Hop- 
kins University, has received a grant of $1,000 
from the Carnegie Institution for research in 
physical chemistry during the year 1904-1905. 
The grant will be used for a research assistant, 
Dr. H. P. Bassett, who is now working at the 
Johns Hopkins University. This is a renewal 
of the grant which was made to Professor 
Jones for the year 1903-1904, and with which 
he received the assistance for the present year 
of Dr. F. H. Getman. 


Tue Carnegie Institution has renewed its 
grant of last year of $500 to Professor M. 
Gomberg, of the chemistry department of the 
University of Michigan. This sum is ex- 
pended for the payment of an assistant. 


Art the recent council meeting of the Ameri- 
ean Anthropological Association, held at the 
American Museum of Natural History, New 
York, Mr. George Grant MacCurdy was elected 
secretary of the association in the place of 
Dr. A. L. Kroeber, resigned. 


Dr. Carto von Marcuersertt has been ap- 
pointed director of the botanical gardens at 
Trieste. 


Sir Winuiam Ramsay, of University Col- 
lege, London, will give the address at the 
next commemoration day of the University of 
Glasgow. His subject will be ‘ Joseph Black,’ 
lecturer on chemistry 1756-66 in the old col- 
lege, and enunciator of the doctrine of latent 
heat. 

Tuer death is announced, on February 4, 
of Dr. Kazuyoshi Taguchi, professor of anat- 
omy in the medical faculty of the University 
of Tokio. 

Tue second annual meeting of the South 
African Association for the Advancement of 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 486. 


Science was opened at Johannesburg, on April 
4, when Sir Charles Metcalfe delivered the 
inaugural address. Lord Milner occupied the 
chair. 


Reuter’s AGEncy is informed that the Brit- 
ish Antarctic vessel Discovery, with Captain 
Seott and his staff, is not likely to return to 
England before the autumn. Some little time 
will be spent at Christchurch in repairing the 
vessel, after which Captain Scott will enter 
upon the work of taking a line of soundings 
between New Zealand and Cape Horn. It is 
expected that the relief ships Morning- and 
Terra Nova will sail direct for home. 

Tue Goldsmith’s Company has given £1,000 
to the Royal Society for research on radium 
and radio-active bodies. 


Tue Institute of France has received a be- 
quest from M. Jean Debrousse, yielding an 
annual income of about $6,000. A thousand 
dollars has been appropriated for the publica- 
tion of a lunar table. 


Proressor J. H. van’t Horr has placed at 
the disposal of the Zevtschrift fiir Physikali- 
sche Chemie the sum of $300 for prizes for 
papers on the literature of the phenomena of 
catalysis. The papers may be published in 
the journal and must be received before June 
30, 1905. 


Tue Royal Astronomical Society is making 
a collection of portraits of its past presidents, 
and has recently received from Sir Robert 
Ball a portrait of Professor Brinkley; of 
Manuel Johnson, who was Radcliffe observer 
in the middle of the last century, and of Dr. 
Rambaut. 


Tue U. S. Civil Service Commission an- 
nounces an examination on April 19-20, to 
secure eligibles to fill a vacancy in the posi- 
tion ‘of assistant (male) in the Nautical 
Almanac Office, at $1,000 per annum, and 
other similar vacancies as they may occur. 
The commission also announces an examina- 
tion on May 11-12, 1904, for the position of 
assistant biologist (male) in the Division of 
Biological Survey, Department of Agriculture, 
at $1,200 per annum. 


Tur Lake Laboratory announces courses of 
instruction in various branches of zoology and 


ApRit 22, 1904.] 


botany for the summer of 1904. As in pre- 
vious years, provision is made for the accom- 
modation of investigators, no fee being 
charged to those who do independent work, 
but each investigator being expected to fur- 
nish his own microscope or any special ap- 
paratus required unless otherwise arranged. 
The laboratory building completed last sum- 
mer is beautifully located on Cedar Point 
across the bay from Sandusky and furnishes 
very advantageous opportunities for study and 
research. Persons enrolled at the laboratory 
are given free transportation on the steamers 
of the Cedar Point Resort Company. This 
makes it very convenient to visit neighboring 
localities and permits a wide choice in living. 
The enrolment for last summer included 
teachers and students from a number of col- 
leges and universities, chiefly in the central 
states. Announcements and full information 
may be secured from the director, Professor 
Herbert Osborn, Ohio State University, Co- 
lumbus, Ohio. 

THE magnetograph records of the Magnetic 
Observatory of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 
vey, situated at Cheltenham, Maryland, showed 
effects apparently to be attributed to two 
recent earthquakes, one of which occurred in 
the state of Washington and in British Colum- 
bia on the night of March 16, and the other in 
New England, in the early morning of March 
21. The curve showing the variations of the 
magnetic declination revealed three faint but 
distinct seismic disturbances on March 16 at 
10553™, 10559™, 23h03™ p.m., eastern time, 
the first being the most pronounced. On 
March 21, the same curve showed a very plain 
Seismic disturbance at 1508™, eastern time. 
The times in both instances are in fair agree- 
ment with the reported times in the news- 
papers. In neither instance were the hori- 
zontal and vertical intensity curves aftected. 

THe Canadian Government has purchased 
for $75,000 the steamer Gauss, which was built 
three years ago for the German Antarctic ex- 
pedition at a cost of $125,000. She is to be 
commanded by Captain Bernier, and will be 
employed at once in conveying relief stores 
and coal to the government steamer Neptune, 
at present wintering in Hudson Bay. Sub- 


SCIENCE. 


679 


sequently she will be engaged in survey work 
on the coast of Labrador. It is said that Cap- 
tain Bernier hopes to be able to utilize the 
Gauss in 1905 in an attempt to reach the 
North Pole from Canada. 


THE directors of the Manchester Chamber of 
Commerce haye resolved to urge upon the city 
corporation that in the interest of the general 
wellbeing of the district a municipal indus- 
trial and commercial museum should be estab- 
lished and constantly replenished for the pur- 
pose of exhibiting permanently the raw ma- 
terials and manufactures of British Colonies, 
India, and foreign countries. Such an insti- 
tution they regard as an invaluable means of 
instruction as to the requirements and eco- 
nomic situation of other countries, and as an 
authoritative source of information as to the 
eustoms and habits of their peoples. 


A CORRESPONDENT writes to the London 
Times that it is officially announced that the 
secretary of state for India has sanctioned the 
decision of the government of India to estab- 
lish an agricultural research station, with an 
experimental farm and an agricultural college, 
at Pusa, in the Darbhangah district of Bengal, 
and to devote to the purpose the donation re- 
cently entrusted to the Viceroy by Mr. Henry 
Phipps for some object of public utility, pref- 
erably for scientific research. The farm is 
to serve as a model for similar institutions 
under provincial governments, some of the ex- 
isting institutions being in need of improve- 
ment. Lines of experiment are to be initiated 
and tested before being recommended for trial 
under local conditions on the provincial farms; 
seed of improved varieties will be grown for 
distribution in the different provinces; results 
reported from other farms will be tested; sci- 
entific research work will be carried on; and 
practical training will be given to students 
at the college, which is to be known as the 
Imperial Agricultural College. The students’ 
course will be one of five years, and it will 
be open to young men from all parts of India. 
The government will look to the institution to 
provide them with teachers of agricultural 
subjects, with managers of experimental or 
demonstration farms, and with officers of the 
Court of Wards. At the same time the trained 


680 


staff and laboratories at Pusa will provide 
facilities for the application of higher science 
to those agricultural problems the importance 
of which to the welfare of India and its people 
ean hardly be exaggerated. Mr. Bernard 
Coventry, manager of the Dalsingh Serai es- 
tate, has been appointed principal, and enters 
upon his new duties forthwith, but the college 
will not be ready to receive students until 
August or September of next year. 


Tue five-foot equatorial telescope, with 
Newtonian and Cassegrain mirrors, and many 
other astronomical and optical instruments 
belonging to the late Dr. Common, are offered 
for sale by T. A. Common, 88 Wigmore Street, 
London, W. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tuer Drapers’ Company, in addition to their 
previous gift of £10,000, have promised £5,000 
to the building fund of University College, 
Cardiff. 


Tue secretary of state for India has vetoed 
the proposal to abolish the engineering college 
at Coopers Hill, the proposal having been 
warmly opposed by the government of India, 
and by the Departments of Public Works, 
Forests and Telegraphs, which are recruited 
from the college. 


Accorpine to The British Medical Journal, 
the total number of students attending the 
French universities is 30,405, made up as fol- 
lows: Paris 12,985, Aix-Marseille 1,080, 
Besancon 333, Bordeaux 2,320, Caen 752, 
Clermont 299, Dijon 880, Grenoble 705, Lille 
1,164, Montpellier 1,707; Nancy 1,327, Poitiers 
863, Rennes 1,190, Lyon 2,069, Toulouse 2,291. 
The Arts Faculty has 4,384 students, of whom 
3,873 are French, It has 613 women students. 
Law has 10,972 students, and of these 4,382 
belong to the University of Paris and 1,021 
to Toulouse. In the Faculty of Science there 
are 4,765 students, of whom 1,546 attend the 
Paris Faculty, 552 that of Lyon, and 476 at 
Nancy. There is a total of 6,686 students of 
medicine, of whom 6,115 are French. They 
are distributed as follows: Paris 3,496, Lyon 
958, Bordeaux 654, Montpellier 552. There are 
571 foreigners attending this Faculty, of whom 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 486. 


197 belong to Persia, 89 to Turkey, 63 to 
Bulgaria, and 57 to Roumania. To these must 
be added 202 French women students and 164 
women students from abroad, together with 
1,558 students who are taking the course of 
medicine and pharmacy. Besides these there 
are 3,014 students of pharmacy. 


Mr. J. G. Jack will conduct a field class at 
the Arnold Arboretum on Saturdays during 
the spring and early summer, to assist those 
who wish to gain a more intimate knowledge 
of the native and foreign trees and shrubs 
which grow in New England. 


AT a meeting of the trustees of Columbia 
University, on April 11, the heads of the de- 
partments of civil, mechanical, electrical and 
mining enginering and of metallurgy were as- 
signed to seats in the faculty of pure science. 
Dr. William T. Bull, professor of surgery, 
tendered his resignation, to take effect on 
June 30. 


Tue senate of London University has re- 
solved to establish a degree in veterinary 
science in the faculty of science. 


At Harvard University Dr. C. L. Bouton 
has been appointed “assistant professor of 
mathematics and Mr. G. S. Reyner, assistant 
professor of mining; Dr. H. W. Morse has 
been appointed instructor in physics. 


Miss Mary Perrier Anperson, who had 
charge of the instruction in nature study in 
the summer session at Columbia University in 
1903, has been appointed instructor in botany 
at Mt. Holyoke College for the coming year. 
Miss Anderson has recently received the first 
prize for an essay on the preservation of na- 
tive plants awarded by the New York Botan- 
ical Garden. 


Mr. Swney Skinner, M.A., of the Caven- 


dish Laboratory, and director of natural sci- 


ence studies at Clare College, Cambridge, has 
been appointed principal of the Southwestern 
Polytechnic, Chelsea. 


Mr. W. L. Symes, M.R.C.S., has been ap- 
pointed scientifie assistant in physiology at 
London University. Mr. John Herbert Par- 
sons has been awarded the degree of doctor of 
science in physiology as an external student. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frppay, Aprin 29, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The Northeast Coast of Brazil in Ancient 
Cartography: Dr. Onvitte A. DERBY...... 681 


Scientific Books :— 


Gould’s Biographic Clinics: Dz. SoLtomon 


SoLtis CoHEN 694 


Scientific Journals and Articles........... oo Oi 
Societies and Academies :— 
The National Academy of Sciences; New 
York Section of the American Chemical So- 
ciety: Dr. H. C. SHzeRMAN. The Anthropo- 
logical Society of Washington: DR. WALTER 
HovucH. The Biological Society of Washing- 


ton: WILFRED H. OsaooD...............- 698 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Titles of Papers: PROFESSOR CHARLES 
BASKERVILLE, F. A. B. Marginal and Ridge 
Scales in Cephalaspis and Drepanaspis: Dr. 
CPR VAS IMVAUN she cepevatel aistrerelolene) stelencierezeielulchets 


Special Articles :— 
On the Feasibility of measuring Tides and 
Currents at Sea: R. A, Harris. Sex Dif- 
ferences in the Sense of Time: PROFESSOR 
ROBERT MAcDOUGALL.................... 


The National Physical Laboratory.......... 


The Bermuda Biological Station for Research: 
Proressor EH. L. Mark and Proressor C. 
L. BristoL 


Scientific Notes and News................. 
University and Educational News........... 712 
MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 


for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
sou-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE NORTHEAST COAST OF BRAZIL IN 
ANCIENT CARTOGRAPHY.* 

Tue publication of the great atlas con- 
staining reproductions of. almost all the 
known old maps of Brazil that accompanies 
the exposition of the Brazilian representa- 
tive, Baron Rio Branco, to the arbitrator in 
the question of the limits of Guyana, makes 
possible, for the first time in Brazil, the 
study of the ancient cartography of that 
country. Having applied myself to this 
study in a recent paper entitled ‘Os Map- 
pas mais antigos do Brasil’ published in 
Vol. VII. of the Revista do Instituto His- 
torico de Sgo Paulo, I verified the possi- 
bility of amplifying and correcting the 
scanty written documents relative to the 
first epoch .of Brazilian history, and being 
invited by Baron Studart to contribute to 
the commemoration of the first settlement 
of the state of Ceara, it seemed to me that 
I could best respond to his intentions 
by making a similar study of the portion 
of the coast to which that state belongs. 
Both geographically and historically this 
portion is limited on the south by Cape 
Santo Agostinho and on the north by the 
mouth of the Amazonas, and to this section 
the present study will be exclusively de- 
voted. 

In the above-mentioned paper, I treated 
summarily of this section in the analysis 
of the map of Juan de la Cosa of 1500 in 
which it was for the first time represented 
on the basis of the data furnished by the 
explorations of Vicente Yanez Pinzon and 


* Translated from the memorial volume of the 
tricentennial of the state of Ceara, Brazil. 


Diogo de Lepe, which were made in that 
same year. I now propose to make a more 
detailed study of this precious document 
and of the maps that followed it. 

A careful examination of the map of 
Juan de la Cosa indicates that the author 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 487. 


Hojeda in 1499, commenced. The rela- 
tively accurate configuration of this sec- 
tion, the presence of names and the placing 
under the equator of the great indentation 
that undoubtedly represents the mouth of 
the Amazonas indicate with almost absolute 


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74TAW ORADH“STHIOEL. SA S.PAULO 


had detailed information regarding the sec- 
tion of the coast from a point a little to 
the west of Cape 8. Roque to the mouth 
of the Orinoco, where his own observa- 
tions, as a member of the expedition of 


Unb y sop 9 


certainty that this part of the map was 
copied from an older map (a prototype in 
the phrase of Harrisse) based on the ob- 
servations of one or more of the first navi- 
gators that had coasted along it.. The 


Aprit 29, 1904.] 
| 

point where this prototype commenced is 
clearly indicated by the beginning of the 
nomenclature in front of the figure of a 
Spanish ship, by the inscription referring 
to Pinzon and by the perfunctory char- 
acter of the drawing to the southward of 
the bend of the coast that represents Cape 
S. Roque. ‘ 

Judging exclusively by the map, one 
would say that the characteristic configura- 
tion of the coast in the neighborhood of 
this cape was recognized by one of the first 
discoverers, but that he only landed to the 
west of this pot at the mouth of a river 
of which the name has been destroyed by 
a rent in the paper of the map. The first 
letter of this name is an S, which seems to 
indicate a denomination taken from the 
saints’ calendar. Following comes a series 
of sixteen names to another rent in the 
paper, indicative of a detailed examination 
of the coast, to which was applied denom- 
inations that for the most part are simply 
descriptive. Amongst these the most sig- 
nificative is ‘rio de sefallohuacruz’ (river 
where a cross was found), which indicates 
that the author of the name was preceded 
by another christian. The only name of 
this series that is not descriptive is “C’ de 
stm®’ (Cape Santa Maria), taken from the 
calendar and probably indicative of a date, 
and with regard to which it should be noted 
(as Harrisse has already observed) that it 
belongs to a group of names written in a 
different hand from that of the body of the 
map. Beyond this first series of names 
another rent in the paper, in a position that 
includes the gulf of Maranhao,* has per- 
haps destroyed some other names. Follow- 
ing comes a considerable stretch of coast 
without names but with a pronounced topo- 
graphical feature in the drawing in the 


* Maranh4o, and Maranham are different modes 
of writing the same Portuguese word, the first 
form being the one usually employed in modern 
writings. 


SCIENCE. 


683 


strong indentation of the coast line, that 
presumably represents the southern mouth 
of the Amazonas, or Rio Para. Another 
indentation with a group of six names and 
placed under the equator undoubtedly rep- 
resents the main mouth of the Amazonas 
designated by the names of ‘g2 de Stm”’ 
(Gulf of Santa Maria) and ‘elmacareo’ 
(pororéea or bore). 

The conclusion to be drawn from the 
study of the map is that this part of the 
coast was explored by two discoverers and 
afterwards. represented by Juan de la Cosa 
on the basis of a prototype embodying the 
observations of one or the other, or both, 
of whom the second registered the finding 
of a cross set up by the first. These ex- 
plorers, or one of them, seem to have 
sighted the coast near Cape S. Roque, so 
as to have perceived its inflexion to the 
south, but to have only landed to the west 
of this cape, and to have followed the coast 
closely throughout a certain section, noting 
and naming all its details, to afterwards 
sail farther out before landing again at 
the mouth of the Amazonas. 

Another map almost contemporary with 
that of Juan de la Cosa and presumably 
based on the results of the same explora- 
tions is the one organized in Lisbon in the 
year 1502 by order of Albert Cantino. In 
the above-mentioned paper, in which the 
South American part of this map is repro- 
duced, I presented reasons for believing 
that it was in great part compiled from 
information gathered from sailors in the 
port of Lisbon rather than from preexist- 
ing maps. Thus for the southern coast of 
Brazil there are indications of slightly de- 
tailed information relative to the Portu- 
euese expedition of 1501, the author, on 
his own account, substituting the name 
“Cape Sao Roque,’ given by that expedition 
by ‘Cape St. George,’ probably im com- 
memoration of the date of discovery of 
Brazil at Porto Seguro by Cabral. 


684 


In the section here considered the Can- 
tino map is without details and names, 
with the exception of two great gulfs which 
seem to represent that of Maranhdo and 
the mouth of the Amazonas. The first 
bears the inscription ‘Canabales. Golfo 
fermoso’ (Canabals. Gulf fermoso), and 
the second that of ‘rio grande’ and, in 
front, ‘todo este mar é agua doce’ (all this 
sea is fresh water). From this it may be 
coneluded that one of the explorers of 1500 
entered the gulf of Maranhao and had here 
an encounter with the Indians. 

In the configuration of the coast the 
Cantino map gives an almost northeast 
direction to the section between Cape S. 
Roque and the mouth of the Amazonas, 
thus throwing the latter far to the north 
of the equator. This defect reappears in 
many of the early maps, especially those 
printed in Germany, which evidently took 
this Cantino map, or some of its deriva- 
tives, as a prototype. 

A new exploration of this coast is appar- 
ently indicated by the map reproduced in 
the text (p. 84) of Rio Branco’s second 
memoir where it is attributed to Count 
Ottomano Freducci and to the year 1514 
or 1515. For the section to the south of 
Cape S. Roque the prototype of this map 
was evidently a simplified copy of the Por- 
tuguese map of 1502, or some other one 
similar to it; and for the section to the 
north of the Amazonas, a Spanish map 
similar to those mentioned below of Mai- 
ollo, the Turin map or that of Diego 
Ribeiro, and which was not that of Juan 
de la Cosa. The intermediate section, how- 
ever, presents special characteristics which 
may be either Portuguese or Spanish. 
Among the four names of this section 
‘ce. negro’ recalls the ‘r. negro’ and ‘m. 
negro’ of the Juan de la Cosa map, but 
‘maranon,’ ‘rio fresco,’ ‘ce. blanco’ and 
‘paricura’ are entirely new. It is worthy 
of note that the topographical drawing, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


which is generally perfunctory, represents 
two rivers near the name Maranon and a 
large island dividing the mouth of the 
Amazonas, thus being in this respect re- 
markably accurate. 

The Maiollo map of 1519 evidently had 
substantially the same prototypes as that 
of Freducci for the sections to the south 
of Cape S. Roque and to the north of the 
Amazonas, but another one for the section 
here considered. As its rich nomenclature 
is Italianized it is difficult to say if it was 
originally Portuguese or Spanish, but the 
use in two places of ‘fumos’ instead of 
‘humos’ indicates the former. The ex- 
treme eastern point of the continent figures 
with the name of ‘ce. de spicell’ (c. de S. 
Miguel?), S. Roque (‘s. rom’ on the map) 
being placed to the southward of a new 
name ‘Rio de piedre’ which is probably the 
Rio Goyana. These new names of ‘Cape 
S. Miguel’ and ‘Rio das Pedras,’ which 
appear to the south of Cape S. Roque (like 
‘Pernambuco’ and ‘Rio das Virtudes,’ 
which appeared almost simultaneously in 
maps of 1518 and 1523), probably come 
from Portuguese navigators who explored 
the southern part of the continent, those 
of the new prototype beginning to the west 
of the Cape Spicell of the map. Amongst 
these last are ‘e. denigri’ and ‘maralion’ 
that are probably identical with the ‘ce. 
negro’ and ‘maranon’ of the Freducci map, 
though the latter name is placed to the 
eastward of the feature in the drawing that 
undoubtedly represents the gulf of Mar- 
anhaio. Discharging into the latter is a 
‘Rio de pe’ which like ‘cauo coreo’ is a 
significative name to which we shall return 
later. It is to be noted that in his later 
map of 1527 Maiollo emended the nomen- 
elature of the coast between Cape S. Roque 
and the mouth of the Orenoco making it 
correspond almost exactly with that of the 
Freducci map, with which he had evidently 
become acquainted in this interval of time. 


—pPrENSE-S 


Apri 29, 1904.] 


Another Italian map known by the name 
of ‘The Turin Map,’ and attributed to the 
year 1523, bears a rich nomenclature differ- 
ent from that of those above mentioned, and 
one most decidedly of Portuguese origin. 
Amongst the 24 names in the section in 


SCIENCE. 


6 85 


with the name of ‘Golfo Claro,’ while the 
mouth of the Amazonas is without special 
denomination, though clearly imdicated in 
the drawing, and with the characteristic 
name of ‘Costa de paricura’ in the north- 
ern margin. — 


TURIM (1523 2) 


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ing is perfunctory, the gulf of Maranhao 
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The map of Diego Ribeiro, Royal Cos- 
mographer of Spain, of 1529, bears the ex- 
press declaration that the coast between the 
Rio Duleo (Orinoco) and Cape S. Roque 
contains nothing of profit, and that haying 


686 


been coasted along once or twice soon after 
the discovery of the Indias (America), no 
one returned to it. This declaration indi- 
cates that in the official Spanish depart- 
ment (Casa de la Contratacion of Seville) 
especially charged with the gathering of 
information regarding voyages and dis- 
coveries, maps already known in Italy, like 
those on which Freducci, Maiollo and the 
author of that of Turin based their work, 
were either unknown or overlooked. Ac- 
cording to this declaration the prototype 
for the section here considered must have 
been a map representing the discoveries of 
Pinzon and Lepe, but differing in the draw- 
ing and in the nomenclature from that of 
Juan de la Cosa. On a comparison of the 
two it appears that Diego Ribeiro identified 
the Amazonas (with the name of Maranon) 
with the first creat indentation, or Rio Para 
(2) of the map of Juan de la Cosa, re- 
ducing the second to a bay full of islands, 
and with the name of ‘furna grande.’ 
Thus is explained the erroneous placing of 
the mouth of the great river to the south- 
ward of the equator, which persisted for a 
long time in the Spanish maps (or those 
derived from them) and introduced great 
confusion in geography. The gulf of 
Maranh4o (with the name of ‘furna’) is of 
slight prominence in the Ribeiro map, but 
is well placed with reference to the south- 
ern mouth of the Amazonas, and is figured 
with the characteristic entrance of two 
rivers at the head. ‘C. negro’ is the only 
name that can be positively identified on 
any preceding map, including that of Juan 
de la Cosa. The name ‘R. de uicéte pison’ 
appears to be an interpolation made by the 
cartographer in his prototype, in com- 
memoration of the first discoverer. Other 
map-makers, commencing with Freducci, 
made a similar interpolation, but in the 
section to the north of the Amazonas, and 
this use prevailed, giving as a result the 
well-known complication of the Oyapock 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No. 487. 


question between Brazil and France. The 
absence in this map of characteristic Pin- 
zonian names is a notable fact which 
perhaps indicates that its prototype was 
based principally on the voyage of Lepe. 

The maps that succeeded that of Diego 
Ribeiro, commencing with one dated 1534, 
indicate the introduction, for the section in 
question, of a new prototype of Portuguese 
origin; and it is a notable fact that this 
served for many years as a prototype for 
maps of all origins, Portuguese, Spanish, 
French and Dutch. This new prototype 
must therefore have been based on a Portu- 
euese exploration made between the years 
1529 and 1534. ‘The original maps based 
on this prototype are the Spanish ones of 
Alonzo de Chaves (Padron Real of 1536), 
Alonzo de Santa Cruz (1542), Sebastian 
Cabot (1544) and Diego Gutierrez (1550, 
1562) ; the French ones of Nicolas Desliens 
(1541) and Pierre Desceliers (1550); the 
Portuguese ones of Gaspar Viegas (1534), 
Diogo Homen (1558, 1568), André Homen 
(1559), Lazaro Luiz (1563), Bartholemeu 
Velho (1564) and Fernao Vaz Dourado 
(1568, 1571 and 1580), and the Dutch maps 
in great number derived from one or an- 
other of the preceding, but for the most 
part from that of Gutierrez of 1562 and 
of Bartholemeu Velho of 1564. 

The characteristic of this prototype by 
which it can be identified in all of its re- 
productions is the topographical design of 
the gulf of Maranhao and of the rivers that 
discharge into it. The nomenclature is 
characterized by the preservation of a good 
part of the names of the Maiollo map 
(probably indicating that the explorer fol- 
lowed the coast with this map, or a deriva- 
tive from it, in hand) and by the intro- 
duction of many new Portuguese names, 
amonest which that of Diogo Leite is espe- 
cially significant, as it may be presumed to 
be that of the explorer himself. 


APRIL 29, 1904.] 


Not having at hand the oldest of these 
maps (that of Gaspar Viegas of 1534*), we 
take as presumably the most complete and 
accurate of the reproductions of this proto- 
type, that of Diogo Homen for the nomen- 
elature, and of Pierre Desceliers for the 
topographical design of the neighborhood 
of Maranhao. ‘This last map is also inter- 
esting as showing that notwithstanding its 
date posterior to the voyage of Orellana 
down the Amazonas, the drawing was made 
before this event, the river being inter- 
polated (and erroneously) in a design that 
figured a continuous coast line to the north- 
ward of the gulf of Maranhao. The same 
interpolation, but more artfully made, is 
to be noted in the Desliens map, while 
Alonzo de Santa Cruz (and undoubtedly 
also Alonzo de Chaves in his lost Padron 
Real), not knowing the Amazonas of Orel- 
lana, adjusted the new prototype to the 
old maps by suppressing the Amazonas and 
identifying the ‘Rio de la Mar Dulce’ of 
Pinzon (to which the Spaniards had ap- 
plied the name of ‘Maranon’) with the gulf 
of Maranhao of the Italian cartographers 
and of the new Portuguese explorer. 
Other Spanish cartographers (Cabot and 
Gutierrez) resolved the difficulty by hash- 
ine the drawing and nomenclature of the 
new prototype to the west of Maranhao. 
From this resulted the confusion and dis- 
cordance of the early maps that figured so 
largely in the discussion of the limits be- 
tween Brazilian and French Guyana, with- 


* This map preserved in the National Library 
of Paris is, according to the note by Harrisse 
(op. cit., p. 599), a nautical chart representing, 
in the Brazilian part, the coast from two or three 
degrees to the west of Maranhao to about two 
degrees to the south of the La Plata estuary. 
With reference to it Ferdinand Diniz (cited by 
Harrisse) says: “ Captain Mouchez who had been 
charged by the French government with the con- 
tinuation and improvement of the work of Admiral 
Roussin (the marine chart of the coast of Brazil) 
was like myself astonished by the relative ac- 
curacy of this geographical monument.” 


SCIENCE. 


687 


out their origin being discovered on ac- 
count of the loss of the Padron Real of 
Alonzo de Chaves from which they pro- 
ceeded. The recent publication in Sweden 
of the map of Alonzo de Santa Cruz, which 
is essentially a reproduction of the Padron 
Real, clears up the matter perfectly, show- 
ing that in a group of maps antedating 
the voyage of Orellana there was a total 
suppression of the Amazonas, which had 
afterwards to be restored confusedly. 

In view of the circumstances above indi- 
eated we have selected for reproduction the 
maps of Diogo Homen, Desceliers and 
Alonzo de Santa Cruz. The others give 
more or less diversified variances of the 
same theme. 

In studying this prototype one is im- 
pressed with the relatively minute and 
accurate representation of the hydrography 
of the basin of the gulf of Maranhao (far 
superior, for example, to the representation 
given by the famous Sebastian Cabot to the 
River Plate basin where he had been for 
four years), and by the introduction of a 
group of Indian names of which some 
(Itapicuri and Pindaré) have been pre- 
served to the present day. This seems to 
indicate that the explorer found here an 
European domiciled amongst the Indians 
and well acquainted with the topographical 
details of the region. This supposition is, 
to a certain extent, confirmed by the fact 
that the only other indigenous names are 
found grouped between Pernambuco and 
Cape S. Roque, where the Europeans had 
been for some years in contact with the 
Indians so as to have become somewhat 
acquainted with their language. 

The topographic design of the reproduc- 
tions of this prototype in the maps of Diogo 
Homen and Desceliers is sufficiently de- 
tailed to permit the identification of some 
of the more salient features, and, based 
upon these, we can attempt that of the 
names as follows, taking them from the 


688 


map of Diogo Homen which best preserves 
their original Portuguese form: 

C. de S. Agostinho.—This name origi- 
nated with the Portuguese expedition of 
1501, which also used the name of ‘C. da 
Santa Cruz’ for the same feature. 

Parcarohy. 

Rk. do Extremo.—On the plausible hy- 
pothesis that the ‘Pernambuco’ of the map 
was situated to the north of the present 
city, this would be the river Capibaribe. 

Pernambuquo.—This name in the form 
‘Pernambua’ appeared for the first time in 
a Portuguese map referred to the year 
1518. 

R. das Virtudes.—Probably the canal of 
Itamaraca. 

R. das Pedras.—Rio Goyana. This name 
appears for the first time in the Maiollo 
map of 1519, but dislocated to the north. 
Sebastian Cabot went, in 1526, from Per- 
nambuco to the Rio das Pedras to take 
water, passing by the Rio das Virtudes, 
which apparently was not suitable for the 
purpose. This last name appears in the 
Turin map of 1523. 

S. Miguell.Another map by Diogo 
Homen, dated in the same year, has instead 
“e. de spicell,’ which had already appeared 
in the maps of Maiollo and of Turin. 
This seems to be Cape Branco to the south 
of Parahyba. 

R. de 8. Dominguos.—Rio Parahyba. 

B. de Pitiacua de treicam.—Bahia da 
Traicio (Bay of the Ambuscade). The 
name probably refers to some historical 
event before 1534, as it appears in the 
Chaves map in the form of ‘Epitiaca,’ and 
in that of Viegas as ‘b. da treicam.’ The 
name is generally attributed to an event 
that took place in 1556, but erroneously, 
as these maps prove. 

Orotapica, Orapi.These two names in 
the vicinity of the city of Natal (Rio 
Grande do Norte) are the last of a group 
of Indian names that extend from the Cape 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


S. Agostinho, and probably indicate that 
to this point extended the more or less 
friendly relations of the whites with the 
Indians. 

Tierra de S. Roque.—In the vicinity of 
the cape of the same name. 

C. do Parcell.—Probably the Cape Cal- 
canhar, the extreme point of the continent. 
B. Apracelada.—(The bay of reefs.) 

P+. Primeira.—(The first point.) 

B. de Tartarugas.— (Turtle Bay.) Bahia 
de Aguamaré(?) The Desceliers map 
has ‘Grande baya’ but before the Ponta 
Primeira. 

R. de 8. Domingos.—Rio Aci (?) 

R. Dangra.—Rio Mossoré ( ?) 

C. Corco.—This name appears first in 
the Maiollo map of 1519 and continues to 
that of Brué of 1834, where it is identified 
with the Ponta do Retiro Grande between 
the mouths of the Mossor6 and Jaguaribe. 
The Desceliers map gives here ‘Serres de 
S. Michel,’ a name that persisted until after 
the Dutch invasion. 

R. dos Arecifes.— (River of Reefs.) 

R. dos Fumos.—(Smoke River.) This 
name appears in the Maiollo map. It is 
probably on the coast of Aracaty in Ceara. 

C. Branco.—Ponta de Mucuripe (2) 

Tierras de S. Lucas.— Vicinity of Forta- 
leza (or Ceara) (?) The name is applied 
to a gulf in the Maiollo map. 

M. Fermoso. 

M. Delli.itThe other map of the same 
year by Diogo Homen gives ‘M. dely’; Mai- 
ollo, ‘M. de elli.’ It is probably the Serra 
de Mamameguape which, though situated in 
the interior, is an imposing feature of this 
part of the coast. Maiollo places close by 
the name ‘Maralion.’ 

G. dos Negros.—Gulf of Ceara (?). This 
is in the region of the ‘r. negro’ and ‘“m. 
negro’ of the Juan de la Cosa map. The 
“C. Negri’ of Maiollo and the ‘ec. negro’ of 
the maps of Freducci, Turin and Diego 


Apri 29, 1904.] 


Ribeiro appear to be more to the west in 
the neighborhood of the river Parnahyba. 
_P%. dos Prazeres.—(Point of Pleasures.) 
Tierra da Pescaria.— (Fishing grounds. ) 
C. do Palmar.—(Cape of the Palm 
Groves. ) 

R. do Pracell.—(River of the Reef.) 
Rio Acaract (?) 

R. da Cruz.— (River of the Cross.) This 
name appears to be preserved to the present 
day for one of the rivers discharging into 
the bay of Camocim. It is probably the 
“R. das 3 bras’ of the Desceliers map, al- 
though this name comes before the ‘R. do 
pracell.’ 

Tierra dos Fumos.—(Uand of Smoke.) 

C. da Loest.— (Hast (?) Cape.) 

Tierra de S. Vte.—(S. Vincent’s Land.) 

R. Grande.—Rio Parnahyba. 

C. Daviso.— (Advise Cape.) 

B. da Coroa.—(Bay of the Sandbank.) 
Bahia de Tutoya (?). 

Costa Brava.—(Wild Coast.) ‘Coste 
blanche’ on the Desceliers map. Costa dos 
Lengoes. : 

P. das Correntes.—(Point of the Cur- 
rents.) Ponta Mangaes Verdes. 

k&. Danobom.—(Rio de Anno Bom = 
New Year’s River.), The Desceliers map 
gives ‘R. de vobom’; Chaves and other 
Spanish maps, ‘R. de Naubom.’ 

R. do Meo.— (Middle River.) 

R. dos Reis.— (River of the Kings.) 

R. do Joao de Lis*.—(John of Lisbon’s 
River.) Rio Piria (?), or perhaps the 
Rio Monim. 

G. de Todos os Sanctos.—(All Saints’ 
Gulf.) Bahia de Sao José, southern part 
of the Gulf of Maranhao. 

O. Maranham.—Almost all of the old 
maps employ the name in this manner 
with the article 0 or simply without any 
qualifying term.* 

*This manner of using the name is very sug- 


gestive of a topographical term. The Portuguese 
language has in its marine topographical termi- 


SCIENCE. 


689 


Abatimirim.—This and the four follow- 
ing names come in the Desceliers map, but 
not in that of Diogo Homen. 

Tapicoram.—Itapicurti (river). 

Abiwunham.—This name also appears in 
the map of Bartholomeu Velho where it 
seems to be applied to the river Parnahyba. 

Camicam.—The other Diogo Homen map 
gives ‘Acencam’ (Ascension). 

Cabat.—On an affluent of a river without 
name that represents the Grajanu. This 
affluent represents very well the river Pin- 
daré, and the name ‘Pinare’ appears in the 
Gaspar Viegas map of 1534 and in the 


anonymous map of the Riccardiana 
Library. 
Baia.—(Bay.) On the northern margin 


of the Gulf of Maranhao. On the Diogo 
Homen map of 1568 the name is ‘b. grelo’ 
or ‘b. grela.’ In the same position Vaz 
Dourado has ‘Almadias.’ It is at present 
known as the Bay of Itacolumy. 

Tierra dos Fumos.— (and of Smokes.) 

Costa Aparcellada.—(Coast full of 
reefs. ) 

R. de S. Miguel._‘R. de 8. Paul’ on the 
Desceliers map. Rio Turyasst. 

B. de Diogo Leite.—Bay of Turyassa. It 
is probable that the name is that of the 
commander of the exploring expedition. 

R. de 8. Palos.—‘R. S. Marcial’ on the 
Desceliers map. Rio Maracassumé. 

R. das Baixzas.— (River of the Shoals.) 


Rio Gurupy. 


Costa Apracellada.—The other map of 
Diogo Homen of 1558 has here ‘p= da costa 
suja’ (Point of the Dirty Coast), which 
comes from the Viegas map of 1534 and is 
reproduced in many of the old maps. 


nology the term ‘o marachao’ (an artificial or 
natural barrier of sand or gravel) which would 
be very applicable to this section of the coast and 
which might readily be transformed into ‘o 
maranh4o.’ In fact the dictionary of Moraes 
cites an old author who gives (by error, says the 
lexicographer) ‘maranhées’ for ‘ marachées.’ 


690 SCIENCE. 


B. de Ilheu.—(Bay of the Islander, or 
native of the Azores.) 

Costa Baixa.—-(Low Coast.) 

B. de 8S. Joan.—Bahia da Braganea (?). 

Costa Descoberta.—(Open Coast.) This 
name, which comes on the other map of 
Diogo Homen, is given as ‘Coste descon- 
nue’ on that of Desceliers. 

B. de 8. Joan das Amazonas.—Rio Para 
or southern mouth of the Amazonas. The 
last part of the name is evidently an in- 
terpolation after the voyage of Orellana. 
At this point the Desceliers map emends 
the new Portuguese prototype with an old 
Spanish map eliminating the Amazonas 
and the nomenclature of this prototype to 
the mountains to the north of the Oyapock. 
A similar elimination occurs in the maps 
of Alonzo de Chaves and Alonzo de Santa 
Cruz. 

To the north of the month of the Ama- 
zonas the Diogo Homen map has the old 
nomenclature of the Spanish maps mixed 
with some new names (B. de muchas ishas, 
R. de Nuno and R. del Casique), which 
indicate a new exploration of this part of 
the coast. As these names appear in the 
map of the Riceardian Library this explo- 
ration must have been before the year 1543. 

Combining the deductions that can be 
legitimately drawn from the study of these 
maps with the scanty data of the written 
history, we may now attempt a restoration 
of the story of the discovery and delinea- 
tion of this portion of the coast. For this 
purpose we shall make use, as regards the 
historical data, principally of that care- 
fully collected and verified by Harrisse in 
his great work entitled ‘ The Discovery of 
North America.’ 

Vicente Yanez Pinzon, setting out from 
Spain towards the end of 1499, sighted a 
cape, which he denominated ‘Santa Maria 
de la Consolacion,’ towards the end of 
January (20th or 26th, according to the 
chroniclers; 2d of February if the name 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


indicates a date) of 1500. <A few days 
afterwards he landed and executed acts 
of possession, including the planting of a 
cross on a point that he denominated ‘Ros- 
tro Hermoso,’ perhaps for being on the 
4th of February, feast of the Veronica 
which in an old Spanish calendar is de- 
nominated ‘Rostro Hermoso.’ Continuing 
his voyage, Pinzon entered the mouth of 


“the Amazonas, which he called ‘Santa 


Maria de la Mar Dulce,’ probably on ac- 
count of being here on the 25th of March, 
feast of the Annunciation. Hutering a few 
leagues in the great river, which he called 
‘Marina tabalo,’* he had an encounter with 
the Indians. Continuing to the northward, 
he gave the name of ‘S. Vicente’ to a cape 
which he probably passed on the 4th of 
April, and arrived at Hespaniola on the 
23d of June and at Palos in Spain on the 
30th of September. 

The Cape Santa Maria of Pinzon should 
be relatively well placed on the Juan de la 


_ Cosa map, and in this case it must be some 


promontory to the west of Cape S. Roque 
on the coast of the present states of Rio 
Grande do Norte or Ceara, his Rostro Her- 
moso being some leagues farther on. Varn- 
hagen quite plausibly identified Cape Santa 
Maria with the Ponta do Mucoripe and the 
Rostro Hermoso with the Ponta Jericoa- 
coara. 

Diego de Lepe, starting from Spain 
shortly after Pinzon, took the same course 
and sighted the land at about the same 
point, whence steering eastward, he coasted 
along until he perceived the southward 
bend of the coast in the vicinity of Cape 
S. Roque, but, notwithstanding the affirma- 
tion in 1513 of his companions to the con- 
trary, did not double the cape. Turning 
about, he landed at the mouth of a river 
that he named ‘S. Julian,’ which is per- 


*May not this be a reference to the pororéca 
(bore), Marina tabalo being- a corruption of 
‘Marina-tambales’ (Agitated sea) ? 


lant bm ae 


Aprin 29, 1904.] 


haps the partially destroyed name on the 
Juan de la Cosa map that commences with 
the letter s. Continuimg westward, Lepe 
found the cross left by Pinzon, and enter- 
ing the gulf of Maranhao, found the Indians 
there to be cannibals (see the Cantino map), 
perhaps through the loss of some compan- 
ions, of whom one probably remained alive 
amongst the savages. Afterwards, leaving 
the coast so as no longer to be able to see 
and name its details, he entered the mouth 
of the Rio Para and of the Amazonas 
proper, and, coasting northward, met Pin- 
zon in the gulf of Paria. Before the 9th 
of November of 1500 Lepe had returned to 
Spain, but, as it appears, the greater part 
of his crew had returned some months be- 
fore. Two of Lepe’s companions, and per- 
haps the whole expedition, were in Hespani- 
ola in February or March of 1500, where 
they met Juan de la Cosa, who was in the 
expedition of Hojeda. 

Juan de la Cosa, being in Spain between 
the months of June and October of 1500 
in the interval of two voyages, organized 
his celebrated map, or more probably con- 
tributed the American part to a map al- 


ready made (in another style and with 


more elaborate ornamentation) by others, 
in the parts relating to the other continents. 
As Pinzon only arrived in Spain towards 
the end of September, it is almost certain 
that the section of the coast to the south 
of the Orinoco was drawn from data fur- 
nished by the companions of Lepe who had 
arrived in June without their commander. 
Thus, as has already been deduced above 
from the internal evidence of the map it- 
self, it is probable that this map represents 
essentially the configuration and nomencla- 
ture given by Lepe, and probably communi- 
cated by one of his companions. In this 
way is explained the absence in the map of 
the names ‘Santa Maria de la Consolacion, 
Rostro Hermoso, Santa Maria de la Mar 
Dulce, Rio Marina-tabalo and Cabo San 


SCIENCE. 


: 691 


Vicente,’ which in the following year were 


- employed in the Capitulacion Real to desig- 


nate the concession given to Pinzon, and 
which, being undoubtedly furnished by him 
as characteristic of his discovery, should 
necessarily figure In any map directly in- 
spired by him. It seems probable, how- 
ever, that the two names of “Santa Maria’ 
indicate a revision of the map by some com- 
panion of Pinzon. In view of the abbre- 
viated form of these two names and the 
complete lack of the others, it is hardly 
probable that their interpolation in the 
map, already almost completed, was due to 
Pinzon himself. 

In 1508 Pinzon, in company with Juan 
de Solis, again ran over this same coast, or 
at least a part of it, but in the contrary 
direction. In the combined notes of the 
two voyages furnished to Peter Martyr de 
Anghiera and published by him in 1511 in 
the first edition of his Decades, a few 
Indian names appear, and amongst these, 
in the section here studied, those of ‘Pari- 
eura’* and “Camamoro’ applied to the two 
margins of the Amazonas. 

It is to be noted that Peter Martyr only 
employed the name ‘Maranon’ in his writ- 
ings of 1516 after it had been pronounced 
by two of Lepe’s companions in the Diego 
Columbus suit of 1513. Owing to the in- 
complete state of the Juan de la Cosa 
map, which has a large rent in the place 
where the gulf of Maranh4o should appear, 
it is impossible to say whether this name 
originated with the expedition of Lepe, or 


* Caetano da Silva (‘ L’Oyapoe et l’Amazone,’ 
Vol. II., p. 381, in the Rio Branco edition) cites 
Baena as authority for the existence of a tribe 
of Indians with this name to the north of the 
mouth of the Amazonas. Being published in 1511 
and in a work that was doubtless eagerly con- 
sulted by all cartographers, the name Paracura 
appeared at once in the maps and became char- 
acteristic for the Amazonian region; it seems 
strange that its companion Camaméro should not 
have had the same good fortune. 


692 


if it was only current among sailors, having 
originated with some other expedition 
(presumably Portuguese) of which no his- 
torical notice has been preserved. The 
almost constant practice of the old map- 
makers of employing the name with the 
article, or without any qualifying term 
(O Maranham, or simply Maranham or 
Maranon) is very suggestive of a topo- 
graphical term, such as, for example, ‘O 
Porto,’ ‘El Farallan,’ ete. The Portu- 
euese marine terminology has ‘O Mara- 
chao,’ which would be very applicable to 
this part of the coast full of shoals and bars, 
and, as already noted, this name might 
easily be transformed into ‘Maranhao’ 
amongst people of slight literary culture. 

The above-mentioned hypothesis of an- 
other expedition seems the most plausible 
one. The letter of Estevao Froes* written 
from San Domingoes on the 30th of July 
of 1514 after a year’s imprisonment sub- 
sequent to a voyage along this coast, men- 
tions Joao Coelho, ‘he of the gate of the 
eross, residente of the city of Lisbon,’ and 
Diego Ribeiro as his predecessors in this 
navigation. The name ‘Joao de Lisboa’ 
which appears in the second group of maps 
above analyzed seems to commemorate the 
first of these navigators, and in this case it 
may be presumed that it was furnished by 
some member of the expedition that had 
remained in the vicinity of Maranhao, and 
that another member of the same, passing 
to Italy, may have furnished the informa- 
tion on which the relatively detailed and 
accurate representation of this vicinity in 
the Freducci map of 1514 (?) was based. 

In the suit of 1513 the pilot Andreas de 

* Cited by Varnhagen and given in full by 
Capistrano de Abreu in the pamphlet entitled 
*Descobrimento do Brazil e 0 seu desenvolvimento 
no seculo XVI.’ published in Rio de Janeiro in 
1883. The name ‘ Fernao’ given in this pam- 
phlet was corrected to ‘ Estevaéo’ in the recent 


work by the same author published in the volume 
of the fourteenth centennial of Brazil. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


Morales declared that he had made a map 
of this coast based on the information of 
Pinzon and Lepe. It is probable that this 
map (or another organized in the same 
condition and preserved in the Casa de la 
Contratacion of Seville) served as a proto- 
type for the Diego Ribeiro map of 1529, 
notwithstanding that this does not show 
evident signs of having proceeded directly 
from either of these first expeditions. 

In the same suit Pinzon identified his 
Cabo Santa Maria de la Consolacion with 
the Cape Santo Agostinho of the Portu- 
guese navigators, but it is evident that 
here he either deceived himself, or sought 
to deceive others. It is possible that 
through another error of identification on 
the part of other witnesses of the same suit, 
the name ‘Maranon’ was applied to the Mar 
de Agua Dulce (or Amazonas) of Pinzon, 
since, judging from the Fredueci and 
Maiollo maps, this name seems to have an 
origin independent of the expeditions of 
Pinzon and Lepe. 

According to the terms of the above men- 
tioned letter of Estevao Froes, his voyage 
was made in the year 1513 and in company 
with Francisco and Pero Corso, and at 
some point of the coast there was a hostile 
encounter with the Indians with whom was 
a certain Pero Galego (Pedro de Galicia). 
The name ‘Corso’ given to a cape in the 
Maiollo map seems to indicate information 
obtained from some member of this expedi- 
tion, and, this being the case, it may be 
presumed that the name ‘Rio Pero’ in the 
same map refers to the Pero Galego of the 
letter. On this hypothesis this person must 
have been located in the vicinity of the gulf 
of Maranhao, having probably been left 
there by some of the preceding expeditions. 

Another Portuguese navigator skirting 
the coast some time before 1523 applied to 
it a great many new names which in some 
way came to the knowledge of an Italian 
cartographer, author of the so-called Turin 


= et tn ite 


Aprit 29, 1904.] 


map. The fact is not referred to in the 
written history, and as the names remained 
limited to this map, which only became 
known within the last few years, this voy- 
age did not constitute a notable permanent 
contribution to the knowledge of the geog- 
raphy of the region. 

In 1527 an anonymous cartographer of 
the Casa de la Contratacion of Seville (prob- 
ably Diego Ribeiro, author of the very sim- 
ilar map of 1529) organized a map in which 
the northeast coast was represented accord- 
ing to the data registered in that department, 
which, according to the express declaration 
of Diego Ribeiro in his map of 1529, was 
derived exclusively from the voyages of 
Pinzon and Lepe. In this map, as in that 
of 1529, the Amazonas is figured in a posi- 
tion that corresponds better with the south- 
ern mouth (or Rio Para) than with the 
northern one, which is reduced to a simple 
bay with the name of ‘Furna Grande,’ al- 
though its proper position under the equa- 
tor, as in the map of Juan de la Cosa, is 
preserved. To the great river thus dis- 
located to the southward was applied the 
name of ‘Maranhom’ in the 1527 map, and 
that of ‘Maranon’ in that of 1529, the 
first form being very suggestive of a Por- 
tuguese origin. In both these maps the 
eulf of Maranha&o with its characteristic 
bifid imner-extremity is figured in its proper 
position with the name of ‘Furna.’ 

In 1531, according to the investigations 
of Varnhagen (‘Historia geral do Brazil,’ 
2d ed., 1., p. 117) Diogo Leite, a Portuguese 
official, explored the coast between Pernam- 
buco and the southern mouth of the Ama- 
zonas, and it is probable that to this ex- 
plorer should be attributed the new type of 
map which, as we have already seen, ap- 
peared between the years of 1529 and 1534. 
Whoever may have been the author, of this 
work, it is certain that between these dates 
an entirely new and very meritorious topo- 
eraphical survey of this part of the coast 


SCIENCE. 693 


was made, and by a person who from pre- 
vious maps took only the nomenclature of 
that of Maiollo, or of some other one very 
similar to it. It is equally certain that this 
explorer remained long enough in the 
vicinity of Maranhao to recognize and rep- 
resent in a truly admirable manner its lead- 
ing topographical features and to learn va- 
rious indigenous denominations; or, which 
is more probable, a person was here met 
with who through long residence was able 
to furnish this information. The ‘Pero 
Galego’ mentioned by Estevao Froes, if 
still alive, would be in these conditions, and 
the hypothesis is not a very risky one that 
he was the informant. Whoever it may 
have been, somebody before 1534 furnished 
the cartographers* with elements for rep- 
resenting the hydrographic basin of Mar- 
anhao in a manner that presents a notable 
contrast with the grotesque representations 
of those of the River Plate and Amazonas 
based on the exploration of a Sebastian 
Cabot and of an Orellana. 

The unfortunate attempt of Ayres da 
Cunha in 1536-38 to found a colony in 
Maranhao left no traces in the cartography 
of the region, unless the name ‘ Ascencao’ 
in the maps of Diogo Homen and Desceliers 
is an interpolation in their prototype of a 
denomination given by this expedition. In 
the written history, however, the name 
given to the ephemeral settlement is ‘Naz- 
areth.’ 

About 1560 the cartographers commenced 
to attempt a representation of the interior of 
the continent, supplying the lack of definite 
data by flights of the imagination. Diego 
Gutierrez figured a great river uniting, 
across the continent, Lake Titicaca with the 
eulf of Maranhao and thus duplicating the 

* Some of the maps made after this expedition 
differ somewhat in the drawing and in some of 
the names, from the earliest one preserved (that 
of Gaspar Viegas of 1534), and it is probable that 


there was another Portuguese prototype that has 
not come down to us. 


694 SCIENCE. 


Amazonas of Orellana; Bartholemeu Velho, 
in his map of 1464, represented a great 
central lake (Hupana) from which flowed 
to the south the Paraguay, to the north 
and entering the Amazonas the ‘Paraa’ 
(thus representing quite well the Tocan- 
tins), and to the east two rivers entering 
the Sao Francisco (quite well figured but 
united to the Parana) which bifureated to 
the coast of Maranh o by the river ‘ Abiun- 
hao’ (Parnahyba) and to that of Sergipe 
by the river ‘Real.’ This last feature per- 
sisted in maps until 1700. 

The Gutierrez map, printed in Amster- 
dam in 1562, had an enormous recupera- 
tion and served as a prototype for a flood 
of maps. characterized by a double Ama- 
zonas, published by the great Dutch print- 
ing firms of Ortelius, Mercator, ete. The 
equally bold conception of Bartholemeu 
Velho (reproduced, as regards the hydrog- 
raphy, by Vaz Dourado) had a somewhat 
more delayed entrance in current cartog- 
raphy, in which it was introduced in 1585 
by Jan van Doet, whose map is essentially 
a reproduction of that of Bartholemeu 
Velho, of which the original only recently 
became known. These two types of maps, 
reproduced and modified ad wfinitum, 
dominated cartography until 1625, when 
Jean de Laet, in the first edition of his 
great work on the New World, made a 
radical reform, introducing, on the basis 
of Portuguese marine charts and of Dutch 
explorations, the configuration which, im- 
proved but not essentially modified, has 
persisted till to-day. This last group of 
maps offers an interesting subject for 
study, for which, however, I have not the 


elements at hand. OrvVILLE A. DERBY. 
Sio PauLo, BRaAzit, 
June, 1903. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
GOULD’S BIOGRAPHIC CLINICS. 
Mepricat teaching has always been essen- 
tially demonstrative; and in modern days the 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 487. 


facilities for bedside or ‘ clinical’ instruction 
have been enormously enlarged. No instruct- 
or, however, has ever before gathered so 
distinguished an array of ‘subjects’ as Dr. 
George M. Gould brings before his world-class 
to illustrate his lectures upon ‘ Eye-strain.’* 
For it is in the irritation of nerve centers as 
a result of the accommodational strain neces- 
sitated by the attempt to use faulty visual 
apparatus in work requiring delicate adjust- 
ment and continuous effort, that this eminent 
lexicographer and ophthalmologist finds the 
ready explanation of the physical miseries of 
the great students, artists and writers whose 
pathologic life-history he studies. Certain 
common factors are found in these histories, 
not the least important of which are the early 
development and long persistence of the symp- 
toms, their recurrence whenever the sufferer 
used the eyes in work or study, their resistance 
to all sorts of treatment, their relief when en- 
forced rest from work gave unwitting deliver- 
ance from their cause and, finally, in those who 
survived to that period of life, their sudden 
disappearance, when accommodational effort 
ceased to be possible. The ‘mysteriousness ’ 
which the symptoms seemed to assume both 
to patients and to physicians, is also a point 
well worth noting. To quote Dr. Gould’s own 
words: “ This lack of cause or reason for their 
sufferings struck each one, and pages of ex- 
cerpts might be gathered showing their won- 
der.- An unseen malignant enemy or fatality 
seemed seated above them or at the very heart 
of their being, implacable and unexplainable. 
To their physicians they turned with beseech- 
ing question, and imploring ard. Some spent 
a great part of their lives in going from one 
doctor to another, or in testing quackery, in 
traveling for hoped relief anywhere, by 

**Biographie Clinics: The Origin of the Ill 
Health of DeQuincey, Carlyle, Darwin, Huxley and 
Browning. Idem, Volume II., George Eliot, 
George Henry Lewes, Wagner, Parkman, Jane 
Welch Carlyle, Spencer, Whittier, Margaret Fuller 
Ossoli and Nietzsche. By George M. Gould, M.D., 
Editor of American Medicine, Author of ‘An 
Illustrated Dictionary of Medicine, Biology, ete.,’ 
‘Borderland Studies,’ ‘The Meaning and Method 
of Life, ete. Philadelphia, P. Blakiston’s Son & 
Co., 1903, 1904. 


ee 


Aprit 29, 1904.] 


‘change of climate,’ ‘change of scene,’ ete. 
- Most of them tormented themselves all their 
lives in dieting, and two gave much of their 
life to the hydropathic delusion.* In every 
case the one fact stands out clearly, and it 
could be verified by any number of quotations, 
that their miseries were consequent directly 
and quickly upon use of their eyes in writing 
or reading, and yet not one of them, while 
repeatedly chronicling the fact with his own 
pen, ever caught a hint of the causal nexus.” 

Fully to appreciate the force of the evidence 
one must read the facts that Dr. Gould has 
patiently gathered not only from the narratives 
of biographers and relatives, but also from the 
letters and notes of the sufferers themselves. 
In Chapter I. of Volume II., which reproduces 
a paper upon ‘ Hye-strain and the Literary 
Life,’ read before the Canadian Medical Asso- 
ciation, the author summarizes and keenly 
analyzes the symptoms of these fourteen elect 
men and women. He points out the folly of 
attributing reflex symptoms to disease of the 
organ in which the distress happens to be 
manifested, thus treating the same person at 
different times for * brain-fag,’ for ‘ dyspepsia,’ 
for ‘neurasthenia, or perhaps attributing the 
condition to ‘pure cussedness.’ He shows 
how, especially in the case of Nietzsche, a 
sensitive organism may be irritated almost to 
the point of madness by the continual torture 
following the attempt to use the eyes for work 
to which they are not adapted. The pity of it 
is that with suitable glasses—mark the word 
suitable—all this suffering might have been 
averted. Dr. Gould further shows that the 
ehief and most poignant symptoms from 
which the subjects of his clinics suffered 
can, in at least ten of the cases, be re- 
duced essentially to the symptom-complex 
now termed ‘hemicrania’ or ‘migraine ’—in 
ordinary language, ‘sick headache.’ Hence 
the frequent recurrence of gastric distress, 
distaste for food, nausea, vomiting, pain in 
the head—hence the frequent erroneous ac- 
cusation of stomach, brain, nerves, liver— 
hence the frequent invocation of that indefinite 
seape-goat, ‘ biliousness.’ 

* Which is something far different from scien- 
tifie hydrotherapy.—sS. S. C. 


SCIENCE. 


695 


The dependence of migraine upon eye-strain 
as an exciting cause in a large number, per- 
haps the largest number of cases can no longer 
be denied by the most doubting Thomas. The 
writer of this review placed himself upon 
record to that effect so long ago as 1892. It 
is true, however, and here we probably differ 
from Dr. Gould, that in order for the eye- 
strain reflex to take the form of this particular 
paroxysmal neurosis the individual must pre- 
sent that special type of organization in which 
the inhibition or, to use a broader term, the 
taxis, of the vaso-motor mechanism is deficient 
—a defect* usually inherited but sometimes 
acquired by unwise living or in sequel to some 
pathologie accident. Otherwise the persist- 
ently recurring disorder would be much more 
common than it is among those whose eyes 
present the very common faults of astigma- 
tism and hyperopia, as likewise among myopes 
having high degrees of ametropia. Also, in 
individuals presenting vasomotor ataxia, other 
exciting causes, likewise, may provoke the at- 
tack of migraine, as of asthma, of hayfever, or 
of some other nerve-storm. Be this as it 
may, the relief of eye-strain, by guarding the 
powder from at least one of the sparks that 
threaten, prevents that particular explosion. 

Dr. Gould’s great merit lies not so much in 
his individual theory of the causation of mi- 
graine as in his directing strongly the atten- 
tion of the medical profession and, it is to be 
hoped, of workers in literature and science 
who are not physicians, to the necessity for 
eyes and the relief of eye-strain by suitable 
glasses, with recorrection from time to time, 
as the refraction alters and the reflex disturb- 
ances recur; the other, and in some respects 
greater, being the importance of gathering all 
facts concerning the ill health of any indi- 
vidual into a comprehensive whole, rather than 
to consider detached fragments as things 
utterly apart. As the writer has elsewhere 
expressed the same thought, ‘the spokes are 


* From the physical standpoint a defect; but in 
my observation so frequently associated with 
marked artistic and intellectual ability, that I am 
not sure that in moderate degree it is less than an 
advantage to a writer, actor or public speaker. 
8. 8. C. 


696 SCIENCE. 


many, but the hub is one.’ This method ap- 
plies indirectly even to pathologic accidents 
such as acute infections; but its direct bearing 
is of course upon what may be termed the 
basie condition of health or disorder. 

Many ophthalmologists of high repute and 
many internists (‘general physicians’) of ex- 
perience and authority concur in greater or 
less extent with the views that Dr. Gould puts 
forth, but others of equal standing, and among 
them many reviewers in the medical press, 
differ from him radically; and some have even 
sought to cast ridicule upon ‘ Biographic 
Clinics’ and their author because of what are 
termed his ‘extreme’ assertions. Doubtless 
he is over-emphatic. He has an earnest and 
virile style and evidently feels deeply upon 
the subject he is treating. There can be no 
mistaking his earnestness or his meaning and 
there can be no doubt that he arraigns with 
some bitterness, not his brother practitioners, 
but the inertia or the blindness that has de- 
layed their full acceptance of the great med- 
ical truth to which he calls attention and to 
the development of which Dyer, Weir Mitchell, 
Thomson and Norris, of Philadelphia, Martin, 
of Paris, and others, including Dr. Gould him- 
self, have contributed importantly. 

Nobody likes to be scolded in public, and 
Dr. Gould has not been wise in seeming to 
scold. Grant this, however, and the truth still 
remains true. Grant, moreover; that he is 
extreme in the statement of the truth—let us 
then forget the ‘extremity’ of the statement 
and remember the verity of the fact stated. 
Unquestionably it is a truth of vast signifi- 
cance. Unquestionably physicians have not 
yet fully realized that significance. 

The great importance of the eyes in human 
life and work, or the complexity of the work 
demanded of the eyes by modern civilization, 
need not be dilated upon. Our early ancestors 
had greatest need of good distant vision, and 
their range was bounded only by the sky and 
by the horizon. We spend much of our time 
within narrow walls and beneath low ceilings; 
walls too narrow, ceilings too low, even in 
palaces. In addition, we read or write or sew 
or paint or do surgical operations or decipher 
cuneiform inscriptions or study palimpsests 


(N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


or set type or look through microscopes or 
work at machines of various kinds, demanding 
close sight and more or less constant accom- 
modational effort. Few are born nowadays 
with natural optical apparatus perfectly adapt- 
ed to the environment. Some are fortunate 
enough not to undertake just exactly those 
lines of endeavor that call for the greatest 
use or most delicate adjustment of the ocular 
mechanism. Moreover, in many cases a fair 
approximation to good refraction answers; a 
pair of glasses is obtained which more or less 
imperfectly corrects the error, and all goes 
well. There are many persons, however, in. 
whom, whether from natural sensitiveness of 
temperament, from the complexity, obscurity 
or magnitude of the ocular defect, from the 
excessive amount of eye-work done, or from 
failure of general health rendering the whole 
organism more sensitive to peripheral irrita- 
tion, neglect of the eye or happy-go-lucky cor- 
rection will not serve. Eye-strain ensues; 
asthenopic reflexes of all kinds are set up and 
these may be as varied in kind or grouping 
as the number of organs in the body multi- 
plied by the number of possible individual 
peculiarities, and then as the number of pos- 
sible permutations among the figures thus ob- 
tained. 

‘Eye-strain,” it is to be added, does not 
mean exclusively, or even chiefly, strain of the 
external muscles of the eye. Muscular de- 
fects may or may not, as Dr. Gould contends, 
be dependent in every instance upon refractive 
error—that it is so in many instances must be 
admitted. In any event accommodational 
strain is the fact of greatest importance. 
Moreover, Dr. Gould asserts that astigmatism 
is, of refractive errors, the one causing great- 
est distress. This is borne out not only by 
the personal experience of the writer as a 
patient, but also by his observation as a physi- 
cian and the reports of many oculists to whom 
he has referred patients presenting reflex 
symptoms. Nor can any, however small, 
amount of astigmatism safely be treated as 
the old French doctor is said to have advised 
his students to treat a cold in the head— with 
contempt.’ The smallest appreciable amount 
needs correction. Astigmatism imperfectly 


ee aT 


Aprit 29, 1904.] 


corrected is astigmatism uncorrected; and it 
*continues to excite reflexes—cerebral, muscu- 
lar, cardiac, respiratory, digestional or what- 
not. 

We should not like to be misunderstood as 
teaching that eye-strain is fons et origo mali 
to all the ills that flesh inherits; or even in 
every case of nerve exhaustion, headache or 
dyspepsia in students and writers. Neuras- 
thenia, gout, indigestion, can develop in those 
whose eyes are emmetropic, or, if ametropic, 
have been skilfully corrected. Too much 
confinement, too little exercise, injudicious 
diet and other errors of temperament, work 


and habit may cause many and varied symp- 


toms, in the entire absence of eye-strain. 
Nevertheless, it is to be admitted that even 
in eases of other fundamental origin an 
uncorrected or imperfectly corrected refractive 
error will aggravate or even precipitate the 
symptoms. 

We are not willing to go so far as Dr. Gould 
in ascribing, for example, the final break-down 
of Nietzsche to eye-strain alone. Of two 
‘extreme’ and untenable hypotheses concern- 
ing that brilliant unfortunate we prefer 
Gould’s to Moebius’s, but we accept neither. 
We have no third to offer, for the facts before 
us are not sufficient to warrant dogmatism. 
Certain it is, however, that much of Nietz- 
sche’s misery was due to eye-strain. True, 
his eyes were examined and treated, but in 
all probability there remained undiscovered 
or uncorrected some worrisome refractive error 
—for the Germans have yet much to learn of 
the art that owes so much to the science of 
great Germans. An odd or complicated 
astigmatism, possibly of low amount, may 
have eluded detection or there may haye been 
failure to adjust properly glasses correctly 
prescribed, or the personal equation of the 
patient may not have been met skilfully— 
there are numerous possibilities; and one guess 
is as good or bad as another. 

To sum up: Dr. Gould has conceived with 
the brain of a master thinker and inscribed 
with the pen of a ready writer two volumes 
of ‘extreme’ readability, interest and impor- 
tance; on the whole wise in tone, always force- 
ful, usually graceful, often elevated in diction; 


SCIENCE. 


697 


unfortunately marred now and again by use- 
less acridity or unnecessary denunciation. He 
has shown that much, if not all, of the con- 
stant or recurring distress of a number of the 
leading spirits of the nineteenth century—dis- 
tress otherwise mysterious and unaccountable 
—was in all probability due to refractive de- 
fects of the eyes and the consequent accom- 
modational strain made necessary during work. 
It might, therefore, have been relieved in large 
part, if not entirely, by suitable glasses; and 
this is the great, but therefore simple, lesson 
for physician and for patient. In empha- 
sizing this lesson the author has emphasized 
old and unappreciated truth; he has also 
added to the sum of truth. It is a work well 
worth the doing; a work certainly not inferior 
to the invention of a new staining fluid, the 
synthesis of a new hypnotic drug or the de- 
scription of a new symptom-complex; a work, 
of which the true value will become more 
apparent as the years increase. 
Sotomon Sorts CoHEn. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


THe April number of the Botanical Ga- 
zette contains the following articles: Mary 
Ellen Bennett, under the title ‘Are Roots 
Aerotropic’? has shown that the claim of 
Molisch can not be sustained by her numerous 
experiments. She also offers a solution for 
the curvatures of roots recorded by him and 
termed aerotropic. Aven Nelson in his fifth 
‘Contributions from the Rocky Mountain Her- 
barium’ describes a large number of new 
species, chiefly from southern Utah and 
southern Nevada. Florence Lyon discusses 
‘The Hyvolution of the Sex Organs of Plants,’ 
upon the basis of numerous very interesting 
eases of exceptional development of antheridia 
and archegonia that she has found, chiefly 
among Pteridophytes. Charles Robertson 
makes a suggestive contribution to the phylog- 
eny of Angiosperms from the standpoint of 
his study of the problems of pollination. His 
contention is that the primitive Angiosperms 
were entomophilous, and that the anemophil- 
ous ones are metamorphosed entomophilous 
flowers, whose seemingly simple structures are 
degraded, not primitive. F. V. Coville dis- 


698 SCIENCE. 


cusses and figures ‘Arcterica, the Rarest 
Genus of Heathers,’ living on Bering Island. 
W. F. Ganong has begun a series of descrip- 
tions of ‘New Precision-appliances for Use 
in Plant Physiology,’ this first paper dealing 
with a clinostat and a portable clamp stand. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

Tue following papers were presented at the 
spring session held at Washington on April 
19, 20 and 21. 

E. L. Nicwots and Ernest Merritr: ‘On 
Fluorescence Spectra.’ 

Joun Trowsripee: ‘Spectra of Gas at High 
Temperatures.’ 

TuHEopoRE Lyman, presented by JonHn TROw- 
BRIDGE: ‘Short Wave-Lengths of Light.’ 

H. W. Morss, presented by JoHN TROWBRIDGE: 
‘Spectra produced by the Wehnelt Interrupter.’ 

Grorce F. Barker: ‘ Note on Radioactivity and 
Autoluminescence.’ 

R. S. Woopwarp: ‘A Double Suspension Ap- 
paratus for determining the Acceleration of 
Gravity.’ 

R. S. Woopwarp: ‘The Compressibility of the 
Harth’s Mass required by the Laplacian Law of 
Density Distribution.’ 

Henry L. Aspor: ‘The Disposition of Rainfall 
in the Basin of the Chagres.’ 

A. F. Zaum, introduced by A. GranAmM BELL: 
“Surface Friction of the Air at Speeds below 40 
Feet a Second.’ 

R. H. Cuirrenpen: ‘ Physiological Economy in 
Nutrition, with Special Reference to the Minimal 
Proteid Requirement of the Healthy Man.’ A pre- 
liminary Report. 

Henry FI’. Osporn: ‘ Recent Paleontological Dis- 
coveries by the American Museum Exploring 
Parties.’ 

Henry F. Osporn: “Reclassification of the 
Reptilia.’ 

W. D. Marrurew, submitted by Henry F. Os- 
BoRN: ‘ Position of the Limbs in the Sauropoda.’ 

Horario C. Woop, JR., presented by Horatio C. 
Woop: ‘A Preliminary Report upon Apocynum 
cannabinum.’ 

ArtHuR T, HapLey, presented by the Home 
Srecrerary: ‘ Biographical Memoir of James Had- 
ley.’ 

Cuaries L. Jackson: ‘ Biographical Memoir of 
Henry Barker Hill.’ 

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL: ‘The Multi-nippled 
Sheep of Beinn Bhreagh.’ 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 487. 


Simon Newcoms: ‘ Application of New Sta- 
tistical Methods to the Question of the Causes 
Influencing Sex.’ 

C. §. Perrce: ‘Note on the Simplest Possible 
Branch of Mathematics.’ 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NEW YORK SECTION. 

THe seventh meeting of the season was held 
April 8, at the Chemists’ Club, 108 West 
Fifty-fiftth Street. The-following program 
was presented: 


The Determination of Manganese as Sulphide 
and the Composition of the Pink and Green 
Sulphides: J. C. Ousen. 

Professor Olsen discussed the advantages 
of separating and determining manganese as 
sulphide. The method is only practicable, 
however, when the sulphide is obtained as the 
green modification which is larger grained 
than the ordinary pink sulphide and, there- 
fore, settles more readily and is more easily 
filtered and washed. This is best accom- 
plished by pouring the manganese solution 
into a boiling solution of ammonium chloride 
and ammonium sulphide. 

On analysis the pink sulphide showed vari- 
able amounts of water. This was found to 
be due to the fact that it is a mixture of a 
gray sulphide which holds more than three 
per cent. of water and a red sulphide. This 
modification was obtained pure and was found 
to hold the same amount of water as the green 
sulphide, about three fourths per cent. The 
difference between the pink and green sul- 
phide is held to be one of molecular structure, 
rather than of chemical composition or de- 
gree of hydration. 


On the Combination of a Solvent with the 
Ions (preliminary paper): J. Livineston R. 
Morean and C. W. Kanotr. 

Preliminary experiments were reported 
which show that by electrolyzing a solution 
of silver nitrate. and pyridine in water, pyri- 
dine migrates with the silver and increases in 
concentration at the cathode, while it de- 
creases at the anode. With cupric nitrate 
and water, dissolved in alcohol, water mi- 
grates with the copper ions and increases on 
the cathode and decreases at the cathode. 


ApRIL 29, 1904.] 


This indicates the presence in solution of 
eombinations of the ions with the solvent to 
form complex ions, which break up at the 
electrodes. The results show only the differ- 
ence in the amount of solvent carried by the 
two ions. The application of the law of mass 
action to one such equilibrium shows that 
by it van’t Hoff’s form of Rudolphi’s em- 
pirical dilution law can be readily derived. 
Thus, if ZA is the salt and S the solvent, we 
have 


+ + 
QMA + (X+2y+ Z)S=(M,- XS) 

+2(4 - YS) + 28, 
and if C, is the undissociated concentration 
and C,, that of one of the ions and z large 
compared to a and y, it follows that 


1. \ 2 
¢, 22) 


C3 

o2 epee 

The authors call attention to the fact that 
in this way it is easy to account for the varia- 
tion in the speed of migration of the ions 
with the dilution, the presence of solvent 
of erystallization and the variation in the 
value of m in the general empirical dilution 
law C7/C*=constant. It was observed that 
this takes nothing away from the theory of 
ionization, but, in fact, conditions only those 
portions of the theory which have hitherto 
failed to hold. 


Thorium, Carolinium, Berzelium: CHARLES 

BASKERVILLE. 

Professor Baskerville reviewed the history 
of thorium, and especially the recent work 
bearing upon the question of its complexity. 
The study of radioactivity of thorium prep- 
arations led to the conclusion that thorium 
itself is not primarily radioactive and that 
the radioactive substances existing in thorium 
as ordinarily prepared are far too small in 
quantity to influence the atomic weight values 
as reported. Discrepancies in atomic weight 
determinations led to the fractionation of 
thorium by means of phenylhydrazine. The 
investigation of the fractions thus obtained 
and of the so-called ‘volatile thorium’ has 
given evidence of the two new elements, caro- 
linium and berzelium, which differ markedly 
from thorium in the densities and solubilities 


SCIENCE. 


699 


of the oxides and in the results of atomic 
weight determinations by the sulphate meth- 
od. The purified thorium shows phosphores- 
cence with ultraviolet light, while carolinium 
and berzelium do not. 


Exhibition and Demonstration with Radium 
of 1,800,000 Activity and Actinium of 
10,000 Activity and their Action upon Min- 
erals and Gems: G. F. Kunz. 

Dr. Kunz showed a number of photographic 
prints made from specimens of pitchblende 
now in the possesion of the Imperial Museum 
of Vienna, and added to that collection in the 
years 1806, 1807, 1814 and 1853. There 
seemed to be no difference in the intensity of 
the radipactivity of the specimens recently 
found (within a year or two in the mines) 
and those that are fully one hundred years 
old. Another photograph shown was made in 
eight seconds by laying a diamond upon a 
photographie plate and holding a specimen of 
radium (300,000 activity) on the back. Ac- 
tinium chloride made by Dr. Debeirne and 
radium bromide from the Curie laboratories, 
were exhibited and their effects upon diamond, 
kunzite and willemite were shown experi- 
mentally, as well as a number of illustrations 
of the penetrating power of the radium rays. 

H. C. SuHerman, 
Secretary. 


THE ANTHROPOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE 358th meeting was held March 22. 
The election of Lieutenant William E. W. 
MacKinlay, U. S. A., was announced. The 
secretary read the notice of the 14th Inter- 
national Congress of Americanists which will 
be held at Stuttgart, August 18-24, 1904. 

Professor Holmes gave an account of the 
successful archeological work in the West 
Indies in which Dr. J. Walter Fewkes is en- 
gaged this winter. 

Dr. I. M. Casanowicz read a paper entitled 
‘The Scarab.’ He gave a description of the 
beetle and spoke of the ideas of the ancients 
concerning the habits of this peculiar insect. 
The earliest scarabs are those of King Nebka, 
3,000 B. ©. They were in use for 3,000 years, 
and show the earliest sculpture and evidences 
of art. The scarab is essentially an Egyptian 


700 SCIENCE. 


gem as the cylinder is Assyrian. Among the 
funeral scarabs especially to be mentioned 
were those placed upon the heart of the dead; 
these were usually inscribed with passages 
from the book of the dead; they were worn 
by the living as ornaments and amulets, and 
the historical scarabs, as those of Amenophis, 
were of large size and covered with inscrip- 
tions recording royal deeds. The paper was 
discussed by Dr. Weston Flint. 

‘The Franco-Egyptian Medal,’ was the title 
of a paper by Col. Paul E. Beckwith, of the 
Division of History in the National Museum. 
Col. Beckwith briefly described the Napoleonic 
expedition to the valley of the Nile and spoke 
of Champollion and other French men of sci- 
ence who gave undying luster to this otherwise 
disastrous campaign. Col. Beckwith gave a 
history of the issuing of a medal by Louis 
XVIII. commemorative of the Egyptian ex- 
plorations and described figures of Egyptian 
divinities which appear on this remarkable 
work of art. 

Professor W. H. Holmes read an illustrated 
paper on ‘ Significant Analogies between Pre- 
Columbian and Oriental Art.’ Professor 
Holmes discussed the subject of the peopling 
of America from the east and placed on the 
screen a series of portraits of various peoples 
from India, Mexico and around the Pacifie. 


The views showed a remarkable similarity of . 


types between the continents as to external fea- 
tures. Professor Holmes spoke briefly on the 
latitudinal modifications of peoples. A series 
of views showing types of architecture and art 
following the same range were next shown. 
Professor Holmes pointed out the use of pyra- 
mids in both hemispheres and the efflorescence 
of decorative designs to cover surfaces, these 
designs both in Cambodia and Mexico arising 
from religion. There is, said Professor 
Holmes, sufficient reason for studying the 
problem of art in southeastern Asia, and in 
the light of our present knowledge one is led 
to feel that there may have been oversea con- 
tact between America and Asia at the period 
of the great Buddhist revival about 1,000- 
2,000 years ago. z 

In the discussion Dr. Casanowicz said that 
there is unity in the multiplicity of anthro- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 487. 


pological phenomena. Buddhist art at the 
time of Asoka was affected by Persian art 
which was itself influenced by Assyro-Baby- 
lonian culture, and these facts explain the 
transplanting and derivation of architectural 
and art forms. By establishing a connection 
between Hindu and aboriginal American art 
an unbroken chain, as it were, is formed. 

Col. Flint spoke of the similarity of the 
dragons of Chinese mythology to those of 
Central America. Miss Alice Fletcher said 
that there is unity of race and of art culture 
based on psychical conditions, hence the con- 
tinents touch. 

Dr. Hrdlicka agreed with Professor Holmes 
as to the Asiatic influx to America, and, dis- 
carding language as a factor, said that soma- 
tologically there are many points of agreement 
between the entire Malay-Mongolian stock and 
the American aborigines. ‘The main diffi- 
culty in identifying the Americans with the 
Malay-Asiatics was the old error of making 
from the Indian a ‘red’ race. 

Water Houeu, 
General Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 385th regular meeting was held Satur- 
day evening, April 2, 1904. Henry Oldys 
spoke on ‘The Use of Our Musical Seale by 
Birds.’ He briefly sketched the history of 
music, and then analyzed examples of bird 
music, showing that, judged by modern stand- 
ards, they take higher rank than such speci- 
mens of the music of ancient Greece and the 
early church as have been preserved. The 
evolution of the modern diatonic scale among 
various peoples, some of whom. must have 
developed it independently—Egyptians, Chi- 
nese, Kast Indians, Papuans, Bushmen, Az- 
tees, Iroquois Indians, Bellacoola Indians 
(British Columbia), Greenland Eskimos, and 
many others—indicates that there is some- 
thing in this particular combination of defi- 
nite and mathematically related intervals that 
is peculiarly satisfying to the musical taste, 
a taste shared by man only with birds. As 
some birds exhibit other essentials of modern 
music—rhythm, melodiousness, symmetry, ete. 
—we should naturally expect them to use the 


o 


AprRIL 29, 1904.] 


modern scale, another essential, and, there- 
fore, the burden of proof is upon those that 
deny its use by them. Two instances were 
cited in which the same notes were taken 
down on separate occasions, in each of which 
the record was completely independent and 
the first was not in mind when the second 
was taken. A phonographic record of an 
Eskimo song secured on one of Lieutenant 
Peary’s expeditions was presented to demon- 
strate the identity of the intervals used by the 
singer with those of the modern scale. In 
econelusion, a whistled imitation was given of 
~a melodious and rhythmical song of a wood 
“pewee, and it was remarked that the technical 
requirements of modern music observed in the 
construction of this song are far more won- 
derful than the use it makes of the intervals 
of the modern scale. 

Wilfred H. Osgood spoke on “The Caribou 
of Alaska,’ giving an outline of the present 
state of knowledge of the subject and detail- 
ing his own experience with one of the still 
remaining herds. The caribou of Alaska are 
all of the barren-ground type and their spe- 
eifie or subspecific relationships are still very 
imperfectly understood. They are found: in 
comparatively large numbers in three general 
areas—the Alaska Peninsula, the region be- 
tween the Yukon and Tanana rivers, and 
northeastern Alaska between the Yukon River 
and the Aretie coast. They have been ex- 
terminated over a large part of their former 
range and are now being killed in large num- 
bers for their flesh and hides. Their annual 
increase, however, is large and they might 
easily be preserved under very liberal shooting 
regulations provided these could be enforced. 
A number of small scattering herds were ob- 
served in the region between the Yukon and 
Tanana rivers near the town of Eagle. The 
habits of the animals and the methods of 
hunting them were described. Lantern slide 
views showing small herds of the animals and 
the character of the country inhabited by 
them were shown. 

M. W. Lyon, Jr., read a paper presenting 
the results of a study of the existing hares, 
rabbits and pikas, based on skulls and skele- 
tons mainly in the collection of the U. S. 


SCIENCE. 701 


National Museum. The hares and rabbits, 
family Leporidz, were shown to contain ten 
distinct genera, many of which have previ- 
ously been recognized as subgenera. ‘Two 
were pointed out as new. ‘The pikas, family 
Ochotonidz, were shown to contain a single 
genus, Ochotona, composed of three subgenera. 
The characters by which the groups are de- 
termined are found in the enamel pattern of 
the teeth, the form of the cervical and lumbar 
vertebrae, sterna, ribs, bones of the forearm, 
ete., in addition to characters of the skull. 
Regret was expressed that only very few skele- 
tons were available for study and the desira- 
bility of securing at least one skeleton of each 
species of mammal in addition to numerous 
skins and skulls was emphasized. 

M. C. Marsh read a paper on ‘The Gas 
Disease in Fishes.’ The subject was first 
investigated at the Bureau of Fisheries’ sta- 
tion at Woods Holl, Mass. The sea water for 
the aquaria was forced by steam pumps into 
elevated tanks for a gravity flow. Leaks in 
the suction pipe allowed air to enter, which, 
upon passing through the pump, was forced 
into solution by the hydrostatic pressure. 
The water reaching the aquaria was super- 
saturated with atmosperic nitrogen, possibly 
also with oxygen. In this condition it was 
rapidly fatal to all adult fishes, death usually 
being due to gas embolism. The occurrence 
of the free gas in the blood vessels was ex- 
plained as a precipitation due to the slight 
elevation of the temperature in the systemic 
circulation, the blood as it passed through the 
gills tending to supersaturate like the water. 
A hydrostatic pressure of about six pounds 
prevented all symptoms of the disease, pre- 
sumably by raising the saturation point of the 
blood plasma. The water could also be ren- 
dered harmless by a deaerating process as by 
passing it through perforated pans and allow- 
ing it to fall through several feet in a shower 
of slender streams. The renewal of the suc- 
tion pipe, preventing access of free air to the 
water under pressure, likewise did away with 
all manifestations of the disease. 


Witrrep H. Oscoop, 
Secretary. 


702 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE TITLES OF PAPERS. 

Tue writer is quite at one with Professor 
H. H. Wilder in his interesting protest, which 
appeared in Scmncr, March 18. No doubt 
all in their younger days have indulged in 
the same pleasure of lengthy titles. Masters 
in rejuvenated science did the same; vide 
Humphry Davy’s papers at the beginning of 
the nineteenth century. Descriptive titles ap- 
pear to have good reason for their use. Mere 
verbiage is objectionable in the presentation 
of any scientific fact or principle, be it in the 
title or in the body of the paper. Excusing 
limitative prolix titles, not strictly descriptive, 
on the plea of modesty, will not answer, as 
the writers of papers realize as well as the 
readers that no science is complete. 

Perhaps my experience is not very different 
from that of others. Scientific literature 
probably keeps pace in the rate of production 
with modern novels. One neither cares nor 
is able to read all, but he would like to know 
what is going on. Some forty or fifty scien- 
tific journals are placed on my desk every 
thirty days. All deal more or less with that 
division of science, chemistry, to which I have 
the honor and pleasure of devoting my humble 
labors. Even a specialist in the narrowest 
sense can do better work if he know some- 
thing of other fields of activity. The under- 
signed finds it literally impossible to read 
all the articles in his own branch, much less 
labor through those of cognate subjects; con- 
sequently he must depend upon the title or 
the attached author’s name in order to make 
a wise selection. An exceedingly interesting 
and valuable paper is published by an author 
‘whom the reader happens not to know, the 
title does not tell enough, the article is long, 
life is short and one passes it by. Numerous 
other causes preventing the reading of papers 
come to mind, but do not require enumeration. 

Those journals which consist solely of ab- 
stracts, not opinionated reviews, come near 
offering a solution to the problem. This 
brings out another tale of woe. Numerous 
complaints have been made of the failure 
on the part of abstractors, however conscien- 
tious they may have been, to give really what 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


the author meant to emphasize. Therefore, 
the suggestion is pertinent that we have dis- 
tinetive titles followed immediately by a con- 
densed ‘synopsis’ made by the author. 

I am quite well aware that many papers in 
some journals have a ‘ conclusion, which one 
must hunt for, and such an arrangement is in 
accord with strict logic; but below is an ex- 
planatory paragraph the writer recently placed 
at the beginning of a series of some two 
dozen papers on work in a narrow field. 

We shall adopt in reporting investigations upon 
the rare earths the plan of succinctly stating in an 
introductory paragraph the facts observed and 
conclusions arrived at. Those desirous of famil- 
jarizing themselves with the details may peruse 
what follows at leisure. Perhaps others may care 
to pursue a similar course. No doubt a wider 
dissemination of the actual results arrived at 
will come about and the labors of abstractors be 
lessened and more accurate. Expediency in- 
fluenced literary style before the twentieth cen- 
tury. 

The writer believes such practice will ac- 
complish the objects aimed at by Mr. Wilder 
and himself, and is independent enough to con- 
tinue it alone, unless the various editors are 
too strenuous in their objections. 

Cuas. BASKERVILLE. 

UNIVERSITY oF NorRTH CAROLINA, 

March 22, 1904. 


To tHE Epitor or Science: It is curious 
that Mr. H. H. Wilder’s article (Scimncr, 
March 18, 1904) should follow immediately 
on Mr. F. H. Knowlton’s protest against a 
particular solecism. The two represent dif- 
ferent sides of the same subject. Theoret- 
ically we must all support Mr. Wilder’s plea 
for brevity, and the broad principle governing 
Mr. Knowlton’s warning against ambiguity 
should also find general acceptance. These 
two principles are combined in recommenda- 
tion (4) of the British Association Committee 
on Zoological Bibliography and Publication, 
namely, ‘ that it is desirable to express the sub- 
ject of one’s paper in its title, while keeping 
the title as concise as possible.’ The difficulty, 
of course, is to be both precise and concise. 

Brevity.—Mr. Wilder’s longest example con- 
tains only thirty-seven words, and is excused 


Apri. 29, 1904.] 


by its date (1665) and by the fact that all 
except the first word really constitutes a sub- 
title. The British Association committee 
alludes to a title of recent date containing 
Hinety-one words. Mr. Wilder’s precepts are 
admirable, but the heading of this letter shows 
how even his example may be bettered. A 
certain leading society persists in prefixing 
the useless ‘on,’ and forces an author to en- 
title his paper ‘ On the Tears of the Crocodile’ 
instead of ‘ Crocodile’s Tears.’ 

Clearness—Modesty, Mr. Wilder would sug- 
gest, made an author say, ‘Some Contribu- 
tions to our Knowledge of the Morphology 
of the Guyascutide, instead of ‘ Guyascutid 
Morphology,’ and that same modesty, pre- 
sumably, forbade him to suppose that the 
casual biologist might not know what a guyas- 
eutid was, and made him keep to himself the 
precise nature of his contributions. The 
enormous number of generic names and their 
synonyms often makes it impossible for a 
reader to tell the subject of a paper from its 
title. A specialist on echinoderms turned out 
at night to hear a paper ‘ On the Structure of 
Apiocystis, only to find that it was an alga 
Gf my memory serves) and not the Silurian 
fossil of that name. When a paper was pub- 
lished on the fluid of the body cavity in a 
certain animal the whole staff of the largest 
natural-history museum was unable to say 
what kind of animal was meant. In such 
eases the explanatory word may lengthen the 
title, but it is fully worth the space. Mr. 
Knowlton’s examples of ambiguity are not so 
bad as these, but bad enough. Even the best 
of them is not really free from doubt; for 
example, what would an American botanist 
understand by “The Flora of the Coal Meas- 
ures. An Heological Study’? This reminds 
me that a geological bibliographer innocently 
placed in his slip-catalogue the title of a work 
on ‘ Anthracite Coal Communities’ He has 
since learned that this too is an ‘ Heological’ 
study, neither geological, nor paleontological, 
nor zoological, nor botanical. 

In fine, let the man of words, whether 
modest or ‘intoxicated with the exuberance 
of his own verbosity,’ remember that ‘ Brevity 
is the soul of wit,’ and let the epigrammatist 


SCIENCE. 


703 


make for himself no occasion to say, ‘ Brevis 
esse laboro, obseurus fio.’ F. A. B. 


MARGINAL AND RIDGE SCALES IN CEPHALASPIS 
AND DREPANASPIS. 


In two or three of his recent articles on 
Tremataspis, Dr. William Patten has affirmed 
his belief, contrary to that of all other writers, 
in the existence of ‘numerous pairs of jointed 
oar-like appendages’ in certain fossil ostra- 
cophores. His latest paper, in the December 
number of the American Naturalist,* is note- 
worthy for its development of the thesis pre- 
viously advanced by him to the effect that 
Cephalaspis is provided with a ‘fringe of 
jointed and movable appendages (25-30 pairs) 
along the ventral margin of the trunk.’ 

Happily, the author does not postulate the 
existence of imaginary organs, as was done in’ 
the case of Tremataspis; but this time actual, 
definite ‘structures are pointed out, familiar 
to every one as marginal scales, and these 
receive the new name of ‘ fringing processes,’ 
and are interpreted as appendages. Regard- 
ing these structures Dr. Patten states that 
“there is little doubt that they are the ante- 
cedents of the lateral fold of vertebrates,’ 
although in another paragraph it is remarked 
that ‘ whatever their significance may be, there 
is apparently nothing known in true fishes 
that is exactly comparable with them.’ 

The present writer can not agree with his 
esteemed friend that these marginal scales, 
as they are commonly called, are not precisely 
what their name implies, and fails to see any- 
thing remarkable about them, either in form, 
in attachment or in position. Dr. Patten is 
quite right in observing that they are marked 
with the same surface ornamentation as trunk 
scales, nor do they differ from the latter 
in any other respect except that their ex- 
tremities are free. The identical structures, 
if occurring in the median line above or 
below, would be pronounced ridge scales; if 
along the fin margins, they would pass for 
fulera; if along the angles of modern flat- 
bottomed fishes, for marginal or lateral scutes. 
It may be, in fact, regarded as a general 


**On the Structure of the Pteraspide and 
Cephalaspide,’ pp. 827-865. 


704 


tendency amongst both vertebrates and inver- 
tebrates with a flattened ventral surface to 
have the lateral or pleural margins produced 
into processes of some sort. Cephalaspis is but 
one of numerous instances that might be men- 
tioned amongst fishes, and illustrations abound 
amongst trilobites and various lower inverte- 
brates. 

The paired condition of the marginal scales 
in Cephalaspis is without significance, being 
a necessary accompaniment of the flattened 
ventral surface. Were the body laterally com- 
pressed, we should probably find but a single 
row of median scutes, as in Lasanius and 
Birkenia, although even in the latter genus 
Dr. Traquair is of the opinion that they are 
paired. Fulera, also, are often paired; and 
it must be remembered that even a typically 
unpaired structure like the anal fin may oc- 
casionally appear as double. That the struc- 
tures called ‘ fringing processes’ by Dr. Patten 
can be looked upon in the nature of append- 
ages has been emphatically denied by Dr. 
Gaskell,* who has studied the actual speci- 
mens upon which our Dartmouth friend bases 
his conclusions. Jaekel, of Berlin, likewise 
fails to see that there is any evidence of ap- 
pendages in these forms.t Hence it would 
appear that paleontologists are not unani- 
mously in favor of deriving the lateral fold of 
vertebrates from marginal scales such as oc- 
eur in Cephalaspis. 

Drepanaspis.—F or our knowledge of the or- 
ganization of Drepanaspis, one of the most 
interesting Paleozic fishes brought to light 
within recent years, we are indebted almost 
exclusively to the dean of British paleichthy- 
ologists, Dr. R. H. Traquair. In an apprecia- 
tive review of Traquair’s recent memoir on 
the ‘Lower Devonian Fishes of Gemiinden,’ 
published in no. 471 of this journal,{ Dr. 
Bashford Dean takes issue with the original 
author regarding the orientation of the crea- 
ture. It is stated by Dean that Traquair’s 
reasons ‘seem inadequate for distinguishing 
dorsal and ventral sides. In no specimen 


* Journ. Anat. and Phys., Vol. 37, p. 198, 1903. 

| Zeitschr, deutsch. geol. Ges., Vol. 55, p. 84, 
1903. 

¢ Scrence, Vol. 19, p. 64, 1904. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 487. 


figured is the relation of the dorsal lobe of the 
tail shown convincingly to be continuous with 
the so-called dorsal aspect.’ 

Whatever may be thought of Traquair’s 
figures, although his plate 2 seems to us con- 
clusive enough, there can be no question about 
the originals, and those who have examined 
them attentively are compelled to admit the 
correctness of the Scottish author’s interpreta- 
tions. The dorsal ridge seales are larger than 
the ventral, and form a more extended series, 
beginning further forward and continuing 
further back than the ventral fulera. Several 
specimens in the Edinburgh Museum have 
been pointed out to the present writer by Dr. 
Traquair in which this row of prominent ridge 
scales can be traced continuously from a point 
shortly behind the median dorsal plate to the 
tip of the dorsal lobe of the tail. The extent 
to which the caudal lobes are covered with 
fulera is well shown in Pl. 4 and Pl. 1, Fig. 1, 
of the memoir in question, and their connec- 
tion with upper and lower systems of body 
plates appears tolerably distinct. 

C. R. Eastman. 

CAMBRIDGE, MASS. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


ON THE FEASIBILITY OF MEASURING TIDES AND 
CURRENTS AT SEA. 


THE importance of measuring the rise and 
fall of the tide, and especially the direction 
and velocity of the current at points more or 
less remote from land, is obvious to any one. 
The following brief discussion of a few ques- 
tions involved seems to show that such meas- 
urements, although rather costly, can probably 
be made in almost any body of water whose 
surface at times becomes reasonably calm; at 
any rate, it should generally be possible to 
measure the current. 

It is here proposed to make use of a species 
of piano-wire sounding apparatus, in which 
the ‘lead’ consists of a large stone, or of a 
bag or box containing stones, which is at- 
tached to the sounding wire by means of a 
string or a finer wire. This weight when 
once cast is to remain immovable on the bot- 
tom and is not to be recovered. The wire 
drawn taut serves to indicate when the vessel 


ApRin 29, 1904.] 


passes over the weight. The aim of the ob- 
servers on board is to so manceuvre the boat 
that the wire shall become apparently ver- 
tical as many times as possible throughout the 
period of observation, and at each such time 
to note the depth of the water and positions 
of the floats. For small depths, verticality 
can be estimated sufticiently well by aid of a 
plumb line held alongside of the sounding 
wire. For greater depths, more accurate 
means must be provided, such, for instance, 
as a small telescope supplied with vertical 
sight wires and hung in gimbals, together 
with a mirror placed alongside of the sound- 
ing wire and likewise hung in gimbals. If a 
boat were to be used exclusively for such work, 
it should have, at the point of least motion, a 
well through which sounding operations could 
be carried on. Of course, means must be pro- 
vided for securing nearly uniform tension at 
the time of taking a reading. In small depths 
the approximation to uniformity need not be 
very close. 

Problem 1.—Ignoring the impulse of the 
current upon the wire, also the sagging due 
to the wire’s weight, required the amount of 
error in height or depth and in position due 
to the want of verticality of the wire. 

Obviously, 

Height error =7—1 cos ¢s=1 versed sine 4¢,, 
Position error =1 sin ¢,, 


where J denotes the length of wire extending 
from the bottom to the surface, and ¢,, the 
small angle which it makes with the vertical 
at the time of reading. Giving to g, several 
values, we have 


= y,° ¥,° 1° 
Height error =0.000010 0.000038 0.000152 
Position error =0.004363 0.008726 0.017452 
— 25 5° 
Height error =0.000609 0.003805 
Position error =0.034900 0.087156 


In depths not exceeding 100 fathoms, an 
error of 1 degree in verticality can not cause 
an error of more than 0.1 foot in height or 
-depth. 

Problem 2.—Ignoring the impulse of the 
current upon the wire, and supposing the 
(vertical component of the) tension at its 


SCIENCE. 


705 


upper end to be » times as great as its weight 
in water, required the error in height or 
depth and in position when the wire is not 
exactly vertical. 

Let g, denote the want of yerticality at the 
surface and ¢, that at the bottom; then 


True depth =a (cosec ¢; — cosec ¢y ) 
where 
yv—1 


cot ¢, = cot ¢; 


Vv 
and 
av tan ¢s. 
Height error —/— true depth, 
Position error= a [log (cosec ¢; + cot ¢;) 
— log (cosec ¢, + cot 4] ). 
If the wire is nearly vertical, we have the 
following approximate equations: 


1 X 1 
True depth = a G cot @s — av—1) ».), 
a= ($s + 395°), 


ST ee Ge 


By aid of these equations doubtful interpo- 
lations can be avoided. 

Assuming y==5 and an apparent depth (1) 
of 3,000 units, we have as errors corresponding 
to a few values of ¢,: 


os 


Position error = a log . 


4° 3° ne F 
Height error = 0.035 0.148 0.571 
Position error = 14.60 29.21 58.41 

This shows that in a depth as great as 3,000 
fathoms the upper end of the sounding wire 
should not deviate more than one half degree 
from the vertical if a tide of ordinary ampli- 
tude is to be determined. 

Problem $—Ignoring the sag due to the 
wire’s weight and assuming that the hori- 
zontal impulse of the current is the same for 
each vertical unit, required the error in 
height or depth and im position when the 
upper end of the wire is exactly vertical. 

The wire forms the are of a parabola with 
vertex at the surface and whose equation is 


This gives 


Position error = = 


where ». denotes the impulse per unit length, 


706 SCIENCE. 


w the weight in water of a unit length of the 
wire, and, 7’, the tension at the upper end, 
—ylw; it is assumed that the wire is nearly 
vertical throughout its length. From recti- 
fying the parabola, we obtain 

Height error =} FBS =t f i 

Assume p= 0.001 Ib., »=5, w= 0.003 Ib.; 
the position error will be 1/30 and the height 
error 1/1350. As will be noted below, » = 
0.001 Ib. and w=0.003 lb., imply, for a steel 
wire, a velocity of about 0.6 foot per second. 
For smaller velocities »/w will be much less. 
In deep water, with »—5, we should not ex- 
pect to generally find velocities such that the 
error in height due to the tidal current could 
exceed one part in 100,000, unless the law of 
resistance given below does not hold good for 
feeble currents. See velocities given near the 
end of this paper. 

Problem 4.—Taking into account the weight 
of the wire and assuming that the horizontal 
impulse of the current is the same for each 
vertical unit, required the error in height or 
depth and in position when the upper end of 
the wire is exactly vertical. 

The forces acting upon a length 1 extend- 
ing downward from the surface, give 


det 

dy T,;—wl" 
From this we obtain, to the third power of 
the small quantities py/T., wy/T., 


Ly 4 OE ye, wy yt 

IN pe av? 
as the equation of the curve, the origin being 
the point where the wire crosses the surface. 
This rectified gives 


l=y+ 


o— 


wu? yt 


ws 
Te 


: is wl awl? we 
. Position error =" a 4 T. +H} T2 t aa 


Height error = Ae i B+ 4 get 
I have made numerous experiments for 
determining the force of the impulse of water 
upon slender cylindrical rods. The rods used 
were of steel and varied in diameter from 
0.036 to 0.5 of an inch. The velocity ranged 
from 1 to 13 feet per second. The experi- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 487. 


ments showed that the force is well repre- 
sented by the expression 


qe 
¢ Qg yld, 


where v denotes the velocity of the water; 
y, the weight of a cubic unit of water at the 
temperature of the stream; 1, the length of 
the rod; d, the diameter; and € an empirical 
abstract number found to be 0.95, approxi- 
mately, or about one half of the value (1.86) 
obtained from the experiments of du Buat 
and Thibault for the case of a plane perpen- 
dicular to the flow of the stream. Jn all cases 
where length is involved in the above expres- 
sion, the same unit of length must be em- 
ployed. 

For sea water 7 may be taken as 64 lbs., 
and the above expression gives as the force 
for each foot of rod or wire 


0.995 ¢ v'd = 0.945 v7d 


pounds, =p. 
In a steel wire suppose d=0.003 foot; the 
force of impulse per foot (=y) is 


0.945 v?d = 0.002835 v?, 


while the weight per foot for wire immersed 
in sea water is 0.003 lb. (=w). Hence, for 
a wire of this diameter the force of the im- 
pulse of the water will equal the weight of 
the wire in water (7. e., » will be equal to w) 
when the velocity is a trifle more than 1 foot 
per second. 

For a simple progressive long wave of am- 
plitude A in a body of water whose depth is 
h, the maximum velocity of the water par- 
ticles is 


aqle 


Let A —1 foot; then the*velocities, expressed 
in feet per second, corresponding to various 
depths, are as folows: 


5 10 25 50 100 fathoms, 
30 60 150 300 600 feet. 


Velocity =1.035 0.732 0.463 0.327 0.232 feet. 


500 1000 2000 3000 4000 fathoms, 
3000 6000 12000 18000 24000 feet. 


Velocity = 0.104 0.073 0.052 0.042 0.037 feet. 


Depth = 


Depth = 


Aprit. 29, 1904.]- 


‘ 


In deep water the meteorological current is 
often much stronger than the tidal; but as it 
has not the period of the latter, the measure- 
ment of the rise and fall of the tide and of 
the velocity of the flow and ebb could hardly 
be seriously affected by its presence. 

The object of looking into the several 
sources of error has been to ascertain when 
the errors are small enough to be neglected 
rather than to attempt correcting for them 
in actual measurements. R. A. Harris. 
February, 1904. 


SEX DIFFERENCES IN THE SENSE OF TIME. 

In going over the results of a series of dem- 
onstration tests of the sense of time given 
to a mixed class recently, the returns from 
men and women were separately reduced, the 
summaries of which presented features of 
sex differentiation concerning which corrobo- 
ration or revision on the part of others is 
sought through this note. 

The test involved periods of time extending 
from a quarter of a minute to a minute and a 
half in duration. The intervals were filled in 
four ways: (1) The instructor read aloud to 
the class from a psychological work unfamiliar 
to its members; (2) the members of the class 
marked as rapidly as possible all the letter m’s 
in a page of printed text; (3) the class waited 
in idleness for the period to pass by, refraining 
as far as possible from counting or other 
means of recording the lapse of time; (4) 
each person estimated as accurately as pos- 
sible the period in question, using whatever 
method he had personally found most service- 
able for the purpose. As there were fifteen 
men in the class, the tabulation of returns 
from the women was brought to a close when 
an equal number of judgments had been en- 
tered therein. 

Only in the ease of the one-minute period 
was estimation made under all four condi- 
tions mentioned. The results are presented 
in the following table, in which the signs 
plus and minus indicate respectively over- and 
under-estimation of the duration in terms 
of seconds, and the figures at the tops of the 
columns the series of conditions enumerated 
above: 


SCIENCE. 


1 
S 
=] 


Period. One Minute. 


Sex. 1 | 2 | 3% 4 
Men. +29 See | 3.5 
Women. | +66 +27 | +80 | + 24 


Incidentally, the purpose of the test was to 
eall attention to the differences in one’s esti- 
mation of time under conditions (1) and (2), 
and similarly in the case of (8) and (4). 
The relation of the members of these two 
pairs to each other is made apparent in the 
table. It is also to be noted that with the 
exception of the first entry in column (4), 
the only minus quantity in the whole series 
of tests, the error is throughout one of pro- 
nounced over-estimation. This tendency is 
very much stronger in the women than in the 
men, the first point of contrast in the com- 
parison of sex differences. For this period 
of time the constant errors of the two sexes 
stand in a ratio of one to four. The clearest 
indication that this over-estimation of short 
periods of time on the part of women is a 
persistent habit, and not due to variable fac- 
tors in the conditions of experimentation, ap- 
pears in the fourth column of the table. In 
the case of men, keeping tally of the passing 
seconds results in the elimination of the 
positive error and the appearance of a slight 
under-estimation. In the case of women, on 
the contrary, over-estimation still persists to 
the amount of two fifths of the period in ques- 
tion; in other words, their unit of measure- 
ment is much in defect of the objective period 
which it is meant to represent. 

The results of the various other tests made 
in the same series are summed in the follow- 
ing table, in which the same general rela-. 
tions are presented as in the preceding group. 


One quarter One half One and One 
Minute. Minute. half Minute. 
Sex. 3 4 1 4 1 3 
Men. + 6| + 05 | 30 | 4+- 3 | +19 |-+ 70 
Women. +17; +10 | +383 | +12 | +73 | +189 


There is also to be considered in such a 
comparison as the present the average varia- 
tions of the individual judgments of men and 
women respectively from objective accuracy, 
of which the formulation of their constant 


708 SCIENCE. 


errors affords no indication. These are given 
in the following tables, the numbers in which 
are, as before, in terms of seconds: 


Period. One Minute. 


Sex. leone 2 sea 

Men. 32 18 25 11 

Women. 68 41 86 36 
One quarter One halt One and One 
Minute. Minute. half Minute. 

Sex. 3 4 1 dW oil 3 
Men. 8 2 30 8 26 70 
Women. 18 12 35 18 73 189 


In sum, the excess of general inaccuracy in 
the estimation of the given periods of time 
on the part of women, as compared with men, 
is no less marked than their tendency to over- 
estimation. The extremes of individual judg- 
ment are very great; for instance, estimation 
of the duration of the 14 minute period under 
condition (8) ran as high as ten minutes. 
In the case of men the highest was three and 
one half minutes. The average error of judg- 
ment among the men, all periods included, 
was 45 per cent. of the value of the periods 
estimated; that of the women amounted to 
111 per cent., or two and one half times that 
of the men. 

The noting of these sex differences was 
incidental to the primary purpose of the test, 
and attention is called to them here in order 
that observations on the part of others may be 
brought into comparison with the results pre- 
sented by this group of persons, all of whom 
had some acquaintance with psychological ex- 
perimentation, but few any systematic train- 
ing in laboratory methods. The writer would 
be glad to learn whether the judgments of 
children of the two sexes present a closer 
approximation in character than those em- 
bodied in the preceding tables; and, in case 
they do, whether any systematic test has been 
made of their progressive differentiation with 
advance in age. Ropert MacDouGatu. 

New York UNIVERSITY. 


THE NATIONAL PHYSICAL LABORATORY.* 


Tue annual inspection of the National 
Physical Laboratory by the general board took 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 487. 


place on March 18, when also a large number 
of gentlemen interested in physical and me- 
chanical science accepted the invitation of Sir 
William Huggins, president of the Royal So- 
ciety, and of Lord Rayleigh, president of the 
general board, to examine the work carried on 
by the institution at Bushy House. All the de- 
partments of the laboratory were thrown open 
to the visitors, who were free to go where they 
pleased, and who found Dr. R. T. Glazebrook, 
the director, and his assistants ready to give 
every explanation of the apparatus displayed 
and the purposes to which it was being placed. 
The report for 1903 contains full details of the 
work which was carried out during that year, 
and also an outline of the program for the 
present year. In the engineering department 
this includes a continuation of the research 
on wind-pressure and of that on the mechan- 
ical properties of nickel-steels, undertaken 
jointly with Mr. Hadfield; an inquiry into 
the specific heat of superheated steam on a 
large scale; the erection and testing of the 
new screw-cutting lathe, for which a special 
house has been built and which is to be used 
for making standard leading screws on behalf 
of the Standard Leading Screw Committee 
of the War Office; and the construction of a 
machine for determining the friction of bear- 
ing surfaces. In the physics department, 
among other things, the construction of a 
standard ampere balance, together with va- 
rious electriéal tests, is to be undertaken for 
the engineering standards committee; various 
methods of measuring temperatures between 
1,400 C. and 1,800 C., and the suitability of 
different glasses for high temperature ther- 
mometry, are to be investigated; the stand- 
ardization of the steel yard and nickel meter 
is to be completed, and the urgently required 
work of comparing an ‘end’ yard and an 
‘end’ meter with the ‘live’ standards, and 
of calibrating the subdivisions of each, is to 
be undertaken; and an inquiry is to be ini- 
tiated into the conditions in which the pentane 
lamp may be treated as a standard, and meas- 
urements made of the refractivity and ab- 
sorption of various glasses used by opticians. 


* From the London Times. 


ee ee ere rn ee 


Aprin 29, 1904.] 


During last year the number of tests made 
in the engineering and physics departments 
was 1,330, and the fees received amounted to 
£350, a sum of £586 being also received for 
researches undertaken in the laboratory; in 
the nine months of 1902 during which those 
departments were open the tests numbered only 
969 and the fees were £69. In addition, many 
applications were made for tests which the 
laboratory was unable to undertake, owing to 
lack of equipment; among these were tests on 
wire and wire ropes, on rubber, on the tensile 
strength of metals after special hardening, on 
cement and stone, on very high-speed anemom- 
eters, and on alternate-current instruments of 
all kinds. In the engineering department the 
need of a powerful testing machine was greatly 
felt, and work had constantly to be declined 
which would have been accepted if such a 
machine had been available. 

But while the work of the laboratory -has 
prospered, its financial position gives rise to 
grave anxiety. The receipts for 1903 were 
£10,200 and the expenditures £10,306, the de- 
ficiency thus being £106. In the preceding 
year the receipts were £9,314 and the expenses 
£9,235, the balance being £79. In addition, 
£1,036 was spent: in 1903 on equipment out 
of the accumulations transferred from the 
Kew committee. Thus the laboratory is spend- 
ing more than its income, and in the opinion 
of the executive, committee a further increase 
of expenditure will be necessary in the present 
year. By drawing on the available balance 
of £2,379 it will be possible to go on for 
another year, but the committee feels that the 
time has come when the financial position must 
be reconsidered. This is the more necessary 
since the period for which the grant of £4,000 


was originally made ends next September, © 


though the Royal Society has arranged with 
the treasury that it shall continue till April, 
1905, and that a scheme for the future shall be 
considered by the treasury. The committee 
holds that an increase of funds is necessary 
eyen to maintain the work as at present, and a 
further increase of work for which there is a 
demand is to be carried out. It also thinks 
that, for the sake of permanence, the positions 
of the senior members of the staff should be 


SCIENCE. 


709 


made more secure, and that the stipends now 
paid to the assistants—with one exception £200 
a year—are not commensurate with the work 
and are insufficient to retain for long the sery- 
ices of suitable men, while in addition the 
staff is now too small. It points out that simi- 
lar institutions in other countries obtain more 
assistance from the state; in particular, the 
Reichsanstalt in Berlin alone gets £16,000, 
and the annual grants to the various institu- 
tions at Charlottenburg, which together cover 
the ground covered by the National Physical 
Laboratory, comes to about £40,000. 


THE BERMUDA BIOLOGICAL STATION FOR 
RESEARCH. t 

Harvarp University and New York Uni- 
versity again unite with the Bermuda Natural 
History Society in inviting zoologists and bot- 
anists to spend six weeks in the temporary 
biological station located, as last year, at the 
Flatts, Bermuda. 

Venerable George Tucker, Archdeacon, president 
of the Bermuda Natural History Society. 

Hon. W. Maxwell Greene, Consul U. 8S. A., vice- 
president of the Bermuda Natural History So- 
ciety. 

F. Goodwin Gosling, honorary secretary of the 
Bermuda Natural History Society. 

E. L. Mark, director of the Zoological Labora- 
tory, Harvard University. 

C. L. Bristol, professor of biology, New York . 
University. 

The Bermuda Islands are about seven hun- 
dred miles southeast of New York. They are 
nearly due east from Savannah, due south 
from Halifax, and due north from Porto Rico, 
being about equidistant from these three 
points. Since their discovery, in the seven- 
teenth century, they have belonged to Great 
Britain, which maintains an important naval 
and military station there. 

The climate is mild during the whole year, 
not being subject to the extremes that are 
found either in the temperate or tropical re- 
gions. The summer temperature is rarely 
higher than 85° F., and the winter rarely be- 
low 50° F. In the summer light breezes are 
almost constant 2ud help to make the climate 
quite as comfortable as at many seaside re- 
sorts. 


710 


The soil is very porous, so that there are 
no streams, all the fresh water used in the 
islands being rain water caught on white- 
washed stone roofs and stored in covered cis- 
terns. Endemic malaria and tropical fevers 
are unknown. The roads are excellent, and 
bieycles are much used. 

The marine fauna and flora are abundant 
and such as are characteristic of coral reefs. 
The experience of last summer shows that 
there are ayailable for study a great many 
varieties of marine forms, and that most of 
them occur in great abundance. The plan 
adopted in 1903 of recording the precise lo- 
cality in which different organisms were 
found will greatly aid the investigator in 
procuring such material as he may desire. 

Bermuda is reached in about sixty hours 
from New York by the vessels of the Quebec 
S. S. Co., which leave pier No. 47, North 
River, foot of West Tenth Street. During 
June, July and August, S. S. Vrinidad is 
scheduled to sail from New York on the fol- 
lowing dates: June 4, June 18, July 2, July 
16, July 30, August 13; and returning to leave 
Hamilton, Bermuda, on June 11, June 25, 
July 9, July 23, August 6, August 20 and 
September 3. 

By special arrangements with the Quebec 
S. S. Co., and the Hotel Frascati, the total 
expense of transportation from New York and 
return, and for board and lodging—but not 
washing—for six weeks at Bermuda, will be 
one hundred dollars. Board and lodging in 
excess of the period of six weeks will be 
charged for at the rate of ten dollars per 
week, but no arrangement will be made for 
a period of less than six weeks. This price 
is based on the understanding that two per- 
sons will occupy a room together. The pay- 
ment of one hundred dollars entitles the ap- 
plicant to the privileges of the laboratory and 
ample facilities for collecting and studying 
the animals and plants of the coral reefs, 
lagoons and shores. 

The laboratory is a new and well-constructed 
building, and is furnished with all the ordin- 
ary glassware, reagents and apparatus pro- 
vided in modern marine laboratories; but 
microscopes, dissecting instruments, slides and 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 487. 


coverglasses are not supplied by the station. 
The means of collecting include a steam 
launch forty-five feet long and crew, a fish- 
well sailboat and crew, row-boats, a two-horse 
carriage carrying ten or twelve persons, nets, 
seins, water glasses, towing and dredging ap- 
paratus, ete. 

The postoffice address of the station is 
Flatts, Bermuda. 

Zoologists and botanists who desire to take 
advantage of the opportunities offered by the 
station should send applications as early as 
possible, and not later than June 1, either to 
Professor E. L. Mark, 109 Irving Street, Cam- 
bridge, Mass., or to Professor C. L. Bristol, 
New York University, University Heights, 
New York City. Applicants not officially con- 
nected with any scientific institution, or with 
any university or college in the capacity of 
instructors, should send letters of endorse- 
ment from those under whom they have 
studied. Applications should in all eases state 
the nature of the work proposed, and if pos- 
sible the precise problem or problems contem- 
plated. It will be possible in some cases to 
provide the use of books and monographs, if 
applicants indicate those which they desire 
but can not themselves procure. It should be 
understood that the opportunities offered are 
for investigations and that no formal instruc- 
tion will be given. Each application should 
be accompanied with the sum of fifty dollars. 
If the application is accepted, a ticket and 
state-room assignment will be promptly for- 
warded to the applicant. Otherwise the fifty 
dollars will be returned. The remaining fifty 
dollars is to be paid upon arrival at Bermuda. 
No reduction from the sum named (one hun- 
dred dollars) can be made for any cause. 

The date of sailing from New York is July 
9. If a change in this date is necessitated by 
any change in the schedule of the Quebec S. 
S. Co., timely notice will be sent to every 
applicant. 

Biologists who intend to take away from 
Bermuda collections, should ship to Bermuda 
their own alcohol, formol and cans for trans- 
porting specimens. Tax-free alcohol can be 
exported from the United States, a certificate 
of landing in Bermuda being all that will be 


Aprit. 29, 1904.] 


required in addition to the dealer’s bond. The 
Quebec 8S. S. Co. agrees to charge for trans- 
portation only one-half its regular tariff rate 
on all scientific collections, apparatus, equip- 
ment, ete., both from New York to Bermuda 
and from Bermuda to New York. 

Drafts on New York, gold coin and bank 
notes are current in Bermuda at $4.80 to the 
pound sterling; silver coin is’ not current. 

If further information is desired, inquiries 
may be addressed to either of the undersigned. 

E. L. Marx, 

April 1, 1904. C. L. Brisrou. 

SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Av the meeting of the National Academy 
of Sciences last week members were elected 
as follows: Professor William Morris Davis, 
Harvard University; Professor William Fog 
Osgood, Harvard University; Professor Will- 
iam T. Councilman, Harvard Medical School; 
Professor John U. Nef, University of Chi- 
eago. The foreign associates elected were: 
Professor Paul Ehrlich, Frankfurt; Professor 
H. Rosenbusch, Heidelberg; Professor Emil 
Fischer, Berlin; Sir William Ramsay, Lon- 
don; Sir William Huggins, London; Professor 
George H. Darwin, Cambridge; Professor 
Hugo de Vries, Amsterdam; and Professor 
Ludwig Boltzmann, Vienna. The Draper 
gold medal was presented to Professor George 
E. Hale, of the Yerkes Observatory, Wiscon- 
sin, for his researches in astrophysics. 

Tue Station for Experimental Evolution 
of the Carnegie Institution has established 
the class of associates including biologists of 
this country who are engaged in work in ex- 
perimental evolution and who receive especial 
assistance from the Carnegie Institution or 
its station for this work. The station and 
its associates will work in a cooperative way, 
especially in the exchange of material for 
investigation. The following have become 
associates of the station for the year 1904: 
Professor N. L. Britton, New York Botanical 
Garden; Professor W. E. Castle, Harvard 
University; Professor H. EK. Crampton, Co- 
lumbia University; Professor D. T. Mac- 
Dougal, New York Botanical Garden; Pro- 
fessor EK. L. Mark, Harvard University; Pro- 


SCIENCE. 


711 


fessor W. J. Moenkhaus, Indiana University; 
Professor W. L. Tower, University of Chi- 
cago; Professor E. B. Wilson, Columbia Uni- 
versity. 

THe Prussian gold medal for science has 
been presented to Professor Wilhelm Hittorf, 
the eminent physicist and chemist, on the 
occasion of his eightieth birthday. 


M. C. E. Bertrand has been elected a cor- 
responding member of the Paris Academy of 
Sciences in the section of botany. 


Miss N. M. Strvens, A.B. (Stanford), Ph.D. 
(Bryn Mawr), has been appointed Carnegie 
research assistant and reader in experimental 
morphology at Bryn Mawr College. 


Associate Proressor Grorce ©. Price, of 
the department of physiology of Stanford Uni- 
versity, who has been in Europe on his sab- 
batical leave of absence, recently arrived in 
Boston, where he will spend the next three 
months at work in the embryological labora- 
tory of Professor C. S. Minot of the Harvard 
Medical School. 


Proressor G. N. Cauxins, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, will spend the summer abroad, visiting 
zoological laboratories. 


Mr. Raymonp 8. Ducan, formerly assistant 
to Professor Todd, in Amherst College Observ- 
atory, later for three years in charge of the 
Beyrout Observatory and now assistant to Dr. 
Max Wolf in Heidelberg, has discovered a new 
planet which he has named Ambherstia, in 
honor of his Alma Mater. Mr. Dugan gradu- 
ated at Amherst College in 1899. 


THE annual congress of French learned so- 
cieties met at the Sorbonne, Paris, beginning 
on April 5. M. Levasseur presided. 


THE congress of the French societies of 
geography was held at the beginning of the 
present month at Tunis under the presidency 
of M. Pichon. 


Dr. Bowpier SHARPE, of the British Natural 
History Museum, has lately returned to Eng- 
land with some rare specimens of birds from 
the Cayman Islands. 


Dr. M. Miyasima, instructor in the Imperial 


Hygienic Institute of Tokyo, has reached St. 
Louis to supervise the installation of the ex- 


712 


hibit of tetanus germs and other bacilli to be 
made by the institute. 

Dr. H. W. Winey delivered a lecture at 
Lehigh University on April 15, on the ‘ Work 
of the Bureau of Chemistry,’ and before the 
Sigma Xi Society of Yale University on April 
16, on ‘ Food Adulterations and how to Study 
their Effects.’ After the lecture a smoker was 
held at the Graduates Club. 

Prorressor E. RutHerrorp, of McGill Uni- 
versity, lectured on ‘ Radium’ to a large audi- 
ence at the Ohio State University on April 
12. The lecture was given under the auspices 
of the Society of the Sigma Xi. 

Stk Henry THompson, the distinguished 
surgeon, has died at the age of eighty-four 
years. 

THE Carnegie Institution has made a grant 
of $1,500 in continuation of last year’s grant 
aiding the new reduction of Piazzi’s 160,000 
star observations. This work, under the di- 
rection of Dr. Herman S. Davis, Gaithers- 
burg, Md., is now well advanced, previous 
assistance having also been rendered by Miss 
Bruce and by the National Academy of Sci- 
ences which continues its aid. A reobserva- 
tion of all the southern stars of Piazzi’s cata- 
logue by Professor Tucker has recently been 
issued as Vol. VI. of the Lick Observatory 
Publications and a similar work for all the 
northern stars by Professor Porter will be an 
early publication of the Cincinnati Observa- 
tory. Other cooperators, both in this country 
and in Italy, are expected to complete the en- 
tire work in five years or less. It has now 
been in continuous progress nearly eight years. 

A BILL is before Congress appropriating one 
million dollars to be used in the erection of a 
building for the United States Geological 
Survey. 

Prawns have been prepared for a new hospital 
for New York City to cost $11,000,000. 

Tue State Cancer Laboratory at Buffalo will 
receive its annual appropriation of $15,000 
from the New York legislature. The chairman 
of the senate finance committee, who cut the 
item out, finally agreed that it be retained in 
the supply bill. 

Tue large collection of North American 
Diptera which was presented to the American 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 487. 


Museum of Natural History recently by Pro- 
fessor William M. Wheeler, curator of inverte- 
brate zoology, has been combined with the col- 
lection formerly the property of the museum 
and is ready for use by students. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


THE Iowa legislature has made the follow- 
ing appropriation: 


IOWA STATE COLLEGE. 


Annual support fund.................... $50,000 
Iowa Agrl. Exp, Station, annually........ 15,000 
Engineering Experiments ............... 6,000 
For the completion of the central bldg.... 95,000 
For central heating, plant................ 54,500 
For good roads experimentation.......... 7,000 


For dairy building and equipment, and farm 84,500 
For additional support for repair fund, 


EMIMENN Gooaaoobmondeaon Go oObOS 1... 4,500 
IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY. 
Annual support fund.................... $25,000 
For the repair and contingent fund, 
EnmUEMKY Sogoanoacsaaccadooes UbooUc 7,500 
$143,000 divided as follows: 
Ibias adovaabbodcddescudoodobesge 20,000 
Equipment and supplies............. 20,000 
Paving for tunnel and extension...... 18,000 
LUEN Gh erb din posoeo nen bobo UsEnS Ob boc 25,000 
Engineering building................ 50,000 
For dam and water power........... 10,000 


IOWA STATE NORMAL SCHOOL. 
Annually hereafter, increase support fund. $35,000 
For the following purposes ($13,000) : 


Librarian and two assistants for 
WDTARY iets, csc oon hesttaisisretretemeiereets 5,000 

Improvement of grounds........... - 3,000 

For fuel, engineer and fireman........ 5,000 


At the recent convocation of the University 
of Chicago, President Harper acknowledged a 
gift of $5,000 for special investigation in the 
department of physics, by the president of 
the Board of Trustees, Mr. Martin A. Ryerson, 
and a gift of $10,000, by Miss Helen Snow as 
a memorial to George W. Snow, her father, to 
rebuild the horizontal telescope at Yerkes Ob- 
servatory, which was injured by fire. 


Dr. THomas L. Warson, since 1901 pro- 
fessor of geology in Denison University, has 
resigned to accept the chair of geology in the 
Virginia Polytechnic Institute, at Blacksburg, 
Virginia. 


SIE NCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF.SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, May 6, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The General Meeting of the American Philo- 

sophical Society ..............e seers eee 713 
Scientific Books :— 

Kumdi’s ‘ Vorlesungen wiber Hxperimental- 

physik’: PROFESSOR J. S. Ames. Rideal’s 

Disinfection and the Preservation of Food: 

De Mp ema Wick WVIEEEY ay) ais -fatsiteiclele\ siete sisvesiereie 730 
Scientific Journals and Articles............. 732 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Geological Society of Washington: 

ALFRED H. Brooks. The Philosophical So- 

ciety of Washington: CHarLms K. WEAD. 

The Massachusetts Institute of Technology 

Journal Club: G. F. Loueuiin. The Ohio 

State Academy of Science: BH. L. Mosetry. 733 
Discussion and Correspondence :-— 

‘Horses’ not Horses: Dr. Toro, Git. 737 
Special Articles :— 

The Influence of Climate and Soils on the 

Transmitting Power of Seeds: Wim W. 

PRA C You SR ata seer te icyaleie evatcin aveveraiavereechaubecsists 738 
Current Notes on Meteorology :— 

Changes of Climate in Central Africa; A 

New Drosometer; Meteorological Observa- 

tory on Monte Rosa; Meteorological Insti- 

tute of Rowmania: Proressoz R. DEC. 

\WATSD 55.69 boos DOS GO ba GO a Eee OAR Doe ceca 740 
WELT UD U SH HAO ELL wears) ehcials ela a cietesieie ese sik eee ee 741 
Scientific Notes and News................. 741 
University and Educational News........... 744 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of Scimncr, Garri- 
80n-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE GENERAL MEETING OF THE AMERI- 
CAN PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY. 

A GENERAL meeting of the American 
Philosophical Society which undertakes to 
bring together the members from widely 
different parts of the country has now be- 
come an annual event of the week follow- 
ing Haster. All the general meetings which 
have been held so far have been highly suc- 
cessful and profitable and have served to 
arouse much interest in the history and 
purposes of this organization, which is the 
oldest scientific society on this continent. 
The interest in the meeting this year was 
in no respect inferior to that of former 
years, aS was evidenced by the large at- 
tendance of non-resident members and by 
the extensive program of scientific papers. 

That these meetings fill a real need in 
the scientific life of this country is the 
opinion of most of those who have at- 
tended them. ‘This society, more than any 
other in this country, with the possible 
exception of one, stands for the solidarity 
of human learning. A lively appreciation 
of this fact is awakened by an inspection 
of the contents of the long series of vol- 
umes issued by the society during a period 
of more than one hundred and fifty years, 
as well as by a glance at the varied char- 
acter of the papers offered at the general 
meeting. There are few if any organiza- 
tions in this country which attempt to 
cover the same field. The American As- 
sociation for the Advancement of Science 
and the National Academy of Sciences are 
devoted to scientific subjects in the stricter 
sense. The American Philosophical So- 


714 


ciety, on the other hand, is devoted not 
merely to the sciences, but to the humani- 
ties and literature as well. 
objected that such an ambitious program 
belongs rather to the eighteenth century 
‘than to the twentieth, and certainly the 
numerous technical societies which have 
arisen in relatively recent years bear wit- 
ness to the increasing tendency to special- 
ization in all fields of learning. It does 
not, however, follow that the growth of 
these technical societies has supplanted the 
need of more general ones. It is of course 
desirable that the papers presented at the 
meetings of the American Philosophical 
Society should be of broad and general 
interest, and such they generally are. 

These general meetings afford the op- 
portunity of hearmg and discussing re- 
cent advances in various subjects and also 
of meeting and becoming acquainted with 
eminent authorities in those fields; to many 
persons these have seemed to be attractions 
of no small order. 

The meéeting of the society was held this 
year on April 7, 8 and 9, in the historic 
home of the society on Independence 
Square, Philadelphia, where regular meet- 
ings have been held for about one hundred 
and twenty years. The meeting was called 
to order on Thursday morning with a brief 
address of weleome by the president, Pro- 
fessor Edgar F.. Smith, after which the fol- 
lowing papers were presented in the order 
named : 


The Role of Carbon: Professor AuBERT B. 

Prescort, Ann Arbor, Mich. 

The central position of the element car- 
bon among the others as shown in the 
periodic system, together with its innate 
character, preeminent rather than excep- 
tional in comparison, together give its 
capacity for combination. Through stud- 
ies of carbon compounds chemistry at large 
has been enriched by facts of molecular 


SCIENCE. 


It has been. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


constitution, correlated with all physical 
constants. When the nature of the living 
proteids shall become known molecular 
constitution will be included in that knowl- 
edge, and the atom of carbon or its theoret- 
ical equivalent will have its part in the 
discoveries then made. 


Dimethyl Racemic Acid, its Synthesis and 
Derwatives: Professor H. F. Kenunr, 
Philadelphia. 

The subject of this paper is an experi- 
mental study of a erystallized acid which 
had first been obtained, in very small quan- 
tities, by Professor Fitting and the author 
in an investigation upon diacetyl, an im- 
portant compound of carbon discovered by 
them. The present paper describes the 
synthetic preparation of the acid on a 
larger scale, and by an improved method, 
and supples more complete data concern- 
ing its physical and chemical characters. 
It records the preparation of a number of 
new salts and many analytical results, con- 
firming the deductions which had been 
drawn from scanty observations in the orig- 
inal research. 


Sources of Error in the Determination of 
the Atomic Weight of Nitrogen: THE0- 
pORE W. RicHARDSs, Cambridge, Mass. 
On comparing Stas’s and Scott’s anal- 

yses of ammonic bromide, it is shown that 

while Stas probably failed to purify am- 
monia with sufficient care, Scott, although 
working with purer ammonia, used bro- 
mine which was less pure. Thus Stas’s 
results would yield too high an atomic 
weight of nitrogen, and Scott’s one too low. 
The study of the other available data, in- 
cluding the results of Ramsay and Aston 
and some preliminary Harvard work, seems 
to show that the assumption of inconstanecy. 
in the atomic weights is not demanded by 
the facts, and that the atomic weight of 
nitrogen is between 14.02 and 14.04. 


May 6, 1904.] 
The Constituents of the Venom of the 
Rattlesnake: Professor JoHN MARSHALL, 

University of Pennsylvania. 

Researches on the constituents of the 
venom of the rattlesnake are not as nu- 
merous as those on the physiologic action of 
the venom and those bearing upon attempts 
to discover an antidote. The most com- 
prehensive research on the constituents of 
the venom of this snake was made by Drs. 
Weir Mitchell and Reichert in 1886. Since 
then a better knowledge of albuminous 
substances has been obtained, newer. classi- 
fications of these substances have been 
made and more accurate methods for their 
separation and identification have been de- 
vised. 

All of the substances hitherto separated 
from the venom of this snake by the 
methods employed were toxic. The toxi- 
city of the substances separated is believed 
by the author to have been due to an ad- 
mixture of a toxic substance which was 
precipitated with the non-toxic part as an 
adherent material. 

By the method of separation by frac- 
tional precipitation by means of ammonium 
sulphate the author has been able to sepa- 
rate the venom (using that of the Crotalus 
adamanteus) into three fractions. Of 
these three fractions one is toxic and two 
are non-toxic. The first fraction of the 
series of three was separated from the 
venom, while in one per cent. sodium 
chloride solution by the very slow addition 
of saturated ammonium sulphate solution 
vith constant, rapid stirring by means of 
a mechanical stirrer until the venom solu- 
tion was saturated with ammonium sul- 
phate solution to the extent of 4.5/10. The 
first fraction consists of euglobulin and 
pseudoglobulin, is white and non-toxic. 
The second fraction was obtained from the 
filtrate from the first by saturation to 6/10 
with ammonium sulphate, is yellow and is 
toxic. Whether it is a chemical individual 


SCIENCE. 


715 


or a mixture is still under investigation. 
The yellow coloring matter was séparated 
and is soluble in absolute alcohol, produc- 
ing a greenish fluorescent solution. It is 
not a lipochrome, nor bile coloring mat- 
ter, nor an ordinary coloring matter. It is 
non-toxie. 

The third fraction was obtained from the 
filtrate from the second fraction by satu- 
rating with erystals of ammonium sul- 
phate. It is white, non-toxic and consists 
of albumin. 

The author was unable to detect any 
albumoses or peptone in the venom. 


The Atomic Weight of Tungsten: Pro- 
fessor Epcar F. Smirxa and Dr. F. F. 
Exner, Philadelphia. 

Our study, extended over a long period, 
has revealed : 

1. That it is quite doubtful whether any 
chemists who in the past occupied them- 
selves with a redetermination of the atomic 
weight of tungsten have worked with pure 
substance. Tungstic acid is prone to form 
“ecomplexes.’ It was found that if the acid 
contain no iron, for instance, but be di- 
gested with acids, 2. e., hydrochloric or 
nitrie acid, in which iron is present, the 
latter will enter the tungstic acid. Tron 
and manganese are eliminated from the 
acid with the greatest difficulty. In the 
earlier work there is no evidence of their 
removal; neither do we discover that 
vanadium and phosphorus had been con- 
sidered as present, yet in purifying am- 
monium paratungstate by reerystallization 
alone it was found that the tenth recrystal- 
lization showed vanadium. 

2. The slimy, greenish or bluish-white 
masses believed to be ‘para-tung-states’ be- 
cause of their great insolubility are De 
ably ‘complexes.’ 

3. The use of pure sodium carbonate 
(two per cent.) to dissolve tungsten tri- 
oxide gives an excellent means of ascertain- 


716 SCIENCE. 


ing when the iron, manganese and silica are 
fully removed, but that its development 
into a method for the determination of the 
atomic weight of tungsten is not at all 
probable. 

4, The plan of digesting pure ammonium 
paratungstate with nitric acid, then evap- 
orating to complete dryness and gently 
igniting affords pure oxide. 

5. That porcelain vessels are preferable 
to those of gold, silver or platinum for the 
ignition of ammonium paratungstate and 
tungstic acid. 

6. That the oxidation of metal (method 
2) leads to reliable atomic numbers when 
the material is pure. 

7. That tungsten hexachloride can be 
completely transposed into pure oxide with 
water and a little nitric acid. 


Trisulphoayarsenic Acid: Professor Lx- 

Roy W. McCay, Princeton. 

This paper explains how magnesium 
salt of trisulphoxyarsenic acid is formed. 
This salt has the composition represented 
by the formula Na,AsOS, + 11H,0. The 
tertiary potassium salt is prepared in an 
analogous manner. Two double salts 
NaSrAsOS, + 10H,O and KBaAsOS, + 
7H,O have also been prepared. Methods 
for separating trisulphoxyarsenie acid 
from monosulphoxyarsenie and disulphoxy- 
arsenic acid have been worked out and the 
behavior of the compound toward strong 
mineral acids is now under investigation. 
This work was done conjointly with Dr. 
William Foster, Jr., of Princeton Univer- 
sity. 


The Expansion of Algebraic Functions at 
Singular Points: Professor Preston A. 
Lampert, Bethlehem, Pa. 

In this paper the author bases the ex- 
pansion in series of algebraic functions at 
singular points on that application of Me- 
Clanim’s series which, at the last general 


[N.S. Von, XIX. No. 488. 


meeting of the American Philosophical So- 
ciety, was developed for the determination 
of all the roots of a numerical equation. 
The method is more direct than the meth- 
ods employed for this purpose by either 
Puiseux or Nother. 


The Continuum and the Theory of Masses: 

Professor I. J. ScHWATT. 

The theories of continuity as given by 
Peano, Borel, Couturat, Poincaré and 
others are viewed in the light of Cantor’s 
ideas. The classification of the different 
kinds of numbers and their relation to the 
continuum is given. The relation between 
the m-fold and n-fold space and the con- 
tinuity of these spaces is studied. 


Professor PAuL 


Read by title. 


Biblical Pessimism: 
Haupt, Baltimore. 


The Ripening of Thoughts i Common: 
Professor Otis T. Mason, Washington, 
D. C. 

Thoughts in common and the activities 
linked with them are spoken of under the 
heads of biology, speech, industries, fine 
art, social life, learning and lore and re- 
ligion. Activities which are purely biolog- 
ical thoughts-in-common are shared with 
the animals. Speech is considered as the 
first occasion of thoughts. Industries of 
life give rise to much simultaneity and 
identity of mental operations. The es- 
thetic faculty affords most wonderful ex- 
amples of the force of emotions felt in com- 
mon. ‘The first society developed a vast 
number of thoughts in common that have 
persisted in all ages and areas. In learn- 
ing and lore and in religion the same sim- 
ilarity of thought is pointed out. 


THURSDAY, APRIL 7. 
Afternoon Session—2 o’clock. 
Vice-President Scott in the chair. 


—— 


May 6, 1904.] 


An Attempt to Correlate the Marine with 
the Fresh and Brackish Water Mesozoic 
Formations of the Middle West: Pro- 
fessor JoHN B. Hatcusr, Pittsburgh, 
Pa.. 

1. Marine and fresh-water or other non- 
marine deposits when present even in the 
same region, the one superimposed upon 
the other, do not necessarily represent dis- 
tinet time intervals. When considered as 
formations they may have been deposited 
contemporaneously and may represent ap- 
proximately the same time interval. 

2. The Atlantosaurus beds and Dakota 
sandstones are considered as the possible 
equivalents of the Jurassic and Lower Cre- 
taceous. 

3. The relations of the Eagle sandstones, 
the Judith River beds and the Laramie to 
the Colorado and the Montana formations 
are pointed out. 


The Miocene Rodentia of Patagonia: Pro- 
fessor WitiiAmM B. Scorr, Princeton, 
N. J. 


Recent Advances in our Knowledge of the 
Evolution of the Horse: Professor 
Henry F. Osporn, New York. 

The special explorations and studies on 
the evolution of the horse in the American 
Museum of Natural History, under the 
fund donated by Mr. William C. Whitney 
for this purpose, have considerably ex- 
tended our knowledge of the evolution of 
the horse in America in recent years. 

The Oligocene horses have been revised 
and are shown to embrace a large number 
of types, among which are the ancestors of 
at least two of the distinct lines of Miocene 
horses. In the Miocene it is found that 
the genera Merychippus, Protohippus and 
Hypohippus deseribed by Leidy in the 
middle of the last century all represent 
distinct lines or stages of evolution. 

The museum exploring parties under 


SCIENCE. 


let 


Mr. J. W. Gidley secured complete skele- 
tons of Mesohippus bairdi from the Upper 
Miocene, the new genus Neohipparion 
whitney and the Lower Pleistocene horse, 
Equus scottt. The existence of three and 
possibly four distinct but contemporaneous 
lines of Miocene horses has been demon- 
strated. 

The cause of the extinction of the 
Pleistocene horses in America remains a 
mystery. No horse remains are found 
recorded with human remains, as is the 
case in South America. It is also not 
positively demonstrated that the modern 
horse, Hquus caballus, originated in North 
America. This remains an open question 
until we know more of the geology of Asia. 


The Silurian Fauna of Arkansas: Mr. 
GILBERT VAN INGEN. (Introduced by 
Professor W. B. Scott.) 


WALDEMAR 
(Introduced 


The Yukaghir Language: 
JocHELSoN, New York. 
by Dr. Franz Boas.) 

The morphological peculiarities of this 
language may be summed up in the follow- 
ing main propositions. 

Word-formation is accomplished mainly 
by means of suffixes; but prefixes are also 
used (almost exclusively in connection with 
verbal forms). Im this respect the lan- 
guage differs from those of the Ural- 
Altaic group, which uses suffixes only, and 
approaches the American languages. 

The possessive suffix of nouns is but little 
developed (except in the third person) ; 
the language thus differing from the Ural- 
Altaic, as well as from the Eskimo dia- 
lects. 

Sound-harmony of vowels (a and o 
should not occur in the same word) is little 
developed, and in this respect the language 
resembles some of the Indian dialects, but 
differs absolutely from the Ural-Altaic 
languages with their intricate system of 


718 SCIENCE. 


yowel-harmony. For instance, an impor- 
tant feature of the vowel-harmony of the 
latter group of languages consists of the 
adaptation of the suffix vowels to the vowel 


of the root, which never changes. The. 


vowel of the first syllable thus governs all 
the rest of the vowels, no matter what their 
number may be. In the harmony of the 
Yukaghir language, the root-vowel fre- 
quently adapts itself to the vowel of the 
suffix. Besides, in the plural forms of the 
personal pronouns (met, mit; tet, tit; 
tudel, titel) an attempt may be noticed in 
the language to derive new forms by means 
of changes of vowels within the -root (the 
method of Semitic languages) without any 
additions from outside, a feature of which 
traces may be found in two other so-called 
‘isolated’ Siberian languages—that of the 
Kott and the Ostyak from Yenisei. 

The difference in the conjugation of 
transitive and intransitive verbs which we 
have in the Yukaghir language is a feature 
common to almost all American languages. 
The same may be said of the capacity of 
bases of transitive verbs to change into 
intransitive by means of suffixes, and vice 
versa. 

Suffixes of purely verbal forms are dif- 
ferent from ecase-suffixes, and they can not 
be brought in connection with personal 
pronouns. 

A necessary element of plurality is the 
sound p; while that of futurity, ¢. In the 
Chukehee and Eskimo languages 7 consti- 
tutes the element of plurality, and in the 
Koryak language it forms the element of 
the dual number. 

Adjectives, being verbal forms, do not 
undergo any inflections. 

There is no difference between animate 
and inanimate objects, as is the case in 
some Indian dialects. 

The feature known as ‘polysynthesis’ in 
American dialects, and which consists of a 
combination of two or more uninflected 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No. 488. 


bases into one word, in which one of the 
bases expresses the principal idea, and is 
put at the end of the word, while the other 
bases figure as secondary definitive ideas, 
is also to be met with in the Yukaghir lan- 
guage. 

It is true that there is no actual in- 
corporation to be found in the language; 
neither pronouns nor nouns, when direct 
or indirect objects, are incorporated in 
the predicate; but the nature of the syn- 
tactical construction of the Yukaghir lan- 
guage is akin to incorporation. The verb 
plays the main part in the sentence. It 
is always placed at the end of the sen- 
tence, being preceded, first by the subject 
with all its modifiers, then by the direct 
and indirect objects with their modifers, 
then by the adverbs. If the subject is not 
accompanied by any modifiers, and it is 
known from the sense of the story who the 
acting person is, then it is usually dropped. 
The subject very often does not assume the 
element of plurality, though there are 
many acting persons, as long as the sense 
of plurality is expressed by the verb. 

The Horizontal Plane of the Skull: Dr. 

Franz Boas, New York. 


Evening Session—8 o’clock. 
At the Free Museum of Science and Art, 
University of Pennsylvania, President 
Smith in the chair. 


Pompeu and Sant Pierre: an Examination 
of the Pliman Narration, and other 
Studies (with lantern slide illustra- 
tions): -Professor ANGELO HEILPRIN, 
Philadelphia. 

A reception was given in honor of the 
members of the society and the ladies ac- 
companying them, at 9 o’clock, at the Free 
Museum of Science and Art. 


FRIDAY, APRIL 8. 
Morming Session—10 o’clock. 
Vice-President Barker in the chair. 


- 


May 6, 1904.] 


The Keflex Zemth Tube: Professor CHAs. 

L. Doourrris, Philadelphia. 

More than fifty years ago an instrument 
known by this name was constructed. from 
designs by Mr. J. B. Airy for use at Green- 
wich. The instrument consists of a tele- 
scope fixed in a vertical position. A basin 
of mercury below the objective at a dis- 
tance equal to one half its focal length 
reflects the rays from a zenith star up- 
wards, bringing them to a focus immedi- 
ately in front of the objective. A microm- 
eter thread moving in the focal plane 
furnishes the means of measuring the posi- 
tions of stars which culminate sufficiently 
near the zenith to be within the field of 
view. The instrument was designed es- 
pecially for use with 7 Draconis, which 
culminated very near the zenith of Green- 
wich. The object was a more accurate de- 
termination of the constant of aberration, 
and incidentally the star’s parallax. So 
far as known this is the only instrument 
of this description ever constructed. 

In the course of the long series of lati- 
tude observations carried on at South 
Bethlehem, and afterwards at this place, 
anomalous results have appeared from time 
to time which seem to merit further study. 
The practical method for attacking the 
problem. appears to be to carry on two 
series, of observations simultaneously, em- 
ploying two instruments of different con- 
struction. With this in view Mr. Joseph 
Wharton has generously provided the 
means for installing a reflex zenith tube of 
eight inches aperture at this place. War- 
ner, and Swasey have this instrument well 
advanced and it is hoped that it may be in 
practical operation at an early day. 

It will be used in connection with the 
zenith telescope, which has been thoroughly 
renovated and the optical power increased 
so that stars as faint as the eighth magni- 
tude may be employed. It is hoped that 
simultaneous observations with the two in- 


SCIENCE. 


719 


struments may be carried on for two or 
three year's at least. 


Faint Double Stars: Mr. Eric Dooutrt1s, 

Philadelphia. 

The table of limiting distances given by 
Mr. R. T. A. Innes, within which a pair of 
stars is to be considered as a double star 
and entered into the catalogues, was ex- 
amined, and the opinion was expressed that 
the limits of this table were too narrow. 
In support of this opinion it was pointed 
out that of the 175 Burnham stars known 
to be binary, 16 would have been ex- 
cluded by the above eriterion, and atten- 
tion was called to the triple systems pz 
Herculis and 0 Hrmdant, which exceed the 
limits of the table. The 1,290 Burnham 
stars were examined as to proper motion, 
and it was shown that an average of 8 out 
of 51 minute stars measured in the vicinity 
of a bright star have an independent 
proper motion of their own, while an aver- 
age of 27 out of 51 are carried along with 
the bright star; the stars examined in each 
case exceeded the limits of the above table. 
It was poimted out that many cases of 
proper and orbital motion might, therefore, 
reasonably be expected among the faint 
stars, and the importance was urged of se- 
curing an initial series of measures to serve 
as a basis for the investigation of their 
future motion. A 

New elements of » Herculis were given, 
and the recent measures of this system and 
of Krueger 60 and o Hridami secured at 
the Flower Observatory were referred to. 


On the Spectra. and General Nature of 
‘Temporary Stars (with lantern slide 
‘illustrations): Professor Wmu1mM WW. 
CamMpBELL, Mt. Hamilton, Cal. 

Our knowledge of the visual spectrum 
of the Orion nebula began with the invalu- 
able pioneer observations of 1864—65 by Sir 
William Huggins. The first photographs 


720 


of the spectrum were obtained independ- 
ently and simultaneously in March, 1882, 
by Sir William Huggins at Tuke Hill, 
London, and by Dr. Henry Draper in New 
York. 

The Tuke Hill spectrograms of the neb- 
ula differed widely from each other, even 
in the most prominent features; from which 
the conclusion was drawn by many persons 
that the spectrum of the Orion nebula va- 
ries rapidly with time. 

On account of the great value of accu- 
rate knowledge at this point in stellar evo- 
lution, it was desirable that the striking 
discrepancies shown should be explained 
and removed as promptly as possible. 
With this end in view an excellent series 
of spectrograms of the four Trapezium 
stars and four neighboring stars was se- 
cured in December, 1903, and January, 
1904. These compared with spectrograms 
previously obtained by Campbell at the 
Lick Observatory, and by Keeler at Alle- 
gheny, fail to confirm the changes formerly 
suspected. 

The discrepant Tuke Hill results for the 
nebula seem to be due to variations in 
the time of exposure, to fortuitous arrange- 
ments of the silver grains such as one must 
be on his guard against in under-exposed 
and over-developed negatives, and to the 
fact that the commercial plates in the 
eighties were considerably less sensitive 
than those of the last decade. 

In case of the Trapezium stars, every 
exposure on the star is at the same time 
an exposure on the nebula. The particular 
instrumental arrangement and time of ex- 
posure may in one case emphasize the 
spectrum peculiar to the nebula, and in 
another that of the star, with the result 
that spectra obtained with different instru- 
ments and under different conditions will 
possess comparatively few points of re- 
semblance. We can safely say that these 
stars are closely related to the nebula in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


- chemical constitution and relatively closely 


in physical condition. 

The results of this investigation were 
communicated to Sir William Huggins for 
criticism and comment. He is inclined to 
accept in the main the conclusions reached, 
with, perhaps, some reservation regarding 
some of the many points involved. 


Systems of n Periplegmatic Orbits: Pro- 
fessor Epgar OpELL Lovett, Princeton. 
(Introduced by Professor C. Li. Doo- 
little.) 

The paper on systems of periplegmatic 
orbits was inspired by Dr. G. W. Hill’s 
memoir on pairs of such orbits which ap- 
peared in the current volume of the Astro- 
nomical Journal. The notion of a peri- 
plegmatic orbit is due to Gyldén and their 
theory has been elaborated in the introduc- 
tory chapter of his treatise on absolute 
orbits. The successive sections cf the pres- 
ent paper are occupied with triple and 
n-ple systems of plane periplegmatic orbits. 
The method of discussion employed is es- 
sentially that used by Hill and the gen- 
eralizations constructed are suggested very 
naturally by the examples of his memoir. 
The concluding paragraph of the note has 
to do with certain pairs of entangled orbits, 
periplegmatie or otherwise, whose deter- 
mination depends either on elliptic func- 
tions or those new uniform transcendental 
functions recently discovered by Painleve 
to which he is devoting a series of memoirs 
in the Acta Mathematica. 


Palladium: Mr. JosepH WHARTON, Phila- 
delphia. 

The rare metal palladium belongs to the 
platinum group, yet in some respects re- 
sembles silver also. It usually occurs as a 
companion to platinum and thus exists in 
many places, but in such extremely small 
quantity that until lately the reworking of 
platiniferous residues from the various 
mines supplied most of what appeared. 


May 6, 1904.] 


The prevailing scarcity of platinum now 
directs attention to palladium as a prac- 
ticable substitute; for it has many of the 
good qualities of platinum, while its price 
is rather lower. 

Both platinum and palladium occur in 
all the numerous nickel mines found among 
the Laurentian and Huronian rocks in the 
province of Ontario, Canada; the quantity 
of each of those metals varying from a 
mere trace to one or more ounces per ton, 
the average for each metal being about 
one hundredth of an ounce per ton. 

Those Canadian ores carry nickel, cop- 
per, silver, gold, platinum, palladium, 
iridium and rhodium. The percentages of 
the precious metals are extremely minute 
and the various processes by which all these 
metals are recovered are naturally com- 
plicated and delicate; yet as approximately 
300,000 tons of these ores are treated an- 
nually by the Orford Copper Company, 
which owns most of those mines, that com- 
pany now produces about 3,000 ounces of 
palladium annually. The reports of the 
Canadian government upon the metallic 
and mineral resources of the dominion have 
never mentioned palladium as one of those 
resources. 

It is not known in what condition the 
palladium exists in that region, but as 
platinum has been found there in the form 
of platinum arsenide, it seems probable 
that palladium may occur in the same con- 
dition. 

Among the valuable characteristics of 
this metal are its hardness, ductility and 
malleability; it is also so non-corrodible 
that a polished sheet of it may long remain 
exposed to chlorine and hydrogen sulphide 
gases without tarnishing or losing its polish. 


Radium from American Ores: Professor, 
A. H. Pumures, Princeton, N. J. 
The mineral from which the radium was 
separated was carnotite, a new mineral 


SCIENCE. 


721 


described in July, 1899, and found as yet 
only in the western part of Colorado and 
adjacent counties of Utah. In composi- 
tion it is a potassium uranyl vanadate with 
three molecules of water of crystallization. 
In October, 1902, twenty-five pounds of 
this ore were obtained from Richardson, 
Utah. This ore contained less than ten 
per cent. of carnotites. Its activity as 
compared to uranium nitrate was .40. 
This was treated with concentrated acids, 
as it was thought that particularly nitric 
acid would dissolve the radium salts. 
After washing the insoluble residue the 
solutions were concentrated. As the ore 
contained very little barium, some barium 
chloride was added as a carrier for the 
radium; the sulphates were then precipi- 
tated, barium separated and obtained free 
from other bases by the ordinary methods. 
The barium carbonate dissolved in the 
least possible quantity of hydrochloric acid 
and fractioned by crystallization three 
times. The final product weighed a little 
less than one half gram and gave an ac- 
tivity compared to uranyl nitrate of 1,500. 
The residual chlorides were recovered and 
weighed very near two grams, and as meas- 
ured by G. B. Pegram, of Columbia, their 
activity compared to uranium was 365. 
With these results, had a ton of ore been 
used, and if it were possible to concentrate 
the activity mto one gram of barium 
chloride, it would give an activity of ap- 


_ proximately 60,000. 


In February, 1904, 3.5 kilos of ore were 
obtained from Montrose County, Colorado. 
This ore before treatment gave an activity 
of 1.71 compared to uranyl nitrate. After 
treatment with dilute acids the residue gave 
an activity of 1.40. There was recovered 
from these acid solutions 3.8 grams of ba- 
rium carbonate with an activity of 35.8. 
It was expected that the activity could be 
concentrated, or the radium separated from 
the insoluble residue by boiling with so- 


722 


dium carbonate, the work on this last speci- 
men not having been completed. If a ton 
had been used in the solution and the ra- 
dium concentrated it would yield a gram 
of barium chloride of an approximate ac- 
tivity of 11,300. Thus showing that while 
the radium is dissolved to a large extent in 
concentrated acids from the ores, even the 
dilute nitric acid dissolves it in consider- 
able quantity, and undoubtedly, in the 
preparation of uranium salts, this radium 
would be carried by the uranium, which to 
a certain extent would explain the varied 
activity of some uranium salts. 

It was thought that the above results 
were sufficient to prove that carnotite was 
a carrier of radium to a considerable ex- 
tent, and would prove a valuable source of 
radium. 

At the executive session which followed 
the preceding program the committee ap- 
pointed at the last general meeting to pre- 
pare a plan for the appropriate celebration 


of the two hundredth anniversary of the - 


birth of Benjamin Franklin reported the 
following plan: 

For the evening of the first day, a meet- 
ing of the society with a reception of dele- 
gates and representatives accredited to the 
society ; presentation of addresses; adjourn- 
ment, followed by a general reception. 

Hor the succeeding day in the morning, 
commemorative addresses on Franklin, coy- 
ering his services—as citizen and philan- 
thropist; as printer and philosopher, and 
as statesman and diplomatist; these exer- 
cises to be followed by a banquet in the 
evening. 

That the society ask congress to strike a 
medal in honor of the occasion, of which 
a gold impression shall be presented by the 
president of the United States to the 
French Republic, and a number of bronze 
impressions shall be distributed under the 
direction of the president of the United 
States and that a certain number. be placed 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 488. 


at the disposal of this society for presen- 
tation to institutions and societies of learn- 
ing, including those with which Franklin 
was connected. 

That the following guests be invited to 
participate in the celebration: the presi- 
dent of the United States; the vice-presi- 
dent and other high officers of state; the 
governors of the states of which Franklin 
was the colonial agent; foreign ambassa- 


dors accredited to the United States; a 


special representative from the republic of 
France; special representatives from socie- 
ties and institutions with which Franklin 
was connected; representatives from home 
and foreign scientifie societies and institu- 
tions of learning with which the American 
Philosophical Society is in correspondence. 

The report of the committee was ap- 
proved and the committee continued with 
instructions to carry out the plan as pro- 
posed, with authority to make such modi- 
fications as may seem to it desirable, to fix 
the time and place for the celebration and 
with full power to do all things necessary 
or desirable for the appropriate celebration 
of the anniversary. 

At the annual election the following per- 
sons were chosen members: 

Maurice Bloomfield, Ph.D., LL.D., Balti- 
more. 

Professor of Sanskrit and comparative philology 
at the Johns Hopkins University; editor of the 
“Kashmirian Atharra-Veda,’ 3 vols., 1901; trans- 
lator of the Hymns of the Atharra-Veda in Max 
Miiller’s edition of the ‘ Sacred Books of the East’ 
(Vol. 42); author of numerous papers in the 
Journal of the American Oriental Society, ete. 

Henry Pickering Bowditch, M.D., LL.D. 
(Edin.), Se.D. (Cantab.), Jamaica Plains, 
Mass. 

Professor of physiology in Harvard University; 
one of the authors of the ‘ American Text-Book of 


Physiology’; author of numerous important con- 
tributions to physiology. 


Edward Potts Cheyney, Philadelphia. 
Professor of history at the University of Penn- 
sylvania; author of ‘ Introduction to the Industrial 


May 6, 1904.] 


and Social History of England’ (1901), ‘Social 
Changes in England in the Sixteenth Century as 
Reflected in Contemporary Literature’ (1895), 
‘Short History of England’ (in press), ete. 


Russell H. Chittenden, Ph.D., New Haven. 

Professor of physiological chemistry in Yale 
University; director of Sheffield Scientific School, 
Yale; president of American Society of Natural- 
ists, 1893; president of American Physiological 
Society, 1895; author of ‘ Studies in Physiological 
Chemistry,’ 4 vols., and of many papers on physio- 
logical subjects in American and foreign journals; 
associate editor of the American Journal of 
Physiology and of Journal of Haperimental 
Medicine. 


Frank Wigglesworth Clarke, S.B., Se.D., 
Washington. 

Chief chemist in the United States Geological 
Survey; formerly professor of chemistry in Cornell 
University and in the University of Cincinnati; 
author of ‘Elements of Chemistry,’ ‘ Weights, 
Measures and Money of all Nations’; past presi- 
dent of American Chemical Society, chairman of 
International Committee on Atomic Weights. 


John Chalmers Da Costa, M.D., Philadel- 
phia. 

Professor of surgery\in Jefferson Medical Col- 
lege; author of a text-book on ‘Modern Surgery’ 
and of many contributions to medical periodical 
literature. 


Kuno Francke, Ph.D., Cambridge, Mass. 


Professor of German literature at Harvard Uni- 
versity; author of ‘Social Forees in German 
Literature’ and of numerous monographs; curator 
of the Harvard Germanic Museum. 


Adolphus W. Greely, U. S. A., Washington. 


Brigadier-General and chief signal officer of the 
United States Army; distinguished meteorologist 
and Arctic explorer; gold medallist of the Royal 
Geographical Society and of the French Geograph- 
ical Society; author of ‘Chronological List of 
Auroras, ‘Diurnal Fluctuations of Barometric 
Pressure,’ ‘Report of the Proceedings of the 
United States Expedition to Lady Franklin Bay, 
Grinnell Land,’ 2 vols., 4to, 1888; ‘ Three Years of 
Aretie Service, ‘American Weather,’ ‘ Climatol- 
ogy of Arid Region,’ ete. 


Preston Albert Lambert, Bethlehem, Pa. 


Assistant professor of mathematics at Lehigh 
University; author of text-book on ‘ Analytic 
Geometry and Differential and Integral Calculus.’ 


SCIENCE. 


723 


Edgar Odell Lovett, Ph.D., LL.D., Prince- 
ton. 

Professor of mathematics in Princeton Univer- 
sity; member of the American Mathematical So- 
ciety, Société Mathématique de France, London 
Mathematical Society, Mathematical Society of 
Edinburgh, Circolo Matematico di Palermo; au- 
thor of numerous important papers on mathemat- 
ical and astronomical subjects. 


Edward Leamington Nichols, Ph.D., Ithaca. 

Professor of physics at Cornell University; 
editor of the Physical Review; author of ‘The 
Galvanometer’ (1894), ‘A Laboratory Manual of 
Physics and Applied Electricity, 2 vols., ‘The 
Elements of Physics,’ 3 vols., and of numerous 
papers on experimental physics. 


Hon. Theodore Roosevelt, Washington. 
President of the United States. 


Samuel W. Stratton, Washington. 

Director of the National Bureau of Standards, 
late professor of physics in the University of 
Chicago. 

Harvey W. Wiley, A.M., M.D., LL.D., Wash- 
ington. 

Chief of the Bureau of Chemistry, United States 
Department of Agriculture; author of a ‘ Text- 


_ Book on Agricultural Chemistry ’ and of numerous 


papers on agricultural chemistry; past president 
of the American Chemical Society and of the 
American Society of Agricultural Chemists. 


Foreign residents : 
Friedrich Delitzsch, Ph.D. (Leipzig), Berlin. 
Professor of Assyriology in the University of 
Berlin; director of the Babylonian section of the 
Berlin museum; author of ‘ Assyrisches W6rter- 
buch,’ ‘Assyrische Grammatik, ‘Wo Lag das 
Paradies?’ and numerous other works. 


Sir Richard C. Jebb, LL.D., D.C.L., Cam- 
bridge. 

Regius professor of Greek at Cambridge; author 
of numerous contributions to classical literature, 
including * Sophocles, with Critical Notes, Com- 
mentary and Translation,’ 2 vols., 1883-96; presi- 
dent of London Hellenic Society. 


Ernest Rutherford, F.R.S., Montreal. 

Macdonald professor of physics at McGill Uni- 
versity; author of numerous papers on various 
branches of physical science and particularly on 
the subject of radio-actiyity, and on the ionization 
of gases by Réntgen and Becquerel rays. 


Jakob Heinrich Van’t Hoff, Berlin. 


724 SCIENCE. 


Professor of chemistry in the University of 
Berlin; author of some epoch-making discoveries 
in physical chemistry and of numerous contribu- 
tions to chemical literature, including ‘ Lectures 
on Theoretical and Physical Chemistry,’ ‘ Studies 
in Chemical Dynamics,’ ‘ Chemistry in Space,’ ete. 


Wilhelm Waldeyer, Berlin. 

Rector magnificus of the university and pro- 
fessor of anatomy at Berlin; eminent anatomist 
and author of numerous contributions to the 
literature of anatomy. 


Afternoon Session—2 o’clock. 
President Smith in the chair. 

A System of Passenger Car Ventilation: 
Dr. Cuartes B. Duptey, Altoona, Pa. 
During the last ten years there has been 

developed by the various experts of the 

Pennsylvania Railroad Company, a system 

of passenger car ventilation, which bids fair 

to prove a reasonably successful solution of 
this difficult problem. The system in brief 
consists in taking air from the outside in 
through hoods covered with wire gauze to 
exclude coarse cinders, situated at diag- 
onally opposite corners of the car, on what 
is known as the lower deck, near the top 
of the ear. Thence the air passes through 

a vertical down-take through the floor to 

a Space underneath the floor, which is 

bounded by the outside sill, the floor, the 

first intermediate sill, and the false bottom. 

This space underneath the floor, reaches 

the whole length of the car. From this 

space the air passes up through the floor, 
by means of slots in the floor, into the 
heater boxes where the air is warmed by 
the radiators. From the heater boxes the 
air passes out through a proper tubular 
aperture, situated underneath each seat, 
into the main aisle, from which point it 
distributes itself throughout the car, and 
finally passes out of the car through venti- 
lators situated along the center line of the 
upper deck, which ventilators are so ar- 
ranged that when the car is in motion, or 
the wind blows across the top of the car, 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


they produce a suction on the car, helping 
to exhaust the foul air. 

The amount of air taken through the car 
by the system when all the ventilators are 
open is about 60,000 cubic feet per hour, 
or approximately 1,000 cubic feet of fresh 
air per passenger. A passenger coach 
embraces about 4,000 cubic feet of space, 
so that the air in the car is changed fifteen 
times an hour. 

The experiments indicating the amount of 
air as above were made with cars in motion 
in a train, and with heat in the cars. The 
control of the system is in the ventilators in 
the upper deck. By closing the valves in 
these ventilators, it is possible to diminish 
the amount of air under the same condi- 
tions as above to about half or a little more. 
This diminution applies during extreme 
cold weather, or when there are only a few 
passengers in the car. When the car is 
standing still, and there is heat in the ear, 
nearly half the amount of fresh air that is 
obtained under full movement still passes 
through the car. When the car stands 
still, with no heat in the car and no lamps 
lighted, the amount of ventilation is still 
more diminished. Thus far no serious 
difficulties have been experienced in keep- 
ing the cars warm, even in the most severe 
weather, with the system of heating for 
which the ventilating system was devised, 
and the results have proved so satisfactory 
that the system has now been applied to 
about 800 passenger coaches on the Penn- 
sylvania system east of Pittsburgh and 
Erie, and to nearly 200 coaches on the 
Pennsylvania lines west of Pittsburgh; also 
to some few cars on other railroads. It has 
not yet been applied to Pullman ears. 


Atmospheric Nucleation: Professor Caru 
Barus, Providence, R. I. 
There is considerable probability that 
material emanations from the sun enter, 


May 6, 1904.] 


our atmosphere, and is believed that not 
only auroras, magnetic storms and other 
electrical phenomena are attributable to 
this cause, but that ordinary meteorological 
conditions, like the changes of the barom- 
eter, are thus powerfully influenced. The 
speaker has for several years been en- 
deavoring to obtain direct evidence of this 


effect and he described the methods used > 


for counting the number of active foreign 
particles (ions or nuclei) in the atmos- 
phere. 

The first method is based on the observed 
size of those brilliant optical phenomena 
called coronas and sometimes seen around 
the moon. These coronas are artificially 
produced in a vessel containing a sample 
of the air to be examined, and the number 
of particles may be computed from the 
coronal diameter. Lantern slides are 
shown giving results as obtained at Brown 
University, in Providence. 

In a second method the speaker deter- 
mined the number of nuclei from photo- 
graphs of the fog particles condensed on 
the nuclei. Lantern slides showing fog 
particles even less than .0003 cm. in diam- 
eter were exhibited. The photography of 
these small water globules, each a perfect 
sphere, has never before been accomplished 
and the difficulties encountered were fully 
pointed out. 


On the Collecting of Meteorites: Dr. Aris- 
TIDES Brezina, Vienna. (Read by Dr. 
Amos P. Brown.) 

Matter of any kind should be collected, 
not only systematically but also synopti- 
eally, without starting from all points of 
view from which the matter in question 
may be arranged. 

The author illustrates this thesis on a 
synoptical collection of meteorites formed 
since 1896 which consists of seven groups. 

I. Betyl Coins.—The ancients supposed 
the stars to be domiciles of gods; falling- 


SCIENCE. 


125 


stars and falling meteorites signified the 
descending of a god or the sending of its 
image to earth. 

These envoys were received with divine 
honors, embalmed and draped and wor- 
shipped in temples built for them. 

These betyls are in the main: 

The omphalos of Delphi, a black stone 
represented on coins of Hleuthernai, 
Makedonia, Myrina, Nakrasa, Neapolis, 
Parthia (the first six Arsacides), Rome, 
Syria (ten Seleucid Rings from Antiochus 
Soter to Alexander Bala). 

The black conical stone fallen at Emisa 
and called El Gabal, the sun. Represented 
on coins of Emisa and Rome. 

Zeus Kataibates on coins of Kyrrhos. 

The conical stone fallen at Kypros and 
worshipped as image of Aphrodite Paphia. 

The image of Artemis Ephesia fallen at 
Ephesos; represented on coins of Aizanis, 
Ankyra, Ephesos, Eumeneia, Nakrasa, 
Philadelphia, Provincia Asia, Rome, Tabai 
and Tiberiopolis. 

The stone of Astarte on coins of Sidon 
and Tyros. 

The pyramids of Apollon on coins of 
Ambrakia, Apollonia, Megara and Myrina. 

The stones of Zeus Dolichenos or Her- 
akles Sandan; coins of Tarsos. 

Zeus Katios, a conical stone suspended 
by a chain; coins of Seleukeia. 

Conical or quadratic stones on coins of 
Mallos or Rhosos, Perga and Synnada. 

The conical stone of Aphrodite Urania 
on coins of Makedonia (Tetradrachms of* 
Alexander the Great) and Uranopolis. 

The simulacres of Artemis Anaitis, Ar-- 
temis Leukophrys, Artemis Pergaia, A’s-- 
tarte, Hera, Persephone, ete. 

Coins representing related celestial bodies ; 
(comets). 

In all, 250 coins from 60 towns or re- - 
gions representing 22 gods. 

II. Historical meteorites which were - 
worshipped by primitive nations or-which » 


726 


formed standards in the development of 
meteoric science; prehistoric meteorites 
from tumuli or mounds, the oldest meteor- 
ite of known fall (Hnsisheim, 16 Novem- 
ber, 1492). Iron fallen with the zielid 
shower at Mazapil, meteor dust and terres- 
trial dust, ete., nineteen specimens. 

Ili. Thirteen specimens illustrating scat- 
tering of meteorites, among them the stones 
of Lerici, Italy and Pultusk, Russia, fallen 
simultaneously (30 January, 1868, 7 hrs.) 
on the flying-line of the Pultusk-shower. 

TV. One hundred and twenty-five speci- 
mens illustrating melting and fusion, scor- 
fication, faulting and separating; different 
kinds of crust, whole orientated individ- 
uals, metallic and molten veins, harnesses 
and fissures, products of heating, altera- 
tion-zones, wallborders bent and unbent, 
ete. 

V. Seventy-two specimens illustrating 
weathering and formation of new constitu- 
ents; different processes of oxidizing, nat- 
ural dividing and uncovering of more re- 
sistant minerals, changing in limonite and 
nickel-minerals, ete. 

VI. One hundred and thirty-six speci- 
mens illustrating constituents of meteorites, 
among them phosphor, diamond, graphite, 
erystals of nickel iron, cohenite, schreiber- 
site, troilite, daubréetite, chromite, olivine, 
anortite, kosmochlore, enstatite, chondres 
of various kinds, ete. 

VII. The systematic collection represent- 
ing 9 classes in 58 groups and 280 localities 
of meteorites (irons and stones). 


On the Occurrence of Artifacts Beneath a 
Deposit of Clay: Dr. CHARLES CoNRAD 
Axsort, Trenton, N. J. 

On the Breeding Habits of the Spade 
Foot Toad (Scaphiopus Solitarwus) : Dr. 
CHARLES Conrap Apsort, Trenton, N. J. 


Doliolum and Salpa: Professor WiLL1AM 
Keita Brooks, Baltimore. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No, 488. 


The Organzation of the Germ Cells and 
ils Bearings on Evolution: Professor Ep- 
WIN GRANT CONKLIN, Philadelphia. 
Specific substances destined to give rise 

in the course of development to specific 
parts or organs are present in the unseg- 
mented eggs of ascidians and snails and 
presumably also of other animals. These 
substances become localized at the time of 
the maturation and fertilization of the egg 
by an active flowing of the cell substances. 
Modifications of this localization, produced 
by modifications in the direction of the 
protoplasmic flow, do oceur and lead to 
profound modifications of the adult (e. g., 
dextral and sinistral forms). It only 
remains to extend by hypothesis similar 
modifications of egg localization to the eggs 
of different phyla in order to throw light 
upon one of the most difficult problems in 
evolution, viz., the origin of certain phyla, 
such as the vertebrates. 


Summary of the Recent Movements to 
Teach Agriculture m the Schools: Pro- 
fessor L. H. Batny, Ithaca, N. Y. Read 
by title. 


The Origin and Nature of Color in Plants: 
Professor Hrnry KraArmer, Philadel- 
phia. 

Colors in plants may be considered to be 
due to definite constituents which either 
themselves are colored or produce colors 
when acted upon by other substances. 
These substances are found in all parts of 
the plant, and in all of the cells excepting 
meristematic or dividing cells. They may 
be divided into two well-differentiated 
classes, namely, (1) those which are asso- 
ciated with the organized bodies in the cell, 
and (2) those which occur in the cell-sap 
or liquid of the cell. 

The earliest color to appear in the de- 
veloping plant is a yellow, and this is due 
to a principle which the author ealls etio- 
phyl to avoid confusion. This is associated 


May 6, 1904.] 


with a protoplasmic body termed by the 
author an etioplast. These bodies are more 
or less spherical or polygonal and are about 
one thousandth of a millimeter in diam- 
eter. They occur in the cells beneath the 
epidermal layer, and later, under the in- 
fluence of light, appear to be transformed 
into chloroplasts, the bodies giving the color 
to the leaves and other green parts of the 
plant. Under certain conditions the 
chloroplastid may likewise undergo a trans- 
formation into a yellow orange-colored 
body, known as a chromoplast, the pigment 
associated with it being called by the au- 
thor, chromophyl. These plastid pigments 
are distinguished from all other plant 
colors by their solubility in such solvents 
as benzol, ether, volatile oils, ete. 

During the course of metabolism the 
plant cell manufactures other color sub- 
stances which are not combined with the 
protoplasm or other organized bodies, but 
which are contained in the cell sap or liquid 
of the cell. These substances, unlike the 
plastid colors, are insoluble in the above- 
named solvents, but soluble in water and 
alcohol, which affords a means of separa- 
tinge them from the plastid colors. Most 
of the colors of flowers excepting yel- 
low and orange are due to substances 
of this class. The colors of many fruits, 
as apple, cranberry, strawberry, black- 
berry, grape, etce.; of red and brown sea- 
weeds; of vegetables, as turnip, radish, 
rhubarb, purple cabbage, ete., and also 
of autumn leaves belong to this class, 
that is, are cell-sap colors. The author’s 
experiments tend to show that the color of 
autumn leaves, as beech, maple, oak, etc., 
are in the nature of cell-sap colors, rather 
than due to a compound associated with the 
plastids as has been supposed heretofore. 
His researches, furthermore, tend to show 
that there is considerable difference in the 
cell-sap colors, or dyes, from various plants, 
and while they are all more or less constant 


SCIENCE. 


Mea, 


in their behavior toward sodium phosphate, 
yet their behavior, with a dozen or more 
reagents shows that no two of them are 
precisely alike, or if they are alike are asso- 
ciated with substances which influence their 
behavior toward reagents. As illustrating 
this point it may be mentioned that while 
the color of red rose closely resembles that 
of the red portion of the turnip in many 
respects, it differs from it in that an alco- 
holie solution of red rose becomes cloudy 
or fluorescent on the addition of water and 
the color is intensified on the addition of 
salicylic acid. It is also interesting to note 
that in the kernel of black Mexican sweet 
corn contiguous cells may show different 
colors, as reddish, bluish-green and pur- 
plish, this being due to the nature of the 
other substances associated with the dye in 
the cell sap. 

The author is inclined to look upon the 
chromoplastids of both flowers and fruits 
as haying the special function of manu- 
facturing and storing nitrogenous food 
materials, which are almost invariably con- 
tained in them, for the use of the germin- 
ating plant. He further considers the cell- 
sap colors, like other organized cell-con- 
tents, to be incidental to physiological ac- 
tivity and of secondary importance in the 
attraction of insects for the fertilization of 
the flower and dispersal of the seed. 


SATURDAY, APRIL 9. 
Mornng Session—10 o’clock. 
President Smith in the chair. 


The Establishment of Game Refuges in the 
United States Forest Reserves: Mr. Au- 
DEN Sampson, Haverford, Pa. 

The author spent six months in the 
forest reserves of California and Washing- 
ton, during the summer of 1903, as game 
preserve expert, sent out by the United 
States Biological Survey to study the prob- 
lem of game refuges, and to select tracts 


728 


suitable for the purpose when the time for 
creating them shall come. 

The general plan was outlined in what is 
known as the ‘Perkins Bill,’ which was 
passed by the United States senate in the 
’ spring of 1903, but did not come to a vote 
in the house. By its provisions the presi- 
dent would have power to designate certain 
tracts in the forest reserves where there 
may be no hunting; which shall serve as 
refuges and breeding grounds for wild ani- 
mals. By this the extermination of the 
larger mammals will be prevented, and at 
the same time the hunting in the vicinity 
of these refuges will be maintained by the 
overflow of game, as is the case in the 
vicinity of the Yellowstone National Park. 
This is a type, on a large scale, of what it 
is desired to establish elsewhere. 

These reserves will be mainly for the 
protection of deer which are to be found 
widely distributed. It is the intention to 
prevent the recurrence of that which hap- 
pened in the case of the buffalo. Of the 
millions which once ranged over the plains, 
less than 1,000 now remain. It is hoped 
that their number will be increased. There 
remain two large herds of elk, one of about 
16,000 in the Yellowstone Park, another of 
probably 3,000 in the Olympic Mountains 
in Washington; a band of 100 in Califor- 
nia, besides which there are various small 
bands in different states. The antelope are 
nearly exterminated, as are the mountain 
sheep, but all of these, as well as the Rocky 
Mountain goat and various small animals 
and birds, will be preserved in the refuges 
when created. No fishing will be permitted 
within these tracts, so that the trout may 
breed unmolested. It is hoped that the 
control of the refuges will be placed under 
the Bureau of Forestry, with competent 
rangers to patrol them. 

The paper read on this occasion set forth 
the various reasons which justify and de- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 488. 


mand the creation of game refuges in all 
parts of the country. 


The Use of the Relative Pronouns in Stand- 
ard English Writers: Professor WaATER- 
MAN T. Hewitt, Ithaea, N. Y. 

The purpose of this paper is to present 
briefly the historical development and use 
of the relative pronouns in English since 
the time of Wycliffe. Mention is made of 
some of the best known English writers 
whose style is colored by certain special 
features in their use of subordinate sen- 
tences introduced by the relative pronouns. 
Then follows a discussion on the use of the 
relatives that and which with examination 
of their use in the Tyndale and King 
James’s version of the Bible. Also in the 
Lord’s Prayer as shown in translations 
from 1130 A. D. to the present time. Lastly 
the use of these pronouns in proverbs and 
children’s rhymes is considered. 


The Effect of the American Revolution 
Upon the English Colomal System: Mr. 
Sypney Gzorce FisHer, Philadelphia. 
It is commonly supposed that England 

changed her methods of colonial govern- 
ment immediately after our revolution and 
learned to retain her colonies by the affec- 
tionate method without military force or 
coercion. This, however, is a great mis- 
take. England became much more severe 
in her methods of colonial control after our 
revolution, and continued to carry out all 
the principles and policies against which 
we had rebelled. 

England, after our revolution, governed 
Canada with the utmost severity, as Mr. 
Bourinot has described in his excellent 
books on Canadian history. Canada was 
allowed no local government, no county or 
township officers, and carefully prevented 
from imitating the New England town 
meetings, which were supposed by Eng- 
land to have been an important cause of 


May 6, 1904.] 


the American revolution. Our revolution 
caused England to tighten, not to loosen, 
her grip on her dependencies. 

It was not until 1837 that the Canadian 
rebellion wrought a change in British col- 
onial administration. Just at that time the 
whig party and free trade ideas were gain- 
ing a great ascendency in England, and as 
a result of these ideas and the Canadian 
outbreak in 1837 Great Britain gradually 
began to grant what is called ‘responsible 
government’ to the Canadian and Austral- 
ian provinces. So that it is to the Ca- 
nadian rebellion of 1837 rather than to our 
revolution that the present rather liberal 
and easy governments of Canada and Aus- 
tralia owe their existence. This change 
appears to have been an immense relief to 
the people of the Canadian and Australian 
provinces. The Canadians, after over sev- 
enty-five years of British rule, numbered, 
at the time of the rebellion of 1837, only 
1,500,000, but in the succeeding sixty years 
of responsible government they have in- 
ereased to 6,000,000. The Australian colo- 
nists have also gained a similar increase. 


The Hedonic Postulate: Professor LinDLEY 
M. Keaspry, Bryn Mawr, Pa. 


Results of the American Ethnographical 
Survey: Professor Marion D. LEARNED, 
Philadelphia. 

In the summer of 1902 the American 
Ethnographical Survey was organized to 
investigate the actual relations of the vari- 
ous race elements in our American popula- 
tion and their importance in American 
civilization. A sum of money was collected 
by the German American Alliance and the 
German American Historical Society, and 
a beginning made in Pennsylvania by an 
examination of the Conestoga region. The 
Conestoga expedition was composed of Pro- 
fessor M. D. Learned, director; Dr. G. D. 
Luetscher, Dr. Charles R. Miller, Dr. J. A. 
Bole, Mr. C. F. Brede, Mr. E. M. Fogel. 


SCIENCE. 729 


Special attention was given to tracing the 
German settlements from 1709 on, and 
their relations to their English, Scotch- 
Trish and Welsh neighbors. A part of the 
expedition made a careful study of the 
community settlement of the Rappists, now 
located at Economy, Pa. A large amount 
of material was collected along the lines 
of early settlements and migrations, trades, 
industries and their effects upon the geo- 
graphical distribution of the population, 
religion, education, politics, manners, cus- 
toms, superstition, dress, language, litera- 
ture and architecture. This material has 
been published in part in the followmg 
papers in the German American Annals: 

1. ‘The American Ethnographical Sur- 
vey, Preliminary Report of the Conestoga 
Expedition,’ by the director. 

2. ‘Benjamin Herr’s Journal, 1830,’ by 
the director. 

3. ‘An Old German Midwife’s Record, 
1791-1815,’ by the director with C. F. 
Brede. 

4. ‘Industries of York and Lancaster 
Counties,’ by G. D. Leutscher. 

The following matter is in press and 
being prepared for the press: 

1. ‘History of the Rappist Settlement,’ 
by J. A. Bole (in press). 

2. ‘The Official Report of the Survey.’ 

3. ‘A Series of Race Maps, Showing the 
Distribution of the Race Hlements at Dif- 
ferent Periods.’ 

4. ‘A Dialect Map, with Special Refer- 
ence to the German Dialects.’ 

5. ‘The Architectural Survivals.’ 

6. ‘Studies in Literature, Language and 
Biography of the Region.’ 


Regulation of Color-Signals in Marine and 
Naval Service: Dr. CHARLES A. OLIVER, 
Philadelphia. Read by title. 

The social features of the meeting were 
especially pleasant. In addition to the 
public reception on Thursday evening the 


730 


luncheons which were served in the hall of 
the society on Thursday and Friday af- 
forded many opportunities for meeting old 
friends and making new ones. The cul- 
minating social event was the dinner given 
by the resident to the non-resident members 
at the Hotel Bellevue on Friday evening. 
On this occasion addresses were made by the 
president of the society, Professor Edgar 
F. Smith, of Philadelphia; Hon. George F. 
Baer, of Philadelphia; Professor Simon 
Newcomb, of Washington; Professor Hd- 
ward S. Morse, of Salem; Professor George 
F. Barker, of Philadelphia; Professor Will- 
iam B. Scott, of Princeton; Professor 
Josiah H. Penniman, of Philadelphia; 
Mr. Henry LaBarre Jayne, treasurer of 
the society, and Dr. I. Minis Hays, one of 
the secretaries. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Vorlesungen wiber Haperimentalphysik. Von 
Aucust Kunpr. Friedrich Vieweg und 
Sohn. 1903. 

Few courses of lectures on general physics 
have been so well known as those of Professor 
Kundt at the University of Berlin. They were 
renowned throughout the world of students for 
their clearness of exposition, the enthusiasm 
both of lecturer and of listener, and the won- 
derful manner in which the facts of physics 
were illustrated by lecture-room experiments. 
Professor’ Kundt died in May, 1894, and steps 
were immediately taken to present to the 
world, in the form of a text-book of physics, 
his famous course of lectures. This has just 
been done, and the volume at hand from the 
press of Friedrich Vieweg is one of 851 pages 
illustrated with more than 500 figures in the 
text. There is an excellent portrait of Kundt, 
and a short but appreciative biography. 

The lectures which are here reprinted are 
those given in the winter and summer semes- 
ters of 1888-9, which were noted by one of his 
students and afterwards were revised and 
worked over by Kundt himself. They are now 
published under the editorial supervision of 
Karl Scheel, who very wisely has made no at- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


tempt to add chapters, or even notes, with the 
idea of making the lectures describe the facts 
of physics which have come into prominence 
since the death of Kundt. 

The course of lectures in general physics 
which has been given at the University of 
Berlin by a long line of distinguished men, 
ineluding Helmholtz, Kundt and Kohlrausch, 
is one designed specially for students of medi- 
cine, or those who wish to become acquainted 
with the phenomena of physics, but who do 
not necessarily intend to follow more advanced 
work in physics, and who do not regard this 
course as of fundamental importance. This 
fact necessarily has a most important bearing 
on the character of the lectures given. In the 
majority of cases in American universities and 
colleges physics is now taught largely owing to 
its educational value, in the sense that in or- 
der for a student to follow the course intel- 
ligently he must exercise certain mental 
qualities which are of the utmost importance 
in any scheme of education. The character 
of text-book, therefore, which would best rep- 
resent the needs of these two kinds of classes 
is quite different; and the main interest in this 
book of lectures of Kundt centers in his mode 
of presentation of the various branches of 
physics in order to meet the demands made 
by his conditions. 

One can not do better in reviewing the book 
than to give a few details in regard to the 
number of lectures assigned to various sub- 
jects, and to note their order of arrangement. 
In all there are 150 lectures: 39 in mechanics 
and properties of matter, 17 in acoustics, 31 
in heat (including five on the kinetic theory 
of gases), 43 in electricity and magnetism and 
20 in light. This division is most interesting 
and, in some respects, surprising. In treating 
the subject of mechanics there are one or two 
introductory chapters followed by one in which 
are introduced the ideas of mass, force, work 
and energy; then the subjects of equilibrium 
and machines are introduced; gravitation and 
various pendulum problems are next discussed, 
and then the lectures return to the questions 
of centrifugal force and moments of inertia. 
There follow six lectures on liquids, seven on 
gases, three on solids and six on the bound- 


May 6, 1904.] 


ary phenomena between two different kinds of 
matter. It will be seen at once that the order 
of presentation adopted by Kundt is one which 
lends itself most easily to simplicity of treat- 
ment, and is not at all concerned with the log- 
ical development of the subjects. Throughout 
the whole book all mathematical points are 
avoided and the utmost required is a most 
elementary knowledge of geometry. There is 
no discussion whatever as to our mode of un- 
derstanding what is meant by mass or force, 
and no attempt is made to show the logical 
connection between various subjects. As one 
reads the lectures one is struck with their 
clearness of thought, the beauty and vigor of 
expression, but above all with the fact that 
from the standpoint of interest to the class it 
would be impossible to present the subject in 
a better manner. All difficulties seem to 
vanish and the student is led from one phe- 
nomenon to another, and back again to more 
‘complex illustrations of the former, until all 
the essential facts of the subject are brought 
before him. If the treatment of the subjects 
of electricity and magnetism is analyzed, it 
is seen to be of the same general character as 
that of mechanics. There are a few chapters 
on the subject of electrostatic phenomena fol- 
lowed by a discussion of magnetism; then the 
ideas of electrostatic potential and capacity 
are introduced, and this leads to a discussion 
of electric currents. Special emphasis is laid 
throughout the whole book upon the descrip- 
tion of instruments for measurement and for 
ordinary laboratory use, and the question of 
the development of ideas is in many cases sub- 
ordinated to this. A marked illustration is 
afforded by the fact that, since an induction 
eoil is ordinarily used in producing electric 
currents through gases, therefore the whole 
subject of induced currents is taken up before 
the chapter on conduction through gases. An 
illustration of the fact that the main object 
of these lectures is to describe physical phe- 
nomena and not explain them is shown by 
noting that there is no discussion whatever as 
to the energy of electrostatic or electromagnetic 
fields or of the reasons underlying electric and 
magnetic attraction and repulsion, and yet 
interference with convergent polarized light, 


SCIENCE. 


731 


quartz compensators, systems of multiplex 
telegraphy, ete., are discussed in full. 

The publishers of this volume in their pre- 
liminary announcement express the belief that 
it will be useful to those who are following 
courses in physics as a text-book to accom- 
pany their lectures, and also to the scholar in 
general as an introduction to physical phe- 
nomena. ‘They say, moreover, that every one 
who is familiar with the teaching of physics 
will receive, as he reads the book, continual 
pleasure from the elegant and original method 
of presentation of facts already known to 
him. “These statements of the publishers fall 
short of the whole truth. There is no book at 
the present time, so far as known to the re- 
viewer, which presents the subject of physics 
in such an attractive manner, and a trans- 
lation of it in English would be of the greatest 
use in many colleges and schools. To the 
teacher of physics the great interest of the 
book lies in the fact that one has here an 
opportunity of seeing how a great master in the 
art of lecturing prepared his course; and, fur- 
ther, because he can not fail to learn many 
ways by which the subject may be made more 
interesting to his class and at the same time 


less difficult. J. S. Ames. 
THE JOHNS HopKINS UNIVERSITY. 


Disinfection and the Preservation of Food. 
By Samurt Ripeat, D.Se. New York, John 
Wiley and Sons. §8 vols., 504 pages, illus- 
trated. $4.00. 

THis valuable work gives in convenient 
form the latest information respecting disin- 
fection and the preservation of food. The 
greater part of the work is devoted to the sub- 
ject of disinfection, and is so presented as to 
make it possible not only to carry this impor- 
tant process on on a large scale for public pur- 
poses, but also in a small way in private 
families. The various substances used for 
disinfection are described and their methods of 
application explained. 

The different methods are grouped under the 
heads ‘Mechanical Disinfection,’ ‘ Steriliza- 
tion by Heat’ and ‘ Chemical Disinfectants.’ 
Both sterilization by heat and the use of 
chemical disinfectants are also employed in the 


732 SCIENCE. 


preservation of food. Chemical disinfectants 
are described under the heads of ‘ Metallic 
Salts,’ ‘Organic Substances’ and ‘ Compounds 
Related to the Alcohols.’ 

Methods of disinfection are described as re- 
lated to towns and municipalities and as per- 
sonal and internal disinfection. The chapter 
on the preservation of food is only a small 
part of the work and is not nearly so valuable 
as the part devoted to disinfection pure and 
simple. A résumé of legal statutes and regu- 
lations is also given and a short and neces- 
sarily brief account is given of the methods 
of analysis. 

Of great interest is the discussion of those 
substances used both as disinfectants and as 
food preservatives. Many of these are de- 
scribed as non-poisonous, in such a way as to 
mislead the careless reader. 

A careful reading of the article on fluorides 
would not warrant the apparent recommenda- 
tion of it as a substance suitable for addition 
to food products. 

Inasmuch as acetate of alumina has lately 
been used to a very large extent in sausages 
imported into this country, it is interesting to 
read, on page 175, the statement referring to 
this substance: ‘It would doubtless be useful 
for surgical dressings but is unnecessary and 
unsafe as a disinfectant.’ 

In general it may be assumed that sub- 
stances which are valuable for surgical dress- 
ings are not as a rule proper substances to be 
added to foods. 

The salts of copper and zine belong also to 
this class of bodies, and while their use as 
disinfectants is praiseworthy, their presence in 
food products is at least suspicious. 

Other well-known substances belonging to 
both classes are salicylic and benzoic acids and 
their salts, sulphurous acid and its salts, and 
formaldehyde. 

In regard to the preservation of food by 
these reagents the general tendency of Rideal’s 
work is to discourage their use, and this tend- 
eney must, it seems to me, be commended by 
all thoughtful students of hygiene and nutri- 
tion. In spite of this general tendency, how- 
ever, the department committee of the Eng- 
lish government, while prohibiting absolutely 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 488. 


the use of formaldehyde or preparations 
thereof in foods, recommends that salicylic 
acid may be used in quantities not greater 
than one grain per pound, except in milk, from 
which all preservatives of every kind are ex- 
cluded. Cream and butter, however, are 
allowed to carry boric acid or borax; in the 
case of the former, in quantities not to exceed 
.25 per cent. of boric acid or its equivalent in 
borax; in the case of the latter, not to exceed 
.5 per cent. of boric acid or its equivalent in 
borax. In the ease of foods intended for in- 
fants and invalids, however, all preservatives 
are to be excluded. At the International Con- 
gress of Hygiene at Brussels, 1903, resolutions 
were passed in favor of the total abolition of 
preservatives in all kinds of foods. This, how- 
ever, as is seen, includes salt, sugar, wood 
smoke, ete., which have been in use from time 
immemorial and hence such a recommendation 
is too drastic (page 423). 

The summary of facts respecting food pres- 
ervation by chemicals is a very valuable part 
of this excellent work. 


H. W. WItey. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

THE May number of The American Journal 
of Science contains the following articles: 
‘Recent Changes in the Elevation of Land 
and Sea in the Vicinity of New York City,’ 
by G. W. Tuttle; ‘Geology of Brome Moun- 
tain, one of the Monteregian Hills,’ by J. A. 
Dresser, ‘ Crystallization of Molybdenite,’ by 
A. J. Moses; ‘ Behavior of Typical Hydrous 
Chlorides when Heated in Hydrogen Chloride,’ 
by F. A. Gooch and F. M. McClenahan; 
‘ Stegomus Longipes, a New Reptile from the 
Triassic Sandstones of the Connecticut Val- 
ley, by B. K. Emerson and F. B. Loomis; 
‘Note on the Probable Footprints of Stego- 
mus Longipes; by R. S. Lull; ‘Canyon City 
Meteorite from Trinity County, California,’ 
by H. A. Ward; ‘Two Microscopic-Petro- 
graphical Methods, by F. E. Wright; ‘ De- 
nucleating Effect of Rotation in Case of Air 
Stored over Water,’ by C. Barus and A. E. 
Watson. 


May 6, 1904.] 


THE May number (volume 10, number 8) 
of the Bulletin of the American Mathematical 
Society contains the following articles: ‘ Re- 
port of the February Meeting of the Ameri- 
can Mathematical Society,’ by Professor F. N. 
Cole; ‘Report on the Requirements for the 
Master’s Degree,’ by the Committee of the 
Chicago Section; ‘On the Subgroups of Order 
a Power of p in the Linear Homogeneous 
and Fractional Groups in the GF [p"],’ by Pro- 
fessor L. E. Dickson; ‘The Exterior and In- 
terior of a Plane Curve,’ by Dr. G. A. Bliss; 
‘Ricatti Isothermal Systems—a Correction,’ 
by Dr. Edward Kasner; Shorter Notices; 
Notes; New Publications. 


Accorpine to the annual announcement of 
the Marine Biological Laboratory at Wood’s 
Hole, the Journal of Morphology, the publica- 
tion of which was interrupted in 1901, at the 
conclusion of the seventeenth volume, is to be 
immediately resumed, and will be open for 
larger papers in animal morphology, requir- 
ing, as a rule, extensive illustration in litho- 
graphic plates. A Journal of Animal Biology 
is also to be undertaken in the interest of 
investigations upon living animals, dealing 
especially with the problems of evolution as 
presented in the phenomena of heredity, varia- 
tion, hybridization, ete., and requiring experi- 
mental methods and methodical observation. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THE 152d meeting was held February 24, 
1904. 

Dr. Arthur L. Day presented a paper en- 
titled ‘The Study of Minerals in the Labora- 
tory.’ Dr. Day drew attention to the relation 
of some problems of physics to geology and 
pointed out the lines of investigation which 
had been undertaken by the Physical Labora- 
tory of the United States Geological Survey. 
His paper was intended as an introduction to 
. a summary of the results of certain investi- 
gations, an abstract of which will appear be- 
low. 

This was followed by a discussion of the 
oil fields of Alaska, by Dr. George C. Martin. 
Indications of petroleum have been found at 


SCIENCE. 


733 


three distinct localities on the Pacific Coast 
of Alaska and have been reported from several 
others. The Controller Bay field lies adjacent 
to the coast, about twenty miles east of the 
Copper River delta. In this field one well has 
been drilled which struck oil and several others 
were being put down at the time of Dr. Mar- 
tin’s visit. The rocks, consisting of shales 
and sandstones, are closely folded and are prob- 
ably of Tertiary age, and are overlain by coal- 
bearing horizons which are also Tertiary. The 
structure, as far as could be determined, is 
complex. 

The second locality lies on the west shore of 
Cook Inlet, at Enochkin Bay. In this locality 
the seepages indicate the presence of petro- 
leum, though the wells drilled thus far have 
not yielded any gushers. The oil-bearing 
rocks are of Jurassic age and are thrown up 
into broad, open flats. 

One hundred miles to the southwest is Cold 
Bay, where a similar occurrence of petroleum 
seepages has been found. The geologic struc- 
ture and rocks seem to be identical with those 
of Enochkin Bay. An account of these oil 
fields has been published by Dr. Martin in Bul- 
letin 225, U. S. Geological Survey, pp. 362- 
385. 


Tue 153d meeting was held March 9 and 
the first paper was entitled ‘ Extra Morainic 
Pebbles in Western Pennsylvania,’ by Mr. 
Lester H. Woolsey. Mr. Woolsey said that 
glacial pebbles, granites, diabases, etc., of prob- 
ably Wisconsin or Iowan age, have been found 
in 950-foot terraces (supposedly Kansan) along 
Raccoon Creek in Beaver and Washington 
counties as far south as Burgettstown on the 
Panhandle Railway. Similar pebbles were 
found up to 1,100 feet elsewhere in Beaver 
County. This is some evidence of a general 
flooding of this region in post-Kansan time. 

Mr. F. H. Knowlton then gave a paper on 
the ‘Fossil Floras of the Yukon.’ Up to 
about 1900 the known fossil flora of Alaska 
numbered about 110 species, all of which had 
come from the coast region from Sitka to Cape 
Lisburne. With the exception of the Cape 
Lisburne forms, which were regarded as of 
Jurasso-Cretaceous age, practically all those 
known were Tertiary in age. The discovery 


734 


of gold in the interior incited exploration, and 
soon small collections of plants were brought 
in, mainly from upper rocks of the Yukon. 
As these agreed in Tertiary age with those 
previously known from the coast region, it 
came to be accepted that only Tertiary plants 
occurred throughout this vast area. The U.S. 
Geological Survey desired to establish a type 
section, and in 1902 Mr. A. J. Collier was 
delegated to make a trip down the Yukon, 
studying the stratigraphy and collecting fossils 
from as many points as possible. When the 
plants were studied it was found that those 
from above Rampart were Tertiary (so-called 
Arctic Miocene), while below this point a very 
different condition was found. Near Nahoc- 
latilten Mr. Collier obtained collections which 
appeared to be mixed, that is, a part of the 
material seemed to be Tertiary and the re- 
mainder Middle or Lower Cretaceous. Un- 
doubted Upper Oretaceous plants were ob- 
tained from a number of other localities, es- 
pecially in the vicinity of Nulato, but so much 
interest attached to the Nahoclatilten localities 
that in 1903 Dr. Arthur Hollick was commis- 
sioned to duplicate Mr. Collier’s trip. From 
the combination of the two collections it is 
possible to decide with certainty that all points 
above Rampart are Tertiary, while below the 
plants indicate that the age is either un- 
doubted Cretaceous or doubtful Tertiary. The 
Cretaceous plants include eyeads of several 
genera, conifers and many dicotyledons, the 
combination resembling mostly the Middle and 
Upper Cretaceous flora of Bohemia. 

Mr. Marius R. Campbell then discussed 
‘Glacial Erosion in Western New York,’ de- 
voting special attention to the origin of the 
Finger Lakes. Mr. Campbell’s paper is soon 
to appear as a publication of the Geological 
Society of America. 

Tun 154th meeting, held March 23, was de- 
voted to a communication by Dr. Arthur L. 
Day, entitled ‘The Study of Minerals in the 
Laboratory. The following brief abstract 
contains the more important conclusions. 

The paper is a summary of an extended ex- 
perimental research by Dr. Day and Dr. E. 
T. Allen upon a series of artificial feldspars 
corresponding to albite (Ab) and anorthite 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


(An) and the following plagioclases: Ab,An,, 
Ab,An,, Ab,An,, Ab,An,, Ab,An, and Ab,An,. 
These were prepared with great care from the 
purest chemicals, and, with the exception of 
albite, which could not be crystallized on ac- 
count of its extreme viscosity, were fully 
identified microscopically. 

Melting-point determinations were obtained, 
beginning with anorthite and continuing down 
the series as far as Ab,An,. The viscosity was 
found to increase enormously toward the albite 
end of the series and appeared to veil the 
melting point completely below Ab,An,. In a 
specimen of natural albite (Mitchell County, 
N. C.) the viscosity of the glass during melt- 
ing was found to be of the same order of 
magnitude as that of the crystallized portion, 
and erystals of microscopic size sustained a 
slow heating to a temperature of 150° above 
where melting began, and preserved their 
original orientation. It was also shown that 
in viscous liquids, capable of considerable 
undereooling, the solidifying point did not 
coincide with the melting point or bear any 
necessary relation to it. 

The chemical purity of the artificial feld- 
spars enabled very accurate determinations of 
the specific gravity to be made of both the 
vitreous and the crystalline form. 

The following conclusions were offered as 
tending to show that the soda-lime feldspars 
form an isomorphous series and not a eutectic 
mixture: 

1. In Ab,An, the spherulites and the glass 
matrix were analyzed separately and proved 
to be identical in composition. In Ab,An, a 
portion was crystallized rapidly and the matrix 
erystallized very slowly in a subsequent heat- 
ing. The two sets of crystals, although very 
different in size, proved to be identical in com- 
position. 

If the relation had been that of a eutectic 
mixture, the component in excess must have 
erystallized out first. 

2. The curve of melting points of the pure 
(artificial) feldspars of the series is a straight 
line for some two thirds of the distance from 
anorthite to albite (as far as it could be es- 
tablished). There is no reason to suspect a 
discontinuity in the lower portion of the curve. 


May 6, 1904.] 


3. The fact that natural albite (Mitchell 
Co., N. C., Amelia Co., Va.) is too low in melt- 
ing point and too high in specific gravity to 
fall into line with the observations upon the 
pure feldspars is readily explained by the im- 
purities established by the chemical analyses. 

4, The curve of specific gravities of the arti- 
ficial crystalline feldspars which admit of ex- 
ceptionally accurate observation, on account 
of the chemical purity of the specimens, is also 
a straight line over practically the same range. 

5. No natural feldspar is known with a lower 
specific gravity than albite. 

The following preliminary figures were 
given: 


Specific Specific 


Melting 


Or) | eens Matera 
PAIR ere oc serts tc 1532° C. 2.764 2.70 
ANd, Ae aeo or 1503° 2.736 2.65 
AlbyAMS we css 1464° 2.702 2.60 
Ab,An, ....... 1420° 2.670 2.55 
Ab,An, ......- 1374° 2.48 
Ab,An, ..about 1345° 2.46 
JNO eo eerie 2.38 

: ALFRED H. Brooks, 
Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THe 583d meeting was held March 26, 1904. 
The election of twelve new members was an- 
nounced. 

Mr. L. A. Bauer reported that magnetom- 
eter records showed slight earthquake shocks 
on March 16 and 21. | 

Mr. Bergen Davis, of Columbia College, 
spoke on ‘The Theory of the Electrodeless 
Discharge. A receiver containing gas is 
placed in the field of a coil through which an 
alternating current passes; when the field 
reaches a certain minimum potential there is 
a white discharge through the gas; this po- 
tential was determined as a function of the 
gas density and alternation-frequency. The 
results were found to be in close accordance 
with the theory of electrons. 

Mr. P. G. Nutting then spoke on ‘The 
Dynamics of a Moving Charge,’ presenting 
systematically the dynamical principles that 
underlie the theory of electrons, and pointing 
out among other things the great differences 


SCIENCE. 3 


735 


in the nature of the fields produced by elec- 
trical charges moving at different velocities. 


Tue 584th meeting was held April 9, 1904, 
Vice-president Littlehales presiding. 

Dr. Bauer reported that the earthquake 
shock of March 16 was recorded by the mag- 
netograph at Baldwin, Kansas; such records 
have now been found made on about thirty 
different dates. 

Dr. R. A. Harris, of the Coast and Geodetic 
Survey, presented a paper on ‘Some Indica- 
tions of Land in the Vicinity of the North 
Pole.’ 

The indications of land were based chiefly 
upon (1) the direction and velocity of the 
surface currents, known, in part, by the drift- 
ing of the Advance and Rescue, the Jeannette 
and the Fram; (2) the very old ice found 
northeast of Alaska; (3) the tides at Bennett 
Island, at Pitlekaj, along the northern coast 
of Alaska, and in the Arctic Archipelago. 
At Bennett Island the mean range of tide is 
2 feet; at Pitlekaj, 0.2 foot; at Point Barrow, 
0.4 foot, the flood there coming from the west. 

The main conclusion arrived at was that a 
large trapezoidal tract of land may extend 
from near the North Pole towards Alaska and 
eastern Siberia—one corner lying nearly north 
of Bennett Island; another, a little west of 
north from Point Barrow; a third, a com- 
paratively short distance northwest of Banks 
Land; and a fourth corner, north of Lincoln 
Sea. 

The observations of Thomas Simpson show 
a remarkable change in the time of tide on 
the northern coast of Alaska near the eastern 
boundary. This seems to indicate that one 
or more islands probably lie not very far off 
to the northward of this locality. 

The subject was further discussed by Dr. 
Dall. 

Mr. George R. Stetson then read a paper on 
‘President Stiles and his Times, Yale, 1778- 
1795,’ based on the recently published vol- 
uminous diaries. These were summarized, 
presenting a vivid picture of the political, in- 
tellectual, social and religious conditions of 
the times. Cuartes K. Weap, 

Secretary. 


736 


THE MASSACHUSETTS INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY 
GEOLOGICAL JOURNAL CLUB. 


TuHE club during the last month has devoted 
much of its time to the reviewing of standard 
papers on ore deposits, for the benefit of stu- 
dents interested in economic geology. These 
articles were reviewed by L. T. Buell, C. H. 
Clapp, M. Rubel, G. G. Wald, A. H. Allen, 
W. G. Ball and B. L. Johnson. The other 
articles reviewed were: 

B. L. Johnson, ‘ Native Gold Original in 
Some Metamorphic Gneisses’ (Hng. and Min. 
Jour., February 4, 1904); S. Shapira, ‘ Mining 
in Korea’ (Hng. and Min. Jour., March 3, 
1904); W. L. Whittemore, ‘ Origin, Properties 
and Uses of Shale’ (The Michigan Miner, 
November, 1899, to February, 1900); J. G. 
Barry, ‘ Controlling Sand Dunes in the United 
States and Europe’ (Jour. of Geéog., March, 
1904); E. Burton, ‘The Glacial Geology of 
Tasmania’ (Quart. Jour. of the Geol. Soc., 
February, 1904) ; H. W. Shimer, ‘ Evolution of 
the Mosasaurs’ (Jour. Geol., February, 1904) ; 
C. E. Danforth, ‘The American Mining En- 
gineer’ (Hng. and Min. Jour., February 25, 
1904). 

Dr. D. W. Johnson spoke on ‘A Problem 
in River-Capture.’ His paper dealt with the 
present and former courses of the Tennessee 
River, and showed evidence for and against 
the present theory of its capture as proposed 
by Hayes and Campbell. Dr. Johnson is now 
in the field, making further investigation in 
this problem. G. F. Loves, 

Secretary. 


THE OHIO STATE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 


Tue thirteenth annual meeting was held at 
Denison University, Granville, November 27, 
with about thirty members in attendance. 

In the course of the year the academy has 
published, in addition to its ‘ Annual Report,’ 
three ‘Special Papers’: No. 5, ‘Tabanide of 
Ohio, with a Catalogue and Bibliography of 
the Species from America North of Mexico,’ 
63 pages, by James 8. Hine; No. 6, ‘The 
Birds of Ohio, A Revised Catalogue,’ with 
copious notes, 241 pages, by Lynds Jones; No. 
7, ‘Ecological Study of Big Spring Prairie,’ 
96 pages, by Thomas A. Bonser. The studies 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 488. 


upon which these papers were based were 
largely carried on by aid from the Emerson 
MeMillin Research Fund, and the expense of 
publication was mainly met by the further 
aid of the same fund. The series of special 
papers and the annual reports will be con- 
tinued, but hereafter the Ohio Naturalist will 
be the official organ of the academy and in it 
will be published the abstracts and papers of 
less than 1,500 words. 

The officers chosen for the ensuing year are: 


President—H. L, Moseley. 

Vice-Presidents—Lynds Jones and L. H. Mc- 
Fadden. 

Secretary—¥. L. Landacre. 

Treasurer—Herbert Osborn. 

Members of the Executive Committee—W. E. 
Wells and W. F. Mercer. 

Member of Publication Committee—James S. 
Hine. 

Trustee—W. R. Lazenby. 

Iibrarian—W. C. Mills. 


Correspondence regarding publications may 
be addressed to W. C. Mills, Page Hall, Ohio 
State University, Columbus, O. 

The address of the president, C. J. Herrick, 
was on ‘The Doctrine of Nerve Components 
and Some of its Applications.’ 

The following papers were read: 


Epwarp L. Rice: “Preliminary Report on the 
Development of the Gill in Mytilus’ 

Caries S. Meap: ‘ Comparative Chart of the 
Vertebrate Skull.’ 

F. L. Lanpacre: ‘The Protozoa of Sandusky 
Bay.’ 

F. L. LANpAcre: 
sorian.’ 

Max Morse: ‘ Report on the Reptiles and Batra- 
chians of Ohio.’ 

L. B. Watron: ‘Cataloguing Museum Collec- 
tions.’ 

L. B. Watton: ‘A Practical Dissecting Tray.’ 

HERBERT OspoRN: ‘A Further Contribution to 
the Hemipterous Fauna of Ohio.’ 

J. G. SANDERS: ‘ Report on the Scale Insects of 
Ohio.’ 

Cuas, S. Mean: ‘Report on the Orthoptera of 
Ohio.’ 

James 8. Hine: ‘A Supplement to the Odonata 
of Ohio.’ 

A. F. Bureess: ‘Notes on the Introduction of 
the Chinese Ladybird, Chilocorus similis, in Ohio.’ 


“A New Peritrichous Infu- 


5" 


May 6, 1904.] 


HERBERT OsBoRN: ‘ Notes on a Macropterous 
Phylloscelis atra, 

Max Morse: ‘The Breeding Habits of the 
Myriopod, Fontaria Indiane Boll’ 

Epwarp L. Rice: ‘ A Statistical Plea for Nature 
Study.’ 

Lewis G. WesteatTe: ‘Shore Line Topography 
between Toledo and Huron, Ohio’ (lantern slides) . 


J. H. Topp: ‘Some Rare Forms of Aboriginal 


Implements.’ 

Epo. CLAAssen: ‘ List of the Mosses of Cuyahoga 
County and of Several Other Counties of North- 
ern Ohio.’ 

J. H. ScHAFEFNER: ‘ Extra-Floral Nectaries and 
Other Glands.’ : 

Joun H. Scuarrner: ‘Notes on Nutating 
Plants.’ 

Orto EH. Jennines: ‘Notes on Some Rare and 
Interesting Ohio Plants.’ 

Wm. R. Lazensy: ‘The Keeping Qualities of 
Apples.’ 

Won. R. Lazensy: ‘Seeds of Celastracez.’ 

L. B. Watton: ‘ Variation and Environment.’ 

W. A. Ketterman: ‘Further Floristic Studies 
in West Virginia.’ 

W. A. Ketterman: ‘ Additional Infection Ex- 
periments with Species of Rusts.’ 

W. A. KeLrerMan: ‘ Mycological Flora of Cedar 
Point, Sandusky, Ohio’ (abstract). 

W. A. Ketterman: ‘Group Names in Natural 
History.’ 

W. A. Ketierman: ‘Historical Account of 
Uredineous Culture Experiments, with List of 
Species’ (abstract). 

W. A. KELLERMAN and O. E. JENNINGS: ‘ An- 
nual Report on the State Herbarium.’ 

E. L. Mosetey, 


Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
‘ HORSES ? NOT HORSES. 


THE notice by E. C. Case of ‘The Tree 
Dwellers’ exposes a truly remarkable view of 
nature and the relations of ‘horses’ of the 
present epoch to animals of the past. That 
picture of ‘tiny little creatures’ with ‘five 
toes on each foot’ flying from dinosaurs and 
escaping by climbing trees involves as 
grotesque confusion of time, place and adapta- 
tion of structure as could well be conceived. 
But the critic has not shown up one of the 
most misleading characteristics. The author, 
after asserting that ‘long before the tree- 


SCIENCE. 


737 


dwellers lived there were wild horses’? which 
were ‘tiny little creatures, naively adds, 
‘Perhaps you would not think that they were 
horses at all’! If ‘you’ did not think so 
‘you’ would be perfectly right and any one 
who thinks otherwise perfectly wrong. The 
use of the word horse in such an enlarged 
sense has been to some extent encouraged by 
those who know better, but it is extremely de- 
ceptive. I have asked a dozen persons of 
more than average intelligence and culture 
(school teachers and college graduates) what 
idea they derived from the paragraphs in ques- 
tion, and found that those who had no special 
knowledge of zoology were entirely misled; 
they imagined an animal like an ordinary 
horse (more like a horse than a zebra or an 
ass is like a horse), differing simply in hay- 
ing five toes besides stripes like a zebra. 
Now, every instructed zoologist would know 
that such a characteristic as five (or four) 
toes must necessarily be coordinate with in- 
numerable modifications of other parts and 
that, consequently, an animal so endowed must 
differ vastly more from a horse than an ass 
or a zebra does. In fact, every student of re- 
cent mammals would place the extinct beast in 
an entirely different family from the horse. 

But no ungulate in the line of the horses 
with five toes has been discovered! The 
nearest approach to it is the Hyracotherium 
or Hohippus of the lower Kocene and that type 
had only four front toes and three hind ones; 
its Jaws were relatively short, its teeth quite 
different from a horse’s, and, in fine, its asso- 
ciated characters compel zoologists to differen- 
tiate it as the representative of a peculiar 
family—the Hyracotheriids. In an article 
(Horse) by a special student of the subject 
(Dr. William D. Matthews), just published 
in the KEneyclopedia Americana, it is aptly 
stated that the ‘ first ancestor of the horse line 
is very difficult to distinguish from the con- 
temporary ancestors of tapirs and rhinoc- 
eroses.’ 

Furthermore, I object to the assumption 
that the early representatives of the equine 
phylum were striped like a zebra. The only 
basis for such an assumption is that most of 


738 


the modern equids actually have such stripes, 
but the diversity between them leads one to 
suspect the universality of the tendency and 
to believe that it is of recent origin. At any 
rate, no one has a right to take it for granted 
that primitive forms were striped. The evi- 
dence, such as it is, is against the assumption. 
Another pure assumption is that the prim- 
itive equoidean animals lived especially in 
the marshes. (The unfortunate author of 
‘The Tree Dwellers’ of course misread ‘na- 
ture’? in postulating that ‘the land at that 
time ’—when five-toed horses lived!—‘ was 
almost entirely covered with water.’) The 
assumption is based on the obvious fact that 
a four- or five-toed spreading foot is better 
adapted for progression on soft earth than a 
soliped, but there is no reason for confining 
such animals to marshes. The elephants and 
rhinoceroses are not marsh-loving animals. 
The misuse of the word horse is in natural 
sequence to the same idea that has been car- 
ried to an extreme in ‘The Tree Dwellers’; 
it is the expression of a contemptuous con- 
descension or concession to such as are as- 


sumed to be insufficiently educated or receptive 


to be addressed in more precise language. In 
the extreme form—disconnected sentences and 
erude verbiage—analogous language is known 
as ‘baby talk.’ Science is scarcely food for 
babies. THEO. GILL. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE AND SOIL ON THE 

' TRANSMITTING POWER OF SEEDS.* 

In speaking of the influence of soil and 
climate on the transmitting power of seeds, 
I will confine myself to certain practices which 
seedsmen have been taught to follow through 
long experience, as indicative of certain bo- 
tanical facts, rather as if these facts had been 
established by scientific study and experiment. 

Speaking first of leguminous plants, in the 
“Extra Karly’ varieties of garden peas the de- 
sirable form of vine is one eighteen to forty 
inches high, and of a determinate growth, by 
which term J mean a vine that before the 
lowest and first formed pod has become too 
large for use as green peas, has completed 

* Read before Botanical Club of Washington. 


SCIENCE. 


- plants back of the seed in question. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 
its elongation and has its apex crowned by a 
well-formed pod or at least one well out of 
the blossom. The objectionable form is a 
vine twenty-four to sixty inches in height, 
which even when the lowest pod is fully ripe 
is still growing having its apex covered with 
blossoms and buds. Such plants as these last 
are called by seedmen ‘ wicks’ or ‘ offs,’ and 
a stock of ‘Extra Early’ peas is valued in 
inverse proportion to the number of such 
plants it produces. I never have seen a 
stock which did not occasionally produce 
them, and in number varying with different 
conditions of cultivation. On very rich soils, 
or those which haye been recently fertilized 
with stable manure, there will be a great many 
more such plants developed than on a poorer 
A stock which, when grown on a white 
clay soil of uniform composition, will ripen 
down very uniformly and not show more than 
a dozen such ‘offs’ to the acre, will, when 
planted on a mucky soil or one which has 
been enriched by fresh stable manure, give a 
dozen ‘ offs’ to the square rod. 

As an illustration in detail is a case 
when three large fields of very favorable soil 
were planted with the same stock, two of them 
when visited showed practically no ‘ offs,’ nor 
were there many to be seen in the third field, 
except in a double row of circles, each about 
ten feet in diameter, where piles of manure 
had been spread, and in each of them there 
were twelve to twenty-five bad ‘offs’ more 
than could be found on an acre of the rest 
of the field. 

Seedsmen find that if the seed from such 
‘off’ plants grown from good stock is planted 
on soils favorable for the development of the 
true type, it will produce few, very few, often 
no more ‘ off’ plants than seed from plants of 
the true type grown from the same stock; 
but if seed from the ‘ off’ plants is sown on 
soil favorable for the development of ‘ off’ 
plants, they will produce more ‘offs’ than 
seeds from the true type, and this tendency to 
produce ‘off’ plants on either favorable or 
unfavorable soil increases very rapidly with 
the number of consecutive generations of ‘off’ 
An illus- 
tration was given of precisely similar results 


soil. 


—— 


May 6, 1904.] 


with ‘ American Wonder’ peas when the char- 
acter of soil favorable for the most desirable 
type is the opposite of that favorable for the 
best ‘Extra Earlies.’ 

Seedsmen commonly believe that, in the case 
of peas, the character of the soil has a marked 
influence over the character of the plant, and 
that this influence extends to and is carried 
by the seed, but that such soil influence is 
decidedly cumulative in its effects, so that in 
practice they attach little importance to it for 
one season, but carefully avoid the use of 
stock seed which has been submitted to such 
influence for consecutive years. 

' Again in the case of garden beans, the tend- 
ency of rich, moist, heavy soil is to produce 
thick, fleshy pods slow to mature, while that 
of warm sandy land is to the production of 
flatter, less fleshy and quicker maturing pods. 
I can best illustrate this by experience. Some 
ten years ago I sent each of two growers living 
within a mile of each other, seed of ‘ Valen- 
tine’ bean of precisely the same stock grown 
the previous year in the same field, which was 
a rich clay loam. One of these, whom I will 
eall CO, planted on rather heavy, rich soil, the 
other, S, on a light warm but rich sandy one. 
The next season C’ received seed grown by 9 
and S seed grown by C, while a third man, M, 
some five miles away, on rich loam soil, re- 
ceived equal parts of both. When I visited 
the fields I noticed that in C’s field, which I 
supposed was planted wholly with seed grown 
by S, there were ten rows which differed from 
the rest and were such as [I would expect if 
seed from C was planted, and I tried to ac- 
count for them by extra manure, ete.; but I 
learned that as there was not quite enough of 
the seed from S sent him, he had filled out 
with some of his own, and I had detected the 
exact row where the seed was used. I then 
visited M on loam soil, and while I could tell 
that one part of the field was planted with C 
stock and the other with S, I could not detect 
the line between them. 

These experiences seem to indicate that in 
leguminous plants soil does have an influence 
which is carried in the seed, and is cumulative 
in character, but in all my experience I have 


SCIENCE. 


739 


neyer seen any influence of the climate over 
the seed of leguminous plants. 

The only gramineous plant with which I 
have had a large experience is sweet corn, and 
here the case of legumes is reversed. I have 
never been able to detect any influence of soil 
over the character of the seed produced, but I 
believe that climatic condition does have a 
marked influence, and that the difference be- 
tween stock grown east and that grown west is 
the result of climatic rather than soil condi- 
tion. People who use large quantities of 
sweet corn are very positive in their belief 
that seed produced in the eastern states gives 
a better product than that grown at the west. 
Some seedsmen agree with them, others main- 
tain that if eastern stock seed is used just as 
good corn can. be grown in the west. It seems 
to me that that 7f not only undermines their 
contention, but shows that seedsmen have a 
practical belief in the cumulative influence of 
soil and climate. 

Turning now to cucurbits, in my experience 
I could never detect any effect of either soil 
or climate on seed of eucurbitaceous plants of 
the same stock. 1 don’t wish to be understood 
as saying that soil and climate have no influ- 
ence over the fruit, for they do quite as much 
as with any plant, but that this difference is 
not carried in the seed. As an illustration 
the writer has knowledge of a case where seed 
from small but select fruits grown in Mich- 
igan was sown in Oklahoma by the side of seed 
from large plants of the same pedigree grown 
in Oklahoma, and the result was equally large 
fruit in both cases. Also, in another case an 
old and experienced grower in Michigan, who 
claimed that he should be paid more for seed 
grown in Michigan, because earlier and better, 
was given seed of the same stock, grown for 
three. generations in Michigan and for four 
generations within 200 miles of Gulf of 
Mexico, to plant side by side, and told that if 
he could detect any difference in the erop, his 
request would be considered, but he was un- 
able to do so. 

I have had the same sort of results with 
cucumber, muskmelon and squash, and it has 
made me think that seed of cucurbits do not 
earry influences of soil and climate, even when 


740 SCIENCE. 


such influence has accumulated for several 
generations. If time would permit I might go 
on and speak of tomatoes, cabbage and onion, 
each of which in my experience seems to have 
distinct habits in this respect, and considering 
all these cases it seems to me that plants of 
different natural orders differ in the degree to 
which influences of soil and climate are trans- 
mitted through the seed. 
Witt W. Tracy, Sr. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
CHANGES OF CLIMATE IN CENTRAL AFRICA. 


It is reported (Pet. Mitth., X., 1903) that 
Lake Shirwa, southeast of Lake Nyassa, in 
central Africa, has entirely disappeared. 
Desiccation has been going on for many years, 
but the last stages in the process were very 
rapid. This lake used to be shown on the 
maps as an oval-shaped body of water, about 
thirty miles long and ten to fifteen miles wide. 
It now consists of a few small ponds. Liv- 
ingstone discovered the lake in 1859. Lake 
Ngami, also discovered by Livingstone, has 
since disappeared. These changes seem to be 
a manifestation of a gradual desiccation which 
is going on in central Africa, but it is impor- 
tant that they should be more carefully studied 
before any definite conclusions are drawn. 
The recent reports to the effect that the Sea 
of Azov is drying up are misleading, in that 
the apparent desiccation seems actually to be 
due to a silting up of the lake. 


A NEW DROSOMETER. 


THE measurement of dew has always given 
trouble, because no drosometer has ever com- 
mended itself for universal use, and the re- 
sults. obtained by different methods have not 
been accurate, satisfactory or comparable. In 
Das Wetter for March, Ferle, of the Agricul- 
tural Experiment Station of Peterhof-Kur- 
land, describes a new kind of drosometer, 
which he has found very useful, viz., a piece 
of specially prepared paper, soaked in a chem- 
ical solution. This paper is exposed over a 
box placed on the ground at night, and the 
amount of dew is indicated by the discolora- 
tion of the paper. A scale of discoloration, 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


determined by experiment, is adopted, and the 
entry in the observation record book, based on 
the amount of discoloration, gives the amount 
of dew which formed during the night. Three 
kinds of paper are used, the first for the 
smallest amounts, the second for larger, and 
the third for the largest amounts. It is best 
to expose two kinds of paper, selected accord- 
ing to the season, so that, in case the amount 
of dew is too great to be indicated by one 
sheet, it may be recorded by the discoloration 
of the other paper. 


METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATORY ON MONTE ROSA. 


At the instance of the Italian Alpine Club, 
and with the support of Queen Margarita, the 
Duke of the Abruzzi, and of the Italian Min- 
istry of Agriculture, an observatory has been 
erected on Monte Rosa, at an altitude of 4,560 
meters (14,960 ft.) above sea level. Next to 
the Vallot Observatory on Mont Blane, this is 
the highest meteorological station in Europe. 
Observations are to be begun during the com- 
ing summer. The observer is to live at the 
summit throughout the summer months, and 
during the winter when weather conditions are 
favorable. The observatory is to be open to 
scientific men of all nationalities who wish to 
carry on investigations there. The observa- 
tions made on Monte Rosa will be of special 
value in connection with the international 
balloon ascents. The Monte Rosa Observa- 
tory will have, as companion Italian institu- 
tions, the Etna and the Monte Cimone observa- 
tories, at 2,942 (9,650 ft.) and 2,162 (7,095 ft.) 
meters respectively. 


METEOROLOGICAL INSTITUTE OF ROUMANIA. 


Amip the disturbed political conditions on 
the Balkan Peninsula, the Meteorological In- 
stitute of Roumania, under the able director- 
ship of Dr. Hepites, continues its excellent 
work. Vol. XVI. of the Annals of the insti- 
tute is at hand, comprising over 700 quarto 
pages, containing the annual report of the 
director for the year 1900; memoirs on the 
rainfall, earthquakes, climatology and mag- 
netic observations of 1900; the regular hourly 
observations of all the elements at Bucharest, 
as well as the means for the 16 years 1885— 


j 
+: 


— 


—— os 


May 6, 1904.] 


1900, for the successive lustra between 1885 
and 1900, and the observations made at 52 
stations of the second order during 1900. 
There are now 395 rainfall stations in Rou- 
mania. An index of the publications of the 
Roumanian Meteorological Institute from 1885 
to 1903, comprising 31 octavo pages, offers the 
best of evidence as to the scientific activities 
of this institution. 


R. DEC. Warp. 


ERWIN BH. EWELL. 

Erwin E. Ewe t, lately first assistant chem- 
ist of the U. S. Department of Agriculture 
and more recently representative of the Ger- 
man Kali Syndicate in the Southern States 
‘with headquarters at Atlanta, Georgia, died in 
New Orleans, La., on February 7, after a brief 
but severe attack of grippe and rheumatism, 
followed by typhoid fever. 

Mr. Ewell was born in Washington, Mich- 
igan, in 1867. His education was secured 
entirely through his own exertions since, 
through the death of his father, he was at 
an early age thrown entirely upon his own 
resources. He was graduated from the Uni- 
versity of Michigan in 1890 and in the same 
year entered into the service of the Bureau of 
Chemistry of the Department of Agriculture. 
His efficiency led to his advancement to the 
position of principal assistant chemist of the 
department, and he contributed very largely to 
the success of the bureau. He was greatly 
interested in standards of measurements, was 
chairman of the committee of the American 
Chemical Society to secure better uniformity 
and accuracy in the standards in use and he 
was active in promoting the movement which 
finally led to the establishment of the bureau 
of standards. In 1903 he entered the service 
of the German Kali Syndicate and had begun 
with his characteristic energy and enthusiasm 
the presentation of the importance of potash 
salts in the nutrition of farm crops. 

The many warm friends of Mr. Ewell will 
find in his death a serious personal loss and 
the scientific world will miss one of its most 
effective workers. 


SCIENCE. 


741 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


THE summer meeting of the American 
Chemical Society will be held at Providence, 
R. I., June 21-23. 

Tur Alumni Association of the School of 
Applied Science of Columbia University has 
arranged to have painted a portrait of Dr. 
Charles F. Chandler, head of the Department 
of Chemistry. The portrait will be presented 
at the sesquicentennial celebration in October, 
when Dr. Chandler will have been for forty 
years professor of chemistry at the university. 

Tue alumni of the engineering department 
of the University of Michigan, now resident 
in Chicago and vicinity, have presented to the 
university a portrait in oil of the late Pro- 
fessor Charles EK. Greene, dean of the en- 
gineering department from its organization 
until his death. 

Prorressor W. Ostwap gave the Faraday 
lecture of the Chemical Society at the Royal 
Institution, London, on April 19. At the close 
of the lecture he was presented with a medal 
bearing the image of Faraday, which had been 
specially struck for the occasion. 

Proressor L. V. Kettoce, of the Depart- 
ment of Entomology of Stanford University, 
has been elected a member of Société Ento- 
mologique de France. 

M. Guicuarp has been elected a, member of 
the Paris Academy of Sciences in the section 
of geometry. 

Tur University of Glasgow has conferred 
its Doctorate of Laws on Professor Mendele- 
jev, the eminent chemist. 


Amone the distinguished lecturers at the 
summer session of the University of Cali- 
fornia, which begins on June 27, are Pro- 
fessor Svante A. Arrhenius, of the University 
of Stockholm; Professor Hugo De Vries, of 
the University of Amsterdam; Sir William 
Ramsay, of University College, London, and 
Professor James Ward, of the University of 
Cambridge. 

Proressor Russett H. Cuirrenpen, director 
of the Sheffield Scientific School, Yale Uni- 
versity, on April 29, tendered a banquet in 
honor of Dr. ©. S. Sherrington, professor of 
physiology in the University of Liverpool, who 


742 SCIENCE. 


is delivering the Silliman lectures at Yale. 
There were twenty guests, including President 
Hadley, Yale; Professors Bowditch and 
Porter, Harvard; Dr. Graham Lusk, New 
York; Dr. Frederic S. Lee, Columbia; Pro- 
fessor Reichert, Pennsylvania; Dr. Francis 
Bacon, New Haven; Professor Dunham, New 
York; Dr. W. H. Carmalt, New Haven; Pro- 
fessor L. B. Mendel, Yale; Dr. Otto G. Ram- 
say, Yale; Professor Abbott, Pennsylvania; 
Dr. J. P. C. Foster, New Haven; Professor 
Yandell Henderson, Yale; Dean Herbert E. 
Smith, of the Yale Medical School; Mr. 
Horace Fletcher, Venice, and Dr. Sherrington. 


CapraIn BErnter, who is going out in charge 
of the Canadian Arctic expedition, was among 
the passengers by the steamship Kaiser Wil- 
helm IT. which arrived at Plymouth on April 
18. He was accompanied by 24 of his crew, 
and went on in the ship to Bremen, whence 
they will navigate the German ship Gauss, 
which has been purchased by the Canadian 
government. 

Dr. Jounn M. Macrartane, professor of bot- 
any at the University of Pennsylvania, has 
been granted a four months’ leave of absence 
to make botanical investigations in England, 
Italy and Switzerland. 

Assistant Proressor Hersert N. McCoy, 
of the Department of Chemistry of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago, has gone abroad to visit 
German laboratories. 

Proressor G. J. Premce, of Stanford Uni- 
versity, intends to spend June and July with 
Professor Pfeffer in the laboratory of plant 
physiology at Leipzig. He will attend the 
meeting of the British Association for the 
Advancement of Science at Cambridge and 
will spend October and November at the Ma- 
rine Biological Station at Naples, where he 
will occupy one of the tables maintained by 
the Carnegie Institution. 


Proressor Ginpert D. Harris, of the de- 
partment of geology of Cornell University, 
spent the winter months in Louisiana as geolo- 
gist of the state survey, exploring and map- 
ping the oil regions. 

Proressor W. J. Kennepy, chief of the de- 
partment of animal husbandry at the Iowa 


State College of Agriculture, has been com- 
missioned by the Department of Agriculture 
to spend a year in Europe studying the live 
stock industry in various countries. 


M. Hamy, professor of anthropology at the 
Paris Museum of Natural History, has been 
given leave of absence for the year 1904. His 
courses will be given by M. Verneau. 


Mr. A. G. Rutuven, of the Zoological De- 
partment of the University of Michigan, is 
making a special study of the North Amer- 
ican species of garter snakes (Hutewnia), and 
wishes to receive specimens in large numbers 
from all parts of North America. Collections 
of these snakes will be determined for dupli- 
eates. Directions for the collection, preserva- 
tion and shipment may be secured upon appli- 
cation to the above address. 


Mr. L. B. Extiorr, who completed his 
studies at the University of Jowa in 1892 
under the personal direction of Professors 
Calvin and MacBride, and who has since that 
time been connected with the Bausch & Lomb 
Optical Company, Rochester, N. Y., and edi- 
tor of the Journal of Applied Microscopy and 
Laboratory Methods since its beginning in 
1898 until its recent discontinuance, has sev- 
ered his connection with that company to 
accept a position with the T. B. Dunn Com- 
pany, of Rochester, N. Y. Mr. Elliott will 
continue his private work in laboratory pho- 
tography and biology as heretofore. His ad- 
dress is 17 Birr Street, Rochester, N. Y. 


Mr. Cuartes F. Townsenn, director of the 
New York Aquarium, gave the tenth lecture 
in the course before the College of the City 
of New York on April 29, his subject being 
‘The Depths of the Sea.’ 


Ar the annual graduation ceremonial of the 
University of Glasgow, on April 18, a medal- 
lion bearing a bas-relief of John Young, pro- 
fessor of natural history and keeper of the 
Hunterian Museum from 1856 to 1892, was 
presented to the university. 


PRESIDENT SCHURMAN, of Cornell Univer- 
sity, will give an address in memory of Her- 
bert Spencer, on Sunday, May 7. 


Tue Institute of France has appropriated 
10,000 franes from the income of the fund left 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 488. 


oe 


May 6, 1904.] 


by M. Debrousse for the publication of the 
works of Leibnitz. 

Sik Ciement Neve Foster, F.R.S., pro- 
fessor of mining in the Royal College of Min- 
ing, London, died on April 19, aged fifty-three 
years. 


F. J. Wewus, assistant professor of agri- 
cultural physics in the college of agriculture 
of the University of Wisconsin, died on 
March 1. 


Georce A. Martin, editor of the New Hng- 
land Farmer and a well-known writer on agri- 
cultural topics, died at his home in Brattle- 
boro, Vt., on April 16, aged seventy-three. 


Dr. CHartes Soret, formerly professor of 
experimental physics at Geneva, died on April 
5, at the age of fifty years. 


Dr. Anprew Prrsies AITKEN, professor 
of chemistry and toxicology, in the Royal 
Veterinary College, Edinburgh, died on April 
17. He received the M.A. degree from Edin- 
burgh in 1867. 


Tue American Geographical Society has 
received a bequest of $30,000 from Sarah M. 
de Vaugrigneuse. 


Tua Department of Conchology of the 
American Museum of Natural History has 
received as a gift from Mr. Albert H. Storer, 
of New York, the valuable collection of shells 
which was made by his father. 


M. J. J. Stscrriep has given to the Institute 
of France the Castle of Langeais, with the 
sum of 100,000 franes for the costs of installa- 
tion and an endowment yielding an income of 
10,000 franes for its support. 


Tur Association of American Agricultural 
Colleges and Experiment Stations will meet 
during the week beginning October 30, prob- 
ably at Des Moines, Ia. 


Encineer BrousNEFF, who was sent out in 
the spring of 1903 by the Imperial Academy 
of Sciences, at St. Petersburg, in company 
with Lieutenant Kolchak and a number of ex- 
perienced Yakuts, towards New Siberia and 
Bennett Island, to search for the Polar ex- 
pedition headed by Baron E. Toll, has re- 
turned without results. The academy has 
issued the following notice: Baron Edward 


SCIENCE. 


143 


Toll, chief of the polar expedition sent out 
by the Academy of Sciences, left the Bennett 
Island, lying north of New Siberia, on Oc- 
tober 26 (November 8), 1902, taking a south- 
ern direction. He was accompanied by the 
astronomer Seeberg and two Yakuts. The 
party seems to have been carried away by the 
ice. As the researches hitherto made have 
been in vain, a reward of 5,000 roubles (about 
$2,500) is offered by the Academy of Sciences 
for finding the whole expedition party, or any 
part of it, and a reward of 2,500 roubles for 
giving the first exact indications of tracing 
the party. 

Tue director-in-chief and other members of 
the staff of the New York Botanical Garden 
will be pleased to receive members and their 
friends at the grounds in Bronx Park on every 
Saturday in May and June. The train leaves 
Grand Central Station at 2:35 p.m., for Bronx 
Park, returning at 5:32 p.m. Opportunity will 
be given for inspection of the museums, labo- 
ratories, library and herbarium, the public 
conservatories, the herbaceous collection, the 
hemlock forest, and parts of the arboretum. 
The walk planned will be a little over a mile. 
Lectures will be delivered in the lecture hall 
of the museum building at 4:30 o’clock, as 
follows: 

April 30.— Japan, the Land of Lacquer and 
Bamboo,’ by Dr. C. F. Millspaugh. 

May 7.— The Form, Habits and Relationships 
of the Cactuses, by Dr. N. L. Britton. 

May 14.—‘ The Vegetation of the Delta of the 
Colorado River, and of Baja California,’ by Dr. 
D. T. MacDougal. 

May 21—‘ Explorations on the Yukon River, 
Alaska, by Dr. Arthur Hollick. 

May 28.— Arctic and Alpine Plants,’ by Pro- 
fessor F. E. Lloyd. 

June 4.— Carnivorous Plants,’ by Professor H. 
M. Richards. 


Tur U. 8. Geological Survey completed the 
twenty-fifth year of its existence on March 3, 
1904. The quarter-century anniversary hap- 
pened to fall near the date set for the opening 
of the Louisiana Purchase Exposition at St. 
Louis, at which the survey will make an 
exhibit. It is hoped that this exhibit will 
increase the popular interest in the survey, 
and in this connection it has been thought 


744 SCIENCE. 


desirable to place before the public, by means 
of a small bulletin, an account of its organiza- 
tion and work and the results it has achieved. 
Copies of this bulletin will be distributed at 
St. Louis and other copies may be obtained 
by application to the director of the U. S. 
Geological Survey, Washington, D. C. The 
bulletin, which is No. 227 of the survey series, 
is entitled, ‘The United States Geological 
Survey: Its Origin, Development, Organiza- 
tion and Operations.’ 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Tue Ohio legislature has appropriated for 
the next biennial period for the Ohio State 
University the following amounts: 


Current expenses ..............+.--..-- $635,000 
New chemical building ................ 100,000 
Ceramic and mining building........... 85,000 
College of Agriculture................. 75,000 
Equipment of chemistry and physics 
UEUHINGS scosonccoesoo0GcGaKoDOnOUE 25,000 
Emergency fund ...................... 15,000 
Motall seer. A OAL ene a Neer $935,000 


This is about 50 per cent. increase over the 
_ largest preceding appropriation. The uni- 
versity has other sources of income which will 
yield approximately $200,000 for the biennial 
period. 

Tue will of the late A. C. Hutchinson, ac- 
cording to which the Medical College of Tu- 
lane University receives nearly $1,000,000, has 
been sustained by the Supreme Court of the 
state of Louisiana. 

New York University has received an 
anonymous gift of $12,500 for the Medical 
College. 

THE reorganized Board of Regents having 
charge of the educational affairs of the State 
of New York held its first meeting at Albany 
on April 28 when Dr. Whitelaw Reid was 
elected chancellor. The following appoint- 
ments were announced: First Assistant Com- 
missioner, Howard J. Rogers, Albany; Second 
Assistant Commissioner, Edward J. Goodwin, 
New York City; Third Assistant Commis- 
sioner, Augustus S. Downing, New York City; 
Director of Libraries, Melvil Dewey, Albany. 

A ‘Jomvr Announcement of Field Courses 
in Geology,’ for the summer of 1904, has lately 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 488. 


been issued by several universities, with the 
object of placing concisely before American 
students the opportunities for practical study 
of this science in different parts of the coun- 
try. Fifteen universities were invited to take 
part in the announcement: four responded 
with statement of courses for the current year; 
others stated that they would probably co- 
operate in the plan of joint announcement if 
it were repeated in 1905. Chicago and Har- 
vard each offer four courses; five courses in 
the Rocky Mountain region, two in the upper 
Mississippi Valley, and one in New York 
State. Johns Hopkins gives opportunity for 
professional work in connection with the 
Geological Survey of Michigan. Columbia 
has a brief spring course, limited to her own 
students. Scholarships are available in con- 
nection with some of the courses. The cir- 
cular can be had on application to the geolog- 
ical department of any of the universities 
concerned. 


Dr. Barton WARREN EVERMANN, assistant in 
charge of scientific inquiry in the U. S. 
Bureau of Fisheries, has been asked to give a 
course of lectures on fish culture and game 
protection to the seniors of the College of 
Forestry of Yale University. The course will 
consist of lectures and field work and will be 
given during the fortnight beginning May 9, 
at Milford, Pa., where the class will be en- 
gaged in field studies. 

THERE will be a vacant instructorship in 
physics at Purdue University next June. The 
salary for the first year will be eight hundred 
dollars. 

Dr. JoHN Dewey, of the University of Chi- 
cago, has been elected professor of philosophy 
at Columbia University. 

Dr. CHartes R. BarDEEN, associate pro- 
fessor of anatomy at the Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, has accepted the chair of anatomy at 
the University of Wisconsin. 

Assistant Proressor VicToR LENHER, 
Charles Elwood Mendenhall and William 
Swan Miller, of the University of Wisconsin, 
were made associate professors by the action 
of the regents of the university at their April 
meeting. 


| 


— 


aot NCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, May 13, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


Some Aspects of the Development of Com- 
parative Psychology: PROFESSOR WESLEY 


VINNIE TS Sees crePesrepentiis ares eeyeney ain hens tote poisl sees avenue 745 
Scientific Books :— 

Theobald’s Second Report to the British Mu- 

seum on Heonomic Zoology: PROFESSOR 
PLUM ICR WIMBSTMR::. oe Wer. deg ala. dapsiereg oa ees 757 
Societies and Academies :— 

The Chemical Society of Washington: Dr. 

A. SEIDELL. The Science Club of the Uni- 

versity of Mississippi: PRorESSOR ALFRED 

Hume. The Science Club of the University 

of Wisconsin: Victor Lenugr. The Blisha 

Mitchell Scientific Society of the University 

of N. Carolina: Proressor A. S. WHEELER 758 
Discussion and Correspondence :— 

Science, Nature and Oriticism: Wm. J. 

Lone. The Metric System: PRoressor WM. 

Kent. Ichthyology in the ‘ Encyclopedia 

Americana’: PRESENT Davin STARR 

JORMA El casita ike clnei. edsuattae weiss sate ube tees ae 760 
Special Articles :— 

The Multi-nippled Sheep of Beinn Bhreagh: 

Dr. ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL.......... 5 Oe 
Botanical Notes :— 

Popular Helps in the Study of the Fungi; 

Forest Fires in the Adirondacks in 1908 ; 

The Bacteriological Analysis of Soils; The 

Study of owr Mosses; Summer Botany: 

PROFESSOR CHARLES EH. BESSEY........... 768 
The Biological Laboratory of the Bureau of 

LIGUIEAIGS Sa 05s AO OD CSE AS die Be OC OSU AEOD 770 
Scientific Positions in the Philippine Islands. 770 
The Cambridge Meeting of the British Asso- 

CURMOLY MB Os SNES RE ERS AOC OE ENTERS 771 
Scientific Notes and News................. 1712 
University and Educational News.......... 775 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended - 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri 
80n-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


SOME ASPECTS OF THE DEVELOPMENT OF 
COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY. 

Iv is probably most satisfactory in every 
way, 1f an address is to be general, that it 
shall have its foundation in the line of re- 
search which has most engaged the author 
for a number of years past. In harmony 
with this principle it was open to me to 
choose either some subject bearmg on the 
anatomy and physiology of the nervous 
system, or one dealing with animal intel- 
ligence. To have treated the former in 
a way satisfactory to myself would have 
implied considerable illustration and the 
use of the lantern, which could likely not 
be carried out without breaking in on an 
evening, and that was more than I cared to 
ask the section to do; hence the selection 
of ‘Some Aspects of the Development of 
Animal Intelligence,’ as the topic of this 
address, the treatment of which must, in 
the nature of the case, be incomplete. 

It is no doubt true that man is more de- 
pendent than any other animal on his en- 
vironment, if we restrict that term to the 
material world about us, but the very ex- 
pression ‘Every man is the product of his 
age’ conveys the truth that the greatest 
genius can get only so far beyond the aver- 
age thought of his tue. As Darwin long 
ago pointed out, the most important factor 
in man’s environment is man himself. One 
has scarcely emerged from infaney before 
the accumulated forces of the ages in hu- 
man traditions and knowledge begin to 
mold the developing human being, and de- 
termine what he shall be. So that, be as 
independent and original as any one may, 


746 SCIENCE. 


he is still in a sense a product of his en- 
vironment. Of anything analogous to this 
among the lower animals there is little, con- 
sequently in taking account of the state 
of comparative psychology as it is to-day, 
and the steps by which it has been brought 
to its present development, one can not for 
a moment lose sight of the general trend of 
thought and the whole sum of the forces 
that we term environment. If it be a fact, 
as it is, that men to-day regard animals in 
a wholly different light from that of the 
middle ages and long after, it is because 
our general philosophy of life and our 
point of view have greatly changed. 

Art is in an especial way the reflection 
of the thought and feeling of the time, and 
one cannot but know the indifference with 
which the old masters treated nature and, in 
most instances, especially animals, which 
were with them simply objects to fill nm a 
scene either in the foreground or more fre- 
quently the background. Man was with 
them, as with the masses of the people; the 
center of this mundane universe; and all 
things had to be represented as correspond- 
inely subordinated to him. It was only 
comparatively recently that animals were 
painted simply because they were animals 
and not the mere servants or playthings of 
man. It is impossible to conceive of a 
Landseer in the age of Dante, and one is 
not greatly surprised that even so eminent 
a philosopher as Descartes should have re- 
garded animals merely as automata. Not 
a few in this room can remember the time 
when with the masses the attitude toward 
the dog might be summed up in the ques- 
tion, What. good is he? ‘The idea that a 
dog might be a creature worthy of serious 
study with a view of ascertaining his place 
in the psychological scale certainly did not 
enter into the minds of men generally prior 
to Darwin. But that great transformer, the 


doctrine of organic evolution, has wrought ~ 


wonders for psychology as well as biology. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 489. 


When man conceived of the world as de- 
veloping, rather than as completed, the 
whole attitude of the reflecting animal 
man was changed. 

It is absolutely impossible to understand 
the rapidity of the progress of comparative 
psychology, or even the change of front, 
within so short a period as twenty years, 
without bearing in mind this cardinal fact. 
How truly incomprehensible to most sci- 
entists must have been even fifty years ago, 
such a problem as that which has attracted 
the attention of some of the best biologists 
and psychologists of late, namely, the de- 
gree to which consciousness extends back 
and down into the lower strata of the ani- 
mal kingdom. Men are now even asking 
why we should deny all glimmerings of 
consciousness to plants—whether there is 
not a nexus between the animate and the 
inanimate of a kind more intimate than 
we have supposed. After men began to 
concede that animals were more than mere 
living machines worked by their senses— 
if they even gave enough attention to the 
subject to get that far—it was some time 
before intelligent people got beyond ‘in- 
stinet,’ the rough-and-ready cant phrase 
with which to place an animal in a classi- 
fication that separated it immeasurably 
from man. People hardly conceived of 
man as a creature with as many instincts 
as the brutes. Rapidly, however, of late 
have the masses begun to realize that not 
instinet alone, but intelligence, must be in- 
voked to explain animals. As a natural 
consequence of this change—this prepara- 
tion of the soil of the human mind to re- 
ceive new ideas—there came a wave of en- 
thusiasm which led some of those who were 
naturally lovers of animals, and also serious 
students of the nature of their inner life, 
to go too far—to attempt to explain the 
animal too fully by the man, to read into 
him all that characterized the creature of 
the highest intelligence. However, this is, 


es 


LPT LE LNIIYP 


May 13, 1904.] 


on the whole, scarcely to be regretted, for 


interest was through this sympathetic bond 
awakened, and prepared the way for that 
eritical investigation of animal psychology 
which at an earlier period would have been 
premature. 

Naturalists at a time prior to what may 
be termed the laboratory period, had noted 
the habits of animals with loving interest, 
but had not subjected them to a very crit- 
ical analysis, and certamly had scarcely 
dreamed of correlating the mental life of 
even the highest groups of animals with 
that of man. Darwin had set the example 
of investigating the mental life of animals 
and of man by the same method of close 
observation. A study of his dog and a 
study of his child were to him of equal 
interest scientifically, and his records re- 
main among the most valuable of their kind 
to this day. 

Sir John Lubbock soon followed with 
admirable studies of insects. Huxley re- 
mained the critic, and his attitude in re- 
gard to animal intelligence is one of the 
features of that great man’s mental char- 
acter not readily understood. To think 
that so pronounced an evolutionist should 
have held views not greatly different from 
those of Descartes is truly surprising. 
Lubbock had worthy fellow workers in 
McCook, Forel, the Peckhams and others. 
Probably no man did more, in Great Brit- 
ain at all events, to stimulate the interest 
not only of scientists, but of that large body 
of people who read to a greater or less ex- 
tent the more popular of the scientific jour- 
nals, than Romanes. He was in a position 
to devote much time to the subject, and his 
numerous letters and the replies they called 
forth in Nature have been among the most 
telling influences of our own time in ad- 
vaneing this subject. He has embodied 
his views in works, that in spite of all the 
destructive criticism of the last half dozen 
years remain valuable both as storehouses 


SCIENCE. 


747 


of fact and as examples of helpful critical 
analysis. 

Within at the most ten years another 
great change has taken place. ‘The biol- 
ogists began to be more accurate, systematic 
and comparative in their observations; and, 
most important of all, a different class of 
thinkers entered the field. If the biologists 
can be compared to the spearmen or the 
axemen of the army, the psychologists are 
the bowmen. They brought to the task, 
at all events, more skill in mental analysis 
and, perhaps, a clearer comprehension of 
the problems to be solved. They were, 
moreover, better prepared to correlate the 
data of animal and human psychology and 
find what was common to both, as well as 
draw sharp lines of distinction, if, indeed, 
such lines can be drawn. If, on the one 
hand, the naturalists had been spasmodic, 
unsystematic and rather loose in their con- 
tributions and superficial in their analyses, 
the psychologists showed a tendency to 
substitute words and definitions for real- 
ities. Armchair animal psychology has 
no doubt been evolved from insufficient 
data—an affair of words rather than of 
things—nevertheless, great good has re- 
sulted for all, as we have been brought to 
what may be termed the experimental and 
eritical age of comparative psychology. 

It was most fortunate that, as successor 
to Romanes in Great Britain, the subject 
should have been taken up by a man so 
thoroughly prepared for his task as Lloyd 
Morgan, who is at once a biologist, a psy- 
chologist and a master of the pen. His 
works, in spite of the critical acumen they 
show, can be read by any one with a 
moderate knowledge of biology and a sym- 
pathy with the subject of animal intel- 
ligence. And that has given them a wide 
circulation, a most important matter for 
the education of large numbers of persons 
to broader and truer views of the relations 
of man and his fellow creatures. This is 


748 SCIENCE. 


surely of the utmost importance, if we are 
to look to a right mental attitude as of 
more to man than food and raiment. 

Still later we see a rise within a very few 
years of a class of investigators that I pre- 
sume would prefer to be called the experi- 
mental school, but whom I shall designate 
the laboratory school and the individuals 
the laborators, for I do not grant that 
they were the first experimenters. Their 
researches have practically all been such as 
can be readily carried out in the laboratory, 
a fact which explains at once, to a large 
extent, their excellencies and their defects, 
especially the latter. This school has, on 
the whole, been destructive. If it has, on 
the one hand, brought few bricks to the 
pile, it has, on the other, boldly attempted 
to overturn some edifices that were rela- 
tively of ancient date and regarded by 
many with considerable respect. The most 
extreme representatives of this school deny 
to animals, not only reasoning and every 
form of intelligence proper, but even imita- 
tion and memory. The whole psychic life 
of animals not to be explaimed by instinct 
was for them the result of the operation 
of the law of association of ideas; all else 
was illusion and delusion; previous work- 
ers were regarded as prejudiced in favor 
of animals; they were adjudged to have 
written as if they held a brief for animals 
as creatures that mentally were very like 
man, differmg not so much in qualities as 
in the degree to which they were developed. 

All this is wrong, utterly wrong, accord- 
ing to this very modern school, and claim- 
ing that anecdotes were rather misleading 
than helpful, that observations were of 
little value at the best, it was maintained 
that there had really, up till then, been no 
experiments worthy of the name, and that 
now, for the first time, was there something 
to be presented on which reliance might be 
placed, in spite of the fact that some, at 
all events, of the experimenters had neither 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 489. 


‘biological knowledge nor special experience 


of any kind with animals, and were plainly 
prejudiced at the outset against the views 
that the common sense of mankind, as well 
as the consensus of opinion among natural- 
ists, had held to be worthy of considera- 
tion. One of this school, perhaps to be 
considered the leader, claimed that with 
his method one only needed ‘a pair of 
eyes.’ This experimenter placed cats in 
cages twenty inches long, fifteen broad and 
twelve high, and because they did not, 
under the stimulus of hunger, speedily 
manipulate certain mechanisms success- 
fully he, on this and similar evidence, em- 
ploying also dogs and other animals, pro- 
ceeded to demolish in very summary fashion 
the fundamental conclusions of hosts of 
observers who had occupied as many years 
in their tasks as he had spent weeks. Some 
of these conclusions seemed to be absolutely 
against common sense. Here we had, in- 
deed, a violent reaction against that excess 
of credulity which it must be confessed 
had existed, and it again was the natural 
reaction against that indifference to ani- 
mals which had characterized preceding 
ages. ; 

As the experimental methods of the labo- 
rators are now attracting so much atten- 
tion, it will be worth while to examine them 
a little more fully. I elsewhere criticized, 
some four years ago, the methods and con- 
clusions of the chief agnostic of this school, 
Dr. Thorndike, and I see now no reason 
to change the opinions I then expressed. 
Indeed, since that‘time the experience, and 
I may add the failures of others working 
along the same lines, have only strength- 
ened the force of my convictions. 

Mr. L. T. Hobhouse made a number of 
experiments on the dog, the eat, the 
monkey, the elephant and the otter. In 
the main these tests were carried out under 
conditions somewhat more natural than 
those of the experimenters of the school 


ae 


— 


ine ye +e ws 


May 13, 1904.] 
in question, but still they do not differ 
sufficiently to free them from the force of 
the objections which may be urged against 
all such ways of determining the nature of 
animal intelligence. Nevertheless, Mr. 
Hobhouse, using similar methods, came to 
very different conclusions from Dr. Thorn- 
dike, so that it would appear that some- 
thing more than ‘a pair of eyes’ is neces- 
sary for the solution of the problems of 
animal psychology. Mr. Hobhouse, from 
all his experiments and a critical ex- 
amination of those of others, together 
with the weighing of the evidence af- 
forded by the most extended and accurate 
series of consecutive observations on mam- 
mals available, came to the conclusion that 
‘on their own lines and in their own way, 
some of the more understood mammals 
have powers equivalent to those of the 
ape.’ He also in criticism of the experi- 
mental method says, ‘so a dog may show 
not merely highly developed ‘hunting in- 
stinets, but real cleverness in the adapta- 
tion of past experience when it is a ques- 
tion of catching a hare, but he may be also 
an intolerable dullard about opening a 
-box.’ Herein lies a great truth which the 
experimenters have failed in general to 
note. No animal and no man is equal to 
his fellows in all respects, and we know 
that some very able men, some men of un- 
doubted genius, are exceedingly slow in 
certain directions. 

To test an animal’s intelligence by 
mechanisms seems to be about on a par 
with gauging the nature of a man’s intel- 
leet by certain ‘puzzles’ in which, as is 
well known, many able men are, indeed, 
“intolerable dullards.’ A set of experi- 
ments better adapted for the examination 
of the intelligence of the group in question, 
white rats, was that of Mr. Small. He 
used a maze, which was so arranged that 
when the animal secured the food that was 
put in the central portion, he was free 


SCIENCE. 


749 


from the maze and could return to his cage. 
The shortest path to the food was 105 feet, 
and there were 27 corners to be turned. 
It is a very noteworthy fact that when 
monkeys were tried in a similar maze they 
did no better than the rats, in fact scarcely 
as well. But how fallacious it would be 
to conclude that the rat’s intelligence is 
equal to that of the monkey. However, Mr. 
Small seems to have been a somewhat 
cautious investigator, and his work, in- 
eluding observations systematically carried 
out on the psychic development of young 
white rats—which he has been good enough 
to say was suggested by my own series on 
our domestic mammals and birds—his ex- 
periments with the white rat and his dis- 
cerning eriticism of the work of others, 
had not a little advanced the subject of ani- 
mal psychology. 

In quite another class and altogether less 
open to criticism are certaim experiments 
made by Mr. Hobhouse. He ascertained 
how a dog, left upstairs in a building, would 
get to his master who called him from out- 
side. While some of the laboratories have 
almost wholly ignored the individuality of 
animals, this criticism does not apply to 
Mr. Hobhouse. As this writer seems to 


me to have taken, on the whole, about the 


broadest, safest and most helpful views of- 
animal intelligence, I feel justified, even in 
so general a treatment of the subject as the 
occasion permits, in calling further atten- 
tion to them. Passing by his discussion of 
instinct for the present, after pomting out 
that Dr. Thorndike’s experiments with 
cats, dogs and chickens were ‘quite outside 
the range of the animal’s ordinary ex- 
perience,’ he says, ‘What Mr. Thorndike’s 
experiments prove so far is not that cats 
and dogs are invariably educated by the 
association process, that is by habituation 
alone, but on the contrary that at least some 
eats and dogs conform in at least one point 
to the method of acquisition by conerete 


700 


experience—they learn in a very few in- 
stances.’ 

Mr. Hobhouse was one of the first to 
recognize clearly, though I do not say ade- 
quately, that the success of the animal in 
certain situations depends largely on the 
degree to which it can attend to anything 
in hand. It is not sufficient that an ani- 
mal be stimulated, as by hunger and the 
sight of food—to instance a favorite stim- 
ulus used by the laborators—the animals 
must, if it would succeed in certain com- 
plicated situations, be able to exercise an 
inhibitory influence and direct its attention 
to the essential points in the solution of a 
problem, and in this respect not only do 
groups but individuals differ greatly. 
Speaking generally, the poodle has the 
power of attention above every other breed 
of dogs, so far as the learning of tricks is 
concerned, yet in the hunting field the 
pointer or setter is incomparably his su- 
perior, even in this matter of attention. 
But there is much in Mr. Hobhouse’s gen- 
eralization, ‘ that an animal can shift its 
attention to this or that object, or change 
within the sphere of perception, but it ap- 
parently can not follow out the structure 
of any complex object with any minuteness 
and. accuracy,’ and I would add that it is 
just here that man is so far in advance of 
the animal and some individuals, especially 
among men, superior to others. 

The experimental examination of this 
point, so far as animals are concerned, of- 
fers an inviting and possibly fruitful field. 
Mr. Hobhouse found the Rhesus monkey 
less attentive than his dog, and not more 
so than the cat. But attention can be cul- 
tivated, as was shown by the improvement 
of this writer’s dog Jack. Both the dog 
and the cat, he tells us, showed a general 
appreciation of what was to be done, for 
they became excited when preparations 
were made for a fresh experiment, even if 
it was of anew kind. Speaking of another 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox, KIX. No. 489. 


dog, Mr. Hobhouse says: ‘but apparently 
she was guided by what in the human being 
we should call common sense,’ an opinion 
which of itself suffices to show that though 
conservative, he does not belong to the ex- 
treme agnostic school of comparative psy- 
chology. On p. 222 of his book, Mr. Hob- 
house presents the following summary: 
**On the whole, then, it would seem that 
animals are influenced by similarity of re- 
lations. Not that they dissect out the com- 
mon element which constitutes a class iden- 
tity; they have not solved the problem 
which has baffled logicians; it is rather 
that they have a concrete perception of the 
man or animal, house or locality, with 
which they are familiar; that such an ob- 
ject contains many objects in various rela- 
tions, and that when they meet another 
object, similar in general character, 1. ¢., 
really in its constitutive relations to the 
first, they know how to deal with it. This 
implies that they have the power of grasp- 
ing an object as a whole, including distinct 
elements which I have called concrete ex- 
perience, and the power of applying this 
experience, which I have ealled practical 
judgment.’’ And again, he makes the fol- 
lowing comprehensive statement, which is 
worth quoting in full: ‘‘However this may 
be, we have some ground for thinking that 
the more intelligent animals have a knowl- 
edge of surrounding objects which they 
apply in action; that they are capable of 
learning to act in accordance with physical 
changes which they witness; that they may 
be influenced by the general similarities 
which unite individuals of the same class, 
and can guide their action in dealing with 
any object by the relation in which it stands 
to that which they desire. Further, evi- 
dence has been brought that in the process 
by which they learn, not repetition of in- 
stance, but concentration of attention is 
the important point. Lastly, it is sug- 
gested that in some cases they not only 


May 13, 1904.] 


merely learn to meet a given perception 
with a certain motor reaction, but also to 
combine and adapt their actions so as to 
effect physical changes which, as they 
have learned, aid them in gaining their 
ends.”’ 

““We have thus gone over all the points 
enumerated on p. 134, as descriptive of 
conerete experience and practical judg- 
ment, and have seen some ground for im- 
puting each and all to the higher animals. 
At no point, perhaps, is the evidence con- 
elusive, but it is to be remembered that 
these functions are indicated so that evi- 
dence of capacity for one is indirect evi- 
dence of capacity for another. We have, 
therefore, a set of independent arguments 
all pointing in the same direction, and it 
is on this convergence of evidence rather 
than on decisive proof at any point, that 
our hypothesis must rest.’’ 

- But little credit has been given to ani- 
mals by the laborators for inhibition or 
self-restraint. Their experiments were not 
ealeulated to bring this quality into bold 
relief—quite the contrary. Such experi- 
ments often tend to cause mental disorder, 
so that one is not observing the animal at 
its best, but at its worst. Mr. Hobhouse, 
however, has not wholly neglected this sub- 
ject, for he remarks that ‘‘the self-restraint 
of the pointer is the result of severe train- 
ing, but we must not regard it as the result 
of mere blind habit superseding blind im- 


pulse, for, as Diezel remarks, the same dog 


who will refrain from following a hare in 
his master’s presenée will eagerly chase it 
if unobserved. The impulse is not instinct, 
but is controlled by the knowledge of re- 
sults.’’ 

This subject is another on which fruitful 
work might be done; and here again one 
finds the greatest difference between indi- 
vidual animals as also between individual 
men. The difficulties in carrying out ex- 
periments on monkeys, because of their 


SCIENCE. Tol 


restlessness, are great, and Dr. Thorndike 
and Mr. Kinnaman deserve great credit for 
their perseverance, though I must say I 
should not have expected the most satis- 
factory results from some of their tests. 
Dr. Thorndike points out that the monkeys 
represent progress in mental development 
from the generalized mammalian type 
towards man in several directions, as in 
their sensory and motor equipment, but he 
is inclined, in accordance with his views of 
animal intelligence and psychology gener- 
ally, to make all things pivot on the asso- 
ciation process. He says, ‘‘Liet us not 
wonder at the comparative absence of free 
ideas in the monkeys, much less at the ab- 
sence of inferences or concepts. Let us not 
wonder that the only demonstrable intel- 
lectual advance of the monkeys over the 
mammals in general is the change from the 
few narrowly confined practical associa- 
tions to an amplitude of all sorts, for that 
may turn out to be at the bottom the only 
demonstrable advance of man, an advance 
which in connection with the brain acting 
with inereased delicacy and_ irritability 
brings in its train the functions which 
mark off human mentality from that of all 
other animals.’’ And in his paper on the 
‘Evolution of the Human Intellect,’ he ex- 
presses the opinion that the ‘‘ Intellectual 
evaluation of the race consists in the in- 
erease of the number, delicacy, complexity, 
prominence and speed-formation of such 
associations. In man this increase reaches 
such a point that apparently a new type 
of mind results which conceals the real 
continuity of the process.”’ 

I can not but think myself that this is 
only a small part, a mere chapter of the 
whole story, and that by believing this to 
be the whole we retard progress. I wish to 
point out, however, that there does not seem 
to be the same objection to the methods of 
the laborators when applied to lower verte- 
brates. Dr. Thorndike’s own studies on 


7)2 SCIENCE. 


a fish, Fundulus, with a low type of brain; 
the investigation of Yerkes and Bosworth 
on the cray-fish; that of Yerkes on the 
turtle; those on birds by various observ- 
ers; and others to which the limitations 
of time do not permit me to allude seem 
to be in the right direction; all the 
more as in the ease of fishes, turtles and 
other aquatic creatures ordinary observa- 
tions must, in the nature of the case, be 
very restricted. We should surely expect 
that simple association processes would 
play a larger part in the psychic life of 
such creatures than in that of mammals. 
But when it is urged that ‘association proc- 
esses’ with instinct explain all, or prac- 
tically all, in the mental make-up of ani- 
mals, I must enter a most vigorous protest. 

Mr. Kinnaman is not sure, as a conse- 
quence of his investigations on the monkey, 
and as Dr. Thorndike believes, that they 


have no ‘free ideas’—to use the terminol- ~ 


ogy of the latter, and expresses his views 
regarding the monkey and animals gener- 
ally, as follows: ‘‘Whether these animals 
have ‘free ideas’ and general notions be- 
yond the mere ‘recept’ and are capable of 
real analogical reasoning, can not be posi- 
tively determined. If they do the processes 
certainly do not rise to the level of full 
reflex consciousness. Yet there is no way 
of knowing, because there is no certain way. 
of having the consciousness that the animal 
has. But that these monkeys have often 
acted objectively just as human beings act 
when they have these mental activities is 
most certain. J am inclined to believe that 
the human and animal consciousness are 
not really different in kind, but only in 
degree; the difference in degree, however, 
is very great.’’ Mr. Hobhouse believes that 
there come points in growth where change 
of degree becomes change of kind, and re- 
fers to the fact that water may become 
vapor or ice according to the rate of vibra- 
tion of the constituent molecules. How- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 489. 


ever, analogies are proverbially dangerous. 

With this writer’s other views on the re- 
lation of human and animal intelligence as 
expressed in the following words, I find 
myself in accord: ‘‘Human intelligence de- 
velops out of a lower form by growth in 
this feature of comprehension on the one 
hand, and articulateness on the other, by 
which the higher stage of animal intelli- 
gence was marked off from the lower. 
Mind, it is suggested, differs from mind in 
the degree in which these powers are de- 
veloped, in the experience which it can 
comprehend and in the articulateness with 
which it can comprehend it.’’ 

A noteworthy recent contribution to our 
subject is the address of Professor C. 8. 
Minot to the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science on, ‘The Problem 
of Consciousness in its Biological Aspects,’ 
from which it appears that the professed 
psychologists are not doing all the thinking 
on psychology or philosophy. His general 
attitude may be understood from the fol- 
lowing passage: “‘We must look to biolo- 
gists for the mighty generalizations to come 
rather than to the philosophers, because 
great new thoughts are generated more by 
the accumulation of observations than by 
deep meditation. To know, observe. Ob- 
serve more and more and in the end you 
will know. A generalization is a mountain 
of observations; from the summit the out- 
look is broad; the great observers climb to 
the outlook while the mere thinker strug- 
eles to imagine it. The best that can be 
achieved by sheer thinking on the data of 
ordinary human experience, we have al- 
ready as our glorious inheritance. The 
principal contribution of science to human 
progress is the recognition of the value of 
accumulating data which are found outside 
of ordinary human experience.’’ Minot’s 
cardinal principle is thus expressed: ‘‘The 
function of consciousness is to dislocate 
in time the reactions from sensations.’’ 


= 


eT ee 


en 


we ye 


RE OPES ee ae 


May 13, 1904.] 


“‘Conscious inhibition is thus distinet 
from reflex action; the potential reaction 
may, however, be stored up and effect 
future conduct. Consciousness has a se- 
lective power manifest both im choosing 
from sensations received at the same time 
and in combining sensations received at dif- 
ferent times. It may make synchronous 
impressions dysynchronous in their effects 
and dysynchronous impressions synchron- 
ous, which statement is but a paraphrase 
of the original—the function of conscious- 
ness is to dislocate in time the reactions 
from the sensations.’’ 

““Our eyes, ears, taste, ete., are available 
because they supply consciousness with 
data. Our nerves, muscles, bones, ete., are 
available because they enable consciousness 
to effect the needed reactions.’’ His view 
of animal consciousness is thus forcibly ex- 
pressed: ‘‘The conception of homology, 
both of structure and of function, lies at 
the base of all biological science, which 
must be and remain incomprehensible to 
any mind not thoroughly imbued with this 
conception. Unless those who are defi- 
cient in this respect can fail to understand 
that the evidence is overwhelming that ani- 
mals have a consciousness homologous with 
the human consciousness, the proof is con- 
elusive. As regards at least mammals— 
I think we ean safely say as regards verte- 
brates—the proof is the whole sum of our 
knowledge of the structure, functions and 
life of these animals. As we descend the 
animal scale to lower animals there is no 
break and, therefore, no point in the de- 
scent where we can say here animal con- 
sciousness ends and animals below are with- 
out it. It seems inevitable therefore to 
admit that consciousness extends far down 
through the animal kingdom, certainly at 
least as far down as there are animals with 
sense organs, or even the most rudimentary 
nervous system. It is unsatisfactory to 
rely chiefly on the anatomical evidence for 


SCIENCE. 703 


the answer to our query. We await eagerly 
the results from psychological experiments 
on the lower vertebrates. A sense organ, 
however, implies consciousness, and since 
such organs occur among cclenterates, we 
are ready to assign consciousness to these 
animals.”’ 

““The series of considerations which we 
have had before us lead directly to the con- 
clusion that the development and improve- 
ment of consciousness has been the most 
important, really the dominating factor in 
the evolution of the animal series.’’ 

Minot is of those who would not deny 
consciousness absolutely to even vegetable 
organisms, for he says: ‘‘A frank unbiased 
study of consciousness must convinee every 
biologist that it is one of the fundamental 
phenomena of at least animal life, if not, 
as is quite possible, of all life.’’ 

On adjustment and communication be- 
tween individuals he thus expresses him- 
self: “‘It is interesting to consider the evo- 
lution of adjustment to external reality in 
its broadest features. In the lowest ani- 
mals the range of the possible adjustment 
is very limited. In them not only is a 
variety of possible actions small, but they 
cover, also a small period of time. In ani- 
mals which have acquired a higher organ- 
ism the adjustments are more complex, 
both because the reactions are more varied, 
and because they cover a longer period of 
time. Thus the jelly fish depends upon 
such food as happens to come within its 
reach, seizing from moment to moment that 
which it encounters; but the lobster pur- 
sues its food, making complicated move- 
ments in order to reach and seize it. One 
ean trap a lobster easily; I doubt if one 
ean trap a jelly fish at all. The next great 
advance is marked by the establishment of 
communication between individuals of the 
same species. About this phenomenon we 
know exceedingly little; the investigation 
of it is one of the most important duties of 


704 SCIENCE. 


the comparative physiologist. Its bionomic 
value is obviously great, for it allows an 
individual to utilize the experience of an- 
other as well as its own. We might, in- 
deed, compare it to the addition of a new 
sense, so greatly does it extend the sources 
of information. The communication be- 
tween individuals is especially character- 
istie of vertebrates, and in the higher mem- 
bers of the subkingdom it plays a great 
role in aiding the work of consciousness. 
In man, owing to articulate speech, the fac- 
tor of communication has acquired a maxi- 
mum importanee. The value of language, 
our principal medium of communication, 
lies in its aiding the adjustment of the in- 
dividual and the race to external reality. 
Human evolution is the continuance of 
animal evolution, and in both the dominant 
factor has been the increase of the re- 
sources available for consciousness.”’ 

Professor Minot believes that conscious- 
ness is a real and dominant factor in the 
evolution of animals, that it affects the vital 
processes: ‘‘There is, in my opinion, no 
possibility of avoiding the conclusion that 
consciousness stands in immediate causal 
relation with physiological processes. ”’ 

While I may not be ready forthwith to 
admit that Minot’s dictum in regard to 
consciousness is perfectly satisfactory, it 
has been gratifying to me to find so many 
views similar to those which I have been 
myself accustomed for the past few years 
to elaborate in my lectures to students, 
expressed so clearly and vigorously in this 
address. 

H. S. Jennings, who has worked much 
on the reactions of infusoria, after criticiz- 
ing the conclusions of Hodge and Aikins, 
which he concludes go too far, refers to 
Minot’s views. He thinks that by this 
writer’s criterion we should clearly have 
to attribute consciousness to Stentor, for at 
times this creature inhibits reactions to 
stimuli, while again it reacts strongly. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 489. 


Jennings is not, however, satisfied with 
Minot’s criterion, for he believes that ‘Un- 
conscious mechanisms can be constructed 
and, indeed, do exist, in which there is a 
dislocation in time between the action of an 
outer agent upon the machine and the re- 
action of the machine similar to what we 
find in organisms.’ 

I can do but scant justice to a highly 
eritical, profound and suggestive paper by 
H. Heath Bawden on ‘The Psychological 
Theory of Organic Evolution.” He passes 
in review the work of Binet, Cope, Loeb 
and others. Professor Loeb lays stress on 
what he terms ‘associated memory,’ by 
which he means, ‘that mechanism by which 
a stimulus brings about not only the effects 
which its nature and the specifie structure 
of the irritable organ calls for, but by 
which it brings about also the effects of 
other stimuli which formerly acted upon 
the organism almost or quite simultane- 
ously with the stimulus in question.’ Con- 
sciousness ceases with ‘associated memory,’ 
as in sleep, anesthesia, ete. According to 
this test, Loeb fails to find consciousness in 
infusoria, ccelenterates and worms, and 
doubtfully in many higher forms. He is 
quite certain of consciousness only in many 
of the higher vertebrates. Bawden thinks 
Loeb errs, and while he believes that this 
eriterion may be good for determining the 
degree of mammalian consciousness, he be- 
heves it too restricted to apply to the whole 
animal kingdom, much less to the plant 
world. Romanes held that ‘consciousness 
was that which enables the organism to 
learn to make new adjustments or to 
modify old ones in accordance with the re- 
sults of its own individual experience.’ 
‘“Purposiveness means simple adaptation 
of means to ends; consciousness means the 
ability to vary the use of means to an end. 
The former may be quite automatic, the 
latter alone must be conscious’’ (Bawden). 

Baldwin says, “‘ Consciousness is the new 


tome 


May 13, 1904.] 


thing in nature, the thing which organisms 
show in all eases, their latest and finest ad- 
justment and the central fact of conscious- 
ness, its prime instrument, its selective 
agent, its seizing, grasping, relating, as- 
similating, apperceiving—in short, its ac- 
commodating element and process—is at- 
tention.”’ 

Probably in no direction has more solid 
advance been made within the last ten 
years than in the psychology of instinct, 
impulse, habit and kindred subjects. Pro- 
fessor Lloyd Morgan’s best contributions 
have been in this realm. In this he has 
been both the observer and the thinker, 
and his biological training has been at once 
a preparation for the task and a ground of 
confidence for the reader of his works. His 
‘Habit and Instinct’ embodies much of the 
best that has been attained in that depart- 
ment. He, however, wisely draws on the 
stores of others and in these subjects the 
data are more abundant and reliable prob- 
ably than in any other department of the 
whole field. The investigations of the 
Peckhams on insects deserve in this con- 
nection special mention. All agree that it 
is here that man and the animals stand on 
common ground. There is scarcely a 
prominent writer on human psychology 
who has not treated at greater or less 
length of the subject of impulse, instinct 
and habit. However, a great field is yet 
open, notwithstanding all that has been 
done, including such bold attempts as that 
of Professor Baldwin and others, to deter- 
mine the sphere of these fundamental ac- 
tivities in the course of organic evolution in 
general. 

The limitations of this address will not 
permit of extended reference to this sub- 
ject, in which some of the best work of the 
last decade has been done. But at least a 
word must be said of the investigations of 
Professor Groos, whose books on the play 
of animals and play in the human being 


SCIENCE. 755 


are mines of learning and full of suggest- 
ive, highly interesting and generally valu- 
able information. Mr. H. R. Marshall has 
also quite recently devoted an entire work 
to the subject of ‘Instinct and Reason.’ 

It seems to me that development in this 
subject has been retarded by an inadequate 
appreciation of what I conceive to be of the 
greatest moment: that the qualifications 
of the investigator are of quite as much 
importance as the method, probably a great 
deal more. Professor Groos has thus re- 
ferred to the equipment of the individual 
who would study animals in one of their 
aspects: ‘The author of the psychology of 
animal play should have in reality, not 
alone two but many souls within his breast.’ 
He would have him combine with all the 
varied ideas and experiences of a man who 
has traversed the round globe, the special 
knowledge of the director of a zoological 
garden, and also that of him who has pene- 
trated the life secrets of the forest, and 
who can moreover take the point of view of 
a student of esthetics. If these are the 
qualifications for a special investigation of 
animal play, they are surely not less called 
for in the other realms of comparative psy- 
chology. However, many who are not 
qualified to do the highest kind of work in 
this department of investigation can, if 
they will, make contributions of accurate 
observations ; but they must be slow to draw 
conclusions and have a saving modesty 
which can hardly be claimed as the most 
distinctive characteristic of the present-day 
investigator, but which so often caused 
Charles Darwin to pause. 

To more than one has it seemed desirable 
that some correlation between the animal 
and the human mind should be attempted, 
and this could be best done by comparing 
the former with the human within a rela- 
tively short time after birth. Already a 
goodly store of material is available, but 


706 SCIENCE. 


special child study to this end is one of the 
needs of the hour. 
SUMMARY. 

The evolution of comparative psychol- 
ogy has followed in the main the evolution 
of biology and of psychology, and the gen- 
eral trend of human thought. 

When man’s mental attitude toward 
nature in general changed, animals also 
were regarded in a new light. 

Until comparatively recently the contri- 
butions to the subject have been character- 
ized by many-sidedness, but at the same 
time by looseness and often inaccuracy, 
with a tendency to undue eredulity and an- 
thropomorphism. 

The ‘experiments’ of the laboratory 
school of comparative psychology have been 
chiefly valuable in their negative and in- 
direct results. A large proportion of the 
tests used thus far have been inadequate 
and often positively misleading; but they 
have also indicated the directions in which 
we need not hope to succeed, and suggested 
more fruitful methods. These experiments 
have shown that under even unfavorable 
conditions animals may form new mental 
associations with surprising rapidity. 

The laboratory methods have proved 
themselves best adapted to the study of in- 
vertebrates and the lower vertebrates. 

The most fruitful work thus far done 
has been the observation of the development 
of animals from birth upward by the con- 
secutive or (fairly) continuous method, to- 
gether with such experimentation as has 
been carried out under freer and more 
natural conditions generally than those un- 

der which the laborators worked. 
eelinis important that similar observations 
and experiments be made on other of our 
domestic animals and especially on wild 
animals. 

In all cases the investigator should be, if 
possible, a man with a knowledge of animal 
life in general, and a special knowledge of 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 489. 


the animals to be subjected to critical ob- 
servation; and if he can combine this with 
a scientific acquaintance with both biology 
and psychology, so much the better. The 
sooner it is realized that the man is as im- 
portant as the method, the better for the 
development of comparative psychology. 
Much light is likely to come to compara- 
tive psychology from judicious child study, 
and it is important that both biologists and 
psychologists turn towards it and if pos- 
sible work in concert in dealing with so 
large a field as comparative psychology. 


WesLEY MILs. 
McGitt UNIVERSITY. 


LITERATURE. 


LuBsBock, Sir JOHN. 

“Ants, Bees and Wasps.’ 
New York, 1883. 

“On the Senses, Instincts and Intelligence of 
Animals,’ 1897. 

Romanes, G. J. 

‘Animal Intelligence.’ 

Man, 1899. 
THORNDIKE, H. L. 

‘Animal Intelligence.’ Monograph Supplement 
to Psychological Review, 1898. 

‘The Mental Life of the Monkeys.’ Jbid., 1901. 

“The Evolution of the Human Intellect.’ Pop- 
ular Science Monthly, Vol. 60, No. 1, Nov., 
1901. 

“The Intelligence of Monkeys.’ Tbid., Vol. 59. 

SMALL, W. S. " 

‘Notes on the Psychic Development of the Youn 
White Rat.’ American Journal of Psychol- 
ogy, Oct., 1899. 

“Experimental Study of the Mental Processes of 
the Rat, II’ Jbid., 1901. 

Hosnouss, L, T. 
‘Mind in Evolution.’ Macmillan & Co., 1901. 
MILLs, WESLEY. 

“The Nature and Development of Animal Intel- 
ligence.’ Macmillan & Co., 1898. 
ical Review, Vol. VI., No. 3. 

Kinnaman, A, J. 

“Mental Life of Two Macacus Rhesus Monkeys 
in Captivity... American Journal of Psy- 
chology, Vol. 13. 

Minor, C. 8. 

“The Problem of Consciousness in its Biological 

Aspects.’ Science, N. S., Vol. 16, No. 392. 


D. Appleton & Co., 


‘Mental Evolution in 


Psycholog- . 


My 


oa 


ei 


May 13, 1904.] 


JENNINGS, H. S. 

‘Studies on Reactions in Stimuli in Unicellular 
Organisms.’ American Journal of Physiol- 
ogy, Vol. 8, No. 1, 1902. 

BAwvEN, H. HEATH. 


‘The Psychological Theory of Organic Evolu- ~ 


tion. The Journal of Comparative Neurol- 
ogy, Vol. 11, No. 3, 1901. 
Corr, E. D. 
‘ Origin of the Fittest,’ 1887. 
‘Primary Factors of Organic Eyolution,’ 1895. 
Lozs, J. 
‘Comparative Physiology of the Brain and Com- 
parative Psychology,’ 1900. 
Binet, ALFRED. 
‘The Psychic Life of Microorganisms.’ 
Batpwin, J. M. 
‘Mental Development of the Child and the Race.’ 
Maemillan & Co., 1895. 
MarsHatt, H. R. 
“Instinct and Reason.’ 
Precxuam, G. W., and EH. G. 
‘Instincts and Habits of the Solitary Wasps,’ 
1898. 
Morean, C. Lioyp. 
‘Habit and Instinct,’ 1896. 
* Animal Behavior,’ 1900. 


New York, 1898. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
British Museum (Natural History). 

Report on Hconomic Zoology. 

VY. THropanp, M.A. 

The author, who is vice-principal and zool- 
ogist of the Southeastern Agricultural Col- 
lege, and lecturer on economic entomology to 
Swanley Horticultural College, in England, 
has carried on the whole of this work, and 
drawn up the report as printed. It contains 
a large part of the information furnished by 
the director, Professor E. Ray Lankester, to 
the board of agriculture and fisheries, between 
November, 1902, and November, 1903, besides 
the replies given by the zoological department 
to other correspondents in connection with 
economic zoology, as well as special notes and 
some longer papers dealing with the subject. 
This makes a volume of nearly 200 pages of 
preeminently economic literature, relating to 
subjects of the utmost importance to the 
husbandman, not only in England, but 
throughout the British colonies as well. It 
igs a very creditable report, from both the 
practical and the scientific point of view, and 


Second 
By FReEp. 


SCIENCE. 757 


exhibits on the part of both author and di- 
rector a sincere desire to enlarge its useful- 
ness. This is witnessed by a number of cases 
where Mr. Theobald has been able to make 
some personal investigations and experiments, 
the results of which are given and serve to 
add materially to the economic value of the 
volume. It will prove of interest to Amer- 
ican entomologists in a number of ways, as 
subjects of applied entomology in British 
colonies overlap similar subjects of investiga- 
tion in the United States. Thus the Mexican 
eotton-boll weevil, cotton-boll worm, American 
fowl tick (Argas americanus Packard), Medi- 
terranean flour moth, pear midge, wooly aphis 
(which our British cousins term the American 
blight) pea weevil, hog louse, sheep scab, cab- 
bage root-fly, larch and spruce aphis, willow 
seale, ox warble fly, liver fluke in sheep, rose 
aphis, grain weevil, and the sheep nasal fly 
are all of them cosmopolitan pests, and any- 
thing pertaining to them is of equally general 
interest, and all receive attention in this re- 
port, together with suggestions -for the best 
means of prevention or extermination. 

Mr. Theobald has been able to experiment 
with arsenate of lead for codling moth, and 
found that it is as effective in England as it 
is in America; besides he has found that while 
fruit growers can not combine Paris green, 
Bordeaux mixture and parafiin emulsion, they 
ean do so with arsenate of lead substituted 
for Paris green, and besides combine with 
quassia washes, thus securing a wash that will 
combine two chief insecticides and a fungicide. 

The introduction of beneficial lady beetles 
comes in for its share of attention, and there 
is much encouragement in reading of the in- 
quiries that have been received from not only 
hop growers but fruit growers. Surely, if 
some of the aphis-eating lady beetles that the 
writer observed in the gardens about Hobart, 
Tasmania, a number of years ago, feeding on 
these insects, could be colonized in the United 
States, there might be considerable benefit 
derived from them, and there is no reason to 


“suppose that the results would differ in Eng- 


land. 
While not of vital importance to the Amer- 
ican entomologist or fruit grower, it is inter- 


708 


esting to know that some of the ground 
beetles attack the ripening strawberries in 
England, precisely as do similar insects with 
us, and it is especially interesting to learn 
that good results have been obtained by sink- 
ing small ‘pudding-basins’ in the soil be- 
tween the rows of strawberries and baiting 
the beetles with lights and sugar water. It 
is also of interest to us to know that Byturus 
tomentosus attacks the raspberry in England 
precisely as does its congener, B. wnicolor, in 
America. 

The volume gives every promise of meeting 
a demand among the agricultural classes for 
just this sort of helpful literature, but. since 
it was received we have been surprised and 
pained to learn that continuance has been 
made impossible from the fact that the Royal 
Board of Agriculture has refused to grant 
funds for publication of future volumes. 

When we recall that, for almost a quarter 
of a century, the late Miss Eleanor A. Orm- 
erod carried on this work and published an- 
nually her valuable and painstaking reports, 
all at her own private expense, from which 
this board of agriculture made constant and 
copious abstracts, not always with too scru- 
pulous credit, and now this same body refuses 
to contribute the mere pittance to enable 
Professor Lankester and Mr. Theobald to con- 
tinue the work, we are forced to admit that 
our British (no, English) cousins have some 
characteristics that we find it hard to compre- 
hend. However, the apple growers of the 
United States, Canada and Tasmania, who 
keep up with the times, will doubtless con- 
tinue to furnish England with apples at profit- 
able prices, and, as they jingle good British 
gold in their pockets, they will mentally smile 
at the little bigness of the Royal Board of 
Agriculture, which body seems inclined to 
further assist by a continuation of the condi- 
tions most favorable for future commercial 
transactions in fruit, etc., between these coun- 
tries and England. F. M. WeEsgsTER. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE CHEMICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


A SPECIAL meeting of the Chemical Society 
of Washington was held on Wednesday 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 489. 


April 6, 1904, at eight o’clock p.m. in the 
chemical lecture hall of the Columbian Uni- 
versity. The meeting was addressed by Dr. 
Charles Baskerville, of the University of North 
Carolina, who after being introduced by the 
president spoke upon the following subjects: 

Gro. F. Kunz and CHARLES BASKERVILLE: 
*Kunzite and its Unique Properties.’ 

Cuas. BASKERVILIE and L. B. LOCKHART: 
“Cause of Radio-activity.’ 
Cuas. BASKERVILLE: 

Berzelium.’ 


‘Thorium, Carolinium, 

The speaker exhibited specimens of kunzite 
and described some of its peculiar properties. 
In regard to the cause of radioactivity he 
called especial attention to the observation 
that all minerals which have the property of 
becoming phosphorescent under the action of 
radium rays, contain the element helium. The 
possibility was suggested that there is a rela- 
tionship between the emanations of radio- 
active bodies and helium. Jn regard to the 
last subject on the program the speaker en- 
tered into greater detail, from both the histor- 
ical and the experimental side of the question. 
He described the work which has occupied the 
attention of himself and a large number of 
assistants for the past ten years. 

At the conclusion of the address some ex- 
periments were shown and specimens of 
radium of different degrees of activity were 
exhibited. 


Tue 150th regular meeting of the Chemical 
Society of Washington was held Thursday 
evening, April 14, 1904, in the assembly hall 
of the Cosmos Club. 

The first paper on the program, entitled 
“The Feldspars—The Relation between their 
Composition and Certain Physical Properties,’ 
was presented by Dr. E. T. Allen. An ab- 
stract of this paper has already been furnished 
ScreNcE for publication. 

The second paper on the program, entitled 
“Solubility of Gypsum in Solutions of Potas- 
sium Sulphate and Sodium Sulphate,’ by F. K. 
Cameron and J. F. Breazeale, was presented 
by Dr. Cameron. The authors showed that 
at 25° ©. with increasing concentration of 
potassium sulphate the solubility of calcium 
sulphate at first falls from 2.126 gms. CaSO, 


May 13, 1904.] 


per liter to about 1.42 gms. CaSO, per liter 
in a solution containing about 15 gms. K,SO, 
per liter, and then gradually rises to 1.585 gms. 


- per liter in a solution containing 32 gms. 


K,SO, per liter. This latter point is a triple 
point where a new solid phase syngenite 
(CaSO,:K,SO,:H,O) separates. As the con- 
centration with respect to potassium sulphate 
still increases, no gypsum remains as solid 
phase but only syngenite, the amount of 
calcium sulphate in solution steadily decreas- 
ing. The solubility curves were determined, 
starting both with gypsum and with syngenite, 
good agreements being obtained. The posi- 
tion of the triple point was redetermined by 
the authors by using the procedure of van’t 
Hoff and Wilson who had found a somewhat 
higher concentration with respect to caleium 
sulphate. The results confirm those obtained 
by extrapolation on the solubility curve. The 
solubility curvé for calcium sulphate and 
sodium sulphate previously determined at 25° 
©. by Cameron and Seidell was confirmed. 
It is similar to the calcium sulphate, potassium 
sulphate curve, but there is no separation of a 
double salt at the temperature employed. 

The last paper on the program, entitled 
‘Ammonium Chloride as a Reagent for Indi- 
eating Dissociation,’ was presented by Dr. 
Peter Fireman. 

In a former communication the author 
showed that when antimony pentachloride and 
ammonium chloride are heated in a sealed 
tube they act upon one another according to 
this equation: 

3SbCl, + 2NH,Cl = 3S8bCl, + 8HC]1 + N., 


while tin tetrachloride and titanium tetra- 
chloride remain unchanged when similarly 
treated with sal ammoniaec. The different 
behavior of the chlorides was ascribed to the 
fact that antimonic chloride readily dissociates 
on heating while the other two metallic 
chlorides do not. 

In his new communication he gave the re- 
sults of experiments by which he tested the 
validity of this explanation. The hypothesis 
was fully corroborated. He found that ferric 
chloride and cupric chloride which are known 
to dissociate behave like antimonic chloride, 
the reaction being: 


SCIENCE. 759 


3FeCl, + NH,Cl = 3FeCl, + 4HCl + N 
and 
3CuCl, + NH,Cl= 3CuCl + 4HCl + N, 


while mercuric chloride, a non-dissociating 
halide remains unchanged like stannic chloride 
or titanium tetrachloride. 
A. SEIDELL, 
Secretary. 


THE SCIENCE CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
MISSISSIPPI. 


THE regular monthly meeting of the club 
was held April 15, 1904, in the chemical lec- 
ture room. The leader for the evening, Pro- 
fessor R. W. Jones, presented ‘Some Thoughts 
in Reference to the Water Supplies of Missis- 
sippi.’ A brief account of the history of water 
analysis was given, showing that, while in 
earlier years stress was laid upon the mineral 
ingredients, to-day the emphasis is placed 
upon the organic and sanitary analyses. In 
passing, the fact was noted that the value of 
mineral springs had long been greatly exag- 
gerated. The Michigan standard of the purity 
of drinking water was discussed by the lecturer. 
The speaker then called attention to some in- 
teresting’ and valuable results of his own 
analyses of water from deep wells, artesian 
wells and streams throughout the state. 
Special reference was made to the geological 
formations of the middle-eastern section of 
the state, affording four different water- 
horizons, each yielding water of excellent 
quality. ALFRED Humes, 

Secretary. 


THE SCIENCE CLUB OF UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 


THE sixth meeting of the club for the year 
was held Tuesday, March 22, in the physical 
lecture room of Science Hall. The first paper 
of the evening was by R. A. Harper on ‘ The 
Organization of the Cell as shown in Certain 
Mildews.’ The paper discussed the develop- 
ment of the fruiting bodies of certain mildews 
from the standpoint of the structure and be- 
havior of their nuclei in both fusing and divid- 
ing cells. A permanent polar organization of 
the nucleus and continuous connection of 
chromation and central body are found in these 
fungi. 


760 


The second paper, by A. H. Taylor, on ‘ Res- 
onance in Aerial Systems,’ was a discussion 
by the author of some recent advances in wire- 
less telegraphy; it was illustrated and showed 
the fourfold tuning necessary for the trans- 
mission of large amounts of energy. The 
sender, the two aerials and the receiver were 
successively attuned, enough energy being 
transmitted several meters to light three small 
incandescent lamps. Victor Lrnuer, 

Secretary. 


THE ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA. 


Tun 154th meeting was held in the Physics 


Lecture Room, Tuesday evening, April 12. 
The following papers were presented: 


Proressor C. L. Raper: ‘The World’s Produc- 
tion and Consumption of Coal.’ 

Proressor H. V. Wixson: ‘Grafting in Verte- 
brate Embryos.’ 

Proressor R. H. WHITEHEAD: 
Smallpox.’ 


‘Protozoa in 


A. S. WHEELER, 
Recording Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


SCIENCE, NATURE AND CRITICISM. 

THERE appeared in a recent number of 
ScIENCE a somewhat unscientifically savage 
attack upon William J. Long and his books 
by Mr. William Morton Wheeler. The at- 
tack, which was ostensibly made on scientific 
grounds, was speedily followed by another and 
more personal one, written by Mr. Frank M. 
Chapman, and by a third by Mr. W. F. Gan- 
ong, who, on the principle that ‘ any stick will 
do to beat a dog with,’ sent in an old criticism 
that was first published and answered in a 
St. John newspaper. The first object of the 
present article is to examine these attacks, 
and see what truth underlies them. 

Very obviously there are two questions here, 
a question of animals and a question of ani- 
mus. With the latter we have nothing what- 
ever to do, except to deplore it. The original 
Atlantic attack upon the books in question, 
which was quoted and commended, can hardly 
be regarded as scientific, so far as this means 
a calm, dispassionate sifting of facts and evi- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 489. 


dence; and the writers, in following their 
leader, have been, perhaps, too much influ- 
enced by the great Frenchman’s maxim that 
“among wolves one must howl a little.’ But, 
laying all that aside, the readers of Scimnce 
have undoubtedly asked, how much truth is 
there in these animal stories, which have not 
only been called in question but have been 
denounced as falsehoods and inventions? 

I take the most incredible of all, the case 
of the woodcock that set his broken leg in a 
clay cast, which was ridiculed by Mr. Wheeler 
in Scorence of February 26. Now, forgetting 
all the ridicule and misrepresentation and 
facetiousness of the article, what evidence 


‘have we for believing the story as recorded? 


For myself, having seen the incident, it has 
passed beyond the realm of opinion or belief 
into the realm of fact. Nevertheless, I pass 
over this, and also over the strong supplemen- 
tary testimony of my friend, who might be 
considered as partial, to submit other evidence 
of which there can be no reasonable doubt as 
to its truth or disinterestedness. 

Soon after the surgery article first appeared 
in The Outlook, the editors of that magazine 
received a letter from a lady in Galion, Ohio, 
who told of finding a woodeock that had set 
its broken leg in a clay cast in a way precisely 
similar to that recorded in the article on 
‘Animal Surgery. When the attack of Mr. 
Wheeler, in Science, was called to my atten- 
tion, I wrote to the lady, asking her to send 
me any supplementary details of her observa- 
tion and the names of any other reputable 
people who might know of the circumstances. 
Here is the result—and I have submitted all 
documents and letters to the editor of ScimNncE 
that there may be no question as to their 
genuineness: 

My dear Dr. Long: 

The circumstances in regard to the woodcock 
are just as my father writes (see following letter), 
but I send a few facts in addition to those he has 
given. A short time before my father shot the 
bird we had read that the woodcock can put its 
own leg into a clay cast, but this hardly seemed 
eredible. I was cleaning the game and had cut 
off the legs of the woodeock before I noticed that 
one leg had upon it a lump of dried mud. Im- 
mediately what I had read flashed through my 


a Sar FT 


May 13, 1904.] 


mind, and I saved the leg. * * * It was ex- 
hibited by my father to several physicians in town 
and all admitted it to be a broken leg perfectly 
mended by the bird itself. Dr. C. L. Coyle and 
Dr. H. R. Kelley (both deceased, but both well 
known and reputable physicians) exhibited this 
curiosity, one at a meeting of Galion physicians, 
the other at a meeting of the Crawford County 
Medical Society. No one denied or doubted in 
any way that it was what we thought it to 
bese (Signed) Rena REESE. 
Gatton, Onto, April 4, 1904. 


Dr. Wm. J. Lone, 

Dear Sir: I have been in business in this place 
for the past thirty-two years. During this time 
I have always spent a few days yearly in hunting 
the different game birds in their various seasons. 
One day, a number of years ago, when hunting 
woodceock, I shot one which had evidently broken 
its lex above the knee joint. There was a band- 
age around it, composed of a hard clay-like sub- 
stance, interwoven with grass or a woody fiber 
of some kind. The bone seemed to haye been set 
properly and had knit perfectly. The natural 
swelling was nearly all gone; the bandage was 
loose and in my opinion would soon have dropped 
off. 

I gave the leg, with the bandage on it, to one of 
our leading physicians and surgeons. He upon 
examining it expressed himself in a very emphatic 
way by saying that it was a better job than nine 
tenths of the surgeons could do. Dr. Coyle kept 
the leg at his office and later exhibited it at a 
convention of the physicians and surgeons of this 
country. After his death it was again exhibited 
at a meeting of the physicians of this city. Much 
interest was manifested in this curiosity, the like 
of which had never been seen by any one here, 
though some had read of such a thing. 

(Signed) S. M. REESE. 


* * * 1 carefully examined the specimen re- 
ferred to, and can verify the statements of Miss 
Reese in every particular. 

(Signed) F. L. Brown, M.D. 


* * * A number of years ago there was ex- 
hibited in my place of business (apothecaries) the 
leg of a woodcock, which had been broken, and 
which plainly showed, by the clay and fiber en- 
twined about it, that it had been dressed by the 
bird itself. * * * 

(SieneD) L. K. REISINGER. 


Here is another case from a different state. 
I quote from the sworn statement of Mr. 


SCIENCE. 761 


David EH. Smith, of Bridgeport, who until a 
short time ago, when the sale of game became 
unlawful in this state, was engaged in the 
business of buying and selling game birds for 
the market, in connection with his regular 
business as a gun- and locksmith. 


* * * Almost eighteen years ago Mr. Thomas 
Finn, a member of the police force of Bridgeport 
and who was accustomed to hunting game birds 
in season, brought to me the leg of a woodcock 
which he had shot. About midway between the 
foot and knee there was a clay cast in which some 
small feathers of the bird and some grass had been 
interwoven, apparently to make it more adhesive. 
This cast around the leg was a little over one 
half inch in length and about as large as an ordi- 
nary lead pencil. This leg of the woodcock was 
on exhibition at my store for a long period of 
time. 

About eight years ago Mr. George W. Hayes, a 
well-known sportsman of this city, brought me the 
leg of a woodcock he had shot, and it presented 
am appearance substantially the same as the one 
above described. I opened the clay cast * * * 
and found that the leg had been broken. I ex- 
hibited this leg, with the part of the cast that I 
had not detached, to several persons in this city. 

Since then I have seen another woodcock’s leg 
that had been cut off by another sportsman pre- 
senting the same conditions; and four years ago, 
in a purchase of birds for re-sale, I found that 
one of the woodecock had a clay cast on one of its 
legs similar to the other three that had come 
under my observation. I exhibited this leg with 
its clay cast in my show window for two years, 
and a great many persons in Bridgeport saw it. 

The cast was so constructed and so attached to 
the leg as to preclude any theory of accidental 
attachment; for in each case it was uniformly 
attached around the leg and fashioned in a way 
to indicate that it was attached for a purpose, and 
was in each instance made more effective by the 
interweaving of dry grasses or small bird’s 
feathers, ~ * * 

(Signed) Davip EH, Smirn. 


Brmenrort, Conn., 23 April, 1904. 

We, the undersigned, have seen in the possession 
of David E. Smith, on various occasions, a wood- 
cock’s leg with a clay cast surrounding the leg, 
presenting the appearance described in the fore- 
going affidavit. * * * 

(Signed) Wiutt1Am B. TuTTLe, 
JOSEPH H. SMITH, 
Wm. K. WoLnan. 


762 


Personally appeared before me David E. Smith, 
William B. Tuttle, Joseph H. Smith and William 
K. Wollan, each of whom is personally known to 
me, and made oath to the truth of the foregoing 


statements. 
Stites JupDSoN, JR., 


Notary Public. 


(Signed) 


Here is certainly warrant for believing not 
only that the woodcock sets his own broken 
leg, but also that the habit is more common 
and widespread than I supposed possible when 
I published my own observations. I have 
other letters and evidence from three different 
states bearing on the same question, and to 
the same effect; but these are probably enough. 
It may safely be left to the readers of ScrencE 
to determine whether or not my story of the 
woodeock in ‘A Little Brother to the Bear’ 
is carried out, even to the smallest detail, by 
this disinterested evidence. 

The second attack, by Mr. Chapman, is an 
extraordinary one for a man to make in the 
name of science. Starting with the assump- 
tion that, in the woodcock article and in all 
my books, I am falsifying and misrepresent- 
ing, he endeavors to account for it on the 
ground of personal characteristics. With calm 
and scientific judiciousness he omits the bio- 
graphical dictionary and the testimony of all 
who know me, and fastens upon a newspaper 
clipping. That is generally regarded as rather 
poor scientific evidence; but even so, Mr. 
Chapman finds it ‘illuminating, and so let 
us examine it such as it is. 

The Transcript article professes to be writ- 
ten by a friend of mine, an intimate acquaint- 
ance, who was a classmate at Andover Sem- 
inary, and who recounts certain occurrences 
in the class-room as an eye-witness. As a 
matter of fact, I do not know the man, and 
never saw him to my knowledge. He was 
never in the class-room with me, nor in the 
seminary during my three years’ residence. 
The striking incident which he relates of me 
happened to another fellow, on the subject of 
Greek exegesis. He evidently got hold of it 
by some rumor, applied it to me, and touched 
it up with a vivid bit of personal recollection 
to brighten the effect. 

A single bit of his testimony may be consid- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 489. 


ered as typical of all the rest. He represents 
that I fitted myself for Harvard ‘by solitary 
study,’ and missed the supreme importance of 
freshman year; and, therefore, I have been 
ever since ‘ easily tempted to overrate my per- 
sonal knowledge.’ The facts are, that I gradu- 
ated from the classical course in a good high 
school, which still regularly fits for college; 
that I took the full four years’ course, classical 
and scientific, at the Bridgewater Normal 
School, which required an enormous amount 
of class work; then followed the Harvard de- 
gree, and Andover Theological Seminary, and 
three years in foreign universities, for all of 
which I have parchments to show that the 
work was regular and well done. I have un- 
doubtedly seen more ‘ solitary study’ and mid- 
night oil than is good for a man; but, so far 
as there is any saving grace in class work and 
professors and in rubbing elbows with better 
men, I have had rather more than my share 
of the covenanted as well as of the uncove- 
nanted mercies of our educational system. 

All the rest of the statements are of the 
same kind. They are, almost without excep- 
tion, errors, or misrepresentations, or pure in- 
ventions. 

So these ‘illuminating paragraphs,’ upon 
which Mr. Chapman lays such emphasis, are 
illuminating chiefly in showing the enormous ‘ 
presumption with which a man will rush into 
print and join in a controversy of which he 
knows nothing. Incidentally, they may shed 
a little light upon Mr: Chapman’s scientific 
way of collecting evidence. 

As for the observations upon which he 
throws discredit, if he will read the books he 
will see instantly that he has misrepresented 
half the cases which he cites so carelessly. 
As for the others, the crows that played a 
game with a china ring, the porcupine that 
rolled down hill, the ducks that drowned mus- 
sels in fresh water—for these, and for every 
other observation which he discredits, I have 
more written evidence and more oral testi- 
mony from reliable observers than for the 
woodcock, which has just been considered. 
If scientists and comparative-psychologists 
are honestly looking for new facts in the ani- 
mal world, I have enough to fill several reg- 


May 13, 1904.] 


ular editions of SciENCE, every one of which 
is supported not only by my own personal ob- 
servation, but by the testimony of other hon- 
est men whose word can be taken without 
hesitation. 

The question naturally arises, and has in- 
deed been asked with some irritation, why, 
with all these facts at hand, a man does not 
write as a scientist and produce his evidence. 
The answer is threefold: (1) I am accustomed 
to be believed when I speak. Knowing my 
subject, and with the evidence of my own eyes 
before me, it has hardly seemed necessary, for 
the sake of a few critics who will not believe, 
to refer to supplementary evidence, of which 
I have a plenty; to ‘cross my throat,’ boy 
fashion, as an evidence of sincerity, and to 
state after every observation: Mr. So-and-so 
saw the same thing in Such-a-place; if you 
don’t believe it, ask him. (2) I have gone 
into the outdoor world as a nature lover, not 
as a scientist; for recreation, not for work; 
and my aim, as that of other nature writers, 
is chiefly to influence other people to go out 
of doors themselves, and by telling the whole 
truth, so far as I can see it, to open their eyes 
to the facts of animal life which the scientist, 
as well as the vacationist, has overlooked, 
under the supposition that birds and animals 
are governed solely by instinct and reflex im- 
pulses. And (8) while the scientist deals 
with laws and generalizations and works large- 
ly with species, I have dealt always with indi- 
viduals, and have tried to understand every 
animal ftom moose to woodmouse that I have 
met in the wilderness. 

That birds and animals (and even the in- 
sects, especially the solitary wasps and spiders) 
differ greatly among themselves in individual 
characteristics and habits, is now beyond a 
question. Sooner or later science will collect 
these individual differences and go to work 
upon new laws and generalizations; but at the 
present moment when one goes into animal 
individuality he crosses the borderland of 
science into a realm where our present laws 
and classifications apply only in the most gen- 
eral way. Every animal he studies closely is 
different from every other animal, for nature 
seems to abhor repetition as she abhors a 


SCIENCE. 


763 


vacuum. As among men, the differences, 
which lie deep are much harder to detect than 
the resemblances, which are mostly on the 
surface. All the men of a city street are 
alike from a third-story window, which is 
nearer than we generally get to wild animals. 
There are even women who declare that the 
generalization holds true at a closer inspection 
—hbut that is another matter. Two men in 
dress suits will pass the same general social 
muster at a dance or reception, and may be 
indistinguishable across a small room; but it 
will take some intimate acquaintance to dis- 
cover that they are as far apart as Beelzebub 
and Gabriel. And any one who has ever 
learned to know intimately a litter of pups or 
a litter of fox cubs will recognize instantly 
that the same differences in character and 
disposition which prevail among men prevail 
also, though in less degree, among the beasts 
of the field, and are the last things to be dis- 
covered. 

Though the field is an immense one, and 
practically unknown so far as wild animals 
are concerned, there are as yet only a few 
pioneers scattered over it. The facts are 
plenty enough, but the observers who have the 
patience and sympathy for the work are very 
few, and it will be years before they make 
any impression upon our general ignorance 
about birds and animals. It must be said 
also, of the nature students as distinct from 
the scientists, that they go into the field for 
pure love of it, rather than from any desire 
to make a book, or a theory, or to be enrolled 
among the discoverers of science. The ele- 
ment of personal taste also is a factor against 
them; they hate to kill and destroy, to stuff 
and label and put into a museum. 

The ornithologists, for instance—and I have 
known many of them intimately—haye been 
busy for years making collections of nests and 
eggs and bird skins; they have determined 
the range and distribution of species fairly 
accurately, and have gathered much interest- 
ing information as to food and breeding places 
of our native birds. These are the acknowl- 
edged ‘scientists’ of the bird world; and we 
have watched their work with interest, though 
at times with regret at the enormous and un- 


764 


necessary amount of killing which generally 
accompanies their investigation. They deal 
with species and general habits, and their 
work, so far, covers little more than the sur- 
face of bird life. Meanwhile the individual 
bird, with his own thoughts and feelings, his 
own life to live and his own problems to solve, 
has remained almost unknown till a few na- 
ture lovers and students entered the field and, 
leaving behind the gun and the egg-case and 
the ‘ identification of species’ as the one thing 
to seek after, have hidden and watched and 
followed and loved the bird, and have under- 
stood exactly in proportion as they have loved 
him. The derisive ery of ‘interested ob- 
server’ raised against them by certain pro- 
fessed scientists has no reasonable foundation. 
No man watches and no man records in any 
field except he be interested. His observations 
are valuable exactly in proportion as love im- 
pels him to find out about things. Scientist 
and nature student are both seeking truth, 
and finding the particular manifestations of 
truth that they seek after. The difference is 
something like this, that the ornithologist 
loves specimens and the identification of spe- 
cies and other superficial things, while the 
nature student loves birds and the life that 
is akin to our own. The latter may prove, in 
the end, to be more scientific than the former. 

At present the nature student is simply 
trying, without prejudice, to understand and 
record life as he sees it, and asks no scientific 
consideration beyond that suggested by com- 
mon honesty and courtesy. When his record 
is written, his facts may be collected, and the 
comparative-psychologist, who now knows al- 
most nothing of the life of the wild bird or 
animal, will then be able to finish the work 
which the ornithologist only began. Not till 
then shall we have anything like an edequate 
picture of bird life; and till then it may be 
well for critics to remember that truth is a 
large proposition and, like honesty, is not 
subject to monopoly. 


Since the above article was written, another 
attack in the same spirit has appeared in 
Science, by Mr. William Harper Davis, a 
psychologist, who adds the name of Columbia 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 489. 


University to support his claims. My first 
care, after reading the long article carefully, 
is to cut out from it all the personal abuse, 
the gratuitous insults to myself and to certain 
literary men, the repeated sneers at an hon- 
ored body of some millions of young people, 
the satire, the ridicule, the sophomoric ego- 
isms and several other things which have no 
bearing on the subject in hand, and which 
ought not to have been permitted to appear 
in a magazine under the great name of 
Scrence. What remains of the article con- 
sists, as do the other criticisms, of a few para- 
graphs of dogmatic assertions, denials and 
accusations, without a shred of evidence to 
support them. 

Two things, however, may be profitably 
considered by the readers of SciENcE who 
have seen this new attack, which is extremely 
characteristic of all the others: 

1. Mr. Davis assures us that his article has 
no personal or unworthy bias. ‘ No personal 
feeling of any sort whatever prompts or ac- 
companies this letter,’ he assures us. Now 
here are a few, out of many such, words and 
epithets which he applies to certain gentle 
books and their author, and which, since no 
personal feeling is involved, are supposed by 
this scientific critic to be purely scientific and 
impersonal descriptions: “Sham, crass, crude, 
aimless, pitiful, preposterous, ludicrous, false, 
meretricious, unintelligible, distortions, preju- 
dices, farce, abominations, menace, prostitu- 
tion, hocus-pocus, ignorance, arrogance, erotic 
effusion, general incapacity, vicious notions, 
crass misrepresentations, hopeless confusion, 
inordinate gullibility, a facile fabricator, an 
influence for evil, chief of a tribe, hopeless 
romancer, incapable of reform, type of his 
species, intellectual anarchist, wild ass, a sad 
case °—all these for me. And I pass over as 
irrelevant, ‘nuisance, blatancies, bigotries and 
cocksureness’ as applied to popular education. 

Such is the language of this ‘impersonal’ 
criticism by a scientist. One can not help 
wondering what would happen to the unfor- 
tunate man who should really stir Mr. Davis 
out of his scientific calm and cause him to 
write personalities. Certainly even the pres- 
ent language and style are somewhat different 


Gane 


May 13, 1904.] 


from that to which we are accustomed in the 
scientific books and treatises of our acquaint- 
ance. In an ordinary person this would be 
called Billingsgate, and the feeling that pro- 
duced it might be termed anger, irritation, 
jealousy, malice, envy, spite, or some other 
purely personal and unscientific stimuli. 
Since, however, he has no personal feelings 
in the matter, it might be well for him, being, 
as he tells us, a ‘ technical student of psychol- 
ogy,’ to examine himself seriously in order to 
ascertain what extraordinary mental state it 
is which, without feelings, causes all the symp- 
toms of intense neryous irritation, and which, 
in a normal scientist, causes him to write in 
such very unscientific language. We suspect 
he has mistaken his symptoms, and that he 
must revise either his language or his psy- 
chology. 

2. The one specific case which Mr. Davis 
mentions and ridicules, and which has been 
derided also by Mr. Burroughs and one or two 
other critics of his kind, as showing nothing 
but my own ‘gullibility,’ is the case of the 
orioles’ nest. Im the case of the woodeock I 
have already given the kind of evidence which 
supplements my own personal observations, 
and which I can produce abundantly to verify 
every one of my published records of animal 
habits. The orioles’ nest is a somewhat dif- 
ferent matter, in that it is not the direct re- 
sult of my own personal observation. I re- 
ferred to the nest in a magazine article simply 
to illustrate, from another’s observation, the 
unexpected recurrence of a rare phenomenon, 
such as an oriole’s fastening two twigs together 
with a piece of twine, which I had once seen 
done. Since, however, some readers may have 
an honest question as to why I should accept 
such an unusual observation, I submit certain 
facts which, for obvious reasons, it hardly 
seemed necessary to publish at the time I re- 
ferred to the nest in the North American 
Review. 

I first noticed the nest hanging in a room 
where a man lay dying. It was a sad story 
—hbut that is no part of the evidence. The 
dying man was being cared for with infinite 
patience by a kindly workingman, who was 
no relation whatever. It was the latter who 


SCIENCE. 


765 


owned the nest, who had watched it building, 
and who told me about it, one day, noticing 
my unconscious interest. After the funeral 
it was given to me, unexpectedly, in gratitude 
for certain little kindnesses which I had been 
able to show to the family and to the dying 
man, who also knew all about the nest. Hvery 
circumstance in the case was such as to pre- 
elude any thought of deception, even had there 
been the slightest ground for such a thing. 

The nest itself is, without a question, the 
work of orioles, and the only possible doubt can 
be in the matter of the framework. The sticks 
are not such as a man would choose, and the 
tree in which it hung is the very last that a 
man would select for hanging such a frame- 
work. It is a huge buttonwood, and no man or 
boy living could climb out on the slender 
branch to where the nest was hung. Only a 
ladder would be possible, and in the whole 
neighborhood of the nest there was not a lad- 
der found long enough to reach it. When it 
was proposed to cut it down, in the autumn, an 
extra-long ladder had to be brought from some 
masons who were repairing a chimney; and 
this had to be stood almost straight on end 
before it barely touched the branch. Two men 
were required to hold the long ladder in place 
while a third went up with dificulty to cut 
down the nest. If a man had made the frame- 
work for the birds’ use, he would certainly, un- 
less crazy, have hung it in a different tree and 
in a more accessible place. All these external 
facts, which I have verified myself, point to 
the whole marvelous structure as the work of 
birds alone. 

At least four persons, two men and two 
women—all of them honest and trustworthy 
people—saw the nest at different stages of its 
construction, and when questioned, separately 
and unexpectedly, gave substantially the same 
testimony. I submit the sworn statement of 
the man beside whose house the nest was built, 
who watched the work of construction from 
beginning to end, and who cut down the nest 
after the birds had raised their young in it 
and flown away: 

I certify that I watched, from beginning to end, 
the construction of the nest now hanging in Dr. 
Long’s study, and described by him in the Worth - 


766 


American Review. The nest and framework are 
wholly the work of the orioles themselves. They 
tied the three sticks together, with string, in the 
form of a triangle; they swung this triangle by 
means of cords below the limb of a buttonwood 
tree and fastened it there, and then built the nest 
on their own framework. Beyond the bits of 
thread and string which they collected about the 
house, they received no help from any human 
agency. (Signed) F. G. Luszm. 

Sramrorp, Conn., 25 April, 1904. 

Subscribed and sworn to before me this 25th 
day of April, 1904. HK. L. Scoriexp, 

Notary Public. 


It is hardly necessary to add that we have 
here a simple question which can not be ridi- 
culed by the cry of ‘hunter’s yarn’ or ‘ practi- 
cal joke,’ or befogged by the call for expert 
testimony. Jt is not a question of instinct 
or intelligence or comparative psychology, or 
anything else to call for experts or trained ob- 
servation. The question is, whether or not cer- 
tain birds tied three sticks together and hung 
them unaided from the limb of a tree. That in 
itself is a sufficiently wonderful fact;’ and 


again I leave it to the readers of Science to. 


say whether or not I was justified in accept- 
ing it as reasonable evidence. 


Let us hear the conclusion of the whole 
matter. Here are certain books which, by 
almost universal consent, are doing good in 
the world. They arouse not only a love for 
animals, but an intelligent interest and, if the 
testimony of hundreds of educators is to be be- 
lieved, a keen interest to study and understand 
the animal life about them. They are not 
stories, but studies, and incentives to study; 
and if unwittingly they contain any error, the 
error is bound to be swept away by the very 
interest in nature study which the books them- 
selves arouse. And here, on the other hand, 
are a few critics, who, in the name and with the 
authority of science, condemn the books and 
warn an innocent public against being deceived 
by falsehood and inventions. Now what is 
the scientific explanation of this phenomenon ? 
By scientific I mean simply that which will 
take into account the facts and, so far as pos- 
sible, all the facts. The alleged facts brought 
forward in the eriticisms which appeared in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 489. 


Science are seen to be dogmatic denials mixed 
with considerable error and misrepresentation. 
Here are certain other facts to be duly con- 
sidered: 

1. The books in question record hundreds of 
observations, the great majority of which are 
known to be true. The rest are unusual, and 
some, indeed, seem incredible. On the other 
hand, it may be said for the latter that we 
know very little of the lives of the animals 
described, and the most striking things re- 
corded are no more incredible than scores of 
well-authenticated instances of the intelligence 
of dogs and cats and horses. The only ques- 
tion, therefore, is, can we safely attribute to 
the wild animal the same individuality that 
we see in our domestic one? In other words, 
are the wolf and fox less intelligent than the 
dog, the black duck less keen than the barn- 
yard fowl, the wild turkey and the grouse of 
less wit than the chickens, the deer and moun- 
tain sheep less resourceful than domestic 
cattle ? 

2. The observations recorded in the books 
in question have been made by an experienced 
observer who has put himself with much care 
and patience in the position to see what he 
deseribes. It is possible that he has made 
honest mistakes in his observations; but, on 
the other hand, those facts which have been 
most denied, like the woodcock, have been veri- 
fied by other observers. 

3. The author studies the living animal in 
his native haunts and in every case writes from 
first-hand knowledge, after long experience 
and with unusual opportunities for observing 
the wild creatures. The critics, with far less 
experience or knowledge of the animals in 
question, and with different interests, deny the 
observations on general principles, or on the 
ground that they have not seen them. 

4. The attacks which have been made thus 
far are mostly ill-tempered and intemperate, as 
far as possible from the scientific spirit which 
they invoke. Though written in the name 
of science, they show none of her careful, 
painstaking methods; though their professed 
object is truth, they do not verify their own 
statements nor prove their accusations. The 
attacks are generally made by men who have 


TS RE 


mem 


May 13, 1904.] 


themselves written less successful books or 
articles on the same general subject. 

5. The eritics present denials, dogmatic as- 
sertions, negative testimony. Not one particle 
of positive evidence has yet been presented 
against the books which are so vigorously con- 
demned. Meanwhile the fact remains that, 
though six or seyen volumes and a score of 
articles have already been published, only two 
slight errors have thus far been pointed out, 
and they were promptly and gratefully 
acknowledged. 

Other facts and considerations will undoubt- 
edly suggest themselves, but perhaps it were 
well to consider these first in forming one’s 
judgment as to the books and their critics. 

Wm. J. Lone. 

StramrForp, Conn., May 7, 1904. 


[We hope that this discussion will not be 
earried further.—Enpiror. | 


THE METRIC SYSTEM. 


To tHe Eprror or Science: The suggestion 
of Professor W. Le Conte Stevens that a 
compromise be made between the metric and 
the British system of weights and measures, 
making a foot the fourth part of a meter and 
an inch two per cent. smaller than the British 
inch, might be a good one if the English- 
speaking race were to disappear from the 
earth, and all its tools and its technical lit- 
erature be destroyed, but as long as that race 
continues to use its existing tools and books, 
so long must the inch persist with its present 
value. His article is useful, however, in show- 
ing the impossibility of the general adoption 
of the metric system in its present form by 
the people of this country. He well says: 
“What may be the form taken by legisla- 
tion in England and the United States, the 
people can not be compelled to adopt nomen- 
clature that is thrust upon them as a substi- 
tute for that to which they have always been 
accustomed.” Wm. Kent. 


ICHTHYOLOGY IN THE ‘ ENCYCLOPDIA 
AMERICANA.’ 
To THe Eprror or Science: Referring to 
Dr. Gill’s note on the ‘ Ichthyology of the En- 


SCIENCE. 767 


eyclopedia Americana, I may say that he is 


‘quite right in supposing that the proofs of the 


figures which illustrate my article on fishes 
were not submitted to the author. Many of 
these seem to be wrongly named as noted by 
Dr. Gill. Davin 8. Jorpan. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


THE MULTI-NIPPLED SHEEP OF BEINN BHREAGH.* 

On two former occasionst I have had the 
honor of presenting communications to the 
academy concerning the multi-nippled breed 
of sheep on my farm at Beinn Bhreagh, near 
the town of Baddeck, Nova Scotia. 

It will be remembered that in 1889, upon 
the purchase of some property at Beinn 
Bhreagh I found myself in possession of 
a flock of sheep; and that in the spring of 
1890, one half of the lambs born upon the place 
turned out to be twins. 

This large percentage of twins led me to 
examine the mothers of all the lambs with 
the object of discovering, if possible, some 
peculiarity that would enable us to distinguish 
twin-bearing ewes from others. 

Upon examining the milk-bags of the sheep 
a peculiarity was observed that was thought 
might be significant. Normally, sheep have 
only two nipples upon the milk-bag, but in 
the case of several of the sheep examined, 
supernumerary nipples were discovered which 
were embryonic in character and not in a func- 
tional condition. Some had three nipples in 
all, and some four. Of the normally nippled 
ewes 24 per cent. had twin lambs; but of the 
abnormally nippled 48 per cent. had twins. 
The total number of ewes, however, was so 
small (only 51) as to deprive the percentagés 
of much significance. Still the figures were 
suggestive of a possible correlation between 
fertility and the presence of supernumerary 
nipples, and it seemed worth while to make 
an extended series of experiments to ascertain 
(1) whether, by selective breeding, the extra 
nipples could be developed so as to become 
functional, and (2) whether ewes possessing 
four functional nipples instead of two would 


* A paper read before the National Academy of 
Sciences in Washington, D. C., April 21, 1904. 
7 See Scrpnce, Vol. IX., May 5, 1899, pp. 637. 


768 SCIENCE. 


turn out to be more fertile than other sheep 
and have a larger proportion of twins. 

1. In regard to the first point mentioned no 
difficulty was’ experienced in developing the 
embryonic nipples into real functional mammz 
yielding milk; and for several years past the 
ewes born on Beinn Bhreagh (with extremely 
few exceptions) have possessed four functional 
nipples. 

Of recent years lambs possessing five and 
six nipples have appeared, and it is obvious 
that continued selective breeding would ulti- 
mately result in the production of a six-nippled 
variety of sheep. _ 

How far the number of functional mammz 
could be increased by selection it is of course 
impossible to predict; but it is worthy of note 
that one ewe has been born with four nipples 
on one side of the body and two on the other; 
and, as the supernumerary nipples have a 
tendency to appear in pairs, this probably fore- 
shadows the possibility of an eight-nippled 
variety. ¢ 

2. In regard to the second point mentioned 
the multi-nippled sheep have not proved to be 
more fertile than normally nippled sheep; and 
the proportion of twins born has been quite 
small. 

One peculiarity, however, is worthy of no- 
tice: The twin lambs, though usually smaller 
at birth than single lambs, speedily come up 
to the average of the flock in this respect—so 
that by autumn there is no substantial differ- 
ence in weight between the single and twin 
lambs. The multi-nippled sheep are, there- 
fore, able to rear twins more successfully than 
normally nippled sheep. 

“This is an important point, and it suggests 
the advisability of attempting now—by the 
elimination of single lambs and the retention 
of twins for breeding purposes—to produce 
a twin-bearing stock. 

At present the Beinn Bhreagh flock consti- 
tutes simply a scientific curiosity, and is of 
little practical value to the country. I propose 
to make it of value by engrafting upon it the 
twin-bearing tendency. In Nova Scotia the 
winters unfortunately are long, and the cost 
of winter feeding proportionally great, but the 
country is otherwise admirably adapted for 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 489. 


sheep-raising upon a large scale. The pro- 
duction of a twin-bearing stock would do much 
to promote this important industry by enabling 
the farmers to make a double profit upon 
lambs without additional cost. 

The proposed experiments, however, can not 
be made with a small flock, and the natural 
inerease of the Beinn Bhreagh flock is so slow 
that many years would elapse before it would 
be practicable to carry out the plans proposed. 
I haye sought to increase the size of the flock 
by the purchase of multi-nippled sheep from 
surrounding farms, but an examination of sey- 
eral thousand sheep has convinced me that it 
is no longer possible to purchase sheep having 
the characteristics of the Beinn Bhreagh flock 
to a useful degree. JI, therefore, propose to 
purchase large numbers of ordinary two- 
nippled ewes and mate them with Beinn 
Bhreagh rams—segregating the present flock 
as much as possible. The multi-nippled lambs 
born to the normally nippled ewes will enable 
us to increase the size of the multi-nippled 
flock beyond its natural increase—and be 
otherwise beneficial by the introduction of 
new blood; but the new blood will probably be 
detrimental to the particular line of selection 
hitherto pursued and lead to a reduction in 
the percentage of multi-nippled offspring in 
that flock. 

The present, therefore, seems to be a fitting 
time to place in the hands of those interested 
in evolutionary problems, a detailed account 
of the flock; and I have prepared for private 
circulation two pamphlets, one entitled 
“Multi-Nippled Sheep of Beinn Bhreagh, Liy- 
ing 1903, and Their Known Ancestors,’ the 
other ‘Sheep Catalogue of Beinn Bhreagh, 
Showing the Origin of the Multi-Nippled 
Sheep of Beinn Bhreagh and Giving all the 
Descendants Down to 1903.’ I have great 
pleasure in presenting the first copies of these 
pamphlets to members of the academy 
specially interested in the subject. 

ALEXANDER GRAHAM BELL. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
POPULAR HELPS IN THE STUDY OF THE FUNGI. 


It is particularly gratifying to notice the 
efforts that Professor Kellerman, of the Ohio 


Leone 


SOL RAT MS EN 


Y. 


— 


May 13, 1904.] 


State University, is making to help the teach- 
ers in the public schools of Ohio to a better 
understanding of the larger fungi. From time 
to time he issues a four-page folder under the 
name ‘ Mycological Bulletin, consisting of a 
little text and a good deal of photographic 
representation of the species he is describing. 
We know of nothing like these leaflets else- 
where, and can not too heartily commend this 
method of popularizing the study of the fungi. 
When it is remembered that these bulletins 
cost the subscriber only about a cent apiece 
one wonders that the subscription list does not 
include every school teacher in Ohio, to say 
nothing of those outside of that fortunate 
state. 


FOREST FIRES IN THE ADIRONDACKS IN 1903. 


Tue United States Bureau of Forestry has 
issued a circular (No. 26) on the forest fires 
in the Adirondacks, from which we learn that 
“between April 20 and June 8, 1903, over 
600,000 acres of timber land in northern New 
York were burned over’ with an estimated 
loss of $3,500,000. A very dry spring and 
‘eulpable carelessness’ were what brought 
about this great loss. ‘ Deliberate incendiar- 
ism’ is charged with no small number of fires, 
while a few are due to unavoidable accident. 
The author of the circular says after careful 
examination that ‘fully one half of the fires are 
due to carelessness caught from locomotives’ 
of the railroads in the forests. It is known 
that a particular excursion train hauled by 
two locomotives set almost continuous fires 
for a distance of ten miles. The burning of 
brush and other débris, the carelessness of 
smokers, the failure to extinguish smudges 
and camp fires contributed to the grand total 
of carelessness. Many fires were set deliber- 
ately, in part by those who resent the forma- 
tion of private preserves, partly by those who 
do not like the present timber regulations, 
partly by those who profit by the labor afforded 
by fire fighting, some by hunters, some by 
those who hope thereby to increase the berry 
crop, or the crop of ginseng, ete. A large map 
tells the story of destruction and loss better 
than it can be told by words. The circular 
should serve to awaken the public conscience, 


SCIENCE. 769 


and should result in more effective legislation, 
and a better enforcement of existing laws. 


THE BACTERIOLOGICAL ANALYSIS OF SOILS. 


A RECENT bulletin of the Delaware Experi- 
ment Station brings out an interesting rela- 
tion of bacteria to the fertility of the soil. It 
has long been known that certain bacteria in 
the soil add to its available nitrogen for plant 
growth, and now Professor Chester has ac- 
tually made bacteriological analyses of the soil 
for the purpose of determining the nitrifying 
efficiency of its bacteria. In soils containing 
respectively 4,000,000, 3,130,000 and 250,000 
bacteria per gram of dry soil the nitrifying 
efficiencies were 26.68, 13.75 and 2.13. Pro- 
fessor Chester concludes ‘that while zymotic 
efficiency is generally proportionate to the 
total number of bacteria present in soil, it is 
not exactly proportionate. ‘It is not only 
numbers of bacteria but also kinds which de- 
termine the efficiency of a soil.’ Further on 
he says ‘there is a possibility that the future 
will develop some practical means of introdu- 
eing favorable bacterial forms into the soil, 
and thus of raising its bacterial potential.’ 
Here is a field for the scientific agriculturist 
not thought of by our fathers, who, if they 
knew anything at all about bacteria, regarded 
them as vermin to be avoided as far as pos- 
sible, and even now most of us think of 
‘serms’ and ‘microbes’ as dangerous things 
to have about. Evidently we have done the 
tribe of the bacteria an injustice, for it looks 
as though our crops were dependent upon 
their presence in sufficient quantity in our 
fields. Is it possible that the farmer of the 
future may regularly inoculate his fields be- 
fore planting to a particular crop? While all 
this is quite funny, Professor Chester has 
done a piece of good work, and it is to be 
hoped that he may have the time and inclina- 
tion to continue it. 


THE STUDY OF OUR MOSSES. 
ANY one who has attempted to take up 
the study of the mosses of his neighborhood 
must have been impressed with the feeling 
that there is a crying need of a work on the 
systematic botany of these pretty plants which 


770 


is usable by amateurs and other non-technical 
bryologists. The general botanist who wishes 
to know something about all kinds of plants 
has often felt that there is a needless techni- 
cality in the books devoted to the lower plants, 
and with the single exception of the lichens, 
the mosses have suffered most of all. Several 
years ago Professor Grout began work on the 
descriptive botany of the mosses with the in- 
tention of remedying this condition of things, 
and the result was a handy little elementary 
manual entitled ‘ Mosses with a Hand-Lens.’ 
The success of this booklet has encouraged 
him to undertake a larger book, to which he 
gives the name ‘ Mosses with Hand-Lens and 
Microscope.’ Of this, Part I. was published 
some time last year and was noticed in ScIENCE 
upon its appearance. Part IJ. is now in the 
press, and is to appear about the middle of 
May. An examination of advanced sheets 
shows that this is to be still better than the 
first part. With this book, when completed, 
the study of the mosses will be little more diffi- 
eult than that of the flowering plants. 


SUMMER BOTANY. 


Tuer seaside laboratories are tempting bot- 
anists to vacation work at Woods Hole, Cold 
Spring Harbor and Vancouver Island, with 
several more stations yet to be heard from. 
In the interior the Lakeside Laboratory at 
Cedar Point (near Sandusky), and the alpine 
laboratory on Pike’s Peak offer to the in- 
lander out-of-door recreation mingled with 
serious study. There should be little difficulty 
in determining where to go, in case one wants 
to get out into the air while at work. The 
sea always calls some of us, and the moun- 
tains too call us with a voice that we can not 
resist. Down by the sea we may study the 
strange and beautiful things that grow in the 
depths; on the mountain side we may study 
‘changes in vegetation due to altitude and low 
temperature. At the seaside we may bathe 
when we are warm and tired; on the mountain 
side we cool off in the thin air two miles 
above sea level, and rest under the fragrant 
Rocky Mountain pines and fir trees. Where- 
ever we go we may do a little work—possibly 
a good piece of work; at any rate we may be 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 489. 


refreshed physically and mentally, so as to 

return to our class-rooms and laboratories in 

September able to do better work there. 
Cares E. Brssry. 


THE BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY OF THH 
BUREAU OF FISHERIES AT WOODS 
HOLE, MASS. 

Tue laboratory will be thrown open on June 
16, and will be at the service of a limited num- 
ber of investigators, for the study of prob- 
lems in marine biology, from that date until 
the middle of September. The occupant of a 
table will as usual be furnished with the ordi- 
nary apparatus and reagents and with ma- 
terial for research free of charge. Certain of 
the steam and other vessels of the bureau will 
be at the disposal of the laboratory, and sys- 
tematic collecting will be in progress during 
the entire season. Candidates for laboratory 
privileges are advised to submit their applica- 
tions as early as possible. Those who are not 
already known at the station will be expected 
to offer evidence of their qualifications. . Ap- 
plications should be sent to the director, Dr. 
F. B. Sumner, College of the City of New 
York, New York, N. Y. 


SCIENTIFIC POSITIONS IN THE PHILIP- 
PINE ISLANDS. 

Tue Civil Service Commission announces 

that on June 1-2, 1904, examinations will be 

held for the positions named below in the 


Bureau of Government Laboratories at Ma- 
nila, P. I. 


Pathologist cristal series ltich lle $1,800 

Pharmacologistier wer. cision iecteeieiae 1,800 

Chemist, Analytical Division, soils and 
WHUCES, vec ustciueresene suelsianceerstte tera meee ce meetete 1,600 


Chemist, Economie Products Division, fa- 
miliar with organic chemistry, essential 


OLISMETE Hae PO cs A eee 1,600 
Chemist and collector, Economie Products 

DiVislOn) va. seis: iene eee eee 1,500 
Assistant for physical chemist............ 1,500 
ID MINI LYwIIF- Hao oan socssoscsaonsououcnnc 1,400 
Bacteriologist of Serum Division.......... 1,400 


These salaries represent the lowest salaries 
for entrance into the Bureau and it is the 
plan, as far as possible in the future, to bring 
in new men in the lowest salaried positions, 


May 13, 1904.] 


giving them the opportunity for promotion as 
those in the higher positions leave or are pro- 
moted. In order to show what these higher 
salaried positions are, a list of the positions 
now authorized in the Bureau of Laboratories 
is given: 

BIOLOGICAL LABORATORY. 


Director, Biological Laboratory........... $3,500 
Pathologist and investigator.............. 2,750 
LEMON aocidoaocbassnodsueseassoboeoe 2,250 
PRUNES, sooos sdganeuse ses oDbodC DD DU ODD 2,000 
IBACLERIOLO CIS tie)mejat-\ae cra ciieneraeis aerlae sei 1,800 
DMO MOMWSY SsaooosesvoadscsupoonouecuS 1,800 
IBACEETIOl OG ISU enya Veiehs heise) relies chen s\sicie mel 1,500 
Assistant bacteriologist (two)............ 1,200 
CHEMICAL LABORATORY. 
Chemist and investigator................. 2,500 
Chemist, Economic Products Division...... 2,250 
JMIOIKIS. co oc oseng doosogcossamoocsoobehos 2,000 
PB OL AMT S tear eiseresatecrsta eee eerie vers apatite 2,000 
Physiological chemist .................... 1,800 
ASSAY? “So Suobesacdodcoadn lcs obediucus ome 1,800 
Clams (iw@)) “soodsepncosasoaosuopedcua 1,600 
PAM aI V;Sb), eu tusts hata. ch-auehoraho ais lets oa) afevwleucvdia eis wets 1,600 
(CliGraNiGh eae eeraies OOO tee oe ORO oo ees 1,500 
SERUM LABORATORY. 
Director, Serum Laboratory............... 3,000 
Assistant dinector -Scanecs ae netaemcc ce 2,500 
jVeterimariam so, nyte casein eee cele eis ew ass a sieeve 1,600 
PASS GAM bee weratove eda ctere et ceei ret sbaryevaue\te setts: 5 sh 1,400 
Assistant bacteriologist .................. 1,500 


Vacancies are liable to occur in this list, 
and the employees who are at present in the 
bureau, if fit for the work, will, step by step, 
be promoted as the opportunity arises. Ener- 
getic young men who are willing to work up 
in the service are desired. Colleges and uni- 
versities which are able to train properly quali- 
fied men are requested to submit lists of candi- 
dates each year so that a sufficient number of 
names may always be on hand. Facilities for 
all classes of work will be of the best, and an 
adequate library will be available. 

THE CAMBRIDGE MEETING OF THE 
BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 

As we have already reported the British 
Association will meet this year at Cambridge, 
under the presidency of the Honorable A. J. 
Balfour, the British premier, from August 17 


SCIENCE. 771 


to 24. We take from Nature the following 
facts in regard to the meeting: 

In 1833, the third year of its existence, the 
association met at Cambridge under the presi- 
dency of Professor Adam Sedgwick; Sir J. F. 
W. Herschel presided over the second meeting 
in 1845, and the third Cambridge meeting was 
held in 1862 under the presidency of Professor 
Willis. 

The sectional meetings will in most cases be 
held in the buildings of the several science de- 
partments. The sections are the following: 
A, mathematical and physical science, presi- 
dent, Professor Horace Lamb, F.R.S.; B, 
chemistry, president, Professor Sydney Young, 
F.R.S.; C, geology, president, Mr. Aubrey 
Strahan, F.R.S.; D, zoology, president, Mr. 
William Bateson, F.R.S.; E, geography, presi- 
dent, Mr. Douglas W. Freshfield; F, economic 
science and statistics, president, Professor 
William Smart; G, engineering, president, 
Hon. Charles A. Parsons, F.R.S.; H, anthro- 
pology, president, Mr. Henry Balfour; I, 
physiology, president, Professor C. S. Sher- 
rington, F.R.S.; K, botany, president, Mr. 
Francis Darwin, F.R.S.; L, educational sci- 
ence, president, the Right Rev. the Lord 
Bishop of Hereford. 

A ‘Handbook to the Natural History of 
Cambridgeshire’ specially written for the 
meeting under the editorship of Dr. J. E. 
Marr and Mr. A. E. Shipley, will be published 
by the University Press; the syndies of the 
press have decided to present a copy to each 
ticket-holder, provided that the number to be 
supplied for the purpose does not exceed 2,000 
copies. A special edition of Mr. J. W. Clark’s 
‘Guide to the Town and University’ will be 
presented to each member of the association, 
also a series of excursion guides, together with 
a colored map of East Anglia supplied by the 
director-general of the ordnance surveys. 

Emmanuel College has agreed to entertain 
the secretaries of sections. The majority of 
the colleges have expressed their willingness 
to entertain free of charge a limited number 
of distinguished guests, and some of the col- 
leges have agreed to place rooms at the dis- 
posal of members. of the association, making a 
charge for meals and attendance. (Girton and 


172 


Newnham Colleges, and the Ladies’ Training 
College, have also agreed to extend hospitality 
and lodging accommodation to British and 
foreign visitors. 

A considerable number of favorable re- 
plies have been received in answer to invita- 
tions issued to American and foreign men of 
science; it is expected that at least 100 visitors 
from abroad will be present. 

The master and fellows of Trinity College 
have granted the use of the college for a con- 
versazione and reception to be held on Thurs- 
day, August 18. The Lord-Lieutenant of 
Cambridgeshire and the Mayor of Cambridge 
will entertain the members and associates at 
a garden-party in the Botanic Garden on 
Monday, August 22. .The High Sheriff of 
Cambridgeshire has also expressed his inten- 
tion of giving a garden-party during the 
meeting. On Friday, August 19, a garden- 
party will be given by the principal of Girton 
College, and on Tuesday afternoon, August 
93, members of the association will be enter- 
tained at Newnham College. 

It is hoped that a table d’héte lunch will be 
served on week-days in certain college halls. 
Light refreshments will be served each day 
Gneluding Sunday) in the Masonic Hall, ad- 
joining the museums and close to the reception 
room, from 12 to 8 p.m. It has also been ar- 
ranged to have an open-air café and _ beer- 
garden on ground adjoining the museums, 
which will be open on week-days from 11 to 6. 

The committee has provisionally arranged 
eleven excursions for Saturday, August 20. 
These include Audley End and Saffron Wal- 
den, Brandon and Didlington Hall (flint- 
knapping industry and Lord Amherst’s collec- 
tion of Egyptian antiquities), Cromer (geo- 
logical), the Dykes of Cambridgeshire; Ely, 
Hatfield and St. Albans, Lincoln, Lynn, Castle 
Rising and Sandringham, Norwich, Wicken 
Fen, Wisbech and Woad Works. 

On Thursday afternoon, August 18, the 
registrary of the university, Mr. J. Willis 
Clark, will deliver a lecture on ‘The Origin 
and Growth of the University.’ The evening 
lecture on Friday, August 19, will be on 
“Ripple-marks and Sand-dunes,’ by Professor 
George Darwin, and on Monday, August 22, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 489. 


the second evening lecture Will be delivered by 
Professor H. F. Osborn, of New York, who 
will give an account of ‘Recent Explorations 
and Researches on Extinct Mammalia.” On 
Saturday, August 20, Dr. J. E. Marr will lec- 
ture to the operative classes on ‘The Forms 
of Mountains.’ 

A classified list of lodgings and hotel ac- 
commodation is now being prepared for the 
use of intending visitors. Information in re- 
gard to lodgings may be obtained from Mr. A. 
Hutchinson, Pembroke College. General in- 
quiries should be addressed to the local secre- 
taries, British Association, or to Mr. A. C. 
Seward, Emmanuel College, Cambridge. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Dr. Joun M. CrarKke, paleontologist of the 
state of New York, has been appointed by the 
regents of the University of the state of New 
York to succeed Dr. Frederick J. H. Merrill 
as geologist and director of the State Museum. 

Dr. F. S. Ears, assistant curator of the 
New York Botanical Garden, has resigned to 
accept the office of director of the new agri- 
cultural station in Cuba. The station will 
occupy a farm and buildings at Santiago de la 
Vegas, about twelve miles from Havana. The 
sum of $75,000 has been appropriated for the 
establishment and maintenance of the station 
for the first year. 

Dr. Herpert Havitanp Fieup, director of 
the Concilium Bibliographicum, has been 
elected an honorary member of the Leipzig 
Society of Naturalists. 

Sir Gutmrorp L. MoLreswortH has been 
elected president of the British Institution of 
Civil Engineers. 

Prorgessor V. L. Kenioce, head of the de- 
partment of entomology of Stanford Univer-_ 
sity, will spend the greater part of next year 
in Germany, Italy and England. 

Dr. M. P. Ravenet and Dr. Leonard Pear- 
son, of the University of Pennsylvania, are 
about to go to Italy to undertake researches on 
tuberculosis in the laboratory of Professor 
Maragliano, at Genoa. 


Dr. R. Horrnes, professor of geology in the 
University of Graz, has been sent by the 


a 


May 13, 1904.] 


Vienna Academy of Sciences to Macedonia to 
study the earthquake of April 4. 


Mr. Percy Lonemuir, of University College, 
Shetheld, has been appointed junior assistant 
in the metallurgical department of the British 
National Physical Laboratory. 


As we have already noted, General Bassot 
has been appointed director of the observatory 
at Nice in the room of the late M. Perrotin. 
M. Simonin has been appointed sub-director 
of the observatory. 


Proressor H. C. Parker, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, lectured before the Geographical So- 
aety of Philadelphia on May 4, his subject 
being ‘ Mountaineering in the American Alps.’ 
The Elisha Kent Kane medal of the society, 
awarded to Captain Robert F. Scott, R.N., 
commander of the Antarctic in its recent ex- 
pedition to the polar regions, was accepted on 
his behalf by Wilfred Powell, Hsq., British 
consul at Philadelphia. 

Proressor W. S. FRANKLIN, of Lehigh Uni- 
versity, lectured before the Electric Club of 
Pittsburg on the ‘ Electron Theory’ on May 2. 


Proressor Francis EH. Luoyp, of Teachers 
College, Columbia University, lectured before 
the American Philosophical Society, on May 
6, on ‘The Vegetation of the Island of Do- 
minica. Professor Lloyd spent the summer 
of 1903 in a botanical exploration of the 
island. 


Dr. J. A. Ewrne, director of naval educa- 
tion, formerly professor of mechanism and 
applied mechanics in the University of Cam- 
bridge, has been appointed Rede lecturer for 
the present year. 


THE certificate of incorporation has been 
filed of the Walter Reed Memorial Association 
for the purpose of securing funds to erect a 
monument in Washington City to the memory 
of the late Walter Reed, major and surgeon 
U.S. Army. Dr. Daniel C. Gilman is presi- 
dent, and General George M. Sternberg, vice- 
president of the association. 

Tue trustees of the British National Por- 
trait Gallery have received by bequest from 
the late Mr. Herbert Spencer a portrait of 
himself, painted by J. B. Burgess, R.A., and 


SCIENCE. 773 


a marble bust of himself by Sir J. E. Boehm, 
R.A. The trustees have purchased a portrait 
of Sir Isaac Newton, painted as a young man 
and attributed to Robert Walker. 


A comMMITTEE has been formed with the ob- 
ject of collecting subscriptions for the erection 
of a memorial to James Watt in Greenock, 
the place of his birth. The site of the house 
in which Watt was born is the property of the 
corporation of Greenock, and is placed at the 
disposal of the committee. The form of 
memorial will depend on the amount of money 
collected. 


Proressor Maxwett SoMeErvILLE, who oc- 
eupied the chair of glyptology at the Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania and was a well-known 
authority on gems, has died at Paris, at the 
age of seventy-five years. 


M. Emitn Ductaux, professor of physics and 
meteorology in the Agricultural Institute at 
Paris and member of the Academy of Sci- 
ences, has died at the age of sixty-four years. 

WE regret also to record the death of Pro- 
fessor Moritz Staub, of Buda Pesth, secretary 
of the Hungarian Geological Society. 


THE Civil Service Commission announces 
an examination on June 4, to secure eligibles 
to fill a vacancy in the position of chemist in 
the Bureau of Chemistry of the Department 
of Agriculture in connection with the inspec- 
tion of foreign food products, at a salary of 
$2,000 per annum, and vacancies in the posi- 
tion of chemist of like character, in equal or 
lower grades, as they may occur in that de- 
partment. 


Presipent Roosevett has decided that the 
new buildings of the Department of Agricul- 
ture shall be built facing the park way that 
the park commission has recommended to ex- 
tend through the Mall. 


Mr. Cuartes H. Srernperc, of Lawrence, 
Kans., is prepared to send on approval collec- 
tions of the reptiles and fishes of the chalk of 
Kansas. 


A Massacuusetts Zoological Society was in- 
corporated last week with a view to establish- 
ing a Zoological Park in Boston. The park 
will be situated in the Stony Brook Reserva- 
tion, and it is hoped that from $100,000 to 


774 


$200,000 will be collected and that work will 
be begun a year hence. The incorporators 
are Dr. Charles Sedgwick Minot, president; 
John E. Thayer and Dr. Henry P. Bowditch, 
vice-presidents; Dr. Edward G. Gardiner, sec- 
retary; Rev. James Eells, treasurer; Outram 
Bangs, Alexander Pope, William Lyman Un- 
derwood and the president and secretary, ex- 
ecutive committee; Robert A. Boit, William 
F. Beal, Rev. Samuel A. Eliot, Hon. John D. 
Long, Robert M. Burnett, Samuel Hooper 
Hooper, Professor E. L. Mark, Dr. Samuel J. 
Mixter, Professor Edward S. Morse, Frederick 
Law Olmsted, Hon. Herbert Parker, John C. 
Phillips, Dr. Morton Prince and Professor 
William T. Sedgwick. 


It is stated in Natwre that a provisional 
program of the meeting of the International 
Association of Academies, to be held in Lon- 
don, has been sent to the delegates. On Tues- 
day, May 24, the commission inquiring into 
the anatomy of the brain will probably meet 
at Burlington House in the morning. In the 
evening the delegates will be entertained by 
the Royal Society at a banquet at the White- 
hall Rooms. Wednesday, May 25, and the 
morning of the following day will be devoted 
to the business of the assembly. The king 
has expressed his wish, if his engagements 
will permit, to receive the delegates, and it is 
hoped that arrangements may be made for this 
event in the afternoon of May 26. On Friday 
evening, May 27, the delegates are invited to 
a reception by the University of London; and 
on the afternoon of May 28 it is proposed to 
pay visits to the universities of Oxford and 
Cambridge. On Monday, May 30, the Lord 
Mayor of London will entertain the delegates 
at a banquet at the Mansion House. 


At Thurlow-park, Norwood, on March 17, 
Sir Hiram Maxim gave, as we learn from the 
London Times, a demonstration of his new 
‘Captive Flying Machine.’ To a central 
vertical shaft, over 60 feet high, are attached 
ten long radial arms, supported by steel wire 
ropes, and from the ends of these arms are 
slung cars, each carrying six or eight passen- 
gers, and made in the shape of fish or any 
other form that faney may dictate. Each is 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 489. 


provided with an aeroplane, and by the varying 
of an angle, and consequently of the lifting 
power, of this they can, when the peripheral 
speed is high enough, be made to move up and 
down and perform complicated evolutions in 
the air. The speed was not great enough to 
bring the aeroplanes into action; exigencies of 
space made it necessary for the cars to be hung 
about forty feet from the ground, and the 
diameter of the circular path they followed 
was so small that sufficient speed to affect the 
aeroplanes would have been accompanied by 
an undue development of centrifugal force, 
owing to increased speed of rotation. The 
machine, however, is destined for Earl’s-court 
Exhibition, where it will be erected in the 
middle of the lake; and there the ears will 
be hung much lower, and with a large circle of 
travel the peripheral speed will be high enough 
to bring the aeroplanes into play with a very 
moderate number of revolutions a minute. The 
central shaft is driven by a gas-engine, which 
can turn it at such a rate that the peripheral 
speed of the cars becomes about sixty-five miles 
an hour, and they are forced out at an angle 
of nearly 80 degrees to the vertical; but at 
Earl’s-court the highest possible speed will be 
35 miles an hour. A still larger machine is 
being built for the Crystal Palace, and as the 
space there is not limited the circle round 
which the cars travel will be so large that their 
speed will be high with only four revolutions 
a minute. In building these machines Sir 
Hiram Maxim’s main object is, not to provide 
the frequenters of places of amusement with a 
new sensation, but to defray the cost of serious 
experiments in aeronautics. He feels certain 
that the time has now come when it is prac- 
ticable to make a flying machine that can not 
fail to be of enormous value to the country as 
a military engine, and by the aid of the attrac- 
tions of these captive flying machines at 
Earl’s-court and the Crystal Palace he hopes 
to obtain from the public enough money to 
carry his experiments to a successful issue. 


In order to promote uniform food standards 
and a uniform and just government control 
for the manufacture and sale of foods, there 
will be held at the St. Louis Exposition an 
International Pure Food Congress during the 


May 13, 1904.] 


week of September 26 to October 1, 1904. It 
is proposed to make this a congress of officials 
in charge of the enforcement of laws that 
control the purity of food products, of chem- 
ists conducting investigations of food prod- 
ucts, of manufacturers and dealers in foods, 
and of all persons engaged in the preserva- 
tion and distribution of food products. The 
topics for discussion will be: (1) Adultera- 
tion, misbranding and fraud in the sale 
of food and drink products. (2) The prac- 
tical problems connected with the pres- 
ervation, packing and distributing of the 
different food and drink products. (8) 
The use of antiseptics and coloring mat- 
ters in foods and their effect upon the 
health. (4) Uniform standards for the 
quality and strength of dairy, food and drink 
products. (5) Uniform state, national and 
international laws to control the adulteration 
of foods, and fraud in the sale of foods, and 
the best methods for enforcing these laws. 
(6) Methods of analysis for the detection of 
food adulterants. (7) To expose such specific 
adulterations and frauds as may be brought 
to the attention of the congress, and to recom- 
mend methods for suppressing and controlling 
them. All inquiries concerning the congress 
should be addressed to R. M. Allen, Secretary, 
International Pure Food Congress, Lexington, 
Kentucky. 

A Sourn Arrican correspondent writes as 
follows to the Observatory: “J have never 
come across any mention in an astronomical 
periodical of Carlyle’s few remarks on astron- 
omers, or of the fact that he was once a candi- 
date for the directorship of the Edinburgh 
Observatory. It seems that this position was 
in the gift of Jeffrey of Hdinburgh Review 
fame, and Jefirey and Carlyle were intimate 
friends. Carlyle asked for the position, and 
was gruffly refused it by nearly the return 
post. Jeffrey appointed his secretary, whom 
Carlyle calls ‘his taciturn friend with the 
blear eyes.’ Who this was the writer knows 
not. Carlyle is good enough to say that 
Jefirey’s nominee did ‘well enough.’ Carlyle 
met Airy oncee— a hardy little figure, of eda- 
cious energetic physiognomy, eyes hard, strong, 
not fine.’ He met Legendre, whose Geometry 


SCIENCE. 775 


he had translated in Edinburgh. He was also 
touched by the hem of Laplace’s garment, 
thus :—“ At a meeting of the Institut I saw 
and well remember the figure of Trismegistus 
Laplace; the skirt of his long blue-sillx dress- 
ing gown (such his costume, unique in the 
place, his age and fame being also unique) 
even touched me as he passed on the session’s 
rising. He was tall, thin, clean, serene, his 
face, perfectly smooth as a healthy man of 
fifty’s, bespoke intelligence keen and ardent, 
rather than deep or great. In the eyes was 
a dreamy smile, with something of pathos in 
it, and perhaps something of contempt.” 


Tue following circular letter has been sent 
to English-speaking scholars by the rector of 
the University of Turin and the chief libra- 
rian of the National Library: 


The commotion raised by the disaster of the 
National library of Turin, and the deep expres- 
sions of sorrow presented to it by the most 
eminent scientific bodies of every civil state, en- 
courage us to address ourselves to the most 
illustrious of their members; whose studies are in 
accordance with the sections of the library that 
have been destroyed and of which sections it is 
our moral duty to endeavor the reconstruction in 
their most minute details. 

Now since you are a worthy representative of 
this eminent scientific body and the studies you 
profess and cherish belong just to the sections 
destroyed, so we dare hope that in accordance with 
the joint solidarity which bounds together all 
the scholars of the world, you will favor and 
honor our library with the gift of your most 
esteemed books, which would be even more valued 
if adorned ‘with an autographic dedication which 
would remind the studious of your generous pres- 
ent in a moment so painful for the studies. 

This request that we have the honor to for- 
ward to you is entirely our personal and does not 
belong to the institution we represent, happy as 
we are of having an opportunity of so giving 
public homage to your high scientific attainments 
in conferring a benefit to the studies. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


THE corporation of the Massachusetts In- 
stitute of Technology has instructed its ex- 
ecutive committee to confer with the Harvard 
University authorities on the subject of closer 
relations between the two institutions, 


776 ( SCIENCE. 


Witson ConiEcn, situated near Chambers- 
burg, Pa., has received a bequest of $40,000 
from the late John Lortz, to be used for the 
erection and maintenance of a natural science 
building. 

Conumpi University has received a gift of 
#60,000 from Mr. Horace W. Charpentier, A.B. 
(48), for the chair of pediatrics. 

Purpur Universtry has dedicated an as- 
sembly hall, erected at a cost of $70,000, the 
gift of Mrs. Eliza Fowler. 

Tne University of Leipzig has received from 
the estate of the late Herr Puschmann, 500,- 
000 Marks for the study of the history of 
medicine. 

A .1qum-air plant will probably be installed 
in the basement of the Ryerson Physical 
Laboratory, of the University of Chicago, dur- 
ing the coming summer, at a cost of about 
$1,400. 

Tue Chemical Laboratory of the Rensselaer 
Polytechnic Institute, at Troy, N. Y., was 
damaged by fire on the night of May 6. It is 
said that the fire was caused by an explosion 
of chemicals and that the loss amounts to 
nearly $75,000. 

Tue British Chancellor of the Exchequer 


recently promised a deputation that the treas- 


ury grant to university colleges should be 
raised from £25,000 to £50,000 a year, and held 
out some hope that the sum might be raised 
to £100,000 next year. The following com- 
mittee has been appointed to report on the 
allocation of the proposed increased grant: 
The Right Honorable R. B. Haldane, M.P. 
(chairman), Sir F. Mowatt, G.C.B., I.S.0., 
Mr. C. A. Cripps, K.C., M.P., the Rev. Dr. 
Woods, late president of Trinity College, Ox- 
ford; Mr. Henry Higgs, of the treasury, will 
act as secretary. 

By a recent decree of Queen Wilhelmina 
the University of the Netherlands will recog- 
nize hereafter the degree of Bachelor of Arts 
from the following American institutions: 
The University of California, Catholic Uni- 
versity of America, University of Chicago, 
Clark University, Columbia University, Cor- 
nell University, Harvard University, Johns 
Hopkins University, Leland Stanford Junior 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 489. 


University, University of Michigan, Univer- 
sity of Pennsylvania, Princeton University, 
University of Wisconsin and Yale University. 

Tue trustees of Stanford University adopt- 
ed on March 31 a form of organization which 
appears to differ from that of most universi- 
ties by the creation of an advisory board. 
This consists of nine members, three being 
elected each year by the academic council or 
general faculty. All executive acts of gen- 
eral importance, including recommendations 
for appointments, promotions or dismissals, 
are to be submitted by the president to the 
advisory board for approval before they be- 
come operative or before they are submitted 
to the trustees for action, when such action is 
necessary. 

A VACATION course in geography, similar to 
that of August, 1902, will be held at the Ox- 
ford School of Geography during the first 
sixteen days of next August, provided that a 
sufficient number of students send in their 
names. It is proposed to have courses of lec- 
tures, probably on the British Isles and on the 
principles of geography applied to education, 
and in addition to have classes for practical 
work both in and out of doors. 


Proressor AtBert W. Sire, of Stanford 
University, has been appointed director of 
Sibley College, Cornell University, succeeding 
the late Robert H. Thurston. 

Miss BrrrHa May Curark, of Baltimore, 
holder of .a foreign fellowship from the 
Woman’s College of Baltimore, has been 
awarded the annual fellowship given by the 
Baltimore Association for the promotion of 
the University Education of Women. Miss 
Clark graduated from the Woman’s College in 
1900, was the holder of a graduate scholar- 
ship at Bryn Mawr College in 1900-1901, and 
was afterwards instructor. in physics in the 
Woman’s College of Baltimore. 

Dr. Hunry H. Dixon, who has been assistant 
to Professor Wright since 1892, succeeds him 
as professor of botany in Trinity College, 
Dublin. 


Erratum: The note on page 774 of the last issue 
of Scrence should read “ Johns Hopkins gives op- 
portunity for professional work in connection 
with the Geological Survey of Maryland.” 


‘ 
J 


a 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, May 20, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The Resources of Montana and their Develop- 
ment: PROFESSOR Morron J. ELRoD...... 777 


Scientific Books :— 
The Geology of the Harriman Alaska Ha- 
pedition: PRormssor IsRaAnL C. RUSSELL... 783 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Michigan Academy of Science: Dr. 
Raymond Peart. The Iowa Academy of 
Sciences: Proressor H. W. Norris. The 
Research Olub of the University of Mich- 
igan: PrRoressor F. C. Newcomsr. The 
American Mathematical Society: PROFESSOR 
FP, N. Cone. The Torrey Botanical Club: 
Professor MarsHarn A. Howe. The 
Geological Society of Washington: ALFRED 
H. Brooks. The Philosophical Society of 
Washington: Cuartus KX. Wrap. The 
Association of Ohio Teachers of Mathe- 
matics and Science. The Northeastern Sec- 
tion of the American Chemical Society: 
ANrareron, IML; COME se Sociedad cul coowobold 187 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Hiliptical Human FHrythrocytes: Dr. 
Austin Fiint. Convocation Week: Pro- 
FESSOR W. J. Beau. Hrrors in Nomencla- 
ture: PROFESSOR Burt G. WILDER........ 796 


Special Articles :-— 
A Reference to the Origin of Species in an 
Barly Letter signed by both Lamarck and 
Geoffroy: PROFESSOR BASHFoRD DrEan. The 
Nature of the Pelée Tower: PROFESSOR 
ANGELO) TMTUPRUN) sce ci le jet) toe ses ee we 798 


Current Notes on Meteorology :— 


A New Sunshine Recorder; Climate of 
Chile; Mowntain Sickness; Wrecks and 
Casualties on the Great Lakes in 1908: 
Proressor R, DeC. WaARD................ 801 


Professor of the Concilium Bibliographicum. 802 
Scientific Notes and News................. 805 
University and Educational News.......... 808 

MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 


for review should be sent to the Editor of Scimncz, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE RESOURCES OF MONTANA AND THEIR 
DEVELOPMENT.* 

In casting about for a theme for discus- 
sion at the opening of this the second meet- 
ing of the Montana Academy of Sciences, 
Arts and Letters, it seemed appropriate to 
follow some of the ideas suggested in my 
preceding address, and elaborate more 
fully the ideas advanced. This is all the 
more necessary since the work of the acad- 
emy is yet in a formative period, and the 
members to a large extent have no means 
of communication save by mail. They 
have to a large extent not grasped the idea 
of the necessity of individual effort to do 
something definite in original work. ‘This 
is not surprising from the fact that one 
easily loses enthusiasm and interest in the 
absence of kindred spirits with whom to 
talk matters over and thus keep alight the 
spark of interest. 

The state of Montana, the state of grand. 
mountains, whose snow-clad summits pierce 
the clouds, and whose hidden treasures are 
of untold richness; the state of blue sky, 
clear sunshine, pure air and crystal water; 
the state rich in mineral wealth, rich in 
timber resources, and with great possibil- 
ities for agriculture; the state with beauti-- 
ful lakes, foaming rivers whose waters 
teem with the finny tribe, and with broad 
and fertile valleys rapidly filling with 
happy and prosperous people; the state in 
which are raised the finest and fleetest horses 
of the world; the state with its five millions 

* Address delivered at the second annual meet- 
ing of the Montana Academy of Sciences, Arts 


and Letters, at Anaconda, Mont., December 29-31, 
1903. 


778 


of sheep, its three quarters of a million of 
cattle, its one fifth of a million of horses; 
the state whose annual production of gold 
is five millions of dollars, of silver twenty 
millions, lead sixteen millions of pounds, 
copper a quarter of a billion of pounds, two 
million tons of coal, a half million dollars 
in stone, a half million dollars in brick and 
clay products; the state with its two mill- 
ions of fruit trees, already producing a 
quarter of a million boxes of apples, its 
one and a quarter million tons of hay and 
nearly ten million bushels of grain; the 
state with its three thousand miles of rail- 
roads, its 42,000 square miles of forests, 
with a saw-mill product of nearly two 
millions of dollars annually; and yet the 
state is in its infancy. Its resources are 
barely known, and many are practically 
untouched. 

The state has within its borders approxi- 
mately ninety-four million acres of land. 
Of this amount twenty-six millions of acres 
are classed as mountain lands, thirty mil- 
lions as farming lands, and thirty-eight 
millions as grazing lands. This is approxi- 
mately 40,000 square miles of mountains, 
50,000 square miles of farming’ lands and 
56,000 square miles of grazing country. 
To put it in another way, the mountain 
area of the state is about equal to the en- 
tire area of either Indiana, Kentucky, 
Virginia, Ohio or Tennessee. Its grazing 
land is more than the total area of either 
Pennsylvania, Louisiana, Mississippi, New 
York or North Carolina. Its farming land 
is as much as in the entire state of Wiscon- 
sin, Iowa, Illinois, Michigan or Georgia. 

We have a state with a mountain area 
of that of all Tennessee, a grazing area 
equal to all the area of Pennsylvania or 
New York, and farms left to cover the 
states of Illinois or Iowa. The mineral 
wealth of this state of mountains is as yet 
unknown, and new prospects open daily. 
The grazing possibilities are being greatly 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 490. 


increased in the grazing section, and even 
much of the mountainous country has 
abundant and rich feed in summer. The 
agricultural region has yet to develop, but 
sufficient has already been done to predict 
a great future for the industry. 

With a state equal in size to Indiana 
to supply gold, silver, copper and lead, 
as well as building stone and coal, another 
state equal in size to Pennsylvania to sup- 
ply the beef, mutton, horses and goats for 
the mining population, and a state equal 
to that of Illinois to supply the grain, 
vegetables, fruits and hay, Montana is an 
empire in herself, capable of supplying all 
her wants. Clothing from wool, wealth 
from mines, grain and fruit from the fields 
and orchards, houses from the clay, rock or 
lumber, paper from the forests, coal from 
the hills, implements from the metals, 
gems from the mines, art in the peaceful 
valleys and rock-ribbed hills, fiction in In- 
dian lore and trapper’s tale of privation 
and suffering, poetry in nature, health in 
the air so pure and dry, sport in the hills 
or along the streams, all these make it pos- 
sible for the citizens of this great empire 
to find at home, in their own state, all the 
essentials for modern eivilized life, from 
the wants of nature to the esthetic realm. 

Montana is a synonym for opportunity. 
This great state has less than two inhabit- 
ants per square mile. It presents to the 
man of health, energy and industry, an 
opportunity for successful business enter- 
prise or professional advancement. Hvery- 
where, on every side, there is opportunity. 
The great upheavals during the past geo- 
logical ages have made mountain chains of 
great length and height, in whose depths 
man has already found untold wealth, and 
the hidden mineral yet unknown must be 
the heritage of the children of the future. 

On the agricultural side what are the 
prospects for the future, based on the re- 
sults of the experiments up to the present 


pre 


May 20, 1904.] 


time? The western part of the state is 
fast developing into a fruit region that will 
soon head off the great import of these 
products from Washington, Oregon and 
California. Of course the semi-tropical 
fruits will never be grown, but apples, 
pears, plums, small fruits and the like 
find here a climate suitable for growth. 
Nor is the region confined to the growth 
of fruits. Through irrigation great 
stretches of land grow waving grain, never 
failing the diligent farmer who but watches 
his fields. 

On the eastern side the agricultural de- 
velopment has been beyond the most 
sanguine expectations. The valley of the 
Yellowstone has not only proved to be well 
adapted to fruit raising, but is now a great 
agricultural region. The climatic condi- 
tions are not as severe as were at first 
thought, and the outlook is as bright there 
as on the western side. The fame of the 
Gallatin valley is already widespread. 

In the north is a large and unoccupied 
territory. Great stretches of tillable land 
await but the addition of water, which will 
make the country as rich and as prosper- 
ous as other sections of the state and coun- 
try. The work:of reclaiming the land is 
too great an undertaking for individual or 
corporate enterprise. But the beneficent 
effects of congressional legislation for the 
reclamation of arid lands through irriga- 
tion will soon be seen. In that northern 
section alone millions of inhabitants can 


_ find homes and occupations when the land 


is tilled. Abundant harvests will be gath- 
ered from the land, and cities will be found 
where now are trading posts and virgin 
soil. 

During the past year it has been my 
pleasure to visit several parts of the state 
in connection with the work of the farmers’ 
institutes. The gentlemen who have made 
up the companies of these institute instruct- 
ors have given the closest attention to the 


SCIENCE. 


779 


possibilities of the regions of the state 
visited. Mr. W. B. Harlan, the veteran 
fruit grower of the Bitter Root valley, ex- 
presses the opinion that apples and small 
fruits can be grown successfully in the 
northern section of the state, although in 
the spring of 1903 there was not an 
orchard east of Chinook, and but one there. 
Professor F. B. Linfield, of the Agricul- 
tural College, believes that dry land farm- 
ing, without irrigation, will in a few years 
be an important factor in the state’s agri- 
cultural development. Professor Fisher, 
horticulturist in the Agricultural College 
at Bozeman, like Mr. Harlan, is also of the 
opinion that fruits may be grown where 
now it seems impossible to grow them. 
What of the mines? The future for 
agriculture is no brighter than that for 
mining. ‘New districts of magnitude and 
splendid values are constantly being de- 
veloped,’ says the State Commissioner of 
Agriculture. While the early history of 
the state is really the history of the devel- 
opment of some of its mines, mining now 
is not confined to a few sections of the 
state. In 1900 mining was carried on for 
gold and silver in the following counties: 
Beaverhead, Broadwater, Cascade, Chou- 
teaou, Custer, Deer Lodge, Fergus, Flat- 
head, Granite, Jefferson, Lewis and Clarke, 
Madison, Meagher, Missoula, Park, Ravalli 
and Silver-Bow. Lewis and Clarke was 
the greatest producer, with 70,000 fine 
ounces of gold and 172,531 fine ounces of 
silver. Custer County was the smallest 
producer, with 14.5 ounces of gold and 4 
ounces of silver. The total product of 
gold and silver in the state in 1900 was 
229,114.882 ounces of the former and 14.- 
294,835.11 of the latter. In 1901 there 
were 232,331.454 ounces of gold and 14,- 
180,545.19 ounces of silver. Since the 
discovery of gold in the state forty years 
ago more than one billion dollars in value 
of gold, silver, copper and lead have been 


780 


taken from the streams and mountains of 
the state. The industry is one of great 
importance to the state. 

Tn 1901 copper was mined in the counties 
of Beaverhead, Granite, Jefferson, Lewis 
and Clarke, Madison, Meagher and Silver 
Bow, the last producing 227,742,262 
pounds of the 228,031,503 pounds total. 
Lead was produced in all the counties men- 
tioned except Madison, and in addition 
also in Broadwater, Cascade and Flathead. 
Broadwater and Meagher were about equal 
producers, with about two and one half 
million pounds each. 

Coal statistics from an article by Pro- 
fessor J. Perry Rowe, of the University of 
Montana, which appeared recently in the 
American Geologist, show that Montana is 
undoubtedly one of the richest states in 
coal and lenite, although as yet these 
deposits have been but very little de- 
veloped. 

“* All or most of the bituminous and semi- 
bituminous coals found in Montana come 
from the Cretaceous period and usually 
from the upper part, or the Laramie for- 
mation, and are found east of the main 
divide of the Rocky Mountains. The lig- 
nite is found both in the Cretaceous and 
later Neocene formations.’’ 

Professor Rowe says that it has been 
estimated that there are 13,000 or more 
square miles of Cretaceous bituminous and 
semi-bituminous coal area in Montana, and 
about 25,000 square miles of lignite area. 
“Not that all of this area is underlain by 
coal, but that the depesits are found quite 
abundantly throughout the territory.”’ 
According to this estimate the coal area of 
the state is about one fourth of the entire 
area of the state. He says: ‘‘The bitumin- 
ous area of Montana is greater than the 
combined bituminous areas of North Da- 
kota, South Dakota, Wyoming, Washing- 
ton, Oregon, Idaho and New Mexico. The 
lignite area is next to that of North Dakota, 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 490. 


which has a larger lignite area than any of 
the northwest states.’’ The tests show the 
Montana bituminous coal to be but little 
inferior to Pennsylvania bituminous coal. 
Professor Rowe reports that bituminous 
coal or lignite has been found in every 
county of the state except Jefferson 
County. The undeveloped coal industry 
will without doubt be a prominent factor 
in the expansion of other industries of the 
state. ‘ 

Sapphire Hields.—Montana sapphires 
were first described in 1873 by J. Lawrence 
Smith, but actual mining began in 1891. 
One sapphire belt is twelve to eighteen 
miles east and northeast of Helena, and 
has been followed for about twelve miles, 
from Canyon Ferry down the river to 
American Bar. Sapphires have also been 
found at Rock Creek, Cottonwood Creek 
and Yogo Gulch. The Rock Creek region 
is about thirty miles west of Anaconda, the 
Cottonwood Creek field about ten miles 
east of Deer Lodge, and the Yogo mines 
in Fergus County, about thirteen miles 
west of Utica. The only systematic mining 
for sapphires in the United States is done 
in Montana. The annual output of sap- 
phires in the state is something like 450,000 
to 500,000 karats, including those suitable 
for cutting and those used for mechanical 
purposes. <A lapidary at Helena has fif- 
teen workmen cutting stones, and it is as- 
serted that finer work is done here than on 
stones sent to be cut in London. ‘“‘Alto- 
gether,’’ says State Commissioner Fereu- 
son, ‘‘the output of precious stones in Mon- 
tana exceeds the production of all the rest 
of the United States, and forms a very 
interesting addition to our industries.’’ 

The Lumber Industry.—For the year 
ending June 30, 1902, 69 mills were run- 
ning, with a total output of 210,047,000 
feet of rough lumber. There were, in ad- 
dition, from these mills, about five and a 
half million shingles and seventeen million 


May 20, 1904.] 


lath. The United States Geological Sur- 
vey estimates the timber on the Lewis and 
Clarke forest reserve at 2,664,360,000 feet, 
board measure, and on all the reserves in 
the state 14,974,800,000 feet of merchant- 
able lumber. It is estimated that there are 
912,000,000 feet on state lands, bringing 
the total estimate of merchantable timber 
belonging to the state or government up 
to 15,886,800,000 feet. This does not in- 
clude timber on the Northern Pacific Rail- 
road land nor on the land belonging to the 
various mills. At the present rate of con- 
sumption the timber on the state and gov- 
ernment lands would satisfy the mills for 
about seventy years. But the rate of con- 
sumption is increasing very rapidly. 

An analysis of the industries which are 
lacking or very small shows the following: 
There are no zine smelters in the state. 
The industry im iron and steel is not yet 
an integral part of the wealth of the state. 
Notwithstanding the timber and grain in 
the state there is not one pound of paper 
manufactured in the state. There are 
very few factories. The dairies are few 
and do not begin to supply the demand for 
butter. Montana produces 61 per cent. of 
the copper of the United States, but not a 
pound is converted into the finished pro- 
duct. Although Montana has more sheep 
than any other state in the union, it has 
but one woolen mill in the state. 

If one wishes to make a study of the 
geology of the state or its natural history 
he has little to-work on. Let the average 
student attempt to find out what is known 
relative to any section of the state, and he 
will have much difficulty. A portion of it 
has been covered by the work of the United 
States Geological Survey; much of it has 
not been studied. There is nothing ob- 
tainable save extracts from reports relative 
to the geology and natural history of the 
state. Teachers, students, private individ- 
uals alike must seek the libraries and cull 


SCIENCE. 


781 


from its numerous reports a small amount 
of information. Let me illustrate. 

A student wishes to begin the study of 
the butterflies of the state and desires lit- 
erature to aid him. What must he do? 
The eastern books cover the ground to the 
Great Plains. The insects from the Rocky 
Mountains are in great confusion. There 
is nothing to be placed in the hands of the 
student who wishes to work. He may se- 
eure Hdwards’s books with colored plates 
and full descriptions at $135. He may 
secure Holland’s book with colored plates 
at $3. But without keys and full descrip- 
tions he can do little. Moreover, the ma- 
terial gathered from the state is very small, 
and collections are few. The student is 
beset at-once with difficulties when he un- 
dertakes the work. His difficulties increase 
with continuance of study, and there is no 
help for him. The same is true of the 
study of fishes, birds, plants or mammals. 
There is nothing that the student who has 
not reached the plane where he can be 
called specialist may have for aid, unless 
he goes to the expense of books treating of 
the entire country. Hven these will fail 
him often. 

The study of the state’s resources must 
be pursued with a twofold object in 
view: (1) To encourage immigration, (2) 
to enlighten the citizens of the state. We 
must all agree with Mr. Ferguson in his 
opening statement in his report as commis- 
sioner of agriculture, labor and industry 
for 1902, in which he says: ‘‘The magni- 
tude and diversity of the natural history 
resources of this great state, the opportuni- 
ties for the acquisition of comfortable 
homes and profitable investment are known 
to comparatively few people outside of its 
borders. It is clearly within the bounds 
of propriety for the people of any com- 
munity to determine accurate knowledge 
of its advantages and invite immiera- 
tion.’? We may as truthfully say that 


782 SCIENCE. 


it is clearly within the bounds of pro- 
priety for the people to determine for 
themselves what their natural advantages 
are, for their own enlightenment, for the 
education of the younger generation and 
for the development of the industries yet 
in infancy on a basis made from scientific 
study. I should make it more emphatic. 
It is not only within the bounds of pro- 
priety for the citizens of the state to do 
this, but it is their duty to promote the 
knowledge of their own material resources. 
We need people; there is no doubt of that. 
The state can easily support a population 
of several millions when its soil is under 
cultivation, when its orchards are bearing, 
when its new mines are opened up for full 
work and its other industries have devel- 
oped. We need people, and we need them 
badly. We need capital also. This will 
come as soon as it is demonstrated that in- 
vestment will be safe. But we are here, 
a quarter of a million of us. We are here, 
for the most part, to stay. The state’s 
geological wealth and natural history 
wealth are the property of the people, and 
the people know little about it. It is not 
good business to be possessed of valuable 
property without making strenuous efforts 
to know something about the property. 
Professor J. M. Hamilton said recently, 
in speaking to the students of the Univer- 
sity of Montana, that the chief aim in our 
system of education should be to develop 
our resources and to know them, and that 
this will require the highest type of brain 
work. The resources are so varied that 
wide latitude may be had in the selection 
of work. The conditions are so varying 
that the greatest intelligence is necessary 
to carry on work which in other states re- 
quires little thought. The farmer must be 
an intelligent man and a student in order 
to handle water properly, so as to get the 
best results. The miner must be more 
than a laborer. He must know chemistry 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 490. 


and physics. Every man must know more 
than is demanded of him by his daily work. 
He must have a big reserve. 

The best men for developing the indus- 
tries of the state will come from the youth 


of the state itself, if they are given the © 


same facilities for carrying on their studies 
as are given their eastern competitors. 
These facilities are fast being supplied by 
the state institutions for higher education, 
which are now giving strong competition 
to the older and more widely known insti- 
tutions. Add to this equipment the knowl- 
edge that may be had through daily con- 
tact with home conditions through the 
formative period of youth, and the young 
man will have the best equipment for his 
work that can be had. 

The drift of my thought you have no 
doubt long since gathered. I am arguing 
for a geological and natural history sur- 
vey by the state, for and by the people 
of the state and for outsiders if they wish 
to come into the state. We should have it. 
I believe we can have it, but we must work 
for it. 

The history of the surveys of older 
states, and the reports printed, are ample 
proof of their utility. The value of a 
survey is beyond question. Granting that 
it. should be established, the next step is to 
determine the breadth of the movement, 
the scope of the work, the policy to be 
pursued and the expense involved. 

“The survey should begin modestly, not 
attempting too much, developing plans 
slowly. Its board of directors should be 
entirely free from politics, and should in- 
elude representatives from the various 
state institutions, and should include the 
governor of the state as chairman or presi- 
dent of the board. The bill recently 
drafted for the Wisconsin survey is a good 
model for use. All the institutions inter- 
ested and all the scientific bodies should 
be made to feel that they are to have a 


goths Ay 


May 20, 1904.] 


part in the work, for to get the best re- 
sults will require the best effort of the best 
heads in the state. A governing board 
consisting of the governor, the president of 
the university, the president of the school 
of mines, the president of the agricultural 
college or the director of the experiment 
station, the president of the academy of 
sciences, arts and letters, with perhaps the 
president of the state board of horticul- 
ture and the president of the society of 
engineers, would certainly be above eriti- 
cism, and would adopt a broad and liberal 
policy that would bring about excellent 
results. 

The plan of operation should, of course, 
be left to the governing board, but the bill 
should specify the scope of the survey, 
which should include both the geology and 
the natural history of the state. This is 
the belief of those who have had much to 
do with the older surveys. 

The expense should be modest for a be- 
ginning, and the work should be developed 
as necessities may warrant, or men of 
ability in special lines may be secured. <A 
tax of one tenth mill for fish and game 
produces a revenue of from $17,000 to 
$18,000. A tax of equal amount for a 
state survey will give it a good start and 
make it possible to do most valuable work. 
An appropriation of not less than $10,000, 
and possibly $15,000, will enable the work 
to start at once with sufficient breadth 
to develop in several directions. 

The work of the survey will take many 
years. Most of the work in the field will 
be in the summer. I doubt not men from 
the state institutions can be secured without 
big outlay for salary. This is at least to 
be expected. It will no doubt take years 
to carry out some of the outlines that will 
develop. Men living in the state who are 
in the employ of the state and who are 
fitted should be most valuable in many 
ways. Others not in state institutions will 


SCIENCE. 783 


be found who will no doubt gladly assist, 
and there are many such who are com- 
petent. There is a long list of competent 
men to be found in the state, competent 
for some one line of work, at least. A few 
of these are already on the roll of the acad- 
emy; more of them should be. 

The above plan is, I believe, feasible. 
In one year the legislature meets. The 
state is in good financial condition. There 
is no reason why the survey should not be 
started. Some one must start it. The 
academy should foster the move. I advo- 
eated the move last year at our first meet- 
ing. I repeat it and urge action on the 
part of the academy. Speak of it through 
the press. Present it to those who have 
influence. If we all work zealously and 
earnestly it will surely go. 

Morton J. Hurop. 

UNIVERSITY OF MOoNTANA, 

Missouta, Mont. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

The Harriman Alaska Expedition. Vol. I11., 
Glaciers and Glaciation. By Grove Karu 
GILBERT, pp. i-xii, 1-231; 18 plates and 106 
figures. Vol. IV., Geology and Paleontology. 
By B. K. Emerson, Cuartes PAuacuE, WiLL- 
Tam H. Dati, E.:O. Unrich and F. H. 

_ KXNoWLrton, pp. i-x, 1-178; 33 plates and 18 
figures. Published by Doubleday, Page and 

Company, New York, 1904. Size 7 by 10 

inches. 

Volumes one and two of the Harriman 
Alaska Expedition, containing a narrative of 
the journey and treating of the glaciers, na- 
tives, history, geography and resources of 
Alaska, were published in 1901. The two 
volumes recently issued are of special interest 
to geologists, and still others, as is understood, 
devoted to botany and zoology, are yet to come. 

The Harriman Expedition, it will be remem- 
bered, was primarily a journey for pleasure 
and recreation, which twenty-three literary and 
scientific men were invited to accompany and 
it became a scientific reconnaissance embra- 
cing a wide range of subjects. The expedition 


784 


was conducted munificently and the series of 
sumptuous reports in process of publication 
under the editorship of Dr. C. Hart Mer- 
viam, are in keeping with the princely spirit 
manifest throughout the undertaking. The 
volumes that have appeared command atten- 
tion and invite examination on account of 
their elegance and the good taste displayed 
by them. The artistic spirit which pervades 
them, although prominent, is subordinated to 
the faithful presentation of scientific results. 
The series of reports when completed will form 
a monument to the broad-mindedness of the 
originator of the expedition, such as no shaft 
of sculptured marble could furnish. 

There is another point of view, however, 
from which the beauty and costliness of dress 
of the volumes in question may be considered. 
They are issued by a publishing house at $7.50 
per volume, a price which puts them beyond 
the reach of many persons who would be 
glad to possess them. Although final re- 
ports so far as the Harriman Expedition is 
concerned, in reality they contain only the re- 
turns from a rapid reconnaissance. ‘The dis- 
tance from Puget Sound to Plover Bay, 
Siberia, and return, over eight thousand miles, 
was traversed by the expedition in fifty-eight 
days. As reports of such a voyage, during 
which much time was consumed in unprofit- 
able travel, is it becoming to publish in so 
costly a manner? The thick paper, title pages 
in red and black, gilt tops, scores of plates, 
many of them in colors, tinted sketch-maps, 
vignettes, artistic chapter headings, etc., of 
these beautiful specimens of the bookmaker’s 
art, like Easter bonnets and jeweled rings, 
are open to the criticism that the money they 
represent could have been better spent. 

Glaciers and Glaciation.—Of all the branches 
of science represented by the men who ac- 
companied the Harriman Expedition, the op- 
portunities for study were certainly more 
favorable for the glacialist and the student 
of topographic forms than for any one else. 
At almost any locality from Puget Sound to 
the Aleutian Islands, where land is in sight, 
the student of glaciers and of the changes 
they make in the shapes of valleys, etc., can 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No, 490. 


find material of special significance. In this 


connection Gilbert says: 


The glacier-bearing belt includes about three 
tenths of the vast territory of Alaska. Its ex- 
ploration has but begun, yet enough is known to 
give it rank as the third great glacier district of 
the world, only the Antarctic continent and Green- 
land surpass it. Its ice may be roughly esti- 
mated to occupy a tenth of the surface, or an 
absolute area of between 15,000 and 20,000 square 
miles, and its expanse is so divided and scattered 
as to offer to the student the utmost variety of 
local conditions and detail. Of alpine glaciers, 
such as would receive individual names if near 
the homes of men, there are many hundreds, pos- 
sibly more than a thousand; of broad, composite 
fields, like the Muir and Malaspina, there are 
about a half dozen; and more than thirty are 
known to reach the coast and cast bergs into the 
sea. 


Of the vast mantle of snow and ice covering 
so much of Alaska, the members of the Harri- 
man Expedition saw only a portion of the 
lower fringe. In southeastern Alaska and 
extending as far west as Yakutat Bay, the 
ground gone over by previous explorers was 
reviewed and many new facts obtained, and 
several modifications of previous conclusions 
arrived at. To the west of Yakutat Bay, 
and especially in the region of Prince William 
Sound, a fresh field for glacial studies was dis- 
covered and many important observations in 
reference to the distribution of glaciers, their 
fluctuations in length, ete, put on record. 
More than a dozen alpine glaciers of large size 
were discovered and several emptying into 
College Fiord were named in honor of Ameri- 
can colleges and universities. The chief addi- 
tion made to previous knowledge of the geog- 
raphy of the coast was the discovery of Harri- 
man Fiord, a magnificent glaciated valley now 
in part occupied by the water of the sea, with 
many glaciers on its border, and a superb tidal 
glacier at its head. 

The principal observations pertaining to ex- 
isting glaciers presented by Gilbert may be 
conveniently grouped in five categories: 

1. The distal ends of glaciers which ter- 
minate in the sea are shown to undergo fluc- 
tuations in length owing to seasonal changes 
in atmospheric conditions. These variations 


May 20, 1904.] 


are so pronounced that comparisons of the 
records of the position of the ice-wall of a 
tidal glacier made in different years need to 
be corrected for the time of year. 

9. The influence on shore topography of the 
waves generated by bodies of ice which fall 
from tidal glaciers, or ‘ice-fall waves,’ is noted 
for the first time, and the possible influence 
of such waves on the shore features of partially 
ice-walled Pleistocene lakes suggested. 

3. Anomalies in the fluctuations of neigh- 
boring alpine glaciers, as, for example, when 
one advances and another in an adjacent val- 
ley recedes, find many illustrations in Alaska. 
A discussion of the possible causes of such dis- 
cordant changes when the conditions on which 
they are believed to depend are general and 
wide reaching is presented and is most sug- 
gestive. 

4. The peculiar steep-sided depressions, 
many of them containing lakes, well known in 
certain formerly glaciated regions, are illus- 
trated in the gravel deposits in front of sev- 
eral of the Alaskan glaciers which have re- 
cently retreated. The explanation of the 
origin of such depressions, first advanced, I 
believe by Professor W. O. Crosby, is that they 
are due to the melting of detached bodies of 
ice that were surrounded or covered by gravel 
deposits. The discovery of additional recent 
and typical examples of this nature by Gilbert 
gives greater confidence in the commonly ac- 
cepted explanation. 

5. A characteristic feature of the topog- 
raphy of formerly glaciated mountains is the 
occurrence, on the sides of the valleys once 
occupied by main or trunk glaciers, of tribu- 
tary glaciated valleys which open into the 
main valleys high above their bottoms. Such 
tributary valleys have been termed ‘ hanging 
valleys.’ The coast of British Columbia and 
southeastern and southern Alaska is excep- 
tionally favorable for the study of the topo- 
graphic features referred to; and in the vol- 

“ume under review several characteristic ex- 
amples are described and admirable pictures 
of them presented. 

The author favors the view that hanging 
valleys are due to the greater erosive power of 


a large trunk glacier over that of its shallower 


SCIENCE. 


785 


tributaries. That is, the discrepancy between 
the level of the bottom of a hanging valley 
and the bottom of the larger valley into which 
it opens is due to differential ice-erosion; the 
idea being that the surfaces of two glaciers 
which unite, are on the same level, while the 
bottoms of the valleys they occupy are deep- 
ened so as to be adjusted respectively to the 
thickness of the ice streams occupying them. 

The explanation of the origin of hanging 
valleys by differential ice-erosion, while 
clearly and forcibly presented by the author, 
will, I think, fail to satisfy many persons who 
are familiar with the topography of formerly 
glaciated mountains. In view of the fact that 
Professor J. C. Branner reports hanging val- 
leys on the Hawaiian Islands, where no sug- 
gestion of former glaciation can be claimed 
(Am. Jour. Sci., Vol. XVI., 1903, p. 301), and 
that Gilbert in the volume under review with 
characteristic candor presents a sketch of a 
representative example in the mountain-wall 
of Plover Bay, Siberia, where concurrent evi- 
dence of glaciation is absent, suggest that at 
least two sets of conditions may have pro- 
duced similar topographic forms. Again, in 
well glaciated mountains like the Cascades 
and Sierra Nevada, the great differences in 
level between a main valley and its tributary 
hanging-valleys, amounting in some observed 
instances to 1,500 or 2,000 feet, and this where 
the main valley is short and has but a com- 
paratively small gathering ground for snow, 
must needs make the conservative glacialist 
pause before accepting the conclusion that 
such great discrepancies are due solely to dif- 
ferential ice-erosion. Other considerations in 
this connection might be mentioned, such as 
the fact that a deep glaciated valley with hang- 
ing valleys along its sides not infrequently 
heads against a cliff, and its direct continua- 
tion above the cliff also has the characteristic 
of a hanging valley. Then, too, hanging val- 
leys may be claimed to occur on the sides of 
steep mountains, and on slopes overlooking 
the sea, where no evidence of a controlling ice 
body at a lower level is obtainable. 

The above suggestions are presented and 
others might be added, for the purpose of indi- 
eating that the explanation of the origin of 


786 SCIENCE. 


hanging valleys, presented by Gilbert, although 
seemingly complete and unassailable, is per- 
haps not final. 

In the volume under review the term ‘tidal 
glacier’ is substituted for the previously used 
and longer term ‘ tide-water glacier,’ to desig- 
nate ice streams which end in the sea. This 
substitution is welcome on account of its 
greater brevity, but I doubt if its meaning will 
be as readily grasped by the general reader as 
in the case of the longer term. 

In the sections presented by Gilbert of the 
ends of tidal glaciers, the ice is represented 
as overhanging, and the only mode of forma- 
tion of bergs that is recognized is from the 
breaking away of exposed portions of an ice 
cliff and their fall into the water at its base. 
The view is favored that the sea water causes 
a more rapid melting of the submerged por- 
tion of a glacier which advances into it, than 
occurs on the part of the ice above water. 
There can be no difference of opinion in this 
connection so far as the formation of most 
bergs from the glaciers of Alaska is concerned, 
but the ‘blue bergs’ which occasionally rise 
to the surface of the water at a distance of 
several hundred, and as estimates indicate, 
fully a thousand feet in some instances, in 
front of the visible ice-cliff of a tidal glacier, 
certainly indicate exceptional conditions. The 
birth of bergs from the extended submerged 
extremity of a glacier does not seem to have 
been observed during the Harriman Expedi- 
tion. 

In a chapter bearing the caption, ‘ General 
Considerations as to Glaciers,’ four groups of 
features are discussed. (1) The broader char- 
acters of the surfaces of the lower portion of 
a glacier, or the ‘glacier proper,’ such as its 
evenness of surface as compared with the con- 
tours of the rock-floor on which it rests; lateral 
ice-cliffs due to heat reflected from the adja- 
cent land and the influence of margining 
streams; and ‘ crevass cycle,’ or the sequence of 
changes a series of crevasses, such as forms be- 
low an ice cascade, pass through. (2) Glacial 
sculpture, in the consideration of which the 
conspicuously different results produced by 
abrasion and ‘plucking’ are described and 
illustrated by photographs and sketches. (8) 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No. 490. 


The pressure and erosive power of tidal 
glaciers, in the consideration of which an 
interesting theoretical discussion is indulged 
in in reference to the manner in which the 
distal end of a tidal glacier is supported. (4) 
The resemblances, differences, homologies and 
analogies of streams of water and glaciers, 
are clearly and most instructively indicated. 

As I have attempted to show, Gilbert’s 
sumptuous volume is most welcome to the 
special student of glaciers, both on account of 
the new facts it contains and of the new 
thoughts presented. It is clearly and con- 
cisely written, and must appeal to the general 
reader and entice him to make still more 
arduous journeys through the fields of glacial 
literature. One of its chief values is as a 
reading lesson for advanced students in col- 
lege classes. 

Geology and Paleontology.—Volume IY. of 
the Harriman Alaska Expedition bears in- 
ternal evidence of being based on a reconnais- 
sance much more clearly than its companion 
volume on glaciers and glaciation. Its table 
of contents reads: ‘Introduction,’ by G. K. 
Gilbert; ‘General Geology,’ by B. K. Emer- 
son; ‘The Alaska-Treadwell Mine,’ ‘ Geology 
about Chichagof Cove,’ and ‘ Minerals,’ by 
Charles Palache; ‘ Mesozoic Invertebrate Fos- 
sils,’ by William H. Dall; ‘ Fossils and Age 
of the Yakutat Formation, by E. O. Ulrich 
and ‘ Fossil Plants from Kukak Bay,’ by F. 
H. Knowlton. 

A noteworthy result of the geological 
studies, as is stated by Gilbert in the intro- 
ductory chapter, is the correlation on fossil 
evidence of slates and shales in three widely 
separated localities—Yakutat Bay, Prince 
William Sound and Kadiak Island—and the 
determination of their age as Jurassic. The 
correlation referred to of terranes in areas 
over 500 miles apart, as stated by Ulrich, ‘is 
by means of a fossil species of definite char- 
acter, Terebellina palachei, common to them 
all.’ This fossil is the type of a new genus of 
burrowing worm, of which only the tubes it 
made, composed of cemented sand-grains, have 
been discovered. The assignment of a Liassic 
(Lower Jurassic) age is based mainly on four 
species of alee belonging to two genera which 


oat 


May 20, 1904.] 


have been identified with European forms. 
One of the genera is reported only from the 
Lias and the other ranges from the Lias to 
the Trias and Tertiary. Besides these fu- 
coids, the worm tubes referred to above and 
a new genus of lamellibranch are used in de- 
termining geological age; as stated in the text, 
the evidence furnished by the worm-burrows 
and the mollusean shell is purely inferential, 
but so far as it goes corroborates that of the 
fossil algze as to a Liassic age. To one who 
is not an expert in paleontology, the argu- 
ments presented both as to correlating the 
widely separated terranes now referred to the 
Yakutat formation, and the assignment of 
that formation to a subdivision of the Juras- 
sie, seem based on meager data. Among the 
results presented by the geologist is the evi- 
dence of Eocene strata on the Alaskan penin- 
sula. The fossils collected at various locali- 
ties form the basis for describing thirty-eight 
new species, twelve Jurassic and the remainder 
Tertiary. The Jurassic fossils include seven 
new genera. The descriptions of new species 
are accompanied by twenty-five admirable 
plates. 

In the chapter on general geology, page 12, 
in describing the basaltic region about Sho- 
shone Falls, Idaho, mention is made of ‘ great 
pustules which had been inflated on the sur- 
face of the liquid mass and then congealed 
and collapsed.’ This explanation of the origin 
of the numerous ‘pressure ridges’ of the 
Snake River lava plains is so widely at vari- 
ance with the conclusion reached by myself 
after gaining considerable familiarity with 
them, that it seems advisable to refer the 
reader to a more extended account of their 
characteristic, namely, U. S. Geological Sur- 
vey, Bulletin No. 199, 1902, pp. 95-96. 

The advantages presented by Alaska for 
glacial studies has already been referred to, 
and the reports of the geologists of the Harri- 
man expedition, if we had no other evidence, 
suffice to show that the same land has an in- 
structive geological history. Although the 
reports under review contain a few admirable 
pictures of volcanoes, only one, Bogoslof, 
seems to have been visited. As is well known, 
however, the volcanoes of Alaska present a 


SCIENCE. 


787 


subject for study fully as extensive and equal- 
ly instructive as its glaciers, but one concern- 
ing which but little definite information is 
available. Another region of special interest 
which invites investigation and gives promise 
of valuable return is the vast tunda in the far 
north. Concerning one of these great groups 
of earth features, namely, the glaciers, the 
Harriman expedition has done good service 
not only in recorded results, but in indicating 
the richness of the field that remains to be 
explored. The others, as is well known, are 
fully as important and equally inviting. The 
suggestion I wish to convey by these state- 
ments is that there are room and material for 
study in Alaska for many more expeditions. 
The great and lasting results recorded in the 
reports of the Harriman expedition should 
encourage other broad-minded citizens to im- 
mortalize their names in a similar manner. 
Isrant C. Russe. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE MICHIGAN ACADEMY OF SCIENCE. 

THE tenth annual meeting of the Michigan 
Academy of Science was held at Ann Arbor, 
on March 31 and April 1 and 2. The new 
medical building, the university museum and 
the laboratories of botany and zoology of the 
University of Michigan were placed at the 


disposal of the academy for its sessions. The 
officers for this meeting were: 
President—Professor F. C. Newcombe, Ann 


Arbor. 

Vice-Presidents—Section of Agriculture, Pro- 
fessor W. J. Beal, Agricultural College; Section of 
Botany, Mr. B. O. Longyear, Agricultural College; 
Section of Geography and Geology, Professor I. 
C. Russell, Ann Arbor; Section of Sanitary Sci- 
ence, Professor C. E. Marshall, Agricultural Col- 
lege; Section of Zoology, Professor R. H. Pettit, 
Agricultural College. 

Treasurer—Professor H. L. Clark, Olivet. 

Iibrarian—Dr. G. P. Burns, Ann Arbor. 

Secretary—Dr. Jas. B. Pollock, Ann Arbor. 


The meeting opened Thursday, March 31, 
with a general business session at 2 P.M. 
Following the adjournment of this general 
session the various sections met for the read- 
ing of papers. Thursday evening no session 


788 SCIENCE. 


of the academy was held, as the members were 
invited to attend the dedication of the new 
science building at the State Normal College 
at Ypsilanti, Mich. Friday forenoon was de- 
voted to the reading of papers in the various 
sections. In the afternoon the academy con- 
vened in general session and the retiring 
president, Professor F. C. Newcombe, of the 
University of Michigan, delivered the presi- 
dential address, taking as his subject ‘The 
Manner and Means of a Natural History Sur- 
vey of Michigan.’ This address will be pub- 
lished in full in the annual report of the 
academy. The subject is one to which the 
academy is devoting much attention, and it 
is hoped that at the next session of the state 
legislature a law will be passed authorizing 
a natural history survey for Michigan, sim- 
ilar to those already established in other 
states. Following the presidential address 
the remainder of the Friday afternoon ses- 
sion was devoted to a discussion of the ‘ For- 
estry Interests of Michigan,’ with the follow- 
ing program: 

CHARLES W. GARFIELD, president State For- 
estry Commission, Grand Rapids: ‘The State’s 
Work in Forestry.’ 

Joun Bisset, Detroit: ‘Forestry of Michigan 
from a Business Man’s Standpoint.’ 

Fiuizert Rorw, University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor: ‘The Next Step in Forestry in Michigan.’ 

J. W. Crarx, of the U. 8. Bureau of Forestry, 
Washington, D. C.: ‘The Work of the Bureau 
of Forestry in Michigan.’ 

W. J. Brat, Agricultural College: ‘Lantern 
Views of Seedlings and Young Forest Trees.’ 

E. E. Bocur, Agricultural College: ‘ Forestry 
Plantations in Michigan.’ 

C. A. Davis, University of Michigan, Ann 
Arbor: ‘ Condition of the Wood Lot in Michigan.’ 


On Friday evening Professor John M. 
Coulter, of the University of Chicago, de- 
livered the annual address in Sarah Caswell 
Angell Hall. The subject was ‘A Neglected 
Naturalist,’ and under this title a most inter- 
esting account of the life and work of Rafin- 
esque was given. Immediately following 
Professor Coulter’s address the visiting mem- 
bers of the academy were the guests of the 
Research Club of the University of Michigan 
at an informal reception and smoker. 


LN.S. Von. XIX. No. 490. 


On Saturday morning a general session was 
devoted to a discussion of the ‘ Fish and Game 
Interests of Michigan.’ The following papers 
were presented at this time: 


F. N. Crarx, Supt. of U. S. Fish Hatchery, 
Northville: ‘Commercial Fish and Fisheries.’ 

CHARLES E. BrewstTEeR, Chief Deputy, Depart- 
ment of Game and Fish Warden, Sault Ste. 
Marie: ‘The Commercial Fishes of the Great 
Lakes.’ 

F. B. Dickerson, of the Michigan Fish Com- 
mission, Detroit: ‘The Benefit to the State of the 
Artificial Propagation of Game Fish.’ 

C. H. CuarpmMan, State Game Warden: ‘Game 
Animals.’ 

L, Wuitney WatKINS, of the Agriculture Col- 
lege Board, Manchester: ‘Game Birds. (By 
title.) 


In the meetings of the various sections of 
the academy the following papers were read: 


SECTION OF BOTANY. 


G. P. Burns, Ann Arbor: ‘ Ecological Survey 
of the Huron River Valley, IV., Dead Lake.’ 

Miss Lura Warner, Ann Arbor: ‘ Regeneration 
of Root Tips after Splitting.’ 

Miss Mary E. Heppen, Ann Arbor: ‘ Conditions 
Influencing Regeneration of the Hypocotyl in 
Linum usitatissimum.’ 

Miss ANNABEL W. CLARK, Ann Arbor: ‘ Re- 
generation of the Epicotyl in Seedlings of Vicia 
Faba and Pisum sativum,’ 

Miss Juria A. Haynes, Ann Arbor: ‘ Angle of 
Deviation at which Stems Show the Strongest 
Response.’ 

W. N. Futter, Ann Arbor: ‘ Statocyst Function 
of Starch Grains in the Root Tip.’ (By title.) 

A. W. Pierson, Ann Arbor: ‘ The Occurrence 
of Basisporium Gallarum Molliard in Michigan.’ 

C. A. Davis, Ann Arbor: ‘The Rough Barked 
and Smooth Barked White Oaks.’ 

F. H. Lozw, Agricultural College: ‘ Importance 
of Plant Variation and Its Bearing on the Evo- 
lution of Species.’ 

S. ALEXANDER, Detroit: ‘Some Interesting 
Michigan Plants, Possibly Some New Species.’ 

W. J. Brat, Agricultural College: ‘A New Edi- 
tion of the Michigan Flora.’ 

J. B. DanpEeno, Agricultural College: ‘The Re- 
lation of Mass Action and Physical Affinity to 
Toxicity of Solution.’ 

E. E. Bocur, Agricultural College: ‘ Educa- 
tional Requirements for the Profession of Fores- 
try. (By title.) 


0 A ae ae 


May 20, 1904.] 


W. J. Beat, Agricultural College: ‘ Extension 
Work in Agriculture.’ 


SECTION OF ZOOLOGY. 

RayMonp PEARL and Miss Mary H. Burr, Ann 
Arbor: ‘A Statistical Study of Conjugation in 
Paramecium.’ 

Miss Frances J. DuNBAR, Ann Arbor: ‘ Methods 
Used in Cultivating Pure Strains of Paramecium.’ 

Miss Jean Dawson, Ann Arbor: ‘On the Oc- 
currence of a Gill in Planorbis,’ 

Bryant WALKER, Detroit: ‘Variation in the 
Forms of Succinea ovalis.’ 

A. G. Rutuven, Ann Arbor: ‘ Notes on the Mol- 
lusks, Reptiles and Amphibians of Porcupine 
Mountains, Mich.’ 

J. PLAyraArR McMurricu, Ann Arbor: ‘A New 
Type of Cerianthid and Its Significance.” (By 
title.) 

Eiiis Micnart, Ann Arbor: ‘Fish Fauna of 
Michigan.’ 

H. L. Crarg, Olivet: ‘A Michigan Biological 
Survey.’ 

J. E. DurrpEN, Ann Arbor: ‘The Antiquity of 
the Zoanthid Actinians.’ 

H. L. Crarxr, Olivet: ‘Snake Notes,’ illustrated 
with specimens. 

H. L. Cxarx, Olivet: 
Snakes.’ 

C. F. Curtis Ritny, Ann Arbor: ‘Some Re- 
actions of the Agrionide Larve.’ 

S. J. Hotmms, Ann Arbor: ‘Some Observations 
on Phototaxis.’ 

J. E. DurRpEN, Ann Arbor: ‘ An Exhibit Show- 
ing Commensalism of Crab and Actinian.’ 


‘The Variability of 


SECTION OF GEOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGY. 

FRANK Leverett, Ann Arbor: ‘Bed Rock 
Topography of the Southern Peninsula of Mich- 
igan.’ 

A. C. Lanes, Lansing: ‘The Theory of Copper 
Deposition.’ 

A. C. Lanz, Lansing: ‘The Development of the 
Igneous Magma.’ 

A. C. Lanz, Lansing: ‘ Artesian Wells Along 
the North Shore of Lake Michigan.’ 

I. C. Russert, Ann Arbor: ‘ The Glaciers of the 
Three Sister Peaks, Oregon,’ illustrated. 

FRANK Leverett, Ann Arbor: ‘The Glacial 
Geology of the Ann Arbor Quadrangle.” (By 
title. ) 

Isatam Bowman, Ypsilanti: ‘A Case of Steam 
Capture at Rawsonville, Michigan.’ 

H. W. Bercer: ‘Gravel Deposits on Marl at 
the Shore of Bass Lake, Livingston County, Mich- 
igan.’ 


SCIENCE. : - 


789 


I. C. Russert, Ann Arbor: ‘ Lava Flows of the 
Deschutes Valley, Oregon,’ illustrated. (By title.) 

M. S. W. Jerrerson, Ypsilanti: ‘The Valley of 
the Yuma River, Cuba,’ illustrated. 

M. S. W. Jerrerson, Ypsilanti: ‘ Wind Effects.’ 

F, W. Kersey, Ann Arbor: ‘ Vesuvius Before 
the Eruption of ’79.’ 


SECTION OF SANITARY SCIENCE. 


T. B. Cootny: ‘ Report of the Pasteur Institute 
for the Year Ending April 1, 19047 

Mortimer WILLSoN: ‘Personal Hygiene for 
Life’s Afternoon.’ 

Guy S. Kaerer: ‘Some Problems in Sanitary 
Science.’ 

Miss Carri A, Lyrorp: ‘Domestic Science in 
Its Relation to Sanitary Science.’ 
Miss JENNETTE CARPENTER: 

Cookery in Schools.’ 

Froyp W. Ropison: ‘Iron and Fiber in Their 
Relation to the Food of Man.’ 

V. C. VaucHan: ‘The Result of Sixteen Years 
of Worl in the Bacteriological Examination of 
Drinking Water.’ 

Rauston WiLL1AMs: ‘ Typhoid Germs in Sew- 
age.’ 

T. F. Marston: ‘What Pure Milk Production 
Means to the Producer.’ (By title.) 

Tra O. Jounson: ‘The Significance and Produc- 
tion of Walker-Gordon Milk.’ 

Cuartes E, MarsHauu: ‘ Associative Action of 
Bacteria in the Souring of Milk.’ 

H. B. Baker: ‘A Problem in Terrestrial Phys- 
ics—What Causes the Earth’s Rotation.’ 

T. B. Coorey: ‘Gun Shot Wounds and Tetanus.’ 

D. J. Levy: ‘ Filtration of Enzymes.’ 

Frep Munson and W. R. Spencer: ‘A Pre- 
liminary Report on the Presence of Toxin in 
Liver Cells.’ 

Donaup McIntyre: ‘ The Intercellular Toxin of 
B. pyocyaneus.’ 

M. W. Curt: ‘The Chemical Tests for Mor- 
phine in the Presence of Putrefactive Substances.’ 

D. J. Levy: ‘An Actinomyces Isolated from 
Man.’ 

L. M. Getsron: ‘ Filtration of Virus of Rabies 
Through Paper.’ 

Warp J. McNrau: ‘An Improved Medium for 
Cultivating Trypanosoma Brucei.’ 

F. G. Novy and W. J. McNEAu: 
of Trypanosoma Evansi.’ 

F. G. Novy and W. J. McNeat: ‘ Filtration and 
Agglutination of Trypanosomes.’ 

H. R. Terrey: ‘A New Phosphorescing Organ- 
ism.’ 


‘The Object of 


* Cultivation 


790 


At the final business meeting on Saturday 
morning the following officers were elected fon 
the ensuing year: 


President—Dr, A. C. Lane, State Geologist, 
Lansing. 

Vice-Presidents—Section of Agriculture, Pro- 
fessor W. J. Beal, Agricultural College; Section 
of Botany, Professor J. B. Dandeno, Agricultural 
College; Section of Geography and Geology, Pro- 
fessor M. S. W. Jefferson, State Normal College; 
Section of Sanitary Science, Dr. T. B. Cooley, 
director of the Pasteur Institute, Ann Arbor; 
Section of Science Teaching, Professor W. H. 
Sherzer, State Normal College; Section of Zool- 
ogy, Dr. Raymond Pearl, University of Michigan. 

Secretary and Treaswrer—Professor C, E. Mar- 
shal], Agricultural College. 

Librarian—Dr, G. P. Burns, University of Mich- 
igan. 

At this meeting the academy voted to com- 
mence the publication of a bulletin, in addi- 
tion to the annual reports now being issued. 
The bulletin will appear three times during 
the year, and will be in charge of an editorial 
committee consisting of the president, the sec- 
retary and Professor H. L. Clark, of Olivet. 
The principal object of this bulletin will be 
to disseminate among the people of the state 
who are interested in science, and especially 
among the teachers of science in the secondary 
schools, more information regarding the work 
the Academy of Science is doing than they 
now get from the existing publication. 

RayMonD PEARL, 


THE IOWA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


Tue eighteenth annual meeting of the Iowa 
academy was held in the physical lecture room 
of the State University of Iowa, Iowa City, 
April 14 and 15. The following papers were 
presented : 


Bruce Fink: President’s address, ‘Two Cen- 
turies of American Lichenology.’ 

Gitpert L. Houser: ‘The Animal Cell in the 
Light of Recent Work.’ 

W. S. HENDRIXSON: 
Acid on Metals.’ 

GersHom H. Hiri: ‘The Importance of Vital 
Statistics in the Study of Social Science.’ 

T. E. Savace: ‘A Buried Peat Bed and Asso- 
ciated Deposits in Dodge Township, Union County.’ 

L, H. PamMeEt: ‘Some Notes on Iowa Flora.’ 


“The Action of Chloric 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 490. 


Nicnuoras Kyieut: ‘Some Features in the 
Analysis of Dolomite Rock.’ 

Nicnotas Kwyieut: ‘The Softening of Hard 
Water.’ 

L. H. Pammet, Enna Kine and R. E. Bu- 
CHANAN: ‘Some Bacteriological Examinations of 
Iowa Waters.’ 

Launcetor W. Anprews: ‘The Determination 
of Chlorides by Means of Silver Chromate.’ 

ArtHuur W. Martin: ‘A Chemical Study of 
Rhus glabra,’ 

J. E. GUTHRIE: 
lembola.” 

R. I. Crarry: ‘The Flora of Emmet County, 
Towa.’ 

W. M. Barr: ‘ Action of Sodium Thiosulphate 
on Silver Salts.’ 

Joan J. Lampert: ‘ Regeneration in the Cray- 
fish.’ 

C. F. Lorenz: ‘Single Lantern Stereoscopic 
Projection in Color.’ 

G. E. Fincu: ‘Notes on the Position of Nileus 
vigilans in Strata at Elgin, Iowa.’ 

R. E. BucHanan: ‘The Development of the 
Plum, Prunus americana,’ 

B. Surmexk: ‘ Additions to the Iowa Flora.’ 

H. W. Norris: ‘The so-called Dorsotrachealis 
Branch of the Seventh Cranial Nerve in Am- 
phiuma.,’ 

H. W. Norris: ‘The Vagus and Anterior Spinal 
Nerves in Amphiwma,’ 

Katy A, Minter: “The Lichen Flora of ‘The 
Ledges,’ Boone County, Iowa.’ 

W. S. Henprixson: ‘A Method of Determining 
Chlorie Acid.’ 

Harriet M. Crparman: ‘A Geological Situa- 
tion in the Lava Flow, with Reference to the 
Vegetation.’ 

Joun C. Frazee: ‘Synthesis of Ethyl Alcohol 
from Acetylene.’ 

Epwin Morrison: ‘Old Experiments with New 
Apparatus.’ 

H. A. Muetrer: ‘A Preliminary List of the 
Flowering Plants of Madison County.’ 

Cuartes R. Keyes: ‘ Remarkable Occurrence 
of Aurichalcite.’ 

CHartes R. Keyes: ‘Certain Basin Features 
of the High Plateau Region of Southwestern 
United States.’ 

Cartes R, Keyes: ‘ Note on the Carboniferous 
Faunas of the Mississippi Valley in the Rocky 
Mountain Region.’ 

L. Beceman: ‘A Convenient Voltaic Cell.’ 

F. Bonnet: ‘A New Method of Determining 
Compressibility of Liquids and Solids.’ 


“The ‘Fureula’ in the Col- 


May 20, 1904.] 


Officers for the ensuing year were elected 
as follows: 

President—B. Shimek, Iowa City. 

First Vice-President—L. H. Pammel, Ames. 

Second Vice-President—M. F. Arey, Cedar Falls. 

Secretary—T. H. Savage, Capitol Building, Des 
Moines. 

Treasurer—H. W. Norris, Grinnell. 

H. W. Norris, 
Secretary. 


THE RESEARCH CLUB OF THE UNIVERSITY OF 
MICHIGAN, 


Tue following papers unreported in ScIENCE 
have been read at recent meetings of the club: 
At the December meeting Dr. A. B. Prescott 
gaye an account of work upon the ‘ Organic 
Perhalides’ done in his laboratory from 1895 
to 1900. He had been attracted to this field 
(1) from the interest of the relations be- 
tween perhalides and the double halides, (2) 
because of the molecular significance of super- 
compounds as such, (3) by reason of the re- 
markable role of iodine in the iodonium bases 
made known in 1894, (4) on account of the 
singular individuality of the periodides of 
the organic bases formed by nitrogen, and (5) 
in order to pursue the question, what sort of 
basal constitution is necessary to a perhalide. 
The systematic production of all perhalides of 
pyridine was entered upon, followed by those 
of the picolines, quinoline and the common 
vegetable bases, as has been published from this 
work up to 1901. In continuation the author 
desires to so extend the study as to find some- 
thing of whatever value perhalide formation 
possesses as a distinguishing measure of chem- 
ical character, and whether or not confined to 
‘salt-forming bases.’ 

At the same meeting Dr. A. S. Warthin gave 
a summary of his most recent work on the 
hemolymph glands as he had found them in 
man and other animals. 

At the February meeting Professors Asaph 
Hall and F. C. Newcombe gave an account of 
their researches. After explaining various 
methods employed in detecting errors of 
division in circles, Professor Hall submitted 
a table showing the division errors of the Lick 
meridian circle constructed by the Repsolds, 


SCIENCE. 


791 


of that at Washington by Pistor and Martius, 
and of that at Ann Arbor, also by Pistor and 
Martins. 

For the first two imstruments the errors 
were obtained by keeping one circle fixed on 
the axis and continually shifting the other. 
For the Ann Arbor circle the errors were 
found by the methods of Bessel for the deter- 
mination of special marks giving the follow- 
ing values for the ten degree divisions: 


Division. Error. 
io} “l 
0 0.00 
10 — 0.36 
20 — 0.58 
30 — 0.54 
40 — 0.67 
50 — 0.66 
60 — 0.64 
70 —_ 0.10 
80 + 0.21 


Professor Newcombe stated that the roots of 
many species of plants are known to bend 
against the current of a stream of water in 
which they may be placed. This rheotropic 
response was shown to be really a response to 
one-sided pressure, since the roots showed 
similar curves when they were wholly shielded 
from: the stream of water by covering them 
with tubes of very thin collodion. The thig- 
motropism must be ealled forth either by the 
large extent of surface stimulated by the water 
stream, or by long continued irritation of the 
same cells in the sensory region, conditions 
which will rarely if ever be fulfilled in nature. 
The conclusion was drawn that, contrary to 
the general belief, terrestrial roots are not 
responsive to one-sided pressure such as they 
meet in nature. 

At the March meeting Professor Wenley 
spoke on the relation of Plato’s writings to 
modern research, and Professor Cushny dis- 
cussed ‘ The Secretion of Acid by the Kidney.’ 
Professor OCushny assumed that the renal 
tubules are chiefly engaged in absorbing some 
of the constituents of the glomerular fluid. 
By the intravenous injection of most neutral 
salts the urine was found neutral or feebly 
acid to phenolphthalein, while it was neutral 
or alkaline to litmus. The intravenous injec- 
tion of phosphate rendered the urine acid to 


192 


phenolphthalein, while it was feebly acid or 
neutral to litmus; obstruction of one ureter 
now rendered the urine of that side more 
strongly acid. This was interpreted as indica- 
ting that the normal acidity of the urine is due 
to the absorption of sodium and hydroxyl or 
carbonate ions in the renal tubules. For the 
secretion of acid urine two conditions must be 
fulfilled: (1) There must be present in the 
blood and glomerular fluid a hydrolytically dis- 
sociated salt whose anion can not permeate the 
epithelium of the tubules, while the cation 
can permeate readily; (2) there must be an 
active absorption in the tubules. 
FREDERICK C. NEWCOMBE, 
Secretary. 


THE AMERICAN MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


Durine the month of April the American 
Mathematical Society held three meetings. 
The Chicago Section met at Northwestern 
University on April 2, the San Francisco Sec- 
tion at Stanford University on April 30, and 
a regular meeting of the society was held at 
Columbia University, also on April 30. Re- 
ports of the sectional meetings will appear 
later in ScrENcE. 

About fifty members attended the regular 
meeting in New York. The president of the 
society, Professor Thomas S. Fiske, occupied 
the chair. The following persons were 
elected to membership: J. J. Browne, Colorado 
School of Mines; C. E. Dimick, University of 
Pennsylvania; Wm. Gillespie, Princeton Uni- 
versity; Clifford Gray, Columbia University; 
Louis Ingold, University of Missouri; Myrtle 
Knepper, State Normal School, Cape Girard- 
eau, Mo.; F. M. Morrison, Buchtel College; 
G. W. Myers, University of Chicago; Elijah 
Swift, Harvard University. Hight applica- 
tions for admission to membership were re- 
ceived. 

During the past year two important reports 
have been prepared by committees of the so- 
ciety and published in the Bulletin. The re- 
port of the committee on college entrance 
requirements has been adopted by the College 
Entrance Examination Board as the basis of 
its examinations in mathematics on and after 
June, 1905. The second report, prepared by 


SCIENCE. 


[N.8. Vox. XIX. No. 490. 


a committee of the Chicago Section, presents 
a unified scheme of requirements for the mas- 
ter’s degree for candidates offering mathe- 
matics as the major subject. The society has 
also exerted, through its committee on rela- 
tions to elementary mathematics, a guiding 
influence in the formation of associations of 
teachers of mathematics throughout the coun- 
try. Several of these associations have 
already been organized under very favorable 
prospects, and others are already planned. 

The following papers were read at the April 
meeting: 

H. F. Srrcxer: ‘Certain differential equations 
in relation to non-euclidean geometry.’ 

C. J. Keyser: ‘Certain line and plane quintic 
configurations in point 4-space, and their sphere 
analogues in ordinary space.’ 

E. V. Huntineron: ‘ A set of independent postu- 
lates for the algebra of logic (third paper).’ 

O. D. Kettoae: ‘Sets of functions with pre- 
assigned singular points and monodromic group.’ 

J. M. Peirce: ‘On certain complete systems of 
quaternion expressions and on the removal of 
metric limitations from the calculus of quater- 
nions.’ 

HK. O. Loverr: ‘Singular trajectories in the 
problem of four bodies.’ 

E. O. Lovett: ‘Systems of periplegmatic or- 
bits.’ 

M. Bocuer: ‘The Gauss-Stieltjes equilibrium 
problem and the roots of polynomials.’ 

J. Prerpont: ‘On multiple integrals.’ 

EK. L. Dopp: ‘ Multiple sequences.’ 

V. Snyper: ‘On developable and tubular sur- 
faces having spherical lines of curvature.’ 

C. H. Sisam: ‘ On self-dual scrolls.’ 

HE. Kasner: ‘The general transformation theory 
of differential elements.’ 

E. J. Witczynsxi: ‘General theory of curves 
on ruled surfaces.’ 

H. Taser: ‘On real hypercomplex number sys- 
tems.’ 


For the evening the usual dinner was ar- 
ranged; twenty-five members attended this 
agreeable diversion. 

The summer meeting of the society will be 
held at St. Louis on September 16-17. The 
San Francisco Section will also meet in Sep- 
tember. The next meeting of the Chicago 
Section will be held at the Christmas holi- 
days. F. N. Couz, 

Secretary. 


May 20, 1904.] 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 


THE meeting of February 24 was held at 
the New York Botanical Garden, Professor 
Underwood in the chair; sixteen persons pres- 
ent. 

Dr. Britton referred to the opportunity of 
members to become applicants for a grant of 
fifty dollars from the John Strong Newberry 
Fund, which this year is available for botan- 
ical or zoological research. 

The announced paper of the scientific pro- 
gram was by Mr. Perey Wilson under the title 
of ‘Remarks on some EKeonomie Plants of the 
East Indies.’ 

In the spring of 1901 Mr. Wilson was com- 
missioned by the New York Botanical Garden 
to accompany the solar eclipse expedition to 
the East Indies organized by Professor Todd, 
of Amherst College, the chief purpose of Mr. 
Wilson’s visit being to obtain collections of 
native plants and plant products for exhibition 
in the museum of the garden. Most of his 
collections were made on the island of Sing- 
kep, which is a two days’ voyage southward 
from Singapore. This island is about twenty- 
five miles in length and sixteen in greatest 
width. Two thirds of it is covered with a 
dense tropical jungle, the remainder having 
small, scattered native villages. Various fiber 
products, starches and sugars, manufactured 
and used by the inhabitants of these villages, 
were shown. In discussing fiber products, ex- 
amples were first exhibited in which a whole 
leaf or a considerable part of it is made use 
of. Of these leaf fibers, one of the most ex- 
tensively utilized is from the leaves of the 
serew pines, whose generic name, Pandanus, 
is a lLatinized form of the Malay word 
‘pandan,’ a name applied to many species of 
the genus. In many of the East Indian 
islands, large tracts are covered by these 
Pandanus trees or shrubs, growing in such 
profusion as to form impenetrable masses of 
vegetation, while species growing singly or a 
few together abound principally in the vicin- 
ity of the sea. The latter bear many thick 
aerial roots, which at a distance have the ap- 
pearance of supporting the plant in the air. 
The leaves and roots are the parts of chief 
economic importance. The leaves are gath- 


SCIENCE. 


793 


ered in large numbers, tied into bundles, and 
carried by the men to the villages, where the 
women remove with a large knife all spines 
from the margins of the leaf and the under 
surface of the midrib. The leaves are then 
exposed to fire, after which they are cut singly 
with a sharp four-bladed knife into strips of 
uniform width. After several days of soaking 
in water and bleaching in the sun, each strip 
is separately drawn between the thumb and a 
thin bamboo stick. By this treatment they 
become flexible and can be wrought into any 
desirable shape without injury to the fiber. 
Two plants in particular, ‘pandan tikar’ 
(Pandanus Samak), the mat screw-pine, and 
“pandan laut’ (Pandanus fascicularis), the 
seashore screw-pine, are considered as yielding 
the best grade of leaves for mat- and basket- 
weaving. Other species bearing larger and 
coarser leaves are regarded as inferior. Of 
these, the ‘mengkuang’ (P. atrocarpus), an 
arboreal form, is commonly found in swampy 
places. The leaves of this are made into hats, 
and into large mats which often serve for the 
entire sides of houses or for the covering of 
earts. Styles and designs in weaving differ 
in the different islands. In some places highly 
colored mats with red, green, brown and pur- 
ple strips interwoven are to be found. The 
dyes used are said to be chiefly of vegetable 
origin. A red dye is extracted from the 
leaves of the teak, a green from the shoots of 
the banana, while brown or chocolate color is 
obtained by burying the strips in mud and 
water for several weeks. Im some regions 
where species of Pandanus abound, these thick 
aerial roots are used for corks; sections of 
these roots several inches in length are beaten 
out at one end and thus made to serve as 
brushes. Leaf fibers from the leaflets of the 
“nipah’ (Nipa fruticans), a low, stemless 
palm, are woven into large shingles known as 
“attaps.’ 

Fibers derived from the vascular bundles 
alone are obtained from the leaf-stalks of a 
common fern, Dicranopteris linearis. After 
the long bundles are split out from the stalks 
they are drawn separately through a series of 
holes of gradually diminishing sizes punctured 
in a piece of tin. With the strong fiber thus 


794 


obtained fine hats are made which are worn by 
the Malay men at their various festivals. The 
stems of the bamboo or strips and fibers ob- 
tained from them are put to a great variety 
of uses by the natives of the region. 

Various food products of vegetable origin 
were then discussed. An important starch is 
sago, under which name are understood 
starches derived from several kinds of palms 
and eycads. Most of it, probably, comes from 
the trunk of Metroxylon Sagwu, the true sago 
palm, which inhabits many of the islands of 
the Malay Archipelago. This palm grows to 
a height of forty feet or more and has a large, 
comparatively smooth trunk, from the interior 
of which the starch is derived. In the prep- 
aration of the sago a full-grown tree is 
selected just before the expansion of the in- 
florescence, the trunk is felled and cut into 
sections three or four feet in length, which are 
thrown into water and soaked for several days. 
Afterward, the outer fibrous portion is re- 
moved and the interior is reduced to a coarse 
sawdust by means of a crude grating ap- 
paratus. This sawdust-like powder is then 
put into a large vessel, where the starch is 
crushed out with the aid of water and the 
feet of a native. It is then drawn off, 
suspended in the water, and is finally dried 
and shipped away for refinement. 

Palm sugar is derived chiefly from the sugar 
palm (Arenga saccharifera) and the cocoanut 
palm (Cocos nucifera). The sugar is ob- 
tained from the Arenga by binding the nu- 
merous branches of the pendulous inflorescence 
into a compact cylinder, without removing 
them from the tree, and then chopping off 
the ends and making several incisions along 
the sides of the branches. The sweet sap is 
caught in a vessel made from a bamboo-stem ; 
it continues to flow for several days, is col- 
lected every twenty-four hours and is boiled 
down over a crude oven. 

The paper was brought to a close with re- 
marks on masticatories such as the betel-nut 
—the fruit of the Areca palm (Areca Catechu) 
—and on some of the edible fruits, such as the 
durian and mangosteen. 

Mr. G. V. Nash showed flowering species of 
Melastomacez from the conservatories of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 490, 


New York Botanical Garden, including one 
of Heterocentron elegans from Mexico and one 
of Medinilla magnifica from the Philippines. 

Dr. N. L. Britton exhibited specimens of 
two apparently undescribed species of poplar 
from Wyoming, one allied to Populus tremu- 
loides, the other to P. augustifolia. 

MarsHatt A. Howse, 
Secretary pro tem. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue 155th meeting was held on April 13 
and Mr. J. S. Diller read a paper on ‘ The 
Composition and Structure of the Klamath 
Mountains.’ 

The lithologic, stratigraphic and faunal re- 
lations of the various sedimentary formations 
are considered in their order of development, 
beginning with the mica-schist, which is pos- 
sibly of pre-Cambrian age. The Cambrian 
rocks of southeastern California and the Si- 
lurian rocks of the northern part of the Sierra 
Nevada have not yet been recognized in the 
Klamath Mountains, the oldest fossiliferous 
beds of that region being of Middle Devonian 
age. The stratigraphic succession of the Pale- 
ozoic and Mesozoic formations was discussed, 
and especial attention was devoted to the great 
unconformity which has been recognized at 
the base of the Cretaceous. The distribution 
of the marine and fresh-water Eocene in Ore- 
gon and the Miocene in California was indi- 
cated, as well as their relation to the develop- 
ment of the Trinity Basin. 

In the next paper Mr. G. B. Richardson 
discussed ‘The Stratigraphic Sequence in 
Trans-Pecos Texas North of the Texas and 
Pacific Railway.’ 

The rocks in this area range from pre- 
Cambrian to recent in age, most of the sys- 
tems being represented. There are two areas 
of pre-Cambrian sediments: One is south of 
the Diablo Mountains between Eagle Flat 
and Vanhorn, where a group of folded and 
faulted formations consisting of silicious 
limestone, conglomerate, fine-textured red 
sandstone and schists is exposed. The other 
pre-Cambrian area is on the eastern flank of 
the Franklin Mountains, where there are about 
3,000 feet of quartzite, slate and rhyolite. 


May 20, 1904.] 


The Cambrian is represented by 300 feet of 
sandstone of Acadian or Saratogan age ex- 
posed on the southeastern flank of the Frank- 
lin Mountains. Two other areas of sandstone 
ot possible Cambrian age, but in which no 
fossils were found, are in the southern Hueco 
Mountains and northwest of Vanhorn. 

The Ordovician is represented by about 
1,200 feet of limestone in the Franklin Moun- 
tains. Three well-defined horizons are pres- 
ent, the Calciferous, the Galena Trenton and 
the Richmond. The Calciferous is also pres- 
ent in the southern Hueco Mountains and 
northwest of Vanhorn. A few isolated areas 
of limestone of the Niagara division of the 
Silurian occur in the Franklin Mountains. 

The Devonian system and the Mississippian 
series of the Carboniferous are absent. The 
Pennsylvanian is represented by two limestone 
formations. The older occurs on the north- 
western flank of the Franklin Mountains and 
the younger covers a large area in the Hueco, 
Diablo, Finlay and Cornudas mountains. 
These formations are each several thousand 
feet thick. In the Diablo Mountain region 
there is evidence that the pre-Pennsylvanian 
land was reduced to a peneplain. 

Over 4,000 feet of rocks of Permian age 
containing a unique fauna which is being 
studied by Dr. G. H. Girty are present in 
the Delaware and Guadalupe Mountains. At 
the base of the section are 200 feet of black 
limestone. Above are over 2,000 feet of 
sandstone and interbedded limestone which 
are capped by 1,800 feet of massive white 
magnesian limestone. The relation of the 
Permian to the Pennsylvanian is concealed 
by the intervening Salt Basin. 

A broad belt of gypsum, at least 300 feet 
thick, overlies these rocks and the gypsum is 
overlain by about 200 feet of sandstone and 
limestone which outcrop in a low range of 
hills west of the Pecos River. The age of 
these rocks is not known. They are either 
Permian or early Mesozoic. 

The Jurassic is represented by a small 
limestone outlier of the Malone Mountains. 
The relations of these rocks to adjacent 
formations, however, is unknown, being con- 
cealed by unconsolidated basin deposits. 


SCIENCE. 


795 


The Cretaceous is represented by the Fred- 
ericksburg and Washita divisions of the 
Comanche, which cover a considerable area. 
The Fredericksburg has been divided into 
three formations consisting of sandstone and 
limestone aggregating about 1,500 feet in 
thickness which are well exposed in the Finlay 
Mountains, about Sierra Blanca and in the 
southern Diablo Plateau. The Washita has 
not been subdivided. It consists of about 
200 feet of buff-colored limestone and eal- 
careous sandstone and shale well exposed near 
San Martine and Kent, and is present also 
in small outlying areas in the Sierra Blanea, 
Black and the Cornudas Mountains and in 
the vicinity of El Paso. There is evidence 
of the northward progress of the Comanche 
Sea in this area, shown by Washita rocks 
lying on the Carboniferous in the northern 


“part of the area, while farther south rocks of 


Fredericksburg age immediately overlie the 
Carboniferous. 

The Hueco, Salt and Toyah Basins—desert 
wash-covered areas characteristic of the Trans- 
Pecos country—are capped by unconsolidated 
detritus of Pleistocene age. Deep wells show 
that this material extends to considerable 
depths, and though no fossils have been found, 
possibly the lower deposits are of Tertiary age. 

Mr. A. C. Veatch then discussed ‘Some 
Peculiar Artesian Conditions on Long Island, 
N.Y,’ 

On Long Island, while the principles which 
govern artesian flows are necessarily those 
which produce the same phenomena elsewhere, 
there are certain essential modifications in the 
nature of the factors which produce these 
results. They may be briefly summarized as 
follows: 

1. The deep zone of flow and the surface 
zone are essentially continuous. The whole 
island is composed of sands, with discontinu- 
ous clay masses, and the rain water is free to 
penetrate to any part of these beds without 
regard to dip. 

2. The head depends not on dip of the 
strata, but on the curved nature of the ground 
water table, which gives to the water under a 
clay bed a pressure equal to the height of the 


796 


ground water above the edge of that clay mass, 
less the loss in transmission. 

3. The dip of the strata is, therefore, im- 
material, and flows, in many cases, are pro- 
duced against or up the dip. 

4. The slope of this ground water table is 
so precipitous at the heads of many of the 
deep reentrant bays on the north shore that 
a slight difference in porosity is sufficient to 
determine an artesian horizon, and wells in 
such situations and which penetrate nothing 
but sand and gravel are frequently artesian. 

ALFRED H. Brooks, 
Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue five hundred and eighty-fifth meeting 
was held April 22 and 23 jointly with the 
American Physical Society. Reports of the 
papers read during the day sessions will ap- 
pear in the proceedings of that society. 

On Friday evening Mr. Alexander Graham 
Bell delivered a lecture on ‘ Tetrahedral Kites,’ 
exhibiting numerous small kites and the cells 
out of which large structures are built up, 
and many lantern views of the large kites he 
has flown at his experiment station in Nova 
Scotia. The noteworthy features developed 
by the experiments were the great strength 
combined with lightness of the kites for a 
given lifting power; their ability to rise more 
nearly vertically above the point of attach- 
ment at the ground than other forms of kites; 
and their remarkable steadiness, especially 
when the broadside is toward the wind. The 
speaker intends to carry on his experiments 
during the coming summer. 

CHartes K. WeEap, 
Secretary. 


THE ASSOCIATION OF OHIO TEACHERS OF 
MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE. 


THE association was organized at a meeting 
held in Columbus, April 2, 1904. At this 
meeting the following papers were read and 
discussed : 


Pres. Cuartes 8. Hown, The Case School of 
Applied Science, Cleveland: ‘The Effect of En- 
trance Examinations upon the Mathematical Work 
of the Preparatory School and the College.’ 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 490. 


Dr. GrorceE Bruck HausTep, Kenyon College, 
Gambier: ‘The Value of Non-Euclidean Geometry 
to the Teacher.’ 

Proressor FRANKLIN I. Jones, University 
School, Cleveland: ‘The Laboratory Method in 
High School Mathematics.’ 


In his paper Dr. Halsted pointed out that 
the results of the recent studies on the founda- 
tions of geometry now permit a simple and 
rigorous treatment of elementary geometry 
without the introduction of either continuity 
or limits. The constructions of elementary 
geometry are possible without the compasses 
by means of the rules alone. 


THE NORTHEASTERN SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue fifty-second meeting of the section was 
held Friday evening, April 22, at Hunting- 
ton Hall, Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy, Boston, with President W. H. Walker 
in the chair. About 650 members and friends 
were present. Professor W. P. Bradley, of 
Wesleyan University, gave an address on ‘ Effi- 
cieney Tests of the Wesleyan Liquid Air 
Plant and Demonstration of Liquid Air, in 
which he described, and illustrated with lan- 
tern slides, the plant at Wesleyan University 
for the manufacture of liquid air, while the 
latter part of the lecture was devoted to a 
description of the properties of liquid air, 
which were demonstrated by numerous ex- 
periments. ArtHur M. Comey, 

Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
ELLIPTICAL HUMAN ERYTHROCYTES. 


I was much interested in a note by Professor 
Melvin Dresbach, of the Ohio State Univer- 
sity, published in Scomncr, March 18, 1904, 
giving an account of examinations of human 
blood, in which about ninety per cent. of the 
red corpuscles were oval. What rendered this 
observation remarkable—and indeed unique— 
was the statement that: 


The student in whose blood these corpuscles 
were found was a healthy mulatto about twenty- 
two years of age. His brother, who attended the 
university a few years ago, had normal red blood 
cells. Other than this no family history is at 
hand. 


May 20, 1904.] 


I wrote to Professor Dresbach a few days 
after reading this account, and he most kindly 
sent me a slide, dated January 10, 1903, for 
examination. Professor Dresbach wrote: 

The young man who furnished these peculiar 
cells was taken ill and left the city, and con- 


sequently I never saw him again. I have since 
learned that he died * * *. 


It is unfortunate that there is no account 
of the disease that proved fatal in this case; 
and it is to be hoped that this defect in the 
history may be supplied later. It is well 
known that erythrocytes are often deformed— 
and sometimes many of them are oval—in 
certain blood diseases. To cite authorities 
that can be readily consulted, Osler writes, in 
treating of ‘ Progressive Pernicious Anemia’: 


Microscopically the red blood-corpuscles present 
a great variation in size, and there can be seen 
large giant forms, megalocytes, which are often 
ovoid in form, measuring eight, eleven or even 
fifteen micromillimeters in diameter—a circum- 
stance which Henry regards as indicating a re- 
version to a lower type. Laache thinks these 
pathognomonic, and they certainly form a con- 
stant feature. (‘The Principles and Practice of 
Medicine,’ New York, 1895, p. 729.) 


These changes in the form of the corpuscles 
have been described under the name of 
poikiloeytosis, and are referred to by Flint 
(‘ Principles and Practice of Medicine,’ Phila- 
delphia, 1886, pp. 60 and 386), in connection 
with pernicious anemia. Ewing (‘ Pathology 
of the Blood,’ Philadelphia, 1903, p. 256) 
writes : 

Sometimes in non-infectious purpura hemor- 


rhagica the red corpuscles are undersized and 
many are oval. 


In view of these facts, it seems impossible to 
accept the proposition that the subject of the 
observation noted ‘was a healthy mulatto.’ He 
certainly was affected with poikilocytosis. As 
the oval corpuscles in this case measured 10.3 
by 4.1 microns—certainly not enlarged, the 
normal corpuscles being seven to eight microns 
in diameter—it is possible that the poikilo- 
eytosis was a condition antecedent to a severe 
purpura hemorrhagica, which was the im- 
mediate cause of death. In pernicious 


SCIENCE. 


797 


anemia, the number of corpuscles is diminished 
and may become as low as 500,000 per cubic 
millimeter, instead of 5,000,000, which is the 
normal average, and megalocytes are nearly 
always found. Still, as there are no observa- 
tions—with which I am acquainted, at least— 
in regard to the blood in pernicious anemia, 
before grave and distinctive symptoms have 
appeared, death may have been due to this 
disease. Austin Fiint. 
CorRNELL UNIVERSITY MerpIcAL CoLLEGE, 
New Yorn, April 25, 1904. 


CONVOCATION WEEK. 


Tue Editor of Science writes: “ Among the 
points on which an expression of opinion 
would be useful are: (1) Should the American 
Association maintain its sections for special 
papers or should these be left to the special 
societies? (2) Should the association attempt 
to popularize science, and if so how? (3) 
Should the association include in its scope edu- 
cation, economics, philology, ete.? (4) Should 
the association meet in summer or winter or 
both? (5) Should the association meet in 
regional sections, with only occasional joint 
meetings? (6) What should the association 
do to promote cooperation among men of sci- 
ence and the advancement and diffusion of 
science 2” 

After, reading the great number of diverse 
opinions that have appeared in ScIENCE con- 
cerning the condition of the American Asso- 
ciation and the nature of its work, every sub- 
seriber must begin to think something is wrong 
somewhere, though he may be utterly at a loss 
to know what remedies to prescribe. 

The writer can not help thinking that most 
that has lately been written on the subject has 
added to the apparent unrest, on the whole 
very likely doing more harm than good. Each 
writer has committed himself to a certain 
policy, which he thinks should be adopted. 
With all this talk, it is not difficult to show 
that large additions of members have been 
made during the period of special or afhiliated 
societies. Several of these societies have been 
the means of increasing the membership of 
the American Association instead of decreas- 
ing it. 


798 


1. Let the association keep up all its sec- 
tions, possibly adding to the number, freely 
cooperating with special societies, each section 
showing a willingness to unite in preparing a 
program with any one or more special societies 
having a like object. 

9. Years ago at meetings of the association, 
the late W. A. Rogers in Boston and E. S. 
Morse in Detroit, strenuously advocated the 
presentation of no papers that did not present 
the results of original work. Professor Cope 
often took the same ground, not infrequently 
helping to reject papers because of their pop- 
ular nature. 

I have recently thought it desirable to have 
a number of speakers selected by officers of the 
sections, perhaps with the approval of the 
council, to present some topic or series of 
topics in a popular way to attract ‘ outsiders.’ 
It would hardly be safe to permit any volun- 
teers to present papers on a popular topic. 

3. Edueation, economics, but not philology. 

4. Once a year, preferably in winter, till this 
date has had a fair trial. 

5. Meet most of the time in populous re- 
gions from Washington to Boston, Detroit, 
Chicago, where many people are most sure to 
attend. 

6. The association through Science is now 
performing a great work. W. J. BEAL. 


ERRORS IN NOMENCLATURE. 


To tHe Eprror or Science: In the Ameri- 
can Naturalist for February is a paper by 
Miss E. G. Mitchell purporting to date from 
Cornell University and expressing acknowledg- 
ments to Instructor H. D. Reed and myself. 
Besides some typographic errors it contains so 
many incorrect generic and specific names 
that, in justice to the university and our- 
selves, Dr. Reed and I feel obliged to dis- 
claim responsibility for them. Two years ago 
some dissections and observations were made 
by Miss Mitchell in this laboratory, and she 
was probably encouraged to complete and pub- 
lish them. But at that time our concern was 
with the subject-matter, and we did not un- 
dertake to verify the names of the fishes ex- 
amined. Neither the manuscript nor a proof 
has been submitted to us recently, as would 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 490. 


have been required before assenting to publi- 
cation as if from the department. Others, 
like ourselves, probably query why the paper 
was not passed upon by the ichthyological 
editor of the Naturalist. A list of corrections 
has been sent to Miss Mitchell, in Louisiana, 
with the expectation that she will request their 
immediate publication. Burr G. Wiper. 
Irnaca, N. Y. 
May 2, 1904. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


A REFERENCE TO THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES IN AN 
EARLY LETTER (1796) SIGNED BY BOTH 
LAMARCK AND GEOFFROY. 


Aone the papers of the elder Peale which 
were recently dispersed in Philadelphia was a 
four-page letter in folio, on official paper, 
signed by Lamarck as director of the Museum 
of Natural History and by Geoffroy as ‘ pro- 
fessor and secretary.’ The writing is in the 
hand of Geoffroy, and it is, accordingly, fair to 
assume the composition and the doing into 
English were also his. The ideas, however, 
are subscribed to by Lamarck ‘for director’ 
in his characteristic hand. i 

One might add that manuscripts connected 
with Lamarck are rare; in fact, few are known 
which touch upon variation in species, and the 
present letter may, therefore, be quoted 
literatim, for what it contains of an extra 
philosophical nature will be at least of human 
interest as indicating the type of correspond- 
ence which such a man as Peale would have 
read to his colleagues of the Academy of 
Natural Sciences. 


at Paris, 30 Juny 1796 
LIBERTE, EGALITE, FRATERNITE. 
MUSEUM NATIONAL 
D'HISTOIRE NATURELLE. 

THE PROFESSORS DIRECTORS OF THE NATIONAL Mu- 
SEUM OF NATURAL History To Mr. PEALES, 
AT PHILADELPHIA. ; 

Sir, 

Mr. Beauvois has transmitted us the letter 
wich you directed to him, by wich you propose 
yoursel to enter into a correspondance with the 
Museum of Natural History of the french Nation. 
We are pleased to seize an opportunity wich can 
afford us some communication with a Naturalist 
of your merit. Every thing you announce is 


May 20, 1904.] 


agreable and will be equally useful on both sides. 
We shall send you with pleasure and care a col- 
lection of the European productions in exchange 
for the Americans, which your love for the sci- 
ence of Nature impels you to collect, be so kind 
as to correspond with us on this subject. The 
way by wich your letters and your sendings can 
reach us is simple. Direct your instructions to 
the Minister of the Marine of the french re- 
publique; marking on the direction that they are 
destined for the Museum of Natural History. 

Give us leave, Sir, to call your attention on the 
subjects wich we desire to receive first. Those 
enormous bones wich are found in great quantity 
on the borders of the Ohio the exact knowledge 
of those objects is more important towards the 
theory of the earth, than is generally thought of. 
We ardently wish some couples of alive animals 
a@ bourses (Marsupialia, opossums). Their gen- 
eration is too hypothetical. The french Natural- 
ists wish to acquire at last a solid opinion on 
this important question, wich can throw a light 
on the generation in general. The scalpel may 
perhaps lead us to discover particular organs, 
wich have not yet been described, wich might 
afford us some new views. 

We also desire some species of quadrupeds of 
your climate. they have some conformity with 
those of the ancient continent. they are even been 
confounded with one another. Neverthelss we 
think they differ as to their species; and to be as- 
sured of it positively we should be pleased to re- 
ceive indistinctly* all those you could have gath- 
ered. We are about to proove that no species 
of the ancient continent exists in the new et vice 
versa and that great proof founded in the contrary 
opinion by wich both continents were formerly 
united towards the north would fall as groundless. 

Therefore it would be highly important to us 
to know the Bears of the Illinois the stags and 
Roe-bucks of Canada the stairs,t the mountain 
Rats (Marmottes) the weasels (Belettes) the Bats 
(Chauvre souris) the moles (taupes) the martes 
(les martes) the beavers (les Castors ou bievres) 
ete We should be grateful if you would join to 
these the animals of our own country wich have 
transmitted in our ships to your country, as the 
rats, the mouses the sorex araneus (mus araigne). 
It is incredible what variety these animals offer to 
the attentive eye. How many analogous forms 
are taken for Species. It would be interesting to 
know what degeneration their transplantation has 
produced on their economy. They would lead us 

* ? indiscriminately. 

+ ? Bison. 


SCIENCE. 


799 


to a more exact knowledge on the nature of the 
Species and even of the Species in general. 
Spiritous liquors are the best means of preserving 
of all those animals. by this mean we will ac- 
quire with respect to foreign animals all the most 
striking facts wich they offer to the observator. 
We know better their external form, their 
skeletton, their organes of nutrition, of respiration, 
of circulation, of generation; and to finish ani- 
mals always arive in a good condition. It is the 
manner in wich we shall transmit to you all our 
animals, wether quadrupeds, or birds or insects 
if these animals are of a smale size unless you 
prefer the ordinary means. 

As to great animals whose preservation in 
spirituous liquor would be too dispendious,* we 
would be satisfied with the skins but for gods sake 
leave to the skin the scull and bones of the feet. 
We would be equally grateful if you would add to 
your envoys a skeleton separated from the great 
animals, whose form is different from that of 
those species well known in Europe, and to use the 
language of Naturalists a skeletton of each gender. 
We shall pay the same regard to you We shall 
not fail of sending you preparations as we wish 
them form you, convinced that it is to the progress 
of Natural History. 

We already possess a sufficient quantity of smal 
birds from north America, however the list of 
those wanting in consulting the work of Catesby 
is considerable. you will find it with this letter. 
By this mean you will be informed that all the 
birds marked by Catesby wich are not inscribed 
on the list form a part of our precious collection 
and are less necessary than the others. 

We wished, Sir, that our correspondance should 
not be confined to the exchanges of Huropean 
productions with American only, be to kind as to 
make it litterary; send us the catalogue of all 
the works appearing on Natural History in the 
united States. Let us know the history of that 
science by your know corporations of learned men 
instituted to its progress. Depend on the recipro- 
cation on our part. Inquire, Sir, after all the 
particulas; do not fear to swell your letter. I 
shall give it ful credit as much as it lays in my 
power. When the means shall be deficient, I shall 
write it to you with frankness. 

Accept, Sir, the assurance of our estim and 
obedience. 
LAMARCK 
for director. 


GEOFFROY 
Professor and Secretary of the 
Administration of the Mu- 
sewm of Natural History. 


* 7 Expensive. 


800 


The obvious interest of the foregoing letter 
is in its testimony that the writers were keenly 
alert as to transformism at this early date 
(1796), and that they had even marked out 
an important line of inquiry—comparison of 
old world species with new world species, and 
a study of the variation of those forms which 
had been introduced and allowed to run wild 
for a considerable period, possibly a hundred 
years. In other words, they are seeking ‘a 
more exact knowledge on the nature of the 
species and even -of the species in general.’ 
And they clearly assume the importance of 
evolution, when they aim to measure the 
amount of change (degeneration) which trans- 
plantation has caused in the economy of 
mammals. Especially conspicuous is the im- 
portance which is apparently attributed to the 
Buffonian factor: ‘ we also desire some species 
of quadrupeds from your climates’ “Tt is 
ineredible what variety these animals offer to 
the attentive eye.” There is even a crude 
notion of parallelism in the remark that 
‘many analogous forms are taken for species.’ 
Noteworthy also is their interest in the paleon- 
tological evidence, for the bones from salt 
licks are expected to yield important evidence 
as to ‘the theory of the earth.’ And we may 
conclude that Lamarck had evidently his 
Hydrogéologie (1802) as well as transformism 
in mind in his search for evidences as to dis- 
tinetness of species widely separated geo- 
graphically when he theorizes as to the ancient 
outlines of continents, and maintains that no 
species of the ancient continent exist in the 
new. 

The present paper, moreover, narrows the 
probability that Lamarck borrowed his trans- 
formism from Doctor Darwin. For Lamarck 
is not known to have had evolutional tend- 
encies before about 1799, and it has accord- 
ingly been stated that the Zoonomia (1794) 
was the slowly working cause of his con- 
version. By the present evidence, moreover, 
he was enterprisingly investigating the nature 
and variability of species, as early as the 
spring of 1796, 7. e., less than two years after 
the publication of Darwin’s work, and possibly 
before it was circulated abroad. Indeed, even 
in England there is little reference to it be- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 490. 


fore 1798, and Paley’s attack upon Darwinism 
did not appear till 1802. Of certain interest 
is the literary partnership of Lamarck and 
Geoffroy in philosophical matters at this early 
date. Geoffroy was then but twenty-four 
years of age, and this is, as far as I am aware, 
the earliest record of his interest in the origin 
of species. It antedates by several years his 
studies on the mummied fauna of Egypt; and 
we may naturally query whether he may not 
already have had in mind to test the possibil- 
ities of variation by comparison of the early 
and late ‘ productions ’ of the valley of the Nile 
before Napoleon had laid his plans for an 
actual invasion ? Basurorp Dran. 
CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 
THE NATURE OF THE PELEE TOWER. 


THE recent publication of a note by Pro- 
fessor Lacroix (Comptes Rendus, March 20, 
1904) on the production of quartziferous rocks 
in the course of the actual eruption of Mont 
Pelée, and the stated conclusion arrived at by 
the distinguished French geologist that rocks 
of this character (and by analogy, other 
igneous rocks of more clearly marked figure, 
such as microgranulite and even true granite) 
may be formed superficially and do not re- 
quire in their construction deep-seated pres- 
sure—conditions which have long since been 
recognized, even if the processes of formation 
had not before been observed—afford, perhaps, 
a sufficient reason for me to state my belief 
that the giant obelisk of rock, which at the 
time of its greatest development, the close of 
May of last year, towered out of the crateral 
opening of the voleano to a height of nearly 
1,000 feet (and, had there been no summit, 
breakages would probably have risen a full 
thousand feet higher), had not the structure 
that was assigned to it by Lacroix—namely, 
that it represented an exceedingly viscous 
acidie lava which solidified immediately on its 
extrusion and rose vertically under volcanic 
stress instead of flowing off in the manner 
of the normal laya-streams. This seemingly 
simple explanation of one of the most remark- 
able structural forms of the earth’s surface 
has apparently been accepted by most geolog- 
ists, and my own earlier studies led me to the 
same conclusion. A later critical examina- 


May 20, 1904.] 


tion, however, based upon considerations 
drawn from the form of the tower, the dis- 
tinctly varying conditions of two opposed 
faces, the absence of fluidal overflow at any 
point, and the sharp line of demarkation that 
separated the base of the structure from the 
enveloping cone or dome (in which a true 
flow was plainly apparent, exemplifying the 
Georgios-Santorin dome of 1866 and the 
Vesuvian ‘monticule’ of 1895), and a review 
of the difficulties that stand in the way of the 
Lacroix explanation, forces upon me very 
strongly the impression that the tower was 
merely the ancient core of the voleano that 
had been loosened from its moorings and lifted 
bodily outward by the force of the volcano’s 
activity. The whole appearance of the tower 
was much more suggestive of an ancient rock 
metamorphosed by heat (or steam) action than 
of a newly formed and rapidly solidified lava, 
and as early as August, 1902 (McOlure’s Mag- 
azine), when its extraordinary relations were 
still unknown, I referred to it (and others, 
likewise) as giving the aspect of ‘ burned-out 
cinder masses.’ This view of the structure 
of the Pelée tower has, indeed, suggested it- 
self as a possibility to other geologists, and 
I believe was held tentatively by some before I 
had myself seriously considered it; but at this 
time it does not seem to me that there can be 
much doubt as to its broad accuracy. 

The lifting of giant rock-masses or moun- 
tain-cores through the crateral axis of a 
voleano is not entirely unknown, for it is now 
many years since Abich described, in his 
monumental work on Transcaucasia, the up- 
heaved mass occupying a portion of the 
erateral wall of the Palandokan voleano; and 
a somewhat similar structure had been noted 
still earlier by Scrope in the Puy Chopine of 
the Auvergne. Neither of these structures 
was in any way comparable in magnitude with 
the Pelée tower, but their manner of uplift 
was not unlikely largely identical. The fact 
that most volcanoes ‘plug’ themselves after 
varying periods of activity, and that some of 
these reopen directly in the line of earlier erup- 
tions, would in itself seem to suggest that from 


time to time extravasated plugs (meck-cores _ 


or towers) should appear at the surface, and 


SCIENCE. 


801 


I take it for granted that some, at least, of 
what have heretofore been considered as vol- 
canic erosion-fragments are in reality merely 
structures of this kind. It can hardly be 
possible that upthrusts of this nature should 
not exist. Sir Richard Strachey has, indeed, 
called attention Gn Nature) to numerous 
‘towers’ or fingers occurring over the trap- 
flows of the Dekkan plateau, and he likens 
these (observed and sketched by him the 
better part of seventy years ago) to the Pelée 
excrescence. In how far the structures may 
or may not be identical only~a new study of 
the Indian field can positively determine; but 
I believe that the Indian figures will be found 
to represent the extremely acute ‘ thumbs’ and 
pinnacles which surmount the trap plateau of 
different parts of Greenland (Omenak Prom- 
ontory, Disko Island), whose origin through 
erosion can not be questioned. Somewhat 
more doubtful may be the character of the 
(true) Devil’s Thumb which marks the en- 
trance to Melville Bay, and whose picture 
looms up in my mind very similar to that of 
Pelée’s tower. 

In this brief note it is impossible to enter 
into a discussion of the difficulties that oppose 
themselves to the generally accepted view of 
the structure of the Pelée tower; some of 
these will be more particularly referred to in 
a general paper which is about being sent to 
press. The view here expressed may lead to 
a better understanding of the relations of the 
ejected fragmental rock, the greater part of 
which, it seems to me, is from the old stock 
of the voleano, with the chemical and physical 
composition of which it so closely agrees. 

: AwnceLto Hemprin. 

PHILADELPHIA, 

May 5, 1904. 


CURRENT NOTES ON METEOROLOGY. 
A NEW SUNSHINE RECORDER. 

In Symons’s Meteorological Magazine for 
March, the new Dawson-Lander sunshine re- 
corder is thus described. The instrument con- 
sists of a fixed drum, on which some silver 
chloride photographie printing paper is fast- 
ened, under a film of transparent celluloid. 
An outer cover is rotated by clock-work once 


802 SCIENCE. 


in twenty-four hours, and a narrow slit is 
thereby directed towards the sun. A hood, 
funnel-shaped, protects the slit from diffused 
light, and allows of an error of about half an 
hour in the elock before sunlight is cut off 
from the slit. The drum earrying the sensi- 
tive paper travels, without rotation, along the 
axis of the cylinder, so that the record of a 
number of days may be obtained, one below 
the other. The advantages of this instrument 
are as follows: The chloride of silver paper 
makes possible a standard of intensity of sun- 
shine which can be reproduced; the same size 
of paper is used at all seasons, and the instru- 
ment is serviceable for the sunshine of polar 
as well as of temperate latitudes. 


CLIMATE OF CHILE. 

A paper on ‘The Economic Geography of 
Chile,’ by J. Russell Smith, in the Bulletin of 
the American Geographical Society, XX XVL., 
1904, 1-21, lays emphasis on the striking cli- 
matic contrasts between the northern desert 
provinces and the southern cool and rainy 
districts within the latitudes of the prevailing 
westerly winds. Between the deserts of the 
north and the forests of the south lie the agri- 
cultural regions of central Chile. Were it 
not for the mineral wealth, the great seaports 
and settlements of northern Chile would never 
have been developed, for the climatic condi- 
tions are distinctly hostile to human oceupa- 
tion. In the south, where the abundant rain- 
fall favors the growth of trees, future deforesta- 
tion will open the land more and more for set- 
tlement, but ‘the economic center of gravity, 
and the home of four fifths or more of Chilean 
population, is, and must continue to be, in 
the central or agricultural region.’ These 
large facts of the climatic control of settle- 
ment and occupation in Chile can not fail to 


impress themselves upon even the most casual 


observer who has the opportunity, which in 
1897 came to the compiler of these notes, of 
making a climatic cross-section along the 
west coast of South America by taking the 
voyage from the Straits of Magellan to 
Panama. 


[N.S. Vou. XTX. No. 490. 


MOUNTAIN~ SICKNESS. 

In Mr. D. W. Freshfield’s book, ‘Round 
Kangchenjunga,’ it appears that those per- 
sons who suffered from mountain sickness 
were most affected between 15,000 and 16,000 
feet, and that there was no increase of 
symptoms up to 20,000 feet. One member of 
the party ‘had a constitution on which the 
only effect of altitudes of 20,000 feet was to 
increase his appetite and consequently his 
weight.’ Mr. Freshfield was able to walk 
from 138,000 to 16,000 feet without halting, 
and sees no obstacle, so far as the physiolog- 
ical effects of diminished pressure are con- 
cerned, to an ascent of loftier mountains than 
Kangchenjunga. 


WRECKS AND CASUALTIES ON THE GREAT LAKES 
IN 1903. 

Accorvine to the ‘ Meteorological Chart of 
the Great Lakes, Summary for the Season of 
1903, by A. J. Henry and N. B. Conger 
(Weather Bureau No. 298, 1904), twenty-four 
vessels became total losses through stress of 
weather. The loss due to fog was $277,500. 
The number of lives lost through stormy 
weather was forty-nine. R. DeC. Warp. 


PROGRESS OF THE CONCILIUM BIBLIO- 
GRAPHICUM. 

Dr. Hersert Havinanp Fieip, director of 
the Concilium, sends us an advance copy of 
his report, the most encouraging by far which 
he has been able to issue. 

The number of cards issued since the 
foundation of the Concilium is 12,942,000. 

The principal features of the progress of 
the past year are set forth in this very inter- 
esting report. 

Of especial interest to Americans is the es- 
tablishment of a set of the complete reference 
catalogue in the public room of the American 
Museum of Natural History, where it will not 
only be accessible to students, but from which 
immediate orders can be filled. This arrange- 
ment has been brought about by conference 
between the director of the concilium and 
Director Bumpus of the museum. 


a er Sa a nel 


May 20, 1904.] 


CONCILIUM BIBLIOGRAPHICUM (ZURICH, SWITZER- 
LAND). GENERAL STATEMENT FOR 1903. 

The present year has been a memorable one 
in the annals of the concilium. For the first 
time since the foundation of the work, the 
director has been able to renew personal rela- 
tions with the great body of American zoolo- 
gists and librarians. In Washington, Balti- 
more, Philadelphia, Princeton, New York, 
Woods Hole and Boston, an endeavor was made 
to gather suggestions and impressions from all 
possible sources; technical methods and de- 
vices were studied, and the firm conviction was 
obtained that the concilium may count on the 
support of American men of science. Not a 
trace of adverse criticism came to our ears, 
nothing but unqualified approval. It was 
particularly gratifying to see the many un- 
foreseen applications of our classificatory sys- 
tem in zoological institutes and in libraries, 
large and small. In short, in this land, where 
the readiness to accept all innovations that 
are really practical is proverbial, we met an 
unexpected warmth of approval. Through a 
communication made in the Library Congress, 
and through numerous visits, the opinions of 
the leading librarians and bibliographers were 
also gathered. Here again there was una- 
nimity, or rather, to be exact, unanimity less 
one dissenting voice. 

The most noteworthy testimonial encoun- 
tered in America was the offer of the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History to patronize 
the work. This institution purchases the 
most complete set of cards obtainable, in- 
eluding the card catalogue of new species, ete. 
In addition, a complete collection of the main 
bibliography will be deposited in its library 
for distribution to those desiring to receive 
references to any special topic. Whenever 
information is desired, the cards may be ob- 
tained from the museum at the same terms as 
from Ziirich and the ecards thus withdrawn 
will be replenished as soon as’ possible. 

Another important step taken in 1903 has 
been the reunion of the card catalogue with 
the Zoolog. Anzeiger. The concilium is thus 
called upon to continue a bibliography which 
forms an unbroken sequence since the year 
1700. This circumstance gives to the con- 


SCIENCE. 


803 


cilium a unique position among the biblio- 
graphical enterprises of the world and makes 
it doubly the duty of biologists to aid the in- 
stitution in its work. 

The circumstances attending the transfer of 
the editorship of the bibliography of the 
Zoolog. Anzeiger to our hands were unfor- 
tunate in the extreme. We had no means of 
knowing what had been done and what re- 
mained to be done. Old illegible manuscript 
had to be utilized and a new organization 
created in the absence of the director of the 
concilium. The product was most unsatis- 
factory, and yet the time spent on the work 
was such as to hamper our entire activity and 
oceasion serious financial loss. Now, how- 
ever, the principal difficulties are removed and 
the work promises scientific success even 
though the arrangement be of little financial 
benefit to the concilium. 

The report for 1903 would be incomplete 
without a tribute to the memory of Professor 
J. Victor Carus, late editor of the Zoolog. An- 
zeiger. A zoologist of the old school familiar 
with the science in all its ramifications, he 
also brought to the work profound classical 
learning, a rare knowledge of languages, a 
fine sense of order and proportions and a 
passion for hard work, which seemed almost 
incredible. Prevented by ill health from fol- 
lowing an active career, he devoted his life to 
bibliography. Even in the last years, this 
feeble octogenarian sat whole days at his desk 
and prepared in his fine cramped handwriting 
the 10,000 titles that were sent yearly to press. 
No one who has never tried it can know what 
that means. To have done this for a lifetime 
seems beyond the powers of human endurance. 
But in spite of all this routine, it is to the 
added eredit of Professor Carus that his mind 
was ever open to new ideas. Just as in his 
scientific career he became an ardent convert 
to Darwinism and took foremost place in 
making the works of Darwin accessible to his 
countrymen, so in later years he seized with 
avidity the new ideas in bibliography which 
the founding of the concilium made promi- 
nent and began the transformation of his 
bibliography in accordance with them. 

With equal vigor, the old master of bibli- 


804 SCIENCE. 


ography felt himself, however, called upon to 
denounce an enterprise which, breaking with 
all sound bibliographical traditions, sought to 
evolye around the diplomatic green table a 
plan for a vast and disordered compilation, 
which through the simple fact of financial 
superiority was to supplant the product of all 
the individual labor of which Professor Carus 
offered in his own life the noblest example. 
It is not too much to say that this contemptu- 
ous neglect cast a deep shadow over the last 
years of his life. He lived, however, long 
enough to see his contention justified by 
events and to be freed, as he expressed it, 
from a dreadful nightmare. 

Financially the year closed with a def- 
icit, which, in view of the complications of 
the year, was quite inevitable. Fortunately, 
the American Association for the Advance- 
ment of Science and the Elizabeth Thompson 
Science Fund again came to the rescue. It 
has been generally taken for granted that the 
petition of the American Society of Natural- 
ists and the American Association ensured 
favorable action on our request for adequate 
aid from the Carnegie Institution; but in 
spite of endorsement by the zoological ad- 
yisory committee, no grant has been awarded. 
We are, therefore, again forced to make a 
strenuous appeal to private generosity. 

The public expressions of approval of our 
work have been even more numerous in the 
past year than in those that have preceded. 
Besides the resolutions of the societies above 
mentioned and the discussion at the Library 
Congress, we may mention the articles pub- 
lished by Mr. Van den Broeck in which he 
declares that the work of the concilium is the 
ideal which other enterprises must endeavor 
to attain. In the ensuing correspondence, a 
plan for enlarging the scope of the concilium 
towards geology was elaborated, and could be 
realized if the necessary funds were forth- 
coming. 

At the congress of the International Asso- 
ciation of Botanists held in Leiden in April, 
a day was given to the discussion of a project 
of forming a botanical section of the con- 
cilium, and resolutions were unanimously 
passed advocating such action and offering as 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 490. 


a contribution to the section the same sum 
that the association had hitherto devoted to 
its own bibliography. This offer was accepted 
by the concilium, to take effect as soon as an 
equal sum from some other source should be 
obtainable. The committee of the association 
has generously left the entire question open 
for a year pending the endeavor to obtain 
adequate support for the concilium. ; 

During the summer of 1903, an interna- 
tional congress of forestry took up the ques- 
tion of bibliography and appointed a com- 
mittee to consider the question of founding a 
bibliography in connection with the concilium. 
This action, of which we had no knowledge in 
advance, shows how far our work is being ap- 
preciated. The international committee is to 
meet soon in Ziirich. 

Arrangements have been perfected for the 
organization of a new bibliography in connec- 
tion with the Archiv fiir Rassen- und Gesell- 
schaftsbiologie. This bibliography will be 
the beginning of the realization of the plans 
for an exhaustive treatment of anthropology. 

A promising project of extending the ac- 
tivity of the concilium to certain applications 
of science has been quite unexpectedly brought 
to us. One of the workers in the concilium 
is devoting himself to it. 

The close of the year has finally seen the 
opening of a series of negotiations of great 
importance for the future organization of 
scientific bibliography, and which all tend to 
bring existing bibliographies one by one into 
harmony with our work. Though unsought 
by us, this new tendency is certainly to the 
advantage of all parties concerned and in the 
interest of science. 

Further evidence of the reputation which 
the concilium has won is to be found in the 
great increase in the number of publications 
sent to this office for notice. With scientific 
societies this practice has become quite gen- 
eral and publishers are rapidly following the 
example. 

Besides the innovations to which allusion 
has been made in the preceding pages, three 
new publications will be undertaken in 1904. 

One of these will be a list of the journals 


ae 


May 20, 1904.] 


which have been excerpted for the bibliog- 
raphy. 


SCIENCE. 


805 


references deal with individual groups of ani- 
mals found in Sumatra, as, e. g., Hispide or 


| 196-98 | 1899 1900 | 1901 1902 1903 Total 
(A) Subject Index. | | 

1. Paleontology ...................... 1,460 | 1,840 | 2,662 | 2,035 | 1,486 | 2,170 | 11,603 
ZeaGenerally IOlOSyieyneyers orlsieie see cil loll = lena Siz 151 92 155 93 200 878 
B, WMiNGROKGo 7, GUC: skodos0ssoodcqeeuuus 266 132 249 263 107 169 1,186 
DE Oi Solkaisn7 ae be ot occ ERCP eRe ne | 18,845 | 14,271 | 13,326 | 16,845 | 11,059 | 11,..... | 85,..... 
HePAn ALOU mire scutes aesee. 1,940 936 | 1,875 | 2,007 | 1,224 | 1,5 9) Bass 
@, TihyghWleny tos koe ae ee eee TESS 0 le1eo 70a avaga)) mye ese = 3,083 

Tope ee eR 24,078 | 18,600 | 18,637 | 21,305 | 13,919 | 15,2... |111,7 

(B) Authors’ Index. .........00...0000- |16,165 | 9,492 | 10,890 | 10,119 | 6,727 | 7,..... | 60,.. 
TOL Oe ne tes ce eae | 40,243 | 28,092 | 29,527 | 31,424 | 20,646 | 23,..... |173,..... 
Another is a card catalogue of all new JLemoniide. In the ‘systematic set,’ they are 


names of generic or subgeneric rank which 
have been proposed in paleontology or in zool- 
ogy since January 1, 1901. Each name will 
be given two entries, one under the appro- 
priate taxonomic heading, the other in alpha- 
betical arrangement. The price per card of 
the new catalogue will be double the usual 
tariff. ‘ 

The third new publication is that relating 
to comparative physiology, in regard to which 
a special circular has been prepared. 

Sooner than we expected, our quarters have 
become too small for storing our rapidly grow- 
ing collection; but relief has been found for 
the overflow in a neighboring house. 

The following table shows the total number 
of entries in a complete set of cards arranged 
by subjects and by authors. The years refer 
to the date of publication of the cards. 

Distribution by Topics—The distribution 
of primary cards in the chief divisions of the 
bibliography is shown in the following tables. 
Our statistics are, however, merely approxi- 
mate, the earlier cards of the complete series 
being now quite out of print. The ‘ complete 
set’ as understood by us can best be explained 
by an example. Subscribers to the complete 
set have thus far received 134 cards in the 
division ‘Fauna of Sumatra. This same di- 
vision of the systematic set contains a single 
reference (Moesch: ‘Nach und aus dem Pfef- 
ferlande’). This contribution appeared to us 
too general for us to cite it under any par- 
ticular systematic group and it was classed 
under Sumatra in general; the remaining 133 


entered under Hispidze, Lemoniide, ete. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

Mr. F. A. Lucas, curator of the Division of 
Comparative Anatomy of the U. S. National 
Museum, has been appointed curator in chief 
of the Museum of the Brooklyn Institute of 
Arts and Sciences. Mr. Lucas succeeds Mr. 
Alfred G. Mayer, who, as we have already an- 
nounced, has been appointed curator of the 
Marine Laboratory of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion at Tortugas, Florida. 


Sir Davin Gi, director of the Observatory 
of the Cape of Good Hope, has been elected 
honorary member of the Finnish Academy of 
Sciences. 


Tue French Geographical Society, at its 
general meeting on April 22, conferred gold 
medals on Dr. Sven Hedin and Captain 
Lenfant. 


THE Council of the British Institution of 
Civil Engineers has made the following 
awards for papers read and discussed before 
the institution during the past session: A 
Telford gold medal to Major Sir Robert Han- 
bury Brown; a George Stephenson gold medal 
to Mr. G. H. Stephens, C.M.G.; and a Watt 
gold medal to Mr. Alphonse Steiger; Telford 
premiums to Mr. K. W. De Rusett, Dr. Hugh 
Robert Mill, Mr. Alexander Millar, and Mr. 
T. E. Stanton; a Manby premium to Professor 
J. Campbell Brown; and a Crampton prize to 
Mr. L. H. Savile. 


806 SCIENCE. 


Tue Iron and Steel Institute of Great Brit- 
ain held its twenty-fifth annual meeting at 
London on May 6 and 7. Mr. Andrew Car- 
negie presided. The Bessemer gold medal for 
1903 was presented to Sir James Kitson, M.P., 
past president, in recognition of his conspicu- 
ous services in the advancement of the metal- 
lurgy of iron and steel. The Andrew Car- 
negie gold medal for 1903 was awarded to Mr. 
Alfred Champion of Coopers Hill for re- 
searches in the heat treatment of steel under 
conditions of steelworks practise. A special 
medal was also awarded to Dr. O. Boudonard, 
of Paris, in recognition of the merits of his 
research on the determination of the points 
of allotropie changes of iron. Four Carnegie 
research scholarships of the value of £100, 
tenable for one year, were awarded respectively 
to C. O. Bannister (London), to P. Breuil 
(Paris), to K. A. Gunnar Dillner in conjunc- 
tion with A. F. Enstrém (Stockholm), and to 
J. C. Gardner (Middlesbrough). Further 
grants were also made to A. Campion and to 
P. Longmuir (Sheffield). The Bessemer gold 
medal for 1904 was presented to Mr. Roberts 
A. Hadfield, vice-president, in recognition of 
his great services to the metallurgy of iron and 
steel. The Andrew Carnegie gold medal for 
1904 was awarded to M. Pierre Breuil, of 
Paris, and a special silver medal was awarded 
to Mr. Perey Longmuir, of Sheffield. 


At the annual meeting of the Royal Insti- 
tution on May 2, officers were elected as fol- 
lows: President, the Duke of Northumber- 
land; treasurer, Sir James Crichton-Browne; 
secretary, Sir William Crookes; managers, 
Dr. Henry E. Armstrong, Sir William Abney, 
Mr. Shelford Bidwell, Sir Alexander Binnie, 
Mr. J. H. Balfour Browne, K.C., the Hon. Sir 
Henry Burton Buckley, Sir Thomas A. De la 
Rue, Dr. J. A. Fleming, Sir Victor Horsley, 
Lord Kelvin, Dr. Ludwig Mond, Sir Owen 
Roberts, Sir Thomas Henry Sanderson, Sir 
Felix Semon and Mr. W. H. Spottiswoode. 


Proressor E. B. Witson, of Columbia Uni- 
versity, has sailed for Europe to continue his 
researches at the Naples Zoological Station. 


Proressor Ernst Harcken, who recently 
celebrated his seventieth birthday in Italy, 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 490. 


has returned to Jena and has resumed his 
lectures. 


We learn from The Observatory that Dr. 
W. Doberck has returned to Hong Kong Ob- 
servatory after a period of leave in Europe 
on account of his health. His assistant, Mr. 
Figg, is now coming to England for a year 
or two. 

An Astronomical Society has been founded 
at Newcastle on Tyne with Mr. P. E. Espin 
as the first president. 

Epwarp W. Brrry has been elected record- 
ing secretary of the Torrey Botanical Club 
in the place of Professor F. 8. Earle, who has 
resigned to accept a scientific position in 
Cuba. 

Miss Eucenta Merzcrr, M.D., assistant in 
physiology at the University of Missouri, has 
been appointed to the woman’s table at the 
Zoological Station at Naples for the months 
of June, July and August. 

Tue first field party of the U. S. Geological 
Survey to leave Washington this year is, as 
usual, the Alaskan contingent. During the 
past winter, congress increased its appropria- 
tion for Alaskan work from $60,000 to $80,000. 
Nine parties will be engaged there during the 
coming season in topographic and geologic 
work. Besides these, three subparties, which 
may be counted as offshoots of the larger ones, 
will take up special work, so that the number 
of survey investigations in Alaska during the 
summer will be twelve as compared with seven 
of last year. Among those taking part in the 
work are Mr. A. H. Brooks, Mr. ©. W. Wright, 
Mr. F. W. Wright, Mr. F. H. Moffit, Dr. T. 
W. Stanton, Mr. A. G. Collier, Mr. L. M. 
Prindle and Mr. C. W. Purrington. 


Proresson G. H. Parker, of Harvard Uni- 


versity, has given at the Brooklyn Institute 
of Arts and Sciences a course of six lectures 
on ‘Human Sense Organs and their Eyolu- 
tion.’ 

Tue Horticultural Society of New York 
held its sixth annual meeting at the New 
York Botanical Garden on May 11. At the 
conelusion of the business meeting an illus- 
trated lecture on ‘Common Trees and their 
Uncommon Flowers’ was given by Mr. J. 


= Veet 


May 20, 1904.] 


Horace McFarland. There was an exhibition 
of plants and flowers. 


Tue Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sci- 
ences held, on May 10, a memorial meeting in 
honor of Herbert Spencer, the principal ad- 
dress being made by President J. G. Schur- 
man, of Cornell University. 


A COMMITTEE has been formed to prepare a 
memorial of the late Leslie Stephen, which 
in the first instance will consist of an engra- 
ving of a portrait by Mr. Watts, which will be 
presented to institutions with which Sir Leslie 
Stephen was closely associated. 


Proressor A. W. Wituiamson, F.R.S., the 
eminent British chemist, died on May 6, at 
the age of eighty years. 

WE regret also to record the death of Sir 
Henry M. Stanley, the African explorer, of M. 
Leidie, professor of chemistry at Paris, and of 
Dr. W. Thiermann, lecturer on applied elec- 
tricity at the Technical School at Hamburg. 

THE annual conyversazione of the Royal So- 
ciety was held on May 13. 


THERE will be a civil service examination 
on June 16 to fill the position of laboratory 
aid in physiology and pathology in the Depart- 
ment of Agriculture at a salary of $720. 

THE government of Iceland has appropri- 
ated about $10,000 a year for twenty years 
to establish wireless telegraphic connection 
with Great Britain and between the towns of 
Iceland. 


Unoprr date of March 8, 1904, U. S. Consul 
H. L. Washington, of Geneva, reports that 
during the month of February the advance 
in piercing of the Simplon Tunnel was only 
15 feet 7 inches per each working-day, and 
this work was entirely on the southern side. 
The tunneling work in the gallery on the 
northern side had not been resumed. In each 
of the two galleries a system of safety doors 
was being placed to lessen the effect of floods 
that may be caused by the springs. These 
doors would be completed about the middle of 
March and the mechanical boring would not 
be resumed until then in both galleries. At 
the end of February, 1904, a little more than 
11.295 miles had been drilled, leaving 0.964 
mile to be tunneled. 


SCIENCE. 


807 


Mr. ArcHipaLD RoGEeRs, a member of the 
board of trustees of the American Museum of 
Natural History, has presented to the museum 
an exceptionally perfect copy of the first edi- 
tion of Audubon’s ‘ Birds of the United States 
of America.’ It is believed that not more than 
175 copies of this edition of ‘ Audubon’ are 
now in existence, of which about one half are 
thought to be in this country. Published in 
87 parts at ten dollars each, the work is now 
valued at $3,000. 


Mr. Max J. Barr, consul at Cienfuegos, 
writes to the Department of State in refer- 
ence to the use of the metric system in Cuba, 
stating that it is established by law and is 
adopted in all transactions at the custom- 
house, city hall, and in the registry and rec- 
ords .of property; in fact, it is compulsory 
and adhered to in all official acts. In grocer- 
ies, all solid goods are sold by the ounce and 
pound, the United States pound being used, 
as the scales are mostly of American manu- 
facture, a few only being imported from Ger- 
many. Liquors are usually sold at wholesale 
in original packages and at retail by the bottle 
or fraction of a bottle, the poor people some- 
times buying a few cents’ worth. The coun- 
try’s products, such as cereals, are sold by the 
pound or fraction thereof, except that corn 
when sold in ears is sold by the fanega, which 
is 1,000 ears of eorn. Vegetables are gener- 
ally sold by the pound, the arroba, or 25 
pounds. Cabbages and bananas are sold in 
numbers from one up to one hundred or more. 
Civil engineers and land surveyors employ the 
metric system throughout their measurements. 
Mechanics in general make use of English 
inches as their unit measure. 


THE next meeting of the Museums Associa- 
tion will be held at Norwich, during July 14 
to 17, under the presidency of Dr. Sydney 
Harmer, F.R.S., keeper of the Museum of 
Zoology at Cambridge University. The mem- 
bership of the association has increased so 
greatly of recent years that a large attend- 
ance is expected. We are asked to state that 
American visitors will be particularly wel- 
come. Further information may be obtained 
from the secretary, E. Howarth, Public Mu- 
seum, Sheffield, England. : 


808 SCIENCE. 


Unper date of March 3, 1901, it was an- 
Dounced that ‘in order to further the labo- 
ratory instruction of large classes of students, 
Professor W. T. Porter would undertake to 
provide reliable physiological apparatus con- 
structed under his personal supervision.’ 
During the past three years such apparatus 
has been made by the mechanics of the Har- 
yard Laboratory of Physiology. The demand 
for this apparatus now warrants a more sys- 
tematic provision for its manufacture. Pro- 
fessor Porter therefore announces the forma- 
tion of The Harvard Apparatus Company, 
organized for the advancement of laboratory 
teaching in physiology and allied sciences. 
This company will manufacture physiological 
apparatus of simple design, sound workman- 
ship, and low cost, suitable for laboratory 
teaching and for research. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Governor Ope has signed the bill appro- 
priating $250,000 for the erection of a build- 
ing for the College of Agriculture at Cornell 
University. 

THE corporation of the Massachusetts Insti- 
tute of Technology voted that the executive 
committee be required to ascertain whether 
any arrangement can be made with Harvard 
University for a combination of effort in tech- 
nical education such as will substantially pre- 
serve the organization, control, traditions and 
name of the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- 
nology. 


Evucene N. Foss has given $50,000 to the 
University of Vermont for the $1,000,000 fund 
which the graduates of that college are trying 
to raise to mark the centenary of the institu- 
tion. 


Tue will of the late Solomon Loeb, of New 
York City, gives more than $100,000 to public 
purposes, including $10,000 for the Chemical 
Laboratory of the New York University, $10,- 
000 for the Hebrew Technical Institute and 
$5,000 to the American Museum of Natural 
History. 

Tur University of Turin has recently cele- 
brated the five hundredth anniversary of its 
foundation. 


[N.S. Vox. XTX. No. 490. 


Denison Universiry has secured a ten-year 
lease on a small plot of ground adjacent to 
the campus containing a fine permanent 
spring for a biological farm. The lease has 
been donated by a friend, also a fund for 
equipment, both amounting to $500. A small 
work room and open-air breeding pools with 
running water have been built and enclosed 
with netting. 


Kine Epwarp laid the cornerstone for the 
new buildings of the Royal College of Science, 
Dublin, on May 28. 


Prorressor Cuartes 8S. Howr was inaugu- 
rated as president of Case School of Applied 
Science, at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 11. 
President Ira Remsen, of Johns Hopkins Uni- 
versity, spoke in behalf of the universities; 


' President H. 8. Pritchett, of the Massachusetts 


Institute of Technology, on behalf of the 
technical schools; John R. Freeman, of the 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
on behalf of the technical societies; and Presi- 
dent Charles Franklin Thwing, of Western 
Reserve University, on behalf of the colleges 


of Ohio. President Howe’s inaugural address 
followed. 


Dr. Maxime Bécuer, now assistant pro- ~ 


fessor, has been appointed professor of mathe- 
matics at Harvard University. Dr. Edward 
D. Peters has been appointed professor of 
metallurgy. 


Dr. A. C. Kerr has been promoted to a pro- 
fessorship of anatomy at Cornell University, 
and has been made secretary of the Ithaca 
Division of the Medical College. 


Dr. Oscar ZotH, professor of physiology at 
Innsbriick, has accepted a call to the Univer- 
sity of Graz. 


Amr Williams College, Dr. Frederick H. 
Howard has been promoted to an assistant 
professorship in the department of anatomy 
and physiology. 


Mr. J. O. Grirrirus, B.A., late scholar of 
Balliol College, Oxford, has been elected to an 
ordinary fellowship after examination in 
mathematics and physics. 


_— 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frpay, May 27, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The American Society of Natwralists :— 
What Academic Degrees should be conferred 
for Scientific Work? PRoFESSoR WILLIAM 
TRELEASE, PRESIDENT DAviID STARR JORDAN, 
Presippent C. R. Van Hise, PRoFessor J. 
McKren Cartett, Proressor Joun M. 
CouLtER, Proressor J. H. BURRILL...... 


Scientific Books :— 
Walden on Wilhelm Ostwald: PROFESSOR 
Harry C. Jones. Bauers Lehrbuch der 
Maneralo gies Gey Wa aps 2 tions sae: 


809 


821 


Scientific Journals and Articles............. 823 


Societies and Academies :— 
The Botawucal Society of Washington: CARL 
S. Scormerp. The Torrey Botanical Club: 
Tracy H. Hazen. Section of Astronomy, 
Physics and Chemistry of the New York 
Academy of Sciences: Dr. C. C. Trow- 
BRipGE. The Section of Biology of the 
Academy of Science and Art of Pittsburg: 
FREDERIC S. WEBSTER. The Society for 
- Hxperimental Biology and Medicine: Dr. 
Wiu1iAm J. Gms. The Science Club of 
the University of Wisconsin: VICTOR 


LENHER 823 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Shall we have Two Grades of Oollege 
Physics? PROFESSOR JAMES SS. STEVENS. 


Comet a 1904: PRoFESSOoR ELLEN HayeEs.. 882 


Special Articles :— 
The Water Soluble Plant Food of Soils: 
ARR YG: SNIMDER fe lcyaie cyst spet oaicasle cused <Cnejeia- 


The Mdison: Meds Pretclsiere stele ce cial cles « 
Scientific Notes and News................- 
University and Educational News.......... 

MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 


for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENCE, Garri- 


son-on-Hudson, N. Y. &§ 


THE AMBRICAN SOCIETY OF NATURALISTS. 
WHAT ACADEMIC DEGREES SHOULD 
BE CONFERRED FOR SCIENTIFIC 
WORK ?* 

THE CHAIRMAN (PROFESSOR TRELEASB) : 
The subject that has been selected for 
the afternoon’s discussion is one of very 
considerable interest to all of us as investi- 
gators, and further, to those of us who are 
teachers as well—the question as to what 
academic degrees should be conferred for 
scientific work. Hrom the time when one 


-of our little people comes home from the 


primary school with a long narrow strip of 
yellow paper with various hieroglyphics on 
it that he has made himself, and with cer- 
tain blue pencil marks which may read 
100, or 90, or 40, we are confronted by one 
phase of the question that we are to analyze 
this afternoon. The arithmetical grading 
of our attamments and our personality be- 
gins at the very moment that we go into 
the kindergarten, and it does not end until 
a well-disposed clergyman tries to find 
something good to say of the worst of us 
when we are through with our life’s work. 
Everywhere between the kindergarten and 
the grave we are confronted with the 
fact that a kind of stamp is put upon us 
in every one of the complications of life that 
we may fall into. 

What are we trying to do as teachers is 
of course perfectly clear to every one of 
us. Those of us who are teachers are try- 
ing to equip people for useful work in life. 
The situation is not unlike that of cur- 

* Annual discussion, St. Louis meeting, Decem- 


ber, 1903. Reported stenographically and cor- 
rected by the speakers. 


810 


rency in China. I had the pleasure a few 
weeks-ago of listening to a very instructive 
address on Chinese banking by a scholarly 
native of that country, who reminded us of 
the time, in the seventies, when one of our 
New England firms thought that it would 
be a very nice thing to take over a lot 
of trade dollars—a thousand or more, to 
China, in order that the good standard coin, 
stamped with the sign manual of a good 
responsible nation, might be passed into 
the Chinese circulation, but he stated that 
before these trade dollars had been in China 
a month they were all melted down into 
bullion and the bullion was cast into 
the ‘shoes’ current in China—stamped with 
the imprint of the firms which chose to 
make them up in this form and guarantee 
their purity and weight. Now I take it 
that in this matter of the stamp of educa- 
tional institutions we are really dealing 
with the same kind of currency question. 
Those of us who are called on to. train men 
are turned to for an expression of opinion 
as to what those men are worth, and what- 
ever that expression of opinion may be, 
and the value of it, are largely a matter of 
the convenience of the people our men may 
be thrown in with afterwards. I think we 
recognize that all of the percentage grad- 
ings, and all of the academic distinctions 
and classifications, and all of the honors 
that come in middle and old age, are merely 
expressions of belief; that the real thing 
we are trying to do is to make men useful, 
and that all marks of approval are merely 
secondary, accessory matters. 

If we are agreed on this, however, I 
think that we are agreed that although 
evils, they are for the time being neces- 
sary evils. It does seem necessary that 
there should be a good deal of this vouch- 
ing for people. With the greater com- 
plexity of our civilization and of our edu- 
cational institutions, it becomes more and 
more necessary, apparently, that there shall 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 491. 


be some of this sort of secondary designa- 
tion, other than that which men can give 
themselves by going into the market and 
performing life’s work; and for that rea- 
son we have this very question of degrees 
standing out prominently before us as in- 
vestigators and teachers. 

The subject that is before us this after- 
noon is one that can be made a very fruit- 
ful subject of discussion, not with refer- 
ence to any action that the American So- 
ciety of Naturalists may take in regard to 
it, not, perhaps, with reference to indi- 
vidual action that any society may take, 
but that through discussion some of the 
undesirable features of the present practise 
may in time be remodeled and replaced by 
a greater simplicity, and with a greater 
expressiveness, perhaps, in what is done. 

With this preface to the work before us, 
I wish to call upon the first of the speakers 
who have agreed to take part in the dis- 
cussion this afternoon, President Jordan of 
Stanford University. 


Dr. JORDAN: 

Mr, Chairman, I was rather hoping that 
somebody that did not agree with us would 
come in between you and me, so that I 
might have something to stir me up to a 
little enthusiasm, something that would re- 
mind us of the old times when Professor 
Coulter and I fought on the bloody sands 
of Indiana against most of the other school- 
men of that state. 

I have felt in regard to degrees very 
much as Caligula did when he said that he 
wished the Roman people had but one 
neck, so that he could despatch it with one 
blow. I have felt that it might be well if. 
the degrees could be unified, and, taking 
them all together, we could abolish them at 
one blow. But doubtless, as the president 
has said, the degree is among the necessary 
evils of our time. Certainly no one institu- 
tion could abolish degrees without distinct 


May 27, 1904.] 


disadvantage to its students, putting them 
in the position of eternally apologizing for 
the fact that they have no degree. The 
essential matter in regard to degrees, which 
should always be kept in mind, is that the 
student should not go out of his way to get 
a degree. It is a crime in education to 
force a student to do something that is not 
the best thing for him, merely to conform to 
some system. The individual is a thousand 
times more important than the system. Our 
work as teachers is really the work of train- 
ing individuals, not to make them conform 
to a system unless the system helps on their 
work. In all of our treatment of degrees 
we should keep that principle in mind— 
that the student ought not to go out of his 
best way. How that best way is to be 
judged is another question, but there is 
always one way better than other ways for 
each particular man. 

I believe also that the degree should not 
be made too much of, and that we should 
not regard it as something particularly vital. 
It is simply a handy term for the registra- 
tion of alumni. I do not believe in making 
the degree a class label. One reason for 
separating the degree of A.B. from other 
bachelors’ degrees has been the supposed 
superiority of the men of classical training. 
If the classical graduate is really superior, 
the fact will show. If he is not superior 
except in name, the assumption that he is 
so would tend to make him ridiculous. We 
know as a matter of fact that there is no 
superiority of classical training over other 
forms of training for all classes of men. 
We know that there is no kind of training 
better for all men than every other form. 

I believe very strongly that it is best as a 
matter of policy for an institution to give 
the same bachelor’s degree for all kinds 
of academic work that may be approved, 
whether it be scientific, or classical, or liter- 
ary, or historical, or whatever it may be. 
Let the four years’ course be marked by the 


SCIENCE. 


811 


degree of bachelor of arts—of arts because 
that term is one of long standing, long used 
in connection with college graduation. Its 
historic meaning is long since lost, and does 
not concern us vitally. Of course, the 
classical course of to-day is not the course 
of a hundred years ago. There is no his- 
torical value to the A.B. There are good 
reasons why the graduates of one institu- 
tion should bear the same title. If one 
wishes to be more explicit, it is easy to 
specify on the diploma which has been the 
major subject. 

As we know, the degree of B.S. has been 
and is grossly abused. It is given for 
short courses on insufficient preparation. 
It usually means bachelor of surfaces in- 
stead of bachelor of science, indicating 
that the bearer of it has none but super- 
ficial knowledge. 

The degree of A.M. is a harmless one 
which means nothing in this country. In 
some institutions it costs five dollars, in 
some others two years of study. In some 
universities it is a step toward the degree 
of doctor of philosophy, and in other places 
it is a name for culture work of some kind 
or for training as a high-school teacher. 
We had a discussion in the Association of 
American Universities a while ago, spend- 
ing several hours on the meaning of the 
master’s degree. The discussion seemed 
to show very clearly that the degree had no 
uniform significance. On the average it 
was simply a convenient way to bring grad- 
uate students from other institutions into 
the roll of alumni of an institution in which 
they had done advanced work. 

The degree which has most significance 
is that of Ph.D., one which we have brought 
from Germany. This is essentially a pro- 
fessional degree, the degree of the profes- 
sional scholar, the professional investigator, 
as distinguished from the men who are not 
making their scholarship a profession. 
Professional degrees are the only ones with 


812 SCIENCE. 


permanent significance and the profes- 
sional degree of doctor, of philosophy should 
find its cognate in doctor of medicine, and 
the professional degree of law. Scientific 
degrees should be called by the same name 
as any corresponding degrees in scholar- 
ship. We should not attempt to split up 
our courses, separating scientific men from 
the other men. I think any distinction 
by way of degrees and badges is rather 
unfortunate, but that we should grant to 
all persons with high scholarship the same 
names and titles so far as these have any 
value at all. At present professional de- 
grees have very different values. Some 
are university, degrees, representing the 
professional training of an educated man, 
and some are trade degrees, showing that 
a man with or, without education has at- 
tended lectures and learned something of 
the trade. The professional schools of 
some of our universities say: ‘‘There are 
sO many men going to be doctors, or law- 
yers, willing to enter the study of medi- 
cine or law at such and such a time for 
such and such a period. We will take 
them for what they are and do the best 
we can for them.’’ The university of 
higher aims seeks for the best way to train 
a good physician or lawyer and requires 
its students to take that kind of training. 
So long as we have professional schools 
fitted for such different classes of stu- 
dents, and still lower for persons who can 
not be called students at all, we shall have 
a great difference in the value of profes- 
sional degrees. 

I may repeat that I believe that the 
policy of Johns Hopkins, Harvard, Cornell, 
and many other institutions, the policy of 
unifying degrees, by getting rid of su- 
perfluous ones, is a movement in the right 
direction. We do not need more than two 
non-professional degrees, A.B. and A.M., 
and the Ph.D. should go along with the 
other doctors as a professional degree. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 491. 


THE CHAIRMAN: 

I have several letters on the table, and 
before calling on the next speaker, I think 
that in view of what President Jordan has 
said, this letter from President Eliot of 
Harvard will be very interesting to you. 


In reply to your inquiry of November 18, I beg 
to state that in my opinion, the best degrees to 
confer for scientific work, as for all other work, 
are the degree of bachelor of arts, the degree of 
master of arts and the degree of doctor of phi- 
losophy. In a temporary and provisional way 
the inferior degrees of bachelor of science, master 
of science and doctor of science have been used— 
with some variations of name and corresponding 
letters—in our country, because the preparatory 
work at school required of candidates for these 
degrees has been smaller in amount and inferior 
in quality than the work required of candidates 
for the traditional degree of bachelor of arts. 
This relative inferiority of the scientific degrees 
now begins to be overcome. When it is over- 
come there will be no reason for persisting in the 
special degrees which have the word ‘science’ 
in their title. More and more the equal dignity 
and value of the scientific subjects in comparison 
with the humanities is recognized. When that 
recognition is complete and universal, there will 
be no need of giving one degree for excellence 
in languages, history or philosophy, and a differ- 
ent degree for excellence in economics, architec- 
ture, chemistry or zoology. All good work, in 
whatever field, ought to be rewarded by the 
same academic distinctions. 

For these reasons I consider separate degrees 
for scientific work to be undesirable, although 
provisionally necessary. They have heretofore 
been degrees of lower standing or repute, and they 
are likely to continue to be so regarded. I hope 
that they tend to be abolished. Will you kindly 
accept this statement as my contribution to the 
forthcoming discussion before the American So- 
ciety of Naturalists? 


The next of the gentlemen who have 
agreed to speak this afternoon is President 
Van Hise of the University of Wisconsin. 


PRESIDENT VAN HIsE: 

In considering the subject of degrees, I 
have thought rather of the trend of de- 
velopment than of what might seem de- 
sirable. As all are aware, the A.B. degree 


May 27, 1904.] 


was that of the classical colleges. The B.S. 
‘degree arose, as President Hliot has said 
in his letter, because those interested in the 
studies leading to the A.B. degree were 
not willing to accept work in science as 
equivalent to the traditional curriculum. 
It is comparatively recently that science 
work has been generally recognized as of 
equal cultural value with mathematical 
and classical studies; only recently that 
many institutions have come to the point 
of placing all liberal studies upon the same 
basis with reference to the A.B. degree. 
This came about when it was seen either 
that there must be a degree for every group 
of studies, or one degree for any croup of 
liberal studies. This was not at first ap- 
preciated, and various degrees were intro- 
duced for different groups of studies. 
But when the logical result of this practise 
was understood, various institutions turned 
to the A.B. degree for all work of a gen- 
eral cultural nature. 

But President Eliot holds that courses in 
chemistry, architecture, and by implica- 
tion all courses in applied science, should 
also receive the A.B. degree. I do not 
know that I am prepared to go so far as to 
say that technical training in applied sci- 
ence should lead to this degree. Certainly 
recent development in this country has 
not been in this direction. It is now the 
practise, at least at many large technical 
institutions, to give the B.S. degree in ap- 
plied science. This is illustrated by the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. 

Applied science is taught in a some- 
what different way, with a different spirit 
and a different purpose from the general 
cultural studies of the college of liberal 
arts. Feeling this difference, various in- 
‘stitutions which have gone so far as to 
give the A.B. degree for all pure cultural 
work, including science, still give the B.S. 
degree for applied science. It is at least 
a question- whether there is not a sufficient 


SCIENCE. 


813 


difference in the method and purpose of 
the college of liberal arts and the college 
of applied science to warrant a distinction 
in the degrees conferred by them. Cer- 
tainly the colleges of applied science are 
generally using the B.S. degree. They 
wish to retain it as a stamp showing that 
their men are trained in science to a 
definite end. They do not desire the A°B. 
degree for the courses in applied science, 
since they feel that this degree does not 
express what they desire to say in reference 
to graduates of agriculture and engineer- 
ing. It, therefore, appears to me that, 
for the present at least, the use of the two 
degrees mentioned is pretty well fixed in 
this country, 7. ¢., the A.B. degree for 
courses in the liberal arts and the B.S. 
degree for applied science. 

If for all work in liberal arts the bac- 
ealaureate degree is A.B., then for ad- 
vanced graduate work of a grade showing 
power of productive scholarship and in- 
vestigation there should be a single degree, 
and for this place the degree Ph.D. is pref- 
erable, since it is the one in common use 
both in Germany and this country. 


THE CHAIRMAN: 

These letters that I have seem to fall in 
very nicely with the speakers this after- 
noon. I have a letter from President 
Schurman of Cornell which I will read 
now, if I may, as being quite appropriate to 
the remarks of President Van Hise. 


It seems to me that the whole question depends 
entirely upon the point of view from which 
one looks at it. A distinction might also be 
drawn, I believe, between baccalureate and ad- 
vanced degrees. 

If we are to consider, as I believe we should, 
that graduation from the college of arts and 
sciences (or corresponding department) of a uni- 
versity signifies, regardless of the nature of the 
studies pursued previous to such graduation, the 
attainment of a certain stage of liberal culture 
rather than the completion of a course of pre- 
paration for a specific wall in life, then, it seems 


814 SCIENCE. 


to me, this training is best represented by the 
degrees of A.B. If, on the other hand, it is 
desired that the nature of the undergraduate 
studies shall be\specifically shown by the name 
of the degree, I should think that the nomen- 
clature, B.S., were as satisfactory as any for 
work in science. 

Graduate work, however, is primarily special- 
ization, and, as such, might very well be repre- 
sented by degrees significant in themselves of the 
nature of the field covered, although here at 
Cornell the only advanced degrees now granted 
by the college of arts and sciences are A.M. and 
Ph.D. In that case, M.S. and D.Se. seem to be 
very appropriate for work in science. 

In other words, the line of argument 
that President Van Hise has presented 
seems to have been followed by Dr. Schur- 
man. 

As the next speaker, I shall call on Pro- 


fessor Cattell. 


PROFESSOR CATTELL: 

President Jordan has told us that aca- 
demic degrees belong to the babyhood of 
culture, and President Butler has elsewhere 
called them the tinsel of education. These 
university presidents, however, continue to 
confer degrees. They doubtless realize 
that our civilization is semi-barbarous, 
crude personal adornment being an impor- 
tant factor. It is, perhaps, a sign of prog- 
ress to put rings through the ears rather 
than through the nose; if stays must be 
worn, those should be chosen that interfere 
as little as may be with the digestive proc- 
esses. I should like to see academic degrees 
abolished altogether, or as a second choice 
to see the B.A. degree interpreted as mean- 
ing either bachelor of arts or bachelor of 
athletics, as the case may be, and then con- 
ferred on each college student when he at- 
tains his twenty-first birthday. But no in- 
dividual and no body of individuals can 
ereate a new world; we may try to im- 
prove existing conditions, but must at 
the same time adjust ourselves to them. 
The question before us is not whether de- 
erees should be abolished, but what kinds 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 491. 


of degrees should be conferred for scien- 
tific work. 

There are four kinds of degrees to be 
considered—those conferred at the close of 
the college course, those conferred for grad- 
uate studies, those conferred for profes- 
sional work—all of which are more or less 
confluent, and lastly the degrees conferred 
as honors. The American college has per- 
formed an important service for the coun- 
try and deserves the esteem and affection in 
which it is held. But its functions were 
local and temporary. We can scarcely 
imagine its introduction into Germany or 
France; or its survival here to the end of 
the twentieth century. The high school 
will give, and in fact now gives, the gen- 
eral training of the first year or two of the 
old college course, and after this comes the 
special training of the university and pro- 
fessional school. A kind of country elub 
for young gentlemen of wealth and leisure 
is scarcely appropriate to a democratic 
community. We shall probably give the 
baccalaureate degree at the close of the 
school course as in France or abandon it as 
in Germany. 

In the meanwhile what kind of a degree 
should be given for non-professional sci- 
entific work? The choice is apparently be- 
tween the bachelor of arts and the bachelor 
of science. If there were exactly two kinds 
of secondary school and college courses, one 
based on the classical languages and one on 
the sciences, it would be proper to give to 
each its appropriate degree. But such 
clear-cut courses do not exist. According 
to the last report at hand, there were at 
Harvard College 249 elections in Greek and 
303 in Latin. Those who elected Greek 
nearly all elected Latin, and there were 
not in the twenty-four courses in the clas- 
sical lanouages as many different students 
as in a single course in history, economies 
or geology. One course in Latin given by 
three professors, one adjunct professor and 


& 


0 AAPA eal me 


May 27, 1904.] 


one instructor was attended by three stu- 
dents. There were about two thousand stu-~ 
dents in the college, electing about ten 
thousand courses, and the classical lan- 
guages represented about one twentieth 
part of the average college education of 
the Harvard bachelor of arts. This degree 
means that the student studied Latin at 
the secondary school, not that he followed 
a different course in college from that of 
the student who receives the B.S. degree. 
But the bachelor of science degree unfor- 
tunately does not mean that the student 
has had a scientific education. It means 
usually that he has not studied Latin at 
school and has probably entered college 
with easier requirements. It is said that 
to receive the doctor’s degree at Heidel- 
bere without honors is a certificate of 
idiocy. A degree that simply means that 
a student has not studied Latin as a boy, 
that his parents did not send him to a 
fashionable preparatory school, that he per- 
haps entered college with lower require- 
ments and pursued a shorter course, can 
searcely be held in high esteem, and a so- 
ciety of scientific men can not rejoice to 
see the name of ‘science’ attached to it. 
If we were drawing up a Napoleonic 

code, probably no one would propose to 
give different kinds of degrees for different 
kinds of college work. Where the field was 
clear Johns Hopkins and Stanford adopted 
one degree only. Chicago, it is true, took 
the three conventional degrees, and stu- 
dents of commerce become bachelors of 
philosophy; let us hope that idealism will 
be radiated from the packing houses of the 
city. Cornell, Michigan, Minnesota, Wis- 
consin, Texas and other universities have 
abandoned the multiplicity of degrees. In 
some institutions the professors of classical 
lancuages, having lost the substance, cling 
to the shadow of the bachelor of arts, but 
unwisely as it seems to me, for their naked- 
ness is uncovered. Thus, according to the 


SCIENCE. 


815 


last catalogue at hand, there were 2,248 
undergraduate students in the University 
of California, of whom only 284—107 men 
and 177 women—were in the course leading 
to the A.B. degree. 

I should prefer to see the bachelor’s 
degree conferred with specification of the 
institution and major subject—bachelor of 
Harvard in classical languages, bachelor of 
Michigan in zoology, ete., but this is doubt- 
less out of the question. It seems that for 
scientific work at college the bachelor of 
arts degree should be awarded unless the 
bachelor of science degree can be given a 
proper standing. 

Substantial agreement has been reached 
in favor of granting the doctorate of phi- 
losophy for about three years of graduate 
work with research, without reference to 
the direction of work or to the character 
of the first degree. Harvard, Princeton 
and one or two other institutions have the 
degree of doctor of science, but it is sel- 
dom conferred. The difference between 
the D.S. and the Ph.D. at Harvard is that 
in the case of the former the man may not 
have studied Latin in the secondary school. 
Harvard, in order to be consistent, estab- 
lished the M.S. degree three or four years 
ago, but it was wisely permitted to die in 
infaney, and the jewel of consistency must 
be abandoned or secured by doing away 
with the D.S. The evidence that a man is 
worthy of the doctorate of philosophy 
should be given by the publication of the 
thesis, the appeal being made to experts 
throughout the work. An oral defense of 
the thesis before the faculty became anti- 
quated in Germany before we borrowed it. 
In my opinion the doctorate of philosophy 
is a professional degree, signifying practi- 
eally that the recipient is competent to 
teach and to carry on research in his spe- 
cial subject. All teachers can not be ori- 
ginal thinkers, nor should investigation be 
confined to a few teachers. Physicians, 


816 


engineers and others should be educated 
by research and to research, and there is 
no reason why they should not receive a de- 
gree signifying the accomplishment of orig- 
inal work and the promise of its continu- 
ation. The doctorate of medicine has 
in this country lost any meaning be- 
yond the following of three or four years 
of routine work. I see no special objec- 
tion to doctorates of engineering, path- 
ology, ete., but the doctorate of philos- 
ophy is quite as suitable. I object to 
the distinction between liberal and tech- 
nical studies, as appled to the subject 
studied, but there is an important differ- 
ence in the attitude of the student. <A 
student might receive the A.B. or BS. 
degree as a sign that he is a weil-educated 
man, and at the same time the professional 
degree, such as E.H. or C.E., as an indica- 
tion that he is prepared to practise a cer- 
tain profession. Then later he could be 
given the doctorate, if he proved himself 
competent ‘to advance knowledge. 

I am not greatly interested in the ques- 
tion of honorary degrees. I should sup- 
pose it might be well to reserve the LL.D. 
degree for public men, including college 
presidents and benefactors, and to use the 
doctorates of science and of letters for the 
two main lines of productive activity. 
But, at a matter of practise, the LL.D 
tends to-become a first-class degree and the 
others second-class degrees. It may seem 
slightly pedantic for Herbert Spencer to 
have declined all honorary degrees; but 
if the members of a society such as this 
would unite in ignoring them it would be 
a modest reform. 


PRESIDENT JORDAN: 

May I rise for a few words more? I be- 
lieve that Stanford University is the only 
one to grant the degree A.B. at the end 
of a four years’ course of which the major 
subject is engineering. When the univer- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 491. 


sity was organized I wrote its first consti- 
tution and put in the degree B.S. for engi- 
neering courses. When the faculty met, 
they decided that the purpose of the engi- 
neering courses was not essentially different 
from the others. They led men toward the 
profession of engineering. Professor Marx, 
especially, insisted that the engineering 
proper should be largely graduate work, 
and that the spirit of the undergraduate 
work should not be essentially different 
from that of other scientific departments. 
For such reasons the faculty voted to give 
the degree A.B. for this work. Since then 
I have not found enough objection to the 
arrangement to bring the faculty together 
for a reconsideration. The classical men 
seem to be satisfied with the thing as it is, 
and the engineers are looking for the time 
when engineering shall be a professional 
subject to be pursued for two years after 
eranting the bachelor’s degree. HEngineer- 
ing students are brought more closely to the 
others by this arrangement, and the more 
unified the student body is the better. We 
should have no reason for considering a 
change unless, as suggested by President 
Van Hise, all the other institutions should 
agree to reserve the degree of B.S. for the 
first four years leading to technical work. 


TH CHAIRMAN: 

It seems to me, gentlemen, that these re- 
marks of Dr. Jordan are very suggestive, 
indeed, as to what is really needed in the 
entire matter of degrees. The universities 
of the country which give degrees of course 
can get together in regard to what they do, 
and very greatly simplify and very greatly 
strengthen their attitude in regard to it. 

Dr. Cattell has spoken in a very brief 
way of honorary degrees, and what he said 
in regard to honorary degrees reminded me 
of a little experience of my own this last 
summer. I was botanizing in Mexico, and 
I ran across a gentleman—a member of the 


May 27, 1904.] 


faculty of one of our large universities— 
who was prosecuting some field work in 
another department of science. I had not 
before met him, but was familiar with his 
work, and I was rather surprised in the 
course of conversation to find that he had 
not the doctor’s degree. As he was a young 
man (men are sometimes compelled by 
circumstances to take to the harness be- 
fore they have entirely equipped them- 
selves) and not in what might be called a 
permanent life position, I was rather sur- 
prised that he had not this degree, and 
when I put a question to him about it, I 
found that the feeling which has been 
expressed here in several shapes was very 
stronely fixed in his mind—that the doc- 
tor’s degree was hardly worth having, and 
to him it took this shape: That he was an 
investigator; he was making his mark; he 
was getting along; he knew how to do re- 
search work; he was already getting recog- 
nition as an accomplished investigator; 
and it was hardly to his interest to make 
certain sacrifices of money and the dis- 
posal of his time that would be necessary 
in order to get a diploma that would en- 
able him to write Ph.D. after his name. 
‘He said: “‘I have students in my own de- 
partment who are going to be Ph.D.’s in a 
short time, but who, I know well enough, 
will never do a piece of work that I have 
not thought up and that they do not carry 
out under my plan. They will get Ph.D.— 
and of what use is that designation to me?’’ 

This opens one of the very important 
questions which I hope may come into the 
discussion this afternoon—that of securing 
recognition of those professional attain- 
ments which distinguish the man who has 
gone into the field of science from the man 
who has taken the equipment and bought 
the armor and weapons but has never gone 
any farther. And it may be that there is 
in the future the possibility that the de- 
eree which is sometimes conferred for sci- 


SCIENCE. 


817 


entifie work, doctor of science, which I 
hold—which I should be sorry to see go, 
but which is fast becoming entirely ob- 
solete as an earned degree, may be con- 
ferred as recognizing the successful in- 
vestigator in science as distineuished from 
the gentlemen to whom Professor Cattell 
would give the degree of LL.D.—almost the 
one honorary degree that is open to-day 
for, those whose names appear in ‘Who’s 
Who.’ 

The next speaker, who, though not an 
active college president, has had ample 
experience as a college president, and at 
the same time, like all of the speakers, is 
a distinguished investigator, is Professor 
Coulter, of the University of Chicago. 


PROFESSOR COULTER: 

I believe that this subject, discussed in 
a meeting of scientific people or those who 
have scientific inclinations, is likely to get 
the sort of handling it would not get any- 
where else. We are really somewhat out 
of sympathy with a great many of the no- 
tions that cluster about these degrees, and 
in our scientific training we seem to have 
gotten away from any sentiment that be- 
longs to them; and still it remains a fact 
that most scientific men, in the back of 
their minds at least, think a great deal 
about them. Therefore, we are really dis- 
cussing not what might be called desirable, 
but that which is a fact. I am free to say 
that this discussion to me is the considera- 
tion of how we shall regulate an evil that 
is among us, but which we are not yet 
ready to abandon entirely. 

By this preface I wish it understood that 
I am not favoring degrees, but some ra- 
tional way of conferring them. 

The first point to be made in the dis- 
cussion, and apparently the chief storm 
center thus far, is im connection with the 
bachelor’s degree. The old contests to 
which President Jordan referred in his 


818 


opening remarks, in which he and I were 
concerned, had chiefly to do with the po- 
sition that in the splitting of courses of 
study the splitting of the bachelor’s degree 
became an absurdity. The compromise 
proposition suggested by President Van 
Hise is exactly the same that was used at 
that time in reference to what was called 
the bachelor of sciences. There is the same 
difficulty in determining what is culture. 
I have come to wince at the use of that 
term in discussions concerning education. 
The attempt to differentiate cultural and 
non-cultural studies has always ended in 
confusion. It is not so much a distinction 
between subjects as between teachers, and 
this distinction can not be formulated. 
Any subject or. any set of subjects leading 
to any definite useful end in the hands of a 
real teacher will result in that stage of ad- 
vancement, that intellectual status, which 
the bachelor’s degree marks. My claim is 
that if work in engineering, for example, 
does not result in such intellectual growth 
as deserves the bachelor’s degree it should 
be stimulated in that direction. In other 
words, I can not see how any definite dis- 
tinctions can be made in the undergraduate 
period of intellectual development. It is 
our habit to abolish all distinctions later, 
and the logic of the situation seems to 
show that we are not describing kinds of 
training, but are marking distinct steps 
in progress. 

The only other reason I should have for 
abandoning the distinctive term ‘science’ 
in connection with the bachelor’s degree is 
out of respect for science itself. The 
amount of science to be obtained in any 
undergraduate course is so insignificant 
that to make it distinctive of a degree is 
somewhat absurd, especially if it be im- 
plied that the holders of the degree are 
in any sense trained in science. No such 
objection can be urged against such use 
of the word ‘art,’ as its significance in 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 491. 
this connection has long since become con- 
ventional. As investigators we know what 
undergraduate work means, and it is hardly 
worth differentiating when it comes to de- 
grees. It is only a certain amount of ac- 
tivity during a certain time; and the 
bachelor’s degree came to be agreed upon 
as a convenient and well-understood state- 
ment of a certain stage in intellectual prog- 
ress. Therefore, I have long been in favor 
of what has been called a ‘blanket degree.’ 

I believe that the master’s degree, that 
comes next in the order of succession, is 
to-day probably the worst abused degree. 
I have had a notion that it might be made, 
at least, in scientific circles, a most useful 
degree, and I have been so using it. I 
have called it a ‘side-track’ degree. There 
are certain well-intentioned students who 
do graduate work, but who have not the 
slightest mmitiative in the way of investi- 
gation. They can acquire and they can 
retail any amount of second hand informa- 
tion, but they can not do original thinking. 
For them this degree is useful. In other 
words, I look at it as a teaching degree, 
given for what might be called teaching 
ability as distinguished from the ability to 
investigate. Many a student who is seek- 
ing a doctor’s degree may be comfortably 
side-tracked by the master’s degree. Thus, 
if distinctions are to be made, the master’s 
degree might well be retained as a teach- 
ing degree, a degree of position also, but 
not recognized as a distinct scientific de- 
eree involving investigative ability. 

The doctor’s degree has been mentioned 
by all the speakers and with unanimity of 
opinion. The only thing needing emphasis 
is the great importance of granting it care- 
fully, and only to those who are really in- 
vestigators. Great violence has been done 
to this degree, and great discredit brought 
upon it, simply because there has been no 
way of side-tracking those who do not de- 
serve it. The definite time requirement 


May 27, 1904.] 


gets us into trouble, for it is not easy to 
make a student who has fulfilled the resi- 
dence requirement understand that he has 
not earned his doctor’s degree. Such uni- 
versal action has been taken to prevent the 
conferring of honorary degrees of this 
type that I presume scientific bodies need 
not emphasize it further. But in certain 
quarters there is still prevalent the corre- 
spondence method, by which the student is 
exempt from residence or scientific work 
of any type. It is baldly a reading degree, 
with an essay based upon the reading. 

The chairman has suggested a subject 
that seems to me well worth consideration. 
We know that there are tremendous dif- 
ferences in the subsequent history of those 
who have received the doctor’s degree, but 
there has been no method of differentiating 
them. I do not know how large a percent- 
age of those who actually achieve the doc- 
tor’s degree are never heard from after- 
wards. There ought to be a distinction be- 
tween these still-born doctors and those who 
continue to live. I can not propose any 
method, but the chairman has suggested 
that Se.D. might be reserved for this pur- 
pose and conferred upon those who have 
continued to investigate and have become 
real members of the scientific fraternity. 
Of course, one may say that these men are 
Ikmown already, but we are considering the 
subject of conferring degrees, not the sub- 
ject of their abolition. 


Tor CHAIRMAN: 

Possibly an extract from another letter 
that I have here may come in rather ap- 
propriately here. The gentleman, whose 
name I will not read in connection with 
the letter, wrote this in response to a 
letter that I sent him some time ago: 

* * * My own opinion is that degrees take 
their value from the man who receives them, and 
not vice versa. I have a Ph.D. as an assistant 
who is a valuable helper but can’t spell the Eng- 
lish language in an ordinary letter, and I know 


SCIENCE. 


819 


several others who have gained the degree by 
passing the required examinations and writing a 
thesis, but of whom science will never be a gainer; 
s0 the excessive anxiety of some of our friends 
as to the bestowal of the degree upon those who, 
though not college men, are known over the world 
as contributors to knowledge, seems to me rather 
silly. However, “many men, many opinions.’ 

The plan of the executive committee has 
been to have the gentlemen who have thus 
far spoken to you this afternoon speak with 
the knowledge that they were to be called 
upon for short addresses; but it is con- 
sidered very desirable that when possible 
these annual discussions before the Ameri- 
can Society of Naturalists shall partake 
really of the character of discussions, and 
I trust that in the next fifteen minutes— 
because we do not need to adjourn before 
a quarter after four in order to hear Pro- 
fessor Rutherford’s lecture—some of the 
gentlemen who have not come here pre- 
pared to speak may favor us with some 
remarks. The matter is before the society 
for discussion. 


PRESIDENT JORDAN: 

I think that all granting of honorary de- 
erees is subject to great abuses. ‘To use it 
for spectacular purposes is to destroy its 
dignity. Governors, senators, donors often 
merit it, but sometimes they turn it into a 
farce. The honorary degree of LL.D. is 
only rarely conferred upon professors, the 
class of men most worthy of such honors, 
whereas a coilege president expects to re- 
ceive it every time he puts on his gown 
away from home. It is safer to use degrees 
only as certificates of fruitful residence. 


THE CHAIRMAN: 

I think that possibly before allowing 
other speakers to claim the floor, I may 
read extracts from another letter, the sig- 
nature of which I will not read, but it is 
particularly pertinent to the subject. This 
gentleman says: 


820 


Your letter makes me wish that I could go to 
St. Louis, for it is a good work, that of trying 
to lessen the abuse of honorary degrees. * * * 
Every learned man, be he scientist or humanita- 
rian, should insist on all occasions that honorary 
degrees should be given only for academic dis- 
tinction, and never be given under any circum- 
stances whatever to a politician, a soldier or a 
business man (as such). * * * has sinned 
grievously (along with the rest) in this matter, 
and she should be publicly and severely blamed 
(along with the rest) for debasing her degrees 
in this manner. * * * 


I trust that others who are here, whether 
members of the society or not, will now 
take part in the discussion. 


PROFESSOR BURRILL: 

I suppose if this matter could be settled 
for ourselves here this afternoon it would 
be very easy. I have a suspicion, how- 
ever, that whatever we say or do here 
will not wholly settle the matter outside. 
It seems to me that the evident tendency 
of late has been to differentiate degrees 
along the lines suggested by President Van 
Hise. It seems to me that already in a 
great many of the leading institutions the 
precedent exists, as suggested by Presi- 
dent Jordan, that would permit the de- 
eree of B.S. to be accorded for a course in 
applied scientific work; then, we might 
well enough have the A.B. degree for all 
of the courses not tending directly towards 
a professional pursuit. The degree of 
bachelor, of science possibly may not be the 
proper one for those taking an engineering 
course, a course in agriculture, ete.; but 
that seems to be the one that has been 
pretty generally adopted for that purpose. 
In the University of Illmois the matter 
had been discussed some years ago, and 
lately it has been revived. The degree of 
bachelor of science was given to students 
who had taken major work in any science. 
Now the degree of A.B. is given to all stu- 
dents except those that take courses in 
engineering, in agriculture and in the new 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 491. 


school of commerce. The last has not been 
settled. I take it, however, that the degree 
of A.B. will be used there. 

There is another thing, however. Wheth- 
er it is settled thus or in any other man- 
ner, that seems to be satisfactory, no per- 
son taking a course in civil engineering 
would care for the A.B. degree compared 
with the degree of C.E. His work is 
shown pretty well by that degree, the de- 
eree of civil engineer, and though they are 
not so well established, the degrees of me- 
chanical engineer and electrical engineer 
follow in the same line. Then there is the 
difficulty about the candidates in archi- 
tecture. There are several very prominent 
architectural schools in our country in 
which students prepare themselves directly 
for the profession. They confer the degree 
of B.S. or B.Arch., followed by M.Arch., 
and finally perhaps by D.Arch. : 

These professional degrees are given 
either immediately at the end of the course 
of four years, or after some further, course 
of study. If I may quote again the institu- 
tion with which I am most familiar, the 
degree of bachelor of science is given at 
the end of four years in the courses of en- 
gineering, and then after a further year’s 
work, usually directly following in the line 
of the specialty—really professional work 
—the C.H. or M.H. or M.Arch. degree is 
eiven. Something like this, I think, must 
be done; this terminal degree—perhaps we 
may call it master’s degree—must be spe- 
cialized, whether or not we differentiate the 
bachelor degree. I am of the opinion, as 
I say, that the trend of the country, of 
the institutions, is in favor of making this 
distinction. 


THE CHAIRMAN: 

Are there other speakers? If not, the 
time for adjournment is rapidly approach- 
ing. Before adjourning the meeting I 
should like to say that as Professor Bur- 


May 27, 1904.] 


rill has poimted out, if we were met to- 
gether this afternoon to settle this busi- 
ness for ourselves, we probably could so 
settle it, though we are not likely to settle it 
for the world at large. But one feature of 
the Naturalists’ discussions has been, as I 
have watched the discussions, that the 
members of the society get together to con- 
sider in a particularly interested spirit mat- 
ters which they do not propose to settle, 
but from the analysis of which they hope 
that a current of thought may be started 
which will ultimately result in good. For 
that reason we have had speakers this af- 
ternoon who are representative of geology, 
zoology, botany and psychology, and who 
are representative of the country from the 
Atlantic to the Pacific. I think that we 
may congratulate ourselves that, although 
the audience that has listened this after- 
noon has not been large, the discussion 
may be brought, perhaps, before a larger 
audience, and will perhaps start a current 
of thought in a useful way that will 
in time contribute to a solution of the 
problem. 

I am going to read one more letter, again 
without the signature, but a letter from one 
of the strongest executives of one of the 
‘strongest universities in the country: 

I wish very much that I were able to cooperate 
in the discussion which you propose. Unfortu- 
nately, my presence is out of the question, on 
account of an important previous engagement for 
the very day which you name; and I am not yet 
quite ready to send any brief formulation of my 
views on the degree question. I do not believe 
that the time is quite ripe for such radical meas- 
ures as I have in mind; and I would rather that 
those who think that they can do some good by 
moderate reforms should have every chance to 
make their experiments unimpeded by destructive 
criticism. If those who believe that conservative 
reform is possible can prove their case I shall be 
very glad. JI should wish * * * to be in a 
position to cooperate with them on any measures 
which might give promise of reform. Then if 


reform measures fail the radicals will have a clear 
field. 


SCIENCE. 


821 


The meeting was then declared ad- 
journed. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 
Wilhelm Ostwald: Von Paut WALDEN. 

Iv is well known that in December last 
the twenty-fifth anniversary of the doctorate 
of Ostwald was celebrated in Leipzig. On 
this occasion a ‘Jubelband,’ being the forty- 
sixth volume of the Zeitschrift fur physi- 
kalische Chemie, and containing original pa- 
pers from thirty-four of Ostwald’s former stu- 
dents, was presented to him. The ‘ Jubel- 
band’ contained a brief sketch of Ostwald’s 
life and work by van’t Hoff, but the book 
under review deals with both in a much fuller 
manner. 

Walden discusses the life of Ostwald in five 
periods: ‘The Youth in Riga, 1853-1871’; - 
“The Student in Dorpat, 1872-1875’ ; ‘The 
Teacher in Dorpat, 1875-1881’ ; ‘The Pro- 
fessor in Riga, 1881-1887’ ; ‘The Professor in 
Leipzig, 1887 up to the present.’ 

Ostwald does not seem to have been a 
marked success as a gymnasium student, and 
not to have taken his work in a really serious 
manner until he came to Dorpat. His first 
scientific publication, which appeared in 1875, 
shows the bent of his mind at the early age 
of twenty-two. It bore the title, ‘On the 
Chemical Mass Action of Water.” This was 
soon followed by his ‘Volume Chemical 
Studies,’ which are now recognized to be works 
of real permanent value. 

That tremendous activity and power to 
work, which is possessed by Ostwald to an 
unusual degree, began to manifest itself during 
the Riga period. It was during this period 
that the first edition of the great Lehrbuch 
der Allgemeinen Chemie appeared—the book 
which led to the organization of the modern 
school of physical chemistry. It was in Riga 
also that the Zeitschrift fiir physikalische 
Chemie was founded. This was to be the 
official organ of the new physical chemistry 
whieh was just being organized, and has prob- 
ably contributed more to the development of 
this branch of science than all other publica- 
tions, in that it brought together in one place 


822 SCIENCE. 


the various lines of work which constituted 
the new science. 

This, however, is all introductory to Ost- 
wald’s greatest work. In 1887 he was called 
to Leipzig to the chair of physical chemistry 
just vacated by Gustay Wiedemann. To him 
as director of ‘Des zweiten chemischen Labo- 
ratoriums’ students came from all parts of 
the world. Through these, and with his own 
hands, an enormous amount of work was done. 
These investigations, which were published, 
when completed, in the Zeztschrift, have since 
been collected and comprise several large vol- 
umes. This large amount of work was done 
under very unfavorable conditions. A small 
laboratory, poorly lighted and poorly equipped 
with apparatus and conveniences, may be said 
to describe fairly the old laboratory of Ostwald 
in Leipzig. 

‘The cosmopolitan character of the Leipzig 
laboratory in the nineties, when it was the 
good fortune of the writer to have studied 
with Ostwald, is shown by the fact that of 
the students who were following physical 
chemistry as. their major subject, the following 
nationalities were represented: Germany, 
America, Canada, England, Scotland, Bel- 
gium and Russia. Indeed, there were more 
Americans working with Ostwald at that time 
than there were of any other nationality, in- 
eluding Germans. 

This condition of things is all changed now. 
The fame of Ostwald as investigator and 
teacher drew such a large number of students 
that the old quarters became entirely inade- 
equate. A fine, new Physikalisch-chemisches 
Institut has been built for Ostwald, and this 
has now become the home of the ‘ Leipzig 
School’ of physical chemistry. 

The most striking characteristics of Ostwald 
are his untiring industry, his fertility in ideas 
and his absolute unselfishness. As an illus- 
tration of his power of work, Walden points 
out that his collected works number already 
more than 16,000 pages, and in addition to 
this he has directed probably more than one 
hundred investigations; has edited the Zezt- 
schrift, which is now in its forty-eighth vol- 
ume, and has founded the Annalen der Phi- 
losophie. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 491. 


As illustrating Ostwald’s power to work, the 
writer recalls returning to Leipzig with Ost- 
wald from Berlin in 1894, when van’t Hoff de- 
livered his now famous ‘94’ lecture before 
the Berlin Chemical Society. It was between 
two and three in the morning when Leipzig 
was reached. We learned next morning that 
Ostwald had not retired on returning home, 
but had spent the remainder of the night in 
developing some idea that had occurred to him 
during the journey. 

The fertility of Ostwald’s mind in new 
ideas can not have failed to impress any one 
who had been with him even for a short 
period, and also the unusual freedom with 
which suggestions, often of very great im- 
portance, were made to any one who had the 
desire and ability to work them out in the 
laboratory. And when the work was done the 
student was told to publish the investigation 
as if the whole was his own. The result is 
that a large part of the work done in Ostwald’s 
laboratory does not bear his name, although 
the original suggestion came from him, and 
every stage of the investigation was under his 
daily scrutiny. 

All in all, it is difficult to overestimate what 
Ostwald has already done for chemical science. 
He is the organizer of the modern school of 
physical chemistry. But he has gone much 
farther and shown how the generalizations of 
the new physical chemistry can be applied to 
general inorganic chemistry, by both the in- 
vestigator and the teacher. It is not too much 
to say that he has inaugurated a new day into 
the field of general chemistry. 

Walden concludes his interesting life of this 
great man by ealling attention to Ostwald’s 
love of art; not as an admirer of finished pic- 
tures in a gallery, but as a painter of them. 
Indeed, one of Ostwald’s own pastels is repro- 
duced in Walden’s book. 

It is interesting to learn not only of the 
serious work of a leader in natural science, 
but also how he spends his leisure. In Ostwald 
we have the love of the scientifically exact, 
combined with that of the purely beautiful in 
nature. 


Harry ©. JoNrs. 


———_ 


May 27, 1904.] 


Lehrbuch der Mineralogie. Von Max Baunr, 
Zweite, Vollig Neubearbeitete Auflage, 1904. 
Stuttgart, E. Schweizerbartsche Verlags- 
handlung (HE. Nagele). 1904. Pp. xii, 
Fig. 670. 

A second edition has been issued of Dr. 
Max Bauer’s ‘Lehrbuch der Mineralogie,’ 
forming one of the most important works in 
this department of science that has appeared 
in the German language. It is printed in 
large clear type upon good paper, with 670 
illustrations, and is exceedingly comprehen- 
sive and thorough, not only in dealing with 
the crystallographic, optical and physical fea- 
tures, but in its account .of localities and of 
new species, which are brought absolutely up 
to date. Dr. Bauer’s position as director of 
the Mineralogical Institute of Marburg, and 
his long editorship of the Jahrbuch fiir Min- 
eralogie und Geologie, have given him un- 
usual facilities in the preparation of so im- 
portant a work, and his well known reputation 
for thoroughness is an assurance as to its 
being a complete exposition of the subject. 
It will form an essential addition to every 
mineralogical library. G. F. K. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 


Tue May number of The Journal of Nerv- 
ous and Mental Disease contains the follow- 
ing articles: , 

‘The Central Localization of the Sensory 
Tract,’ by H. H. Hoppe. It contains a full 
summary of recent anatomical and patholog- 
ical work on the central localization of sensory 
functions. ‘Two Tumors of the Brain’ are 
reported on by Dr. T. M. MeKennan, and Dr. 
Smith Ely Jelliffe presents a statistical sum- 
mary of the work of the neurological clinic 
of Dr. M. Allen Starr for 1903. He shows 
that in 16 years 31,600 patients have been 
treated for nervous disease and that about 4 
per cent. of all diseases are of the nervous 
system. ‘Two Cases of Meningeal Tumor’ 
are described by Dr. A. C. Brush. These 
were treated by ligature of the meningeal 
vessels. ‘The Influence of Fever in the Pain 
of Locomotor Ataxia’ is discussed by Dr. C. 
W. Burr. This number also contains ac- 
counts of the meetings of the Philadelphia 


SCIENCE. ~ WA Boy 


and New York Neurological Societies, and its 
regular series of abstracts from the leading 
neurological journals, Revue Neurologique, 
Neurologisches Centralblatt, Deutsche Zeit- 
schrift fiir Nervenheilkunde, Monatschrift 
fiir Psychiatrie und Neurologie and Jahr- 
biicher fiir Psychiatrie und Neurologie being 
noted in this number. 


Contents of the Journal of Comparative: 
Neurology and Psychology for April: 

O. P. Jenkins and A. J. Cartson: ‘ Physiolog- 
ical Evidence of the Fluidity of the Conducting 
Substance in the Pedal Nerves of the Slug, 
Ariolimax columbianus’ 

C. W. Prentiss: ‘The Nervous Structures in 
the Palate of the Frog: The Peripheral Networks 
and the Nature of their Cells and Fibers.’ 

C. L. Herrick: ‘The Beginnings of Social Re- 
action in Man and Lower Animals.’ 5 

Rosert M. YERKES: ‘ Inhibition and Reinforce- 
ment of Reaction in the Frog, Rana clamitans” 

RayMonp PEARL: ‘On the Behavior and Reac- 
tions of Limulus in Early Stages of its Develop- 
ment.’ 

Editorial. 

G. EH. Cocui1: A Critical Digest of Recent 
Studies on the Finer Structures of the Nerve Cell. 

Literary Notices. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


Tue April meeting of the society was held 
Saturday evening, April 23, at the Portner 
Hotel. Mr. David G. Fairchild acted as 
chairman of the program. After the regular 
review of literature Dr. George T. Moore, of 
the Department of Agriculture, spoke on the 
subject, ‘A Method for the Destruction of 
Algz and Pathogenic Bacteria in Water Sup- 
plies.’ The speaker mentioned briefly the his- 
tory of some of the serious difficulties that 
have been experienced by the water depart- 
ments of many cities as a result of contamina- 
tion of the reservoirs by alge of one sort or 
another. He said that he had received nu- 
merous complaints from each state of the 
union, showing that the trouble is general. 
Its seriousness in many cases is shown by the 
fact that controlling engineers have in some 
cases recommended that supplies representing 
an investment of several million dollars be 


824 


abandoned, simply on account of the contin- 
ued trouble from algz. The direct result of 
the presence of algz in serious cases is that 
the water acquires a very disagreeable odor 
and taste which may resemble that of decay- 
ing wood or has what is described as a ‘ fishy’ 
smell and taste. Often this odor and this 
taste are not due to the decomposition of the 
plants but are caused by small drops of oil 
secreted by certain of the alge. 

Up to the present time no practicable rem- 
edy has been found for this trouble which is 
capable of general application. Double filtra- 
tion, covering the reservoir, the removal of all 
organic matter and similar expedients have all 
been tried, and in some cases proved nearly or 
quite efficient, but such means are usually too 
expensive or for some other reason are imprac- 
ticable. It has been shown by experiment, 
however, that it is quite feasible to treat in- 
fected reservoirs with copper sulphate in such 
quantities as to give a solution varying from 
one part in a million down to one part in 
500 million. The former strength is not con- 
sidered harmful even as a constant beverage, 
and the latter dilution appears to be effective 
in disposing of most algze under ordinary con- 
ditions. In water containing any appreciable 
amount of lime or organic matter, the copper 
is soon precipitated out, so that the danger of 
harmful overdosing is still further prevented. 

The speaker deprecated the extravagant 
statements that have recently been made in 
the daily papers regarding the efficacy of this 
copper treatment in ridding water supplies of 
certain pathogenic bacteria, such as the germs 
of typhoid and cholera. In his opinion the 
present indications are that where no other 
remedies can be applied to prevent or remove 
bacterial. infection this may be accomplished 
by treatment with copper. It is in no way 
designed to replace slow sand or other effec- 
tive filtration methods now in use, but it is 
believed may be of some service where such 
systems are not installed. 

Mr. L. L. Harter, of the Department of 
Agriculture, then spoke on the subject, ‘ Va- 
rietal Differences in Resistance to Toxic Salts.’ 
The speaker outlined some experiments that 
he has recently undertaken with a view of de- 


SCIENCG. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 491. 


termining whether or not varieties of the same 
species differ in their resistance to toxic 
salt solution. He has conducted the work 
with wheat varieties obtained from various 
sources and which show great diversity of cli- 
matic and soil conditions. 

He found that it required a solution of 
sodium carbonate three times as concentrated 
to kill a Kansas or Russian variety as it did 
one from Michigan. The limits in sodium 
chloride varied from .045 to .055 of a normal 
solution, and of sodium bicarbonate from .025 
to .038. He further showed that the Michigan 
and Russian varieties are two and one half 
and two times respectively more resistant in 
magnesium chloride than one obtained from 
Turkestan. Almost as great a variation was 
obtained with the Michigan and Kansas varie- 
ties over the one from Turkestan, requiring 
in both cases twice the concentration of mag- 
nesium sulphate to kill the root tips. 

Cart S. ScoriEbp, 
Recording Secretary. 


THE TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB. 

THE meeting of Tuesday, March 8, 1904, 
was held at the College of Pharmacy, with 
Vice-president Rusby in the chair; there were 
seventeen persons present. The minutes of 
the preceding meeting were read and approved. 

The first paper on the scientific program 
was by Professor Francis E. Lloyd on ‘ Recent 
Investigations on the Pollen-tube,’ and was 
an interesting exposition of the parallel re- 
sults of Longo’s investigations on the behavior 
of the pollen-tube in Cucurbitacee and Pro- 
fessor Lloyd’s work on Rubiacez. 

Longo finds that in Cucurbita Pepo L., the 
ovary is provided with a special conductive 
tissue reaching to the neck of the flask-shaped 
nucellus by means of which the pollen-tube 
follows a completely intercellular course from 
stigma to embryo-sac. In other species of 
Cucurbita and in Cvtrullus vulgaris the neck 
of the nucellus is not long enough to reach to 
the conductive tissue, so that for a short dis- 
tance the tube must move through a cavity. 
On reaching the neck of the nucellus, the 
pollen-tube forms a bulla that produces lateral 
outgrowths which Longo believes are for the 


May 27, 1904.] 


purpose of reaching out after food materials, 
as their size seems to depend on the amount 
of starch present. This view is rendered 
somewhat questionable by the phenomena ob- 
served by Wylie in Hlodea, where pollen-tubes 
may produce similar ‘cystoids’? in. the free 
space of the locule, but never produce them 
in the tissues where food substances must be 
more abundant. 

Longo supports his conclusion that the inter- 
cellular course of the pollen-tube is followed 
not because of inability to grow in open space, 
by showing that pollen-tubes may be produced 
in moist air from such normally endotropic 
forms as Humulus Lupulus L., Picea excelsa, 
ete. He interprets chalazogamy as a physio- 
logical fact having bearing on phylogeny. In 
plants having endotropic pollen-tubes, he con- 
siders the direction of their growth to be de- 
termined chemotactically. 

The main points in Professor Lloyd’s inde- 
pendent conclusions from work on Rubiaceze 
are: (1) The form of cells in the conductive 
tissue does not determine the course of the 
pollen-tube, for in Richardsonia and Diodia 
teres the cells are elongated at right angles 
to the path of the tube. He believes the 
chemotactic stimulus which determines the 
direction to be differentially distributed from 
the egg cell. (2) The ectotropic or endotropic 
behavior of the pollen-tube is a physiological 
character. 

The second paper of the evening, by Mr. 
Edward W. Berry, was entitled ‘Some Mono- 
typic Genera of the Eastern United States and 
their Ancestors.’ The phylogeny of Lirioden- 
dron was briefly sketched from its first ap- 
pearance as a narrow simple-leaved form in 
the mid-Cretaceous of the Atlantic coastal 
plain, its spread to Europe and Asia, its de- 
velopment into large lobate leaved forms, and 
its final extinction except for the existing 
species of eastern North America and a wan- 
ing variety in eastern Asia. Drawings of all 
the fossil species were shown, and numerous 
blue-prints of the leaves of the existing species, 
showing their parallelism and range of varia- 
tion. 

Sassafras was the second genus considered. 
It was pointed out that while the described 


‘series of Memoirs. 


SCIENCE. 825 


fossil species were numerous, many of them 
are not allied to Sassafras. The species which 
were considered as positively identified were 
discussed, as well as the peculiar characters 
of the leaves of the existing species, both an- 
cient and modern forms being abundantly il- 
lustrated. 

The third genus discussed was Comptonia. 
Its former range and development were de- 
seribed and drawings of a number of the 
species were shown. 

All three genera were considered to have 
taken their origin from simple-leaved an- 
cestors which flourished during the closing 
days of the lower cretaceous, and to have 
originated in America, becoming dominant 
and widespread in pre-glacial times, finally be- 
coming restricted to their present habitats 
chiefly through the agency of the glacial con- 
ditions of the Pleistocene period. 

The paper was discussed by Professors 
Rusby, Underwood and Lloyd and Dr. Howe. 

Tracy E. Hazen, 
Secretary pro tem. 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


SECTION OF ASTRONOMY, PHYSICS AND CHEMISTRY. 

Tue regular meeting of the section was held 
on April 4, at the American Museum of 
Natural History. The program consisted of 
three papers, abstracts of which are as follows: 


The Variation of Latitude at New York City: 
Part 2, Variation of Latitude and Constant 
of Aberration: J. K. Rrts, Harotp Jacopy 
and Herman S. Davis. 

The results of seven years’ continuous ob- 
servations for a study of latitude variation 
and the aberration of light are contained in 
the present paper, which will appear as the 
second and last part of Vol. 1, in the academy’s 
To that publication the 
reader is referred for complete details and re- 
sults; it is not possible here to do more than 
mention very briefly the plan of the work, 
and to state the fact of its completion. 

The simultaneous and continuous observa- 
tion of the same stars at stations situated on 
a single parallel of latitude, but separated 
widely in longitude, has long been recognized 
as the best method of attacking the problem 


826 


under consideration; the first actual practical 
application of the method is the one treated 
in the present paper. The other participating 
observatory is the one at Capodimonte, near 
Naples, where simultaneous observations were 
made by Professor Fergola and his associates. 

The New York and Naples work was con- 
tinued until a similar, but a more elaborate, 
plan was put in operation by the International 
Geodetic Association, which includes all civil- 
ized governments. This plan involved the es- 
tablishment of four suitable special latitude 
stations, and rendered further work at New 
York and Naples unnecessary. 


Energy Liberated by Thorium: Gurorce B. 

Prcram and Haro~tp W. WEBB. 

The method used in this investigation of the 
energy liberated by thorium due to its radio- 
activity was to measure the difference between 
the temperature of three kilograms of thorium 
oxide, enclosed in a Dewar bulb, and that of a 
surrounding ice-bath, by means of a set of 
iron-constantin thermo-electrie couples. Uni- 
formity of temperature in the bath was se- 
cured by means of a rotating stirrer and care- 
ful heat insulation. The thorium oxide was 
cooled, so that its initial temperature was be- 
low that of the surrounding bath. Readings 
were taken at frequent intervals, and after 
several days the difference of temperature be- 
came constant, with the oxide .04° warmer 
than the bath. Several such series of obser- 
vations were made. From the rate of change 
of temperature and from an approximate cal- 
culation of the heat capacity of bulb and 
oxide, a tentative value of the heat liberated 
was found; 8 X10-5gram-ealories per gram 
of thorium oxide per hour (.93 ergs per gram 
per second), or 910-5 gram-ealories per 
gram of pure thorium per hour. Further in- 
vestigation is being made to determine these 
values more accurately. 


Note on a Tribophosphoroscope, and the Du- 
ration and Spectrum of Tribophosphores- 
cent Light: WatLacrk Gooup LeEvison. 
Dises of thick pasteboard about 15 cm. in 

diameter are evenly sanded on one or both 

sides on a coating of liquid glue with the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 491. 


materials to be examined in powder, narrow 
bands being sufficient and only small quan- 
tities of the materials required. 

The dise selected is then rotated at a known 
and usually moderate speed (twelve revolu- 
tions per second, for example) by any conyen- 
ient mechanism, such as an ordinary rotator 
used for illustrating the recomposition of 
light. 

A point or brush of wire or other material, 
or a piece of the same material with which the 
dise is coated, being pressed against the 
sanded surface, produces a trail of light which 
extends from the point of contact in an are 
more or less around the dise; varying in color 
with different materials and in length with 
the speed, and is maintained for some time 
unless the material is rubbed off by extreme 
friction. A grindstone or corundum wheel 
may often be used to advantage with hard sub- 
stances as a substitute for the disc, since a 
specimen held against it soon coats it with a 
trace of the material which shows its luminous 
trail beautifully. 

By means of the device described the in- 
tensity of the light may be determined with 
a photometer, its duration from the length of 
the trail, and its spectrum delineated with a 
spectroscope. 

The following approximate, tentative re- 
sults of the examination of a few minerals are 
given to illustrate its applicability. 

1. Sphalerite (1) from Utah. Light yellow 
concretions in gray massive sphalerite. Vis- 
ible trails are produced of respectively in- 
creasing brillianecy and length with the tip of 
the finger; a wooden match; the finger nail; 
a brass wire brush; and a steel wire brush, or 
point; of a yellow orange color, visible, with 
the latter, at a distance of several yards and 
extending about one quarter around the dise 
at the above speed. Hence, the duration is 
about 0.02 s. The spectrum is short, extend- 
ing from about the line C to the line # and 
embracing some red, orange, yellow, yellow- 
green and green. (2) From another locality 
very similar to the above in character, and 
afforded like results. (3) Of several dark 
colored sphalerites some showed a little light 


May 27, 1904.] 


at the point of contact of the brush, but no 
trail. 

2. Quartz. (Sandpaper dise or grindstone.) 
No light from brushes (except incandescent 
sparks from hard steel). A piece of quartz, 
however, gives a bright yellow light, and if of 
rock crystal is luminous within by internal 
reflection. Very short trail and duration. 

3. Corundum. (Emery paper dise or co- 
rundum wheel.) No light from brushes (ex- 
cept as above). A piece of ruby or ruby 
corundum against the corundum wheel or a 
grindstone evokes a brilliant crimson light 
and short trail and is luminous within by in- 
ternal reflection. Duration about 0.005s.; a 
piece of emery against a corundum wheel 
gives a like trail but is not itself luminous. 

4. Pectolite, Woodcliff, N. J. Wire brush. 
Light greenish-blue trail only medium bright 
but extending completely around the disc. 
Duration over 0.08 s. 

5. Limestone, Hellfire Rock, Utah. Feeble 
greenish-blue but similarly long trail. Dura- 
tion over 0.08 s. 

6. Willemite. (1) Hard yellow-green gem 
material, Franklin, N. J. Short greenish- 
yellow trail. Duration very short. (2) 
Opaque, massive green variety. Feeble short 
green trail. Duration about 0.02s. Best ob- 
tained with a spectrum pressed against a 
corundum wheel or grindstone. Various 
specimens give somewhat different effects. 
(8) Pink or brown variety. Longer and 
brighter green trail. Duration about 0.03 s. 

4. Chlorophane. (1) Violet from Trum- 
bull, Conn. Bright green and very long trail; 
best obtained by friction of a specimen against 
a grindstone or corundum wheel or a disc 
coated with the same material. Duration over 
0.40s. Spectrum broad band in the yellow- 
green and green. (2) Green from Amelia Co. 
Courthouse, Va. Trail similar but brighter; 
spectrum similar. (8) Red from Haddan 
Neck, Conn. Trail similar. 

In the discussion of the paper that followed 
Dr. George F. Kunz stated that Professor 
Baskerville and himself had under examina- 
tion a zinc-blende from Utah, the natural 
mineral varying in color from yellow 


SCIENCE. 


827 


to fawn and to pale brown. This was the 
most intense tribo-luminescent substance that 
they had yet investigated. Two bits one 
fourth the size of a pea, if pressed together 
lightly with the fingers, caused a brilliant yel- 
lew green light to glow as long as the pressure 
lasted; and it also possessed the property of 
becoming radio-responsive to the! beta and 
gamma rays of radium; that it was the first 
natural zinc-blende they had examined that 
showed this remarkable property. 

(Mr. W. J. Hammer showed a sample of 
artificial blende made by Mr. W. S. Andrews, 
of Schenectady, N. Y., which gave very strong 
tribo-luminescence. 

C. C. TrRowBriDce, 
Secretary. 


THE ACADEMY OF SCIENCE AND ART OF PITTSBURG. 
SECTION OF BIOLOGY. 


Tue regular monthly meeting of the sec- 
tion was held on February 2 in the lecture hall 
of the Carnegie Institute. Three topics were 
presented. The first paper was offered by Mr. 
W. E. Clyde Todd, on ‘The Birds of Erie 
and Presque Isle, Erie County, Pa.’ This 
paper is based on his personal observations 
during the season of 1900, supplemented by 
extensive field notes made by local observers, 
and published records. 

The locality in question is considered by 
the author as the most favorable in the entire 
state for the study of water-birds. Two hun- 
dred and thirty-seven species are recorded. A 
full account is given of the physical features 
and climatic conditions of the lake shore 
plain, and after a careful study of the avi- 
fauna of the region Mr. Todd reaches the 
eonelusion that it should be included in the 
Alleghenian fauna. 

Dr. A. E. Ortmann followed with a paper on 
‘The Cosmopolitan Character of the Deep-Sea 
Fauna,’ stating that a small collection of deep- 
sea schizopods from the Hawaiian Islands, 
recently received at the Carnegie Museum, has 
furnished a few new cases which show very 
wide horizontal distribution. Species found 
hitherto only in the Atlantic Ocean are re- 
corded for the first time from the Pacific, a 
circumstance which strongly suggests their 


828 


eosmopolitan distribution. This fact is not, 
however, a yew discovery, as similar cases have 
been observed before, but it is considered 
worth while to carefully record all these cases, 
since it has been doubted whether a world- 
wide distribution is a prominent character- 
istic of the deep-sea fauna. 

Although it is not contended that there are 
not eases of a more restricted distribution 
among abysmal animals, yet we must recog- 
nize cosmopolitan distribution as a remark- 
able feature of the deep-sea fauna, inasmuch 
as we have a very good explanation of this 
condition of affairs, in the fact that climatic 
differences are not present in the deep sea, as 
its temperature is uniformly cold. 

Frederic S. Webster closed the meeting with 
his topic ‘ The Smallest Carnivore,’ exhibiting 
four of the seven known specimens of this 
rare and diminutive weasel, Putorius alle- 
gheniensis. One of the mounted specimens 
was taken but a few days before the meeting 
of the section, and is very interesting, as it 
proved to be an adult male, and the first one 
of this sex secured. It is beautifully dressed 
in a dense winter coat of clear unstained 
white, excepting a few rather pale brownish 
markings on the crown and occipital region, 
and a very narrow dorsal line, about the length 
of the sacrum, and another small spot on the 
heel of the right lege. A few dark brownish 
hairs tip the short delicate tail. 

Three important features were pointed out, 
7. e., that the well-known disproportion in size 
existing between the sexes of other species of 
weasels is not a marked characteristic of this 
little-known species, nor does the indistinct 
brown of the tail seem to indicate that this 
member is furnished with the usual black of 
the other species. 

Another interesting feature is noticeable in 


the dentition, and as this peculiarity is pres- 


ent in three of the specimens (the fourth 
specimen has the incisors of the mandible in- 


jured) we are inclined to believe that it is a. 


constant feature of this species. 

In all the skulls of Putorius noveboracensis 
in the collections of the Carnegie Museum the 
mandibular incisors are placed more or less in 
a continuous line, and ean be readily counted 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 491. 


when the jaws are closed, but in Putorius 
alleghemensis the second incisors are pos- _ 
terior, being placed quite back of the first, 
and third, and are consequently neatly hidden 
away behind these teeth when the jaws are 
closed, giving the impression that there are 
but four incisors present in the mandible in- 
stead of six. 

A second specimen, also mounted, is in 
winter coat, but considerable brown is spread 
here and there over the dorsal region. But 
little brown or black tips the tail. 

A third specimen was that of a mimmied 
animal in summer pelage. The throat and 
chest are irregularly marked with white; the 
abdomen has the same uniform brown of the 
back. 

The fourth specimen (a skin) had consider- 
able white on the under parts; but is not 
evenly distributed. 

It would not be surprising if, when a speci- 
men in full summer pelage is obtained, we 
should find that this species differs from the 
other weasels in wearing throughout a uni- 
form coat of brown in summer. 

Six of the seven specimens taken have been 
found in Pennsylvania. The male specimen 
was caught at Pravo, Jefferson County, Ohio, 
in a box trap, by a country lad, and he, think- 
ing it a common ‘varmint,’ promptly des- 
patehed it by placing the trap in a trout 
stream. 

Frepreric 8. WEBSTER, 
Secretary-Treasurer. 


THE SOCIETY FOR EXPERIMENTAL BIOLOGY AND 
MEDICINE. 


THE sixth regular meeting of the Society 
for Experimental Biology and Medicine was 
held on the evening of April 20, in the bac- 
teriological laboratory of the department of 
pathology of Columbia University, at the Col- 
lege of Physicians and Surgeons. Dr. 8. J. 
Meltzer presided. 

Members Present.—Burton-Opitz, Calkins, 
Gies, Hiss, Hunt, Jackson, Lee, Levene, Lusk, 
Meltzer, Murlin, Norris, Park, Richards, 
Wadsworth, Wallace, Wilson, Yatsu. 

Members Elected—J. J. Abel, E. G. Conk- 
lin, A. R. Cushny, C. B. Davenport, W. H. 


May 27, 1904.] 


Howell, L. B. Mendel, T. H. Morgan, F. G. 
Novy, W. T. Porter, L. B. Stookey, W. H. 
Welch. 

Constitutional Amendment.—The following 
amendment was added to the constitution 
by unanimous vote: “ Hach non-resident mem- 
ber shall be required to present in person, at 
least once every two years, a communication 
containing the results of an experimental in- 
vestigation, or to send to the president, within 
that time, such a communication for presenta- 
tion at a regular meeting of the society.” 

Eligibility to Membership—Many inquiries 
regarding admission to membership in the so- 
ciety have recently been addressed to the sec- 
retary. It seems desirable to state publicly 
that only active investigators in biology or 
medicine are eligible to membership. The 
constitution of the society provides for au- 
tomatic forfeiture of membership by any mem- 
ber who may cease to be an ‘active investi- 
gator, by experimental methods, in biology or 
medicine’ Visitors are welcomed to the 
meetings. 

Abstracts of reports of original invyestiga- 
tions :* 

On the Secretion of Human Bile: P. A. Lu- 
venr, W. G. Metviy and B. MicHamowsxi. 
The bile was obtained from a patient with 

a biliary fistula. The patient had been oper- 

ated upon for gall stones, and was in com- 

paratively good health at the time of the 
experiment. 


Diet and Dosage. . Volume— Total Organic Ash 
24 hrs., Solids, Matter, 
Cicer %. %. %. 
Mirxediidietee-tn te 780 1.57 0.76 0.82 
Animal diet......... 785 1.68 0.60 1.08 
Wilke GhOKs sane sade. 845 1.61 0.56 1.05 
Vegetable diet....... 835 1.64 0.80 0.84 
Sodium carbonate... .461 1.62 0.71 0.92 
Hydrochloric acid... .461 1.53 1.08 0.45 
Calcium chloride... ..687 1.63) 0.56 1.08 
Sodium salicylate... .642 1.40 0.42 0.98 
Methylene blue...... 864 1.58 0.54 1.04 


Attention was directed to (1) the influence 
of diet on the quantity of bile secreted per 
twenty-four hours, (2) the permeability of 

* The authors of the reports have furnished the 
abstracts. The secretary has made only a few ab- 
breviations and minor alterations in them. 


SCIENCE. 


829 


the biliary ducts for certain substances like 
methylene blue and sodium salicylate, (3) the 
influence of these substances and of some salts 
and acids on the secretion, and (4) on the 
nature of the so-called ‘ bile mucin.’ 

The quantities of bile secreted under dif- 
ferent conditions, together with other data, 
are briefly summarized above. 

For methylene blue and sodium salicylate 
the bile ducts proved less permeable than the 
kidneys. There was observed a marked in- 
erease in secretion after subcutaneous injec- 
tions of methylene blue. The ‘mucin’ was 
found to be a phosphorized proteid, but no 
purin bases could be detected in its molecule. 
Experiments with Certain Nitriles and thew 

Antidotes: Rew Hunt. 

Experiments (carried out in the laboratory 
of Professor Ehrlich) on the toxicity of a 
number of nitriles, and the antidotal action 
of certain sulphur compounds towards them, 
were deseribed. Most of the nitriles studied 
are poisonous in virtue of the HCN which is 
split off in the body; in the case of some of 
the nitriles of the aromatic series and of cer- 
tain amino nitriles, the molecules themselves 
seem to be poisonous. Although each of 
nearly all of the compounds studied is capable 
of splitting off one molecule of HCN, it was 
found that the toxicity of the various com- 
pounds differed greatly. The toxicity depends 
in general upon the ease with which the HCN 
is split off; in some cases this seems to bear 
a relation to the ease with which the residue 
united to the CN group is oxidized in the 
body. Benzonitrile, containing the group 
C,H,, which is oxidized with difficulty in the 
body, is scarcely more poisonous than phenol. 
Acetonitrile, also containing a group, OH,, 
which is oxidized with difficulty, is also but 
slightly toxic. Propionitrile and formaldehyde- 
eyanhydrin, which contain easily oxidizable 
groups, C,H, and CH,OH, are very poisonous. 

The toxicity of the molecules of a few 
nitriles is greater than that of HCN itself, 
although the latter was the only toxic agent 
involved. Thus, the molecule of chloraleyan- 
hydrin, CCl,CH(OH)CN, is nearly twice as 
toxie as that of HON. The probable explana- 
tion of this is that the chloral residue with 


/ 


830 


which the CN is in combination causes this 
compound to be distributed especially to the 
central nervous system; the HCN is thus split 
off in greater concentration in these important 
organs than is the case after the administra- 
tion of a compound which is distributed more 
uniformly to important and unimportant or- 
gans. Through the application of this prin- 
ciple it may be possible to modify the distribu- 
tion in the body of a remedial agent, so that 
the active principle may be present in espe- 
cially great concentration in the organs which 
it is desired to affect. It was suggested that 
the powerful action of nitroglycerine upon the 
blood vessels may be explained on a similar 
hypothesis. The view of Hay, that the dilata- 
tion of the blood vessels caused by nitro- 
glycerine is due to the formation in the organ- 
ism of nitrites from this body has been gen- 
erally accepted, although the objection has 
been made that it requires two hundred times 
more sodium nitrite than nitroglycerine to 
produce a given effect. This criticism may be 
met by the hypothesis that the glycerine resi- 
due of the nitroglycerine causes this com- 
pound to be distributed especially to the 
arterial walls, so that the nitrite will be 
formed in greatest concentration at the point 
where it exerts its action. 

The work of Heymans and Masoin on the 


‘antagonistic action of sodium thiosulphate 


towards certain nitriles was extended to many 
new cyanogen compounds. In addition to the 
thiosulphate, several other compounds, con- 
taining a sulphur atom which is easily split 
off, were tested (the sulphur unites in the 
body to form a little poisonous sulphocyan- 
ate). The most efficient of these new sulphur 
compounds were thialdin, carbothialdin and 
potassium xanthogenate. Great differences in 
the extent of the antidotal action of these 
bodies towards the various nitriles were noted. 
Thus, thialdin protected against nitriles 
towards which potassium xanthogenate was 
without action; towards other nitriles potas- 
sium xanthogenate was the more efficacious. 
Many of these differences can be easily ex- 
plained on the hypothesis that the various 
nitriles and sulphur compounds are differently 
distributed in the body. Unless both the sul- 


SCIENCE. 


(N.S. Von. XIX. No. 491. 


phur compound and the nitrile reach the same 
cells, and unless the conditions in these cells 
are favorable for the formation of the sul- 
phocyanate, no neutralization will take place. 

Especially interesting are the experiments 
on the antidotal action of alcohol towards 
certain nitriles. It was found that small doses 
of aleohol protected an animal against three 
to five times the fatal dose of acetonitrile and 
formaldehydecyanhydrin, and that after other- 
wise fatal doses of these substances, the ani- 
mal recovered if small doses of alcohol were 
given. It was suggested that the explanation 
for this action may be that, because it is 
easily oxidized, alcohol consumed the oxygen 
usually available for the oxidation of the CH, 
and CH,OH groups of these compounds, and 
for the consequent liberation of the HCN. 
Support for this hypothesis was found in the 
fact that dextrose (another easily oxidizable 
substance) also protects against acetonitrile. 

This seems to be the first case in which alco- 
hol has been clearly shown to have an anti- 
dotal action toward a poison. It was sug- 
gested that alcohol may have an analogous 
action in certain pathological conditions in 
which physicians have long claimed a bene- 
ficial result from its use. Toward HCN itself 
and several other nitriles, alcohol has no anti- 
dotal action; in fact, in some cases the toxi- 
city of the nitrile was increased by it. 
Toxicity of Certain Quinine Derivatives: 

Rem Hunt. 

In one of the side chains of the quinine 
molecule there is, according to the commonly 
accepted view, a vinyl group, — CH = CH.. 
As the toxicity of many compounds (e. g., 
neurine and allyl alcohol) is chiefly due to the 
presence of such a group, experiments were 
made (in Professor Ehrlich’s laboratory) to 
determine whether this is the case with 
quinine. A number of derivatives in which 
the vinyl union was broken by the addition of 
H (hydroquinine), or of O or OH (oxyhydro- 
quinine), or of H and Cl (hydrochlorquinine), 
were tested as to their toxicity upon various 
mammals and certain infusoria. The experi- 
ments showed that the presence of the vinyl 
group in quinine is without special significance 
as far as toxicity is concerned, the first two of 


May 27, 1904.] 


the new compounds being about as poisonous 
as quinine itself. The results of the experi- 
ments with hydrochlorquinine are of special 
interest; these showed that the addition of 
Hand Cl decreases the toxicity for mammals 
while increasing it for infusoria. Thus the 
amount of hydrochlorquinine required to kill 
mice was two and a half times as much as 
that of quinine, while the former substance is 
distinctly more poisonous to certain infusoria 
than the latter. It is possible that hydrochlor- 
quinine (or similar compounds) will be found 
to be more effective than quinine, in the 
treatment of malaria, and further work 
along these lines may result in the discovery 
of quinine derivatives which will be of value 
in certain diseases, caused by protozoa, in 
which quinine is of little value. Further ex- 
periments are in progress. 


Report on the Metabolism of a Case of 
Diabetes Mellitus: A. R. Manne and Gra- 
HAM Lusk. 

The case was a young man whose urine con- 
tained no albumin, little ammonia, only a 
small amount of acetone and no # -oxybutyric 
acid. All these symptoms are said to justify 
a favorable prognosis. The patient was put 
on three different diets for three successive 
periods: Diet I.—Rich cream, oatmeal, meat, 
eggs, butter; Diet I1—Same as I., with 100 
grams of levulose; Diet JIJ.—Rich cream, 
meat and eggs. The oatmeal was used on ac- 
count of the favorable results obtained by 
Von Noorden. 

Diet III. was practically a meat-fat diet. 
Upon this diet the polyuria decreased and the 
sugar fell from 8 to 4 per cent., both of which 
phenomena would be favorably interpreted by 
the clinician. But on calculating the ratio be- 
tween sugar and nitrogen in the urine (after 
deducting the sugar fed in the cream) the 
relation between the two was found to be 3.65 
grams of dextrose to 1 gram of nitrogen, as 
follows: 


Dextrose, Nitrogen, 
1904. grams. grams. D:N. 
Manchy2e 2.26 - 82.7 23.0 3.60: 1 
seals 87.1 23.8 3.65; 1 
Bee eecciters 100.7 27.5 3.66: 1 


Tt will be noticed that the sugar and nitro- 
gen rise and fall together. The amount of fat 


SCIENCE. : 


831 


fed varied, but did not affect the ratio. The 

sugar production is therefore parallel to the 

proteid metabolism. Since 1 gram of urinary 

nitrogen represents the destruction of 6.25 

grams of proteid, we can calculate the sugar 

production from proteid. This D:N ratio is 
the same as that obtained in our laboratory in 
phlorhizinized dogs. It has also been obtained 
by others in the human subject, but has been 
falsely interpreted as indicating the produc- 
tion of sugar from fat. It represents the 

maximum output of sugar from proteid and a 

complete intolerance for carbohydrate. It is 

probably the most grievous prognostic sign in 
diabetes. 

A caleulation shows that the carbohydrates 
in the oatmeal and levulose were nearly quanti- 
tatively eliminated in the urine when the 
patient was under the influence of Diets I. 
and II. 

The patient rapidly lost in weight and died 
in coma five weeks after the completion of the 
above investigation. 

Antihemolytic Properties of the Serum of 
Nephrectomized Rabbits: S. J. Mentzer 
and WILLIAM SaLanrT. 

In studying the properties of the blood of 
nephrectomized rabbits it was found that bul- 
lock’s serum, which is distinctly hemolytic, 
for normal rabbit’s blood, was less so for the 
red cells of nephrectomized rabbits. It was 
found, further, that the serum of nephrecto- 
mized rabbits contains a distinct antihzemolytic 
element which is destroyed by heating for an 
hour at 58° C. On ‘the other hand, the 
‘washed’ red cells of nephrectomized rabbit’s 
blood are at least no more resistant to the 
hemolytic influence of bullock’s serum than 
the red cells of normal rabbit’s blood. 


On the Influence of Suprarenal Extract upon 
Absorption and Elimination, with Demon- 
stration: S. J. Mretrzpr and Joun Aurr. 
In a series of experiments it was found that 

a previous intravenous injection of adrenalin 

will make a rabbit resistant to a surely fatal 

dose of strychnine. (Such an experiment was 
demonstrated to the society.) In experiments 
with subeutaneous injections of fluorescein it 
was also found that in the animal which had 
previously received injections of adrenalin the 


832 SCIENCE. 


greenish yellow color of the conjunctiva, 
mucous membranes and skin appeared much 
later than in the control animal. Both re- 
sults might be due to delayed absorption or 
delayed transudation, or to both. In further 
studies with subcutaneous injections of 
fluorescein it was found that the color entered 
the blood later, and in diminished quantity, 
in the adrenalin animal than in the control. 
Among other observations, it was noted that 
the kidneys of the control animal were more 
intensely colored than those of the adrenalin 
animal. The same difference was found when 
equal quantities of the stain were injected 
directly into the blood stream. The lesser 
coloration of the kidney is therefore due to the 
diminished elimination by the kidneys in the 
adrenalin-animal. Other related problems are 
still under consideration. But the reported 
series of experiments already justify the con- 
clusions that suprarenal extract delays absorp- 
tion as well as elimination. 

The starting point for the investigation was 
the hypothesis, stated by Dr. Meltzer in an- 
other publication, that since capillary endo- 
thelia possess irritability and contractility, 
their pores are surrounded by rings of con- 
tractile protoplasm which act like sphincters 
upon them, thus increasing and decreasing the 
permeability of the endothelia. The explana- 
tion for the observed facts is now offered that 
suprarenal extract, which causes contraction 
of the smooth muscle fibers of the arterioles, 
causes, also, an increase of the contractility of 
the endothelia, diminishing thereby their 
permeability and thus reducing their powers 
of absorption and elimination. 


Mendel’s Law. E. B. Witson. 

A review of the more important facts in 
Mendel’s observations, together with a state- 
ment of some of the deductions to be drawn 
from them. 

Wititram J. Giss, 
Secretary. 


SCIENCE CLUB, UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN. 

THe seventh meeting of the club for the 
year 1903-04 was held in the physical lecture 
room of Science Hall, April 26. 

Tue first paper, by N. M. Fenneman, on 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 491. 


‘The Arapahoe Glacier in Colorado’ was a 
description of some recent explorations by the 
author and inyestigation of the character of 
the Arapahoe Glacier. This glacier lies about 
twenty miles west of Boulder, Colorado, and 
is about a half mile long and about a half 
mile wide. It has been only recently that the 
glacier has been studied scientifically. The 
glacier follows the type of the North Amer- 
ican glaciers. 

The second paper, by W. D. Frost, on ‘ The 
Antagonism of Certain Saprophytic Bacteria 
against the Typhoid Bacillus’ developed the 
facts that four very common bacteria produce 
substances that kill the typhoid germ; that 
these substances are heat stable but that their 
efficiency varies directly as the temperature; 
and that they are alkaline and are neutralized 
by acids. Mr. Frost’s experiments have shown 
that at the temperature of the ice-chest these 
substances do not kill the typhoid germs and 
hence is explained the prevalence of the most 
severe epidemics of typhoid in winter. 

After the foregoing papers were read and 
discussed the club proceeded to elect the fol- 
lowing officers for 1904-5: 


President—H. L. Russell. 
Vice-President—A, Trowbridge. 
Secretary-Treasurer—F. W. Woll. 
Victor LENHER, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


SHALL WE HAVE TWO GRADES OF COLLEGE 
PHYSICS ? 

Tue writer has examined about twenty cata- 
logues of institutions where technical courses 
in engineering exist side by side with courses 
which may be termed general or cultural. Of 
these only five made any distinction in the man- 
ner in which the subject of physics was pre- 
sented to students in their various depart- 
ments. Doubtless a more extended inyesti- 
gation of the subject would reveal others, but 
it is probable that the ratio would not be 
greatly changed. 

I wish in this note to raise the question 
whether it is not wise to give two courses in 
general physics in such institutions as have 
been referred to, the one being adapted to en- 


ie Se 


ring 


May 27, 1904.] 
gineering students, and the other to classical, 
chemical and literary students. Personally I 
believe it is highly desirable to make this dis- 
tinction. 

The problem of the inequality of student 
interest and capacity is one that confronts col- 
lege teachers of physics in an unusual degree. 
It does not always (and, perhaps, not usually) 
follow that the poorest students in physics are 
the poorest in other subjects; it is simply that 
the charms of physics reveal themselves only 
to those who are willing to work hard and long 
over its perplexities. A course in history or 
civics may appeal to a student who expects to 
go into business when he leaves college, but op- 
tical interference and magnetic hysteresis are 
likely to appeal only to the specialist. 

As a rule these two classes are clearly de- 
fined. Students who are expecting ‘to use 
physics as a foundation for technical branches 
will master its difficulties as a matter of 
course; while the other class think themselves 
aggrieved that they should be burdened with 
mathematical theories and problems. 

There results a very unfortunate state of af- 
fairs when these classes of students are recit- 
ing in the same division. The question, there- 
fore, arises, Is there not some remedy for the 
difficulty? And the only possible solution be- 
comes an easy solution if we are ready to an- 
swer afiirmatively the question propounded in 
the heading of this article. 

Leaving out of consideration the question 
of ease or difficulty in teaching, does it not 
seem fitting that physics should be presented 
to a student who is looking towards civil or 
electrical engineering, somewhat differently 
than to one who is preparing for law, theology 
or business? To be more specific, it seems to 
the writer that the mathematical treatment of 
physical subjects is undesirable in cases where 
the student is not looking forward to further 
work along this line. It is unfortunate that a 
subject so delightful under’ certain conditions 
should be made the bugbear of the course by 
insistence upon rigid mathematical applica- 
tions. For example, Hastings and Beach’s text- 
book, to which I can not pay a higher compli- 
ment than to say that I use it each year with 
about eighty engineering students, is, in my 


SCIENCE. 


833 


opinion, absolutely unadapted to students in 
classical, literary or chemical courses. 

What is the purpose of the training in phys- 
ies which these latter students receive? In 
the first place it develops their reasoning fac- 
ulties in a very high degree; secondly, it makes 
(or ought to make) them familiar with the 
historical development of the various phys- 
ical theories which are commonly accepted at 
the present time; thirdly, it gives them an in- 
sight into the laws and processes of nature. 
If these points are well taken, it may be ad- 
mitted that for the development of logical 
methods and processes nothing can surpass the 
applications of mathematics to physics; but 
such a large amount of similar training must 
of necessity come from the various mathemat- 
ical courses usually pursued that the first need 
not be insisted upon. It is rather the second 
and third statements of the advantages of 
physics for general students that appeal to us. 
And these are very distinct from the purposes 
of a course for technical students. It would 
without doubt be a poor technical course 
which entirely neglected the historical devel- 
opment or other general features of the sub- 
ject, but, on the whole, the purposes of general 
and technical courses are diverse. One who 
is looking forward to the law as a profession 
ought to know the conditions under which the 
law of gravitation was discovered, and some- 
thing of the development of the doctrine of 
the conservation of energy. But there is no 
occasion for his mastering, or better, life is 
too short for him to stop to master, the mathe- 
matical development of simple harmonic mo- 
tion or the kinetic theory of gases. 

The fact that so many institutions pre- 
scribe the same courses in physics for students 
in all departments would indicate that there 
must be good reasons for so doing. This note 
is written by one who pursues the opposite 
policy with the hope that some of these rea- 
sons may be published in a future number of 
SCIENCE. James 8. STEVENS. 

UNIVERSITY OF MAINE. 


COMET @ 1904- 


Tus comet, discovered by Professor W. R. 
Brooks on the night of April 16, has an orbit 


834 


worthy of note. Lick Observatory Bulletin 
No. 54 gives elliptic elements computed by 
Messrs. Curtiss and Albrecht. The extraor- 
dinarily small eccentricity (0.17733) together 
with the major axis (log a= 0.31970) at once 
suggests asteroidal orbits. In fact, so far as 
size is concerned, the orbit is seen to lie be- 
tween the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, the 
comet’s perihelion distance being slightly 
greater than the aphelion distance of Mars. 
It will also be noticed that the eccentricity is 
less than that of Mercury’s orbit, and, indeed, 
less than the eccentricities of the orbits of 
many of the minor planets, including Eros. 
But the inclination, more than 126,° with 
consequent retrograde motion, of course sharp- 
ly distinguishes it from any known planetary 
orbit. 

However disappointing the comet may be 
in its physical appearance and characteristics, 
it is to be hoped that a number of observa- 
tions may be secured and a study of the orbit 
made, with especial reference to the comet’s 
past and future relations to Mars and Jupiter 
when in or near its line of nodes. 


Eien Hayes. 
WHITIN OBSERVATORY, 
WELLESLEY, MASs., 
May 4, 1904. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE WATER-SOLUBLE PLANT FOOD OF SOILS.* 


Data were given showing the amount of 
phosphorie acid removed by crops, particularly 
wheat, at different stages of growth. In the 
ease of wheat it was shown that from one 
square yard of soil 1,106 grams of dry matter, 
containing 10.18 grams of phosphoric acid, 
were secured. Does all of this come from 
water soluble forms? Reference was made to 
Hellriegel’s exhaustive work, showing that 
359 grams of water are required to produce 
one gram of dry matter in the form of spring 
wheat. It was found that the quantity of water 
required. to produce 1,106 grams of wheat 
could dissolve only 1.9 grams of phosphoric 
acid from the soil upon which the wheat was 


* Presented at the St. Louis (1903) meeting of 


the Society for the Promotion of Agricultural 
Science. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 491. 


grown. In determining the water soluble 
phosphoric acid the quantities of soil and 
water recommended by Whitney and Cameron 
in Bulletin No. 22, Division of Soils, U. S. 
Department of Agriculture, were used. The 
soil was left in contact with the water for 
fifteen days. 

It was shown that if all the water taken from 
the soil was in the form of a saturated soil 
solution by physical action alone only 1.9 
grams could have been supplied out of a 
total of 10.18 grams, in water-soluble forms. 
The conclusion was reached that over 81 per 
cent. of the phosphorie¢ acid of the wheat crop 
was secured from forms insoluble in water. 
Similar data for oats, peas, corn and flax 
showed that the water-soluble phosphoric acid 
was only a minor factor in the food supply of 
the crops. 

Some of the data in Bulletin No. 22 were 
examined. The experiments by Birner and 
Lucanus were reviewed, and it was shown that 
all of the data were not given. Instead of 
being a normal oat crop, as claimed by Whit- 
ney and Cameron, it was shown that Birner 
and Lucanus secured from three to six times 
as much organic matter when more plant food 
than that secured in the well water was sup- 
plied. There were abnormal amounts of plant 
food, particularly nitrates, in the well water; 
over sixty parts per million were present. This 
was shown to be more than is found in Lon- 
don sewage. The work of Birner and Lucanus 
ean not be questioned, but the application of 
their results was shown to be inconsistent. It 
was noted on one page (10) that ‘with the 
chemical methods then available it was realized 
that the small amount of plant food contained 
in a soil extract could not be determined with 
sufficient accuracy to justify the formation of 
any definite conclusion,’ and then on a subse- 
quent page the results of Birner and Lucanus, 
obtained in 1863-1866, by such methods, are 
cited as the only evidence that plants obtain 
all of their food from water-soluble forms. 

The action of plant roots upon limestone is 
accounted for by Whitney and Cameron by 
the soil water being charged with carbon 
dioxide. It has been shown that the same re- 
sult was secured when most seeds were germi- 


May 27, 1904.] 


nated between litmus paper moistened with 
distilled water. The acid tracings of the roots 
were distinct, and there were no soil solutions 
charged with carbon dioxide present. 

A critical examination of the data given in 
Bulletin No. 22 shows that the conclusion is 
not consistent with the figures. To illustrate: 
On page 32 it is stated that a wheat field 
yielding 35 bushels per acre contained 2.49 
parts of PO, per million parts of air-dry soil. 
The most liberal calculations show less than 
five pounds per acre foot of water-soluble 
phosphoric acid; accepting the data given. as 
correct, a wheat crop of 35 bushels would 


_ remove 40 pounds at least of phosphoric acid. 


In other words, all of the water-soluble phos- 
phoric acid in this soil to a depth of eight 
feet by pure physical action alone would not 
supply this crop with food. To assume that 
all the water-soluble plant food can possibly 
be utilized to a depth of eight feet is even 


_ an incorrect assumption, because Hellriegel’s 


experiments show conclusively that there is a 
limit to the capacity of crops for absorbing 
water. 

To assume that a selective process takes 
place based on physical properties alone and 
that the plant has the power to take up more 
water-soluble phosphoric acid than water in 
which it is dissolved independent of chem- 
ical action or solvent power is not correct. 
Because if such a purely physical action- were 
to take place, the ions of lime, magnesia, etc., 
forced back into the solution by the with- 
drawal of the PO, ions would make the re- 
maining phosphoric acid less soluble. In fact, 
purely physical action based upon ionization, 
as claimed by the authors, would be working 
against the plant instead of aiding it in se- 
curing plant food. 

Most of the data given in Bulletin No. 22 
point to just the opposite conclusions from 
those drawn. It is stated that there are no 
material differences in the amounts of water- 
soluble plant food present in soils producing 
the largest and the smallest crop yields. The 
figures in the bulletin conclusively show that 
on a purely physical basis the rich soils do 
not contain enough water-soluble plant food 
to account for all of the mineral matter found 


SCIENCE. | 835 


in the crop.. There is only one alternative, 
namely, since the figures show that there is 
not enough water-soluble plant food to ac- 
count for all that there is present in the crop, 
it must be derived from other and insoluble 
forms. In fact, no better evidence could be 
given showing such a conclusion to be logical 
than the tables in Bulletin No. 22. In short, 
the conclusions are entirely at variance with 


the tables. Harry SNYDER. 
AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, 
St. AnTHony Park, Minn. 


THE EDISON MEDAL. 

TuHroucH the efforts of an organization 
known as the Edison Medal Association, a 
fund has been created to establish a medal to 
be known as the ‘Edison Medal,’ and the re- 
sponsibility of annually awarding it has been 
entrusted to the American Institute of Elec- 
trical Engineers. 

The Edison Medal Association was founded 
by the friends and admirers of the great in- 
ventor, and in the language of the deed of 
gift, “was organized for the purpose of prop- 
erly recounting and celebrating the achieve- 
ments of a quarter of a century in the art of 
electric lighting, with which the name of 
Thomas Alva Edison is imperishably identi- 
fied,’ and ‘ for the establishment of an Edison 
Medal, which should, during centuries to come, 
serye as an honorable incentive to the youth 
of America to maintain by their works the 
high standard of accomplishment by the illus- 
trious man whose name and features shall 
live while human intelligence continues to 
inhabit the world.’ 

The gift was formally made, and the re- 
sponsibility of conferring it assumed by the 
institute at its annual dinner given at the 
Waldorf-Astoria Hotel in New York, on 
February 11 last, held to not only commem- 
orate the event, but also to celebrate the fifty- 
seventh anniversary of Mr. Edison’s birth. 

The fund has been deposited with the Con- 
tinental Trust Company of New York, and 
there will be available this year sufficient 
funds for a medal, which will be awarded by a 
suitable committee of the institute, soon to 
be appointed. 


836 SCIENCE. 


The object of this letter is to attract the 
attention of the authorities of such institu- 
tions as may seem, to such authorities, quali- 
fied to compete; and the request is hereby 
made that all such institutions send, through 
their proper channels, their names to ‘The 
Edison Medal Committee’ of the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers, 95 Liberty 
Street, New York City, on or before June 1, 
1904, in order that the committee may have 
before it the names of all institutions which 
those in direct authority of them believe quali- 
fied to comply with the conditions as set forth 
in the various sections of the deed of gift, as 
follows: 


Fourth. The Institute shall, so long as the 
requisite funds accrue from the said investments 
so to be made by the trust company, annually 
cause to be executed a gold medal, and shall, 
through a committee to be duly appointed and au- 
thorized by it and known as the Edison Medal 
Committee, award said medal in accordance with 
the provisions of this clause. 

1. The medal shall be awarded to such qualified 
student as shall have submitted to the institute, 
in accordance with the provisions of this deed 
and of the regulations which may be prescribed 
by the Edison Medal Committee, the best thesis 
or record of research on theoretical or applied 
electricity or magnetism. 

2. Hach competitor for the medal, in order to 
be qualified, must have graduated and received a 
degree during the year for which the medal shall 
be awarded, in some course of study at some in- 
stitution of learning in the United States of 
America or Dominion of Canada, which course of 
study shall include the branch of electrical engi- 
neering. The United States Naval Academy and 
Military Academy are included within the insti- 
tutions from which competitors may be qualified. 

3. Not more than two students may compete in 
any one year from any one institution of learning; 
nor may any student compete, unless duly pre- 
sented for competition through the faculty of the 
particular institution at which he is a student. 

4. The course of study must be one normally 
representing not less than two years of continuous 
residence and work. 

5. The thesis or record must not exceed six 
thousand words, not inclusive of words employed 
in explanation of accompanying drawings. 

6. No competitor shall be of greater age than 
twenty-five years at the day of his graduation in 
such course of study. 


(N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 491. 


Fifth, The institute shall, through its Edison 
Medal Committee, forthwith make such rules and 
regulations, not inconsistent with any of the pro- 
visions or conditions of this deed, as may, in their 
judgment, assist in the proper execution of the 
trust herein created. The Edison Medal Com- 
mittee shall immediately upon making such rules 
and regulations notify the institutions of learning 
open to competition, of such provisions of this 
deed, and of such rules and regulations as may 
properly be communicated to them, and through 
them to the students at such institutions. 

Sixth. The institute will further, through its 
Edison Medal Committee, issue to each recipient 
of the Edison Medal a parchment certificate in 
such form as may be prescribed by said committee, 


certifying the name of the person to whom said . 


medal is awarded, the date of such award, and 
such other facts as may be deemed proper by the 
committee. 

The Edison Medal Committee is being 
selected from among the members of the insti- 
tute who are not now connected with educa- 
tional institutions, but who have the necessary 
early educational training, and subsequent ex- 
perience, to enable them to critically analyze 
and justly determine the merits of the theses 
offered in the various fields of research. This 
committee will, after organization, communi- 
cate such further information as may be neces- 
sary to those institutions whose names have 
been presented in compliance with this invita- 
tion, and it is hoped that prompt response may 
be received in order that no institution justly 
entitled to consideration may be overlooked. 

Bion J. ARNOLD, 


President. 
AMERICAN INSTITUTE OF 


ELECTRICAL ENGINEERS. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 

At the annual meeting of the American 
Academy of Arts and Sciences, held on May 
11, it was voted, on the recommendation of 
the Rumford committee, to award the Rum- 
ford medals to Professor Ernest Fox Nichols, 
of Columbia University, for his researches on 
radiation, particularly on the pressure due to 
radiation, the heat of the stars and the infra- 
red spectrum. 

Proressor Epwarp S. Morse has been 
elected a corresponding member of the 


ED 


w= 


CCEA AL ip OOTY 


May 27, 1904.] 


Swedish Society of Anthropology and Geog- 
raphy. 

THE council of the Royal Astronomical 
Society has proposed as associates M. Henri 
Deslandres, of the Meudon Observatory, Pro- 
fessor C. D. Perrine, of the Lick Observatory, 
and Mr. George W. Ritchie, of the Yerkes 
Observatory. 


Proressor FRIEDRICH KOHLRAUSCH, presi- 
dent of the Reichsanstalt, has been elected a 
foreign member of the Danish Academy of 
Sciences. 


‘Proressor Barros, of Lille, the geologist, 
has been elected a member of the Paris Acad- 
emy of Sciences. 


Tue University of Gottingen has awarded 
its Otto Wahlbruch prize, of the value of 
$3,000, to Dr. Wilhelm Pfeffer, professor of 
botany at Leipzig. The prize is awarded for 
the most important contribution to science 
during the past two years. 


Tue candidates selected by the council of 
the Royal Society have been elected as follows: 
Dr. T. G. Brodie, Major S. G. Burrard, Pro- 
fessor A. OC. Dixon, Professor J. J. Dobbie, 
My. T. H. Holland, Professor C. J. Joly, Dr. 
Hugh Marshall, Mr. Edward Meyrick, Dr. 
Alexander Muirhead, Dr. G. H. F. Nuttall, 
Mr. A. E. Shipley, Professor M. W. Travers, 
Mr. Harold Wager, Mr. G. T. Walker and 
Professor W. W. Watts. 


Tue Royal Institution, London, has elected 
the following honorary members: Professor EH. 
H. Amagat, Professor L. P. Cailletet, Pro- 
fessor J. M. Crafts, Professor H. A. Lorentz, 
Professor EH. W. Morley, Professor HK. C. Pick- 
ering, Professor and Madame Curie, Professor 
H. L. Le Chatelier, Professor G. Lippmann, 
Professor J. W. Bruhl, Professor G. H. 
Quinecke, Professor E. Fischer, Professor F. 
W. G. Kohlrausch, Professor H. Landolt, 
Professor L. Boltzmann, Dr. H. Kamerlingh 
Onnes, Dr. G. Lunge, Professor P. T. Cleve 
and Professor P. Zeeman. © 


Dr. W. Scumip has been appointed director 
of the Bavarian National Museum at Munich. 


Proressor W. F. Kine, chief astronomer for 
the Canadian government, is preparing to un- 


SCIENCE. 


837 


dertake the resurvey of the Alaskan boundary 
in accordance with the recent award of the 
Alaskan Commission. 


M. Awtrrep GranpipreR has been elected 
president of the French Society of Geography. 


Proressor Henry B. Warp, of the Univer- 
sity of Nebraska, will sail on June 11 for 
England. He expects to visit the university 
laboratories in England and on the continent 
and to attend the International Zoological 
Congress. He will not return to Lincoln until 
about September 15. 


Dr. Rosert Kocu has arrived at Cairo from 
West Africa, and is being consulted by the 
Egyptian Sanitary Department on the epi- 
demic of bovine typhus now prevalent in 
Keypt. 

Dean Epwarp C. Kir, of the Dental School 
of the University of Pennsylvania, has been 
made chairman of the committee on organiza- 
tion of the fourth International Dental Con- 
gress, which is to be held at St. Louis from 
August 29 to September 3. 


Mr. R. W. Witiiams, Jr., of the Biological 
Survey, will soon return to his home in Talla- 
hassee, Florida, to resume the practise of law. 


A gsuRy in Brooklyn has rendered a verdict 
of $20,000 damages in favor of Mr. Arthur 
MacDonald against the New York Sun. The 
Sun published numerous editorials attacking 
Dr. MacDonald while he was specialist on the 
defective classes of the U. S. Bureau of EKdu- 
cation. 


Dr. Wittiam Oster, professor of medicine 
at the Johns Hopkins University, delivered on 
May 18 the Ingersoll lecture at Harvard Uni- 
versity. His topic was ‘Science and Immor- 
tality.’ 

Proressor Ropert FLetcuer, director of the 
Thayer School of Engineering, Dartmouth 
College, has addressed the students of the 
Worcester Polytechnic Institute on ‘Our Per- 
sonal Relation to Sanitary Science.’ 


Tue Croonian lectures before the Royal 
College of Physicians of London will be de- 
livered by Dr. J. Rose Bradford on June 7, 
9, 14 and 16, his subject being ‘ Bright’s Dis- 
ease and its Varieties.’ 


838 


Ir is stated in the Condor that Mr. W. L. 
Dawson, the author of ‘The Birds of Ohio, 
intends to move to the state of Washington, 
where he will undertake, in co-authorship with 
Mr. J. H. Bowles, of Tacoma, an illustrated 
work upon the ‘ Birds of Washington.’ 

THE monument in honor of Benjamin Rush, 
presented to the nation by the American Med- 
ical Association, will be unveiled at Wash- 
ington, on June 11, at four o’clock in the 
afternoon. There will be an introductory ad- 
dress by the president of the American Med- 
ical Association; an oration on Benjamin 
Rush by Dr. J. C. Wilson, Philadelphia, and 
an address of the president of the United 
States accepting the gift. 

Tue fellowship established at the Univer- 
sity of California in honor of the late Pro- 
fessor Joseph Le Conte has been awarded to 
OC. O. Esterly, at present assistant in zoology 
at the University. 

News has just been received by cable that 
Professor E. J. Marey died on May 16. 
Physiology has thus lost one of its ablest ex- 
ponents and a leader in the application of 
methods of physical research to the study of 
biological phenomena. 

Proresson WILHELM Hiss, professor of 
anatomy at Leipzig and eminent for his con- 
tributions to that science, died on May 1, -at 
the age of seventy-two years. 

Dr. Grorce JoHnston Auman, F.R.S., for 
more than forty years professor of mathe- 
matics in Queen’s College, Galway, has died 
at the age of eighty years. He was the au- 
thor of numerous contributions to mathe- 
matics, especially on the history of the science. 


WE regret also to record the death of M. 


Emile Godfernaux, a well-known French civil ° 


engineer, and of M. Charles Soret, who held, 
since 1879, a chair at the University of 
Geneva, first of mineralogy and then of phys- 
ics, on April 4. 

FREDERICK A. WALPOLE, the botanical artist 
of the Department of Agriculture, died on 
May 11, 1904, of typhoid fever, at Cottage 
Hospital, Santa Barbara, Cal. He was consid- 
ered the best plant artist in the United States, 
his drawings having been used to illustrate 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von, XIX. No. 491. 


various reports published by the Department 
of Agriculture and the Smithsonian Institu- 
tion, as well as the narrative of the Harriman 
Alaska expedition. Mr. Walpole was born in 
Essex County, New York, in 1861, and at an 
early age moved with his parents to Illinois 
and later to Portland, Oregon, where he was 
engaged for some years as artist of a litho- 
graphic establishment. In 1896 his draw- 
ings of plants came to the notice of the De- 
partment of Agriculture and procured for 
him the position which he has since occupied. 
His method was to make his drawings from 
living plants growing under their natural wild 
conditions. His summers were spent mainly 
in the field, and his winters at the National 
Herbarium in Washington, where he com- 
pleted and perfected his work. The greater 
part of his drawings remain unpublished, 
including a remarkable series of colored paint- 
ings of the native poisonous plants of the 
United States, now on exhibition by the De- 
partment of Agriculture at St. Louis. He was 
a member of the American Association for the 
Advancement of Science, the National Geo- 
graphic Society and the Biological Society of 
Washington. 


THERE will be a civil service examination 
on June 8 for the position of civil engineer 
in the Philippine Service Bureau of Forestry, 
at a salary of $2,400. On June 15 there will 
be an examination for the position of labora- 
tory assistant in the Bureau of Standards at 
a salary of $900. 


Tue New York Civil Service Commission 
will hold examination on June 7, for director 
of Pathological Laboratories, Department of 
Bellevue and Allied Hospitals, New York 
City. The salary is $5,000 a year; the suc- 
cessful candidate will be required to devote all 
his time to the work. 


Cotonet J. E. TuHayer, of Lancaster, Mass., 
is erecting a museum in that town to contain 
his valuable collection of birds. 


Mr. EH. R. THomas has given $40,000 to the 
Manhattan Hye, Ear and Throat Hospital, 
which makes available conditional gifts 
amounting to $125,000. 


May 27, 1904.] 


THE proposal has been made to erect in 
Albany, N. Y., an institution, to cost $1,250,- 
000. It is intended for a home for the Albany 
Institute and Historical and Art Society, as 
well as the research center of the newly organ- 
ized society of engineers of eastern New York. 


THE sixth International Zoological Congress 
will, as has already been announced, be held 
at Berne from August-14 to 19. The con- 
gress will be invited to hold its next session 
in the United States. 


In connection with the mathematical con- 
gress which will be held at Heidelberg from 
August 8 to 18, there will be an exhibition of 
the mathematical literature of the past ten 
years, to which mathematicians are invited to 
contribute. Further information may be ob- 
tained from Dr. A. Gutzmer, University of 
Jena. 


We take from the Medical News the follow- 
ing facts in regard to the program of the 
American’ Medical Association which meets 
at Atlantic City from June 7 to 10. On 
Tuesday evening, beside the Oration on Medi- 
eine, the title of which is ‘The Importance of 
Pathologie Anatomy in Clinical Medicine,’ by 
Dr. George Dock, Ann Arbor, Mich., there will 
be a symposium on research work in the 
United States. Dr. J. S. Billings, New York, 
will give an account of the work being done 
by the Carnegie Institution; Dr. L. Emmett 
Holt, New York, will speak of the Rockefeller 
Institute; Dr. Frank Billings, Chicago, of the 
Memorial Institute for Infectious Diseases; 
‘Dr. Harold C. Ernst, Boston, concerning the 
research work at Harvard, and Dr. Alfred 
Stengel concerning the William Pepper Clin- 
ical Laboratory. On Wednesday evening Dr. 
W. J. Mayo, Rochester, Minn., will deliver the 
Oration on Surgery, entitled ‘ The Association 
of Surgical Diseases in the Upper Abdomen.’ 
This will be followed by a symposium on ‘ The 
Mutual Relation and Duties of the Govern- 
ment Medical Services and the Medical Pro- 
fession.”’ Dr. Victor C. Vaughan will talk on 
the subject ‘What Can the Medical Depart- 
ments of the Army, of the Navy, and of the 
Public Health and Marine-Hospital Service 
do for Medical Science?’ Surgeon-Major 


SCIENCE. 


839 


William C. Borden, U. 8S. Army, will speak on 
“What Can the Medical Profession do for the 
Army?’ Surgeon C. F. Stokes, U. S. Navy, 
will speak for the Navy, and Surgeon-General 
Walter Wyman will speak for the Public 
Health and Marine-Hospital Service. On 
Thursday evening the oration on State Medi- 
eine will be delivered by Dr. Herman M. 
Biggs, New York City, on ‘ Preventive Medi- 
cine; its Achievements, Seope and Possibil- 
ities.’ Following this will be a symposium in 
which Dr. William H. Welch, Baltimore, will 
speak in ‘The Bureau of Animal Industry; 
its Service to Medical Science’; Dr. D. E. 
Salmon, Washington, D. C., on ‘The Service 
of the Medical Profession to the Bureau of 
Animal Industry, and Dr. H. W. Wiley, 
Washington, D. C., on ‘ The Bureau of Chem- 
istry and Medical Science. These evening 
meetings will be held on Young’s Pier, so 
there will be ample room for the large num- 
ber that will certainly attend them. 


Accorpine to Mr. George Otis Smith, of 
the United States Geological Survey, who is 
the author of a geologic folio on the Mount 
Stuart (Washington) quadrangle, there is 
likely to be an increase in the future in the 
gold production of that area. Mining opera- 
tions in that field have heretofore been in the 
hands of people with limited capital, but dur- 
ing’ the last five years the claims of the small 
operators have been purchased by large com- 
panies, and it is probable that the mines will 
now be worked more steadily and more eco- 
nomically. The three principal gold-mining 
districts of central Washington are in this 
quadrangle. The Peshastin placers were dis- 
covered in 1860 and have been worked inter- 
mittently ever since. The Swauk placers have 
been worked rather more steadily since their 
discovery in 1868. Gold-bearing veins were 
first located in the Peshastin district in 1873, 
and in the Swauk district in 1881. Copper 
and silver occur with the gold in some of the 
veins of the Negro Creek district. Many of 
the ores are essentially copper ores, but 
whether the bodies are extensive enough to 
warrant their development has not yet been 
determined. Nickel is also a metal frequently 


840 SCIENCE. 


reported in the assays from this district. The 
Roslyn Basin is the most productive coal field 
in the Pacific coast states and it is included 
mostly within this quadrangle. ‘The coal is a 
coking, bituminous coal, well adapted for 
steam raising and gas making. Its clean char- 
acter and its high percentage of lump fit it 
for shipment as well as for local use. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

In the thirtieth general assembly of Iowa, 
recently adjourned, an attempt was made to 
remove the departments of engineering from 
the State University at Iowa City to the State 
College of Agriculture at Ames. The measure 
was promptly killed by the vigorous action of 
the alumni and other friends of the univer- 
sity and an appropriation of $50,000 was made 
for erecting either the first of a new series of 
engineering buildings or the wing of a single 
large engineering hall. An additional appro- 
priation was made for constructing a dam in 
the Iowa River which will yield on the average 
over three hundred horse power. This power 
will be used for lighting and ventilating the 
university buildings, besides supplying power 
to the various engineering shops and labora- 
tories. Plans for the proposed structures are 
being made and work will be commenced at 
the earliest possible date. An additional 
$5,000 was appropriated for the better equip- 
ment of the bacteriological laboratory, which 
sum will be increased from the general sup- 
port fund of the university. Ground will at 
once be broken for a new museum building 
to cost about $225,000. The present natural 
science building of brick, completed in 1885 
at a cost of $45,000, will be moved bodily to 
a new site to make room for the proposed 
structure, this being in accordance with plans 
formed several years since for the development 
of the university buildings and grounds. The 
new medical buildings are nearing completion 
and are already partially occupied. All the 
new buildings are massive fireproof structures, 
finished in Bedford stone and thoroughly mod- 
ern in every detail. The total income of the 
university for the next biennium will exceed 
$960,000, about one third of which must be 
used for building. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 491. 


Accorpine to the New York Hvening Post 
the Association of Class Secretaries of the 
Massachusetts Institute of Technology, which 
is active in opposition to the proposed union 
of the Institute with Harvard University, re- 
ports that over 2,000 of the alumni have signed 
the petition on the subject addressed to the 
corporation. Ninety-five per cent. of the grad- 
uates approached on the subject sign the ad- 
verse petition without qualification, or with 
unimportant modification; three per cent., 
while advocating the independence of the In- 
stitute, decline to sign because they rely on 
the judgment of the corporation, or consider 
the petition too sweeping; and two per cent. 
decline to sign because they believe that some 
combination of effort may be possible, or that 
a union with Harvard is desirable. 


Tue Cornell College of Agriculture is to 
add a school of landscape gardening to its 
curriculum. 


We learn from the London Times that the 
president of the board of education has ap- 
pointed a departmental committee to inquire 
into the present working of the Royal College 
of Science, including the School of Mines; to 
consider in what manner the staff, together 
with the buildings and appliances now in 
occupation or in course of construction, may 
be utilized to the fullest extent for the pro- 
motion of higher scientific studies in connec- 
tion with the work of existing or projected 
institutions for instruction of the same char- 
acter in the metropolis or elsewhere; and to 
report on any changes which may be desirable 
in order to carry out such recommendations 
as they may make. Sir Francis Mowatt, 
G.C.B., is chairman of the committee, and 
Mr. J. O. G. Sykes, assistant secretary in the 
branch of the board which deals with evening 
schools, technology and higher education in 
science and art, has been appointed secretary 
to the committee. 


Dr. Winuiam SrirLine, professor of physiol- 
ogy in the University of Manchester, has been 
appointed dean of the Medical School. 


Dr. R. Brauns, professor of geology and 
mineralogy at Giessen, has been called to 


Kiel. 


ee eet eee ee 


CIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


FrRipay, JUNE 3, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
Research in State Universities: PROFESSOR 
SRAM OU SSHLL a) sey. aaryecisie estate cre mere 841 


Scientific Books :-— 


Ostwald’s Grundlinien der anorganischen 

Chemie: PRoFEsSsoR LOUIS IKAHLENBERG.. 854 

Societies and Academies :— 
The San Francisco Section of the American 
Mathematical Society: Proressor G. A. 
Mirier. Minnesota Academy of Sciences: 
Dr. H. Gate. The Geological Society of 
Washington: AtrreD H. Brooxs. The 
Biological Society of Washington: WiILFRED 
H. Oscoop. The Cornell Section of the 
American Chemical Society: WittiamM C. 
Grrr. Section of Geology and Mineralogy 
of the New York Academy of Sciences: Dr. 
HpMUND RODS. HOVvEnaee esos oo. 855 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Metric System: Prormssor ARTHUR 
GorpDoN WEBSTER. Zoology and the Inter- 
national Catalogue of Scientific Literature: 
Dr. T. WayLanp VaueHANn. Non-educa- 
tion of the Young by Parents: Dr. THEO. 
GitL. Price of the Reports of the Harri- 
man Hapedition: PROFESSOR IsRAEL C. Rus- 
SEL 860 


Special Articles :— 
An Enemy of the Cotton Boll Weevil: O. F. 
Coox. Zygospore Formation a Sexual 
Process: ALBERT FRANCIS BLAKESLEE. On 
the Development of Palisade Tissue and 
Resinous Deposits in Leaves: Epegar N. 
TRANSEAU. Albino Brook Trout: C. R. 


TET aA BIE} 8 yo eee Ne ME BT Rea OE Ie 862 


Botanical Notes :— 


Weeds used in Medicine; The Date Palm 
im America; Woody Plants in Winter; Dr. 
Augustin Gattinger, Botanist: PROFESSOR 
CHARLES E. Bussey 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Ejitor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


RESHARCH IN STATE UNIVERSITIES.* 


TuE word research, as used by scientific 
men, signifies study systematically carried 
on for the purpose of discovering that 
which is unknown. It is the seeking for 
new facts, new forces, new laws and new 
ideas without direct reference to their 
utility. 

The word re-search has been chosen to 
express this high aim, rather than the same 
root without the prefix, because in most 
instances explorations have to be repeated, 
experiments performed again and again, 
and the advances made in any direction 
serutinized from many points of view be- 
fore the conclusions reached are deemed 
worthy of acceptance. 

The field of research is not restricted to 
the laboratory or the library, but is as wide 
as the universe. It includes the study of 
man as well as his environment. It is es- 
sential alike to the growth of industries and 
the development of philosophies. 

Research, then, is the painstaking en- 
deavor to increase the world’s store of 
knowledge in any department of human 
thought. 

The Scope of Kesearch.—One of the most 
important results of the modern develop- 
ment of industries is the recognition of the 
fact that discovery is the mainspring of 
progress. This conclusion, although self- 
evident, does not seem to have received the 
recognition it deserves. The creed which 
needs to be repeated over and over again 
in the hearing of every intelligent human 


* Read before the Research Club of the Univer- 
sity of Michigan, January 20, 1904. 


842 


being, in order that still greater achieve- 
ments may be accomplished, is that all man 
has gained which makes him the superior 
of the beasts of the fields, has come as a 
reward for increasing his knowledge of the 
cosmos in which his lot is cast. The fact 
that progress depends on and is an out- 
come of human exertion, should stimulate 
and encourage all mankind to strive to 
reach a higher plane. The end in view is 
the attaimment of all possible knowledge, 
and the application of that knowledge to 
the increase of man’s happiness, the lessen- 
ing of his burdens, and the decrease of his 
sufferings. The goal, on reaching which 
man can say: The bounds of the knowable 
have been attaimed, and all possible wisdom 
is mine! is notin sight. So vast and intri- 
cate are the laws and processes of nature 
and of mind, that the Ultima Thule of hu- 
man endeavor will never be reached. But 
to approach and make nearer and nearer 
approximations to the magnificent ideal, 
like the alpine climber who seeks to scale 
some cloud-encompassed peak, we need no 
other guide than the assurance that all as- 
cending paths lead toward it. 

The uplifting of man by providing him 
with additional powers through research 
may, as just suggested, be illustrated by the 
tasks that mountaineers set for themselves. 
Tt is true that on a mountain’s side all as- 
cending paths lead toward its summit, 
but some are impassable, others beset with 
extreme difficulties, and only one perhaps 
is practicable. The discovery of that way 
is the mountaineer’s hope. Many fruitless 
efforts must be made, but at last some one 
climber, more skilled, steadier of nerve, or 
stronger and more enduring than his com- 
panions, discovers the right way and others 
follow, guided and encouraged by his ex- 
ample and counsel. The foremost moun- 
taineer is an explorer. Following in his 
foot-steps but improving the path he has 
made and discovering side excursions from 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Voz. XIX, No. 492. 


it, others gain glorious alpine gardens, and 
traverse shimmering snow-fields never be- 
fore pressed by human foot. In a similar 
manner, among those who strive to make 
advances into the realm of the unknown in 
other directions, some one investigator 
gifted beyond his fellows, inspired by a new 
idea, or discovering a new meaning in some 
well-known fact, like the successful moun- 
taineer, leads the way. When such an ad- 
vance is made, others are encouraged to fol- 
low and a new and wider view of nature is 
obtained. The all-important fact is that 
some one shall lead. Leaders in research 
have appeared from time to time and in 
increasing numbers as the importance of 
their services to mankind has become more 
and more appreciated and the demand for 
an increase of knowledge more general. 
Some of the pioneers in research have been 
greater than others, but all alike have as- 
sisted in the great work of extending the 
boundaries of the known. ‘The recognition 
of the fundamental importance of research 
has been slow, and resulted from the ob- 
served increase with its advance in ma- 
terial gains, enhanced comforts, greater 
effectiveness of labor, better health and 
greater average length of life. As these 
and other similar results have been recog- 
nized, the demand for more knowledge, in 
order that still other forces might be 
utilized, has steadily increased, and never 
before in the world’s history has this de- 
mand been greater than now. 

In a large view of human advancement 
research work in pure philosophy, from 
which but little direct aid to industry is 
perhaps furnished, must be reckoned fully 
as important as the discoveries of the chem- 
ist, the physicist and others, which are 
widely utilized in enhancing man’s ma-- 
terial welfare. The discoveries in relation 
to the flow of electricity, or the studies 
which furnished a knowledge of the prop- 
erties of steam, great as have been the re- 


June 3, 1904.] 


sults of their application, it is safe to say, 
have been no more beneficial to the human 
race than the researches which made known 


the mode of development of plants and ani- 


mals. Hlectricity and steam have fur- 
nished power for the moving of ponderous 
matter, but evolution has given a mental 
force which has profoundly modified the 
philosophies of all civilized peoples, and as 
there is no doubt will be a means of dis- 
covering many new truths in the future. 
Advance in philosophy, ethics, ete., is no 


less dependent on research than is the 


erowth of manufacture or commerce. But 
no separation of purely intellectual and 
purely industrial development is permis- 
sible, since, as there is abundant evidence 
for proving, progress in any department 
of human activity is followed by gains at 
other points along the frontier of the do- 
main of the known. 

The Bounds of the Knowable not yet 
Reached.—The incentive which leads men 
to devote their time and energy to research 
is an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. 
The unknown has fascinations which in all 
ages have awakened a response in the hu- 
man breast. In the earlier stages of intel- 
lectual development, the mountains, the 
ocean, the caverns and other but little- 
Imown portions of the earth were peopled 
in Imagination with gods, genii and fairies, 
both genial and malign. When reason sup- 
plants fancy and experiment undermines 
eredulity, the voices from the unknown be- 
come still more alluring. They lead the 
astronomer to explore distant space where 
he finds no limit; the geologist to trace 
backward the history of the earth without 
discovering a beginning; the chemist and 
physicist to scrutinize the laws governing 
matter and force without untangline all 
of their complexities; the archeologist, the 
historian, the philosopher, the socialist and 
others to investigate man’s estate and de- 
velopment, only to find the records failing 


SCIENCE. 


843 


before the beginning of thought is discern- 
ible; the biologist to describe and classify 
the manifold ways in which life is encased 
and study the functions of bone, muscle and 
nerve, only to learn that the longed-for in- 
sight as to what life really is recedes far- 
ther and farther as he advances. Along 
these and many other tributaries of the 
river of knowledge explanations have been 
earried without reaching their sources. On 
every hand and at no great distance, as 
shown by the explorations that have been 
made, the known merges with the unknown. 
This same conclusion can be indicated in 
another way: The rate and character of a 
change that is taking place are frequently 
indicated by means of a curved line, which 
shows graphically, perhaps an increase, a 
culmination and a decline. By this means 
the rate at which human knowledge has in- 
creased might be plotted, but the curve 
would fail to indicate a maximum and give 
no suggestion of a decline. The nineteenth 
century has been termed the ‘wonderful 
century,’ and why? Because during that 
century scientific discovery, followed by in- 
vention, was carried on more systemat- 
ically, more enthusiastically and by a 
larger number of skilled investigators 
than during any previous century. The 
tide of discovery and invention which 
made itself prominent during the cen- 
tury recently closed, and increased in force 
as the years of that century increased 
in number, is still advancing and, as it 
seems, with continuous acceleration. The 
intellectual tide-gauges of the world give 
no suggestion that the nineteenth-century 
wave of discovery has culminated. On the 
contrary, there is abundant evidence to 
show that the rate of intellectual develop- 
ment is still on the increase, and that yet 
more important conquests in the domain of 
the unknown than have illuminated the 
past will be made in the future. On our 


844 SCIENCG. 


graphic illustration of the world’s progress, 
each year extends the curve upward. 

The conclusion that the known is but a 
small fraction in comparison with the un- 
known is perhaps startling, yet in view of 
the recency of numerous discoveries and 
the increasing rate of the returns from 
more and more careful investigation, such 
seems to be the ratio of the sum total of 
man’s knowledge to the possible discoveries 
of the future. To demonstrate this broad 
proposition, which if true is most stimula- 
ting to human endeavor, facts might be 
presented from any department of knowl- 
edge. We are saved the trouble of com- 
pilation in this connection, however, by the 
timely appearance of ‘Year Book’ No. 1 of 
the Carnegie Institution. 

The officers of the Carnegie Institution, 
in seeking to learn how they might best 
apply the money placed at their disposal, 
obtained assistance from various advisory 
committees, consisting of from one to six 
scientific experts, and in several instances 
the committees themselves sought counsel 
from other leaders in research both in the 
United States and in foreign countries. The 
reports of the committees referred to cover 
284 octavo pages, and deal in a broad way 
with the problems awaiting investigation 
in several but by no means all departments 
of learning. Some of the directions in 
which, in the opinion of the members of the 
committees, profitable research work can be 
done, are enumerated below, but it is not 
practical to review the entire category at 
this time, and, besides, in several important 
divisions the precise questions to be asked 
of nature are not formulated. 

From the reports mentioned, we learn 
that botanists are desirous of broadening 
their science in at least two directions: 

The first pertains to the relation of vege- 
tation to environment in the United States. 
In this connection, studies are suggested as 
to the function and effect of the forest in 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 492. 


humid regions in reference to the influence 
of trees on atmospheric moisture, precipita- 
tion and run-off, and the converse effect on 
the forest; and also similar studies respect- 
ing the plants of arid regions, for which 
purpose the establishment and maintenance 
of a desert botanical laboratory are advo- 
cated. 

The second recommendation of the ad- 
visory committee on botany is in reference 
to the carrying on of extensive botanical 
explorations in Central America and the 
West Indies, for which outline plans are 
presented. 

These are the only ways in which the 
committee seems to have thought it ex- 
pedient to recommend the undertaking of 
research work by the Carnegie Institution, 
but even a novice in the science of plants 
ean readily see that there are promising 
lines of work in many other directions. 

The advisory committee on physics out- 
lines a broad plan for establishing a well 
equipped physical laboratory to be devoted 
to research work in pure physics, with a 
corps of investigators, together with recom- 
mendations in reference to grants of money 
to be made to persons, societies, etc., en- 
gaged in physical research, but does not 
outline the problems to be attacked. 

In reference to investigations pertaining 
to the earth, which are of mutual interest 
to both physicists and geologists, the ad- 
visory committee on geophysics outlines 
some of the more prominent problems 
which demand immediate attention. 

Among the salient questions pertaining 
to the earth’s gaseous envelope, or the at- 
mosphere, are those of its origin, its mass, 
its mass-limitations, and its mass-distribu- 
tion, the potential atmosphere absorbed in 
the ocean and in the body of the earth, its 
sources of depletion and enrichment, its 
function as a thermal blanket over the sea 
and land, the possible changes in its dia- 
thermacy and the relations of these to 


IE SOTA Cee I. 


June 3, 1904.] 


great climatic changes, together with many 
related problems that enter profoundly 
into the interpretation of the earth’s past, 
and seem to have immense importance to 
the future of the human race. 

In reference to the waters of the earth, or 
the hydrosphere, the geophysicists desire an 
opportunity to investigate its origin, mass 
and mass distribution; the constancy or 
variations in the volume of the ocean and 
changes in its level in relation to the land; 
the part which the water-mass plays in the 
changes of the form of the earth; the 
origin, constancy, or variation of the 
ocean’s salinity, and many other questions. 

Concerning the rigid outer portion of the 
earth, or the lithosphere, the geophysicists 
would seek for information relating to the 
origin and maintenance of the continental 
platforms with their superposed mountains 
and plateaus, and of the oceanic basins, 
involying questions of rigidity, distribu- 
tion of pressures, etc.; the agencies and 
conditions that make possible the prolonged 
periods of crustal quiescence recorded on 
the earth’s surface by extensive plains pro- 
duced by erosion; the nature and causes of 
the movements in the earth’s crust which 
have produced crumplings and breaks or 
faults, and upraised mountains and 
plateaus, and are indicated also in a large 
way by continents and oceanic basins; the 
breaking, shearing and folding of the rocks 
leading on to the general problems of rock 
metamorphism, and a great group of intri- 
cate questions of a chemical and chemico- 
physical nature, including the flow of 
rocks, the destruction and genesis of min- 
erals, the functions of included water and 
gases, the flow of material within the earth, 
the origin of ore deposits, the evolution and 
absorption of heat, and other phenomena 
that involve the effects of temperature, 
pressure, tension and resultant distortion 
on chemical changes and mineralogical ag- 
eregations. 


SCIENCE. 845 


Within the earth’s outer crust lies what 
is termed the centrosphere, concerning 
which the advisory committee on geophysics 
states its desires as follows: The themes 
here are the kinds and distribution of the 
lithic and metallic materials in the deep 
interior; the states of the matter; the dis- 
tribution of mass and of density and the 
consequent distribution of pressure; the 
origin and distribution of heat; the conduc- 
tivities of the interior material under the 
pressure and heat to which it is subjected; 
the heat possibilities arising from supposed 
original gaseous condensation, or alter- 
nately from initial impact of aggregation; 
the heat of subsequent attractional con- 
densation; the secular redistribution of 
heat within the earth, and its loss from the 
surface; the possible relations of redistri- 
bution of internal heat to voleanism and to 
deformation, and similar profound prob- 
lems. 

Long as the above category of as yet un- 
solved problems may seem, it by no means 
exhausts the lines of earth study suggested 
to the Carnegie Institution as awaiting 
elucidation. Laboratory experiments are 
outlined in reference to the effect of pres- 
sure on the melting point of rocks carried 
on at high temperatures and pressures, and 
through a wide range of material; the 
effect of temperature and pressure on ther- 
mal conductivity and on elasticity, with 
reference especially to the transmission 
through the earth of seismic tremors. Nor 
is this all; geophysical questions in refer- 
ence to the relation of the earth to other 
bodies in the solar system, such as the de- 
formation of the earth owing to the attrac- 
tion of the sun and moon, thus furnishing 
a means for testing its rigidity, the history 
of oceanic tides and their influence on the 
earth’s rotation. These and other questions 
lead to still greater problems such as the 
origin of the solar system and even the 
genesis of the stars. 


846 


It is not desirable to weary my readers 
with a more extended exposition of our 
ignorance concerning the earth on which 
we live, as outlined in the ‘Year Book’ from 
which citations have just been made, but 
I may perhaps be pardoned for mentioning 
that following the presentation of the 
larger problems referred to, comes a list of 
sixteen extensive groups of specific ques- 
tions which demand for their solution the 
establishment and maintenance for a series 
of years of an extensive and well-equipped 
geophysical laboratory. 

The immediate lesson illustrated by this 
catalogue of wants is: great as are the re- 
sults of the geological studies already made, 
several chapters of the earth’s history have 
yet to be written and nearly all of the chap- 
ters already in print need thorough re- 
vision. 

In the ‘Year Book’ cited above, the de- 
sire for further knowledge on the part of 
geographers, meteorologists, chemists, pa- 
leontologists, zoologists, psychologists, an- 
thropologists, bibliographers, engineers, 
physiologists, historians, mathematicians, 
ete., are outlined, and in each department 
the importance of pressing on with dis- 


covery is clearly and earnestly expressed.’ 


It will perhaps be a surprise to many 
persons, that in the recommendations for 
research work made to the Carnegie Institu- 
tion, astronomy occupies more space than 
is assigned to any other science. Seventy- 
three pages are devoted to outline plans of 
some of the ways in which the study of the 
heavens can be continued with the promise 
of valuable returns. If the oldest of the 
sciences has such hopes for the future, 
surely the outer boundary of the knowable 
is far distant. 

There is another point of view by which 
the magnitude of the research work brought 
to the attention of the trustees of the Car- 
negie Institution may be estimated. About 
one half of the plans suggested by ad- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 492. 


visory committees are accompanied by 
estimates of cost. This category—inclu- 
ding estimates in several instances for labo- 
ratories, observatories, biological stations, 
endowments, ete., and running expenses for 
a period of five years—calls for an ex- 
penditure of about $16,000,000. The ex- 
pense of all the investigations outlined for 
a period of five years may safely be 
placed at $30,000,000, or three times the 
present capital of the Carnegie Institution. 
In this connection it is to be remembered 
that the institution does not propose to un- 
dertake any research already provided for 
by individuals, universities, societies, etc., 
but to supplement such work or cooperate 
im carrying it on. The plans to which at- 
tention has been directed are for imvesti- 
gations over and above those already initi- 
ated or likely to be made without the aid 
of the Carnegie Institution. And again, 
to some extent the work outlined is circum- 
seribed by political limits and pertains to 
the United States. 

This brief showing of the problem al- 
ready in view will, I think, serve to sustain 
the statement made above, in reference to 
the vastness of the realm of the unknown 
which surrounds us on every side. ‘To ex- 
tend the limits of the known in all the direc- 
tions in which scientific men are looking 
would certainly require the resources of 
many Carnegie institutions, and the time 
and energy of many generations of inyesti- 
gators. 

Increasing Difficulty of Research.—In 
considering the aims of research and the 
means available for its encouragement, the 
imereasing difficulties in the way of dis- 
covery aS knowledge increases, should be 
clearly recognized. Not only this, but the 
tendency to feel that enough has been ac- 
complished, or in other words, self-satisfac- 
tion, needs to be combated. Contentment 
is not the motto of the enquiring mind. 

The close scrutiny, the hard and long- 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


continued work and the careful mental 
training required to continue making dis- 
coveries in an old field, are seemingly self- 
evident. In geographical explorations, the 
discoverer of a new land has a virgin field 
before him, concerning which the most 
trivial notes are of value. As exploration 
progresses, however, and more and more is 
known concerning a newly discovered land, 
the problems to be attacked become more 
and more difficult, require deeper thought, 
better equipment and broader preparation 
on the part of the would-be discoverer. 
But old fields yield rich returns, even to 
the geographer, as is shown by the con- 
Spicuous advances made in physiographic 
studies in the older portion of America 
during the past decade. 

The increased difficulties of discovery as 
advanees are made might be emphatically 
illustrated by any one of the older sciences. 
In astronomy, for example, as every one 
knows, greater precision has demanded bet- 
ter instruments. While the moon yielded 
abundant returns when observed with the 
small telescope of Galileo; to resolve the 
distant nebule, measure the motions of 
double stars and map the heavens, requires 
instruments of vastly greater power. To 
the work of observing and measuring, the 
astronomer has added the study of the 
physical condition and chemical composi- 
tion of the matter composing the heavenly 
bodies, measurements of the heat emitted 
by the stars, etc., and in sever~_ divisions 
of his task assistance is had from photog- 
raphy. The increased accuracy demanded 
and the broadening of the scope of astron- 
omy, particularly by the addition to it of 
spectroscopic work, has vastly augmented 
the expense of equipping and maintaining 
observatories, and also demanded greater 
and more varied preparation on the part of 
the men who explore the realm of distant 
space. 

The increase in the size and excellence of 


SCIENCE. 


847 


the instruments required by astronomers 
is well known. The great observatories 
are in sight and open to the public. The 
beauty and costliness of the modern tele- 
scope, so complex with its many attach- 
ments that 1 might well be termed an 
astronomical engine, are apparent even to 
the casual observer. Both the interesting 
methods of observation and the startling 
results of astronomical study are described 
from time to time in newspapers and pop- 
ular magazines. From these and other 
sources the growing needs of the astron- 
omer as his work progresses are at least 
recognized, and to a great extent appreci- 
ated by the public, and broad-minded citi- 
zeus have in many instances contributed 


money freely for the betterment of the 


tools with which he works. 

The increase in size and in costliness of 
astronomical instruments and the broaden- 
ing of the scope of astronomy, are but an 
illustration of what has taken place and is 
increasing from day to day, in every de- 
partment of human thought. The chemist, 
physicist, biologist, meteorologist, geologist 
and explorers who are following other 
paths of learning are meeting with greater 
and greater, difficulties and are demanding 
better facilities, in the way of laboratories, 
collections, libraries, ete., as their work ad- 
vanees. These demands, although in many 
instances less obvious to the public than 
those of the astronomer, are none the less 
pressing, and fully as important. In each 
of these departments of research and, as 
has been stated, in all branches of knowl- 
edge, as advances have been made, greater, 
and greater skill and more and more thor- 
ough preparation are necessary on the part 
of the persons engaged in the work. To 
continue research and place in the hands 
of inventors, manufacturers, teachers and 
others still more efficient means for con- 
ducting their tasks, it is evident that com- 
munities, in order to reap still greater har- 


848 


vests, must supply better and more ex- 
pensive equipment, and. furnish still more 
efficient means for the training of the per- 
sons who do research work for them. 

Recognition of the Importance of Re- 
search.—In America three important steps 
in the recognition of research are marked 
by enduring movements. These are: the 
American Journal of Science, the first vol- 
ume of which appeared in 1818, and which 
has continued to be a record of investiga- 
tion to the present day; the Smithsonian 
Institution, organized in 1846, which has 
for its motto, ‘The increase and diffusion 
of knowledge among men’; and the Car- 
negie Institution, established in 1902, 
which, in the words of its generous found- 
er, has for its aim ‘the securing for the 
United States leadership in the domain of 
discovery and the utilization of new forces 
for the benefit of man.’ 

These three monuments mark not only 
the road of scientific but of industrial ad- 
vance in America, since the latter, follows 
in the footsteps of the former. The aims 
of the Carnegie Institution, im particular, 
should arrest the attention of every so- 
called practical man, since they recognize 
a principle that is invading and revolution- 
izing industry in all of its many branches, 
namely, the substitution of precise or scien- 


tifie methods in place of ‘rule of thumb,’ 


and the seeking for legitimate gains by the 
application of original studies to the arts. 
In brief, it is becoming noised abroad that 
there is money in research. 

In reference to the growing appreciation 
of the value of research, a few illustrations 
may not be amiss. i 

The recognition of the importance of re- 
search to the farmer is indicated by the 
work carried on at public expense by the 
Department of Agriculture at Washing- 
ton. Although the so-called practical ap- 
plication of discoveries already available, 
is the avowed aim of this well-organized 


_ SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 492. 


department by the government, yet many 
contributions to pure science have been 
made in its eighteen sub-departments or 
bureaus, and at the fifty-six experiment 
stations under its general supervision and 
located in nearly every state of the union. 
Research in pure science is a part of the 
work of the Weather Bureau, and of the 
Divisions of Chemistry, Entomology, Bot- 
any, Biology, Forestry, Soils, Public Roads, 
Animal Industry, ete., of the Department 
of Agriculture and supplemented by ex- 
periments in agriculture by nearly 700 
men in the many agricultural experiment 
stations. The results of the investigations 
carried on in these many related fields of 
study, not only furnish direct aid to farm- 
ers throughout our broad land, but estab- 
lish safeguards and quarantines about their 
pursuits, the money value of which can only 
be reckoned in millicns of dollars annually. 

The term ‘chemical industries’ appled 
to a large group of manufactures such as 
beet sugar, soda ash, Portland cement, etc., 
is a recognition of the fact that they are 
based on the research work of the chemical 
laboratory. But capitalists are no longer 
content to await returns from the investi- 
eator who may chance to devote his time 
and energies to the special field in which 
their money is invested, but establish labo- 
ratories of their own and employ research 
workers who can point out ways of im- 
proving processes and enlarging factories. 
So great is this demand that our universi- 
ties are being called upon to supply trained 
men by the score, who are able to originate 
new methods as well as superintend work 
already in process. The recognition of the 
value of research in the factory is even 
more pronounced in Germany than on this 
side of the Atlantic, as is indicated by the 
fact that in that country a single chemical 
establishment employs continuously more 
than thirty doctors of science, the best the 
universities there can turn out, who devote 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


their entire time to original investigations. 
As is frankly conceded in England and 
other countries which are the industrial 
rivals of Germany, the marked enlargement 
of her manufacturing industries in the past 
decade is directly due, as may be said for 
the sake of emphasis, to her including 
brains among the raw materials used. 

Research in pure physics, as is well 
Inown, has led to the mobilization and 
training of industrial armies, which have 
built railroads, telegraph and telephone 
lines, laid ocean cables, and erected wire- 
less telegraphy stations, and im numerous 
other ways aided transportation and inter- 
communication, and enhanced the comforts 
and conveniences of every-day life. 

The direct economic value of research 
work in geology is shown by the fact that 
nearly every civilized country, and many 
states and provinces within the limits of 
larger political organizations, carry on geo- 
logical surveys. The principal object of 
such surveys is to furnish assistance in the 
discovery of materials of economic impor- 
tanee such as building stone, coal, petro- 
leum, iron, etc., but while this is largely 
routine work and the application of knowl- 
edge already acquired, research work is 
necessary at almost every step. To dis- 
cover mineral substances of commercial 
value the far-reaching laws governing the 
many ways in which such substances have 
been concentrated, reerystallized, ete., so as 
to be available for man’s use, have to be 
investigated. In recognition of the fact 
that the geologist has but entered on the 
exploration of the treasures of the earth, 
every national and state geological survey 
favors research work in a high degree. 

A moment’s thought will suffice to show 
that the few instances just mentioned in 
which research is fostered, do not stand 
alone. In medicine, hygiene, engineering, 
economics and many other broad fields of 
activity the direct utility of seeking for 


SCIENCE. 


849 


more knowledge is apparent and widely 
recognized. 

These brief statements in reference to the 
erowing recognition of the value of scien- 
tifie discoveries have been selected from a 
ereat number that might be presented, with 
the hope of making it clear that there is a 
demand for research men. Men are wanted 
who can not only conduct industries on 
long established methods, but who have the 
ability to originate new methods and dis- 
cover and apply new principles, particu- 
larly in the way of doing cheaper and 
better that which is now being done and 
of utilizing that which is now being wasted. 

Never before in the history of the world 
has the demand for intellectual leaders of 
industry been greater than at present. The 
direct material benefits to be derived from 
the application of the forces of nature to 
human ends are now more widely appre- 
ciated than ever before. With this appre- 
ciation go a demand for fresh explorations 
and a thirst for the results of research 
that are most stimulating and encouraging. 
To persons engaged in the business of edu- 
cation, these considerations must awaken 
the enquiry : How is this great and growing 
demand to be met? 

Preparation for Research Work.—To a 
large extent, the men who have enlarged 
human knowledge have been men of genius 
—with a mental grasp stronger than their 
fellows. Thousands of people saw apples 
fall to the ground before Newton formu- 
lated the law of gravity, but lacked the 
ability to deduct the cause from the effect. 
So im all branches of learning some one 
man, more gifted than his contemporaries, 
has led the way into the unknown. A\l- 
though genius is all important, even the 
man of genius must have training for his 
work, in order to make the best use of his 
exceptional endowments. Just what train- 
ing is necessary is a difficult question to 
decide, especially for one who is not a 


850 SCIENCE. 


genius, and not a specialist in the line of 
work for which a student is to be prepared. 
To a large extent the specially qualified or 
exceptional man must decide for himself 
as to the mental equipment required for 
his individual work. The education of the 
exceptional man is a delicate task. Too 
much training in the methods others have 
followed may make him an imitator, instead 
of a leader; too little training, and he may 
fail to acquire the mental tools necessary 
in his particular line of work. The best 
that can be done by universities desirous 
of encouraging their sons and daughters 
of exceptional ability to make the most of 
their mental gifts is, seemingly, to furnish 
them with opportunities to develop; to en- 
deavor to train the body as well as the 
mind, to educate the hand as well as the 
head, to supply libraries, laboratories and 
gymnasiums, to all who may be inclined 
to cultivate and develop the higher strains 
of inheritance or the special variations 
latent in them. From the thousands who 
present themselves for this arduous work 
it is the duty of the university to select 
the few of exceptional ability and encour- 
age them to devote their lives to the task 
of carrying on research in the direction in 
which they are especially qualified. 

Once the exceptional man is discovered, 
the purely economic interests of the com- 
munity, if no higher principle, demand 
that he be assisted in every practicable way 
in carrying on his great work. Here again 
the encouragement of genius is a delicate 
task. Discovery means close application 
and long continued and painstaking work. 
The discoverer, as previously suggested, 
may be likened to a mountain climber. He 
must put forth his best efforts, deny him- 
self many of the pleasures of life, and toil 
on for the most part alone, so far as intel- 
lectual companionship is concerned. He is 
but a man, however, and lavish emoluments 
may lure him to walk in the customary 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 492. 


paths leading through bowers of pleasure, 
to the neglect of the more rugged ways 
tending upward; too little aid may leave 
his task so difficult that a great part of his 
energy will be consumed in overcoming the 
difficulties of mere existence. 

Both in the education of the thousands 
in order that the exceptional man may be 
found, and in the assistance the university 
may in its own interest extend to him as 
a research worker, the persons best quali- 
fied to act as trustees for the community 
are the men with sufficiently wide training, 
and at least an appreciation of the higher 
and more ennobling aims of discovery, who 
are interested in similar lines of work. 
Such men are to a great extent included in 
the faculties of the higher institutions of 
learning. Committees from several such 
faculties, it is to be presumed, would be 
best able to decide as to what extent the 
men with new ideas or of exceptional abil- 
ity should receive financial assistance. 

The Place of Research in the University. 
—In view of the several considerations 
touched upon in the preceding pages— 
namely, the catholic aims of research; the 
narrow bounds of the known; the fact that 
discovery is the all important initial step 
in applying the materials and forces of 
nature to man’s use; the convincing evi- 
dence as to the general and widely spread 
awakening among the leaders of industry 
in reference to the economic importance of 
fresh discoveries; and the growing recogni- 
tion of the fact that not only skill, but 
originality, pays—the question presents 
itself: What should be the attitude of 
communities and institutions of learning 
toward research? In this connection com- 
munities and institutions of learning may 
be considered together, since many schools, 
colleges and universities are supported by 
public taxation. 

Public schools, state colleges and state 
universities, so far as is declared in the 


: 
, 
r 
: 
4 
é 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


laws creating them, are maintained for two 
principal reasons: first, because education 
tends in a conspicuous manner to promote 
integrity, refinement and all that speaks 
for good citizenship; and, second, to train 
students in various arts and professions in 
such a way that they will be enabled to 
serve efficiently the communities in which 
they live. 

The recognized method of attaining these 
ends, to use a part of the motto of the 
Smithsonian Institution, is to diffuse 
knowledge among men. The frequently 
quoted ordinance passed by the Confed- 
erate Congress, in 1787, which records the 
planting of the seed from which the public 
school system of the United States has 
grown, reads: 

“Religion, morality and knowledge being 
necessary to good government and the hap- 
piness of mankind, schools and the means 
of education shall forever be encouraged.”’ 

In this and, so far as I have been able 
to learn, in all subsequent legislation bear- 
ing on publie education, there is no direct 
recognition of the fundamental principle 
expressed in the first clause of the Smith- 
sonian’s motto, namely, the increase of 
knowledge, and found in the first of the 
declared aims of the Carnegie Institution, 
which reads, To promote original research, 
paying great attention thereto as one of the 
most important of all departments. 

The proclaimed purpose of education has 
been and to a paramount degree still is, 
the transmission of knowledge, without 
endeavoring to add to the assets of the 
bank on which drafts are made, or striving 
to train the student to-discover new truths 
for himself. Teachers and professors in 
state schools, colleges and universities, so 
far as indicated by their contracts with the 
institutions they serve, are simply convey- 
ors of knowledge previously gained. Ina 
few universities in America, it is true, 
chairs of research have been endowed by 


SCIENCE. 


851 


individuals, and in two notable instances, 
namely, Johns Hopkins University and 
Clark University, institutions having re- 
search as their primary aim, have been 
founded by broad-minded citizens. In the 
main and almost entirely, however, such 
additions as have been made to the world’s 
store of knowledge by teachers and pro- 
fessors are due to their individual zeal and 
industry during hours not occupied by 
routine work in the lecture room or the 
laboratory. 

Admitting the argument sometimes ad- 
vanced in justification of the neglect of re- 
search in state universities, namely, that 
the duties of such institutions are purely 
educational, and that they are not sup- 
ported for the purpose of fostering re- 
search, the fact still remains that research 
is in itself a method of mental training of 
a high order and demands a place in our 
institutions of learning on account of its 
exceptional educational value. As stated 
by Sir Norman Lockyer in his recent presi- 
dential address before the British Associa- 
tion for the Advancement of Science, re- 
search 1s now generally acknowledged to be 
the most powerful engine of education that 
we possess. The inquiry into the secrets 
of the unknown necessitates not only rigid 
mental discipline on the part of its votaries, 


' but is an incentive to exertion to a degree 


that no other phase of education presents. 
Not even the desire for technical training 
in order that pecuniary returns may be 
had awakens such an earnest desire to 
know, or stimulates the student to such 
untiring diligence as exploration in a 
chosen field. And, besides, in the present 
stage of the growth of knowledge in order 


_to make fresh conquests, the investigator 


must become familiar with that which has 
already been accomplished along the path 
he is to follow, and at least have a working 
Knowledge of the languages in which the 
results reached by his predecessors are re- 


852 


corded, as well as some understanding of 
the departments of learning closely related 
to his specialty. The lesson to be read be- 
tween the lines in these statements is that 
research does not supplant other means of 
education, but supplements them and gives 
them vitality. 

If the primary object of public education 
is the development of character and the 
making of good citizens, research must 
from this point of view also be given a 
higher place than the mere following in the 
footsteps of others, since its sole aim is the 
discovery of truth. The inquiry for truth 
implies painstaking accuracy, the searching 
eriticism of one’s own work and the seeking 
of eriticism from others, the dissipation of 
false hypotheses, the cultivation of logical 
methods, fearless abandonment of long es- 
tablished prejudices, the acceptance of con- 
clusions based on oft-repeated experiments 
no matter how disturbing to former opin- 
ions, the discounting of mere authority, 
and other ennobling attributes of the mind. 

Tn the several particulars just mentioned 
and more besides, the superior educational 
value of research over the mere acquiring 
of knowledge already formulated and re- 

_corded in books seems self-evident. 

From the considerations briefly and in- 
adequately presented on the preceding 
pages, at least two important conclusions 
may be drawn: one is that research fur- 
nishes the only means man has of increas- 
ing his control over nature; and the other, 
that in thus enlarging his sway he culti- 
vates his own powers and enchances his 
chances of still greater advancement. Or 
stated in other words: an increase in knowl- 
edge adds to man’s economic resources and 
at the same time is an educational exercise 
which develops the higher faculties of the 
mind. 

The attitude that the state should hold 
toward research is thus twofold; first, to 
secure for her citizens a knowledge of the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 492. 


materials and forces of nature which can 
be utilized for increasing their comforts 
and enhancing their happiness; and second, 
to supply her students with an efficient 
means for developing their mental powers 
and awakening in them a consuming desire 
for the truth. 

This claim for the educational value of 
research, as already stated, does not imply 
the abandonment of present methods of 
education, but simply the adoption of an- 
other means of attaining the desired end. 
While observation should be encouraged at 
all stages of school and college life, owing 
to the broad preparation necessary for true 
research, it can not be expected that the 
student, unless a genius, will be able to 
make independent investigations before 
completing his college studies. The place 
for definite and final training in research 
must necessarily be in the university. Such 
training furnishes the keystone which com- 
pletes the arch of public education and 
finishes the structure begun in the grade 
schools, and must of necessity be fashioned 
and put in place in the university. It is 
not until this is done that the university 
ceases to be a high school of larger growth. 
In each college of a university a few stu- 
dents are usually graduated each year who 
desire to continue their studies and earn a 
master’s and later a doctor’s degree. These 
few, by a process akin to natural selection 
or the survival of the fittest, form a class 
by themselves and in general, owing to 
exceptional mental endowments, or more 
than ordinary diligence, are best qualified 
of all the sons and daughters of a univer- 
sity to become contributors to the world’s 
store of knowledge, to enter the ranks of 
teachers, or to assume the duties of the 
learned professions. It is to the lives of 
these few that the university looks for her 
greatest share of reflected honor, and the 
state for her highest grade of professional 
men. It is for the encouragement and 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


advancement of these exceptional students, 
who are to be intellectual leaders in after 
life, that the university may reasonably be 
asked to extend special consideration and 
assistance during the continuance of their 
eraduate studies. 

This would seem to be the highest func- 
tion of the university, not only because it 
encourages her best students to strive to 
attain the higher walks of intellectual life, 
but because in the process of discovering 
the man or woman of exceptional ability 
all her sons and daughters are encouraged 
to advance to the highest plane their men- 
tal endowments permit them to reach. 

The place for research work in the uni- 
versity is, then, at the close of the courses 
of study pursued in her, several colleges; 
that is, in the graduate school, to which 
only those students who have successfully 
passed their final college examinations and 
received the bachelor’s degree are admit- 
ted. The graduate school might well be 
named and made in fact the school of re- 
search. Without such a school a group of 
colleges should not be classed as a univer- 
sity. As expressed by Hon. Seth Low, in 
an article on ‘Higher Education in the 
United States,’ published in the Hduca- 
tional Review, “The work of the college is 
to teach that which is already known—the 
work of the university is, in addition to 
this, to enquire, to ascertain what lies be- 
yond the line that marks the limit of the 
known.’ In the school of research, the 
leading idea being the development of orig- 
inality, it is evident that the professors 
should be chosen from the ranks of those 
who have won distinction on account of 
their original contributions to the branch 
of knowledge in which they presume to 
serve as guides. In the school of research, 
also, professor and student should be co- 
workers and mutually assist each other. 
From such comradeship, that intangible 
something which is transmitted from per- 


SCIENCE. 


803 


son to person by association and contact, 
but can not be written or spoken—we may 
term it inspiration, or personal magnetism, 
or perhaps the radium of the soul—is ac- 
quired by the student in a greater degree 
than at any previous time in his life after 
leaving the caressing arms of his mother. 
In the school of research professor and 
student should have the time and facilities 
their work demands. From such schools, 
as may reasonably be expected, will come 
in the future the best trained men and 
women and the greatest contributions to 
human knowledge. 

Seemingly, all college-bred men must 
recognize the demands of higher education, 
every captain of industry appreciate the 
commercial benefits flowimg from an in- 
erease in knowledge, and every citizen see 
that the search for truth is the best method 
of enhancing morality and integrity and 
of elevating the human race. The interests 
of all branches of society are thus prima- 
rily centered on research. There is a de- 
mand that progress be made and that the 
utmost attainable bounds of the knowable 
be reached. 

Demands of men trained in the: law, in 
medicine, in engineering, etc., have led the 
trustees and regents of universities to es- 
tablish and maintain professional schools, 
and not only the number of men entering 
the learned professions, but their efficiency, 
has been increased thereby. As I have en- 
deavored to make clear, there is also a de- 
mand which is urgent and pressing, for 
men who can carry on research work in 
pure science, and who are qualified to dis- 
cover new facts, new laws and new forces 
to be utilized in industry. This demand 
also deserves to be met by our state uni- 
versities, in order that the best possible 
returns may be made to the citizens of a 
‘state who, by taxing themselves, support 
such institutions. While the direct eco- 
nomic returns to be expected from the es- 


854 


tablishment and adequate maintenance of 
research schools at public expense would 
amply justify such a course, such promises 
do not stand alone, as research, to use the 
words of Lockyer quoted above, is the most 
powerful engine of education known. 
The undertakings of communities, as is 
well understood, are formulated and guided 
by a comparatively few individuals who see 
not only the immediate and tangible ends 
to. be gained, but the far-reaching influ- 
ences that follow. It is from these few 
informally appointed directors of com- 
munities that I venture to, ask for due 
recognition of the fundamental importance 
of research, both as a means for securing 
ereater returns from commercial pursuits 


and higher educational training in our . 


universities. When these truths are fully 
appreciated and clearly expressed by the 
leaders of communities, the keystone will 
be placed in the educational arches states 
have erected, and the continued advance of 
our country and the attaimment of a still 
ereater degree of human happiness be as- 


sured. IsranL C. RUSSELL. 
UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


Grundlinien der anorganischen Chemie. Von 
WitHetm OstwaLp. Zweite, verbesserte 
Auflage. Leipzig, W. Engelmann. 1904. 
Pp. xx + 808. 

The first edition of this book appeared in 
1900, and in the course of three years the 
entire edition of four thousand copies was ex- 
hausted. In addition, translations into Eng- 
lish and Russian have appeared which have 
also had a large sale. A translation into 
French is in course of preparation. 

The second edition differs but very slightly 
from the first. The first half of the first 
chapter has been rearranged somewhat to se- 
cure a clearer presentation of general funda- 
mental conceptions; but aside from this, prac- 
tically nothing has been done except to correct 
minor errors appearing in the first edition. 

The general plan of arrangement and treat- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 492. 


ment of the subject matter of this book was 
sufficiently elucidated in the pages of Scimncz 
when the first edition appeared. The new de- 
parture represented by this treatise consists in 
an attempt to incorporate systematically the 
conception of mass action, the phase rule and, 
in general, the hitherto much neglected in- 
fluence of temperature, pressure and concen- 
tration, as vital factors in determining the 
progress of chemical reactions. This feature 
of the treatise together with the constant en- 
deavor of the author to develop ideas induc- 
tively and to connect with the substances 
studied their various important physical and 
physiological as well as chemical properties, 
constitutes the valuable, if not the epoch- 
making part of the book and justifies the re- 
markable sale of the first edition, which clearly 
indicates that chemists generally have gladly 
embraced the opportunity afforded to become 
acquainted with this new method of present- 
ing elementary chemistry. 

On the other hand, the introduction of the 
‘ions’ as a purely chemical conception is un- 
fortunate. While there might possibly have 
been a justification to thus introduce this con- 
ception at the time the first edition was written, 
the unqualified retention of this notion in the 
second edition can not be justified; for, since 
the appearance of the first edition, it has been 
demonstrated that instantaneous chemical re- 
actions occur in the best of insulators exactly 
as they do in electrolytes. The use of the 
term ion in the ‘purely chemical’ sense as it 
appears in this book must now be considered 
merely as a mode of speaking, the term 
signifying only what has hitherto been ex- 
pressed by the word radical. 

The descriptive part of this book is not un- 
like that of other books of similar scope, except 
for an additional remark here and there about 
ions of this or that kind. Indeed, in most 
instances Ostwald writes reactions as they 
have always been written, without using the 
ionic notation; in so doing he virtually admits 
that it is not feasible to apply the ionic con- 
ceptions logically in most cases. Such an 
attempt would, indeed, often lead to grotesque 
distortions rather than to a simple mode of 
expression which every one could understand. 


JUNE 3, 1904-] 


The weak part of the treatise, then, con- 
sists in the undue magnification of the impor- 
tance of the analogy between gases and solu- 
tions and the unsuccessful attempt to make 
the ionie conception the basis of explaining 
chemical reactions. To eradicate these unde- 
sirable features will necessarily cause a some- 
what profound change in the character of the 
book. The author has everywhere deliberately 
chosen to entirely omit ‘in the interests of 
the student’ a consideration of opinions which 
conflict with his own. This course can hardly 
be justified by the additional care which, it is 
stated in the preface, was exercised in the 
choice and exposition of the ideas presented, 
and will only make it all the more difficult to 
introduce the changes which sooner or later 
must be made in future editions of the book 
if it is to continue to be of real value. 

Louis KAHLENBERG. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE SAN FRANCISCO SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
MATHEMATICAL SOCIETY. 


Tue fifth resular meeting of the San Fran- 
cisco Section of the American Mathematical 
Society was held at Stanford University on 
April 30, 1904. Twelve members of the so- 
ciety were present. A morning and an after- 
noon session were held. Both these sessions 
were attended by a number of local teachers 
of mathematics who are not members of the 
society. The following papers were read: 


Proressor M,. W. HasKeLu: ‘The construction 
of conics satisfying given conditions.’ 

Proressor H. C. Moreno: ‘On a class of ruled 
loci.’ 

Dr. D. N. Lenwer: ‘On a cylinder the inter- 
section of which with a sphere will develop into 
an ellipse.’ 

Mr. A. W. Wuirney: ‘The application of actu- 
arial methods to fire insurance.’ 

ProFressor R. HE. ALLARDICE: ‘On the envelope 
of the directrices of a system of similar conics 
through three points.’ 

Proressor Irvine StTrineHamM: ‘ Analytical 
treatment of certain metrical relations in the non- 
euclidean plane.’ 5 

Proressok G. A. Miripr: ‘Addition to a 
theorem due to Frobenius.’ 


SCIENCE. 805 


Proressor H. F. BLicHFELDT: ‘A theorem con- 
cerning the invariants of linear homogeneous 
groups with some application to substitution 
groups.’ 

Proressor H. F. BricureLpr: ‘ The linear homo- 
geneous groups in four variables.’ 

Proressor M. W. HASKELL: ‘ Triangles in per- 
spective and the collineations derived therefrom.’ 

Proressor M. W. Hasnwei: ‘ The construction 
of a twisted cubic from six points.’ 

In the absence of Mr. Whitney his paper 
was read by- Professor Stringham. The next 
meeting of the section will be held at Cali- 
fornia University on October 1, 1904. 

G. A. Minter, 
Secretary. 


MINNESOTA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 


Tue meeting of the academy was held in the 
geological lecture room of the University of 
Minnesota, on April 11, when the following 
paper was presented: ‘The Gypsum Deposits 
of New York State,’ by Mr. A. L. Parsons, 
instructor in geology in the University of 
Minnesota, illustrated by lantern slides. 

Through the courtesy of Dr. Frederick J. 
H. Merrill, director of the New York State 
Museum, Mr. Parsons was enabled to present 
the results of his studies on the geology and 
economic importance of the gypsum deposits 
of New York before their publication as a state 
report. These deposits, which were among 
the first to be discovered and developed in this 
country, are in the rocks of the Salina age 
and are closely related to the salt deposits of 
the state. All the mines of importance are 
located in a shallow valley extending from 
Rome to Buffalo, and east of Rome the de- 
posits, though of no commercial importance, 
are found on the south side of the Mohawk 
Valley as far east as Schoharie. 

The formation of this valley occurred prior 
to the glacial epoch, and in the region between 
Syracuse and Rome it has been filled with sev- 
eral hundred feet of glacial and alluvial débris. 
The presence of this valley is explained by 
the wearing away of the soft Salina shales 
and soluble beds of salt and gypsum which 
lie between the harder limestones of the 
Niagara and Helderberg periods. With the 
development of the cement wall plaster and 


856 SCIENCE. 


the Portland cement industries these deposits, 
which up to that time were used only as a 
source of land plaster, have become of great 
importance as a source of plaster of Paris; 
and, although it is not as pure as Nova 
Seotia gypsum, it finds a ready market as a 
wall finish. Plaster of Paris is used at pres- 
ent in place of lime plaster as a wall finish on 
account of its quick setting, so that the build- 
ings may be occupied without delay. It is 
also extensively used in the manufacture of 
Portland cement to retard the set, and, if not 
more than two per cent is used, it adds ma- 
terially to the final strength. The manu- 
facture of plaster of Paris depends upon 
driving off part of the water from gypsum, 
eare being taken not to expel all the water, 
in which case the plaster fails to set. The 
hydrate formed in this way is known as plaster 
of Paris and has the property of again com- 
bining with as much water as has been driven 
off and forming a hard network of fine erys- 
tals, or, as it is called technically, the property 
of setting. The present processes of manu- 
facture were then described, and an historical 
sketch of primitive and former methods was 
given. 

Mr. Wm. A. Bryan, ornithologist of the 
Bishop Museum, Honolulu, described the work 
he was doing in cataloguing and describing 
the academy’s Menage collection of birds of 
the Philippine Islands. This collection of 
over 4,500 birds was made by D. C. Worcester 
and F. S. Bourns in 1890-93, and was the 
best source of material for Mr. Bryan’s pur- 
pose of working up all the birds of Polynesia 
as he has already done for the Hawaiian 
Islands. H. Gas, 

Secretary. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Av the 156th meeting, held April 27, 1904, 
Mr. N. H. Darton presented a paper on ‘ Salt 
Lake South of Zuni, New Mexico,’ illustrated 
by stereopticon. Mr. Darton described the 
topography and geology of this interesting 
lake basin, and presented various theories for 
its origin. His paper will shortly be pub- 
lished in full. 

Mr. George H. Ashley then discussed the 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 492. 


plain around Middlesboro, Ky., and its rela- 
tion to the Appalachian structure of the re- 
gion. A study of the general structure shows 
a differential yielding of the strata at this 
point to the tangential stresses that produced 
the deformation of the Appalachian province. 
This brought about transverse faultings with 
horizontal shearing, buckling, and in the shale 
around Middlesboro highly confused folding, 
possibly associated with a local downward 
flexure of the heavy Lee sandstone. The 
plain is the result of ponding, and a careful 
study of all the facts seems to indicate con- 
clusively that to produce this ponding there 
has been recent movement along the old fault 
planes, or folds, or both. This movement has 
been at least one hundred and possibly several 
hundred feet vertical, and is possibly post- 
Tertiary in age. 

The next paper, entitled ‘The Significance 
of U-shaped Glacier and Stream Channels,’ 
was by Francois E. Mathes. 

The tendency to assume a U-shaped cross- 
section is not characteristic of glacier chan- 
nels alone, and should not be looked upon as 
the peculiar result of ice action. Channels 
produced by streams of water exhibit the same 
tendency, and this type of cross-section should, 
therefore, be considered characteristic of all 
stream-worn channels, using the term stream 
in its broadest sense. 

Observation on irrigation canals and ditches 
teaches that whatever their original cross-sec- 
tions may be, they will in time be replaced by 
U-shaped ones. The transformation may be 
affected: (1) by enlarging, that is by cutting 
alone, (2) by cutting and filling combined, 
or (8) by filling alone. The resultant figure 
is the same in each case, provided the volume 
and the slope are the same. It further ap- 
pears that after certain definite proportions of 
outline have been reached the cross-section no 
longer tends to change but remains virtually 
stable so long as the conditions of flow remain 
unchanged. It is inferred from this that a 
stream of constant volume, flowing on a uni- 
form slope, tends to evolve a cross-section of 
certain definite proportions, this cross-section 
being the one through which the stream can 
flow with the greatest economy, that is to say, 


4 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 
with the least resistance. This may be termed 
the normal cross-section. 

The shape of this normal cross-section is 
expressive of a well-ordered interior arrange- 
ment of the flowing mass; in other words, it 
indicates a definite organization of the stream. 
All streams should be considered as constantly 
endeavoring to organize; the more efficient 
their organization, the more economical their 
flow. 

An analysis of the mode of flow was 
advanced many years ago by D. T. Smith in 
an essay on the ‘Law of the Double Helix,’ 
This theory was briefly outlined as not only 
affording a probable explanation of the man- 
ner of organization, but also satisfactorily 
accounting for the tendency to produce nor- 
mal cross-sections of the shape described. 

Whether this theory be accepted or not, the 
fundamental principle of organization stands 
unchanged. The tendency to evolve normal 
cross-sections is alone sufficient to establish it. 

The application of this principle to the 
study of stream and glacier channels could 
not be considered for lack of time. 

Atrrep H. Brooks, 
Secretary. 


THE BIOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

THE 386th regular meeting was held on 
Saturday evening, April 16, 1904. Carleton 
R. Ball exhibited specimens of the dead nettle 
(Lamiwm amplexicaule) showing cleistogam- 
ous flowers which are produced abundantly in 
early spring. Later in the spring the large 
elongated open flowers are produced and the 
cleistogamous form disappears. 

William R. Maxon spoke on ‘ Some Termite 
Nests of Jamaica,’ describing three nests col- 
lected for the Smithsonian Institution in the 
vicinity of Hope Gardens, Jamaica, in the 
spring of 1903, and giving general notes (il- 
lustrated by photographs) on the occurrence 
and habits of Hutermes ripperti, the most 
common species of the island. Occupied 
nests, being the most perfect, were secured by 
poisoning several colonies of the insects. The 
nests secured were all of this species, which 
occurs abundantly in the lower dry limestone 
hills up to an altitude of 2,000 feet. They 


SCIENCE. 


807 


are built without much discrimination upon 
the ground, in trees, upon old logs, walls, etc. 
The exterior of the nest consists of a thin 
granular, delicate fluted covering, very much 
more delicate than the darker honeycombed 
interior portion and very readily separable 
from it. The largest of the nests collected 
was exhibited, and also a queen cell and alco- 
holic specimens of queens, workers, nasuti 
and other forms of the insects. Notes on the 
life history of Hutermes ripperti contributed 
by E. A. Schwarz were also read. 

Vernon Bailey spoke on ‘A Simple Method 
of Preserving Tracks’; and exhibited a speci- 
men of a mold of a wolf’s track. A fresh 
track of a wolf was found in moist sand and 
melted paraffin from an ordinary candle was 
poured into it, producing a characteristic 
mold. 

E. 8. Steele gave an account of an investi- 
gation approaching completion of the globose- 
headed Laciniarias, 7. e., of the group of plant 
species which haye been included under the 
name Lacinaria (or Liatris) scariosa. The 
investigation has had the benefit of ample 
material, comprising, besides that contained in 
the National Herbarium, numerous loans from 
institutions and individuals, and representing 
the territory from Maine to Florida, Texas, 
the Rocky Mountains and Saskatchewan, the 
Minnesota region being specially rich. Refer- 
ence was made to the few hitherto published 
names applicable to this material. The char- 
acters upon which group and specific distinc- 
tions must turn were noted and illustrated by 


drawings, the involueral bracts and the foliage 


being the most important. The species, of 
which there were declared to be not less than 
sixty, were stated to fall into three fairly dis- 
tinct groups. Mounted specimens of a num- 
ber of the species were exhibited. 

Ki. L. Morris read a paper on the ‘ History 
and Knowledge of the Bush Morning Glory 
and its Reproduction.’ The species was first 
collected in 1820 and reported as annual. 
Later it was collected many times, and occa- 
sionally with enormous perennial roots which 
sometimes weighed as much as 200 pounds. 
Its reproduction is commonly by seed, but 
another method was mentioned not before re- 


858 SCIENCE. 


ported for the species, namely, the production 
of lateral’ root-shoots from the upper part of 
the narrow roots near the surface of the soil. 
These root-shoots at a favorable opportunity 
produce a bud which develops into a new 
plant. Drawings and specimens were pre- 
sented to illustrate the paper, which will be 
published in full in the Plant World. 
Witrrep H. Oscoon, 
Secretary. 


THE CORNELL SECTION OF THE AMERICAN 
CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 


Tu Cornell Section of the American Chem- 
ical Society closed the second year of its ex- 
istence on May 3, when officers for the coming 
year were elected. An additional meeting 
will occur on May 31, at which the retiring 
president, Professor W. D. Bancroft, will give 
his president’s address. He will discuss the 
theory of electroplating, and will illustrate his 
remarks by experiments. 

From the first meeting of the Cornell Sec- 
tion in December, 1902, it has grown in num- 
bers and interest. Seventeen new members 
have been added during the past year and at 
the present date there are forty-three members 
all told. A peculiarity of the Cornell Sec- 
tion is that its life and work are centered so 
entirely within the Cornell University Depart- 
ment of Chemistry. Of its members twelve 
are undergraduate students; seven, graduate 
students; and twenty-two, members of the 
staff of instruction of Cornell University. 
Two are connected with the Agricultural Ex- 
periment Station at Cornell. 

The meetings of the year have been well 
attended and considerable interest has been 
evinced in original work. Hight sessions were 
held, with an average attendance of twenty- 
four members and twenty-five visitors. Eight 
papers, giving the results of research in the 
department, were read and discussed. 

Dr. J. E. Teeple presented a paper on 
‘Bilirubin, the Red Coloring Matter of the 
Bile,’ and another on ‘ The Electrolytic Prep- 
aration of Jodoform and Chloroform.’ Mr. 
E. S. Shepherd presented ‘An Apparatus for 
the Electro-deposition of Metals using a Ro- 
tating Cathode. Mr. J. M. Bell discussed 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 492. 


the ‘ Vapor Pressure of Tobacco. Mr. F. C. 
Robinson gave a description of ‘A New Boil- 
ing Point Apparatus.’ Dr. H. R. Carveth 
discussed the data obtained from a study of 
distillation, boiling point methods of molec- 
ular weight determination, and vapor composi- 
tion. Dr. A. W. Browne presented some data 
and conclusions from experiments performed 
elsewhere in conjunction with Dr. W. P. Brad- 
ley on the ‘ Resistance of Glass Tubes to Burst- 
ing Pressure.” Mr. I. Baum read a paper 
which was produced in collaboration with Mr. 
F.J.Schwab, on ‘Electrolytic Copper Refining.’ 

Aside from this original work the section has 
enjoyed several interesting addresses. Pro- 
fessor G. W. Cavanaugh outlined the ‘ Appli- 
cations of Chemistry to Modern Agriculture.’ 
Mr. J. A. Bonsteel gave a résumé of the work 
of the United States Soil Survey. Professor 
E. L. Nichols and Professor EK. Merritt jointly 
gave an address on ‘The Behavior of Indi- 
eators at Low Temperatures,’ which they 
illustrated by experiments. Dr. E. M. Chamot 
discussed the results of the examinations of 
Ithaca waters during 1908. Dr. W. R. Orn- 
dorff lectured on the history and development 
ot ‘The Manufacture of Indigo from Coal Tar.’ 

The most notable meeting of the year was 
addressed by Professor Ernest Rutherford, of 
McGill University, on ‘The Emanations of 
Radium.’ His experimental lecture was en- 
joyed by a large audience of students and 
others interested in radioactivity. 

The Cornell Section begins the next year 
with the following officers: 

President—Professor EH. M. Chamot. 

Vice-President—Dr. J. E. Teeple. 

Secretary-Treasurer—Mr. FE. C. Robinson. 

Huecutive Committee—The above officers ex- 
offictis and Dr. H. R. Carveth, Mr. W. S. Bishop 
and Professor W. R. Orndorff. 

Councilors—Dr. G. C. Caldwell and Professor L. 
M. Dennis. 

Wiui1am C. Grrr, 


Secretary. 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 
THe section held its regular meeting Mon- 
day evening, April 18, with the chairman, 
Professor James F. Kemp, presiding. The 


eal 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


- eyening was principally devoted to a paper by 
Dr. Arthur Hollick, of the New York Botan- 
ical Garden, entitled ‘A Canoe Trip down the 
Yukon River from Dawson to Anvik.’ 

Dr. Hollick said in brief: The trip was 
made under instructions from the United 
States Geological Survey, with the special ob- 
ject of collecting paleobotanical material, 
from which to determine the age of certain 
exposures in central Alaska. 

The party consisted of Dr. Hollick, Mr. 
Sidney Paige, field assistant, and Mr. John 
Rentfro, cook and general camp assistant. 
The start was made from Seattle, Wash., on 
June 1, 1903, by steamer to Skagway, Alaska, 
where they arrived on June 5 and remained 
until June 11, waiting for the ice to break 
up in the Yukon River. On June 11 the 
route was by railroad to Whitehorse, Yukon 
Territory; June 12-15, by steamboat down the 
upper waters of the Yukon to Dawson, Yukon 
Territory, where a nineteen-foot Peterborough 
canoe was purchased and the trip down the 
river begun. The trip was ended at Anvik, 
Alaska, August 12, after about 1,100 miles 
of the river had been explored and about 1,800 
pounds of specimens had been collected and 
shipped. +The highest point north was 
reached at Fort Yukon, July 2, just beyond 
the Arctic circle. 

The Yukon River occupies what was until 
quite recently a broad estuary. Subsequent 
elevation of the land resulted in the draining 
of the estuary and the formation of the pres- 
ent river valley, which has cut its way down 
. through the estuary deposits, leaving these 
as broad benches or terraces. Mastodon and 
other remains of extinct animals indicate the 
Pleistocene age of the deposits. One of the 
finest exposures is at the ‘ Palisades,’ just be- 
low Rampart. 

The width of the river varies from one to 
ten miles, and the main channel is constantly 
shifting. It pursues a meandering course, 

. sometimes impinging on one side of the old 
valley, sometimes on the other; but for long 
distances it flows through the middle. Where 
it occupies the latter position, it is generally 
broad, with a current of about four miles per 
hour, and filled with innumerable wooded 


SCIENCE. 


809 


islands, mud flats and sand and gravel bars, 
which render navigation more or less a matter 
of guesswork, on account of the impossibility 
of telling where the main channel may be and 
the liability of running into a blind slue or 
long circuitous channel around an island. It 
was often found advisable to climb up the 
river bank to a considerable elevation in order 
to determine, by means of an extended view, 
where the correct course lay. Where hard 
rocks were exposed along the river banks, or 
a short distance away, these were subjected to 
careful examination in regard to their litho- 
logic, paleontologic and stratigraphic char- 
acters. 

Amongst the interesting results obtained 
were: (1) the determination of the Tertiary 
age of certain sandstones above Rampart; and 
(2) the determination of the Cretaceous age 
of other sandstones and shales further down 
the river in the vicinity of Nulato. At one 
locality, a unique fossil flora was found, to- 
tally different from any heretofore known in 
America, consisting of cycads of Lower Cre- 
taceous types; mixed with angiosperms belong- 
ing to what have always been considered Upper 
Cretaceous types. 

Only a preliminary study has been made of 
the material collected, which will eventually 
be carefully examined and reported upon for 
the United States Geological Survey. 

The paper was illustrated with about seventy 
lantern slides, showing the principal topo- 
graphic and geologic features of the route. 


The Grand Soufriére of Guadeloupe, an Ana- 
logue of Mont Pelé: Epmunp Ottis Hovey. 
Dr. Hovey showed twelve lantern slides il- 

lustrating the Grand Soufriére of Guadeloupe, 

and stated that the field evidence indicated 
that the present active cone of this volcano 
was closely analogous to the new cone and 
spine of Mont Pelé, Martinique, that is to 
say that it had been pushed up bodily into its 
present position, or had welled up through the 
conduit in such a viscous condition that con- 
tact with the atmosphere rendered it too rigid 
to flow. At the base of the cone on the north 
there is a gently rising flat area, apparently 
the segment of a circle indicating the position 


860 


of a part of the rim of a crater in existence 
before the construction of the present cone. 

The map shown in connection with the 
paper was prepared by M. Léon Leboucher for 
the Club des Montagnards of Guadeloupe. 
This club has recently celebrated the first 
anniversary of its founding, and its report 
shows that it has done a great deal in a short 
time toward the opening up of roads and paths 
to the Soufriére, making the highest and one 
of the most interesting mountains of the 
Lesser Antilles readily accessible to visitors. 

Epmunp Otis Hoyry, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE METRIC SYSTEM. 


To tHE Eprror or Science: Permit me to 
differ from Mr. William Kent as to the con- 
clusion to be drawn from Professor W. 
Le Conte Stevens’s article on the metric sys- 
tem. If he will substitute for the word ‘im- 
possibility’ the word ‘possibility’ I shall be 
glad to agree that Professor Stevens’s ‘ article 
is useful, however, in showing the possibility 
of the general adoption of the metric sys- 
tem in its present form by the people of this 
country.’ There seems to be every probability 
that one will not have to live to be very old 
in order to see by experience this possibility 
become a fact, in this country as well as in 
England, which now seems likely to precede 
us in this reform, as she has in various polit- 
ical ones. J can not share the desire of Pro- 
fessors Lane and Stevens to temper the metric 
system to the conservatism of the American 
people by adopting its values disguised in the 
sheep’s clothing of the present non-system. 
I believe that the intelligence of our people 
is not insufficient to enable them to drink their 
milk by the liter with as much gusto as by the 
quart, and to realize that six cents a liter is 
six dollars a hectoliter, even if a Greek prefix 
is involved. It takes a bold man to assert 
that the American people can not do what the 
French and Germans have done, and that they 
will not be able to see the advantage of it. 
If ‘the people can not be compelled to adopt 
a nomenclature that is thrust upon them as a 
substitute for that to which they have always 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XTX. No. 492. 


been accustomed’ we should have no decimal 
system of currency to-day, for the people were 
very much accustomed to pounds, shillings and 
pence, but seem to have been willing to be 
compelled to adopt dollars and cents (what an 
outrageous, foreign, difficult Latin word!), 
and in fact, seem even to prefer them. Is the 
inch more sacred than the pound? The en- 
gineer will reply, yes, and here we come to the 
kernel of the whole matter. It is the mechan- 
ical engineers and builders of machine tools 
who are delaying the adoption of the metric 
system. Now, while these persons constitute 
a very important part of the community, they 
do not constitute the whole of it. Drills, taps 
and dies, rigs and jigs are not the only argu- 
ment that should be brought into the question, 
although engineers would have us believe it. 
Of course, it will cost us something to change 
our system, and this is a visible item. It is 
costing us more not to change it, but this is 
not so visible. I do not care to go into the 
arguments here, but merely to protest against 
the argument from conservatism, and also to 
suggest that the best way to find out the facts 
about the metric system is to apply, not to the 
engineers, who have not used it, but to the 
scientific men who have used it. The attitude 
of the conservative engineer toward changing 
the system of measurement is very similar to 
that of Cesar toward the Senate: ‘Can not 
is false, and that I dare not, falser; I will not’ 
change. ArTHUR GoRDON WEBSTER. | 


ZOOLOGY AND THE INTERNATIONAL CATALOGUE OF 
SCIENTIFIC LITERATURE.* 


This work has just come into my hands and 
I have examined it for references on the sub- 
ject to which most of my attention is given, 
viz., Coelenterata. The data given below will 
indicate the value of the catalogue, so far 
as Coelenterata are concerned, in comparison 
with two other well-known bibliographic un- 
dertakings, the ‘ Bibliographia universalis’ of 
the Concilium Bibliographicum and _ the 
Zoological Record. 

For the year 1901, the Concilium Biblio- 

**The International Catalogue of Scientific 
Literature.’ First Annual Issue, N, Zoology 
[for the year 1901]: 1904 (February). 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


graphicum has 155 entries (omitting 3 that 
should be credited to 1902, and adding one 
erroneously dated 1902). The Zoological 
Record for 1901 contains 153 titles. Of these 
1 (54)* is for 1899; 11 (386, 39, 42, 44, 78, 117, 
124, 128, 1384, 140, 141) for 1900; and 1 (92) 
belongs to 1902, leaving 140 for 1901. The 
volume for 1902 furnishes 5 for 1901. 

The ‘ International Catalogue’ for 1901 con- 
tains 92 references, at least 3 of which belong 
to 1902, leaving 89. 

There are in my own card catalogue for 1901 
222 entries. Of these: 


Entries. 
The Concilium Bibliographicum published... .155 
The Zoological Record for 1901 adds........ 54 


The ‘ International Catalogue’ for 1901 adds.. 7 
Collected by myself and not in any of the 
IBLECEM ITSP RU Rey ee bates retsncie ee cfel shonel sprees tere ais 6 


The Conecilium Bibliographicum procured 
70 per cent. of the references; the Zoological 
Record for 1901+ 63 per cent.; and the ‘ In- 
ternational Catalogue’ 40 per cent. : 

Thus it will be seen that the ‘ International 
Catalogue’ contains less than half the refer- 
ences on this subject, and that two other far 
superior bibliographies are being published. 

It is seareely necessary to cite specific omis- 
sions. Works of importance published in 
practically every country are left out, Eng- 
land, Canada, Australia, the United States, 
Russia, Germany, ete. If other zoological 
subjects can be judged by the Ocelenterata, to 
make the ‘International Catalogue’ of any 
special value the work must be done much 
more thoroughly, and should appear with rea- 
sonable promptness. 


T. WAYLAND VAUGHAN. 
WASHINGTON, D. C., 
May 13, 1904. 


NON-EDUCATION OF THE YOUNG BY PARENTS. 


Some of our new nature students appear to 
think that it is necessary that the young of 


“These numbers in parentheses are those pre- 
fixed to the papers in the list of titles of the 
Zoological Record. 

{The additions made in 1902 are not included 
in calculating this percentage. 


SCIENCE. 


861} 


animals should be taught to take care of them- 
selves by their parents, or, at least, that they 
shall learn by example. While glancing over 
some of the controversial articles on the sub- 
ject that have lately appeared, some cases that 
bear directly on the question came up to 
memory. 

There are a few ‘ annual’ fishes whose entire 
eycle of life is performed within a year. Pro- 
fessor Robert Collett, of Christiania, in 1878, 
recorded the biographies of a couple of those 
which are quite common in Europe. They 
belong to the family of gobies or gobiids and 
are the Aphya pellucida and Crystallogobius 
nilssonir. 

Although very distinct in their generic as 
well as specific characters, they agree in their 
physiological characteristics. From June to 
August they are at the height of their sexual 
maturity and males are trenchantly differ- 
entiated from females. After spawning they 
“seem always to keep together in enormously 
large shoals’ and are the easy victims of 
innumerable other fishes, large and small. 
Before winter supervenes they are supposed to 
have all died off; ‘it is probable that no speci- 
men lives more than one year and after the 
close of the breeding-time [everyone] dies 
without living through another spawning; con- 
sequently, these fishes are really annual yer- 
tebrates.’ The species as represented by adults 
become extinct annually and are only repre- 
sented by eggs. Where then are the teachers 
or exemplars ? 

A more familiar group of fishes furnishes 
us with an analogous case of death after 
spawning, though perhaps less striking than 
that of the annual gobiids; that group is the 
genus Oncorhynchus, including the hook- 
nosed salmons of the west coast. All the 
American species—five in number—have their 
alimentary canal so shrunken and defunc- 
tionalized soon after their entrance into fresh 
water that they can not assimilate food, and 
besides they literally become worn out and 
used up, so that soon after spawning and milt- 
ing they die; not one lives to go to salt water 
and return to fresh again. Consequently the 
young can not have the benefit either of 
parental instruction or of learning through 


862 


association with their elders. Where now are 
the teachers and exemplars? 


TuHro. GILL. 


PRICE OF THE REPORTS OF THE HARRIMAN 
EXPEDITION. 


I pusme to correct an error in my review of 
volumes three and four of the Harriman Ex- 
pedition, published in the preceding number 
of Science (May 2, 1904). As I have been 
informed, the price which I quoted from a 
trade-list of the publisher applies to volumes 
one and two of the series and not to subse- 
quent volumes. ‘The price of volumes three 
and four, the ones reviewed, is $5.00 per. 
volume. IsraEL C. RUSSELL. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 


AN ENEMY OF THE COTTON BOLL WEEVIL. 
Specimens of the cotton boll weevil were 
obtained in eastern Guatemala in 1902, during 
a visit made to that country in order to study 
the culture of coffee and rubber, for the United 
States Department of Agriculture. The in- 
sects, which were collected on the request of 
the Division of Entomology, were not found 
on the cotton cultivated by the Indians, but 
were very common in the flowers of the tree 
cotton growing spontaneously near a native 
house, a short distance from the cotton field. 
The beetles were secured in a rather inac- 
eessible part of Alta Vera Paz, seldom visited 
by naturalists or other travelers. It lies be- 
tween Cajapon and Sepacuite, and is inhabited 
only by primitive Indians and a very few 
Spanish-speaking ‘natives’ of mixed blood. 
The Indian variety of cotton seemed very 
small and unpromising, only one or two bolls 
being borne on a plant; it seemed very strange 
also that so small a variety should be planted 
while the large tree cotton was so ready at 
hand. It was learned, however, from Mr. 
Kensett Champney, who has a most thorough 
acquaintance with the agricultural habits of 
the Indians, that this was the only variety of 
cotton planted by them in this district, and 
the one exclusively relied upon to furnish 
material for their native fibers. The absence 
of the weevils from the small Indian cotton 
was reported when the specimens of the beetles 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 492. 


were brought back to Washington, but the 
diminutive size of the plant seemed to forbid 
any recommendation of profitable utility in 
the United States. 

Later on, with the increasing acuteness of 
the boll weevil question and the voting of a 
special appropriation by Congress for the 
study of means of protection against its 
ravages, the existence of a variety of cotton in 
Guatemala which seemed not to be subject to 
the attacks of the boll weevil was recalled, and 
it seemed to the authorities of the Bureau of 
Plant Industry that every clue should be fol- 
lowed up. The Secretary of Agriculture au- 
thorized an investigation of the Indian cotton 
of Alta Vera Paz, to ascertain whether it 
possessed, in reality, any quality enabling it 
to resist the boll weevil, or to learn other 
causes of its immunity from the attacks of the 
insect. The custom of the Indians to plant 
their crops every year in tracts of land recently 
cleared by burning suggested an alternative 
possibility that if not actually resistant to the 
weevil the cotton might have an almost equally 
valuable tendency to quick growth, thus en- 
abling a crop to be obtained before the weevils 
had time to become injuriously numerous. 
The importance of securing early varieties 
has been emphasized as the result of the in- 
vestigations of the boll weevil in the United 
States. 

In this part of Guatemala the present sea- 
son has been much more rainy that that of 
1902, and the cotton is much larger. Well 
grown plants bring to maturity from ten to 
twenty bolls of fair size, and even more. A 
thorough search shows that the weevil is pres- 
ent and able to injure the cotton, but reveals 
also an active enemy which keeps it in check. 
This is a large reddish brown ant which is 
attracted to the cotton by the food which it 
secures from threé sets of extra-floral nectaries. 
Each leaf has a nectary on the under side of 
the midrib, from one to two centimeters from 
the base. Each of the large bracts of the in- 
voluere has a circular or broadly oval nectary 
close to the stem, and there is a third series 
of three nectaries at the base of the calyx, be- 
tween the pair of small bracts alternating with 
the larger divisions of the involucre, of which 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


they seem to be, morphologically speaking, the 
stipules. Nectar is also to be found between 
the calyx and corolla, but no bees, flies, or 
other winged insects were observed visiting the 
flowers except beetles, sometimes the boll 
weevil, but much more often a small black 
staphylinid of very active habits. To these 
and to the very small black ants which are also 
occasionally present in numbers on the cotton, 
the large brown ant pays no attention, but the 
weevil is attacked on sight and becomes an 
easy prey. 

The ant?s mandibles are large enough to 
grasp the weevil around the middle and pry 
apart the joint between the thorax and 
abdomen. The long, flexible body is bent at 
the same time in a circle to insert the sting at 
the unprotected point where the beetle’s strong 
armor is open. The poison takes effect in- 
stantly; the beetle ceases to struggle, and with 
its legs twitching feebly is carried away in the 
jaws of its captor. As with many other in- 
sects when stung by wasps the paralysis is 
permanent; even when taken away from the 
ants the beetles do not recover. The adroit 
and business like manner in which the beetle 
is disposed of, in very much less time than 
even the briefest account of the operation 
could be read, seems to prove beyond question 
that the ant is by structure and by instinct 
especially equipped for the work of destruc- 
tion, and is, in short, the true explanation of 
the fact that cotton is successfully cultivated 
by the Indians of Alta Vera Paz, in spite of 
the presence of the boll weevil. Instead of 
* congregating in large numbers on the cotton 
in the immediate vicinity of their nests the 
ants have, as it were, the good sense to spread 
themselves through the field, from 2 to 4 or 5 
usually being found doing inspection duty on 
each plant. In some places there seemed to 
be not enough ants to go around, and here the 
beetles were more numerous. Rarely, too, 
certain flowers or branches seemed to have 
been overlooked, beetles being found on the 
same plants with the ants. In such instances, 
indeed, the young flower or boll was generally 
riddled with punctures as though many beetles 
had availed themselves of the rare opportunity 
of feeding undisturbed. 


SCIENCE. 


865 


Cotton-growing among the Indians is some- 
thing of a special art, the community being 
supplied by a few men aware, as it were, of 
the secrets of the business. They know noth- 
ing about the weevil and its ravages, and 
aseribe such damage as occurs to other harm- 
less insects, or even to superstitious causes, 
such as the failure of the owner to abstain 
from salt at the time of planting. The ant, 
however, is definitely associated in their minds 
with cotton, and they do not expect to secure 
a good crop unless these insects favor the 
plants with their presence. Some of the In- 
dians give the ant a special name, kelep, not 
applied to any other species, but it is also 
referred to as ‘the animal of the cotton, 

In the neighborhood of Secanquim, on the 
coffee estate of Messrs. Champney and Com- 
pany, where the most of our observations have 
been made, the ants are by no means widely 
distributed, and the cultivation of cotton is 
confined to very narrow limits, where it is 
planted year after year in closely adjacent 
places, or even on the same ground. In one 
instance the same Indian has planted cotton 
on the same hillside for upwards of forty 
years, with no failure to secure a crop except 
in one year, as he explained, when he was 
sick and did not sow! Such facts preclude, 
of course, any explanation based on the theory 
of temporary immunity secured from burning 
over the land or by planting in a new place 
in which the beetles have not had time to con- 
gregate. The cotton is sowed in October or 
November, a very rainy part of the year, when 
land can not be cleared by burning, and the 
weeds are pulled out and thrown with the 
dead corn stalks and brush into piles, which 
would protect the beetles rather than destroy - 
them. The perennial tree cotton also fur- 
nishes permanent breeding-places, so that the 
conditions are most favorable to the propaga- 
tion of the beetles in large numbers. The 
ants, however, are evidently able to hold them 
in check, and thus permit the regular culti- 
yation of an annual variety of cotton by the 
Indians. 

Ethnological data show that the weaving 
of cotton cloth was practised in tropical Amer- 
ica for many centuries before the arrival of 


864 SCIENCE. 


Europeans, and the probability is great that 
the plant itself is a native of this hemisphere. 
In being carried to other countries it was 
taken beyond the reach of both the friends 
and the enemies which had developed with it. 
The boll weevil has migrated northward with 
the extension of the area of cotton cultivation 
into Mexico and Texas, but the ant has not 
yet followed. The question now is whether 
it can be induced to do so. The Mexican 
entomologists seem not to have found the ant 
in that country, in the northern states of 
which the weevil has been reported as very 
destructive. 

That the ants are so localized in their dis- 
tribution in this part of Guatemala has un- 
doubtedly served the better to demonstrate 
their value as protectors of the cotton plant; 
it suggests also, with other facts, the proba- 
bility that they are not native here, but have 
spread eastward in smaller or larger colonies 
as the forests were cleared away by the In- 
dians. The present occupation of the eastern 
districts of Alta Vera Paz by the Indians does 
not date back more than a few generations, 
though abundant evidence of much more an- 
cient inhabitants is found in the apparently 
primeyal forests. The ants, like the Indians, 
probably came from the dry, open interior 
plateau region, where the center of the ab- 
original cotton industry of Guatemala is still 
located, and where another visit to the ants 
is to be paid in the next few days. To estab- 
lish such an origin for this useful insect would 
greatly imerease the probability of its success- 
ful introduction into the United States. The 
acclimatization of a thoroughly tropical ani- 
mal requiring continuous heat and humidity 
could searcely be hoped for. If, however, the 
cotton ant can survive a long dry season and 
perhaps cold weather in the table lands of 
Guatemala it might easily learn to hibernate 
in Texas, as has the boll weevil. The ant, 
indeed, is much better able to protect itself 
against frost, since it excavates a nest three 
feet or more into the ground. That it is a 
reasonably hardy insect is shown also by the 
fact that several individuals have survived 
confinement for twelve days without food, and 
seem now to be thriving on a diet of cane 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 492. 


juice. To take worker ants to Texas will be, 
evidently, a very easy matter, but to secure 
queens and establish permanent colonies may 
require considerable time and experiment, and 
a thorough study of all the habits of the 
species. 

Although the cotton seems to be especially 
adapted to attract the ant by means of its 
numerous nectaries, the insect is not, like 
some of the members of its class, confined to 
a single plant or to a single kind of prey. 
It was observed running about on plants of 
many different families, and it attacks and 
destroys insects of every order, including the 
hemiptera, and even centipedes. On the other 
hand, it does not do the least injury to the 
cotton or to any other plant, as far as has 
been ascertained, and it can be handled with 
impunity, having none of the waspish ill- 
temper of so many of the stinging and biting 
ants of the tropics. Since where once estab- 
lished it exists in large numbers and seeks its 
prey actively, it is a much more efficient de- 
stroyer of noxious insects than the spider or 
the toad. It seems, in short, not unlikely to 
become a valued assistant in the agriculture of 
tropical and sub-tropical countries, if not in 
temperate regions. ‘The farmer has a new 
and practical reason to ‘consider the ant.’ 

An accumulation has been made, of course, 
of seeds, specimens, photographs and notes 
bearing on the cotton, beetles, ants and many 
other collateral matters not to be mentioned 
here. Even this brief. preliminary report 
should not close, however, without an acknowl- 
edement of the many favors of Messrs. Owen 
and Champney, owners of the Sepacuite es- 
tate, and of Mrs. Owen. Without the kind 
invitations, hospitality and extensive local 
knowledge and cooperation of these generous 
friends, it would have been quite ‘imprac- 
ticable to visit the Indian cotton district of 
the interior of Alta Vera Paz in 1902, or to 
ascertain the existence of the cotton ant in 
the present season. O. F. Coox. 

SEPACUITE, GUATEMALA, 

May 11, 1904. 
ZYGOSPORE FORMATION A SEXUAL PROCESS. 


In a paper now in process of publication 
the writer has given a detailed account of a 


Ot ph ee 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


somewhat extended investigation on the meth- 
od of reproduction in one group of the com- 
mon molds, and since many of the facts 
which have been discovered are at variance 
with the conclusions of other investigators, 
and since the problems involved have a gen- 
eral biological interest, it has seemed desirable 
to publish the following preliminary summary 
of the more important results obtained. 

Among the Mucorinee, as is well known, 
the usual form of reproduction is by means 
of non-sexual spores in sporangia, while the 
sexual method by means of zygospores is un- 
known in the great majority of species, and 
even where it has been reported our knowledge 
of its occurrence in about four fifths of the 
eases is based on the recorded observations of 
single individuals. For over thirty years the 
phenomena of reproduction by zygospores in 
these plants have been an object of consider- 
able investigation among students of fungi, 
and as a result a number of conflicting the- 
ories have arisen as to the significance of the 
process. and the conditions by which it is 
induced. Such conclusions as have been 
reached have in general been based on the as- 
sumption that external conditions of one kind 
or another were the essential factors concerned, 
and, while the process has been generally re- 
garded as a primitive type of sexual reproduc- 
tion, some investigators have denied that any 
sexuality is involved in zygospore formation. 

In the experimental investigations made by 
the present writer in order to determine the 
conditions associated with zygospore produc- 
tion in more than a dozen different species, 
results have been obtained which may be sum- 
marized as follows: 

Zygospore production in the Mucorinez is 
conditioned by the inherent nature of the in- 
dividual species and only secondarily or not 
at all by external factors. 

According to their method of zygospore 
formation, the various species among the 
Mucorinee may be divided into two main cate- 
gories, which may be designated as homo- 
thallic and heterothallic, and which corre- 
spond respectively to moncecious and diccious 
forms among the higher plants. 

In the homothallic group, zygospores are 


SCIENCE. 


~ 


865. 


developed from branches of the same thallus 
or mycelium and ean be obtained from the 
sowing of a single spore. Although it has 
been currently assumed that all mucors belong 
to this class, it comprises but a very small 
percentage of the species and contains the 
only forms from which heretofore it has 
proved possible to obtain a constant produc- 
tion of zygospores. Sporodinia grandis, the 
only common species, is very frequent on de- 
caying agarics, ete., and has served as a basis 
for experimentation in a majority of the in- 
vestigations dealing with this subject. 

In the heterothallic group, comprising a 
large majority of the species, zygospores are 
developed from branches which necessarily be- 
long to thalli or mycelia diverse in character, 
and can never be obtained from the sowing of 
a single spore. Every heterothallic species is, 
therefore, an aggregate of two distinct strains 
through the interaction of which zygosporic 
reproduction is brought about. If inocula- 
tions of these two opposite strains of a given 
species are so disposed that their mycelia can 
grow together, there will be developed, at the 
region of contact, a distinct dark line pro- 
duced by the accumulation of zygospores 
formed between filaments of the opposite 
strains. Rhizopus mgricans, the common 
bread mold which is used by nearly every 
elementary class in cryptogamic botany, may 
be taken as the type of this group. An acci- 
dental mixture of its two strains has been 
kept under cultivation for nearly ten years 
and as the ‘Harvard strain’ has furnished 
zygospores for class work to many botanical 
laboratories in this country. 

In an individual species these sexual strains 
show in general a more or less marked differen- 
tiation in yegetative luxuriance, and the more 
and less luxuriant may be appropriately desig- 
nated by the use of (+) and (—) signs re- 
spectively. In a few forms, no differentiation 
has been as yet detected; in others, one strain 
shows a less vegetative vigor when cultivated 
under unfavorable conditions; in the majority, 
however, the differentiation is evident from 
the marked difference in the gross appearance 
in cultures of the two opposite strains; and in 
one form, not only the habit of growth, but 


866 SCIENCE. 


the size of the spores are so diverse in the (++) 
and (—) strains that systematists generally 
would feel justified in describing them as 
separate species. 

In heterothallic species, strains have been 
found which from their failure to react with 
(+) and (—) strains of the same form have 
been called ‘neutral,’ and a similar neutrality 
may be induced by cultivation under adverse 
conditions. A table under preparation to de- 
termine the relative abundance and distribu- 
tion in nature of the (+), (—) and neutral 
strains of Rhizopus has so far shown that, 
although neutral strains are not uncommon, 
the majority of the cultures, obtained from 
various localities abroad and in this country, 
belong to either the (++) or the (—) strain. 

In all species of both homo- and heterothallic 
groups in which the process of conjugation 
has been carefully followed, the swollen por- 
tions (progametes) from which the gametes 
are cut off do not grow toward each other, as 
currently believed, but arise as a result of the 
stimulus of contact between more or less dif- 
ferentiated hyphze (zygophores) and are from 
the outset always normally adherent. 

In some species the zygophores have been 
demonstrated to be mutually attractive 
(zygotactic). 

In the heterogamic subdivision of the 
homothallic group, a distinct and constant 
differentiation exists between the zygophoric 
hyphz and the gametes derived from them, 
but in the remaining homothallic forms and in 
all heterothallic forms no such differentiation 
is apparent. Thus, while in the heterothallic 
species the sexual difference inheres in the 
whole thallus of either strain, in the homo- 
thallic forms it is confined to the conjugating 
branches of a single thallus. 

A process of imperfect hybridization will 
occur between wnlike strains of different 
heterothallic species in the same or eyen in 
different genera, or between a homothallic form 
and both strains of a heterothallic species, 
and distinct white lines are produced in many 
cases at the regions of hybridization. 

By taking advantage of this fact it has been 
possible to group together in two opposite 
series the strains of all the heterothallic forms 


[N.S. Vor, XIX, No. 492. 


under cultivation. When thus grouped, the 
(—) or less luxuriant strains will fall in one 
series, while the (++) or more luxuriant will 
be ineluded in the other. 

From the foregoing observations it may be 
concluded: (a) That the formation of zygo- 
spores is a sexual process; (b) that the 
mycelium of a homothallic species is bisexual ; 
(c) while the mycelium of a_ heterothallic 
species is unisexual; (d) and further that in 
the (+) and (—) series of the heterothallic 
group are represented the two opposite sexes. 

The writer intends during the coming year 
to continue his investigations on the subject 
of sexuality in the lower fungi, and would be 
greatly indebted to any mycologists who might 
be willing to assist him by sending culture 
material of any of the forms of the Mucorinez 
which may be found producing zygospores. 


Apert Francis BLAKESLEE. 
CrYPTOGAMIC LABORATORY, 
HARVARD UNIVERSITY. 


ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF PALISADE TISSUE AND 
RESINOUS DEPOSITS IN LEAVES. 


In connection with the experimental investi- 
gation of the causes of xerophily in bog plants, 
new evidence as to the factors involved in the 
development of palisade cells and resinous de- 
posits has been obtained. It has been found 
possible, in the case of Rumeax Acetosella L., 
to greatly modify its external appearance and 
internal structure by growing it under various 
ecological conditions. When grown in moist 


- conditions, with soil and air temperatures ap- 


proximately the same, the leaves attain a rela- 
tively large size and their tissues are exceed- 
ingly loose. A poorly developed palisade of 
one cell-layer and three layers of spongy par- 
enchyma, beneath it, make up the mesophyll. 
The epidermis is composed of large turgid thin- 
walled cells, haying a very delicate cuticle on 
the outside. 

When grown on dry sand the leaves are 
notably thickened, reduced in size and the 
margins become revolute. The mesophyll is 
very compact and consists of a palisade of two 
to three cell-layers and a spongy tissue of two 
cell-layers. The epidermal cells are small and 


-_ 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


their outer walls are notably thickened. <A 
well-developed cuticle is present. 

It has been found that all of these xerophilous 
characters may be produced by growing the 
plant in an undrained wet sphagnum sub- 
stratum, whose temperature is maintained sey- 
eral degrees below that of the air. This effect 
is obtained even in subdued light. Further, 
under these conditions the drops of oil or 
resin, so characteristic of bog xerophytes, are 
formed in the epidermis and the cells adjacent 
to the bundles. Such resinous deposits occur 
also in the plants grown on dry sand, but are 
wanting under favorable moisture conditions. 
Tt is believed that these modifications are, in 
the case of the bog habitat, a response to the 
unfavorable conditions for absorption by the 
roots, occasioned by the low substratum tem- 
perature and lack of proper aeration. 

That palisade tissues may be greatly in- 
creased or developed in shaded conditions is 
also evident. The experiments suggest that 
even when such a response is obtained in 
strong light, it is to be correlated with drouth 
rather than with light. The increased trans- 
piration brought about by direct insolation, 
as it increases the temperature and decreases 
the relative humidity of the air, would seem to 
be an efficient cause for palisade development. 
The elongated cells of the palisade, therefore, 
appear to be an adaptation for the ready trans- 
ferrence of food materials in the leaf tissues, 
under the stress of a reduced water supply. 
The analogy of dry sand habitats and un- 
drained wet bog habitats is certainly indi- 
cated. 

The details of these experiments and others 
tending in the same direction will be published 
elsewhere. Enear N. TRANSEAU. 


UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN, 
May 11, 1904. 


ALBINO BROOK TROUT. 

Amone the brook trout hatched at the 
Adirondack Hatchery, Saranac Inn, N. Y., 
in March, 1902, there appeared to be some dis- 
tinet albinos. There were about fifty of 
these fry out of an entire hatching of 800,000 
ordinary brook trout eggs, taken from both 


SCIENCE. 


867 


wild and confined trout. These albinos were 
put by themselves, and four reached maturity. 

Two of them are typical albinos. They are 
the same in outline as the ordinary brook 
trout. The skin is white, mottled with an 
ochraceous yellow, colored with the typical red 
and yellow spots. The fins are white, with 
the red band and yellow mottling. Eyes red. 
The general appearance of the fish is delicate, 
and the bones are apparently visible through 
the seemingly transparent skin. As these fish 
were reared in captivity they have been con- 
fined to the ordinary fish races, and fed on 
ground liver. One is a male, the other a 
female. The former now measures seven 
inches in length; the latter, nine inches. 

The other two fish are a grayish white, with 
dark fins and black eyes. 

On November 10, 1903, when the two 
albinos “were twenty months old, they were 
stripped for eggs and fertilization. At this 
time their combined weight was approximately 
one half pound, the female being much the 
larger. Mr. G. E. Winchester, foreman of 
the Fish Hatchery, made the following experi- 
ments in fertilization: viz., first cross, 527 eggs 
from female albino > albino male; second 
cross, 103 eggs from female albino X natural 
male; third cross, 424 eggs from natural fe- 
male XX albino male. 

The eggs, after fertilization, were placed in 
the hatchery races the same as all brook trout 
eggs. The hatching began March 1, 1904, 
and continued until the thirteenth of the 
month, the period of incubation being the 
same as that of the ordinary brook trout egg. 

The result of the hatching was as follows: 
From the first cross 32 hatched, or approxi- 
mately 6 per cent.; from the second cross 43 
hatched, or approximately 42 per cent.; from 
the third cross 416 hatched, or approximately 
98 per cent. 

At the present time—one month after all 
the fish were hatched—the following number 
is living: from the first cross 20, or 62 per 
cent.; from the second cross none; from the 
third cross all, or 100 per cent. riet, 

The weakness of the pure albinos is indi- 
cated by the fact that only 6 per cent. of the 
eggs proved fertile, and several of these are 


868 SCIENCE. 


not perfect fish. Yet they have the character- 
istics of the albino parents. 

Of the fry from the second cross 42 per 
cent. hatched; but none were alive at the end 
of one month. Some of them were imperfect 
in form, and were colored more like the nat- 
ural male parent, but not entirely so. 

From the third cross all the eggs were fertile 
except eight—a loss of but two per cent.—and 
all are living at the end of thirty days. There 
are practically no cripples, and the coloring 
is typical of the natural female parent. 

The silver gray albinos did notspawn. They 
have the appearance of barren fish. 

These fish were exhibited by this department 
at the New York state fair last fall and at- 
tracted much attention. 


C. R. Perris. 


Forrest, Fish AND GAME CoMMISSION, 
ALBANY, N. Y., 
April 15, 1904. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
WEEDS USED IN MEDICINE. 

Unper this title the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture issues an interesting bul- 
letin (Farmers’ Bulletin, No. 188) prepared by 
Alice Henkel, assistant in drug and medicinal 
plant investigations. The author calls attention 
to the fact that many of the common weeds of 
the farm and garden possess medical properties, 
and in some cases might be collected and made 
a source of revenue. Thus in his fight with 
the plant pests in his fields the farmer may 
actually turn them to some account, by col- 
lecting and preparing them for the market as 
erude drugs. Directions are given for col- 
lecting and curing, and suggestions are made 
as to their disposal when ready for the market. 
They are first considered under roots, barks, 
leaves and herbs, flowers and seeds. Follow- 
ing this are descriptions of some of the more 
common weeds which have medicinal impor- 
tance, illustrated by a number of good figures. 
No less than twenty-four species are taken 
up in this part of the bulletin. It should 
prove very useful to many farmers and 
gardeners. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 492. 


THE DATE PALM IN AMERICA. 


In a recent bulletin (No. 53) of the Bureau 
of Plant Industry of the United States Depart- 
ment of Agriculture, Walter T. Swingle makes 
a report of his investigations of the date 
palm as grown in Algeria, and of the at- 
tempts to introduce it into California and 
Arizona. The purpose of the bulletin, as 
stated by the author, “is to call attention to 
the peculiar suitability of the date palm for 
cultivation in the hottest and most arid re- 
gions in the southwestern states, and to its 
remarkable ability to withstand large amounts 
of alkali in the soil. The most intense heat, 
the most excessive dryness of the air, the 
absence of all rainfall for months at a time 
during the growing season, and even the hot, 
dry winds that blow in desert regions, are not 
drawbacks, as in almost all other cultures, 
but positive advantages to the date palm, en- 
ahling it to mature fruit of the highest ex- 
cellence.” The author shows that the Salton 
Basin in California ‘is not only the most 
promising region in the United States, or in 
North America, for the culture of the best 
sort of dates, but that it is actually better 
adapted for this profitable culture than those 
parts of the Sahara Desert where the best ex- 
ported dates are produced.’ It is shown to be 
probable that this single region is capable of 
producing dates enough to supply the demand 
for the whole country. Other regions in 
California, Nevada, Arizona, New Mexico and 
Texas are discussed, the conclusion being that 
in all of these states date palms of certain 
varieties may be grown with profit. 

From the bulletin it appears that there are 


_ three principal types of dates cultivated by 


the Arabs, viz: ‘soft dates,’ which are very 
sugary and include the sorts with which we 
are familiar; ‘sour dates,’ which contain a 
much lower percentage of sugar, not enough, 
in fact, to preserve them; ‘dry dates,’ which 
are not at all soft or sticky when ripe, and 
which may be stored and kept indefinitely. 
None of the last are to-be found in the 
American markets, and scarcely any of the 
second type. Of the ‘soft dates,’ the variety 
which bears the name of ‘ Deglet Noor’ is the 
most famous. It is very late in maturing, 


Tt Ne per ORE RI Im Lame ine 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


but yields a fruit of great excellence. We are 
assured that this variety can be grown in the 
Salton Basin, California. 


WOODY PLANTS IN WINTER. 


K. M. Wiecanp and F. W. Foxworthy, of 
Cornell University, have published a handy 
pamphlet which should be very useful to for- 
esters, horticulturists, schoolteachers and 
others who do not have such an intimate per- 
sonal acquaintance with trees and shrubs as 
will enable them to recognize them in their 
winter condition. By means of carefully 
made keys the genus of any woody plant, 
native or planted in the state of New York, 
may be determined with a good deal of cer- 
tainty. The authors hope to bring out later 
a similar set of keys to the species. 


DOCTOR AUGUSTIN GATTINGER, BOTANIST. 


Born in Munich, Germany, in 1825, edu- 
cated in the Gymnasium and University of 
Munich, emigrated to Tennessee when twenty- 
four years of age, practised medicine and 
studied the flora of Tennessee for many years, 
published ‘Trees and Shrubbery Adapted to 
the Soil and Climate of Nashville’ (1878), 
‘Tennessee Marbles’? (1883), ‘ Botanical 
Fragments’ (1884), ‘The Tennessee Flora’ 
(1887), ‘The Medicinal Plants of Tennessee’ 
(1894), ‘The Flora of Tennessee’ (1901), 
died in his home in Nashville, July 18, 1903. 
Such is the brief summary of the life of a 
pleasant, genial, industrious man who loved 
plants, and studied them because he loved 
them. 

In the American Historical Magazine for 
April, 1904, there appeared a sympathetic 
biographical sketch (28 pp.) of the life of Dr. 
Gattinger, by Robert A. Halley, accompanied 
with a fine portrait. This has been printed 
separately for distribution among botanical 
and other friends. Cuartes E. BEssry. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 
Tur University of Toronto conferred, on 
May 27, the honorary degree of LL.D. upon 
President Harper, of the University of Chi- 
eago; Professor Minot, of Harvard Univer- 


SCIENCE. 


869 


sity; Professor Saunders, of the Dominion 
Experimental Farm, Ottawa; Mr. W. S. King, 
Dominion astronomer, and his assistant, Mr. 
Otto Klotz; and Captain Deville, surveyor- 
general, Ottawa. 


Cansripce University conferred, on May 
28, the following doctorates of science: Hen- 
dricus Gerardus van de Sande Bakhuysen, 
president of the Royal Academy of Sciences, 
Amsterdam, professor of astronomy in the 
University of Leiden; Andrej Sergejevich 
Famintsyn, member of the Imperial Academy 
of Sciences of St. Petersburg; Edmund Moj- 
sisovics, Edler von Mojsv4r, member of the 
Imperial Academy of Sciences, Vienna; Gus- 
tav Retzius, member of the Royal Swedish 
Academy of Sciences, emeritus professor of 
anatomy in the University of Stockholm; 
Eduard Riecke, member of the Royal Acad- 
emy of Sciences, Gottingen, professor of phys- 
ics in the University of Gottingen; Wilhelm 
Waldeyer, secretary of the Royal Prussian 
Academy of Sciences, Berlin, professor of 
anatomy in the University of Berlin. 


THE senate of the Royal University of Ire- 
Jand has resolved to confer, honoris causa, 
the degree of doctor of science on Sir William 
Crookes, F.R.S., and on Professor James De- 
war, F.R.S. 


A COMPLIMENTARY dinner was given on 
May 16 in London to Major-General E. R. 
Festing, ©.B., F.R.S., upon his retirement 
from the post of director of the science 
division of the Victoria and Albert Museum. 


Prorressor R. S. Woopwarp, dean of the 
faculty of pure science, will be the delegate 
from Columbia University at the celebration 
of the fiftieth anniversary of the founding of 
the University of Wisconsin, on June 5 to 9. 


Dr. L. O. Howarp, chief entomologist of the 
Department of Agriculture and permanent 
secretary of the American Association, has re- 
turned to Washington after investigations in 
the southern states and Mexico. 


Proressor R. W. Woop, professor of experi- 
mental physics at the Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity, has gone to Europe, where he will carry 
on investigations during the summer. 


870 SCIENCE. 


Dr. J. B. Jounston, professor of zoology at 
West Virginia University, has been granted 
leave of absence for the year 1904-05. He 
will spend July and August at the Bermuda 
Biological Station, from September 1 to 
March 1 at the Naples Zoological Station, and 
the remainder of the time in Germany. At 
Naples he will occupy the Smithsonian table. 


Present AnpREw D. WHITE is expected to 
return to America in time for the commence- 
ment exercises of Cornell University. 


Mr. Austin H. Crarn, of Boston, who is 
now on a collecting trip among the less-known 
islands of the British West Indies, has been 
elected a fellow of the Royal Geographical 
Society of London. 


Tur Carnegie Institution has made a grant 
to Mr. A. F. Blakesley, of Harvard University, 
to enable him to spend next year abroad con- 
tinuing his investigations in mycology. He 
will leave after the close of the Harvard Sum- 
mer School. 


Ir is announced that Mr. Marconi will re- 
turn to Cape Breton early in June to conduct 
the trans-Atlantic wireless service. 


Tur following provisional program of even- 
ing lectures at the Marine Biological Labo- 
ratory, Woods Hole, Mass., has been arranged. 
Other lectures will be announced later. 


July 2. Mr. Lynds Jones. ‘The Migrations of 
Birds.’ 

July 5. Professor Jacob Reighard. ‘The 
Breeding Habits and Secondary Sexual Charac- 
ters of some Brook Fishes.’ 

July 7. Professor A. D. Mead. ‘The House- 
boat as a Biological Laboratory.’ 

July 11. Professor E. P. Lyon. ‘ Physiolog- 
ical Rhythms in Cleavage.’ 

July 15. Professor A. P. Mathews. ‘The 
Physical Basis of some Vital Phenomena/ 

July 20. Professor C. O. Whitman. ‘The 
Evolution of Color Pattern.’ 

July 29. Dr. R. M. Yerkes. ‘ Automatism and 
Intelligence in Frogs.’ 

August 1. Dr. R. M. Strong. 
of Birds.’ 

August 3. Dr. Theo. N. Gill. ‘The History of 
the Ichthyology of Massachusetts.’ 


“The Colors 


Dr. G. S. Huntinetron, professor of anat- 
omy in the College of Physicians and Sur- 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 492, 


geons, Columbia University, will give the 
Shattuck lecture before the Massachusetts 
Medical Society, on June 7. 


AccorDING to the program, lectures were to 
be given before the Royal Institution as fol- 
lows: On May 24 Mr. H. F. Newall began a 
course of two lectures on the Solar Corona; 
on May 26, Mr. N. G. Wells delivered the 
first of two lectures on Literature and the 
State; on May 28, Sir Martin Conway began 
a course of two lectures on Spitzbergen in the 
seventeenth century. The Friday evening 
discourse on May 27 was delivered by the 
Prince of Monaco on the Progress of Oceanog- 
raphy; and on June 8 Professor Svante 
Arrhenius lectured on the Development of the 
Theory of Electrolytic Dissociation. 


Dr. Grorce Ottver, a fellow of the Royal 
College of Physicians, London, has presented 
to the college the sum of $10,000 in trust for 
the endowment of a lectureship or prize to 
be called the Oliver-Sharpey Lectureship or 
Prize, in memory of the late William Sharpey, 
F.R.S., professor of physiology in University 
College, London. 

Proressor WittiaM Henry Prrres, pro- 
fessor of mineralogy, economic geology and 
mining at the University of Michigan since 
1875, died suddenly at Ann Arbor on May 26. 
He was born in 1838, graduated from Har- 
vard in 1861 and studied subsequently for 
three years in the Royal Saxon Academy of 
Mines. He was assistant in chemistry and 
instructor in mineralogy at Harvard Univer- 
sity for four years and went to the University 
of Michigan in 1871 as assistant professor. 
He was a fellow and, in 1887, general secre- 
tary of the American Association; a member 
and, in 1880, vice-president of the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers, and a mem- 
ber of the Geological and Philosophical So- 
cieties. 

Tue death is announced of Wilhelm von 
Siemens, a member of the eminent family 
which has contributed so much to the ad- 
vancement of electrical science and himself 
an able inventor. 

TuERE will be a civil service examination, 
on June 22, to fill a vacancy in the position 


ee 


JUNE 3, 1904.] 


of assistant chemist, at $1,400 per annum, in 
the Bureau of Standards. 


THE sixth International Congress of Physi- 

ology will be held at Brussels, in the Institut 
Solvay, from August 30 to September 3, 1904, 
under the presidency of Professor Heger. 
One meeting will be devoted to the report of 
the International Commission appointed at 
Cambridge in 1898 for the umification of 
standards in physiology (Association de l’In- 
stitut Marey) and to the nomination of a 
committee of arrangements for the following 
congress. If the number of communications 
warrants, special sections, for example, in 
physiological chemistry or in experimental 
psychology, may be organized, as at Turin. 
Further information may be obtained from 
Dr. Auguste Slosse, local secretary, Institut 
Solvay, Pare Léopold, Brussels, Belgium. 
_ Tur Royal Geographical Society held its 
annual meeting on May 15; the medals and 
other honors were presented to those whose 
names have already been announced. The 
annual address of the president, Sir Clements 
Markham, was largely concerned with the Brit- 
ish Antarctic Expedition, but geographical 
progress in other parts of the world was also 
described. It was stated that efforts are be- 
ing made to secure $600,000 for the erection 
of a new building for the society. The an- 
nual dinner of the society was held on the 
evening of the same day, when speeches were 
made by the president, Sir Harry Johnston, 
Sir William Ramsay and others. 


Tur Chicago Academy of Sciences has se- 
eured the collection of lower coal measure 
plants made by Dr. John H. Britts, of Clinton, 
Iowa. The collection contains many species 
named by Lesquereux besides numerous 
cotypes of species described by David White 
in Monograph 37, U. S. Geological Survey, on 
the ‘ Fossil Flora of the Lower Coal Measures 
of Missouri” The collection was obtained 
through the generosity of Mr. Francis 8. Pea- 
body of Chicago. 

A CORRESPONDENT writes to the London 
Times from Alexander on May 6: “ Dr. Koch 
has concluded his investigations into the ques- 
tion of the cattle plague. His report, which 


SCIENCE. 


871 


was laid before the ministry yesterday, is dis- 
appointing to those who anticipated prompt 
and effectual measures for the eradication of 
the disease. The learned bacteriologist con- 
siders the plague an extremely mild form of 
rinderpest, and one more nearly allied to Texas 
and Transcaucasian fever, the germ conveying 
the infection bearing also some analogy to the 
parasite found in coast fever in West Africa. 
His suggestions are confined to advising the 
government to pursue the measures already 
adopted, such as the application of injections 
and the isolation of infected animals. Dr. 
Koch sailed on May 6 for Marseilles.” 


We learn from Electrical World that a 
deputation of Canadian electrical interests has 
waited upon the minister of inland revenue 
asking that the government establish an elec- 
trical standardizing bureau, to be maintained 
independent of any other branch of the public 
service, and placed in charge of a qualified 
electrical expert, at whose disposal should be 
placed trained assistants and proper facilities. 
The delegation also asked that the law be 
amended so that if any device was found in 
the possession of any one to prevent the proper 
registration of electric current, it should be 
prima facie evidence for his prosecution and 
conviction. ,; 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Mr. Joun D. Rockreretier has given the 
Case School of Applied Science $200,000 to 
be used for building and equipping labora- 
tories. for physics and mining engineering. 
The buildings will be erected during the com- 
ing year. 


Yate University will receive as residuary 
legatee over $250,000 from the estate of 
William B. Ross, a lawyer of New York City, 
who died on January 14 last. A portion of 
this sum will be used for the erection of an 
addition to the library building. 


Tue will of the late Professor Maxwell 
Sommerville provides $20,000 for the preserva- 
tion and care of the collection of engraved 
gems and ethnological collections given by 
him to the University of Pennsylvania some 
years ago. 


872 


Tue forestry department of the University 
of Michigan has received a gift of about 
ninety species, including over five hundred 
specimens of forest trees, from Robert Doug- 
las’s Sons, forest tree nurserymen, of Wau- 
kegan, Ill. The material was selected at the 
invitation of the donors, by Professor Roth 
and Mr. Davis, of the forestry department, 
and will at once be set out on the Saginaw 
Forest Farm. 


THE new range of greenhouses of the New 
Hampshire College of Agriculture was opened 
on May 20. There were over two hundred 
visitors in attendance, to whom a reception 
was given by Professor F. W. Rane, head of 
the department of horticulture. The green- 
houses have been erected at a cost of $7,000, 
appropriated by the state, and offer many 
facilities for instruction and research. 


A plan for the reorganization of the faculty 
of the department of medicine of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania has been approved 
by the trustees, whereby the faculty member- 
ship has been extended to the clinical, asso- 
ciate and assistant professors, to the associates 
and lecturers and to a limited representation 
from the subordinate staff. The scheme pro- 
vides for an executive body or council, to be 
composed of the heads of departments in fun- 
damental subjects and two representatives of 
the specialties. Jefferson Medical College has 
adopted a similar plan, electing all the clin- 
ical professors to a full professorship. 


Two pieces of foreign educational news 
may be noted: The resident members of the 
Oxford convocation voted by a large majority 
to permit those not in priests’ orders to be 
examiners in the school of theology, but con- 
vocation, composed largely of absent clergy- 
men, rejected this measure by a vote of 676 
to 278. This is perhaps only natural con- 
servatism, but the Prussian Chamber of Depu- 
ties on the same day, May 17, adopted a reso- 
lution which is reactionary, namely, that the 
elementary national schools shall, as a rule, 
be either Protestant or Roman Catholic, that 
each school shall contain, as a rule, pupils 
belonging to one faith only and that these 
pupils shall be instructed by teachers who 
profess their own creed. A somewhat similar 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 492. 


bill was proposed by the minister of education 
in 1891, but owing largely to opposition in 
academic circles was defeated, whereupon the 
minister and the president of the ministry, 
Count von Caprivi, resigned. 

THERE is a vacant instructorship in Chem- 
istry in Denison University, Granville, Ohio. 
Instructor W. B. Clark has been granted leave 
of absence to pursue graduate work in the 
University of Chicago. 

We are asked to state that a position as 
assistant in physiology is open for applicants 
in the University of Pennsylvania. 

Ir is announced that Professor George 
Trumbull Ladd has resigned his chair of phi- 
losophy at Yale University. 

Prorressor CHARLES BasKERVILLE, of the 
University of North Carolina, has been elected 
professor of chemistry in the College of the 
City of New York. 

At Cornell University, Dexter S. Kimball 
has been appointed Sibley professor of me- 
chanie arts, in charge of the Sibley shops. 
Professor Kimball succeeds Professor John L. 
Morris, who, after continuous service since 
1868, will become professor emeritus in June. 
Instructors have been appointed as follows: 
OC. N. Haskins in mathematics, H. H. Cochran, 
W. J. Fisher and G. L. Manning in physics, 
W. C. Geer in chemistry, G. D. Hubbard in 
geology and E. A. Gray and P. Anderson in 
anatomy. 

Dr. R. Burton-Opirz has been appointed 
adjunet professor of physiology in Columbia 
University and has been assigned a seat in 
the faculty of pure science. 

Ar the University of Nebraska, Mr. G. E. 
Condra has been promoted to a professorship: 
of geology and Mr. H. S. Evans to an adjunct 
professorship of electrical engineering. 

APPOINTMENTS have been made at McGill 
University, as follows: Dr. R. Tait Mackenzie, 
to be lecturer in anatomy; Dr. A. A. Robert- 
son, to be lecturer in physiology; J. R. Roe- 
buck, to be lecturer in chemistry; Dr. W. S. 
Morrow, to be associate professor of physiol- 
ogy; Dr. A. G. Nicholls, to be associate pro- 
fessor of pathology and bacteriology; A. S. 
Eve, to be lecturer in mathematics, and Dr. 
Coker, to be associate professor of engineering. 


So EINE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Pripay, June 10, 1904. 


OONTENTS: 


Herbert Spencer’s Autobiography: PROFESSOR 
PMR STER PM WWIAIRD oraiefoieiapetelcreisierensintevelare cerca 


The Work of the Year 1903 in Ecology: Dr. 
Henry CHANDLER COWLES............... 


Scientific Books :-— 
The Desert Botanical Laboratory of the 
Carnegie Institution: Dr. FRepERIC E. 
CLEMENTS. Physiology in the Interna- 
tional Catalogue of Scientific Literature: 


PROFESSOR FREDERIC S. LEE.............. 885 


Societies and Academies :-— 
The Washington Meeting of the American 
Physical Society: Proressor H. B. Rosa. 
The Botanical Society of America: Pro- 
Fessor D. T. MacDoucat. The New York 
Academy of Sciences, Section of Anthropol- 
ogy and Psychology: PRoFESSoR JAMES HE. 
LoucH. Section of Geology and Mineral- 


ogy: Dr. EpmuND OT1s Hovny........... 888 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
The Oomplez Nature of Thoriwm: Pro- 
FESSOR CHARLES BASKERVILLE. A Reddish- 


brown Snowfall: Epwarp LINDSEY........ 892 


Special Articles :— 
Mental Efficiency and Health: PRoFESSOR 
Ropert MACDOUGALL.................... 


The Electron Theory: W.S. B.............. 


A Heavy Japanese Brain: Dr. Epw. ANTHONY 


SPUD ZIG ACTA at a) Watssotacdohah sy ayisce siete areneie eee > 899 
Professor Rwtherford on Radiwm........... 899 
Scientific Notes and News................. 900 
University and Educational News.......... 904 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of SclENCcE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


HERBERT SPENCER'S AUTOBIOGRAPHY.* 

THE autobiography of a great man, the 
publication of which during his lifetime 
is expressly interdicted by him, unavoid- 
ably raises the question as to the possibility 
of disinterested action. Mr. Spencer has, 
indeed, in his ‘Autobiography’ discussed 
the motives that prompted his work, and 
has shown that egoism and altruism are 
inextricably mixed in the composition of 
these motives. But he speaks only of his 
philosophical works, all of which appeared 
during his lifetime, and in which he may, 
therefore, be supposed to have a personal 
interest. But here is a work of no mean 
proportions, in which he knew he could 
take no interest after it appeared. In 
many cases the motive may be explained 
by the belief on the part of the authors 
that they will continue to exist and remain 


. cognizant of all that is to take place, and 


will, therefore, know just what the effect 
of their action is to be upon the world at 
large. But no such motive can be alleged 
in the present case, for he himself says: ‘as 
I have no belief in anything to be gained 
in another world, it can not be otherworld- 
liness that moved me’; and*again: ‘with 
death there lapses both the consciousness 
of existence and the consciousness of having 
existed.’ This is not the place to discuss 
such a question, but in the minds of many 
it can not be suppressed. 

The * Autobiography’ of Herbert Spencer 
must not be regarded as a mere pastime 
and incidental episode in his career, but as 


*Two volumes. 
Company, 1904, 8°. 


New York, D. Appleton and 


874 


an integral part of his ife work. Whereas 
his other works constitute his philosophy 
of nature, his ‘Autobiography’ constitutes 
his philosophy of life. It is a large work, 
seriously written, costing him years of 
labor. It was not written after his main 
work was done as a closing retrospect to 
his laborious life, but was executed im the 
midst of his busiest days, while he was 
hard at work on his ‘Synthetic Philosophy.’ 
It was begun, he tells us, in May, 1875, 
a. @., while he was writing the first volume 
of his ‘Principles of Sociology,’ and the 
main portion of it was finished on his sixty- 
ninth birthday, April 27, 1889, or while he 
was writing the first volume of his ‘Prin- 
ciples of Ethies.’ It is true that four years 
later he wrote some ‘Reflections,’ which 
occupy the last sixty pages of the ‘Auto- 
biography,’ in which some of the events of 
that period are alluded to, but this is not, 
like the rest, a chronological record. But 
even if we place the conclusion of this work 
at the year 1893, which is the date of the 
second volume of the ‘Principles of Ethics,’ 
we find that it ended before the appearance 
of either of the last two volumes of the 
‘Principles of Sociology,’ although parts 
of the second volume had been published. 
The third volume bears date, 1897. There 
were then still four years of activity after 
the last word of the ‘Autobiography’ had 
. been dictated before the conclusion of the 
‘Synthetic Philosophy.’ He survived his 
_ great work six years, and there are eyi- 
denees that he was by no means idle during 
that time. In a letter dated May 4, 1897, 
although he characterizes himself as a 
‘wreck,’ still he speaks somewhat doubt- 
fully of his ability to complete his ‘‘re- 
maining task—revision of the ‘Principles 
of Biology.’ ’’ Why he did not bring his 
‘Autobiography’ down to some such date, 
or even later, has not yet been explained. 

This work has done the important ser- 
vice of dispelling a large amount of pop- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 493. 


ular error, with regard to Herbert Spencer’s 
life and career. The prevailing opinion 


has been that he was a typically ‘self-made 


man.’ He has been represented as having 
had to struggle with adversity, and has 
been held up as a proof of the theory that 
ereat abilities are certain to assert them- 
selves whatever the obstacles may be in 
their path. His life shows that, on the 
contrary, he was highly favored by cir- 
cumstances. While of course without his 
talents his achievements would have been 
impossible, still, given such talents, there 
was scarcely any reason why he should not 
have accomplished great things. He does 
not himself favor the Galtonian doctrine, 
but fully recognizes his indebtedness to 
circumstances. He admits that but for the 
three legacies that were one after the other 
left him by his two uncles and his father, 
he could never have completed his system. 
But he was even more indebted to the help 
of influential friends, freely volunteered, 
and by a whole train of favorable cireum- 
stances, fully set forth in his ‘Autobiog- 
raphy.’ Indeed, his very environment was 
sufficient to bring out all that was in him. 
On intimate terms for the greater part of 
his life with such men as Huxley, Tyndall, 
Hooker, Lubbock, Mill, Lewes and Bain, 
belonging to the same clubs, taking long 
walks, and having constant discussions with 
them, the stimulus must have been enor- 
mous. 

He enters quite elaborately into the ques- 
tion. of genealogy, and shows that his an- 
cestors embodied extremely heterogeneous 
elements, elements, as he maintains, caleu- 
lated to implant in him most of the char- 
acteristics that he possessed. To a ground- 
work of immemorial English and a little 
Seotch there was added a strain of the 
French Huguenot, probably tinctured with 
Bohemian Hussite protestantism. It must 
not, however, be supposed that this ances- 
tral heterogeneity rendered him any the 


JunE 10, 1904.] 


less typically English, for the one leading 
characteristic of the whole Anglo-Saxon 
race is the complete mixture of all the 
numerous races—Saxon, Danish, Norman, 
British, Welsh, Scotch, etc.—that entered 
into the composition of the later imhabit- 
ants of that historic isle. 

Herbert Spencer is commonly repre- 
sented as being the type of a self-educated 
man. Nothing could be farther from the 
truth. The son of a professional teacher 
belonging to a long line of teachers, he 
was surrounded by educational influences 
from his very birth. So far from strug- 
eling to educate himself, his main efforts 
as a boy seem to have been to escape from 
the perpetual drill of the domestic school. 
His father finally sent him away to be 
further drilled by his uncle, but it was the 
same old story, geometry forever. His 
youthful escapade from this latter educa- 
tional treadmill is very amusing. Many 
boys of some pluck, when they imagine 
themselves ill-treated at home, ‘run away,’ 
but Spencer, thinking himself overtasked 
by his uncle, ran home, from Hinton to 
Derby, a distance of nearly 150 miles! 
He admits that it was largely homesick- 
ness, and one can compare it to nothing 
but the way a domestic animal, removed 
from the spot to which it has become 
wonted, will seize the first opportunity to 
go back, regardless of the distance, and 
euided by that little-known ‘sense of direc- 
tion’ that some think to be located in the 
semicircular canals of the ear. 

But whatever his treatment may have 
been, and it certainly was never severe, 
_ Herbert Spencer as a boy was always being 
taught. His education was not sporadic 
and one-sided, but methodical and all-sided. 
He is usually represented as wholly ignor- 
ant of Greek or Latin and of modern lan- 
euages. In so far as this is true it was due 
to his distaste for them, for he complains 
of being taught them. At that day, before 


SCIENCE. 


875 


the natural sciences had come to receive the 
place they now occupy in education, all 
pupils belonged to one or, the other of two 
classes, those that loved mathematics and 
hated languages, and those that loved lan- 
guages and hated mathematics. Spencer 
belonged to the first of these classes. But 
he had to learn languages and dead lan- 
euages at that, and any close observer of 
his style can see that he did learn them 
sufficiently to affect his style. It is clear 
that he always had the derivation of a word 
in mind when using it, and that he knew 
enough Greek and Latin to apply their 
principles to his own language. He seems 
to have Inown very little German, but he 
not only read French, but spoke it well 
enough to act on one occasion as an in- 
terpreter. 

All that is left, therefore, of the pre- 
vailmg notion about his education is that 
he was not university trained. He thought 
that a great advantage, and never tired of 
citing proofs that university training spoils 
a man for all usefulness and fills him with 
a mass of useless rubbish. Whether he 
would have done any better or worse had 
he taken a university course may be a diffi- 
cult question to answer, but his whole 
reasoning on the subject is unsound be- 
cause it is based on the exceptional man 
and takes no account of the average man. 
Indeed, his entire philosophy of education 
is permeated by this vice. His book on 
education may be said to rest on the as- 
sumption that every child has a father or 
a mother or both capable of properly edu- 
cating him or her. One has only to look 
around to see how absurd this assumption 
is. 

Herbert Spencer belonged to the middle 
class; though not rich, he was by no means 
poor. He never did manual labor of any 
kind, and none of his ancestors at all recent 
belonged to the laboring classes. He ex- 
plains the smallness of his hands by this 


876 


fact. He never knew what it was to be in 
want or to fear that he might come to 
want. The only work of a bread-winning 
kind that he ever did was while serving as 
a civil engineer in the construction of cer- 
tain railroads. This occupied nine years 
of his life (1837-46), from his seventeenth 
to his twenty-sixth year. The several posi- 
tions that he held during this time were not 
sought, but were offered to him, generally, 
as he admits, through the influence of his 
friends rather than from any superiority 
of his own in the business. More than once 
he gave up a good position and returned 
home for awhile. But his father’s latch- 
string was always out and he was welcomed 
back whatever might be the cause of his 
coming. He alleges as one reason for not 
holding his positions longer, his ‘lack of 
tact in dealing with men, especially supe- 
riors,’ and says: ‘“Adyancement depends 
rather on pleasing those in authority than 
on intrinsic fitness. * Never did it 
enter into my thoughts to ingratiate my- 
self with those above me. Rather I have 
ever been apt, by criticisms and outspoken 
differences of opinion, to give offense.’’ 
In other words, he was no toady, and never 
eared to ‘crook the pregnant hinges of the 
knee where thrift may follow fawning.’ 
But he was never removed from any posi- 
tion. He always voluntarily quit work, 
usually with the regret of his employers. 

The only other period of his life that he 
was subject, even nominally, to the will of 
a superior was during the five years (1848— 
53) that he was sub-editor of the Economist, 
and this position he also voluntarily relin- 
quished. This was an easy position and 
left him much leisure time, as may be 
judged from the fact that durimg this pe- 
riod he wrote his first book, ‘Social Statics.’ 
It was to be hoped that in his ‘ Autobiog- 
raphy’ he would give a full explanation of 
how he came to choose the title ‘Social 
Statics.’ He does, indeed, discuss a num- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 493. 


ber of titles that had occurred to him, but 
leaves it to be assumed that the one finally 
adopted was originally his own. ‘To find 
the true explanation it is necessary to go 
to the revised edition of that work pub- 
lished in 1892, where in a footnote to page 
233 he says he met with the phrase in 
Mill’s ‘Political Economy,’ Mill himself 
crediting it to another writer, which other 
writer, though Spencer did not know it, 
was Auguste Comte. It thus happens that, 
notwithstanding his strenuous efforts to 
disclaim all influence of Comte, three of the 
leading terms of his philosophy, social 
statics, sociology and altruism, were Com- 
tean terms. 

After leaving the Economist he devoted 
himself for a time to article writing, which 
yielded him some revenue, though scarcely 
a livelihood, but which had the advantage 
of enabling him, as Nietzsche would say, 
to get rid of his thoughts. Instead, how- 
ever, of getting rid of them, he found them 
taking complete possession of him. In fact, 
the very next year (1854) he commenced 
writing his ‘Principles of Psychology,’ 
which he finished within a year, and the 
work actually appeared in 1855. But even 
this, so far from satisfying him, served 
only the more completely to open up the 
vista of his future, and although he char- 
acterized the next two years as ‘idle,’ be- 
fore the end of 1857 a great system of 
philosophy had taken shape in his mind. 
His first rough draft of its main heads was 
made and dated January 6, 1858. Two 
years later the complete prospectus was 
issued, and this was adhered to in most 
particulars during the subsequent thirty- 
seven years of its execution. 

He had now made his plans known to all 
his friends and they had unanimously en- 
couraged him to proceed. The great ob- - 
stacle was publication, as no publisher 
would undertake so hazardous a work, and 
after much discussion and advice it was 


JUNE 10, 1904.] 


decided to issue the work in parts by sub- 
seription. In one of the appendices to the 
‘Autobiography’ appears the list of orig- 
inal subscribers. We may judge of the 
backing that he had, even at the outset, by 
the following names that are found among 
others in that list: John Stuart Mill, 
Charles Darwin, Thomas Huxley, Sir 
Charles Lyell, Sir Joseph Hooker, Sir 
John Herschel, Professor De Morgan, 
George Henry Lewes, George Hliot, Charles 
Kingsley, George Grote, Alexander Bain, 
Henry T. Buckle, Jules Simon. 

Tt is interesting to compare the original 
draft with the final draft of the prospectus 
of Mr. Spencer’s system. Aside from the 
difficulty of explaining why he called both 
parts of Vol. I. (‘First Principles’) the 
“Unknowable’ in the former, while Part II. 
in the latter deals with the ‘Knowable,’ 
there is the fact that in the original draft 
he makes Part III. treat of ‘Astronomic 
Evolution’ and Part IV. of ‘Geologie Evo- 
lution,’ these being the ‘two volumes’ that 
were wholly omitted in the completed sys- 
tem. As this original draft was never. be- 
fore published the world was left practi- 
eally in the dark as to what these volumes 
would have contained had they been writ- 
ten. In the explanatory note inserted in 
the preface to ‘First Principles’ (p. xiv) 
he simply states that the application of 
these principles to imorganic nature is 
omitted, but this gives no intimation as to 
how this application would have been made. 
He does, indeed, refer in at least two other 
places to these omitted volumes (‘Prin- 
ciples of Biology,’ Vol. I., Appendix, pp. 
479, 480; ‘Principles of Sociology,’ Vol. I., 
p- 3), and in the second of these he says 
that one of the volumes would have dealt 
with “Astrogeny’ and the other with ‘Geog- 
eny.’ These appear to be the only hints 
that he gave out on this point, and few 
readers probably ever noticed them. But 
in one of his letters written in 1895 he 


SCIENCE. 


877 


entered much more fully into this subject 
and set forth clearly just what his whole 
system would have been had it been fully 
written out.* 

The rest of the ‘Autobiography’ deals 
mainly with the execution of this great 
scheme, which need not be followed out. 
There are, however, many incidental mat- 
ters connected with the chief matter, and 
some not connected with it, that have a 
special interest. Only a few of these can 
be mentioned. One of these relates to the 
reception that Mr. Spencer’s books met 
with at the hands of the public. Nothing 
certainly is more annoying to a writer on 
philosophical subjects than the reviews of 
his books. As Spencer says, ‘‘adverse 
criticisms of utterly unjust kinds frequent- 
ly pursue the conscientious writer. * * * 
Careless misstatements and gross misrepre- 
sentations continually exasperate him.”’ 
He finally discovered that reviews do more 
harm than good. An author is lucky if no 
attention is paid to his books, for it is far 
better to be “smothered with silence’ than to 
be willfully or ignorantly misrepresented. 
A reviewer who has not the caliber to un- 
derstand a book, but who must, neverthe- 
less, review it because it is sent to the press, 
will usually indulge in cheap flings at it 
and apply to it damaging epithets caleu- 
lated to deter readers from examining it. 
If it seems radical or opposed to current 
ideas it will arouse ‘offended prejudices’ 
or call down the odiwm theologicum. 
Everybody knows how Darwin’s works 
were treated by the religious press. * Then 
there is the subsidized press, which main- 
tains a strict censorship over the contem- 
porary literature, more effective in some 
respects than that of despotic governments, 
and every book that is suspected of being 
at all ‘dangerous’ is attacked by the lead- 
ing journals, sometimes with ridicule, some- 


“See Scmncr, N. S., Vol. III., February 21, 
1896, p. 294; ‘ Pure Sociology,’ pp. 67-69. 


878 


times with apparent seriousness, usually by 
scholarly writers employed for the purpose. 
Even specialists can always be hired to 
write books down. 

Mr. Spencer found that the sale of his 
books was being seriously interfered with 
through hostile reviews. Professor Bain, 
who was one of the subscribers, told John 
Stuart Mill that for a long time he did not 
read ‘First Principles,’ saying ‘‘that the 
impression gained from notices of it had 
deterred him. He went on to say that 
when, subsequently, he read the book he 
found to his astonishment that the reviews 
had not given him the remotest conception 
of its contents.’’ It was, therefore, de- 
cided to send no more copies to the press, 
and this policy was adhered to until near 
the end of the work. After it had been 
fairly tested it was found on examining the 
accounts that the sales had about doubled. 

As already remarked, Mr. Spencer was 
now beholden to no man and could devote 
all his energies to his great task. But he 
was destined to become a slave to a worse 
master than any superior officer. He was 
to become the victim of an insidious dis- 
ease, a disease which proved incurable, and 
which attacked precisely the organ of which 
he had the greatest need—his brain. It 
began with msomnia, and was always at- 
tended with insomnia, but it soon threat- 
ened complete prostration, and from his 
thirty-fifth year to the end of his life it 
was one constant struggle for health. But 
it was not a fatal disease, as he lived well 
into his eighty-fourth year, and, as he says, 
it was not a painful disease, and, like most 
forms of neurasthenia, it did not show in 
his face, so that people always supposed 
him younger than he was. But it rendered 
continuous attention to anything whatever 
impossible. His work must henceforth be 
done at short sessions with long intervals 
of rest. There were sometimes days, weeks 
and even months that he could do nothing. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XTX. No. 493. 


In the pursuit of health he traveled much 
and resorted to all forms of amusement. 
Fishing was his favorite pastime, but he 
often took long pedestrian journeys. 

He must have been a very poor observer. 
It would seem that he had subordinated 
and practically sacrificed his perceptive to 
his reflective faculties. With even the 
little dips into entomology, botany and 
geology that he had made in his early life, 
one would suppose that he would have seen 
more in the world. But he rarely men- 
tions any object in natural history. It is 
very disappointing to read his account of 
walks, for example, round the Isle of 
Wight. He does, indeed, mention the 
chalk, but he never mentions the far more 
interesting Wealden formation, and seems 
to have had no idea of the geology of that 
island. It was the same with his visits to 
the Yorkshire coast and other places cele- 
brated for their geological interest. But 
he observed men and human operations, 
and usually criticizes everything severely. 
Nothing in art, ancient or modern, came 
up to his ideal. 

Herbert Spencer, as all know, never, mar- 
ried, and it seems certain that his celibacy 
was the result of a reasoned resolve to let 
nothing interfere with his main purpose. 
But it is evident from reading his ‘ Auto- 
biography’ that he was not lacking in any 
of the qualities that would have made 
family life successful. He often alludes 
to it as a good that he was compelled to 
forego. His views of women were of the 
most enlightened kind, and the ideal of 
marriage that he sets forth in a letter to 
a friend about to marry is as perfect and 
noble as it is possible to conceive of. There 
are doubtless many readers for whom the 
most interesting part of his ‘Autobiog- 
raphy’ will be that which treats of his 
relations with George Eliot, although, so 
far as can be judged either from this work 
or from the ‘Life and Letters of George 


JUNE 10, 1904.] 


Eliot,’ these relations were never in any 
sense sentimental. But they were certainly 
much more intimate and more prolonged 
than any of her letters would lead us to 
suppose. It is surprising to learn that it 
was he chiefly who urged her to write fic- 
tion, an idea which she could not at first 
entertain. The ‘Letters’ leave the impres- 
sion that it was Lewes who played this role. 
Perhaps both equally saw in her this talent 
before she saw it in herself. It is equally 
surprising that she should have made 
Spencer her confidant in the matter of the 
authorship not only of her first stories, but 
also of ‘Adam Bede.’ It is to be regretted 
that she, too, did not write an autobiog- 
raphy. 

Such is a hasty glance at a few of the 
salient points in the ‘Autobiography’ of 
Herbert Spencer. No two persons would 
select the same points, and no such glance 
ean hope to do justice to the work. Noth- 
ing has been said of his inventions, which 
were numerous but none of them important 
or successful; of his numerous essays, from 
his ‘Proper Sphere of Government’ to his 
‘Factors of Organie Hvolution’; of his 
‘Descriptive Sociology,’ that monumental 
but costly undertaking; of his ‘cerebral 
hygiene,’ which, unlike that of Comte, con- 
sisted in reading nothing that he did not 
agree with, thus warping, as Comte had 
dwarfed, the growth of ideas; of his more 
extended travels, including his visit to 
America, which latter is familiar to us all; 
nor of his persistent hostility to govern- 
mental initiative (laissez faire), which 
formed so prominent a feature in his po- 
litical philosophy. 

With regard to this last it would seem 
that owing to preconceptions of his youth 
confirmed during his connection with the 
Economist, he was unduly frightened by 
the bugbear of collectivism, which is really 
nothing but social integration, and a neces- 
sary part of the very social evolution which 


SCIENCE. 


879 


he taught. For this must consist, as in 
both morganie and organic nature, of dif- 
ferentiation and integration. His inability 
to perceive this made his system, so broad 
at its base, a frustum instead of a pyra- 
mid. 

The ‘Autobiography’ is written in a 
much more pleasing style than his other 
works. It shows its author im all the sim- 
plicity of true greatness. His life demon- 
strates that he was a natural product of 
his time. He lived at the acme of the Vic- 
torian age, the grandest epoch in history, 
and he was directly in touch with all the 
powerful forces that characterized that 
epoch. When we take into consideration 
his own inherent powers we may say in 
very truth that his life was ‘a continuous 
adjustment of internal relations to external 
relations,’ and that he was a normal prod- 
uct of the laws of evolution that he ex- 


pounded. Lester FE. Warp. 
WaAsuineton, D. C. 


THE WORK OF THE YEAR 1903 IN 
HCOLOGY.* 

Aw apology for this paper is necessary 
and will be forthcoming. The task out- 
lined in the title is by no means voluntary, 
but has been imposed upon the speaker by 
your relentless committee; and this—as the 
secretary will acknowledge—in spite of the 
speaker’s urgent protest. It is always im-_ 
possible to give a critical summary of cur- 
rent events, because all of us are afflicted 
with the disease of contemporary blindness. 
It is more than impossible to do such a task 
for the field of ecology, since the field of 
ecology is chaos. Heologists are not agreed 
even as to fundamental principles or mo- 
tives; indeed, no one at this time, least of 
all the present speaker, is prepared to de- 
fine or delimit ecology. It is, therefore, a 

* Read by invitation of the sectional com- 
mittee, Section G, American Association for the 


Advancement of Science, at the St. Louis meeting, 
December 29, 1903. 


880 


certainty that this hasty review will put 
emphasis where subordination or oblivion 
is better, and will notice slightly or not 
at all researches which will loom up in the 
future. Many titles which the speaker 
thinks important have been left out from 
lack of space and time. 

If ecology has a place at all im modern 
biology, certainly one of its great tasks is 
to unravel the mysteries of adaptation. 
Are the many. structures of animals and 
plants, which are obviously of use, funda- 
mental or accidental in an evolutionary 
sense? The Darwinian and Lamarckian 
theories, which have almost totally replaced 
the gross teleology of former days, have 
usually been supposed to imply an evolu- 
tionary relation between an organ and its 
use. The Lamarckians have emphasized 
the direct response of organism to environ- 
ment, and the inheritance of useful ac- 
quired characters. The Darwinians have 
emphasized the gradual ‘working out’ of 
highly useful structures by the influence 
of selection upon small fluctuating varia- 
tions. The two theories are not necessarily 
inharmonious; the Lamarckians have in- 
quired more as to the origin of variations, 
the Darwinians as to their survival. The 
publication of DeVries’s mutation theory 
has oceasioned a sharp change of front in 
many quarters. We hear more now than 
formerly of adaptation as a secondary 
thing; that it has little or no significance 
in an evolutionary sense. The idea that 
an organ is not explained when we assign 
it a function is not new; Geoffroy St. Hil- 
aire made this one of the cardinal points 
of his evolutionary philosophy nearly a 
century ago, and we find the Greek philos- 
ophers debating the question in their day. 


Professor Morgan’s ‘Evolution and 
Adaptation’ has called the adaptation 
question onee more to the fore. Morgan 


holds that the mutation theory accounts 
best for incipient organs, now useless, but 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 493. 


eventually to become useful when fully 
developed, for organs that are wholly use- 
less, and for ‘over-adapted’ organs (such 
as electric organs in fishes, leaf movements 
of Desmodium gyrans). Many organs that 
are useless or even harmful may survive 
because the organism may have some com- 
pensatory advantages making it as a whole 
well adapted. Another whose work tends 
to entice us from our former idols is Klebs, 
whose ‘Willkirliche Entwicklungsinder- 
ungen’ is certainly one of the great con- 
tributions of the year. Klebs is removed 
as far as possible from teleological ideas, 
and explicitly states that they have ruled 
so long because they are easy and restful 
ways of solving life’s riddles. He holds 
that the polymorphism of a plant, like that 
of sulphur, is due to external agents, and 
that we should not ask for the purpose of 
the changes in one case more than in the 
other. The view just outlined is supported 
by facts from various sources; MacDougal 
has shown that etiolation is not, properly 
speaking, an adaptation to the dark; that 
plants are not to be looked upon as making 
efforts to reach the light. Etiolation is a 
response to certain factors, and may or 
may not be useful. Willis in his studies 
on the Podostemacex finds floral dorsiven- 
trality, 7. e., zygomorphy, keeping pace in 
its development with increasing dorsiven- 
trality in the vegetative organs. Zygo- 
morphy here—so far from being an adapta- 
tion to imsects—characterizes flowers that 
are in no sense entomophilous; the only 
entomophilous flowers of the group are the 
more primitive actinomorphic forms. If 
natural selection does not operate here, 
Willis asks, why may not other cases of 
zygomorphy be explained apart from in- 
sect visitation? Kiister’s ‘Pathological 
Plant Anatomy’ also helps to strengthen 
the chemico-physical view poimt of plant 
structures, in that he treats as alike the 
result of external agents, harmful struc- 


JUNE 10, 1904.] 


tures, such as galls, and supposedly bene- 
ficial structures, such as aerenchyma of 
water plants, undifferentiated mesophyll 
of shade plants, ete. That all biologists 
are not going the way of Klebs and Mor- 
gan is evidenced by Francis Darwin’s re- 
view of Klebs’s book; Darwin holds that in 
the development of structures, adaptive- 
ness must be taken into account, and that 
there is a difference between the organic 
and the imorganic. Verworn’s biogen 
hypothesis and Driesch’s neo-vitalism are 
expressions of a supposed difference be- 
tween the living and non-living. 

Nordhausen’s experiments seem to sup- 
port the Lamarckian theory, since he finds 
that the structural characters of shade 
leaves of the beech remain in large part in 
changed conditions. Thus useful charac- 
ters, originally acquired through the agency 
of external factors, may be transmitted, at 
least in part, to later generatidns. On the 
other hand, the Lamarckian idea seems not 
to be supported by the work of Wieders- 
heim and Ball, who failed to confirm 
Hegler in the matter of securing an in- 
ereased development of mechanical tissue 
in growing plants subjected to tension. 
Potonié has attempted to attack the prob- 
lem from another side by a study of fossil 
plants; he claims that carboniferous plants 
were less perfectly adapted than those of 
to-day. This, however, is denied by Wes- 
termaier, who thinks that organisms must 
always have been as well adapted as they 
are now. Whatever the final outcome con- 
cerning this fundamental problem, whether 
the study of adaptation is scientific or un- 
scientific, it is of value to recognize the 
presence of the problem; many have taken 
for granted on one side or the other what 
ought to be a subject for profound investi- 
gation. 

Ganong in his splendid paper concerning 
the Bay of Fundy marshes has expressed 
another respect in which past study has 


SCIENCE. 


881 


been at fault, viz., in devoting paramount 
attention to structural rather than physio- 
logical characteristics of plants. We need 
to know not only about root hairs, leaf 
shapes and development of so-called pro- 
tective structures; it is far more impor- 
tant to know a plant’s physiological 
adaptation ; its transpiration, its water-ab- 
sorbing power, its physiological plasticity. 
From the hasty presentation here given it 
might be inferred that Lamarckians and 
Darwinians are necessarily regarded as be- 
lievers in adaptiveness as a factor in evolu- 
tion, and mutationists are necessarily sup- 
posed to hold the opposite view. ‘This is, 
of course, incorrect, but it is certainly true 
that those who hold to mutation have laid 
the least stress upon the significance of 
adaptation. To the speaker it seems as if 
all three theories of evolution, and perhaps 
others yet unborn, are quite tenable, and 
that the problem of adaptation is not neces- 
sarily to be associated with any particular 
theory of evolution. 

Not all will admit that experimental 
morphology is a part of ecology, but that 
its results are of the utmost importance 
in ecological interpretation can not be de- 
nied. The works of Klebs and Kiister, to 
which allusion has been previously made, 
take a foremost place in this field, but in 
a summary of this character it will be im- 
possible to specify details. Among the 
more interesting of recent experiments we 
may cite some which deal with the phe- 
nomena of symbiosis. Bernard’s theory 
that tubers are essentially galls due to 
fungal attacks has been disputed by Laur- 
ent, who shows that concentrated solutions 
also induce tuberization. Bernard repeats 
and confirms the work of Laurent, and as 
a consequence broadens his view as follows: 
tuberization is induced by factors which 
cause a greater osmotic pressure within the 
cell. In nature fungi which penetrate the 
growing tissues form the chief means of 


882 


increasing the osmotic pressure. Bernard 
has also shown that beyond an early stage 
the germination of seeds of the orchids 
Cattleya and Lelia is quite dependent upon 
the penetration of an endophytic fungus 
into the minute embryo. Aseptic cultures 
into which the fungus is introduced at once 
show vigorous growth. Thus, as Bernard 
states, the orchid seedling is dependent 
upon a fungus for its development, much as 
an ege is dependent upon fertilization. In 
this connection it may be noted that Pinoy 
succeeds in getting Myxomycete cultures 
only in the presence of bacteria, while Mol- 
liard finds that the development of peri- 
thecia in Ascobolus is highly favored by 
the presence of other fungi in the culture. 
The mycorhiza literature has received sey- 
eral additions durimg the year, but no 
marked advance has been made in our 
knowledge. Moller thinks that root fungi 
have little or no significance in the nutri- 
tion of green plants. Tubeuf, on the other 
hand, holds to the common view. Neger 
shows that the reason why autotrophic 
plants flourish better im sterilized soils is 
beeause of a change in the soil rather, than 
in the absence of fungi, as Stahl supposed. 

Among the important papers of the year 
we must, of course, include MacDougal’s 
study of the influence of light upon the 
life of plants; his general conclusion that 
light does not directly influence growth is 
of great import in ecology, as is the view 
that light favors the differentiation of tis- 
sues. Hberhardt has now given us a de- 
tailed account of his studies concerning the 
influence of dry and moist air upon plant 
tissues, but there are few general results 
which he failed to outline in his prelim- 
inary notice. We may note Winkler’s 
study of the causes of leaf position, in 
which Schwendener’s pressure theory is 
opposed, though most of Winkler’s papers, 
as well as the polemics which they occa- 
sioned, antedate the year now closing. The 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


regeneration studies of Winkler, Goebel 
and several others have an ecological bear- 
ing but time will not permit their, consid- 
eration. Bonnier has made some interest- 
ing morphological experiments on orchid 
roots, as has Benecke on the thalli and 
rhizoids of liverworts. Benecke finds that 
impurities in the glassware commonly em- 
ployed in laboratories are responsible for 
some results, and in this connection we 
should note the work of Singer and Richter 
upon the influence of laboratory air in ex- 
perimental cultures. These and other con- 
siderations demand that as much work as 
possible should be done out of doors, or at 
least in well-controlled greenhouses. From 
an ecological point of view much experi- 
mental work that is done in the laboratory 
or even in the greenhouse is of no direct 
value. Ganong, in his marsh paper, makes 
an appeal for field laboratories in connec- 
tion with future ecological work, and it 
must be admitted that his argument is 
sound. The tropical laboratories and the 
recently installed desert laboratory are 
steps in the right direction, but even in 
these cases the experimental work which is 
to be of the greatest ecological value, must 
be performed not in the laboratories, but 
out of doors. In this, which the speaker 
believes to be the most promising line of 
ecological research, Bonnier has led the 
way in his magnificent experiments upon 
alpine plants. During the past year he 
has reported upon his parallel cultures at 
Paris and Toulon, in which portions of the 
same individual plant and identical soils 
are employed. He finds that his Toulon 
cultures from Paris plants are showing 
characters which the same species show in 
nature about Toulon, a result in harmony 
with his earlier alpine studies. 

Among contributions based more on ob- 
servation than experiment are: Paul on 
the biology of moss rhizoids, in which he 
maintains that they are primarily of value 


JUNE 10, 1904.] 


as holdfasts; Kraemer on the epidermis, 
hypodermis and endodermis of angiosperm 
roots; Grimme on the flowering period of 
German mosses—a detailed and instructive 
paper; W. EH. Britton on the anatomical 
features of the plants of the Connecticut 
sand plains; Bray’s anatomical studies of 
desert plants; Parkin and Pearson on the 
anatomical characters of the plants of the 
Ceylon Patanas. These latter authors are 
surprised to find that the structures are as 
xerophytic in the wet as in the dry prairies, 
although it is nearly fifteen years since 
Schimper showed that xerophytes may be 
typical of certain wet habitats. 

In ecological phytogeography the closing 
year has witnessed a considerable display 
of literature in America and WHnegland. 
Possibly no preceding year has afforded so 
many contributions. In our own country, 
one must give a prominent place to Gan- 
ong’s paper on the Bay of Fundy marshes, 
a paper giving the results of the author’s 
studies during several years in one of the 
most interesting physiographic areas in the 
world. As many of us know, Professor 
Ganong has postponed from year to year 
the publication of this paper, fearing lest 
errors might creep in that the study of just 
another season would rectify. Would that 
many another might heed his caution, and 
spare the world the undigested results of a 
week’s ecological excursion! The com- 
pleteness of detail and the accuracy of 
statement in Ganong’s paper may well 
serve as models to working ecologists. 
Probably the harshest criticisms which his 
paper will receive are contained in his own 
concluding remarks. One of his sugges- 
tions, in addition to those already noted, 
may be mentioned here, viz., the necessity 
of finding a means of estimating quantita- 
tively the biological factor, 7. ¢., the exact 
influence of competition and cooperation in 
determining the vegetation of a plant asso- 
ciation. Another worker, and the only one 


SCIENCE. 


-edge. 


883 


who has so well exploited his particular 
field in America, is Bruce Fink, so long and 
so favorably known for his lichen studies; 
his recent development of lichen associa- 
tions has added materially to our knowl- 
The speaker has long felt that 
lichens are among the most interesting of 
plants ecologically, because they are so 
closely related to the unmodified physical 
environment. If any plants will show 
whether purely chemical factors are of in- 
fluence in distribution, we should expect 
rock lichens to be of service in this regard. 
Apropos of this question of physics versus 
chemistry, one must mention the recent 
bulletin of Whitney and Cameron, in which 
the physical factor is given the dominant 
place. This view has been accepted readily 
by most ecologists, ever since Warming, 
following Thurmann and others, so clearly 
outlined the overwhelming importance as 
an ecological factor of the physics of the 
soil in relation to water. Other important 
American papers are: Livingston on the 
vegetation of Kent County, Michigan, pre- 
senting a model detailed map which repre- 
sents a type of illustration too infrequent 
in American ecology; Transeau on the dis- 
tribution of the bog societies of North 
America; Harshberger on the vegetation of 
mountainous North Carolina. In Britain 
the work of the lamented Robert Smith has 
been continued by his brother, who in co- 
operation with others has given two papers 
dealing with the vegetation of Yorkshire. 

Several papers of more than ordinary in- 
terest from the view point of physiographic 
ecology, apart from Ganong’s paper on the 
Bay of Fundy marshes, are as follows: 
Cajander’s study of the alluvial vegetation 
of the Lena River, containing excellent 
analyses of phytogeographic terms as well 
as discussions on the genetic succession of 
associations ; Penzig’s study of the develop- 
ment of vegetation on Krakatoa since 
Treub’s visit some years since; Hayren’s 


884 ; SCIENCE. 


paper on the development of vegetation on 
the coast of Finland; Diiggeli’s detailed 
study of a Swiss valley about to be oc- 
eupied by a reservoir, giving a basis for a 
study of the changes which will ensue; 
Weber’s exhaustive study of the develop- 
ment of German moors; Huber’s account 
of the encroachment of vegetation upon 
new islands in the Amazon. It is a pleas- 
ure to see such a list as this, probably the 
largest and best furnished by any single 
year to the study of association dynamics 
or physiographic ecology. While, as indi- 
cated above, the interpretation of ecological 
facts must be regarded as the ultimate end 
of ecological endeavor, the proximate end 
must largely be the collection of such facts. 
We deceive ourselves if we believe that this 
task has been more than fairly begun. 
Among the most important facts to be col- 
lated are those bearing upon the natural 
changes which the vegetation of a region 
undergoes. One may enter a field and 
make a guess as to what these changes are 
—this guess may or may not be intelligent; 
one can find each variety in literature—but 
the sole way to know what changes occur is 
to make detailed studies of limited areas 
year by year. In connection with ecolog- 
ical phytogeography one should mention 
also the admirable Vegetationsbilder issued 
by Karsten and Schenck, which serve to 
give photographie illustrations of distant 
and especially tropical landscapes. The 
studies of Engler in German Hast Africa 
and Cockayne in New Zealand should be in- 
eluded among the noteworthy contributions 
to knowledge. And it is, perhaps, in place 
to reeall here the long-promised English 
translation of Schimper’s ‘Plant Geog- 
raphy,’ which has so recently appeared. 
Floristie phytogeography probably 
should not be classed under ecology, but 
there are many inter-relations between 
ecological and floristic aspects, which make 
a short survey of the field necessary. One 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 493. 


of the remarkable contributions of the year 
is a volume by Hugo Bretzl on the botanical 
results of Alexander the Great’s journey 
to the east, as reported by Theophrastus. 
As the speaker pointed out a year ago, too 
little attention has been paid to the phyto- 
geographic contributions of Linnzeus and 
other former workers. Bretzl’s work shows 
that the Greeks observed and recorded a 
number of things for which but scanty 
eredit has heretofore been given. The man- 
grove forests are described with great detail 
and accuracy; even the relation of various 
species to saltness is dwelt upon, and cor- 
rectly. The Greeks were surprised to find 
conifers on the Himalayas and concluded 
that the vegetation of tropical mountains 
resembles that of European lowlands. 
Theophrastus gives the physiognomy of 
vegetation in terms of leaf forms; for 
doing this same thing only a century 
ago, most writers have given Humboldt 
the credit of founding phytogeography. 
Theophrastus anticipated many modern 
views in morphology and physiology, which 
of course have no place in this review. 
Beguinot has shown also that Porta, in his 
‘Phytognomoniea,’ published some centuries 
since, had a knowledge of many principles 
of distribution. One of the great floristic 
contributions of recent date is Jerosch’s 
history and origin of the Swiss alpine flora, 
a volume which makes no pretensions of 
being more than a compilation, but which 
places in compact and trustworthy form the 
results of many workers. Other impor- 
tant floristic works are those of Alboff on 
Fuegia, R. L. Praeger on Ireland and Par- 
rish on southern California. Among 
paleontological works bearing on distribu- 
tion, perhaps the foremost place should be 
given to Flahault’s volume on paleobotany 
in relation to present vegetation, a work of 
over two hundred pages and by a master 
hand. One must at least call by name 
Seward’s presidential address before the 


——— 


JuNE 10, 1904.] 
botanical section of the British Association 
on the geographic distribution of past 
floras, Wieland’s novel but not new view 
as to the polar origin of life, and Schulz’s 
papers on the geological development of 
the flora of the Saale and the Suabian Alps. 

In closing, a word may be said as to the 
present status of Briquet’s polytopic 
theory, a theory commonly discarded as 
untenable, but which the mutation theory 
and the growing belief in polyphylesis make 
more probable. The idea that a species 
may originate in more than one place, 
simultaneously or not, did not originate 
with Briquet, but he resuscitated it and 
christened it the polytopic theory. Though 
discarded by Jerosch and most writers, as 
unlikely if not unthinkable, Willis believes 
that the same step might be taken by species 
that are far apart, especially im similar 
conditions; indeed he thinks that this has 
actually happened within the Podostema- 
eee. Arber has favored the idea of 
homeomorphy or parallelism of descent. 
Engler has admitted that varieties may 
originate more than onee. It will be re- 
called that in DeVries’s experiments the 
same species recurred many times, and that 
too from different parents. Blackman has 
found that about twenty per cent. of the 
arctic and antarctic alez are identical as 
to species, but not found elsewhere. It 
will be conceded that in such a case the diffi- 
culties in the way of migration during the 
present or past ages are very great, while 
the polytopic theory seems to afford an easy 
explanation. Perhaps it is too easy; in 
any event it seems adapted for use as a last 
resort rather than as a general panacea. 
However, the researches of the past few 
years have placed the theory of polytopic 
origins in a position to demand the thought- 
ful consideration of all students of evolu- 
tion. 

Henry CHANDLER COWLES. 


SCIENCE. 


885 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Carnegie 
Institution. By Freprrick V. Covinur and 
Dante, Trempty MacDoucat. Published by 
the Carnegie Institution. Washington, No- 
vember, 1903. Pp. 58, with 29 plates and 
4 charts. 

This attractive account of a botanical recon- 
noissance of the desert areas of the southwest 
will, without doubt, awaken great interest in 
desert vegetation, and stimulate the thorough 
investigation of the adaptations of xerophytes. 
The debt which ecology owes to Drs. Coville 
and MacDougal for fostering the idea of a 
desert laboratory, and for carrying it to a suc- 
cessful conclusion must become more and 
more apparent as the work progresses. The 
report deals in a very interesting though neces- 
sarily general fashion with the vegetation of 
the areas visited in connection with the loca- 
tion of the laboratory. These were: (1) The 
arid region of western Texas; (2) the sand 
dunes of Chihuahua; (8) the White Sands of 
the Tularosa Desert; (4) the vicinity of 
Tueson; (5) the gulf region about Torres and 
Guaymas; (6) the Colorado Desert; (7) the 
Mohave Desert; (8) the Grand Canyon of the 
Colorado. 

In many ways the most interesting region 
to the ecologist is that of the White Sands of 
the Tularosa Desert. These are for the most 
part mobile dunes, composed entirely of gyp- 
sum; they cover nearly four hundred square 
miles. The soil is necessarily alkaline, a fact 
clearly indicated also by the abundance of 
Atriplex and Sueda. The characteristic vege- 
tation of the dunes consists of woody plants, 
chief of which are Rhus trilobata, Atriplex 
canescens, Chrysothamnus and Yucca radiosa. 
Yucca, by virtue of its striking ability to push 
up through a sand coyer, is a typical dune 
former. The White Sands when critically in- 
vestigated should add an interesting chapter 
to the developmental history of dunes. The 
selection of Tucson for a laboratory site was 
based upon the variety and distinctness of its 
desert flora, as well as upon its being both 
habitable and accessible. The vegetation in 
the neighborhood of Tucson consists mostly 


886 


of Oovillea, Prosopis, Acacia, Opuntia, 
Bchinocactus, Cereus, Parkinsoma, ete. The 
presence of the Santa Catalina range, which 
rises to 6,000 feet, adds a mountain element 
to the vegetation. A further advantage of 
great importance lies in the central location 
of the laboratory with reference to the deserts 
of Texas, Mexico and California. 

The general physical features of deserts are 
diseussed in a caption filled with valuable 
meteorological and soil data. In connection 
with the latter, it is pointed out that lack 
of water is the fundamental cause of deserts, 
and that areas in which the water content is 
largely non-available are deserts as well as 
those in which the water content is low. The 
current conceptions of deserts are shown to be 
wholly inaccurate, particularly with respect to 
vegetation. Two great desert regions, called the 
Sonora-Nevada and the Chihuahua desert, are 
recognized by the authors. The former corre- 
sponds to the Great Basin region and the dry 
coast lands of northwestern Mexico; the latter 
extends northward from Chihuahua through 
parts of Arizona, New Mexico and Texas to 
the Bad Lands of South Dakota and the Red 
Desert of Wyoming. The annual rainfall in 
the most intense areas is less than 3 inches; 
in the least intense, 14-16 inches. Maximum 
temperatures of 110°-120° F. are frequent 
The relative humidity 
is very low, the minimum frequently falling 
below 15°. The critical investigation of the 
physical factors, especially the water content, 
of these deserts is an alluring field for future 
workers at the Desert Laboratory. 

Dr. MacDougal contributes a series of in- 
structive experiments upon the transpiration 
of certain xerophytes of the region with rela- 
tion to temperature, and makes an illumina- 
ting comparison of the results with those ob- 
tained from mesophytes. The xerophyte, in 
spite of its great insolation and the low humid- 
ity, loses water less rapidly than the meso- 
phyte. The report closes with a valuable 
bibliography of desert vegetation, and of the 
climate, soil and water of deserts, which has 
been prepared by Dr. Cannon. It can not be 
too highly praised for the beauty of the plates, 
which haye a much greater value for the un- 


during the summer. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


derstanding of the text than is at present the 
fashion in ecology. 


Frepreric E. CLEMENTS. 
UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


International Catalogue of Scientific Litera- 
ture. First Annual Issue—Q—Physiology. 
Including Experimental Psychology, Phar- 
macology and Experimental Pathology. 
Part I., pp. xiv-+ 404, 1902. Part IL., pp. 
xii + 664, 1908. London, Harrison & Sons. 
Physiologists will heartily welcome this 

long-expected catalogue. The first volume, 

which has recently appeared after some delay, 
is devoted to the literature of 1901 (a fact 


‘ which should be, but is not, mentioned on the 


title page), and includes 1,094 pages of text 
and the surprisingly large number of 6,010 
titles. Owing to the difficulties of organizing 
the work of the regional bureaus in the time 
at hand, it is issued in two separate parts; 
but it is intended that in the future only a 
single unbroken yolume in each year shall be 
published. Each part of the present volume 
opens with a preface and instructions to the 
reader, both in the English language only. 
It would enhance their value if the instruc- 
tions were printed also in French, German 
and Italian. There follow in order a schedule 
of classification and an index of the subject- 
matter of the science, which are repeated in 
each of the above four languages; then an 
authors’ catalogue and a subject catalogue; 
and, lastly, a list of journals. 

The scheme of classification of subject-mat- 
ter is practically that which was submitted for 
criticism five years ago, though a considerable 
number of new subjects are introduced, and 
the order in some cases is changed for the 
better. It is to be regretted that one defect, 
earlier pointed out, was not remedied, namely, 
the introduction of a group to include general 
physiological phenomena, such as physiological 
division of labor, irritability, summation of 
stimuli, rhythm, specific energy, automaticity, 
fatigue, ete. If a reader wishes to learn what 
has been written on these subjects during the 
year, he finds it possible only by going through 
practically the whole scheme of classification. 
Rhythm and fatigue are found entered in the 


JunE 10, 1904.] 


index, it is true, but in a misleading way, for 
when one turns from them in the index to the 
corresponding numbers in the scheme of 
classification one finds ‘ rhythm’ entered under 
‘hearing’? and ‘fatigue’ under ‘sense of 
movement.’ Oertain other subjects within 
the sphere of modern general physiology are 
not sufficiently elaborated. For example, all 
the tactic irritabilities, the literature of which 
is already large and constantly increasing, 
are grouped under one entry—‘ 0150 Influence 
of Environment (Chemotaxis, Galvanotaxis, 
ete., High Altitudes, etc.)’—and are not men- 
tioned specifically in the index. ‘ Secretion’ 
as a general physiological phenomenon occurs 
nowhere, and there is no entry for ‘internal 
secretion.’ Some of the defects here men- 
tioned are due to the fact that the basis of the 
scheme of classification is essentially mor- 
phological. The physiological literature of a 
particular organ can readily be found: not so 
readily the literature of a particular physio- 
logical principle. Though excellent in its de- 
tails, the scheme of classification is too short- 
sighted. It is not yet too late to remedy this 
great defect. Let the numbering of the gen- 
eral groups, ‘ Physiology of the Organism as 
a Whole, 01,’ and ‘ Physiology of the Cell and 
of Unicellular Organisms, 02,’ be changed to 
‘02’ and ‘083’ respectively; then let there be 
inserted a new group numbered ‘01’ and en- 
titled ‘General Physiological Phenomena.’ 
This group, properly elaborated; would con- 
tain at least many of the general subjects 
referred to and would facilitate the introduc- 
tion of very valuable cross references. In 
future volumes this change, or an equally ap- 
propriate one, ought to be made, if the cata- 
logue is to fulfill its high purpose. 

The actual work of cataloguing seems to be 
well done. The cross references are numer- 
ous, both within the present volume and to 
volumes of the catalogue devoted to other 
sciences. There is a surprisingly small num- 
ber of typographical errors. The typography 
is clear and of sufficient variety to facilitate 
the search for data. There is a natural curi- 
osity on the part of the reader to know how 
near the list of titles. approximates to com- 
pleteness. A search within its pages for the 


SCIENCE. 


887 


articles published during 1901 in five repre- 
sentative journals of different countries, shows 
the following percentages of omissions: Jowr- 
nal de Physiologie et de Pathologie générale, 
1 per cent.; [English] Journal of Physiology, 
2 per cent.; Archives Italiennes de Biologie, 
3 per cent.; Pfliiger’s Archiv fiir die gesammte 
Physiologie, 24 per cent.; American Journal 
of Physiology, 48 per cent. Our own country 
thus compares most unfavorably with those of 
Europe. Not only, however, are the contents 
of the American journals incompletely cata- 
logued, but the list of our journals is incom- 
plete, comprising in the present volume only 
nineteen in number, and omitting such well- 
known periodicals as the Journal of Compara- 
twe Neurology and Psychology, the Journal of 
Medical Research and the Psychological Re- 
view. Since each regional bureau is respon- 
sible for the literature of its own country, a 
critic is at first tempted to lay these faults at 
the door of the Smithsonian Institution. 
Their real cause, however, must be sought 
further back. Although duly and repeatedly 
petitioned for assistance, our government, un- 
like those of many of the European countries, 
has given no support to the work of our re- 
gional bureau; the expense has been assumed 
gratuitously by the Smithsonian Institution, 
which, however, has been greatly embarrassed 
by lack of funds. It is gratifying to know 
that this institution has recently been enabled 
to make more extended provision for the work. 
This will allow the deficiencies of the present 
volume to be made up subsequently, and will 
insure greater thoroughness in the future. 
Professor Langley invites any suggestions 
which will lead to the improvement of the 
catalogue. It is to be hoped especially that 
American physiologists will call his attention 
to such additional journals as publish either 
frequently, or even rarely, articles on physio- 
logical topics. Im doing this it should be 
borne in mind that the physiology of the cata- 
logue includes physiological chemistry, phar- 
macology, experimental psychology and ex- 
perimental pathology. The literature of bac- 
teriology is catalogued in a. separate volume. 

Americans can helpfully cooperate in still 
another manner, namely, by subscribing for 


888 


the catalogue. The cost of the annual volume 
on physiology is $9.20. Many physiologists 
will probably wish also the volume on general 
biology, the annual price of which is $2.45. 
The Smithsonian Institution acts as the rep- 
resentative of the central bureau in the United 
States, and receives subscriptions. 

The International Catalogue is the one 
catalogue of scientific literature whose per- 
manence can be relied upon. Its first issue 
is full of promise. Its ultimate completeness 
will be hastened by the cordial cooperation of 
those whose labors it is intended to lighten. 

Freperic 8. Lez. 

CoLuMBIA UNIVERSITY. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE WASHINGTON MEETING OF THE AMERICAN 
PHYSICAL SOCIETY. 

TE spring meeting of the American Phys- 
ical Society was held at Washington, D. C., 
April 22 and 28, at the invitation of the Wash- 
ington Philosophical Society. Two sessions 
for the reading of papers and an evening lec- 
ture by Dr. Alexander Graham Bell on his 
famous tetrahedron kites were all held at the 
rooms of the Cosmos Club. These and other 
courtesies of the Cosmos Club were much ap- 
preciated by the society. 

On Friday evening a considerable number 
of members of the society dined together at 
the Hotel Barton, and on Saturday, at the 
close of the morning session, the Philosophical 
Society entertained all members of the Phys- 
ical Society who had been attending the ses- 
sion at luncheon at the same hotel. In the 
afternoon a visit was made to the new build- 
ings of the Bureau of Standards, which are 
located near Connecticut Avenue in the north- 
western suburbs of the city, about four miles 
from the White House. 

There was a good attendance at the meet- 
ing and an unusually full list of papers was 
presented. All the papers in the following 
list were presented by the author or authors, 
excepting those by S. J. Barnett and A. A. 
Bacon, the authors being absent, and E. B. 
Rosa and M. G. Lloyd, because the hour for 
luncheon had arrived. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


K. E. Gutue: ‘A Study of the Silver Volta- 
meter.’ 

P. G. Nurriye: ‘Some new Rectifying Effects 
in Conducting Gases.’ 

HK. L, Nicnwors and Ernest Merritt: ‘The 
Effect of Light on the Absorption and Electrical 
Conductivity of Fluorescent Liquids.’ 

I, A, Saunpers: ‘Some Additions to the Are 
Spectra of the Alkali Metals.’ 

W. F. Magi: ‘The Volumes of Solutions.’ 

G. W. Parrerson: ‘ Absolute Electrodynamom- 
eters.’ 

E. P. Apams: ‘Induced Radioactivity due to 
Radium.’ 

S. J. Barnerr: ‘The Energy Density, the Ten- 
sion, and the Pressure in a Magnetic Field.’ 
(Read by title.) 

L, A. Fiscuer: ‘A Recomparison of the U. S. 
Prototype Meter at the International Bureau of 
Weights and Measures.’ 

C. W. WAIDNER and G. K. Buress: (a) ‘ High 
Temperature Measurement by means of Optical 
Pyrometers.’ (b) ‘Note on Special Problems in 
Optical Pyrometry.’ 

C. W. Watpner and H. C. Dickryson: ‘ Ap- 
paratus for Platinum Resistance Thermometry.’ 

C. W. Wainer and H. C. Dicxinson: ‘ Inter- 
comparison of Primary Standard Mercurial Ther- 
mometers.’ 

I’. A. Wotrr: ‘The Standard Cell.’ = 

F. A. Wotrr: ‘The Peculiar Behavior of Some 
Resistance Standards and Its Explanation.’ 

F. A. Wotrr: ‘ A Direct Reading Apparatus for 
the Calibration: of Resistance Boxes.’ 

EK. B. Rosa and F. W. Grover: 
Measurement of Capacity.’ 

HK. B. Rosa and F. W. Grover:-‘ Absolute Meas- 
urement of Inductance.’ 

K. B. Rosa and F. W. Grover: ‘ The Testing of 
Mica Condensers.’ 

E. B. Rosa and M. G. Lioyp: ‘Testing of 
Alternating-Current Instruments.’ (Read by 
title. ) 

A. A, Bacon: ‘ Equilibrium of Vapor Pressure 
over Curved Surfaces.’ (Read by title.) 


E. B. Rosa, 
Secretary pro tempore. 


* Absolute 


THE BOTANICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA. 

Tue annual report of the secretary em- 
bodied in Publication 24 is a statement of 
conditions and record of progress during the 
first decade of the existence of the society 
that must be highly satisfactory to its mem- 


=e 


June 10, 1904.] 


bers. The total constituency of the society 
now numbers 58, and its accrued funds amount 
to nearly three thousand dollars, a large part 
of which is treated as permanent endowment, 
the income only being used. Recently the 
policy has been adopted of making grants 
from current funds in aid of investigations 
by members and associates. Thus far the 
following awards have been made: 


To Dr. Arthur Hollick, for the study of the 
fossil flora of the Atlantic coastal plain, $200. 

To Dr. D. 8. Johnson, for the study of the seeds 
and endosperm of the Piperacee and Chlorantha- 
cee, $200. 

To Dr. J. C. Arthur for investigations on plant 
rusts, $90. 

To Dr. C. J. Chamberlain, for the study of the 
spermatogenesis, oogenesis and fertilization of 
Dioon and Ceratozamia, $150. 

To Professor F. E. Lloyd, for the study of cer- 
tain types of desert vegetation to be carried on 
at the Desert Botanical Laboratory of the Car- 
negie Institution, $150. 


To Dr. J. C. Arthur, for securing drawings of 
rusts, $50. 


In order to promote unity of botanical in- 
terests a committee consisting of B. T. Gallo- 
way (chairman), OC. R. Barnes and C. E. 
Bessey was appointed at the St. Louis meet- 
ing and requested to prepare a plan for co- 
operation with other botanical organizations, 
for consideration at the eleventh annual meet- 
ing. 

The increasing demand upon the time al- 
lowed by the society for the presentation of 
scientific papers has made necessary the action 
of the council in accepting only papers from 
members, associates and persons specially in- 
vited to contribute by the council. The pro- 
grams, almost without exception, are now 
made up from papers, the titles of which are 
sent to the secretary in advance of the meet- 
ings. 

Among those who have recently presented 
papers before the society by special invitation 
are Professor K. Goebel, of Munich, Ger- 
many; Professor H. de Vries of Amsterdam, 
Holland; Professor T. H. Morgan, of Bryn 
Mawr, and Mr. Frances Darwin, of Cam- 
bridge, England. 

The reprinted addresses of the past presi- 


SCIENCE. 


889 


dents are the only scientific publications is- 
sued by the society and may be taken as a 
fair index of the maturer investigations that 
have been prosecuted in America. The list 
includes the following titles: 


Proressor WILLIAM TRELEASE: ‘ Botanical Op- 
portunity.’ 

PROFESSOR CHARLES EH, Bessey: ‘The Phy- 
logeny and Taxonomy of Angiosperms.’ 

Proressor JoHN M. Counter: ‘ Origin of Gym- 
nosperms and the Seed Habit.’ 

Proressok L. M. Unperwoop: ‘The Last 
Quarter; The Reminiscence and an Outlook.’ 

Prorgessor B. L. Ropinson: ‘The Problems and 
Possibilities of Systematic Botany.’ 

Proressor J. C. Artuur: ‘Problems in the 
Study of Plant-rusts.’ 

Dr. B. T. Gattoway: ‘What the Twentieth 
Century Demands of Botany.’ 


At the tenth annual meeting recently held 
in St. Louis the following associates were 
elected members: 


Frederick Hdward Clements, University of Ne- 


' braska. 


Henry Chandler Cowles, University of Chicago. 
William Ashbrook Kellerman, The Ohio State 
University. 


Also the following associates were elected: 


William Austin Cannon, Desert Botanical Labo- 
ratory, Tucson, Arizona. 
Karl McKay Wiegand, Cornell University. 


The officers for 1904 are: 


President—Frederick Vernon Coville, 
Dept. of Agriculture, Washington, D. C. 

Vice-President—Charles Edwin Bessey, 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, Nebraska. 

Treasuwrer—Arthur Hollick, New York Botan- 
ical Garden, New York City. 

Secretary—Daniel Trembly MacDougal, New 
York Botanical Garden, New York City. 

Councilors—Benjamin Lincoln Robinson, Gray 
Herbarium, Harvard University, Cambridge, 
Mass., and John Merle Coulter, University of 
Chicago, Chicago, Ill. 


Wo. isk 


The 


The above officers, with Past President 
Charles Reid Barnes, constitute the council 
of the society. 

D. T. MacDovaat, 
Secretary. 


890 


THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 


Tue regular meeting of the section was held 
on March 28 in conjunction with the New 
York Branch of the American Psychological 
Association. The afternoon session was held 
at the Psychological Laboratory of Columbia 
University, the evening session was held as 
usual at the American Museum of Natural 
History. The program was as follows: 


Mental Resemblance of Twins: Professor E. 

L. THORNDIKE. 

A report was made on the general results of 
a comparison of twins in tests of attention, 
perception, association, rate of movement, 
addition, multiplication and stature. The re- 
semblances as measured, by a*’rough, prelim- 
inary method, were about .75. The amount 
of this resemblance that should be attributed 
to similarities in home training was appar- 
ently slight. There was no evidence in the 
results to support the theory that twins fall 
sharply into two species, those very closely 
alike and those no more alike than ordinary 
brothers and sisters. 


Measurements of the Mentally Deficient: Miss 

Naomr NorswortuHy. 

The paper was a report of some work done 
among one hundred and fifty mentally defi- 
cient children in two state institutions for the 
feeble-minded and in two of the special classes 
organized in the New York schools. The 
measurements taken were physical, such as 
height, height and temperature, tests of ma- 
turity, as perception of weight and of form, 
tests of memory and tests of intelligence or 
the ability to deal with abstract ideas. The 
main conclusion reached was that the differ- 
ence between idiots and people in general is 
less than has been commonly supposed, and is 
a matter of degree rather than of kind. 


Color Contrasts: Dr. R. S. Woopworrn. 
Dr. Woodworth presented a modification of 
Hering’s binocular demonstration of the 
‘physiological’ origin of simultaneous con- 
trast. Jf monocular fields of different colors, 
with a gray spot on each, be combined by the 
stereoscope, each gray retains the contrast 
color suitable to its own field, however the 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


conscious background may vary as the result 
of fusion or rivalry of the two fields. The 
demonstration is readily extended to cover 
brightness contrast, by placing gray spots on 
white and black fields which are combined as 
before. To show that these effects are not 
the result of a binocular mixture of the gray 
with the opposite field, a number of gray spots 
may be scattered over one field, and the other 
field made particolored; the gray spots appear 
all alike, or nearly so, though binocular mix- 
ture would have made them differ. 


New Apparatus and Methods: Professor J. 
McKern Carrett. 5 
(1) Kymographs were exhibited in which 

typewriting ribbons were applied to secure 

the records. Electro-magnetically moved 
points strike the paper tape, whose rate of 
movement may be adjusted, and a record is 
left by the slowly moving typewriter ribbon. 
Two forms were exhibited, in one of which the 
kymograph was driven by an electric motor 
and in the other by clock-work. In the latter 
the clockwork could be started and stopped by 
an electric current by an observer in’ another 
room. The kymographs, while not especially 
suited for drawing curves, are much more con- 
venient than smoked paper or siphon pens for 
time records, such as rhythms, conflict of the 
visual fields, after-images, ete. (2) Instru- 
ments were shown by which a number of faint 
clicks could be given at intervals of a sec- 
ond for testing sharpness of hearing and de- 
fective hearing. Instead of giving the ob- 
server a continuous sound, such as from the 
ticking of a watch, two, three, four or five 
faint sounds are made, and the observer is 
asked how many he hears. By this method 
errors from the common illusion in the case 
of faint sounds are avoided. (8) A method 
was exhibited for testing color blindness by 
the time it takes to distinguish one color from 
another. By the normal individual red can 
be distinguished from green in about the same 
time as blue from yellow, but it takes longer 
to distinguish red from orange. If the ob- 
server belongs to the red-green class of the 
color blind, he can distinguish blue from yel- 
low as quickly as others, but not red from 
green. An instrument was shown by which 


June 10, 1904.] 


the conditions of the railway service can be 
imitated, it here being necessary first to dis- 
tinguish a certain color and then to make the 
proper movement. 


The Time of Perception as a Measure of Dif- 
ferences in Sensation: V. A. C. Henmon. 
The aim of the investigation upon which 

this paper is based is to measure qualitative 
differences in color by the time of perception. 
The colors taken as standards were red, 
orange and yellow, whose wave-lengths had 
been definitely determined. Equal inter- 
mediate steps between orange and red were 
produced by the mixture of pigments. Small 
squares of each of these colors, 3x3 cm., were 
mounted on ecards side by side with red, and 
exposed to the subject by means of a drop- 
sereen so arranged as to give almost instan- 
taneous exposure. The subject reacts with the 
right or left hand according as the predeter- 
mined stimulus appears to the right or left. 
The registration is made with the Hipp chrono- 
scope. The results of 6,000 reactions gave 
evidence of the validity of the method and the 
fruitfulness of the problem. Equal objective 
differences are correlated with differences for 
consciousness, showing a definite increase as 
the magnitude of difference is decreased. 


The Daily Curve for Efficiency: Mr. H. D. 
Marsu. 


Habits Based on Analogy: Professor CHARLES 
H. Jupp. 


The Determination of the Habit Curve for 

Associations: Professor J. HK. Loucu. 

A report of experiments made in the psy- 
chological laboratory of the school of peda- 
gogy. It was found that the time required to 
write series of letter-equivalents when the 
‘key’ of equivalents was not memorized, but 
was consulted as frequently as necessary, di- 
minished as the associations between the letter- 
equivalents became more habitual. The curves 
representing the results of these experiments 
exhibit all the characteristics of the typical 
habit curve. Repetition of the experiment 
using new ‘keys’ shows little or no interfer- 
ence due to earlier associations, while with 
each succeeding ‘key’ the physiological limit 


SCIENCE. 


891 


was reached after a constantly diminishing 
number of trials. 


A Neglected Point in Hume’s Philosophy: 

Dr. Witt P. Monracue. 

The paper aimed to show (1) that Hume 
(in Part IV., Section II. of the ‘ Treatise’) 
had quite unwittingly furnished what from 
his own point of view should have beer re- 
garded as a logical deduction and justification 
—rather than the mere psychogenetic descrip- 
tion, which it purported to be,—of the real- 
istic belief in the independent and uninter- 
rupted existence of sensible objects; and (2) 
that the naive realism or positivism thus ac- 
cidentally promulgated was from both the sci- 
entific and the popular standpoint, a far 
sounder and more inviting doctrine than the 
empirical idealism or sensationalism with 
which Hume’s name is usually associated. 


Action as the Concept of Historical Synthesis: 

Mr. Prrcy Hucuss. 

Rickert’s description of the content of his- 
tory as reality is amended to read past reality, 
the past of evidence. From this definition the 
individual, objective, moving and continuous 
character of historic content follows; and 
further, the conception of action as descriptive 
of both historic content and historic synthesis. 
An historical synthesis is a past action that 
itself has created a certain synthesis of eyvi- 
dence; which the historian discovers. In such 
synthetic actions, ‘simple’ actions retain their 
individuality as means, stimuli or hindrances 
to the main action, 7. e., in a functional rela- 
tion. 

At the close of the afternoon session the 
members were invited to attend a lecture given 
in Columbia University by Professor John 
Dewey on ‘The Psychologist’s Account of 
Knowledge.’ 

James E. Loucu, 
Secretary. 


SECTION OF GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 


Tue section held its regular meeting Mon- 
day evening, May 16, with the chairman, Pro- 
fessor James F. Kemp, presiding. 

The following program was offered: 


892 SCIENCE. 


Exhibition of the Series of Foot Bones Illus- 
trating the Evolution of the Camel, Re- 
cently Installed in the Hall of Vertebrate 
Paleontology of the American Museum of 
Natural History: W. D. Marurw. 

This series corresponds to that illustrating 
the evolution of the horse, and is almost 
equally complete. 

It shows the derivation of the camel from 
small primitive four-toed ancestors which are 
exclusively North American in habitat. The 
earliest known ancestors are tiny animals no 
larger than arabbit. The camels reached their 
maximum size and abundance in the Plio- 
cene epoch, when they were much larger than 
the modern camels. Then they spread to the 
other continents, disappeared entirely from 
North America, and became smaller in size 
and far less numerous in species elsewhere. 


Some Erosion Phenomena in St. Vincent and 

Martinique: Epmunp Orvts Hovey. 

In this paper the author showed lantern 
slides from some of the photographs taken by 
him in those islands in 1902 and 1903, for the 
American Museum of Natural History, which 
illustrated the development of new drainage 
systems and the reinstatement of old channels 
in regions which were most thickly covered 
with ejecta by the 1902 and 1903 eruptions of 
the Soufriére and Mont Pelé. 

The principal paper of the eyening was: 


Some of the Localities in France and Eng- 
land where Monuments of the Late Stone 
and Bronze Ages have been Found: J. 
Howarp Witson. 

In considering the subject of these stone 
monuments, the author confined himself to 
those found in northern France and southern 
England, and especially the great groups near 
Carnac in Morbihau, and the well-known 
temples of Stonehenge and Avebury, in Wilt- 
shire. 

The monuments were divided according to 
type into several classes, and a description 
of each of these given briefly with their com- 
parative ages and the probable purposes for 
which they were constructed. Legends con- 
cerning these monuments were cited, and men- 
tion was made of the superstition and venera- 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


tion with which they have been regarded by 
some of the more ignorant and conservative 
peasants, causing the worship of stone to be 


kept up to the present day in some remote 


districts. 

Before closing the paper, attention was 
ealled to the engineering skill required in the 
placing and erection of some of the monu- 
ments and the early age at which it made its 
appearance. : 

The paper was followed by slides showing 
photographic views of some of the most fa- 
mous monuments, maps and drawings of sey- 
eral of the curiously engraved stones. 

Epmunp Otts Hovey, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
THE COMPLEX NATURE OF THORIUM. 


To THe Eprror or Science: The following 
appeared in Nature, April 28, p. 606: 


THE COMPLEX NATURE OF THORIUM. 

With regard to several letters on thorium and 
its complex nature that -appeared in Nature of 
March 24 and 31, April 7 and 14, and in which 
my name is mentioned, I take the liberty of adding 
a few remarks, having had ten years’ experience in 
working with thorium. 

In 1897, at a meeting of the British Association 
in Toronto (Canada), I read a paper in which I 
pointed out that spectrum evidence proves the com- 
plex nature of thorium. 

In 1898 (Chem. Soc. Trams., p. 953) I isolated 
from some thorium fractions an earth with an 
atomic weight of 225.8 (tetrad). Knowing the 
difficulties of the separation of rare earths (I have 
been engaged in this kind of work since 1878), and 
not wishing to publish a premature conclusion, I 
did not declare this to be a novel constituent of 
thorium, but said that foreign earths were present, 
in spite of the fact that the reaction used ought 
to have separated them. 

In 1901 I published another short paper (Proc. 
Ohem. Soc., March 21, 1901, pp. 67-68), in which 
I said that “‘my experiments may be regarded 
as proving the complex nature of thorium. 
Thorium was split up into the The and Th8. 
With Thé I obtained so low an atomic weight as 
Riv—220. The fractions The gave by the anal- 
ysis of the oxalate, though it was prepared by 
pouring the thorium salt solution into an excess 
of oxalic acid, in order to avoid the formation of 


JUNE 10, 1904.] 


a basic salt, the high atomic weight R'v= 236.3. 
But I stated expressly, and I feel obliged to repeat 
it, that these fractions show a great tendency to 
form basic salts. Assuming these to be normal, 
a higher atomic weight than the true one is ob- 
tained. This is true especially in regard to the 
oxalate. 

The splitting up of thorium into The and Ths 
was, of course, not so sensational an event as the 
announcement from America of the splitting up 
of thorium into ‘carolinium’ and ‘ berzelium.’ 

Bowustav BRAUNER. 

Bohemian University, Prague, 

April 18. 

Those who have read my work and heard 
my recent paper delivered before the Wash- 
ington, New York and North Carolina sec- 
tions of the American Chemical Society do 
not require further information regarding the 
above. In view of the fact that many British 
men of science are not familiar with the work 
and may be misled, it has been deemed wise 
to despatch the following to the editor of 
Nature. 

Re Thorium.—The elementary nature of 
thorium has been questioned by several work- 
ers, namely, Chroustschoff in 1889 (J. russ. 
phys. Chem. Ges., 29, 206), Rutherford in 
1899 (Phil. Mag., 49, 2, 1900), Crookes in 1900 
(Proc. Roy. Soc., 66, 406) and in 1901 Brauner 
(Proc. Chem. Soc., 17, 67) and Baskerville 
working independently (Journ. Am. Chem. 
Soc., 23, 761). The methods employed were 
different in each case. 

The undersigned has made no claim of 
priority as to the idea of the complexity of 
thorium, but he distinctly claims to have ap- 


plied novel methods and an old one, which - 


demonstrate to the satisfaction of himself and 
others familiar with the work, not only the 
complexity of old thorium, but the existence 
of two new elements to which the names of 
earolinium and berzelium have properly been 
given. The old method was used by Berzelius, 
who died thirty years before the plaintiff, ac- 
cording to his own statement (April 28, p. 
606), began his work on the separation of the 
rare earths. 

Scientific men will await the appearance of 
the paper, which will be published shortly in 
the Journal of the American Chemical So- 


SCIENCE. 


893 


ciety, and see that all workers have received 
full eredit for their share in the solution of 
the question. In the meantime, the letter 
adverted to, carrying much that is true and a 
distortion, which any one may verify by refer- 
ence to the literature, to say the least is in 
poor taste. 

For fear lest the old proverb, “ qua tacet con- 
sentire videtur, carry too much influence, the 
above statement is reluctantly made. 

Cuas. BASKERVILLE. 

UNIvERSITY oF NortH Carorina, U.S. A., 

May 17, 1904. 


A REDDISH-BROWN SNOWFALL. 


Yo tue Eprror or Scmncr: An incident 
which should, perhaps, be recorded is that of 
a reddish-brown snowfall which occurred at 
this place on February 2 last (1904). <A 
light snow was falling on that day and about 
noon the character of the snow-fall changed 
to a reddish-brown or light chocolate color. 
This continued for half or three quarters of 
an hour, after which the snow-fall of ordinary 
appearance continued during the afternoon, the 
colored snow appearing as a well-defined layer 
between the white snow which fell before and 
after it. An examination under the micro- 
scope showed numerous irregular-shaped, semi- 
transparent particles with an appearance sim- 
ilar to feldspar. Nitric and muriatic acid 
applied to them gave no apparent result. Ex- 
amined microscopically during the snow-fall 
it appeared that-the particles were not carried 
on the snow, but were embedded in the snow 
erystals. Other ordinary contaminations 
were present, but were plainly distinguishable 
from the peculiar particles in the snow ecrys- 
tals. The phenomenon was observed in two 
or three near-by towns, but, so far as learned, 
not outside this immediate vicinity. 

Epwarp LINDSEY. 

WARREN, Pa., 


SPHCIAL ARTICLES. 
MENTAL EFFICIENCY AND HEALTH. 

In the address as president of the American 
Society of Naturalists, read by Professor Cat- 
tell at the annual dinner, January 1, 1903, and 
printed in this journal, April 10, 1903, is in- 
serted a table giving the grades for different 


894 


mental traits assigned by twelve independent 
judges to five American men of science. 

Though these individuals are merely cited 
from a list of thousands in illustration of the 
methods employed in collecting data for the 
study of mental characters, the figures given 
in the table have an apparent bearing upon 
the question of the relation which exists be- 
tween the quality and efficiency of a man’s 
mental activity and his constitutional physical 
health. I should like to call attention to cer- 
tain facts deducible from the table, and to 
express the hope that in preparing the results 
of the study for publication this aspect of 
the problem may not be overlooked. 

Of the five persons graded one ranks very 
high im physical health, one is decidedly low, 
one falls close to the indifference line of the 
series, and the other two lie at points con- 
siderably above and below this mean. The 
range of physical variations is thus wide 
enough to enable one to observe clearly any 
mental and physical correlations which exist. 

A glance at any one of the following sets 
of figures into which the table given on page 
568 has been distributed, will show at once 
that certain marked features of correlation 
appear, but that the mental grading does not 
parallel throughout the variations in physical 
health. As regards individuals, D is so con- 
sistently divergent as to belong to a separate 
group from the other four, who present a 
fairly well-marked series of correlations. The 
grades of health in the five men, from which 
comparison proceeds, together with the average 
ranking of each in the whole series of mental 
traits are given in the following table: 


Men. D A B C E 
Health, 90 63 55 26 12 
Traits, 43.6 77.6 56.4 46.9 24.1 


The grades, it will be recalled, are on a 
scale of 100. The letters indicating individ- 
uals in the original article are retained in the 
present tables. With the exception of D the 
estimation of general efficiency in the mem- 
bers of the group rises and falls with the con- 
dition of physical health. As these figures 
are the representatives of a set of curves which 
are not all consistent, I have distributed the 
twenty-three traits in several groups into 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 493. 


which they seemed naturally to fall, and which 
may be described as follows: Mental range and 
balance, intellectual capacity, emotional sensi- 
bility, energy of will and social adaptiveness. 
The special traits included under these several 
heads are mentioned in connection with each 
set of figures. 


Men. D A B C EL 
Mental balance, 45 84 79 32 20 
Judgment, 30 96 70 30 15 
Breadth, 63 93 74 38 68 
Efficiency, 34 100 57 74 4 
Average, 43 93 70 43 27 


I have included efficiency in this table be- 
cause, as used in the paper, it seemed to have 
more affiliation here than with energy of will. 
It will be noted that the table presents only 
one individual divergence from the curve of 
health. The series grouped under intellectual 
capacity follows: 


Men. D A B ¢ E 
Intellect, 38 90 57 79 49 
Quickness, ° 9 87 57 99 33 
Intensity, 57 82 25 76 8 
Originality, 66 82 17 84 8 
Clearness, 17 90 74 72 45 
Average, 37 86 46 82 29 


The correlation in this group is less exten- 
sive than in the preceding. The same indi- 
viduals stand at the top and bottom of the list 
—a pronounced condition of bodily weakness 
lowers efficiency here as elsewhere—but the 
series presents much greater individual irreg- 
ularities. The following traits have been 
grouped under energy of will: 


Men. D A B Cc E 
Will, 63 90 45 49 2 
Energy, 77 98 32 90 3 
Perseverance, 87 96 30 54 ce 
Independence, 52 94 57 72 5 
Courage, 45 95 52 51 12 
Leadership, 6 87 20 17 6 
Average, 55 93 39 56 5 


In this group of traits the extremes of 
efficiency are greatest and the falling off which 
accompanies constitutional weakness most 
marked. In the lowest of the group it is 
almost a negligible quantity. D’s grade 


June 10, 1904.] 


attains its maximum in this set of will-traits, 
as we should perhaps expect, yet his physical 
health suffices only to pull him to the middle 
of the group. ‘The relatively high attainment 
of @, who is graded 26 in the indices of health, 
is to be noted. Only two traits seemed to fall 
naturally into the following group: 


Men. D A B Cc EB 
motion, 26 13 26 24 55 
Refinement, 4 52 72 8 63 
Average, 15 32 49 16 59 


The curve presented here differs strikingly 
from all which preceded it. It is practically 
an inversion of the type. With the exception 
of G, in whom mental endowment and moral 
force have already been found in excess of 
physical vigor, this reciprocal correlation 
forms a continuous curve. The remaining 
traits concern various aspects of social adapta- 
bility, and have been grouped under a single 
head: 


Men. D A B Cc E 
Reasonableness, 38 67 93 20 20 
Cooperativeness, 38 63 49 19 10 
Unselfishness, 45 38 67 10 17 
Windliness, 54 45 82 10 48 
Cheerfulness, 34 48 rd 34 26 
Integrity, 76 96 87 38 38 
Average, 47 59 76 22 26 


For the first time in the series the maximum 
is removed downward to the middle of the 
group. The decline in adaptiveness—social 
virtues, in other words—is most pronounced in 
connection with conditions of poor health, but 
the falling off is important in the other direc- 
tion also. 

As to the significance of these curves, the 
material is of course altogether inadequate to 
justify general conclusions, but it is a very 
interesting fact that the correlation which 
every one in a way believes in, but would, per- 
haps, expect to be discernible only in large 
masses, is presented not only in general, but 
with characteristic variations even in this 
small group of individuals chosen at hap- 
hazard. If I may assume these five cases as 
the basis for comments to serve as suggestions 
for consideration in connection with larger 
mass of data, the following facts may be noted: 


SCIENCE. 


895 


Having regard to the main group of four, 
breadth and sanity of mind, together with 
executive ability, vary directly with conditions 
of physical health; but the distribution of 
original mental endowment, quickness and 
clearness of grasp, appears independently of 
its variations. Of all the traits here enumer- 
ated the virtues of will—energy, courage, ca- 
pacity for leadership—fall off most rapidly 
with extreme degrees of physical weakness; 
but the efficiency of the individual can not be 
predicted in the middle ranges of health. The 
curve of social adaptability reached its maxi- 
mum in the middle of the group. Reason- 
ableness, unselfishness and the like are ap- 
parently not the virtues of the strong; as they 
are likewise not the marks of a frail or nerv- 
ously unstable constitution, for which all com- 
plex human relations become irksome. If the 
induction were not based upon so fragmentary 
a series of observations, one might look upon 
this curve as indicating the ultimate depend- 
ence of sympathy and social integrity upon 
physical conditions which give rise to a sense 
of the need of aid, and that these instincts 
show a decline of intensity in those of rugged 
strength. 

The eurve of emotional sensibility and re- 
finement rises with delicacy of constitution, its 
maximum appearing in the weakest, its 
minimum in the most robust, member of the 
group. In connection with this point it may 
be worth while to observe whether the ap- 
proach to perfection of physical health is in 
general—as here—characterized by a more or 
less marked decline, instead of a continuous 
rise in general mental efficiency. Without 
going so far as W. D. Howells, who, in com- 
menting upon Gould’s ‘Biographic Clinics,’ 
suggests that the ill-health of Carlyle, De- 
Quincey, Huxley and others might, perhaps, 
be considered an important factor in their in- 
tellectual productiveness, it may well be ques- 
tioned whether a man is not handicapped 
rather than favored in regard to mental 
efficiency by being a perfectly healthy animal. 
The former functions depend in a peculiar 
sense upon the development and activeness of 
the nervous system, the latter upon digestional 
integrity and adequate nutrition of the muscu- 


896 


lar tissues. Mental capacity and vigor may 
depend upon an upsetting of the physiological 
balance and the aggrandizement of the central 
nervous system at the expense of these other 
processes. Great prosperity in the vegetative 
functions—which we call physical health— 
would thus be inimical to the highest intel- 
lectual enterprise, and the case of D would be 
made characteristic instead of anomalous. It 
is at least suggestive that the eupeptic maxi- 
mum in adults is found in connection with 
the first stages of general paralysis. 

The gist of the figures contained in the 
table, theorizing apart, is sufficiently indica- 
tive of the importance of physical vigor as a 
condition of mental activity to make the mat- 
ter worthy of consideration in future study. 


Rosert MacDouGatt. 
New York UNIVERSITY. f 


THE ELECTRON THEORY. 


Prorsssor J. J. THomson in the March 
number of the Philosophical Magazine dis- 
cusses the theory of the stability of systems 
of electrons. His conclusion is that a num- 
ber of electrons constitute a stable system 
when they are grouped in a series of con- 
centric circular rings, very similar to Saturn’s 
rings, which rotate about a common axis. 
Stability depends upon two conditions, 
namely, (a) upon a certain minimum angu- 
lar velocity of rotation of a ring, and (6) 
upon the presence of at least f(n) electrons 
at or near the center of a ring containing n 
electrons. Stability increases when the angu- 
lar velocity increases above the critical value 
and when the number of internal particles is 
greater than f(m); f(m) being a definite func- 
tion of n. 

The first part of Professor Thomson’s paper 
is devoted to the establishment of the two 
conditions of stability (a) and (b) and the 
second part of the paper is devoted to the ap- 
plication of these results to the theory of the 
constitution of the atom. The features of 
the second part are: 

1. A brief discussion of the types of oscilla- 
tion of systems of electrons and the applica- 
tion of these results to the rationalization of 
spectra. Professor Thomson goes no farther 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou, XIX. No. 493. 


than to show in a general way that the 
spectral lines of a given element may be 
grouped in a number of series of related lines, 
and that the different chemical elements of a 
group or family, such as the alkali metals, 
may have closely related series of lines. 
This same idea has been advanced by H. 
Nagaoka, of Tokyo, who promises soon to 
publish a paper devoted to this method of 
classifying spectra. 

2. A full discussion of the relations between 
stable systems containing greater and greater 
numbers of electrons, and the application of 
these results to the rationalization of 
Mendeléef’s periodic law. In this section of 
the paper Professor Thomson shows that a 
system of electrons furnishes a dynamic model 
which, with increasing numbers of electrons, 
exhibits properties closely analogous to those 
remarkable periodic variations of valency of 
the chemical elements with increasing atomic 
weight. This constitutes the first suggestion 
of anything worthy to be called a rational 
basis of Mendeléef’s law, and its importance 
can scarcely be overestimated. It is, per- 
haps, the greatest contribution to theoretical 
physics during a decade. In this section of 
his paper Professor- Thomson discusses the 
process of chemical combination in terms of 
his theory and he suggests an explanation of 
the catalytic action of water and of a metal 
such as platinum. 

3. An application of the fact that the 
stability of a system of electrons depends 
upon a certain minimum angular velocity of 
the electron rings, to the explanation of radio- 
activity. 

It is the purpose of this note merely to 
call attention to Professor Thomson’s paper, 
which should be carefully read by every stu- 
dent of chemistry, and to give to the reader 
a sufficiently clear idea of the electron to en- 
able him to fully appreciate Professor Thom- 
son’s theory of the structure of the atom. 

It is not to be expected, of course, that-a 
new hypothesis should lead at once to any- 
thing approaching a completely consistent 
theory and it may be helpful to readers of 
Professor Thomson’s article to point out the 
weak points of his theory. 


June 10, 1904.] 


The electron itself, although it has some 
very definite claims to objective existence, is 
not an entirely clear idea. The electric stress 
which radiates from an electron can, indeed, 
be thought of in mechanical terms, and the 
manner in which these lines of stress sweep 
through space when the electron moves, and 
the way in which they build up a mag- 
netic field by their motion, can be thought of 
in a precise way, but no one has at present any 
definite idea of the nucleus of an electron nor 
of the way in which the nucleus moves. The 
mechanical analogue outlined below is mis- 
leading in this respect in being free from 
some of the essential difficulties which arise 
in the electrical case. 

Professor Thomson’s explanation of zero 
valeney (which is exhibited by such elements 
as helium, neon, argon, etc.) does not appear 
quite satisfactory. He represents zero valency 
as an extremely evanescent and unstable case 
of monovalency. 

I fail to see how, in Professor Thomson’s 
theory, to explain the rise of valency of a 
given element by twos, for example the rise 
of valency of nitrogen from 1 to 3 to 5. This 
mode of rise of valency has suggested to 
chemists the idea of the neutralization of 
valency bonds by each other in pairs. How- 
ever, this difficulty may be met, perhaps, by 
using the notion of subsidiary groups of 
electrons. 

On the other hand, Professor Thomson’s 
hypothesis, that the atom consists of a num- 
ber of extremely minute negative electrons 
moving about in a small spherical region 
containing uniformly distributed positive 
charge, meets a fundamental difficulty, namely, 
that experiment has hitherto failed to give 
any evidence of the existence of concentrated 
positive charges corresponding to the exces- 
sively concentrated negative charges which 
constitute cathode rays. In conformity with 
this hypothesis as to the structure of the atom, 
the mass of an atom is to be taken as pro- 
portional to the number of negative electrons 
the atom contains, regardless of the extent 
and value of the distributed positive charge. 
This is explained later in mechanical terms. 

A clear idea of the behavior of a system of 


SCIENCE. 


897 


electrons depends upon an understanding of 
the dynamics of a single electron, and the 
dynamics of an electron is very different from 
the dynamics of a material particle. 

The dynamics of an electron depend pri- 
marily upon the fact that kinetic energy is 
associated with a moving electric charge inde- 
pendently of the ‘material’ mass of the body 
upon which the charge resides. That is to 
say, electric charge has inertia or mass. This 
association of kinetic energy with an electric 
charge is a phenomenon of the electric field, 
not of the charge itself and the mode of 
association is precisely (mot necessarily ac- 
curately) understood. Stated in terms of a 
mechanical analogue, it is as follows: Im- 
agine a great lake of jelly with a mass-less 
cylinder pressed down upon its surface. Un- 
derneath the cylinder the jelly will be under 
stress and strain and this stress and strain 
will represent energy, corresponding to the 
purely electrical energy associated with the 
electrical stress surrounding a charged body. 
If this mass-less cylinder be rolled along over 
the jelly surface the strain figure underneath 
the cylinder will travel with the cylinder, and 
each successive portion of the jelly will move 
as it is twisted into conformity with the ap- 
proaching strain figure and as it is again 
twisted into its unstrained condition after the 
strain figure is passed. This motion repre- 
sents kinetic energy corresponding to the 
magnetic energy of a moving electron, and the 
strain figure, therefore, has inertia. 

If the cylinder is small in diameter the 
strain which is associated with it is greatly 
concentrated and for a given integral amount” 
of stress or strain (given force pushing the 
eylinder down) a much greater amount of 
kinetic, energy would be associated with a 
given velocity of the rolling cylinder, inas- 
much as the successive portions of the jelly 
would move with increased velocity as they 
are twisted into conformity with the ap- 
proaching strain figure, and as they are again 
twisted into an unstrained condition after 
the strain figure has passed. Therefore, a 
strain figure having a given integral amount 
of strain has greater and greater inertia the 
more the strain figure is concentrated. At 


898 


velocities which are low as compared with the 
velocity of wave propagation on the jelly sur- 
face the kinetic energy of the moving strain- 
figure is proportional to the square of its 
velocity and, therefore, its inertia or mass 
value is constant. Where the velocity of the 
strain figure is not very small then the inertia 
reaction of, the moving particles of jelly as 
they are twisted into and out of the moving 
strain figure helps to sustain or hold the strain 
of the moving figure. Thus at full wave 
velocity a strain figure is held wholly by this 
inertia reaction and no cylinder need be 
pressed upon the jelly to maintain ‘a strain 
figure. On the other hand, when the cylinder 
is pushed down with given force the integral 
stress increases more and more with increas- 
ing velocity, a portion of the stress being sus- 
tained by the cylinder and a portion being 
sustained by the inertia reactions above men- 
tioned. Therefore, with given force on the 
eylinder the integral stress approaches infinity 
as the velocity of the cylinder approaches the 
wave velocity, and corresponding to this in- 
crease of integral stress due to given force on 
cylinder the inertia or mass value of the 
strain figure increases indefinitely as its 
velocity approaches the wave velocity. 

The inertia or mass: value of a given elec- 
trical charge (integral value of electric strain) 
increases as the charge is more and more con- 
centrated, and the inertia or mass value in- 
creases with velocity, approaching infinity at 
the velocity of light. In case of the moying 
electric charge, however, the increase of mass 
value due to magnetic reaction (corresponding 
*to inertia reaction in the jelly) does not affect 
the integral value of the electric strain, but 
merely concentrates the electric strain more 
and more into a plane perpendicular to the 
‘direction of motion. 

A clear picture in two dimensions of an 
electron may be obtained by imagining mass- 
less points to rest with a certain force against 
a horizontal stretched sheet of rubber, each 
point producing a deep funnel-like depression. 
The mass value of each depression for given 
force pushing the point down is greater and 
greater the smaller the point. 

This picture is, however, incomplete in sey- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


eral respects, notably in that two depressions 
(two negative charges) attract each other 
while a depression and an elevation (a posi- 
tive and a negative charge) repel. ‘This is 
due to the essential differences between electric 
stress and any kind of mechanical stress. 

A clear picture in two dimensions of a sys- 
tem of negative electrons moving about in a 
region of distributed positive charge—Pro- 
fessor Thomson’s hypothetical atom—may be 
obtained by imagining a wide and shallow 
saucer-like depression in a rubber sheet in 
which a number of point depressions are moy- 
ing about and held together as a system by the 
gradient of the saucer-like depression. 

Such a system moving as a whole would 
owe its mass value chiefly to the concentrated 
point-like depressions, inasmuch as the broad 
and, shallow saucer-like depression would have 
a negligible mass value, as explained above. 

Some striking features of the dynamics of 
an electron are the following (see paper by M. 
Abraham, Ann. der Physik, January, 1903). 
These features depend partly upon the above- 
described increase of mass value of an electron 
with increasing velocity partly upon the slight 
delay between a given assumed change of 
velocity of the electron and the consequent 
rearrangement of the surrounding electro- 
magnetic field, and partly upon the fact that 
an accelerated electron radiates energy in the 
form of waves like a steadily moving boat. 

The mass value of an electron moving at 
given velocity as measured by the acceleration 
produced by a given impressed force varies 
with the direction of the force, being greatest 
in the direction of the motion (longitudinal 
mass) and least at right angles to the direc- 
tion of the motion (transverse mass). Fur- 
thermore, the acceleration is in general not 
in the direction of the accelerating force; the 
relation between force and acceleration being 
represented by the relation between the diam- 
eter of a circle (sphere) and the correspond- 
ing radii vectores of an ellipse (ellipsoid) in 
the drawing which is ordinarily made by stu- 
dents to show the projection of a circle into 
an ellipse (a relation known as the linear- 
vector-function). 

An electron moving uniformly in a cireular 


JuNE 10, 1904.] 


orbit has acceleration and radiates energy so 
that its motion dies away. The dying away 
of the motion of a circular row or ring of 
electrons in this way is excessively slow if the 
number of electrons in the ring is great and 
if the velocity is small as compared with the 
velocity of light (see J. J. Thomson, Phil. 
Mag., December, 1908). In fact, the time re- 
quired forthe angular velocity to fall from a 
value slightly above the eritical value re- 
quired for stability to the critical value might 
easily be a matter of millions of years under 
certain conditions. 

It is interesting to note, although perhaps 
useless, considering the widespread confusion 
of the fundamental ideas of thermodynamics, 
that this electron theory, pointing as it does 
to finite systems which apparently never can 
settle to thermal equilibrium, suggests a class 
of phenomena, sensible and steady phenomena 
too, which are on the wrong side of thermo- 
dynamics, that is, on the side opposite to me- 
chanics; phenomena which are to be treated 
by developing a systematic theory of atoms as 
isolated systems and the subsequent merging 
of this systematic theory of single atoms into 
a statistical treatment of aggregates of atoms; 
but this is another story. W. S. F. 


A HHAVY JAPANESE BRAIN, 


TuHroucH the kindness of my friend, Mrs. 
Helen H. Gardener, now in Tokio, I am able 
to publish the following extract from the post- 
mortem examination of Professor K. Taguchi, 
the celebrated anatomist, of the College of 
Medicine in the Tokio Imperial University. 
His death took place in Yumi-cho, Hongo, on 
February 4 of this year, and, in accordance 
with the terms of his will, his body was dis- 
sected by his colleagues at the college. Pro- 
fessor Taguchi is perhaps the first of his race 
to bequeath his body in this manner. His 
work on the brain-weight of the Japanese has 
been referred to by the writer in Scrmncr 
(September 18, 1903). His own brain is the 
heaviest on record among the Japanese, and 
in the list of eminent men throughout the 
world, whose brains have been weighed (107 
in number) it occupies second place. Tagu- 
ehi’s brain-weight (1,920 grams or 67.7 oz. 


SCIENCE. 


899 


avoir.) exceeds the highest recorded Japanese 
brain-weight by 180 grams (or 4.5 oz.). 

“Extract from report of the post-mortem 
examination of Professor K. Taguchi on 
February 5, 1904, in the Pathological Insti- 
tute, Tokio, by Professor Dr. K. Yamagiwa: 

“ Age, 66 years. 

“ Body-weight, 49,000 grams. 

“ Brain-weight, 1,920 grams. 

“ Clinical diagnosis: Cirrhosis of the kidney. 

“ Anatomical diagnosis: Hypertrophy with 
dilatation of the left ventricle of the ‘heart; 
endocarditis valvularis chronica  fibrosa 
adhesiva aortica;’ endocarditis valvularis 
chronica fibrosa mitralis; edema pulmonum; 
hypostatic pneumonia of lower lobe of left 
lung; nephritis chronica interstitialis; cystic 
degeneration of the kidney; atheroma in the 
aorta.” Epw. ANTHONY SPITZKA. 


PROFESSOR RUTHERFORD OWN RADIUM. 


Prorrssor E. Ruruerrorp, of McGill Uni- 
yersity, lectured before the Royal Institution 
on May 20, on ‘ Radiation and Emanation of 
Radium.’ According to the London Times, 
the lecturer first showed the power of radium 
to excite phosphorescence and to discharge a 
charged electroscope, and then described the 
properties of the three kinds of rays which it 
had been found to give off. Im addition it 
gave off an emanation which behaved like a 
gas and could be condensed by cold; it could 
also be secluded in the radium itself, and was 
liberated when the salt was dissolved in water. 
This emanation, though exceedingly minute in 
quantity, possessed three-quarters of the char- 
acteristic powers of radium and all its prop- 
erties. If we could collect a cubic inch of the 
emanation, the tube that contained it would 
probably melt, while a few pounds would sup- 
ply enough energy to drive a ship across the 
Atlantic, though each of those pounds would 
require 70 tons of radium to supply it. In 
regard to the process going on in the emission 
of the emanation, he advanced the theory that 
radium was continuously producing it, but 
that when produced, instead of remaining 
constant, it was continuously being changed 
into something else. He supposed that some 
atoms of the radium in some conditions be- 


900 SCIENCE. 


came unstable; then there was an explosion, 
and particles of matter were shot off at great 
velocities. There was a series of such ex- 
plosions, due to atomic, not molecular, changes, 
and resulting in the formation of a series of 
transition elements. A mass of radium left to 
itself must therefore throw itself away; prob- 
ably in about 2,000 years its radio-activity 
would fall to half value, and after 50,000 years 
it would cease to exist. It was therefore to be 
supposed, since radium was produced from 
minerals more than 50,000 years old, that it 
was being itself produced from something else, 
and was itself a transition element. A year 
ago to find evidence for this point of view 
did not seem a very promising task, but since 
then a great deal had been done. In the self- 
destruction of radium two things must be 
produced that were not radio-active—the 
a-ray and the final product. Now helium 
was always found associated with radium- 
minerals, and the suggestion that that gas 
was one of the products had been confirmed 
by Sir William Ramsay, who had shown 
that the emanation was able to produce 
helium from itself. Here there was appar- 
ently a definite case of transmutation, though 
not precisely of the kind sought after by 
the alchemists, but there was no evidence as 
yet that matter in general, apart from the 
radio-active bodies, was undergoing changes 
of this nature. Radium was distributed very 
widely over the earth; in fact, was present 
everywhere, though in exceedingly minute 
quantities. The question was thus suggested 
—How much heat were these minute quan- 
tities of radium able to provide, and could 
they account for the gradual increase of tem- 
perature found as we went deeper into the 
earth? The lecturer himself believed that the 
amount of radium present, uniformly distrib- 
uted, would be sufficient to account for all the 
heat lost from the earth and would explain 
the temperature-gradient as measured to-day. 
In that case the date, as calculated by Lord 
Kelvin, when this globe would have so far 
cooled as to be uninhabitable might possibly be 
postponed for a few million years, and an end 


[N.S. Von. XIX. No. 493. 


put to the troubles of the biologists and geo- 
logist about a little extra time in the past. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Tus International Association of Academies 
met at London at the end of May as the guest 
of the Royal Society and the British Acad- 
emy. The National Academy was represented 
only by its British foreign members. No 
information concerning the scientific work of 
the association appears to have been made 
publie. 

At a recent meeting of the Board of Man- 
agers of the New York Botanical Garden, Dr. 
D. T. MacDougal was advanced from the 
post of director of the laboratories to that of 
assistant director of the institution. Dr. W. 
A. Murrill was appointed assistant curator in 
charge of the fungi to take the place of Pro- 
fessor F. S. Earle, who recently resigned to 
take the position of director of the Estacion 
Agronomica of Cuba. 

Dr. E. L. Greene, head of the Department 
of Botany of the Catholic University of 
America, has resigned to accept a position in 
the Smithsonian Institution. 

Sm Wiru1am Ramsay was elected an honor- 
ary member of the Bunsen Gesellschaft, at 
the recent meeting in Bonn. 

Sir Wituram Huaerns has been elected an 
honorary member of the Royal Philosophical 
Society of Glasgow. 

M. Bicourpan has been elected a member of 
the Paris Academy of Sciences in the section 
for astronomy. 


Dr. E. STRASBURGER, professor of botany at 
Bonn, has been elected a foreign member of 
the Academy of Sciences at Christiania. 

Tue New York Hvening Post states that 
Professor Henry R. Mussey, of the University 
of Pennsylvania, has been engaged by the Car- 
negie Institution to make a special study of 
the iron industry in the United States. 

Dr. H. Austin Argins, professor of phi- 
losophy in Western Reserve University, has 
sailed for Europe on leave of absence for the 
coming year. 

Mr. ann Mrs. T. D. A. Cockrrett will spend 
the summer in England; upon their return to 


JUNE 10, 1904.] 


Colorado in September, Mrs. Cockerell will 
take the position of teacher of biology and 
physiography in the State Preparatory School 
at Boulder. In this work she will be assisted 
by Mr. Cockerell, who will also conduct a 
research laboratory in the University of 
Colorado. 


Proressor T. SremvMANN has returned to 
Freiburg from geological and paleontological 
explorations in Bolivia. 

ForniGN papers report that Dr. Gottfried 
Merzbacher, who has been engaged for two 
years on a scientific expedition in the Thian- 
shan Mountains, in Central Asia, has returned 
to Munich with many objects of geological, 
paleontological, zoological and botanical in- 
terest. 

Ir is reported that Lieutenant Peary has 
chartered the sealer Hagle, at St. John’s, New- 
foundland, for a cruise to Littleton Island, 
from July to September, in preparation for a 
four years’ stay in the Arctic regions. 

Dr. Ares Hrpticka, of the U. S. National 
Museum, has been elected a corresponding 
member of the Czecho-Slavonic Ethnological 
Society of Prague. 

Dr. Burton E. Livineston, assistant in the 
Department of Botany, of the University of 
Chicago, has been awarded the Walker prize 
by the Boston Society of Natural History for 
a paper on ‘ Jonic Stimulation in Plants.’ 

Tue Council of the Geological Society of 
London has awarded the Daniel Pidgeon fund 
to Mr. Lindsdall Richardson. 


Mr. Percy Witson, administrative assistant 
in the New York Botanical Garden, has ac- 
cepted the position of assistant botanist of 
the Estacion Agronomica of Cuba. Mr. W. 
T. Horne, fellow in botany in Columbia Uni- 
versity, has been appointed assistant pathol- 
ogist in the same institution. 

Tue Rede lecture at Cambridge will be de- 
livered on June 11, by Dr. J. A. Ewing, F.R.S., 
upon ‘ The Structure of Metals.’ 


We learn from Nature that a mathematical 
society of Vienna has been organized, the 
meetings of which are to be held monthly. 
The officers are Messrs. G@. von Escherich 
(president), E. Miller and W. Wirtinger 


SCIENCE. 


901 


(vice-president), A. Lampa (secretary), and 
A. Gerstel (treasurer). 

Tue death is announced of Senator Gaetano 
Georgio Gemmellaro, the Italian geologist; of 
Professor Lengemann, who held the chair of 
mining in the Technical Institute at Aachen, 
and of Mr. Frank Rutley, the British geol- 
ogist. 

Tue Weights and Measures (metric system) 
Bill before the British parliament has been 
read a third time and passed by the House of 
Lords. 

THE Chicago Academy of Sciences has se- 
cured the collection of Lower Coal Measure 
plants made by Dr. John’ H. Britts, of Clin- 
ton, Iowa. The collection contains many 
species, named by Lesquereux, besides numer- 
ous cotypes of species, described by David 
White in Monograph 37, U. S. Geological Sur- 
vey, on the ‘ Fossil Flora of the Lower Coal 
Measures of Missouri.’ The collection was 
obtained through the generosity of Mr. Francis 
S. Peabody, of Chicago. 

Five hundred mechanical engineers, repre- 
senting the United States and foreign coun- 
tries, were present on May 31 at the opening 
of the forty-ninth annual meeting of the 
American Society of Mechanical Engineers, 
which was a joint meeting with the Institu- 
tion of Mechanical Engineers of Great Britain. 
Addresses were made by Mr. Ambrose Swasey, 
president of the American society, and Mr. 
J. P. Hartley Wicksteed, president of the 
English organization. 


Tue Philadelphia Botanical Club and the 
Torrey Botanical Club will hold a joint field 
meeting at McCall’s Ferry, Pennsylvania, in 
the valley of the Susquehanna River, July 2 
to 9, 1904, which all botanists are cordially 
invited to attend. Excursions will be made 
from this point as a center, to points in the 
vicinity, returning each day; botanists can, 
therefore, conveniently take part in the meet- 
ing by arriving at McCall’s Ferry any after- 
noon during the week. Informal evening con- 
ferences will be held for the discussion of 
topics that may be brought forward. Fares to 
McUall’s Ferry are as follows: 


902 SCIENCE. 


Philadelphia to MecCall’s Ferry and return. .$3.36 

New York to McCall’s Ferry and return.... 6.96 

Washington to McCall’s Ferry and return... 4.06 

Hotel charges at McCall’s Ferry are $1.25 per day. 

Guides: Messrs. Stewardson Brown and Jos. Craw- 
ford. 


An International Maritime Congress was 
held at Lisbon in the hall of the Geographical 
Society from the twenty-second to the twenty- 
eighth of May. The program of subjects was 
as follows: 


I. Oceanography and Hydrography.—Bathy- 
metric charts. Last cruise of the Princess Alice 
yacht. lLithobiologic charts. Unification of the 
scale of marine charts. 

II. Meteorology—The north Atlantic and fore- 
casts of the weather in Western Europe. 

II. Territorial Waters. 

IV. Congresses and Conferences—Summary of 
the work relative to maritime questions. 

V. Institutions for assistance to seamen. 

VI. International maritime statistics. 

VII. Panama interoceanie canal. 

VIII. International Maritime Union Conven- 
tion.—Concordant measurement. Load line. 
Quay dues on the net or the gross tonnage. 
Lanes for ship routes. Signals in fogs at sea. 
Navigation rules. The prevention of collisions. 
Organization for life saving on board. Lighting 
and buoying of coasts. Condemnation of ships 
by experts. General average. Non liability 
clauses in Bills of Lading. 

IX. Yachting.—International unification of 
measurement and rules for racing. Decimalization 
applied to navigation. 

X. Sea Fishing—Steam trawlers. The sardine 
question. 

XI. Wireless telegraphs and telephones. 

XII. Port improvements and manutention. 


The International Maritime Association, un- 
der whose auspices this congress was held has 


a permanent office at 3 rue des Mathurins, 
Paris. 


THE captain of the ship Godthaab, which 
arrived from Greenland, at Copenhagen, on 
May 24, reports that the Danish Polar Ex- 
pedition, led by the author Mylius Erichsen, 
left Saunders Island, where the explorers had 
lived for a long time among the Eskimo in 
the native fashion, on January 20, and, 
traveling by sledges, safely reached Upernivik, 
in West Greenland. Afterwards they pro- 
ceeded to Umanak. The expedition will prob- 
ably come home in the autumn. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 493. 


Nature states that a series of prizes is of- 
fered by the mathematical and natural science 
section of the Jablonow Society of Leipzig 
for themes connected with the following sub- 
jects: For 1904, the chemical differentiation of 
rock magmas; for 1905, the causes of plasmic 
currents in vegetable cells; for 1906, the 
analogues of Bernouilli’s numbers in the study 
of elliptic functions; and for 1907, the laws 
of photoelectric currents. Full particulars 
are obtainable from the secretary, Professor 
Wilhelm Scheibner, 8 Schletterstrasse, Leip- 
zig. The Royal Academy of Sciences of 
Madrid offers for 1905 a prize for the best 
essay written in Spanish or Latin on the fol- 
lowing subject: ‘A complete study of a 
special class of singular integrals arising from 
differential equations for which the values 
of the derived functions become indeterminate 
when certain relations exist between the simul- 
taneous values of the principal variables.’ 


THE Monthly Weather Review reports that 
by the joint efforts of the Italian Alpenverein, 
the Duke of Abruzzi, the Minister of Agri- 
culture for Italy, and Queen Margarhita, a 
geophysical observatory on the summit of 
Monta Rosa, at an altitude of 4,560 meters, 
has been erected. It is the highest in Europe, 
except that of Vallot, on Mont Blane, and 
higher than the station on Pike’s Peak form- 
erly occupied by the Weather Bureau. The 
regular observational activity will begin this 
summer. It will be occupied in the winter 
time as well as in the summer if the severity 
of the weather does not prevent. Both the 
observatory and the hut of refuge for moun- 
taineers will be accessible, not only to Ltalian 
but to foreign students who wish to carry 
on geophysical investigations. The meteoro- 
logical observations are expected to be of 
especial importance in connection with the 
simultaneous international balloon ascensions. 
Italy now possesses three mountain observa- 
tories, namely, Monta Rosa, 4,560 meters; 
Aitna, 2,942 meters; Cimone, 2,162 meters. 


Nature says of the late Professor His: 
“Professor Wilhelm His, whose death was 
announced from Leipzig on May 1, at the age 
of seventy-three, altered and extended our 
knowledge of human anatomy more than any 


~~ 


June 10, 1904.] 


man of his time. He discovered and wrote 
the history of the human body during the first 
and second months of conception, and thus 
filled in what, until his time, was almost a 
blank. He introduced more accurate methods 
of studying the form and relationships of the 
various organs of the body. Pupils went to 
him from all parts of the earth and carried 
back to their native universities the quiet, 
honest spirit of investigation, the complete 
methods and the accurate technique His had 
introduced in his laboratory at Leipzig. His 
influence to-day is world-wide; it is especially 
evident in the remarkable progress in embry- 
ological research made recently in the United 
States. As His entered to lecture one was 
struck by the absence of those bodily features 
one expects in a German professor. He was 
a Swiss by birth and education, having been 
born at Basel in 1831; in appearance he might 
have been an Englishman. His narrow, long- 
ish head, black hair, regular profile, long sal- 
low face, and nervous temperament indicated 
his descent from a Celtic stock. He taught 
quietly, clearly and concisely, illustrating his 
subject as he spoke by marvelous drawing on 
the blackboard. He relegated lady-students 
to the back-bench. Long after the university 
doors were shut, a light could be seen in the 
window of his private room, for to him work 
was also amusement. 


Tue Cumberland Gap coal field of Kentucky 
and Tennessee is growing steadily in impor- 
tance, although most of this area, which forms 
part of the eastern edge of the Appalachian 
coal field in southeastern Kentucky and north- 
ern Tennessee, is now without transportation 
facilities. The production of coal from the 
vicinity of Middlesboro has reached an annual 
output of from 600,000 to 1,000,000 tons. 
Bennett Fork has become a mining town for 
a continuous distance of five miles, and Stony 
Fork, up which a railroad is just completed, 
promises soon to become equally active. These 
and other evidences of rapid development, to- 
gether with the fact that no government report 
has ever before been published about Cumber- 
land Gap coals, give especial interest and 
value to a paper written by Mr. George H. 
Ashley about this field. This paper is in- 


SCIENCE. 


903 


eluded in a bulletin (No. 225) entitled ‘ Con- 
tributions to Economic Geology, 1903,’ re- 
cently published by the U. S. Geological Sur- 
vey for gratuitous distribution. Mr. Ashley’s 
paper is merely a preliminary abstract of a 
more detailed report, which will be prepared 
under a cooperative arrangement made be- 
tween the U. S. Geological Survey and the 
state of Kentucky. This report will fill sev- 
eral hundred pages and will be fully illustrated 
with appropriate plates, coal sections and 
maps. : 

TuE Journal of Philosophy summarizes the 
program for the season of 1904 of the Glen- 
more Summer School of the Culture Sciences, 
founded in 1889 by Thomas Davidson. The 
session will begin on July 11 and extend to 
September 3. Lectures are announced for 
Mondays, Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays 
at 11 a.m., and Sundays at 11:30 a.m. There 
will be informal discussions relative to the 
subjects of the lectures of each week on Wed- 
nesday evenings. The following lectures are 
announced: weeks beginning July 11 and 18, 
Charles W. Bakewell, Ph.D., of the University 
of California, on ‘The Philosophy of Plato’; 
week beginning July 25, Leslie Willis 
Sprague, lecturer for American University 
Extension Society, Philadelphia, on ‘ Ralph 
Waldo Emerson’; week beginning August 
1, Charles G. Child, PhD., L.D., of 
the University of Pennsylvania, on ‘The 
Making of English Literature’; week be- 
ginning August 8, Hon. Chester Hol- 
combe, A.M., Ex-Minister to China, Lowell 
Institute Lecturer, 1902, on ‘The Religion 
and Literature of China’; week beginning 
August 15, Felix Adler, Ph.D., of Columbia 
University, on ‘ The General Theory of Social 
Ethics, and Edward G. Spaulding, Ph.D., of 
the College of the City of New York, on 
“Dogmas in Philosophy and Science’; week 
beginning August 22, Alvin §S. Johnson, 
Ph.D., of Columbia University, on ‘Some 
Aspects of the Labor Question’; week begin- 
ning August 29, J. Mark Baldwin, Ph.D., 
LL.D., of Johns Hopkins University, on 
“Social Psychology.’ There is a possibility 
that a few additional lectures may ‘be given 
during the summer by Professor W. T. 


904 SCIENCE. 


Brewster, Ph.D., of Columbia University, and 
by Professor Lightner Witmer, Ph.D., of the 
University of Pennsylvania, on literature and 
psychology respectively. For particulars of 
the session, Professor Stephen F. Weston, of 
Yellow Springs, Ohio, should be addressed. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


Mrs. Amanpa W. Resp, has provided in her 
will for the foundation of an institution at 
Portland, Ore., to be known as Reed Institute, 
in memory of her husband, the late Simon G. 
Reed. The bequest will amount to about 
$2,000,000. Her will specifies that the insti- 
tute shall combine instruction in the fine arts 
and sciences and manual training, and that 
it shall be conducted with especial regard to 
the needs of young men and women compelled 
to earn their own living. 

Preswent B. I. WHEELER, of the University 
of California, president of the department of 
Higher Education of the National Eduea- 
tional Association, has completed the program 
for the session of the department which is to 
be held at the St. Louis Exposition on June 29 
and July 1. The two subjects chosen for dis- 
cussion are ‘ Coeducation in Relation to Other 
Types of College Education for Women’ and 
‘The Present Tendencies of College Athletics.’ 
The speakers with their subjects include: 
June 29—President Charles F. Thwing, West- 
ern Reserve University, ‘The Women’s Annex 
Versus Coeducation’; President Charles W. 
Dabney, University of Tennessee, ‘The Ex- 
perience of the South in Regard to Coeduca- 
tion and Other Forms of Education for 
Women’; President R. H. Jesse, University 
of Missouri, ‘Coeducation as It Has Been 
Tested in the State Universities’; President 
G. Stanley Hall, Clark University; President 
James B. Angell, University of Michigan. 
July 1—Chanecellor EK. Benjamin Andrews, 
University of Nebraska, ‘The General Tend- 
eney of College Athletics’; President W. H. 
P. Faunce, Brown University, ‘College Ath- 
leties’; Chancellor Frank Strong, University 
of Kansas, ‘The Highest Standards of Col- 
lege Athletics—Outright Amateurism.’ 

Tue College Entrance Examination Board 
will hold examinations during the week, June 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 493. 


20 to 25, at about one hundred and fifty points 
throughout the United States and at London, 
Paris, Geneva, Strasburg, Dresden and Frank- 
fort. The readers in the sciences are: Mathe- 
matics—Professor R. W. Prentiss, Rutgers 
(chief reader) ; Professor C. E. Biklé, Teachers 
College; Miss Elsa Bowman, Brearley School; 
R. H. Bright, Paterson High School, H. H. 
Denio, Collegiate School; C. S. Forbes, Co- 
lumbia; J. R. Gardner, Irving School; W. A. 
Johnson, Hasbrouck Institute; E. H. Koch, 
Jr., Mackenzie School, Dobbs Ferry, N. Y.; 
W. E. MacDonald, Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology; R. Morris, Rutgers, Miss Gert- 
rude Smith, Vassar; Professor Virgil Snyder, 
Cornell;. Miss Roxana H. Vivian, Wellesley; 
H. E. Webb, Stevens Preparatory School, Ho- 
boken. Physics—Professor A. W. Goodspeed, 
Pennsylvania (chief reader); Professor J. M. 
Jameson, Pratt Institute; Dr. G. B. Pegram, 
Columbia. Chemistry—Professor J. F. Nor- 
ris, Massachusetts Institute of Technology 
(chief reader); Professor C. M. Allen, Pratt 
Institute; Dr. V. J. Chambers, Columbia. 
Botany—Professor W. W. Rowlee, Cornell 
(chief reader); Miss Elsie Kupfer, Wadleigh 
High School. Geography—Professor R. E. 
Dodge, Columbia (chief reader); W. W. Clen- 
dennin, Wadleigh High School. 


THe Rev. Samuel Black McCormick, a 
Presbyterian clergyman, since 1897 president 
of Coe College, at Cedar Rapids, Ia., has been 
elected chancellor of the Western University 
of Pennsylvania. 

Dr. F. G. Donnan, lecturer in chemistry in 
the Royal College of Science, Dublin, has been 
elected to the chair of physical chemistry re- 
cently founded by Sir John T. Brunner in the 
University of Liverpool. 

At Cambridge Mr. W. J. Sell, F.R.S., and 
Mr. H. J. H. Fenton, F.R.S., are to be ap- 
pointed university lecturers in chemistry, and 
Mr. A. Harker, F.R.S., a university lecturer 
in petrology. 

Dr. O. AscHAN has been appointed professor 
of chemistry in the University of Helsingfors. 


Dr. Grorce Lanpspere, of Heidelberg, has 
been called to an associate professorship of 
mathematics at Strasburg. 


ToL NCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Frway, June 17, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 


The Continuous Advance of Electrochemistry : 
PROFESSOR JOSEPH W. RICHARDS......... 905 


Distribution of Indian Tribes in the Southern 
Sierra and Adjacent Parts of the San 
Joaquin Valley, California: Dr. C. Harr 
MERRIAM 


Scientific Books :— 


The Cryptogamic Botany of the Harriman 
Hapedition: Proressor Lucimn M. UnprEr- 
woop. Gibbons on ‘The Hye, its Refraction 
and Diseases: Dr. WitLiaM S. DENNETT.. 


Scientific Journals and Articles............ 


Societies and Academies :-— 


The Geological Society of Washington: Au- 
FRED H. Brooxs. The Philosophical Society 
of Washington: CHARLES K. Wrap. The 
New York Section of the American Chem- 
ical Society: Dr. H. C. SHmrmMan. The 
Onondaga Academy of Sciences: J. E. KirK- 
woop. he Nebraska Academy of Sci- 
ences: Dr. R. H. WOLCOTT............... 921 


Discussion and Correspondence :— 
Namatogean or Epigean? Dr. Wm. H. 
Dat. The Blackening of Teeth in the 
Orient: PRorgessor O. T. Mason. Vegetable 


TRHIBS dh UNNI 6oc Sonneoen oo Dud boodoe 926 


Special Articles :— 
The Mechanism of the Mont Pelée Spine: 
G. K. Gitpert. A Suggestive Relation Be- 
tween the Gravitational Constant and the 
Constants of the Ether: Dr. Bergen Dayis. 
The Royal Commission on Tuberculosis..... 
The International Association of Academies. 930 
Scientific Notes and News.......:......... 931 


University and Hducational News.......... 936 


MSS. intended for publication and books, etc., intended 
for review should be sent to the Editor of ScIENcE, Garri- 
son-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE CONTINUOUS ADVANCE OF ELEOCTRO- 
CHEMISTRY. 


Tue field of electrochemical activity 
covers three distinct lmes of endeavor: 
First, the investigation and classification 
of electrochemical phenomena—scientific 
progress; second, the formulation of a 
satisfactory and all-comprehensive electro- 
chemical theory—intellectual progress; and 
third, the application of these facts to in- 
dustrial ends—industrial progress. We 
purpose to discuss briefly this evening the 
past achievements in each of these lines of 
endeavor, in order to determine therefrom 
and to discuss more at length the present 
bent and probable future direction and ex- 
tension of each. 

I. THE INVESTIGATION AND CLASSIFICATION 
OF ELECTROCHEMICAL PHENOMENA. 

This is, properly speaking, the real 
eorner-stone of progress in electrochemical 
science. What has been accomplished in 
this direction in the century and a half 
since Becearia ‘revivified’ several metals by 
Leyden-jar discharges may be found scat- 
tered through the files of our technical 
journals and compiled from time to time 
into compendiums of electrochemical litera- 
ture. The most pretentious, and in many 
respects the most timely, of all these works 
is the ‘ausftihrliches Handbuch,’ which our 
German friends are at present patiently 
compiling. A careful study of this work 
causes surprise both at the large amount 
of investigation which has been done and 
at the large gaps which exist in our 
experimental knowledge. Alongside of 
splendid researches into the most obscure 
phenomena of the science exist lacune@ in 


906 SCIENCE. 


our knowledge of some of the simplest 
electrochemical phenomena, such as, for in- 
stance, in the facts concerning the simul- 
taneous deposition of two or more metals 
from solution. While doing this the im- 
pression grows strong upon us that electro- 
chemistry has lost much because of a lack 
of cooperation among electrochemical in- 
vestigators, and because of the desultory, 
haphazard manner in which their efforts 
have been frequently applied. 

The lack of a coordinating, directing, 
systematizing influence among electrochem- 
ical workers has been the crying need of 
the science, and it is just this influence, 
above all things, which is furnished by our 
electrochemical societies. The Bunsen So- 
ciety in Germany, the Faraday Society in 
England, our own society in America have 
brought electrochemists together, making 
them acquainted with each other’s work, 
and in particular with the need of experi- 
mental work along neglected lines, and 
have thus furnished the coordinating 
agency until recently so deplorably lacking. 

Davy and Faraday laid broad the experi- 
mental foundations of this science by the 
electrolytic decomposition of many of our 
most common chemical compounds. Bun- 
sen supplemented this by attacking the 
rarer metals. Kohlrausch investigated 
specific conductivities of almost numberless 
solutions. Beetz and Lorenz fused salts; 
Moissan the electrochemistry of high tem- 
peratures ; Hittorf and Ostwald and Nernst 
the mechanism of electrolysis of solutions, 
while in between these monumental investi- 
gations hundreds of others have contrib- 
uted to the advance. But still if the army 
of investigators, as regards numbers, had 
been in reality an army as regards organ- 
ization and systematically directed effort, 
how much more valuable would its work 
have been! Is it not a fact that one of the 
results of our semi-annual meetings is that 
we learn and have impressed upon us the 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 494. 


gaps in experimental electrochemistry, and 
that we often, either deliberately or tacitly, 
divide the work among us for systematic 
investigation ? 

Let me indicate some of the many electro- 
chemical subjects which need systematic 
attack and orderly study. The electric 
conductivity of some common salts is as 
yet undetermined, not to mention most of 
the rarer ones. Braun, Graetz and Poin- 
eairé did good work on the conductivity of 
fused salts many years ago, but for every 
salt they tested there are a dozen or a score 
awaiting investigation. The results of the 
electrolysis of solutions of different salts, 
of different concentrations, at different 
temperatures, with differing electrodes and 
current densities, has been merely touched 
here and there; the great body of that in- 
formation is ripe for harvest to whoever 
can wield the sickle. The study of the 
electrolysis of fused salts, or of solutions 
of chemical compounds dissolved in fused 
baths, is scarcely begun. One can go into 
the laboratory any afternoon and start an 
electrochemical study of a salt which has 
never before been taken up, and there are 
enough such to keep the laboratory busy 
a long, long time. 

The use of accurately controlled electro- 
deposition for the purpose of determining 
the chemical equivalents of the metals is a 
method which has not received the atten- 
tion which it deserves. It is quite certain 
that the atomic weights of many elements, 
whose exact value is at present uncertain, 
could be fixed satisfactorily in this manner. 
The calorimetric investigation of electro- 
lytic cells in operation, inaugurated by 
Faure, is an attractive field wide open for 
the experimenter, and from which much 
valuable information could be drawn. Be- 
sides these, the deposition of alloys, the 
solution of alloys, the electrolysis of mixed 
electrolytes, the function of intermediate 
(bi-polar) electrodes, the exact modus oper- 


a ee 


JUNE 17, 1904.] 


andi of porous diaphragms, the relation of 
viscosity to electric conductivity and ionic 
mobility, the limitation of the speed of 
electrolysis by the diffusibility of the prod- 
ucts, the solubility of metals in their own 
fused salts, the function of gases in solu- 
tion, the compounds of solvent with solute 
and their relations to complex ions and the 
mechanism of electrolysis, are only some of 
the many phenomena whose investigation 
has only begun, and which lie invitingly 
before us. Professor A. A. Noyes has blazed 
a new trail by his systematic work on the 
electric conductivity of solutions at high 
temperatures, and Dr. Kahlenberg by his 
researches on the electrolysis of non- 
aqueous solutions. Let these advise us 
that there are as many new fields awaiting 
attack as there are old ones needing thor- 
ough exploration. 

In the whole realm of pure- science 
(meaning thereby the investigation and 
classification of phenomena) there is no 
field offering more attractions at the pres- 
ent moment, none more ripe for exploita- 
tion, none more promising of large rewards 
for honest work, than electrochemistry. 
The science is yet in its infancy; many of 
its pioneers are yet living (the original 
patentee of nickel plating contributes a 
paper to this very meeting), and the gates 
of opportunity are opened wide to every 
one of us to go do likewise—to become 
pioneers in our turn. 

ll. THE BUILDING OF A COMPREHENSIVE 
ELECTROCHEMICAL THEORY. 

In this respect we must confess at the 
outset that our science is in a state of 
transition. We know what we are aban- 
doning, we hardly as yet grasp the newer 
theory to which we are groping our way. 
In the past plausible explanations have 
been advanced which fitted the known facts 
fairly well, only to be afterwards shattered 
by new facts which could not be made to 
fit into the theory. Scientific theories must 


SCIENCE. 


907 


enlarge to fit the new truth or be broken by 
it, and so our theories must be m a state of 
constant flux if the science to which they 
belong is a live, growing science, receiving 
continually accretions of new truth. 

Not very long ago the burning electro- 
chemical question was, ‘Is the theory of 
electrolytic dissociation the true explana- 
tion of the nature of a solution?’ I shall 
not say that it is not, because I do not 
know; but I am certain that the man is 
making a mistake, whoever he may be, who 
says that ‘it is certainly true.’ My own 
conception of the state of solution is that 
the solute is in an abnormal physical state, 
having resemblance to the gaseous state, 
and that im some cases a definite compound 
of the solute with the solvent exists in the 
solution, it also being in the abnormal phys- 
ical state, but not abnormal chemically. 
The grounds for this view would take too 
long to explain, but they appear to me to 
point to this as an explanation more satis- 
factory than the assumption of an abnor- 
mal chemical condition of dissociation. 

Large generalizations like the theory in 
question, however, are very seldom directly 
proven false; the evidence of their insuffi- 
ciency simply accumulates until the convic- 
tion arises or grows in men’s minds that 
something else explains the facts better, 
and the older theory thus fades into the 
background. At the present time the phys- 
ical chemist, or perhaps rather the chem- 
ical physicist, has thrown so much light 
upon the structure of the atom by his dis- 
coveries regarding electrons that it appears 
as if a new and a very brilliant side-light 
is about to be thrown upon the subject of 
electrochemical phenomena. If it be true, 
as Professor J. J. Thomson has apparently 
just proved, that the arrangements of the 
elements in families according to the pe- 
riodic law, their periodic increase and de- 
erease in valence, and change from electro- 
positive to electronegative character, can 


908 SCIENCE. 


be postulated as a necessary deduction 
from the hypothesis of the atoms consist- 
ing of uniform shells of positive electricity, 
inclosing negative electrons arranged in ro- 
tating rings, then the ionie conception will 
of necessity yield place in electrochemical 
science to the electronic. In this connec- 
tion it ought to be noted that Professor 
Thomson’s inferences as to what consti- 
tutes chemical combination, the electrically 
neutral atoms losing or gaining electrons 
and thus becoming positively or negatively 
electrified, and therefore attracting each 
other, agree with and supplement-to a 
nicety the system of positive and negative 
bonds elaborated twenty-five years ago by 
our respected member, Professor O. C. 
Johnson. 

The nature of the act of solution bears so 
fundamentally upon the mechanism of elec- 
trolysis that light thrown upon it from 
any direction is very welcome. Professor, 
J. H. L. Vogt, of the University of Chris- 
tiania, has recently published the first sec- 
tion of a work on the nature of fused sili- 
cates which bears so directly upon the ques- 
tion of fused baths, and particularly of the 
condition of compounds dissolved in fused 
baths, that the close study of his work will 
undoubtedly assist the electrochemist in un- 
derstanding fused bath electrolysis and, in 
fact, the problem of solution in general. 
It is, indeed, the fact that many bases dis- 
solved in fused silicates retain their chem- 
ical individuality, and can be proved to 
exist there simply in an abnormal physical 
condition. The analogous process in regard 
to solution in water passes current under 
the name of ionization, or electrolytic disso- 
ciation. From these and similar investiga- 
tions the conviction is being pressed upon 
_us that physical solution of one substance 
in another, covers a large part of the field 
formerly supposed to be entirely chemical 
in its nature, and that the eutectic mixtures 
resulting are in no sense chemical com- 


LN.S. Von. XIX. No. 494. 


pounds, but that the latter constitute nodes 
or eritical points of the mixtures, while in 
between, in the ordinary run of solutions, 
we are dealing simply with these chemical 
compounds mutually dissolved in each 
other, and in no other states than abnormal 
physical states. The electrolysis of a sub- 
stance in solution means usually, therefore, 
the decomposition of that chemical sub- 
stance existing in an abnormal physical 
state, and not the act of gathering at the 
electrodes the ions of the previous dis- 
sociated chemical compound. 

These are the personal views of your 
speaker, and are, of course, not put for- 
ward as necessarily representing those of 
any other member of this society. They 
are given here because I believe that the 
advance in electrochemical theory in the 
near future will be in this direction and 
along these lines. 

Ul. APPLICATIONS TO INDUSTRIAL NEEDS. 

If electrochemistry concerned itself only 
with the study of phenomena and their 
classification, the deduction of laws and 
the building of theories thereupon, it would 
satisfy one of the fundamental needs of the 
human mind, that of knowing, but would 
leave unsatisfied another and equally vital 
desire, that of using. 

As one indication of this we see the 
program of our meeting classified into ex- 
perimental, theoretical and industrial. (I 
stand convicted of haying. plagiarized the 
plan of the program in laying out the sub- 
jects of my address.) Without the latter 
item the electrochemical field would remain 
a thing apart from the sympathy of the 
world at large, and it is really by reason 
of the absorbing interest and great eco- 
nomic value of these industrial applications 
that we have with us the support and co- 
operation of the educated and the commer-- 
cial world. 

The various items in which, in industrial 
chemistry and metallurgy, electrochemical 


ot etweanges 


JUNE 17, 1904.] 


methods have either superseded ordinary 
non-electric methods, or else have created 
new industries, form a catalogue sufficiently 
long to arrest the attention of the most 
superficial observer, and altogether too 
long to be mentioned in detail within the 
limits of this address. Suffice it to men- 
tion in passing the millions of dollars’ 
worth of copper electrolytically refined, 
not annually, but monthly; the 100,000 
horse-power consumed in producing cal- 
cium carbide; the reduction of the cost of 
aluminium from $5 a pound to 30 cents; 
of sodium in almost an identical ratio; the 
revolution being wrought in one of the 
largest chemical industries by the produc- 
tion of electrolytic alkali and bleach; the 
capturing of the potassium chlorate in- 
dustry and the manufacture of phosphorus. 

The whole story, if related at length, 
would be the old story of homo sapiens hav- 
ing discovered a new tool, a new instru- 
ment wherewith to torture mother nature; 
a new means of reaching old or of creating 
new results, and he is necessarily immersed 
in enthusiasm for this ‘genius of the lamp,’ 
which has performed so many wonders and 
promises so many more. For the use of 
electricity puts at our disposal tempera- 
tures never before industrially attained; 
gives us a decomposing agent at whose bid- 
ding the most powerful chemical com- 
pounds resolve into their constituents; en- 
ables us to attack and solve chemical prob- 
lems in a manner before unthought of; 
opens up a world of possibilities whose 
scope we even yet but dimly comprehend. 
This is the fascination of the subject, the 
attractive force, the absorbing interest 
which is reflected-in the enthusiasm of the 
electrochemist for his profession and in the 
sratifying success which has attended the 
formation and growth of this electrochem- 
ical society. 

It remains to speak, with as much def- 
initeness as the subject permits, of the pos- 


SCIENCE. 


909 


sible enlargement and extension of these 
industrial applications. ‘Whither’ is a 
more important question than ‘whence’ 
when the present prosperity and future 
progress of the art are concerned. 

Basing our remarks upon present devel- 
opments, it may be perceived, to start with, 
that the electrical methods in chemistry 
and metallurgy which are most successful 
are either, first, those applied to the more 
powerful chemical compounds, whose de- 
composition by non-electric methods is 
highly difficult and expensive, or else im- 
possible; or, second, those applied to new 
fields of very high temperature reactions 
impossible of attainment by other means, 
or, third, those applied to ordinary chem- 
ical processes, in which the directness of 
the electrical influence, be it decomposing, 
reducing or perducing, can not be dupli- 
eated or competed with by known non- 
electric methods. 

Primitive man took his first lesson in 
metallurgy by learning to make iron; to 
this the ancients added lead, copper, silver, 
gold and even the volatile mercury. Many 
centuries later zine was distilled, and only 
in the most recent times have sodium, 
aluminium and magnesium been possi- 
bilities. Painfully and slowly alehemy and 
modern chemistry toiled up the heights of 
the electrochemical series, from the easy 
conquest of the noble metals to the power- 
ful mastery of the strong metals, and the 
steepest part of the ascent has been light- 
ened by the aid of electricity, which has in 
many cases furnished the easy path to the 
conquest of the most difficult chemical 
problems. 

It is related of our renowned geologist, 
Clarence King, that he was an enthusiastic 
mountain climber, and having from a dis- 
tance spied:a steep mountain, he conceived 
the ambition of conquering it. Taking a 
respite from surveying, he equipped him- 
self for difficult climbing, and after several 


910 SCIENCE. 


hours of desperate effort finally stood on 
the summit of the seemingly impregnable 
butte, only to find an easy trail leading up 
on the other side. 

The most abundant materials in nature 
are the fixed, difficultly transposable com- 
pounds of the strong metals, and their con- 
quest and utilization are the peculiar and 
special province of electrochemistry. 

According to the estimate of the inde- 
fatigable chemist of the Geological Survey, 
F. W. Clarke, silicon oxide forms 58.3 per 
cent. of the contents of the solid crust of 
the earth, aluminium oxide 14.7 per cent., 
iron oxide 7.8 per cent., calcium oxide 5.3 
per cent. and magnesium oxide 4.5 per 
cent.; or, expressed in another way, silicon 
27.2 per cent., aluminium 7.8 per cent., iron 
5.5 per cent., calcium 3.8 per cent. and 
magnesium 2.7 per cent. 

With these figures in mind, may I not 
ask whether we fully realize the signifi- 
eance of one of the latest electrometal- 
lurgical triumphs, the production of 
metallic silicon on a large scale in the 
electric furnace by one of our Niagara Falls 
members, Mr. F. J. Tone? While the 
catalogues of dealers in rare chemicals are 
still listing silicon at dollars an ounce, an 
electrochemist has two barrelfuls of it 
which he is wondering if any one will buy 
at a fraction of a dollar a pound! Could 
anything better illustrate the revolutionary 
character of electrochemistry? While the 
electrochemist is the reverse of a nihilist, 
we must admit that he is a typical and con- 
victed revolutionist. 

To say a word or two more about silicon. 
I had a somewhat uncanny feeling when 
Mr. Tone introduced me to his half a ton 
of silicon. ‘‘Here is,’’ I soliloquized, ‘‘the 
first chance which mankind has had to 
utilize the most abundant solid element on 
earth. What will be made of it? Can it 
become as useful as iron? Probably not. 
Can applications be found for it which will 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 494. 


bring it among the ordinary metals of 
every-day life? Possibly. In any event, 
here is the material, ready to hand, and no 
one but the electrochemist could have made 
tht,” 

Something of the same feeling must have 
arisen in the mind of the chemist who first 
made aluminium a commercial possibility, 
but his expectations, based on his chemical 
process, were only actually realized when 
the electrochemist gave his solution of the 
problem. This very element illustrates 
one of the chief characteristics-of electro- 
chemical processes, viz., their potentiality 
for improvement. Chemically produced 
aluminium was out of the race when the 
metal sold for one dollar per pound, yet the 
present market price is only one third of 
that. After the chemical process has done 
its utmost, has said its last word, the 
electrochemical process, which supersedes 
it, has only begun its march of improve- 
ment. 

In the metallurgy of iron, a direct re- 
placement of the ordinary manufacture of 
pig iron by electrical processes is very far 
from a possibility, even in countries where 
coal is most expensive and water power 
most abundant. However, in the manu- 
facture of that higher-priced product, steel, 
the case is different, and already some of 
the finer qualities, such as replace crucible 
steel, are being made electrically in France, 
Switzerland and Sweden. It is only a 
question of some more inevitable improve- 
ments being made in the electric furnaces 
used to make possible the manufacture in 
them of the more common and cheaper 
varieties of steel. This will come at first 
in countries where fuel is dear and power 
cheap, and afterwards in localities where 
very cheap power is being generated by 
gas-engines using either the waste gas from 
blast furnaces or producer gas made from 
coal waste or culm. 

Even before that time the auxiliary use 


—" 


~JUNE 17, 1904.] 


of electric heating to take off the ‘peak of 
the load,’ so to speak, in our open-hearth 
steel furnaces—that is, to furnish the last 
few hundred degrees of necessary tempera- 
ture while the combustion of gas furnishes 
the lower range—is a distinct commercial 
possibility. Already our steel works are a 
network of electrical appliances for run- 
ning cranes, charging machines, hoists and 
cars, and the step is not a long one to em- 
ploy this already-present agent to help 
the heating gases over the heaviest part of 
their work, the bringing up of the charge 
to tapping heat. 

Next to iron in natural abundance is 
calcium, and our chemists and metallurgists 
are only beginning to appreciate its possi- 
bilities. Occurring as almost chemically- 
pure calcium carbonate, in imexhaustible 
quantities and at the cost of only a few 
cents a ton for quarrying, the question of 
producing the metal cheaply is the partic- 
ular task of the electrochemist. The cost 
of the metal is-practically the cost of its 
reduction, and there is no doubt that the 
electrometallurgist can and will solve this 
question as he has that of aluminium and 
silicon. Calcium is, at temperatures above 
a red heat, the strongest metallic base ex- 
isting, and is therefore the most powerful 
pyrochemical reagent. By its use many 
problems may find their solution, such as 
the complete deoxidation of melted metals, 
the reduction of rare elements and many 
other interesting reactions. 

Magnesium does not oceur quite so plenti- 
fully as calcium, but still it is so common 
that 99 per cent. of the present cost of ma- 
king magnesium must be charged against 
the process used and only 1 per cent. against 
the raw material. There is no reasonable 
doubt but that careful study put upon 
the electrolytic production of magnesium 
would result in its being produced at a 
fraction of its present cost. It is certainly 
a metal which, at its present price, has very 


SCIENCE. 


911 


limited uses, but, with a specific gravity 
of only 1.72, a capacity for being hardened 
and strengthened like aluminium and the 
property of forming valuable alloys with 
copper and with aluminium, it is certain 
that its cheap production would mean an- 
other metal added to those in everyday use. 

There is yet another metal of kindred 
character worth considering. . Beryllium 
occurs in the gem beryl as silicate of alu- 
minium and beryllium. The mineral is 
found massive in large enough quantities 
to form a commercial source of the metal. 
The separation of the beryllium oxide from 
the silica and alumina is not a very difficult 
chemical operation, but could probably be 
simplified by the application of Hall’s 
process of differential reduction in the elec- 
trie furnace. The reduction of beryllium 
oxide to metal dissolved in a fused bath of 
alkaline and beryllium salt is a step which 
would probably yield to investigation, while 
the collecting of the metal floating upon the 
bath should offer no greater difficulties than 
does the collecting of sodium. 

With a brilliant white color, specific 
gravity 1.6, malleable, ductile, forming fine 
alloys, there are a large number of possible 
applications for beryllium if it can be ob- 
tained cheaply, and it is to the electro- 
chemist that we must look for the solution 
of this problem. 

In the electrolytic refining of metals, 
copper was the first to yield commercial 
results, silver next, then gold, lead and 
bismuth. Yet there are others awaiting 
conquest. The electrolytic refining of 
nickel, zine, antimony and tin has been 
attempted, but not yet commercially mas- 
tered; that of aluminium is an attractive 
question because of the economy it would 
produce. Instead of purifying by costly 
chemical methods four tons of aluminium 
ore, we have the alternative problem of 
refining one ton of impure aluminium, and 
with a large margin of difference in com- 


912 


mercial value to work upon. It may be, 
since electrolysis in aqueous solutions ap- 
pears impracticable, that refining in non- 
aqueous solutions, or in easily fusible salts, 
would conquer the difficulty. 

In the field of producing ferro-alloys of 
the rare metals, for use in making special 
steels, even the crude electric furnaces in 
present use have demonstrated their ability 
to produce these alloys at the minimum 
cost. Here is a field which has been prac- 
tically occupied by electric-furnace meth- 
ods, or by the Goldschmidt process, using 
electrolytically produced aluminium, and 
one does not need to be much of a specialist 
in chemistry or metallurgy to see the wide 
vista of commercial opportunities here 
Opening before us. 

While our largest electrometallurgical 
industry is that of copper refining, the 
largest industrial electrochemical operation 
is that of producing calcium carbide. Cal- 
cium carbide, a substance practically un- 
known to even the skilled chemist a few 
years ago, and now beige produced by 
thousands of tons annually. Calcium car- 
bide, the commercial key to the gateway 
first pointed out by Wohler, when he made 
artificial urea. 

But why only calcwwm carbide? This is 
only one of the numerous carbides first 
produced commercially by electrical meth- 
ods. Silicon carbide is another which has 
found broad applications and formed a new 
industry, and it is not only possible, but 
most probable, that other metallic carbides 
may find large applications. Moissan has 
shown, for instance, that uranium carbide 
produces, with water, liquid hydrocarbons 
like petroleum, and the production of arti- 
ficial petroleum is a scientific possibility, 
although not at present commercially prac- 
ticable. Besides the carbides, there are 
other electric-furnace products—the metal- 
le nitrides, which are awaiting further 
study and utilization. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 494. 


One of the most vigorous and industrious 
electrochemists said to me once, ‘‘We are 
so overwhelmed by new things of possible 
use to science or industry that we can at 
most investigate only a small fraction of 
them. It is a virgin continent of undevel- 
oped possibilities. ’’ 

Of the possibilities of the direct prepara- 
tion of metallic compounds from the metals, 
the transformation of metallic salts into 
other compounds, the fixation of the nitro- 
gen of the air, the increased application of 
the simple, direct and elegant methods of 
electrolytic decomposition, reduction or 
perduction in organic chemistry, the elec- 
trification of soils and its influence on agri- 
culture, the sterilization of water by elec- 
trically made ozone and the disinfection of 
sewage and their contribution to sanitary 
science, and the various other unmentioned 
possibilities of electrochemistry, time lit- 
erally fails in a simple endeavor to men- 
tion, let alone to discuss them. 

The great services which electrochemistry 
has rendered humanity, and the march of 
civilization in the past decades which meas- 
ure its brief but phenomenal advance, are 
but a fraction and an earnest of what is yet 
to be accomplished. If in the battle of in- 
dustrial competition you are summoned by 
the conservatives of industry to strike 
your colors, answer with the courage and 
determination of the intrepid Captain John 
Paul Jones, ‘Surrender, sir! We have only 
begun to fight.’ 

JosEPH W. RICHARDS. 

LrnicH UNIVERSITY. 


DISTRIBUTION OF INDIAN TRIBES IN THE 
SOUTHERN SIERRA AND ADJACENT 
PARTS OF THE SAN JOAQUIN 
VALLEY, CALIFORNIA. 

Tue distribution of Indian tribes in Cali- 
fornia has never been completely worked 
out. This is due partly to the difficulty 
of the undertaking but mainly to the in- 
adequate amount of field work thus far 


JunE 17, 1904.] 


done in the state. The principal contribu- 
tion to the subject is Stephen Powers’s 
“Tribes of California,’ published in 1877. 
Powers’s field work was done in the sum- 
mers of 1871 and 1872, supplemented by 
a collecting trip in 1875 or 1876. The time 
at his disposal was limited, and most of it 
was given to the Indians of the northern 
half of the state, those of the southern half 
receiving very little attention. In discus- 
sing the distribution and relations of the 
southern tribes he was several times led 
into error, and in certain instances even 
referred to one stock tribes belonging to 
another. These errors were copied by 
Powell in his ‘Indian Linguistic Families,’ 
1901. 

Powers’s work contains a large map 
showing the distribution of linguistic 
stocks in California, though it does not 
give quite all that are mentioned in the 
text. In the matter of nomenclature it 
obviously was worked over by Powell. 

In 1891 appeared the Powell-Henshaw 
map of the lineuistic stocks of North Amer- 
ica, the California part of which is only 
slightly modified from Powers’s map of 
1877, the principal changes being in the 
names used for the stocks. In 1903 Dixon 
and Kroeber published a small map of the 
linguistic families of California, which, 
though not so credited, is copied from the 
Powers and Powell-Henshaw maps, with 
slight alterations on the northwest coast 
and a few changes in nomenclature. All 
of these maps are so generalized, particu- 
larly in the southern half of the state, that 
they fail to show the real boundaries of 
the areas and make no attempt to indicate 
the localities at which Indians actually 
live. They are misleading in that the 
areas allotted to the various stocks cover 
the entire area of the state, leaving no 
spaces between and no parts unoccupied. 
It is true that in many cases tribes were 
so numerous as to press closely upon one 


SCIENCE. 


913 


another, with definite boundaries between; 
but in other cases they were widely sep- 
arated and there were large tracts wholly 
unoccupied. 

The distribution of Indians conforms 
closely with that of the faunal and floral 
areas. Zoologists and botanists have found 
that animals and plants are arranged in 
definite belts the boundaries of which are 
determined by climatic conditions. In the 
northern hemisphere north of the tropics 
the northern zones are called Boreal, the 
southern Austral. In North America the 
Austral zones are called Lower Sonoran, 
Upper Sonoran and Transition; the Boreal 
zones, Canadian, Hudsonian and Alpine. 
In California no Indians live in the Boreal 
zones, and few if any in the upper half of 
the Transition zone, though certain tribes 
claim parts of these as summer hunting 
grounds. The great majority live in a 
single life zone—the Upper Sonoran; many 
in the Lower Sonoran, and a few in the 
Transition. The Lower Sonoran comprises 
the hot San Joaquin-Sacramento plain and 
certain outlying valleys, the Colorado and 
Mojave deserts, and small areas in the 
southern part of the state; the Upper Son- 
oran comprises the foothill or Digger pine 
belt of the Sierra, most of the coast ranges 
and valleys, most of the desert region of 
eastern California north of Owens Lake, 
and the greater part of southern California 
west of the desert; the Transition com- 
prises the yellow of Ponderosa pine belt 
of the Sierra, the corresponding belt of 
other mountains, and a narrow strip along 
the humid coast. 

For several years I have been engaged 
in mapping, for the U. S. Biological Sur- 
vey, the distribution of plants and animals 
in California. This work takes me into 
all parts of the state so that I frequently 
come across camps of Indians belonging 
to different tribes. These tribes are so 
little known, and are disappearing so 


914 SCIENCE. 


rapidly, that I have felt it a duty to stop, 
whenever practicable, long enough to se- 
cure short vocabularies and find out who 
the various people are. Some are now on 
the verge of extinction and several are rep- 
resented by only one or two living indi- 
viduals. It is obvious, therefore, that 
whatever is to be learned from them must 
be learned at once. 

Persons unfamiliar with this kind of 
work may be interested to know that the 
classification of tribes and stocks is based 
wholly on language. In most cases the 
numerals alone are sufficient for the pur- 
pose, but it is well not to rely on them too 
implicitly, for in certain cases they, as well 
as many other words, are strongly affected 
by contact with neighboring tribes. This 
is particularly true of remnants of tribes 
whose altered conditions have brought them 
into friendly intercourse with tribes with 
whom they were not formerly on terms of 
intimacy. Thus members of two disap- 
pearing California tribes (Ko-ko-he’-ba and 
Kosh-sho’-o) at first gave me numerals be- 
longing to different linguistic families from 
those to which they respectively belong; 
but when their attention was called to the 
matter they promptly corrected the mis- 
take. In another class of cases the effects 
of contact are so firmly incorporated into 
the language that the persons speaking do 
not realize that they are using borrowed 
words. Thus the Pakanepul of Kern Val- 
ley, assumed to be of Paiute origin because 
four of their numerals (2, 3, 5 and 6) and 
a few other words resemble or suggest those 
of the Paiutes, gave for 7 the Yokut word 
num-chin. This was not an accidental use 
of the word, for it was given me by three 
persons at different camps. Besides the 
numerals, it has been my practice to collect 
terms of relationship, names of animals and 
plants, and vocabularies of several hundred 
of what seem to be the more important 
words. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 494. 


In the Sierra region the distribution of 
tribes conforms closely with certain faunal 
belts. The higher and colder, belt, com- 
prising the Boreal zones, is not inhabited, 
and only a few tribes go so high as the 
lower half of the Transition zone, most of 
them living in the Upper Sonoran or 
Digger-pine belt, which occupies the lower 
slopes and foothills. All the way from 
Sacramento canyon to Tehachapi, a dis- 
tance of about 500 miles, fully 95 per cent. 
of the Sierra Indians dwell in this life 
zone. Most of the tribes live wholly within 
it and not one lives wholly above it. 

The Southern Pacific Railroad crosses 
the Sierra Nevada between the Yuba and 
American Rivers in the territory of the 
Nis-se-non (or Nishinam), a branch of the 
so-called Midu (Mi-doo) stock. The Nis- 
senon reach from Bear River on the north 
to the Cosumne River on the south. South 
of the Cosumne are the Mu-wa, called by 
Powell ‘Moquelumnan.’ The Muwa are one 
of the largest stocks in California. Their 
territory embraces the Upper Sonoran and 
lower half of the Transition zone of the 
west flank of the middle Sierra from the 
Cosumnes to Fresno Creek—a distance of 
110 miles. 

South of the Muwa, and ranging from 
Fresno Creek to Kern Lake and Tehachapi 
Basin, are tribes of two widely different 
linguistic families—Yo-kut and Pai-ute. 
These tribes are arranged in the main in 
parallel belts, the Yokuts occupying the 
lower and more westerly country, the Pai- 
utes the higher and more easterly. But 
there is this important difference: The 
Yokut tribes are numerous, and until the 
confiscation of their lands by the whites 
their distribution was continuous, while the 
Paiute tribes are few and their distribution 
is and always was interrupted by broad 
intervals. Powers recognized the general 
facts that the Indians of this part of Cali- 
fornia belong in the main to the Yokut and 


ry 


_— 


JUNE 17, 1904.] 


Paiute stocks; that the Yokut tribes were 
a peaceful people and were the earlier oc- 
cupants of the region; and that the Paiute 
tribes were more powerful and warlike and 
entered at a later period. He states that 
bands of Paiutes, leaving their desert 
homes east of the mountains, had pushed 
through the passes of the Sierra, invaded 
certain valleys of the west slope, and driven 
out the Yokut people. 

Tribes of other linguistic families in- 
habited the hot Tulare-Kern Basin and the 
region to the west and southwest, but they 
do not come within the scope of the present 
paper. 

In the area south of Fresno Creek I have 
obtained vocabularies from eighteen tribes, 
of which nine are of Yokut origin and nine 
of supposed Paiute or Shoshonian origin. 


THE YOKUT TRIBES. 

The country of the Yokuts comprises the 
eastern part of the San Joaquin Valley 
and adjacent lower slopes of the Sierra 
from Fresno Creek southward to the 
Bakersfield Plain. Their villages, when 
the whites first visited this part of Cali- 
fornia, were numerous and prosperous, 
and the territory claimed by the various 
tribes spread continuously from one end 
of the area to the other. The tribes were 
most numerous in the Kaweah Delta region 
and on Kings River and the San Joaquin. 
Food was abundant and easily procured 
and the population was large. Some of 
the early settlers estimated that at the time 
of their arrival the number of Indians in 
the Kaweah Delta was at least five thou- 
sand. But this region early suffered the 
usual results of the coming of the whites— 
first the Spaniards and Mexicans, soon 
afterward the Americans. Not only were 
the fertile valley lands taken possession of, 
but the rich harvest of acorns of the valley 
oaks was coveted by the hog men, who in 
their greed were not willing even to divide 


{ 
| 


\ 


SCIENCE. 


915 


the crop with the native inhabitants. At 
the north end of Tulare Lake two or three 
tribes were rounded up by the hog men 
and brutally herded and driven north dur- 
ing the winter rains to the mountains 
northeast of where Fresno now stands. 
Many fell by the way, and some who es- 
caped were ‘taken care of on their return.’ 
This and other exploits help to explain 
the almost complete extermination of the 
Tache, Natoonata and several other tribes. 
But this is not the place to tell of the out- 
rages committed by the whites on these 
inoffensive people. Let it suffice that 
events and incidents connected with the 
establishment and growth of Visalia on the 
Kaweah River, and of the towns on Kings 
River, led to the destruction of numerous 
tribes. Nevertheless, remnants of at least 
nine Yokut tribes still exist. These, be- 
ginning at the north, are: 

1. Chuk-chan’-cy, inhabiting the foothill 
country between F'resno Creek on the north 
and the San Joaquin River on the south, 
from a little above Fresno Flat in the lower 
part of the Transition or Ponderosa pine 
belt down to the site of old Millerton near 
the lower edge of the Upper Sonoran or 
Digger pine belt. 

2. Pit-kah'-te (or Pit-kah'-che), on the 
south side of the San Joaquin below Miller- 
ton, in the Lower Sonoran zone. Only a 
few left. 

3. Kosh-sho'-o (or Gosh'-sho-o), on Dry 
Creek and Table Mountain, in the Upper 
Sonoran zone. Nearly extinct. 

4. Cho-e-nim’-ne, on Kings River at 
mouth of Mill Creek, and the closely re- 
lated Cho-ki'-min-ah of Squaw Valley, both 
in the Upper Sonoran zone. Only a few 
families left. 

5. Wik-tchum’-ne, on Kaweah River 
near Limekiln or Lemon Cove, on the 
border, between the Upper and Lower 
Sonoran zones. 


6. Ta-dum’-ne, formerly on Kaweah 


916 


River below Visalia, in the Lower Sonoran 
zone. Now nearly extinct. 

7. Na-too'-na-ta (or Na-toon’-d-ta), for- 
merly on Kings River north of Tulare 
Lake, near the abandoned town of Kings- 
ton, in the Lower Sonoran zone. Nearly 
extinct. 

8. Tah'-che, on Tulare Lake, in Lower 
Sonoran zone. Only a few left. 

9. Yow’-el-man’-ne, formerly on Bakers- 
field Plain and thence to Kern Lake, in 
Lower Sonoran zone. Only a few left. 


THE PAIUTE TRIBES. 

The country of the Paiutes, as every one 
Imows, is the desert region east of the 
Sierra. The tribes of Paiute origin which 
invaded the Sierra and established them- 
selves on the west slope are: 

1. Nim, on North Fork of San Joaquin 
and adjacent region, in the Ponderosa pine 
or Transition zone. Called Pd-zo-dds by 
their relatives, the Hol’-ko-mah. Those 
living in San Joaquin Canyon are called 
by the Wuksache Kash-d-woosh-ah. 

2. Hol’-ko-mah (or Hol-o'-kom-mah, or 
To-win-che'-ba), on Sycamore Creek and 
Big Creek, north of Kings River, in the 
lower edge of the Ponderosa pine belt and 
upper edge of the Digger pine (borderland 
between Upper Sonoran and Transition 
zones). There is some doubt as to the 
proper name of this tribe. 

3. Ko-ko-he'-bd, in Burr Valley, with one 
village over the divide, looking into the 
valley of Sycamore Creek, in the upper 
part of the Upper Sonoran or Digger pine 
belt. Only a few left. 

4. Em-tim'-bitch, in the valley of Mill 
Creek, some miles south of its junction with 
Kings River, in lower half of Transition 
and upper part of Upper Sonoran zones. 

5. Wuk-sd’-che, in Hshom Valley north 
of Kaweah River, along the border between 
the Upper Sonoran and Transition zones. 

6. Pa-kan'-e-pul, in valley of South Fork 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX. No. 494. 


of Kern River, in the Upper Sonoran zone. 
They also call themselves T'e-bot-e-lob’-e-lay 
(meaning pine nut eaters). The Yowel- 
manne call them Wah-lik-nas'-se. 

7. New-oo'-ah, on Paiute Mountain and 
neighboring region, from Kelso Creek on 
the north nearly to Tehachapi on the south, 
in Upper Sonoran zone. The name of this 
tribe in the languages of their neighbors, 
the Yowelmanne and Pakanepul, is Kow- 
a'-sah or Kah-wis'-sah. 

Geographically the Paiute tribes may be 
arranged in two groups, separated from 
each other by a considerable interval not 
inhabited by Indians of the same stock. 
The first or northernmost group comprises 
five tribes scattered among the mountain 
valleys from the region about the North 
Fork of San Joaquin River south to Eshom 
Valley, namely, Nim, Hol’-ko-mah, Ko-ko- 
he’-ba, Em-tim’-bitch and Wuk-sa/-che. All 
of these are unquestionably of Paiute 
origin. 

The second group lies much farther 
south, in the valley of South Fork of Kern, 
and thence southerly over, Paiute Mountain 
to the neighborhood of Tehachapi, and com- 
prises two tribes—the Pa-kan’-e-pul, on 
South Fork of Kern, and the New-oo’-ah, 
centering about Paiute Mountain. Their 
relations are not certain. 

An examination of the languages of the 
Paiute tribes shows at once that they are 
by no means equally related either to one 
another or to the desert Indians from 
whom they originally came. The five 
northern tribes probably crossed the moun- 
tains in comparatively recent times, for 
their dialects differ only slightly from one 
another and from that of the Petonaquats 
or Owens Valley Paiutes. The two southern 
tribes, if really of Paiute origin, must have 
invaded the region in very ancient times, 
for their tongues differ so widely from one 
another and from the assumed parent stock 
that it is only by certain common roots 


June 17, 1904.] 


that their supposed affinities appear. In 
fact, apart from the numerals the resem- 
blanees are very slight and it may be pos- 
sible that they indicate contact rather than 
relationship. Further study of these In- 
dians is greatly needed. Their reference 
to the Paiute stock in the present paper is 
only provisional. 

Contrasting the distribution of the Yo- 
kut tribes collectively with that of the five 
undoubted Paiute tribes of the same region, 
it appears that the Yokut inhabit the hot 
San Joaquin Valley (Lower Sonoran) and 
adjacent foothills (Upper Sonoran), while 
the Paiute tribes inhabit the cooler Pon- 
derosa pine belt of the mountains (Transi- 
tion zone). Excepting the Chukchancys, 
who have pushed a little way into the Pon- 
derosa pines, none of the Yokut tribes 
reach higher than the Digger pine belt, and 
only three of them (Chuk-chan’-cy, Kosh- 
sho’-o and Cho-ki’-min-ah) reach high 
enough to come within this belt. 

It would be convenient to speak of the 
linguistic families or stocks as ‘nations’— 
as the Paiute nation, the Yokut nation, 
and so on—but such a designation would 
be imeorrect, for the reason that nothing 
like political unity of the component tribes 
exists. 

As well known to ethnologists, the names 
of linguistic stocks often present difficul- 
ties, and the names of tribes still greater 
difficulties. In eases where Indians have 
a stock name for themselves—as the desert 
Paiute and Shoshone; or a tribal name— 
as Wuksache, Wiktchumne, Chukchaney— 
there is no trouble, but in cases where they 
have no tribal name, and such cases are 
common, various complications arise. 

Many tribes speak of themselves as THE 
PEOPLE, and in numerous instances their 
word for people has been adopted by eth- 
nologists (and sometimes by themselves) 
in lieu of a tribal or stock name. Among 
the family names of this class are Midu, 


SCIENCE. 


917 


Muwa and Yokut; among the tribal names 
are Nim and New-oo’-ah, both meaning 
people—the first from newm or, niim, the 
last from new’-ah. In some cases a loca- 
tive or place name is prefixed to the stock 
name to distinguish the tribe—as Ahwanee 
Muwa, Chowchilla Muwa, and so on. In 
the case of tribes having no definite name 
for themselves it is sometimes practicable 
to use the name given them by another 
tribe—for every tribe is sure to have a 
name in the language of its neighbor. 
Such names are often based on points of 
the compass, meaning north people, south 
people, and so on. 

While the Yokuts have no common or 
stock name for themselves (Yokut being the 
word meaning ‘people’ in some, but not 
all, of the tribes), every tribe has a fixed 
and definite tribal name. In the ease of 
the desert Paiutes the opposite condition 
prevails, for all the tribes use the stock 
name, while only a few have definite tribal 
names. Similarly, several of the Paiute 
tribes on the west slope of the Sierra appear 
to lack distinctive names for themselves; 
hence the names here given for them are 
provisional and tentative. The doubtful 
names are Nim, Holkoma, Pakanepul, and 
possibly also New-oo’-ah; the well-estab- 
lished names are Kokoheba, Hmtimbitch, 
Wuksache. Of these, Kokoheba is a place 
name—the name of a village—which has 
come to be applied to the tribe. 

C. Hart Merriam. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 


THE CRYPTOGAMIC BOTANY OF THE HARRIMAN 
EXPEDITION.* 

THE scientific results of the Harriman ex- 
pedition to Alaska are beginning to be made 
public and the handsomely bound volume re- 
cently issued gives us the first of the three 


**Harriman Alaska Expedition,’ Volume V., 
“Cryptogamie Botany.’ New York, Doubleday, 
Page and Co. 1904. Pp. 404 and 44 plates. 


918 SCIENCE. 


botanical volumes promised, and includes the 
results of exploration in the field of the lowest 
plants. How little was hitherto known of 
some of the lower plants of this region is force- 
fully illustrated among the fungi, in which 
group only fifteen species had been definitely 
reported from Alaska prior to this publication. 
That there was no professional mycologist 
present with the expedition will account for 
the fact that only 252 species of fungi were 
collected by the members of the expedition or 
are reported for the first time in this volume. 
With conditions as favorable as those indi- 
cated in the introduction, the number collected 
might readily have been quadrupled, for a 
thousand species of fungi would be only an 
average collection to be picked up in almost 
any favorable locality, by a professional 
mycologist. Most of the species that were 
collected were due to the sharp eyes of Pro- 
fessor Trelease, who collected also most of the 
lichens, mosses and hepatics that were secured 
by the expedition. It is wholly reasonable 
to suppose that the results of the present ex- 
pedition represent only from one eighth to one 
tenth of the entire fungus flora of Alaska 
when fully known, for we must realize that 
Alaska with its islands and peninsulas, if 
spread on the map of the rest of the United 
States with its upper corner at St. Paul, Min- 
nesota, would extend from Savannah, Georgia, 
very nearly to Santa Barbara, California, and 
cover eight states and parts of a dozen more. 

Among the fungi the new species are not 
excessive, amounting to thirty-eight, of which 
twenty-eight are by Saccardo or Sacecardo and 
Sealia, five are by Trelease, one by Bresadola 
and four by Peck. By far the largest num- 
ber are from the ascosporous series (including 
the Fungi imperfectt). The forty species of 
rusts form a smaller ratio to the whole than 
would naturally be expected. A useful host- 
index concludes the story of the fungi. 

The ‘ Lichens of Alaska,’ by Professor Clara 
E. Cummings, of Wellesley, occupies 82 pages, 
and includes a review of the work of previous 
collections from the region, so that the total 
of 462 species from Alaska doubtless repre- 
sents more than half of the actual lichen flora 
of the region that complete exploration will 


[N.S. Vou. XTX, No. 494. 


ultimately make known. A most valuable 
addition to this part of the work is the series 
of keys to the species in each of the genera 
which clearly demonstrates the belief we have 
always held that, however much the early 
writers on American lichens struggled with a 
stilted and pedantic language to bury from 
view the easily discernible characters of the 
plants they described, lichens really possessed 
characters that could be easily tabulated when 
they were approached in a really rational way. 
The success with which the author has accom- 
plished this is greatly to her credit and adds 
a most valuable feature to this portion of the 
book. 

The part on the ‘Alge,’ by Professor 
Saunders has already been published in ad- 
vance of its appearance here, and is reprinted 
in the volume at hand with a careful preserva- 
tion of the original pagination, so that citation 
from the original publication can be made 
from the present work with ease and accuracy. 
In the presence of so many lamentable fail- 
ures on the part of editors to make this course 
possible, this feature is worthy of the highest 
commendation. The list contains 380 species 
of alge, nearly two thirds of which were new 
to Alaska at the time of publication. 

The ‘ Mosses of Alaska’ also represents a 
reprint originally published in 1902 by Cardot 
and Theriot; 280 species are included. The 
hepatices by Professor Evans is also a reprint; 
the Harriman expedition nearly doubled the 
list in this group, the number of species now 
known from Alaska reaching 80. 

The final portion of the work is by Professor 
Trelease and includes the ferns and fern allies. 
Seventy-four species are included in the list, 
which represents a large series when one con- 
siders so large an area belonging to a subarctic 
region, and yet when we consider that the cen- 
tral Californian ‘ golden-back’ fern (Ceropteris 
triangularis) is found as far north as Cape 
Nome we are forced to the conclusion that 
there are climatic conditions existing in the 
Alaskan region that are favorable to the 
growth of plants of a much lower latitude as 
compared with other boreal parts of the earth. 
The plant figured as Botrychiwm lunaria in- 
cisum as ‘new to Alaska’ is quite typical 


—?* 


—— 


June 17, 1904.] 


B. boreale, of which several collections have 
now been made from Alaska. 

While the work as a whole would impress the 
average non-botanical reader as a list of plants 
merely, only those who have been engaged in 
distributional studies will understand the im- 
mense amount of careful and critical labor in- 
volved in the study of the material that under- 
lies its preparation. It may be too early to 
form any general conclusions regarding the 
relations of the Alaskan flora, and it may be 
that the editors are expecting to include this 
in a later account in the two forthcoming 
volumes on the Spermatophytes which are ex- 
pected ‘in the early part of 1904,’ but we are 
disappointed only in the absence of some more 
general discussion of the relations of the 
Alaskan flora to other regions. 

The mechanical execution of the work is a 
great credit alike to the projector of the ex- 
pedition, to the editors, and to the publishers. 
The heliotype plates are especially fine. 

Lucien M. UnpErwoop. 

CoLUMBIA UNIVERSITY, 

May 19, 1904. 


The Hye, wis Refraction and Diseases. By 
Epwarp E. Gippons, M.D. 19x23 em., pp. 
ix + 472, index. New York, The Macmillan 
Company; London, Macmillan & Co., Ltd. 
1904. 

The English-speaking student of ophthal- 
mology whose special desire is to cultivate 
that subject as a useful art, has been much in 
need of a manual which should concern itself 
especially with the science of optics, geomet- 
rical and physiological, as applied in practise, 
such application being nowadays an impor- 
tant part of the daily routine work of the 
oculist. 

A few years ago the elegant little ‘ Hand- 
book’ of Suter appeared, giving what was 
necessary in a geometrical line, and a short 
time after that Tcherning’s ‘ Physiological 
Optics’ was translated. Much of the subject 
matter of these two books necessarily enters 
into this volume of Dr. Gibbons, but much 
else has been included, sometimes in a cursory 
way, yet one finds here an excellent manual 
for the student or physician who thinks 


SCIENCE. 


919 


Landolt a little stiff for the first bout, and 
wishes the encouragement of the colloquial and 
sympathetic. If one expects in this volume 
any consideration of, or allusion to, the in- 
flammatory affections with which text-books 
on ‘ Diseases of the Hye’ are often almost ex- 
elusively concerned, he will be disappointed. 
Only by a liberal construction of the word 
disease to include’ refraction anomalies and 
muscular insufficiencies can the contents of 
the book be made to justify the title page. 
The author need not be censured for thus 
limiting his subject matter. Conditions of 
the art and of the market make it desirable 
that just this ground should be covered in very 
much this way. But the title of the book is 
misleading. 

The first seventy-five pages are taken up 
with geometrical optics. In order to appre- 
ciate this part, one must know that the au- 
dience addressed is entirely made up of med- 
ical men, and that the subject matter of the 
address is purely mathematical. Young men 
who have ability and predilection for mathe- 
matics rarely choose medicine as a profession, 
and most physicians shy at any kind of a 
formula that can not be put up by a druggist. 
Yet a man who wishes to be an oculist finds, 
after six or eight years devoted to a science 
not particularly formal, that he is face to face 
with a well-developed mathematical specialty, 
and he is lucky if he remembers enough of his 
undergraduate work to help him through. An 
occasional one will regard this situation as 
refreshing—he will write the book. More 
will accept it with resignation, and ask for 
what they miscall a ‘ practical’ knowledge of 
the subject, obtained by means of diagrams 
and illustrative cases with very little of the 
condensation and generalization attractive to 
the former. It is the delicate task of the 
author to give the reader all he needs of the 
one, and a little more than he thinks he needs 
of the other. The indispensable in this case 
is just so much of the theory of centered 
optical systems as will enable one to combine 
the three principal refracting surfaces of the 
eye with two others belonging to any spectacle 
lens that the patient may wish to wear, and 
to caleulate the place of the cardinal points, 


920 


and the size of the images. The ‘ Dioptrische 
Untersuchungen’ ‘in words of one syllable’ 
is hardly attainable, but that of it which is 
indispensable seems here to have been pre- 
sented in the simplest possible manner. Sys- 
tems are compounded and equivalent lenses 
calculated by the aid of Newton’s formula, 
“cc'=ff’, in which the principal foci of a 
system are used as coordinates from which 
conjugate foci are measured by a symmetrical 
notation. In this way a good working theory 
is obtained, and is so illustrated by examples 
chosen from the eye itself, that the student be- 
comes familiar with the constants with which 
he will be subsequently concerned. Chapter 
Y., the following, is on ‘ visual acuity.’ From 
this on the science is not very much separated 
from the useful art by which it is likely to be 
applied in practise. Most of the subject mat- 
ter which comes to us by or through Tcherning 
and Landolt appears here and is in general 
very well presented. The author does not 
hesitate to express an opinion of his own oc- 
casionally. Among other things he says the 
Morton ophthalmoscope is the best for refrac- 
tion purposes, from which we judge the hole 
in the small mirror is made larger than it 
was in the earlier instruments. The horopter 
has been robbed of half its interest. This 
devilish contraption which kept Helmholtz 
awake nights and which lesser men have 
dodged as ‘un probléme de mathématiques 
assez compliqué et sans grand intérét’ floats 
in from somewhere this side of the Rocky 
Mountains bearing a brand new name and 
shrunk to nothing more or less than a toric 
surface. We prefer it with its old euphonious 
title and complicated contour. 

Near two hundred pages of the book are 
taken up with normal and abnormal refrac- 
tion. Included in this part is a chapter on 
optometers of some historic and theoretic in- 
terest; also a chapter on retinoscopy well pre- 
sented. Retinoscopy is a sine qua non to a 
few men who paralyze all cases and do a rough- 
and-ready refraction practise among infirmary 
patients. But retinoscopy is also a necessary 
part of the modern oculist’s equipment and 
deserves the space here given to it. 

Dr. Gibbons in common with most other 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 494. 


oculists thinks there is no place in the world 
for the ‘refracting optician.’ He does not 
devote much attention to his natural enemy, 
but he offers him no quarter. From a purely 
medical standpoint the oculist may have the 
best of the argument, but the refracting opti- 
cian-is abroad in the land and is not likely to 
be preached out of existence. There are eco- 
nomic conditions which contribute to his suc- 
cess and justify his claim to recognition. 

‘It is of course quite proper that the author 
should give a list of cycloplegics and their 
peculiarities and the method of procedure to 
be adopted by those who habitually use them 
in the fitting of glasses. The number of such 
is so great that they can not be ignored, but 
why so many oculists still think it worth while 
to acquire the useless and irrelevant informa- 
tion that comes from fitting glasses to a 
paralyzed eye is hard to tell. It may be 
gathered from the text that the author thinks 
such a course should be the rule rather than 
the exception. 

In the line of petty fault finding it might 
be said that Holmgren’s color test is rather 
meagerly given, that the description of a 
Rochon prism is made to do duty for a Wollas- 
ton, that it is a little dogmatic to assert in an 
unqualified way that lens and vitreous opacities 
are caused by eye-strain. The algebra has 
suffered in one or two places from clerical 
errors, and the table at the top of page 386 
seems to have been obtained empirically under 
conditions which, if well understood, have 
certainly not been accurately described. 

The letter press is as good as could be de- 
sired. The illustrations that have been made 
for the book are excellent. Their number is 
greatly increased by those borrowed from the 
instrument-maker, whose courtesy serves a 
double purpose. On the whole the author, 
publisher and instrument-maker should be well 
satisfied with the accomplishment. 

Wittram §. Denner. 

New Yorr City. 


SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS AND ARTICLES. 

Tue May number of the Botanical Gazette 
contains the following papers: Ethel Sargant 
has written concerning ‘The Evolution of the 


JUNE 17, 1904.] 


Monocotyledons,’ the argument being in sub- 
stance that which she contributed to a dis- 
cussion of the subject at the Southport meet- 
ing of the British Association. It is claimed 
that the monocotyledons are descended from 
an ancestry with two cotyledons and that the 
single cotyledon which distinguishes them is 
a member formed by a fusion of the pair. 
Isabel S. Smith has studied ‘The Nutrition 
of the Egg in Zamza,; showing that the so- 
called nuclei reported to pass through the 
jacket-cells into the ege are the ends of 
haustoria sent out by the cytoplasm of the egg 
into the jacket-cells. Mary EK. Opperman has 
published ‘ A Contribution to the Life History 
of Aster,’ in which she treats of the develop- 
ment of the embryo sae and fertilization. 
Among the interesting points is a discovery of 
an antipodal cell fusing as an egg and about 
to be fertilized. J. Cardot and I. Theriot pub- 
lish their second paper on ‘The New or Un- 
recorded Mosses of North America,’ describ- 
ing numerous new forms. B. EH. Livingston 
writes on the ‘Physical Properties of Bog 
Water,’ and from tests he has made draws the 
conclusion that bog waters do not have an ap- 
preciably higher concentration of dissolved 
substances than do the streams and lakes of 
the same region. J. N. Rose publishes a 
biographical sketch with portrait of the late 
William M. Canby. Francis Ramaley pub- 
lishes a short preliminary statement of ‘ The 
Anatomy of the Cotyledons’ in Crucifers and 
Ranuneulacez. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 


THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 

Ar the 157th meeting, held on May 11, Mr. 
G. O. Smith presented a paper on ‘ Strati- 
graphic Problems in the Northern Cascades.’ 

In western Washington, the Eocene was 
characteristically an epoch of sedimentations, 
just as the Miocene was one of vulcanism. 
The Eocene sediments are economically im- 
portant by reason of the coals of the Puget 
formation on the west slope of the Cascades, 
and of the Roslyn formation on the eastern 
slope. 


SCIENCE. 


gaa 


Study of the Hocene formations has shown 
that the sediments were contributed from land 
areas possessing topographic diversity, and 
that most of the Hocene basins were neither 
permanent nor extensive. In the survey of the 
Snoqualmie quadrangle additional facts were 
collected concerning the relief of the pre- 
Eocene surface and the conditions of the 
Hocene sedimentation. Six Eocene forma- 
tions were recognized and mapped—three be- 
ing purely sedimentary and the others volcanic 
in part at least. The maps and sections of 
the folio which is in preparation will exhibit 
two main features; the importance of the 
present areas of pre-KHocene rocks as struc- 
tural axes at the beginning of the Hocene, and 
the yariability introduced into the Eocene 
section by the eruption of two distinct types 
of lava from different centers at different 
times. The structural axes in this region 
have a general northwest-southeast trend, 
which is paralleled by the trend of the pre- 
Hocene schistosity as well as the axes of post- 
Miocene folding and faulting and the later 
post-peneplain warping in the adjacent Ellens- 
burg quadrangle. 

The principal fact presented in this paper 
was that the present ridges of old schist and 
granite determined in large measure the 
boundaries of Eocene basins and retained 
their structural importance throughout the 
whole of the very eventful Tertiary period. 

The next paper, by J. KE. Spurr, was entitled, 
“Faulting at Tonopah, Nevada’ In a small 
area, containing about six square miles, in 
which the most important mines and prospects 
are situated, the rocks are a complex of 
Tertiary voleanic rocks, lavas and tuffs, with 
a formation of lake-deposited white tuff beds. 
With the exception of some of the latest lavas, 
all these rocks have been violently and intri- 
cately faulted. The latest rocks are chiefly 
silicious rhyolite and silicious dacite voleanie 
necks, the plugs of late Tertiary volcanoes. 
The faults do not run into them, and the rela- 
tions indicate that most of the faulting was 
accomplished before, during and immediately 
after the intrusion of the necks. The faulting 
is especially clustered around the dacitie necks, 
and examination of the fault blocks shows 


922 SCIENCE. 


that they have been noticeably dragged down 
along the contact of the individual necks, and 
that the whole later area of dacitic plugs is 
down-sunken in respect to the adjacent area. 
Thus while much of the faulting was due to 
the thrust of the intrusion of the necks, much 
of it accomplished a collapse and down-sinking 
around the volcanic centers, subsequent upon 
eruption. 

On account of the extreme irregularity of 
the voleanic formations, due both to original 
irregularity and to constantly intervening 
erosion, it is impossible to project cross-sec- 
tions underground; but in mines instructive 
opportunities to study vein faulting in three 
dimensions are offered. It is there seen that 
many veins are affected by intersecting sys- 
tems of close-set faults, producing sometimes 
an intricacy almost defying analysis. 

In the Wandering Boy mine, a vein is af- 
fected by two intersecting systems of faults, 
each system with a nearly uniform amount 
and direction of throw. The result of these 
systems is to produce a zigzag line of equal 
displacement, diagonal between the directions 
of the two systems, and the blocks are pro- 
gressively down-thrown along these lines. The 
strike of the vein is fortuitously parallel with 
the trend of equal displacement, and the rela- 
tion of the dip to the vertical displacement 
such that one offsets the other, so that drifts 
perpendicular to each other encounter con- 
tinually fragments of the vein, which thus ap- 
pears to occupy in this space a horizontal zone. 

Mr. Cleveland Abbe, Jr., then presented 
‘The Historic-Economic Significance of the 
Fall Line of the Atlantic Slope.’ The speaker 
endeavored in a few words to point out the 
role the Fall Line played in the life of the 
North American Indians living along its 
course, showing that it was marked by village 
sites and may have been used to define tribal 
boundaries. 

The first European explorers probably never 
pushed as far inland as the falls of the rivers, 
and the earliest settlements also were made 
near the mouths of rivers and located on the 
coastal plain. Only after these settlements 
were well established did adventurers and 
pioneers go out from them to the more remote 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 494. 


falls. It was also pointed out that the dates 
of founding settlements at the falls grow 
later and later from New Jersey to Alabama, 
presumably due to the increasing distances of 
those points from the coastal settlements. 

The significance of the falls along the fall 
line for the industrial development of the 
bordering regions, and more especially the 
social and industrial changes which it is bring- 
ing about in the southeastern states, was also 
emphasized. This paper will be published in 
full in the Journal of Geography. 

ALFRED H. Brooks, 
Secretary. 


THE PHILOSOPHICAL SOCIETY OF WASHINGTON. 


THe 586th meeting was held May 7, 1904, 
Vice-President Abbe in the chair. 

Mr. I. E. Fowle, Jr., presented some results 
of work at the Astrophysical Observatory on 
“The Absorption of Water Vapor in the 
Infra-red Solar Spectrum.’ 

The quantitative investigation of the varia- 
tion, due to atmospheric water vapor, of the 
transmissibility of our atmosphere to the in- 
coming solar energy is the primary object of 
this paper. This transmissibility which de- 
creases from band to band generally with 
increasing wave-length, although it increases 
with increasing wave-length in the separate 
bands themselves, is well expressed by a modi- 
fication of Bouguer’s formula, e=e,a”)e«o ; 
e, and.e are the values of the solar energy of 
a particular wave-length before and after 
transmission though our atmosphere, a, the 
fractional transmission of a unit layer, m, 
the air mass traversed by the beam and .23¢, 
is the aqueous vapor in one air mass as given 
by Hann’s general formula, ¢, being the vapor 
pressure at the earth’s surface. Aqueous 
vapor seems to have no general absorption be- 
tween 0.7 and 2.04. Bouguer’s formula im- 
plies the absorption by a given quantity of 
water in vapor as independent of its density. 

Mr. S. T. Tamura then presented a con- 
densed mathematical discussion of the prob- 
lem of ‘The Nocturnal Cooling of the Atmos- 
phere.’ The paper does not admit of a brief 
abstract. CHARLES K. WEAD, 

Secretary. 


a 


Junp 17, 1904.] 


THE AMERICAN CHEMICAL SOCIETY. 
NEW YORK SECTION. 

Avr the eighth regular meeting of the season, 
held on May 6, at the Chemists Club, 108 
West 55th Street, the following papers were 
presented : 


A Revision of the Atomic 
Beryllium. C. L. Parsons. 
The paper opened with a summary of the 

previous determinations of the atomic weight, 
all of any importance having been made upon 
the tetra-hydrous sulphate. Following this 
the results of investigation upon the chloride 
and sulphate were given, in which it was 
shown that Arodejew’s BeCl,-4H,O and 
Klatzo’s BeSO,:7H,O do not exist—that the 
chloride is extremely difficult to obtain per- 
fectly pure, and that the hydrous sulphates 
lose water so easily under different equi- 
librium conditions that they are not safe com- 
pounds for atomic weight data. 

Determinations of the atomic weight were 
made upon carefully purified beryllium acetyl- 
acetonate and basic beryllium acetate. These 
compounds lend themselves with especial ad- 
vantage to the determination of the atomic 
weight of beryllium as they contain no erystal 
water and are themselves readily crystallized 
and sublimed. This is especially true of the 
basic acetate—a compound peculiar to beryl- 
lium alone. . Spectroscopic examinations of 
the residues made by Professor Charles A. 
Hutchins, of Bowdoin College, failed to detect 
any impurity. The average of seven analyses 
on the acetylacetonate and of nine on the 
basic acetate gave the result: Atomic weight— 
Be = 9.113. 

Incidentally a new crystalline compound of 
beryllium chloride, ether, water and hydro- 
chloric acid was described and it was shown 
that the black precipitate mentioned by Kress 
and Moralit, and which they evidently thought 
must contain a new substance, was a mixture 
of the sulphides of zine and iron. 


Weight of 


The Dissociation of Lead Nitrate: J. Liy- 
incston R. Morean. 
Using the data of Baekeland (J. Am. Chem. 
Soc., XXVI., 391-399), the author showed that 


SCIENCE. 


923 


at 357° C. the dissociation constant of the re- 
action Pb(NO,), <= PbO + O-+2NO, is 
0.062 when the partial pressures in the applica- 
tion of the law of mass action, 


VS po X P?no, = constant, 


are given in meters of mercury. The pres- 
ence of an excess of oxygen makes the reaction 
abnormal in that it favors the formation of 
oxygen-richer basic salts of lead; while nitro- 
gen peroxide retains the equilibrium in the 
above form. 

By aid of van’t Hoff’s formula it was also 
shown that at the average temperature of 262° 
©. the heat of dissociation is 579, the experi- 
mental value being 578 Ostwald calories. At 
higher temperatures the variation between 
calculated and observed values is great, point- 
ing to the presence of other compounds pos- 
sessing different heat values. 


The Action of Sulphuretted Hydrogen on 
Alkaline Solutions of Zinc Salts: LeRoy 
W. McCay. 

Sulphuretted hydrogen precipitates from 
alkaline solutions of zine salts zine hydrosul- 
phide which dissolves completely when the gas 
is allowed to bubble through the solution for 
As, if sulphuretted hydrogen be 
passed into a solution of zine acetate until all 
the zinc is precipitated as zine sulphide, on add- 
ing a small amount of caustic alkali and again 
passing the current of sulphuretted hydrogen 
through the solution the zine sulphide dis- 
solves. The reaction is important, as it has 
a direct bearing on analysis (detection of zinc 
in the alkaline filtrate from manganese hy- 
droxide). The solution soon becomes turbid 
from the separation of zine sulphide. If the 
liquid be mixed with concentrated solution of 
the caustic alkalies, or with concentrated solu- 
tions of alkali salts, a white, slimy precipitate 
instantly separates out which contains all the 
It would seem that the oxygen and sul- 
phur compounds of zine are analogous and 
that corresponding to the alkali zincates there 


some time. 


zine. 


is a class of compounds which may be called 
the alkali sulphozincates. 


924 SCIENCE. 


A New Separation of Thoriwm from Cerium, 
Lanthanum and Didymium; Artaur C. 
NEIsH. 

Many organic precipitants were tried, most 
of which are weak organic acids. Metanitro- 
benzoie acid was found to be the best and pre- 
cipitated thorium quantitatively from a 
neutral aqueous solution of the nitrate, while 
cerium, lanthanum and didymium were not 
precipitated. 

Tables were given showing the efficiency 
of the separation from mixtures of pure salts 
in the proportions usually found in monazite 
sands. Five monazite sands from Brazil and 
two from North Carolina were analyzed by the 
new method and the results compared with 
those obtained by the ‘combination’ and the 
fumariec acid methods. 

The conclusions reached were: 

1. Metanitrobenzoiec acid precipitates tho- 
rium quantitatively as Th(C,H,NO,CO,), from 
a neutral solution of the nitrate. 

2. When the precipitation is repeated it 
affords a complete separation from cerium, 
lanthanum and didymium. 

8. This method gives as good results in the 
analysis of monazite as does the ‘ combination ’ 
or fumaric acid method, and has the advan- 
tage in that it is shorter and offers no diffi- 
culties in precipitation or filtration, while the 
precipitant is not expensive and avoids the 
use of alcohol. 


A Crucible Charge for Gold and Silver in 

Zinc Ores: HK. J. Hatt and EK. Porrrr. 

The well-known difficulties accompanying 
the scorification assay of zinc ores, such as the 
necessity of taking but a small portion for the 
assay, the constant attention required, etc., led 
to a series of experiments conducted with the 
hope of eliminating both the troubles inherent 
in any scorification as well as the special diffi- 
culties met with in the scorification of zinc 
blende. After various modifications of the 
usual crucible charges had been tried, the final 
charge decided upon was: 


ORS jébbpeadocasooSeoos yA. T 
Seek) AGN séocqduacas00 1% A. T. 
ICTS Gon sononpnoann 25 gms. 
Borax Glass ........... 20 gms. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 494, 


This charge was tried on fourteen ores 
with results agreeing with or exceeding the 


best figures obtained by scorification. A few 
typical results follow: 
Gold and Silver. 
————’ 
Zinc. Scorification. Crucible. 
Percent. Ounces. Ounces. 
A. 8 42.50 42.54 
B. 11.5 125.80 129.40 
Cc 27.5 135.80 139.35 
D. 52 40.10 41.34 


The charge is not applicable to ores contain- 
ing more than 7 per cent. of copper. The 
proper temperature for fusion was found to 
be from 750°-775° C. and the time required in 
the furnace 35 minutes. 


A New Crucible Support: W. EK. CHAMBERLAIN. 

Three pieces of pipestem are set radially in 
a metallic ring or in the sides of an asbestos- 
lined cylinder. The pipestem being movable, 
the points on which the crucible rests may be 
adjusted according to the size of the latter, and 
the position in which it is to be held. 


Note on Milk Analysis: H. C. SHERMAN and 

A. W. Haun. 

The average results of many determinations 
of fat and specific gravity in cow’s milk were 
shown and the following relations noted. In- 
creasing richness in fat from 4.17 to 4.7 per 
cent. was accompanied by increasing specific 
gravity, but no corresponding increase of 
gravity was found as the fat content increased 
from 4.7 to 5.7 per cent. The percentage of 
solids not fat (calculated by Richmond’s for- 
mula) rose with the fat content, though to a 
much smaller degree. The sum of the fat 
content and the lactometer reading has been 
proposed as a basis for the calculation of added 
water in cow’s milk, with the claim that it is 
a more constant figure in normal milk than the 
percentage of solids-not-fat. According to the 
results presented, the solids-not-fat is the 
more constant figure of the two, and is, there- 
fore, to be preferred as a criterion of water- 
ing or a basis for calculating the amount of 
water added. 

H. C. SHERMAN, 
Secretary. 


JUNE 17, 1904.] 


THE ONONDAGA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

THE regular monthly meeting of the Onon- 
daga Academy of Sciences was held March 17 
in the rooms of the Historical Association in 
Syracuse. Mr. Guy Bailey discussed the sub- 
ject of bird photography. He showed some 
admirable results of his work in this line. 
He discussed the nesting and others habits of 
many of our native birds. 

Tue April meeting of the academy was 
held jointly with the Onondaga Historical As- 
sociation in the latter’s rooms on the evening 
of April 20. Mr. J. S. Pennock, of the Sol- 
vay Process Company, addressed the meeting 
upon ‘ Alkali Industries.’ The lecture was well 
illustrated with stereopticon views and dealt 
chiefly with the history of the Solvay process 
and of the Syracuse plant. 

J. EK. Kirkwoop, 
Corresponding Secretary. 


THE NEBRASKA ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 

Tue fourteenth annual meeting of the Ne- 
braska Academy of Sciences was held at the 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln, on January 
28 and 29, 1904, a goodly number of members 
being present and a most enjoyable and profit- 
able program being presented. 

The papers read were as follows: 


Stratigraphic Delineation of the Benton and 
Niobrara Formations of Nebraska: G. EH. 
ConpRA. 

In northeastern Nebraska these two forma- 
tions have been much confused, owing to the 
similarity in appearance of the chalk rock 
which occurs in each of the two layers, but 
a layer of Carlyle clay 200 feet in thickness 
on the average intervenes between them. 


The Fuel Value of the Common Cottonwood: 
C. E. Brssry. I 
Weight for weight, cottonwood has a higher 

fuel value than hickory, oak, or other woods 
ordinarily used for fuel, though, bulk for bulk, 
it is inferior. It also grows relatively more 
rapidly, so that for Nebraska it is a more 
valuable tree to plant for fuel than any other 
of the varieties used for that purpose. 


A Method of Preserving Insects: A. A. TYLER. 


SCIENCE. 


925 


How nearly can Latitude and Time be found 
by Means of Shadows: G. D. Swnzxy. 

Tests on Artificial Building Stone: HK. G. 
Wooprurr. 


Hybridization of Oaks: H. B. DuNncANSoN. 


The Origin and Occurrence of Arikaree 
Quartzite: G. HE. Conpra. 


The Fish Tape-worm, a Human Parasite new 
to Nebraska; Henry B. Warp. 

Noticing the occurrence of the common fish 
tape-worm of Europe in persons emigrant 
from Russia. 

The Pronunciation of Scientific Names: F. E. 

CLEMENTS. 

The Strength of Nebraska Timber: G. R. 

CHATBURN. 

Reviewing some recent tests made upon vari- 
ous Nebraska grown timbers in the course of 
an extensive investigation of the subject. 


New Species of Oladocera from Lake Hrie; 
CHARLES ForDYCE. 


A Summers Botanizing at Bellevue, Ne- 
braska: A. A. Tyumr. 


Building Stones of the Carboniferous of 
Southeastern Nebraska: E. G. WoopruFr. 
The most important quarry was stated to be 

at Cedar Creek, from which forty to fifty car- 

loads a day are shipped. 


The Status of the Botanical Survey: F. EH. 
CLEMENTS. 


Implement-making Materials of Nebraska Ab- 
origines: H. E. BLACKMAN. 


Cement Possibilities of Northern Nebraska: 
G. E. Conpra. 


Word-spectra and their Value as Tests of Au- 
thorship: R. KE. Morrrz. 


Variations in the Larval Amblystoma: J. H. 

Powers. 

The causes of variation were traced on an- © 
alyzing various types of variation, first, to a 
variable food supply, and second, to variation 
in habits. 

The Terraced Appearance of Tree Growth on 
the Missouri Flood-plain: G. K. Connra. 


The Foresting of the Sand-hills of Nebraska: 
C. E. Brssry. 


926 SCIENCE. 


Occurrence of Solifugae in Nebraska: M. H. 

SWENE. 

Some Points on Dermatobia hominis (illus- 
trated): H. B. Warp. 

The presidential address was delivered by 
Lawrence Bruner upon the subject, ‘ Migra- 
tions of Birds.’ 

The following officers were elected for the 
ensuing year: 


President—Professor H. B. Duncanson, State 
Normal School, Peru. 

Vice-President—Professor O. V. P. Stout, Uni- 
versity of Nebraska, Lincoln. 

Secretary—Dr. R. H. Wolcott, University of 
Nebraska, Lincoln. 

Treasurer—Mr. A. E. Sheldon, Lincoln. 

Directors—Professor J. H. Powers, Doane Col- 
lege, Crete; Professor G. R. Chatburn, University 
of Nebraska, Lincoln; Professor R. A. Emerson, 
University of Nebraska, Lincoln; Mr, I. 8. Trost- 
ler, Omaha. 


R. H. Wotcort, 
Secretary. 


DISCUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 
NAMATOGHAN OR EPIGHAN ? 


To tHE Eprror or Science: I suppose every 
one who has had occasion to write of ecology 
has mentally grumbled because we have not in 
English a convenient short word to express 
what we mean when we say ‘land and fresh 
water,’ of mollusks or other invertebrates. 

The German ‘ Binnen,’ when translated into 
its English equivalent ‘inland,’ does not seem 
quite adequate, since the sense is rather ‘ away 
from the sea,’ instead of ‘not of the sea,’ or 
“of the land and its waters,’ whether near or 
far from the coast. 

‘Land shells’ seems to exclude the inhabit- 
ants of streams and pools. 

Annoyed by the clumsy periphrasis which 
it has seemed necessary to use, I haye spent 
some time in search for an expression, not 
already dedicated to some other purpose, which 
could be used in such eases. 

Epigean was at first thought of as suitable; 
its meaning, ‘upon the earth’ (earth being 
understood in the wide sense of land or econti- 
nent), is not inappropriate, the sound is har- 
monious, and the word brief. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 494. 


The only criticism which suggests itself is 
that there is nothing in the word directly im- 
plying the inclusion of the fresh-water forms. 

Gea was used by the Greeks for the land, 
in antithesis to Thalassa, the sea, but Goan 
seems subject to the same criticism as Hpi- 
gean, while Hydrogean would seem to imply 
inhabitants of the land-waters only and not 
both land and fresh water. 

Many of the compounds of ‘ gzea’ are inhar- 
monious or too long to seem acceptable. 

The Greek ‘ Nama,’ meaning spring, rivulet 
or stream (whence ‘ Namatodes,’ abounding in 
streams), seemed to offer a possible compound 
not too harsh or otherwise unsuitable. Would 
“Namatogean’ seem too cumbersome? I 
should be very glad to have suggestions from 
the readers of Sctmncr, some of whom may 
have in their inner consciousness at this mo- 
ment the very term needed. 

Wm. H. Dati. 


SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 
June 2, 1904. 


THE BLACKENING OF TEETH IN THE ORIENT. 


To tHe Eprror or Science: I do not find 
among my notes a good reference to the black- 
ening of the teeth in the orient, as to the ma- 
terials, utensils, motives and distribution. If 
you will give expression to my poverty, surely 
some one will help me out. 


O. T. Mason. 


“VEGETABLE BALLS.” 

Wirx regard to Professor Ganong’s query 
’on the above subject in Science, of April 8, 
1904, the following reference is given in De 
Toni’s ‘Sylloge Algarum,’ Vol. IV., Section I. 
(1897). The reference occurs on p. iv of the 
Bibliography and reads: ‘ Barclay G—Algoid 
Lake-balls from South Mist—s. n. t., 8°, 1 
plate.’ 

The reference is obviously very incomplete 
but it may possibly refer to ‘The Scottish 
Naturalist’ or its present continuation the 
‘Annals of Scottish Natural History.’ South 
Mist is one of the Islands forming the Outer 
Hebrides. 

J. ADAMS. 


RoyaL COLLEGE OF SCIENCE, DUBLIN. 


— a ee 


JuNE 17, 1904.] 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE MECHANISM OF THE MONT PELEE SPINE. 


THE growth of the Mont Pelée spine is es- 
sentially an eruption of solid rock. Geologists 
are familiar with the eruption of solid ma- 
terial in the form of lapilli and dust, but the 
escape of lava in a continuous solid mass is a 
novel phenomenon. Naturally much interest 
is felt in its explanation, and the subject has 
been discussed by several geologists. So far 
as the literature has come to my attention, it 
has failed to include a factor which appears 
to me to be of prime importance, and I take 
the liberty, therefore, of contributing to the 
discussion, even though my knowledge of the 
Pelée eruptions is altogether at second-hand. 

The phenomenon to be explained is the 
gradual issue of a column of rock several 
hundred feet in diameter and having the full 
cross-section of the throat of the volcano. 
This rock is so hot as to be incandescent, ex- 
cept the immediate exterior, which may be 
supposed to be cooled by contact with the air; 
but it clearly is not molten, for the mass as a 
whole is so rigid as to support its own weight 
with a height of more than 1,000 feet. While 
it grows by rising, its height is also reduced 
by the breaking away of fragments above. 
Allowing for this reduction, the total length 
ot the extruded column has been estimated at 
3,000 feet. 

It seems to me quite clear that this process 
of extrusion is, properly speaking, volcanic 
eruption; that molten magma rising from 
some deep source undergoes a change of phys- 
ical condition in the conduit, and is thereby 
enabled to issue in solid form. The process 
is so rapid as to preclude the hypothesis that 
solidification results from loss of heat by con- 
duction. Even if surface water finds its way 
to the walls of the conduit, and is able there to 
cool the exterior part of the rising column, 
there can be no appreciable effect on the in- 
terior part of the column within the short 
time indicated by the history of the eruption. 
The suggestion that surface water is absorbed 
(as steam) by the lava and the lava is thereby 
cooled, encounters a double objection: (1) 
That rising lavas, undergoing relief from pres- 
sure, are in condition for discharging, instead 


SCIENCE. 


927 


of absorbing, gases; and (2) that the diffusion 
through the rising magma of water absorbed 
in the periphery of the conduit would require 
as much time as the cooling of the magma by 
conduction. 

I aseribe the solidification, instead, to the 
escape of gases originally contained in the 
magma, that is, of gases contained before the 
magma rose in the conduit. Steam is as- 
sumed to be the principal gas; but the nature 
of the gas is not important to the mechanical 
theory. As the gas passes from the condition 
of absorption into the free condition, forming 
bubbles in the magma, it is greatly expanded, 
and this expansion consumes energy. The 
ease is analogous to that of a body of air 
rising through the atmosphere and becoming 
cooler by reason of expansion. In that case 
the energy expended in the expansion is fur- 
nished by the heat of the air itself, and the 
result is a lowering of temperature. In the 
expansion of gas within the magma the energy 
is furnished by the heat of the magma, with 
the result that the magma is converted from 
a liquid to a solid condition. There may be 
other results from the withdrawal of heat 
from the magma. If its temperature was 
originally above the temperature of liquefac- 
tion then it may be cooled as well as solidified. 
Or the process may, perhaps, go somewhat 
beyond the accomplishment of solidification, 
and give to the solid a temperature slightly 
below the melting point. But all that is 
necessary to the hypothesis is that the with- 
drawal of heat from the lava suffices to change 
it from the liquid to the solid condition. 

If this view is correct, then the remarkable 
feature of the process involved in the produc- 
tion of the Pelée spine is the arrest of the ex- 
clusion and expansion of the gas at the precise 
stage necessary for the solidification of the 
magma. Usually it either falls short or 
passes beyond; in the one case producing a 
liquid magma charged with bubbles; in the 
other bursting the solid vesicles and blowing 
their fragments into the air. The rarity with 
which the process is arrested at the completion 
of solidification is probably to be ascribed to 
the fact that it imteracts on itself. The 
amount of gas which can be held in solution 


928 SCIENCE. 


by a particular magma depends chiefly on the 
pressure to which it is subject. (The in- 
fluence of temperature is not important in the 
present connection.) As pressure is gradually 
relieved during eruption, more and more of 
the contained gas is discharged. When ex- 
plosion of vesicles is once initiated at the 
top of the column it reduces the pressure o 
lower parts by carrying away some of the lava, 
and this loss of pressure in turn promotes the 
exclusion of the gas. If this view of the 
process is correct, the paroxysmal character 
of explosive volcanic eruption is strictly an- 
alogous to that of geyser eruption. 

These theoretic considerations lead to the 
prediction that when the Pelée spine shall 
have become so cool as to permit of close in- 
spection, its lava will be found to be porous. 
Porosity may, perhaps, not be accounted a 
verification of the theory, but the absence of 
vesicles would prove it untenable. 


G. K. GILBeErt. 
WASHINGTON, 
May 26, 1904. 


A SUGGESTIVE RELATION BETWEEN THE GRAVITA- 
TIONAL CONSTANT AND THE CONSTANTS OF 
THE ETHER. 

THE phenomena of radio-activity and the 
ionization of gases point so strongly toward 
the electrical constitution of matter, that the 
writer has made an attempt to connect the 
fundamental constant of gravitation with the 
electrical constants of the ether. 

The result obtained is published with the 
hope that it may suggest to other physicists 
a more valuable extension. 

The gravitational equation as ordinarily 
written is 
M, 


Fk, 


? 


where & is the gravitational constant and 
M, MW are the gravitating masses. The unit 
of mass is the gram. This is a purely arbi- 
trary unit, so I have chosen a new unit of 
mass, which may be defined as follows: The 
unit of mass shall be that mass which is asso- 
ciated with one electromagnetic unit each of 
positive and negative electricity. This mass 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 494. 


is considered to be made up of electrons, each 
of which has a definite mass associated with 
a definite amount of electricity. 

The adoption of this unit of mass involves 
a change in the numerical value of the gravi- 
tational constant. The object of this paper 
1s to investigate the value of this constant. 

The ratio of the charge to the mass of an 
electron as well as the charge itself has been 
determined by direct experiment. The most 
probable value of the charge e on an electron 
is 10—29 electromagnetic units, as measured 
by Mr. H. A. Wilson. The ratio e/m has 
been measured by a number of physicists. 
The following are some of the best values 
found by experiment: 


Kaufmann (1898)........... 1.86 x10? 
Simon (1899).............. 1.865 x 107 
Lenard (1899).............. 1.15 x10? 
Kaufmann (1901)........... 1.31 x10? 
Wiechert (1899)............ 1.42 x10? 


The mean of the above values is e/m = 1.52 
X 10' electromagnetic units. This quantity as 
well as the charge e is probably correct to one 
significant figure. 

The charge e as stated above is 10—29; hence 
the mass of an electron is m=.65 X 10—27 
grams. . 

The number of electrons carrying one elec- 
tro-magnetic unit of electricity is 10”; con- 
sequently the mass associated with one unit of 
negative electricity is .65 <10—"’ grams. 
Gravitating matter as we know it is neutral as 
regards charge. There must be present then 
an equal amount of positive electricity. The 
mass associated with this positive electricity 
will also be .65 X 10—" grams; hence the total 
mass that is associated in the combination of 
one unit each of both electricities is 1.3 10—7 
grams. 

This is the new unit of mass. The new 
gravitational constant may be found by sub- 
stituting in the equation 


M, Mm 


F=k @ 


The value of & for gram unit of mass is 
6,673 & 10—11, from which 


1 1 1 


F=% 1022 ~ (3X 10™)2,2 12? 


— 


JUNE 17, 1904.] 


The symbol h is used because, although it is 
numerically equal to the ratio of the electrical 
units, it has not the dimensions of velocity. 

The new gravitational equation may be 
written 
M, M 


2 


F=C 


The numerical value of @ is the reciprocal 
of the square of the velocity of light. 

Putting 

1 
,A=—= 

VC 
we may compare it with the well-known rela- 
tion 


On the electromagnetic system »—=1, so 


pat 
VE 
the above equation may be written 
1 
po phat 
2 


where K has the numerical value of the dielec- 
trie constant of the ether, but it is not a 
quantity of the same kind. 

This rather remarkable relation between the 
gravitational constant and the constant of the 
ether is very suggestive. The only ratio e/m 
that will give this result is the one above used. 
It is also the most probable experimental value. 

Tt appears to me that this coincidence can 
hardly be accidental. 

If mass is electromagnetic, then the unit of 
mass here used is the rational unit, and the 
- constant of mass attraction might be expected 
to be related to the constants of the ether. 

The above result not only suggests that 
matter is electrical in constitution, but that 
gravitational force is the same in kind if not 
in degree with electrical forces, and that they 
act in.a common medium. 

It may be interesting to point out the rela- 
tive magnitudes of electrical and gravitational 
forces. = i 

The gravitational force is 

be 


— ’ 


2 


SCIENCE. 


929 


and the electrical force between the electrici- 
ties contained in the masses M, M* if they 
were set free is 


1a@ 


72 


i= 


al 


From which the ratio of electrical to gravi- 
tational force is 


1 
— = (3 X 10!°)4. 
Kk (3 ) 
Bercen Davis. 
Pua@nrx PHYSICAL LABORATORY, 
CoLumMBIA UNIVERSITY, 


May 28, 1904. 


THE ROYAL COMMISSION ON 
TUBERCULOSIS. ; 

THE commission consisting of Sir Michael 
Foster, M.P. (chairman), Professor G. S. 
Woodhead, Professor Sidney Martin, Pro- 
fessor McFadyean and Professor R. W. Boyce 
has presented an ad interim report. It says: 

“ After duly considering the matter, we 
came to the conclusion that it would be de- 
sirable not to begin the inquiry by taking evi- 
dence—that is to say, by collecting the opin- 
ions of others (though this might be desirable 
at a later stage), but to attack the problem 
laid before us by conducting experimental in- 
vestigations of our own. 

“The first line of inquiry upon which we 
entered may be stated as follows: What are 
the effects produced by introducing into the 
body of the bovine animal (calf, heifer, cow), 
either through the alimentary canal as food, 
or directly into the tissues by subcutaneous 
or other injection, tuberculous material of 
human origin, 7. e., material containing living 
tubercle bacilli obtained from various cases 
of tuberculous disease in human beings, and 
how far do these effects resemble or differ 
from the effects produced by introducing into 
the bovine animal, under conditions as similar 
as possible, tuberculous material of bovine 
origin, 2. €., material containing living tu- 
berele bacilli obtained from eases of tubercu- 
lous disease in the cow, calf or ox? 

“We have up to the present made use in 
the above inquiry of more than twenty dif- 
ferent ‘strains’ of tuberculous material of 
human origin—that is to say, of material 


930 SCIENCE. 


taken from more than twenty cases of tu- 
berculous disease in human beings, including 
sputum from phthisical patients and the dis- 
eased parts of the lungs in pulmonary tuber- 
culosis, mesenteric glands in primary abdom- 
inal tuberculosis, tuberculous bronchial and 
cervical glands and tuberculous joints. We 
have compared the effects produced by these 
with the effects produced by several different 
strains of tuberculous material of bovine 
origin. 

“Tn the case of seven of the above strains 
of human origin, the introduction of the hu- 
man tuberculous material into cattle gave rise 
at once to acute tuberculosis, with the develop- 
ment of widespread disease in various organs 
of the body, such as the lungs, spleen, liver, 
lymphatic glands, ete. In some instances the 
disease was of remarkable severity. 

“In the case of the remaining strains, the 
bovine animal into which the tuberculous ma- 
terial was first introduced was affected to a 
less extent. The tuberculous disease was 
either limited to the spot where the material 
was introduced (this occurred, however, in two 
instances only, and these at the very beginning 
of our inquiry), or spread to a variable extent 
from the seat of inoculation along the lym- 
phatie glands, with, at most, the appearance 
of a yery small amount of tubercle in such 
organs as the lungs and spleen. Yet tuber- 
culous material taken from the bovine animal 
thus affected, and introduced successively into 
other bovine animals, or into guinea-pigs from 
which bovine animals were subsequently in- 
oculated, has, up to the present, in the case of 
five of these remaining strains, ultimately 
given rise in the bovine animal to general 
tuberculosis of an intense character; and we 
are still carrying out observations in this di- 
rection. 

“We have very carefully compared the dis- 
ease thus set up in the bovine animal by ma- 
terial of human origin with that set up in the 
bovine animal by material of bovine origin, 
and so far we have found the one, both in its 
broad general features and in its finer histo- 
logical details, to be identical with the other. 
We have so far failed to discover any char- 
acter by which we could distinguish the one 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 494. 


from the other; and our records contain ac- 
counts of the post-mortem examinations of 
bovine animals infected with tuberculous ma- 
terial of human origin which might be used 
as typical descriptions of ordinary bovine 
tuberculosis. 

“The results which we have thus obtained 
are so striking that we have felt it our duty 
to make them known without further delay in 
the present interim report. 

“We defer to a further report all narration 
of the details of our experiments (and we may 
say that up to the present time we have made 
use of more than two hundred bovine ani- 
mals), as well as all discussions, including 
those dealing with the influence of dose and 
of individual as well as racial susceptibility, 
with questions of the specific virulence of the 
different strains of bacilli, with the relative 
activity of cultures of bacilli and of emulsions 
of tuberculous organs and tissues, and with 
other points. In that report we shall deal 
fully with all these matters, as well as with 
the question why our results differ from those 
of some other observers.” 


THE INTERNATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF 
ACADEMIES. 

As we have already noted, The International 
Association of Academies met in London, on 
May 24, 25, 26 and 27 under the presidency of 
Sir Michael Foster. From reports published 
in the London Times, we take the following 
details. Lord Reay was nominated vice-presi- 
dent and Dr. Diels, Professor Darboux, Count 
Balzani and Professor Bakhuysen were ap- 
pointed honorary presidents. 

A resolution was passed to the effect that 
the initiation of any new international organ- 
ization, to be maintained by subventions from 
different states, demands careful previous ex- 
amination into the value and objects of such 
organization, and that it is desirable that pro- 
posals to establish such organizations should 
be considered by the International Association 
of Academies before definite action is taken. 

Professor Credner moved “ That this meet- 
ing recognizes the great value of the Inter- 
national Catalogue of Scientific Literature, 
and the importance of aiding the work by 


— 


JuNE 17, 1904.] 


making its existence known, as well as of con- 
tributing to its efficiency and completeness 
by endeavoring to secure the indexing of sci- 
entific publications at the time of issue, in 
accordance with the plan adopted by the Royal 
Society.” Lord Reay announced that the 
British Academy was taking steps to publish 
a similar catalogue for philology, and the 
other branches of learning not included among 
the sciences of nature. 

M. Boutroux gave a brief account of the 
work completed and contemplated in connec- 
tion with the preparation of a complete edi- 
tion of the works of Leibniz. Professor 
Waldeyer presented, on behalf of the commis- 
sion for investigating the anatomy of the 
brain, a report of the sitting of the committee 
of May 24. The report stated that a meeting 
had been held of the invited members of the 
central commission and of the seven special 
commissions for brain investigation, and that 
there were present members both of the central 
commission and of the special commissions. 
Professor Waldeyer was elected chairman in 
place of the late Professor His, of whose 
memory Mr. Cunningham spoke in warm 
terms. 5 

Professor Fredericq presented the report of 
the late Professor Marey on the work of the 
Institut Marey, and moved the following reso- 
lution—* The International Association of 
Academies approves the nomination of MM. 
Lippmann, Amagat, Charles Richet, Blix, 
Einthoven, Griitzner, Langendorff, Schenck, 
Athanasiu as new members of the Marey In- 
stitut. After having considered the report 
ot the late Professor Marey, dated May 5, 
1904, on the work of the institute, the asso- 
ciation congratulates the committee of the 
Marey Institut in haying obtained in France 
recognition as being of public utility, and 
thus secured the permanence of this inter- 
national scientific organization. The associa- 
tion expresses its best wishes for the success 
of the scientific work undertaken at the in- 
stitute.” 

Sir A. Geikie, on behalf of the International 
Geological Congress, moved the following 
resolution: “The International Association 
having received and considered a reference 


SCIENCE. 


931 


made to it by the International Geological 
Congress held at Vienna, 1903, resolves to 
ask the International Geodetic Association to 
take into consideration whether and (or) in 
what way it can undertake or promote inter- 
national cooperation in the investigation of 
the following subjects: ‘ Precise determination 
of levels in mountain chains subject to earth- 
quakes, with the view of ascertaining whether 
such chains are stable or are undergoing move- 
ments of elevation or depression.’ ‘ Measure- 
ments of the value of gravity with the object, 
so far as geological questions are concerned, 
of throwing light on the internal distribution 
of masses in the earth, and on the rigidity or 
isostasy of the terrestrial crust.’ ” 

The president proposed Vienna as the place 
of meeting of the next general assembly in 
1907. The proposal was adopted unanimously. 


SCIENTIFIC NOTES AND NEWS. 


Ar the jubilee celebrations of the Univer- 
sity of Wisconsin the degree of doctor of 
laws was conferred on a number of delegates, 
including Henry Prentiss Armsby, director of 
the Pennsylvania Agricultural Experiment 
Station; Thomas C. Chamberlin, professor of 
geology, University of Chicago; Professor W. 
G. Farlow, Harvard University; Dr. Daniel 
Coit Gilman, president of Carnegie Institu- 
tion; the Hon. James Wilson, secretary of 
agriculture; Robert S. Woodward, dean of the 
faculty of pure science, Columbia University; 
¥. P. Mall, professor of anatomy, Johns Hop- 
kins University; E. L. Mark, Hersey pro- 
fessor of anatomy, Harvard University; Pro- 
fessor S. L. Penfield, professor of mineralogy, 
Sheffield Scientific School, Yale University. 


THe Chemical Society of London has 
elected as foreign members Professor HK. W. 
Morley, of the Western Reserve University; 
Professor F. W. Clarke, of the U. S. Geolog- 
ical Survey, and Professor A. H. Becquerel, 
Professor C. A. L. de Bruyn, Madame Curie 
and Professor C. T. Liebermann. 


Cotumpr1a University has conferred its doc- 
torate of science on Professor Hugo De Vries, 
the eminent botanist of the University of 
Amsterdam. 


932 


On May 28 the delegates to the Interna- 
tional Association of Academies were divided 
into two groups, one of which visited Oxford 
and the other Cambridge, where honorary de- 
grees were conferred. We have already noted 
the degrees conferred at Cambridge; the re- 
cipients of the D.Sc. degree at Oxford were 
Professor Flechsig, Leipzig; Professor HE. 
Ehlers, Gottingen; M. A. Giard, Paris; Dr. 
Victor von Lang, Vienna; Professor H. Mohn, 
Christiania, and Professor H. Obersteiner, 
Vienna. 


On June 22 Oxford will confer further 
doctorates of science as follows: The Hon. 
C. A. Parsons, St. John’s College, Cambridge; 
M. Pierre Curie, professeur de physique gén- 
érale de l’Ecole Municipale de Physique et 
de Chimie Industrielles; Sir W. S. Church, 
president of the Royal College of Physicians; 
Sir Andrew Noble; Sir William Crookes; Sir 
David Gill, astronomer royal, Cape of Good 
Hope; Sir John Murray; Professor Alfred 
Marshall, professor of political economy at 
Cambridge; Professor J. J. Thomson, Caven- 
dish professor of experimental physics at Cam- 
bridge; Professor Horace Lamb, professor of 
mathematics, Victoria University of Man- 
chester; Professor A. R. Forsyth, Sadlerian 
professor of pure mathematics at Cambridge; 
Professor Dewar, Jacksonian professor of ex- 
perimental philosophy, Cambridge, Fullerian 
professor of chemistry in the Royal Institu- 
tion; and Professor Larmor, secretary of the 
Royal Society, Lucasian professor of mathe- 
matics at Cambridge. 


W. F. M. Goss, dean of the Schools of En- 
gineering of Purdue University, has received 
the honorary degree of Doctor of Engineering 
from the University of Dlinois. 


Proressor J. M. Van Vueck, who holds the 
chair of mathematics and astronomy at Wes- 
leyan University and has been a member of 
the faculty for fifty-one years, has been made 
professor emeritus, and at his own request 
relieved from obligation of further service. 


MenpicaL exchanges state that on his return 
from America recently, Professor Ehrlich 
was presented with a portrait medallion, by a 
group of sixty-five pupils and co-workers. He 


SCIENCE. 


[N.8. Vor. XIX. No. 494. 


has been given the title of privy councilor, 
and is entitled to write ‘von’ before his name. 
The occasion of the presentation was his fit- 
tieth birthday, which occurred on May 15. 


Proressor Svante ARRHENIUS, of Stock- 
holm, lectured before the Royal Institution, 
London, on June 3, on electrolytic dissocia- 
tion. He sailed for America on the American 
liner St. Lowis on June 11. 


Proressor Paut Hanus, of the Department 
of Education of Harvard University, will 
spend next year abroad. 


Dr. Hertnrich Riss, professor of economic 
geology in Cornell University, will spend the 
summer studying the clays of Wisconsin. 
Mr. F. L. Gallup of the senior class will ac- 
company him as assistant. 


Wm. W. Copientz has been reappointed re- 
search assistant by the Carnegie Institution 
to continue his work on infra-red radiation at 
Cornell University. 


Miss Rost Maria Logan, and Miss Mary J. 
Hogue, of the Women’s College of Baltimore, 
have been awarded scholarships admitting 
them to tables at the Marine Laboratory, at 
Woods Hole, Mass., and Miss Mary Gillespie 
Webb and Miss Carrie S. Bird, to tables at 
the Brooklyn Institute of Arts and Sciences, 
Cold Spring Harbor, Long Island, N. Y. 


The British Medical Journal states that Mr. 
T. J. Britten, formerly manager of the 
Wolhuter Gold Mines, has been awarded the 
first prize of £500 and the gold medal offered 
by the Transvaal Chamber of Mines for the 
best appliance for the prevention of miners’ 
phthisis. The suggested remedy is damping 
the dust by means of a water jet while drilling 
is in progress and while the blasting is taking 
place. : 


Mute. JoreyKo, lecturer on psychology in 
the University of Brussels, has been elected 
vice-president of the Neurological Society of 
Belgium. 

Tue eighty-seventh annual meeting of the 
Société helvétiques des sciences naturelles will 
be held at Winterhour from July 30 to August 
2, under the presidency of Professor J. Weber. 


June 17, 1904.] 


Dr. WitHELM REIN, professor of education 
in the University of Jena, has accepted an in- 
vitation to deliver two lectures before the 
University of Manchester. The university 
will confer on him the degree of Doctor of 
Letters. 


A BRONZE statue of Dr. Benjamin Rush, 
given to the nation by the American Medical 
Association, was unveiled at Washington on 
June 11. The statue, which stands in the 
grounds of the U. S. Naval Museum, is of 
heroic size. It stands on a base of Indian 
limestone, on which are four bas-relief panels. 
The one in front bears the inscription, ‘ Dr. 
Benjamin Rush, Physician and Philanthropist. 
1745-1813.’ One panel bears crossed swords 
and a wreath and beneath is inscribed, 
“Signer of the Declaration of Independence.’ 
Another panel bears a scroll, a pen and wreath 
with the inscription, ‘ First American Alienist.’ 
The remaining panel bears the staff of 
Mercury, and the quotation ‘Studium Sine 
Calamo Somnium. Mr. Louis R. Metcalfe 
was the architect of the statue, Mr. R. Hinton 
Perry the sculptor, and J. W. Pacey the 
builder. The statue was presented by Dr. J. 
H. Musser, president of the American Medi- 
eal Association, and accepted by President 
Roosevelt. An address in honor of Dr. Rush 
was given by Dr. J. C. Wilson, of Philadel- 
phia. 

WE learn from the Journal of the American 
Medical Association that the street at Nancy, 
where Liébeault lived until his death last 
February, has been named after him, and will 
be known henceforth as Rue du Docteur Lié- 
beault. He was the founder of the Nancy 
school of hypnology, and was in his eighty- 
second year at the time of his death. 


A BRONZE medallion portrait in memory of 
the late Professor Adamson was unveiled at 
the University of Manchester on June 3, Pro- 
fessor Sorley, of Cambridge, making the prin- 
cipal address. 


Mr. Rosert McLacuian, F.R.S., the well- 
known British entomologist, whose work has 
been more particularly on the neuroptera, 
died on May 23, at the age of sixty-seven 
years. — 


SCIENCE. 


933 


WE regret also to record the deaths of M. 
E. D. del Castilo, the botanist, and of Pro- 
fessor Amato Amati, an Italian writer on 
geography. 

Tuer British Association for the Advance- 


ment of Science has been invited to meet in 
York in 1906. 


Tuer Station for Experimental Evolution of 
the Department of Experimental Biology of 
the Carnegie Institution at Cold Spring Har- 
bor, L. I., was formally opened on Saturday, 
June 11. An introductory address was made 
by Director C. B. Davenport and a historieal 
address by Mr. Walter R. T. Jones, of the 
Wawepex Society, which has presented land 
for the station. Dr. John S. Billings made 
an address of acceptance as chairman of the 
executive committee of the Carnegie Institu- 
tion, and Dr. Franklin W. Hooper made an 
address of welcome on behalf of the biological 
laboratory of the Brooklyn Institute. The 
scientific address was made by Professor Hugo 
De Vries, director of the Botanical Gardens 
at Amsterdam. 


We learn from the London Times that a 
first report of the application of the Liverpool 
Cancer Research Fund, given by Mr. Sutton 
Timmis, as a memorial of his wife, has just 
been published. The fund consists of a sum 
of £10,000, of which an amount not exceeding 
£1,500 may be spent annually under the direc- 
tion of a committee, the proceedings of which 
have been brought into close relation with the 
Liverpool Royal Infirmary and with the Liver- 
pool University. In addition to a brief his- 
tory of the establishment of the fund, and to 
a financial statement, the report contains an 
account, by the director of the research, Dr. 
Griinbaum, of the lines upon which it has 
been begun and will be continued. These are 
chiefly experimental, as it is felt that statis- 
tical and geographical inquiries may be more 
effectively undertaken by the London and Ger- 
man committees. 


Some further details are now announced in 
regard to the eighth International Geographic 
Congress, to be held in September, and for 
the first time in the United States. It will 
open at the Columbian University, Washing- 


934 SCIENCE. 


ton, on Thursday, September 8, an informal 
reception being held at the Hubbard Memorial 
Hall by President McGee of the National 
Geographic Society the evening before. Three 
days will be allotted to Washington; general 
meetings being held in the morning; sectional 
meetings and receptions and social gatherings 
in the afternoon. Mrs. Gardiner G. Hubbard 
will receive the Congress at ‘Twin Oaks,’ on 
Friday afteroon; the Smithsonian Institution 
on Saturday afternoon, and Commander 
Robert E. Peary, U. S. N., on Saturday even- 
ing. The Philadelphia Geographical Society 
will entertain the Congress on Monday, Sep- 
tember 12, with field meeting and a reception; 
the American Geographical Society in New 
York on September 13 and 14, luncheon being 
served each day at the American Museum of 
Natural History; a trip up the Hudson will 
occupy September 15; a field meeting at 
Niagara Falls, September 16; Chicago will 
occupy September 17, and meetings on Sep- 
tember 19, 20 and 21, will be held with the 
Congress of Arts and Science at St. Louis. 
A far west trip is planned after adjournment, 
and on return to Washington President 
Roosevelt will receive the members. 


Mr. Frrrimr, secretary of the Scottish Ant- 
arctic Expedition, has received and printed a 
letter from Mr. W. S. Bruce, the leader of 
the expedition, in which he says: “ We have 
reached the southeastern extremity of the 
Weddell Sea, discovering there a great barrier 
of ice, part of the Antarctic Continent. We 
have gone 215 miles further south than last 
year, and 180 further than Ross in this part 
of the Antarctic regions. We got beset here 
in 74 §., 28 W., and were frozen in for a week, 
from the 7th to the 12th of March. When we 
got out by chance I thought it wisest not to 
proceed further in trying to get south and 
west, but to continue our program to the 
northeast. We sounded from here up to 
Gough Island and from Gough Island to the 
Cape, revolutionizing the map of the South 
American Ocean by finding relatively shallow 
where specially deep water was expected.” 


Reuter’s Agency learns that the scientific 
expedition which left England in February 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 494. 


under Lieutenant Boyd Alexander for the for- 
est region between the West Coast and Lake 
Chad arrived in canoes at Ibi, 250 miles up 
the Binue River, in April. The expedition 
had two sectional steel boats, and other canoes 
with stores, ete., were following up the river. 
The explorers, all of whom were in good 
health, had already been making some collec- 
tions on the Binue and intended landing at 
Ibi with a view to pushing north into Bauchi. 
It was intended that the boats should proceed 
further up to the Gongola River, whence they 
would be carried across to Yo, on Lake Chad. 
From the lake itself it was intended to strike 
to the eastward. 


Tue American Chemical Society will, as 
we have already announced, hold its thirtieth 
general meeting at Providence, R. I., on June 
21, 22 and 23. The hotel headquarters will be 
the Narragansett Hotel. On Tuesday, June 
21, at 10:00 a.m., the first session of the meet- 
ing will be held in the lecture room of Rocke- 
feller Hall, of Brown University. There will 
be an address of welcome by the president of 
Brown University, Dr. Wm. H. P. Faunce, 
followed by a response on behalf of the society 
by its president, Dr. A. A. Noyes. ‘The re- 
mainder of the morning session will be de- 
voted to the reading and discussion of papers. 
Arrangements for afternoon. visits and excur- 
sions will be announced on the program of 
the meetings, or at the morning session. On 
Wednesday, at 9 a.M., a session for general 
business and the reading and discussion of 
papers will be held in the lecture room of 
Rockefeller Hall. A part of this session will 
be given to brief reports on researches which 
haye been in progress in various universities 
and colleges during the past year. Such re- 
ports have already been promised from a num- 
ber of institutions, and it is intended to make 
this a new and special feature of the meeting. 
Arrangements for afternoon visits and excur- 
sions will be announced on the program of the 
meetings, or at the morning session. On 
Thursday arrangements will be made for ex- 
cursions and visits in addition to those planned 
for the other two days of the meeting. 


June 17, 1904.] 


A METEOROLOGICAL station of the U. S. 
Weather Bureau, under the charge of Mr. 
Alexander McC. Ashley, formerly local fore- 
easter at Syracuse, N. Y., will be established 
at Honolulu. 


Iy response to a letter received from Mr. 
Calvin ‘W. Rice, chairman of the American 
Institute of Electrical Engineers’ Building 
Fund Committee, the executive committee of 
the Iowa State College branch of the institute 
appointed a local committee to solicit sub- 
seriptions from the local members and ‘stu- 
dents’ of the institute. The committee con- 
sists of Mr. B. S. Lanphear, chairman, Mr. 
G. W. Bissell and Mr. F. A. Pielsticker. The 
committee has been very successful, haying 
raised about $700, with several of the local 
members yet to be interviewed. It is thought 
that the interest which has thus been aroused. 
im institute matters will materially strengthen 
the local organization and thus eventually 
prove of even greater benefit to the local 
branch than to the institute building fund. 


ReEuter’s Agency reports that the Marconi 
wireless telegraph stations at Bari and Anti- 
vari (Montenegro) have now been erected for 
a month, and are in regular working order. 
Signor Marconi will personally open them in 
July next on his return to Italy. The high 
power station at Coltano (Pisa), near the 
royal farm of San Rossore, will be the largest 
in the world, and will be built entirely of 
stone. It will be ready in August or Sep- 
tember, after which the engines and other 
apparatus will be installed, so that it may 
begin working not later than the beginning 
of 1905. The Coltano station will be able to 
communicate with Great Britain, Canada, the 
United States and the Netherlands, as well 
as with all vessels in the Mediterranean, the 
Baltic, the Red Sea, the Atlantic Ocean and 
the Indian Ocean. Signor Marconi has signed 
contracts with Chile and Argentina to con- 
struct telegraph stations. 


Reuter’s Liverpool correspondent forwards 
information with regard to the Congo expedi- 
tion which the Liverpool School of Tropical 
Medicine despatched to the Free State at the 
request of the King of the Belgians, for the 


SCIENCE. 


935 


purpose of studying trypanosomiasis, or sleep- 
ing sickness, in the autumn of 1903. ‘The 
expedition consisted of Dr. J. E. Dutton and 
Dr. J. L. Todd, who formed the recent 
trypanosomiasis expedition of the school to 
Senegambia, and Dr. C. Christy, who was a 
member of the Royal Society’s commission, 
sent to Uganda to study sleeping sickness. 
The expedition left England early in Septem- 
ber last, and proceeded direct to Boma, where 
they stayed until the end of the year. At 
Boma the Belgian authorities attached a state 
medical officer, Dr. Heiberg, to the expedition, 
a step which was all the more appreciated from 
the fact that Dr. Heiberg was at one time a 
student at the Liverpool School of Tropical 
Medicine. After a stay of six weeks at Boma, 
the expedition proceeded to Matadi, where they 
remained for a few days. Dr. Dutton and Dr. 
Christy then went through the cataract region, 
their tour lasting three weeks, when they 
joined Dr. Todd and Dr. Heiberg, who had 
preceded them, at Leopoldsville. A long stay 
of over four months was made at Leopoldsville, 
where the government placed a spacious 
bungalow at the disposal of the expedition, and 
subsequently built a hospital for the special 
study by the expedition of sleeping sickness 
cases. Thanks to this the members were en- 
abled to make careful observations, extending 
over several months, of sleeping sickness under 
the most favorable conditions possible, and to 
work without encountering the obstacles so 
frequently met with by expeditions in similar 
climes, who have not had the opportunity of 
remaining for a sufficient length of time in a 
suitable district under such favorable cireum- 
stances. As the cases of sickness were very 
numerous, a great amount of material was 
available, and the expedition were able to 
study closely all the different types of cases. 
Dr. Christy left for home on May 1, the other 
members, Dr. Todd and Dr. Dutton proceed- 
ing up the Congo River, where the expedition 
will continue their researches in the little- 
known regions of the interior. Their latest 
report was that they were in good health. Dr. 
Christy brought home with him to Europe 
by the Anversville three natives suffering 


936 


from trypanosomiasis, the disease generally 
known as sleeping sickness. It may be 
pointed out here that in a large percentage of 
cases in the Congo actual sleep is apparently 
not a marked feature in the progress of the 
disease. The work undertaken by the expedi- 
tion has grown to very large dimensions, es- 
pecially taking into consideration the ex- 
pensive research being carried on in Liverpool 
in connection with the operations in the 
Congo. The work in the laboratories of the 
school in Liverpool consists of bacteriological 
and other investigations, which, owing to the 
lack of necessary apparatus, can not be ade- 
quately carried on in the Congo itself. The 
expenditure accordingly has already reached a 
very large sum, and the thanks of the scien- 
tific world are due to the King of the Belgians, 
Sir Alfred Jones, and other supporters of the 
Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, whose 
generosity has up to the present made investi- 
gations on so large a scale possible. 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 


THE new medical laboratories of the Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania, erected at a cost of 
$700,000, were dedicated on June 10. The 
building was formally presented to the uni- 
versity by J. Vaughn Merrick, and accepted 
by Provost Charles C. Harrison. 


New York Untversiry has purchased land 
adjoining the new college building on First 
Avenue, between Twenty-fifth and Twenty- 
sixth streets, and will proceed at once with the 
erection of a six-story fire-proof building for 
the clinics and laboratories of the Medical 
College. 


Tue University of Michigan has established 
a statistical laboratory under Dr. James W. 
Glover, who has charge of the work in in- 
surance. 


THE main building of the Rensselaer Poly- 
_technic Institute, Troy, N. Y., was destroyed 
by fire on June 9. The loss is estimated at 
$100,000, the insurance being $53,000. Other 
fires have recently occurred at the institute, 
and they are supposed to be the work of an 
incendiary. 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XIX. No. 494. 


A Boarp or ANTHROPOLOGICAL StupIEs has 
been established at Cambridge, the studies 
under the direction of the board comprising 
prehistoric and historic anthropology and 
ethnology (including sociology and compara- 
tive religion), physical anthropology and psy- 
chological anthropology. i 


Tue University of London, with the co- 
operation of the Teachers’ Guild of Great 
Britain and Ireland, will organize a four 
weeks’ holiday course for foreigners, to be 
held in London this summer, from July 18 to 
August 12, with special arrangements for 
those who can not join till the end of July. 
Professor Rippman, of Queen’s College, Lon- 
don, has been appointed director and Mr. 
Cloudesley Brereton will act as adviser to 
French students. The inaugural address will 
be given by Sir Arthur Riicker, principal of 
the university. 


Dr. THomas M. Bauumt has resigned the 
superintendeney of Public Schools of Spring- 
field, Mass., a position he has filled for sixteen 
years, having accepted the deanship of the 
School of Pedagogy of New York University, 
his resignation to take effect September 1. In 
accepting his resignation the committee 
adopted a resolution of regret and at the same 
time congratulated the university which is to 
secure his services. 


Proressor ANGELO Hemprin, of Philadel- 
phia, late president of the Geographical So- 
ciety of that city, has been appointed lecturer 
in physical geography in the Sheffield Scien- 
tifie School of Yale University. 


At the meeting of the Board of Regents of 
the University of Nebraska, on May 26, Dr. 
Thaddeus L. Bolton, assistant professor of 
philosophy was made professor of psychology. 


At the June meeting of the regents of the 
University of Minnesota, Mr. E. W. D. Hol- 
way was appointed assistant professor in 
botany. 


Ar Cambridge Mr. W. J. Sell and Mr. H. 
J. H. Fenton, of Christ’s College, have been 
appointed university lecturers in chemistry, 
and Mr. A. Harker, of St. John’s College, 
university lecturer in petrology. 


SCIENCE 


A WEEKLY JOURNAL DEVOTED TO THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE, PUBLISHING THE 
OFFICIAL NOTICES AND PROCEEDINGS OF THE AMERICAN ASSOCIATION 
FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF SCIENCE. 


Fripay, JUNE 24, 1904. 


CONTENTS: 
The Organization and Work of the Bureau of 


Standards: Dr. Epwarp B. Rosa........ 937 
Scientific Books :— 

Rice on Christian Faith in an Age of Sci- 

GGA ARs, IMIS Rn Ao ota occbede ey ana pimoid ao ieolad 949 
Societies and Academies :— 

Section of Anthropology and Psychology of 

the New York Academy of Science: Dr. 

AMIN SEH MEOW GEL <a) ey sts Clea ee tial eercreaveaeies 950 
Discussion and Correspondence :-— 

A Flying Machine in the Army: BRIGADIER 

GENERAL EpwARD WELLMAN SERRELL. 

Notes on Animal Behaviour: Dr. ARTHUR 

Wis WAVASRASISTOV Gr Gio pee ce ica efiten etek ne nee ate 952 
Special Articles :-— 

The Inheritance of Song in Passerine Birds: 

Witi1aM E. D. Scorr. Standards of Audi- 

One DRE ele sMieBEN TUNE deriess ae lear 976 
Quotations :— 

The Atlantic City Session of the American 

Medical Association ; Dedication of the 

Medical Laboratories of the Unioensity of 

[ECORI TOTUN tarart i co BQN > Uolortt Lidesa bn ees 961 
Botanical Notes :— 

Adirondack Plants; Algae in Water Sup- 

plies; Structure of the Plant Nucleolus; 

Number of Pollen Grains in Indian Corn: 

The Harly Falling of Bozx-elder Leaves ; 

Philippine Plant Names: Proressor CHas. 

IW MBESSEN Acro pbc roe ane anes 963 
Expedition for Solar Research.............. 964 
Carnegie Institution of Washington......... 965 
Scientific Notes and News................. 966 
University and Educational News.......... 968 


MSS. intended for publication and hooks, etc.. intended 
for review should be sent to the Eiitor of ScIENCE, Garri- 
802-on-Hudson, N. Y. 


THE ORGANIZATION AND WORK OF THE 
BUREAU OF STANDARDS. 


Tue Bureau of Standards was organized 
July 1, 1901, as one of the Bureaus of the 
Treasury Department, and Professor S. W. 
Stratton, of the Chicago University, was 
appointed director. On July 1, 1903, it 
was transferred along with certain other 
bureaus to the newly established Depart- 
ment of Commerce and Labor. 

The functions of the Bureau of Stand- 
ards are briefly stated in the act of con- 
eress by which it was established. The 
bureau is to acquire and construct when 
necessary copies of the standards adopted 
or recognized by the government, their 
multiples and subdivisions; to make accu- 
rate comparisons with these standards of 
instruments and standards employed in 
scientific investigations, engineering, manu- 
facturing, commerce and educational insti- 
tutions; to conduct researches pertaining 
to precision measurements and to determine 
the physical constants and properties of 
materials. The bureau is also to furnish 
such information concerning standards, 
methods of measurement, physical con- 
stants and the properties of materials as 
may be at its disposal, and is authorized to 
exercise its functions for the government 
of the United States, for state or municipal 
governments, for scientific societies, educa- 
tional institutions, corporations, firms or 
individuals, and although not expressly 
authorized in the act referred to, sometimes 
also serves foreion governments. No fees 
are collected for services performed for the 
national or state governments. From 
others a reasonable fee is charged, and a 


938 


new schedule of fees has recently been pub- 
lished. 

To carry out these functions adequately 
requires large, well-equipped and fully 
manned physical and chemical laboratories. 
To this end congress has appropriated 
$25,000 for a site, $325,000 for two build- 
ings and $225,000 for apparatus and equip- 
ment. It is expected that the buildings 
will be finished and their equipment of 
apparatus and machinery installed during 
the present year. These buildings have 
been so planned and located that additional 
buildings may be added as they become 
necessary. 

In the meantime, while the work of plan- 
ning and building laboratories and design- 
ing and constructing the somewhat exten- 
sive and in many respects unique equip- 
ment of the same has been going on, the 
bureau has been effecting its organization 
and developing its work in temporary 
quarters. When the Bureau of Standards 
was organized it superseded the office of 
Standard Weights and Measures and ac- 
quired its equipment; the old offices in the 
Coast and Geodetic Survey building were 
retained, and by the courtesy of the super- 
intendent of the Coast and Geodetic Sur- 
vey, several additional rooms provided in 
the adjoining building. A year later a 
neighboring residence was rented and con- 
verted into a laboratory and instrument 
shop. In the brick stable at the rear of 
the house a gas-engine and dynamo were 
installed for charging a storage battery, 
the latter being located in the laundry; 
the kitchen became the carpenter, and cab- 
inet shop; in another basement room were 
installed a switchboard and several motor- 
driven alternators. The parlor and dining- 
room were taken for an instrument shop, 
and here four mechanicians and two ap- 
prentices turned out some very important 
pieces of apparatus, in most cases, of 
course, of special design that could not be 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 495, 


purchased already made. The three floors 
above have been occupied as laboratories. 

In these very imadequate quarters the 
bureau has not only gathered together a 
considerable equipment of apparatus and 
done a great deal of preliminary work, but 
it has also done some testing for the goy- 
ernment and the public and not a little re- 
search. The quantity of testing done has 
been limited partly by an insufficient force 
of assistants, partly by the incomplete 
equipment of apparatus and partly by 
lack of space in which to set up apparatus 
already at hand. It is the intention to 
undertake nothing in the line of testing 
that can not be done well. In some gases, 
however, instruments and standards sub- 
mitted have necessarily been retained a 
considerable length of time. In every case, 
however, the bureau has striven to com- 
plete all tests requested as promptly as 
consistent with satisfactory results. Dur- 
ing the present preparatory stage of the 
bureau the time required is often much 
greater than will be the case after the work 
is well established. 

THE ORGANIZATION AND PERSONNEL. 

The act establishing the bureau provided 
for fourteen positions at an aggregate sal- 
ary of $27,140. The next year (1902-3) 
the number was increased to twenty-four 
at an aggregate salary of $36,060. For the 
present fiscal year there are altogether in 


‘the bureau fifty-eight positions at an ag- 


gregate salary of $74,700. These positions 
are as follows: 


One director, one physicist, one chemist...... 3 
Hight assistant physicists, one assistant chem- 
SitdacamabAsanda ovooobadeoOnDeOCOUS a0 9 
Fifteen laboratory assistants, one librarian, one 
computer, one draftsman.............+-- 18 
One secretary, four clerks, two messengers, one 
storekeeper ...... 2.0 e seer eee eee tenes 8 
Four mechanicians, two woodworkers, three ap- 
prentices, two laborers.........-.-+..... 11 


JuNE 24, 1904.] 


One engineer, one assistant engineer, one elec- 
trician, two firemen, two watchmen, one 
janitor, one charwoman................. 9 


Thirteen additional positions will be 
available for the next fiscal year. All 
positions in the bureau are filled through 
the civil service commission, in many cases 
as the result of special civil service exam- 
inations. An erroneous idea is more or 
less prevalent that even scientific appoint- 
ments in the government are made on the 
basis of personal or political influence. 
Nothing could be further from the fact. 
The officers of the bureau have been free 
from any such pressure and in every case 
they have striven to select the best man 
that was available for any given position. 
These positions are permanent, the civil 
service commission affording ample protec- 
tion against loss of position without suffi- 
cient cause. Thus, while the interests of 
the government are protected on the one 
hand, the interests of the servants of the 
government are guarded on the other; and: 
while the machinery of selection sometimes 
seems ponderous and appointments are 
often considerably delayed, it would be 
difficult to conceive other methods that 
would accomplish what the civil service 
actually does accomplish without equally 
serious objections of one kind or another. 

For convenience of administration the 
bureau has been divided into three divi- 
sions. Division I. is under the personal 
charge of the director; Division II. is under 
the charge of the writer; and Division JIT. 
is under the charge of the chemist, Pro- 
fessor W. A. Noyes. 


DIVISION I. 
Division I. comprises six sections, as fol- 
lows: 
1. Weights and Measures, under the 
charge of Mr. L. A} Fischer (Columbia 
University), who was for many years con- 


SCIENCE. 


939 


nected with the office of Standard Weights 
and Measures. He is assisted by L. G. 
Hoxton (University of Virginia), R. Y. 
Ferner (University of Wisconsin), N. S. 
Osborne (Michigan School of Mines) and 
L. L. Smith. 

2. Heat and Thermometry, under the 
charge of Dr. C. W. Waidner (Johns Hop- 
kins University), assisted by Dr. G. K. 
Burgess (M. I. T. and University of Paris) 
and Mr. H. C. Dickinson (Williams and 
Clark University). 

3. Light and Optical Instruments, under 
the personal charge of the director, assisted. 
by Dr. P. G. Nutting (University of Cali- 
fornia and Cornell) and Mr. F. J. Bates 
(University of Nebraska). 

4. Engineering Instruments, under the 
charge of Mr. A. S. Merrill (M. I. T.). 

5. The Office, under the charge of the 
secretary, Mr. Henry D. Hubbard (Uni- 
versity of Chicago), assisted by Dr. J. BR. 
Benton (Cornell), librarian, Mr. D. HE: 
Douty (Clark University), storekeeper, 
four clerks and two messengers. 

6. The Instrument Shop, with Mr. Oscar 
G. Lange, chief mechanician, and three 
other mechanicians and two apprentices, 
and the woodworking shop with two wood- 
workers. 

DIVISION II. 

Division II. comprises six sections, as 
follows: 

1. Resistance and Electromotive Force, 
under the charge of Dr. F. A. Wolff (Johns 
Hopkins University), assisted by Mr. F. E. 
Cady (Massachusetts Institute of Technol- 
ogy) and Dr. G. W. Middlekauf (Johns 
Hopkins University). 

2. Magnetism and Absolute Measure- 
ment of Current, under the charge of Dr. 
K. H. Guthe (University of Marburg, Uni- 
versity of Michigan). : 

3. Inductance and Capacity, under the 
personal charge of the physicist, assisted 
by Dr. N. E. Dorsey (Johns Hopkins Uni- 


940 


versity) and Mr. F. W. Grover (Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology and Wes- 
leyan). 

4. Electrical Measuring Instruments, 
also under the personal charge of the 
physicist, assisted by Dr. M. G. Lloyd (Uni- 
versity of Pennsylvania), H. B. Brooks 
(Ohio State University), C. H. Reid 
(Purdue) and F. S. Durston (Wesleyan). 

5. Photometry, under the charge of Mr. 
EK. P. Hyde (Johns Hopkins University). 

6. Engineering Plant, under the charge 
of the engineer, Mr. C. F. Sponsler (Penn- 
sylvania State College). 


DIVISION III. 
Division III. 
work of the bureau. 


comprises the chemical 
At present the per- 


sonnel of this division includes, besides the ~ 


chemist, only the assistant chemist, Dr. 
H. N. Stokes (Johns Hopkins University). 
This work is relatively late im its organiza- 
tion, for the reason that the bureau has no 
place in which to develop a chemical labo- 
ratory. Plans are being matured the pres- 
ent fiseal year, and as soon as the new 
buildings are ready a complete chemical 
laboratory will be installed in one of them. 
Through the courtesy of President Rem- 
sen, Professor Noyes is doing some work 
this year in the chemical laboratory of 
Johns Hopkins University; and through 
the courtesy of Dr. Wiley, of the agricul- 
tural department, Dr. Stokes is dog some 
work in the chemical laboratory of the 
bureau of chemistry. We expect to see 
some additions to the chemical force at the 
beginning of the next fiscal year. 


THE VISITING COMMITTEE. 

In naming the personnel of the bureau, 
I must not omit to include the visiting 
committee, constituted as follows: Presi- 
dent Ira Remsen, Johns Hopkins Univer- 
sity; President Henry S. Pritchett, Massa- 
chusetts Institute of Technology ; Professor 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vor. XIX. No. 495. 


Edward L. Nichols, Cornell University; 
Professor Elihu Thomson, Lynn, Massa- 
chusetts; Mr. Albert Ladd Colby, Metal- 
lurgical Engineer, Bethlehem, Pennsyl- 
vania. 

These gentlemen meet in Washington at 
least once each year, and after receiving a 
report from the director, make a thorough 
examination of the work of the bureau. 
On the basis of this examination they pre- 
sent a report to the secretary of commerce 
and labor, making such recommendations 
as they think proper. This committee has 
already been of much service to the bureau, 
and it is believed that it will also serve a 
valuable purpose as a medium of communi- 
cation between the scientific public and the 
bureau. 

The director of the Bureau of Standards 
renders an annual report and submits his 
estimates of the needs of the bureau to the 
secretary of commerce and labor. Through 
him congress receives these estimates and 
grants specific sums for buildings, for 
equipment, for current expenses and for 
salaries, after the director has appeared 
before the appropriations committees of 
both houses and explained in detail the 
needs of the bureau and the work to be 
carried on with the money appropriated. 


THE SCIENTIFIC WORK. 

The scientific work and testing which the 
bureau is doing at present or for which 
preparations are in progress may now be - 
briefly stated. 


4 DIVISION I. 
Section 1. Weights and Measures, in- 
eluding the determination of lengths, 


masses and volumes. 

The bureau possesses at the present time 
two iridio-platinum copies of the inter- 
national meter, to which all lengths are 
referred, and apparatus for comparing 
other bars with them. One of these stand- 
ards was taken to Paris last year by Mr. 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


Fischer and recompared with the stand- 
ards of the international bureau. 

It will be remembered that in 1893 con- 
gress adopted the international meter as 
the fundamental unit of length, continuing 
the ratio of the yard to the meter as 36 to 
39.37. At the same time the international 
kilogram was adopted as the fundamental 
unit of mass. Thus the old standard yard 
of 1840 and the troy pound of the mint of 
1827 were superseded, and hence all meas- 
ures of length and mass in either metric or 
English system are now referred to the 
international meter and kilogram. 

We are at present prepared to determine 
the length of any standard from 1 deci- 
meter to 50 meters, and also to calibrate the 
subdivisions of such standards and to de- 
termine the coefficient of expansion of the 
same for ordinary ranges of temperature. 
‘The bureau is also prepared at the pres- 
ent time to compare base-measuring ap- 
paratus and steel tapes, but the facilities 
are such that the best results are only 
attained at the expense of great labor. 

The tunnel connecting the physical and 
mechanical laboratories will be fitted out 
with facilities for comparing this kind of 
apparatus. This tunnel will be 170 feet 
long, 7 feet wide and 8 feet high, and 
facilities will be provided for comparing 
tapes up to 50 meters in leneth and to lay 
out a base of the same length with an error 
not greater than one part in two or three 
million, over which base-measuring ap- 
paratus may be tested. Means will also be 
provided for raising the temperature to, 
say, 40° Centigrade, and lowering to 10° 
C., for the determination of temperature 
coefficients of apparatus submitted. 

The bureau possesses two iridio-platinum 
copies of the international kilogram and 
also the necessary working standards to 
verify masses from 0.1 milligram to 20 
kilograms. The balances now on hand in- 
elude a series of the best American makes 


SCIENCE. 


941 


and one precision balance similar to those 
found at the International Bureau of 
Weights and Measures. These are to be 
supplemented by other precision balances 
now being constructed, and when the phys- 
ical building is completed and the balances 
installed the determination of masses 
within the above-named range may be 
made with the highest degree of accuracy. 

The determination of the density of 


. solids and of liquids is also part of the 


work of this section. Two sets of Jena 
elass hydrometers, graduated to read densi- 
ties directly from 0.6 to 2.0, and verified at 
the Normal-Aichungs Kommission of Ber- 
lin, form part of the newer apparatus of 
this section. 

Capacity measures from 1 milliliter to 
40 liters are being standardized, and plans 
are being made to test various kinds of 
chemical measuring apparatus in large 
quantities. 

Aneroid barometers are also tested by 
this section, employing the very convenient 
apparatus designed by Dr. Hebe of the 
Reichsanstalt and used at that institution. 

The bureau has also been called upon to 
advise the officers of state and city sealers 
of weights and measures regarding the 
proper equipment of those officers and the 
methods to be pursued in performing their 
functions. 

Section 2. Thermometry and Pyrom- 
etry.—Facilities have now been provided 
for the testing of mercurial thermometers 
in the interval — 30° C. to + 550° C. The 
testing of toluene, petroleum-ether and 
pentane thermometers, and copper con- 
stantan thermocouples for low temperature 
work, will be undertaken in the near fu- 
ture, the range extending down to about 
— 200° C. 

The standard 


scale of temperature 


-adopted by this bureau for work in the 


interval — 30° to + 100° C. is the seale of 
the hydrogen gas thermometer, as defined 


942 SCIENCE. 


by the resolutions of the committee of the 
International Bureau of Weights and Meas- 
ures, dated October 15, 1887. (This scale 
has now come into world-wide use, and its 
general adoption in all important scientific 
and technical work has contributed toward 
’ the solution of important questions bearing 
on the mechanical equivalent of heat and 
the international electrical units.) 

As primary standards the bureau now 
has fifteen Tonnelot and Baudin thermom- 
eters that have been carefully studied at 
the international bureau and which are 
now undergoing further intercomparison 
here. 

As primary standards, in the interval 
100° to 600° C., Dr. Waidner has had con- 
structed some specially designed platinum 
resistance thermometers, both of the com- 
pensated and potential lead type, together 
with resistance bridges and other apparatus 
designed to afford the highest accuracy and 
convenience in working. He has chosen 
the platinum resistance thermometer as the 
primary standard of the bureau because it 
defines a scale of temperature that is at 
any time reproducible in any part of the 
world, and unlike most standard scales, it 
is not locked up in a few instruments that 
have been directly compared with the gas 
thermometer. As secondary and working 
standards in this interval, 100° C. to 550° 
C., the bureau has a number of mercury 
thermometers constructed of French hard 
glass and of Jena borosilicate (59’”) glass. 
Those intended for work above 300° C. 
have the space above the mercury filled 
with dry N or CO, gas under pressure. 
These mercurial standards are intercom- 
pared from time to time and occasionally 
they will be compared with the platinum 
resistance thermometers. 

In the interval 0° C. to — 200° C. the 
standard scale. of temperature is again that 
of the hydrogen-gas thermometer, and here 
also the- platinum resistance thermometer 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 495. 


serves to define the scale. For work in this 
range the resistance thermometer is, as be- 
fore, referred to three known temperatures, 
viz., melting ice, melting CO,, and the boil- 
ing point of liquid oxygen. As secondary 
and working standards in this interval, 
the bureau has a number of toluene ther- 
mometers, and copper-constantan thermo- 
couples; and, in addition, some petroleum- 
ether and pentane thermometers, for use 
as low as — 180° C. 

The scope of the testing work in this 
field, which is rapidly increasing, is already 
somewhat varied. It includes the certifi- 
cation of precision thermometers to be used 
in scientific work, the certification of stand- 
ards used by some American thermometer 
makers, of thermometers used in important 
engineering tests, and of special types of 
mechanical thermometers used in industrial 
operations. 

One branch of testing which promises to 
grow rapidly is the testing of clinical ther- 
mometers. Special apparatus has, there- 
fore, been designed and constructed in the 
instrument shop of the bureau, to enable 
this work to be carried on with the greatest 
rapidity and precision. As an illustration 
of the results attained, it may be noted that 
600 clinical thermometers can be read, at 
one temperature, in the space of 30 
minutes. 

Special facilities have been provided for 
high temperature testing, such as the stand- 
ardization and testing of nearly all kinds 
of high temperature measuring instru- 
ments, including thermocouples, platinum 
resistance thermometers, expansion and 
optical pyrometers; the determination of 
the melting points of metals and alloys; 
the determmation of the specific heats and 
coefficients of expansion at high tempera- 
ture, ete. é 

Some of the apparatus has already been 
installed for the determination of the 
ealorifie value of fuels. 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


For carrying on this work the laboratory 
has been equipped with gas blast furnaces; 
electric furnaces which will maintain for 
hours temperatures as high as 1,400° or 
1,500° C., constant to within a few degrees; 
electrically heated black bodies; and the 
necessary accessory apparatus, such as po- 
tentiometers, special resistance bridges, 
recording pyrometers, etc. 

As primary standards for, work in the 
interval 600° C. to 1,600° C., thermo- 
couples obtained from various sources are 
used. These couples are referred to the 
seale of the nitrogen gas thermometer by 
measurement of their electromotive force 
at known temperatures, viz., the melting 
or freezing points of some of the metals. 

The high temperature scale used by this 
bureau is based on the melting and freezing 
points of the metals as determined by Hol- 
born and Day in their painstaking re- 
searches on the nitrogen gas thermometer. 
The seale is thus a reproduction of the high 
temperature scale used by the Physikalisch- 
Technische Reichsanstalt, and its adoption 
serves to extend the use of a uniform scale, 
which is always to be desired in physical 
measurements. 

The establishment of our standard scales 
and the development of the apparatus re- 
quired in testing have necessarily taken the 
greater part of the time since the establish- 
ment of the bureau. Research work has 
not, however, been neglected. The estab- 
lishment of the standard scales has opened 
up a number of problems bearing on heat 
and temperature measurements, the in- 
vestigation of which Dr. Waidner and Dr. 
Burgess have undertaken; this will form 
an important division of the work. 

Section 3. Light and Optical Instru- 
ments.—The work of this section, which is 
’ under the personal charge of the director, 
has only recently been imaugurated, and 
it can not be fully developed until the 
second of the new buildings is occupied. 


SCIENCE. 


943 


Dr. Nutting is now carrying on some in- 
vestigations on the electrical discharges in 
gases, to determine among other things the 
conditions necessary for producing a given 
spectrum by such a light source. Mr. Bates 
is making a careful study of polariscopic 
measurements, with special reference to the 
accurate determination of the percentage 
of pure sugar in a sample. The bureau 
has undertaken, at the request of the Treas- 
ury Department, to supervise the work of 
polariscopic analysis of sugar in all the 
custom houses of the country, and this is 
being done by Professor Noyes and Mr. 
Bates. 

Section 4. EHngineering Instruments.— 
The work to be undertaken in the near, 
future in this section will include the test- 
ing of gas meters, water meters and pres- 
sure gauges, and testing the strength of 
materials, using for the latter work a 
100,000-pound testing machine. Prepara- 
tions for this work have only recently been 
begun, but the work is progressing rapidly. 
The range of the work will be extended 
beyond that indicated above as fast as pos- 
sible. 

DIVISION II. 

Section 1. Resistance and Electromotwe 
Porce.—This work was begun by Dr. Wolff 
in the office of standard weights and meas- 
ures several years before the Bureau of 
Standards was established. It was, there- 
fore, the first section of the electrical work 
to do testing for the public and is now in a 
comparatively forward state of develop- 
ment. In addition to standard resistances 
and standard cells*this laboratory also tests 
precision resistance boxes, Wheatstone 
bridges, potentiometers, precision shunts, 
ete. Specific resistances, temperature co- 
efficients and thermo-electric properties of 
materials are also determined. A consid- 
erable part of the work of this section con- 
sists in the verification of apparatus of this 
kind for the other sections of the bureau. 


944 


For the present all resistance measure- 
ments of the bureau are referred to the 
mean of a number of one-ohm manganin 
standards which are reverified from time 
to time at the Physikalisch-Technische 
Reichsanstalt, and are, therefore, known in 
terms of the primary mercurial standards 
of that imstitution. 

The construction of secondary mercurial 
standards, which after suitable aging 
change less than wire standards, has been 
begun and in time will be of service in 
fixine with the greatest possible accuracy 
the value of the one-ohm working stand- 
ards. It is intended as soon as possible to 
construct a number of primary mercurial 
resistance standards. A supply of suitable 
Jena glass tubing has been secured, but the 
urgent demands upon the section for test- 
ing and the limited force available pre- 
elude this important piece of work for the 
present. 

The set of manganin resistance stand- 
ards of the bureau consists of ten one-ohm 
coils and four coils each of the following 
denominations: 10, 100, 1,000, 10,000, 100,- 
000; .1, .01, .001, .0001, .00001, besides two 
two-ohm, three three-ohm, two five-ohm 
coils and two megohm boxes, this giving 
in most cases two reference standards and 
two working standards of each denomina- 
tion. 

Special efforts have been made to secure 
the accurate comparisons of the one-ohm 
coils with those of the other denominations, 
bearing the ratios of 1, 10, 100, ete. For 
this purpose as well as for the most ac- 
curate measurement of “other resistances, 
Dr. Wolff designed and had constructed by 
Otto Wolff, of Berlin, a special mercury 
contact Wheatstone bridge of the Anthony 
form. For directly determining the ratio 
of two nearly equal coils Dr. Wolff had a 
special set of ratio coils and a four-dial 
shunt box constructed which enabled the 
ratio to be read off directly to parts in a 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 495, 


million, the dials reading respectively .1 
per cent., .01 per, cent., .001 per cent. and 
.0001 per cent. Other special apparatus 
has been built or is under way for making 
precision measurements with a minimum 
of labor in the observations and computa- 
tions. 

The legal standard of electromotive force 
in the United States is the Clark cell, the 
value of which is 1.434 international volts 
at 15° C. and is, of course, the value used 
by the bureau. The Reichsanstalt uses a 
value nearly 0.1 per cent. smaller, namely, 
1.4328. This unfortunate discrepancy can 
only be removed by further action of the 
next international congress followed by an 
act of congress if a change is authorized, 
fixing anew our legal standard. The value 
1.433 is, perhaps, the nearest value that 
can be assigned from present data. 

A considerable amount of testing has al- 
ready been done by this section, chiefly 
resistance standards and resistance boxes, 
but including also a variety of other ap- 
paratus. 

Section 2. Magnetism and Absolute 
Measurement of Cuwrrent.—Preparations 
are under way for magnetic testing, but 
want of laboratory space has retarded the 
development of this work. Dr. Guthe is 
carrying on two important researches, 
namely, a study of the silver voltameter 
and a redetermination of the electrochem- 
ical equivalent of silver and of the absolute 
value of the Weston and Clark standard 
cells. A new absolute electrodynamometer 
is to be built for the latter investigation. 
The results of the investigation of the vari- 
ous forms of silver voltameters have re- 
cently been communicated to the American 
Physical Society. The magnetic laboratory 
is about to be established, and magnetic 
testing and research will be developed as 
rapidly as our limited foree will permit. 

Srction 3. Inductance and Capacity.— 
A careful study of mica and paper con- 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


densers has been made, including the meas- 
urement of their, capacities by different 
methods, the effect of time of charge upon 
their measured capacity, and the deter- 
mination of absorption, leakage and tem- 
perature coefficients. -Condensers have been 
purchased from various makers in Eng- 
land, France, Germany and America, and 
comparisons made with a view of deter- 
mining the best performance to be obtained 
from both mica and paper condensers when 
used as measures of capacity. Some very 
interesting and valuable results have thus 
been obtained, although the work is not yet 
completed. Two large air condensers have 
recently been constructed to be used as 
standards. A new form of rotating com- 
mutator for use in determining capacities 
in absolute measure has recently been com- 
pleted in our instrument shop and has been 
used in this work. 

A considerable number of standards of 
inductance have been acquired and a great 
deal of work has been done in comparing 
inductances and determining their values 
absolutely. The bureau is now in a posi- 
tion to make accurate measures of both 
capacity and inductance and to compare 
and test condensers and inductance stand- 
ards for the public. 

Section 4. Electrical Measuring In- 
struments.—This section includes both al- 
ternating and direct current imstruments 
(ineluding imstruments for measuring 
heavy current and high potential) except 
those precision instruments included in 
Section 1. Some testing of ammeters, volt- 
meters, wattmeters and watthour meters 
has been done for the public, but the prin- 
cipal work done so far has been prepara- 
tory. Many instruments have been pur- 
chased from the best instrument-makers at 
home and abroad,’ and other instruments 
have been designed and built in our own 
shop. Much of the apparatus purchased 
has been tested and in some eases altered 


SCIENCE. 


945 


and improved. Methods of measurement 
have been investigated, and a considerable 
experience acquired preparatory to the 
equipment of the laboratory for this work 
in the new building, to which this work has 
recently been transferred. 

In addition to direct-current generators 
and storage batteries the followimg equip- 
ment of generators for alternating current 
has been acquired : 

1. A small 120-eyele alternator, single- 
phase, suitable for voltmeter or condenser 
testing. 

2. A three-phase 120-cycle alternator 
driven by an inverted rotary used as a 
motor and itself capable of giving a three- 
phase 60-cycle current. 

-3. A pair of 60-cycle three-phase revolv- 
ing field alternators (direct-connected to 
a driving motor), of which one can have its 
armature rotated by a hand wheel while 
running, so that its current is displaced in 
one phase with respect to the other. Using 
one of these generators for the main ecur- 
rent (which by use of transformers may 
be multiplied at reduced voltage) and the 
other for the potential current, any desired 
power factor may be obtained and watt- 
meters and watthour meters conveniently 
tested up to a capacity of 1,000 amperes 
and any desired voltage. 

4. A pair of two-phase alternators, sur- 
face-wound and giving currents of nearly 
sine wave form (direct-connected to a driv- 
ing motor), one alternator giving 60 cycles 
and the other 180, arranged so that the two 
armatures may be placed in series and the 
wave form varied through a considerable 
range by varying the magnitude and 
phase of the third harmonic. This is use- 
ful in studying the effects of varying wave 
form on the indications of measuring in- 
struments of different kinds. For study- 
ing the effects of variations of frequency 
the speed can be varied through wide 
limits, and, for higher frequencies, the 


946 SCIENCE. 


higher frequency machine may be used 
alone. Transformers are arranged to 
change these two-phase currents to three- 
phase when desired. 

5. Another three-machine set is under 
construction by the General Hlectrie Co. 
This contains two 60-cycle three-phase 
alternators, with adjustable phase relation 
and surface windings, giving nearly sine 
wave form. 

Special attention has been given to the 
matter of accurately measuring frequency, 
phase and wave form as well as alternating 
voltages, currents and power. These latter 
quantities are measured by means of in- 
struments which admit of accurate calibra- 
tion with direct currents and electromotive 
forces, the latter bemg measured by po- 
tentiometers, using standard resistances 
and Weston cells, the e.m.f. of the latter 
being of course known in terms of the 
standard Clark cells of the bureau. Thus 
all current, voltage and power measure- 
ments, both direct and alternating, are re- 
ferred to standard resistances and standard 
cells. 

The alternating instruments employed 
are as free as possible from errors due to 
inductance, eddy currents and capacity. 
Corrections are applied for the effects of 
small residual inductances when necessary. 
The alternating generators employed are 
driven by motors operated from storage 
batteries, enabling the speed and voltage 
to be maintaimed very uniform and meas- 
urements to be made with great precision. 
Thus frequency, voltage, power factor and 
wave form are controlled and varied as 
desired, and every effort is made to secure 
accurate measurements. 

The bureau is now prepared to test alter- 
nating voltmeters, ammeters or dynamom- 
eters, wattmeters, watthour meters, phase 
and power factor meters, frequency indi- 
eators and other similar apparatus. Re- 
cently some very careful tests have been 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 495. 


made on a lot of watthour meters to deter- 
mine separately the effects of varying the 
voltage, frequency, power factor, tempera- 
ture and wave form from the normal con- 
ditions, and of the load from 1 per cent. 
to 150 per cent. of normal full load, and 
curves plotted showing these several effects. 
As some of these effects were small, and as 
only one variable was altered at a time, 
very accurate measurements were required 
to determine the effects in question. 

In the testing of direct-current instru- 
ments the bureau is now prepared to handle 
apparatus of capacities up to 1,000 amperes 
and 1,000 volts. <A larger storage battery 
is being installed, which will give currents 
up to 5,000 amperes at 4 volts or 10,000 
amperes at 2 volts, and a high potential 
battery of several thousand volts will be 
installed in the near future. 

Section 5. Photometry.—One of the 
rooms of the temporary laboratory of the 
bureau was early assigned to photometric 
work, and an equipment of apparatus 
provided for measuring mean horizontal 
candle-power of incandescent lamps. The 
work was inaugurated by Dr. Wolff, but is 
now in charge of Mr. Hyde. As soon as 
the new buildings are occupied this equip- 
ment will be greatly augmented and the 
work enlarged. After doing considerable 
preliminary work the bureau is now pre- 
pared to test and certify incandescent 
lamps to be used as standards, and has 
already done this in a number, of cases for 
manufacturers and others. 

The Hefner amyl-acetate lamp has been 
somewhat generally accepted as a primary 
photometric standard, but its numerous de- 
fects make it quite unfit for a working 
standard. After taking the most elaborate 
precautions to maintain a steady and uni- 
form flame, and applying corrections for 
the pressure and humidity of the air and 
its carbon dioxide content, the best results 
of the most skillful observers differ many 


ay 


Ss a a ee 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


times more than in the comparisons of in- 
candescent lamps of approximately equal 
efficiency with one another. Moreover, in- 
candescent lamps suitably prepared and 
properly used are very permanent, and, 
being cheap and portable, may be dupli- 
cated and frequently tested. By keeping 
one set of lamps as reference standards and 
another as working standards, and burning 
them at relatively low temperatures (that 
is, at about four watts per candle) there is 
good reason for believing that the average 
value of a set of standards may be con- 
tinued indefinitely. ; 

A considerable number of electric stand- 
ards have been obtained from the Reichs- 
anstalt, the ratio of the candle to the 
Hefner unit being taken as 1 to .88. These 
reference standards are, of course, only oc- 
casionally used, and the mean of the value 
of several 16-candle power lamps is taken 
as the standard of the bureau. Exact 
copies of these will be added from time 
to time, so that of a change in any 
lamp is detected it may be discarded with- 
out impairing the completeness of the set. 
The current and voltage employed in test- 
ing lamps are measured by a potenti- 
ometer, and can be maintained constant to 
the hundredth of one per cent. Working 
by the substitution method, it is possible to 
make very accurate comparisons and thus 
to secure very exact copies of the standards 
of the bureau. The bureau recently re- 
quested a large number of lamp manufac- 
turers to send each two or three carefully 
rated 16-candle power lamps for compari- 
son with our standards. The lamps sub- 
mitted varied from 15.4 to 17.6 candle 
power, averaging 16.48 ep., or about three 
per cent. high. Several of the large manu- 
facturers were quite near to our standard, 
and it appears from these results that if all 
lamp manufacturers were to adopt the 
standards of the bureau there would be very 
little change in the average candle power 


SCIENCE. ~ 


947 


of all the lamps manufactured, although 


‘some would be raised and others lowered. 


Since uniformity is extremely desirable 
and is now more easily attainable than here- 
tofore, it is to be hoped that this result will 
speedily follow. The close agreement be- 
tween the standards of the bureau and 
those of some of the manufacturers is due 
to the fact that the latter are using incan- 
descent lamps rated at the Reichsanstalt. 
For the same reason, standards of the bu- 
reau are also in close agreement with those 
of the Lamp Testing Bureau of New York. 

The purpose of the bureau is not to un- 
dertake, at least for the present, the com- 
mercial testing of incandescent lamps, but 
(apart from the testing done for the gov- 
ernment) only to verify lamps to be used 
as standards and to make special investi- 
gations of lamps submitted for the pur- 
pose. To this end no effort will be spared 
to maintain reliable standards and to 
certify copies with the highest possible 
precision. 

DIVISION II. 
As already stated, the chemical division 


was late in being inaugurated. Aside from 


the immense assistance which a chemical 
laboratory can render to physical investi- 
gations, the division of chemistry will have 
important functions in its relations to the 
chemical interests of the country, and to 
the customs service and other departments 
of the government. Some chemical work 
is now being carried on, and detailed plans 
are being developed for the chemical labo- 
ratory to be installed in the larger of the 
two buildings now under construction. 


THE EXPOSITION LABORATORY. 

In addition to the exhibit which the bu- 
reau is making in the government building 
at St. Louis, it has undertaken, at the re- 
quest of the authorities of the exposition, 
to install and operate an electrical testing 
laboratory in the electricity building dur- 


948 


ing the exposition. The work to be done 
will include the verification of measuring 
instruments to be used by the jury of 
awards in testing electrical machinery, and 
the testing for the jury of awards of in- 
struments and apparatus submitted by ex- 
hibitors in competition. It is obvious that 
the intrinsic merits of a galvanometer, po- 
tentiometer, resistance standard, or other 
measuring instrument, can not be entirely 
determined by inspection, but only by rig- 
orous test, and that a fully equipped test- 
ine laboratory can render important service 
to a jury of awards in the important and 
responsible duties which the latter is called 
upon to perform. A large exhibit of elec- 
trical instruments and machinery is ex- 
pected from European manufacturers, 
more particularly from Germany, and 
without thoroughly testing the competing 
apparatus it would be impossible to dis- 
tribute awards justly. It is proposed to 
publish the results of these tests so that 
they may be a permanent contribution to 
our knowledge of electrical instruments 
and machinery. 

This laboratory is located along the east 
wall of the electricity building, south of the 
east entrance. The space assigned to it is 
nearly 200 feet long by 23 feet wide. A 
series of rooms have been constructed, all 
of which, except the office, are being 
equipped for laboratory purposes. A re- 
frigerating machine having a capacity 
equivalent to the melting of ten tons of ice 
in twenty-four hours will be used in con- 
nection with the ventilating machinery and 
heat-regulatine apparatus to control the 
temperature and humidity of the atmos- 
phere in the laboratories. Piers and other 
substantial supports for apparatus have 
been installed and every effort is being 
made to provide the facilities and appa- 
ratus necessary to do precision testing. 

In addition to doing the official testing 
for the jury of awards, testing for others 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 495. 


will be done as far as practicable. For such 
work charges will be made according to 
the regular schedule of fees of the bureau. 
The laboratory will also serve as a working 
exhibit, and visitors will accordingly be ad- 
mitted at certain specified times. For this 
reason, the exhibit of the bureau in the 
government building will be largely histor- 
ical and educational and mainly devoted to 
subjects other than electricity. 


EQUIPMENT OF THE BUREAU. — 

Some account of the proposed equipment 
of the new laboratories of the bureau has 
been published* in connection with the 
plans of the buildings, consequently no at- 
tempt will here be made to describe again 
either the buildings or their general equip- 
ment, or to go into detail regarding the 
equipment for any particular line of work. 
The intention of the bureau is to provide 
every facility necessary for experimental 
work, both for research and testing, and to 
have a sufficient force of engineers, firemen, 
electricians and other assistants so that the 
service may be available at any or all times. 
The instrument shop is already well estab- 
lished, and the expectation is to have it so 
well manned that any of the various sec- 
tional laboratories can be promptly served 
whenever the work of testmg or research 
makes the services of a mechanician nec- 
essary. To do this will require a consid- 
erable increase over the present force. In- 
deed, it is likely to be several years before 
the personnel will be so far increased as 
to meet urgent requirements. Notwith- 
standing the considerable force of men now 
at work, the bureau is seriously in need of 
more clerks, mechanicians and laboratory 
assistants; besides research workers and 
men to inaugurate new work, who are also 
much needed. 

It is needless to emphasize further the 
importance of the highest standards in all 


* Science, January 23, 1903. 


JuNE 24, 1904.] 


the work of the bureau. Every new line 
of work taken up means a new research, 
and often the designing and building of a 
new series of instruments. As the limits 
of errors are narrowed the labor is rapidly 
augmented. What one man might do well 
in a day may require two men a week or a 
month if the accuracy is to be considerably 
_inereased. This will explaim why the bu- 
reau has not already announced a greater 
range of testing, and why even when both 
the new buildings are occupied many lines 
of work will remain to be inaugurated. 

It is the constant purpose of the bureau 
to cooperate with instrument makers and 
manufacturers to the end that their output 
of instruments and apparatus may be im- 
proved. Not simply to certify errors or 
criticize results, but to assist in perfecting 
the product, is the aim. In this work the 
‘bureau has so far enjoyed the confidence 
and cooperation of manufacturers to a 
gratifying degree. It was largely to meet 
their needs that the bureau was organized, 
and if by serving them the standard of ex- 
eellence of American-made instruments and 
machinery is raised, the bureau will have 
served the public also. In several specific 
instances a marked improvement of this 
kind is already seen, due directly to the in- 
fluence of the bureau of standards. 

The advantage to scientific men and engi- 
meers of having a place in this country 
where instruments and standards may be 
verified with the highest possible precision, 
and at nominal charges, and where re- 
searches may be undertaken when neces- 
‘sary to answer questions arising in such 
comparisons, is evident. It greatly facili- 
tates precision work both in engineering 
and in research. 

The bureau has also fulfilled another of 
the functions mentioned in the act author- 
izing its establishment, in furnishing infor- 
mation on a variety of subjects meluded 
‘more or less closely in its field of activities. 


SCIENCE. 


949 


A considerable correspondence of this kind 
has grown up. 

The functions of the Bureau of Stand- 
ards are very broad and its possibilities 
for usefulness correspondingly great. It 
should do in its field, indeed, what the 
Coast Survey and the Geological Survey 
and the Department of Agriculture are 
doing in theirs, and what the Physikalisch- 
Technische Reichsanstalt and the Normal- 
Aichunegs Kommission are doing in Ger- 
many. Fully to realize these possibilities 
will of course require a much further in- 
erease in equipment and in personnel, and 
this we expect to see. 


Epwarp B. Rosa. 
NATIONAL BUREAU OF STANDARDS. 


SCIENTIFIC BOOKS. 

Christian Faith in an Age of Science. By 
Wituiam Norta Rice, Ph.D., LL.D., Pro- 
fessor of Geology in Wesleyan University. 
New York: A. C. Armstrong & Son. 1903. 
Pp. xi + 425. 

As the author himself hints in his preface, 
it would not be difficult to cull some delightful 
antinomies from this work, and on a scale 
more extended than Dr. Rice suspects. At the 
same time, it was ever thus with books of the 
class. For example, I can picture the mean- 
ingful smile that would cross the faces of cer- 
tain experts I could name, when they read 
those pronouncements: ‘It is evident, in gen- 
eral, that we have in the book of Genesis noth- 
ing that approaches the character of reliable 
history till about the time of Abraham (p. 122) ; 
the Fourth Gospel is probably the only record 
by an eye-witness of the events connected with 
the resurrection’ (p. 363). Similarly, in an- 
other field, when Dr. Rice suggests that the 
virgin birth and the resurrection—in the most 
usual acceptation of these terms—are essential 
to Christianity (p. 377), one is bound to refer 
him to the relative articles in ‘The Encyclo- 
pedia Biblica.’ In the same way, his naive 
account of will would scarcely satisfy psy- 
chologists, while his fearfully and wonder- 
fully made presentation of causality would 
amaze the thoroughly modern metaphysician. 


950 SCIENCE. 


But, even admitting these points, it would 
be a great mistake to dismiss the work there- 
upon. Its account of the progress of science, 
and of the resultant transformations wrought 
upon medizval beliefs and whimsical supposi- 
tions, is very well done. Nay more, it marks 
a distinct advance over nearly all statements 
of the kind known to me. A few passages, 
culled at random, serve to prove this clearly: 
“The belief that the writers of the Bible were 
under the special influence and guidance of 
the Divine Spirit is a very different thing 
from the belief that their opinions were always 
just, their arguments always conclusive, or 
their knowledge of the facts always accurate” 
(p. 85). “We have come to regard as the 
main function of prophecy, not the construc- 
tion of a map of all future history with sym- 
bols and names in cipher, but the presentation 
of warnings, consolations and moral exhorta- 
tions, to reform or confirm the religious faith 
and life of the people addressed” (p. 106). 
“The conclusion which seems forced upon us 
is that no reconciliation between the geological 
record and that of Genesis is possible” (p. 
111). “Apart from the dogma of the iner- 
rancy of the Bible, the question of the date of 
the origin of man has obviously no theological 
significance whatsoever” (p. 117). “ Wallace 
announced many years ago the remarkable 
proposition, that ‘every species has come into 
existence coincident both in space and time 
with a preexisting closely allied species.’ It 
would be impossible actually to prove that 
proposition in regard to every known species, 
since our knowledge of extinct life is so 
far from being complete. Nevertheless, the 
proposition can be shown to be true in so 
many instances that there is no reasonable 
doubt that it is to be accepted as a universal 
law. * * * The cumulative force of that 
evidence reveals itself only in prolonged study 
of some one or other of the departments of 
biology ” (pp. 194-5, 198). “The theory of 
evolution is indeed the implacable foe of that 
sort of theistic philosophy which has been 
happily satirized in the phrase, ‘ the carpenter 
God’” (p. 254). “TIT can not escape the con- 
viction that the tendeney of evolutionary 
thought is decidedly towards monism” (p. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 495, 


268). “It is difficult to see why that parallel- 
ism of ontogeny and phylogeny does not have 
the same significance in regard to psychical 
as in regard to physical characteristics” (p. 
972). “The alternatives for the philosoph- 
ical thinker seem to be dualism and monism, 
but with a third alternative of suspended 
judgment—agnosticism” (p. 275). “ Neither 
volition nor any other mental state has a 
quantitative relation to physical energy. The 
recognition of the absolute disparateness of 
thé two classes of phenomena is essential to 
sound thinking in regard to them” (p. 296). 
“The things which we can not predict we can 
pray for. The things which we can predict 
we can not pray for” (p. 346). “It is need- 
less to say that no claim of certainty can be 
maintained in regard to Christianity as a 
system, or in regard to any particular doctrine 
of Christianity ” (p. 406). All this is pretty 
well. These views, and others like them, are 
decidedly symptomatic. 

Part I., which deals with science and its 
advance, will be of great service to many. 
Parts II. and III., which. contain the philo- 
sophical, theological and religious considera- 
tions, can not be ranked in the same class. 
They are immensely weakened by absence of 
a transitive grasp upon first principles and, 
therefore, on the whole, they never really face 
the ultimate question, What are we compelled 
to infer to-day from man’s knowledge of the 
physical universe, of the physiological body, 
and of the psychological organization? Yet, 
even at this, the book must be strongly com- 
mended to thousands who have hitherto been 
fed on mush, disereditable to its cooks and 
positively harmful to its consumers. For 
many babes Dr. Rice may prove strong meat, 
indeed. - And from this point of view, his 
work deserves hearty recognition as a valuable 
installment, likely to carry advantageous 
weight in certain quarters. 


R. M. W. 


SOCIETIES AND ACADEMIES. 
THE NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCES. 
SECTION OF ANTHROPOLOGY AND PSYCHOLOGY. 


THE regular meeting of the section was held 
April 25 at the American Museum of Natural 


ee 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


History in conjunction with the American 
Ethnological Society. The program was as 
follows: 


Notes on an Algonkin Dialect: Dr. Wm. 

JONES. 

Dr. Jones presented a brief report on the 
method of word-formation of the Fox dialect. 
The dialect is Algonkin and belongs to the 
group now inhabiting, or that once inhabited, 
the country contiguous to Lake Huron, Lake 
Michigan and Lake Superior. Among the other 
dialects of the group are Ojibway, Ottawa, 
Pottawatomi, Menomonie, Kickapoo and Sauk. 
Morphologically all these dialects stand in an 
intimate relation with one another. The 
absolute forms of much of the vocabulary are 
the same, but varying differences in the way 
of intonation, articulation and grammar make 
some of the dialects seem somewhat removed 
from one another. Fox is nearest to Sauk 
and Kickapoo and farther removed from 
Ojibway. 

The structural peculiarities of word-build- 
ing as shown in the Fox would come out much 
the same in the other related dialects. The 
system of forming words is by composition. 
The elements entering into composition are 
formatives and stems. Some formatives are 
prefixes but most are suffixes. Some of the 
suffixes refer to the pronoun and gender in 
the same form. Stems fall into two general 
classes, initial and secondary. Initial stems 
come first in a combination and secondary 
stems come after. Secondary stems can be 
subdivided into at least two groups, one of a 
first order and another of a second order; the 
former stand next to initial stems, and the 
latter, when in composition, stand. next to 
terminal pronouns. 

The stems refer to general notions. Initial 
stems usually express subjective states and 
secondary stems generally refer to objective 
relations. The meaning of one stem modifies 
the meaning of another in a reciprocal man- 
ner with the result of greater specialization. 
Tnitial stems have greater extension and can 
often occur alone as adverbs. 

A number of particles precede the terminal 
pronouns. The particles refer to causal rela- 
tions. Some have the special office of instru- 


SCIENCE. 


_ parts of the body are increased. 


951 


mentality, as with the hand, foot, mouth, 
voice and ear. 

The dialect makes a distinction between two 
opposing categories. Objects that have life 
and movement come in one class and objects 
without those attributes fall in another. The 
distinction is maintained with great vigor 
throughout the dialect; a force like personi- 
fication sometimes interferes with it. 


On the Growth of Children: Professor Franz 

Boas and Dr. Ciark WIsSSLER. 

Professor Franz Boas and Dr. Clark Wiss- 
ler presented a joint paper on the growth of 
children, in which they discussed the causes 
of the increased variability during the period 
of growth. As the results of previous investi- 
gations, it had been suggested that the in- 
eréased variability may be due to differences 
in the rapidity of development. The authors 
have followed out this line of investigation by 
collecting material regarding the variability 
of the period at which certain physiological 
changes take place. The times of dentition, 
the beginning of puberty, the appearance of 
the wisdom teeth, and the beginning of senil- 
ity were selected for this purpose, and it was 
shown that the variability of time at which 
these phenomena take place increases with 
increasing age, and apparently the rate of 
increase of the variability is proportional to 
the age. Furthermore, it was shown that 
during the period of growth all the coefficients 
of correlation between the sizes of different 
This can 
also be best explained by the theory that the 
phenomena of growth are largely due to accel- 
eration and retardation. 


Paper-making Implements of Ancient Mexico 
(with demonstration of specimens): Pro- 
fessor MarsuHatn H. Savinie. 


The Grammar of the Yukaghir Language: 

Mr. WALDEMAR JOCHELSON. 

The paper reported the result of several 
years’ study of the Yukaghir language, being 
mainly a sketch of the Kolyma dialect. There 
are two dialects in the language,—the Tundra 
dialect, and the Kolyma dialect. The phonetic 
and morphological peculiarities of the former 
are rather insignificant, but the Tundra dia- 


952 


lect has absorbed a considerable number of 
Tungus stems, which in their use in word- 
formation have been subjected to the rules of 
the Yukaghir grammar. These investigations 
show that the Yukaghir language stands iso- 
lated from the Siberian languages of the so- 
called Ural-Altaic group, and that it has many 
similarities to the languages of the American 
Indians. 

The chief phonetic and morphological dif- 
ferences that distinguish the Yukaghir. lan- 
guage from Ural-Altaic languages are the fol- 
lowing: (1) It has not the intricate system 
of vowel harmony that is found in Ural-Altaic 
languages; (2) we do not find that the vowel 
of the root is unchangeable—an important 
rule in Ural-Altaic phoneties; (8) the Ural- 
Altaic possessive suflixes of nouns and verbs 
are wholly absent in Yukaghir verbs, and pres- 
ent in nouns only for the purpose of ex- 
pressing ownership of the third person; (4) 
words are formed by means of suflixes and pre- 
fixes, while the Ural-Altaic languages use 
suffixes only. 

The chief points of similarity between the 
Yukaghir language and Indian languages are: 
(1) The existence of a simple harmonic law 
in the use of vowels; (2) the use of prefixes; 
(8) adjectives are morphologically identical 
with verbal forms; (4) the verb-bases are 
mostly stems consisting of a single vowel or 
a small group of consonants, while the noun- 
bases are almost always derivatives of verbal 
forms; (5) the conjugation of transitive verbs 
is clearly distinguished from that of intrans- 
itive verbs; (6) transitive verbs may be 
changed into intransitive verbs by means of 
suffixes, and vice versa; (7) we find in the 
Yukaghir language the ‘polysynthesis’ of 
the American languages; (8) although there 
is not the actual ‘incorporation’ of the Ameri- 
can languages, the syntactical construction of 
the Yukaghir sentence is akin to it. 

James EK. Loueu, 
Secretary. 


DISOUSSION AND CORRESPONDENCE. 


A FLYING MACHINE IN THE ARMY. 


To Tue Eprror or Science: In recent num- 
bers of various journals, much has aptly been 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX, No. 495. 


said about flying machines, balloons, aero- 
planes, kites, aerodromes and mechanical 
means for navigating the air, with historical 
data, giving credit where credit is due and 
naming several of the great thinkers of the 
age and what they have done in this direction, 
with hints for the future, but not a word of 
what the army has done seems to have been 
printed. 

For ages commanders in the field have de- 
sired to know what the enemy was doing. 
Hence the use of captive balloons and the wish 
to make them dirigible; and when the Astron- 
omer General Mitchell commanded at Port 


Royal during the civil war, the matter was © ~ 


discussed with his chief» engineer officer, who 
brought forward the proposition to make a 


machine without inflation, and exhibited a tin@hi” 


model that wound up with a string and a 
handle and spun like a humming top and would * 
fly into the air a hundred feet or more, ver- 
tically, according to the force exerted upon it, 
and would carry a bullet or two if the string 
was pulled hard enough. From this little toy 
which was a cireular dise of tin, so cut and 
bent as to make a fan-serew wheel, it was 
argued that with power enough, if it could be 
had within the necessary limit of weight, such 
fan propellers could be made and combined as 
to lift an observer into the air and by other 
horizontal propellers could be driven through 
the air, and by making one on a horizontal 
shaft so that the direction of its axis could be 
changed at will, the machine could be steered. 

That it must have power to be driven faster 
than the wind moves was apparent or the wind 
would take it as it does a balloon. At that 
time balloons were very simple. No one had 
made progress in directing their flight. 

Mitchell was a mechanician as well as a 
mathematician, and was proud of being able 
to measure the one ten-thousandth of an inch 
accurately, and he concluded that it would be 
well to consider the problem of air navigation 
without gas bags. But the yellow fever 
claimed him, and for a long time no more 
was done in that direction at department 
headquarters. 

The Tenth Army Corps had a captive bal- 
loon, but it was of little use, except to excite 


JuNE 24, 1904.] 


the wish that we had something better, and 
during the siege of Charleston Major Richard 
Butt and Captain James EH. Place, of the en- 
gimeers, and myself frequently discussed the 
details of a machine that should not only take 
up observers and go where we wished and 
come back, but carry bombs with high ex- 
plosives to punish the enemy. The ‘come 
back’ part was of importance. The balloon 
would go, if the wind was right, but we had 
no way to make it come back as was wanted, 
hence it was never made to go. 

The flight of birds was observed, buzzards, 
crows, eagles and gulls particularly. The 
machine must meet the requirements, to start, 
to go, to come back, to land safely—all were 
considered. There was no record that these 
questions had ever been before considered to 
be done mechanically, without gas. We con- 
sidered gas-bag inflation as so objectionable 
as to be out of the question. Any machine 
held up by rarefied air or its equivalent pre- 
sented so large a surface that power could not 
be had to drive it against the air, and unless 
it could go against the air quicker than the 
air itself moved, it was of no use for our 
purposes. 

The ordnance department had tables of at- 
mospherie velocities, so it was known what 
had to be encountered. During the siege of 
Charleston nothing was accomplished, but 
shortly after the Tenth Army Corps was 
moved up into Virginia and Petersburg was 
attacked, the means of finding out what the 
enemy was doing became a very prominent 
question with the engineers. 

The tin toy was experimented with and a 
four-inch diameter fan was spun up to an 
elevation of over a hundred feet. 

Major-General Benjamin F. Butler com- 
manded the Army of the James and that in- 
eluded the tenth corps, and upon seeing what 
the tin toy did, immediately expressed the be- 
lief that a machine could be made that would 
navigate the air and give us the information 
desired, and could do more by dropping high 
explosives, and gave the writer an order to 
report officially upon the subject. No data 
could be found that gave any encouragement. 
The Duke of Argyle had organized a society 


SCIENCE. 


953 


in England, of which he was president, but 
except with gasholders to sustain the weight 
his society had done nothing. This society 
was communicated with, but before any reply 
was received drawings were made for a ma- 
chine that should be screwed up and screwed 
forward, which if it could be made to ascend 
could be made to descend as slowly as desired, 
and it was to have planes by which to glide. 

The theory was to imitate the little tin 
model and add to it gliding planes, and the 
drawings showed four fans to lift, two above 
an engine, two below, and two fans to propel 
and steer, one in front and one behind; the 
rear fan on a shaft that moved in a horizontal 
segment, so as to change the direction of the 
push, and make the rear fan not only a pro- 
peller, but a rudder at the same time. Across 
the machine was to be a horizontal shaft, on 
which on either side of the machine were to 
be gliding planes and automatic balancing 
balls. These were to slide in and out so as to 
maintain an equilibrium. 

It had been observed that buzzards secured 
a vast amount of their progress by gliding, 
and the intention was to screw up and then 
glide in a descending curve, and by so doing 
save power, using the weight of the machine 
itself, and when the curve had come near 
enough to the earth, change the angle of the 
gliding planes, and by momentum go up as 
far as the impulse would aid in doing, using 
again at the same time the elevating screws. 
It was provided with a light supporting frame 
like the runners of a sleigh, on which to alight 
and to stand when at rest. 

The body was to contain fuel and water and 
a high-pressure boiler and engine, and was to 
be shaped like a thick cigar. The length of 
the machine was about fifty-two feet, and from 
tip to tip of the gliding plane wings a little 
more. It was proposed to hang from the mid- 
dle of the body a weight that could be lifted 
or lowered to act like the legs of a bird in 
flight and to balance it as the tail of a kite 
does. This vertically hanging weight was 
also to extend or draw in the balancing balls 
after the manner of the balancing pole used 
by the tight-rope walker. 

It was argued that as a locomotive made to 


954 


walk on four legs, imitating a horse, was not 
a success, while the round leg as a wheel, act- 
ing continuously, was all that was wanted, so 
too the lifting and propelling fans, being in- 
tended for .continuous motion, should do the 
work of wings and, better than reciprocating 
mechanical appliances, made to flap, condense 
the air, lift the body, release and flap again. 

General Butler was so impressed when he 
saw the drawing and heard the explanation, 
that he ordered the machine to be built at 
once, and put the work in my charge. 

There was, however, no appropriation that 
could be used to pay for it, and it seemed that 
nothing could be done; there was a very good 
engineer park, but the tools and machines at 
disposal were not fine enough to cut gear or 
to bore cylinders. Fortunately some patriotic 
citizens, who should be forever remembered, 
generously offered to pay the bills. Mr. Fred- 
erick Prentice, Mr. Wedworth W. Clarke, of 
New York City, and Mr. Sully, who were 
among the pioneers in the petroleum fields 
and were growing rich very fast, said: ‘Send 
the bills to us; we will pay for anything 
wanted and will help to get it.’ 

The first thing done was to make a fan 
eighteen inches in diameter, rotate it at dif- 
ferent speeds and see how much it would lift. 
The fan was made of very thin brass, and 
upon a wire frame, very much the same shape 
as those now used for ventilating and blow- 
ing, driven by electricity. It was found that 
a hollow blade with a blunt shoulder seemed 
to be best. 

It was found that very considerable weight 
could be lifted, and to try what could be done 
on a large scale, a fan about thirty-two feet 
in diameter was made, the blades of the thin- 
nest sheet iron that could be procured, and 
rotation by belt was provided. 

Contrary to expectation, when the fan was 
first rotated at great speed in a foundry that 
had a high roof, the weight that could be lifted 
was much more than the wheel itself, some 
six hundred pounds or more, and then within 
forty seconds of time the wheel and the 
weights would drop back to where they started 
from, it mattered not how fast the fan was 
driven. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 495, 


This was a puzzle, indeed. Why did it act 
so? When spun at a given speed, starting 
from at rest in still air, a certain velocity 
would make the wheel jump up the vertical 
shaft very quickly, lifting its own weight, and 
then suddenly, and as the velocity was in- 
creased, it would, after an interval never 
longer than forty seconds, slide down the ver- 
tical shaft, not sustaining its own weight. 
Hundreds saw it. The test was repeated 
again and again. No one understood why it 
did as it did. 

Resort was then had again to the eighteen- 
inch brass wheel and it was found that after 
a certain period it went through the same 
manceuvers as the large fan, but the period of 
ability to lift was many times longer in the 
small than in the large. 

It was found after a long investigation that 
the fan wheel of any size, when rotated in one 
place, set up a downward current of air that 
soon became nearly or quite as fast as the 
pitch of the. fan, hence it would lift nothing. 
When, however, the fan was mounted at the 
outer end of a long boom, which revolved 
around a mast, so as to constantly bring the 
fan into new air, its lifting capacity never 
deserted it and bore a certain ratio to the 
velocity, and data were accumulated for pro- 
portioning the machine. 

In those days there were no such machines 
as are now to be found everywhere, by which 
the horse power required at different veloci- 
ties could readily be accurately measured, and 
some difficulty was experienced in approxima- 
ting the requirements. 

The questions involved seemed to be the size 
of the fan, the shape of the blade, the power 
required, the weight of the engine, boiler, fuel 
and water to develop the power. : 

Major-General Quiney A. Gillmore was an 
engineer officer of very high reputation and of 
considerable learning. He was asked to ex- 
amine the plans and the data that had at this 
stage of the investigation been collected. He 
certified as a matter of opinion that it was 
‘all right.’ 

There were no dynamos or storage batteries, 
liquid air engines or sources of powerful en- 
ergy using light-weight machines, and the only 


June 24, 1904.] 


prime motor sufticiently reliable was the steam- 
engine. 

To get the strongest and the lightest was 
the problem. i 

It is true that carbonic acid had been lique- 
fied some years before then, but no one knew 
how to harness it. 

Having determined the probable force want- 
ed, engine builders were found who agreed to 
make the engine light enough and of sufficient 
horse power, and the frame of the machine 
was set up at Hoboken, N. J. The fans were 
made for the lifting and driving, and the in- 
termediate gear of bronze was cut. The body 
of the machine was complete. 

At this stage it seemed that it only re- 
mained to get pressure enough upon the pis- 
ton of the engine and maintain that pressure. 

During the siege of Fort Wagner before 
Charleston we had used calcium lights, and 
had had great trouble to make the gas holders 
tight enough to prevent leak at high pressures. 
Mr. Mirriam, of Springfield, Mass., had suc- 
ceeded in the field by a new method of floating 
the joints. Bennett and Risley, of Greenwich 
Street, New York, who undertook the engine, 
believed that they could make the joints of 
the boiler, the gaskets, the grummits and 
moving parts of the engine so as to work well 
under the required very high pressure of 
steam, by their new process, which seemed 
reasonable. Weeks, however, ran into months. 
They were unfortunate in their experiments, 
and the needed force of steam was not reached 
before the coming of Appomattox. 

A description of the machine with a gen- 
eral and some detail drawings with tabulated 
data of the lifting capacity of the fans was 
filed with a rough model in the engineer de- 
partment of the army at Washington, D. C., 
and a copy of the general plan was given to 
Mr. Prentice, whose office is now at 44 Broad- 
way, New York City, and the Duke of Argyle 
was informed of what had in a general way 
been done by the army. 

My conclusion was that at that time no 
existing machine would develop power enough 
to fly mechanically, without the use of gas- 
holders. 

The use of liquid carbonic acid gas, CO,, 


SCIENCE. 


955 


has changed the situation. Valves have been 
made to work well at great speed under three 
or four times the highest pressure of steam 
applied to reciprocating engines, and about 
five years ago a report was so made to the 
chief of engineers of the army. 

The elimination of the boiler, water and 
fuel and the substitution of stored energy in 
the shape of liquid CO, greatly reduces the 
weight of machinery, and the conclusion 
reached at the last analysis of this problem is 
that for army use a radius of action of about 
eight hundred miles is now attainable, after 
some experimentation, as the chief difficulty, 
the valves, have already been tested to a suc- 
cess with pressures as high as are necessary. 

‘Nothing is known by the writer of the de- 
tails of the machinery recently tried by the 
brothers Wright in North Carolina, except 
that obtained from imperfect newspaper ac- 
counts, but from what has been published it 
would seem that their machine is very much 
like, if not identical, with the army machine 
here described; but whether this is so or not, 
they are to be most heartily congratulated 
upon the measure of success that has crowned 
their efforts, and this kind thought extends to 
my friend of years gone by—Chanute—who is 
reported to have helped them. 

Epwarp WELLMAN SERRELL. 

West Nrw Bricuton, 

SraTen IsLanp, N. Y. 


NOTES ON ANIMAL BEHAVIOR. 


To tHE Epitor or Science: It has been 
suggested to me that it would be worth while to 
put on record two or three rather curious 
instances of animal behavior which have come 
to my notice during the past few weeks. The 
subject of these observations is a two-year- 
old black-and-tan terrier belonging to my sis- 
ter. A few weeks ago'as the family was at 
dinner one evening my mother said, ‘ What 
did the postman bring this afternoon?’ ‘ Only 
a couple of advertising cards,’ said my sister, 
“which I threw in the waste-basket. Nothing 
more was said on the subject, but a moment 
later the dog, who had been sitting on a chair 
in the same room, ran to the basket and, taking 
one of the very cards referred to in his mouth, 


956 


ran around the table and stood with it beside 
my mother, looking up into her face and 
wagging his tail. I fear that some of our 
popular writers on animals would at once at- 
tribute a rather remarkable reasoning power 
to this dog, saying that he thought my mother 
would like to see the card, and so selecting it 
from the others in the basket took it to her 
and expected to be rewarded for his thought- 
fulness. But there is a much more reasonable 
explanation. He is still very playful, and as 
he jumped from the chair and ran about the 
room the ecard projecting above the edge of the 
basket caught his eye, and the play instinct 
prompted him to seize it. The fact that he 
did this just after my sister had spoken of the 
card was a mere coincidence. His running 
to my mother with the card is easily explained. 
Several months ago, while he was still a puppy, 
in fact, he frequently pulled papers from this 
same basket and was punished for doing so, 
until he entirely gave up the habit. As soon 
as he had taken the card from the basket, the 
memory of former punishments for similar 
acts doubtless recurred to him. Now my 
mother is intensely sympathetic, and when- 
ever he is punished or likely to be punished he 
invariably runs to her, knowing that he will 
be petted and may even get a lump of sugar; 
if the recollection of punishment came to him, 
he would naturally follow his habit and run to 
her. 

It was about a week after this that my sister 
sat in the same dining room later in the eyven- 
ing reading a book, while the dog, who is as 
restless as dogs of that variety usually are, 
was running about looking for something to 
play with. At last my sister said, without 
looking up from her book and in an ordinary 
tone: ‘ Teddy, if you go down cellar and bring 
up a stick of wood, V’ll play with you.’ The 
dog stood beside her as she spoke and im- 
mediately darted out into the kitchen, down 
the stairs into the cellar and soon reappeared 
beside my sister with a stick of wood. This 
was not a trick that he had been taught. He 
has several times during the past winter car- 
ried sticks of wood from the cellar to the 
kitchen, and at times has been praised with 
such words as: ‘ Nice dog to bring up wood 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Von. XIX, No, 495. 


from the cellar.’ But this carrying the wood 
has always been done voluntarily. Different 
members of the household when in the cellar 
have told him to carry up sticks, and he has 
never done so; sometimes a stick has been 
put in his mouth in the cellar, but after taking 
it as far as the stairs he would drop it and 
run up alone. He has been told a few times 
to go to the cellar and bring up a stick, but 
no attempt has been made to teach him to do 
so, and he has never done it except in the 
instance noted above. Since the evening in 
question the same remark has been made to 
him several times, and he has not responded 
to it in any way. The explanation would 
seem to be that he had learned to associate the 
words ‘cellar’ and ‘stick’ with the objects 
themselves and probably the word ‘ play’ with 
the corresponding activity, for my sister plays 
with him a great deal and on such occasions 
frequently repeats the word ‘play,’ as ‘ Now 
let us play’ or ‘Come, play with your ball.’ 


At the time in question the play instinct acted : 


as a strong stimulus, probably a ‘ felt-need’ 
from within, such as I have referred to in my 
text-book, and hence the special response. The 
whole act, then, involves no factors more 
complicated than memory and the association 
of names with objects, a faculty which dogs 
possess in considerable degree. 

This same terrier, for example, associates 


the word ‘ball’ with the corresponding object . 


with which he plays. If some one is in the 
pantry and you say to him, ‘ Go to the pantry 
and they will give you a piece of dog-biscuit,’ 
he invariably goes for it, as he has doubtless 
learned to associate the words ‘biscuit’ and 
“pantry ’ with the objects themselves. In the 
same way if you say to him, ‘The grocer is 
coming into the kitchen to take orders; you 
must stay here in the dining room,’ he in- 
variably does so, although he is always very 
eager to see and jump upon any person who 
enters the house. The simple words, ‘ Grocer! 
stay here!’ will have the same effect in keep- 
ing him out of the kitchen. He has likewise 
learned to associate the words, ‘He is com- 
ing,’ with the approach of any one to the 
house. I generally go home only on Sundays 
and at variable hours, and if the house is 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


quiet my mother sitting in the drawing room 
ean say quite softly, ‘I believe he is coming,’ 
when the dog, two or three rooms distant and 
apparently asleep, will start up and run from 
window to window, looking up and down the 
street. He will do the same on any other 
day and for any individual, but with some 
variation in the rapidity of his response. I 
record these acts merely to show that while 
they might superficially appear to be the re- 
sult of reasoning processes, they are doubtless 
only instances of memory and the association 
of spoken words with the objects or acts. 
ArtHurR W. WEYSSE. 


Boston, MASSACHUSETTS. 


SPECIAL ARTICLES. 
THE INHERITANCE OF SONG IN PASSERINE BIRDS. 


REMARKS ON THE DEVELOPMENT OF SONG IN THE 
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK, ZAMELODIA LUDO- 
VICIANA (LINNZUS), AND THE MEADOW- 
LARK, STURNELLA MAGNA (LINN@ZUS). 


I am tempted to elaborate at some length the 
life history of two broods of young birds that 
were raised in May and June, 19038, that 
definite data may be before the reader and 
student, as to exactly what has occurred for 
the past year with the individuals under ob- 
servation. 

On the 7th of June, 1903, I found a nest 
of rose-breasted grosbeaks in a swamp on the 
Millstone River, near Princeton. At the time 
of discovery the female was sitting, and pre- 
sumably brooding new-laid eggs. She was not 
disturbed, but as I did not know when incu- 
bation had commeneed, the locality was visited 
and observations were made at intervals of 
every other day, until on the 14th of the 
month J was assured that the young had been 
hatched. I was not then aware of the number 
of fledglings composing the brood. It seems 
worthy of record here that both parents took 
part in incubation, though the male only as- 
sumed such duty for brief periods, when the 
hen bird went away, probably for exercise and 
bathing, but not in quest of food. ‘The male 
constantly fed the female and was solicitous 
in his care for her. 

On the 14th of the month the young were 
hatched, and the parents shared the duties 


SCIENCE. 


957 


of brooding as they had shared the period of 
incubation. On the 19th of the month, con- 
eluding that the young were old enough for 
the experiment in view, I secured the nest, in 
which were a brood of three fledglings, and at 
once had a water-color sketch made of the 
young in the nest, as a record of their absolute 
condition, so far as feathering and appearance 
were concerned. While not able to diserimi- 
nate with certainty the differentiation in sex, 
I was reasonably sure from the first that the 
brood contained two young male birds and one 
female. 

On the 20th another accurate water-color 
sketch was made to record how these birds 
had grown and developed, and on the 21st a 
sketch of one of the birds, a male, for by this 
time the sexes were easily distinguishable, 
records his appearance from both a front and 
a back view. 

These birds were carefully hand reared in 
the nest, which they left on the twenty-first 
inst., when about seven days old. Grosbeaks 
of this kind are very precocious, and being 
admirable climbers, they clamber about long 
before they are able to fly, on the limbs and 
tangle of vines which generally surround the 
nest. 

It seems improbable that during the first 
four days of their lives these birds acquired 
much appreciation of the song of the male 
parent, though he was constantly singing close 
at hand. 

The three young birds were successfully 
reared, and are alive at the present writing. 
The brood consisted, as I had anticipated from 
the first, of two males and one female. The 
birds were kept together for the first six or 
seven months of their lives, in a large cage, 
and as I had no other male grosbeak in my 
laboratory, it was, of course, quite impossible 
that they should have learned anything of the 
method of song of their ancestors, except such 
impression as may have been gathered during 
the first four days of their lives. All of them 
went through the regular moult, and assumed 
by September the characteristic dress of rose- 
breasted grosbeaks at that season of the year. 
In October the two young males both developed 
a change in appearance which progressed slowly 


958 


until near Christmas-time, when they began 
to appear like adult male grosbeaks in full 
spring plumage. I was not a little chagrined 
that during September and October they 
showed a disposition to quarrel and harass 
one another, so that many of the feathers of 
the tail were broken and ragged, and the birds 
presented a rather worn and torn plumage. 
My experience has been that with most pas- 
serine birds, the primary quills and the feath- 
ers of the tail are retained for the entire 
first year without change. JI had, however, 
discovered that young Baltimore orioles 
moulted the rectrices during the months of 
January and February, and was, therefore, 
prepared for a similar moult in these gros- 
beaks, for I-find that in very highly colored 
birds, while the primaries are not moulted 
during the first year, but attain their brilliancy 
either by wear or by direct change in the color 
of the feather, the tail feathers of such birds, 
at least in a number of species, are moulted. 
Any one who is familiar with the color pat- 
tern of the rectrices of adult Baltimore orioles 
and rose-breasted grosbeaks must be aware 
that there is a very strongly contrasted area 
of either black and yellow or black and white 
on most of the feathers. To emphasize the 
matter let me say again that Baltimore orioles 
and rose-breasted grosbeaks both moult their 
entire set of tail feathers during January and 
February, and acquire by this moult the dis- 
tinetive color pattern which is characteristic 
of the adult bird. 

In the case of my grosbeaks, with this moult 
of the rectrices they recovered rapidly their 
fine appearance, and are indistinguishable at 
the time I am writing from wild representa- 
tives of their kind out of doors. Therefore, 
my apprehension that they might not present 
a fine appearance was unwarranted, for the 
reason that I have fully explained. 

With the primaries the change seems to be 
effected, so far as I have observed, in a dif- 
ferent way, which I ascribe, as I have said be- 
fore, partly to wear of the surface of each 
feather, but, besides this, I am strongly in- 
clined to the opinion that there is a physical 
change in the feather itself, which alters its 
appearance so far as color is concerned. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX, No. 495. 


The moult was about completed by the 10th 
of February, but previous to that time I had 
detected a slight motion of the throat and 
body, indicating that the two males were be- 
ginning to sing. At first it was hardly pos- 
sible to detect anything but the faintest sounds, 
but in a week or ten days I could discriminate 
the song, which I shall describe as nearly as is 
possible, in words. The tone, on the whole, is 
extremely musical, and has the soft plaintive 
quality characteristic of the rose-breasted gros- 
beak. It is very melodious, and while the 
birds have continued to sing daily to the time 
of this writing, no one would refer the method 
of song to the bird in question. While it is 
fully as prolonged as the song of the rose- 
breasted grosbeak, as we know the bird out of 
doors, it has not nearly the volume, and is not 
so abruptly broken. The notes are low and 
flute-like and resemble strongly the kind of 
song one associates with robins and thrushes 
in the autumn or late summer for a short 
period, after they have completed the moult. 
I have had a number of competent observers 
listen to the performances of these birds on 
many occasions, and all agree with me that the 
song could not be referred to the rose-breasted 
grosbeak. It is true and entirely possible that 
later the birds may develop a more character- 
istic song, but imasmuch as the time ap- 
proaches when wild rose-breasted grosbeaks 
make their advent in this vicinity, coming 
from their winter homes, I am inclined to be- 
lieve that these birds have now acquired the 
song that will characterize them throughout 
the period of breeding. I may say that I have 
mated two of the birds, one of the young 
males and the female, and have secured an 
older female from another source, with which 
I have mated the other male bird. I trust 
that I may be able to report, later, successful 
efforts in breeding these birds in captivity, and 
further data concerning the method of song 
which may obtain amongst them. This fin- 
ishes my remarks in regard to the rose- 
breasted grosbeaks, and I now propose to give 
some data in regard to meadowlarks, obtained 
about May 25, 1908. 

I shall speak of the meadowlarks in a much 
more general way than of the grosbeaks, as 


JUNE 24, 1904.] 


I have been unable to watch them as closely, 
for they have not been caged, but have been at 
large, first in a room by themselves until 
February, and later associated in another room 
with a number of meadowlarks that had been 
reared in previous years. I particularly wish 
to refer to one of the birds, a male which has 
arrested the attention of all observers. 

In the same room with these larks there are 
three blackbirds, Merula merula (Linnzus), 
which I procured from Germany. All of 
these birds are males, and they sing chiefly 
late in the afternoon, but much more fre- 
quently during the night, especially when there 
is moonlight. Early in February I heard 
constantly what I supposed was the song of 
one of these blackbirds. The curious part of 
it was that only one measure of the song was 
produced, a silvery whistling sequence of five 
or six notes rather longer drawn out, and given 
with much precision. For several weeks I 
ascribed this to one of the blackbirds, and be- 
lieved that because of the shelter afforded 
them by many evergreen trees in my bird 
room that it could only be this bird, though I 
was unable to see the singer while hearing the 
song. My friend, Mr. Horsfall, who was with 
me during all the time, checked my observa- 
tions, but we neither of us were able to 
locate the songster. 

One of my meadowlarks of the brood men- 
tioned attracted our attenion by his behavior 
and deportment during the early part of April. 
In addition to his song, which was quite dis- 
similar to that of a wild meadowlark, he ac- 
companied the performance by what I should 
eall a parade or dance, analogous to the strut 
of the turkey-cock. It is so marked a char- 
acteristic of this and other individuals of the 
same species that I determined to have it 
recorded in a color sketch, and for two or 
three days Mr. Horsfall and I spent much 
time in getting the position and manner of 
the bird while occupied in this kind of be- 
havior. The bird sang frequently while going 
through the manceuvre described, and both of 
us finally saw and heard him many times sing, 
preparatory to or after his own song, the 
cadence described, which I had referred, before 


SCIENCE. 


959 


I saw the meadowlark do it, to the European 
blackbird. 

While I am fully aware that under the arti- 
ficial conditions of confinement birds are ex- 
tremely likely to acquire abnormal songs, I 
ean not but feel that the knowledge of the 
methods of song which has come to me while 
watching birds under these conditions, indi- 
cate a receptivity which to some extent un- 
doubtedly obtains in their lives out of doors. 
My conclusion is that birds are influenced in 
their early lives very strongly by any noise 
that arrests their attention, even in a wild 
state, and that this propensity to imitate and 
differentiate their normal methods of song is 
greatly exaggerated under the artificial state 
wherein they live when in confinement. 

Wituiam E. D. Scort. 

DEPARTMENT OF ORNITHOLOGY, 

PRINCETON UNIVERSITY, 
April 30, 1904. 


STANDARD TESTS OF AUDITION.* 


In a recent publication from this laboratory,t 
tests for acuteness of hearing were divided 
into two classes: speech-tests, which employ 
letters, words or sentences, spoken aloud or 
whispered, and mechanical tests, which employ 
such apparatus as the watch, the tuning fork 
and the acoumeter. The existence and the 
common use of these two methods, for similar 
purposes, seem to be explained by the fact that 
each method possesses peculiar advantages, 
while neither is sufficiently free from serious 
defects to give it the whole field. The method 
that employs the voice measures directly the 
most important function of audition, the hear- 
ing of human speech, and it may, at the same 
time, be made sufficiently complex to cover a 
wide range of tone and noise; but, to offset 
this advantage, the method suffers from the 
great variability of the vocal stimulus. Me- 
chanical tests, on the other hand, are simpler 
and are more easily standardized; but they do 
not—just because of their simplicity—furnish 
an adequate and reliable expression of general 


* From the Psychological Laboratory of Cornell 
University. 

j{ See ‘ Auditory Tests,’ B. R. Andrews, Amer. 
Journal of Psych., XV., 14. 


960 


auditory capacity. An individual who hears 
with difficulty ordinary conversation may, 
nevertheless, pass a fair examination with the 
watch tick or the tuning fork. 

There is no doubt that human speech, could 
it be definitely controlled, would furnish the 
most adequate and the most comprehensive 
means of determining auditory acuity. But 
there has always been the difficulty of standard- 
izing so complex and so variable a thing as the 
spoken word. This difficulty is serious; for 
although speech has been somewhat widely 
employed for this purpose by physicians, otolo- 
gists and school and army examiners, the want 
of a common unit of measurement makes it 
impossible to compare the results obtained. 
The results have, in consequence, only a local 
interest. | 

The first important step toward standard- 
ization—the careful compilation of standard 
test series, composed of a like number of repre- 
sentative phonetic elements—was taken by Mr. 
Andrews,* who likewise proposed, in the article 
cited, an improved method of procedure.t 

The object of this note is to suggest a still 
further advance in the perfection of the speech 
test. Instead of employing directly the voice 
of the investigator, and instead of relying upon 
acoustic and organic conditions which vary 
from experimenter to experimenter and from 
place to place, it proposes to use permanent 
phonographie records, which can be copied an 
indefinite number of times and can be repro- 
duced independently of local conditions. The 
phonograph is especially available at present, 
because recent improvements in construction 
provide hard, durable cylinders which are 
copies of a single master record. Thus it 
should be possible to reproduce in any place 
and under constant conditions the same test 
series, inscribed upon a single cylinder by a 
single voice. 

Through the courtesy of the National 
Phonograph Company the writer has been per- 
mitted to make preliminary records at the 
company’s works in Orange. These records 


*T. c., pp. 29-36 (final table of test words on 
page 36). 
7 L. c., pp. 53 ff. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vox. XIX, No. 495. 


have since been subjected to trial on an Edison 
phonograph in the Cornell laboratory. 

In reproducing the series of test words it is 
necessary, of course, to control both pitch and 
intensity of the sound. Pitch is easily con- 
trolled by setting the phonograph at the rate 
used in inscribing the record (e. g., 100 revolu- 
tions a minute of the cylinder). Intensity is 
controlled in two ways: (1) constancy of in- 
tensity is obtained by the use of the new 
“model C’ reproducer (Edison), whose wri- 
ting point is held in the wax groove by a con- 
stant pressure automatically provided; (2) 
reduction of intensity is obtained by a device 
set into the rubber transmission-tube. The 
reducing device consists of two telescoping 
brass cylinders 15 em. long. The outer cylin- 
der is 1 em. in diameter and is perforated with 
35 holes of 4 mm. diameter, running from end 
to end in a spiral pattern. The inner ecylin- 
der has closed walls. When the two are pushed 
in together they form, therefore, a closed sec- 
tion of the transmission-tube; but as they are 
drawn gradually apart more and more of the 
35 holes are uncovered, allowing a greater and 
greater escape of the sound. When all the 
holes have been-exposed only a small fraction 
of the sound reaches the ear; when all the holes 
are again covered the tube is completely closed. 
Intermediate settings of the reducer (made by 
scale readings on the inner brass cylinder) give 
a wider range of intensities. T’o increase the 
range still further, stops are inserted in the 
smaller cylinder. The writer used three of 
these stops; one entirely closed, one with a 
circular aperture of 0.5 mm., and one with an 
aperture of 3.0 mm. diameter. The tests thus 
far made indicate that only two of the stops 
will be required. To avoid direct transmis- 
sion of the sound, through the air, it is neces- 
sary either to place the phonograph in a par- 
tially sound-proof box or to conduct the trans- 
mission-tube through a wall or the key hole 
of a tightly-fitting door to a second adjoining 
room. It is only necessary that no sound be 
heard by the subject when the ear tubes are 
inserted in the ears but disconnected from the 
instrument. Several individuals can be ex- 
amined at once by duplicating the ear tubes 
or by substituting a megaphonic horn for the 


June 24, 1904.] 


tubes. Both of these devices involve, however, 
some sacrifice of accuracy to rapidity. 
Whisper as well as conversation records have 
been used in our trial series. But the con- 
versation records promise to give a more 
delicate measure of hearing than the others, 
and may eventually supplant the whisper 
series, which have, after all, been employed 
heretofore chiefly because they demand less 
floor space than the more intensive sounds of 
vocal speech. 

It is worth noting that the number-words of 
the test disappear, as their intensities are grad- 
ually diminished by the setting of the reducer, 
as quite clear and well-defined sounds and not 
as blurred masses—an important point in an 
examination of this kind. The tests thus far 
carried out have been made with original—not 
molded—records. Should a sufficient demand 
arise, however, permanent master records 
could be provided. 

A possible objection to the method proposed 
is that the control of the stimulus words, as 
regards both their quality and their intensity, 
falls short of the ideals of pure psychophysical 
work; but, in anticipation of this objection, it 
may be said that anthropometrical tests of 
capacity demand an entirely different standard 
of accuracy from psychophysical researches 
proper. The method suggested offers such evi- 
dent advantages—in simplicity as well as in 
accuracy—over traditional methods, that it 
has seemed worth while to bring it to general 
notice. 

I. M. Bentiey. 


QUOTATIONS. 
THE ATLANTIC CITY SESSION OF THE AMERICAN 
MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 


Tue fifty-fifth annual session of the Ameri- 
can Medical Association, held last week, was 
the most successful of any held in the history 
of the Association, not only in the number in 
attendance, but in the scientific work accom- 
plished. ; 

The attendance excelled that expected by 
the most hopeful. With the exception of one 
of the international medical congresses, it was 
probably the largest gathering of medical men 
ever held anywhere, the registration number- 


SCIENCE. 


961 


ing 2,890. At the meeting in Atlantic City 
in 1900, 2,019 registered; at St. Paul in 1901, 
1,806; at Saratoga Springs in 1902, 1,495; 
and at New Orleans in 1903, 2,006. Yet in 
spite of the number in attendance there was 


“no evidence of crowding and no criticism in 


regard to accommodations. Atlantic City 
certainly proved herself capable of entertain- 
ing in a most satisfactory manner. The local 
committees of arrangement had done their 
work well, and are to be congratulated on the 
arrangements made and on the successful out- 
come of this magnificent meeting. 

From a scientific point of view; no meeting 
ever surpassed it, whether we consider the 
meetings of special societies, international 
congresses, or what not. Every year some 
sections report having done very superior 
scientific work. This year from all the sec- 
tions comes this report. It is not only the 
section officers and those especially interested 
in the sections who are saying this, but those 
who have never before taken an interest in the 
sections and who are more directly interested 
in other societies than in the sections of the 
American Medical Association are also ac- 
knowledging the superior scientific work at 
Atlantic City. The section officers deserve 
great credit for this result of their year’s 
efforts. The officers of each section have vied 
with each other in trying to outdo what has 
been done in the past and to produce a pro- 
gram that should be superior scientifically to 
that of any preceding year and to that of any 
other special society. Those who know the 
amount of labor necessary to get up such a 
program and to make a section successful will 
appreciate that all the section officers have 
worked hard and have done their duty faith- 
fully. They have all set standards for their 
successors that will be hard to surpass. 

The symposia following the orations on 
Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday evenings 
were something entirely new with this session, 
and they proved to be valuable as well as at- 
tractive. Never before have the general meet- 
ings been so well attended. The symposium 
on the first evening, which was devoted to a 
description of the research work that is being 
done in several institutions in this country, 


962 


was a revelation to those who did not know 
how much of this work was being done. The 
symposium on Wednesday evening, on the re- 
lation of the medical services of the Govern- 
ment to the profession, was also most inter- 
esting and instructive. Such a symposium 
tends to bring the profession and the services 
together as nothing else can. We all realize, 
to a certain extent at least, what the U. S. 
Public Health and Marine Hospital Service 
and the Medical Department of the Army have 
done and are doing, but we have been very un- 
familiar with the work of the Medical Depart- 
ment of the Navy. Surgeon Stokes, in his 
part of the symposium, showed that the med- 
ical officer of the Navy has a wider field of 
usefulness than is usually supposed. The last 
symposium, that of Thursday evening, was 
also valuable and instructive, and brought to 
the attention of the profession other work 
that is being done by the government that is 
of special interest to medical men. While the 
building in which these meetings were held 
was a large one, standing room was at a pre- 
mium on each occasion. President Musser de- 
serves the thanks of the profession for having 
arranged for these symposia, and those who 
took part in them are also entitled to thanks 
for what they did to make them so successful.— 
Journal of the American Medical Association. 


DEDICATION OF THE MEDICAL LABORATORIES OF 
THE UNIVERSITY OF PENNSYLVANIA. 

Tue dedication of the new medical labora- 
tories of the University of Pennsylvania, 
which took place on Friday, June 10, consti- 
tutes an epoch in medical education in Amer- 
ica. The ceremonies were dignified and 
simple, and were attended by a large number 
of physicians, principally members of the 
American Medical Association that-had ac- 
cepted the courteous invitation extended to 
them by the university to be its guests, <A 
special train brought the visitors from At- 
lantie City and took them back at night. To 
those that had not previously visited Philadel- 
phia, as well as to the old graduates of Phila- 
delphia’s medical schools, their visit to the 
university must have been a revelation. Dr. 
Horatio Wood, in his eloquent address at the 
dedication of the new laboratories, alluded to 


SCIENCE. 


[N. 8. Vou. XIX, No, 495. 


the magnificent material progress that the 
university has made in the last generation— 
a progress, one may add, in which Dr. Wood 
has been an important factor. The new labo- 
ratories are intended for the departments of 
pathology, physiology and pharmacology, and 
everything has been done to give these impor- 
tant departments an ideal home. ‘The build- 
ing is architecturally attractive, and is in 
harmony with the general plan of the newer 
buildings, especially the dormitories. Mr. J. 
Vaughn Merrick, in the absence of Dr. S. 
Weir Mitchell, the chairman of the medical 
committee, delivered the presentation address, 
to which Provost Harrison responded. Dr. H. 
P. Bowditch, professor of physiology at Har- 
vard University, spoke for physiology, and em- 
phasized the importance of the physiologic 
laboratory in medical instruction, although he 
did not fail to say a good word for didactic 
teaching, which must still have a place in the 
medical curriculum. Jt should be borne in 
mind, he said, that it is quite as possible to 
abuse the laboratory as the didactic method 
of instruction; and that in all schemes of 
education a good teacher with a bad method 
is more effective than a bad teacher with a 
good method. Professor R. H. Chittenden, 
director of the Sheffield Scientific School of 
Yale University, dwelt upon the importance 
of physiologic chemistry to medicine, and il- 
lustrated it by describing the epoch-making 
work of Hoppe-Seyler and his school. Dr, 
George Dock, professor of medicine at the 
University of Michigan, decried the tendency 
to magnify the place of the laboratory, and to 
encourage students to do advanced original 
work before the foundation is laid. He also 
spoke of the neglect into which pathologic 
anatomy has fallen, and urged the importance 
of performing autopsies whenever possible. 
The difficulty in regard to autopsies does not 
depend upon public sentiment alone, but upon 
a certain neglect upon our own part. He 
thought that as pathology gets everywhere out 
of cellars and back rooms and has a local 
habitation like the new laboratories, its culti- 
vation would assume a broader and more in- 
dependent character. The laboratory building 
is quadrangular in shape, two stories in height 


JuNE 24, 1904.] 


above a high basement, and measures 340 feet 
front by nearly 200 feet in depth. All along 
the front are arranged small rooms for re- 
search, rooms for the professors and assistants, 
a library, ete.; these open into a private cor- 
ridor, so that the men employed in these rooms 
may pursue their work without interruption 
from students passing through the main halls. 
The second floor is devoted exclusively to 
pathology. The entire north front of the 
building is devoted to laboratories for ad- 
vanced students in pathology and pathologic 
bacteriology, and to the special research and 
assistants’ rooms.—American Medicine. 


BOTANICAL NOTES. 
ADIRONDACK PLANTS. 


Mrs. Annize Moremi Sire publishes in 
the ‘Adirondack League Club Year Book’ a 
corrected and enlarged list of plants found on 
the Adirondack League Club Tract, in which 
are enumerated 455 species, distributed as 
follows: Lichens, 29; hepaties, 40; mosses, 82; 
ferns and their allies, 27; conifers, 11; flower- 
ing plants, 266. The nomenclature of the 
higher plants is that of Britton’s ‘ Manual.’ 
The list has been reprinted in a neat twenty- 
page pamphlet. The botanists of the club are 
to be congratulated upon this evidence of their 
activity in the field. 


ALGAE IN WATER SUPPLIES. 


Grorce T. Moorr and Karl F. Kellerman, 
of the Division of Plant Physiology of the 
United States Department of Agriculture, 
have prepared a bulletin on the algae in water 
supplies which has been issued by the Bureau 
of Plant Industry (as No. 64). It appears 
that the investigation was first begun in order 
to find some cheap and practical method of 
preventing or removing the algal contamina- 
tion of cress beds. This naturally extended 
to all cases of algal contamination of waters, 
including such growths in reservoirs in con- 
nection with water supplies for cities and 
towns. The importance of the matter is such 
that a preliminary publication is made in this 
bulletin in order that what has been found out 
as to preventives and remedies may be laid 
before boards of health and officers in charge 
of public water supplies. 


SCIENCE. 


963 


It is here shown that ‘it is entirely prac- 
ticable to cheaply and quickly destroy objec- 
tionable algz in small lakes, ponds, storage 
reservoirs and other similar bodies of water 
by the use of extremely dilute solutions of 
copper sulphate or of metallic copper.’ Al- 
though copper sulphate is a poison it is to be 
used in such very dilute solutions as to render 
it harmless to man or other higher organisms. 
In the tests made in the cress beds it was pos- 
sible to kill all of the algz without injuring 
the cress, and still the solutions were so dilute 
that they were ‘not considered injurious to 
man or other animals.’ 

The bulletin devotes some pages to the 
microscopical examination of drinking water, 
the wide distribution of trouble caused by 
alge, the methods hitherto used for the abate- 
ment of the nuisance, the difficulties encoun- 
tered, and then takes up the examination of 
the effects of various strengths of copper sul- 
phate on different organisms. Among the 
organisms experimented with are Chlamydo- 
monas, Raphidium, Desmidium, Stigeoclo- 
nium, Draparnaldia, Navicula, Scenedesmus, 
Huglena, Spirogyra, Conferva, Closterium, 
Synura, Anabaena and Uroglena. Some of 
these were killed in solutions as dilute as one 
part of copper sulphate to three million parts 
of water, while others endured solutions as 
strong as 1 to 2,000. It is evident that in 
order to apply this remedy the organisms must 
be fully known, and the authors emphasize the 
statement that it is impossible to tell what 
strength of solution to use without a thorough 
study of the organisms in any particular case. 
Incidentally they find that such treatment of 
the water supply is likely to destroy many 
pathogenic bacteria and also the larvae of 
mosquitoes. 


STRUCTURE OF THE PLANT NUCLEOLUS. 


_. Haromp Wacer discusses the structure of 


the nucleolus of the cells of the bean (Phase- 
olus) in the January number of the Annals 
of Botany, and concludes ‘ that not only is the 
nucleolus concerned in the formation of the 
chromosomes, but that there is a definite mor- 
phological connection between them.’ He 
says further that “it is found that the nucle- 


964 


olus is intimately connected with the nuclear 
reticulum; that it contains nearly all the 
chromatin of the nucleus; that this is trans- 
ferred, previous to division, into the nuclear 
thread, which is then segmented into chromo- 
somes; and that in the reconstitution of the 
daughter-nuclei, the chromosomes become 
fused into a number of more or less spherical 
or irregular masses which unite to form the 
daughter nucleoli.” 


NUMBER OF POLLEN GRAINS IN INDIAN CORN. 

In the American Naturalist for December, 
1881, the writer published a note giving the 
results of a large number of careful counts 
and estimates made_a few years earlier as to 
the number of pollen grains produced by In- 
dian corn (maize). Briefly, the results were 
as follows: Average number of stamens in a 
‘tassel,’ 7,200; average number of pollen 
grains in an anther, 2,500; average number 
of pollen grains produced by a plant, 18,000,- 
000. 

A recent bulletin (No. 77) prepared by Pro- 
fessor P. G. Holden, of the Iowa Experiment 
Station, gives considerably higher results, the 
statement being that “ careful counts made at 
this station last year of the number of pollen 
grains found in an ordinary anther taken 
from different parts of a great many tassels 
showed that between 49,000,000 and 50,000,000 
pollen grains were borne on an average by 
each tassel.” 


THE EARLY FALLING OF BOX-ELDER LEAVES. 


Every one who has watched the box-elder tree 
(Acer negundo) carefully has noticed that the 
first leaves to appear in the spring are by no 
means typical, often being simple, but deeply 
cleft, so as to resemble those of the maples, and 
never having more than three leaflets when 
compound. These cataphyllary leaves occur 
on the first and second nodes of the shoots of 
the season, and even on the third and fourth 
in extreme cases, gradually approaching the 
typical five-foliate compound leaves. Within 
a fortnight of the appearance of the first 
leaves, and shortly after the typical leaves 
have developed the cataphylla begin falling 
from the trees. When this defoliation is at 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vou. XIX. No. 495. 


its maximum the ground under large trees is 
covered with the discarded leaves, much as in 
the autumn. This is so marked that it is one 
of the objections to this tree on lawns and 
well-kept grounds. Why these leaves are dis- 
carded so soon is not plain. We are reminded 
of the discarding of the primary leaves of the 
pines, where the matter has gone so far that 
none of the first crop of leaves are retained. 
The streets of Lincoln, Nebr., which have 
many box-elder trees planted along their sides, - 
are now (May 21) littered with these fallen 
cataphyllary leaves. 


PHILIPPINE PLANT NAMES. 


Own request of Captain G@. P. Ahern, Chief 
of the Forestry Bureau of the Philippine 
Islands, the botanist of the bureau, Mr. Elmer 
D. Merrill, has prepared a very useful ‘ Dic- 
tionary of the Plant Names of the Philippine 
Islands,’ which has been published at Manila 
by the Department of the Interior of the 
Islands. It consists of two parts, the first of 
which is an alphabetical list of the native 
names with the corresponding scientific names, 
while the second list includes an alphabetical 
arrangement of the genera and species, with 
native synonyms and short explanatory or 
descriptive notes. The extent of the under- 
taking may be inferred from the fact that be- 
tween 4,500 and 5,000 native names are enu- 
merated. And yet the author himself calls 
attention to the fact that the present enumera- 
tion records the native names for ‘ perhaps 
twelve to fifteen of the seventy or eighty dia- 
lects spoken in the archipelago.’ There is 
evidently much more work of this kind to be 
done, and Mr. Merrill is entitled to much 
credit for the excellence of his list as far as 
he has earried it. 

Cuarues E. Bessey. 

Tur UNIVERSITY OF NEBRASKA. 


EXPEDITION FOR SOLAR RESEARCH. 

Wiru the aid of a grant of $10,000 from the 
Carnegie Institution, for use during the cur- 
rent year, the Yerkes Observatory of the Uni- 
versity of Chicago has sent an expedition to 
Mt. Wilson (5,886 feet) near Pasadena, Cali- 
fornia, for the purpose of making special in- 


JunE 24, 1904.] 


vestigations of the sun. The principal in- 
strument to be ercted on the mountain is 
the Snow horizontal telescope, recently con- 
structed in the instrument and optical shops 
of the Yerkes Observatory as the result of a 
gift from Miss Helen Snow, of Chicago. This 
telescope is a ccelostat reflector, the cclostat 
mirror having a diameter of 30 inches. A 
second plane mirror, 24 inches in diameter, 
reflects the beam north from the cclostat to 
either one of two concave mirrors, each of 24 
inch aperture. One of these concave mirrors, of 
about 60 feet focal length, is to be used in con- 
junction with a solar spectrograph of 5 inches 
aperture and 13 feet focal length; a spectro- 
heliograph of 7 inches aperture, resembling 
the Rumford spectroheliograph of the Yerkes 
Observatory; and a stellar spectrograph pro- 
vided with a large concave grating, and 
mounted in a constant temperature laboratory. 
It is hoped that it will be possible with this 
stellar spectrograph to photograph the spectra 
of a few of the brightest stars. For fainter 
stars, the spectrograph is to be provided with 
several prisms, for use singly or in combina- 
tion. 

The second concave mirror of the celostat 
reflector is designed to give a large focal image 
of the sun, especially adapted for imvestiga- 
tions with a powerful spectroheliograph and 
for spectroscopic studies of sun-spots and 
other solar phenomena. The focal length of 
this mirror is about 145 feet, so that it will 
give a solar image about 16 inches in diameter. 
The spectroheliograph for use with this large 
solar image is to be of 7 inches aperture and 
30 feet focal length. For the present, until 
a suitable grating can be obtained, the dis- 
persive train of this instrument will consist of 
three prisms of 45° refracting angle, used in 
conjunction with a plane mirror, so as to give 
a total deviation of 180°. The motion of the 
solar image, of which a zone about 4 inches 
wide can be photographed with the spectro- 
heliograph, will be produced by rotating the 
concave mirror about a vertical axis by means 
of a driving clock. A second driving clock, 
so controlled as to be synchronous with the 
first, will cause the photographic plate to move 
behind the second slit. Three slits will be 


SCIENCE. 


965 


provided at this point, so as to permit photo- 
graphs to be taken simultaneously through 
as many different limes of the spectra. It is 
hoped that this spectroheliograph will prove 
to be well suited for use with some of the 
narrower dark lines of the solar spectrum. 

The work of the expedition is under the im- 
mediate direction of Professor George E. Hale, 
director of the Yerkes Observatory. During 
his absence Professor E. B. Frost will be in 
immediate charge of the Yerkes Observatory, 
with the title of acting director. Professor 
Frost will also be the managing editor of the 
Astrophysical Journal. Mr. Ferdinand Eller- 
man and Mr. Walter S. Adams will be asso- 
ciated with Professor Hale in the work on Mt. 
Wilson. : 

Professor G. W. Ritchey, superintendent of 
instrument construction at the Yerkes Observa- 
tory, will be in charge of an instrument shop 
which is being fitted up for the expedition of 
Pasadena. 


CARNEGIE INSTITUTION OF WASHINGTON. 

On May 18, 1904, the trustees of the Car- 
negie Institution met, and after transacting 
the necessary business to provide for the trans- 
fer of all matters to the Carnegie Institution 
of Washington, a charter for which passed 
congress and was approved April 28, 1904, ad- 
journed without day. The trustees named in 
the act met at once and reorganized under the 
new charter. The by-laws of the Carnegie 
Institution were adopted as the by-laws of the 
new organization, and the officers of the old 
organization were elected. General resolu- 
tions adopting all the obligations, etc., of the 
old institution were passed. Under the new 
charter no questions can be raised as to the 
competency of the institution to carry on the 
operations outlined in the deed of gift of the 
founder. 

The executive committee of the Carnegie 
Institution of Washington met after the re- 
organization and practically completed the 
making of grants for the year 1904. It will 
greatly facilitate the work of the executive 
committee if all those thinking of making 
applications for grants for 1905 will have 
them in in September, as applications for 
grants for 1905 will then be taken up. 


966 


SOIENTIFIO NOTES AND NEWS. 

Dr. Lours 8S. McMurtry, of Louisville, Ky., 
has been elected president of the American 
Medical Association for the meeting to be 
held next year at Portland, Ore. 

Proressor Grorce Darwin, of Cambridge, 


will succeed Mr. Balfour as president of the 
British Association, and will preside over the 


meeting to be held in South Africa next year. - 


Proressor Simon Newcomes has been elected 
corresponding member of the Berlin Academy 
of Sciences. 

At its meeting on June 9, the Geological 
Society of London elected Professor J. P. 
Iddings, of Chicago, as a foreign member, 
while Dr. W. Bullock Clark, of Baltimore, and 
Hon. Frank Springer, of East Las Vegas, New 
Mexico, were elected foreign correspondents. 


M. Henri Moissan, the eminent French 
chemist, has been elected a corresponding 
member of the Academies of Sciences of 
Vienna and Amsterdam. 


Dr. C. S. SHERRINGTON, professor of physi- 
ology in the University of Liverpool, has been 
elected a member of the Imperial Academy of 
Medicine, Vienna. 


Tue Vienna Academy of Sciences has 
awarded its Baumgarten prize, of the value 
of about $800, to Professor Walter Kaufmann 
for his investigations on the theory of elec- 
trons. 


Tue Liebig gold medal for distinguished 
services in applied chemistry of the Associa- 
tion of German Chemists has been presented 
to Dr. Rudolf Knietsch, of the Badische Ani- 
lin und Soda-Fabrik, the discoverer of the con- 
tact process of sulphuric acid manufacture. 


Av the forty-fifth general meeting of the 
German Engineers’ Association the Grashof 
medal, instituted in honor of the founder of 
the association, was unanimously conferred 
on the two pioneers of steam turbine propul- 
sion, the Hon. C. A. Parsons, of Newcastle- 
on-Tyne, and M. de Laval, of Stockholm. 


Av its recent commencement exercises the 
University of Pennsylvania conferred the doc- 
torate of science on Russell Henry Chitten- 
den, professor of chemistry at Yale Univer- 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX, No. 495. 


sity, and George Dock, professor of theory 
and practise of medicine at the University of 
Michigan; and the doctorate of laws on Sir 
Frederick Treves, the British surgeon; Henry 
Pickering Bowditch, professor of physiology in 
Harvard Medical School, and Dr. H. C. Wood, 
professor of therapeutics, materia medica and 
pharmacy at the University of Pennsylvania. 


Princeton University has conferred the de- 
gree of doctor of science on Dr. Per Dusen, 
the naturalist of Rio de Janeiro, and the de- 
gree of master of arts on Mr. Gifford Pinchot, 
chief of the Bureau of Forestry. 


Tue new chemical laboratory of the Uni- 
versity of Utrecht, named in honor of Pro- 
fessor J. H. van’t Hoff, has been formally 
opened. On the occasion Professor van’t 
Hoff was given the honorary doctorate by 
the university. 


M. Barrots has been elected a member of the 
Paris Academy of Sciences in the section of 
mineralogy in the room of the late M. Fouqué. 


Proressor Basurorp Dean, of Columbia 
University, will attend the International 
Zoological Congress at Bern, and will visit 
a number of Kuropean museums. 


Dr. G. Cantor has celebrated the twenty- 
fifth anniversary of his professorship of mathe- 
maties at Halle. 


Proressor J. VOLHARD, director of the 
Chemical Laboratory of the University of 
Halle, celebrated on June 4 his seventieth 
birthday. 


Mr. Santos-Dumont has arrived in this 
country with his dirigible balloon in which 
he will take part in the St. Louis aeronautic 
competition. 


Proressor J. J. THomson, of Cambridge, 
delivered the Robert Boyle lecture in the hall 
of Balliol College, Oxford, on June 8, his sub- 
ject being ‘The Structure of the Atom.’ 


In connection with the meeting of the 
American Medical Association at Atlantic 
City, there was organized a National Associa- 
tion for the Study and Prevention of Tuber- 
culosis. Dr. E. L. Trudeau, of Saranac Lake, 
N. Y., was elected president. 


Juny 24, 1904.] 


An International Association to combat 
Tuberculosis was opened at Copenhagen on 
May 26. Among the delegates were Lord 
Lister from England and Professor Brouardel 
from France. 


M. Hamy, assistant astronomer at the Paris 
Observatory, has been appointed astronomer 
in the room of the late M. Callandreau. 


Tuer Jardin des Plantes, Paris, has received 
from M. Eugéne Potron a legacy of $10,000 
for the erection of a statue in honor of Ber- 
nardine de St. Pierre, at one time director 
of the garden. 


For a memorial of the late Dr. George 
Salmon, to be erected in St. Patrick’s Cath- 
edral, Dublin, the sum of £430 has been sub- 
seribed. The proposal to place within the 
precincts of Trinity College a memorial of 
the late provost has also been cordially re- 
ceived. 


We record with regret the death of M. 
Léauté Sarrau, professor of mechanics in the 
Polytechnic School of the University of Paris 
and member of the Paris Academy of Sciences, 
on May 10; of Dr. Fedor Bredichin, professor 
of astronomy at St. Petersburg, at the age of 
seventy-three years; of Dr. Adolfo Caneani, 
professor of terrestrial physics in the Univer- 
sity of Modena; of Dr. Karl Bopp, professor 
of physics at the Stuttgart Polytechnic 
School; and of Dr. Max Kaech, who a few 
months since went from Basle to accept the 
position of chief of the Geological Institute 
at Para, Brazil, where he contracted yellow 
fever. 


_ Tur herbarium of the late Professor Mare 
Micheli has been presented to the town of 
Geneva by his widow. 


THE act of congress making appropriations 
for the Department of Agriculture for the 
fiscal year ending June 30, 1905, contains the 
following: “ The Secretary of Agriculture is 
hereby directed to obtain in the open market 
samples of seeds of grass, clover, or alfalfa, 
test the same, and if any such seeds are found 
to be adulterated or misbranded, or any seeds 
of Canada bluegrass (Poa compressa) are ob- 
tained under any other name than Canada 
bluegrass or Poa compressa, to publish the 


SCIENCE. i 


967 


results of the tests, together with the names 
of the persons by whom the seeds were offered 
for sale.” Announcement is made that the 
collection and testing of seeds as directed by 
this act will begin July 1, 1904. 


We learn from the London Times that only 
two days before the death of the late Mr. 
Jamsetjee N. Tata the government of India 
issued a communiqué to the press describing 
as ‘absolutely without foundation’ the asser- 
tion of certain newspapers that Mr. Tata’s 
ofter of property valued at £200,000 towards 
founding an institute of science had been re- 
jected by the government. The communiqué 
points out that a year ago the government 
made financial concessions which cleared the 
ground of the pecuniary difficulties previously 
existing, and the principal question which re- 
mained under discussion was the procedure 
for the valuation of the trust property. The 
government of Bombay has recently been com- 
municated with as to the progress made in this 
and other essential preliminaries, and when 
these have been carried out the needful legis- 
lation will be introduced. So far from having 
rejected Mr. Tata’s offer, the government of 
India haye promised a large subsidy to the 
scheme, and they have throughout the nego- 
tiations ‘done everything within their power 
to facilitate the progress and to aid the real- 
ization of a project which has their fullest 
sympathy.” In its detailed memoir of Mr. 
Tata, the Times of India says that there is 
every probability that the scheme will sooner 
or later come into force, but, in case it did 
not, it was Mr. Tata’s intention to divert the 
proposed endowment to another trust, which 
would enable Indian students to proceed ‘to 
Europe to qualify for the Indian civil and 
other services and for the electrical and en- 
gineering professions until such time as it 
became possible, with the proper aid of gov- 
ernment, to start the research institute as 
originally planned. 


Nature states that at a sale recently held 
by Mr. Stevens in King Street, Covent Gar- 
den, a great auk’s egg in fine condition was 
sold for two hundred guineas, the purchaser 
being Mr. Pax. This is a considerable fall- 


968 


ing-off from the three hundred guineas ob- 
tained for the last specimen sold by Mz. 
Stevens, the reason being attributed to the 
fact that several other fine examples are in 
the market. Mr. Pax’s specimen was origin- 
ally bought for two sovereigns. The next 
highest price obtained at the recent sale was 
£8 18s. 6d. for a clutch of four eggs of Bona- 
parte’s sandpiper. For a single egg, the high- 
est price was 27s. 6d. for one of Pallas’s sand- 
grouse. 

THE annual return showing the number of 
experiments performed in Great Britain on 
living animals during the year 1903 has been 
issued as a parliamentary paper. According 
to the abstract in the London Times the total 
number of licensees was 347, of whom 97 per- 
formed no experiments. Evidence is afforded 
showing that licenses and certificates have 
been granted and allowed only upon the recom- 
mendation of persons of high scientific stand- 
ing; that the licensees are persons who, by 
their training and education, are fitted to un- 
dertake experimental work and to profit by 
it; and that all experimental work has been 
conducted in suitable places. The total num- 
ber of experiments was 19,084, being 4,178 
performed with anesthetics and 16,913 without, 
more than in 1902. Of the total, 2,171 were 
anesthetics. In no case was a cutting opera- 
tion more severe than a superficial venesection 
allowed to be performed with anesthetics. The 
experiments performed without anesthetics 
were mostly inoculations; a few were feeding 
experiments, or the administration of various 
substances by the mouth, or the abstraction of 
a minute quantity of blood for examination. 
In no instance was a certificate dispensing 
with anesthetics allowed for an experiment 
involving a serious operation. Operative pro- 
cedures performed without anesthetics were 
only such as were attended by no considerable 
pain. In a very large number of such ex- 
periments the results were negative and the 
animals suffered no inconvenience from the 
inoculation. The usual inspection of regis- 
tered places found the animals everywhere 
well lodged and eared for. Only two irregu- 
larities were reported. 


SCIENCE. 


[N.S. Vor. XIX. No. 495, | 


UNIVERSITY AND EDUCATIONAL NEWS. 

Art the recent commencement exercises of 
Columbia University a gift of $250,000 from 
Mr. Lewisohn was announced, to be used for 
a building for the School of Mines. 


Tue sum of $325,000 has been collected for 
MacAlaster College in Minnesota. The larg- 
est gifts were $100,000 from Mr. C. D. Dayton 
and $50,000 from Mr. J. J. Hill. 


A NEW physiological laboratory, erected at 
a cost of $125,000, has been opened at the 
University of Vienna. 


Prespent E. A. ALpermMan, of Tulane 
University, has been elected president of the 
University of Virginia. The University of 
Virginia, in accordance with the democratic 
ideas of Jefferson, has hitherto been governed 
by a board of visitors and the faculty with- 
out a president. 


Tue remoyal of Professor John Dewey from 
the University of Chicago to Columbia Uni- 
versity has led to certain changes in the de- 
partment of philosophy and education at Chi- 
eago. Psychology has been made a separate 
department, with Professor James R. Angell 
at the head, and Professor James H. Tufts 
has been promoted to the head of the depart- 
ment of philosophy. It is further reported 
that Mr. John H. Locke will be made head of 
the School of Education. 

Proressor J. W. Grecory, of Melbourne, 
and formerly of the British Museum, has been 
elected to the chair of geology at Glasgow 
University. 

Mr. F. G. Donnan, Ph.D., lecturer in chem- 
istry in the Royal College of Science, Dublin, 
has been appointed to the Brunner chair of 
physical chemistry in the University of Liver- 
pool. 

Tue council of the University of Birming- 
ham has conferred the honorary title of pro- 
fessor of geography on Mr. W. W. Watts, 
M.A., F.R.S., assistant professor of geology. 

Tue University of Vienna has officially 
recognized work in radiology in the medical 
faculty. Dr. Leopold Freund, Dr. Robert 
Kienbéeck and Dr. Guido Holzknecht have 
been appointed docents in the subject. 


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